Planning Commission had outlived its purpose
Nobody knows yet what the shape of the new entity that is set to replace the age-old Planning Commission is going to be. Nor does one know when the replacement will come. Indeed, it is not even known what the new body will be called. Everything is in the realm of speculation. Yet, what has gripped the imagination of the people is that the Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has had the courage to disband the status quoist mindset and do away with an institution that has for years been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Many experts had been pointing out that the Planning Commission had outlived its purpose, since it had been conceived to work in a Socialist socio-political environment that does not any more exist (thank god for that). The plan panel had begun to attract the serious charge that it had become an instrument to arm-twist State Governments, especially those which did not belong to the ruling party or combine at the Centre. Chief Ministers had voiced not just their concerns but also protests at various fora over the shoddy manner in which mandarins of the Planning Commission had dealt with their requests and requirements. To top all this was the States' grievance that the plan body had a fixed template in the allocation of plan money, and that this template did not take into account the specific but different needs States had. As Chief Minister of Gujarat, Mr Modi had been at the receiving end himself — he, therefore, knows the issue well. As Prime Minister, he had two options. The first was to tweak the Planning Commission and make it more responsive, and the second was to make a fresh beginning with a clean slate. The rot had set in so deep that the first venture would have perhaps been a failure, and been a lot more cumbersome than starting anew. Now that the Government has not just made up its mind on but also publicly committed to a new institution, the challenge is to successfully implement it. That's where the tough part begins.
To begin with, the proposed organisation must represent the federal character that is the fulcrum of our political governance and economic management. This can be achieved through representation from States and/or State-specific approach to issues. The one-solution-for-all should have no place in the fresh scheme of things. The new institution must be manned by experts drawn from diverse fields but working towards a common goal. Although the Planning Commission did have members from different areas of activity, nearly all of them, unfortunately, had chosen to pursue their respective agendas — some of these had been determined by extra-constitutional authorities like the National Advisory Council during the Congress-led UPA rule. The new body must embody decentralisation, progress and futuristic trends. It must not be rooted to the archaic socio-economic outlook which became the Planning Commission's trademark.