Of politicians and statesmen

The catharsis of the Greek drama reminds this writer of what the great poet and philosopher Kahlil Gibran said in The Garden of the Prophet, “Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler.” Mr Rick Strankman, a Canadian politician, distinguished a politician from a statesman, and described a politician as a person who is interested in garnering power rather than maintaining principles. He says that this often manifests itself in the form of a ‘party first' mentality. A statesmen is one who exhibits great wisdom and ability in directing the affairs of the Government towards the best interests of its constituents. 

It is not at all difficult to decipher the politicians amongst the statesmen. While politicians always attempt to work for personal and party advantages — mostly by scheming and manoeuvring — a statesman is a species that is becoming extinct from most of the geographies. A statesman has the courage to put party obligations aside and do what is in the best interests of the nation. 

It is to be seen whether Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will be hailed as a statesman, who went on an overdrive to uplift the democracy of Greece by seeking a referendum on the package proposed by lenders but later humiliatingly accepted lenders subsequent proposals, possibly worse than the earlier ones, on which he had called a referendum, to the annoyance of his party, even voting against. Or will he be condemned as a politician who engaged in gimmickery without fathoming anticipating and visualising the economic sufferings of the Greeks and went ahead to promote his narrow political interestIJ 

Currently, India is on a sweet spot of economic growth. In the otherwise broader gloomy economic environment around the world — with China's economy slowing down, matured economies being trapped on a marginal growth path and emerging economies being wrapped up by the falling prices of commodity and low demand — India looks like a shining star. 

In India, micro-economic stability, with lower inflation, fiscal deficit and current account deficit, has been restored. Decision-making process has been expedited and policy action is taking place. Global investors are keen to participate and allocate resources for investment in India. They want to be assured of predictable tax and regulatory regimes, removal impediments of growth, policy initiatives to aid productivity enhancements and above all, the ease of doing business. 

India needs to push global and domestic investments into the economy, which have been retarded in the past few years and are currently inadequate to take the gross domestic product to a higher growth trajectory. To step up and sustain the growth and pull a large number of global investors, it is important that certain structural reforms, which have been abegging for a long time, are undertaken immediately. 

The implementation of the Goods and Services Tax Bill, facilitation of the land acquisition Bill for infrastructure, labour reforms, exit policy etc have become imminent. In case these reforms are not gone through with top speed, the likelihood of sustaining even the current growth looks difficult. The opportunity that India has now, comes but once in a while. If the country is not able to capitalise, it will be a historical blunder and will unleash sufferings and vaporise prospects of economic prosperity. 

The political executive has proposed to the legislature some of those reforms for approval. In a democracy, debate and dissent are not only desirable but essential, and must be welcomed. However, debates must culminate into finding solutions to the issues that the nation is challenged with. Politics is a game of adjustments, if not compromises. 

It is here that the politicians are distinguished from statesmen. Should political issues of a different kind, howsoever significant but unrelated with the reforms to aid economic prosperity, be allowed to derail the processIJ Should party politics or the broader interest of the nation be the priorityIJ All of these questions must be answered by all those who are charged with the responsibility of passing legislations. It is the right moment when politics or party's interest are subordinated to the ‘overall interest of the people of India', which every political party swears by. 

Whereas it might not be exactly desirable to compare with China because the nature of governance, frame of the political order is diagonally different, it will still be worth noting that once the Chinese leaders decided that economic prosperity of people of China is the agenda, nothing, not even the original political philosophy of the communist party, has been allowed to derail that process for nearly four decades since it began.

Whether it is corruption or resentment of the people, it is being dealt with separately, without adversely influencing the growth trajectory of the economy. Resultantly, in just about 40 years, China has become the second biggest economy of the world, with prospects of jumping to to be the top spot in the next few years. The per capita GDP of China is now more than three times that of India, even though, when the journey of reforms began in 1971, it was marginally lower. China is being envied by the world and is now commanding geo-political influence of a different order.  

Surely, there are, and will be, issues going forward that need to be fought with vigour and dealt with politically, but those can be held for discussions, debates, protest, mediation —  whatever that is deemed necessary — without adversely impacting the growth trajectory. If today’s politicians fail to deliver on the opportunity, posterity will not forgive them for their Himalayan blunder. 

(The writer is a former Chairman of lIC and Sebi)