At a time when momentous changes are taking place at the global level and new ethnicities and sub-nationalisms are clamouring for independent spaces the challenges to governance--both internal and external-have to be met by excellent governance.

Madan G. Gandhi
President Gandhi Earth Vision Foundation

TOWARDS GOOD GOVERNANCE

Governance is an all-inclusive concept entailing efficacious management of human resources, public institutions and natural endowments in the interest of good life. The alternative to governance is chaos. Governance connotes the process by which the Praja or the ruled are guaranteed the right to good life which inter alia include good housing, sufficient food, quality education, justice and fairplay, security of life, liberty and property. Ram Rajya was perfect civil society characterized by transparency, accountability, political efficacy, participation and responsiveness to the problems of the people.
The ancients did not countenance any dichotomy between good governance and self-governance (Su-Raj and Swa-Raj). Governance subsumed both. The vedic polity was a model of both excellent governance and self governance through Sabhas and Samities. With ushering in the age of information technology this binary discourse is becoming obsolete. Now the developed world is pitching its tent on the roof of excellent governance by taking recourse to e-governance, global networking and integrated communication management. Ironically the third world continues to be bogged down in the binary controversies of good governance versus bad governance, self governance versus excellent governance. The fact is that whatever indicators we may project, governance has to be excellent or else the opposite of it i.e. chaos on wheels.
Today there is clearly a global dimension to governance. So long there are powerful and weak nations or even in one nation a vast gulf separates the affluent and the indigent, the goal of swaraj or suraj will remain a mere pipe-dream.
Globalization today has brought about spectacular improvements in human living conditions by introducing profound breakthroughs in fields of tele-communication, transport, agriculture, genetic engineering, medicine, multi media and internet resources and so on and so forth. Simultaneously it has also hastened the disintegration of families, and indigenous resource-base of traditional societies. It has wrought havoc with animal and plant life and caused massive pollution of rivers, oceans and the atmosphere. It has led to increase in crime rate and violence. It has intensified the sense of alienation among individuals and collectivities.
Globalization has further given a fillip to the growth of regional conglomerates and intergovernmental conclaves such as the world trade organizations as well as multilateral regimes and transnational corporations. What effect this all is going to have on the nature and nuances of governance has not been scientifically assessed so far.
In a globalized world, governance has to be necessarily the most efficient and corruption-free. It has to be promotive of common public and individual goals both at the national and international levels. Transparency, responsiveness, equity, fairness, rule of law participativeness and accountability are the accepted hallmarks of excellent governance or for that matter, governance per se.
At a time when momentous changes are taking place at the global level and new ethnicities and sub-nationalisms are clamouring for independent spaces the challenges to governance--both internal and external-have to be met by excellent governance. Any accentuation of the crisis in global economy is likely to affect the system of governance and administration of nation-states, especially those at the periphery of globalized fiscal regimes. Communal and ethnic turmoil and clashes among civilizations will further augment the load on the capability of the state-systems thereby rendering the governing institutions dysfunctional and prone to systemic crashes. With the likelihood of changes being sudden and discontinuous, the new situation will require paradigm shift. The entire approach of governance has to be geared to coping with all local and global contingencies having political, economic and social dimensions.
The citizenry of tomorrow have to be nurtured and equipped with all the necessary skills, attitudes and capabilities in the nurseries of today. The whole process of education has to be so designed that it effectively meets the demands of the new millennium. The transition, to be smooth and painless, will have to ensure interactive interface of government, private sector, traditional governance structures and the civil society organisations. A broad framework of shared values rooted in consensus and adjustment will not only help articulate both collective and individual concerns but also help them to realize their full potential.
Full flowering of democratic governance will necessitate an effective implementation of universal human rights and the rule of law. It will require free and fair elections and efficient functioning of legislative, executive and judicial bodies. Adherence to highest standard of probity in public life, transparency and accountability of governance at all levels, involvement of informed and public spirited citizenry in the decentralized decision making vibrant civil society organizations, enforceable guaranteed human rights including the right to work and livelihood, the right to clean environment, the right to minorities, the right to cultural diversity, and to crown all, the right to free press and information.
The above imperatives of governance are inter related and not mutually exclusive. They reinvigorate and reinforce each other. Where societies are collapsing under the weight of overpopulation man-made disasters, contending communalisms, ethnicities and religion-centric clashes of civilizations and where endemic poverty and backwardness of teeming millions makes the picture bleak, the need is to first rebuild the basic institutions of governance, maintain civil order, provide food security and clean administration. The alternative to it will be anarchy and disintegration. Until all public spirited citizens join the crusade against all-pervading corruption, communalism and criminalisation of politics, the goal of good governance or even of governance will remain a mirage.