Emerging new challenges
K. S. RAMAKRISHNAN
THE CALL OF THE 21ST CENTURY AND OTHER ESSAYS: B. S. Raghavan; Pub. by the ICFAI University Press, 52, Nagarjuna Hills, Punjagutta, Hyderabad-500082. $ 26.50
Not all government administrators have a facile pen too. Among those who do, few put it to as good and as frequent use as the author has done.
A prolific writer and a regular columnist in journals, the author's interests are eclectic. The essays in this volume, published in journals or delivered as lectures, encompass multifarious fields such as challenges before the world in the new millennium, effective mobilisation of civil society, principles of negotiation (at bilateral, multilateral and at international levels), effective communication in real-life situations (one-to-one, one-to-many, round table), India's and the world's food security strategies, need to revamp the Reserve Bank of India, nominating someone from a developing country as the chief of the World Bank (P. Chidambaram, Yashwant Sinha or Bimal Jalan will fill the bill admirably, the author says) and cyber-currency.
Challenges
In the first essay that lends the title to the book, the author discusses the possible challenges to the 21st century world from the five revolutions involving knowledge, communications, technology, management and sociology, whose sweep is likely to be unprecedented. He argues that India, particularly, must learn to convert `numbers' (its population) into resources for meeting these challenges.
The essay enumerating the guiding principles that should govern negotiations — the process by which the different parties engaged in it seek to mutualise and maximise the advantages to themselves from an agreed transaction — is particularly illuminating. "The chief merit of negotiation as the civilized way of bridging viewpoints is that, skilfully handled, it can lead to a win-win situation in which everyone counts himself a winner and none the loser," he says appropriately.
Asides
The author's narration of some experiences with political readers is quite revealing. In a meeting convened by Lal Bahadur Shastri to discuss the possible response of India to Pakistan's provocations in 1965, Gen. J. N. Chaudhuri, Army Chief, said that, in order to worst the enemy, "we must have three times the resources that they have" and plunged into details of guns, arms, ammunition, and even shoes, to show that the ratios did not work out in favour of an Indian army action. Shastri's response was, "General Saheb, if everything is in exactly the same proportion as laid down in the copy book, even I can be a General! Where is then the question of leadership?" The General deflated with a hiss and said, "Give the orders, sir. We are ready."
It was again Shastri who persuaded C. Subramaniam to take up the portfolio of Food and Agriculture (though CS himself thought it was a come-down for him) telling him that the Ministry needed "all the leadership abilities, drive, dynamism, capacity to think out of the box, scientific temper and technology-savvy that only CS possessed." Therein were sown the seeds of the remarkable Green Revolution.
Reservation for women
Among the various political leaders he had contacts with during his administrative career, the author counts, surprisingly, Indira Gandhi as topping his list by humour index. During a visit on a rainy day by her to a refugee camp in Bengal, the author was the Divisional Commissioner of North Bengal. "Holding an umbrella over her in one hand, I firmly grasped her elbow with the other to support her while walking. She flashed a charming smile and said ever so gently, `Mr. Raghavan, the only problem about your catching hold of me is going to be that, when you fall, you are going to pull me down also along with you'." A mild and effective rebuke indeed!
The author offers a simple solution to the reservation for women in Parliament and State Assemblies: instead of amending the Constitution, amend the Representatives of People Act making it mandatory for every recognised political party to ensure that one-third of the candidates fielded by it are women.
With his long stint in Food & Agricultural Organisation, the author argues for a world food security strategy on the lines of the successful Indian experiment. Though published in ephemeral journals, many of the essays in the book will have long-standing relevance. Candidates appearing for IAS and similar competitive examinations can benefit immensely from both the content and style of these essays.
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