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An unfinished agenda .......Arun Maira
The problem in India is implementation. By and large, we have good ideas and ambitious programmes in most areas necessary for inclusive development. But we fail to get bangs for the bucks spent. Rajiv Gandhi is often quoted as having said that only a small percentage of what is intended is actually achieved. Now Rajiv’s party has again obtained a national mandate to lead. There is relief that the Congress will not be fettered by the demands of coalition partners. How should its leaders change their approach to produce the results people expect?
It has long been obvious that India needs more decentralisation. The freedom movement required rallying an entire nation. A centralised political organisation fighting for one cause was needed. After independence, a different political pattern was required. Mahatma Gandhi convened a meeting of Congress leaders in Sevagram in March 1948 to discuss how the organisation could reform itself to meet the challenges of social and economic development. Though he was assassinated in January, the meeting was held as he had desired. The record of that meeting was published in 2007 in a fascinating book, Gandhi is Gone. Who Will Guide Us Now? In the meeting, Vinoba Bhave made a case for a new form of organisation unlike the hierarchical entities then considered necessary for government, political parties and large businesses. It would be a network of local organisations. He explained that only such an organisation could preserve the spirit of service whereas hierarchical entities would dissipate their energies in internal matters and power politics.
Acharya Kripalani supported Bhave’s argument. “Without decentralisation, democracy is an empty falsehood,” he said. “Centralisation brings bureaucracy. Bureaucracy and technocracy are both equally the enemies of democracy.” Others in the meeting, however, wondered how activities managed in the loose manner Bhave proposed could ever be ‘scaled up’ to have a widespread effect.
Over 60 years have passed since the meeting in Sevagram. The problems of India that the leaders discussed in that meeting have not yet been eliminated. Poverty, social discrimination and economic insecurity remain widespread. Globally too, poverty and inequities persist. As the last millennium drew to a close, all nations vowed to eliminate these persisting problems, announcing Millennium Development Goals. Sadly, progress towards these goals is slow. And now alarm bells are warning of the collapse of ecosystems with climate change.
Last year, the World Economic Forum brought together experts from around the world in its Global Agenda Councils. They concluded with the warning that “we cannot reboot the old economy” to get out of the global crisis. The old ways of thinking and organising – the old software – cannot provide the solutions required. They explained that “while a global model is needed, solutions are ultimately local and should engage the community as the central driver of the solution”.
India is diverse and has huge challenges of sustainable social and economic development. Unlike China, it also has political plurality and democracy. Therefore, it is a large laboratory for a world that aspires to find sustainable solutions democratically. The Congress party once led India to its independence. Its new leaders must complete their learning agenda by developing new organisational capabilities to ensure implementation of programmes through multiple sources of leadership and local energy. IT and communications technologies, which are becoming India’s strengths, can be enablers.
But the critical requirement is to decentralise power. Rajiv Gandhi moved amendments to the Constitution to pass on power to panchayats and urban local bodies. Politicians and bureaucrats, however, will not let go of the power they have. Therefore, it is for Congress leaders to fulfil the unfinished agenda.
The writer is an adviser on management and development issues.
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