Communal or Communist: It146;s the same difference

Speaking at the India-Asean Business Summit last month, the Prime Minister said the Indian economy could 8216;8216;absorb8217;8217; 150...

Speaking at the India-Asean Business Summit last month, the Prime Minister said the Indian economy could 8216;8216;absorb8217;8217; 150 billion in the infrastructure sector with airports, railways and telecommunications alone capable of absorbing 55 billion. What he meant was without at least that much money India would find it impossible to build anything resembling the modern infrastructure that most other countries already have and without which our dreams of becoming an economic superpower in the first half of this century are likely to remain dreams. Since he was making his remarks to a group of foreign investors what he also meant, but did not say, was their money was welcome because India does not have it.

The question is why should foreign investors come to India when Dr Manmohan Singh8217;s Communist friends go public on a daily basis with their objections to Foreign Direct Investment FDI. The question also is why do more of us not realise that the country has been far more seriously damaged by Communist forces than the 8216;8216;communal forces8217;8217; that we have spent so many years being terrified of. In India, when we speak of 8216;8216;communal forces8217;8217; we mean Hindu fundamentalists never Islamic and if you look around these days you will notice that there are hardly any Hindu fundamentalists left. The threat to India8217;s 8216;8216;unity and diversity8217;8217; that we heard so much about when Atal Behari Vajpayee was Prime Minister has miraculously disappeared but, in the humble view of this columnist, the far more serious threat of Communist forces now looms over our future.

If India today has the worst airports, railway stations, ports and roads in the world it is partly because these Communist forces had such a hold on the mind of Indira Gandhi. In the seventies when most ASEAN countries and China were building infrastructure that matches that of advanced Western countries, we in India were led to believe that roads and airports were a luxury we could do without. Telephones were such a major luxury that we had to put our names on long waiting lists to get them with special people like hacks and politicians having special quotas.

Every time I see Harikishan Singh Surjeet or Sitaram Yechury on television I am reminded of those days of quotas because the language they speak is so reminiscent of those days when for the sake of the 8216;8216;common man8217;8217; we built ourselves a second rate country. Nobody was quite sure how second rate infrastructure would benefit the common man but in those days nobody challenged the absurdity of Communist views. Could we be heading back to those bad old days? I fear we could because, yet again, whatever economic reform the government is doing is being done stealthily so that Communist forces do not notice.

Instead, the Communists need to be publicly challenged about their views. They need to be asked why FDI in Communist China is a good thing if it is such a bad thing in India. They need to be asked why they think that Indian 8216;8216;sovereignty8217;8217; is such a fragile thing that foreign investment could destroy it. More importantly the Prime Minister needs to use television, at least as much as Surjeet and Yechury do, to explain to the 8216;8216;common man8217;8217; what a difference modern infrastructure will make to his existence.

As the man who began the economic reform process, Dr Manmohan Singh must be more open about what needs to be done and the urgency of the need. His reticence is resulting in his Communist friends successfully spreading the myth that the Vajpayee government fell on account of economic reforms. This is rubbish but I am constantly amazed at the number of Indians who believe it while at the same time admitting that the issue in the last general election was bijli, sadak, pani. If these things are not vital components of 8216;8216;infrastructure8217;8217; I do not know what is and it is because the last government failed to build them in sufficient quantity that the 8216;8216;common man8217;8217; opted for change.

If his government does not speed up its delivery it will almost certainly lose next time but to deliver in these areas major economic reform is required and it cannot happen by stealth.

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The Prime Minister must publicly acknowledge that it was bad economic policies that caused us not to build these things in the past and that these economic policies were mostly made by Communists and quasi-Communists. If the government8217;s 8216;8216;outside8217;8217; supporters do not approve, too bad. They are unlikely to pull down the government because the fear of those 8216;8216;communal forces8217;8217; continues to haunt them.

Speaking of which it8217;s interesting that the Communists are playing exactly the same negative role in this government as the RSS in its Swadeshi Jagran Manch form played in the last one. Ironic that the people we like to call 8216;8216;right wing Hindu nationalists8217;8217; should have economic views so similar to the Communists. Ironic also that both communal and Communist forces are, with all their talk of 8216;8216;the people8217;8217;, fundamentally anti-people because if India does not become a prosperous, modern country quickly there is no chance of poverty begin eradicated and nobody suffers as a result of that disease more than the 8216;8216;common man8217;8217;.

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