In Flux: The Indian Narrative

A recently released Transparency International survey lists India as the fourth most corrupt country in the World. Confirming what we always suspected, the poll states that “In Afghanistan, Nigeria, Iraq and India more than 50% of people said they had paid a bribe in the past year”.

This, along with the second tranche of tapes containing the conversations from the lady who runs our banana republic, reminded me how much the Indian narrative has changed in the past twenty years. I can chart the following shifts in the Indian Narrative:

a) When Dr. Manmohan Singh and Narsimha Rao began first hesitant steps towards liberalization, the consensus was that India was fast degenerating, and perhaps would trace the steps of Russia and Argentina in being unable to manage its finances.

b) The political instability of 1996-1999, and the ostracization by the World community after the nuclear explosions of 1998, made many wonder whether India would veer back towards the ‘Hindu rate of growth’.

c) The ‘India Shining’ years of 2000-2004 and the near-double digit growth that occurred during the early years of UPA-1, made many believe that India was gradually reclaiming its true place in the World order, that of a superpower. The nuclear deal with the US cemented this belief, along with the global acquisitions done by the companies from the Tata group and the Mittals

.

Today, however, the narrative has rapidly changed again. India seems to be unraveling and slipping in a quagmire of corruption. Many of us today perceive India as a fundamentally flawed, corrupt society that is run by mostly incompetent and corrupt politicians to serve and protect the interests of crony and rent-seeking capitalists, a society that has forgotten that an overwhelming majority (~77% as per some estimates) survives on less than twenty rupees (~40 USD cents) per day, and a society that lives in the most dangerous parts of the World and continues to ignore deep-seated internal security problems.

Given the arrow of history, I am sure this narrative would change again – I only hope things don’t get worse from here.

Do scamsters have it easier now?

The moral worth of a society can be deduced by how it bestows its wealth to its members. Some societies like to think themselves as meritocracies: intelligence, hard-work and ability can get a committed individual far in life. Some, like the tribal societies, are equally-opportunity deniers – no amount of hard work will guarantee a comfortable life, let alone wealth. The India of today fares abysmally on this count. A primary source of wealth in India is rent-seeking.

The Wikipedia entry for rent-seeking seems to have been written keeping India in mind:

“an individual, organization or firm seeks to earn income by capturing economic rent through manipulation or exploitation of the economic or political environment, rather than by earning profits through economic transactions and the production of added wealth.”

Consider the three recent high-profile scams: the CWG mess, the 2G scandal and the land scam in Karnataka. In each of the three cases, the state, or rather the Mafioso who adorn the ministries and the secretariats, controls the access to rare resources: there’s only one instance of the Commonwealth Games in decades; the spectrum is owned by the people of India and hence its elected government; the chief Minister has tremendous discretionary powers to allocate land. Each of the beneficiaries of these scams had it easy: once they made it to the position (to be fair, this involves lot of struggle and effort) that enabled them to arbitrate, they could go for the kill.

Contrasting these scams with the scams from the yesteryears fills me with nostalgia. Consider three examples from 1992-2002: the Fodder Scam, the Tehelka scandal and the Harshad Mehta securities scam. In each of these three illustrious, path-breaking scams, there was lot of hard-work for the scamsters to do. In the fodder scam, for instance, the mafia (the involved politicians and the administrators) had to create records of thousands of livestock and maintain elaborate records to divert the funds marked for the fodder and the medicines. The defense officers in the Tehelka scandal had to elaborately justify their proposed purchasing decisions. Harshad Mehta had stupendous knowledge of the stock market and was a maverick trader. Compared to these stalwarts, today’s Mafioso are novices. (I can picture Harshad Mehta, having his way out of hell into heaven, muttering at A. Raja: "all you could arrange was a mere 1.76 lakh crores?")

The quality of scamsters, much like moral universe India inhabits today, has deteriorated. Our Mafia need increasingly lesser skills to acquire wealth, and increasingly, winning a biological lottery in enough, as Jagadish, the son of the disgraced ex-Karnataka IT minister Katta Naidu demonstrates, if you are hatched from an egg that is fertilized by an Indian politician’s sperm, you have a much higher chance to be filthy rich. Why struggle with innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity when being a minister or an administrator can fetch you millions a year?

A Turing test for Sharad pawar

Computer programmers will be familiar with the Turing test, a device to test a machine’s intelligence. As per Wikipedia:

“A human judge engages in a natural language conversation with one human and one machine, each of which tries to appear human. All participants are placed in isolated locations. If the judge cannot reliably tell the machine from the human, the machine is said to have passed the test.”

One can devise a similar test for Sharad Pawar, allegedly India’s agriculture and food minister. During his disastrous career as the agriculture and food minister, lakhs of farmers – mostly in his own home state of Maharashtra – have committed suicide; and food prices have repeatedly breached all-time highs. Yet, Mr. Pawar prefers to remain silent. P. Sainath, rural-affairs editor for ‘The Hindu’, says:

“Sharad Pawar has never once moved to see that the National Farmers Commission Reports are placed in parliament for discussion and for adoption as policy, nothing. Sharad Pawar has not visited one house hold where a farmer has committed suicide. He is the agriculture minister. But he has been to every IPL, final, semi final, IPL 1, IPL 2 , he went to Durban to attend but he has not been in his home state of Maharashtra ,he has not visited the house hold of a farmer who was committed suicide, these are the sort of people who run our country. “

Then what makes Mr. Pawar speak? How do we know that Mr. Pawar feels responsible for any topic? If a farmer dying every half an hour doesn’t compel him to act, what will? If prices of essential commodities double in three years coaxes a statement to the effect that ‘we expect prices to rise even more’, what will? Is there an issue that can make the Baramati Boss talk?

We now have an answer: Lavasa. Mr. Pawar’s malleable and ultra-sensitive heart bleeds for the scam-embattled project. Mr. Pawar has recently come out against the environment minister jairam Ramesh’s directive asking the Lavasa corporation to stop constuction work.

So we now have a Turing test for Sharad Pawar: our alleged agriculture minister might be slient on topics of national importance, and thus rsemble a mue automaton, but attack one of his myriad business intersts, and the NCP supremo will sing.

Perhaps the farmers of Vidarbha must immoalte themselves in Lavasa. During the fourth edition of IPL.

regards,

- Bhushan.

Two recent articles by Vinay Hardikar

My co-blogger, Vinay Hardikar, has been in fine form recently, turing out two excellent pieces for the Marathi weekly Sadhana. In the first article, he provides an incisive commentary on 'Hindu', a novel by Bhalchandra Nemade. This is the best review of 'Hindu' that I've read so far. (I'll link to the piece once Sadhana makes it available online).

Second, in the Diwali 2010 edition of Sadhana, he recounts his experiences with four famed Marathi socialist activists: Baba Amte, G P Pradhan, Vasant bapat and Yadunath Thatte. Read the piece here - the last article in the issue.

Fully grown Zygotes: Karnataka Land Allottment scam

I am amazed by how I continue to be shocked by instances of corruption in India: starting from 1987, there hasn't been a year where a scam hasn't rocked the nation. The numbers have gotten bigger, and now have reached a point that my brain no longer comprehend them: how much is 1.76 lakh crores worth ?

And yet, as a scam-battered citizen of the modern India founded by the likes of A Raja, Madhu Koda and Suresh Kalmadi, I find the latest revelations in the Karnataka land scam deeply disgusting. Consider, for instance, the list of people to whom Chief Ministers of Karnataka alloted 1300 acres of land at throwaway prices. The CMs are, under a provision that bestows a discretionary quota, entitled to give away land for 'public persons'. As one would expect, most of these people are politicians or sons/daughters of politicians.

There's something profoundly disturbing here: what are the achievements of some of these people? The only one I see is that they were hatched from an egg that was fertilized by a politician's sperm. This biological lottery makes these fully-grown zygotes entitled to everything: prime land worth crores of rupees, seats in the legislature, live targets to practice their shooting skills, etc. If there's nothing, then there's at least chairmanship of Khadi Gramodyog or Fisheries commission. Then fully-grown zygotes in turn will fertilize even more eggs - the evolutionary cycle continues.

No wonder the scam numbers continue to astound - the next generation is much smarter, fitter and better in adapting to the environment modern India provides.

Guest Post: Would we know if the Idea of India is Dead?

Are social institutions like faraway dead stars? Looking at a star, light-years from earth, we are not sure that the star is still alive, we are still seeing it from the past - it might have been dead thousands of years ago, but its death wouldn’t yet register on us.

Similarly, cities (like Mumbai) might have died years ago, but still continue to live (though the decline is visible.) Charles Correa, noted architect, says:

“Cities grow—and die—much faster than we think. Visiting Calcutta today, it is difficult to understand how turn-of-the-century travellers could have deemed it as one of the great metropolises of the world—the finest east of Suez, a jewel in the crown and so forth. Could they not see the grave (perhaps terminal) illness that was already tightening its grip on that marvellously humane city? No, obviously there is a time lag during which calamity is not overt. So that late into the 1940s and 1950s, we still couldn’t see the fatal symptoms—the writing on the wall.

Obviously this is true of Bombay. As it is getting better and better as a city, and disintegrating (very rapidly and quite unnecessarily) as environment. Perhaps what the people of Bombay are experiencing is the last burst of energy—the spastic twitches before the end. Living in this city one wouldn’t notice it oneself.”

Many of the companies (earning mostly maintenance/legacy revenues) might have died years ago, but have sustained as the revenues are still flowing. It’s been years since Microsoft turned out a decent innovation (some would say it never did), but is one of the most valued companies in the World today (Apple’s market capitalization overtook Microsoft’s only recently).

Has the idea of India died? The muck we live in today is much different than the India envisaged by its founding fathers. A Raja, Madhu Koda and Suresh Kalmadi have replaced Gandhi, Ambedkar and Nehru as the founders of the Modern Indian Nation. Today we inhabit the nation these gentlemen have built – a nation where every pillar of the systems has crumbled: we elect Mafioso to the parliament, where chief ministers swindle land, army generals own tracts of land in cities, influential media-people morph into deal fixers, and the retired Chief Justices don’t even bother to refute corruption accusations by senior counsel.

The idea of India died long ago- we are living through its funeral.

osted by Bhushan Y. Nigale

The being-good penalty: Guest Post by Bhushan Y. Nigale

The worth of a society can be judged not by how it treats those who violates its laws, but by the penalty it imposes on those who follow them.

An example from our day-to-day life: the next time you are in traffic jam, watch the vehicles zoom past by you by driving in the opposite, free lane, while you feel like an idiot, following the rules. If you obey the rules and don't cut the lanes and wait for the vehicles in front of you to move ahead, and thus be a law-abiding citizen, you lose time. But if you drive on the wrong side, or on the footpath (a common occurrence in Bangalore) you reach your destination much faster.

Another example is loan payment. Thousands of Indian farmers commit suicide every year because they are unable to pay their loans. They try to be good citizens, by following the laws (repay the loans you take) and obligations. When they fail, they kill themselves. And yet it is a central rule of Indian politics that unless you commit a crime (murder, rape, dacoity, embezzlement, etc.) you cannot rise to the higher echelons.

The examples abound. A parallel to the American society, though in much less cynical terms, can be found from this insightful passage from Warren Buffet's recent pledge:

“I've worked in an economy that rewards someone who saves the lives of others on a battlefield with a medal, rewards a great teacher with thank-you notes from parents, but rewards those who can detect the mispricing of securities with sums reaching into the billions. In short, fate's distribution of long straws is wildly capricious.”

What struck me is how much of this applies to India: we live in a society that rewards our war heroes by letting loose on them the water mafia, harasses the very few who fight corruption, but rewards people like A Raja, Suresh Kalmadi and the Reddy mafia with millions.

PS: BTW, the entire Warren Buffet speech is moving – read it here.


Posted by Bhushan Y. Nigale

Obituary: Sa Hs Deshpande

Sakharam Hari Deshpande , known to all as Sa Ha, passed away at the ripe age for 86, leaving behind friends, admirers and researchers pondering how such a loss could be withstood. Saha is used both as prefix and suffix in Sanskrit and obviously in Marathi and Deshpande had a passion for both. Saha means with, together and jointly in both languages as coinages like sahajeevan, sahavedana and tyanchyasaha (with them) would testify. Deshpande was an example of all three—he interacted with people all his life, worked with a significant number of them as colleague and scholar and shared his experiences and findings with all throughout his 50 year career as teacher, university professor, researcher, public speaker and writer. He informed, he documented, he analysed, he theorised, he opined, he criticized with an intellectual rigour and presentational skill generally in short supply amongst the post-independence intelligentsia in India and Maharashtra. In this exercise he made remarkably few enemies, earned the respect of most and struck warm relationship with many. His positive mindset and open attitude encouraged three generations of Marathi intellectuals – his contemporaries, his students and their students. Sa Ha was thus an observant, keen fellow traveller to all those who willingly opted to undertake the journey into the world of ideas and action—he was a mentor appointed by the mentees of their own !

Deshpande was born into a traditional middle-class joint family of Marathi Brahmins from Shirwal( 50 kms from Pune and in the historic Satara district )and had deep roots in the rural agricultural community. This Deshpande family has a niche of its own in Maharashtra—his eldest brother Pandurangshastri was Ayurvedacharya, his middle brother Wamanrao was one of the most successful Chartered Accountants of Bombay but so great was his passion for Hindustani Classical Music that he was better known as a music critic, historian and connouiser ( Satyasheel Deshpande is Wamanrao’s son). It is no wonder that such rich ancestral tapestry provided Deshpande with the best of both the rural and urban, traditional and modern and creative and critical streams.

The city of Poona where Deshpande had his schooling and and college education in late 1930s and 40s was a beehive of intellectual and patriotic activity. It was in Poona that he came across the social reformer-writer Shripad Mahadev Mate and was tutored by Puruhottam Ganesh Sahasrabudhdhe who was friend, philosopher and guide. It would be no overstatement to say that Deshpande carried forward their legacy of a pro-modernity, reformist, politically viable and socially liberal, forward-looking Hinduism during the years to come. Like most Brahmin boys of his time Deshpande did join the RSS and had some exciting memories of those days. But thanks to the deep influence of Mate and Sahasrabudhdhe Deshpande never really got converted to the RSS ideology (whatever it was); in fact he leaned more towards the rationalist Hinduism of Sawarkar.

Deshpande never tired of telling how and why he took up Economics! His inclination was towards Sanskrit—he had scored very well in the Inter Arts examination in that subject. But Sahasrabudhdhe would not have it. In the cryptic wit which was his forte, Sahasrabudhdhe wryly remarked ( said Deshpande) “ Enough of the beauty and blushes of Shakuntala—we have to throw ourselves in to the task of nation-building. Take up something that will contribute to this great venture.” True to the wish of his mentor, Deshpande enrolled for Economics and later emerged as a rare species—a hindutvawadi with sound knowledge of Economics. His whole career both during his working and retired life was to be an effort to amalgamate the various brands of Hinduism with the modern ideal of a civic society based upon democracy, liberalism and development of all.

The Deshpande cannon, though mostly in Marathi, is discrete and extensive and can be divided into three categories. The foremost, in my opinion, would be his evaluations and reports of various development projects in Maharashtra launched by individual development workers during the upsurge of genuine Voluntary Agencies (not the present day NGOs) during the 1970s where his docummentational perseverance and analytical skills are adequately demonstrated. The second category covers his grand project on Hindutva where he traces the journey of political Hindutva from Sawarkar to Bharatiya Janata Party via RSS. Deshpande kept going back to this project time and again and examined his own and others’ positions in the wake of new developments—a testimony to his scholastic integrity. The last would be his miscellaneous writings—memoirs, personal sketches, author studies etc. It’s an intellectual treat to pick up any of his books and give yourself to the power of argument, precision of expression and an overall aesthetic of narrative that Deshpande was so keen about.

Deshpande lived a full life— a devoted husband, loving father, dedicated teacher, honest researcher, warm friend, unforgiving analyst, lucid writer, positive intellectual and ever-young traveller into the domain of ideas. He was choosy about company but those who had the good fortune to be his intimates will be proud. He enjoyed his smoke and his drink—though discretion was the watch word in both. Deshpande loved Shakespeare and Kalidas and other greats from both languages. He ,when in mood, recited poetry, recollected for you many an anecdote in his own uncanny style. His sense of humor was ever present and his jokes used to be decent and intellectual. He will be missed—now and hereafter! It is for us to keep in mind W.H. Auden’s obituary on W.B. Yeats

“ The words of a dead man

Are modified in the guts of the living”

(This posts was written for 'Freedom First').
Vinay Hardikar

Revival of anti-Congressism?

I write this on 5th of July after a bike-ride of 20 km through Pune on the day of the Bharat Bandh organized by all opposition parties. The roads are less crowded, shops are closed, public transport vehicles do not ply, schools have a holiday, small vendors’ services are at a standstill; in short the usually buzzing city wears a sleepy look at mid-day! I can see the headlines of tomorrow; the opposition will call the bandh a total success, the government will pat itself on the back and claim to have exploded the conspiracy of the opposition, the so-called neutral media will resort to the phrase ‘partially successful’-as if to reiterate that willy-nilly media are ‘partial’. There will be usual estimates of loss to the economy and also to the daily-wagers (for who the bandh has been organized per se); tomorrow we will be back to square one ?

Supporters of this hackneyed drill of protest make strange bed-fellows in that except the BJP all the other passengers on the bandh-wagon have been Congress-collaborators generally in the recent past (ironically to keep the BJP away from power !) and even the Shiv Sena, the trouble making bitter half of the BJP, was supportive of Congress during the infamous Emergency of the mid 70s. So ideology ,if at all, has nothing to do with this nationwide tamasha. In the heart of their hearts they all probably know that de-control of fuel prices was a bitter pill that the country had to swallow sooner than later and that, at least for the cooking gas the consumers had been unnecessarily pampered and were getting it almost free. Had they been in the driver’s seat they probably would have taken the same step—some of them might be feeling relieved that the unpleasant task was left to the Congress and not to the Left or Right of our political establishment.

It is high time that we realized and professed that populist economic policies will spell ruin and and spending is as much a function of money as earning and the poor have to be helped through pragmatic economic measures creating more jobs through emphasis on decentralized entrepreneurship and not through sops. On this, despite its bold step on fuel prices, even the Congress is not at all clear—look at their policy-schizophrenia—they still continue to talk of low-price grain shops (remember the ‘fair price’ shops of yester years ?) and claim that the present hike will not hit the poor.

And what about the poor—personally, the poor I come across are busy in taking a small upward step in earning—the maid servants turned up for their (essential ?) service in the morning- so did the milkman. The poor are not beggars or handicapped persons—they are looking for opportunity to work and to earn both wealth and health. If somebody have a stake in poverty, it is not the poor themselves but the self-proclaimed do-gooders in politics and economic theory !

Anti-Congressism failed in the past and will fail in the present because it never addressed the policy-issues. Will it be too impractical to hope that this will not be a revival but the last breath of shameless politicking ?

Vinay Hardikar
Pune. 5th July 2010.

An update

I am pleased to announce I have joined as an adjunct faculty member at the FLAME University, from September 1st, 2009.

I am currently teaching a course in Public Speaking and Debating. I will soon be designing a course to be called Discover India and shall, in due course, start some mentoring as well.