Begin at home

Since the government’s decision to hike oil prices has come under political pressure — the oil minister meeting Sonia Gandhi; increasing hints about a partial rollback — within 24 hours of the announcement, hopes for more reformist action on other fronts must be tempered with realism, the PMO’s optimism notwithstanding. Manmohan Singh knows better that anyone how long real reforms have been stalled and how many relatively minor decisions — like sale of small stakes in PSUs — are held up. Good news from the growth numbers doesn’t hide the stasis on policy, nor do they change the fact that India is denying itself a wonderful chance to up its performance. Since the PM has spoken many times and articulately at that on the home grown constraints on this country’s economic potential, the attempt to get things going reflects both his commitment to reforms in the face of hostile politics and his frustrations in dealing with that politics.

Dr Singh may, however, had the identity of his main interlocutor somewhat wrong — the Congress, not the Left, needs to be convinced first of the merits of reforms and once the Congress appears to back the government solidly on policy, it will be tougher for anti-reformers to do what they easily do now, exploit the perceived divisions between the government and the party. The Congress’s lack of enthusiasm for many government policies has become increasingly evident and the party is rarely seen these days backing the executive with the kind of conviction one would expect to see. Worse, many senior ministers are playing the ‘‘party card’’. The net result has been that economic policy has come to be seen as almost a special, politically unwise obsession on the part of the PMO and the finance ministry — many leaders in the government and the party with other responsibilities seem keen to distance themselves.

Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh need to admit this. They need to appear less as if they are hoping that the problem will go away and more as if they are not amused and intend to do something about it. A few neat surgical interventions in the cabinet may do wonders in reminding a lot of Congressmen that reforms are not an anathema to the Congress agenda. Once the Congress is convinced, the PM can then deal with the Left — from a relatively better position.