The conclusion of purchase negotiations last month (January) by the Union government of the 45,000 tonne Russian-built aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov at a reported price of Rs.7,000 crore is a good indicator of the warped development preferences and priorities of the myopic collection of supra nationalists who rule contemporary India, and their fellow travellers within the establishment. Negotiations for finalising the purchase of this ancient but reportedly overhauled and modernised aircraft carrier have been ongoing for over three years and their successful conclusion has been widely welcomed in the media as a triumph of the Union defence ministry.
Admittedly the Admiral Gorshkov will infuse considerable power and puissance into the Indian Navy and the defence services in general. Ever since the Vikrant — India’s first aircraft carrier — was moth-balled two years ago and converted into a permanent Mumbai-based naval museum, defence strategists have been pressing for an aircraft carrier following the Vikrant’s great utility in the Bangladesh liberation war of 1971.
But bearing in mind that the utility of aircraft carriers in the high-tech age of intercontinental missiles is being questioned by defence experts and strategists the world over and in particular given its chastening price tag, it’s a moot point whether at this juncture in the nation’s development history the purchase of an aircraft carrier should have been accorded the priority it has been given. Particularly at a time when the Union government’s fiscal deficit (though it has been somewhat reduced according to the interim budget presented to Parliament in early February) is still a formidable 4.8 percent of GDP, and the government is hard pressed to fund its Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Education for All) in the age group six-14, initiative.
In this connection it is also pertinent to note that the estimated cost of providing a free mid-day meal to all primary and secondary students in government schools across the country has been estimated (by EducationWorld — vide special report January 2004) at Rs.9,000 crore per year. For the majority of state governments which are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, financing the free mid-day meal scheme which, it is unanimously accepted, can dramatically improve school enrollment and retention is wholly beyond their budgetary capabilities.
In the circumstances wouldn’t the RS.7,000 crore spent on purchasing the Admiral Gorshkov have been better invested in the development of the nation’s human resources through deployment in SSA and/or the mid-day meal scheme? And to what extent has the standard clandestine commission of 10 percent routinely paid on all defence hardware influenced the purchase decision? Development economics requires such hard questions to be posed and debated. Unfortunately India’s ruling establish-ment (media included) has little time or inclination for them.
India may be Shining but not rural Bharat
As the country readies for its 14th general election since it attained independence from British rule way back in 1947, the ruling 22-party National Democratic Alliance led by the BJP is riding high with its ubiquitous India Shining advertising campaign splashed within the undoubtedly grateful media. The reportedly Rs.400 crore campaign (alas, EducationWorld excluded) proclaims that the nation is enjoying unprecedented growth and prosperity, which is a good reason to give its constituent parties — or preferably the BJP — another five year term in New Delhi.
Admittedly, highlighting the ruling party’s achievements during its tenure in office is a legitimate exercise of persuasive power in a democracy where trumpets have sounded for a general election. However the national interest also demands that claims of achievement are verified, discussed and debated by opinion moulders to enable voters across the country to cast their ballot on the basis of informed choice.
Weighed against this backdrop, it is very arguable that though the BJP-led coalition government has sustained the momentum of economic growth which decisively broke out of its ‘Hindu rate of growth’ (3.5 percent per annum) groove following the liberalisation and deregulation of the Indian economy in 1991, it has neglected the vital issue of growth with equity. India is shining, but only for the urban middle and especially upper classes at the apex of the social pyramid. Rural India remains as much an area of darkness as the slums and hovels of urban India’s chaotic cities. Indeed it is becoming increasingly apparent that the NDA-BJP model of economic growth is creating widespread resentment and deep schisms within Indian society, endangering its stability.
Of course it’s absurd to argue that the development achievements of the ruling coalition — sustained GDP growth, foreign exchange and foodgrains accumulation, the overdue retail revolution etc — are inconsequential. But the feel-good sentiment of the 50 million strong privileged middle class has to be weighed in the balance against the neglect of the development rights and needs of the great majority at the base of the social pyramid. With total investment in agriculture as a share of GDP having declined from the already low 1.6 percent in 1993-94 to 1.3 percent in 2001-02, the condition of India’s 670 rural population continuously denied a minimal rural marketing infrastructure, remains wretched.
Continuously and uninterruptedly looted by the pervasively corrupt bureaucracy (which ironically has been awarded a massive wage hike by the NDA government), with no recourse to the law, justice or quality education, the great majority of the nation’s population has been shut out from the unequal India Shining development effort. The sad reality is that licence-permit-quota raj is alive and kicking in rural India and petty bureaucrats, bank officials and predator policemen continue to resist the liberalisation and deregulation of the rural heartland. It’s indicative of a spreading amorality that there is little awareness or concern that the glow of India Shining has yet to penetrate rural Bharat — the area of darkness where the great majority of the nation’s population ekes out a stone-age existence.
