The third step needed is for the government to set the pace by accepting and starting to implement some of the recommendations that do not affect the lower level staff at all. If politicians and senior bureaucrats are seen to be implementing what goes against their sectional interests, then, maybe, the unions will also be persuaded to give in a little. The government can begin by reducing the number of departments and ministries and itself along the lines recommended. This will reduce not just the size of ministries but also cut the number of secretary-level posts by a third. With fewer posts at the top, those who have already become eligible for receiving a pension can usefully look for gainful employment in the private sector.
Simultaneously, two points already raised by union leaders need to be addressed. The CPM has criticised the recommendation to cut jobs by 30 per cent over 10 years by arguing that this will exacerbate the unemployment problem. The surest way to ruin future chances of job creation is to currently spend money on unproductive jobs. Money saved by cutting such jobs can be usefully spent in adding both to the physical infrastructure and also the skills and health of the poor. The second point that needs addressing, made by an Aituc leader, questions the wisdom of equating multinational capital with local capital, implicitly investing the latter with a desired degree of patriotism which the former lacks. In an increasingly borderless world, where capital will move in and out of economies more and more freely, this is not only inevitable but also desirable. Indias war against poverty needs all the capital it can attract: further, that capital needs to be spent efficiently. Heeding the Left on this is the surest way
of harming the poor.
