Plan panel gets tough, sacks all expert groups

Smaller Left partners celebrated victory but the 43 MP-strong CPM was more cautious than usual in its reaction. Politburo member Sitaram Yechury hardly sounded jubilant when he said they ‘‘had wanted the Prime Minister to take into account the Left’s sensibilities on the issue’’.

Even CPI’s D Raja said: ‘‘I would like to know what would be the future course of action and what is the logic behind dissolving the consultative committees completely.’’

It was the presence of 15 experts from the World Bank, ADB, McKinsey and First Boston — of the 15 among 430 experts, only one was not an Indian — that had triggered a major political controversy with Left parties demanding their ouster from an apolitical economic think-tank of the Government.

The Government’s move could be worrying for the CPM. First, its own economists have also been shown the door. Two, the party now has to figure out whether it has gained politically, even on home turf in Kerala and West Bengal, by raising the protests to such a shrill pitch.

Thirdly, there’s also anxiety in the Left that the the UPA leadership may now drive in a hard bargain: the Left may be expected to toe the line on other contentious issues like increase in FDI caps in three crucial sectors.

In a terse statement, the Planning Commission dissolved all the 19 consultative groups this evening. The announcement was preceded by two meetings between Commission Deputy Chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last evening and this afternoon. Ahluwalia had been at the receiving end of the Left’s bitter criticism over the past month. On his part, the Prime Minister kept his promise. He had told a Left delegation that he would do something on the issue on his return from the US. The decision to do away with the consultative groups came within 72 hours of his return.

The statement issued by the Commission read: ‘‘The Commission has reviewed the matter and has decided to dissolve the consultative groups. The Commission will revert to the earlier practise of consulting individuals separately as part of the mid-term appraisal process.’’ ‘‘The decision to include in these groups, the individuals associated with international multilateral organisations and foreign firms operating in India has been subject to some discussion.”

The Left had insisted that the very presence of these experts was symbolic of a ‘‘surrender of sovereignty’’ that consultation with them could be done only outside the Planning Commission. And that’s exactly what the Planning Commission has just done. It has now reserved the right to consult the same experts outside the official perimeter of the Yojana Bhavan. And they also have the choice to ignore the Left economists completely if they want to.

There was no clear word from the Commission if reverting to the old system, by dissolving the process of in-house consultative committee discussions, would harm the mid-term review in any way.

But the Left’s smaller partners sounded gleeful. Said Abani Roy of the RSP, ‘‘Good sense prevailed upon the Planning Commission and whatever we had said has been heard.’’ He felt that ‘‘the protests have finally yielded positive results and the Government has put national interest above all things.’’ AIFB leader Debabrata Biswas said: ‘‘I certainly welcome the decision by the Planning Commission and hope that such controversies never occur in future.’’