Kalpajit Saikia
(The writer can be reached at kalpajitsaikia@gmail.com)
Morarji Desai was one of the top contenders for the Prime Minister's position after Jawaharlal Nehru died. Of course, there were Lal Bahadur Sastry and a few others. Renown journalist Kuldeep Nayyar, in search of a scoop, landed up in the house of Desai and met his son Kanti Desai in the verandah. When asked about the possible contenders for the post, Kanti Desai told in no uncertain terms that no one other than his father can become the Prime Minister. If someone else wants to contest, he can. But Morarji Desai will win hands down if there is a contest within the party. Nayyar got what he wanted and duly published the story in the newspaper the next day. This cost Morarji Desai the Prime Ministership, Nayyar later learnt. The party didn't want to give into the open swagger of Desai and his son.
Indian Political leaders never demonstrated their ambition in public. They maintained a very careful position of committing to doing what the party desired them to do. Himanta Biswa Sarma is different. Perhaps, he is the only senior politician in the country who wore his ambition in the sleeve, never hiding his desire to be the Chief Minister of Assam and was clear that if any opportunity comes, he will grab it with both hands. He tried it in 2013 and finally was successful in 2021. This sets him apart. And this also gives Assam hope. Assam needs an aggressive, go-getter, dynamic and ambitious Chief Minister to take it to a faster growth path. Prima Facie, Sarma seems to have these qualities.
Assam has seen significant progress in its development journey in the last few years. Economic indicators were never better. GDP is growing above the national average, the tax collections are record high, debt to GSDP ratio is much less than most of the Indian states. Financial management is quite prudent despite the populist schemes. The government can take up some of the landmark infrastructure projects which will pay a rich dividend in future.
But there is still a lot of work to be done is in the area of Industrialisation. Despite being an advanced Industrialized state at the time of independence, Assam fell behind the curve subsequently. Today, agriculture is the mainstay for the majority of the people of Assam and with the increase in population, it is becoming progressively unsustainable to depend on farming as the primary occupation for the people. Agricultures' contribution to Assam's GSDP is only 17%, but around 53% of the total workforce is involved in this profession. With more than 90% marginal farmers, Assam needs to immediately plan to move a large part of its population from agriculture to other industries. What Assam needs is nothing sort of a revolution in Industrial development. Industrial development is one area that requires significant improvement and needs the urgent attention of the new Chief Minister.
By no means Assam is an Industry-friendly state. Repeated agitations/terrorist activities destroyed any move by the governments to execute a robust Industrial policy. Investors always shied away from Assam barring the ones who had to set up their business because of raw material compulsions or non-viability of transporting goods from other parts of the country to the northeast market. Some Industries were set up to take the advantage of the Industrial Policy and incentive of setting up plants in the Northeast. However, most of these businesses were set up in the lower Assam area leaving the agitation prone-central and upper Assam completely unindustrialised.
Things should change rapidly. Assam should embark on the journey of faster Industrialisation. In absence of Industrial growth, the government is compelled to create more govt jobs in assam every year or announce doles for the marginalised population. This is a bottomless pit. The Government has limited resources and the current pandemic has shrunk it even more. It augurs well for him to work on a plan to Industrialise the state at a lightning speed.
Some important steps will help the government's endeavour...
1. Dynamic Industry Department: Assam needs specialists in the Industry Department. A team with no Industry experience cannot do complete justice to the formulation of policy and execution of the plan. The Government should rope in senior Industry executives to help them in the process.
2. Investor-Friendly Industrial Policy: In the past, Assam dabbled with various schemes in Industrial Policy. While some of these were good policies, the execution was often sloppy. An industrial policy needs some revolutionary ideas, and it should move beyond the traditional incentivisation doctrine. At the same time, there should be regular checks on the effectiveness of the policy with ground-level performance.
3. Involvement of local population: In an environment where Industries are generally despised, the support of the local population is crucial to set up and operate the industries. The local village bodies should be entrusted with the responsibility of supporting in the acquisition of the land, creating the right environment and non-disruptive operation of the Industries. This will provide much-needed business continuity.
4. Use local administration as business executives: The District Commissioners should be made responsible for the economic growth of their districts. Goals and objectives should be agreed upon and timely appraisals should be done to ensure adherence to the plan. This sounds more like a corporate setup, but the officers can be utilized more efficiently in the government's endeavour for industrial development than just a mundane task running the administration.
5. Utilize Assam House representatives: The Assam Houses in various states work just as a liaison office. It's time to strengthen these offices and use them to engage with the Industrialists of that state. This team should be the sales team of the state to attract the Industrial houses to invest in Assam.
6. Focus on skill development/engineering education: The Industries need skilled resources and for that skill development should be the top priority of the State. In the past, skill development programmes intended to just demonstrate the number of trained professionals without any linkage to their employment in the Industries. Public-private partnership is mandatory to develop the required skill for a target Industry. Similarly, there should be an increased focus on engineering education. The strong pool of yearly engineering pass-outs is a great attraction for the Industries.
7. Late J H Patel didn't have any remarkable trait to be considered as one of the best Chief Ministers of Karnataka. But he is still revered as someone who spearheaded the movement of the IT Industry in Karnataka. He formulated an industry-friendly policy, encouraged early IT entrepreneurs and pushed his administration to support the Industry. Himanta Biswa Sarma is far more capable than Patel. All he needs is the right strategy, team and focus his administration's energy on the right direction. We wish him luck.