Creating History
Aamir Khan steers away from mushy romance in lush locations in his first production, Lagaan. The formula-busting period film on colonial arrogance, backed by good acting, promises to give Indian cinema a classy makeover.

Governance On
The Hold
Absent ministers, coalition politics and an unwell prime minister paralyse all decision making at the Centre. With business sentiments diving and industrial growth rate receding, the alarm bells have begun to ring.

Super Clinic Inc.
Patients will be treated as customers with some companies hoping to revolutionise the Rs 60,000-crore private healthcare market. They are setting up a chain of neighbourhood health clinics that will provide quality medical care.

Fostering Ill-will
The arrest of Jayalalitha's foster son may be linked
to the sour relationship.

Crescent Classroom
An organisation has given madarsa education in the state a communal slant.

THE NATION: THE GOVERNMENT

State Of Inactivity

Administrative absenteeism, unfulfilled promises, stalled decisions — governance comes to a standstill in Delhi

By Rohit Saran

With due apologies to the 17th-century mathematical genius Sir Issac Newton, his three laws of motion can be modified to describe the state of functioning-or non-functioning-in the Government of India today:

1. Most ministries and departments are at rest unless acted upon by a crisis.

2. The acceleration of work is inversely proportional to the need for that work and directly proportional to the lobbying for the assignment.

3. For every attempt to do a task, there is an equal and opposite reaction to stop it.

Blame ministers' absenteeism, blame coalition politics, blame the prime minister's knee operation or blame a weakened Prime Minister's Office, whatever may be the reasons the Central Government's decision making has been acutely paralysed in the past three months. Barring opening up of some industries for foreign investment on May 8, not a single important decision has been taken by any economic ministry of the Government since the beginning of this fiscal year.

Not that the ministries are short of work. Budget 2001 had rolled out an ambitious task list for all ministries ranging from labour to food and from disinvestment to petroleum. But as the first quarter of the financial year 2001-2 draws to an end, none of the ministries have much to show as achievement.

The big legislative changes promised by Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha haven't even been proposed in Parliament. A new Electricity Bill, which has already been through eight draft revisions, and bills to amend the Industrial Disputes Act and the Contract Labour Act were promised during the budget session. But none was actually presented in Parliament before the session ended on April 27. Commitments less daunting and less significant haven't been fulfilled too.

For instance, the Government had decided to wind up the Banking Services Recruitment Boards (through which all public-sector banks must recruit their employees) "by July 31 or earlier". This one step would impart the much-needed autonomy to public-sector banks in hiring their staff. But as the deadline draws near, the boards are still in place. July 31 is also the deadline for downsizing of six ministries and departments. But apart from the Finance Ministry none of the ministries scheduled to surrender redundant posts are known to have done so. The Government has also planned to sell its shares in 27 public-sector units (PSUs) this year. Not one disinvestment has yet taken place since April. Probably the Government is yet to find its feet after the bitter controversy over the balco privatisation in March this year.

A host of PSUs are without an executive head for more than a year. The appointment of IPCL's managing director has been in abeyance for almost a year and a half. The hunt for IDBI's chairman hasn't ended even after six months. Amitabh Kumar was VSNL's acting chairman since July 1998 till he was refused confirmation last month. After Kumar's exit the PSU is headless. This at a time when its monopoly of international phone calls is scheduled to end and its ISP business is swamped with competition. The company is also among the front-runners for privatisation. The regulatory authority for the power industry, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, is without a chairman since January this year and the Government is yet to appoint a petroleum secretary.

Of course, in some cases even the announcement of an appointment didn't really mean an appointment. In February, the Government appointed Telecom Secretary Shyamal Ghosh as additional chief secretary of Gujarat in charge of (post-earthquake) rehabilitation. The appointment never took place and Ghosh is still the telecom secretary. In April, the Government appointed Hardeep Puri, deputy high commissioner to UK, as India's new ambassador to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The appointment was withdrawn within a few days. Whatever may be the cause for such flip-flops, it does reflect the inability of the Government to take the right decisions at the right time.

Surely, not the entire indecision is the Government's folly. The Opposition's non-cooperation in Parliament was the reason why the promised legislations couldn't be presented in Parliament during the budget session. Even the passage of the Finance Bill (the core of the Union Budget) during the session became a task in itself. "Many legislative decisions are held up not because of the Government's lack of commitment, but because of political non-cooperation," claims Jagdish Shettigar, head of the BJP's economic cell.

But that's about the only inaction the Government can claim it is innocent of. The blame for failure to downsize ministries, inability to find people to head PSUs and prolonged bickerings on heavyweight projects like the Dabhol Power Company's rests entirely with the Government. No less inimical had been rumours that Sinha would be removed from the Finance Ministry. Elements within the BJP and its affiliated organisations have fanned such speculation. BJP insiders admit that such rumours and the sustained attack on Sinha on issues of labour reforms and WTO, which actually belong to other ministries, did upset the momentum of reforms. The flying off of eight Union ministers to different global destinations in June does not convey the image of a government wanting to get down to serious governance. The escalation of the Tehelka tension-which created the legislative logjam in Parliament during the budget session-can also be attributed to the NDA coalition partners.

The fallout of the prolonged season of indecision is already in black and white. The latest figures for industrial production reflect a sharp deceleration in the economy. In April 2001, industry grew by an annual rate of just 2.7 per cent. In April 2000, the growth rate was 6.5 per cent. Business sentiments, buoyed for some time after Budget 2001, are sagging once again. Amidst these alarm bells are some optimists who foresee an early end to the season of indecision. "I'm sure in the next month or so, lots of decisions will be taken," predicts Sanjiv Goenka, president of the CII. Whatever the reasons for Goenka's bold prediction, there are many who hope he has a sixth sense.

MetroScape

Pak Unplugged
Fresh-faced youngsters were cheering through qawwalis, pop songs and poetry reading at India Habitat Centre, Delhi. The occasion? A week-long workshop, "Rehumanizing the Other", was all about promoting neighbourly feelings in a period of bad press.
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The Delhi Government's campaign to clean up the Yamuna was impressive but needs to backed up by measures that can weed out the root causes of the pollution. INDIA TODAY's Special Correspondent Sayantan Chakravarty reports in Long Drive