Narendra Modi escalated his assault on the Nehruvian economic model that sought to run the economy through laws and distrusted the hard-working traders who created wealth and brought prestige to the nation with the sweat of their brow and quality of their product. Addressing the All India Traders Convention at Siri Fort Auditorium in the capital on Thursday morning, the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate said that trade is the backbone of the nation and its health will move the gears of the economy; hence the challenge is to simplify the system to empower this creative and risk-taking class.
Exuding confidence that the BJP would form the Government after the general election due in another two months, he said that the first task would be to fill the potholes of the past 60 years. While empowering the people, the poor should come first, and then we should move upwards. In a dig at the top-down approach of the Nehruvian Socialists, who have always espoused the trickledown theory under which those at the top of the pyramid mopped up the maximum resources of the nation, Narendra Modi regretted the entrenched Government culture of believing that everyone is a thief. The income tax (department), he critiqued, thinks that everyone is a thief.
Instead, he said, the system should operate on the basis of trust, and law should be invoked only if there is a problem, “ek doosre pe bharosa hona chahiye.’ Moreover, the law should be easy to understand and should empower rather than restrain people. “The law today is a web of entrapment, and sometimes I feel that we need a law which says that for each new law enacted, ten old laws must be weeded out”, he opined. The need of the hour is to weed out one unnecessary law every week and clean up the statute book, he told the packed stadium.
Whether it is the trader, the farmer or the Government, all work for the welfare of the nation and so there should not be any differences or mutual suspicions between them. “Indeed things would have worked better if this synergy had been developed. We need trust; the Government machinery from a village chaprasi to the PM needs to be overhauled to end the work culture of the last 66 years, to become young in mind again and energise the nation.”
Assailing the over-centralisation of the Nehruvian model, Narendra Modi said the “fashion of running the country from Delhi must end; we must trust and empower the State Governments as they know the local situation. Ancient India did this, we empowered the people.” He pointed out, “In South India, farmers cultivate the areca nut (betel, supari), but the question arises, how did they market it when it has no health value? At least I have not seen any literature which talks of its health value. But areca nut was given pride of place in the puja (ritual) and a great readymade market was created, such was the vision of our ancestors.” He joked, “Ganesh ji ban ke vyapar chalata hai”. “All over the world there have been disputes and wars among neighbouring States, but trade was always the way of spreading across the world; our ancestors did it; the original Indian diaspora went out as traders,” he said.
Traders created the positive image of India and brought respect to the nation, he told his appreciative audience. Under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he reminisced, some trade links were promoted with Russia and Gujarat, as a result of which he (Modi) visited Astakhan city. Here, he noted to his surprise that almost all shops had the word “Okha” inscribed on their nameplate, and when he told his hosts that Okha is the name of an old Gujarat port near Dwarka, he was told that “Okha” refers to that port city and is an indication that the shop sells materials of the quality associated with the ancient Indian trade. Narendra Modi said that such is the prestige built by the traders of our ancient period that even though the port (a fishing village now) is shut now, it remains the pride of India abroad. He regretted that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs functions with an obsolete mindset, focusing on old fashioned diplomacy and intelligence work rather than developing skills to promote Indian trade and commerce. This is a lacuna and hence future training should include training in trade diplomacy.
Urging the trading community not to fear global challenges and to convert challenges into opportunities, he said that they must surpass the world by enhancing their capabilities. For this, he said, they have the right to ask the Government to help them. Online trading cannot be stopped, he said, so the secret is to utilise the services of the Information & Technology experts to streamline the online trade and perfect the delivery system. “We should not hesitate to accept modernisation,” he said, adding that “our children have taken IT to the world, so why are we afraid?” He pointed out that even in Indian villages a conscious villager looks for branded products because he feels he can trust the quality.
This provides the small trader with a marvellous opportunity to set up ‘virtual malls’ within their existing establishments and sell branded goods within a certain time-frame. All that is needed is a little skill, technology and imagination. Narendra Modi said, “Traders have a risk-taking capacity, this is the quality of this Biradari and even the smallest trader takes risks like a soldier; and all that is needed is some capacity building and ensuring the quality of the product”.
The small trader, he pointed out, is the first link in the economy, and the first one to benefit when the purchasing power of the people improves. For this, the overall economy needs to be strengthened because our country has more traders than the population of an average European country. As people with purchasing power arrive at the shops, the trader is the first beneficiary and then the manufacturer; the exchequer gets its share last, so this is the chain that needs to be built up.
But quality must not be compromised at any cost, he said, pointing out that nowadays shops advertise ‘pure ghee’ because of the massive adulteration taking place. Assuring the gathering that he was in favour of reforms wherever necessary, “main sudhaar ke paksh mein hoon”, he pointed out that in response to demands from Gujarat traders, his officers had simplified a government form from 8 pages to 3 pages. It was put online and the traders were asked to suggest further reforms if they so desired. “This country was born for greatness, for prosperity and wealth”, he concluded.
Former BJP president and chairman of the Manifesto Committee, Murli Manohar Joshi, told the gathering that the condition of small farmers and small traders must always improve and be safeguarded, and that our policies must encourage trade, commerce, manufacturing and agriculture in a holistic manner. Both speakers gave ample hints that the BJP proposes to introduce a slew of people-centric economic policies that will signal an end to economic drought of the UPA years.
Niticentral.com, 27 February 2014
http://www.niticentral.com/2014/02/27/modi-makes-case-for-trade-driven-economy-194119.html