Kotasthane & Jaitley’s Missing in Action- Why You Should Care About Public Policy is one of the rare books by academics written for everyone, those who are not academics but have a keen interest in public policy and how the state runs and manages itself the way it does. 

The book itself is proof that public policy need not be uninteresting and can be made an interesting if not delightful subject for us driven by curiosity. Kotasthane & Jaitley describes the Indian Constitution as a user manual for citizens and government functionaries, a user manual which helps us understand the relationship between the political entity that is India and its citizens. 

In a time when there is conflict between centre and state, the authors tell us why a federal system of government was preferred. “Seventy-five years after its creation, governments have come and gone, and leaders have moved on to other worlds, but the Republic of India still remains.”

The authors draw the example of the young woman who was recklessly incarcerated for possessing an online document now infamously known as the “the toolkit of anti-nationals.’ The authors ask- “who is an anti-national?”,  “ What is sedition?” and gives us a lesson on sedition laws and how there is a dissonance in laws when applied with the same rules.

For instance-” This dissonance is a problem to such an extent that the same judge presiding in two similar cases (Disha Ravi’s and Safoora Zargar’s), referred to the same 1962 judgment, and yet reached two opposite conclusions. In Safoora Zargar’s case, bail was denied while in the Disha Ravi case, bail was granted.”

Transitioning to sports and the fantastic moment of pride when Neeraj Chopra won India’s first athletics gold ever at an Olympic event. 

“Chopra won not because of the government but despite it.” 

The authors Kotasthane & Jaitley highlight the importance of markets and society as agents of change and point toward the impressive success of the Indian Premier league which had a positive-sum effect on other sports spawning other leagues in kabaddi and football with corporate sponsors playing a pivotal role.

The authors bring us to the question of democracy or is it “too much democracy?” and poses us with engaging commentary on economy, growth, markets and enterprise with anecdotes and scenes from Bollywood blockbusters and cult classics like Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro.

The book carries an insightful message with case studies on why we fail to tackle the Delhi smog year after year, the failure of rent control act in Mumbai, the very bad idea of capping air-fares during the COVID pandemic, pricing cap for stents which resulted in fewer consumer choices for patients. 

Kotasthane & Jaitley ends the book with a stoic note and credit where due to Nehru and all those who followed. – “History will judge us favorably for what India has done in these seventy-five years. The work is incomplete and the pledge that Nehru spoke of at the stroke of midnight hour still remains unfulfilled.”