Is right wrong? A dilemma for Mr. Modi

The word Hindu traces its origin to 'Sindhu' referring to the tradition and the civilisation that flourished around Indus valley. Indus also originates from Sindhu as does word India. One among the world's oldest traditions  the Indian tradition is seen by serious scholars as a quest for perfecting human being explained beautifully by late professor Troy Wilson Organ in his book The Hindu Quest for the Perfection of Man. But many peddlers of Hinduism are not really interested in that spiritual quest occupied as they are with shallow and misguided notion of religion. It is not uncommon that a people value form over substance. Human choices are not always rational. The marketers have proven and made money out of creating and catering to human 'wants' rather than needs. What else would otherwise explain the monetary value of poison called cigarettes.  In most rich countries where tap water is perfectly drinkable the bottled plain water is sold at a higher price than price of milk and price higher than that of chemical and gas compounds called cola. Hindi cinema producers are equally conscious of the commercial opportunity to entertain around religious ambiguities created by confusing religion with rituals and customs. Movies like PK and Oh My God are partly artistic critiques of non-critical acceptance of 'religious authorities' and partly commercial opportunism.

It is difficult to translate Sanskrit word 'dharma', it is not same as religion. The root of the word is from 'dhr' which is also found in 'dharti' meaning earth. It refers to something that gives stability, support or nurtures. In addressing the question, " is Hinduism religion?", T.W. Organ eloquently puts, "the answer to this question depends on what one means by religion. Religion in any culture is an expression of dissatisfaction with life as man finds it and of longing for better things. It is lover's quarrel with life, a grumbling about the status quo accompanied by a search for promised land. If men were satisfied with their earthly existence, religion would never have been created." Organ, 1994, p.12.

The scope of religious quest is far more than search for good living according to Organ, "religion, like ethics, seeks the good, like art, seeks the beautiful, and, like science, seeks the true. But religion is not satisfied with the goodness of ethics, nor with the beauty of art, nor with the truth of science. It seeks a goodness, a beauty and a truth transcending the noblest achievements of moralists, artists, and scientists. In the promised land is goodness better than moral goods, beauty more beautiful than artistic creations, and truth truer than scientific truths. This claim can be made only if religion contacts a reality more real than the realities of ethics, art and science. And this is the claim of religion. Religion asserts that it places man in relationship to Ultimate Reality, the Reality which is the source of all realities and the criterion of all values." Organ, 1994, p.14

Human kind wants to understand the reality that transcends material phenomena, the pains and pleasures of human relation with other humans, creatures and life at large. This is what drives the human search which perhaps prompted Organ to write,"Man is homo philosophicus, the being ever in quest of understanding of his world and himself. If man has an essence, it is the activity of questing for understanding. He is philosophising incarnate." Humans are curious beings and this curiosity is as old as human kind has lived on this planet although claims to this effect can be made with certainty only as far as human history records would allow. To quote Organ again, "we do not know why but we do know that the Babylonians were obsessed with attempts to predict the future by the study of the heavenly bodies, the Egyptians and Taoists with efforts to conquer death, the Hebrews with the search for moral law, and the Greeks with the creation of beauty." And this is what he wrote about Hindu civilisation, "Hindu civilisation has been, and is, in quest of reality. 'What is the real which if known will make all things known?' has been one of the fundamental quests of the Hindus. Furthermore, the search has been directed not to the starry heavens but to the inner world of the human spirit."  Organ, 1994, p.37. 'What is the real which if known will make all things known?'  refers to the question which is raised in the third verse in Mandukaya Upanishad where a household enquirer Shaunaka asks this question to Angiras.

The right wing Hindus organisations like RSS and Hindujagruti Samiti refer to one meaning of 'dharma' as 'righteousness'. The proponents of reconverting Muslims and Christians back to Hinduism do not explain what are they trying to do?  What is expected of a person converted to Hinduism? Hinduism is not a religion, in its conventional meaning,  which requires belief in a God or God's son and requires following a given holy scripture or a book. It is a comprehensive quest to know reality.  A more fundamental question is who has given right to anyone to expect someone to live a life in a way that they may categorise as life of a Hindu, Muslim, Christian or any religion, whatever the converters or re-converters mean by their propounded religion?

In Vishnupuran, one of the Hindu epics, there is a verse that reads in Sanskrit as 'Sa Vidya Ya Vimuktaye' meaning 'that which liberates is knowledge' (Part 1, Ch.19, shloka 41). What is that liberty that knowledge is supposed to enable? Is it the liberty from orthodoxy? Is it the liberty that helps find the true nature of human existence or the existence in general? Is it liberty to believe or not to believe in God? Is it liberty to find the infinite ways in which truth may be discovered? Is it liberty to realise that there may not be just one way to truth even though truth may just be one. Within Indian tradition itself Sri Ramkrishna Paramhinsa demonstrated to those who would believe, that ultimate reality could be realised by practising Islamic, Christian and Hindu ethos. 

The current Prime Minister Narendra Modi refers to works of Swami Vivekananda as his inspiration. Swami Vivekananda is considered supreme disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhans and foundeded Ramkrishna  Mission in 1896. The Mission has this as one of its objectives: "To spread the idea of harmony of religions based on Sri Ramakrishna's experience that all religions lead to the realization of the same Reality known by different names in different religions. The Mission honours and reveres the founders of all world religions such as Buddha, Christ and Mohammed" (Belur Math).  Mr. Modi's opening remarks in his speech to United Nations mentioned India's tradition and philosophy guided by a verse from Mahopanishad Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (world is one family), " India’s ancient wisdom sees the world as one family, and when I say this, I wish to make it clear that each country has its philosophy. I am not talking about ideology. With the inspiration of that philosophy, a country marches ahead. India is a country that since its Vedic times, has been saying that the world, the entire globe, is a family. India is a country where, beyond nature, we have a communication, a dialogue, with nature." (Read full speech here UN Speech, 27 September 2014, p.15, and listen to it on Toutube below). Actually the full verse that Mr. Modi quoted vasudhaiva kutumbakam from reads as following

ayam bandhurayam neti ganana laghuchetasam | 

udaracharitanam tu vasudhaiva kutumbakam||

 (Mahopanishad, VI.71)

The verse means, Only small men discriminate saying: One is a relative; the other is a stranger. For those who live magnanimously, the entire world constitutes but a family'. 

Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, Speaking at United Nations, 27 September 2014.

In the same speech Mr. Modi advised the UN to make UN Security council more  democratic and participative. He said, " Institutions that reflect the imperatives of the twentieth century will not be effective in the twenty-first century. They face the risk of irrelevance. I would like to emphasize that the policies and rules we made in the twentieth century may no longer be applicable. The speed of change is very fast. It is therefore essential that, in tune with the times, we adapt and reformulate, making the necessary changes and introducing new ideas. Only when we have done that will we be relevant."  (Modi, UN Speech p.17).

May one take liberty to extend Mr. Modi's recognition of the 'speed of change' and need to 'adapt and reformulate' to the religious discourse in twenty first century India to keep it relevant. This is Mr. Modi's biggest dilemma. Will he take India forward in twenty first century or will he let its march be slowed down or derailed by his mentors and alma mater RSS? The Indian voters who voted for him in May 2014 with development and good governance agenda as his promised priorities will be watching with anxiety and hope. 

Reference: Organ, T.W. (1994) The Hindu Quest for the Perfection of Man, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd., Ne Delhi. First Indian Edition. The book was published in 1970 in the US.

Time to decommission the planning commission in India

Doubt opens doors to alternative possibilities that certainty closes. “If today we have shortage of doctors, teachers and civil engineers, it is not due to an excess of planning, but to its deficiency”, thus concludes Sudha Pillai  a former member secretary of the Planning Commission of India in her opinion piece in Indian Express on 6/12/2014. This faith in planning even in the face of self confessed empirical evidence that India has shortage of appropriate human capital in economic, social, technical and scientific fields is the fatal conceit that Friederich Von Hayek warned about in his last book Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism published in 1988.

Set up in 1950 and modelled on the erstwhile Soviet Union planning system, the Indian planning commission has been perhaps the most expensive institutional experiment. This is not because of the explicit cost of running the institution itself, which is quantifiable, but because of the implicit loss of the wealth that could have been created and human wellbeing enhanced by its absence. The evidence to support this assertion is observable indirectly and directly. The license-raj and the regulatory constraints that shackled the business and industry in India owe their intellectual debt to the views of the planners who thought they could calculate exactly that India needed a certain quantities of automobiles, certain amount of steel and cement and so on. The edifice of command and control economy was built on intellectual foundation of socialist ideas that planning commission provided structure for.

Growing up in India when the supply lines of most products were choked by regulation I remember how much premium one had to pay for just the allotment letter of Bajaj scooter. There weren’t many scooter manufacturers as the wise planners had quantified the potential demand for scooters and accordingly granted license for the capacity to meet that demand. Millions of contemporary youth who are lured today through enticing TV and print commercials by suppliers of two wheelers may be surprised to know that one had to deposit INR.500 to book a Bajaj scooter and wait for the lucky draw. People would fill in dozens of firms to maximise chance of getting allotment numbers that could be due for allotment. The lucky ones would then sell those allotment letters for a premium which also necessitated bribes to registrars of vehicles who would have to record the change of name after the delivery. The postman (I think it is still postman only in India, haven’t seen post women who deliver post but would request correction if I am wrong), when delivering the allotment letters waited eagerly while the receiver opened the allotment letter in excitement. If the allotment letter indicated early delivery date of the vehicle the postman expected a tip (bakshish) for delivering the good news! Indeed it was years later when I started teaching finance and options contract to students of MBA that I would realise that the value of the premium on allotment letters was nothing but what is technically called option price.

So what was the implicit loss of government controlling the supply of scooters, cement, steel and so on. An obvious loss was deadweight loss that results from monopolistic or oligopolistic competition which the planned regulation imposed on Indian consumers in many sectors. The deposit paid for scooter booking could have been used by depositors in more productive investments. The jobs and the associated wealth that could have been created by allowing producers to expand their capacities was implicit loss to India. This evidence may be shot down as anecdotal. One way to counter that argument would be to look at the number of jobs that have been created by the two wheeler industry since late 1980s, yes before 1991, when embryonic steps were taken to deregulate industrial capacity planning by Rajiv Gandhi’s government. Add to that the jobs created in cement, steel, pharmaceutical, automobiles, airlines, and other industries that have been freed from license permit and quota raj since then. That would be direct evidence of what non-planned economic landscape can deliver. Still unconvinced champions of planning can look up this 2014 academic paper by Radhicka Kapoor Creating Jobs in India’s Organised Manufacturing Sectors, published as working paper by the think tank ICRIER. This is just one of many papers that can be referred.

Mention of the direct and indirect wealth destroying consequences of the planning for and intervention in the agricultural sector may be the most difficult to digest for many readers. The strongest popular perceptions may be weaker than a modest but reasoned argument. So let the argument be made. How wise would the advice to lioness would be to always hunt and feed her cub? A cub that grows without hunting skills will either starve to death or will be killed by pack of wolves. A farmer who is assured of fixed price for a standard crop of wheat bought from him at his farm by a state agency like Food Corporation of India has weak incentive to go out to markets, has weak incentive to find what market demand for his crop is, has weak incentive to find ways of improving the yield or to try out different crops. The subsidies, the minimum support price and the state dominated supply chain in agriculture support farmers in short term but deprive them of the knowledge in long term that they would have acquired by frequenting the markets, by trying to understand the demand patterns, by searching and experimenting with different crops, different technologies and different supply chains. This knowledge gap is the biggest implicit loss. Coupled with corruption induced explicit loss the consequences of excessive planned interventions in agriculture sector are monumental. Economics is not so much about the scarcity of resources (land/labour/capital) as text books teach. It’s more about information and knowledge generation and channels of exchange of that knowledge which breed opportunities and engender risk taking in expectation of rewards. Even neo-classical economics argues that the prices contain all the information to coordinate the production and the consumption in an economy. If it is so and the price is administered politically, the information content of such prices is not the will of consumers and producers but wily calculation of politicians.

Finally let me support the case for abolition of the planning commission with a constructive example. Consider the dramatic story of Indian information technology (IT) sector. The success of IT sector is an indirect piece of evidence that shows irrelevance of the planning commission. At the end of March 2014 the IT sector employed 3.1 million people making up around 24% of the total employment by organised private sector employment in India. How has this been made possible? One may put forward many explanations but what cannot be put forward as reason for growth of IT sector in India is the presence or the contribution of the planning commission or of any planning by the state institutions. Before the state institutions and bureaucrats could understand the possibilities of the explosive growth of internet and communications technologies the engines of growth had been fired. The IT enabled service providers like Infosys, TCS, Wipro and the like were global players. Provision of these services was less dependent on the water, electricity, roads and was relatively free, not be choice of government, from license permit raj. The sector grew away from the radar of the planners since the sector. It did not require massive resource allocation from the state. This allowed entrepreneurs and enterprising corporates to create wealth and jobs by taking advantage of the time zone dividend that India enjoys and by recruiting thousands of graduates in arts, commerce, computing many of them trained by thousands of small software and computer training institutes.

Some may argue that the IT sector growth was fuelled by supply of large number of English speaking, low cost engineers produced by Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and other sub-national institutes which were planned and funded by the government would need evidence to prove that the planning commission, the ministry of Human Resources Development and University Grants Commission consciously planned in 1980s to boost supply IT trained human capital in that would be needed in following decade. Such planning of human resources for an unknown or emerging sector is nearly impossible. The availability of the large number of English speakers actually provides evidence of anti-thesis of planning i.e., unintended consequences. No one imagined in 1970s and 1980s that command over a language would prove to be a key skill for India to emerge major supplier to this global service industry. Contrast this to situation where the state intervention was made. With increased demand for management and technology human resources Ministry of HRD responded by creating a licensing authority called All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) in 1980s which like most other licensing authorities soon became another rent extracting bureaucratic machine. In the year 2009 the AICTE chief was jailed. He and other officials were investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation on corruption charges in 2009.

The path to hell may be paved with good intentions. The corruption is illegitimate child of three potential parents. Regulation, licencing and inspections are three potential parents of the devilish child corruption, the child that has grown into a hydra headed monster in India. The ‘planning’ by planners is ideological grandparent of corruption. It is high time to commit the ideological grandparent of corruption to the uninspiring economic history of India that the planning commission has scripted since 1950.

Invitation to think: India's Education Policy 2015

Hello iRA-D-AR readers

Education is too important a subject to be left to few experts, politicians and bureaucrats. It could not be more true in a country like India with its ethnic, linguistic, religious, and geographic diversity. There are Indians who earn less than a dollar a day and there are Indians would find it difficult to keep count of their earnings. Top down approach to policy making for such a nation, where half of the 1.27 billion people are in 0-25 year age group, is unlikely to fill the knowledge gap that perpetuates many of India's social and economic problems.

After one year in school 47 out of 100 children do not recognise alphabets

According to a 2013 report that collected data from 327,397 households in rural India 47.3% of children at end of standard I could not read even a letter, 32,3% could not read a word, 12.6% could read a word, 4.4% could read text of the level expected at standard I and 3.6% could read text of the level expected at standard II. 74% of children in standard VII could read text expected at standard II.

Source: ASER 2014 Report

The reading competence developed in private schools is better than in the government schools but still it is no consolation to note that only 63.1% children in standard V could read standard II level text in private schools and that percent has hardly changed between 2009 and 2013 (see table below).

Source: ASER 2014 Report

After one year in school 41 out of 100 children cannot count 1-9 numbers

The numerical abilities also are worrying. Only 24.3% of standard VIII could do subtraction and 46% could do division.  41% children enrolled in standard I could not recognise numbers 1-9. Only 26.4% children in standard VII could subtract. This is just part of the evidence that shows that the top down approach to policy making in the last 67 years since independence of the country in 1947 has not yielded elementary educational goals leave aside the development of human potential that an educated nation could unleash for individuals to live a good life.

Source: ASER 2014 Report

 One in five children attending government school in standard five could do division. Only 18.9% of children in standard III in government schools could do subtraction. The most worrying aspect of the following table is the declining trend in improving the numerical abilities of Indian children both in the government and private schools. While India can rightly take pride in designing and launching satellites, its primary education system seems to be matter of real concern.

Source: ASER 2014 Report

You can make a difference to education in India

The current minister of Human Resources Development in India has called for more people to contribute to new education policy formulation. If this announcement is executed as intended, it qualifies as the most important decision by the central government in India. I hope that the announcement will be taken up seriously not just by the minister and her office but also by experts, parents and others. Education is one of the most important keys, if not the most important key, to unlock the bottlenecks to removal of poverty and to well being billion plus of the planet's population that inhabits India.

I invite you to share your thoughts and suggestions on this blog by posting your views in brief but focussed way. Please respond with any thoughts you have with one of the following six headings:

Improving access and quality of education in primary schools: Put subject heading PRIMARY

Improving access and quality of education in high/higher secondary schools: Put subject heading: SECONDARY
Improving access and quality of higher/vocational education: Put subject heading: HE
Encouraging STEM (science, technology, engineering and medicine): Put subject heading: STEM
Encouraging arts,humanities and other areas: Put subject heading: ARTS & HUMANITIES
Life long learning, professional development after formal qualifications: Put subject heading: LIFE LONG LEARNING

I look forward to reading your contributions.

Witness to history in making

Not always one feels that one is witnessing history in making. But I do feel today that way on 18 September 2014 as four million plus Scottish voters have been voting in referendum for independence of Scotland from the United Kingdom of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The voting would have closed by 10.00 p.m. probably before I finish typing this blog post.

I thought of writing this post late evening reading these entries in a diary of a Hiranand Karamchand Makhijani. Let me put entries first and then give the context.

" 20 April 1947: What will happen? What will become of Sindh? Will there be a massacre in our beloved Sindhri also? What is my duty? Can I go away? I am unwell as it is. But leaving will be an act of cowardice. How can I leave my home at this precarious point in time?" (Bhavnani, p.7)

Hiranand Makhijani was 46 years old Hindu Sindhi journalist who lived in Sindh which was until 14 August 1947 part of undivided India. Hiranand was a staunch Gandhian and freedom fighter according to Nandita Bhavnani from whose fascinating book The Making of Exile the above entry and following couple are taken. Hiranand's dilemma continues in build up to the decision about partition of India and his fear of becoming a foreigner in his own land as he writes below.

"10 May 1947: If there is an attack, what should I do? All my life I have preached the sermon of non-violence. How will I raise my hand against another? How do I face the religious lunatics? If I cannot respond with violent means, then with non-violence, will I be able to throw myself in front of the mob? I cannot find this courage within myself.

What will happen to the women? How will I be able to bear it if anyone is attacked in front of me? How will be able to stop them." (Bhavnani, p.7)

The above entry sends shiver down my spine because I know that exactly during the same period when Hiranand was writing the above entries my maternal and paternal grand fathers were in Sindh and they were Hindus just like Hiranand. It was their ancestral land as was Hiranand's. What trauma and pain would those days must have been to be living in fear and anxiety pending the decision about future of their land separating from India. The decision was made soon in early June as Hiranand notes in his diary.

"6 June 1947: Sindh has settled down. The causes of conflict have been removed but I have been separated from India! Have I become alien to India? I simply cannot believe it, that this has happened with one stroke of the pen! How can I become an alien in my own country? The threads of my life are tied up with my motherland! How can I break them? The ideals of my life are linked with the freedom of India. Now how can I say that India is no longer my country? No matter what the laws says, I will continue to consider myself an Indian, I will live as an Indian." (Bhavnani, p.7)

Hiranand's dilemmas and pain must have been shared by tens of thousands of Hindu Sindhis. I never got chance to discuss in great detail with my paternal grand father who passed away in 1991 about how he decided to leave Sindh and bring his family to India after the partition. My grandfather was a peace loving and quiet tall handsome man who toiled hard to provide for his family who was put up in one of the many refugee camps that were set up in India. Having been born in one such refugee camps as I came of age I always wondered why were Hindu Sindhis, who left their cultural, economic and natural heritage in search of security, called refugees in India when effectively what they did was, as Hiranand notes becoming 'alien in my own country'. They chose to remain in India by moving to what was India after partition. The power of 'one stroke of pen', drew boundaries and a new territory was born along with it were two identities Indians and Pakistanis.

Boundaries are thin lines on maps. The land remains same but a humanly drawn line divides it into nations and countries. Today's summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi was overshadowed by another line drawn exactly 100 years ago in 1914 by Sir Henry McMahon, the then foreign secretary of the British ruled India who negotiated that with the Tibet, which was independent at that time. The McMahon Line, as it is now known, is still an unresolved issue between two countries trying to strengthen their economic ties for mutual benefit.

My drafting of this blog has taken me past closing of the voting in Scotland. Whether tomorrow, that is 19 September 2014 morning, Scots will still be Brits also or only Scots, the referendum results in next few hours will decide, but witnessing we are history in making. A palmist would tell the believing individual what the lines in one's hands tell about individual's future but the lines drawn on maps create territories. Territories and therefore, nations, are fictional realities if you listen to Dr. Yuval Noah Harari in his extraordinary bold historical analysis in A Brief History of Mankind. Dr. Harari, a very interesting narrator of history in different  way, claims that nations like race, god and many other constructs invented by human kind are fictional reality and the human beings, homo sapiens in Dr. Harari's words, can be persuaded by fictional realities to act and react. Territories define identities and everything that goes with it. Even if we grant identity is 'fictional reality' but the damage or benefits it bestows can be real. Imagine the difference in possible quality of life for someone born as US citizen compared to being born in Somalia. Or being borne in the British Royal Family and being borne to a slum dwelling pauper in Mumbai. The difference will not be fictional reality whatever Dr. Harari may say about mundane needs of life born in human imagination.

Modi: Leader vs CEO

Image source: Indian Express

When every seventh person on this planet is an Indian, to be elected as prime minister of India is like getting elected as leader of the combined populations of whole of Europe, the US and Canada. That indicates the size of the republic of India. When Mr. Narendra Modi got elected as Prime Minister of 1.27 billion people of India in May 2014,  he took on a responsibility which can fairly be said to be sum of the responsibilities that several global leaders shoulder for their respective countries. Between years 2001 and 2014 Modi was Chief Minister of relatively prosperous state of Gujarat in mid-western India with population size closer to that of the UK. During that period he won three five yearly state elections and ruled the state for 4,610 days before moving to New Delhi to take up the role of the Prime Minister of India. During election campaign for general elections in April/May 2014 Mr. Modi’s party Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) projected him as an able administrator who would provide good governance and put India back on faster road to economic development. But is leadership only about efficient administration or is it something more. What differentiates a leader from chief executive officer? The question is prompted by distinct difference in the tone, words and style of Mr. Modi during election campaign and after winning the election.

Harvard psychologist Howard Gardener, who propounded theory of multiple intelligences, in his book Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership  defines leader as, "an individual (or, rarely, a set of individuals) who significantly affects the thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviours of a significant number of individuals". How do such individuals influence the behaviour of large number of people? Professor Gardner argues that great leaders talk ‘direct’ to people and they have a story to tell. 

Abraham Lincoln’s story was about abolition of slavery and keeping the union of United States together as captured in his famous speech House Divided  delivered in June 1858 where he said, ”I believe that this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.”  Lincoln became the 16th president of the USA in second half of 19th century at a time when the country faced Civil War threatening the integrity of the union. Lincoln’s political challenge was preserving the union but also resolving the historical paradox of Declaration of Independence of the USA which had not removed slavery from that country. Famous American historian of Civil War, Shelby Foote called amazing American history as a combination of “glory and shame”.  Slavery could not be reconciled with the independence until every citizen had same rights. Lincoln left mark as great leader by creating solid ground for abolition of slavery and managing to save the union.

In Gardener’s analytical framework Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership story was freedom. In South Africa Gandhi supported struggle against the racial discrimination of Asians and back home in India against the colonial rule by the British. Gandhi was master of mobilising mass support for a cause one’s he took it up. Freedom struggle has always been a powerful storyline in life of many a great leaders. What made Gandhi’s story enduring legacy for mankind is his perfecting the art of using disobedience and non-violence as weapons of resistance.

Nelson Mandela’s story again was about freedom and struggle against racial discrimination which did remain in South Africa well into twentieth century. There are parallels between Mandela’s leadership and Gandhi’s leadership after Mandela  gave up armed resistance in favour of non-violent methods and Gandhi’s ways. 

Margaret Thatcher in late twentieth century UK came to symbolise a determined, no non-sense leader who would dominate the discourse in economics. By introducing massive public sector reforms,  redefining the role of markets and government in the sluggish British economy in late 1970s and through 1980s. Guided by intellectual scaffolding found in works of  libertarian philosophers like F W Hayek, Mrs. Thatcher’s leadership story was around reforming economy, restoring markets as central institutions, and individual economic freedom. Like most leaders Thatcher received unflinching support from some and opposition from others.

Now let us go back to Mr. Narendra Modi. What is his story line? In a lighter way one could say he also had ‘freedom’ in one of his many punchy slogans. He used a sentence frequently in election campaign ‘Congress mukt Bharat’, literally meaning, ‘Congress free India’ referring to removal of Indian National Congress as ruling party in government. During and after the elections he claimed in his speeches that people had chosen ‘hope’ for better days over the decade old rule by opposition coalition of parties led by the Congress. 

Projected as deliverer of economic prosperity for millions of poor in India Modi sold a dream of economic growth to alleviate poverty and raise standards of living for hundreds of millions of Indian. As a leader he successfully consolidated  his image of a popular leader in Gujarat to the leader of a very diverse nation that features dozens of languages, ethnic diversity and all major religions practised by millions. Modi drew his power to persuade from people and performance. In Indian society emotion and reason, drama and documentaries, tradition and modernity, believers and atheists, liberal and orthodox co-exist and many-time under the same roof. One can find paradox at each corner tea shop in India. It was Modi’s political acumen to note these facts and convert them into pieces of information and convert them into political knowledge. Leader takes pieces of information and puts them in front of a mirror of purpose which reflects back not information but knowledge and understanding. It was that knowledge which resulted in a campaign strategy and style that helped Modi to project a vision of development  that resonated with voters. 

This though was not simple task. So how did Modi do it? He converted ‘development’ into main storyline and spoke directly to people. In a span of eight months from September 2013 to April 2014 he transformed himself from regional to national leader. He chose few one to one interviews to media but addressed 437 big rallies, participated in total 5827 public events, travelled over 300,000 kilometres across 25 states in India according to a report. His choice of Hindi as language to communicate is significant political choice too.  In such a cultural and social setting with thousands of years of tradition with almost uninterrupted continuity in daily living direct talking to people in India needs oratory skills that Modi demonstrated ably. There was a clever planning in choosing the audience and the mode of communication. He knew well the spread of mobile phone and social media in cities and towns. In the political landscape of Uttar Pradesh (UP) the male muscular vanity is more prominent where main symbol of celebration of victory is firing gun shots in air. In such landscape where main opponent party had a former wrestler as its president in Mulayam Singh Yadav, Modi chose to boast of his 56 inch chest to imply that developing a state required manly courage. The audiences less likely to turn up in the dusty planes on hot summer days but live their life on screens of tablets, computers and smartphones were directly reached through various digital windows offered by social media. Modi’s acute understanding of the power of media is well known and again showed up recently when he chose to meet Sheryl Sandberg COO of Facebook a privilege not many COOs would get from Prime Minister of India. Neither party could underestimate the public relations value of such a meeting.

It seems however, Mr. Modi has assumed role of a CEO soon after getting elected. One detects moderation in his speeches that are free from lyrical stories criticising Congress government and promises for better India. His tone is more of CEO wanting to making systems changes, introducing efficiency, task focused government ministries and processes. The intention here is not to evaluate the effectiveness or otherwise of these early decisions and announcements because that will be naïve given that Mr. Modi’s government is only few weeks into power. But already there is an interesting coincidental similarity in approach in some areas with the Obama administration in the US. 

On 13th June 2011 Barak Obama issued executive order number 13576 titled Delivering An Efficient, Effective and Accountable Government, which stated following as its purpose. To strengthen that trust and deliver a smarter and leaner Government, ...will reinforce the performance and management reform gains, ….identify additional reforms necessary to eliminate wasteful, duplicative, or otherwise inefficient programs; and publicize these reforms so that they may serve as a model across the Federal Government. 

Here is what Indian PM Mr. Modi says on his website,” We will work together to re-establish the credibility of the institutions of democracy. My government will function on the mantra of ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance’. Now the question is will Mr. Modi succeed in delivering faster economic growth, reduce the corruption and poor governance in coming years? The challenge will require leadership qualities and CEO's energy and implementation abilities. Time will tell and iRA-D-AR will comment on this periodically.