What if I am not a Sikh myself, I am certainly a human, and, therefore, I am loud and clear in seeking death for 1984 Sikh genocide culprits. India should be rid of all uncivilised barbarians, high or low, who go on rampage on whatever pretext, killing Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus, Christians or anyone; and shred our social fabric irreparably. Preserving unity in diversity needs delicate handling at the edges, but a sledge-hammer at the core of governance.
I want to laugh, I want to cry. I want to feel good, I want to feel bad. I want to love, I want to hate. I want to enjoy, I want to suffer. I want friends, I want enemies. I want to curse, I want to praise. I want to read, I want to forget. I want company, I want to be alone. I want to fly in bliss, I want to drown in melancholy.
I don’t want to learn any art to live artificially. I don’t want my canvas painted red, blue or green, white or black. I don’t want the strings of my heart fiddled. I don’t want my soul tamed by hope or fear. I don’t want to lose my natural impulse, instinct and whims. I don’t wish to get excited by artificial smiles and hollow words. I don’t want to dissolve myself into a chorus. I want to be the shrillest voice in cacophony.
I want to be natural !
Epidemics are not for political theatrics or for nesting the publicity vultures feeding on the global reputation of their own nation, their own motherland.
In the face of a highly unwarranted, cynical and demotivating criticism forming the basis of an utterly false narrative from certain quarters pursuing their private agendas at the cost of India’s global image, every citizen of India having pride in the Indian nation, its democratic institutions and traditions, it’s world-wide glory, should feel it a solemn duty to shower highest appreciation upon brilliant Indian scientists, committed medical fraternity, untiring frontline workers, civil servants and the policy planners like National Task Force on Vaccine Development, National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC) and National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI), involved in the world’s largest vaccination drive that started on 16th January 2021. Every citizen of India should bow in reverence to those Covid19 Warriors who have laid down their lives, and respectful homage to the victims of the pandemic.
It is indeed very irresponsible, rather shameful, for certain ‘off- tangent mindsets’ in India to have caused ‘vaccination hesitancy’ amongst the people through irresponsible political statements doubting the efficacy and imaginary risk factors of vaccination. A set of highly motivated and ideologically biased educated people, ever ready to maliciously defame and demean their own country to the delight of our detractors on foreign lands, also played their usual publicity games in throwing spanners to obstruct the smooth national vaccination drive and demotivate every nationalist element involved in its success. It is time to call such vicious self-seekers out, and shame them by throwing true fact upon their faces.
As prioritised globally on the recommendations of WHO, vaccination drive in India began with vaccination of Health Care Workers on 16th January 2021, and for Front Line Workers from 2nd February 2021, which was further expanded from 1st March 2021 to persons above 60 years of age and persons above 45 years with associated specified comorbidities. Based on scientific advice, the drive was further expanded to all people above 45 years of age from 1st April 2021, and finally, to all persons above the age of 18 years from 1st May 2021. India, having one of the largest population in the world, has sustainably ramped up the vaccination drive to help reduce mortality. As high as 22.1 crore vaccine doses have been administered in a short span of 138 days till 2nd June 2021. India is amongst the top two countries in terms of vaccine doses administered and the pace of administering these doses.
Responding to the calls from various stakeholders, including many State Governments batting for for equitable distribution of vaccines among the States/UTs, the recent ‘Liberalised Pricing and Accelerated National COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy’ came into effect from 1st May 2021, where vaccine manufacturer would supply 50% of their monthly Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) released doses to Govt. of India channel and rest 50% in ‘Other than Govt of India channel’ which includes supplies to States/UTs and private hospitals and hospitals of industrial establishments to cover the 18 year plus age group. The Central Government has, by conducting informal consultations with the vaccine manufacturers, ensured that the prices of vaccine is uniform for all the States so as to avoid any disparity resulting from one State ending up buying vaccine at a higher price than the other.
In a transparent move, though the States are procuring the vaccines from the manufacturers, the Central Government has determined the pro-rata population of each State in the age group of 18-44 and each State will procure only that quantity so that there is no disparity in availability of vaccines between the States inter-se either based upon difference in their bargaining power or otherwise. Each State is informed by the Central Government in writing about the number of vaccines it would receive every month. It is well known that Central Government is in active discussions with Pfizer, Moderna, J&J and other vaccine developers or manufacturers outside India to facilitate their imports. If these efforts are successful, it will make more quantity of vaccines available for the country.
Till 1st June 2021, a total of 21.85 crore doses have been administered to the beneficiaries of which 1.67 Crore doses were administered to Health Care Workers (98.84 Lakhs 1st doses and 67.88 Lakhs 2nd dose), 2.43 Crore doses to Front Line Workers (1.56 Crore 1st doses and 85.28 Lakhs 2nd doses to FLWs) and 15.61 Crore doses (12.53 Crore 1st doses and 2.95 Crore doses) to beneficiaries above 45 years of age. Around 2.14 Crore doses have been administered to people between 18-44 years of age, which started from 1st May 2021. While the most developed country of the world took 131 days with all the financial and logistical might at its command to reach 22 Crores vaccination mark, India took just a week more, that is 138 days, which is a remarkable testimony to the success of vaccination drive by global standards.
Giant steps are being taken in India to step up the pace of vaccination still further. 100% advance of Rs.1732.50 crores was released to Serum Institute of India (SII) for 11 crore doses of Covishield vaccine for the months of May, June and July. Additionally, 100% advance of Rs. 787.50 crores was released to Bharat Biotech India Ltd (BBIL) for 05 crore Covaxin doses for the months of May, June and July. Additionally, the proposal for supporting at-risk manufacturing of 30 crore doses to the tune of Rs.1500 crores. COVID-19 vaccines by Biological E has also been approved by Govt. of India. Regulatory framework has been relaxed by the National regulator to allow rapid authorization for import of vaccines licensed by drug regulators of USA, UK, EU and Japan. Import of Sputnik V vaccine, which has recently been granted permission for restricted use in emergency situation, has also begun with the first consignment of 1.5 lakh doses.
Imaginary fault-finding has become a serious disposition of many disgruntled elements. In life, those who cannot do anything positive, find something or the other wrong about those who are engaged in positive, constructive work. Social media and lack of accountability in the Indian laws fuel different lobbyists who are out to demoralise our countrymen settled all over the world by painting false picture of India in the world, spreading exaggerated and uncorroborated sensationalism and cynical despondency.
Time has come to shame the ones who are diluting the well-deserved national and international appreciation to everyone in India who is working for the cause of the humanity in the toughest times during Covid19 pandemic, for our nation and its people; and not get distracted by those elements who are pursuing their hidden personal agendas, be it political or an insatiable appetite for self-publicity by creating fake controversies at the cost of truth, at the cost of the morale of the people of India, and at the cost of the global image of our own nation, our motherland.
Jai Hind. Long live India.
• The author, Mr. Sarvesh Kaushal, is a former IPS and IAS Officer who rose to work as the Chief Secretary to Government of Punjab (India) during 2014-2017. He holds post graduate degrees in History (Gold Medallist), Economics, and Bachelor of Laws. He is pursuing legal practice, academics and social service.
* Sarvesh Kaushal
India has almost left the COVID-19 behind. It is now a challenge to synergise all positive economic forces for a revolutionary upturn in Indian economy. It is the time for path-breaking administrative reforms, pump-priming entrepreneurship, innovation and production processes in Indian economy through liberal financing, cutting the red-tape, delays and regulatory corruption. It is the moment for unleashing fullest potential of all sectors of Indian economy.
It is the time to unshackle the private sector of the chains that pull it back. It is time to drastically reform the ageing public sector entities through overhaul of ownerships, managements, processes, dis-investments, partnerships, turn-key operations, or throwing open their management to global domain specialists. Even ifretaining public sector character of some of the PSUs is required, it is time for separating operational freedom and ownership. It is time to end the age-old colonial outdated governmental management hegemonies. It is time to chop the dead wood off the growing tree. It is time to cure the bleeding ulcers. It’s the time to act, and act decisively.
Red tape is the bane of public sector undertakings. ‘Skewered through and through with office-pens, and bound hand and foot with red tape’, just as Charles Dickens famously described the malady of his times, the PSUs are held back by needless red tape and paperwork, and their R&D, technology and operationalinitiatives cannot be capitalised on, as they it is possiblein the case of the private sector. Red tape powered byrigid, outdated framework of self-created rules which suffocate PSUs and retard their efforts to create value and jobs, render them non-competitive vis a vis the private sector and make them take shelter under the State’s protection. The price of inefficient processes and lack of managerial accountability in non-competitive PSUs is borne by the poor tax-payers. Global competition allows the survival of the fittest, and PSUs shall have to either perform or perish. However, time is the essential essence, and Indian economy cannot put its stakes on slow runners, and can not infinitely allow the ‘PSU Culture’ to thrive with cosmetic make-overs. India can not silently wait for their peaceful demise one by one. There is an imperative need of bringing unsparing reforms in the prevalent PSU culture, which should go to the depth of replacing their bone marrowwithout any loss of time.
Giant steps are required to further focus on domestic and external deregulation for encouraging new entry and providing free imports. Substantial changes are required in the trade and payment systems. Foreign Direct Investment process needs further facilitation.Further, capital market and tariff reforms need to be a continuous feature. Public sector enterprises should be made to compete in the market with private enterprises for resources, markets, personnel and technology. Need for fast and flexible commercial decision-making has now emerged much more important than the public enterprises have got used to in the past.
The present global outlook revolves round the point that private sector employers are hugely investing in their workers and communities, because they know it is the only way to be successful over the long term. These modernized principles reflect the business community’s role to continue to push for an economy that serves all the people. The private sector puts the customer first and invests in its employees, shareholders, communities and the nation, which is most promising way to build long-term value. Therefore, no mental blocks or romanticism should stand in the way of path-breaking reform, restructuring and dis-investment.
A dynamic society needs dynamic governance model, not a time frozen heritage institutional structure cast in concrete. The idea to open up governance to draw expertise from the industry, academia and society into the services cannot be disputed. Many developed countries of the world have such systems in place. Concerns regarding conflict of interest can easily be addressed by well drafted and vigilantly enforced agreements and binding undertakings.
Focusing on administrative reforms, Narendra Modi, with his long administrative experience as Chief Minister and Prime Minister, understands that the ‘Steel Frame’ concept in the services was visualised and brought about by Sardar Patel while overruling the highly critical junior members of the Constituent Assembly. It was basically a ‘perpetuity and continuum’ of the British day’s ICS, meant to be the anchor of status-quo in a hierarchical system of governance, where no one person has the final say on anything, and the ‘checks and balances’ make it a perpetual tight-rope walking where the speed and thrust are compromised. Times have changed, and India has new challenges inviting altogether new approach and processes for emerging a global leader.
If the political executive is outsourcing former All India Services Officers to man the ministerial offices in the Union, and if there are Secretaries and Joint Secretaries drawn from experts outside the services, time has come for a fast growing economy to haveaccess to a larger human resource pool of talent for governance. It is undoubtedly an age of super specialisation now. A general medicine practitioner treating every ailment with minimum basic academic benchmark relying upon his experiential clinical sense is no longer enough. The same is true of all professions where lack of up to date super-specialised domain knowledge is erroneously believed a dispensable pre-requisite in the face of experience, that too relevant or irrelevant, and good or bad. The result: there are islands of individual excellence in a vast sea of mediocrity. Economy needs the best, there is no place for the mediocre to lead the managements. Therefore, ‘one size-fits all’ for IAS officers doing everything under the Sun, does not fit into the context of modern times.
There are a large number of brilliant scientists, doctors, engineers, architects, lawyers, scientists, academicians, chartered accountants, bankers and others who opted for a different career routes in the initial years of their lives. Over the years, they super-specialise and acquire both macro and microscopic precision in their respective domains. They need to be roped in as administrators to reach global standards in management.
There is a strong case for lifting the human resource barriers and utilise the best talent available anywhere, within or outside the Government, for managing the government and its public sector entities. This would ensure a free flow of specialisation, expertise and experience; which, coupled with another thrust of economic reforms, synergise into a massive spurt in quality and quantum of outputs in Indian economy.
*The author holds post graduate degrees in History and in Economics, and a Bachelor of Laws. He is a former Chief Secretary to Government of Punjab (India).
Acrimoniously juxtaposed political dispensations ruling the States and the Centre at the same time tend to stretch the Constitutional strings binding the federal structure of India, with the office of Governor becoming its epicentre.
One of the oft repeated irritants that triggers debates is the question of Constitutional propriety of a Governor seeking reports directly from the Chief Secretary or Director General of Police. Another moot point that agitates the elected governments of the State is the issue of President, in whose name the executive authority of the Union is exercised, seeking direct reports from the State Chief Secretary or the State Police Chief in certain circumstances.
Article 1 of the Constitution of India describes the Republic of India as a Union and not Federation. The chairman of the Drafting Committee, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, clarified that “the federation is a union because it is indestructible. Though the country and the people can be divided into different states for convenience of administration, the country is one integral whole, it’s people a single people living under a single imperium derived from a single source.”
A Governor is appointed under article 153 of the Constitution of India. Article 154 further lays down that the executive power of the State shall be vested in the Governor and shall be exercised by him either directly or through officers subordinate to him in accordance with the Constitution. Governor is appointed by the President of India, and holds office during the pleasure of the President. Therefore, Governor holds a dual position, firstly, that of head of state with all executive powers vested in him; and secondly, as an agent of the Centre.
Article 159 lays down that the Governor will subscribe to an oath or affirmation in the name of God or otherwise, to the effect that he will to the best of his ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and the law; and that he will devote myself to the service and well-being of the people of the State.
Article 163 lays down there shall be a Council of Ministers with the Chief Minister at the head to aid and advise the Governor in the exercise of his functions, “except in so far as he is by or under this Constitution required to exercise his functions or any of them in his discretion”. The article further lays down that if any question arises whether any matter is or is not a matter in which the Governor is required to act in his own discretion, the decision of the Governor in his discretion “shall be final”, and the validity of anything done by the Governor “shall not be called in question” on the ground that he ought or ought not to have acted in his own discretion.
Article 355 lays down that it is the duty of the Union to protect States against external aggression and internal disturbance; and to ensure that the government of every State is carried on in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution. Article 356 further lays down that the Governor has to send a report to the President in case of failure of constitutional machinery in the state. In any such situation, it is understandable for the Governor to duly inform the Centre with independent, direct and reliable inputs.
Article 256 lays down that the executive power of every State shall be so exercised as to ensure compliance with the laws made by Parliament and any existing laws which apply in that State, and the executive power of the Union shall extend to giving of such directions to a State as may appear to the government of India to be necessary for that purpose. The Governor is obviously duty-bound to send a report to the Union in case of non-compliance of the constitutional mandate by a State government.
Article 257 further lays down that the executive power of every State shall be so exercised as not to impede or prejudice the exercise of the executive power of the Union. The Union can give directions to a State as may be necessary for that purpose. The Union can give directions to a state for construction and maintenance of means of communication, protection of the railways, etc. in certain cases. In any such situation, it is understandable for the Governor use his constitutional authority to exercise his own discretion and inform the Centre on the strength of independent and correct inputs to his satisfaction, as per the requirement of Article 356, that the government of the State cannot be carried on in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.
Article 164 of the Constitution of India empowers the Governor to appoint the Chief Minister. If there is no political party commanding a clear majority in the Legislative Assembly, the Governor ay exercise his discretion in the appointment of Chief Minister according to his personal assessment at that time.
Under Article 200, the Governor may act in reserving a Bill for the consideration of the President irrespective of any advice from the President. In such matters, the Governor has to discharge his duties to the best of his judgment and pursue such course which is not detrimental to the State.
Under Article 161, the Governor has power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites and remissions of punishment etc. of any person convicted of any offence against any law relating to a matter to which the executive power of the State extends.
Article 217 lays down that the President of India shall appoint every Judge of the High Court of the State in consultation with the Governor of that State.
Similarly, the President of India, in whose name the executive power of the Union is exercised, seeking direct reports from the State Chief Secretary or the State Police Chief in certain circumstances can also not be questioned. If a Governor, who is the agent of the President, can in certain cases seek independent, responsible and credible information; the President/ Union of India, the principal whose agent the Governor is, is also entitled to exercise that authority as a logical corollary, particularly in respect of calling-over and seeking reports from the officers of All India Service, who are the appointees of the President of India.
In view of the Constitutional mandate, the propriety of a Governor seeking reports directly from the Chief Secretary or Director General of Police in certain cases; and further, the President of India, in whose name the executive power of the Union is exercised, seeking direct reports from the State Chief Secretary or the State Police Chief in certain circumstances can not be questioned.
Intellectual integrity must be the inherent hallmark of functioning of high level Constitutional functionaries in a democracy. The Constitutional mandate lays down the general rules of acting upon the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers headed by the Chief Minister; but it also lays down the circumstances warranting invocation of exceptions when Governor can act on his decision. The decision of the Governor to proceed in his own discretion in certain matters, which is final rests upon the realm of conscience.
*The Author, Sarvesh Kaushal, is a former IAS officer, who worked as Chief Secretary to Government of Punjab (India). He holds postgraduate degrees in History and Economics, besides that of Bachelor of Laws.
Since India gained independence in 1947, the Indian economy passed through various challenges. On the eve of independence,the size of its population was 360 million, and the literacy level was just around 12 percent. Presently, the population has touched 1.35 billion, and literacy level has jumped to 74 percent. Its GDP in 1950 was around $30.6 billion. By 2020 beginning, the GDP rose to $3.202 trillion. The Indian economy is now the fifth-largest in the world in terms of nominal GDP, and third largest by Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) (Mohan, 2020).
The Indian economy adopted different models for development over the years. During the 1950s, the main emphasis was on having a planned economy/mixed economy. Industrialisation began mainly in the public sector, and efforts were made to become self-sufficient in food grains production. Owing to those efforts, in agriculture India is surplus in food grains production. The second phase of the Indian economy started with economic reforms initiated during the 1980s and accelerated from 1990s onwards.
In these phases of development of the Indian economy, there is one other country, i.e. China that can provide a benchmark for comparison. In 1949, China’s population was 540 million, and literacy level was 20 percent. In 2019, China had a population of 1.39 billion, and literacy is around 85 percent. Both India and China have significant reservoirs of human resources. The difference is only in types of government. In China, the government is centralised and coercive to achieve targets, while it is democratic in India. Economic reforms started in both countries during the 1980s.
The third phase of the Indian economy started in 2014 with the present regime under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The government gave various energetic slogans and unleashed a new resolve to create a stronger economy. The NITI Aayog released in 2018 the ‘strategy for New India @ 75’, which is the corollary of Prime Minister’s slogan “New India by 2022”. The main message was to ensure balanced development across all the states with collective efforts and effective governance. The strategy covered as many as 41 sectors for balanced growth with few strategic priorities, and set the target of $4 trillion economy by 2022 (additional 1 trillion of GDP in three years) (Aggarwal, 2020). During the COVID-19 pandemic, the PM gave another call of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ (Self-Reliant India) movement supported by the ‘Vocal for Local’ (Goyal, 2020). The other slogans like Make in India, Digital India, DBT, and Clean India are meant to impact the economy in future positively.
Since the economy was noticeably suffering a slowdown in January 2020, the revised GDP growth estimates came downwards to 5 percent, which became a cause of concern. India’s general government deficit, which was estimated at a whopping 7.5% to 9% of the Gross Domestic Product in 2019, is mopping up most of the net financial savings of the households, which are estimated at around 11% of the GDP. When the economy was not under stress, the gap between the combined deficit and total household savings was 6 to 8% of the GDP, which is now around 2%; and therefore, the private sector is comparatively starved of funds. (Montek, 2020)
Further, two immediate factors which impacted the Indian economy are, firstly, Covid- 19 pandemic, and secondly, the prospect of India- China military face off spilling over to the realm of economics. To put things in perspective, in terms of per capita income, China is ahead of India. China is an upper-middle-income country. The per capita income in China is $10,276 against $2,104 for India. China and India are trading in large volumes, with India suffering a huge trade deficit.
In six months Covid-19 has already caused a slowdown in global economies. The cost of economic disruption caused globally by the pandemic has been estimated between $9 trillion and $33 trillion. The global consulting company Mckinsey has emphasised that the cost of preventing future pandemics would be much less than the cost of suffering future pandemics. Rightly observing that the pandemic has exposed the weaknesses in the walls of infectious-disease- surveillance and-response capabilities, it rues that investments in public health and other public goods are solely undervalued; investments in preventive measures, where success is invisible, even more so. The attention should not shift once the pandemic recedes, thinking that the world is free to have its way for another one century till such a pandemic hits again. It is imperative to understand that this pandemic is neither the last one nor is there any guarantee that pandemics will not come with higher frequency. According to the report prepared by Mckinsey, global spending of $30-$220 billion over the next two years and $20-$40 billion annually after that could substantially reduce the likelihood of future pandemics.
Mckinsey offers a candid caveat that these are high-level global estimates with wide error bars and that they do not include all the costs of strengthening health systems around the world. The wide gaps prevail on health expenditures as percentage of GDP across countries. In India, health expenditure as percentage of GDP is 3.5%, in China it is 6.5%, and in developed countries like USA, it is 17.7%. In India, the centre and state budget allocation to health is around 4-5% whereas other countries allocate around 8-10% of the budget to health care.
India’s present GDP per capita is around $2,104. China’s per capita GDP is $10,261, and that of the US is $54,795. The Indian economy will have to move forward on a fast track. China’s GDP was 5% of the $GDP in the 1980s, but today it is almost 60% of the US GDP (Nominal). As per the World Bank classification, India falls in the lower-middle-class country with GNI per capita ranging between $1026-3995, while China is an upper-middle-class country with GNI per capita ranging between $3996-12,375. By way of an illustration of the objective ahead, the United States of America and a large number of other countries fall under the high-income countries group with GNI per capita more than $12,376. India’s share of world GDP is less than 4%, whereas it is around 15% in the case of China and 23.6% in the case of the USA. Indian economy needs a determined, consistent, big push to scale itself to a much higher and bigger operating economic platform and to come out of economic slowdown that emerged due to pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic, having inflicted direct disruption to production, supply chain, financial impact on firms and financial markets; unemployment; the stress of the banking systems due to the moratoria on repayments along with NPAs; a deadly blow to hospitality, tourism and transport sectors, combined with the essential cash and kind subsidies and doles to mitigate the pandemic stress on the poor in particular, and all sectors of the economy in general has the potential to put Indian economy in a tailspin. However, timely interventions by a decisive and a resolute leadership combined with the tenacity and fighting spirit of the Indian industries, in general, has the potential of converting the pandemic tragedy into a global opportunity to lead the other countries through a process of faster recovery.
India’s tax to GDP ratio is around 10%; while most developed countries have tax to GDP ratio of 30%. Indian economy needs resources to strengthen the health sector leadership, healthcare financing, health workforce, medical products and technologies, information and research and service delivery, which is the WHO prescription for achieving the desired outcomes of the improved health level and equity, responsiveness, financial risk protection and improve efficiency.
Banking is the backbone of any planned economic resurgence. There has been a policy trend to undertake public expenditure by the government, either through direct spending or through facilitating bank credit for private investments. Although attention has been paid in the recent past to the non-productive assets accumulated in the banks, and some remedial measures are underway, there has been an indiscreet proportion of lending, at times without adequate diligence, with the sole purpose of accelerating growth.
As growth in itself has become a politically flagged yardstick of achievement, the direct or indirect government ownership of the banks has contributed to dilute their essentially commercial and business-like operations. The public ownership has created an environment where market discipline is perceptibly weak, and where the regulators remain circumscribed. Over decades, investment entities, financial institutions and non- banking financial companies have been used to support vague and extraneous objectives underwriting the government’s disinvestment targets, preserving employment in public enterprises, contributing assistance to states based on the political clout of the representatives, intermittently providing artificial support to stock markets, and occasionally ignoring lapses in due diligence.
Special attention is required to ensure sound health and reliability of the government banking sector, which needs to set up excellent benchmarks for private banks. However in India, it is the other way round. In public perception, the depositors are no longer as confident of the nationalised banks for the security of their deposits, as they used to be a decade earlier. It is interesting to note that between March 2018 and March 2019, when the safety perceptions got ruffled, the deposits in private banks exceeded those in the nationalised banks. As against INR 4.8 trillion deposits in private banks, the government banks secured only INR 2.3 trillion of deposits after netting out the deposits of IDBI upon its reclassification as a private bank. Even the foreign portfolio investors preferred private banks. However, the nationalised banks still outperform the private banks in return of assets and return on equity (Patel, 2020). In 2019-20 the government infused INR 70,000 crore into public sector banks to boost credit for a strong impetus to the economy.
Thanks to an increasing realisation of the government about the need to tackle the burning issue of non-productive assets (NPAs) of the banks and emphatic insistence upon provisioning, there has been a reversion to the immensely needed working culture of securing the credit with strictest due diligence. During this pandemic time, many accounts would turn NPAs, especially those which were already in stress. Mergers and other administrative initiatives tend to increase the productivity of nationalised banks, which otherwise suffer from far lower revenue per employee as compared to their counterparts in private banking. It is a matter of grave concern that the amounts swindled through frauds have been ten times more in the nationalised banks as compared to their counterpart private banks.
It is excruciating, but a very welcome development for future reforms from the government, as well as the regulator. Reported cases of fraud of around INR 10 billion in 2018 multiplied exponentially thereafter (RBI-December 2019 Financial Stability Report UP 32), and the entire machinery has started the much-awaited sanitisation by getting after the cases of fraud hidden under the cloak of non-productive assets of the banks. This will hopefully make the banking sector emerge more robust anti-corruption measures. The troubled shadow banks saw signs of stimulus when the government in mid-May announced INR 3 trillion of collateral-free loans to the nation’s small businesses and INR 705 billion special credit loans to non-bank financiers.
Another moot point in public spending is that of the systemic leakages that take away a substantial part of the benefits that every unit of input must seek to achieve in the process of pump- priming the economy. Though bona fide and active initiatives have been taken, the leaking pipes have neither been replaced nor adequately repaired. The inevitable result is that more money is being pumped into the leaking pipes, and more the money pumped in, much more is the leakage. There is hardly any worthwhile quantitative comparison data between what the NITI Aayog has been able to achieve and improve upon and what the Planning Commission of India had lacked in the process of pumping funds into the leaking pipes operated both by the Centre as also by the States, which enjoyed substantial autonomy in operating the leaky system. Like the rest of the world, the Covid-19 pandemic has struck at the roots of almost all market forces, throwing various ongoing trends topsy-turvy. A demand-driven economy substantially catering to domestic consumption has suddenly reversed into a surplus capacity economy with the market forces of demand suffering a free fall on account of curtailed consumption levels.
Nothing can generate more demand than a firm resolve towards creating an Atmanirbhar Bharat. “The five pillars of Atmanirbhar Bharat – Economy, Infrastructure, System, Demography and Demand are aimed with a bird’s eye view on all the sectors and sections of society alike. Infrastructure, as an identity of the country; System, to bring in technology-driven solutions; Vibrant Demography; and, demand, tapping the demand- supply chain optimum utilisation of resources” (Yojana, July 2020). The Prime Minister has announced a unique economic and comprehensive package of INR 20 lakh crore, equivalent to 10% of India’s GDP, to support the five pillars of Atmanarbhar Bharat, calling upon the people to become vocal for our local products, and the industry to make the local products turn global in terms of production standards, quality and marketing.
Being self-reliant is critical for the growth strategy of Indian economy and to make it more export-oriented. Just taking note of India’s trade flow with China for an example, the imports by India from China stood at $73.3 billion, much higher than India’s exports to China pegged at $16.7 billion, leaving India’s trade deficit with China at the staggering level of $53.6 billion. The manufacturing sector in India could not grow as fast as compared to China and South Korea. In China and India, the economic reforms started during the 1980s onwards. During the period from 1961 to 2018, China grew by more than 10% in 22 years while India could never cross that mark even for a single year. The miracle of industrial growth happened in China by foreign direct investments in the selected regions on an experimental basis, the SEZs (Special Economic Zones) developed with foreign investments. Moreover, the state-owned enterprises at the local level of cities and villages known as TVEs linked to markets directly became ancillary industries. The labour laws became flexible and investments in the enterprises by the locals were encouraged. The legal system in China did not protect private property rights, and land acquisition is still not a hurdle as it is in India for setting industrial units. Gradually, the Chinese manufacturing sector shifted from labour intensive to capital intensive.
Much more worrying is the nature of India’s imports such as capital goods like power plants, telecom equipment, steel projects; intermediate products like pharmaceutical APIs, chemicals, plastics engineering goods; and finished products like fertilisers, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, telephones etc. Low-cost consumer goods meeting every human need at the micro- level manufactured in China have invaded the Indian markets and have given a severe jolt to the Indian traditional and modern manufacturing sectors.
In India, the manufacturing sector always remained under the protection of the state. High import tariffs, inflexible labour laws, protection to small industries and inefficiency in state-owned enterprises could not create a milieu for the development of a competitive manufacturing sector. The industry, with particular emphasis on SME, will have to shed its internal inefficiencies fundamentally caused by the complacent, unprofessional, and hereditary ownerships-cum- management. Time has come when the increasing international competition will not allow the industry the luxury it has enjoyed so far, of passing on the cost of its inefficiencies to the consumers, who opt for products with higher quality at a much lesser cost.
Efforts to make the Indian MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) competitive globally leave much to be desired. MSMEs contribute as much as 30% of the GDP and hence become a top priority. Presently, one of the welcome steps to support viable MSMEs in the face of their destabilisation due to the Covid-19 pandemic is the Reserve Bank of India stepping in to restructure the advances to this priority sector.
With a liberal classification on August 6, 2020, raising the aggregate exposure limit to the borrower INR 25 crore as on March 1, 2020, with a few more conditions, RBI has stepped in to benefit their accounts which may have slipped into NPA category. Similarly, the RBI has allowed banks to reckon the funds infused by the promoters in their MSME units through loans under Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises / Distressed Assets Fund as equity/quasi-equity from the promoters for debt-equity computation. Further, the Indian economy can leapfrog ahead of others by dint of a creative policy on innovation. India’s Science, Technology and Innovation Policy of the year 2013 cater to the three pillars of talent, technology and trust, aimed at orienting public procurement towards innovative production.
India has a large population; some feel that it is a liability. A large population is not altogether a liability if it is converted into an economy’s strength. It creates much consumption-related demand; and if made employable and productive, it creates a massive tailwind for the economy to push it to grow at a faster pace. The issue is squarely related to the productivity of our labour, and value-added per average labourer in the process of production, which adds on to the Gross Domestic Product. It is a matter of concern that the value-added per worker in India is just about 10% of a US worker. China’s labour productivity in terms of value-added per worker is 2 ½ times more as compared to India. A two-pronged approach of skilling India’s labour force and providing it with the requisite resources is a prerequisite to increase the value-added per worker, thereby increasing the gross domestic product of India. Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna operated by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (PMKVY) has the potential of giving a quantum jump to the gross national product by increasing the productivity and value-added per worker far beyond the present levels. There is a dire need to upgrade the skills of the Indian labour force to international standards by involving the industry for developing the necessary framework, curriculum and quality benchmarks.
The prioritisation of relevant skills should be left to the industry for meeting their demand, with a clear idea on those skills which can have a catalyst effect and multiply productivity to a geometrical growth. Though the National Skill Development Corporation boasts of having trained more than 5 million students in India, the qualitative skilling evaluation would not only capture the total numbers but essentially the increase that it has caused in the value addition per trained worker as compared to an untrained one. The government of India has identified high priority sectors for imparting skills with an eye upon fast track results as a part of Make in India initiative, where the economy has still miles to go ahead.
Agriculture and allied activities are already areas of specific focus because even though the contribution of primary sector to the GDP has come down substantially over the years, still about 70% of farm households in India own less than 1 hectares of land, and about 85% of the farm households own less than 2 hectares of land. Livestock and other allied agricultural activities which are required to supplement the income arriving from core agriculture require a revolution to take the primary sector to the next higher level of productivity and value addition. Indian agriculture made rapid progress in terms of production, but certain geographical constraints and lack of market orientation make it less competitive relatively to countries like China.
The Indian and Chinese agrarian economies are two ancient economies of the world. In both nations, a massive number of farmers depend upon agricultural income for survival. China has an advantage in irrigation when compared to Indian agriculture. India is the land of monsoons, where torrential rainfall is concentrated in a concise period of the year; whereas, in China, the average rainfall (at least in the more settled parts of the country) is somewhat more evenly distributed over the year. Reservoir storage of water supply in China for irrigation is almost five times that of India. Chinese agriculture productivity started improving since the 1980s when the shift came from collective farms to household responsibility farming. Chinese rice productivity is two times more than that in India. The share of agriculture in GDP in China is 7.11 percent, and in India, it is 15.4 percent. Percentage of persons employed in agriculture in China is 25.1, and in India, it is 42.39 percent as large inequality prevails in land ownership in India. (Bardhan, 2011) For the production of high-value crops, contracts between farmers and corporates are more successful in India than in China, especially in dairy and food processing. Market liberalisation in agriculture came in China after de-collectivisation. The compulsory quota and procurement systems have been abandoned by the government. In India, recently at the time of the pandemic, special packages have been designed for the agriculture sector and certain legislations have been amended to make the market free from state control. The Essential Commodities Act is being amended to help the farmers generate higher incomes by deregulating agriculture foodstuffs including cereals, edible oils, oilseeds, pulses, onions and potatoes etc. No stock limit applies to processors or value chain participants, with a few conditions, and further, it has been decided to impose stock limit under rare circumstances like national calamities, famine etc. as a price intervention by the state. The ordinances namely The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020, and The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, 2020, have been promulgated with a focus on the rural economy. The implications of various initiatives envisaged through these legislations has evoked much interest and are being intensely debated by various stakeholders. The resistance to these amendments from the farmer unions in many states is a big challenge to the government.
The Indian economy has indeed made substantial progress in the field of governance through re-engineering of business processes, technology and data analysis. The CEO of NITI Aayog informs that the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) has been implemented across 437 schemes, and helped to save INR 83,000 crore till date. He further discloses that its implementation has led to 2.75 crore duplicate, fake or non-existent ration cards being deleted, and 3.85 crore duplicate and inactive consumers for Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) subsidy being eliminated. Blockchain technologies can improve India’s prospects at ease of doing business rankings, elimination and resolution of litigation arising out of contractual obligations, compromises in quality control, and others. The Goods and Services Tax (GST), though still under the process of stabilisation, has added 3.4 million new indirect taxpayers. There is an imperative need to focus upon the application of Artificial Intelligence in the fields of agriculture, health care and education in the Indian economy.
As the Indian economy gears up on a fast track of growth, the conflict between “development” and “environment” will surely become more intense. The central and state ministries of environment will have to play a far more proactive role to ensure that development and ecological concerns are balanced for not only increasing the GDP but also for ensuring long-term sustainability through a pollution-free life. “If development is about the expansion of freedom, it has to embrace the removal of poverty as well as paying attention to ecology as integral parts of a unified concern, aimed ultimately at the security and advancement of human freedom. Indeed, important components of human freedoms-and crucial ingredients of our quality of life-are thoroughly dependent on the integrity of the environment, involving the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the epidemiological surroundings in which we live” (Dreze & Sen, 2013).
These are indeed challenging times. It is time for tough decisions, sound strategy, and a zero error implementation to be ahead of others in the changing global scenario.
*Sarvesh Kaushal is a retired Bureaucrat. He is a former Chief Secretary of Government of Punjab (India).
References:
The turf war between the ‘elected’ and the ‘selected’ representatives of the people is turning ugly as they increasingly engage themselves in abusive exchanges and physical aggression.
Elected representatives of the people face acid test for survival in elections every five years. Civil servants, who are selected from the people to join the All India and other services, are better off because they pass the crucial acid test only once in the form of a competitive examination, and thereafter have an assured career of four decades or so. Both sides claim to be patriotic, honest, public spirited and working under an oath of allegiance to the same Constitution. That all is not well in their mutual relationship is the worst kept secret of Indian polity.
Elected representatives feel tormented because they suffer continuing tyranny unleashed upon them by their electorate; and they go all out to appease every voter and pressure group at any cost. In the process, they feel compelled at times even to dilute the fundamentals of public policy, resort to competitive populism and questionable interventions. They feel a dire need to showcase their activities and claim credit for whatever possible because of an inherent lurking fear of rejection by their electorate in the next elections.
Though Sardar Patel perceived the services as ‘Steel Frame’ of the Union, and the officers as valuable instruments of governance, but compulsions of electoral politics and pressures from the electorate often bring up expectations that the instruments must turn flexible, and even pliable; sometimes for bona fide spontaneous response to a given situation in public interest, and sometimes for reasons patently indefensible.
While the journey from base level politics to elevated statesmanship has been too long and unsurmountable for some politicians even after seven decades of our democracy at play, unfortunately the ICS legacy and ways still remain indelibly etched on upon some of the civil servants of independent India too. That’s the bane of the present situation.
The present day criticism of civil servants by the elected representatives in legislative assemblies and other public fora is not new. Even in the Constituent Assembly debates in various contexts in 1949, the ways of the ICS officers, their brand new motor cars, their inordinately high remuneration and perks, their fashionable wives, their posh bungalows and their failure to change their behaviour and outlook found mention as a reflection of bitterness between the law makers and the civil servants.
Elected members seem to have forgotten Sardar Patel’s profound advice not to keep quarrelling with the very instruments from whom they have to take work, because every man wants some sort of encouragement, and nobody wants to put in work when every day he is criticised and ridiculed in public. He also pointed out a growing malady of an arbitrary tendency in several provinces where the services were set upon and told, ‘No, you are servicemen, you must carry out our orders’.
The answer to the strife is that both the sides need to appreciate and respect the role of one another. Legislation, policy formulation and overseeing the roll-out of policy programmes are the prerogatives of the elective representatives in a democracy. They are answerable to the people and their performance is judged by people every five years. In a democracy, they have higher protocol precedence than the civil servants they work with. Civil servants are the instruments of just, fair and transparent governance as per the Constitutional mandate, laws of the land and public policy.
A positive response to the statesman-like expectations of the elected representatives by public spirited civil servants brings out the best in governance. That’s an ideal situation. However, in lesser times, a raving and ranting base-level politician on the one side, or an equally reticent, obdurate or stiff necked civil servant on the other side, can contribute to vitiate the milieu.
It is time the elected representatives understand that a civil servant must never be pushed to a corner with an option to ‘collude or collide’, and the officers need to understand that an elected representative must never be pushed to an unbearable level of frustration in a genuine public cause; for that marks the beginning of the end of good governance.
*The author is a former Chief Secretary to Government of Punjab (India)
Before a mid-term evaluation of India’s response in the face of COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential to narrow down the focus to the most reliable section of the statistics, i.e; the number of confirmed deaths per every million of a country’s population. As on 8th May, 2020, India has suffered 1.37 deaths per 1 million of its population as compared to UK 450.9, Italy 495.4, USA 228.61, Sweden 301, and, nearer home, China having faced 3.2 confirmed deaths per million of its total population. The data, and the resultant interpretations, are so incontrovertible that it requires very little scope for scepticism in giving a thumbs up to India.
As per well the well-established data, there is only an insignificant time lag of one week between UK and India when they recorded their first COVID-19 death on 7th March and 13th March respectively. USA reported its first COVID-19 death on the 1st March 2020. With the time lag of just 1–12 days between USA, UK and India, they can very well be compared as contemporaries in terms of timelines of COVID-19 management. In that light, the comparison of number of confirmed deaths per 1 million of their total population becomes relevant. There was either something seriously wrong in how the pandemic was handled in the USA and UK; or there was something outstanding in the way it has been handled in India so far.
The USA and the UK are far more privileged than India in terms of availability of health infrastructure and medical personnel, financial resources and the general affluence of their society. While India has a large population of about 135 crores, the USA and UK can micro-manage their smaller populations, which are just a fraction of the size and dimension of the challenge that India faces. Still, there has been a commendable uniqueness in the Indian approach to the pandemic resulting in just a miniscule number of confirmed deaths as compared to USA and UK. Obviously, there are reasons for that, which are not far to seek in a fair and unbiased analysis.
A bold, proactive, timely and effective lockdown ordered by Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is acknowledged as a landmark of ‘Gold Standard Governance’ all the world over. The effectiveness of the lockdown has been appreciated by the World Health Organisation [WHO] as “tough and timely”. According to Lancet, a reputed medical journal, the “lockdown is already having the desired effect of flattening the epidemic curve”.
It is a puzzle for the analysts as to how it could be achieved in a democracy where the governments generally dither and procrastinate under the fear of an electoral backlash. It is now an irrefutable fact that the Indian government acted purely in public interest, at whatever cost to the political interests of the ruling regime at the centre. This was squarely lacking in the response of USA and UK to the COVID-19 pandemic, where the banning overseas and domestic mobility, lockdown and its enforcement, pandemic preventive strategy, and such crucial decisions got either delayed or diluted due to indecisiveness.
The Indian Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, often faces criticism for having acquired a larger than life stature in the Indian democracy. His critics, for their own political reasons, may have been unhappy about his tall stature and popular mass appeal, but it certainly proved to be a boon in carrying the people of India along through the hardships that afflict all the layers of society during a deadly global pandemic. A testimony to the fact as to how India rallied behind the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi was the rarest of the rare sight of a country of 135 crore people lighting candles, sounding bells and every piece of metal around, and showering flower petals on health and sanitation workers on his call to the nation. The COVID-19 awareness became viral much ahead of the Coronavirus in India.
The core challenge of essential supplies management during the present lockdown was focussed not only upon the permanent residents in distress, but also on approximately 5 crore persons who had migrated inter-state for employment. With the precautionary mobility restrictions preventing them from falling back to the joint family resources back home; and the employers, on account of their own economic compulsions, retrenching daily-wage employees or ordering major cuts in the salaries of regular employees; the welfare of the migrants squarely emerged as the responsibility of the Government.
Had the migrant labour been allowed to immediately fan out to their homes all over India, mainly in the rural areas with lesser healthcare infrastructure and manpower, it would have amounted to inviting a disaster for them and their near and dear ones back home. Despite the critics having kept on blaming the government for the lockdown hardships to the migrant labour, the Prime Minister’s answer to them, unwavering as usual, was ‘Jaan Hai To Jahan Hai’, i.e; saving human life is the first and foremost priority, the hardships come and go, and all that we need to do is to endeavour to go all out to minimise the hardships by extending our helping hand to our brothers and sisters in crisis.
Facing a Herculean challenge, the Modi government promptly announced a pandemic related relief package of Rs. 1.7 Lac crores to be released during the three months of April to June. Rs. 9930 crores were promptly credited to the bank accounts of 19.86 crore women as the first instalment of Rs 500 each. As many as 2.8 crores senior citizens were paid Rs. 1450 crores as the first of the two Rs. 500 instalments. Another Rs.14946 crores were transferred to the bank accounts of 7.47 crore farmers as the first of the two instalments of Rs. 1000 crores each.
Further, the New India Assurance Company, an entity of the State, provided blanket life insurance of Rs. 50 lacs to more than 20 lac frontline healthcare staff. The Government also provided nearly 1 crore free cooking gas cylinders under PM Ujwala Yojna, which will be refilled free of cost in the next three months. Under PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojna, 40 million tonnes of foodgrains are being distributed to the poor, with every targeted household getting 5Kg wheat or rice and 1 Kg of pulse every month. The package extends to EPF of employees, loans to women’s self-help groups, increase of MNREGA wages from Rs. 182 to Rs.202 per day, and so on.
Effective leadership has a major motivational role for larger public, philanthropists, NGOs, corporates and social workers. It goes to the credit of India’s leadership that through his motivational strength, the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi successfully invoked a great nationalist spirit amongst the people, and awakened the real India, a country inhabited by the profoundly spiritual, highly cultured, ethically enabled and morally sound millions, who would go all out, never to let anyone die of starvation.
The Indian government, despite the meagre resources available to a developing country, utilised every moment of the lock down, procured protective gears and facial masks for health and sanitation Corona warriors, arranged ventilators to the extent possible, created quarantine facilities, commissioned mobile hospitals and added more than 2 lac hospital beds making a total of 18,99,228 beds in 69265 hospitals, out of which the 25778 public sector hospitals have 7,13,986 beds now. The number of ICU beds in India has been increased to 94961, with 47481 ventilators. Within a short span of two months, India has become world’s second largest PPE kit producer, making more than 2 lac kits a day, besides pioneering the production of reusable kits at the lowest price. In addition to its own needs, India also supplied essential medicines like hydroxychloroquine and other health equipment to more than 100 countries of the world to register its solidarity to fight the global pandemic together.
A section of international and social media, piloted by a few core capitalist economists, criticised the Indian lockdown as detrimental to India’s economy, and hence avoidable. The same is true of the core leftist ideologues, who highlighted the natural hardships faced by the poor during a lockout, without providing any alternative workable solutions. Nothing could be more irresponsible and untenable than handing out their anti-lockdown prescriptions for India, ignoring the fact that USA and UK have together seen more than 1 lac deaths already with just a fraction of vast population of India, and at this rate, may end up around 1.5 lac COVID-19 deaths in a couple of months, against India’s restricting the COVID-19 deaths to less than a total of 2000 till today. India cannot opt for the USA, UK or the European way, and thus invite lacs and crores of deaths.
The anti-lockdown critics must not lose sight of the fact that the lockdown is being very carefully regulated, calibrated and moderated in a need based manner, purely in public interest; and that caution cannot be thrown to the winds, especially in view of the fact that, as stated by Dr. Randeep Guleria, the Director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India is yet to face the peak of the pandemic in the next two months. These attention-seeking critics are rendering unsolicited opinions and dishing out their unworkable prescriptions to the international and social media, without being accountable for any of their utterance proving wrong, and causing unprecedented havoc in India. It is good for India that it has a strong leadership, which does not go off track by losing its focus from the national goals.
The coming days are the days of real challenge. Well begun is half done. India has unitedly blunted the opening attack of COVID-19 pandemic. Now is the time to put the survival of humanity first, and everything else later. It’s the time to display the strength of our unity, our indomitable character, our values, and our great inheritance. It’s time for Indian government to adhere to its ‘Gold Standard Governance’ through sagacious and dynamic need-based decision-making, aimed at minimising the setbacks faced by all sections of the society in its fight against the global pandemic.
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*Sarvesh Kaushal,
MA(History, Economics), LL.B; IAS (Retd),
Former Chief Secretary,
Government Of Punjab (India)
The RSS, i.e, Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, had always been an enigma for me. Having been brought up in a family of senior government functionaries for three generations, I always noticed the aggressive disposition of the ruling political parties to dub RSS as communal and divisive, and at times a violent right wing organization juxtaposed to the leftist leanings which were the fashion of the day. I remember having received, like other students, free packets full of Communist books and literature translated into English, Punjabi and Hindi, free diaries and world class calendars in my college days. The youth of the day, growing up in a bi-polar world with a mighty USSR blunting the USA at every step, was bound to have a rather peculiar outlook, further overawed by the Indo-Russia friendship treaty, and also because Pakistan was using American tanks and aircrafts against India. Revolution, change, ‘Inquilab’, etc. were the fashionable jargon, further etching itself in formative minds of the youth with the claims of iconic martyrs like Shahid Bhagat Singh being votaries of the leftist ideology.
India under Shri Atal Behari Vaypayee brought another flavour to the fore perhaps for the first time, though the RSS playing a reticent and withdrawn role because of the compulsions of a coalition. With the pure majority of BJP governments under Shri Narendra Modi, the RSS has started taking pains to de-mystify itself and laying down before one and all a socio-political roadmap that perhaps drives a vast majority of Indians, who stand by the RSS’s idea of a strong nation.
When a friend sent me a link to listen to an address by the RSS Chief, Shri Mohan Bhagwat, live on social media during Corona-confinement in April 2020, my curiosity took me to tune in for the first time, and listen to every word of it, eagerly expecting to hear a mouthful about the Tabliqui Jamaat’s becoming the political hotspot of Covid19 induced social revulsion. I was indeed pleasantly surprised that it was not so. Starting with emphasizing the need of a technology shift from conventional to digital communication for social interaction during the unavoidable ‘physical distancing’, the RSS chief wanted the life to move on to the right course despite the physical constraints that Covid19 is likely to cause. Imploring his cadre to utilize this precious time to self-introspect for self-improvement for inculcating public spiritedness in the social cause, he urged everyone to be a good example oneself, and then move on to make the family and the society a better example of rendering selfless service: no selfishness, no self-ego satisfaction and no self-publicity, because what we do is what we ought to do for our own country.
The simplicity and directness of a clearly flawless discourse took me further into it. The RSS Chief advised his cadre to stay healthy, obey rules and restrictions, maintain physical distance, and thereafter go out for philanthropic outreach with all necessary permissions. Lauding lacs of his subsidiary organisations already engaged in providing food and other essentials to the needy during the Covid19 crisis, he advised his followers not to panic in the face of the pandemic, maintain mental balance and retain high level of self-confidence to continue the service whole heartedly and with full vigour till the pandemic lasts. Imploring to maintain self discipline and resultant good health, he inspired his followers to present their body to the cause of service of the fellow humanity.
Emphasizing the need to reach out to the entire humanity in need, the RSS Chief lauded the Indian gesture of supplying essential medicines and medical equipment to any country, any people without any discrimination, be it the USA or Afghanistan. His message was clear and direct when he wanted his cadre not to discriminate between man and man, and serve everyone with an affectionate demeanour. While he admired the Narendra Modi government for showing remarkable alacrity in decision-making to save the people of India from Corona virus, he asked his followers to do social service with the same zeal and to maintain patience, never to get provoked to violence even by the heinous incidents like lynching of Hindu monks at Palaghar, or by anyone else trying to exploit the pandemic stress for political gains and thus weakening the national integrity. He wished the leadership of groups of all hues to educate their followers in the same spirit of national integrity and oneness.
On the economic front, the message was that of back to the basics in contrast to mindless consumerism. With emphasis on ‘Swadeshi’, he described it as the pillar of self-reliance, though he advised the manufacturers to bring in measures to improve the quality of their products and make their prices compatible with the imported stuff. His vision revolved around reviving industrial activity with emphasis on energy efficiency, employment generation and environmental issues. He advised the Indians to use Indian goods wherever possible, and take the nation on the path of sustainable development by devising strategies to save water, trees, environment and switching over to organic agriculture and pure allied agriculture activities like cows rearing.
Emphasizing that every evil throws up a streak of great possibilities, the RSS Chief expressed satisfaction on two counts; viz, that it has been well understood in the face of our fight against the pandemic that the government, the society and the people have to move together as one united force to build a strong nation; and secondly, the lockdown has provided a golden opportunity to increase the family bonding on ethical lines and turn the rejuvenated relationship into a solid foundation of nation-building.
The message that I carefully heard, coming from the RSS Chief himself, indeed de-mystified the enigmatic organization as it stands today in it’s vision. Besides having been loaded with a very direct message of positive, cooperative and synergised nation-building, it certainly was a flawless discourse and music to the ears, answering not only my curiosity, but many a bias about the objectivity of the RSS approach to contemporary socio-political challenges.
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In a country like India, where the total migration touches a figure of about 40 crore migrants, with inter-state migration accounting for about 5 crore, it is a Herculean challenge for the State to fight the Covid-19 pandemic through a strict lockdown, unless its leadership is extremely effective and result oriented in supplying the essentials to migrants for surviving both the pandemic as well as the hunger arising out of forced unemployment and corona-confinement.
For drawing up any action plan for management of migrants during a lock-down, it is imperative to understand the dynamics of migration in India. About 30% of the total population of India is found at places other than their birth-place, with about 70% of them migrating within their home district, and about 15% outside the State where they were born.
About 15% of the total migration takes place with the objective of seeking employment, about 1% for carrying out business and 3% for education. About 40% of migration, mainly of women and comparatively lesser of men, arising out of marriage, is not directly relevant in the present scenario. However, there may be some part of seasonal migration that may escape the enumeration, and therefore, the challenge could be bigger than what the data presents.
As per the Census of India estimates, maximum migrants originate from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand; followed closely by Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and West Bengal. Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala are the major recipient destinations.
The core target for supply management during the present lockdown is approximately 5 crore persons who have migrated inter-state only for employment. With the mobility restrictions preventing them from falling back to joint family resources back home; and the employers, on account of their own economic compulsions, retrenching daily-wage employees or ordering major cuts in the salaries of regular employees; the migrants squarely emerge as the responsibility of the Government.
The conceptualisation and big push given by Narendra Modi government over the last few years to the Jan-Dhan Yojna banking outreach is a great tool of mitigation available to the Government in the present crisis. The Corporate and mass support to the Prime Minister and the Chief Ministers in generating resources for handling both the health-side and food-side supply management to the needy is another rare show of national solidarity in combating the pandemic.
Needless to say, the huge buffer stocks of wheat and rice being maintained by the Food Corporation of India or its agencies all over the country, and the robust public distribution system that has attained maturity through its evolution in periods of scarcity in the country is a boon for the supply side managers in the government. This is a system baked in the heat of one crisis after another, such as devastation caused by earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, droughts and almost everything one can think of.
India, by the dint of its cultural values, has developed a high degree of resilience to adversity. The present crisis is no exception. The Indians can but offer immense gratitude to their forefathers for having imbibed in them the sense of duty to share everyone’s happiness and sorrows. It is a religious duty not only to feed the hungry fellow humans, but also to feed animals and birds.
The omnipresent God resting in our hearts and souls constantly nudges the majority of us to seek the well-being of all. It is not without this ethical enablement that thousands and thousands of migrants are being offered cooked food, ration, clothing and even money by the community through religious, charitable and social organisations, NGOs, and almost everyone to the extent one can afford to part with. With the Prime Minister riding the crest of popular acceptability, these forces are marvellously channelized to supplement the government’s effort to supply the essentials to the stuck up migrants.
That’s the real India, inhabiting the religious, cultured, ethically enabled, morally sound millions who would never let anyone die of starvation. This is a country which used to miss a meal on the call of the Late Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri to manage scarcity. These are the people who donated their family gold and silver for the national cause at his call. The descendants of ‘Daanveer’ Karna of the Mahabharat times will never fail their migrant brethren, so shall never fail the followers of Patshah Guru Nanak Dev, contributing one tenth of their earnings to run free community kitchens for the needy.
It is therefore not surprising that a dynamic, decisive and effective political leadership under the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, supported by the Chief Ministers, and an all pervading national community effort, has not allowed even a single starvation death of any isolated and confined migrant in the face of the deadly pandemic that the nation fights together. No one can prevent a lifestyle setback across the board, be it the rich or the poor; though it hits the poor migrants the hardest. Hardships are inevitable in the face of such a deadly pandemic when death stares at every human face, and remaining alive, somehow or the other, is the only agenda at present.
It is indeed creditable that the governments are managing the health-care and food supply lines, by and large with the help of the civil administration along with community effort only, keeping the mighty Indian Army more or less in the reserve for any need that may, God forbid, arise in due course. That speaks of excellent planning of supply chains, effective delivery and credible management information systems by the government. Indians are so proud of its armed forces who evoke immense confidence during management of relief and rescue work.
It is time the political and community leaders should specifically reached out to the migrant labour personally or through the media, reiterating to them the nation’s solemn assurance, that the entire India is one with them in this hour of deep crisis. It is very much essential to keep ourselves alive in the face of Covid-19 pandemic, at whatever cost, and with whatever effort that is called for.
With the pandemic shutting the doors of our religious places for the time being, the migrant labour force represents our God. They are our brethren, the noble souls who work day in and day out, away from their families, for creation of economic assets. It’s time to worship our God by feeding His migrant children in terrible need during this crisis.
Sarvesh Kaushal 