India will be celebrating its 61st Republic Day next week. There is certainly much to rejoice. No other developing country, over the past 60 years, has achieved as much as India has in politics as well as economics. Contrary to earlier prognostications, there is now worldwide admiration for India as the world’s largest democracy with free and fair elections; its celebrated and universally-acclaimed leaders; and its emergence as one of the fastest-growing economies of the 21st century.
While there is much to celebrate on the Republic Day, I believe that this is also an appropriate occasion to reflect on what more needs to be done to make our political and economic systems function effectively for the benefit of the people. In this column, I propose to deal briefly with some emerging problems in political governance, administration of justice and delivery of public services.
Among the vital pillars of our democratic state, the government is supposed to be “collectively responsible” and accountable to Parliament. The present reality, however, is very different. Parliament does what government wishes it to do without sufficient accountability. Parliament, as well as state legislatures, are convened and adjourned at the discretion of the executive. Each session of Parliament then approves whatever the government wishes — with or without discussion.
Thus, during the short winter session in 2009, as was widely reported in the Press, four legislative bills were passed within the last five minutes of the session. This was, however, not an isolated aberration. In the previous year, on the last day of the Lok Sabha session, eight legislative bills were passed in exactly 17 minutes. The bottom in the role of Parliament was perhaps reached in March 2006 when the Budget, including the Finance Bill, was passed suddenly without sufficient notice. Parliament was adjourned sine die, only to be reconvened after a few days (when the initial situation leading to the sudden adjournment was no longer relevant). Parliament was then asked to discuss the Budget, which had already been approved by it a few days ago!
Over the past few decades, the size of government machinery has increased phenomenally, and the number of ministries and departments has multiplied. Today, India has by far the largest number of administrative departments/ministries among well-established democratic countries. Multiple ministries — as many as 10 or 12 — are involved in getting anything done.
There are finance, planning, rural or urban development, road or rail transport, women or child welfare, agriculture or food, commerce or industry, water or irrigation, health or human resources, and so on, in moving any public good or service from one point of the delivery chain to another. The discretionary role of ministers in the decision-making process has increased substantially, while their accountability has decreased. There has also been an increasing politicisation of bureaucracy, and exercise of discretion by ministers in posting and transfer of civil servants at all levels of the administrative hierarchy. The transfer of 1,000 civil servants when a government comes to power, in some states, is not uncommon. With shifting loyalties of small parties in a coalition, rising number of criminals in politics, and enormous powers to allocate resources, it is not difficult to visualise what these frequent transfers of civil servants are expected to achieve.
The judiciary is still believed to be above suspicion, but the judicial system as a whole has become largely non-functional with millions of pending cases. These may take a quarter of a century to resolve. Some years ago, no less than a former chief justice of the Supreme Court was pleased to give his legal opinion in a foreign court that India’s judicial system was practically non-functional in settling disputes. Some laws are 100 or 150 years old, and several are practically unenforceable.
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No wonder the “demand and supply” of corruption in the administrative system are much more visible now than ever before. According to the Corruption Perception Index, compiled by Transparency International, India is close to the top of the list of countries with highest levels of corruption — not very far from its neighbours, who figure in the list of failed states (i.e. Pakistan and Bangladesh).
A primary reason why the abundant “supply” of corruption by public servants creates its own “demand” is the complexity of administrative procedures at multiple levels for pursuing any economic activity or carrying on with the ordinary business of life. Thus, for example, at least 30 different clearances, involving several agencies at the Centre and states, are required for setting up a modest-sized industrial factory. On foreign direct investment, there are 177 separate press notes issued over several decades. Many of these are still valid.
While India’s rank in the Corruption Perception Index is high, its rank in the Human Development Index is low in respect of delivery of public services to the poor in areas of health, nutrition, literacy, sanitation and shelter. India continues to have the largest number of persons below the poverty line in the world, and their absolute numbers are in fact increasing over time, according to some indicators.
There is a sharp increase in the rural-urban divide in terms of levels of living. Restlessness among disadvantaged communities is also spreading. This was highlighted by the Central government itself a couple of years ago, when it was observed that nearly one-third to one-fourth of India’s districts were being controlled by extra-legal entities.
In next month’s column, I will suggest some relatively simple administrative and institutional reforms to regain the lost ground, and achieve India’s full potential for growth and poverty alleviation.