Governance and Ethics in India-Need for Systematic Reforms

Governance must be founded on moral virtues ensuring transparency, accountability and harmony. Confucius described righteousness as the foundation of governance and peace. The right of governance simply lies in making things right and putting them in right place. Confucius prescription for governance is ideally suited for a country like India where many of our present day players in governance do not adhere to any principle and ensure only of their interests. Corruption is an important manifestation of the failure of ethics. Administrative culture of any country is the product of the peculiar social, cultural, economic and political milieu of which it is a part. Governance problems of India are deep rooted in its cultural milieu. Institutions of public administration and its systems and process can been better understood if the governance environment is understood properly. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Chairman of the drafting committee of the Indian Constitution stated these words in the constitution assembly. On the 26th January 1950 we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have in equality (Kapur, 2011). These words are philosophically true even today. In the latest report of transparency international on corruption India is ranked at 94th position out of 176 nations.

After defining the governance and ethics, the first part of the paper makes an attempt to present succinct review of corruption in India in all the three organs of the governance, i.e., executive and legislature and judiciary. The last part deals with blue print to promote ethics in governance.