BJP’s ‘Dr Singh’?

Little noticed in the din of post-budget politics and punditry was the BJP’s president Rajnath Singh criticising P. Chidambaram for giving up on reforms. Of course, Singh was deliberately ignoring Chidambaram’s political constraints. BJP finance ministers, Yashwant Sinha and Jaswant Singh, faced major political hurdles, too. But such obfuscation is standard opposition tactic. What is not, these days, is the government’s political critics taking issue with the lack of reformist enthusiasm. The BJP itself has been a good example of this kind of oppositional politics. Out of power and having bought the false thesis that reforms cost them the election, the party opposed VAT, patent reform and an active engagement with the US. The UPA has been unable to undertake any major reform long before the budget, but the BJP never really took the government on.

Thus the significance of Singh’s statement. Maybe the BJP president is feeling sufficiently buoyed by the party’s poll victories to start claiming part-ownership of the R-word. In that case, Singh and the BJP need to understand that a significant amount of political capital is there for the taking if the party sticks to this clear, generally pro-reform, stand. That means, a worse-than-expected performance, say, in UP, should not lead to the BJP talking darkly about the perils of ‘excessive’ liberalisation. Intelligent consistency is the key. If the BJP can do that between now and the next general election, it will certainly emerge as a party with a stable set of beliefs and policies in arguably the most crucial area of public policy. That itself is a valuable asset. But it is made more valuable by the extraordinary intellectual muddle the party presiding over 9 per cent growth finds itself in.

The Congress seems unable to listen, far less understand, what the likes of Chidambaram and Manmohan Singh say.

Chidambaram said in his budget speech that general economic conditions would improve with faster growth, that growth and distribution are anything but constituents of a zero sum game. Did it impress the Congress? Of course, not. It is busy blaming Central policies for state losses, never mind information like this from Punjab — if inflation was a vote-killer for the incumbent, how come the rural voter treated the Congress better than the urban voter? If the Congress goes further down this path, and if the BJP keeps being honest about reforms, both parties will be surprised by the results.