10% Growth

The rediff.com headlines reads in bold - PM pitches for 10% growth.

There's this comic character in India called Shikari Shambu. Now this hunter (shikari) is actually a nervous reck who bumbles and fumbles but somehow becomes the hero in the end because some of his mistakes actually cause the wild beast to die or being captured.
He invariably becomes the hero in the eyes of unsuspecting villagers by default. And then Shikari Shambu smartly carasses his moustache in the end of each comic strip and conviniently claims the honour and badge of a hero.

When i see Sonia Gandhi's clerk , Manmohan Singh give sermons on economics i remember Shikari Shambu.

This was the man who became our FM in 1991/92. The country had by then mortgaged gold to World Bank against loan. There was this brilliant man called Narsimha Rao running a government. And there was this weak opposition. There was also a huge pressure from IMF and other external bodies to liberalise (or good word is liberate) our economy. In fact it was a precondition for the loan that could bring India out of the mess it was in.

A great PM, a weak opposition and a huge pressure-nah condition- from IMF to free the economoy. And what the FM did? Yea you guessed it. Take the first steps to liberate.

And bang. The entire Indian media, the entire indian middle class hails this fella as the Hero of Free Markets. Bang !. One shot this shikari shambhu is branded the saviour of our nation's economy.

Much like how Gandhi/Nehru are attributed for our independence from Britishers. This Sardar has become the icon amongst the Economic Times readers. That the British left the country on their own will and because ruling India was no longer profitable to them after the WWII is lost on many innocent souls; similarly no one realises that irrespective of whoever would have been the FM at that point of time would have done the same darn thing i.e free our economy from the prison of Nehruvian socialism and license quota raj of Indira Gandhi.

Nevertheless this man today stands as the father of modern economy. Its his brand. Like Gandhi or a Nehru... this guy is now married to a brand now. You just have to live with it.

I have this thing about brands. For example i never liked Sunil Gavaskar as a batsman. I know his brand was bigger than him. But no. Somehow i am rebellious in nature. I think he was not a team man. I do not recollect him coming at crucial times and winning a match for the country.

OK so now our alleged PM says that we must target 10% growth. Thanks a lot ! Tell us something new Mr. PM. You inherit the best possible economy from your predecessors and than talk like a champion.

And how does our "economist" PM plan to achieve this ? Well don't ask that ? Don't even bother.

He says there won't be any dis-investments in PSU (navratnas), he comes up with an economic blood bath called "social spending" (free jobs and stuff) , he does not have time to invest in infrastructure and make a compelling case for FDI, he cannot stop pinkos from unionising the two most promising sectors in service industry viz IT and BPO and yet he comes up with grand statements.

But you know what? He's right. Actually India is on an economic juggernaut now, and that is unstoppable. So not because, but INSPITE of this rag-tag government at the centre India will hit the 10% growth rate. And Mr. Singh our own Shikari Shambu will be crowned for the second time by the Economic Times and its lesser siblings in the media as the baadshah of Indian economy.

Singh may be a good man. I do not abhor him. He's a good man. My problem is with the undue credit he gets all the time. His lovers either portray him as a "simple", "honest" person at one end or the champion of free economy at the other.
He's neither. He's the king of defaults.

Sonia chose him as PM because he was the most harmless of em all. He does not have a mass following that can challenge Gandhi family's dominance. Neither does he have connections within the party. He was the best bet to keep the PM's seat warm until Rahul saheb was ready to take on. And Sonia the great "sacrificing" bahu of the biggest melodrama in India called Congress party has hit the bull's eye by making him PM. She need not worry of a rebel as a faithful dog will never bark at his masters. Singh will never grow beyond his madam's shadow. He cannot dare to.
So now as the queen prepares her son and prince for the much coveted crown the rest of the media simply waits for this lame duck to deliver.

India is at a threshhold of becoming a super-power. If not super, atleast a very formidible force in world politics. If we miss this chance we will never know when it will come. We have been mere pushovers till now. But we have a chance; if only like an opportunist we encash it.

Sadly with the current disposition i do not see it happening. Our policies are too much tilted on the Left to make considerable progress. There's no substatial backing to PM's optimism. His roar lacks bite.

With Left as your partners you can only go a certain distance. You can only push so much. Alas if keeping BJP away from power was not the only glue holding our parties together we could have achieved a whole lot.

Right wing politics has its own problems no doubt. But atleast on economics front right wing is great. The Soviets were constantly put on their toes by the conservative Reagan regime during the cold war; a great steam was lost by Russia during that period. Similarly Margaret Thatcher years of rightwing policies was a golden period in UK's history, economically.

By ousting NDA, the people of India deprived them of an extended conservative regime and broke the cycle mid-way of a potentially healthy period of stability and growth. With policies now taking a left turn again or in due course likely to take a left turn again, it will be back to square one.