Blame Lefties if India Elects a Hindu Nationalist Hardliner

India right now is in the middle of the most critical elections
in its 67-year-old post-Independence history. That’s because the
frontrunner, Narendra Modi, is directly challenging the development
paradigm that was bestowed on the country by its founder,
Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru was a Fabian Socialism who offered India
democratic political rights — while sharply curtailing its economic
freedoms.

Modi, a Hindu nationalist with a severe case of
authoritarianism, has taken a
hefty lead by effectively reversing this formula and vowing not
to let India’s messy democracy stand in the way of economic
liberalization to generate growth and jobs, I note in Foreign
Policy today.

Modi has offered no clear policy agenda for economic reforms.
But he has still earned a cult following by forging a rhetoric that
gives voice to the soaring economic aspirations of Indians. As I
point out:

This is in stark contrast to the ruling Congress Party, which
has been controlled by the Nehru dynasty since its inception.

It has taken inspiration from the National Advisory Council that
Sonia Gandhi, the Congress Party head and the Italian widow of
former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, has
stacked with like-minded NGO activists (essentially community
organizers) and leftist intellectuals. Most of them oppose India’s
turn to “neoliberalism” and privatization and believe that the old
recipe of “social spending” and industry mandates is the answer to
poverty. Congress has followed this advice with a vengeance for the
last 10 years, granting massive new entitlements for subsidized
grains in the name of “food security” to 67 percent of the
population, and guaranteeing a minimum income to all rural
families. It also implemented the
Right to Education Act that requires private schools to set
aside 25 percent of their seats for the poor and lower castes.

Rahul Gandhi, Sonia’s blunderbuss son who is Congress’s
undeclared candidate for prime minister, has made such “rights,”
rather than reform, the cornerstone of his campaign. In the past,
this would have generated a voting bonanza. Not this time. A recent
Pew Research poll found that 70 percent Indians are dissatisfied
with the direction of the country. And with good reason. Such
schemes won’t even offset
the double-digit inflation that has been playing havoc with
household budgets. More importantly, they betray a complete tin
ear, offering a mere subsistence existence when, thanks to the
brief experience of real growth, people want something approaching
dignified living…

That Indians seem ready to risk political repression for vague
promises of an economic transformation shows just how desperate
they are to improve their living standards. This suggests that
Nobel laureate Milton Friedman was right that political freedom
requires a foundation of wealth that only economic freedom can
generate. (The Heritage Foundation ranks India 120th
among 165 countries in its economic freedom index, putting it in
the group of “mostly unfree” countries.) Political liberties are a
luxury that people care about more when they have fuller bellies.
Richer people also have more means of resistance and become
costlier to oppress.

Go
here to read the whole thing.