The Hindu Business Line : The shine that wasn't

THE BJP-LED NATIONAL Democratic Alliance placed its record of managing the economy at the core of its electoral appeal and ended up paying the ultimate price. For such an appeal to work, it is essential that people cutting across social segments should believe that their lot has improved under the NDA dispensation and, more important, that the quality of governance made it possible. On both counts the NDA was found wanting. No doubt, in a very broad measure the economy has made impressive strides but it is also an inescapable fact there are still huge pockets of deprivation and this section can hardly be expected to empathise with the `India Shining' campaign launched by the Government with its obvious political overtones. And as for those whose lot had indeed improved by the policy of greater economic freedom, their success was earned in the rough and tumble of an unforgiving market place and, as such, would prefer to pat themselves on the back rather than the enabling policy environment. Viewed thus, it was never smart politics to have put the economy as the talking point of the elections except perhaps as a dream for the future as Indira Gandhi so successfully demonstrated decades ago, with her Garibi Hatao clarion call.

By this verdict, the average voter has also questioned the political wisdom of the ruling party, or a combination, advancing the election to take advantage of a perceived popular sentiment in its favour. The NDA at the Centre; the Congress in Karnataka and the Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh have all had to pay a very heavy price for this political miscalculation. It is as though the voter, while not expecting the politician to better his lot, is reconciled to the situation and not averse to going along with the democratic process of choosing the representatives to govern. But he would definitely draw the line at any attempt by parties to doubt his intelligence or manipulate him with some clever political tactics. The verdict in Orissa is an exception to this proposition because the Biju Janata Dal's clean government made up for the lack of efficiency. There is, thus, a distinct possibility of parties seeking to differentiate themselves from others by pandering to the average voter's social and casteist affiliations rather than the more challenging task of delivering on the promises of economic prosperity.

The emergence of a chastened Congress, after nearly a decade-long spell in the wilderness, is bound to cast its shadow on the future of economic reforms. Certainly its ardour would have dimmed by a belief that is now widely shared across the political spectrum in the country that reforms impose heavy short-term costs on the public. Whether it is cutting down on fiscal deficit or releasing resources for development through restructuring of public enterprises or further loosening controls on private enterprise, the new government might be tempted to ease up on the pace of reforms. That would be a folly: What did the Vajpayee Government in was not reform per se but its somewhat skewed framework. There were few policy initiatives, for instance, towards improving the viability of agriculture or small businesses. Three-fourths of the populace could not, therefore, partake of the fruits of reform. India shining meant little for them.