Opinion Kerala move to study Gujarat scheme stokes political controversy. But states must share ideas to improve governance

Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan-led government has done well to ignore the Opposition’s barbs on sending the chief secretary, V P Joy, to Gujarat to study the latter’s “dashboard” scheme. Joy, who arrived in Ahmedabad on Wednesday, praised the scheme that allows the chief minister to monitor progress of public works and programmes across ministries and the working of bureaucrats in real time from his office.

It is a sign of polarised times that even a courteous exchange of views or the sharing of ideas that can benefit citizens get caught up in political polemic. Institutions such as the National Development Council (NDC) — presided over by the prime minister, with Union ministers, chief ministers, members of the Planning Commission, now NITI Aayog, ministers of state with independent charge, as members — were built in the 1950s as a platform for states to share ideas and learn from each other. The NDC ceased to be a lively platform long ago and the Narendra Modi government had proposed to wind up the Nehru-era institution. Instead, the Modi government reconstituted the Planning Commission as NITI Aayog and re-imagined it as a resource centre — “a repository of research on good governance and best practices in sustainable and equitable development…” — for states. However, political rhetoric and showmanship often gets in the way.

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State governments should showcase their success stories and invite other governments to learn from them. Gujarat could learn ways to improve school education from Kerala while Tamil Nadu should be a model for states such as UP in optimising welfare schemes and building a robust public health system. Jammu and Kashmir’s record on land reforms, working of Panchayati Raj institutions in Karnataka, and rural cooperatives of Maharashtra could be profitably studied by other states. Of course, political considerations will remain. For instance, the CPM expelled two-time MP, AP Abdullakutty, from the party in 2009 for praising the “Gujarat model” — he has since joined the BJP. The Congress seems to have taken the baton from the CPM in censuring engagements with the “enemy” — recently, it threatened disciplinary action against party leaders speaking at the CPM party congress. But all parties must recognise when the drawing of rigid political lines becomes counter-productive, when it starts looking like a self-goal.