By HARVINDER AHUJA
Senior BJP leader YashwantSinha’s scathing critique of the Government’s handling of economy must ring alarm bells in the corridors of power. Instead of dismissing it as a motivated ranting of a marginalised oldie, Team Modi would do well to do some introspection and see how the situation can be salvaged even at this late stage.
Writing an exclusive op-ed piece in The Indian Express, the former Finance Minister in the Vajpayee Government has come down particularly harsh on incumbent FM ArunJaitley for “creating a mess of the economy”. Though some may read it as pique of a man who has been deprived of any position in the present dispensation, it would be too puerile an assessment. There is absolutely no doubt that the 84-year-old party veteran cannot be hankering after power at this stage of his life and what he has brought before the nation is a harsh reality which the BJP must confront.
Sinha is not wrong while prefacing his column by saying, “I am (also) convinced that what I am going to say reflects the sentiments of a large number of people in the BJP and elsewhere who are not speaking up out of fear.” It is no secret that the ‘privilege” of free speech is virtually absent in the BharatiyaJanata Party of today and it’s only the absolute writ of Modi-Shah-Jaitley trio which is running the affairs of this nation. Of course, there are murmurs of dissent across various levels within the party but no open criticism of Modi and his style of functioning. In that sense, Sinha would have done a great service if he had also dwelt upon the “fears” which are preventing these BJP leaders from opening their mouths.
Though Sinha has presented a meticulous and nuanced analysis of the economy and very fairly pointed out the blunders committed by the Government which brought the situation to this pass, top ministers of Team Modilined up to assert that India is the fastest growing economy in the world
A day after the Express article appeared, Home Minister Rajnath Singh told media, “As far as the economy is concerned, the whole world accepts the truth that India is the world’s fastest growing economy. No one should forget this truth. India has immense stature and credibility in the global economy.” Voicing a similar note, Union Coal and Railway Minister PiyushGoyal, said, “The world had seen India become the fastest growing economy for three years in a row under the decisive leadership of Prime Minister NarendraModi.”
As if this was not enough, the party also fielded Sinha’s son and Union Minister JayantSinha to defend the Government’s economic policies. Without making direct reference to his father’s write-up, JayantSinha said articles that have been written on the challenges that face the economy “draw sweeping conclusions from a narrow set of facts, and quite simply miss the fundamental structural reforms that are transforming the economy.”
It’s time the Government understood that such bombast and bluster, which has been its hallmark since it came to power over three years ago, is not going to work anymore. Its performance has been an unmitigated disaster on all fronts, be it economic, social security, employment generation and prices. People, including a large number of those who voted for Modi in 2014, have run out of their patience and started voicing their frustration at whatever platforms available to them. Reports suggest that even the RSS brass has expressed its displeasure over the Government’s poor show and issued a red herring. In the midst of all this, if a veteran like YashwantSinha has chosen to speak, the Government must listen.
The failures which Sinha has pointed out on economic front are a common knowledge and the Government will be doing disservice to itself if it tries to gloss over them. Demonetisation, says Sinha was “badly conceived and poorly implemented and GST has played havoc with businesses and sunk many of them.” Isn’t that known to all? Even the recently-released annual report of the RBI had said that almost 99 per cent of the invalidated currency has come back to it thereby proving that Modi’s “bold” move was a failure. The GST has created utter confusion in businesses and there is huge panic in markets across sectors. Petrol prices have hit the roof and the Government has no cue as how to curtail them.
The ill effects of demonetisation and hastily-implemented GST have started telling upon the economy and the figures released by Government’s own agencies are a testimony to that. The latest data showed that cash squeeze and GST rollout had pushed the GDP to below 6 per cent. The economy, it said, grew by 5.7 per cent in Q1 of 2017 as against 6.1 per cent in the previous quarter. The corresponding figures for last year were 7.9 per cent. Though leading economists differ in their perceptions, the majority view is that the slowdown is not transient and the coming quarters are going to be even worse.
The BJP and its Government, instead of taking Sinha’s critique as an act of defiance should, in fact, be grateful to him for having issued a timely warning. Though his tone may have been harsh at places and he may have even resorted to bitter sarcasm to buttress his point, his assessment needs to be taken in the right spirit.
Sinha concludes his write-up by saying, “The Prime Minister claims that he has seen poverty from close quarters. His Finance Minister is working overtime to make sure that all Indians also see it from equally close quarters”. It’s up to the Modi Government to ensure that his dark prophesy does not come true.
