PRABHAKAR TIMBLE
Social media of all forms, and more specifically Facebook and WhatsApp, abound in fake posts. Blind worship and blind criticism are plentiful. Everything is guided and engineered with dirty politics in mind. One such repulsive forward hit me three times this week in the context of ‘Howdy, Modi’, a community summit hosted by Texas India Forum. “It’s Modi’s show. It’s America’s expenditure. But, Pakistan is burning. And the smoke is emanating from Congress Bhavan”. Needless to say that such organized bombardment is to project the Opposition as unpatriotic and lesser nationals. This is a devilish carved strategy played for the last six years to grind not only the political opposition but also neutral public thinkers and professionals. These seeds are germinating along with kernels sown to create the wave that the real growth and development of India started from 2014.
India @ 1950 was undergoing the pangs of Partition, with no economy worth the salt and over 70% households in abject poverty. The British colonial power with all their claims as civilized and cultured community literally plundered India’s resources and raped its economy. In fact, they sucked all their colonies to support the industrial revolution. Entire British India was reduced to a rain-dependent agricultural economy with absentee landlordism surrounded by a sea of subsistence cultivators. Rural indebtedness to private moneylenders was at its zenith. India was known as the land of the illiterate and poor, of famines and floods, of internal turmoil, of starvation deaths and infant mortality. With skeleton defence preparedness, India was ravaged due to wars with Pakistan and China.
It took nearly forty years of planned economic development to turn around. The wheat revolution and the high-yielding varieties in rice production brought in the Green Revolution making the nation self-sufficient in food. This was followed by the White revolution with milk production adequate to needs. The Human Development Index improved with public interventions in primary healthcare and the provision of basic needs. We could boast of infrastructure in terms of irrigation dams, roads, railways and power generation. A base of capital-goods industry accompanied by FMCG and durables took its roots. In Health, it was primary centres to super specialties and in Education from primary schools to universities with specialized institutes of science and technology. India strengthened on the political front with deepening and extension of democracy by providing constitutional status to local-self governing bodies. Institution building for checks and balances of power was a part of this forty-year journey. Social welfare laws, social sector spending, entitlements to the underprivileged and preferential treatment to SC/ST/OBCs and women were deliberate attempts to ensure inclusiveness as mere growth does not ensure automatic equity.
From 1991 onwards it was aspirational India. The next twenty years was a shift from the main plank of poverty eradication and government controls to decontrol, liberalization and opening up of the economy. We find today that India is an economy of choices from an economy of shortages. We have adopted the track of prosperity through competition. The technological and communication interventions are positively contributing to this process.
We need to ponder over this question. If we had started in 1950 with Kashmir, PoK, cow, cow’s urine, beef, yoga, astrology and the cry of war with neighbours what would have been the state of India and Indians? We got leaders acclaimed internationally for their statesmanship, grasp of foreign relations and economics. The nation and along with it the people would have submerged in the filth of tradition and regressive past singing the songs from mythological texts in case of miscarriage.
A lot is done but vast remains unfinished. 25% of the population is still in extreme poverty. Corruption, crony capitalism and criminalization of politics are eating the vitals of the system. There are wide gaps in the field of education, environment and employment. The current government had done well by introducing the GST and the Bankruptcy law. However, the teething issues of GST along with the demonetization disrupted the unorganized sector and the MSMEs. The current state of the economy is a cause of concern. It is diagnosed to be a structural slowdown which cannot merely be remedied by the recent bonanza offered by the Finance Minister. The issue seems to be of demand and not supply. The macro-economic parameters indicate that the boat is rocked. The consolation is that the inflation is in check but economists and business would welcome a little more inflation under present crisis.
The sad part is the government’s unpreparedness to accept the problem. Economic advisors who appraise the reality are shunted out from the PM’s Advisory Council. The government is just paranoid about doing everything ‘historic’ making it a big-ticket and first-time event. We have nearly a dozen of them -- Make in India, Skill India, Digital India, Start-Up India, Swachh India, Strong India, Healthy India and Fit India. To this could be added, Shut-Up India.
We could debate on UPA-2 as complete paralysis of policy and decision-making with complete impunity. We can put the crown of greed and corruption on all opposition politicians. But the BJP has mastered the strategy of delinking democratic elections from economic performance. They are fully immersed in their political and social agendas. The mood is quite clear from their social media warriors as this wicked WhatsApp forward communicates: “If onion growers sell onions at distress prices, why not the automobile industry instead of complaining of falling sales and recession”.
India is a good example of economic growth, democratic politics and socio-cultural fusion. India will continue to be an attractive destination for investors considering its size and demography. In the years to come, the State should learn to be less and less in direct economic activity and step up participation in power, housing, primary education, law & order, judiciary and effective regulatory mechanisms.
