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Indiaright.org is owned, managed and edited by the Centre for National Renaissance (CNR). The CNR has been founded by the Naveen Hindustan Foundation. [ read ] |
| RIGHTWING IDEOLOGY |
The three strands of any Rightwing ideology in the West are: open society, free economy, and limited government. [ read ] |
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 | Message from Dr Subramanian Swamy Dr Subramanian Swamy When we set up the Centre for National Renaissance more than a year ago, it was with a burning intention to provide articulated views on what would make India a great nation in the foreseeable future, and usher in a renaissance. It was the conviction of the CNR team that democracy, nationalism, market economy, and cultural renewal were, and are, the four corners of the renaissance that we envisaged. Our website, www.indiaright.org, was set up a year ago, on February 4, 2005. A year later, we are even more convinced of our perspective. The real task before us, therefore, is how to convince the vast majority of the people of this ancient nation of one billion plus people to develop this mindset for the envisaged greatness of the nation. It is no mean task, since for forty-five years after Independence, the nation had been fed with false and bogus propaganda that an authoritarian, state-driven economic system, as symbolized by the USSR, was best suited for India. Taking advantage of the anti-imperialist stance of the USSR, there was a systematic emplacement of those who were willing to promote or, at the very least, mouth this propaganda. And anyone who stated even a doubt about this orthodoxy met with ostracization and economic penury. Or they were simply rubbished. The person who courageously challenged this at the helm of affairs was P.V. Narasimha Rao, although the credit for economic reforms is being given to his Finance Minister and the current Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh. The truth is quite different. The drafts for the reform package were prepared in the previous Chandrashekhar government by me and approved by the Cabinet on March 11, 1991. Manmohan Singh was economic adviser to this government. Narasimha Rao as the Prime Minister of the succeeding government was briefed on it by me before he took over. He understood and courageously decided to implement it with Singh as his chief technician, despite being head of a minority government. Today, despite being Prime Minister of a majority government, Singh is unable to get even one-hundredth of those kind of simple de-regulating reforms. Hence, how can he be called the architect of economic reforms? The Left establishment, backed by elements in the Right who had been compromised by them, then launched a terrible defamation of Narasimha Rao. He was not spared of it in his death or the first anniversary of his death. India today is growing today at 7 per cent because of the Rao-implemented reforms. Most of the growth is coming from those parts of the services sector and manufacturing that have prospered due to private initiative and available easy foreign markets, e.g. software in IT or automobile ancillaries. The fundamental areas of infrastructure and agricultural productivity are hamstrung because of opposition by the Left and a weak, wobbly Prime Minister. There is no reform package at all, no "road map" for the economy as a whole. We have not moved anywhere near a market economy during the last 10 years. All we have had are ad hoc measures, knee-jerk reactions, or policies burdened with the IMF/World Bank conditionalities. Nor has democracy deepened. On the contrary, the unedifying developments in Goa, Jharkhand, Bihar, and now in Karnataka by the ruling Congress; the vast telephone tapping of Opposition leaders; the crude patronage of criminal suspects such as Otavio Quattrocchi; and disgusting sychophancy at the Congress convention in Hyderabadall these signal that Indian democracy is under siege. Democracy is not just elections. It is not a spectator sport for the people. Instead it is transparency, fundamental rights, and people’s participation that matter in a democracy. Indian democracy is dominated by is criminalization, casteism, and corruption. Neither has nationalism flourished. We now see terrorism functioning as parallel governments in many parts of the country. The state is powerless to retaliate against any terrorist attacks whether inspired by Pakistan or Al Qaeda proxies in Bangladesh. There is Hindu cleansing in these two countries, which is not being responded to. Even within the country, Hindus have been targeted and terrorized in Kashmir and Mau in UP. Indians of all religions are being held to ransom in Manipur and Andhra. The state is impotent. Hence, India is becoming more a "banana republic" than a vibrant republic. Our mission to build a new India that experiences a renaissance in democracy, nationalism, democracy and cultural foundation is extremely relevant and crucial. On this occasion of the first year anniversary of our website, we feel proud of our mission. We rededicate ourselves to it, with reaffirmation of our resolve to bring to the people the new conservative ideology. Dr Subramanian Swamy is chairman, Centre for National Renaissance. The Centre owns the website, www.indiaright.org Posted on : 2/4/2006 Mail this article to your friend |