Ramachandra Guha: The Myth Of Modi the Economic Reformer
During the Constituent Assembly debates, Dr B R Ambedkar remarked that "the love of the intellectual Indian for the village community is of course infinite, if not pathetic". Well, the hopes that our free-market columnists place in the redemptive powers of Narendra Modi are infinite, if not pathetic too. After the new farm bills were passed in parliament last month, there has been a veritable deluge of articles praising Modi for having (at last) awakened his better instincts and revealed himself to be a real reformer (as these columnists had wished for all along).
Anyone who had any illusions about Narendra Modi's economic
wisdom should have abandoned them altogether after the demonetization of large
currency notes in November 2016. That was a daft move from which the Indian
economy has not yet recovered. It was daft in terms of its economic logic,
though it made some sense politically and personally, the first by diminishing
the cash hoards of parties other than the Bharatiya Janata Party shortly before
a crucial state election in Uttar Pradesh, the second by making Modi out to be
a zealous messiah determined to wipe the contagion of black money from India
forever.
For those still willing to suspend disbelief, the ham-handed
execution of the Goods and Services Tax should have opened their eyes….
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