Events
& Issues
New Delhi, 4 April 2018
Flawed Economic Plan
INEPT, NOT GOOD GOVERNANCE
By Dhurjati Mukherjee
Shortage of millions
of jobs, staggering real incomes of farmers, virtual collapse of the
manufacturing sector, destruction of small businesses and paralysis of the
banking sector very recently has come to the forefront. Though there are
accusations by both the BJP and the Congress, the former has no answer to the
problems. In fact, there is frustration all around.
One may refer to the
Congress resolution last month which noted: “The economy is in the hands of
ignorant and incompetent policy makers who have derailed economic growth
through reckless and bizarre policies such as demonetisation and a hasty
imposition of a flawed GST.” In view of the serious condition in agriculture,
former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had stated: “Modiji himself said that
farmers’ income will double in six years time. If you have to double farmers’
income in six years, you need a growth rate of 12 per cent per annum and that
is unthinkable”.
Even former Finance Minister
P Chidambaram, referred to the decline in agriculture growth, leading in
increase in farmers’ suicides and the recent march of farmers in Maharashtra,
demanding remunerative price for crops as stated by the National Commission on
Farmers, which the State government was forced to agree on the main demands.
Outlining the poor
performance of banks, Chidambaram informed that they have written off four
times more loans in the last three years than in the entire 10 years of UPA. Rs
4.5 lakh corporate loans have been restructured by banks in just three years.
These hard facts cannot be doubted and the government has possibly no answer.
What is specially
significant in the Congress resolution is the suggestion for creation of a
“nationalist poverty alleviation fund” and impose a 5 per cent cess on the one
per cent richest Indians. This is aimed at providing education scholarships to Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes and other BPL families. The promise, spelt out in
the last paragraph of the perty resolution on agriculture, employment and
poverty alleviation, said the fund created would be used directly for the
benefit of the deprived sections.
This is expected to
draw attention of political analysts who would definitely hail such a proposal.
But there is also the question of ensuring good governance to ensure plans and
programmes are carried out in such a manner that the beneficiaries are really
benefitted. Presently most schemes and programmes, which are normally announced
with much hype, are not implemented as per schedule.
Take the case of Swaach Bharat Abhiyan where we hear
about targets of toilets being built. But most of the toilets built do not have
access to water and, even those that have, are not being used by the
beneficiaries. There is no awareness programme at the grass-root level to tell
people about the need to stop open defecation and control water borne
diseases.
Another programme, is
the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana for
urban areas, which promises ‘housing for all’ by 2022 but barely 8 per cent or
3 lakh of the 40.6 lakh targeted so far have been constructed. The situation in
the rural segment is a little better but even there only 30 per cent or 28.8 lakh
houses have been completed against the target of 95.4 targeted.
On the other hand,
the billionaire boom in the country is not a sign of a thriving economy but a
symptom of a failing economic system. Those working hard are struggling to fund
their child’s education, buy medicines and manage two meals a day. “The growing
divide undermines democracy all over the world and even in India and promotes
corruption and cronyism”.
The situation is, no
doubt, quite severe and calls for serious introspection. The government has
virtually no answer to the impending crisis and independent experts are quite
frustrated with the poor performance and inept governance of the
government.
The BJP has found
itself cornered due to its anti-poor policies, on the one hand, and the
urge to expand the RSS’s vision of ‘One
Nation, One People, One Culture’, on the other. Most of the Opposition parties
have joined hands in defeating the secular image of the country and the ruling
party’s endeavour of transforming the country into a Hindu rashtra. However it
needs to be pointed out that though there is much talk against communalism, any
concerted movement is not quite manifest. On the other hand, civil society and
human rights activists, new Dalit and student groups have come out more
forcefully in the battle for a secular, plural and egalitarian nation.
While the government
should have focussed attention on alleviating the conditions of the poorer
sections, the ruling establishment has done very little in this regard. The
crony capitalist approach or to put it in simple terms, the consumerist
approach has landed not just the poor but even small entrepreneurs in a crisis
due to GST, which has not been planned properly. The returns from government
are being delayed which has been causing hardships to small businessmen running
micro units.
There is nothing to
believe that ‘ache din’ (good days) have
come as rural India is in a crisis situation. Only roads development has been
above mark but only developing physical infrastructure does not help the
process of economic growth.
Meanwhile, the
concentration of power at the Centre has created problems. ‘Save Federalism’
seems to be the new rallying point of State based parties as they explore
options for mounting a joint front against the BJP’s homogenising juggernaut.
Most parties like the BJD, the Trinamool Congress, the Telegu Desam, the
Telengana Rashtra Samithi and the like are totally dissatisfied with the
reduced financial allocation to various schemes like the MGNRES. The cry is to
give more financial resources to the States to carry out their development
programmes which, most experts believe, is necessary to ensure economic
decentralisation what Mahatma Gandhi had advocated long back.
The Modi government was expected to carry the
Vajpayee economic philosophy forward though administrative accountability,
judicial reforms, reducing unaccounted money in the economy, labour reforms to
enable labour intensive manufacturing at the micro level on a larger scale to
generate adequate employment opportunities, single window and time bound government
clearances in a transparent manner and increasing minimum support prices so
that the farmers’ can make reasonable profits but most of these have remained
unfilled.
The challenge before
the government to take heed of the present crisis and plan accordingly to win
the confidence of the poorer sections, specially farmers, those employed in the
non- formal sector and small entrepreneurs. The focus has to be on the rural
sector and the villages have to be envisaged as engines of growth.
In fact, one needs to
mention here that agrarian crisis that is facing the country today has to be
reversed and the answer lies not just in modernising agriculture but also
educating farmers to go in for value-added crops that could give them higher
returns along with dryland farming, wherever possible. Moreover, it has to be
ensured that the recently announced MSP has to reach the small farmers so that
minimum profits are assured to them. Sooner the better. --- INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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