Home Page of Dr. Saumitra Mohan

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...

Indo-Bangla Swap Deal: A Long-awaited Move Saumitra Mohan ‘You can change history, but you can’t change geography’, India’s former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Bajpai had famously said. But this basic common sense has often eluded the movers and shakers of International politics thereby resulting in constant sanguinary internecine struggle for power. The insane and inane one-upmanship among the nations have engendered such power games which have eventuated in ‘mutually assured destruction (MAD)’, a phrase often used in the context of the Cold War.   Hence, it is always advisable to have a peaceful border otherwise developmental interests of a nation generally get compromised. Anthropogenic as they are, borders between states are often arbitrarily drawn. And the borders that divided India and Pakistan on the map were no different as they did not represent a cartographer’s precision. The international boundary between the two new states was drawn hastily when the British left I...

Indo-Bangla LBA: Transferring the Enclave Population Saumitra Mohan With the longstanding land boundary agreement (LBA) between India and Bangladesh on the verge of being clinched, the exchange or transfer of population as residing in the enclaves (or ‘ chhintmahals’ as called in the local parlance) to be exchanged between the two countries is yet another problem they need to resolve. The question of giving options to the inhabitants residing in these enclaves needs to be addressed sooner than later to have a holistic resolution of this long-pending issue between these two South Asian neighbours. Incidentally, both India and Bangladesh conducted a joint census between 14-17 July, 2011 to determine the total population in these enclaves and found their number to be around 51,549. Of them, 37,334 persons were in Indian enclaves within Bangladesh while 14,215 people were residing in Bangladesh enclaves within India. Historically speaking, the international boundary between India ...

             Lateral Entry into Civil Service: A Timely Move Saumitra Mohan The federal democratic system in India since our independence has been governed by the elected Executive popularly known as the Council of Minister headed by the Prime Minister as primus inter pares. This elected Executive changes every quinquennium depending which political party gets first past the post at the hustings. The winner is bestowed the responsibility to run the country as per the arrangements specified in the Constitution of India. However, to ensure systemic continuity there remains in place an impersonal, permanent Executive aka the complex hierarchical bureaucratic structure, the famed steel-frame of India.             Notwithstanding the eventful vicissitudes of fortune as Indian democracy has experienced over the years, if the country has seen peaceful transitions from one government to another, th...

Oral Orders Are Anathema to Good Governance Saumitra Mohan One of the major criticisms of the liberal democracy in India which still deters major players from investing into this country is its alleged bureaucratic sloth which has so far kept India’s developmental potential hobbled. Notwithstanding all the efforts to make the Indian bureaucracy change its ways, it is alleged to remain recalcitrant and refuses to respond to the demands of time. Indian bureaucracy has also been alleged to have always been tied to the coat-tails of the political class in power and have usually acted as the Cerberus of the partisan interests of the reigning party.             The Indian political class has also effectively and carefully nurtured a symbiotic relationship with the Indian bureaucracy. Hence, the fondness for a subservient and pliable civil service has never waned though every party in power has always paid a lip service to the nece...