DailyPost 2789
POLITICAL ADMINISTRATION
In all likelihood, you would not have heard of this term ever before. Separately you have been hearing of the two, so frequently, that would have gotten fed up with it by now. Both realpolitik and real governance are manifested by the functional and robust term, the practice of administration as it stands today. What does political administration actually mean? It simply means that the administration of this country runs with political motives only, through political facilitation and precisely in that style. That it runs under the camouflage of objectivity, transparency and responsiveness is a democratic precondition, which has to be somehow woven and proven.
It can be proven by lip service and a variety of other manifestations, mostly defensive and negative, which has become the order of the day. Leave aside administration, even democracy is battled for in a similar manner. It can’t be possible in any other way. The bureaucracy of the country, by now, top to bottom, has become fully conversant in political administration because it is here where its utility lies.Every dispensation needs a political administration of its choice, what we call governance, in a slightly more sophisticated parlance. That is how we have so many variants of administration that have cropped up and it will keep adding, depending on the party in power, and even further, of the style of the man in the driver’s seat.
Public administration was created on rock solid principles, practices, processes and conventions, but that needs to be understood by the political executive and they should have the will and vision to practise it. There are not many shortcuts in this game, but the gains are permanent. The permanent bureaucracy, having been trained and been practising administration for decades, is expected to deal with the issues / enforcement / implementation with the equanimity and professionalism, it deserves. Accommodating political interventions within the ambit of the law and rules is where we started and have moved to bending before the political masters that be. Political intervention is a mild term to underestimate the rot.
Supplication, to the powers that be, is what political administration is all about. The issues, agenda, decisions etc are already taken on a variety of considerations; political, electoral or otherwise, the tool that brings it to reality, is known as political administration. Layers and layers of intervention keep happening in a systematic manner from the cutting edge of administration to the biggest decisions taken in the interest of the country. Political intervention interface with regular administration with dictated results is the end result of it. Anyway, how many of the electorate find a voice, leave aside a say in the administration of the state. What is the space provided to political parties not in power, civil society et al, in the administration of the state.
POLITICAL POWER MEANS POLITICAL ADMINISTRATION.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.