The Indian diaspora, which was a major asset until a few years ago, may be turning into a liability. There are grassroots movements against Indian immigrants in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and even Ireland, of all places. These immigrants are successful, reasonably wealthy, and are growing in numbers by the day. They are ideal objects to be envied and resented.
In recent times, there has also been the growing phenomenon of illegal Indian immigrants who have entered the US, Canada, and the UK with the help of sundry human-trafficking gangs. Natives of these countries may not always see the difference between law-abiding, tax-paying, productive immigrants and these law-breaking persons.
We may be transitioning from a model minority to a growing problem.
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30 days for reform
In India, we are accustomed to glacial change. We are still debating whether to privatise public sector companies in the petroleum and telecom businesses. We are still not in agreement about including petroleum products and real estate in GST. We are still debating whether indigenously developed, genetically modified mustard can be given to our farmers, who desperately want it. We are very worried about how to prosecute farmers who are illegally importing Bt brinjal seeds from Bangladesh. We are still debating labour reform, land reform, and inverted duty structures. We haven’t even published a draft bill on limiting liability for nuclear plant equipment suppliers, although we announced it many months ago. We seem to love appointing Committees to “look into” reform.
Unfortunately for us, other countries do not change so slowly. Just look at the Europeans. Quite recently, they all trooped into Delhi and were talking about free trade and economic co-operation. Now they seem to be singing a different tune. Look at the Chinese. When faced with 145 per cent tariffs, they wrote to our President suggesting a reset of ties. They did not appoint Committees of Secretaries, let alone Committees of Ministers and Secretaries.
Our problem is not only that we find it difficult to move in a hurry. We also get paralysed with our own obsessions, and are frequently victims of self-inflicted ailments. Many decades ago, we decided that de-hyphenating with Pakistan was important for us. This has now become a religious doctrine. Why should we care what others say? The de-hyphenation has to be in our minds and public consciousness. If it does exist in London, Brussels, or Washington, that is their problem, not ours. And as a raucous democracy, we have pressure not to “surrender” and to refer to important foreign leaders as liars. These are juvenile ideas parading as responsible Opposition.
Let’s face it: The rest of the world moves fast. We cannot keep moving slowly.
India does not need more committees and working groups. We know exactly what reforms are needed at the Centre and in the states. We need a crash meeting of the Centre and the states, where we decide and implement the next day or the next week. We must pull off these reforms in 30 days, given the magnitude of potential problems we face.
If we turn the crisis into an opportunity, and do reform our economy, and if we release the animal spirits of our entrepreneurs, and if we do realise that 2047 can be a realistic goal, then our present troubles may have been worth it.
Jaithirth ‘Jerry’ Rao is a retired entrepreneur who lives in Lonavala. He has published three books: ‘Notes from an Indian Conservative’, ‘The Indian Conservative’, and ‘Economist Gandhi’. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)
At the end of 30 days, Socialist India will prove to the world for the nth number of time that it is incapable of reforms.