Change the changer

India has been slow to reform. But unless politicians reform, the pace of change will be insignificant

Despite the ideas of reforming India put forward by N.K. Singh in his book, Politics of Change 8212; launched on Monday 8212; I believe that the dominant section of India8217;s political class continues to believe that the government should act as Big Brother. What we need in this country is a full-fledged debate on whether we wasted our opportunities for growth for decades by not adopting full-fledged economic reforms.

After reading N.K. Singh8217;s book, one gets the feeling that coalition politics is one of the basic reasons why India was not able to reap the full potential of its reforms. But after 1991 a large package of economic reforms came into being. Fortunately, it continued to expand. Whatever the government in power 8212; Third Front, NDA, UPA 8212; a very small segment of the leadership in those governments kept the reforms initiated by India8217;s Dream Team on track. Second, India8217;s political class, generally speaking, continued to be a big hurdle to economic reforms. For instance, despite the Central Electricity Act of 2003 being passed by Parliament, power reforms could not really take off. Many states kept postponing the reforms because of vested interests. Politicians enjoyed vast powers in matters like purchasing infrastructure and influencing recruitment and transfer policies. Consequently, year after year, the power sector remains unreformed and is proving to be the biggest constraint to India8217;s economic growth.

Third, India8217;s public servants do not look beyond their next election. They stick to those policies which appear popular but which eventually deny the citizen opportunities for growth. Fourth, in spite of the fact that the state-run school system is a failure, revenue from India8217;s higher growth rate is going into wasteful schemes like the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. MPs and MLAs don8217;t send their children to state-run schools. Yet they are unwilling to change existing policies and allow parents to choose the school of their choice. In Delhi alone, against 4000 to 5000 voucher seats available, there are one lakh applications. This shows the hunger for quality education.

Here I must narrate my own experience. A beggar from my constituency, Bathinda, once met me seeking help to admit his ward into a Christian missionary-run school. That would have meant a huge burden for him. I asked him where he would get the money to fund his child8217;s education in a private school. He replied, 8220;I will beg at the railway junction to pay the fees.8221; The man and his wife were illiterate. But they still wanted to provide their child with quality education. Talk of rising aspirations in a globalised scenario! I do not think it is coalition politics alone but the basic mindset of the entire political class that requires change. We should, in fact, try to change the changer. This task is not impossible. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the West Bengal CM, is one example of the changer adapting well to the change around him. And if he could change, why not the others?

The writer is a former finance minister of Punjab and former MP