Austerity in right earnest

By Aarti

The obvious aftershocks, follow-ing the economic earthquake that rocked the United States of America on September 11, apparently still being felt in many developing countries like India is a cause for concern. Various projections indicate that if the ongoing ‘war’ in Afghanistan is prolonged, it could, apart from registering a $6 billion shortfall in our foreign exchange reserves, see a decline in foreign institutional investments to the tune of $3 billion, as well as a drop of nearly $1 billion in foreign direct investments. The exchange rate might even touch the Rs 52 per dollar mark and domestic interest rates get hardened.

The Indian economy already facing a slowdown, the writing on the wall ought to serve as a wake up call to religiously pursue fiscal discipline. More so because, as 27 paise, out of the receipt of every rupee by the Central Government, comes through borrowed funds, with lack of private-investment spending, both from domestic and foreign sources, any further negative impacts can render our enviable achievements in diverse fields simply futile.

India, one of the most indebted countries in the world, owes in all about $ 100.3 billion at March end this year. Reports show that while per capita outstanding external debt at the end of March 2000 stood at $99.3 (Rs 4,332), outstanding internal debt of the Central Government was nearly Rs 7,207. Primarily, due to sharp increase in the expenditure on the revenue account, our internal debt, as a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) has risen from 26.6 per cent in 1992-93 to 36.9 in 2000-2001. The interest alone on this adding up to more than Rs 70,000 crore means that the total debt should be more than Rs 7,00,000 crore.

Fundamentally, time and again, economists have cautioned for effecting fiscal adjustment not only through expenditure reduction but by effecting various conscious strategies including revenue maximisation - involving both tax and non-tax collections – but to no avail. That the economic slowdown has also adversely affected indirect tax collection is indicated by poor realisation from customs duties (a negative growth of 16 per cent) and excise duties (a meagre 1.3 per cent growth). It is rather disconcerting that just about one-third of the targeted revenue collection in the first half of the current financial year (April to September 2001) has been achieved. In case of corporate taxes, collection is down by about 15 per cent (Rs 11,487.96 crore compared to Rs 13,450.33 crore in the same period last year).

Though exports which hold the key to a sustainable balance of payments saw a moderate growth of about 11.6 percent in 1999 and improved further by about 19.6 percent in 2000, helped by faster global trade expansion, in the current fiscal, its growth has been negative. Even industrial growth in particular (in April and May this year) grew by just 2.6 per cent, continuing the declining performance that began at the start of the year.

Mainly, lower revenue collections and higher expenditures has widened the fiscal gap to Rs 57,262 crore (49 per cent of the total budgeted fiscal deficit of Rs 1,16,314 crore) in the first half of the current financial year, against Rs 35,642 crore last year. The Centre has reportedly mopped up Rs 86,000 crore or 72 per cent of the budgeted amount as of September. In terms of GDP, this is over 2.35 per cent against the targeted 4.7 per cent of GDP this fiscal.

Another major contributor to the rising deficit is the insignificant collection from disinvestment of public sector units (PSUs). Oil pool deficits, losses of State Electricity Boards (SEBs) and PSUs, borne by banks/financial institutions, have left the total deficit to over 11 per cent of GDP. With the defaulting parties in most cases not in a position to pay up, as of March 31st this year, the gross non-performing assets (bad loans) of public sector banks and financial institutions had reached a whopping Rs 71,928 crore.

Only 134 out of 256 PSUs were able to earn a profit of Rs 33,845 crore (representing a meagre 7.07 return on the total investment by the Government in all PSUs). As per the latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, the accumulated losses of 87 PSUs had increased by Rs 4,915 crore from Rs 33,055 crore in 1997-98 to Rs 37,970 crore in 1999-2000. Consequently, equity investment in such PSUs has been completely eroded to the extent of minus Rs 31,841 crore as on March 2000 (58 have been already referred to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction and revival packages have been approved only for 18 companies).

The vastly changing international environment and its new set of challenges calls for implementing a series of hard measures with political will. It needs to be realised that the key to economic recovery lies in early action by way of increased public spending not only in infrastructure (like roads, ports, housing) but also in agriculture that remains the vast heart of the country’s economy, encompassing 25 per cent GDP and about two-thirds of India’s population.

In terms of developmental programmes in the social sector we have a long way to go. Nearly two lakh villages do not have access to potable water/roads, 90 per cent of rural households do not have proper sanitation facilities and 40,000 villages do not have a school building. Only half of the total 2.03 million km of road length is surfaced, but only half of it is motorable. Out of 122 airports in the country just 12 are profitable.

Rising dependence on imports has doubled foreign exchange payment for crude oil to Rs 78,000 crore in 5 years. Be it lack of modernisation or ineffective monitoring, losses on account of transmission and distribution losses, theft, pilferage etc., are to the extent of 45 per cent of the power generated. (Indian industry is said to pay thrice as much for power than the Chinese do) Roughly, out of the total energy generated, only 55 per cent is billed (approx Rs 62,000 crore). Of the amount not billed, 20 per cent loss is said to be sustained due to theft and pilferage (Rs 22,500 crore).

As on 1.1.2001, out of 197 major and mega projects each costing Rs 100 crore, 128 projects have shown cost overrun of Rs 46,082.7 crore and 91 projects have time overrun with respect to their original schedule of commissioning. Perhaps due to rampant misuse, diversion of funds and lack of monitoring by State and Central Governments, reportedly large chunks of poverty alleviation programme funds to the tune of about Rs 35,000 crore go down the drain annually without reaching those below the poverty line. Notably, the Union Government’s move to kick start the economy with an envisaged spending of Rs 75,000 crore, ought to be clearly focussed. It must help in improving the people’s welfare and accelerate socioeconomicprogress. That means more rapid, equitable and sustained economic growth should be put into practice, in order to increase the level of per capita income.

Besides religious efforts aimed at controlling population growth, bringing down illiteracy levels, checking unproductive/unnecessary expenditure, austerity measures, downsizing of Government departments, redeployment of excess staff, curbing rampant use of official cars, scaling down petrol consumption, resource mobilisation, speeding up reforms in the financial sector, exit procedures, bankruptcy laws and public sector disinvestment - all merit consideration. Above all, to translate worthy intentions into meaningful action good governance holds the key.

A Nationalist poetess of India

By Ashok K Choudhury

The literary tradition of India can be traced back to the sacred texts - the Rig Veda, the Upanishadas, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. However, dramatist Bhasa (2nd century A. D.) is the first recognised figure in Indian literature. The other early dramatists include King Shudrak of 3rd century A. D. and Kalidasa of 4th century, who is accepted as the greatest name in classical Indian literature.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), the first Asian writer to receive the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913. forged a link between tradition and modernity. During 1930s India, however, produced two striking personalities who resurrected distinct aspects of the Indian culture and ways of life: Gandhi, the political and spiritual leader who influenced the thinking of Indians in all walk of life, and Tagore, who re-asserted their intellectual and artistic freedom. Following Tagore’s enlightened nationalism, many poets expressed deep sentiments and perceptions of national ideals in varying moods and shades. Outstanding among them were Subramaniam Bharati, Vallathol Narayana Menon, Sarojini Naidu, Mohammed Iqbal, etc.

Apart from the major pan - Indian poets, there are many regional poets of national repute, who began to express themselves in their own languages in a variety of moods and techniques. One of the nation’s great women of the last century and the most sensational of the women poets of Orissa, Kuntala Kumari Sabat, popularly know as Utkal Bharati, has become a legend, working for the causes of women and the downtrodden, exploitation, social, injustice, child marriage and her fight against colonialism.

A contemporary of Sabuj (Green) group of writers, Kuntala Kumari, the most admired woman poet, is sensitive and emotional with glimpses in her poetry of a religious fervor, a tragic tenderness and pity. Ostensibly idealistic in her approach to life, she remained a devotee of God - the creator, and the destroyer. Kuntala Kumari articulated her innermost feelings through a moving, Jilting lyricism. In her poems, she honestly registers her feelings to be one with those values which are apparently human, truthfully eternal. Her poetry is full of patriotic sentiments. However, she contributed to the growth of modern Oriya poetry through a strong personal note and a metaphysical undercurrent which undoubtedly gave an extra dimension to Indian poetry.

On a stormy night, Kuntala Kumari was born on 8 February 1901 in Jagdalpur, Bastar district of Madhya Pradesh; and as if extinguished by a storm, her life ended prematurely in August 1938. In her short span of life, Kuntala Kumari was surrounded by tremendous events, Born to Christian parents, she spent her entire childhood in Burma, where her father Daniel was a doctor. Exiled by circumstances to distant lands, she developed a fanatic enthusiasm for all that was Orissan, Indian and Hindu. But while there she had imbibed the spirit of freedom and fearlessness characteristic of Burmese women.

Kuntala learnt Oriya as a second language - from mother. Monica and through Bhaktabi Madhusudan’s Barnabodha and his poetry. From the shopping paper bags she also learned Bengali and Hindi. At the age of thirteen she joined the Ravenshaw Girls’ School. While in school, she was anxious to support her family and determined to join the medical school, to which she made finally. Though she won an array of six gold and silver medals through her academic years, to complete the medical course she had to struggle against crushing poverty and adversity.

Therefore, after moving to India she tried her best to alleviate the suffering of the poor and ailing. She served in a maternity welfare centre in Cuttuck under the Red Cross Society for five years. Then she moved to Delhi to practise independently in July, 1928. Christian by birth, she embraced Hinduism and the same year she married Krishna Prasad, an Arya Samaji, embarking an a new phase of her life.

Kuntala’s poetic carrier began quite early in her life. Kuntala had a good sense of music and, composed beautiful poems in Oriya in the form of prayers to delight her mother. Brought up in far off Burma, she was not adequately conversant with Oriya, but showed tremendous talent to prove herself a poet. Dr. Kailash Rao, her teacher in medical school, guided and helped her in the publication of her early poems. Her poem "Tara Prati" (Ode to a Star), published in Utkal Sahitya, the leading literary journal of the day, brought her to limelight. Prof. Bijoy Chandra Mazumdar placed this poem along with the selected poems of all eminent poets such as Radhanath, Mudhusudan, Fakirmohan, Gangadhar and Nanda Kishore, in his Typical Selections from Oriya Literature published by Calcutta University in 1925.

When Kuntala’s anthology of poems, Anjali (offering) came out in 1923, her name became a household word. As in Rabindranath’s Gitanjali, Kuntala offers in it her heartfelt love and devotion to the Lord. She supplicates the Lord as a slave, and at times as a friend or as His beloved, Kanta. She often experiences a feeling of profound emptiness, being kept away from Lord’s grace, and expresses the thirst and cravings of her soul.

A well - known scholar and critic, Pt. Nilankantha, once stated: "I believe no one in Oriya literature ever wrote on various modes of worship in such a manner, so universal and so touching." The open air school of Gopabandhu at Satyabati adopted it as their regular prayer. The publication Anjali, however, won approbation from all the literary figures of Orissa.

Kuntala was also a poetess of nature. She describes various aspects of natural beauty in communication with the human emotions, bringing out in the long run a philosophical moral out of their comparison. In 1924, Uchhwas (Effusion), a collection of six odes, including, Sefaliprati (Ode to Sefali) was published. All these odes more or less hold some or other kind of philosophy. These six odes of Kuntala likewise won a distinct place in Oriya literature, where her personal philosophy is reflected in a superb artistic manner. She beholds the whole eternity in an hour and the whole life cycle of a mortal in an insignificant flower.

While introducing the book, Pailikavi Nanda Kishore had summed up her achievements, in these words: "At such a young age and with the study of medicine, ill-matched with literary pursuits, Kuntala, not to speak of women, had no rival even among men as a poet. Flavoured with divine love, a spiritual strain permeates through all her poems. The young poet had discovered God in nature and Divinity in human soul".

Kuntala’s poem with patriotic fervor first came out in her anthology Archana (worship) in 1927, and she kept on arousing people for a decade. Writing a foreword, Prof. Bijay Chandra Majumdar of Calcutta University, mentions that some of Kuntala’s prose writings had been published in Bengali. Words of Vivekananda had deeply impressed her.

She went on writing to infuse a new spirit and dynamism in youths. Some of her poems were published in Sphulings (The Spark) in 1929. Kuntala was the first one to enkindle a ray of hope in the hearts of the demoralised women of Orissa and make them strong enough. Kuntala believed that drawing inspiration from the glorious past, they would lead India to greater glory. She makes use of the myths and legends partly to exhort her suppressed countrymen and partly to authenticate her sense of history and tradition. She exhorts the young men and women to break the fetters of suppression and overcome their temporary stupor.

The freedom movement led by Mahatma Gandhi deeply moved Kuntala and her nationalistic feelings found expression in a long poem called Ahwan in 1930. Full of patriotic sentiments, she presented a moving picture of the economic exploitation by the British, oppression by princes and zaminders, the dire poverty and misery of the masses, betrayal of the self - seekers, the exile and execution of patriots.

The volume created a tremendous sensation. Kuntala’s boldness of expression shook up the society. Apprehending the spark might flare up into a conflagration, the British government prescribed the book immediately after it was published. The action made her famous as a patriotic poet. However Kuntala kept on expressing patriotic fervour for a decade, culminating 1937. She was swayed by the waves of nationalism and the new air blowing over India. The poetess urges: " Forgo the pursuits of religious and their merits. The country is one religion; the spinning wheel is the dearest possession: Satyagraha is the one duty: and the prison is the paradise" ‘Kuntala’s heart was brimming with patriotic feelings. She gave up mill - made clothes and took to home - spun Khadi, which she wore all her life.

At the same time through these poems, she celebrated the rich cultural and spiritual heritage of the nation. The praiseworthy poetic work, Prem Chintamani, in 1930, in seventyfive sections celebrates the divine romance of Radha Krishna. In these poems, her love of God, attains a glorious height. Her thoughts have produced a hymn of surrender, being offered to the lord. The hope and frustration, the joy and sorrow, the union and separation of the divine pair are vividly depicted in these poems. She identifies fully with Radha.

Most of Kuntala’s poem in general, the enthusiasm of an eager spirit, of a restless soul, out to express itself in as many ways as possible and the sensitiveness of a fine mind to all that was good and beautiful and noble in this world, are clearly visible to any reader. After Fakirmohan, the father of modern Oriya literature, Kuntala Kumari was the first one to discover the noble hearts dwelling in the neglected, tortured and downtrodden characters of society.

Her sympathy with the downtrodden and the oppressed is revealed in her late poems, such as Odiyanka Krandana (Lament of the Oriya) in 1936, and Gadajata Krushaka (Native State Farmers) in 1938. She has shown her excellence in writing odes too in Oriya. One can discover in these poems how much Sabat was rooted in the Oriya culture and how much she loved her own languages.

Sabat’s poetry encompasses a great variety of themes; one is personal, governed by emotions, love, passion, suffering etc. reflected directly, sometimes in a highly philosophical manner; in the second domain, the writer is’the reformist, liberated woman, who flights for justice, propagates for revolution or the struggle for independence, advocates for spread of education and women’s emancipation. The voice in Sabat’s poetry is innovative and the creative medium she handles is the product of a rich tradition in terms of its fitting rhythm and haunting quality.

Satchidananda Routray has written a poem on the death of Kuntala, which can be considered as one of the best elegies written in modern times in Indian literature - ‘The poet of sphulinga is no more’ -in 1938. He described her as a ‘soldie- poet’ and the ‘minstrel’ of ‘Azad Hindustan.’

Kuntala’s contribution to novel writing is a milestone in the history of Oriya literature. She is the first woman novelist in Oriya. All her novels have social themes - Bhranti (1923), Naa Tundi (1925), Kaii Bobu (1996), Parsaha Mani (1927), Raghu Arakshita (1928) etc. Except Raghu Arakshita, the other works are slender in volume and may be described as long stories. Like other novelists of the post - Fakirmohan Senapati era, Kuntala Kumari was also obsessed with two themes - social reform and patriotism. All her stories raise a voice against social injustice and torture. In all the novels she has paid great tributes to Orissa and Oriyas. She has tried also to eulogise the Oriya race in the far off land of Burma and the city of Calcutta.

Kuntala has written lectures, besides some essays in the form of letters and published under the column "Delhi Chithi" in the then Oriya periodical Sahakar. Her literary compositions did not remain confined to the boundary of Oriya literature only. Kuntala also had written some poems in Hindi. While in Delhi, she composed a collection of lyrics in Hindi know as ‘Banamala". She also took up the responsibility of editing ‘Mahavir Jiban’ and ‘Nari Bharati’. By this, she also became established in the domain of Hindi literature.

In 1940, under the auspices of Nabayuga Sahitya Samsad, a souvenir of Kuntala Kumari was published under the editorship of Radhamohan Gadanayak. A collection of the compositions of Kuntala Kumari has been published as ‘Kuntala Kumari’, Granthamala’ by Dr. Kunjabehari Dash, which is a valuable contribution to the field of Oriya literature. Sahitya Akademi, in its Makers of Indian literature series, has published a bibliographical sketch on Kuntala Kumari Sabat by Pratibha Ray in 1997. -CNF