Is India Back In Nehru Era : Non Alignment , Infrastructure development , Industrialisation , High Unemployment , Hindu Rate Of Economic Growth ( alleged), Low Defence Procurement& Crony Capitalism : क्या देश पुनः नेहरु युग मैं वापिस जा पहुंचा है
Rajiv Upadhyay 
The events of last eight years indicate that the country is possibly back in the Nehru era .
In the Nehru era, the core belief was socialism which is still being pursued in welfare schemes in different names like Ujjwala , House loans , Electricity and water in every house , subsidized or free food etc . In the Nehru era India was a very prominent leader of ‘Non Aligned’ countries , it is walking into same shoes now. India was industrialising rapidly and the Infrastructure was also being built rapidly but economic growth was about 3.5 % pa and there was high unemployment .Our real average economic growth rate in the last eight years is back to about 4 % and the unemployment is very high now . Nehru era was also the era of emergence of the license permit raj now it is crony capitalism . Another past weakness was neglect of defence which ultimately led to 1962 debacle against China in which we lost about 90000 square kilometers of Indian territory and our respect internationally. Luckily there has been no 1962 . On several occasions we have replied to Chinese very strongly but China has nibbled our large territory by salami slicing methodology .
Analysis of the last ten years will show that in almost all areas, our nation has gone back to Nehru era .
We are almost as non aligned as in Nehru’s time perhaps with a minor difference . In Nehru era we were closer to USSR but now we are slowly getting closer to USA as were are not able to match the Chinese economic or military growth and are seeking collective security. Nehru had launched big public sector projects for building dams , factories like BHEL , research centres like BARC , ISRO etc . Our progress in space , missiles etc is good today also . Indian Railways earlier became a model in self reliance by manufacturing its own coaches , locomotives and wagons . Atmanirbhar abhiyan today is repeating it .
The unprecedented road building is the core success and strength of this government though the beginning was made by Atal government and Lt. General Khanduri . It collapsed in DMK’s T.R.Balu’s term but nation will be grateful to Gadkari for restoring and taking it to new high . Ports and waterways too are developing rapidly . In Nehru era also transport sector particularly railways was given high priority The present PIL scheme is the new public sector to take manufacturing in India to next level with budgetary support . It was long overdue to close the technology gap that had crept in the last forty years . The nation is striving to achieve self reliance in defence as was done for Railways etc. in Nehru era . But defence procurement remains neglected as in the last twenty years we have just bought 36 Rafale airplanes while our air force pilots continue to die in flying coffin Mig 21 and we have lost the advantage over Pakistan and have gone much behind China in airpower. Our defence budget as a percentage of GDP is almost back to 1962 era. Bureaucracy or simply Babus continues to choke our armed forces as in Krishnamenon days. It was evident in communication failure that led to Abhinandan’s capture in Balakot strike due to our ill informed and big gas bag bureaucracy blocking the key computer link import proposal of the Airforce .
Like the old License Permit raj , the crony capitalism is back with vengeance as Ambanis’ Jio has wiped out competition helped by dumping of BSNL and many other government moves. Adani’s rapid growth is a wonder created by easy public sector banks credit . Awarding Rafael project to bankrupt Anil Ambani’s firm remains inexplicable . There are so many examples firmly taking us back to Nehru era . It is decreasing our competitiveness internationally but possibly is unavoidable in the present circumstances . The irony is that due to our low exports , our Forex reserves are dropping very sharply and hopefully we will not have to mortgage our gold as in Nar Simha Rao’s time .
The biggest tragedy is the slow economic growth . A government elected on the Gujrat’s growth model and committed to ‘ sabka sath sabkaa vikas ‘ has totally failed on ‘ Vikas ‘ front . The recent examples is of foreign textile and other firms exiting China which have largely chosen Vietnam and Mexico inspite of high decibel noise made here . Bangladesh emergence as the global textile capital happened under our nose and benign neglect . We lost a great employment generation opportunity. Government is now following Lalu’s famous quip “ What development has to do with votes “ . Economic growth like China of nineties is a now a forgotten dream . Government tried land bill in the beginning but soon capitulated to populism after defeat in Delhi and Bihar elections . It tried agriculture reform but the bill was so brazenly pro capitalist and so poorly drafted that government almost lost its credibility with the farmers . Its timely repeal saved the government .But babus who let the government down went scot free .
India has given up its dream of real eight percent growth of Manmohan era ( new 9.5%). It is a great tragedy .
While digitalization being pursued now will be great game changer , This government is bolder and quick implementer but Nehru had greater respect for institutions and was a visionary .The three other critical sectors of poor performance are education , health and employment .
Socialist Nehru laid much more emphasis on cheap but quality education . The tution fees of I.I.T./Kanpur was just Rs25 per month in 1967. So many low cost engineering and medical colleges were opened for public .The higher education has become elitist and very costly now .There is no fresh thinking in education as it hardly receives any attention at higher level. There has been a devaluation of scientists and engineers in public life and nation will pay the price in the long run of neglecting science and technology . Kapil Sibal destroyed the quality of education by removing annual examinations and three language formula . It has not been reversed fully .
Similarly health is a neglected sector . Adequate number of new public hospitals are not being opened .Private hospitals are growing but they are fleecing the public .
The worst casualty of last ten years has been the employment or vanishing jobs . GDP figures are deceptive . Much of the growth has been jobless . The ‘ Pakoda Stall ‘ government has stopped attempting to create new avenues of employment . Slowing down of two wheeler sales in a harbinger of coming bad times due to continued stagnation in creation of high wage employment . We are having a spate of ‘ delivery boys ‘ jobs in Diwali and Holi seasons by Amazon and Flipcart but Malls and small shop’s are closing due to reduced sale.
Last two years have witnessed a global devastation of economies .We too have been affected . It is a very difficult situation and there is no easy solution . We know that the low hanging fruits have already been plucked . Now it requires much more effort to fire the Indian growth engine . But the government instead of solving growth problems has created many impediments due to its ideological stances. De monetisation was the beginning of the fall . Poorly planned GST was the next big contributor . While the difficult problems needed bold solutions but over emphasis on transparency led to a CBI/Vigilance/ ED / Audit rule and the inevitable witch hunting regime . Bureaucracy for ever has become an irreversible time pass and risk averse institution . Due to excessive centralization It has stopped thinking and just implements PMO directives . This is a very dangerous situation which will have a very long term damaging effects.
Similarly reversal and auction of spectrum led to Telecom bust and created an international credibility crisis. Arrest of indutrialists has led to huge exodus of talented rich businessmen ,. Stoppage of mining lease without understanding long term requirements and implications was another step . It must be understood that our steel sector and possibly power sector needs captive mines to survive . There was nothing wrong in giving mining lease .Similarly cheap spectrum was the reason for telecom boom . The government has to be alive to industry’s needs and not sermonize or harass them . Compared to Dr. Man Mohan Singh’s time the omnipotent babus bureaucracy have become the total masters now.
The present government wants to save and promote its genuine ‘honest image’ at any cost and the bureaucracy wants to save its pension with equal determination . Punishment for non performance being started now is the next disaster in waiting for bureaucracy’s morale . Rapid growth requires an Elon Musk or Jeff Bejo or even Dr. Man Mohan Singh as Finance minister . Our CBI /ED /CVC / Audit will ensure that we never produce them . Our soft underbellied and risk averse nation is headed for a long term Nehruvian 3.5 % economic growth rate with very high unemployment . It may hide it with falsification of statistics as done in finance minister Jaitley’s regime but increasing unemployment and the resultant poverty will show up in many ways like the current declining two wheeler sales .The 1991 collapse may not take pace but the golden era of high economic growth will also not come back with the present policies.
So our future is heading rapidly towards our past and unless we reform we will perish .
