AHC: Have India reform its economy in the 70s

I can see two possibilities.

One is to have people like B. R. Shenoy take control of economic policy after the first decades of independence. As he was more of a maverick figure and one of only a few critics of the state-planned economy under Nehru, perhaps Rajagopalachari would be a better fit. He was an important figure in the independence movement, but unlike the other dominating figures in the Congress Party, he had economically liberal views. One could also make his own Swatantra Party a stronger force in the mid-1960s, possibly after a more decisive defeat in the Sino-Indian War.

There is another possibility, but that would kick off economic reforms probably in about the early 1980s. Sanjay Gandhi takes control during Emergency, either through 'indirect' rule as his mothers' main adviser, or after an assassination attempt on Indira's life. As Sanjay made it pretty clear that he's not the best friend of democratic decision-making, it would be very likely that he won't let elections being run if he's in charge of the country. Therefore, he rules India with his own coterie (Kamal Nath, Jagdish Tytler, Ambika Soni, Rukhsana Sultana et al), supported by loyal Youth Congress cadres and a selection of technocrats. After Deng Xiaoping makes reforms in China, Sanjay decides to "go the Chinese way" and imposes deregulation and privatisation policies, helped by the appointment of V. P. Singh and younger technocrats who favour the electronics and telecommunication sectors.
 
Does it have to be in the 1970s? The potentially easier solution would be a point of divergence in the 1940s that doesn't see the policies that retarded India's economic growth introduced in the first place, or at least not as drastically. It's your thread however so if it's the 1970s then I might be able to dig out a couple of ideas.
 
You need to destroy the power of Congress. In order to do this, one way is to kill Indira Gandhi. Her unpopular son Sanjay Gandhi comes to power, handles the Emergency horribly, and then Congress loses almost all of its seats in the subsequent election. It never regains its power. The Janata Party passes laws that reform the economy.

Of course, Sanjay Gandhi could also cause civil war.
 
You need to destroy the power of Congress. In order to do this, one way is to kill Indira Gandhi. Her unpopular son Sanjay Gandhi comes to power, handles the Emergency horribly, and then Congress loses almost all of its seats in the subsequent election. It never regains its power. The Janata Party passes laws that reform the economy.

Of course, Sanjay Gandhi could also cause civil war.

While in power, Janata actually seemed even more in favour of state-planned economy than Congress, so I don't think they're the best choice for this.

In the early days of the emergency rule, Sanjay exposed economically liberal views and mentioned in an interview that all state controls on the economy had to be removed. So if we're looking for someone with an authoritarian version of economic liberalisation - the Pinochet/Lee Kaun Yew approach - he's very much the man. I think during his height of power he wasn't actually too much concerned with economic policy at all, but more with his pet projects: the sterilisation program and slum clearance. I guess he could leave economics to some technocrat or an early deregulator like Singh or Rao. (Interestingly emergency rule was endorsed by, among others, Margaret Thatcher!)
 
per challenge, we don't actually need to reform the economy in a rightist direction.

For example, I think a centralized approach works pretty well on industrialization, which is an important component of an economy. And a centralized might work well on a relatively small number of other facets, some of them pretty important.

And various types of decentralized approaches for most of the rest.

And what if India gets this dividing line approximately right?
 
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