Regionalism Syndrome and Development

Link to the Post : http://jitendragahlot.blogspot.com/2008/12/arrival-of-developmental-politics-and.html

Since 1989 all the election results have been falling in one of two categories: a response to communal/religious appeals or to caste based considerations. As we observed development as the key issue in recent election results but there is some agreement to the fact that economic development issues don’t guarantee winning elections like what happened to Digvijay Singh in Madhya Pradesh and Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh. The issues the media highlighted in these elections were Education in MP and IT sector in Andhra, and these are not the ones that concern the common man, particularly as these are more of urban based issues. In other words, the feel of economic reforms was not visible once one moved beyond the major cities.

The last four elections have one thing in common, all the winning parties have come back with absolute majorities. Something that has not happened since 1998 both at the national and the state level except for two party states like Tamil Nadu.The results bring in a new factor in analysing assembly results, the "Role Of Regionalism". Post 1991, Regional Inequality has tended to increase largely because of different capabilities of each state. While legislators are elected in the states, most economic reforms have been the work of the Central Government, as a consequence, the party dominant in the Centre keep losing ground in the States.

Major Economic reforms are viewed as the work of the Centre and it is convenient for every State to blame the Centre for all economic ills. The controversy regarding the SEZs in Goa is part of the same problem. In the same way the local resentment against the planned development of the North East as the ‘Power House’ of the country.

As a consequence of this Regionalism voters tend to resent any party or leader foisted on them by the Centre. If the party wants to survive, it will have to develop regional leaders perceived to be close to the grassroots in their respective states. As the case with Congress.

After 1991 to bring economic reforms was on every political agenda. The more economically developed states started to increasingly assert their independence vis-a-vis the Centre, that is what actually is the case with Mumbai in connection with Raj Thakrey and party. They are encashing or we can say are baking their breads on this so called indepedence. What is even more important, is that in view of such protests and mild response from the Government in rather low tone, there will be growing demands for a more federal structure than at present and the resolution of this dilemma will, determine political survival of national parties.

This is one face of the story.... The other face is ...

One of the key alignment to be achieved for developing states, is to enter into agreements with other states at a similar level of development in the same area. The benefits of market access and the diversification of production will add to trade integration. Be it with developed or developing states reducing permanent as well as seasonal migration.

For many states that are at an early stage of industrial development, a programme involving states with similar economic structures and technological capabilities may be considered a more viable option. While accentuating the level of tech capability of these states put together.In other words, the regional market sets less exclusive benchmarks than national, so that even production at the infant industry stage can be successfully broadened, generating more employment at the home place. Cooperation is advantageous and attract funds.

The increase in trade ties suggests regional cooperation between developing states. It can prove to be an important means to accelerate industrialization and hence downsizing migration at the same time.Regional cooperation in the monetary and financial area can provide important tools for the stabilization of intraregional ties, and reduce their potential to serve as a source of instability. Similarly, cooperation on major investment projects can reduce common bottlenecks in public infrastructure like energy and water supply evenually raising the country as single unit.

The difference in poverty across the entire nation has exponentially increased over the years and stands huge at 30% on date. This has made people from one region to go to the other for better living and jobs. The problem associated with it, as it looks like, has nothing to do with so called "STEALING of jobs from the local people" as Hooligans of Mumbai claims, but it has to do with the cultural clash.

For example, many times how North Indians after coming to cities like Bangalore, Mumbai etc. fail to respect the local culture and language and treat them in a shabby manner. Solution: mingle into local culture wherever migrants go and respect the local culture as much as they do their own while in home states or cities, equally applicable to all those who are treating outsiders as a parasite and bashing them in public to denounce their sacred culture in front of the Nation.

I think this might offer some interesting new perspective in the debate on Regionalism..