This country of permanent rebellion never learns. In the years I spent in government,half my working life,the other half an academic heading a division in an effective Planning Commission,heading commissions,as a minister and MP I discovered that bureaucrats and politicians were of two kinds: the liberal types who encouraged debate and free play of ideas,and those who kept things close to their chests. Being a university type,my sympathies were with the former,although the jury is still out as to who is more effective in our society. B.K. Nehrus interesting book was titled Nice Guys Come Second. But it is not unlikely that reasoned debate led to real progress,which is incremental and sticking to files only gives an illusion of everything is all well,I am alright,you are alright.
The children of the midnight hour inherited a society which encouraged debate. Its leadership was confident and genuinely liberal. Nehru was to be his own greatest critic,famously writing in the Calcutta Modern Review in 1937 under the pseudonym Chanakya on the possibility of him becoming a dictator. When the first communist government in Kerala was dismissed,E.M.S. Namboodiripad was to ask Nehru to personally review the decision.
Later,the Planning Commission,the Agricultural Prices Commission,and the famed and much-disliked price controller,the BICP,all published reports which had earlier not been open to public scrutiny. We took the position that an autonomous commission has the right to decide. Thus the reasoning behind having a price policy for an agricultural season,or for the phased reform of industry in the 80s,is all available in public. No government fell just because some sarkari economists or their consultants,many later to become high-fliers,wrote a report which was published.
Some of the best of todays economists worked on those reports. Actually nobody reads them. There are comical aspects to that: questions are routinely asked in Parliament as to why CACP and BICP reports are secret,even when they are published and widely distributed. The funny case was the studies relating to the final Fifth Plan which were published and distributed widely. A later official classified them and when asked as to how this could happen when copies were given to all and sundry and they were quoted in a lot of public research,there was an embarrassed silence.
The moral: habits dont change. We need to be catholic on the views from rebels. And the rebels must understand that they matter less than they think. If you hold positions of responsibility,you must be encouraged to think beyond your bailiwick because thats where the issues really lie. Some have done this for decades and were backed not because they were right then and now,but because they thought out of the box,and their right to be heard off the record must be respected.
As a commentator I would say this: if I see the same language in a story or commentary,I know it came from the same office. This newspaper is rightly disturbed about news outlets selling space for money. But as Noam
Chomsky pointed out,the real seduction is with power. Which is what makes the stand of the PM and the HM reassuring. It seems quite clear that the inherited security doctrine against secessionist rebels,of the mailed fist and the velvet glove fashioned by some of the greats,is not to be tampered with,at least not without a debate. The lesson of the last half-century is that India will never give in to a minority working for secession,but it always works to keep the flock together.
The writer,a former Union minister,is chairman,Institute of Rural Management,Anand
express@expressindia.com
