Bharat Needs Growth, Not Dharna: Ten Years of Double-Engine and Why Opposition Must Change
During a conversation about the current protests in India, Singapore-based business leader A. Selvadurai argues that Bharat needs growth-oriented politics, constructive opposition and faster infrastructure delivery rather than repeated street disruptions.
PEOPLE & COMMUNITY
During a conversation about the current protests in India, Singapore-based business leader A. Selvadurai said he was deeply saddened to see the country once again caught in a cycle of demonstrations, road blockades and political confrontation. He argued that India cannot afford to let protests slow its development momentum, urging the opposition to become a partner in nation-building rather than a permanent obstacle to reform.
Selvadurai, who says he has lived in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand and has visited India for decades, frames his argument around a simple idea. Nations grow fastest when governments deliver infrastructure and reforms while opposition parties offer constructive scrutiny, practical alternatives and grassroots engagement. He contrasts this with what he describes as a culture of daily dharnas, transport blockades and Bharat Bandhs that, in his view, impose costs on ordinary citizens and divert public resources away from development.
His praise for Prime Minister Narendra Modi is unambiguous. Selvadurai says he was encouraged when Modi became Prime Minister because of the economic transformation he associates with Gujarat, where he says he saw the state’s growth closely while heading a Tata Steel plant in Navsari and meeting Modi several times. He presents the past decade as a “double-engine speed-up,” arguing that India’s growth engine accelerated through airport expansion, port modernisation, highway construction, railway electrification, digital payments and the privatization of Air India.
The aviation figures form a central part of his case. India had 74 operational airports in 2014, according to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, while the number had risen to 164 by 2026, reflecting one of the most visible infrastructure expansions of the period. Selvadurai also credits private participation for improving major airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, and points to the Sagarmala programme as an example of a longer-term effort to modernise ports and logistics.
Air India’s sale to the Tata Group is another pillar of his argument. The government completed the strategic disinvestment in January 2022, with Tata Sons paying Rs. 2,700 crore and taking over Rs. 15,300 crore of the airline’s debt, while remaining legacy liabilities were moved to a government-held special purpose vehicle. Selvadurai describes the decision as politically difficult but necessary, arguing that the state should set policy rather than run airlines and hotels.
He extends the same logic to transport and digital infrastructure. In his view, faster highway construction, Vande Bharat trains, dedicated freight corridors, near-universal railway electrification, UPI and Digital India have changed the practical experience of economic growth for businesses and citizens. He argues that these projects matter not merely as symbols of modernity but because they reduce logistics costs, expand market access and make India more competitive globally.
Selvadurai also links domestic development to India’s rising international profile. He cites India’s G20 presidency in Delhi, the Chandrayaan lunar landing and the country’s rise to the world’s fifth-largest economy as evidence that India is being taken more seriously abroad. IMF-based rankings have indeed placed India among the world’s five largest economies by nominal GDP. He reserves particular praise for External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, whom he calls India’s most assertive diplomat since V. K. Krishna Menon, citing Jaishankar’s defence of India’s right to purchase oil in its national interest.
Yet the core of his message is directed at the opposition. Selvadurai says opposition parties should spend less time organising street protests and more time meeting workers, visiting villages, explaining policies, training young people in digital skills and entrepreneurship, and offering improvements in Parliament. He invokes Singapore’s “Meet-the-People Sessions,” where opposition representatives work with residents to solve local problems, as a model of political engagement that builds trust rather than disruption.
His criticism is blunt. He argues that every burnt bus, blocked road and disrupted train consumes taxpayers’ money, diverts police resources and imposes costs on businesses and commuters. In his view, such tactics do not weaken the BJP alone; they weaken India’s ability to sustain investment, complete projects and maintain economic confidence.
Selvadurai acknowledges the historical role of P. V. Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh in opening India’s economy in 1991, but contends that subsequent governments moved too slowly on airports, ports, highways and public-sector reform. He invokes Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as the kind of nation-builder India needed earlier, suggesting that a more infrastructure-first and discipline-first approach after Independence could have accelerated India’s rise.
His argument’s central appeal is therefore not simply support for one party. It is a call for a different political culture. Selvadurai wants an opposition that questions power without paralyzing the country, challenges policy without halting projects, and competes for public trust through service, ideas and delivery. “Bharat does not need more dharnas,” he writes. “Bharat needs more double-engine speed.”
Whether one accepts his political conclusions or not, his argument reflects a wider debate in India about the balance between democratic protest and developmental continuity. As India seeks to convert infrastructure expansion into jobs, productivity and global competitiveness, the question he raises will remain central.
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