Editorial

Editorial: Our Resolve This Foundation Day

Chief minister Shivraj Singh’s remarks on the even of state’s foundation day that aam admi needs to adopt the feeling the Madhya Pradesh is my state are both rightly timed and rightly expressed. Over the past 50 years, the state has shown some progress and its recent achievements in tourism and investment, with state being one of top five preferred regions in the country, are really encouraging. Shivraj Singh Chouhan wants people to work shoulder to shoulder government in ensuring that the state moves fastly ahead, with everybody saving electricity, water; shunning corruption; honestly paying taxes and farming etc. Creating awareness among people about this is an absolutely brilliant idea. But chief minister still misses a point. Government – which is formed of ministers, and who come from a team of MLAs, and a huge workforce of babus – must set a precedent for it. His argument that government has its limitations is well taken; it cannot be an excuse, though.

Development is beyond welfare schemes and chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan seems to realize it, as indicated by his remarks that he wants to create awareness for a new work culture. He aspires to shape Madhya Pradesh and wants public participation in local development. That’s nice, but both are Herculean tasks, requiring better planning and strong determination.

On this eve of foundation day of state, government should do the right thing by recommitting itself to bring Madhya Pradesh out of the ‘shameful’ category of ‘sick’ state. State government can be credited with coming out with a number of public welfare schemes, no matter most of them centrally funded and rather populist; it ought to take this good spirit forward, from cheap food to easy livelihood, from girls’ free education to their better share in job market, from mass marriages to betterment of civil society, from farmlands to university campus and so on. But development is beyond welfare schemes and chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan seems to realize it, as indicated by his remarks that he wants to create awareness for a new work culture. He aspires to shape Madhya Pradesh and wants public participation in local development. That’s nice, but both are Herculean tasks, requiring better planning and strong determination. Yesterday, PM Manmohan Singh stressed the need of excellent regional and local leadership to run India well. Shivraj Singh Chouhan appears to have already noted the point.

So, three basic things emerge that we all residents of Madhya Pradesh should note on this foundation day and commit ourselves to. One, every citizen has to have his due role played in development in whichever small way he can. Two, state leadership owes the responsibility to change the work culture – the biggest obstruction in region’s development. Three, encouraging emergence of good local and regional leadership. We’ve overlooked all these three basics for five long decades, not contributing our part in a good sense. While citizens’ role in development and government’s in transforming work culture are two measures to be taken separately by public and ministers, the emergence of good leadership is a collective responsibility. Even if we’re the worst rogues, incapable to shoulder our separate responsibility, we can at least execute our ‘collective’ one and take it forward and keep it alive.  So, gotta your resolve for this foundation day?

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