Vasundhara has delivered “brand NDA” for India
Two Years of Development
By Udayan Namboodiri
A buzz now circulating in national economic circles is that the states ruled by the National Democratic Alliance are tending to attract greater investment, both from domestic and multinational business powerhouses, than those under Congress or Leftist domination. I first heard this two months back while lunching with a British investment banker. He told me two other interesting things which form the seed for the evolution of this mindset.
Firstly, he said, “nobody believes Indian statistics, especially the claims made by the governments”. This was an eye-opener for me. Don’t we pride ourselves for our tradition of collecting and collating credible statistics which was bequeathed to us by the British ? “Actually”, the British executive said, “ the reporting systems from the lowest unit are quite flawed. The federal government has no means to verify what the officials in the states are reporting upwards to Delhi via their political masters in the state capital. So, while the Central Statistical Organisation or the National Sample Survey Organisation are retty much autonomous, professionally run institutions, the data they work on are supplied by all kinds of agents who are principally guided by the lucre of political gain.”
There is something exclusively superior about the style, content and quality of administration practiced by the NDA. It should be remembered at the outset that all of them, with the exception of Gujarat, make up the traditional laggards.
Only one other nation faces such a credibility problem. China. It is well known today that whatever official piece of statistic is doled out by the Chinese government is taken with oodles of salt by the rest of the world. Unlike India, China never had a neutral authority for collecting data and positing them along professional lines. The Communist system militates against such efficiency. So, in the post-1979 era, China began its liberalisation programme on the wrong foot. In India, however, the redeeming feature is that the presence of a vibrant Press can always be relied upon to puncture official claims with the real stories behind them. In addition, independent observers, including foreigners, have the freedom to travel and garner independent data. These checks and balances prevent India from being openly snubbed by the international community. Foreigners politely accept whatever our babus or netas say about food production, industrial climate and such things, but take care to dunk the files containing these statistics in the nearest trash can the moment their backs are turned.
The other significant thing the investment banker told me was more startling. “There’s something of a Union States-Confederate States divide in India now. We are noticing a difference between the quality of governance in states where the NDA is in power and the others. And since we no longer believe in official claims put out by the states, we rely mostly on our own data collection systems. These tell us that the NDA regimes are more committed to improving people’s living standards, in implementing federal development projects and, above all, are definitely more transparent than the others.”
In short, there is something exclusively superior about the style, content and quality of administration practiced by the NDA. It should be remembered at the outset that all of them, with the exception of Gujarat, make up the traditional laggards. Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh (including the region comprising today’s Chhasttisgarh) and Bihar ( the latest entrant to the NDA family plus Jharkhand) make up most of the BIMARU family – the only outsider being Uttar Pradesh. Yet, nobody places any reliance on the BIMARU classification any more. Why? Because many of the states that are supposed to be outside this family are actually feigning prosperity by dressing up their statistics. The seven northeastern states make up a classic example. Communist West Bengal has been reporting a steady seven per cent annual State Domestic Product growth rate for the past 12 years without any rise in their Tax-SDP ratio, power consumption and living standards. The NSSO and Census findings depict West Bengal to be a state where ownership of TV sets, pucca houses, bicycles and every other indicator of improvement of conditions to be far behind the so-called BIMARU states. The state has three starvation zones and yet claims to have the highest foodgrain production !
An artist of Jhalawar, South of Kota, painting chivalrous and artistic heritage of Rajasthan
When Smt. Vasundhara Raje was swept to power by a landslide verdict in November 2003, the state’s per capita income, at Rs 1,943, was lower than the national average. Crude birth and death rates were among the highest the country, while the literacy figures were depressing. In 2002, the United Nations Human Development Report had ranked it 10th among Indian states. But today, there is wide consensus that she leads the most responsive government anywhere in India. So much so that Infosyss chairman Narayanamurthy, who is no friend of the NDA in most other ways, had to openly admit this at a conference in Bangalore. He went to the extent of advising the Karnataka chief minister to send officials to Rajasthan to find out how the Raje government had introduced reforms which have already injected qualitative change in people’s lives there.
Smt. Raje has initiated a schedule for complete electrification of all villages by 2007. No other state government has ever given such a firm commitment, complete with a deadline. Simultaneously, her government has given unprecedented focus on irrigation, road building, extending education and women’s empowerment. This is being done without surrendering to World Bank’s dictates on implementing structural adjustment. Taxes have not been raised but collection has improved. This has been acknowledged by the UPA government at the Centre which has been forced to earmark an incentive of Rs 60,000 crore over the past two years. The manner in which she has involved NGO and voluntary sector participation in state schemes is indeed laudable.
A woman weaving Rajasthani handloom saree
My British friend had implied that one does not need statistics to understand how a state is performing. The only thing needed is one’s own eyes. Wherever one goes to in Rajasthan today, the signs of optimism are unmistakable. The common citizen is happy that at long last they have a government which does not deprive them of their dues. This is having a salutary effect on the law and order scenario. In the India Today ranking of Indian states, Rajasthan ranks third – and the highest among north Indian states—in the area of law and order. This gives outsiders confidence in the state’s investment prospects. When one looks at the perceptions enjoyed by the other NDA states, it is not difficult to discern a certain amount of optimism about Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh. With time, Bihar, which has just elected a known performer like Shri Nitish Kumar, will also turn around. It has considerable potential in terms of human and natural resources. All it needs is good governance.
Therefore “Brand NDA” has arrived. Chief Ministers like Vasundhara Raje, Narendra Modi and Raman Singh have contributed to positioning their states as performers in the national and global perceptions. The message “bijli-sadak-pani” with which they rode to power are no longer mere slogans, but tangible gains for their respective electorates. In future elections, “Brand NDA” will dominate elections everywhere. It is the knife which will cut through sectarianism, pseudo-secularism and casteism.
(The author is Senior Editor, The Pioneer.)
By Udayan Namboodiri
A buzz now circulating in national economic circles is that the states ruled by the National Democratic Alliance are tending to attract greater investment, both from domestic and multinational business powerhouses, than those under Congress or Leftist domination. I first heard this two months back while lunching with a British investment banker. He told me two other interesting things which form the seed for the evolution of this mindset.
Firstly, he said, “nobody believes Indian statistics, especially the claims made by the governments”. This was an eye-opener for me. Don’t we pride ourselves for our tradition of collecting and collating credible statistics which was bequeathed to us by the British ? “Actually”, the British executive said, “ the reporting systems from the lowest unit are quite flawed. The federal government has no means to verify what the officials in the states are reporting upwards to Delhi via their political masters in the state capital. So, while the Central Statistical Organisation or the National Sample Survey Organisation are retty much autonomous, professionally run institutions, the data they work on are supplied by all kinds of agents who are principally guided by the lucre of political gain.”
There is something exclusively superior about the style, content and quality of administration practiced by the NDA. It should be remembered at the outset that all of them, with the exception of Gujarat, make up the traditional laggards.
Only one other nation faces such a credibility problem. China. It is well known today that whatever official piece of statistic is doled out by the Chinese government is taken with oodles of salt by the rest of the world. Unlike India, China never had a neutral authority for collecting data and positing them along professional lines. The Communist system militates against such efficiency. So, in the post-1979 era, China began its liberalisation programme on the wrong foot. In India, however, the redeeming feature is that the presence of a vibrant Press can always be relied upon to puncture official claims with the real stories behind them. In addition, independent observers, including foreigners, have the freedom to travel and garner independent data. These checks and balances prevent India from being openly snubbed by the international community. Foreigners politely accept whatever our babus or netas say about food production, industrial climate and such things, but take care to dunk the files containing these statistics in the nearest trash can the moment their backs are turned.
The other significant thing the investment banker told me was more startling. “There’s something of a Union States-Confederate States divide in India now. We are noticing a difference between the quality of governance in states where the NDA is in power and the others. And since we no longer believe in official claims put out by the states, we rely mostly on our own data collection systems. These tell us that the NDA regimes are more committed to improving people’s living standards, in implementing federal development projects and, above all, are definitely more transparent than the others.”
In short, there is something exclusively superior about the style, content and quality of administration practiced by the NDA. It should be remembered at the outset that all of them, with the exception of Gujarat, make up the traditional laggards. Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh (including the region comprising today’s Chhasttisgarh) and Bihar ( the latest entrant to the NDA family plus Jharkhand) make up most of the BIMARU family – the only outsider being Uttar Pradesh. Yet, nobody places any reliance on the BIMARU classification any more. Why? Because many of the states that are supposed to be outside this family are actually feigning prosperity by dressing up their statistics. The seven northeastern states make up a classic example. Communist West Bengal has been reporting a steady seven per cent annual State Domestic Product growth rate for the past 12 years without any rise in their Tax-SDP ratio, power consumption and living standards. The NSSO and Census findings depict West Bengal to be a state where ownership of TV sets, pucca houses, bicycles and every other indicator of improvement of conditions to be far behind the so-called BIMARU states. The state has three starvation zones and yet claims to have the highest foodgrain production !
An artist of Jhalawar, South of Kota, painting chivalrous and artistic heritage of Rajasthan
When Smt. Vasundhara Raje was swept to power by a landslide verdict in November 2003, the state’s per capita income, at Rs 1,943, was lower than the national average. Crude birth and death rates were among the highest the country, while the literacy figures were depressing. In 2002, the United Nations Human Development Report had ranked it 10th among Indian states. But today, there is wide consensus that she leads the most responsive government anywhere in India. So much so that Infosyss chairman Narayanamurthy, who is no friend of the NDA in most other ways, had to openly admit this at a conference in Bangalore. He went to the extent of advising the Karnataka chief minister to send officials to Rajasthan to find out how the Raje government had introduced reforms which have already injected qualitative change in people’s lives there.
Smt. Raje has initiated a schedule for complete electrification of all villages by 2007. No other state government has ever given such a firm commitment, complete with a deadline. Simultaneously, her government has given unprecedented focus on irrigation, road building, extending education and women’s empowerment. This is being done without surrendering to World Bank’s dictates on implementing structural adjustment. Taxes have not been raised but collection has improved. This has been acknowledged by the UPA government at the Centre which has been forced to earmark an incentive of Rs 60,000 crore over the past two years. The manner in which she has involved NGO and voluntary sector participation in state schemes is indeed laudable.
A woman weaving Rajasthani handloom saree
My British friend had implied that one does not need statistics to understand how a state is performing. The only thing needed is one’s own eyes. Wherever one goes to in Rajasthan today, the signs of optimism are unmistakable. The common citizen is happy that at long last they have a government which does not deprive them of their dues. This is having a salutary effect on the law and order scenario. In the India Today ranking of Indian states, Rajasthan ranks third – and the highest among north Indian states—in the area of law and order. This gives outsiders confidence in the state’s investment prospects. When one looks at the perceptions enjoyed by the other NDA states, it is not difficult to discern a certain amount of optimism about Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh. With time, Bihar, which has just elected a known performer like Shri Nitish Kumar, will also turn around. It has considerable potential in terms of human and natural resources. All it needs is good governance.
Therefore “Brand NDA” has arrived. Chief Ministers like Vasundhara Raje, Narendra Modi and Raman Singh have contributed to positioning their states as performers in the national and global perceptions. The message “bijli-sadak-pani” with which they rode to power are no longer mere slogans, but tangible gains for their respective electorates. In future elections, “Brand NDA” will dominate elections everywhere. It is the knife which will cut through sectarianism, pseudo-secularism and casteism.
(The author is Senior Editor, The Pioneer.)
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