Four years of UPA2: Where's the party tonight?

Photo by AP

The Congress-led UPA, which completed four years into its second term, may not be popping open champagne bottles but it deserves a pat on the back. In an era of coalition politics, where national parties have lost ground and have been confined to regional pockets of power, and where regional parties have had a field day at the national level, it is no mean task to complete nine years in power. Riding on the success of schemes like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the Right to Information Act and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan implemented in its first term, in its second term the UPA continues to keep the momentum. The government has been able to maintain a respectable financial atmosphere at a time when economies around the world are struggling in the red, though a lot more needs to be done to ensure that the economy does not slip any further and improves, like giving a push for industry and opening the economy further. Under the UPA 2 poverty figures have fallen from 37.2% in 2004-05 to 29.8% in 2009-10. By the execution of Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru the government has sent a strong message that it is not a soft power and that there is no compromise on national security. On the foreign policy front it is a mixed bag. New Delhi’s handling of Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Maldives could have been better. However, in its dealing with China and Afghanistan the government has shown great finesse. India has shown great resolve in maintaining political and economic interests with Myanmar, Vietnam and even Japan, while at the same time not straining its ties with China.

There are many things that the UPA could have done differently to avert the negative criticism it is receiving. A bolder and more aggressive prime minister — much like the Manmohan Singh during the Indo-US nuclear deal — would have helped evade much of this criticism. The government seems to have been plagued by allegations of corruption and just when it tides over one scam it is greeted by another. Also a part of the perceived failure of the UPA 2, and an issue the BJP is highlighting as the government’s failure, comes from the government’s inability to pass important Bills such as the food security Bill and the land acquisition Bill. However, if the UPA government has not been able to table the Bills in Parliament it was mainly because opposition parties, headed by the BJP, resorted to frequent disruption of proceedings. The mulish stubbornness of the opposition saw the last two sessions of parliament going virtually without any business done. The principal opposition is the government-in-waiting — a fact the BJP seems to have forgot. While the BJP has been vitriolic on its attack on the PM and has taken great pains to tar the government black, it has failed to suggest measures it would take in the event of the party comes to power in the next general elections.
While the opposition aided by an alert media have been quick to highlight the pitfalls of the government — and they have rightly done so, the government has failed to go to the people with its positive steps it has initiated over the years.

Indian Economy’s Reverse Loop

An economics professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi brought to notice that the government’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) or rather the haphazard way in which the scheme is being carried out has cost a little girl her life in Manika, Jharkhand on February 15. This is a serious issue because the MGNREGA is one of the flagship programmes launched by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and it is plagued with problems. If this programme continues with these flaws, by around a few years or a decade the burden on the then government would be to undo the damage done by the scheme.
There is no doubt that this scheme, in spite of the massive corruption that has been taking place, has been a blessing to lakhs of people in the rural areas. But the merits it possesses are not substantial to overlook the flaws it has deep embedded in it. To highlight one of the problems: The scheme has drained the labour pool and has led to an alarming shortage of farm hands, mainly in Punjab and Maharashtra (especially around harvest time).

If such a scheme has been continuing with little scope of reform from the government’s side, the blame should be squarely put on the Opposition, especially the BJP (one can’t expect the Congress to highlight the flaws in the scheme it has introduced). For all the noise and grandstanding it does, including that it is a viable alternative to the corrupt Congress, the ‘party with a difference’ has not been able to highlight the flaws in a scheme that will probably lead to the wrecking of the country’s economy. 
The government seems unlikely to change its stand, partly because the scheme has reaped benefits (for the people as well as for the party) and partly because it is a prestige issue for the government. A rollback at this time, especially with many State Assembly elections around, is unlikely.
The scheme at this point, with the flaws in it, is acting as a reverse loop in India’s economic algorithm; like a go-back-to-square-one button. Not many in the ruling Congress might agree with this view; but I’m sure there is one gentleman, sitting huddled over books in the South Block and pulling out the little hair that’s left on his head, who will concur with this in the deepest recesses of his mind – Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.