First devolve power

In the last two decades, the country has witnessed enormous socio-political and economic churning and restructuring. But as the turbulence subsides

In the last two decades, the country has witnessed enormous socio-political and economic churning and restructuring. But as the turbulence subsides, the Indian state will need to adjust its political-executive institutional framework so as to internalise, broaden and sustain the gains. Decentralisation through panchayati raj is one robust option, but it has always eluded serious consideration.

Gandhiji8217;s romanticised notion of gram-swaraj, and his concept of village republics generated much interest in this idea. But the romanticism has hindered a rational approach to what has the potential to affect the largest number of Indians in significant ways.

The UPA government at the Centre carved out a separate ministry for panchayati raj, and under Mani Shankar Aiyar, it set about the task of creating a robust and effective political-executive framework and a detailed blueprint for effective panchayati raj institutions.

The design assumes two crucial tasks for these institutions: participative democratic planning at the local level and specific service delivery roles. The first role is supposed to achieve the diffused objective of social transformation by empowering people through democracy at the local level. The second role is more substantive, and hopes to foster responsibility among panchayats. But an idea is only as good as its execution.

Panchayat elections have enhanced the possibilities of participative democracy at the local level and this is a reason for celebration. Aiyar has called it a 8220;silent revolution8221; that is bringing about social transformation in rural India. But this is a transformation that did not necessarily require a panchayati set-up to achieve. This social transformation could very well have been achieved with increasing social and educational standards in rural India.

The real reason for celebration for the panchayati raj set-up should come from efficient delivery of public services assigned to it. The ministry8217;s blueprint has identified 29 such services, ranging from local revenue collection to administering local schools, water supply and sanitation. The ministry has done a clear 8216;activity mapping8217;, which delineates clear responsibilities for each level of panchayati administration.

But the reality is that most states have failed to hand over these responsibilities to panchayats, because it is perceived that these institutions are either incapable or riddled with corruption.

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A panchayat without responsibility cannot be expected to be a responsible panchayat. And judgement of capability should be made only after assigning responsibilities and assessing the performance. Failure to meet these service obligations would entail a loss of rights to other authorities. Thus it is in the interest of the panchayati institutions to gear themselves up to become responsible. The states8217; attitude against devolving responsibilities denies panchayati institutions a chance to prove themselves.

Somehow this lack of fairness towards the panchayati system has failed to catch public attention. The public, and more importantly, enlightened civil society, seem to lack interest in a full-fledged rolling out of this system.

This is unfortunate. For, apart from deepening participative democracy, the panchayat experiment could have a strong bearing on public administration. Effective implementation of this idea has the potential to bring much-desired transformation in the public-accountability system in India 8212; enough reason for civil society to take an active interest in monitoring the proper rolling-out of the panchayati set-up.

Holding a few public authorities accountable by highlighting their mistakes or offences, say, through sting operations, does not ensure public accountability. Rather, a robust public accountability system would ensure rational scrutiny of almost every action of any public authority by some citizen in public. This is possible only if every citizen is capable of rational scrutiny of actions taken by each public authority.

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If a citizen cannot hold panchayat representatives responsible for actions and decisions, it will be too much to expect that MLAs or MPs will be held to account. Panchayati raj offers an excellent opportunity for citizens to learn and understand public action and the process of fixing accountability.

The fear of panchayats taking away some service responsibility from government should not be a cause for states to hesitate in allowing them a full run. In the era of efficiency driven administration, this alternative system should be allowed to compete with other tiers of government.

As Albert Breton sets out in Competitive Governments, failure of any tier of government in providing desired services will automatically take away that responsibility from that level. By failing to deliver, panchayats will forfeit their responsibilities. The verdict should be passed only after panchayati raj institutions have been given a full run.