Perspectives

The roots of the rottenness of India's liberal-political democratic order are unearthed in the process of capitalist development since 1793. The latter has essentially been a conservative modernisation from above which has failed to complete the tasks of the "bourgeois-democratic revolution". Moreover, the caste system and discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, nationality and religion have inhibited any stable, long-lasting unity of the oppressed and the exploited aimed at progressive modernisation from below.

Changes in the climate of economic policy affect more directly and immediately our everyday life compared to changes in the global physical climate. And, yet, while physical climate change receives a good deal of attention and research, economic climate change is seldom noticed and rarely commented upon. The sustained attack on Keynesian demand management in the name of "sound fi nance" has re-established the dominance of fi nance capital the world over, except in a few Latin American countries where social democracy has forced its way into policy in a new guise. India's subservience toWashington and to global fi nance is shameful because even as its economy has done well on the growth front, the people have not.

This article poses four questions which will need to be addressed by the recently-constituted Fourteenth Finance Commission. Given an expansive terms of reference, should the commission confi ne itself to its constitutional mandate? Second, should the commission seek to develop incentive frameworks which will carry credibility with future commissions? Third, should the commission encourage better fiscal performance in the states more explicitly? Fourth, should the commission provide fiscal headroom in its projections for accommodating unanticipated developments?

As a modern republic, India felt duty-bound to "abolish" caste, and this led the State to pursue the confl icting policies of social justice and caste-blindness. As a consequence, the privileged upper castes are enabled to think of themselves as "casteless", while the disprivileged lower castes are forced to intensify their caste identities. This asymmetrical division has truncated the effective meaning of caste to lower caste, thus leaving the upper castes free to monopolise the "general category" by posing as casteless citizens.

The Cauvery dispute has been adjudicated but remains unresolved. The reason is that there has been an all-round failure: confrontationist state governments, an ineffective central government, a somnolent Inter-State Council, a creaking adjudication machinery, a Supreme Court that has not been supportive of the Tribunal, the silence of the intellectuals, and alas, the failure of the "Cauvery Family". The Award now notifi ed has to be operated, but that will not happen unless Karnataka's strong sense of injustice is assuaged to some extent. This article proposes a voluntary transfer of some part of its allocation by Tamil Nadu to Karnataka. Such an action on Tamil Nadu's part will transform the situation.