Modi’s capitalist dystopia: How liberal market stokes new India’s illiberal democracyRAVINDER KAURPublished in THE CARAVAN(2 Nov. 2020)
Modi’s capitalist dystopia: How liberal market stokes new India’s illiberal democracy
(Popular belief is) liberal politics cohabits with liberal markets or that capital boosts democracy to shape a world of unrestricted freedoms.
2. CONTRADICTION OF THE IDEA OF LIBERAL POLITICAL ECONOMY
Instead, capital appears to be leveraged to establish a heavy-handed majoritarian rule that can restrict freedoms. The lure of markets can be deployed as a bargaining chip to preempt any potential condemnation from the rich and the powerful.
Example-
A. when Jammu and Kashmir’s special status was abrogated last year: investors were expected to overlook internal repression for the tantalising prospect of gaining access to new markets.
B. the open-ended promise of economic growth and the restoration of a Hindu civilisational past—is what brought him electoral success in 2014.
3. CONSEQUENCES AND CONTRIBUTIONS OF ILLEBERAL POLITICAL ECONOMY
A.It is also a chance to acquire a strong economic muscle that in turn can bring legitimacy to the political establishment. Consider, for example, how global capital inflows or the increase in foreign exchange reserves are projected as a form of global recognition of Modi government, often as a testament of his strong personal leadership.
B.An inflow of capital investments also redraws political power dynamics such that the management of the nation’s domestic affairs remain a no-go territory for external actors.
Example
The bargain is this: the state controls the territory and puts it at the disposal of investors, and in turn, the investors legitimise the sovereign power of the state. This narrative of economic development and the attendant political dynamic was evident when the BJP government revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special autonomous status on 5 August 2019.
In the face of severe backlash and accusations of repression, the BJP government chose to argue that the move would not only root out terrorism and nepotism, but also pave the way for development in the Valley. It held out the change in Kashmir’s constitutional status as an opportunity to realise its economic potential. An official announcement of an “Investor Summit” to be hosted in the erstwhile state featured on several news portals around the same time. The potential investors were invited to come and see first-hand “the business friendly policies of the government, assess infrastructure, natural resources, raw material, and skilled and unskilled manpower, and identify business opportunities in the state.”
4.REASONS FOR RISE OF ILLEBERAL POLITICAL ECONOMY
A. (This shows) this neoliberal script of economic growth has not just been disentangled from secular democratic politics, but firmly harnessed to the project of Hindu nationalism.
B.The key to this messy politics is the formula of pitching a nation as an investment destination
C. The ongoing global debates about the crisis of liberalism—erosion of liberal values, freedoms and institutions—fall short in explaining the emergence of illiberal politics in many parts of the world.
D. The rise of populist authoritarianism is often seen as a politics of resentment in the post-communist world or the left-behind regions in Euro-America as capital moved to the emerging markets. E. What these views fail to consider is that it is hardly a coincidence the phenomenon of illiberal democracies or illiberal majoritarianism is especially prominent in nation-states that also position themselves as attractive investment destinations for global capital.
F. the pandemic has worsened the economic opportunities of a variety of social groups in formal and informal sectors. Economic forecasts for India currently project a shrinking economy that will potentially corrode the country’s growth story. But, in surprising ways, the logic of the nation-as-investment-destination model continues to shape the pandemic geo-economics. As China is dislodged from its erstwhile position as the factory of the world, several nation-markets including India are making bids to become the next factories in the ongoing speculation.
5.PARADOX OF ILLEBERAL POLITICAL ECONOMY
This intense, uncertain time also reveals the strange paradox of Modi’s new India. Erected upon a scaffolding of unfulfilled promises, it continues to open its territory to capital mobility even as it restricts freedoms of those deemed the internal other.
what keeps it afloat is not actual economic gains or prosperity for its citizens, but the cruel promise of good times, a permanent state of hope without a deadline.
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