Economy: Modi must act tough

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

With critics in political hibernation, Modi must act tough to revive economy It is common knowledge that the job of the Opposition in democratic parliaments of the world is not to oppose for the sake of opposition, but to oppose what it thinks is detrimental to the national interest.

It is also the opposition's duty to make constructive suggestions and to act as a watchdog against abuse of power. However, this cannot but sound like pious homilies in the Indian context where the Parliament has, in the last few decades, increasingly resembled a wrestling arena with no referee in sight. The 14th Lok Sabha faced worst nightmare at the hands of Advani-led BJP where the PM was not even allowed to introduce his ministers. The previous 15th Lok Sabha could pass only 177 of the 324 bills it had listed for consideration. This is the fewest number of bills passed by a Lok Sabha ever. The stockpiling of equal number of bills is almost entirely due to the numbing disconnect between the government and the opposition that had marked the UPA-2 government. Will political hostility, and the consequent governance paralysis, remain a feature of the new Parliament too? 

Well, such risk is much reduced this time round because, except the Congress, with its embarrassingly decimated number in the lower house, and the communists with their token presence, there is hardly any opposition to the NDA government of Narendra Modi. As I discussed last week, almost all state leaders are now on convivial terms with Modi. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, with her Trinamool Congress occupying a fair share (34) of the 'opposition' benches, was the last local satrap who kept up the impression of being sworn to unfriendliness towards the prime minister and his BJP. But Barkis is willin'. Finally. As the prime minister's envoy, HRD minister Smriti Irani is flying down to Kolkata on July 4 to only talk to the mercurial chief minister but to prepare ground for her meeting with the prime minister after presentation of the budget, if not before. The Irani mission is the first step to resolution of West Bengal's mountain of debt that Mamata now unable to service. 

So it is morally binding now on the Congress, more than anyone else, to fight the opposition's battle single-handedly - a role it was never called upon to play during the NDA-I regime. It had too many partners, ranging from caste entities to Lohia socialists, to give it company in BJP-baiting. Now they're missing in action, or have fallen silent. It is therefore caught in an expected dilemma, pushing for a line of action consistent with what it thinks to be its contributions to the UPA government - a socialist bent in the state policies on food, labor and land. It is not clear if Modi will side-step the thorny issues in the coming months by exhibiting an unexpected tolerance of the very things he had trashed in his election campaign. Like a rural employment guarantee law that does not insist on asset creation, a food distribution scheme that depends on the inefficient and graft-ridden FCI for its implementation, and a land acquisition law made so demanding that it has dampened modernization of the entire economy. The Gandhi family was helped by its private army of leftist do-gooders in the National Advisory Committee (NAC) to work out these strategies that were supposedly vote-catching. They did not catch votes, as the elections results amply prove, but they surely bankrupted the exchequer. It will be uncharacteristic of Modi to let these aberrations pass as the previous regime's fanciful "pro-poor" legacy. 

For the Congress to defend its values, and to oppose the new directions under Modi that may offend its 'culture', it needs a respectable support base regardless of the Lok Sabha seats it lost or won. Unfortunately for the Congress, its support base seems violently knocked, its vote share having come down to 19.5 per cent from about 29 per cent in 2009. Undaunted by the electoral defeat, the party may still have a message to the people. What it lacks are messengers. 

Nor is there much chance of the Congress shedding its loser image in the state assembly elections due this year - in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand. While two of them are currently under Congress rule, the party is in the ruling alliance in Jharkhand. The general election results have exposed it in a pathetic state of isolation, the party and its alliance partners having won in just 94 of the three states' 459 assembly segments. Besides, the 'dynasty's' writ does not run in the capitals of these states as loudly as before. Despite a torrent of leadership-inspired media leaks that Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan's days are numbered, he is still in his chair. And so is Haryana chief minister B S Hooda despite similar rumors about him being told to take a walk. The Congress' long-standing problem in Maharashtra, the richest state in India, is its wobbly alliance with Sharad Pawar, a consistent critics of the Gandhis. The UPA is unlikely to win any of these states given the prevailing politicalsituation.

                                                         With critics in political hibernation, 

                                                      Modi must act tough to revive economy

 

But Prime Minister Modi is not complacent. He is working overtime to make the wheels of a paralysed  economy spin again, by taking a series of tough measures. But he knows when to strike. For example, the low rainfall induced partly by climatic change and also due to the El Nino effect this year called for a considerable increase in the storage capacity of the large dams. Then came a media leak of an Intelligence Bureau report about foreign funded NGOs' activities in India. Hence, came the decision to raise the height of Narmada dam pending for years. It is now expected that the dames' storage augmentation work will trigger not too much stone-pelting, and fewer screaming anti-India headlines in the Euro-American media.

Modi is a cool driver who will steer the economy rightward, towards markedly higher dependence on private initiative. Fortunately for him, his possible critics are all in political hibernation.  

                                                                                                                           (The author is National 

                                                                                                                           Editor of Lokmat group)