The Hindu Business Line : Old lines

The Government is perhaps conscious of the fact that its first official policy statement must not say anything that unduly raises public expectations on what it can deliver.

The President, Mrs Pratibha Patil’s speech to the joint session of Parliament quite understandably reiterates the UPA Government’s commitment to the pursuit of broadly the same set of objectives and policies and programmes pursued since 2004. After all, every government that gets re-elected, a rare phenomenon in Indian politics in recent decades, would be justified in believing that electoral success is due in no small measure to its performance the last time around and should seek to follow the age-old American dictum of not trying to fix what ain’t broke.

The Government may no longer be dependent on the support of the Left. That however has not prompted it to launch into an aggressive, liberal agenda of economic reform. A sense of caution is clearly evident in the agenda. For instance, the speech dwells on the need to have a policy regime that encourages greater flow of foreign direct investment but skirts any reference to such controversial issues as dilution of Government stake to a level below 51 per cent in public sector banks or corporatisation of Life Insurance Corporation of India. Indeed, it is at pains to emphasise its commitment to public sector units by declaring that dilution of Government stake would be restricted to a maximum of 49 per cent. It is another matter that in many cases the Government stake is already close to 51 per cent, thus limiting the scope for further dilution from a resource mobilisation or efficiency perspective. There is nothing in any of these assertions that would set the market on fire.

Governance in a multi-cultural and pluralistic society with a huge population such as India poses enormous challenges. The country’s institutional structure of governance has been weakened, over the years by the self-aggrandising behaviour of its political class. The public finances wear an emaciated look thanks to the effects of fiscal stimulus undertaken as a response to the global slowdown on a treasury already enfeebled by a host of populist measures. The Government is perhaps conscious of the fact that its first official policy statement must not say anything that unduly raises public expectations on what it can deliver. In the event, the President’s speech while laying emphasis on programmes and policies has also spoken of such measures as disclosure of information, co-opting the civil society, etc. which are palliatives for below-par performance on the delivery front. Such an outcome, were it to materialise, would be most unfortunate. Disclosure of stark information on the poor state of delivery in public distribution under a food security programme is a small comfort for a hungry stomach.

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