Reclaiming The Nation

Bimal Jalan blames dysfunctional politics for India’s backwardness and prescribes an agenda for reforms

INDIA’S POLITICS: A VIEW FROM THE BACKBENCH By Bimal Jalan Penguin Price: Rs 350, Pages: 244

So it is surprising that Bimal Jalan, previously governor of the Reserve Bank of India for six years, chose to spend his post-retirement sabbatical in such company, even if it is as a nominated member in the Rajya Sabha. Even more surprising is that he has not thrown in the towel but actually used the three years in the upper house to produce a book. India’s Politics, A View from the Backbench is actually the think pad of a barefoot doctor in the wilds of India’s political system. Jalan extrapolates his experiences and observation of parliamentary proceedings to diagnose and highlight the connection between dysfunctional politics and backwardness. In his first year, Jalan was shocked to see the budget being passed without discussion. Since then he has seen three budgets passed sans debate. Jalan has survived the shock to record more and worse perversion of democracy. On March 22, 2005, he saw the Rajya Sabha pass in four minutes “more than a hundred papers including annual reports of public sector organisations, outcome and performance budgets, action-taken reports, and notifications issued by various departments by a dozen ministers in the midst of the pandemonium.” Jalan likens this to taxation without representation. As he says, “if some of the emerging trends are not reversed, India’s democracy by the people will become more and more ‘oligarchic’—i.e. of the few and for the few.”

PICTURE SPEAK

HOUSE IN TURMOIL: Jalan highlights the diminishing role of Parliament

Jalan neither fears nor spares anyone as he cuts a wide swathe across five chapters to look at the central questions that any Indian is worried about. It may be fashionable to cite the China experience and list India’s development deficit as the result of democracy but Jalan argues hard in favour of democracy using data and research. The short conclusion: all Tiger economies may be dictatorships but all dictatorships are not Tiger economies. Jalan examines the pyramid of political power and the hierarchy of government action, rather inaction. His analysis covers political opportunism, excessive centralisation, corruption, diminishing role of Parliament, the executive judiciary standoff, the politicisation of administration and the impact of malgovernance on internal security.

He asks why only individual MPs are subject to the anti-defection law and suggests all parties in a coalition be subjected to the anti-defection law. On the issue of governance, Jalan says the distribution of powers between the states and the Centre should be reviewed. On internal security, he wants the powers be transferred from the states to the Centre and on development programmes, it should be reversed to empower the states. Citing the widespread malaise of transfers raj, Jalan argues passionately for depoliticising civil service. Like many, Jalan believes state funding of elections would help curb corruption and the economist in him fashions a workable formula of funding elections. In Parliament, Jalan wants the “voice vote” convention to be done away with and wants members to vote on every bill.

What makes the book different is that it is not a long familiar lament. Jalan offers an agenda for reforms—realistic, radical and even romantic. Those who enter Parliament pass through two stages of astonishment. At first they are amazed at what the place can do. Quickly though they realise how much it doesn’t do. Jalan has reached the third stage. He wants Parliament and politics to deliver India.

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