Is India's political philosophy headed right of centre by stealth?

As aspiration rises among Indians and the state is perceived as failing its requirements, is the natural rhythm of Indian political philosophy headed to the right of centre? Or is it just because it has little choice? According to noted sociologist and author Dipankar Gupta, the right of centre was undesirable since it would give rise to a bad form of the public sector that exploited citizens and what was needed was empowerment of citizens. He is clear that reforms need to be left of centre. “Whenever changes have occurred that are substantive, it requires to make the citizen independent. A lot of the reforms required need to be left of centre,” he said at the Think India dialogue session moderated by Network18 group Managing Director Raghav Bahl. All states that have done well in terms of improving the condition of its citizens did it when they were hard pressed financially, Gupta said, endorsing the role the state would need to play while handling citizens’ aspirations. [caption id=“attachment_690855” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  India headed towards a more right wing political philosophy? Reuters[/caption] However, marketing consultant Rama Bijapurkar said that people would accept empowerment irrespective of which political philosophy gave it to them. “If it comes from the left or right, people will accept it. We are trying to put it into a ’this or that’ category and it will be a hybrid of it,” she said. Editor-in-chief Network18 (Web and Publishing) R Jagannathan said that given the distrust Indians had of the state, it was natural that India was headed more towards the right than the left, since most of the spending that had fuelled growth had come from private spending. “Our natural tendency is more towards the right. If the state doesn’t get in the way that’s good,” he said. “People don’t always support a state model but will not hesitate to take doles handed out by a more left-leaning state even if they don’t really need it, Jagannathan said. This sentiment was echoed by economist Bibek Debroy. “It is reasonable to expect that state will not be able to do everything it is expected to,” Debroy said, adding that India would naturally head towards the right. According to columnist Swapan Dasgupta, what we are seeing in India is a mixture of two forms of right wing philosophy. “You are getting a hybrid version that is built on impatience,” he said, adding that the leaning towards right wing would only increase over the coming years. However, editor-in-chief of CNN-IBN Rajdeep Sardesai believes that India will always remain centered in its philosophy and wouldn’t lean to the left or right. “In a country as diverse as India it isn’t easy to say the natural rhythm is right of centre,” he said.