Bribe Nation

Title: Accountability Tagline: Angst. Awareness. Action. Author: Jay P. Desai Publisher: Pearson India Price : Rs.599

Jay P. Desai, the author is a strategy consultant by profession with over two decades of experience. Based out of Bombay, the 26 Nov 2008 terror strike stirred him to think beyond the immediate question of personal impact. Bothered by his conscience about the total lack of governance and concern in our country for everything from mundane form filling to a feeling of security for the citizen, he set upon a journey of documenting the vexed issue of Accountability or rather the total lack of it in India. Drawing upon his consulting experience and using his own resources to study, analyse, debate and provide suggestions has been documented in this fascinating book, simply titled ACCOUNTABILITY. The writing style is typical of a consulting report, with references, grids, linkages, statistics and inferences. This however should not distract the reader from the huge effort that has gone in to breaking the problem in to its components. There are some interesting (perhaps disturbing if we care to make our inference) observations like breaking down Indian history in to around five time frames (Vedic Age 1500 to 500 BC; Mauryan/Gupta Age 500 BC to 500AD; Medieval to post Medieval 500 Ad to 1800 AD; Colonial India 1800 to 1947 and the subsequent Democratic Era) and a discovery that Governance has been a matter of concern for India right from day one! Right from our caste system divide, the invaders era of divide and rule to the Democratic Era of growing corruption- the die seems to be cast for us in the mould of mis-governance and corruption. The book analyses Governance in to its various components- Foundations, Creating Awareness, various institutions of accountability etc., The author has also done some extensive surveys on various factors and whilst the outcome or the pointers may not be mathematically conclusive, they are pointers to co-relations between various factors like income disparities, literacy, our interest in voting, the way of choosing the law makers, etc and the effectiveness of Governance.

The author also notes that the struggle for survival leaves little time and energy to fight misgovernance and those in power who flout accountability. The book is a virtual documentation of how we have the mechanisms in place to provide for accountability, but how the implementation by the law makers make sure that these mechanisms are ineffective and totally useless. Accountability is also viewed from a three dimensional perspective- the mechanisms, the foundations and the institutions of government. Each of this is further split in to further components and each one dissected in detail. What the author brings to the fore is the fact that whilst we as a democratic nation have all the tools to handle accountability, the execution failure seems like deliberate fallout of the intentions of the powers that be. Whilst the polling booth is surely one of the ways to make sure that the right person is chosen, the legislature has ensured that there is no effective gate keeping. As a result we see that of our total Members of Parliament in both houses, at least one third face some criminal charges. More important, we see the government being filled with old fogies and ministries being manned by people who have absolutely no background relating to what they handle. In this circumstance, one would expect governance to be provided by the bureaucracy of the IAS cadre. Alas, these guys are the first casualty when it comes to continuity. The book points out that the average tenure of an IAS officer in one place is sixteen months! The first two thirds of the book is devoted to documenting the ineffectiveness of the supporting pillars of accountability, the relationship between various factors like population, literacy, the media, the legislature etc to standards of accountability. In the last part, the author commences with a succinct view that there are limitations in the internal, horizontal and external mechanisms of accountability with the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary. His frustration with our system is evident when he (rightly) labels them as debilitating weaknesses. The author focuses on improvement in six areas- Information, objectivity and impartiality, implementation, infrastructure for accountability, independence with authority for the agencies monitoring accountability. The last and perhaps the one which can be pushed and improved by all of us, is the exhortation to the citizens to shrug off their indifference. The information age is leading to more and more awareness and the exposes are increasing day by day. However, we also read with the same breath, the violation of human rights, the seemingly deliberate floundering of the investigating agencies when it comes to prosecuting public servants and politicians, whether it is the 2G issue or the Asian Games scandal. Every day unfolds a more brazen crime, which is making the citizen fill his soul with more iron and focus on his survival. The book is a rational and emotional journey in to the failure of India on all counts of the vexed issue of accountability. The sheer effort of the author to use his private resources to document and analyse the issues is brilliant. At the end of it, I am left with one thought- Will India ever change for the better? I would urge all those who are disturbed by the sheer lack of accountability, to get hold of a copy. It will help each one to change our attitude from indifference to affirmative action.

R. Balakrishnan (balakrishnanr@gmail.com)