'WTF India' - A Book That Made Me Angry, But I'm Glad I Read It

Why I read the book?

I have followed and admired Suhel Seth for a long time now. For those who don't know, he is a brand and media consultant who regularly appears on news channels, sharing his opinions on a variety of subjects.

He has also acted in a few movies, but that is certainly not why I admire or follow him!!!

What I have always admired about Suhel Seth is his ability to articulate his thoughts. He doesn't mince his words, calls a spade a spade, and is often brutally direct. Yet, despite his expressions and demeanor suggesting otherwise, he generally remains remarkably calm and composed while making his point.

Okay...I admit... 'calm' may be an exaggeration! What I want to say is that I have seen people getting irritated or agitated during discussions and, in the process, losing control over what they say. Their arguments become less coherent, and their ability to articulate their thoughts suffers. It happens to me all the time!! I have rarely seen Suhel Seth doing that. Even when he is being critical, his arguments are usually well articulated, and there is almost always a pinch of humor, which makes listening to him interesting.

Every time the YouTube algorithm throws up a video or reel featuring Suhel Seth sharing his opinion on something, I invariably end up watching it.

So, when I came across his book, WTF India: Are We Losing the Plot?, I bought it almost immediately. I didn't bother checking what the book was about or reading any reviews. The fact that Suhel Seth had written it was reason enough for me to pick it up.

What is the book about?

In this book, Suhel Seth talks about some of the most fundamental problems affecting India. Problems that we have been living with for years, problems that are getting progressively worse, and problems that nobody seems particularly interested in fixing.

Air pollution, collapsing bridges, crumbling infrastructure, bureaucratic red tape, corruption, rivers turning into sewers, cities getting flooded year after year, and the systematic deterioration of our urban infrastructure. The list goes on.

Let me make it clear. This is not a political book. He doesn't restrict his criticism to any political party, neither the current ruling party nor the party that ruled India for most of the years following Independence. Instead, he questions the ENTIRE system. He questions the citizens too...all of us. 

He questions why are our cities flooding every year? Why do bridges keep collapsing? Why are roads in such terrible condition? Why does nobody seem to be held responsible when things go wrong? And most importantly, where is the accountability?

Now, here is the thing. None of these issues are unknown to us.

We all know about the pollution. We know that our rivers are being polluted, that cities get flooded after a few hours of rain, that bridges collapse, that corruption remains rampant, and that our public infrastructure often leaves a lot to be desired. We read about these things in newspapers, discuss them with friends, complain about them on social media, and then get on with our lives.

However, the book makes you think about them rather differently. It gives you a different perspective.

The book is not simply a rant by an angry man. In fact, what comes through quite clearly is that Suhel Seth is optimistic about India's future. He is hopeful about what this country can achieve. But he is also deeply concerned about the fundamental problems that we seem unwilling or unable to address.

What are some of his key observations?

One observation from the book that particularly stayed with me was that an "air purifier is a symbol of failure". It is so true, isn't it? Air should have been free. We are already paying for practically everything, directly or indirectly, through taxes and other charges. And now, even breathing clean air has become a luxury! Those who can afford it buy air purifiers. Those who cannot afford them have no choice but to breathe whatever air is available. In fact, this is the time of the year when NCR gets covered with haze.

And we have accepted this as normal.

If government schools are not good enough, we send our children to private schools. If government hospitals are inadequate, have poor hygiene, are too crowded, or have bad doctors, we go to private hospitals, irrespective of how badly they might fleece us.

And almost nobody is raising a voice.

Nobody seems to be asking their elected representatives, the ministers, the government, or even the Prime Minister why something as basic as clean air has become a privilege.

What the book made me think?

While reading the book, the underlying emotion that I encountered was ANGER. This book made me really angry. Not at the author, but at the state of affairs around us.

Something must change, and quickly.

We can, of course, turn this into a political debate. Someone will point out what the BJP has failed to do. Someone else will remind us that Congress was no better. And before we know it, the discussion will become yet another argument about which political party is worse.

But I think that would be missing the larger point.

Every government has had its successes and failures. I believe the current government has done several good things since 2014, and as someone who supports Narendra Modi, I have appreciated many of those initiatives. But when it comes to some of the most fundamental problems affecting our daily lives, have we really made the kind of progress that we should have?

I don't think so.

And perhaps the more uncomfortable question is, why would any political party take some of the difficult decisions that are required? Many of these problems cannot be addressed without taking action against powerful stakeholders, including industrialists and businesses that contribute significantly to political funding. Would political parties willingly take decisions that might hurt the interests of those who fund them?

Then there are the policymakers, bureaucrats, and senior officials, many of whom do not face the everyday problems that ordinary citizens face. They have the means and plush bungalows that allow them to ignore the issues faced by millions every day.

And those of us who are affected have largely learnt to live with the situation.

Interestingly, while I was reading the book, protests demanding the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner were taking place at Jantar Mantar. I don't support those protests because they are politically colored. There is an agenda, an ulterior motive. 

But the book made me think.

Perhaps what we need is for ordinary citizens to come out on the streets, peacefully, sensibly, and without political affiliations, to demand fundamental changes. Not to support one political party or oppose another, but to demand better governance, better infrastructure, greater transparency, and accountability. Because unless we start demanding these things, why would anything change?

I know it's difficult. We have families to take care of, mouths to feed, children to educate, offices to go to, and a hundred other responsibilities. We cannot spend every waking hour fighting the system. But surely, something must be done. We must start questioning our elected representatives and also start voting for the right reasons. Right now, we vote for all sorts of reasons. Political ideology, religious leanings, personalities, caste, and sometimes simply because we dislike the alternative. Several people give their vote to someone for freebies, few hundred rupees, a bottle of liquor or a packet of biryani. How many of us and how often do we vote on the basis of measurable performance and accountability? And how often do we actually question the people we elect?

While reading the book, I was also reminded of a YouTube video I had watched recently. In the video, lyricist Prasoon Joshi asks Narendra Modi how he would like history to remember him. Modi responds by referring to the Vedas and points out that while the Vedas continue to guide us even today, nobody remembers who wrote them. If those who gave us the Vedas are not remembered, who is he in comparison? He does not wish to be remembered.

When I first watched that reel, it brought a smile to my face. I thought it was a wonderful answer. But after reading this book, I want Narendra Modi to reconsider that thought.

As someone who supports him, I would like him to leave behind a legacy that goes beyond electoral victories, political achievements, or even the initiatives that his government has undertaken. I would like him to be remembered as someone who was willing to take extremely difficult decisions without weighing their political consequences. Someone who was willing to put the country's long-term interests ahead of his own political interests or those of his party. Someone who brought about fundamental, revolutionary changes in how India functions. Changes that would make our institutions more accountable, our administrators more answerable, and our public infrastructure more reliable. Changes that would finally put an end to this chalta hai attitude that seems to have become an integral part of our lives.

I am not taking anything away from what he and his government have achieved. There have been few shortcomings, certainly, but there have also been several achievements that deserve high appreciation. However, I am not convinced that many of these achievements, by themselves, will address the deeper structural problems that have plagued India for decades. We need something much bigger.

We need changes that will outlast governments and political parties. And I would like Narendra Modi to be more demanding, more decisive, and more effective in bringing about those changes.

Of course, the problem is that these changes are easier to talk about than to implement.

And this is where I found myself disagreeing, at least to some extent, with the solutions suggested in the book. Suhel Seth doesn't merely highlight problems. He also offers possible ways of addressing them. Now, when you consider each solution individually, many of them seem perfectly commonsensical. But when you look at the larger picture, some of them begin to appear rather impractical or unfeasible.

You read them and think, yes, this is exactly what should happen. And then you wonder, but how on earth are we going to make it happen?

At one point, I even found myself thinking that perhaps what India needs is a sane dictator! Yes, I realize how ridiculous that sounds.

A dictator with absolute authority, but also a balanced head. Someone who doesn't have to worry about elections, political compulsions, or upsetting powerful interest groups. Someone who can simply take the decisions that need to be taken and ensure that they are implemented.

But that is probably the biggest contradiction of all. As they say, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The idea of someone having unlimited authority and yet always using it wisely is probably as unrealistic as some of the solutions I found myself questioning. It could potentially lead to disaster. We have seen something very similar in United States in recent times!!

I wish someone could put a gun to our heads and compel us to change. Because the kind of systemic and fundamental reforms that India needs will require changing not just policies and institutions, but also the way we think and behave. And that is no small task.

The book also made me think about what I would do differently if I were given the authority and a free hand to bring about changes.

One thought that kept coming to me was, why can't we run our states like companies? Think about it. Every company is expected to have a business plan, financial statements, performance targets, and mechanisms for reviewing its progress.

Why shouldn't state governments be expected to demonstrate similar levels of transparency and accountability? I would like every state to publish something resembling a profit and loss statement and balance sheet every quarter, in newspapers and on publicly accessible platforms.

Governments must already be preparing budgets, financial statements, and reports for various authorities. Maybe the Comptroller and Auditor General. I do not know.

But how many ordinary citizens have access to these documents, or actually read and understand them? I am talking about something much simpler and more accessible.

Every quarter, every state government should tell its citizens how much revenue it generated, how much it spent, what it had planned to achieve, and what it actually achieved. If certain projects were delayed, why were they delayed? If expenditure exceeded the budget, what went wrong? If a road was supposed to be completed in six months and remains unfinished after two years, who is responsible? What corrective action has been taken? What improvements have been made in roads, electricity, water supply, education, healthcare, public transport, and other essential services?

All this information should be published in a manner that an ordinary citizen can understand. And there must be consequences for poor performance.

More importantly, every state should have a clearly articulated long-term vision. What does it want to become over the next ten or twenty years? What are its priorities? How does it intend to achieve them? What resources will it need? And how will success be measured?

For instance, consider a state in Northeast India that relies heavily on tourism. What is its long-term plan for developing tourism? How does it intend to attract more visitors while ensuring that tourism doesn't damage the environment? How many jobs does it expect to create? How will the local population benefit? What infrastructure needs to be developed? What are the revenue projections? And what progress is being made against these plans? Everything should be documented, published, and reviewed regularly.

In the early 2000s, Chandrababu Naidu published a 'Vision 2020' document for Andhra Pradesh in which he outlined where he wanted the state to be by 2020 and how he planned to get there. That should become mandatory.

There should also be a mechanism for citizens to directly question their elected representatives. If the roads in my locality are bad, if there are too many stray dogs, if traffic management is poor, or if accidents are happening regularly, why shouldn't I be able to question the concerned MLA or the minister in a user-friendly manner? And why shouldn't those questions and their responses be publicly available? There should be a forum where citizens can raise these issues, where elected representatives are required to respond, and where the responses are recorded for everyone to see. Once again, there must be consequences for poor performance.

If someone consistently fails to perform their responsibilities, there should be a mechanism for holding them accountable, including appropriate penalties where warranted. Accountability cannot simply mean facing voters once every five years. It has to be continuous.

How is the book?

As evident from the previous section, the book compels you to think. It makes you ask what you would do if you were in a position to change things. What would you prioritize? How would you address these problems? How would you ensure that the changes actually happen?

And that, I think, is one of the biggest strengths of this book.

It doesn't necessarily tell you things you didn't know. But it makes you look at familiar problems differently and holistically, helps you structure your thoughts, and makes you question why we have accepted so many things that should never have become acceptable in the first place.

I would, however, caution anyone planning to read it.

This book can be depressing. Very depressing, in fact. It brings together so many things that are fundamentally wrong with our country, explains how they affect our lives, and makes you realize how little accountability exists. At times, the book can make you so angry that you almost feel like starting a mutiny!

And when you begin to think about the scale of the changes required, and how difficult they would be to implement, the feeling of helplessness can be rather overwhelming.

What makes it interesting, though, is Suhel Seth's writing style.

Despite discussing some extremely grim subjects, he manages to keep the narrative engaging. His trademark wit and humor are present throughout, and his ability to articulate complicated issues in a direct and relatable manner makes the book a compelling read.

You might get angry while reading it. You might feel frustrated, helpless, or even depressed. But you certainly won't get bored. And despite my reservations about the practicality of some of the solutions, I would strongly recommend this book.

Not because it offers all the answers, but because it makes you ask questions that we should probably have been asking for a long time. It makes you think about the country we live in, the things we have learnt to tolerate, and the kind of country we should aspire to become.

I am glad that I read the book. In fact, when I was barely a couple of chapters into it, I tweeted to him saying, "Damn you, Suhel Seth! I have this habit of highlighting interesting passages, observations, and key takeaways while reading. 40 pages into your book and I have highlighted almost everything!"

Practically every other page had something relatable and thought-provoking. Eventually, I gave up highlighting altogether. When almost the entire book seems worth taking notes on, the exercise becomes rather pointless.

My rating: 4.5 out of 5.