‘An active civil society is the key to a successful democracy’

Not the one to bask in his past glories,Deshmukh today describes himself as a social worker. After bidding goodbye to his bureaucracy days,he got involved with a city-based NGO,Praja Foundation. The organisation has been involved in encouraging citizen participation in the working of the democracy.

They believe that any democracy can be successful if the civil society wakes up to the democratic process. Newsline spoke to BG Deshmukh and Nitai Mehta,managing trustee of Praja,on how to make this utopian dream a possibility.

Q: How did the Praja movement start? And what was the core idea behind starting this movement?
Mehta: Praja was started in 1997. The idea behind starting this was to make the government more accountable,transparent and citizen-friendly. We started on a small scale,with a citizens’ charter during the 1999 BMC elections. In fact,The Indian Express helped us publish it. We want to bring the people closer to governance. Hence we started an online complaint registering system. Complaints regarding any issue could be registered and we identified 97 typical complaints. We would then notify the concerned authority and if there was no response from them we would notify it to higher officials and lastly we would go to the Municipal Commissioner. This was our very first initiative.

Deshmukh: When I came back from Delhi I was vehement that I don’t go back to my bureaucracy work. I chose to be a social worker because my career taught me that any development in a democracy can take place only with people’s participation. Since Praja too was involved in this work I joined them.

Q: From being the cabinet secretary under Rajiv Gandhi to now,how has the bureaucracy with Indian polity changed over the years?
Deshmukh: Thankfully,citizens now are more aware and active. The Maai-baap among the bureaucracy and politicians hence is reducing. The common man today knows how to get involved in governance and has the means to do the same. When people actively participate in governance they can plug loopholes in policy and decision making. Though political interference while dealing with policy making still looms large,the trend can be reduced. In southern states,this interference is less because civil societies there are more active. In north India,the opposite is true. In Maharashtra and Mumbai political interference is definitely reducing thanks to the awakening of the civil society.

Q: As you have been the state chief secretary for a long time what are the burning issues still prevalent in rural Maharashtra and what should be on the agenda of the elected representatives?
Deshmukh: Politicians think roti,kapda and makaan are the only prevailing issues. But issues like education,employment,primary health care,clean drinking water,easy credit are the more pressing issues in rural Maharashtra. Since alcoholism is high among men,educating women is the key to development. There should be programmes on alcohol prohibition. Also,self-help group programmes for each village should be different. The idea should be to tap the local resources for maximum benefit.

Q: Since it is election time there is growing political apathy among the youth and middle class. What can be done to tackle this?
Deshmukh: For youngsters,we really don’t have good political role models. We have mediocre,criminal and less of criminal models. This is largely happening because of the mistakes made by the politicians of my generation. But both these sections should not loose hope. All great movements in history-socialism,communism among others have taken place due to the active participation of the middle class.

Mehta: Both these sections should not loose hope. Even if there are indifferent to a candidate they should get involved by making their voice heard. They can give their time,money or expertise to organisations involved in election programmes. Active participation of civil society is the only way to save democracy.