New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi quoted former PM Lal Bahadur Shastri in his remarks at his virtual meeting with chief ministers Monday on the Covid vaccination drive, which is set to start from 16 January.
Recalling that 11 January is Shastri’s death anniversary, he referred to a speech the former PM delivered to the Administrative Services Conference in 1965, and quoted the lines: “The basic idea of governance, as I see it, is to hold the society together so that it can develop and march towards certain goals. The task of the Government is to facilitate this evolution, this progress.”
Here is the entire speech by Shastri:
“An administrator has obviously to administer the laws of the State and the policies of the Government. The laws of a State are a product of certain basic ethical and social values, of social conditions, of political institutions, of historical developments and of social and economic objectives. The laws, thus, reflect the policies of the people and the State. However, laws tend to be conservative. They have to be so because they provide the framework around which a society develops. Policies, on the other hand, arc more flexible. They produce the laws and also flow out of them. So an administrator, when he administers the laws and their progeny—the rules, regulations and directives—has to be conscious of the policies behind these regulations and the purpose which they are intended to serve.
An administrator is also a representative of the Government. Governing, I realise, is not a very fashionable word these days. But it is the basic duty of a Government to govern. Therefore, it also becomes the job of the administrator through whom the Government functions. The basic idea of governance, as I see it, is to hold the society together so that it can develop and march towards certain goals. The task of the Government is to facilitate this evolution, this progress. It must provide proper conditions and a proper climate for this purpose. While governing, the administrator must, therefore, keep certain trends in view. He should be aware of the policies which he has to implement and of the methods which are open to him for their implementation. He should know what the Government wants and at the same time be attuned to the needs of the people.
We have adopted a policy of planned development. Planning in various fields—agricultural, industrial and social—is being attempted on a truly massive scale. As far as the administration is concerned, this raises two important inter-connected issues: planning itself and its implementation. Some projects, for instance big industrial ventures, can be both planned and executed centrally. But the vast majority of plans have to be prepared and executed at the local level and the local plans have, through the State plans, to fit into the larger framework of the national plan. How far the process of planning and its implementation should be centralised, and to what extent and in what ways decentralised constitute important issues. The national objective has to be fulfilled. At the same time local initiative must be fostered.
These issues cannot be resolved in any simple fashion. Balance has to be achieved at different points in different sectors; the emphasis has to shift as development progresses, as experience is gained, and as technical and managerial skills develop.
The enormous task of social and economic revolution can be carried forward successfully only with the participation of the people. Obviously, the administrator has to go to the people. He has to identify himself with them. Yet he must retain his own identity and maintain a certain aloofness, so that he does not get embroiled in local and I feel that discussion at this meeting should be mainly on the national Plan and the national effort needed to sustain it.
I should like to say a word about the relative roles of the private sector and the public sector. Our objective is socialism. This does mean an immense growth of the public sector. Each Plan sets out what the private sector will do and what the public sector will do. Failure in either sector affects the Plan and creates imbalances in the economy. We have, therefore, to ensure that the targets allotted in our Plan to the private sector, no less than those allotted to the public sector, are fulfilled. The private sector has had and will continue to have a role to play in our expanding economy.
The Industrial Policy Resolution has already brought out that the two sectors cannot work in water-tight compartments. In the context of rising prices and the difficulties which the common man has to face about basic consumer goods, it is necessary for some of the consumer goods industries to be developed in the public sector. I believe that the Government should also set up textile mills, sugar factories and plants for the manufacture of cement, drugs and medicines. Only then can we be assured that the shortages which we have been experiencing in the recent past will not become chronic. Such industries will also give us better profits and larger scope for employment.
Heavy industries will, of course, continue to be the backbone of our economic development.
Much more steel machinery must be produced, but care must be taken, as I have had occasion to emphasise in the past, that we get the most out of the investment which we make in heavy industry in the shortest possible time. Planning of heavy industries for the Fourth Plan has to be on the basis of performance. Only then can our planning become more real and more accurate.
I have deliberately confined myself to certain practical issues which seem to me to be of paramount importance. They are issues for us to face here and now. Unless we can stabilise prices, increase production and improve our administration, the most careful Plan will not help us. We who claim to be responsible to the people have to be responsive to the people. It is up to us to restore to them a sense of dignity and hope. Unless we are able to do this in the remaining year and a half of this Plan, our Fourth Plan may not succeed, no matter what resources we mobilise.
The Fourth Plan presents a challenge to the nation. The challenge can only be met if we are prepared to undertake the many tasks which confront us with a truly national approach.”