Why such secrecy? One reason could be the whisperings about powerful lobbies working overtime to push through the new mineral policy — which seeks to reinstate some of the bad old ways of the licence permit raj — well in time before the general election. A public debate about the wisdom of reverting to Nehruvian central planning and allocation in mining would certainly slow down the new policy beyond the term of this government.

But secretive policy-formulation in the world’s largest democracy is no longer a sustainable proposition in the internet era. The wording of the new rules, whenever they are finally disclosed, would undoubtedly invite legal challenges and public interest litigation. Meanwhile, it does not seem to have registered in Delhi that the new policy has become a political hot potato in those states. The mantra of local value addition — creating local revenue, local infrastructure and, most importantly, local jobs — is a powerful formula which has been transforming lives for a decade. It will be no more be possible to turn this clock back than it was for the Raj to continue after Gandhiji’s boycott of its goods galvanised a nation.

But there remain dyed in the wool recidivists who not only pine for the bad old days but are working very hard to bring them back. The argument for denying local value addition as a basis for mining allocation is mostly couched in hoary old “national interest” dogma. In other words, nonsensical justification that states that don’t have mineral resources somehow also “deserve” to have their own power, steel and other such plants, even if that defies economic logic. As if stealing from Peter — in this case poverty-stricken mineral-bearing states — to pay politically powerful Paul, is some kind of noble aim. It is in fact outright political thuggery. The reality, of course, is that every state has its own economic strengths and weaknesses, and must be allowed to achieve its own best potential. If that means that power and steel plants will naturally come up in mineral-rich clusters, so be it. The nation will have access to their output, share in their success, and that will be a sustainable basis for national integration.

... contd.