Opinion Corridors distant from Bharat
From South Block to Yojana Bhavan,the hallmark of UPA-II has been intellectual arrogance
A day before the prime minister was to hold a meeting with state chief ministers,the band of armchair advisers of the UPA a term coined by a Union cabinet minister,no less struck again. This time,this lobby wanted to censor electricity supply to the toiling farmers of the country. The reason quoted for this unique development prescription is much funnier: it would help conserve the groundwater level. Yet another glaring sample of the actual intentions of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance towards inclusive growth in the country.
The sad part of the story is that it came from not just Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia,but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself,who echoed many of the plan-mans views in his speech at the National Development Council (NDC) meet on Saturday though without adding much substance. This not only strengthens our view about the political bankruptcy of the Congress,but it also compels the common man on the street to believe that his fate and his nations destiny have now been mortgaged to the numb-bureaucrat lobby.
Ever since Manmohan Singh took over from the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance,the country has been witness to more than one fictitious claim of inclusive growth. The veracity of the NREGA saga is now being questioned by the UPAs very own experts in the
National Advisory Council (NAC),though Ahluwalia and his team of development specialists have once again exercised the liberty of proclaiming their verdict of successful,inclusive growth in the Plan mid-term review and this time,too,without any data to support their claim.
The mid-term review exercise is aimed at reviewing the scope and pace of the present Five-Year Plan. After more than three years of its execution,the government seems happy quoting some superficial indicators like the growth in investments,exports,savings,etc. It appears to have no clue that social statistics or any development indicators exist. A bullish stock market,or generous certificates from international organisations and funds of which many of the UPAs office-bearers were either members,or of which they
intend to be employees in the future are last among any indicators of the development and financial health of an agriculture-heavy nation like India. While Yojana Bhavan argues over details of economics regression methods to support its claim of inclusive growth,the voters of the country will have made up their mind about UPA rule,and are waiting eagerly for a chance to exercise their franchise.
Sadly for the common man,while it voted the Congress back to power in the summer of 2009,the fruits of the inclusive growth promised have reached only as far as the studios of some English-language television channels which are,as per UPA standards,the harbingers of public opinion in a country of which 80 per cent does not speak English. While UPA strategists misrepresent development as mere economic growth,the point the opposition wants to convey to the government is that no amount of media gimmicks or data juggling can save them while Bharat suffers.
The apathy here is not just limited to the misrepresentation of facts but also a doctored effort to avoid a debate on peoples concerns,by propping up other issues on the eve of this session of Parliament.
The opposition would also like to caution the government against any move to continue with its actions against state governments,and specifically NDA-ruled states,and to retain at least the bare minimum of respect to the federal structure of the nation. One cannot have ones cake and eat it too: if the Central government expects states to share the expenditure of its Central schemes,why does it shy away from giving them due credit?
To borrow a phrase from my friend,Congressman Digvijay Singh,intellectual arrogance seems not just limited to the home ministry. This special strain of arrogance,unknown to the Indian polity till recently,overflows from North Block to South Block,travels through Shastri Bhavan,Krishi Bhavan,Udyog Bhavan,Shram Shakti Bhavan and Nirman Bhavan,to be manifested best in the corridors of Yojana Bhavan.
At the end of the much-publicised National Development Council meet on Saturday,the nation has inherited one more farce: a solemn assurance from the prime minister of India that the price situation would improve by the end of this year. It completes a full half-dozen in the series of assurances,and is certainly not the last one before the aam aadmi chases the Congress out of power.
The writer,a Rajya Sabha MP,is a national spokesman for the BJP
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