IN and Out But Fundamentals are same By Manohar Manoj

                   IN and Out

    But Fundamentals are same

                           By Manohar Manoj

It was the end of UPA era and it was the start of Namo led NDA era. Several analyses are being done for both the outgoing and incoming events of the present Indian politics. But, the most significant question is that in this 'in' and 'out' process of democracy, the fundamentals of the system would remain same or it may have some injections of big change also? This question is very relevant because in the context of present mandate, it is very necessary to work over the big fundamentals of the system.

In the conventional terms party sitting in power always keep trying to allure voters through several populist or appeasing and emotive measures and party sitting in opposition try to pinpoint the every failure of the ruling government in terms of their performances or the circumstances as well as galvanizing the dissatisfaction of public from the ruling Government .

In 2009 UPA 1 won elections through some populist measures and then it understood that it had taken right steps by starting farm loan waiver schemes, job guarantee MNREGA scheme and implementing award of sixth pay commission. These all steps brought congress party in power, but it damaged our economy a lot.

Before going to analyze the expected change in the system, it is very necessary to know, what were the fundamental reasons behind the defeat of congress party in 2014. Factors are very obvious, price-rise and corruption. Ironically, the outgoing UPA-2 government always blamed external factor for the both price rise and low growth. But reasons were different. We must not forget this fact that despite the process of globalization, our economy is very much governed by domestic circumstances. Reason of inflation and lower growth rate were the actually outcome of the derailment of UPA Govt. from the track of new economic policy. When NDA got defeat in 2004, Sonia led UPA highlighted the highly reform oriented approach of NDA , to them their Reform had lost the human face . So when UPA came in power, they tried to give new economic policy a human face, they went out of track of new economic policy and in the name of social inclusive policy, they brought such kind of schemes which actually were against the spirit of new economic policy. The new economic policy which was in fact bunch of policies, which gave economy an efficient economic regime laden with high growth rate, high investment and also lower rate of inflation. But UPA govt. in spite of fundamentally addressing  the farmers' problem, they  waived loan of 70000 crore, in spite of giving gainful and productive employment, they started non productive MNREGA scheme at the annual cost of 40,000 crore, these all activities limited the growth potential of economy and it further aggravated inflation pressure over the economy. I think If UPA govt. should have brought a long term remunerative price polices for the farmers provided with efficient crop insurance schemes, there was no need of farm loan waiver scheme at the cost of economy and second if UPA would have brought a massive rural infrastructure plan in place of MNREGA, it would have created circumstances of more gainful employment scenario in the country and  we have had no after affect of high inflation or high food inflation regime and second our growth potential would have no shrinkage affect also. But UPA thought in other way, it considered until unless it is able to allure its voter, there was no need of worrying point to her.

The going of UPA beyond to the track of new economic policy track became so costly to country's economy, it not only ruined the prospect of country's economy, rather it also ruined the political prospect of congress party.

In the second term congress party brought more populist measures in order to allure voters in terms of cheaper food grains schemes(food security act), announcement for the 7th pay commission and more pronounced MNREGA scheme and new land acquisition bill, but ultimately it could not allure the public because the earlier populist measure brought such a huge disaster to the economy in terms of high inflation and price rise that which cost a lot to the public, so in place of gains through populist measure, they suffered more loss. So the net gain to the public was negative. B Because of price rise congress party faced it biggest defeat in the independent history of the country.

Second reason of defeat is said to be, corruption. I do not think the problem of corruption emerged all of sudden in UPA 2 regime. It was already there in the country, rather it entered in our system, in very 1960s and it got continued rather it flourished in every walks of country's life,, but congress party who was in power in most of the time, never felt it a big danger to the country, so it never tried to counter it. Even some opposition party who came in power, for them corruption was not a priority. They never brought a path-breaking or fundamental legal, institutional or policy reform to eliminate corruption from the system. But when Anna's agitation brought this issue in the mainstream political domain of the country, then politigentia of the country started to think corruption in big way. When AAP party formed government in Delhi, then this congress party became serious and in the 2013 winter session of parliament it passed lokpal bill. Then it not only passed lokpal bill, rather its leader Rahul Gandhi started to say he wants to pass all pending 6 anti graft bills in the remaining days of parliamentary session. It showed corruption has now become cause of concern for the political parties.

The negligence of issue of corruption very from 1960s and in the same way the negligence of NEP since 2009 created high inflation rate and these both factors made congress party to bear heavy cost of defeat

But the point is as of now there is no bounding over any political party to raise populist issues or emotive issues in the elections. So our political parties never think of the fundamentals of the system.

Now Narendra Modi has grabbed power from the congress party, if he runs the government in a conventional way, if he brings solution to problem through ad hoc manner, it will not solve the basic cause of the problem. Though,during his election campaign NAMO never talked about giving freebies to the public or starting any kind of populist measures. He attacked congress party more for its dynasty tag and second he grabbed circumstantial truth of price rise and corruption in the country.

Now NAMO has grabbed power, the question is will he work for changing fundamentals of the system. Though Modi's speech never say that this system is bad, he says that system is not bad, it only lacks decisiveness, it means he endorses present bureaucracy, present institutions, present set of laws & regulations and present existing  method of governance. I do not think this is a fair thinking on the part of NAMO.

The most strong point of NAMO is his commitment for new economic policy and his wayward and autocratic governance style. Through this style he can deliver more on economic front, on corporate front which is looking for more investment, more growth, more income and more employment, may be NAMO could achieve it also by fastening the process of decision making, but fundamentally if he wants to go all out against corruption and price rise, it require more than two dozen fundamental constitutional and legal reform. He will have to restructure the institutional functioning of the whole governance.

 I think the first and foremost thing he should do, that is to start and introduce a new national personnel policy. The country urgently requires a new and efficient work culture. Working hours, holidays, shift of work, the disposal and deliverance of work and introduction of new technology. The simplification of rule, the complete overhauling of bureaucracy (from top to bottom) is key to the governance.

Our country is ill famous for the holidays. I think this govt. should introduce only one weekly holiday and shifting of duties in all government offices. In most of the government departments, somewhere there is glut of staff, somewhere there is shortage of staff, these things must be balanced.

Second thing this government should go for greater police reform, though this reform is very much part of administrative reform. But it is interesting to watch whether NAMO govt. ready to start this reform.

Transparency in the governance is very much attributed to technology. If govt. endorsed the process of e-governance through mass uses of information technology. It has been seen on the upper level the work culture is fine and there is application of technology also, but on the lower level, there is circumstances of extreme disappointment. The governance at the lower level is a subject which is related to our federal structure as well as with second and third tier of democracy but ultimately it is the first tier which has to give a greater policy guideline in order to address these issues. Apart from administrative and economic front, there are many issue which are related to political reform of the country which will shape the future shape of Indian politics.