On the road to Liberty

Narendra Modi is building the world's tallest statue, in memory of Sardar Patel, in the Narmada district, of Gujarat?  Why does Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, and the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP in the forthcoming general election in 2014, need to lay a claim over political legacy of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, independent India's first home minister, who died in 1950. Is it an attempt to saffronise Patel, the nationalist icon who was opposed to religious and communal politics? Or is it a sign of desaffronisation of Modi, in his attempt to shed his own communal image? These are some of the questions which I explore in the following article.  Every political ideology or movement needs a face or an icon, symbolising the essence of the campaign to the public. To be effective, such a political icon needs to be seen as bipartisan, something which the wider sections of the population, beyond the party faithful may be able to related to easily. ...

During a recent trip to China, I spoke at a couple of conferences on the evolution of the population policy, in India and China. That gave me an opportunity to discuss with quite a few Chinese, scholars and students, the various dimensions of China's one child policy. I was also surprised to learn that increasing number of Chinese scholars are questioning the utility of the population policy, and warning of the serious implications. With the help of research inputs from Prateek Kapil, I have tried to explore some the potential consequences of the one-child policy for China, and for the rest of the world. China has defied many conventional wisdom, whether it can defy the old adage “demography is destiny” will be seen over the next few decades. A version of this article has been published in the Geopolitical Information Service. In the past three decades, China's rapid economic development has attracted attention of the world as well as le...

Most Indians experience daily power cuts. Now, voters are realising that the price of being powerless without electricity, which may be free yet not available at all, can be quite high. And politicians too are becoming aware of the high political price for promising electric power and then failing to meet the growing demand. This is putting a premium on availability of reliable electricity. I explore the changing political dynamics over electric power, and look at the prospect of creating new opportunities for politicians and policy makers to explore new and innovative ways to reform the electricity sector. A slightly shorter version of the article has been published in the Asian Wall Street Journal, on July 26, 2012, under the title "Power to India's People". The longer version is below.  India is facing an electricity crisis. This year, five states have declared power holidays and another eight say they intend to ration pow...

When political parties face intense electoral competition, they are forced to focus on growth and governance. Or they may continue to pander to identity politics, and risk becoming politically irrelevant. This is the lesson from the recent assembly election in Uttar Pradesh. The contours of Indian politics are beginning to change, as the significance of identity politics in India begins to diminish. I suggest that this political shift is opening up the need to explore new policy options. This was published in the Asian Wall Street Journal on 13 March 2012, titled " India's democratic dividend ". The consensus view for most of the past decade in India held that good economic policy did not make for good politics. New Delhi's trade and investment openings since 1991 mostly benefited the middle class, while the poor in rural areas kept voting for corrupt politicians who promised more handouts. Last week's election results in five Indian states turned the conventio...

In 2012, developmental issues have firmly emerged at the top of the agenda of most major political parties. Yet, barely a decade ago, many believed that India was paying a “democracy tax”, that political pluralism was at the cost of economic well being. Today, increasing political competition has opened new opportunities for the voters not only to demand performance but drive the economic changes as their aspirations rise. This is forcing politicians to explore new ideas that might meet these demands. Is it time for India to reap the economic dividend from political democracy? A longer version is " Democratic Dividend: Economic benefit from political competition ". A shorter version was published in the Mint , on 6 March 2012.

Contrary to popular chatter, there seems to be little or no correlation between the amount of money a party or a candidate has and the likelihood of it winning an election. It is time we consider removing the limits on election expenditure, that has done little to restrain cost of elections. A law that can neither be obeyed nor enforced, is contributing to undermining the legitimacy of democracy, and of politics. Therefore an open election expense law, with no limit but complete disclosure, would be a better idea, I suggest in this article in the Financial Express , on 2 February 2012. There can be no two opinions that Indian elections have become prohibitively expensive. Also, there is widespread apprehension that money is used to unduly influence voters. Despite reams lamenting these threats to democracy, and a constant flow of anecdotal reports in the media, it is really surprising that there is little hard evidence to support such fears. Let us look at some of the evidence and a...