Modi may turn populist, shun major reforms till polls: Report

TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ The Modi government is unlikely to undertake any major reform in the remainder of its term but may channel its energy to publicise achievements and emerge more people-friendly with lower taxes, says a report.

‘Rather than look to conquer new ground in the run-up to the 2019 hustings, we expect Prime Minister Narendra Modi to focus on cementing the success of his reforms and infrastructure projects already started. More focus will be on administrative initiatives and not new legislative reforms on the macroeconomic front,’ Barclays India chief economist Siddhartha Sanyal said in a weekend note.

‘Notwithstanding his aggressive reforms since 2014, we believe Modi will be selective in picking his battles and deploying his political capital ahead of the 2019 polls. A likely absence of near-term benefits will likely remain a constraining factor against launching new reforms in the run-up to the polls.

‘Closer to the polls, Modi might consider deploying his political capital more to boost BJP’s (Bharatiya Janata Party) ‘nationalist’ credentials rather than its ‘reformist’ image,’ argues Sanyal. If at all he does indeed accelerate reforms over the next 18 months, those will purely be based on the success or failure of such initiatives over the medium term, he notes.