A gentler proponent of laissez faire in economic policy

Sandeep Dikshit

Isher Judge Ahluwalia’s biography, ‘Breaking Through — A Memoir’, will be read with more than a touch of poignancy as the author passed away within a month of its release.

There is an added poignancy to the passing away of a brilliant economist in the midst of the country’s worst-ever economic crises and to not having been consulted by the powers that be.

In her brilliant saris, coiffured hair and her presence at high visibility events, Isher Judge may have seemed to be the epitome of the Harvard-bred Khan Market Gang that the current regime deigns to shun.

But as her book reveals, it was the hard work of this number nine of eleven children of a Punjabi pickle maker that propelled her with distinction through Presidency College, Delhi School of Economics and, finally MIT. Her mentors along the way: Bimal Jalan, Amartya Sen, Manmohan Singh and Paul Samuelson.

She was among the young turks of economic liberalisation who along with her husband positioned themselves against the status quoits crowd of the licence-quota-permit-raj early on in her career.

Though the central governments of Congress persuasion absorbed the homilies that came from Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), an institution she built herself, her home state Punjab saw fit to requisition her services only in 2005 when Amarinder Singh was the Chief Minister.

It is also a tribute to her mite in building up ICRIER that when she stepped down as Chairman on August 11, she was unanimously made its first Chairman-emeritus, never mind that this may not have been to the current regime’s liking.

As was the case with her husband, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, there was just no doubt where they stood in the politics of economic development. But like their common guru Manmohan Singh, they never pushed the envelope of economic reforms too hard. There was always an acknowledgement from them that the other side’s story also has merit and needs to be listened to.

Theirs was not a case of the converted preaching the gospel without the help of the bible. After speaking on outdated economic ideas being pushed in Indian universities, her book in 1985 on the mis-delivery of economic growth had marked her out as someone not afraid of speaking her mind while the more accomplished economists like Manmohan Singh refrained from showing the mirror to the then reigning economic czars.

Her high noon of being involved in the government’s policy formulating circles lasted for a quarter of a century. With the advent of the BJP government, Isher Judge focused on ICRIER, encouraging her wards to keep pushing the boundaries of economic thought. Her recent co-authored series on economic possibilities in waste management were as much a gentle rap on the government’s knuckles as suggestive of the possibilities of monetising the Swachh Bharat concept.

Though Isher Judge would have been supportive of all of PM Modi’s move to privatise the economy, one wonders if she would have approved its current ramrodding while lives have already been upended by Covid? Isher Judge also sought a similar end where the private sector occupies the commanding heights. But her means to achieving that aim were always gentler, gradual and persuasive.

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