India celebrates December 25 as Good Governance Day on the birth anniversary of Former Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Soon we shall be celebrating his centenary birth anniversary. It is indeed very apt for government to declare Atalji’s (as he is fondly called by one and all) birthday as Good Governance Day, because it is his visionary leadership that when India saw a major difference in governance and development became political agenda. He was a visionary, statesman, taskmaster, staunch nationalist and a soft-hearted human being. It is that combination that India saw things that have never been dreamt of. His bigger achievements were in economic policies. He took forward the economic reforms that started in the 90s. When UPA took over from NDA in 2004, the economy was booming—the GDP was above 8 per cent, inflation was below 4 per cent, and foreign exchange reserves were highest till that time.
His single most significant contribution that is often talked about is his biggest push to infrastructure, which was never seen before. It provided a better network for the movement of goods and people and put India on the pedestal of growth and big dreams. The Golden Quadrilateral or “GQ” was former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s first dream project and is considered the biggest infrastructure program in the highways sector in Independent India.
The National Highway Development programme was largely based on the National Highway System of the United States. In 2001, he launched the Golden Quadrilateral and the North-South & East-West Corridor projects to build 4/6 lane highways between four top metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata as well as from Srinagar to Kanyakumari and Porbandar to Silchar. He didn’t stop at announcing the Highway programme; he knew exactly if we wish to ensure the fruits of development to reach to the last man in rural India, then we must develop rural arterial roads as well. It is with this vision he announced Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. I believe this was an even bigger and long-term impact he made on India. Since Independence, we have seen many such five-year programmes announced but very few had been implemented with the same zeal. To ensure his vision, he put it into action; he provided adequate funds by out of box solutions for financing the ambitious programmes by leaving cess on fuel. Which is even today proving to be our major source of revenue for investing in our infrastructure. He also put in place a team of people with the right skills and attitude to implement a programme of that magnitude. And the results were for all to see when India saw more than 5000kms of highway construction during his tenure.
Atalji also put a team of people with the right skills and attitude to implement a programme of that magnitude. And the results were for all to see when India saw more than 5000kms of highway construction during his tenure. Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan was one such programme which saw over a 60 per cent reduction in school dropout numbers.
The impact of this programme was not limited to highways alone; it had a cascading effect on the whole economy. Governments’ many other programmes were successful because this infrastructure build provided the necessary backbone. Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan was one such programme which saw over a 60 per cent reduction in school dropout numbers. Another vital impact it made was on governance. India has seen most of the large ticket infra projects getting delayed because of multiple layers of decision-making and a bureaucratic approach in management. A programmatic approach was adopted from approval to implementation for the first time. In one go cabinet approved the entire programme, including the financing model. This helped in speedy implementation, contrary to the conventional style of governance. After his tenure, the two successive UPA regimes were gripped with policy paralysis.
Therefore, in this context, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee brought in the Governance part of the government. It is governance that connects elected government to the people. In a real sense, he has been the father of Good Governance in India. India shall always remain indebted to him for his contribution, amongst many others.
