Professor Jagdish Bhagwati's on Chacha Manmohan Singh

Professor Jagdish Bhagwati's first take on the new Indian Government

June 05, 2009, 3:36 AM

I was asked to respond to questions about the Prime Minister and India's policies after the elections, by a well-known foreign journalist writing a story on this subject. Below are the complete questions and my answers which the journalist will quote from.

Q1. What, in your understanding, is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's understanding of so-called "inclusive growth?"

Ans: He has always understood that the economic reforms which he started implementing wholeheartedly when he was Finance Minister would be the most important single change that would accelerate growth and finally reduce poverty, as indeed they have. This is "inclusive growth" indeed. This growth has directly pulled people out of poverty; it has also generated revenues without which little can be spent on bringing benefits such as health and education to the poor and the marginalized. The Prime Minister has always been explicit on these matters, criticising the critics of the reforms that fail to understanfd that, without growth and the accompanying growth of revenues, the "inclusive growth" that we planned for since the 1950s cannot be delivered.

Q2. Throughout his first term, Manmohan Singh was often criticized as weak, accused of being a puppet of Sonia Gandhi, and denigrated for caving in to the demands of the Left. Another Newsweek writer even blasted him for "missing his moment." In hindsight, it looks more like he was biding his time. Is he a natural compromiser, or was he simply a more savvy politician
than people gave him credit for?

ANS. The PM has had a strong partnership with Mrs. Sonia Gandhi who is the effective politician who has managed to turn the Congress Party back into a viable political party. But this "team" was shackled by having to work with rejectionist communist allies. Now that they are unshackled, we can expect that the PM will intensify the reforms which were largely on hold. Interestingly, Rahul Gandhi has also been emphasizing growth; and the post-1991 experience only underlines the fact that intensified economic reforms are the principal answer to our challenges.

Q3. One of the most interesting developments in the recent election was when Manmohan Singh began to respond directly to the charges leveled at him by LK Advani and others that he was a weak PM. What did you make of Singh's tough talk? Was that out of character?

ANS. In my long-standing experience with him since our days in Cambridge together fifty years ago, the PM has always displayed quiet strength of convictions and character, not the Oxbridge flamoyance. He is polite but no patsy. When Mr. Advani's criticisms got out of bounds, the PM responded firmly but without rancour.

Q4. There's a popular perception (though I'm not sure on what it is founded) that Manmohan Singh is a free marketeer, and Sonia Gandhi is the socialist /populist part of the equation. What's your assessment of Singh's opinion on issues like globalization, deregulation and the "religion of free trade?"

ANS. This contrast is only true in the sense that Mrs. Gandhi has to> cement and lead the Congress Party with its diverse elements and she has had to manage the alliance with anti-reformers like the communists, whereas the PM has to lead on policies. The PM, and indeed Mrs. Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, are fully aware of how India has finally begun to have what Jawaharlal Nehru called our "tryst with destiny", only thanks to the reforms that included surmounting the fear of globalization and of freer trade; and that this has finally enabled us also to deliver on Mahtama Gandhi's vision of an India without poverty. They are unlikely to reverse course and return to the bankrupt policies of the pre-reform past to which the populists and ultra-leftists cling with impassioned nostalgia.