India’s flailing state

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Editor's note: Have you seen The Family Man? It is a great lesson in how the system works in India. In season one of the web series, there is a scene where the protagonist Srikant Tiwari (played by Manoj Bajpayee), a state intelligence officer, crosses paths with an official from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) who is threatening to demolish a part of a school that Tiwari’s daughter attends. The headmistress is distraught, and Tiwari intervenes and tries to defuse the situation. Not knowing Tiwari’s identity, the BMC official warns him, “BMC waala hoon, samjha? Phone ghumana hai?Ghuma le, ghuma ghuma. Kisi ka 100 rupaye ka challan kaatey na, to CM ko phone kartein hain. Kuch hone wala nahi hai, BMC commissioner ka order hai ye.” (I’m from the BMC, understand? You want to call someone? Go right ahead. People threaten to call the chief minister if they are fined Rs 100. It won’t do any good. We are carrying out an order of the BMC commissioner.) The assumed impunity of the BMC official typifies development economist Lant Pritchett’s characterization of a …