Author: Swapan Dasgupta
Publication: Times of India
Date: December 5, 2010
URL: http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/right-and-wrong/entry/time-to-fight-the-cancer-not-join-the-lynch-mob
In 1921, India was in ferment. After prolonged
drift, it had found its voice in a man variously described as 'Gandhi baba'
and 'Gandhi maharaj'. He united the country in open revolt against an arrogant
Raj. Lawyers abandoned their practice, students left their studies and babus
resigned their secure jobs in response to his promise of "swaraj in one
year." The moment was heady.
For one Indian, 1921 was, however, a time
for reflection. From his rural arcadia, Rabindranath Tagore detected "a
spirit of persecution, which is not that of armed force, but something still
more alarming because it is invisible... The sight that met my eye was, on
the one hand, people immensely busy; on the other intensely afraid."
India 2010 is not the nation of 1921, not
by a long stretch. Yet, there is something eerily reminiscent of the cocktail
of headiness and suffocation Tagore experienced.
The concern may well stem from a personal
proximity to the epicentre of the earthquake rocking politics, business and
the media - all pillars of the Indian establishment. For the past three months,
the country has been shaken by scam fever: the outcry over the Commonwealth
Games, followed in quick succession by the Adarsh housing society scandal,
the Karnataka land scams and the 2G spectrum loot. Simultaneously, there were
the infamous Niira Radia conversations, which (to borrow a British MP`s observation
on WikiLeaks) have redefined "public interest" to mean "the
public is interested."
If India were simply experiencing a turbulent
bout of ethical cleansing, excitement would have been coupled with gleeful
endorsement. For some time, citizens have agonized over India occupying the
twilight zone between a banana republic and a mafia state. To that extent,
all moves to stem the decline and purify the system need strong encouragement,
even if enthusiasm is couched in understandable cynicism.
Tragically, apart from hitting some targets
the scam season has inflicted serious collateral damage and vitiated the atmosphere.
The Radia tapes may have provided immense voyeuristic pleasure to those unfamiliar
with and, perhaps, even envious of the cozy smugness that defines an incestuous
establishment and those on its periphery. But initial inquisitiveness has
quickly given way to a vengeful iconoclasm based on the facile assumption
that India`s entire wealth-generation process is centred on cronyism and corruption.
It is understandable when Arundhati Roy deduces
from the tapes that the "state has been corporatized" and that thanks
to big money the institutions of "this so-called democracy", including
the judiciary, are "being hollowed out." It is also predictable
that voices of post-colonial condescension in the West should celebrate "the
rotting of new India." What isn't clear is why India`s middle class should
throw its moral weight behind this carpet-bombing exercise.
What the Radia tapes indicated was not a single-minded
desire of corporates to subvert every institution but their gritty determination
to overcome a difficult, if not hostile, business environment. The cronyism
that underpinned the government's 2G spectrum policy was not the creation
of the FICCI and CII or, for that matter, one of the Ambani brothers. It stemmed
from the enormous discretionary powers enjoyed by a minister and a departmental
autonomy that flowed out of the compulsions of coalition politics. Indian
entrepreneurs had two options: to either play the game by rules set by venal
politicians or opt out.
Radia's conversations are indeed revealing.
But far from revealing "how corporates manage everything in this country",
as lawyer Prashant Bhushan told the Supreme Court, they illuminate the path
India Inc had to negotiate to remain in business. They also reveal that apart
from having to manage a minister unconcerned with India`s larger growth story,
businesses had also to cope with the no-holds-barred assaults of competitors.
Yes, there was subversion but there was a
context to it. Gentlemanly capitalism had been elbowed out by a treacherous
business environment centred on arbitrariness. Yesterday, it was a telecom
problem; today, it is one of environmental blackmail and tomorrow, it could
be something altogether different.
Instead of fighting the cancer, a lynch mob
has, however, set its sights on mocking the famous, destroying reputations
and creating a mood viciously hostile to entrepreneurship - the force that
propelled India`s growth story.
In 1921, Tagore feared that along with the
courts and colleges, "reason and culture...must be closured" and
India forced to genuflect before "some mantra, some unreasoned creed."
Today, while trying to cleanse the system, we may well be throwing the baby
out with the soiled bathwater.
It's time to pause and focus the pent-up anger
in the right direction.
