Unthinking vichar

No one would make the mistake of saying the Vajpayee government is steering the economy in any particular direction. The last six months ...

No one would make the mistake of saying the Vajpayee government is steering the economy in any particular direction. The last six months have been marked by so much policy confusion that only the determinedly blind would find some kind of orientation. The RSS evidently thinks otherwise and has fired a warning shot across the BJP8217;s bows: change course or else. That it means business is obvious from the fact that a number of saffron organisations have formed a steering committee, the Swadeshi Vichar Manch SVM, passed resolutions, announced a plan of action and told the BJP to watch out when Assembly elections are held in a couple of months in Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram. This spells trouble for policy-makers. The thinking in the SVM may be limited, its goals vague and its alternative prescriptions suspect. The charge of 8220;compromising the national interest8221; may disguise a number of other realities such as business rivalries, disgruntled trade unions and gut-level hostility toward anyone whodoes not mouth swadeshi slogans. But who is to take this up with the RSS, now openly associated with the Swadeshi Jagran Manch8217;s Pepsi-bashing notion of economics?

When the conscience-keeper of the BJP makes public its discontent in this fashion, the fear of a 1980s-style breach will be enough to pull the BJP up short. What are the government8217;s options? It could decide that Indian manufactured foreign liquor is swadeshi whereas foreign liquor made by foreigners in India is abhorrent. That would be a relatively small price to pay for peace. But it will not be enough to divert the SVM from key issues on the reform agenda. It is hard to see how the cabinet, at no time oversupplied with pragmatists, is going to be able to prise the insurance sector open. The norms for foreign entry are already scarred by intra-BJP battles. With the RSS throwing its weight on the side of the nay-sayers, the ministerial committee might well find the issue more or less dead on the table. The more is the pity becauseinsurance reform did appear to be creeping forward inch by inch despite the efforts of hardliners.

It could be counted as progress if economic policy-makers were taking two steps forward and one step backwards. This is not the case. Torn in diametrically opposite directions, they are going nowhere. Any radical thrusts from the finance or commerce ministries, or the Disinvestment Commission, are neutralised by retrogressive political pressures. Citing the national interest is no substitute for rigorous economic analysis. The swadeshi corps do not offer facts and sound arguments, they prefer to look for foreigners or quasi-foreigners under every bed. The complaints about the composition of the Prime Minister8217;s economic and business advisory councils are a giveaway. Perhaps there are no names on either council that the SVM can identify with. So the feeling may be that the Sangh Parivar has been left out in the cold. Vajpayee could do two things. One, point out that there are many more points of view inIndia than the Parivar contains. Two, improve communications between the BJP and the RSS and make the latter see reason.