The Congress
President Rahul Gandhi has touched the right cord by announcing at a Party
rally in Raipur on Monday that the Congress, if elected to power after the
coming Lok Sabha elections, will implement the minimum income programme for the
poor. If the declaration is not taken as a sort of one-upmanship against the
Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is planning to announce some form of income
support to the framers in the next budget on February 1 to influence the mood
of the distressed farming community, it has very positive implications for
bringing about a significant change in the livelihood of the people below the
poverty line.
The
proposal has been under discussion for quite some time and the proposal called
universal basic income (UBI) has been at the centre of debate among the leading
economists in the world, especially in the USA where the issue of inequality
has been forcefully brought at the centre stage of politics by the self styled
socialist Bernie Sanders. Both Bernie Sanders in USA and Jeremy Corbin in
Britain have been talking about the economies being run in the interests of one
per cent now and promising to change the system in favour of 99 per cent when
they come to power. Even the capitalists of new generation like Merc Zuckerberg
and Chris Hughes co founders of Facebook have argued for UBI as not necessarily
a comprehensive solution but as at least a moderating analgesic for the
severity of income inequality and poverty in countries including America.
For
India, the implementation of the UBI to the people below the poverty line
including the urban poor, has a great potential in giving a boost to the rural
economy through the flow of cash to every BPL family and this will
automatically lead to pick up in demand of consumer goods. The rural market
will expand substantially leading to the growth of domestic industry. This will
contribute to the GDP growth. As Dr. Maitresh Ghatak of London School of
Economics explains a UBI programme cuts administrative costs and empowers
citizens by giving them choice and control over how to spend the money received
as assistance. Standard economic inefficiencies associated with in kind or
conditional transfers, such as distorted resource allocation, direct
bureaucratic costs and corruption, limit considerably the social returns of
public funds.
Dr.
Ghatak who is one of the proponents of the UBI programme on the lines of Rahul
Gandhi’s announcement, does not agree with those who argue that this
unconditional money transfers will make the people below the poverty line lazy
and they will squander funds. He says that there is no such evidence that the
money is squandered and there is no evidence also that this has led to rise in
the consumption of non essential goods like alcohol and tobacco, though the
studies have been done of limited areas. In developed countries, the programme
is meant to be universal but in India, the Congress along with the other
opposition parties, can work out a India specific programme where the net
transfer will take place in respect of the people below a certain income level.
Presently, the BPL level can be the basis but there is scope for revising it.
Those
who oppose the introduction of minimum income guarantee scheme for the poor
mention of the huge costs of the scheme and whether the Indian government’s
present financial position can ensure that. To this, another proponent of the
UBI Dr. Pranab Bardhan of the University of California, Berkeley argues that
the fiscal cost of the scheme can be managed provided there is political will on
the part of the ruling party. According to him, the highly defective loan
waiver programme, if applied to all states in India, will easily cost Rs. 4
trillion. The farm income support plan for the country as a whole, which the
Modi government is now considering as a part of the interim budget
announcement, will come to no less than Rs. 2 trillion. As Dr. Bardhan sees it,
there is enough scope for the India government to organize resources for the
UBI programme by doing away with the subsidies enjoyed by the better off
sections of the population and mobilizing resources from the under taxed
sections. If there is requisite will, the Government can take the plunge and
this will transform the economy along with the improvement of the living
standards of the poor.
The
Congress has to take the major role in framing the common minimum programme of
the anti-BJP opposition for the 2019 Lok Sabha election putting this basic
minimum programme as the prime agenda. The other should be the free medicare
for the poor and the senior citizens. The Ayushman Bharat programme has to be
tweaked to suit the needs of the poor so that nobody has to pay anything. These
are the two vital areas which the anti-BJP coalition has to take into account.
The CMP has to act as a game changer in the interests of the distressed
farmers, unemployed youth and the economic insecurity of the working people.
The CMP must guarantee the prime role of the public sector in the building of
the nation’s economy.
The
global economy is under turmoil as the neo liberal agenda being pursued in
different countries, has failed to deal with the pressing problems of the
people. Even in the developed west, the struggle for removing inequality has
become the core issue of the movement against the ruling governments. Socialism
is back on the agenda of the new century. Both Sanders in USA and Corbyn in
Britain are leading the young brigade giving the hope of a new society based on
socialist ideals. In India, the time has come for Rahul Gandhi to declare that
he believes in socialist ideals which will be updated to suit the needs of
India in the 21st century. He has to unite the forces which believe in a
secular inclusive resurgent India. For Rahul, this is the right time to seize
the opportunity and strike hot.
(IPA
Service)
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