An article in Financial Times by Razeen Sally, (Director of the European Centre for International Political Economy) has hit the nail on the head by stating that the current economic mess in India should be squarely blamed on Manmohan Singh, who plunged Indian economy into a chasm largely on account of political expediency. It has rightly criticized his lack of political leadership (despite excellent academic credentials) as being largely responsible for failure of Indian economy and end of India hype that was peddled around the world.
I had posted a blog in July 2007, a short comment on how govt headed by Manmohan Singh will lead India to an economic catastrophe. I am no expert of economics but a common sense and idea of right and wrong was good enough for anyone to see where India was headed since 2004. That many sections of corporate India did not see it coming only tell 2 things
A. most of Indian corporate honchos lack common sense
B. they were also part of the team peddling Chindia story at Davos and all other forums for raking short term gains
Media has been largely trying to deflect blame of economic chaos from Manmohan Singh, projecting it as part of global economic downturn (now media has as much vested interest as Congress party in propagating this myth).
Nothing can be far from the truth. The crisis faced by global financial institutions in west owing to toxic assets (worth more than USD2 trillion) did not impact financial institutions in India. It just acted as a trigger to expose and jolt already fragile economic super-structure, which had weakened since 2004 (actually the process of strengthening which was less than a decade old stopped and the decay started) failed under the impact of a seemingly distant crisis.
During last 5 yrs Manmohan Singh's so called dream team was busy marketing and branding themselves as harbingers of economic reforms and liberalization, while their govt was undermining the very spirit of free market economy by:
a. stopping all reforms (now Sonia Gandhi, who is surely no expert in economics have enough galls to say that lack of reforms actually helped India avert the global crisis and her mother in law, Indira Gandhi was a visionary who saw this coming 40 yrs, way back in 1970s and hence she had the bright idea to nationalize every institution in the country)
b. wasting money and creating a huge fiscal deficit by unimaginative but populist acts like employment guarantee scheme (like Soviet Union had)
c. halting all major infrastructure development projects (while PM projected himself as messiah of development and media cheered on when he staked his govt on a nuclear pact with US, commercial impact of which can be felt only 25 yrs from now - which is also doubtful as some other renewable energy source may very well replace nuclear energy)
d. weakening all good professional educational institutions by curbing their autonomy and destroying them by forcing reservation at cost of merit, where everyone will loose other than politicians who can claim they did all this for lower caste people. Who can forget what havoc this govt created for IITs, IIMs and AIIMS
e. pushing entrepreneurs to the edge by arm twisting them on affirmative action, while abdicating govt responsibility to provide a secure and stable environment and reliable infrastructure to do business
All this and many more acts, primarily for political gains have eroded the competitiveness of the country. India unlike US and other western countries has been largely playing a catching up game, trying to come out of years of poverty and stupid economic policies which had rendered country and its business establishment in abysmal state. No one should be under illusion that next 2 decades of back breaking work would be needed to extricate country out of poverty and wretchedness completely and build a society that is at par with developed world
Manmohon Singh (who is an eminent economist) knew very well the cost the country would pay by abandoning the pursuit of creating a workable free market economy and prosperous society (unlike people like Lalu and Mulayam who are also ignorant not just crooks). That he did all this with the knowledge of what it will lead to makes it more un-pardonable and repugnant.
In the globalized world every country with a meaningful leadership is seriously seeking to expand its market, acquire best resources and be competitive. Those who aspire for position of leadership are not complacent but critical of their short comings and try to offset them. India unfortunately had a weak Prime Minister who had no equity in India's growth, he was just carrying out instructions of his boss, whose family's vested interest has always been in India that is fragmented, poor and underdeveloped where the they can rule like a medieval clan over a servile and weak populace.
Anyone who rejoice and celebrate after completing first 100 mts ahead of the pack in a marathon is not just a fool but also delusional. A leader who makes the country believe that we have achieved when we have hardly begun is trecherous.
Every politician and industrialist and bureaucrat who helped contributed towards creating the illusion while turning a blind eye to the reality played into Manmohan Singh's hand.
The country needed (and needs it more now) a leader who has the passion and obsession to realize the vision of a strong and prosperous country, which evidently Manmohan Singh does not have. He is a go-fetch person for Sonia Gandhi and her family and who can hardly think on his own.
And anyone who wants to absolve Manmohan Singh and his govt of the blame is ignorant or a partner in the crime.
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