Modi is the last hope to revitalise the economy
The kind of structural reforms undertaken are thankless. The costs are borne upfront and the rewards come later
Recent weeks have witnessed an enormous amount of hand-wringing in the press about India’s economy. These articles share a common thematic trajectory: a recitation of statistics, their use to settle personal scores, and, in the case of the political opposition, using them to prepare oneself for 2019 with nervous glee. None of this hand-wringing is accompanied with any solutions beyond the obvious.
The fox knows many things. The hedgehog knows one important thing.
In a now famous essay written when he was an Oxford Don in the 1930’s, Isaiah Berlin classified people into foxes and hedgehogs. Foxes, according to Berlin, may know many things, but a coherent worldview is beyond their comprehension. The hedgehog, however, knows one great truth, and steadfast in its pursuit, remains unreconciled until he/she reaches it.
Narendra Modi is the unusual hedgehog who may not only know what India needs to do to become prosperous, but importantly, is also willing to act upon it. Indeed, he may be the only politician in contemporary Indian history who has undertaken structural reforms out of choice rather than, like Narasimha Rao in the 1990’s, being compelled to do so.
Structural reform is thankless: costs are borne upfront, and rewards come later. (The currency for this transaction is political capital, and Arun Jaitley has paid the most for his role as the able knight who is the face of such change.) For years, it was the very absence of these structural reforms that armchair foxes have bemoaned. Now that the reforms are occurring, the foxes are unwilling to pay the price.
Through his decade-long executive leadership of one of India’s richest states, Modi knows what the foxes don’t: First, that there’s never a right time to make a hard choice, and second, the slowdown is the result of a fundamental fragility of the Indian economy baked into India’s economic foundation at its creation: the government’s overwhelming role in the economy. taken place, it was without [her] consent/ will … and if it was without [her] consent, whether the appellant could discern/understand the same.”
Let us begin at the beginning. The burden of proving rape is on the prosecution. In this case, the judge considered the woman an “unimpeachable witness”when she deposed that she did not consent to oral sex. There the matter should have ended and a finding of guilt been entered. Instead the judge goes on to discuss what could be the defence of the accused. There was no need to second guess the defence, since the case of the accused was one of denial, that no opportunity arose for oral sex, that given they were alone for just a few minutes, there was no time for sex.
While the Mathura case represented a black day for adivasi women, this one represents a black day for the woman of “letters”. It seems we are in a no win situation. We cannot expect equality and expect that we will not be raped. The sooner the Supreme Court overturns this judgment, the better it will be for the women of this country
Modi is seeking to eliminate this fragility by recalibrating the entire engine of India’s economic growth methodically: Jaitley’s increasing of the states’ share in the divisible pool of union taxes in 2015, digitisation// demonetisation of the economy in 2016, the GST in 2017, Piyush Goyal’s work in the power sector over the last three years, Nitin Gadkari’s ongoing work in transportation, all are transformative contributions to the structure of the economy, and designed to create a robust equilibrium from which the economy can propel itself higher.
That these reforms are happening without any taint on any senior politician of the government is in-itself a first in India’s modern history. The republic was lucky to survive through years of pillage under the Congress, and if it were nothing else but just that the BJP is taint-free, we would still have much to be thankful for.
MODI’S TOUGHEST TEST IS YET TO COME. HE MUST NOW DISMANTLE THE SOCIALIST ECONOMIC SUPERSTRUCTURE WHICH IS INDIA’S LASTING CURSE
Today is Dussehra, marking the triumph of ‘good’ over ‘evil’ when the effigies of the demon kings go up in smoke. At the same time it would be pertinent to mention that Ravan was not all evil and neither was Ram completely infallible. It was Ravan’s ego and arrogance which made him an embodiment of evil. As a result, all his brilliance as a great warrior, scholar and master of profound wisdom was overshadowed. Similarly, Ram on mere suspicion about the chastity of Sita abandoned her.
As human beings we too possess shades of grey. We are a mix of virtues and vices. The world has never been a simple black and white view.
Those who are aware of their wrongdoings, flaws and weaknesses and try to overcome these put themselves on the road to righteousness. Such people do not focus on the evil of others and neither do they gloss over their own negative traits. They always endeavour to subdue their vices and let the ‘virtuous self’ dominate.
So, this Dussehra while we celebrate the victory of ‘good’ over ‘evil’ we must also look inwards in an effort to vanquish evil thoughts and negative feelings, thus contributing towards goodwill and harmony in the world.