Honesty won’t hurt

If a BJP government had been in power at the time the Enron project was approved, it would probably have given it the go-ahead just as the Congress government in Maharashtra did. But it was not, and chose instead to make a political football of the project when it did come to power. This is not common knowledge, but it deserves to be: BJP leaders used privately to say that they would clear the Tata-Singapore Airlines joint venture if they were in power, but would oppose its clearance by any other government. If there should still be a doubt as to which way the party in government would swing on foreign investment, its thirteen-day record in government last year furnished ample proof. Not only were conciliatory noises made about foreign investment. The party — wisely — said that it would work for the passage of a patents law which it had opposed in opposition, and the controversy over which has been the subject of much embarrassment to India.

The BJP likes to make political capital from its much-trumpeted economic nationalism. This is not to say that there is no economic nationalism in the party but that, when push comes to shove, pragmatism generally gets the upper hand. And yet BJP leading light Murli Manohar Joshi has been one of the more strident voices in the parliamentary forum on patents. The same Joshi would now have Parliament refuse to ratify India’s accession to the international financial services agreement sealed last week. Before last year’s elections, no less a personage than Atal Behari Vajpayee talked of raising tariffs to protect industry. Other voices talk with conviction about internal deregulation going hand in hand with external protectionism. Will the real BJP please stand up and be counted? If Joshi’s is an individual — or stray — voice, not to be read as party policy, what is keeping the BJP’s top leadership from saying so?

The BJP’s love of swadeshi has made it perform many contortions that have made a mockery of the notion of consistency. It started out as a party of convinced economic liberals. Somewhere down the line, swadeshi came into play. This represented both a schism within the party and an acknowledgement of the appeal of economic jingoism to some voter segments. Yet, in a fortnight in government, the BJP reverted to economic-liberal and -pragmatist form. On the whole, it seems reasonable to suppose that, as ever, there is a great difference between the BJP’s pronouncements and its intentions. In power it would probably follow — and perhaps with greater focus — an enlightened and reformist economic policy, with some token gestures to economic nationalism. On the other hand, if it did not, nobody could say it had reneged on a promise. The BJP knows only too well the advantages of speaking in many tongues: not being pinned down to anything, and being all things to everyone. It should now recognise the downside of dishonesty. If it will not come clean on just where it stands on economic policy, economically liberal-minded voters — and it counts many among its supporters — should not give it the benefit of doubt. If illiberal economic speech only reflects inner-party differences, that is the party’s problem. If it is party policy, then voters know their mind anyway. Dishonesty or wrong-headed policy — the price for either must be paid.