Some unsolicited advice for AAP, Bengaluru

The middle class euphoria over not paying water bills is clouding over the reality that the AAP is implementing a regressive policy measure, which helps the middle class more than the poor. There are better role models for water management and supply in India. AAP needs to work harder at its policies if it doesn’t want to bankrupt the capital, and then rob itself of credibility.

For the full text of the article by Mr Dhiraj Nayyar in First Post, click here

For all the promise that the AAP revolution held, if this is where they are headed, it's a bit worrisome.

There is also no telling at this stage of course how long AAP’s current streak of sincerity and zeal for a clean politics will last- tested as it will be by the dynamics of actually wielding power, even in a limited sphere to begin with. Who can guarantee that the AAP will not be ‘defanged’ by the very system they have taken on and turn out to be yet another failed promise, like so many in the past?

While all these doubts surely need to be answered the real question is whether one should be a passive bystander in this process and cynically wait for the AAP to make all the usual mistakes, collapse and disappear forever? In my opinion, what even those who don’t concur with the AAP on everything should do is to work with them and build upon those aspects they can agree upon.

Spurning the option of being a rocking chair revolutionary one should rather reflect on the harder question, “If the Aam Aadmi Party represents any hope for a better Indian politics and democracy what can we do to strengthen them?”

For given the barrenness of the Indian political soil in terms of new ideas, quality of participants and processes, the AAP certainly represents a positive trend that needs to be supported. As in romance, in good politics too, it is always better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all…

For the full text of the essay by Satya Sagar, click here

AAP has made a remarkably good start. Even if the party fails to hold on to power in Delhi, it would have irrevocably altered Indian political discourse, creating much welcome benchmarks in politics. Would that still be a failure? Surely not.

For the full text of this essay in YahooNews, click here

There is a lot of hope. AAP can't afford to belie it all.

http://praja.in/en/blog/murali772/2011/12/24/delhi-power-distribution-privatisation-model-all-cities-follow#comment-35496

Water, electricity, food, education, etc - will at least go to the people, if they dont do it right, they will learn and do it better as their intention is not to misappropriate money. And then there are Prajagalu to help, and they are willing to listen! Wow - thats quite a change. This change in direction is all I care about RIGHT NOW.

Well said. Only, I hope they don't belie that faith.

Many analysts and businessmen fear that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), dominated by socialists and Marxists like Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, is an extreme Left party. These fears are overblown.

The AAP has appointed a seven-member committee to formulate its economic policy. This includes libertarian economist Laveesh Bhandari and business honchos like Meera Sanyal (former chief of Royal Bank of Scotland) and Sanjiv Aga (former chief of Idea Cellular). Clearly, AAP does not have a closed leftist mind, and wants to incorporate a variety of views.

Its main focus is good governance. So, unsurprisingly, the committee is headed by anti-corruption crusader Prithvi Reddy.

- - - Asking Marxists, socialists and libertarians to come up with an agreed formula may produce a messy compromise rife with internal contradictions. It will be helpful to cite a respected authority as an appropriate trail blazer. Probably the best candidate is Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.

The recent book by Sen and Jean Dreze, An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradiction, has an agenda broadly acceptable to a range of thinkers. The book highlights the lack of attention paid by governments to many essential needs, especially of the poor, and above all, of women. Rapid economic growth has co-existed with grossly inadequate social services (education and health) and physical services (safe water, electricity, drainage, transportation and sanitation). The book cites successful countries like Korea and China to argue that fast economic growth is not sustainable without strong development of human capital and essential infrastructure. India lags behind many countries at a similar level of development, and even behind poor Bangladesh.

AAP leftists will happily accept the book’s social agenda. Economic liberals in the AAP Committee will also be happy to emphasize other aspects of the book. Sen has often been accused of underplaying the importance of markets and economic growth, but in this book he and Dreze emphasize that rapid economic growth is crucial. They say categorically that fast growth provides rising opportunities, jobs and incomes. Moreover, fast growth also produces revenues that can be used for essential social services and infrastructure that create more equality of opportunity for all — especially the poor and women. There is no trade-off between fast growth and human development: the two buttress one another.

Economic liberals in the AAP Committee will be happy to cite the condemnation by Sen and Dreze of red tape and senseless regulatory barriers that hit economic growth and benefit only the corrupt and powerful. Many sorts of regulations are indeed needed, but India is full of perverse ones. Sen and Dreze have roundly denounced populist subsidies that are not targeted at the poor.

For the full text of the column by Sri S A Aiyar, click here.

Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze talking this language is indeed refreshing, or perhaps one didn't understand them well enough, earlier. And, one hopes AAP sees meaning in this kind of a talk.

Socialism has done enough damage to the country, and we desperately need salvation from it, at least now.

I have been watching the AAP movement since the India Against Corruption days. There is, somewhere inside me, a huge sort of a nationalistic and patriotic person. Perhaps it goes back to my days at JNU, but, there has always been that person. So while I have been a fairly apolitical person for the past decade or so, (maybe, it was a mid-life crisis!), something struck me in the last year and I started getting really frustrated with the system and started feeling like we were all living in a make-believe world of our own, where we live in our nice air-conditioned houses, go in our nice air-conditioned cars to our nice air-conditioned offices and talk about a whole lot of stuff that impacts may be only 5–10 percent of the population and (we) feel like we are saving the world. And, I felt like there is a whole world out there, a whole country out there which we are not even looking at. And my fear stems from the fact that if we keep ignoring the rest of the country, we are headed to a civil crisis - that is something that bothers me. Leave behind all sorts of wealth for our children, leave them a few houses, leave them a few cars, but if they cannot even walk out on the street safely, it’s worth nothing. And then when I started looking a little deeper into it, and started seeing the kind of politicians we have, the kind of leaders we have, there is nobody we can even look up to.

For the full text of the interview of Ms Manisha L Gupta, who quit her job as Exec-VP, Axis Bank, to join AAP, in FirstPost, click here.

In fact, these are precisely the reasons why many of us too saw a promise in AAP. But, their Socialistic inclinations, particularly the handling of the power and water issues, as also the self-righteous posturungs of AK, I find quite bothersome. Whatever, I am still holding on to the hope that they will do necessary course corrections as they go along.

I had all along been unsure about AAP's economic policies. All the rest was of minor consequence. This video, of AK's interactions with the CII members, has more or less cleared the air. It comes as a breath of fresh air. Perhaps there has been a realisation that you needed the "khaas aadmi" too, of the genuine variety (as different from the marauder types).

Yes, he has been playing politics. But, apparently, he is learning on the job, pretty fast too, and effecting course corrections, as required. And, I would like to believe that the learnings have been real, and there is a certain amount of conviction in this new approach. And, quite like Rajiv Bajaj (check this), I too am now inclined to bet on him.

And, this ToI editorial comment, while making interesting reading, holds further advice on style of functioning too.

Arvind Kejriwal has just articulated views on governance and economics that are somewhat surprising, given his high-pitched seven-week stint as Delhi's chief minister. He now seems to believe in government with a light touch, where priorities would be providing public goods such as safety, a good judicial system and corruption-free governance. Entry barriers to new businesses are to be lowered and tax rates kept moderate by closing loopholes. His views on governance and economics now look similar to what Swatantra Party once stood for, especially the distaste for an inspector raj which Kejriwal terms extortionist.

If he's now saying that rather than propping up handpicked business groups policy should be designed to be market-friendly and foster competition overall, that is an idea whose time has come. However, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in power was confrontational and inclined to favour theatrics over the painstaking task of ground level transformation. For instance, Somnath Bharti's hectoring style of dealing with policemen may have earned brownie points among some people but did nothing to transform the police force. That kind of transformation requires thinking through issues and patient persuasion. Transformational politicians know when to let go; Nelson Mandela is an ideal example.

Further, if there is a Swatantra party flavour to the revised economic thinking of the AAP, perhaps it's being led by Ms Meera Sanyal, who was until recently the President of the Indian Liberal Group (ILG), the successor to the Swatantra party. Well, I too am a member of the ILG, and as such, would the AAP, Bengaluru, now like to consider my unsolicited advice?

I did not vote this time because I was abroad. But I made a donation to the AAP. It often makes me tear my hair, yet it’s important to support the only party that does not depend on extorted black money, or on any caste, region or religion.

Mainline political parties are the biggest business houses in India. Once, people joined politics for public service, but now they do so to get rich. They move effortless from one party to another in search of profit, with no sense of guilt or taint. The CSDS says parties will spend Rs 30,000 crore on this election. Obviously, they will seek to recoup their outlay with interest. That means gigantic extortion.

- - This system must be smashed. Narendra Modi is seen by many as somebody who can change the system from within. I suspect only a newcomer, like the AAP, can truly attack the system. I may disagree strongly with AAP leader Prashant Bhushan on economic policy, but salute his emphasis on quick justice and checking judicial corruption.

 - - Yet for all the populist socialism that AAP leaders initially mouthed, its economic committee finally produced an excellent policy document. Kejriwal told the Financial Times, “It is only private business which can create wealth and employment in this country. Indians are born entrepreneurs. Yet the government has been acting as an obstacle in everyone’s business. It is so difficult to start and run a business in India unless you pay up money. All these laws and policies need to be simplified, but then the government’s job should be to ensure the laws are followed.” This is a classical liberal position, and I can only cheer.

By resigning from the Delhi government, the AAP has spoiled its short-term prospects. It may win just a few seats in Parliament. No matter: it can enliven the opposition. If it establishes itself as a thorn in the flesh of mainline parties, keeping up the pressure for police-judicial reform, then that will be a worthwhile achievement.

For the full text of the column by S A Aiyer, in the SToI, click here.

While enlivening the opposition in the Parliament, the role in BBMP and Karnataka can perhaps be even bigger.

 

Halting anti-encroachment drives is easy, devising participative redevelopment is tougher. With Delhi’s population projected to touch 25 million by 2030, a McKinsey report calculates the city needs $135 billion in investments in the 2010-30 period.

A clear-eyed leader will recognise that generous doles and blaming the Centre for Delhi’s woes may work only for a while, even as a steady accretion of police cases against MLAs and ministers and the striking down of various AAP policies by the courts point to a gathering storm. Big parties like Congress and BJP are often hidebound and heavy footed, slow to learn from their mistakes. This can offer an opening to a bold political entrepreneur.

For the full text of the blog by Mr Rajeev Deshpande, in the ToI, click here.

The investments required are staggering. Adds to the question I raised in my post of yesterday (scroll above) as to where it's all going to come from, unless the government can change its approach to an entrepreneural one.

Honest intent, skilled leadership and ability to take responsibility and thinking like a responsible logical business person can deliver significantly higher results both on cost savings and service delivery.

For the full text of the report in Quora, click here.

While one would like to believe all of what is stated in the article, there is clearly a serious limitation to the "statist" model that the AAP sarkar has been pursuing all this while, as already brought out in my posts of 11th March, and 16th & 15th Feb (scroll above, to read).

Perhaps there's beginning to be a realisation of this, going by the following excerpts (emphasis added by me) from a Siasat report, accessible here.

Addressing the ‘CII Delhi State Annual Session’, Sisodia said the previous governments appeared to have “failed” to address these issues and that there is a need of having a partnership with industry to deal with such problems.

- - - He said a solution to rising pollution, traffic woes, poor sanitation and garbage management cannot be found until the government works together with private players. “With my two-year experience (in government), governments appears to have failed to work on these issues. “Before coming to power, I was an activist and I have seen that we cannot find a solution to garbage, traffic, pollution problems, development in unauthorised colonies until we work together,” Sisodia said.

If true, that's indeed refreshing. May be the Punjab and Goa election set-backs have caused the neta's to have some serious introspection which has led to a review of some of their approaches. In the current context of the BJP becoming 'frightfully' powerful, the country very badly needs an alternate, and I would still like to believe that the AAP can re-invent itself to fulfill the promise it once held.

The following excerpts (emphasis added by me) from AAP tracker ( http://www.aaptracker.in/ ) on "CAG audit of power discoms" under "electricity", I find quite interesting:

Its (CAG's) most damning revelation relates to inflation of regulatory assets (RA) — previously-incurred losses that can be recovered from consumers if permitted by the regulatory authority. The RA of three discoms which stood approved as on March 31, 2013, were Rs 13,657.87 crore. However, audit findings contained in various chapters of this report indicate that the RA of the three discoms were inflated by at least Rs 7956.91 crore, the report says. - - - Analysis shows that inefficiencies get loaded to the cost of power at several stages from the source till it reaches the consumer — that is, in generation, transmission and distribution losses — making the retail price significantly higher. There is a scope for reducing the cost of power by reducing inefficiencies at various stages," the audit report says.

Now, even assuming the so-termed inflated amount of Rs 7956.91 cr were to be reduced from the RA claimed (which the Discoms will be contesting - check here), the Discoms are still due close to Rs 6,000 cr. They are made to carry that burden for months together, and then you go on to point out "inefficiencies" in their functioning. For all of that, TataPDDL has brought down the AT&C losses to 8.88% from 53.1%, and the reliability has improved to 99.68% from 70%, over the 15 years of its coming into the picture (check here), which means you can totally junk your D G sets, inverters, converters, what have you (the Reliance companies perhaps lag slightly behind - all the same a far cry from the days of DESU monopoly). And, the tariff levels are comparable to those charged by state-owned Discoms (say in Bengaluru) for much poorer quality of supply. Forget a word of appreciation for all of that, they are still referred to as "choars" by the AAP lot.

We in Bengaluru would like to welcome these 'choars' any day.

For all of what AAP governmant may have done for the aam aadmi of Delhi, particularly East Delhi (see my post of 11th March, quoting Mr Avay Shukla, scrolling above), when even they seem unhappy (going by the NDMC election results), it's indeed time for serious introspection, rather than looking for scapegoats.