Opinion Drifting to nowhere
Whose goofy idea was it to release the data from our latest housing survey in Budget week?
Whose goofy idea was it to release the data from our latest housing survey in Budget week? As it is we face the dismal reality that after the calamitous results from the latest state elections,there is no chance that this government is going to make the smallest move towards economic reforms. This means we can give up happy thoughts of becoming an economic superpower in the next twenty years. At this rate,we will be lucky if we can get there by the end of the 21st century and if you examine the state of the nation that the housing survey reveals,you might suggest that we give up this dream altogether.
After 64 years of dedicated socialism (with a brief interlude of liberalisation),we face the gloomiest statistics about how Indians live. Nearly 70 per cent of our population lives in one or two room homes. Only 47 per cent of Indian dwellings include a latrine,only 31.97 per cent have access to clean tap water and only 61 per cent have indoor kitchens. But,it might cheer you up to learn that nearly every Indian has a cell phone and most urban Indian homes now have televisions.
Should we dare to say then that socialism has failed in India? Should we dare to suggest that the welfare programmes on which we have spent thousands of crore rupees have failed to make a difference? Should we dare to suggest that the Finance Ministers new budget will make no difference at all to the lives of the vast majority of Indians? To all three questions the answer is yes and we must dare to say this as loudly as possible if we want this government to at least try and do something to correct its policies before the 2014 general election.
Having said this,I must add that as far as I can see the gloom that has settled over the court (government?) in Delhi has deepened so dramatically in this past week that I do not see much hope. Congress Party sycophants are a hardy breed and do not deflate easily but these days they wander about sadly muttering about how the results from Punjab have shaken them to the core. The socialite sycophants who spend their time singing the praises of the Gandhi family in the drawing rooms of Delhi are usually even harder to deflate but these days it is possible to detect a new nervousness in their paeans to Rahul Gandhi. When questioned directly about the results,they admit warily that Rahul did not do as well as they expected but add quickly there is always Priyanka.
What makes Indias future seem bleaker than usual at the moment is that the Bharatiya Janata Party no longer seems like a credible alternative. It is often described in foreign newspapers as a right wing Hindu party but falsely. The BJP has shown that it is as dedicated to socialism as the Congress Party and has no intention of adopting economic policies that would take India towards an economy that would be less controlled by inept officials. Not even in shining Gujarat do we see evidence yet of the sort of administrative reforms that are urgently needed if we are to see better delivery of the massive welfare schemes that have been devised to help poor Indians out of dreadful poverty. Gujarat has made investment easier for big businessmen but there has not yet been the visible improvement in the lives of ordinary people that would come with enhanced public services.
What makes the BJP seem even less like the alternative we need is that not one of its senior leaders has publicly questioned the economic policies that have led us to this low point. If they had,then in the states that are currently ruled by BJP governments,we should have seen real progress in the living standards of average people. We should have seen in the rural areas of Gujarat,Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh villages with halfway decent standards of sanitation and housing. We should have seen better municipal governance in towns and cities.
So for those of you who still believe that India is on the verge of becoming the worlds next economic superpower,may I suggest a short trip to China to see what an emerging economic superpower really looks like. China has its problems. The biggest ones are political. But,it does not have seventy per cent of its population living in hovels without toilets or kitchens. And,the irony is that technically China remains a communist country. If only we had been as unfaithful to our socialist dreams as China has been to the thoughts of Marx and Mao,we might today have a country that had a clearer idea of where it is going. As things stand,India looks more directionless than ever before.
Follow Tavleen Singh on Twitter @ tavleen_singh
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