WHITHER GOVERNANCE

Dear All,

The article appended below was written soon after the Hyderabad blasts last month. 

It was sent for publication to a newspaper and later another one, but neither published it.

Maybe it is too hot to handle by our media. I suppose the editors too have to cover their backs!

I normally circulate only those articles that are published, but I am making an exception in this case.

I am forwarding it in case you are inclined to read it. At least it will reach places, albeit slowly!

 WHITHER GOVERNANCE

By

Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi

My anger started welling up as I listened to the news of the two blasts at Hyderabad on 21 February 2013. Now over 40 hours later, I am not just angry but mad! I am not only mad at the terrorists who strapped the explosive devices on the three bicycles (one did no explode), but also at the leaders of my country who permitted this to happen. I am mad at our political leaders who have only platitudes to offer after the event, as they have done on many earlier occasions; I am mad at our bureaucrats who are supposed to implement the directions of the political leadership but are too busy saving themselves and pushing files; I am mad at our intelligence organizations who have failed us time and time again, never giving actionable intelligence to the police; I am mad at the police for not preventing the blasts and appearing only after the event and pretending to be busy; but above all I am mad at the people of my country for allowing these so called leaders and their officials to continue to remain in power when they are not doing the job they are supposed to do.

This is not the first time terrorists have struck at innocent persons, killing and maiming them and if our leaders and their officials continue to perform in this manner, it will not be the last. Are we going to continue to listen to the so-called explanations being trundled out by them, the passing of the buck between the centre and the state; the distancing by the leaders and officials at the centre, as well as the state and the typical blame game that has become the hallmark of such episodes in our country? I believe the water has now reached our noses and unless we, the people of India act, we will all be drowned, with our worthy leaders and their hangers-on looking at us from their safe perches, surrounded by hordes of security persons who should have been deployed to secure the nation and not them.

But anger alone is not the answer. We need to act and we need to do this after making a plan and a well thought out strategy, which must be designed to work. It must not be a spur of the moment boiling over, but a methodical way that brings long term results and security to the people. We are not a small country, nor a banana republic. We are a powerful nation with a professional military and an economy that is still the envy of the world despite the downturn of the last three years. What we need is leaders who understand strategic issues and learn if they are vague about them. They also need to develop the political will to act. Where are they?

We have lived with various types of terrorism for decades now. We have also lived with a system of governance that we continue to hope will work one day and get rid of this menace, as well as other debilities, which are too numerous to be listed. Unfortunately, even when mostly everyone is of the view that we have to fight terrorism ourselves and we must not depend on any other country to do so, we have done nothing to actually do so.

Our political leadership, of all hues, colours and parties, is so preoccupied with votes, elections, getting elected, holding on to their chairs and of course making money by all means - fair or foul, that the country and the people who are the heart and soul of our nation remain forgotten. The poverty and the innate goodness of the people have been exploited to the maximum by these leaders. The governance ‘mantra’ that our leaders follow is doling out money. Money is given when someone gets killed or injured – whether it is on account of terrorist action, rail or road accidents, collapse of dilapidated buildings  or to hide any failure of governance; it is given when people agitate in desperation; it is given to the next of kin for the loss of a family person; and for myriad similar reasons. The intention is to shut the mouths of the people and sweep under the carpet the acts of omission and commission of the government collectively, or by its minions individually.

The other peculiarity of our governance is that no one is accountable and no one is ever punished for crimes, despite their severity, irrespective of whether they are premeditated, planned or a result of lack of sufficient care and attention. Till date, I can not recall of any bureaucrat being punished for not doing what he/she is assigned to do. In the debacle of 1962, the 50^th commemoration and self-flagellation of which we have gone through only a few months back, while the defence minister lost his job, sundry officials – both military and police were punished, no civil officials, who were actually instrumental in forging a stupid policy and ignoring military advice, were ever brought to book. For them, it was business as usual!

When the hue and cry by the people reaches a crescendo and there is no other choice, cases against loyalists are lodged but the police or the CBI is instructed to only show some movement without bringing matters to their logical conclusion! Politicians are of course never punished, unless the reason is ‘political’; at best they are told to relax in the comfort of their homes or the comfort of a specially prepared dwelling in a jail, for a month or two and then are either reinstated in another appointment or elevated! The classic example worth quoting is the biggest terrorist attack on our country – better known as 26/11, the three day nightmare in Mumbai in which nearly 200 persons were killed in cold blood. Nothing was right in the handling of that event that brought shame of the highest degree to the nation. So, what did our government do or not do?

The National Security Advisor, who should have been sacked immediately, was given a gubernatorial appointment, as was the Home Minister of the country! Three senior political leaders intimately concerned with the event were asked to resign but within months were reappointed to even more senior appointments; no bureaucrat at the centre or the state was even admonished; no action was taken against the head of the National Security Guard (NSG) that took ages to clear the terrorists; or against the commandos of the navy, who sat for three days in the lobby of the other hotel, twiddling their thumbs; no police officer of Maharashtra or Mumbai was indicted; and so on.

Fully knowing who the perpetrators were, the mighty government of India took no action except spouting inanities, while the Jihadis and their mentors celebrated in our neighbouring country. Even the usually pro-government media was constrained to say “Impotent India – Displays a Shameful Lack of Political Will to Deal with Islamic Terrorism”.

Are we going to wake up or keep waiting endlessly for divine intervention? Would the intelligentsia and the youth of the nation introspect and act? We need to do so, to save the nation and we owe it to our succeeding generations.