Despite the rousing welcome given to it by the sensor and the flurry of announcements about the imminent second generation reforms, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayees government appears to be off to yet another unsure start. Much like the last time Vajpayee was in power, the government appears to be fumbling at the start line. If the first few months of its governance were characterized by rolling back of its own policy measures then, this time the leitmotif appears to be the problems of managing too many partners. It wasnt bad enough to have such a huge cabinet to accommodate all the allies, Vajpayee seems to have made it worse by his proposal to create several brand new ministries and departments within them to accommodate their demands for portfolios. Thus, tribal affairs is to be removed from the ministry of social justice and handed over to another minister. The industry ministry is being carved up into three pieces one for Murasoli Maran, to handle along with Commerce, and another for Manohar Joshi, and third new one specifically for looking after the small scale sector. Culture is to spun off into a separate ministry, primary education and literacy is to be made into a separate department. Drinking water is to get another full-fledged secretary, as are ports and highways in the ministry of surface transport. To be sure, the extra expenditure as a result of this may not be much. More full fledged secretaries, for instance neednt mean fresh promotions, as there are enough bureaucrats who are already ranked as secretary but have no independent charges so far. And office space for the new ministries/departments will be carved out of the existing Bhawans, but think of the signal that it sends as far as the commitment to downsizing is concerned. At a time when the governments intent, for example, is to do away with reservation for the small scale sector to encourage economic scales of production, what justification can there be for a separate ministry dedicated only to the small scale industry. And once a minister, a secretary and perhaps an additional secretary have been appointed, it is only natural that they should do their best to lobby for their charge. So lets continue with the reservation for the SSI sector, lets insist that banks give more loans to small entrepreneurs and so on. Now it is possible that despite this, such proposals will get shot down at the Cabinet level, but think of the additional paperwork, delay and waste that is being built into the system. Every second application to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board will now have to be sent to this new ministry as well for its comments. And though it is perhaps unfair to judge the performance of the new ministers by their first day in office, some of their statements are truly frightening. Manohar Joshi who now heads one part of the industry ministry told a news agency that the government should consider forming a special cell to investigate why public sector units are turning sick, and what can be done to revive them like wed done in Maharshtra. Now surely, after 50 years of independence any politician should know why PSUs have turned sick. And you have to be exceptionally naïve to think that no attempts have been made to revive these units, or not know that thousands of crores have been lost in doing precisely this over the years. To cite the most recent example for Joshi, just a few years ago the Indian Bank was given a bailout of Rs. 1,750 crore instead of being closed down or privatized after it wiped out its entire net worth following a mammoth Rs 1,336 crore loss in 1995-96. With no serious change in its management, it ran up losses of Rs 1, 479 crore over the next three years, and now needs another bailout of Rs. 1,200 crore. Similarly after telling the press that he would like to concentrate on the Bihar Lok Sabha elections first, the new civil aviation minister Sharad Yadav made it clear that he wasnt exactly in favor of privatization of either airports or of Air India 'you know my background, he told new persons. To be fair to Yadav, at this stage at least he prefaced his statement by saying that he would abide by the government policy on the matter. It is equally comforting to know that despite Joshis views, it will be Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha who will be pushing for achieving the disinvestment target. And that even if Joshi is reluctant to refer new PSUs to the disinvetment commission, there are enough recommendations that have already been made by the Commission but not been acted upon, to keep the government busy for a few years. Prime Minister Vajpayee, of course, has been known to recover ground after hesitant starts. After close to a disastrous fist few months in office, in terms of economic reforms at least, Vajpayee did, for instance, move much further than previous government. And if Sinha is seen as swadeshi, it no longer has the odour it had when the BJP first came to power and raised fears that foreign companies would be discriminated against. Vajpayee, though needs to be extra cautious this time round. It was politicians like his present colleague Ram Vilas Paswan, for instance, who forced the government to give the striking bureaucrats a huge hike over what even the pay commission had recommended during the United Front regime. To succeed this time, Vajpayee will have to virtually play policeman, to ensure his colleagues are not allowed to pull a fast one over the country. Ghar ka bhedi Lanka dh aya, is a saying from the Ramayana that Vajpayees surely familiar with.
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