A flawed model of development

By Najeeb Jung

AS IT completes three years into its second term, the UPA government is facing a barrage of criticism. It is blamed for a series of corruption scandals and a virtual paralysis in decision making. It is also said that having ridden a wave of economic growth in its first term, the government has frittered the opportunity to carry out second generation economic reforms that would have sustained the previous decades growth. In so far as corruption is concerned, it is not as if the government has not reacted to it. Ministers and civil servants have been jailed, and a plethora of criminal cases and continued investigations into different scams are indicative of the intent to contain dishonesty. The flip side, however, is that government action to fight corruption is a blip on the numerous types of corruption that engulf Indian society. Disparities The purpose of this piece, however, is not to focus on corruption but to examine the issue of stalled economic reforms and question todays fashionable development paradigm. People of my generation have witnessed the growth of the 50s and 60s. We have also participated in implementing reforms following the liberalisation phase introduced by then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao. We have heard praise of the post 90s progress and criticism of the Nehruvian period as a time that restricted and restrained growth. Since the 90s we have also noted the sharp increase in liquidity in middle class India, the buying and selling of cars, white goods, houses etc. The very rich have never had it so good. Luxury hotels, private hospitals, private airlines, luxury foreign travel have become the norm of the day. The overarching impression among rich Indians and often among foreigners has been that India is marching ahead and may soon catch up with the Peoples Republic of China. The problem is that the façade continues to hide the truth. As Amartya Sen has said, the world in which we live is both remarkably comfortable and thoroughly miserable. And so in India, on one side we see enormous wealth and its vulgar display, but on the other side, there is extreme poverty and the gulf between the rich and the poor seems only to be increasing. As rich India has progressed, the bulk of urban and rural India has seen distressing times. Along with the fashionable hotels, malls and residences, there is the face of the poor and the voiceless. Their lives see the other side of existence with fast vanishing infrastructural support. Government hospitals are run down, the doctors are hard pressed and harassed under the sheer weight of patient load and non- availability of basic wherewithal. Mohallas fight for electricity and drinking water. Sewage systems in overcrowded colonies are collapsing under pressure and the residents are faced with poor health, lack of employment opportunity and over- population. Young girls, ill clad and ill fed, perform acrobatics on roads even as BMWs wait in queues to enter five star hotels. Villages face the brunt of all that is wrong. The traditional revenue administration barely delivers, rural health systems are in a shambles, schools neither have satisfactory buildings nor good teachers. A posting in the muffassil is true punishment, a threat constantly held out to public servants. Economy Unfortunately the debate in the public domain, in fashionable drawing rooms, in the print and TV media largely focuses on the slackening of economic and financial reforms. The belief is that economic reforms and the deepening of financial markets are the elixir of life and the panacea for all our ills. We were given to believe that there would be a trickle down effect, and the benefits of economic growth would slowly but surely reach the poor. Where are the so- called benefits of the trickle down? How long do we wait for it to impact? Jawaharlal Nehru said that the forces in a capitalist society, if left unchecked, tend to make the rich richer and the poor poorest. This indeed is what we see now. Avarice and greed is the mantra, and the expression corporate social responsibility is nothing but fashionable words spoken disdainfully and rarely respected. We should carefully examine how big businesses have assiduously exploited India’s resources, often wasting and losing them, and despite this continue to successfully lay the blame on the Government and the public sector for all that is wrong. Paradigm Governments over the past five decades have introduced a plethora of schemes that focus on the rural poor. Despite complaints of corruption, these schemes do provide periods of employment. But permanent and sustainable assets are not created. The poor need better quality and sustainable infrastructure, not periodic employment with inferior and temporary assets to satisfy a political constituency. They need heavy investments in health, food, roads, education and above all governments that realise that India lives in rural areas and the bulk of India is entitled to sensitivity and respect. The collapse of Soviet Russia made economic liberalisation the Holy Grail for developing economies. Hopefully with the problems within the so called successful European economies coming to the fore, we may understand that the path ahead is not about an either/ or choice but perhaps a mix between laissez faire and a controlled economy. Therefore the debate must shift from quick and further liberalisation to a new structure that will be more inclusive and sensitive. The people of India have a great deal of patience, and it is indeed being tested to its fullest. Is it endless? The writer is Vice Chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia