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Prashant Bhushan
One doesn't have to be a clairvoyant to guess the agenda that the PM, FM and the Mr. Montek Ahluwalia have in mind for the nation for 2006. It can probably be summed up in one sentence: A GDP growth rate of 10% and an FDI growth even higher than that. That, in their view would place India firmly on the path of becoming an economic superpower like China . That however is precisely the warped thinking that is leading to the collapse of agriculture and the rural economy in the country, and further impoverishment of the poor.
It is this obsession with GDP and FDI growth and a facile belief that this growth in the GDP would trickle down to the poor as well, that has led to the neglect of the genuine concerns of the poor in the country. The reason for this is fairly straightforward. It first has to do with the manner of computation of GDP. Thus, while the turnover of chemical fertilizer and pesticide companies would go into the computation of GDP, the use of Organic manure and organic pest control methods, which the farmers would produce themselves would not be computed in GDP. So, a government obsessed with GDP growth would never encourage organic farming, even if that were much better for the farmers and the health of all citizens in the country.
This obsession with GDP growth also leads to the neglect of environmental damage caused by various forms of industry. This is because environmental regulation does slow down certain kinds of environmentally damaging industry. Since environmental and health damage is not factored into reducing GDP - and in fact the resulting health costs and the costs of cleaning up the environment would also inflate GDP, a GDP obsessed government would try and dismantle environmental and health regulations. This is evidently already happening. Several hundred senior and respected environmentalists held a funeral procession in Delhi recently, proclaiming the death of the of the Ministry of Environment and forests.
This GDP obsession also leads to an attitude of easy tolerance of corruption. All anti corruption measures are viewed as obstructions to development. After all, corruption in business circles has come to be known as the grease which speeds up commerce. Thus if you give a contract for a bridge by taking a bribe, to a contractor who uses substandard material, the collapse of the bridge after 5 years, this doesn't reduce your computation of GDP. But the fact that the contract was given for twice the normal amount does go to inflate your GDP. Notice therefore how the Ministry of Defence has been cribbing about the slowdown in defence purchases due to the Tehelka effect.
But there is an even more important reason why GDP growth cannot be an indicator of development, particularly the well being of common citizens in the country. Growth can always be achieved fastest in the sector which is least material and most virtual. Thus, there are natural limits of land and water availability for agricultural growth. There are also certain natural constraints - availability of raw material, demand etc.- for the growth of the nuts and bolts industry. But there are virtually no limits to the growth of the virtual industries like the financial markets industry-which is the most rapidly growing industry currently. Thus a 10% spurt in the stock market which can be achieved by mutual fund operators within a week, increases the market capitalization and hence the virtual wealth of citizens by several percentage points. Similarly, many other high end service industries like IT and insurance could also grow rapidly, thus fuelling rapid GDP growth. But the common people in the country can neither get jobs in these industries, nor do they have any use for these services.Catch a starving farmer making money in the stock market or in the IT industry.
It is argued by our GDP obsessed policy planners that eventually the money being made by the stock market operators or the IT industry would trickle down to the poor farmers in terms of ancillary jobs that would be created. But the fact is, that this has not happened, despite the boom in the stock market and the IT industry. In fact, it has only served to increase the inequalities in society, leading to various societal tensions and a weakening of democracy. When a few people control the bulk of money, they can not only influence elections by money power - which enables various forms of advertising and propaganda campaigns - they can also corrupt and misuse all institutions of the state to influence elections. The resultant frustration with democratic processes apart from growing inequalities, is also a major reason for the spurt of Naxalism in the country. On the other hand, this inordinate attention given to high growth, high tech and virtual industries has led to the neglect of the genuine needs and concerns of the common people. That is why the agriculture sector is in shambles today. Even the rural employment guarantee scheme, which was brought in only because of the insistence of the Left parties and the National Advisory Council, headed by Sonia Gandhi, despite the opposition of the Troika in charge of finance policy in the country, is still to take off. Notice how neither of the PM, FM and Mr. Ahluwalia talk of the successful implementation of the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme as their vision for India , even as they never tire of talking of GDP growth.
My vision and agenda would therefore have to emerge from identifying the urgent and important needs of the common people in the country and see what needs to be done to provide those. I would put education, jobs and healthcare as the most urgent needs of common people. And it is the duty of the state to provide these. It is stupid to believe that the privatization of education and health and a gradual withdrawal of the state from these sectors would be the best way of providing these services to the poor. Just because the government today is corrupt and inefficient does not mean that we go on privatizing these sectors. If this were to be carried to its logical conclusion, we should first be contracting out the police, civil services and indeed the cabinet itself to private contractors or companies. There is no option to reforming the institutions of governance and making them work, no matter how difficult it might seem.
The Right to Information Act, is a welcome step in that direction, which if used widely and implemented rigorously, has the potential of not only greatly reducing corruption in government, by the transparency that it will bring about, but also making democracy more participatory. But the governments, instead of encouraging its implementation are trying to scuttle it by essentially appointing civil servants, who have been bred on a mindset of secrecy, as Information Commissioners. And now the PM has sent out a circular- in total violation of the Act - that many kinds of file notings and their authors should not be disclosed. It seems that the government has no political will to implement the RTI Act, It appears to have been brought only because of the pressure of the right to information movement and the National Advisory Council.
To deal with corruption however, we also need to reform the investigative agencies and the vigilance machinery at the centre and the states. Though we have a statutory Central Vigilance Commission, the CVOs of various Ministries and PSUs are still junior officers of the same departments, who can hardly be expected to take action against their own superiors.The Vigilance Machinery in most states is still farcical, manned by officers who are completely at the mercy of the governments. They need to be given statutory status as well. Successive governments have also stonewalled on the Lokpal Bill, and this government does not seem to have this on their agenda either. Also, though the CBI has been placed under the supervisory jurisdiction of the CVC, it still remains under the administrative control of the government, which is having a crippling effect on its independence.
There are other radical reforms needed to transform the police, the civil services and the Judiciary into instruments to serve the people, instead of lording over them, as they presently do. These institutions were created by the British to serve the ends of the Empire, and were unfortunately retained as such even after independence. A new Police Act on the lines recommended by the National Police Commission has been hanging fire for 25 years. Various subsequent committees set up by successive governments have reiterated the recommendations. Now a new committee has been set up by this government to draft the new Act, but the majority of its members are police officers or civil servants.
Similarly, drastic reforms are needed in the Civil services, which today have become millstones round this country's neck, rather than instruments of development. The judiciary too needs a drastic overhaul. Apart from being lethargic and corrupt, its complicated and technical procedures have made it inaccessible to the common people. A Nyaya Panchayat Bill which is on the anvil for having informal court systems at the grassroot level for normal disputes, would be a step in the right direction. The judiciary at the higher level needs to be made accountable by having an independent National Judicial Commission which can hold them to account. That however is not on the government's agenda, with the existing judiciary being strongly opposed to it.
I however doubt that this government has the political will to bring about most of these urgent reforms. After all, it was only recently that the PM in his Oxford speech went on to extol the virtues of the British Empire for having given us such an excellent Police, Civil Service and Judiciary.
Thus, the government needs to reform the various institutions of governance and accountability and reclaim the space that it is surrendering to private commercial interests in this unbridled drive towards privatization. The Employment Guarantee Act needs to be universalized and implemented vigorously. The financial allocation for education which is currently around 3% of the GDP, needs to be doubled as recommended by various commissions. The allocation for public health which is a pathetic 0.9% of GDP needs to be increased manifold. Where will this money come from? We need to cut down the huge and unnecessary Defence budget. And we need to raise more taxes from the rich. Why should we not tax the wealth of our crorepatis who are doubling every year?
I can hear the response of the trickle down economic theorists who control economic policy in this government. They say, with a straight face, that with the rampant corruption in their government, hardly any part of this expenditure on employment, education or health will trickle down to the poor. The time has come for us to reject this lazy excuse which is always trotted out to justify the withdrawal of the state from its legitimate responsibilities. The starving millions in this country cannot afford a government which says: "We will contract out our responsibilities because we are corrupt and too lazy to reform ourselves."
We need to identify the urgent and important needs of the common people. The warped thinking by policymakers is leading to the collapse of agriculture and the rural economy in the country - and further impoverishment of the poor. |
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