This refers to the article “Cracks in the PPP edifice” and the report “New PPP projects’ oversight won’t do: Industry” (July 20). Public interest demands that state assets and revenues are safeguarded. The measures for an oversight mechanism for PPP projects that the government proposes are only the right beginning. Statements like “DMRC behaves like a lord from the very beginning” shows that the parties to the PPP agreement have not fully understood the concept. Joel Bakan observed in his work The Corporation that the notion that business and government are and should be partners is ubiquitous, unremarkable and repeated like mantra in both domains. “It seems compelling and innocuous idea — until you think about what it really means….Partners should be equals…They should work together to solve problems… Democracy on the other hand is hierarchical. It requires that the people through the government they elect have the authority to decide what corporations can, cannot and must do. If corporations are indeed partners we should be worried about the state of democracy for it means that the government has effectively abdicated its sovereignty over the corporation.”
E Sreedharan is one of the most able managers the public sector has produced and his views cannot be ignored. It is hard to appreciate the closing remark of the article that DMRC “should not be allowed to act like regulator”. The news report refers to a “world class regulatory structure” that industry is seeking. Regulators are not super governments. They cannot be some supra-body above the sovereign government. It has to work within the parameters of the statutes that created them. Some European think-tanks have even questioned “unelected regulators sitting in judgment of elected ministers”.
Finally, it would do a lot of public good if consultants advising the industry do not double up as columnists.
S Subramanyan, Navi Mumbai
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