Trickle effect won’t work in India, feels President Pranab'da'

Pranab Mukherjee’s maiden presidential speech in the Central Hall of Parliament after chief justice HS Kapadia swore him in on Wednesday morning gave glimpses of the thoughtful and incisive politician as he drew on personal experience.

Assuming office as the 13th president of the republic, Mukherjee pledged to protect the Constitution not just in word, but also in spirit as the office demands that he rises above personal or partisan interests.

Referring to the 1943 Bengal famine, he said: “There is no humiliation more abusive than hunger... Our national mission must continue to be what it was when the generation of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Rajendra Prasad, BR Ambedkar and Maulana Azad offered us a tryst with destiny: to eliminate the curse of poverty and create such opportunities for the young that they can take our India forward by quantum leaps.”

Mukherjee, who was the country’s finance minister till the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) named him its presidential candidate, said the trickle-down theory — the standing rationale for economic reforms — cannot eliminate poverty in India.

“For our development to be real, the poorest of our land must feel that they are a part of the narrative of rising India,” Mukherjee said.

“Trickle-down theories do not address the legitimate aspirations of the poor. We must lift those at the bottom so that poverty is erased from the dictionary of modern India,” he said.

The trickle-down economic theory, in the Indian context, says as per capita income rises, there is a “trickle-down” effect so that everyone becomes better off. In the West, the theory was fostered by Ronald Reagan in the US and Margaret Thatcher in Britain in the 1980s. Both believed that granting concessions such as tax cuts to the rich would benefit all levels of society by stimulating the economy.

While praising the emergence of the United Nations and other institutions that favour peace over war, Mukherjee warned that the age of war is not over, and termed the war on terrorism as the fourth world war.

He pointed out that India had been in the forefront of this war “long before many others recognised its vicious depth or poisonous consequences”.

Mukherjee’s brief speech was punctuated by repeated thumping of desks and applause and had some sharp phrasing that reflected deep thought. “I have seen vast, perhaps, unbelievable, changes during the journey that has brought me from the flicker of a lamp in a small Bengal village to the chandeliers of Delhi.”

The president ended his speech saying: “As Swami Vivekananda said, India will be raised, not with the power of flesh but with the power of the spirit, not with the flag of destruction, but with the flag of peace and love.”