Address by Mr. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP on “Governance and Political Reforms”  20 September, 2010, Kolkata

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you for having me here this evening and inviting me to speak with you.

I will speak with you about Governance and Political reforms –

I believe, and so do many in civil society and Business, that we are at a cross road today as a nation. Our progress as a nation in the coming years will depend heavily on the ability of Political leaders and their Parties to forge a consensus on the vital issues impacting our growth and progress as a nation and people. This, in turn, depends on all of us in Civil Society and as citizens identifying these vital issues and making them the focus of our Debate about the future direction of our nation.

No doubt, there are many, many issues that face us as a nation – you are no doubt aware of some or most of them – The problems of Destitution and Poverty still afflict almost 500 Million Indians, with more than 400 Million Indians still living below Sub-Saharan Poverty standards, the problems of Corruption, the seemingly out of control security situations etc. - and I can go on and on.

But I have been making the case for some time now, that one of THE vital issues is the issue of declining standards of Governance and Politics, and therefore, the need for reforms and restructuring in that department. Because most of our other vital issues directly flow from this. For you, the young captains of Industry, who are and will be major participants in how the story of India turns out in the coming decades, I would argue that you have the most to gain or lose from the India story unraveling !

Let me lay out my case –

While India has developed tremendously over the last decade and a half on the back of the innovation, creativity and energy of Private entrepreneurs, it is obvious that the state capacity has lagged behind significantly, and make no mistake, we require both Private Entrepreneurship and Efficient Governance as two critical elements of the Long term growth equation or challenge. Notwithstanding the rhetoric in exotic International locations like Davos, New York etc, of India becoming a superpower or an Incredible India etc, we must accept that, all of that will remain a pipe dream if the State of the Government and governance doesn’t improve dramatically and keep pace with the changes in the private side of our economy. I am not a cynic at all. I tend to see things as they are today and that’s why I see India as a cup half full and a work in Progress.

The need to reinvent our Governmental model is inarguable. As someone recently said in Bangalore, if India became Independent to get rid of rulers and being ruled, it couldn’t have been the founding fathers’ intentions to replace one set of British Rulers and Bureaucrats with another set of Indian Rulers and Bureaucracy. It seems being ruled or governed is still the feeling that an interaction with Government leaves behind. There is no sense of responsiveness, long term thinking and vision, or public service, and instead, there is a general perception of corruption, political lackeydom, shortcuts and shortsightedness. In recent years, Government has become even more synonymous with huge spending and increased bureaucracy! As I mentioned recently to our Prime Minister, it seems Governance is now about legislating and spending!  Whether you examine RTE or any other initiative, the definition of Governance seems to have morphed into something that’s only about legislating and spending.

At the same time, our governance model doesn’t recognize and reward excellence and initiative and integrity within the Government. Proof of this is in the Padma Awards, where you almost never see any Government officers. Last year, I raised a question in Parliament where I asked why in the Industry and Trade category, no PSU head was being recognized? I got a usual obfuscating answer that has become the norm for Parliamentary questions. So we should assume that either there is no excellence in government or there’s no need to recognize this excellence. I don’t subscribe to the latter because it’s the government system that launches Chandrayaan, which leads to the conclusion that the system doesn’t really encourage or incentivize the people doing the right things.

This form of restructuring is vital because Vibrant Entrepreneurship in India is having to contend with Deteriorating state capacity.  The Indian state and government, despite rapid economic growth, has deteriorated over time. Whether it’s providing Law and order, Sanctity of contracts, Delivery of Public services, Public policy formulation, the stench of decline is all pervasive. A recent article in a newspaper described, on a crude measure of government effectiveness, India’s Governance performance as having declined sharply. In the early 1960s, India was in the top 20% of countries in governance, slipping to middle ie, only in the 50% of the countries sampled, in recent times.

The decline in Government and Politics did not start yesterday. It has been a slow decline that we are all failing to catch or do not want to respond to and therein is one of the tragedies. The focus on National Security doesn’t start till the 26/11 terrorism attack, the country doesn’t respond to Naxalism till many innocents die, we simply accept the disaster in our sports administration till the blatant CWG.  It’s our fault that we have accepted this lowering of standards and have said or done very little about it, and it’s also our fault that as a nation and people, we only react and are seemingly incapable of planning for our future and all its challenges.

Part of the reason is that it is easier to create a free market and entrepreneurship because all it requires is for the government to get out of the way; it is harder to create state capacity and governance. That requires creation of institutions, building them, nurturing them and protecting them from politicization and ad-hocism, and, as importantly, keeping them accountable. In Weber’s memorable words, “Building public institutions is like slow boring of hard boards”. In this context, it is a much harder job for us to address this issue of arresting Government Institutional decline than the past few years of economic liberalization and unleashing of entrepreneurship. To quote Ramachandra Guha, the historian “We have to repair one by one, the institutions that we have inherited and build new ones to help us meet the challenges of the coming years”.

I hope you the young captains join this push for reforms in Governance and our Politics. Let me end by quoting the Guatemalen poet/Freedom fighter – “One day, the apolitical intellectuals of my country will be questioned by the simplest of our people. They will be asked what they were doing, when their nation died slowly”. Our future generations will ask us this also.

Thank you again for having me here this evening. Jai Hind.