Good Governance Day 2020: Good Governance Day is observed annually on December 25th, the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It was established in 2014 to honour Mr. Vajpayee by fostering awareness among the people of accountability in government. In keeping with this principle, Good Governance Day has been declared to be a working day for the government.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee was an Indian politician, extraordinary orator, and writer who served as the tenth Prime Minister of India. Once Atal Bihari Bajpayee said, “One day you may become an ex-prime minister, but you will never become an ex-poet”.
Good Governance Day History
On December 23, 2014, Mr Vajpayee, and Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (posthumously) were announced as recipients of the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award. Following the announcement, the Modi government announced that the birth anniversary of the former Prime Minister would be henceforth commemorated annually in India as Good Governance Day.
The decision was however criticised by the main opposition party, Indian National Congress, for setting Good Governance Day on the same date as Christmas as well as for declaring this date as a government working day.
Objectives of Good Governance Day
- To make people aware of the government commitment for providing a transparent and accountable administration in the country.
- Good Governance Day is celebrated to enhance the welfare and betterment of the people.
- It is celebrated to standardise the government functioning and to make it highly effective and accountable governance for the citizens of the country.
- To implement good and effective policies to complete a mission of good governance in India.
- To enhance the growth and development in the country through good governance.
- To bring citizens closer to the government to make them active participants in the good governance process.
About former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Vajpayee, who held the post of the prime minister for three non-consecutive terms in 1996, 1998-99, and from 1999-2004, was the sensitive poet who summoned nerves of steel to conduct the Pokhran-II nuclear tests, the man from humble beginnings who envisioned a project as titanic as the Golden Quadrilateral highway network.
New book to mark former PM’s 96th birth anniversary
A new book fleshes out the political philosophy of veteran BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee and gives an insider account of how the late former prime minister thought and worked. The book, titled “Vajpayee: The Years that Changed India”, will hit the stands on December 25 — on the occasion of Vajpayee’s 96th birth anniversary.
It is written by author Shakti Sinha, who had worked with him very closely for three and a half years in the 1990s, first as a secretary to the leader of the Opposition (1996-97) and later as his private secretary (1998-99). “Atal Bihari Vajpayee is fondly remembered today. People do not know how difficult it was for him to form a government in 1998 and run it.”
