The three questions for BJP!

Here, Rajesh Jain asks 3 questions whose answers would help the BJP charter a future course. I have provided my inputs on his blog and am now replicating those in this blog post.

1. What are the 2-3 big issues that will present the most challenges and opportunities for India?

(a) Scaling up infrastructure in the areas of Health, Education, Power sector and mass transportation would present a huge challenge in India.

(b) The large number of people working in unorganized sectors would hamper reforms in the labour sector and rationalizing taxes. India also needs to address the imbalances in its workforce. For example 50% people working in agriculture account for only 17% of the GDP while 34% of workforce working the services sector account for a much larger 60% of the GDP. This issue has to be addressed while keeping the supply side in agriculture sector strong ensuring self sufficiency and lower food prices.

(c) India’s foreign policy needs to be far more assertive specially vis-a-vis Asia. It is time India asserted itself as a regional superpower by having far more meaningful relations with Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and other South East Asian countries which are culturally closer to India. Japan and South Korea would also be natural partners. They could manufacture their goods in India which could be shipped to South East Asia. This would also keep China on its toes.

Which ideas/issues would resonate most with the youth in this decade — those issues which will fire them up to actively work towards their own and India’s development?

(a) Establish numerous tie-ups with reputed educational institutions overseas to offer quality courses across different areas (Engineering, arts, medicine, economics) in India with emphasis on R&D. This should make the issue of reservations in Education irrelevant. Also this would ensure Indian talent stays on shore. Promoting entrepreneurship would enable the youth to be more aspirational and help in nation building by offering indigenous solutions.

(b) High quality Government services which are hassle free and devoid of red-tapism and corruption. This could also be debated in the context of privatization and disinvestment.

Which matters should we focus on in the next 10 years? These should be achievable and must be important for India’s development?

(a) Promoting an aspirational society while promoting the values of nationalism, liberty and kindness. Putting it in the other way, the discourse has to be turned away from the concepts of “Aam Aadmi” and “masses” to “Khaas Aadmi” meaning individuals in society can have a dream and work towards scaling it unrestricted.

(b) Social sector schemes/cons like loan waivers and NREGA have to repackaged to add economic value to the system. This would give a lever to tackle inflation as well because we are not pumping money into a project which adds nothing making the money worthless.

Alternative proposals for governance in India – A view from Right of Center

I have always been attracted to the ideas of liberalization, de-regulation, lean and transparent Government which is intent on constant innovation, reform and improving productivity of the nation as a whole. But when we see political outfits in India, there is no political party that even comes close to this agenda. But there is another factual consideration in Indian polity – It is a near to impossible to build a party from scratch, which is based on the above principles, that can fight elections and bring material changes to the system. Parties such as Lok Satta and Lok Paritran are cases in point, not to discourage them. So, the percentage option would be to influence existing political parties to revamp their think-tanks and ideologies to build a better stronger India which stands for Liberty and Equality, driven by aspirations of its people and claims its rightful place in the league of nations (which is often said rhetorically).

On the national scene in India, we predominantly have the INC and for the past 2+ decades the BJP. I find the INC too distant from this idelology and I dont want to go into the obvious reasons, but BJP turns out to be a mixed bag. On one hand RSS which is the BJP’s ideological fountainhead supports Swadeshi economics, the Governments of BJP ruled states and the erswhile NDA Government pursued a slightly Right of Center Economic agenda. Disinvestment of public sector companies to promote private participation, Public Private Partnerships based on B-O-T model, fiscal prudence, muscular foreign policy and tried but failed labour reforms are examples.

But, they haven’t given a clear indication of their positions on various aspects of Governance. Apart from the odd statement by Narendra Modi & Nitin Gadkari such as “Minimum Government, Maximum Governance”, in general they have never talked about reducing Govt. Size, reducing Govt. spending, promoting an aspirational society and a slightly bolder approach to reservations. Also their alleged association with fringe extreme elements overshadows whatever good work they have done. For instance Varun Gandhi’s episode overrided their IT policy and Infrastructure policy proposals (which were truly interesting) released as a part of their manifesto. A bad image in National media has turned the urban voter against them. Add to this rising dynastic politics, involvement of BJP leaders in corruption cases and lack of discipline have further dented the party. Top that up with near-Zero presence in 5 major states in India and the results are there for everyone to see.

Inspite of these major problems there are folks like this and this , who have tried to influence BJP, although in a very small way, to be a responsible Right-Of-Center party of India. This effort is first of its kind in India where a group of people are positively trying to influence a political party to redefine itself. Friends of BJP launched in 2009 specifically for the election campaign was a similar effort that did not work. There is a talk of reviving it and getting it a recognition within the party fora. It would be great if this can indeed happen because BJP can then get inputs from diverse group of professionals and intellectuals – these inputs can be thought upon and absorbed by the party’s think-tank if found palatable. Whether this ambitious plan would work is anybody’s guess. Such groups can also act as a watchdog and could raise objections if they have a representation inside the party. IMHO, I feel that as someone who is looking for alternatives in Indian polity, I could also contribute to this cause in whatever little way I can and from here-on, I wish to keep writing on this issue.

All said and done, its upto the party to carry these people/groups along and reposition itself as a strong and credible alternative to the incumbent.

Nitin Gadkari to lead BJP

Though this has been on for some time, though there was strong intervention from RSS to make it happen, though it had been done through backroom “consensus” rather than through ballot, I am glad that it has happened – the appointment of Nitin Gadkari as BJP president. He is an infrastructure guru, entrepreneur and stands for clean and development oriented politics. My only concern is that he is a political light weight and I wonder if he can assert himself over the organization. Another drawback is that he is not a great orator and I wonder how he would campaign in the hindi heartland, not that Rajnath Singh did any better.

As Arun Shourie had suggested sometime back, this move aims to bring RSS backed candidates who are non-controversial, disciplined and dont have big political ambitions to New Delhi to rebuild the party from the top. BJP would do quite well to involve Manohar Parrikar, who was also a contender for the top post, also in this rebuilding process and I am sure he will have a role to play at the national level sooner than later. One thing with these leaders is that they donot have baggage of perceptions in sections of “pseudo-secular” Indian media. Nitin Gadkari’s website is here. Also theres an interesting book that he has authored titled Poltics for Development.

The elevation of Sushma Swaraj to the post of leader of opposition is also significant. Theres a good chance that she could be BJP’s PM candidate if things go well. Apart from being a good orator & a non-controversial politician, Sushma Swaraj could utilize the plank of womens reservation and build up a popular appeal among India’s women community.

Best wishes for the new apointees.

What is Hindutva? Atalji answers…

Atalji answers the questions: Who is a Hindu? What is Hindutva?

Listen to him and for those who understand Hindi I’m sure this 5 min recitation will shake you up. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the primary reason behind BJPs rise in the 90′s and todays imbecile leadership of the BJP is a far cry from what it was back then. Atalji isn’t keeping good health these days and the infighting inside BJP I’m sure would be rankling him. Wishing him well & over to the video.