(Dr Rahul Kumar, PhD, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)
Brookings India- a Think Tank has been proactively publishing brief reports primarily on the basis of secondary data mostly collected by Indian government/ departments since the beginning. The Japanese Times in its Opinion column reports, “Brookings Institution in Washington is under security for receiving six-figure donations from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei”. It is an open secret that the owner and CEO of Huawei was detained arrested in Canada. Similarly, Washington-based think tanks have come under pressure to stop accepting donations from Saudi Arabia after the brutal murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Lok Sabha elections 2019 is going to end by 23rd May and new government shall take the reign. Brookings India on 17th May, 2019 discussed “India 2024: Policy Priorities for the New Government” theme at Brookings India office located at Chankyapuri, New Delhi. As a scholar and faculty I got excited. My excitement was to understand the observations and recommendations being put forth by the visionaries of Brookings India- a cartel of armchair scholars. Without critical policy debates, think tanks like Brookings India cannot talk about fundamental changes that are essentially required to set the agenda of reforms.
Under this theme, a brief report edited by Dhruva Jaishankar and Zehra Kazmi covers health, education, security, and foreign relations. As usual, a moderator briefly introduced the theme and the mike was handed over turn wise to four other contributors to put forward their viewpoints. Q/A session was opened by the moderator to invite the questions from the audience. Dr Rahul Kumar, one of the participant asked the question on the article contributed by Prachi Singh (A Healthy India). India like other countries of the world is rapidly drifting toward ageing population. It is a serious challenge for the administrators, politicians to tackle this burgeoning population. It is sad to know that while talking about a healthy India Prachi Singh did not mention about the elderly population in her under-researched article. She did not even mention about Senior Citizen Act 2007.
Every Tom, Dick and harry in India knows about the prevalence of corruption, lethargic and corrupt bureaucracy, judiciary beyond redemption, corrupt politicians, predacious multi-corporations in India. Every Tom, Dick and Harry knows about Pakistan and China relations with India through the social media. If such is the case then what is the substantive contribution of the arm chair scholars of Brookings India. I am not afraid of saying this that the bulk of the arm chair scholars of Brookings India sitting in the air-conditions are engaged in copy pasting data from the websites of government Ministries and Departments. By doing this they are not only wasting the hard earned money of the tax-payers but also causing great harm to the intellectual class. As Michael D. Rich and Jennifer Kavanagh of the Rand Corporation have argued, we are currently living through a period of “truth decay”. The line between fact and opinion has become blurred, and people have increasingly grown distrustful of respected sources of information and data (Yoichi Funabashi, 22 Jan 2019, The Japanese Times).
The board of Directors of Brookings India must ponder over it. It is recommended Brookings India should recruit young scholars to conduct field study and bring the hard facts on the table for the experts to analyze and accordingly prepare reports and put forward recommendations to the government for making policies. The cost of the field study can be compensated by reducing 25% salary of the existing arm chair scholars since their mind has become a chattering box. It would help in two ways: employment generation and assessment of ground realities in rural India. Brookings India needs not only the speakers but also the listeners. Brookings India, as a think tank has the moral and ethical responsibility to produce fact based analytical reports without free or pressure to push forward the viable recommendations for policy makers.
