India is a land full of ideologues – which according to my definition, describes someone who is so committed to their principles that they treat facts which challenge their ideology with utter contempt. Ideologues, of course, come in all shapes and sizes: we have our commies and our market fundamentalists; liberals and conservatives; Hindu nationalists and Naxalites; the right wing hawks and the left wing doves; the libertarians and the bureaucratic babus; the localists, the nationalists, and the globalists; and a bunch of others who defy definition and convention. In fact, there are probably few Indians who could credibly argue that they are not ideologues.
I completly agree with Nanubhai that “unless these two seemingly irreconcilable views can coalesce, we may be destined for perpetual political gridlock. Just that I’d like him to give tangible examples of how the left and right could come together on such common ground.
Linked by shivam. Join Blogbharti facebook group.
Here is my reply to one of the comments on http://www.indianeconomy.org which adresses some of your concerns:
The three areas where I think the economic ‘left’ and ‘right’ can work together best are education, infrastructure (facilitating public/private partnerships), and institutional quality/governance. All three cut across ideological lines; and all three are cornerstones of a successful development process.
From an economic perspective, the left has traditionally has held deep mistrust for the private sector, and the right has a similar mistrust of public officials. At their worst, capitalists are recklessly greedy and bureaucrats are venal and corrupt. At their best however, the capitalists grow the pie, and the bureaucrats *effectively* redistribute it through taxation, spending, and regulatory incentives. Getting from worst to best requires a reduction in the polarization between these groups.
It is only by taming down the vehemence with which we challenge the other side that we will realize that progress, in a democracy, requires some cold, hard compromises.