First written in December 2017
(Prasantada is a fictional character I have created in Bengali. He studied in a Moffusil town in a missionary school and when there was a big exodus from Bengal he went to study in the UK. Economics of course and now teaches at Nebraska University bang in the middle of US of A. He calls, rightly, US as ‘our country’ India as ‘your country’.
He is a closet Democrat in America, does not want to discuss President Trump because he claims that he is wire -tapped by FBI and CIA. He writes against Modi and his policies. In Delhi he is a Left intellectual but in Bengal hangs around with TMC academics. He is now writing a book called : 2019 INDIA after Modi.
I have written about 20 micro stories about him all in Bangla. This is my first attempt in English to reach a wider audience.
He does not want to rock the boat in Bengal because he comes in the winter for Pous Mela and has a house in Salt Lake.)
Thus spake Prasantada
The phone rang. Prasantada was on the line:
Hey buddy, what’s up, I hear the MoSha duo got a bad drubbing at the polls.
Yes, they won far less seats in Gujarat and in HP their Chief Ministerial candidate lost.
Exactly and guess what? My book will be a best seller because my prophecy will come true and I was the first to predict it.
How about Alabama, I hear the President’s candidate lost?
Hey I can’t discuss this on the phone, I told you why, they listen in, man.
But how come you are so keen on Modi and the Gujarat model, why don’t you write about the 1% in the US or the new tax code.
Look I am an Indian at heart. My expertise lies about things INDIAN, the Indian economy. Besides if I write about Trumpnomics who will publish. There are dozens of Nobel prize winners like Joe Stiglitz crowding the market. Whereas a critical piece on the Gujarat model sells.
But you have been to Ahmedabad once and Baroda twice, how did you become an expert in rural Gujarat sitting in Nebraska?
Oh you don’t know I have many Gujju students, I know Professor Bhagwati quite well, we had dinner in New York the other day.
But you have never written one page on the Bengal model. You are also a friend of Dr Amit Mitra. Can you not write something about our state and its spectacular progress?
Look Bengal model is complex. I have to then write about the Left policies, about their aborted Industrialization strategy and so on. TMC has just come to power we have to watch it for some time?
They have just come to power? What are you smoking? 6 years is a long time.
Six years is but a moment in the continuum of history, give it at least a decade. May be KERALA is the model we should follow, the Left in Kerala is different you know.
But the architect of that model is both right and left. If for 5 years Congress is in power for the next 5 years you will have CPI M. Who do you praise or blame?
The Left is responsible for the development agenda, not Congress. Kerala is the model to emulate, look at all the human development parameters.
Suppose Bengal had the same level of inward remittances from the Gulf, do you think there would have been a difference. Suppose Bengal was not partitioned would we be more prosperous.
Look I cannot answer this question of whether the auntie should be called an uncle if she grows a moustache, these are hypothetical questions
OK fine but let me argue that Bengal is the forerunner of an equitable growth model. Why don’t you write about it in Anandabazar or give an interview to Suman. After all Bengal is closer to your heart and hearth than Gujarat.
I have to balance various constituencies; at the moment it will not be politic of me to write on Bengal. By the way I am coming to pous mela, one of my plays will be staged. There is an impudent Sanghi journalist who has written that I am a playwright among economists and an economist among playwrights.
What is the play called and who is this journalist?
The play is called Agony of Demonetization, and the journalist is Dhurjati Moitra.
As far as I know Dhurjati is a Maoist and has a sharp pen.
Anyone who mocks a playwright of demonetisation must be a chaddi buddy – that’s the bottom line.
So how is the book coming along?
Fabulously. Life is already imitating art. I am afraid events may overtake my book and Modi may be out of business before I launch my book.
So write the book fast my friend.
Yeah I will. I agree with you. After the resounding setback in HP and Gujarat I am afraid he may not last till 2019 to fight the elections.
I have to quote Mani Aiyar here Aap ko thora intezar karna parega.
OK see you at Pous Mela in Santiniketan. I hope the unknown disease is now under control, I don’t have the luxury of kicking the bucket before this seminal book is published.
