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India profs at Penn ask of new gov't: 'What capitalism, what religion?'

Business and faith under Modi

For other views of India's new leader, see also my interviews with Holtec CEO Kris Singh Ph.D, who welcomes Narendra Modi as an honest reformer and a U.S.investment, trade and strategic ally; and Ajay Raju Esq., the Dilworth Paxson co-CEO, who says secular Indians and minorities are right to raise concerns, but Modi has excellent incentives to do the right thing. 

When a Wharton student group invited Narendra Modi, leader of India's business-friendly state government in Gujarat, to appear by remote media at a conference last year, some Indian members of the parent University of Pennsylvania's humanities faculties protested. They noted Modi had been denied a visa by the U.S.State Department over concerns about Modi's role during anti-Muslim riots in 2002. So Modi was un-invited. That provoked a counter-protest by Modi supporters; Indian companies friendly to Modi withdrew from the conference.

I contacted three organizers of the protest against Modi this week after he was elected India's new leader and invited by President Obama to the White House. I asked how we should view Modi's capitalism and focus on education, employment and growth, vs. his long association with Hindu-nationalist groups critical of the influence of Muslims, other minorities and secular Indians. Here are some of their comments:

Suvir Kaul, Penn English department: Modi is a Hindu nationalist, and he doesn't think of that label as a problem! Whether he will act in discriminatory ways against religious minorities or against Dalits (untouchables, members of India's poorest caste under Hinduism) remains to be seen, but his track record does not inspire confidence.

And can you really pit economic issues against social issues in India? If the government forcibly displaces poor people, who are likely to be lower caste people or minorities or tribals, to make way for heavy industry or even major highway systems, is that economic development or a social disaster? Is that development at all?—These are the kinds of issues that will be of consequence in years to come.

Ania Loomba, Penn English department:  (re Indian and Indian-American industrialists who see Modi's election as a very positive sign for investment and employment:) What your CEO correspondent says is exactly the image of Modi that his campaign, run by expensive PR consultants and financed by rich industrialists, has tried strenuously to build up. That is why the Modi regime tried to whitewash memories of 2002 (religious attacks) with a narrative of Gujarat's economic 'miracle'.

Many of us categorically reject divorcing the two -- as if preventing mass communal violence is not part of development, or as if GDP growth can pardon the crimes of commission and omission committed when state citizens are slaughtered.

The idea that clean efficient capitalism will replace the so-called socialism of the Congress party was the central plank of Modi's public campaign. Actually, there is little difference between the two -- BJP (Modi's Indian People's Party) and (the rival, secularist) Congress -- in terms of their economic vision, and in terms of their corruption. That is why the Modi campaign hated the (independent, anti-corruption) Aam Aadmi Party which relentlessly exposed his own corruption.

(Loomba notes India ranks poorly on World Bank corruption surveys, for example because state governments like Modi's issue business permits, leading to favoritism; many of Modi's chief supporters are Gujarat's richest business owners; it's no surprise they support him, she says.)

Many writers, artists, film makers fear that there will be a restricted freedom of expression under Modi...The idea that 'clean capitalism' is in effect 'freedom' is hardly indisputable.

US-based Indian businessmen and many Indians here share his Hindu vision, though they may soft-pedal that now in order to chant the 'clean efficient capitalism' mantra that is part of the Modi PR machine's efforts... Modi, despite projecting himself as unique, is very much part of his party, the BJP, and its parent body, the RSS (National Patriotic Organization, a Hindu young men's organization). Neither of them are about to give up on their basic agenda: a Hindu India...

The real question is not "capitalism" versus "religion," but what kind of capitalism, and what kind of religion? Gujarat gives us plenty of evidence that a particular kind of crony capitalism can flourish alongside the marginalization of minorities... That is Modi's track record. We should not forget it, even if his very slickly run campaign succeeded in persuading many voters otherwise.

Toorjo Ghose, Penn Social Work department, is heading back to India and hopes to gauge the mood among the poor: I work with the sex workers' collective in Calcutta. I'll be working with some poor folks in Delhi. It's an opportune time to be there.

I'm afraid this (Modi-led) government is not going to be very supportive. I'm a development guy. If you look at the indices across the human development scale, his (Gujarat state) government was in the lowest categories for hunger, child malnutrition, access to housing, irrigable land.

(Modi supports education spending, no?) In education Gujarat is in the middle category. But it has resources to do much better. It is one of the most prosperous states in India. But there are states that do much more with less. Orissa for example. Punjab. Bihar and Maharashtra have done better.

(Gujarat has attracted industry and middle class employment, no?) What really is amazing to me is the snow job that Modi has done. He is good at that. He is very intimately connected to (Reliance Industries' billionaire chief Mukesh) Ambani, to (Gujarat port owner Gautam) Adeni, he gives a lot of leeway to big industrialists. They love him. This has been the triumph of big corporations and right wing policites.

(If so, why did poor people also vote for Modi?) This is intensely amazing...He won big in some states. He lost big everywhere else. Congress was second where they were not first. But second doesn't count.

I think there's going to be a honeymoon period. This is a campaign run on charisma. That really appeals to a certain very right wing kind of Hindu fundamentalist. We're hearing muttering from BJP they will strengthen the laws crminalizing homosexuality. I think right wing social codes will go into effect.

Then when it comes to things around development, that he's promised the world, the reality will set in. He has not been able to do it in Gujarat.

(Hasn't Modi brought in auto plants, tech parks, jobs for the rising middle class?) In so far as the middle class is expanding because of macroeconomic factors, we will see a growth in corporate jobs. We saw that with the Congress government in power. That will happen anyway.

But the middle class is not actually that big. Its expansion doesn't make it really big compared to the poor. It is big enough to show an absolute growth. But the poor keep getting poorer. We have been doing worse over the last 25 years. When we take that downswing into acount I expect (Modi's support) to drop precipitously.

Essay on Narendra Modi's elevation as Prime Minister of India by Prof. Toorjo Ghose in Outlook India