The jury may still be out on whether India is an elected dictatorship, but it should be unanimous on the fact that it is a bureaucratic 'diktat-orship'. For the last few years, our ministries and their pen-pushers, denuded of any role in any sane policy formulation, have been passing their time in issuing all kinds of diktats on a daily basis, like bullets coming out of a Kalashnikov, with equally damaging effects on us citizens.

So we have to contend with new rules every second day, on KYC, motor vehicles, FastTags, PUCs, PAN, Aadhaar/ bank/ phone/ EPIC/ electricity meter linkages, demat accounts, tax revisions, fuel emission standards, nominations and anything else that catches their fancy. These rules  are made without any consultation with stakeholders and usually lack any sense or logic. A few will suffice to prove my point.

Take the latest diktat in the NCR (National Capital Region): all vehicles should affix a petrol/ diesel/ EV sticker on their windshields so the cops can identify them BVR (Beyond Visual Range) in the manner of fighter jets. Non-compliant vehicles will be denied PUCs and fuel and will be fined too, for good measure. To add to our misery and confusion, no one has a clue where these stickers are available! 

© National Herald