Clean up act

Last week, there was one incident which turned the world media towards the Japanese football fans. They had done something which Western countries had taught for years in schools and colleges but still failed to implement especially after a mega-event like the FIFA World Cup.  I remember once attending a new year celebration in Cologne a few years back on the banks of the river Rhine. People were drunk.Ambulances were parked anticipating casualties. Out of the blue, a fully drunk man threw a cracker ready to burst into the crowd.  A girl was badly injured due to this incident. The whole city was turned into a litter box within a night. The authorities cleaned the city the very next day and the city regained its cleanliness. 

What made the otherwise cleanliness conscious Germans to go berserk on such days? What made the Japanese clean up stadiums in Brasil in spite of not being told to do so? In India, from the great  Mahatma Gandhi to Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, every leader which India has produced has stressed on cleanliness. In spite of the same, why has it not translated into ground reality?  The answer to this is complex. 

In a country of 1.2 Billion people, it is hard for the government to indeed clean up every nook and corner of the country. I see that we as a population tend to discuss a lot about issues. We have very strong opinions about what the government must do to it's people, who should benefit out of that and so on. But at the ground level, we are unaware sometimes apathetic towards what our role towards improving the cleanliness in our cities is. In that sense,  i feel the ideas will not come from Chief Ministers, MPs or MLAs because simply it does not affect their votes. Even if it does affect their vote, how can you be sure that the opposite candidate will be sympathetic to these concerns? What is the real solution to the problem?

The answer lies in strong civil societies. Civil societies need to take proactive measures to make things like sanitation, water scarcity, waste management for plastics, glass, dangerous goods etc. their issues and engage in constant dialogue or maybe even lobbying to achieve their priorities. In that sense, AAP's idea of "Mohalla Sabha" was indeed innovative (only if they had the stability to implement the same) . Local self governments, schools, educators, NGOs  and the most important of the lot "common people" have a very key role to play in the execution. 

Another key role is played by culture. After the Fukushima disaster I read a story in the BBC, which mentioned that there were Japaneese veterans who volunteered to clean up the nuclear waste disregarding nuclear radiation. No matter how much you enforce, unless cleanliness is made a culture, it will be compromised at some point or the other. 

Along with fast rates of economic growth and prosperity of our population, environmental issues get bulldozed. A nation cannot be built only on industries and economic growth. China's smog and particulate emissions have reached such alarming levels leading to respiratory problems for its current generation and will stay for generations to come. It is important for our nation to think on its own feet and to find cost effective ways of dealing with such problems. New business ideas will also emerge for waste management if encouraged. 

The implementation of local schemes require a certain level of commitment from the local people too. Gone are those days where more than 70% institutions were run by the state. Slogans like "Less Government and more Government" have found its way through to the Indian voters. Government's role in the future will be that of just a facilitator or sometimes even a roadblock in implementing public interest. Hence it is time that one thought about the "clean up act" from the roots. 

Demand for change

At last the election in India is over. We have a clear winner in Mr.Modi. At last, its back to business and no more pappu jokes, no RTI, no women's empowerment, no more Gujarat model, no more minority fears blah-blah - now its "sabka saath sabka vikaas". Never before in the last 30 years had India given such a mandate for any leader who came through. Even Atal Bihari Vajpayee had to manage a coalition. The election results this time around reflected the belief of the people in a person ( ofcourse with a huge marketing campaign funded by corporates) who managed to market his ideas better than all others put together.

For India which was paralyzed by  government or the lack of it for a period of 10 years, it was indeed a new lease of life.  Hence it's become Mr.Modi's problem whether its managing power crisis (remember the promise of 24 h electricity throughout India for 5 years), improving roads, controlling food inflation, foreign policy, human resource development, industrial growth, national security, preserving federalism of the states and the list goes on and on.   Its always  better to rest your hopes on one man's shoulders and cheer for him from the gallery. How many times have we seen that? If the crowd cheered Sachin Tendulkar against Pakistan in the 2003 world cup, investors in the BSE sensex cheered when Raghuram Rajan took over as governor of the RBI. Nor many months ago a new party had amazing results in the Delhi assembly elections. An idealistic and honest man took over as the Chief Minister of the state. After 49 days of a"non-corrupt" government in Delhi, he resigned stating that he could not pass an anti corruption bill in the Parliament.

Now what behavioral trends do these events really highlight ? Before I begin, i am aware that one billion as a population cannot be generalized. It is just an attempt to provoke thinking about ourselves as a electorate/nation. Firstly, it says that India has always felt happy in resting it's hope on individuals rather than institutions. Even political parties which are cadre oriented had very strong and respected leaders when they won elections.  Whether it's  Narendra Modi,Raghuram Rajan or Arvind Kejriwal, these were individuals who inspired hope in their own ways. But on the flip side, the expectation might also become a double edged sword. It's easy to get carried away by the response of the people and promise more than what can be achieved.  Aravind Kejriwal, who rode on very high expectations and idealism in Delhi was humbled by the Indian voter in the previous election. Interestingly, if you have observed, Narendra Modi's language has changed to a "statesman-ish" after as he became Prime Minister. It's predictably a conscious shift and good for India. Another flip side is the lack of focus on institution building and continuity. Too much reliance on heros will only weaken the organization in their absence.

Secondly, emotions get the better of our people easily and end up discussing more than what is required. We react only when something drastic happens. Last week there were long discussions in television channels about road safety after Mr.Gopinath Munde's death. Only if we had looked at the statistics, we would have noted that the time for reform had come. Its indeed sad that we only talk about solving problems only when someone very important gets affected. In all other cases, debates in media end up being pure rhetoric and buck passing between the two major parties. All i have to say is -  Discussion is good but not the end of problems. Lip service doesn't really help...We need to get our hands dirty...execution is where we need to be at the best.

The third disturbing behavioral aspect I observed about India is the lack of patience and maturity in dealing with our own problems. Corrupt politicians , inert beareaucracy , lack of infrastructure, lack of law enforcement, unreliable public distribution systems etc. are all fuelling the emotions. A mature democracy will have all these problems too. Disruptive ways of dealing with problems will only lead to quick fixes. Only a well thought out strategy will serve the well being of it's people.

Not later than a period of 5 years, Indian voters will again exercise their divine rights to vote for a candidate. I am not optimistic enough to believe that many of the problems can be changed by a man at the top. We really need to introspect where we are going as a nation...and change the way we react to problems.


Jai Hind!