Prosperity Coming Up In Congress Mukt Bharat

Prosperity Coming Up In Congress Mukt Bharat

The Narendra Modi led election is all but won in spectacular fashion, except for the counting on May 16^th. A simple majority for the NDA seems assured, and some projections take the tally to over 300 seats. 

Several post-poll allies may emerge, and both UP poll architect and BJP General Secretary Amit Shah and prime ministerial candidate Modi himself are open to the prospect of additional supporters. Back-room talks are reported to be on with both BJD and AIADMK.  NCP too is apparently leaning towards the NDA, seeing the support of ‘stability’ at the centre as a virtue.

Modi set out to usher in a Congress Mukt Bharat those many months ago and he has done it. The planning and execution of a long campaign has been impeccable, and his team entrusted with the nuts and bolts work involved has delivered excellent results.

The Modi-led Government will be much stronger than the UPA Government it is replacing in terms of its numbers and stability in the Lok Sabha. In the Rajya Sabha as it stands, the BJP/NDA does not quite have 121 seats, the half-way mark, let alone more, and it will have to manage support from others to get new legislation passed.

But unlike the UPA fond of putting in new laws, the emphasis of the Modi Government will be on governance, toning up the administration of the country, within the ambit of the present thicket of laws.

This approach of getting on with the work has served Modi well in Gujarat and has every chance of showing noticeable results in a short time. Just generating more and more laws cannot substitute for results on the ground. In any case, they tend to have a long gestation period before the effects can be seen for better or for worse.

Besides, the Indian judiciary is crying out for decongestion, radical reform including the updating or scrapping of out-dated laws, appointment of many more judges and courts, and sanitising against incipient corruption too. Today many laws are observed only in the breach and fuel blackmail and graft.

But first, Modi will have to design and construct a Government of the same calibre as his campaign team. One that can deliver on his vision of governance. The architecture of the Government must involve people, politicians, bureaucrats, advisors, etc. that must be efficient and brisk in the execution.

Most people are expecting an emphasis on the economy in short order to revive the fortunes of the country. Reviving GDP growth will mean bold new reform measures, but also reviewing the monetary policy set by the RBI, reducing interest rates, and making more investment funds available to   business, industry and the consumers.

This would be a departure from the UPA’s failed attempt to control inflation and prices by bringing the economy to a near stand-still. Instead, there may be an attempt to balance the need for growth with the emphasis on controlling inflation. Particularly since many of the inflationary pressures are external and beyond our control. The price of petroleum, of which we import nearly 80 per cent of our needs, has a profound influence; as does the huge external liquidity situation in the US and the West, as their governments try to revive their economies post 2008.

The massive UPA welfare schemes funded through deficits will also need to be reviewed because many of them had the solitary purpose of bribing the poor in order to obtain their votes. What has become obvious is that they have not been effective in this objective, and probably need to be phased out in favour of new rural and urban growth strategies.

Modi’s plan to increase farmer incomes by 50 per cent actually messages an ambitious, transformational modernisation agenda for agriculture nationally. The aim will be to replicate Gujarat’s 10 per cent plus per annum agricultural growth rate instead of the dismal average of under 3 per cent nationally. This will vastly improve the lives of over 600 million agriculturists and others living in the rural areas. Our Planning Commission needs to be set on an entirely different path from the socialist tinkering of yester year.

Infrastructure, including railways, roads and electricity need urgent modernisation and involve massive investment, largely expected from abroad. China and Japan are expected to play a stellar role in this regard, while various other Western governments, Russia and the US are also expected to contribute.

Other areas such as law  and order, tax reform, internal and external security, health, education, and so on will need market-friendly transformation.  Modi is committed to developing the indigenous defence industry and this too has enormous potential once the ball is set rolling.

This poll verdict is indeed an opportunity to liberate the energies of the Indian people and take it far away from the dynastic politics riddled with vested interest it has known, not only in the Congress, but in many of the regional parties too.

The stock markets expect great things from the Modi Government and has  leaped to nearly  24,000 on the Sensex  even before the final results are declared. As far as the young voters are concerned, they expect progress and jobs. It will be incumbent on the new Government to deliver growth with jobs to fulfil the aspirations of the many people who rallied to Modi’s clarion call.

(887 words)

May 14^th, 2014

Gautam Mukherjee