N.Nandhivarman
People are not involved in governance nor are those chosen to govern our country playing the game as prescribed in Indian Constitution.
Article 112 prescribes to Union Government and article 202 imposes an obligation on states to present an annual financial statement known as budget. But it was left little vague giving room for political players to violate the constitutional rules. The intention of the framers of the Constitution was that total of revenue expenditure in annual budgets should not exceed total revenues. There is historical compulsion to amend the Constitution to enforce this fiscal responsibility on our rulers.
Article 280 of the Constitution paves the way for appointment of Finance Commissions to make recommendations on the distribution of tax revenues between Union Government and States.
Side stepping the capital –revenue classification of expenditure in the Constitution , the rulers irrespective of political shades of opinion have used Planning Commission which is not a constitutional body to cut down to size the Finance Commissions envisaged in the Constitution. Plan and Non-Plan classifications by Planning Commission conceal the truth about revenue expenditure in which whole of Plan expenditure is met from borrowings.
The modus operandi here is Planning Commission approves how much to be spent and on what programmes , then the Union Government borrows money from the market and provides Plan assistance to States.
If as envisaged by the framers of our Constitution Finance Commission under article 280 had performed its advisory role and if all tax revenues and tax expenditure would have come under its purview of this quasi-judicial body which could have averted the financial crisis we face. This too is only assumption on the basis that men with intelligence and integrity will sit in the Finance Commission.
Cutting the Finance Commission down to size someone in midway left only Non-Plan revenue expenditure to the domain of Finance Commission. Planning Commission handles Plan expenditure on revenue account. The so called economist Dr.Manmohan Singh could not post Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen as Planning Commission head but he needs a man from his clan so that he can play hide and seek game with governments ruled by Opposition and by rebel Congressmen.
Planning Commission, a place very few politicians would have visited, contains so many reports on every subject that is of people’s concern like bio-diesel and Himalayan glaciers. Yet everything is hidden in their cupboards, and I felt it should be thrown open as publically accessible on-line archives. Of course under Right to Information Act individuals can seek information or copy but the quantum and magnitude of the areas which were covered by hundreds and hundreds of committees are kept in dark.
I met Dr.S.B.Gupta, a Planning Commission member under NDA rule, and discussed on growing Himalayan Yew, a tree that could give green cover to Himalayas and then only he told me that so many committees since independence had deliberated on various issues and their reports are gathering dust in Planning Commission.
Yes we study everything and know everything but never implement anything. Why you may think. If anyone could take the census of Planning Commission members and officials since that non-constitutional body was created, and find out where their kith and kin are working, studying are married, all replies will lead to World Bank or Multi-National Corporatism. Herein remains the answer why our agro-based economy is not given top priority, and why our villages are out of bounds of the visionaries who sit in seats of power.
Solution to our agro-based economy is there but will power to resolve it evades the minds of corporate agents in citadels of power.
