Missing the Woods For The Trees

         In the hurly-burly of Indian social life we have a strange habit of latching on to peripheral issues that could be even disconnected from the issue at hand. As a tribe, we are emotional people and have yet to develop the practice of hard-headed evaluation of a problem. Probably it has something to do with the fact that while individually we are often brilliant, collectively we suffer from a lack of knowledge and general aversion to reading the fine print.

         If a road accident takes place, we instinctively tend to blame the driver of the larger vehicle and if a crowd collects, chances are that the driver would be at the receiving end of needless violence with much time being lost in getting the victim to hospital. If the larger vehicle was a truck it would be assumed that the driver was drunk. If a cop tried to shield the hapless driver from mob violence, it would be assumed that he was doing so having been paid a bribe.

        Consider the recent anti-corruption agitation by Anna Hazare. Judging by the answers of people interviewed by TV stations on the reasons for their presence or how the Lokpal Bill was going to remove corruption, most appeared to have only come for the free holiday from work or college and little or no idea about the real issues.

        Following the blasts in Mumbai and Delhi on 13/7 and 7/9 respectively, the agencies responsible appear to be using the fact that there were no CCTV cameras present there as a lifebuoy. The absence of a CCTV camera is not and should not be accepted as an excuse for an act of terrorism to succeed. No doubt these devices are an indispensible aid in the process of surveillance and recording, but the real issue is lack of a sense of urgency among our security agencies and the Indian public in general. Today the excuse is CCTV cameras, what will it be tomorrow? If the CCTV cameras don’t materialize for the next two months, do we let another few blasts take place? The fact is that the Mumbai and Delhi Police should have got their act together much sooner. If they didn’t have cameras, then they should have had boots on ground watching the crowds. If they didn’t have enough manpower, they or the Delhi High Court could have hired security to control crowds and monitor people. The reason trotted out for the absence of cameras is equally ridiculous – a stand-off between the PWD and the Delhi Police over the choice of cameras.

       Having said that, I think the Delhi Police and every other security agency needs to learn a thing or two from the Civil Aviation ministry. While Praful Patel was minister, they managed to push through sanctions for Rs 55000 crores in just a few weeks, something that had been hanging fire for years. Prafulbhai of course blithely says that just because he was at the helm, he wasn’t responsible, but therein hangs another tale.

      In fact, even the great Defence Ministry should sit up and take note. We have made a comprehensive document called the Defence Procurement Manual, revised and re-revised, till it covers almost every conceivable loophole. It even states that financial advisers should scrutinize cases carefully as the specialist officers who initiate cases have little experience in handling contracts and tendering. In other words, it tells the financial advisers to look at each word with a magnifying glass as the faujis are basically dolts. Perhaps true, but then the main issue gets lost sight of and we take years trying to buy an item that was required yesterday. The DPM doesn’t say anywhere how much time processing a case is supposed to take. We are more obsessed with financial propriety than with emergent needs. When the Chief Minister of Maharashtra lamented the delay in equipment procurement after the Mumbai blasts, he was stating the truth.

      However the real issue is not equipment but the casual attitude to policing. Where equipment procurement and objections by the finance and other babus are concerned, I find that the approach of my ex-boss with the financial advisers was clear and direct. His reply when they raised objections was, "I don't need you to read me the rules, I can read them myself. I need you to find a way around the objections and get me what I want. If you can't get me what I need to run this place, I don't need you."

     How many heads have rolled after the blasts? Our casualness stems from a lack of ownership of the organization and its problems. Policemen are not concerned at the loss of innocent lives in their precincts. While bureaucrats need to be held accountable for delaying cases, citing lack of equipment as a reason after a terrorist attack should not be accepted by the ruling class. Does the police chief have the moral courage to put in his resignation if he is so convinced he will be unable to protect the city in the absence of some critical equipment?

     Another case of missing the woods for the trees is the CAG’s recommendation that Air India stewardesses should not fly beyond the age of 40 or 45. The general reaction to this pronouncement was the equivalent of a fist pumping, Yes, as though the panacea to the airline’s ills had just been discovered! While most of us may welcome that recommendation, it is certainly not going to increase the airline’s efficiency or contribute to their revenues. A positive work attitude, the willingness to work with a smile and go that extra yard for a passenger’s comfort, will on the other hand, definitely make a difference.

      Similarly, if we want to make our citizens safe, we have to look hard at the real picture, are we doing all that is required and expected of us, or are we as usual missing the woods for the trees?

Corruption – The Road To Terrorism

       While the main aim of Anna Hazare’s anti- corruption movement has been to lift the common person from the endless misery of having to bribe government functionaries at each stage for obtaining even the most basic of entitlements, there is another but little recognized spin-off of the movement to bring public servants to book. While we continue to blame neighbouring countries and various fundamentalist political and religious factors for the spread of terrorism, one of the major arteries feeding terrorism will be severed if we can contain corruption among public servants.


      It starts at the borders. Consider this, it was reported in Malaysia by the local news service, Bernama that corruption among Malaysian immigration officers has allowed at least a thousand illegal immigrants a day to enter the country. It has been reported that border guards have amassed large fortunes merely by looking the other way thus permitting illegal immigrants including terrorists to enter. This is quite similar to our own BSF as the large numbers of Bangladeshi immigrants living illegally in India would indicate. Similarly, it would be recalled that during 26/11, Kasab and his cohorts entered Mumbai through the fishing colony at Cuffe Parade, where expectedly there was no policeman monitoring movements of fishermen disembarking from vessels returning from sea. Having said that, in retrospect, it is unlikely he could have done anything, given the firepower carried by the terrorists.


         In an earlier article I had stressed on the need to decongest the most sensitive areas in our metropolis, since the extreme crowding of parked vehicles, hawkers, illegal shops and the omnipresent pedestrians milling around in thousands in limited areas, makes it difficult to scan and scrutinize even with electronic aids to surveillance. The slow pace and density of traffic in these areas is almost certain to expand response times to the extent that it would be futile for Quick Reaction and Emergency Response Teams to even attempt to reach hot spots quickly. Any citizen can tell you how difficult it is to get rid of illegal encroachers once they establish themselves. So the moot question would be, why are they allowed to set up shop in the first place? The Airport Authority of India has been trying unsuccessfully for years to clear hutments and other shops directly abutting the boundary wall of the airport in Mumbai. No civic body can claim ignorance of the existence of illegal establishments, unless ofcourse they have been paid to keep their eyes shut.


          One has only to stand on any busy street to witness the farce played out by the BMC’s vans that come to clear streets of illegal hawkers. Any citizen knows that hawkers receive advance warning of the BMC’s ‘raids’, in order to enable them to clear their stalls before the van reaches them, so that they can be back in business at the same spot in a couple of hours. Others are even more brazen, they pay off the civic authorities in advance so that no raid is ever conducted in their areas. With policemen in uniform openly collecting hafta from street hawkers, why would they want to exert themselves and deny themselves the good life? Would it be surprising if terror cells decided to take advantage of such accommodating civic authorities?


         With corruption having set in, in a widespread manner it is quite understandable that hard core policing and intelligence gathering have taken a back seat with many more comfortable and lucrative duties available for cops. Part of the reason for the dip in their core activities is on account of a genuine shortage of manpower with a corresponding increase in demands on their time. Be that as it may, the only time some seriousness creeps in, is when there is a visit by a dignitary like the President, Prime Minister or a foreign Head of State. That is about the only time one can genuinely see roads free of hawkers, illegally parked vehicles, touts and vagrants. The only other occasion when cops can be seen working to prevent untoward incidents is when there is a high profile event like a cricket match, political gathering or some other such occasion that would cause heads to roll should something undesirable take place.


         Unfortunately our approach to security swings between completely lax to absolutely paranoid, since there are too many interests that would be affected if security were maintained at a steady level. However in gearing up to a high level from near zero in a short time, too many short cuts are taken.


       With this level of predictability in the security scenario, it requires no great intellect to realize that perpetrators of terror would avoid areas and occasions where and when security appears to be tightest and would instead go for soft targets.


      Perpetrators of terrorism related violence targeting the metros invariably have their training, planning and logistics conducted in other areas. It can be demonstrated that some of our worst run states are also those most affected by terror strikes. It is not only corrupt policemen who are responsible for the spread of terror but also other government functionaries who, while being charged with developing infrastructure and ensuring the equitable distribution of the government’s largesse, choose instead to line their pockets. The spread of Naxal groups in states like Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh and Bihar, who also happen to be among India’s worst managed states, is no coincidence. Though Bihar has vastly improved, it continues to host elements sympathetic to various terror groups. Poorly developed and lightly policed areas where petty government officials assume semi-feudal powers are ripe for terror groups to thrive since these areas are safe for setting up training camps and support bases in their remote areas, while the actual acts are conducted elsewhere.


       According to Wilkinson on http://www.meteck.org/causesTerrorism.html, “Those who are the subjects of a liberal state, but who are not admitted to its rights of citizenship cannot be morally bound to obedience to the state. They are not bound by political obligation for they have not been accorded any rights by the state.” Social and political injustice are two major causes of the spread of terror ideologies, since people choose terrorism when they are trying to right what they perceive to be a social or political or historic wrong – when they have been stripped of their land or rights or denied these fundamentals of livelihood.


      The common refrain of the common person in the debate following the protests for the Jan Lokpal Bill has been that one needs to pay bribes for everything ranging from ration cards to birth certificates to passports to pensions. While one can only hope and pray that Anna’s fast would not have been in vain, the point that emerges here is that if such routine documents are obtained only on payment of a bribe, it should be easy enough to obtain the same illegally for a somewhat larger consideration. After all, to obtain a passport all one needs is a ration card and a school certificate and those documents can also be obtained by greasing some palms. There are any number of touts who can arrange all such documents, with a portion of their fees finding its way to government functionaries.


          It is a recorded fact that the most corrupt countries are also those most affected by terrorism. Consider the nations of Iraq, Afghanistan, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangla Desh. Not only do these countries have a poor record in their fight against terror, but they also rank poorly on the Human Development Index, which means that most of their citizens are denied access to the most basic of amenities. Somalia, a country that has become synonymous with piracy does not even have a credible government. According to journalist Kamala Sarup the editor of http://peacejournalism.com/, “corruption by political leaders at the decision making levels is because of their greed to earn more money and they don't look anymore at the benefit of the people. They should think about the poor roads, inadequate drinking water supply in villages, absence of proper buildings for schools in the rural areas, teacher's salaries who sometimes don't get paid, lack of hospitals, bridges, around the country. The leaders should know corruption prevents the efficient allocation of resources. Economic injustice provides a fertile ground for terrorism.” Corrupt governments fail to give peace and fail to give security. Due to corruption, the political class as well as government functionaries get blackmailed and lose the will to fight terrorism.