When India had become a democracy six decades ago, governance through participation was supposed to be the core tenet.
But is it really happening that way?
“No,” says the former Ambassador of India Amit Dasgupta.
Delivering a talk on ‘Governance through participation’ organised by the Centre for Policy Studies, the former bureaucrat pointed out that we were far away from that concept.
According to him, pluralism is considered to be the fragility of the country and many consider that it is also a major threat for survival of democracy.
And that appears to have come true.
During the course of his talk, he advocated the need for an alternative model, where the five pillars would be government, bureaucracy, industry or business, media, and civil society.
In an idealistic democratic country, the role of the government should be to realise the dreams of the people and not realise the dreams of the government.
“But in our country, it is happening the other way round. And to move to the right direction, there should be a drastic change in the mindset,” he said.
Talking about the role of the media, he quoted the case of ‘Watergate Scandal’.
Not long ago, if two reporters of Washington Post — Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein — could force Richard Nixon, the then American president, to resign, through their stories, it can happen even in India.
“That cutting-edge, non-partisan, and in-depth investigative journalism is missing,” he said.
In today’s context, ‘do people matter after election’ is the key question.
“For one to become powerful, the other has to be rendered powerless, and that is what is happening. In the quest for power, people are becoming marginalised, and that has to be changed if governance has to be through participation,” said the former bureaucrat.
Centre director A. Prasanna Kumar and president A.S.N. Prasad spoke.
No, says former bureaucrat Amit Dasgupta. That cutting-edge, non-partisan, and in-depth investigative journalism, that made Richard Nixon quit in Watergate Scandal, is missing here, according to him.
No, says former bureaucrat Amit Dasgupta. The cutting-edge journalism that made Richard Nixon quit in Watergate Scandal is missing here, according to him.
