Pradhan Sevak Exhorts The World To Make In India

 

 Pradhan Sevak Exhorts The World to Come Make In India

 It was invigorating to see a confident, disciplined and healthy Prime Minister Narendra Modi exuding positive body-language at the Red Fort on India’s 68^th Independence Day. After over two decades, we have a modern and energetic prime minister, from the generation born after independence, in the prime of life, adding credibility to his soaring vision.

Modi got out of his armoured BMW and strode down the red carpet to take a ceremonial salute from the three armed forces, climbed up the steps to the podium and platform with easy tread, and unfurled the national flag at Red Fort for the first time.  It looks like the lift to the ramparts, put in for his elderly predecessors, is unlikely to get much use from this prime minister.

Then the speech began, Modi’s voice ringing out to the capacity audience, from a podium pointedly unencumbered by bullet-proof glass, though Modi’s threat perception is intense. And he spoke for over an hour without benefit of a prepared speech. He spoke extempore, in soaring and passionate tones, the tail of his festive red and green pugree blowing in the wind. He referred to his points now and then, just as he did on the campaign trail, and laid out what was essentially an inspiring vision statement. The blogosphere, twitter/facebook universe and mobile phone space has been buzzing ever since, in delighted approval unprecedented for what had become a routine sarkari  ritual.

He spoke of many points of difference in his outlook, about e-governance, digital technology, spearheading progress with IT, of the evils of gender discrimination and rape, of conciliation, concrete and ameliorative efforts directed at the very poor, of cleanliness, toilets and tourism, model villages, punctuality, integrity, and the ideal of service to the nation, calling himself not Pradhan Mantri but Pradhan Sevak to underline the point.

Modi said many things that have never been said by any prime minister at an Independence Day speech before, and succeeded in communicating directly to the millions of his countrymen, and the international audience watching India.  To them all, Maoist and terrorist included, Modi asked for a shunning of violence. He wanted a moratorium for the ten years in his plan of things, on casteism and debilitating communalism. He called for a patriotic commitment to the nation from every citizen, his ‘sawa crore’ people, and managed not to make it sound as utopian as it probably is.

Modi spoke of preferring parliamentary consensus to the muscle of a brute majority, and of political reconciliation. This may explain the referring of the Insurance Bill increasing FDI to 49%, his Government’s first major economic reform initiative, to a Select Committee at the urging of Congress. It will be delayed to that extent, even as the world and its expected $ 20 billion of investment waits, though the Committee, headed by BJP Rajya Sabha MP and Senior Journalist Chandan Mitra, has been mandated to submit its report by the opening of the Winter Session. But Modi did this, quite tamely, rather than calling for a joint session of parliament because of its lack of sufficient numbers in the Rajya Sabha, to push it through earlier.  

Politically, he spoke about his intent to foster greater economic cooperation with all seven SAARC countries, pointedly including Pakistan in the message without any mention whatsoever of acrimony. This despite the Pakistani Prime Minister’s predictable reference to Kashmir on his Independence Day address of the 14^th.

Narendra Modi exhorted the world to turn India into a manufacturing hub, using it as a centre-piece of his speech, repeatedly asking it to ‘Make In India’, probably aiming the message towards Japan and China in particular, as he is to meet with the heads of both countries shortly. This implies that many steps, such as the tax incentives demanded by them, will be taken in the coming days. This will attract FDI and boost state-of-the-art manufacturing and the jobs it will engender, both for the domestic markets as well as exports.  

In a clear and final departure from Soviet Style central planning, Modi said the days of the Planning Commission were over. The organisation will be reincarnated as a superior think-tank. He also said that as an  ‘Outsider’ to the Delhi power structure who has obtained an ‘Insider’ view over the last couple of months, he was appalled to see that there appeared to be many governments in one, working at cross purposes, like medieval fiefdoms and personal jagirs, some even  at unashamed legal loggerheads in the courts against each other. Modi clearly implied that this will not be permitted henceforth, and that Government will be streamlined in order to turn out a desired level of performance.

Modi’s Government, away from the fortress podium, passed a constitutional amendment through both houses of parliament only on the 14^th ,ending the erstwhile collegium process of selecting judges grown less than merit-based. And the Law Minister declared that some 300 redundant laws will be repealed during the simultaneous Independence Day ceremony that took place at the Supreme Court, in an act of long overdue decluttering of the statute books.

Amendments to several outdated and obstructive Labour Laws, long hampering investment in manufacturing, are also on the anvil for this budget session of parliament itself.

In terms of the people, most received the prime minister’s speech with great hope and enthusiasm,  though a few cynics would like to wait and see if his Government’s actions match his intentions in the coming days. And this with particular reference to acts of intolerance and communal violence as many think, as does Narendra Modi himself, that economic progress should not compromise communal harmony in any way.

As far as the stock markets and international community are concerned, this Independence Day speech from the prime minister definitely reiterates that the Modi Government is committed to economic reform and substantial progress. The markets, waiting for an Independence Day Speech trigger, can now afford to power on to new heights with billions more in domestic and FII funds being invested.

(1,002 words)

August 15^th, 2014
Gautam Mukherjee