Speaking in the Constituent Assembly on November 4, 1948, B R Ambedkar said if things go wrong it would not be because of a bad Constitution, but because “man was vile”. India’s political class it would seem is committed to illustrate the prescience of the observation. This winter session, the atrocious conduct of members of parliament ensured that political rhetoric thrived, while questions of governance were waylaid.
There has been much debate over the amount of wasted taxpayer monies. It is estimated that running a parliament session costs Rs 2.5 lakh per minute, and that just the washout in Lok Sabha has cost over Rs 97.8 crore. But the nation is paying a greater price in the neglect of issues. Growth is spluttering, food inflation is spiralling, job creation is petering out, the spectre of trade war is looming and geopolitics is at an inflection point. None of this seemingly mattered to the MPs. Those elected to represent their constituents have come to believe their party is the constituency.
A basic fact we need to remember while designing public policy to deliver prosperity is that over 54 percent of India’s workforce that is engaged in agriculture and allied activities is dependent on 18 percent of the gross value added in the economy. There is the issue of resources and then there is the issue of the inefficiencies that haunt governance. The state of affairs is illustrated in the parliamentary standing committee reports. Here are some nuggets from the reports submitted this session.
Once a crop is harvested, the income potential rests on creating food processing capacities for value addition and waste reduction. The PM Kisan Sampada Yojana can enhance farmer incomes and lower food price inflation. How is it faring?
Consider this nugget from the food processing committee: in 2022-23, the allocation of Rs 282 crore was trimmed to Rs 219 crore, of which only Rs 170 crore was used. This is an annual saga. Last year, 80 projects for processing and preservation were sanctioned, but only 45 were completed. This year, of the 100 projects sanctioned, only 17 have been completed.
The government initiated a production-linked incentive scheme for food processing to create global champions. It created an outlay of Rs 10,900 crore for the five years ending 2027. The utilisation record is shocking even by sarkari standards. In theory, the scheme should have used Rs 1,800 crore a year, but the actual use has been just Rs 1,101 crore in three years.
A Nabard survey from 2022-23 states that in a five-year period, the average annual income of farming households rose from Rs 8,059 to Rs 12,698. While incomes have surged 57.6 per cent, expenditure has surged 69.4 per cent to Rs 11,262. The answer to agri distress, as per the committee on agriculture, is ”a robust and legally binding MSP system, which can play a crucial role in reducing farmer suicides in India by providing financial stability”. The rather interesting bipartisan recommendation went unnoticed in the din of decibels.
Irrigation is a key component for improving yield and farm incomes. The government has a multitude of schemes - all alphabet soups - to address issues. One of them is the watershed development component of the PM Krishi Sinchayee Yojana.
In 2023-24, as per the committee on rural development, WDC-PMKSY achieved targets of 47 per cent in afforestation, 41 per cent in horticulture, 26 per cent in soil and moisture conservation, and 31 per cent in harvesting structures.
The MGNREGS is the world’s largest rural employment programme with over 250 million registered on the rolls. The law says payments must be made within 15 days and delays must be compensated. The committee on rural development discovered that in 2023-23, over half the approved compensation of Rs 93.8 lakh was stranded in official legalese. MPs raging about push-and-shove politics could have paid attention to how the poorest are being pushed around.
Manufacturing jobs is a theme song with the NDA regime. Plans for “plastic parks“ aimed at job creation and exports are stalled. This data point spells the saga: not a single plot of the 268 earmarked for Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka have been allotted. The National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme, launched in 2016 and extended in 2023, is in stasis. In 2024-25, against a target of 12 lakh candidates only 4.9 lakh have been engaged.
The narrative on judicial delays is unchanged for 25 years. In February 2024, the committee on law and justice raised concerns on vacant high court judgeships. The ministry assured induction was in process. In February, 332 of the 1,114 posts were vacant; in December, 368 were vacant. The number of cases pending: over 61 lakh in high courts and 4.62 crore in subordinate courts.
This week, the RBI said subsidies across states are now touching Rs 4.7 lakh crore. It is an issue flagged by this column. One of the subsidies mentioned is free electricity. To get an idea of the magnitude, consider this data from the committee on energy. Accumulated losses of the state electricity boards in 2022-23: Rs 6.53 lakh crore. Smart meters would help, but as against a target of 25 crore by 2025-26, only 1.3 crore have been installed across the country.
The tragedy is that sops, not governance, is the electoral constituency. The X factor of cash transfers is now spiraling on the Y axis. The construct of collective consciousness has long since left the edifice.
Shankkar Aiyar
Author of The Gated Republic, Aadhaar: A Biometric History of India’s 12 Digit Revolution, and Accidental India
(shankkar.aiyar@gmail.com)