by New 23-member panel to investigate 2019 panel investigating 2016 panel; findings expected 2031
Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat
India Satirical Journalism: The Committee of Committees
NEW DELHI — The Indian government has constituted a 23-member high-level expert committee to examine why a 17-member expert committee formed in 2019 never submitted its final report, an inquiry that will require the new committee to first locate the 2019 committee’s members, determine which of them are still in their original roles, establish whether the 2019 committee’s mandate overlapped with a 2016 committee that was itself investigating delays in the 2012 committee’s recommendations, and produce a report within eighteen months, which the relevant ministry has described as “an aggressive timeline” and observers have described as “the first optimistic statement in this entire chain.”
The 2019 committee, formed to study reforming agricultural marketing regulations, met four times, produced an interim report that recommended forming a subcommittee, and then — sources variously suggest — ran out of meeting budget, lost its convener to a different ministry posting, was superseded by a newer policy initiative that made its mandate redundant, or simply faded from institutional memory in the manner of committees that everyone involved hoped would quietly conclude without anyone having to write anything down. All four explanations may be simultaneously accurate.
The Committee: India’s Most Beloved Administrative Tool
The committee is the government’s preferred response to any problem complex enough to require more than one person’s opinion and more than one fiscal year to resolve. It has several virtues: it creates the appearance of action without requiring immediate action; it distributes responsibility so broadly that no individual can be held accountable for inaction; it generates paper trails that prove something was being done without specifying what; and it provides employment for retired civil servants, academic consultants, and representatives of “civil society” who are paid sitting fees to attend meetings at which the committee’s terms of reference are extensively discussed and rarely concluded.
The Reuters India bureau has documented cases of government committees recommending further study of their own recommendations, creating self-referential loops of analysis that technically keep the subject alive while ensuring nothing changes until the political environment is ready for something to change, at which point a new committee is formed to recommend the thing the original committee recommended, now with fresh urgency and an updated letterhead.
The Members: Distinguished, Busy, Available
A government committee’s membership typically includes: a retired IAS officer who chaired a previous committee on a related subject, two academic economists from institutions of genuine distinction who are genuinely too busy but cannot decline a government appointment, a representative of the relevant industry whose presence ensures the committee understands the practical implications of its recommendations and also that its recommendations will be moderated by the practical implications, a representative of civil society who will file a dissent note, and at least one member whose presence is not immediately explained but turns out to be the convener’s college friend, who is, to be fair, very organised and takes excellent minutes.
The 23-member committee investigating the 2019 committee’s failure has, our sources note, one member who was also on the 2019 committee. He has been asked to recuse himself from discussions about why the 2019 committee failed, which leaves him available to participate in discussions about why the 2016 committee failed, which is the other agenda item.
The Report: Aspirational
Government committee reports, when they do appear, are typically thorough, well-researched, and acted upon selectively — the recommendations that align with existing government intentions are adopted, the recommendations that require difficult changes are “under study,” and the recommendations that the convening ministry disagrees with are noted for “consideration in the appropriate policy framework,” a phrase that functions as a administrative filing system labelled “never.”
The 2031 expected report from the committee investigating the 2019 committee will, we predict, recommend faster timelines for future committees, establishment of a monitoring mechanism to track committee progress, and possibly a committee to oversee committee oversight. The circle will be complete. The agricultural marketing regulations will be addressed in a subsequent process.
India satirical journalism: Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
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