Peaceful transfer of power after elections is one of the bedrocks of democratic form of governance. You win some and you lose some as the adage goes and move on to fight another day.
And that was the norm till sore losers appeared on the horizon. Trump is the most visible and articulate face of such a discordant note in the oldest democracy and the support he still gets on the issue in the US shows old democratic norms may be changing.
And that is the oldest democracy by a stretch. We of course are a young democracy that has survived defying all odds including a brief spell of a high degree of autocratic control.
So as child is the father of man, the oldest democracy is reaching where a young one has been there, done that…
There have been graceful losers like Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh but maybe they are relics of an older era. And then again, democracy in India has worked more traditionally with coalition govts….
We have always had the governor as a check on the state governments. He is appointed by the Central Govt. That office has been used/ misused since the last 65 years or so to derail working of state govts that are not politically aligned with the Central govt.
As usual the original sin was committed by the Congress party.
In its more extreme form of usage, the office has been used to dismiss democratically elected state govts by 90 times by various Congress Central govts. Our original democrat, Nehru, used it 17 times….
And when the debates in the Constituent Assembly on the office of the Governor and his appointment were inconclusive, the Congress issued a whip to its members to vote for its adoption.
The BJP dominated Central govt has been more sophisticated than the Congress. It has not resorted to such blatant misuse of the post of Governor by dismissing state govts. It has allegedly only used it to checkmate smooth working of the state govts that are not aligned with it.
In fact so irritated are some state govts that they are in the Supreme Court against such governors. Punjab, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have met with degrees of success in their appeals against their respective governors.
And then there is Delhi. It is a Union Territory with an assembly given limited statehood. It has been run by AAP since the last 10 years or so. It is no secret that the Centre and the State govts are at daggers drawn politically.
After some litigation, in May 2023, the SC ruled that the Delhi govt has control over all services and their officers, except law and order, land and public order. The legislative powers would extend to IAS and it shall control them even if they are not recruited by the NCT Delhi.
The Central govt promptly came out with an amendment duly approved by Parliament in Aug 2023 effectively nullifying the ruling by SC. Among other steps it allows department secretaries to take matters to the LG without consulting the concerned minister and gives the LG the power to summon, prorogue and dissolve the legislative assembly, among others.
The Delhi govt has gone back to SC challenging the law passed by Parliament. It is yet to be taken up by SC.
This model of governance that has emerged is new.
Traditionally, an elected govt supposedly reflecting the will of the people has a bureaucracy that helps it to execute its plans for the people. But then we have the Yes Minister syndrome so brilliantly immortalized by that BBC TV series.
The bureaucracy runs little circles around the ministers, being well versed in putting up roadblocks for work they are not interested in. And the not so sharp minister has little option but to sign on the dotted line.
There have been too few ministers or CMs who have been achievers in democratic India. Coincidentally all of them put the bureaucracy in their place and made no secret of it.
Gadkari is the latest such example. Shourie, Bansi Lal, kairon and yes Mayawati were all such exceptions. UP grew at nearly 8% during her tenure. If her assets also grew that is another matter.
We have this comical situation playing out in Delhi. Actually it would be black humor if only the masses were not being sandwiched. But in the bigger picture, the masses are mere numbers…
The LG scores brownie points by visiting slums and posting photos of the conditions there. He tags the Delhi state govt. The Delhi state govt promptly tags the bureaucracy for work not being done.
To add salt to taste they also request the LG to take action against delinquent officials who are not doing proper work as they are under his jurisdiction.
In the meanwhile the bureaucracy nitpicks on govt proposals and refuses to pass funds for work. The Delhi Jal Board, a terribly run organization like many such in India is facing special issues. AAP govt has not come close to fixing it in the last 10 years. Now funds budgeted to it by the AAP govt are not being released by the bureaucracy on the plea that funds have not been spent earlier by it.
Funds lapse on 31st March. The matter is in the SC. They hear it on the 1st of April.
Everyone is applying a chess check on the others but sadly there is no democratic balance. Only the courts working at their leisurely pace….
The bureaucracy plea is in the photo below. It is a merry go round and no one is getting off….Governance 2.0
Decipheringnews 