Recent power grid failure has forced us to think on India's claim for infrastructure development. In India water and power are the two critical resources which need immediate attention. Here i am not talking how to solve these problems but the approach our government takes to handle these problems. Any crisis for water or power, affects millions of people to the deep of their soul and people are looking forward to work with government in finding the solution of these.
Post crisis many executives and ministers are explaining the cause, such as shortage of power generation because of lower rain, more consumer demand because of hot weather, etc.. We agree with their version of explanation but what we expect the government to have a dialog with people in advance about the shortage country is facing. All of the above reasons are known to the government in advance and it was not like a earth quack, which caught us off guard. If these reasons were shared with people before hand, it could have made the people careful about the electricity usage and we might have avoided the whole episode. Sometime i am surprised that we might need some one like Aamir Khan to run episodes on scarcity of water and power in India because government machinery does not have the courage to talk people directly.
What i feel is missing the link between government and people on critical issue. At a time when India faced food shortages in the past, one prime minister Mr.Lal Bahadur Shastri advocated fasting for one day so that food will go round to feed the huge population. This request was followed by millions of people at that time and helped the country at large. This is a classic example where leaders reached to the people directly about the problem. If government thinks that people will believe them as incompetent that will be a mistake. India's population is much literate then the past and everyone understand that government does not have a magic want to solve all the problems. Instead sharing make people believe that government is serious about the problem and people will throw suggestions about them. It is like using the whole country a consultant to solve country problem. Media will cover it up on front page, there will be interviews of experts. People will discuss these problems and share ideas. These all brain storming among people will help the government and country in long term. We did not get freedom, instead Mahatma Gandhi mobilized people opinion for more then 30 years to work for common goal of freedom. We have to get rid of this old mindset that ruling class is elite and other people are not capable of understanding the problems. Instead we should take people along with them, which will not only give the government strength to take tough decision, also people will be more responsible to the country.
Suggestion
In my opinion our ministers should give quarterly update about the various problems their ministry is working on and what is the status of them. I will suggest to Team Anna to put this as a demand to the government.
