Awakening Bharat Mata by Swapan Dasgupta

Certainly, there was a compelling need to lower the political temperature after the riots, and Modi was also aware of the possible long-term dividends from merging Gujarati pride with a sense of achievement at the state’s progress. It is sometimes tempting to attribute Narendra Modi’s shift in tack from Gujarati and Hindu pride to development and governance after the victory in the 2002 assembly elections to similar expediency. But the motivation was entirely strategic-to thwart any bid to isolate India internationally and to prevent its portrayal as another rogue regime. Combined with the announcement of “no first use' of nuclear weapons that proclaimed India’s larger non-aggressive intent, it was believed-and quite rightly as it turned out-that anxious governments would be placated by businesses eyeing the Indian market.Ĭonsequently, despite the commitment to swadeshi in the National Democratic Alliance’s common programme, the opening up of India to global business was pursued quite actively in the Vajpayee years.

As a counterstrategy to minimize any adverse effects on the economy, it was decided to open the huge, and relatively untapped, domestic market to foreign capital. The sanctions imposed by the Bill Clinton administration after the nuclear tests of May 1998 added a new dimension. Narasimha Rao government or even the two short-lived United Front governments in which P. There was, after all, no fundamental divergence from the path taken by the P.V. There was no question of rolling back the tide of deregulation and technological upgradation through foreign direct investment (FDI). The Vajpayee government attempted to tread a cautious middle path, with the upgradation of India’s creaking infrastructure being its stated priority.

“We will never fight an election on economic issues,' Advani once admitted to me. Attempting to provide coherence to the BJP’s approach to economic policy was always daunting and carried the danger of exposing the fissures to public view.

Awakening Bharat Mata by Swapan Dasgupta