Red, red whine

This past Sunday, a former Indian cricket captain wrote a newspaper column on the Ashes series. As it happened, the first half of his articl...

This past Sunday, a former Indian cricket captain wrote a newspaper column on the Ashes series. As it happened, the first half of his article had nothing on sport. Instead, it was dedicated to Rajiv Gandhi, whom the writer described as 8216;8216;goodness personified8217;8217;.

Manmohan Singh and A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the former cricketer pointed out, were 8216;8216;the right people to keep Rajiv8217;s legacy alive8217;8217;. In the very next sentence, he sounded a dire warning: 8216;8216;No sycophants please, in any form or shape.8217;8217;

Had this article been written two years ago, it would probably have begun with an equally non sequitur, equally reverential reference to Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It was an unsubtle sample of a phenomenon that is so typically Delhi: a consummate power city where you are only as important as your job title.

As with personalities, so with ideas. This is also a city where timeservers cheerfully swing from one orthodoxy to the next, depending on which one is in office.

As such, after about five years 8212; 14, if you go back to 1991 8212; of acclaiming liberalisation, Delhi suddenly wants to shun the market. Left is right, perhaps the new Right.

Three warning signals stand out. First, on August 12, the Supreme Court freed private professional colleges from government-imposed, caste-based quotas. Led by the Communists, the UPA is contemplating a law to upturn this ruling. It will do to the market what Shah Bano did to minorityism.

After all, the apex court was not unmindful of the need to give the socially and economically underprivileged access to higher education. It allowed private colleges to charge NRI students a premium fee for 15 per cent of the seats. This money would be used to subsidise meritorious but poor students.

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On offer is a market-based solution for social justice, one that safeguards the right to property with a support mechanism for those who can8217;t afford to pay.

If this principle is rejected, the stranglehold of caste-based reservation will become only stronger. More important, if it can be forced upon private colleges 8212; set up without any public money 8212; why not on private businesses?

Second, the stock market8217;s 8216;8216;irrational exuberance8217;8217; has become the ultimate red herring. It is giving the impression that all is well with the economy, that FIIs love Dalal Street and India is still the flavour of the season.

In the meantime, economic reforms have been quietly buried. The government is talking of a package to revive 8216;8216;small and village industries8217;8217;, but doing nothing about labour reforms that will give an impetus to genuine industry.

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Privatisation is dead. The finance minister insists only 8216;8216;strategic sales8217;8217; of government equity to private companies are off, the public offer route 8212; which will disperse shares among millions of small investors 8212; is still on.

There is some waffling here. For a start, strategic sales and public offers are not mutually exclusive. Also, is this apparent enthusiasm for public offers shared by the Left? It appears it doesn8217;t want any PSU stock sold to anybody. Period.

There is a huge discrepancy between the optimism of the Sensex and a sober assessment of the state of reforms. When the momentum of the past two-three years vanishes, the market will correct itself, the foreign fund managers will look at the world map for the next 8216;8216;hot new story8217;8217;. What will India be left with? The Left?

Finally, there8217;s the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme NREGP, a Rs 40,000 crore giveaway in its first year, scheduled to climb to Rs 150,000 crore when it is extended to the whole country. It is being guilt tripped down the throats of well-meaning liberals who have either not seen an Indian village or don8217;t know how the politics of patronage works at the grass roots.

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Like previous such schemes, it is going to be used by local Congress leaders 8212; India8217;s 200 poorest districts, where the NREGP kicks off, vote generously for the party 8212; to play favourites. Money will be pilfered, disappearing into 8216;8216;systemic leakages8217;8217; or some such euphemism.

Only one thing doesn8217;t fit in. A populist scheme like the NREGP should normally have been reserved for an election year. On August 15, the prime minister even coined an appropriate slogan: 8216;8216;Rozgar Badhao8217;8217;.

So is the Congress planning a quick election, partnered by the Marxists in a Centre-Left coalition that will smash the BJP?

There is a more dangerous alternative. Maybe, just maybe, the National Advisory Council actually believes the NREGP will eradicate poverty!