BJP never had much of a clue to the economy, which is why it falls back on nationalism

Have we ever heard the Prime Minister coming up with a solution to unemployment or poverty?

All the solutions he had to offer were made before he became Prime Minister. He then seemed to have all the solutions to all the problems that the country faced. Since then his ideas seem to have dried up.

In every election, national or in the states, the Bharatiya Janata Party has stuck to the narrative of nationalism. Why does the BJP shy away from addressing economic issues?

Never in its history has the BJP had an economic plan to talk of; nor has it ever presented an economic vision to the 130 crore Indians that it wants to govern. Instead it has sought to rally people around religion, Hindutva, nationalism, temple and cows.

It does claim to be a party working in the national interest and it is the BJP that never tires of projecting that the country is well on its way to achieve a five trillion economy. But ask what is being done about it and all that you are likely to get is more bombast and more rhetoric. It is also worth noting that most schemes that the BJP has been working on are ones which were conceived and conceptualised by the Congress.

Schemes like Ujjwala, Jan Dhan accounts, PM Gram Sadak Yojna, PM Awas Yojna etc that were Congress schemes are used by the BJP today to get political dividend but it does not help the lot of Indians who may benefit from alternate ideas to these schemes if they were presented with one.

The deficiency of an alternative economic narrative is also, arguably, one of the reasons why India remains poor in ideas. Sops and targeted schemes that may not actually be benefitting the poor are a major reason the BJP government needs so much money to run the government.

To cite just one example, the BJP embraced the Ujjwala Yojana with enthusiasm. It plastered all the petroleum outlets with huge hoardings exhorting people to give up subsidy in favour of the poor. The gas cylinders have indeed reached villages but planners have discovered that the villagers cannot always afford to refill a Rs 700 gas cylinder. Firewood is free and it matters when incomes are falling.

Is the BJP’s inability to deal with actual problems faced by people the reason why it talks of nationalism even when it is not required?

THROW MONEY IS BJP’S MANTRA

A look at BJP’s campaign prior to the Maharashtra assembly elections reveals a lot. BJP leaders fanned out in the rural areas of Maharashtra to campaign but spoke about the abrogation of Article 370, integration of Kashmir with India, patriotism of soldiers etc. but very little about what they had achieved in the last five years in the government. Nor did they speak of their vision for Maharashtra for the next five years.

BJP which wants to rule one of the most prosperous states in the country has no economic roadmap to offer? It raises serious concerns because Maharashtra today is reeling under huge rural debts, farmer suicides, bank failures and the monsoon deluge leading to collapse of urban infrastructure.

The only solution that the BJP has for all problems is to throw money. This is how it has worked in the past six years, whether it is farm loan waiver, or the FM trying to cut corporate taxes or various other solutions that were meant to keep the stock market happy so that urban Maharashtra voted for BJP.

But with the economy fast going downhill post-Diwali, how will the BJP keep generating the money it needs to throw at the problems?

How without a concrete solution to the economic problems is it going to keep itself going for the various state elections lined up in the next three years? Chances are that the coming Bihar and UP elections will again witness more talk on the Ram Mandir, Hindu pride etc but no roadmap to revive the small enterprises that once made UP and Bihar prosperous states.

Nobody of course can forget the sight of the Prime Minister, while addressing an election rally in Bihar in 2015, asking the crowd how much money he should allocate to the state! Like an auctioneer he had raised his offer from Rs 50,000 crore to eventually Rs 125,000 crore.

Well, BJP lost the election, and nobody appears to have reminded the PM of his pledge since then.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CONGRESS AND BJP’S APPROACH

With nearly 60% of India living on subsistence agriculture, BJP has built no narrative of how to deal with small farmers and better their lives away from agriculture. The only solution it has is that of throwing money at the problem. Farm loan waiver is a classic example of solving the rural problem.

Unfortunately, BJP has not yet realised that rural India borrows from moneylenders and farm loan waiver only helps big farmers, most of whom are political heavyweights of one political party or the other.

It may not entirely be a coincidence that during both the Vajpayee and the Modi regime, the rural economy has done badly. And the BJP shows neither the imagination nor the willingness to solve the problem.

The difference between BJP and the Congress can be clearly seen in the hinterland. BJP does not recognise that cash in the hands of rural India is the key to moving the wheels of the economy. On the other hand, Congress believes that the hinterland, if flushed with cash, will lead to buoyancy and rural prosperity.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman lowering corporate taxes and recapitalising the banks were urban centric idea aimed at enhancing corporate investments.

The Congress on the other hand introduced schemes like MGNREGS which guaranteed minimum employment and cash in hand of the villagers to spend on consumer goods. This was the reason why consumer goods companies manufacturing biscuits, soaps, shampoos prospered giving UPA and the country the needed 9 per cent growth.

Another area where the BJP differs from the Congress is how it deals with the Minimum Support Price. The BJP has always been miserly in increasing the Minimum Support Price for grains and pulses. It believes that giving more money in the hands of the farmers means more inflation. Little wonder then that MSP under the BJP regime has increased by only 4 per cent. The Congress on the other hand always increased MSP above 10 per cent.

AMARTYA SEN, BANERJEE AND THE BJP

As an aside, ironically, two Indian origin men have now been awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics when BJP has been in power. Amartya Sen was the recipient when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the PM and now Abhijit Banerjee has received the prize when Narendra Modi is in the saddle. Even more significantly, the work that got the two academics this prize has been on poverty and their field of study included India among many other countries.

But such is the apathy and nonchalance for an economic narrative within the BJP that on both occasions the party leaders ran down the achievements of the Nobel Laureates. Celebrating them and drafting their ideas to strengthen its own narrative was a choice that they spurned. During the Vajpayee regime the Sangh made sure that he does not meet Amartya Sen when he came to India after winning the coveted prize. Instead they went on a name calling spree and spent more time running him down rather than give Indians the benefit of solutions suggested by him.

In the case of Abhijit Banerjee too, it has not been very different. His personal life is more important for the BJP and the Sangh than his academic achievements and fieldwork! One possible reason why Banerjee rankles the BJP even more than Sen is obviously because he studied in the Left bastion of JNU. But that pettiness does little credit to a party that is the ruling party in India.

Because of the ill-conceived Demonetisation, and a badly designed and hurriedly executed GST, the government is short of funds from tax collections to spend on various schemes.

But for the BJP, staying in power is becoming a compulsion because it cannot let the narrative slip from the nationalist rhetoric. The reality at the hustings is somewhat different. Look at the message coming from states like Maharashtra and Haryana.

The downtrodden Marathas and the lower castes have gone strongly with parties like NCP and Prakash Ambedkar led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) which has come second in nearly 100 plus seats. It is the same in Haryana, where the Jat voters have been divided between the Congress and JJP.

Global headwinds are turning against the Modi government. The India growth story is tanking not just because of global issues as claimed by the Finance Minister but most of the issues that are stalling growth are of BJP’s own making: tax terrorism, Demonetisation, badly designed GST and a witch hunt against industrialists and politicians.

Till date nothing has come out of the allegations made by the erstwhile CAG Vinod Rai. All it succeeded in doing was scaring away investors who today do not want to open their wallets for the lack of clear intent on part of the government and the fear that they would not get a fair treatment if they run foul of it for some reason in future.

Mixed, even conflicting messages, political vendetta, tax terrorism, a seemingly pliable judiciary do not add to investor confidence. Its over dependence on Hindutva and nationalism may garner votes for the BJP but they are unlikely to turn the economy around.