Welcome initiative

A healthy civic society entails a proper balance between State power and civil rights. That is, the functioning of the government does not interfere with the individual's practice of his or her lawful rights as a citizen; and the individual acts in a way that does not endanger public good.

Given the individual's inherent weakness in the face of State power, the emphasis has logically been on protecting the individual from abuse by the latter. Ours is not yet a fully civic society. But even for harmony's sake, regulating the government is the No 1 imperative.

We have seen and heard about plenty of initiatives to discipline governments and their functionaries. Yet, forgive us for saying this, many of those promises have been made without clarifying what the governments are supposed to do, and what not.