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New Delhi: Today, the world leaders who are desperate to bail out the economy from the current financial crisis by pumping in billions of dollars. They should know that the ailing system is surviving on an artificial support.
The emergence of some green shoots is bringing sigh of relief to some who speculate a recovery in the ailing system. These hopeful persons should better know that a real recovery is nowhere in sight. Even some leading experts and institutions are not sure about the nature of recovery – whether it would be a V-turn, a U-turn, a L-turn or a Z-turn.
As the world pays tribute to the former Prime Minister Pt Jawaharlal Nehru on November 14 on occasion of his 120th birth anniversary, we are reminded of an alternative economic order which once existed in this country – the mixed economy of Nehruvian Model within the framework of democratic socialism.
As a builder of modern India, he championed the cause of mixed economy in which the government would manage strategic industries such as mining, electricity and also heavy industries, serving public interest and as a check to aggressive profit-making drive of private enterprises. As a man of vision he envisaged the role of cooperative movement free of political and bureaucratic influences. He believed that the problems of unemployment could be progressively resolved by the development of cottage and small industries.
The continuing spate of farmers’ suicides and apprehensions about food insecurity compels us to remember and act on the noble words of Pt Nehru – “everything else can wait, but not agriculture.” He pursued land redistribution and launched programmes to build irrigation canals, dams and spread the use of fertilizers to increase agricultural production. He also pioneered a series of community development programs aimed at spreading diverse cottage industries and increasing efficiency into rural India. While encouraging the construction of large dams (which he called the 'new temples of India'), irrigation works and the generation of hydroelectricity, Nehru also launched India's programme to harness nuclear energy.
Today the evils of so-called liberalization of economy and globalization of trade has spread its tentacles far and wide across the country causing increased unemployment, job insecurity, rising prices, increasing poverty and hunger and acute distress to farmers. The corporate houses and multinationals, with the support of government policies, are on an aggressive profit-making drive, capturing almost all spheres of life that affect a common man from...
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