The present government is hiding crucial public data without many of us even noticing.
In a democracy, the elected representatives are accountable to their people. The Indian government, to ensure transparency, identify issues and challenges, measure the effectiveness of programs and development projects, releases public sector data regularly. Journalists, analysts, researchers, people from civil society etc. analyse this data to help public bodies better serve the citizens. The data released by various government bodies such as National Crime Records Bureau, the Comptroller and Auditor General, Central Vigilance Commission etc are testimony to the fact that Indian citizens are empowered to question the government on the basis of their own data. What would happen if slowly and steadily the government stops sharing relevant numbers or worse ‘torture’ their data long enough so that it confesses to what they want – half-truths and even lies? The answer is we start losing one of our basic rights i.e. the right to information. Unfortunately, without many of us even noticing, this is happening in our country. Here is a list of few crucial numbers our government is subtly trying to hide from us:
1. Farmer suicide data post-2015
In just May this year, six farmers committed suicide in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. These deaths are a reminder that the government is yet to release data on farmer suicides in the years 2016 and 2017. The last available data is for the year 2015. Government officials say that the delay is due to discrepancies in the data sent in by a few states. National Crime Records Bureau said that the report for 2016 is likely to be published later in June. It’s July now, and the latest numbers are yet to see the light of day. Is the government trying to hide the fact that the loan waivers have done little to mitigate the problems of small farmers, whom it probably does not even reach?
2. Unemployment data
The current government had promised 1 crore jobs every year if it came to power. What happened to that promise is common knowledge but the bigger problem is that India’s jobs data hides more than it reveals. According to a recent study by the McKinsey Global Institute, the current data assessment by the Labour Bureau and the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) doesn’t provide any insight into the labour force participation rate, actual unemployment, disguised underemployment, etc. Wonder how we can function when we shrug from conducting proper research or analysing data?
3. Impact of demonetization
The present government announced demonetisation that made 86% of the currency in circulation worthless overnight on 8 November, 2016. The action was supposedly taken to hit at corruption, black money, counterfeit currency and terror financing. The impact of the move has been much discussed and analysed by one and all. But with little data, everything is just speculation. Even the RBI failed to quantify the impact in time for their monetary policy review. We still await RBI’s concluding report on the macroeconomic impact of demonetisation (preliminary report was published last year). It’s a different matter if it even managed to achieve what it set out to.
4. Election funding
The Representation of People’s Act which lays down the rules for elections bars political parties from accepting foreign funds. The Lok Sabha however, in March 2018 passed a bill without debate that exempts political parties from scrutiny of funds they have received from abroad since 1976! The retrospective amendment conveniently helps BJP and Congress escape the fallout of a 2014 Delhi High Court Judgement that held both guilty of violating the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act. How is exemption from scrutiny constitutional, democratic or even fair? Who listens to us, anyway.
“The back-series data is likely to show better GDP growth in the years prior to 2014”
-Pronab Sen, India’s first Chief Statistician.
5. GDP back-series data
In May 2014, the government changed the base year of national accounts from 2004-’05 to 2011-’12 , to calculate the GDP. It is now set to change the base year again to 2017-’18 from 2011-12 after completion of the household consumer expenditure survey and labour force data by the end of this year. Base year refers to the benchmark year that is used to calculate Real GDP and other economic indices. Change in the base year amounts to changing the previously set standards of the economy that we were comparing ourselves with. The government faced questions and criticism over the change. Pronab Sen, India’s first chief statistician, said “The back-series data is likely to show better GDP growth in the years prior to 2014”, after which the government promised that it would release comparable data for previous years as well. The wait for the data, however, is not over yet as the release has been postponed more than once. With no one to head the Central Statistics Office (CSO) since February this year, there is hardly any chance that the data will be released in near future.
6. A headless Central Statistics Office (CSO)
As of today, our country has no chief statistician! Former chief statistician TCA Anant retired on 31 January 2018. A committee led by Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha hasn’t yet identified a successor. Even if it manages to finalise someone now, it might take another few months before the process is completed and that name is cleared by the PMO. That leaves the top statistical office responsible for critical data functions headless for more than half a year. This only adds to the confusion on a range of issues, such as Goods and Services Tax (GST) implementation, major changes that have happened to GDP calculation, and more. Are we genuinely lacking in talent and leadership or is the government deliberately keeping this position vacant?
