The new Indian government took office six months ago, after a marathon parliament election in which the BJP-led NDA didn’t win a majority and had to form a coalition government. Since then, all of parliament proceedings have been stormed by the Adani controversy on which the opposition parties have been demanding a discussion. The Adani issue is serious, if it is indeed true that the business conglomerate has been charged and indicted by the US Department of Justice in New York. And not just the opposition, but the entire country has a right to know how these offences took place and why there is no investigation initiated by the Indian government yet, since it is Indian government officials that have allegedly accepted bribes by the company.
The BJP has tried to respond with a counter-allegation that the INC (Indian National Congress) is trying to divide the country because it is linked somehow to George Soros. In this battle of allegations and counter-allegations parliament, to which we Indian citizens have elected new lawmakers, has been caught in a logjam and no business has been transacted. In fact, because the Vice President and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Jagdeep Dhankhar, has not allowed any discussion on Adani and any other issues that the opposition wishes to raise in the house, there was even a move to try and impeach him. Unfortunately, the Congress-led opposition does not have the numbers to do so.
In the middle of all this confusion and mockery of parliament playing out, is a so-called debate on the Indian Constitution because it happens to be its 75th anniversary year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke, choosing once again, to spew venom at Jawaharlal Nehru and the Indian National Congress on the occasion, rather than speak on the importance of the Indian Constitution, why it must be sacrosanct, and upheld in the every-day life of this country. The Union Home Minister, Amit Shah is said to have made his concluding remarks on the need for UCC (Uniform Civil Code) and the government’s determination to implement this. What the newspapers missed reporting, and what has now blown up into yet another storm was over BR Ambedkar, champion of the Dalit community and also architect of the Indian Constitution. So much for the Indian Constitution and the debate!
We are now almost at the end of 2024. There is a Union Budget coming up in a month and a half’s time, and plenty to hit us in the new year, 2025, as a result of Trump 2.0 and his economic and tariff policies. I don’t think our lawmakers and our government have even begun contemplating or discussing the pressing issues at hand, especially on reviving the economy. We have just received news of our FY 25 September quarter GDP, which showed a sharp slowdown to 5.4% growth over the previous year. Manufacturing, which this government has been pushing through PLIs, has slumped to 2.2% growth in the quarter and although GFCF growth (gross fixed capital formation) looks healthy, I am quite certain it is not private sector investment that is contributing to it in terms of new manufacturing or business capacity.
Instead, the entire focus the past many months has been on state elections. Again, as I have written before, four state elections took place in two rounds, which wasted the time of the politicians, people and media in our country. Winning them at any cost seems to be the only preoccupation of the leading parties, and now we already have media hype being built on television news about the upcoming Delhi elections, for which the dates have yet to be announced!
This entire circus, I am sorry to say, is the work of unprofessional PR agency idiot bosses who spend all their time on politics and politicians. Not on policy matters. They make media too waste all its time on this, without any sensible reporting on what is taking place across the country and around the world. I have written before on my blog about the great media hijack in India and around the world, and have been observing the great policy hijack as well for decades now. The results are there for the entire world to see: demonetisation, announcement of Covid lockdowns, taking over free foodgrain distribution (PDS), centralizing it and extending it by 5 years when it was meant to only be a Covid-time measure, freebies and sops to women and the poor instead of being able to generate employment and create livelihoods for them, no plan to revive private sector investment besides harping on PLIs, rising unemployment especially among the youth, and more that is hampering India’s economic growth. No work or consultation with India’s premier think-tanks, but in fact stopping them from doing their work, a new income tax regime to pander to the very same unprofessional PR agency idiot bosses and their cronies who ought not to be in the corporate world in the first place.
The only legislation that is touted to be passed is the One Nation, One Poll bill which has just been passed by the Cabinet and tabled in Parliament. This, from a government that just held four state elections in two separate rounds, and hasn’t bothered to still conduct a national decadal census of this country which is now four years overdue.
All this suggests to me a complete and sad breakdown of the way our democratic institutions in India have been functioning in recent decades, and of our political leadership. A developed India by 2047 is not going to see light of day as long as political parties pander to unprofessional elements and indulge in crony capitalism. Besides all the issues I have listed above, we have serious business issues and bottlenecks that need to be addressed in order to unleash the next phase of growth. Industries such as airlines and civil aviation, telecom, automobiles, information technology as well as pharmaceuticals and healthcare need greater policy attention, if India has to leverage these for growth in the coming years and improve our competitiveness. Many of these industries have to be made investment-ready all over again, before any further growth can be generated, because there are serious bottlenecks.
And as I have been saying, 2025 ought to be the year to push greater research and meaningful innovation around the world, because it is otherwise likely to be a year of severe slowdown, especially in the face of what’s to come from America. India is not insulated from the foreseeable challenges of the next few years, nor should we assume that we are.
Time our political leaders grow up, and so does our media, which loves nothing more than to bask in summits and conferences in the presence of, well, if you haven’t already guessed, more politicians. I can see the flurry of year-end conferences taking place on Indian television news channels and they all seem to me, to be living in la-la land.
The animated owl gif that forms the featured image and title of the Owleye column is by animatedimages.org and I am thankful to them.
Peripatetic Perch 