What The Emergency Demands

It does not show common sense to expect an eager response to the Gold Bond appeal. “We shall return the gold in 1980 and then the Morarji law forbidding gold ornaments to be finer than 14 carats will not be enforced against you promises the present Government. But people have lost confidence in the assurances of Finance Ministers and Governments. They have a fear that once Government gets into possession of gold, it will not come back. Parliament is supreme and any and every assurance can be legislated out of legal existence. After the Seventeenth Amendment, under which every piece of ryotwari or other freehold land is deemed to be an “estate” and can be dealt with as such, was passed in spite of the assurances given on behalf of Government at the time of the passing of the Constitution, how can the Government expect people to rely on any promise given by it? Governments dealing with properties of individual citizens lose or gain credit in the same way as individuals and companies lose or gain credit. The structure of civilization and progress rests on honest fulfillment of promises. The theme in the Ramayana of Dasaratha’s pledges being fulfilled by Ramachandra is not just romance. The sacredness of promises is the taproot of human cooperation and progress.

It is good to fight our enemies and to prepare defenses against their machinations. But it is also necessary to look after the home-front.

Additions to the present tax-burden by fresh taxes will greatly damage the home-front. The PM should read Mr. Palkhivala’s book. It is a small book of less than 100 pages. It bears the title “The Highest Taxed Nation”. Mr Palkhivala points out the “pernicious defects of pur tax laws, bewildering, instability, complexity which verges upon incomprehensibility, and excessive and cumulative burdens which make dishonesty immeasurably more rewarding than integrity and hard work. Progressive taxation, he proves, has reached the point in India where initiative is hamstrung, work and ability are not allowed to earn security and well-being and endeavour and energy are wasted on the slippery slope, of tax-avoidance, instead of being invigorated and given a momentum in the direction of constructive work and increase in national wealth”. With every additional dose of taxation in the recent past, he rightly deplores, some part of the zest, some part of the faith, of the people have died.

If the Gold Bond appeal finds no good response we shall levy new and heavy taxes, says New Delhi. This would be truly a reductio ad absurdum. The Gold Bond scheme was something of a last resort. It is now fairly clear the appeal has proved a flop. Taxes and yet more taxes is an arithmetical or paper solution of the crisis, not a practical one. There is a limit to tax-levying. That limit has long ago been reached. It is easy to pass laws laying fresh burdens on the people. But the shattering effects of such burdens on the psychology and the economy of the country must be taken into consideration before resorting to such measures. The total result may be disaster instead of additional revenue.

Other solutions must be found. This Government cannot and will not find them. A crisis stares us in the face; the PM must change his instruments. Failure in diplomacy, in financial management, in food policy, in fiscal policy, corruption driving its roots deep down, more and more unproductive administrative expenditure, failure all round—these call for a bold and drastic confidence-restoring political step. The constitution of an All-Talents National Council must be the first step to be taken now.

It the emergency continues, it is necessary that the PM dissolve the present Government and form a non-party national All-Talents Council to take its place so that the home-front may be organized by persons with direct and intimate knowledge of the problems of speedy production and distribution, who do not have any axes to grind by way of party or personal interests and who do not suffer from any ideological inhibitions and illusions. This bold step will greatly increase public confidence in India. It will also boost India’s image abroad. Lastly, let me add, it will not hurt the chances of the Congress in the coming general elections.

This would mean a suspension of political government for a time and the substitution in its place of a more or less professional council. And this would not be bad. An occasional break of this sort might indeed be a healthy change. It would certainly mean a break, in one specially vicious form of corruption, political corruption resulting from one party’s uninterrupted rule for too long a time. The object of my recommendation is however not that, but the installation of a capable body to do the best for the nation in the present grave crisis. Out of our 450 million people, surely we can find a dozen or fifteen very capable non-party men who can face the problems to be faced and do the best that could be done in all the phases of the administration, financial, fiscal and diplomatic, defence and home affairs. The permanent services, too, will have a holiday from political interference and its baneful effects an the character of the men in these services.

Acharya Ranga to whom I mentioned this, like the good parliamentarian that he is, felt there were constitutional difficulties in the way of the idea adumbrated by me. When grave national crises have to be faced and overcome, we have to cut, as Alexander did, the Gordian knots which legalistic and constitutional considerations present. We cannot deal with the knots in the regular way, hoping to untie them without damage to the string.