If we are right about how badly the country's economy and administration has been damaged by the UPA government, then wouldn't it be illogical to expect any sudden improvement under a new government? The agenda for the new government is huge, as you can read in the cover story in this issue. These are all big tasks and none of them are just a matter of signing one piece of paper and making one announcement. Indeed, some-specially the infrastructure-related ones-will take years, or perhaps a decade to reach a satisfactory state.
Some can indeed be done at one stroke of the pen, like the new Goods and Services Tax, but then that stroke of the pen is a constitutional one that requires concurrence of both houses of parliament as well as the states so who knows how long it will take to come into effect.
However, there is an issue that we have raised that is key to the whole process of India's economic revival. That is the pace of government approvals and clearances. Can this be fixed quickly? Perhaps it can be. From about 2010 onwards, it was widely observed that the Union Government had gone into what quickly became known as 'policy paralysis'. Come what may, bureaucrats and even ministers just wouldn't take any decision that could remotely be construed as providing any benefit to any private entity.
This was said to be a reaction to the 2G, coal and other scams that came out and the way bureaucrats (who say they were acting on politicians' behest) were investigated and-in some cases-kept in jail as under trials for long periods. Subsequently, there have been a string of cases where the investigative agencies have started enquiries that appear to be bizarrely misdirected at best, and at worst could be attempts to punish honest and sincere officials.
In October last, the CBI's attempt to implicate retired coal secretary PC Parekh smacked of someone's vendetta against an honest officer who had routinely clashed with some of the most notoriously corrupt politicians in the country. The latest such case is one that is closer home to the readers of this magazine. The CBI has started an enquiry against former SEBI head CB Bhave and former SEBI director KM Abraham in the matter of giving permissions to MCX-SX. In this case, CBI's actions are so misguided, and so patently based on an inability to understand even basic facts of the case, that it has been criticised even by the Finance Minister.
However, the CBI's director is reported to have said that the agency is capable of distinguishing between bona fide policy decisions and malicious acts. Essentially, this police agency, untrained and unschooled in any economic matter, is now an arbiter of whether a decision was dishonest. One need hardly point out that this is not the way to make decision-making faster.
How can a new government change this kind of a thing? I believe that it can and the key ingredient that is needed is leadership. Organs of the government like the CBI operate in a context of governance. Depending on how powerful they are, everyone feels that they either must not do anything, or that they can do anything with impunity. Even autonomous bodies have to know that they have a competent and active boss to whom they are accountable. And this chain of accountability has to go right up to the top, to a leader who feels that he is finally accountable to the electorate. This chain of accountability and leadership simply does not exist in India's governance in the current context.
If this can be restored, a lot of things will automatically follow and things will fall in place. The infrastructure and the power and the roads and ports will all happen, provided there's someone willing to lead, to stand up and be counted.
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