(MK Venu is Executive Editor of Amar Ujala publications group)Prime Minister Narendra Modi has hinted at a transformational budget in February 2015 for which the Finance Ministry has begun preparing already. However, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has sought to clarify that the term "transformational" does not necessarily mean what impatient stock market investors describe wistfully as "Big Bang Reforms".
These reforms are essentially like hitting sensational Dhoni-like helicopter shots. For the economy, these would translate into things like the privatisation of all PSUs and government-owned banks, introducing at one stroke hire-and-fire provisions in labour reforms, removing all subsidies which "distort the market" and so on. In short, it encompasses everything that the South Mumbai financial market elite and India-focused global investors have been self-righteously demanding for decades.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, however, wants to temper their expectations as budget preparations begin. Jaitley told the business delegates gathered at the CII-World Economic Forum event in Delhi on Wednesday not to expect "sensational reforms".
The Finance Minister virtually admitted that things must necessarily happen at a different pace in complex developing societies like India with many-layered socio economic realities.
Significantly, both Modi and Jaitley are trying to signal that "transformational" change can also be somewhat gradual in complex societies. Jaitley is being very cautious because he knows he should not irrationally heighten the expectations of global and domestic investors. For instance, he was very candid at the CII-WEF event and stated upfront that labour reforms would require a consensus among all political constituencies. He further clarified that India is in support of the trade facilitation agreement at the WTO, but not at the cost of compromising India's food procurement from farmers.
It is interesting that even with 282 seats in Parliament, both Modi and Jaitley have adopted a very cautious approach. The reason for this is nor far to seek. The broader Sangh Parivar, under the leadership of the RSS, has strong views on how India's political economy must evolve. Like the National Advisory Council (NAC) guided the Congress-led UPA, the Sangh Parivar outfits guide the Modi government.
Last fortnight, some key Union ministers were called for a meeting by the RSS top brass to discuss critical policy issues. The meeting was called for better coordination between Sangh Parivar affiliates like Swadeshi Jagran Manch, Bhartiya Majdoor Sangh(BMS) and the Bhartiya Kisan Sangh which was founded by the much revered RSS stalwart, late Dattopant Thengadi.
The most interesting feature to note about the NDA under Modi, as opposed to the one under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, is the kind of organic coordination with the RSS that exists on all critical matters pertaining to the political economy. This is happening probably because the relationship Modi enjoys with RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat is more intellectually intimate than the one Vajpayee probably had with K Sudarshan who was appointed the RSS Chief in 1999.
The larger point is there is far more functional synergy between the BJP and the RSS today than existed in 1999. For instance, under Vajpayee, the RSS leadership had a tense and unpredictable interaction with the Prime Minister's Office. This was especially true in the way the Sangh Parivar saw the all-powerful Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra, who defied the RSS by making a serious attempt at the privatisation of profitable public sector oil companies like IOC and HPCL. Of course, Brajesh Mishra and the then divestment minister Arun Shourie were eventually halted in their tracks.
Recently, Modi addressed his party MPs and outlined a special funding programme where all legislators would adopt villages for holistic development on the lines envisioned by Gandhi, Lohia and Jayaprakash Narayan. He held up as an example the rural development model practically implemented by RSS stalwart Nanaji Deshmukh who had created such a village in Chitrakoot and named it after Jayaprakash Narayan and his wife.
It may be pertinent to note that all the thinkers/ideologues Modi is invoking - Gandhi, Lohia, Jayaprakash Narayan - were clearly not comfortable with aggressive capitalist models of growth. In fact they all tried to evolve indigenous and socially inclusive ways of doing things. This indeed is a critical DNA component of the Sangh Parivar's thinking. But in a modern, inter-dependent world, the Sangh Parivar must necessarily grapple with India's inevitable engagement with global capitalism. And between these two streams of ideologies could arise what Marxists describe as "antagonistic contradictions".
The key challenge for Modi and Jaitley will be to manage these contradictions.
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