Singh: Time is now

Will the new year ring in a new burst of reforms? Possibly, if one goes by the frantic activity in the corridors of the two red sandstone buildings atop Raisina Hill that act as the nerve centre of Indian governance.

Fifteen years have passed since Manmohan Singh, then a bureaucrat-turned-rookie finance minister had unleashed market reforms on Socialist India. But ever since his party came back to power 19 months ago on the back of popular reaction against an earlier right-wing government, Singh in his new role as Prime Minister has proved hesitant to unleash big reforms bursts.

But his advisers believe that the time for the Big Bang has come. The Congress-led alliance has learnt the fine art of balancing between reforms and public Socialist posturing. Crucial elections to state assemblies, which dictated populist stances like rural employment programmes, are over.

“Dr Manmohan Singh is a reformer first ... and a politician later. But he has over the years learnt to balance his act and he is now capable of sailing his ship through turbulent waters,” said B.B. Bhattacharya, vice-chancellor of JNU and a long time close academic associate of Singh.

The government too has now built up a better understanding of what could pass the litmus test of Left dislike. A test necessitated by electoral politics where a reformist Congress is forced to accept the help of a socialist Left to stay in power.

Bhattacharya explained: “It's a tough job getting anything implemented in a democratic set-up. There will always be differences of opinions even within the same party and, of course, with partners like the Left ... but he has over the years picked up the art of handling these and continuing."

CPM leader Nilotpal Basu agrees its a tough job but says : “We are not against private sector or foreign investment ... but then there has to be a balance and the Congress has to adhere to the common minimum programme."

Files which are passing back and forth between the South and North Blocks on Raisina Hill and the umpteen Bhawans which dot the vista between the war memorial India Gate and Raisina Hill, indicate the government is now willing to unwind pent up reforms, perhaps after checking against the benchmark of the CMP.

These will include fair doses of: Drastic pruning of production and import taxes, a new electricity act which could help lower tariff, a new industry-friendly food act, a new telecom policy, privatisation of pensions, allowing FDI in new areas, consolidation of state-run banks, privatisation of major airports and throwing open more oil blocks to foreign capital even as Indian firms are encouraged to buy oilfields abroad. The list almost seems unending.

“What we feel the government is doing now is concentrating on institutional reforms. Most of the big macro decisions are over, fine tuning will continue. But institutional changes will be his thrust this year," said the vice-chancellor, who till recently headed the Institute of Economic Growth, a government policy think tank.