Re: India's Mature Electorate

["Dr. Subroto Roy" <sroy@vgsom.iitkgp.ernet.in>]

Everyone in the country has been talking about the recent State-level =
elections.
Here is more cause for cheer for all Indians at home or abroad:
(a) the electorates in all four States are being assessed to have sent =

an "anti-incumbency" message; that is all to the good and a sign of the
=
health of Indian democracy; any party in office for too long tends =
towards corruption of various sorts (not merely money-making, but also =

e.g. turning a blind-eye to criminal law-breaking by their buddies); now
=
we have the Indian electorate employing that delightful definition of =
democracy: throw the rascals out!
(b)  all indications are that the elections were free and fair; =
electronic voting was used in many places for the first time;
(c)  we have the makings of a two-party system now, with the Congress =
and Communist more or less openly allied as a Centre-Left opposition to
=
what I expect will become a Centre-Right BJP.   =20


At IPI, we have the silent participation of Shri Bibek Deb-Roy (who =
started doctoral work as I did under F. H. Hahn at Cambridge in 1976) =
and who is now, I believe, Director of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of =
Contemporary Studies.  My understanding is that he and Dr Parth Shah =
have been helping to write policy agendas for Shrimati Sonia Gandhi.   I
=
am sure debates at IPI would benefit from their active participation.

Suby Roy.=20





-----Original Message-----
From: vamsi@siliconcorp.com <vamsi@siliconcorp.com>
To: debate@indiapolicy.org <debate@indiapolicy.org>
Date: Friday, November 27, 1998 10:34
Subject: more nonsense from Roy....


>Dr. Subroto Roy wrote:
>
>> More alienated NRI/elite nonsense it seems to me, and an insult to
>> Indian democracy.  You may care to read, for example, the chapter by
>> James Manor in Foundations of India's Political Economy: Towards an
>> Agenda for India, edited by myself
>> and William E. James, 1989, 1992.
>>
>> Suby Roy.
>
>    Surely, none of us are as elitist and oppressive as the Government
=
of
>India.  What Arvind was talking about is the average Indian voter who =

is
>illiterate and hence ignorant.  Are you that person Roy?  You do seem =

to have
>the title "Dr.".  I didn't think you were ignorant - you maybe a bit =
sensitive!
>In India, we do have the Freedom of expression and let no one =
intimidate us in
>giving that up.  In fact, we should use this privilege to address =
important
>issues like why is our Economy held hostage by an over-regulating =
Government.
>Furthermore, why is the Government hogging all the loans from various =

banks in
>the Country while the Industry needs that capital.  Do we not know that
=
the
>Private Sector is far more efficient at using capital resources than =
the
>Government!
>
>    Finally, we should encourage our Government to earn its revenue =
strictly
>through income taxation.  That is, it would be inclined to encourage =
Job
>creation and remove the restrictive practices on the Private Sector.  =

Instead,
>the Government gets the easy way out with License fees, etc.  In fact,
=
it can be
>successfully argued that license fees take away much needed capital =
from a
>project - which means less number of Jobs are created.  The Government
=
is
>irresponsible in this respect because it would rather take the money =
and run by
>charging License Fees at the beginning stages of a project - surely, a
>self-serving institution.  To add to this Telecom License Fees in India
=
are much
>higher than those in some developed countries - never mind that Indians
=
don't
>have the world class Telecom Infrastructure, our Government needs to =
fill its
>pockets first!!
>
>    Now Roy, could you forward me the article that you have mentioned =

above
>directly to my email?
>
>Sincerely,
>Vamsi M.


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