In fact, Naveen Patnaik, to his great credit, has for some years now pushed his administration to expand precisely these fronts in Ganjam, aided by the National Rural Employment Guarantee programme and the efforts of an outstanding district collector, Kartikeyan Pandiyan. But this raises the obvious question: ‘Why were these investments not made at a much earlier point in the 60 years since Independence, in Ganjam and elsewhere?’ Think of the extraordinary opportunities and spin-offs that would have been generated ever since, the poverty that would have been prevented, the positive development trajectory that Ganjam (or Amethi, Andipatti and elsewhere) would have been set on.

Instead, given decades of wasted opportunities, in the year 2008 India’s leaders are stuck with trying to belatedly implement rural development efforts that do not seem to belong to this century, but to the 1950s or 1960s or 1970s, when they should have been undertaken in earnest. Guarantees to give people 100 days of manual work at the princely sum of Rs 70 or so a day. Self-help groups for rural women. Minor irrigation. Doesn’t the dire need for such programmes in 21st century India not make a mockery of our boasting that we’re a modern nation, an economic powerhouse?

Who or what is to blame for the multiple crises afflicting rural India today? Coming to grips with our past failures is critical if we are to not continue failing rural India.

A major cause of the desperate state of rural India today is that generations of political leaders have refused to accept that equity and prosperity across our largely agrarian society are a must for India to progress. The problem dates as far back as Nehru and Mrs Gandhi (the latter focused the ‘Green Revolution’ on high-potential districts, ignoring the rest.) Currently, only the Left parties have laid out a convincing plan for tackling the massive scale of rural poverty. The Congress’ concern, as now aired by Mr Chidambaram, appears superficial; and some of its prescriptions are doing damage rather than good.

... contd.