Welcome to the Political Fix by Rohan Venkataramakrishnan, a weekly newsletter on Indian politics and policy. To get it in your inbox ever...
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The Big Story: Ctrl-Alt-Delete
As of May 10:
Covid-19 cases in India: 62,939 (up from 40,263 last week)
Recovered: 19,357 (up from 10,885)
Deaths: 2,109 (up from 1,306)
It is a cliche by now to agree that India reforms in a crisis.
The trope is most strongly linked to the 1991 Balance of Payments crisis, which led to the process that is now commonly known as the “liberalisation” of the Indian economy.
So this week as India’s states announced a number of changes to labour laws, TV channels and newspapers spoke of major “reforms” in the middle of the coronavirus crisis and of chief ministers “stoking the engine” and “blazing a trail for the rest of India to follow”.
Because of the 1991 example, the term “reforms” tends to conjure up memories of dismantling of the restrictive Licence Permit Raj (which, as Rahul Jacob’s superb piece explains, is actually making something of a comeback) and changes to laws that allow private enterprise to thrive. The English-language media usually portrays such changes as being indisputable...
