In India?s quasi-federal set up, states do not have absolute freedom to pursue their own paths of economic growth. The Union government controls most sectors of the economy, and states are constrained by the Centre?s policies and expenditure allocation. Within these constraints, each state has the option of pursuing its own goals for accelerating growth, reducing poverty and increasing consumption levels of the bottom 40% of the population. A study of the growth experience of various states presents a fascinating picture to economists and policymakers.
First, consider the Gujarat Model; BJP leader Narendra Modi?s success in the just concluded Gujarat elections has focused the attention of analysts all over the world to the achievements of the man behind the mask. Even an arch-critic like The Economist commented: ?Always prosperous and enterprising, Gujarat is now booming. Its voters clearly credit some of this prosperity to Mr Modi?s administration, which is notably less venal and ineffectual than those Indians in most other states have to endure.?
Under Gujarat?s CM, agricultural growth rose from 2.9% to 17.8%, fully utilising the benefits of the Sardar Sarovar Project, which raised the irrigation potential by more than half to 6.6 lakh hectares. More than 500 industrial projects were implemented in unlicenced sectors, with investments totalling Rs 50,000 crore. The state government?s emphasis was on providing power, roads and drinking water at regular tariff rates. Power theft was minimised. The ?golden triangle? of newly laid roads linked interior Gujarat with ports and urban centres. The state?s share of investment doubled to 30%, with huge petrochem and refinery projects making for rapid industrialisation. All this led to a popular endorsement of Modi?s claim to ?good governance?.
And yet, despite all this development, Modi can be faulted. He does not nurture team leadership, preferring to rely solely on himself. Also, despite his protestations to the contrary, he has made Mahatma Gandhi an alien in the land of his birth. It?s sad, but true. The greatest man from Gujarat has no place there.
Anti-incumbency did not work in Gujarat, but the incumbent Congress government in Himachal Pradesh was thrown out in the recent polls. With a per capita income of Rs 33,805 in 2005-06, this is a relatively prosperous state. It has a literacy level of 90%, and its elite is composed of apple growers from the upper Himachal region, who earn much more than the orange growers of the lower Himachal region. Despite all talk of ?inclusive growth?, the state?s middle class felt let down by inadequate water and power supply. Uneven apple and orange procurement policies generated their own set of misgivings.
Then, take the Hindi heartland of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the economic laggards of the country?despite their natural resource endowments. Too much politics here has meant too much suffering of the common man. Bihar and UP revel in caste politics, rivalries and revenge.
Gandhiji?s concept antyodaya, involving care for the poorest, was attempted by Bhairon Singh Shekhawat?s BJP government, which gave a pair of goats to the poorest families in Rajasthani villages, but the successor BJP government scrapped the scheme. It?s sad but true. The great vision of Jawaharlal Nehru is long forgotten in the Hindi heartland.
What of the south? Tamil Nadu is the fountainhead of reservation politics and freebies. Quotas for education and jobs are seen as the panacea for development. Merit is anathema. Excellence is shunned. Rajiv Gandhi?s concept of Navodaya schools found no takers in Tamil Nadu. Schools are sources of unskilled labour for factories. Sir Ken Robinson of the Getty Foundation in Los Angeles observes in his book, Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative, ?The whole apparatus of public education has largely been shaped by the needs and ideologies of industrialism, predicated on old assumptions about the supply and demand for labour. The key words of the system are linearity, conformity and standardization.? The ears, eyes and minds of children in schools want to escape the boredom of classrooms to rove the cyber universe. But Tamil Nadu?s schools won?t allow it. It?s sad but true. Tamil Nadu has forgotten intellectuals like Rajaji, CV Raman and Chandrasekhar.
Karnataka owes its prosperity to NR Narayana Murthy and Azim Premji. Chandrababu Naidu tried to do it in Hyderabad, but in both states, the prosperity did not reach beyond the state capitals. Last but not least, there?s the Kerala Model. It has long been admired for its emphasis on education and health, and there is prosperity. But rising health and education costs are making the model unsustainable and the wealth is accounted for by remittances from the Gulf. It?s sad, but true. As in West Bengal, which has forgotten Netaji, successive Marxist governments in Kerala have failed to lift people above the poverty line. Were Karl Marx alive today, looking at the way Marxists talk and behave in Bengal and Kerala, he would have again shouted, ?I am not a Marxist!?
The author is a former senior bureaucrat. These are his personal views