Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, speaking at the Business Standard Annual Awards ceremony in Mumbai on Saturday evening, made a pitch in front of the assembled leaders of India Inc for a political consensus in favour of reform, and to make things easier for business in India. His plea that the Opposition end its obstruction and allow natural resources to be transparently distributed comes at a time when various ordinances, including the proposed amendment to the 2013 land acquisition Act and the ordinance governing the distribution of coal mines, are struggling to secure their passage in Parliament. The National Democratic Alliance government does not have the numbers in the Rajya Sabha, and debate on these important issues has been regularly derailed by political grandstanding by the Opposition. Mr Jaitley is quite right to call for a greater political consensus, and more responsibility in Parliament, on these issues. The amendment to land acquisition, in particular, needs less heated rhetoric and more sober appraisal of winners and losers.
The finance minister took off from the backgrounds and trajectories of several winners of Business Standard Awards to make a larger point about the direction of the new India and of its economy. He saw the award-winners as representatives of an aspirational India, one which wished to leave behind the constraints of dynastic economic and politics, and instead repose faith in their own entrepreneurial energy.
This fits in with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's own political vision of his government serving what he calls the "neo-middle class" - those who have emerged from poverty, and wish to see growth-supporting policy that allows them a fair chance at a middle-class lifestyle. Mr Jaitley promised "decisive political leadership" that would put into place more pro-growth laws enabling the aspirational class to build businesses and grow their own - and their country's - wealth. The government, he said, "was clear about its road map to increase growth and reduce poverty", and that would be to empower entrepreneurs from the aspirational class.
Noting that Business Standard was set up in 1975, the year the Emergency was declared, Mr Jaitley - who first entered politics as president of Delhi University's students union during that difficult and dangerous time - said that while Indian business has emerged from a culture of restriction and restraint, the government had not done so to the same degree. Certainly, Mr Jaitley's words and his public recognition and acknowledgement of the path forward will have gladdened many hearts. It is to be hoped that government policy will build on precisely this vision, and include administrative reform that takes it further away from the age of controls. And the Opposition in Parliament should recognise that it damages its own credibility, and national interests, when it fails to openly debate necessary reform.
