UPA-II has acknowledged that corrupt practices took place while it was in charge; It has sacked ministers and put them in jail
It is easy to characterise this government (United Progressive Alliance-II) as corrupt, crony-capitalist and economically incompetent. It is also true that UPA-II is the most honest and open government India has ever had.
The bar isn’t high and UPA-II is a long way from being either honest or open, in absolute terms.
Nevertheless, it has acknowledged that corrupt practices took place while it was in charge; it has sacked ministers and put them in jail; it has admitted it cannot control inflation owing to global economic trends beyond its influence. That is far more in the way of honesty than any previous Indian government has displayed.
India has never had an honest, open regime. That is why we fall back on fables about Ram, Yudhisthira and Harishchandra when those buzzwords come up. The British openly milked the subcontinent. The inheritors of the Raj continue to milk it.
Cronyism and its twin brother, nepotism, are regarded as virtues in all oriental value systems. In India, one is taught to favour kith and kin above all, then to favour caste-siblings and friends of family, then people from the same religious background, and so on, thus creating pyramids of influence instead of the level playing fields favoured by woolly-headed Occidental theorists.
The number of honest Indian politicians who have ever made it to the gaddi can be counted on the fingers of one hand. A double-amputee could tot up the number of Indian politicians who have avoided cronyism and nepotism. The entire license raj, along with convoluted tax laws and vast discretionary powers, was designed to enable this.
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Between 2009 and 2012, however, far more scandals have made it into the news in far greater detail. That cannot be bad in itself. UPA-II has also acknowledged that the current system is broken, by resurrecting the long-shelved concept of a Lok Pal. It is a different matter that the Lok Pal concept itself is flawed and has sparked a three-ring circus.
Obviously, UPA-II hasn’t done this willingly. Its hand has been forced by an inability to control dissemination of information. But this does set precedents. It makes it more likely that in future notably corrupt ministers could be sacked or jailed. Therefore, it makes it at least a little more likely that future corruption will be less blatant or damaging.
On the economic front, it has done some positive things as well. It has (reluctantly) enabled independent regulators in key sectors like the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority and the Petroleum Natural Gas Regulatory Board. It has freed the price of petrol, (even if it hasn’t touched diesel or kerosene). It has run a massive urban renewal scheme, which has made a definite difference to quality of life for the 400-million odd people who live in India’s cities and generate 70 per cent of its gross domestic product.
The UPA-II government has also tried to clean up policy in sectors such as power, roads and ports. It may yet “manage” the telecom mess. It might even, out of desperation, end up reviewing land acquisition processes and legislation.
It has tried to create a unique identification system, which could form the basis for an e-governance structure. This would substantially reduce low-level corruption (while creating new problems in terms of privacy). Of course, it has also introduced blatantly populist schemes like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and on food security rather than deal with the problems that plague India’s labour markets and the food distribution chain.
As to economic incompetence, the acid test will really be the next year or two. Can UPA-II maintain India’s growth rates at above 6.5 per cent, while Japan, Europe and the US all go through busts? If it does, by the next general elections, some more tens of millions will have bootstrapped out of poverty.