The Hindu Business Line : They're jamming the brakes when Montek's pushing the pedal

EXCEPT serious economists, there were very few who even knew what "Plan" was currently running. Many had lost count of the Five-year Plans till there were noises recently that outsiders had infiltrated into the Planning Commission. What Montek did was right, said Manmohan, and I would agree too because if you turned the Tenth Five Year Plan inside out, you would see in the foreword written about two years ago, Atalji writing that we can achieve the `ambitious targets' only when we are able to make development `a people's movement' and turn the Plan into `a people's Plan'. So, having more people in plan was okay. Even as the Plan rolls on — there used to be a Rolling Plan, if you remember, that rolled off into oblivion — we may explore the word itself, whether or the Left comes to terms with the government's plan priorities.

Plan is "a detailed proposal for doing something", explains the Concise Oxford English Dictionary; it can also mean a map or diagram. Thus, in wake of the Beslan school tragedy there is the Putin's plan to combat terror that Powell does not like. Similarly, Sharon is not happy with Bush's peace plan. And, a few days ago, Indian Airlines was taking a broader look at the Rs 10,000 crore fleet acquisition plan of wide-bodied aircraft.

As verb, plan is to decide in advance or make preparations for an anticipated event. "Just because something does not do what you planned it to do does not mean it's useless," is a Thomas A. Edison quote to justify planning even if actuals are too much at variance with projections.

Another insightful quote is of Thomas Paine: "When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary." One of the 1,330 couplets in Thirukkural counsels: "Plan fully before launching out on action. To think of devising ways and means in the course of the action is fatal."

Encarta traces the origin of `plan' thus: "Late 17th century. From the French for `ground plan,' an alteration (influenced by plan `flat') of plant, from, ultimately, Latin plantare `to push in with the sole of the foot' (see plant)." I see `plant' to learn that planta means `sole of the foot', with which `shovel, or some other tool' is pressed "to work the soil for planting".

When doing town planning, sole of the foot would have done the first marking on the land, I guess, as kids demarcate boundaries when playing on sand. One wonders if Planning Commission's meetings are punctuated by noises made by the feet of the members. In schools, however, teachers know that when students indulge in such an exercise, some mischief is definitely on!

Plot, as you know is a plan made in secret by a group of people to do something illegal or harmful. "But let our plot go forward," is a Shakespeare quote from Merry Wives of Windsor. "Chief architect and plotter of these woes," in Titus Andronicus does not refer to any professional.

The line from The Winter's Tale, "There is a plot against my life, my crown," reflects a continual worry of many of today's leaders too. Though the bard didn't find plan to be as useful as plot, commentators don't spare the word, as you can find in the Macbeth synopsis on www.shakespeare-online.com: "Amidst thunder and lightening, three witches meet to plan their encounter with Macbeth... "

Plan doesn't find a mention in Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage, even as he moves from planchette to plane. Plan can be `ambitious, audacious, grand or grandiose' notes Oxford Collocations. It can be `brilliant, clever, cunning, fiendish, ingenious, feasible, realistic, or sound', else, `impractical, or controversial'. There's a plan for every purpose: `Action, strategic, business, career, corporate, development, economic, financial, travel, marriage, peace,' plus war, mobile phone and divorce too!

So, you `have, come up with, develop, devise, draw up, formulate, make, prepare, or work out' a plan, then `present, propose, put forward, discuss, and agree', after which they `announce, launch, outline, or unveil' it for everybody. Thereafter, you may expect they `go ahead with, implement, press ahead with, or stick to' the plan, without knowing their intention to `cancel, change, abandon, drop, scrap, or shelve' the thing.

There's often a dilemma whether one should plan or live, for as John Lennon had said, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." True, "Intimate relationships cannot substitute for a life plan," says Harriet Lerner. "But to have any meaning or viability at all, a life plan must include intimate relationships."

No management lesson is complete without extolling the virtues of plans and planning, before moving on to organising, directing and so on.

"Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work," says Peter Drucker. "Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes... but no plans." About 2000 years ago, Thiruvalluvar had spoken of people who, "though they are good in thinking out and preparing plans, are not adept in practical action". We cannot be certain of living the next minute, he wrote wryly. "But we are not content with even a million plans." On how one should plan, his sage wisdom is: "Do it with a clear brain, and when once you have decided and launched on an undertaking, be firm and unmoved by difficulties, and dilatoriness in action." To think that plans turn true is to fantasise, as The Iliad of Homer would say: "Zeus does not bring all men's plans to fulfilment."

From ancient intelligence, again, is Sun-Tzu who devoted a whole chapter to `planning a siege' in The Art of War. The best warfare strategy, according to him, was to attack the enemy's plans; "next is to attack alliances, next is to attack the army, and the worst is to attack a walled city."

Among the maxims of Publilius Syrus (100 BC) is this: "It is a bad plan that admits of no modification."

So, there's nothing wrong in tweaking policies after hurried announcements. "The best plan is to profit by the folly of others," as Pliny the Elder (23 AD - 79 AD) observed, a tip for the Opposition. "It must be realised that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more uncertain of success, or more dangerous to manage than the establishment of a new order of government," may sound apt for the times, but that's from chapter 6 of The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli.

To add to plan's pangs, there is the irony that the only things that get pushed in by the sole of the foot these days are clutch, brake and accelerator - the very controls that no plan seems to obey. Or, is it that even as Montek is pushing the pedal, somebody is jamming the brakes?

ComingToTerms@TheHindu.co.in

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