Atmonirbhar or Re localisation ?

This article was prompted by the honorable prime ministers letter to its citizens today about our resolve to fight COVID-19 and our determination to be ham khamyab hoga. As a leader his leadership has been a guiding light and his thoughts on self-reliance is most welcome, but as skeptics will always say what is vision of telling being ATMANIRBHAR. A decade later how do the Indian population in particularly the middle classes, poor and migrant laborers see themselves in an ATMANIRBHAR world. This article is hence a skeptical view which will help our policy makers and economist look at Bharat and re define the vision but not repeating the selectively shining INDIA which we have seen till date.

Terry Eagleton is a British academician of repute with a leftist orientation in his economic thinking. His book on '' Why Marx was right" is thought provoking in the context of the current economic turmoil. The neo-liberal principles of de-regulation, free market and capital de-control were the fundamentals of the new economic order being practiced in many nations. This economic order along with the impact of modern information technology created globalization, and was breaking down barriers between geographically dispersed markets. Globalization resulted in internationalization of trade, production, investment and capital movements. The purpose of this article is not to have a discourse on globalization (as I am neither a critic nor a votary of it) but to focus on the Post COVID-19 turbulence that we are experiencing from the world markets and their consequent impact on the Indian economy.


In the twentieth century we saw the great divide between the Socialists who believed that through the dictatorship of the Proletariat, wealth can be redistributed, while the Capitalists believed the same can be achieved through free markets and enterprise. Social and Political developments in the later part of the twentieth century resulted in the triumph of the capitalist leading to the establishment of the so called new economic world order. Markets, production, demand and consumption shifted to Asia resulting in the emergence of India and China as consumption and production centers respectively. By the twenty first century, technology started transforming economic life and ensured free flow of capital across markets breaking geographical time lags. India became the service corridor of the world market especially in the area of IT enabled services and China, a manufacturing backyard and both economies started growing significantly. Buoyant by their huge foreign exchange surpluses, government stimulus and domestic demand, India and China were able to keep up its growth momentum and survive the financial meltdown which had engulfed world economies in 2009.

The conventional economic model of the free capital had its own irrationality was seen during the  Asian Crisis of 1998, the Mexican Pizza crisis called Tequila crisis in 1994 which were all the consequences arising from flight of capital. The recession of 2009 had its origin in the subprime crisis in the US when the capitalist financiers used debts and mortgage tools to invest their capital and failed attempts for refinancing the debts are other examples. In all these cases, the respective governments had to pump in tax payers' money to re-establish the economic order.
You may ask what all of this has to do with India. Though still an import driven economy with a minuscule share in the world mercantile trade, foreign Institutional investors hold above 30 % of our Stock market which resulted in wealth creation for large stock holders albeit at the risk of wealth erosion. The recent COVID related stock tumbling and the short closure of debt schemes by Franklin Templeton are few of the examples that stock related shocks faced by stock investors.

How many of the 125 crore people in this country hold stocks and trade in them and make money? Only a few, and our country's population depends on Jobs and social security. The economic scenario today have already resulted in  flight of capital affecting  the Indian Industries' capability for capital investment and creation of jobs, in addition to the COVID related lockdown woos. Unemployment as per CMIE is above 27 % and there is hundreds of jobs gone daily due to layoffs. We did see this trend last year but COVID -19 has made it more cruelly conspicuous. We also came to know about the role the migrant workers play in our economy, their sheer numbers and their vulnerability to a capitalist oriented Central and State governments  with sheer disregard for their social security. 

In this regard our response of Atmanirbhar scheme should not be a glorious version of the swadeshi scheme propounded by the right wing long time before which does not address the issue of competition, cost effectiveness, technology development and egalitarianism. How the Atmanirbhar scheme will take off is not clear due to a lack of structured road map. This poses many questions.  Is this going to create some form of crony capitalism with few Indian industries benefiting? How is a level playing field made . What will be the enhanced role of MSME/SMEs in this? How far quality, technology and cost, integrated to the business models for us to be globally competitive.    How will a stimulus of 20 Lakh crore provided mainly through the banking system percolate down to demand and when will it happen? How are issues related to states, centre and banking system be regulated and coordinated in ensuring the needy gets the benefits.

The point made here is that the global capitalist order nicely christened as the new world order  has crumbled but in the Post Covid period  in a country like India, the million dollar question is , whether the growth is going to be  egalitarian in nature. To quote Eagleton "It is a crazed notion that a single global system known as the free market can impose itself on the most diverse cultures and economies and cure all their ills". The great economist of the twentieth century John Maynard Keynes in the aftermath of the great depression of the 1930 had also warned that global capitalism can result in a spurt of unemployment, affecting demand in the economic system creating a recessionary trend. We should study these pitfalls and incorporate systems into the atmanirbhar scheme that it does not result in a desi form of capitalism.

The larger objective of this essay is not for a doomsday prediction but to understand India and its need for an egalitarian growth model, and ensure that Atmanirbhar scheme shall ensure equitable participation of all stake holders in the economy. The India's renewed growth story as desired by the honorable prime minister, should not create  disparity and gap between the rich and the poor . The migrant story have taught us a lot of lessons. Globalization made India the 11th largest in terms of number of millionaires.  In contract to this picture, what is the percentage of reduction in poverty in the same period? It is your guess because today we have reached a mind-set that we can't trust the government numbers if at all it is made visible...
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In a paper abstract named  Converging Crises: Reality, Fear and Hope by Prof Susan George of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam, the concept of re-localization or de- globalization is discussed where she talks about regulation and re distribution of wealth by a welfare state. The terminology of re localization echoes the Atmanirbhar scheme

Do we need more millionaires at the cost of the starving lot, what is the mechanism which will ensure that the wealth created percolates down? Eventually how do we address the issues of collective and egalitarian growth rather than being proud of our burgeoning millionaires and middle classes? Will we be able to make the MARKET the MAKER of our Destiny or the MASTER of our destiny?


Addressing these issues is more important and being detailed in policy making and implementation is what we require. Hope the vision of the honourable prime minister to the citizens is translated by his mandarins into a time bound actionable document for public review.

Who needs Counseling ?? | Rajesh Menon - Counsellor

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Delhi 2020. BJP and AAP need to answer.

In a list of communal violence that have engulfed India, Delhi 1984, Gujarat 2002 and Delhi 2020 has something in common. Involvement of the local politicians, inability and partisan ship of the police, delayed central involvement leading to judicial intervention into executive space and lackluster response of senior leaders. The underbelly of our democracy have been clearly exposed.  The second significant element is that each such calamity is just a ‘’ political event’’ for politicians for a renewed rhetoric of mudslinging. Who loses ? Our people, their lives and our national pride. On one side we try to showcase a nation of modernity and democracy to a visiting dignitary and on the other side stink emanates from our rotten wraps.

The agitation against the CAA or its pro demonstrations flaring up into a communal cauldron is only symptomatic but what matters is our response system to lawlessness. It is beyond doubt that local politicians are the general culprits in instigating people but what worries is that of their  audacity to get into rampage. This either mean that they don’t fear of their leadership or they have the support of their leadership. Whatever is the diagnostic of the series of events whether it is this community or the other what matters is a nation state’s moral weakness. 

Coming to Delhi 2020 it is amply clear that the CAA divide is religious and it is bound to result in extremism. Why that was not contemplated earlier and in that context is there an intelligence failure. ?  Be it Kapil Misra tweet or Tahir Hussain’s deeds Why was their rhetoric and actions not responded strictly on time? Doesn't  Delhi police  have an effective leadership , necessitating a prime minister to send his National security adviser to take command? While such endless list of questions remains unanswered media across has only taken a stand of politics of partisan ship…

As usual the SIT will probe and we see delayed judicial processes going on while the instigators and tormentors run free as like we saw in 1984 and 2002 only to be arrested late in their life as like sajjan kumar’s arrest.

What is necessary for citizens is now to get the answers but not the buffoonery glee that we see from our politicians who hide behind the ‘’subjudice’’ excuse when confronted with questions.

This is not silly and heads should roll .....

Kemcho Trump. An introspection:

      When the President of the most powerful democracy visits the land of the largest democracy, it is a significant feat due to many factors. Firstly this is the first standalone India visit of a US president while all the other seven presidents visited earlier clubbed their itinerary either as part of a south Asian tour or showed a balancing diplomacy by visiting Pakistan. Secondly unlike the rare visits during the cold war, by President Eisenhower in 1959 and Richard Nixon in 1969 or Jimmy Carter in 1978, Trump’s visit is a sequel to the increased US presidential visits to India since the post-cold war period. Even though Bills Clinton’ visit in 2000 was not much of any diplomatic achievements, the subsequent visits by George Bush, and President Obama demonstrated the strategic shift in Indo-US relations much signified by the Indo US Nuclear deal. The third important factor of significance is that today India and the US stand in partnership of equality, demonstrated by India’s economic growth and burgeoning market demands, counterweight to Chinese influence both in Business and Defence fields in the US eyes and India’s revived diplomatic role in global high table as demonstrated by Prime Minister Modi’s global outreach.

It is also imperative to mention about the softer critical element of this visit. Prime ministers Modi’s outreach to the NRIs and Indian Origin Americans estimated to be around 4 million exemplified by the ‘’Welcome Modi’’ road shows in US culminating in the recent Howdy Modi show has indeed created a ‘’US NRI Vote Bank’’  which President Trump can capitalize for his upcoming re -election. Both the leaders represent a  new globalized world order of renewed nationalistic spirit and majoritarian thought patterns. President Trump’s anti-immigrant measures, strict laws on H1B visas, building walls over Mexico and withdrawal from treaties like Paris agreement, Iran Nuclear deal and North Atlantic treaty , echoes similar to Prime Minister Modi’s measures of Make in India, Trade protectionism, stricter implementation of Foreign Exchange Management act, withdrawal from Regional comprehensive economic partnership and the most recent NRC and CAA initiatives. Needless to say both the leaders enjoy bonding and camaraderie to quote PM Modi ’’ Mai Usshe bahut seekta hu ( Iam learning a lot from him). It is also relevant to mention that Trumps visit to Ahmedabad, which is PM modi’s home turf will help President Trump to woo the influential Gujarati community which is estimated to be around 20 % of the Indo-American citizens .

While there are interest on both sides on the significance of this visit on a geo political angle,  as mentioned earlier this visit is a sequel to the engagement started by President George Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2006. It started with the Indo-US Civil Nuclear deal which was called as 123 Agreement (Section 123 of the United States Atomic Energy Act 1954, establishes an agreement for cooperation as a prerequisite for nuclear deals between the US and any other nation). This was followed by a series of Indo –US military exercise on the background of the South China Sea dominance of China signifying a strategic shift. President Obama came as a Chief Guest for the republic day parades and supported India's aspiration for a permanent membership into the United National Security Council, India’s  temporary exception from importing oil from Iran, and India’s increased sourcing of Energy (LNG and Crude) from US after signing the strategic energy partnership bilateral treaty  are all examples of this bonhomie. It is also expected that the visit of President Trump will result in signing of a major defense deal of procurement of helicopters for the Navy. India’s defense cooperation with US has resulted in in India being elevated to Tier 1 of the strategic Trade authorization licence exception which will help India access advanced US technology.

While the strategic shift has yielded benefits to India, it also need to be evaluated on what should be India’s long term policy of engagement of US looking into India’s long standing stand of neutrality in International affairs. Is it going to be beneficial or not or is the US bonhomie with India based on the principle of opportunism. These are the issues to be looked into in India US relationships post the visit of President Trump.  The critical views held by the US senate on India’s recent actions in Kashmir and on the CAA, the US deal with the Taliban for its withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the  US relationship with Pakistan are all to be waived into our thinking before we finally conclude Kemcho Trump.

Keeladi the Indus valley of the south

In 1939,  K N Dixit who was the director general of the Archaeological survey of India (ASI) professed that, couch shells which were extensively used in the Indus valley was seen in the then Madras presidency and that a thorough investigation in the Tirunelveli district will one day result in the excavation of a contemporary site. Nearly 8 to 9 decades later, his prophesy was vindicated after the path breaking excavations at  keeladi, an urban settlement of the Sangam age

Why this discovery has much significance to the contemporary socio-political events in India? In order to answer this question and there by derive a conclusion that India’s dynamic and composite culture needs an acceptance of its unity in diversity we need to know about the excavations conducted by the Tamilnadu circle of the ASI and other academic institutions from both India and abroad.

In his much acclaimed book ‘’History of South India’ the late Sri KA Nilakanda Shastri writes that ever since the time of British Scholars, India’s cultural milieu was looked upon as a derivative of the cultures that sprang and spread from the Indo-Gangetic plains. Post independent scholars also looked upon the culture of India as a culture derived from the Sanskrit language. Nilkanda Shastri wrote his ‘’History of South India’’ in the middle decades of the 20^th century, when scholarly literature on the annuls of history beyond the vindyachal mountains were minimal. The importance of keeladi excavations attains importance in this context.

Keeladi is a village nearly 13 km from the historic city of Madurai and is over a mound adjoining the Vaigai River. This river is mentioned in the poetic work paripatal, which is part of the eight anthologies (etu tugai), and one among the various literary sources of the Sangam period. Vaigai river originates in the suruli mountains and flows eastwards before joining the bay of Bengal near alangankulam. Showered by the advancing and retreating monsoons the river formed the basis for the development of Madurai City, where products from its fertile plains not only served its own inhabitants but were also exported  to the roman kingdoms through the port of musiris (present day kodungalore in Kerala) 300 km away.

Earlier excavations near Chennai near adirapakkaum village by Robert Bruce Foote has found the remains of a prehistoric site popularly called as the madarasian industry which was more than a million years old and represented the palaeolithic-old stone age which proved that human settlements existed that time  in southern India. This was followed by excavations of microliths in Madurai which indicated that the crude stone tools have got advanced and the region  had a transition to the Mesolithic period. Later excavations at multiple places near Madras and North Arcot  resulted in the discovery of coloured pottery indicating the mature transition of the culture to that of the new stone age or Neolithic. However it was after the adichenallur escavation  an iron age culture was established with black and red pottery dating to 1500 BC. It was from  here the mother goddess akin to the one from mohanjadaro-harapa civilisation was found and preserved today in government museum at Egmore. Chennai. Through these series of excavations spread over a century and along with the literary sources  of the sangam literature clubbed with other epigraphic references  scholars were able to come to a conclusion  that a mature  civilisation existed  in the south, However it was the excavations at Keeladi which has pointed to much more antiquity of the culture and its linkages with the Indus valley culture.

Keeladi excavations proves that there was an advanced agrarian society and they were industrious with bead, pot making and weaving. Discovery of spindle wheels made of stone showed that cloths were woven.  A lot of pottery engraved with names in tamil brahmi script were also discovered showing literary activity.  Beads and stones of agate indicated high level of commercial activity in the region because these stones were used as a barter for trade. The intrinsic brick making and town planning akin to the Indus civilisation were also seen. Besides this sharp iron items for domestic use and for war were seen at the site proving the iron smelting skills of the inhabitants of keeladi.

Much more is yet to be excavated from keeladi and looking into the unavailability of significant remains of human skeletons as like in adichanalur definitive conclusions on racial complexes can’t be made at this juncture. However adichenallur remains showed skulls of sea faring austroloids and mediterarians indicating movement of people into and from the ancient Tamil country.

Irrespective of the incompleteness of the excavations, keeladi has made us understand that the  sangam period started not in the 3^rd century BCE but in the 6^th century BCE. Further today we know that there was a continuity in the urbanization of North West India and southern India. The possibility of a connect with the Indus civilization is also evident from the similarity seen in the keeladi script and the Indus script. Prevalence of certain mercantile materials like agates at keeladi , a stone which are more often seen in the Indus region may be an indicator of trade linkages as well . Additionally there are a lot of parallels in urban planning techniques at keeladi and indus valley. Much research and excavations are further required to conclusively prove these assumptions.

As indicated earlier in this article, when we look into the contemporary socio- political events we can conclude that a simultaneous urbanisation process and contact existed between North western and southern India. The process of sanskritization which started with the spread of Vedic religions, Jainism and Buddhism   further augmented this process. This helps in coming up with a   composite nature of a primordial cultural identity in the Indian subcontinent which today creates the unity in India’s diversity. On the other hand  Tamil nationalists looks upon keeladi as a non sanskritised tamil identity site ( It may be recalled that fearing a renewed tamil nationalist movement  adichanallur excavation reports were not published by the ASI for 15 years and came to the public domain only after the interference of the Madras High court). Leaders from the Dravidian parties have started the keeladi rhetoric as part of their identity politics. Irrespective of these political undertones keeladi is a significant breakthrough of the ASI and as like the adichanallur museum proposed in the current budget a museum for keeladi should also be on the offing to showcase our cultural lineages.

Citizenship Act and the Role of Perception of National Identity:

friends,

The ongoing agitation on the citizenship act gives us credence to ponder on the difference between nationalism and patriotism. While both the words seem synonymous, literally there is a conceptual difference between the two. While patriotism is respect and love for the nation, nationalism is much more intense putting the nation above the self. Patriotism generates pride while nationalism is more of a possessive nature to one’s national identity. The liberal view of nationalism is of patriotism while the radical view of nationhood is nationalism. We can always ask a question on what makes a person die for his nation, is it patriotism or nationalism or how altruist leaders emerge then the answer is from the latter.

Nationalism developed conceptually only when the European nations like France and Italy asserted an identity based geographical entity and also as a fall out to colonialism from colonized nations. However prior to the emergence of such structured national systems, national identities existed in a cultural context which we can call as Racial, ethnic and cultural nationalism. Classical theorist do not subscribe to the notion of ethnocentric nationalistic credentials for defining a nation but on the principle of geography, law and justice emulating the nationalistic and democratic movements worldwide. The cataclysmic effects of ethnocentric ultra-nationalism seen in Germany and widely known as fascism makes humanity look at nationalism only in a liberal sense.

There is also an alternate argument about whether   nationalism is a dynamic or a static concept. While the liberal view has always been that it is dynamic, the radical view is that it is a static concept. The recent statement by the chief of RSS Mr. Mohan Bhagvat that he considers all citizens of India as Hindus is a typical example of a static concept of nationhood. Dynamic nation, on the other hand, evolves as like any cultural evolution accepting diversity, in its flow in time into a composite culture. Well if that composite culture which we call as Unity in its diversity is Hindu cultural hegemony as the Hindutva protagonists say then the question is how practically diversity can be preserved in a larger Hindu nationalist umbrella?

It is in this context that we need to look into the CAA. The intention of safeguarding the minorities in our muslin majority neighborhood is indeed a much sought and cherished objective since independence. Creating a law for that is a good move showing political will. However, what has been missed is the intangible element of perception of nationality. While conspicuously ignoring the Muslim community from the act with a justification that the identified neighborhood nation is theocratic in structure created the fault lines that we see today. At a time when the NRC process in Assam listed thousands as non-citizens and on the background of a national NRC rhetoric, the perception of nationality as embossed as a moral principle in the constitution did get disfigured. While they claim that this law does not matter with Muslim citizens in India even if factually right,  the perception of national identity got affected and hence the emotional outflow. 

If we apply a  'doctrine of separation' in law making -even though not connected to a certain group - a separate nomenclature itself affects the moral principles of lawmaking. At a time when India is economically, militarily and scientifically progressing and claiming to get a permanent seat in the United Nations, perception matters and a good government need to develop skills to implement hard decisions softly. Moreover, the timing of the act when national resources and sentiment should move in generating demand was inappropriate. India has developed enormous soft power in the diplomatic arena which needs to be kept intact where the perception of our nationhood plays a big role. 

The calibrated and the cautious move of our constitution-makers in developing an idea of India was based on this principle of dynamic nationhood. Nations and constitutions are created by the will and acceptance of the people based on a perception of what they feel about themselves as a nation but not on what is imposed upon them. 

The CAA does not directly hinder this but it did create a conflict of perception. Nationalistic muscle-flexing can affect the feeling of patriotism of few if lawmaking is not handled wisely.

Our policy underbelly and the lurching terrorist:

Any criticism of the Government of India in the pulwana attack, I am afraid will be construed negatively at an election time when the ruling party has taken up the cause of ‘’punishing the guilty’’.

The so-called Pakistan sponsored terrorism is not new and was not just born now. Even before the word terrorism was not heard off in global jargons, militants supported by the deep state in Pakistan played havoc in J&K. The Mumbai attack to attacks on security forces is indeed an orchestrated attack coordinated by the terrorist leadership based in Pakistan duly supported by the intelligence agency of Pakistan. Now the question is, does the democratically elected government and the people of Pakistan responsible for it and thereby the government of Pakistan and its people punished. ?

In democracies that are firmly practiced as like in the US, UK, and India, the decision making process is guided by policy formulation supported by the parliament where the security agencies are just precision implementers. It is not like that in Pakistan. From our understanding of that country- which spilled away from our ecosystem on the basis of religious identity-democracy have always been a namesake. It is a de facto military state with the military having not only a direct say in the security-related issues but acts clandestinely through its agencies like the ISI. In such a quasi-democratic set up blaming an inefficient democratic system as a cause is not the right policy in India.

Setting aside the question of why there were security lapses in the system which resulted in this suicide attack, the primary question is what is the counter terror policy? It is not sentimental muscle flexing that is required but a firm policy on how we counter this aggression. What is missing is this lateral thinking among our decision making machinery. It is a difficult situation where you have to handle a military-managed state. How do we manage terror financing, How do we destroy the terrorist training camp, how do we build international consensus on our right to counter strike. How do we link our economic growth and international leverage in planning a structured attack aiming the terrorist leadership? The policy establishment should focus on this instead of shooting on our own toes by attacking the common people from that country like banning artists, sportsperson and blocking trade.

The banning of participation of Pakistani shooters made the international Olympic committee rebut us. Banning the 2 billion dollar trade by levying import duties will only increase the informal and smuggled trade which is double than the formal trade. It will also help Pakistani traders search for alternative markets. These don’t create result but only sentimentalism.

What is required is a lateral strategy and there is where statecraft comes into being.