Rise of civil society

Many observers have drawn attention to, and over-stated the implications of, the role of Sonia Gandhi and her national advisory committee in the UPA scheme of things.

Over-stated, because there is no evidence to suggest that the relationship between the Prime Minister and the head of the United Progressive Alliance is anything other than cordial and cohesive, or that each does not recognise and give the other his or her legitimate space.

It should also be obvious that this is not a novel situation; the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) played a comparable role in the Vajpayee government, choosing to intervene if it felt the need, on issues dear to it.

The Left parties have a similar situation, since in communist theology the party is superior to any government that the party may form.

The more substantive issue that observers have not commented on is the growing role of non-governmental organisations in policy formation""and the failure of political parties that this reflects.

Whether it is in drawing up the outlines of the draft employment guarantee law or legislation on the right to information, the real debate and engagement with issues is by NGOs and activists who have spent time working in the field and who are familiar with both the issues and the policy options.

The significance of Sonia Gandhi's NAC is that it has given official status to activists like Aruna Roy and voice to experts like Jean Dreze""reflecting how James Wolfensohn at the World Bank was forced to listen to NGOs on everything from dam construction to the effectiveness of aid.

And so, while Lalu Prasad calls Ram Vilas Paswan names (or denies having done so), while Shibu Soren hides from warrants of arrest, and while the opposition in Parliament prevents discussion on the Budget in one session and stages repeated walk-outs in another, it is the NGOs that are engaged with issues that matter to citizens and which increasingly help to frame policy""as though to prove the contention that India's political parties have only an electoral deal with voters, not a continuing engagement with citizens on public issues.

This is both welcome and something to be wary about. Welcome to the extent that the country gets stronger when civil society engages with issues in a constructive manner and organises itself to play an active rather than a passive role""whether through residents' welfare societies that take charge of neighbourhood security, or through campaigning on pollution issues (to the extent of challenging companies and governments in the Supreme Court and winning), or through difficult work in hostile environments in everything from water conservation to freeing child labour.

But it is also something to be wary about because NGOs (who in the end are nobody's elected representatives) tend to have single-point agendas and often narrow perspectives (as on the issue of building dams), push them to the exclusion of others, and do not show the accommodation for other points of view that the rough and tumble of politics teaches the political parties.

The issue worth pondering over is not whether Sonia Gandhi is a super-Prime Minister (she clearly isn't), but whether the political parties are being shown up for their lack of engagement with the issues that make a difference to citizens, and whether the NAC is an interesting device for bridging the divide.