Chanakya’s Arthasastra deals with the governance and planning more than religion, said ACB Director General A.K. Khan.
Delivering a talk on ‘Chanakya’s Arthasastra – relevance for modern day administration’ at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) here on Monday, Mr. Khan said the concept of ‘single window’ being talked of now was mentioned in one of his precepts centuries ago.
“We have customs and police as two different departments, but Chanakya favoured both to be under one umbrella for better administration, and we have experimented with it and succeeded,” he pointed out. The governments should have few laws that should be enforceable rather than have severity in punishment as preferred by Chanakya. The Arthasastra deals more with taxation, vigilance, planning and administration. It was the best practicable treatise compared to Machiavelli and other political exponents. Mr. Khan extensively dealt with the essence of Arthasastra and opined that the country needs to relook at its legislations and colonial practices. “Any legislation that is in vogue for 25 years should be reviewed, either to discard or to renew it. But we have been following legislations that were introduced during the British regime in India,” he pointed out.
The country also needs to eschew some its colonial practices. The budget session used to be in the evening hours for many years only to suit the timings of British citizens for whom it was early hours of the day. However, the practice was discarded in recent times. “We need to review many such practices to suit the changing needs of the people and our place,” Mr. Khan opined. Prof. L. Ramgopal Reddy, NIT director prof. T Srinivasa Rao, and city police Commissioner G. Sudheer Babu were also present.
Chanakya’s Arthasastra deals with taxation, vigilance and planning, said the ACB Director General
