Page 10 - EW March 2021

Editorial

OVERDUE ENDORSEMENT OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISE than doubled to 8.5 percent for the
next two decades and has levelled off
at 5 percent.
VEN IF BELATEDLY, THE LEADERSHIP Such unequivocal public declara- Therefore when the BJP was swept
of the BJP has begun to differ- tions in favour of private enterprise to power at the Centre in 2014, the
Eentiate itself from the Congress and entrepreneurs has never been general expectation was that it would
Party which ruled free India for over made by any leader of the Central or accelerate liberalisation of the econo-
half a century during which it grafted state governments during the past half my because of its pro-business creden-
inorganic socialism learned by Jawa- century and is music to your editor’s tials and because it is unencumbered
harlal Nehru, post-independence In- ears. The assertion that the business by the socialist legacy baggage of the
dia’s first prime minister in fashion- of government is governance and not Congress party. But in its first term it
able drawing rooms of the idle rich in commerce, was continuously reiter- queered its pitch with the ill-advised
Bloomsbury Square, London, upon ated by your correspondent as found- currency demonetisation experiment
the Indian economy. Replying to the ing editor of Business I ndia and later which proved a disaster. However
motion of thanks to the President’s Businessw orld (1978-87). even if belatedly, its leadership seems
address to Parliament on February Presumably to some effect because to have seen the light.
10, prime minister Narendra Modi when P.V. Narasimha Rao was ap- The plain, unvarnished truth is
unequivocally spoke up for private pointed Congress president and prime that post-independence India’s per-
enterprise and the country’s private minister in 1991, post-independence sistence with neta-babu socialism
sector industry leaders and entre- India’s notorious licence-permit-quo- and pervasive licence-permit-quota
preneurs. “The culture of abusing the ta raj was substantially dismantled. raj has been an unmitigated disaster
private sector is not acceptable. We Industrial licensing and monopolies which has ruined the modest material
cannot go on abusing our youth (sic) legislation was rescinded and great- aspirations of two generations of free
like this,” he said highlighting the role er freedom to conduct business was India’s citizens. Foolishly Congress
of private pharmaceutical companies conferred upon private sector indus- party leader Rahul Gandhi continues
which have made worldwide impact, try. The impact of the landmark eco- to demonise “suit-boot” businessmen.
and private telecom companies which nomic liberalisation and deregulation But for their taxes and job creation In-
provide the world’s cheapest connec- of 1991 was dramatic and immediate. dia’s children won’t have a snowball’s
tivity. On February 24, he went one The annual rate of GDP growth, which chance in hell. Now it’s time for prime
better. “Government has no business had languished at a rock-bottom 3.5 minister Modi and the BJP to walk
to be in business,” he said. percent for over four decades, more their belated talk.

CIRCUMSPECTION ON SINO-INDIA BORDER ISSUE reckless outbursts criticising prime
In the circumstances, Rahul’s
minister Modi for not displaying bel-
ECENT INTEMPERATE AND ILL-con- when it is limping out of the worst vi- ligerence after the Pangong Lake skir-
sidered statements of Rahul ral pandemic and economic recession mish last summer in which 20 Indian
RGandhi (RG), de facto chief of of the past century with the economy jawans were clubbed to death and the
the Congress party, on the military set to contract by 8 percent in fiscal Indian and Chinese troops are in eye-
stand-off on the sensitive India-Chi- 2020-21, is for the simmering Sino- ball to eye-ball standoff on several
na border issue, signal that it’s high Indian border dispute to escalate into points along the 4,800 km border,
time RG retires from politics in which a full-fledged war with a belligerent is the height of immature irresponsi-
he has sporadic interest. Following neighbouring country whose GDP of bility, and indicates that he needs to
a statement made in Parliament on $15 trillion is five multiples larger, and abdicate his position as de facto presi-
February 10 by Union defence min- army twice the size of ours. dent of the Congress party.
ister Rajnath Singh that India and Moreover, RG should be aware that Clearly, the national interest
China have reached an agreement on a major share of the blame for failure demands that the Sino-India bor-
military disengagement in the North to negotiate the border dispute with der stretching from Aksai Chin in
and South bank of Pangong lake in China for over half a century has to be the North-west to Arunachal in the
eastern Ladakh, RG accused the BJP laid at the door of the Congress and North-east needs to be patiently and
and prime minister Narendra Modi of Nehru-Indira dynasty which ruled In- painstakingly demarcated and re-
ceding Indian territory to China. Ad- dia for almost 60 years after indepen- drawn in a spirit of give-and-take,
dressing a press conference in Delhi, dence in 1947. Even after the crush- and settled once and for all. This is
Rahul opined that the prime minister ing defeat of the Indian Army in the an issue that requires the unanimous
is a “coward who cannot stand up to Sino-India border war of 1962, neither support of all political parties, espe-
the Chinese” and that he was guilty of RG’s grandmother Indira Gandhi who cially the two national parties. Play-
betraying the “sacrifices of our Army”. served three terms as prime minister, ing electoral politics in this situation
Anyone with a modicum of com- nor his father Rajiv (one-term) and his which could plunge this under-weight
monsense knows that the India-China mother Sonia as de facto prime min- nation into an armed conflict with the
border dispute requires sensitive han- ister (2004-14), accorded importance world’s second most militarily power-
dling and multi-party unanimity. The to settling the festering India-China ful country, is irresponsibility of the
last thing India needs at this juncture border issue. worst sort.

10 EDUCATIONWORLD MARCH 2021