75th Founding Day Lecture Meeting on “India@2030” Know More

March 2011

Political governance — End the drift

By Raman Jokhakar
Tarunkumar G. Singhal
Chartered Accountants
Reading Time 1 mins
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The existentialist dilemma before Indian democracy is stark :
it cannot co-exist with financial honesty. It does not matter if you are
personally incorruptible; you have to be institutionally corrupt in order to
engage in the business of democracy. The moral code of elections is
uncomplicated : Don’t ask. Don’t tell. And for God’s sake don’t get caught.


— M. J. Akbar
in India Today, dated 10-1-2011

55 Political governance — End the drift

Decision-making isn’t a synonym for governance. Even so, it’s
a good pointer to a ruling dispensation’s ability to be on its toes. On that
score, data shows UPA-II fared badly in 2010. The cabinet’s record on number of
decisions taken in 2010 compared to earlier was below par. Between 2005-08
during the Congress-led coalition’s first tenure, the cabinet took an average of
242.5 decisions yearly. The annual average since 2005 is 183. In 2010, however,
the Cabinet managed consensus on just 112 decisions, the lowest single-year
figure since the UPA came to power. Amazingly, decision-making actually
decelerated post-2009, when the Left was no longer around to ambush it !

(Source : The Times of India, dated 18-1-2011)

 

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