Arun Kumar
The Triad consisting of the corrupt businessmen, corrupt political class and the corrupt executive. They perpetuate illegality to increases their incomes while people’s welfare becomes incidental.
How many stampedes need to occur, bridges need to collapse, fires need to devastate public places, cities need to get flooded for the nation to act to reform the crippled and crippling systems? Adverse events occur with such regularity that the public accepts them with resignation and cynicism. Many suffer silently, believing that it is God ordained fate. And, the well-off accept that they cannot insulate themselves from these uncivilised living conditions in spite of their wealth.
Woeful public health facilities even in metros, pollution of air and water and overcrowded trains from which people fall don’t seem to move people to force administration to act. When so much goes wrong, the public even forgets what exercised them just a few days earlier. So, there is no sustained pressure on the rulers to reform systems. Media is more alert and informs the public but that has not resulted in sufficient pressure for reforms.
Can the blame for all round systems’ failures be put on India’s size, its huge population and persistent poverty? Do they come in the way of better designed and functional systems?
Extreme weather events are occurring with greater frequency globally and not just in India. For example, the recent floods in Atlanta saw water rise 25 feet in 45 minutes giving trapped people little chance to escape.
Forest fires occur routinely in rich Canada, USA and Europe. These are not caused by systems’ failures. In fact, because the systems are well developed in these countries, relief comes quickly and correctives are devised. It is the rising incidence of gun violence and racial discrimination in the USA that can be pinned on systems failure.
So, systems’ failures need to be distinguished from chance occurrences. India faces both kinds of challenges with the former dominating. Becoming a developed nation implies a civilised existence. So, there is no option but to design better systems that deliver and fail infrequently.
Crumbling infrastructure
Forty-two major and minor bridges reportedly collapsed in India between 2019 and 2024. Of these, 21 were on National Highways and 6 of them were under construction. While some bridges have collapsed due to heavy rains and swollen rivers in the hills, many others have fallen due to poor construction, inadequate maintenance and faulty design. This is likely to be the case in the recent dramatic collapse of the bridge over Mahisagar river in Vadodara.
Maharashtra deputy chief Minister Ajit Pawar said in frustration that India is soon to be the third largest economy but bridges are falling. Perhaps he was responding to the adverse reports regarding the new Palava flyover. Mumbai has been witness to collapse of railway over bridges and a huge hoarding.
The approach road to the prestigious Atal Setu developed cracks soon after the PM inaugurated it. Parts of the newly inaugurated Rs. 14,000 crore Mumbai coastal road looked like patch work. In August 2024, Bihar witnessed collapse of 15 bridges in 2 months. In NCR, the Hero Honda Chowk flyover has repeatedly developed defects.
Collapse of buildings is routinely reported. Recently the collapse of a school building in Rajasthan has taken the lives of children. Not just old dilapidated buildings have collapsed, but newly constructed buildings have collapsed due to use of shoddy materials, poor design and violation of building bye-laws.
Fires kill people because buildings are often death traps since they do not provide for easy escape routes. They may have narrow passages and electricity supply boxes are located at the staircase so that people cannot use them to escape fires resulting from short circuits, etc..
Big events have lacked adequate crowd control measures. Like in the case of stampedes at Mansa Devi, Maha Kumbh, Vaikunt Ekadsi Darshan in Tirupati and IPL celebrations in Bengaluru. Year after year, Gurugram, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangaluru, Chennai, etc. get flooded during rains.
Why is providing proper drainage so difficult? Municipalities claim construction of new drains and there desilting but when rains come they are found to be inadequate. Clearly, commercial interests and apathy overwhelm public interest when water bodies are encroached leaving no place for water to drain out or get absorbed in the ground.
Education infrastructure is woeful. A recent government report shows that over half the school children struggle with basics. 40% of the children in the age group 14 to 18 years cannot read or write 2nd standard material.
Even though Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in higher education has increased to about 30%, most students are poorly trained and industry labels them as unemployable. Yes, India produces a few thousand world class students every year. But, that is because of their innate talent and not due to the education system which largely suppresses inquiry.
Systems’ failure
These systemic defects are routinely analysed and reports prepared to tackle them yet they persist. This can only mean that either the analysis is superficial and/or the capacity to devise robust systems is weak and/or implementation is weak.
Often, grand announcements are made but funds allotted are inadequate and their effectiveness is reduced by rampant corruption so that outcomes are not achieved. This is policy failure and poor governance. It has not only persisted but deteriorated as society has become more complex and the black economy has grown.
Widespread policy failure implies non-accountability of political leadership. This has been true irrespective of the political party in power. This has reduced public’s choice and made it cynical. The effect is that the public has little faith in the rulers’ promises to deliver in the long run.
So, now it seeks immediate gains via freebies. Further, voters see gains in voting for their caste or community person from whom they can potentially get some out of turn favour. This is true whether nationally or regionally.
The effect is to hollow out democracy with voting becoming formalistic wherein the representatives are not expected to deliver long term development. After gaining power, political leaders instead of being accountable to the public serve vested interests who finance their politics.
A nexus is created to manipulate policies to enable vested interests to make extra profits. Cronies corner licenses by manipulating policies, corner government contracts and get favourable policies formulated. Now they also acquire profitable businesses, like airports and cement companies.
Triad formation
Underlying systems failures is weak accountability of businesses and political leadership so that they can made illegal profits. For manipulation to succeed, the executive has to be a party and it gets it’s share of the loot. The honest among them are bypassed and/or harassed. So, the police collects hafta rather than implement the rule of law. Bureaucrats suffer from post 55 syndrome and do the bidding of those in power.
This is the Triad consisting of the corrupt businessmen, corrupt political class and the corrupt executive. They perpetuate illegality to increases their incomes while people’s welfare becomes incidental. These are the black incomes obtained through subversion of the rule of law. The rapid growth of black incomes is a reflection of the subversion of laws and running down of systems which become incapable of delivery.
Its size has increased from 4 to 5% estimated by Prof Kaldor in 1955-56 to 62% by 2012-13. These numbers represent the extent of illegality in the country. If the size had declined, the direct tax to GDP per cent would have dramatically risen. Instead it has hovered at between 5.5% and 6.5%. Since those in power derive huge benefits from black income generation, they are not interested in checking its growth and only make a show of action. Wide spread prevalence of feudal attitudes helps in sustaining unaccountability of those in power.
As illegality spreads and systems weaken, cynicism and alienation spreads. Where all can people fight so, they join in rather than resisting illegality. Commitment to work declines and ‘Chalta hai’ attitude spreads. Pride in professionalism and perfection declines. Cutting corners and not maintaining quality, use of shoddy material and untrained workers are ways of making higher profits. Then why would infrastructure not fail, education not be of poor standard and stampedes not occur.
Black economy also undermines technological dynamism. When illegality becomes a sure shot route for increasing profits why would businesses take the risky route of spending on R&D. They prefer to import technology when needed. When cronyism enables acquisition of profitable businesses, effort to do better is not required. The result has been India’s growing dependence on import of technology and weak R&D.
In brief, there is a vicious cycle of illegality, fraying of systems and policy failure. So, what should happen does not happen. This will persist until the three wings constituting the Triad are forced to become accountable and check their greed due to public pressure.
Arun Kumar is retired professor of economics, JNU. He is the author of Indian Economy’s Greatest Crisis: Impact of the Coronavirus and the Road Ahead, 2020, ‘The Black Economy in India’. 2017 and 1999, and `Understanding Black Economy and Black Money in India: …..’ 2017.
The article was first published in The Wire as What Should Happen Often Does Not Happen: Policy Failure and Non-Accountability of Political Leadership on 29th July,,2025.
Disclaimer: All views expressed in the article belong solely to the author and not necessarily to the organisation.
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Acknowledgment: This article was posted by Aashvee Prisha , a Visiting Researcher at IMPRI.
