The Vicious Circle of mis-governance
Tavleen Singh, a noted journalist, while describing the situation in Bihar wrote in 2014, “last week I went to Bihar for the first time in 15 years and returned feeling more despondent (helpless/gloomy) about India’s future than I have in a long time. Not because there has not been change and development in Bihar, but because everywhere I went, I saw the failure of the state to address real problems. This is true in other states, but nowhere as true as in Bihar because everything here is amplified ; Poverty, squalour, corruption, environmental degradation, horrific urbanisation and the angry despair that is the mood of this election.”
Now that the fault lines have been exposed and magnified by this pandemic ; poverty, squalor, corruption, anger and despair amongst the citizens…we should also look at some important indicators that tell us about the condition of the governance in the country so as to avoid going the Bihar/UP way.
The SDG Index (Sustainable Development Growth) released by the UNO indicates that on almost 10 parameters out of 17, that includes, hunger, poverty, clean water etc India is not likely to achieve the goals that it set for 2030. The index is aimed at measuring performance vis-a-vis the United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goals. A 2019 report of NITI Ayog also indicates that every fifth Indian is still below the poverty line and the country needs to take huge strides to alleviate poverty.
These aspects, for most Indian states and society as a large, though, does not seem to be of any priority. India’s overall rank is 117 out of 161. The Ranking as well as the performance on various parameters is an indication that there is a serious flaw in the system of Governance.
When we look at few other indicators related to Governance like - Infant Mortality rates, Transmission and Distribution losses of power, Poverty, Revenue deficits, Migrant Population and Sick Industrial units we notice that states like UP, Bihar, Assam, Odisha, Bengal are way behind Gujarat, Maharashtra, and states in South India.
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were the two states with largest number of net migrants migrating out of the state. It’s pertinent to ask, why has there been such a large out-migration from these two states? Among inter-state male migrants, work/employment has been cited as the primary reason for migration (e.g., Uttar Pradesh – 73.0%; Bihar – 79.1%). And where have they migrated to? They have migrated to Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Haryana i.e Gurgaon for better job prospects. Maharashtra stands at the top of the list with 2.3 million net migrants, followed by Delhi (1.7 million), Gujarat (0.68 million) and Haryana (0.67 million). And when one checks the data one obviously finds that these are the most industrialized states and are receiving maximum foreign and domestic investments.
If these indicators/ data are analysed objectively, one can easily come to a conclusion that there is an issue of mis-governance in these states and they have been like that for almost more than 2-3 decades now. These states of UP, Bihar, Bengal, Assam, etc have arrived at this situation because of communal/ regional politics that led to poor governance.
And once a State gets into that vicious circle of MIS GOVERNANCE, its very difficult to get out of it.
Why is it Difficult to Get out of this Vicious Circle.
After the skilled and the finest of the state go out, what basically then remains is the mediocre stuff and the rotten lot which just does not allow the state to grow – Chalta hai attitude waaley. The finest artists, hard working skilled workmen, finest young Doctors, Engineers and Managers (who had graduated from IITs/NITs/IIMs) from Bihar, UP and Bengal etc have already migrated from their state and what is left behind then, is mainly the mediocre lot.
Once the cream goes out the entire social-political environment of the state becomes inconducive for Development and Growth. There will be more and more demand for freebies and elections will be fought on petty political issues ; religion, caste, reservations, subsidies etc and society will fight on silly issues like Allopathy vs Ayurved . Good Governance will have no meaning then.
Let us look at the Indicators. It’s been almost more than 15 years that BJP-Nitish coalition has been ruling Bihar. The agenda that brought them to power was Bihar's growth. However, During this period the revenue deficit has only increased and there is barely any big investment in the state, its unemployment rate was 33.8% in September 2020 as most of the labour that had trudged back all the way from Mumbai and Gujarat last year due to lockdown was from Bihar and UP. Secondly, the mediocre lot once again had almost prefered the same old caste based and regional chauvinistic politics, as Yadavs lost the elections in 2020 by a very miniscule margin.
The above clearly indicates that despite all promises the Government could not get the State out of that vicious circle and no wonder Tavleen Singh had to write that ; " nowhere as true as in Bihar because everything here is amplified - Poverty, squalour, corruption, environmental degradation, horrific urbanisation and the angry despair that is the mood of this election.”
India has the largest Diaspora population in the world with 18 million people from the country living outside their homeland in 2020, according to a report by the United Nations, which says the UAE, the US and Saudi Arabia host the largest number of migrants from India. It is pretty evident that more and more people have been slowly migrating out of the country for better job prospects as the people from Bihar, UP, Assam, Jharkhand etc have been migrating to Maharashtra, Gujarat etc.
So, with tongue in cheek firmly in place, is it not pertinent to ask that what is Bihar and UP for India, India is or may become the same for the Western World. Yes there are a few islands of excellence as well – IT industry in Bangalore and Hyderabad and, automobile manufacturing, ISRO, Reliance Refinery and so on. But they are just islands.
The Warning Bells
As the common man in India struggles to access basic healthcare facilities during the second Covid-19 wave, the wealthy families, it has been reported, are fleeing the country. The ultra-rich Indians have successfully managed to flee the country by arranging private jets to Europe, the Middle East and the Indian Ocean islands, according to a Bloomberg report. The report says – most of these families are spending at least Rs 1.5 million (over Rs 10 lakh) to book private jets to flee the country. Some are even paying private jet operators for the return leg of the flight if the plane has no bookings, according to the CEO of a private jet firm quoted in the Bloomberg report.
The warning bells had started ringing long back when the engineering and management graduates from IITs, NITs and IIMs started migrating. Thereafter, even the graduates from private engineering colleges started migrating to US and elsewhere for higher education and started settling down abroad, but we paid no heed. We rather took pride that our dear ones have been offered a job in a foreign country.
We did not ask the question ; Why are Good people leaving India like many had migrated from Bihar, UP etc?
The damage caused by COVID-19 is not confined to only select pockets of businesses but it is a widespread malady that is expected to keep the economy sick for a longer time. While the magnitude of the impact may vary from sector to sector, there are some sectors like the hospitality, tourism, aviation, garment business and leather industry, retail, that have suffered the most and continue to suffer.
The above may appear to be economic challenges but let us not undermine their social and political fallout. If India does not learn lessons from what and why things have gone wrong and reform itself and does not execute its plans with grit and focus, it may just prove to be disastrous for the Nation. And this obsession of some hard core elements to take India on a communal path may just hasten that process.
We must as a society avoid getting into that Vicious Circle of MISGOVERNANCE and for that we need to identify each cog of this wheel.