Hi,
At the outset let me be very clear that I am not a ardent supporter of any political party in India. India is the largest democractic country with huge number of voters. Now that Congress is all set form a Government with the Left, let us sit back and anticipate the future of India.
In 1999 BJP came to power with its allies on the grounds of Hindutva. I still cannot figure out how can BJP led NDA come to power on grounds of Hindutva, when India was facing more realistic challenges like the reforms which included the reduction of deficit and put India on the World map. Well thats is history, but BJP very soon realised that the Hindutva is not going to give NDA any kind of mileage in the elections in 2004.
They very quitely managed to put the Ayodhya and like issues on the backburner....at the same time not upsetting the communcal parties like the RSS. The BJP Led NDA government very rightly started concentrating on key issues like the reforms, the abolishing of the licencing, the opening up of the telecom sector, increasing the FDI limit in various sectors, the banking reforms etc.
Congress on the other hand was quite unfortunate to loose out in the 1999 elections after ruling the country for a good 5 decades by various generations in the Nehru family. In early nineties, Rajiv Gandhi actually thought in the lines of reforms which was followed by the finance ministers who knew exactly what India needs for becoming an Asian Superpower.
After nearly 5 decades of politicians holding the all important post of Finance Minister who didn’t know the ’’F’’ of Finance, came the economist Manmohan Singh, who was instrumental in set the ball rolling for the reforms in India. Who can forget the Dream Budget of Chidambaran...well which was more of a political move....but quite a gutsy move. Yes I do agree that this was kind of dent on the deficit.... you need to loose something to gain something right? When the stage was almost set, BJP came to power to implement these reforms.
When everything seemed going well for the BJP and India, they lost the all important 2004 general elections. The NDA government was well aware that the voters memory is too short to forget the communalism idealogy....the Godhra incident and became very active in their reforms process in the past 18 months or so. Then came the much talked about ’’India Shining’’ campaign where BJP highlighted their achievements.
Now the question is why did BJP and its allies loose? The biggest problem in India is the minority v/s the majority....no...no I am not talking about the minority community....but the people who are educated and think who try and get the right party to power than the majority of the people who get fooled, election after election on hollow promises. The minority understand reforms and its importance while the majority are not even aware what reforms mean. The minority are the taxpayers while majority are non taxpayers.
Arun Gawli has been distributing ’’Vada Pavs’’ free of cost in his constituency. Majority of the people get lured by Vada Pav.....disgusting.... these kind of tactics are employed by the politicians. Take the instance of Chandrababu Naidu who lost in Andhra Pradesh.....the minority of the people could see this man turned Hyderabad into Cyberabad but the majority could just see Rajashekar Reddy distributing free power to the farmers.
The farmers are too naive to see that Chandrababu Naidu was seeking a loan from World Bank for USD 250 mio for infrastructure which includes power. It all depends how you look at things....either I invest part of USD 250 mio in power thus making the power tariff lower for the farmers or distribute this amount to the farmers free of cost. Mr. Rajashekhar.....have you thought where are going arrange this money for distribuing free power....but I know the answer.....no prizes for guessing it is going to your and my money....taxes and more taxes!!!
I am not really opposing Congress coming into power but the problem is the support from the Left parties who will hamper all the efforts done so far by the NDA government. The power struggle is so intense that parties with different ideologies agree to rule this country......what a Shame!!! Left parties are the most ridiculous bunch of idiots I have ever seen.....I am not sure which world they live in. Left parties with a paltry 60 out of 537 seats, will call the shots....What a Shame!!! Left parties have demanded to dissolve the Divestment ministry, which Congress will have to do it to ensure their support. Seetharam (the head of Left Parties) has mentioned that they will not allow disinvestment in profit making PSUs. Mr. Seetharam......wake up and tell us who under the sun will like to put their money in a loss making PSU.
Atleast I am not a bloak like you or your party to put my money in a loss making PSU. Even if you do manage to hive off the loss making PSU what kind of valuation are you expecting... does it not make sense to keep with the Government itself. With whatever valuation you get......how is the funding of the ever soaring budger deficit of this country happen. I can guess the easiest way is whip the Tax payers who are anyway in minority and the party care 2 hoots whether the tax payers votes their party or not.
In my opinion Congress is really stuck with Left Party support. I do not forsee this Government lasting for more than 2 years, except if the Congress does the following:
Make a more seasoned politician the Prime Minister. I would place my bet on Manmohan Singh.
Find a economist to become the Finance Minister.
Try to nuture the second generation politicians viz.: Pilot Jr., Scindia Jr., Deora Jr., ........by trying to accept their ideas.
Last but the most important......Drill the idea of reforms to Coalition parties especially the Left Parties. Wake them up from their slumber.
Please do RRC my review.
BTW if your money is a portion of Rs.100, 000 crore erosion of Market capitalisation in the stock markets....do not cut losses. Enjoy the dividends for two years.... and then after NDA comes back to power....sell it at a profit.
Vijay