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 centrism for policy, India 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 Morarji Desai 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 politics. 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 ruling Party, 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 conservatism 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. Jawaharlal Nehru 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 Lal Bahadur Shastri 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 democracy, of secularism and of egali­ arraigned for corruption or mismanage­ the August meeting of the National tarian socialism. 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 Swaran Singh 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 Indira Gandhi) 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.