Poor Quality of Our Democracy

It is striking that through the campaign there has been no debate, of any depth, on everyday policy issues. Indian politicians seemingly have neither the stomach nor the intellectual bandwidth for those kinds of debates. The media too cannot sustain any kind of sensible commentary on key policy choices facing us. You would look in vain for an analysis of hard policy tradeoffs as we confront economic and social challenges.

Nowhere is this more evident than in respect of election manifestos which promise all manner of things. Are the policies they enunciate desirable? And if desirable, are they feasible financially, socially, politically, and culturally? Our media should be trying to answer these questions. Instead, they are preoccupied with who will win the election, who did what during campaigning and what is the last thing Narendra Modi said.

The manifestos of the two major parties suggest both are agreed on a Goods and Services Tax (GST) and encouraging foreign investment. That is worth bringing to the attention of voters. Yet few in the media have bothered to do so. BJP’s opposition to allowing multibrand retailing and its espousal of simpler tax structures has had some mention. Can India repudiate its decision on multibrand retailing? How would foreign investors react to constant policy changes? And how should we simplify our tax structures?

Both parties want to do something for health. Congress wants to pass a right to health bill, increase health expenditures to 3% of GDP and create millions of jobs in that sector. How to define the right to health? How many rights-based bills can we work with (right to education, right to information, right to food)? Is 3% too much or too little, and what would we spend less on? What kinds of jobs does Congress want to create in health?

BJP wants to raise education expenditures to 6% of GDP, encourage online courses and boost vocational training. Is 6% affordable, what are the limitations of online learning and do we have the connectivity for it, and how to energies the moribund vocational sector?

Millions are migrating to towns and cities. Urban policy is therefore a huge challenge. Congress wants to build 100 urban clusters around older or emerging cities to take the pressure off existing conurbations. BJP wants to go further and create 100 completely new cities. Which way is better? Is either feasible given struggles around land rights, a new land acquisition bill and lack of supporting infrastructure?

Speaking of infrastructure, both parties want high-speed trains. Given the horrendous record of Indian railways in managing low-speed trains, how would we move to a different, more exacting system? High-speed trains require new tracks. That means dedicating a lot of land to the project. How will that be achieved when land is at such a premium? BJP thinks that we desperately need freight corridors, industrial corridors and a port-led development strategy. Has anyone weighed up what this would mean, how we would pay for it and where we would locate these installations?

We in India are obsessed with the most superficial, transitory and procedural elements of policy making and with quite a thin conception of democracy and good governance. We pat ourselves on the back for holding elections and over deep, elemental battles in our politics — the secularism debate, or human development versus growth-led development and a host of other relatively abstract, philosophical arguments. On the other hand, we shy away from hard-headed, rigorous engagement with everyday policy challenges. If we continue to neglect these everyday challenges in social and political life, we will see our bubbling democracy subside and then eventually be consigned to the dustbin of history.