Roy Ho’s Blog

India held its last election in 2004 and due for another one in 2009 or earlier.  The party in power is Congress and they won primarily for their agenda for the lower castes and/or the poor.  India has been having great economic performance as well.  India still has potential to be exploited.  This potential can be achieved when the social integration of the untouchable is successful.  And investments in that area require a tacit knowledge. 

CNN made a mistake in using the word class.  It could have been a typo if class were used consistently through out its content.  However, class and caste are used inter-changeably in the content.  That seems to suggest the difference between caste and class is misunderstood.  Class can be ascribed, as Plato suggests.  Caste is innate.  

Prior to Congress’ victory, many foreigner investors considered the previous government led by BJP as more investor friendly.  This is to argue otherwise.  

BJP’s core value was Hindutva.  That was to ask: who is Indian?  That came as polarizing as Bush was to the States.  Yes the poor were ignored and that constituted as a block of votes for Congress.  However, investors need this much needed Congress for political stability is the first requirement for any investor into long term investment cycle.

Violence in the rural areas can be instigated by religion as well as by caste differences.  This is only one case that gets to the media.  

Labour upgrade is difficult because education is not as accessible to the lower castes as the upper castes, not necessarily just the untouchables.  Jobs, lending practices are sometimes not favourable to the untouchables in some areas.  

Although the federal government has strong affirmative action laws for the lower castes since the first legislature, social inequality continues.  And sometimes it can turn violent with great organizational support.  

Differences in religion can be just as problematic.  And with the separatist movement at the far corners, although calming down in recent years (or decades now), managing such a diversity requires great political skill.  

Having investments in that area requires all this local knowledge.  The current Congress is just as pro-economic growth as BJP.  In fact the current government is much better equipped than anyone else to manage growth in India.  They have a good finance minister from a major seaport of India.  They have a long history of governance.  In a country where they have strong regulation and a lot of oligopolies, this is an important asset.  The current government is also the party that can unite different castes, religion, promote peace in the region and continue its relationship building effort with its greatest perceived threat of China at the same time.  

There are reasons for both house and senate not to do anything with Bush in regard to recession (or anything else, like treaty ratification) for their personal and political gains.  However, such a delay may not be a bad thing for the country.  

A new president will be mandated by November, almost down to 6 months now.  A new administration will start operation by next January, 9 months away.  So, the good reason for not doing anything with Bush is: if legislations are passed now, then it will be the new administration that has to execute them, what if these legislations will completely contradict to the new administration’s mandate?  Is this legislative prescribing “solutions” that are going to be doomed? Or even worse sour the relationship with the new president?  

And if these legislations turned out to be successful, guess what, the outgoing president will definitely claim to be his credit years from now in his memoir just as the same time the new president will claim to be his credit.  Will any new president like such a trap?  How can any well intended legislator purposefully set such a political trap up for the new president to step on?  

We know there is no solution that would be “the only” solution.  Creating grand standing solutions right now requires an unquestionable monolithic ideological conviction that says this is the only solution to the problem.  The worse is this conviction can be misinterpreted as: arrogance. 

How can the legislators trust the new administration to execute these solutions faithfully when they just push them down the new administration’s throat?  Therefore, the delay tactic is not only for the gain of the legislature as a whole as well as individuals, but also prudent for the nation.