Shameless in Sitapur Part One

Shameless in Sitapur Part One

We Indians, recent events seem to suggest, need to scrap and jettison a lot of laws and rules before we are totally overwhelmed by them. This notwithstanding the large and voluble efforts of anti-corruption activists such as Mr. Arvind Kejriwal. His erstwhile mentor, Mr. Anna Hazare may be advising him to stick to one scam at a time but there is such an avalanche of them that Mr. Kejriwal is likely to be swamped no matter which strategy he adopts.  

The Government and its allies, along with the worthy Opposition, are equally comfortable maintaining their illusions and self-importance. They are also very sure that they have the answers, even if no one else seems to be sure.

 But by way of contrast, very few talk of corruption in the tiny Emirate of Dubai where the Commercial Law can be contained, without exaggerating too much, on one side of A4 paper in double-spacing.

It is no real wonder that Dubai is beloved of the flashiest robber barons money can attract. Because there, they can go about their business both unhindered and unlabeled. The catch is that the emirate is very small indeed, and the “re-export” business to Africa, India and Iran is no longer what it used to be.

This is not to say that the citizens of Dubai are essentially any more virtuous than Indians. But there are some important differences in the way the Emirates are organised politically, and what constitutes a wrong-doing there. Also, any whisper of or about corruption in the UAE  constituted of Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Ajman and Ras Al Khaimah, is likely to be considered treasonous, as all large enterprise has links to the one or the other Emir’s Secretariat.

And the Rulers with their families in the confederation own a sizeable piece of almost every worthwhile pie being baked in the Emirates. Also, they are very big on law and order over there, enforced by impressively armed and trained para-military forces that police the populace. The local media, as may be expected, is tame, polite and self-censored as a company newsletter.

But here in rambunctious India, it is the seemingly eternal battle royal between laissez-faire, as in the good old days of the John Company aka the East India Company, and the hugely Socialist inspired Licence-Permit Raj. The Indian instinct and ingenuity, illustrated perhaps by the delightful jugaad phenomenon, is to operate without fetters. That is why we tend to do well whenever and wherever we re allowed to be ourselves. But, sadly, and somewhat paradoxically, in our own country, we are free to be ourselves as long as, and only, if we are prepared to make short work of the law.  

And of the latter we have a profusion. We have laws, codicils, principles and guidelines, so many, so confusing, and subject to so much interpretation. They are tentacular, all encompassing, layer upon layer, with never a rule or law apparently scrapped since the time of Manu the Law Giver!  

But despite their sheer number and complexity, we are not good at formulating them, as most are badly drafted and riddled with loopholes, and lead to ever further corruption. Nor, alas, are we any good at enforcing them perhaps out of sheer lassitude in our hot tropical climate. Which makes us possibly the most law-riddled  but free do-as-you please country in the world. We live in a legal gridlock. So bypassing the hurdles has become a national habit.

Most law-enforcers on their part would have to back-pack the equivalent of a now largely extinct 21 volume encyclopaedia to cope. To have it all memorised by heart is a near impossibility, and a woeful waste of talent for the few who may be up to the task. Besides the powers-that-be know that it is the very laws, God bless them, that enable them to enrich themselves.

So there are the ever shifting sands of internal guidelines on how to interpret the rules, with varying emphases and exceptions added periodically, providing yet other continent size ambivalences and the opportunities in their midst.

As far as the wrong-doers go, as is observed quite frequently now, they can brazen it out more often than not, determined to be totally shameless. The political classes are almost uniformly compromised, so there is little embarrassment between pots and kettles when both are quite sooty. The bureaucratic babus and the private business types are not exactly lagging behind in this chorus either.

Almost everyone has fallen foul, voluntarily or not, of some regulation or the other. It is almost impossible to be totally honest/law abiding in this country and still be alive and functional. The situational evidence seems to suggest that in order to operate at all in India one must break some rules.

And some feel that if they must break some, they might as well break some profitable ones and make a lucrative job of it. After all, it is necessary to carry people along if one is going to flout laws. A little baksheesh here, an incentive there, a fat bribe sent around discreetly, an enormous audacious killing to catapult oneself into a bigger league, all have become acceptable.

The other glaring issue is the sheer size and heft of our Government, the author and guardian of our lawfulness. Apart from being the largest employer in the organised sectors, it has grown both gargantuan and extremely expensive to maintain. And there is no likelihood of it shrinking or ever going on a diet. In fact, it grows larger every day. 

And all of this awesome edifice is supported by the taxes levied on quite a small proportion of the overall population which is forced to pay all the direct and indirect taxes. Most states have little left over for growth and development after all the salaries and benefits have been paid. Ditto the Centre, and being thus over burdened by its own needs, the Government also refuses to let in much foreign capital for fear of losing its monopoly on power. A power built on denying the concessions it would be required to make.

Besides, being enormous and inefficient, the Government of India is almost singularly unaccountable, even to itself. Like a very long queue, nobody quite knows where it begins or ends anymore. It is the nearest approximation to infinity the Indian mind can devise. And so we have to congratulate ourselves for devising a political entity to resemble our ancient philosophies of an unbroken continuum that goes on lifetime after lifetime evolving as it progresses. Don’t worry, there is no conclusion to be drawn. It would be so un-Indian to do so.

  

(1, 106 words)

October 30^th, 2012

Gautam Mukherjee

Suspicious Minds & Remix of gali gali me shor hai

Suspicious Minds & Remix of gali gali me shor hai

“She was with Big Jim but she was leaning to the Jack of Hearts”
Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts- Bob Dylan

No one can prove the effects of influence, ephemeral and elusive. More so, in a Court of Law. No matter how high the stack of circumstantial evidence may be. Unless, that is, one has been silly enough to leave a paper, audio, DNA, smoking gun or bloody knife trail that serves up the proof. Some very intelligent people routinely make this mistake, confused between the DIY doing, and the once removed having it done.

That is how a smooth operator like Rajat Gupta, erstwhile of McKinsey and Goldman Sachs, was convicted. Mr. Gupta was convicted on three counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy for passing along confidential boardroom information about Goldman and Proctor & Gamble companies to the Galleon Hedge Fund.

By way of contrast, despite the sensational nature of its contents, the Radia Tapes of former PR Consultant Nira Radia have become mired in multiplicities of interpretation. Hours of interrogation of the lady herself has proved inconclusive too. Other bits of proof though saw both the Telecommunications Minister A Raja and DMK Supremo M Karunanidhi’s daughter and Lok Sabha MP Kanimozi spend longish spells in jail.

But then the DMK didn’t, and still doesn’t have the influence that certain other players in the game of influencing outcomes do. And no flashmob posse of Union Ministers came to Raja or Kanimozi’s defence either.

There is, it is seen, a voluntary and reactive aspect to influence mongering and peddling, a judgemental consequence, that can be viewed in a number of ways. So most such wrong-doing wears the garb of reasonableness, selflessness, feigned innocence, even virtue. It exploits and brazenly feeds off the fact that, conducted well, it can’t be proved. And if challenged, reacts with disdain, outrage and defiance and the sure knowledge that others live in glass houses too.

The Bofors Saga is still unproven in many of its aspects with many henchmen of the powers that be burying and burning any evidence that had the temerity to threaten the citadel. As are the Sikh massacres of 1984 or indeed its bête noire, the Godhra Riots of 2002.

But then, maddening as this subterfuge of working the cracks and crevasses of the system may be; most suspicions of being wronged, as in betrayed, are not particularly settled in a Court of Law.

Crimes of passion by definition cannot wait. And blatant wrongs done to the electorate in a functioning democracy like ours usually results in electoral defeat.

Politicians and senior bureaucrats, satraps and nawabs, know this, but the possibility makes them either insecure or complacent, and so they get on with their  paisa wasooli anyway.

The logic being that power, like youth and beauty is fleeting and waits for no man. So making the most of the present situation is not only sensible but appropriate. And what is the harm in diluting one’s integrity a little, or even a lot, in the greater cause of security and pragmatism?

Electoral politics, and hanging on to one’s perch on the greased pole of bureaucratic or corporate power, they say to themselves, is an expensive business, and needs to carry many people, along with their goodwill.

And money for the purpose certainly does not grow on trees. No one in politics or in the exercise of power can afford to have empty coffers and still be in a position to influence outcomes. And here we go, the crux of the issue, there’s that influence word again.

 Besides, in principle, there is nothing illegal about it. It may be unfair advantage to some, but influence mongering is what makes the world go around. That the powerful everywhere give their own both special privileges and easy passage is a routine thing.

 And so, Arvind Kejriwal’s decision to “expose” the shenanigans of the son-in-law of the Congress President is probably the best bangs-for-the-buck strategy he could have adopted. Besides, our notoriously ponderous legal system is not above being influenced a little itself. And the tag of sub judice puts paid to most controversies almost as effectively as sending controversies to parliamentary or judicial committee.

Mr. Kejriwal and his rag-tag band of IAC activists may be a nuisance to some but he and they are providing a very important constitutional role of oversight that has been given short shrift lately. Instead they, that is the powers, have become a law unto themselves, immune from the wants and needs of the populace that they rule in the name of.

Kejriwal & Co may be seeking “publicity” as their uncomfortable critics like to sneer but they are providing some of what the checks and balances in the system were supposed to. Likewise, the CAG, under its unusually active current Chief Mr. Vinod Rai, has been less than pliant of late. Predictably, it too is receiving a lot of flak and ridicule from the political establishment named in its indictments.

The fact is, the ruling dispensation is now childishly allergic to criticism from within or without. It counters each barb with a counter barb aimed at the perpetrators via its spokespersons. And these talking heads are sounding more and more beleaguered and under siege by the day.

And this, whether it is being attacked by its own uneasy allies such as the SP or BSP, or former ones such as the Trinamool Congress or the Left. Not to mention the legitimate Opposition, the less than compliant elements in the media, ostensibly “social” activist/critics such as Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare, or those in Kejriwal’s  bus about to plunge into the electoral fray themselves.

More and more it looks like a leadership crisis, with the Gandhi family “High Command” no longer able to either provide the electoral dividend or the strategic direction to hold the UPA II coalition together till 2014.

The Gandhi family’s likelihood of leading the electoral battle successfully, when it comes, is in some doubt too. But to be fair, as declines and falls go, this was inevitable. Most dynasties tend to flounder in the third generation and this is already in extra-time trying to establish the fourth.

Perhaps the rampant and competitive corruption everywhere in the Government and its friends is of a piece with the realisation that the game is drawing to its inexorable end. The political discourse may be about to undergo a substantial change. And not just because of a vociferous Opposition. The ruling UPA, it appears, is overdue for some radical overhauling of its own.

(1,098 words)

15^th October 2012

Gautam Mukherjee

Reform at the precipice

Reform at the precipice

It is said that philosopher and wit Voltaire was asked to repent for his wicked ways and denounce the Devil at his deathbed. Denying the soul-seeking priest, Voltaire, thought otherwise. He said he didn’t think it was an opportune time to make fresh enemies.

The Indian politician is reluctant to make an enemy of the Socialism that has hidden a thousand sins for him. Almost as many as his white kurta- pajama and the ironically out-of-date Gandhi cap, that the Mahatma incidentally never wore. In the name of the poor, lofty pronouncements and sentiments have served to deflect criticism from massive inefficiency, mind-numbing delay, and rampant corruption.

The market economy, with its relentless logic and consequence, is far less forgiving. And the Indian neta knows it full well. Our master-of-paradox style Indian politician may routinely practice an arch Capitalism in his private affairs, but the fount of his power, pelf and influence, he knows, is his bleeding heart lip-service to the cause of the poor.

It is yet another travesty of the truth that the poor have been uplifted only at snail’s pace in the last 65 years; while the politician that is not in hundreds of crores today, is a very incompetent politician indeed. 

The perverse thing about progress itself in India is that it is never a priority. All progress, political, economic, social, comes to us when we are at crisis point. This applies to fundamentals such as power, water, education, health and so on as much as it applies to the quality of our democracy. And democracy in India also seems to evolve and mature only with a gun to its head.

That penny-ante nations have no problem dealing with basic civic necessities like roads, electricity, water and modernity commensurate with the second decade of the 21^st century does not worry our disgraceful obtuseness.

 Perhaps, because this is a deeply religious country and people, God comes mysteriously to the rescue, lifting us from the routine morass we build for ourselves. It is God that helps us transcend our multiple infirmities and denies the doomsayers their satisfaction. In a round about way, this is what the Bible meant when it said the meek shall inherit the earth. The faith of our poor, their acceptance of suffering, moves the Gods to protect them.

Because, our educated elite that largely run this country, are experts at sitting on their hands. It is only when we are between a rock and a hard place, that the political dispensation of the day is able to push through any beneficial reform. And that too, after eliciting a hue and cry for challenging the status quo. We do very little to anticipate future demand and supply dynamics, probably to avoid stirring a hornet’s nest. We are a country of man-made and artificial shortages, much ameliorated since 1991.

But in many things there has been inadequate change. A good example is higher education, that needs entrance marks in the high nineties, and objective observers do find the occurrence of such percentages both suspect and incredible.

In recent times, and it is necessary to restrict ourselves to recent times, because the pre 1991 India was a much sadder narrative of poverty, shortages, neediness, hubris, and obsolescence.

Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh were able to transform Indian possibilities as we knew it since 1947. But it was only at the point of looming bankruptcy. That most reforms then were dictated to us by the World Bank in return for a life saving rescue package of loans, is the telling point.

And here we are in 2012, twenty one years later, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh showing some of his reformist zeal again, but only, once again at the menacing threat of a crashing economy.

The dismaying thing is the disarray in the political landscape. The Opposition, at various times in favour of reform measures, are busy cheeseparing their own confusion. The Government’s allies are sniffing around desperately for a political foothold that they can make capital out of.

Almost all of the objecting discourse smells of sour grapes and Luddite fear. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is addressing his legacy at the home stretch of his tenure. The Congress Party, with its own generally useful fifth column of sharp Left protagonists, finds itself helpless to resist presently. Socialism is therefore stymied, if unconvinced, for the moment.

But when have we ever welcomed change? In Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s time, blessed with a record breaking majority in Parliament, he still had a deuce of a time introducing computers in Government offices and banks, despite being labelled “Computerji”.

And babus, in their classically anachronistic manner, promptly put their PA’s to operating the “infernal machine”, even as they carried on dictating letters and spending all day correcting “drafts”.

And today, every political party, including the Leftists within the Congress Party and many others in the UPA, want to scuttle all of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s belated attempts at reform.

There is a lot of cant and misinformation in the air about every one of the initiatives announced and contemplated. The strange thing is we seem to abhor efficiency and refuse to acknowledge that we have much to learn. This even as we know precious little about the intricacies involved in multi-brand retail.

By letting in the world’s best in such fields we could learn a lot, but do we really want to? No, instead we prefer to cry wolf about the small trader and the small farmer, steeped in orthodoxy, xenophobia, obscurantism and chronic backwardness.

Pension reform and foreign investment in the airline industry, already a decade or more late because of raucous vested interest, is still attracting controversy just as it did in the nineties.

We can only dream of a Japanese style consensus on reform in India, where every political party backs it, but there is only a nuanced difference in degree. Instead we have the politics of the bazaar, and it is anybody’s guess what kind of oxymoron will emerge from all the resultant compromise.

The objections, after all, are mostly designed to attack the Government wrong or right. But it is the country and the people who will suffer in this battle for votes at all costs using shibboleths long past their sell-by dates.

But there remains one certainty. And the Soviets, who are by no means experts, having gone so completely the way of all flesh, said it years ago. They thought, in the first flush of the Nehru era, that this country is indeed run by God, as otherwise it wouldn’t run at all.

(1,104 words)

October 2^nd 2012

Gautam Mukherjee