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Political Governance in Indian Politics of Development

Panchanan Bhoi, Ph.D. - 10/12/2008

In a democratic set up the explicit of political governance is specified objectively in the management of a country’s economic and social resources for development. It is significant because it determines human societies’ ability to equip themselves with systems of representation and social agents that are capable of managing interdependencies in an amicable way. Both governance and democracy are independent constructs. So in the absence of an accepted political congruence grounded on a people's choice of the form of their governance, governance and democracy do not in any way imply a similar construct or practice.

In India good governance has received considerable attention from all political parties, and has remained the focus of much political discourse in the country. So for better political governance, different sets of strategies have been put forward from time to time by different political parties as per their ideology and suitability. Generally political parties in India have been in someway or other associated with some different groups or different geographical regions. Instead they tend to be coalitions of interests, aggregating demands on behalf of a number of social groups and regional interests. Given the relatively low level of ideological division and conflict unlike in other nations, to an outsider, party system in India can be very difficult to understand. In India political parties appear to be coalitions of many interests. Some times they are organizationally weak and in a constant state of crisis. In contrast, most of the political parties have quite vivid public images based on caste, region, religious, linguistic, ethnic or ideological divisions. Although often criticized by public and media, political parties do perform vital functions in every political system, and in India with democratic traditions they are an indisputably necessary part of the democratic process.

The success or failure of India as a developmental state cannot be attributed to the policies of the central government alone. They are the combined products of central-local interactions and political choices made by various state governments. State governments insert their agendas into the central framework- modifying and circumventing policy. Now the time has come for the re-evaluation of national developmental issues differently and to lay stress the need to evolve a cumulative framework to realize India’s economic policy, development and globalization.

In a large scale Indian society believes in democratic socialism and it stands for equality and prosperity for all. It is dead set against communal forces that want to divide the country on the basis of religion. In today’s context, what’s more saddening is that the politics of development has displayed a myopic view of social and political empowerment of hitherto marginalized sections of the society. So, we must nurture our political structure to end the atrocious and unjust patron-client model of governance. Thus, the major challenge for good governance is how to transform patronized politics to pro-poor political ideology rather than the politics of governance based on three words: suspicion, sabotage and sycophancy.

Ironically, in India while dealing with different provincial governments, the central government uses different yardsticks. For example, the different crisis in various states like Goa, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Maharastra, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, we can see one thing: if you toe centre’s policies than all your sins become virtue. But the argument is, regional political competition is based on regional interests in states in turn these states have no other way but to co-exist with the overarching national state. Thus, these sub-national politics and parties are the products of struggle against a dominant centre. Further, the onset of globalization has equipped the centre’s authority and interference in states, despite the fact that local factors and politics can modify and re-order global priorities for regional ends.

Now politics is more associated with 3Cs- caste, cash and criminal. By virtue of this, politics of development is gaining ground whereas developmental politics is loosing its efficacy. While one would appreciate the genuine concerns about law, governance and development, but it is ridiculous to come across the dual policies of central government that selectively targets non-Congress state governments on whimsical grounds. This argument has two reasons: firstly the state of growth and development in non-Congress states has generated envious tendencies in the Congress since some decades. Secondly, even if the Congress ruled states have any serious law and governance problems it follows a double standards and does not hesitate to divert the issues to other areas of development.

On the economic front we cannot take pride if the GDP of some of the prominent companies are on rise. A country can be termed as developed if we find an equitable and holistic growth on all fronts, be it in agriculture, human resources or economy. Most of the rural areas still lack the basic amenities like water, electricity and road. The gap between haves and have-nots are growing. The role of the state is to reduce the gap and enhance the livelihood projects for poor. Now the role of caste in Indian politics is polarized in a different context- known as social engineering. Those who called themselves as savior of downtrodden now munch through crores of rupees and claimed it to be the love and affection of their followers’. It is ecstatic to see the claim that the poor workers give donations to make their party chief rich, so that they feel pleasure. Media in some cases also gives a lopsided view while one can do everything to collect funds for election clandestinely, but if they get caught would be branded as criminal, otherwise would be remain a perfect gentleman. After all, success has many friends failure has none? In the present day politics of development, one thing is apparent, if you need politics of existence: ‘when in Rome do as Romans do’.

The purpose of political governance is to strengthen the political and administrative framework of the country in line with the principles of democracy, transparency, accountability, integrity, respect for human rights and promotion of the rule of law. In order to build capacity to meet these principles and to make significance progress on these, we need institutional reforms on: (i) administrative and civil services, (ii) strengthening parliamentary oversight, (iii) promoting participatory decision-making, (iv) adopting effective measures to combat corruption and embezzlement, (v) undertaking judicial reforms

Here we can quote the visionary statement of one of the country’s finest president Dr.Abdul Kalam, who once said "Everybody is talking about developmental politics. Developmental politics is political politics plus development politics. Political politics is fighting for assembly seats, fight between parties- but a peaceful fight, while developmental politics is about making India a developed nation by 2010...2020...fighting to make India developed soon". Dr. Kalam suggested, “30 percent of the time should be spent for political politics and 70 per cent for developmental politics, but now only the reverse is happening."

Political governance’s priority areas identified in the government's good governance policy include constitutionalism and human rights, democracy, decentralisation and strengthening of local government, and accountability and transparency. In a political governance system it necessitates that: (i) the people shall have controlling influence on the decisions and affairs of government, (ii) the people are supreme to government. In recognition of this, government should institute responsive mechanisms which ensure that the people are treated with equal respect and as of equal worth in the exercise of their controlling influence.

So, political governance should be put in place to transact value-based political principles in elected fora such as Parliament at the Centre and the Legislative Assemblies in the States. In India, different political parties are taking initiative in their respective level in supporting and building these institutions to maintain these commitments towards creating and strengthening national, subregional and continental structures that support good governance.

In a nutshell, it is argued that in any society, different social groups have particular interests to promote or defend their ideas through different means, so their interests can be aggregated and articulated in a better way in the policies of the central government. Further, traditionally, political parties have performed this function since long – hence the association of party with particular social groups, regions or religions cannot be uncalled for or unnecessary.