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Politics of Planned Development
The Government of India prepares a document that has plan for all its income and expenditure for the next five years. Accordingly the budget of the central and all the state governments is divided into two parts - ‘non-plan budget’ that is spent on routine items on a yearly basis and Plan budget is spent on a five year basis as per the priorities fixed by the plan.
A five year plan has the advantage of permitting the government to focus on the larger period and make long-term intervention in the economy.
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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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