Three cheers for a weak coalition

Policy is made by politicians working in tandem with favoured bureaucrats

If we examine economic policy down the years, the first great burst of reform and liberalisation came between 1991 and 1994. The second phase came in 1999. The third was between 2002 and 2005. 

The first was driven by necessity with India’s Balance of Payments perilously close to default, and economic growth down to near-zero. It was carried through by a minority government at the mercy of strange bedfellows like the Left Front and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. That government was led by one of India’s least charismatic politicians, P V Narasimha Rao. Policy was re-conceptualised in its detail by a