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Journalism of Courage
The Politics of Change:A Ringside View
N.K. Singh
The express group, penguin, Rs 395
The writing of a learned, readable column once a week seems an impossible task 8212; impossible at least in terms of quality. Is there really that much new to say, is there really that much that can be opined upon in an erudite manner, week after week? Seems not, but N.K. Singh hereafter NK proves that it is possible. The Politics of Change is an informative collection from a master policy wonk, an inside expert.
Which is why The Politics of Change is a fantastic selection on a wide range of economic, political, and social issues. Which is why NK8217;s columns are necessary for any person involved with understanding or being involved with India8217;s economy and politics. Which, given India8217;s come-back involvement in the world, is a large audience.
Because NK is so good and so on top of it, 8220;yeh dil maange more8221;. The Politics of Change is about what happened post 2004 when NK left the government. It would be fascinating to find out about the 8220;politics of change8221; from when change was most needed and was so slow in coming, the 1980s. Or why was change so possible after the crisis in 1991, and sputtered so soon after just two years? Why was change so possible in a 8220;swadeshi anti-reform8221; government than in an ostensibly open, liberal, regime of today?
There is one major change that has happened since NK was directly involved in policy making. This change had started to occur during the NDA reign when NK was adviser to Atal Bihari Vajpayee and has gathered force since then. This change is the decreasing relevance, and importance, of the politician and bureaucrat. Globalisation means there is no place to hide 8212; especially for those who believe in old flat-footed reasons for not changing. Which means that analysts and outside experts can force the pace a lot more, make the politics of change the reality of a bygone era, an era when policymakers held all the aces. That was an era when a finance minister could get away with imposing differential duties on various items because he himself did not know or more accurately did not want to know whether the item being taxed was a solid, liquid or gas. This should not be possible today. Nor should it be possible today to call the Employment Guarantee Scheme a 8220;cash transfer8221; programme for the poor. For the middle men and women and politicians and bureaucrats and their families a cash transfer par excellence, yes. The EGS is yet another obscene 8220;in the name of the poor8221; ripoff. Analysts and experts like NK are needed to call this bluff.
If there is a drawback to expert NK analysis, it is that he is too kind. Take the following instance of where bad policies need to be thoroughly exposed, and where the opposition to reform has little to do with any reasonable underlying reality. Once the NDA was out of power, it started to oppose policies they themselves had either initiated or pursued intensively while in office 8212; for example, the introduction of VAT. Once out on the streets, the NDA opposed VAT and NK comments, 8220;the detection of loopholes overnight when the NDA moved to the opposition is inexplicable8221;.
He is equally kind to the Congress on their multi-faceted attempts to delay or push back reforms. 8220;Urban reforms cannot brook delay8221;, or that the flat-footedness in repealing the Urban Land Ceiling Act 8220;is not rational8221;. He is also very kind to his former colleagues. On their systemic underperformance, 8220;civil servants have rarely been penalised for delayed decisions and are never rewarded for accelerated action8221;. Need more direct recommendations, no?
In his article 8216;Time to repeal small cess acts8217;, NK points out that there are 26 cesses administered under 27 Acts that yield just Rs 993 crore. His recommendation in this lovable article: just repeal all of them. No gentle prodding here. Precisely of what more is needed.
NK is a master of the art of 8220;gentle persuasion8221;; an artist rather than a critic. A major asset that NK brings in, beside his obvious talent and wisdom and knowledge, is that he knows the insides of the system. Maybe two or three years were necessary to distance himself from the actors and their game. Now that that time is past, and The Politics of Change has been published, he can satisfy the yearnings of several of us by writing, nay exposing, the stupid, selfish, and unnecessary policies that different governments follow. His next selection of articles should prove that the politics of change was really about the politics of short-sighted, possibly corrupt, expediency.
The writer is a Delhi-based economist and a fund manager
