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Promises to keep

India’s continuing success as a parliamentary democracy is inspiring. Equally remarkable is its arrival as an emerging world power in a short span of time, an accomplishment that has exceeded the most optimistic expectations. A country of over a billion people, India has steadily grown as a secular and pluralist democracy, overcoming serious challenges and threats to the constitutional scheme, be they from authoritarian regimes, terrorism, or divisive ideologies. A c onsistently high voter turnout and empowerment of the most oppressed in the social order — Mayawati’s phenomenal rise to power in Uttar Pradesh is a case in point — constitute sparkling milestones in this long and often difficult journey. Yet the story of independent India, whose rapid rise (in parallel with China) is the talk of the world, has been marred by the failure over six full decades to overcome the world’s largest mass of poverty and deprivations. Today more than ever before, there is no avoiding the implications of two Indias: one that is affluent beyond imagination, the other struggling and heartrendingly poor.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Independence Day address, his fourth since he assumed office, has recognised this contradiction. He saluted India’s transformation from a tentative democracy to a vibrant and modern country “within the framework of a secular and democratic Constitution, with respect for the rule of law and for fundamental human rights.” But the caveats were no less significant: “We have moved forward in the many battles against poverty, ignorance and disease. But can we say we have won the war? … Even after years of development and rising growth rates, why have we not been able to banish mass poverty and provide employment to all?” The anguish recalls Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s great “Tryst with Destiny” speech of August 15, 1947, which clarified that “the service of India” meant “the service of the millions who suffer…[and] the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity.” That the same concern finds expression today indicates the poignancy and unchangeability of the distress faced by hundreds of millions of Indians. In addressing this challenge, Dr. Singh has once again unveiled a plethora of pro-poor, pro-farmer schemes. These include the investment of at least Rs.25,000 crore in the agriculture sector, a pension scheme for senior citizens below the poverty line, a new health insurance scheme for the poor, and 6,000 new government-funded quality schools besides 10,000 additional vocational schools and 50,000 skill development centres. The United Progressive Alliance was voted to power in 2004 with a mandate that implied a rejection of the elitist character of the ‘India Shining’ project. The message of that election verdict was the need to give centrality to the challenge of mass deprivation. Three years down the road, there is an abundance of government revenues and resources but little evidence to suggest that the government has the political will to deliver on the promises made to the people. For the rising India project to sustain credibility, the time has certainly come to fast-track delivery on the big promises.

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