Opinion Bye bye,mai-baap

Why? Well,we’ve just come off a tough year,financially,in which the Centre’s exchequer held on to respectability almost entirely thanks to the unexpectedly large amount that 3G auctions raised. Things were so tight that everyone hoped and expected that the government would tighten its spending. And,indeed,Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee tried hard to get numbers into the budget documents that look like the Centre’s overall deficit will be reined in.

Yet it is fascinating to note where he has not chosen to cut corners. Whichever accounting tricks may emerge,consider those foregone: he kept his promise that the old “off-budget” expenses,oil and fertiliser bonds,would be reckoned as part of the main deficit. There was a point beyond which the government realised such sleight-of-hand would not fool people,and that point was passed some time ago.

But more than that,the government’s social-sector schemes haven’t been cut. They’ve been expanded. Now,briefly,listen to the budget chatter. Do you hear howls of outrage from opposition politicians? Concern from UPA allies? Cautionary remarks from the Congress’s boringly omnipresent complainers? No. Think about that for a moment.

According to the government’s own estimates,the amount that is being spent on the social sector has almost reached the defence budget for this year,rising solidly through good times — and,now,bad. And it has,in the process,become part of the mainstream of our political thinking,across party lines. The Communists were hardly likely to object to greater spending. State-specific parties,too,can now innovate policy without running to the Centre for help. And,most astoundingly,what is supposed to be our right-wing party isn’t up in arms,either. In fact,quite the opposite: BJP-ruled states instead trumpet how much better than Congress-ruled states they are at creating and implementing welfarist programmes. Whatever else the UPA’s leadership may have fumbled in the years since 2004,here is its one great political success: jolting our politics into a new rut,one in which the state’s performance in the social sector is no longer a distant afterthought.

It reflects,too,a changing India: one that expects support from the government,not just “concessions” — that lovely India-specific policy word which used to be trotted out regularly at budget time. An India that begins to believe that investing in itself,and in those that are less fortunate — bringing them,even if infuriatingly slowly,closer to the benefits of 20 years of reform — is something that we can and should do. We should be thankful for this alteration. It is,indeed,a recognisable change,a maturation that many societies have gone through,passing a point where ownership begins to be asserted by citizens over the state. Your government stops being seen as a distant antagonist,or a deus ex machina that emerges if propitiated. If you give people ownership rights over something,they treat it differently.

This budget reflects how the old mai-baap state is dying. Not just in that exemptions and concessions will someday soon become irrelevant,but also because it reflects two policy directions that have impacted our politics,and the nature of our citizenship. Framing the responsibilities of the state in terms of citizens’ entitlements,for one,has changed the rules of the game,enabling that ownership of which I spoke. You no longer beg to be noticed; you have the right to be served.

The other policy tweak is in the nature of our spending. Consider insurance and health: they are an interaction between the state and an individual. Consider schooling: between the state and an individual. The NREGA is between the state and a household — though it,too,is drifting towards becoming an individual entitlement. Subsidies and transfers are inexorably moving away from classes and groups to individuals,cutting away the layers through which government benefits used to flow,which siphoned them off,and more importantly,even,replicated the patterns of power and of dominance which independent India was supposed to destroy. The UID,seen that way,is not just a technocratic intervention,but something deeper and grander.

So if you want to step back from post-budget noise,fine. But don’t step away. For this emerging and maturing idea of India is one some of us could get behind,an India that knows what it owes to itself.

To paraphrase Martin Luther King,and of course Obama: the arc of India’s politics is long,but it bends towards justice.

mihir.sharma@expressindia.com