Manmohan Singh
The Indian
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave his final Prime Ministerial talk last week.
It went on with out much attention or media coverage. But looking back all the
neo financial policies and economic reforms of 1990's, it is to be said that at
least the young generation of India had to have a retrospective look on the
opportunities they had after 1990s.
During 1990s (Singhs as financial minister in
Narasimha Rao's Government and later P.M. for the past 10 years) there were hardships
for downtrodden people as they lost land or job in rural India .But they were
many opportunities for these people in the urban India, where new economic
activity shot up with in years and millions of jobs were created.
Before 1990,
the Indian politicians and people were very conservative. They were feeling
comfortable with the traditional five
year plans, closed economy, "gareebi hatova (uproot poverty)"
slogans etc. But they never realized the stagnation in economics due to heavy dependence
on government rules and regulations and
the bulldozer bureaucracy (Licence Raj). The private sector was devoid of
advanced technology and management , cheaper foreign investment for further development and
widespread market and global opportunities. They were not permitted to have
good partners from foreign lands , who have advanced technology and experience
in certain, specified fields like oil exploration, automobile engineering etc
Above and all
, there was protectionism, nepotism and favoritism everywhere . No competition
was visible in major industries (Ambassador
car as an example of the lack of technical progress in a closed economy). The
agriculture and heavy Industry developed, but the manufacturing industry was far behind
from the global standards. Then came a small vehicle in the Indian soil, a Suzuki car with all new looks and comforts.
It was a wind of change.
The common man
in India realized that there were changes in products and services and Indians
are also eligible to have such comforts. So they elected Singh as PM even for
the second term .
Bangalore city
After 1990 and
Maruthy-Suzuki era India was changing drastically , with a strong internal
market and middle class. The poverty among poor people still remained, but the
economic growth could swap a considerable sector of such people also. States like
Punjab, Haryana, Maharashstra, Gujrath, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra
Pradesh were developing in all spheres of life. The IT industry and IT enabled
services stood up in the forefront.
Now India is a world economic power.
This status was attained only after 1990s. The Indians have to thank the great vision of late PMs Rajeev Gandhi, P.V.Narasimha Rao and out going PM Manmohan Singh and the so called watch dog the "Left" , who persuaded the the Congress led governments to implement Common Minimum Programme (CMP) for the improvement of living conditions of the poor.
Millions and millions of Indian youth now have the
opportunity to get good higher education and job. But very few bothers about
the positive role of Manmohan Singh and his predecessors and the Left(Left supported the UPA I Government and active in implementing CMP) in all these changes.
There are many
draw backs and political set backs which the outgoing Prime Minister had during his regime. The corruption at higher
level tarnished the image of his Government UPA II. It is said that development leaves garbage, which should be taken care of. But then PM was not having the right amount of power and authority to correct the few corruptive ministers. The economic reforms changed a lot in the macro economics of India, liberalized the mind set of people and created millions of new jobs and purchasing power. Still it could not remove the
basic problems in rural India-that of poverty, of under nutrition, homelessness, no
drinking water and inadequate education and health facilities. Never the less,
the last government had plenty of poverty eradication programs , which the
left parties and few others implemented,wherever they were in power.
The tragedy of
Manmohan Singh is just like that of Michael Gorbachev . It was Gorbachev in
the end initiated the wind of change in Russia. But he lost all control of the country, the economy etc and his reforms perestroika and glasnosch were not being followed by the successive governments. He was later hated by
everybody in Russia . Never the less, one day people would realize the positive role of
such statesmen in their respective country.
The left would
also realize that the UPA I was better than any other coalition in the center. At least during that time Left was a real force in the Indian politics.
So I thank the out going Mr. PM for changing the stagnated Indian mind.
xxxxx
After many days of writing this blog an amazing book has come out:
THE ACCIDENTAL PRIME MINISTER
THE MAKING AND UNMAKING OF
MANMOHAN SINGH
By Sanjaya Baru
This book is very informative and interesting to read. For a political science student, it is a chapter on contemporary Indian Politics.
Sometimes I remember the novel "Midnight Children" by Salman Rushdi and " Dharmapuranam" by O.V.Vijayan, while reading this book.
xxxxx
After many days of writing this blog an amazing book has come out:
THE ACCIDENTAL PRIME MINISTER
THE MAKING AND UNMAKING OF
MANMOHAN SINGH
By Sanjaya Baru
This book is very informative and interesting to read. For a political science student, it is a chapter on contemporary Indian Politics.
Sometimes I remember the novel "Midnight Children" by Salman Rushdi and " Dharmapuranam" by O.V.Vijayan, while reading this book.
