The Hindu Business Line : Progress: Importance of the big picture

The "big picture" must be given precedence in matters of economic development, the justification being the premise that no development, especially in a poor country, can be painless.

THE other day, in Kolkata, the West Bengal Transport Minister made a statement on the imperative of development and the stumbling blocks in the way which, if viewed dispassionately, throws light on the central dilemma facing politicians who are eager to initiate development measures but who get stuck in their tracks because of the human problems generated by policy-implementation.

Among other things, the West Bengal Minister said: "I've always felt that the city (of Kolkata) cannot suffer at the cost of a few people. But if I were to see a poor man being evicted, I'd step in."

Now, what this tells us about the Minister in question is that he is not only someone who understands the principle that the "greater good" must take precedence over everything else when tackling development issues but also that he is a sensitive person to whom the agony of poverty suffered by someone else is unbearable.

If our Minister was just an average citizen, with no policy planning and implementation chores to attend to, he could have been a model citizen in a society full of egalitarian, sensible and sensitive people.

But the problem is that this is not the case here, the inference being that our Minister should not really be a Minister because by giving vent to the humane, sensitive side of his nature, he is actually harming society at large, all policy-decisions regarding which must be governed by the principle of the "greater good".

To take an actual example, if a railway track has to be cleared of slum-dwellers in the interests of society at large, then the slum-dwellers will have to be moved to a different location.

If an alternative location is found by the authorities concerned (which obviously will not be as well-located as the railway track in question right in a premium area of the city), there can be no alternative but to move the settlers to the new place.

It is to be expected that there will be many among those affected who will be "hurt" in the process of relocation, but the authorities will be failing in their job if they "stepped in" to look after the interests of the minority by sacrificing what has earlier been established as being necessary to further the interests of society at large.

Similarly, take the presence of auto-rickshaws on the roads of Kolkata, a mode of transport that fits better a rural town than one of the bigger metropolises of the country. In fact, there was a time when no auto-rickshaws plied on the roads of the city, with buses, trams, taxis and private cars ruling the roost. Importantly, allowing the auto-rickshaws to ply in the city in the first place was more a political decision (to keep a particular constituency happy) than anything else.

Today, this mode of transport has become a veritable menace both to city traffic and to the image of Kolkata generally, the authorities concerned (not excluding the Transport Minister) arguing that preventing auto-rickshaws from plying within the city would hurt the travelling public.

The point is that the "big picture" must be identified and given precedence in matters of economic and social development, the justification for the pain consequently inflicted on some minuscule sections of society being the precious premise that no development (especially in a poor country) can be painless.

Incidentally, the Transport Minister was wrong when he said that "over the years, a tradition of functioning or non-functioning has been established, (and) it is quite impossible to alter the situation in the near future".

The Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, is trying his best — and not without some success — to prove such views wrong, and he needs all the help, both inside and outside the Government, to accomplish the onerous task.

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