What is his karma?
He can help electoral reforms? Help judicial reforms? Can help Parliamentary reforms?
Not the least help reform the Congress party!
There is much expectation from Rahul Gandhi after the recent elections which brought the Congress party to near absolute majority.
This happened after 20 years and at a time when Rahul Gandhi was entrusted to conduct the election campaign which he did wonderfully admirably.
So, the expectations from the younger Gandhi are too much.
There are also near unexpected challenges.
What expectations?
There is a great deal of frustration in the polity. In the administrative machinery.
One New Delhi-based columnist has recently listed the “India’s real problem or problems”. Here is the list.
One, “government machinery wholly ineffective”. Red tape tops the; list of reasons for this “comatose state” and is widely cited. The second reason is most extraordinary and appalling incompetence>the thrid, influence of business lobbies.
Then he goes into the details and we don’t want to cite all those details that are hard-hitting and at the same time a bit tiresome too!
One example the columnist cites is the website of the co-operative societies and the 64 items of information. He asks why sixty four only? He says that even the RBI site doesn’t have such number of information! And the site is not updated. Neither computer-savvy staff nor even computers. Joke?
No, this is serious business. This is how the Central government departments are functioning, the columnist points out!
As about competence, the very same knowledgeable columnist points out that wrong people get, stay there all their lives and also now, oh god, the PM has a tendency to give extensions, a whole lot of senior officials who must have been sent home, are retained!
Now, about the lobby power in Delhi, oh, a whole lot of new information can be dug out from Delhi corridors and from the five star hotels where these lobbies are headquartered!
The thinktanks, the lobbies are stationed in Delhi to enable the very obliging ministries to justify their decisions to help this corporate house or that!
One bureaucrat usually manages to get the usurpation of power!”Go to any one of them and you will find that all real power has been concentrated in the hands of just IAS officer!
“If he wants it, it gets done, if he doesn’t want it, some other officer insists that it be done, the fellow gets transferred, no matter how right he is”.
This is also when we went once to see a high profile minister who is now given a highly prestigious Cabinet minister again!
So, where do you turn? Where do you go from here? From this sort of official obduracy that is the name of a highly competent and of course very honest Prime Minister likes a man like Dr.Singh?
No way, no salvation whatever seems to be the helpless answer!
Then writes the same columnist:
“Our new Messiah, Rahul Gandhi is not likely to read this article. But may be if I mention something his father said, perhaps someone will send him a cutting. In 1986, Time magazine asked Rajiv Gandhi what he thought was the difference being a pilot and Prime Minister. Rajiv ruefully replied that when flying you pressed a button something happened, but in Government, you never knew what happened to your orders”.
The columnist concludes:
“He was wrong of course. We citizens know what happened. Someone takes a bribe. Does the job get done? May be, may be not. It depends on your karma”.
Let us hope Rahul Gandhi starts his long journey from here!
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