There is a second meaning of ‘Unlock India’ that we now need to start thinking about. It is about unlocking the true potential of the nation and its people.
The forced lockdown gives us all time to think about our past and the future. We should ask ourselves: Why has India not achieved its true potential in the world? Why has India not become a developed nation? Why is India still poor?
The single, simple answer to all of these questions is that Indians are not free. We have had governments since 1947 that have been extensions of the British Raj. They have kept most of the rules that maximise their power, which therefore minimise the freedom that people have. We rejoiced on August 15, 1947 when we became Independent – not realising that the only thing that changed was the skin colour of our rulers.
The virus era is going to allow the government to chip away even at the little freedom that we have. And in the name of safety, we will keep giving up our liberty. These compromises never end well. The elusive world of prosperity will slip away even further. For those in power, the virus has been a godsend – they get to control us even more, dictating every aspect of our daily life.
That is where we need to step back and think. The immediate unlocking of India so we can get back to economic activity must only be the start. We need to do much more – fight for our freedom so we can get on the path to prosperity. For this, we need to let markets work without government intervention – we are all capable of making the right decisions on our own and that is the only path to prosperity. We need to unlock the $20 trillion of wealth that is being controlled by the government in India – land, minerals and public sector undertakings. If this wealth is returned to the people, they can each chart out their own path going forward.
This virus inflection point must be leveraged to move India towards freedom and prosperity. This is the Nayi Disha India needs. Are we willing to, in the words of Swami Vivekananda, “arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached?”
Tomorrow: Unlock India (Part 5)
