Three of the major impediments to India’s sustainable development and faster socio-economic growth could be listed as (i) Blatant disregard for the law due to a pathetic justice delivery system; (ii) Jugaad mindset of people and (iii) total disregard for the social and regulatory compliance norms.
Let me explain my point with the help of the following examples:
Bail is acquittal
I recently visited Chaubeypur Village in the Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh. A decent sized urbanized village located about 25 km from Varanasi city, Chaubeypur is representative of the unplanned and unsustainable urbanization of numerous Indian villages.
In Chaubeypur, I met Chote Lal (name changed) who is accused of 2 murders, arson, land grabbing, extortion, and rape of a middle-aged woman. Presently out on bail, he gleefully boasted to have committed some of these crimes. When I tried to discuss the law and order situation in the area with Vimal Saxena (Name changed), a lecturer at Law College in Chaubeypur, he appeared rather bemused at my naivety. On a little prodding, he asked a counter question – “Have you ever noticed why a bail order is invariably celebrated and makes big headlines in India?” I literally was at a loss for words, as I could not think of any logical explanation for celebrating a bail order.
“For the accused of criminal acts, two-thirds of cases end with the bail order. Once the accused is released on bail, the case remains of little consequence. The cases could be dragged to eternity. In most cases witnesses would vanish; complainants and/or accused would die; the complainants would run out of money/patience to pursue the case; or the complainants would be forced/lured to withdraw cases. Therefore, anyone who is confident of securing a bail order is fearless and not afraid to commit heinous crimes. The situation is no better in civil matters. Property and family disputes, in particular, could drag on for decades without any resolution.”
Interacting with Chote Lal and Vimal Saxena for 20 minutes would give you a fair idea of the malaise plaguing the Indian justice delivery system. Anyone who has been in a situation warranting a judicial or legal intervention would know this situation very well. But still, no one talks about solutions for this grave problem!
Jugaad is celebrated as a “unique skill”
In the past five years, in particular, social media has been incessantly flooded with messages highlighting the architectural excellence of medieval India, as reflected in our temples, water bodies, forts, etc. The messages everyone sees in the media conveniently ignore the fact that we are unable to build a 10 km stretch of road that could sustain 25mm of rain in a day.
The point is that the ‘jugaad’ mindset has perennially pushed back India and Indians tenaciously into survival mode, preventing the development of a strong foundation for economic growth and prosperity. The ‘jugaad’ mindset reflects poorly on almost every aspect of the socio-economic life in India. This has severely impacted the pursuit of excellence, a hallmark of Indian art, culture, engineering, architecture, and industry till the 19th century, at least.
The ‘jugaad’ mindset has also doggedly constricted the vision of an average Indian entrepreneur. Except for a handful of Indians, most of whom have the benefit of studying and/or working overseas, not many have thought about scalable business models. Consequently:
· Despite having over 2000yrs of the rich tradition of fashion, fabric manufacturing, dress designing, and abundant raw material availability why no Indian textile or fashion brands figures prominently in the global fashion and textile industry?
· Despite being one of the oldest civilizations, the tradition of living and networking in communities, spending considerable time in chaupals and doing Adda till late at night, and availability of tremendous IT skills – no Indian thought of creating Facebook – an e-chaupal with over US$800bn in market cap.
· Despite claiming ourselves to be the world leaders in the field of religion, spirituality, culture, etc. we could not create Mecca, Vatican, and Jerusalem out of Vrindavan, Kashi, Tirupati, Ajmer, Haridwar, etc. Most of these places are filthy and abysmally inadequate in basic tourist infrastructure.
· Despite slavery for many centuries, why do we still depend on those very foreigners for the supply of equipment, arms, and ammunition for our armed forces?
· Why failing to win an Olympic gold medal is a subject of national shame; failing to get a nomination for the Oscars is a subject of national disappointment, but not getting a single Nobel for mathematics, science or literature post-independence does not evoke any regrets or discussion. Remember, we always proudly claim ourselves to be pioneers in the fields of mathematics, physics, astrophysics, metallurgical and medical sciences, etc.
· Why do we derive pride from the success of emigrated Indians who have taken foreign citizenship?
· Why an average Indian male feels proud of being sexist when our religion, culture, and traditions propound the supremacy of feminine power (The Mother Supreme)?
· Why does an average Indian feel proud of being racist when our religion, culture, and traditions preach the universality of human (Vasudheva Kutumbakam)?
These are not but just a few of the illustrations that explain the harmful effects of the ‘jugaad’ mindset. ‘Jugaad’ in the economic field is as dangerous as in personal life (like self-medication) and politics (caste and religion-based politics, adhocism in key socio-economic policies, etc.)
It is because of this jugaad mindset that a large proportion of the Indian populace could not develop respect for intellectual property rights – others and their own.
Compliance is for the cowards
When you see these pictures, what comes to your mind first?
Are these funny? Are these worth appreciating? Do they highlight the quintessential Indian character? Do you care?
Now tell me—
· Have you heard of anyone protesting or suing Amir Khan for openly desecrating the historic Red Fort, a heritage building in movie PK?
· Did you find engineering students drinking alcohol in college campus in 3 Idiot, acceptable?
· Did you find Amir Khan riding a scooter in the critical care ward of a Hospital acceptable?
· Did you noticed that Salman Khan is romancing on a motorbike without wearing a helmet?
· Did you find this overloaded lorry in Fevicol advertisement impressive or funny?
· Did you ever thought of complaining about the famous and celebrated Mumbai Dabbawallahs blocking traffic, causing inconvenience to passengers in local trains, or you find it regular or rather part of a great service to the nation?
· Does the latest TV advertisements of Sporto sportswear and CEAT tyres, that describes Indians as incorrigibly non-compliant, offend you, or you would just laugh it off?
Once, I sent these photographs to 50 people, randomly selected from my contact list, for their comments on these pictures. The mail was sent without any preamble.
No surprises there. None of the respondents pointed out any problems with these pictures.
28 respondents just found the pictures funny and answered in LoL emojis. 3 respondents said, Amir Khan is any day better than Salman Khan. 5 respondents have asked who is the actor jumping the road divider and dancing in front of the motorbike. Two of them also wanted to check whether there is Govinda amongst the Dabbawallas' group seen in the given picture.
14 respondents answered with just "???"
The respondents include professionals working with MNC banks, large IT firms, infra developers, exporters, and Indians working in foreign countries as senior managers. 20 are women. All are in the 35-50yr age bracket.
There is no dearth of people who consider wearing a helmet while riding a motorbike, wearing a seatbelt while driving a car, and ignoring a phone call while driving an act of cowardice. Just by not following lane discipline while driving on roads, people cause massive traffic jams, wasting millions of work hours and fuel worth billions of rupees.
It is a common practice for most private schools and teachers to assign tasks to small children, that they could not be reasonably expected to perform on their own. In most cases, teachers are fully conscious that the parents will be completing such assignments. The parents are usually bothered, but somehow choose not to register their protest to teachers; rather they choose to complete the assignments themselves. Of course, the children get their first lesson in non-compliance in their preschool tenure itself.
It is undisputed and inarguable that a section of Indian businesses has been violating the law of land and rules of compliance with impunity for long. Have we witnessed industry associations like CII, Assochem, PHDCCI etc., strongly reprimanding their constituents or issuing a mandatory advisory to all its constituents and members not to indulge in such practices and ensure full compliance with the law & rules in force?
The entire nation knows how the staff members and officers of banks conducted themselves during the Demonetization period. How many of these bank employees have been punished even with a reprimand? How many of the citizens who bribed these bank employees to get their currency notes converted out-of-turn, are ashamed of their act of non-compliance?
The point in case is that "compliance" does not appear to be a high priority on the agenda of even the most educated, wealthy, and responsible citizens. It is unfathomable for a habitually non-compliant society to develop sustainably and grow at a faster speed to become truly a global force.
I shall be traveling for the next 3 days., and may not be in a position to write my daily posts. I shall therefore offer my solutions for improving compliance standards and reforms in the justice delivery system next week. These solutions could form a basis for a larger debate in society and at the policy-making level to evolve an appropriate policy framework
In the meantime, I shall be happy to receive input from readers in this context.
Also read
Battle Ground 2024 - Forces are aligned
Battle Ground 2024 - The Narrative and Rhetoric
Battle Ground 2024 – The Problems
Battle Ground 2024 – In search of solutions
Battle Ground 2024 – Political solutions
Battle Ground 2024 – Political Reforms
