Sunil Sethi: Here come the old Robin Hoods

AL FRESCO

Before the arrival of the BJP and its regional affiliates of non-Congress persuasion at the Centre in 1998, Congress governments had been in power for so long that a favourite cud-chewing occupation in New Delhi used to be the analysis of "Congress culture".

This was much more than a preoccupation with government's policies and personalities "" it was almost a course in advanced political and sociological study.

Interpreting signals from the "high command", figuring out the intricate relationship between the AICC, CWC and CPP, piecing together the "durbar politics" of Safdarjung Road and later Race Course Road, was a highly evolved art form.

Even when socialist practice was finally dumped by Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh, the Congress retained its holier-than-thou aura; it's pro-poor image was as intrinsic to its grain as its pro-dynasty ideals. The party's Robin Hood ethos "" of robbing Peter to pay Paul "" proved durable enough to put it back in power.

Many of the old Robin Hoods are back, some so antiquated that they have that blinking, surprised look of being suddenly disinterred from some peaceful grassy plot.

A neo-Nehruvian lexicon is back in fashion""-the Non-Aligned Movement and National Literacy Mission "" and alongside many of the discarded shibboleths of socialism "" job reservation quotas in the private sector, free power for farmers, a national cess on primary education and separate electricity rates in the national capital for the rich and the poor.

In all the policy suggestions and revisions put forward by new ministers and chief ministers during the past week, there is not one original or viable idea of how the government proposes to find the money to finance its new regimen of subsidies and handouts.

Take the tragic saga of power reform. R K Pachauri of the Tata Energy Research Institute says that tariff-related losses in the agriculture sector in eight states are already Rs 14,000 crore; if the other states were to follow Andhra Pradesh's new dispensation of free electricity to farmers, the additional loss would be Rs 4,500 crore. Nor has incomplete or half-hearted reform solved the problem.

In Delhi where power supply and distribution was privatised some time ago, the two private companies, Tata Power and BSES, have been begging for legislation to declare power theft a legal offence with stiff penalties put in place. Accumulated losses from theft and pilferage currently stand at Rs 1,200 crore.

When quizzed recently on how the state government proposed to deal with the problem, the power secretary said: "We are contemplating how to draft the legislation."

Flush from her party's triumph in the elections Chief Minister Sheila Dixit's solution is that residents should pay according to the area they live in, a move that will most certainly be challenged. It may help poorer constituents in her son Sandeep Dixit's East Delhi constituency but it will lose her voters in the rest of the city.

The proposed cess to ensure primary education for all children follows the same Robin Hood principle of putting the burden on the middle class.

First of all, it took India about 55 years to actually pass a constitutional amendment that basic education was a compulsory right of every child and ought to be paid for by the state. More shameful is the measly sum set aside for this purpose in this year's interim budget "" a mere Rs 5,700 crore.

Now the Indian state is suffering from a sudden reality check. Where to find the money? Successive Congress governments failed to ensure that development subsidies ever reached those whose need was the greatest. The Congress-promoted public distribution system was so notoriously leaky that Rajiv Gandhi said that only 15 paise for every rupee spent reached its target.

More wild-eyed populist schemes are gathering steam, demands for caste-based job reservations in the private sector from the Robin Hoods of Bihar and Maharashtra. Highly specious as a concept, it will be almost impossible to either implement fairly or monitor accurately.

Apart from anything else it is certain to create more castes and so entrench the caste system more deeply. It will certainly be met with strong resistance and resentment from private business and industry and is not designed to set productivity "" or a cynical stock market "" soaring.

Meanwhile, on one subject alone socialist style has been unanimously jettisoned and that is the superannuation of the trusty Ambassador as the vehicle of power.

Have you noticed, not even the Leftists have any objection to riding in a Baleno, Accord or a Qualis? It should have been Item No 1 of the CMP. Hypocrisy has always been the lifeline of Congress culture.