Page 2 of
2 Ram-ming the Indian
economy By Chan Akya
differences, due to their need to
manage coalition partners pulling in many
different directions.
Differences between
the Congress and the BJP appear mainly cosmetic
and personality-driven, with the former
positioning itself as the "party of Nehru and
Gandhi" and the latter as a "Hindu mainstream"
grouping.
Regional parties are more
malleable in general. For example, an
Indian journalist friend
pointed out that the BJP had been in an electoral
alliance with the DMK (the chief of which made the
derogatory remarks on Lord Ram) less than five
years ago. The friend also pointed out that the
DMK needed Congress support to further the
business interests of its key leaders, including
those of the chief minister who made the remarks.
The point of bringing in Ram,
interestingly enough, came from a project to
deepen the coastal waters between India and Sri
Lanka that necessitated the destruction of a
submerged land bridge between the two countries.
(Opponents of the plan claim the project would
interfere with the sub-sea structure of a bridge
to Sri Lanka constructed in ancient times under
Ram's instructions by an army of monkeys - See Hindus say don't mess with Rama's
Bridge, Asia Times Online, September
25, 2007.)
Other critics of the project
have pointed to significant environmental hazards
associated with the idea of bringing oil-bearing
tankers and other large ships to a rocky coast
that hosts unique ecological systems, including a
marine bird sanctuary.
Businessmen have
meanwhile pointed out that the channel between the
two countries is still too narrow and water flows
too fast to make any realistic difference to
transit times. Last, security experts warn that
the new channel will just make it easier for
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels in Sri
Lanka to flee to Indian waters when pursued by the
Sri Lankan navy.
Anecdotal
imagery As an aside, it is difficult to see
why the DMK's recent comments on Lord Ram have
provoked so much anger. Many prominent
politicians, starting with the first prime
minister of independent India, Jawaharlal Nehru,
have criticized Hinduism extensively and compared
Sanskrit epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata
to Greek poems like the Iliad rather than to the
Bible or the Koran.
This is perhaps
understandable in the context of the
Hindu-Buddhist use of anecdotal imagery to convey
profound philosophical observations. In turn it
makes such epics assume literal rather than
religious importance to atheists and agnostics who
reject or fail to understand the philosophy being
espoused.
That long history of criticism,
though, benefited from being outside the public
eye, without a 24-hour media presence to
scrutinize every move. In much the same way that
recent television images of queues outside a
British bank [6] made global headlines that helped
cast the country in the same light as "banana
republics", the public criticism of Lord Ram by a
coalition leader that was carried almost verbatim
by television and radio stations instantly helped
to inflame passions much more than if they had
been reported simply in regional publications.
Another characteristic of politicians
criticizing religion in India appears to be that
while attacks on Hindu culture, rituals and
traditions are perfectly acceptable to left-wing
leaders on the grounds of furthering rationality
and countering superstitions, the same is not true
when minority religions such as Islam and
Christianity are concerned. According to the
aforementioned journalist, making light of the
Prophet Mohammad or Jesus would earn a quick
dismissal from government jobs, along with
lawsuits and threats to life.
Beyond
politics Hindu parties, sidelined by the
electorate for a few years, seized this
opportunity to take center stage, but in doing so
may have played straight into the hands of the
Congress that wanted the communists to come
running back into its fold. The government has
also expanded some politically valuable economic
programs - such as guaranteed employment for the
rural poor, a scheme so awful that it boggles any
rational person's mind.
The government
proposes to simply pay rural poor for work that is
not done nor needs to be performed - in
other words, the ultimate pork barrel giveaway.
The scheme, costing over US$5 billion, will prove
inflationary in the medium term, but that is
obviously not a big consideration for a government
seeking to remain in power.
Away from
ill-thought economic programs that belie any
reform credentials of either the prime minister or
Finance Minister P Chidambaram, the government has
also failed to take any decisive stance on
foreign-policy issues. There is no official
criticism of Myanmar, for example, for fear of
offending the communist parties who have obviously
much in common with anyone who beats Buddhist
monks to death and tosses their bodies into
rivers.
The ultimate cost of the present
period of chaos in Indian politics, though, may be
felt by the economy. Increased budget deficits and
government intervention in the economy, which are
hallmarks of communist-led governments, will help
to push down economic growth in the coming years.
Lacking any energetic leaders, it is unlikely that
the BJP can actually ramp back into power at the
next husting, even if that may turn out to be the
best thing for the economy in the coming decades.
Notes 1. Government of
India statistics – www.indiastat.com 2.
www.cmie.com –subscription required by CMIE -
Center for Monitoring Indian Economy Pvt. Ltd.
3. The jihadi ate my
homework Asia Times Online, February
24, 2007. 4. Much of my political analysis is
based on a perusal of Indian media, both on the
Internet and in hard copy, over the past two
weeks. Any errors are my own. 5. Caste-away Asia Times
Online, June 15, 2007. 6. Rocking the land of
Poppins Asia Times Online September 22,
2007.
(Copyright 2007 Asia Times Online
Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about
sales, syndication and republishing.)
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