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© 2012 Sanjeev Sabhlok's revolutionary blog
Of course Advani is corrupt. Who in his wildest delusions could have thought that you could be member of Congress or BJP and NOT be corrupt?
The very fact that Advani is part of BJP is PROOF that he is corrupt. 100 per cent corrupt.
"Advani never inquired where the money came from for his rallies and yatras and neither did he ask the source of funding that brought the BJP to power in Karnataka in 2008". [Source]
I'm constantly amazed at people who pretend that Manmohan Singh is "honest" or Advani is "honest" (even Modi, I think, is quite corrupt – given overwhelming LACK of evidence that he complies with election expenditure limits).
Guys, get used to it.
If you find someone willing to join Congress or BJP, you KNOW that the person is corrupt, or will tolerate corruption. And black money.
And that point should never be forgotten.
BJP and black money GO HAND IN HAND. Just as Congress and black money go hand in hand.
I have direct first hand evidence of a BJP person who came to my house a few years ago and described how he distributed Rs.35 lakhs in cash in ONE night in the slums in Mumbai during an election.
Please spare me this surprised look when someone suddenly finds that "even" Advani is corrupt.
Of course. They ALL ARE. Without exception.
But the only difference between me and others is that I insist that these people are merely following the REQUIREMENTS of our system. Our system does not allow ANY honest man to enter politics. For details see BFN.
Yes, all these people must be brought to book, and anyone in the position of PM or CM who has been corrupt should be hanged (after due trial, of course!). But we must focus on changing the system.
That's where Sone Ki Chidiya movement comes in.
BJP has increased its moral stature greatly by promoting a VIOLENT GOONDA Varun Gandhi to its General Secretary position.
Well done BJP. You are now a great moral force in India. Corruption was not enough qualification to get promted in BJP. Direct violence is an essential qualification now, as well.
I do hope if Modi comes in at the national level, the first thing he'll do is to get this man behind bars.
But let me be clear: if Modi does not CLEANSE BJP's INTERNAL GOONS, then I'll OPPOSE BJP and support Congress (assuming Sone Ki Chidiya Movement has not yet progressed into national limelight).
At least Rahul Gandhi is not a violent goonda.
From http://tehelka.com/how-varun-gandhi-silenced-the-system/
"all 88 witnesses in the cases have turned hostile. This is perhaps unprecedented in any criminal case in the world. Many of these witnesses have been caught on TEHELKA’s hidden cameras admitting they were coerced or bribed into changing their testimonies."
"though thousands had heard his speeches at the rallies and millions had watched it on television, on 4 May 2013, the Sessions Court of Pilibhit acquitted him of all the charges in these three cases, on the grounds of insufficient evidence.
"Varun did not like this and slapped Bharatveer. Varun’s supporters also started beating him. The villagers tried to stop them but Varun’s supporters had weapons and no one had to courage to stop Varun.”
Attaching herewith my comments/ questions on the Common Minimum Programme recently proposed by Public Interest Foundation.
Download (Word).
Here's the vote share analysis (Karnataka):
Congress got a very healthy 37 per cent, BJP 10 per cent.
The idea that Modi can win outright is a myth. Just like BJP was overconfident in 2004 with "India Shining" dreams, it is extremely over-confident with Modi.
When BOTH parties are perceived to be corrupt, then people will vote for the one with greater experience in running the government. And people prefer a united front. BJP is showing all signs of cracking up, of being a fragmented party.
Congress is as strong a unit as one can possibly imagine. People prefer the comfort of a strong united party to an equally corrupt, but fragmented party.
And with the thousands of crores of rupees of black money that Congress has accumulated, it can "outgun" any opposition in more ways than one.
There is one way, of course: for a new mega-party to be created to mop up a significant chunk of the non-BJP/Congress vote (and in fact, cut into both of these as well): that is a party based on the RULE OF LAW and FIRM NEUTRALITY towards all religions; and a party that will promote liberty while ensuring a social minimum.
Please do yourself a favour. Widely share this. It will help to change India, one click at a time.
4 pm on 4 June 2013 in Delhi to protest Tyranny and demand Total Reforms
Please assemble at Ramlila Maidan on 4 June at 4 pm.
We'll then march to Jantar Mantar to conduct a public event in which eminent people will speak and demand TOTAL REFORMS.
[Event on Facebook]
THIS IS NOT A GOVERNMENT BUT TYRANNY
The Sone Ki Chidiya Federation proposes to hold a public rally on 4 June 2013 in Delhi to remember and mourn the Black Night of 4-5 June 2011 in which Delhi Police committed unprecedented atrocitities against innocent people who were peacefully fasting.
Rajbala became martyr to merciless police beatings.
On 4 June 2011 Swami Ramdev had launched a fast unto death to oppose corruption in India. That night, Delhi Police committed some of the most heinous atrocities against the people of India. It was Jallianwala Bagh with lathis instead of bullets.
Swami Ramdev repeatedly asked to be arrested but the police did not do so. Instead the police kept beating the people in the dead of the night.
The police were clearly intent on killing Swami Ramdev. No amount of pleading with them, no amount of requesting that the participants be arrested, worked. All humanity was lost. The concept of rule of law was entirely ripped apart.
That night a woman – Rajbala – was so badly beaten, her back was shattered. She later died.
We protest tyranny. We protest the Black Night in Independent India's history.
The Sone Ki Chidiya Federation is holding a public rally on 4 June 2013 at 4 pm in Delhi to mourn the Black Night of 4-5 June 2011 in which Delhi Police committed unprecedented atrocitities against innocent people who were peacefully fasting.
THIS GOVERNMENT HAS FAILED TO PROVIDE SECURITY TO WOMEN
We will also protest the system of injustice in which women, particularly, are unsafe in India, and Police unable to protect them.
THIS GOVERNMENT IS PREVENTING CONTRUCTION OF THOUSANDS OF NEW HOUSES IN DELHI
In addition, we will oppose the artificial scarcity of housing created by bad policies of the government. This means prices of houses are at least more than double the price they would have been without such bad policies. The solution is to liberalise the allocation of land, get government out of its discretionary control on use of land, and increase floor area ratios (FAR) while increasing infrastructure spending on sanitation, roads and electricity.
THIS GOVERNMENT IS PREVENTING LABOUR FROM EARNING A LIVELIHOOD, AND BUSINESSES FROM INVESTING
Also, we will protest bad labour laws which have forced outsourcing to contract labour which is paid a quarter of the market rates (according to The Economist). The solution is to liberalise labour laws to minimise militant unionisation which has reduced job opportunities for unorganised labour and blocked companies – both Indian and international – from investing in India.
THIS GOVERNMENT IS PREVENTING FARMERS FROM RECEIVING DUE RETURNS FOR THEIR CROPS
We will also protest the low costs which farmers receive due to artificial controls imposed by the government in the trade and production of agricultural products.
Please confirm your participation here.
Please do yourself a favour. Widely share this. It will help to change India, one click at a time.
I am a great admirer of Mr Prajapati Trivedi’s work. Despite the odds being totally stacked against him, he is trying to improve the performance of India’s bureaucracy.
I hold the view, however, that all such efforts are going to fail for many fundamental reasons – one being that even if the politicians finally reform, the IAS – the world’s most third rate civil service – can never reform.
It needs to be built from scratch, else we are wasting our time entirely. It is not that the people in IAS are stupid. They are very smart. And that’s one more reason why the IAS can never deliver – under the current system design. When you place some very smart people and give them enormous power (and poor salaries) but NEVER hold them to account, then these people will do one or more of the following:
a) become fat parasites, whom nothing can budge; they will get mindless paperwork filled up and send tonnes of it to you, but it would be largely cooked up and meaningless;
b) become arrogant as hell (there is none in the whole world more arrogant than an average IAS officer), refusing to learn or improve;
c) become great chamchas of thoroughly corrupt political leaders with the goal of getting themselves a fat sinecure in the World Bank or various UN agencies (or as Governor/ambassador after retirement); or
d) become direct “players” (corrupt scoundrels) preparing for a political career by accumulating crores of rupees of corruptly sourced funds.
What do these people care for performance management system and related paperwork?
They don’t even care for empanelment as Joint/Additional secretaries. They are going to enjoy even greater perks in the states in which they live, and you can NEVER KICK THEM OUT. So why would they care?
There is a word in Hindi called ढीठ. That’s what most of these guys are. Simply incorrigible.
They are our SERVANTS but they act like our MASTERS.
But this is not their fault. It is the NATURAL CONSEQUENCE of the system in which we put them.
Put these people in a performing system like Singapore's and they'll produce the world's BEST results. Same people diferent system. That's what explains performance.
So below I’m extracting a few comments I made on a Linkedin group:
My basic contention is that the current Indian system's incentives are fundamentally defective and it will NEVER deliver any meaningful improvement in governance unless it is totally rebuilt from scratch. My focus is therefore on first principles reform.
I was looking at Singapore bureaucracy system yesterday and found that it follows world-best principles, even as we follow world-worst principles. http://sabhlokcity.com/2013/05/singapore-followed-arthashastra-india-abandoned-it-results-are-inevitable/
We are talking about systems. When we have a flawed system we will get SHABBY results. We must think about systems – then we'll find the answer. Current system can NEVER perform. No matter how much "shifting/reorieinting" you do.
To suggest that "There has been an overall deterioration in the moral fabric of society" is a load of rubbish.
The SAME Indians behave ethically elsewhere. That's because SYSTEMS are everything. Our systems are DESIGNED for corruption, as I've explained in my book, Breaking Free of Nehru (download from http://bfn.sabhlokcity.com/ ). Please don't blame Indians for their "moral" failures. Blame us, the policy designers.
[I received this suggestion:] "we need some means of changing the 19th century mindsets, and bringing new ideas to the Secretary level officials – since change will need to be fostered from that group".
The best way to change the Secretary's mind is to say: You can lose your job in ONE MINUTE (without notice) if you don't perform.
When all over the world the focus is on accountability of the bureaucracy, why do we pander to them by trying to "change their mindset"? I was in the IAS and knew many Secretaries. Worse, I know many IAS officers who are extremely senior now. They WILL NOT CHANGE. Their mindset is corrupted the moment they realise they can't be removed from their job.
I'm not saying people should do nothing within the current system. By all means work on these other ideas. Yes, you'll remain busy and you'll generate a lot of paperwork. But be aware that you'll NEVER change these people in this way.
[Question received:] "Does anybody have a concrete proposal on how this is to be done".
I provided a detailed transitional pathway in Breaking Free of Nehru, chapter 6. About 10 pages of details. Download: http://sanjeev.sabhlokcity.com/book1/BFN-fullbook.pdf . Please also read chapter 5 (I think) on bureaucracy that sets the context.
A summary of the transitional path is available in the draft Agenda for Change ( http://sonekichidiya.in/Documents/SKC-agendaforchange-draft.pdf ). We also had an extensive discussion for a few hours at the IIPA governance reforms conference on 13/14 April 2013 on the precise pathway. I've yet to consolidate the notes and issue the minutes of the conference.
Your considered feedback and questions will be useful. The more detailed the analysis, the better.
The key performance driver in the private sector is the employment contract. If you had an employee in your company whose job was 100 per cent assured and who short-circuited the official reporting lines and dabbled with politics and took "directions" from people outside your company (in the case of IAS, from politicians of all hues), please explain how any of your past experience in the private sector would apply.
We have to start with the employment contract of the civil services, not with establishing performance frameworks more suited to a jet plane than to a bullock cart. With an unruly bullock cart, where a bull runs helter skelter and is TOTALLY disobedient because it knows the master (ultimately the citizen) can't do any harm, there is a drastic limit to the performance the master can get.
The most arrogant and unruly (and incompetent) people in the world are IAS officers. How can you possibly expect them to perform by giving them more paperwork to deliver?
I haven't even mentioned the other side – that more than 90 per cent of the policies in India simply can't be delivered because they are undeliverable, being poorly designed. Even if you get the world's smartest bureaucrats (from Singapore) you can't do that.
I assure you that late Ashok Saikia (who was Vajpayee's favourite Joint Secretary) and I – when we ran the education department in Assam, were not less than the most honest/efficient bureaucrats you can possibly imagine. But our combined results were practically zero. We were totally stymied by the system.
Btw, I chanced upon an excellent comparative study of different country administrations. Seems to take a very sensible approach: http://www.dpmc.gov.au/consultation/aga_reform/docs/benchmarking_australian_government_KPMG.pdf
I've tried to depict India's relative performance to Singapore's here: http://sabhlokcity.com/2013/05/indian-administrations-pathetic-performance-compared-with-singapores/
The country is totally sick of its non-performing and corrupt bureaucracy. If enough people offer [fundamental overhaul] as the key solution, there will be a lot of uptake of this suggestion.
Performance management systems will merely increase red tape, paperwork, and costs to be borne by taxpayers without any hope of improvement. Such "systems" will have no effect on anything on the ground.
This conclusion I make based on my deep knowledge of the inner functioning of the IAS and Indian bureaucracy. They will treat performance management as a big joke and laugh at it. Indeed, I know officers in the IAS who hold such a view and treat it with contempt.
Of course, the problem is not just performance, it is policy.
If you were to ask me, assuming the fundamental change doesn't take place first, I'd work out a reward system for those IAS officers who can design good policy. I'd get such a system endorsed by politicians and I'd throw a challenge at these people to come up with serious policy analysis that points out fundamental flaws. Those who identify the flaws, and also identify ways to remove the flaws, will be rewarded.
When we develop a culture of asking questions and giving honest advice in the IAS, we might then start talking about performance management.
Merely trying to transplant performance management systems that work well in the West into the Indian system won't work because there is an entirely different set of incentives at work, which rewards political "savvy" and/or corruption, not performance in the sense we mean it.
Why don't we challenge the civil servants of India to tell us why the policies they implement are fundamentally defective and can't work. They are smart people. If you reward them for plain-speaking, they will come up with good ideas.
Once that has happened, we can change the policies, then they will at least work better without any "performance management". Today, 90 per cent of the policies we have won't work no matter how smart the performance management system you introduce.
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