The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

PERSPECTIVE

A CHIEF MINISTER WITH A DIFFERENCE
Arun Sinha

At a public meeting in Buxar, Nitish was handed a memorandum for a bridge over a small stream to facilitate movement of people and goods. The village was known for its high production of tomatoes and farmers were looking for a faster way to reach marketing outlets.

The first thing Nitish announced in his speech was immediately starting work on the construction of a bridge. 'You placed your demand, which I found long-awaited and just,' he said. 'I have already spoken to the concerned officials in Patna and instructed them to begin work right away. Engineers will arrive here within a week to take measurements and do other preliminaries. You will have a bridge ready very soon. And that will help fulfil not only your dream but also my dream. I want at least one food produce of Bihar on every Indian's meal plate. With this bridge, your tomatoes can travel faster to the world.' The work for the bridge started within a few months.

pride and prejudice

For the first time, on 22 March 2010, Bihar Diwas or Bihar Day, was celebrated throughout the state to commemorate the formation of Bihar as a separate province in 1912. The state government declared it as a holiday… the day was also celebrated in the five metropolises-New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Bengaluru-where large numbers of Biharis reside, with a showcase of the state's art, culture and cuisine.

The government provided a bicycle to every schoolgirl of class nine. The bicycles not only helped stem the dropout rate and increased female enrolment but actually became a symbol of self-respect for girls. Groups of girls rode bicycles from home to school and back without any fear of being teased. Girls also rode to stores to run errands.

Under a scheme, the government would issue a bond of Rs 2,000 in the name of every girl child immediately after her birth. The maturity value of the bond would be paid to the girl at the attainment of eighteen years of age for helping the family meet expenses for her wedding.

Under another scheme, for each girl child of a BPL family, the government, through the State Women Development Corporation, would invest Rs 2,000 in the UTI-Children's Career Balanced Plan-Growth Option. If a family's second issue is also a girl child, the government would also include her in the scheme. On completion of eighteen years, the girl would be paid the maturity value (Rs 18,000), which she could use for pursuing higher education or starting a small business.

'In a democracy people hold sovereign power,' he told me. 'The core objective of the 1974 Bihar Movement was real empowerment of the people. JP had a dream of making rajsatta [state power] subservient to loksatta [people's power]. I was always thinking of ways to make people bolder in making their representatives do what they had been elected for.'

That's how the 'Janata ke Durbar mein Mukhya Mantri' was conceived, where people from all parts of the state were invited every Monday to express their grievances on matters relating to a particular department. One Monday it could be police and revenue, another Monday, education and health and so on. People sometimes gathered from Sunday night to be ahead in the queue to be heard. Every petition was registered and given a number, using which the status of the action taken on the case could be tracked.

Nitish sat from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. hearing people's grievances in a large hall that Lalu and Rabri had used as fodder store for their cattle and poultry. The ministers of the departments concerned would also sit along with him, and so would the principal secretaries, secretaries and other senior officers.

Not all the grievances Nitish hears every Monday get immediate redressal. There may be a large number of cases that do not get settled at all. The volume of cases under process has been growing without any stringent monitoring apparatus. The officers of the CMO are too overburdened to follow up. The implementation is eventually left to the district officers who have been given separate IDs and passwords to access the cases pertaining to their districts brought before the CM at the 'Janata Durbar'.

RULE OF LAW

There is no quick fix in government. Every proposal has to pass through a number of offi cers and clerks, who examine its pros and cons in detail according to the provisions in the rules or according to norms and conventions. In many cases, the lower bureaucrats are familiar with the grievances referred to them since the petitioners first tried to get them remedied at their level. The field officers may already have an opinion on the case. So, if a plea was not accepted because it did not meet the requirements of rules and regulations, it would not be processed just because the petitioner went to the CM's court.

The number of unresolved cases would be huge. But the few cases that did get resolved sent a message through the administration that any day, anyone could approach the CM in the janata durbar and an officer could be pulled up for his omission or commission. And it sent out a message to the people that things could get resolved, if you take it to the chief minister.

The janata durbar would not be restricted to the chief minister. Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi also had his janata durbar. Even district magistrates and other field officers had to hold janata durbars.

THE YATRA

Another Indian tradition Nitish exploited to his fullest advantage was that of yatra. In ancient India, founders of religions had undertaken yatras-journeys in search of truth.

Although Nitish had seen many political yatras, he would not have understood the importance of it, had he not undertaken the Nyaya Yatra in the summer of 2005. He struck upon the idea of a Nyaya Yatra to make people aware of the 'anyaya'or injustice, done by the Congress-led Central government in dissolving the Assembly and to motivate them to give a clear mandate to the NDA so as to prevent horse-trading. Nitish attributes the NDA's success in Bihar in the November 2005 elections significantly to his Nyaya Yatra.

His first yatra as chief minister was Vikas Yatra, Development Journey (January-February 2009). Nitish had two objectives in mind when he undertook that yatra: one, to see how the plans and schemes launched by his government were being implemented at the grass-roots level; and two, to know ideas people had for improvement in the programmes or the methods of their execution.

He took the principal secretaries of all departments along with him who stayed with him in tents in appointed villages. One of the most important programmes of the Vikas Yatra was samvad, dialogue with the people, which was held in the evenings in the villages where Nitish camped.

After speaking for five-odd minutes, Nitish would invite members of the audience to the rostrum to voice their grievances. 'Those who are satisfied with my work can go home and take rest,' he would say. 'I want those who have a complaint about anything to come up on the stage and give vent to it. Because I believe all praise must be done behind your back and all criticism to your face. Anyone is welcome. Only, he should not be a political worker. I want common people. And no one should take the mike to air his personal grievance. For that we will have a janata durbar tomorrow morning. Those who come up here must bring up only public interest complaints.'

Nitish told me: " Usually a few minutes would pass before someone stood up hesitatingly in the crowd in response to my invitation. It required a phenomenal amount of courage to voice complaints against local officers, which is what complaints about non-delivery, irregularities and corruption actually amount to. There was a very real danger of vengeance being wreaked on the complainant. And the thought of voicing a complaint from a rostrum standing close to the chief minister could make anyone's legs tremble and scare the bravest of hearts. More so, because bringing to light any disorder would mean an indictment of the chief minister's governance."

"My idea was to make them open up, to embolden them. I wanted those ordinary people to speak and then go back and think that if they can speak out boldly before the chief minister, they could speak before anyone. Such boldness, if inculcated, could change the equation common people today have with the politicians and government officers. Loksatta would be on top of Rajsatta. Voters would become rulers in the real sense. That was the main aim of the Bihar Movement. That was the goal closest to JP's heart . . ."

"At samvad, slowly all sorts of people came up on the stage, each expressing his grievances in his own unique way. They were nervous, short of words, some excited and angry. Someone complained about the attendance and quality of primary school teachers, another about bribes being demanded by block officials for release of grant in some scheme, yet another about poor irrigation. I would know the gravity of the issue from the quality of response a grievance evoked in the gathering. I would instruct officers to take immediate action on the complaints that evoked the biggest applause."

The following morning Nitish would visit a village in the vicinity of the camp village for an inspection of development works. The visit also provided him an opportunity to listen to the residents' views on them. Returning to the camp village, he would attend a janata durbar.

Nitish was to undertake four more yatras during his fi rst term, each with a unique structure and mission-Dhanyawad Yatra, Thanksgiving Journey (June 2009), to express gratitude to the voters who gave the NDA the maximum number of seats in Bihar in the Lok Sabha elections that year; Pravas Yatra, Itinerant Journey (December 2009-January 2010), to visit Bihar's famous archaeological sites to raise public awareness about them; Vishwas Yatra, Confidence Journey (April-June 2010), to judge people's confidence in his governance; and Janadesh Yatra, Mandate Journey (August-October 2010), to seek people's blessings before beginning his second term in office.

Much like the Vikas Yatra, the Vishwas Yatra also focused on knowing the realities of the government performance on the ground. But the Vishwas Yatra had a strong element of surprise. The CMO shortlisted ten or twelve villages in every district to select one that Nitish would visit. They asked the district authorities to speedily complete the development schemes under way in all the villages as the chief minister would decide which village to visit only two days in advance.

During the Vishwas Yatra, Nitish paid surprise visits to anganwadi centres and primary schools, seeing their conditions, quizzing children; to primary health centres, asking patients whether they were satisfied with the service; to PDS shops, checking the books and the quality of food items being distributed; and to the block offices for an inspection of their functioning.

DRESSING UP

With Nitish's inspection of a few of the thousands of villages of the state, the bureaucracy could not be expected to become efficient or virtuous overnight. Bureaucrats are very good at dressing up things before a VIP visit. Trained local residents could be set up to present a rosy picture to the VIP.

In the middle of January 2011, I visited Sikaria village in Jehanabad district, which was presented as a development model for Maoism-infl uenced villages throughout the country. We found the whole panchayat complex lifeless that had been mentioned in offi cial propaganda as throbbing with activity.

The computer training centre that was believed by top officials in Patna to be sending out boys and girls to the Bengaluru IT industry, was locked up. It had remained closed for more than a year. Inside, three computers lay covered in a dark grey plastic sheet like corpses in a morgue. An employee, who opened the centre for us to see, said it was shut down after the computer teacher left, complaining of very low salary. The local administration never found a replacement. Neither the district magistrate nor any other official had bothered to visit the centre or the panchayat complex to see what was happening there.

The CM's secretary later explained to Nitish that it was closed due to a criteria hitch (about who can qualify for admission to the centre for training) between the Central government (which supported the computer training scheme) and the state government-a knot the state finance department had taken too long to untie.

Excerpts from the book 'Nitish Kumar And The Rise of Bihar' published by Penguin/Viking 2011; Pages 366, Rs 699; Reproduced with permission of the publishers

OPED

Elegant but not convenient enough
Saris are a high-maintenance garment and draping a sari takes more time than pulling on a pair of jeans. Is that the reason why more women are discarding the sari ?

Traditionally, Basant Panchami marks the beginning of Spring, the start of the most wonderful weather all over North India. It lasts merely a month but crowded into it are all the celebrations that can be crammed in. So, weddings, fairs, fetes, exhibitions, seminars and book launches with accompanying lunches, cocktails and dinners can play havoc with one’s life and digestion.

One of Delhi’s most familiar Basant activities, the Surajkund Crafts Mela remains an annual feature arranged on the outskirts of Delhi that brings together craftspeople and their rich variety of work from all over the country. Today, like so many state-sponsored fairs, this too is in danger of becoming a repetitive and slightly tired affair but it still draws crowds of curious visitors and tourists, who can never seem to have enough of Indian crafts. Despite the fact that not many are now willing to make the annual trip to visit it, and despite the criticism that it has been taken over by many ‘fake’ craftspeople now rooking gullible visitors, one has to concede that there is no other country in the world that can boast of such a rich variety of hand-crafted and handspun artefacts.

across the border

This reminds me of a conversation I had once with a friend whose husband had recently been posted to Islamabad at our High Commission. She was talking of the sophisticated Pakistani women, their perfectly groomed personalities and their immaculately kept homes. ‘You should see some of their homes,’ she told me in an awed voice. ‘Even the floors and pillars are made of onyx!’ Naturally, as wives of two indigent civil servants we gasped at the opulence this translated into. ‘Their carpets are from Afghanistan and Iran, their drapes from France, the china from Japan and the cutglass vases from Belgium...,’ she went on. After a suitable pause, she finally said, ‘But you know what they don’t have? A Fabinidia or a Cottage Industries Emporium.’

As we mulled over this, we came to the conclusion that but for the foresight of people such as Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Pupul Jayakar, Rukmini Devi Arundale, LC Jain, Gautam and Giraben Sarabhai, to name just a few, our crafts may also have slowly died out. These pioneers saw the beauty of the traditions that have a culture hidden in their way of life. In promoting their work, they also conferred a dignity on these often humble practitioners. Moreover, by becoming brand ambassadors for the fabulous saris and textiles woven from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, they made Indian crafts into a fashion statement.

We all still remember the handloom saris worn by Indira Gandhi, even after all these years. Sonia Gandhi has continued with that style as has her daughter when campaigning and few will deny that a large part of the credit for their political attraction belongs to their sartorial elegance. The press has continuously harped upon how closely Priyanka resembles her famous grandmother and how her Andhra handloom saris are an exact replica of some the famous Mrs G wore.

Patronising crafts

Compare this to Pakistan: the same traditions could have been developed there as well. In fact, most of our best crafts are created by Muslim hands, whether the gorgeous Banarasi saris or the Kashmiri pashmina shawls and carpets. Yet, neither Benazir Bhutto nor any of the other Pakistani women in public life ever wore anything but designer western wear. Their preference for machine-made textiles left the rich cotton growing areas of their own country without the market that they could have cultivated to their advantage.

Today, ‘ethnic’ has become a common monniker for anything that is traditional: even if it is pronounced as ‘athnick’. The fact that it has entered the vocabulary of the common shopper is a huge tribute to the tireless promotion of our crafts. Take the example of another institution: the Khadi Bhandars. These can be found even in the remotest areas of the country and were instituted as a tribute to Gandhiji’s call for wearing homespun cloth. Like so many movements spawned by him, Gandhiji’s adoption of the charkha was not a romantic call to go back to a rural life but an assertion that our country did not need the West to tell us what we should or should not do. Today, India can proudly boast that most fashion houses across the world source their textiles and embroidered work from India. Export earnings from our textile sector and jewellery are among the highest in the country.

Let me end this piece by flagging a growing concern. Have you noticed how saris are now worn only on special occasions by the young? Most young women I know have switched to the trouser and shirt ensemble for work, citing reasons of convenience and comfort. One cannot dispute the fact that saris are a high-maintenance garment and that draping a sari takes more time than pulling on a pair of jeans. And yet, if this trend continues, one day not too far away, the sari may become a garment that is displayed in a museum gallery. When that happens, we will lose what makes us Indians so different from women the world over: graceful, proud of our heritage and modern without giving up our traditional values.

PROFILE
Versatility of the violinist
by Harihar Swarup

He was a child prodigy, who started playing the violin at the tender age of six and was thought good enough to give a public concert when he was barely eight. Amusingly, he honed his skills by accompanying women vocalists. While male vocalists did not care to give the teenaged a boy a chance, male violinists found it infra dig to accompany women. It provided M.S. Gopalakrishnan, now in his eighties, the perfect opportunity to step in and play.

His mastery of the violin was acknowledged long ago, when he was honoured with a Padma Shri. But the recognition of his contribution to turn the instrument versatile, persuaded the government to honour him with a Padma Bhushan this year.

“ I have not heard such violin in all my travels”, exclaimed internationally famed Yehudi Menuhin. “How superbly this young Indian is playing our instrument”, he said, after listening to M S Gopalakrishan, who had become a legend in his own lifetime. Coming from the renowned master Menuhin himself, this was high praise indeed.

Now 81, MSG was taught violin by his father, late Pt Sundaram Iyer, who was well versed in North Indian as well as South Indian system of classical music. He learnt both systems from his father, with whom he gave his first performance at the age of eight.

MSG’s passion for violin playing manifested itself early. At the age of four, he would take two plantain sticks and pretend that he was playing the violin by holding one of the sticks as the violin and other as the bow. His serious training started when he was six-year-old. His father was a hard task master. He ensured that MSG get up at four every morning and practice the violin.

Failing to wake up would invite a generous sprinkling of cold water on his face. Every day, there would be basic exercises, learning new compositions, improving on a theme and mandatory listening of other musicians on the radio in the evening hours.

For MSG, violin playing was an adventure. Like a bold explorer, he waded through the jungle of musical expression and created what had seemed technically impossible. This can already be seen in the burst of technical virtuosity in the last few decades among the young violinists who have been influenced by his deeply researched virtuoso techniques and his musical interpretation.

His commitment to music is total and utterly sincere. A spiritual man of great discipline and similar habits, he regards music as a means of worshipping the God.

On the record
In Brazil, doctors in rural areas get higher salary
by Aditi Tandon

Prof K. Srinath Reddy

President of the Public Health Foundation of India and globally-acclaimed clinical cardiologist Prof K. Srinath Reddy has been in the forefront of major policy changes in the health sector. In 2003, as key negotiator for India and Southeast Asia on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, he bagged the WHO Director General’s award for Global Leadership in Tobacco Control. In 2004, he became the first Indian to be elected as Foreign Associate Member of the Institute of Medicine, a US National Academy, and in 2005 he got the Queen Elizabeth Medal. Head of the panel of experts in charge of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s health, Prof Reddy spoke about health sector challenges and universal health coverage (UHC).

How do you view attainment of health targets in the 11th Plan?

Many important goals were set but could not be fully attained due to inability of the health system to raise performance level, paucity of funds and inability of states to absorb allocated funds in the best manner possible. Key targets of reducing infant mortality, maternal mortality, malnutrition and skewed sex ratio were not fully achieved. We made steady progress on reducing IMR but a major area where we didn’t make any dent was neonatal mortality. We must now consider longer mandatory hospital stays for mothers.

One year of mandatory rural posting for all interns before they get the licence to practice. Your take?

Health is a state subject in India. If the Centre wants to post medical undergraduates in villages, it should first consider creating an all India cadre. How else will it post a Karnataka student in a Punjab village? The Centre should also finance new medical colleges in the north and offer mandatory local recruitment for students there. It should then give them employment guarantee, conditional to a rural posting. Better incentives are a must too. In Brazil, doctors in rural areas get thrice the salary than their urban counterparts; in fact they get salaries higher than university professors. In Tamil Nadu, we have a public health cadre and doctors who serve in villages get faster promotions. These examples must be emulated.

Will universal health coverage become a reality any time soon?

The Planning Commission’s steering group has considered the report and agreed on some key proposals including free distribution of essential drugs. In India, 70 pc out of pocket expenditure is on drugs. There is also near unanimity on zero user fees for healthcare services offered as part of the National Health Package through which the goal of UHC will be achieved. So far, a decision has been taken to pilot the UHC framework in one district in each state in the first year of the 12th Five Year Plan and scale up gradually.

What is the UHC framework?

The idea is using tax-based financing to offer cashless National Health Package (NHP) for delivery of primary, secondary and major tertiary facilities to all by 2022. The delivery will happen through government facilities and contracted in private facilities when needed.

Is there acceptance for your proposal of public financing of health through general taxation?

The jury is still out. But international experience has shown that insurance is not the way to finance health services. Even in India, social insurance schemes won’t work as there is no organised sector. These well intentioned schemes offer incomplete solutions. General taxation as a public financing model will work best. Funds must also be raised by taxing products like tobacco.

Are you expecting higher taxes on tobacco in the forthcoming Budget?

Taxes on tobacco products need to be raised across the board. It is very unfortunate that bidis and oral tobacco products are still very lightly priced. We expect cigarettes to become expensive in the coming days but we can’t say the same about bidis.

The Government appears to do little against tobacco...

All my life I have advocated tobacco control. I protested very strongly when the Government earlier finalised soft pictorial warnings against tobacco. It’s time we started acting on this front and ensuring the end of tobacco as a major cash crop by the next 20 years. Alternate crops must be suggested to farmers. Or else we will keep seeing a duality of approach where the Health Minister will keep criticising the ills of tobacco and other ministries will keep supporting the sector, overtly or covertly.