God save the committee!

When in doubt, set up a GoM (group of ministers)! And if you want to make that sound impressive, christen it ‘empowered’ GoM, or EGoM for short. If these don’t deliver, don’t worry, take heart and appoint a committee ! So what if the committee is only going to take a relook at something that has already been relooked at many times over in the past? Haven’t you heard that old saying, ‘the more the merrier’ ? Why should committees be an exception to that rule? So, we had the Kirit Parikh committee examine the issue of oil prices, something the Rangarajan committee before it, the Kelkar committee before it and the R group before it had already examined. And now, in keeping with the same spirit, the government has announced a new committee to review the structure of small savings: the Shymala Gopinath committee . Allow us to correct that! The committee will rereview what the Rakesh Mohan committee before it and the Y V Reddy committee before it and, phew, the R V Gupta committee before it had already reviewed.

Does that mean nothing will come out of it? Perish the thought! To be sure, Arthur J Goldberg, US labour secretary in the Kennedy administration, had dismissed committees with derisive, ‘If Columbus had an advisory committee , he would probably still be at the dock’ . And Alec Issigonis, the famous designer of cars, was no less harsh. ‘A camel is a horse designed by a committee.’ But the present government has proved its sceptics, including this paper, wrong by finally making some moves to deregulate oil prices based on the Kirit Parikh report. So, who knows, we might see interest rates on small savings also get deregulated on the basis of the Shyamala Gopinath report. The blueprint is there. Previous committees have also urged linking interest rates on small savings to the market, so perhaps the prime minister, ever the perfect gentleman, was only waiting to allow a woman the last word!