Understanding the Government..Part 8 (Mistrust!)

After the nerve-racking session with bureaucrats, Raju, our Mysore Maharaja, gulped the 'Nimbu paani' fast!  He reclined in the chair, tried to relax and then looked at Aunty.

“Aunty, tell me, why there is so much stiffness in bureaucrats? Why they are so diplomatic and seem to mistrust everybody else?”

Aunty laughed! “Raju, in government, everybody mistrusts everybody else! The whole system is built on the principle of mistrust!”

“What, the Government is built on principle of mistrust?!”

“Yes Raju, at-least in our country the government systems are built on mistrust!

I will tell how. Let me ask you a simple question now. Assume you got with you gold worth one crore, which you require for your future.

You need to suddenly leave the country for 3 years, and you have to leave this gold with any of your two friends, who can act as a trustee of this gold.

One is Doddanna, who will keep your gold safe, also add a nominal interest every year and give it back to you when you come back.

The other is Chikkanna, who is bold and who takes risks, and will invest your gold in market. He is likely to either earn good profits or suffers huge losses, and whatever is left with him out of the gold, profit or loss, he will give it back to you.

Now, whom will you leave your gold with? Mind you, you can’t intelligently share half of gold with both! It has to be left with one person only!”

“Aunt, if I require that for future, then I won’t risk it. I will give it to Doddanna, though the interest is less, I am sure of getting my gold back!”

“Good! Most of us will do the same when it comes to our future. We will risk it with Chikkanna only when we have lots and lots of money, and we can afford to lose some. Isn’t?

Now apply this to Government. The government is after-all a trustee of our public resources. It could be our tax money, the minerals in the soil, forests etc. These are the resources which are limited and precious. We need them for our future, our future generations.

So, the society does not want to risk it. It is more comfortable in making Doddanna as the trustee, and not Chikkanna! In other words, the society is not willing to take risk with its future limited resources! You get me Raju?!”

“Yes, aunty, it does make sense. Unless the society has unlimited or huge resources, it can’t afford to take risks. They would elect such a government which will act like Doddanna. Now I understand why the elected governments act very cautiously! They seem to be very clear that they should not be seen taking risks.”

“Yes Raju, any elected government would want to portray to the public that, they are responsible and not reckless, and they are doing a good job of a trustee. They would want to tell the citizens that their future is safe in the hands of the government.”

“Aunty, does that mean that the government can’t take risk at all? Then how does development happen? Unless we take risk, we can’t move forward na aunty?”

“Well said Raju! Yes, unless we take risk, we can’t move forward. At the same time, the risk shall be as less as possible. One wrong move, the public will start losing confidence in the government! So, the entire government system is super-cautious!

In order to ensure that it does not make mistakes, the government has evolved a complex system of checks and balances. At each step in taking a decision, there is a check. That makes decision making slow, in-fact very slow!”

“But, aunty, won’t people get upset with such slow decisions also?”

“They do at times! They get upset about the slow way things move, more so, if the systems are old and not able to cope up with the fast growth of the society. But, at the same time, if you take decisions fast, and that ends up in a failure, the society is not going to clap and say. ‘Good attempt!’ Rather, they will think that you have mishandled it badly, and try to replace you!”

“Goodness, I understand it aunty! So, running government is not easy at all! You are damned if you do, and you are damned if you don’t! You need to be one damn superman to take decisions that won’t fail!"

“Of course Raju, running government is not easy! And remember nobody thrusts it upon you! You only go before the public and request them to elect you to govern them well! So, you need to be a real super-man! You can’t blame the people for their expectations, however high and tough they may be!”

“I perfectly understand aunty! I am just wondering that, the aversion to mistakes and risks makes everybody overcautious in government, to the limits of mistrust.”

 “Yes aunty, I get it. So, the government officials do not and can’t trust anybody so easily. If they do, and if mistakes happen, then don’t get a second choice! They end up in jail! So, they are very careful and cautious.”

“You are right Raju! Not only the individuals, the system itself is designed so. It does not trust anyone.”

“Now I understand the entire logic aunty! Just I am worried that such mistrust will make decision making difficult and protracted.”

“It does my dear! Anytime heard of easy & swift decisions in the government?! The interesting part is, while wrong decisions in the government are punished severely, there is no punishment for non-decision!”

“Lol, aunty, you are right! For example, nobody is going to ask Doddanna if he has filed to get a 12% return on the gold! But, if he loses gold, they will hang him! So, officers and the system will support non-decision, which is ‘status quo’!”

“See, I told you that you will understand things fast!” laughed Aunty.

“Don’t laugh aunty, how do make these commissioners to take decision now?!”

“Don’t worry about it. When you have the meeting with Diwan, he will come to a decision which will be acceptable to all. Don’t forget that he is the chief of all those commissioners! So they will not rub him on the wrong side!”

“Then he could have done it in the starting itself na! Why he wanted me to talk to all those commissioners?”

“That’s because, he is wise man. He wanted you to understand the complexities involved, so that not only you will accept his recommendation readily, but you will also learn to tackle conflicts, as the decision will be taken in your presence!”

“Okk aunty! I understand! More I delve into governance, more interesting it is getting! After-all, it’s not easy to govern crores of people with varied capacities and aspirations!”

“You are right Raju, now, I will also tell you about the ‘Home commissioner department’. Regarding, ‘deficit budget’ we will discuss after we have our evening tea. Is that ok dear?”

“Perfect aunty!”

“The ‘Home department’ first came into existence in Britain in the year 1872. Earlier in Britain, they used to have secretaries to the state, like we have Diwan. Those days, the governments were mostly occupied with wars and aggression.

They had two major departments, one which used to take care of war and foreign issues, and another internal. If you check wiki, the war office was called as ‘northern department’ and the internal office was called as ‘southern department’. In 1872 they were renamed as ‘Foreign office’ and ‘home office’, respectively!

Thus started the terminology, which was adopted by India too! So, all issues connected with internal security, like police, law and order etc., come under the ‘Home department’, normally headed by a Home commissioner!”

“Okk aunty! Now time for tea!”

(to be continued next Sunday)