Taking democratic reforms forward

Economist Jagdish Bhagwati for moving on the unfinished agenda begun in the early 1990s.

The perception about corruption in India is more like a blind man seeing somebody paying a bribe. Once caught, though, a corrupt man should not go scot-free.

Putting across the view today, Jagdish Bhagwati, veteran professor of economics and law, Columbia University, lauded Indian democracy in the Central Hall of Parliament — incidentally, on a day when proceedings had been stalled for the 15th day over the issue of instituting a Joint Parliamentary Committee inquiry into the 2G telecom scam.

Delivering the Third Hiren Mukerjee Memorial Annual Parliamentary Lecture, 76-year-old Bhagwati began his speech on reforms by stating he’d “try to add shades to the portrait, he (Manmohan Singh) has been painting”. A personal friend to whom Prime Minister Manmohan Singh referred to as “family”, the two studied in Cambridge and later worked as colleagues in the Delhi School of Economics.

‘Our great plus’
Acknowledging that political leaders in India had to go through a minefield before taking any decision, Bhagwati said democracy can slow the government down but it is a value in itself that gives enormous advantage and makes a country conducive for the global economy. "In relation to China, it is an inevitable comparison we've had for decades, ever since we began developing. The two countries have always been compared. Our democracy is an enormous advantage…Our democracy has also been a source of immense gratification, not just to elites, but also to the common man.”

Bhagwati criticized author Pankaj Mishra for his comments that pointed to “alarmingly deep and growing inequalities of income and resources in India” in a recent article in The New York Times as being “fiction masquerading as non-fiction”.

Next in line
Dwelling on the theme ‘Indian Reforms: Yesterday and Today’, Bhagwati noted that conventional reforms, which were the first stage, needed to be strengthened by extending these to the unfinished reform agenda of the early 1990s. This phase has delivered by giving growth and revenues but it has also raised expectations. “Oliver Twist asked for more but got less, but the electorate ask for more and expect to get more,” he noted, while noting the example of the recent electoral victory of Nitish Kumar in the Bihar state elections.

The second stage of reforms involved better decisions on how to spend the money and that required good governance. Bhagwati maintained that in India there was a culture that everybody was perceived corrupt unless proved otherwise, but added one way to tackle the problem was to come out with legal ways of raising finance for political campaigns.

He appreciated the use of technology for issue of the proposed unique identity numbers for each citizen. The use of science in genetically modified crops could also be another way of assaulting poverty, he said.

While the Central Hall did not witness a packed audience, prominent among those present were the ruling coalition’s chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani. Singh, in his welcome speech, said India had overcome the problem of 'brain drain' and was drawing on the opportunity of “brain gain”. "Today, we in India are experiencing the benefits of the reverse flow of income, investment and expertise from the global Indian diaspora," he said.