Show Me My Money

The other day I came across this rather interesting article that was reprinted from some American newspaper. It featured an imaginary conversation that a poor American man has with an officer of some bank. He asks for a bailout, she tells him that they only offer loans. He asks if he is eligible for a loan given his personal finances and she says no. So he asks her why they are giving $700 Billion to the fat cats at wall street. She replies its because they really need the money. So the article goes on with the man pointing out that his financial position is no different from the investment banks at Wall Street. And the banking officer refusing to give him a loan. Finally he loses his cool and says, ' Okay then. Give me my share of the $700 Billion back'. As you can imagine the lady is stumped. The now irate customer takes her case (and the financial world's) about how no one took his permission before doling out bailouts. And since he thinks he needs the money more than Wall Street, he wants his share back. The story continues with him adding up the various bailout packages that the US Government has handed out to rich CEOs over the years. He then calculates what his share should have been and demands that they give it back to him.

This article got me thinking. What if we were to take this idea even further? What if we gave people the option of deciding how their share of the country's (India) annual budget was spent?

Silence. Pin drop silence. Then hysterical and mocking laughter? Hahaha... you want to give the Aam Aadmi the right to decide how we spend the Government's money? Damn right I do.

To prove my point, I am going to give you a few instances where power was taken from the hands of a chosen (self-nominated) few and given to the people. Let's start with the Right to Vote. Till a few centuries ago almost no country in the world allowed its people to choose their rulers. In fact, till the middle of the 20th century most of the world was ruled by masters sitting 5,000 miles away. Didn't those masters think that their colonial subjects weren't fit to govern themselves? Winston Churchill was certainly one of those gora saabs who thought that we were unfit to rule our own country. (Our netas n babus might be doing their best to prove him right, but that is another matter.. wink wink). But at least today people know that they if they don't like a particular administration they can opt for a change the next election. It is called the Pan India anti-incumbency factor!

What about the right to print books and circulate your ideas? Till Gutenberg came along only the very rich and the very powerful knew how to read and write. The nobles and the priests felt that it would be too dangerous to allow the common people to learn how to read & write. Haven't we come a long way since? Today any idiot can log onto the web and ramble on and on about some silly idea. I know one such fellow very well. But the point is that people today have the choice of not only what to they read, but to a great extent, what they write.

So why don't we take the financial decision making away from the hands of the great planners, open it up to the masses, bring in more transparency and let people have a say in how the government busts up their money. I think that the Right to Information Act is a step in this direction.

As someone who is concerned about the state of our environment, I want the government to spend more money on saving our forests, equipping our forest rangers with better equipment, funding research into renewable energy, educating our children, encouraging sports, providing better health care, improving the courts, and also... improving my country's defense and security.

What I don't like to see is netas busting up money on their pet projects and babus making us bear the bill for their foreign junkets. Neta dude, if you think that building a statue in the sea is a great idea, please convince enough of your followers to spend THEIR share of OUR budget on it. Once they realize that this statue of yours will come at the cost of their health care, education and municipal facilities you may find it a lot more difficult.

Now do you get the picture? Once ministers and their ministries realize that they will have to actually work for their budgets, am certain that things will improve. Still, its only an idea. One that will have to be dissected and refined before it becomes remotely feasible. But eventually, it will force netas and babus to do what they are supposed to do - govern, and not rule.

So I'll leave you with this thought, 'Take a look at your country, your environment and your local surroundings... and then ask yourself what would you want to change, if you had the money to do so?'