Thus far, the UPA government's proposals for reforms legislation have been a series of contradictions in terms. The much touted Employment Guarantee Bill does not guarantee employment, and what work it does provide could attract less than the minimum wage; the Right to Information Bill proposes a powerful Information Commission dedicated to overseeing transparency, but cripples the body at conception by not giving it enforcement powers; the Lokpal Bill for improving accountability of politicians is being reworded by the politicians, and Dual Citizenship rules have created a large swath of citizens who have no voting rights - and so on.
Not all of this surprising. The government may have agreed to the Common Minimum Programme with its coalition partners, but much of what is contained in the CMP is anathema to the economics that has driven New Delhi in recent times. When taking over power last year, the Congress needed the support of the Left parties. The price for that buttress was agreement, in principle at least, to many of the demands raised by the socialists. But a further dampener in the mix is the bureaucracy's apparent ability to have its own way and thwart the objectives of new legislation, especially laws that involve new entitlements or powers to citizens.
With contradictions and vested interests abounding, therefore, both critical legislation and policy decisions of the UPA's first few months in office have eventually turned into a behind-the-scenes tussle between the government and the Left parties, with the both sides having their own intellectual support bases in civil society organisations.
Which brings us to the Budget session of Parliament, about to get under way. This is a time when the national discourse convenes around the virtues of economic development and the direction the country must take or shake off. And if past versions are any indication, this time too the attention will be on the monochromatic economic stimulus proposals handed down by the Finance Minister, and the whole session may be judged more or less by the response of the investing class to these proposals. The danger is that between the hoopla over corporate welfare from New Delhi, the people's welfare may take a backseat. Free-market economists rarely look bad in Budget sessions; these are the perfect stage from which to expound the virtues of unproven theories of economic growth, in and of itself.
But economic development in a democracy requires responsive, open and enabling governance, for delivery of its benefits. Will the important legislations - EGA, RTI and Lokpal bills, as well as the upcoming parliamentary approval for the ordinance on patents passed hastily in late December - meet this standard, or will their diluted forms prevail? Some legislations are before standing committees; there is still room for the parties to put people-power back into the Bills before they reach the floor. In the Lok Sabha, with the answer to these tests now imminent, it is finally crunch time for the Congress-Left alliance.
The tussle between the Congress and the Communists has remained largely behind the scenes, because both groups have been reluctant to bring their differences out into the open, preferring instead to manouever quietly for advantage. The Left parties' initial decision to remain outside the UPA government, but extend support nonetheless, was based on the calculation that the government would in anycase pursue policies unacceptable to them, and that they would then be blamed for any opposition they raised while within the government. Perhaps. But the Communists may have also hoped that their numerical strength would sway Congress policies away from a mindless pursuit of 'neoliberal economics'. Further, they decided that the BJP was the real enemy and that if support for the Congress was necessary to keep the BJP out, then so it would be.
But if the government is anyway pursuing economic policies unacceptable to the Left parties, what are the Communists going to do about it? More to, what if the Congress drew support for its policies from the BJP? That irony may lie ahead. In theory at least, the opposition NDA holds positions much more likeable to the World Bank or IMF - and therefore to our current economic ministers. Any opposition from the Left could be overcome with some support from MPs in the BJP and its allies. That is the reality. On economic matters, the government may not need the support of the Left parties.
Therefore, if Congress can get away with mere nodding acknowledgements to the Left's preferences, what has the Left achieved?
But there is also another, equally significant question to ask. Namely, what can be achieved by ideological politics alone anyway? Pro-development reforms are going to need much more than that. The relative directionlessness of our political alliances and the resultant continuing neglect of social and economic needs for the majority are not new to the country. So if business as usual happens -- economic agendas go forward, governance reform remains shackled in a powerful bureaucracy -- the prospects for a just economic development are set back that much further. Also, perhaps parties with even more polarised public positions will be at the table when the next coalition is formed. It is this reality that neither political parties in themselves nor their alliances have been able to address in recent times. Inevitably, therefore, contradictions weigh down the coalitions, sometimes to the point of fracture.
An encore of past failed alliances during this Budget session is in nobody's interest, but brinkmanship is deeply infused into the calculus of coalitions, and only the parties themselves can change that. Others are simply witness to yet another litmus test in Parliament.
