Jaitley is India’s defense minister and finance minister. He has been a minister of commerce and minister of law. The BJP/RSS have a dearth of experts to run the government that two important portfolios have been concentrated in the hands of Jaitley.

Of course, it is not true that the BJP/RSS lacks the competent people to run the government, and they can be drawn from the vast cache of SCs and OBCs within the party, but the RSS/BJP true to its constituency of Brahmins will like only Brahmins to head these posts.

Parrikar, a Brahmin out, Jailely, a Brahmin in.

The politics of the RSS/BJP can be paraphrased on Lincolnian lines for universal democracy: India’s government is for the Brahmins, of the Brahmins, and by the Brahmins. And Jaitley’s unique policy bend can be summarized in just one word: Incentivise. You pick up any debate on any issue of economics, and now on defense, he will only chant one mantra: incentivise, incentivise, and incentivise.

Can we run the government or anything just on the basis of incentives?

Are human beings or corporate or organized groups only motivated by the incentives? Incentives are only one of the millions of factors that motivate the investors or private parties. The economic agents are not always rational, and the behavioral economics has dug many holes in the conventional rational choice based economic models. Then why Jaitley stresses on only incentives?

In the absence of any value offer to the larger constituencies, the only way to attract the investors is to show them the carrot of incentives. This has been the larger policy of the RSS/BJP model. They have been offering incentives to the businesses, politicians from the other political parties, and the foreign investors.

This means that the entire strategy of the BJP/RSS is based on greed.

You feed the greed of the people and keep your power intact. That is why the whole new economic model is being created to show that India is gaining traction and that it is advancing to the next level of economic development. What the government needs are a will to uplift the citizens from the clutches of poverty. It needs a will to end the discrimination so much visible in Indian society with the coming of RSS/BJP to power. The RSS/BJP has been also offering incentives to the politicians from other countries. It almost rigged the post-elections scene in Goa and Manipur when it lost the opposition parties, but formed the government by horse-trading.

What we need is a level playing field for all the people to come and invest in India. What we need is diversity in businesses in India. What we need is an equal access to resources for all. What we need is a strong and heavy investment in the education so that citizens become the vehicle of the development.

The goal of the government is not to give incentives. The goal of the government is to create partnerships with all with a view promote more equitable society. Before we heavily arm ourselves heavily and aimlessly, we need to really access India’s strategic geographical position and evaluate various combinations of partnerships. We have to find many ways to use India’s soft power to have an impact on the world. There is an example in the history of India when emperor Ashoka conquered the world with Buddhism. Perhaps that was the only time in the history of India that India yielded so much influence in the world. Even today, the important countries of the world are indebted to India. With limited incentives, we can attract investments by following the constitution and making India more democratic, stable, and peaceful country.

[irp]