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T RANSFORMATIVE PLANNING
Legitimatization of Planning
Bodies for Development
Planning body is just the division in State and Union Government
as an advisory body having the authority to allocate funds but
not having any authority over the departmental line in State or
Union Level which diminishes its effectiveness
Gouri Pada Dutta
Member, State Planning Board
Central Council of Health &
Family Welfare, Govt. of India
In pre-independent India, a National
Planning Committee was
instituted by the then Congress
President Subhas Chandra Bose
which was headed by Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru. This was initiated by poet Rabindra
Nath Tagore who wrote to Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra
Bose to situate such body for India’s prospective
development and planning1 .
Debate about the mode of governance
in any country is assuming a new dimension
in recent times. Ancient method of
monarchial rule was radically changed
after Industrial Revolution in Western
Europe. These countries needed colonies
for cheap labour, raw materials for production
and market for their fi nished
goods. Old system of barter was replaced
by fi nance capital to promote market
economy. The colonies were ruled, not
governed, by a steel-framed administration
to serve the interest of the rulers.
Twentieth century witnessed two world
wars. Both were fought to grab colonies.
After the First World War a socialist State
was established and exhibited remarkable
progress in the fi eld of economy and human
development. This system promoted
development, both socially and economically,
by proper planning, initiated and
regulated by the State.
The Second World War was also for
colony but its hidden objective was to
destroy the socialist system. Post Second
World War period was the era of liberation
of colonial countries. The seeds for
destructions of socialist system were sown
during the terminal phase of the war,
through implementation of Marshal Plan
in Europe and Dulles Plan for newly liberated
colonial countries. The new rulers of
the liberated countries were the product
of colonial system and suffered from conceptual
dilemma. Patriotism in one hand
and aping the systems of the past foreign
rulers on the other. These systems are
intrinsically champions of capitalism
through market economy. These rulers
are opposed to State’s dominance for
development. The market capital got
upper hand after the fall of USSR in
1991 AD.
Indian Situation
After Independence new rulers of India
were in a dilemma. The pro-people policy
of the socialist system was suitable for
them. But they could not free their mindset
from the glamour of their previous
rulers, specially the material benefi ts of
industrial revolution and phenomenal
progress of science and technology later
on. Indian politicians decided to adopt a
mixed economy for its development which
was conceptually translucent. Their ancient
heritage promoted by the illustrious
sons like Rabindra Nath, Vivekananda,
Shri Arabinda and Mahatma Gandhi was
conceptually different from the ideas of
Bengal/Indian renaissance. Raja Ram
Mohan Roy who himself was an enig-
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