The Third Eye: Making India strong in long term

New Delhi: In a democratic state economic advancement measured largely through GDP has to go with ‘welfarism’, the strength state derives from its large population has to match its capacity to reach out to every citizen and the state draws its sustainability from a combination of ‘minimum government’ and ‘maximum governance’.

India, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has moved towards these goals in a substantive manner, and more is being done to fully achieve them. An illustration of how the nation’s image could suffer before the world outside is the pathetic sight of children in large numbers being brought up on pavements in metropolitan towns, without education, nutrition and even adequate protection against the weather, who may grow up as citizens with unsure credentials.

The challenge has to be met upfront and the Centre needs to step in -notwithstanding the Centre-State division of powers -for this was not connected merely with ‘welfare’ but with the responsibility of the state to identify and know all its citizens in pursuance of good governance. A democratic state has to take care of the ‘have-nots’ too, beyond those who had financial adequacy or who even contributed to the state revenue.

There has to be a deep review of the instruments that exist for strengthening the hands of the state in looking after the poor and the weak.

The Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) funds of the business houses, the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme and the Discretionary Development Fund available with the Collectors, should all be pieced together to ensure that a free Primary School existed in all Panchayat Circles, that a free residential middle school for teaching till class 8 was established in each of the Development Blocks in the country and that locally recruited staff-men and women- were in position to manage them.

Individual corporate entities can be directed to ‘adopt’ a certain number of such schools by creating a corpus of funds to sustain them, and the oversight of these schools could be added to the responsibilities of the District Magistrates.

Rural employment can be linked to the condition that parents put their children in school. Complementary schemes like incentivising adherence to the two-child norm, grant of compensation for a girl child and free vasectomy operation at the nearest hospital, can be of help in this regard.

Spending on welfare is no reflection on a democratic state that was preoccupied with policies for building the financial strength of the country. There is some truth in the dictum that for carrying out its essential functions, the government always had enough money- the question, therefore, was about the government’s priorities.

Lack of access to education can lead to disastrous results by converting the ‘demographic dividend’ into a national liability- the growth of centres of higher education cannot by itself mitigate this danger. In fact, Education and Health should be regarded as ‘strategic’ sectors by the Centre so that states would yield to the directions given by the former on these matters. It would also have to be constitutionally acknowledged that the Centre and the states were both responsible for fulfilling these functions.

An educated citizen contributes to the good of the nation and does not fall prey so easily to wrongdoings, out of sheer ignorance. He or she can embrace skill development programmes for one’s financial betterment. It should therefore be regarded as a fundamental duty of the state to ensure that all citizens have a minimum education.

‘The strength of a chain lies in its weakest link’ is a proverb that applies as much to a particular situation as to the governance of a state that needed to preserve its sovereignty, economic interest and security. Any internal weakness that could affect these three paradigms has to be taken note of and rectified at the level of policy.

Widespread poverty rooted in a basic inadequacy of health and education and impacting demography is a cause for concern for democratic India, as it has implications for the success of the fundamental pillar of ‘one man one vote’ on which our democracy rests.

Judicious exercise of one’s vote determines the quality of leadership installed in power, its political will to take the country forward and the effectiveness of governance that it was in a position to provide to the people.

Democracy is ‘for the people’ and run ‘by the people’ and its systemic content is determined by citizens, many of whom would be prone to the influences of the wrong kind if they were uneducated and poverty-ridden. That money could become a factor in deciding the outcome of a democratic election is a cause for serious concern- the role of money power has been in evidence in the elections of the two largest and tested democracies of the world.

It is a matter of great satisfaction that Prime Minister Modi finds time to oversee the various aspects of economic growth, governance and special schemes designed to benefit farmers, women and the urban poor.

He has directly handled international relationships and also pushed the agenda of development at home. His political will, capacity for hard work and personal initiative to improve coordination amongst the ministries and bureaucratic heads of departments have been the hallmark of his governance.

His ability to compel a shift from ‘control’ to ‘ delivery’ in regard to bureaucracy is truly remarkable, benefiting the country in many ways.

He should task his Ministers concerned to concentrate on removing child illiteracy and malnutrition. This will make India truly strong, going beyond the country’s achievement of becoming one of the three largest economies of the world in the foreseeable future.

Our Constitution placed Police and law & order totally under the jurisdiction of the states, which has, over the years, caused the serious problem of state governments injecting ‘politics’ in matters of internal security.

The Centre should acquire a say in the appointment of DGP and Chief Secretary of the state, drawing upon the Supreme Court judgement of 2008 and the fact that these posts were held by officers of IAS and IPS, whose performance was, in any case, monitored by the DoP&T of the Centre. The Modi government would serve the cause of national unity by taking initiatives to ensure that a uniform level of law & order management prevailed throughout the nation so that citizens could exercise their fundamental right of working or settling down in any part of the country.

(The writer is a former Director Intelligence Bureau)

--IANS

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