The Hindu Business Line : Learning from America

SO, the Americans are coming. Prior to September 11, our relations with Americans were starting to thaw. We were sort of edging warily towards each other, yet not fully committed. And then, after September 11, we fell deeply in love with the US. We offered our souls to help them to bomb terrorists back to the Stone Age.

Unfortunately for us, the Pakistanis had a monopoly on all these terrorists. They were best friends with the Taliban and Osama bin Laden and his al-Queda outfit. This, apart from all the various terrorist organisations operating out of Pakistan against India. When that event occurred and we jumped onto the American lap, what did we really want? I think we wanted the US to bomb Pakistan back to the Stone Age. Instead, the Americans took the safer course of bombing Afghanistan. Since that country had already been reduced to the Stone Age, it was not easy.

We now have our PM, FM, DM, HM shuttling back and forth to Washington like seasoned commuters. Pakistan also has its coterie of ministers, including their Prez doing the same thing. I would not be surprised if they are all on the same flights.

In turn, the US is only sending us warships, Army Chiefs of Staff and CIA chiefs. They know we are suckers for one of their main products — arms. We are buying missiles, fighters, helicopters and all sorts of electronic surveillance gizmos. The US is laughing all the way to the bank.

Instead of an arms wish-list, I wish our government went shopping with a different wish-list. The US is not a perfect nation (though it likes to think it is) but there are many items we should import from it.

For a start, I wish we could import its two-party system. Those parties are not perfect, but it simplifies life for their electorate. There is a divide, blurring at the edges, between the Democrats and the Republicans. The party members actually believe in their party's principles. We have 10,000 parties, and the only political principle among their members is power and money. I believe we should ask the US for help in reducing the number of our parties to two. If necessary, bomb the others into the Stone Age.

Once we have cleared our political jungle, we could then ask them to send us their executive system of government. We would have a President (two terms only) and two houses, and restrict all those politicians to two terms only. Of course, being Indian politicians, our lot will try to make as much money as they can in those two terms. But since they now do it in one five-year term, I can see we could benefit. They could also teach us how to keep criminals out of politics. An American with a criminal record is barred from holding office. In India...

We could certainly import their judiciary. Americans do not have to wait one hundred years for their cases to come up in court and another hundred while it wends it away through their judicial system. They can get a judgment in a couple of years and their Supreme Court will only allow constitutional matters to be brought to it.

I would certainly like the Americans to give us their administrative set up. In fact, we should do an exchange, send our babus across for theirs. Let the Americans pay through their noses for every little thing that they need — from a driving licence to a property registration. American bureaucrats do love their paper work too but they do not have to be bribed to do their jobs.

We could also do with dollops of their discipline and their ethic of hard work. Americans are in their offices at 8.30 for a 9 a.m. start, and they only leave at 5.30 p.m. During those hours, they actually work very hard. We are lucky to find anyone, whether in the public or private sector, at his or her desks during working hours.

We do not need their cokes or their helicopter gunships. We could do with their expertise in building a decent road, one that does not dissolve in the first drizzle. The Americans have also perfected their telephone system. I love the American telephone, it always works. While we pay excessively for a telephone call, many Americans get theirs free. They can call all over the world for a few cents. We have to be rich enough to make a call to Delhi.

They could also teach us how to keep our public places clean and spotless. They could teach us to take pride and dignity in our work, whether we are a rocket scientist or a road cleaner.

I am not saying the Americans are perfect but we could do a lot better learning their efficiencies and adopting some of their principles.

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