The Hindu Business Line : Populist practices belong to the past

The government has all along been obsessed with caste politics, with poverty alleviation, with controls, pacifying local robber barons, and maximising inputs without reference to efficiency. Each one of these populist practices has outlived its utility, and deserves to be consigned to oblivion, says P. V. INDIRESAN.

Recently, a researcher sent to a government funding agency a proposal to study gifted children and evolve techniques to maximise their capabilities. The proposal was turned down. The agency said that government policy was only to help the disadvantaged and the handicapped, not the gifted.

We are obsessed with `social justice,' defined as advancing the not so competent and place them ahead of the more able. It will be considered blasphemy by influential policy-makers to suggest that the less able may actually prosper better if the more able were given their due place in society.

Consider a simple example. There is a small town where, as in all such places, there are many bright children, even potential Abdul Kalams and Manmohan Singhs. For the school teacher's post in that town there are two applicants. One is a Upper caste, with excellent credentials mainly thanks to inherited advantage of the family tradition of teaching.

The other is a first generation learner, badly handicapped by backward caste antecedents, and, consequently, for no fault of his, less scholarly and less well informed. Which of the two candidates should be chosen to maximise social welfare?

Our governments will unhesitatingly choose the latter. They will argue, quite correctly, that if the backward caste candidate had the same family background as the Upper caste with both parents well educated, he would have been as proficient as the Upper caste. Hence, his inferior skills are not his own fault but that of his environment. That is a good argument that cannot be flawed as far as the backward caste applicant is concerned.

Complex Problems

Unfortunately, real-life problems are not simple; they have complex ramifications. In this case, consider the future of all those bright children of the small town. Who will give them a stronger academic foundation — the more able Upper caste teacher or the handicapped backward caste candidate?

This question will be roundly condemned by many as an example of upper caste arrogance and prejudice. Ask the same persons to which school they send their children.

The answer would invariably be they send their children to schools where teachers are selected for their ability and not because of their caste. In fact, they pay very large fees, force their children to travel long distances every day though the government school is free and is close by too.

In every case of this nature, there is marked divergence between what people profess and what they practice. The dictionary has a word for that divergence — hypocrisy. However, these people are not hypocrites; they are merely logic-blind. In the present instance, there is a conflict of interest between one backward caste teacher, on the one hand, and a large number of children, a generation of them, on the other.

Typically, a teacher influences 1000-2000 children in the course of his or her career. Then, on balance, would it not be fairer (as the critics themselves acknowledge by their own conduct) to select the more able teacher even if that means selecting one from a higher caste?

However, absolute preference to backward castes is now an essential ingredient of political correctness. Experts sitting on committees consider it mandatory to propose ever newer schemes to promote backward castes. The latest instance is the government's decision to reserve space to SC/STs in international exhibitions, and special preference to minorities in bank loans. It is reported that a weighty committee has decided that there should be 33 per cent reservation in all courses for women in all Central universities, IITs and IIMs.

Lazy Proposals

The last proposal is a typical indication of intellectual laziness. Year after year, girls outshine boys at the school examinations. Hence, lack of ability is not their problem. There is no need to prefer less able girls over more able boys; they need no reservation. If, in spite of greater proficiency, there are fewer girls in the IITs, the problem is elsewhere. What those problems are, the originators of this proposal are too lazy or too disinclined to study.

For policy-makers and their handpicked experts, reservation is a panacea for anything and everything. There is no need to make any objective analysis; discover what is the problem.

Some people go to temples; some go by astrological predictions. Our experts will condemn such persons as superstition-bound reactionary anti-secular demagogues, or in even stronger terms. Yet, they themselves are content to propose reservation for any and every problem, real or imaginary. On the occasion of the third anniversary of the UPA Government, the Congress Party has had a bad press. Interestingly, no other constituent of the UPA has come in for criticism although the behaviour of some of them has not exactly been great. Partners of the Congress Party are getting bolder, more aggressive and more contemptuous of their senior partner. That should be food for thought for Congress leaders. Unfortunately, they are in a denial mode. They do not realise that it is fatal to continue as before; merely to survive, they should change. Most important, only friends, not enemies, can stab you in the back.

Prof Samuelson, the doyen of economics teachers, once described a hidebound scholar as one who started spelling banana and did not know when to stop.

Our major parties are in the same position. They have started on a few promising policies but do not know when to stop though those old ideas have become outdated.

It is an elementary rule of economics that in a competitive market, with no product differentiation, no trader will make profit: Traders profit only when they have a uniquely saleable product of their own, not otherwise.

For politicians too, there is no profit without USP. In the UP election, with the exception of the BSP, all parties offered the same product — special package for backward castes. They defined "inclusive development" in the Orwellian sense: Inclusion means exclusion of politically weak groups. The BSP succeeded because it alone had a unique proposition, that inclusion includes the upper castes too.

Two scenarios are possible for the next general election due in 2009: The two national parties check the BSP by wooing the backward castes even more vigorously than before. Two, they realise that backward caste vote bank has been overdrawn and devise a new strategy.

New Strategy

What can be that new strategy? The government has all along been obsessed with caste politics, with poverty alleviation, with controls, pacifying local robber barons, and maximising inputs without reference to efficiency. Each one of these populist practices has outlived its utility. It deserves to be consigned to oblivion.

Then, national parties should consider replacing in their schemes of patronage backward castes by the absolute poor irrespective of caste. Similarly, pursuit of genuine prosperity can replace poverty alleviation; decentralisation of administration can do wonders compared to controls, encouraging entrepreneurs can benefit more than bribing robber barons.

The Government can start measuring the worth of projects not by the amount of money spent but by the value of wealth created.

There could be other even better changes, but changes there must be. It is a fundamental law of nature that those who will not change become extinct.

(The author is a former Director of IIT Madras. Response may be sent to:indiresan@gmail.com)

(This is 201st in the Vision 2020 series. The previous article was published on May 14).

More Stories on : Social Welfare | Politics | Vision 2020

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