"Say not, 'I have found
the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.'"
— Khalil Gibran (Lebanese,
1883-1931)
Word
for the day
Cimmerian (adj)
Very dark; gloomy; deep
e.g., Cimmerian caverns.
Malice
towards none
A senior journalist who has
written millions of reams about caste dynamics in Indian elections, was found
to be blissfully unaware that
(A) Nai, Mochi and Halwai
fall under the same category of non Yadav OBC.
(B) Marwari Vaishya are OBC
in Bihar.
(c) Jat in UP, Punjab, Rajasthan,
Haryana and Uttrakhand are not the same.
(d) Muslim and Sikh
communities also have deep social divisions like Hindus.
First random
thought this morning
With a variety of challenging roles, performed nearly to the
perfection, the young actress Alia Bhatt has earned respect and admiration of millions
of cinema lovers, critics and fellow professionals in the entertainment
industry.
She is the same girl who was trolled and harassed on social media,
not long ago, for not being able to correctly name the President of India in a
TV chat show.
Ms. Bhatt, through her hard work and brilliant performances, has
demonstrated well that if you do your work honestly and with perseverance, you
need not bother about who is President, Prime Minister or Chief Minister. You
can attain success in your field, regardless.
The Road Ahead - 3
Talking about the form and extent
of wealth redistribution effort that PM Modi would need to make to put the
Indian economy on sustainably high growth path, I would like to reiterate my
views about the stages in which a typical democracy evolves.
Evolution of a free democratic society occurs broadly in three
phases – empowerment of people, enablement of people and engagement of people.
In the empowerment phase people are empowered with constitutional
and legal rights so that they could construct the social and economic
organizations they would want to live in. The political organization is largely
derived from the socio-economic organization of choice. In modern world,
parliamentary democracy is the most popular political organization for
societies choosing to organize themselves in a free and capitalist economy.
The transition from an aristocracy or oligarchy to parliamentary
democracy is often a chaotic process because the people might not be properly
equipped by education to select the best rulers and the wisest courses.
In the second, enablement phase of evolution the so empowered
people are enabled through a variety of endeavor so that they could pursue the
socio-economic path of their choice. Social equality, economic equality and
gender equality are some key desired outcome in this phase. Wealth redistribution
through taxation, welfare schemes and legislative provisions (like land
ceiling, currency elimination, restrictions on business and asset ownership
etc.), inclusion of economically poor, socially oppressed and women in
government and economic activities are some of the major efforts seen in this
phase.
The conflict between the wealthy & powerful (landlord) and the
poor & oppressed during enablement phase often causes civil unrest. The
inadequacy and inefficiencies of institutional framework to supervise the
wealth redistribution process invariably leads to rise in instances of
corruption in public life.
Unfortunately, in many cases it is also seen that some intended
beneficiaries become too powerful and appropriate power and resources meant for
their peers. This creates division and mistrust in the society and elongates
the process of enablement.
In the last phase of the evolution, the empowered and enables
people take part in the building of strong economic institutions and free
market by engaging themselves in the growth and development process. This is
usually the golden period for any democratic society that has chosen free
market economy as their preferred socio-economic organizational setup. In this
phase a large part of the population participates in the virtuous cycle of
higher earnings – consuming – saving – investing – earning leading to
sustainably higher consumption and investment demand.
In Indian context, our constitution envisaged a democratic social
organization with free market economy. The people were constitutionally and
legally empowered from day one of constitution coming into effect.
(Interestingly, the USA took almost 200years to give full and equal rights to
all its citizens through The Voting Rights Act of 1965).
However, in practice the empowerment process was delayed by at
least three decades. Firstly, the Indian National Congress (INC) which was the
primary vehicle for freedom movement transformed itself into a political party.
The transformation ensured that the Congress Party which was dominated by the
feudal lords and elite class at the top became overwhelmingly dominating
political force in the country leaving little for the dissent or competition.
The policy making thus focused on retaining control of most resources and
activities with the government (by proxy with Congress party) and providing for
just the elementary necessities to the common man.
All the voices who spoke for social justice, empowerment and
enablement were forced either to fall in line with top echelons of the party or
quit. The opposition to the Congress thus mostly came from communist/socialist
forces which survived on parochial support base amongst some caste, community
or region. The empowerment and enablement processes were thus hindered to a great
extent.
It was in 1980’s when first time a nationwide movement took shape
to seek empowerment and enablement for common people of the country. The
enablement process started a decade later with government slowly giving up
control over resources and economic activities.
Given that the process of enablement has so far mostly been
involuntarily and heavily influenced by electoral considerations rather than
social-economic reality, it has been marred by large scale irregularities,
corruption, and inefficiencies.
The socialist movement in the country gained tremendous momentum
in past 3 decades. These forces ruled many states and often played a critical
role in formation and running of the federal government. However, for the lack
of a credible and wise leadership, these forces have been often seen
degenerating into feudal fiefdoms of few individuals and their families.
We should analyze the failure of the likes of Samajwadi Party (SP)
led by Mulayam Singh Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) led by Lalu Prasad Yadav,
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) led by Mayawati etc., and continued domination of
Congress by feudal forces, in this light.
PM Modi has shown solid resolve in accelerating the process of
enablement of people. Massive drive for financial inclusion, digitalization,
skill enhancement, social security etc. have been undertaken during last three
years. The results of the same in the economic terms may not be visible as yet.
But hopefully, we shall see positive outcome in next few years.
The unconventional move to abolish 86% of national currency in
circulation, shall also be seen as part of the drive to redistribute wealth for
enablement of people. Its success, though questionable at this point in time,
shall reflect in better tax compliance (hence more tax revenue for public
social expenditure) and lower cost of credit for SME borrowers (due to better
CASA and higher money velocity for bank).
This enablement effort should logically lead to beginning of
engagement phase of evolution - the golden period for economy and markets.
....to continue
No comments:
Post a Comment