It is an interesting speech delivered by L K Advani on which Bibek Debroy dissminiates his future government ideas. The below para proposal, I really wanted wait and see!
“I can, in all humility, claim that ours is one party that has consistently followed a policy of supporting private enterprise and voicing our opposition to the licence-quota-control regime even in those years when there was hardly any debate on economic reforms. Indeed, the Soviet model of government control was the dominant political fashion and intellectual obsession at the time. Which is why, we unhesitatingly backed the former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao and his finance minister Dr Manmohan Singh when they showed the courage to reverse the Congress party’s own previous economic policies. And when Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the Prime Minister, and ran a stable and successful government for six years, we tried to accelerate and broaden the agenda of economic reforms, with results that all of you have seen... Therefore, it has always been our belief that the dharma (duty) of the Raja—or the democratically elected government in our times— is to govern, whereas the dharma of the community engaged in business, commerce, industry and agriculture is to create wealth, generate gainful employment and fulfill the material needs of society. A proverb in Hindi says, ‘Raja bane vyapari, praja bane bhikari’ (King turneth businessman, subjects turneth beggars).”
The full article is here, but the interesting is The Indian Express has published this article without his mentioning of author name.
His economics in three pages
Posted online: Friday, March 21, 2008 at 2256 hrs Print Email
What images does one associate with Lal Krishna Advani? Organisational capabilities, the Rath Yatra and Ayodhya, Babri Masjid demolition, strong views on terrorism and Pakistan, views on Jinnah, Bharat Suraksha Yatra. LK Advani is BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate for 2009. What’s going to happen in 2009 is anyone’s guess. However, if a BJP-led government were to return, the contours of India’s economic policies and growth will be shaped by Advani. Since 1991, whenever liberalisation has received a push, the PM and PMO have been the catalyst, not North Block. That’s true of every episode of reforms across the four governments we have had, not counting the temporary NDA one. Consequently, it’s useful to know what Advani’s economic views are, transcending political views (Presidential form of government), or those as home minister, Deputy PM or leader of the opposition. This is not to deny that once catapulted into high office, PMs are known to change their earlier views, political expediency and coalition politics providing a convenient scapegoat. Notwithstanding this, it’s remarkable how little we know of Advani’s economic mindset. Had he been a practising lawyer, we would have known more. But he hasn’t been one and his 1974 appearance before the Supreme Court was on a technical issue.
All we know is Advani’s praise (2005) of the Modi model of good governance in Gujarat. As if building on that, we also have his speech delivered at Ficci on February 15, 2008. This deserves citation, as there seems to be a repositioning of Advani, the PM-designate. “I can, in all humility, claim that ours is one party that has consistently followed a policy of supporting private enterprise and voicing our opposition to the licence-quota-control regime even in those years when there was hardly any debate on economic reforms. Indeed, the Soviet model of government control was the dominant political fashion and intellectual obsession at the time. Which is why, we unhesitatingly backed the former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao and his finance minister Dr Manmohan Singh when they showed the courage to reverse the Congress party’s own previous economic policies. And when Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the Prime Minister, and ran a stable and successful government for six years, we tried to accelerate and broaden the agenda of economic reforms, with results that all of you have seen... Therefore, it has always been our belief that the dharma (duty) of the Raja—or the democratically elected government in our times— is to govern, whereas the dharma of the community engaged in business, commerce, industry and agriculture is to create wealth, generate gainful employment and fulfill the material needs of society. A proverb in Hindi says, ‘Raja bane vyapari, praja bane bhikari’ (King turneth businessman, subjects turneth beggars).”
This claims the economic reform space back, which was always one the BJP’s antecedents had identified with, and has been vacated by the UPA. But what about the India Shining faux pas? “Sometimes, I wonder if economic reforms have changed anything at all for the Small Indian—for the small kisan, for the small artisan, for the small service provider in our cities and villages. They constitute the bulk of India’s population, and indeed our workforce... Therefore, when I think of the future challenges before any government in India, I am convinced that the greatest task is to make the Small Indian a beneficiary of, and an enthusiastic partner in, India’s progress. Speaking for my party and the NDA, we have identified three imperatives which will reliably address the needs of both the country and the common man, both in the near-term perspective of five years, but also in the long-term perspective of the coming decades. These three imperatives are: good governance, development and security (security is interpreted in the speech in a broader sense of economic security)... Against this backdrop, the most significant aspect of Shri Modi’s victory in Gujarat in 2007 is that it signaled the triumph of good governance, development and security over the politics of votebanks... If my party and the NDA do win the mandate of the people in the next parliamentary elections, it shall be our firm resolve to make good governance, development and security the trinity encapsulating our common minimum programme.”
Though there are always differences between what is preached and what is practised, this is a more heartening definition of a national common minimum programme (NCMP) than the present one. For the pink press, I find this speech more interesting than the brouhaha surrounding the release of My Country, My Life. Kandahar, Jinnah, Agra Summit, relations with the RSS, Brajesh Mishra, Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi’s possible resignation may be of salacious interest. But they are about history, even if that history spans 1,000 pages. The Ficci speech, hardly three pages long, is about India’s future, and it can’t entirely be Sudheendra Kulkarni at work.
The author is an economist. These are his personal views
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/286872.html
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