Many of us know of at least one relative or friend who was a victim of an unscrupulous tout, selling land that didn’t belong to him or which is in a legal tangle – sometimes we ourselves have been victims. Very often these land touts come up with forged documents and sell government land to unsuspecting victims. If they find some one gullible enough, they are even ready to sell the Charminar! We hear many instances of people investing their life savings, only to realize that even after getting the land officially registered, the title is contested.

Often times I am asked why I have embarked on this unusual journey – medical education, civil service and now governance reform. Born about a decade after Independence, I grew up in a village in coastal Andhra. My father was employed in a small town in Maharashtra, and an old aunt, a child widow who never remarried, raised me. These somewhat unusual circumstances gave me the different perspective of a participant/observer of public defecation, caste, hierarchies, superstitions, poverty and underdevelopment.

Suddenly, the state of Andhra Pradesh and the whole nation are in turmoil. The tranquil climate, which is so vital for economic prosperity as a time of great global challenges and great opportunities, has been vitiated by the pursuit of vote banks arousing primordial loyalties. Politicians playing with fire have now opened the Pandora’s Box, and have sown the seeds of discord in many pockets of India.