When Ram Manohar Lohia blasted ‘pseudo-intellectuals’ for 175-page Five-Year Plan document

On 9 December 1963, Ram Manohar Lohia spoke in the Lok Sabha about the Rs 10,000 crore outlay that involved wasteful expenditure borne out of a desire to imitate the European way of life.

Ram Manohar Lohia | Commons

This plan has been formulated by pseudo-intellectuals who lack national feeling and direction and it is implemented by people who believe in leading a luxurious life.

They are pseudo-intellectuals and the proof of this is that this document, which consists of 175 pages, could be easily confined to 40-50 pages if the unnecessary and irrelevant matter was not given place in it and it is because possibly you have not yet achieved perfection even in imitating the Britishers.

It contains a chapter on economic background, which runs into ten pages and could be easily reduced to one and a half pages. It contains illogical, irrational formulae, jugglery of words, and unnecessary details. It is directionless and lacks objectivity and as such is unable to find any solutions as if lost in the winding alleys of a labyrinth. They do not have a national feeling because they are drawn to the systems of the USSR and America and think little of the indigenous systems.

They are more concerned about them. Besides, they want to build the edifice of consumption on the pattern of America and USSR on the archaic foundation of production of our country. So far as the question of corruption is concerned, if the honourable minister has the patience for hearing, I would like to point out that the residence of the Head of our Government has been furnished with carpets and durries worth Rs 2 lakh, which has been drawn from the National Exchequer. It also affects the Plan because that amount could have been invested in some factory. It is not known as to how many lakhs of rupees are thus spent. In this way, Rs 200 crore or even Rs 20,000 crore are wasted.

I was talking about consumption. The edifice of consumption is raised on the alien pattern of the USSR and USA, although the foundation of production continues to be Indian. There can be no forceful and stronger argument than this against this Plan.

A reference was made to the objective approach of the report. I would like to say that if you go through the figures of irrigation, you will find the figures for the first and second year but for the third year only projections have been given. Consequently, the area under major and medium irrigation is hardly 12 lakh acres during first and second year and the target fixed for the third year is 25 lakh acres. As a result, the percentage comes to 35 and in my view, if we take into account only the work accomplished, the percentage works out to only 27. Similarly, the figures for minor irrigation will also come down. I am of the view that the report has not been prepared honestly.

So far as the question of the whole Plan is concerned, which involves an outlay of Rs 10,000 crore, I cannot say exactly but my estimate is that about Rs 3,000 to 4000 crore would go as wasteful expenditure and as extravagance. Wasteful expenditure is the one which I mentioned in reference to Barauni Oil Refinery and extravagance is to live in luxury and with pomp and show and imitate European way of life.

Now, if you see the total annual expenditure of the Government on this Plan, it is Rs 10,000 crore. The expenditure for 5 years is Rs 25,000 crore. I think out of Rs  25,000 crore, Rs  10,000 crore will be wasteful and extravagant expenditure. Therefore, I want that we should have a wider outlook and we should not concentrate on petty matters. It will serve no purpose even if we affect some economy in insignificant areas. We should concentrate on areas where significant savings can be achieved.

I do not want to say anything to others present here but I certainly want them to convey it to their leader, who often does not sit here. He brags that the average age of Indians has gone up to 40 or 42 years. I want to tell that such statistics are always wrong because there has been some change in the infant mortality rate and as a consequence the average age has increased but this is not that the age of the people has increased like that of Malaviyaji.

In the same way, mention is made here about bicycles or radios. With regard to planning, we should have three criteria before us. Firstly, we should look at the progress made by us as compared to our past performance, secondly, what progress we have made as compared to our neighbours and the other countries of the world and thirdly, what are our aspirations.

I want to say that any literate person-I do not mean an educated person from university, I mean to say that in comparison to those people who make a mention about bicycle or radio, will admit that India has made some progress as compared to her past but we have made a little progress as compared to our neighbours and other countries of the world. If we look at our aspirations, we have not made any progress during these 15 years. Instead, we have been left behind by China, which has made good progress as compared to her position 15 years ago. Leave China, that is a big country, even a small country like Ghana has made significant progress. We have certainly made some progress but as compared to other countries we are far behind. That is why I say that we will have to broaden our perspective.

I wanted to place a very wider perspective before the House when I said that there are 27 crore people in this country who are living on 3 annas per day. This is such a figure about which there is no scope left for any further discussion. The other day Nanda ji spoke vehemently and today also we have heard him speaking with that very degree of vehemence. One mistake he committed was that he counted the earnings of the non-agricultural occupations twice. According to him, the difference was of Rs 1,500 crore. So, such a mistake was committed by him at that time, but I do not want to go into that at present. I said that in this country 27 crore people are living on 3 annas per day. In saying so my intention was to place the true picture of the Government before you and the people of India. But my intention was not just this. My intention was to show you the problem as well as its solution.

What is the problem? The malady is this that as many as 27 crore people of the country have to remain content with an average income of three annas a day only and there are yet another 16 crore people whose average per capita income is Re 1 only. As compared to this, there are 50 lakh people in the country whose average per capita spending is as high as Rs 33 a day. When our society is suffering from this kind of malady, it is obvious that we have to find some remedy for it.

I am not saying that the people spending Rs 33 a day be brought down to the level of those who are spending three annas a day. However, if they are brought down to the level of Rs 15 or 16, an amount of Rs 2,500 crore or Rs 1,500 crore as per the statistics pertaining to the Government taxes can be easily saved. Thus, in a full Plan period, total savings may be estimated to be Rs 7,500 crore or Rs 10,000 crore, which would contribute to the smooth sailing of the Five Year Plan.

On an earlier occasion also, I had referred to this malady and its possible cure before the House and now once again I reiterate it here. Unless some corrective measures are taken, this problem will not be solved. In India, we have adopted the structural pattern of development obtained in affluent countries such as the USA, USSR and other European countries. Unless we change this pattern of development alien to our soil, we cannot achieve the aims and objectives laid down under our plans. Merely saying these words will serve no purpose that this is a Governmental plan and public enterprises and the private enterprises owned by our millionaire capitalists are totally distinct, as both the public and the private enterprises are being run on the same lines.

Their aims and objectives as well as their style of functioning are the same. So are the pay and allowances of their executives and the standard of living enjoyed by their managers. Hence there is no logic in drawing a line of distinction between the two in this respect. However, we should distinguish between the two and that basic distinction can be made only when we come to realise that we have to bring the people spending Rs 33 a day down to the level of Rs 15 or 16 a day. I do not like to add anything more in this regard as any further comments will put them on tenterhooks.

However, I would like to make yet another point about the stages to be crossed by the poor in this country. There are a number of stages of poverty and affluence to be crossed by the poor as well the rich in this country. The number of such stages runs not in one or two but in lakhs. If not in lakhs, it must be running certainly in thousands. Had it been two or three stages to be crossed, the problem would have been solved by now. Because of this multiplicity of echelons in our society, it is very difficult to restructure it. The basic drawbacks witnessed in our economy are reflected in our plans also. By the term ‘basic drawback’, I mean that our system of farming and agriculture production still dates back to the medieval period and our farmers work with the kinds of implements which were in use 1,500 years ago.

Of course, tractors have come in a few places but more or less the same age-old agricultural implements are still used by our farmers. The looms on which our weavers work are the same that were used 2,000 or 1,000 years ago. There is no change in it. It is true that some mills have also been set up, but these could not bring any basic changes in our infrastructure of production, which continued to be archaic in nature, whereas our pattern of consumption has undergone a sea-change, that is, from modem to ultra-modem. Can our archaic system of production meet the requirements of this ultra-modem pattern of consumption, which we have copied from Western countries? From this Plan, which has been launched recently, it is proved beyond doubt that such a situation can hardly last for long.

This is part of ThePrint’s Great Speeches series. It features speeches and debates that shaped modern India.