From across the aisle

THE NEW INDIA I WANT IS A COUNTRY WHERE YOU WON’T GET LYNCHED FOR THE FOOD YOU EAT, MARGINALIZED FOR THE FAITH YOU HOLD DEAR, CRIMINALIZED FOR THE PERSON YOU LOVE AND IMPRISONED FOR MAKING USE OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS GUARANTEED BY OUR OWN CONSTITUTION

ued the government’s role in every business it ought not to be in, from running hotels to making condoms. ‘Divestment’ consisted merely of selling part of the government’s share of some public sector companies to other public sector companies; thus the government — owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation bought the government-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, with Mr Modi crowing about disinvestment. And when the government finally attempted an important act of privatization — that of the loss-making state airline Air India — it hedged the sale offer with so many conditions, including the government’s retaining a 25 per cent stake, that not a single bidder came forward.

All of this, coupled with the sea of red ink listing bad loans at state-owned banks (now at a record breaking ~ 85,370 crore in 2017-18, with a dozen major badloan defaulters in the bankruptcy courts), has dented the investment climate in India…

Inevitably, the rupee has sunk to record lows. This is turn has hugely driven up the cost of India’s energy imports at the very time that global oil prices are increasing…

…Narendra Modi’s India is heading towards precisely the kind of crisis of economic confidence it was elected to resolve. With elections looming, it is under pressure to increase minimum support prices for farmers, finance the ambitious social welfare schemes it had announced with much fanfare, lower the hefty taxes it has been levying on petrol and diesel to balance its books and show some genuine progress on infrastructure. It hasn’t a clue about how to do any of this. Instead of the promised ‘good days’, India is facing plenty of bad ones.