Catch mice, stupid

The Prime Minister has held out several lollipops to NRIs and overseas Indians by way of initiatives on dual citizenship and persons of Indi...

The Prime Minister has held out several lollipops to NRIs and overseas Indians by way of initiatives on dual citizenship and persons of Indian origin cards. Inasmuch as this constitutes efforts to remove needless bureaucratic harassment of NRIs, and an acknowledgment that the mere fact of their relocation does not make them alien, good. Beyond that neither NRIs nor resident Indians need feel unduly impressed.

Since everyone interprets facts as they wish to, it is no surprise that this government has decided to see the success of the Resurgent Indian Bonds in a light that fits in neatly with its own views 8212; never mind accuracy. So it sees it as a resounding vindication of its look-to-the-NRIs policy. This is a singular refusal to read the right message.

If bonds promise good returns and general confidence and interest in the Indian economy is high, money will come. Its Indian lineage is incidental if foreigners had been allowed they would invest too. As it happens, India8217;s economic prospects today areseen much more favourably today by the overseas Indian community, the result of economic reforms, however half-baked. It was the same NRI community, after all, which significantly contributed to the 1991 crisis by taking away its short-term deposits at the first sign of trouble.

Indian governments, and particularly the BJP government, do not like to be reminded of this as though it were an unsavoury fact about a dear one which is best put away. This is nonsense. The BJP may have a vision that is overly sensitive to the colour of money. The successful overseas Indian community knows better: it puts its money where it sees profit in doing so. Patriotism has nothing to do with it, and it is blackmail to imply that it does.

An NRI might rather invest here than elsewhere, other things being the same. More than that it is unreasonable to ask. NRI vanity and pride may be flattered by apparent special measures to woo them. But Indian businessmen are too canny to let this sway their business sense. That is aningredient in their success abroad.

Prominent NRIs said what they thought mattered at Thursday8217;s session of the Global Indian Entrepreneurs Conference, in language that was so plain that even this biased government should have no trouble understanding. It should listen. Men like S.P. Hinduja and L.M. Mittal cited full-scale privatisation and the halving of government jobs for creating good conditions for overseas investments. It is time for the BJP to get over its juvenile and maudlin notions of Indian money coming from abroad to stimulate the motherland8217;s economy.

This is true too of that new hobby horse conceived without a thought to priority: the proposed new 7,000-km national highway. Why look only at the NRI community to pour money into this more-glamorous-than-wise venture? If only the government will stop telling NRIs where and how to put their money and simply create good conditions for money from all investors to flow in, NRIs will put their money here far more surely than in response to currentexhortations. So will foreign investors, unless the government chooses to go out of its way to obstruct them.