PRESIDENT UNVEILS MODI GOVERNEMNT'S AGENDA

The new Indian government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spelt out its priorities in the form of a speech delivered by the President of India to the joint session of the India’s Parliament. According to Mr. Modi, speaking in the Parliament, his government “will leave no stone unturned to fulfill the path mentioned by the President”.
The essence of the agenda is to transform every aspect of life in India to become a “for profit” enterprise, this is promoted as the way to bring growth but in reality this is for private profit to seek paths that maximize profit. The President’s speech highlights privatization in the following areas.

1)    Private investment in economy in general: “My government will work together to usher our economy into a high growth path, rein in inflation, reignite the investment cycle, accelerate job creation and restore the confidence of the domestic as well as international community in our economy. …We will embark on rationalisation and simplification of the tax regime to make it non-adversarial and conducive to investment, enterprise and growth. ” This means tax breaks to investors, augmented by indirect taxation on consumers through GST and other mechanisms. “We need to transform ourselves into a globally competitive manufacturing hub powered by Skill, Scale and Speed. To this end, the government will set up world class investment and industrial regions, particularly along the Dedicated Freight Corridors and Industrial Corridors spanning the country”.

2)    Private Investment in infrastructure: “The government will chalk out an ambitious infrastructure development programme to be implemented in the next 10 years. A fast-track, investment friendly and predictable PPP (Private Public Partnership) mechanism will be put in place. Modernization and revamping of Railways is on top of the infrastructure agenda. …Investment in railways will be increased using innovative financing methods.”  

3)    Private Investment in Energy Sector: “My government will come out with a comprehensive National Energy Policy and focus on development of energy related infrastructure, human resource and technology. ….. Reforms in the coal sector will be pursued with urgency for attracting private investment in a transparent manner. The international civil nuclear agreements will be operationalized and nuclear power projects for civilian purposes will be developed.”

4)    Private Investment in Agriculture: “My government.. will increase investment in agriculture, both public and private, especially in Agri-infrastructure. Steps will be taken to convert farming into a profitable venture through scientific practices and Agrotechnology…. My government will incentivize the setting up of food processing industries.”

5)    Private Investment in Defence Sector: The government “will encourage domestic industry, including the private sector, to have a larger share in design and production of defence equipment. We will introduce policies to strengthen technology transfer, including through liberalised FDI in defence production. With readily available skilled human resource, India can emerge as a global platform for defence manufacturing including software, which will strengthen our defence and spur industrial development as well as exports.” 

6)    Private Investment in Education and Health Care: The government will “formulate a National Education Policy aimed at meeting the challenges posed by lack of quality, research and innovation in our educational institutions…. The government will encourage and incentivise private sector investments, both domestic and foreign, in science and technology and in high-end research aimed at nurturing innovation….We must equip and nurture our youth with the right kind of education, skill-set and opportunity to reap this demographic dividend.”  PM Modi has since elaborated this in the Parliament, he said that “There is an urgent need for manpower in the world. Our neighbour China is getting older and we are getting younger. Our priority should be skill development in the youth"... "my government will formulate a New Health Policy and roll out a National Health Assurance Mission.”

7)    Pursuit of enlightened national interest (i.e. interests of private capital-Ed): “We will pursue our international engagement based on enlightened national interest, combining the strength of our values with pragmatism….. My government is committed to building a strong, self-reliant and self-confident India; regaining its rightful place in the comity of nations.” “…to work towards building a peaceful, stable and economically inter-linked neighbourhood…” “The government will revive Brand India riding on our strengths of 5T’s: Tradition, Talent, Tourism, Trade and Technology.”

 What is absent in this agenda is any inkling of increased spending on social programs that will benefit the broad masses of people; historically such spending spurs economic expansion due to increased consumption of goods and services. But the approach advocated as the engine for growth is the opposite: help for the private investors and ways to facilitate export of goods and services. The vision to promote “Brand India”(Tradition, Talent, Tourism, Trade and Technology) is a vision to develop service component of Indian economy with outsiders as consumers. Even the initiatives for education and training of the youth envision private capital running the training institutions to create a new commodity for export in the form of “skilled India”.

The people of India must debate and discuss the path Modi government is embarking upon as its consequences on the people can be hurtful. Modi government will use its majority status in Lok Sabha to stall such discussion amongst people and use legal means to make its privatization agenda the law.  Similar path has been followed before, both inside India by prior governments and outside India using the Reagan-Thatcher privatization doctrine and first-past-the post electoral system. In recent history this privatization road has been to sell off public assets, cut back social spending and transform social services to for-profit enterprises. In all cases where these policies have been implemented they have created increased wealth at one pole while poverty has increased on the other pole. More importantly, these policies have aggravated the economic-political-social crises that continues to ravage the world today. The Modi government has come to power by promising the Indian electorate that it will reverse this trend; however, using past worldwide experience as a guide, its agenda can only deepen this crisis. Prices will rise, taxation will go up, jobs and benefits will be cut and prosperity will remain elusive for the working people. Rather than waiting for the crises to deepen further, there is a need to implement an action plan (to be discussed separately in these pages) that can ensure that people are not left as bystanders after the polls.  If people can not participate in formulating the agenda in an ongoing manner and if the government pushes its privatization agenda using its control of the Parliament, people will have to innovate new means to be heard between elections.