By Swapan Dasgupta
Reflecting on the spread of the British Empire to
which he was passionately committed, Lord Curzon once remarked that “We have
often blundered into many of our greatest triumphs.” Many Indians who cherish a
vision of a vibrant India but were nevertheless disappointed by the prolonged
drift in public policy could well be wishing that what Curzon held to be true
for the Empire will also turn out to accurate for the Indian Republic.
Contemporary India has rarely conducted itself with
a sense of mission. The economic deregulation initiated by P.V. Narasimha Rao
and Manmohan Singh in 1991didn’t happen because the two were conviction
politicians made by the same firm that created Lee Kwan Yew and Margaret
Thatcher. India turned its back on an inefficient socialistic path at gunpoint.
Likewise, the second wave of liberalisation was prompted by the NDA
Government’s desire to offset the possible adverse consequences of the
sanctions imposed on India by the West after the nuclear tests of 1998.
If Prime Minister Singh was indeed the great
reformer he is portrayed to be, he would have unleashed India’s “animal
instincts” immediately after his May 2009 victory when he had little to fear
but fear itself. Instead, he waited till GDP growth had fallen below 6 per
cent, the rupee was fragile, inflation soaring, the fiscal deficit out of
control, politics vitiated by corruption scandals and business confidence at an
all-time low. What would have been bold initiatives in 2009, grudgingly
digested by a dispirited opposition and accepted by a people anxious for more
of the good times, has become a last-ditch, cynical gamble three years later.
The public discourse in India cherishes boldness and
decisiveness. To the extent that the Government has been propelled into a burst
of activity, there is critical appreciation of the fact that there is more to
the Prime Minister than the ridicule that was heaped on him for the past year.
Industry bodies have rallied enthusiastically to his support, stock market
speculators have given their thumbs-up, the editorial classes are awe struck
and even a demoralised Congress appear to have convinced itself that it is
better to have fought and lost than not to have fought at all. On the face of
it, a sleeping and indolent giant appears to have been aroused.
However, as the old colonials used to remark, for
everything that is true of India the opposite is also true. For the past 20
years, market economics has become the new consensus. With the exception of dinosaurs
in West Bengal and Kerala and ideologues who nurture a visceral hatred of what
they call ‘neo-liberal’ economics, mainstream India is committed to the idea of
reform. However, like vocational education which is always good for the
neighbour’s child, reform is also expected to be detached and morally uplifting
at the same time. In the 1990s, reforms implied dismantling controls and
opening up large chunks of a fortified economy to the private sector and global
forces. This liberation from Nehruvian dogma unleashed entrepreneurship and put
an end to the shortage economy. Some people got very rich but a larger number
of Indians moved into the middle class and ceased to be impoverished. It was
win-win situation.
Today, the situation is different. The Government is
asking people to lower expectations, make sacrifices, to reconcile themselves
to the erosion of subsidies and to tighten their belts—all for a larger cause.
Unfortunately, for the past few years this larger cause has become both hideous
and blurred. After repeated scandals, some involving unimaginable sums, the
earlier mood of expectancy has turned to cynicism and disgust. The Government
stands discredited; the political class is equated with venality and brazenness;
and India Inc. is increasingly being seen as the nesting ground of cronyism and
dodgy practices. Almost all the institutions associated with public policy have
become objects of disrepute.
Sunday Times of India, September 23, 2012
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