In 2013 as we few classmates met over dinner after many years, a classmate of mine who has spent many years in UK & USA talked of "accountability of tax payer's money", a term many of us common citizens in India rarely use rather remotely even think about it. We have got used to Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) under performing and large corporate houses collapsing with a huge bank debt, all of which is the tax payer's money.
On 27 January 2022 when Tata Sons took over Air India, many in the nation heaved a sigh of relief. Air India from being an international class airline with a profit of Rs 333 crores in 1991 to the beginning of losses in 2006 and finally plummeting to a colossal debt of Rs 61,562 crores as on 31 August 2021, was a money guzzling organisation and it was going deeper and deeper in red with each passing year. But what is more shocking is that not one person from any government organisation has been held accountable for this huge loss of Air India since 2006 when it started going into losses. Few days back as the news broke of ABG Shipyards allegedly cheating a consortium of 28 banks of Rs 22,842 crores, the same question arose once again that will anyone from any government organisation be held accountable for this mammoth loss. If just the figures of the losses of Air India and the payment default of ABG Shipyards are added, it amounts to a whopping Rs 84,404 crores. It takes approximately Rs 100 crores to construct one modern mid-size hospital. 884 hospitals could have been constructed out of the money owed by Air India & ABG Shipyards alone, which would have ensured that each of the 748 districts in India get one modern mid-size hospital and the bigger districts would have got 2 such hospitals. Why is there no accountability of the tax payer's money that those in the seats of power and authority allow cases like Air India and ABG Shipyards to happen over a prolonged period and that such cases repeat periodically. Is it that our laws are inadequate or are our appointees in the government organisations not intelligent and educated enough to foresee the impending collapse of these PSUs or the large corporate houses? It is none of the above. India has the finest laws in the world and the crème de la crème clears the highly competitive examinations to join the government organisations. What allows cases like Air India and ABG Shipyards to happen is only lack of accountability from those in the government organisations. We are a developing nation and every rupee matters to us. The government hospitals and government schools need a big overhaul. In UK & USA the bulk of their population uses government hospitals and send their children to government schools as the standards of these two is at par or in some cases even better than the private hospitals and the private schools. In our country it is exactly the opposite. I do not know even one of my acquaintances whose child has studied/is studying in a government school and who goes for treatment for himself/herself or takes their family members to a government hospital. Till the tax payer's money is utilised with full accountability, cases like Air India or ABG Shipyards will continue to happen in some form or the other. Victor Hugo's famous quote "Nothing can stop an idea, whose time has come" resonates louder today. Let each one of us question the accountability of our tax payer's money. It is then we will see rapid strides in our nation developing and the day will not be far when we too would be a developed nation and not a developing nation. (Lt Col JS Sodhi (Retd) writer who retired from the Indian Army is a prolific writer)