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Good Governance: STILL A PIPEDREAM,by T.D. Jagadesan Print E-mail

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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