Excellent piece that ought to give Development Practitioners insights on how they must organize and deliver development through proper communication strategies right from policy making to implementation and realization of development outcomes. I am a senior citizen from India, a snall time trade economist, corporate staffer, lately an avid development watcher.
Unabashed practice of “populist vote bank politics� has descended like a scourge on Indian development scenario since April 2004 when the Congress government took the reins, pushing a billion people back into a deep “blackhole of despair�, a void of non-development. Utter lackadaisical policy making or some times a total “policy holiday� (like tax holiday) on crucial development issues. An Indian Media major, covertly in league with the Government, is not only aiding and abetting the re-establishment of a centralized monolithic governance, but also creating divides of sorts within an otherwise peace-loving polity, and rationalizing their stance as propagating “secular governance�. There is no Center of Gravity in Indian political ethos that rallies them as a single voice around any public issues. Teaching public policy is on the back burners lest people become more conscious of their rights and press for better quality and speed in development.
India’s Finance Minister’s (FM) indulges in nice platitudes like �Outlays� should result in “Outcomes�. Soon after elections were over and Congress took the reins in April 2004, the politician economic think tank nexus suggested “calibrated policy making� for creating jobs for faster poverty reduction, and instituting “Delivery Mechanisms� to delivery development to the poor. None was done Intelligentsia and the upper class very well know that the party in power is communicating this to cultivate their vote banks constituencies. What this rhetoric has led to are mere pronouncements of “dissipative�, I repeat, “dissipative� mega poverty reduction spends by the government. In the absence of transparency in governance all this leads not to poverty reduction, but undue enrichment of the ruling Party at the expense of the masses. The Right to Information Act recently put in place is just hogwash. How great is our kind of democracy then and how do we communicate with the illiterate masses. The recent Bihar elections and the return to power of BJP in grass-roots municipal and Panchayat elections seems to be a silver lining, and must have some lessons.
Yet another rhetorical deception was the public touting by the Media major, that one former Prime Minister (of the same Congress Party) said that we have a “15 Paisa delivery from development outlays� meaning that 85% of the Development outlays get hijacked and gobbled up mid-stream by Politicians and the power brokers. Yet India is developing, -- not because of governance but despite utterly bad governance.
People are showered with promises and deceived before elections. Our Dadar Railway Station in Mumbai needs development. Bangalore, the IT-capital of India is crying for a Metro and a modern Airport to take off from the drawing board for over 12 years now, and nothing is happening. The recent spat between an IT–Industry Celebrity and an entrenched politician in the South is yet another case in point. How then the “excluded, totally powerless, billion strong masses of India� communicate with governments that have -- monolithic underpinnings, bereft of any “conscience� or “shame�, governments that have been flouting “social contract� mandated upon them with temerity for the past 60 years --, despite people reposing confidence in them, patiently awaiting “development� to dawn into their local villages, urban gullies and streets.
No urban renewal policy yet. People do not have clean public space to meet and deliberate on their voes. Now the marshy islands of Thane Creek between Mumbai and New Bombay will be developed as a mega city. The builder politician industrialist nexus seems to be getting stronger by the day throwing to winds all development norms that might give some space for Quality in Development outcomes.
Public might find some succor only when India decentralizes its governance. Mahatma Gandhi when asked “if power were devoluted to village level what if the illiterate ruffians take over and create a mess�, told Mr Apa Saheb Pant, Pune (near Mumbai, Maharashtra), a great Philosopher-Diplomat of sixties, “tame it (power) with a spirit of service�. Such laudable ideals can be realized only when governance is decentralized at grass-roots level and people can voice what they want to see as “development� A billion voices must raise bottom-up and communicate, that can happen only when governance in India is decentralized.
Comments and Views
Excellent piece that ought to give Development Practitioners insights on how they must organize and deliver development through proper communication strategies right from policy making to implementation and realization of development outcomes. I am a senior citizen from India, a snall time trade economist, corporate staffer, lately an avid development watcher.
Unabashed practice of “populist vote bank politics� has descended like a scourge on Indian development scenario since April 2004 when the Congress government took the reins, pushing a billion people back into a deep “blackhole of despair�, a void of non-development. Utter lackadaisical policy making or some times a total “policy holiday� (like tax holiday) on crucial development issues. An Indian Media major, covertly in league with the Government, is not only aiding and abetting the re-establishment of a centralized monolithic governance, but also creating divides of sorts within an otherwise peace-loving polity, and rationalizing their stance as propagating “secular governance�. There is no Center of Gravity in Indian political ethos that rallies them as a single voice around any public issues. Teaching public policy is on the back burners lest people become more conscious of their rights and press for better quality and speed in development.
India’s Finance Minister’s (FM) indulges in nice platitudes like �Outlays� should result in “Outcomes�. Soon after elections were over and Congress took the reins in April 2004, the politician economic think tank nexus suggested “calibrated policy making� for creating jobs for faster poverty reduction, and instituting “Delivery Mechanisms� to delivery development to the poor. None was done Intelligentsia and the upper class very well know that the party in power is communicating this to cultivate their vote banks constituencies. What this rhetoric has led to are mere pronouncements of “dissipative�, I repeat, “dissipative� mega poverty reduction spends by the government. In the absence of transparency in governance all this leads not to poverty reduction, but undue enrichment of the ruling Party at the expense of the masses. The Right to Information Act recently put in place is just hogwash. How great is our kind of democracy then and how do we communicate with the illiterate masses. The recent Bihar elections and the return to power of BJP in grass-roots municipal and Panchayat elections seems to be a silver lining, and must have some lessons.
Yet another rhetorical deception was the public touting by the Media major, that one former Prime Minister (of the same Congress Party) said that we have a “15 Paisa delivery from development outlays� meaning that 85% of the Development outlays get hijacked and gobbled up mid-stream by Politicians and the power brokers. Yet India is developing, -- not because of governance but despite utterly bad governance.
People are showered with promises and deceived before elections. Our Dadar Railway Station in Mumbai needs development. Bangalore, the IT-capital of India is crying for a Metro and a modern Airport to take off from the drawing board for over 12 years now, and nothing is happening. The recent spat between an IT–Industry Celebrity and an entrenched politician in the South is yet another case in point. How then the “excluded, totally powerless, billion strong masses of India� communicate with governments that have -- monolithic underpinnings, bereft of any “conscience� or “shame�, governments that have been flouting “social contract� mandated upon them with temerity for the past 60 years --, despite people reposing confidence in them, patiently awaiting “development� to dawn into their local villages, urban gullies and streets.
No urban renewal policy yet. People do not have clean public space to meet and deliberate on their voes. Now the marshy islands of Thane Creek between Mumbai and New Bombay will be developed as a mega city. The builder politician industrialist nexus seems to be getting stronger by the day throwing to winds all development norms that might give some space for Quality in Development outcomes.
Public might find some succor only when India decentralizes its governance. Mahatma Gandhi when asked “if power were devoluted to village level what if the illiterate ruffians take over and create a mess�, told Mr Apa Saheb Pant, Pune (near Mumbai, Maharashtra), a great Philosopher-Diplomat of sixties, “tame it (power) with a spirit of service�. Such laudable ideals can be realized only when governance is decentralized at grass-roots level and people can voice what they want to see as “development� A billion voices must raise bottom-up and communicate, that can happen only when governance in India is decentralized.