Why Anna will surely Fail?

I usually resist commenting on "passing" current affairs. They are- in real sense- passing because they are unworthy of attracting any comment. However, from last one week, I was carrying an itch of making one on this ongoing graft related strikes and its occupancy of Indian psyche. And today, my friend, Mr. Halley also messaged me and asked what I think about the drama that is unfolding.

Let me just reflect what I instantly felt when Mr. Anna Hazare announced his decision to sit on hunger strike. I thought " WHAT A TIMING?". When an entire country was in a jubilant mood of winning the Cricket World cup, suddenly, without any hint, Mr Anna announced that he will sit on hunger strike on Lokpal Bill. Since 1966, India is flirting with Lokpal institution, yet, not made any decision of having one. But, Mr Anna made it an inevitable, urgent kind of stuff by calling for one in such in a jubilant times. It suddenly changed the entire country's mood like how the entire mood of the cinema hall used to change when suddenly a brother, a mother or other siblings are found or shocking incident is revealed in an old Hindi movies or for that matter, any old Indian language movie.

As an average citizen, we all wonder Can Anna ( or Ramdev or anyone) bring any change to the way country works? The obvious answer is no. The certain tone of mine has very strong reasons to offer. I will point out the same.

Corruption in any society has two important dimensions. One is economical and other one is cultural. Let us look at the economic dimension of it. Recollect your own past. When you were a child, when no is around, you pick a sweet that is kept in a refrigerator and eat it, even though your mother strictly said no to one. We human beings, when no control mechanisms are in place, are generally corrupt. I am saying corrupt in a sense we do what is the most beneficial to us. That's the human instinct. Modern society has attached value of justification to some economic actions and declared some as unjustifiable economic actions. These latter are what we call corrupt practices. To be simple- they are improper or unfair means to make economic benefit . That's the current value system we carry.

But it is very difficult to make every one to cherish this value system. Thats the reason why modern societies and institutions are devised on the principle of having internal checks and balances. This is enforced through laws, regulations, rules etc. However, these enforcing mechanisms like laws, rules, and regulations fail to work when they are not in sync with human economic behaviour. For example, when you wish to have the driving licence you encounter the fact that it requires minimum two full days and related stress. Lawfully, you can obtain a two wheeler licence at Rs 350 to 400 in Karnataka. At the same time, if you hire an agent to get the things done you can save one day as well as related stress at an extra cost of another Rs 400 to 500. A rational human being pick the second option, as we feel that with extra Rs 400-500 we can save one day labour instantly and on road police harassment over next 15 years ( Next licence renewal comes only after 15 years). And thats the better bet. You pay the RIGHT PRICE and get the licence.

Consider if licence costs you Rs 2000-2500 and its validity is only of two years, most of us would not have given single pie as a bribe. Reason- its too costly to afford. In economics this (of pricing low or high than what should have been on demand and supply basis) is called vitiating the PRICE SIGNAL in the market. By wrongly pricing the public good ( Licence providing activity is public good) Govt creates an opportunity- in jargon a market- for filling the gap by charging extra to consumers by Govt. servants. That's what we call corruption and for this no hunger strike is cure. "Its all about right pricing stupid!"- just to tweak the Bill Clinton's famous Presidential campaign slogan.

Then why most of the public goods here in India are priced thus? They are priced in the name of poor. Diesel is given subsidy by saying poor farmers use it when there is no electricity supply. But its quite obvious that poor farmer has no land holding that can sustain the cost of diesel generator as well as using diesel at current price. You take any public good either in the name of poor or in the farmers name prices are vitiated. We did this because of the Gandhian and Marxists influence on our political leaders and our hypocritic nature- which makes us to boast what we are doing is right without any reasoned reflection- of the society. " India is socialist country for the rich and Capitalist for the Poor" is aptly captures how vitiated the pricing signals are in the economy.

Consider what Mr. P Manivannan- Brilliant IAS officer of Karnataka cadre 1998 batch- did in my own city Hubli-Dharwad. Being a commissioner, he studied the entire Hubli- Dharwad politics and power systems for a year. No one noticed of his presence in one year. He gave notices to all unauthorized structures in the city. That was considered routine by big-wigs and was ignored. Suddenly, on one fine morning, he started off the demolition drive and astutely picked those stretches which were Hindu dominated. In next 15 days he demolished all Hindu people's unauthorized structures and did not touch the Muslims.

When, after a month, he went to Muslim's area he was immediately transferred. However, all Hindu's stood with him because they want to see the Muslim structures to be flattened. Allegedly, it is said that, the then Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr Gulam-Nabi Azad called up the then CM (Hopefully Mr. Dharm Singh) and pushed for his transfer to protect the Muslim interest. However, public outcry was such that, Mr Manivannan was made to stay for next 2 years to make Hubli-Dharwad a CITY in real sense. He increased all civic amenity charges and collected the price for all services 3 to 4 times more than the previous one. The City civic authority revenue increased from Rs 10 lac to 2.5 crore ( if my memory is correct) in that year. Currently, my city makes a excess income over its expenditure (profit) of over 15 Cr a year.

What Mr. Manivannan did and still it cannot be destroyed is- decentralization, right pricing, feeling of empowerment among citizens. Now, if I still go to the Muncipal Corporation, I see people paying no single rupee of bribe. (See the Official Website here) Thanks to maverick Manivannan. Currently he is the MD of the BESCOM and you can see what he is doing in his office 24*7 through the BESCOM website ( See here Click on view MD office you can see Manivannan from Morning to late night). And there are several initiatives are in pipe line like pay more in peak load time, smart grid, prevention of theft etc. BESCOM, I hope, under Manivannan's leadership will become model electricity supply and distribution organization within India.

This is what is required to take out graft from the public life. Not the hunger strike, not the media coverage, certainly not the Bhajans from Hazare and his group will take graft out. What we need to support is these kind of initiatives in our daily lives. We need to make our neighbour better by being better citizens. We need to pay all our taxes and push for better pricing through the available mediums all along our life.

A thing that what we need to under stand is clean society cannot be bought like a an Ice-cream, it has to be built, properly maintained, and if required rebuilt over a period of time. The sad part is we are too poor in building (or inventing) an institution and too rich in mindless borrowing. I don't think we can appropriately borrow the Lokpal- a maverick institution created in the 18th Century by Swedish people called Ombudsman in Sweden- to Indian conditions. And of course, it's not our cup of tea I think. We are good in doing these things what we see and let us do it all along. All the best to Saintly Anna and again 'saintly dressed Baba Ramdev'.