Viva reform!

Long live the revolution, Hugo Chavez said from the balcony of the somewhat un-revolutionary Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas. It8217;s a call Venezuela8217;s re-elected leader hopes will be heard around the world. We hope it reaches New Delhi. For, Chavez8217;s landslide second-term victory can, if the Congress reads it right, help India8217;s ruling party find a way out of its current intellectual crisis and prepare it better when it faces voters. Venezuela, like India, is growing at a rapid clip. It is Latin America8217;s fastest growing economy. But Venezuela is riding an oil boom; the world fifth largest oil exporter is enjoying the benefits of high prices. India, in contrast, is growing because it has been and is, although sometimes maddeningly slowly, getting its economic policies right; despite high oil prices the most recent growth estimate of this big oil importing country is 9 per cent.

This obviously means Manmohan Singh is in a far better position than Hugo Chavez. The latter is spending millions of dollars on social programmes, which has won him the election. But the man in the barrio knows the extra money will run out if oil prices plateau. Dr Singh, as an economist-prime minister, is in charge of an economy that8217;s generating its own momentum 8212; but strangely his party seems unable to boast about this. Indeed, many in Dr Singh8217;s party, including some of the senior-most leaders, would probably prefer a diluted Chavez-like rhetoric. They seem somewhat apologetic about growth and keep dropping dark hints about distributive justice. Jobs are the way to distribute the benefits of growth. But they have a problem about reforming agriculture, on which far too many people are dependant, and about vigorously increasing the manufacturing base. Roads can boost commerce and have huge economic multiplier effects 8212; but when did you last hear a Congressman telling voters about the highway programme?

This is an extraordinary situation: the ruling party of the world8217;s second fastest growing economy and its largest democracy is in near self-denial of what it is presiding over. Oil-lucky Chavez is not the model for the non-western world. Neither should be growth-savvy but autocratic China. Democratic, fast-growing India should be the example. An electoral slogan based on those achievements would have been heard around the world. But, first, India8217;s current leaders will have to hear the message their own country is sending.