The election results are out and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is firmly in the saddle. The time has now come to build on the gains made in the first five years of the Singh government. The fact that people voted the UPA back to power, with a near complete rout of the Left and with a greater number of Congress seats, is a clear signal that India wants Singh and his team to continue with what they have been doing?trying to make India a better place. It is now up to the coalition partners to fall in line and allow Dr. Singh to carry on the task he and his team had embarked upon five years ago.
The PM has his work cut out. First, the economy needs to be brought back to its earlier growth path. Second, some of the reforms that were put on hold by the machinations of the Left must be implemented. Third, the administrative reforms that Dr Singh had wanted to do in his previous stint have to be undertaken. Fourth, and perhaps the most important, is his commitment to inclusive growth that he reiterated as he became the PM for the second time.
The earlier government had distinguished itself by rising above the usual chatter of the corporate sector and the educated middle class that had started believing in a market economy that is driven by tax sops and various hidden subsidies to enable them to compete in a global economy. It had, instead, focussed somewhat on a market economy driven by equal opportunities to all its citizens. The last government?s emphasis on a social security system and the roll-out of the NREGS (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), the RSBY (Rashtriya Swasth Bima Yojna) and the NRHM (National Rural Health Mission) will have far-reaching implications in the years to come.
However, it is precisely in these areas that the government needs to do a lot more to ensure that these programmes are not hijacked by the local administrators for their petty but criminal gains. There are three things that need to be done. First, technology must be used whenever and wherever possible to ensure that there is enough public information available about the implementation of these programmes. The administrators of these programmes must appreciate that it is for the public to evaluate the success of these programmes and not have to rely upon periodic reports by the ministries concerned. Second, the programmes must be evaluated through their outcomes and not simply by the procedures involved in the disbursement of funds. Third, while the administrative guidelines may be centralised, the implementation of these programmes must be flexible enough to allow local administrators to fine-tune in accordance with the local environment within which they are being implemented. Much of this will not be possible without basic reforms in the administrative set-up.
One major area of work for the government will have to be that of finding productive employment for the Indian youth. While there has been some discussion in the last five years, including the formation of the National Skill Mission, there is a lot left to be achieved here. Unfortunately, the discussion has invariably been side-tracked by talks of private-public partnerships and the consequent bickering among the private parties and state governments. Things seemed to have been worked out in some cases, but the process has been too slow and the initiative too thinly implemented. The central government has to take the lead and stop waiting for the private sector to come forward.
The Singh government in the last five years has done many uniquely new things; most of them are directed at the common citizen and, if properly implemented, will go a long way in making India?s development process self-sustained. What the current stint requires is a smoothing of some of the wrinkles in these programmes. This would require some work and the PM has already showed his intentions, requiring would-be ministers to perform in their roles rather than siphon off government resources for narrow regional, party or private gains. One way to achieve this would be to use young ministers. A young minister in her early forties would look forward to being seventy in a developed and rich India; she will not only be interested in the next five or ten years and, hence, will be more experimental and less in a hurry. Many may feel that their relative inexperience will lead to errors in judgement; some of us, on the other hand, feel that their inexperience means no past hangovers and a greater willingness to learn. Dr Singh has a young Parliament and has already signalled his willingness to include some of them in various ministries. He has already tried them out in some parts of the last government and, they performed creditably in the limited opportunities. The next five years may be the second period of Dr Singh?s leadership but I feel it will be a first step in the direction of a modern India. What he started in 1991, has now got to be completed.
The author is with the India Development Foundation
