ODISHA’S TRILLION DOLLAR PUSH: AN ECONOMIC VISION OR A POLITICAL MIRAGE?

Mr. Naveen Patnaik has clearly laid down the marker. At a time when most opposition leaders are busy painting a gloom and doom scenario for Indian economy he firmly believes that the time has come for Odisha and its people to take an exponential leap in its economic journey. For starters, such a mind-set must be appreciated especially when one observes Chief ministers of neighbouring states busy either clamouring for special economic status or deeply concerned about IT exemption for Durga Puja pandals. Secondly, it sends out a powerful and positive message to the nation at large. Growth and development narrative cannot be monopolised by the national parties. The States are a powerful engine of growth and they play a key role in achieving the larger economic goal of the nation. This announcement of intent  is a welcome development and comes in as a whiff of fresh air with the potential of re-aligning the tangled skein of center-state relations.

However, articulating a dream is the easier part. Converting the dream into a vision and translating the vision into a reality demands a high level of  statecraft and statesmanship.  Aligning the different arms of the Government, the divided political diaspora and the masses to achieve the seemingly impossible is the need of the hour. Recently the Indian Chambers of Commerce (ICC) was ideating in a day long seminar on the challenges in the Human Resources front to achieve this trillion dollar dream. While there was a consensus that a quantum economic growth is possible, speaker after speaker simultaneously gave the impression that somewhere the missing blueprint to achieve this  dream was becoming the biggest impediment for a tangible and co-ordinated ground level action.

Steel and Aluminium are two sectors where an exponential  growth is possible and merits a closer look. It’s manufacture critically depends on the availability of iron ore, bauxite and coal, all of which are abundantly available within the State. It is rightly said that Odisha produces more than 50%  of the nation’s aluminium and therefore has the bragging rights of calling itself the Aluminium capital of the country. However, talking in percentages is clearly indulging in self-deception. As a nation we produce a measly quantity of four million tonnes of Aluminium compared to China that produces almost ten times more than us. By producing 50% of this small quantity we cannot take comfort behind this figure. Juxtaposed along with the fact that Odisha is home to more than 50% of the nation's bauxite reserves and  30% of coal reserves it becomes clear that a quantum growth in Aluminium production and consumption is distinctly possible and so far Odisha has underperformed. We must face this fact square on otherwise we will continue to lull ourselves into complacency. Given our potential,we must now put a blueprint in place for doubling the Aluminium production in the next five years if we are serious about the one trillion dollar ambition.

Steel too has a similar story. Odisha’s iron ore reserves are humungus and can support a steel production Capacity of around 100 million tonnes by 2030 -  five  times of what it is producing today. These figures are not just plucked from thin air. They are rooted in the potential that is prevalent in the state. The Hebei province of China, for example, is producing a massive 190 million tonnes of steel. It occupies an area less than 2% of the country and yet makes a contribution of more than 4% of the GDP of China. Just one steel company - Hesteel produces more than 45 million tonnes of steel which constitutes almost 50% of what the whole of India produces. Clearly, we need to put an action plan in place that will ensure Odisha’s steel production to grow from 20 million tonnes to 100 million tonnes in the next ten years. Besides producing  steel and aluminium our focus should be on providing an ecosystem of downstream industries that will use this primary metal to produce the value added end products.

A similar deep dive analysis has to be done for other segments of the economy like agriculture and food processing, Small scale Industries, tourism and service sector etc.

60% of the population of Odisha depends on agriculture. The processed food market in India is poised to grow at a CAGR of 14.6%. Blessed with ten agro-climatic zones, Odisha can produce a wide array of crops ranging from rice to millets, mangoes to cashew nuts, sugarcane to tumeric, ginger to potato etc. It’s water bodies and coastline enables it to be a big player in fisheries and shrimps too. Odisha can easily become the food and seafood basket of the region and coupled with food processing and value addition the entire rural sector can move up the value chain and usher in a quantum growth in livelihood and prosperity.

A similar co-ordinated approach needs to be taken about the MSME sector. For far too long we have been stuck with the idea that a startup is possible only in the IT and Services sector. We must develop a fund for startups in the MSME sector also. This must be preceded with a proper analysis of the reasons of the sickness that plagues this segment followed by development of MSME parks at every district if not block of the State.

Tourism and Hospitality segment too is another fast growing sector and Odisha has enormous scope in making a quantum growth in this area. According to estimates Tourism is set to generate a revenue of over 50 billion dollars compared to 27billion dollars earned in 2017. For Odisha to be part of this growth curve it must invest in tourism infrastructure to make it world class. It has enough of beaches, heritage sites, wildlife and eco tourism to attract both domestic and international footfalls.

To be fair the government has set in motion a series of administrative measures that conveys its seriousness. The  5 T’s aim at achieving progress through Transparency, Teamwork, Technology, Time and Transformation. Identification of aspirational districts is another positive step forward. Health, Sanitation and Housing for all has seen a lot of progress. This goes a long way in building a trust between the Government and its people. The urgent need of the hour however is to first sensitize the masses and positively enthuse them with the idea that quantum economic growth is an idea whose time has come. Secondly, Government must create multiple task forces and expert committees that will lay down the blueprint for each segment of the economy with specific recommendations and time frames to achieve the target. Changing the mindset of the people and empowering them will be the cornerstone of Odisha’s trillion dollar economy push.

ICC WORLD CUP: ENGLAND WON CRICKET LOST

Fate has come full circle to haunt us once again. From the infamous “Hand of God”, when Maradona scored that goal against England (1986 World Cup Soccer) to knock them out in the quarter finals to the now equally controversial  “Bat of God”, as English fans would love to call it, one can safely say that sports, like life, is a great leveller. Call it poetic justice or Karma coming around, the fact is, irrespective of who wins and who looses, for genuine sports lovers the outcome has left a bad taste in the mouth. You ended up grieving with England in 1986 and now in 2019 you end up grieving with New Zealand. What a sorry predicament for sports lovers!!

What bothered me most during this World Cup was that the lovely game of Cricket was losing on a regular basis right through the one-and-a-half month long tournament. First, the rain God’s did not relent. Matches after matches had to be abandoned or curtailed thanks to the wrong scheduling and absence of reserve day. Points had to be awarded to teams for not playing . And cricket was the loser every time it happened. What was even worse, and an embarrassment to the ICC, the ground management had thin strips of tarpaulin covering less that 20% of the ground for protecting the ground from rains. Sourav Ganguly was quick to  rub this point in as one of the things he has done for Eden Gardens was to get covers that spread over the entire ground and that too bought from England itself!! My heart went out to the cricket fans who travel from across the continent, book costly tickets in advance and have hotel reservations only for a day. How devastated would they be at the end of a frustrating rainy day with not a single ball bowled?

It would be appropriate to point out that here too fate dealt a cruel blow to India. If there had been no provision for a reserve day for rains, as was the case during the league stage, India would have made it to the semi-finals and not New Zealand. As it turned out it was on the extra day that New Zealand beat us fair and square and delivered the knock-out punch to break a billion hearts.

If weather played spoilt sport in the initial stages of the tournament, it was the fan reaction to losses that took center-stage in the later part of the tournament. Leading the pack were the Pakistani fans who just could not digest the fact that their team lost to India. Not only were their food choices, their waist line and fitness questioned but even their family was dragged in making for a very sorry spectacle. When England lost a few matches their critics too lost no time in delivering a few below the belt punches. They not only lamented the lack of variety in their bowling attack but actually saw ‘fear’ in the eyes of their captain when facing fast bowlers.

Indian cynics too had their plate full during the World Cup. Everything was hunky-dory when Indians were on a winning streak. But after loosing to England and winning narrowly against Afghanistan the knives were out. The number four position was again debated, the quality of spinners was doubted and the ‘bits-and-pieces player’ was unfairly pulled up. Cynicism and snide comments peaked when politicians and pseudo-liberals spotted a liberal dose of saffron colour in the Indian team’s outfit. But India’s lowest point came when Dhoni and Jadhav abandoned the run chase against England with full five overs to go. The legendary Sunil Gavaskar still fumbles for words when asked about his infamous slow crawl of 36 runs in 174 deliveries during a world cup match against

 England in 1975. He has used words like mental block and lack of experience to explain the phenomena. Dhoni is yet to come out with a logical explanation. However, it was Kedar Jadhav who was dropped subsequently for displaying a ‘lack of intent’ in the run chase. Why only one ‘junior’ player was pulled up and why was the other ‘legendary player’ let scot free will always be brushed under the carpet by the team management and the pundits who run the game. Ex- Pakistani cricketers were quick to point out that this was done intentionally as the loss prevented them from reaching the semi-final stage. This is no doubt a very serious charge but then this is what cricket has reduced itself to.

But the worst was yet to come. And it came in the finals.  England and New Zealand were tied on scores after fifty overs - despite the ‘Bat of God’ and four additional runs granted to England and Stokes. Displaying  grit, determination and nerves of steel they were once again tied after the super over. However, it was Englad that was declared the winner on the ground that they had scored more boundaries. Somebody clearly had a brain freeze while enacting this rule!! The rule is not just bereft of logic and commonsense but outright dumb. This was a classic case for declaring them joint winners instead of following this rule. Not just neutral spectators and lovers of the game felt shortchanged but even the player in question, Ben Stokes, feels that he will have to say sorry to New Zealand cricketers everytime he meets them for the rest of his life. Clearly a classic case for invoking the old Shakespearean phrase, “ Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown”

On that fateful day, in another corner of London, God  decided not to smile on Roger Federer and his fans. Imagine the 37 year old legend, arguably the greatest player of the modern era, blowing away two set points in the haloed arena of Lawn Tennis – Wimbeldon. It was indeed a sad day for sport lovers. Can’t help the feeling that sports and indeed the world itself needs a better God.

QUALITY OF DISSIDENCE DETERMINES THE SPACE IT GETS

In the world of Post-Truth and rising intolerance the shrinking space for dissidence is a topic where nobody gets the privilege of having the last word. The debate can go on for ages without a semblance of consensus. Is the intolerance triggered by a right wing Government mentored by RSS hardliners? Is the government of the day hell bent on creating a Congress mukt Bharat? Has the line between being against the policies of the Government and being an anti-national blurred? Does the Hindu majority actually feels short-changed by minority appeasement? Is the Congress, Trinamaool and the Left, facing the specter of irrelevance, getting desperate and shriller by the day and hence seeking refuge behind a false narrative? There are questions galore but definitive answers will always elude us.

For starters we should consign to dustbin the argument that since we have a democratically elected government it should be allowed to function for five years without major dissidence. Democracy without dissidence is a recipe for disaster and a precursor to dictatorship. This once in a five year voting participation with a long interregnum of public hibernation is not what democracy is about. The ruling political class must learn to listen to the voice of public and of activists, even if they feel it is that perennially cynical segment which has not voted for it in the first place. Re-calibration of policies, to be in sync with the people’s aspiration, is an absolute must.

There are two major planks on which on which the edifice of the so called shrinking space for dissidence is built. Rising intolerance by the RSS mentored right wing Government and secondly, use of Government machinery to put opposition leaders in jail or hound them with false and fabricated cases to instill a sense of fear.

If one scans the media, both during and after the elections, one hardly comes across the fear factor at play that dampened and toned down the voice of dissidence.  The toxic and personalized comments  against Narendra Modi is a case in point. Phrases like “maut ka saudagar’, ‘chaiwala’, ‘neech’ have been used with gay abandon. In fact, the entire 2019 election campaign hinged around the slogan ‘chowkidar chor hey’. West Bengal too is a case in point. The belligerence and toxicity of  Mamata Banerjee shows no signs of  dilution in the wake of rising intolerance or fear being unleashed by the Central Government. Political killings continue unabated as does the decibel level of dissident shrillness in every public discourse be it within the confines of a university, prime time debates or public jamborees. If intimidation tactics was at work then at some stage these toxic comments would have ceased. On the contrary it continues to flourish.

The biggest take away from the 2019 General elections was the fact that the two biggest dynasts in Congress – Rahul and Sindhia actually lost in their respective bastions. The less said about the so called game changer Priyanka Vadhra the better. The message here is not the shrinking space for dissidence but the shrinking space for dynasts in this country – especially when they fail to live up to the job at hand.

 More than the so-called shrinking space of dissidence it is the shrinking intellectual base of the opposition arguments and reasoning that is a matter of concern. While we all realize that a shrinking economy resulting in unemployment along with farmer distress should be on top of the agenda just sample the cavalier and lighthearted manner in which the opposition goes about this. When the Indian diaspora in Huston was busy putting up the ‘Howdy Modi’ event, Rahul tweets - ’ Howdy economy’ and then disappears in one of his meditation seeking foreign jaunts. Chidambram goes one up in trivializing this economic crisis India faces  when en-route to Tihar Jail he flashes the victory sign and shouts “five percent” in an obvious reference to the last quarter economic performance. The Congress that made corruption in  Rafael deal as its major election plank is now actually reduced to criticizing the Government for ‘shashtra puja’ and ridiculing the two lemons place under the tyres. This is not dissidence but  juvenile  jibes which just does not resonate with the masses.

The Kashmir example illustrates the sorry state of dissidence and opposition disunity. Abrogation of Article 370 failed to get a national traction. The opposition was not effective because it was shivering with fear of repercussion at the hands of the Government but because they were a divided house. The fact of the matter is that it had the support of large sections of the Congress leadership as indeed many other opposition parties.

One needs to face the truth that the opposition is not able to speak with a common voice. Sadly, even the jailed opposition of Kashmir does not find a common ground to come together. The less said about the leaderless and rudderless Congress the better. They are clearly imploding. Just last week, their top leaders were caught in camera wondering ‘party kahan gayee’. By their own admission they are leaderless and hence bereft of any long term strategy or line of action. Both in Haryana and Maharashtra the Congress is conspicuous by its absence and to compound it further plagued by revolt, dissension and defections. They have virtually thrown in the towel even before the campaigning had started.

In such a scenario to postulate the theory of rising intolerance is to ignore the facts on ground and the sorry state of opposition which is bereft of ideas to take on the Modi juggernaut. Instead of blaming it on rising intolerance the opposition would do well to keep its flock together and face the right wing with will and determination. While mature debating skills and gravitas would be asking for too much at least  a unified and coherent attack on the Government economic policies is the least one can ask for.