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18

SUNDAY HINDUSTAN T IMES, NEW DEL H I APRIL 30, 2017

chanakya

AAP MUST REALISE THE LIMITS OF ITS AMBITIONS have never seen anyone squander so much goodwill in so short a time. I am speaking of Arvind Kejriwal, the perpetually aggrieved Delhi chief minister. Now he has a genuine reason to be aggrieved: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which swept aside all in its path to conquer this once-imperial city, has bitten the dust in the elections held to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. His party, once seen as the one with the greatest connect with the aam aadmi, seems to have lost its touch as a resurgent saffron tide pushed it to second place in the MCD elections. You may wonder why a municipal election should occasion so much interest. It is because the BJP, in its newly minted avatar, fights each election with exceptional intensity. So Kejriwal and Co had a real corker on their hands. And now his party and he will blame everything from the faulty electoral process to conspiracies involving the lieutenant governor for the defeat. Introspection is not Kejriwal’s strong point. Nor indeed is the politics of accommodation or taking responsibility for failures. In his first stint, the CM railed and raged against a system, which he felt was unfairly arraigned against him. He took to the streets to protest and I can never forget the sight of the CM in a blue floral

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quilt sleeping on the footpath. He resigned. Voters who had high hopes of this new formation were disappointed but so fed up were they with the established parties that they gave AAP a second chance. And how! It won 67 of 70 seats. But from day one, AAP has favoured a politics of confrontation to the extent that much of the good work it did was overshadowed in the din of the CM’s high-decibel battle with the then L-G and his often personally vituperative remarks about the prime minister and other politicians. But where I think AAP could have scored is in maintaining its earthy people connect. It could have highlighted its splendid mohalla clinics and its efforts to improve schools. It could have held fast to its promise of simplicity and probity in public life. But in his effort to project himself as the salt of the earth, a regular Joe, Kejriwal raised such expectations in people that merely moving into the chief ministerial bungalow was seen by many as a betrayal of his ideals. The unsavoury facts that emerged about some of his ministers — domestic violence in one case; a forged marksheet in another as well as a break from the core members of the party tarnished the self-appropriated halo. In what I can only call running before learning to walk, AAP decided to spread its wings to

Illustration: MALAY KARMAKAR

other parts of India in the recent assembly polls. I wonder who advised Kejriwal to undertake this politically inept and self-defeating move. The results were not as expected, and so began the whine about EVMs being faulty. They were fine as long as he was on the winning side. It must have been this unbridled ambition of power that put people off. After all, it is difficult to give a party so many chances when garbage heaps dot the streets. Instead of stepping up to the plate and taking ownership for the good and the bad, AAP cherry-picked its causes. If things were not going well, the fault was with the political enemies. A question of seeing the speck in others’ eyes, but not the moat in one’s own.

sundaysentiments KARAN THAPAR

IMPOSING HINDI COULD BE INFLAMMATORY f there’s one thing our history has taught us it’s that language can be incendiary. When it ceases to be a means of communication and is treated, instead, as a form of identity it has the potential to divide, offend and infuriate. This is particularly so when a language other than your own is forced upon you. Now, ours is a heterogeneous, plural and diverse country. We comprise a multitude of ethnicities, religions, castes and sub-castes. India has 22 languages recognised by the Constitution. According to the 2011 census we, in fact, have 122 while the People’s Linguistic Survey of India claims it’s actually 780. On top of this we also have hundreds if not thousands of dialects. We are, therefore, one of the most linguistically diverse nations in the world. That’s, undoubtedly, one of our unique and beautiful features. Unfor-

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tunately, it’s one we often fail to appreciate. In such a country a national language, which is by definition a language preferred by everyone, is hard to agree upon and, therefore, difficult if not perilous to enforce. The Tamils, Kannadigas, Telugus, Malayalees can’t speak Hindi while Haryanavis, Rajasthanis, Madhya Pradeshis, Biharis and Uttar Pradeshis have no knowledge at all of Tamil, Kannadiga, Telugu or Malayalam. And so far I haven’t even mentioned the North East, the Valley, Ladakh, West Bengal or Odisha. It’s against this background that English has evolved as our link language. It’s also the language of aspiration right across the country. NonHindi speaking south India and the North-East are as willing to embrace it as the Hindi-speaking North. Of course, hundreds of millions

deepcut RAJESH MAHAPATRA

HAS NITI AAYOG KILLED MODI’S GRAND VISION? ast Sunday, the Niti Aayog held the third meeting of its governing council where vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya presented a 15-year vision statement (http://read.ht/BXmQ) that seeks to transform India into “a prosperous, highly educated, healthy, secure, corruption-free, energyabundant, environmentally clean and globally influential nation” by 2031-32. The presentation drew from a speech Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered in Kozhikode in September, when he listed eight key features of economic development he would like see in the times to come. Few would disagree with the goals Panagariya outlined at the meeting that was held under the prime minister’s chairmanship, with several senior Cabinet ministers and chief ministers from all but two states in attendance. The goals pursued by successive governments in the past

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have been no different, but the outcomes have often fallen short of the stated objectives, because either the strategy was flawed or its implementation was inadequate. Can Niti Aayog help Modi’s government buck the trend? Besides the vision statement, the Aayog was mandated to design a seven-year strategy and a three-year action plan effective through this fiscal year. The strategy is yet to be framed, but a draft of the three-yearplan (http://read.ht/BXmR) was circulated at Sunday’s meeting and has since been posted on the Aayog’s website. Perhaps, the first blunder has been committed: Of putting the cart before the horse. The plan for 2017-18 to 2019-20 has turned out to be an exercise in incrementalism and a document full of wishful targets, which are neither backed by past trends nor supported by sound economic logic. It doesn’t

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MK Stalin has accused New Delhi of PTI trying to create ’Hindia’

can’t speak it while many speak it badly and pronounce it appallingly. But that’s not the point. It’s the one language that unites India and proficiency in speaking it is increasing, possibly geometrically. This is why a decision by the Union home ministry to implement a sixyear-old report of a Parliamentary Committee on Official Language is not just bizarre but potentially inflammatory. It recommends that all MPs and Union ministers who know Hindi use it as their only language, both for making speeches and writing. But what about the hundreds of millions

reflect any strategic thinking because there is none. For any vision to come true, there has to first be a strategy, and then an action plan. And for an action plan to be effective, the strategy must have a buy-in from the political class. That said, let’s turn to the vision statement and see if it is good enough to guide the formulation of an appropriate strategy. As Pronab Sen, an economist who spent 15 years in the Planning Commission being the strategic thinker behind several Five-Year Plans, argues: A good vision statement must capture the imagination of the nation, should be seen to have full political commitment, especially at the highest level, and it must force the strategic thinkers and technocrats to go beyond mere extrapolations. In a research paper to be published in the Economic and Political Weekly, Sen draws parallel between Modi’s sabka saath sabka vikas slogan with Indira’s Gandhi’s garibi hatao campaign — overarching vision statements that have had a powerful impact on the collective psyche, but not quantitative in their character. In Gandhi’s case, once the campaign was coined, policy makers were forced to first define garibi (poverty) in a measurable, politically-acceptable manner, and then recast the planning model to include poverty reduction as a specific target, Sen

thisweekth hatera t PICTURE OF F THE WEEK MAY 4: Vice-President Zakir Husain is greeted by his grand-daughter at Palam on Wednesdayy (May 3) on his return from the U.S.

I feel a tinge of regret because so many people bought into the dream that AAP sold them. They thought this was a genuine people’s party in which the leaders and the followers would be on the same page, would indeed be more or less be the same people. And it is a dream that could have come true if not for the monumental egos of some of the dramatis personae. Each battle with the L-G, justified or not, was played out in public and in language which often was — to put it delicately — unparliamentary and unbecoming of the high office of chief minister. I strongly feel that if AAP had hunkered down and got down to work in right earnest, it would not be in the dire straits it is in now. It is not a

in south India and the North-East who won’t understand what they are saying or writing? The report, which has been approved by the President, also makes it mandatory for railway stations in non-Hindi speaking states to make announcements in Hindi. Why? At best this will bemuse and befuddle the citizenry. At worst, it could offend and annoy them. Already MK Stalin has accused the government of trying to create “Hindia”. It may not be long before other politicians in Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and the North-East issue similar warnings. But is anyone in Delhi listening? We have enough problems without scratching open old wounds to create new ones. So far the only explanation has come from the junior minister for home Kiren Rijiju and it’s not satisfactory. “I won’t comment on why the report was sent for President’s approval now”, he said without explaining this strange reluctance. But don’t we have a right to know? And doesn’t he have a responsibility to explain? Rijiju insists “this is not an imposition but promotion of Hindi.” That sounds as if he’s playing with words. I only hope it doesn’t turn out he’s playing with fire. The views expressed are personal

points out. The result: The fifth FiveYear Plan, which made garibi hatao its centrepiece, was one of the most successful among the 12 Five-Year Plans that the Planning Commission rolled out before Modi decided to scrap it. In contrast, Niti Aayog has failed to provide substance to Modi’s vision. According to Panagariya’s power point presentation, the only publicly available document on the 15-year roadmap, India’s economy (http:// read.ht/BXiY) can grow more than three-fold because China’s economy did so in the past 15 years. Worse, it goes on to argue that if per capita income grows three-fold by 2031-32, “nearly all Indians” will have “access to two wheelers/cars, air conditioning and other white goods”. Panagariya might just have leaped even beyond possible statistical imagination here. Only 20% of Indians currently earn more than India’s per capita income, while 60% earn less than a third of it. And in a country where more than half still lack access to basic amenities, Dipti Jain (http://read.ht/BXmT), writing in the Mint, might have rightly accused the Niti Aayog of selling fantasies. But the real question could be even more diabolical: Has the messenger (Niti Aayog) killed the message (the prime minister’s grand vision)? n

@RajeshMahapatra

APRIL 30-MAY 6, 1967 >>FROM THE ARCHIVES OF THE HINDUSTAN TIMES

NE EWS OF THE WEEK INDIA

NO AGREEMENT ON LANGUAGE ISSUE MAY 1: The State Education Ministers' Conference concludes today (April 30) without arriving at a solution on the three-language formula. It, however, decided that regional languages should be the medium of instruction in all institutions of higher education.

WORLD

SATELLITES TO DETECT N-BLAST APRIL 30: A powerful Titan-3C rocket carrying two nuclear explosion detection satellites among its five-satellite payload was launched on April 28. It will spot nuclear explosions in the earth's atmosphere or outer space.

national party, it cannot be in a long time to come. The party was uniquely positioned to hone its skills in the crucible of Delhi which accepted it so willingly. But it simply did not seem to want to get its hands dirty and thought that what worked in Delhi would work elsewhere. It did not count on the awesome saffron machinery. I honestly think that Kejriwal and his advisers have no one but themselves to blame for this. They did not need anyone else to do them in — they did a pretty good job themselves. But I still think there is political space for a party like AAP which has a strong local connect. But for that the party must look back at the rationale on which it came into existence, to deliver a politics shorn of the artifice and corruption that had come to become synonymous with mainstream parties. To AAP’s credit, it was not seen as caste or class based, it was not seen as having any communal overtones, it had no baggage and it had a fresh bouncy feel to it. But all that seems so far away. Behind the symbolic simplicity was a serious inability to govern the vast and unwieldy entity of Delhi. Yes, law and order is not in the hands of the state government, the L-G can make life difficult but instead of wallowing in self-pity, AAP should have worked a way around these problems using the tried and tested political method of give and take. If you come out all guns blazing on any given day, people tend to see you as a perennial protester. Kejriwal should have made the transition from naysayer to neta, activist to administrator, in the true sense of the term. This is not what people signed up for. And they have delivered their message in no uncertain terms. n

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INDIA IS A VICTIM OF NEGATIVE NEIGHBOURHOOD POLITICS KANWAL SIBAL

any believe that we have not managed relations with our neighbours well enough. Is the fault mostly ours? We need to look at our neighbourhood policy — including that under the Modi government — more objectively, keeping some pertinent points in mind. Smaller countries feel insecure as neighbours to a big power. To avoid subservience and maintain their separate identity, they are prone to assert their independence. They will seek the support of external powers as a counterweight. Concerns about their domestic politics being manipulated and a client leadership put in place by the bigger neighbour impedes a fuller relationship. Mutually beneficial economic ties are often sacrificed because of negative political thinking. Smaller countries also have unrealistic expectations, as they believe that the bigger country should be generous and not demand reciprocity, and as generosity is not defined in scale and generous acts are quickly forgotten, the problem of unmet expectations endures. In India’s case, all elements of this syndrome are at play. Our neighbours being part of the Indian civilisational space, they fear smothering by India. Wooing them much more, as some advocate, could well increase resistance depending on their internal politics, the balance between various factions and relations with third countries that court them. India is constantly accused of interference in the internal affairs of neighbours. While India cannot altogether stand aloof and has to pay legitimate politics within diplomatic bounds to protect its interests, India’s interference is exaggerated to serve domestic politics. This legacy of Partition survives in Pakistan’s case and fuels its unremit-

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ting animosity towards us. An increasingly dysfunctional state like Pakistan cannot make peace with India. No amount of dialogue will change this reality. The flip-flops of successive Indian governments in their Pakistan policy, including the initial outreach by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Nawaz Sharif, his Pakistani counterpart, and his tough posture towards Islamabad subsequently, denotes the intractable nature of the problem, not merely our inconsistency. Today, we have to take into account the US factor in dealing with Pakistan and the China-Pakistan nexus has become a huge challenge for us. But it is not Pakistan alone that uses the China card against us. Nepal does this to supposedly escape India’s total domination. It has long resisted water resource cooperation with India that is so clearly in the interest of both countries, and now has given China big openings in this sector. Modi’s two visits to Nepal enthused the Nepalese but the disruption of oil supplies because of turmoil in the Terai created a deep anti-Indian backlash. With the change of government in Kathmandu the situation has improved for us, but this a reprieve till the next crisis. Virtually all our neighbours support China’s One Belt, One Road project and its Saarc entry despite India’s position. Under Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and the settlement of land boundary and maritime disputes, ties with Dhaka have improved remarkably. But, the Opposition is accusing her of a sell-out to India, which demonstrates the complexities India faces in forging better ties. The ruling classes in our neighbours have to take enlightened decisions on optimal relations with India. The burden is not on India alone. Bhutan provides an excellent example of a country that has preserved its unique personality and independence while maintaining close ties with India without the need for external balancing. Kanwal Sibal is former foreign secretary The views expressed are personal

sundayletters WOMEN TRASH LIQUOR VENDS AS A LAST RESORT I was shocked to read Lalita Panicker’s Women trashing liquor vends, it’s not on (Engender, April 23). Women are the ones who suffer the most due to alcohol and alcoholism, they are the ones who are threatened, abused, assaulted and, in many cases, they suffer silently without any support whatsoever. Great leaders, including Mahatma Gandhi, realised this and thus spoke against this societal poison. Women resort to violence because it is the last resort, and they should be supported for standing up for their right. NEHA TULI VIA EMAIL

Don’t exaggerate the problem

Even Modi would act like Trump

Karan Thapar’s Are we on the verge of losing Kashmir? (Sunday Sentiments, April 23) is an exaggeration of a problem India is facing. The government has made progress and it is because of this that there is a violent backlash. However, the Government of India needs to come up with a way to address the concerns of the Valley. This government, more than any previous one, is committed and will find a solution.

Why should we see red when United States or Australia tweak the rules to help its citizens? (India’s middle class must reinvent itself, Deep Cut, April 23). I am sure Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government would also have reacted in the same way if such a situation arose in this country. RAVINDER PAHWA VIA EMAIL

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