Second turn in downward spiral

Kuljit Bains : A couple of ministers in the Punjab Government, and a clutch of bureaucrats — headed, of course, by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh — are right now toiling hard to arrange around Rs 6,000 crore immediately, avowedly for the benefit of a few seriously stricken sectors of the state. The state’s residents, meanwhile, may brace for the start of a second whirl of a steeply downward spiral. The ominous caution refers to a cycle that took off in the mid-90s. It goes thus: floundering economy > lack of investment in public services > drop in social indices > despair among masses (suicides) > political expediency in promise of subsidies > further deterioration of the economy. The word “further” here is key, for it signifies not the start of a fresh “cycle”, but the next level of a downward spiral, which is what the present Congress government is about to embark on.Politics of subsidies is routinely decried, but to get a better perspective on how it has played out in Punjab, it may be useful to recapitulate the first round. It all started with the realisation at the end of a “dark decade” of distrust and violence that the state was under a huge debt from the “security” expenses. The Beant Singh government remained too caught up with the politics of the time to spare a thought for the mundane issues of governance. A Badal government followed riding a hate for what the previous government stood for. But all that this succeeding government was to be remembered for was corruption, which ensured an easy transition to the first stint of Capt Amarinder Singh at the head of a Congress government. By the end of its tenure, the Congress government too was recognised for little more than corruption. Thus, all that the two discredited parties now could hold out to the voters was doles. A competition followed; and farmers cheered as free power was announced for them by both. The Badals were back, but only to head a government that had meanwhile seen its debt increase multifold. No policy corrections could be applied, because corruption continued, and yet elections had to be won.