03-25-2007, 10:04 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>UPA squanders inheritance </b>
Pioneer.com
Swapan Dasgupta
As a community, economists tend to be only marginally less self-serving than NGO activists. Accustomed to speaking to each other in a language that combines hieroglyphics with linguistic obfuscation, the prescriptive wisdom of economists is about as prescient as India's meteorologists and soothsayers. In the annals of this voodoo "science", the Planning Commission finds a special place in the Chamber of Horrors. <b>If and when the "confidential" files of the Government are allowed to enter the archives, they will reveal the extent to which the disseminated wisdom from Yojana Bhavan was flawed. The Planning Commission, to cite a small example, is said to have underestimated the demand for colour TV sets in the early-1980s by as much as 6,000 per cent! </b>Â
Last week, the <b>distinguished Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission set the proverbial cat among the pigeons by warning against an "overheated" economy</b>. Bereft of the gobbledegook, Montek Singh Ahluwalia's observation amounted to an admission that the economy was entering a turbulent phase and high inflation was symptomatic of the difficulties ahead. What this stalwart of the "dream team" didn't elaborate was that the looming crisis is exclusively a creation of a Government that has literally squandered its inheritance. Overheating, as any mohalla electrician will tell you, happens when there is no avenue for the generated heat to disperse. <b>In short, the shifting of Government's focus away from building infrastructure to financing non-asset building programmes like Sonia Gandhi's pet Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (devised by a barefoot economist of Belgian origin who glorifies poverty) has created thermostat bottlenecks for Indian entrepreneurs who are raring to go.</b>
The emerging voodoo wisdom that nine per cent growth is bad for India's soul marks the highest point of the UPA Government's creativity. Predictably, this intellectual innovation seems to have coincided with growing despondency in the Congress over the Government's mismanagement of the economy. In Delhi, to cite a small but revealing example, the Congress has more or less abdicated the field in a municipal election where price rise seems to be only issue. In Uttar Pradesh, the<b> Congress and its heir apparent are frantically ducking bread-and-butter questions and proceeding on the interesting assumption that only Muslims have the franchise.</b> Meanwhile, the air of Lutyens' Delhi is thick with salacious tales of the profits from dal export, the rationale behind Tamil Nadu's anger at the Centre's prevarication over SEZs, <b>the Italian gatecrashers at a private dinner in a Lebanese restaurant and the beneficiary of Government generosity towards digital films.</b>
According to the timetable there is still two years before the next general election is due. However, going by the body language of the rulers, the viciousness of the gossip and the frenzy of speculation, it almost seems that the Manmohan Singh Government is living out its final moments.
The disorientation and backbiting within the ruling coalition should have been the occasion for the Opposition to step up the intensity of its assault. The Budget, Ottavio Quattorocchi, the internal security mess and Nandigram provided the NDA enough ammunition to score goal after goal. Unfortunately, instead of showing its political finesse in Parliament, the NDA leadership fell back on mindless disruption. The bedlam in Parliament is becoming so dreadfully ritualised that it is impossible to escape the conclusion that the BJP leadership has fallen back on the lowest common denominator of politics.
In the mid-1990s, the last occasion it was on the cusp of winning power at the Centre, the BJP combined anti-incumbency with positive intellectual energy. This helped the party complement anti-Congressism with a significant positive mandate.
The quality of today's exuberance in the BJP seems, by comparison, to be base. First, all traces of idealism have been wilfully snuffed out by a leadership that seeks power without either a mission or ethical rectitude. Second, policy discussions have more or less ended under a dispensation that is looking more dall and durbari with each passing day.
These are gloomy times. The ineptitude of the Government seems to be matched by the cynicism of the Opposition.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Pioneer.com
Swapan Dasgupta
As a community, economists tend to be only marginally less self-serving than NGO activists. Accustomed to speaking to each other in a language that combines hieroglyphics with linguistic obfuscation, the prescriptive wisdom of economists is about as prescient as India's meteorologists and soothsayers. In the annals of this voodoo "science", the Planning Commission finds a special place in the Chamber of Horrors. <b>If and when the "confidential" files of the Government are allowed to enter the archives, they will reveal the extent to which the disseminated wisdom from Yojana Bhavan was flawed. The Planning Commission, to cite a small example, is said to have underestimated the demand for colour TV sets in the early-1980s by as much as 6,000 per cent! </b>Â
Last week, the <b>distinguished Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission set the proverbial cat among the pigeons by warning against an "overheated" economy</b>. Bereft of the gobbledegook, Montek Singh Ahluwalia's observation amounted to an admission that the economy was entering a turbulent phase and high inflation was symptomatic of the difficulties ahead. What this stalwart of the "dream team" didn't elaborate was that the looming crisis is exclusively a creation of a Government that has literally squandered its inheritance. Overheating, as any mohalla electrician will tell you, happens when there is no avenue for the generated heat to disperse. <b>In short, the shifting of Government's focus away from building infrastructure to financing non-asset building programmes like Sonia Gandhi's pet Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (devised by a barefoot economist of Belgian origin who glorifies poverty) has created thermostat bottlenecks for Indian entrepreneurs who are raring to go.</b>
The emerging voodoo wisdom that nine per cent growth is bad for India's soul marks the highest point of the UPA Government's creativity. Predictably, this intellectual innovation seems to have coincided with growing despondency in the Congress over the Government's mismanagement of the economy. In Delhi, to cite a small but revealing example, the Congress has more or less abdicated the field in a municipal election where price rise seems to be only issue. In Uttar Pradesh, the<b> Congress and its heir apparent are frantically ducking bread-and-butter questions and proceeding on the interesting assumption that only Muslims have the franchise.</b> Meanwhile, the air of Lutyens' Delhi is thick with salacious tales of the profits from dal export, the rationale behind Tamil Nadu's anger at the Centre's prevarication over SEZs, <b>the Italian gatecrashers at a private dinner in a Lebanese restaurant and the beneficiary of Government generosity towards digital films.</b>
According to the timetable there is still two years before the next general election is due. However, going by the body language of the rulers, the viciousness of the gossip and the frenzy of speculation, it almost seems that the Manmohan Singh Government is living out its final moments.
The disorientation and backbiting within the ruling coalition should have been the occasion for the Opposition to step up the intensity of its assault. The Budget, Ottavio Quattorocchi, the internal security mess and Nandigram provided the NDA enough ammunition to score goal after goal. Unfortunately, instead of showing its political finesse in Parliament, the NDA leadership fell back on mindless disruption. The bedlam in Parliament is becoming so dreadfully ritualised that it is impossible to escape the conclusion that the BJP leadership has fallen back on the lowest common denominator of politics.
In the mid-1990s, the last occasion it was on the cusp of winning power at the Centre, the BJP combined anti-incumbency with positive intellectual energy. This helped the party complement anti-Congressism with a significant positive mandate.
The quality of today's exuberance in the BJP seems, by comparison, to be base. First, all traces of idealism have been wilfully snuffed out by a leadership that seeks power without either a mission or ethical rectitude. Second, policy discussions have more or less ended under a dispensation that is looking more dall and durbari with each passing day.
These are gloomy times. The ineptitude of the Government seems to be matched by the cynicism of the Opposition.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->