STIRRING THE SENSIBILITIES – SIMPLIFYING PUBLIC POLICIES
Author: Prof N. Bhaskara Rao
Publisher: The author
Price: Rs 150
Pages: 241
The book Stirring the Sensibilities – Simplifying Public Policies by Prof N. Bhaskara Rao, a veteran public opinion analyst and social sciences researcher, elucidates and educates the public on the contemporary public policies in India. A compilation of his weekly columns over the past twenty years, Pro Rao in his book laments about the state of the current political scenario where political parties and public policies do not reflect the aspirations or the welfare of the common man, “We the people of India”. He suggests having six pillars of the state, where apart from having the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary as the three main pillars, with Media considered as the fourth pillar, it is essential to include civil society as well as political parties to uphold the tenets of the Indian Constitution.
The book is divided thematically into eight chapters with each chapter having related articles around that particular theme. Covering a wide variety of themes, Rao not only points out the problems but also offers solutions to the stakeholders, the government and the policy makers. His themes include the most pressing and contemporary issues such as the state of the press in the age of social media, fake news and post truth, governance in the era of globalisation, the new national education policy that has envisaged a job-centric yet research-oriented outlook, and environment and elections, with the citizen as the centre around which these issues are discussed.
The book adopts a constructive criticism of the government and the bureaucracy with the help of personal anecdotes and field experiments that were conducted by Rao’s research organisation (Centre for Media Studies), praising the prime minister for his initiatives yet pointing out the deficiencies where due. In addition, Rao adds reviews of books related to his various themes. Overall, a book that educates the common man on the contemporary issues that are vital to our democracy, Rao seems to believe in the Gandhian philosophy of villages being the core of our democracy.
Tighter editing and avoiding typographical errors would have helped make the book more readable.
(Reviewed by Naga Mallika Gudipaty, professor in the Department of Communication, The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad.)