Foreign
Nationals on Plan Panel – How Justifiable…?
Recently,
a major controversy has cropped up over the Central Government's
move to appoint representatives of the World Bank, Asian Development
Bank and US consultancy firm McKinsey in various Planning Commission
bodies. The bone of contention was whether or not to have a mid-term
review panel of foreign nationals that would go into implementation
of policies sanctioned under the Tenth Plan.
This
triggered a virtual revolt among the Left Parties of the UPA coalition
and the members of the plan panel. The Left termed it as an unwarranted
intrusion of foreigners into official bodies of a sovereign state.
They argued that it was for the first time that representatives
of such organizations were being included in the committees of
the Commission, which is "accountable to the government and
mandated to draft and oversee implementation of the five-year
Plans" and allocate resources to the states.
Well,
under immense pressure the government solved the imbroglio
by dissolving all the consultative committees of the Planning
Commission. The Left only
wanted the removal of foreign consultants and never imagined
that the consultative committees would be dissolved. Some members
of the Left were members of these committees, and they too,
were dropped by the government.
But
the debate continues within the government, the opposition and
the corporate world on whether to take help from foreign experts
or not to include them in such a prestigious planning and decision
making body of the country.
Views-in-Favour
and Counter-Views on this conflagrant issue are solicited. The
best view and counter-view will be published in the next issue.
