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Politics of Planned Development
The main agruments in the debate that ensued between industrialisation and agricultural development were as given below :
(i) It was argued that without a drastic increase in industrial production these could be no eradication of poverty. They argued that Indian planning did have an agrarian strategy to boost the production of food grains. They stated that the land reforms and distribution of resources among the poor failed due to its non-implentation because the landowning classes had social and political power.
(ii) In favour of agricultural development JC Kumarappa and other Gandhian economists put greater emphasis on rural industrialisation. Chaudhary Charan Singh a Congress leader at that time, favoured the case for keeping agriculture at the centre of planning in India because the planning was leading to creation of prosperity in urban and industrial section at the expense of the farmers and rural population.
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“In the early years of Independence, two contradictory tendencies were already well advanced inside the Congress party. On the one hand, the national party executive endorsed socialist principles of state ownership, regulat ion and control over key sectors of the economy in order to improve productivity and at the same time curb economic concentration. On the other hand, the national Congress government pursued liberal economic policies and incentives to private investment that was justified in terms of the sole criterion of achieving maximum increase in production. ” — Francine Frankel
(a) What is the contradiction that the author is talking about ? What would be the political implications of a contradiction like this ?
(b) If the author is correct, why is it that the Congress was pursuing this policy ? Was it related to the nature of the opposition parties ?
(c) Was there also a contradiction between the central leadership of the Congress party and its State level leaders ?
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