Growth, the key

At the All India Congress Committee meeting in Delhi on Tuesday, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi laid stress on the poor. This is all to the good, given the sizeable poor population in India. The basic point is that poverty will not be removed by launching yet more schemes named after some Gandhi or the other.

Poverty will be removed by, and only by, economic growth. To be fair to Rahul Gandhi, the link was obvious to him and he sought to focus on achieving economic growth to improve the lot of the poor. The history of the world, particularly of Asia, over the last 60 years shows clearly that subsistence poverty can be removed through sustained rapid growth of over 7%.

With per capita incomes growing at close to 7% in India now, thanks to not only the high growth rate of the economy, but to the decline of India’s population growth rate to 1.5%, India is now well placed to redeem its teeming millions from the degradation of poverty.

The political slogan of inclusive growth, too, helps justify policy that seeks to broaden the base of economic growth. But the trouble is that, given India’s size and complexity, considerable political mobilisation is required to translate the slogan of inclusive growth into actionable policy and successful implementation of the policy. Take release of land for non-traditional use, for example.

So far, politics has plumped for either strong-arm acquisition of the land or for resistance against such acquisition. Political leadership is required to craft imaginative ways to convert landlosers into stakeholders in what comes up on their erstwhile land.

That has been missing. It has been missing, too, in using the newly created laws on the right to information, forest dwellers’ rights and employment guarantee to mobilise the rural poor into self-empowerment.

Political leadership cannot be outsourced to a charismatic figure or two at the top. It is crucial to make the political party become the much-needed link between the people and the state, enforcing delivery of entitlements and making the state responsive to the people.