How Not to Sell Reforms:Retail FDI

When it comes to selling economic reforms to its people,  the Indian government will walk away with the top prize for doing the worst job across the globe. Otherwise, how can you explain the sudden mad way of first announcing retail FDI approval without tryin to reach any political consensus. Don't tell me that the ruling party forgot that it is minority in the Parliament. More than that did it even try to tell people why this is beneficial to the people? Now hare-brained is that? How do you expect public support when you don't communicate? The other problem is that when government representatives even try and communicate to people--and that happens rarely--it is in an idion so alien to the common people. Of course, let;s also not get fooled by the uproar in some quarter. The couple of thousand marketing agents who procure agri-produce across the country are seriously powerful. They have practically stalled agri-marketing reforms, part of overall agri-reforms. They influence the political class across the board.

Of course, if you are a sucker for conspiracy theories as some journalists are, you could argue (without hard evidence as some are doing now) that the government's retail FDI move has been not usher in reforms but to distract people and expose the political opposition. If that were to be true, we can put that down  in the column of dreadful tragedies.