A different view

This is with reference to NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya’s article, “The turnaround in infrastructure” (May 9), in which he lists several supposed accomplishments of the Narendra Modi government in building infrastructure. Panagariya also asks critics to “ponder the fate of infrastructure in the country had the previous administration continued”. It turns out, the infrastructure sector would have done just fine.

Consider the claim that highway construction “has risen from 8.5 kilometres a day during the last two years of the previous government to 11.9 kilometres in 201415 and 16.5 kilometres in 2015-16”. A cursory glance at the 2015-16 Annual Report of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways shows that construction under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government proceeded at 13.7 kilometres a day, comparable to 14.3 kilometres per day in the Modi government’s first two years. No great leap here.

Panagariya goes on to claim that railway track expansion “has risen to 7 kilometres per day during 2015-16 from 4.3 kilometres per day during the previous six years”. This is true if we look at track “commissioning”, a new measure adopted by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu in his 2016 Railway Budget speech. But if we use the earlier measure of track “construction”, available on the Indian Railways website, we find it was 4.2 kilometres per day in 2014-15 — the lowest in six years — down from the 2011-12 peak of 6.4 kilometres per day. This means that what is being presented, using a convenient new measure, as a six-year high, may in fact be a six-year low in rail construction.

It is sad that senior officials feel compelled to trumpet government achievements using misleading information. Not only is this wrong, it reeks of insecurity and undermines the government’s genuine achievements. Perhaps the Modi government should hold its boasts until it has actually surpassed the achievements of the “policy-paralysed, rudderless” UPA. Amitabh Dubey Gurgaon