India : In search of a dream

WHEN India won independence 65 years ago, its leaders had a vision for the country’s future. In part, their dream was admirable and rare for Asia: liberal democracy. Thanks to them, Indians mostly enjoy the freedom to protest, speak up, vote, travel and pray however and wherever they want to; and those liberties have ensured that elected civilians, not generals, spies, religious leaders or self-selecting partymen, are in charge. If only their counterparts in China, Russia, Pakistan and beyond could say the same.

But the economic part of the vision was a failure. Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the independence movement, Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, and his daughter, Indira Gandhi, left the country with a reverence for poverty, a belief in self-reliance and an overweening state that together condemned the country to a dismal 3-4% increase in annual GDP—known as the “Hindu rate of growth”—for the best part of half a century.

That led to a balance-of-payments crisis 21 years ago which forced India to change. Guided by Manmohan Singh, then finance minister, the government liberalised the economy, scrapping licensing and opening up to traders and investors. The results, in time, were spectacular. A flourishing services industry spawned world-class companies. The economy boomed. Wealth and social gains followed, literacy soared, life-expectancy and incomes rose, and gradually Indians started decamping from villages to towns.

But reforms have not gone far enough. Indian policy still discourages foreign investment and discriminates in favour of small, inefficient firms and against large, efficient ones. The state controls too much of the economy and subsidies distort prices. The damage is felt in both the private and the public sectors. Although India’s service industries employ millions of skilled people, the country has failed to create the vast manufacturing base that in China has drawn unskilled workers into the productive economy. Corruption in the public sector acts as a drag on business, while the state fails to fulfil basic functions in health and education. Many more people are therefore condemned to poverty in India than in China, and their prospects are deteriorating with India’s economic outlook. Growth is falling and inflation and the government’s deficit are rising.

Modest changes, big fuss

To ease the immediate problems and to raise the country’s growth rate, more reforms are needed. Labour laws that help make Indian workers as costly to employers as much better-paid Chinese ones need to be scrapped. Foreign-investment rules need to be loosened to raise standards in finance, higher education and infrastructure. The state’s role in power, coal, railways and air travel needs to shrink. Archaic, British-era rules on buying land need to be changed.

Among economists, there is a widespread consensus about the necessary policy measures. Among politicians, there is great resistance to them. Look at the storm that erupted over welcome but modest reformist tinkering earlier this month. Mr Singh’s government lost its biggest coalition ally for daring to lift the price of subsidised diesel and to let in foreign supermarkets, under tight conditions.

Democracy, some say, is the problem, because governments that risk being tipped out of power are especially unwilling to impose pain on their people. That’s not so. Plenty of democracies—from Brazil through Sweden to Poland—have pushed through difficult reforms. The fault lies, rather, with India’s political elite. If the country’s voters are not sold on the idea of reform, it is because its politicians have presented it to them as unpleasant medicine necessary to fend off economic illness rather than as a means of fulfilling a dream.

Another time, another place

In many ways, India looks strikingly like America in the late 19th century. It is huge, diverse, secular (though its people are religious), materialistic, largely tolerant and proudly democratic. Its constitution balances the central government’s authority with considerable state-level powers. Rapid social change is coming with urban growth, more education and the rise of big companies. Robber barons with immense riches and poor taste may be shamed into becoming legitimate political donors, philanthropists and promoters of education. As the country’s wealth grows, so does its influence abroad.

For India to fulfil its promise, it needs its own version of America’s dream. It must commit itself not just to political and civic freedoms, but also to the economic liberalism that will allow it to build a productive, competitive and open economy, and give every Indian a greater chance of prosperity. That does not mean shrinking government everywhere, but it does mean that the state should pull out of sectors it has no business to be in. And where it is needed—to organise investment in infrastructure, for instance, and to regulate markets—it needs to become more open in its dealings.

India’s politicians need to espouse this vision and articulate it to the voters. Mr Singh has done his best; but he turned 80 on September 26th, and is anyway a bureaucrat at heart, not a leader. The remnants of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, to whom many Indians still naturally turn, are providing no leadership either— maybe because they do not have it in them, maybe because they have too much at stake to abandon the old, failed vision. Sonia Gandhi, Nehru’s grand-daughter-in-law and Congress’s shadowy president, shows enthusiasm for welfare schemes, usually named after a relative, but not for job-creating reforms. If her son Rahul, the heir apparent to lead Congress, understands the need for a dynamic economy, there’s no way of knowing it, for he never says anything much.

These people are hindering India’s progress, not helping it. It is time to shake off the past and dump them. The country needs politicians who see the direction it should take, understand the difficult steps required, and can persuade their countrymen that the journey is worthwhile. If it finds such leaders, there is no limit to how far India might go.

Source: The Economist

Celebrating School Enrollment!

By turning the first day of school into a village festival and giving health insurance to every child, the Gujarat government says school enrolment rate has increased

FIRST DAY FIRST SHOW:The attempt is to involve the community in the admission process in every village.

Schooling was never so much fun. Instead of crying and wailing toddlers being dragged to school on the first day, Gujarat has made school enrolment an annual festival where new entrants are welcomed with toys, toffees and textbooks.

More so, in the rural areas where enrolment is traditionally low and drop-out rate high. Worse, girls are often kept away from school to help in household work, look after siblings or even married off early.

Despite being a highly industrialised State, Gujarat lagged behind in some of the social indicators such as health and education until very recently. In terms of overall literacy as well as in female literacy, Gujarat was marginally better than the country’s average number in 2001 census.

To overcome this, Gujarat government adopted two separate programmes involving the entire administrative machinery in the State to implement Kanya Kelavani Rathyatra and Shala Praveshotsav, to address low school enrolment and drop out issues, and Gunotsav to improve the quality of education and teachers.

The main objective of Kanya Kelavani and Shala Praveshotsav is to ensure 100 per cent admission and bring down drop out at the primary levels to zero per cent. Started in 2003, the programme is conducted for three days at the beginning of the new academic session in June every year when the entire State administration including the chief minister, ministers, and all levels of bureaucrats visit the primary schools and participate in the school admission process.

The children taking admission in Class 1 are welcomed in the presence of the village community and the meritorious students of higher classes felicitated. Each child enrolled in a government school automatically comes under the health insurance scheme. The result has been impressive, with the net enrolment ratio rising to 98.8 per cent and substantially bringing down the drop-out ratio of Class 1 to V to 2 per cent in 2009-10 from a high of 17.83 per cent in 2003-04. Similarly, the drop-out ratio in Class 1 to VII which was 33.73 per cent in 2003-04 has been brought down to 7.56 per cent in 2011-12.

To make the implementation effective, each officer of an elected representative visits at least 15 villages after a common briefing cum training session to acquaint the officers with issues and what they are expected to do when they go to a village. All IAS, IFS and IPS officers are also involved in this exercise.

“We identify the children to be enrolled in schools while they are still at the anganwadi centres so that there are no out of school children,” says Mansoori Zarina Bano, an anganwadi worker at Mautanda village in tribal-dominated Sabarkantha district. The villagers here are either farmers or casual workers who leave early and would not even consider it necessary to enrol their children in schools, but now the community itself is involved in ensuring that every child goes to school. “My two daughters go to school and the teachers are very good,” says Kamini Vanjara who is also a vocal member of the school management committee.

The State government’s Kanya Kelvani Nidhi has a corpus of Rs 58.37 crore and this fund is used to sponsor children for higher education and vocational education. So far, Rs 20.28 crore has been utilised and 45,348 children benefited. Gunotsav is a programme for annual rating of every primary school and every teacher to enhance the level of teaching and learning. This is done every year in November for three days and all officers and elected representatives spend one full day in a school to independently assess its performance and compare it with the self appraisal done by teachers. The schools are then graded and teachers sent for training if found not-up-to the mark. Within three days 9,000 schools of the 32,000 primary schools in the State are randomly assessed. “The idea is not to compare one school with another because urban schools would certainly grade better than rural ones, but just to improve,” Manoj Aggarwal, Commissioner (Mid Day Meal) told The Hindu. Initiated in 2009, Gunotsav has made a noticeable change in the levels of learning in schools with the percentage of schools getting more than 6 out of 10 points, an increase from 26.22 per cent to 43.91 per cent in 2011.

- Aarti Dhar (The Hindu)

Prime Minister, when will you speak?

The year was 1991, India was in a deep economic crisis and we urgently needed some major economic reforms. The Government was close to default, its central bank had refused new credit and foreign exchange reserves had reduced to such a point that India could barely finance three weeks’ worth of imports. India had to airlift its gold reserves to pledge it with IMF for a loan.

It was then, when Dr. Manmohan Singh as the Finance Minister decided to unleash a new set of bold reforms to bail India out. Quoting Victor Hugo, he said: "No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come. I suggest to this august House that the emergence of India as a major economic power in the world happens to be one such idea. Let the whole world hear it loud and clear. India is now wide awake. We shall prevail. We shall overcome."

I guess, that was perhaps the only time he really spoke, spoke for the Nation.

Ever since Manmohan Singh was appointed (mind you not elected) as the Prime Minister, he has been nothing but a big disappointment be it Economics or Political front. Apart from the RTI Act, RTE & the Indo-US Nuclear Deal there is not much of a contribution from the much hyped Economist over the last 8 years. 

In the UPA-1 with the Left constantly carping about the policy the government always appeared to stumble but never did. The constant threat of the Left Parties kept the team together. Be it the disinvestment reforms or the much required Indo-US Nuclear Deal, Govt. was finding it hard to convince Left parties of the merits. Eventually, the government had to let go off the Left’s support. The Prime Minister smiled, for he had ensured that the Nuclear deal goes through for it had become a matter of his personal integrity. 

Even though MMS hadn’t achieved anything significant in his first term as the PM, the UPA was voted back because of the doles rolled out by the government in the guise of MGNREGA scheme & as the people didn’t see any other alternative.

 

Now in UPA-2, with the Left gone Manmohan Singh thought the field was clear for him to star. Also, the expectations from the young new faces & the dream Economics Team (Manmohan Singh, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and Pranab Mukherjee) was huge. UPA-2 was being seen as a beacon of hope by many as lots of promising youngsters were inducted as first time Ministers & many pro-development reforms were promised. 

But the reality turned out to be drastically different. Many of the scams that were at a nascent stage during UPA-1 began to surface one by one with the CAG as the watchdog. CWG, Adarsh Housing Society Scam, 2G Scam (1.76 Lakh Crores), and Coal Scam were many of the scams that shook the country. The guilty - Suresh Kalmadi, Vilasrao Deshmukh, A.Raja, Chidambaram (though yet to be indicted) had one thing in common – they all enjoyed the Prime Minister’s confidence. The Prime Minister maintained a 'dignified' silence over all the scams and it was only when the situation turned so grim that the Judiciary had to intervene to set things right.

Because of these scams not only did India’s image took a beating globally, but also our dream of becoming a superpower was crushed. The GDP which supposed to touch the magic double figure touched 6.9% down from 8.4% in 2010-11. The Supreme Court in a groundbreaking judgment cancelled all the 122 2G licenses that were issued by the UPA-1. This has not only shaken the domestic investors but also the foreign investors. We have been ranked 132 out of 183 countries in terms of the domestic regulatory environment for doing business. We have been hit on all the fronts – FDI is seeing a downward trend, economy is returning back to the Hindu growth rate, inflation has been at an all-time high & deficits are soaring with every passing day. In order to mitigate the effects of these scams on their vote bank, the UPA has been indulging in unbridled populism. The Government's total subsidy bill for 2011-12 is a huge Rs.1.44 lakh crore, which makes up 33 per cent of the difference between the Government's expenditure and revenue! The same government which has been doling out generous subsidies hasn’t done a thing to get back the crores of black money that has been stashed abroad. 

The instances where Manmohan Singh has kept quiet are far too many to be ignored. He kept quiet when the Home Ministry cracked down on Ramdev and his supporters late night at Ram Lila Maidan, he didn’t say a word when Mr. Dinesh Trivedi was asked to quit following his pro-railway reforms, he didn’t do a thing to stop his Govt. from tarnishing his Army Chief’s image, he didn’t speak when A. Raja & P Chidambaram were blatantly misusing their capacity as the Telecom & the Finance Minister to profit certain private companies & he let economics take backseat when NAC was writing benevolent cheques for the massive corrupt schemes. One thing which has been common in all these scams has been that the Prime Minister has always found it convenient to hide behind the coalition dharma, & cite that as the main reason for inaction on his part. Someone needs to remind him that with great power comes great responsibility. Agreed, he is a man of impeccable integrity, but what good is his honesty if he has forgotten his dharma towards his motherland? While most of the politicians are easily blackmailed or threatened, I wonder as to how does one controls MMS? He has the power & authority to take on the corrupt head on, but what makes him shy away from taking any action every time? At the most, he would be asked to resign from the post of PM but at least he gets to leave in a dignified way. My dear Prime Minister, when will you realize this?

The problem with Manmohan Singh is that he sees himself as a helpless economist who lacks courage to take on the powerful who have looted the country of its resources. He sees politics as a dirty field, and he doesn’t really wants to get his hands dirty. Mr. Singh it is not you who should feel helpless, it is we the people who were helpless & thought that you could make a difference. If you loathe politics so much, then why did you become Prime Minister in the first place? If you feel helpless, then why don’t you just ask one of your advisors about the enormous power that your position gives you?

It is a ‘well-known’ secret that it is not the PM, but Sonia Gandhi & her NAC who have been calling the shots for the last 8 years. It is beyond my comprehension as to why doesn’t MMS realizes this simple fact that Sonia enjoys unlimited power with zero accountability but he has zero power with absolute accountability!

 There’s a joke doing rounds for quite some time, the only 2G that Manmohan Singh knows are SoniaG and RahulG. If only he could look beyond.

Do we realy need a Temple?

The Age-Old Ayodhya 'Dispute'

Leaving sentiment aside for a while, and looking at this age old dispute in a purely objective light; after giving due consideration to archaeological evidence, one can conclude that the Allahabad high Court Judgement was fair and square. Why can’t we just accept the verdict and build a temple and a mosque in the respective divisions granted, instead of waiting to resolve the dispute for another 20 or so years?

Indian society and particularly, the youth, holds no particular importance to the issue today. People today understand the political mileage our politicians gain by pursuing their kind of divisive politics. But that said, we must respect 5000 year old history, build a temple- grand or otherwise and move on. We must remember that the construction of this temple, (god willing whenever that happens) symbolises our sentiment and not bravado over another religion. We must look towards a quick resolution of this dispute and not allow religion based politics to divide our society all over again.

What happened on 6th December, 1992 and its aftermath was unfortunate, but can a case be made out against the construction of a Ram temple on account of vandalism promoted by few hardliners? I would urge the Muslim community to not view this dispute as a prestige issue or a precedent for future destruction of other masjids; and respect the sentiment of their Hindu brothers. Will denying all historical and archaeological evidence and taking a ‘no compromise’ stance serve any purpose?

Lastly, I feel that certain suggestions made by irreligious parties to build a hospital/school in the disputed area, has absolutely no takers. Not only is such a solution not acceptable to either community but does not seem feasible in the largely religious society we live in.

Vasu Prada
(She is pursuing M.A. in Development Economics from South Asian University)
You can reach out to her at vasuprada16@gmail.com

Another day, another scam!

When the politicians are exposed greasing their palm,
We the naive taxpayers are asked to maintain our calm.
Headlines read: Another day, another scam
And Netas keep shouting that the reports are a sham.

Yesterday morning, Delhi was rocked by a blast.
Innocent people killed, while many left aghast.
The Home Minster like always came with a cliché that the perpetrator wouldn’t last,
Conveniently forgetting our tumultuous past,
When promised action wasn’t taken fast.

Important thing to remember is that these politicians are one of us,
So it doesn’t make sense for us to crib and fuss.
Time has come for us to be precise
And tell our politicians that Hey! Get your act together and act wise.
Otherwise be prepared to repent for all your vice.

We the people have a voting right,
And have immense power to make our future bright.
If one Anna can make you weak in knees,
A country full of Anna’s can break your knees.

Anarchy being replaced by Monarchy.

Imagine a situation where there is total chaos all around, where the ‘elected’ government is doing everything apart from giving governance and there are scams coming out of the closet every now and then. Media playing the role of a Judge, Government a mute spectator and the common man staring at the shocking developments (read: mockery of the nation) in utter disbelief. Tired of the prevailing anarchy and realizing the gravity of the situation, suppose you decide to go on an indefinite fast unto death asking for a particular law to be passed and threatening the Government that if your demands are not met with, you’ll sacrifice your life for the nation.

Welcome to the current state of ‘saddyinnings’ of our country where monarchy is being proposed as an alternative to anarchy. Anna and team are going to sit on an indefinite fast unto death from this 16^th demanding a speedy implementation of the Jan Lokpal Bill, a supposed ‘elixir’ to all the prevailing corrupt practices. Without getting into the details of the bill I would like to draw your attention to another significant development (read: disturbing) that has come out of the proposed ‘fast’. The civil society is using pressure tactics... no chuck euphemism... it is hell bent on blackmailing a democratically elected government by coercion. The Government has been left with options – Do or let us die.

I see a situation of monarchy in development. Isn’t it ironical that on one hand you take pride in the glorious democracy of our country, and on the other hand you yourself are actually challenging the very basis of our democracy? It was envisioned by our great Constitution makers that the Laws would be made by the members of the Parliament duly elected by the citizens of the country but the social activists seem to have forgotten that?!

Agreed that the situation is very troublesome and worrying, but there are other ways of overcoming them. I for one support Anna’s intention, but I vehemently oppose his ways of protest. Fasting is meant to be done for body purification and not as a blackmail tactic. The ideal way to go about things is by either getting inside the system, stand for elections, give good governance, and ensure more transparency or make more and more people aware about their biggest power, the RIGHT TO VOTE. It is not that all the politicians are corrupt, but just that good and honest people are seldom voted to power.

Talk to youth, inspire them, give them a hope for a better Government and make voting 100% compulsory and you’ll see the wind of change blowing in the right direction.

Also remember to intake your meals because with an empty stomach you’ll probably lack the energy to fight for the cause.

love,

Siddharth

PS. all said and done, I do not doubt Anna's intention, just don't agree to his methods : )

A tale of Unconventional Companions!

When Baba Ramdev decided to go on a fast-unto-death against the corrupt government earlier this month, he was seen as another Anna in the making with colour ‘saffron’ being the only differentiating factor between them. Initially media ignored him, pseudo-leftist-intellectuals dubbed him as an RSS stooge and the upper middle class were least bothered.

But things took a dramatic turn on the midnight of the 4^th of April, when the entire state-machinery on Sonia Gandhi’s behest was unleashed to forcefully evict Baba from the Ramlila Grounds. Stage set on fire, supporters beaten up, teargas fired, and the Leader arrested – this was how the drama unfolded on the venue which was later aptly christened as the ‘Ravanlila’ ground.

There were two implications of the brutal crackdown – Baba had become a hero of the masses, and the Govt. was seen as a dictatorship regime. With the soaring popularity and support of the civil society, Baba had the power of dictating his ‘own’ terms and conditions but he happened to majorly blew it up.

the visuals speak for themselves!

Pushed on the back-foot, the Government did what it does best – asked the IT, ED and the other agencies to start probing Baba’s assets, Media houses were told to assassinate his character and the PR agencies (Congress Managers) to link him to the ‘communal’ Sangh Parivar.

Cornered by all round criticism, Baba reacted by threatening to train his volunteers in the use of arms in self-defense. If some congressman (Digvijay Singh/Kapil Sibal types) had fallen prey to arrogance, Baba had been momentarily enslaved by anger and dangerous myopia. He forgot that a true Yogi and a Satyagrahi remains calm and unfazed even when wronged and provoked, and lets the strength of his calm firmness transform the wrongdoer. Although Baba has subsequently withdrawn his threat, he has already damaged his own reputation and his cause.

Neither Hindu Naxalism nor the idea of fasting unto death is the answer to the Congress party’s authoritarianism. Few days back, on being asked whether fasting is a good tactic to make your demands met, Sri Sri Ravishankar (Guruji) remarked, “Fasting is good for personal purification, but it should not be used as a blackmail tactic.” He was of the view that the Govt. has become so insensitive and arrogant that it would be least bothered if something were to happen to the Yoga Guru while fasting unto death. It would have even spared the Govt. of devising new tactics to get rid of Baba, as he would have killed himself on his own while fasting. I second that. News has just come in that Baba has broken his fast on Sri Sri’s and the other Guru’s insistence as his condition was deteriorating day by day. The Govt. as expected did nothing to intervene to put an end to Baba’s fast.

Since the government has been elected (and not appointed) it would take much more than fasts and a self-appointed army of activists to overthrow it, so how do we do it is a big question!

What do you think?

PS. On a lighter vein, Sri Sri said that Baba needs lot of energy to carry forward the movement that he has started and that cannot be done with an empty stomach!