THE Jaipur Literary Festival is known for its twists and turns. Last year it was Ashish Nandy’s take on scheduled castes and tribes that got the Festival unnecessary publicity. This year Amartya Sen said something quite remarkable for a professed Leftist. He said he would like to see pro-market and pro-business party coming to power and emphasized that such a party would also not privilege one religion over another. Perhaps the economist in Sen recognizes the challenge of the times. While it is fashionable to be a Leftist in academic circles the real world revolves on something else. But Amartya Sen is not alone here. Even the Prakash Karat the CPI(M) general secretary had admitted after the Left debacle in Bengal ‘that there was ‘a disconnect between the Left and sections of the middle class’. India’s young, mall-fascinated generation has no patience for drab socialist types. They are part of the globalization process; many earn good money and have no qualms about spending it. Thrift is not part of their vocabulary. Globalisation may have benefitted some more than others but the impact has been felt across India and there is no turning back.
Amartya Sen, who says unabashedly that consumerism is not a sin, however, does not believe in a completely unregulated economic eco-system. He is all for the economic betterment’ of the middle class through a pro-market ruling party. Sen’s only concern is that the party that comes to power should not be rightist-communalist. This is indeed India’s dilemma today. The Congress is on a downslide; the Third Front has not yet coalesced while the communalist BJP is on the rise. Sections of the Indian voter who have not been able to get over Godhra are yet to be reconciled to the fact of having Narendra Modi as the next Prime Minister although they are equally unhappy with the Congress-led UPA. Clearly the voter is in a dilemma and statements like those coming from Amartya Sen which evidently seem to support Modi’s pro-market pitch can only confuse them further. But are they confused? The middle class that makes up a huge chunk of India’s population is now more inclined to vote than they were in the past. This is also the class that is consumerist and ambitious. Politicians like Modi have noted this and are catering to their tastes. So whether or not Amartya Sen endorses the market trends, the voter certainly seems to have done so. And Modi is part of that package.
