Manmohan Singh’s calm amid din in Parliament

It was 24 July 1991. Presenting a landmark budget, the then finance minister Manmohan Singh uttered two lines. “Time has come for India to rise as a great economic power.” His concluding remark was, “No power on Earth can stop an idea whose time has come,” trying to rouse hope in a depressed economy and society.

His optimism was aimed to address the prevailing pessimism. Two months ago, the Chandra Shekhar government had sold 20 tonnes of gold to Union Bank of Switzerland with a buyback pledge. The Narasimha Rao government had mortgaged 47 tonnes gold to the Bank of England. In such a scenario, people found it difficult to trust Manmohan Singh’s assertions in entirety.

Many in politics were uncomfortable with ‘economic reforms’. Some thought India would disintegrate the way Mikhail Gorbachev’s Glasnost and Perestroika led to the crumbling of the Soviet Union.

But what happened? Riding the success of these reforms, Rao and Singh were able to bring back our gold within months. In the next 20 years, India became economically so strong that for the first time, in 2009, we bought 200 tonnes of gold from the International Monetary Fund. Today, our country is one of the biggest buyers of gold in the world. After Rao and Atal Bihari Vajpayee not only persisted with reforms but gave them a push.

In last 35 years Tata, Birla, Mahindra, Adani, Airtel, Reliance and many other Indian companies became global conglomerates. Trade, the long held no-go zone, became the lucrative go-to vocation, attracting a large number of India’s youth. The Modi government brought a unique balance between vision, speed and execution. As a result India is home to the fastest rising unicorns and we are the fourth largest economy in the world.

Let’s go back to Manmohan Singh. The time of bitterness and toxicity returned in 2008. India made a nuclear deal with the US. The Left parties, part of the ruling coalition, were so enraged they withdrew their support. But within hours, Mulayam Singh Yadav came to the government’s rescue. At that time, CPI (Marxist) leader Prakash Karat bristled, “We won’t let India be subservient to US imperialism. This deal links India’s foreign policy to the US military interests.” His political adversary Lal Krishna Advani too echoed his sentiments: “This deal will make India US’s junior partner. We can’t leave our strategic interest at the mercy of Washington.”

However, Manmohan Singh remained unfazed, insisting: “I am not here to sell my country. This deal will end India’s nuclear isolation and provide us with clean energy.” He wasn’t wrong, and the biggest proof is the present government’s fresh nuclear energy deal with the US.

Can you see parallels between then and now?

Since the recent India-US trade deal, these stale arguments, which were debunked earlier, are again floating. Between 1991 and 2008, we saw many such showdowns. The only difference is that the opposition and the treasury bench have switched sides. But why does a shift in seating arrangement change the motives and words of our esteemed leaders?

The US deal contours have been detailed by trade minister Piyush Goyal. The Prime Minister and other senior Cabinet minsters have made it clear that the interests of farmers, labourers and Indian traders are protected. Still the din continues.

Theoretically and practically, one should never assess a sovereign country on the basis of personal like or dislike towards its current ruling dispensation. There are people who ate US’s PL 480 wheat and later created the Green Revolution to restore the nation’s self-respect. Similarly, doomsayers painted grim scenarios when the foreign banks and foreign car brands appeared in India. But look at what happened.

I can list dozens of such examples but that isn’t needed.

Do remember, we Indians are working towards reclaiming our lost glory from the moment we became independent. In the last 76 years, we have done plenty of things to be embarrassed about and an equal number of things to be genuinely proud of.

So why do we only berate ourselves and fail to preserve our dreams? Before a slang match next time, do remember that we, the people of India, are the source of our government’s strength.

Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief, Hindustan. Views are personal.