Reform,reloaded

As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sets up the expansion of his council of ministers,the point is already made that no matter how comfortable the mandate,portfolio allocation is still in part a factor of political pressures and personality clashes. But some good news is already in. The ministries of human resource development and law and justice appear to have been vacated of their incumbents. This is not to personalise the issue,but merely to reflect that the previous ministers were perceived to be privileging political agendas to nuts-and-bolts engagement with the challenges of the day. There is a deepening realisation today that reform,to the extent that it means getting every Indian a better deal to realise her aspirations,is not just an agenda for the economic ministries. For that,education and personal liberty are key. In Dr Singhs new term,they must come within the locus of insistent reform.

The HRD ministry has especially come to be seen as an impediment to reform,given the culture wars that consumed Arjun Singh and his predecessor,M.M. Joshi. Both were obsessed by appointments,the ideological content of textbooks and a control-freakish fear of the private sector or institutional autonomy. In fact,the only reform that came on Singhs watch was inadvertent: the expansion of the number of seats in higher education as a consequence of reservation for OBC students. A recap of the past is important to iterate the need for future action. The prime minister has a blueprint ready. The National Knowledge Commission has well-considered suggestions for regulating,expanding and staffing higher education. And,of course,many ideas to fix primary education are out there,from school vouchers to more accountable staffing. These vital details could be more efficiently discussed and addressed if Dr Singh alters the way in which we look at education reform. From the nitty-gritty of supply-side infrastructure,which is hostage to turf issues by incumbents,he needs to proceed from the demand-side. Educational institutions are not ripe for reform in and of themselves. They are so because the users students and researchers have a right to quality education. Seen this way,issues become less problematic.

Similarly,the law ministry has come to be associated with just fixing case outcomes and appointments. Among the avenues for reform is increasing the number of judges and courtrooms to tackle the backlog of cases. There needs to be an audit of existing laws and legal procedures to see which of them should be reconfigured to minimise pointless litigation. Digitisation of cases is a low-hanging fruit the next incumbent must pluck. And given the controversies that have engulfed the ministry,debate must be begun on the possible separation of prosecution services.