THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY SPECIAL NUMBER JULY 1964

Capital View The Centrists Romesh Thapar Who after Shastri, and what? Medical report about Shastri's health has already set speculation agog and the answer is the familiar one—a centrist for the leader and for policy, is too vast and varied to be ruled by a leadership which is anything but centrist or amorphous. The fact that Shastri is a sick man, together with the manner in which the perspectives of national policy are sought to be changed in a period of runaway inflation caused primarily by defence spending, underline the possibility of political cleavages within the Congress in the coming months.

A S rumours begin to circulate about toughness of a on the ingly in the hands of a small manage­ the possible retirement of LaL Ba­ party's right and a V K Krishna Menon able caucus of men. It is far removed hadur Shastri when Parliament recon­ on the left, and the technocratic skill from the practices of the Nehru era. venes for the monsoon session, ru­ of a Subramaniam or an Asoka Mehta, Then, maximum agreement was aimed mours strengthened by medical reports lack those major dimensions which at — and a conscious polemic was which suggest that his health has been make a nation take serious notice of waged against those who would dilute damaged by the recent heart attack, its leadership. Each trend, if it can the socialist content of the party's the more active political speculators be so called, seems to be unaware of programme. Compromise was only are going around asking 'What after the desperate need to make itself re entertained when a major split was Shastri?'. This kind of questioning has levant at all levels to the nation in threatened, but the compromise was been with us for many years now. The the new post-Nehru context and is never intended to mark a cease-fire in answer too is rather familiar: 'Some­ only concerned with the manipulative the debate. one who is generally accepted as a aspects of . To the very end, even at the Jaipur centrist'. Who Seizes the Initiative? and the Bhubaneshwar sessions of the party, this was the Nehru 'style', his This opinion, carefully purveyed in For the , there is grave way of vitalizing the Congress Party the national press, has affected the danger in this, for inevitably, in the with continuous and healthy contro­ posture of many an aspiring politician. absence of a forward-looking leader­ versy. He always maintained that the However, the self-imposed stupor is ship capable of cutting through the democratic way would be slower and at last lifting, Centrism is now beginn­ apathy and demoralisation with a co­ more tedious, but not ineffective and ing to be viewed as a cover for flab herent, realistic programme that mus­ that it could lead to deadly stagnation by thinking. What effect will this rea­ ters wide and overwhelming support, only if the go-slowers, the cautious and lisation have on the opportunist centre it is the still entrenched the unenterprising were permitted to or the centrists? of our people which will seize the ini­ dominate the thinking of the party. tiative. It has been argued that India is too Those who speak today about 'conti­ vast and varied to be ruled by a lead­ Unlike as in an advanced country nuing' his politics should take the ership which is anything but centrist such as the USA. in India the Gold- trouble to re-read the story of these or amorphous. Even the actual role of waters (or Guruji Golwalkars) come years of freedom. They will soon find such a positive progressive force like on top when there is a vacuum in that they are out of step. is advanced as an thinking, when the assaulr on the cita­ example of what happened to dynamic dels of conservatism is blunted and Indeed, if there is any lesson which commitment under the contradictory stilled. The non-ideological, emotional the present-day centrists in India economic and political pulls of the demand for decisiveness, for tough­ have to learn from the past, it is this : sub-continent Conveniently slurred ness, and the 'coming together' behind that even the dynamic centrism of over is the fact that what is now a Morarji Desai of disparate right and Jawaharlal Nehru is inadequate today: sought to be projected as centrism is left wing elements in the ruling party that if a society embodying dissent is nothing short of stagnation. on the plea of decisiveness, is a dis­ to survive in India, a fresh attack must be launched on those interests Nehru, even in his most passive torted, transitory manifestation of this and forces which block the bridging movements, was always striving to push same drift into nationalistic extrem- of the yawning chasm between our the nation forward into a fully demo­ ism; it disarms the Left in the inte­ towns and villages, between those who cratic, socialist and secular future; to rests of the Right. Already, the theo­ are comfortable and those who are him, centrism was essentially a con­ rising is popular that there is no such not, between the men who exercise scious effort to locate and assert the thing as 'right' and 'left'. It provides power and those upon whose compli­ national will—and his approach had a the background to the manipulative ance future progress rests. profound impact because of his own politics we witness today. dynamic commitment to perspectives Centrism, as now sought to be Nehru's dynamic centrism had be­ which he was for ever popularising. popularised by come static during the last years of His successors show no such vision or and the chieftains of the Congress his life, had failed to crack the struc­ passion. Party in the States, is described as tures of caste, community and class The confused and awkward conser­ the point of minimum agreement, a which frustrated the objectives of our vatism of a Lal Bahadur Shastri, the so-called consensus manipulated at the freedom struggle. To attempt a so- socialistic meanderings of a Gulzarilal highest levels without controversy and called 'consolidation' at this stage is Nanda or a Y B Chavan, the extremist debate and which places power increas­ to present these structures which in

1183 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY SPECIAL NUMBER JULY 1964

1184 SPECIAL NUMBER JULY 1964 T H E ECONOMIC W E E K L Y the final reckoning are a negation of unfriendly politicians who can be decision soon to be announced that , of secularism and of egali­ arraigned for corruption or mismanage­ the August meeting of the National tarian . ment. This is exactly the kind of Development Council is to be post­ poned until after the monsoon session It is not a question of whether we situation in which the bureaucrat of Parliament. Then it is hoped to are to have a big five year plan or a hopes to hold his own. present a patched up programme of small five-year plan, but of the move­ The Minister Always Agrees 'consolidation' which alters the direc­ ment massively into areas of develop­ And he is doing so. More frequent­ tion in which the country's economic ment which we may have neglected. ly than ever before, in almost every development has been geared and It is not a question of confining our ministry, the files return with that places greater reliance on foreign sup­ selves to consolidating our gains, but mark of ministerial impotence — 'I port. of finding the instruments which will agree'. Only Finance, Food and Agri­ The newly mobilised 'brains-lrusters', assist speedier and more effective im­ culture, Education and Irrigation and if they can be called by such a name, plementation of bigger and bigger de­ Power have so far escaped the para­ base their calculation on a decisive velopment programmes. It is not a lysis. Perhaps, Information and Broad­ victory for Lyndon Johnson in the question of the curtailment of the casting will join the distinguished November presidential election in the present effort, but one of injecting new company as also Planning, that is. USA which they believe will open the and purposeful content into an expand­ when the centrists finally decide to way to a massive aid programme for ing effort. submit to Asoka Mehta's presence in an India now advertised as technically The debate now joined is sterile, for the Cabinet. and organisationally equipped for a the centrists delude themselves that a Foreign Affairs is about to succumb take-off. smaller and more compact economic fully to the bureaucrat now that effort will yield more sizeable results. This strategy of the centrists, based has been chosen by on so many mercurial factors over This has never been the answer to Shastri and the Syndicate (significant­ poverty in a period of development, which they rial rally have no control, ly, in the absence abroad of the three will be contested because its ramifica­ not even during the early development persons interested in foreign affairs — decades of free enterprise in the U S A. tions are wide and involve a drastic TTK, Chagla and ) as toning down of our role in interna­ On the economic front, the present the man most suited to speak for tional affairs. It would, however, be pointers are nor only in the direction India. A politician of charming dis­ idle to deny that the stomach for a of a smaller indigenous effort but position, he however has few opinions. contest within the ruling party is al­ a widening activity on the part of He is made more in the image of an most non-existeat. Years of corrup­ foreign capital Centrist thinking amiable inoffensive ambassador, and tion, money-making, licence-peddling seeks to cushion its crisis through would be socially successful even in and fixing have spread the cult of the foreign aid and investment. T T moody Peking. As Foreign Minister. status quo. Krishnamachari and Manubhai Shah lie is bound to eat out of the hands of speak knowingly when they refer to a secretarial which could not even The Establishment lives by the cult, the 'new climate' in India. Fertilizer effectively service the unfortunate TTK is fearful on radical measures which production has been opened up on in London. But Swaran Singh is the will disturb the present order of special terms for a US consortium. ideal choice if you agree with the things and, if the economic stresses And the uninformed Sanjeeva Reddy centrists that India should forget the and strains cannot be patched up, is has made a bid for his place in the world and busy herself with foreign prepared in the interests of the status headlines with the announcement that aid and private foreign investment. quo to barter away our independence of action. Not without reason is the steel production too is available for The fact that Shastri is a sick man, private foreign enterprise. initiative passing to the bureaucrats, together with the haphazard manner the men who usually think of their We do not quite know what other in which the perspectives of national own postings and promotions before changes in GOI policy are to be an­ policy are sought to he changed in a the interest of the people and the na­ nounced ad hoc or whether the Cabi­ period of runaway inflation caused tion. net has even had an opportunity to primarily by a sharp upswing in de­ The silence on these matters within discuss these crucial matters. Obser­ fence spending, underline the possibi­ the Congress which Jawaharlal Nehru vers who question the rationale behind lity of political cleavages within the led for some sixteen years is matched these decisions are being told by (he ruling party during the coming months. by the irrelevant polemics of the op­ bureaucrats who now increasingly Pragmatic centrism will be sought to position parties. While the Hindu dominate policy making that they be made into a credo for the nation, communal grouns organise to divert should be thankful that 'some kind of a policy of supposed moderation and the economic frustration of the peo­ development' is envisaged. The lunatic normality, but it will be difficult for ple to attacks on the minority com­ fringe of the centrists talks of suspend­ the sponsors to hide the panicky re­ munities, the Communists continue ing projects, concentrating on unutilis­ treat ordered on every front. Ob­ their sterile war among themselves ed capacity, now that capital is short ! viously, it is in the ministries concerned with economic policy, parti­ with the official Dange group answer­ The ambitious among the bureau­ cularly the Planning Commission that ing the adventurism of the splitters crats are preparing for a new lease of the initial battles will be fought. with inane slogans in support of the life. Shastri and his centrists visibly Shastri . The socialists wilt when their bureaucrats frown that The reluctance of the centrists to have little to contribute except. Lohia's a particular policy decision will offend commit themselves to the targets of sublimated research that 'Nehru gave some powerfully entrenched group. the Fourth Plan approved at an earlier his jewels to his family and only his This cautious, fumbling centrism is session presided over by Jawaharlal ashes to the people'. The moronic wedded to the status quo. Action is Nehru, on the plea that inflation level of this left activity is not chal­ only taken against non-conforming, threatens ruin is emphasised by the lenged because the still healthy ranks 1185 SPECIAL NUMBER JULY 1964 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY are unable to find a political and eco­ The reorganisation would create centrists of today. To the end he was nomic focus. conditions for mobilising further re­ the non-conformist, the experimenter, Moments such as these punctuate sources for industrialisation, despite determined to find the answer to the the life of every nation. These are the population pressures. At the problems of his India. No newspaper moments of stagnation, of patient same time, by a careful re-examination smear can hide this truth. This waiting for men and movements with of our defence needs and the building thought must disturb our editorial the courage and vision to cut through of an effective, limited unorthodox writers even as they lose themselves the stagnation. Today, in India the military deterrent, we could save the in panagyrics about the new paths more one searches for the signs of a waste involved in the present senseless (sic!) India is about to tread. revival, the greater and more forbid­ defence budgeting, curb the inflation The task before the politically- ding does the void appear. A gloomy sparked by it. find the resources to minded is to begin at every level the picture, but accurate and most neces­ maintain the growth of basic industry search for clarity and perspectives — sary to record. For, unless we aban­ until such time as agriculture is in a those twins which the centrists with don pretence and face the reality, we position to give the support for more their so-called pragmatism always will not stir. massive development which is its his­ avoid. The task demands study, de­ toric role. The world, too, would However, the hand we hold is not bate and battle. Where are these respect us and assist us if we could politically-minded? Where are the to be scoffed at. Three five-year plans produce this indomitable spirit. have given us a technological and intellectuals, the economists, the socio- organisational base for a major eco­ But a people, multi-million like ours, logists, the scientists, the technocrats nomic push. If the rate of growth is condemned to a sophisticated serfdom, ready to initiate the debate? Where below what we targeted, it can be cannot be moved by the demoralised, are the builders of the mass move­ corrected. We have to transform our selfish grouping of the centrists. ments which once flooded this coun­ community development and national Throughout his tempestuous life, even try? extension services into a country-wide when calmed by compromise, Jawahar- These are the questions being asked network of productive aid for the far­ lal Nehru understood this so well. wherever one goes in the Capital and mer in the shape of credit, seed, ferti­ Stricken in health, burdened by work outside. They are persistent questions lizer and water. Once established, this which would have broken the back of born out of our crisis, the crisis of network would provide the basis for a a man half his age, surrounded by the post-Nehru era, a crisis which structural reorganisation of our agri­ men who had forgotten the passion of cannot be snuffed out by pretended culture through a land reform which that tryst with destiny, Nehru had pragmatism, by political surrender makes possible intensive cultivation. more clarity and vision than all the and economic retreat.