As it goes from Instagram to the streets, manifesto for cockroaches: Gather and scatter, as needed |
Though nearing 70, I am so very tempted to join the Cockroach Janta Party and participate in its activities. I look at its posts on Facebook and Instagram and wonder what explains the pull. Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor has invited the youth to work “within the system you feel has failed you and push against the existing system so that it serves your needs” (‘Dear Gen Z, join the system. Change happens in mundane politics,’ IE, June 4) as the most effective path forward.
Having worked within the system, however, I failed to change it. And it was not me alone, but many of us in the civil services who tried. Thus, I am skeptical about the advice. The scenario outside the establishment has not been any better. A friend who quit the civil services, saying, “Patchwork won’t work; we need to change the entire corrupt and ineffective system,” is in no better position today. We, as civil servants, have tried both from within the system and from outside it, but have often not only failed ourselves but also the generations after us. I am sure Tharoor, too, tried when his party was in power, but the results were for all........