Need new institutions to sort out differences: Maira

He said that when conditions change, then one must be agreeable to make changes

Planning Commission member Arun Maira has said that when conditions change, then one must be agreeable to make changes, and therefore, we need new institutions to tackle and sort out differences between existing institutions.

Giving an overview of his book titled "Redesigning the Aeroplane while flying - Reforming Institutions", during its launch here, Maira told participants at a discussion jointly organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Rupa Publications at the India Habitat Centre here, that the great amount of mistrust between citizens, businesses and the government and the judiciary, needed to be sorted out to ensure that the nation's institutions don't collapse.

Referring to Francis Fukuyama 's book "The End of History", Maira said there was view that said that the advent of Western liberal democracy may signal the end point of humanity's socio-cultural evolution and the final form of human government. The forces of capitalism and secondly individual's right to participate in democracy were the other.

Maira added that sadly these two forces were in contention against each other. To that, he added a third force, which he identified as communication, media. But the challenge is how to get across the message and receive it. The fourth force he identified as the 'nature' itself.

He said that democracy was about listening to each other and to arrive at agreements.

Joining in the discussion, Rama Bijapurkar, Consultant-Market Research batted for an active citizenry which she said will force institutions to change. She identified that change as taking place with the Aam Aadmi Party. She rued the fact that the only question that is persisting in the nation at the moment was whose India is it ? as institutions don't work for all.

Vinod Rai, Former Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) lauded Maira's book as timely and praised his effort to seek a remedy for ending the deep mistrust towards existing institutions.

Suresh Prabhu, Chairperson of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, talked of a twin challenge of working and reforming institutions.

He said Maira's book will be of real help to practitioners of governance and a guide to the incoming government.

What could be inferred was that trust in democratic institutions is low with scams dominating the headlines. People of India want change in governance, and therefore, when people lose trust in institutions, there is a need for reform.