The integration of social and moral characters into e-governance, can fulfil Modi’s dream of smart governance, writes PANKAJ KP SHREYASKAR
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s valedictory remarks during the Civil Services Day at New Delhi, were unique. Customarily, remarks made by distinguished luminaries on such occasions are full of theoretical framework and mostly rhetoric. Mr Modi, unlike them, emphasised on areas like the socio-psychological aspects of human relationship of Indian bureaucrats.
Mr Modi’s impromptu talk regarding various gestures of Indian bureaucrats — both senior and junior — bemused many. He wanted to know whether there can be bureaucrats with smiling faces and with normal human gestures. Mr Modi’s homily concern with regards to the essence of spending quality time with the family members was well applauded.
He is perhaps the first Prime Minister to recognise the impact that a family can have on professional life. His philosophical remarks about ‘discovering oneself', and refraining from becoming irrelevant like a dead file, filled the echelons of bureaucracy with the much needed impetus. Mr Modi urged civil servants to follow the motto of ‘Sheelam Param Bhushanam’ (character and integrity are priceless ornaments of the bureaucracy).
‘Accountability’ can mean a number of things: That the officials must give an account for their actions (which makes accountability almost synonymous with transparency); that the officials must ‘take responsibility' for their actions (but whether this is to be judged on procedural grounds or in terms of impacts, is unclear); that the elected officials will be made accountable by voters through elections; and so on.
Transparency is often considered to be synonymous with openness and disclosure, although one can find some subtle differences among these terms. In public discourse, transparency is widely considered a good on the face of it, similar to privacy and free speech. Transparency is viewed as a self-evident good in Western society to the point that we might almost say that ‘more transparent-than-thou’ has become the secular equivalent of ‘holier-than-thou' in modern debates over matters of organisation and governance.
The link between transparency and the cognate concept of accountability, on an abstract plane, is unassailable. In operational terms, however, the connection is far from obvious. Transparency does not automatically result in accountability. Moreover, the term in itself is self-explanatory. Transparency is often conceived in terms of making procedures clear and removing discretionary control, but without a corresponding elaboration of the preconditions necessary for making clarity produce the desired results.
Mr Modi further argued that e-governance, in his wisdom, is essential for effective governance. The concept of e-Government consists of two interrelated (and simultaneously self) projects. This is an internal Government information infrastructure (similar to a corporate network) and external information infrastructure that interacts with citizens and organisations.
Within the concept of ‘electronic Government’ integrated information resources of the public authorities, provided access to them, as well as a system of online services (including those that have value). The Government's network infrastructure must be aimed at solving the political, economic and social problems. Creation and development of Government web-based information infrastructure requires an appropriate formalisation of legal acts and Budget.
It should be understood that the introduction of e-Government is a large-scale and long-term project. There is a need to get over with the bureaucratic culture, which is not easy. Maybe the concept may assist administrative reform, which aims to modernise the public administration.
last, if e-governance is integrated and prefixed further with more relevant characters like social and moral, the dream of Mr Modi for Smart (social, moral, accountable, responsible and transparent) governance will be met.
