But who will be in charge?
The current Prime Minister and his team lost their mandate!
It is the next government that will decide the FDI in many sectors!
This decision claimed and hailed as breaking into the last great China Wall.
But the public scepticism, in the context of the series of corruption scandals needs to be overcome!
Is not yet over. There are many hurdles. Timing is one. It was a bad timing. Raising the fuel prices and then immediately this FDI bombshell. But what a poor set of ministers we have now!
The very day the Cabinet decided on these reforms, the TV screens flashed the ministers announce this decision in a press conference.
What a pathetic sight!
Ambika Soni, the I&B minister was seen or shown as adjusted her glasses for quite some time. She was not even aware the whole country was watching her image and performance. She made such a pathetic sight.
She is after all the communications minister. If this is what the government has its communications talent, then, one can be sure this government might not survive the next elections. It is as good as a lifeless instrument.
And, God, forbid Ms.Sonia was digressing on her portfolio. No viewer might have caught her message that day.
Was she talking about FDI in retail, the big fuss others were making and threatening to pull down the government or was she content to take credit for her own ministry.
The next man was Anand Sharma, the Commence Minister. He was better but not as good as expected.
Anyway, these two leading lights of the UPA government were not obviously masters of the subject they were talking about.
FDI is no more a big news, not in the outside world. Every country knows what it takes to grow its economy these days of economic recession and global downturn.
And for a big economy and market like India we need to expand the market reach, Indian economy’s market potential and we have to open up the market for large scale FDI in various sectors.
If only the UPA ministers had visited China and seen what is happening there, they would have realised that the Indian economy must compete with Chinese economy in various spheres, infrastructure first and then other sectors. Every development project in China, be its airports or civil aviation or ports and national highways, why even the dams, the Three Gorges dam projects our ministers might have visited(do any of our minister did that?),everything in China is on a very big scale.
Their airports are planned in such huge manner that they, the airports might serve sufficiently well even after a century! Such is the scale.
After a visit to Shanghai we came back to Bangalore to see how pathetic our own Bangalore International airport is in size and various services! Still the concrete patches are unfinished in the very entrance and exits of Bangalore airport!
So too our national highways. We have almost, it seems, forgotten our highways minister. Who is he? When did you last hear of him, his pronouncements? The same for ports minister, for civil aviation, we have been hearing Mr.Ajit Singh because of the mess in which we find our national carrier. Air Asia, Malaysian airline, low cost, Air China are all doing so well and patronised the world over. They are part of the Star Alliance. Is Air India a member of the Star Alliance?
The point here is that FDI, in every conceivable sector must be sought just to make our economy grow in size and rewatch and resilience.
We have dithered for so long.
But then, just to say we have made enabling provisions for the FDI in several sectors and it is for the states to choose or not, is again a sign of the weakness, weak-mindedness of the Central government.
The Prime Minister must come on the TV screen and aggressively push for the economic agenda.
The great pity is that in the process of his subservient continuance in the high office, Dr.Singh had lost all his reserve energies as an efficient performer.
The Indian media is also subservient when it comes to aggressively to put forward its views on the many aspects of our failures. Be it corruption or economic policy confusion, there is such deficiencies in many areas; it looks as if we have become a nation conditioned to crony capitalism.
Yes, it is crony capitalism that had led this government, step by step and one mistake by another mistake, from 2-G scam to the present, almost insurmountable coalgate scam.
It is here we have to stand still and take note of what is possible in the present compete mix-up of issues and policies.
Simply because we have announced the new economic reforms policy for inviting FDI in retail, we can’t sit back and relax.
We need some new talents, efficient implementers.
This talent can’t be got from the political leftovers in the party and among its allies.
Any cabinet reshuffle, that seems inevitable in the present situation with Rahul Gandhi made to hover above everyone’s mind is that the allies quota would produce only some more worse likely offenders, itching to make some quick bucks before the next elections!
This danger is very there and so the PM might not really succeed in Unleashing the “animal spirits”.
It is quite laughable to borrow from Lord Keynes at this time of history.
In India, the animal spirits are sufficiently in action. It is the accumulated corruption deals.
If at all, we need to control the unleashed animal spirits, in various forms, in the accumulation of unaccounted cash deals in various portfolios, in the party coffers, in the sports bodies, in the foreign banks and elsewhere.
Also, we have to seriously lay down some strict ground rules so that our corporate leaders (and raiders) behave at least this time in a some dignified and restrained manner.
Government must become accountable at the last resort.
One person-rule, one-person decision making is a sure way to disaster. It is the arbitrary exercise of power that had done the party its Armageddon!
In a democracy, there is one sure way out. It is the elections. May be, sooner, rather than later, the next general elections might clear up the political confusions and contradictions.
Image Source : thehindu.com