The Weakest link in a chain is the strongest because it can break it....

First and foremost, my sincere apologies for a long void that followed my last post. It happened due to certain personal and professional exigencies. But, I am back (hopefully with a bang!!) and hope to start a chain of thought in your minds, starting with a piece of my mind!

"The Weakest Link in a chain is the strongest because it can break it".....that is how a well known English quote goes.....Applying simple common sense, it would be clear that any situation warrants the utmost focus on the perceived weakest link. But as another saying goes,   “Common sense is not all that common”, so following it to the mark, we let unprecedented but avoidable disasters strike us with ease, by very conveniently forgetting about the weakest link in our chain altogether. Let us delve into the world of governance to understand how this process works.

India leads the world in terms of the sheer length of its Constitution. To add to it, we have boxes full of laws, rules and regulations on any matter under the sun you choose to pick up. All this is very well, and more often than not, may have helped in resolving conflicts and bringing in clarity to situations. But having said that, we all know (or should know) that law making has always been one of our strengths. We are adept at formulation of policies at the drop of a hat. This has led to a whole web of legal paraphernalia surrounding us, though mostly unintelligible to the most of us and consequentially, of little interest.

In direct contrast, we have always been found wanting when it comes to the implementation of even the extant laws. To take an example, India leads the world in the number of annual road accidents, because it is beyond our dignity to follow road safety and traffic rules. We would not be in a correct state of mind if we expected the administration to ensure strict enforcement of the laws formulated by them in the first place.

With this background in mind, what do we do as a first step when confronted with a situation challenging the smooth functioning of our society? Again, as common sense would suggest, we dedicate most of our focus on our weaknesses, and the top of the list here would be the area of law implementation. But on the contrary but not surprisingly (because common sense is actually the rarest of commodities), we immerse ourselves, head to toe, in picking out the weaknesses in our extant laws, and devising newer ways to strengthen them. Scores of committees are formed to dole out suggestions by the million, to be finally put into a can of trash. True to our image of “Argumentative Indians”, we argue, and argue still more, and finally succeed in making some cosmetic changes, feeling ecstatic about our achievements and after an exercise in futility, putting everything at the backburner, only to be occupied with a fresh situation confronting us.

This sorry state of affairs is the result of our inability to self-introspect. Had we been sincerely doing it, we would have immediately understood where we lack. We would have realized, without any major effort, that the weakest link in our chain is the territory of law implementation. We are laggards at being able to follow the rules, or get them followed. We are laggards at strict enforcement of laws, mostly due to our own vested interests. We are laggards at forcing the requisite authority to perform, mostly because of our apathy.

The increasing incidents of rapes and violence, esp. against women, will not reduce by having stricter laws, but by strict implementation of the extant laws. The rampant corruption in our system cannot be wished away by passing a Lokpal Act, but by the sincerity of our resolve to be honest in all our dealings at all times, whether at a personal or a professional level. The increasing trend of deaths due to road accidents cannot be reversed by having newer Road Safety and Traffic rules, but by implementing the extant ones with impunity.

The intention of doing away with redundant and archaic laws is noble, but can be seen as just a first step in the right direction. When we are left with a pruned and up-to-date list of the laws and rules that shall govern the nation, we should look at the other side of the coin that has forever been our nemesis. The implementation saga, if ever written, will be far more complex to write, but will rank at the helm as one of the biggest and most daunting achievements of the nation.