Not another 15 yrs

Manmohan Singh must sometimes feel appallingly frustrated why he has to be defensive with his colleagues and allies about what India has achieved since those chaotic times in 1990-1991. So his speeches at non-political forums articulate what political circumstances censor. That prime ministerial reason hasn8217;t worked on his colleagues so far doesn8217;t wholly invalidate the prime ministerial effort, though. Indeed, it would have been frightening had Dr Singh8217;s chief guest addresses started reflecting the half-baked political economy favoured by most around him. It was particularly pleasing therefore to hear Dr Singh at NDTV Profit8217;s business awards function robustly championing India8217;s 15 years of reforms. Atal Bihari Vajpayee used to lift the discourse on reforms in similar fashion during his premiership. But as Mr Vajpayee would be the first to agree, he had much, much more policy elbowroom.

In 1991, Singh was called an agent of global capital or was it global imperialism? by some of his present allies. They still tend to favour that language. Happily, India ignored the economic Cassandras and from the perspective of early 1990s is an almost unrecognisable country now, both materially and in terms of national confidence. It is also true however, and Dr Singh recognises this, that the transformational potential of the first generation of reforms is exhausting itself. And that the sins of socialist perversion 8212; ignoring primary education, a large public sector 8212; as well as those of reformist timidity the farm sector was left untouched are visiting us. Can India do an encore?

As the PM said, we may be again underestimating India8217;s capacity for change. Fifteen years later such worries may seem quaintly naive. But the thing is, India probably doesn8217;t have 15 years this time 8212; expectations are different of a country already branded a future power. That many states have become economically rational is a great sign in this context. Politics may yet change via state governments, proving economic dynamism can win votes. A prime-ministerial speech on how states can change the nation would be welcome.