Governance

A

• A Time To Heal in Governance: Our existing systems for tackling corruption are catastrophic failures. Prosecuting public servants needs prior sanction. It seldom comes. Prosecutions drag on for years. Relative to the (intangible) result, the effort is monumental. If the comparisons to cancer are accurate, is the solution to administer a mild sedative and only address the symptoms, which is what many say is all that the Government Lokpal Bill does, or is it to use a treatment many feel is so severe that it risks killing the body, the charge made against the Jan Lokpal Bill? In a time to heal, we must have something effective but not fatal.  » continue reading
  
  
• All Checks, No Balance in Governance: Just days after the crowds of the World Cup frenzy, it seems strange that another type of crowd should gather so quickly, one that seems to involve every one of us. At the centre of the storm is an unlikely icon, a lone man whose diminutive build belies the enormity of his moral stature.  » continue reading
  
  
• All Quid, Neither Pro Nor Quo in Governance: “Important message for Savings Account holders having Aadhaar / UID number issued by UIDAI” says the message on my bank’s online banking page. I follow the link. “You can now link your Aadhaar / UID Number to your Savings Account to avail the benefits of Government subsidies/payments directly into your bank account,” I am told. » continue reading
  
  

C

• Come Mr Taliban in Governance: In a city of the licentious, dissolute, and perennially inebriated, only the policeman is sober and decent. That, at least, is what the worthies — an assistant Commissioner of Police, his chief and their Minister — who decide such things would have us believe. As so often happens, the truth is very different. » continue reading
  
  

F

• From C To Shining C in Governance: Nothing is sacred. A forest is decimated by a mining operation, the lease granted to nonentity whose only claim to fame is that he is the fruit of the loins of a legislative assembly member or an ruling party factotum. Land reserved for a building for war veterans and widows is usurped by politicians and bureaucrats, whose notion of a defence of the realm means finding new ways to protect their personal hoard. The land mining and Adarsh Society allotment scams are only the most recent instances of government corruption. Others are of such long standing that they have now become institutionalized systems with lives of their own; perhaps the best-kept secrets are those involving the purchase of equipment and materiel for the armed forces and police. » continue reading
  
  

H

• How Did Things Get So Bad? in Governance: How did we fall so far? What happened to the excitement and enthusiasm of 60 years ago, that sense of belonging and participation in the realisation of a dream? How did that dream become such a nightmare? » continue reading
  
  

M

• Many Questions, Few Answers in Governance: It isn’t a good feeling, this confusion and sense of conflict of the past week or ten days. Yes, we understand what everybody and his uncle have been saying (mea culpa): the Jan Lokpal Bill, or People’s Bill, is undemocratic, dangerous, Draconian. It puts too much power in a few hands, and it hasn’t got enough controls on the use of that power. I suspect we’re also more than a little fed up of the potshots at Anna Hazare: he supports NaMo; undermines democracy; trashes ‘civil society’; doubts the electorate’s intelligence; has skeletons in his almirah; lacks the moral authority to Fast Until Death (FUD); he’s just another clueless FUDdy daddy. The flakes don’t help: Anupam Kher saying we need to change the Constitution just like we change gas cylinders. And Baba Ramdev’s paternity claims to the agitation make many of us very uncomfortable. Of all these, the most disturbing statement from Hazare is his contempt for the voters. This one assertion speaks of a man who hasn’t the foggiest notion of how democracies work. After every election, people get the government they deserve; it’s as simple as that. And it’s not for Anna Hazare, Kiran Bedi, Arvind Kejriwal or, god forbid, the yogi-who-would-be-king to tell us what is right and thereby trump the electorate.  » continue reading
  
  

P

• Pashas Of Politics, Caliphs Of Culture in Governance: The city’s police are an unhappy lot. It’s bad enough they’ve been forced to pirouette endlessly over the murder of the journalist Jyotirmoy Dey. To show that they’re not completely left-footed, they’ve decided to teach the city how to dance and, in their usual subtle fashion, detain 31 youngsters at a Malad lounge bar for what they call ‘dirty dancing’. This throws up all kinds of interesting possibilities. Perhaps we can look forward to some terpsichorean initiatives from the city’s finest—arangetrams, perhaps, at the Police Gymkhana. Or the Malad mazurka, the Charni Road cha-cha-cha, the Salsette Salsa and the Titwala tango.  » continue reading
  
  
• Plantain Republic in Governance: At least 600 years old, the word “commonwealth” comes from the phrase “common weal”, and the first known use of the word ‘weal’ pre-dates the 12th century. From the Middle English wele, similar to the Old English ‘wel’, it connotes a general well-being and commonwealth now means a sound, healthy and prosperous state with a shared well-being. In many legal and historical texts, it is used interchangeably with the word ‘republic’, from the Latin res publica signifying public affairs. A republic is a government of laws, not men, one in which decisions are based on law, not on the whims of an individual or a small group, and are designed to serve the common good. » continue reading
  
  
• Prisoners Of Protocol in Governance: If there is one thing with which every Indian is familiar, it is this thing called procedure. Whether it’s getting a certificate of death or transferring money or renewing a passport, we have procedures, and these are now so complex, cumbersome and often so senseless that it is now every Indian’s fundamental right to try and bypass them. » continue reading
  
  

R

• Reign Of Terror in Governance: The continuing stand-off between the dozen or so Chief Ministers and the Central Government over the National Counter-Terrorism Centre shows no signs of reaching a solution. The various State heads accuse the Centre of federal over-reach, of having encroached on a field purely within the States’ domain — criminal law — and ask why they were not consulted. The Centre’s responses, that terrorism knows no geographical boundaries and that a dialogue can be retrofitted, have not (yet) placated the angry Chief Ministers, or convinced anyone. » continue reading
  
  
• Rules And Rulers in Governance: If any of us should be asked to write an impressionistic description of this country, the chances are that we’d come up with every one of those old bromides: snake charmers, the Great Indian Rope Trick, the Taj Mahal. A more contemporary iteration should, I believe, include what is now becoming our defining trait: our inexplicable, abject and persistent desire to be ruled rather than governed. » continue reading
  
  
• Rupees, Annas And Vice in Governance: If there exists popular perception that this is a government with an embarrassment of vices — an inexhaustible capacity for corruption, inventive mendacity (the dementia defence), and, it now seems, even gross political ineptitude — the Congress-led UPA has only itself to blame. Arresting Anna Hazare, then offering to release him, imposing conditions on his right to protest and then launching personal attacks all tell of a rudderless government bent on committing political suicide by ritual disembowelment. » continue reading
  
  

S

• Seize The Moment in Governance: All that grumbling about the security surrounding Barack Obama’s visit seems silly now. Was it all worthwhile? Yes; if only for each of these four unique events: Obama’s message at the memorial at the Taj, the visit to Mani Bhavan, the Town Hall style meeting at my old alma mater, St Xavier’s College, and the address to Parliament. » continue reading
  
  

T

• The CAG And The Forced March To Mediocrity in Governance: During the 30 May 1949 Constituent Assembly debates, Dr BR Ambedkar described the Comptroller and Auditor General as “probably the most important officer in the Constitution of India” with duties “far more important than the duties even of the judiciary”, one who should have “far greater independence than the judiciary itself.” That is a remarkably strong statement and underscores the unique position of the CAG. It is a constitutional post, and the holder of that office can only be removed in the same manner and for the same reasons as a Judge of the Supreme Court.  » continue reading
  
  
• The Confounding Fathers Of A New Democracy in Governance: Who or what is this “civil society” that has occupied so much airtime and newsprint, and what gives it the right to speak for everyone? Let’s be clear: “civil society” means half a dozen people who, by their own admission, refuse to face citizens at an election. These people have assumed the moral, legal and Constitutional authority to govern us. They say that “just because” a party won an election a few years ago does not mean it can “sit on our chests”. » continue reading
  
  
• The Secret Diary Of A Prime Minister in Governance: Dear diary, Sometimes I think my head will explode. There’s so much I need to do, so much I want to do, so much I should do. But will they let me? All I hear is noise. All I see is more and more dirt and filth, in every stinking variant. One billion people to care for and I am allowed to do nothing. Every day I wake up with an OOPS (out of place sensation). » continue reading
  
  
• The Statute Of Liberty in Governance: The heart of democracy is individual liberty. In most democracies, and certainly in the three that claim some form of historical or numerical primacy—the United States, the United Kingdom and India—personal freedoms are increasingly under siege as law enforcement agencies seek ever wider and more Draconian powers against citizens. The justification is only one: terrorism. » continue reading
  
  
• To Protect The Good, And Punish The Protectors in Governance: The word “police” has a convoluted etymology, from the English of the 1500s, middle French, Latin and ultimately the ancient Greek polisoos — polis or city, and sozo, to save, to keep. The word describes the function. In time, it has acquired multiple connotations most often expressed in the mottos of organized police forces; terms such as to protect and to serve, for example. In small print beneath the emblem of the Mumbai Police are the words “Sadraksanaya Khalanigrahanaya”: protect the good and punish the evil. » continue reading
  
  

U

• Uncommon Wealth Games in Governance: Anonymous sources at an certain ministry in the Central Government told an undisclosed reporter of a popular but nameless daily newspaper that at a meeting of the Embowelled Group of Mantrijis, chaired by a de facto (if not de jure) Head of Government (HoG), a new act quietly passed through both Houses during Happy Hour and is set to change the face of Indian politics. The salient features of the new legislation are presented for general delectation in the larger public interest. » continue reading
  
  

V

• Video Killed The Media Star in Governance: O tempora! O mores! Thanks to the nature of these things, we can no longer say what we all know, and are forced into the needlessly elliptical. Therefore and thusly: the recent demise of the political career of a government spokesperson on accusations of his — for want of a better phrase — infelicitous conduct caught on some dull security camera videotape has generated all manner of controversies, from protestations of this being an entirely private matter to accusations of besmirching high office. » continue reading
  
  

W

• What We Talk About When We Talk About Corruption in Governance: For all the wide-spectrum, scattershot weaponry they have built into version 2.1 of the Jan Lokpal Bill, Anna Hazare and the core group of supporters of his “movement” have a curiously narrow focus: the only form of corruption targeted is monetary corruption in public affairs. That such an eradication is impossible to achieve is another matter. Given the acknowledgement of widespread and pervasive venality and the need for effective regulatory mechanisms, we need a clearer definition of the objective. » continue reading