In this book the author Gurcharan Das describes his vision for a government which has startling similarity with how the new government led by Mr. Narendra Modi has conducted itself since taking oath. One cannot help but wonder whether Mr. Modi has read this book before he started making his speeches. The author in this book says, “If India is lucky, it might also throw up a strong leader who is a reformer.”. I wonder if rise of Narendra Modi is the “luck” the author is speaking about.
While explaining his title “India grows at night” the author says that the state i.e. the government in India has not been successful in creating an atmosphere conducive for growth of India. Instead, due to bureaucratic red tape, the state has made growth difficult. It is the absence of such red tape in service sector which led to its phenomenal growth in India since 1990s. In such situation, India is growing due to the strength of entrepreneurial skills of its population. Such growth is taking place in absence of its guiding sun i.e. the government. This is reflected in the stories of success of the private sector and the failure of the public sector. The author however says that this strategy of growing without light (i.e. government) is no longer viable and that there is an urgent need to strengthen the state.
Author’s objective for writing this book is described in one line by the subtitle of the book “A liberal case for strong state”. Author says he became the supporter of liberalism after his experiences with the ‘license raj’. This made him passionately committed to individual freedom and deeply suspicious of state power. He says that India won political freedom in 1947 but it won its economic freedom. One can go on and argue that we have yet not received our social freedom from caste and gender prejudices but it is subject not to be discussed here.
According to author, the government in India is very weak and is unable to implement its policies properly. This has been one of the major reasons for fall of UPA government. While it made debatably good policies, implementation was abysmal. On the contrary, ‘license Raj’ has been replaced by ‘inspector raj’ where entrepreneurs are troubled by over-regulation. Numerous checks and balances introduced in our system are suffocating creativity in absence of strong executive to balance the checks imposed by regulators. Thus, author wants a state which is stronger than at present which can make policies, implement them and encourage entrepreneurship.
Author mentions prediction of Adam Smith that as growth will create new labor relations with changing needs of the society, the existing outdated social relations will be replaced by new relations. This can be observed in contrast between cities and villages at least in terms of caste discrimination. In past two decades, Indian cities have seen definite fall in caste restrictions when compared to the Indian villages.
Author believes that Indian society is inherently strong. It has been founded on strong relations of kinship which however remained constrained by the caste limitations. Such was the loyalty of individuals to these relations that even the kings and had to acknowledge these limitations on their authority. It is the presence of this strong society in absence of strong state which has allowed our country to be as prosperous as it is (though in absence of caste system it could have been more powerful). Author cites presence of strong society as one reason why liberalisation reforms were more successful in India than most other countries.
Author throws a fresh light on the importance of democracy which we Indians take for granted. He considers 65 years of continuous civilian rule as a luxury denied to many in this world. According to him, the biggest challenge that India faces is to avert the decaying of democratic institutions. According to him if the decay of democratic institutions continues, people may get tempted to support strong authoritative or even dictatorial rule for sake of stability.
Author considers the slow pace of disposal of court cases in India as one major hurdle to Rule of law which forms foundation of modern society. He suggests number of steps which can be taken to improve the governance and help India to grow faster.
While describing the solutions, author considers emergence of a political party with agenda of good governance, aspiration and performance. one which educates the voters, and sells the institutional and economic reforms to the people. One cannot help but wonder the how prescient these suggestions sound when one considers the transformation seen in the agenda of BJP under leadership of Mr.Modi. On reading the book I am reasonably sure that Mr. Gurcharan Das will be comfortably happy with emergence and election of Mr. Modi as the Prime Minister of India. The only thing which remains to be seen is does Mr. Modi continues to focus on these issues and how fast is he able to make these changes.
Baranwal Varunkumar Jagdish
