The Rediff Special

"Economics means business and international business means, and is, war."

Legitimate concerns of business

Now, I would like to touch upon the three main areas of legitimate concern for Indian business.

One, businessmen often tell me and my party colleagues that, despite all the official talk of reforms, the systems and procedures of the government are still nearly as complicated, irrational and non-transparent as before. This leads to avoidable delays in project implementation, resulting in not only time overruns, but also huge cost overruns, not to speak of indirect opportunity losses in the downstream economy. It is disturbing to note that very few infrastructure projects which were conceptualised after liberalisation have been commissioned so far.

Secondly, there is still too much distrust in the government's attitude towards business. In general, ministers and bureaucrats give an uncomfortable feeling to businessmen that they are doing a favour to the latter and not just performing their rightful duty by removing hurdles which they have themselves created in the first place. As a result, even those businessmen who believe in doing business the straight way are forced to bend before the system. This lack of trust and professionalism cannot make for a successful synergy between government and business.

The third area of concern which the BJP entirely shares with the Indian business class is the mindless and harmful way in which government is opening up the Indian economy to foreign players in the name of globalisation.

Our businessmen and professionals have built a proud indigenous industrial base with much effort and against many odds in the pre-liberalisation era. It is the bounden duty of the government to calibrate each of its steps in the direction of globalisation in such a way that it preserves, and further strengthens, our indigenous industrial and business base. Instead, the government's policies in many sectors are being changed so as to deliberately create a non-level playing field in which Indian companies lose out to the financial and marketing might of multinationals. This is unacceptable to the BJP. Globalisation must be used to augment our national interests, not undermine them. The BJP is not opposed to foreign capital or foreign companies per se. But foreign investments cannot be the basis of our planning and policy process.

It seems to me that, one of the most reliable ways of using globalisation to our advantage is to create a strong nationalistic alliance between government, business and the multi-disciplinary class of professionals and intellectuals. We should carefully identify our areas of competitive advantage in the world market, and thereafter mobilise all our resources in a determined, focussed national effort to actualise and maximise that advantage. Japan, Korea, China and many other successful economies of Asia have adopted this synergistic strategy to great effect.

The imperative of national consensus

India today faces a really difficult economic situation. Indeed, India is having to fight an unequal economic war. I say economic war because economics means business and international business means, and is, war. This war has to be fought essentially by the combined effort of businessmen, bureaucrats, professionals and technocrats, with politics playing the role of consensus builder. And, for this, the first requirement is national consensus.

Prof Takeshi Hayashi, the Japanese expert who headed the United Nations University project on Japanese experience, repeatedly emphasised in his preface to the 20 volume report, "The conditions under which industrialisation begins cannot be the same for every country; the only common element required is that a national consensus be formed."

The secret of Japanese success is national consensus which they achieved through the Ministry of Trade and Commerce arrangement. Without national consensus, the challenges facing the country cannot be met with confidence and success. But national consensus is not conceivable where political untouchability is practised. The BJP is the mainline political force today and, yet, the disparate congregation of all unlike-minded parties ruling today have made political untouchability vis-a-vis the BJP the main fulcrum of their politics. This is the very reverse of the fundamental requirement for protecting the national interest.

Let national pride become a dynamo

Today, the world stands on threshold of a new century and a new millennium - in awe and expectation, but also with a sense of unease and uncertainty. It is natural to ask ourselves, what kind of India - and what kind of a world - will reveal itself in the 21^st century? At the beginning of this century, we were an enslaved nation groping for a way to gain our freedom. Fifty years ago, we became a free nation. What have we achieved in these 50 years? And where and how shall we go in the next 50 years?

It is not surprising that we ask these questions about India in a global context. India's philosophical and intellectual outlook has always been universal.

But there is an added reality of contemporary history which forces us to study closely the synergy between India and the world. It is the phenomenal growth of information and communication technologies.

There is a global flow of people, goods, services, technologies, investments, information, knowledge and cultural products in an increasingly unrestricted - and seemingly unrestrictable - manner. As we all can see, it is a movement that transcends national, racial and cultural barriers.

We are not threatened by this reality. We in the BJP welcome it. But, once again, if we are interested in maximising the synergy between India and the world, we must bear in mind two critical requirements. Even as we embrace globalisation, we must strengthen our own national identity, we must instill a sense of pride and self-confidence at all levels in our society. And since I am addressing a business gathering, let me also state the obvious: a nation's pride and self confidence depends, among other things, in the quality, competitiveness and global reach of its products, services and brands. We should like to see Indian products and brands popularise the "Made in India" label all over the world.

The second requirement is related to the first. In order to compete globally, we must vastly improve our levels of knowledge, skills, manufacturing practices and management expertise in all sectors of the economy - right from the corporate sector to the rural co-operative sector and cover, in its embrace, the public sector, the private sector, the small self-employed entrepreneurs, the artisans, etc.

Let us remember that the coming age is the age of not only information but also knowledge. Our ancient rishis believed in education which imparted not just information and knowledge, but wisdom, and said: 'Saa vidya yaa vimuktaya (education liberates).' Let us redeem ourselves by building a wise society ready to face the challenges of the next century and the millennium.