Sonia Gandhi has been elected unopposed as the Congress president. This is her third term and let?s hope that the more dynamic, energetic and fresh thinking, newer members of the Congress are third time lucky and get nominated, elected and appointed to critical positions to enable the party to reemerge as a credible political entity. Hope will not come from those decrepit and predictable leaders who adorn 24 Akbar Road. When political secretaries and other party functionaries remain in their posts for long stretches, they tend to build fiefdoms, nurture favourites and never find time to meet the rank and file of the party, or have the curiosity to look beyond what the sycophants tell them about ?ground realities?. Rajasthan, for example, is in a mess under the present general secretary who, despite being a comparatively ?younger leader? operates in the old, failed Congress mould. This should change radically.

One cannot understand why this UPA government with Manmohan Singh at its helm, and the Congress with Sonia Gandhi as its undisputed leader, do not overhaul archaic systems and set in motion another, more constructive and inclusive trend. For instance, why doesn?t the NAC create a white paper on radical judicial as well as police reforms, present it to parliament and herald change? A majority of laws inherited from the British were structured for the colonial masters to rule and exploit the natives, to suppress them and keep them down under. Today, the ?natives?, wielding power from their gaddis, are using the same laws to exploit the people of free and democratic India. It is a shocker. Some laws can be changed with one signature, but no one seems to be interested in the small things that affect simple people and their everyday lives.

Babu in command

Let me give you a non-political example. There is an absurd rule that any Indian antique being returned to India, or coming back home legitimately, will have a 30 per cent (return) tax imposed upon it. In other words, if you want to bring an Indian treasure back to India you have to pay the government to do so. All that such rules encourage is ?smuggling?. Recently, Vijay Mallya bought up a substantial part of a Tipu Sultan Collection from an auction at Sotheby?s. He has said he would like to house and celebrate it in India but only if the passage is legit and hassle free... Chances are that we will never have the treasures back because the all-invasive babu will intervene with his archaic, redundant rules and laws and drive the importer bananas. Their web is suffocating and their octopus-like arms are throttling...better to open a small museum overseas where an alien government will hail you, appreciate you, respect you and thank you. A sharp contrast to the attitude of the ?authority? at home.

There is endless, diverse, beauty in this country, from the mountains to the plains, the deserts, the tropical forests and the river valleys. The delicacy of our skills remain unmatched. Our intrinsic ability to create beautiful and practical objects, vessels, building materials, fabrics, implements, all necessities of life and living, is rapidly getting diluted, because we have ceased to respect ourselves and our strengths. With the stranglehold of Babudom, all our great institutions have deteriorated. There is no joy in visiting any museum or archive. Elsewhere in the world such public spaces are lively activity centres. Here, you cannot set up a mere restaurant without incessant hassle, let alone a new gallery. Why are qualified curators not in charge? Why a babu? Why doesn?t the government encourage private individuals and institutions to endow new galleries at the national museum? Why cannot the rule be changed? Why cannot a blueprint for national and state museums and archives be enforced? These are simple changes, but they could be a beginning that would generate hope.