Home Page of Dr. Saumitra Mohan

Reviewing The Enclave Exchange                                                                                                                 *Dr. Saumitra Mohan             Boundaries between nation states are reflections of the interplay of the forces of history, politics and wars but oftentimes they could be simply a manifestation of a shoddy and hasty job as transpired in the...

The Beef Battle: Nation-Building in Danger                                                                                                 * Saumitra Mohan             I am a Hindu and I love to proclaim as much. My family taught me to relish Hindu non-vegetarian delicacies since my childhood and I continue doing so with lip-smacking panache. In my puerile iconoclastic bid to establish my credentials as an enlightened and liberal Hindu, I have tried my hand at ...

How Civil is Our Civil Society? *Dr. Saumitra Mohan India has slowly and steadily been growing as a modern state. However, we are still far from being a country that our forefathers visualized, a vision aptly enshrined in the lofty ideals of our Constitution. The most sacred document of the Indian Republic envisaged India to be a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic which would secure to its citizens justice, liberty, equality and fraternity. We have all these traits in the extant Indian state, but given the state of affairs today, cynics find each of them to have been hugely compromised.             As citizens of the largest democracy, we desire them all but flinch from doing anything as are expected of its people. While government, politicians and bureaucrats are the favourite punching bags of almost everyone, we definitely lack the character to deserve the honour of living up to our Constitutional idea...

Living in Intolerant Times                                                                                                                 * Dr. Saumitra Mohan                 We Indians don’t tire of boasting about our democratic credentials including our proud civilisational history and a salad bowl co-existential culture. And there are strong justified reasons fo...

Rise of the Common Man *Saumitra Mohan With the mainstream national political parties losing to a greenhorn Aam Admi Party (AAP), a political coup d’état has been witnessed in the just-concluded Delhi Assembly elections. AAP has actually overshot its own expectations by bagging as many as 67 seats in a 70 member Assembly. Many established, mainstream parties were decimated in the process. It was a fictional David vs. Goliath battle where the former always wins the day owing to latter’s arrogance. The truth, however, remains that a few months back few political pundits were willing to believe that AAP would ever win even a respectable number of seats after Arvind Kejriwal resigned as Delhi’s Chief Minister last year, not to speak of being in a position to form the government for the second time in a row. Everyone felt that AAP should have consolidated on its gains before quitting prematurely or before plunging in parliamentary politics all over the country without also consolida...

Ensuring Fixed Tenure for Bureaucrats Saumitra Mohan For a system of government to function well, it is imperative that the bureaucracy is ensured operational autonomy to work impartially and effectively to realize the various objectives as are required in the public interest. Such autonomy could only be ensured if they are cushioned against any undue influences. However, this is not what usually happens in this country as reflected in myriad instances. And the most regular weapon used to bring an upright bureaucrat around is the so-called ‘undesirable’ postings and transfers.  An honest and non-pliable officer being hounded out through his career by way of frequent transfers is not something new. We have all been witness to such news which has become quite mundane by now. Civil servants like Ashok Khemka and Sanjeev Chaturvedi immediately come to our mind. The Damocles’ Sword of transfer has often been used as a potent and effective weapon by the political class against ou...

Indigenising Our Defence Procurement *Saumitra Mohan           With the motto of ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance’, the new federal Government has definitely raised popular expectations among the people. The Government has accordingly been taking myriad initiatives to realise this chimerical will-o-the-wisp. Such initiatives inter alia include scrapping obsolete and anomalous laws and rules, strengthening federal structure, targeting corruption and corrupt practices, ensuring more accountability and transparency to make the system more efficient, effective and delivery-oriented. The recent replacement of the Planning Commission by the NITI (National Institute for Transforming India) Aayong is also an expression of the same. The Government in Delhi has also started paying attention to many critical issues which have been hanging fire for very long time for want of a clear thinking. As an extension thereof, the new Government has...