BJP’s hegemony and party structure sparks concerns. But its power is fragile.
Neelanjan Sircar | Assistant professor, Ashoka University & Visiting senior fellow, Centre for Policy Research
Hindustan Times
Sircar states that when corporate leader Rahul Bajaj spoke about an environment of fear in the country, he was “expressing a concern about the hegemony” of the BJP rule and “how it silences the criticism required for effective policy”. He argues that political parties are “highly susceptible to ‘group think’, as the careers of those in party organisation are often linked to affirming the views of the leader” and thus “the leader’s hold over the party is linked to the relative absence of criticism”.
Sircar writes that “when a party is hegemonic, the chief aim of policy is to bolster its own organisation and entrench it in society”. In order to change things, Sircar suggests that “one needs more institutional context” and argues that the “hollowing out of state units to strengthen the party at the Centre, also generates incentives for the central party to use its institutional heft to bully its rivals at the state level”.
In conclusion, Sircar states that the BJP “looks like it will be in control for the foreseeable future” but politics can change in a moment and the “catalyst can be anything from a policy mistake to an economic crisis”. He adds that “when people are angry and frustrated enough, no amount of social control can hem them in.”
The widening fissure in India’s rule of law
Gautam Bhatia | Delhi-based lawyer
The Hindu
Bhatia argues that “even after seven decades of independence, the relationship between the individual and the state is marked by a deep and pervasive imbalance of power”. He notes that this especially holds true in the context of states like Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, “where there exists an intense conflict over land and resources, and serious challenges to the legitimacy of the state, that their ugly reality is revealed for all to see”. He refers to a report published last month by an online publication, which reported that over 10,000 people in the Khunti district of Jharkhand had been chargesheeted by the police for sedition.
According to Bhatia, the “vague, ambiguous, and unclear wording of the sedition provision continues to make it ripe for abuse”. Sedition is described as “‘disaffection’ against the government, or bringing it into ‘hatred or contempt’” and he writes that the “scope of these words is…boundlessly manipulable”.
In order “to break this seemingly unending cycle, it is important to understand that its root cause lies in how laws such as the sedition provision… systematically concentrate power in the hands of state agencies, and equally systematically, strip individuals and communities of legal ways to resist.” In conclusion, Bhatia maintains that “if we are to ever fulfil the promises of freedom and equality that the Constitution of India guarantees to all” then “we must learn from the social movements that gave birth to the RTI and the FRA, and organise in similar ways against laws such as sedition”.
Look beyond the diaspora
C. Raja Mohan | Director, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore
The Indian Express
Mohan writes that “Delhi is surely relieved that Jeremy Corbyn did not win the recent general elections in the United Kingdom”. He notes that the Labour Party’s “hostility towards India on the question of Kashmir, and its political tilt towards Pakistan under Corbyn, galvanised a large section of the Indian diaspora to rally behind the Tories”.
Even though Delhi is “pleased with the outcome of its election, the problem of British involvement in Kashmir and other India-Pakistan issues is unlikely to disappear anytime soon,” writes Mohan.
He identifies three reasons for this. First, “India is being sucked into an unfortunate competition with Pakistan in diaspora mobilisation in the United Kingdom and beyond”. Second, “while the India diaspora outnumbers the Pakistani diaspora, Delhi may find it increasingly hard to cope with the larger alliances that are beginning to coalesce and question India’s current domestic policies”. Third, “India has dealt with the British problem on the Kashmir question for decades now under different governments, both Labour and Conservative” and it has “been a lot harder to change the attitudes of the British establishment or the ‘deep state’”.
Mohan suggests that “Delhi must now focus on the new possibilities with Britain presented by Boris Johnson’s victory”. Furthermore, the country should take “full advantage of the historic shift in Britain’s international orientation — economic and political — that is about to unfold.”
Why cash transfers won’t work for fertilizer subsidies
Ajit Ranade | Economist & senior fellow, The Takshashila Institution
Mint
Ranade discusses direct benefit transfer (DBT) that is meant to directly deposit payments into bank accounts of farmers. However, DBT and the whole fertilizer subsidy framework “needs to be reworked from scratch”, he writes.
DBT mechanism has been expanded since 2015 to cover 436 government welfare schemes across 56 ministries, explains Ranade. As the world’s largest electronic payment system, however, fake or duplicate beneficiaries and “overhead expenses…reduce the efficiency of government spending”, he writes. It can also be counterproductive for farmers who live far away from the bank branch and have to travel a long distance to encash their DBT, he adds.
Ranade cites a NITI Aayog survey, which found that farmers are more likely to refuse subsidies through DBT because they would have to rely on money lenders to pay the full fertilizer price upfront and repayment only starts after 120 days of the full crop cycle, “assuming the crop does not fail”. DBT is therefore a “non-starter for such poor tenant farmers”, he adds.
Green shoots in financial sector?
T.T. Ram Mohan | Professor, IIM Ahmedabad
Business Standard
Mohan begins with warnings from rating agencies that the Indian economy may be facing a possible downgrade. He writes that the fall in growth is due to “an NBFC crisis on top of a banking crisis” and thus, banks must pick up the slack.
Currently, the two major tools for economic revival — fiscal and monetary stimulus — are “blunted” and therefore, the government is correct in addressing problems at the sectoral level, particularly the financial sector, explains Mohan.
He also credits PM Modi with sending the “right signals” to bankers, which ensures that their “legitimate business decisions would not be questioned”. He mentions “two pieces of good news” — the Alternative Investment Fund for completion of affordable housing projects and partial credit guarantee scheme for banks buying assets of NBFCs. The two schemes have taken off but “should help but only at the margin”, he adds.
Providing adequate capital to public sector banks and “ensuring top slots are filled speedily and empowering management to resolve stressed assets” are significant to a fast economic recovery, concludes Mohan.
Powering South Asian economic cooperation
R.V. Shahi | Former power secretary, GoI
Financial Express
Shahi examines the future of power and electricity infrastructure among countries in South Asia. Currently, the region is “struggling to provide reliable 24×7 electricity to its people”, let alone using it to accelerate economic growth, he explains. However, the hydropower potential among nations like India, Bhutan and Nepal is significant. According to Shahi, a South Asia Regional Electricity Market would help develop regional power trade.
Last December, India issued cross-border power trade guidelines to “enable trade of electricity from one country to another utilising Indian transmission infrastructure”, explains Shahi. In this regard, Shahi lists a few of India’s key initiatives with other countries. Projects with Bhutan, like Punatsangchhu-I and Punatsangchhu-II, which are set to be operational by December 2022 and December 2019 respectively.
Shahi predicts that about 13,000 MW of transmission infrastructure will be available in the next five years. Informal talks at the South Asia Power Secretaries Round Table will continue to help understand “energy issues and policy considerations of different governments” in the region, he adds.