The 2024 elections progress from one phase to another in the true-to-character Indian legacy of hurtling along in a bullock cart. The question is what are we up to once the ballots are cast, counted and the result declared on the 4th of June?
It looks nearly certain that we may get Modi 3.0, though not with the mindboggling 400-plus seats that BJP and NDA are hoping for. The sad part of what is in store for the country is that nothing much might change in the belligerence, obstinacy, negativity and divisive narrative in the polity, post the elections.
In the UK or other Western democracies, on which our own system is modelled, a three-elections continuous loss would trigger a change of leadership in the Opposition. But none of that might take place in India.
In a nation where entitlement, family legacy and dynastic privileges are taken for granted, our very own GOP might dismiss the likely loss as yet another blip and continue the mockery of demagoguery.
The fragmented opposition might gang together and keep obstructing structural reforms and opening of economy for global investment big time. Without reforming land acquisition laws, farm pricing and market dynamics and liberalizing hire and fire policies, no solution is possible for unemployment and rural income inadequacies.
Any reset in our hackneyed national political narrative is possible only if Congress looks beyond the baggage of the Family and BJP jettisons majoritarian jingoism for a truly inclusive and bottom-up economic transformation.
Congress and the Opposition are already talking about plenty of points for the post-election scenario: caste-census, wealth redistribution and guaranteed employment. These retrograde policies are long jettisoned by much of the world, but Congress possibly finds meat in it for yet another phase of anarchic rebellion in the hinterland!
Do not have much hope in the new dispensation that would take charge post-elections to do anything dramatic, more than the incremental reforms and lacklustre employment generation that have become the ‘normal’ for our economy.
In addition, the geopolitical winds are not auguring well for India to achieve any breakthroughs in diplomacy and global alignments. Caution is the word in diplomacy. The economy is where India should unleash the potential to assume global leadership as a manufacturing and services powerhouse.
What India needs is a bipartisan consensus on economic policies and reforms. Will our parties and leaders show maturity and statesmanship to craft a minimum acceptable program for economic uplift? No place here for any more tu-tu-main-main after elections. Is anybody listening?
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