Open Forum
New Delhi, 18 July 2008
Political Confusion
in Delhi
HAS CONGRESS WRITTEN
OF FUTURE?
By T.D. Jagadesan
As the Communist Party (M)-led Left drives the knife deeper
and deeper into the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre, especially after
the Karnataka electorate gave no quarter to any Left Party and foiled the
Congress’s ambition to ride back to power in that State, Congressmen are stated
to be in a penitent and retrospective mood.
The confusion in the ruling party at the Centre is magnified
by the crisis of inflation that has already hit growth in the last two quarters
and is all set to intensify if experts are to be believed.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, being an economist of repute,
should know in depth what growth and inflation mean. He assures the country
that his Government would ride both the horses at the same time. He told a
recent business chamber (Assocham) meeting: “our Government is focused on
reversing the recent surge in headline inflation rates. It has been our
endeavour to tame inflationary expectations without hurting the rhythm of the
growth process and also to protect the weaker sections against rising prices.”
Even as Dr. Singh was announcing this “endeavour” the inflation
rate crossed the 8% barrier and manufacturing growth slumped once again. His
reply to this situation is: “I am confident that the mix of policies we have
adopted will yield results once the impact of a normal monsoon is felt.” That
of course is a clever political statement as it leaves a door open if the
policy mix does not work: a bad monsoon.
For the time being, let us give Manmohan Singh full marks
for his policy mix. What is the policy mix he has in mind? He says it would be
growth-oriented. He rules out going back to the era of blind controls. At the
same time, we have to have the fiscal means to protect the poor from the
adverse impact of inflation.
All right, agreed. We need not even dispute his contention
that on oil prices, the “protection” offered to the people by raising the
prices only marginally “cannot continue for ever.”
The question should be: What prevents the Centre from
implementing this “policy mix”? Regarding the “key priority areas” (in his own
words) “of infrastructure, agriculture and education,” his Minister in charge
of road building is busy changing the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI)
Chief every six months because, according to reports, the official selected
each time fails to satisfy the Minister’s demands.
Meanwhile, the rollout of the great projects that the NDA
launched like the Golden Quadrilateral has decelerated. The Indian Express
reported on May 30: “Last year, the national highway projects crawled the
slowest ever.” The Minister concerned at the same time is very much concerned
with pushing the “infrastructure” for an industrial unit set up by his son as
was revealed in the last days of the last session of Parliament.
As for education, the Minister in charge is all focused not
so much on expansion etc., but on pushing his idea of quotas. Among those who
are chafing over the politicization of inclusive growth are his own colleagues
who think that he is targeting the Prime Minister. All reports on recent
Cabinet meetings and on the Congress leadership consultations have revealed
this attempt to politicize the quota issue.
The higher educational institutions are groaning under the
Arjun Singh effect as the senior Congressman from Madhya Pradesh is trying to
hijack the OBC quota issue to preen his own nest and promote the Prime Ministerial
candidate-in-waiting in the Congress Party. It appears that only the Prime
Minister and his Finance Minister are talking of what Manmohan Singh described
as “open economies and open societies functioning within consensually arrived
at rules of the game.”
Nobody else in their Party was ever heard of pushing the
envelope on economic reforms that are pending for several years now. For
instance, the ones on banking, insurance and power. Even the attempt to
disinvest Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) without losing Government control
over them is blocked by some within the UPA and mostly by the Left that till yesterday
had the final say on economic reforms.
Interestingly, the Left is no wiser. It is riven with
dissensions as reality hits it on both sides. In the Left-ruled West Bengal the recent upsets the Marxists suffered in
the panchayat elections have hit the
“reformist” Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya hard. He had to announce that
there was no going back on industrialization after several of his Partymen
questioned the wisdom of the industrialization policy he has been pushing
through against much opposition from within and without.
No Party in the past has written out its own death warrant
as the Congress is apparently doing now with the Left achieving its political
objective of breaking the Congress hold on the country and the latter kowtowing
to it. ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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