Raj-'neeyat' Vs Raj-'neeti' and the dilemma for the 'real' Aam Admi

By:Amit Bhushan
The recent electoral events in India have kicked off various debates. The political and apolitical people are gazing through their kaleidoscope about the direction of politics in India. This is even as there is near complete lack of debate about the basic premises of politics; although these basic criteria is making their impact inevitable and rising on the horizon to make us realize that these bedrock must be spotted clearly and debated thoroughly rather than the frivolous hot topics provided by journos in commercial mass media. The reason is simple- the commercial mass media is putting its money where its mouth is i.e. the TRPs and circulation, basis catchy sloganeer-ism; since this catches eye or appeal senses of its consumer (often dubbed as cattle classes among higher echelons of journalism world). However to use such sloganeer-ism as fulcrum of political discourse in the country, including its continued deployment by old & new political parties is being tested in these elections. Although this fact is yet to sink-in and its gains / losses weighed appropriately amongst political parties. This could be due to over reliance on commercial mass media by political class as an important bridge between the party leaders (especially the ones too busy for ground contact) and their voters. This is even as other tools like social media asserting themselves powerfully leading to changes in practices even though most of the past relics like mass media tools are still in place. The commercial mass media still remains the most powerful. Another fact is that the changes such as social media and others are rued upon by incumbents as not only disruptive but destructive as well. The reasons are twofold: First, the public is yet to learn to articulate and argue with leaders about specifics that may be actionable for the political leaders in legislature (parliament, assembly or municipal houses) and those which are actionable by executive heads which only a few of these legislators have a chance. A mixing of expectations normally leads to a heavy pile of expectation or woes in respect to the executive while very little is practically contributed towards legislative or policy issues. In fact there is a complete absence of a platform other than the social media to practically argue with lawmakers on policy while list of woes can be handled adequately by the staff provided by authorities to them (which can be deployed to segregate the issues). It also doesnt help that much of out idol worshipping/god fearing or god loving publ ic is more used to think of better people or super human leaders rather than specific policies, processes procedures and formulae which succeed or fail to meet their requirements rather than just the individual people who succeed or fail. Rather than understanding, countering and

challenging such system, the political people/leaders as well as parties have remain subservient to such a system and in the process yielded to a presumptuous medias with a need that create Spectacles as well as near Utopian delivery ideas which are hazy at best since there can be no planned delivery due to impracticality of such ideas. However our commercial media is completely convinced as well has convinced all budding leaders, that unless such a track is followed there can be no political future and political wins are impossibility without them. The treatment of political leaders by out media is best described by a very famous Shloka which reads: Asit Giri Samamsyat Kajjalam Sindhupatre, Surtaruvar Shakha Lekhini Patramurvi | Likhiti Yadi Gruhitva Sharada Sarvakalam, Tadyapi Tav Gunanamish Paaram Na Yaati || Even if Maa Saraswati keeps on writing forever (Anant kal) on the leaves of all the trees about you and your virtues, she can not do so, even with a help of a pen (kalam) made of all the mountains and ink (syahi) made of all sea waters of this earth. Such is your greatness! Such practices lead to irrational expectations being fanned unnecessarily without enough thought or debate in order to cultivate various groups of voter even as a policy idea may not be in fitness with the scheme of things of their leaders. However, the political parties as well as leaders turn a blind eye to this and allow the confusion to remain so that they can use this to their advantage as some situation unfolds for them. However in the process, public expectations are set in an irrational manner and this starts driving irrational demands basis irrational public expectations. Taking the case of a newbie party to explain this further (There are already several agenda items which cannot be explained by leaders in established parties, however this is being highlighted so point that new comers must try to differentiate themselves and participate to change the game early on rather than follow steps of existing players. Example 1: This is easy. Take the case of reinvigoration of education. The newbie party has committed to recruiting Permanent Teachers with Grade Pay. The argument offered is that teaching position are regular jobs/operations and getting better teachers will lead to improvement of teaching in government schools and bring them at par with private schools. This actually goes against logic because the private schools who serve mass market largely do not offer grade pay or permanent jobs to their teachers. It is entrepreneurial management by managers of these schools with possibly some unscrupulous practices, which ensures that they fare better in terms of meeting expectations of their students as well as their parents. So the logic forwarded by the party is nothing but electoral appeal to a group of people i.e. teachers.

Example 2: Now taking an area which has not be touched or spoken but related to a burning issue i.e. energy which was widely used to encash votes. This is related to distribution of LPG. That there is leakage in the system is well known. Such is the rampant leakage that most of the consumers receive packs which weigh 6-15% less than the promised pack weight in the capital city. While much hue and cry was made on a specific mode of energy to mobilize fight against the fleecing Corporates tied to ruling dispensation while the other mode of energy was left unspoken. If one analyzes the economics on this side, one will find that an LPG distributor inDelhi has to invest in Land which is 30 times of some of the other areas say Jalpaigudi. The wage rate of labour is almost twice or more. Yet the LPG distributor operates in Delhi with the same margin as a distributor in Jalpaigudi. True that the inventory turnover that is possible to be achieve in Delhi is 6-7 times in Capital city than that of Jalpaigudi i.e. it is possible to sell a truck load of cylinders in a day compared to a week in say Jalpaigudi. However initial investment and running expenses do not yield commensurate return. However, the economics to leakages help make situation even. And when such leakages are initiated, the firesale profits do not take time to spread wings in society. Such issues are happily overlooked for the fear of opening up of Pandora-box. The politics in India need to change from a merry-go-round promise trips to a lively debate on tough issues in which politicians of all hue and colour must participate. We have a principal opposition which claims to be first in the line of victory not basis Neeti but because of so called better Neeyat and its proof being its victory in select states while its losses/failures should be forgotten. In effect what they seem to be saying is that all policies by the present party are hunky dory excepting a few like FDI and some related to domestic security as well as foreign policy. Only, that the GOP has not championed their own policies in as good a manner in which the Principal opposition can possibly champion the same set of policies. The leadership seems sure that this is going to be their mantra for success in the coming elections since most businesses are still not in favour of a policy change or even a hard re-evaluation. The newbie party is also falling shy of exploring policy options to tinker with the prevailing incentive system so that we have a better performing system but is looking at fighting corruption basis Lokpal and falling shy to debate new and better options. The claim of even Better Neeyat seems to be the mantra here as well, even in the face of soaring expectations of people. In India, the peoples vote should be read more carefully to decipher if the vote is just for face change for Neeyat or for system change and what appropriate changes in policies or incentive structure change for players in existing system is required to meet those expectations.

The debate between Raj-Neeti and Raj-Neeyat is not new but age-old one. The Neeyat (or it could have been called dharma as well but neeyat is more inclusive so this is being used in article) is required to guide decision making in policy ambiguity areas. Neeti is required to be constantly upgraded to meet the peoples need in accordance with policies and killing arbitrary decision making. Neeyat itself is not sufficient since decision making basis better Neeyat alone leads to taking decision basis limited fact provided in a case while Neeti brings with it a whole lot of different considerations taking into account a much larger scheme of things. Neeti involves much more detailed consideration of local, domestic and global situation for consideration of a scheme taking in a long term view. Considering Neeti while making decisions thus ensures that the decision basis Neeyat are in fitness with the larger scheme of things. A fine balance of both is required for governance; however confusion between the two or its personification creates confusion in people as well as amongst the leaders. In an idol worshipping nation, it seems that it can go to any length. The ordinary people will always fret and possibly challenge that a decision taken only basis Neeyat is not in keeping with Neeti, while revocation of Neeti in a decision is not in keeping with the facts presented in a given case or even need that the Neeti itself in not in line with changing technological or business environment. Continuous updation of Neeti including regular additions of newer elaborations and addition of examples for easier compliance by decision exercising officers is required for smoother functioning of governance and reduction in arbitrary decision making. However since all facets of governance is not possible to be covered in all respect Neeyat, plays a role in ensuring that public interest is not compromised.