We are pleaders, not leaders.

"Our politicians have long been aware that winning elections and gaining power is untied from the performance of a government," wrote R Seth. "In the earlier decades majority of votes were cast solely on caste or communal lines; now the formula to win votes includes promises to win freebies, and exercise discretionary powers." Most of us have to pay for services for which we have paid taxes already, wrote R Saran. We buy inverters to guard against sudden blackouts, water purifiers, air purifiers, and pay for private security to protect ourselves. The standard of teaching in government schools is so poor that even poor people prefer to send their children to private schools. "In 2015-16, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh alone closed about 24,000 government schools where total school enrolment had fallen below 10 students," wrote Prof G Kingdon. Using the Right to Education Act states are shutting unaided private schools to force students to go to government schools and thus deprive them of better quality education. Maths skills are declining in students of Class VIII in government schools. College education is no better with over half our graduates unfit for employment. A recent World Bank study found that Chinese and Russian engineering students are much better than Indians, especially in higher-order thinking skills. The number of women in the workforce has declined from 43% in 2004-05 to 27% in 2015-16. Studies to find the reasons for the falling numbers of working women cannot find a conclusive answer. The Prime Minister has been traveling the world to build alliances to make India stronger. But, "To become a leading power, India needs to fundamentally overhaul its state, society and economy, making them more efficient, less divided, and more developed, respectively," wrote Prof R Sagar. Unless we modernize and become economically and militarily strong "India is set to be less a leading power and more a pleading power". Why are politicians content for India to remain weak when nations like China have become so much stronger? "Inadequacy of public goods allows them to exercise discretionary power over access; politicians decide who gets admission to a reputed school or college, or a hospital bed. Outside of the big cities they decide how soon one will get an electricity connection  or a hand pump, even whose FIR gets written and what direction the police investigation will take," wrote Seth. " Voters know and remember which politician can help them with access to public services they need most and reward them with power." People vote for criminals because they can intimidate civil servants and force them to provide services people need. They have no desire to change the system. And so we go on.