|
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.
|
METRO TODAY
Web
Exclusives