What about Gross National Happiness?
Anybody who has gone shopping lately cannot but have noticed that most necessities cost more. Foodgrains, pulses, vegetables, fruits, milk, eggs, fish and meat are all expensive. However, the earnings of most ordinary people – with the exception of government servants drawing lavish Sixth Pay Commission salaries and those in new age industries and services – haven’t really kept pace. Though the official rate of inflation was 9.58 per cent in April, food prices have been climbing up at nearly16.50 per cent annually for around three years now.
This could not have escaped the attention of our economist Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, who admitted during his recent press conference on the occasion of the first anniversary of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance’s second term in office that price rise was a big “concern”. Citing the usual excuses of drought and floods, the PM assured the media that his government would do everything possible to bring down inflation “by December”.
But that was precisely what Dr Singh said a year ago, when his government took office! One December has come and gone, but inflation is still here; a singularly uninspiring performance. What will the coming December bring? The prognosis for what the media has dubbed ‘UPA-II’ is likely to be very poor indeed, unless there is a rapid mid-term course correction.
The UPA government seems to believe that achieving double-digit growth rates in the country’s Gross Domestic Product will solve all problems. But growth cannot be an end in itself. As the UPA’s manifesto itself suggests, it has to be ‘inclusive’ to have any real meaning. Otherwise, the rich get richer while the poor get poorer.
It is the great GDP gold rush that has resulted in the government giving a carte blanche to big companies to evict poor farmers and tribals in their thousands from their land and grab their only source of livelihood. Recent protests in Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district, where South Korean company Posco wants to set up a giant steel plant, are symptoms of the UPA’s growth-at-any-cost policy. We see it in Goa too, where mining companies are allowed to get away with practically anything. That is why the tribal areas of Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh are Maoist strongholds. And, any further increases in inequality will mean more fodder for the Maoists.
But the UPA seems oblivious to the obvious. The PM says the Maoists are the country’s greatest internal threat and Home Minister P Chidambaram – who has been a lawyer for some of the mining companies that want to carve a slice out of India’s tribal heartland –suggested using air power against them. But people’s problems cannot be solved by mere application of force. The Indian Army has been in Nagaland for 60 years. Yet, it has still not managed to defeat the Naga insurgency. Shouldn’t that tell us something?
Thankfully, not all voices in the ruling dispensation are singing the same GDP tune. UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi wrote in the Congress party publication ‘Sandesh’: “The rise of Naxalism is a reflection of the need for our development initiatives to reach the grass roots, especially in our most backward tribal districts.” Inclusive growth should benefit all Indians, not just the middle class and the rich.
For growth and development to be inclusive, it must be equitable. It must respect the people’s needs and seek the greater good. Most of all, it must protect the interests of the poorest of the poor. This does not mean going back to the bad old days of socialism and the command economy. Rather, it means spreading a safety net that does not allow any section to slip through.
Maybe the UPA should take a look at the doctrine of Gross National Happiness (GNH), propounded by Bhutan’s former king Jigme Singye Wangchuk, which is based on Buddhist cultural values. It comprises sustainable development, cultural values, environmental concerns and good governance with transparency. What use is development that creates misery for the many and contentment for a few?
