Background :
Former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev passed away recently at the age of 91 after suffering from a long and protracted illness.
About :
Mikhail Gorbachev was a voice of sanity in a crazy cold war world, and his death marks the end of a particular era in 20th century history. During his time as leader of the Soviet Union (1985-1991), Gorbachev brought about enormous change in Russian politics and society, in international relations, and in the global ideological struggle.
He highlighted the dangers of nuclear weapons, the growing environmental catastrophe, and the need to make socialism relevant in an increasingly globalised capitalist world.
Gorbachev was born in Privolnoye in southern Russia in 1931 and his family were victims of Stalinist repression. Gorbachev’s experiences during the great patriotic war (second world war) and the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union greatly influenced his world view.
He was also influenced by the Czechoslovakian communist Alexander Dubček who introduced significant reforms in his country during the Prague Spring of 1968.
He Ended the Cold War
When considering which of the 1980s’ big three leaders – Gorbachev, US president Ronald Reagan and UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher – was most important in ending the cold war peacefully, the answer is clearly Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev.
His meeting with Thatcher in 1984 saw her declare that he was a man she “could do business with”, and she encouraged Reagan to meet the Soviet leader. A number of high-profile summit meetings took place and a relationship of trust between the two superpower leaders developed.
Talks soured over the two nations’ nuclear and defence capabilities, but Gorbachev restarted negotiations and continued to work towards a world free of nuclear weapons. He helped bring Reagan to the point where he would declare, while standing in Moscow’s Red Square in 1988, that the USSR was no longer an “evil empire”.
The most astonishing turn of events began in December that year when Gorbachev told a meeting of the UN General Assembly that he was planning to remove hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops and thousands of tanks from Soviet-occupied eastern Europe.
Previous Soviet leaders had sent tanks in to shore up Kremlin-backed dictatorships, but Gorbachev concluded that the USSR had “no right, moral or political, to interfere in events” there. The military move out of eastern Europe was hugely significant in paving the way for eastern European countries to become independent.
His Reforms
Gorbachev introduced significant reforms – perestroika (restructuring), glasnost (openness) – and these were designed to save the Soviet Union and make life better for Soviet citizens whose living standards were declining. His foreign policy also sought to improve relations between east and west and to end the nuclear arms race.
Fall of Berlin Wall
Germans were certainly grateful to Gorbachev and the role he played in helping to unify their country. Previously East Germany had been separated from West Germany by a wall or fence with security posts, and people were shot trying to escape. The end of Soviet rule in eastern Europe was a powerful reminder that nothing lasts forever. And this included the Soviet Union itself.
Collapse of USSR
Gorbachev allowed Soviet citizens to find their voice in the 1980s, and they used their collective power to criticise the government and non-Russians built powerful independence movements. These grew quickly and they helped to sweep Gorbachev, his reform process, and ultimately the Soviet Union, away.
The Baltic states first called for more autonomy and then for the right to secede from the USSR. Other republics including Ukraine followed this call. Wider protests across the Soviet Union destabilised the country and the once sure-footed Gorbachev ordered the army in to lead bloody clampdowns of nationalist meetings in Georgia and Lithuania.
Dozens of people died in these clashes. Gorbachev realised that he had to renegotiate the relationship between Russia and the other republics. But the New Union Treaty spooked communist hardliners so much that they led a coup and removed him from power while he was on holiday in the Crimea. On December 25, he resigned as Soviet leader.
Putin vs Gorbachev
Gorbachev didn’t agree with current Russian leader Vladimir Putin on various policies including the invasion of Ukraine, and he was a public critic of the president. In his 2016 book The New Russia, Gorbachev wrote that Putin’s “current policies are an obstacle to progress”.
For Putin, Gorbachev was a weak leader who initiated the “biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the century” – the collapse of the Soviet Union. Putin would not want to be seen giving a national honour to someone who he blamed for weakening Russia, especially as Gorbachev is still lauded as a hero in the west.
Inside Russia, Gorbachev is less popular than in the west, and seen as the instigator of the problems they experienced in the chaotic, troubled 1990s when crime rose, there was mass unemployment and many people lost their money after banks suddenly closed.
His mixed legacy was highlighted well in an advert he made for Pizza Hut.
However, Gorbachev’s willingness to talk to his political enemies and to negotiate with those who saw the world differently to him was as powerful a message in the 1980s as it is now. And this is why Mikhail Gorbachev must be remembered as one of the most significant political leaders of the 20th century.
Recent Posts
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- In the Small States category (overall), Nagaland tops, followed by Mizoram and Tripura. Towards the tail end of the overall Delta ranking is Uttarakhand (9th), Arunachal Pradesh (10th) and Meghalaya (11th). Nagaland despite being a poor performer in the PAI 2021 Index has come out to be the top performer in Delta, similarly, Mizoram’s performance in Delta is also reflected in it’s ranking in the PAI 2021 Index
- In terms of Equity, in the Large States category, Chhattisgarh has the best Delta rate on Equity indicators, this is also reflected in the performance of Chhattisgarh in the Equity Pillar where it ranks 4th. Following Chhattisgarh is Odisha ranking 2nd in Delta-Equity ranking, but ranks 17th in the Equity Pillar of PAI 2021. Telangana ranks 3rd in Delta-Equity ranking even though it is not a top performer in this Pillar in the overall PAI 2021 Index. Jharkhand (16th), Uttar Pradesh (17th) and Assam (18th) rank at the bottom with Uttar Pradesh’s performance in line with the PAI 2021 Index
- Odisha and Nagaland have shown the best year-on-year improvement under 12 Key Development indicators.
- In the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Goa and Tamil Nadu and, the bottom three performers are Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar.
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers were Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Mizoram; and, the bottom three performers are Manipur, Assam and Meghalaya.
- Among the 60:40 division States, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are the top three performers and Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Delhi appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland; and, the bottom three performers are Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh
- Among the 60:40 division States, Goa, West Bengal and Delhi appear as the top three performers and Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Bihar appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura were the top three performers and Jammu & Kashmir, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh were the bottom three performers
- West Bengal, Bihar and Tamil Nadu were the top three States amongst the 60:40 division States; while Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan appeared as the bottom three performers
- In the case of 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Assam and Tripura were the top three performers and Nagaland, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand featured as the bottom three
- Among the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa and the bottom three performers are Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Goa
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Mizoram, Sikkim and Nagaland and the bottom three performers are Manipur and Assam
In a diverse country like India, where each State is socially, culturally, economically, and politically distinct, measuring Governance becomes increasingly tricky. The Public Affairs Index (PAI 2021) is a scientifically rigorous, data-based framework that measures the quality of governance at the Sub-national level and ranks the States and Union Territories (UTs) of India on a Composite Index (CI).
States are classified into two categories – Large and Small – using population as the criteria.
In PAI 2021, PAC defined three significant pillars that embody Governance – Growth, Equity, and Sustainability. Each of the three Pillars is circumscribed by five governance praxis Themes.
The themes include – Voice and Accountability, Government Effectiveness, Rule of Law, Regulatory Quality and Control of Corruption.
At the bottom of the pyramid, 43 component indicators are mapped to 14 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are relevant to the States and UTs.
This forms the foundation of the conceptual framework of PAI 2021. The choice of the 43 indicators that go into the calculation of the CI were dictated by the objective of uncovering the complexity and multidimensional character of development governance
The Equity Principle
The Equity Pillar of the PAI 2021 Index analyses the inclusiveness impact at the Sub-national level in the country; inclusiveness in terms of the welfare of a society that depends primarily on establishing that all people feel that they have a say in the governance and are not excluded from the mainstream policy framework.
This requires all individuals and communities, but particularly the most vulnerable, to have an opportunity to improve or maintain their wellbeing. This chapter of PAI 2021 reflects the performance of States and UTs during the pandemic and questions the governance infrastructure in the country, analysing the effectiveness of schemes and the general livelihood of the people in terms of Equity.
Growth and its Discontents
Growth in its multidimensional form encompasses the essence of access to and the availability and optimal utilisation of resources. By resources, PAI 2021 refer to human resources, infrastructure and the budgetary allocations. Capacity building of an economy cannot take place if all the key players of growth do not drive development. The multiplier effects of better health care, improved educational outcomes, increased capital accumulation and lower unemployment levels contribute magnificently in the growth and development of the States.
The Pursuit Of Sustainability
The Sustainability Pillar analyses the access to and usage of resources that has an impact on environment, economy and humankind. The Pillar subsumes two themes and uses seven indicators to measure the effectiveness of government efforts with regards to Sustainability.
The Curious Case Of The Delta
The Delta Analysis presents the results on the State performance on year-on-year improvement. The rankings are measured as the Delta value over the last five to 10 years of data available for 12 Key Development Indicators (KDI). In PAI 2021, 12 indicators across the three Pillars of Equity (five indicators), Growth (five indicators) and Sustainability (two indicators). These KDIs are the outcome indicators crucial to assess Human Development. The Performance in the Delta Analysis is then compared to the Overall PAI 2021 Index.
Key Findings:-
In the Scheme of Things
The Scheme Analysis adds an additional dimension to ranking of the States on their governance. It attempts to complement the Governance Model by trying to understand the developmental activities undertaken by State Governments in the form of schemes. It also tries to understand whether better performance of States in schemes reflect in better governance.
The Centrally Sponsored schemes that were analysed are National Health Mission (NHM), Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services scheme (ICDS), Mahatma Gandh National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SmSA) and MidDay Meal Scheme (MDMS).
National Health Mission (NHM)
INTEGRATED CHILD DEVELOPMENT SERVICES (ICDS)
MID- DAY MEAL SCHEME (MDMS)
SAMAGRA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN (SMSA)
MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME (MGNREGS)