My intellectual journey began right here in Pondicherry - and it all came back to me as I strolled leisurely down Beach Road last evening. I used to walk up and down this road every night in the mid-80s, accompanied by my dog, who was never on a leash. Then, as now, most of the buildings in this prime part of town are State Property. First you pass the huge office of the Tourism Department. Then comes the Central Excise and Service Tax Department. There is the office of the Legal Services Authority. There is a memorial to BR Ambedkar. Tucked away is the huge office of the Inspector-General of Police. And finally, at the other end of this short road, is the gigantic, and ugly, Chief Secretariat.
Even then, I used to ponder over a little building that used to house the Mayor's office in French times. Then, it was being used as a State-run cafe. It still is.
But the huge big government of Pondicherry doesn't stop here. Just behind Beach Road is the Democratic Assembly. They put up a Chief Minister and his big Cabinet.
Heading all this is a Lieutenant-Governor!
All this - and no Mayor.
Then, as now, the town is a mess. And all the taxation is predatory. While I was breakfasting at a roadside stall this morning, a motorcycle drew up and the woman running the stall paid him some money in exchange for a tax receipt. Upon inquiry, I learnt that he was from the Municipality. What "service" does the Municipality provide for which they extort this tax? Indeed, what "service" does the entire Indian State provide us that we pay them "service tax"?
In 1988, I finally got the chance to study Comparative Local Government at the London School of Economics. Interestingly, they didn't teach me about the Lord Mayor of London - which I found out about and studied myself. I have been studying and writing ever since
I left the LSE in 1989 - and my concern has remained the same: To solve the riddle that Government presented. In time - and intellectual evolution takes time - I finally came back to the realisation that all we need are mayors. Nothing more. This idea first came into my head 25 years ago - right here in Pondicherry. It all came back to me last evening. It felt good to be back.
At the LSE, I learnt about William Niskanen's theory of the "budget-maximising bureaucrat." This is evident in Pondicherry. The IAS and the IPS have simply multiplied government departments, expanding staff and budgets - this, while providing no real service to the citizenry at all. On the way to Beach Road, there is a huge office of the Traffic Police. And on Beach Road itself, another of the Tourist Police. Now, that's a new one, ain't it?
Being a Sunday evening, Beach Road was milling with people. The road was closed to traffic, but a Maruti van belonging to the Tourist Police was being driven up and down. Seated within were some cops with guns. A few plainclothes guys mingling in the crowd would have sufficed, I thought. You rarely see uniformed cops in Amsterdam.
Last evening, I saw a tent at one corner of Beach Road housing a handicraft exhibition-cum-sale. It was stifling inside. But the stuff on display was quite good. And varied. No space for private commerce on this road. All the space has been taken up by The State - and the Aurobindo Ashram, of course, about which more later.
What do all these government big-wigs do here? I found the answer at the air-conditioned ATM. There was a uniformed guard inside. I told him he had a good job - sitting in air-conditioning all day, with nothing to do. He smiled happily. Then I asked him how much he earned - and he said 5000 rupees a month. I told him he could earn much more if he got off his butt, got out of the air-conditioning, and did some "real work." The roadside vendor who provides me with breakfast every morning earns many times more.
Like the guard in the ATM, our IAS-IPS chaps are just sitting in air-conditioned offices, doing nothing. Shuffling files around.
I am therefore of the firm opinion that Pondicherry should drastically reduce the size of its government and revert to French times, when all they had was a Mayor. That is all this little town needs. This huge big government is just a burden created by budget-maximisers, funded by rapacious tax collectors, and also by the "funny money" of the inflationist Reserve Bank of India.
I have a lecture ready and waiting to be delivered - Powerpoint presentation and all - on the subject of "Free Cities: Theory, History and Practice." It is scheduled to be delivered in Mangalore in July, but I would be more than happy to deliver it right here in Pondicherry, preferably under the aegis of Lions Club International, whose advertisements I saw all over town. If anyone wants to contact me for the purpose, I am available at the L'Ocean Guest House.
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