नौकरशाही का मैनुअल

नौकरशाही भी अजीब नाम है। नौकर भी और शाह भी। अंग्रेज़ी का ब्यूरोक्रेसी अधूरा सा लगता है। गवर्नमेंट सर्वेंट या पब्लिक सर्वेंट तो नितांत झाँसेबाजी लगती है। किसका सर्वेंट, काहे का सर्वेंट? अरे हम तो राजा के प्रतिनिधि हैं, कर-चूषक हैं, तगादेकार हैं। हम ही तो असली सरकार हैं।

क्या कहा आपने? राजा अब कहॉं रहे? अरे भाई! यह तो हम भी जानते हैं कि प्रजातंत्र में राजा नहीं होते। लेकिन आप यह न भूलें कि प्रजातंत्र में प्रजा तो होती है। अब प्रजा है तो राजा भी होगा ही, चाहे उसे किसी और नाम से पुकारें। आपने बचपन में अपने स्कूल में यह घुट्टी ज़रूर पी होगी कि प्रजातंत्र में सरकार का चुनाव जनता करती है। वह आपका और आपके शिक्षकों का भ्रम था। आप तो विधायक और सांसद चुनते हैं। ये विधायक और सांसद आपस में मिलकर मंत्री इत्यादि बनाते हैं और समझते हैं कि हमने सरकार बना ली। ये भी एक छलावा ही है।

सरकार मंत्री या उनकी कुर्सियाँ नहीं होती। ये सब तो भ्रम बनाए रखने के साधन मात्र हैं। सरकार फ़ाइलें में होती है, जो हमारी आल्मारियों में बंद रहती हैं। सरकार हम नौकरशाहों की क़लम में होती है जिसका ढक्कन कसकर बंद करके हम अपनी जेबों में रखते हैं। जिस दिन हमने आल्मारी से फ़ाइल निकाली, क़लम से कुछ नोटिंग बनाई, उस दिन कुछ सरकने का सा अनुभव होता है और सरकार के होने का अहसास भी होता है। फिर हमारा कोई सहकर्मी झपट कर फ़ाइल को पकड़ लेता है और कुछ नोटिंग बनाकर अपनी वाली आल्मारी में बंद कर देता है। फ़ाइल बंद, सरकार बंद।

कभी-कभी कोई मंत्री झाँसे में नहीं आता और ज़बरन फ़ाइल मँगवा लेता है। तब हम फ़ाइल के साथ वह सारे कोड और मैनुअल लगा देते हैं जिनमें काम नहीं करने के पचास तरीक़े बताये गये हैं। हाऊ टू स्टॉप वर्क ऐंड फ्राइटेन द बॉस - यह नौकरशाही का फ़लसफ़ा हमने पिछले सत्तर सालों में ख़ूब गुना है। अगर मंत्री जी फिर भी न माने तो उन्हें प्रिसिडेंट और पास्ट-केसेज़ का हवाला देकर बताया जाता है कि सर, ठीक ऐसे ही केस में अमुक मंत्री की सीबीआई इंक्वायरी हुई थी, और फलॉं वाले सर तो जेल की हवा भी खा आए थे, गद्दी गई सो अलग।

अब मैनुअल तो मैनुअल है, कोई ऑटोमेटिक तो है नहीं कि हर जगह ख़ुद-बख़ुद चिपक जाए। इसीलिये यह मैनुअल और सीबीआई-विजिलेंस की तरकीब सिर्फ़ वहीं लगाई जाती है जहाँ नौकरशाह लगाना चाहता है। जहाँ काम में अपना भला हो वहॉं ग़रीबों, पिछड़ों, सामाजिक-न्याय, आर्थिक-तरक़्क़ी, प्राथमिक-शिक्षा या राष्ट्रीय-सुरक्षा के कारण बताकर फ़ाइल बढ़ाई जाती है। इन मुद्दों का कोई कोड या मैनुअल नहीं होता। ये तो हमारी क़लम की गंगोत्री से निकलने वाली गंगा की धाराएँ है। इनको पॉलिसी का नाम दिया गया है। फ़ाइल पर लिख दिया जाता है कि यदि इस वाले प्रस्ताव का तुरंत अनुमोदन नहीं किया गया तो फ़लाँ गाँव में भूख से, चारे के अभाव में, तीन हज़ार बकरियॉं दम तोड़ देंगी या कल प्रात:काल के पहले ही चीन तवांग पर क़ब्ज़ा कर लेगा। फिर क्या मंत्री और क्या मंत्री के चचा? दस्तखत के सिवा उनके पास चारा ही क्या बचता है? कभी-कभी तो सिर्फ़ चारा ही बचता है।

अरे साहब मंत्री तो आते-जाते रहते हैं, पाँच-साला जो ठहरे। हम तो तीस-पैंतीस वर्षों के ठेके पर पदासीन हैं। राजा तो अकबर और औरंगज़ेब थे - दशकों गद्दी से लगे रहे। जिसने चूँ-चपड़ की उसका सर काट डाला। यदि शाहजहाँ को पाँच साल का टर्म मिला होता तब क्या वह ताजमहल बनवा पाता? इतने कम समय में तो एस्टीमेट और टेंडर ही नहीं फ़ाइनल हुए होते। और मुमताज़ बेगम ने परलोक सिधारने में जो पंद्रह साल लगा दिये वह अलग से। अर्थात् कोई काम करने के लिये सिस्टम पर पकड़ होनी चाहिये, और वह आती है अनुभव से, स्थायित्व से, समय से। राजनेता, मंत्री आदि लाल बत्ती की गाड़ी में घूमें और ख़ुश रहें, दो-चार बीघा ज़मीन का घोटाला कर लें, अपनी भैंस के खोने पर पूरा पुलिस का महकमा लगा कर नाम कमाएँ। फ़ाइल तो बंधु तभी सरकेगी जब हम कहेंगे।

इसीलिये हमने यह नाम दिया नौकरशाह ताकि आप किसी ग़लतफ़हमी में न रहें। नौकर आप, शाह हम।

                                                       ---०००---

                    

आलू की फ़ैक्टरी

चीन में चावल फ़ैक्टरी में बनता है। वहॉं का प्लास्टिक का चावल, दुनिया भर में चल रहा है। लोगों को फैक्टरी में बने चावल से कोई पोषण नहीं मिलता, उल्टे स्वास्थ्य की हानि होती है। फिर मैं पूछता हूँ कि अच्छा-भला आलू फ़ैक्टरी में क्यों नहीं बन सकता? क्या सारा अनुसंधान, सारी रचनात्मकता चीन में ही संभव है?

जब क्रिकेट की गेंद फ़ैक्टरी में बन सकती है, फ़ुटबॉल और ग़ुब्बारे फ़ैक्टरी में बन सकते हैं तो मिलती-जुलती शक्ल और आकार के आलू क्यों नहीं बन सकते? एक ओर सारा सरकारी तंत्र मेक-इन-इंडिया के नारे लगा रहा है, कारख़ानों में विदेशी पूँजी का आवाहन कर रहा है, और आप हैं कि एक भले आदमी पर तंज कसे जा रहे हैं। भाई साहब, कारख़ानों में कुशल मज़दूर लगते हैं, ऊँची पगार माँगते हैं और सबसे पहले उनका स्किल-डेवलपमेंट करना पड़ता है। इन सबमें समय लगता है, पूँजी लगती है। आलू का निर्माण राष्ट्र-निर्माण का आसान और सस्ता उपाय है। बस आलू की फ़ैक्टरी लगाइये और ग़रीब दुखियारे किसानों को झोंक डालिये। फिर देखिये, जो किसान कल तक तुरई और ककड़ी की फ़ैक्टरी में अपने जलवे दिखाता था, तुरत-फुरत आलू का निर्माण करने लगेगा। हर्र लगे ना फिटकरी रंग चोखा आए।

मैं तो कहता हूँ कि हर नागरिक अपने आँगन में एक आलू की फ़ैक्टरी डलवा ले। दिन में दफ़्तर में कलम घिसे और सेकेंड शिफ़्ट में घर में ही आलू की असेंम्बली लाइन पर काम करे। एक तरफ़ सेलूलोज़, यूरिया, पोटाश और पुराने कपड़े, रद्दी काग़ज़ डालिये और दूसरी तरफ़ से गोल-गोल सुंदर, सुगठित आलू प्राप्त कीजिये। इधर श्रीमती जी ने कहा कि आलू ले आओ, और आप बोल पड़े, "अभी लो, भागवान। ज़रा आलू का साइज़ बता दो - सब्जी़ बनानी है या चिप्स तलने हैं? भर्ता बनाना है तब तो कोई भी साइज़ चलेगा। कल का रिजेक्टेड माल पड़ा है, कहो तो ले आऊँ?"

भारतीयों की जुगाड़-बुद्धि पर भरोसा रखें, श्रीमान! जल्दी ही, लौकी, करेले और पालक बनाने की मशीन भी बना डालेंगे। बल्कि मैं तो शर्त लगाने को तैयार हूँ कि टू-इन-वन और थ्री-इन-वन मशीनें भी अब दूर नहीं। एक ही फ़ैक्टरी सुबह आलू बनाएगी और दूसरी पाली में टमाटर। और आप हैं कि हँसे जा रहे हैं। हम न सिर्फ़ आलू की फ़ैक्टरी लगाएँगे, बल्कि आलू बनाने की मशीनों का निर्यात भी करेंगे। फिर देखियेगा, विश्व में भारत-जनित ब्राउन-रिवॉल्यूशन का कमाल! 

http://althealthworks.com/7761/plastic-rice-from-china-is-real-and-it-can-cause-serious-health-problemsyelena/

My Journey to the Rest Room

When I was very young, toilets were called toilets, whether at airports, railway stations or in homes. Then they came to be know as Lavatories, Wash Rooms and now Rest Rooms. That matter currently rests at Rest Rooms. In most homes they are still called toilets, however. I guess, they were looking for better sounding names to label public toilets, hence the migration. The place presumably stinks less when called by a less offensive name. Also, "I am going to the rest room" probably sounds more civil and agreeable than "Let me go to the toilet". Ugh, how can one go to a toilet, when just a few minutes of "rest" should take care of all that effusive urge?

Having studied in a Hindi medium boarding school, I was used to the term shauchalaya (शौचालय in Hindi) even for the hostel toilets, a term that remains unchanged to this day. Hindi speaking Indian homes have called them pakhana (पखाना in Hindi) without wincing or pinching the nose. There was a separate bathroom (गुसलखाना or स्नानघर in Hindi) With  the advent of the combined bath and toilet the term changed to a less offensive "bathroom (बाथरूम in Hindi too)". So, even when one was going to the loo in an Indian home, one would say, "l am going to the bathroom". Taking a bath or a shower was not implied every time one announced the destination. 

Well, the designation of the toilet underwent this massive change when I was not even watching. And, I learnt about this march of civilisation in a rather educative way. Having been dumped by an International flight at the Newark airport late one night we were looking for a place to stretch our legs. The connecting domestic flight was scheduled the next morning. One of us spotted a rest room sign in the terminal building. We were delighted at the prospect of a dormitory or a room with lounge sofas where we could spend the night. So, I despatched a member of the team to go look for it.

He went up and down the "Rest Rooms" sign a few times and came back. "Sir, there doesn't seem to be a rest room over there", he said.

I reprimanded him, "Can't you see the board there? It clearly says Rest Rooms. Let me go and check for myself".

Well, I too walked up and down the sign and found no trace of a rest room. Not even a narrow passage in the wall that could lead to a rest room deeper into the building. Every time I walked up, I would see a door to the toilets. Then coming back to the sign, I would see the same door again. Confused, but determined to solve the mystery, we went into a huddle just the way the West Indies cricket team had taught us. We came to the conclusion, "THE TOILET IS THE REST ROOM". Thus I made the discovery of the Rest Room on the American land. Wouldn't Columbus be proud of me?

Now, of course, Indian public places of some sophistication, such as Malls or Airports have rechristened their toilets Rest Rooms. The eponymous facility in the Indian Railways is used by loco pilots (engine drivers) for rest between duties, kind of a small running room. And, they actually do there what the name suggests - lie down in a bed, catch forty winks and wake up fresh to run the next train. And, of course, in the rest rooms they also have a rest room, oops .. .. a toilet. 

For the hoi polloi caught in the maze of modern civilisation a rest room promises nothing more than a place to rest one's bladder and bowels. Maybe in the fast lane of life today that is rest enough.

                                                  ---ooo---

De-innovating to innovate. (Or, when is a no feature a new feature?)

It is a religion for the technogeeks, tech editors and reviewers to fawn at whatever Apple throws at them. Now here is another Apple phone, the iPhone7, which ditches the headphone jack and it is being touted as a new feature!

In the highly competitive smartphone business, where not only innovation has reached a dead end, even sales are stagnating, de-innovating is the next innovation.

Just the other day they created mobile phones, which played music through either wired or wireless headphones. Now, you have a "new and improved" phone, which does what all phones were already doing, play music through A2DP Bluetooth headphones, but takes the wired feature out. Except that it doesn't! You can still connect your old wired earphones into the power port of the iPhone7.

But, aren't we all supposed to thank Apple's relentless innovation, which continually blesses the humankind with manna raining down from the ninth cloud, where Steve Jobs now lives, presumably. My guess is that the iPhone will remove the screen itself from the iPhone8 and then the phone itself from the iPhone9. After all, we have time to live through the supernova of our sun and well into the days when the earth encircles a white dwarf.

Meanwhile, go ahead and buy those $159 EarPods, a small price to swim in the holy waters of Applelake and to keep up with the Jonses. 

And, don't forget to charge three pieces of innovation every evening - the two EarPods and the phone itself. Aren't you feeling blessed already?

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3117622/smartphones/why-apple-dropped-the-headphone-jack-in-the-iphone-7.html

Shobha De, You loser!

Shobha De,

You mocked the Indian athletes in the Rio Olympics thus:

"Why do with bother with the Olympics? Goal of team India at the Olympics: Rio Jao. Selfies lo. Khaali haat wapas aao. What a waste of money and opportunity."

Well, you have been lambasted enough for this singularly crass and insensitive comment. You have dismissed it all as trolling. Let me not go into that domain once again. I just want to compare you with Indian contingent that has gone has gone to the Rio Olympics. Remember that Olympics are not the only world sports contests. There are many more, which are sports specific and equally, if not more, demanding. Some of our Olympians have won medals in such events. Agreed, nothing fires up the imagination and charm like the Olympics. Well, let's see what our boys and girls have done there.

Deepa Karmakar lost the bronze by a whisker and came fourth in the world, yes fourth in the Whole World. She is also the first Indian to have ever qualified for the Olympics in gymnastics. She recently won gold in another world event and has won our hearts.

Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna also came forth in the world by narrowly missing the bronze play off in a tough fight 6-1, 7-5. They have won medals earlier. 

The hockey team broke a 36 year jinx and reached the Olympic knock out stage and reached the quarter finals for the first time after 1980.

Badminton players Kidambi Srikanth and PV Sindhu reached pre-quarter finds of badminton coming in the top sixteen in the world.

Abhinav Bindra came a close fourth in shooting and was all grace on his loss in the medal race. That he has earlier won a Gold and has taught Indians to dream is a far bigger story.

And so on .. ..

 

Now, let's see what you have achieved, Shobha De! In spite of passing off porn and sleaze as literature, or possibly because of it, you have no appeal beyond Page 3, the incestuous "civil society" and it's cocktail parties. Where do your so called bestsellers stand in world rankings? Well, let me examine your pulp on an even smaller yardstick, just the Amazon/Kindle rankings. Some of your popular books are ranked as follows on Amazon India:

SURVIVING MEN: 90,148

SPEEDPOST: 67,400

SOCIALITE EVENINGS: 62,959

They hardly qualify to be bestsellers, eh!

So, next time you shoot your mouth off in the Twitterland, be sure that your feet are clean. You will prevent a foul breath.

I really want to help you, but ...

O Dear, I understand your problem and I really wish I could do something for you. After all, I am here to serve the people of India. Am I not a public servant, appointed just for this? 

Your problem seems genuine and your grievance authentic. I can't tell you how pained I am at the insensitivity of the system of which I am a part. This problem should not have arisen in the first place if my colleagues in that department and the rules of this other department had been a bit more accommodative. I must now solve your problem. Let me see .. .. Let me see .. ..

Hmm .. Umm .. Uh .. Oh ..

Ah .. There you are. Here is your file. Let me see .. Let me see .. Oh my God! Look at this clerk of my office and see what he has written. There is no rule to do this! How can the rascal write that? I truly want to help you out here and this lowly clerk write here that it can't be done!

Sorry, my Friend! The rules don't permit. Or else I could have done it in no time at all. I know what your are thinking. You are shocked that this great bureaucrat of the government of India, this guy selected out of lakhs and lakhs of bright candidates by the UPSC through the toughest selection process on the planet can't help you!

You see, my Friend, I may have been the brightest, the most educated and the smartest of all. But, my mind is pawned to that clerk sitting in that corner at the end of this dingy corridor. Yes, he is only high school pass, but he does all the thinking for me. He interprets the rules, links precedents, brings out perils of decision making and predicts the outcomes of my decisions on my behalf! He verily tells me what I should do sitting in my chair. In most cases he even drafts my orders and tells me where to sign. If he tells me to just sit there and twiddle my thumbs, I would do that too for I have outsourced my thinking to a high school pass clerk.

He thinks for me. The junior clerk runs this office. Why don't you sit with him and explain your case to him? Maybe I can help you then, provided he writes a favourable noting. But, that is between you and him now .. .. I really wish I could do something for you. After all, ain't I here to help you?

वंशीधर के वंशज (The Salt Inspector lives .. ..)

Munshi Premchand wrote how regulation and taxation of the commonplace salt led to black market, illegal trade and corrupt officialdom. The opening paragraph of the famous story, नमक का दारोग़ा, read as follows:

जब नमक का नया विभाग बना और ईश्वरप्रदत्त वस्तु के व्यवहार करने का निषेध हो गया तो लोग चोरी-छिपे इसका व्यापार करने लगे। अनेक प्रकार के छल-प्रपंचों का सूत्रपात हुआ, कोई घूस से काम निकालता था, कोई चालाकी से। अधिकारियों के पौ-बारह थे। पटवारीगिरी का सर्वसम्मानित पद छोड-छोडकर लोग इस विभाग की बरकंदाजी करते थे। इसके दारोगा पद के लिए तो वकीलों का भी जी ललचाता था।

The salt satyagraha of was a turning point in the freedom struggle. The Mahatma, through his Dandi March in 1930, turned that folly of the British to his great advantage and mobilised a whole nation against foreign occupation. Non-violence protest and civil disobedience were defined for an oppressed nation and a timid mass of humanity, which found a powerful weapon to fight the mighty brutal Empire.

Do you know that this nation of timid masses still bears the cross of the Salt Inspector. The British are gone and salt tax was a not insignificant force in their ouster. Yet, cess on salt remains and its regulation is an important opportunity of discretionary use of power. A population, which threw out the largest power on earth for regulating salt still perpetuates the same tax and regulation!

Did you know that there is an All India Service called the "Indian Salt Service"? It is a Group B service, with officers posted all over, which rules the sea coasts of the nation.

The Website of the Salt Commissionerate defines some of its its function as follows:

1. Leasing of Central Government land for salt manufacture.

(How much land is owned by the Central Government, which it leases?)

2. Planning of production targets.

(Why should the government set production targets for salt? Are resources, like the sea-water, in short supply?

3. Arranging equitable distribution and monitoring the quality and price.

(Why can't the market forces do that? The government doesn't do that even for food grains.)

4. Promotion of technological development and training of personnel.

(Technology? Why does it require the government's intervention?)

5. Maintenance of standards and improvement in quality of salt.

(Really?)

6. Collection of Salt Cess, Assignment Fee, Ground Rent and other dues.

The website goes on to say:

"As per document available the salt department has been in existence prior to 1802 AD. Salt manufacturing activities were brought under licencing system by an Act containing stringent panel action .. .. The collection of salt revenue was originally vested in the Collectors of Districts; subsequently a separate Department under a Salt Commissioner on the recommendation of a commission appointed by the Government of India in 1876 was created."

Well, the Salt Commissioner, created in 1876, exists even today.

In the constitution of India, Salt is Central subject and appears as item No. 58 of the Union list of the 7th Schedule, which reads : (a) Manufacture, Supply and distribution of salt by Union agencies : and (b) Regulation and control of manufacture, supply and distribution of salt  by other agencies. The Central Government is responsible for controlling all aspects of the Salt Industry through Salt Organisation.

 

The British Government finally abolished the "duty" on salt. And lo and behold, it imposed a "cess" on it on 1-4-47. This was subsequently ratified by the Government of Free India as Salt Cess Act, 1953. 

Guess, what was the purpose of this cess. It was to meet the expenses of the salt organisation, the very organisation, which should not have existed in the first place!

Through several legislations, reports of committees and commissions, in the year 1996 the Government of India decided to de license the salt industry. But, the Salt Commissioner exists along with his sub-offices and an army of salt officials recruited in the "Indian Salt Service".

Amongst other things, the Salt Commissioner certifies if the salt being transported by rail is for Industrial consumption or human. Indian Railways carry the latter at a concessional tariff. If the concessional tariff was to be removed, the salt we eat would cost us some fifty paise extra per head per month. But, we could then get rid of the entire salt Commissionerate as a result!

Munshi Vanshi Dhar, the original Salt Inspector, must be turning in his grave.

http://saltcomindia.gov.in/HistoryOfSalt.html?tp=html

DON’T CRY MILORD! (Just do your job)

Your Honour!

Indian Railways are struggling with nearly 30% vacancies in the cadre of track maintainers. We are also short of 20% Loco Drivers over the sanctioned strength. Indeed, we are short of manpower by the given yardsticks in almost all areas. But, we run ALL the trains with 90+% punctuality, we carry all the goods cheaper than any other mode and our safety is improving every day. We add new trains every year, run specials during festivals and holidays without additional resources. Our online ticketing is rated to be the best in the world. Our stations and trains are cleaner than ever, quality of food is improving and so is the passenger satisfaction across the country. True, we lack resources for expanding our network, but we do our assigned job well and without complaining.

We don't keep a pendency in running of trains. We do not have a hundred or a thousand trains waiting to run tomorrow or next week just because we have vacancies in our ranks. Yet, we find that the media, political parties and public at large are ready to accept backlog of cases in our courts on account of vacancies! 

Yesterday you cried, Milord! You lamented the vacancies in superior courts and stated that vacancies were the reason for pendencies. In my heart, though I don't think believe that you subscribe to that view. Vacancies can never be zero. I read in the newspapers, after the NJAC judgement, that the real problem of the judiciary is vacancies – 30% of late. But the pendency is older than this recent spurt in vacancies, which has worsened due to the NJAC issue. I have learnt that twenty-four High Courts together sit on a pile of some forty-five lakh pending cases. Appeals in criminal cases against conviction are waiting to be heard for as long as thirty years, more than the maximum sentence in the cases. I am certain all this cannot be explained away by vacancies alone. In any case it was the collegium, which ought to have filled those vacancies.

The only way to overcome this problem is that those, who are in the saddle, work a little harder to compensate for the vacancies. All of us do that in government, public sector or private enterprises. We work longer hours till late evening, on weekends, forego personal leave and certainly do not go on summer vacations. Even Secretaries to the Government of India are now required to punch-in their attendance sharp at nine AM every day. Surely, working longer hours is not anathema to you, My Lordship!

I often get judgements and awards from courts for compliance within two months, one month, or even a fortnight. I have no option but to burn the midnight oil and fulfil the orders in the judgement. How I wish I could one day beseech or request, though certainly not order Your Lordships, to deliver a judgement in two weeks since an important developmental project is held up, a contract is getting annulled or an international agreement is at stake! But, that would be a contempt of court, I guess. Surely, the judiciary is entitled to its independence and autonomy, surely it can rightfully claim non-interference and neutrality, but it ought to know that like other organs of state, the legislature and the executive, the judiciary too is paid out of taxes and that it is ultimately answerable to the paymaster, the common citizen of the country. The common person is increasingly getting restless. She wants good governance, she wants delivery of goods and services and above all she wants a just society. And, she wants them quick. Judiciary is answerable to her for its own share of deliveries.

How does the common citizen force change in governance? He votes. He votes a party out and brings in a new government. He gets the opportunity to do so every five years. Political parties, after having fooled the masses and after their repeated failures have realised that the public means business. They have yielded to a change in discourse from caste, religion and freebies to development and performance. How does a common man pull up the executive? How does he seek relief from exploitation and unfairness? He goes to a court of law. Leave aside the delays for a moment, he still hopes for justice, solace and compensation. What is important is that he has a door, which he can knock. But, were does he go, when the same door is closed to him for thirty years in his face? Whom does he implore, when the very institution he implores, has queued up lakhs of relief seekers ahead of him?

This frustration with the judiciary has led to abject hopelessness in the masses and ridicule of the process of law. Undertrials and appellants spend the best years of their lives in incarceration, people resort to coercion and murder for solving land and property disputes and an occasional dejected one commits suicide. 

Any organisation works with hierarchies, which are arranged in the fashion of a pyramid. The senior levels have fewer positions than the lower ones. Indeed, the entire supervision and management structure follows this dictum. Yet we have a State in the country, which has an inverted pyramid in the judiciary. There are one hundred sixty High Court Judges and just seventy-five district Judges! Yet, this High Court has the highest number of cases pending within its portals.

All organs of the State have undergone reforms and infusion of technology. Most departments of the government and companies in the private sector have become leaner as a result. The judiciary too has had its share of modernisation and IT embrace. But, the courts work at the same pace, actually slower than ever. One of the High Courts of the country has, on the 17th October last year, invited bids for supply of iPhone6S for use by the Hon’ble Judges. This model of phone was launched in September, i.e. just a month ago. We do not mind Our Lordships owning the latest gadget in the world costing sixty thousand Rupees each, not even if the poor people of India pay for it. But, we want a return on that investment. Please give us that.

We have all heard Justice Ruma Pal, who candidly showed the mirror to the judiciary by enumerating its seven sins – turning a blind eye to a colleague’s indiscretion, hypocrisy, secrecy in appointment of judges, plagiarism and prolixity, verbose judgements, personal arrogance, professional arrogance and nepotism.* We have all heard you, Your Lordship! You want total independence and autonomy. We agree with that too. You also said that you will improve the system from within. We know from experience that insulated systems are the most difficult to change and often a change promised from within is more of a chimera than an action plan. Yet we trust you for this time once again. But, remember, the outcome of the reforms will be judged by the people of India and not by the government or the legislature. Next time, the call for change may not take the legislative route.

So, here is my twopenny advice. All of these are within your purview. Maybe, if you followed some of these, you could smile the day you lay down your office.

1. Tell your colleagues and subordinate judges to come to office at 9:00AM and not leave before 6:00PM.

2. Fix a yardstick for judges and courts by which their performance will be measured - limit number of adjournments and hearings, limit the total span of time over which a case is heard and limit the number of pages a judge will write in his award.

3. Spend quality time in courts hearing arguments and delivering justice and stop playing the adjournment game, better known as tareekh-par-tareekh.

4. You and your fellow judges in superior courts are also supervisors to lower judiciary. Do that job well. Pull up the lazy ones and compel them to deliver.

5. Force some discipline on lawyers to come in time and come prepared on the first appearance itself.

6. Learn some English and unlearn all that Latin. Make it simpler for the common man to understand what you say and intend.

7. Tell your colleagues to cut that sarcasm out of their speech in the courts. Don't speak what you cannot write in your judgements.

8. Make it possible and easy for a common man with an average level of education to argue and contest his own case rather than be fleeced by greedy lawyers.

9. And, last but not the least, give up that summer vacation. You do not have to sail to England to avoid the Indian heat. Stay here, and feel for the fellow citizens.

http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/justice-ts-thakur-breaks-down-before-pm-modi-stresses-need-for-more-judges-1398829?site=full