UNDERPAID AND OVERWORKED

No matter. He has at least identified the core issues and pointed out the broad solutions. That in itself is of huge importance in a country forever chasing its own tail.

For the economy, he has a simple prescription. In the chapter on the economy, in a section titled ‘Governments and Markets’, he has this to say: ‘If governments do more of what they alone can do (primary education, health services and public infrastructure) and less what they cannot do, the country would benefit greatly.’ Even though the BJP government is indeed focusing on the former, it has disappointed on the latter.

By far the best chapter, however, is the one on politics and governance. Jalan’s deep understanding of both and his consequent disillusionment are writ large in it. The burden of his song is that India’s governments are, by and large, highly unaccountable and do pretty much as they please. He emphasises this by pointing out that instead of Parliament guiding the government, it is the government that guides Parliament. The only thing he has forgotten to add is that this is a Nehruvian legacy because Nehru’s respect for Parliament was exactly equal to his contempt for its members.

The result is an overloaded system in which the government is so dominant as to be perverse: the power of the bureaucracy has also become overwhelming, though its performance is underwhelming. It would have been nice, therefore, if Jalan had suggested to Mr Modi that it is the bureaucracy that is most in need of skilling. He also suggests that this gorilla-like presence of the politician and the bureaucrat in Indian lives has, more than anything else, led to corruption on an unimaginable scale. We have both political and administrative corruption. The challenge for the 21st century is to eliminate both.