By Vivek Pattanayak in Bhubaneswar, July 22, 2025: The first question that comes to one’s mind is what Vikasita Bharat is. If it is translated into English, it should mean developed India. Next questions would riddle us as to what is developed India? What is good governance? Further, what would mean “in quest” and what is really understood as “attaining.”

Does developed India mean only construction of roads, bridges, railwaylines, airports, seaports, irrigation projects, powerstations, establishment of hospitals, setting up schools, colleges, and universities? Does it mean GDP reaching fifty trillion dollars, or SENSEX touching 500,000 marks?

Or does it mean inequality decreasing, crime rate coming down, happiness index increasing, and corruption coming down etc. Should it not include increasing tolerance towards weaker sections of community, more harmony among different communities based on religion, faith, language, caste and ethnicity, gender parity making upward mobility, rapid resolution of disputes, greater decentralization of power, and better safety level at every domain of human activity on the road, railways, air transport, factories and mines?

What is good governance? Is it rewriting history and changing names, investigation of whether one religious structure was built on the other? Is destruction of religious structure asymbolof good governance? Is it good governance to establish another religious structure of another religion in the same place? Is acquittal of all involved in destruction of the religious institution good governance? Is remitting of life imprisonment of people involved in rape and murder good governance?

Is destroying properties of people without due process of law good governance? Is harassing two persons belonging to different faiths because they decided to marry acceptable in a civilized society? Is it moral to question the preference of food? Is it good governance to use money power and muscle power during elections? Is it good governance to take over media to resort to political propaganda?Is it good governance to sit over bills passed by the legislature without authority in spite of clarification of apex court?

What about value system in the society like truthfulness, piety, tolerance, respect for handicapped, elderly, sick and women. Is there a quest towards what is good governance? Unless we start building values at home, take them to schools, colleges, universities and finally to the workplace, ethical values will elude society and nation.

If we have to reach the goal of developed India, we have still twenty-two years before us. Going back twenty-two years what was India in 2003 and let us compare it with India of 2025. Has there been less corruption? Has there been greater tolerance towards diverse faith, language, and ethnicity? Has there been less inequality? Has happiness index gone up? Are we more tolerant towards infirm, old, sick and women? Has there been more decentralization of power? Has there been greater freedom of media? Has there been more of autonomy in academia?

Is there less inequality? Have Anthony Atkinson, Thomas Piketty and Richard Wilkinson any impact on policy makers regarding inequality? Have there been more employment opportunities? Has the trade deficit gone down? Has national debt burden been under control? Are the corporates discharging social responsibilities as enshrined under the law? Cannot humongous contribution by corporates to political parties be diverted towards social causes?

Let us search our heart or conscience and answer these questions. Answering these questions will throw light on the trendof the nation. India is a country of diversity. The constitution unequivocally recognizes it. Governance must recognize it. Government is different from governance. Governments may come and go but the structure of governance is permanent. The Constitution of India, its preamble, principles based on which edifice of legal system evolved strengthened by moral values, customs, traditions, precedents, philosophies, and history which the human civilization has embraced after struggles of centuries would reflect good governance architecture.

Fair election, independence of the judicial system, human rights as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of General Assembly of the United Nations, neutral and merit based civil service, freedom of media, autonomy of constitutional and legal bodies and more particularly academia constituted free of political influence.

Publicity must not be confused with propaganda. More noise does not reflect reality. Difference of views must be respected and tolerated however unpleasant they may be. Those in power must develop that culture. Self-delusion can obfuscate vision of the future. Yuval Nohah Harari in his recent book, Nexus has warned while Hitler and Stalin may have failed but totalitarian regimes of the 21st century could prevent future generations from even attempting to expose its lies and fictions.Are the leaders seeking wisdom or only power?

The world is going through a phase when all institutions are collapsing, rule based order is fast vanishing, when there is dearth of moral and ethical leadership and assertion that might is right, return of imperialistic and colonial attitude and racism is showing its ugly face and religious prejudice is on rise, search for good governance is a herculean task. What is most catastrophic is inability to realize that all the so-called developments in the nations have ignored the warning given by Professor Lovelock in his book Revenge of Gaia. Global warming is real, the melting of glaciers is risible, and floods, storms, and landslides are common. What is puzzling is thatafter the dreadfulpandemic of Covid whichshook the world the wars started with no sight of their end.

In the quest for good governance there is need for an atmosphere of freedom of expression,and absence of fear to express views and thoughts.To curb power,political leadership must have tenure limitations,whether it is in democracy or other forms of government. What is the difference between hereditary monarchy and democracy if the ruler remains in authority term after term?Rise of corporate power side by side with political power and their pernicious symbiosis, history has shown,along with fictious doctrine of racial superiority advocated by Hitler.

In the quest for developed nation let the leaders remember history. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” to quote George Santayana. “History repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce,” so said Karl Marx.