TO THE BRINK AND BACK: INDIA'S 1991 STORY
Jairam Ramesh
Publisher
Rupa Publications
224 pages, Rs 395
I was not sure what to expect from this book. On the one hand, there is Jairam Ramesh, the consummate Congress insider, privy to the real forces that have determined the course of post-1991 India. On the other, there is Jairam Ramesh, the politician and the minister who did not emerge unscathed from the bloody scrap that characterised the second stint of the United Progressive Alliance. And then there is Jairam Ramesh the columnist who sometimes finds that rare insight into why and how India works. I was pleasantly surprised to see a little bit of all three Jairam Rameshs in this book, and no side of his multifaceted personality dominates. So, here is a book that provides an extremely plausible sequence of events that have been nicely woven into a tight story of the reforms of 1991.
Many who were responsible for the reforms are no longer present to attest or refute the claims, and those who are still around are known to be quite discreet. So we can never be sure. Yet, the decorum with which this book has been written, the open sharing of disappointments, the unpretentiousness do suggest a fair degree of integrity - enough to make this volume far more interesting than the accounts of the early reform years to which one has been exposed. Of course, we need to be somewhat kind to the author and overlook his penchant to provide what appears to be only his part of the story. Given the richness of facts and factoids and some cute revelations into the idiosyncrasies of the players involved, this is a small price to pay. Overall, I find this a highly enjoyable insight into the process of change in India.
The months from June 1991 to August 1991 unarguably constitute the most important three-month period in Indian economic history. The foundation of a completely new economy was laid during this time. The author does take some credit for it as he should, but he assigns the bulk of the credit to others, as he should as well. But there is a colour to it, Manmohan Singh did no wrong, Narasimha Rao was forceful yet reluctant, and a combination of speed and guile backed by international pressure achieved what, he alludes, would otherwise have been impossible. I do believe that greater insights into Sonia Gandhi's position, and how the Narasimha Rao-Sonia Gandhi dynamics were evolving in those early days would have been a great add-on to this story.
Those three months saw three massive departures from the status quo of the preceding years: the devaluation and sale of gold in the finance ministry under Manmohan Singh, the trade policy reform at the commerce ministry under P Chidambaram aided by Montek Ahluwalia, and the Industrial Policy reform under the ministry of industry overseen by Narasimha Rao through A N Verma and aided by Rakesh Mohan. The author focuses on Manmohan Singh and the finance ministry and devotes limited space to the other two. But I would have loved to know more about the goings-on in both commerce and industry, given that trade and industrial policy both were overhauled the most then and have not changed much since. Perhaps the author was not privy to what occurred there. Perhaps Mr Chidambaram and Rakesh Mohan can throw more light sometime in the near future on how change occurred, or perhaps it could be Jairam Ramesh himself. That gap that still needs to be filled because the story, though interesting, is partial.
But the author shies away from healthy criticism. The description of how a preamble was attached to the industrial policy reform statement was quite illuminating. The trepidation with which the key players approached reforms then, we now know, has become institutionalised since. So much so that even this version of the National Democratic Alliance is suffering. From the subtext it is quite clear, to this reviewer at least, that the foundation of this apologetic attitude was laid in July 1991.
I quite liked the inclusion of material from other sources - government orders, news clips, pictures and so on. Individually and together they help bring out the human element. I also loved the inclusion of formal and informal debates. The parliamentary quibble, for instance, between Narasimha Rao and Nirmal Kumar Chatterjee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on washing machines is a delight.
While we are at it, I cannot but mention the appendix. The appendix is more or less dead in the digital age, rarely do we find material with the important details, and I must congratulate both the author and Rupa in including one. My only complaint: the font is too small. Why was Rupa trying to save money? How much would it have saved?
This small issue apart, To the Brink and Back is a highly recommended read, entertaining, educative and whetting the appetite for more.
The reviewer is chief economist, Indicus, New Delhi
