From pop to yoga
Pop stars and Yoga gurus have their own formula. About a fortnight ago, Goa’s most popular entertainer for over a generation, architect Remo Fernandes suggested at Margao that Goa’s politicians need to be “dumped” if the State is to be saved. Speaking at a news conference in Panjim, Yoga guru Baba Ramdev went further. He sought the death penalty for the corrupt.
Every one, even politicians and officials, will agree that corruption is perhaps India’s (and, by extension, Goa’s) most severe problem of our times. By the very leakages it causes, it emasculates development, squeezes the poor, and distorts our priorities big-time. In addition, it demoralises the honest, and warps our political process, besides effectively bringing the worst to the top.
But is the Remo and Ramdev approach right? Our controversial politicians (most of the ‘winners’) and officialdom (there are some honest officials, but it becomes tough to survive) are not born bereft of the honesty gene. We need to ask ourselves what makes them turn out that way, and, more importantly, whether we too would behave like them if we occupied their very place.
Something is drastically wrong with a system that places profit before people, corruption ahead of crusades, and prefers dishonesty to do-goodism. In part, the lack of inner-party democracy in most of our political institutions is also to blame. So is the belief that we can take on a legal and other infrastructure built with a colonial intent, and run a democracy with it.
Recent times have seen attempts to clean-up the system. Right to Information Acts are a clear recognition that things have gone too far, and governance needs to be both accountable and kept in check. Both Goa, since 1997, and entire India, since 2005, have had such laws. But in Goa’s case itself, we have seen how the law was short-circuited over time, regardless of which party ruled Goa, Congress or BJP.
Much more needs to be done on this front. A laid-back citizenry, a scheming officialdom and interfering politicians is not a good-enough combination, and can together distort the functioning of the best of such laws.
Besides keeping governance transparent, what is needed is for politicians to be accountable for every decision they take, or even influence. The ‘oral orders’ syndrome needs to be checked.
Rather than just changing the faces—or the necks (if the take the “hang them” suggestion seriously) — of those involved in corruption, what we really need is systemic changes that work for the citizen. In Goa’s case, merely asking for ‘special status’ is not enough. We need to first decide what is needed—perhaps development that benefits the citizen, and doesn’t harm the ecology—and then find the ways of reaching there.
Labour dignity
One unusual message that came up on Labour Day weekend this year was by way of an advertisement in the local media. It read: “Let’s strive to work together with a healthy respect for all kinds of work.”
Indeed. Many of Goa’s woes stem from the shyness, or reluctance, to take on “demeaning” work. Some kind of work is seen to be “below the dignity”, specially to us Goans; the “dirty-work” is best left to the migrant poor.
Strangely, when the out-migration virus gets into us, we are willing to take on any kind of job overseas. Is it because nobody knows us there, and our misplaced sense of “shame” vanishes? Or is it because the payment levels are simply better?
Talking about which, it would certainly help if work which was seen as traditionally “demeaning” drew better payment rates. Secondly, jobs which call for a lot of physical labour could be made less demanding on the worker; if we complain of an acute lack of coconut-pluckers these days, why hasn’t our society been investing more in say equipment that makes climbing the tree easier and safer? Lastly, we need a change in mental attitudes; no more are we living in semi-feudal times, where certain jobs were pushed onto the weaker sections; to ensure that “low” caste and poor-paying work doesn’t go hand in hand, skills upgradation and wider access to education is a must.
