In his latest weekly column called
National Interest, veteran Indian journalist Shekhar Gupta barely conceals his excitement at the prospect of, as he sees it, “economic ideology becoming the new binary in Indian politics”.
Last week’s annual budget session in Parliament provided the setting for his thesis. Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the case for embracing India’s private sector, while opposition leader Rahul Gandhi took his own party to the left on the issue.
Gupta’s excitement is understandable. Although we should expect this and little else during a budget session, it is more common these days for politicians from India’s two mainstream parties to spar over social and cultural issues than it is for them to engage in a spirited debate on economic policy. Mr Modi is attempting to move the national conversation in a new direction at a time when India’s Covid-19-battered economy desperately needs reinvention. This should be welcome – even if debated robustly