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Planning Commission/Niti Aayog
Assess State of Cooperative Federalism with an Open Mind
- Published on 19 June 2019
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“We have invited her with all due respect and I am still hoping that she will accept my personal invitation and attend the meeting on June 15th and give us the idea as to how to improve Niti further”.
Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar stated this while responding to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s decision to boycott NITI Aayog’s (NA’s) fifth Governing Council meeting (GCM).
She should have changed her mind and attended the meeting. The least she can do even now is to submit a detailed paper on weakened Cooperative Federalism (CF) to him.
The suggested paper should list flaws in NA’s working as compared the performance of National Development Council (NDC) and Planning Commission. These two institutions, created by Jawaharlal Nehru, were wound up by Modi Government in 2015.
Other Chief Ministers from Opposition-ruled States should have latched on to Dr. Kumar’s offer to give suggestions to improve NA’s working.
Mamata didi has indeed erred by writing to Prime Miniser Narendra Modi, who is also NA Chairman, that she would not attend the meeting. Boycott and sulk is not the solution. Participation in the meeting to put hard facts about damage done to CF is the way to go.
She should take a leaf out of late Selvi J. Jayalalithaa’s book.
BJP-Cong War on Poverty Shows No Lessons Learnt From 1971 One
- Published on 06 April 2019
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(Extracted Image Courtesy: BJP)
The war to win the poor as a class vote is becoming fiercer with Congress Party resolving to eliminate “abject poverty” by 2030. The war between the Congress & Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is reminiscent of the slogans war they fought in 1971.
The Congress won the 1971 Lok Sabha elections with its Garibi Hatao slogan, BJP, in its earlier avatar – Bharatiya Jan Sangh, fought the elections with its manifesto headlined “Jan Sangh Declares War on Poverty”. The Manifesto’s cover page showed an arm holding a danda (staff). One does not know whether the photo tried to invoke spirit of Mahatama Gandhi or of a Chowkidar.
The current war between the two parties is, however, is not a mere battle of slogans. It is serious clash of two approaches to remove poverty.
BJP is banking on all existing schemes plus the assumption for sustained economic growth. This is actually Modi Government’s approach to make India Poverty-free by 2022 under his New India Pledge unveiled during August 2017. This observation is tentative as BJP has not yet released its manifesto for 2019 Lok Sabha elections. It may contain some new initiative in the domain of inclusive growth.
No one is, however, buying Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s idea of poverty-free India by 2022. Not even NITI Aayog that he heads. In a 2016 presentation, NITI stated: “Growing at 10% will transform India – India will be a $10 trillion economy with no poverty in 2032”.
Planning Commission/Niti Aayog