Liberalisation Through Bankruptcy

By Manuwant Choudhary

Sometimes in life you just go round in circles and this is so true with India.

Its clear that far from becoming an economic superpower, India is bankrupt again.

Rahul Gandhi can carry all the mud he wants on his head but its the mindless welfarism to bribe voters coupled with a lopsided economic development thats responsible for the mess we are in. (Also Rahuls friends carried away truckloads of coal)

For the record I am not a leftist from Jawaharlal University.

In fact I suppport economic liberalisation.

As a student of history in Bombay in the early nineties I recall meeting the great liberal Minoo Masani and I asked him what he thought of India's economic liberalisation and he replied, "This is liberalisation through bankruptcy, not intelligence."

Now almost two decades later we can again say that Masani smelt a rat two decades before anyone else.

Although it was a quirk of fate that Masani lived to see India being liberalised. The Swatantra Party he co-founded with Rajaji was India's only party that believed India should embrace the market economy.

The Swatantra Party today cannot even register itself because all parties are required to swear to a socialist constitution.

The Party challenged the People's Representation Act as it violates the basic structure of the constitution  which is democracy itself, yet the courts are yet to hear the matter in 20 years !

I am a liberaliser having studied it first and not because Obama or Hillary Clinton wish so ...

But with Mamata Banerjee walking out the cat is out of the bag.

Its now certain that right from India's nuclear policy to India's economic policy it is the United States that is giving the directions.

It worries me.

There was no need for Hillary Clinton to visit a chief minister of West Bengal but the Americans play all their cards, even the one's they should not.

The issue I am raising here is not of Dr. Manmohan Singh's honesty and integrity but whether he has any convictions.

The first time India went bankrupt it was because of decades of socialism and when India got rich it went in for mindless welfarism to bribe voters.

Dr. Singh is no magician and he knows that tinkering can only save the economy for a while.

The rot is deeper and we are not even scratching its surface nor are we willing to honestly tell the people of India of the mess we are in.

Economic liberalisation is not just about FDIs but also about building your own strengths. Its about priorities - not isms.

A nephew who lives in London visited his village in India and was shocked, "They have five mobile towers in the village but no electricty or water! "

Its not just about what you can buy from the world but also what you can sell the world. Free Trade.

Its not just about World Bank models to save the Indian farmer but how the Indian farmer can get back on his feet through sure grit, hard work and an economy that works , that he builds and that does not fleece him while telling him he is being subsidsed.

Simply put India and you cannot live beyond your means