New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) prime ministerial candidate,Narendra Modi, on Thursday renewed his appeal for an electoral mandate, this time with the promise of ushering in a new federal compact between the Union and the states, unqualified support for economic reforms, and a guarantee to provide every citizen with basic economic entitlements.
At once, in his please-all message, he was addressing three sets of key stakeholders: potential political allies, foreign investors and the general public. The cornerstones that would enable the broad vision that he laid out was what he referred to as the three D’s: demography, democracy and demand.
Simultaneously, using the platforms provided by the three back-to-back events, Modi did not miss out on listing out his credentials as an efficient administrator as chief minister of Gujarat since 2001. And significantly, he made the argument that his lengthy tenure at the state level made him the perfect candidate to lead the vision wherein the Centre and the states do not view each other as adversaries.
On his own role, Modi maintained that he saw himself as a “trustee”—drawing from the role Mahatma Gandhi had outlined for himself while spearheading the movement for independence.
In this context, Modi offered his unequivocal support for the implementation of the single goods and services tax (GST)—a key reform measure that would for the first time economically unify the country. He clarified that neither the BJP-ruled states nor the party had opposed GST and instead blamed the lack of progress on tardy efforts by the Union government.
“The BJP favours GST. However, the IT (information technology) infrastructure is not ready, without which GST cannot be implemented. The state governments also had their concerns, which the Centre should have handled sympathetically,” Modi said at a meeting with members of an association of financial consultants.
The Gujarat chief minister also spoke at a national convention of traders and at the India Economic Convention 2014 event.
He stressed the need for maintaining the sanctity of constitutional institutions, and accused the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of eroding it by attacking the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).
Modi said widening differences between the Union and state governments were resulting in a trust deficit. He also listed other shortcomings the UPA government had brought about—a security deficit, a governance deficit and what he called a moral deficit, apparently a reference to corruption scandals.
Promising conciliation between the Center and the states if elected, Modi said he would strive to evolve a team where the Prime Minister is assisted by the chief ministers and would not restrict it only to the union Cabinet.“Development cannot happen in isolation. It should be inclusive and futuristic,” Modi said. “It is sad that development is only limited to government. We have to build a mass movement for development. People must feel that they are working for the development of the country. The agenda for speedy economic growth should be inclusive...responsive to innovations and the economic agenda must translates into human wellbeing and assured social justice,” Modi said.
The vision statement that Modi sought to stitch together provides equal representation to both pushing economic reforms and ensuring growth was inclusive.
Addressing a meeting of traders in the morning, Modi argued that it was the government’s primary task to develop the capacity of domestic business so that they are able to face up to global challenges. Merely banning competition from, for instance, e-commerce was not the solution, he said.
“The main work for the external affairs ministry is to look after trade and commerce of the country. When the BJP comes to power and forms the government, the main work will be to fill the gaps created in the last decade,” said Modi.
Describing the trading community as the backbone of the economy, he said: “Trade and business are the oldest ways to influence international relations. It also helped integrate people of different regions.”
Traders, he said, must create virtual malls by using modern technology—if books were available online, he said, then there was little reason for anyone to visit a shop. The trick, he said, was to expand the market through a more equitable distribution of the benefits of growth so at to expand purchasing power.
Modi also emphasized that the government must be policy-driven and should not discriminate between people. He said the government must make use of technology to increase transparency and thereby contain corruption.
“There needs to be a debate about ways to check corruption from the beginning rather than take steps after it has been committed,” Modi added.
Attacking the growing inequality in the economy, he said the government must be able to provide a “certain quality of life” to all citizens. While talking about improving the quality of life, Modi said the government must not only focus on education, but also on improving education infrastructure; there must be a greater focus on improving the quality of healthcare.
“Do we not want people to live with respect? Do we all not want to improve our quality of life? Can we not provide certain level of quality of life? Dignity is an issue in this country. There should be dignity of labour. Dignity must be handled with care,” said Modi.
Some experts reacted positively.
“What I found most interesting is his focus on moral (deficit) and how he brought up the concept of Gandhian trusteeship. I have not heard him speak about it earlier,” said Arvind Virmani, a former chief economic adviser in the finance ministry.
Political experts say Modi is using his interactions with the business community as some kind of an outreach programme to win over voters.
“It is known that traders and business community vote for the BJP, but now with these programmes, Narendra Modi is trying to consolidate his votes before the election,” said Badri Narayan, an Allahabad-based political analyst. “The BJP and its prime ministerial candidate are not known to believe in holistic development, but Modi is talking about it now. He tried to please all the sections in his meetings before the election because this is an outreach programme.”
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