Daily Post 1332
GOVERNMENT / GOVERNANCE SANS POLITICS
The democratic presumption which can safely be arrived at, is that once a political party forms the government, it should function sans politics. That is why Govt’s don’t have the names of political parties attached to it. The existence of political parties and the electoral battle which is fought as a pitched battle in all democracies are supposed to end with the elections. The politics of the parties and of elected representatives would for sure continue, but whosoever becomes a part of the political executive are bound to perform above and beyond the political existence. This transformation has to happen at the governmental level.
The governments are there for everybody and every citizen has the right to take its grievances to whosoever is in power, in the Govt at the particular point in time. The beauty of all democracies is that once you are elected, you represent the whole constituency and not only the ones who have voted for you. In the same manner once you become a part of the government you represent all the interests of the nation or of the state. Each of the political executive have to address to the issues of the citizens as a part of the executive function of the state. The enactment is the law of the land, prepared as a bill by the govt and introduced accordingly, is passed post discussion.
There are lots of citizens in the country who might not know the political parties who are in power in different states. There is no necessity to know either. That is the nature of the executive. It has to perform sans politics in the interest of every citizen of the state. Only if the executive functions are performed so, it would mean long term benefit to that particular state and same applies to the union / national level. The political executives are as much public servants as the permanent executive. Republican or Democrat, Conservative or Labour adds a vitiated tinge to governance and administration. Government is government.
There might be some exceptions where a common knows and remembers which policy was made by which political party in power. For most us or may be nearly all, what we are bothered about are laws, policies, rules and directives which we are supposed to comply with. This is sentiment on which political executives and executives work in all democratic countries across the world. We know the heads of governments of most of the important nations but we might not know the names of even one of political parties in power in these countries. Human Development Indices, SDGs, economic growth, human rights, quality education and health remains the permanent concern of any govt.
THE UNSTINTED FOCUS ON DELIVERY CAN HAPPEN ONLY THROUGH DEMOCRATIC COPYBOOK STYLE EXECUTIVE.
Sanjay Sahay