The failure of the 'Make in India' program during Prime Minister Modi's first term is something that
many supporters of the BJP and the government of the day wasn't able to understand and also felt very embarrassed about. True, there were no scandals or scams so far in either Modi 1.0 or 2.0 but it's also true that Make in India didn't succeed. One might ask - what is Make in India after all and why is it so important in relation to the BJP in general and Modi in particular? Well, it was Modi who came up with this initiative which aimed to make India a true rival of China in terms of manufacturing capacity and productivity. You could almost always hear him speak about it everywhere with the tell-tale image of the lion made up of industrial gear wheels.
Objective of Make in India initiative
When you speak of making in India to compete with the global manufacturing powerhouse, China, it's all about doing it in massive scale involving, tens of billions of dollars in foreign investment, tens of millions of jobs for Indians and hundreds of billions of dollars in revenues for the Indian economy. There's no doubt that it was well-intended by a nationalist and patriotic party led by a charismatic leader. If it would have met just a partial success rate of just 40%, the BJP would have had enough gunpowder to blow the opposition's sadistic criticism to pieces. Unfortunately, the failure of the Make in India program is one subject that BJP rank and file is embarrassed to talk about today.
Actual situation on the ground
The Chinese had gained control of about 70% of the smartphone market in India, the second largest in the world and accounted for well over USD 5 billion of this market. Just imagine the number of jobs this market would have created in China in all these years! We don't even hear about Samsung these days in India, let alone other non-Chinese and Indian brands we had known till about 4 years ago. As a BJP voter, I find it unbelievable that the Chinese smartphone oligarchies took over this huge Indian market with the BJP in power, going around talking BIG about Make in India! How on earth did the BJP allow that?? And what in Heaven's name were they trying to achieve by bringing the Chinese into the Indian market in this manner?? Is it any wonder that a great initiative like Make in India couldn't succeed? It was meant to be achieved with local Indian enterprise but weirdly enough, Indian local interests were sidestepped in favour of the Chinese of all people! The leaders in BJP taking such decisions must not take the nationalist and patriotic voters for granted.
Chinese are almost everywhere in our market
It's embarrasing to hear that over 80% of Holi and Diwali merchandise comes from China and the percentage increased exponentially in just the last 5 years or so - corresponding to the Modi government's first tenure. Not just that, 80% of the electronic and electrical components used by the PSU BSNL comes from China and again, this figure grew exponentially in just the last 5 years! The Chinese are picking up civil infrastructure and plum railway contracts right, left and centre. They literally control the fast-growing digital signage industry in India. I can go on endlessly but I must say that I find Modi's ignorance about Chinese intentions ridiculously unbelievable. Even if he had been advised wrongly, he should have considered the lessons of history before plunging into this whirlpool of stupidity. His 'jhoola' diplomacy in Ahmedabad, garden path diplomacy in Wuhan and 'dhoti' diplomacy in Mahabalipuram now appear as stupid as the 'Hindi-Chini Bhai-Bhai' diplomacy of Nehru. Luck though, is on Modi's side for now.
Chinese goof up; Modi gets a chance to resurrect
Out of the blue, it appears that good fortune began shining on Modi - China loses composure in the face of worldwide Covid criticism and kicks up unnecessary dirt on the line of actual control (LAC), the de facto border with India. The situation temporarily goes out of China's hands as India reacts very strongly with multiple fatalities on either side resulting from hand-to-hand combat between Indian and Chinese troops on the LAC. China gets the worse of the exchange as it suffers more than double the fatalities than India. In other words, it got a bloody nose and suffered loss of prestige internationally. China just shot its own feet. World powers have stood up behind India and anti-China sentiments have reached a cresendo across India. The Chinese have just given Modi the BIG clue he was looking for!
Atma-Nirbhar Bharat - the new holy grail
It's true that Modi had been talking about Atma-Nirbhar (self-reliant) Bharat or Self-Reliant India ever since the early days of the Covid lockdown around March 2020. But it was little more than a slogan like Make in India and it lacked the rocket booster power needed to make it a reality till the Chinese offered the clue on a platter to Modi. Their creeping-crawlie encroachments on the LAC came up against Indian boots on the ground that led to the bloody skirmish. Following that there's nationawide anti-Chinese sentiment across India and we now see with horror how far deep into the Indian economy, the Chinese had made inroads. If this had gone on unchecked for another decade, the Chinese would have wrecked India's economy. Now, as sector after sector of the Indian economy are kicking the Chinese out, Modi goes into action mode with a windfall of benefits for local Indian businesses that had been reduced to function as petty sales agents of the Chinese till now.
One last word of caution for Modi
We can very well see that he's making the course correction and he can rest assured that the nationalist voters won't ever seek retribution from him for this massive error if he stays on course. If there's anything that Modi must learn from the Chinese about self-sufficiency, it is that he must go out of his way to subsidize local manufacturers. Merely making high-sounding declarations like 'vocal for local' will be useless till there's action on the ground. If he's ready to accept that his China policy was responsible for the failure of Make in India, then he will be able to make amends with the Atma-Nirbhar Bharat program. Yes, he needs to be vocal for local but he must lay out the red carpet for local manufacturers just as he had been doing for foreign investors, especially the Chinese. This is a golden chance the Chinese have handed to him on a platter. He should now grab the dragon by its tail and hurl it so far away that it loses itself for generations.
