‘This govt has stepped up public investment, improved inclusiveness’

The Narendra Modi government has completed two years and a debate has started on its successes and the failures. Speaking to Bloomberg TV India, Union Minister of State for Skill Development, Entrepreneurship and Parliamentary Affairs, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, said there has been a direction first build the economy and look at the social sectors on a priority basis. The government has also tried to take the Opposition along with it in pushing forward crucial reforms. Although the GST Bill has been facing hurdles in the Rajya Sabha, Rudy is hopeful the government will “succeed” in passing the Bill in the Monsoon session.

It’s been a challenging time for us, especially in the backdrop of three successive years where we had monsoons failing and drought-like situations. Still we were heading for double-digit growth. We are growing at about 7.4 per cent. And if you look at the benchmarking, which started about three years ago, the GDP growth was far lower before.

And the best part of this government is that it has attempted to put the systems in place — channeling public money to boost investments in infrastructure, rail, road and transport. So there has been a direction first to build the economy and infrastructure. And all the social sectors have also been taken up on a priority basis.

So this government has moved both in terms of stepping up public investment and improving social inclusiveness. Two years down the line, we have not reached the end of the road. And I think many places — be it legislation or be it administrative efforts — there has been progress.

For example, in the road sector, first year we build around 3,000 km and this year we have targeted 10,000 km on the national highways after having completed 7,000 km last year.

In the previous regime, road building was around 2-3 km per day. Today we have reached 20 km a day and we are targeting 30 km.

If you look at the berthing time of ships, which is a very important parameter to see how stocks are rolling out, it has come down from 2.32 days to around two days. When you look at electricity generation, in just one year we have added 25,000 MW. If you look at the coal stocks at power stations, when we had started we had come down to seven days of coal stock which could be critical. There is no power station now where coal stock is critical. It’s in surplus. The production of coal has gone up. So I think if you look at both infrastructure and schemes like the Mudra Yojana, about ₹1 lakh crore has been given as small-term loans without collateral to entrepreneurs and self-employed people. So I think more or less, it’s a midway review. And the right midway review can take place only after the third year. If you want a high-rise building, you have to make the pillars of foundation strong.

Coming to the ground realities in Parliament, there have been successive sessions that have not yielded results in the Rajya Sabha although Lok Sabha has a stellar record. The mood, as reflected in an analysis by global investors, is that despite having a big mandate this government is unable to take the entire Parliament along with it, and crucial legislations are stuck. How do you assess the situation?

I have a small reservation when you say the entire House has to be taken along. The mandate is reflected in the Lok Sabha. But somehow politics is being reflected in a big way in the Rajya Sabha, where we actually do not have the numbers. Maybe two years down the line, we will have the numbers. That could be a possibility. So this contradiction is there. The Constitution does recognise that there are legislations which have to be passed by majority in both the Houses. With these constraints we have moved ahead. It is a political tragedy in a way because people have mandated us and people would not take the excuse even if we don’t have the numbers in the Upper House. It is a real challenge to put the legislative process in order because a section of the members in Upper House believes they have the numbers to obstruct or delay or postpone a decision. But in many ways they have also partnered with us. Possibly some politics will always be part of the Indian democracy and Parliamentary process. So we have to admit that much of space. But it will not be correct to say we have not carried them along.

On the GST, which is perceived as one of the biggest reforms since Independence, we saw a very strange situation play out where the party that actually proposed it suddenly reversed some of its position on some of the key elements. What is your view on that?

I will not get into the merits of the case now because more or less it has been examined by Parliamentary committees, and a consensus has evolved from the Centre to the State. I think what irks me is that the whole thing is not the merits of GST per se, but there are extraneous factors. Possibly a time would come when these extraneous factors would not matter. The Finance Minister has said in his speech that we would be able to tide over it. Even those who are opposing it know that it’s good for the country but they are opposing it for the sake of opposing it. There are three points that they (Congress) have raised and I heard the Finance Minister has said we are amenable to many more things that can be considered. I think they are also under a lot of pressure that this country requires a great economic reform which is the GST. Hopefully, in the Monsoon session we will succeed. We are always optimistic.

Moving on to State level politics, Delhi and Bihar were major setbacks for the BJP. In terms of the ability of the ruling party and its mission to take its message forward, how would you describe what is panning out in the five States that have just gone for Assembly polls?

Well, we would have to admit that Bihar and Delhi were setbacks. But the silver lining here is that, unlike earlier times when all the parties would combine to tackle the Congress, today it seems all the parties come together to fight the BJP. But we have come to stay, be it national or State government. It is a matter of getting your presence in some other States. Tamil Nadu is a State where we have not been able to establish our presence. So be it in a small State like Pondicherry. We moved to Kerala and we are sure now that the bipolar politics in Kerala has been transformed to tri-polar politics. I cannot say how many of the seats we would get, but certainly the vote percentage as compared to last time would be more visible and there would be a remarkable increase in that. And we will wait because we are a national party. But BJP’s presence in Kerala has been felt very strongly.

So I think the brightest part is that we have a government in a sunrise State like Assam.

In case of West Bengal, we would not be able to comment much. So, we would be a gainer in this situation.