The other major plank of our work will have to be removal of economic disparities in the society. This is as important in urban areas as it is in rural areas. Concentration of economic power in a few hands and the resultant concentration of decision-making in a small section of society would be the very negation of a socialist order. There are already noticeable and explosive tensions and frustrations in the various sections of the society. The technological revolution in farming and the Green Revolution in far flung rural areas has given rise to new problems of much bigger dimensions. Any revolution in the methods of production has to be accompanied by well thought-out social objectives. There must be a social content to each such technological revolution. Or else, the revolution in technology and means and methods of production can beget social tensions of such a magnitude that the very base of prosperity can be swept off. These are the lessons of history. That is why I said the other day that if the problem of land reforms and other inevitable changes in the economic and social relationships in the rural areas are not undertaken expeditiously and if we become oblivious to the growing feeling of frustration in the society, the Green Revolution may not remain green for ever.
This leads me to another related but equally important aspect of a socialist order. The basic motivations in production or distribution will have to change in the new social order. Prosperity of an individual or a small group at the cost of the society must be made subservient to the well-being of the society and the social good. It was with this end in view that I had said in my speech at the Bangalore Session of AICC that social control without nationalisation will be meaningless while nationalisation without any social control will be a fraud. This is a very real and a genuine problem. Mere acquisition or taking over of the means of production is not an end in itself. The basic idea is not merely to socialise the means of production or to replace individual ownership by State ownership over all the means of production. The main question is of the social objectives for which these means of production are to be used. The well-being of the half-clad, half-starved individual should be the pre-eminent objective in this matter. What we can do to raise his standard of living and provide housing, educational and health facilities should be the motivating factor in the new socialist order. These should be the guide-posts in our march towards a new world.
