 "Banning FDI, sends wrong message to investors: Gopinath")
Captain G R Gopinath, founder of Air Deccan and member of Aam Aadmi Party, speaks about his party’s economic policies and the way ahead.
What made you join the Aam Aadmi Party which has, from the onset, made it clear that while it is pro-poor and anti-corruption, it is also anti big business?
The Anna Hazare movement had a clear anti-corruption focus. Its aim was not to attack a particular government or get it replaced by another, because successive governments have also been corrupt. The political system has become rotten and even though we have free and fair elections largely, democracy is subverted. Society, that is all of us, has also become degenerate as we went along. Corruption has percolated into every aspect of government and society, tearing its very fabric apart. Anna wanted to bring in systemic changes like a strong Jan Lokpal Bill, independent CBI and electoral reforms. The educated youth and middle class were so cynical and disillusioned with politics that they were not coming out to vote. Naxalism was growing as the disenchanted youth felt this was an unjust society. The Anna movement struck a chord with the people. I was drawn and joined the movement and took part in it on a daily basis in Bangalore. I also went around addressing people along with the former Lokayukta Santosh Hegde.
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The Aam Aadmi Party was born out of the Anna movement. Anna gave hope to millions that they can be agents of change. Arvind Kejriwal gave a platform for political action to convert that aspiration. AAP transformed Indian politics and changed the rules of the game. It has shown that a few courageous, tenacious and honest people can win elections without money, muscle and caste backing. It is a watershed moment in Indian history after Independence. So I thought I must support this bunch of committed people and joined AAP as I admired them.
What role do you see for yourself in the party?
I am not looking for any role. I am here to give my time and help build the party and its young members in Karnataka. I have contested elections in the past. I am an entrepreneur, have spent ten years farming after I left the Army and I understand the challenges and opportunities and odds that one has to face and overcome when you start from scratch. I felt I must offer my time to inspire the young in AAP.
AAP’s economic policies, particularly those around power, water and now foreign direct investment (FDI), are not considered favourable for ensuring, as you wrote in your blog, “a dynamic and vibrant economic sector”. What is your opinion about this and what measures does AAP need to take to make India economically strong?
The day I joined the party, I wrote an article saying that while we need a corruption-free India, we also want an economically strong India. We don’t need a corruption-free ‘poor India’. I am not against big business. I’m against ‘crony capitalism’ which controls critical resources and, in turn, controls political parties. We have to get rid of that. But at the same time, we need to make the economic ecosystem vibrant. We need a dynamic system which will create thousands of Tatas, Ambanis and Narayana Murthys. We have to create competition for large business houses. Ensure privatisation but also ensure that there is no cartelisation. There should be no oligopoly. It is very important that the wealth of this country lies in as many hands as possible. So we need a robust private sector – with equal opportunities, without ‘licence raj’ and corruption – that can create equitable growth and jobs. By banning FDI, we in AAP are playing into the hands of the Indian Big Corporations who always had a nexus with politicians. This is what the industry has been lobbying for. A ban on FDI in retail, which will keep out foreign competition, will allow local oligopolies to enjoy a monopoly. It is important to understand that FDI is not a threat to corner shops or small bakeries. No Udupi or Moti Mahal can be shaken by a McDonald’s. No Pizza Hut has succeeded in displacing Italian eateries.
Besides, by banning FDI after allowing it, what is the message we are sending out to investors: that there is no stability and continuity in policies in India? That you cannot invest here because every new government reverses the policies of the earlier government to appease the vote banks?
AAP must get the best minds to work on our economic policies – and also fiscal, environmental, defence and foreign affairs. Get people like Ramachandra Guha, Amartya Sen, Meghnad Desai, Azim Premji, HD Parekh, Madhav Gadgil and well-wishers like Chetan Bhagat who have a pulse on the youth of this country and who share the dreams of a new India we all can be proud of. There’s no dearth of talent in India or talented Indians abroad. I just suggested some names.
Like you, other professional, socially-conscious citizens have now entered politics through the Aam Aadmi Party. How do members like you coordinate among each other to form a united entity that can help strengthen the party, its policies and vision?
At the moment, where is the time for the AAP core group to call people to Delhi and hear out our thoughts on various issues? They are all busy preparing for the Lok Sabha elections already. And there’s a crisis every day in Delhi. In my opinion, all of us in AAP should first focus on the task at hand in Delhi rather than spreading ourselves thin. It takes time to build a party. My suggestion is: consolidate yourself first; do not shoot from the hip or throw punches all around. We should not fritter away the goodwill that the people have offered us. The anti-corruption plank of AAP and promise of good governance catapulted it to prominence and power, and lakhs have joined from all walks of life and ideological persuasion. There is bound to be, and it is good it is so, differences in the party’s policy direction and formulation. So, there is no need to rush with knee-jerk policies. If FDI is not good for Delhi, then the fear is if AAP comes to power, it will ban FDI across India.
AAP seems to be getting pulled in various directions. There are many dissenting voices, even from within.
Dissenting voices are good. It is not rebellion. They reflect the mood of a large section of people. They must be encouraged. Take my example. While I concede to support AAP and am part of it, I will also not hold back my comments. That will be a disservice to the country and AAP. The party needs to step back, consult more people and not announce policies from the podium.
The party must take time to build the organisation across the country that reflects the idealism of Anna Hazare and Kejriwal, who has, in a sense, inherited the mantle of Anna for political action even though Anna has distanced himself and is not part of the party – just as Mahatma Gandhi was not part of the Congress political party after Independence. We are already witness to the unseemly and ugly politics in Delhi AAP. So AAP must re-think and recalibrate its approach to fighting elections on a national scale in the coming Lok Sabha polls in a hurry. It will be impossible to get the right candidates and transmute the values of the party down the line.
In a new party, which is less than a year old, even if you contest 20 seats and get 10 seats in Parliament, it is good – enough to keep the ruling party on its toes, given the immense goodwill AAP now enjoys across the country. Rome was not built in a day.
You had fought as an independent candidate from Bangalore South in 2009. Would you want to contest the 2014 general elections as well, this time on an AAP ticket?
I wouldn’t even want to think about that now. I will cross the bridge when I come to it. I feel AAP should not be contesting everywhere; it will dissipate its energy. It must focus on Delhi and get it right.