A Thatcherite idea of India

From Dependence to Self-reliance: Mapping India’s Rise as a Global Superpower 

Author: Bimal Jalan

Publisher: Rupa

Pages: 184

Price: Rs 695

In the first few minutes of the movie Gladiator (2000), Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor, tells his general Maximus, “There was once a dream that was Rome. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish... it was so fragile.” Marcus Aurelius is not talking about the empire but the Republic. The theme is repeated throughout the movie as his son, Commodus, tries to overrule the Senate, and Maximus and his coterie attempt to re-establish the Republic. In India’s context, that dream would translate into a vibrant democracy, which remains an elusive goal still.

Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Bimal Jalan dedicates one section of his recent work to this dream of India. A third of his succinct and lucid writing in From Dependence to Self-Reliance: Mapping India’s Rise as a Global Superpower focuses on the country’s politics and how it hinders the evolution of India into a superpower. Like his previous works, Dr Jalan takes a broad view, focusing his critique on the current system of governance and targeting the concentration of power in the hands of a few, though without taking any names. A good part of the book is dedicated to comparing the present form of government with the presidential form, which has been gaining some traction in recent years. On balance,

Dr Jalan finds support for the current system, though it has its flaws. He highlights that the system of governance has a pyramidal structure, with the bottom level — the Panchayati raj institutions — having a low entry barrier and more people to serve but fewer resources and power. As one moves up the pyramid, there are fewer people to cater to the masses, but the power they wield over resources is enormous.

The author also focuses on political opportunism by linking the economic concepts of scarcity and allocation with politics. In the last chapter of the section and the book, the author provides some solutions to changing the current political dispensation. Still, the focus is primarily on reducing the role of the government. However, Dr Jalan clarifies that the role of the government in providing public goods and services needs to expand. He also raises an interesting yet controversial idea of reducing the influence of small political parties and their role in determining the government’s economic plan. The idea is reminiscent of the former prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s speech before he tendered his resignation ahead of a trust vote. Vajpayee castigated these one-member parties, which colluded to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party out of power. Dr Jalan’s misgivings about these parties may be valid. But it is also true that these parties offer a voice and political power for marginalised groups. So their role in a functioning democracy is not as expendable as one would want it to be.

The other two sections of the book, which contain seven other chapters, are dedicated to economy and governance. In the economy section, Dr Jalan highlights issues such as dependence on IT, economic reforms, the banking sector and social sector spending to expand India’s human capital. In the section on governance, he discusses his misgivings about the public sector enterprises and the blurring of lines between goods and services.

Although Dr Jalan presents clear-cut solutions for each problem, the theme mostly aligns with Thatcherism. In his discussion on reforms, for instance, Dr Jalan defines 1991 and 2014 as two pivotal moments for India. 1991 for its liberalisation and 2014 for the election of a majority government, which can take a reform agenda forward. He conveniently ignores the 2000s when reforms were achieved even by a coalition. Nor does he dwell much on the demonetisation issue, where a majority government was responsible for a disastrous decision.

As for technology, the danger of over-reliance on it remains a problem. It is true that technology can solve many of the problems that ail Indian society, but equally it can be a hindrance too, especially when it is not coupled with matching efficiencies in governance. A few years ago, a study from the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (known as J-PAL for short) found that direct benefit transfers were more inefficient in some cases than the public distribution system, because people had to line up in front of ATMs or banks to get money out.

Although Dr Jalan’s analysis is cogent, it is somewhat rushed in places where the reader would have expected more detail, especially in sections covering the economy. Moreover, the over-reliance on Thatcher’s ideas is a problem recurring throughout the text. In the case of India, the dream may need more than a whisper.