‘Good governance is the sine qua non for speedy socio-economic development. This Government will address the governance deficit by bringing in better accountability, transparency and ensuring effective delivery of public services through e-Governance initiatives without corruption’.

This is a quote from a recent speech made by Mr. Panneerselvam, our Minister for Finance, while presenting the Revised Budget for 2011-2012 to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on August 4^th, 2011. It was an important statement to make- it articulates a pressing need for greater transparency in our state and acknowledges a deficit in the past.

However, if we use our government’s management of the 2011 local body elections as a litmus test to appraise its commitment to better governance in our state, it seems like pledges for greater transparency have not yet translated into action.

When saying this, I am not really referring to the fact that there are issues concerning the delimitation and reservation of constituencies (which has caused much brouhaha and allegations of misconduct by DMK Chief M. Karunanidhi and others). After all, gerrymandering is not really a new phenomenon. What I am referring to instead is the much (surprisingly) less spoken about issue concerning the date of release of the new ward maps in the public domain (22^nd September, less than a month before the elections)- and how it favors established parties, and marginalizes independents.

Let me elaborate. Lets say for example you are a resident in Shastri Nagar, and you want to nominate yourself for the elections. Now, if it were five years ago you would know that you were in Ward 152 (Adyar East), and while a detailed map of the ward is not publicly available, preparations could be made to obtain it and you could have started a streetwise campaign with sufficient time before the elections. This year however, you would have no clue what streets come under your ward, let alone your ward number until September 22^nd! This gives you less than a month to plan your election campaign, not at all enough time considering you will be facing off against candidates from the AIDMK, the DMK and other large parties who have access to much better resources, including an established voter base and a party cadre who can help with campaigning.

This is particularly a shame because the nature of these elections, with its small constituencies, make it an ideal place for independents to contest, like a concerned resident of that area who is savvy to the local issues that define that area. I do not mean to say that big party candidates are not locally informed, but independents do not have to align themselves with the broader goals of the party and can thus be more focused on locally salient issues.

There are certainly some improvements – there is a website devoted to the local body elections and you can download documents pertaining to the elections (although a number of links on the site are broken) but at the moment it still feels like an afterthought.

As of now our government’s pledges for governance still feel like rhetoric. With the new boundaries coming in to play this time, the chances of an ordinary, non party-aligned citizen becoming a councilor seems even more remote.

Siddharth Hande

Bookmark It

Hide Sites