Former Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai today said good governance is “too critical” to be left alone to the government.
“Good governance is too critical to be left alone to the government today. Public partnership here is of utmost necessity. Those sitting in the government should constantly be aware that they are under surveillance all the time,” Rai said, delivering a lecture organised by Public Concern for Governance Trust.
“However growth India does in its GDP, unless it is nurtured in good governance and has public participation in it, that growth will not be sustainable…. Cut and paste solutions to tide over a period of crisis will not work,” he said.
Citing an example, Rai, who was CAG during 2008 to 2012 and crossed the swords with the government on some issues, said the administration should not muzzle the people’s voice.
“(After) the ghastly incident of the Delhi gang-rape in 2012, the administration did not know how to deal with public concern that was expressed on streets. Instead of addressing the concerns of harmless people, they fired water cannons,” he said.
Rai added that the educated urban middle class has to ensure that people in power do not do a mere lip service.
“The moment we are able to instill a kind of fear in the minds of policy makers that they are sitting in houses made of glass, they will know their actions are being watched keenly.
The educated middle class has to step out to ensure that people in power are not merely in the business of doing lip service,” Rai said.