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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Civil society stars to push Sonia's 'inclusive' agenda by Nitin Sethi

Civil society stars to push Sonia's 'inclusive' agenda by Nitin Sethi

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published Published on May 31, 2010   modified Modified on May 31, 2010


UPA's 'Planning Commission' for its development agenda - the National Advisory Council - is in place. The Congress high command has chosen a constellation of individuals with formidable reputations to steer the social agenda in UPA's second term.

The watchdog, to be headed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, will include Madhab Gadgil, Harsh Mander, M S Swaminathan, Aruna Roy, Jean Dreze, N C Saxena, Farha Naqvi, Anu Aga, Narendra Jadhav, Deep Joshi and A K Shivkumar.

The civil society heavyweights are bound to push for an ambitious social sector agenda and bring to the fore several development issues that had receded to the backburner in the first year of the government.

With several advocates for a more inclusive growth policy and a wider social security net on board the NAC, sources said issues like food security, communal harmony, education and public health would move centrestage.

In its last avatar, the NAC had ushered in hugely successful social sector reforms such as introduction of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the Right to Information Act.

In its second coming, the council is expected to take up the Food Security Act as its foremost priority. With Mander, Dreze and Saxena on board, the bill, which was being tossed around in the government and being pruned to give it a more minimalist touch, is bound to become more expansive and cover a larger section of society.

The presence of Roy, one of the leading civil society voices on RTI and NREGA, will ensure that dilution of existing social schemes or sidetracking of key elements of these programmes are checked.

The presence of a Muslim woman entrepreneur, Anu Aga, will add another perspective to the discussions and policy-directing documents that NAC was known for even in its first outing. Farha Naqvi's inclusion along with that of Planning Commission member Narendra Jadhav is expected to bring focus on education, with attention being given to gender, caste and minority issues.

The communal violence bill, pending for a while, is now bound to get priority listing besides issues of pubic health, water and sanitation securing greater impetus.

NAC, sources told TOI, is expected to be more aggressive in pursuing social security reforms and providing course correction to routine government lines as was noticed with NAC chairperson Sonia Gandhi's three interventions in the Food Security Bill.

With an influential section in government keen to keep FSA to its minimalist best, Sonia had repeatedly stepped in and nudged the debate closer to the agenda that the Congress manifesto as well as other political statements had laid out.

With a mix of individuals credited with out-of-the-box thinking and creative engineering of government policy to provide an inclusive growth regime, the party leadership is now bound to assert a strong 'aam aadmi' image as it had in the last regime.


The Times of India, 31 May, 2010, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Civil-society-stars-to-push-Sonias-inclusive-agenda/articleshow/5992657.cms


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