Today is historic day for India. After three decades, one party has won majority on its own and should be able to provide a strong government free of coalition politics pulls. And all credit goes to Mr. Modi who single handedly created the history by his and his party BJP's historic win. My father would have been so happy since all his life he had been RSS/BJP member. He used to be BJP President of our small city for some time. He passed away 4 years back on exact day (16th May). I am sure his soul would be happy to see his dream of strong BJP government is getting fulfilled by Mr. Modi.
Now that Modi and BJP got historic mandate, I started thinking of how this new government should be run. History provides very good lessons (and I like History). The situation in India is almost exactly same as that in USA in 1980. During those years, USA had a weak government and weak President (President Carter). India has same today. USA economy was in problem and inflation was rampant. Situation in India is exactly same today. Reagan was promising hope by asking people "are you better off today than 4 years back". Modi has promised "better days are coming". Foundations of both Republican party (of USA) and BJP are very similar - conservative, business friendly, less government, less taxes, strong foreign policy and strong national defense. With so many similarities in party policies and leadership styles, if Modi adopted some of the tried and tested policies from Reagan Era, it would do wonders for India. Here are some suggestions.
Dhanyawad!
Now that Modi and BJP got historic mandate, I started thinking of how this new government should be run. History provides very good lessons (and I like History). The situation in India is almost exactly same as that in USA in 1980. During those years, USA had a weak government and weak President (President Carter). India has same today. USA economy was in problem and inflation was rampant. Situation in India is exactly same today. Reagan was promising hope by asking people "are you better off today than 4 years back". Modi has promised "better days are coming". Foundations of both Republican party (of USA) and BJP are very similar - conservative, business friendly, less government, less taxes, strong foreign policy and strong national defense. With so many similarities in party policies and leadership styles, if Modi adopted some of the tried and tested policies from Reagan Era, it would do wonders for India. Here are some suggestions.
- Keep Mr Rajan as RBI governor to keep lid on inflation (similar to Reagan keeping Volker as Fed chairman)
- Reduce taxes across the board to give boost to personal incomes
- De-regulate price controls on petroleum products (same as what Reagan did)
- Follow principles of supply-side economics
- Fix basic issues like power for all 24x7 by investing in power infrastructure (as he did in his home state) and world-class roads
- Build strong national defense and achieve "peace through strength" - would be looking for bold statements as what Reagan did "Tear down this Wall" which lead to unification of Germany. How about Modi calling Pakistan PM to say something like "LOC as international border" and solve Kashmir problem once for all and create a economic zone between south asian countries (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and SriLanka). If that happens, that would be crowning achievement
- Earn trust of Muslim community the way Reagan earned trust with black community (increased from less than 10% to 30% during 8 years)
- Increase India's economy to $ 5 Trillion in 10 years
There are many many aspirations goals and I am confident that Modiji would do his best to make many of these real. Today I am proud that inspite of all contradictions and problems India face, the democracy in India works. This is proven by Indian citizens by participating in biggest show on earth (800+ million being part of this election) and electing a chai-wala as India's Prime Minister.
Dhanyawad!
/Shyam
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