Abrief sojourn in Muscat, the capital city of Oman (pop.5.2 million), and Dubai last month proved to be simultaneously, a revealing and heart-burning experience.

Oman’s youth of both genders have evolved and embraced higher skill-enriched education with evident enthusiasm and seem determined not to let their enviable living standard slip in the imminent post-petroleum era. Moreover the younger generation is markedly less deferential to white westerners than their parents and are friendly and welcoming towards Indians, particularly businessmen and entrepreneurs. Huge potential for joint-ventures in Oman and the Middle East is self-evident. If the IFS-neta-babu brotherhood doesn’t queer the pitch.

It was a pleasant surprise to learn about ancient Indo-Oman trade and commerce ties — present-day Oman was under the administrative control of British India and the Indian Rupee was common currency. High-quality civic governance — as good as best in the West — was evident in the smooth potholes free roads and garbage-free streets of Muscat. An evening stroll on the city’s waterfront with its broad walkway dotted with aesthetic sculptures and fountains, will remain an abiding memory. Even inside the crowded souk, high maintenance and good governance was glaringly evident. A sharp contrast with potholed, choked roads and garbage-strewn streets back home. 

The plain truth is that under Soviet inspired central planning, municipal and local governance has been given short shrift in post-independence India. The municipal corporations of India’s major cities, swamped by under-qualified kith and kin of the neta-babu brotherhood are riddled with corruption and inefficiency. Now back after marveling at the wonders they have performed with their oil wealth bonanza and the enthusiasm with which our Arab brethren are preparing for the post-oil clean energies age, I’m all for closer Oman and Middle East partnerships and collaboration. There’s much we need to learn from them.

Hard infrastructure aside, even the fabric of governance is in meltdown. On July 24, the Bombay high court quashed the conviction of 12 citizens found guilty of synchronizing the bombing of the city’s suburban trains which killed 187 and injured 824 commuters in 2006. The court held that the police had severely tortured the accused to extract confessions. The court’s stern criticism of the police for “creating a false appearance of having solved the case” has exposed an open secret of police modus operandi countrywide: they routinely resort to third degree after rounding up innocents and torturing them to extort confessions. 

The root cause of this sorry national condition — pathetically neglected education system — is seldom identified. From pre-primary to Ph D, education institutions are lumbered with obsolete syllabuses and curriculums, rote learning pedagogies, automatic promotion and reckless certification. Graduates who worm their way into government jobs are not sufficiently qualified to build and maintain public infrastructure or govern efficiently. Hence the blood-dimmed tide of anarchy all around. It’s the education system, stupid!