DailyPost 2508
SELECTIVE GOVERNANCE
Selective amnesia we have all heard of but the ones who practice it as matter of choice are mostly a butt of ridicule. At the very best, it would serve his vested interest, or he would be able to avoid consequences of some wrong doing or he might to able to evade some responsibility. If the powers that be, decide on selective governance, it becomes an uphill task either to bear with it or stand up against it. Can you think of any government that has been able to provide a comprehensive good quality responsive governance for even a single term in any state of this country or the central level in recent times.
Today comprehensive good quality responsive governance is not even a mirage, so where is the question of thinking of it. It is found in slogans, manifestoes and claims. Might be being less or more selective is all what we think of, if not complete takeover of governance for ushering in government’s chosen trajectory of growth, development, human resource enablement or the government benefits. Suffice to say the legal mandate does not allow you to be selective on any basis; caste, creed, religion, race, region, color, education, political following, ideology, sex and what not. The constitutional oath so to say prohibits governments to practice selective governance.
The unfortunate part is that in practice they are at liberty to decide what to govern, what not to govern, in which manner to govern, to take responsibility or evade it, to interfere or not to interfere and the list goes on. In crux, governance has become a hand maiden for the political executive, to play around with it. Without getting into too many specificities, the general norm is not to pick up things which are difficult, take up tasks which can ensure votes, and also make a serious attempt to make invasive inroads using governance as a tool, into their agenda related tasks. Selective governance also means the preferred methods of delivery.
In the current spate of governments, it also means how much of publicity can be extracted out of the routine governance tasks at government’s expense. If you get into regions / states, today a state can nearly be forgotten for months together, and nobody can do anything about it. Selective governance is provided by even the weakest of the governments but the reality is that, it has a clear connect with elected strength as well. Giving cash in the name of welfare activities brings the huge administrative machinery to a naught. It’s their job to deliver what the government mandates for welfare; healthcare, skill development, job creation et al. Governments cannot transform themselves into apps to disburse taxpayers’ money at their whims and fancy. All would work for horizontal extension of substandard education, and not get into its quality is one of shining and perpetual example of selective governance. Selective governance leads to skewed society and economy, which cannot stand on its own feed.
SELECTIVE GOVERNANCE IS DEBILITATING TO THE SYSTEM IN THE LONG RUN.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.