In the grand theatre of Indian governance, there exist many republics. In one, you have the lived reality of a citizen—navigating crater-sized potholes, wading through flooded cities, sweating through endless job applications and paying the price for a power sector that loses crores of rupees to theft. In the other, the government presents a meticulously-curated republic, where everything is under control, projects are largely completed. Deficits are not deficits here—they are a “continuous process”.
The disconnect between these two worlds visible in Parliament Q&As isn’t just a matter of perception; it is a political chasm. Consider the state of roads. Every week, the feeds on your screens deliver the footage—a flyover sagging, a carriageway swallowing a car. Conscientious MPs prodded by constituents asked the government how many roads caved in. The answer: 49. Not in 2026 or 2025. This is the data from 2014 to 2026.
There is visible mystery and then there is seasonal mayhem. Every monsoon, India’s cities morph into Venice without the romance. Asked about urban flooding, the Union government said it was the responsibility of states and urban local bodies. Constitutionally unimpeachable. Except that the largest urban development programme in the country is run from Delhi. Under the Smart Cities Mission, 7,790 of 8,064 projects were completed at a cost of Rs 1,56,257 crore.
Expenditure only means that money moved, not resolution of issues. The evasion is portable. This week, MPs asked about water contamination—contaminants, assessments, BIS standards and redressal. The answer: 2.52 crore laboratory samples were collected and 2.87 crore field tests conducted since 2023-24. Three of the four queries evaded and no assessment offered. The tanker mafia is evidence that the scarcity is real. The booming water filter industry is proof that contamination is.
Primary education—the spine of hopes about the future—is broken. Government runs 10.05 lakh schools teaching 11.89 crore children; the private sector runs 3.42 lakh teaching 9.89 crore. Amid all the talk about the National Education Policy and computerisation, Parliament was told that 73,481 schools have no electricity. There are 1,00,843 schools with just one teacher for the entire school. The number of students in these schools: 29.12 lakh. In a nation where missing teachers is a phenomenon, a school for differently abled children in Jaipur has 76 teachers for 592 students. Normally, the ratio would be on a poster. Last week, when students protested in sign language, too few teachers understood a word.
Barely half of those enrolled in Class I complete secondary school. Those who survive schooling wrestle with systemic woes. The rage at Jantar Mantar and now in Jharkhand, Punjab, Rajasthan and Karnataka is about employment. MPs asked how many railway posts were vacant. The answer: against 4.11 lakh recruitments between 2004 and 2014, over 5.16 lakh were recruited from 2014 to June 2026. Filling vacancies is a “continuous process”. The ratio of posts to applicants reveals the magnitude of need. In one category, 3.58 crore hopefuls competed for 92,116 posts; in another, 90.96 lakh for 29,775 posts. This labour market is a lottery.
India is a live paradox where unemployment stares at vacant government jobs. The pain is felt in the first obligation of the State: security and justice. Data placed before Parliament shows 5.81 lakh police posts vacant, leaving the police-per-lakh ratio at 154 against a sanctioned 197. Add 93,139 vacancies in the paramilitary forces. In a country with over 5 crore pending cases, 341 of 1,122 high court judge posts and 7,311 of 30,868 subordinate court judge posts are vacant. Lant Pritchett named the condition—the flailing State, a head issuing instructions its limbs no longer obey.
India is import-dependent for energy—every balance of payments crisis has arrived via fuel bills and left the rupee worse off. The context of the standoff at the Strait of Hormuz got MPs asking about domestic output of crude and gas. Answer: crude production has fallen from 29.36 million metric tonnes to 27.96, gas from 22.56 MMT to 21.23. There have been 28 field discoveries since 2023 and 22 policy initiatives since 2014, including the newest Rs 84,000-crore Samudra Manthan. The churn continues. Discoveries are notified. Output falls.
India is not short of policy. It is short of the people to execute it. Where there are people, the system is politicised. India generates 15,37,356.15 million units of power, of which 15.04 percent is booked as transmission and distribution losses—part physics, mostly theft and unbilled consumption laundered. The accumulated losses of Rs 6.47 lakh crore parked in distribution companies reflect the wattage of political power. The schools waiting for connection clearly have no godfather.
The inertia imposed by systemic sloth is deliberate and visible. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code was sold as a silver bullet for debt and default. Between 2020 and December 2025, 50,900 cases were filed and 188 resolved—one in 270. Claims admitted Rs 9.18 lakh crore; realised Rs 2.53 lakh crore. Twenty-seven paise in a rupee. The system is embalming capital, not moving it.
Adam Smith remarked that there is a great deal of ruin in a nation. He meant it as consolation. It has become an alibi. A State that can conduct a general election across every booth in the Republic, and revise the rolls voter by voter can also count contaminated habitations and fill sanctioned posts. Nothing here is beyond the government’s capacity. All of it is beneath its attention. The State cannot be performative. It must perform. Parliament’s job is to make inattention unaffordable.
Read all columns by Shankkar Aiyar
Shankkar Aiyar
Author of The Gated Republic, Aadhaar: A Biometric History of India’s 12 Digit Revolution, and Accidental India
(shankkar.aiyar@gmail.com)