TRANSPERANCY Vs BUREAUCRACY

Transparency is the opposite of opacity, a condition characterised by clarity, free of dust and distortions. It is as much  true in the conceptual context as it is in physical world. In order to appreciate transparency in physical things, clarity has to exist where it is perceived-that is in our minds. Human actions are eventually the product of human thought process-and to that extent, when transparency is envisaged in the realm of human actions, the same holds true. Clarity of mind remains the primary condition to appreciate clarity in actions. The paradox, so to say, of transparency in actions of a public servant, the dilemma “to err” or ‘to forgo” in taking a firm decision exists as long as the guiding terms, the rules, the framework-under which the he operates remain opaque. It is when subjectivity remains the essence of the “rules” or “laws” that the bureaucrat refers to as guidance for his actions, he uses his discretion-referred as “decision making”. This gives rise to the discussion of consequences of his actions, right or wrong, beneficial or otherwise. Try and remove as much subjectivity in the rules, laws, legislations etc and therefore as much “discretions” from the table of the public official and then observe the outcome. He no longer will have to carry  the burden of  “error”for his decisions and actions and no longer has any valid reason to remain inert. With reduced options to play his whims around, a quick and a discrete decision would be the most likely choice .Objectivity in legislation, rules and law is a very viable answer to the whimsical application of its interpretations while dealing with issues of the citizens by the the obstructionist babu. Therefore, any attempt to bring transparency in public dealings by officials can be effective only when  we start from  origin –“ The Thought “ applied at the time of framing the law or drafting a rules. My guess is that the seasoned Indian bureaucrats understands this too well, and, for whatever motives, sows the seeds of subjectivity when they draft the rules or laws. Perhaps, the opacity that is created gives them the vital “oxygen” in the bureaucratic biosphere  so as to operate seamlessly and sustain the dynamics of “heads I win, Tail you loose” vis-à-vis the public. Further, Honesty will and should always remain the central virtue around which we weave all our values that  guide us  for all our actions in case it is a just, fair and rational system that we desire for our existence. There is no way that we can have honesty half way or partially compromised in our public dealings. Degradation in terms of efficiency as a possible outcome of a non-compromising  honesty centric virtue system is an inaccurate assessment and an easy alibi to maintain the staus-quo for our sub-standard bureaucracy. A “good” decision is good only as long as it passes the test of probity, whatever be the consequences of remaining non-compromising to the integrity of truth. It is perfectly true that in an honesty-compromised atmosphere  of our society, installing a system to oversee all actions by an overbearing “honesty” centric yardstick will definitely cause  undesired result of inactions by officials who would prefer it  to risking prosecution. The dominant values of the society have to be tilted in favour of concepts such as truth, honesty and probity, if we want the ultimate desired result. But till then, the objectivity of legislation or law can effectively come to the rescue of an otherwise honest but timid official. When the interpretation of legislation is not left to the sweet will  or discretion of the bureaucrat, it is unlikely that he runs  the risk of being charged for dubious intent. Besides ,we have the modern technologies at our disposal to wipe out a whole lot of discretionary decisions draped in the possibility of ill-gotten considerations. The digital world has opened revolutionary possibilities to make most, if not all, aspects of public dealings one hundred percent transparent. An online display of database with unrestrictive access is a one stroke solution for discarding dubiously shaded file systems holding literally the fates of the citizens wrapped in secrecy. Similarly, instant access to public utility information, status of applications and disposal of cases by various departments of the government etc is another example to enhance transparency. The dilemma, or the paradox of transparency is therefore only as much in our minds as it appears around us.

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THE GOD AND THE PARTICLE

THE GOD AND THE PARTICLE- Smashing head on streams of  Hydrogen protons at speed of light one hundred seventy five meters deep inside earth in a twenty-seven kilometre long tunnel, Physicists have yet again moved the frontiers of science far much ahead, so much that mankind is now almost standing at the threshold of unravelling the ultimate of all the mysteries-the mystery of the origin of the universe. The large Hadron collider experiment by CERN at Geneva is believed to be the culmination of the relentless hard work of ten thousand scientists from across the globe for more than four decades. What Prof Peter Higgs theorised almost fourty eight years back now seems to have been realised through this ten Billion dollar collider experiment. The elusive sub atomic  Higgs boson particle or the “God Particle” that is supposed to confer mass to all matters  has been reported to be observed. The so called “standard model” to explain the universe stands vindicated. While scientists now can have a a deeper look into the the origin of the universe and decipher the aftermaths of the BIG-BANG in a more comprehensive perspective, the particle discovery  also seems to have thrown up another challenge, but on a different front –that of the very fundamental belief system into the origin of creation-The GOD, the creator .At one level, the ability of precise prediction, measurement and quantification of an otherwise cosmic event has empowered science to strike at the roots of a centuries old belief system that held a godly hand for our creation out of blue. For once, science seems to answer with conviction the questions that Abraham,Allah and Bramha settled with mere pronouncements seeking beliefs as a medium to reconcile with ,rather than proofs or reasonings. But at a closer look, this conflict is only the product of our effort to pitch the scientific imperatives against the religious ones with no worthwhile objective. True scientific perspectives do not seek to negate religion as an objective, as it has a different course to charter-that of unravelling the truth. Meanwhile God as an idea,a concept  will continue to remain central to man’s consciousness .He is,to be precise, a man’s psychological requirement, a need that provides him a comfort zone to retreat into, in order to recoup and re-energise his consciousness. Every man ,including the scientists have a psycho- emotional dimension carved into their being that functions at a different plane than their rational faculties .In many ways,  our Gods remain in this psycho-emotional domain providing the necessary coolant effect to the by-products of our emotions and moods, an essential pre-requisite to keep our sanity intact. This deep belief in that supreme force called God probably empowers our rational faculty to cut deeper into the mysteries of the universe using pure observation, experimentation and reasoning. Thus God and Science is not exclusive to each other, but perhaps complimentary to each other. The more we know about our universe, its origin through science, the more we get intrigued about God and our reverence for him. Interestingly, it is when we isolate God from the religion , that we are able to  identify this convergence of god and the science. Which implies science will always be in conflict with religion as we know it today, through its dogmas and rituals.The dogmas and the rituals that symbolises religions of modern times have limited range and agendas for application. In contrast, scientific  breakthroughs such as Higgs boson have implications for ever. They are, figuratively speaking, hand in hand with God in this beautiful experience called Creation. The exuberance ,the joy and excitements that we saw on the faces of some of the most brilliant minds during the historic announcement at CERN is the reaffirmation of this realisation that we have moved a step closer to our creation ,our God.  It is true that ‘Particle’ and  ‘God’ can indeed Co-exist.

LOOSING THE WAY

Perhaps the worst of the fears of Anna,his team and his supporters has come true.The proverbial wily politicians had their way by scuttling a crucial piece of legislation. In what could have been a historical turning point in the the way the citizenry of this country interfaced with the state, we are now left,once again with a hollow sensation of yet another betrayal by the political class,actively aided and abetted by an equally discredited bureaucracy.Anna's agenda of coercing the political class in general and the government in particular remains where it began-a wishful thinking. A nation wide awareness and an agitationist mood by a significant section of the masses for a workable mechanism against the scourge of corruption eventually became a zero sum game.

The genesis of such an outcome,somehow, could be traced to the initial phase of this movement where the terms of reference of this confrontation with the state were taking shape.To begin with, and perhaps the most crucial one, is the lack of objectivity in defining the very word CORRUPTION.Being loosely termed in generic words, the essence of the argument was left open to the scutllers and the obfuscationists to corrupt the mind of the general public whose support mattered. Corruption, in the current context should have been clearly defined as an overt or covert act of seeking or granting a favour in return of a consideration(material or non-material) ,by a public servant and therefore involving the public money, including acts of embezzlement of public funds using one's official position in the state. Clearly, the underlying protagonist of this word corruption should have been the public servant, who are on the pay-rolls of the public money. Not that such a phenomenon,called corruption is non-existent in other stakeholders of the society like corporates,professionals, entertainers etc.But there are ways and means to deal with them(see case of Ramalingam raju of satyam) and if need-be,necessary tweaking of existing legislation can be effected to improve the overall environment.Here, we are dealing on a specific issue. The scope of this legislation should remain focused and limited in order to thwart any attempts by the scuttlers to take the arguments to unfathomable planes,eventually to kill it.Observe the course that this movement has paved since it became significant in the public domain and it will be amply clear how its opponents, politicians particulary attacked it from all fronts.Crooks like Lalu's,yechury's, sibals and kurshids are past masters in these games of obfuscation. The loosely worded definition and the scope of applicability aided them to dilute the core issue by widening the scope to other players like corporates and NGO,s etc and creating smoke screens,effectively rendering it non-operable.

Secondly, I feel they(the team anna in particular) failed to carry out a correct stock-taking and mid-course corrections,post Ramlila ground face-off. The magic of numbers in this case, of the crowd made visible thanks to an omnipresent media was mistrued as necessary and sufficient wherewithal to corner the wily law makers into legislating what they prescribed.Indeed it was a potent weapon--the politician can only be scared into submission by the very tool he consider as its strength-the crowd power.However, there is a problem here.In this case, the crowd, however motivated and voluntary in nature, was a nebulous one. Spontaneous and therefore unpredictable in a subsequent time frame.The cause,fighting corruption in public life and dealings remains largely an esoteric issue, whatever be its relevance in our daily lives. Once confronted with more worrying matters, individual comprising this crowd forgets the preceding issue and disperse in thin air, rarely to re-group again. It is in stark contrast with the type of crowd that our politicians use to emphasise his relevance in public domain.They enjoy a dedicated crowd whose sole aim is to show their physical presence in numerical strength,,even if shouting slogans, no matter if individually they care two-hoots for anyone least of all for the one for whom they assembled.This, our wily politician knew too-well.Therefore, they waited for the Ramlila ground to disperse, let the dust settle down a bit and then attacked yet again anyone and everyone associated with the movement,by whatever means at their disposal. When you are deficient of reason, logic and rationality in your argument, use smearing as your weapon to discredit your opponents-this was the undeclared but obvious tactic of the cornered politician to rob the winds out of the activists sails and retain their ground.The kinds of Digvijays and lalus used and abused every kind of mechanisation to vilify the activists. The aim was singular-to deny them the very moral platform of probity that they used in the campaign, even if it amounted to outrageous accusations.As the public memory and attention waned away from core issue of effective legislation, the obscurationists usurped into the vacant plot of public discourses in the form of debates,discussions interviews and what not. Anna and his mates, unfortunately were too naive to appreciate this and therefor unprepared in their response. Unwittingly,they played into the hands of the wily politician by reacting to all the provocations.Every rebuttal meant loss of precious thought process and time, away from core issue to non-issues.Silence,could not have been more golden for team anna at this juncture. Secondly,Hissar was a failed experiment as it denuded the movement of its professed apolitical texture leaving its flanks open for yet another kind of smearing-that of indulging in partisan politics. Despite being armed with written assurances of the sense of the house as well as that of the PM, equivalent of nukes in this battle,the actvists could not use this tactical pause post Ramlila ground face off to their advantage. Instead, they got embroiled in one controversy over other,primarily engineered by the politico-bureaucratic nexus.On the hindsight,they could have remained focused on the core issue maintaining silence and waiting for the JPC's as well as the subsequent winter session outcome.Those who supported the movement during ramlila ground face-off too were closely watching the move of the lawmakers.Interestingly, every episode of high decibel dramatics of the parliamentarians betrayed their ulterior motive of deceit. A legitimate cause for a full blooded agitation was brewing. Anna and his team in all probability knew all this, but unfortunately took a pre-emptive decision to hold the fast and rally,even as the final acts of the parliamentary drama was unfolding.This mistiming as well as the choice of location was to prove a great error of judgement and the detractors wrested the initiative out of them. Accused of blackmailing the lawmakers and facing almost empty stands at the sprawling MMRDA ground, team A started losing the way and unmistakably felt their momentum slowly weaning away. A little patience, a little silence at this crucial phase-and the outcome could have been dramatically different,for now,they had the perfect pedestal of being "betrayed and deceived", to launch another blitzkrig against an insensitive establishment for diluting or scutlling the passage of billSS.They had the full wintery months ahead to warm up and ignite the multitudes who had dispersed post ramlila maidan.Instead, the wily politician once again walked away gleefully,successfully scuttling the final verdict and leaving team A to carry the burden of the failure. It was, in every sense of the word, an anti-climax. But for those who are too eager to write the epitaph of this historical movement led by anna and his gallant team, the full story is yet to unfold as a re-grouping and re-strategising is in progress by those who strongly believe in the eventual birth of a just,efficient and effective ombudsman who can take on the scourge called corruption from public office.