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Trust Deficit in Governance
By: R.S. Mooshahary

In the course of my frequent meetings with people, I usually try to ascertain their reaction to issues, which have a bearing on their day-today lives. I listen to them with interest and they soon become quite articulate though they know that I cannot mitigate their woes. They are critical of the government functioning and cynical about everything in the domain of public administration. Obviously, there is a grave mismatch between their expectation and the service provided by the government.

With limited opportunity for earning livelihood and inadequate social facilities, people look up to the government to improve their quality of life. The role of the government in this state of affairs extends to the whole gamut of their existential problems. The government is the mai-bap and it needs to conduct as such. However, people are getting increasingly sceptic and angry that it is making only tall claims about its performance without improving conditions at ground level.

I have rarely come across any one who says he is happy with the delivery of public service. People are reluctant to visit any public office but they have to because there is no other alternative and they take it as their misfortune. They say they experience only frustration and anger when they visit public offices because of prevalent indolence and insensitivity there. They also complain that public servants have forgotten how to say things with a smile. They only frown and fret about when meeting the public who have to buy their smile and make them work. True, there are very good public servants helpful, responsive and honest but they are as rare as the blue moons.

People realize that it is not possible for the government to provide jobs to all. However, when they find that some others are getting public employment by paying bribes or through contacts, they lose trust in government, which in due course leads to build-up of anti-establishment sentiments. Routinely they see the job vacancies fill up without advertisement, interview or consideration of merit, the public servants indulging in consumerism beyond their known source of income, misuse of power and position but they do not find any one who would listen to them and remedy their grievances. All these militate against the human spirit of justice and equity and it is but natural to revolt against such a dispensation. In fact, the militancy in the state is primarily a violent response to the injustice, corruption and exploitation that are continuously alienating the ruled from the rulers.

It is an irony of democracy that the people who elect the government soon lose their faith in its sincerity to resolve their problems. The government is largely accountable for this trust deficit syndrome. People perceive the government to be of and for the politicians in power and the government servants only. Monies spent in maintaining the government and in bribery will fully justify this perception. Moreover, many government functionaries themselves lend credence to this view by their anomie and aggrandizement. The misuse and abuse of authority make people deeply suspicious and unfortunately, these are a common happening. As a result, every action of the government becomes questionable and people do not believe that government is good for anything.

The government here cannot complain that people have developed the CAVE (Citizens Against Virtually Everything) syndrome, which some people in urban areas and in state like Kerala are because they are much more aware of their rights. People in Assam state are still simple. However, sooner than later it is coming here also. With education and globalization, people all over the world are asserting their dues and if they cannot get them, they will regard the government as the problem and not the solution. Then we can say that the government deserves the people it gets to rule. Therefore, it is in the interest of those in power to refine their tune and play it people friendly.

The reason why government generally fails to deliver is the top-down approach to managing things. It is a good management practice for cohesive organizations where there is clarity in the chain of accountability. Government is a behemoth with its loosely knit functioning units spread all over where accountability is almost absent. The problems at the micro level, which the policy formulators at the top tend to overlook, kill the best policies. We have abundance of welfare-oriented schemes conceived and designed by our planners but their success is totally in the hands of those down below whose capacity to understand and also the motivation to act on them is low. One recent example of this is the Mokhyamantrir Jibon Jyoti Bima Achoni under which ICICI- Lombard insured the entire population of the state against death, disability and hospitalization in 2005-06 for rupees twenty-five crores.

A laudable scheme it was but it failed miserably because the plan did not delineate accountability with time limit for settling the claims. It created delays and difficulties for the claimants and the few who did claim the insurance money had to run from pillar to post encountering systemic resistance and indifference everywhere. Many did not claim at all thinking it was not worth the trouble and the insurance company earned a great bonanza at the expense of the state and the people. The scheme would have been a resounding success had it been executed through bottom-up management strategy eliminating the mishmash at delivery points.

Arrogance and insensitivity bring great unpopularity in governance. In this respect, I would always hold the view, buttressed by my experience of nearly four decades of government service that the politicians as a class are not as arrogant as the bureaucratic class. They are more open to new ideas and do not stand on formalities. I encountered more difficulties with the bureaucratic cogwheel of arrogance and closed mindset at every level than with the politicians. I experience it in the present job also. Some time back an additional Chief Secretary who headed a department refused to attend a discussion in my office because of ego problem. This is an attitude emblematic of a class of bureaucrats with great deal of self-importance and chutzpah but lacking in commitment to task.

Inaccessibility and irresponsiveness are contrary to the concept of public service but in all the government offices they encounter these practices. People want attitudinal correction among the public servants. They expect the government functionaries to meet and listen to them, to note their manifold woes and to treat them with a wee bit of understanding and civility, to tell them how, why and when their work will or will not be done in simple language. This attitude to the multitude of our population, if consciously practiced by our service providers, can bring about a paradigm shift in the state of governance. It will cost nothing to do it; it just needs a display of human face which all of us inherit, a voice that we all can make soothing to the ears of the listeners, a smile to assure that the government is for and not against them and a sense humor to keep going.

Well, human beings often require fear of punishment to be good and the government must not fail to punish the errant employees. The Right to Information Act is precisely intended for this objective. The government must implement this Act in letter and spirit and create accountability and responsiveness through transparency and public audit in governance. It will contain corruption, bridge the hiatus of suspicion, lead to closer interface between the rulers and the ruled, and help resolve many a problem of the people.

The write, a former Director General of Police in Kerala and Director General of Border Security Force and the National Security Guard, is currently the State Chief Information Commissioner, Assam