Two Indias

The news coming in from the poll battle in Bihar is grim: scores of candidates with criminal histories, campaigning by armed gunmen, poll violence, the old preoccupation with caste, and dozens of people killed. It is a world far removed from the excitement of Mumbai, and the wealth of the software kings. The news from the other electioneering state of Orissa is no better: the cyclone was bad, but at least it wasn't man-made; but the handling of its aftermath has made a mockery of governance. And in Manipur, a third state going to the polls, most voters would be shocked to know that the government spends on each one of them almost as much as their per capita income. They may also be shocked to know that the Manipur government has an illustrious record of issuing cheques that bounce.

 

What if someone were to ask the all-important question: Will there be better governance in any of these states after the elections? It is a safe guess that the predominant answer will be in the negative. That would confirm the thesis that India's political parties don't really have a genuinely political relationship with their constituents; what they have instead is a relationship at election time, when insincere promises are made, and age-old fears or prejudices exploited with great skill. During the long interregnum between one voting exercise and the next, the politicians seem to have little to do with improving the lives of their voters.

At one level, this would seem to confirm the existence of two Indias, split by a vertical dividing line that separates east from west. But the truth is even more dangerous, for take a look at the fourth state that is going to the polls--Haryana. Haryana is generally seen as a success story, for it has a relatively high per capita income and its proximity to the capital helps attract a great deal of investment. But the indices of human development are little better in this state, than in the country's eastern half. Its two neighbours are in no better shape either. UP, according to the latest headlines, has joined Manipur in having its cheques dishonoured by its bankers, and Punjab has pledged its government buildings in order to find the money to pay government salaries.

Clearly, the crisis of governance runs deep, and is not confined to any one part of the country.

The question that confronts any thoughtful citizen is: if elections with large turn-outs don't deliver improvement, what will? One answer comes from Andhra Pradesh, where the state government has simply started putting up in every village the details of any scheme or project on which the government spends money. Pointing the floodlights on what the government is supposedly spending on local welfare is itself a solution, as it raises consciousness on the subject.

Another answer comes from the various non-governmental organisations--agents of civil society, if you will--who have started mobilising local populations on the simple issue of effective governance. A third comes from highly motivated administrators in places like Surat and Thane who have shown that the quality of local administration can be improved dramatically, given a modicum of will. And a fourth happens to come from the software kings themselves, for they have almost uniformly shown that they have a social conscience, and are prepared to put serious money into social causes, like education. One software company has already decided that close to 40 per cent of its post-tax profits will always be spent on educating the children of the under-privileged. In a peripheral sense, a fifth comes from the welcome (though occasionally misguided) zeal of the chief vigilance commissioner in going after the corrupt.

At the moment, though, none of this has reached the scale where it makes a difference to the totality of the picture. For that to happen, both governments and the political parties will have to become part of the solution, instead of being part of the problem. And that process has to be helped along by the corporate sector, by concerned citizens and by social groups of every hue. For, no matter how important corporate governance may be, much the more important and urgent issue is how to improve the quality of basic governance.