Jalan - India: priorities for the future

U ntil 2014, in India, when the present government took office with a majority of members in Parliament, there were as many as twelve different governments in the thirty-four years since 1980. Of these, four multiparty coalitions survived their five-year terms with occasional setbacks and shifts in the composition of parties supporting them from the inside or outside. Excluding these four coalition governments that completed their full term, the average term of office of the remaining eight governments was less than two years.

Naturally, considering the governments short life expectancy in office and multiparty coalitions, and each party with different political agendas, it was not feasible for any government to initiate political reforms of a type that could reduce the discretionary powers of ministers or otherwise reduce the role of the Central government in the allocation of financial resources across different states.

Since 2014, the typical political profile of the government, with a single majority party in Parliament, has changed dramatically. Now, it is entirely feasible for the government to launch political reforms to reduce the discretionary powers of independent ministers belonging to different parties and to make political changes that can effectively reduce corruption and administrative bottlenecks in the delivery of services. This book is an attempt to identify some priorities for the future that can be implemented within a relatively short period of two to three years, until 2019, when the present government will complete its first term.

In some ways, 1980 was a watershed year in the nations post-Independence political history, as, previously, governments were formed mainly by the Congress party, which enjoyed a majority in Parliament for as long as thirty years after Independence, followed by two short-term governments during 197779. The first section in the book, India: Then, highlights certain developments mainly in Indias economic policies during the period 19802000. During this time, the government formed by the Congress in 1980, with Rajiv Gandhi as prime minister, initiated a process of loosening the direct controls and regulatory framework for investments by the private sector as well as enabling the freer movement of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country. However, during this period, there was no major change in the role of the government or the public sector in the economy. In the 1980s, India also suffered a persistent balance-of-payment problem, with very low foreign-exchange reserves. As a result, Indias capacity to meet its import requirements had also become extremely insufficient. In order to tackle these problems, there was an urgent need for a new development strategy and financial reforms to generate higher growth.

The second section, India: Now (200015), deals with the economic and political situation persisting since the beginning of the twenty-first century and highlights some important priorities for the future that can help India realize its full potential as one of the fastest-growing emerging economies in the world. This section also deals with certain issues relating to the separation of powers among the three organs of the state: the legislature, the judiciary and the executive. This may be of particular interest to those who are interested in ensuring that the tussle between or encroachment by either the legislature or the executive in the domain of the judiciary is avoided, irrespective of which party or coalitions of parties is in power.

I am grateful to Satish Choudhary for his meticulous work in preparing the manuscript for publication, and to K.D. Sharma for his help in putting together the vast material, stretching over several decades. I am also very grateful to Udayan Mitra, Ranjana Sengupta and Meru Gokhale of Penguin Random House for their advice, guidance and painstaking efforts to improve the contents of the book. I also appreciate greatly the work done by Rachita Raj for copy-editing the book at very short notice. Without their encouragement and support, this book could not have been completed.