Populism will sink us

According to newspaper reports, in his foreword to the 12th Five Year Plan — the Plan document is yet to be printed although the Plan covers the period 2012-17 — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has written that meeting India’s growth aspirations “is a challenge for our democratic system” and that “we have to prove that vigorously competitive politics in a democracy can achieve a sufficient consensus to be able to implement the difficult but necessary policy choices we face”.

Two sides to subsidies

There are two important points that emerge from this statement. The first is that “difficult” — in the sense that the electorate will not be happy with the price consequences — economic measures are unavoidable if the national economy is to become more productive. The problem is that it is only in recent times that a slew of steps have been taken nudging the economy in the right direction. It will be argued that subsidies have enabled people to continue paying less for certain essential items of daily life and to that extent they can be said to have benefited the nation.

But the point can also be made that subsidies have been extended grossly over time by Governments at the Centre out to make the electorate happy, in the process wasting scarce resources which could have been pumped into real development, benefiting current and future generations. It is only now that the UPA Government has acted in certain areas which will have the effect of ridding the nation’s economic structure of debilitating imperfections.

The second point is perhaps more important because it deals with the human input in the Indian development process — what the Prime Minister has chosen to describe as “vigorously competitive politics in a democracy”. Manmohan Singh’s expectation is that this typically Indian variety of competitive politics will result in a consensus which will enable policymakers to frame and implement “difficult” economic measures.

Competition – for the chair

One can only hope that Manmohan Singh’s hope is fulfilled, but the ground reality suggests otherwise. It is easy to agree with the Prime Minister that the politics of the country is “vigorously competitive”, but what is the competition all about? The overriding goal of most politicians — with notable exceptions who are getting fewer with time — is to engage in one-upmanship so that, at the time of elections, they get enough votes and enjoy the fruits of power.

This surely is not what political leadership is all about. Leadership means showing the way forward to one’s constituents, sometimes in such a way that hardships will have to be faced for a better tomorrow. It is the job of politicians to persuade the electorate to accept such policies which, in the long run, will make the country a better place to live in.

Are Indian politicians competing with each other in this regard? One would like to believe that they are, but the truth is that most of them are incapable of seeing beyond the next polls. So what is the “consensus” the Prime Minister is talking about? It is certainly not one on the framing and implementation of policies which will hurt the electorate temporarily, but help citizens in the medium term. The consensus is solely on getting into the seat of power.

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