All political parties bring out manifestos at the time of elections in order to inform prospective voters of their socio-economic vision for the country. The vision is largely influenced by the ideologies of the parties in the fray. Given the fact that the two major national parties, the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have been in the political arena for long or have been governing parties, it is taken for granted that their ideologies are well known, though ideologies are subject to nuanced interpretations and viewpoints of the leaders of the parties.

The economic part of the vision of the two parties does not differ much though nuances exist on the question of “growth first before distribution" (a relatively strident BJP viewpoint) and ineffectiveness of public spending on account of subsidies and special programmes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and food security (again a relatively strident BJP viewpoint). On the private sector’s role, both parties are practically on the same page.

The party that aspires to be a major national party, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had a brief stint of power at Delhi. Its economic vision is not well known, though one could gleam it from some actions of the party in its brief tenure of office at Delhi and from some of the utterances of its leaders, Arvind Kejriwal and Yogendra Yadav. The party’s strategy seems to be veering round new colours of Gandhism and democratic socialism, the two concepts that pervaded the Indian economic scene in the early years after Independence. Its main areas of focus seem to be: power, water supply, primary school education with facilities especially for girl students (three actions that they took during their office stint and are critical in any future economic strategy), communication with the people on a regular basis—the mohallas (transparency and needs-based approach), objection to “crony capitalism" and a strong statement for withdrawal of government from business. This is a kind of Gandhism that seems to suggest that agriculture, manufacturing, and small-scale industries would have to be fostered within the private sector. The party has also opposed foreign direct investment (FDI) in the retail sector. It has announced total rejection of categorization of ideas as “left wing" or “right wing". Further, it wants urgent redressal of people’s short term needs, simple living for all ministers and officials (another streak of Gandhism), strong advocacy for ombudsmen and for hearing citizens’ grievances against corrupt politicians, bureaucrats, criminals and communal groups. The party also wants open and transparent communication about funding of elections (which could include state funding of elections). The only issue on which there has not been much mention is in the area of primary health and healthcare. But one would not be surprised if this too would have been a part of the party action-plan had the party stayed on in power for a little longer time.

Critics, however, point out that public spending will outpace the known revenue resources. This could be true in the very short run but given the limited tenure of office, one may have to carefully sift as soon as possible the party’s fundamental social and public policy for further clues about what the party will have spelled as its stance on these matters. By saying that the state should not be in business, the party seems to hint that publicly owned enterprises would be more speedily privatized and resources generated to take care of the party’s concerns for economic growth and economic equality.

The model of development that emerges from these viewpoints is not something new going by the debates on the development strategies in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and in India in the 1950s. The non-state business regime without regulatory overreaches and with strong anti-corruption mechanisms will enable absorption of relatively abundant labour in agriculture, small-scale industries, manufacturing activities and services sector. The party, however, has to provide an idea of what it thinks should be the incentives for work and conducting economic activities simply because the state will be out of business and business will be conducted by the private sector. This will raise issues related to fiscal and monetary policy and regulatory policies on which the party has to give some indication. It is also important to signal the party’s views on international economic and financial policies. Once Indian business is given such a huge role as the party seems to imply, one would like to believe that it is for large-scale foreign technical and financial cooperation.

Most other parties do not seem to aspire to be national parties in the strict sense of the term since their reach is restricted and their inclination is not to field candidates over the length and breadth of the country.

A. Vasudevan is a former executive director of the Reserve Bank of India. Comments are welcome at theirview@livemint.com.

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