How about GoM for good governance?

edit,Governance Now,May 15-31, 2011,

PMO has lost the plot and the will to govern


You are certain that a government is drifting when it actually thinks that the drift is a matter of ‘perception’ that can be corrected by publicity. The prime minister’s decision to set up a GoM for better PR of the government is a fine example of this. Home minister P Chidambaram heads the GoM and several high-profile ministers like Ambika Soni, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal and Slaman Khursheed are its members. We are told that the panel meets every day to analyse the day’s events and brief the media at 3 pm.

Aren’t the ministers better off doing their assigned job, which is to attend to pressing issues of their ministries?
The PMO seems to have completely lost the plot.
If anyone thinks the government is in drift there are sound reasons for it. For one, the government is beset with endless scams of huge proportions – IPL, Adarsh, 2G, CWG, Isro spectrum deal, CVC appointment, Niira Radia tapes, black money in secret accounts and so on.

Nobody seems to be in charge of the government because nobody is explaining why all these are happening and what measures, remedial or punitive, are being taken. The PM did address the media once but left none any wiser. All he said was that the scams happened because of ‘coalition compulsions’ or his ignorance.
More importantly, he has not done anything about it. If some are in jail and others face such a prospect it is because the supreme court has played an active role.
A PR set-up can remove the communication gaps. But here we are confronted with absence of governance which, surely, a PR exercise can’t address.
We need governance. We need corrective measures. This means, the government has to primarily take two steps – address systemic shortcomings that led to the scams and fix accountability.

The government is reluctant to do either.

There is another major issue. Food prices have remained high for three years in running. Nothing beyond tinkering with the banks’ lending rates has been done. The PM and and his men keep telling us twice every year that the prices will come down after the harvesting seasons. Meanwhile, food grains are rotting in godowns but are not distributed to the hungry despite the apex court’s directive.

Surely, a ‘functional’ government is expected to do better.