True Maniparna. I have tried it with a few of my closest friends and relatives too. They have a completely different theory about it – not a responsible one – kinda callous one. They say that the entire country is never going to be clean and if I don’t dirty the place someone else will and they seem to be quite satisfied with that reasoning.

It is like voting – the country is so large that one vote of mine does not count. And if everyone thinks that way, then there is no way out at all. It is kind of a deadlock!

I agree Maniparna, it is in that basic mindset and I strongly feel that a few fines and punishments are in order for this. Everything will fall into place..

Happy new year Kokila. Wishing your dreams to come true this year :)..

Thank you! I think it is about time we start rewarding the people who do right and punishing the ones who do wrong – the old carrot and stick approach to governance. But alas that seems like a theoretical aspect these days, maybe too difficult to implement in a large country in India. But maybe communal governance can come into play here – civil governance where people take up the smaller responsibilities and we are able to imbue that to the commonest citizen. I am sure there is a way out but I am not sure who is or who is not motivated enough to make that happen!

I agree Alok. I think this too is a vicious circle – no infrastructure to follow the rules, no mechanisms to ensure that rules are followed and ergo no rules. Kinda self sustaining circle of incompetence. I too have wished so many times that there was a public dustbin or a washroom. And the ones that are out there are absolutely disgusting and makes you wonder why it was built in the first place.

Funny that you mention about CP. I had a similar experience when I was in Delhi. I used to go 3-4 blocks to find a dustbin and the only ones I could find were the ones near Metro. it seemed that it was the only different world where people seemed civil all of a sudden. My point is – that too is the same country and this too is the same one. Why such a huge difference between the two? The dynamics of governance sure are baffling..

True Abhijit, I think no one alone can clean the country, it has to be a collective responsibility of us – the citizens to follow certain inititatives. I have lot of respect for Modi as a PM and he has rosen to the level of a leader. But at the same time, the citizens should meet him half way, show him that they are worthy of being led towards progress. It has to be a well oiled machine to make it all work and I think the true start starts from the citizens and then we can impose it on the bureaucrats as well. As we know bureaucracy takes a lot more time to move than the aam junta :)

Yes Yogi, unfortunately that can also be the image of the country in their minds. But I think it is easy for them to ignore responsibilities since there is no one to impose it on them. I agree that a western culture would train them not to spit on the roads. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they are more civil than us. They are just trained that way and in the end it is people everywhere right, it sure can be implemented with a little motivation..

So the success of such abhiyans depends on how well you can develop the infrastructure, though it is also true that many of the ministers and so called Neta’s are simply participating it in for clicking pictures for media only.