The less that is said about Indira Gandhi, the better.

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The less that is said about Indira Gandhi, the better. For, she was the champion of the poor. We know about her ‘garibi hatao’ slogan, nationalisation of banks, and many other pro-left, pro-poor, pro-protectionist policies. She believed that growth has to be combined with measures to ensure the well-being of the poor. “Any severance of the vital link between the needs of growth and of distributive justice will produce stagnation or instability. Both must be avoided,” she said in her Election Budget speech.

Even Manmohan Singh couldn’t avoid it. Anyway, he had moved from the South-South end of the economic ideology spectrum to that of the globalisation one during the 1980s and early 1990s. So, he knew the best of both worlds. “We also recognise that the fruits of growth will take time to reach some of the poorest and weakest sections of our society. To ensure that they too derive benefit in the short run, we have given the highest priority to strengthening programmes of rural development, employment generation, primary education, primary health and other key social sector programmes. These programmes… are beginning to have desirable effects on employment and poverty,” he said.

Therefore, it wasn’t surprising that Chidambaram did the same in 2008. He used a similar language to emphasise more on UPA’s rhetoric of ‘inclusive’ growth. I am sure that the men advising the current FM must have simply picked up the past Election Budget speeches, borrowed a few proposals, a few phrases and sentences, and sent the cut-and-paste job to the government’s printing press. I am sure that these advisors must have been relieved that they didn’t have to think much, or do much work this year. It was so easy this time.

What proves my theory that Finance Ministers simply borrow from past speeches, when it comes to presenting an Election Budget, is the fact that their schemes and proposals to help the poor (read: key vote banks) are almost the same. Only some of them take the pains to tinker with past policies. For instance, unemployment and, therefore, a proposal to launch a rural employment scheme, is an irresistible subject. In some form or the other, the idea keeps coming back like a bad penny.

As Indira Gandhi said: “The provision of adequate employment opportunities is not just a welfare measure. It is a necessary part of the strategy of development in a poor country, which can ill-afford to keep any resources unutilised or under-utilised.” Chavan went a step further and, like Chidamabram, decided that the then restricted National Rural Employment Programme “will operate throughout the country and will be funded 75 per cent by the Centre (emphasis ours).”

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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