Column Ta-Ta economic miracle

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: of return? India could be a destination, for portfolio investment as well as for FDI. But that is exactly where the signals will be flashing red. After Singur, money will hesitate to come to India. After all, if Ratan Tata, as home-grown as one could be, after having followed all the rules and regulations and with the High Court stamp of approval on West Bengal government’s land acquisition cannot carry on business, what chance is there for anyone else? Who can any longer believe the promises of chief ministers whatever their majority in state legislatures? There is, always out there, some group with some caste or religious label or a linguistic identity who can throw a spanner in the works.

The most remarkable thing in this episode has been deafening silence from Team Manmohan, the guardians of the economic miracle. The PM may be more concerned with the indoor gherao at the NSG but even so the hands off attitude without even a word of disapproval about the senseless trashing of India’s most prestigious innovative product tells me that the UPA government is paralysed till the next election whose outcome it cannot predict.

This paralysis started in August 2007 when CPM threw a tantrum about the Indo-US nuke deal. But even after the July 21 vote, there has been stasis. None of the reform proposals we are all waiting for—on labour laws , on retail FDI, on foreign universities , even the Right to Education—have moved at all. The Singur dispute is, after all, due to the dreadful state of land laws which are a thicket and through which none can see his or her way. Where are the reform proposals which will take us away from a 1892 land acquisition law and deliver clarity?

India has now run out of the energy to pursue growth. Perhaps, in six months time, there will be elections. Then, in another six to nine months time, there may be an active policy removing the obstacles to growth. Or, perhaps not, if the coalition includes any of the Third Force parties. Each day that goes by costs crores of rupees, but then who cares? How many vote banks depend on businessmen?