A candid look at policies
Reviewed by Ambika Sharma

The Politics of Poverty: Planning India’s Development
by DK Rangnekar
Sage Publications. Pages 256.Rs 695

the writer minces no words in blaming the political class for taking decisions that fail to serve the cause of the poor. The book is a candid look at the policies of successive governments of the country which remained at the helm of affairs in the 1970s. It has been written by an economist-turned-journalist, who headed various business papers.

Rangnekar delves deep into various policies concerning the Indian economy, which he claims are responsible for failing to ameliorate the lot of the poor.

At a time when Vidhan Sabha polls to four states have sprung up surprising

results for the ruling Congress, the book provides apt material to ponder over how the mere Congress rhetoric "Garibi Hatao" spanning back to the time of the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had lost meaning as only high-growth rates

remained the formula for banishing poverty.

The writer has painstakingly given figurative accounts of food production achieved in successive years in the 1970s, terming them as ad hoc systems adopted to fix targets while failing to provide any succour to the poor.

He has made no bones about the extravagant system where the high petroleum bill forced the political leaders to cut down on crucial agricultural requirements

like fertilisers, thus adversely hitting crop productivity.

Misplaced optimism shown by governments during good monsoon and abject failure to plan food procurement and imports have been termed as major handicaps in the policies. With tens of millions of peasants hit by near-famine conditions, the much-hyped Green Revolution had lost its glory much earlier than expected. The Green Revolution had not only lost its sheen due to factors like irrational land reforms, indiscriminate use of chemical fertilisers and failure to increase land under agriculture but also because of the over-enthusiastic approach of the Union Government.

The policy paralysis of the Congress government in failing to address structural deterioration in the system has led to abject neglect of the poor. The writer has candidly admitted that black money has submerged the official economy by eroding the basic values and converting public welfare schemes into money-usurping ventures for the elite.

While unscrupulous elements have conveniently managed to dodge curbs and controls meant to stop unfair practices, a parallel economy that fuels inflation and imposes hardships on the salaried class has been prospering.

Expressing concern at the increased dependence on the International Monetary Fund borrowings, the writer has termed it as an attempt to overlook the imminent economic crisis.

The writer has, however, lauded the government for its farsightedness in promoting industrial growth in the 1970s, though he points out that the failure to effectively control the public sector projects due to the lack of coordination made the growth rate of industrial output to fall short of the targets.

The writer has made an elaborate study of the country’s economy by dwelling upon issues both at the micro and macro level. Despite projecting the state of the country’s economy in the 1970s, it gives a peek into the deficiencies of the present times too.

Apart from analysing the inherent rot that has crippled the system at various levels, the writer has made a candid attempt to address the cause of the common man.

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