Mainstream Weekly

Nehru in the Era of Collapsing Neoliberalism

Girish Mishra — 2017-11-11T16:33:57Z

Twenty years ago, while presenting his first Budget as the Finance Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh launched “a sweeping set of neoliberal reforms that would dramatically alter the country's economic landscape. Viewing the crisis as a historic opportunity to ‘build a new India', Singh argued that it was essential to terminate ‘outmoded' commitments to Nehru's economic nationalism. Spouting with gusto French novelist Victor Hugo's line that ‘no power on earth can stop an idea whose time (…)

- 2017

Economic Survey 2015-16: India under the Shadow of Neoliberalism

Girish Mishra — 2016-03-09T19:24:55Z

Even though the neoliberal dispensation has collapsed all over the world, its votaries in the corridors of power in India are behaving like the proverbial boy on the burning deck. They believe in the mantra of TINA (there is no alternative). It becomes quite obvious by casting even a cursory glance on the cover of Economic 2015-16, placed in the two Houses of Parliament on March 15. It, in the words of the authors, “depicts the long and short run Phillips curves which highlight the (…)

- 2016

The kind of India Nehru Wanted

Girish Mishra — 2015-11-16T20:26:06Z

Pandit Nehru, after his tour of the Western world and of the Soviet Union, realised that the socialist orientation of the nationalist vision was indispensable for making political independence in the future more than a symbolic affair and he was hopeful that even the Indian National Congress, which was conservative in its outlook, would look favourably towards the socialist ideal. He saw the commonality of interests among “the peoples of Asia and Africa struggling for freedom” and “the (…)

- 2015

Nikhil Babu Widened My Mental Horizon

Girish Mishra — 2015-06-28T22:26:17Z

It was in late 1959 that I met N.C. (Nikhil Chakravartty). I was sent by Comrade P. C. Joshi to deliver some document to him. At that time he had just started IPA (India Press Agency) and used to sit in the INS Building on Rafi Marg. When I met him, he expressed a great deal of warmth and asked me to meet him off and on. At that time I lived in North Avenue. My meetings with him began and I learnt a great deal from him. My mental horizon was widened. Whenever I came from Patna to Delhi, I (…)

- 2015

On Economic Survey: 2014-2015

Girish Mishra — 2015-03-09T19:46:38Z

Professor Ha-Joon Chang teaches economics at the Cambridge University and has authored a number of books such as Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Studies in Historical Perspective, Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism, 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism, etc. The February 18 issue of Frontline has carried a longish interview with him. V. Sridhar of the Frontline asked him: “India is now led by a Right-wing government, led by a party that (…)

- 2015

Modi's "Make in India"

Girish Mishra — 2015-03-01T19:17:24Z

Before ascending the throne of Delhi, to lure the young voters, Modi had propagated the virtues of FDI (foreign direct investment). He claimed that once he comes to power, there would be a long queue of the foreigners ready to invest in India. Till then the policies of the Nehru-Indira era were preventing them from entering India. Once they start investing in India, new job opportunities would arise and there would be no young unemployed people and they would get enough money to buy flats (…)

- 2015

Crony Capitalism and its Implications

Girish Mishra — 2015-02-23T21:06:14Z

The AAP says it is only against ‘crony capitalism' and not against capitalism as such. The following article attempts to clarify the term ‘crony capitalism'.
In Western Uttar Pradesh, the then SP-led State Government had allotted agricultural land, acquired from peasants on very low rates, to industrialist Anil Ambani for building power plants and setting up a special economic zone some time ago. This led to great discontent among local peasantry. Till then, the State Government never (…)

- 2015

Gandhi's Champaran Struggle

Girish Mishra — 2014-12-27T20:58:59Z

Two epoch-making events took place in 1917. The first was the Bolshevik Revolution in November that ended the Czarist rule over Russia and heralded the dawn of socialism in the world. The second event that did not immediately appear very important to people outside its locale proved to be the beginning of the end of foreign rule over India and sounded the death-knell of British imperialism. It took place in Champaran, a district of Bihar, about which not much was then known in other parts of (…)

- 2014

Nehru and Planning in India

Girish Mishra — 2014-11-16T12:26:52Z

In 1937, the Congress formed Ministries in seven provinces under the Government of India Act of 1935. The massive vote received by the Indian National Congress even under a restricted franchise system aroused new expectations and imparted it with a great moral authority. It created an impression that the day was not far away when the Congress would come to power at the Centre.
In 1938, Subhas Chandra Bose succeeded Nehru as the President of the Indian National Congress and presided over (…)

- 2014

Planning in India

Girish Mishra — 2014-08-31T16:55:00Z

Ever since the ideas about planning took roots in India, certain political formations have been hostile to it. During the 1930s, the Hindu Mahasabha and, later, the Bharatiya Jan Sangh started attacking it. Later, when the Jan Sangh merged into the Janata Party, it took cudgels against it. It supported Morarji's “rolling plan” which meant that planning was to be buried forever. Fortunately, the Morarji Government did not last long. When the saffron party came out of the government as the (…)

- 2014