Thanks. There’s a spellor. my decidedly uncool apology of a blog is at jaics not jacs. its a placeholder really, for a blog ID.

Jai

I mean… Ambani brothers’ net worth is now snapping at the heels of Bill Gates, Laxmi Mittal’s Mittal Steel’s assets are about the size of West Bengal’s GSDP. And other than business, all they are in the news for are their daughters lavish weddings, multi-billion dollar homes, and fiendish fraternal rivalries.

Could such folks not play a role in such basic things as helping speed up the transition from Kala Pila taxis to air-conditioned taxis. A charitable grant, or seed money to transition existing drivers’ away from their old cabs would suffice. Many of Mumbai’s museums and art galleries are in terrible condition. Have any of you been to Chhatrapati Shivaji (FKA Princeof Wales of Museum) Museum in Fort recently? It is still not airconditioned. Antiquities and artifacts are in terrible shape. Ditto for nearby Jehangir Art Gallery. I also visited Elephanta caves. The ferries haven’t changed from the 1970s. The local hotel/restaurant is in terrible shape.

When endowments, and charitable contributions for such basic urban conveniences and the cornerstones of the city’s culture cannot be obtained from a rising Indian business class, let alone from the state, I really worry about the character of our Nation, and Mumbai in particular. Everyone is too caught up keeping his/her head above water (literally) to notice -or complain about- the broader the slippages in the broader quality of life which is really what is worth defending.

You triggered a good thing going there- more such would be nice.
Also, something is wrong with the blog your id now links to. As cool as I am sure you are, you don’t sound the type to be among ‘4 girls. Yea. We are mad cool’ (?!)

Unless the constitution is altered to transfer more power from the center to the states, the states to the cities and to the individuals from the cities, we will not see any palpable increase in the number of voters.

If that were to happen, the individual would be truly empowered, and the middle-class will have a reason to voice its opinion through the polls.

Let us be honest, how many of us even know the names of our local state assembly representatives? We (the middle-class) have better things to do than go vote at some election, things cannot be expected to change through individual votes. This is rational ignorance. Give us some real incentives, make our votes matter. Reform the constitution!

How bad has it become ? We even understand why politicians are corrupt and dont expect any better.

For people to vote in large numbers, they need to be very determined to do so inspite of all the reasons not to. And this determination has to prevail for a long period of time. How likely is that?

Take 11/26 for example. Is there a more a glaring example of how utterly incompetent and impotent the Indian Government was/is and can be ? We have a Prime Minister who is prancing around in the US on the eve of the first anniversary – i cannot imagine a more insensitive gesture than that.

Nitin, you should be thankful that people still came out and voted 6 months later in the General election and that too for the same party that was responsible for the failures of 11/26. What signal does that send to the Congress and other politicians ?

It very clearly says that the Indian public by a large majority does not care a whit about personal or national security.If not even one person in the Indian Govt has not been held accountable for the Govt’s failure, why is it ?

It is because the public has zero faith in the Government – a sense of skepticism that comes with the the experience of terrible Governments for the last five decades. And consequently it comes to believe that the Government is incapable of doing anything of worth when it comes to 11.26

Let’s not forget that 11/26 was not a sole incident of terrorism that dropped by one day. How many terrorist attacks have happened in India in the last 6 years ?- i can remember atleast one each in Delhi, Hyderabad, Bombay, Bangalore… BEFORE 11/26

How many people in this forum think that this was the last major terror attack on Indian soil ? At this point its merely a rhetorical question.

We dont expect a whole lot from ANY Govt and there are hundreds of good reasons for that. That’s how it is. and it isnt going to change any time soon.

Contrast this with people living in a city – electricity (though interrupted) is ensured and roads (though with pot holes) are there. We have outsourced our responsibility to communicate to media and we hope our politicians pay heed to what the media says. Most of our breads come in spite of the government, not because of it. Excuse me, but where is the compulsion to vote!

There is no alternative to voting, but there is little incentive for the people to vote – ideally you should need no tangible incentive. But India today, amidst all the growth, needs incentive to respond. And intangible incentive of empowerment does not work effectively for the growing middle-class.

The reason, as I see it, is that, since most of the growth/development in recent years has come from private sector, the people seem to think that bad governance does not necessarily act as a barrier to personal growth… Even the mother of all disasters cannot stop them from the daily grind of making money. Will bad governance stop them? Heck no. Will losing your job stop you? Heck yes. That is the reason why the vote is empowering the downtrodden, who do not have a private sector to depend on, esp. in the rural areas, but will not be used by the middle-class happily cocooned in their own bubble and living the “incredible growth story”…

What I would like to ask you is whether you see a more influential role for the big businesses in driving the administration to provide better governance. Make that an integral part of the “social responsibility” agendas. Donate money and expertise for public service and governance projects. Instead of simply mobilizing people, one needs to mobilize the big businesses and get them to protest and retaliate, credibly. There must be some way to leverage that influence.

I know the argument is a bit weak – profit-oriented big businesses generally do not have a conscience and it can be a tough job to mobilize them. But for a city like Bombay, which is all about money, the only alarm bells the government and people will respond to will be those of big businesses leaving to set up shop somewhere else. That is true for the rest of urban India as well. Not just the voice of people…that is too cheap and too divided in this country. I can’t help feeling a bit cynical.

Please allow me to thank you once again. I had hoped this kind of thing could be done on a more regular basis, maybe once every quarter or so, where divergent POVs could get together at a common forum and simply agree on some core issues. Or even come as close as they could to agreeing, which is good enough.

Let me also thank Rohit Pradhan for his opinion piece at IndianMuslims at about that time.

I would have liked to keep pinging you guys, but you would have gotten irritated beyond a point and life kind of got in the way for me too.

Thanks,
Jai