04-22-2007, 06:03 PM
<b>Beyond dynasty, towards competence</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Are we going to waste a decade or so acquiescing or has the time come to start thinking about a correction in our system of democracy? Has the time come to demand a referendum on the kind of political system we want?
One of the letters I received in response to last weekâs column came from a former chief justice of Himachal Pradesh, who suggested that we begin a public debate on why we should not switch to a presidential system of government. This column supports the idea from the bottom of its Fifth Columnist heart.
<b>The two most obvious benefits of directly electing a president are that he (or she) would need to prove that he had the support of the whole country, and the second is that he could choose his cabinet from outside the ranks of our elected representatives.
Governance in the 21st century requires administrators who are technically competent to handle their jobs, not men who are there just because they are the peopleâs choice. One of the reasons why Indian infrastructure is being built at bullock-cart pace despite lagging so much behind the rest of the world is that our ministers for power, transport, urban development and, for instance, telecommunications, are often men without any knowledge of the subject they are in charge of.
We can no longer afford on-the-job training. If the Indian economy is doing better today than ever before, it is despite government, not because of it. But think how much faster things would happen if we had good governance? Itâs time to talk of change.</b>
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One of the letters I received in response to last weekâs column came from a former chief justice of Himachal Pradesh, who suggested that we begin a public debate on why we should not switch to a presidential system of government. This column supports the idea from the bottom of its Fifth Columnist heart.
<b>The two most obvious benefits of directly electing a president are that he (or she) would need to prove that he had the support of the whole country, and the second is that he could choose his cabinet from outside the ranks of our elected representatives.
Governance in the 21st century requires administrators who are technically competent to handle their jobs, not men who are there just because they are the peopleâs choice. One of the reasons why Indian infrastructure is being built at bullock-cart pace despite lagging so much behind the rest of the world is that our ministers for power, transport, urban development and, for instance, telecommunications, are often men without any knowledge of the subject they are in charge of.
We can no longer afford on-the-job training. If the Indian economy is doing better today than ever before, it is despite government, not because of it. But think how much faster things would happen if we had good governance? Itâs time to talk of change.</b>
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