Indian political system is deep rooted since ancient times and is a continously evolving one.
LONDON: Ruchi Ghanashyam, India’s high commissioner to the UK and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations held a seminar at the high commission in Aldwych, entitled “Delivering Democracy: Innovative Approaches and Experiments for Good Governance in India”. Mrs Ghanashyam began the event with a respectful minute’s silence for the soldiers lost at Pulwama. ICCR-UK director, Srinivas Gotru’s brief introduction applauded the addition of economic and social topics to the cultural remit. Gotru said that democracy has roots in Indian cultural history, there are many historical examples of people deciding their own affairs.
Dr Mohan Kaul, Chair, Global Investment Advisory and President, Indian Professionals Forum, author of Kashmir: Wail of the Valley gave a heartfelt summary of the situation in Kashmir, saying, “I hope the Prime Minister will walk the talk and take the appropriate action”. Kaul praised India’s democracy, referring to the advanced technology used by India and Japan in elections, he said, “Countries with high participation rates get better governance.” Kaul continued that India’s democratic survival was unique, Indians had voted out the governments of the Emergency and Shining India.
Dr R. Balasubramaniam, Development Scholar and Founder of the Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement, spoke about India’s noisy democracy and its contradictions, the complexity and diversity of governance. To underline development progress to date, he gave the example of the forest people of Mysore being angry with a democratic system that had done nothing for them; to them governance meant being left alone. He recalled that 35 years ago these people received a pension of Rs 5, from which the postman took a cut; today their pension is received without interference into a bank account. He praised GST’s benefit to women as policemen were no longer able to take monthly cuts.
Balasubramaniam explained how 1947 had not resulted in an altered Indian mindset. He said Indians had been conditioned to be a subject, not a citizen—subjects just waiting for the government to provide, with the result that the state has controlled everything from telephones to scooters, as in the past subjects had to “qualify” to receive these apparatuses. It is necessary to shift the mindset from entitlement to empowerment, from subject to citizen; citizens who demand accountability from the system and the state must understand this. Balasubramaniam said, “Move from a rights-based society to a responsibility and compliance approach…. Part of this change has to be when the citizen does not expect to be the beneficiary of election cash.”
To deliver the above, Balasubramaniam advocated a balance between rules, institutions that deliver the rules, political leadership and an authorising environment. He said to fulfil Swami Vivekananda’s dream of a New India governance needs to be consistent and less, good governance means translating intent into action.
“The Indian Economy: Prospect and Retrospect” session included a panel of distinguished experts: Dr Surjit Bhalla, economist, Dr Syed Zafar Islam, BJP spokesperson and former MD Deutsche Bank, Philip Bouverat, Director of JCB, chaired by Richard Heald, CEO of UK-India Business Council. Heald quoted the November Ease of Doing Business survey, which discovered 46% of respondents will increase their investment in India, and 26% will do this in Assam and West Bengal. Heald regards Brexit as a positive for UK-India relations as it has focused UK’s attention on India’s possibilities. He acknowledged the importance of Aadhar and GST in creating a data rich economy and in being the service provider of choice for AI.
Dr Bhalla said the past five years had been the most inclusive growth India had seen, way beyond UPA’s “inclusive growth” story. Bhalla talked of a transformation in education now that equal numbers of boys and girls are attending school. He called it, “Sita goes to school”; but the standard/quality of primary and secondary education still needs improvement. He quoted some additional statistics for India’s growth story: The fertility rate in India has declined to 2.1 from 6 and contrary to Raghuram Rajan’s estimate, India only needs to create 5.3 million jobs a year. Bhalla lamented the delay in making public the NSSO employment survey and queried the NSSO approach of dividing employment into statuses, as no other country does this; he regretted that India was still bound by inherited arcane labour laws. India, he said, “was a catch-up story, Indian per capita GDP will catch up with China, India is China with a 15-year lapse.”
Dr Islam presented two important aspects of government: efficiency/fairness represented by BJP’s anti-corruption drive in bureaucracy and creating a stable economy/reducing the deficit. A series of slides showed positive macro-economic indicators, inflation under control, the attractiveness of India for FDI and how investment opportunities have opened up in Jharkhand, how GST had simplified the tax system and how NPAs had been recognised, how the Monetary Policy Committee (six members) is improving monetary policy framework through transparency and accountability; Islam said the government was very sensitive about not handing a burden to the next generation. Islam described how electronics production is booming under the Make In India programme, and how “Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobiles” have significantly increased their reach across the population, spreading “JAM” across the economy and eliminating “leakage”. The Swachh Bharat, Affordable Housing and Modicare initiatives demonstrate the “inclusive growth” of the past five years. During question time, Dr Islam mentioned that Niti Aayog was working on a mechanism to capture data about how many jobs were created. He confirmed to this reporter that only a surprising 15% of India’s economy is formal and the rest (85%) is informal.
Philip Bouverat recounted JCB’s four decades of experience in India, he praised the rural population’s access to 4G and bank accounts under the BJP; he said rural India was part of the economic miracle and a very important citizenry in the upcoming elections. Bouverat said GST had a “lumpy” six months to begin with and that demonetisation had been sorted out. JCB now has a workforce of 6,000. In the Jaipur plant the workforce is 30% women under the age of 24 years. JCB has chosen India to build their new fabrication plant that will supply the rest of the world. Bouverat held India is more understood and reliable than China but the process is slow.
Sanjay Paswan came to the lectern to show how strong India’s social conscience was. As a politician and academic he spoke powerfully about the need for parity for tribals and Dalits, the people on the periphery of democracy. Paswan said democracy was a continuous process of deliverables; he proceeded with an alphabet of values and realities for democracy to deliver for tribals and Dalits, but alas this reporter was unable to hear it in its entirety. D is for dignity, E for engagement and empowerment, M for mobility and medical care, O for output, C for connectivity, R for rights to responsibility and results, A for attitude and ability, C for ?, Y for yoga and a humanistic approach.
Overall, the event gave the impression that Indian democracy will increasingly influence political power and the economy has found its momentum.