From 50 Years Ago: Words, Words, Words.

The Planning Commission may regain its lost prestige, judging from the manner in which the National Development Council, the highest de-liberative body in the country, has been behaving. The role that this Council has is not that of giving a lead to the country – that should be left to others. Its function is to give a lead to the collective executive of the country, if one may use such an expression. What else are they sup-posed to do when Chief Ministers of the States and the Cabinet Ministers of the Centre gather in conference? Of course, the NDC gives a lead to the country also, but that is secondary, this being the primary function of the Congress, the political party, whose aims and aspirations the Government endeavours to put into practice. The politicians and political parties in a country in ferment that has still to be rebuilt cannot just go on playing politics. To sort out these functions is certainly not hair-splitting and drawing the dividing line too fine, merely because the same leaders of the Congress, at least most of them, also run the government of the country, at the Centre and the States. The Planning Commission performs the role of an intermediary in this august company. That their members are present at the meetings of the National Development Council is not mere formality, protocol or courtesy. It is the function of the Planning Commission to sift, examine and put together and recommend how best the aspirations of the people and how much of them could be given concrete shape and realised in practice.