Deng Xiaoping once quoted :
“ No matter if it is a white cat or a black cat; as long as it can catch mice, it is a good cat. “
It’s a hard lesson Deng Xiaoping has learned as a secretary-general When Mao was Chairman. He saw a country with tremendous potential and hope was virtually destroyed by the madness of one man in the name of the Cultural revolution. A Man ( Mao ) who promises China to be the centre of the world, becomes responsible for its destruction and fall. It doesn’t take much time for Dengxiapoing to understand the problem. Mao was an idealist but China needs a pragmatic leader. The above quote is a testimony of his pragmatism. After Mao’s death, He disowns some of Mao’s principles of socialism and embraces capitalism. Where Mao fails, Deng Succeeds with his radical reforms and led the country towards unprecedented growth.
India today is currently in the same situation as China after Mao’s cultural revolution. Modi has proved to be India’s Mao in terms of policy failure, despite being a popular & revered figure in his country as Mao was in China. But popularity is not a guarantee of great policy success. On the contrary, it was always seen throughout history that most populist leaders proved to be the biggest disaster for their nation whether Mao, Stalin, and Hitler are few in testimony. The back to back policy disaster in form of Demonetization, GST, and no substantive structural reforms has put a lot of pressure on the economy. But the Coronavirus ( current no.3 ) has made the matter worse. India which was one of the few fastest-growing economies in the world for almost a decade is now on the verge of depression. According to the International Labour Organization, more than 4 million youth have lost the jobs. Despite FM economic bailout packages and RBI’s sharpest rate cuts decline, the economy has hardly seen any activity. Most economists agree with the fact that India may have long elongated U shaped recovery. But this crisis has unfolded one of the biggest issues of this country which has been ignored for decades i.e. Migration.
Covid-19 has shown another face of India, which never came in mainstream media i.e. Plight of migrant workers. Shocking visuals start appearing on television screens, with transportation systems initially shut down, many had no travel options, just walk on their barefoot to reach back their homes and villages, a glimpse of a harrowing journey. It was the worst domestic migration crisis on the Indian subcontinent since Partition in 1947. Millions of unemployed wage laborers have left crowded cities for the countryside. One after another, they start their journey of a thousand kilometer to their hometown carrying their belongings and children. The government was expecting that India would have just 45 million economic migrants but the number of people walking on roads, highways, and train tracks would have caught it off guard. It was way beyond the 100 million across the country, sooner the government re-estimated at around 80 million as they announced a relief package. There was a common thing among these migrants or daily workers. The majority of them belong to BIMARU states, which is India’s least industrialized state. BIMARU is an old acronym for BIHAR, MP, Rajasthan & UP, mainly in the northern and eastern parts of India. So, the question remains why the majority of the Northern and Eastern part of India is so underdeveloped.
India cannot grow if ( BIMARU ) states don’t grow
Till the early 60’s West Bengal ranked next to Maharashtra as the country’s most industrialized province. Calcutta was the economic and cultural hub of a huge area that acted as a major trading hub for the entire northern region as much of the region is landlocked. It acted as a transit zone for much of its neighboring states especially Bihar and UP, which were rich in mineral resources. A lifeline for economic activity in the region.
But In 1952, the government of India introduced the “ Freight equalization ‘’ policy. Under this policy, the centre subsidized the transportation of minerals to a factory set up anywhere in the country. It hurts the economic prospects of mineral-rich states like Undivided Bihar, Bengal, MP UP, and Orissa as all the items will be available at the same price in all parts through government subsidies. It took away all the competitive advantage of these regions.
Due to the relentless pursuit of the policy for decades, industries started to shift their location closer to the coastal trade hubs of Western and Southern India. Coastal regions like Western and Southern India flourished at the cost of eastern India. It ensured that Maharashtra and Gujarat enjoyed hegemony in metal & cotton, while Bihar, Bengal, and got the upper hand in neither area. Though the policy was canceled in 1992, four decades of relentless less investment climate-friendly atmosphere with minimum private investment has forced the region into darkness. Adding salt to the injury, Bihar and UP the two major states receive less per capital allocation than any other states from the 1st five-year plan to the 11th five-year plan. The process of marginalization has resulted in a low fiscal resource, low absorptive capacity, low private and public investment, poor infrastructure, and low quality of human resources. Hence, the states’ vast human population has remained as a liability with poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, and low skill. It looks like there was a deliberate design to make sure that these states never saw any development.
Bihar, UP and Eastern states have more than 50 crores of population, which is more than 40% of overall India’s population having one of the lowest per capita income in the country. The entire Eastern belt poses a serious developed challenge especially Bihar and UP ( mainly its eastern region ) not only for India but for the global community because India will not be able to achieve Sustainable Development Goals unless poverty is reduced substantially in these two states. The world has a stake in India’s success and India will not succeed until this region is developed. That’s why to address this long term problem, there is a vital need to support these regions through policy and program assistance.
Eastern Corridor: India’s only road towards Superpower….!!
To address the development needs of the region, there is an urgent need for setting up the Eastern Economic Corridor. A new development strategy should be introduced to harness the potential of the region. The new strategy must focus on exploiting the location advantage for the industry in these states which are the source of more than 80% of India’s mineral resources. Odisha will become a catalyst as the Paradip port will act as a transit zone to export & import of the products. Attempts must be made to harness the immense tourism potential of the region/centering primarily on Buddhist circuits to make it into the whole region as a Tourism center.
The cultural influence of these regions on Asia is significant, as these are the center of the two oldest religions: Buddhism and Hinduism. An expressway connecting all the four major cities of Buddhist religion Bodhgaya, Sarnath, Nalanda, and Rajgir including Lumbani will provide us market access of 450 million people and the potential to attract the largest Buddhist population from neighbouring Asian countries. Apart from boosting tourism, it will also provide inclusive economic growth and great opportunities for micro and small enterprise entrepreneurs. The current Covid-19 crisis also pulls up one of the biggest long-term challenges of India i.e. urbanization of more than one billion people, which has resulted in migrations. The majority of them belong to the eastern region. The time has come to convert tier 3 and tier 4 cities in these regions to tier2 cities by expanding the city infrastructure with smart planning & efficient use of resources. A new township closer to the mineral region will be an ideal and cheap investment. Several large rivers like Ganga & Brahmaputra as well as numerous water reservoirs along the region also support various hydel projects providing an excellent case for overall development. Similarly, the expansion of the Grand trunk road will open the gate to new opportunities as well as a major boost to India’s “ Look East Policy. For India’s economy to expand and grow as rapidly as China’s, we need to make a difference in our virtues rather than vulnerabilities. We have to overcome the clung mindset of sticking too much focus on a rogue state like Pakistan and start looking for the new opportunities posed in the East. It’s a moment of realization for Indians that too much focus in the North or Northwestern region is a major blockade towards increasing India’s influence in Asia. The Eastern Economic corridor is only hoped towards strategically and economically challenging the growing power of China in Asia. It will add credibility to India’s claims of leading Asia rather than merely a regional power of South Asia. A project on par with China’s OBOR will certainly counter the effect of Chinese influence in the region and provide Asian countries as alternatives to trade. What India needs at this juncture is Deng-style pragmatism.
