Policy Paralysis

 

 According to the Public Administration dictionary Policy paralysis refers to the delays, inaction and inability to make policy decisions by the government or its various departments and agencies. Policy Paralysis stalls the economy and growth of a country. During the process of Policy paralysis, it is seen that,

1)    Policy paralysis is more apparent in an economy when various projects are shelved or being delayed.

2)    Public Management and Governance refers to Policy Paralysis as a typical condition when the potentiality of growth reaches to a stalemate condition.

3)    During the time of a partial deadlocking situation the lack of the will to tackle the situation, rather than try to avoid the problem.

4)    Thus it leads to inaction on the part of the government which will further worsen the situation.

 In the case of India, Policy paralysis is making news mostly in the second term of the UPA government. The major reasons are the lack of political consensus on the major reforms needed.  There is also  huge distrust in the government owing to the recent spate of scandals and corruption in the country.

 There is no constructive debate that is happening in the parliament. The silence of the government makes the bureaucracy wary of making decisions in this suspicious atmosphere.

 Some examples of policy that became the cause of paralysis in India are direct foreign investment in multi-brand retail stalled due to opposition in parliament. Even the government did not take any initiative to impose GST(Goods and Service Tax) on foreign traders to satisfy the local consumers.

Foreign investment took the chance to infiltrate in oil and energy sectors to stalemate their activities. Their land acquisition and sheer negligence in environmental clearances are becoming monstrous activities for the Country. After a spate of scandals and involving politicians, Civil servants and industry elites, decision-making in the power corridors became inactive. 

 Policy Paralysis seen in another way can be that there is no investment in the crucial sectors where there is a true need for investment. The government's only motive is to win the next elections apparently at any cost. So, massive social sector schemes like NREGA, and NRLM are being pumped up with money. With endemic corruption, there is no way where we can see these schemes bringing about a change. Basic infrastructure is missing in our cities, agriculture is suffering our food rots in go-downs, the power sector seems to have no effective solutions and natural resources are being looted. So we can say that at some level policy paralysis has existed for the last decades also.

 Let us take the example of the 2G scam which has direct implications on the policies as the then telecom minister was arrested after a huge uproar and many bureaucrats, and corporate honchos were also indicted in the case. The CAG came up with estimated losses and policy paralysis kicked in after the honourable Supreme Court decided to cancel 122 licenses awarded to different companies and ordered TRAI to re-auction the 2G bandwidth. So the telecom industry has seen policy paralysis since the scandal has broken out.

The entire concentration of the government is being directed from important issues to the saving of the party minister and defending the government action in the parliament rather than cleaning up the sector and making appropriate policies.   Policy Paralysis can also be seen in the way of a leadership vacuum. After independence, India had a very strong central leadership. Over some time now coalitions have become the order of the day. Since there is no strong central power and the fact that no single party can get a large majority, every small party that constitutes the government has to be taken on board which has made politics more opportunistic. With bad governance and corruption, there is no way single-party dominance or strong central leadership can be envisioned. So to make strong policies, bring important policies into action and orient the government towards it even when there is opposition to it from some quarters will require political will that seems to be not present today. 
            So we can conclude that Policy Paralysis is a symptom of a disease like corruption, scandals, lack of leadership or political will and many more issues. So we need to find the correct cure for the disease pinpointing what is the cause of the disease rather than just issuing blank statements of policy paralysis happening in India. We should not treat the symptom, we should treat the disease.

 DR. Sujit Narayan Chattopadhyay

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