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GLIMPSES OF INDIAN ECONOMIC POLICY By I.G. Patel Oxford Price: Rs 395 Pages: 215 n by Mrinal Datta-Chaudhuri I.G. Patel's snapshots on the politics behind policymaking

In the first chapter, he gives us a glimpse of his own intellectual development. He writes about the influence of the various leaders of India's independence movement. He felt an affinity with the ideas of the social democrats within the movement. Incidentally, I do not think that the similarity he draws between the economic ideas of Mahatma Gandhi and those of European Christian socialists is fair to either side.

The author also refers extensively to the state of professional knowledge of development economics in those days. Given the experience of the previous half-century, few economists then expected international trade to emerge as an engine of growth. The need for raising the rate of capital accumulation with domestic savings and foreign aid in order to pursue industrial progress on a broad front was then the dominant theme of development economics. For today's readers, what is interesting are Patel's thoughtful comments on the policy initiatives of that period in the light of our knowledge today.

However, what the readers of this book will read with utmost interest are Patel's views on the political dimensions of policymaking in India. For example, at the time of the nationalisation of banks, Indira Gandhi bluntly told him that it was a "political decision", with the clear message that no arguments would be entertained. Patel also writes about the events leading to the MRTP Act. He explains clearly why it could not possibly address the problems of monopolies and restrictive practices in Indian industries. He is too good an economist not to have realised that these measures would inevitably restrict the pace of industrial growth. His readers will want to know who were the people behind the initiative and what was the source of their political strength.

THE PATHFINDER: Patel

There is a growing feeling among young economists in India today that governments here never hired well-known economists for getting sound professional advice. They were essentially hired to lend a measure of respectability to whatever the political bosses did in their efforts at power-grabbing and rent-seeking. There is also a feeling that economic development has never been high on the agenda of different groups participating in India's competitive politics: economics was useful in so far as it could supply attractive slogans. Patel is in a unique position to evaluate these conjectures.

I was somewhat puzzled by his rather bland reporting of the talk between former prime minister Morarji Desai and Lee Kwan Yew of Singapore. Of course, in the field of economic development, Singapore is a success story. But Lee raised misleading economic slogans to curb civil liberties and trade union activities in order to legitimise the monolithic power of his Peoples' Action Party. In this respect he was no different from Indira Gandhi.

As a social democrat, Patel knows that the institutions of democracy need not constitute a barrier to economic development as numerous studies have shown. I believe the prospects of economic development in India will brighten only when our career politicians feel the pressure of effective demand for economic development from the voters. Therefore, the true social value of the expertise and the experiences of people like Patel-there are not many in that category-will be realised when these assets are put to use in educating our citizenry on the pathologies of our political economy. Now, Dr Patel, will you please write a companion to this book.