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Governance and the Sclerosis That Has Set In
By a leading author and politician, a thoughtful analysis of the Indian bureaucracy, and a call for a need to reform law and procedures. Based on extensive first-hand experience. Many anecdotes, case studies.
250 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2004
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111 people want to read
About the author
Arun Shourie
39 books298 followersIndian economist, journalist, author and politician.
He has worked as an economist with the World Bank, a consultant to the Planning Commission of India, editor of the Indian Express and The Times of India and a Minister of Communications and Information Technology in the Vajpayee Ministry (1998–2004). He was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1982 and the Padma Bhushan in 1990.
Popularly perceived as one of the main Hindu nationalist intellectuals during the 90s and early 2000s.
He has worked as an economist with the World Bank, a consultant to the Planning Commission of India, editor of the Indian Express and The Times of India and a Minister of Communications and Information Technology in the Vajpayee Ministry (1998–2004). He was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1982 and the Padma Bhushan in 1990.
Popularly perceived as one of the main Hindu nationalist intellectuals during the 90s and early 2000s.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 6, 2019
I haven’t read non-fiction as a genre for quite some time. Picking up Sidin Vadukut’s book recently re-ignited my interest in the genre. I have also been working up an interest in learning about recent Indian history. Books about this era starting from post-liberalization have now been emerging for quite some time now.
Arun Shourie is one of the authors who have written about India’s post-liberalization era. He was also a cabinet minister in the Vajpayee government. He covers three broad areas in this book – bureaucracy, environment and immigration. He shows through examples how the thinking within the government is not directed at solving the issue at hand but in ensuring that one is not held responsible for any errors in the resolution of such issues.
To be sure, some of these issues are complex. He also faces the same difficulty that his predecessors had in resolving the issues at hand. He tends to defend the delay caused during his own regime in the various Ministries whilst not really defending the actions taken by his predecessors in the same Ministries.
The book, otherwise, is a wonderful collection of reflection and insight into the working and the thinking inside the Government towards the end of the twentieth century and that in transition from the license raj to liberalisation. It is also a pretty breezy read despite being a book that cites a lot of correspondence and timelines to back up his assertions and observations, which are few, short and sometimes satirical to drive the point through.
Strangely, there were a lot of Arun Shourie interviews that got aired around the time I was reading this book. Again getting access to the government will hopefully push him to write more books that will help Indian citizens understand the issues with more clarity and depth.
Arun Shourie is one of the authors who have written about India’s post-liberalization era. He was also a cabinet minister in the Vajpayee government. He covers three broad areas in this book – bureaucracy, environment and immigration. He shows through examples how the thinking within the government is not directed at solving the issue at hand but in ensuring that one is not held responsible for any errors in the resolution of such issues.
To be sure, some of these issues are complex. He also faces the same difficulty that his predecessors had in resolving the issues at hand. He tends to defend the delay caused during his own regime in the various Ministries whilst not really defending the actions taken by his predecessors in the same Ministries.
The book, otherwise, is a wonderful collection of reflection and insight into the working and the thinking inside the Government towards the end of the twentieth century and that in transition from the license raj to liberalisation. It is also a pretty breezy read despite being a book that cites a lot of correspondence and timelines to back up his assertions and observations, which are few, short and sometimes satirical to drive the point through.
Strangely, there were a lot of Arun Shourie interviews that got aired around the time I was reading this book. Again getting access to the government will hopefully push him to write more books that will help Indian citizens understand the issues with more clarity and depth.
December 17, 2012
The most boring book i have ever had the pleasure of reading. I had picked up this book thinking that it will enlighten me about how Government functions, what are the reasons for red tape and how to tackle it. But instead of explaining the above points, the author went on giving loads of complicated & boring examples to prove a single point. Yeah, i think he somewhat answered what is the solution for this SCLEROSIS, that too was unsatisfactory. I just felt that this book is written exclusively for those in the govt. with no regard to common citizens. I will not be reading this author's books for a long time.
February 7, 2012
I think interesting book on how our bureaucracy works by Arun Shourie and also well researched. Book is not written in flow, which is typical shourie's style. So it is for someone who wants to understand, how Indian government and bureaucracy works.
December 3, 2017
Unending rant about the problems in the government and the governance but no clear cut solutions or initiatives mentioned. An attempt to criticize the very same government mechanism of which the author was a part for almost 5 years but didn't say anything during that period. This book cannot hold a candle to the books like "Everybody Loves a Good Drought" or even "India Unbound".
January 22, 2022
Not an easy read, considering the excessive details - didn't really learn anything new, disappointing compared to his other books
March 15, 2022
"This is the real route to reform-continue to transfer functions and power from the state structure to society, not reforming some particular procedure, but redefining the nature of the state itself."
- Governance and the Sclerosis that has set in, Arun Shourie.
Why is Arun Shourie's Governance an important book? Or, more aptly perhaps, why is Shourie worth listening to? Few bylines in Indian journalism had the distinction of becoming a national pronoun. That is what his argument with power had done to him. Then Shourie changed career.
Spread across annotated pages brimming with clauses and quotation marks, figures and charts and other parenthetic devices is an India that doesn't move, in spite of the rustle of the file, which happens to be the battered but immortal protagonist in the book. It is a truism that the Indian bureaucracy, bloated and rusty, has set the speed limit on the state's progress.
On Shourie's pages, it is a labyrinthine tribunal where decisions are unmade and delayed with clockwork precision. Rich in surrealism and the art of the absurd, the government apparat is independent of even the natural laws of commonsense, not to speak of national sense. It is as if the manual of administration is co-authored by Franz Kafka and George Orwell.
What else can explain the paper picaresque kicked off by the colour of the ink on certain files in the Ministry of Steel (see excerpt)? Every discovery is not as entertaining-or harmless-as this one. As minister of disinvestment in the Vajpayee government, Shourie had the insider'sHe devotes a major chunk of his frustration to show how the bureaucratic vaudeville had made amess of the policies of privatisation and telecom. Particularly chilling is his chronicle of how the government let the Bangladeshi immigrants change the demographic as well as nationalist matrix. The state looked the other way as madarasas, radical Islam's nurseries of hate, sprouted along the border.
At the centre of Shourie's argument is an India under attack, and he has seen the mind of the enemy, the one that has been pampered by the Indian state itself.
A highly suggested read, this one
- Governance and the Sclerosis that has set in, Arun Shourie.
Why is Arun Shourie's Governance an important book? Or, more aptly perhaps, why is Shourie worth listening to? Few bylines in Indian journalism had the distinction of becoming a national pronoun. That is what his argument with power had done to him. Then Shourie changed career.
Spread across annotated pages brimming with clauses and quotation marks, figures and charts and other parenthetic devices is an India that doesn't move, in spite of the rustle of the file, which happens to be the battered but immortal protagonist in the book. It is a truism that the Indian bureaucracy, bloated and rusty, has set the speed limit on the state's progress.
On Shourie's pages, it is a labyrinthine tribunal where decisions are unmade and delayed with clockwork precision. Rich in surrealism and the art of the absurd, the government apparat is independent of even the natural laws of commonsense, not to speak of national sense. It is as if the manual of administration is co-authored by Franz Kafka and George Orwell.
What else can explain the paper picaresque kicked off by the colour of the ink on certain files in the Ministry of Steel (see excerpt)? Every discovery is not as entertaining-or harmless-as this one. As minister of disinvestment in the Vajpayee government, Shourie had the insider'sHe devotes a major chunk of his frustration to show how the bureaucratic vaudeville had made amess of the policies of privatisation and telecom. Particularly chilling is his chronicle of how the government let the Bangladeshi immigrants change the demographic as well as nationalist matrix. The state looked the other way as madarasas, radical Islam's nurseries of hate, sprouted along the border.
At the centre of Shourie's argument is an India under attack, and he has seen the mind of the enemy, the one that has been pampered by the Indian state itself.
A highly suggested read, this one
March 25, 2016
Moves at glacial pace..a very very boring book .. If the person is not interested in governance field, it will be very difficult to finish the books.. Author gives good instances of poor functioning of our government like the choice as to which ink to be used for official purpose..
February 12, 2016
didnt liked it much....may be i read it abt 10 years late...most of the things we already know: how govt functions or doesnt functions..
July 24, 2013
A glimpse into the working of the Government and its branches.
Caution: Dry, factual read.
Caution: Dry, factual read.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews