I Too Had a Dream

by Verghese Kurien

None of these people ever spoke about marketing, which was so central to increased production.

I have always maintained that since all the selfish and ambitious people from our villages constantly make a beeline for Bombay, Delhi and other glamorous cities, the people who are left behind in our villages are only the good people.

Karnataka, for instance, which had been extremely hostile to Operation Flood, finally had to face a situation where sandals were thrown in the Assembly and the government was asked why Operation Flood was not being brought to their state.

I have always believed that once you identify the best person for a particular project and tell him or her exactly what you expect, you must put your complete trust in that person, allowing him or her to work independently without interference. If you do, the project is bound to succeed.

The tragedy of India is that we frequently have no respect for Indians, for Indian efforts and for Indian successes.

lastly, I would trim the bureaucracy and instead promote and encourage independent, democratic structures which people themselves would command. In short I would ensure that Krishi Bhavan is a true Krishi Bhavan and not a ‘Kursi’ Bhavan as it has become.

I am convinced that the IAS, in its present form, will have to be abolished sooner or later. There is no other solution.

‘Madam,’ I responded very politely, ‘quite frankly, I did not know that the world market is your private property and we should not encroach upon it.’

When our country fought for its freedom from British rule, it evolved leadership of a quality that any nation anywhere in the world would have been proud of. We produced leaders of tremendous calibre, leaders with a nobility of purpose, not only from Gujarat – in the form of Gandhiji and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel – but from every state in India. It is dismaying to see that we no longer seem to have that uplifting nobility of purpose to pursue, and we are producing increasingly inferior leaders. I have dealt with the government for over fifty years and I have found that grace in public life has become rare. Today in the frantic race to acquire power and money, vulgarity reigns supreme and the devil take the hindmost.

a government of the bureaucrats, by the bureaucrats and for the bureaucrats.