Pratim Ranjan Bose
In Hindi ‘Prabhu’ means almighty.
But, as the India ’s
new railway minister Suresh Prabhu finds it, even the all-powerful cannot set
things right in Indian Railways which has been left bloodless due to decades of
abuse in the hands of shortsighted politicians.
“I thought, hey Prabhu how will
it happen? Prabhu didn’t answer. So this Prabhu thought why we do something?”
the railway minister said in his maiden budget speech on February 27.
I knew Suresh Prabhu, during his
days as the power minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet (1998-2004). I
was not alone. Probably all the newspaper reporters, covering developments in
the power sector across the country, knew him equally well. To his credit,
Prabhu could recognize each one of us, if not by name, then surely by face.
As one of the veterans in the
profession, I came across many high profile Central ministers who were cordial
to the media. Murli Deora and Jairam Ramesh of the Congress possessed such
qualities.
But, Prabhu was a little
different. He had a vision to improve the fundamentals of the electricity
sector and made sincere attempts to make it a reality.
Those were the days when the
power sector was suffering from the legacy of the control-economy era. And,
Prabhu had the unenviable task of reforming it in the face of stiff opposition
from the State governments.
A minister of high caliber
And, Prabhu did it in style,
until Bal Thackeray, the Shiv Sena supremo and his the then political boss, removed him in 2002, for reasons that had nothing to do with his competence or the lack
of it.
This is not to suggest that
everything Prabhu did was a resounding success. In 2001, he introduced the
debt-securitisation programme to clean the balance-sheet of State
government-run utilities. He thought it would prevent politics from meddling
with the viability of the electricity distribution trade.
He was wrong. Many States went on
offering free lunches to electricity consumers (piling up nearly $ 33 billion
sticky assets at commercial banks). Aam Admi (AAP) government’s recent announcements in Delhi proves yet again that populist politics cannot be done away with so soon.
However, Prabhu made a mark in
most of his initiatives which have changed the rules of the game of Indian
power sector altother. He was the guiding force behind the Electricity Act,
2003 that open doors of the entire cross section of electricity business to
competition under strict regulatory regime.
Naturally, when the Prime
Minister Narendra Modi offered him (now a member of the ruling BJP) cabinet
berth as the Rail Minister, three months ago, I was excited.
The big challenge
And, the Prime Minister had
picked someone with proven abilities.
The job at hand to bring Indian
Railways - the fulcrum of Indian economy - back on track is formidable though.
The Railways was perhaps the
worst victim of coalition politics at the Centre between 1989 and 2014.
With 1.42 million employees,
country-wide spread, and separate budget proposals – the Railways offers
unmatched opportunities to politicians to run a fiefdom. And, the smaller yet
critical regional allies were always quick to grab this opportunity.
The result is an abject sacrifice
of national interest. Instead of trying and offering last-mile connectivity to
the mining sector; the Railways was interested in setting up production units
in UP or Bihar ! While power generation was
suffering due to slow movement of coal; the Railway Board turned its
focus on acquiring a loss-making media house in Bengal .
There are numerous such instances
where narrow political agendas of regional satraps got the better of the growth
aspiration of a country of 1.2 billion.
Time for change
Three months are not time enough
to overhaul a system that was raped for decades. But, knowing Prabhu’s style he
had done his homework.
On Thursday, he did not present a
budget. He, in fact, put across some basic numbers, on earnings and
expenditure, as is mandatory. Not more than that. Instead, he used the platform
to introduce us, with the first draft of his plan to inject fresh blood into
the system. (BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS)
He is looking forward to investing $140 billion (Rs 8,50,000) towards capacity building and modernisation. This
is peanut when compared with China ’s
annual investment plans.
But, for a country that has long
been pursing a need-based development model in infrastructure creation, here is
a milestone policy shift towards creation of surplus capacities. If Prabhu
succeeds, India
will no more have to focus on keeping the factor cost of infrastructure
creation low. Instead, it will offer consumers varied choices.
Indeed, choices do come at a
higher face-value. But the improved efficiency in goods and passenger movement
should put India firmly on a
high growth path, as it was evident in China in the past couple of
decades.
But can Prabhu guide us to this
goal? It appears he will, for Modi lends the crucial political support that
Narsimha Rao once extended to Manmohan Singh in ending the licence raj in 1991.
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