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Of reforms, family and the PM

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Joe Clark

It is indeed welcome that the prime minister of India has chosen to discover Bharat the old-fashioned way: direct, personal interaction with people who normally, for the ruling elite, are little more than an odious subset of the country’s statistics: the poor, the drought-hit, the suicide-prone. But one of Dr Manmohan Singh’s pronouncements during the course of his recent tour of Vidarbha jarred. I am not unambiguously wedded to reforms, the PM said. This hint of marital discord raises questions about what reform stands for and the government’s ability to steer its course. The statement presupposes a conception of reform as something already defined, with a character that is already formed and fully articulated, difficult to mould further. Much like a spouse. You can like your spouse’s overall being, or lump it. But reform is not like that. Reform is what you make of it; it is amenable to change. Reform, in that sense, is more like a child — most people would agree that it is easier to mould one’s child than one’s spouse. And Dr Singh, with a legitimate claim to a parental status in relation to India’s economic reforms, gives the false impression that he cannot drive the reform agenda, when he discusses relations with the wife when he should actually be discussing how to bring up the kid. Of course, Dr Singh doesn’t require sundry columnists to tell him what reform is all about or what he can do to take it forward. But the trouble is that such casual remarks from the PM can end up reinforcing false stereotypes of reform, and invite popular opposition. It is widely believed that reform is Urban India Shining, that attempts to alleviate rural suffering is a deviation from reform, a concession to political compulsion. Such a vision of reform is flawed and self-defeating, despite its currency among corporate hoi polloi. Reform seeks all-round change for the better. It is as much about empowering the politically disempowered as about enhancing integration with the global economy or enlarging the pool of people who can get a debt-swap right. Globalisation is not primarily about trade and investment; it is about extending the range of opportunities people have for improving their lives from the few available in the immediate neighbourhood to the multitude being created every moment around the world.

 

 

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Joe Clark
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