NDA II needs ideological reforms

But employment of the middle class youth will head the government’s priority list because of the support it received this time, as also five years ago, from this section. Therefore, as Nitin Gadkari, the minister for road transport, highways and small and medium industries, has said, the government hopes to achieve the crucial objective of providing jobs via infrastructure development – building 40 km of roads every day – and reviving the small-scale industries sector with the intention of globalizing their products

The setting up of as many as eight cabinet committees underlines the realization that the government doesn’t have a moment to lose. And therefore, into his second term, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is focussing on the bigger economic picture.

The BJP’s victory in the general election was something of an oddity since it was accomplished against the backdrop of high unemployment. A feat of this nature has rarely been achieved before.

The reason why the BJP was able to buck the trend is the dismal condition of its opponents, who had neither a leader, nor an economic plan which they could sell with conviction. Facing such opponents can be deemed a lucky break. But, now, the BJP has to confront the challenges on the economic front which had been relegated to the background by its strident nationalistic/jingoistic agenda and a cynical exploitation of the Hindu-Muslim divide.

The two-pronged offensive paid excellent electoral dividends. But the party obviously could not pursue the same aggressive line after the votes had been counted. Hence the immediate change of track from patriotism and polarization to the economy.

Foremost in the ruling party’s current calculations is the need to increase employment opportunities for the educated middle class and rescue the agricultural sector from its prevailing stagnation, with the augmentation of irrigation facilities, encouragement of agroproducts and the building of warehouses.

But employment of the middle class youth will head the government’s priority list because of the support it received this time, as also five years ago, from this section. Therefore, as Nitin Gadkari, the minister for road transport, highways and small and medium industries, has said, the government hopes to achieve the crucial objective of providing jobs via infrastructure development – building 40 km of roads every day – and reviving the small-scale industries sector with the intention of globalizing their products, even if this is easier said than done in an age of strict quality control.

But these endeavours do not fall in the category of the “big-bang” reforms of which the Rajiv Kumar, vice chairman of Niti Aayog, the government's economic think tank, has spoken. Such reforms relate to labour laws and the privatization of ailing public sector units, according to him.

But it is no secret that the BJP’s trade union wing, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, and the anti-reforms, protectionist saffron outfit, the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, are ideologically dead against such measures. Their opposition is one of the reasons why the much anticipated – especially by the corporate sector – big-ticket reforms never took place during Modi’s first term. Instead, what was seen was “incrementalism” or micro-economic steps, which were mocked as “tinkering and tokenism” by a pro-Modi scribe.

But tinkering and tokenism do not create jobs. Hence, the setting up of high-powered committees on growth, investment, employment and skill development. However, the point remains why the initiatives in these directions – bringing in foreign investment, building smart cities, encouraging the manufacturing giants of the industrialized countries to make their products in India – did not succeed in the last five years.

Is the uneasiness among the minorities, about the ruling party’s majoritarian thinking, which have led to hapless Muslims being lynched on the suspicion of consuming beef or transporting cattle for slaughter - it has led to the collapse of the leather and cattle industries - responsible for the reluctance of international business, particularly from the Gulf, to invest in India?

Since the uneasiness is shared by the liberal intelligentsia, major media houses in the West such as the Economist, the Guardian, the New York Times, Le Monde, the Time magazine and others have been wary about the BJP’s rule. And their reservations could not but have influenced the investors.

Prime Minister Modi has sought to reach out to the minorities, talking of "sabka viswas" (gaining trust of all), but 2019 would be crucial in determining the direction his NDA-II seeks to go and the economic, political and social reforms in its policies and thinking it undertakes.