The Hindu Business Line : Sixty years after Freedom

When an individual attains his 60th year and celebrates the occasion, invariably thoughts turn to what has been achieved during the period. Has he progressed economically, meaning has he improved his overall economic status? Has he improved his social status, meaning has he been able to attract the notice of society more than his parents did? Thirdly, is he living a ‘better’ life today — in terms of being a bona fide citizen of the Indi an Republic — than he did 20 or 40 years ago?

Problem of measurement

Can we evaluate a nation’s politically independent existence in the same way, or is 60 years too short a time for such an exercise? After all, the Indian nation is composed of more than a billion individuals (a substantial part of whom are below 20 or 25 years old and, therefore, cannot be included in this comparative exercise), the outcome for the nation under the three broad heads outlined above being an aggregation of the results in each individual case. Apart from anything else, the problem of measurement itself becomes infinitely difficult let alone the summation of the discrete results. This apart, is the time scale applied to the life of an individual appropriate to the life of a billion-strong nation?

Even so, despite these conceptual problems, an evaluation of the nation’s achievements or the lack of them on the 60th anniversary of Independence cannot be avoided, the task becoming somewhat feasible under the three heads given above on account of available statistical measurements, particularly as regards the economic sphere.

Seventeen years ago, the nation’s coffers (specially the foreign exchange reserves part of it) were on the verge of bankruptcy, the inference being that the economic policies pursued during the preceding 43 years had abjectly failed to produce results by way of furthering the interests of the national economy. Since the foreign exchange scenario cannot be separated from the overall national economic canvas, the conclusion is that, since 1947 till 1990, the powers that be in New Delhi had failed to take the economy to a point where it was earning its livelihood (and saving resources from its transactions) in the world market.

Self-reliant

It may be argued that, although the foreign exchange resources in 1990 and 1991 had hit rock bottom, the national economy itself was strong and vibrant in that it was self-reliant (especially in industry) and could hold its own in an economically hostile world. This is correct, but the point can also be made that a truly successful economy should not only be relatively self-reliant in a Cold War-coloured world but should also be strong enough in terms of its production processes to be able to compete effectively in the world market and be able to sell its products in it (thus fetching it precious foreign exchange). This certainly was not the case with the Indian economy at the turn of the 1980s and to that extent it can be said that the earlier economic policies had failed to produce the desired results.

Since the early 1990s, however, there has been a sea-change in the Indian economic scene and, thanks to the reform drive, it has produced results both for the future national economic structure and the average citizen today which can only be measured in quantum terms.

Admittedly, the industrial base set up before the 1990s has played a major role in the further growth of the economy during the past 17 years, but the fact remains that the economic ‘sparkle’ of the nation on the 60th anniversary of its Independence is wholly the result of the policy of reducing official restrictions and opening up the domestic economy to private domestic and foreign enterprise which, incidentally, was set in motion in 1991 by none other than Dr Manmohan Singh himself.

Aligning with New Delhi

An important outcome of this ‘revolution’ in the Indian economy has been a vast improvement in the international status of the country, so much so that the so-called Big Powers of yesteryear are now vying with each other to hold New Delhi’s hand, in a manner of speaking. Mr Putin’s Russia is no newcomer to this scene, the erstwhile Soviet Union having been able to woo the Indian Republic with great success since the 1960s, so much so that it had the upper hand vi s-À-vis the US in the Cold War years. The only difference today is that Russia is facing severe competition from the US because the latter has realised (perhaps a trifle belatedly) that, in strategic terms, there is no alternative but to align with New Delhi mainly because of the growing economic clout of the latter on the world scene.

The real value of the nuclear deal will emerge only if it is seen in this broad perspective, the critical point being that the “control element” in Washington’s interest vis-À-vis the deal is perhaps less impo rtant to the Americans today than the value the deal will have in global strategic terms over the next 20 or even 30 years.

In fact, the 123 Agreement is so important for the future of India’s position in international affairs that it has already led to a lot of discussion and debate internally in capitals like Moscow and Beijing as to how they should factor in this new ‘alliance’ between the US and India in their strategic foreign policy projections for the next couple of decades.

Another important spin-off for New Delhi following its economic attainments is the position it currently holds in the WTO, especially as regards the ongoing negotiations on the Doha Round. Clearly, in the eyes of the world, the nation has travelled a long way since 1947 to be able to occupy this place among the developing countries, which is nothing if not a feather in its colourful cap.
Politics and the average citizen

Unfortunately, however, this run of success which will be celebrated on the 60th anniversary of Independence does not extend to the democratic content of our political life. Indian politics today is no better than what it was till the 1980s. On the contrary, it may perhaps have become even more polluted by the exigencies of acquiring power and clinging to it in an age of coalitions. The big question is whether the rot has also affected the average citizen in a big way. Given the innate strength of the human spirit, one would like to imagine that the damage has not been great, which makes the August 15 celebrations even more potent and meaningful for the future.

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