Modi and His Governance

Prof.  Javed Mughal
Three slogans ‘Work Culture, Accountability and Transparency’ I have been hearing for the last over a few years sans any implementation although they should have been the bedrock of the good governance from the very outset of its democratic being. Sans these three basic essentials, no nation can progress, no democracy can flower and there is not even a distant possibility to translate Mr. Modi’s promise to the nation for ‘minimum Government and maximum governance’ into reality. In the absence of these three life-lines, since the dawn of independence, we have noticed our poor nation, with a very rich heritage, smoldering on the pyre of hydra-headed troubles and turmoil. Embezzlements, scams and countless other socio-ethical and moral anathemas have been biting into the very being India-a nation which most of us call our motherland and the land of dreams, although it has turned out to be the land of nightmares for millions of Indians who have to go for sleep without food and with tears in the eyes and wake up with many questions on life in the mind.
At the moment this nation, with a very rich past and the poorest present, has culminated into being a hub of nonsense from alpha to omega with no surety of life and honour and with least chances for truth to prevail around primarily because her custodians have in fact become her enemies and now entrusting this nation to these power lords or her so-called custodians is tantamount to assigning the responsibility of protecting a lamb to the lion. Dishonesty, treachery, selfishness, bribery and all other worst possible practices are rampantly prevailing in almost all the government sectors in general and the state administration in J&K in particular that has already rendered a great setback to the larger interests of the nation and even now is enervating its foundations. The problem is that the ones who play with the interests of the public claim to be the apostle of honesty and straightforwardness and those who are looting the public money and the money of the poor tax payers have been deputed to look after the same. Work-culture, transparency and accountability are no more than “the fertile hallucinations of the futile mind”. These slogans have decayed and become outdated over the years. None listens to anyone. Public are still crying and suffering and sweating while making rounds of the offices across our state and outside too but the condition is no better. Money can still publicly be found while exchanging hands in the Govt. offices. Files are still pending and cases of the stakeholders are still hanging in the air.
The general public is still suffering due to lack of work culture and due to deliberate delay in disposal of matters of public importance, i.e., getting a cooking gas connection, fresh issue as well as renewal of driving license / gun license / passports; receiving a copy of the mutation certificate to show land- ownership, obtaining copies of patta, jamabandi and other land related documents; receiving police verification reports for various purposes to name a few. The advent of Mr Modi has for the time being injected a ray of hope to the country for a public oriented change in the system. A number of new initiatives have been made by the Modi Government, to improve the work culture and working environment in the Central Secretariat and Ministries, in New Delhi, which has even attracted global attraction, as efforts are in the direction of making the erstwhile ‘sleeping bureaucracy’ to wake up to the realities of the urgency to deliver ‘quality public services’ and make justice to the huge financial package earned by them, out of the public exchequer, after the Last Pay Commission’s Recommendations. He can be trusted to give fair and frank governance to the long-suffered public of this country. Modi seems to have studied the character and anti-public working of his preceding government and have learned a lot from them. It is always a very beautiful art to learn wisdom from the fools by desisting from all that the fools do and learn honesty from a dishonest by abstaining from the dishonesty which one day can invite the wrath of the masses. Modi is working quite contrary to what the erstwhile Government at the center had been doing all along her tenure and if he continues in the same fashion and with the same fervor, the time is not distant when he will rule the hearts of people in every nook and corner of the country. Shortly after taking over as the Prime Minister of this ‘Poor Nation’ he interacted with the Secretaries of the Ministries and various other high ranking officials to step up their courage to work at the top of their efficiency to provide the best possible services to the masses and also scrapped about two dozen groups of Ministers and a number of other cabinet Committees to remove the ‘Policy Paralysis’ at the center. This step of the newly installed Prime Minister not only unfolded his far-reaching and public oriented vision but gave a signal to the bureaucracy that now the fragrant flower of honesty will find a very favourable climate to bloom and the pernicious weed of dishonesty will not be allowed to germinate now. Mr. Modi himself visited the PMO in the South Block, interacted with the officials of different levels, checked the cleanliness and punctuality of the officers and others, which sent a clear signal to all concerned that, they will have to keep the offices clean and tidy and work hard and honestly and deal with public matters, with urgency, not in the usual lackadaisical manner. Suddenly, all the new NDA ministers too got busy, with this kind of unusual activities, unheard during the UPA Plutocracy. “Ministers are conducting surprise checks in the morning to see if bureaucrats are in their seats, offices are thoroughly cleaned and all old furniture have been thrown away. Senior officers are under orders not to keep files pending, and ministers are clearing files, including many left over from the previous government, in a jiffy. Keeping in view this kind of Modi’s stand, it can be hoped that some positive change may take place and the long dead system of governance is most likely to get enlivened. How far Mr. Modi becomes successful in his intentions is not known to us but at least his efforts are sincere and his working-style compels us to believe that he is true when he claims to devote 18 hours in working. The major tragedy with our officers and officials in and out of secretariat is that they are visible in their offices more than two hours at the most and sometimes (to the bad luck of the stakeholders draining out their peace of mind and solace of heart) cannot be seen for days together.
Whenever, one goes to these bureaucrats, one gets disheartened to note their cold and unsympathetic and disrespectful attitude. The elected ministers who one day were standing at our doors holding begging bowls begging for votes now behave as if they were the masters of our destiny. I have seen most of the officers being nowhere in the office on time and leaving the office at the right time as well. Such practices have rendered a great setback to the interests of this nation. All these bureaucrats, Ministers and other officials excepting a few, who are also there in the system but are overshadowed by the lot of scandal mongers, looters and grabbers, are the true enemies of the country. They can damage the national interests in one minute as much as all the terrorist organizations, in a well planned manner, can’t do in 100 years. At least Mr. Modi happens to be first Prime Minister of India who has tried to carry the official timing into effect by impressing upon all the top ranking officials and bureaucrats to enter the office at 9 in the morning and leave the office after the time is over. They have strictly ordered to clear all the pendency as early as possible. Another revolutionary slogan raised recently by our dynamic Prime Minister is to give ‘Digital India’ to the people where the entire government should on the Palm of every citizen.
Accordingly Modi has directed all the officials to feed all the records on the computers and clear their desks of all stinking files. These prince-like officers have been deprived of holidays on Saturdays since the welfare of the masses, to Modi, is above all comforts of these officers who always enjoyed at the cost the people’s betterment.  In his First Independence Day Speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort, Mr. Narendra Modi, claimed himself as the Number One Servant of the people, and asked the people to work hard for the development of the country.  Let our Chief Ministers, Ministers and top bureaucrats take lessons from Mr. Modi, so that, those below the line, would then emulate their example to work with commitment, dedication and with speed.

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