Posts
Governance and Public
Policy: Vertical Meeting Horizontal
The good governance comes
out from the strong commitment of the government where all commitment is made keeping people as
focus
When I started writing this article on Public Policy and
Governance, I was a bit puzzled as what to write and what not to write? Many pioneer
works have been done in this area, in India and also globally. Almost all
shades, of it, over the years, have been explored by various scholars and practitioners.
And, my thoughts took me to an old time story written by revered writer Munshi
Prem Chandjee. This story is about
a local leader who was very respectable and popular amongst the people. He, all
through his life fought for the justice, equality and
transparency. The leader had a very
pretty and intelligent daughter with whom he used to share all his progressive
thoughts and spiritual discourse. She was very impressed with her father and
she always considered him as a role model. She had a lot of respect for him. She
rather believed that only a person like him can give good governance and do
justice to his people. Once, on the eve of a big festival, her father was
invited by the local community to be the chief guest and to perform the special
pooja in the temple which the community was organising and also requested him to give award and
bless the youth who belonged to the same village who had done some commendable
work for the society. The leader accepted the invitation and gave his consent
to be the part of the special occasion. On the special day, the daughter also
accompanied her father to be the part of the celebration. The special pooja was
well performed and then for conferring award, the name of the youth was called for
the award. The Youth came forward, touched the feet of the leader and got his
blessings. His citation was read before everybody that how he helped educating people and fighting against any kind
of discrimination, be it caste, class, creed, region, religion, belief etc. He
was praised further about how he could bring change amongst them. The leader,
in his speech, also had lot of praise for him. He admired him by saying that
our country should have youth like him. He could be the role model for the
whole society and generations to come. He then in his praise garlanded him and hugged
him. The leader’s daughter was carefully listening to each word her father was
saying in the praise of the youth and was feeling very happy within. The daughter,
while returning home, was engrossed with her father’s speech and constantly
thinking about her father. All the scenes were repeatedly flashing
before her and reminding her again and again that how
her father hugged the youth, knowing well that he comes from the lower caste.
She became emotional and hugged her father and whispered in his ears, “Babujee
! I love you.” The father smiled, patted and hugged her.
