NEW DELHI, Feb 11: Governance is a moral contract between the state and its people, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said on Wednesday, while stressing that transparency and rule of law must operate alongside efficiency and empathy.
Speaking at a virtual session of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya National Academy of Social Security (PDUNASS), Tharoor urged public institutions to rethink governance as a moral responsibility anchored in dignity, trust and courage.
The 24th edition of Reimagining Governance: Discourse for Excellence (RGDE)marked the second anniversary of Season One of RGDE, an institutional dialogue platform of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), hosted under the aegis of the PDUNASS.
The apex decision-making body of EPFO, Central Board of Trustees (CBT) members, officers from EPFO’s field and zonal offices across India, and officials from the Ministry of Labour and Employment joined the commemorative session.
Tharoor described governance as “a moral contract between the state and its people”, and stressed that transparency, accountability, participation and rule of law must operate alongside efficiency and empathy.
He cautioned against confusing digitisation with reform.
“We must not merely digitise inefficiency; we must redesign it,” he said, advocating for a sustained government process, re-engineering and simplification of procedures.
Governance, he suggested, must move toward integration and seamless service delivery that spares citizens avoidable procedural hardship.
Grievance redressal systems, he said, are not favour-granting platforms but instruments of democratic respect.
He also emphasised the need for scientific temperament in governance, evidence-based policy, data-driven review and reasoned judgment, while cautioning that knowledge without ethics risks distancing institutions from the people they serve.
“When governance becomes truly just, citizens cease to feel governed; they begin to feel cared for,” Tharoor said.
Launched on Good Governance Day in December 2024, RGDE was conceived as a reflective forum to examine governance beyond routine compliance.
Central Provident Fund Commissioner Ramesh Krishnamurthy reaffirmed EPFO’s commitment to citizen-centric and technology-enabled service delivery.
Kumar Rohit, Director, PDUNASS, highlighted how RGDE has strengthened ethical capacity and reflective leadership within the organisation.
The session concluded with an interactive exchange moderated by Uttam Prakash, Regional PF Commissioner and curator of RGDE. (PTI)
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