The Hindu Business Line : Plan panel: An empire sans a mission?

The Planning Commission, right since its unconstitutional creation, has sought for advice from abroad, rather selectively. While the foreigners might sway their opinion, nothing binds the Government or the Planning Commission to accepting any of their recommendations.

AMONG the various charges she holds, Ms Sonia Gandhi is also the Chairperson of the National Advisory Council formed to advise the government on implementing the National Common Minimum Programme (CMP) and, specifically, to provide a grassroots perspective.

Since the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, swears by the NCMP, he has all the advice that he can ever implement coming from the Advisory Council under Ms Gandhi, who is also the Chairperson of the Indian National Congress, the United Progressive Alliance and the UPA-Left Coordination Committee.

Soon after taking over, Dr Ahluwalia announced that a large number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) would be associated with the review of the Tenth Plan. One wondered what supplementary grassroots support he could hope to obtain that Ms Gandhi would not be able to provide.

NGOs in India are mostly dominated by those with little special knowledge or mass support. They are, in general, against all change and innovation, be it a river valley project, biotechnology or matters pertaining to the World Trade Organisation. The list of the NGO representatives was made public. Most of them lead organisations that are funded or otherwise supported by foreign funding agencies and the World Bank.

The Left let a person of foreign origin assume the control of four major nerve centres of the UPA Government. Nor did it raise a voice when, recently, Mr Parthasarathy Shome, who is now with the IMF, was appointed the new advisor to the Finance Minister, in the place of Dr Vijay Kelkar.

They did not complain when NGOs with foreign links were enrolled in the Plan review process or when the Prime Minister proposed that the confidential records of officers on the panel for the posts of secretaries, additional secretaries and joint secretaries should be vetted by a three-man committee, which would include an outside expert.

But come September, the four Left parties that support the UPA Government from outside started protesting when Dr Ahluwalia announced appointment of 19 committees, including some 430 members for reviewing the progress of the Tenth Plan. It included, at least, five known Indian Left economists and some 14 who are staffers of the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and private consulting companies such as Boston and McKinsey.

The Prime Minister patted the Deputy in the Planning Commission for starting the review process at an early date and broadly defended getting outside advice and inputs.

The UPA Government had managed without any rollback on FDI limits and interest rates on provident funds. There was an audible grumbling from the Left that the UPA was taking its support for granted and that the time had come to make it clear that the Left's anxiety to keep the BJP away from power should not be taken as a sign of weakness.

To insist on FDI rollback was a tricky business and could be fraught with risk. If the market reacted unfavourably, both the Left and the UPA could be in trouble. Ditto for the rate of interest on provident funds. Despite the airs of sapience that some of the Leftist spokesmen put on, they are not all that sure of themselves about market mechanisms.

But the presence of the World Bank staffers and Dr Ahluwalia are subjects well within their field of competence. The World Bank, the IMF, the ADB and the MNCs are favourite hate-objects ofthe Leftists and the NGOs, especially vis-a-vis the disaster allegedly suffered by nations that followed the advice of the multilateral bodies.

West Bengal, governed for 24 years by the Leftist coalition, has in recent times been enticing foreign investors and investing bodies to come to the State.

The West Bengal Government has used the services of foreign experts, including the World Bank. It is difficult to understand why the Left is making such an issue on the appointment of foreign advisors.The facts are simple enough:

There are some 14 experts from outside on the review committees. They will have access to situation papers, make presentations in response to the identical questionnaire that will be given to all 430 members — Indian and foreign.

While the foreigners might, through the superior marshalling the facts and their eloquence, sway their opinion, nothing binds the Government or the Planning Commission to accepting any of their recommendations or part thereof.

Surprisingly, all except one of these experts are of Indian origin and have made successful careers abroad. Their inclusion in the Planning Commission panels is more like reverse brain-drain.

The close relationship between the Bretton Woods institutions and the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister, and the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman is well-known. If the Communists can stomach these three at the core of the national nerve centre, it is difficult to imagine the logic in opposing the appointments of a dozen or so lowly advisors.

The Planning Commission, ever since its creation, has sought advice from abroad, rather selectively. But it only invites such advice as may not be too jarring for its ears. Even in the days of Jawaharlal Nehru, the likes of Ragnar Frisch and Peter Lange lined up to visit New Delhi. On the other hand, Dr B. R. Shenoy, who stood for market-based economy, was kept away.

That some five experts have been chosen from McKinsey is surprising.

The five Left economists have threatened to resign if the foreigner issue is not sorted out; the foreign experts have offered to resign to save embarrassment to the UPA Government.

A question mark is put on the ability of civil servants to review the Plan. The real question is: Does the Planning Commission have any raison d'être? Development targets, rate of investment and the specific commodity targets have all become irrelevant. The Planning Commission is a huge empire that serves little useful purpose.

(The author, a Rajya Sabha MP, is Founder, Shetkari Sanghatana. He can be contacted at sharad@mah.nic.in)

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