Open Forum
New Delhi, 27 December 2007
Good Governance
STILL A PIPEDREAM
By T.D. Jagadesan
After 60 years of our Independence, India has emerged as the biggest
democracy in the world and its tri-colour symbolizing unity in diversity flies
high at the ramparts of Red Fort. The first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal
Nehru made a tryst with destiny on the night of 14th August 1947 when the whole world
was sleeping.
The Indian Constitution has
guaranteed all the citizens various fundamental rights. The Directive
Principles of State Policy clearly spell out social and economic justice as the
removal of poverty and inequality among the people. But these are not mandatory
for the State to implement. The time has come to assess as to what extent we have achieved these goals
through governance.
Though India has achieved about a
9 per cent growth rate annually (passing
the critical phase of the mythical “Hindu rate of growth” of 3 to 3.5 per cent
annually), and has emerged as the third country with the largest technical
manpower in the world with a booming software industry; yet the grave fact
remains that about 26 per cent of our people continue to live below the poverty
line.
In addition, there not only exists
a huge army of the unemployed youth but also the income disparity is increasing.
Young children (at the cost of their childhood) are engaged in hazardous works
despite a ban and about 30 per cent of the people are still illiterate. While a
large population is inflicted with various diseases.
Nowadays, with the term “good
governance” being very much in vogue, three major international bodies have focused
on its different aspects. As the World Bank, defined in 1994, “good governance
is epitomized by a predictable open and enlightened policy making (that is,
transparent processes); a bureaucracy imbued with a professional ethos; the
executive arm of the Government accountable for its actions; and a strong civil
society participating in public affairs; and all behaving under the rule of
law.”
Secondly, the UNDP (United
Nations Development Programme) takes a broader view of good governance as
comprising mechanism, process and
institutions through which citizens and groups articulate their interests,
exercise their legal rights, meet their legal obligations, and mediate their
differences.
The Economic and Social Council
for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) similarly considers governance good only if
genuine steps to minimize corruption are taken, if the views of the minorities is
taken and the voices of the most vulnerable sections of society in
decision-making is ensured, and if it is responsive to the present and future
needs of a society.
Further, it has identified 8
salient features of good governance as: i) Participatory in nature. ii) Consensual
in orientation. iii) Accountable. iv) Transparent. v) Responsive. vi) Effective
and efficient. vii) Equitable and
inclusive. viii) Rule of law.
To elaborate, participation
refers to the people’s participation in different public activities in letter
and spirit at every stage from formulation of a plan scheme to its
implementation to monitoring to evaluation.
For instance, a Gram Panchayat is to spend some money in
a particular year for development. It should select the schemes in a Gram Sabha’s public meeting openly. But,
in practice, in most of the States, especially in the northern States, the
village headman and the favourable ward members select the schemes but get fake
signatures of the Gram Sabha members.
Second, good governance must
ensure that there is a regular and dynamic process
of consensus-making. Firstly, there should be consultations between the Government
functionaries, the NGOs and the public. The second stage should be the consideration
of the different views; the third stage should be taking their consent on a
broad area; and finally consensus should be attempted after all conflict-resolution.
But, there should not be a consensus by pressure
or compulsion. It should be open and dialogic.
The third feature of good
governance is accountability. That is, from the policy-makers to the implementers,
all should be held responsible for their omissions
and commissions. Everybody at the
helm of affairs should be answerable for allocation, the use and control of
public fund and other assets.
The fourth feature of good
governance is transparency i.e., openness,
no covering, no camouflaging and no window-dressing. In other words, the people
are at liberty to know the policies and strategies of a democratic Government under
the Right to Information Act. Be it in regard to making public accounts
verifiable, the basis of a decision, healthy criticism of policies and their
implementation and making available correct and timely information. This
ensures that there is uniformity in decisions for all without duress, pressure,
bias or favour/disfavour.
The fifth feature of good
governance is responsiveness. This
means that Government functionaries should respond timely to a problem and not
digresses from the issue for ‘reasons
unknown.’ Responsiveness ensures
that there is no pretension of any kind, rather fairness.
The sixth feature of good
governance is efficiency and effectiveness.
Efficiency means doing work at a fast speed and effectiveness means doing things effectively focusing on the results.
Thus, both timelyness and result-orientation are to be ensured.
The seventh attribute of good
governance is equity and inclusiveness.
Equity denotes equality with justice while inclusiveness
includes encompassing the entire
population --- without any discrimination based on caste, creed, class, and religion, place of birth, language, race or
region. In fact, the have-nots and the vulnerable sections of society should
get a level playing field with the ‘haves.’
The last feature of good
governance is the rule of law, i.e. everybody is equal before the law, (equal
protection of human rights) on the one hand, and there should be a justice
system through due process of law
for all, on the other hand. It means that all rules and regulations should be
similar for all the citizens in similar circumstances. These features
ultimately ensure the citizens of a nation to live and work with dignity.
---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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