The World Bank coined and defined the concept of Good Governance in its 1992 report entitled “Governance and Development” wherein it defined the concept as “the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country’s economic and social resources for development”. Henceforth, the concept has been considered instrumental by various major financial organisations and aid-givers including World Bank and International Monetary Fund to evaluate whether the countries in the need of aid satisfy certain criteria of good governance and hence they should be given aid or not. However, the concept of good governance is not new. For instance, in India, the concept found its reflections in Bhagavad Gita which carried numerous indicators of good governance such as leadership, dutifulness and self-realization which can be compared to the concept as a modern idea. The idea of ‘Good Governance’ also resonates in the ‘Arthashastra’, authored by Chanakya also known as Kautilya when he discussed the characteristics of a good king. He says: “In the happiness of his subjects lives his happiness, in their welfare his welfare; whatever pleases himself, he does not consider as good, but whatever pleases his subjects he considers as good.” Similarly, the concept became relevant when Mahatma Gandhi talked about ‘Su-Raaj’. More importantly, significance of good governance can be clearly found in various provisions of the Indian Constitution which is built on the premises of democracy, rule of law and welfare of people and describes itself as a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular and Democratic Republic.
Necessities of Good Governance
The theory and practice of good governance ensued in the 1990s. The concept of good governance not only turned into a normative idea replacing the value-neutrality and negative connotations of governance, it also acted as a useful mechanism to replace good government in the traditional sense. While in the contemporary society, the government’s control is limited and cannot extend to all aspects of civil society organizations, companies, communities, clubs and professional associations to the international community, good governance’s scope of operation is much larger than the government as it is applicable to companies, communities, regions, states and the international community. Second, globalization has diminished the authority of the government primarily because it has replaced the absolute sovereignty of nation-states which in turn has opened up space for various transnational organizations and supranational organizations. With the diminishing authority of the government, good governance is filling up the vacuum in the areas of public order and welfare. It is argued that governance provides for a new kind of public authority, order and welfare in the new era which was expected from the state in the traditional sense. Third, the tide of democratization has contributed to the theory and practice of good governance as well primarily because the power to shape society, restore public order and ensure welfare is migrating from governments to civil societies. However, the diminishing role and control of the government and limited functions of it do not imply that public authority, order and welfare have been compromised. On the other hand, it is argued that public authority, order and welfare can be better realized through cooperation between the government and civil society/citizens. Responsible, accountable and transparent governance along with necessary efficiency and effectiveness can be ensured only through cooperative relationship between government, civil society and market.
Good Governance in India
The right to information is central to ensure openness, transparency and accountability in governance by subjecting the government to regular public scrutiny. India is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and it is under an international obligation to effectively guarantee citizens the Right to Information as per Article 19 of the ICCPR. It is significant that due to demands from civil society organizations that RTI Act, 2005 became a reality which became instrumental in ensuring responsiveness of the Indian government to its citizens.
In a similar vein, the National e-Governance Plan in India aims at making all government services accessible to the common man in his locality. To ensure efficiency, transparency and reliability of government services at affordable costs, the revolution in Information and Technology (IT) in India has proved to be a fortunate thing. Further, in India, focus has been laid on ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance’. With that spirit, many irrelevant rules and laws have been scrapped while new laws have been formulated with an intension to bring about transparency and improve efficiency in the governance system in India.
To promote decentralization, the centralized Planning Commission which was instituted in 1950 has been replaced by National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) in January 2015 to encourage cooperative federalism and allow states a greater role in the formulation of long-term plans of the country. With the formation of NITI Aayog, more focus is increasingly being laid on developing underdeveloped areas of the country through decentralization of decision-making power. For instance, under the aegis of NITI Aayog, the Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP, January 2018) aimed at transforming 115 most backward districts with focused interventions in the field of health and nutrition, education, agriculture and water management, financial inclusion and skill development.
With the objective of devolution of resources, the 14th Finance Commission increased the tax devolution of the divisible pool to states from 32% to 42% for years 2015 to 2020. It provided more freedom to states to initiate schemes based on local factors.
With the introduction of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Acts in 2013 after several days of strike by a Civil Society Group led by Anna Hazare, practical steps were taken to stem corruption by politicians including Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers and members of Parliament and Group A bureaucrats of Central Government through the institution of Lokpal and institutions of Lokayuktas came into existence in various states to check corruption of important public functionaries of respective states. These were considered significant steps towards bringing about transparency in governance at the centre as well as states in India. India observes 25 December as good governance day. On this day in 2019, the Good Governance index was launched by the country to assess the status of governance and impact of various interventions taken up by the state governments and Union Territories. The objectives of Good Governance Index which is uniformly applicable across India are to provide quantifiable data to compare the state of governance in all states and Union Territories. These data enable states and Union Territories to formulate and implement suitable strategies for improving governance and shift to result oriented approaches.
Challenges
However, in India there is an increasing tide of criminalization of politics which obstructs good governance despite the undertaken reforms and decentralization of powers. The ever-growing vicious nexus between politicians, bureaucrats, and business houses are impinging on public policy formulation and good governance. Similarly, rampant corruption in India stood as a major challenge towards enhancing the quality of governance. As per the Corruption Perception Index – 2019 which was released by Transparency International, India’s ranking again dropped from 78 to 80. Gender disparity is another challenge that good governance in India is facing with. Under-representation of women in politics and administration along with the rising cases of violence against women speak volumes of gender inequality in the country. Many sections of population within India still feel marginalized on the basis of their caste, class, religion or ethnicity. They do not feel that they are equal stakeholders in the governance of the country which needs to be addressed to ensure good governance. While the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched certain development programmes with the objective of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’, the results are yet to be seen on ground. In this light, some scholars argue that there is a need to reformulate our national strategy to accord primacy to the Gandhian principle of ‘Antyodaya” for mainstreaming the marginalized sections of the society.
Further, another factor that impedes good governance in India is inordinate delay in delivering justice to people. The country needs to take seriously the saying ‘Justice delayed Justice Denied’ and take sincere steps towards disposal of pending cases in the judiciary. Even while the Constitution of India has laid down provisions to make the judiciary impartial and independent, still there are cases which demonstrate the influence of executive over judiciary. Despite the existence of Lokpal and other investigating agencies, corruption and criminal offences committed by politicians keep increasing which seriously challenge good governance in India. For instance, as per the data released by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), of the 8,337 candidates in Lok Sabha Elections 2024, 1,643 (20 percent) have declared criminal cases against themselves. Similarly, out of the 7,928 candidates in the Lok Sabha Election in 2019, as many as 1,500 (19 percent) had declared criminal cases against themselves whereas out of 8,205 candidates during the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, at least 1,404 (17 percent) candidates had declared criminal cases against themselves. An analysis of these data demonstrates an increase in criminalization of politics. While real democracy is all about taking the decision-making power and financial capacity to the grassroots and despite constitutional provisions for devolution of powers and resources, the local self-government institutions in India are facing dearth of funds and the decision-making power is still centralized at the level of states.