Modi’s Manifesto
Mr. Narendra Modi spoke to a spellbound nation, and not just the
students at SRCC, NewDelhi,
hungry for his kind of positivity yesterday. And televised live as he
was, by every notable news
Channel, the speech, and its clarion call, immediately dominated the
internet, all the TV news and
Talk shows in the evening, and the front page of every newspaper
today. And many of Narendra
Modi’s critics and political
opponents openly admitted that it was a very fine speech indeed.
This was Mr. Modi’s first speech
to the nation via a lecture given to the students of SRCC, where he drew on the
Gujarat model of, what might be dubbed Modinomics, as a formula for the “good
governance” of the entire nation.
In Gujarat, Mr. Modi has, of
course, commenced his fourth consecutive term in office. The speech spelt out
the mantra of development as a panacea for all ills that face the country, and
the methodology he proposed was the proven formulas he has successfully applied
in Gujarat.
Interestingly, Mr. Modi sounded quite a lot like former
President Ronald Reagan of the US and Mrs Margaret Thatcher of the UK of the
1980s credited with the big push towards liberalisation in their respective
countries. And quite a lot like Deng Zhao Ping of China, also from the 1980s,
with his strong efforts to downsize government and government interference and
promote the private sector in its place.
Mr. Modi said: “The government
has no business doing business. Minimum government, maximum governance is my
principle”. Given that the Indian government has grown very unwieldy, slow,
bureaucratic, and colossally expensive to maintain; this outlook is definitely
most welcome.
It is clear, with views like this
from the Chief Minister, why Mr. Modi’s Gujarat is an all-time favourite
destination of Indian business and industry, and may be well on his way to
attracting the world. And this includes the Chinese, whom Mr. Modi sometimes
sees as competitors to India Inc., to do business in Gujarat. Some 121 nations
came to the recently held “Vibrant Gujarat” summit, post the elections, he
said.
Modi’s development economics,
applied with energy to the whole of India, he fervently believes, could indeed
catapult this nation to the front ranks of the global community. India can
become as successful as China is today, a little over three decades since Deng
kicked off the emphasis on strong manufacturing and export-led economic growth,
supported by tremendous infrastructure development. And without the fetters of ideology of any kind.
Mr.Modi, who made no reference to
political postures or his Party in his hour long lecture, except to shun “vote
bank politics”; spoke instead of the transformational effect of “skill development”, “speed” and “work on
very high scales”. To the students of SRCC listening with rapt attention, he
said, “We need to internalise this”, as if he was addressing all young Indians
everywhere.
Mr. Modi, currently bracketed in
the context of Gujarat, even as a groundswell of support is calling for his
induction onto the national stage, clearly intends to leverage India’s
“demographic opportunity”, with the bulk of the population, over two-thirds,
being under 35 years of age.
Gujarat under Modi’s achievement
of a 10% growth rate in Agriculture is spectacular, when the national average
has never crossed 4% in a good year. And Mr. Modi dwelled on the efficacy of
his policies in this regard, and clearly implied that India as a whole could
vastly improve the fortunes of its largely rural population.
Related issues such as irrigation
to overcome drought, the production of abundant milk, the actual rise in the
water table in Gujarat was touched upon, alongside many references to other
countries and their achievements.
Gujarat has also become a major
manufacturing state. It is growing rapidly in the services sector too with the expansion
of its IT presence. Mr. Modi was at pains however, to emphasise a one third portioning on each of the three sectors of agriculture, manufacturing and
services, for balance, interdependence, and one or the other coming to the
rescue, in case of any cyclic downturns in any one sector. This is the Modi
formula for the future too.
Ultimately however, Mr. Narendra
Modi’s speech was more visionary than anything else, with his version of
development economics echoing shades of old-fashioned mercantilism and
nationalist development economics, as opposed to a free trade ethos that might,
conceivably, even go against us.
Mr. Modi’s vision is clearly to
take India to the top of the global leagues in the shortest possible time, and
to the benefit of a maximum number of its people. That he laid it out with such
passion augurs well for the future.
(778 words)
February 7th, 2013
Gautam Mukherjee
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