Good governance has become the theme for discussion, deliberation and discourse at local, national and international levels. Good governance, people-centered governance, and responsive governance all call for a collective sense of destiny and direction for human beings.Good governance encompasses delivering essential services to stakeholders while eradicating mismanagement and promoting democratic processes and the rule of law to prevent citizens’ suffering. It involves fostering cooperation among politicians to benefit all citizens, particularly marginalized groups. While the government holds significant authority, governance extends beyond it, involving the executive, legislative, and judiciary sectors. However, the essence of governance lies in serving the people, emphasizing their centrality, Ensuring accountability and responsibility among diverse stakeholders, including communities, government bodies, civil society, and corporations, is crucial for promoting good governance. The World Bank, in a 1989 document, first highlighted the concept of good governance, defining it as the effective manner in which a governing body operates, extending beyond political governance to encompass various levels such as international, national, and local governance. Good governance entails the process and structures utilized by an organization to achieve its objectives, focusing on decision-making and its implementation. Subsequently, in 1992, the World Bank underscored the critical role of good governance in fostering strong and equitable development, highlighting aspects such as political accountability, regular elections, participation of diverse groups in governance processes, rule of law, independence of the judiciary, bureaucratic accountability, freedom of information, transparency, efficient administrative systems, and collaboration between government and civil society. Good Governance has 8 major characteristics. It is Participatory consensus oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive and follows the rule of law. It assures that corruption is minimized, decision-making minorities are taken into account and the voices of the most vulnerable in society are heard in decision making.
Good governance in India: India has to make giant leaps to improve its governance records. However multiple steps have been taken in this regard.
(1) Right to information: The Right to Information Act of 2005 heralds a notable transformation in Indian democracy, granting citizens increased access to information. This, in turn, enhances government responsiveness to community demands. Promoting openness, transparency, and accountability, it subjects the government to greater public scrutiny in administration.
(2) E-governance: The National E- governance provide accessible government services to citizens in their communities through common service delivery points, ensuring efficiency, transparency, and reliability at reasonable prices. E-Governance optimally voices improved programs and services in the age of emerging information and communication technologies (ICTs), presenting new avenues for swift social and economic advancement globally. E-governance significantly influences citizens who gain advantages from direct interactions with government services. Programs launched under e-Governance: Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation (PRAGATI), Digital India Program, MCA21 (to improve the speed and certainty in the delivery of the services of Ministry of Company Affairs), Passport Seva Kendra (PSK), online Income tax return, JAM trinity etc.
(3) Decentralization: The Centralised Planning Commission was replaced with the think tank known as the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), ushering in an era of “cooperative federalism”. The 14th Finance Commission raised the tax devolution of the divisible pool to states from 32% to 42% for the period 2015 to 2020, granting states greater autonomy to implement schemes tailored to local conditions.
(4) Police reforms: Updating law enforcement agencies and enacting the Model Police Act of 2015. Revamping the process of filing First Information Reports (FIRs), including the introduction of electronic FIRs for minor offences. Establishing a unified national emergency hotline to address citizens’ urgent security concerns. The establishment of women desk in every police station to handle the women related crimes is the biggest step in police reforms.
(5) Aspirational District Programme:Launched in January 2018, the Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) aims to uplift underdeveloped areas across the country within a specific timeframe. Led by NITI Aayog, the initiative seeks to revitalize 115 of the most disadvantaged districts through targeted interventions in areas such as healthcare, education, agriculture, water management, financial services, and skill enhancement.
(6) Good governance index: The Good Governance Index, introduced on Good Governance Day on December 25, 2019, serves as a standardized measure to evaluate governance status and the effectiveness of interventions by State Governments and Union Territories. Its goals include offering measurable data for comparing governance across states and UTs, aiding in the formulation and implementation of governance enhancement strategies, and promoting outcome-driven approaches and administration.
“Active public engagement, comprehensive decentralization of authority, accountable administration, decisive political commitment, democratization through compromise and consensus, and substantial levels of transparency and accountability are pivotal. By fostering these elements, we can foster efficient and effective governance, which is essential for a resilient and vibrant political ecosystem. This holistic approach ensures that governance serves its purpose of facilitating progress and prosperity for all constituents”.
Challenges of good governance: The deficiency in good governance primarily stems from corruption, the necessity of coalitions, erosion of bureaucratic efficacy, political meddling, the infiltration of criminal elements into politics, the politicization of criminal activities, diminishing social and ethical standards, biased media, structural barriers, shortcomings in local governance bodies, lack of adherence to laws and regulations, absence of computerization, and similar factors.
(1) Corruption: the systemic failure to ensure the elimination of corruption or misuse and abuse of power has been a historical challenge to India’s trajectory of the welfare state. For example, Rajiv Gandhi in his speech in the parliament of India during the 1980s quite clearly remarked that if one rupee coin is sent to the different departments of the govt to spend it on public welfare only 25 piasa reaches to the citizenry. This argument of Rajiv Gandhi can be substantiated by the theoretical postulations of various political scientists across the academia like in the writings of Friedrich Hayek who says that the “welfare state is a theft and bureaucracy is the thieve.”
(2) Coalition regimes: Since fission and fusion or thesis and antithesis are the historical forces of human development be it social, economic or political here( we are concerned with the political life of a man). Since India has been historically subjected to this universal force of thesis and anti-thesis and synthesis in its political life therefore the same phenomenon that used to exist in the past in a different political structure nevertheless reflects its position in the current democratic political system of India. For example (from monarchy to feudalism to the idea of a strong India to federalism to the rise of regional politics). Since India is a multi-partydemocratic society it’s likely to see the rise and fall of different political parties at the national and state levels The structure of political power underwent a significant change with the rise of regional parties to the stage of national level and started to gain a greater say at the forums like parliament. For example, during the UPA regime which was a coalition with DMK, has been a dominant party in the southern part of India? To understand how coalition government delays the matters of sometimes crucial and strategic to a nation we can quote the above coalition issue on the signing of India’s nuclear cooperation agreement with America in 2005 and also the issue that the DMK raised about the suppression of Tamils in Sri Lanka. This arrangement of coalition politics had an element of red tapism.
(3) Inefficient bureaucracy: Bureaucracy is vital for the efficient execution of policies and decisions, as well as for facilitating legislation through delegated powers. Despite once being praised as one of the most well-runadministrations by Mr Appelby, the current state of the bureaucracy, often referred to as the ‘steel frame’, has deteriorated. According to a report from the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd. based in Singapore, the
Indian bureaucracy has been rated as the poorest in Asia. The report gives India a near-rock-bottom score of 9.21 out of ten points, performing worse than Vietnam (8.54), Indonesia (8.37), the Philippines (7.75), and China (7.11). On the other hand, Singapore leads with a rating of 2.25, followed by Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia.
(4) Political interference: Politicians habitually manipulate government operations by bending laws, rules, and regulations to favour their allies, particularly those who aided them during elections. This results in unjustified interference in daily administration, severely undermining good governance. The transfer of subhash chandra garg(1983- batch IAS officer) of Rajasthan cadre from finance secretary to less prestigious of power ministry over disagreement with govt prompted him to take voluntary retirement. Flexibility and compliance with political agendas have become the standard, disregarding the principles of good governance. This compromises the political neutrality of civil servants. While transfers and postings are officially not punitive measures, they often amount to harassment. Moreover, the selective granting of favourable postings serves as a tool to exert control over them.
(5) Criminalization of politics: In recent times, our political landscape has seen a concerning trend of dysfunctionality and the criminalization of politics, along with the politicization of crimes. Previously, dedicated politicians were focused on national interests, but nowadays such individuals are increasingly rare. Many politicians seem more interested in acquiring power and privileges rather than serving the nation. Some resort to alliances with criminals to secure electoral victories and maintain their dominance in their respective regions. Consequently, criminals have transitioned from the outskirts of politics to its forefront, aiming to seize political power and authority . It’s alarming that over 150 Members of Parliament now have criminal records. Politics, once regarded as a service, has now transformed into a profession.
(6) Weak decentralization: The situation at the grassroots level is dire and bleak. Chaos and confusion prevail within the PRI framework. Structural obstacles, widespread corruption, indifference from state-level politicians due to rivalry with emerging local leaders, insufficient resources, bureaucratic lethargy, among other issues, hinder effective governance at the village council level. Gram Sabha meetings are often merely symbolic. What’s urgently required is competent management from over 30 lakh elected PRI representatives and proactive efforts from the government.
Conclusion: To achieve desired outcomes in development, addressing inconsistencies and inefficiencies in governance is imperative. Eliminating these hindrances requires robust institutional frameworks and committed stakeholders. Active public engagement, comprehensive decentralization of authority, accountable administration, decisive political commitment, democratization through compromise and consensus, and substantial levels of transparency and accountability are pivotal. By fostering these elements, we can foster efficient and effective governance, which is essential for a resilient and vibrant political ecosystem. This holistic approach ensures that governance serves its purpose of facilitating progress and prosperity for all constituents.
(The author is a freelancer. The views, opinions and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the author and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”.)
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