Page 180 - EW December 2025

Postscript

Tale of two cities liamentary time lost costs taxpayers Rs.2.5 lakh.
On November 20, Maharashtra’s BJP-Shiv Sena gov-
ernment issued a government resolution (GR) directing
RECENT SOJOURN IN MUMBAI PROVIDED AN
enlightening experience in civic innovation and all public officials to “stand and greet” MPs and MLAs,
A management. The brief Mumbai excursion offered “listen attentively to their concerns, and speak politely
to them on the phone”. Further, the GR requires public
an up close and personal demo of the can-do problems-
solving capabilities of the metro’s intelligentsia and state officials to maintain courtesy registers, ensure two-month
response deadlines, arrange fixed meetings every first
and local governments. In 2009 construction of a four
lane 2.4 km sea bridge — the Bandra-Worli Sea link — and third Thursday with MPs and MLAs, and extend
was completed to link the suburb of Bandra and mid- invitations to them to important district events. Failure to
observe these proprieties and niceties will result in disci-
town Worli, shaving over 40 minutes commuting time for
motorists journeying from the spanking new Manhattan- plinary action for non-compliance, says the GR.
Such absurd deference demanded by MPs & MLAs is
style Bandra-Kurla business hub to South Bombay (aka
SoBo). pervasive. On November 21, the Punjab & Haryana high
Last week, your correspondent’s usual 45-60 min- court passed strictures against the Haryana government
utes ride between Mumbai Airport and SoBo’s Peddar for issuing a show-cause notice to a government doc-
Road was reduced to 30 minutes as I sped along a newly tor for not springing to his feet when an MLA visited his
hospital.
constructed 14 km coastal highway featuring perhaps the
country’s first double-decker flyover linking upscale, mid- The Constitution of India says that MPs and MLAs are
town Worli to Marine Lines in SoBo. Moreover a recent public servants. Evidently, this privileged unaccountable
gentry has a different interpretation of this master-ser-
origin metro rail network orchestrated by the Mumbai
Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) vant relationship.
has established four rail lines, including the newly inau-
gurated (October) Aqua underground railway which links Curious insouciance
north and south Mumbai.
In sharp contrast, Bengaluru’s road network has
expanded by a mere 6,000 km over the past decade with AY BACK IN THE 1960-80 DECADES THERE
several flyover construction projects stalled for years, even was frequent lament about India’s “brain drain”
as 2,774 vehicles are being registered every day to add to Wwhen graduates of the country’s heavily subsi-
the 2.5 million cars and 8.2 million two-wheelers plying dised government-owned IITs, IIMs, IISc and AIIMS who
the garden city’s notoriously potholed roads. Meanwhile, paid a pittance for high quality education, were gladly
14 years after work on the construction of Bengaluru’s snapped up by Western universities, corporates, and
Namma Metro project commenced, ridership of the metro public health services. But that lament was obfuscated
rail network is only 1 million passengers daily. by self-serving establishment economists advancing the
Little wonder the average speed of automobiles in argument that the brain drain is compensated by crumbs
Bangalore is 10 km per hour, the lowest worldwide as sent back by emigres as “remittances” to starving relatives
beleaguered state and local authorities vainly attempt to back home. It was also ingeniously advanced that eventu-
please every NIMBY (not in my backyard) group of the ally the brain drain would transform into brain gain when
Garden City hurtling towards gridlock. Clearly the state emigrants returned to India.
and municipal governments aren’t yet aware that to make Meanwhile in neigbouring China, a Thousand Tal-
omelets, breaking eggs is a necessary precondition. ents Plan (TTP) was introduced in 2008 to reverse the
brain-drain of Chinese scientists overseas, and to attract
high-level foreign professionals. In 2010, TTP was ab-
Master-servant inversion sorbed into a larger National Talent Development Plan
comprising over 200 talent-recruitment programmes.
Evidently, this policy/programme has paid off. Currently,
HE AVERAGE COST TO THE TAXPAYER FOR
supporting India’s 543 Members of Parliament China whose GDP of $300 billion (ppp) was on a par with
T(MPs) entitled to highly subsidised housing in luxu- India’s in 1978, has transformed into the world’s leading
rious bungalows, unlimited free air and rail travel, life- research innovations hub clocking an annual GDP of $20
trillion (cf. India’s $4.5 trillion), and a global tech and
long pensions, VIP security, chauffeur-driven cars, fuel
allowance, office expense budgets, constituency allow- financial super-power.
Despite this live example next door, the Indian estab-
ance, priority access at airports, is estimated at Rs.1,070 lishment’s response to the continuous flight of capital and
crore per year. For supporting MLAs of the country’s 29
states and eight Union territories, the cost to the taxpayer talent from India remains insouciant. According to a lead
editorial in The Times of India (25/11) “migration of the
is only marginally less. Against this, the per capita income
of India is $2,600 (Rs.2.34 lakh). superrich is as natural as that of skilled people” and noth-
In consideration, MPs and MLAs are obliged to leg- ing to worry about. Moreover, it says that “the increasing
islate laws to govern the country after reasoned delib- mobility of people must be celebrated”. The cavalier edi-
eration and debate. However during the last monsoon torial is silent about the iniquity of an amoral middle class
whose education is still subsidised by a desperately poor
session of Parliament (July 21-August 21), two-thirds of
parliamentary time was lost because of disruptive and citizenry, upping and outing to readily serve in Western
unruly behaviour of MPs. Every minute of scheduled par- economies and our erstwhile imperial masters. Pathetic.

180 EDUCATIONWORLD DECEMBER 2025