NARENDRA MODI AS THE CAPTAIN OF ‘TEAM INDIA’
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Sunday, 20 April 2014 | Kanchan Gupta
Repairing and reforming Centre-State relations should be among the top priorities of Modi as Prime Minister. Federalism must replace patron-client centralism
Given the precarious state of India’s economy and the rising tide of fear that unless something is done to check the drift and reverse the decline in the next few months we could well be heading towards a crisis much more fearsome than that which visited us in the early-1990s, it is only natural that popular commentary in recent days has revolved around BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s economic agenda.
This past week Modi has given a series of interviews to news channels, expanding upon themes mentioned in the party’s manifesto, reassuring voters that the economy would be in the right hands if the BJP were voted to power. Indeed, the surge of support for Modi who is now riding the crest of an unprecedented popularity wave stems from the belief that he can fix what has been almost irreparably broken by the Congress-led UPA Government: The national economy. When Modi talks of reviving the manufacturing sector, initiating massive infrastructure projects, pushing for big ticket investments, both foreign and domestic, and reining in food prices, he strikes an instant chord with young and old voters — it inspires hopes that there will be jobs and affordable food for the family table.Repairing and reforming Centre-State relations should be among the top priorities of Modi as Prime Minister. Federalism mustreplace patron-client centralism
Given the precarious state of India’s economy and the rising tide of fear that unless something is done to check the drift and reverse the decline in the next few months we could well be heading towards a crisis much more fearsome than that which visited us in the early-1990s, it is only natural that popular commentary in recent days has revolved around BJP’s Prime
There is no doubt that the biggest challenge awaiting the new Prime Minister and his team would be how to get the economy back on the rails, by no means an easy task. Unless something dramatic happens between now and May 16, that new Prime Minister will be Narendra Modi. He would have to immediately roll up his sleeves (metaphorically speaking, since he wears half-sleeve kurtas) and get down to the task of first resuscitating the economy and then nursing it back to health. Whether he can work miracles in the first few months remains to be seen, but given his track record as Chief Minister of Gujarat we can be sure of an economic revival, at least early signs of it, by the end of the year. With the eroded credibility of institutions being restored and clear-headed policy-making in place, that would be the precursor to what the Modi campaign promises: “Achchhey din aaney waley hain.” (Good timesare coming.) Cassandras will no doubt predict failure, but it would be pointless to be distracted by their cavil.
The economy apart, there is another concern which Modi has been addressing at his public meetingsand in his interviews which merits equal attention. This is to do with Centre-State relations. In the wasted decade of UPA rule, relations between the Union Government and the State
Governments, especially those controlled by the BJP and its allies, have deteriorated to a point where there is little or no trust vested in New Delhi by the State capitals. An uninspiring, limp-wristed Prime Minister has contributed to this deterioration by failing to address concerns of the States and meeting their expectations. Manmohan Singh could have posited himself as a national leader but he chose to be a doormat of 10 Janpath, preferring to do Sonia Gandhi’s bidding than fulfilling his constitutional obligations and responsibilities as Prime Minister of India. If truth be told, he began his tenure lacking in both respect and self-respect; he never rose from being a dodgy babu. He loftily spoke about the need to “think out of the box” but chose not to think beyond how best to keep his political boss in good humour. The Chief Ministers would be regularly summoned for meetings in New Delhi but nothing would ever emerge from those confabulations by way of either policy or initiative. It was the same whine-and-drone to which the Chief Ministers were treated till one by one they stopped accepting Manmohan Singh’s invitation. At the end of 10 years, Manmohan Singh’s abysmal failure to forge a constructive relationship based on mutual trust and respect with the Chief Ministers brings to mind Yeats’s memorable line, “Things fall apart; the Centre cannot hold.” The rise of Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party is symbolic of the “mere anarchy … loosed upon” this land.
To make the Centre hold, to stop things from falling apart, Narendra Modi has to act swiftly on restoring trust between the Union Government and the State Governments, more specifically, between the Prime Minister and the Chief Ministers. Modi has a plan to radically repair, reform and restructure Centre-State relations, whose broad contours have emerged from his statements and the party manifesto which, he ensured, was in alignment with his thinking. He has repudiated the notion of the Prime Minister and the Union Government as the sole decider of the nation’s destiny, asserting that nation-building must factor in regional aspirations. The patron-client relationship which we have seen till now has been junked by him too. As a long-serving Chief Minister, he knows what it means to deal with a Union Government that remains an unreformed relic of the Soviet model of Centralism. When he talks of federalism, he builds his narrative around his own, as well as that of others’, experiences in pushing a State’s agenda in the face of a we-know-best Centre’s obstinacy.
‘Team India’, comprising the Prime Minister and the Chief Ministers, may sound fanciful in view of the divergent political views of the individuals concerned, but it is not impossible. Modi does not mean a formal body or platform but the spirit of working together and in tandem, bearing in mind the best interests of the nation as a whole and the States individually. National aspirations are no doubt more than the sum total of regional aspirations, but no aspiration can be truly representative of the nation unless it also reflects regions and States of the Union of India. Modi talks of the need to trust Chief Ministers, of vesting them with greater authority to decide what is best for the State they represent, of allowing them the freedom to decide how to spend Central funds, of involving them in the formulation of foreign policy that directly impacts the States’ interests. It would be easy to mock him for daring to tread on territory none has treaded upon before, but the time has come for rethinking what is described as the ‘idea of India’. This idea cannot be limited to merely cultural and social pluralism, it must also include political pluralism and tolerance of regional aspirations.
In a sense, reforming Centre-State relations will be Modi’s litmus test. If he is able to make overbearing centralism, so dear to those who are Left-of-Centre, a thing of the past and introduce federalism in both letter and spirit, as desired by those aligned on the Right-of-Centre, then he would have rid India of its Soviet era baggage. The Government in New Delhi should be in command of India, but Lutyens’s Delhi does not need to occupy the commanding height of India’s political landscape. Let the long overdue flattening happen. The consequences can only be happy for all.
(The writer is a Delhi-based senior journalist)