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Open Forum
Good Governance
STILL A PIPE DREAM
By T.D. Jagadesan
New Delhi, January 02, 2008
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 & Feature Alliance)
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