NITI Aayog Is Steadily Losing Its Relevance As An Useful Think Tank For Planning

By Sushil Kutty

There was the Planning Commission, and there’s the NITI Aayog, supposedly a good enough name-swap. The Planning Commission became NITI Aayog in 2015, a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi did his first flat-out ‘shastang pranam’ in Parliament, the old one. Today, nine years and a second ‘shastang pranam’ later, this one in the new Parliament House, time has come to consign the impotent NITI Aayog to the dustbin of history.

Frankly speaking, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s NITI Aayog cuts a sorry figure. People don’t even realize it exists. And, except for those who are preparing for the UPSC’s civil services examination, nobody even cares that there’s a dead in water NITI Aayog. In fact, if truth is to be told, the NITI Aayog died the day the Planning Commission ceased to be.

The first Modi regime did away with the nomenclature ‘Planning Commission’ out of sheer cussedness. And NITI Aayog took its place with the Modi regime thinking it would be business as usual, what’s in a name change? But whoever led the charge of the name-changers failed to factor in the communally and politically polarized times since May 2014.

The latest (non)-meeting of the NITI Aayog was boycotted by 11 chief ministers and the decision to boycott the inauguration of the New Parliament contributed to the boycott of the NITI Aayog meeting. Everything is linked, and interlinked. There’s no arm of the Modi regime that is free of the boycott contagion. The degree of hate that surrounds the Modi government is insurmountable. If the Planning Commission was a victim of vengeful politics, the NITI Aayog has not been spared.

On May 27, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wasted precious time chairing a meeting of the NITI Aayog. He could have used it productively; like making a surprise call on the protesting wrestlers at Jantar Mantar and trying to end the standoff. After all, that’s also “niti”. The ordinance regarding “services” also needed his attention.

The Nitti Aayog is essentially a think-tank and incubator of ideas — ideas with substance, not anagrams like those popped out by Modi. The non-attendance by 11 chief ministers did not help the “thinking”. Scores of “ideas” were waiting to be thrashed out. Don’t forget India has set itself the goal to be a $5 trillion economy by 2027 and a developed nation by 2047.

Such goals require cohesion and flawless planning. Eleven Chief Ministers boycotting the NITI Aayog meeting points to a malaise. And since the axe shall not fall on the Prime Minister, it should fall on a scapegoat — anybody who has something to do with planning in the Modi regime. It wouldn’t be difficult for this regime to find one.

That being said, let’s ask whether there are signs of any planning in the workings of the Modi regime? Isn’t it a fact that the Modi government has largely failed to address the country’s concerns whether that be generating jobs or controlling the rise in prices of common essentials? Isn’t it also a fact that the Modi regime’s short-sightedness is behind much of these problems.

Without any “ifs and buts”, planning is the Modi regime’s weakness — Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Achilles Heel. Throughout these nine years of Modi rule, the NITI Aayog has failed to deliver on its promise. Whoever heard of a planning body that fails at the planning stage itself! No wonder the 11 chief ministers could find an excuse to give a miss to the “Saturday Meeting”.

The excuse to finish off the Planning Commission was that it was “redundant”; eight years later, “redundant” fits the NITI Aayog like a glove, it’s relevance lost in the mundaneness of one-man rule. No think-tank can think when one single individual can kill an idea with the power of veto. That Prime Minister Narendra Modi is an autocrat is not lost on anyone.

Least of all in the Council of Ministers. Modi’s ministers are not in awe of the genius in Modi, but are in dread of the power he wields. Sunday’s “transfer of power” teleplay was evidence of his narcissism. It wouldn’t be far-fetched to say that India’s institutions are hostage to one man’s megalomania. It’s time to write the NITI Aayog’s obituary. And its epitaph! (IPA Service)

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