Taking them along

The UPA’s internal incoherence over policy bears no small responsibility for its inability to break out of its paralysis. There are enough components to this incoherence: the prime minister’s reluctance to speak to India’s citizens; allies who claim to be excluded from policy-making; elements within the Congress who are not on board with the reform agenda that got the UPA re-elected; and the Congress leadership’s apparent inability to reach out across the aisles to make its job in passing legislation easier. Indeed,West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s angry decision to stay home from the prime minister’s trip to Dhaka,apparently out of anger at being excluded from the decision on the final form of the agreement over Teesta water-sharing,is an excellent example of how,in this iteration of the UPA,the coalition’s internal dynamics of policy-making appear to be failing.

Some recent signals,therefore,are of interest. As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh prepared to leave for the UN General Assembly meeting in New York,he called a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA),which has hardly ever met of late. The CCPA was an important tool when P.V. Narasimha Rao led a minority Congress government,but had been almost completely phased out by the BJP-led NDA. The CCPA demonstrated more salience as a marker of the coalition during UPA 1,too. Meanwhile,Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar,the head of the NCP,has been drafted to lead the group of ministers that the cabinet has assigned the task of drafting a new manufacturing policy. This comes after a fiasco in which a draft policy reportedly divided the cabinet — another example of policy-making not sufficiently broad-based to begin with. Comprehensive reform of the conditions under which the manufacturing sector operates is overdue,and vital to increase the Indian economy’s ability to create jobs. Yet again,however,crucial reform was delayed because of poor political management,of the Congress’s allies,of its opposition — and of itself.

These recent moves to make sure non-Congress members of the government are on board with the drafting of legislation might be helpful in ensuring that the coalition has a stake in policy formation. However,it is necessary for the Congress itself to take stock: does it have a platform where its own internal debates on policy can play themselves out? That is an even more essential step towards ending UPA 2’s incoherence and paralysis.