> NEW DELHI - Trouble is brewing between the Congress-led United
> Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and the left, its most
> important
> backer. Relations between the two, which have been tenuous at the
> best
> of times, seem to be getting even worse.
The Left has few options. The Left would be foolish to bring down the government so soon after the elections. Indian Left is numerically stagnant for nearly three decades and is in retreat in ideological terms.
> There was some consternation in the left camp when the new deputy
> chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia,
> handpicked
> by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, announced in early September
> that he
> had decided to go in for an "open process of consultations". In
> plain
> English, the government wanted the opinion of foreign entities on
> the
> progress of plan schemes and the effectiveness of the country's
> economic
> policy.
What is so secret about Indian plan schemes? India is an open society in the liberal sense of the term. Most relevant documents are available on the internet. Anyway they presented to Indian Parliament.
> In line with Ahluwalia's announcement, the Planning Commission has
> set
> up 19 consultative groups to take a second look at the 10th Five
> Year
> Plan (2002-2007) prepared by the previous National Democratic
> Alliance
> government. The World Bank is represented in the committee on
> water
> resources and transport, the Asian Development Bank in the
> committee on
> agriculture and financial resources and the US-headquartered
> consultancy
> firm, McKinsey, in the power and energy, technical education,
> health,
> family welfare and agriculture committees. This is a first. Never
> before
> have foreign observers pored over India's plan programs.
I don't think there is anything wrong about listening to foreign observers, so long as decisions making is your hands.Indians can be as clueless as foreigners. Unfortunately it's the Indian Left which has a long tradition of complete servility to the already existing socialism.
> Limits of the left
> The left parties, with about 60 parliamentary seats, have
> undisputed
> control over the lifespan of the UPA government, as the Congress
> does
> not have sufficient seats to rule on its own. They threw their
> support
> behind arch-rival Congress as they felt the Hindu nationalist
> Bharatiya
> Janata Party (BJP)was the "greater evil". But beyond that, the
> left
> almost believed the UPA would promote an economic program in
> keeping
> with its own. How it reached that inference is slightly puzzling
> though
> as both Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Manmohan Singh are strong
> believers
> in globalization and economic reforms a la the Washington
> Consensus.
I don't think the Left has ever believed that the UPA would be implement its programme. In fact, even the Left is not implementing its own programme! The Left ruled West Bengal is the second largest recepient state of FDI among Indian states.
Ulhas