Concept Note: New India Policy Foundation
One of the ideas that a group of us have been thinking is the creation of a centre-right policy foundation / think thank. Amit Malviya and I, with help from a few others, have put a concept note on the idea. We would be keen to get your feedback on this.
The Problem
India since Independence has seen politics of convenience, one that is driven by individual preferences and often catering to compulsions of electoral politics. In the process, public policy-making and delivery are severely compromised. It is ironical that the Congress party has at its convenience oscillated from opposing Socialism to being a strong proponent of it and then embracing free markets when driven by compulsion. The Party has straddled these positions all in a matter of a few decades. Likewise, the BJP when in power, neither emerged as Right of Centre nor did it espouse the cause of Swadeshi. Popular perception is that the two major national parties have little to distinguish their economic policies and are often accused of being opportunistic and short sighted when it comes to policy related matters.
As a result, it is no secret that India as a nation has not realised its potential even after six decades of Independence. Our agriculture is in dismal state, internal security is compromised with alarming impunity, manufacturing sector is not robust enough to employ the vast semi skilled work force, education is highly regulated, health services are woefully insufficient and infrastructure is grossly inadequate. A nation of over a billion people is ruled by absolute adhocism. We are invariably held hostage to one of the pressure groups operating to services the narrow interest of its subjects.
In essence, India suffers from a lack of critical thinking on several key issues of national importance. The thinking that goes on happens within the confines of government - the civil service and the cabinet. There is almost a complete absence of groups outside the formal establishment who develop new policy ideas and actively engage with policy makers to see the ideas through.
It is this state of affairs that has prompted the idea of creating a Foundation which will work towards creating a better future for India.
Tomorrow: The Solution
Comments
10 Responses to “Concept Note: New India Policy Foundation”
Popular perception is that the two major national parties have little to distinguish their economic policies and are often accused of being opportunistic and short sighted when it comes to policy related matters.
I am not sure what popular perception is but the industry views BJP as *much* more industry friendly, pro-private sector and an economically liberal party which is what India needs.
A government has to frame policies and not run businesses and Congress has run businesses for last 60 years and run them poorly.
(1) When BJP was in power they pursued Prvatization aggressively including disinvesting from banks, ONGC etc.
(2) BJP proposed a Govt Cap on stake holding in disinvested companies to 26% meaning the Govt will not have a controlling stake. That means you will get better returns for seeling off these companies and also there will be a management change. This means instantly these worthless subsidies and ponzi schemes like NREGA will disappear as Private sector will not allow Govt to give subsidized electricity etc. But INC still wants 51% Controlling stake which means they only want to sell these companies to tackle fiscal deficit but not to enforce a social change. I was splitting my hair about how an economist PM can think in these terms.
There is a marked difference between the economic policies of BJP and Congress. Its a matter of articulation and seeing the above article I am afraid FoB is not doing (m)any favors.
Hi,
One of the quick options is to reposition the Deendayal Research Institute itself to meet this need, which is obviously something that has not been met since independence. I think that the bigger challenge will be to find funding, as I think that most “right-wing” oriented Indians and better at espousing opinions in online forums, but do not really even come out to vite, let alone reach for the chequebooks. Without funding, you can’t bring on board people who will do this research, or hold symposiums, which is the life-blood of such institutes, or fund in-depth studies (like we need a free-market version of the Henderson-Brooks study as the Congress government is in no mood to release that report (wonder why BJP did not release it when it was in government).
One of the options for funding is to have a mass-based finding programme, of individuals, like people contributing 1K, 5K or 10K per annum towards this organization, and also have fund0raisers organized through dinners, etc.
Anish
Hi,
I think this exercise is reinventing the wheel at best and dillydallying at worst. As any center-right party the BJP has very sound positions in the areas of economics (free market), foreign policy (muscular) among others. I still think all the orators have evaporated from the party and they cant articulate anything clearly.
This is the moment where BJP should have made noise and said we are pro-industry, pro-liberalization and pro-market but sadly I got nothing to hear from them.
BJP being an established party with well defined policies,i feel there is no need for a fresh think tank.Deen Dayal Upadhyay Research Institute,can be entrusted with review,if any,only if absolutely required.[which i don't feel is required.]
@ Mohan
You are absolutely correct. But the leadership of BJP has let the hindutva gang hyjack the party and make it appear in league with Vishva Hindu Parishad and Bajarang Dal. Here on FoB itself there are heated debates about hindutva rather than economic identity of BJP. BJP needs paste controll excersize to free it from Hindutva goons.
Yah, while its true that there are these fringe elements in the BJP, I strongly feel that economic fundamentalism practiced by the Congress party is much more detrimental to India than the religious fundamentalism attributed to BJP. Unfortunately not many people understand this and certainly not the media.
I think BJP has to start a very aggressive economical campaign for “low tax low interst rates” type policies and I am sure many of us here would be game for it. Unfortunately the economic team of the BJP is on a holiday.
I largely agree with LKA’s assessment that Congress got Sympathy vote due to Left’s continuous tantrums. By going for Indo-US nuclear deal, Congress clearly showed that they meant business and it was only due to Left they were not able to do so. Level of basic amenities in India is poor. Hence BJP’s argument that if we get nuclear power, we won’t get a bomb fell flat. I think the general feeling was why we need to sacrifice for a bomb that we may never use anyway. So the message that went to majority of people that MMS is a sincere guy who is trying to bring prosperity to country. Anyway, nobody trusted this line that MMS can willingly sabotage the national security which seemed to be the argument of BJP. I think the general feeling was, it’s better to have an honest, sincere person who means business in office rather than a 3rd front led by Mayawati. So the bottom-line is, for a common man, the credibility of MMS was more than that of BJP. Why did that happen? Nobody will ask this in BJP let alone answer this. By attacking MMS as week PM, BJP made the sympathy votes swing to Congress further particularly in states where BJP itself is not present.
We BJP supporters however accepted BJP’s arguments at the time of election that MMS is week (now in hindsight we are all wise, that’s a different matter however). So another the basic point is, BJP needs to create more supporters. Only way that can be done is by expanding in new geographical areas.
So we all know by now, that what the reasons are. But what is the solution?
I think BJP has two core identities. One, nationalism (or Hindutva or whatever u r comfortable with, it doesn’t matter) and second as champion of development who can usher India in a new era of prosperity akin to its glorious past with its new and different (right-of-centre?) economic policies…
In 1990s you had a movement on the basis of first part of your ideology (nationalism). The general feeling is that u didn’t deliver on what u promised. So what do you have with you which catch the imagination of common man?
Now, lets come to second part that is a different kind of economic policies that will make India prosperous. But what are those policies? Nobody knows. What has BJP done to convince people on its second argument? We need to do something which catches the attention of common man in way that “yeah, these guys are talking sense… why don’t we try what they are saying” type of manner.
Instead of that, what we always hear or read is that BJP people are a confused lot on economic policies. Why can’t u people sit, or call some experts who u think may define your type of policies, and decide your vision once and for all. The trappings keep on changing with time but basic core should remain same from then onwards.
For instance, Congress has this ‘aam aadmi’ as the root of it’s economic policy. I’m right now not talking about their honesty on the same. That’s the job of BJP to convince people about their hypocrisy. The truth is when it comes to the ‘aam-aadmi’ rhetoric of Congress; BJP doesn’t have any answer accept me-too type of response. Naturally why would people go for pretender when they have original.
With all these handicaps, how do you accept BJP to become a serious challenger at national level?
But who is ready to do hard work? That is the main question….
Finally a silver line for BJP from this election. MMS, who is considered the father of economic reforms in India (BJP’s pet subject), being re-elected with a thumping victory implies there is ample scope for BJP to actually experiment with its core set of right-of-centre policies. There is enough mass in this country who may accept those policies.
The only challenge is, there they should look original and Congress pretender.
1. I have lost all my hope that some day BJP can be moderated and someday it can get rid of burden of RSS, VHP, Bajarang dal and like. I have seen enough venom in the minds of BJP workers and here in this forum itself. i am convinced that reforming congress away from it’s older policies is much easier than stopping talibanisation of your party. I doubt your moderate credentials as well. It seems as rhetorical as secularism of senior Mr Gandhi displayed in shahbano case. But at least I can hope to make congress see the point. At least such lapses are not in the ideaology. Here in BJP I see the entire ideology is poisonous. I can’t help smell Nazism in your party.
1. Talk about Geeta, chasing materistic things won’t get u there…
2. Suggest abt having a conference
3. Team spirit.
Make people cynical of all politicians and the ultomate loosers will be Left and BJP because they stand for something however wrong or right it is. Since Congress stands for nothing ,people can’t hate it strongly and hence it becomes
the default choice.
I strongly believe that there would be enough opportunity for BJP to nail congress. As a first step towards ensuring its credibility, BJP should pass a resolution that under so circumstances, they will stall parliament’s proceedings. Under grave circumstances, they may stage walkouts, but that too only rarely…
Congress’s only interest in keeping nation divided in minorities. Create new minorities like in Maharashtra etc.
Pin the government down on black money and don’t forget to take credit if any thing happens at all.
Some people have laughed at this theory but I think economic crisis may have played some role in people’s mind too. Congress has 2/3 guys at top who it can showcase as economists. I’m not talking about policies here. What does BJP have? Why can’t BJP have some economists in its rank who define its position on various economic issues? There must be some right wing type of economists in the world. After all largely there are only two economic theories. These people should formulate BJP’s therapies on various issues. Now, if something is not working and you have an alternate theory, it’s very good. You establish your credibility in some sense. I’m sure with this Congress government; there will be ample chances to push the government on back foot. But for that, you should be ready with your alternate and cohesive policies.
One of the easy places to start with is fixing the leaks in distribution system by proposing (and also demonstrating in your states, as far as possible) how can one create a transparent, accountable system where poor people are indeed benefited. Why don’t you turn this 1 rupee = 10 paisa equation in your states to begin with. Come out from your shell. Time to feel sorry about yourself due to media bias is gone. Show some self-assured attitude. Self-assurance will come only when you yourself truly believe in what you preach. Right now, I only see only one such person, Narendra Modi in BJP. His real belief in what he is doing has made him what he is. Rest all look like posturing..
I think, all BJP needs to do is to shun the language of hatred. They need not to change any of the items in their agenda of Hindutva. To say it in Arun Jaitley’s words, shrillness is not needed. Everything that is on BJP’s official agenda is for cultural nationalism, Indianism which one may collectively call Hindutva or whatever may remain same. By making Hindutva a hardcore, non-evolving, static we are just lowering the appeal of Hindutva. Hindutva should be presented as a concept
Hi Rajesh and Amit,
I think the problem is not lack of critical thinking in key areas. We have good thinkers and if we put together the reports of various commission (be it administrative reforms commission, police reform commission, judiciary, you pick any thing, we have a commission and a huge set of recommendations in each report), we pretty much also know what needs to be done.. What do you think, when we armatures can think of a problem and solutions in few days/weeks/months, we don’t have at least few intellectuals who have dedicated their lives for such things. The problem is implementation. Execution. The problem is the whole show in India is run by few vested interests who don’t want to change this. And they won’t let anything change. What incentive do they have to change a system, which has delivered them so much? We can keep on putting this infinite set of innocent diagnosis/solution for BJP or for that matter even Congress, nothing is going to change ever as none of the people who are in charge of change, do want to change. Politics is no longer a platform to deliver public goods. It’s a platform to execute your personal ambitions.. Primary reason for it is people who are in public life are not there because of their belief in a particular ideology to deliver public goods. The motive is not public good. The motive is, almost always, personal gain. Ideology doesn’t matter.. We can have ideology A or B, but if intentions are right, eventually things will start falling in place… even China could do so many things with a completely different ideology but who wants to do that here?
Look at some simple examples. It’s a well known fact that not more that 5-15% (depending on who you believe more, Rahul or Rajeev) of central funds reach the needy. What has been done to fix this leak in last 25 years, since the day when Rajeev first publicly accepted this fact? What do you think, we don’t know what needs to be done. We know it can be easily fixed by utilizing food coupons, education coupons, direct cash transfer etc. A whole set of solutions is out there to fix the problem. But none of them will ever be done, as the motive is to keep the vested interests satisfied. arre politics main aa ker bhi nahin khaya piya to kiya kiya…
Another example, you look at economic survey that is put on table every year before budget. It lists a slew of reforms. All news paper are full of that the next day making everybody believe the government is about to unleash a series of reforms. But budget next day pours all the water on that hype. What do you think, we don’t know what needs to be done? It’s all listed there. But who wants these? Here I’ll differentiate between Congress and BJP BTW.
The problem with Congress is, they have rediscovered the Indira Gandhi’s socialistic mantra. Indira Gandhi used these policies successfully for 20 long years (which BTW resulted in most of the problems we face today as a nation). We some how started to come out from that with single handed efforts from PVN Rao (whatever economic + geopolitical position we have today in world, we own a large chunk of that to PVN Rao) which were carried forward by AB Vajyapee government. Though in hindsight I believe ABV government could have done much better… That’s why, there was a myth for some time that we by and large have a political consensus as far as reforms are concerned.
But, as BJP was in power, the top echelon of party was hijacked by some vested interests (a little too early in power). They started taking everything for granted and party platform was used to further their own selfish agenda. I think everybody started to believe that BJP will be in power for a long time to come and hence everybody was eager to get as big a pie of the cake as possible. It sowed a huge amount of distrust among top leaders. That’s a different matter however that even when the power is gone, the distrust due to these power games remain. Now, the distrust is so much that every move, every statement is seen from a conspiracy theory angle. So no matter what ever diagnosis we put forward, nothing will change unless this set of leadership is changed. On one to one basis, BJP’s top leadership may have better integrity quotient then Congress but with so much distrust and lack of respect for each other, they can’t deliver any thing. What ever occasional gain they have is by default. All of them also believe in this theory that as Congress was a beneficiary in 2004 by default, they will also get lucky sometime. So there is no need to toil in the field. The better and more interesting game is to cement the position at the top in the party, again by applying some of the conspiracy theories. If BJP has to gain, they need to change the top leadership. There is no way out otherwise. That is the fact. There might be some good leaders that may go in the bargain but it’s worth it…
As far as Congress is concerned, they are hell bent on taking India back to the dark ages of 70s and 80s. If anybody has any doubt, look at this year’s budget. Their formula is simple. Create a ‘mai baap sarkar’ and one of the Gandhi family members as ‘mai baap’. As long as one is willing to play this game, one is allowed his full autonomy in creating innovative ways to loot India. If this is not allowed then these middlemen won’t have any interest left in keeping this Gandhi family in the throne. Every year, the allocation on various ‘flag ship’ schemes will be increased by 15/20/30% for these middlemen to loot even more without any efforts to improve the delivery mechanism by fixing accountability and making system transparent. Who wants that? Nobody even raises any questions on these issues. Media which is supposed to do this job will always be a grateful recipient. A dog with a bone in his mouth can’t bark. We’ll always keep on wondering why media is so biased and blah-2.. All reformist will see with disbelief, in years to come, that how all the reformists agenda is rolled back and more and more freebies are distributed to keep people even more paralyzed, even more crushed, even more dependent. The mantra is, crush the self esteem of the people so badly that they can’t even think of walking on their own without the ‘mai baap sarkars’ crutches. And they who better then Gandhi family can provide these crutches. Hence, even though MMS constituted few administrative reforms commissions, none of these are on his agenda. These charades will continue from time to time to keep media ‘intellectuals’ happy. A cabal, exactly on hardcore communist’s countries line, will take all the decisions. Common man (who is the biggest joker in this whole game BTW) will be informed as much as he is needed to know at the time of this coterie’s choice. More often, he’ll not be told even half truths….Democracy be damned. That’s why Sonia Gandhi is topmost leader in this country without her giving even a single policy level statement. Everybody knows that she is behind every major decision taken by government but no body can critically question her. Actually, nobody can question her at all. And we claim, we have democracy….This can happen only in India where our voter deliver a ‘sagacious’ verdict elections after elections. Bhookhe pet na bhajan Gopala. Keep the people ‘bhookha’ and dangle a roti in front of them and ask them to make an “informed choice”…
We as a nation actually ran a very serious risk of not having any future but for the internet which created few sources of information that can’t be controlled by government directly. And believe me, this is not a geek statement. Since we also maintain this charade of democracy, we also can’t ban it legally… and information is power. Ignorance is curse. With so many powerful vested interests hell bent on keeping this curse on, the journey for our nation is long and tough…
BJP which once represented a ray of hope, fickle out a little too early then expected. Congress, still playing the same games over three generations, lasted a little too long…
Sorry for the long post…….
Hi Rajesh and Amit,
I think the problem is not lack of critical thinking in key areas. We have good thinkers and if we put together the reports of various commission (be it administrative reforms commission, police reform commission, judiciary, you pick any thing, we have a commission and a huge set of recommendations in each report), we pretty much also know what needs to be done.. What do you think, when we armatures can think of a problem and solutions in few days/weeks/months, we don’t have at least few intellectuals who have dedicated their lives for such things. The problem is implementation. Execution. The problem is the whole show in India is run by few vested interests who don’t want to change this. And they won’t let anything change. What incentive do they have to change a system, which has delivered them so much? We can keep on putting this infinite set of innocent diagnosis/solution for BJP or for that matter even Congress, nothing is going to change ever as none of the people who are in charge of change, do want to change. Politics is no longer a platform to deliver public goods. It’s a platform to execute your personal ambitions.. Primary reason for it is people who are in public life are not there because of their belief in a particular ideology to deliver public goods. The motive is not public good. The motive is, almost always, personal gain. Ideology doesn’t matter.. We can have ideology A or B, but if intentions are right, eventually things will start falling in place… even China could do so many things with a completely different ideology but who wants to do that here?
Look at some simple examples. It’s a well known fact that not more that 5-15% (depending on who you believe more, Rahul or Rajeev) of central funds reach the needy. What has been done to fix this leak in last 25 years, since the day when Rajeev first publicly accepted this fact? What do you think, we don’t know what needs to be done. We know it can be easily fixed by utilizing food coupons, education coupons, direct cash transfer etc. A whole set of solutions is out there to fix the problem. But none of them will ever be done, as the motive is to keep the vested interests satisfied. arre politics main aa ker bhi nahin khaya piya to kiya kiya…
Another example, you look at economic survey that is put on table every year before budget. It lists a slew of reforms. All news paper are full of that the next day making everybody believe the government is about to unleash a series of reforms. But budget next day pours all the water on that hype. What do you think, we don’t know what needs to be done? It’s all listed there. But who wants these? Here I’ll differentiate between Congress and BJP BTW.
The problem with Congress is, they have rediscovered the Indira Gandhi’s socialistic mantra. Indira Gandhi used these policies successfully for 20 long years (which BTW resulted in most of the problems we face today as a nation). We some how started to come out from that with single handed efforts from PVN Rao (whatever economic + geopolitical position we have today in world, we own a large chunk of that to PVN Rao) which were carried forward by AB Vajyapee government. Though in hindsight I believe ABV government could have done much better… That’s why, there was a myth for some time that we by and large have a political consensus as far as reforms are concerned.
But, as BJP was in power, the top echelon of party was hijacked by some vested interests (a little too early in power). They started taking everything for granted and party platform was used to further their own selfish agenda. I think everybody started to believe that BJP will be in power for a long time to come and hence everybody was eager to get as big a pie of the cake as possible. It sowed a huge amount of distrust among top leaders. That’s a different matter however that even when the power is gone, the distrust due to these power games remain. Now, the distrust is so much that every move, every statement is seen from a conspiracy theory angle. So no matter what ever diagnosis we put forward, nothing will change unless this set of leadership is changed. On one to one basis, BJP’s top leadership may have better integrity quotient then Congress but with so much distrust and lack of respect for each other, they can’t deliver any thing. What ever occasional gain they have is by default. All of them also believe in this theory that as Congress was a beneficiary in 2004 by default, they will also get lucky sometime. So there is no need to toil in the field. The better and more interesting game is to cement the position at the top in the party, again by applying some of the conspiracy theories. If BJP has to gain, they need to change the top leadership. There is no way out otherwise. That is the fact. There might be some good leaders that may go in the bargain but it’s worth it…
As far as Congress is concerned, they are hell bent on taking India back to the dark ages of 70s and 80s. If anybody has any doubt, look at this year’s budget. Their formula is simple. Create a ‘mai baap sarkar’ and one of the Gandhi family members as ‘mai baap’. As long as one is willing to play this game, one is allowed his full autonomy in creating innovative ways to loot India. If this is not allowed then these middlemen won’t have any interest left in keeping this Gandhi family in the throne. Every year, the allocation on various ‘flag ship’ schemes will be increased by 15/20/30% for these middlemen to loot even more without any efforts to improve the delivery mechanism by fixing accountability and making system transparent. Who wants that? Nobody even raises any questions on these issues. Media which is supposed to do this job will always be a grateful recipient. A dog with a bone in his mouth can’t bark. We’ll always keep on wondering why media is so biased and blah-2.. All reformist will see with disbelief, in years to come, that how all the reformists agenda is rolled back and more and more freebies are distributed to keep people even more paralyzed, even more crushed, even more dependent. The mantra is, crush the self esteem of the people so badly that they can’t even think of walking on their own without the ‘mai baap sarkars’ crutches. And they who better then Gandhi family can provide these crutches. Hence, even though MMS constituted few administrative reforms commissions, none of these are on his agenda. These charades will continue from time to time to keep media ‘intellectuals’ happy. A cabal, exactly on hardcore communist’s countries line, will take all the decisions. Common man (who is the biggest joker in this whole game BTW) will be informed as much as he is needed to know at the time of this coterie’s choice. More often, he’ll not be told even half truths….Democracy be damned. That’s why Sonia Gandhi is topmost leader in this country without her giving even a single policy level statement. Everybody knows that she is behind every major decision taken by government but no body can critically question her. Actually, nobody can question her at all. And we claim, we have democracy….This can happen only in India where our voter deliver a ‘sagacious’ verdict elections after elections. Bhookhe pet na bhajan Gopala. Keep the people ‘bhookha’ and dangle a roti in front of them and ask them to make an “informed choice”…
We as a nation actually ran a very serious risk of not having any future but for the internet which created few sources of information that can’t be controlled by government directly. And believe me, this is not a geek statement. Since we also maintain this charade of democracy, we also can’t ban it legally… and information is power. Ignorance is curse. With so many powerful vested interests hell bent on keeping this curse on, the journey for our nation is long and tough…
BJP which once represented a ray of hope, fickle out a little too early then expected. Congress, still playing the same games over three generations, lasted a little too long…
Sorry for the long post……..
[...] from Friends of BJP on what they call the “new India Policy Foundation” – Parts 1 & [...]
There is no dearth of critical thinkers in BJP or for that matter in our country.The problem is who is interested in hearing or hiring them.The biggest letdown in our country is the so called upworldly mobile middle class who only complain without even bothering to vote as rightly said by Mr Anish.Issues of National importance are of least importance to many political parties while winning an election is paramount.This is where I still have hopes for BJP.I hope BJP puts its house in order as early as possible.
I think it is not a bad idea to have a strong outside group to influence policy makers of BJP ruled state governments to begin with.