by Jaswant Singh, for­mer Indian Finance Min­is­ter, via Project Syn­di­cate

2012-01-25

NEW DELHI – Will 2012 prove to be a year of renewal for India, or another annus hor­ri­bilis? No coun­try pro­gresses unerr­ingly, but India can­not afford another polit­i­cally and eco­nom­i­cally tor­pid year like 2011. For India, last year is a year best for­got­ten. India has been so deeply mired in polit­i­cal paral­y­sis that the Nobel lau­re­ate econ­o­mist Amartya Sen recently said that the coun­try has “fallen from being the sec­ond best to the sec­ond worst” South Asian coun­try, and that it is cur­rently “no match for China” on social indi­ca­tors. This is a damn­ing com­ment on a coun­try that held such promise just a short time ago.

In early Jan­u­ary, the Amer­i­can social critic James Howard Kun­stler described India as “a nation with one foot in the mod­ern age and the other in a col­or­ful hal­lu­ci­na­tory dream­time.” Kunstler’s view is harsh, but per­haps prophetic: India’s “climate-change-related prob­lems are doing heavy dam­age to the food sup­ply. Their ground­wa­ter is almost gone. The trou­bles of the wob­bling global econ­omy will take a lot of pep out of their bur­geon­ing tech and man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tors.” Indeed, sud­denly, India’s econ­omy has begun spin­ning out of con­trol. Last year, the country’s GDP growth slowed, man­u­fac­tur­ing plum­meted, and infla­tion and cor­rup­tion grew uncon­trol­lably. Elected and unelected gov­ern­ment offi­cials alike, includ­ing cab­i­net min­is­ters, mem­bers of par­lia­ment, and civil ser­vants, were impli­cated in cor­rup­tion scan­dals. The sit­u­a­tion trig­gered rec­ol­lec­tions of Prime Min­is­ter Indira Gandhi’s fraud­u­lent call for a state of emer­gency in 1975, when she ruled by decree for 21 months, sus­pend­ing elec­tions and civil liberties.

The population’s out­raged response to these events was vis­ceral, and pre­vi­ously unknown fig­ures such as the anti-corruption activist Anna Haz­are ral­lied thou­sands of Indi­ans in meet­ings across the coun­try to protest against gov­ern­ment cor­rup­tion. As Prime Min­is­ter Man­mo­han Singh’s gov­ern­ment floun­dered, the oppo­si­tion vainly sought to gain the upper hand. But, to ordi­nary Indi­ans, this polit­i­cal games­man­ship appeared to be merely a farce – the blind pre­tend­ing to lead the unsighted. Per­haps for the first time ever, India’s gov­ern­ment failed to enact even a sin­gle piece of leg­is­la­tion, much less under­take any eco­nomic reforms, restore price sta­bil­ity, or address wide­spread civil disorder.

Read the com­plete arti­cle here.

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