God and Government

Shifting Vantage Points & Slipping Perspectives

It's an eerie feeling, sensing your perspectives reversing within minutes. Issues you felt strongly about, opinions you passionately held as your own, change inconspicuously without any one's intervention. I have been experiencing  this quite often since i have joined the field-rung of the government. What came across as perfectly rational and obvious while reading newspapers and scholarly articles during UPSC preparation, seems fraught with absurdities now. The simple, straight forward solutions offered by "experts" that invoked anger on the highhandedness of the "government", now often appear as practical impossibilities.

This is not happening because my cognitive capacity has been swallowed by the venomous monster called bureaucracy or because I have fallen prey to the incorrigibly corrupt government's ways (as some of u will immediately be tempted to comment). This is happening because with each passing working day, I am grasping the meaning of the notion of "government" better (and this is a long drawn process that has just begun).

Understanding Government: God & Religions 

The concept of "government" is in some ways similar to concept of "god"; There are hundreds of ways to fathom it. At the extreme is the notion that God (or Government, as the case may be) is in everything/everyone (with devolution through local self governments and expansion of government's ambit this may not seem very far from truth).The other extreme is that of Buddha like denial - "it's not this, it's not this", used in the context of government to pass the buck and evade responsibility ever so often.

Unlike the concept of god, which can be grasped through all the extremes and even the "middle paths", the concept of government lies somewhere in between the two extremes and is highly specific to the time, space and function continuum. In short - there's no easy answer to what government is. It's your vantage point that will decide what the term "government" will mean to you.

Complexities and the Xenophobia

For those located outside the govt. setup, the means to learn about the system's inside are limited. A large part of the govt remains unexpressed due to the legacy of the official secrets act. We see it in movies (mostly mindless and occasionally meaningful) and media publications (mostly event centric and occasionally process centric). We experience it in the nasty encounters with the cops and clerks, yet we never really "feel" it as a whole. So there will always be this divide of "Us, the citizens" and "they, the corrupt cops, clerks and politicians of the govt". This divide fans preconceived notion and hinders constructive collaboration between the "citizens" and the "government", the "us" and the "them".

This divide also allows for messiah driven politics that demonizes each and everything  - be it violent "Naxalites" or the non violent Jantar Mantar Gandhians; Absolute dissection of society as "us" and "them" is bound to leave negative sociological impressions.

Alas! Truth is that even within the govt things are not all that simple to grasp. There are hundreds of xenophobic tendencies cutting the length and breadth of the government setup itself. Some of which I have been experiencing myself.

Even when the "Citizen" sees the entire "Government" as a whole, there exist real psychological and functional divides between civil servants and politicians, "money- driven" and "rule-driven" civil servants, staff of various departments, etc. This list goes on and on, till you begin to see that each man/woman indeed feels(both personally and professionally) alone in this huge "system" that he/she refers to "government". But what is this "government" ?

Revisiting the Slipping Perspectives

So given the neoteric face-off with "reality", my perspectives on the RTI Act, environmental activists and print media have slipped considerably.

While reading about the RTI Act, it was apparent to me that proactive disclosure (section 4 of the Act) should be the way out and all the "concerns" that the critics (vested interests) throw should be addressed via it. But when I am planning for such proactive disclosure under RTI Act for my organisation - I am facing the fear of "nuisance creators" among the clerical staff. Although I will be analyzing the RTI applications data in detail and may publish some notes in a separate blog post, on the face of it, it was clear that there were some selected "RTI activists" in the district who earn their livelihood solely through the extent of harm they can do to the babus through embarrassing information. I think it's a good first step, at least there now exists the means for a "common man" to access such public information and bring embarrassing facts to light, but what is disheartening is that this whole activity seems to be driven solely by blackmailing and "internal settings" - there is no real activism around RTI that seems to be happening in the interest of common public.

This brings me to another interesting perspective that I used to have about the print media. Sometimes there is a front page news on an IAS putting a logbook entry for his official vehicle wrongly, amounting to misappropriation of public money to the tune of 250 Rs. and much more often than that, one doesn't see the journalists covering events/ activities of corruption that are considered a part of "public knowledge". People more experienced than me routinely tend to shrug these things off knowing them to be the difference between "ill-managed" and "well-managed" media - I am yet to find this out myself.

Being posted in an industrial district with a majority of tribal population, I routinely look for competent/willing civil society organisations that can supplement and monitor government efforts and act as catalysts for development. I am becoming habituated to my queries on such NGOs/Activist Fronts being answered by contempt. It's considered common knowledge that they are on the pay roll of the industries, who in turn "manage" them in order to avoid any nuisance causing activity. Needless to say, CSR funds, that I have written about before, help the companies in this respect. 

I strongly believe in not stereotyping individuals and organisations. I believe in looking for the silver lining when the sky is gloomy. I am sure that there are some activists, civil society organisations and media personnel in the district who defy these stereotypes and follow their conscience - I have found a few already, am not stopping till I find the rest ...

PS: All views expressed here are purely personal and have no connection with those of the Government. This post has been carefully modified to fit into the ambit of freedom of speech permitted to officers under the Rule 6 and Rule 7 of All India Service (Conduct) Rules, 1968.

Social Responsibility of Corporates - Zeroing the Externalities

Most of us know that India grows through its industries. With this term we usually imply privately owned corporate firms making huge profits out of their production units and creating wealth for their shareholders and owners. While revering these modern temples of GDP growth some of us may think of those thousands of people who are displaced from their land for their creation. Some may think of those people who bear the brunt of the pollution that their plants and mines cause. Some may point to the people who are directly affected by the oft-lethal traffic nuisance created by their trawlers and trucks. And some of us (possibly with an alleged “leftist” inclination) may also grieve for the few hundreds of workers who give their lives every year in industrial accidents and that multitude who silently faces serious health issues due to exposure to dangerous chemicals.

Corporate Social Responsibility – Buzzword denoting these corporates' gift back to the society. In the last 3-4 years this term has grabbed a lot of limelight. Justifiably so, after all who would not want that the profitable ventures do their bit for the people they directly affect? When I joined Raigarh a couple of months back, I also revered these temples and appreciated their effort to pro-actively deliver to the people (showcased so fervently via magazines dedicated for this purpose). The district has a number of primary and secondary industries and is also amongst the leading mining (both major and minor minerals) zones of the country. After a number of rude and subtle surprises, my view on this has undergone a tremendous change.

The Undefined Monster

As they say, the devil lies in the details. While the Central Government’s CSR Directives in Companies Act  and the Chhattisgarh state’s recent CSR policy debate on the mode of funding of CSR activities, it is necessary to carefully define what activities constitute CSR and who will judge (and be accountable for) the same. For those unfamiliar with the ways of the world, let me point out that any laxity in this allows for senseless booking of expenditure under CSR heads. A private company may construct a road solely for the purpose of transportation of its mineral ore and book it under CSR – this may be something that the locals protest against, but again – who decides? Worse, the company may be running a private technical college with profit in mind and no reservations for the students of the particular district or state and still call it CSR. Very often, the companies may even use the fund booked under this head to pacify the “trouble makers” – the politicians and rogue environmental/RTI activists who thrive on their nuisance value.

Stakeholder Justice & Governmental Regulation

Like all the things that are never admitted yet commonly understood, CSR is usually treated by companies as the dole out that keeps the government’s “task-forces” away from their compounds (there are some notable and creditable exceptions but those companies are increasingly becoming rarer). The size of the CSR kitty is indicative of the bargaining power of the district collector. The latter gets this power because it is understood that no industry follows the rule book to the word in its operations.

I have come to know of cases where collectors have got the mines of prominent corporate closed for months at a stretch for the latter’s failure to provide drinking water to the village that they had resettled. Such examples are few. More commonly, the collectors suggest a few big ticket items that account for nearly 10-20% of the district’s total CSR booking by various corporate and leave the rest unmonitored.

I expected earnestness on the behalf of the companies, a sort of ownership for the school that is physically contiguous to their plant’s boundary or a sort of quality in their CSR constructions that reflects the quality of their own industrial constructions. I saw none. Most big companies, despite having dedicated staff and funds to look after CSR, don’t tend to respond unless they have some pending work with the Government – fixing of date for their mine’s public hearing or acquisition of some land for their plant’s expansion.

Is There a Silver Lining?

Despite my apparent pessimism, I will admit that I have come across a few companies (a small percentage though) that took CSR in a more people-centric manner. This is an issue that needs a consensus at all levels of Government’s hierarchies. If we decide to define the non-negotiable questions in terms of booking of funds under CSR and ensure effective, time-bound follow-up at the district level, things will begin to move in a consistent manner. Most of all, the higher officials of these private companies, should probably spend lesser time in delivering high-sounding lectures on “participative profit making” and actually think and chart out their stakeholders’ lists in a prioritized manner.

When we, as the government, acquire land for the industries, we are consciously uprooting helpless people (and proudly calling it “eminent domain”). The least of our expectations is that of justice to them and to those who directly bear the brunt of their negative externalities. I hope it is they who make it to the top of such lists and the money flowing in CSR addresses their concerns.

PS: All views expressed here are purely personal and have no connection with those of the Government. This post has been carefully modified to fit into the ambit of freedom of speech permitted to officers under the Rule 6 and Rule 7 of All India Service (Conduct) Rules, 1968.