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Journalism of Courage
Nobody would have taken Dattopanth Thengadi of the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch seriously, when he accused Prime Minister Vajpayee of pursuing policies against the national interest, but for the fact that he is a part of the so-called Sangh parivar, the labyrinthine family that sustains the ruling BJP. Even so, did Thengadi’s ranting about Mir Jafars and the sellout of the nation merit prime ministerial response? Hardly. Thengadi and his protege, Muralidhar Rao, should be sent to China for a crash course on the World Trade Organisation before being allowed to speak again on the question of India’s WTO membership. Ironically, his outburst against the WTO came in the same week that India was celebrating its victory against the European Union in a market access case involving the export of bed linen. It is nobody’s case that the WTO is an even-handed organisation. Indeed, even though it is based on the principle of the organisational equality of all members, it is true that global power equations manifest themselves in policy outcomes. The solution to the problem of inequality between nations is for entities like India to become stronger economically so that their voices are heard.
Thengadi’s economic policies are not going to help India get anywhere close to being an economy of reckoning. Rather than waste its energies worrying about who is selling whom, the SJM should ask itself the question whether the BJP has been able to make the economy stronger in its five years in office. Ironically, the answer is yes as far as the external sector is concerned. Rather than sell the nation to foreigners, the economic policies of the Vajpayee government have improved the country’s external economic profile. Not only have foreign exchange reserves piled up and the current account of the balance of payments is in surplus, but exports have increased and the external debt burden has gone down. India’s external economic security better assured today than it was a decade ago, before it had joined the WTO. So Thengadi is off the mark on this score.
The domestic economy, in contrast, lags behind. Compared to a growth rate of 7.0 per cent in 1992-97, the economy has grown by around 5.0 per cent in 1998-2003. Could it be the case that the Vajpayee government has been unable to push for higher growth because it is not able to pursue the required economic reforms under pressure from the Thengadis? It is not so much the government’s acts of commission on the economic front as its omissions on the reforms front that have constrained the economy. The sooner it is free of the backward looking ideological constraints imposed by the likes of Thengadi, the better for the economy. Blind patriotism does not always serve the national interest. Wide-eyed realism can sometimes be more helpful.
