The New Government and Manipur
- Shape of things to come -

Amar Yumnam *

Two recent developments are of crucial significance to Indian polity and economy. One is the recent address of the President to the joint session of parliament. The second is the open directive of the Prime Minister's Office to the Finance Ministry to incorporate the commitments of the government in the union budget under preparation.

A common thread runs through both. These establish beyond doubt that Dr. Manmohan Singh in his second term is a much more confident and emphatic Prime Minister. We cannot have feeling that the President's speech is an absolute trailer of the Budget Speech which would be coming in a few days from now.

President's Speech: The forty-six paragraphed speech of the President bears all the hallmarks of Manmohan Singh's leanings and commitments for the time he has been in limelight. He has not been able to push as strongly for these leanings as he would have liked for reasons dictated by the realities of Indian polity. But this time he has shed all his inhibitions and started to set in motion steps to convert his convictions into actions from the word go.

The President's speech contains mainly three emphases - inclusive development, governance reforms and containment of terrorism. The speech reflects much more confidence and commitment to domestic issues than on international affairs.

The Prime Minister, being an economist himself, has been much more conversant with the developmental issues confronting the land than the international dimensions of her existence. Even the much debated nuclear agreement was based upon his perception of the developmental requirements of the country.

The government expects that through the implementation of the new commitments of the government, the elected representatives would be able "to translate the hopes and aspirations of the people of India into change in the everyday lives of the people."

Manmohan has been a vociferous proponent of bureaucratic and governance reforms in the country. Now he is determined to put these in place. Two areas through which the government would try to effect governance reforms are the five annual reports to be presented on Education, health, employment, environment and infrastructure.

I am sure similar reports would soon be insisted from the State governments as well. These reports would be a long step towards establishing accountability. Besides these, the government now speaks of continuous performance evaluation.

Converting the country into a knowledge economy has become a national commitment by now. There are steps being mentioned to take the country forward in this direction through improving the domestic education scenario and attracting global talent. The latter step is similar to the one China has been implementing the last few years.

In the drive for development and governance reforms, the government remembers the need for major steps to address the issues of climate change. Here the speech has mentioned the setting of five different missions before the end of the year.

Manipur's Interest: The areas which would have relevance to Manipur's interests are three altogether. First is the strong mention on issues of terrorism in the speech. There are indications in the speech of having treated what happened in Mumbai (26/11) on equal footing with the unrest in Manipur or elsewhere in the country. This implies that the Prime Minister, despite his initial commitment to repeal AFSPA, is in no hurry to do so. On the other hand, there are hints of the screw tightening further.

The second area is the continuation of flagship schemes of UPA and the further push for inclusive growth. This is an area where the State government should apply its mind on how to capitalize on these. As regards the promise on Rs. 3 per kg rice/wheat, we only wish that it does not end up with more Dr. Kishan cases or proliferation of corruption.

The third area is the active interest the Centre has evinced on climate change by promising to set up five national missions. The State government should start applying its mind in right earnest on how to tape the resources of these forthcoming missions so that the developmental lags of the State are addressed in a sustainable way.