Opinion A slap in the face

The only thing the Congress cares about is any excuse to attack the BJP and the latter returns the compliment.

November 27, 2011 01:30 AM IST First published on: Nov 27, 2011 at 01:30 AM IST

Scores of babies have died in hospitals in post-poribartan West Bengal. Railway accidents have trebled during UPA-II compared to UPA-I though as yet without any acknowledgment of regret,much less responsibility,from Trinamools railway ministers. But one slap on Sharad Pawar gets a lot of attention and a flurry of comments from the Congress attacking the BJP and everyone attacking the attacker. The only thing the Congress cares about is any excuse to attack the BJP and the latter returns the compliment.

Indian democracy sank to a sadder stage last week. Until now we have been complaining about government paralysis. Now,the Lok Sabha has been paralysed as a deliberate attempt by the BJP to draw attention to itself. Could we not have had a detailed forensic scrutiny of the government in pin-drop silence while speaker after speaker tore into the policy failures of UPA-II? Did the Opposition have to bail the government out by making the Lok Sabha dysfunctional on the flimsy ground of holding P Chidambaram responsible for as yet unregistered and untried deeds? Even if that was the case,is Subramanian Swamy not doing a better job than all the Rath Yatras of the BJP?

The failure of democratically elected governments to pursue the agenda for the welfare of their citizens rather than themselves,is what has come to head in Greece and Italy. People can no longer be sure that these governments are capable of getting out of the mess they made. When you see the corrosive neglect of proper business by Parliament in India,you begin to realise that for the Parliamentarians,as long as the charade of attack and counterattack can be kept up,nothing need be done.

There are serious problems facing India. From the statements of Pranab Mukherjee and Montek Singh Ahluwalia,we know that the government has no clue why inflation is so high and that the deficit will exceed the Budget estimate of 4.6 per cent. India is no longer the miracle economy but one where inflation is out of control and whose growth performance can no longer be relied upon. The India story has gone sour as far the world is concerned.

One urgent task is to see to it that the upsurge in deficit is not allowed to become permanent. It may be that 2011-12 has been a below average year. But if India is to regain its momentum,it needs to maintain a strategy to reduce deficit steadily. I would argue that the target for 2012-2013 should be maintained at the level planned around four per cent. One reason for the persistence of deficit is the reluctance to attack regressive subsidies such as the notorious fertiliser subsidy. The government did well enough to attack the petrol subsidy. But the deficit of State Electricity Boards is shocking.This is because power is also subsidised and it does not benefit the Kalawatis in rural India but the rich farmers. There is nothing pro-poor about running deficits if they only pander to the rich.

When India had socialism,the emphasis was on machine building and dam building and expensive factories where middle-class engineers could have jobs. But health and education of the rural and urban poor were neglected. We are still suffering from those forty years of neglect. The growth revival is necessary for diverting money to health and education but not sufficient. There has to be a hard-nosed determination to resist the enactment of spending proposals with inefficient delivery systems. Give foodgrains to the poor,if you prefer it to cash transfers,but do not leave the PDS system unreformed and tolerate 45 per cent wastage. Do not have a MNREGA scheme where States just sit on the money and dont distribute them. As the Prime Minister said back in 2004, measure your effectiveness not by spending but by outcomes. Is malnutrition among children down? Is maternal mortality improving? Are girls getting an education? The latest Human Development Report says that despite all the spending on the so called inclusive development programmes,India has a great backlog to make up. Stop slapping the faces of the Indian poor.