52 SOCIAL SCIENTIST -hat the masses have nothing to do with planned economic development of their country.16 Why Plans Fail To put the threads of the thinking together, the principal reason why planning may be said to have failed in India is that the relationship between the people and the government has not been clearly sorted out in a reasonable and purposeful way. It has been assumed, without factual basis, that the government can and will assist the people in a manner that improves the living standards of all classes without their having to change ways of living in any way. In turn this assumes that the government has powers to modify the economy without modifying the people and also that the government, in spite of being democratically chosen, is so completely independent of the people who expect that everything will be done for them. What the structure of such a mythical all-powerful government must be and what are the instruments through which it is to deliver the goods, have never been clearly spelt out in the process of planning in India. Hence it is that India manifests the curious phenomenon of plans well drawn up but improperly executed.17 The only serious conclusion that can be sustained under the circumstances is that there is a complete lack of knowledge and understanding regarding the means and ends in respect of economic development in the society itself, a fact that is in turn fully reflected in the government. KSHITIMOHON MUKERJI 1 E Lipson, A Planned Economy or Free Enterprise'. Lesson of History, 1944, pp 257-60. 2 Abram Bergson, Soviet Economic Growth, Conditions and Perspectives, p 28. 8 Government of India, Ministry of Finance. Direct Taxes Enquiry Committee, Final Report^ December, 1971, pp 6-8. 4 Government of India, Central Statistical Organization, Proposals of a Revised Series of rational Income Estimates for 1955-56 to 1959-60. Ch VIII pp 108-16; Ch XI pp 127-35 and Ch XII pp 136-42. 5 N Kaldor, Indian Tax Reform: Report of a Survey, 1956, p 105. 6 K. Mukerji, "Small Enterprises during the Five Year Plans'", Khadi Gramodyog, October 1964, pp 78-84. 7 Government of India, CSO, Final Report ofthe National Income Committee, 1954; also K-aldor, Indian Tax Reform, p 105. 8 K. Subramaniam, Guide to Indian Official Statistics. 9 K Mukerji/'On the Use of Consumer Price Index Number", Journal of Labour Institute, Bombay. 1 ° Government of India, "Economic Adviser's Wholesale Index Number of Pr ices'f published weekly. 11 M Weiner, The Politics of Scarcity, Public Pressure and Political Response in India, 1963, p77. 12 J K-uezyuski, The Conditions of the Industrial Wotkers in the English Colonies, (Selected English translation ©f German original on economic history). 18 V M Dandekar and N Rath, Poverty in India, 1972. 14 M Besug, Economic Theory in Retrospect, 1962, p 302.