Henry David Thoreau, who argued widely for civil disobedience, said about letters that he seldom got more than one or two in his life that were worth the postage. On Monday, a group of India’s eminent “like-minded” citizens, mostly businessmen, former regulators and members of the judiciary, wrote a letter to India’s leaders that also wasted, in great measure, paper and postage.
The letter sank before swimming by loosely addressing a large group. For a start, an open letter speaking to just “our leaders” and to no leader in particular, though it may have been posted to the one address, is akin to planning a road trip without a destination in mind. For a letter to hit the spot it has to be targeted — in this case to the leader of the country or the person we perceive to be the most in charge.
To be fair, pinning down a name in the current context in India is like walking a political tightrope because of how we perceive leadership, which like a tennis ball, seems to be racqueting between the prime minister and the leader of the Congress Party. Be that as it may, the group of public figures who wrote the letter should have picked their leader, given their aim to push for a more transparent and cronyism- and corruption-free society. Openly acknowledging the confusion over leadership may have been a decent place to start, because that too has added to the disarray in the government where ministers don’t always act like they have a common leader.
To the main content of the letter now — a two-page, multiple-point affair. It lays down what our leaders need to fix. It starts with governance deficit, moves on to corruption, asks elected representatives to distinguish between dissent and disruption and then touches lightly on how environmental concerns are holding back growth in marginalised sections.
It has, throughout, the same light touch that a letter addressed to nameless leaders has. The governance deficit is not a new phenomenon. In fact, the discretionary decision-making, influenced by extraneous forces, is what several quarters of industry and business have encouraged over the years and perhaps even benefited from. The current telecom spectrum scam is really about all of those things, more than anything else. Yet there is no mention of it.
The letter’s solution to corruption harks back mostly to Lok Ayuktas. The Lok Ayuktas, though, are already locked in a tee-off with the government, saying they oppose the government’s proposal to have a multi-member Lokpal at the national-level. The letter alludes to independence from the executive without rubbishing this multi-member proposal.
The third point in the letter, which calls for elected representatives to distinguish between dissent and disruption must be meant for the opposition, which has eroded an entire session of parliament. It doesn’t mention the “O” word, though, just calls for restoring a sense of purpose and confidence in national institutions, without seeking an end to the faceoff over a joint parliamentary committee on the telecom scam.
The final argument about environmental concerns coming in the way of economic development, the divide between centre and state, the marginalised losing out, is probably directed at the environment minister. Perhaps the letter should have also alluded to the self-appointed soldier of the tribes, Rahul Gandhi, but again we are left guessing.
Many may argue that letters such as this do their job by leaving a lot unsaid, but India’s patience is running thin. The letter, while it is signed off by some of the most respected minds in the country ranging from Azim Premji to Yezdi Malegam, is rich in intent, but misses instead of scoring.
It fails to call a spade a spade. Trouble is, that’s a weak way to embark on the road to a cleanup.
Anjana Menon is Executive Editor, NDTV Profit. Views expressed here are personal
