The Battle Within

A host of fresh differences have cropped up between the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), the economic arm of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government - over the functioning of NITI Aayog, over the genetically modified (GM) mustard trials, over Chinese investment in India, over the inroads made by Uber and Amazon, and more.

The SJM has openly expressed its disappointment with Arvind Panagariya and Amitabh Kant, NITI Aayog's Vice Chairman and CEO, respectively, both of whom were handpicked for their current jobs by Narendra Modi himself. "They don't seem to be aware of the realities on the ground or the diversity of India," says Kashmiri Lal, SJM's National Convenor. The SJM leadership has sought an overhaul of Niti Aayog

The SJM, along with several economists and other experts, spent a full day, January 10, reviewing NITI Aayog's performance in the two years since it replaced the Planning Commission on January 1, 2015. The meeting took a uniformly dim view of NITI Aayog's recommendations and the quality of its work. "We analysed 23 reports and it was shocking to see how hollow they were," says Ashwani Mahajan, National Co-convenor, SJM. "They would not even qualify as M. Phil dissertations. Many of them also run counter to the nationalistic commitments and political stances taken by Prime Minister Modi."

Overall, the Modi government has been much more accommodative of the RSS-SJM's views than its predecessor BJP-led government headed by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee from 1998 to 2004. Vajpayee gave short thrift to the RSS. "Unlike that time, there has been no breaking point with the Modi regime," says an RSS leader, unwilling to be named. "There is give and take." Though unwilling to impose anti-dumping duty on solar panels, for instance, the government is contemplating placing imported and indigenous solar panels in different tax slabs under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rules. "This may allow circumvention of WTO norms, but will give domestic players a more level playing field," says a top government official.

Again, the government last year took three crucial steps the RSS and SJM were dead opposed to: it allowed 74 per cent foreign investment through the automatic route in already existing pharma companies, 100 per cent foreign funding in private security agencies and a similar 100 per cent multi-brand retail in food items. The last move in particular, the RSS and SJM fear, will centralise the food and agriculture industry, and limit farmers' choice of crops. But even in this case, caveats have been put in place. While global retailers, for instance, can sell food products in India through both traditional stores and online channels, these have to be sourced and manufactured within the country. Similar sale of non-food items like soaps and shampoos, which are money spinners, has not yet allowed, though leading retailers like the US's Walmart and the UK's Tesco have been lobbying hard to sell these as well up to 25 per cent of their turnover. The government is also making further efforts to allay RSS-SJM concerns. At a recent top level meeting with RSS leaders attended by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and a number of other ministers, it was decided that no further concessions to foreign investors in the food sector would be made.

In the pharma sector, although the announcement regarding increased foreign investment in brownfield companies was made months ago, the RBI has not yet notified the change under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), which means such investment proposals as still being assessed on a case-by-case basis as before. "India is the home of generic drugs," says Kashmiri Lal. "Allowing 74 per cent investment through the automatic route will enable big pharma giants to buy up Indian companies and control drug pricing in the country." He is equally concerned about the country's security being compromised by the step to allow 100 per cent foreign funding in security agencies. "But the fear that this will lead to snooping by foreigners is misplaced," says Ashok Bajpai, Managing Director of G4S, the country's biggest such agency. "It will only improve security in India and will bring in more technology."

But the RSS remains sceptical. "We understand that it is a government compulsion to bring in fresh capital from overseas, but it is not our compulsion to welcome it," says Kashmiri Lal. "FDI is not only killing Indian business, but also reducing employment." ~

@anileshmahajan