At the release of his book Non Stop India in Dehradun on Tuesday, renowned journalist and author Sir Mark Tully said: “In the words of an American economist, India is not a failing country but a flailing country. What this means is that you have governments, you have institutions, you have everything that a democracy requires, but the Government is flailing because it writes policy documents but it is very weak in implementing all that it passes, be it laws or ordinances. This is much like a person with a withered arm, where the arm is there but he cannot stretch it to reach the villages and see that the law is implemented.”
Enthralling guests with his forthright views on key problems facing India and deep understanding of the country, Tully stressed that India badly required reform of Government and public institutions to meet any of its development objective.
“One of the fundamental problems of India is that not only are so many of the laws being implemented are laws written by my forefathers -- British colonists! These laws were in force when I was a young boy in the late thirties. Colonial rules are still in force.”
As a potent illustration, the former Bureau Chief of BBC, New Delhi, alluded to the provision of law which says that no Government servant can be tried without the prior permission of the Government.
“This is a provision that was introduced in the nineteenth century by the British to protect the white sahibs from getting their wrong acts investigated by natives. Civil servants in India today are not English colonists anymore and must serve like any citizens the country. But a major section of bureaucracy in India seems to be thinking that they are still ruling this country and they treat the people who come to them as subjects rather than as equals.”
He went on to say, “let us for example, take a look at the Right to Information, which is a very important enactment. But we are already hearing stories of lack of transparency and people not getting information when they should. For a poorly read village man, chances are his RTI application will not be addressed until he is supported by a politician or an NGO. In fact chances o his even knowing about RTI are rare. India needs reform of its institutions.” That is why the word ‘indifference’ is very important in the Indian development context, he said.
“I believe strongly in the potential and in the future of India. But equally, I believe that this potential is badly underused. It would be absurd to say that India has not achieved anything in the last forty years for the preservation of India’s democracy is no mean achievement, of which a very
important factor has been maintaining an apolitical army. But not very much has been done to achieve these reforms either by this government or the earlier. I believe that until this reform is seriously undertaken, India is not going to achieve the realization of its the full potential. Also, the country has to peter out its strong jugad culture!”
He pointed out that it was not a matter of only reforming Indian laws but to implement a systemic reform of the attitude of lower bureaucracy and the police. No development objective can be met if the country does not reform the instrument in its hand with which it has to work, namely, the Government and public institutions, he observed. Drawing analogies from his personal experiences as a frequent traveler of the Indian railways, he mused that India is a super fast train that is going slow.