A friend comes a-calling
Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov is an old India hand, an academic, and packs more power than any of his predecessors since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

To the rescue of science
FOR quite some time there has been a marked decline in the popularity of science as a subject of study.

Our fun schools
THE report of the Parliamentary Committee on Education supports the finding of UNICEF on the state of primary education in India.

Meeting targets isn’t enough
by Kuldip Nayar
AT the first Press conference — the only one he held — Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri was asked how he would tackle India’s economic problems.

Retirement must be planned
by Subhash Lakhotia
LIKE any business or money-making idea which has its set goals and targets, every retired person must set one’s own goals or targets, and try to achieve these in the years following one’s own retirement.

A Tribune Study

Mystery of the missing funds
by Gobind Thukral
Tribune News Service
“Punjab is economically a prosperous state, but financially weak.” This was a cryptic comment which economist Raja Chelliah made some six years back. This is even more true today. How come? Here are some harsh facts of a mournful tale.

The wheel of life
by Darshan Singh Maini
THE business and traffic of life in a long journey has often been metaphorically linked to the artefact of the wheel.

75 Years Ago

Shivaji Memorial Committee
The Times of India understands that His Highness the Maharaja Scindia of Gwalior has resigned the Chairmanship of the Shivaji Memorial Scheme Committee, as the result of the agitation being carried on by merchants for converting the memorial into a purely sectarian affair.

A friend comes a-calling

Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov is an old India hand, an academic (he is a former director of the Oriental Institute), and packs more power than any of his predecessors since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. All these are unusual but the most interesting is that he is actually deputising for his boss, Mr Boris Yeltsin, who cancelled his visit scheduled for the first week of this month. This visit has also helped the two countries to sign half a dozen treaties negotiated and finalised months ago but not formally brought into force in the absence of the visit of a high-powered delegation. The most important, from the point of view of both, is the one that commits India to buy tanks, jet trainer planes and an aircraft carrier. Russia is mighty pleased since it would infuse cash into the tottering economy. Two-way trade has plummeted from around $ 5 billion to $ 1.57 billion last year. Russia is keen on reversing the trend and as the first step has asked this country to lift anti-dumping duty on steel sheets. One more treaty is ready, in the form of a joint declaration, and it would be initialled during the expected visit of Mr Yeltsin early next year.

Deep mutual goodwill and trust helped in quickly defusing the impact of an embarrassing statement by the visiting dignitary. Immediately after the formal reception Mr Primakov suggested that along with China the two countries should form a strategic triangle, ostensibly to maintain peace and stability in the region but actually to rein in the Islamic militants to the west of India and to minimise the chances of a repeat aggression by the US-UK duo in the Gulf area. By evening he had retracted, saying that he was misunderstood and all that he was stressing was that India was a great power and had lot of influence. Russia has entered into strategic understanding with China as it has a long-running one with India. This arrangement bodes well for orderly development of much of this part of Asia. His laboured explanation is the result of India’s mild protest. Prime Minister Vajpayee referred to India’s problems with China and also the efforts to improve relations. That buried the strategic triangle idea. It is a pity in a manner of speaking. This region and the south and western parts of Asia face constant challenge to their security — from terrorists, insurgents, neighbours and now from outside powers. Some collective arrangement is the only answer, now that the nonalignment movement has slipped into a coma. Russia, China and India have to be the nucleus, and if it cannot be a formal forum, it can still take shape through a series of bilateral declarations of intent. This can even be the starting point of a worldwide attempt at creating a multipolar power structure.

While there is close understanding on several issues, differences exist on the perception of the contents and compulsions of the CTBT and NPT. Mr Primakov is a firm believer in the present nuclear order and would like India to sign the two treaties, which India is opposed to at present. Russia’s is a friendly suggestion and not a hostile condition. It is the only nuclear power that kept to the agreed schedule of selling two reactors even after the Pokhran blasts. If handled properly, Mr Primakov’s public request may even turn out to be a big help to this country in future.

To the rescue of science

FOR quite some time there has been a marked decline in the popularity of science as a subject of study. At the school level till the stage of matriculation since there is no choice, students do study science as a subject. But at the plus two stage those who opt for this stream are mostly interested in joining an engineering course later on. Very few of these young minds aspire to studying pure science. Whatever the reasons, the trend has serious implications. So far the lamentation at this development at various levels has been devoid of any practical measure. The ruling politicians who have the powers to initiate steps to arrest this highly dangerous trend have never found it a paying engagement, promising gains in terms of votes. And, unfortunately, we do not have a Nehru amidst us today who would talk of evolving a scientific temper and thus creating an atmosphere for the healthy growth of science, of course, without ignoring the applied side of it. In such a depressing scenario there comes the news that 11 eminent scientists of the country have quietly decided to take upon themselves the responsibility of saving science — their first love. They have established an organisation named Exploratory to churn the sea of knowledge and present before the public scientific truths in such a manner that readers find it interesting to know more and more about them. The idea is to make scientific learning a mass movement. Among these men of extraordinary brilliance are celebrated scientists like Raja Ramanna, Jayant Narlikar, Govind Swarup, V.G. Bhide and Vijay Bhatkar. They have brought out their first set of six books, all well illustrated and written in a style that even a layman will be tempted to go through them. Their stress will be on making scientific knowledge easily comprehensible and digestible. The project is highly ambitious, as they plan to put before the reading public a new set of books every six months plus create an atmosphere for the rehabilitation of science through other means like organising lectures.

The movement is bound to gather momentum in the coming months and years, for the simple reason that it has the force of men whose commitment to the cause they have decided to espouse is unquestionable. There is another reason why it appears that their efforts will attract the attention of one and all, and it is available in the popularity of television’s Discovery channel. The cost factor in the production of these books could have proved a major roadblock. But it has been eliminated with an IITian joining the laudable movement by undertaking the task of printing and publishing these books at a nominal price. All this is, however, not enough to save science from the ignominy it has been suffering all these years. Some way will have to be found to enhance its market value so that there is a stiff competition among students to pursue courses in science, as it was at least two decades ago. One hopes the eminent scientists will not leave the market aspect unexplored.

Our fun schools

THE report of the Parliamentary Committee on Education supports the finding of UNICEF on the state of primary education in India. Now that Prof Amartya Sen has been given the Nobel Prize for Economics, his thesis on the importance of spreading the base of education for balanced economic growth is much in discussion. However, once the euphoria generated by the honour accorded to an “Indian economist” dies down, the debate on educational reforms too is likely to get buried under the heap of non-issues which dominate most political discourses. The only ray of hope for the expansion of primary education comes from private initiatives backed by UNICEF. The non-government organisations have cleverly shifted the focus away from the ubiquitous “basta” (school bag) to the “basti” (neighbourhood) and introduced the all important element of fun in teaching for arresting the alarming rate of dropout at the primary school level. For instance, in Vadodara children no longer carry bags and slates to the schools run by an organisation called Tarang. Instead, the teachers use magic tricks rather than the obnoxious rod to make the process of learning a “fun experience” for the children. Bawling on the first day in school is, perhaps, a common experience of all those who have gone through the process of formal schooling. But if most children continue to avoid going to school on some pretext or the other, something obviously is wrong with the school and not the students. In this context, Tarang’s “joyful learning programme” needs to be studied and implemented at the national level. Of course, most educationists have recognised the importance of fun in the school programme, but few have had the courage to implement it. Tarang has done it and has reported amazing improvement in school attendance. Students in Tarang institutions throw a tantrum if their parents want to withdraw them from school for economic reasons.

Reports from Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh where the “joyful learning programme” too has been implemented in small pockets with UNICEF help are equally encouraging. For attaining the objective of “education for all” — today nearly 40 million Indian children are illiterate — the NGOs in the field of education and government agencies should adopt the “basti” model of education for banishing illiteracy from the country. Such a model does not require much investment because it relies more on turning locally available materials into teaching tools. The sceptics may raise the question of shortage of teachers for introducing the fun method of learning at the elementary level. According to a spokesperson associated with the Tarang project, “in the beginning it was difficult to inculcate the principles of joyful learning among teachers who were used to teaching from various prescribed textbooks. But gradually the results have started pouring in and teachers are actively involved in making teaching material”. Those who insist that the war against illiteracy requires massive investments evidently do not understand the significance of the saying: “If there is a will, there is way”. And Tarang has shown it through its initiative in some pockets of India.

WRONG PRIORITIES
Meeting targets isn’t enough
by Kuldip Nayar

AT the first Press conference — the only one he held — Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri was asked how he would tackle India’s economic problems. His reply was: one, he would bring down prices; two, he would have the various plans and projects spelled out in jobs, not in outlays.

This was nearly 35 years ago when living was cheaper and when unemployment had not touched the figure of 80 million. The import of down-to-earth Shastri’s observation was that he would do what benefited people. They had precedence, not a predetermined growth rate.

Today, targets are fixed first; people are accommodated later. Mainstream economics assumes that the common man’s problems and his privations are secondary to the primary objective of having impressive statistics. An individual has to be sacrificed at the altar of targets.

Jawaharlal Nehru warned against such an approach. He said: “We talk of the good of society. Is this something apart from and transcending the good of the individuals composing it? If the individual is ignored and sacrificed for what is considered the good of society, is that the right objective to have?” Woefully, his concept of an egalitarian state failed in his lifetime. The system was taken over by the nexus of bureaucrats and businessmen.

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has once again focused attention on the common man. He has said in an interview that India’s priorities are wrong: they should be “people-related, not commodity-related”. Raising economic growth is important, he concedes, but the ultimate objective should be to expand the ability of most sections of the population to earn their living.

No one can find fault with his analysis. Indeed, the economic activity is a means to an end, not the end in itself. The end is the welfare of people. Of what use are the plans which do not improve their living conditions? Socialism, capitalism and other isms are good concepts. But they are for the welfare of people, not people are for them.

True, India’s annual growth rate of 3.5 per cent before the nineties came to be sneeringly termed as the Hindu growth rate. But the entire thinking, however muddled, was how to improve the lot of the people. The public sector undertakings were given the highest priority because they were meant to benefit the nation, not individuals. That the projects got snarled into red-tapism or that the bureaucracy defeated every effort towards welfare is another story.

Then came the phase to push the growth rate. Figures became important, not the people. It was the escalation of the graph that mattered. How it was achieved had little meaning. Controls, permits and licences were, no doubt, roadblocks and they had rewarded only a few. Still when they were dismantled ordinary people did not gain, the upper strata did. And the biggest beneficiary was a foreign investor. People were nowhere in the picture.

The scene has not changed with the advent of the BJP-led coalition. The party has only made noises about an indigenous economic framework. The policy of “Swadeshi” has been flaunted to check “liberalisation”. But the effort is, at best, a feeble protest against economic reforms. The RSS, the party’s mentor, is more forthright. It is not allowing the BJP to go overboard. The party has neither the courage nor an alternative blueprint that it can place before the nation. The BJP is back on the track, which the desperate Congress had hewed from the mountainous difficulty. No wonder, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha announced a few days ago in the Rajya Sabha: “We shall carry (forward) the reform process initiated by Dr Manmohan Singh.”

It is nobody’s case that foreign capital should be kept away. Nor is anyone opposed to new technology, which the country badly needs. But the gates did not have to be thrown wide open. What was needed most should have been sought and permitted first. This was how China, which averages a growth rate of 10 per cent a year, went about. In our country, colas, hamburgers and breakfast foods came first. They still constitute the bulk of foreign activity. The target has not been the people but the elite, which fattened itself even during earlier regimes.

Not only that, the self-sufficiency built over the years has been demolished, and what has been raised on its ruins is an edifice which is more foreign than Indian. Multinationals have grabbed a substantial share in industry. Many Indian companies have closed down and many are on the verge of doing so.

“We have neither the resources nor the government assistance to face the multinationals,” says a top industrialist, who has sold his set-up to the Japanese. “A few may survive but all others will be taken over by foreigners.” His argument is that the Indian industrialists, not used to competition, should have been gradually exposed to it. Even the facilities advanced to foreign investors have not been made available to Indians, he complains.

This may well be true. But once the indiscriminate process of economic reforms began, the writing on the wall was clear. The change had to be quick. That is the law of liberalisation. Bridges are broken so that a country does not go back. India is no exception. In fact, the charge is that the process has not been fast enough due to political and other pressures from within the country. The controversial insurance Bill, which offers one-fourth of equity to foreign companies, is meant to assure them that all doors will open if they remain patient. The purpose is to get foreign capital, the inflow of which has lessened.

Yet for the sake of foreign capital, the nation cannot allow itself to be pushed aside. The fate of East Asian countries is before us. They were forced to adopt certain reforms in the economic field — both the World Bank and the IMF gave them blueprints — that left them with no space of their own. They overstretched the resources and they came tumbling down. All that the West could say in sympathy was that they did not turn out to be the tigers it had imagined them to be.

There is no set formula for growth. Opening markets and privatising government ventures are the two known methods for curbing monopoly on the one hand and the bureaucracy on the other. But it is not necessary that they should work. Competition alone is no solution to India’s problems. In fact, as Nehru said, “in a poorly developed country, capitalist methods offer no chance.”

The problem which New Delhi faces is that there are too many demands from too many sides. How to balance them? A consensus is not possible because the different pressures in a democratic structure are inevitable; they represent the urges of the electorate. Still political parties could reach some understanding; for example, not to have bandhs or strikes, which cost the nation dear.

Ultimately, the policies will have to be drafted in such a way that these benefit more and more people. Probably additional allocations for the agricultural sector, which sustains nearly 75 per cent of the population, will have some impact. The question is not how to accelerate the reforms but how to cast them in such a way that these improve the living conditions of society as a whole. Broad-based economic growth is what the country needs, not the high-flaunting words like globalisation.

Retirement must be planned
by Subhash Lakhotia

LIKE any business or money-making idea which has its set goals and targets, every retired person must set one’s own goals or targets, and try to achieve these in the years following one’s own retirement. If such goals are fixed, it helps a person to forget one’s retirement period and concentrate on doing something good for the community, the surrounding area and society. Dr William H. Reals, in a book he had dedicated to a small group of St. Louis business and professional men who decided to pool their talents to serve their community, said: “One has more time after retirement to rock, more time to fish, more time to loaf and rust out, or more time to do the challenging things one has always wanted to do but could not because of the alarm clock and time schedule”.

The central idea is that in the years following retirement, every person must set a target and then attempt at achieving it. However, care should be taken to ensure that the post-retirement goals are not too taxing on the health of the person so that even after putting in time and energy for fulfilling his goals, the retired man has sufficient time at his disposal to pursue his hobbies and leisure.

Scientists predict that by the year 2000 the life-span of the healthy human being would be around 100 years. A successful retirement goal has to be focused around a step further than merely a place to live in, something here and there to do about. Rather, the retirement goal should be to acquire real good health both in physical and emotional terms. Some of the people who count their remaining old days in just enjoying themselves in and around their children or grandchildren will have no sense of satisfaction in passing their retired life with pleasure. Rather, towards the fag-end of their life such persons would be feeling frustrated. Therefore, now is the time to fix a goal for your retirement years. Without defining the goal, one cannot expect happiness in old age. Happiness in retired life has to be bargained for, worked for and then achieved.

The years ahead of retirement, if you have a retirement goal, can be good, rich and rewarding. However, one should first plan for such years so that they do not become empty or miserable.

The “sixty-fifth birth syndrome” has become outmoded. Fifty per cent chances are that an average person would be living a quarter-century, beyond one’s sixty-fifth birthday. Then, why not redecide and replan one’s retirement.

While you sit down to pursue your retirement goal you must not forget that enjoying the long leisure hours should be one of the important tasks of the post-retirement period. Therefore, it is time to think of investment in worthwhile leisure.

Whenever we talk of retirement goals, just remember that the retirement years should be utilised for purposeful activities so that you can forge your own pattern of living. This would also enrich the life of others. If you really want to achieve this goal, then you will have to be a genius like Titian who painted world famous great pictures in his nineties so that people around him dismiss the relevance of age in becoming big and great.

To work or not to work during the post-retirement period is also an important issue. In a book, entitled “Retire to Action: A Guide to Voluntary Service”, the author gives us a clue to the answer whether to work or not to work after retirement. But frankly speaking, to come to such a conclusion one must answer very frankly some of these common queries:

Is it necessary for me to have work that brings in financial return? If so, how much? Can I get equal satisfaction by continuing to do something else that yields a lesser income — or none at all? Do I want to continue to work for love of the work itself, or because it gives me a chance to prove I’m still capable? Do I believe working for monetary compensation, as it has some inherent good in it? Do I still have the ability to manage people or affairs, make accurate judgements, create new ideas? Do I need to be paid a wage commensurate with my wisdom? Or will I be satisfied with doing a job without pay as that will right some wrongs?

After answering these questions it is possible to come to a conclusion which will set the ball rolling in determining the retirement goal relating to “work or not to work in old age”.

Finally, defining one’s goals of retirement sets the retirement age rolling without tears. Well, those who just live their retirement life without undefined or not-so-clear goals and objectives tend to fear the pinch of wasteful unplanned retirement. But by the time this becomes a reality, it is too long a time unwisely wasted. William James, a noted philosopher, said, “The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it”.

The wheel of life
by Darshan Singh Maini

THE business and traffic of life in a long journey has often been metaphorically linked to the artefact of the wheel. And there are so many ideas tied to this trope in our scripture’s in poetry, in folklore, etc, as to make it a figure of speech for all seasons. The sense of life’s relentless march, of initiation and end, of circularity or roundedness, of infinity and eternity — all these and many a similar thought then compel us to ponder the problem as it touches us in our day-to-day life. And in this wide swathe of concepts, there is enough room for the imagination of angst or metaphysical anguish to find its own consummation.

Indeed, from the scriptural “potters’s wheel” which connects man with his creator or shaper to “the wheel of fortune” which’s the stock metaphor for the daily ups and downs of life, we may go on to “the Persian wheel” in relation to history and the game or round of power politics — the full buckets of water dipping down empty and returning full to the brim again and yet again — and to the Shakespearian “wheel of fire”, where the human tragedy is absolute, inviolate, almost too sacred for words. So we go “wheeling” all over the whoops of joy and abandon (as in a giant amusement park wheel) from the utter ravishment of our senses in the fields of flesh or flowers to the wailing that’s never too far away. The wheel of joy, the wheel of luck, the wheel of destiny, all, all abide.

That is why perhaps the wheel has generally been considered the most valuable invention of man, for all human progress rests upon one kind of wheel or another. And the wheel as artefact, and as metaphor, so the same round, so to speak. And one can think of endless variations on the theme in the manner of a musical maestro’s cunning of the hand, and the “wheels” of sound in fabulous gyrations.

The idea of “gyration” reminds me of W.B. Yeats’s celebrated poem, “The Second Coming”, and the metaphor of the gyrating falcon in the blue skies above and of the controlling hand. But the subsuming metaphor goes to complete its own “cycle” when the breakaway bind of freedom — the severance of life from its source, the alienation of man from his maker — brings up a terrifying vision. It’s a vision of violence when “the falcon cannot hear the falconer” and “things fall apart”. That, says the poet, is a signal of rank “anarchy”, of “the blood-dimmed tide” in which “the ceremony of innocence is drowned”. In the next epiphoric stanzas, Yeats goes on to paint the rise in our troubled times of the insensate hatred of man for man, of the forces of fascism and terror now on the upswing.

Which “cycle” of argument brings us to the idea of anarchy, corruption and skullduggery in our politics today. Ministries come and go, political parties rise and fall, charismatic leaders touch the heights and the depths, but the ground reality remains virtually unchanged. The wheel of power moves and moves, and the wheel of life puts us into one spin after another, and we stay on to ponder the eternal problem. We come “crying hither” and we go crying. We come empty-handed and we go empty-handed, and the Alexander’s of the world and then kind too — all, all move within the Great Wheel.

Has the argument “come full circle”? Yes and no! For each discourse in reality is open-ended, and we may go on to construct new wheels within wheels. At the end of it, the thoughts of “homecoming” and “the Wheel of Karma”, and nirvana!

Mystery of the missing funds
by Gobind Thukral
Tribune News Service

“Punjab is economically a prosperous state, but financially weak.” This was a cryptic comment which economist Raja Chelliah made some six years back. This is even more true today. How come? Here are some harsh facts of a mournful tale.

Punjab is still among the leaders in the country, occupying the third place in per capita income. It leads in per acre yield of wheat and rice and in poultry and milk production. The people are hard working and enterprising and leave their mark on whatever they touch. Again, the Punjabis are well taxed. But how come the state has no money for development and has to borrow for paying salaries and pensions. Where does the money go? A close look at the state of finance reveals:

The balance from revenue is negative and this year it is likely to swell to a whopping Rs 1,500 crore. It started with a carry forward of minus Rs 20 crore in 1985. Revenue expenditure is steadily rising and capital expenditure declining. The present position is the worst. Revenue receipts at 7 per cent are stagnant. This year between January and November, the government resorted to overdraft, or borrowed to live, for 127 days.

The current Plan size is Rs 2,500 crore. Assured resources account for Rs 1,000 crore and the shortfall is as high as Rs 1,500 crore. The government is paying heavy interest on huge bank advances. It is a classic case of hand-to-mouth living and the government is taking a beating this year.

To unravel this happening: There is a steep rise in non-Plan expenditure while revenue receipts are dwindling. The current year would end with a non-Plan bill of Rs 5,600 crore compared to the proposed Plan expenditure of just Rs 2,500 crore. For any developing state this is alarming. Salaries and pensions take away 62 per cent. In 1984-85, this expenditure was Rs 441 crore and now it is a staggering Rs 5,892 crore. Every government has compounded this problem. There is a proliferation of government employees and neglect of development. Parkinson’s law — more the people, less the output — is in operation in Punjab. The salary and pension bills claim a neat Rs 3,654 crore or 62 per cent of the total revenue of Punjab.

Against this there is a poor growth in tax revenue. There is going to be a shortfall in sales tax collection (Rs 15 crore) state excise (Rs 120 crore) and other taxes (Rs 80 crore). This compares poorly with Haryana where sales tax revenue has increased from Rs 1,394 crore to Rs 1,560 crore. Himachal Pradesh, Utter Pradesh and Delhi are also doing well. In Punjab the Ministers and ruling alliance MLAs sabotage efforts by various departments to step up tax collection. But then each MLA has been given a Sumo car with 600 litres of diesel, besides sumptuous travelling allowances. The former Chief Ministers enjoy the luxury of a car, a bungalow and staff. No other state provides this. Now Punjab MPs are demanding the same.

Revenue grew at the healthy rate of 12.4 per cent between 1985-90, peaked at 14.8 per cent in the next five years of Congress rule but plummeted to 5 per cent during 1995-1998. Fiscal indiscipline is in a truly feudal style. The governments — the Congress and now the Akali-BJP coalition — added to this. Budget deficit was a mere Rs 20 crore in 1985, rose to Rs 1100 crore during Congress rule and is now projected at Rs 1,500 crore. As on March 31,1998, the government had a crushing debt of Rs 24,022 crore. It is 45 per cent of the GDP. During 1997-98, debt servicing was to the tune of Rs 3887 crore and fresh borrowings Rs 7,134 crore. Debt serving comes to 54.50 per cent, and there is a nascent debt trap.

Basically Punjab is being crushed under the weight of over-spending and a heavy bureaucracy from the top to the bottom. Despite peace, the expenditure on law and order has increased and in a staggering way. This year’s budget estimates had placed this at Rs 546 crore, but in reality it has touched an unbelievable Rs 850 crore. It was a paltry Rs 55 crore eight years back.

See the growth of staff strength. Between 1985 and 1997, the state added 81,800 employees. The number is now 3,73,468. The number of IAS and IPS officers also rose from 112 to 258. Many of these have no work and play golf. As for holidays, for every day and a half of work, there is one holiday. Same in Haryana.

Similarly, there has been an increase in explicit and implicit subsidies. Subsidies total up Rs 2,927 crore: social services Rs 1,151 crore and economic services Rs 1,776 crore. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal alone has added a total of Rs 500 crore to subsidies in the form of free power, “shagun” and other benefits without caring for the long term impact. Now he finds no way to get out of the mess.

It is a paradoxical situation. The rulers say that they have no funds for development. The people retort that they pay enough taxes and their expectations are reasonable. Pre-election promises and party manifestos have come to haunt the leaders.

What are the conclusions to be drawn from all this? One, the present financial mess is the result of long-lasting populism and Mr Badal is not the pioneer. At one level, farmers and some other sections are being appeased and at another level they are being fleeced. They curse the government for not looking after them. Both paddy and cotton growers suffered heavily and their plight is unbearable. Mr Badal has provided free water and power to farmers. He says what else he could do.

This has deprived the state of fresh loans from the World Bank and other international agencies to develop infrastructure. Clearly, the Akalis, like their predecessors, do not understand the harsh dynamics of market forces, or are merely trying to tinker them in favour of farmers. Or, are they just helpless? Right now the country is being pushed to the corner by the World Trade Organisation which is helping the agricultural surplus countries to dump their produce on India. Once that sets in, the plight of farmers would worsen. The farm sector needs more than token appeasement.

Populist measures like free power block a sensible approach to the reform of the power sector.

Mr Badal keeps asking anyone who cares to listen, as to how to get rid of free power. But he is scared of the political fallout.

Second and more important, Punjab shares the messy situation in which it has landed with most other states. Take Himachal Pradesh or even Haryana. Himachal has a budget deficit of Rs 1,400 crore. The non-Plan expenditure — Rs 2,600 crore — is more than three times that of Plan expenditure. In fact, the state has the dubious distinction of spending its entire revenue receipts on salaries and pensions. Himachal has schools where teachers outnumber the students.

The BJP government is busy trying to outwit the Congress in the matter of spending spree. Helicopters costing Rs 6 crore have been purchased for the ministers. Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has been seeking Rs 1,000 crore as a special package but has got Rs 200 crore. Another Rs 100 crore may come to bail out the state. It is resorting to deficit financing and utilising ways and means grants to meet the daily expenses. Market borrowing is another wayout. Since the ninth Finance Commission stopped the special assistance package, the state’s budgetary position has become precarious.

Haryana is in a somewhat better position. Despite efforts to mop up resources, the picture is not that rosy. Last year it suffered a loss of Rs 660 crore thanks to prohibition. This year it may rake in around Rs 800 crore from excise alone. But for this the state would have been badly off. Implementation of the Fifth Pay Commission has enlarged the salary bill to 54 per cent of the total revenue of the state estimated at Rs 5,200 crore.

The Plan size of Rs 2260 crore is under threat from two sources. The World Bank aid for the road sector did not materialise and it is going to be less for the irrigation sector. This amounts to Rs 350 crore.

In addition, recession is hurting the collection of sales and other taxes.

Heavy and untimely rain as in Punjab has affected tax collection and added the burden of relief. The Centre, despite assurances, has practically done nothing for the two states.

On the plus side is Chief Minister, Bansi Lal’s assertion that development projects are going apace. The World Bank has helped reforms in the power sector and a power regulatory authority has been established and the Electricity Board has been abolished. In these reforms Haryana has become a model state. The funds needed for roads and other projects is much less than the requirement. Haryana inherited a deficit of Rs 271 crore in May 1996. It has gone up due to prohibition. But the state mopped additional resources of Rs 354 crore and made good some of the loss. It also set a record in the growth of sales tax revenue by 31 per cent in 96-97 and 12 per cent next year. This year it is becoming difficult.

One reason is that all elastic resources like income tax, excise duty and customs, etc. are with the Centre and all inelastic sources with the states. The states bear the major burden of development. The Akalis like the Communists and some other parties have been demanding that the states should be given more autonomy in fiscal matters as in political matters. How much can the states raise money from sales tax and liquor excise? Haryana’s experiment with prohibition is the latest sad reminder. The Centre did not help at all. Haryana has resisted populism and has refused to give free power to farmers. But the government has to pay a heavy political price.

Where does this kind of politics stand today? Those who indulge in populism surely land in messy situations. Populism and appeasement have limits. One day the rulers shall have to address themselves to the hard fact that nothing could be given free except social welfare needs. Those who can pay shall have to pay. The government has to devise ways to effectively intervene and check the callousness of market operations. Also, there has to be intervention at the level of policy-makers to check the present agrarian crisis and to encourage industrialisation.

Take one concrete instance. These states are overstaffed, heavy from top to bottom. Can the leaders stop fresh recruitment?

Many financial experts feel that the time to make issues and choices clear before the people has come. But not many rulers are ready. This would mean moving from one mess to another.

75 YEARS AGO

Shivaji Memorial Committee

The Times of India understands that His Highness the Maharaja Scindia of Gwalior has resigned the Chairmanship of the Shivaji Memorial Scheme Committee, as the result of the agitation being carried on by merchants for converting the memorial into a purely sectarian affair.

It will be remembered that the Shivaji Memorial Scheme owes its origin to the indefatigable energies of Maharaja Scindia in collaboration with the late Maharaja of Kolhapur.

During the Prince of Wales’s visit to Poona in 1921, the foundation stone of the memorial was laid down by His Highness.

A section of non-Brahmin Mahrathas have now raised the cry that only such of their candidates for Council elections will be supported as are prepared to pledge themselves to support the memorial scheme on a sectarian basis.

It is understood that the President, Maharaja of Kolhapur, who is the Vice-President of the Scheme, is also going to resign.