Sutanu Guru

OUR STUPID OBSESSION WITH NARENDRA MODI

2012-02-17T11:24:00.002+05:30

The countdown to a macabre anniversary has begun and the media has already started reliving those gory moments and days. Even if you want to, there is simply no way you can avoid reliving the horror. Yes, I am talking about the burning of the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express – in which 'Kar Sevaks' were travelling from Ayodhya – at the Godhra station on February 27, 2002, and the subsequent riots in Gujarat that led to the brutal deaths of about 2,000 human beings, most of them Muslims. There is little doubt now that a lot of those killings were conducted in an organised manner and the state government failed to protect innocent citizens. Of course, I must say that the manner in which our secular fundamentalists use the word 'Genocide' to describe the 2002 Gujarat riots have a deeply perverted sense of history as well as the English language. I find it stranger still when the same folk insist that the burning alive of 59 children, women and men inside a train compartment was merely an accident, or a conspiracy hatched by Hindu fanatics to provide ammunition for the pogrom (there goes another word) against Muslims in Gujarat.

Since 2002, no other man or woman in contemporary Indian history has been demonised the way Narendra Modi has been. And as the 10th anniversary of Gujarat riots approaches, you can bet many pundits will dish out more armchair psychiatric nonsense while claiming to analyse the psyche of a ‘mass murderer’ (there goes another word) like Narendra Modi. The more polite and possibly more objective ones will say how the taint of the Gujarat riots will prevent Modi from being able to play a more effective and meaningful role in national politics and even in BJP (God knows how desperately the BJP needs a national leader at this juncture). The more ideologically perverted types will continue to declare him persona non grata. By the way, our Indian comrades managed to convince Capitalist and Imperialist America to deny a visa to Modi. But I guess the comrades either forgot to ask or failed in their attempts to persuade Communist China to deny a visa to Modi! I think such small ironies of life entirely escape our Indian Left ies who still think Stalin and Mao were 20th century versions of God.

So Modi as Ravana will become the leitmotif for India in the coming weeks. But don’t you honestly think we are going too far in our obsession to demonise the man? And that we are belittling ourselves and India in the bargain? I wont repeat stuff about how our media conveniently ignores the massacre of Sikhs in 1984 and the myriad massacres of Muslims in the (then) Bombay, in Bhagalpur, in Nellie, in Meerut and many other places in which surely Narendra Modi was not the ‘mastermind’ (there goes another word).

But I will ask you this if you honestly believe in the Indian Constitution and the Supreme Court. The latter has relentlessly pursued the Gujarat riots cases, including transferring them to other states so that the killers could be punished and the victims get justice. So can we allow the Supreme Court to finish its job before we pass verdicts? Of course, if you are convinced that Maoists are Gandhians with Guns, you probably are convinced that the Supreme Court of India is a conspiracy hatched by Goebbels.

Stop Abusing Laxman and Dravid

2012-01-28T11:58:00.000+05:30

I know it is time for all and sundry to throw brickbats and worse at our star batsmen after the double debacle, first a 4-0 whitewash in England and then a repeat 4-0 whitewash in Australia. The second one is even more shocking because betting syndicates as well as former Australian players had put money on India winning the series. The world of tweets, blogs and the net is awash with scorn and abuse for V.V. S Laxman and Rahul Dravid and muted scorn for Sachin Tendulkar. Dhoni, of course is suddenly transformed from an all conquering hero and India's best captain ever to a fool. And Virender Sehwag, he was always irresponsible and casual anyway, isn't it? The less said about the BCCI the better. But most of the abuse seems to be reserved for the golden trio of Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman. It seems they have become public enemies of India. This is a peculiar habit we Indians have, reflected in all it's glory in the Indian media: praise a bunch of sky highs when they do well and destroy them when they do badly.

Come on guys, by angrily abusing these batsmen, please do not forget the fact they are-along with Saurav Ganguly- arguably the four best batsmen to have ever played for India in recent memory. I am not talking about subjective judgements; my contention is based on facts and statistics. The worst of the lot is Ganguly who has a test average of about 43. He is followed by Laxman with an average of about 46; in fact, take out these two disastrous series and his batting average is close to 50. Dravid has an average of about 52 and Tendulkar has an average of about 55. All have played more than 100 test matches. If you think you cannot be world class and yet maintain such averages over such a long period of time, you must be either ignorant or hopelessly prejudiced or both. Of the players gone by before them, only Sunil Gavaskar has an average of over 50. Dilip Vengsakar too played more than 100 matches and averages about 42. We all very fondly remember G.R Vishwanath for his wrists stroke play and genius. He averages just about 42. Even the doughty and never say die fighter Moninder Amarnath averages about 42. And Ravi Shastri, who spouts such wisdom from the commentary box has an a erase of about 35. The only batsman who has done better than Ganguly is Azzharuddin who averages about 45 in 99 test matches. He couldn't play 100 test matches because he was sacked for alleged match fixing.

Today, you are abusing such great batsmen because of two failures in two away series. Let's go back to 1983 when India won the World Cup. Soon after that, an Indian test team comprising of the likes of Gavaskar, Amarnath, Shastri, Kapil and Vengsarkar was whitewashed 5-0 in a test series in India. Yes, in India. The West Indies team was followed by an England team that comfortably beat India. In fact, before India under Azzaruddin beat England 3-0 at home in 1993, a victory for the Indian team even in Indian soil and 'favourable' home conditions was a rare, rare thing.

And even as you are abusing, do look at Ricky Ponting. Before this series, he looked totally down and out, having failed to score a century in more than 2 years. For three years, he averaged well below 30. And yet the punter was backed by sensible Australians and how he has come roaring back. Okay, even if you think that the best years of our batsmen are over, at least say he and thank you for all the entertainment and joy you provided us over the years. And let's say it with grace. Surely Laxman, Dravid and Tendulkar deserve at least that much, if not much more?

India's Possible Folly in Iran

2012-01-27T15:40:00.000+05:30

Now that Saddam Hussein is long gone and Iraq has been 'gifted' a democracy(what a travesty of that word) by United States and it's allies, the next 'rogue' regime to be targeted is Iran. Just recently, following the for steps of the US, the 27 member European Union has announced that it will virtually enforce an embargo on purchase of oil from Iran beginning July 1. The ostensible reason is to pressurize Iran to halt its nuclear weapons program and turn it back. The real reason of course is regime change. Ever since citizens of Iran overthrew an American imposed dictator Reza Pahlvi in an Islamic Revolution in 1979, Uncle Sam has been an implacable foe of Iran. Do remember, when Iran fought a war with Iraq under Saddam in the 1980s, it was America and Saudi Arabia that helped Iraq with money as well as arms.

Now, America and its allies are applying relentless pressure on India to toe the sanctions line against Iran. On the face of it, that might look innocuous. India imports PIL worth about $ 12 billion a year from Iran. Back channel diplomacy seems to be promising to make up that shortfall through the good offices of key American ally Saudi Arabia. Of course, with a total annual oil bill well in excess of $ 100 billion, that shortfall doesn't look menacing. And then again, many in Delhi are still so much in love with the delusion called an Indo-American alliance to check China, that they would urge India to do anything keep Uncle Sam happy.

But India must not support this gang up against Iran. It is in India's long term strategic interest to refuse to toe the American, Israeli and Saudi line. Two things must motivate Indian policy makers when they think about Iran. The first is the all important need to secure future energy supplies. The second is to not needlessly give ammunition to Jihadists with their propaganda that India is against the Muslim community. On both these counts, the interests of America and India-contrary to what many think- are actually diverging instead of converging. It would be stupid of India to rely on an unreliable ally like America for its future energy security. It must learn a lesson or two from China. Look at what happened when America and its allies decided that some countries like Myanmar and Sudan had gone rogue. Besotted with both idealism and a naive belief in America, India avoided building bridges with the two countries. China went merrily ahead and is now in an unviable position of having massive supplies of energy and other natural resources. It is only now that India is trying to play catch up with China in Myanmar. Even in Central Asian countries, China has marched way ahead in securing future energy supplies even as Indian policy makers waffled, hemmed and hawed. Look at this way, India is today staring at an annual trade deficit of $ 200 billion caused mostly by oil. Targeting Iran will inevitably mean a big rise in oil prices and a big rise in the trade deficit. Is India- with just about $ 300 billion in foreign currency reserves and a falling Rupee in a position to afford such nonsense?

Now look at recent history to figure out what will happen even if India goes the American line. In 2005, when middle class India was basking in the glory of a historic nuclear deal with America, our policy wonks did something incredibly stupid. As a gesture of goodwill towards Uncle Sam and with the hope that America will support India when it comes to our own vital interests. India voted for IAEA sanctions against Iran in 2005. The result, a lot of deals being worked by business houses like the Tatas and Ambanis with Iran went up in smoke. And what did India get in return? American didn't even supply crucial information obtained from David Coleman Headley about the 26/11 Terror attacks. It made a few polite noises but Hafeez Sayid of LET continues to openly preach Jihad against India. Of course, the Americans smoked out Osama Bin Laden and blithely killed him by openly violating Pakistani sovereignty. India is still twiddling it's thumbs. But the real shocker for Imdia is the manner in which America is negotiating with the Taliban even as it prepares to exit Afghanistan. Uncle Sam is simply shrugging off protests from India that letting the Taliban sneak in through the back door will be disastrous.

And don't blame America. It is doing what it thinks is best for its own strategic interests; others be damned. China too is openly saying that it will continue its 'good relations' with the Iranian regime. Isn't it time we in India too woke up and smelled the coffee. You don't use tools like hope and goodwill and hope while pursuing national interests. Indira Gandhi had shown us long ago that you need nerves of steel, and a backbone.

It is Australia Day!

2012-01-25T14:24:00.000+05:30

The news media is full of reports from Australia; and the stories have a link with India. Of course, the stories and the laments have to do with the abject manner in which the Indian cricket team has been surrendering to the Kangaroos. But come January 26 and we will probably forget our humiliation in Australia and celebrate Republic Day by mostly saying nice things about ourselves; our success as a democracy and our ability to bounce back from crisis after crisis. Thousands of children will probably railroaded towards India Gate to watch the pomp and prowess of the new India.

But some of us know that Australians will be doing the same thing on January 26. Just as Indians celebrate Jan 26 as the Republic Day, the folks down under celebrate Australia Day. A British ship " discovered" Australia on this day about 250 years ago. From those humble beginnings, Australia has emerged as one of the more exciting countries of the world. The moment you talk Australia, you talk about sports and athleticism. It is not just in cricket that Aussies ruled the world for so long. They excel in swimming, tennis, rugby and much more. Australians have not lost the irreverence that is a product of their legacy. In its early years as a colony of Britain, Australia was the place where criminals were packed off to. Virtually all white Australian can trace his or her ancestry back to some such poor should who was dispatched permanently from the mother country. No wonder, the Australians celebrate like mad when their cricket team demolishes England; and mourn when the reverse happens, as it has been happening recently.

There is something about the Australian spirit that you have to admire. My colleague Saibal recently wrote a blog for this web site where he talked about how Michael Clarke declared even though he was batting on 329 and could have taken a shot at Brian Lara's record of 400 runs in a test innings. Clarke was more interested in team success than personal glory. Many years ago, Mark Taylor who was captain of the team declared even though he was batting on about 333. He then said that he wanted Australia to win and didn't want to break the record held by Don Bradman for a highest test innings by an Australian. Saibal also wrote about how many Indians we're up in rage back in 2004 when stand in captain Rahul Dravid declared even though our God Sachin Tendulkar was playing on 194. The idea was- how dare Dravid deny Tendulkar his double century? That is indeed the difference between India and Australia. We seem to be happier applauding personal achievements and milestones even as we collectively fail while Australians pay more important to collective success rather than personal milestones. Ironically, even without chasing personal milestones, Australians seem to excel even at the personal level.

That sums up my admiration for Australia as it celebrates Australia Day. But let me also point out two less charitable aspects of Australia on their founding day. The first is linked to the European push into new lands beginning the 15 th century. Like in other places, the natives or the aboriginals in this case were virtually massacred as the whites pursued new lands, pastures and opportunities. So an entire continent that is so much larger than India became home initially only to whites. Remember, India adds an Australia to its population every year!

The second aspect is the really deep flaw in Capitalism in practice; and the reason why advocates of free markets are being hypocritical when they advocate free trade and open markets. Capitalism means free movement of both capital and labour. Since the 20th century, we have a situation where the whites love free movement of capital but refuse to accept free movement of labour. Did God-of whichever religion- decree that vast lands like Australia have been reserved predominantly for whites? Why can't non whites- brown, black and otherwise have the freedom to go and work in places like Canada and Australia whenever they feel like it? That is the fundamental tenet of Capitalism isn't it?

Still, many congrats to the Aussies as they celebrate their day of 'founding'!

Mad, Mad American Politics

2012-01-24T13:42:00.000+05:30

If you think that politics in India is crazy and that our system allows either the crooked or the unsuitable to win, you haven't been following American politics in all it's technicolor madness. Most of you are aware that the Republican Party out there is in the process of selecting a nominee who will take on Barrack Obama in presidential elections due this year in November. Till recently, it looked as Mitt Romney will easily win the nomination and perhaps even beat Obama who is quite unpopular because of the hard times that Americans are facing. But hard core and hard line Republicans detest Romney because his ideas are not as whacky and crazy as theirs. Like the one about climate change being a hoax, like the one about Charles Darwin being a charlatan and his theory of evolution of species a hoax, like the one about women who have been raped not being allowed to abort the baby and like the one about always lowering taxes for the rich because they create jobs and wealth. So in South Carolina, that has a lot of Republicans with such crazy ideas, they humiliated and gave a thumping victory to Newt Gingrich, who is more their type.

Now who is Newt Gingrich. Well he is the man who hated Bill Clinton so much he shut down the government in the mid 1990s because he thought Clinton was spending recklessly. Of course, he didn't bat an eyelid when fellow Republican George Bush spent money so recklessly between 2001 and 2008 that a federal surplus ended up as a record deficit. He is the man who virtually led the campaign to impeach Bill Clinton because Clinton allegedly slept with an intern called Monica Lewinsky in the White House and lied about it. Of course, even as Gingrich was trying to railroad Clinton out of office for the alleged crime of an extra marital affair, Gingrich himself was merrily cheating on his wife. That doesn't matter to the hard core Republicans who think it is ok to sin as long as you repent and stay committed to the cause. Gingrich is now a serious challenger to Romney and the wackos are excited!

Don't for a moment think that it is only Republicans who are capable of such duplicity. There is this guy called Elliot Spritzer who is a Harvard Law School graduate. As Attorney General of New York, he relentlessly went after people who he claimed "betrayed public trust". Elliot became the quintessential family man who symbolized integrity and fidelity. He prosecuted many Wall Street types and even broke up a prostitution ring that masqueraded as an escort service. Elliot was so successful that he ended up winning elections and became the Governor of New York in 2006. And then the penny dropped. It was discovered that Elliot himself was paying a prostitute to, what else, have sex with her. This upholder of public morals had to resign and seems to have disappeared from public view.

I have given the examples of Gingrich and Spritzer to show how hilarious American politics can be. Of course, the Indian public and media is far more considerate when it comes to the sexual prowess and preferences of its politicians. We mostly nudge and wink and then, in a manner of speaking, let the sleeping dogs lie! Unless it comes to a point where even we find it difficult to ignore. Like N.D Tiwari frolicking with three nubile nymphets in his official mansion at Hyderabad when he was Governor of Andhra Pradesh. And yes, Tiwari was more than 80 years old when his antics became public. Now you know why Indian politicians never retire!. Then again, there was a minister cum strongman called Amarmani Tripathi in Uttar Pradesh who got embroiled with Madhumita Shukla. Or, in recent times, the Jat leader cum former minister Mahipal Maderna who took a fancy to a lady called Bhanwri Devi.

Coming back to America, the problem is not just about politicians sleeping around. It is about the ideas they espouse the frightening number of cow belt Americans who believe in those ideas. Abortion, science, evolution and taxes, to name just a few. Let me give you a parallel of that scenario in India. What if Uma Bharti suddenly starts saying that sati is actually a good and honorable practice and remains electorally relevant and powerful? What if a fellow BJP traveller announces that the Manusmriti is as relevant as the Bible or the Qoran and remains electorally relevant and viable? What if Pratibha Patil publicly announces that astrology and planchette calls are as good as science as is reflected the President of India?

Thank God for small mercies!

So it is Jay Leno now...

2012-01-23T15:52:00.003+05:30

Many Indians, living in gated neighbourhoods and nurturing illusions of being liberal and progressive, often rate the Late Show of Jay Leno as one of their favorites.

There is no doubt the guy has got a sense of humor that can be quite whacky at times. Now, he is rapidly emerging as the latest hate figure for Indian twits, or is it tweets?

In a recent show, Leno has apparently shown visuals of the Golden Temple at Amritsar and suggested that it become the summer residence for Mitt Romney, the guy who could become the Republican candidate to challenge Barrack Obama in this year’s presidential elections in America.

The Golden Temple is the holy shrine for Sikhs across the world and all hell has predictably broken loose. Sikh organisations in America have reacted with outrage and demanded an apology from Leno. Even Indian authorities have jumped into the fray and criticised this Jay Leno stunt. Everyone is unanimous in saying that it is wrong, callous and unethical to hurt the sentiments of other communities and ethnic identities in such a manner. There is little doubt that Leno's antics are worse than being merely flippant and corny.

But do we have to start yelling again that every Tom, Dick and Harry is involved in a conspiracy to hurt Indian sentiments through racist or insensitive comments? Just a while ago, the BBC show called Top Gear was slammed because the hosts were accused of peddling racist and cultural stereotypes that portray India in a poor light. Indian authorities even demanded an apology from BBC which is apparently yet to come. One of the things that the hosts did as they drove around India was to carry a portable toilet in their cars. How shitty can their racism be, isn't it? Then again, there was that event that literally resurrected the career of Shilpa Shetty, thanks to some racist remarks passed by the late and unlamented Jane Goody in the British version of Big Boss.

And why stop at that. I think Mulsims are as much Indian as Sikhs are. So where is the harm in calling for the absence of Salmaan Rushdie from the Jaipur Lit Fest; at least that looks better than calling for his head. Then again, Arun Shourie got just deserts a few years ago as Buddhist supporters of Dr B.R Ambedkar threw shoes at him because Shourie had the temerity to disparage Ambedkar (it is a different matter that Shourie somehow finds ammunition to disparage Muslims, Christians and others, all except Hindus!). I have not finished. Many Christian organisations had demanded that the book Da Vinci Code and the film be banned from India.

Many, many years ago, Christians - who are as much Indians as Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus are - had successfully persuaded the authorities to ban The Last Temptation of Christ. You can be proud of one aspect of Indian secularism at least - all religions and communities have the equal right to be offended and demand that the State must do something. The State - being uniquely and indisputably secular - usually complies!

I have just two points to make here. The first is a request to fellow Indians to do what in Hindustani is called "apne ghireban main jhank ke dekho". It is our deep rooted mentality of being colonial slaves that makes us pay so much attention to what the West says. Look at how we behave like demented juveniles when the likes of Angelina Jolie and Oprah Winfrey land up in India. I swear to God - all Indian Gods included - this is true. I drive up to a dhaba in my BMW even as some scruffy, smelly hippes who are obviously white arrive at the same time. Invariably, the waiter first goes to them for orders. And then why do we crib when the West is less respectful towards us? If Jay Leno had said something similar about Jews, his career would have been blown to smithereens.

The second point is even more important. Indian civilisation has always been considered unique because it has always encouraged space for all thoughts, all ideologies, all dogmas and all religions. Mutual respect and tolerance has been the cornerstone of our civilisation. Are we not losing it all because some stupid jerk somewhere says something derogatory about us?

Why do we make stupid laws?

2012-01-21T15:03:00.000+05:30

There is a front page story in today's Times of India that talks about our policy and law makers doing a rethink on what has become notorious in India s Section 498(A). Under this law, a wife can file a dowry harassment case against her husband and ALL his relatives and once the FIR is registered, it becomes a non-bail able offense. Now, the powers that be are thinking loudly through carefully distributed stories in newspapers that a man who is accused of harassing his wife for dowry need not go to jail; he could pay a fine to atone for his sins. There is no doubt that activists who represent the so called fairer sex will be up in arms and claim that these new proposals to amend the dowry law are a throw back to feudal paternalism.

The fact is, despite increased literacy and claims of Indians becoming more progressive, there are hundreds of thousands of women who are still harassed and tortured by their in laws and husbands for dowry. There is another fact: ever since this Section 498(A) came into force back in 1986, thousands of women have abused the provisions of this law to "harass" the husband and his family. The simple common sense thing to do would be to take note of both the facts and make a law that is sensible and fair. It says a lot about our society when it takes about 27 years and thousands of abuses before we even start acknowledging the fact that the law as it was drafted and passed was daft. The idea was great: the custom and practice of dowry is a curse and modern India must be ashamed of how even educated husbands and their families take dowry as a birthright and torture a woman who fails to satisfy their demands. The law, as we all now know, has proven to be stupid because women continue to be tortured for dowry even as innocent husbands and their families continue to be framed by scheming women.

Our problem is with our obsession to be doing the good and the politically correct thing when we deal with social and economic problems. We inevitably end up with stupid laws that don't help anybody. Let me give another example of how our zeal to do the good thing can create monster laws. The Parliament- if it gets to work- will soon start debating the Communal Violence Bill. Under this proposed law, Hindus will always be the guilty party if there is a riot. Under this law, any Muslim or Christian can accuse a Hindu-bigoted or not-of insulting minorities. Like in the case of 498(A), the "offense" will be non bailable. Now let's us examine facts again. There is no doubt that minorities are usually the victims of riots and persecution-just as women are victims of dowry harassment. So the intention is noble. But if it is passed, this law will be even more stupid and dangerous than the dowry law. The fact is there are Muslim dominated areas in India where other minorities are persecuted and worse. The recent events in Kashmir are a telling example. Then again, even a fool will not deny that you will find bigots amongst Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Sikhs. What is to stop bigoted Muslims from filing false cases against Hindus-just as scheming women have been filing false cases against husbands? Like with the dowry law, we started out with the idea of doing the good thing, but end up destroying society. These stupid laws don't stop what they started out to do: they only create divisions and mistrust. I know of husbands who constantly worry about what might happen if the wifey files a 498(A). We will all know of Hindus who will wonder and be fearful of a bigoted-or with some agenda- Muslim, Christian or Sikh who might file a case against them if they said publicly that any Muslim who supports Hafeez Saeed of LET represents the intolerant and barbaric strain of Islam. Why not have a law that doesn't distinguish between religions, communities and genders?

The proposed Land Acquisition Bill and the Forest Rights Bill are two more examples of stupid laws. There is no doubt that many companies in cahoots with corrupt politicians and bureaucrats grab land from poor farmers. But will a law that makes every such deal illegal help? What about farmers who really want to sell out and move on? And of course the Forest Bill. Our do gooders think we all exploit tribals and forest dwellers. So the inevitable stupid law is to ban any other Indian from owning land in places inhabited by forest dwellers. What if forest dwellers want their children to move on towards a more rural or even urban life? And who will stop Benjamin transactions where our same law makers will acquire the same lands through subterfuge?

Are we going to be eternally condemned to live with stupid laws just because a few do gooders think that the road to hell is never paved with noble intentions?

INDIA'S BRAND NEW CABINET

2012-01-20T10:35:00.000+05:30

Manmohan Singh is a relieved man. Tired of carrying the burden of a non-performing UPA, he is now delirious with joy because he has been finally given the green light to reshuffle his cabinet. [Incidentally, he didn't mind the fact that the green light came from the IPL Chairman Rajiv Shukla.] Poor Dr. Singh is disgusted with his UPA-2 cabinet that he would have jumped for joy even if the message had come from Kiran Bedi, or Mani Shankar Aiyer for that matter. After hurried consultations with Ravi Shastri, Sunil Gavaskar and K. Srikkanth (Sourav Ganguly was not called because Congressmen are a little wary of Bengalis at the moment because of the Mamata factor), the great communicator has announced the following new appointments:

- Sachin Tendulkar as Minister of Surface Transport: Why not? Like his 100th century, Indian highways take forever to be built. And by the time they are built, the Indian economy, like the Indian cricket team, would be ruined.

- Virat Kohli as Minister of External Affairs: A natural choice. Hawks have been for long demanding that India must assert forcefully that it is a big player on the global stage. By using that old Great Game strategy called 'The Middle Finger', this youthful leader has more than proven his credentials for the job.

- Ishant Sharma as Minister for Parliamentary Affairs: By repeatedly failing to either bowl out or curb the opposition, Sharma has demonstrated the true qualities needed for this portfolio. Besides, using unparliamentary language with David Warner who smacked him for sixes has added weight to his credentials.

- Virender Sehwag as Minister of Defence: By consistently flashing outside the off stump and giving catching practice to people on the off side, Sehwag has proven that suicidal offence is the best form of offence for India to deal with its enemies. After all, he used to lead an IPL team called Delhi Daredevils. Of course, he narrowly beat Rahul Dravid, who is busy creating his own unique version of the great Wall.

- Zaheer Khan as Minister for Minority Affairs: Since most parties contesting assembly elections are competing with each other on providing quotas for Muslims, this talented swing bowler could only find this pigeon hole to be placed in. Maybe his left arm can do what the Right can never dream of doing.

- MS Dhoni as Minister of HRD: Who better qualified to talk of leadership, modern day skills and 21st century fighting spirit even as your nation or team is basically illiterate (literally or cricket wise), ignorant (cricket wise) and idiotic (both wise). Of course, K. Srikkanth, N.Srinivasan and IPL will ensure he remains relevant like the Aaakash Tablet.

- Rohit Sharma as Minister of State for All Affairs: Like most Ministers of State, Sharma never got to do any work because the oldies won't just let go.

Once he finished finalising this new cabinet, Dr. Singh actually started doing cartwheels even as he ran towards 10, Janpath. Even the SPG commandos hired for his protection found it difficult to keep pace with him. Suddenly, he found Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri who were waiting for Rajiv Shukla who was waiting for Ahmed Patel who was waiting for... Dr Singh couldn't care less. He shouted joyfully for the whole nation to hear: Eurêka! Who better than Sharad Pawar to be the Prime Minister with this new cabinet!

Our Mai Baap Sarkar

2012-01-20T10:30:00.000+05:30

Many newspapers carried an interesting photo on January 19, 2012. It showed the who is who of India Inc in a meeting with the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the new all powerful bureaucrat in the PMO Pulok Chatterjee and sundry other ministers and officials. India Inc was represented by Ratan Tata and his anointed successor Cyrus Mistry, Anil Ambani, brothers Sajjan and Naveen Jindal(who happens to be a Congress Lok Sabha MP), the chairman of Vedanta Anil Agarwal, Ashoka Hinduja of the Hinduja group, three new age barons from Andhra Pradesh G M Rao of the GMR group(his group runs the Delhi airport and is asking for a 800% plus hike in airport user charges), Sanjay Reddy of the GVK group and Madhusudan Rao of the Lancôme group. Some others present were Prashant Ruia of the Essar group and Gautama Adani of Adani Enterprises. Apart from Ratan Tata, I think all the other belong to the hallowed club of dollar billionaires. Collectively,nthe value of their equity holdings even at today's depressed stock market prices could finance the NREGA scheme for almost 10 years

You might be thinking the Union Budget is round the corner and these titans were pow wowing with the Prime Minister and other big wigs about the future of the Indian economy. You are wrong. This powerful group of businessmen had come as supplicants, or beggars if you choose to be politically incorrect. All of them have invested in, are in the process of investing in or have plans to invest in the power sector in India. Almost all have signed agreements to buy coal and gas at pre determined prices and sell electricity to utilities at pre determined prices. The problem is, they are not able to get their hands on either coal or gas from domestic suppliers. The fall of the Rupee against the dollar has made imported oil and gas terribly expensive. And of course, the Ministry of Environment and Forests simply swats away plans, projects and proposals to increase coal production in the country. These barons are now claiming that the power projects are becoming financially unviable. And it is no joke. They have already invested $ 40 to $ 50 billion in new power projects and are scheduled to invest another $ 50 billion plus over the next five years. And even a school student knows that these investments are crucial because India already faces intolerable power cuts. This winter, the power cuts have been so bad that residents of Srinagar have been forced to make pilgrimages to hospitals to charge their mobile phones since some hospitals were the only place with some electricity supply.

The aftermath of the meeting was even more revealing. Newspapers reported how the industrialists were elated at the response of the Prime Minister who apparently instructed Pulok Chatterjee to fix the problem in a hurry. Of course, a committee of secretaries will now meet every week to push for solutions. This hallowed group has been promised another pow wow by Dr Singh in 90 days to take stock of progress. Apparently, one of the solutions is that the Ministry of Environment will not stop a 25% hike in production from captive coal mines. Incidentally, India has the fourth largest reserves of coal in the world. And yet, coal output is so woefully inadequate that power and steel companies have to import tens of million tons of coal every year to keep their plants running. And of course, you and me have to spend massive sums every month on generators, inverters, 'private' power and other sources while the poor in the interiors of India are going back to the era of candles and lanterns.

This one meeting revealed how important the State still is in India and the kind of discretionary powers that it still wields over all of us. If the likes of Ratan Tata and Anil Ambani have to trudge to Delhi hat in hand, what chance do we have of being spared the indignities heaped every day on us by our Mai Baap Sarkar?

Shameless & Sham Secularism

2012-01-17T11:33:00.000+05:30

A confession here. Sometime back, I had given the same headline to my editorial in our sister publication Business & Economy. I am stealing my own headline simply because I can't think of anything else that can be mor apt and more depressing. Yes, I am talking about the stealth announcement-an announcement without announcing anything-that Salmaan Rushdie will not be attending the Jaipur Literature festival (JLF). As reported in The Times of India, nobody is willing to say anything officially, but cops in Rajasthan have made it clear off the record that Rushdie will skip the meet. We don't know yet if he has done this voluntarily or the organisers were 'persuaded' by the authorities to 'persuade' him to back off. What we know through subtly dropped off the record hints is that the authorities were afraid that Rushdies presence might create a law and order problem and a 'security' threat because some Muslim organizations might stage a protest at the venue. This comes soon after the preeminent Muslim seminary based in Deoband announced that it would be happy if Salmaan Rushdie was barred by the authorities from entering India. The reason goes back about 23 years when India became the first country in the world to ban The Satanic Verses, the controversial book written by Rushdie that inflamed Muslim opinion across the world. Thanks to the book, the then de facto ruler of of Iran, Ayatollah Khoemeni pronounced a death sentence on Rushdie. Incidentally, Rushdie did attend the JLF in 2007. So why the brouhaha this time around? Why, because Uttar Pradesh is staring at a crucial assembly elections and political parties are desperately chasing the 'Muslim vote bank'. It says a lot both about the cynicism and stupidity of our political parties that they think Muslims will start voting based on the fact that Rushdie was prevented from attending a popular literary festival. It says a lot about the nature of shameless and sham secularism in India.

Every time I point this out, my 'secular' friends pounce on me and say that fundamentalism practiced by the Hindutva brigade is far more pernicious and dangerous. They promptly point out to the antics of outfits like Bajrang Dal and Sri Ram Sene. I one recent instance, Sri Ram Sene goons themselves hoisted a flag of Pakistan in karnataka and then started violent demosntartions against it. Thankfully, we were spared a riot. But the fact is-despite a BJP government there, the police called the bluff of Sr Ram Sene and did it successfully. And surely we all know how Narendra Modi continues to be hounded for the post Godhra riots that savaged Gujarat in 2002. Every time Hindutva goons try something funny or fishy, there are hundreds and thousands of sane Indians who pounce on them. It is this robust mix of activism and media-and the innate common sense of most Indians-that has prevented rogue Hindustva outfits from emerging beyond their fringe existence.

But surely intolerance and prejudice if practised by some Muslims needs to be condemned equally loudly. In my Business & Economy editorial, I had pointed out how a pastor in Srinagar was hounded, arrested and harassed because he allegedly tried to convert some young Muslims to Christianity. Not a single word of protest emanated from our secular warriors when the so called Grand Mufti of Kashmir summoned the pastor for a de facto 'court' appearance.

For the love of my life, I cannot understand why or how our secular warriors can be so blind. Every time they let a fundamentalist Muslim outfit or group or a bunch of people get away with their openly fundamentalist views without a protest, it gives more ammunition to rogue Hindutva elements. This time again, rest assured you will hear from many such advocates how India panders to Muslims and how Hindus get shoddy treatment in their 'own country'

The only way you can ask Hindu fundamentalists to shut up is when you do the same to Muslim fundamentalists. Or Sikh fundamentalists. Or Christian fundamentalists. But then, that would be too much of a leap of faith for our secular warriors.

It is for Congress to win, or lose

2012-01-16T11:12:00.000+05:30

The race for votes is well and truly on, and with the Indian cricket team facing decimation in Australia, it is politics that is grabbing all the eye balls. Media pundits have already declared that the assembly elections to 5 states are a kind of semi final before the Lok Sabha elections scheduled for 2014. The same pundits have also declared that these elections will be a decisive one for Rahul Gandhi. If the Congress does well, Rahul Gandhi would magically acquire the halo and aura of a Prime Minister in waiting. If the Congress performs poorly, the inheritor will have to rethink strategy in the run up to 2014. Of course, most of the attention is focused on Uttar Pradesh where Rahul Gandhi seems to have locked horns with Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav. Nobody gives the BJP even a ghost of a chance; at least not sensible people.

In this relentless barrage of news and analysis, we seem to have forgotten a simple fact: these elections are for the Congress to win, or lose. Forget Manipur and Goa for the moment. The real battle is in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab. In all these states, the Congress is challenging incumbents who have a lot to answer for. In all these states, history is against incumbents. If we were doing honest analysis, we should have already declared Congress the winner in Punjab and Uttarakhand. And a decisive force in Uttar Pradesh. The fact that we are not doing it reflects both our soft spot for Rahul Gandhi and the uncertainty within the Congress.

Look at it this way. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress had humbled the Akali Dal-BJP combine in Punjab by winning 8 out of 13 seats. Since then, allegations of corruption against the incumbent chief minister and his family have become louder and stronger. Quite frankly, the state is for the taking as far as Congress is concerned. Just a repeat of the Lok Sabha results will ensure that it wins Punjab with a comfortable majority. Now take a look at Uttarakhand. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, it decimated the BJP by winning all 5 seats on offer. Except a belated induction of a clean politician like B. K Khanduri, it has been downhill since then for the BJP with internal fighting among BJP leaders reaching suicidal levels. A simple repeat of the 2009 Lok Sabha elections would ensure that the Congress would sweep Uttarakhand as decisively as Nitish Kumar swept Bihar in the previous assembly election. Now let's come to Uttar Pradesh. There is little doubt that except her core Dalit vote bank, people in Uttar Pradesh are disappointed with the performance and track record of Mayawati. Their biggest disappointment is over law and order, a plank that she so successfully used in 2007 to storm back to power with a majority of her own. Then there is the undisputed appeal and charisma of Rahul Gandhi, apart from his relentless focus on the state. Most importantly, shrewd announcements and promises to provide a quota to Muslims should make a big difference. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, it was already apparent that Muslim voters of Uttar Pradesh were ready to forgive the Congress for the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992. Finally, look at the results of the Lok Sabha elections of 2009. The Congress had astounded even itself by winning 22 seats and coming second in 7 more seats. It was actually the leader in more than 90 assembly constituencies and came second in about 30 more. A simple repeat of that performance should give the Congress about 120 seats in the assembly elections.

You might say that I am ignoring the Anna factor which could play a decisive role. But frankly, the Anna factor is just hype and a lot of bunkum. Corrupt candidates will get elected (I do agree with Anna Hazare's assessment that our electoral system is rotten). In any case, can any of the leading contenders in the fray- Congress, BJP, Akali Dal, BSP and SP- claim to be clean? And will voters assess who is less corrupt and then cast their votes? You know that is bunkum.

There is no rocket science involved in what I have stated; it is mostly common sense. Then why is all the analysis that I see so far still making it such a tough challenge for the Congress? Could it be that the inevitable dictated by common sense will happen and media pundits in March will suddenly start saying how the Congress has decisively won the semi final? Has Rahul Gandhi not won it already?

End the death on roads

2012-01-13T12:16:00.002+05:30

It is the peculiar-and usually shameful nature of the Indian system that Supreme Court has to intervene and correct things that are terribly wrong and unforgivable. Two recall just three cases: by the 1990s, Delhi had become the most polluted city in the world. Nothing was being done to correct that even as bronchail illnesses among school children rose alarmingly. Enter Supreme Court with two verdicts. The first was to move all industrial units out of Delhi. The other was to order that all public transport vehicles must use CNG. It made a difference. Around the same time, the Supreme Court passed judgement on what is now famous as the Vishakha case. In this, the Court laid down clear guidelines to punish those who indulge in sexual harrassment at work places. You can't say that sexual harrassment has stopped as a result, just as you can't say that pollution has vanished. But thse have been historic interventions. A more recent one is the Supreme Court order to the CBI to 'actually' investigate the 2G scam. We are seeing the results.

Just yesterday, the Supreme Court added another feather to its list of historic interventions and judgements. A Bench upheld the three years prison term awarded to Alastair Pereira by the Mumbai High Court. In 2006, Pereira was drunk and driving a Toyota Corolla in the wee hours of the morning after a party when he mowed down a group of poor labourers who were sleeping on the pavement. Seven were killed. While upholding the verdict of the Mumbai High Court, the Supreme Court has categorically stated that even the 3 year prison term is very lenient. Hopefully, this will set a precedent, and spolit brats who think nothing of mowing down people after a night of drinks and fun will now know that they could face chin music in jail. If even a handful of such brats across India are sent behind bars for three years and their crimes and punishment well publicised, the message will go out loud and clear and many innocent lives could be spared as a result.

The number of fatalities in road accidents in India is truly shocking. Our apathy towards it is even more shocking. In 2011, about 1,50,000 people were killed in road accidents in India, the highest in the world. That wrks out to about 400 needless and avoidable deaths each day and about 17 deaths every hour. No civilised country or society in the world should be tolerating this. And, we Indians are blissfully apathetic to such shocking numbers. Nobody bothers about the 150,000 families that are devastated each year-much more than the total number of devastated families in more than 20 years of insurgency and terrorism in Kashmir. The number of vehicles in America is at least 10 times more than in India. And the number of miles travelled by an average vehicle in America is far, far higher than India. And yet, America has been reporting continuosly falling deaths from road accidents since the 1970s. Last year, less than 100 died on an average day in the USA because of road accidents. The figure for India was more than 410.

The fault lies not with the law but with us as citizens and human beings. We seem almost genetically unable to follow basic traffic rules. I have seen hundreds of instances where parents with kids in the car brazenly flout traffic rules, including jumping a red light and travelling on the wrong side of the road and telling their kids that it is OK.Obviously, the kid is going grow up as an Indian who has only contempt for traffic rules and traffic discipline. Virtually every journalist who breaks a traffic rule flashes his or her 'Press card' and tells the traffic cop to be left off.

I guess, in this case at least, the only language that we seem to understand is the language of the Danda. So here is wishing more Danda from the Supreme Court and good luck to Alastair Pereira who will start his three year jail term.

India’s Curse: Bureaucracy

2012-01-12T11:00:00.000+05:30

There is this little thing about Bihar that even Nitish Kumar will find difficult to change. You will find many ‘scholars’ from Bihar in the campus of JNU pursuing degrees in history, or economics or international relations. Many come from humble backgrounds. Almost all have a stock reply when you ask them what they are doing: preparing for Civil Services. Some lucky souls do manage to crack it. And then they are literally besieged by agents fronting for parents of to be brides from Bihar. In this marriage market, a dowry of even Rs 1 criore is possible if you have cracked the civil services exam.

This nugget neatly sums up the state of bureaucracy in India. And it is the reason why a Hong Kong based consultancy firm has rated Indian bureaucracy as the worst in Asia. Indian bureaucrats get 9.21 out of 10 while their counterparts in Singapore get 2.25 out of 10. Even China, which faces its own version of a billion mutinies against corrupt officials, manages a score of 7.11 for its bureaucracy. If anyone were to ask me to name the single most important reason for India remaining a poor country despite more than 60 years of independence, I would not, like most followers of Team Anna, blame politicians for it. I would unhesitatingly point out India’s so called ‘steel frame’ as the key reason. Indian bureaucracy is a parasite; a leech that has been literally sucking the life force out of Indian society and economy.

Why are more than 300 million Indians still illiterate, totally incapable of reaping any benefits of globalization? Why are more than 40% of Indian children malnourished? Why is infant and maternal mortality in India one of the highest in the world? Why do more than 700 million Indians do not have access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation? It is easy to caricature the greedy politician and blame him as Team Anna has been doing. The real culprits are Indian bureaucrats.

And this is one of the abiding paradoxes of India. Each year, close to 200,000 Indians sit for the Civil Service exams. It is one of the most competitive and toughest in the world only about 1000 make the grade. There is little doubt that they represent the brightest and best that India has to offer. And yet, once these often idealistic youngsters become bureaucrats, it is a matter of time before they actively participate in looting India; or keeping their counsel. Do remember, the civil servants in India occupy a unique position because only the President of India can fire them. And yet, they crawl if politicians ask them to bend. In any other country, can you imagine hordes of youngsters passing out of IITs and IIMs and then forsaking million Rupees salary packages to become a bureaucrat with a starting salary of just about Rs 35,000 a month? If someone says he or she is doing all this to ‘serve’ India, that statement is as hollow as the one made by a crooked politician who claims to serve India. The fact is: Indian bureaucrats are the real ‘power’ behind the throne. And unlike politicians who do have to face the electorate every now and then, Indian bureaucrats are completely and totally unaccountable.

They know it. And that is, despite numerous individual bureaucrats being sensitive and honest, the bureaucracy is cruel, thoughtless and obscenely corrupt . Travel to poor districts in states like Chattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand, Maharashtra (the Vidharba region) to name just a few and what do you find? District collectors usually are in a race to have their districts (fiefdoms is more like it) declared drought affected or a victim of some calamity or other. If that happens, relief funds pour in from state capitals as well as Delhi. No need to guess where most of that ‘emergency relief’ money goes. In 2004, the Time magazine declared the District Magistrate of Patna Gautam Goswami as an Asian Hero for his outstanding work in flood relief. Subsequent investigations found that he allegedly siphoned off about Rs 18 crores of funds sent for flood relief. And what about the star bureaucrat couple, the Joshis in Madhya Pradesh who had allegedly amassed more than Rs 200 crore in ill gotten wealth? There are literally hundreds of such instances and the worst case scenario for these bureaucrats is just some time in jail, a suspension and then interminable delays in their cases. As with the so called ‘higher bureaucracy’, so it is with bureaucrats at lower rungs.

Why have China’s bureaucrats got a much better rating than India’s when everybody knows they are as corrupt? Well, they have delivered 96% literacy and other human development indicators that Indians can only dream about.

Open Letter to Team Anna

2012-01-11T12:12:00.000+05:30

Let me put this upfront. Unlike many hacks who claimed last year to be bosom pals of Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi, I claim no such honour. I have probably met Kejriwal twice and I am sure he doesn’t remember those meetings. Much to my sorrow, I have never had the opportunity of meeting Kiran Bedi. My colleague at The Sunday Indian Anil Pandey does keep in touch with activists and I sort of vicariously keep in touch with the world of activism through him. So last April, when the Anna and the Lokpal wave first hit Delhi, I was as astounded as others. I did send an SMS to Kejriwal offering some unsolicited help. The Sunday Indian comes out in 14 languages and my offer to Team Anna was to use our pan Indian staff to translate their draft of the Jan Lokpal Bill into all Indian languages. We did that and even put it up on all our 14 language websites. That April, The Sunday Indian also came out with a special supplement on the Anna movement. In that supplement full of praise for Anna, his Team and his movement against corruption, mine was the lone dissenting write up.

I am glad I wrote that piece of contrarian dissent and grateful to my editor-in-chief Arindam Chaudhuri for letting the piece go. Today, as newspapers say that Team Anna will not campaign against any political party in the forthcoming assembly elections, I humbly urge Team Anna-particularly Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi-to do some soul searching. For there is little doubt in my mind that it is the acts and utterances of these two that have so badly damaged the Anna movement, almost to the point of derailing it. Much has been written about them and their deeds by so many pundits. I will point out just two support my belief that they damaged their own movement.

The first was the absolutely crazy decision to campaign against the Congress in the Hissar Lok Sabha bye elections. By campaigning against the Congress in Hissar, it looked as if Team Anna was in a way supporting the Chauthala family of Haryana, many of whom have been charge sheeted in courts for corruption. With this single act, Team Anna changed from being activists to political opportunists. Virtually everyone knew even before Team Anna jumped into the fray that the Congress would lose that election. So what were they trying to prove? Why didn’t they campaign against other corrupt and tainted candidates in many other bye elections that were held at that time? And why didn’t they campaign against someone called Mr Sreemalu, formerly of BJP, in Bellary when bye elections were held recently? Does any one have any doubts about the extent of the mining scam in Bellary? Or, as I argued, they knew the scam tainted candidate will win hands down anyway? Team Anna also showed no inclination to campaign against Y.S Jagan Mohan Reddy in bye elections. The value of his assets went up from many lakhs in 2004 to more than Rs 400 crores. Then again, everyone knew that Jagan Reddy will win hands down despite charges of corruption.

The second blunder was committed by Kiran Bedi. She has been most vocal and loudly contemptuous while lampooning politicians and their unethical behaviour. So it was bizarre to see her explanations when it was revealed that she used take money for business class fares, actually travel economy class and pocket the difference for her NGO. Kiran Bedi perhaps forgot the adage about Caesar’s wife. But then Indians are not stupid and most, like me, realized that something is rotten in the state of Denmark. If Bedi had gestured mea culpa and not tried to brazen it out, the image of Team Anna would not have taken such a hammering.

There is still time for Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi to salvage the Anna movement against corruption. But they need to understand two things: first, it doesn’t pay to be arrogant. And second, do not take middle class Indians for granted.

111 years of global oil-blessing or curse?

2012-01-10T10:48:00.000+05:30

Oil and oil fields were around since the 19th century. But it is was 111 years ago on this day that the modern oil industry as we recognize it today was born. An oil field in Texas started gushing 100,000 barrels of oil per day. History and humanity changed decisively after that-both for good and bad. Till that day in 1901, oil had limited uses. After that, it is the Black Gold that literally runs the world. Oil was the first industry in history to record revenues in excess of a trillion dollars, that is 1000 dollars. If all the oil and gas companies in the world were listed on stock exchanges, they would account for more than 80% of the top companies in the world. Even now, oil and gas companies dominate the Fortune listing of the largest companies in the world. Royal Dutch Shell, with revenues of more than $ 450 billion is the largest oil company in the world and vies with Wal Mart for the top slot. Even Indian Oil reports a revenue of more than $ 75 billion a year. The largest private sector behemoth in India, Reliance Industries became so big primarily because it focused on oil, gas and petrochemicals. Oil exporting nations earn more than $ 1 trillion a year in revenue.

Of course, we cannot now imagine a world without oil and gas. Along with coal, it is the cornerstone of the energy industry. We cannot comprehend of modern transportation, road, rail, ships and air, without oil. Fact is, modern societies and economies simply cannot run without oil. There is no doubt whatsoever that the oil industry is responsible for the vast improvements in the economic prosperity of nations and the quality of life of people. Schools, hospitals, homes, offices, shopping centers, malls, cinema halls, stadiums....nothing in the modern world can run without oil, and gas.

And yet, while oil has been a boon when it comes to living standards and quality of life of people, it has also been a curse, resulting in millions of deaths in what can termed as collateral damage. West Asia is so volatile and so violent primarily because it has been blessed-and cursed- with oil. The largest oil and gas producing nations of the world have had an uncanny tendency to adopt autocratic forms of government. Without oil, born again Christians from Texas would not have the money to spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year trying to convert 'heathens' into Christianity and without oil, it is difficult to visualize Osama Bin Laden and his unique brand of Jihad.

Till the early 20th century, Saudi Arabia was a country nobody really gave a damn about, except the fact that it hosted the Muslim Holy sites of Mecca and Medina. But the discovery of massive reserves of oil in that desert changed everything. A local warlord, or prince Ibn Saud defeated all his rivals and emerged as the ruler of the land, also named Saudi Arabia aft him. The House of Saud continues to rule that nation. It is easily the most conservative Muslim nation on earth and makes a mockery of women as well as human rights. But for more than 8 decades, it has been a steadfast ally of Britain and America. You will often hear of American presidents preaching democracy and human rights to other countries of the world. But they never dare do that to Saudi Arabia. It is Saudi petro dollars that have largely financed the expansion of the militant and intolerant Wahabi version of Islam throughout the world. You can see the disastrous effects of that in our neighboring country Pakistan. Iraq was invaded and virtually destroyed in 2003 by the then American President not to spread democracy but secure oil and gas supplies for his country. Iran was emerging as a true democracy after the Second World War and was not amenable to America and its allies having a monopoly over its oil industry. The CIA organized a coup to install a friendly dictator. That eventually resulted in a Revolution in 1979 when hard line Shia clerics took over the nation. Now that Iraq has been subdued, it is Iran which is the target number for America and its allies.

And oh yes, just in case you did not know this. In the late 1930s, America imposed and oil embargo and blockade on Japan. The rapidly growing military industrial complex of Japan would have collapsed without oil supplies. We got Pearl Harbour.

Farce of Low Food Inflation

2012-01-09T12:37:00.000+05:30

For the last few weeks, the media has been awash with reports of how food inflation has been steadily declining. In fact, by the end of 2011, food inflation actually turned negative for the first time in about six years- a record of sorts. Pundits started pontificating how low food inflation is very good news for ruling parties because food constitutes a large part part of the budget of a poor household. And it is the poor who vote more enthusiastically during elections. Besides, low food inflation means that the stubbornly high rate of high overall inflation might begin to come down.

Pardon me for 'deflating' such hype and hoopla revolving around inflation. But then facts are facts, and only pundits try to interpret facts to suit their theories or their ideologies. Unabashed hacks like me merely go by what the facts state. To start with, the negative food inflation that we have witnessed is as per the wholesale price index or WPI. Now, the WPI is computed by taking prices quoted in wholesale mandis across India. Wholesale prices in India often bear no relation to what you and I actually end up paying eventually. But grant the pundits their WPI fascination and see the facts. The primary cause for food inflation turning negative is a steep fall in the prices of potato, onion and some vegetables. Now, prices of these products anyway fall during winters; last year was an exception because mismanagement had led to a rise in onion prices. But even if you take the WPI, prices of milk, eggs, meat and poultry products and a host of other food items have actually gone up. The wholesale price of milk has actually gone up by 10%.

So now let us consider the real thing, which is what pundits call the consumer price index. This is based on the cash we actually dole out while buying stuff from retail outlets. Now, I do go out and regularly buy vegetables. And believe me, the price I have been paying the last few weeks for potato, onion and vegetables is not as low as the WPI would suggest. In fact, except onion, the prices of other vegetables are virtually the same as they were last January. But the price of every other imaginable food item that is consumed by a household has actually gone up. Poor families try very hard to increase the protein intake of their children through milk, eggs, meat and pulses. The prices of all these have gone up considerably. Forget poor families, even middle class ones are finding it difficult to handle the sustained rise in prices of articles of daily and regular use. And yes, families-except a few brave heart ones- don't really go to wholesale mandis to stock up for the week or the month. So telling the poor and the lower middle class Indians to start cheering and clapping because food inflation has turned negative is farcical, of not downright cruel.

The whole debate about inflation in India has been quite farcical actually. The fundamental problem in India is not inflation but the structural problems that cause it. I mean, you read reports about farmers are literally dumping potato crops because there is no one willing to pay even Rs One a kilo for it. Then how come you and me still end up paying almost Rs 10 for a kilo of potato? In most cases, the prices that we pay for vegetables and other stuff are at least five times what the farmer gets. So our economic structure ensures that the average farmer is condemned to poverty and often suicide while we keep paying higher and higher prices. The only way out of this is to create physical and information infrastructure that will actually link the rural producer with the urban consumer in a more effective way. I see no signs of that happening in a hurry.

And once the seasonal harvest of cauliflowers, brinjals, cabbage and potato is exhausted, rest assured food inflation even as defined by the WPI will be back with a vengeance. Not that it will make much of a difference to the poor family.

Arushi vs Nithari: Media's Class War

2012-01-07T12:35:00.000+05:30

Just about one kilometer separates the two: one is a house numbered L-32 in Sector 25 of Noida, a suburb of Delhi. Sector 25 is inhabited mostly by middle and upper middle class residents. The other is a cluster of rooms and huts called Nithari. This slum is inhabited mostly by domestic help, rickshaw pullers and other discards of India Shining. In L-32, one teenage girl called Arushi Talwar and a domestic help named Hemraj were found murdered. The media coverage of this double murder-committed in May 2008-has been so frenzied, so sensational and so relentless that it is still front page headline in newspapers of Delhi. Virtually every newspaper printed in Delhi has a front page story today that says that the parents of Arushi will face trial for her murder. From the cluster of rooms and huts called Nithari, poor parents-of the type who work as domestic help in the homes of journalists-lost close to two dozen children ranging from age 6 to age 20. These kids were sexually abused, violated, killed, dismembered and even cannibalised in the house of a rich businessman. These crimes occurred over two years in 2005 and 2006. The sheer brutality and shocking perversion of the crimes did create a small media firestorm. But that is it. Nithari and its 20 odd namesless victims have been dumped into the dustbin of forgotten stories while the Arushi story still manages front page headlines.

What better example can you find of the deep rooted bias in Indian media? Both the Arushi and the Nithari crimes were brutal and chilling; the Nithari muders far more so by a distance. Both involved allegations of sex and sexual perversion. And yet, the Indian media focuses its harsh and voyeuristic lens only on the Arushi Talwar murder. In fact, I was ashamed of myself this morning after reading the front page headlines when I tried to recall the names of the Nithari victims. I have a reasonably good memory; at least others tell me so. And yet, the only victim's name I could recall was Payal; that too perhaps Payal is such a familiar name. Now that the parents of Arushi will stand trial, expect a media circus again and also expect comments on how powerful people like the Talwars get away. No one will talk of how the Central Bureau of Investigation gave a clean chit to Moninder Singh Kohli, the rich businessman in whose the Nithari kids were butchered and dismembered.

You don't need to be a rocket scientist to understand the reasons behind this discrepancy in media coverage. Arushi Talwar was 'People Like Us', middle and upper middle class. We journalists identify with such people. Nithari victims like Payal are poor Indians whom we journalists largely ignore, if not abuse and exploit. So one Arushi is worth more TV discussions and more columns and more headlines in newspapers than more than 20 kids who happened to be poor and living in slums.

The Indian media indulges in this kind of Class War on a daily basis; its prejudice, hypocrisy and double standards exposed every day in the manner in which covers stories. For example, journalists and columnists rave and rant about subsidised kerosene meant for the poor and how it encourages corruption, creates market distortions and what not. How many journalists and columnists write the same about the obscene subsidies given to LPG cylinders? Do you see huge front page stories when the price of Kerosene is raised? If the price of LPG or petrol-used primarily by the middle class and the rich-newspapersand TV channels go ballistic.

I could go on and on with such exmaples of Class War perpetrated by the Indian media. But then I know, Arushi will still grab the headlines while Payal will just be a name.

India's Amazing Auto-Rise

2012-01-06T13:00:00.000+05:30

I still remember that moment, back in 1975 when my college lecturer father bought a Bajaj scooter. I think the price was about Rs 5,000. More interesting was how he broke the queue to take delivery of Hamara Bajaj. He had put in a request with a minister in the state government who happened to be an old student who liked father as a teacher. The minister's sifarish helped dad get early delivery. The normal process was: you pay the entire sale price in advance to Bajaj and wait for about three years for delivery (now you know why Bajaj Auto still has such huge cash reserves!). My elder brother clandestinely took the scooter for a spin and crashed it. Luckily, it was a minor one. The thing I remember is, my father, who has a post doctoral degree from Imperial College of London, was virtually bankrupted by that purchase and we couldn't even go for school picnics costing Rs 30 that year.

As all eyes are riveted on the grand spectacle of the 2012 version of the Auto Expo, I can't help marvel at how much India has changed since those days of innocence and hope against hope. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the changes in India's automobile industry truly reflect the mind boggling ways in which India has changed. More than IT, it is the auto industry that reflects the true manner in which the Indian economy has grown from being a third rate Third World beggar to something of substance. Back in the early 1980s when Maruti and then Hero Honda hit the roads, the total production of automobiles in India was barely a million units; cars accounting for just about 50,000 units. Today, despite the slowdown, car sales in India crossed the 1 million mark. Hero Honda did not exist back then. Today, rechristened as Hero Motor Corp, it produces more than 5 million motorcycles and scooters. Many of you are familiar with the statistics and I won't bore you with more of the same.

But some of you still remain skeptical, and sometimes even derisive about the progress made by the Indian economy and the middle class in the last three decades. You still say that automobiles are for the rich and only a small fraction of India can afford to buy them. True to some extent. But let me give you a handy piece of comparative data to let you assess how massively the middle class in India has grown since then. In the early 1980s, my elder brother became an pilot of the Indian Air Force. He needed about 9 months of his salary to buy a bike called Ind Suzuki, subsequently TVS Suzuki and now separately TVS and Suzuki. Today, a new pilot of the Indian Air Force needs a little more than one month's salary to buy a motorcycle. Back then, my elder brother couldn't even dream of buying a car. It would need more than three years worth of salary to buy a basic Maruti 800 without any frills. His juniors today need just about 6 months of salary to buy a Maruti Alto with an air-conditioner. You might say that Air Force pilots were always middle class. First, that is not true and second, let us take a salesperson in a show room. Back in the early 80s, a salesperson would need more than 4 years salary to buy a two wheeler. Today, she can buy one with just about six months worth of salary. That is how intimately the automobile industry is associated with the rise of the middle class in India. And I am not even talking of the financing options available today.

If you still think the auto industry is elitist, let me dispel your prejudice a bit further. When you walk into an auto showroom, you find a few salesmen, a few others selling insurance, some others selling a loan and many others selling accessories. None of these jobs are high paid ones, but they are jobs that did not exist earlier. The autos sold, the more the number of petrol pumps, service stations and garages. Again, low paid jobs but jobs that did not exist earlier. Think about the people selling helmets on main roads, about people selling trinkets on traffic lights and people selling old tyres and reconsider your opinion about the auto industry being elitist. Sure, the guy selling trinkets on a street light would be better off sitting in an office with a real 'job'. But he never had the opportunity to get an education, and now the auto industry, like telecom, travel, courier and retail at least offers him an escape from grinding poverty and starvation.

By all means condemn the fact that too many Indian are still poor. But at least also celebrate the fact that many Indians who could not even dream of owning a two wheeler back in the 1980s now actually own cars!

Why Kallis is THE all time great

2012-01-05T13:04:00.003+05:30

If you love cricket and happen to be an Indian, these are truly embarassing times.But of course, the moment Sachin Tendulkar scores his 100th international ton, we will forget the walloping and the misery of our test team and and console ourselves with the belief that India at least has the greatest modern era cricketer in the form of Tendulkar. Who knows, we might actually end up naming a road after him and if that were not enough, confer the Bharat Ratna on him. After the Anna meltdown, India badly needs a national hero to look up to. And who better than Tendulkar?

But, much as I love India and love cricket, I have to argue that it is Jacques Kallis of South Africa and not Sachin Tendulkar who happens to be the greatest modern era cricketer, if not THE all time great. I have been trawling through cricket statistics for a while, and it is the sheer weight of numbers that forces me to admit-albeit reluctantly-that Kallis is a better and greater cricketer than Tendulkar. Kallis has played 36 tests less than Tendulkar and already has 12260 runs at an average of 57 with 41 centuries to his name. I have no doubt in my mind that Kallis would cross 15,000 runs and 50 centuries in test cricket if he plays 186 tests like Tendulkar. Mind you, Kallis is about 2 years younger than Tendulkar and arhuably more fit. Sure, cricket is as fickle as a damsel in distress and Kallis could well retire next week; but even you don't really think that is going to happen, is it?

Let me first admit a few things. At first, I seriously thought of considering the bowling greats like Glen Mcgrath, Shane Warne, Muthia Muralitharan and Anil Kumble when I was trawling through cricket data. But then, I succumbed to the bias we all have towards batting records and let those greats be. Personally though I would definitely rank Glen Mcgrath as an all time great; just for the fact that he is a fast bowler who has taken more than 600 wickets. Then again, I also thought of Graeme Smith, Inzamam ul Haq and Shivnarain Chanderpaul Mahela Jayawardane and Kumar Sangakkara, all of whom have scored prolifically in their own way. But eventually, I settled down for a choice between Sachin, Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara, Rahul Dravid and of course Jacques Kallis.

There is little to choose between the five when it comes to batting. All have class stamped all over, all have averages in excess of 50, all have scored majestic centuries and runs away from home and all have won and saved matches for their teams.For example, Brian Lara retired after playing just 131 (the word 'just' is apt for these guys!) tests and yet scored almost 12,000 runs. You have got to ask: what if this virtuoso of grace and elegance had played 50 more tests? Then again, there is Ricky Ponting, who has silenced his critics with two consecutive half centuries and a vintage century. Not to mention the number of times his bat has won matches for Australia. Then again, there is the Wall Rahul Dravid who also happens to hold the world record for the number of test cathes; 210 to be precise. And finally Tendulkar, whose records you are all familiar with. More than 30,000 international runs and 99 centuries. And so many records that you tend to lose track.

Yet, Jacques kallis stands head and shoulders above these titans. He has not only scored 12,260 runs in test cricket, but also taken 270 wickets and pouched 174 cathes. If you add up tests and ODIs, Kallis has scored 10,000 or so runs less than Sachin. But Kallis has 533 wickets and 297 catches. Tendulkar has 201 wickets and 248 catches. Tendulkar has played 172 more international matches than Kallis. What would the report card for Kallis if he had played 179 more international matches?

I rest my case.

13 Years of Euro: What Next?

2012-01-04T13:06:00.000+05:30

Chest thumping can be a wonderful feeling. But chest thumping also reminds me of two tired cliches that were flogged in front of us during school days. The first one talks about pride coming before downfall. The second one tells us that the higher we go, the steeper we fall. Both cliches seem apt for another round of flogging today as battered and bruised citizens of Europe try to search for a reason to celebrate 13 years of their common currency Euro. It was on January 4, 1999, that this much vaunted rival to the American dollar made its debut in global financial markets. There was a lot of hope, a hell of lot of optimism and a cocky swagger in the West (I define West as Western Europe and North America) in 1999 about future prospects.

Back then, it appeared as if Asia was down and perhaps out for the count. The financial crisis of 1997 had ravaged virtually all the newly emerging star countries of Asia like South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. Lectures, hectoring and free advice came the way of troubled Asian economies as fast as the dollars kept moving out. Think Tanks in Washington and London made sniggering remarks about how the Asian miracle was built on castles of sand. The World Bank and the IMF jumped in and flogged their mantra of fiscal austerity. The wisdom was: it was irresponsible leaders, reckless bankers and crooked businessmen of Asia who caused the massive financial crisis and destroyed almost a generation of dreams. Of course, the West was triumphant back then and the dog eat gog kind of Capitalism that was the ruling ideology in Washington and London became the ruling ideology of the world. Many sober analysts and thinkers warned of the dangers of such an overdose of free market fundamentalism. But who was listening?

Now the wheels have turned full circle again. It is leaders and businessmen from Asia that are offering free advice to the West on how to behave responsibly and sensibly. Since 2008, the West has been haunted and tormented by an economic recession that it had not witnessed since the Great depression of 1930s. The same set of policy makers in Washington and London who virtually abused Asian leaders for bailing out desperate banks in their countries happily bailed out American banks as well as Wall Street when push came to shove. The same story is being repeated in Europe as subdued and humbled leaders try to save the banking systems of Greece, Ireland, Italy and Spain. All the lectures that free market fundamentalists gave to Asian leaders after 1997 about letting markets do their jobs seem to have vanished. Free market fundamentalism is still alive and kicking; but now as free for all fundamentalism.

Will Euro prove to have a short life span? Will it even complete 14 years on January 4, 2013? A few years ago, such questions would have sounded preposterous. No longer. If Europe fails to save the sinking ships of Ireland, Greece, Italy, Spain and many more of the 27 member countries, the Euro is bound to die a painful death. With that, hopefully, will come an end of the kind of silly triumphalism that commentators and pundits from the West have been drowning other nations of the world with.

On January 4, 1999, it was Asia-and even Latin America in shambles and the West was looking forward to yet another century of global domination. Today, on January 4, 2012, it is the West which is in shambles and it is Asia that is dreaming of global domination by the end of this century. But there are two lessons for Asia and latin America on this anniversary of the sinking Euro: first, do not subscribe to any kind of fundamentalism-whether it is the free market type or the Marxist type. Just junk ideology and make common sense the ruling ideology. Second, avoid chest thumping!

Ambani's dream comes true

2012-01-03T13:08:00.000+05:30

I almost wanted to laugh out aloud. I mean, you have to admire the perseverance of someone who wants to see his father's dream come true. Laugh because the media has got it so wrong, as usual. Reports say that RIL is involved in a convoluted deal that includes control of Network 18 and the Eenadu group. Reports also say that the original promoter of TV 18, Raghav Bahl and his associates will hold a controlling stake in the new entity. Just in case you forgot, TV 18, or the many nomenclatures that it is known under, also controls two very powerful business channels CNBC and CNBC Awaaz and the Eenadu group is one that nursed ambitions of replicating the models of both the Times of India Group and the Sun Network. So, now Mukesh Ambani will be a minority shareholder in a company controlled by Raghav Bahl.

Don't you think that is laughable? Can you imagine a scenario where Raghav Bahl tells Mukesh Ambanis that I am overriding you? It is inevitable for corporate houses to try and take control of media if they can. In our democracy and our kind of capitalism, we have allowed that. So I would laugh at people who will crib about Mukesh Ambani taking cont RIL of such a powerful media vehicle. Mukesh Ambani is only doing what the law allows him to do.

But why is Mukesh Ambani doing this? Since I don't respect virtually any journalist who covers business-most of them are either paid off, or ignorant. I address this to the ones who are young and ignorant. Way back in 1986, the Indian Express did a lot of stories that almost felled the emerging Ambani Empire. I was a young journalist then wondering why people are targeting a man who is actually trying to do something. And then when Dhirubhai Ambani suffered a stroke, many wrote epitaphs about his dream. That man recovered and vowed to ensure that the media doesn't target him again like that. Of course, Arun Shourie, the man who tried his best to make Dhirubhai a villain became his fan after the death of the great entrepreneur.

And then V.P Singh became the Prime Minister of India and it looked as if the Raja's wrath would descend. So Dhirubhai started a newspaper called Business and Political Observer to at least answer the questions that other hostile media houses were asking. By that time, the elder Ambani had already drawn up his vision for Reliance to be a conglomerate that goes back from polyester to crude oil and has. By that time, people like me in the media had become pests who could only irritate his vision....psst...there were also a lot of journalists who received thank you notes. The most important of that is the way Vinod Mehta and his paper wrote about the venerable Girilal Jain getting some Reliance shares. Reliance shares were so lovable back those days that even journalists couldn't help falling in love with them.

But like most media enterprises started by corporate houses, the paper launched by Ambani flopped and the big people involved with the project like R.K Mishra (now deceased), Tony Jesudasan and someone every journalist knows as Balu lived to tell many tales. Of course, R.K Mishra even did back channel diplomacy between India and Pakistan after Kargil.

For India, the wheel seems to have turned full circle. What Dhirubhai Ambani had dreamt back in the 1980s when people like Arun Shourie were hounding him has finally come true. I will laugh at people who will rave and rant about Mukesh Ambani and Reliance. I will them them: this is Indian democracy and take it. And I would raise a toast for the son.

Hats off Mukesh Ambani for achieving what your father had always dreamed of.

Psst...I know Raghav Bahl is smiling

What does China want?

2012-01-03T13:02:00.001+05:30

Blow hot, blow cold is a cliche that has often be flogged to death while analysing the turbulent relations between India and China. Two reports in just one day sum up the dilemma that Indian policy makers face while dealing with a China that seems to alternate between being a pragmatic neighbour and an irascible bully.

The first one has been splashed all over Indian media: how an Indian diplomat suffering from diabetes was harrassed by both Chinese citizens and officials in an eastern town of China called Yiwu. The Indian diplomat S. Balachandran was trying to help out some Indians who were held captive there. Indian authorities have lodged a strong protest over the issue.

The second report is about how top Indian companies Dabur India Ltd. and ITC Ltd. are suffering because some firms in China are brazenly selling 'fake' products carrying the brand names of these companies.

Both seem minor events if you look at them from a long term perspective. Yet, if you start adding up such 'minor events' and their frequency, you really start wondering what exactly the intentions of China are. Just about a week or so ago, the official Chinese media reported how the plans by India to test launch the Agni-5 series of missiles could be a threat to China. These long range missiles will have the capacity to hit cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

Around the same time, an analytical piece in official Chinese media talks about how the United States was implementing a strategy of using old allies like Japan and new allies like India to contain the rise of China. Just a few weeks before that, border talks between India and China were either cancelled or postponed because the dragon was furious at India allowing the Dalai Lama to speak at a public function.

Go back some more time and you had the Ambassador of China publicly abusing an Indian journalist at a function. Go back some more and you had China repeatedly refusing to issue visas to officials from Arunanchal Pradesh and stapling visas of Indians from Kashmir. Why, China was furious even when Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh paid a visit to Arunanchal Pradesh. And of course, the official Chinese media some time back had also warned India not to forget the lessons of 1962.

I could go on and on with a string of such 'minor events'. But that is not the point. The point is for India to figure out what China's real intentions are. No doubt, there is little or no possibility of a repeat of the 1962 border conflict or even a 'minor' military conflict to score some brownie points. No doubt, China does not count India as an implacable and hostile enemy; though there are many in India who would disagree with that assessment. No doubt, growing trade between the two countries - $ 60 billion a year and growing phenomenally - and a large number of business deals between the two seem to added a different and more positive dimension to Indo-Chinese relations. No doubt, there are some in Chinese policy making levels who tend to think that it is not in China's interest to be seen to harm India.

It is nice to be optimistic when it comes to China. But, it would be wiser to be realistic. The only language that the hardliners in China understand is power-military, economic and geo-strategic and the fear of credible retaliation. India must keep talking to China. But it should keep dropping a hint or two that it does hold some cards. And that it intends playing them if provoked beyond a point. Usually, that is enough to maintain peace with bullies.

How Rahul Gandhi Can Win Uttar Pradesh

2012-01-02T13:00:00.001+05:30

The focus is clearly on the man who could be the next Prime Minister of India. Every meeting that Rahul Gandhi addresses, is covered with breathless anticipation. For many journalists who have been covering elections for ages, there seems to be a kind of rediscovery of the old magic of the Nehru Gandhi dynasty. And yet, the most optimistic experts seem to think that Rahul Gandhi will be a winner if the Congress manages to improve on its tally of about 22 seats that it won in the 2007 assembly elections.

But look at it another way. The Congress also won 22 seats in the Lok Sabha elections of 2009. And it came second in another 7 seats or so. Now each parliamentary constituency encompasses four assembly seats on an average. Do some simple mathematics and you realise that the party to be led by Rahul Gandhi potentially won about 130 seats in the UP assembly. And that was at a time when the media was projecting Mayawati as the next Prime Minister. Clearly, there was a voter connect with Rahul Gandhi and the Congress.

So why are media experts not talking about the Congress winning more than 130 seats in the UP elections? More importantly, is the team that advises Rahul Gandhi not aware of this? Even more importantly, are they aware of the odds but apprehensive about the results?

My take is that if the man can ensure at least some Congress workers are present in polling booths during elections, he might be in for a pleasant surprise.

But where are the Congress workers?

THE WORDS THAT RESOUNDED IN YEAR 2011

2011-12-23T10:55:00.000+05:30

Since every pundit, self styled analyst, interloper, philosopher and hack uses the end of the year to inflict torture and trauma on readers with 'annual' lists, why should I be spared the exquisite pleasure of doing so? If you are sadomasochistic enough to read beyond this, I promise to minimize your trauma by not inflicting another list; or a forecast for 2012 (by the way, if you flaunt an iPad, do download the Economist App on 2012" it is free and makes for fascinating reading). I will merely remind you of some words and terms that dominated our headlines and penetrated deep into our moronic psyches in the year that is fleeting by. And I ask you to ask yourself this question: will these words and terms have any relevance beyond 2011, or 2012, or...?

The first word that comes to my mind is 'extradition'. No, I am not talking about the usually ham handed efforts of Indian authorities to bring some old associates of Dawood Ibrahim back to India so that they can be fed more Biryani. I am talking about the extradition case that Julian Assange is fighting in UK. Assange happens to be an Australian whose Wikileaks mission continues to embarrass governments and authorities. America is trying damn hard to ensure that he can't even access a bank ATM and Sweden wants him to be tried for rape. If Assange loses his battle in UK, the word extradition will acquire a whole new meaning. It will no longer be associated with bringing criminals to justice; extradition will become a tool to silence whistleblowers too. Of course, folks in the West can learn a thing or two from China and India on dealing with whistleblowers who become pests. In China, they are airbrushed from Google and Baidu; in India, whistleblowers are simply blown away

The other word and term that I am going to remind you of has an entirely Indian flavour this year. And it exposes hypocrisy and double standards in the Indian establishment and Indian media with delicious cruelty. I am talking about the term 'amicus curae', which apparently means friend of court (given the never ending delays in our judicial system, how anyone can be a friend of court is beyond my understanding). Amicus curae became a – to exaggerate a lot – household name when these friends of court helped the Supreme Court unearth the truth behind the horrific 2002 Gujarat riots. The secular – that is another delicious word that will never fade away from India – establishment pounced upon the words of amicus curae to make Narendra Modi a demon worthy of Hindu mythology. So far so good. But another amicus curae recently revealed that the Delhi Police had deliberately and maliciously and brutally targeted Baba Ramdev and his supporters when they were protesting against corruption and black money to please their 'political masters'. The media merely reported this and promptly forgot the story. The secular warriors who use amicus curae to demonise Narendra Modi went curiously silent. If that sounds Latin to you, then most words uttered by secular warriors sound Greek to me.

Now allow me to go global again and remind you of another word and term that truly stormed the world and took it by storm. I am talking about 'Arab Spring'. It all started when protesters threw out the old and oppressive regime in Tunisia and inspired fellow Arabs in Egypt to do the same to Hosni Mubarak. Before the world could say 'Mubarak ho' to the protesters, the Arab Spring spread like wildfire across the Arab world. Heavy duty columnists in Washington and London pompously declared that democracy and freedom were now embarking on an unstoppable march. Suddenly, the Western media that habitually branded Arabs as terrorists fell in love with this bunch of freedom loving people. Of course, the Arab Spring inevitably turned into a winter of disbelief and rage for the same western media when genuine elections actually resulted in people with an Islamic bent coming to power. Suddenly, the Western media was no longer so much in love with the Arab Spring. And of course, the Indian media, true to style, faithfully repeated what came out in Western media. You see, it is OK for presidential candidates in the US to invoke God and Christianity at the drop of a campaign contribution dollar; but is unforgivable for the children of Arab Spring to invoke their own God. Not quite done, old chap.

Before the pundits could get disenchanted with the Arab Spring, they had discovered yet another set of words that compelled them to pound furiously at their keyboards in a frenzy of excitement. I am reminding you of the term 'Occupy Wall Street' that continues to reverberate not just across the United States but also across the world. When a ragtag bunch of 'misfits' announced that they will 'Occupy Wall Street' to protest the brutality of the 1% against the 99%, most media pundits tittered and sniggered. And yet, within weeks, Occupy Wall Street became a symbol of an outraged majority no longer willing to tolerate the excesses and the tyranny of the minority. There were commentators who said that the movement was incoherent compared to the ideological zeal of the Tea Party and that it would wither away in no time. But when cops in America started hitting innocent protesters with pepper spray, the whole damn thing acquired a new meaning. Suddenly, the hollowness and the arrogance and the inhumanity of the American Capitalist system stood exposed. Suddenly, the average citizen realised that she has handed over her money, her liberty and even her livelihood to a bunch of crooks, charlatans and robbers in Wall Street. Suddenly, from becoming a lame duck, Barack Obama became a President who could win a second term. That is the power of Occupy Wall Street.

After taking you through a tour of Tahrir Square, London and Wall Street, I now bring you back home to the words that really reverberated across India. I am talking about 'Team Anna'. When the government first caved in to Team Anna in April this year, the Lokpal movement acquired a momentum of its own. And when the media wholesale adopted Anna and his often hysterical and abusive team members as their mascots who would save the nation and the democracy, Team Anna acquired a whole new meaning in August this year. Indians couldn't care less about Tahrir Square and or Wall Street. For them, it was all about Jantar Mantar, Tihar Jail and Ramlila Maidan. The drama is still unfoldng as Anna Hazare and his merry band infuse the word 'fast' with shades and hues of a saas-bahu serial that keeps going on and on. When the rulers stand nakedly arrogant in front of the ruled, interlopers and ideologues do become messiahs. As far as most of the Indian media is concerned, Anna is a messiah and they simply refuse to accept any other version. Of course, the absolute ham handedness with which the government has been handling Team Anna has helped it acquire a halo far beyond its shine. Middle class India is mesmerised by the words from Team Anna and seems to be convinced that a new Lokpal will magically eradicate corruption from Indian society. Middle class India is in for a rude reality check and shock.

As a last throw of dice, let's take you back to the beginnings of Western civilisation. Even Noam Chomsky would admit that Western civilisation was launched in Greece and then flowered in Italy under the Roman Empire. Greece and Eurozone became two words that the media simply could not ignore. The fountainhead of Western civilisation, Greece has gone bankrupt, perhaps awaiting another Socrates to start asking uncomfortable questions. And the land of Julius Caesar became a new land of bunga bunga parties where the new ruler Silvio Berloscuni boasted that he couldn't have sex with too many women in one night because he was pushing 75. Shame on you, makers of Viagra. Eurozone is a word that is not going to fade away soon. Nostradamus might say that Greece heralded the beginning of the West and that Greece now heralds the beginning of the end of the European dream.

Bemused Indians like you and me might ponder over these powerful words and the even more powerful events and end up asking: Why this Kolaveri Di?

WHAT HUMBUG ABOUT RETAIL & OTHER REFORMS

2011-12-09T10:41:00.002+05:30

Now that Maya, Mamta, Jaya and assorted other leaders and ideologues from both the Left and the Right have successfully derailed the attempt to allow FDI in retail, one can only marvel at why the UPA Cabinet so suddenly cleared the proposal in the first place. Delhi is a city teeming with cynics, and this time you have to bow down to their warped wisdom. According to them, the UPA gambit to let the dogs out over FDI in retail is a spectacular success. For almost two weeks, rather than cornering the government over corruption scams and the Lokpal Bill, the BJP and the Left have been exposed as parties who can do nothing else but oppose (That does give an entirely new twist to the term Opposition!). Just imagine, even our television anchors were not frothing at the mouth over yet another pearl from Anna Hazare about making hunger strikes a serial! To that extent, I salute the UPA for having the smarts to outsmart the opposition this time; it was long overdue anyway with the UPA scoring self goal after self goal over the last year or so. This move clearly indicates that the Chanakyas in the Congress may have been down and out, but they are bouncing back! More power to them.

But forget for a moment about statecraft and the art of manipulating expectations. The two weeks of debate over FDI in retail has revealed yet another facet of public debate in India: the ability of pundits to pontificate with astonishing levels of economic and policy illiteracy. I do not have the space to enumerate it all in this column. So please allow me to pick up a few random points here and there and enlighten you over the sheer stupidity of our so called pundits.

One of the major arguments in favour of FDI in retail goes as follows: If giants like Wal Mart and Tesco barge into India, there will be a revolution in storage, logistics and distribution. With their deep pockets and access to technology, these giants will invest in things like cold storages that could transform the lives and livelihoods of millions of farmers. How? Well, more than 70% of the fruits and vegetables grown by Indian farmers is currently wasted because of lack of adequate cold storage facilities. Ergo, that will change since cold storages will ensure almost nothing is left to rot or go waste. Ergo, the incomes of farmers who grow fruits and vegetables will dramatically improve.

Can you be more deluded and idiotic than that? I remember an ambitious policy announced back in 1992 ( yes, 1992) to encourage the setting up of cold storages in rural areas. Almost 20 years down the road, nothing has come out of that policy initiative and more than 70% of fruits and vegetables continue to rot. The reason for that is as blindingly simple as sunlight: there are virtually no roads that can connect the farm to these proposed cold storages and more importantly, there is not enough power generated to keep the cold storages operational. Forget rural India, vast swathes of even Delhi and Mumbai go for hours at a stretch without electricity. There are millions of households who complain that even food stored in their refrigerators rots because power cuts are so prolonged that the batteries in inverters run out. So how do you envisage a giant network of cold storages across rural landscapes in India when there is simply no electricity? Or do you think that Wal Mart will also set up a 1,000 MW captive power plant to satisfy the delusions of FDI in retail enthusiasts in India? Without power sector reforms, these tall claims will remain humbug.

Look at this from another perspective and you will instantly realize the extent of economic illiteracy and ignorance that pervades public debate on this issue, like most other contentious issues. Suppose there is a miracle and vast cold storages spring up all over India so that wastage of fruits and vegetables is minimized. Suppose that then only 15% of vegetables and fruits go waste instead of more than 70%. What then? Any student of basic economics will know that this will lead to a massive increase in the supply of fruits and vegetables in India. That student of basic economics will also know that a massive increase in supply-without a corresponding increase in demand-will lead to a massive fall in prices. That is basic economics. What then happens to the lives and livelihoods of farmers who grow vegetables and fruits? FDI enthusiasts say that the Indian farmer-with the help of retail giants-will find other markets for his produce. But do you know that the Indian law prohibits a farmer in India from taking his produce across state boundaries and selling them wherever he thinks he will get a better price? How about anyone having the temerity tosuggest to policy makers that first allow the Indian farmer the freedom to sell within India?

Now let us take up the rant by opponents of FDI in retail that it will destroy the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of mom and pop stores in India. It has been so many years since retail chains like Big Bazaar, Reliance, Spencer and Easyday have been around. Have they made even a dent in the livelihoods of mom and pop stores. Giants like Wal Mart need to set up huge hyper markets to realize economies of scale; often in so called suburbs because of real estate costs. How many Indian families will pick up their cars, drive through tens of kilometers of jams, fight for non existent parking and then stock up for the month. Or do you think the lower middle class in India will carry huge shopping bags and take public transport to these hyper markets? Most Indian consumers simply do not have the incomes to do bulk shopping. Many are crucially dependent on the ‘credit’ offered by the local kirana that is settled every month or so. Do you really think Wal Mart will start home delivery of one litre of milk, one packet of bread and a pack of Maggi, and that too on credit?

Wake up guys. The entry of FDI in retail will not miraculously transform India into a more efficient and pulsating economy. Nor will it spell doom for India and Indians. The cruel fact is: without key reforms in infrastructure-both physical like power generation and social like universal education-the entry of retail giants will hardly make a difference to the lives of hundreds of millions of Indians who need to move from poverty to lower middle class. So please stop bull……ing and focus on the real issues.

SHAMELESS AND SHAM SECULARISM

2011-11-25T10:37:00.001+05:30

If there was a ranking of nations, its intellectuals and its media, based on hypocrisy and double standards, I have no doubt whatsoever that India would surely find a place in the top 10, if not the top 5. Many of you might have read recently about an intriguing development in Kashmir. I am not talking about protests and stone pelting; nor am I talking about the latest lament against human rights violations. I am talking about the arrest of a Christian pastor Rev. Chana Manni Khanna of the All Saints Church for the alleged crime of converting seven young Kashmiri Muslims to Christianity by offering inducements. The seven young Kashmiri Muslims, who have allegedly embraced Jesus Christ, have also been arrested. Interestingly enough, Jammu & Kashmir, unlike many other states in India, does not have any anti-conversion laws.

Nothing new, you would say. It happens so often in India where evangelists are attacked, arrested or thrown out of the country for trying to convince the natives to embrace Christ. But there is a difference, and that indicates how deeply rotten and hypocritical we are when it comes to dealing with such controversial situations. What I find revolting is that not a single flag bearer and champion of India's vaunted secular legacy has uttered even a polite word in protest. Just imagine if the same incident had occurred in a state ruled by the BJP. Secular warriors would have heaped scorn and abuse at saffron fundamentalism in television debates; perhaps Arundhati Roy would have written yet another masterpiece declaring that she is seceding from the Indian Republic. But in this instance, all we have got is thunderous silence. My point is simple: if the secular ethos of India is endangered (and I do believe it is) when Hindu radicals persecute Christian missionaries, is it also not endangered when Muslim radicals persecute Christian missionaries? I know many secular warriors will take solace by branding me a closet RSS roadie. But frankly, it is time you and I started exposing the nauseating double standards of these secular warriors.

Even more shocking things have happened before the arrest of the Anglican pastor. The Grand Mufti of a Sharia Court in Srinagar Bashir ud Din summoned Rev. Khanna for a 'hearing'. Having found the pastor's explanations unsatisfactory, the Grand Mufti pronounced: "Having failed in what I had asked, we will be forced to take action under Sharia." And so the pastor and the seven young Kashmiris were arrested. The question you and I need to loudly ask is: Since when has the Republic of India given official sanction to Sharia courts? Now just imagine this: what would have been the reaction of our secular warriors if a Shankaracharya (God forbid) had summoned a Christian priest for a 'hearing'? Come, be honest with yourself and answer the question. All hell would have broken loose, isn't it? And let me say justifiably so. For the simple reason that the Indian Constitution does not give any religious any authority to act as the judiciary or a prosecuting agency. If we come down like a ton of bricks on a Shankaracharya or a Bajrang Dal goon for having the audacity to do so, should we also not come down like a ton of bricks on the Grand Mufti for having the audacity to say that Sharia is applicable inside the Indian Republic? What hypocrisy and what double standards!

Many secular warriors argue that it is the responsibility of the majority community to ensure through their words and deeds that minorities do not feel insecure. I am completely in agreement with that logic. No matter what many nut cases in Bajrang Dal and VHP say, I do believe that Hindus must walk that extra mile to make minorities feel secure. But then Kashmir is an overwhelmingly Muslim majority part of the state of J&K. So is it not the responsibility of intellectuals, the political class and the media in Kashmir to ensure that minorities there feel secure? And if they fail to do so, is it not the duty of our secular warriors in the drawing rooms of Delhi to at least say so? But then, India would no longer top the charts in a ranking of most hypocritical nations!!!

OF COURSE THE INDIAN MEDIA IS IRRESPONSIBLE AND ROTTEN...

2011-11-11T10:47:00.000+05:30

Were the matter not so serious and so important to the future of Indian democracy, I wouldstill be laughing my guts out. Yes, I am talking about the firestorm triggered by the strong criticism of the Indian media by the new chairman of the Press Council of India Justice Markandey Katju. And the equally ill concealed anger and contempt with the which the Shankaracharyas, Ayatollahs and Cardinals of the Indian media have responded to the criticism. Before I bore you further with grimy and unsavoury details of the whole mess, let me point out one truly startling aspect that seems to have escaped the eagle eyes of media pundits.

One of the key criticisms made by Justice Katju is that the Indian media often covers events in an irresponsible, and even dangerous way. Obviously our Gods and Goddesses of news and views have not taken kindly to that. So the Broadcast Editors Association (BEA) that represents the scores of TV news channels has slammed Justice Katju by issuing a statement that has been dutifully carried out by all media outlets. But there is a hidden gem in that diatribe that actually got me laughing. Let me quote the August BEA: "The sane & balanced (italics mine) coverage of two recent incidents – the Ayodhya judgment and Gopalpur riots – belies the assertion of the PCI chairman."

Just look at the manner in which the statement reflects the mentality of a spoilt brat who now claims to be less of a spoilt brat. What exactly does the BEA mean when it says that the coverage of just two incidents – Ayodhya and Gopalpur riots – was sane and balanced? Isn’t it admitting in a perverse way that the media coverage of many past events has been insane and imbalanced? Anyone with common sense knows how true the latter is!

Please allow me to bore you to death with more quotes that reveal as much about the authoritarian mindset of Justice Katju as they do about the intolerant mindset of the Indian media. The first is from the BEA and the second priceless gem is from another august body called the Editor’s Guild. “Any criticism made in a holier-than-thou fervour defeats the very purpose it is sought to be made for". Now just pause and think for a moment. How would you describe the tone, tenor and approach of virtually all television anchors of India when they are holding forth on the 2G scam, the Radia tapes, the so called Chinese military threat to India or the so called destruction of Indian secularism because an essay on the Ramayana by A.K Ramanujan was taken off the syllabus by Delhi University? Does the term holier than thou come to mind?

Here goes the second quote: "The Editors' Guild of India deplores the illconsidered, sweeping & uninformed comments (italics mine) on the media and on media professionals by the new chairman of the Press Council of India, Justice Markandey Katju.” Now please turn the clock back just a wee bit and recall the hysteria surrounding the Anna Hazare fast in August, 2011 or its precursor in April, 2011. Was the manner in which every single politician of India was branded a corrupt thief not ill considered, sweeping and uninformed? And I must come back to that old chestnut 'holier-than-thou'. Do you remember the manner in which most in the media virtually formed a lynch mob against you if you had the temerity to suggest that many statements being made by some members of Team Anna were ill considered, sweeping and uninformed? Let me provide you with another very recent and shining example of how an ill considered, sweeping and uninformed Indian media misleads readers and viewers either because of ignorance, plain stupidity or sheer laziness. Now that the dictator of Libya Muammar Gaddafi is gone (Saddam has long gone), the Western powers ably supported by the western media now have Iran in the cross hairs. In a sickening enactment of déjà vu, the western media is going to town about how Iran is now on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons and how the West must take preemptive measures before mankind is destroyed by the Iranian Ayatollahs. What does the Indian media do? It blindly repeats what the western media is saying. Are the well read, thoughtful and historically well briefed leaders of Indian media not aware that this is just a repeat of the lies unleashed by the USA in the run up to the invasion of Iraq? Today, consumers of media have many other sources of information thanks to the internet. And can you blame them for not having an iota of respect for the manner in which this free, independent and fearless media blindly apes its cousins of the West?

Pardon me for saying this, but I always thought that the whole myth about media being objective, fair and unbiased was a bunch of horseshit. Media has always been ideological. If you subscribe to one ideology, you will only see the shameless manner in which the painter M.F Hussain was hounded out of India into exile by zealots. If you subscribe to another ideology, you will only see the shameless manner in which author and activist Taslima Nasreen was hounded out of exile in India by zealots. Come to think of it, readers and viewers are not dumb morons. They will appreciate it if you have the intellectual honesty to openly wear your ideological leanings on your sleeves. But please don’t be holier than thou even as you persist in being ill considered, sweeping and uninformed. That too, when thanks to the internet and no thanks to your best efforts, Indian consumers of media are acutely aware of how many TV channels and newspapers actually take money from politicians to write favourable stories about them (they have always done it in the case of business magnates and tycoons who have the option of throwing product and corporate ads your way). The Indian media might collectively and shamelessly behave like a cartel and try damn hard, but the stench of paid news is not going to go away in a hurry. And readers and viewers are acutely aware of the actual number of concrete steps the Indian media has taken to minimize – forget about eliminating – the scourge of paid news. Why blame only Justice Katju when Indians with common sense nowadays actually smirk derisively while discussing Indian media? Obviously, you will get criticism, sneers, sniggers and worse if you pontificate sanctimoniously about political corruption and look the other way when it comes to media corruption.

And pray, how was Justice Katju wrong when he criticized the media for focusing more on the trivial rather than the important. Look at how the Indian media covered the news that Swami Agnivesh will join the Big Boss reality show! And look at how television channel editors – stung perhaps by Justice Katju – have announced some self imposed guidelines on how to cover the birth of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s baby! It is truly laughable. It is easy to criticize only Hindi and regional language channels for peddling mumbo jumbo and worse. But really, everyone does it. And what is the reason trotted out for this saturation in coverage of the trivial and the absurd at the cost of the important? Well, the market demands it, and readers and viewers prefer such stories over stories on starvation deaths. The logical question to ask is why not go the whole hog and show pornography since most viewers would prefer it over Swami Agnivesh in Big Boss? You can't claim on the one hand all the privileges and perks of being the fourth pillar of Indian democracy and then trot out the excuse that you have to listen to market forces and cater to what people want. Many people want free booze and cash during elections. So what’s wrong if politicians provide that? After all, they too are listening to market forces!

All this would have mattered less but for the most glaring, spectacular and persistent failure of the Indian media: its absolute inability to read the mind of an electorate before elections. I remember as a young journalist back in the 1980s when some pro Congress newspapers gave the party a handsome majority in the assembly elections of Haryana before polling. They even trotted out a fancy analysis by so called market research agencies to bolster their claims. The fact is: the Congress was decimated. Since then, the inability of Indian media to get the pulse of people during elections has become even more embarrassing. Look at how the Indian media kept insisting that it was a tough battle between the DMK and the AIADMK during the recently held assembly elections in Tamil Nadu. The DMK was decimated. I could go on and on with similar examples. The question to ask is: how do you always get it wrong during elections even when the writing on the wall is clear? Quite naturally, even a child would know that is something is seriously wrong, perhaps even rotten.

Surely, no sensible person would agree with the demand made by Justice Katju that he be allowed to become an arbitrary judge, jury and executioner (incidentally, hasn’t the same media been cheering Anna Hazare when he demands that he be made the judge, jury & executioner?). But come on. Lets get off the high horse. Like everything else in India, there is a systemic rot in the Indian media. Hiding behind the rhetoric of press freedom while doing all you can to make a mockery of it is surely not the way to go about it.

ANYONE TO ‘OCCUPY DALAL STREET'

2011-10-28T10:57:00.003+05:30

Now that Sarah Palin is out of the American Presidential race and Lindsay Lohan probably back in the jail, the whole of America – and hence the whole of the world – is talking about the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement. Sans the sound and fury, this grassroots outburst of rage is about a majority no longer willing to lie down and let a small minority of the elite fix the rules of the game and even the whole system to gain at the cost of the majority.

That got me thinking. Why is India not witnessing a similar movement that can be labelled as ‘Occupy Dalal Street’? After all, if you are familiar with colloquial Hindi, the very name given to India’s stock market and financial powerhouse reeks of fixing and worse. To fall back upon colloquial Hindi, what is the role played by a Dalal in India? And what image do you conjure up in your mind when someone tells you: “ Oh, that guy is a dalaal”? If contemporary Wall Street in tandem with Washington (Despite Obama’s once soaring and now empty rhetoric) represents the worst of crony capitalism, Dalal Street in tandem with Delhi (Despite Indira Gandhi adding the word ‘Socialist’ to the Indian Constitution during the Emergency in 1975) has always represented the worst of predatory and marauding crony capitalism. So with public anger at an all time high, why not an Occupy Dalal Street movement or a movement to banish Dalals from Indian deal-making?

During the early heady days of the Anna movement, when it was the national pastime to label all politicians and all bureaucrats as crooks; and when the brouhaha over the 2G scam was at its peak, I had asked a simple question in this magazine: how is the media so enthusiastically joining the mob in condemning the system even as it bends over backwards to portray all Indian businessmen and industrialists as visionaries and demigods? I had asked, if politicians and bureaucrats have looted you and me in the 2G scam, what about the businessmen who actually dish out the moolah? I am yet to get any credible answer.

I know, some will argue that the Indian system forces businessmen to pay bribes; otherwise they would compete with Mother Teresa for saintliness. Even naïve journalists, NGO activists and political workers know that Indian businessmen are often far more crooked, venal and corrupt than the much reviled class of politicians and bureaucrats. Recently, a group of Indian industrialists made a public demand in a letter to the hapless Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to stop a group of businessmen hijacking the country in cahoots with politicians. Yes, they specifically stated that many of their fellow businessmen are crooked, bent and worse. Did we get any serious debate in the media on the role of crooked businessmen in making India a banana republic? Sorry folks, when it comes to crooked businessmen, our media has more important things like advertising revenue to consider. Crooked businessmen give the moolah to netas; they also give ads!

Our system is so rotten that even Kiran Bedi has the effrontery to portray her patently unethical behaviour as a righteous deed. To borrow again from colloquial Hindi, or Urdu, if you insist: Is Hamaam Mein Hum Sabhi Nange Hain!

CAN WE AT LEAST RESCUE GROWTH?

2011-10-14T10:57:00.000+05:30

A decade down the road, instant historians will perhaps marvel at this paradox: how a bunch of absolutely true blue brilliant people managed to destroy growth prospects for India. Just look and marvel at the names: Manmohan Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, Jairam Ramesh, P. Chidambaram, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Kaushik Basu, D. Subbarao…. Each name is brilliance personified. And yet collectively, these pilots of the Indian economy are failing to prevent a crash landing of growth.

Th e automobile industry is a reliable indicator of what exactly is happening with the economy. And the message from this bellwether sector is stark and ominous: growth prospects are tanking. For three months in a row, sales of cars have been lower than last year. Th e industry clocked a growth rate of about 30% in 2010-11. In the first six months of the current fiscal, the growth rate is just about 1%. Auto companies have slashed growth forecast from 20% and more, to less than 2% this year. Worse, there is now a dramatic slowdown in the sales growth of commercial vehicles, including auto rickshaws. Even a child can tell you that the RBI decision to raise interest rates 12 times in less than two years is responsible for this calamity. Sales of two wheelers – which are not so dependent on auto loans, have maintained a healthy growth rate. It is only the growth in four wheelers that has crashed. Don’t forget, each automobile sold generates many jobs that range from garage mechanics, workers in tyre factories, workers in accessory plants, attendants in petrol pumps to financial sector executives who process auto loans. So such a drastic slowdown in the auto industry is not hitting just the rich and the middle class, it is deeply hurting the lower middle class and the poor who depend on this industry for jobs.

As worrisome as the astonishing decline in growth of the auto industry is the fact that excise duty collections in September this year have been lower than last year. Many economists are suggesting that this could be an aberration. But I don’t think so. Th ere have been clear indications since January this year that economic activity and sentiments are being adversely aff ected. No one is now talking about a GDP growth rate of 8%; most will be relieved and happy if GDP growth rate in the current year manages to reach even 7.5%. Th e opportunities lost for India because of this avoidable tragedy are huge. Better managed, the Indian economy, like the Chinese economy, should grow at at least 10% a year. What does this unrealised 2.5% mean. In purely statistical terms, it means the economy is losing about $75 billion each year. In human terms, the tragedy is even more painful because this failure means persistence of poverty, unemployment, malnutrition and worse.

And what have Indian policy makers achieved by behaving like monetarist hawks? Food inflation is still in double digits, hurting the poor where it hurts them even more. And the Rupee has tanked to almost Rs.50 against a weak dollar – a fact that will worsen inflation. Can any one of these brilliant people at the helm of the Indian economy explain this mystery?

YOU CAN HELP BUILD A CLEANER INDIA

2011-09-02T11:09:00.001+05:30

The reverberations triggered by the Anna Hazare fast are still being felt across the country. Even though I personally find many ideas thrown up by the so called Team Anna version of the Jan Lokpal Bill utopian and bordering on the loony, I am delighted with the fact that activism of the kind witnessed last month actually forced politicians of this country to come down to earth and fear the wrath of the people. It was indeed a great celebration of democracy. Though there is one thing I would like to point out to the so called intellectuals who kept harping on maintaining the sovereignty and dignity of the Parliament. If the elected members of parliament themselves make a mockery of Parliament, why single out some activists and outspoken individuals for harsh criticism? Then again, I found it preposterous when some suggested that you and I must contest elections if we want to change the system. Surely, democracy and good governance is not just about contesting elections. Another thing I must point out is the manner in which activist and the self confessed Hanuman of Anna, Arvind Kejriwal, egged on the thousands gathered to watch Anna break his fast to take an oath that they will neither take nor accept a bribe. That was heart warming and touching and set me wondering if the thousands gathered there would actually stick to their oath once they confront the harsh realities of confronting Indian bureaucracy in all its grab and grin glory. In fact, I asked myself if I could stick to such an oath of never paying a bribe if I had to get something done in a hurry and didn't have the time.

These random thoughts made me come to a few simple conclusions that could be, as Rahul Gandhi says, game changing. You and I don't have to contest elections to do all that. But here goes my wish list of a few simple things that you and I can start doing right away to help build a better India

#1: The first thing that people like you and I can do for a start is to take a silent oath that we will not break any traffic rules. A friend was describing a vacation his family had enjoyed recently in the United States. One telling incident from that memorable holiday has to do with his 7 year old son who exclaimed in a shocked manner about how people were actually stopping their vehicles at red lights! My friend, who has a habit of often violating traffic rules, actually vowed never to do that again. I am personally appalled at how middle class and affluent parents brazenly violate all traffic rules at around 7 in the morning when they sometimes drop their kids to school. Surely, all of us can make and stick to this simple oath?

#2: Set aside some money every month for a poor child's education. There are at least a 100 million Indians like you and me who can easily set aside Rs 50 a month without hesitation. Just imagine, if we take that simple oath and stick to it, 100 million poor young Indians who could not otherwise afford the luxury of education would actually benefit from education and perhaps join the ranks of the middle class when they grow up. And don't tell me that it is difficult to find a good and honest NGO or trust that can use your money well. You can always finance the education of the children of your office peon, maid servant, driver or security guard. Believe me, the impact of this simple gesture will be more far reaching than the Anna movement.

#3: Take a pledge to henceforth treat our domestic help in a more humane way. One comment that kept cropping up during the Anna festival was the complaint about the arrogant, cruel and callous manner in which our political class and the bureaucracy treats ordinary citizens. Let's be honest with ourselves: are we any less arrogant, cruel and callous when it comes to interacting with our domestic servants, drivers and other helps? Sure, there are many of us who go out of our way to help them and treat them humanely, but there are umpteen horror stories of educated middle class Indians heaping indignities on hired helps. So let's stop being hypocritical and actually do something about treating fellow Indians in a better manner.

#4: Let us take a pledge not to give any dowry to get a daughter married off to someone who has got a plum government job where the scope of corruption is huge. Once again, we berate corruption in bureaucracy in public discourse, but make our actual feelings and intentions clear by relentlessly chasing grooms with cushy government jobs. You could say that this kind of thing happens less frequently now because many youngsters now opt for the private sector. But the fact is: we could send a huge moral signal to the marketplace for grooms that buying grooms is passé.

#5: Let us take an oath to actually go out and vote during elections of all types. I still recall the hysteria that was generated amongst the chatteratti after 26/11 convulsed India. There were countless TV debates and candle lit marches. A few months after that barely 45% of South Mumbai voted during the Lok Sabha elections. I think the political class does have a point when it argues that they don't want to listen to hypocritical lectures from people who cannot even invest a few hours of their time to vote. And let us not crib about all candidates being 'bad' and there being no real choice. It is going to take a long time for electoral reforms of the type demanded by Anna to actually happen. In the meantime, can we all go to the booths during the next election and deliberately vote wrongly if we find that no candidate is worth voting for? In Indian elections, the winning candidate often gets just about 30% of the votes polled. What if such disqualified votes also amounted to about 30%? You can bet the ruling class will sit up and take notice and the process of electoral reforms will actually be accelerated. Invalid votes can be as potent as votes. But please, let us at least get up from our cocoons and comfort zones and actually go out to vote.

#6: The sixth simple yet powerful pledge we can all take has to do with citizen participation. No democracy will work and good governance will always remain a dream unless citizens actively participate in the civic process. The simple pledge we can keep is to devote at least two hours every week to do something concrete to improve something around us in a meaningful manner. It could be looking after some trees in our neighborhood; it could be involving our kids to keep our streets clean, it could mean teaching a few poor children... the possibilities are endless.

Not one of these oaths or pledges will make any outward difference to our lives or our lifestyles. But they will go a long way towards building a cleaner and better India. So, for a change, can we move away from constantly cribbing and doing something?

WHY GMR REPRESENTS THE WORST OF CRONY CAPITALISM!

2011-08-19T10:24:00.000+05:30

It is simply mind-boggling – the manner in which the GMR group is allowed to get away with anything. Just recently – on August 7, 2011 – the 'most modern and sophisticated' T3 terminal of Delhi Airport that is being run by a consortium led by GMR, went on the blink for more than 5 hours due to a power failure. Sure, there were allegedly enough back-up generators to take care of the blip. But for some strange reason; the back-up failed and thousands of passengers were left literally groping in the dark in the wee hours of that Sunday morning.

Put this in the context of a story that was broken by the news channel Headlines Today in late July. The channel used hidden cameras to actually demonstrate how the construction of five star hotels and malls in a 'hospitality' zone called Aerocity at Delhi Airport by GMR is a grave security threat. The news report stated in its headline: 'Delhi Airport a sitting duck for terror attacks'. Top officials of Delhi Police told Headlines Today that no security clearance had been given for the Aerocity. And yet, the GMR-led consortium brazenly continues to construct the same. It defies logic: how well connected can the GMR group be that none seems to be putting a stop to a project that could actually jeopardise the lives of airline passengers and thousands working at the airport?

Then consider this: just a few days ago, Member of Parliament K. N. Balagopal requested the Prime Minister in the Rajya Sabha to ensure that the Rs.15 oddbillion "illegally" collected by the GMR-led consortium as development charges be taken back. Regulators and authorities have long ago decreed that the exorbitant charges collected by GMR are illegal. And yet, no steps have been taken to take the money back. Of course, in early August, the business daily Financial Express carried a story stating that the GMR-led consortium had defaulted on interest payments on loans taken for the project for the third consecutive month. I am compelled to repeat my question: how well connected is the GMR group?

There is more. The media has stated that the GMR consortium is spinning off 11 joint ventures that will look at the 'non-core' aspects of the airport like food, hospitality, retail, cargo services and so on. The consortium is obliged to share 46% of its revenues with the Airports Authority of India. But much revenue will be swallowed up by the joint ventures, with AAI ending up the loser. It has also been pointed out repeatedly that these joint ventures will again fleece passengers by fixing or hiking 'charges'. Nothing; no action has been taken against GMR on this front too!

Has GMR been punished? Far from it. It was recently awarded a Rs.55 billion contract to improve the 555 km highway linking Kishangarh and Jaipur with Ahmedabad. By doing this: the message that is going out very loudly and very clearly, is that you can violate every norm, every rule; you can cheat and fleece passengers; you can even put their lives in jeopardy. But if you are well-connected like the GMR group surely must be, you will be rewarded rather than punished for your follies!

If this is not crony capitalism, what is?

IS INDIA ON THE VERGE OF AN EXPORT MIRACLE?

2011-08-05T10:01:00.001+05:30

When bad news comes cascading down like torrential rainfall during monsoon, it is very easy to ignore good news. Something similar is happening in India where scams, scandals, political logjams and widespread fears of an economic slowdown – even as inflation rages on – have become the staple of media outlets. So it was not very surprising when the phenomenal growth delivered on the export front was reported in a matter of fact manner, and then consigned to that dustbin called stale news!

But I personally think that the export performance delivered by the Indian economy is not just a silver lining; it holds the promise of transforming India’s economy and its employment generation potential in this decade.

The facts first. In June 2011, the value of exports from India virtually touched $30 billion – up more than 46% compared to the same month in 2010. If you take the first quarter as a whole, the value of exports from India approached $80 billion – an increase of about 45% as compared to the April-June quarter last year. Even die-hard pessimists now agree that Indian exports will cross $300 billion in the current fiscal. This spectacular performance despite two powerfully inhibiting factors: the uncertainty and continued sluggishness in the global economy, particularly Europe and North America and the high rates of inflation in India that should make Indian exports less competitive.

There are two potentially game changing trends visible if you examine the trade figures a little closely. The first: Europe and America now account for just one-third of the total value of exports from India. Clearly, Indian exporters have been smart and have diversified their portfolio of destinations. The second, even more important trend is the fact that exports of products were double the exports of services in the April-June quarter. For long, everyone seems to have swallowed the myth that India will forever be the back office of the world, even as China continues to be the factory. There definitely was some merit in that argument in the past, but you cannot deny facts which indicate a startling structural change in the Indian economy. The fact is that manufacturing is growing and at a healthy rate. This is absolutely crucial for employment generation.

Just one policy announcement from the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh can make this export miracle a genuine and sustainable reality for this decade and beyond. Labour reforms in India have been largely stuck for about two decades because they are politically sensitive and pampered and powerful unions (that account for just about 3% of the total work force in India) have stalled them. Yet, imagine what could happen if Dr. Manmohan Singh announces that his government will guarantee the salaries of workers in key export industries like textiles, ready made garments, leather and others? The actual cost to the government will not be huge; but there will be a massive increase in investments in these key sectors to propel exports. Just the number of new jobs that will be created as a result – along with schemes like NREGA – will ensure that the UPA will continue to lord it over India. And who says there is no money to finance this game-changing export policy?

WHEN BANKS BECOME ROBBERS

2011-07-22T10:13:00.000+05:30

No doubt the High Court of Allahabad – and even the Supreme Court a few weeks ago – has delivered justice for farmers in what is euphemistically called Noida Extension. Very briefly, the government had invoked a law dating back to the colonial era to de facto grab land belonging to farmers at throwaway prices in 'public interest'. Farmers were paid about Rs.800 per square meter for land; in turn, the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority sold the land acquired for 'industrial units' to real estate developers at a minimum of Rs.10,000 per square meter. In turn, builders sold flats to middle class investors in search of a dream house at prices starting at Rs.25,000 per square meter. So the price paid by a middle-class home buyer was at least 30 times more than what the farmer was given. Clearly, this was bizarre and in defiance of common sense, apart from basic principles of justice. By declaring such land acquisition null and void, the courts have hopefully halted a nationwide trend where governments grabbed land from farmers to enrich builders and industrialists. Hopefully, this series of judgements will set a precedent and governments might be forced to stop indulging in the very worst kind of crony capitalism. This series of verdicts has already triggered another debate about the colonial era policy of land acquisition in India. A Bill to change the Land Acquisition Policy is waiting to be debated in the Parliament and the controversy will attract many comments and columns.

But I want to focus on the plight of the hapless middle-class investors and Shylock-like behaviour of commercial banks. The media is replete with callous statements from heads of banks saying that people who have taken loansto invest in these houses in Noida Extension have no choice but to keep paying the EMIs – even if they have no hope whatsoever of getting their dream houses. Some investors might be lucky to get a refund from builders because the Supreme Court has so directed (Can you imagine builders voluntarily refunding money?). But even they will have to forfeit the huge amounts of interest they have already paid to the banks. Quite simply, the banks are behaving like highway robbers and taking refuge under perverse agreements and fine prints. The fact is: the banks must have been aware that the projects were controversial and that there was litigation involved in the housing schemes. Knowing the risks, they merrily lent money to home buyers at exorbitant rates of interest. And now that the courts have stopped one part of the robbery, the banks continue to persist with their brand of loot.

Anyone saddled with credit card debt knows how banks in India behave as badly as evil moneylenders from old Bollywood movies. Everyone knows how banks send goons and thugs to people's houses and offices if there is a default on consumer loans. Everyone knows how banks behave in the most unethical manner by using glib salesmen to sell dubious financial products and hoodwink investors. All of us know that. And it is high time the banks were forced to change from being highway robbers to smart and profitable businesses.

SIX YEARS OF B&E: SIX DEFINING TRENDS

2011-06-24T10:43:00.008+05:30

It was a truly scorching night in June 2005, when we packed up the first issue of Business & Economy at around 5 in the morning. For months before that, I (a lapsed, failed, retired and or obsolete journalist in my own opinion!) had encountered sniggers from the extremely tenuous contacts I still had in the community of journalists about the imminent collapse of the yet to be launched business magazine. It is about 5.30 AM now in the third week of June 2011, as I am writing this piece and thundershowers of the previous night have triggered a soothing breeze. Six tumultuous years later, do allow me the privilege of just a wee bit of chest-thumping. I know it sounds mean, but nobody can stop me from crowing about the fact that many of those who sniggered at the ability of my Editor- in-Chief Arindam to launch even one magazine, now directly or indirectly, sound me out for a position in Planman Media which is growing at a scorching pace! It is a truly mad, mad world, isn't it?! Many have asked me how we have survived and then thrived against all odds. I believe the answer is simple: We have always called a spade a spade, and are definitely the first business magazine that dared to ruthlessly criticise corporate icons and titans if we were convinced they were wrong. Of course, we have also praised many of them along the way! And then again, we at B&E have always tried our best never to lose sight of the big picture.

Enough of self congratulatory chestthumping. What I really want to share with you all is – in my unarguably prejudiced opinion – the six big emerging trends that could have a decisive impact on the future of India. Some of these trends make me feel proud as an Indian and marvel at how we cannot possibly be a genuine superpower a few decades down the road. Some make me cringe in despair and wonder if India can ever throw off the tag of being a third-rate Third World country. For better or worse, here are the trends that I have discerned as a semi-optimistic hack who constantly fights cynicism!

Entrepreneurship: I know you will say that the entrepreneurial animal inside India was unleashed way back in 1991. But do think a little about it and look at the number of new companies and brands that have exploded across sectors and verticals in the last six years. I will just point out one example to prove my point. One of the first corporate stories we did (and our marketing and ad sales guys still curse us for it!) was on Nokia. Back then, 3 out of every 4 handsets sold in India was a Nokia. We relied on simple common sense and wrote that such a monopoly cannot be sustained and that Nokia would face massive competition. Just look at the number of nimble entrepreneurs who have relentlessly savaged and ravaged the market share of Nokia. Literally hundreds of thousands of such entrepreneurs have bloomed across India in the last six years. And I am not talking of the usual suspects who make it to the annual Forbes list of billionaires. The amazing thing is: these entrepreneurs are succeeding despite a hostile and rent-seeking business environment.

Connectivity: Not just the last six years, but the mobile phone is one of the most powerful successful stories of India in the last 60 years. Back when we launched, we did a policy story on the obstacles that could prevent India from creating 200 million mobile subscribers. I am actually happy we were wrong. India now has more than 700 million mobile subscribers and is adding about 10 million every month. India also boasts of the lowest tariff s, though service quality does make you weep most often. But then, that kind of incredible growth has to come with glitches, if you look at the big picture. Internet connectivity has not kept pace and India has just about 20 million active connections though a far larger number access the net through cyber cafes. But I have no doubt that this will change in the next six years and the number of Internet connections will also explode. I need not elaborate on how this is empowering the most hoodwinked section of India, the aam aadmi!

Activism: This is one oasis in the barren, gloomy and foreboding landscape of governance in India. You could say activism in India dates back to the days when the likes of Raja Rammohan Roy and Ishwar Chandler Vidyasagar did their historic bit. But actually the passing of the Right to Information Act (arguably one of the best policy initiatives of the UPA regime) has almost opened the floodgates of activism in India. Activism is no longer just a romantic and quixotic tilt at the establishment. It is now becoming a powerful force and a movement that the ruling class is finding impossible to ignore. It could be Anna Hazare and his team fighting for a strong Lok Pal Bill to tackle corruption; it could even be an obscure and unknown schoolgirl in Uttar Pradesh who filed an RTI application to know what happened to the funds that were allocated for building toilets in her school. The fact is: activism is now an unstoppable force. In the Alternative Budget that he presents every year, my Editorin- Chief Arindam has repeatedly argued for huge funds to be allocated to publicise RTI. But there is also a downside to this: genuine and purposeful activism is still limited and the vast majority of middle and upper-middle class Indians prefer the armchair variety. They never vote, they brazenly violate traffic rules, they routinely pay bribes and then pass sweeping judgements on everything.

Arindam Chaudhuri, Editor-in-Chief,
Business & Economy and Yashwant Sinha,
Former FM at B&E's launch on June 16, 2005

Demographic Disaster: I hate to, but there is no choice but to highlight the three trends that could destroy the future of India. I would like to call the first one the demographic disaster, a sort of take on the demographic dividend that everyone loves to talk about. The fact is, despite tall promises and massive allocations in successive budgets over the last six years, the process of abdication by the State of providing basic education and healthcare has actually accelerated. Quite simply, you will get a demographic disaster instead of a demographic dividend if the vast majority of young Indians join the labour force as uneducated, unskilled, unhealthy and unemployable citizens. India continues to languish at the bottom in the Human Development Index and worse, the malnutrition, child and maternal mortality rates and literacy rates in vast swathes of the country are more appalling than those found in Ethiopia and Haiti. One of the most talked about alternative budgets presented by my Editor-in-Chief was the one he coined as 'A Budget for Three Idiots' in 2010. Behind the catchy slogan lay the grim reality of how dysfunctional the education system in India is. There is no way we can be a power that the world respects, where more than 400 million cannot even read and write. I am afraid I see no visible signs of dramatic improvement on this front. Incremental progress will not help; it will mean India will miss the bus yet again.

Judicial Paralysis: Sure, there are islands of hope in the judiciary. But they are too few. The reality is that the judicial system in India is in virtual paralysis. Every crook in the country knows this very well. And that is why crooks and criminals operate with impunity in the country. They know they will get away no matter what the evidence against them; they can ensure that the cases against them drag on for decades. Even when they are convicted, they can file appeals till kingdom come. If corruption is a cancer that is gnawing away at the Indian economy, a paralysed judiciary is the malignant factor that adds ferocity to that cancer. Just to remind you; the last six years have seen serious allegations made against two chief justices of the Supreme Court. Were the contempt of court laws in India not so formidably frightening, the chorus of allegations would have been louder. When Caesar's wife is looked upon with mistrust by the citizen, then surely the fate of the Roman Empire is sealed. I wish I had the space to document the numerous concrete ways in which a paralysed judiciary is hollowing out the Indian Republic, but I guess you already know about it.

Crony Capitalism: Everybody talks and writes about how corrupt Indian politicians are. Hardly anybody talks about the fountainhead of that corruption. Yes, I am talking about corporate India which seems to have become a darling of the middle-class and the media. The ugly truth is: many industrialists happily, willingly and unabashedly connive with the politicians, bribe them to corner licenses, permissions or resources and then make a killing that is many, many times the bribe paid to the politician. From mining rights to land acquisition to SEZs to spectrum allocation to bidding for oil and gas fields, India is a vast crony capitalist state. There is not shadow of doubt that the trend has become even more disturbing and frightening in the last six years. Barring some notable exceptions, it is classic case of is hamaam mein hum sabhi nangey hain. When crony capitalism flourishes, the aam aadmi literally has no chance. Is it a wonder that Naxalite violence is most pronounced in regions of India where corporate houses are plundering the natural resources at the expense of local populations? Each time the media stumbles upon a scam like 2G, rest assured that even bigger scams continue to flourish. And this is one complaint I have about Indian media: while it does an admirable job of exposing corrupt politicians, it is too squeamish when it comes to exposing corporate fat cats. The result: a man of unimpeachable personal integrity running one of the most corrupt governments in India.

So where will we all be after six more years? I have no doubts about where Business & Economy will be; it will still walk the talk. But I am not so sure about India. I hope I turn out to be like those cynical hacks I mentioned in the beginning whose sniggers and pessimism were eventually silenced by millions of Indians who dared to dream!

SEVEN YEARS & DEADLY SINS OF UPA

2011-06-10T10:02:00.001+05:30

The word 'Seven' conjures up many images and perceptions. There was that classic Hollywood western named The Magnificent Seven; there was yet another classic called Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. And of course, who can forget the Seven Year Itch? Recently, pundit after pundit wrote on how the bedraggled Manmohan Singh regime completed two turbulent years in office. Actually, the UPA regime has completed seven years in office. Which is why I am doing some stupid, loud thinking about the word seven. Should the term 'Seven Year Itch' apply to seven years of UPA rule? Actually, most of you would agree with me that a more apt term could well be Saat Khoon Maaf.

But since the UPA regime is so obsessed with the protection of minority rights in India and since Christianity is a minority religion in India, I would respectfully borrow something from Christianity to describe the seven years of the UPA regime. Yes, I am indeed talking about the Seven Deadly Sins. Don’t bother to Google it. Here are the Seven Deadly Sins in black and white: Greed, Lust, Sloth, Envy, Pride, Wrath and Gluttony.

Let's start with Greed and Gluttony. Now, corruption is not something that can simply be wished away from India, no matter what our idealists and activists want. We – as citizens – have got so used to bribing our way through shortcuts that big ticket corruption does not really trigger genuine, moral indignation or revulsion. Yet, so monstrous and gargantuan have been the greed and gluttony of the Manmohan Singh regime that even cranky and whimsical mavericks like Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev have become bigger stars than Shah Rukh, Salmaan and Aamir. There is palpable public anger at the levels of corruption practiced by top leaders of the regime. Sure, you have brave spokespersons of the Congress tirelessly repeating the lie that it is this regime that has sent A. Raja and Suresh Kalmadi to jail. Sure, many gullible Indians will believe this lie if you keep repeating it. But the fact is, the regime did absolutely nothing about the 2G and the Commonwealth (CWG) scams for months, even though the whole world was talking about the plunder and loot going on. The fact is, it is the Supreme Court which virtually forced a very reluctant Manmohan Singh government to act. Then again, Congress bootlickers in the media – and there are plenty of them – keep spreading the canard that corrupt coalition partners in the UPA are a necessary evil that the Congress has to tolerate since it does not have a majority of its own. They don’t tell you that Suresh Kalmadi is very much a Congressman. There are many things that hacks like me know about but cannot write about because of lack of evidence. Suffice to say that the UPA regime is riddled with rotten corruption at the top and the Indian citizen is finally seeing through the idiotic smokescreen of a truth that Manmohan Singh himself is genuinely honest. Without a shadow of doubt, Greed and Gluttony would top the charts when it comes to analyzing the preceding seven years of the UPA regime with the Seven Deadly Sins.

If Greed and Gluttony are the chart-busting metaphors of seven years of UPA, Sloth is not very far away. I still remember that day in 2008 when serial bomb blasts had shaken up and frightened Delhi (This was before 26/11). The most honourable Shivraj Patil was the Union Home Minister. Do you remember what he did after hearing about the bomb blasts and the death toll and the panic? Well, he went to change into a more natty attire before addressing TV cameras. Even more laughable – and tragic – was the petulant manner in which he defended that act in a television interview! Do remember, Shivraj Patil had badly lost the Lok Sabha elections in 2004. And yet, he was made the Union Home Minister. And his masterfully slothful performance for more than four years, as India was struck year after year by Pakistan sponsored terrorists and the heartland of India was ravaged by Maoists, reflects the peculiar inertia that grips the UPA regime when it comes to taking concrete action. In fact, the UPA regime has actually set a kind of world record by forming God knows how many Empowered Groups of Ministers (EGOMs) to take a call on major policy issues confronting India. Strangely, absolutely nothing is done by these so called EGOMs. Back in May 2004, when Manmohan Singh appeared both smug and surprised at having the prime ministership thrust upon him, his solemn promise to the nation was rapid action on administrative reforms. As a former bureaucrat who has often been more loyal than the king – or queen – Manmohan Singh knows how badly India needs administrative reforms. Yet, in seven years, not a single concrete step has been taken to reform, reshape or re-energize India’s slothful and rotten bureaucracy. The fact is that the so called 'Empowered' group is hopelessly disempowered. The real power lies with an unelected and unaccountable body called the National Advisory Council. Yet, to give credit to the NAC, it has at least given the Right to Information Act and the NREGA to India. Warts and all, they are still movements on the positive side.

The next two Deadly Sins that have been the hallmarks of the UPA regime are envy and lust. I would define lust as hankering after something that is not legitimately yours – directly the result of uncontrolled envy. And I would blame the Congress the most for these Deadly Sins. Let us go back to the early years of the UPA regime after it won a surprising semi-mandate in 2004. Lalu Prasad Yadav – then a staunch ally – actually lost the assembly elections in Bihar. But he, and the Congress, were in no mood to accept Nitish Kumar as the Chief Minister of Bihar. So what do they do? They have a Governor of Bihar called Buta Singh – another manifestation of Greed and Gluttony. Heplays havoc with the Constitution of India, and the Manmohan Singh government spits a little more on it by asking President Abdul Kalam, who was in Moscow, to sign the orders implementing Governor's rule in Bihar. The citizens of Bihar have given a fitting reply to Lalu and the Congress since then. The UPA regime indulged in the same dirty tricks in Jharkhand. And another 'more loyal than the king' Governor named H. R Bharadwaj is now trying the same in Karnataka by trying to topple the democratically elected BJP government. Sure, the BJP government in Karnataka may be deeply corrupt; but does that give the UPA and the Congress the allowance to make a mockery of the Indian Constitution? But then, this kind of lust is so deeply embedded in the genes of the Congress that it probably cannot help itself. Remember 1984 when pliable Governors were used to topple the governments of N. T Rama Rao and Farooq Abdhullah in Andhra Pradesh and J&K?

I have deliberately kept the remaining two Deadly Sins – Pride and Wrath – till the last because they have been the leitmotif of the UPA regime. The pride comes naturally because the Congress has been ruling India for most of independent India’s history. Of course, that pride is now frayed because even the top leaders of the Party know that it can never again be the natural ruling party of India. Lest you forget, Assam, Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh are the only states where the Congress has a majority of its own amongst major states. That kind of denting of pride often leads to wrath. I can cite dozens of examples of the wrathful and unbecoming manner in which the UPA regime has acted. But I will cite only one. Amitabh Bachchan was literally hounded by income tax authorities even as he was lying seriously ill in a hospital bed in Mumbai.

Need I say more?

WHY 2014 CAN DELIVER SHOCKS

2011-05-27T10:16:00.000+05:30

Back in September 2006, when we launched The Sunday Indian, our first cover story was on the likelihood-some would say inevitability of Rahul Gandhi becoming the Prime Minister of India. Back then, we wondered how a Gandhi would handle the fact of being the first Gandhi to not be the unquestioned leader of the Cabinet and the nation. The only message that is loud and clear from assembly elections and bye elections held over the last one year is: there is just no way the Congress will improve upon its 2009 tally of 206 Lok Sabha seats in 2014. The rest of the MPs required to cross the magic markof 272 will be supplied by Mamta Bannerjee, Sharad Pawar and perhaps even Jayalalitha, apart from assorted smaller allies. How then would Rahul Gandhi function as Prime Minister?

Let's look at the best case scenario for Congress, where it has a chance of significantly improving its tally. Out of the 112 odd seats in Jharkhand, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Bihar and Karnataka, the Congress won just 16 seats. Let us assume that the Rahul Gandhi magic works in these states. Even then, the most hopelessly die hard supporter of the Congress would not bet on the party’s tally from these states going up by more than double. (Do you seriously expect the Congress to sweep Bihar, Karnataka and Orissa that give 87 MPs?) That gives the Congress 16 more seats. In effect, the Congress tally would go up to 230 if you are wildly optimistic.

But electoral politics is different from wild optimism. In U.P, the Congress already has 22 seats and cannot significantly improve; in Delhi, it has 7 out of 7 seats; in Haryana, it has 9 out of 10 seats, in Uttarakhand, it has 5 out of 5 seats, in Rajasthan, it has 20 out of 25 seats; in Madhya Pradesh, it already has 12 out of 29 seats and has 11 out of 26 seats in Gujarat. Worse, it has 33 out of 42 seats in Andhra. After the Jagan Mohan Reddy show, how many of you would bet on Congress retaining the tally? It then boils down to West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, where the UPA already swept the elections in 2009.

The most intriguing question then is: would Rahul Gandhi be amenable to being the Prime Minister of India and yet be at the mercy of temperamental allies? It is OK for a Manmohan Singh to be the Prime Minister in such a situation because he never was a leader anyway. But what happens to the fabled aura and charisma of the Gandhi family when Indian voters see Rahul Gandhi the way he will look after coalition politics inevitably takes its toll? Can the Gandhi family take that kind of risk?

My advice to CEOs of India Inc, start investing in another ManmohanSingh right now. There is little doubt that he or she will be India’s next Prime Minister with Rahul Gandhi playing the now familiar role of being the real power behind the throne. Sad for Indian democracy, but then that is democracy, isn’t it?

THE REAL NATIONAL SHAME: FOOD

2011-05-14T10:34:00.000+05:30

In a recent column, the respected agriculture economist M. S. Swaminathan has described the bumper crop of wheat in Punjab and Haryana as a moment of both ecstasy and agony. Ecstasy because the 85 million tons of wheat output reveal how our intrepid farmers battle against all odds do their bit for food security in the country; agony because most of their efforts go down the drain because of a hopelessly incompetent and criminally callous Government, particularly the Food and Agriculture Ministry headed by our cricket Czar Sharad Pawar. At the moment, India is sitting on about 45 million tonnes of food grains, quaintly known as buffer stocks. As procurement gathers momentum each day, it will not be surprising if the stockpile of food grains crosses the 50 million ton mark very soon. In fact, so acute is the crisis of ‘surplus’ that state and central procurement agencies now claim they simply have no space left to store any more food. There will be the usual tales of corrupt and venal procurement officials harassing poor farmers with demand for bribes. Worse, most of the food procured will simply rot as the government has not managed even the childishly simple task of building adequate and safe storage godowns despite more than 20 years of persistent surpluses. What can you say about the priorities of our system when spanking new stadiums for the recently concluded Cricket World Cup can be built almost overnight under the benign supervision of Mr. Sharad Pawar while we fail to erect simple concrete structures to store food in a dispensation run by the same man?

The most commonsense and obvious solution is to allow Indian farmers to export food so that they can reap the benefits of globalisation, just as our IT, Telecom, Automobile, Petrochemical and Infrastructure tycoons have been doing. But mention the word 'exports' and you will encounter storms of protest from both do-gooders and government types who say allowing exports of food will once again uncork the genie of food inflation. They will say how each kilo of food will now be crucial since the Right to Food is now a constitutional requirement and that the buffer stocks will be needed to distribute free food to the poor. They also talk about how onion exports and one bad harvest led to onion prices going through the roof last year.

Frankly, such arguments are nonsense and reflect the defeatist mindset our policymakers acquired during the dark era of socialist inspired shortages of everything. First, be assured that almost all the ‘free’ food that will be doled out to the poor will be so rotten due to poor storage that it will be virtually unfit for consumption. Second, and more important, such arguments ignore the fact that foodgrain productivity in India is still half that of China. Quite simply, we have the potential and the ability to almost double our foodgrain output to close to 500 million tonnes a year. That one national endeavour will enrich tens of millions of farmer families who can export food even as the poor get enough free food.

But I guess shrinking TRP ratings of IPL matches are a bigger priority for our honourable Minister.

WHAT CONSUMER PROTECTION?

2011-04-29T10:20:00.000+05:30

You really have to forgive me my cynicism, but as I see the euphoria over the Jan Lokpal Bill begin to wane, I just can't help recollect that old truism – the more things change, the more they remain the same! I am utterly convinced that even if the so called drafting committee is allowed to meet and debate sincerely; and even if by some miracle people like P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal and Pranab Mukherjee do agree to what civil society activists want, the law that politicians and bureaucrats will finally pass will inevitably make that law an ass from day one. My cynicism is because our rotten system ensures that even the best of intentions and great and progressive looking laws become a farce.

Let me take you back to 25 years ago when a pre-Bofors Rajiv Gandhi regime was trying hard to reform our rotten system where the few always gained at the expense of the many. One of the laws passed during those days was the Consumer Protection Act. I still remember the hype and hoopla raised over the law in those days. Optimists crowed about how the law will enable ordinary consumers like you and me to punish companies peddling bad products and services. It was said that the consumer courts would be truly user friendly, would deliver speedy justice and work in a manner that lawyers won't be required at all. On paper, that tantalising promise made by the law still holds. In reality, millions of aggrieved consumers in India will tell you how that promise is a farce. Did you say no lawyers? Ask consumers who filed substantive complaints and they will tell you how companies often use batteries of expensive lawyers to browbeat them. Did you say swift and speedy disposal of cases? The sad truth is, pending cases in consumer courts have already exceeded unmanageable levels. Do you still dream about mythical David versus Goliath fights and the outcome? Well, dream on.

The same companies who would quake with fear at the power of consumer rights and punitive laws in developed markets treat Indian consumers like rubbish. Take any product or service category and – despite so called competition – companies in India get away with anything and the consumer gets nothing.

I will remind you of another progressive law passed in those heady Rajiv Gandhi days. It is the now notorious Section 498 A against dowry. You really think it has helped Indian women?

WHAT ABOUT CORPORATE CORRUPTION?

2011-04-15T10:26:00.001+05:30

I had taken a short break and gone to a resort at Jim Corbett, where there was no TV. Since I had also switched off my mobile phone, I completely missed out the exhilaration and the hysteria that marked the fast unto death against corruption led by Gandhian activist Anna Hazare. By the time I reached home late in the evening of April 8, it did appear as if history was being created. I forced myself to watch news channels – something I detest even more than reading Arundhati Roy (!) – and was actually spellbound by the spectacle unfolding at Jantar Mantar, India Gate and across India. Powerful visuals of the elderly mingling with the young were compelling and inspiring. Even a cynic like me was moved by the whole thing. I also enjoyed – like most middle class Indians – the spectacle of a diminutive and eccentric non-entity like Anna Hazare bringing the political establishment of Delhi down on its knees. But as I kept switching channels and heard a range of earnest people excoriating the political class and the bureaucracy, I couldn't help wondering at the complete absence of even one finger being pointed towards Corporate India while apportioning blame for the cancer of corruption.

In fact, I saw businessmen joining the politician and bureaucrat bashing exercise and was dumbfounded. I mean, have all of us collectively decided to put blinkers? Does any activist or concerned citizen seriously believe that the whole of corporate India is as much a victim of corruption as the aam aadmi? Are you in your senses when you tell me that numerous rogue businessmen and industrialists are not as responsible for corruption as politicians and bureaucrats? Think again – will you blame A. Raja and his advisors alone for the 2G scam? What about the corporate entities and individuals who actually benefited more than Raja when it comes to pecuniary gains.

Let's face it. If we are serious about tackling corruption, we have to be equally vocal against corporate corruption. Simply lionising all industrialists is plain stupid. Don't forget; the global crisis of 2008 that destroyed millions of livelihoods was primarily the result of rampant corporate corruption.

DOES HASAN ALI REALLY EXIST?

2011-04-01T11:20:00.000+05:30

This is one guy who must be inspiring awe and envy even amongst gold-plated and pedigreed billionaires like Sunil Mittal, Mukesh Ambani and Kumar Mangalam Birla. And why not? If you go by sensational media reports, this obscure stud farm owner blessed with a poker expression and fancy sunglasses, has stashed away more than $8 billion outside India. Currently in custody and being prosecuted by the Enforcement Directorate, the curious case of Hasan Ali Khan keeps getting more headlines simply because the Supreme Court has started asking uncomfortable questions to the Government. There are loud whispers, sly leaks and naughty innuendos about Hasan Ali 'managing' the black money of sundry high and mighty in the country.

But come on: if this guy was really worth $8 billion, do you really think he would be cooling his heels behind bars like a common criminal? That's not the way things happen in our beloved country. My wager is that if Hasan Ali was actually worth even a fraction of that fabulous amount, he would comfortably ensconced in a five star hospital, with a bevy of doctors with impressive credentials swearing on Hippocrates that his very life depends on his presence inside a hospital. Why, if the media (at least some parts of it) and a suddenly active and aggressive Supreme Court were not pursuing the matter so relentlessly, Hasan Ali would be watching horse races in Pune, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Let us be grateful that he is at least in the dock.

But let us also be realistic and accept the fact that nothing much will come out of this Hasan Ali case aft er the fire and brimstone has started petering out and is replaced by a new set of scandals to be lapped up by the media. Some of you will recall the notorious case of the Jain diaries back in the 1990s when sensational disclosures about the stashing away of ill-gotten wealth in foreign banks was disclosed. The matter went to Supreme Court and numerous politicians were accused – either directly or through strong rumours – about being involved in that case of money laundering. The fact is, nothing much came out of that and not a single person of any significance was convicted of any crime or forced to bring back any ill-gotten wealth from foreign banks.

But more than the long-buried Jain Hawala case, the curious case of Hasan Ali resembles yet another notorious caper that emerged from Maharashtra. [Isn't it funny how the most notorious cases of corruption and anti-national activities emerge from that State?] Yes, I am talking about Abdul Rehman Telgi and the brazen manner in which he could print fake stamp papers worth thousands and thousands of crores of Rupees and get away with it. Aft er a lot of hue and cry, Telgi was arrested and tried. There was compelling evidence that Telgi alone could not have done all that without the patronage of political Godfathers in Maharashtra. Most of us know the names of those political Godfathers.

But we actually got to read more stories about the sexual escapades of Telgi and his subsequent tryst with AIDS rather than concrete action against the real masters behind the fake stamp paper case. Of course, the evidence against Telgi was too strong to be ignored and he was convicted. It is just possible that thanks to the direct intervention of the Supreme Court, Hasan Ali too might be convicted. But the real masters behind Ali?

Forget it. This is India, aft er all.

UNHOLY COW

2011-03-18T12:14:00.000+05:30

... AND THE FACE OF ALL THAT IS SHAMEFULLY WRONG AT ISB

Let's just visualize a few things to get them in perspective. It is June 2008 and the man is attending a Board meeting of the financial giant Goldman Sachs. He is one of the most connected, respected and powerful men in the rarefied world of corporate America. Soon aft er the Board meeting, he calls up a man with whom he supposedly has “strained relations”. Mind you, he doesn’t call up his family or other friends but a man who is allegedly responsible for this icon losing $10 million dollars of his personal money. We don’t know what exactly transpired. But the American stock market regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is convinced the phone call resulted in the recipient getting advance-and insideinformation about earnings at Goldman Sachs and made a killing using that ‘inside’ information.

The man who made that call is former managing director of consulting giant McKinsey & Company and chairman of the Indian School of Business (amongst many other things) Rajat Gupta, now accused by the SEC of passing on inside information. And the man who received those calls is hedge fund tycoon Raj Rajaratnam, who is facing a criminal trial in America. You and I don’t know if Rajat Gupta is guilty of criminal conduct; but I find it laughable the way Indian media is treating him with kid gloves; the way it is presuming that an ‘icon’ like Rajat Gupta can do no wrong.

The accusations against Gupta are not the result of just one phone call in June, 2008. A few months aft er that, Gupta attended yet another Board meeting of Goldman Sachs where it was revealed that Berkshire Hathway, owned by the legendary investor Warren Buff ett, would invest $5 billion in the company to bail it out of trouble. And what do you think Rajat Gupta does right aft er that Board meeting? Why, he calls up Raj Rajaratnam-another founder promoter of the Indian School of Business (ISB) who-according to SEC records-again makes a killing.

Even more damaging and damning for Gupta are wire taps of phone conversations between him and Rajaratnam released by prosecutors during the ongoing trial of Rajaratnam. The recorded conversations clearly show that Gupta had no qualms in discussing details of Goldman Sachs Board meetings with Rajaratnam-including details of how the Board was considering buying out some other financial firms like Wachovia and AIG.

Now many in the media are being unusually charitable and defending Gupta. But I find it difficult to believe that a seasoned corporate icon like Gupta would keep calling Rajaratnam soon aft er Goldman Sachs Board meetings just for casual chit chat. That too when his own defense is arguing that Rajaratnam was responsible for Gupta losing $10 million of his personal fortune in a hedge fund deal. Do you indulge in casual chit chat with someone who has lost your $10 million?

In case you haven’t been following this sensational case and the trial that began recently, the tale gets even murkier. The star prosecution witness against Rajaratnam is a gentleman called Anil Kumar who has already confessed to charges of insider trading and of passing on confidential information about clients illegally to Rajaratnam. And guess who this Anil Kumar is, or was? Yes, he was a director at McKinsey and also an Executive Board member of the Indian School of Business. Anil Kumar was gracious enough to quit the ISB Board aft er October 2009 when his criminal involvement was made public. Needless, he is a former colleague of Rajat Gupta-both at McKinsey and at ISB.

This is the season of scams in India, with the 2G telecom scam taking pride of place in newspaper headlines and public consciousness. You must have heard and read oft en enough about how corruption in India is primarily caused by corrupt politicians in nexus with either corrupt or pliable bureaucrats. You must have also read and heard oft en enough times many so called paragons of the private sector complaining about how unethical behaviour and poor governance is aff ecting the growth story of India. And of course, the media is everyday full of recriminations and outrage at the manner in which politicians are abusing their authority with impunity and refusing to quit unless they are dragged out screaming and protesting.

How many times have you or I read or heard similar outrage at ‘private sector’ icons abusing their authority with impunity? How many stories of outrage have you heard about the unholy nexus between powerful companies and corporate leaders who are corrupt and their nexus between consultants who are either pliable or corrupt? It is not as if we lack examples and case studies of private sector companies and consultants and auditors indulging in rampant corruption and unethical practices. It is only when it crosses all limits and the house of cards collapses like in the case of Enron that the perpetrators pay (See Box on how the ‘iconic’ Arthur Andersen collapsed in the wake of the Enron scandal).

Now look at it this way again to get a better perspective. Soon aft er the SEC investigations and allegations against him were made public, here is what Rajat Gupta did-or had to do-in the United States. He took ‘leave of absence’ from the $1.4 billion venture fund New Silk Route which he had founded. He quit the boards of Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble. His resignation was also accepted by the boards of Genpact, American Airlines and Harman International. In fact, even as this issue goes for printing, we get news that Rajat Gupta has resigned as Chairman of the Governing Board of the Public Health Foundation of India. Some of his colleagues in this board are Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. But Gupta continues to be the Chairman of Board of ISB. What is strange is the manner in which Gupta is clinging on to ISB, the B School he helped found by using his amazing network of corporate contacts across the world. If he can quit his positions of trust and authority in the United States as a result of the serious charges against him, why is he further damaging the already damaged reputation of ISB by clinging on? In fact, the official response from ISB is nothing short of brazen, something you would expect from the office of corrupt politicians we all love to hate. It says, “ We note that the U. S. SEC has initiated administrative and civil proceedings against our Chairman, Rajat Gupta. We also note the statement of the counsel for Rajat Gupta, which asserts that the allegations are totally baseless. The ISB community is confident that Rajat Gupta will be vindicated. He continues to be the Chairman of the ISB Executive Board.”

This is not the first time that ISB has been publicly embarrassed because top people involved with the B School have been found involved in notorious scams. The other big name that shamed ISB was M Rammohan Rao, the former Dean of ISB. Rao also happened to be a Board member of Satyam, whose promoter B Ramalinga Raju is now accused of monstrous financial skullduggery. Rao happened to preside over a Board meeting of Satyam that took the controversial decision to buy out Maytas Properties and Maytas Infrastructure, both firms promoted by the family of Ramanlinga Raju. The former Dean of ISB, Rao was an ‘independent’ director of Satyam with the responsibility of protecting the interests of the company and its shareholders. Quite clearly, Rao brazenly failed to perform his duty and would probably have got away with it if other shareholders had not raised a hue and cry about that controversial Board decision of Satyam. Even when the decision of Satyam and the Board was slammed by one and all as one of the worst examples of crony capitalism, Rao remained with the ISB. It is only when Ramalinga Raju made a public confession of his wrong doings and Satyam virtually collapsed that Rao quit as the Dean of ISB. And of course, I have already talked about Anil Kumar, the Ex-Mckinsey honcho and co-founder of ISB who was forced to take ‘leave’ from ISB when the U.S. SEC formally charged him with insider trading back in October, 2009. He is now the star witness in the trial against Rajratnam.

The obvious question to be asked is: what exactly is going on at ISB, that is touted as one of the most prestigious B Schools in the world? Is the institution being run by academicians or by wheeler dealers who conveniently take leave when their follies are exposed in public? Equally important, if Rajat Gupta-either voluntarily or not-has quit his positions in almost all other companies and institutions, what kind of message is being sent by ISB about its adherence to ethics and good governance when Gupta stubbornly clings on to the helm at ISB?

This magazine had two years back ranked ISB as the number one B-School in India. However, good faculty and teaching alone doesn’t make an institution great. It is now clear ISB has become a symbol of all that is rotten in Indian corporate culture. Our corporate titans think that money can buy everything. So ISB has a big campus and has got the money to get the best faculty to come and teach. But education is more than having moneybags and wheeler dealers. It is primarily about running the institute with real educationists. However, just like the Indian corporate sector, ISB seems to believe in running itself with the help of wheeler dealers. And just the way the empty headed corporate heads of India blindly follow the McKinseys of the world without questioning their intellect or commitment, ISB has been getting one aft er the other fixers on board with extremely questionable ethics and not necessarily high intellect. It is a shame that they have not yet forced Rajat Gupta to resign. If this is the example it is setting for its students in terms of ethics, the Financial Times must stop ranking ISB in their future surveys. Or, is ethics not important when it comes to judging a B-School?

DON’T INVITE ANOTHER HINDU BACKLASH

2011-03-04T10:05:00.000+05:30

One of my colleagues in our sister magazine The Sunday Indian, Saurabh Kumar Shahi, has done something remarkable. He and some of his friends financially helped out the families of four youngsters accused of the Godhra carnage, where 59 passengers were burnt inside a train coach. He is very happy now because all four have been acquitted by the court. Saurabh is also one of the first in our edit meetings to object ferociously when someone tries to paint the entire Muslim community as anti-national or as sympathetic towards ‘Islamic’ terror.

The reason I mention Saurabh is because of many recent incidents and public utterances of some political leaders. One who comes to mind right away is senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh, arguably one of the smartest politicians in the country. Let me remind readers that when he lost the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh very badly to BJP leader Uma Bharti back in 2003, Digvijay Singh had publicly proclaimed that he will not hold any government or ministerial post for 10 years. To his credit, he has stuck to his promise; in itself a remarkable feat in a nation full of opportunistic politicians who are convinced that voters and citizens have short memories. Even his die hard critics will agree that his commitment to the Congress is unquestionable.

And yet, he has been saying things – almost certainly because it is part of some Congress strategy – that are disturbing. The latest is his war of words with the yoga guru Baba Ramdev who has announced that he is about to enter the murky waters of politics. Of course, Baba Ramdev must understand that when he enters politics and targets a party, he is going to get it back. So, Digvijay Singh is perfectly right as a Congressman to hit back. Then again, I recall his remarks about how he got a telephone call from the martyred cop Hemant Karkare complaining about death threats from Hindu fanatics, some time before he was killed during 26/11. Then again, I recall his remarks calling the RSS a fascist organization. And of course, I also recall his seeming endorsement of a book that makes the fantastic claim that 26/11 was a
Hindu right wing conspiracy to malign the Muslims.

My request to Digvijay Singh is two fold: first, what he is saying might be good for the Congress, but not for the nation at a time of frayed nerves. Second, it might not even be a smart move for the Congress to target ‘Hindu’ groups in such a manner. As a seasoned and well read politician, he must be aware of how the Shah Bano case opened the flood gates for the BJP to storm to power in Delhi. There is something called the ‘Hindu’ backlash, which he and the Congress can ignore at their own peril.

Then again, he must look at the fate of the hard line ‘secular’ leaders like Lalu and Mulayam Yadav. Muslims have figured out that the two never went beyond paying lip service to them and have been voting resoundingly against them in recent times. Does Digvijay Singh want the Congress to take that route towards oblivion? He could check out the Bihar election results again.

BLAMING COALITIONS FOR CORRUPTION IS LAUGHABLE

2011-02-18T16:16:00.002+05:30

Ever since Rahul Gandhi made a remark that coalitions are responsible for corruption, all Congressmen have accepted it as gospel and are busy parroting the same from every platform. It is a little more disappointing when a person of much acclaimed integrity (though I must say the behaviour of the Prime Minister in recent times could end up giving a new meaning altogether to the word integrity) like Dr. Manmohan Singh parrots the same line and says that the hailstorm of scams that have been hitting the headlines are because of the compulsions of coalition politics. It is absolutely shocking when many so called pundits in the media establishment swallow this nonsense hook, line and sinker and start giving it some legitimacy.

Let me first point out how we are collectively making a mockery of our democracy and our constitution. When visionaries like Dr. B. R. Ambedkar framed the Indian Constitution, they made two things very clear: the first is that it is purely the prerogative of the Prime Minister to appoint his or her Cabinet. The second is that the Union Cabinet must share collective responsibility. Bot these basic tenets of the Indian Constitution are being openly destroyed by this UPA regime and no pundit seems to be raising even a whimper of protest. When Manmohan Singh says that it is not him but the DMK which appointed the now arrested Raja as the Union Telecom Minister – and he says this without a qualm on live television broadcast across the world – he is openly admitting that the Constitution has been trashed. Earlier, at least there used to be some eff orts to maintain a fig leaf of Constitutional sanctity when allies used to pressurise the Prime Minister for cabinet portfolios and appointments. Dr. Singh has – at one stroke – removed even that fig leaf. Virtually, everyone in India who has any sense knows that Dr. Manmohan Singh is not a Prime Minister in the sense Nehru, Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Narasimha Rao and Atal Bihari Vajpayee were. Everybody also knew he was more a courtier than a leader; India's first 'appointed' rather than elected Prime Minister. A few issues ago, our sister magazine The Sunday Indian had asked CVoter to conduct a major nationwide opinion poll to assess the attitude of voters towards this UPA government. In that poll, more than 3 out of 4 Indians said that Manmohan Singh is even more of a puppet now than he was earlier. There could be no more damning indictment of both Dr. Singh and the state of the UPA government.

The other manner in which this government merrily trashes the Constitution is the complete refusal to follow even the basic norms of collective responsibility when it comes to the Union Cabinet. We have the sorry spectacle of ministers shooting off their mouths and announcing policy decisions which are then publicly ridiculed by fellow cabinet ministers. Surely Dr. Ambedkar and other framers of the Indian Constitution would have thought of a different structure if they had even an inkling that matters in the Republic of India would come to such a sorry pass. Can you imagine Barrack Obama admitting on live television that he has no authority to make or unmake cabinet appointments? What is truly shocking is that all of us in the media are collectively letting this UPA government trample upon the Constitution without even pointing out how insidious and dangerous this is for the future of India.

That brings me to the point about how wrong and false spokespersons of the UPA regime and their fifth horsemen in the media are when they correlate coalitions with corruption as if it is a statistically proven certainty. In fact, if he had read the speech delivered by the late Rajiv Gandhi in 1985 during the centenary celebrations of the Congress and many subsequent remarks, Rahul Gandhi could have hesitated a bit because his father had a very different opinion on the real reasons behind widespread corruption in India. When Rajiv Gandhi publicly said that only Rs.15 out of Rs.100 spent on welfare and other government schemes actually reached intended beneficiaries, his party lorded over Lok Sabha with a brute majority and also ruled over much of India with huge majorities. Rajiv Gandhi kept saying that it was vested interests and power brokers who were responsible for corruption. Tragically for him, it was the same vested interests and power brokers who smeared his clean image with the Bofors scam.

Then again, a quick look at history will show that corruption increases manifold whenever there is a dictatorship or a brute majority. The latest example is the ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak of Egypt who is reported to have stashed away more than $3 billion during his 30 year reign. Most us would have forgotten a colourful Congress leader called Pratap Singh Kairon whose government ruling over Punjab was perceived to be so corrupt that it embarrassed even Jawaharlal Nehru. Then again, there was the Congress Chief Minister A. R. Antulay who was forced to quit his post because of the infamous 'cement scam'. Surely, we remember the allegations of massive corruption-and cases-against J. Jayalalitha who ruled over Tamil Nadu as Chief Minister with a brute majority? And of course, was it alliance partners and allies that resulted in the notorious fodder scam that implicated Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family? In Orissa, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik rules with a brute majority. And despite his clean image, his government is literally swamped by scams.

There are only two reasons why corruption flourishes in India, and both have nothing to do with coalition politics. The first reason in vesting discretionary power with ministers and bureaucrats. The second is the well justified belief of the corrupt that our judicial system is so rotten that the corrupt usually get away with anything without any fear of punishment. So let us not delude ourselves with this stupid excuse that the UPA government is being battered by scam after scam because of coalition compulsions. At least Dr. Manmohan Singh can be honest and state the true reasons for corruption flourishing under his watch. We know – as he himself admits – that he is incapable of doing anything about it. But at least please don't pass the buck in such a deviously brazen manner.

TAMING INFLATION OR KILLING GROWTH?

2011-01-21T10:09:00.000+05:30

Really, this UPA government and its scatterbrained, harebrained and brainless approach to serious policy making simply takes one's breath away. Despite brazenly false assurances by many top honchos of the government, the rate of inflation continues to rise and give nightmares to the aam aadmi. So what do our esteemed and revered policy makers do? They (in this case, the RBI – and one has to be a fool to believe the nonsense that the RBI is truly independent of the Finance Ministry) once again raise interest rates and play the charade of doing something worthwhile to tame inflation.

These fantasy land policy makers will fail to answer some basic, commonsense questions about the nature of inflation in India. Will higher interest rates lead to a fall in the prices of onions? Does the persistent and recurring raising of interest rates mean that Indian citizens will see lower prices of petrol in the near future? Or will they lead to falling prices of cooking oil, milk, vegetable and spices? Equally important, will the raising of interest rates lead eventually to a rise in the prices of LCD televisions, mobile phone handsets and laptops?

You and I know that is not possible. So why this nonsensical obsession with interest rates? The policy makers themselves – RBI included – admit that the recent spurt in inflation is caused primarily by the rise in prices of food items and other "essential" commodities. They themselves admit that supply constraints have been playing a large role in the recent spurt in prices. So how will a hike in interest rates solve these problems? How will it positively affect more than 600 million Indians earning less than $2 a day, who have mostly nothing to do with interest rates or the banking system, except taking loans at astronomical rates from local moneylenders? Will the farmers of Nasik immediately start growing more onions? Will the rain gods become more benevolent and stop ruining crops? Will the global oil industry bow down to the diktats of the RBI and redress the imbalance between supply and demand?

You and I may not be economic experts spouting jargon the way some of these lordships do. But surely we know this much: That a hike in interest rates eventually leads to an increase in the cost of capital and discourages investments. Interest rate hikes could possibly control or tame demand led inflation – if at all they do anything. Surely, it doesn't solve anything when supply is the problem. In fact, higher rates will inevitably damage investment and growth.

And who gets hurt most by higher interest rates? People taking loans. So housing goes beyond the reach of the lower middle class family, as do many consumer durables. Worse, large Indian business houses have access to global financial markets for cheap funds. High interest rates hurt the small entrepreneur who has to depend on Indian sources. In eff ect, we are perpetuating elitism – both at the level of the consumer and the entrepreneur.

Most mystifying: this government is dotted with venerated economists at the top echelons. What in God's name are they thinking – and doing?

WHY HISTORY IS AGAINST CRONY SOCIALISM & CRONY CAPITALISM

2010-12-24T11:44:00.001+05:30

Each time a year or a decade draws to a close, hacks and pundits shamelessly use words like tumultuous, turbulent, momentous and what not. Events that would not even find a footnote in history become momentous occasions that would transform everything. For a relatively new democratic nation state like India, every decade since the 1950s has been a defining one. The 1950s saw Nehru disarmingly wrap India Inc. around his web of socialist ideals while Dr. Ambedkar fought a heroic battle against revisionists to reform the Hindu Civil Code. The 1960s saw the dismal humiliation of India by China, the last famine that India witnessed and the beginning of the destruction of the Congress monopoly. The 1970s saw India Inc. being smothered by crony socialism even as Indira Gandhi and Jaiprakash Narayan fought an epic battle that nobody won. The 1980s saw India Inc. get just a whiff of freedom from stifling controls and Indian cricket finally broke free of its British Imperial legacy even as the soul of the nation fought what then seemed like a losing war against secessionism and insurgency. The 1990s saw economic opportunities multiply even as multiple and multiplying sectarian and secessionist violence of the most brutal kind struck blow aft er blow against the very Idea of India.

How would you sum up and characterise the post Y2K decade? (Yes, do you now recall how hacks and pundits were hell bent on categorising Y2K as something more apocalyptic than the most terrible visions of Nostradamus? And yes, how many of you do actually remember the Y2K frenzy?)

Being a hack and also having no shame in proclaiming myself as a self proclaimed pundit (as most fellow Indians do!), I would say this decade going by saw three things: the rise and rise of brazen crony capitalism (replacing the crony socialism) of the 1970s and 1980s and the simultaneous rise and rise of a wave against pathetic governance masquerading as populism; ethnic assertiveness or plain simple goondaism. Both are waging an epic battle; the first to enable some elements of India Inc. to take India back to some kind of paternalistic and pseudo-democratic corporate feudalism and the second to take India back to plain simple feudalism. Or not. The battles are being waged in earnest and oft en viciously; but I doubt if even Bejan Daruwala, hustling his annual dose of narcissism for Rs.295 a shot, can actually say who will win the war.

Back in 2001, India Inc. and middle class India were shaken by the Ketan Parekh scam; almost 10 years aft er SEBI was formed to prevent such scams and the venerable UTI almost collapsed because it invested your and my money in exorbitantly overpriced equities prompted by God knows who. Of course, please don’t forget the Tehelka scam the same year. The subsequent years saw scam aft er scam – small and big; the first real telecom scam and the petroleum pump scam to name just two. Aft er 2004, when the aam aadmi UPA government under the unquestionably honest Dr. Manmohan Singh came to power, India witnessed a bizarre situation, where genuine pro poor schemes and plans marched in tandem with gargantuan scams. One of the biggest scams, though hardly talked about now, is the manner in which the government was enriching corporate India at the expense of poor farmers through that fancy thing called Special Economic Zone (SEZ). And nothing seems to have changed even as the decade comes to a close.

Just look at the intriguing change in pattern. By the early 1990s, criminals had figured out the true worth of the institutions of Indian democracy. So instead of helping politicians with muscle power, they (or their chosen nominees) decided to become politicians. The Legislature, the Executive, the Judiciary and the Fourth Estate became mere pawns as many of them launched successful political careers. In this decade, may businessmen have decided that apart from (not instead of) financing politicians, why not become politicians or make politicians of nominees? Just look at the number of high profile and astoundingly rich barons of India Inc. (and their nominees) who have done so this decade and you will figure out what I am talking. India Inc. always knew how to manipulate the Indian judiciary, just as the criminals figured out by the 1970s and 1980s. So many criminals are now being replaced in Indian politics by businessmen and their nominees. We in India cheer the electoral losses of the criminals; do we realise how insidious and dangerous the rise of the businessman nominated politicians are?

As things stand today, there doesn’t appear much hope for Indian democracy. But I am optimistic. For the simple reason that many Indians are now increasingly winning the smaller-oft en-unknown-battles in this big war. Our sister publication The Sunday Indian, in its special year end issue, has one story that highlights how a Dalit called Bant Singh in Punjab fought and is winning his battle against the system despite his daughter being gang raped and him losing his limbs. Who could have imagined in the 1990s that someone like Manu Sharma would actually spend quality time behind bars for the murder of Jessica Lal? Who could have imagined in the 1990s that school children in Uttar Pradesh could actually file RTI applications and force the administration to ‘finally do something’? Who could have imagined that an honest sitting judge of a High Court would write blogs against his own Chief Justice, exposing the rot in the judicial system? I can add so many more ‘who could haves’ but am sure you are familiar with them.

My Editor in Chief is absolutely clear that India actually needs to change from a ‘demonocracy’ to a genuine democracy. The war looks unevenly poised. But I am optimistic that through the course of history, the meek has started getting at least something; though I don’t see her inheriting the earth.

For years and years, Business & Economy has been proud to present analytical and oft en contrarian stories to readers that other publications prefer to ignore. In this issue too, enjoy again some of the very best we offered you in 2010!

HOW 2G IS INDIA’S FIRST PRO-POOR SCAM

2010-11-26T11:31:00.000+05:30

The chatterati and the pundits seem to be behaving as if the 2G scam marks the end of the Indian civilization. There is passionate agonizing over how the carpetbaggers of crony capitalism have looted more than Rs 1.7 lakh crore (almost $40 billion) of potential revenue due to the Indian exchequer. There are inevitable and familiar laments about how the money could have been used to build more schools, health care centres et al for poor Indians (the real scam being that enough schools and health care centers for the poor have not been built even 63 years aft er independence; 54 years of Nehruvian socialism; 39 years of Garibi Hatao and 20 years of economic reforms).

Forgive me for being cynical; but I think the poor of India would actually cheer and welcome 2G style scams because they have actually given something worthwhile to the poor. Look at it this way: till former Minister A. Raja started doling out telecom licenses like prasad in a crowded temple, a handful of telecom operators were making a killing and the really poor could not still afford the tariffs charged by them. Post the monumental 2G scam, telecom tariffs actually dropped to a paisa a second and even lower. More importantly, intense competition forced telecom operators – both old and new – to look beyond saturated urban markets. The fact is: most of the 300 odd million new subscribers since 2008 live in small towns and rural India. For them, the power of mobile connectivity at oft en Rs.100 a month is literally a dream come true. Also, do not forget how smart entrepreneurs have grabbed this exploding market by importing Chinese handsets. Most of these models are in sync with this new market: they offer long battery (upto 72 hours, even 72 days!) life to people for whom long and unending power cuts are an unending reality.

Ask these poor Indians about the moral, intellectual and existential issues raised by the 2G scam and they will laugh at you. And justifiably. For more than 60 years, they have helplessly witnessed false promise aft er promise and scam aft er scam without any material difference to their wretched lives. Now, scam or not, they have got something concrete and worthwhile. As far as they are concerned, the pundits can go on debating to kingdom come.

And don’t underestimate the poor or their ability to figure out what is good for them. The perpetually scam tainted MRNEGA is another example of a pro-poor scam. Everybody knows corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and contractors are still brazenly using NREGA funds to line their pockets. And yet the poor in rural India consider the scheme to be a divine blessing. Their logic? Earlier, they used to get nothing; now they at least get something. Raving and ranting and railing against NREGA corruption is not going to change that.

The fact is: Indira Gandhi was dead right when she categorized corruption as a global phenomenon. You must be living in cuckoo land if you think there is no corruption in countries like Japan, USA, UK et al. The best a society can do is miniminize corruption; it can never be eliminated.

Most (I wish I could say all!) of us wish and pray for corruption and scams to come down drastically. Till we move closer towards that Utopia, I say let a thousand 2 G type scams-which actually benefit the masses instead of the classes-bloom!

ACTIVISM OR FUNDAMENTALISM

2010-10-29T12:13:00.005+05:30

BLIND AND FANATICAL BELIEF IN ‘ISMS’, APART FROM SHEER GREED HAS BECOME THE HALLMARK OF ACTIVISM AND NGOS IN INDIA. HATING INDIA IS A DEMOCRATIC RIGHT; BUT NOT AT A COST TO INDIA

Allow me to put things in perspective right away. Most of you are painfully aware of the following facts: about 1.5 million Indians die of malaria every year; more than 1.5 million Indians succumb to TB every year and more than 2 million young children are killed every year by diarrhoea and related stomach disorders. I have absolutely no doubt that all right-thinking Indians often feel ashamed by these appalling numbers and the heartbreaking human misery that is hidden behind the statistics. And yet, India is awash with activists and NGOs who keep trumpeting from every available rooftop that AIDS is a kind of Biblical scourge that is devouring India. So persistent, so loud and so powerful are the voices of these activists and NGOs that many Indians think AIDS is one of the biggest killer diseases to stalk India. But how many unfortunate Indians are actually killed by AIDS? Not even one for every Indian that dies of malaria, TB or diarrhoea. Common sense demands: then why ignore TB and malaria and create such a hoopla about AIDS?

You guessed it. It just so happens that a certain corporate baron and philanthropist called Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates have been donating hundreds of millions of dollars for tackling AIDS in Third World countries. Yes, they do donate equally well to address some other health issues too, but the very word of AIDS conjures up magic that opens doors to vast donations, funds and incredible opportunities to travel around the world and schmooze with assorted do-gooders. So it is AIDS that everyone talks about – including page 3 people. Try talking and arguing with these activists about why we should be paying more attention to malaria and TB. The best response you will get is a derisive snort while the more ideologically evolved activists will accuse you of being a reactionary, a Neanderthal, a feudal and worse. Forget the jargon, AIDS is sexy. Who cares about TB and malaria?

Don’t you think that just about sums up the state of activism in India?

Let me make a few points here. First: no one with common sense will deny that AIDS is a serious problem. Second, the unfortunate fact is that TB and malaria are bigger problems. Third, anyone who denies this has a serious problem of misplaced priorities. If you are a CEO running a company or even senior manager running a division, you will know that priorities are critical. That’s what students of basic economics are taught: priorities determine the balance between unlimited needs and limited resources. Th at is what a good politician learns very quickly: how to prioritise the numerous – and often conflicting – demands. Th at is how societies, nation states and civilisations have evolved: by learning to prioritise and then trying to balance the conflicting priorities.

There will always be a conflict between security and human rights. Both are very important for a young democracy like India. There will always be a conflict between industrialisation and environment. Both are very important for sustainable growth of the Indian economy. There will always be a conflict between infrastructure projects and the people whose lives the projects will disrupt. Both matter. There will always be a conflict between new technologies like GM in agriculture and the preservation of existing pool of seeds and know-how. Both matter. There will always be a conflict between globalisation and the threat it poses to local communities and livelihoods. The real challenge is to nurture both.

Nobody (no one at least in his/her right senses) has ever said that balancing these conflicting priorities is simple. It has always been an incredibly tough, complex and demanding challenge, and will always remain so. Well governed societies with dollops of common sense seek a balance between these conflicting priorities. A democracy with the rights to free speech and protest offers the best method of resolving these conflicts. As philosophers have always known: democracy is a terrible way of governing and managing societies, but humanity is yet to find a better way. Indeed, the world is full of ‘isms’ and no sensible person will claim that the ‘ism’ they profess to believe in is the only solution.

The problem with contemporary India is that activists not just blindly believe that their ‘ism’ is the best; they also want to ram it down the throat of all Indians. God knows what ‘ism’ the Goddess of Small Things Arundhati Roy believes in. The fact is: Indian democracy has given her the freedom to rave, rant, protest, write, excoriate, condemn and demonise anything that tickles her fancy in a manner that no other Third World country would allow (I wonder what would be her fate if Arundhati Roy spouted venom of the kind she spouts here in Saudi Arabia or China or any of the hitherto Marxist paradises that existed before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991). I personally think she has every right to speak the way she speaks because we are indeed a democracy. In any case, she had publicly seceded from India back in 1998 when the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government went ahead with nuclear tests. The problem is not that. The problem is the utter contempt she has for the other point of view; the complete unwillingness to even consider that India confronts twin problems of internal security threats and human rights abuses. No wonder she was wallowing in ideological pleasure when she described the murderous Maoists as Gandhians with Guns even as they were planning to ambush and kill more than 75 CRPF personnel – most of them poor Indians whose cause she claims to espouse. So she travels from seminar to seminar, rally to rally, protest meet to protest meet condemning the Indian State and the security forces.

In her lexicon and world view: the only internal security threat that India faces is the Indian State. Now, what would happen if policy makers actually implemented her vision and embraced terrorists from Pakistan and her Gandhians with Guns as the real patriots of India? I suspect, she couldn’t care less. As the Activist Number One of India, her job is to denounce and condemn. And Roy – and hundreds of thousands of activists like her in India – have learnt the art of propaganda very well. I feel proud of India as a democracy when people like her rave, rant and shout. But I really start worrying about the future of India when persistent propaganda leads the government to start thinking of doing what she wants. Taken to the logical conclusion, the Roy solution is to dismantle the entire Indian armed forces, the paramilitary forces and the police.

The manner in which the ilk of Roy are chipping away at the foundations of the Indian State and society is so insidious that many people like you and me do not seem to recognise the terrifying consequences of the sustained hate propaganda they have launched. But I have little doubt that India will soon pay a price.

The more immediate impact of activists is on industrial projects. Week aft er week, we get to hear that pressure from activists has prompted the government to abandon an industrial or infrastructure project. The most immediate ones are the Vedanta and POSCO projects in Orissa. Let me not get into the details of the projects. Let me also clarify here that this magazine – and its sister publication The Sunday Indian – has often attracted the ire of corporate India in the form of legal notices and cases when we have highlighted their misdeeds – particularly when it comes to cheating poor citizens of their livelihoods while going for ambitious industrial projects. And yet, I do think that policy making in India is reaching a stage where we are happy to throw the baby away with the bath water. Th is is what the former collector of Kalahandi Pradeep Jena has to say about the now doomed Vedanta project: “When I was a district collector of Kalahandi, I have seen how people were happy and cheerful when it was declared that Vedanta Alumina Refinery Project proposal will be finalised at Lanjigarh. There was a welcoming atmosphere everywhere in the district since Kalahandi had not a single industry at that time. Public notion was that, overall development of the area and people can be achieved through industrialisation. But thereaft er, social activism gradually started against the project. Then gradually public opinion changed. I found it strange when I saw those, who once were welcoming the project, turning hostile towards industrialisation overnight. I don’t know why some people strategically want to keep away those primitive tribes from modern society and lifestyle?”

I mean, there is no doubt that Vedanta – and the off icials who allowed it to – violate rules and norms must be punished. But must the poor of Kalahandi be perpetually denied the benefi ts of industrial growth just because activists are convinced that they are better off in pristine poverty with a life expectancy of less than 45 years and infant mortality of more than 300 per thousand? I have been following the Posco controversy too where a committee appointed by Minister of Environment Jairam Ramesh has declared that the Posco project violates tribal rights. Now, I have done my schooling in Orissa and fi nd it preposterous when the esteemed committee members say that tribals are being forcibly displaced by the Posco project. There never were tribals living traditionally in that area; the closest they lived was hundreds of kilometres away. Ask anyone in Orissa and she will tell you this is a fact. And yet, we – even in the media – have collectively swallowed this nonsense that the land needed for the Posco project is a traditional habitat of tribals!

That brings us to the darker side of activism which all of us know but feel too polite to publicly shout about. Says Rajesh Sharma, News Editor, Sandesh Daily, Ahmedabad, “The role of all these so called ‘activists’ is very clear. Most of them have a clear agenda to blackmail the industrialists. They raise the issue, protest heavily, hold rallies and dharnas and when the situation worsens as per their planning, they simply signal the other party for compromise. Not surprisingly, they ‘charge’ a heft y amount for setback. Th is kind of pre-planned and well intentional drive of protesting industrial projects is uprising. The time has come for authorities to take charge of the situation and give them a lesson.”

It is the proliferation of ideologically fanatical, India-hating and downright greedy activists that is giving a bad name to what was once considered a noble cause. I mean, look at someone like Aruna Roy. The lady gave up her job as an IAS officer and has been working with villagers in Rajasthan as an activist for close to four decades. Most people like you and me cannot even comprehend the dedication and commitment that Magsaysay Award winner Aruna Roy has displayed. But how many times have you heard her going out of her way seeking publicity and spouting venom against India?

The fact is: activism is now a sunrise sector where the opportunity to make tons of money and seek your 15 minutes of fame exists alongside the simple desire to help. No wonder the number of NGOs has grown from a little more than 1 lakh in the 1970s to more than 1.1 million currently. No wonder that foreign donations according to government have gone up during the same time from a few hundred thousand dollars to more than 4 billion dollars every year. No wonder that aid agencies like Oxfam lament that less than 500 NGOs in India actually follow ‘honest and transparent’ accounting practices.

I will provide one more example to conclude my argument. Everyone knows that Indian agriculture faces a crisis of stagnation and productivity, that the Indian farmer is in desperate need of help. But the largest number of NGOs and activists working in this sector are those who relentlessly oppose GM crops. They were so successful in city aft er city in portraying GM crops as an evil force during public hearings and debates that Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh refused to allow them in India. Suffice to say that activists and vested interests in Europe spend millions of dollars opposing GM crops because it is primarily an American technological success. I am not saying GM crops off er a solution to India. But can we at least talk and debate about it please?

And what can India do about these India hating, development hating and ideologically fanatical activists and NGOs? If we remain a democracy, they have a right to be destructive. I am personally convinced a majority of Indians will sooner or later see through these gimmicks for what they are.

NOW ‘GRAB’ WATER ALONG WITH LAND FOR DEVELOPMENT

2010-10-15T18:15:00.001+05:30

Water was shimmering almost all the way to the horizon. Th e gates of the Hirakud dam, more than 50 years aft er it was built, stood as sentinels guarding the Nehruvian legacy that dreamt of the ‘modern temples of India.' I am on a trip to Orissa to work on a story for the year end issue of our sister publication Th e Sunday Indian. I recall how we used to feel proud as children when the Hirakud dam was touted as the longest dam in the world; and along with Bhakra Nangal Dam, the Nehruvian thrust that would propel India towards becoming an industrialised and prosperous nation.

But, like so many other Nehruvian dreams and legacies, the Hirakud dam too is now becoming a mute testimony to the cruel joke that ‘development’ is playing on the common citizens of India. For decades, the irrigated fields near Hirakud dam produced record harvests and made the farmers of this area genuinely prosperous. Many of these farmers are migrants from Andhra Pradesh who have toiled hard for generations to leverage irrigation and water to build economic security – and even prosperity. Now, many of these farmers are committing suicide.

The reason is simple: this part of Orissa is witnessing rapid industrialisation and steel plants plus other industrial projects are mushrooming with amazing speed. They are all hungry for water, and lots of it. What better source than the Hirakud dam. Local farmers are already realising with dismay that ‘industry’ almost always gets preference over ‘agriculture’ when the state machinery is concerned. So these huge steel plants and other projects have started taking away water that for generations irrigated the fields of the farmers and generated golden harvests. Of course, they are protesting; but then the state is making its priorities very clear. It wants industry. One of the most ironical and cruel aspects of this is that the original ‘oustees’ of the Hirakud dam now face ‘displacement’ yet again because the state now wants the land they were forced to resettle in for ‘industry’.

This is not very different from the manner in which land has been snatched away from common citizens in the name of development. Virtually, all over India, places like Nandigram and Singur have become symbols of the tyrannical manner in which the State compels local people to hand over land for industrial projects and so-called SEZs without paying adequate compensation. Something similar is happening with water. Local farmers have depended on the water discharged by Hirakud dam for decades to irrigate their fields. Now that the same water will be diverted for industrial projects, who will compensate them for the loss of livelihood? Mark my words, this issue of the State forcibly diverting water for ‘industry’ is going to trigger violent protests.

In any case, the manner in which we manage water reflects how feudal and predatory our State still is. Bureaucrats and those with money have virtually unlimited access to water in their houses and use it extravagantly. People living in slums actually buy water everyday – oft en paying as much as Rs.20 per bucket. In Mumbai, officers of the Indian Navy get water supply for barely half an hour everyday. Th e powers that be have no such problem. So much for the egalitarian society Nehru dream about.

IT IS TIME FOR HINDI-CHINI BYE BYE

2010-10-01T12:13:00.000+05:30

Rising powers have a habit of flexing muscles. They are also genetically programmed to keep pushing the envelope; to keep cajoling, threatening, posturing and browbeating neighbours and other global powers. Germany did that in the beginning of the late 19th century. Japan did that in the first half of the 20th century. Russia did that even before the end of the Second World War. The result was two World Wars and a Cold War. Now, it is the turn of China to enter the equation.

Will the rise of China eventually lead to conflict, violence, bloodshed, hatred, triumphal emotions and even a war? If you go by history, violence, bloodshed and war are very much on the cards. Notice how China behaved almost immediately after it surpassed Japan as the second largest economy of the world. It has ploughed into a war of words with Japan. Ostensibly, the dispute is related to conflicting sovereign rights of the two nations over East Asian waters. In reality, it is China flexing its now hefty muscles and generally telling the world that it is really a Big Boy now; not to be trifled with. It doesn’t help that Japan had once militarily occupied China; Chinese rulers don’t seem to mind stoking jingoistic fires, as the average Chinese citizen is reminded again and again of Japan’s role as a former Imperial power.

China is treating India even more disdainfully. It refuses to allow a serving army general to visit China only because he is posted in Jammu and Kashmir which, China now seems to think, is a disputed territory. It is refusing to give visas to people from Arunachal Pradesh, since it claims the state actually belongs to China. It deliberately provokes and humiliates India by stapling visas to the passports of visiting Kashmiris instead of stamping them. It tried every trick in the book to sabotage India’s entry into the formal club of nuclear powers. Having failed, it is publicly and loudly doing everything it can to help Pakistan with nuclear technology and reactors; in a deal that mirrors India’s nuclear deal with the United States.

This China has to be stopped before it goes too far; so far down the road that conflict and war become inevitable in Asia. And India is in a unique position to play the kind of balancing role that will prevent that kind of catastrophe. As of now, Japan and India are the only powers in Asia who can say no to China. Others like South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and even Australia too would love to do that; but they simply don’t have the heft to do so.

As the visit of US President Barack Obama draws near, India strategists must ponder over this new role India must play in Asia. The idea is not to oppose everything that China does. But it is to send an unmistakable message to the rulers in Beijing that that there is a limit to which they can proceed and not beyond that. How about persuading America, Japan and ASEAN nations to announce that Tibet is disputed territory? How about providing special incentives to investors from Taiwan?

The sooner China realizes that there will always be limits to its power, the more its rulers will think before crossing the line while playing Big Boy. Frankly, that would be good even for China.

THIS HAVE-A-CAKE GOVERNMENT!

2010-09-17T10:56:00.000+05:30

The pink papers have been going ga ga over the spanking new Wholesale Price Index (WPI). First, the new index shows that the rate of inflation is 8.5% while the old index would have it at about 9.5%. Conjure and juggle numbers and voila, you have taken care of the aam aadmi! Second, the new index (admittedly) better reflects the changing structure of the Indian economy where citizens now consume a larger basket of products and services. More than 220 new product and service categories have been added to make the index more representative. That’s compelling logic no doubt.

But take a quick look at the kind of new product and service categories added and you will immediately realize how this government – thanks to a hopelessly ineffective opposition and a virtually supine and servile media – is getting away by fooling all the people almost all the time. Some of the new products that are part of this ‘more representative’ index are beer (a weight of 0.155), ice cream, mineral water (I am sure distressed farmers rush off to buy a bottle of Bisleri along with pesticides when they see suicide as the only option), blended liquor, gold (a weight of 0.364), computers, washing machines and refrigerators (a weight of 0.194). How many of the 500 odd million Indians who live in abject and degrading poverty drink beer & mineral water and go to swanky malls to buy computers and refrigerators?

Sure, some might argue that the presence of 500 million poor Indians does not mean that we don’t need a ‘better’ and ‘bigger’ WPI. After all, the consuming classes too are Indian citizens. Fair enough. But how about an honest attempt to create a new consumer price index that reflects the consumption patterns of the really poor and of families hovering on the edges of poverty? Of course, we have consumer price indices of various kinds – for industrial workers and even for agricultural workers. But when was the last time you heard about this government spending time, money and energy on committees to upgrade those indices? The point is simple: for the really poor, more than 80% of income is spent on food. And with rampaging food inflation, you can well imagine their plight. Nobody talks about it anymore because the vocal middle class which also consumes the media has been virtually insulated against inflation because of a rapid rise in family incomes – both in the private and the government sector. And yet, imagine the hungama that is created when the price of LPG cylinders is raised by a relatively meager amount. Really, this is unparalleled hypocrisy for a society that claims to be democratic and a government that claims to think mainly of the aam aadmi.

Food-grains rotting while the poor are starving? This government ticks off the Supreme Court for interfering in policy matters. Vocal and politically powerful groups demand more reservations? Give it to them: most of them will not go to a college anyway. The poor dying of malaria and tuberculosis by the tens of thousands and their families going bankrupt due to medical expenses? Give more ‘subsidised’ land for corporate hospitals.

By the way, the new index also has an entry called ‘rose’. Wonder what Jawaharlal Nehru would have thought of that.

CAN SHARAD PAWAR NOW FIX HIS SPOT?

2010-09-03T11:30:00.000+05:30

Just imagine the kind of mind-boggling multi-tasking he is doing. Here you have the Supreme Court of India that loudly and publicly berates him for allegedly trying to ‘spin’ the orders passed by the Court regarding food for starving Indians. Lest you think, this Supreme Court ‘flipper’ will flip him and make him move his focus away from spin, you are wrong. There are reports that it is actually ‘fast’ and ‘swing’ bowling that holds his attention. I am really guessing out here, but I have a feeling that Justice Kapadia is at the moment less important to him than Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif.

And why not? Sharad Pawar has been a politician, a minister, a Chief Minister and a Prime Minister in waiting for so long that a few barbs here and there, trying to prick his conscience about starving Indians will not really matter to him. After all, how can it matter when the ‘farmer’ politician knows that a 20% food inflation will starve people (who spend almost 80% of their income on food) and then blithely announces that the menace will soon be tamed… I am sure, it was easier Taming the Shrew… But for Sharad Pawar, this is his first stint as the President of the International Cricket Council (ICC) and scandals like the one so embarrassingly visible about Pakistani players is a challenge he is facing for the first time. After all, his name in posterity could go down as the honcho of ICC, who presided over the decline and fall of cricket because fans fi nally got tired of watching fixed matches. Surely you know that is different from poor farmers getting tired of ‘fixed’ distribution of food.

But jokes apart, and trying our best to forget the mess that the Commonwealth Games is making when it comes to the image of India (and please don’t smirk: I won’t be surprised if some of our new IPL stars from India eventually get enmeshed in this spot fixing scam), have we given serious thought to this extreme and ultimate form of crony socialism? I mean, Sharad Pawar might be the ultimate when it comes to multi-tasking; but how does he simultaneously deal with starving Indians and the swinging ways of Pakistani fast bowlers whose girl friends tend to kiss and yell? You can give as much spin as you want to this sorry tale; but surely Sharad Pawar must be spending some quality time everyday on the spot fixing scam? What about food security for Indians?

Call me nostalgic and a fool (and I am sure some guys made money even then). But I remember being proud of being an Indian during Asian Games '82. And I was prouder still when I heard tales as a young journalist about how Madhav Rao Scindia played a key role in ensuring South Asia got the Cricket World Cup in 1996. I know, South Asia is once again preparing for the next edition of the World Cup in 2011. And I know we will rave and rant about ‘white’ and ‘western’ media and people being prejudiced and racist when it comes to simple, God-fearing, innocent folks like you and me.

Like some Queen somewhere might have said when asked about spot fixing: “Out Damned Spot”.

WHY MPS MUST GET A PAY OF RS 5 LAKH PER MONTH

2010-08-20T09:53:00.008+05:30

The credibility of our politicians is so low that the media and the public at large are sniggering at the proposal to raise the salary of MPs to 50,000 per month. Thanks mainly to their own behaviour and the brazen corruption of some of their fellowmen, we often tend to forget or ignore the fact that those are MPs and MLAs who actually perform the most important tasks in the country. For the middle class chatterati which has a ‘radical’ solution for every problem that India faces, the solution would be doing away with MPs, and perhaps even elections. Frankly, the middle class chatterati has no interest in democracy. But India cannot afford such solutions.

Given the enormity of the task they perform, I think the MPs need to be paid far more than what they get now. Look at it this way: each MP is responsible for a shareholder base of about 20 million. The actual budget of each constituency runs into hundreds of crores every year. And while district collectors and district magistrates are merely transferred for incompetence or non-performance, an MP can – and oft en does – actually lose his job! To that extent, an MP actually deserves a monthly salary of 5 Lakh per month. There should be an additional travel and other allowance of 1 lakh per month. That sounds preposterously high? It is not. Paying them these ‘reasonable’ salaries will cost the tax payer less than 1000 crores a year.

But as pointed out and suggested by this magazine and many others umpteen number of times, the problem is not paying generous salaries to our MPs – they deserve that for sure. The problem is with the ‘perks’ that they enjoy. That really is costly and something no elected representative of any functional democracy can demand as a right. Yes, by all means pay 6 lakh every month to our honourable MPs. But then stop giving them free housing in VIP Delhi. Just as it happens in UK, USA, Denmark, Australia and most other democracies, ask our honourable MPs to find their own houses-rented or owned. This will lead to enormous savings for the society – apart from making the MPs more connected with the citizens of India.

Just imagine what can happen to the Indian economy if the logic is extended to all politicians and all bureaucrats in India. They are squatting on the most prime real estate assets available in the country. For example, pay a district collector (an IAS officer) a monthly salary of 1 lakh and ask her to find her own house. Surely the rent for even a wonderful house in a small town cannot exceed 20,000? Why let her stay in a massive bungalow with acres of lawns when that land can be better utilized commercially?

You know what the answer will be when politicians and bureaucrats are actually offered this option – huge tax free salaries but no perks. They will find every possible excuse and refuse. That is because our mindset has really not changed much since the British left. Our rulers (politicians and bureaucrats) are ‘public servants’ only in name. Deep down, they treat the ‘public’ as worse than servants. Long live Indian democracy!

TIME FOR A NEW LOOK CABINET

2010-08-06T10:09:00.000+05:30

The manner in which the chattering class is reacting to the massive corruption that is being unearthed in the run up to the Common ‘wealth’ Games can be described in two ways: it is either charmingly naïve or disarmingly sanctimonious. Either ways, we again hear clarion calls from all and sundry on the need to change the ‘system’. Since change should begin at the top, here is a new look Union Cabinet that Manmohan Singh can wave at the nation with a brief mention of some key ministers and ministries:

• Lalit Modi becomes the Union Finance Minister. I don’t know what will happen to India’s finances (Though I guess you can take a guess!). But one thing is for sure. Hundreds of millions of Indians will start watching the Lok Sabha TV channel because cheerleaders from South Africa with micro mini skirts will start dancing on the aisle of the Parliament.

• Suresh Kalmadi becomes the Union Minister of Mines. This will ensure that his team of officials, advisors, friends and partners will think that all of India is an open cast mine and start digging up everything, everywhere. The aam aadmi is anyway used to the mountains of dirt that will start flying all over.

• Vijay Mallya becomes the Union Foreign Minister. His fellow Karnataka citizen S.M. Krishna may have mucked it all up. But he will be different. The moment Shah Mahmood Qureshi-the Foreign Minister of Pakistan starts opening his ‘loud’ mouth, Mallya will unveil the latest Kingfisher calendar. That will lead not only to peace, but also a jaw dropping spectacle. Who knows, even the Taliban might decide that women in Afghanistan can go without veils.

• Arundhati Roy becomes the Union Home Minister. The first thing she will do is send Digvijay Singh on a Marco Polo like journey to discover the ‘root causes’. Then she will join the Gandhians with Guns in the jungles of Chattisgarh and draft a new internal security doctrine. The primary objective of the doctrine will be that at least 100 security personnel are killed every week in ambushes. Of course she won't be satisfied with that. She will have the Gandhians with Guns chop off the limbs of those who dare oppose her visions of a pastoral paradise. Since she has since long seceded from the Indian Republic, she won’t even have to take the oath of office.

• Mamata Bannerjee becomes the Union Civil Aviation Minister. I don’t know what you will do, but I will surely rediscover the joys and ecstasies of traveling by train.

• Lalu Prasad Yadav becomes the Union Surface Transport Minister. All Indian roads will start looking like Hema Malini’s cheeks. And there will be no question of any tongue in cheek.

• Prakash Karat becomes special envoy to America. Since many Americans are anyway convinced that Barack Obama is a closet Marxist, Karat will do wonders to Indo-American relations.

And of course, Manmohan Singh doffs his hat to the Union Agriculture & Food Minister Sharad Pawar for his scintillating performance and announces that he is stepping down, to be replaced by the Maratha strongman as the Prime Minister. I don’t know about you; but I have a sneaking feeling that Lalit Modi will be grateful.

SADO MASOCHISM : QURESHI & KRISHNA ...

2010-07-23T10:26:00.001+05:30

You got it right. When it comes to the impossible task of dealing with Pakistan, a hack can always fall back upon a dictionary full of clichés and yet have room for some of the more tired ones. The one I have stumbled upon this time gives a slightly wicked twist to that old one about hoping for the best. When it comes to Pakistan, it is high time (another damn cliché!) that India hopes for the worse and is prepared for the worst. The real reason for this conclusion is based upon another old one: those who forget history are condemned to repeat it. And yes, we in India are on the verge of repeating history in a manner that will only confuse, befuddle and eventually humiliate the nation.

Look at what happened recently in Islamabad when the former Chief Minister of Karnataka and former Governor of Maharashtra and current Foreign Minister S.M Krishna was holding ‘peace’ talks with his Pakistani counterpart S.M Qureshi. I still fail to understand how the word ‘peace’ is so badly misused and rammed into the agenda of talks between India and Pakistan. I mean, both you and I know that the real chances of peace (at least if you interpret the word honestly) between India and Pakistan are more remote than Rahul Gandhi joining the BJP – as long as the existing ruling establishment in Pakistan rules the roost (another damn cliché!). What happened in Islamabad was predictable, if you know your history. The Foreign Minister of Pakistan was least interested in ‘peace’; his agenda was to play to the gallery (oops, another one!) – a gallery that seats the ruling military establishment and its principal strategic ally, the group of Jehadi outfits whose declared aim is the destruction of India. Semantics about whether Qureshi broke diplomatic protocol and niceties and whether Krishna should have given a fitting reply are useless; the problem is, we persist with the vain hope that Pakistan might one day stop giving two hoots about niceties when it comes to India.

The second decade of the 21st century looks ominously similar to the last decade of the 20th century when the retreating Soviet Union left a vacuum in Afghanistan. It is a matter of time before American and NATO forces will do something similar in this decade. In both cases, the ruling military establishment of Pakistan had, and has, strong and credible reasons to be convinced that its policy of forging a strategic alliance with the Jehadis is paying spectacular dividends. Despite tall talk from America and feigned bluster from the generals in Islamabad, the fact of the matter is that Pakistan has never severed its ties with Jehadi groups even after 9/11.

And now, when the generals in Islamabad sense an opportunity to once again acquire strategic depth in Afghanistan a la the 1990s, it makes no sense for them to stop mollycoddling the Jehadis, particularly the ones that are most viciously disposed towards India. So please stop nursing silly notions of our neighbour actually dispensing justice and punishing those guilty of 26/11. In fact, they will be rewarded.

And brace for more terrible terror attacks as this decade progresses.

WILL ‘PROFIT’ EVER HAVE A CONSCIENCE?

2010-06-10T15:24:00.001+05:30

Many years ago, the ‘legendary’ GE CEO Jack Welch proclaimed in virtually as many words that CEOs who spent money on corporate social responsibility were morons and deserved to be sacked because their primary function was to reward shareholders. Of course, when Jack Welch delivered this central tenet of capitalism and ‘free’ markets, America and the world were celebrating the triumph of capitalism over socialism and Francis Fukuyama had even announced the end of ideology.There were many in India who wildly cheered the triumph of capitalism as the magic wand that would solve India’s economic problems. They even hectored, bullied and ridiculed policy makers who did not want India to adopt what George Soros and Joseph Stiglitz have so brilliantly described as ‘financial capitalism’ and ‘free market fundamentalism’. That breed has of course gone relatively quiet after the 2008 meltdown.

Yet, the recent verdict in the Bhopal gas homicide (yes, I am deliberately using the word because Bhopal will always be a case of corporate homicide) has raised many fundamental questions about banally used terms like Capitalism, Free Markets and Profits. Most people – and very rightly so – have condemned the entire event as a travesty of justice. Thinking people have again raised red flags about the pathetic state of the justice delivery system in India. Politicians, as usual, have sputtered, fumed, raved and ranted on TV news channels.

If you are an optimist, you might be tempted to think that the uproar triggered by the Bhopal case might result in some legal reforms whereby companies and CEOs will actually be made to pay for corporate crimes that endanger and damage human beings and society (I personally think that Bhopal would have disappeared from TV screens by the time you read this). If you are an angst filled cynic like me, you might wonder if that Utopia will ever been seen. Look at what is happening in the fountainhead of Capitalism – America. More than 20 years ago, there was a disastrous oil spill and the culprit was the giant Exxon. I still remember – as a young journalist – reading wise columns in T e Economist arguing for better regulation of ‘Free Markets’ and ‘Capitalism’ as the way to avoid the similar tragedies in the future. (By then, the failure of Socialism to protect human lives from industrial disasters had been cruelly exposed by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the erstwhile Soviet Union). More than 20 years later, it is another giant BP that is the culprit and another oil spill in America is causing monumental damage.

Cynical it may sound, but for someone like me with a very modest understanding of economics, it seems clear that the pursuit of profits (the sole reason of existence of companies in a capitalist system) will always cause human misery and deprivation. It also seems to me that the word ‘Free Market’ is a farce because a truly free market means all participants have access to information. You must be joking if you still think the underprivileged have access to information in a capitalist system wile making transactions.

I know; one cannot dismiss Capitalism and Free Markets completely as evil because they have actually lift ed hundreds of millions out of poverty. And yet, I wonder if free markets can ever swat away the stench of human misery.

IT IS STUPID TO BLAME UNIONS FOR THE MESS AT AIR INDIA

2010-05-28T10:24:00.001+05:30

I was scheduled to take IC 878 from Bhubaneswar to Delhi on May 26 after doing field work for a story on the controversial Vedanta University project in Orissa (Please do read the cover story in this issue). Of course, I became one of the thousands of ‘stranded’ passengers thanks to the “irresponsible” strike called by the trade unions of Air India. I managed to get a ticket on an Indigo flight and landed safely in Delhi. Today morning, I picked up the papers and read that Civil Aviation minister Praful Patel was telling journalists that “there has to be some accountability” even as he blasted unions of Air India for suddenly going on strike so soon after the Mangalore tragedy.

I couldn’t help laughing loudly at the words and also laughing at the hysterical sanctimony displayed by newspapers and TV channels branding Air India employees as anti-national ghouls and blackmailers. I really don’t think you and I can blame the employees and the unions for the strike or for thinking that they are not accountable. Hold your breath: I hold no brief for the unionised employees. Like you and others, I am also disgusted by these antics. But then, who made these employees so unaccountable in the first place? And is accountability a one way street for employees to follow while politicians and top bureaucrats wantonly flout norms? In case you forgot, one of the more interesting items of news that came out during the muck raking IPL scandal recently was how the daughter of Praful Patel had allegedly diverted Air India flights with paying passengers to suit either her fancy or that of Lalit Modi or God knows who. Did accountability fl y out of the window Mr. Patel? Were not paying passengers harassed by these abrupt and arbitrary changes in their flight schedules? And how many journalists and media outlets since then have you seen or heard chasing the story and finding out if the daughter of the Civil Aviation minister did those things?

Frankly, our system is so rotten that even journalists like me have become used to the fact that ministers and their kin have a birthright when it comes to doing anything they want to. At Bhubaneswar airport, I was chatting with some AI employees who were still on strike. Some of them offered me an interesting piece of information which I must share with you. Thanks to companies like Infosys setting up shop in Orissa, air traffic between Bangalore and Bhubaneswar has gone up manifold. Air India used to run a direct flight between Bangalore and Bhubaneswar. Suddenly, the direct flight service was stopped. Now, the real beneficiary is Kingfisher Red, which runs a direct flight. The employees tell me with a grin that this almost certainly happened when the de facto owner of Kingfisher Red was a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Aviation!!!

Let's all grow up guys and stop hectoring only the Air India employees just because they don’t have the power to hit back. Let's just celebrate India Shining and the good times and stop this sanctimony about accountability.

CAN WE INVEST IN SOME VISION PLEASE?

2010-05-14T11:23:00.002+05:30

Two issues have engaged pundits in recent days. The first one relates to the Supreme Court verdict that seems to have gone against Anil Ambani. Apart from furious number crunching, the verdict has also triggered a spate of stories on the role of lobbyists used by India Inc. to win battles and wars in North Block, South Block and many other blocks that stand as sinister reminders of a feudal and oligarchic India that refuses to fade away. I am not joking, but I think I now know more about Nira Radia than Nusli Wadia! And honest to goodness, I know some ambitious young television journalists who seem to be confused about who is who between the two!!!

The second debating point was triggered by the stubbornly persistent footin- the-mouth disease of Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh who trashed Indian policy and Indian policymakers while visiting China. This has led to a spate of stories on the strange ability of Indian ministers to say things which embarrasses the UPA government. Oh yes, I got to read dozens of delicious ‘recall’ stories about how the tweet about flying cattle class was the beginning of the end for Shashi Tharoor.

All the sound, fury, punditry and polemics generated by the two controversies have missed – as usual – missed the central issues that need to be addressed: What should be the relationship between India Inc. and the government? And, what should be India’s strategic posture when it comes to China? The stark reality is that there is a very depressingly familiar lack of vision and a long term plan on both counts. And both India Inc. and policymakers are equally guilty of this short-sightedness.

Not one account of the ‘lobbying wars’ unleashed by the Ambani brothers seems to acknowledge and accept the fact that the corporate sector and the government work very closely together in the US, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Russia and China. That is a reality no amount of moral grandstanding by columnists will erase. You must be living in a fool’s paradise if you think Embraer, Lenovo, Huwaei, LG, Hyundai, Toyota, Honda and numerous others have become global powerhouses solely on the basis of entrepreneurial genius and without any active as well as clandestine ‘State’ support. In India too, the corporate sector and the government have a cosy relationship. Like elsewhere, policymakers in India oft en take decisions that brazenly favour the corporate sector – many might say unjustifiably. The problem is, India Inc. and the government are happy with short term gains in the form of tax breaks, cheap land and other freebies. Ask yourself this one troubling question – with the tens of billions of dollars of market capitalisation, how is it that no Indian business house has managed to become a serious player in the telecom equipment business? Or in the IT server business? Or in the serious infrastructure business where Big Boys play day and night? That brings us to the vexing issue of China. It is the magazine The Economist, which informed us that China does not allow wind energy player Suzlon to sell turbines in China because it wants to encourage ‘local’ growth. How many media outlets in India have reported this fact? I rest my case.

WILL GMR GET AWAY AGAIN IN JULY?

2010-04-30T10:17:00.000+05:30

I am sure many of you must have spent some time at the ‘still being created’ Delhi International Airport before taking a flight. It looks slick and is full of joints that sell burgers, beer, books and what not. It even has a spa. Of course, it is a different matter that a 'wee bit' of rain flooded the world class airport and that flights get routinely disrupted during winter because of fog. For a few burgers and other stuff , each one of us taking a domestic flight, is paying Rs.200 to GMR – the company that is behind modernisation of the Delhi airport – and each one of us, going out of India pays Rs.1,200 to GMR. Now hang on. You will find the media littered with reports and PR pieces about the great new Terminal 3 that is coming up. I am sure you will get more beers and burgers there. But rest assured, you will probably end up paying even more to GMR as user charges!

Busy as we are with the IPL scam and other matters of grave interest to the Indian citizen and consumer, hardly any hack is paying any attention to this organised loot that is happening. When GMR wanted to charge Rs.200 and Rs.1200 more from each outbound passenger, the logic it gave was that the project was becoming unviable without that money. The company also gave a commitment that it will submit details of costs and other estimates justifying the extra charges by September 2009. In the meanwhile, India got a spanking new regulator in the form of Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA). By March 2010, when GMR had forgotten or failed to file those numbers, AERA threatened that it will be compelled to withdraw the excess charge. Managers at GMR responded by saying that all details will be filed by April 6, 2010. I may be wrong, but I think no such report has been filed yet by GMR. Meanwhile, it is reported that GMR has made close to Rs.600 crore by selling usage rights to stores, franchises and builders.We now hear that the project cost has gone up from Rs.8,975 crore to Rs.12,700 crore!

So this is a double whammy for the consumer. First, you and I are fed with stories about how world class, how unique and how great the new airport will be. Then we are subtly told to be ready to pay substantially more as user charges to GMR when the new Terminal 3 becomes operational in July. GMR is a private risk-taking company whose principal job is to chase profits and take risks. In any other same situation, if the cost of the bid submitted by GMR went up by almost 50%, it would be punished by the markets as a failure of entrepreneurship and management. But this is India, where markets are subservient slaves of a system we all know as crony capitalism. And the newly formed AERA appears to be a toothless tiger, unable to stop this loot. But why single out GMR? Most Indian companies and entrepreneurs love the Indian system of capitalism, because it rewards them even when their estimates and decisions are plain wrong. And consumers like you and me can go to hell.

Just wait for July to see how a media campaign for even higher user charges will be unleashed.

IF THIS IS HOW YOU TREAT MARTYRS...

2010-04-16T09:47:00.000+05:30

Many of you might dismiss this as a plug; but believe me, this one comes straight from the heart. If you can spare some time, please read the cover story of T e Sunday Indian magazine that is available in the stands. You will read about a police constable Pratima Rout, one of the few who survived the Maoist massacre of Nayagarh (Orissa) in 2008. She was hospitalised with four serious bullet wounds. Forget adequate care, appreciation and compensation, Pratima realised that a senior cop of the IPS cadre actually stole some of the money allotted to her for treatment. The police department of Orissa now wants to recover the money from her. The same police department kept sending her notices demanding why the bullet riddled Pratima is not reporting for work. You will read about Mase, the widow of martyr Ganga Madkami, a policeman killed during a Maoist mine blast in Orissa in 2008. Mase and her eight year-old son Sunadhar, stay in a tribal village in the Malkangiri district – far away from the state capital Bhubaneswar. She is crestfallen and defeated by India’s bureaucracy; the illiterate widow has to go every month to Bhubaneswar and bribe a gang of ghouls (office babus) before she can lay hands on the pension due to her.

There is yet another case in which the Chief Minister of Orissa Naveen Patnaik personally intervened; or so the media reported. Sub-Inspector Ajit Bardhan was abducted and butchered by Maoists in July 2009. His retired father Jaykrishna Pradhan suffered a heart attack. The CM personally visited their house and issued categorical orders that the father and the widow (who incidentally went into labour on hearing of her husband’s death) be taken care of. Today, the retired father is doing the rounds of government offices because even the provident fund and family pension of his martyred son is yet to be released. There are numerous destroyed families of martyrs in Orissa – and everywhere else in India – who are going through more state-sponsored trauma.

Just forget all the hogwash about India Shining. How in God’s name can a nation and society even have the temerity to lay claim to greatness, when it so callously treats the families of those who laid down their lives to protect the nation and the society?

I could be biased because many of my close family members serve in the Armed Forces. But really, the shame is searing and scathing. I recall the summer of 1999 when India was fighting the Kargil war. My brother-in-law who belongs to The Rajputana Rifles, was sent with his unit to Kargil, leaving my sister and two young kids behind at Faizabad where he was posted. At the height of the war, I actually saw my sister being heckled by the railway reservation clerk at Faizabad who mocked at the fact that her husband had been sent to fight a war and she needed a train ticket that was her right as a citizen. I realised that day that the most destructive legacy the British had left behind was the bureaucracy.

Forget personal bias. Talk to anyone who knows these things and you will realise how the bureaucrats have systematically sidelined, humiliated and emasculated the Armed Forces. And then you read nonsense about India on the verge of becoming 'Great'? You must have a sick sense of humour...

CAN LAW & LEGISLATION CURE SOCIAL EVILS?

2010-04-02T10:27:00.000+05:30

Typically succumbing to hype and hyperbole, the media decreed that it was a “historic” verdict. I am talking about the death sentence given to five people in Haryana accused of brutally murdering a young girl and her husband for defying ‘tradition’ as decreed by caste chieftains. The man who organised the “khap” panchayat that delivered the death sentence on the couple has been sentenced for life. This is the first time that a court has given a death sentence to the accused in a crime like this. We all know that in large swathes of North India – particularly Haryana, Punjab and Western Uttar Pradesh, such extra judicial executions of “lovers” have been a common occurrence, oft en with the cops looking the other way. In these parts of India, falling in love with someone of your “gotra” is clearly suicidal. Now, after this ‘historic’ verdict, pundits are proclaiming that the death sentence will act as a deterrent for the bigoted who think respect for ‘tradition’ and caste is more important than life and liberty.

Will it? I still recall a similar kind of media hype a few years ago when a court had convicted a Haryana based doctor of conducting “illegal” tests to determine the sex of a foetus and aborting it, because it happened to be that of a girl. That too was labeled a historic verdict and pundits had proclaimed that it would act as a deterrent for prejudiced parents and greedy doctors who routinely aborted pregnancies when the foetus turned out to be that of a girl child. To the best of my knowledge, prejudiced parents and greedy doctors – despite the historic verdict – persist with this social evil. In some parts of North India – Haryana again – things are so bad that strapping young lads have to share a bride ‘imported’ from West Bengal or Jharkhand because their parents finished off ‘local’ brides even before they were born.

This is a serious issue for all of us to ponder. What I have realised is that prosperity and even education do not seem to have an impact on the ‘mindsets’ that breed such social evils. A research study done a couple of years ago provided the shocking statistics that the sex ratio was the worst in South and West Delhi – the most prosperous and posh areas of the Indian capital. And of course, we all know that Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh are prosperous. You would think that access to higher education could change at least the people who get educated; that it might persuade them to forsake and renounce social evils. You would be mistaken. I have personally come across many Marx spouting “intellectuals” from parts of Eastern India who have passed through the portals and gates of the venerable Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and taken dowry without batting an eyelid. If an "intellectual” from JNU who becomes a civil servant, happily takes – and oft en demands – dowry, what do you expect from the illiterate villagers of Haryana?

Sure, law and legislation do not immediately help because it takes generations to change mindsets... But – if implemented effectively – they do make a difference. Look at that so-called land of liberty – America. Despite Barack Obama, racial prejudice & discrimination is an ugly reality out there. Imagine what would be the state of affairs if a law “empowering” blacks (known as the 'Civil Acts Right of 1964') had not been passed in 1964? And think about the status of blacks in America today, despite the law…

HOW DR. SINGH THE BUREAUCRAT HAS WON…

2010-03-19T10:38:00.000+05:30

…against Manmohan Singh the politician. Everybody knows that bureaucrats – by definition, instinct, training and mindset – are incapable of leading revolutions. Forget revolution, the chances of bureaucrats initiating and nurturing even substantive change are about as high as Dr. Manmohan Singh personally contesting the next Lok Sabha elections against Sonia Gandhi. And in a dysfunctional democracy like India where bureaucrats are simply not accountable to absolutely anybody except their own old boys club, it would be folly to expect them to actually behave and perform like ‘public servants’. There have been notable and noble exceptions no doubt; but they have been exceptions. No matter how deeply fl awed they are, it is politicians who deliver change in a democracy – for better or for worse. And no matter how dysfunctional Indian democracy is, politicians have realised that they are indeed accountable to voters. So it is Jawaharlal Nehru and B. R. Ambedkar who first empowered a majority of Indian women by giving Hindu women property rights. It is Indira Gandhi who nationalised banks and abolished privy purses. It is the feisty George Fernandes who ‘threw’ Coke and IBM out of India. It is Rajiv Gandhi who preferred technocrats over bureaucrats to seed the revolution in India’s IT and telecom sectors. Sadly, it is Rajiv Gandhi who listened to terrible advice and made the Parliament deny alimony to Shah Bano. It is Madhav Rao Scindia who originally transformed Indian Railways. It is V. P. Singh who unleashed the Mandal genie. It is Atal Behari Vajpayee who took the nuclear leap of faith and unleashed a vision to modernize Indian roads and highways. It is Sonia Gandhi who compelled the government of the day to introduce historic policies like NREGS, RTI and now the Women’s Reservation Bill. And it is Kapil Sibal who seems determined to transform the rotten education system of India.

You may well wonder why I am stating the obvious and then following it up with a swathe of examples to stress the obvious. There is a reason. When Dr. Manmohan Singh became the Prime Minister of India in 2004, discerning analysts had already figured out that there would be a titanic in house battle between Dr. Singh the quintessential bureaucrat and Manmohan Singh the reluctant politician. All those who genuinely wished India well, earnestly hoped that the reluctant politician would score over the hard core bureaucrat when matters really came to a head. Indeed, the manner in which he behaved like a ‘politician-statesman’ when it came to Indo-Pak ties and the Indo-US Nuclear Deal, prompted many breathless pundits to proclaim that a canny and ruthless politician lurked behind the docile and oft en timorous façade.

But I think that ‘manufactured’ image itself is a façade. Many decisions and moves have convinced me that the bureaucrat usually scores over the politician. I will cite just some of them. Dr. Singh allowed bureaucrats to willfully humiliate the armed forces during the Sixth Pay Commission rip-off . He allowed massive Sixth Pay Commission pay hikes for bureaucrats without asking for even an iota of accountability. He did not publicly oppose the move by bureaucrats to remove ‘file notings’ from the purview of RTI. He seems to publicly support the argument of the judiciary to exempt top judges from RTI. And look at how his team introduced the deeply fl awed and anti-Indian Nuclear Liability Bill.

But then, I don’t blame Dr. Singh at all. I think we all expected too much from a retired bureaucrat!

How this budget perpetuates feudalism and celebrates me diocrity

2010-03-04T10:02:00.000+05:30

How is it that we almost always lose sight of the big picture? How is it that we use the word ‘vision’ as oft en as a bully uses threats and then singularly fail to walk the talk? How is it that we get away year after year by hoodwinking people? I don’t think the ruling class in India indulges in such philosophical concerns and doubts. No wonder, the Union Budget for 2010-11 is at best an exercise at maintaining mediocrity in vision and the big picture. At work, it tries very hard to perpetuate the feudal system of the country where those residing in ‘India’ are subjected to momentary bouts of titillation while those residing in ‘Bharat’ are condemned to an eternity of dependence and doles. If Pranabda were a bestselling author, the Budget can actually be seen as a set of two books. The first would be titled ‘How to Say No Even if You Can Say Yes’ and the other book (meant for poor Indians) would be titled ‘The Art of Living on Doles’

I am quite astonished at how so many pundits seem to be in a state of self inflicted denial when it comes to talking straight on the Budget and the repercussions it will have. So many of them seem unhappy and yet say in the same breath that the Finance Minister has done a great job of a difficult balancing act. Of course, the fearless and peerless captains of India Inc. as usual bow, scrape and crawl when they don’t even need to bend when it comes to evaluating the Budget proposals. Worse, the media seems full of accolades, once again confirming a known fact that the Indian media cares primarily for middle class, upper middle class and rich Indians while it cares two hoots for the 700 odd million citizens who dance on the peripheries of poverty. Just ask yourself this question: how would have TV channels, newspapers and magazines reacted if the Finance Minister announced that no Indian living in a ‘pucca’ house will get an LPG cylinder at Rs 300 and instead pay the actual cost which is in excess of Rs 450? And imagine how all hell would have broken loose if income tax exemption limits were not raised? Do remember, just about 2% to 3% of Indians pay income tax.

I won’t bore you with the nitty gritty and the gory details of this number crunching exercise. Let’s just look at the vision the Finance Minister unfolded and the set of 3 challenges he identified for the medium term. The first was to restore GDP growth rate to 9% a year and take it up to double digits. The second was to ensure that this double digit growth is more ‘inclusive’. And the third was to eliminate bottlenecks (leakages, corruption, loot – call it whatever you like) in delivery of goods and services by improving the quality of governance.

For almost a week, I have scratched my head to find out a single substantive measure or policy initiative in the Budget that could actually help India confront and surmount even one of the three challenges listed by the Finance Minister. I have failed.

Let’s look at double digit growth rates of GDP. In the first place, virtually every economist who is honest to her profession and answerable to her conscience knows that the 9% plus rates of GDP growth rates achieved during 2005-08 were not because of wonderful policies launched by the government, but despite India being one of the most difficult places in the world to start and run a business. Part of the amazing growth story was the amazing ability of Indian entrepreneurs – both big and small – to seek opportunities and exploit them ruthlessly; part of it was the simple fact that the pace of technological change simply outpaced the ability of Indian bureaucracy to throttle opportunities (IT, ITES and telecom are the best examples of this); and part of this amazing growth story was a spillover effect of the bubble that was rampaging across the global economy till 2008. Do remember this when you talk the next time about India being insulated from the global economy – the annual GDP growth rate dropped a massive 3% in the immediate aftermath of the meltdown and is still 2% below the peak rate of 9.3% despite the ‘recovery’. Worse, the track record of the government in building physical infrastructure – so critical to reach the double digit growth rate in GDP – has been simply abysmal in the last 5 years or so. The worst performance is in the power sector, ports highway construction and mining. How many mega power projects have started supplying electricity to the national grid? Why are Indian steel companies being forced to import more than 40 million tons of coal when India is supposed to be sitting on the second or third largest reserves of coal in the world? Why are pundits not asking these uncomfortable questions?

The yawning gap between intention and deed is even starker when it comes to the second challenge – ensuring that the high GDP growth rates are more inclusive. Has the government done anything to ensure that the poor acquire the ‘skills’ and ‘capability’ to earn a livelihood and that their children are not denied the opportunities that children of shining ‘India’ so blithely take for granted? Go back to this Budget speech and try to recall anything on that front. Of course, the Finance Minister has generously increased allocations for social welfare programmes like NREGS and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan. But even the most generous description of NREGS would admit that it is actually a dole. Since when have doles replaced genuine investments in social infrastructure the long term weapons to fight poverty?

A complete failure to even honestly face the third challenge – tackling corruption and unaccountability in the government – is the most disgraceful of all. In 2004, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had identified reforms in bureaucracy as one of the most important priorities of his government. You won’t find him talking much about that. What has he done instead? Both quite a few honest and hardworking – and many, many more venal, corrupt and inefficient government ‘servants’ – have been rewarded with a 50% pay hike through the Sixth Pay Commission and this Budget has doubly rewarded them generous income tax relief.

So please spare me the rubbish about this Budget being a ‘good’, ‘positive’ or ‘pragmatic’ one. It is no break from the past. In fact, it perpetuates the past by rewarding mediocrity and venality and it is steeped in double standards and cynicism. But of course, the Indian economy will grow at high rates despite all this!

HOW TO OUTSOURCE NATIONAL INTEREST

2010-02-18T11:03:00.000+05:30

It is a marvel – and almost a miracle – that Jihadis took 14 months after 26/11 to strike again at a soft target; this time the German Bakery in Pune. And it can happen only in India! The week before the blast, even as the Jihadis were making their final preparations, virtually the whole of Maharashtra was obsessed with a Shah Rukh Khan movie! And in typically Indian fashion, there is a cacophony of voices arguing about the efficacy of any talks between India and Pakistan. That is expected in a democracy like India; there will always be a set of Indians who will think that love and brotherhood will ultimately defeat the hatred and mayhem unleashed by the Jihadis and there will always be a set of Indians who think that it is pointless to have any dialogue of any form with Pakistan.

I don’t think it really matters much whether India talks to Pakistan or not; at least when it comes to Jihadi attacks. Why, even a full fl edged all-out war against Pakistan will not stop the Jihadi attacks. The terror strikes will stop only if the Establishment in Pakistan stops defining its raison d etre in terms of permanent enmity with India. There is really nothing much India can do about that except hope for the best and be prepared for the worst. What is more worrisome is the manner in which India is dealing with its ‘strategic ally’ and partner United States. Ever since the nuclear deal was signed, there is this lingeringly naïve belief that America will always come out in support of India – both overtly and covertly – when it comes to tensions, disagreements and worse with China and Pakistan. This belief persists despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Of course, there are periodic bouts of ‘Et Tu Brutus’ agonising when India is given a wakeup call by America that pursues its own strategic interests; consequences for India be damned.

Just look at the scenario unfolding in the Af-Pak region. The ‘allies’ led by the armed forces of America have launched an all-out assault on the strongholds of Taliban. Uncle Sam is very worried that like in 2001, the Taliban fighters will melt away in Western Pakistan where they will find safe havens and the Jihadi version of steroids. It is very important for Pakistan not to allow that to happen. But why should Pakistan obey American dictates if there is nothing in the deal for it? Voila, let both terror and Kashmir be on the agenda of more talks between India and Pakistan. Voila, self important leaders and diplomats from the West start preaching to India about the importance of talking to Pakistan. And it is astonishing how many Indians are fooled, swayed and misled by this nonsense. I don’t know if talking to Pakistan will help India in any way or not. But I know for sure it will help America. I still recall 2003 when influential sections of India – both in the government and the media – were aggressively asking for India to send troops to Iraq to help the new ‘ally’ America. Thank God Atal Bihari Vajpayee did not allow that folly. Can Manmohan Singh draw some lessons?

AN APPEAL TO LATA MANGESHKAR AND . . .

2010-02-05T09:52:00.002+05:30

...Asha Bhosle and Nana Patekar and Madhuri Dixit and Ritesh Deshmukh and Amol Palekar and Madhur Bhandarkar and Ashutosh Gowariker and Mohan Agashe and Sai Paranjpe and Rohini Hattangadi and dozens of other illustrious and not so illustrious people who have won hearts, minds, fans and big bucks in Bollywood. Just in case you failed to notice, all these personalities are Marathi Manoos. Some are legends who have already become immortal and most have enriched Bollywood with their incredible talent and performances. I am deliberately appealing to Ritesh Deshmukh instead of his father Vilasrao Deshmukh because neither you or I really expect politicians to stand up and be counted when it comes to defending the idea of India.

But I earnestly appeal to these theatre, film and music personalities to defend colleague Shah Rukh Khan. As things stand now, the movie My Name is Khan will probably not be screened in any theatre or multiplex in Maharashtra unless Shah Rukh Khan apologizes for a crime he has not committed. Just as Amitabh Bachchan was forced to apologize in the recent past when the screening of The Last Lear was disrupted in Mumbai. This madness is going too far and now threatens to destroy the very foundations of India where all citizens have equal rights to talk, work and pray. Shah Rukh Khan the individual or the superstar or the icon is not really the issue here. The issue is far bigger and demands artistes to finally decide that enough is enough.

I doubt if there ever was – or will be – a better singer than Lata Mangeshkar. But just imagine Lata tai: if this kind of parochialism had prevailed even in the past, would you have sung haunting melodies written by Sahir Ludhiyanvi and composed by Madan Mohan. Would you have captivated us with the delightful duets that you sang with Mukesh, Mohammed Rafi and Kishore Kumar? And Madhuri Dixit, would you have delivered hits like Dil Toh Pagal Hai and Hum Aapke Hain Kaun without co-stars Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan? I can cite such instances ad nauseam and it won’t make a damn difference unless Marathi artistes come out and support not Shah Rukh Khan, but his freedom to work and speak. Many of the personalities in the ‘appeal’ list are quite well read and will know that this demon will sooner or later devour even their freedom to work and speak.

I think they need to be inspired by the words and deeds of another icon, arguably one of the greatest Maharashtrians of modern times. Yes, I am talking about Sachin Tendulkar. More than his centuries and records, he really made India proud the day he rebuffed narrow-minded parochialism by publicly defending the idea of India. That one gesture made a world of difference. Imagine the difference it will make if legends like Lata Mangeshkar, Nana Patekar also step up and publicly defend the idea of India

I think the Shiv Sena and the MNS have every right to espouse the cause of Marathi Manoos. They have every right to publicly protest and criticize anything and anyone they think is infringing on the rights of Marathi Manoos. But do they have the right to stop other Indians from working and speaking? I would be happy if Lata mangeshkar and Nana Patekar answer that one.

Daring to Dream beyond Third World!

2009-12-25T11:28:00.000+05:30

It is the season for pundits to pontificate on the decade that has gone by and appear suitably magisterial while predicting what lies in the decade looming over the horizon. I never wanted to be a pundit and will never be able to appear magisterial. So, I will restrict myself to suggesting some basic mindset changes in our country if we are to finally discard the Third World tag by the end of 2019.

The mindset change that we need is to stop thinking of India as a former colony and a victim of global myriad conspiracies. We as a nation are becoming so prickly that it is oft en laughable. If George Bush signs a nuclear deal with India that is truly historic, we whine and crib and proclaim that America wants to colonise India. If China arm twists the World Bank into not giving a loan for a project in Arunanchal Pradesh, we see dark conspiracies and start revisiting 1962. Ditto for the Doha round of WTO, for the Copenhagen Round of climate control talks and permanent membership of the UN Security Council. As a nation, we must become less prickly and more practical in pursuit of national interests. And what is our long term national interest? Growing at 8% a year and finally eradicating poverty. For that, we need to reform ourselves; not blame America or China.

The second mindset change that we need urgently as a society is to become more generous and charitable. Sure, we have examples of generous individuals and institutions in India. But what they do is not even a patch on what greedy capitalists do in America. I humbly request each one of the 200 million middle class Indians to make a pledge that they will voluntarily contribute Rs.5,000 a year towards primary education of poor children. Believe me, if middle class individuals and corporate entities make and implement this pledge, India will eradicate illiteracy by 2019 – even if successive governments are inefficient and corrupt.

The third mindset change that we as a society and nation need to urgently implement is to raise our sense of civic pride and responsibility. I know it is a tired cliché, the one about the Indian keeping her home spotlessly clean while nonchalantly dumping garbage on the streets. Indians desperately need to learn more civic manners and work ethics. It is wonderful to gloat about the beauty of our chalta hai mindset, but we will never cross the threshold of Third World scorn unless we change our ways as citizens. And please don’t blame politicians for this; it is you and I who are squarely to blame.

The last and most urgent mindset change is related to our education system. Our education system is geared to mass manufacture unemployable morons who only know how to follow orders, rules or a set pattern of work. Innovation, free thinking and initiative are ruthlessly discouraged – by schools, by parents and by peers. India will always be condemned to be a Third World nation unless we change this.

Here is to fond hopes that at least half these mindset changes do happen in the next decade!

Smaller States can be Bigger problems

2009-12-11T11:47:00.000+05:30

I was waiting for a flight the other day at Mumbai airport and watching a news channel. There was a Russian woman with her face covered who was on screen, plaintively saying how she was raped by an influential politician of Goa and how the cops there were doing everything possible to hush up the case. Then I recalled frequent stories of how Goa has now been completely hijacked by criminals, mafia and politicians who think committing a crime and getting away with it is their birthright. That story was followed by a report on widespread agitations in Andhra Pradesh for a separate state called Telengana. And then I thought about the long standing demand for smaller states in many regions. I thought of Gorkhaland to be carved out of West Bengal, of Harit Pradesh in Western U.P., of Vidharbha in Maharashtra, of Koshal in Orissa and many more.

In each case, citizens demanding a separate state have a seemingly fool proof logic: their needs and concerns are not addressed by existing state governments and only a ‘state’ of their own can lead to better development and delivery of developmental benefi ts. Th e logic is that there wouldn’t be so many farmer suicides in Vidharbha if it becomes a separate state; or that sugar cane farmers in Harit Pradesh would get a better deal than what they are currently getting from Lucknow. On the face of it, the logic appears impeccable. But will this work in reality? Will smaller states genuinely lead to better welfare outcomes for citizens; for better governance and stronger democracy?

I look at the examples of Jharkhand and Goa and shudder at what might happen in reality. You and I already know about how Goa is rapidly descending towards hell; it became a state back in 1986. Then, in 2000, three states called Chattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand were created. Almost 10 years down the road, can anyone say with even an iota of confi dence that freeing Jharkhand from the clutches of Bihar has led to more prosperity for citizens? In fact, exactly the opposite seems to have happened. Chronic political instability and relentless Maoist violence have become the signature themes of the state. It is a unique state where an independent MLA became Chief Minister. And now, we read about how Jharkhand was plundered by the same politicians to the tune of about Rs.40 billion? Development, economic growth and a better life for poor tribals of the state have remained illusions. Chattisgarh and Uttarakhand have not performed as outrageously as Jharkhand; but they haven’t excelled either.

So how do people of Telengana expect a miracle in terms of growth, poverty eradication and prosperity once it becomes a state? And will the creation of Vidharbha lead to a stop in farmer suicides? My fear is that things might worsen. The problem in India is not about smaller states but pathetic governance. With pathetic governance persisting, creating smaller states will create more Jharkhands and Goas.

I know it is a tall order, but it is really time for citizens – and the media – to more aggressively confront the ruling class with hard questions. And keep asking those questions till governance improves. Creating smaller states will be like wishing away the real problem.

So Indians now dislike President Obama!

2009-11-27T10:48:00.000+05:30

Many months ago, in mid March to be precise, when Indians were swooning over the rock star Barack Obama, I wrote an edit for this magazine with a headline: Why Indians Will Hate Obama. As Manmohan Singh comes back virtually empty handed from his state visit to Washington, let me just reprint the same edit below. Honestly, this is not chest thumping:-)

Very soon, you might have Prakash Karat and fellow comrades crooning, ‘I told you so’, as the Indian media slams Barack Obama and Uncle Sam for once again ‘tilting against’ India. You can already hear murmurs of protest as protectionism gathers momentum in America and young Indians find their dream jobs disappearing in the United States. Then there are those hawks who are now convinced that America is absolutely not interested in genuinely helping India when it comes to battling cross border terrorism. And rest assured, the Obama administration will take many decisions and make many choices that will anger, dismay and even outrage urban Indians who haven’t stopped fantasising about the emerging strategic partnership between India and America. For this breed of Indians, Uncle Sam would follow up the nuclear deal by doing everything that is anti- Pakistan and anti-China if they have a conflict of interest with India. Sadly such delusions always get shattered. They will inevitably get shattered by end of this year. So after the Indo-US euphoria of the last few years, get prepared for a phase of disappointment and rage at the perfidy of Uncle Sam. And don’t be surprised if Obama becomes one of the most criticised personalities in Indian media (in any case, even his honeymoon with the American media is on the verge of collapsing).

The brutal fact is: both the media and the middle class Indians will be wrong when they rail at Obama and his policies. The reason behind that is another brutal fact: India still behaves childishly and naively when it comes to the pursuit of national interests, foreign policy and geo-politics. No wonder, the discourse on foreign policy in India oscillates between triumphant and childish optimism and naïve pessimism. When India signed the nuclear deal, optimism reached a feverish pitch; when a few Indians don’t get American jobs, the pessimism plunges into depths of despair. That is because most Indians confuse between cold blooded pursuit of national interests and the feel good buzz around emotional bonding. There will always be some occasions when America and India’s national interests do not converge when it comes to dealing with Pakistan. That does not make America anti-Indian. There will always be some occasions when the head will rule over the heart and Uncle Sam will choose China over India (China happens to literally propping up the US economy at the moment by sending surplus dollars to America). That doesn’t make America anti-Indian. There will always be some occasions when political compulsions in America will hurt India Inc. Again, that doesn’t make America anti-Indian.

But beyond these simple facts, there is another brutal fact that would hurt many Indians. We tend to think that India is more important than it actually is. Let us first grow at 8% a year for a decade at least before we start nurturing Great Power fantasies.

All Hail India’s Great Banana Democracy!

2009-11-13T10:34:00.000+05:30

Some recent developments have now led me to wonder about the state of Indian democracy. A school student is taught that a functional and successful democracy rests on four pillars – executive, legislature, judiciary and the fourth estate (media). Each one of the pillars now seems to be infested with termites, threatening their very foundations. Just consider the following:

• The Income Tax Department and the Enforcement Directorate insist that former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda and his associates have squirrelled away close to Rs.4,000 crores.

• The CBI insists that the Minister of Telecommunications A. Raja could be involved in defrauding the exchequer to the tune of thousands of crores by doling out telecom licenses in gross violation of all norms. Telecom is one sector that has been bedevilled by corruption and scams ever since mobile phone licenses were first auctioned in 1995.

• A couple of mine owners of Karnataka shepherd dozens of MLAs like ‘cattle’ and declare war on the elected Chief Minister of Karnataka who seems to be trying hard to curb brazen corruption and patronage politics. The central leadership of the BJP caves in cravenly to this blackmail and forces ‘their own Chief Minister’ to weep in front of TV cameras.

• The electorate gives a mandate to the Congress-NCP alliance to rule Maharashtra by almost giving it a majority. It takes the MLAs and leaders of Congress and the NCP two full weeks to squabble and haggle over ministerial berths before a government can be sworn in. R. R. Patil, the man who was Home Minister of the state during 26/11 is back as the Home Minister.

• MLAs of the Raj Th ackeray party Maharashtra Navnirman Sena heckle, abuse, jostle and assault another MLA Abu Azmi because he wants to take an oath in Hindi instead of Marathi. The MNS MLAS are far from remorseful; they have declared the assault as a kind of V-Day and have threatened worse.

• A Collegium approves the appointment of Justice P. D. Dinakaran as a Supreme Court judge. There are protests everywhere and accusations that Justice Dinakaran has misused his judicial authority. Things come to such a pass that lawyers in Karnataka paralyse the functioning of the High Court there; even locking up two judges who refused to heed their boycott call.

• An enquiry has found that the Rs.2 million that was delivered to the residence of Justice Nirmal Yadav was not meant for her. She has been exonerated of any wrong doing. But no one seems to asking: who the money was meant for.

• Ashutosh Asthana, an accused in the multi-thousand crore PF scam allegedly involving many judicial authorities, dies mysteriously in jail. The news disappears even from the inside pages of newspapers.

• It has now been credibly established that news outlets in Maharashtra brazenly ‘sold’ editorial space to politicians who wanted coverage. Clearly, only the moneybag politicians could benefit from this ‘auction’.

• Many journalists seem to be involved in the Madhu Koda scam – many belonging to big media brands. What do you and I make of these pillars of Indian democracy?

How India Inc. Can Decimate the Maoists

2009-10-30T09:48:00.001+05:30

Images play a powerful role in creating and nurturing perceptions. This is what I thought while watching television footage of the ‘hijacking’ of the Rajdhani Express by Maoists barely 150 kilometers away from the crumbling Red Citadel called Kolkata. And I couldn’t help ask myself a simple question: Are the Maoists also winning the Propaganda War? You need only common sense to know that terrorists and Maoists try to gain strategic advantage in two ways: one is through bullets, bombs, beheadings and bestiality; the other is through images, words and rhetoric that justify cold blooded violence as an “insurrection against injustice”. On both fronts, the Maoists seem to be doing rather better than the State. When you put an articulate person like Arundhati Roy, who is armed with a clever choice of words and a visceral hatred for India, you will get propaganda of the type that any red blooded Maoist would die for.

This is clearly not good news for India and Indians. And anything that spells trouble for India and Indians will spell trouble for India Inc. It is time business leaders, entrepreneurs, CEOs and market mavens started thinking of the number of consumers and the extent of possible business and profits that they will lose if one-third of India is gripped by an unending night of Red Terror. It is time for India Inc. too to pitch in with its bit of help in what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rightly describes as the most serious threat to India’s internal security. Sure India Inc. cannot fight one part of the war that deals with bullets and bombs; that is for the State to do. But it can do something really concrete and dramatic. And India Inc. has a huge advantage over diatribe a day do gooders like Arundhati Roy who only have hatred, rhetoric and angry words to throw. India Inc. can – if it really wants to – walk the talk with money and also unleash a powerful propaganda war that can unhinge the very foundations of Maoists.

The market capitalisation of the Indian stock markets is now about $2 trillion. It could be much more if you add personal, private and private equity wealth. Why can’t industry leaders decide that 1% of this market cap be used to create a corpus to provide education and employment opportunities to poor people living in the 200 districts of India infected by the malignant virus of Naxalite violence? We are talking about a corpus of $20 billion (and it will be a unique public-private partnership since many public sector companies in which the State has a majority stake are listed!). Create a trust and have people like Nandan Nilekani be the trustees. The Trust can comfortably generate $2 billion a year in profits. That works out to about Rs.10,000 crores. When distributed with the right checks and balances, it means Rs.50 crores for education and employment opportunities for youth in each of the 200 Naxalite infested districts. And imagine the positive signals this will send when India Inc. unleashes a ‘propaganda’ war to highlight the positive power of this corpus to transform lives.

Utopian? Surely less Utopian than the ideas of grasshoppers like Arundhati Roy who jump from cause to cause? And who knows? Maybe she will be inspired to contribute a small fraction of the millions she has made by peddling poverty, injustice, state terror, exploitation and corporate greed!

Here are the real Nobel Prize winners

2009-10-15T11:20:00.001+05:30

You would think that the Nobel Prize has been given to Osama instead of Obama; such has been the ballyhoo and brouhaha generated over the act of edifying the first Black President of a country that historically treated blacks as slaves and chattel to be traded in the American version of Mandis. But then, surely Obama deserves it more than the now deceased former Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin who was once designated a “terrorist” by the British! And much more than another deceased soul (may his soul rest in peace) named Cordell Hull who – as American Secretary of State – refused exile to God knows how many Jews who wanted to escape from Nazi Germany. All of them subsequently died in concentration camps. But for whatever it is worth, here is the Business & Economy list of Nobel Prize nominations for next year across categories:

peace: This was a very, very close contest. In one corner stood two brothers who have completely redefined the concept of brotherly love. In the other corner stood a ‘brother’ who has completely redefined the very concept of ‘neighbourly’ love. In one corner stood Mukesh & Anil Ambani and in the other corner stood the Chief of Lashkar-e-Taiba Hafiz Saeed. Ultimately, it was clinched by Saeed for his actual demonstration of ‘peace’ and ‘love’ during 26/11

economic sciences: Yes, the prize is not for ‘economics’ but ‘economic sciences’ since virtually all economists across the world have been mesmerised by the delusion that the study of quirky human behaviour is an exact science. There were many contestants for this prized prize – most belonging to the political and corporate class who understand ‘money’ like no one else. After much deliberation, debate, wrangling and mud slinging, the nomination was conferred upon the honourable Sharad Pawar for taking economics even beyond the frontiers of science. How else can you explain an inflation rate of zero percent and less when the prices of sugar, oil and vegetables have soared by more than 100%?

literature: If you believe that great literature transcends wretched reality in a sublime manner that borders on fantasy, then this one is a no brainer. The unanimous verdict was The Draft Direct Tax Code that has been circulated for debate and discussion. This masterpiece contains a sparkling gem that says that the market value of the plum houses that bureaucrats occupy in VIP Delhi will be added to their taxable income. Now if that does not border on fantasy, I don’t know what will.

chemistry: This one too was a no contest and was given unhesitatingly to the Marxist Boss Prakash Karat. The comrade will win the Nobel Prize for discovering a new DNA molecule that can be found only in unreconstructed Marxists. The molecule is famous for letting comrades acquire opaque blinkers when reality stares them in the face. And this molecule cannot be cloned.

physics: Absolutely no doubts about this one. It goes to the venerable Loh Purush L. K. Advani for gifting the Fourth Law of Motion – apart from the three gift ed centuries ago by Newton – to the world. This Law states that every action must invite swift and savage reaction in the form of expulsion; particularly if the agent is Jaswant Singh.

medicine: We nominate Raj Thackeray for this award, for his discovery that migrants really need ‘strong medicine’.

The Indian habit of clinging on stubbornly

2009-10-01T23:54:00.002+05:30

After a gap of ages, I somehow psyched myself to watch the recent One Day match between India and Pakistan. Believe me, it was not only a painfully gut wrenching experience, the manner in which the Blues lost told me a lot about what is wrong with both the political and corporate sectors in India; more political than corporate. Sure a game is a game and no big deal if India loses the odd match to Pakistan. Besides, haven’t M. S. Dhoni and his band of boys been delivering a string of famous victories in recent times? I accept all that; nor did I sink into despair when Pakistan won. What despaired me was the sight of Rahul Dravid trying to justify his relevance even though he is long past his sell by date in the One Day and the T-20 format. It was truly painful. Was this the same Dravid whose stirring Test match knocks in Kolkatta (2001) and Adelaide (2003) delivered India its sensational victories against Australia? It was all the more pathetic to watch Dravid batting along with Gautam Gambhir. Gambhir was all aggression and a ‘play hard’ attitude that was palpable. Gambhir was on a song. And then the poor man was run out because Dravid preferred to be ‘circumspect’ and India saw its chances being sacrificed at the altar of caution. Of course, even Dravid was run out in that match; and even in the match against West Indies that followed!

Many of you will argue that Dravid was playing his role to perfection. That his job is that of being ‘The Wall’, the sheet anchor who will hold one end up as the other more aggressive batsmen smash the ball around. Sure, you will say that being ‘circumspect’ is what a sheet anchor does. But then, there is a very thin line between being ‘circumspect’ and being plagued by the fear of losing both your wicket and your place in the side. Was Dravid really playing as the quintessential team man or was he playing like an ageing and insecure performer who knows deep down that his salad days are over and that he is in the team because of ‘other factors’? I mean, was Dravid – a batsman never known for his match winning prowess in the one day format – the only ‘sheet anchor’ available? If you were watching the match and saw the disgusted expression on Ganbhir’s face when he was run out, you would have instantly realised the huge gulf between the ‘old and circumspect’ India and the ‘new and never say die’ India? Poor Dravid was not even able to rotate the strike by taking singles!

This habit of clinging on to something long after your relevance and sell by date have vanished into thin air is also a classic habit of Indian politicians. Is it surprising then that despite the best eff orts of leaders like Rahul Gandhi, ‘realpolitik’ ensures that really old leaders hold the most important posts in the government? And mind you, ‘old’ is not something to do with age alone; it is about mindset and your ability to adapt to changing conditions. Look at how the ‘old’ Sachin keeps re-inventing himself!

Mercifully, India Inc now witnesses less of this problem – that of people clinging on long after they have stopped being relevant to the times.

Please get real about China

2009-09-18T10:42:00.000+05:30

It is very rare for top Indian politicians holding important positions in government to bell the cat when it comes to China. When it comes to dealing with the dragon, the Indian tiger prefers to metamorphose into an ostrich. So what George Fernandes (then Defence Minister) and Atal Bihari Vajpayee (then Prime Minister) said and wrote about China more than 10 years ago is actually a historical milestone in India’s strategic posturing. Defending the nuclear tests, both had cited China, rather than traditional foe Pakistan, as the real strategic threat to India. That brave departure from traditional meekness and whining soon melted away and was replaced by the usual “let’s not off end China” stance. This strategic confusion is painfully clear now as sections of Indian media go ballistic with reports of Chinese belligerence while our policy establishment tries damned hard to play things down.

Sure: this columnist is a neophyte compared to the myriad pundits who ponder, pontificate and preach over China. But like an ignoramus, let me ask two simple questions and frame them in a language that you and I can comprehend. First: Is China a strategic threat to India? Second: Can India do anything about it? If strategic threat means that Chinese troops will thunder down the Himalayas and capture Ladakh and Arunanchal Pradesh in a swift blitzkrieg before ponderous India can react, then that is indulging in fantasy. Mind you, as things stand today, the Chinese military can actually pulverize India – just as it did back in 1962. It is a different matter that party bosses sitting in Beijing will not take that decision since the ‘opportunity costs’ will be unacceptably high. So if there is no immediate military danger, how is China a strategic threat?

It really boils down to common sense. You cannot have two ‘dadas’ in a neighbourhood. As of today, China is the undisputable dada of Asia and will go to any extent (short of a nuclear attack or a military strike) to prevent India from emerging as a rival dada. Do remember, the real dada in this is America and it will go to any extent to ensure its dadagiri is unchallenged. When you see things from this folksy perspective, you understand why China props up the Pakistani military and why it is ‘investing’ in strategic bases across the Indian Ocean, East Asia and Central Asia. And yes, this dadagiri is not about ego. It is about getting a lock on energy resources. If push comes to shove, the dragon can even reluctantly go for a small military adventure to show India who the real dada is.

Can India do anything? For one, it should not be obsessed with China and the threat it poses. Obsession of any kind is bad; just ask Pakistan where its obsession with India has taken it. The only choice for India is to grow as fast as possible over the next two decades. A high and sustained rate of growth will do two things: it will prompt countries who don’t like China as a hyper power to look at India as a ‘credible’ ally; more important, a rapid rate of growth can enable India to invest heavily in the military. The world respects both economic and military might. It laughs at ostriches and cry babies.

Finally, some really real good news!

2009-09-04T11:17:00.000+05:30

For almost nine months, I have been waiting for this single press release even as two pundits offered five opinions on when India will emerge out of the latest 'recession' (Ask the pundits how a 6% plus GDP growth rate can be categorised as recession!). Even in July, 2009, when it was reported that industrial growth grew at an unexpected 7% or so, I had my doubts. Even when the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister, the RBI and sundry other oracles pronounced that the bad times are finally over, I was sceptical. And yes, even when the automobile industry reported higher sales of two wheelers and cars month after month since January, 2009, I wasn't very sure. But finally, a press release of September 2, 2009 has cleared all my doubts and I can add my two bit of pseudo-wisdom and say decisively that the bad times are finally over. For the second consecutive month, Tata Motors has reported a positive growth in the sales of medium and heavy commercial vehicles. In July, 2009, they grew at a modest 5.5%. And in August, 2009, they have registered an almost double digit growth rate of 9.6%. Yes, I am talking about the sale of trucks – the mini and maxi monsters of Indian roads that carry two thirds of goods transported across India. Don't ask me to explain the esoteric theory and jargon of how a growth rate in truck sales means that the Indian economy is back on track. It is. Suffice to say that when businessmen buy more trucks, they are confident that more goods will be produced, transported and sold across the country. Equally important, when businessmen buy more trucks, it means that banks and financial institutions have again started lending money to them (Even billionaires don't buy trucks by paying cash down). Even during the last two 'recessions' – after the East Asian meltdown of 1997 and the dot com meltdown of 2001, economic recovery was confirmed and gathered momentum only when actual sales of trucks started growing. And yes, the Indian Railways did miss freight targets for the first five months of fiscal 2009; but freight traffic actually grew by close to 10% despite a crash in iron ore business. In fact, railway freight grew almost 12% in August, 2009.

There is a little more than truck sales and railway freight to confirm my hunch that the economy is now well and truly bouncing back. The cement industry reported an 11% growth in despatches and sales in July, 2009. The steel industry reported a 6% growth in despatches and sales. What does that mean if you ignore the jargon and the number crunching? It means that more roads, houses, plants and other things that need cement and steel are being built across India. It means that, in spite of the poor monsoon, there is simply no way that the economy will grow at anything less than 6% in the current year. And do remember, this is despite both exports and imports shrinking by almost a quarter as compared to the last fiscal year.

So does that mean the Indian consumer will start splurging again and we are heading back towards the heady days of 2006-08? I won't bore with analysis, apart from providing a small piece of statistical evidence. In August, 2009, India imported just about 12 tonnes of gold – 98% less than the amount last year. Yes, 98% less! What does it say about consumer confidence in India?!

JASWANT’S JINNAH JEHAD

2009-08-20T10:02:00.000+05:30

God knows how many pundits and their barely concealed benefactors would have passed judgments on the issue. Frankly, as I write this, I haven’t read even one chapter of the book, nor have I done Google search to steal a few phrases, paraphrase or rephrase them and pass them on as words of wisdom. I have just seen a few snatches on TV and couldn’t but immediately think what if top BJP leaders go on 'Sach Ka Saamna' on this issue? I also saw a tearful Jaswant Singh describing how his book on Jinnah has transformed him from Hanuman to Ravana (Dr. Karunanidhi of Tamil Nadu would surely object to the analogy). And then I faced the simple and stark question: Is all this hysteria not related to the persistent failure of the political class, the ivory tower academics and the ideologues to honestly deal with the question of Muslims in India? Or, for that matter, the world to deal honestly with the “Muslim” issue? Or to tackle the “delicate” issue of minorities across societies?

If honest efforts had been made, the following would not have happened: The French President Nicolas Sarkozy would not have denounced the veil; a swimming club in France would not have prohibited a woman from using a more modest bikini; half of India would not have forgotten about swine fl u and spent hours debating whether Shah Rukh Khan was humiliated by a racist immigration officer in America because he is a Muslim; American President Barack Obama would not have been forced to call for a beer summit to settle a hugely controversial racial issue.

But it is really India that one thinks about at the moment. If you ask yourself honestly and get honest answers, they will be one of the three written below: Sure people like Jinnah demanded partition and a separate homeland for Muslims; but who cares about all that when India is an exciting place to be in; Most Muslims did not follow Jinnah to Pakistan, but you know – though my best friends are Muslims – and think that there is something wrong out there with so many of them becoming terrorists; Or of course, Muslims are a clear and present danger to the ‘Indian Civilisation’.

I know, if you are honest to yourself, you will fall in one of the later two categories. And if you are in the third one, there is no point in having a dialogue with you in any case. But a dialogue the rest of us must have. More importantly, we Indians must rescue the debate from the crass opportunism of politics and the even worse opportunism of perversion in the garb of ideology. The Indian Mujahideen farce is just one example. The fact is, some Muslims from Azamgarh decided to become killers of innocents. One set branded all of Azamgarh as a terror area. The other set compared them to Red Indians being slaughtered by a fascist Hindu state. Surely, Muslims deserve to be described as human beings first and ideological labels later?

Perhaps it is time for Jaswant Singh – now that he will have so much time – to start research on another book that will describe how Pakistan descended from Jinnah to Jehad. Or, am I revealing my barely concealed prejudice against Muslims by using Jinnah and Jehad in the same breath? I really don’t know.

Three strikes for the Indian Fat Cats

2009-08-07T10:44:00.000+05:30

In recent weeks, India Inc. has witnessed two resounding calls for 'strikes'. The first, the stillborn one, was masterminded and spearheaded by Vijay Mallya and Naresh Goyal. Their plan was to stop all flights by private airlines on August 18 to "highlight their demands". The second one is on even as this magazine goes for printing. This one is by employees of public sector banks who are demanding better salaries and perks. Being highly patriotic, the union leaders of the Bank strike have deemed that ATM machines will function during the two day strike. Similarly, a late upsurge of patriotism in the hearts of Mallya and Goyal made them cancel (Or defer?) their planned strike to 'respect public sentiments'. Of course, both the Mallya-Goyal duo and the bank union leaders insist that they are victims. But I would rather call them the fat cat aristocracy of India Inc. who are greedy, myopic and brazenly arrogant in their quests to protect their turfs and vested interests. And I think it is time the mainstream media shamed them into admitting as much; by persistently highlighting their willingness to blackmail.

Nobody asked Mr. Mallya to personally select air hostesses or buy out Air Deccan or offer 'gourmet' cuisine on full service flights to economy class passengers. Nobody asked Mr. Goyal to blithely ignore the danger posed by low cost airlines or gamble by buying out Sahara in an expensive and messy deal. And now that competition is beginning to hurt them; they are clamouring for government bailouts. The fact is, almost all their claims are specious. The charges imposed by new airports are paid by passengers; the high costs of fuel are paid by passengers. So why are they cribbing? Imagine a situation where manufacturers of TV sets, soaps and shampoos start demanding government bail outs when input costs rise while smarter and cheaper rivals eat into their market shares and margins. Have you ever heard small entrepreneurs – responsible for almost all the growth in jobs in India – making similar demands?

The 'strike' called by the public sector bank employees is something similar. They are part of the 'labour aristocracy', belonging to a tiny minority of the working class population of India. A newly recruited officer in the State Bank of India gets about Rs.25,000 a month as starting salary – not accounting for perks. How many workers in India without any professional degrees start their careers earning more than Rs.25,000 a month? There are youngsters armed with professional degrees who are struggling today to get even Rs.10,000 a month. Really, it is time the media started highlighting these facts again and again. It is really time for us to shame these fat cats.

Abject apologies to our CEO!

2009-07-24T10:51:00.000+05:30

Sorry Abhimanyu. I know you will come after me with all guns blazing after reading this. After all, I am committing heresy by daring to point fingers at some holy cows (Yes, yes, I know… also BIG advertisers) of India Inc. Just in case heresy doesn’t become hara kiri, I have decided to join Lalu Yadav, Mulayam Yadav and Varun Gandhi and demand more security. But believe me boss, what I write below is not criticism; but humble supplication and earnest request to Chanda Kochhar (ICICI), Marten Pieters (Vodafone) and Ratan Tata (Tata Sky).

Being downwardly mobile, I decided to relocate to a cheaper house. Along the way, the magnetic strip in my ICICI credit card got damaged. My wife volunteered to take up the huge challenge of calling up the ICICI call centre. Aft er god knows how many minutes, I managed to request a duplicate card and a change of address. Within three days of my request, the credit card bill arrived. The card has not arrived, though it is almost two months! Just the other day, an early morning call jangled my nerves, I decided not to pick it up. But persistence pays and I was forced to. The caller wanted to know when and how was I planning to pay my outstanding dues of Rs.10,000 something. I told him a cheque of Rs.11,000 had been deposited in the ICICI drop box a few days ago. Two days later, the amount has been debited from my account; but my favourite ICICI man calls up again demanding payment. Madam Kochhar: I have taken three loans from your most esteemed bank and (touchwood) have never delayed or defaulted on any installment. Surely, with the marvellous technology at your disposal, your colleagues could identify me as a decent sort of chap and stop harassing me for payments after I have paid? Anyway, au revoir to that marvellous ICICI Platinum Credit Card.

And Marten Pieters sir. Welcome to India. I am very emotionally attached to your company because I bond with a pug called Chris in our house. He has been around with us much before Hutch unleashed that lovable campaign. Why, I am even thinking of adopting some zoozoos as pets. But I have a problem sir. Every month, a lady with a rough, grating and exasperating voice calls up and demands payment. For the last four years, I have been unsuccessfully trying to tell her that my address has changed thrice. But she refuses to budge. You know, I actually dreamt last night about number portability and Sunil Mittal and Anil Ambani chasing me with new Blackberry handsets!

And the most venerable Ratan Tata sir; hats off to you for taking customer delight to new heights. Our life has been totally jhingalala since we took a Tata Sky connection. We have no clue how and when some channels disappear. When wifey makes a valiant effort to contact the call centre, she is invariably asked to pay more. Like with ICICI, she also called your call centre when we moved house. We of course paid the relocation charges. Last week, my wife decided we had practiced enough austerity and bought an LCD TV. When she called up your call centre, she was told that we will have to pay relocation charges to move the set top box from the drawing room to the bedroom. But what the heck, the LCD TV came with a free Airtel Digital connection. I am now your humble customer too, Mr Mittal!

And Abhimanyu, I am taking unscheduled leave till your tempers cool down.

Why Blame Unions for the AI Mess?

2009-06-26T10:57:00.001+05:30

As I read and watch the whole shindig about the free falling Air India, I just can’t help but go back to 1987 when I was a young Bombay based hack (Yes, it was called Bombay back then!). Rajiv Gandhi was still hugely popular and corporate India was delighted with his efforts to help India Inc. Rajiv Gandhi wanted to improve the performance of state run organizations and the most prominent initiatives were directed towards Doordarshan and Air India. A young, dynamic Rajan Jaitley who had a successful stint in ITC was made the MD of Air India and given the job of revamping the ailing (yes, it was ailing back then too!) carrier. A young Ratan Tata too was inducted to the Board as a sentimental gesture; after all, Air India was the brainchild of J.R.D Tata. Back then also, there were strong rumours of a rift in the Board and allegations of mismanagement. Yours truly had even written a story that-if my memory serves me right-started off by asking: “What was Ratan Tata doing when Rajan Jaitley was busy redesigning air hostess uniforms and changing the crockery at Air India?” Last known, Jaitley was operating out of London and Delhi, running a financial services consultancy. Around that time, another young high flier called Harsh Vardhan was running the ambitious Vayudoot, the third state owned airline after Indian Airlines and Air India. Vayudoot claimed to service more than 100 destinations and I recall how everyone was going gaga over this wonder boy and his Vayudoot magic. Most hacks talked of the “close relations” Harsh Vardhan had with the sons of a certain Union Minister who then lived near Hotel Le Meridien. Of course, Vayudoot crashed into extinction very soon after that hype. Last known, Vardhan was a consultant for the private airline MDLR.

Why am I on this nostalgia trip and what has the past got to do with the present controversy that rages around Air India? Well, the point is, the more things change, the more they remain the same. It was natural then for those privileged enough to fl y to curse the shoddy attitude and service of “unionized” employees of IA and AI (Only the brave dared to fl y Vayudoot whose aircraft oft en had doors suddenly opening in mid-flight!). And now, the Civil Aviation Minister is peddling the same arguments blaming the “unionized” employees and the crisis facing commercial aviation for the disaster looming at AI. Most in the media seem to be lapping up this argument.

But hang on for a while. How can you blame employees for gross mismanagement that has persisted decade after decade? How about the politicians and the clutch of IAS officers who now routinely head the carrier? The simple fact is: Air India is unluckier than its public sector counterparts. In other public sector companies, it usually only one cabinet minister, a few state ministers and their cronies who have the privilege of financially raping and pillaging the company. In the case of Air India, every M.P, every senior bureaucrat and most state level politicians of India enjoy that freedom to rape and plunder. And they do it brazenly in the form of free flights, lucrative contracts and what not. That is why Air India is on its last legs now. Why blame only the employees?

Revisiting Ten Indian Gospels

2009-06-12T10:13:00.002+05:30

Back in February, the Indian media had acquired a hysterical edge, dishing out story after story of a looming economic Armageddon; of collapsing growth and of a meltdown in India Inc. This magazine had taken a contrarian view and listed out ten reasons why the India growth story will continue despite bad news from across the world. Now that good news is pouring from across the country, it is time to once again list those ten gospels that define India. They are:

Since FDI accounts for less than 1% of GDP, a fall in foreign investments-even if that were to happen-will not make much of a difference.
Falling exports will become a fact of life for a while; but again with minimal impact since India has the lowest exports to GDP ratio of major economies.
In India, consumption accounts for 65% of growth while investments account for 65% of growth in China. So falling investments will impact India far less than China.
The largesse doled out by the Sixth Pay Commission will ensure that millions of middle class Indian families will keep buying goodies. Sales figures across diverse sectors like electronics, auto, telecom and tourism bear this out.
We talked about how the myriad welfare schemes launched by the then UPA government will have a strong impact on semi-urban and rural India despite corruption and leakages. The election results have shown that these schemes made the Indian voter happy-the way only money can make you happy!
India continues to have the highest real rate of interest in the world and the magazine had clearly predicted-not that it needed any rocket science or wisdom that interest rates will fall. They are falling-though not by as much this columnist would like.
Even as banks in America and Europe teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, Indian banks – with a few rare exceptions – were boasting of incredibly good balance sheets. Financial figures for 2008-09 bear that out with a vengeance.
Even as others saw gloom and doom for India Inc., this magazine said that good Indian companies will in fact emerge stronger and maybe even make more overseas acquisitions. Look at what Bharti has done just recently with the South African telecom giant MTN. Look at the results announced by India Inc. for 2008-09. And look back again and eat your words for being needlessly alarmist and hysterical!
Expectations in India are so low that even bad news is accepted with famous Indian equanimity. Barring overpaid fat cats, most middle class Indians have an almost genetic ability to do more with less. And they have been doing that since October 2008!
The last ‘Gospel’ that this magazine had mentioned was the simplest and yet the most complex one to comprehend. It is called democracy and the innate ability of the Indian voter to prove all so called pundits, experts and psephologists wrong. India badly needed a stable government and at a time when doomsday prophets talked of multiple Prime Ministers, democracy delivered what India needed – a stable government that will not be blackmailed by “allies”.
I rest my case.

You have again written off a loser

2009-05-29T09:53:00.000+05:30

One of the biggest shortcomings of hacks like me is the unwavering ability and willingness to jump to conclusions and mistake hindsight for foresight! Something similar can be seen in abundance in newspapers, television channels, news portals and magazines across India. As Rahul Gandhi is hailed as the new messiah and Sonia the new Gandhi, self styled pundits, hacks, experts and assorted doomsday prophets are tripping over themselves in a rush to write gleeful obituaries of the BJP and the Left . It is as if the new King Singh and the Indian voter have delivered such a decisive and brutal knock out blow that both the BJP and the Left are presumed down for the count. Pundits say that the BJP, till recently an alternative to the Congress, has no future. And the Left , kingmakers till recently, are history. Of course, the pundits also say that assorted regional chieftains like Ram Vilas Paswan, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav can now start looking for alternate careers.

I humbly disagree and present a few footnotes from recent history to show how breathless, shallow and shortsighted hacks and mass media can be.

Back in 1971, Indira Gandhi swept the Lok Sabha elections with her slogan of Garibi Hatao. So complete was her sway and dominance over the country that even opposition leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee praised her as Durga! The same Indira Gandhi was routed by the voters aft er the Emergency in 1977, losing even her own seat. A fractured and fractious opposition, which was totally written off in 1971, swept to power as the Janata Party. In 1984, Rajiv Gandhi won a mandate that even his grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru was never able to win. In the same elections, as India celebrated a “Youth” renaissance under Rajiv Gandhi, the leader of opposition party, the BJP, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was staring at a complete loss of face.

The BJP won just two seats in 1984, and you guessed it right, hacks and pundits instantly wrote off both him and the BJP forever. We both know what happened to the BJP in subsequent elections and what happened to the Congress. Cut to 1999 and you have pundits singing an entirely different tune. The NDA under Vajpayee is given a decisive mandate by the voters to rule India for the next five years and the Congress under Sonia Gandhi sinks to an all time low number of seats. There are titters galore about the complete failure of Sonia Gandhi as a leader. There is measured rah rah about the long term decline of Congress as a political party. There are even objectionable whispers about how Sonia Gandhi is planning to leave India for good. Suddenly, the BJP is the party of the future and every word spoken by strategist Pramod Mahajan is lapped up by the media as gospel. Honestly, do any of you remember any hack or pundit saying in 2004 that the BJP will lose the elections? Mamata Bannerjee is the latest example of how the mass media almost always gets it wrong! When the Left swept back to power in the 2006 assembly elections under Budhadev Bhattacharya, nobody gave a ghost of a chance to Didi to stage such a spectacular comeback in 2009. And now, we are busy saying the Left will never come back in West Bengal!

Let's face it. Both the BJP and Left are down, but not yet out. And India needs opposition parties!

The Congress Chimera

2009-05-01T11:55:00.000+05:30

Just a few days ago, I was in Lucknow arguing vociferously with my father-in-law. He is a die hard supporter of Congress and would have cast his vote in favour of Rita Bahuguna Joshi. I personally think the chances of her winning are about as high as Shah Rukh’s Knight Riders winning IPL 2. But then faith and optimism are eternal. In fact, my father-in-law, who is a middle class Bihari settled in U.P is convinced that there is a strong undercurrent in favour of Congress this time in the Hindi heartland. He is almost wistful when he talks about how the glory days of Congress can come back with Rahul Gandhi by the time the next Lok Sabha elections are organized. I have come across hundreds of such Congress well wishers who are sick and tired of regional parties ‘holding the nation to ransom’. I empathize with them, but can’t help pointing out some hard realities that make the challenge of reviving Congress so formidable for Rahul Gandhi and his well meaning earnestness.

Here is a list of major states where the Congress can hope to win a lot of seats on its own: Assam, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarkhand, Orissa and Karnataka. That works out to about 230 plus seats. Here is a list of states where the Congress cannot hope to win even a few seats without strong regional allies: West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and J&K. That works out to almost 300 seats. The last time Congress won in Tamil Nadu was in 1967; it was 1967 in West Bengal; 1984-85 in Gujarat, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh; 1991 in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. In the states where the Congress can win many seats on its own, the party already has about 110 out of 130. In the second category of states, the party has about 50 out of 300.

Even a school child will know that it is the second category of states that will be the biggest challenge for Rahul Gandhi and his so called youth brigade. To be able to cross even 200 Lok Sabha seats, it needs to at least double its tally in the second category of states. More importantly, Rahul Gandhi needs to plan and execute a strategy which can help the Congress have even a decent chance of winning a large number of seats on its own in Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand which send almost 225 M.Ps to the Lok Sabha. Currently, the Congress has just about 50 representatives from these important states.

Sure, many of us wish Rahul Gandhi well. But we also realize that as of today, the revival that my father-in-law talks wistfully of is a chimera. Perhaps the one most important thing the young Gandhi needs to do is nurture powerful and popular state level leaders like Y.S.R Reddy, Sheila Dixit and Ashok Gehlot in the states where the party is in a shambles. But will the Congress courtiers allow such leaders to emerge?

Why the Third front is Good

2009-04-17T11:44:00.000+05:30

After a flurry of plaintive laments from pseudo pundits and crypto analysts, the words have finally been repeated by the Prime Minister. Dr. Manmohan Singh feels that the Third Front is a bad idea, because it will promote ‘regionalism’ at the cost of a national vision. The pseudo pundits have, of course, labeled even the possibility of a Third Front government as an unmitigated disaster for India. Everybody says that coalition governments are messy, unruly, incoherent and consumed by centrifugal forces. History perhaps supports this contention with prime ministers like Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, V. P. Singh, Chandrasekhar, Deve Gowda and I. K. Gujral leading notoriously fractious and unstable governments. Pseudo pundits even claim that the era of coalition politics that descended upon India since 1989 is singularly responsible for preventing the country from emerging as a genuine World Power. They lament that coalition politics that sacrifices the ‘national’ for the ‘regional’ is singularly responsible for India not clocking double digit growth rates and falling way behind China in the global sweepstakes.

The arguments are surely logical and persuasive on the face of it. But, really, the caveat is: On the face of it. For, the shrill cry against the Third Front and regional chieftains reveals a disturbing streak of feudalistic elitism. As long as regional chieftains of the Congress party ran notoriously corrupt governments in major states of India, there were hardly any complaints about the absence of governance. That was till the late 1980s when the intermediate castes and the Dalits really had no say either in elections or governance. It also helped that the Congress regional chieftains knew how to tackle the ‘national’ media. Do you seriously believe that states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were islands of good governance and prosperity till the ‘Third Front’ type of regional chieftains empowered the backward classes and rode to power?

The fact of the matter is: good governance depends on both institutions and individual leaders; not on elitist distinctions between ‘national’ and 'regional’. Tamil Nadu has been ruled by regional parties since the late 1960s and Madhya Pradesh has been ruled by national parties forever. Where would you like your kid to grow up – given a choice? Given good leaders and a strong civil society, even national parties deliver good governance. Shiela Dikshit and Congress are a classic example in Delhi.

But I am happy that the Third Front is growing because it will lead to more chaos and more instability. It is only then that we Indians can finally accept the fact that our Constitution is a great document; but perhaps urgently needs some tweaking. And please don’t talk about precedents and the sanctity of the Constitution. Remember, out Constitution talks of a ‘elected’ Prime Minister. Our current PM is an ‘appointed’ one. Also remember, the same Constitution was used to impose the Emergency. So for heavens sake, at least talk of how to deepen democracy, rather than cursing emerging backward caste leaders.

Jawaharlal Nehru had unparalleled knowledge and experience of foreign policy and diplomacy; something no ‘regional’ chieftain can acquire. And yet, he gave us lemons like Kashmir in 1948 and China in 1962. I rest my case.

The Consumer Always Comes Last

2009-04-03T10:21:00.000+05:30

A pril 1, 2009 could well turn out to be a red letter day (due apologies to Prakash Karat) for Indian consumers. Following a directive from the Reserve Bank of India, you and I can withdraw money from any ATM anywhere in India without having Rs.20 to Rs.50 deducted from our accounts. Banks opposed it fiercely, even issuing threats that they will be reluctant to expand their ATM networks if they can’t impose ‘transaction’ charges. For a change, their lobbying efforts with the RBI have failed, and the latest move will be a huge convenience for Indian consumers.

This is a rare victory for the Indian consumer. Even now, banks have surreptitiously imposed such crazy conditions that an average bank account holder will, more often than not, pay extortionate charges. Take the little known policy whereby a bank account holder cannot access her own bank’s ATM more than thrice or four times a month without paying ‘transaction charges’. The banks say this is to discourage unnecessary crowding at ATM counters. Years ago, the same banks used the same logic to deny account holders access to a bank branch. Account holders were encouraged to use ATMs and actively discouraged (sometimes even prohibited) to use their own bank branch for basic transactions. Consumers were told then that unlimited access to ATMs will be better than waiting in a queue at a branch. But then, unlimited access to ATMs was soon restricted. This is just one example of how banks routinely fleece their consumers. Anyone with a credit card or a deposit in a private or multinational bank will have horror stories.

It is not just banks. Telecom companies, passenger car makers, FMCG companies, commercial aviation companies, insurance companies… just about any enterprise in India with an interface with a consumer ends up fleecing her. Sample a few more examples. A study found that more than 80% of the new electronic meters installed by a private electricity distributor in Delhi were so hi-tech that they ran faster than actual electricity consumption! Of course, the hapless consumer has to first pay an inflated bill and then argue because his power will be cut off otherwise. From out of the blue, private airport operators in Bangalore and Delhi started charging a Rs.200 plus fee from every passenger. This was never a part of the lucrative deals they had signed with the government. And yet, the Civil Aviation ministry – tasked with protecting the interests of the Indian air traveller – connived with private operators to loot the Indian consumer.

In theory, the Indian consumer can approach a consumer court for relief. But in practice, large companies and their battery of lawyers have made the process a frustrating grind for the consumer. Consumer courts were formed to ensure that cases can be settled without lawyers. That basic philosophy has become a joke. In any case, even if a consumer court passes an order favouring the consumer, other Indian courts now promptly – and distressingly – provide relief to the company. Very soon, consumer courts could resemble the average Indian court, where a case might be settled after the litigant has died.

Sure free access to ATMs is a great move. But without much, much more, it could well be an April Fool gesture!

Why Indians Will Hate Obama

2009-03-20T09:55:00.000+05:30

Very soon, you might have Prakash Karat and fellow comrades crooning, ‘I told you so’, as the Indian media slams Barack Obama and Uncle Sam for once again ‘tilting against’ India. You can already hear murmurs of protest as protectionism gathers momentum in America and young Indians find their dream jobs disappearing in the United States. You must have read some pundits suggest how India must adopt tit for tat measures by denying contracts to companies like Boeing. By now, many defense pundits, too, have expressed shock at Uncle Sam denying some key technologies to the Indian armed forces. Then there are those hawks who are now convinced that America is absolutely not interested in genuinely helping India when it comes to battling cross border terrorism. And rest assured, the Obama administration will take many decisions and make many choices that will anger, dismay and even outrage urban Indians who haven’t stopped fantasizing about the emerging strategic partnership between India and America. For this breed of Indians, Uncle Sam would follow up the nuclear deal by doing everything that is anti-Pakistan and anti-China if they have a conflict of interest with India. Sadly such delusions always get shattered. They will inevitably get shattered by end of this year. So after the Indo-US euphoria of the last few years, get prepared for a phase of disappointment and rage at the perfidy of Uncle Sam. And don’t be surprised if Obama becomes one of the most criticized personalities in Indian media (in any case, even his honeymoon with the American media is on the verge of collapsing).

The brutal fact is: both the media and the middle class Indians will be wrong when they rail at Obama and his policies. The reason behind that is another brutal fact: India stills behaves childishly and naively when it comes to the pursuit of national interests, foreign policy and geo-poltics. No wonder, the discourse on foreign policy in India oscillates between triumphant and childish optimism and naïve pessimism. When India signed the nuclear deal, optimism reached a feverish pitch; when a few Indians don’t get American jobs, the pessimism plunges into depths of despair. That is because most Indians confuse between cold blooded pursuit of national interests and the feel good buzz around emotional bonding. There will always be some occasions when America and India’s national interests do not converge when it comes to dealing with Pakistan. That does not make America anti-Indian. There will always be some occasions when the head will rule over the heart and Uncle Sam will choose China over India (China happens to literally propping up the US economy at the moment by sending surplus dollars to America). That doesn’t make America anti-Indian. There will always be some occasions when political compulsions in America will hurt India Inc. Again, that doesn’t make America anti-Indian.

But beyond these simple facts, there is another brutal fact that would hurt many Indians. We tend to think that India is more important than it actually is. Sample this fact: Obama's Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has visited Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing soon after taking over. New Delhi was never on the agenda. And who visited India? It was Richard Holbrooke who is officially supposed to look after Afghanistan and Pakistan. Touché.