Free essays-Politics-The National Common Minimum Programme

The National Common Minimum Programme

            The buoyancy in India’s economy, it must be admitted, has left vast sections in the country untouched. What does this multitude expect from the government? Briefly speaking, the basic needs of food, shelter and clothes, equal opportunities and social harmony. If the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has generated some interest, this is because it has tried to give those very assurances to the people of the country, especially the section that was not feeling very good lately.

            The CMP can be viewed as a template for policy-making and governance, and possibly provide answers to most of the queries. But the importance of the 5700-word CMP lies in its delineation of a course for establishing a welfare state in India, a goal without which no nation, even if rich and powerful, can call itself developed. The six basic principles of governance that the government has promised to pursue have been outlined with a view to improving the lot of the lesser privileged sections in the rural and urban areas who constitute the large force of the unorganised sector in the country.

            The CMP has drawn much attention because of its pledge of higher investment in education, healthcare, irrigation, social security and farm productivity. There is a proposal to impose a 2 per cent cess on all Central Government taxes to boost the spending on education. The amount that may be needed for better education—education for all—will run into thousands of crores of rupees. But the goal of apportioning 6 per cent of the GDP to education—half of it for primary and secondary school education—deserves praise.

            With unemployment remaining a serious problem in the country, it is significant that the government will immediately enact a National Employment Guarantee Act which will provide a legal guarantee—the right to work— for at least 100 days of employment to begin with every year for at least one able-bodied person in every rural, urban poor and lower middle-class household. In the interim a massive food-for-work programme will be started. These programmes can transform the very face of India. But the task is enormous. For nearly 100 million unemployed rural workers alone an outlay of Rs 20,000 crore will be needed.

            The CMP has spoken of pursuing an independent foreign policy, in keeping with the past tradition of the country, and promoting multipolarity in world relations, opposing all attempts at unilateralism. In recent past, there was a feeling in the country that India’s foreign policy was disrespecting the traditional independent line that had stood the country well. But there will be no let up in defence. A credible nuclear weapons programme will be maintained while evolving a demonstrable and verifiable confidence-building measures with our nuclear neighbours.

            Tensions in the domestic scene, which had crept in lately, are to be removed by a series of measures outlined in the CMP. The POTA will go but not the determination to fight terrorism. The 15 parties that constitute the UPA have unequivocally vowed to preserve, protect and promote social harmony and firmly deal with all obscurantist and fundamentalist elements who seek to disturb social harmony. The government will enact a comprehensive law to deal with communal violence and encourage the States to adopt that law. It will not come a day too soon as the country has to fast erase all impressions of weakening its commitment to pluralism and secularism.

            While talking about a growth of at least 7 to 8 per cent a year, stress has been laid on the fact that it would be achieved in a manner that each family is assured of a safe and viable livelihood. Women, a majority of whom have known nothing but oppression in homes and work places, can look forward to full empowerment. But a significant move will be to activate Panchayats as effective instruments for implementing poverty alleviation and rural development schemes. The Panchayats may also be credited with funds directly if the States agree. The government will ensure that the Gram Sabha is empowered to emerge as the foundation of the Panchayat Raj.

            India cannot shine without the rural India shining first by eliminating, or at least minimising, rural unemployment and hunger. The CMP has assured that the government would present in the next three months a comprehensive medium-term strategy for food and nutrition security and, if found feasible, move towards universal food security. The public distribution system will be lifted out of its morass with special schemes to reach foodgrain to the destitute and infirm and set up Grain Banks in chronically food-scarce areas. With agricultural production threatening to stagnate, the need for enlarging irrigation facilities can hardly be overemphasized. India has an irrigation potential of over 140 million hectares, but only 65 million hectares have irrigation facilities. Public investment in agriculture has been down to about 10 per cent of the GDP in recent years. A revitalized Panchayati Raj system can rejuvenate rural India and considerably help uplift the agriculture sector. Reforms taken up with the help of the Panchayats have a greater chance of success as direct stakeholders will take genuine care to spend money wisely.

            The speculation that the new government may not be very friendly towards the business community is sought to be dispelled with a commitment to unleash the creative energies of not only entrepreneurs and businessmen but also scientists, engineers and all other professionals and productive forces of society.

            Since the UPA government began its innings with forebodings by certain sections that it would not be enthusiastic about economic reforms, the CMP has reiterated its ‘abiding commitment’ to these reforms but with a human face, a phrase often emphasized by the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, who can rightfully take credit for initiating India’s economic reforms way back in the early 1990s. What it implies is that reforms would be such that stimulate growth, investment and employment. The UPA’s economic reforms will be oriented primarily to spreading and deepening rural prosperity, to significantly improving the quality of public systems and delivery of public services, to bringing about a visible and tangible difference in the quality of life of ordinary citizens of our country, says the CMP.

          The labour policy of the new government rejects the concept of quick hire and fire even as the need for some changes in labour laws is acknowledged. But it has been clearly stated that labour laws that create ‘Inspector Raj’ need to be re-examined. Similarly, the government will continue with the policy of privatisation of public sector units, but not extend it to companies that are making profits. A nation cannot finance its budget by selling its family silver, so to say. The CMP, however, has clarified that public sector units would not be supported if they lead to the emergence of a monopoly that restricts competition. There has to be a direct link between privatisation and social needs.

       The ardent champions of privatisation and liberalisation need not despair with the installation of a government that will lean heavily on the Left for survival. In a paper Dani Rodrik of Harvard University has argued that ‘wholesale liberalisation will not light a country’s entrepreneurial fire; it may indeed snuff them out. Policy tinkering, which clears the way for entrepreneurs to do better without entirely changing the ground beneath them, might be more successful,’ he says. If it is true that India is fast emerging as an economic power then the credit to a large degree has to go to the Prime Minister who, as Finance Minister in a previous government, had demonstrated his abilities by pulling India out of its worst debt crisis and pushed through strong economic reforms. The sceptics need not rush to scoff at promises held out in the CMP which will be implemented under the Prime Ministership of Dr. Manmohan Singh.