The state of anger

The voices reflect a mounting dissatisfaction amongst people with a state they have to supplicate in order to get what they feel is their due; they expect the government to function to support them in securing the citizens’ contract with the state. This is an anger that the government,indeed the entire political and policy-making class,needs to address. There will,however,be no magic bullet of the sort that Teams Anna and Baba demand. And deep down,the people on the street know that; they expect not that it will end overnight through the passage of some draconian law — they want to see their government working hard to reform the institutional structure that enables and supports corruption.

We need more big ideas on how that institutional structure can be reformed. Some states have provided for a “right to service delivery” to be enacted,and the results of those should be carefully watched. Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu has suggested the giving of bribes be decriminalised so that more prosecution can take place. It’s only after people begin to sense,in their daily lives,a reduction of the pressure to bribe and plead,that the anger that’s currently directed at the state will recede.