Current Public Administration Magazine (AUGUST 2019)

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Sample Material of Current Public Administration Magazine

1. Accountability and Control

To the Nation, Not the Government

Are civil services being used and abused? Are the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation mere stooges in the hands of the party in power? Are taxmen deliberately hounding the businesses and the media which dare to differ with the government?

The common man, busy in satisfying the bare minimum needs of his family, may be unaware of the serious imputation of the above questions, but many of us — in comparatively comfortable positions — can only ignore it at our own peril. We engage in drawing room discussions about the country’s “rusted steel frame”, but with hardly any concrete measures to offer that can strengthen and refurbish it. Celebrating Civil Services Day is one such limp step we took and embellished it with rewarding young officers for their innovative work. The training academies in Mussoorie, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Baroda, Shimla, etc.

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2. Indian Government and Politics

Abrogation of J and K’s Special Status

There is a Kashmiri proverb: “Nav kath che rozan navan dohan” (New talk remains fresh for only nine days). It’s over a month since August 5 and the new talk is just beginning to be heard. For, the noise swirls around clampdown and lockdown, bifurcation and downgrade. And the questions revolve around what will happen if and when curbs are eased, who will do politics when even politicians who swore by the Indian Constitution are detained

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3. Indian Administration

Administrative Register

“Jogot Jure Jater Kotha/Loke Golpo Kore Jotha Totha/Lalon Bole Jater Fata/Bikiyechi saat bajaare” (Whole world talks about religion/ and everywhere people do discuss divisions/Lalon says/ “I auction the stamp of the religion in the market of humanity”)

In 2015, Bangladeshi Sufi folksinger, Fareeda Parveen, visited Delhi and sang these lines of Fakir Lalon Shah (1772-1890). “Nobody knows whether the fakir was born a Hindu or a Muslim and where; nobody cares too,” she said to me after the concert.
Jyotirindranath Tagore sketched the only portrait of Lalon of no country in 1889, in a houseboat when the Fakir was crossing the mystical momentariness of the river Padma.

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4. Social Administration

The Problem of Skilling India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his recent Independence Day speech, said, “We need to worry about population explosion”. These words stand in stark contrast to his previous references to India’s demographic dividend where the country’s population was seen as an asset. This shift reflects a new awareness, according to which demography brings a dividend only if the youth is trained properly. Without proper training, instead of benefits, the country gets massive joblessness — at least, this is what common sense suggests. Reality is more complicated.

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5. Current Topic

Why Article 370 had to go

This day, one year ago, the Supreme Court in their judgment in Navtej Singh Johar held that LGBT Indians would be protected by constitutional values of equality, non-discrimination, dignity, expression, life and liberty. The Court read down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 or the unnatural sexual offences penal provision.

Today, as we celebrate a year of freedom for queer India, we must also look to our Constitution and its values that fuelled the court battle and enabled this victory.
In April 2016, five LGBT Indians led by Navtej Singh Johar, on the back of a soul-shattering court loss in 2013, and curative petitions that were left unheard, believed enough in the Constitution’s promises of equality, dignity, non-discrimination, life and liberty to let us lawyers take their stories to court.

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