MUSING

An open letter on Good Governance

Shri Nitish Kumar,
Chief Minister,
Bihar
Subject: The touchstone of good governance: a people friendly administration

Dear Mukhyamantriji
The most important and attractive plank of your election campaign was the promise of ‘Sushasan’(good governance). The people who were sick of the rule of your predecessors generously voted in your favour and offered you the opportunity to serve them by keeping your promises. You have not forgotten your pledge of ‘Sushasan’ as is apparent from the frequent claim made that it has been achieved. However, whereas the people accept that there is a change for the better, they do feel that the change is quantitative and not qualitative. I hope you would agree that an improvement on a deplorable governance is not ‘good governance’(Sushasan). I would refrain from passing a judgment on the governance in the state and would like to suggest objective criteria, which you may apply and judge yourself the quality of the governance, your government has given to the people of the state.
Please ask yourself if your administration is people friendly and there is the rule of law in the state. The actual position may be ascertained by seeking honest answers to the following questions:
1. Is a law abiding citizen visiting a police station treated with courtesy due to him?
2. Does a law abiding citizen requiring the help of the police feel fear and trepidation in going to a police station or feels happy and secure?
3. Can a person get an F.I.R. recorded as a matter of course or has to resort to bribery or ‘Pairvi’?
4. Do the police investigate a crime honestly and sincerely or are influenced by bribery and /or ‘Pairvi’ in the investigation?
5. Are the allegations of killings in the police custody investigated impartially or effort is made to shield the guilty?
6. Do the judicial officers enquiring into the custodial deaths receive sincere cooperation of the police department or the department attempts to protect its men/women?
7. Are allegations of fake encounters investigated/enquired into with impartiality or attempt is made to shield the guilty?
8. Have measures been taken to make police firings a rarity or the police are free to fire and kill unarmed people claiming to have fired in self defence and get away with the murder on this untenable and illegal ground?
9. Have the police been told that human life is precious and must be destroyed only as a last resort? Have the government taken measures to ascertain that the claim by the police to have fired and killed in self defence is authentic by providing that it must be proved before a court of law as has to be done by citizens in similar cases(since the police exercise the same right of self defence as any other person)?
10. Have measures been taken to curb the rampant misuse of the power of the police to arrest without warrant, which is the greatest source of ‘Police Zulum’ on the poor?
11. The power to arrest without warrant (u/s 41 of Cr.P.C.) is to enable the police to curb crime by using it when necessary and is not discretionary. Has the question of regulating the use of this power to save the people from unnecessary arrest ever been examined?
12. Have steps been taken to curb corruption rampant among Public Prosecutors since it is an open secret that they act to get those criminals who can afford to pay them acquitted?
Coming to the question of the rule of law you have to find the answer to only one question. Do the people get from the administration what is their due as a matter of right? Can a person demand what is his right or has to a approach even a lowly functionary of the government as a supplicant?
‘Sushasan, in a democracy, means to be free from the fear of the police and administration, to be treated with due courtesy (by the administration) and get what is one’s right as a matter of course without being forced to resort to demeaning means.
I would request you to find the answers to these questions and judge for yourself whether there is ‘Sushasan’ in Bihar or not. If you find that you have not been able to achieve your objective (of Sushasan) and have the intention to work for it, take the steps which are possible to be taken immediately and form another Administrative Reforms Commission to study reform from the people’s perspective which should recommend measures to ensure that the people get their due as a matter of right and do not have to depend on the mercy of the administration. If you ensure this, the public servants will be divested of the unbridled power they use (like the gun by the goons) for extortion from the people, and the people would be so empowered that the battle against corruption will be substantially won.
Your’s faithfully,
Prabhakar Sinha
Vice President
PUCL