The biggest challenge which India faces today is corruption in the public life. The beaurocrats and politicians are hand- in- glove; transparency and accountability have taken a back seat as far as the governance is concerned. Similarly, because of the lack of electoral reforms, politicians are making a mockery of the democracy.
What a common man (the voter) do: He or she uses the power of ballot to change the government every five years. That is the most he or she can do! One government is replaced by another. One political party is replaced by another, but the loot system and the indulgence in the corruption continue. The power game of politicians continues and the issues of developments, welfare remian the low priorities. These phenomena of Revolving Door Democracy have repeatedly been seen in many States and even at the Center!
In a democracy how do we get the relief?
A non-partisan group of people -in the form of NGO- is the best bet. There is a need to form a “pressure group“ whose only ideology is to test the government on the scale of performance! Thus such a pressure group is essentailly working as a strong opposition party: appreciate the government what is right and take the government to task were it faults. An extension of this is a “Shadow Government” where the NGOs has on its panel experts working as various ministers , like Education Minister, Finance Minister, etc and they analyse the working of the concerned departments of the government and are thus keeping the government on alert.
Thus such a movement of people is essentially participating in the functioning of the democracy and is trying to “empower” people by scrutinizing the working of the government. But these NGOs will have to evolve a strong policy and ideology and adhere to them (i,e be non-partisan) otherwise as they ‘try to participate in the governance’, they will be swayed away in the currents of controversies and allegations!
Can we begin such an experiment at a district level, to be extended to the whole State? If successful, this can be further extended.