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Journalism of Courage
Words, words, words, protested Eliza Doolittle to that young man courting her, 8220;don8217;t talk of love, show me!8221; So who8217;s going to fall for the verbiage of the United Progressive Alliance8217;s Common Minimum Programme. To be fair, governments are judged by the promises they keep. So it is important to know what promises are made, so as to be able to judge them against it at the hustings. However, in the final analysis, it is performance that is more important than promise and if the voter8217;s perception is that a ruling party or alliance has not performed well, irrespective of their promises, the anti-incumbency sentiment sets in. In its broad outline the UPA8217;s CMP is a 8220;motherhood and apple-pie8221; statement that promises heaven on earth. It is like a mission statement, not really an agenda for action.
Discerning critics will look at the specifics and see what the promises mean for the government8217;s fiscal bottomline. Are commitments being made that can8217;t be kept? Will there be reversal of past policies? It appears the CMP does not threaten any major economic apple cart, apart from disinvestment. Here, too, the Left8217;s willingness to go along with the phrase 8220;privatisation on a case by case basis8221; gives hope. The Left8217;s presence and Manmohan Singh8217;s leadership should at least make sure there8217;s no privatisation on a 8220;suitcase to suitcase8221; basis! The economy requires more investment and the current obsession with disinvestment should be balanced with more emphasis on policies that increase gross capital formation. The real problem will be with the implementation of promises with a fiscal impact. Any populist pressure to hike subsidies and non-productive expenditure could derail the fiscal adjustment process. If to avert this, the government is tempted to hike taxes, this would hurt the growth recovery under way and the improved fiscal compliance regime. Reasonably low taxes are better administered.
