With the General Election just round
the corner, political parties are leaving no stone unturned to project how, if
voted to power they will bring a colossal change to the way the system functions
in India. So on one hand you have a Narendra Modi, whom Time magazine describes
as “America’s other India problem”, boasting tirelessly about how single
handedly he turned around Gujrat’s economy , completely ignoring the question
of social inclusiveness and the fundamental concept of secularism. On the other
hand you have a 43 year old, still eating out of Mumma’s hand “young” man, who
is almost shamelessly reaping the benefit of dynasty politics. This gentle man
has standard answer for all questions; shows mock anger in political rallies &
possess the sense to tolerate all the “nonsense” happening around him. And then
we have a recent addition to this bunch of jokers. A mufflered messiah, who
calls himself AAM but behaves and probably believes that he is of the Alphonso variety,
spends his time demonstrating against everyone, (hold your breath , including
against his own govt) instead of putting focus on administration that could
have helped the democracy succeed or at least survive.
Entangled in this milieu of Machiavellian
Politics, common man has lost his faith in system. That India still continues
to survive is a miracle. Take this example. A basic facility like health care
is in doldrums. Forget the Govt apathy; even the private players have learned
the tricks of the trade. They know whom to warm up to. Hence they are least
bothered to serve the general paying public.
A health Insurance company like #ApolloMunich
, which promises 24*7 customer care , doesn’t even respond to calls post 6 PM. Imagine
calling them in case of a medical emergency. The only time they show prompt
service is while acquiring new customer or when renewal of policy is due. The
govt on its part has constituted #IRDA, to deal with such erratic service
providers. On its website they have a list that provides the contact details of
Grievance Redressal Officers for each Insurance company. Unfortunately that
list was last updated probably during Chacha Nehru’s regime, since the contact
details provided in that list are invalid. And yes they too have a toll free
call centre. Hoping against hope, you call the number. No surprises here as
well, the call centre employee is not even aware of the list put on their own
IRDA website, fails to differentiate between a general and a health insurance and
promptly puts down the phone.
Now let’s analyze a case of India’s
oldest private airline #JetAirways. They believe they can cancel any flight (no
weather/technical issue) as per their whims and fancies. And yes they have the
audacity of cancelling a two hour flight and booking an individual for a 10
hour Bharat Darshan Journey as well. Miffed when you contact their so called
customer care, the response you get is a polite “go to Hell”. Devoid of any
other way and as a law abiding citizen you decide to exercise your right.
Logically you might be thinking of lodging a complain with #DGCA . Ah, don’t even
try that. DGCA has as recently as Jan’14 created a dedicated email id sugam@dgca.nic.in for complains to be
registered. They have published about it in most of leading dailies .Any email
to this id is responded with a mail delivery failure. This customer complain
cell is headed by a Joint Director General Ranked babu Mr. Lalit Gupta, who
never replies to emails.
Now I have another amazing story
to share, just to showcase how beautifully our system works. A provident fund
transfer could not happen over a period of 22 months and 46 emails. It is only
after an intervention from the Prime Minister’s office, I was able to get the
money I, all the while was thinking mine ! EPFO too have a grievance redressal system,
which has been trained extensively to give only standardized replies! As a consumer,
without any fault of mine, the EPFO expected me to travel between their Kolkata
and Mumbai office, meet them again and again, and probably give some kickback
to get the issue sorted. And the beauty of the system is neither the Chief
Provident Fund Commissioner, a very senior ranked IAS, nor his office bother to
reply to umpteen letters /mails. About the Ministry of Labour, under which EPF
comes, the lesser said the better.
That politicians are self
centered idiots is a foregone conclusion. But what about our bureaucrats, who
have the best of the mind in the country and are, treated as a special class
across the socio – economic strata. Did the system failed them or they failed
the system is a debate for some other day, but today India runs on faith.
Unfortunately this faith doesn’t stem from the deep rooted conviction but rather
is a byproduct of sheer hopelessness. How long a nation can run like this , how
long people will tolerate this will be interesting to watch. At the moment to
Modiji, Rahulji , AAM ADMI ji and all your sycophant supporter , the country is
aware of your capability and hence it doesn’t need you, rather you need the
nation to either amass wealth or to satiate your shameless hunger for power.
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