The Hindu : Front Page : Shed biases to build a strong India: Chidambaram

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Friday, Dec 14, 2007
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Shed biases to build a strong India: Chidambaram

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: In an oblique reference to the 2002 riots in Gujarat and its aftermath, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday opined that India cannot be built as a strong nation if institutions of governance remained biased and discriminated against certain sections of society.

Speaking on the issue of institutional governance in his address at the TiE Entrepreneurial Summit here, Mr. Chidambaram said: “This country will hold together only if we give everyone in India a stake in the future of India ... We cannot build an inclusive society, unless every institution of governance consciously sheds its biases and prejudices that work for every section of the people.” If vast sections of the society feel alienated, India cannot be built as a strong nation, he said.

Without naming the city or the State of Gujarat, the Finance Minister said: “There were riots in a city in one of the States of India a few years ago. We found to our great dismay people on two-wheelers, in cars, joining other looters to loot shops. Why would anyone who owns a car or a two-wheeler join looters to loot shops?” he asked.

“Inbuilt bias”

Noting that each one of us must be conscious that “we are born with biases and prejudices which show up at the most unexpected times,” Mr. Chidambaram pointed out that most institutions had an inbuilt bias and “if the surface is scratched, most human beings also have underlined biases.”

Bringing out the subtle difference between catalysing economic growth and building an inclusive society, he said: “We can build a giant economy, but that will be divided and strife-torn if vast sections feel alienated or discriminated or neglected or exploited.” For a strong nation, every countryman has to have a stake in its future, he said.

In this regard, even the Supreme Court, the Parliament, Ministers, government departments, independent institutions as also non-governmental organisations must shed biases and prejudices and work for all Indians, he said. The challenges facing the country still remain huge — as at the time of Independence — it is only the nature of these challenges that have changed.

Apart from inclusive growth, the other building blocks for the nation, Mr. Chidambaram said, were human resource development, infrastructure and entrepreneurial talent in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). “We pride ourselves on abundance of human resources, but we must also chastise ourselves for the poor quality of human resources that we have,” he said. Citing an instance in this regard, he pointed to the “appalling” state of education in the country and that was why the spending on education was proposed to be raised to 19 per cent of the Plan outlay during the Eleventh Plan.

Infrastructure

The state of infrastructure was no better as the country was required to connect six lakh villages with roads, electricity, telephones and other civic amenities. He said it was a misnomer that urban areas were any better. “Urban India is divided into those who have access to infrastructure and those who do not … Parts of urban India are, of course, affluent — South Delhi, but certainly not outer Delhi; Nariman Point, but certainly not the slums of Mumbai; South Madras, but not North Madras,” he said.

Mr. Chidambaram noted that he would prefer to set up at least 100-200 small towns from scratch with a population of 10-20 lakh each so as to achieve equitable growth at a much lower cost.

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