Narendra Modi on ‘Good Governance’

“Suraj Sankalp,” the two-day National Convention of the BJP on Good Governance has begun today. It is one of the best initiatives ever taken by any party towards improving the quality of governance in the country. I would say it is vitally necessary for us to understand that pro-people and pro-active steps cannot come by merely paying lip service to good governance unless it is backed by a people centric developmental process.

Political will and political process lead to sustainable good governance and people are mature enough to differentiate bad politics from good governance.  I thank Nitin Gadkariji for this wonderful initiative in creating awareness on good governance and also my party in providing me an opportunity to share my ideas. I hope the stage is set in triggering better ideas to come forth from all the stakeholders in contributing their mite to improve good governance in the country. I am sharing my speech with you by putting it in the public domain.

Yours

The salient points of my speech are as below:

Shri Narendra Modi, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Gujarat delivered the Keynote address on the opening day of “Suraj Sankalp” at the National Convention of the BJP on GoodGovernance. The two-day convention began on 5th June 2010 in Mumbai.
During his hour-long speech he not only discussed the philosophy and the need for good governance but also spelt out action plan for achieving the same. Salient features of his speech are:

• Mere good governance is not enough; it has to be pro-people and pro-active. Good governance is putting people at the centre of development process.

• For achieving good governance political will is necessary. Good governance is a
political process. Though role of civil society is critical, without political will and
political process sustainable good governance cannot be achieved.

• Contrary to the prevailing notion that good governance is bad politics, in reality good governance is good politics. A government should work keeping in mind the welfare of future generations, not the next election.

• People’s participation is the essence of good governance.

• Accountability should not be based merely on procedural audits but also on
performance audits. One should not merely look at commission of errors but also at omission of duties.

• While transparency reduces corruption, good governance goes beyond transparency in achieving openness. Openness means involving the stakeholders in decision-making process. Transparency is the right to information while openness is the right toparticipation. E-gram network connects 18,000 villages to online grievance redressal system and the effective use of SMS during disasters are some of the innovative steps that originated in Gujarat and that are worth emulating. Technology has been put to effective use for good governance.

• Pro-active good governance aims beyond short-term requirement keeping in mind the long-term needs such as the use of clean technology and in preparedness and mitigating climate change fallout etc.

• Many state governments have launched innovative steps such as Ladli Laxmi scheme of Madhya Pradesh, PDS reform scheme of Chattisgarh, computerization of land records in Karnataka, free computers to students passing 10th standard exams,pollution control efforts in Himachal, power sector reforms in Rajasthan and Mumbai- Pune Expressway in Maharashta. These excellent innovative schemes are examples of good governance.

• Good Governance cannot remain merely a philosophy. Concrete steps have to be taken for realizing its goals.
• Jyotirgam Yojana provides round-the-clock electricity to villages and Krushi
Mahotsav has led to agriculture miracle in Gujarat. These are some of the innovative steps taken by the state which needs to be highlighted.

• Good governance is related to policy. Government should concentrate on providing quality service rather than free service. Mere lectures on good governance will not help. People should be provided with options and should be informed of consequences of their choice. This will enable them to take informed decisions.

• Good governance also depends on ability to take responsibility by both administration as well as people.

• Understanding strengths and weaknesses is very essential in setting forth a clean
administration and for sustainable and lasting solutions.

• Good governance is not fire-fighting or crisis-management. Instead of opting for adhoc solutions the need of the hour is to tackle the root cause of the problems.

• Team Work is the essence of good governance. It is necessary to form a team within the party and also within the administrative system.

• Good governance needs self-discipline. Only discipline within can ensure discipline without.

• Good governance is treating development as a mass movement in order to see thatfruits of development reach the poor and the downtrodden.

• BJP is a political party with a difference that aims at good governance. This is proved by the fact that three of the five Chief Ministers according to a recent NDTVsurvey/poll are from BJP-ruled states.