10 points that Rahul Gandhi made: more decentralised states doing a better job

The free-wheeling conversation between the Congress leader and the former RBI Governor threw up several insights that they shared with each other. Here are a few thoughts that Rahul Gandhi shared:

· There is too much centralisation of power taking place and conversations are stopping. Conversations would help a lot of the problems. But they are breaking for some reason.

· Panchayati Raj has had a huge effect, but I’m sorry to say it is in retreat. So, a lot of the forward movement that had taken place on Panchayati Raj, we are sort of moving back to this bureaucratic DM based structure. If you look at the southern states, they are doing a better job because they are more decentralised. The northern States are centralising power and they are taking away power from the panchayats and grassroots organisations. The closer the decisions are taken to people, the more ability they have to keep a check. I think it is an experiment worth doing.

· What has amazed me is how important ‘mahaul’ or sentiment and trust is to economics. One of the things I am finding during this COVID issue is that the real problem is the trust issue. People don’t quite understand what is going to happen next. So, there is fear in the system.

· It is interesting that infrastructure connects people and that gives opportunity. But if there is division and hatred, that disconnects people. That is also infrastructure. There is an infrastructure of division and an infrastructure of hatred and that causes is a big problem. Also, you tend to divide and look backwards into history when you are struggling with a forward vision.

· There is a new model out, which is the authoritarian model, which is questioning the liberal model. It is a different way of doing work and it seems to be rising in more and more places.

· A far as differences in governance between western countries and India, there is the scale, first of all. The scale of the problem and at its heart the financial scale of the problem. The inequality and the nature of the inequality. Things like caste, the way Indian society is structured is completely different than American society.

· Some of the ideas that hold India back are deeply embedded and often hidden. There is a lot of social change that is required in India and a lot of these problems are different in different states. The politics of Tamil Nadu, the culture of Tamil Nadu, the language of Tamil Nadu, the way the Tamils think is completely different from the way UP-ites think; you have to model things around them. One blanket solution for the whole of India just will not work, can’t work.

· There is an element in our governance system-- which I think is completely different from United States-in our administrative system, of control. Our idea is always one of control. The idea of Governance in India is always about trying to control and I think that is one of the challenges that we are facing now. The COVID-19 disease cannot be controlled, it has got to be managed.

· One of the things that annoys me is the level of inequality, So, the type of things I always look at is how to sort of reduce this inequality because I think once a system reaches a very level of inequality, then it simply stops to work. You know, I like Gandhiji's line, just go to the back of the line and see what's going on at the back of the line. This is a very powerful thing for a politician, it’s underrated, but I think that's where a lot of the insights come in.

· It’s visible in Covid also. I mean, the way India is treating its poor people, the way we are treating our poor people, migrants vs the way the elite is being treated, two completely different ideas, two completely different India’s. So, how do you merge these two India’s into one?