Accountability

What is accountability? There is none in an autocracy, unless the King feels it is needed. 

Bu there is shame, or should be, in any system of governance.

When there is no shame, we end up with the Emperor's New Clothes kind of situation.

The damage done by Yes-men (gender-neutral) is enormous, in any system.

The bureaucracy by its nature has no spine. But others are expected to have it.

It took 25 days to show up the rulers for what they are.. 

Hope they reform themselves, so that we don't regress any more than we have already..

 

Ethnicity and Good Governance

 There is a lot of speculation about the ethnic Indian who is likely to follow in Boris Johnson's steps. In my own opinion, that hardly matters. What matters is how well he or she will govern the U.K.

We have had many Chief Ministers, usually local stock, who have governed various states. The one who made a visible difference in Andhra Pradesh where I grew up, was Chandrababu Naidu. He may have lost his appeal today, but he was the first to introduce Powerpoint presentations-in government! He is also said to have made one to the ISB founders to get them to set up shop in Hyderabad.

He is single-handedly responsible for getting the IT giants into A.P. - not just Indian giants, but all the global ones. That is not a  mean achievement, given Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and others were probably contenders at the time.

Good roads that are not an eyesore can be a very visible symbol of good governance. Gadkari reportedly got 50 flyovers constructed in Mumbai in a few years of ONE term, whereas we struggle to build one in that time elsewhere!

Sreedharan was allowed by powers that be to do good, and so was Verghese Kurien given a free hand. Maybe that is a secret sauce- a free hand given to capable people! 

Cyclone Fani- A Job Well Done

The government doing a great job? It showed us what can happen when all the wings of government work together with focus. Of course, we have seen it before in our Space program or Nuclear Program, or even Weather Satellites Development (which is one reason why this disaster was managed so well).

This could easily have been a Killer cyclone with thousands of deaths, but timely evacuation and provision of services to the evacuated people (like shelters), turned it into just another storm, weathered well.

When I lived in the U.S., there was Hurricane Hugo which hit the South Carolina coast, and the damage was extensive. We heard stories from affected people, and they were bad- late 80s sometime.

I am glad an Indian State has made such progress in managing crises created by natural forces. May the Force be with us, for greater good of our citizens.

Festivals- Private and Public

What exactly is the purpose of a festival? I am not really a religious guy, but this is not about religion anyhow. It is about the festivals, traditionally celebrated by us.

To my mind, it is to bring joy and peace to ourselves, and maybe to others. Whatever we want to practice in terms of rituals and diet etc. is our business, and no one else's. Similarly, what other people practice at home as their rituals, diets, etc. is their business, not ours. That is not only fair, it is also a sensible, common-sensical approach.

Why the State wants to get into this and muddy the waters for people, giving a chance to all kinds of strife, is what beats me. The State must endeavour to maintain peace rather than stir things up, in my view. If it is not doing that, it is a failure of Governance, however small. Something to think about.