BJP’s Jaipur show
THE Jaipur meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s national executive committee has to be viewed in the context of the forthcoming assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Mizoram.

Russia’s terminal crisis
SHED a tear for Russia and President Boris Yeltsin. And also for the long suffering people of the country. They are about to be sucked in an implosion.

A nation of cretins
IF the experts at the National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, are to be believed, India is in danger of becoming a nation of cretins — deformed and under-developed people.

A tale of two Presidents

by Poonam I. Kaushish
THREE days of August this year — 14, 15 and 18 — will go down in world history as trail blazing. Moments in time when India’s First Citizen broke protocol and candidly went public about the state of the nation.

To teach with dignity
by Shelley Walia
IF people respect and love higher education they must pay for it.

. Backlash against reforms building up by P. Raman BELIEVE it or not, there are clear signs of a reform backlash building up across the country. It might not have been visible to the naked eye or reflected in the media. Ministerial confusion on delicensing WHEN ministers try to do the job of a bureaucrat they tend to mess it up. A case in point was the press briefing of the Minister of State for Agriculture, Mr Sompal, after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs took a decision to delicense the sugar industry. The three Ns by Narendra Kumar Oberoi THE first N stands for a Hindi writer considered not so great by his detractors but great by them as well as his admirers. The second N stands for the Nobel Prize in literature. The third N stands for the Nuclear test, the Pokhran H (Hindu) bomb.

75 Years Ago

Sufi Samagam
SUFISM can unite Hindus and Muslims, solve the Indian problem and give light to the world.

BJP’s Jaipur show

THE Jaipur meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s national executive committee has to be viewed in the context of the forthcoming assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Mizoram. So, the party’s rhetoric and postures reflected in the resolutions have mainly been prompted by electoral considerations. They also underline an element of desperation as well as a cover-up attempt at its limitations and failures. No wonder, the BJP has glossed over the problems it has with its major coalition-partner, Ms Jayalalitha’s AIADMK. Instead, the party has lambasted the Congress and other opposition parties for ganging up against it. It has even accused them of trying to subvert the mandate of 1998. This is typical of the BJP’s duplicity. The party leadership has apparently mixed up facts with fiction to divert the attention of the electorate from the harsh fact that the Atal Behari Vajpayee government has been desperately struggling for its very survival at the Centre. This situation is not the creation of the Congress party’s “political myopia”. Nor is it the result of “coming together of casteist and communal elements”. If anything, Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s party has conducted itself with a degree of sobriety and dignity and has been reluctant to join in any toppling game, even though it knows that the ruling coalition government is tottering and would, sooner or later, fall because of its own in-built contradictions.

It is a pity that instead of tackling the basic problems facing the people, the BJP leadership has been indulging in shadow-boxing. It has exposed itself in the eyes of the public and knowledgeable persons acknowledge the bitter truth that the BJP’s house-keeping has been poor. The party has not been able to act in a cohesive manner. Different coalition-partners have been talking in different voices, giving wrong signals to the people. Even within the BJP, sharp differences exist on certain crucial policies and programmes. At times, it looks like a divided house. Of course, the party’s tallest person continues to be Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee and it would not be wrong to say that the government has managed to survive because of his secular and sober public image. However, events during the past few months have begun to create misgivings in many minds about the ability of the BJP to govern and take the country forward. The people’s optimism has been steadily eroded and come to be replaced by a kind of loss of nerves in the face of disturbing reports on the state of the economy and political mismanagement. The most glaring example of politico-economic failure is on the price front. Of course, the BJP President has asked the government to check the price rise. But the moot point is: has the BJP-led government the requisite political will to take effective steps? All the while, it has been compromising on various matters for its mere survival. This has affected the party’s credibility. Indeed, the present scenario presents a picture of fluidity and a baffling set of dilemma and paradoxes. The BJP leadership has fumbled time and again on a number of issues.

Today the BJP has become a prisoner of its own indecision. What is tragic is that the party has not even been able to achieve the goals and objectives it has spelt out in the national agenda. Even a sense of commitment to these objectives has been missing. Actually, the BJP’s action has often lacked determination and, in consequence, efforts to implement policies. The only semblance of determination expressed at Jaipur is reflected in the party’s desire to keep the government going, notwithstanding the limitations of coalition politics and the glaring failure to bridge the gap between the people’s expectations and the government’s performance. Looking at the nature of the coalition, the task of reconciliation will only become increasingly complex and difficult.

Russia’s terminal crisis

SHED a tear for Russia and President Boris Yeltsin. And also for the long suffering people of the country. They are about to be sucked in an implosion. The sacking of the very lame lame-duck government of Mr Sergei Kiriyenko and the recall of his predecessor, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, constitute the loudest warning signal. The explosive is political in nature, but the ignition is the deep economic crisis. The rouble has collapsed, threatening hyper inflation, a monster which the government controlled after a bitter upheaval. Incidentally, it is the only achievement so far of the Yeltsin administration. An average citizen is desperately poor; vast sections of the working class, including the army and the powerful miners, have not received wages for months. Pay arrears of soldiers alone work out to $6.5 billion. This is the price the country has to pay for its ill-planned plunge into capitalism. Then there are the small number of “New Russians” who have cornered the huge wealth this process generated. And they are all-powerful as the state was at one time. They refuse to pay taxes, stash away their money in foreign banks and whiz past Moscow streets in plush imported cars surrounded by armed guards. Their opulence as much as the creeping poverty of ordinary Russians is a proclamation that the state has collapsed and what goes on in the capital city is a pantomime of governance.

There is no money in the treasury and no law and order on the streets. How did this come about? It all started in 1991 when the country broke free from the socialist structure in one mighty but jerky movement and opted for the free market economy. But the latter was still an idea, an apparition without any institutional support. Every thing, mostly state-run industries, were up for grabs and every thing was grabbed. Tax revenue did not fill the gap created by the loss of revenue from the state units because there was no machinery to collect taxes. Nor was there any arrangement to staunch the continuous outflow of wealth. Result: revenue dwindled and expenditure remained the same. The government borrowed and borrowed until there were no lenders, domestic or foreign. Inflation soared, rouble became a piece of paper, standard of living dipped alarmingly and given the sharp political polarisation, the state was reduced to a joke. And Mr Boris Yeltsin tried to provide relief in two ways. He fell critically ill, monopolising all media attention and frequently shuffled his advisers and ministers. Like he did on Sunday. Last week the rouble went into another convulsion forcing the government to informally devalue it by 34 per cent and stop the payment of dues for some weeks. Russia is a distant country, and its problems are distant ideas? No, India shows some of the symptoms and there is cause to be on guard. India too has its own brand of “New Russians” with immunity from the law but having foreign bank accounts. So far society has remained broadly unaffected, but it is time to reverse the dangerous trends, instead of whistling in the dark as Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha is fond of doing. After all, Russia has hit the rock bottom within seven years, and 1991 has special significance for both countries.

A nation of cretins

IF the experts at the National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, are to be believed, India is in danger of becoming a nation of cretins — deformed and under-developed people. The data recently released by the institute show that “more than 50 per cent of the children at the critical under-five age are stunned because of protein and micro-nutrient deficiencies which can readily be corrected through the right mix of policies”. The first part of the statement forcefully explains why half the future citizens of the country are likely to suffer from nutrition related deformities and the second part places the onus of correcting the imbalance through simple strategies on the policy-makers. It is evident that the planners would have to move beyond the stage of merely talking about the need for long over-due improvements in the public health delivery system. According to the President of the Nutrition Foundation of India, Dr C. Gopalan, “the Green Revolution only resulted in an increase in production of staple cereals like rice and wheat” which is hardly sufficient “for a nation which is expected to meet the challenges of a competitive world”. The Green Revolution helped “tackle the florid clinical manifestation of severe malnutrition like pellagra and goitre. They have now been replaced by varying degrees of stunting, anaemia and a variety of other deficiencies”. The data revealed that while infant mortality could be tackled to a great extent through improved child-care strategies little attention was paid to a related aspect although it is well-known that for the further growth of the survivors tackling malnutrition has to begin at the conception stage and carried through the developing years.

The piece-meal approach to growth resulted in the ushering in of the white revolution which helped India become the largest producer of milk. However, even this revolution failed to make a dent on nutrition “because the right micro-nutrients are not getting to the mothers at the right time”. It is evident that the policy-makers would have to redraw their strategy for fighting the scourge of malnutrition at the national level. They should not ignore the observation of the experts that increase in the production of rice and wheat was achieved by scaling down the production of what can be called the “poor man’s foodgrains” like millets, pulses and coarse grains. Their disappearance from the market has understandably resulted in “health imbalance” because for the average Indian coarse grains, millets and pulses were the affordable sources of lysine, folic acid, riboflavin and micronutrients. According to the experts, what India needs is a “rainbow revolution” to tackle the problem of malnutrition among 50 per cent of the under-five child population. According to another study conducted by Delhi University’s College of Medical Science, poor nutrition levels are showing up as poor performance among children actually going to school. Of course, there is little that the policy-makers can do to reverse the trend in the absence of the necessary political will to prevent India from becoming a nation of cretins. Going by the non-issues which come up for discussion in Parliament and the State Assemblies — often resulting in disruption of the proceedings — it can be said that the political class does not seem to care for the India of tomorrow.

A tale of two Presidents
Narayanan told the truth, Clinton lied
by Poonam I. Kaushish

THREE days of August this year — 14, 15 and 18 — will go down in world history as trail blazing. Moments in time when India’s First Citizen broke protocol and candidly went public about the state of the nation. And when the First Citizen of the world’s most powerful nation could no longer keep his private life private. Both to be remembered as unprecedented.

And thereby hangs a tale. A tale of two Presidents. India’s K.R. Narayanan and America’s Bill Clinton. The first, a titular head, chose to break the weakened system to bare the truth about our polity. The latter, the world’s top CEO, was caught lying by his country’s strong system. One lamented the lack of accountability at all levels in the system. The other was forced to account for his failures and misdeeds.

Dispensing with his mandatory Independence-eve address to the nation, President Narayanan preferred the interview format to express his apprehensions about the critical times facing us. “There are, there will be crises that we will have to face,” he said. Supplementing this with his view on “the very badly battered caste system”, the toll taken by communalism as a political mobilisation strategy, on the demolition of the Babri Masjid, (“I feel we could have brought the tragedy under control”), on the Pokhran blasts and foreign policy.

If this raised eyebrows, his address on Independence Day in Parliament’s Central Hall stirred a hornet’s nest among the politicians. Instead of beating about the bush and making a mundane, boring and routine speech, Mr Narayanan took the bull by the horns and, with a refreshing courage of conviction, he dared to speak out the truth about our politicians. Said he: “In the maintenance of democracy, the example set by the legislators and the holders of public office is supremely important. Public office was regarded as sacred space. Today it is regarded by an increasing number of wielders of it, as an opportunity to strike gold, and enjoy the loaves and fishes of power. It is a matter of the deepest regret that great cynicism prevails in the public mind about politics and the administration. Floor crossings and cross-votings in power games are no longer rare transgressions of democratic norms....”

Quoting former President Radhakrishnan, Mr Narayanan added: “Unless we destroy corruption in high places, root out every trace of nepotism, love of power profiteering and blackmarketing, which have spoiled the good name of this great country in recent times, we will not be able to raise the standards of efficiency in administration as well as in the production and distribution of the necessary goods of life. Unfortunately, those words are true today, if not truer”.

The President could not have spoken out to a more relevant audience. Those present in the Hall included former Prime Ministers, former Chief Ministers and party leaders. Some of them have been and are still directly or indirectly involved in corruption cases. Only on Friday last the CBI raided the premises of Mr Laloo Yadav, including his wife, Chief Minister Rabri Devi’s official residence, in connection with the fodder scam. There is no gainsaying the fact that our political masters are a law unto themselves. Self-seeking, power-hungry political animals who sacrifice the people at the altar of greed and self-aggrandisement.

If Mr Narayanan’s outspokenness was unpredictable, the political class’s reaction was equally predictable. Mr Chandra Shekhar led the diatribe against Mr Narayanan: “The President has broken protocol and time-honoured conventions”, he asserted and added: “It is not a President’s job to lay down policy.” The former Prime Minister was referring to Mr Narayanan’s assertion favouring the reservation of one-third of the seats in Parliament and the state legislatures for women, and the filling of backlog vacancies in government services reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Tribes. “He has transgressed the dividing line between Presidential and Prime Ministerial duties. The government lays down the policy, the President only elucidates it”, aver his critics.

Be that as it may, there comes a moment of truth in a nation’s life and that time has come. After all, what Mr Narayanan said was an established fact. Don’t we know to what level our arrogant and power-hungry “netagan” have stooped. Day in and day out, we are witness to loot and bribes. Running into thousands of crores of mind-boggling deals, side deals and underhand deals. With bargains being struck every hour, if not every minute, while national affairs remain in limbo.

Arguably, what the politicians fail to realise is that the President said what he did because the political system has virtually collapsed with no one seemingly interested in putting it together again. It is only when the system is run down and weaked that a President with courage and conviction asserts himself — not out of choice but out of a sense of duty. Significantly, Mr Narayanan is not the first President to have served notice that he was not going to be a rubber stamp but a “working” President. As he himself put it, he can wield indirect influence on the affairs of the state. “It is the most important role he can play. And he can play it successfully only if he is, his ideas and his nature of functioning are seen by the public to be in tune with their standards.”

No less than India’s first President Rajendra Prasad, had expressed Presidential disapproval over the mismanagement of government affairs. Times without number, he had sharply disagreed with certain decisions of the Nehru government.

Recounts Durga Das in his book, “From Curzon to Nehru and After”: Rajen Babu did not see eye to eye with Nehru on the report of the State Reorganisation Commission. In his eyes it should have been accepted as an award and faithfully implemented, not modified, as was done. On Kashmir, Prasad was all for the integration of the state in the Indian Union. In his eyes, the special status accorded to Kashmir was hardly in tune with the realities of the situation.” How true today.

Then came the clash on the Hindu Code Bill. Writes Durga Das: “Prasad did not oppose the measure but argued that it should not be enacted and his assent sought until the issues involved had been submitted to the verdict of the people. Nehru was riled but Prasad was adamant and got his way.” This was followed by Prasad’s note to Nehru on corruption. He said it “will verily prove a nail in the coffin of the Congress”. Nehru did not reply to the note. Instead, he complained to Prasad for “an unfriendly suggestion”. Likewise, Prasad was also concerned about Centre-state relations. “Do not interfere needlessly with the affairs of the States”, he told the Prime Minister. “Learn to leave them to their own devices.”

This is precisely the line adopted by Mr Narayanan. Remember, he refused to exercise his power under Article 356 to impose President’s rule in UP last October. In a path-breaking decision, he sent back the Gujral Cabinet’s recommendation for reconsideration. Breaking his silence today, Mr Narayanan explained his constitutional understanding of Article 356.

He said: “It can be done only if it can be conclusively proved that in a state the constitutional machinery has broken down. And in my judgement, it had not broken down in UP. This was one consideration. And then there was the question about the dissolution of the assembly. On this, there were legal opinions pronounced by the Supreme Court, which have become the law of the land. On these two grounds, I returned it.” More important, he added, “The President has the power to return a matter but the government while reconsidering this will have to agree with him; if they don’t agree, then, it is difficult for him to see that through.”

Some of Mr Narayanan’s predecessors, too, like Giani Zail Singh and R. Venkataraman have followed in Rajen Babu’s footsteps. Asserting themselves whenever the system seemed to be in peril. Ironically, however, the obverse holds true in the other large democracy, America, where the system is so strong that a President is forced to lie. But the sense of justice, fairplay and truth are so potent that it brought the erring President to book. Mr Clinton made history last week by becoming the first President to appear before a grand jury in a criminal proceeding in which he is the prime target. He was ruthlessly questioned about affairs of his heart and had to answer queries of his “private life, questions no American citizen would want to answer”.

“I answered their questions truthfully, both public and private”, stated Mr Clinton and confessed, “I did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate. In fact, it was wrong. It constituted a critical lapse in judgement and a personal failure on my part for which I am solely and completely responsible. I know that my public comments and my silence about this matter gave a false impression. I misled people, even my wife. I deeply regret that. I must put it right, and I am prepared to do whatever it takes to do so and I take my responsibility for my part in all of this. That is all I can do. I ask you to turn away from the spectacle of the past seven months, to repair the fabric of our national discourse and return our attention to all the challenges and all the promises of the next American century.

The net result? Today a threat of a possible impeachment looms large over the American horizon. From Nixon’s Watergate to Clinton-Monica’s Zipper and Sexgate, it blazons how vibrant, honest and accountable the nation is with all the checks and balances in place. Where justice is truly blind. Be it a President or a commoner.

In contrast, our politicians are pastmasters in “operation alliance and operation topple”. We are a socialist, secular republic, willing to share all and accommodate all without distinction. Today indiscretion is the better part of valour. Follow the leader, the motto. It is no crime to enjoy the finer things of life. And if these come free, all the better. Once a delicious rendezvous is over, they will ply whatever you want. Lay down any law, bend any rule, change any order, transfer any person and fudge figures. All for a song and a little more.

In sum, it is not a question of Mr Clinton screwing Monica or our “netagan” screwing the people. What matters is that Mr Clinton and Mr Narayanan both shared a passion: for truth. Like it or not — that’s the heart of the matter. — INFA

To teach with dignity
by Shelley Walia

IF people respect and love higher education they must pay for it. The status of teaching and research is too often undervalued in our society which has failed to realise that our universities are centres of learning where hard mental labour and extensive reading goes into the delivery of every lecture. If they are given the respect due to them, our nation itself would advance socially, morally and culturally. The university is on the decline, and the reasons are clear. There is conspicuous public stasis on this front. Both the government and the Opposition have taken a pledge of silence. They have sidelined the role of education and this is the sole reason for the weakening of the moral fibre of the nation. Any discussion on this must not elide and ignore the position and role of the teacher in the university.

We need to take a few shots at the absurdities and oddities generated in our culture which favours the politician and the bureaucrat and their whimsical ways of running the country and our institutions, rather than blaming the conscientious teacher. An attempt has to be made to present a vision of higher education from a distinctive academic and cultural angle and see its relevance from local, national and international standpoints. There has to be an endeavour to weed out structures which fail to recognise the national, social and cultural assets of education and research, thus preventing academics from making its full potential contribution to the quality of life. But from the perspective of a concern for liberal education policy that helps teachers maintain responsibility, free-thinking, and autonomy in a modern, progressive and liberal-democratic society, the record is pretty dismal and the reasons obvious.

Higher education has a significant role in underpinning a modern, competitive economy in which academic studies have to contribute to the acquisition of skills which will be useful in subsequent vocations. It is in order to maintain research excellence at an international level that selectivity becomes vital. This is possible only if the academic profession attracts intelligent minds. As is apparent, the low level of salaries and funding is a deterrent to the inclination of the best in our society to choose teaching as a career. We do have teachers who possess the sensitivity and the maturity to pay full attention to the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of young people, and are role models in responsible behaviour and effective teaching. It must not be assumed that the suspension of teaching work constitutes irresponsibility. The implementation of salaries at par with other services will give the much-needed boost to the teaching community which contributes so much to culture and is capable of saving the future from being vulgarised.

To uphold and strengthen academic excellence, the universities must offer working conditions and salaries comparable with other important services in the country. Teachers strongly feel that in return for further efficiency gains the government should increase the allocation of funds for teaching and its infrastructure. The proposed settlement on pay and working conditions has to take place immediately if education in the country is not to suffer. The government has to introduce a national framework, setting standards of employment which indicate to the citizens of India that academics is an honourable and much respected profession.

It is the duty of the government to try and begin meaningful negotiations by working jointly with the teachers in order to restore to the academic world the dignity that it rightly deserves. Something has to be done right away to assuage the common emotion of bitterness that has arisen in the universities and colleges. How can a great culture grow in this air of narrowing provincialism when there is utter indifference to an incident like the present strike, especially as the minister concerned goes abroad in spite of the crisis; the country should be outraged at the behaviour of the government.

As we move towards the millennium, we must realise the important role of the university and take all steps to ensure a fine blend of search for excellence and a social standing that not only bestows confidence but also empowers the community. It is time we acted. In this context, the present agitation gains immense significance in its pursuit of a motive that simply pleads for a social agenda having education as its first priority. In the post-industrial knowledge-based India, scholarship, excellence, responsibility, equity participation, emancipation and citizenship are the fundamental principles of higher education.

One last word. People just seem too tired to relish the challenge and too nervous of the difficulties involved in trying to secure change in academic institutions to be at all eager to take the necessary risks. Inertia prevails, breeding today’s mood of wait-and-see. It is a dangerous mood, inviting impatient policy-makers to impose their own plans. I have the sceptics in mind and feel strongly that now is the opportunity to counter them by taking an active and whole-hearted interest in the agitation that will take us to a better tomorrow and define the standards of higher education in the 21st century.

The three Ns

by Narendra Kumar Oberoi

THE first N stands for a Hindi writer considered not so great by his detractors but great by them as well as his admirers. The second N stands for the Nobel Prize in literature. The third N stands for the Nuclear test, the Pokhran H (Hindu) bomb. What is the relationship between the three Ns?

The name of the first N was being considered and short-listed for the Nobel Prize in literature for the current year. Then came the Pokhran and the Nobel Prize for the Hindi writer was blasted. The rumoured reasons are absolutely weird. One just does not understand why a country like Sweden should venture to impose such a “sanction” against India on behalf of the United States of America and its allies.

The faux pas of the writer as per the rumour was his recent interpretation of the classic Hindi novel, “Godan”, by Prem Chand. The real significance of the novel, he said, lies in the fact that Hori, the protagonist, misses his last chance of going to heaven for not being able to give away a cow in his life-time.

Affiliations of the Hindi writer with the BJP cultural establishment are well known. He has been the most sophisticated and articulate spokesman of cultural nationalism — the Hindutva ideology of the Sangh Parivar.

The interpretation of “Godan” in terms of the well-defined spirituality as against its social realism could be the crucial factor in the reconsideration of the award of the Nobel Prize, which is shocking and scandalous. It is all the more so on recalling that the relations between Japan and the United States of America at no point of time were adversely affected even after the throwing of the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by Washington during World War II.

Another rumour doing the rounds is whether the knocking out of the Hindi writer from the arena by the Booker Prize winner of “The God of Small Things” fame, leading an anti-nuclear protest rally of artists, intellectuals, writers and media savants in the Capital, was the end of the matter. She, of course, has to be admired for her excellent timing of her anti-nuclear blast. An interesting fallout of the controversy is the speculation whether ousting the first N with the help of the second and third Ns was the intended or the unintended target of her anti-nuclear stand, or she would make for the Nobel Prize in literature herself.

75 YEARS AGO
Sufi Samagam

SUFISM can unite Hindus and Muslims, solve the Indian problem and give light to the world.

A group of friends, consisting of both Hindus and Mohemedans, started a movement two years back, with the idea of uniting the various elements of religiosity. Invitations were sent to various Sufi centres and individuals that still carry on — to Latif, Sachal, Rohal, Sami, Dalpat, Baddi, Bekas and others.

The response was indeed enthusiastic! The extensive grounds of the Sind National College saw a spiritual Samagam (conference) in which met Sufis from various parts of Sind.

It showed how the heart of Sind thrills still to the music of its Sufi Masters. Mirza Kalichbeg, the well-known Muslim scholar and poet, presided.

Next year, the 2nd anniversary of the Sufi Samagam was celebrated — this time, emphasising the intellectual qualities of Sufism along with the culture of the heart.

Experience has shown, that Sufism has the greatest hold on the classes as well as the schools and colleges which show a fervid interest in the classical poetry of the immortal poets of Sind. This bespeaks well of the coming development in Sufism.

Sind has been a door through which Eastern cultures have found their way into India and it is evident that she will again sent through its portals the treasures it received, made brighter in colour and more valuable in substance by the touch of India.

The experiment of the commingling of Islamic and Aryan cultures has achieved a measure of success in Sind. It is necessary to ensure that this fruitful soil is further ploughed and sown anew with the old seed.

Backlash against reforms building up

by P. Raman

BELIEVE it or not, there are clear signs of a reform backlash building up across the country. It might not have been visible to the naked eye or reflected in the media. This is mostly due to the absence of public protests on common problems. For over a decade, protests as an expression of public grievance have gone out of fashion. Instead, affected interest groups have taken over the job. A sudden spurt in protests and strikes by trade associations and employees’ unions reflects the gathering disillusionment.

Incidentally, many of the direct actions are not directly controlled by politicians or central trade unions. At rallies, the employees’ leaders vociferously assail the new economic policy — now over seven years old — for their plight and persistently assert that it had benefited only the top rung. Apart from such outbursts, the politician, by and large, makes it safe not to be called anti-reform. However, state leaders, MPs and middle-level political workers testify to subterranean revulsions among various sections of the people.

The tendency is to blame economic reforms for everything — the steep increase in prices, nose-diving stock market, dwindling sales in shops for lack of demand, rise in rents even while real estate prices fall, shortage of water, perennial power cuts, suicide by farmers, increase in crime, falling moral standards etc. Then there are real or unreal grievances of the interest groups. Paradoxically, sections of the middle classes, who were supposed to be the main beneficiaries of reforms and globalisation, have themselves turned most vocal about its ill-effects.

In 1991, high hopes were raised among the middle classes about the vast scope reforms held out for them. Now there is the grim realisation that removal of licences and permits did not automatically usher in the promised prosperity or bring miracles. True, they have products of wider choice and superior quality. But at what cost? Many of them have lost badly in stocks — another area of disillusionment. Even the MBAs who spent, hefty tuition fees are finding it difficult to get the right position. Some are working as clerks. At social gatherings and gossip sittings, the middle classes loudly denigrate the reforms.

The same sections have been the most enthusiastic exponents of reforms and had repeated it as a mantra. Privatisation was expected to solve all their problems and bring in miracles. It is strange now that the same people are shouting loudly with the same vehemence against privatisation of various services. They successfully frustrated several experiments in this regard in states, including contracts in clerical work in government. Right in Delhi, the six-year-long privatisation experiment in city bus services was abandoned and the good old DTC was restored in full — just to please the same sections.

The middle-classes forcefully lobbied for more government outlets for the supply of vegetables. They have a distrust for private brands of pasteurised milk and insist on the DMS or Mother Dairy. When cell phone franchisees sought concessions from the government, the middle-class angrily reacted and ridiculed “private efficiency”. Some are trying to rediscover the virtues of the old world. No doubt, electronic and other kind of consumer items, are exceptions. And so services like telephones and other modern communication. But the tendency among these classes seems to be to dismiss even this as a global phenomenon.

Discerning observers can easily sense the changing mood. Politicians being shrewd, have begun reflecting on the changing public perception, though with extreme caution. The MPs would not like to get into trouble through politically incorrect remarks in midst of a fluid political situation. Even leading lights of the BJP Swadeshi Jagran Manch seek to play safe for the time being. This apart, during monsoon session, sections of MPs belonging to different political shades freely talked of the ongoing debate on what they ascribe as root causes of price increases on essential items, recession and stagflation.

Not only the usually ‘thinking’ MPs but now even the ideologically blank ones and those with a rustic background have begun expressing their fears. The SJM brigade and the Left and Janata parivar men who had once independently conducted their own anti-Dunkal campaigns, are full of ‘we-told-yous’ while referring to the East Asian collapse. May be illogical but hatred for globalisation is too visible. Foreign direct investment is favoured but not imports. Imports are blamed for the closure of domestic units and consequent loss of jobs.

This muffled debate one heard this time in Parliament and informal gatherings of MPs are influenced by several factors. All three fronts have been in power at the Centre at different points of time in a rather short period of 30 months. This included as many as 30 outfits, including major players. This makes it difficult to put all the blame for the price rise, etc., on a single party or front. In this game of shifting the blame, every one finds fault with the reform for the return of jobless workers from Bombay or Gujarat to UP, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.

Another factor that contributed to the anti-reform sentiment has been pressures for power sector reform which is opposed by a strong farm lobby and other interested groups. The politician cannot ignore their sentiments as they form an influential pressure group. In UP, for instance, the BJP Cabinet could not take a decision on the proposal for a power authority despite five meetings. Senior BJP ministers are sharply divided as one section feels that not only would be alienate influential sections but also worsen the power problem.

The disillusionment is so much that in the normal course it might have been a serious election issue. No one had anticipated the kind of backlash Manmohan Singh’s elite-based economic reform had on the rural electorate of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh until the Congress suffered a harsh beating in the first polls after 1991. Since then the Rao Government had taken many corrective steps. This time reform itself may be the target as no particular party wants to be flamed for any problem. This can be avoided only in the likely event of the election battle getting overshadowed by realpolitik and local politics.

No one really doubts the intensity of the post-reform crisis in India. The critics of the excessive globalisation question the very efficacy of some of the prescriptions and blame the mindless manner in which they have been pushed through. But the proponents of globalisation suggest still harsher and quicker measures as remedy. The steep rise in prices of essential items, especially food, has forced large sections of the people to cut on other items. The recession is too serious to gloss over.

It has badly gripped the automobile industry, textiles, chemicals and man-made fibres. A dozen big luxury cars had entered the market under the notion that India’s upwardly mobile middle class is strong enough to absorb them. Now the plants find no place to keep unsold stocks.

Lack of investment is being cited as the main reason for slackening demand and stagflation. Under the ‘withdrawal of state’ theory in the heady days of reform, the public sector had become a dirty word. Now, all hopes of a mushrooming of industries under the private investment and FDI has turned out to be a mirage. A sharp increase in investment stimulates demand and boosts growth.

True, investment had looked up for a brief period after the new economic policy was introduced. That runaway boom in the stock market was part of this. Now the stock market is in a really sad state with sharp prices having gone down by as much as one-thirds in the past one year. An important reason for this has been the withdrawal by foreign institutional investors. In such a situation, there is little scope for any major domestic efforts for private investment. Added to this is the extremely low business morale. Mounting inventories block funds and invariably inhibit further expansion and production increases.

All this has led to a curious situation where even the diehard reformists have begun pleading with the government to come out with major public investment programmes — something which has been anathema for them all the while. An ardent globaliser said this week that just half a dozen public investment programmes were enough to overcome the present stagflation. Thus public investment is being accepted as a policy instrument, and immediate government intervention sought to offset the demand glut. However, a sudden rise in investment, especially the FDI, with high budget deficit can lead to a foreign exchange crisis.

According to one estimate, India’s balance of payments could worsen by as much as $ 7 billion this year if the present trend continues. The crisis gripping world capitalism is bound to further worsen India’s plight. Thanks to India’s pre-1991 economic policy, this country still remains one of the most self-sufficient developing country with very little dependence on foreign trade or foreign investment. Despite this, the Asian economic crisis is bound to affect India.

We are heading for a severe global recession with the entire Asia set to face its second crisis in a little over a year. Last year, we were led to believe that the Southeast Asian crisis was temporary, and the great ‘tiger’ continued to be our growth model. Now even the best optimists rule out any recovery for them even in 1999. After Japan, if China also devalues renminbi, it will certainly precipitate another Asian crisis.

The USA so far persuaded China from doing so. The Asian malaise is much deeper than a temporary financial crisis. Its inherently unsettling effect is highly disturbing for India. When the country will be forced to follow the WTO stipulations in the next 20 months, the flood of duty-free foreign goods will certainly add to its problems.

Ministerial confusion on delicensing

WHEN ministers try to do the job of a bureaucrat they tend to mess it up. A case in point was the press briefing of the Minister of State for Agriculture, Mr Sompal, after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs took a decision to delicense the sugar industry.

Though the decisions of the Cabinet are normally announced by the official spokesman, the minister, perhaps realising the importance of the decision, took it upon himself to brief the media.

The Minister said the proposal was moved by the Union Industry Minister, Mr Sikander Bakht, and in his absence he had been authorised to announce the decision.

Mr Sompal confused between delicensing and decontrol and kept on mixing up the two. He was, however, cautious and at one stage admitted that he was not well versed with the subject and he would await clarifications from the Industry Ministry.

The damage was completed with a news agency carrying the story on decontrol of sugar. The official spokesman who held a separate briefing to announce the other decisions taken by the Cabinet was in a fix as he could definitely not contradict the minister. He simply gave the factual position and when asked about the minister’s statement he retorted by saying he did not know what the latter had said.

Congress team meets Advani

There was a flurry of activity in North Block last Wednesday. A large Congress party delegation descended on the office of the Union Home Minister to discuss with him about the formation of the multi disciplinary monitoring agency as envisaged in the action taken report following the Jain Commission’s report.

The delegation had leaders like Mr Sharad Pawar, Mr Arjun Singh, Mr Manmohan Singh, Mr Pranab Mukherjee and two lawyers, Mr Kapil Sibal and Mr R.N. Mittal. Apart from Home Minister Lal Krishan Advani, the government side had Urban Affairs Minister Ram Jethmalani.

Before the meeting began, as is the practice, photo journalists and television cameramen were allowed inside the room to record the event. Much later the networks were disappointed for even though there were two legal luminaries (Mr Sibal and Mr Jethmalani) present at the meeting, they refrained from commenting on the issue.

Ultimately it was left to Mr Arjun Singh to brief those present on what happened at the meeting.

Politicians on holiday

Last weekend it seemed like vacations were on in Delhi. With the top brass of the BJP away to Jaipur for its National Convention, there was little happening in the corridors of power in New Delhi.

While it was natural for the top BJP leaders and Union Ministers to be in Jaipur, other leaders like Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal President Laloo Prasad Yadav and the Congress President, Sonia Gandhi, were also out on tour.

The Congress President left for a two-day tour of Assam while the two Yadavs went to Ahmedabad to attend a rally of their nascent forum, the Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha, organised by Mr Shankersinh Vaghela, former Chief Minister of Gujarat.

With most major players away from the Capital there was a lull in political activity in New Delhi and for the BJP, thankfully, the focus shifted from Chennai to Jaipur.

A neo-socialist neta

It was a scene that reminded a sketch by a famous cartoonist in which an ubiquitous neta was seen bending to read the caption on a painting at a gallery, with his knowledgeable aide adding helpfully: “Gandhiji, Sir”.

The scene was at the office of the Samajwadi Party in New Delhi and in came a newly-elected MP who was impressed by the office and its spartan set-up.

The furniture was old — high-backed mahagony coloured chairs with matching table and essential gadgets like fax and telephone. However, the new “neta” of a Socialist Party was all at sea unable as he was to identify the persons whose photographs were hung in a hall only to be told that they were of Jayaprakash Narayan and Ram Manohar Lohia — the two socialist leaders. So much for the commitment to the cause.

(Contributed by T.V. Lakshminarayan, K.V. Prasad, Girja Shankar Kaura and P.N. Andley