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Better Late then Never - A post by Vinay Hardikar

2011-06-13T17:40:00.000+05:30

Baba, Anna and the State: Better Late than Never ?

All things considered, one has to concede that the Government did the right thing in paying Baba
Ramdeo the mid-night call and packing him off to Haridwar where he belongs—if at all he belongs
anywhere! Admittedly, the operation was crude and rough-shod; the Baba had to embarrass himself
with women’s garments and seek shelter among them and his cronies (the so called civil society!) had to
run helter-skelter till they reached the Delhi railway station/s. But the Delhi police is always allowed a bit
of high-handedness. The media and the desperate opposition may project this as “attack on democracy”
and try to compare it with the infamous “Emergency” of 1975-77. But fighters of that emergency like me
know that the Baba does not care two hoots for democracy.

Yes, we know that Corruption in high places has gone out of hand and is a gangrene on the body-politic
and things are getting worse by the day. A war or corruption is the need of the hour and we might have
woken up unpardonably late! But, nevertheless, the rules of this war should be properly framed and
the credentials of self-appointed upstarts like the Baba have to be beyond doubt. Some are born moral,
some become moral through experience, morality is thrust upon some and some thrust themselves
upon morality. While Anna can be safely put in the second category the Baba’s place is permanently
booked in the fourth category! Leave aside his opportunism in cornering a wimpish State immediately
after it had given in to the demand for appointment of the Lokpal; but how can an obscurantist upstart,
who by his own admission, has set aside over a thousand crore Rs –allegedly to finance the war on
corruption—don the cloak of morality ! Our people are gullible by nature and saffron never fails to
click—Bal Thakeray being another example but it is an age-old experience that saffron always hides
more than it reveals!

Further, no spiritual guru has been known to be democratic. The domain of spiritualism is anarchic at
best and all gurus are dictators accepted by their cronies. It would be more to the point to call them
fanatics of their own guru and not civil society. With our population and its typicalities any spiritual Tom,
Dick and Harry can collect a few thousand followers anywhere in the country—at times even outside it!

That is the irony of the war against corruption. It needs to be launched and lead by knowledgeable
people with impeccable secular and democratic credentials and a clean public record. It’s not enough
just to be well meaning like Anna or have a devoted following and money (also muscle?) power like
the Baba. The system can be rid of its short comings only by those who understand how systems are
created and who, by a keen scrutiny of the system, can make specific suggestions towards plugging
the loop holes. Anna, with all respect, is no Gandhi ! Gandhi was a Bar-at-Law; had fought an inhuman
system like apartheid and knew where exactly to hit and how to hit. Yet it took him three decades to
achieve partitioned independence. Still, Gandhi had little or no idea of how a modern civil society
should be run! If we follow Anna we will land into the dull Gandhian society where hardly anything can
ever happen; and the Baba will take us back to the middle ages—both are instances of the remedy being
more damaging than the malady.

To put it candidly, the ball is in our court; we the intelligentsia have brought the misfortune upon
ourselves. It is for us—professionals, thinkers, researchers, media persons, writers, artists to undertake

what we have shunned all the post-independence years. We pampered ourselves that it was enough to
do one’s own job well; we unanimously sulked into oblivion when we realized that we had limited or no
chance in election politics and left the running of the nation to the types we have now got at the helm.
Probably few of us may know it but our system, if we go by the letter, is not that bad. All laws to prevent
corruption are present; but they are sidelined, bent, ignored and , if that is not enough, blatantly
violated by those in office. And shorter the term of office, more the violation. We need to launch a
national network of those who will study the systemic failure in the profession they belong, create a
compendium of remedies at various levels, prioritise them into a short-list and then confront the State
with a concrete agenda. If we continue to baulk and sulk and withdraw deeper into our small world not
only shallwe be failing in the duty of democratic citizenry but might be digging our own grave/s.

Any takers ?

Vinay Hardikar

7 June 2011, Pune.

‘We are 105’

2011-04-15T09:31:00.000+05:30

A moving scene in the Mahabharata is as follows. Duryoudhana and his cohorts are under attack from the Gandharvas. After banishing the Pandavas to an 12-year old exile, Duryoudhana is visiting the forests where the Pandavas are residing, to show off his wealth and heap misery on his depraved cousins. During his party, he draws the ire of the Gandharva king Chitrasena, who attacks and arrests Duryodhana. This pleases Bhima and the other Pandavas, except Yudhisthira, who asks his brothers to fight the Gandharvas and rescue Duryodhana.

Bhima is enraged. ‘Free Duryodhana of misery? The villain responsible for our sufferings?’

‘He is one of our own,’ Yudhisthira says. ‘We have our differences, but facing the outside world we are together. They (the 100 kauravas) and we Pandavas (five) might be at loggerheads, but while facing the World we are 105.’

Bhima, having long resigned to the impracticalities of his elder brother, rescues a deeply embarrassed Duryoudhana.

I was recently reminded of this story by LK Advani’s defense of the political class of India, currently under fire from Anna Hazare:

“Advani had said hours earlier on his blog: “I am of the view that those who revel in spreading a general climate of disdain about politics and politicians are doing a gross disservice to democracy. Despite the shortcomings of Indian democracy, we still have conscientious and upright politicians in the country and it is they who still give people optimism and confidence for the future.” “

Advani is thus defending the indefensible, luminaries across parties that he has bitterly opposed: Mayawati, Lalu Yadav, Karunanidhi and the several children he has fathered from three wives, Ashok Chavan, Sharad Pawar, etc. Politicians join rank when under fire, and Mr. Advani’s tirade proves this again. (Parliamentarians also unite when promoting their own interests, a trivial example being the unanimous approval of hiking their own salaries).

Writing in the Open magazine, Manu Joseph is aware of the likely scenario, the political parties to come together to protect their interests:

“Those who believe that Jan Lokpal is practical are most likely to point to the success of another powerful independent body—the Election Commission. But then the reasonable success of the Election Commission is largely due to the fact that all rival political forces have a common interest in the functioning of the Commission. The body, in principle, offers a level playing field. But in the case of an anti-corruption body, it is in the common interest of all corrupt political players, across party lines, to come together as a cartel to thwart its functioning. The very reason why existing bodies drafted with good intentions, like the Central Vigilance Commission (created by another Gandhian), have become ineffective.”

Lokayukta for Goa: Guest Post by Bhagyesh Hede

2011-04-13T09:00:00.000+05:30

(The initial success of Anna Hazare’s fight against graft has reinvigorated the debate for an Ombudsman policy. While the media focuses on big-ticket corruption in states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, little attention is paid to lesser known corruption havens like Goa. I am delighted to publish a guest post by my learned friend Bhagyesh Hede, who argues for founding the institution of a Lokayukta for Goa.)

Goa is one of those corrupt states that wants to continue its reign of corruption. The Goa government has stayed away from great administrative laws. Thus, while many states in India have made provisions for a Lok Ayukta, Goa is neatly left itself out. I propose that the institution of the Lok Ayukta be set up in Goa, with the following considerations:

1) Having the CM in its ambit along with the MLAs and ministers and also each public body including the Panchayats and municipalities.

2) Having Lok Ayukta with a constitutionally independent mandate of operation supported by an independent Lok Ayukta police. The police should be beyond the jurisdiction of the home minister's executive powers.

3) Having a penal code that has a maximum sentencing of corrupt to 35 years. With multiple counts of crimes having sentences not running in parallel but sequentially. So we must have sentences running 90-100 years in case there are people caught in 3 counts of corruption. Remember, corruption is the greatest crime in this country, worse than rape. It is the rape of the motherland. It needs the greatest punishment.

4) Constituting Lok Ayukta with an annual monetary allocation of 5% of the state yearly budgeted expenditure. This is easily possible as the current going rate of ministers bribe is 10% of the tender value. So we are actually saving 5% for the State government.

5) Having Lokayukta coming fully under RTI. And also having its own penal code applying upon itself.

The next big political revolution is not about giving unfulfilled hopes to people, but taking away the rogue privileges of our political class. Some of the issues that need urgent thought is putting the floor of the house in the purview of the law of the land, codifying in words how the house of parliament and assembly is run, adding a conflict of interest clause for the politicians and finally a stronger whistle blower act to protect citizens who bring out the truth to public. Breaking the nexus between capitalist society and politicians needs to be urgently addressed. A nexus so deep that gives rise to hospital buildings without doctors, 3-4 lakhs or rupees to buy microscopes no one knows to use. Where people are slaves to capital and not vice versa.

So my request to each of my fellow goans is to take your shot at how you will structurally strengthen the Goan polity. Not by personally coming to power, but by creating unblemished and august institutions that operate such that no matter whomsoever comes to power, will render the greatest service to the nation. Its only he/she who achieves this will ever be remembered until immortally.

Vinay Hardikar: 3S Bharat

2011-04-12T09:15:00.000+05:30

SWACHCHA BHARAT, SAMARTHA BHARAT, SAMRIDHA BHARAT ( 3S BHARAT ) : PROGRAMME

I am writing this as a follow up of the first draft on the above campaign. I agree that all of you must have expected this much earlier. My only excuse is that I was waiting for the outcome of the fast of Shri Anna Hazare.

Whatever the political implications and interpretations of this grand protest gesture one has to agree that Anna (as he is known in Maharashtra) deserves kudos for earning pride of place for the fight against corruption in high places in the political agenda of the country. His demand for the speedy passage of the Jan-Lokpal Bill has been conceded and the Government has also bent to accept 50 per cent peoples’ representation on the Committee to draft the Bill. How fast the Committee will work and whether the Bill will be carried in the Monsoon Session of Parliament remains to be seen.

All said and done, we have to understand that this is a “corrective action” and not a preventive measure. Secondly, as long as someone is going to be ‘appointed’ by someone (a committee in the present case) political machinations cannot be ruled out. Thirdly, the corrupt in India who thrive rampantly when strong anti-corruption laws are already in place will expectedly be diligent enough to bye-pass one more hurdle-the office of the Jan-Local. Lastly, supposing someone is really brought to the book by the Jan-Lokpal, considerable time will have lapsed in the process and the irreparable damage to the country will already have been done.

We need, therefore, an active Civic Forum to define and initiate preventive measures. In the last draft I had listed 10 demands. If we agree that these demands are sharp enough to sustain a nation-wide campaign I submit the following structural blue-print for the 3S Bharat.

The campaign will operate at the National, State and City/District levels and organizing committees will have to be set up at the respective levels.

The above organizing committees will set up study groups at their respective levels for the following demands and areas of action:

1. Review of all taxation-related laws.

2. Possibilities of legal action/s under the present law.

3. Electoral reforms.

4. Vigilance on black money in and outside the country belonging to all-politicians included.

5. Vigilance on corruption, favoritism and red-tapism in government offices.

6. Vigilance on development policy, development plans and their execution at all levels.

7. Identification and resolution of other civic issues.

8. Advocacy of a culture of decency, dignity and transparency in all walks of life.

Of the above, the first four groups will function at the national level and provide guidelines for volunteers at all levels.

For the items 5 to 8 in the above list local committees will need to be set up. If we take 5 as the minimum number for one of the above committees, a city/district level unit will initially need at least 50 volunteers- to man the organizing committee, the above sub-committees and a few others for miscellaneous functions. These broad figures will help to visualize the size of 3S Bharat at the National level.

We will also have to take a call on how often the activists should meet, the kind of infrastructure the campaign will require, membership and fund-collection and other allied issues. Last but not the least we MUST have a novel action plan and also a fresh gesture/action/identification symbol – it has to be simple, prominent, eye-catching and inspiring.

Allow me to speak my mind on this. The corrupt system has thrown up its garish stereotypes which tend to get more vulgar by the day! Glaring badges, flags, banners, cut-outs, dress codes etc for identity; protest marches, slanderous slogan shouting, hysterical idolization of fallible individuals as campaign; utopian dreams as ideology and the frustration of non-deliverance….the list is endless. Let us not fall into that quagmire!

Let us be more intelligent than the corrupt system and its limpets; let us be more creative than our past leaders; let us show the stamina for a long-drawn “War on Corruption” instead of the short-lived promise of “Solomon Grundy”.

Let us reach the battlefield before the enemy.

Any thoughts on this?

Vinay Hardikar

9 April 2011, Pune.

Anna’s last chance

2011-04-07T08:56:00.002+05:30

I am surprised by the public outpour of support for social activist Anna Hazare’s fast against corruption. Perhaps the supporters are unaware of Mr. Hazare’s weak credentials as a crusader. Readers following Maharashtra politics will remember how Mr. Hazare had launched several such fasts in the past against thugs in the Maharashtra Government, only to withdraw them after a token assurance from the state’s chief minister. Like Shane Warne’s complete mastery over Daryl Cullinan, the rioter and businessman Manohar Joshi (appointed as the Maharashtra Chief Minster by Bal Thakre in the mid-1990s) had Mr. Hazare’s number: every time Mr. Hazare undertook one his fasts, Mr. Joshi made a few random reconciliatory noises, to see Mr. Hazare immediately give up his fast. The only goon Mr. Hazare succeeded displacing in Mr. Joshi’s time was Baban Gholap, then Maharashtra’s social welfare minister.

This fast is therefore Mr. Hazare’s last chance for redemption, and I believe he has gotten the timing right: India’s civil society is looking for its Egypt moment, and being too secure and worldly-minded to come to streets and protest, the middle-class and the urban elite are searching for an icon to lead the fight, and Mr. Hazare provides them an opportunity. I only wish that Mr. Hazare fights until the end and does not frustrate his supporters once again.

What is India’s Election Dish?

2011-04-07T08:55:00.002+05:30

Apart from cash-bombing the voters and the candidature of rogues and thugs, there’s only thing in common in all of India’s elections: Biryani, our undisputed national election dish.

An ideology's transformation

2011-04-06T09:13:00.000+05:30

In an outstanding article in the Caravan magazine, Vinod K Jose outlines the character arc of Tamil Nadu chief and dynast M Karunanidhi, showing the transformation of a Dravidian writer to a politician whose ideology starts and ends with family:

"IT WAS IDEOLOGY, after all—the persuasive force of the Dravidian awakening launched by Periyar and refined by Annadurai—that brought the DMK to power. But the party learnt quickly that retaining power could not be achieved by ideology alone—and decided, over time, that the spoils of its power were too good to waste pursuing ideological
ends. It was under Karunanidhi that the DMK embraced power for its own sake, and the younger members of his dynasty naturally came to regard power and money as the only worthwhile pursuits.

In this lies the greatest irony of Karunanidhi’s long reign: that a man who believed—and continues to believe—with all sincerity, in the ideology of Periyar and Annadurai is the same man who willfully presided over its debasement and decline. Karunanidhi still knows how to pay lip service to Tamil nationalism, and does so with verve and gusto when the situation demands it. But his political descendants, whose utter lack of ideology he finds distasteful, learnt their ways under his tutelage."

The essay is insightful and evocative, and after reading it I even detected in myself a glimmer of sadness for the dynast – I am sure Karaunanidhi started with good intensions of upholding Dravidian pride, and certainly didn’t want to end up what he is today: a reincarnation of the very feudal lords and Kings whom he wanted to usurp. Karunanidhi is a vastly more dangerous and lethal version of the Kings from historical India we (and perhaps he) desisted: like old kings and feudal lords, Karunanidhi has fathered several children from several wives, owns substantial amount of property, has (by his own admission) amassed crores of Rupees, has powerful enemies like Jayalalithaa, has won the loyalty of strongmen and courtiers, and his family openly bickers and fights amongst itself for the spoils of power. And like those kings, Karunanidhi will be loathed and remembered for what he really is: a petty, venal politician mired in countless ill-deeds:

“Karunanidhi will be remembered for the three to four institutions that are working decently in Tamil Nadu—the public distribution system, healthcare and a few social welfare programmes,” N Ram concluded. “But he will be mostly remembered for institutionalising corruption in all spheres of the state.”

Two types of innovation

2011-03-28T07:58:00.000+05:30

Reading this thoughtful article from Samar Harlankar about technological innovation in India, I began to think what kind of innovation has occurred in Indian politics recently. I drew this list:

Cash for votes (where legislators pledge their votes in exchange of cash – the going rates for MPs has increased between ~450% to ~1500% in 15 years, depending on whether you trust Wikileaks or CPI-M)
Cash-bombing (where candidates bomb every voter with cash in exchange of votes)
Fiefdom coalitions ( wherein the head of the government absolves himself of all charges of wrongdoings, blaming it on coalition politics, and the parties in the coalition run their own mini-governments)

Why does innovation occurring in technology end up being harnessed (mostly) for public good, where as political innovation is employed to destroy institutions and kill democracy?

No names policy

2011-03-23T09:18:00.000+05:30

Yesterday the Maharashtra assembly was thrown into turmoil over this report, which claimed that fraudster Hassan Ali laundered money for three former Maharashtra CMs:

"In those years, especially the late 1990s and early 2000s, the stock markets had huge black money riding on it, which was often untraceable. Ali smartly bought participatory notes which were not required to be registered with SEBI. In the same fashion, some of the money would also come into companies that would have a beneficiary of the politician's family or in some cases, a completely new business entity in the name of a beneficiary of the politician," said a source close to the probe agencies. Through this strategy, Ali is believed to have pumped in money into the businesses of the son-in-law of one of these former CMs."

[emphasis mine]

What do you think is the chance that these three CMs would be named? Last week Tehelka magazine had reported that not naming Ms. Kanimozhi in the charge-sheet was a strong pre-condition for the DMK to re-extend its support to the UPA government. This is what is likely to happen: today’s Mint mentions indications that Kanimozhi, one of Tamil Nadu CM Karunanidhi’s several children and an influential politician, will not be named in the first charge-sheet to be filed in the 2G scam case. If things get too hot, the NCP would withdraw support from the UPA/Maharashtra government, and then watch things return to normalcy.

Week's reading round-up: 2

2011-03-18T16:34:00.000+05:30

Here are some of the things I’ve been reading this week, which might be of interest to our readers:

Alain De Botton is a leading contemporary philosopher, and I highly recommend his book ‘Consolations of Philosophy’ where he writes about six philosophers and their impact on our day-to-day life. In this article, Mr. de Botton writes about how Seneca (who features prominently in Consolations), an ancient Stoic philosopher, came to terms with an earthquake that ripped apart the Roman province of Campania, in 62 AD. (‘To try to prepare ourselves psychologically for disaster, Seneca asked us to perform a strange exercise every morning which he called in Latin a praemeditatio – a premedition – and which involved lying in bed before breakfast and imagining everything that could go wrong in the day ahead. This exercise was no idle fun, it was designed to prepared you if your town burnt down that evening or your children died: ‘We live in the middle of things which have all been destined to die,’ ran one example of a premeditation, ‘Mortal have you been born, to mortals have you given birth. So you must reckon on everything, expect everything.’)

Recently a lot has been written about Dubai’s fakeness and the culture of vanity it promotes. The most celebrated of the articles, of course, was from Independent’s Johann Hari (which was recommended 15 thousand times on Facebook). Another insightful article on the city recently appeared in Vanity Fair, by A. A. Gill. (“Dubai is the parable of what money makes when it has no purpose but its own multiplication and grandeur. When the culture that holds it is too frail to contain it. Dubai is a place that doesn’t just know the price of everything and the value of nothing but makes everything worthless. The answer to everything in Dubai is money.”)

One of the best modern pieces on the benefits of solitude came from William Deresiewicz, where he showed how leaders would benefit from solitude. In The Boston Globe, Leon Nayfakh argues that being alone could do wonders to our creativity. (“In the paper, Burum offers two possible theories to explain what she and Gilbert found in the study. The first invokes a well-known concept from social psychology called “social loafing,” which says that people tend not to try as hard if they think they can rely on others to pick up their slack. (If two people are pulling a rope, for example, neither will pull quite as hard as they would if they were pulling it alone.) But Burum leans toward a different explanation, which is that sharing an experience with someone is inherently distracting, because it compels us to expend energy on imagining what the other person is going through and how they’re reacting to it.”)

Lastly, an interesting piece by Tim De Lisle in More Intelligent Life wherein he compares Ryan Giggs, the veteran Manchester United footballer, and Sachin Tendulkar. Mr. De Lisle, who has extensively written about cricket before, suggests that attributes like passion, commitment and vision have hugely contributed to the seniors’ stunning success. (“Most of us hope to grow old with dignity. Giggs and Tendulkar both started showing dignity before they grew old: no scandals, no shenanigans, no sex texts. In a petulant age, they show grace under pressure. Neither has much to say, which can be dull for fans but makes sense for them and their teams: their skills do the talking. In “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, the meaning of life was 42. In football and cricket at the moment, it seems to be 37.” )

PS: This series is inspired form Chandrahas Choudhary's The Middle Stage, a blog that I highly recommend.

Cash for votes: in Parliament and polling-booths

2011-03-18T09:31:00.000+05:30

The India Cables, accessed by The Hindu via WikiLeaks, confirm many of the self-evident truths Indians know about their politics. Cable 206688 describes, in simple and chilling detail, how Azhagiri, one of Tamil Nadu CM Karunanidhi’s several sons, distributed cash:

"8. (C) After long relying on political muscle to enforce his will in Madurai, Azhagiri has added money to his arsenal and is using it to a degree previously unseen in Tamil Nadu. Azhagiri's approach debuted in the January assembly by-election held in Thirumangalam near Madurai, which he managed for the DMK. This race was marked by unprecedented bribes to voters (ref A). M. Patturajan, the former Mayor of Madurai and a confidant of Azhagiri, told us that ""it is no secret at all, Azhagiri paid 5,000 rupees (approximately USD 100) per voter in Thirumangalam."" S. Kannan, a mid-level Congress party official in Madurai, told us ""the 5,000 rupees per voter in Thirumangalam changed everything,"" noting that previous bribes to voters had topped out at 500 rupees. S. Annamalai, Madurai editor of The Hindu, also confirmed the 5,000 rupee figure, telling us that all of his employees who live in Thirumangalam received the money."

Letters received in today’s Hindu confirm these stories. The cable also details politicians in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, including the Home Minister PC Chidambaram, allegedly distributed cash to lure voters. This Tehelka story lists even more incidents.

Given that our voters expect money from politicians to vote during elections, isn’t’ it ironical that the same voters are perturbed when our legislators accept cash to vote in favor/against governments during trust votes? The 2008 price for a MP was a paltry 10 crore per vote in trust motion (as per WIkiLeaks). The 1993 price of a MP vote (as discovered during the JMM MP bribery scandal) was approximately 2.2 crore – a rise of just ~450% in 15 years. Voters of these MPs should have therefore demanded that their MP maximize his/her returns by auctioning his/her vote during a trust motion, and then distribute the gains more evenly to the voters. Voters need to be better educated to be aware of their new rights in today’s market-driven democracy.

History of Business in India - 1

2011-03-16T17:47:00.000+05:30

I have launched, with my friend Mr Kaushik Sekhar, the course “History of Business in India” at the University where I teach.

The students took their time in joining up but at the end of the second week we had 26. Encouraged by the response we are going full steam and have,by now, covered ground from pre-historic times to the beginning of the 19th century. Since most students come from families doing business for generations, the course sort of provides them with a mirror to their own roots and identity. We are trying to give them an objective orientation to the ‘Indian’ way/s of business and trying to nudge them to develop the right attitude to the ‘Indian’ way. While integration of Indian Business with the world has to be encouraged, our students, when they make their careers, should not be indifferent to their roots and traditions, nor should they look at the past as cumbersome baggage.

Salient Points that have emerged from the class discussions so far:

1. There is an Indian Way of Business and it has evolved out of Indian ecology, social custom and
survived the test of time.
2. During the ancient period India and China together were centres of world trade because of large
agricultural surplus.
3. The Business World of the ancient period was from the Mediterranean Sea to the South East
Asian countries with India and China at the centre.
4. The India of the ancient period was from present day Afghanistan to Myanmar.
5. Since the world traded with them for essential commodities both India and China did not have
large merchant navies.
6. Trade was mainly in agricultural commodities, spices, perfumes, cotton and silk textiles,
brocades, ivory ,silver , gold etc
7. Europe had little or no agricultural surplus and hence lagged behind till the Renaissance.
8. European domination of trade began with better navigation, discovery of gun-powder and
better steel etc and,
9. European domination of Currency began with the discovery of gold in Africa and Central
America during the Age of Discovery (a d 1400-1600).
10. Indian traders, bound by caste and custom, rarely assimilated with the cultures they traded with
and stayed out of local politics.
11. Since India missed the Age of Mercantilism, accumulation of Capital collectively did not happen
in India; profits stayed with trading families who were also money-lenders and landlords
12. India also missed the Age of Capitalism and the Industrial Revolution due to internal instability
between 1600-1800.
13. Nevertheless, the local trading practices were so well formed that neither the Sultans, the
Mughals or the British disturbed them.
14. Indian traders and businessmen rarely challenged the rulers and adapted quickly to political
change and rulers’ whims.
15. Indian traders bought peace and protection by lending money to the rulers.
16. Indian businessmen, though they helped creation of wealth, were pragmatic enough to accept
social status below the Brahmins and Kshatriyas in the caste hierarchy.
17. Indian Businessmen also lived in harmony with the masses; turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to
general ridicule.
18. As a result of 14 to 17 noted above, there are no records of confiscation of the property of
businessmen by rulers or mob attacks on businessmen; nor were Indian Businessmen hate-
symbols like the Jews .
19. Resilience of Indian Businessmen stands out through History.
20. Because business was limited to certain castes from certain regions, notions of quality and
competition remained alien to Indian Business.
21. The absence of records of abject poverty, starvation deaths (barring periods of severe
droughts, epidemics and famines) in India by foreign travelers is testimony to the efficiency of
commodity trade in India.
22. The presence of too many kingdoms, principalities, currencies and the absence of security to
goods in transportation were the main hazards for the Indian business community and perhaps
prevented the rise of Capitalism as in Europe.

Week’s reading Round-up - 1

2011-03-11T09:20:00.000+05:30

Here are some of the things I’ve been reading this week, which might be of interest to our readers:

a) Kaushik Basu’s review of economist Arvind Virmani’s works

b) ‘Suddenly Susan’, a nice piece on author Sigrid Nunez’s experiences when she lived in with Susan Sontag’s son, sharing an apartment in New York with the legendary literary critic.

c) An insightful essay, that reviews four books on the last wall street crisis, by Jonathan Kirshner. The author also describes why we can soon expect the next crisis. And while on the financial crisis, Michael Hardt argues for ‘reclaiming the common in communism’.

d) A report on the conditions in one of China’s largest electronic gadget manufacturing firm, that contains this chilling paragraph:

The nets went up in May, after the 11th jumper in less than a year died here. They carried a message: You can throw yourself off any building you like, as long as it isn’t one of these. And they seem to have worked. Since they were installed, the suicide rate has slowed to a trickle.

e) Lastly, Tehelka has a nice pictorial summary of the 2G scam.

The Billion Dollar Question

2011-03-08T08:42:00.000+05:30

Thomas Friedman asks the 110 Billion $ question:

When one looks across the Arab world today at the stunning spontaneous democracy uprisings, it is impossible to not ask: What are we doing spending $110 billion this year supporting corrupt and unpopular regimes in Afghanistan and Pakistan that are almost identical to the governments we’re applauding the Arab people for overthrowing?

Urging for a pullout from the Af-Pak quagmire, Friedman suggests a use for the 110 Billion USD:

The truth is we can’t do much to consolidate the democracy movements in Egypt and Tunisia. They’ll have to make it work themselves. But we could do what we can, which is divert some of the $110 billion we’re lavishing on the Afghan regime and the Pakistani Army and use it for debt relief, schools and scholarships to U.S. universities for young Egyptians and Tunisians who had the courage to take down the very kind of regimes we’re still holding up in Kabul and Islamabad.

PS: While on Pakistan, also read this hard-hitting piece by an op-ed editor at Pakistan’s Daily Times. Ms. Sarfaraz, the author of the piece, hopes for sane voices to arise from Pakistan.

Lest we Indians gloat over Pakistan’s descent into anarchy and chaos, let us remember that the killers in the various riots (1984 New Delhi, 1992 Bombay riots and 2002 Gujarat pogrom) not only roam free, but hold important central and state level posts. As a version of old wisecrack goes: if you kill one person, you might be arrested (assuming you are not a politician or related to one). If you organize the killings of thousands, you get to be a minister.

Cash transfers: who is right?

2011-03-04T19:21:00.000+05:30

Cash transfers to the poor have long divided the opinion makers in India. This year’s union budget takes baby steps towards cash transfers to the poor. In a corrupt country like India, any government scheme is bound to be sucked dry by the corrupt administrators and the various mafia, so cash transfers seem to be the least damaging endowment policy. However, it has already raised the heckles of the left-leaning intellectuals. Members of the National Advisory Council, the most powerful decision-making body in the country today, are against the mechanism, citing various reasons from encouragement of free-market profiteering to wrong targeting. Right-leaning intellectuals, of course, are heavily in favor of cash transfers, saying it’s the only way a welfare scheme can survive the tsunami of corruption.

Here are two sane views from each sides: Jayati Ghosh argues against (while maintaining that the transfers should supplement, not replace public provision of goods and services), while Samar Haralankar argues for cash transfers (while building a solid case for having the necessary infrastructure like UID in place before the roll-out). Expect more heat and debates on the topic in the coming months and years.

Dummies at play

2011-03-04T11:27:00.000+05:30

Ramchandra Guha laments the ‘absence of vigorous, credible, state-level leaders’ at the Congress party:

"Things were once otherwise. In Jawaharlal Nehru’s time, the Congress had strong, capable, and focused CMs — among them S Nijalingappa in Karnataka (then known as Mysore), K Kamaraj in Tamil Nadu (then Madras), BC Roy in West Bengal, and YB Chavan in Maharashtra. They successfully won elections and ran governments.

Now, in states like Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh, there is no one, identifiable, Congress leader. Five or six senior men jostle for position, their precedence varying from month to month depending on the winks and nods of the high command. In other states the situation is even more dire."

It is one of the ever-lasting ironies of Indian politics that the Congress party, run in an autocratic and presidential manner at the center, prevents strong leaders at the state level. This was one of Indira Gandhi’s Big Ideas: to plant mediocre dummies at the state level. The idea was a runaway success. The senior Mrs. Gandhi started her career pitted against formidable leaders at the union and the state level. At her demise, no one in the party dared oppose her or her son.

Mrs. Sonia Gandhi’s Big Idea has been to copy her mother-in-law and at the center as well: not even Dr. Singh’s greatest admirers can charge him of being strong-willed (except during the passage of the Nuclear deal) . Aso, Mrs. Gandhi seems intent packing the union government with ordinary, pedestrian journeymen like Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushil Kumar Shinde, CP Joshi and MS Gill. Mr. Guha’s comment thus applies at the center as well.

PS: Prem Shankar Jha argues that we must judge Dr. Singh ‘not by what he has been saying but by what he has done’. Unfortunately he builds his case by citing token actions, like the arrest of A Raja, and a questioning of the junior Ambani. With the Supreme Court’s action yesterday striking down the appointment of the CVC, the PM’s position has further weakened. Tokenism won’t help here.

(Ramchandra Guha article link via Churmuri).

Need versus Greed

2011-03-01T09:04:00.000+05:30

Jeffery Sachs paints a grim scenario of the days to come:

There is something else hidden from view that is very dangerous. In many populous parts of the world, including the grain-growing regions of northern India, northern China, and the American Midwest, farmers are tapping into groundwater to irrigate their crops. The great aquifers that supply water for irrigation are being depleted. In some places in India, the water table has been falling by several meters annually in recent years. Some deep wells are approaching the point of exhaustion, with salinity set to rise as ocean water infiltrates the aquifer.

A calamity is inevitable unless we change. And here is where Gandhi comes in. If our societies are run according to the greed principle, with the rich doing everything to get richer, the growing resource crisis will lead to a widening divide between the rich and the poor – and quite possibly to an increasingly violent struggle for survival.

He also writes about the colonization of Africa by the big nations:

An analogous power grab is being attempted in Africa. The rise in food prices is leading to a land grab, as powerful politicians sell foreign investors massive tracts of farmland, brushing aside the traditional land rights of poor smallholders. Foreign investors hope to use large mechanized farms to produce output for export, leaving little or nothing for the local populations.

India’s own land grab in Africa is also described, in vivid detail, in a masterful essay by Rana Dasgupta on Delhi, and can be read here.

Why Guwahati is India’s next boom-town

2011-02-28T08:29:00.000+05:30

A Marathi writer once told me how to identify the next investment hot-spot in India: watch where the politicians are parking their money. If you see politicians investing large sums of time and money in an economic activity, no matter how obscure, expect that field to grow, he had said. The author provided many examples, of which I quote two: cricket, which the Indian politicians discovered as a lucrative investment option years before the IPL boom, and mining. (He also mentioned human-trafficking, but apart from the noble Indian ex-MP Babubhai Katara, there are no other known trailblazers right now).

Using this measure, one can also track the next geographical growth location: watch where corrupt politicians and bureaucrats buy land. By this measure, Guwahati seems to be India’s next boom-town. Arvind and Tinoo Joshi, corrupt IAS officers recently suspended by the Madhya Pradesh government, bought 18 apartments in Guwahati:

“SUSPENDED IAS couple of 1979 batch, Arvind and Tinoo Joshis’ reported amassing of assets worth Rs 300 crore has been the talking point among bureaucrats across the country on Wednesday, but what has intrigued many is why this Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS couple with stints at New Delhi and Bhopal chose to purchase 18 of out of 25 flats in far-flung North-East city of Guwahati? What’s their Assam connection? Or has Guwahati with its new property boom become a safe route to park unaccounted money of politicians and bureaucrats? No wonder, Guwahati’s property market witnessed a boom even when there was a dip across major metros thanks to global downturn and economic uncertainty.”

Even by the standards of corrupt Indian babus, the Joshi couple’s loot is eye-popping:

"The income-tax department here on Friday attached the bank accounts and properties of billionaire IAS couple Arvind and Tinu Joshi who are estimated to be worth Rs 360 crore.

As many as 77 bank accounts belonging to members of Joshi family, their real estate and other properties have been attached under the provisions of section 281-B of the Income Tax Act 1961."

Perhaps the Joshis were doing their bit towards national integration, addressing the growth imbalance in the North East.

Improving our cognitive toolkit

2011-02-25T09:27:00.002+05:30

I’ve always enjoyed reading ‘Edge’, an online journal whose stated aim is to ‘promote inquiry into and discussion of intellectual, philosophical, artistic, and literary issues, as well as to work for the intellectual and social achievement of society.’ Every year, the journal invites answers from thinkers on a question. This year’s question is ‘WHAT SCIENTIFIC CONCEPT WOULD IMPROVE EVERYBODY'S COGNITIVE TOOLKIT?’

164 contributors, including various scientists ranging from Richard Dawkins to VS Ramachandran to Lee Smolin have answered this question in 200-1000 words. The answers make compelling reading, and have broadened my knowledge and made me aware of some interesting concepts, like Kakonomics.

I highly recommend the series. Enjoy reading!

Nothing’s changed here since 1947

2011-02-25T08:56:00.000+05:30

Actor and social activist Rahul Bose has a moving piece in Hindustan Times on his experiences at Rehatyakheda, a village in central India.

"The village lives in darkness; its children are taught to play in the dark. Food is cooked during the day, eaten by the light of a kerosene lamp, carefully set at its lowest flame, at night. To save kerosene, 10 minutes is all they get to finish dinner.

The nearest medical facility is 30 km away. Pregnant women prefer to give birth in their huts rather than travel two hours on the bumpy dirt track to the nearest public health centre. They know the journey can lead to a haemorrhage (sic) and death, like it happened to those women who insisted on travelling to the nearest health centre. This situation has been the same since 1947."

Some part of the piece is naive – a celebrity realizing how dark is the country he inhabits, and some of the optimism is out-of-place. Yet, it is striking that Mr. Bose decides to spend time – no matter how little – in a place most of his peers from the film industry would not even know existed, and converts his experience into a hard-hitting mini-essay.

Read the entire piece here.

Can UID save India’s PDS?

2011-02-25T08:54:00.002+05:30

Ashok Kotwal, Milind Murugkar and Bharat Ramaswami have an insightful piece on food security, where they implore for a new leadership and a fresh focus on the topic:

"There is no issue that is more significant in its moral implications and in the magnitude of its political impact than the issue of food security. And yet the present course of the national Food Security Bill is headed in a direction that does not bode well for the poor in India. The National Advisory Council (NAC) would like near-universal coverage but insists that it be delivered through the public distribution system (PDS). The Rangarajan Committee, set up to review the NAC recommendations, would like to scale it down on the grounds that it’s not viable. It says the government would be unable to procure so much grain and the subsidy required would be unaffordable too. All of this is under the assumption that the subsidy continues to be delivered through the PDS.

What is proposed is the worst of all possible worlds — a continuation of limited coverage under a wasteful system. Once again we are on the brink of creating another expensive token that will leave a vast number of the poor without the cover of food security. The act will be passed. But the poor won’t notice much change in their lives."

Like most public-welfare schemes run by the Government, the PDS is a case study in waste, corruption and inefficiency. In its 2005 report, India’s planning commission reported that for every Rs 4 spent on the PDS, only Rs 1 reaches the poor and 57% of the PDS food grain did not reach the intended people. Many observers have suggested the use of Aadhar IDs – India’s Universal Identification (UID) Project – to prevent the leakages in PDS.

A report by the UID project admits that ‘targeting is not serving its real purpose, as the beneficiaries do not get food grains in accordance with their entitlements.’ The report states a number of UID-based and technology-assisted solution to bypass the flaws inherent in the system, including creating a beneficiary database and tracking individual beneficiaries.

Read the academics’ article here, and read the UID-PDS report here.

PS: This article mentions Milind Toravane, the district collector of Godhra, who used ‘technology to destroy a transporter-storekeeper nexus and save the district about R3 crore every month.’

A venture capitalist in a Zoo

2011-02-18T13:46:00.000+05:30

Tehelka’s Ashish Khetan lays out the complex maze of companies, supported with intricate shareholding patterns, created to share the loot in the 2G scam. The report reads just like a puzzle book:

“The CBI believes that the conspiracy behind the Swan Telecom was hatched in early 2006 when ADAG created a web of newly formed companies named after animals.
…
Of these six companies, Parrot, Zebra and Tiger had inter-collapsible shareholding. That is, Parrot and Tiger owned Zebra, Zebra and Tiger owned Parrot, and Parrot and Zebra owned Tiger.

The shareholding pattern of Swan Capital Pvt Ltd, which was owned by ADAG companies till January 2007, was suddenly changed on 20 January 2007, with Tiger Traders taking over all of Swan Capital’s 10,000 shares.”

Looks like the conspirators were being too modest while naming the companies: shouldn’t the appropriate names have been: Vampire Bat, Dung-Fly, Boa Constrictor and Blood-Seeking Leeches?

PS: The report also mentions that ‘a stalwart in Maharashtra politics who is often touted as a prime ministerial candidate by his supporters have also made stupendous illegal gains from Swan Telecom’. I wonder who this politician could be, because there’s no one from the current crop of Maharashtra politician who can claim to be a stalwart, let alone be touted as a PM candidate – there are all pygmies out there.

Or could it be India’s alleged ‘biggest venture capitalist?’