Bharat Ratna awardees brought about socio-economic changes

If the Indian economy is shining, the foundation stone for it was laid by the New Economic Policy of 1991.

It is inappropriate to look at the announcement of Bharat Ratna award by the Prime Minister to great leaders and an agricultural scientist from the political point of view only. This not only amounts to belittling the socioeconomic national contribution of these great personalities. There is no doubt that the previous governments did not give due respect to these leaders in time. Former President Pranab Mukherjee, former Prime Ministers Chaudhary Charan Singh and P.V. Narasimha Rao, former Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, leader of the backward poor, former Chief Minister of

Bihar Karpoori Thakur made significant contributions to the political socio-economic transformation of India through their thoughts and actions. And in the present times, their implementation has become more useful. It has been my good fortune that during my almost 50 years of journalism, I have had the opportunity to see, understand, meet the activities of these leaders, travel within the country and abroad and write and speak on them. It should also be accepted that Bharat Ratna awardees Chaudhary Charan Singh, Karpoori Thakur, Narasimha Rao, Pranab Mukherjee had different views and were, to some extent, opposed to the political ideology of the present BJP government and the Sangh. Despite being a top leader of BJP, Lal Krishna Advani has remained on the sidelines in recent years. Even the leaders of Congress Party and some other parties were accusing the Narendra Modi government of ignoring Advani. In this perspective, the historic decisions of Prime Minister Modi should be appreciated.

The latest decision has also given a befitting reply to the efforts of Congress and its allies to divide the North and the South. P.V. Narasimha Rao was a “great son of the soil” and can truly be called the father of economic reforms in India because he had both the foresight and courage to carry them forward. 1991 changed India completely. He started economic liberalization and the market was opened to foreign capital. The father of this reform was Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. Rao, who became the Prime Minister after Chandrashekhar, was the second Prime Minister to run a coalition government in the country and despite being a minority government, he made major changes in the country and that is why he is called the father of Indian economic reforms. Before Rao, only North Indian politicians reached the top post of Indian democracy. He was the first politician from South India to become Prime Minister. While being the Prime Minister, Rao also took the responsibility of Defence and Foreign Ministries in his government and due to this there were changes in the country’s defence and foreign policies. After the partition of the Soviet Union, Narasimha Rao understood its decreasing power and took the country towards the more powerful United States. This resulted in the beginning of the “Malabar Exercise” between the Indian and US Navies. In 1992, it was Rao who openly started India’s relations with Israel. Rao was the first Prime Minister to run a coalition government for five years. India’s New Economic Policy was launched in 1991 under the leadership of Narasimha Rao. This policy opened the door to global exposure for the Indian economy for the first time. The Rao government reduced the import duty, opened the reserved sector for private players, devalued the Indian currency to increase exports. IMF had warned India in 1989. Due to wasteful expenditure, a payment crisis had arisen in the country. There was a period of continuous unstable governments at the Centre. Ultimately, the habit of spending without caring about the condition of the treasury came before us in a scary form in 1991. On the other hand, China and other Asian countries had already taken steps for fiscal and structural changes before us. In 1991 the water reached above our heads. To avoid a payment crisis, the government had to pledge gold. Then the Rao government decided to take steps towards economic reforms. On the one hand, the budget talked about adopting liberalization and globalization, while on the other, a new industrial policy was brought in.

Earlier the private sector had to obtain licences from the government to start a new venture. The new policy freed the private sector from licensing and other restrictions in various sectors— liquor, cigarettes, defence equipment, industrial explosives and hazardous chemicals. Simply put, privatization meant allowing the private sector to set up industries that were previously reserved for the public sector. Under this policy many public enterprises were sold to the private sector. Literally speaking, privatization is the process of involving the private sector in the ownership of Public Sector Units (PSUS). The main reason for privatization was that due to political interference, public sector undertakings were incurring losses. Privatization of PSUS was inevitable to increase competition and efficiency. The process of disinvestment in loss-making public sector undertakings started and the share of the private sector increased from 45% to 55%. Earlier, importance was given to the public sector with a view to help in industrialization and poverty alleviation. But the PSUS were not able to achieve this objective and under the new economic reforms a policy of contraction of PSUS was adopted. The number of industries reserved for the public sector was reduced from 17 to 2—railway operations and nuclear energy. If the Indian economy is currently shining on the world map, the foundation stone was laid by the New Economic Policy of 1991. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been reiterating his government’s commitment towards the interests of small farmers. As a guide for his agricultural policies, he took the example of former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh. Modi said, “We know how much labourers and small farmers benefited from the path shown by Chaudhary Charan Singhji decades ago.” “Because of these reforms, many generations are living respectable lives today. It is very important that the government stands with the small farmers about whom Choudhary Saheb was so concerned.”

Bharat Ratna Chaudhary Charan Singh created the post of Lekhpal decades ago by taking the resignation letters of 27,000 Patwaris in Uttar Pradesh to free the farmers from the terror of Patwaris. In the recruitment of Lekhpals, he had reserved 18% seats for Dalits. He worked all his life to ensure fair prices for the farmers. He said that India’s overall development will happen only when farmers are happy. He used to say the real India resides in its villages. One of his important responsibilities was the abolition of the Zamindari system, which Choudhary Saheb carried out very well. Now farmers are becoming self-reliant as per his dream.