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Why growth has decelerated
The UPA's failure on three fronts is to blame
Manpreet Singh Badal
 It is one of the pleasant quirks of parliamentary democracies that sometimes political expediency translates into inadvertent gains for the common man. Aware that the chances of the UPA forming a government after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections are bleak, Mr Chidambaram threw a financial legerdemain by transferring a huge component of expenditure under some of the Centrally sponsored schemes to states. Since the socio economic and cultural realities of each state are different, one scheme cannot be straitjacketed to fit all. A big positive even though it was goaded by motives that were more political than altruistic. Beyond that, there is little to applaud in Mr Chidambaram's last budget and his Vote-on-Account speech marked the culmination of the UPA's ineffective financial policies in its ten-year tenure.The Finance Minister admitted that the growth rate for the last two quarters of this fiscal would be a shade over 5 per cent-a figure which he conveyed wasn't unimpressive, especially when looked through the prism of the overall global slowdown. When the UPA first formed the government in 2004, the Indian economy was chugging along at 9-10 per cent. True that the macro global economic situation was far better, but even then the developed countries in the first world (Western Europe, Americas) were still growing at 2-3 per cent annually. We cannot shift goal posts-our point of comparison is not America but China, which even in these 'difficult times' is growing at 7.6 per cent (latest figures). The Hindi phrase of "aam aadmi" is being thrown around with so much callousness these days by all political parties that it threatens to become a bit of a pejorative. Even government failings are being dubbed steps taken in favour of "aam aadmi". The only way that a government can make lives better for one-third of the people in this country who are oppressively poor, another one-third that are poor by most global standards and another 20 per cent that may not be poor by the "Planning Commission" definition but struggle to keep the wolf from the door is by increasing the GDP growth rate. In fact, India's situation vis-a-vis China is uncannily similar to 1978 -- the year Deng Xiaoping became the "paramount leader". In the late 1970s, India was moving at what was described as the Hindu rate of growth, while China was moving at an impressive 6 per cent and Deng went on to remark that "Being content with a growth rate of 6% will only lead to retrogression". It is a tribute to his sapience, foresight that 14 years after he stepped down a staggering 200 million people had been pulled out of the morass of poverty and China was speeding on its way to become an economic powerhouse that it is today. By no means, China is the only reference point. Closer home, within the subcontinent, Sri Lanka is growing at close to 7 per cent, while the lovely kingdom of Bhutan is speeding at close to 9 per cent. The obvious question is why the deceleration happened, and in a nutshell, it was the UPA's colossal failure on three vital fronts. First was a total policy paralysis. Now Mr Chidambaram and the Prime Minister may have made repeated statements that there was no stasis in the government's tenure, but the government's record shows the opposite. To take one example-there is widespread concurrence within political circles that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the Direct Tax Code (DTC) are imperative to such an extent that a well-implemented GST itself would push the GDP growth upwards by 2 per cent. But these two steps are still as far from seeing the light of the day as they were ten years back. The UPA's second failure is the criminal pusillanimity it showed in backing its economic policies. In the Vodafone case, when the highest court in the land gave a clear verdict that the levies charged by the government were not valid, how do you explain a retrospective amendment to justify a tax that has been negated in the first place? Did no one- the Prime Minister, the UPA Chairperson, the UPA General Secretary or Mr Chidambaram (a highly influential Home Minister, then) -- tell the few misguided mandarins in North Bloc that what they were doing would give the impression to the global investors that even the Supreme Court's word was not sacrosanct in India. On the contrary, the self-serving babus got a licence to kill as they went with impunity after some of the most respected business titans of India on frivolous pretexts. Then there was this whole flip-flop over multi-brand FDI in retail in India and the mortification of Walmart and more specifically Ikea. Who would want to invest in India after that? As was expected, investment in India reduced to a trickle. Investment in manufacturing, a pre-requisite for job creation and growth, suffered the worst as manufacturers feared a whimsical and weak government. The government's third failing was its appalling record with regards to inflation. The government's response to inflation tells its own tale. In the first half, the government would always resort to the bogey of high international crude prices. When the crude prices came down, the government would talk about difficult international macro economic conditions, especially the global credit freeze. When credit supply loosened, the government unconscionably tried to rationalise inflation by saying that it was a concomitant to growth and was essential for the betterment of farmers as they got a fair price. No one owned up to the inefficient supply chains, no one talked about a dysfunctional public distribution system and misdirected subsidies and no one had the decency to admit that petrol/diesel was sold to the consumer at a 100 per cent increased margin than what it cost the government. The situation which we see today is primarily a consequence of these three failings-which should be the leitmotif of any efficient governance system. What good is the economic policy of the government if it can't initiate reform, promote investment and thereby economic growth and employment, control inflation and rein in deficits? Will the UPA answer? The writer is a former Finance Minister of Punjab and the president of the People's Party of Punjab
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A good gesture shows its effect
Jagvir Goyal
 In Gurgaon many youngsters get their first job as the city has a lot of big corporate offices. They opt for a PG (paying guest) accommodation but soon get tired of the restrictions imposed by the owners, dreary cabins, tasteless food and sky-high charges. So they form a group of two or three, rent a flat and hire a cook to live a life of greater freedom. So did Vibhor, my son, after a few months as a PG.The cook, whose services Vibhor and his friends, Nitin and Nitish, hired, worked as a pantry boy in a company. The flat owner lived nearby and had recommended the boy to them. So they had no qualms and felt rather lucky as the boy was an expert in cooking. The flat owner provided the boys a set of four keys. Each kept one and gave the fourth to the cook. The arrangement worked well. The rent amount was shared equally by all the three and delivered to the flat owner by the 5th of every month. One day my son left his share of the rent, Rs 6,000, in the pocket of his trousers hanging in the cupboard, told the others about it on the phone and left for his job. Nitish was to collect it. In the evening, when my son came back, Nitin and Nitish told him that Rs. 6,000 was missing. Someone had stolen it. An obvious suspect under the circumstances was the cook as he alone had an access to the flat in their absence. He was called and asked to return the money. The cook expressed ignorance. Despite pressure and repeated threats, he didn't budge. Nitin then decided to hand him over to the police. "The flat owner told me that he supports a family. Once he lands in jail, he'll lose his job. That will be too harsh a punishment for him. Let us rethink over it", my son said. They told the cook to go away and not to come again. The flat owner was apprised of the episode and a day's time was demanded to deposit the rent. The flat owner agreed. The next day when the boys went to the flat owner to pay the rent, he asked them what action they had taken against the cook. My son explained that they had treated it as a loss as they didn't want the cook to lose his job and reputation on landing in the police lockup. It so happened that the cook's wife worked in the flat owner's house. She was in the kitchen and heard the talk. She came out sobbing, "You people are so good. I am going to tell him to return the money. If he doesn't, I'll commit suicide". Stunned, the boys and the flat owner stared at her as she unfolded the details. The next day the cook came and apologized while returning the money. The boys decided to hire him again. "We don't think he'd do it again", they thought. The good deed they had done by not handing him over to the police had paid back.
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Exploding democracy
When a society like ours embarks on the road to substantive equality, a shortfall between intention and outcome is inevitable. In the past six decades, systems have worked hard to acquire legitimacy. Accepting the stability of the system we can now express our discontent
Peter Ronald deSouza
AAP supporters during a dharna near Parliament demanding action against police personnel for their alleged dereliction of duty in New Delhi |
Three events of the last month, apparently unrelated, have in fact a common purpose. Each confronts the question: How can one reform this overbearing and predatory system and make it more humane? I have deliberately not used the words ‘rotten’ or ‘inattentive’ to describe the system, choosing instead ‘overbearing’ and ‘predatory’, because I honestly believe that some good initiatives have been attempted but they have not produced the good outcomes that we had hoped for. We need, therefore, to explore the sources of this predatory behaviour and examine the basis of the current discontent.Are they just the result of mala fide on the part of the system’s administrators? Is it that too little has been done too late to inspire any confidence, a classic case of a mismatch between solution and problem? Perhaps it is an expression of the predatory logic, the cunning of capitalism, which is a necessary part of the neo-liberal system? Or may be we are witnessing the expression of the historical truth that there are no short cuts to the process of societal transformation. There will always be a shortfall between intention and outcome especially when a society like ours embarks on the road to substantive equality? However, there are clues to these complex questions in the three seemingly unrelated events — the death of a poet, the challenge of an upstart party, and the quarrel between two sections of the police.  But before I look more closely at what these three events signify let me describe the system, beginning with the acknowledgment that any system takes time to be built, brick by institutional brick. A system has to work hard to acquire legitimacy and become part of the background consciousness of its people. This takes time. After six decades the Indian democratic system has acquired considerable legitimacy. Because it has done so we can, in 2014, move to the next historical stage of identifying its blemishes and expressing our discontent with its limitations. Accepting the stability of the system we can now afford to be dissatisfied. But this was not always so.
Ethics vs elite In the early years when our democratic system had to be built from the embers of partition, from the contested imaginations of the constituent assembly, and from the blood, sweat, toil and tears of those concerned with nation building, the dominant ethic of the young nation was sacrifice for the nation. People believed that an emancipatory nation was being built. Today unfortunately that nation has lost its way having been captured by a predatory elite who have occupied all positions of power and by doing so deprived us of our collective inheritance. And this they have done in connivance with a global elite, the masters of global capital. National goals of an inclusive society have no place in the agenda of global capital. The time for protest has arrived. The best way to challenge this arrogance is to act to destabilise the existing order. By contesting its normalcy and defying its coordinates, by surprising the system with challenges from unexpected directions, this destabilisation compels the system to re-examine itself. The three events have done just that. They have questioned the norms of public discourse and brought to public scrutiny the hidden collusion of the ruling class. Since destabilisation appears to work we need ask the following questions: Are there limits to any activity of destabilisation? How does one decide which acts are acceptable and which are not? How does one deal with copy-cat actions (pepper spray in the Lok Sabha, a judge claiming discrimination in his own court) which erode the legitimacy of a system that has been so labouriously built? What is the route by which such destabilisation will acquire legitimacy? Resistance against conformity Namdeo Dhasal died on 15 January 2014. Known as the poet of the underbelly he challenged the comfort zones of the Marathi literary establishment by pouring vitriol over the settled terms of polite language. He showed two fingers to accepted behaviour and thought. If the Dalit panther movement, which he initiated, was his political statement, it was his poetry that was his cultural statement for in it, he believed, a greater politics lay. How else can one understand him saying in “Man, you should Explode” (Golpitha 1972) “Man, one should tear off all the pages of all the sacred books in the world, And give them to people for wiping #**// off their arses when done.” He railed against both the Western and Indian philosophical canon, from Plato to Vyasa, which he felt gave people a false respectability and thus he wanted that the great names and the great books be dumped in the ‘…sewers’ and kept ‘rotting there with all their words.’ Language such as this was more than the rage of the oppressed. It was an acidic critique of civilization. Dhasal was an avid reader and so when he wrote one must accept that he knew his texts. His words were not idle. One of the obituaries talks of how ‘he used to confront upper-caste academics in the colleges with the same books they used to flaunt their intellectualism.’ He compelled not just the Marathi world to re-calibrate its aesthetic but, in doing so, he liberated other Dalit writers from the conformity that this world demanded. This resistance soon spread to the world of Indian literature. Imagine a poem where we have to make sense of lines such as “The dancing water-pot of goddess Yellamma. And an all-India women’s conference… Pimps confessing, To a study group of streetwalkers.” And in his poem on “New Delhi” (1985) he writes “Enemies of poetry gather in your city.” The system, in an act still to be explained, honoured him with a Padma Shri in 1999. Why did he earn in? Think of these lines from his poem “Cruelty” in Khel (1983). He was “the venereal sore in the private part of language.” Political predation The second case is of AAP. It too has sought to destabilise the arrogant system at three levels: politics, economics and the public ethics. Much has been written about them in the last few weeks and so let me just list some of their major initiatives — banning beacons on official cars, 666 litres of free water every day to every household, an anti-corruption helpline, night shelters for street-dwellers, street dharnas by the CM, swearing in ceremony in the Ram Lila grounds, CAG audit of discoms, challenging the constitutional validity of the business rules with respect to introducing bills in the assembly etc. There were so many surprises that the system, and its spokespersons, had to readjust their coordinates almost on a daily basis. AAP has set the grounds for a counter discourse. But AAP’s decision to file a case against India’s most powerful business house on the gas pricing issue is of a class apart. It not only puts the issue of windfall profits in the extractive sector, on the policy agenda, but also exposes the alleged nexus between the political and the business class which has been the source of system capture. Corruption in the system comes from windfall profits given to players in the extractive sector. AAP’s destabilisation strategies, to borrow Dhasal’s phrase, have made it the venereal sore in the private part of predatory politics. An arrogant state The filing of an FIR for murder, by the Director of the CBI against a Deputy Director of the IB (Ishrat Jahan case), has also shaken the system not only because of its implications for national security — one person described it as leading to a demoralisation of our intelligence community — but also because it appears to give a blow to the rule of law in India and for recognition of the absolute sanctity of individual life. Both these principles have, in the recent years, across all democratic states, had to yield to the power of a national security state. Two centuries of constitutional and political thought, that has tried to place ethical and legal limitations on the arrogance of the state, have been cast aside by the intelligence community. The case by the Director of the CBI against the Deputy Director of the IB has far reaching implications for the rule of law. Will it make the citizen a little bit more secure? These three events have destabilised the system. In the realm of culture, accommodation has been easier since Dhasal has entered the curricula and the classroom. In the realm of politics and commerce the accommodation with the destabilisers will be more difficult. AAP has been described as a nightmare whereas in fact the nightmare is the politics of predation. AAP’s challenge has not been vanquished. Remember Enron. In the realm of the rule of law surprises await us. Let us make Adam pregnant. (from “Speculations on a Shirt”, a poem by Dhasal) The writer is a Professor at Centre for the Study of Developing Societies and Interim Director of the International Centre for Human Development. Views are personal.
Man, you should Explode Namdeo Dhasal, known as the poet of the underbelly challenged the comfort zones of the Marathi literary establishment by pouring vitriol over the settled terms of polite language.
A million mutinies now
- “Naxalism is the greatest threat to our internal security,” says Dr Manmohan Singh
- Naxalism has survived in our country for over 40 years, causing irreparable loss of life and property. The government continues to look at it as a law and order problem without analysing the causes of the movement and the extent of mobilisation of people.
- The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSP) has been in force in several parts of India, including the state of Manipur, for more than 50 years. The provisions of the Act grant extraordinary powers to the Indian armed forces in the so-called “disturbed areas” where it is applicable, which has led to numerous protests, at times violent, in the region.
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