For one who tends to observe what goes on in society, it may seem boring and even irritating to see the same old scenario being played over and over. A problem elicits questions, protest, blame and short-sighted attempts at solution before it is swept under the carpet and forgotten for the time being as another problem takes its place on the centre stage of our focus. The various issues which elicit focus of the public and the establishment, start appearing like bits and pieces on a factory assembly line which are worked upon and passed forward as other pieces take their place. The public could be considered the workers on the assembly line while the Government could be viewed as the factory management. With work going on all this while on the bits and pieces, both the workers and management seem to be concerned and even surprised when the inevitable outcome at the end of the assembly line turns out to be a problem with very undesirable repercussions. The so called solutions seem to focus on deliberations, looking for someone or something to blame and chalking out fantastic plans doomed to fail even as work continues on the other bits and pieces on the assembly line to create issues afresh.
Coming down to specifics there is no dearth of examples of this ‘assembly-line’ tendency affecting our lives and the efficiency of the Government. Recently, when sanitation workers in Dehradun went on strike heaps of garbage became the most visible sign of human activity in town. As usual, the public and most politicians started blaming the authorities. What no one seemed to comprehend is that the hundreds of tonnes of garbage was and is still being generated by society. At a time when sensible communities are working on the principle of minimisation of garbage, we have been talking for some years now of resource-intensive recycling without even having started the proper segregation of garbage at the source yet. Now, some days after the strike ended and the garbage is being dumped outside the city as usual, the locals have conveniently forgotten this stinking issue even as they continue to produce about 300 tonnes of garbage a day- among our major contributions to the place as residents of Dehradun.
The exacerbated effects of rising temperatures in Dehradun and elsewhere could be considered another example of the tendency which makes us perpetuate problems even while working on so called solutions. Since Dehradun was made the provisional state capital scores of thousands of green trees have been axed. The greenery and soil has been replaced by at least 128 slums, tar and concrete structures which are mostly either gaudy or drab and rarely engineered to be environmentally responsible and resource-efficient for optimal benefit. Such arrogant disregard for the environment is also a factor responsible for the raging forest fires afflicting the state at present. Even essential factors like the environment end up becoming issues to be wastefully deliberated upon or heads under which funds are released- to be used inefficiently in many cases.
Another example in which the people (consumers) are prone to feel victimised is the latest fuel price hike.I will refrain from going into governmental factors and international market dynamics. As a layperson, one understands that when the cost of any product or service becomes expensive or fluctuates inconveniently too often, the sensible user thinks about how to curtail expense by either rationalising the use of the product/service or by finding a cheaper/better alternative. But we tend to complain about fuel price hikes instead of economising or opting for better alternatives. As consumers, we are habituated to being influenced by inconsequential factoids instead of being guided by facts that really matter. That is the reason why among other things, the content and size of pictorial warnings on tobacco products was an issue also discussed in the parliament while there is still little thought given to the need for providing information on the quantity of tar, nicotine and other potentially harmful substances in such products.
This tendency is probably due to another fallacy the public likes to foster in general. In a democracy like India, it is actually the attitude of the public which decides the priorities and functioning of the government though we tend to perceive a reverse view of this fact.
What many of us do not bother to comprehend is that in all such cases, it is the attitude of the public which is the main factor responsible for the problems faced by the public itself.
In the sanitation issue, it is the public which generates the garbage so the people firstly need to minimise garbage with the establishment acting as a facilitator. In the case of undesirable environmental changes, it is the public which has to decide and opt for better and environment-conducive options instead of considering air conditioners and potted plants to be the solution. When it comes to the travails caused by fuel price hikes, it is again the public which can play the decisive role in ascertaining how such factors affect us. Since the majority is attracted by the opportunity to either earn or save money, it should also be understood that the proactive solutions to all the problems mentioned above entail either income or saving of money apart from enhancement in health, quality of life and other factors. There might be a decrease or even an end to profits being made by providers of half-baked solutions but other than that, the implementation of actual solutions which tackle the root of the problem will also result in income generation and other advantages for those providing and opting for proactive solutions.
Even for one who is anti-establishment, it is illogical to blame the authorities in a realistic scenario for being complacent due to the public being ignorant or pursuant of skewed priorities because in the end the government doesn’t consist of aliens but is made up of members of the public. It will be known soon enough whether we will opt for the sensible and beneficial alternatives or continue our follies till we get the next opportunity to complain and blame the establishment or something else.