democracy at work

He also demanded that Centre-sponsored schemes be pruned, arguing that the state suffered trying to match Centre’s grants.

nitish kumar in bihar complains that he doesn't have money, while over the last couple of weeks, parties in the coalition at the centre were working hard, engaged in serious negotiations over who gets what ministry, so that they could serve bihar better.

they used to say: democracy is about villages managing their own affairs, and districts theirs and so on... what can delhi do if the villages just throw up their hands and return the power in their hands to the districts, which pass them onto the state capitals which in turn push everything back to the centre? so delhi makes democracy work extra hard at the centre, to make up for all the passing-the-buck-ness in the villages and districts etc- no pair of grubby hands in the coalition should remain idle!

all that unused power generates so much money in delhi that it has to spend hard working years thinking up schemes to help the poor in bihar. it definitely helps that there are so many do-gooders around in the coalition, everyone competing to get into the right portfolios, ministerial berths that are seeing a lot of action from an investment perspective, to serve the poor in bihar and elsewhere. it's so heartening to see democracy work! when would the ingrates in the villages understand its power?