The Outside Hand

Sometimes, there is a need for complicated regulations. In a famous anecdote, a British Foreign Secretary once asked a reformer: 'Sir, can you, with your simplified rules, determine the nationality of an illegitimate child born to a Haitian woman, from a Brazilian man, on a French ship, anchored in British waters?' Therefore, Musk's obsession with minimalism, which translated into the war cry 'Delete!' for all unnecessary things failed miserably in Government

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The exit of a much battered, and chastened, Elon Musk from DOGE was widely celebrated by his critics. Musk is a man with many epic successes and failures behind him – with an unblemished record of learning from his failures, and turning them into successes – all before you can say Jack Robinson. But Musk, who pushed down the costs of rocket launches and space exploration by ninety percent, revolutionized online payments, upended the car industry, and changed much more, met his match in the American bureaucracy.

The DOGE experiment has been keenly watched, with many political leaders in many countries – mostly from opposition parties – raring to imitate Musk in grinding down bureaucracy to dust. Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, adopted the Musk and Trump agenda, and was promptly rewarded by voters with a substantial poll lead over the ruling party (Labour) in local elections, with many rooting for his ramshackle outfit as a potential party of government. Notably, Reform UK has launched a DOGE (UK) in councils, and punters are now betting on Farage becoming the next Prime Minister.

Anti-establishment rhetoric, with appeals for private sector efficiency in government departments, is not unusual. Much earlier, Arvind Kejriwal – a career civil servant, and a rank outsider to politics – contesting on a promise of good governance, thrice got a mandate from the people of Delhi, twice with an overwhelming majority. It is quite another matter that most of Kejriwal's governance initiatives were torpedoed by the Central Government, and in a classic case of 'when you can't beat them join them,' Kejriwal and his colleagues decided to behave like conventional politicians – only to end up in jail on charges of corruption.