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Fighting with freebies: Santa Claus politics in TN |
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Bihar: A shining star or
a passing comet?
FM’s words didn’t match his actions Profile
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Fighting with freebies: Santa Claus politics in TN They are also speculating on the possible impact of the telecom scam, with a dominant Tamil Nadu dimension, on the voters’ preference. They, however, miss a determining key, a definite pointer of the kind available in the equally crucial, previous elections. The television set won the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections in 2006. If the election manifesto of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam was the “hero” of the occasion, as Congress leader P. Chidambaram hailed it, this particular gift promised to voters was the glamorous heroine. Five years on, will another freebie serve as a formidable weapon for the same side facing a tougher fight? We will have to wait for the war of manifestos. Mr Muthuvel Karunanidhi may well have an enticement up his sleeve to ensure his sixth term as the Chief Minister, with some chance of setting a national record by staying at the state’s helm in his nineties. A flurry of freebies, however, has already been unleashed with the state’s parties embarking on their poll campaigns well before the Election Commission could decide on the date beyond which such vote-buying violates democracy. The spurt in sops has been serious enough to provoke a debate. It has, in fact, occasioned more acrimonious exchanges between Mr Karunanidhi and Ms Jayalalithaa Jayaram of the main opposition All-India Anna DMK and others than the 2G affair. The subject is closer and more comprehensible to the common Tamil voter than the scam expressed in figures with too long a series of zeroes for even most literates. The scam will matter more electorally than the sop, only if the course of the case against former Union Telecom Minister Andimuthu Raja strains the DMK-Congress ties to the snapping point. We have witnessed debates over populist presents versus development as a poll plank elsewhere, as well as in Tamil Nadu earlier. The most recent example is the recurring media refrain about the development mantra of Janata Dal (United) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. This is seen as the secret of his repeated electoral successes (along with his meticulous avoidance, despite an alliance with the BJP, of Narendra Modi as a poll campaigner in Bihar). In the southern state, on the contrary, charity to voters from AIADMK founder M.G. Ramachandran, helping him score a hat-trick in Assembly elections in 1977, 1980 and 1984, chafed his critics no end. It is difficult, however, to draw a hard and fast line between the two strategies. Nitish Kumar’s development package, for example, has included free distribution of bicycles (or money for them) to schoolgirls, and the largesse is claimed to have promoted female literacy in a semi-feudal Bihar. Likewise, the mid-day meal scheme in Tamil Nadu schools, introduced by M.G. Ramachandran in 1982, has earned laurels as a socio-economic measure. There is a huge difference, of course, between the colour TV set and other handouts. It must be remembered that, in 2006, the poll-sweeping manifesto also promised rice at Rs 2 a kilo, but it was obvious to every observer that it was the ‘idiot box’ which made the all-important difference. What made the portable dream factory the secret behind the vote swing that threw two-time Chief Minister Jayalalithaa out of power and almost into political wilderness? The most expensive giveaway ever to grace an election campaign proved all the more effective, perhaps, for not being one of those “pro-poor” offerings. Mr Karunanidhi, for his part, talked piously of trying thus to meet the “educational” needs of the voters, particularly home-confined women. They, however, were certainly not looking forward to lessons and lectures. They were focused on film-based shows and, even more, on a future where they could watch these at home like their social superiors instead of at community centres. They were voting for entertainment as empowerment. Neither the TV set nor the rice has helped the DMK retain poll-time popularity while in power. About the cheap rice, the common complaint is it is not fit for consumption as staple food, and is used as fodder in quite a few cases, while enterprising traders export it to neighbouring states for a tidy extra-profit. As for the fancier gift, it stopped functioning in many cases after a few months, while the cost of cable connections has robbed it of much of its initial glamour. The new goodies include: a free Pongal package (containing six essential ingredients for the traditional sweet delicacy) for all ration card-holders as well as supply of these cards to all applicants, free cooking gas connections, a medical insurance scheme for people below the poverty line, and houses for hutment-dwellers. Each of these has drawn criticism. The gas connections, it is pointed out, could not be given in rural areas where they were really needed for want of agencies and regulators. As for the Kalaignar Insurance Scheme for Life-Saving Treatments, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority raised concerns over its viability but received no hearing. The case of the housing scheme has become one of social versus economic justice, with a destitute woman going to the court against the scheme on the plea that it divided the poor beneficiaries on “the ground of caste and creed”. The political debate over the doles, however, can only provoke derision in quarters not allied with either of the major camps. Karunanidhi says the free gifts will continue as long as the poor exist in the state. Jayalalithaa retorts that they will exist, so long as the DMK rule continues — as though they were beginning to disappear during her terms. And, while she did not offer TV sets in 2006, she did promise four grams of gold to every poor woman who got married! The fact is that the two parties, which have both lost the “Dravidian” agenda after sharing power at the Centre with both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, can only fight each other with competitive freebies. The pristine Dravidian agenda — with regional development as its primary priority — has not proved entirely unrewarding. By textbook standards, Tamil Nadu must be counted among the more developed states today. It is the fifth largest contributor to India’s GDP. It has the highest number (10.56 per cent) of business enterprises and stands second in total employment (9.97 per cent), against a population share of 6 per cent. But there are far less flattering figures as well. Over 24 per cent of the people in rural areas and 11 per cent in the urban live below the poverty line, on less than Rs 40 and Rs 55 a day respectively. One-third of the population survives on 1,632 calories a day (below the all-India BPL cut-off of 2,100 calories). One in every three children suffers from malnutrition-stunted growth. Only 23.13 per cent of the households have toilet facilities. What Tamil Nadu has achieved — like India as a whole — is distorted development. The solution lies in far-reaching socio-economic changes. The answer forthcoming from the rulers consists in
freebies. The writer is a political analyst based in Chennai |
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Bihar: A shining star or
a passing comet? “Bihar
showed the way, West Bengal will follow”. Thus ran a banner headline
of a leading Kolkata daily recently. The news item referred to Chief
Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi announcing his decision to apply
the “Bihar model” to ensure “peaceful, free and fair”
elections in Bengal after he wrapped up his visit to the state.
Suggesting the Bihar model for Bengal would have been the ultimate
sacrilege till a few years ago. Perhaps it still is for many. Bihar under Nitish Kumar has earned many accolades. Bihar’s all-round impressive performance is the result of Nitish Kumar’s good governance. Time, Economist and The New York Times have all written admirably about Bihar’s turnaround. According to The New York Times, Bihar “illustrates how a handful of seemingly small changes can yield big results in India’s most impoverished and badly governed regions”. Till a few years ago, if one typed Bihar and got it through the spell-check, the first correction that was suggested was ‘bizarre’. For nearly three decades till the advent of Nitish Kumar, there was much that was bizarre in Bihar. The bizarre had elements of the comic and the grotesque. In the 1950s, the Appleby report characterised the state as the best administered in India. However, by the late 60s, the rot began to set in. Bihar soon became a forbidden land, a dangerous place. Bihar, “the end of the earth,” as described by V.S. Naipaul, became a metaphor for ruthless violence, institutional decay and chronic non-governance. Today one is talking of “Bihar miracle”. At 11.03 per cent average growth rate for the last five years, Bihar is growing nearly as fast as Gujarat. This is way ahead of the all-India average of 8.49 per cent and only marginally lower than Gujarat’s 11.05 per cent. For long, southern and western states registered higher growth while the Hindi belt in the north and eastern India were what analysts call “eternal laggards”. That dynamics has started changing. With new challengers muscling in, the states that have performed better can no more rest on their laurels. While Kerala, God’s own country, that was the social scientists’ delight for its achievements in education and health, has started slipping, and Gujarat remaining steady, it is Bihar that has surprised all. Has Kerala become yesterday’s story? Is Bihar the tomorrow’s story? It is perhaps premature to come to such definitive conclusion. Kerala model is hard to replicate for a variety of reasons. Kerala has the least number of poor after Delhi. According to the Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative for the UNDP, the poverty rate in Kerala is 16 per cent while it is more than 80 per cent in Bihar. Nitish’s Bihar has miles to go before it catches up with Kerala in terms of high literacy, low fertility and high life expectancy. But India’s best and worst performing states are no more cast in stone. States are undergoing a gradual but inexorable pace of change across the country. Bihar is now being seen as a textbook case of how an enlightened leadership can change the face of a state. Take the instance of education. Bihar has emerged as a star performer among states with steady improvement in school enrolment. According to Pratham’s Annual Survey of Education Report, school enrolment of boys is at present 95.6 per cent and that of girls 95.4 per cent. In 2006, 12.3 per cent of boys and 17.6 per cent girls in Bihar were out of schools. The quality of teaching is of course another matter. The law and order has significantly improved. Nitish Kumar now favours community policing. He has announced the setting up of a police academy. Steps are also being taken to set up women police stations and SC/ST police stations in every district. The Right to Service Bill is another noble initiative which provides for a daily penalty on the departments who fail to provide services within the stipulated time frame. His decision to scrap MLA’s quota of development funds has been widely hailed. The asset declaration has been mandatory for all public servants. Some analysts see Nitish’s Bihar as a light house for the country. Is Bihar’s turnaround for real or is it a hype successfully spun by Nitish Kumar’s spin doctors? The latest data suggests that 81 per cent of the population in Bihar is MPI poor. Going by India Today’s “State of the States” survey 2009, among India’s 20 big states, Bihar’s rank is 20th and it has remained so since 2004. Bihar occupies the 20th place in terms of primary health, primary education, investment environment, macro economy and consumer markets. It stands only marginally better in terms of agriculture (16th), infrastructure (18th) and law and order (19th). What has, then, changed in Bihar? There has certainly been a considerable improvement in law and order. Nitish Kumar has succeeded in breaking the nexus between crime and politics. Kidnapping cases have dropped dramatically. The school attendance has improved and primary health centres now have doctors and medicines. More visible is road construction and other infrastructure. According to Bihar’s Economic Survey of 2008-09, 6,800 kilometres of road have been laid in the past four years. And yet, road length per 100,000 people is only 111 km, a far cry from the national average of 360 km. The proportion of Bihar’s villages connected through roads is only 57 per cent, whereas in Gujarat 99 per cent of villages are connected. Analysts say that while Bihar’s figures may well be correct, the change on the ground is only minimal. The numbers appear impressive because of a very weak base. Bihar has the lowest per capita income. Even if the state continues to grow at this rate for the next 10 years, its per capita income will still be below the 2007-08 national average. That indicates the tough tasks on hand. Bihar’s growth is largely construction-centric. The state continues to face acute power shortage. The major part of rural Bihar lives in the lantern age. The state faces a deficit of more than 1,000-1200 MW of power a day. Worse, agriculture, the mainstay, is showing no sign of revival and distress migration of Bihari labourers continue unabated. The government has prepared an agricultural investment roadmap. Enhancing crop productivity is a major challenge. Nitish Kumar has created a feel good factor. But it is too early to say that the old order is breaking. The reality in rural Bihar is less rosy irrespective of the media projection. It is perhaps premature to say that Kerala and Gujarat are yesterday’s stories. But Bihar does promise to be tomorrow’s story. Whether Bihar is a shining star or a passing comet will depend on what Bihar does to its majority population who seem to be still untouched by economic
strides. The writer is Associate Director, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi
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FM’s words didn’t match his actions
Of
all the sad words of pen and tongue. The saddest are, “It might have been”, wrote poet Whittier. Somehow, I feel the same for the Union Budget presented to the Lok Sabha on February 28. All through the Budget, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee appeared tantalisingly close to take some long awaited tangible steps towards facilitating agriculture diversification, checking black money, initiating tax reform, controlling inflation, improving fiscal prudence, boosting infrastructure growth but eventually, he fell short on all counts. Let us take the example of infrastructure growth. There has been much celebration in media over allowing of Foreign Institutional Investment (FIIs) in infrastructure. Honestly speaking, given the notorious fickleness of FIIs, I am doubtful of this measure’s efficacy in bringing about any significant long term investment boost in our infrastructure. The muted response of markets suggests that investors are still not fully convinced about getting good returns from India. To ensure that FIIs don’t make quick exits, the Finance Minister has provided for a lock in period, which is bound to make the foreign fund managers think several times, before they invest. It is a cliche worth repeating that our poor infrastructure is one of the biggest detriments to our growth. Still, barring this particular measure, the Finance Minister fails to offer anything tangible. Unfortunately, the commitment which UPA Government II professed towards improving roads, ports, electricity is far from being fulfilled. India is building only 4 kilometers of highway a day, whereas the target set up government is 20 kilometers a day. A more realistic but effective policy such as a comprehensive Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme was the need of the day. I know the PPP model often evokes smirks and ridicule from some experts, but let us not forget that some of India’s finest infrastructural projects emerged under this model. The most recent example being the airports at New Delhi and Hyderabad. The Finance Minister also made repeated references to fiscal consolidation. In this sense, he aims to contain fiscal deficit in Fiscal Year 2012 to 4.6 per cent of GDP and then take it 3.5 per cent in 2013. The figures, however, tell only half the story. It is obvious that the government is going to use the 3G receipts of over Rs 1 lakh crore to bring the deficit down. If the Finance Minister had come out with more tangible fiscal correction measures, such as adoption of recommendation of Direct Tax Code and had not procrastinated the introduction of Goods and Services Tax, the tax collections would have been far more and the 3G money which is now being used to pay off the debts, would have been used to give a much needed boost to our economic and social infrastructure. To put it crudely, the government has not done anything to curb its profligate ways. The reduction in fiscal deficit would be made possible not because of its parsimony simply because it got lucky to get huge monies from 3 G auction. I strongly feel that this money should have gone elsewhere. Education, for example, would have most certainly benefitted. Almost four decades ago, the Kothari Committee recommended that we should spend 6 per cent of our GDP on education. India of 21st century has still not achieved half of this target. This should worry us. In his brilliant book, Imagining India, Nandan Nilekani mentions it categorically that India may have a huge demographic advantage in form of world’s largest young population but this can turn into a disadvantage if we fail to educate them properly. Right now, we are no where close to providing a suitable education to our children, especially during their formative years. This is a privation that is bound to upset the rosy 9-10 per cent GDP growth rates which most people are now taking for granted. If 3G monies are being ill spent, there was no mention of 2G and other embarrassing skeletons that have been tumbling out of the UPA government’s closets for the past few years. Barring a perfunctory reference to black money, the Finance Minister did not offer anything solid. The budget policy needed to include some measures that should have sent out a strong message about government’s zero tolerance on corruption. Similarly, there were mentions of various putative reforms such as FDI in direct retail and insurance, but the Minister did not say anything which people already did not know. His remark that the budget aims to build a consensus on these vital issues doesn’t cut much ice. Both these issues, especially the first one have been in public domain for a long time. FDI in retail can go a long way to bring inflation down and ensure better returns to farmers. When I was a part of the Punjab government, we had actively pursued investment in retail because we knew that this was one way to guarantee better returns to farmer by eliminating middlemen and to facilitate crop diversification in the state. The fact that Walmart made its India entry from Punjab was an example of our efforts. I feel that farmers are being shortchanged by this continuous dilly dallying over FDI in retail. The levy of export duties on farm produce, merely to help a small part of domestic industry get cheaper raw materials is again to the disadvantage of farmers, as they will fail to get benefits from the global increase in commodity prices. I have always wondered how come the policy makers never shirk from preaching the principles of free market to farmer, and when the same principles are offering some advantages to farmers, they turn protectionist. Pranab da’s budget is an example of the same. We can ignore our industry at our own peril. This sentiment and similar voices were drowned during the early euphoric years of India’s services success. Thankfully, the realisation that sustainable growth is impossible without a strong industrial sector has dawned and the theory that India can move onward bypassing the industrial revolution has been debunked. Right now share of industries in our GDP is 16 per cent. In case of China, it is 40 per cent. The Finance Minister talked about increasing the share of 16 to 25 per cent but failed to explain how he plans to go about it. The fact that our Small Scale Industry (SSI) is given step-motherly treatment by governments is unfortunate. Any meaningful spurt in India’s manufacturing is not possible if SSI clusters such as those in Ludhiana, Jalandhar remain moribund. For me the most commendable aspect is direct transfer of certain subsidies. This was necessary to check the pilferage of subsidies and grant that happens at the plethora of levels that have been created between government and the citizen. I would have liked to see that some connection here was established with primary education like the way they have done it in Brazil. Beneficiaries are entitled to certain direct benefits only if they enroll their children in school. Those who dismiss this method as coercive need to look at the remarkable turnaround in Brazil’s primary education scene. Also required were attempts to improve the efficacy of other government scheme such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA). The government has allocated Rs 40,000 crore for it. It is high time the scheme was taken to the next level. The main purpose of this scheme was to improve rural livelihood through asset creation in villages. While there has been some success on the first aspect, the latter has been totally ignored. In several areas of country it has become Chairman Mao-type “dig the holes and then fill them again” policy. Such streamlining on the above mentioned fronts was essential. With an economy on resurgence and reasonable degree of political stability, the UPA government had a golden opportunity to set the house in order. The Finance Minister did articulate the imperative to do so, but inexplicably his words did not match his actions. n The writer is a former Finance Minister of Punjab |
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Profile
Born in an era of truthfulness and non-violence, a Gandhian to the core and a follower of Acharya Vinoba Bhave, Sobhana Ranade, dedicated a lifetime for the development and empowerment of destitute children and women to make them self-sufficient. Working with and for the people has given her a reason to live. When she was honoured with the Padma Bhushan this Republic day, Sobhana, popularly known as tai, has touched 86. She was happy but not overjoyed. Her cryptic comment was: “the award will encourage me to carry on the social work that I have already undertaken”. Born in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra, Sobhana, since her childhood, was deeply influenced by speeches of Veer Savarkar, Mahatma Gandhi and Aruna Asaf Ali. Her motivation was such that she decided to join the freedom struggle. She got married at the age of 16 and her husband was a civil engineer. Responsibility of marriage, however, could not curb her urge for knowledge and education. With unwavering support from her family, especially her father-in-law, she completed BA in 1947 and obtained Diploma in Montessori Education under guidance of Madam Montessori herself. After a long gap, she obtained her Masters degree in Sociology in 1968. Madame Montessori left an indelible mark on her personality who encouraged her to work for the destitutes and the physically challenged children. In 1955, Sobhana moved to Assam and started a school in Digboi. She set up Shishu Niketan in Assam and worked in a Nagaland hamlet for women’s empowerment. Through Adim Jaati Sangh, Naga tribal women were given training in weaving and spinning the charkha. In 1979, she helped in starting the Gandhi National Memorial Society and the National Training Institute for Women at Aga Khan Palace, Pune. In Maharashtra, Sobhana tai took up the cause of women’s empowerment through the Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust. This was an organisation dedicated to women and child welfare. Creating her own models and syllabi, training began for house helpers, social workers and in Adivasi areas for pada (barefoot) workers. The Mahila Khadi Vidayalaya, first of its kind, has been successful in empowering women. Seventy per cent of the 8332 women trained in khadi and village industries are running their own units. The amalgamation of Gandhian thoughts and rural social work has shown good results. Both the government and the private sector have recognised Shobhana tai’s work as a Gandhian and her work for women and child welfare. She is happy that the government, too, is becoming aware of and thinking about child welfare. Working for others through her social service organisations for past 50 years, Sobhana tai feels privileged today. She feels that the energy and dedication with which she began her work still remains the same and she attributes this enthusiasm to her association with selfless people. The focus of her work has been on changing society and its values so that women and children obtain their rightful place in society. She was greatly influenced by Austrian philanthropist Dr Hermann Gmeiner. Having experienced the horrors of war himself as a soldier in Russia, he was confronted with the isolation and suffering of many war orphans and homeless children. In his conviction that help can never be effective as long as the children have to grow up without a home of their own, he set about implementing his idea for SOS Children’s Villages. Sobhana tai too believed that keeping children in state-run orphanages was not the way to make good citizens of future. Hence SOS system, which placed eight to ten children under the care of a ‘mother’ in a ‘Bal Sadan’ which enabled the institution to give individual care, love and affection and provide the growing child with an environment that was as close as possible to her or her natural home. She started her first Bal Sadan in Vinoba Bhave’s home in Gagode. This place was offered by Vinobaji himself. This was the first step towards the creation of ‘Balgram Maharashtra’, which today, through its affiliates, is home to over 1600
orphans.
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