It is often claimed in any democracy that the Government is by the people, of the people and for the people. Such a claim has become a cliche. It is often used as a proposition to provide legitimacy to the Government which derives all power and authority from people. A Government for the people means in a substantive sense the Government incessantly dedicated for serving people and taking care of their interests. It means meaningful governance for addressing people ‘s grievances wholly and in a concrete manner.
The concept and idea of Mo Sarkar scripted by Odisha Government headed by Shri Naveen Patnaik aims at making the Government render service to people without they running around Government offices and pathetically pleading the officers of different departments to get their work done. Such an idea of governance with an emphasis on Government officers pursuing the grievances of the people on a proactive basis and ensuring service and justice to them is certainly novel, revolutionary and compassionate. The idea of Mo Sarkar at the core of which remain people’s welfare and empowerment is indeed pathbreaking in the annals of governance. It mandates that officers should consider themselves as servants of people and, therefore, treat them with due courtesy, consideration and decency whenever they visit Government offices. Its implementation in police department and hospitals across the State from 2nd October 2019 when the country is celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi is in tune with the vision of the father of our nation who had the “ambition of wiping out every tear from every eye”. The Mo Sarkar essentially fulfills the noble and compassionate vision of Gandhiji who had eloquently articulated that true independence meant glow of Swaraj on the face of common people. Within the scope of Mo Sarkar it has been amply provided that people visiting hospitals and police stations would be registered in the Mo Sarkar Portal by entering their names and mobile numbers and Chief Minister himself would randomly select ten names in a week and telephone them to find as to how they were treated by the doctors or police officials as the case may be and how their grievances were dealt with. All those who treated people well in hospitals and police establishments would be appreciated and those who treated them harshly would be dealt with accordingly.
The whole architecture of the scheme is anchored on the principle that it is people who are the measure of all things in a democracy and so Government machinery and officials must be at their disposal as their humble servants to serve them. The idea of Mo Sarkar is an exemplification of five Ts- Technology, Transparency, Team spirit, Timely completion of the work and Transformation. The operationalisation of Mo Sarkar scheme would be made possible with the employment of five Ts. The Secretary in charge of Five Ts Shri Karthikeyan Pandian eloquently explained that people who earlier experienced incremental changes would experience substantive positive transformation through Mo Sarkar scheme. It would mean that people instead of repeatedly running around various government departments to get their work done would now be approached by civil servants and Ministers to sort out their problems and provide remedies to their grievances. By employing technology based on electronics and other advanced know how the desired outcome would be reaped and people would have a sensation that the Government formed with their mandate is truly their Government and they would proclaim with pride and prestige that their might and strength propelled Mo Sarkar.
The commencement of the Mo Sarkar scheme from 2nd October 2019 when the nation is celebrating Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary assumes significance. It was Gandhiji who while spearheading the freedom struggle used to say that the attainment of independence for India would result in formation of people’s Government and within the scope of such a Government police would shed its colonial legacy and behave as a friend of the people. It was manifested in 1916 when he wrote that police should be mindful of the fact that they were servants of the people and not their masters. Gandhiji was underlining the point that police should be people friendly at a time when the Police Act of 1861 was making police an instrument of oppression at the hands of colonial authorities. And in 2019, hundred and three years later Odisha Chief Minister Shri Naveen Patnaik is implementing the vision of Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary.
If we scan the pages of the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi we also find that Mahatma Gandhi had written an insightful article under the title “My Idea of a Police Force” on 1st September 1940. In fact the contents of that article are reflected in the architecture of the Mo Sarkar scheme of Naveen Patnaik Government. It is worthwhile to analyze the ideas of Gandhi outlined in that article. Observing that “The police of my conception will be of a wholly different pattern from the present-day force” Gandhiji underlined the point that “They will be servants, not masters, of the people.” Then he added that “The police force will have some kind of arms, but they will be rarely used, if at all. In fact the policemen will be reformers.” The essence of what he said is captured in the Mo Sarkar scheme. In this sense Shri Naveen Patnaik is following Mahatma Gandhi’s ideas and implementing his vision. In a sense Mo Sarkar scheme is a humble step to realize in practice the ambitious vision of the father of our nation “to wipe out every tear from every eye”.
It is worthwhile to mention here a very significant point. The objectives of the Mo Sarkar scheme in a sense closely correspond to the most of the provisions Public Service Act 2012 of the Odisha Government which declared that access of people to public service as a statutory right. It empowered them to have access to public service on a time bound basis. The Act also provides that the failure of the Government officials to provide service to people within the prescribed time frame would amount to violation of the statutory right of the people and the concerned Government officials would be held accountable for their acts of omission and commission in case people did not get access to the said public service.
In the neoliberal era when the publicness of the public service is getting diminished the attempts of the Naveen Patnaik Government to ensure that people get access to public service through Mo Sarkar scheme without any hassles from the Government officials is a highly commendable administrative move which upholds and celebrates the values of care, compassion by employing five Ts. The Government machinery which is perceived to be the steel frame and often accused of callousness and insensitivity in dealing with people is now getting transformed in Odisha by Chief Minister Shri Naveen Patnaik by his humanistic approach to make governance caring,responsive and sensitive. Indeed the Mo Sarkar scheme is a step for deepening the publicness of public service so that Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of transforming Swaraj to Suraj is achieved.
(The author was Officer on Special Duty and Press Secretary to President of India late Shri K R Narayanan and had a tenure as a Director in Prime Minister’s Office and Joint Secretary in Rajya Sabha. Currently he is the national spokesperson of BJD.)