Anupam- The Dreamer

Since independence, there is one area where we have done great job! It is in planning things for welfare programmes, developmental initiatives, law & order, administrative reforms etc. For example, “Gareebi Hatao” as a policy goal was expounded in 1970s. When it was announced, there was much fanfare around it, elaborate planning would have been done to eliminate poverty from the country. But, even after half-a-century later, where are we? Still millions reeling under the burden of poverty and toiling hard daily to make even two ends meet! Where did we really go wrong?

Successive governments have made poverty elimination, education, healthcare, law & order, etc as their goals. And there have been various Planning Commissions earlier, extensive studies, numerous Committees, their reports, well-planned programmes, for the same. But, apart from a handful number of areas where we have achieved considerable success, there are many areas where we are found still wanting! So, where actually have we gone wrong?

I think the plans are great on paper- with policy guidelines, goal statement, budgetary outlays, monitoring mechanisms, administrative machinery for implementing the same. We are great planners, afterall! Ask any babu or even a student in a university to make a report on some issue. I am sure that if given sufficient time, they would come out with a great report. But, when it comes to working on its own recommendations, there comes the real problem. Sometimes, the report doesn’t take into account the ground realities, sometimes the intent is missing in the administrative machinery, sometimes there is no review and feedback mechanism. Then, there are vested interests at play which don’t want things to improve at the ground level. Bla bla bla- ask any babu- he can give you hundreds of such reasons! The point is not to list faults here. Rather the point here is why aren’t we good executioners?

When we dig deep into this, we find that somewhere in our society there is a psyche which believes in fatalism. In simple words, we have been made to believe that everything is predetermined by fate or destiny, so there is not much in our control that we can do to alter things for the better. Generations have come to believe in this theory of leaving things on fate. The charm of astrologers is not without any reason because there is an urge to know one’s own “future”. And when one is more concerned about the future, then what we do in the present takes a back seat. We like to sit back and relax and let “bhagya” do its work. And when we fail after not putting in required effort to succeed, then we know who to blame- “poor bhagya”. As one professor of XLRI put it in our training days- नपुंसक क्लीब उपासते, which means “the docile/lazy/incompetent worship the destiny”!

Planning is indeed easier than to execute on the ground! You can always plan to have a great year ahead, but if you don’t do anything to improve your life, what will be the end result- NULLITY! Next year, you come back to square one! The same tendency has percolated in many spheres of life including bureaucracy and the government. Even, private sector is not completely untouched by it, but as its survival depends on profits, so it does somewhat better in the area of execution. But, what about the government? Generally the governments all over the world, instead of focussing more on execution focus on planning! They don’t take benefits of earlier plans made by the previous governments, rather they form another expert Committee to formulate a new plan afresh! When the report of the Commmittee comes out, it is nothing but “Old wine in a new bottle!” Baatein to wahi aayengi ghuma phirakar, naya kya hi hona hai. The only new thing which should be focused is execution! But unfortunately, that is the most difficult part as that requires real effort on the ground.

And when we have “bhagya theory” to fall back to, then who cares about execution? The countries which have made great progress have delivered things on ground like Japan, Germany, who even after huge devastation after 2^nd World War made their countries among leading powers. We have everything at our disposal to do great things- just that we need executioners at every level- in the government, bureaucracy, private sector, civil society, media etc. There is no fun in planning big and failing big. Better if we plan small and deliver. There are enough of deadwoods and naysayers everywhere. We don’t need them and their fatalistic mindset. Instead, we need people who can ensure ground level work in their chosen fields. We need more “Karma-yogis” and not “Bhagya-yogis”.

Let me share an interesting anecdote from my first year in college. When our seniors used to “rag” us and made us do manual labour till late nights for the inter-hostel cultural festival for making “props” (various things, instruments, decorative things, dresses etc.), they had pasted one quote on the wall of the common room to motivate us, which was:

Sirf sochne ya baatein karne se nahi, par kaam karne se kaam poora hoga 😀

Till next time….