Pandemic has exposed the knowledge base of India’s ruling elite

Pandemic has exposed the knowledge base of India’s ruling elite

Syed Ali Mujtaba

Yoshihiro Francis Fukuyama is an American political scientist, political economist and a demi- god to the students of International Relations world over. In his recent essay ‘The Pandemic and Political Order- It Takes a State’ in the July/August 2020 Volume of Foreign Affairs, he has come up with some poignant analysis of the responses of different countries to the global pandemics COVID 19.

Francis Fukuyama, the author of the book ‘The End of History and the Last Man,’ (1992), in the current essay says many things about how different states are dealing with the novel virus. However, the nugget of his wisdom is his comment that ‘the knowledge base of the governments is directly proportional to their response to deal with the novel virus.’

What the celebrated author is trying say is the global pandemic has unmasked the governing capacity of those currently in power in different countries. He goes on to say the virus has put to test the knowledge of the governments and their responses are as per the limitation of their knowledge base.   

Now if we apply this hypothesis of well-respected author Francis Fukuyama on Indian ruling elite and try to dig into their knowledge base, we can get the answer why their response to such a catastrophe has been so squinted so far.

We all know the knowledge base of our politicians. The educational qualifications of some of them are a national shame. Our Prime Minster Narendra Damodardas Modi has a BA degree in Political Science and got a third class. He graduated from School of Open Learning, University of Delhi in 1978. The educational qualification of the Union minister Smriti Irani is only 10 + 2.  

Now if this educational background of the political leadership the only comment that comes in mind is; Bas ek hi ullu kaafi hai barbaad gulistan karne ko, har shaakh pe ullu baitha hai anjaame gulistan kya hoga… ( just only one owl is sufficient to ruin a garden, when there is an owl at every branch, God only knows the fate of the garden!)

Some counter the above argument saying that the deficiencies of the political figures are covered by the bureaucrats who advises them with their supra intellectual knowledge base.

Now if we dig the knowledge base of our bureaucracy  supposedly the backbone of the knowledge base of the governance of the country many may concur that these ‘Babu’s’ knowledge growth stops once  they pass the civil service exams. Thereafter their effort is in playing the “2+2= 5” game. This means their priority is on promotion and pay scale increment rather than enhancing their knowledge base.  

Further, these bureaucrats are posted in different capacities with different jobs and by the time they gain some knowledge in a given area of specialization they are being transferred. This makes them jack of all and master of none.

In sum, the knowledge base of the steel frame of India is quite shallow and their advice to the political leadership is corresponding to their knowledge base.

Now, if such is the character and composition of the knowledge base of the ruling elite of the country, then obviously their response to deal with the Pandemic could be equated to the parable; ‘the Blind Men and an Elephant.’  So this is the dilemma of Indian ruling elite in dealing with the novel virus.

Industrialist Rajiv Bajaj has succinctly summed up this phenomenon when he taunted that the government has flattened the wrong curve! 

This is exactly what Francis Fukuyama was talking about while making the point that poor knowledge base of the ruling elite is directly responsible for the mismanagement of the global problem.

Fukuyama goes on to make the statement on China from where it is widely believed that corona virus has emerged. He says that even as the Chinese ruling elite were the first to face the heat of the pandemics, they showed extra ordinary reflexes in dealing with the problem. And this reflects upon the knowledge base of the Chinese ruling elite.

Fukuyama further says, other governments who are now struggling with the Pandemics were just sitting with the problem till it started knocking their doors. Their delayed decision to deal with the problem has exposed their poor knowledge base.

As far as India is concerned, the world health organization (WHO) has been issuing warnings about coronavirus attack since November 2019. The Indian ruling elite did not take it seriously and never thought of making preparation for dealing with the virus.

Even after three months when the first Covid case was reported from Thrissur, Kerala on January 30, 2020 and that was the date when WHO issued the sixth warming, Indian ruling elite never woke up to the simmering reality.

In the month of February Indian ruling elite was busy in preparation of hosting ‘Namaste Trump’ event in Gujarat. In March the government was busy till 21^st, toppling the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh. So roughly 120 days the ruling elite squandered at the expense of the lives of the countrymen.

It was only from March 25, 2020, that the government became serious about dealing with the pandemics. In the best of its wisdom what the government did was to totally lock down the country for next 54 days. This ill-conceived government response to the pandemic never slowed down the attack of the virus rather it spurred in this period, exposing the utter failure of the government in dealing with the problem.

In the process what the ruling elite actually did was to take the India’s GDP in its hands and threw it down the cliff. Now it’s collecting its pieces and trying to kick start the economy by giving stimulus packages.   This is the rarest kind of human rascality in the contemporary history of the world.

As Indian we are all witness to the bankruptcy of the knowledge base of the ruling elite of the country.  The responsibility of committing such a disaster can be fixed on the poor knowledge of the governing class of India. Truly, the pandemic has exposed the governing capacity of India’s ruling elite.

---

Syed Ali Mjtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com