A bad start

Second, it must set the political narrative in the state and signal the kind of political milieu it will seek to create. On both counts, the decision of the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh and Chief Minister Kamal Nath to put on hold the monthly pension given to those who were detained during the Emergency under the draconian Maintenance of Internal Security Act and Defence of India Rules is problematic. In 2008, the then BJP government launched the Lokanayak Jaiprakash Narayan Samman Nidhi Niyam in MP, under which about 2,000 persons jailed during the Emergency receive a monthly honorarium of Rs 25,000 a month. The Congress government, just weeks after coming to office, issued a circular insinuating that the cost to the exchequer for the scheme - a measly Rs 600 crore annually - has exceeded its allocation and thus, the honorarium needs to be changed "to make it accurate and transparent". The MP government is mistaken if it believes that its fiscal priorities and concerns are best addressed by the politically fraught move. The cost of its farm loan waiver, for example, will be an estimated Rs 35,000-Rs 38,000 crore - about 25 per cent of the state's GDP. Not only is the economic rationale behind the move to stall pensions questionable - the Opposition and activists have contended that the scheme is well within its allocation in the state's budget - the move is likely to occupy attention and result in political manoeuvring that will far outstrip any likely benefit. But, perhaps most importantly, the optics of the Kamal Nath government's decision signal a disturbing thought process. Mere weeks after winning the election by a slender majority in the state assembly, the government appears to be focused on what the BJP in the state has termed "political vendetta". Given that the chief minister first came into limelight during the Emergency, this is a narrative that can easily distract the government in the crucial first few months of its tenure. CM Kamal Nath must focus on issues that urgently require his attention. Creating red-tape around pensions is certainly not amongst them. Dailyhunthttps://www.polygon.com/users/zeesanbasgar