‘Continuity vital for governance’

There are politicians who rise through visibility, and there are those shaped quietly by the systems they later inherit. Sudivya Kumar belongs to the latter category.

- Shashi Singh

From pasting posters on street walls as a grassroots worker to handling key portfolios in the Jharkhand government, his journey spans more than three decades within a single political organisation. Sworn in as a cabinet minister in December 2024, he now oversees Urban Development and Housing, Higher and Technical Education, and Tourism, Art, Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs.

It is only after stepping into executive responsibility, he says, that he fully understood the limits of governance. Systems, he suggests, do not collapse overnight. They weaken gradually, often without drawing attention, until the consequences become visible.

In this conversation with Shashi Singh, Kumar reflects on what he sees as Jharkhand’s deeper structural challenges, from the absence of institutional memory to declining confidence in higher education, and explains why reform must move beyond incremental policy changes.

Excerpts

Q: You have seen politics from the grassroots to the cabinet. What has this transition taught you about governance?

A: Governance looks very different from the inside. As a citizen, or even as a legislator, you evaluate the system from the outside. You question delays, decisions, and often assume that things can be done faster or more efficiently.

But once you move into an executive role, the nature of the system becomes clearer. Files pass through multiple levels, departments intersect in ways that are not always visible, and decisions are rarely linear. What appears simple from the outside often involves layers of procedure and coordination.

For me, this transition has been a process of correcting my own understanding. Perception can be sharper, but reality is far more complex. At the same time, being inside the system gives you a clearer view of what is fundamentally wrong. You begin to understand not just outcomes, but the processes and constraints that produce them.