Modi hasn't disappointed me so far, says Jagdish Bhagwati at India Today Global Roundtable

The eminent economist and Columbia University professor asks the PM for labour market reforms and urges Indian-Americans to lobby like Hispanics for easing immigration rules.

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Modi hasn't disappointed me so far, says Jagdish Bhagwati at India Today Global Roundtable

Jagdish Bhagwati

The Narendra Modi government is "moving in the right direction" and has "so far not disappointed", eminent economist Jagdish Bhagwati said at the India Today Global Roundtable in New York on Friday.

"If you look at the last 120 days (of the new government), the Prime Minister has made news. But some things you cannot do right away. You are moving in the right direction. So far I've not been disappointed. But I had hoped for some dramatic moves," Bhagwati, the University Professor at Columbia University, said in a conversation with Aroon Purie, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, India Today Group.

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The session was titled The Golden Bird Takes Flight - What Modi Should Do.

Bhagwati said Modi's actions showed his Gujarati DNA: "pushing for prosperity, being practical and devoting oneself to the welfare of the others".

"Modi's big hero is Swami Vivekananda and that makes me much more optimistic that he will do more for the poor," he said.

Advice for the new government

Bhagwati said labour market reform will be a hard bullet for the new government to bite. But he praised Modi for pushing for more state autonomy. He also asked him to raise revenues.

"I'll be surprised if he does not push the finance minister to raise taxes and increase the revenue," he said.

Modi has his work cut out, he said. "We need policy proposals. He has scaled up manufacturing...But India needs labour-intensive manufacturing, not all sorts of manufacturing."

On lobbying

Asked for his views on easing immigration laws for Indians, Bhagwati said the Indian-American community was not as active as the Hispanic community to seek more concessions and rights by lobbying with the Barack Obama administration.

"The lobbyists here do not do enough for India, unlike in the case for Hispanics. Indians here have a 'darshan' mentality - get a photo with Obama and they're happy! We should instead be lobbying with the administration," he said.

He also asked for Indian-Americans to understand how Washington worked. "Unless we understand how Washington works, we will not be able to work with it," he said.

Bhagwati also said that India was now a nation of "charmers".

"In the old days, we were a nation of snake charmers and now we a just a nation of charmers, considering our work in the Silicon Valley!" he said.

On Manmohan Singh

Asked to compare the previous prime minister and his successor, Bhagwati said he had known Manmohan Singh since the 1960s and has found him to be "a worrier" but also "a man of integrity".

"He is essentially a man of great integrity and courtesy. He was also a man who could be taken advantage of."

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"Manmohan is more like me or Professor (Amartya) Sen. Our heads are in the clouds! We're Brahminical, even though I'm a Bania," he said.

"Manmohan was not a leader. But as a bureaucrat he was number one."

On Modi

"When I first met him, I was struck by him," Bhagwati said. "He was man of great vigour. Every time I mentioned something, he had facts and figures. I hope they were facts!" he said, laughing.

"This was an unusual politician. This guy was forceful. It was unbelievable," he said.

On Rahul Gandhi

Bhagwati said he was asked to meet Congress leader Rahul Gandhi four years ago but he was reluctant to meet him.

"But I was told that it was he who wanted to meet me. When I went, I saw he was quite a smart young man and he asked a lot of questions," he said.

Bhagwati then compared Rahul Gandhi with his grandmother Indira Gandhi, whom he had met as a young man in the 1970s during her tenure as the prime minister.

"The contrast between Rahul and his grandmother was enormous. He was animated when he was talking to three of us and when you put in him a crowd, he was finished. The case was exactly the opposite with his grandmother," he said.