• Prof. Satish Kumar Rai

Rajasthan Chief Minister Shri Ashok Gehlot has been known for his belief in Gandhian values in politics, but his third term as Chief Minister has emerged as a great model of ‘Gandhian governance’. He has not made any direct claim to be following ‘Gandhian Governance’ model, yet, his third term has set an example of ‘Gandhian Governance’ not only due to public welfare public-oriented schemes, but also because of the work done at the structural and institutional level in the administration. He can be considered an example of great Gandhian governance. In national politics, Mahatma Gandhi has been the promoter of people-oriented politics and has been vocal in his political thinking or in his thoughts regarding the political system.

He is also known for his ‘experimental politics’ in the national movement for Indian independence. As far as the ruling politics of Shri Ashok Gehlot is concerned, the glimpse of public welfare efforts in the formation of policies and programmes while in governance, has also been seen in the work of his previous governments. Nevertheless, this time there has been a quantitative and qualitative soar, which identifies the image of his government to that of ‘Gandhian rule’.

Ashok Gehlot got a lot of fame in his previous tenure as Chief Minister for his free medicine scheme for the common people. This time, he has gone ahead and made Rajasthan the first state, not only to give health rights to its citizens, but also his ‘Chiranjeevi Health Insurance Scheme’, which started from 10 lakhs, reached 25 lakhs in spite of opposition from the private medical sector. The government’s sense of responsibility to this extent, regarding public health, has been unmatched by the present government of Rajasthan. Under the ‘Nirogi Rajasthan Abhiyan’, apart from the Chief Minister’s Free ‘Nirogi Rajasthan Yojana’ and free health check-up schemes, his government also launched a ‘War for the Pure’ campaign this time with the aim of ensuring pure food supply for public health. His public health schemes, which have left a wide impact, are in sensational discussion. The ‘Palanhar Yojana’ related to the upbringing and the education of orphan children, the free milk distribution programme two days a week to the children in the free Bal Gopal Yojana has also been highly appreciated. It is said that from the ‘Indira Gandhi Matritva Poshan Yojana’, which ensures protection from the beginning of the germination of life in the womb, to the last rites of the person, the direct benefits of five dozen public welfare schemes of the Rajasthan government are reaching the common people.

In the Gehlot government, the availability of cooking gas has been given in 500 to the protected weaker sections. On the other hand, ‘Indira Rasoi Yojana’ with good food has made a popular record of providing food to more than 25 crore people across the state. There is competition for admission in the Mahatma Gandhi English Medium Schools opened by the government across the state. From distribution of free uniforms to children to various ambitious schemes of scholarship, and from the establishment of medical colleges in every district to the overflow of newly established government degree colleges or other programmes of educational upliftment, including government schemes of coaching, a comprehensive institutional structure of educational revolution has been created in the state. Along with this, the direct benefits of many schemes related to promotion of employment and entrepreneurship and social protection and social justice are also reaching the common man.

The process of registration for the flagship schemes to provide relief from inflation has become popular due to the large number of people thronging the camps set up by the Rajasthan government at various places for relief from inflation. Such schemes include programmes for distribution of wheat at Re 1 per kg apart from cooking gas at Rs. 500.

‘Mukhyamantri Ekal Nari Samman Yojana’, ‘Vishesh Yogjan Samman Pension Yojana’, ‘Mukhyamantri Kanya Daan/Hathleva Yojana’ etc. are popular schemes in the direction of social security. Due to cheap power supply, electricity bills are coming down to zero level in a large number of states. One of the most important criteria of ‘Gandhian Governance’ is decentralization of power and economic development structures and programmes and promotion of village self-reliance. From this point of view, the present Rajasthan government has taken quite important decisions. The most remarkable work among them has been the announcement of 19 new districts and three new divisions by the government in one go. After the announcement, the process of deployment of administrative staff in the newly formed divisions and districts also started in a very short time and notification of new districts and divisions is imminent. In Rajasthan, which has a very wide land area, it has been a normal thing to travel around 200 kms to reach the headquarters in a single district, but now hardly anyone has to travel more than 75-80 kms for this.

This process of decentralization of power, taking the structure of governance-administration closer to the people, makes the official slogan ‘Administration towards village’ meaningful and has been a very important step of administrative reform in the right direction. In the direction of rural economic empowerment, emphasis has been laid on programmes promoting advanced agriculture including Rajasthan Agricultural Processing, Agri Business and Agricultural Export Promotion Scheme-2019. Importance is also being given to the promotion of village industries and local industries. Free electricity is being provided to more than 11 lakh farmers under the ‘Mukhyamantri Kisan Mitra Urja Yojana’. For this, the government has given a grant of 2116 crores.

Significant works have also been done at the institutional level in shaping the model of ‘Gandhian Governance’ in this third term of Shri Ashok Gehlot. In this context, the Directorate of Peace and Non-Violence was first formed under the State Government. Later, it was converted into the ‘Department of Peace and Non-violence’. Undoubtedly, Rajasthan is the first state in the country, where the ‘Department of Peace and Non-violence’ has been duly constituted in the structure of governance. Apart from the state headquarters, offices of ‘Peace and Non-violence Department’ have also been established at all the district headquarters. The activities of the department are going on at a great pace for the last two years. First, one-week divisional Gandhi Darshan training camps were held at the state headquarters. After that, three-days and two-days training camps on Gandhi Darshan were organized at divisional headquarters and district headquarters respectively. Now that process is going on at the block level, which will go up to the panchayat level. In addition to educational programmes of training on Gandhi philosophy in training camps, creative events such as interfaith prayer meetings, shramdaan, physical exercises and ‘Shanti Ahimsa March’ have been included in public places. In this sequence, more than five thousand training cadre has been prepared so far. A state-level special camp for women was also organized. Apart from this, two conferences of the representatives associated with ‘Sarvodaya’ and ‘Khadi’ have also been organized. Two ‘Gandhi Darshan Sammelans’ of 1.5 thousand volunteers selected from the cadre trained so far were organized on June 13 and 14 at Rajasthan International Center in Jaipur. The Chief Minister himself participated in them for a day.

After this sequence is completed up to the Panchayat level, a convention of 50 thousand trained representatives is proposed in ‘Gandhi Darshan’. Through the department, the Rajasthan government has also honoured five eminent Gandhians with the Mahatma Gandhi Award. In the Central Park of Jaipur city, where Lakshmi Vilas Palace used to be earlier, the Rajasthan government is also getting the construction work of Gandhi Museum done. The construction of the museum, unique in its own way in the country, is going to be completed at a cost of one hundred crores in the coming days and it will turn out to be an additional attraction of Jaipur.

Another important Gandhian institutional work was inaugurated on October 2, 2021, as ‘Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Social Sciences and Good Governance’. This new and ambitious Gandhi Institute started its educational programmes of training from the day of its inauguration with its establishment. In the initial phase, it also provided coordination support to the ‘Department of Peace and Non-violence’ in training programmes. ‘Gandhi Sansthan’ is currently working in a building located in Central Park, but its independent building and hostel is being built on the prestigious JLN Marg of Jaipur. The entire construction work of the museum and institute buildings is going on, on a war footing, and is likely to be completed by the coming Independence Day.

Similarly, Mahatma Gandhi Library and Constitution Center are also going to be established by the government in all gram panchayats (blocks) and wards of Rajasthan. These centers will play an important role in the coming days in spreading Gandhian ideas, culture of peace and non-violence and values of freedom movement and Indian Constitution.

(The author is Coordinator, Rajiv Gandhi Study Circle)