India / Cong MPs question growth story

The news below, though, doesn't have any direct bearing on Singur land-acquisition issue, relates, nonetheless, to the hoax story of development/industrialisation and the GDP growth that ensues the current reforms drive undertaken by the Indian State on regional and national levels.

TOI,16 Decmber

NEW DELHI: India's big growth story, with the economy clocking 9% plus, is not impressing Congress MPs. They feel that most people, and that includes those whose votes count the most, are outside the pale of this feel good.

In fact, a majority of people are actually having to do with a meagre 2% growth. The plainspeak came at the two-day meeting of Congress Parliamentary Party where MP after MP rose to complain that government needed to do more for the rural poor.

It would have made depressing, if not unexpected, listening for FM P Chidambaram. Though it is perhaps the fate of every FM to hear how more "pro-poor" sops are needed, the running down of the growth rate would have sounded cruel.

Perhaps it was in reaction to the earful he received, that Chidambaram appeared thoughtful as he sat in Lok Sabha on Friday afternoon, sometimes batting away a thought with a gesture of his hand. Before long, he spoke to tribal affairs minister P R Kyndia and left the House.

In the morning, Congress MPs made the point that high growth was only going to help a small minority. If they felt that this growth would ultimately lift the deprived out of poverty, they did not have the patience for it. All that was in the future, perhaps well after the next reckoning at the hustings. And MPs live and die by the ballot box.

Most pointed to price rise. Some said that they understood Chidambaram when he said that high growth was accompanied by increased inflation. But they said that what they could not do was to explain to voters that this was why dals, atta and a range of other necessary items were getting costlier and getting out of reach of lakhs of families who are having to run faster to stay at the same place.

"If lentils are costlier than meat, there is reason for us to worry," one MP remarked. Offering their wisdom, Congress MPs pleaded that their suggestions be taken seriously "since no bureaucrat or economist can communicate the feelings and sentiments of the masses".

There were suggestion on taxation as well. It was felt that tax on bank withdrawals be done away with while there were calls for specific schemes like an insurance policy for coconut collectors.

"About two crore people are actually involved in coconut farming, they climb coconut trees to collect the fruit, but there is no insurance for the high-risk job," Sachin Pilot said.

The MPs suggested that more money be made available for schemes to eradicate child labour to make the campaign a success. Some of them called for the Budget being "gender sensitive" to take note of women's viewpoints and perspective of planning and development