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Making India Work
It is a provocative work that challenges the carefully built myths about India standing on the threshold of becoming "superpower", of the present century belonging to it, and calls for radical changes so that a country as rich in human and natural resources as India wipes away the stigma of being home to "77 per cent of the poor and vulnerable" of its population. With the system and the Constitution having been hijacked by the emergence of "corporate aristocracy" and the "republics of one", it is difficult to disagree with the author who believes that the task is too daunting to be left to the existing system, though many of us would like to believe that even with its flaws the existing system is adequate enough to bring about the desired change. Having concluded that epic inequalities in society and the environmental havoc that has been wreaked are challenges that are too gigantic in proportion to be left to the existing system, Bissell sets about enumerating the changes that are required to achieve the goal. Thus, he will replace the current structure of the government with one that brings the community to the centre stage. The office of the President and the Governors would go and the real executive and legislative powers would be wielded by the representatives of the people at various levels. Not surprisingly, the ministries too would be reduced and radical changes effected in the units of governance. A Member of Parliament would be representing the interests of approximately 2.5 million citizens. The author believes that these changes can be brought about once a political party committed to this model secures the kind of mandate that the late Rajiv Gandhi enjoyed as Prime Minister. This, he says, is not beyond the realm of possibility as the vast majority of the young voters are itching for a change having lost all patience with the existing module of governance. One might argue that the author is hoping too much and is not taking into account the fact that citizens are driven by various forces some of which cannot be really defined or codified which makes the demarcation of administrative units impractical and impossible to implement because of the passions involved. This, however, does not take away the importance of the work of Bissell. For one he has put before the readers an agenda for change that surely needs to be debated. The consumption-based economy has already pushed the world to the brink and we need not contribute to the final push. We, it needs to be urgently realised, have been so dazzled by the media-generated feel-good factor that the recent spate of Naxal incidents has shaken the very core of our existence. It is in this context that many of the suggestions related to eradication of poverty and corruption in public life need to be adopted in earnestness. We can argue about their merits or the lack of it, but we do need to act differently.
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LIKE many of us, William
Nanda Bissell, Managing Director of the Fabindia chain, is deeply
disturbed by the appalling poverty that afflicts India. Like many of
us, he too attributes it to the abysmally poor management by the
ruling class that has resulted in India becoming home of poverty, with
36 per cent of the world poor living here, hunger and degradation.
Like most of us, he also believes that unless steps for positive
intervention are taken urgently we are heading towards catastrophe.
The similarity between most of us ends there, for William Nanda
Bissell does not just rave and rant about the situation but draws a
roadmap for the future and puts it into a book form— Making India
Work.