After Monsoon of discontent, in terms of governance
in India, “alleged” Modi-bhakt like me, hope for a Winter of Hope!
The
performance of the Modi government has so far left its ardent admirers unsatisfied
although many self-styled fans of the Prime Minister like me would give him
benefit of doubt as things are still too early and moreover the socio-political
atmosphere is not quite conducive for performance – mainly the bitter pills.
One safe conclusion, so far should be: Three
things harming India's growth and reforms: Rahul Gandhi, Rajya Sabha and
frequent elections!!
Let us
take the clock back, in 2014 when Modi took over, voters in India, his
admirers, businessmen and investors -- all wanted India under Modi to take
tough political decisions, sooner rather than later, to reboot its economy.Time to get up! |
Thanks to ‘vocal’ policy
paralysis under Manmohan Singh, the year had started on a difficult note for
India with negative rates of growth for the industrial sector, the agricultural
sector and exports. Other components of the services sector like, retail trade,
financial services, transportation, hotels, tourism, software and IT-enabled
services, either showed lower rates of growth or even negative growth.
The
economy looked stagnant or declining and employment both in the organized and
the unorganized sectors declined. The drought in Kharif was an added cause of
worry!
A virtue turning Vice: Indian experience |
Still, people expected
miracles! Forget, critics and those who swore by the theory –Modi-will-never-be-PM
----- remained where they are – prophets of doom.
Kick-starting his stint with
promises and amid hopes, Prime Minister Modi trusted Ajit Doval and made him a
powerful NSA, he crafted in Arun Jaitley, a man with law background and little
economic brilliance as his Finance Minister.
Doval
started behaving as super cop even on issues he should have kept a distance and
Jaitley stuck to his status quoist mannerism. Hence, while Modi made waves in
foreign policy, his domestic front remained weak.
But
people would not blame Jaitley or Doval. Those who are let down would feel let
down by none other than Modi himself.
Prime
Minister has to get started soon and put the economy in order at the earliest. For years, we now know, the Indian economy is like a
giant elephant which lay tied. It is not to be forgotten that five decades ago,
several Asian countries lagged behind India in economic growth, foreign direct
investment and infrastructure growth and literacy.
Nature has been unkind to India's Man of destinty |
But things have changed, notwithstanding 1991 for India,
several other countries have “leapfrogged ahead”, says Sameer Mohindru, my Singapore-based
friend and a keen India watcher.
“Indonesia
and Thailand are examples of countries having emerged with stronger economies
and gained much higher investor confidence despite their own political turmoil
and challenges,” he wrote aptly in book ‘What’s UP! What’s Down! - ESSAYS
ON INDIAN SOCIO-ECONOMY’.
The
Prime Minister Modi is now expected to do the turn around. The three-day BJP-RSS
meet in Delhi is expected to take an overview of things and how would the
embattled Modi-led regime unravel the economic road map. The corrective steps vis-à-vis
the much needed economic reforms ought to come at the earliest.
The monsoon
session of Parliament made it amply clear that the Congress will not cooperate –
come what may – solely because the dynasty and its crown prince wants to play
God to crores of Indians.
Prince of Sabotage |
Rahul Gandhi has no accountability for himself. But he has other saboteurs by his side – the large
SICKULAR army, the self-seeking corrupt babus, the omni-present middlemen/women
and of course the greedy mass Indians – who want everything free!
On that backdrop, the government has done it
well that it allowed the Ordinance on Land Bill to lapse. But tactfully, it
passed an executive order making it clear that for any acquisition under 13
Acts like Railways, the landowners and farmers would get compensation. This has
somehow stumped the Congress and thus Jairam Ramesh with his concocted
one-liners were again fielded with his NGO-type intellectual oneliners!
But Modi needs to look forward. The economic
equivocation: the glass is half-full or half-empty often has left
Modi amazed. In his famous speech to Shri Ram College students on 6 February
2013, Modi waxed eloquently that the glass is always full: half air, half water
! Now let us take in economic perspective.Like life, economy also has positives
and negatives- the real challenge is how the positives and the negatives can weigh
up and help come to a ‘judgment’ about the net effect.
Blogger |
Those of us who followed Modi in Gujarat know
often he ruled that state with his instinct and his rhetoric argument of simple
logic.
He has to
bank on it yet again. Often in last one-year-and more perhaps Modi has realized
that whatever he could move and achieve as Chief Minister of Gujarat, he is
unable to repeat the same magic. Perhaps, it would not be wrong to say, Modi
the Chief Minister was often MORE POWERFUL than Modi the Prime Minister of
India.
Like many
economists and pro-liberalism intelligentsia, the Modi regime also seemed to
endorse that the FDI route is answer to most problems. RSS-affiliated Swadeshi
Jagran Manch do not endorse this. I spoke to Ashwaini Mahajan of SJM, who
rightly says, FDI is no panacea as “no country has been built by foreigners”.
The
Make-in-India slogan has been a good initiative and last one year did not show indigenous
manufacturing make any waves in India. It is this small-scale industrial sector
that needs key attention. What we hear is only speeches and some noise.
There
must be actions. SICKULAR India is playing a dangerous game. They are
determined not to allow Modi perform and after 2-3 years, they would question
Modi’s ‘performance’ as PM.
I know it, most of our patrons of the blogs know this.
It would be childish to presume that a hardcore political nut the Prime Minister of India does not know it.
Time for action, Mr Prime Minister; we have one Prime Minister, but expectations
are many.
You cannot impose family planning to hopes !
ends
ends
Nice way to end the piece.....hopes can't be restrained. Even so, while agreeing with most of your analysis, I will still say that Modi is going to be in power for five years. So we have no choice but to keep looking at him. Yet, under the circumstances, I still feel we have got the best man for the job.
ReplyDeleteOne of the problems with Modi is that Indian public is too much under the influence of opium called faux-socialist notions that it is the government that does everything. So, it will take time.
In business, Modi will find his toughest task. To get the Indian businessmen investing in Indian businesses. They are too prone to safety and, often, have benefited from 'under the radar' transactions. "Ease of doing business" takes a totally different notion in the domestic scene. And this is the one of the biggest challenge, besides, of course, the FDI challenge. Sooner Modi government overcomes, better it will be for it.