GLOBALISATION AND DOWNSIZING OF GOVERNMENT

*K Vijayachandran

State is an object of resentment, irrespective of ideologies. Anarchists see it as the origin of crimes, businessmen blame it for economic sins, socialists see it as an instrument of coercion, and religions had always resisted its influence over human psyche. Market economists as well as Marxists had wished its withering away, for long. But the institution continues to grow and expand its role in human development.

World Development Report 1997 of the World Bank had its focus on 'the State in Changing World' and noted: Over the last century the size and scope of government have expanded enormously, particularly in the industrial countries. According to its estimates, total government expenditure in OECD countries was less than ten percent of their GDP in 1870. This had steadily grown five fold, to nearly fifty percent by 1995. Critics of market economics had pointed out even earlier that, State had continued to grow in these countries even during eighties and nineties, despite the tall talks of Thatherism and Reagnomics and had held this in support of their theories on State Monopoly Capitalism and Industrial-Military complexes. Expansion and enrichment of the role of State on either side of the cold war however, was characterised as proof of convergence of socio-political systems, by Professor Galbrieth and others of the liberal tradition.

In developing countries, that took to mixed economies, State was seen as a critical resource for socio-economic development, as a matter of political consensus. According to WDR-1997, central government expenditure in developing countries was just fifteen percent of their GDP in 1960 which had nearly doubled up by 1990. In the Indian economy, total government expenditure had peaked to 26 percent of GDP by 1991 and then started declining, thanks to economic reforms. It was argued that, due to economic planning and growth of public sector organisations, India was over-administered and down-sizing of Government at every level was the first step toward faster development.

Fallacy of this argument will be even more clear, when we consider the numerical size of Governments in industrial countries. USA with a population base of 265 million had 24 million Government employees in 2002, including its armed forces, or some 91employeess per 1000 population. India with 1100 Million people, had only 13 million Government employees or about twelve per thousand people. India is a very thinly administered country and combined with the lower efficiencies at every level, Indian State is no match to that of USA. Even a casual look at the two societies will reinforce this statistical evidence. But, public opinion in India had accepted uncritically the prescriptions for the downsizing of Indian State, when industrial countries, including USA, continues to move in opposite direction.

Further, more than 16 percent of the working people in USA were directly employed by Government in 2002, the corresponding figure for India was less than 4 percent. Relative sizes of public employment and distribution of employees at various levels of governance in the two countries, make interesting comparisons. Data compiled by US Labour Bureau and Economic Review of Indian Government are analysed in table below:

PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT AT DIFFERENT LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT: YEAR 2002
	USA	INDIA
Employees per 1000 Population
Federal/Central	20	3
State Governments	19	7
Local Governments	52	2
TOTAL	91	12
Percent Distribution
Federal/Central	22	25
State Governments	21	58
Local Governments	57	17
TOTAL	100	100

The table throws some light on the structural efficacy of Indian State, compared to its US Counterpart: Governance at all levels is week in India, compared to that in USA. In terms employees per 1000 population, US Federal Government was nearly seven times stronger. State Governments in USA had nearly three times more employees compared to Indian States on a population basis. State and Federal Governments were thus of nearly same size in USA whereas, State Governments in India had more than double the strength of Central Government.

Local Self Governments, with less than two employees per thousand people, are the weakest links of State power in India. They are mere pigmies compared to their US compartments, which constitute a formidable part of US State power. With 52 employees per 1000 population, local governments in USA, are the providers of a variety of community services at the street level: education, health, social security, human resources development, local transport, trade, tourism atdl.

Despite Gandhian dreams of Gram-Swaraj, JP movement of seventies, constitutional amendments of 1991 and repeated demands and promises by the Left and the Right, Local Governments were a virtual non-starter in our Union Republic. And now, we are downsizing Government as a whole. Is it the right response to the second wave of globalisation, triggered in by countries, far more powerful than ours?

*Former Secretary to Government of Kerala, Department of Public Enterprises.

TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE IN KERALA:

NEED FOR NEW PERSPECTIVES AND PRIORITIES

K Vijayachandran

Transport sector continues to be the weakest link in Kerala infrastructure. As this article goes to print, private truckers are on strike, and the Government is on an adventurous course of confronting them with the help of the TU. Roads were extensively damaged during the last monsoon and for several weeks, the State did not have a minister for roads: Promise of the Chief Minister to complete the temporary repair jobs by 15th of October could not be fulfilled, despite the district-wise extortion of engineers and workmen by his nineteen cabinet colleagues.

The small-time private bus operators and their ill-paid employees hardly enjoy even a minimum of social security and inevitably, they go into strike action almost every year, district-wise or at state level. Government looks at the Kerala State Road Corporation, its only tool to intervene in a crisis situation in passenger transport or goods movement , as a mere white elephant maintained for giving jobs to some twenty five thousand employees: Minster for transport has recently gone on record that, insuring KSRTC buses is an avoidable luxury.

Despite more than two decades of development and large investments, the Kollam-Kottappuram water way (NW-III) continues to be dysfunctional: Water transport department as well as Kerala Shipping and Inland Navigation Corporation (KSINC) look like orphans, unable to make any creative initiative. The massive two thousand Crore Rupee Kerala State Transport Project (KSTP)implemented during the past five years, with World Bank support, was a total disaster. Express Highway and Cochin Metro, the two major high-tech initiatives, based on the advice by external consultants, have failed to enthuse private investors, and do not find a place in the eleventh plan.

Latest Economic Review of Kerala State Planning Bord sums up state's transport infrastructure in the following words: Transport system of the State consists of 1.61 lakh Km of road, 1148 Km of Railways,1687 Km of Inland Waterways and 111 statue miles of Airways and 17 Ports. As part of the preparations for the eleventh plan, SPB was doing a serious stocktaking of the transport infrastructure in the state, which gets very little focused attention. On a per capita basis, Kerala has more than the average share of route KM of railway: However rail development is the near total responsibility of the Central Government, and Indian Railways prefer to interact directly with Railway Users Associations on issues of rail development, rather than the liaising with local governments. Inland waterways mostly exist as a potential: irrigation department is the custodian of inland waters and the canal system.

Kerala, as we know, is a narrow strip of land with a 560 Kilometre coastline on the West, and mountain reliefs on the East. Every 14 kilometre on the average, there is a river system flowing Westward, and forty-one drainage basins rush their heavy monsoon run-off, into a huge inland water body, stretching along the coastline and shaking hands with the Arabian sea, at half a dozen locations called pozhi. Thanks to this unique hydrology, more than half of Kerala population live on its coastal planes, measuring only a third of total land area. This coastal plane, on the two sides of the backwaters network, with its lakes, canals and estuaries, numerous seaports of antiquity and large population centres, is developing into a single modern metro of some twenty million people; population densities crossing the level of 3000 persons per sqkm, for several long stretches. The North-South inland waterway along this backwater system, and the navigable stretches upstream of the forty-one rivers, were developed by several generations of Kerala rulers, before and after the great Cheraman Perumal took to Islam. This 1700 Kilometre long inland waterway was the backbone of Kerala economy and served its culture and commerce for centuries. Due to a variety of factors, neglect and ignorance in the main, these arteries of history turned dysfunctional, within a few decades of Indian independence, inflicting heavy damages. Reconstructing Kerala culture and economy along the ancient waterway network, with the help of modern Science and Technology, could be a twenty-first century dream project. Smart Waterways, suggested by our former President, was a bold dream with a historical rationale. However, the recent promises made by Kerala Chief Minister and his advisor on the waterway front are hardly convincing, in the absence of detailed plans and logistics.

Economic Review of SPB has attempted a detailed review of the 161,000 KM length of Kerala roads: Road density in Kerala is 414 km/100 sqkm and it is far ahead of the national average of 75 km. Road length per lakh population in Kerala is 506 km against the national average of 259 km. Kerala with a population density of more than double the national average has already set aside large land areas for road construction and the policy decision of minimal or cautious expansion in terms of length as well as widening of roads was the right one. However, this decision was criticised by a section of media as motivated by ideology. Quality road construction based improved designs to suit the local conditions and preventive maintenance in a scientific manner are the need of the hour for improving road performance and reducing costs. Local bodies are the custodians of more than three fourth of Kerala roads and they are totally ill-equipped to handle the design, construction and maintenance of the roads and totally dependant on petty contractors: There are no efforts to develop their skills as a part of public policy and society look at them as corrupt middlemen with no worthwhile productive roll. Such lumpen views are supported even by political parties, who look at contractors as well as the engineering community as corrupt and no better than anti-socials.

PWD department look after the State Highways (18%) and the National Highways (1%) which enjoy the support of Design, Research, Research, Investigations and Quality Board (DRIQ Board) and Kerala Highway Research Institute (KHRI) at Peechi. However, political leadership rarely look at these institutions for technology development and engineering support: They are mostly used for disciplining the technical staff, through transfers and placements. Political corruption is widespread in PWD and allied public sector organisations like Kerala Construction Corporation, Nirmithi Kendras and Roads and Bridges Corporation come in handy for bypassing any sort of performance audit by legislative committees.

Totally erroneous perceptions on the creative role of the engineering profession and civil engineering contractors as well as wide spread corruption at political level have virtually eroded the professional capabilities of Kerala PWD and other engineering departments in the State. Technical Inspection Wing of the Finance Department, acting as Super Auditors and playing the role of a fifth wheel in PWD, has eroded the professional integrity and accountability of engineering profession in the state and political corruption, at all levels, continue unabated. The Kerala State Transport Project formulated by the bureaucracy for attracting IBRD finance and implemented during tenth plan, was supposed to address these structural problems through an Institution Strengthening Action Plan (ISAP) component for capacity building in the transport sector, including the water transport sector. However, the reverse of Institutional Strengthening was the net outcome of KSTP, with huge cost escalations and unseemly disputes with a foreign contractor. In other words, the problem of technological backwardness and incompetence, has turned even more acute after implementing this World Bank Project.

High-Tech projects such as Express Highway or Kochi Metro involving billions of dollars of foreign investments need to be seen in the background of this massive erosion of professional capacities and standards in the state, thanks to political bungling and short-sightedness. This weakness is reflected not only in the planning and construction of roads but also in networking them with other modes of transport rail and inland waterways. State Road Transport Corporations plays a leading role in organising comparatively efficient public transport systems in most other states. In this respect, Kerala lags far behind other southern states: It has only one RTC and most parts of the state are dominated by private buses which outnumber KRTC buses by eight to one. There are only 135 RTC buses per million population in Kerala, compared to 284 in Tamilnadu and 253 in Andhra Pradesh.

The comparative table constructed for the three states illustrates the relative inefficient use of transport infrastructure in Kerala, due to the criminal neglect of its RTC. Dependency on private bus operators has resulted in extremely poor vehicle utilisation: There are more than 1100 passenger buses per million population in Kerala, compared to 393 in Tamilnadu and 253 in Andhra. And, these numbers do not include the large number of mini buses and vans that operate illegal passenger services on Kerala roads. Public transport is hardly any better in Kerala despite the much larger deployment of passenger buses. Number of three wheelers per million population in Kerala is nearly three to four times that of TN and AP. In the use of two wheelers, Kerala is far ahead of other two states, if mopeds are excluded from the count. Kerala has relatively large number of personal vehicles including taxis and private motor cars. It has 112 motor vehicles on the road, per thousand population, compared to 72 in AP and 132 in TN: on an area basis, AP has only less than one-fourth and TN about two-third number of vehicles compared to Kerala. Karanataka is possibly no different, however full range of data could not be immediately ascertained.

No wonder, that accident rate per vehicle in Kerala is nearly double that of the other two states. The fact that, more than sixty persons die on Kerala roads every week, is an indicator for the poor quality of transport infrastructure in the state. It is common experience that long and medium distance travel or inter-city travel is fairly comfortable in the State, thanks to KSRTC and the railways, especially thanks to the long distant trains. Intra-district and city-town services are the weakest links in the public transport network in Kerala and these public transport segments are mostly under the tyranny of small-time private bus operators and the Regional Transport Authority headed by the district collectors. Routes and licences given to the private operators become their private property subject to judicial reviews even by the High Court. It is high time that public road transport network get liberated from these archaic statutes and brought on par with more civilised countries, where it is organised inevitably under a public monopoly.

Kerala should be prepared to learn form the experience of other southern states in using their RTCs to great advantage, in developing cost-effective road transport network. There is a consensus on developing a North-South mass rapid transport system, for the six hundred kilometre long metro of twenty million people, that is emerging along Kerala coast, by strengthening and diversifying the existing rail route. The NH-47 and NH-17 along with the state highways and district and panchayat roads as well as waterways could be used for developing an efficient public transport network, provided public transport authorities are created in every district under the districts, cities and towns, with the full involvement of the local Governments. KSRTC and its network of depots and garages in almost all districts of the Kerala could be used for organising joint ventures with local governments ,for organising and operating efficient public transport network.

Private buses and their routes need to be gradually taken over for the public purpose of creating an efficient and cost effective public transport network in the state. Such reforms has nothing to do with socialism: Public transport network under a public authority is the standard pattern in almost all developed countries, including even the USA. Vehicle loads on the roads will drastically come down, along with the cost of their maintenance. The unhealthy tendency of crowding of Highways and Bypasses will be considerably checked, once most places in the interior get connected by efficient public transport network. It is high time that Kerala develops an integrated perspective on these lines and decide on its transport sector priorities.

22.10.2007

JCBS AND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS.

K Vijayachandran*

It was heartening to see that the last article in this column Administrative Reforms in Kerala, One Step Forward Two Steps Back has inspired several ministers: Finance Minister has endorsed the view that Kerala has a Government of clerks, by the clerks and for the clerks. Critical views expressed by him in a Government employees meet was then promptly followed up by Desabhimani, through an editorial (see box) on the very next day titled: Hegemony of Clericalism.

But all these do not mean that the message of that article has gone down even skin deep, on our policy makers or general public. We had, for instance, the great Karimeen incident reported from Kottayam medical college hospital and then a little later the entire state was rocked under the impact of JCBs, operating from the heights of Munnar. Both these episodes have excited the imagination of our clerical classes: They have even begun to look at JCBs as extensions for their own mighty pens.

To start with, let us dissect the Karimeen: We do not know whether the surgeon in charge of the offending refrigerator was really guilty: He had refused to cooperate with the media and appear on the television screen, along with his suspected exploits. We have not seen even a photograph of this surgeon the newspapers were even reluctant to reveal his full name. However, the hospital superintendent had reportedly prepared a detailed document on the number and size of Karimeen, and when, how and where these fishes were discovered, along with photos and video clippings of the frozen fishes being taken out of the hospital fridge. The report was prepared after detailed investigations as instructed by the Health Secretary, drafted, typed and fair copied and issued by the office superintendent and submitted to the Medical College Principal, who in turn had emailed a copy directly to the Minister, possibly along with the video clippings. Hard copies of the report were naturally sent to the health secretary, strictly according to procedures and protocols, and then to the private secretaries of the Minister, as well as others. Minister had reviewed these e-details on the laptop of her private secretary, sitting in Kerala House, and got convinced that the real culprit was the surgeon and not the fishes. Despite these lengthy consultations and complicated procedures, commendable results were achieved pretty fast, thanks to the dedicated and collective efforts of a dozen or so senior officials: The offending surgeon was suspended from Government service on the telephonic orders of Minister. The media celebrated the Karimeen episode with numerous expert interviews, panel discussions and open sessions. But nobody seems to have posed the question: Why the Superintendent or the Medical Collage principal did not act on their own and try to discipline the surgeon, without involving the Health Minister or Health Secretary, even though they had all the powers to do it?

The question was possibly considered stupid and never asked or could have faced a counter question: In that case, what are the ministers for and why democracy? You may argue still: If the local level officials exercised their authority most of the Karimeen like offenses would simply disappear and everybody knows, why the officials in charge of local offices or public utilities are often sacred of exercising their disciplinary authority. I had pointed out in my last article, how the clerical culture, that is all pervasive in our administration, have its seeds in the sectarian politics that rule over the personal staff of our ministers. Karimeen will remain as a symbol of inaction and indifference inflicted on our health administration by the dominant clerical culture in our system of governance. Possibly, the JCB might turn out to be a far more powerful symbol, and its memories will haunt us for a much longer time. It is surprising that nobody is seen resisting these machines, and that reminds me of the bulldozers of the Libyan leader, Col Qaddafi, the self proclaimed prophet of Arab socialism. His Green revolution and Green Book were the contemporaries and challengers of the Red Revolution and Red Book of Mao of mid seventies. The Cornell had challenged the culture of the filthy rich Arabs, with the music and poetry of bulldozers.

In many ways, the JCB was a clerical response to the deep rooted problem of corruption and maladministration in the management of our land resources. Sponsored by his faithful team, VS had proposed the operations: CPI(M) and LDF had accepted it with much less than half a heart. It was therefor not surprising that, service organizations like NGO unions did not even express their solidarity with the JCB. The militant leaders of DYFI and SFI had refused to shift their focus away from professional education, and CITU forced into a studied silence. The tragic comedy of Pinarayi-VS tango may continue on its course into an unnatural finish this time, but the JCB is sure to retire from its present mission, sooner than later, and a little premature. However, it has struck a sympathetic note in the hearts of the poor and the down trodden like the great MGR films, and the question keeps coming back: after JCB what? No political leaders, barring K Karunakaran and Kotiyeri, have responded to the JCB operations, with the minimum level of self-confidence commensurate with statesmanship. Karunakaran had made a point: taking over the ill gotten assets could have been a far better and more civilized response than demolishing. And, Kotiyeri had promised a grand master plan for Munnar tourism, in addition to strategic investments in the region by his tourism department, as soon as the JCBs vacated the scene. Others, without exception, sang the same song all in praise of the JCBs in public and cursing them in private. After all, they were individually and collectively responsible for the all pervasive land-grabs. encroachments, and illegal constructions.

Revenue department has been the sole custodian of all land resources and the backbone of administration, when land revenue was a major source of government incomes. Land revenues has virtually ceased to be a source of income, and the high power body known as the Revenue Board, a legacy from the days of British Raj, was wound up long back, with out precipitating any administrative discomfort or vacuum. Functions of the land revenue as well as survey, re-survey and registration departments could be safely handed over to LSGIs with out any administrative hazard. Land and land use questions should normally get settled at the LSG level ie municipalities, corporations and the three-tier panchayats, in tune with the laws of the land and regulations. Despite the proliferation of agencies dealing with the land question, reliable maps of good quality are simply not available today, and this is a major impediment for our economic and cultural development. Resurvey project initiated some three decades ago for liberating the land records from the labyrinth of centuries old clerical hegemony of land revenue department has added to the confusion: It is in limbo, and has not yielded any tangible results so far. As mentioned already, land records and land use records are best maintained at the local level and they could be integrated into district or state level maps using modern satellite technology. The right approach is to nominate the LSGIs as the primary custodians of land and land records, and make them responsible for updating and making available reliable information, data and maps of good quality for their respective regions, as is the practice in more civilized nations.

Despite their massive demolitions, no body has seriously questioned the legitimacy of JCBs and special task forces. Even the courts seem to be reluctant to intervene. We have a plethora of laws on land and land use, administered by numerous departments and institutions even other than the revenue: irrigation, forest, registration, survey and re-survey, geology, town planning department, land use board, and local self government institutions. There are also building rules and powers of granting exemptions by Government at various levels up to and including the state Government. Thanks to these complexities, laundering of land records has emerged as a lucrative profession and perfectly legitimate business. Maybe, every one of the JCB operations will be sued in the coming months and weeks, on the strength of these complex laws and the loopholes built into them. And unless the threads of genuine reforms are picked up in right earnest, laws of the jungle are sure to return in no time, and JCBs will be remembered more for their nuisance than righteousness.

* The writer may be contacted on email: kvijaya40@yahoo.co.uk

23.05.2007

QUALITY OF GOVERNANCE:

ONE STEP FORWARD TWO STEPS BACKWRD.

By K Vijyachandran.

On several fronts, Kerala is far ahead of its sister states: in building luxury villas and multi-storied apartments, modern life styles and as a market for consumer durables, in learning new skills, in the export and import of human resources, and on the whole what is normally referred to as quality of life. And, as if by corollary, our middle class babus beat their counterparts in other Indian states, in the art of self pitying and breast beating as well, and constantly complain about the backwardness and quality of our Government.

My intention is not to claim any best governed status for Kerala, nicknamed as God's own country. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to examine the variety of diagnosis of poor quality governance and remedies suggested by numerous management experts, retired bureaucrats, technocrats, political leaders, ministers and other luminaries. Government Secretariat at Thiruvananthapuram comes out as the villain, in most diagnosis, and the veteran communist from my district, late Comrade R Sugathan had seen burning down the royal edifice, where it is housed, as the only remedy. That was a too severe a view for most revolutionaries and our present Chief Minister, hailing from this very same district, has considerably diluted this earlier diagnosis of his deceased comrade: In his view, thirty percent of the secretariat employees are good, conscientious workers: and, this sounds to be a fairly good estimates if we go by the support base of CPI(M) factions among secretariat staff.

Nearly a decade ago, Nayanar had tried out punching, a day of casual leave for three days of late punching, movement registers etc, for disciplining the secretariat staff. His successor, AK Antony would have loved to continue the practice. However, Oomman Chandy seems to count less on disciplining or commitment of employees, and his response to the diagnosis by his successor was rather instinctive: In his view political directives were the major determinant of quality in governance. And that reminds one of the wisdom words of V Ramachandran: Stand of our politicians depends entirely on where they sit! Ironically, his was a life dedicated to administrative reforms and he continues on his life mission, as the most active member of the Administrative Reforms Commission of GOI.

I, myself, had three occasions, to watch from very close quarters, how Government really functions under the Kerala environ. My experience is limited to the three LDF Governments of Nayanar. But, that should matter very little: Election platforms of LDF and UDF are written in different political dialects, but when translated into practice they make little difference. And it matters very little whether injustices and inefficiencies are delivered in a disciplined or indisciplined manner. The first Nayanar Ministry took me as the Member Secretary of Kerala State Committee on Science and Technology (KSCST) with Dr. KI Vasu as Chairman and as the Chief of the Industries Division in the State Planning Board, headed by the late Thavaraj. With VS ruling from AKG Centre and Nayanar sitting in Govt. Secretariat, there was very little left for us to dream, plan, discuss or deliberate. Nevertheless, we had often shared our dreams with EMS, whose greatness found all the time needed for evaluating our disillusions. Thavaraj, who was the Professor of Financial Administration in IIPA and a dedicated communist intellectual, was frustrated in no time, and I remember his remarks even today: Kerala badly needs a thorough administrative reform. That was in 1982, and the situation has only worsened, despite the massive people's planning movement of the third Nayanar ministry.

My first engagement was however extremely short lived, because the first Nayanar ministry had collapsed within in less than two years. Nevertheless, a few observations on the status of S&T administration in Kerala today will be relevant, in the backdrop of the pioneering efforts put in by our S&T Committee, quarter century ago. The credit for establishing half a dozen autonomous S&T organistions in Kerala, as centers of excellence, including the Center for Development Studies, goes to the Achutha Menon ministry. KSCST was set up during mid seventies, as part of the S&T policy of Central Government, and in 1981 our committee took the initiative to transform it into a focal point for the effective administration of these state level centers of excellence. This policy initiative was well appreciated by the S&T Department of Central Government: It helped in attracting scientific luminaries like Dr. Iyengar, Dr. Sreenivasan, Dr. Valiathan and others to head this state level S&T organization. This new culture, however, was short-lived and reputed scientists are seen leaving their positions in disgust due to political bungling. Bureaucratic pettiness is the order of the day and an under-secretary deputed from the Secretariat calls the shots today at Sastra Bhavan, and he is dictated on by political commissars.

I had witnessed the evolution of this commissar system in state administration, during my second term with the LDF Government, which was nearly co-terminus with the second Nayanar ministry: As the Secretary for Public Enterprises Department, I was reporting to the Chief Minister and at the same time rendering advisory services to the Minister for Industries. Nayanar was a perfect Chief Minister but for the occasional problems precipitated by my bureaucratic insistence to deal with the party, only through proper channels. Gowri Amma never had any use for my advice and she had a different role perception for me, as the Secretary for Public Enterprises: As a party member I was supposed to go by her advice, even on professional matters. I ceased to be her advisor in no time, but continued as Secretary for the Department of Public Enterprises despite her strong resistance.

Unwarranted interference by ministers and their personal staff, in the day to day working of field departments and PSUs, is the major reason for wide spread corruption, erosion of accountability and poor quality of governance. Toward the end of the earlier UDF Ministry several steps were initiated for professionalizing PSU management, under the initiatives of the then Chief Secretary, V Ramachandran. This was a healthy response from the Karunakaran Ministry, to the a massive state-wide campaign by the trade unions, against the misuse and mismanagement of PSUs. Second Nayanar Ministry tried to continue these healthy initiatives of its predecessor, and substantially improved the quality of managing state PSUs. In my capacity as the Secretary for Public Enterprises, I had received full support for such initiatives from all concerned, including th Chief Secretaries, PSU managements and TU leaders, despite the displeasure of a section of political leadership. However, all these healthy trends were simply reversed, soon after the next UDF regained power in 1991.

During the four years my Secretaryship in government, I could witness how efforts toward administrative reforms were resisted and even defeated by opportunist politics. Implementation of the district administration act and positioning of elected district panchayats as centres of local government were part of the election platform of LDF in 1987. As I remember, V Ramachandran, with his vast experience and commitment to administrative reforms could produce within three months, a blue print for implementing the Act, as demanded by the political leadership. However it took more than three years for holding elections and installing the district councils. Second Nayanar ministry opted for a mid term elections even before completing four years, and the program for administrative reforms through grass root level democracy could not be given a fair trial. District Councils were disbanded as soon as UDF came back to power in 1991, and then came the three tier panchayati raj of Rajeev Gandhi, which had ensured the continuation of IAS Raj at the district head quarters and State capital. By then, LDF had forgotten its own democratic promises on District Councils, and by the time they came back to power in 1996 the slogan was people's planning and decentralized development. Nobody knows, even today, what is meant by these concepts, despite massive campaigns and public spending. For five years UDF was deceiving the people with its ADB funded Modernization of Government Program. And now, the Government has ordered an expert committee headed by Prof KA Oomman, to research on why reforms fail to develop roots in Kerala soil.

This brief history of reforms is presented for the benefit our leaders, who have started a new debate on employee productivity in Government. Before stressing on productivity there is a need to look at what they produce on the tens of thousands of Govt. files every year. During my third and last tenure in Government, I could organize a private study on file movements in the secretariat, using my privileges as advisor to the Industries Minister. Rehabilitation package for a PSU traversed through more than 70 tables in the secretariat and no decision was taken even after 90 days, despite vigilant file chasing by the concerned PSU on a table to table basis. Why should a file be seen so many times and by so many people? Air travel by employees in field departments and PSUs need to be approved by the parent department in the secretariat and then concurred by finance department. More than half the time spent by ministers and their personal staff is on transfer, promotion and posting of personnel in the field departments or PSUs under them. Maybe, another one-fourth is spent on purchases and contracts which should be left entirely to the field departments or PSUs, through appropriate delegation of powers. And of course, the remaining one-fourth has to be set aside for vigilance cases, the favorite pastime of bureaucrats and political bosses. Over-time and compensation leave are inevitable for finding time to answer the massive doses of assembly questions. And the most important questions related to policy formulation and reviews are left to committees and consultants. The issue is simple: should we not transform the Government secretariat and the Council of Ministers into a body for policy formulation and review in the main, and leave the implementation part to field departments and PSUs, accountable to lower level elected bodies? Centralized policy making and decentralized administration is the only working solution for large organizations. And, we had been struggling to move toward this goal for quite a few decades and then slipping every time.

We are caught up in the proverbial cycle of one step forward and two steps backward, and the sad part is: Our leaders are hardly aware of this reality and refuse to learn from the past. Even as we celebrate the golden jubilee of Modern Kerala, every single minister is seeking original solutions of his own and refuse to see grass root level realities. We have a health minister who believes that announcing surprise checks from house tops will improve the quality of health care delivery. Public statements of electricity minister give the impression that he is the CEO or Chairman of Electricity Board, which has been rendered dysfunctional by successive regimes in the past. Minister for transport believes that KSRTC is a real white elephant and looks at insuring of its buses as an unwarranted luxury. Improvements in water supply and irrigation systems are not the priorities for our minister for water resources: He is a Kerala patriot fighting Tamilnadu on the East and Arabian Sea on the West. Cooperation minister is cocksure of his dialectics that, two negatives could only multiply or divide, leading to very positive results every time: he has commissioned a comrade who had the rare courage to admit his involvement in a spirit scandal to fight cooperative corruption and intends to use corruption in Government to fight corruption in gods own temples. We have a panchayat minister who is keen to bail out the Finance Minister by raising ADB loans, even at the expense of the much needed capacity building in the LSGs under him. Adding a few more Taluks, is seen a priority measure for improving administrative efficiency by the revenue minister and not making revenue and panchayat administrations coterminous with each other.

Revenue department continues to haunt us as a colonial legacy, and serves as the breeding ground for IAS bureaucracy and culture. If we really appreciate the value of trained administrators, only senior IAS cadres with rich experience and seniority should be posted as district level administrators or collectors. Collectorates are seen today as apprentice shops for the IAS cadre. All senior guys retire into the cozy chairs in the secretariat and close to political power, and their numbers keep on increasing. They are busy, sharing the ministers and along with the nexus around them, have perfected the art of vitiating the entire administration in the state, and rendering it ineffective at every level.

Every minister in Kerala has a large contingent of personal staff, two dozen strong with private secretaries, additional secretaries, assistants, clerks, peons, cooks etc etc and they are screened and selected in consultation with the political bosses. Nearly one third of the staff is sponsored by his party's or group's trade union wing in the secretariat, another one third from its NGO front and the remnant directly from party offices. This is the general composition of the personal staff of ministers, irrespective of ideology or group. And as a rule, by the time they settle down, ministers become virtual prisoners of their personal staff, reminiscent of the proverbial idols on donkey backs. I have witnessed this tragedy several times. The three hundred strong invisible contingent of personal staff develop its own agenda and priorities and keep the white elephant called the Council of Ministers in perpetual confusion. Dr. Babu Paul had named the resultant regime as a regime of Chaprazis. Perhaps, a regime of clerks or glorified clerks, could be a more apt characterization.

END

APARTMENTS: NEW CULTURE WITH AN ECONOMIC RATIONALE

K Vijayachandran FIE

A dwelling without a compound around the house was unthinkable for a Malayalee. It could be even as small as a cent and half: What is important was the smell raw earth around. This life style is costing the society dear: Unplanned growth of our population centres substantially increases the cost of basic infrastructure and civic amenities. Road density in Kerala is 414 km/100 sqkm and it is far ahead of the national average of 75 km. Road length per lakh population in Kerala is 506 km against the national average of 259 km. Kerala with a population density of more than double the national average has already set aside large land areas for road construction. Economy of the state finds it difficult to maintain these vast quantities of roads constructed year after year. Higher road length per person is also an indicator of the higher outlays subsumed for power and fuel supplies, water supply, sewerage and drainage as well as other utilities. Urbanisation is inevitable, and it was high time that, some sort of discipline was brought into the anarchic situation.

The apartment culture that is slowly setting in Kerala has, therefore, a definite social and economic rationale and the mushrooming real estate and property development business, undoubtedly, are creating real values. I may quote here the personal example of a close friend and comrade-in-arm Kunju Krishnan: we may refer him as KK for convenience. He was a poor man by any standard and working as a helper in a mechanical workshop near his ancestral home, frequently used as a shelter by senior leaders of the left movement, during the dark years of head-hunt by a blood-thirsty police. KK along with his wife and three children was holed up in a small tiled hut, along with his aged ailing mother, when I came across him in the early eighties. He was a known leader in the locality, sincere to the core, and as usual rewarded less and respected more for his stubborn honesty.

On dividing the family assets, bulk of his ancestral property went to his sisters, married and properly settled elsewhere: Title of the 40 cents of land and the house, where KK lived was held by his ailing mother who was under pressure to divide it once again as family property. He, however, was lucky on the legal front, after the mother died and within no time property developers closed in on him. For the prices prevailing during late eighties, he got a good bargain: With the cash compensation received for the land, KK could purchase an acre of agricultural land in nearby village where he built a small farm-house, the two daughters were comfortably married off, and son got educated to work as an accountant in a respectable firm. In addition he was allotted three apartments: As on now, he lives in one and the others are rented out. KK was overnight catapulted into an altogether different social orbit.

More interesting part of this story of large value addition was the bankruptcy of KK's builder, even before the apartments were completed and handed over. The hard liquidity problem of the early nineties, that brought to a complete halt the booming property business, had forced the builder to flee the country. Fortunately for KK, there were enough number of apartment aspirants who had fully paid up for the apartments and ready to go for legal remedies. KK as a man of public interest assembled the necessary expertise, legal, financial as well as technical, to form a cooperative enterprise for raising the balance money and completing the building project. True, he could move into the new flat only four years behind the schedule: However, as per the contract entitlements with the builder, KK continued to stay in his good old place, from where he managed to marry off his two daughters. Despite all odds, he conducted the house warming ceremonies in grand style in the new flat in 1995. Possibly KK's example was more of an exemption: several among the martyrs of the building industry of nineties are yet to recover and a good many among those who invested for apartments continue to wait indefinitely. Moral of the story is obvious: KK and others helped themselves using their collective endevour.

Belonging to the collective of some eighty and odd apartment dwellers bring in several advantages and privileges. Managing electricity, phone, gas, water, drainage, sewerage and waste disposal collectively is of great advantage. Most apartment collectives have developed their own arrangements for paying up the utility bills and some are offering even internet connections. Convenience shops, common washing and ironing centres are developing as common amenities. A well-kept small garden and children's playground are real luxuries even for the middle class. Instant geriatric care of the old, first aid and emergency medical help are within the reach of the collectives of apartment dwellers. Cultural evenings and festival celebrations are bringing people together in many apartments that simply strengthen our age old secular traditions. Common garages, car parking and 24 hour security at the gate are the new civic amenities that are now taken for granted by every apartment dweller: However these were simply the privileges of the elite classes till yesterday!

The new culture that is developing around our apartments are sure to stay: it is not a passing fad, simply because of the enormous advantages offered by it at very low costs. However, these are sure to face several serious problems, thanks to their unplanned growth. Servicing the apartments with utilities and infrastructure are likely to be a serious problem, which need to be pre-empted with the help of careful planning at intra-city as well as intercity levels. Mushrooming of the apartments in almost all cities and major towns is sure to discipline us. We will be forced to redesign our population centres in a far more rational way, consistent with the unique features of our land and waters. Kerala, as we know, is a narrow strip of land with a 560 Kilometre coastline on the West, and mountain reliefs on the East. Every 14 kilometre on the average, there is a river system flowing Westward, and forty-one drainage basins rush their heavy monsoon run-off, into a huge inland water body, stretching along the coastline and shaking hands with the Arabian sea, at half a dozen locations called pozhi.

Thanks to this unique hydrology, more than half of Kerala population live on its coastal planes, measuring only a third of total land area. This coastal plane, on the two sides of the backwaters network, with its lakes, canals and estuaries, numerous seaports of antiquity and large population centres, is developing into a single modern metro of some twenty million people; population densities crossing the level of 3000 persons per sqkm, for several long stretches. The North-South inland waterway along this backwater system, and the navigable stretches upstream of the forty-one rivers, were developed by several generations of Kerala rulers, before and after the great Cheraman Perumal took to Islam. This 1700 Kilometre long inland waterway network was the backbone of Kerala economy and served the culture and commerce of the region for centuries, turning Parasurama legend into a living reality. Due to a variety of factors, neglect and ignorance in the main, these arteries of history turned dysfunctional, within a few decades of Indian independence, inflicting heavy damages on Kerala economy and culture.

These are the unique features of Kerala that had encouraged our former President to recommend us to develop some sort of mysterious smart waterways. Even water supply and drainage systems as well as power and fuel lines could built around such smart waterways and transportation network along the backwater system. Reconstruction of the economy and culture of Kerala along its ancient waterways, with the help of modern Science and Technology, should be the twenty-first century dream project of Malayalees. Why not re-design our population centres by developing a master plan for the building of apartments for the 560 KM long metro that is emerging along Kerala coast?

11.11.2007

CHICKUNGUNIA THE MEDIA AND A SICK HEALTH ADMINISTRATION

K Vijayachandran

Monsoon season in Kerala is the season of epidemics and deaths: Daily death rates shoots up much above its average level of five hundred. Nowadays, visitations of Cholera, Typhus and Dysentery are rare, because of piped water supply system, thanks to the Kerala Water Authority. Better hygiene habits have checkmated bacteria, and malaria and philariasis eradicated by appropriate vector control programs. However, virus fevers like influenza and and common common colds occasionally develop into epidemic proportions, but people are not scared of these ordinary air-born infections.

Even influenza was looked upon as a deadly villain once, more like chickungunya or dengue, spread by some new breeds of mosquito, that has recently migrated into selected districts of Kerala coast. I may recall here my own influenza days, way back in 1957: I contracted it on my journey to state capital, for the admission interview for engineering studies and remember even today, the big media stories on how influenza was finding its way into Kerala villages from far off Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai and Singapore. Newspapers carried details about its symptoms and the damage it could cause to human body. Preventive medicines and procedures were prescribed in plenty, and isolation was the best of recommended procedure. My fever lasted only two or three days, but I had turned a VVIP within that short period. Being the first or only victim of a fancy decease in the locality, I had numerous visitors: They were allowed to look at and communicate with me only through windows, and from safe distances. Everybody learn from experience, and not from media: Today, no body is scared of influenza, and I recall my VVIP days, whenever my NRI friends refer to it as some stupid country fever.

Media response to the recent fever epidemic was an altogether different experience, in content as well as in style. Focus of reporting was on the number of deaths, the dilapidated condition of Government hospitals and the human misery waiting in queue for hours and hours to get medical attention, that had to be rationed under conditions of acute scarcity and panic. It conveyed a simple message very effectively: Chickungunya means near certain death, rush to the safety of nearest hospital! Testimony by doctors and medical experts that, there was hardly any chickengunya death was heavily discounted by the media, and statements by ministers vehemently challenged on political grounds. There was no serious attempt by the media and the medical community, to educate the people on the specifics of the decease. People were not counseled to get treated as outpatients and not to overload Government hospitals. Initially all fever cases were reported as chickungunya and then they were referred to as contagious fever or pakarchappani.

Pakarcha pani epidemic was mostly due to the familiar country fever, and had nothing to do with the exotic chickungunya, if we go by absolute numbers and its incidence was not uniform across the districts. Most fever cases were reported from Pathanamthitta or Kottayam district: Number reported till mid June from Kottayam was 7213, of which only 463 were suspected as chickungunya. For Pathanamthitta, the corresponding figures were 2846 and 81. Last year's outbreak of chickengunya was concentrated in Alapuzha district which accounted for about 85 percent of the 70200 suspected cases in the state and over 90 percent of the 81 deaths. However, this year Alapuzha seems to be lagging far behind its neighboring districts. In 2005 there was the dengue fever; 4 out of the 8 deaths reported were from Ernakulam district. Thiruvananthapuram district accounted for nearly half of the 1046 cases reported cases but, there was no death causality. These statistics are confusing, and there is no explanation, why the mosquito induced chickungunya and dengue are confined to certain specific localities. Rain harvesting projects are fairly widespread in most of these localities. During pre-monsoon showers these projects, if poorly implemented, could provide fresh-water breeding grounds needed for chickungunya vector. These and other factors supportive of the new-breed mosquito need urgent investigations. Attacking mosquitoes in general will be unproductive.

These southern districts are under attack by chickungunya and dengue for the third monsoon in succession. But the Public Health Administration in the state is hardly sure about what needs to be done: It has not come out of the shock of the fever epidemic of last season and the scandalous exposures in SAT hospital. Public health administration network in the state is quite large and a leviathan, with an annual budget of around Rs.1400 Crore: that works out to more than Rs. 400 per head. According to the Economic Review, there were a total of 2808 hospitals and dispensaries under state government (including the cooperative sector) in 2005 for Alopathic, Ayurvedic and Homeopathic treatment, and they had 55962 beds. In the private sector these numbers are 10805 and 73230 respectively for the year 1995; latest figures on private sector are not available in government statistics and are likely to be much higher. Public Health Administration in the state has absolutely no control over the large health care resources in private sector, which plays an altogether unhealthy and exploitative role. Private sector was totally indifferent to the tragic scenes enacted around them during the recent crisis, remained a passive observer, and behaved as if they had no role to play in managing it. Maybe, the Government had no mechanism to rope in their services and cooperation. However, the media which politicizes all sort of issues, were totally insensitive and silent to the fact that, more than two thirds of the health-care resources in the state could not be called upon to play its legitimate role, when tens of thousands of poor people were desperately seeking urgent medical attention.

All these exposes the hollowness of usual argument that, successive governments in Kerala were following a welfare state model, and spending lavishly on public health. It will be relevant to quote the State Planning Board on the health care needs of Kerala, from its latest Economic Review: Kerala faces three major problems in the health care sector in the beginning of the 21 century: (a) Difficult access to health care and impoverishment of a sizable segment of population owing to high out of pocket health expenditure. (b) Rapidly increasing prevalence of diseases associated with lifestyle and aging and (c) Prevalence of environment related diseases owing to problems of community hygiene and pollution. These are relevant observations and the facts brought out by the present fever epidemic and its management has simply endorsed them: Health Administration could not cope up with the relatively simple task of handling a few thousand cases of ordinary country fever in a couple of districts: It was thrown out of gear completely, could not win the confidence of the people or the media, leading to a near-panic situation. Suffering of the people was more of panic and less out of objective factors related to illness. Army doctors were called in and numerous central teams, political as well as professional, traveled the affected districts and visited the suffering people: State level authorities were hardly visible, other than the health minister herself.

As a matter of fact, the minister could do precious little in managing the crisis: Situation was beyond her and that was none of her fault. As already pointed out, health minister of the state has no control over the sizable health care infrastructure under private management. Secondly, public health organization, under the minister, is an extremely fragmented setup with numerous programs, objectives and targets. There are programs and directorates for Allopathy, Homeopathy, Ayurveda, Sidha etc,, and then for specific deceases like leprosy, malaria, filariasis, tuberculosis etc, and numerous centrally sponsored programs for family welfare, aids control, minimum needs program etc etc. Medicines and other hospital supplies are procured centrally from the Government secretariat which also manages a couple of public sector enterprises, for drug manufacture, ambulance services, pay wards etc. Medical education and related institutions, as well as laboratories and research organizations are also under the charge of health minister. Under the prevailing culture of governance, all these field institutions numbering around 3000, including the hospitals and dispensaries in remote locations, are under the live supervision of the minister's office and the health secretary. Funds and resources are allocated to hospitals and clinics under various heads and schemes, which seldom matches the real needs at the field level. Field units are thus under compulsion to falsify the accounts for which the administrative staff extend its cooperation and provides the necessary expertise.

Health administration in Kerala operate under this inefficient and unwieldy structure, evolved over the past few decades. It has turned insensitive to the health-care needs of the people and the benefits are totally incommensurate with the expenditure incurred. It is high time to restructure the health administration, decentralize its management, and bring health care delivery under the control of the Local Self Government Institutions and specialist institutions that are autonomous. Deferent disciplines like Allopathy, Homeopathy and Ayurveda, as well as family welfare, community health and other programs have to be integrated at the LSGI level and delivered in a wholesome manner for the benefit of the people.

Alternative system of medicine plays an important role in our health care system. People have faith in the efficacy of Ayurveda and Homeopathy in treating a variety of ailments. Official statistics indicate that, only half of the outpatients reporting to the primary health units operated by public health administration opts for Allopathy; the other half prefers Hmoeo or Ayurveda. The picture is likely to be the same in private sector as well, and likely to be even more skewed in favor of alternative medicine.

Health Minister has recently announced, the Government intentions to operate primary health units of diverse systems of medicine under a common umbrella. The proposal is not for mixing up the methods of treatment, as alleged by some ill-informed critics, but for sharing the clinical as well as administrative infrastructure. It will be a matter of great convenience for the people, who are sure to get far better and more wholesome service at far lower costs to the public exchequer. Integrated health care centers at the local level, operated by the LSGIs under a common roof, could be used also for regulating the private sector institutions in the locality. They could serve as the initial steps towards the consolidation of our health care system and liberating it from the present anarchic regime, in the best interests of the people.

24.07.2005

Economics and Politics of Global Warming

K Vijayachandran

Indian intelligentsia, it seems, has uncritically accepted the hypothesis of global warming and its consequences, as propagated by international environmentalists. Even the Peoples Democracy, the mouth piece of CPI(M), the leading political party of Indian left, had turned an ardent supporter of the global warming theory. On the strength of the proceedings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that met in Paris, the science columnist of the journal has argued in its recent issue: The first report in Paris in February 2007 asserted the harsh reality of anthropogenic climate change and elaborated the scientific basis for this understanding: perennial doubters and climate change deniers such as US conservatives and right-wing think-tanks, are now equivalent to those who believe the earth is flat!

Global warming theories are now traded as absolute scientific laws and given the status of even Galilean discoveries and the laws of motion and gravitation formulated by Newton. Indian media in its enthusiasm to sell hard core environmental stuff to its burgeoning middle class clientèle, find hardly any merit in reporting dissenting views of hard core scientists from all over the world, who are globally marginalized by a united front of popular scientists, sensation media-men and opportunist politicians. Quoted below are the words of Dr. Timoth Ball from a recent article titled titled, Global Warming, the Cold Hard Facts: "Global Warming, as we think we know it, doesn't exist. And I am not the only one trying to make people open up their eyes and see the truth. But few listen, despite the fact that I was one of the first Canadian Ph.Ds. in Climatology and I have an extensive background in climatology, especially the reconstruction of past climates and the impact of climate change on human history and the human condition. Few listen, even though I have a Ph.D, (Doctor of Science) from the University of London, England and was a climatology professor at the University of Winnipeg. For some reason (actually for many), the World is not listening. ....

".....Believe it or not, Global Warming is not due to human contribution of Carbon Dioxide (CO2). This in fact is the greatest deception in the history of science. We are wasting time, energy and trillions of dollars while creating unnecessary fear and consternation over an issue with no scientific justification. For example, Environment Canada brags about spending $3.7 billion in the last five years dealing with climate change almost all on propaganda trying to defend an indefensible scientific position while at the same time closing weather stations and failing to meet legislated pollution targets."

Dr. Ball points out that the world was warming up ever since 1680, the nadir of a cool period called the Little Ice Age (LIA) that has generally continued to the present. The recent climate changes are well within natural variability and explained quite easily by changes in the sun and there is nothing unusual going on, argues Dr. Ball, whose carrier as a climatologist spanned two climate cycles: Temperatures had declined from 1940 to 1980 and in the early 1970's global cooling was the consensus. By the 1990's trend appeared to have reversed and Global Warming became the consensus. Like Dr. Ball, several hard core scientists have ridiculed the so called consensus approach to formulating scientific hypothesizes.

It was the very same consensus approach to scientific theories and discoveries, that had sent Galileo to gallows: for his dissenting views on the shape of the earth. Compared to middle ages, today's establishments have far more elegant tools at their disposal, for fabricating consensus and for fighting dissent: grant or denial of public funds for research. Western economies generate huge surpluses and the bulk of it get appropriated by Governments as taxes, and then recycled as research funds. That was part of the Keynesian solution for solving the inherent imbalances in market economies, which were inevitably leading to small and big wars, one after the other. Wars and preparations for wars continue to serve as safety valves even after the end of cold war, as evidenced by Iraq, Iran and North Korea. Nevertheless, infractuous research on weapon systems, environment and global poverty are seen as far more civilized methods of fighting economic imbalances. Bulk of human intelligence, today, is directly or indirectly deployed on such unproductive enterprises: Diversion of even a fraction of these resources could totally eradicate global poverty, as theorized by Professor Galbraith in his celebrated book of late fifties, Affluent Society.

United Nations Organization (UNO) has promoted several institutions like UNIDO, UNDP, UNCTAD and others, aimed at the development of humanity as a whole, through global cooperation and peaceful coexistence of nations. However, most of these UN agencies are dysfunctional today for lack of support from developed nations: UNEP (UN Environmental Program) and its joint venture with WMO (World Meteorological Organization), the IPCC, are the main fund receivers from developed countries, especially the USA, ever since their inceptions in 1972 and 1988. Billions of dollars are pumped into UNEP and ICPP every year, as pointed out by Dr. Ball, and we have massive volumes of reports and presentations dumped on Governments and general public, year after year, repeating the same old story but without caring to answer the numerous defects and inconsistencies, pointed out by scientific community. Even the Paris report of 2007 February, referred to earlier, is silent on these fundmental objections to digital models, that are unsupported by basic theories, and it mainly deals with the ill effects of climate change and the measures for mitigating them.

Last chance to save the earth was the slogan raised in the Rio conference organized by UNEP in 1992, four years after the formation of IPCC. After Rio, the issue of saving the earth was discussed several times over, but there was no unanimity on who should bare the cost of saving the planet! After several rounds of negotiations and bargaining, the Kyoto protocol for containing green gas emissions was unanimously agreed to in 2000. In the meanwhile, European Community had developed a host of green technologies to be traded through the Carbon Credit Scheme, designed by liberal economists. However, US is refusing to ratify the protocol for reducing carbon emissions by using the green technologies of the EC and has proposed a Global Nuclear Energy Program (GNEP), obviously under its own hegemony, as an alternative route to saving the planet! The conflict could not be resolved even in the recent G-8 Summit held in Germany.

The two sides are contending for the hegemonic control of future energy systems, that will be drive global economy. Solutions proposed by neo-liberal economists to mount a WTO like platform, on the strength of Kyoto protocol and IPCC reports, have temporarily failed to take off, and the US is keen to enforce its own hegemony through the nuclear route. Russia and China have declined to sign any global treaty. In India, environmentalists as well as the Government are in utter confusion: Left activists want Kyoto type agreements and neo-liberal solutions, while rightists like Dr. Pachouri, the present Chairman of IPCC, press for a nuclear tie-up with USA!

20-06-2007

POLITICAL ECONOMY OF INDO-US NUCLEAR DEAL

By Engr. K Vijayachandran FIE

Media, especially newspapers of Kerala and West Bengal, have sensationalized statements by Budhadev and Jyoti Basu on nuclear power: Editorial writers advise the rank and file of left parties, to go by the advise given these leaders and reject Prakash Karat and other hardliners, who campaign against Indo-US nuclear deal. This is sheer mischievous propaganda: There is no anti-nuke movement in India as in USA, by the left or the right, and scientific opinion in the country largely echoes the global consensus: Mankind will increasingly depend on nuclear energy and need based technology development will decide the pace of this transition.

However, barring China and India, developing countries hardly use nuclear electricity today. Their share in global nuclear electricity was around six percent in 2002, former Soviet Union had a nine percent share, and OECD countries, which has its own Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), accounted for the the balance 85 percent. Nuclear technologies continues to be the privileged intellectual property of developed nations, thanks to its complex nature and demanding highly effective state intervention. India, China and possibly South Korea (it is a member of OECD) are the possible exemptions to this rapidly widening North-South divide. Pakistan had exploded a couple of toy bombs, in response to the political bombs of Indira and Vajpayee, just across the border. Compared to India and China, Pakistan is a big zero in reactor and related technologies, demanded by large nuclear power plants.

South Korea has established a large generating capacity of 15,000 MW (more than twice that of China) during the last two decades, with plants and technology mostly imported from USA or Japan. Nuclear monopolies of USA, like Westinghouse and GE, virtually control the comprador type industries and institutions such as DHIC, built in South Korea, as part of its massive nuclear expansion program. Close to half of the electricity consumed in South Korea is targeted to be from nuclear power plants, by 2015. Today, US monopoly capital enforces its hegemony over South Korea, by sitting on the driving seat of its power development program. Indian businessmen and the investing NRI community in USA are fascinated by a possible South Korean model nuclear development in the country, on the strength of an Indo-US nuclear cooperation agreement.

India, however, has its own agenda and national program for the development of nuclear electricity. The three stage national program, based on local fuel resources, has successfully crossed the half-way mark, and is on the verge of breaking into the decisive third and final phase. Overall progress of this program has been satisfactory, despite threats and arm-twisting by imperialist countries led by USA, lack of commitment from India's ruling classes, and even denial of plan funds for crucial programs like Uranium mining and the 10,000 MW by 2000 program during early eighties. Bulk of the 3000 MW nuclear capacity already operating in the country, today and the 3600 MW capacity under construction, is based on one hundred percent indigenous technology. The three stage program, based on locally available fuel resources, including the Thorium resources of Kerala, is expected to take our nuclear power capacity to 18500 MW by the year 2022, and further to 205,500 MW by 2052. This is without any sort of support or consideration, offered under the Indo-US deal which, on the other hand, has every potential to destabilize this indigenous program of crucial importance.

Country reports, available on IAEA websites, reveal that, India's nuclear power development program is far more self reliant and independent, compared to that of China: Despite its membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and patronage promised under the Chinese-US by cooperation agreement, China appears to be lagging far behind India, with regard to power plant technologies. True, Chinese nuclear capacity is presently more than two times that of India, however most of this capacity was built with imported reactors and fuel systems. India is much ahead of China in nuclear power technology, especially fuel cycles and breeder technologies. Reports indicate that Chinese efforts to build nuclear power plans in Iran had met with serious setbacks: Russians had taken over the Busherhr project, abandoned by Chinese. The much publicized Pakistan-China nuclear cooperation is confined to the development of training simulators for nuclear power plants.

India is, undoubtedly, the most advanced non-weapon nuclear power, among developing nations: Its holistic atoms for peace policy, three stage nuclear power development program, well equipped 45,000 strong nuclear establishment, and the array of distinguished nuclear scientists are highly respected in global forums, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). However, India is prevented from playing its legitimate role in IAEA, as a major non-weapon nuclear nation of more than a billion people, because of its gross failures on the diplomatic front.

IAEA was set up by UNO, in the early fifties, for promoting international cooperation in the peaceful uses of atomic energy. India, as a founding member country and its world renowned nuclear scientist, Homi Bhabha had played the key role in establishing this UN body and detailing its objectives and programs. IAEA serves as a global repository of nuclear technologies, but it is more known for the policing role forced on it by the USA. This august UN body is misused as a police dog of imperialism and as a tool for non-proliferation of peaceful technologies in the name of NPT, a highly unjust and unequal treaty forced on the non-nuclear nations of the developing world. It is used as an effective check against third world countries developing their own technologies for the peaceful use of nuclear energy: Not only the experience of India, Iraq, Iran and North Korea, but even that of South Korea would vouch for this neo-colonial discrimination.

Using Indian and Pakistani bombs as an excuse, the NSG was set up as an informal pressure group outside the UN-IAEA, under the initiative of USA. In the uni-polar world that emerged after the downfall of Soviet Union, the NSG, which functions on a consensus basis, serves as the handmaiden of USA, as in the case of WTO and similar bodies: It is used for bullying the UN-IAEA, a situation that needs urgent correction, in the best interests of developing world and humanity at large: India should show the moral courage to question the legitimacy of NSG and demand the disbanding of this informal body outside the UN system. IAEA may be expanded should be pressed on and persuaded to work toward its original objective of genuine international cooperation in peaceful applications of of nuclear energy, especially in nuclear electricity, in the best interests of the developing world and humanity at large. It could learn from the working experience of UNIDO and other UN organizations, which had a an altogether different focus on developing countries. Such proposals for strengthening and broadening of the UN system from all possible directions, are sure to get the support of vast majority of developing nations, possibly even that of Russia and China.

US has never believed in the peaceful and democratic coexistence of nations: It finds use in the UN only when the organization suits its own selfish interests. On the nuclear front, President Bush has now offered to the countries of the world, a Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), outside of the UN-IAEA, projecting it as the only solution for global warming: But nobody has so far looked at this offer of partnership with any seriousness, other than India's comprador diplomats and businessmen, who find in it great opportunities for repeating the South Korean model nuclear power development, right across the globe. Nuclear strategists of USA are aiming for the driver's seat of global nuclear power development, so as to retain and reinforce its hegemonic hold on global economy: Such efforts for US supremacy are being resisted even by the junior partners of imperialism. GNEP, an essential link in the geopolitical ambitions of USA, got targeted at India's three stage program more by accident than design, but it immensely suits the immediate interests and visions of India's comprador classes: They are in a hurry to dismantle the organizational assets built up under the three stage nuclear program during the past half a century, and divert its large human resources base for immediate private profits.

Nuclear electricity, no doubt, is the electricity of the immediate future; and India's three stage program has already made big progress in this direction, without waiting for an Indo-US deal and the GNEP offer of President Bush. The Thorium technology, that is emerging out of it, is of immense relevance to India's energy security and the people of Kerala coast. This national program need to be safeguarded against sabotage, and pursued with renewed vigor. Even contemporary nuclear technologies make plenty of economic sense in places like Kerala, thousands of miles away from the Bihar-Bengal coal belt.

For a better clarity on these energy related issues, we have to get back to the fundamentals of the ongoing power sector reform in the country, which is inflicting irreparable damages on the national economy. Nuclear deal has simply eclipsed the national debate on the serious problems created by power sector reforms, insisted on by the working class movement in our energy sector. Instead of listening to these patriotic voices, Budhadev and Jyoti Basu have blindly supported the arguments of our elite classes and comprador bureaucracy, who are conspiring to put US on the driving seat of our power sector, on the strength of a South Korean model nuclear partnership. That precisely is the implication of their blank cheque for nuclear electricity, at the given context of a national campaign against the nuclear deal with USA.

25th September 2007

CENTRE-STATE RELATIONS AND THE INDIAN LEFT

By Er. K Vijayachandran FIE: Chairman CCPI 35/194 Automobile Road Palarivattom Kochi 682025 Phone 2344015

Central Government, today, is politically weak and lacks in federal authority. Nevertheless, it has inherited from the patriotic years of Nehru-Indira regime, immense administrative powers, even outside the written constitution. Unity in diversity is the hallmark of Indian polity: however, following the footsteps of British imperialism, India's ruling elite continues to hold our diverse nationalities as prisoners and block their natural development. Left is running a big political risk in neglecting these ground realities and by legitimizing the present Delhi regime with its parliamentary support.

1. Nationality question and center-state relations.

Human development as a collective enterprise, from family to territorial communities and then to tribes and nationalities is historically well documented. Marxism-Leninism provides the best of tools for understanding the destiny of Man and the evolution of nationalities. Leading social classes had built up nation states, using their economic and military prowess. Industrial revolution and rapid development of Science and Technology (S&T) had led to massive socialization of material and intellectual production, expansion of commerce, as well as expansion and consolidation of nation states ruled by bourgeoisie classes. Capital of Marx was the first comprehensive appraisal of the impact of modern technology on social and cultural development. Communist Manifesto had ventured to speculate on a destiny for mankind that transcended time, space and nationalities, and seeking a sort of immortality on the strength of collective existence and technological capabilities¹. However, Lenin had ruled out the possibility for a global unity of nationalities under the bourgeoisie regime, which was based on private ownership of the means of production.

For more than two centuries, imperialist wars had blocked human progress in all seven continents: First World War had convinced humanity on the need for a League of Nations for the peaceful coexistence of nations, and for the orderly development of humanity. Lenin had attached great importance to this particular feature of postwar developments. He had described Czarist Russia as a prison of nationalities. Lenin had looked at the liberation and full development of the numerous nationalities and sub-nationalities oppressed by Czar, as a necessary precondition for the success and sustainability of Bolshevik revolution under the leadership of Russian proletarians. The USSR itself was a mini League of Nations, and served as a model for the working together of peoples of diverse ethnic origin, culture and nationality and seeking a common destiny. The extensive UN System² of today with a membership of around two hundred nationalities, and the numerous international organizations specializing in almost all areas of S&T and human endeavor, is an altogether new historical experience for mankind. It is proof of an emerging global pattern of human civilization built around nationalities of diverse traditions and cultural background. Marxian understanding of nationalities and Leninist assessment of imperialism had inspired national liberation movements of all continents, and played a major role in drafting the political map of the century.

Like the medieval Europe, India was a melting pot of races when, Western imperialists landed on its shores: Britishers transformed the sub-continent into a prison of nationalities like the Tsarist Russia. Divide and rule was the official policy of the British, targeted to retard the natural development and renaissance of Indian nationalities: Their Bengal policy, leading to the ultimate division of Bengal, was possibly the worst of known examples. They divided India into territories, provinces and principalities in an arbitrary manner, cutting deep into the hearts and souls of the emerging Indian nationalities, in the name of administrative efficiency or political exigencies. Struggle for national independence simply rekindled the suppressed national sentiments and renaissance aspirations of the Indian people . Re-organization of states based on language or nationalities and a Union Republic based on federal constitution were the demands raised, mainly by the working class movement. Marxist-Leninist perceptions on nationalities as well as the Soviet Experience of uniting nationalities under a single state, had a profound influence on the re-organization of British India, after national liberation. Consolidating the ant-imperialist unity of Indian nationalities under a federal state structure or Union Republic, and at the same time ensuring their full and sustainable development, were seen by the Indian Left, as an inevitable necessity.

However, the bourgeoisie landlord classes, who were in a hurry to step into the shoes of British rulers, found no merit in such historic insights: The big bourgeoisie simply wanted to replace the British and rule the country either from Delhi or from Karachi even by using the communal card, and the feudal kings were only keen to get back their petty fiefdoms. Indian as well as Pakistani constitutions, therefor, turned out to be happy compromises by their ruling classes, who wished to continue in the footsteps of the British and hold the developing nationalities as their prisoners. India was declared a Union Republic in 1950, but it took more than six years of struggles and consultations for re-organizing the constituent states of the Union, somewhat in line with the wishes and aspirations of Indian nationalities, and the process seems to be incomplete even today.

Indian Constitution is described variedly, federal as well as unitary, to suit the convenience of the elite classes. However, as it enters the fifth decade, most of its federal principles have simply evaporated into thin air: And, as feared by several among the constitution makers, status of member-states of the union republic is now reduced to that of municipalities; better said less on the municipalities and the so called local self government institutions (LSGIs), whose administrative capabilities and authority were reduced next to nothing, despite several constitution amendments and tall promises on Gandhian gram-swaraj by the ruling clases³.

There are hardly any signs of local or even national pride among the population: The elites of individual nationalities simply make hollow claims on their cultural achievements. Devoid of any real cultural content, our education system produces highly atomized, robot like half-humans and our men of letters look at language as a mere instrument for earning their livelihood, and not as a creative tool in the hands of the working people for expressing and enriching their scientific and technological experience. Our elite classes have replaced Sanskrit with English as the new vedabhasha and they try to mystify scientific experience and declare it to be out of reach by the languages spoken by Indian people. Even Hindi, the so called national language, possibly, is no exemption today⁴. National renaissance and development of S&T were always an integral part of a total cultural experience of all peoples of the World: This was true of European countries, Japan, Russia, China, Korea, Cuba or Vietnam, and has to be for India as well. Nevertheless, following the footsteps of the British, India's ruling classes continue to block the flowering of its nationalities even today, and misuse even the constitution for this purpose.

Center-State relations as well as the division of responsibilities in the management of national economy were subjects of serious debates during the late seventies and early eighties, when CPI(M) led governments were elected to power in Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura. AKG Center for Studies and Research, Thiruvananthapuram, had organized a two day seminar on the subject in 1984 and this author had the privilege of presenting a paper on Center-State relations and hydro-power development in Kerala, in the context of the Silent Valley controversy⁵. Earlier in 1981, based on his working experience as the Member Secretary of the Kerala State Committee on S&T, he had presented a critique on Center-State Relations and Science and S&T Administration in India in a seminar organized by the Institution of Engineers (India) Cochin Center. Issues raised in that paper are even more relevant in the present context of the Central Government withdrawing itself from its patriotic responsibilities of development planning at the national level. This paper which had incidentally compared the Indian and Soviet systems of S&T Administration is reproduced below.

2. Center-State Relations and the Science and Technology Sector⁶

India is a multinational state. Unity in diversity is often projected as the hall mark of Indian polity. But in the organization of administrative structures in our country, this is hardly recognized, S&T is no exemption. The British had organized S&T in the country, in a manner suited to their colonial objectives and perspectives. Structures like survey of India, geological, botanical or zoological surveys of India, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and the like were created on the exigencies of colonial rule. Their organizational basis had little relevance to the realities of Indian polity and the requirements of a self reliant and self-sustaining type of developmental strategy, oriented to local needs and resources.

The three decades of independence had brought in no basic changes in this organizational set up. Even today S&T organizations in the country are all oriented to “Delhi” and the bulk of S&T programs controlled from there. This dichotomy –i.e. S&T being the near monopoly of the Central Government whereas the bulk of economic activities coming under the purview of State Governments, is a major inhibiting factor preventing our S&T developing a genuinely national character. The situation is hardly conducive to developing an S&T culture oriented to local needs and resources. The S&T administration in our country has to come out of its impersonal character and shed its imperial pretensions so as identify itself with the life and culture of our people.

The decision of the Central Government in early seventies to promote State Level S&T committee was an indirect recognition of this basic dichotomy in the S&T setup at the national . But the experience with the working of state level S& T Committees shows that this is no real solution. Such Committees are hardly any substitute for full fledged state level counterparts for DST, CSIR, ICMR, ICAR and the like which could be affiliated or federated into the central bodies which alone can service S&T on a professional footing and on a continues basis at the state level.

Absence of such state level structures has led to the deterioration in the quality of state level engineering departments, technical and scientific education and S&T capabilities in general. This apart, no worthwhile studies have taken place toward the identification and exploitation of the natural resources at the state level. Even today, there exists no comprehensive compilation of our flora and fauna, no systematic studies and documentation on our climate, soil, water or mineral resources have been undertaken. In the recent past a few centers of excellence were created at the state level. But these institutions as well as other technical institutions, research centers, universities and engineering departments in the state have to evolve a well co-ordinated pattern of functioning, so that they serve the developmental needs of our people. Organizational structures and administrative mechanisms towards this have to be evolved and established. This can be achieved only through protracted debates among our professionals, their organizations, associations and S&T institutions in the state. It is obvious that the problems of S&T in Kerala are not peculiar to the state alone and requires possibly an all India level approach: It is necessary to evolve alternative perspectives at the national level.

It will be interesting to study the organization of science and technology in the Soviet Union, which is a federation of autonomous republics of several nationalities. The Academy of Science of the U.S.S.R. had brought out in the late sixties, a publication to mark the golden jubilee of the formation of the Soviet Union. The organization of science in U.S.S.R. may very well be illustrated through a few quotations from this book. The Vice President of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Science had written: “Within the life time of a single generation, the people of some republics underwent a transition from a feudal society based on archaic agricultural systems to a socialist economy with a highly developed industry and mechanized agriculture. Peoples that did not even have a written language before the October revolution, now can boast of their own trained specialists. The children and grand children of peasants and nomads are designing and operating computers and other sophisticated equipments.”

Boriservich, president of the Academy of Sciences of Byelorussian republic in his report on science in Byelorussia had stated: “The republic’s council of ministers have set clearly defined tasks before the researchers working in the field of technical sciences to be completed during the current five-year period: To search for ways of improving automobiles, machine tools, agricultural machines, manufactured by the republic’s industry, such as would provide at least 50 per cent increase in their overhaul period; to construct and introduce into Byelorussian production practice, a new apparatus for the drying and heat treatment of materials.”

Academician Vekua, president of the Academy of Sciences of Georgian republic begin his report with the introductory commentary: “Georgian science has a glorious tradition reaching back to distant past.” His report is flooded with the statements on the great achievements of Georgian chemistry, Georgian physics, Georgian mathematics, astronomy, agronomy and what not. Academician Abullayer, in his report on the science of the tiny republic of Azerbaijan talks of the recent developments in Azerbaijan cybernetics, developing of mathematical directional drilling of oil wells for exploiting the rich oil resources of Azerbaijan. Similarly, there are lengthy narrations on the achievements of the Ukrainian science, Lithuanian science, Moldavian science, Latvian science and the science in the Kirghiz: the republic of the Kirghizians who are one of the most ancient aboriginal people in central Asia.

It is not the intention here to prescribe any particular model for our science and technology administration. But the above account as brought out by the spokesmen of the academies of sciences of soviet republics brings out the basic characteristics of soviet science and its historical development. These are :(a) scientific research in Soviet Union is by and large organized as an integral part of social production, (b) science organization is highly decentralized but at the same time part of a well co- ordinated centralized system, and (c) Soviet Science is not impersonal in character but is well integrated into the overall socio-cultural life of various nationalities.

It is interesting to compare these with our own approach to Science and Technology and its development. For us science is universal and highly impersonal: to talk about ‘Indian Science’ is almost a taboo---smacks of national parochialism, to talk about the development of Manipuri Physics, Naga Chemistry, Carnatic Cybernetics or Assamese petrology or to suggest the formation of an autonomous Tamil or Kerala academy of sciences will almost amount to treason. We have come to believe that Science and Technology should be administered, funded and monitored by a strong Center.

It has to be emphasized here that, be it agriculture, housing, roads, health, civic amenities, power, education or irrigation, each of these sectors have their specific regional and cultural characteristics. Each state is endowed with different types of natural resources and R&D efforts towards the identification and exploitation of these resources can be best undertaken only through state level efforts. Under Indian conditions, Science and Technology has to be highly decentralized not only because of its size and geographical diversity but also because of its cultural diversity.

The C.S.I.R., I.C.M.R., ICAR and other institutions were formed on the basis of the British model, which had nothing to do with the Indian reality. It is possible that these organizations could have worked well on a federal principle with their autonomous State-level counterparts functioning under the State Governments. Instead, we see that individual institutions belonging to these central agencies are farmed out to different states on some consideration or other but mainly for appeasing public opinion in different states. The national laboratories and research institutions under these agencies have not succeeded in identifying themselves with the material and cultural life of the local people – of those regions where they are located.

This defective approach can be seen even in the organization of voluntary professional associations and institutions. It is true that some of these organizations like the Institution of Engineers etc have their regional or state–level chapters. But, by and large, they do not follow the natural division of the Indian Union into cultural and linguistic groups. The National Science Academy or the Indian Science Congress and other associations of scientists of individual disciplines can perceive of science only as an All India phenomenon. As a result, their overall impact on the life of our people and developmental policies has been minimal, if not negligible. That sort of organizational dichotomy has poisoned even the value system among scientific communities. It is not the professional brilliance or professional contributions that make a good scientist, but one’s position in the scientific bureaucracy. An Engineer or Scientist working at the state level institution or university is considered a smaller being compared to his Central counterpart. Often, wee see Central level experts descending on the state level departments and institutions to render expert advice, not based on the strength of their professional standing or competence but just because they happen to be in Delhi, in the services of the Central Government. Is it in anyway different from the colonial value system, in which members of the Royal societies pay their visits to inspect native institutions?

Science and technology institutions or voluntary professional associations in our country look up to Delhi for patronage, finance and facilities. Almost every one of them is directly or indirectly controlled and dictated on in an ad-hoc manner by the technocrats or bureau crafts sitting in Delhi. One fails to understand what sort of control, financial, administrative or professional, can be exercised from Delhi over a coconut research station situated in a remote village in Kerala. If Indian science and Indian research has to be meaningful and relevant, it should come out of its impersonal character and shed its imperial pretensions. It should belong to where it is really needed, and where it is sought after. The future of Indian science and Indian research lies in the breaking up of the present highly centralized authoritarian structures, and erecting in its place a truly federal set-up, in tune with the spiritual, cultural, democratic and material aspirations of the people.

3. Lessons from past from experience

The fact of disintegration of Soviet Union and the disappearance of the socialist camp should not stand in the way of learning from the historical experience of organizing Soviet Science, and its greatly valued S&T cooperation with other countries, including the member countries of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA)⁷. Soviet Union and the socialist camp could challenge and defend itself against the combined offensive and cold-war tactics of imperialist countries, for several decades, on the strength of its S&T. Though internal subversion had demolished the Soviet State, the S&T institutions and industrial capacities created under socialist construction, have by and large survived, not only in the Russian Federation but also in the other constituent republics of the USSR. Mutual cooperation among these institutions were rapidly re-established to a large extent under the a framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Economies of the erstwhile Soviet Republics are once again getting integrated under this new dispensation. Working class politics in Russia as well as other CIS countries seems to be discovering and developing a new type of unity of diverse nationalities, on the strength of their common Soviet legacy, cherished by the vast majority of the working people.

Under Soviet Constitution, the Union Republics had exercised independent authority on all issues, outside the twelve items, mostly of international and inter-republican relevance and specified under article 73 of the constitution⁸. The member republics directly participated in the governance of USSR as a whole, by its presence in the Supreme Soviet, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and the Government of the USSR : Chairmen of the Republican Soviets (ie. speakers of our legislative assemblies) were ex-officio Vice Chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and Chairmen of Council of ministers of Republics (Chief Ministers) were ex-officio members of the Council of Ministers (Union Cabinet) of USSR. Institutions or State Committees for policy making as well as managing of deferent sectors of the national economy were constituted at the Union level based on federal principles as in the case of Academies of Sciences and S&T administration.

Soviet constitution had prescribed federal institutions, for ensuring the working together of governments in all sectors and at all possible levels. In sharp contrast, Indian constitution had packed the powers and responsibilities of state and center into three water tight compartments, the central, state and concurrent lists, and then assigned all residuary powers to the Center. This was more like a partition deed, where as the Soviet Constitution laid down the ground rules for the mutual cooperation and working together of the Union and the Union Republics, with full autonomy and the right to secede granted to the republics. These were the objective reasons, why the dissolution of a mighty and immensely rich country like the USSR was a simple and exceptionally peaceful affair, and the reasons behind the slow and steady process towards re-union, despite the Russian Nazis and CIA interventionists. India could greatly benefit from this historical experience in rationalizing its Center-State relations, in the context of the dangerous distortions already brought in by the recent economic reforms and structural structural adjustments, enforced under the dictates of the global capital.

Power sector is one of the worst examples for these dangerous distortions which is blocking the smooth development of the national economy. Grid Power development was rightly included in the concurrent list by the constitution makers. But the new Electricity Act of 2003 is forcing the State Governments to dismantle the State Electricity Boards (SEB) set up under 1948 Act. Central Electricity Authority (CEA) and Regional Electricity Boards (REBs) had derived their federal authority and professional competence by coordinating the work of the autonomous SEBs, reporting to the state legislatures. This federal setup, developed after national independence for the planned development based on self reliance, is being demolished or devalued for facilitating the entry of FDI and the authoritarian rule of a comprador bureaucracy sitting in Delhi, that has assumed the responsibility for grid power development in the country, despite resistance put up by several member states. States will be mere agencies for realizing revenues by selling the electricity generated by large plants set up by monopoly capital at strategic locations divined by the Delhi bureaucracy⁹.

Central public sector enterprises in the core sectors were products of the national five year plans and served as technology generators for the nation, through a process of national consensus in the inter-state council. Their shares were held by the President of India, on behalf all the Indian nationalities and the people of India. An impersonal Central Government had no political or moral right to sell the shares of these undertakings in the market and appropriate the sale proceeds for itself. But the senior bureaucrats in Delhi were doing this with impunity, without consulting even the Rjayasabha or Lokasabha. The Left parties have blocked the sale of shares of of BHEL and other Navaratna and Mini-navaratna companies. Government of Jharkhand State had unsuccessfully resisted the sale of the mammoth BALCO Aluminum Plant but Tamilnadu had succeeded in blocking the privatization of the Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC).

It is becoming increasingly clear, that questions of management of Central Public Sector Enterprises, including their transfer of ownership or dissolution, cannot be and should not be left to the Central Government and its bureaucracy, simply because these enterprises were registered as per the company law for the sake of administrative convenience. Left parties, as well as, several among the regional parties were in the forefront of demands for a more equitable distribution of powers, between Center and States, including financial as well as policy making powers. But they seem to be silent on the patently unjust and one-sided moves of Central Government on the large core sector PSUs, which play a key role in the national economy, in the name of economic reforms and structural adjustments. True, the left had been critical about the reforms in general and had even successfully resisted the move for further dilution of government equity in BHEL and a few other public sector companies. But, it has not questioned the political and moral rights of Central Government to do this from a federal view point, nor was the arbitrary manner in which these extremely valuable federal assets were auctioned off. Opposition to this sell off was limited to a couple of corruption charges and empty parliamentary rhetoric by the left and and the right. Faulty understanding, as well as the lack of appreciation of the rapidly changing class character of the Indian state were the root cause of this totally inadequate responses.

Indian State led by the bourgeoisie-landlord classes, could for long years respond to the anti-imperialist sentiments of our people as well as the aspirations of our diverse nationalities for enriching their material and cultural life. National Five Year Plans, huge public sector initiatives with the help of the socialist camp and policies of national self-reliance, were seen by the people as the bulwark against imperialist exploitation and as bold initiatives by a strong and patriotic central government. On the international scene India emerged as the natural leader of NAM, thanks to its success in building up a fairly strong indigenous technology base, and a vastly self-reliant national economy compared to most other newly liberated countries. Patriotic professionals had dominated the elite classes during those years of anti-imperialist sentiments and even the militant Dravidian movements of early sixties were forced to mellow down their secessionist politics for fear of losing popular votes. Even the Left, with its largely objective prescriptions for Indian revolution, were forced to concede the patriotic and progressive content of Nehru-Indira regime. However, by mid eighties the discipline of national planning was substantially watered down, and with the collapse of the socialist camp a new regime has taken over the Central Government which is rapidly losing its patriotic credentials¹⁰. In collaboration with their foreign partners, the Indian big bourgeoisie has started building its shining empires, using the organizational expertise and manpower skills generated by the giant public sector enterprises, which are being wantonly dismembered, destabilized or even demolished. The US initiative for nuclear cooperation, with the backing of Birlas, Ambanis and Tatas as well as their NRI supporters in USA, is a more recent, but typical example. As feared by the patriotic professionals within and outside our nuclear establishment, this initiative was targeted at the destabilization of the Indian program for nuclear power development based on indigenous resources. The big bourgeoisie and their NRI supporters in USA were scheming to join the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, floated by USA at the expense of our own national program. National debate on this unpatriotic deal has exposed the real class character of the Indian State.

The recent, but not yet concluded nuclear debate at the national level, had another side effect: It has opened up new avenues to fight against the authoritarian caucus and comprador bureaucracy that has taken over the central government establishment. Jayalalitha, Chairperson of AIDMK and the leader of opposition in Tamilnadu, has not only objected to the proposed Indo-US deal on patriotic grounds with sound technological arguments, but also raised the democratic demand that, all such international deals should get approved with two third majority in both houses of the Indian Parliament. However, it is to be noted that, center of gravity of India's nuclear power program presently lies within Tamilnadu territory, and the latest Russian offer for adding four more reactors at Koodankulam will substantially increase Tamilnadu's stake in in the ongoing national program. DMK being a member of the ruling UPA, Karunanidhi has not so far responded to this demand raised by his political adversary. However, Governor of Tamilnadu has made a strong plea for a thorough review of the center-state relations and rewriting of the Indian constitution in the interest of maintaining Indian unity. Such highly constructive initiatives by Dravidian politics need urgent follow up by the left forces and working class movement. This confirms also the need for enlarging the the scope of the debate on Center-State relations, beyond its traditional boundaries of public finance and the right to secede, and should cover the entire spectrum of statecraft and the working of the constitution¹¹

4. Conclusion

There are lessons to be learned from the past experience of managing the different sectors of our national economy and a brief review of S&T administration had brought out several possibilities for innovations. Our Post and Telecoms departments have made rapid strides after their re-organization, taking the linguistic state as the administrative unit, even though a lot more could have been achieved by granting the P&T circles more autonomy and giving Indian Post and Telecom the genuine federal character it really deserved. Indian Railways could have responded to regional aspirations in a more rational manner far beyond the annual political circus staged by railway ministers, had it been re-organized into a federal entity after the national independence, instead of sticking to the arbitrary divisions of British days, in the name of administrative conveniences. All India Radio, Doordarshan and Prasarbharathi could serve the cultural needs of various nationalities, if they are restructured on a federal basis: There is no logic, whatsoever, for not having TV channels and news broadcasting owned by State Governments, when BBC, CNN and others keep on brainwashing our people, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And, why not re-constitute the Kendra Sahithya Academy as an autonomous federal body, with the Chairmen of State level Academies as ex-officio members? These are just a few examples on how genuine federal practices could be grafted on to our administration. Delhi regime had retained its imperial features and impersonal character, instead of drawing its strength and authority from its federal existence. How the Indian President was dishonored on this republic day, by the Padmasree award for Sukumar Azhikod has to be an eyeopener for all: It is symbolic of the deep changes in the Indian polity¹².

The tendency to fabricate national consensus on issues and parade them as national policies without formally consulting the members of the Union Republic is on the increase, among the senior bureaucrats and central ministers. Power sector reforms and the Electricity Act 2003 were forced on the country in this manner. Several such examples could be cited and the one related to minor ports is a recent example. Minor ports are in the concurrent list, and State Governments are their constitutional custodians. There was a recent national level consultation meeting on the subject at Kochi, organized by the Ministry of Surface Transport, but the concerned Kerala Minister came to know about this, only through newspaper reports. That is typical of the seriousness with which Central Government tries to evolve national consensus nowadays. Meaningful consultations have become impossible even in the parliament, and its numerous consultative bodies are often maneuvered by the caucus of senior bureaucrats. Central Government is politically weak today and lacks in real federal authority. However, it has inherited, from the patriotic years of Nehru-Indira regime, immense administrative powers even outside the written constitution. Left is running a big political risk by neglecting these ground realities and in legitimizing the present Delhi regime with its parliamentary support.

Policies and programs that emanate today from Delhi, related to vital sectors such as energy, power development, transport, telecommunications, IT, water management, irrigation, agriculture, education or health are not the product of our federal or democratic wisdom: they are mostly dictated on from outside, by the experts of imperialist countries, directly or indirectly through multilateral institutions, the English speaking elites among our bureaucrats and media men serving as agents and facilitators. This practice, has to go lock stock and barrel, and we should develop and nurture the institutions required for evolving the federal or collective wisdom of our nationalities and the people at large.

Our constitution provides for an Interstate Council for facilitating federal consensus among the nationalities on issues of national import. Its constitutional role has been reduced to that of a ceremonial rubber stamp for approving the National Five Year Plan, drafted by the Planning Commission. Both the Sarkaria Commission and the National Committee to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC) appointed by Vajpeye Governmnet had insisted on a more meaningful role for of this august body¹³. In the NCRWC report of 2002, its Chairman Justice MN Venkitachelliah had observed: Article 263 had been most underutilized provisions of the Constitution. It can be imaginatively put into service by constituting subject or area specific Inter State Councils to deal with emerging new issues involving Union-State relations, more so in relation to areas touching upon international trade and participatory role therein of the States. The report had recommend even a constitutional amendment for specifying the subjects for the functional Interstate Councils.

Servicing too many Interstate Councils may turnout to be cumbersome, considering the number as well as the variety of references that might be needed, when we move toward a genuinely federal administration as in the case the former Soviet Union. A more sensible approach will be to constitute as many interstate councils or standing committees as necessary for evolving federal consensus and to formalize their work. Even today, there are numerous informal consultations on several subjects but, they as a rule, are used for fabricating consensus and that is very typical of the fascist style governance. This has to give way to formal, open and mandatory consultations and that is the right way to checkmate the takeover of Delhi, by a coterie of comprador bureaucrats and politicians.

End of main paper:

Notes:

1. A brave new world, based on technology was a vision shared by Marx and his contemporaries of humanist tradition: Shaw in Back to Methuselah, a brilliant science fiction piece and his last play, divines Man moving close to immortality through longevity achieved on the strength of technology and what he called as the theory of creative evolution. Azimov on the other hand permitted human society to expand into twenty five million worlds of diverse cultures, each world with four billion inhabitants. Technological pessimism and environmental fundamentalism wwre mainly a post-Marxian phenomenon, products of the inevitable anarchy under Capitalism.

2. UNO has a total membership of 184 nations, population of 57 nations was less than a million. The UN with its more than two dozen specialist organizations dealing with every aspect of human endeavor is a new historical experience for mankind, but mostly looked down by imperialists. This vastly democratic movement of nationalities is in fact seeking a new destiny for human race under the simple slogan of peaceful coexistence or unity in diversity.

3. Our Local Self Government Institutions in our country are possibly the least developed in the whole world: In USA, there were a total of fifty two LSGI employees per 1000 population in the year 2002. Corresponding figure for India was only two-see Globalization and Downsizing of Governments, paper by the author published in the Passline of September 2005

4. Medium of instruction and language policy: Use of mother tongue as the medium of instruction at all levels and use of Indian languages in administration and by all branches of knowledge including S&T were accepted as part of the cultural reform promised after independence. However this has never materialized and India's elite classes, unlike those of other countries including Japan or South Korea, have moved away from the concept neighborhood schooling and continue to hold that language of S&T and even of the courts of justice has to be English.

5. Silent Valley Controversy: The proposal, for constructing a small hydro electric power plant (60 MW) on the Kunthipuzha, a tributary of Bharathapuzha in 1978, was abandoned due to central intervention based on spurious environmental arguments. This was a major blow on the power development program of Kerala: As a result, close to two thirds of the hydro electric potential of the State remain untapped even today.

6. Author wrote this highly critical article in 1981 when he was the member secretary of the Kerala State Committee on Science and Technology. Those were years of intense debate on Center-State Relations among left intellectuals, because of the sharp ideological differences that existed between the Central Government and the Left ruled states.

7. Council for Mutual Economic Affairs (CEMA) served as the clearing house for the commercial relations and development plans of the countries belonging to the socialist camp. Higher level economic relations based on long term planning and dovetailing of S&T programs were the features promoted through the CMEA.

8. USSR Constitution: References made here are to the 1977 Constitution which claimed continuity of the earlier constitutions of 1918, 1924 (Lenin's time) and 1936 (Stalin's time)

9. A detailed analysis of the current situation in India's power sector was presented in a status paper presented by Engr. KR Unnithan in the 22^nd National Convention of Electrical Engineers, organized by the Institution of Engineers (India) held in Kochi on 24^th/25^th November 2006.

10. Several leading Marxist theoreticians, including Dr. Prabhat Patnaik and Dr. Ashok Mitra, have questioned the legitimacy of continuing the good old characterization of the Indian State by the mainstream left in the country, in the light of the ongoing reforms and their impact. A recent note by this author titled 'Ruling Elites plan for federal policing to defend Indian reforms' was published in the December issue of Red Star.

11. Indian state has developed and expanded considerably, in size as well as complexity, compared to the days of intense ideological polemics of sixties as well as the center-state debates of early eighties. Right for self determination or right to secede was the main question discussed in the 1967 CPI(M) document, Ideological Debate Summed Up, prepared in response to the ideological challenges of Naxalite movement. Debates of early eighties were mostly centered on the practical difficulties of managing Left governments within the constitutional frame work, and the limited finances of the State Governments. The framework for the debates on center-state relations has to be different today in the context of the changes in the class character of the Indian State and that of the Delhi regime.

12. Sukumar Azhikod a well known literary critic and social activist was conferred a Padmasri on the Republic day of 2007 which he openly declined to accept and people in Kerala had endorsed his refusal as one Man.

13. Left is silent today even on the Sarkaria commission, possibly because the Center is substantially weakened politically. But it refuses to see the vast administrative and financial prowess the Center has acquired for itself, thorough the reform and restructuring process, eroding into the very spirit of our federal constitution. A politically weak Center wielding too much of administrative power, inherited from the past is an altogether unwelcome situation. The 2002 report and recommendations of NCRWC have taken serious note of these more recent developments. Surprisingly, these did not find even a mention in the 2004 Common Minimum Program of the Left and the UPA. However the Dravidian Parties have taken up the issues considered as a crucial for India's Peoples Democratic Revolution far more seriously than the Left, as may be judged from Jayalalitha's reaction to the Indo-US nuclear deal (see the Hindu of 23.12.2006) and the Tamilnadu Governor's address in the Legislative Assembly.

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