Delhi signals need for demonstrable, sober governance

Delhi signals need for demonstrable, sober governance

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What is the primary issue before Delhi’s citizens as the three main political parties solicit their votes for the assembly election on February 5? It is much more than roads, hospitals, schools, clean air and ‘bijli-pani’. It is responsive governance that Delhi yearns for. Cynics would not hesitate to say the capital city-state is at the mercy of an imposed ‘double-engine sarkar’.  There is the Aam Aadmi Party, elected to govern. There is the lieutenant-governor, who is said to interpret rules to expand the Raj Niwas’s say in governance. The Supreme Court plays the arbiter, dragged into the governance mess between the two sarkars, to keep the administration moving. Former Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud observed with some exasperation in 2023 that “every dispute, all and sundry, between the government of the National Capital Territory and the LG is coming here”.

The court still hears complaints about feuds between bureaucrats and ministers and interdepartmental disputes over postings and allocations. The Supreme Court recently intervened even in a Centre-state dispute over pending lawyers’ bills. The judicial advice to the warring sides in the new year was to “make peace with each other”. The advice should be for each institution to mind its business. The result of this disputed or excessive governance is a lack of development. Many projects have stalled, or the progress is snail-paced. Rote bureaucracy is at work everywhere. It takes a leader’s visit these days to repair poorly-maintained roads.

Elections are times when the undying hopes of the people rise to expect better treatment from politicians. The campaigns are already on. The AAP has exhibited no introspection of what it failed to do. The Congress and the BJP have not done their homework to critically appraise the current term. Instead, other than promoting ideologies, the campaigns are about optics like noises made over luxurious ‘mahals’ and welfare handouts that have expanded from free power and water to a cash dole for registered women voters. The least that Delhiites deserve are manifestos listing appropriate governance solutions and, importantly, explaining how the parties propose to deliver on them. The next government coming good on its assurances would depend on how the Centre and the state respect Delhi’s unique statehood status and execute their joint responsibility for accountable governance unencumbered by the politics of one-upmanship.