The Hindu Business Line : Is Gujarat up there in governance?

THE Gujarat Government has been going to town claiming to be the "best governed State" on the basis of a supposed accolade by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF), incidentally headed by Mrs Sonia Gandhi. If this were so it would be the Congress Party's self-goal, equivalent of the BJP discovering M. A. Jinnah to be secular. But it is not so, for the RGF did not certify that Gujarat is the best-governed State, just as Advani did not certify that Jinnah was secular. But we are dealing with the perceptions created and the Narendra Modi Government is just trying to take advantage of getting rated best for something called "Economic Freedom".

But what is Economic Freedom? The notion of Economic Freedom traces its origins to a series of seminars during 1986-94, sponsored by the Fraser Institute of Canada and hosted by Milton and Rose Friedman. Prof. Milton Friedman is a Nobel Prize winner in Economics and his brand of economics stands at the most rightward fringe of the spectrum. His policy preferences have been criticised by a galaxy of economists, including John Galbraith and Amartya Sen, as insensitive to people and sensitive only to profit.

Economic Freedom is a composite index of individual liberty, limited government and free markets, the weight accorded to individual freedoms is at best marginal.

Now lets get back to the Gujarat Government's claim of being the "best governed State" in the country. That is not even close to the truth for that is not what the RGICS study is about. "Economic Freedom" is not about good government.

It is not even about economic achievements. It is about least government and looking most business friendly. It is as if a policeman is to be judged by how crisp and clean his uniform is and not by his professional achievements.

Gujarat's achievements in economic and social development during the last decade do not support its advertisement of being the "best governed State". In terms of economic growth at constant prices, in the decade after 1993-94 Gujarat averaged a growth of 6.72 per, well below first placed West Bengal's 8.55 per cent and Karnataka's 7.29 per cent. In fact, Gujarat's performance is 0.15 per cent below the national average and just 0.10 per cent more than Bihar's.

As regards poverty, Gujarat achieved a decline of 65.87 per cent since 1977, which, while commendable, only places it sixth, well below Goa, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab. Even after so much of `good' government, Gujarat still has 14.07 per cent living below the poverty line placing it only fourth from the top. While Gujarat has the highest per capita spending on roads and irrigation, it ranks only sixth in per capita spending on health and education.

The consequences of these can be seen in the human development indices. In terms of reduction of Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), Gujarat has achieved a reduction of 17.94 per cent, which is eleventh in terms of rank leaving it with an IMR of 64 which places it seventh. Gujarat does not do too well in terms of life expectancy with the average longevity being 62.15 years which puts it at eighth place below even Bihar's 62.85 years.

Again in terms of sex ratio, Gujarat is running neck and neck with Bihar with 921 females to every 1,000 males.

In terms of literacy Gujarat once again is not among the top with 69.97 per cent, which ranks it sixth.

When it comes to overall population growth, Gujarat with an annual growth of 2.42 per cent is once again sixth in the ranking. Even in terms of population between ages of 5-14 enrolled in schools, Gujarat with 74.35 per cent stands sixth.

The RGICS study of Economic Freedom apparently includes an "efficient and effective legal system ensuring complete investigation" as a measure.

Presumably they did not consider the Justice Bannerjee Report on the Godhra incident or Justice S. C. Jain's Central POTA Review Committee order excluding the 130 persons from POTA for the same alleged offence.

In terms of value of property stolen during 2003, Gujarat reported Rs 32,419 lakh as stolen placing it just below Maharashtra. In terms of property recovery Gujarat had only 9.5 per cent whereas top ranked Haryana managed 68.3 per cent. Then there is another interesting statistic about Gujarat that is quite telling. In 2003, Gujarat reported 1044 cases of kidnapping, which is about half the numbers reported from Bihar, UP and Rajasthan, the States notorious for kidnapping, but well above Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

But what makes Gujarat truly unique is that almost 90 per cent of those kidnapped were below 30 years and nearly 80 per cent of them were women. This is almost twice the national average. So much for "the highest level of safety of life and property" claimed in Gujarat. The National Crime Records Bureau also reports that Gujarat was no slouch when it came to violent crime with 13.1 per cent putting it ahead even of UP, West Bengal and Punjab, and in terms of IPC crime rate, the State with 197 was above the national average of 160.7.

There are other measures as well that need to be considered. In terms of net industrial value added, Gujarat ranks third, below Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

Since 1993-94, it has performed poorly in terms of electricity generation, logging only 18.69 per cent growth against the national average of 43.75 per cent.

Among the bigger States it stands only ahead of Bihar. Quite clearly there is more to good governance than just Economic Freedom.

Gujarat has not done too badly but to claim that it is the "best governed State" based on some dubious index is to be somewhat economical with the truth.

(The author is with the Centre for Policy Alternatives. Email: mguru@sify.com)

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