Author: Arindam Banerji, Ph.D.,
CA, USA (arindam_banerji@yahoo.com)
Publication: IndiaCause.com
Date: June 7, 2003
URL: http://www.indiacause.com/OL_030607.htm
Arindam Banerji, the author of this
article, took the usual route of going from the IITs, through a Ph.D in
the US, to finally working in sundry research labs. Currently, he is a
scientist of some repute, the kind whose ideas actually get used by people,
and an entrepreneur, with, he says, not much success. Some day, he says,
he'll go back to India, but for now, as time permits, he is a writer and
political thinker on South Asian geo-political issues.
Hey! Hey! Hey! What's Going On?
Last week was nothing short of a
disaster for Indian journalism - according to my powers of observation,
we pulled off at least 3 different Jayson Blairs, all in the space of 1
short week. Three very visible journalists/columnists published articles
with random half-truths and lies, with nary a rebuttal nor a correction
to follow anywhere. Facts are created and distorted seemingly for political
conclusions. Everybody of course has the right to their opinions, but our
veterans here seem to have their own version of facts, too. Where cooked
up facts will not do, some are audaciously hidden while others are put
in contexts that do not belong at all. All in the name of making some obtuse,
perhaps political point.
All right, all right, let's not
crucify them, before perusing their stories.
Mr. Aiyar spreads some numbers around
First, let's take the odd case of
Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyer - on a jaunt to Islamabad, he takes the time out
to continue his lobbying efforts on the behalf of Pakistan. He writes "Shaukat
Aziz ... announces that the Pakistan economy in the current financial year,
July 2002-June 2003, has recorded the fastest growth in South Asia. He
does not say so but the sad fact is that they have overtaken India as we
slide downwards and they slither up. Per capita income in the current fiscal
year, he adds, has risen by a double-digit figure...";
Note that he makes three claims:
1. Per capita income has gone up
by a double digit figure
2. Pakistan recorded the fastest
growth in S. Asia.
3. "have overtaken India as we slide
downwards and they slither up"
The problem is that though none
of them are strictly incorrect, Mr. Aiyar deliberately shades the truth
in each. The end result is pushing his political interest in playing up
the Pakistani economy, while at the same time denigrating the Indian economy.
So, once again lets look at the facts:
Per Capita Incomes
First, let us look at the pesky
per capita income numbers. Reality is that Pakistan's per capita income
($420.00) has declined to below that of Sub Saharan Africa ($460.00). Mr.
Aiyer's magic numbers that proclaim a $10.00 in per capita income growth
fails to take into account the re-evaluation of most currencies against
the dollar - thus, automatically, the Indian Rupee has gone up by 4% and
so has the Indian per capita income. [Parsuram, BRF]. So, most everybody's
per-capita numbers have gone up somewhat, since Uncle Sam is printing up
dollars night and day - incorrect implications by Mr. Aiyer here. In fact,
if you look at income growth over 1990-2000, an average Indian was fifty
per cent more prosperous in 2000 compared to his (or her) situation in
1990, while a Pakistani gained only 13% in the same time. So, yes Mr. Aiyar
tells the truth, but at best half-the-truth about per-capita incomes.
Fastest growth in S. Asia
So, what about those great growth
numbers brought about by Musharraf's policies. Taking a closer look at
Pakistan's claims of growth, Dr. Assad Sayyed (a Pakistani economist, not
an Indian one) says "General Musharraf and his economic mandarins generally
highlight ...the military regime has been able to reduce the fiscal deficit
to 5.6% of the GDP compared to . 6.1% in the 1990s. As much as 41% of this
reduction in the deficit was achieved through slashing public investment.".
Or in other words, Pakistan cut out critical public investment to prop
up the numbers. Mr. Musharraf in order to protect his gaddi, has doomed
the Pakistani public to many more years of minimal improvements in living
standards. So, in this particular case, Mr. Aiyar without giving a source
for his data, compared true Indian progress with propped up numbers, resulting
in a false politically motivated insinuation.
As we slide downwards and they slither
up .
Finally, let us consider this canard
of "have overtaken India as we slide downwards and they slither up". Explains
Farrukh Saleem, a Pakistani journalist by the way of background "America
buys Rs100 billion worth of Pakistani textiles a year. "Made in Pakistan"
labels are available in some 5,000 retail outlets throughout the US. In
Pakistan, 60 per cent of the total labor force - some 25 million workers
is employed by the textile sector.". In short, the textile industry is
Pakistan's largest legitimate industry and in fact, the only legitimate
industry of any significant size.
Unfortunately, it seems this very
industry is in a lot of trouble, as "American Eagle Outfitters and Perry
Ellis have stopped ordering Pakistani apparel altogether. ...Orders from
large American retailers are down more than 40 percent ...(or)... 64 percent
reduction in orders for clothes that would be made from December through
February.". As a consequence, at least "150,000 Pakistanis have already
lost their jobs and some 177 manufacturers have closed down shop. .. Spill-over
job losses would eventually run into a million or so (when apparel workers
don't have the money to buy eggs poultry workers also suffer and so on).".
This trend is not going away any time soon - just like countries do not
want to play cricket in Pakistan, they seem to be shying away from doing
business in Pakistan.
The very same Farrukh Saleem talking
about the state of the Indian industry says the following: -"Mumbai is
now home to at least three dozen American companies including Kodak, Heinz,
Monsanto, Warner Bros, Federal Express, Bank of America, Bankers Trust,
Parke Davis, Intel, JP Morgan, Kellogg, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, American
Int'l Group, Exxon-Mobil, Delta and Boston Consulting.
Delhi has AT&T, GE, General
Motors, Oracle, Pepsi, Unocal, Xerox, Lockheed, Raytheon, Rockwell, Honeywell,
Adobe, AES, Alcoa, American Express, Northrop, McKinsey, Amway, Polaroid
and Coca Cola. Bangalore has Caterpillar, Dell, Sun, Texas Instruments,
NCR, Hewlett Packard, Motorola, Lucent, IBM, Novell, Ingersoll- Rand, American
Data and MetLife. Hyderabad has Microsoft, Cognizant, Chip Engines and
Brigade. Chennai has Ford, Caltex, Tenneco, Covansys, Diebold, Citibank,
Ernst & Young and Price Waterhouse.
A large majority of US corporate
giants are now dependent on Tata Consultancy, Infosys Technologies, Wipro,
Satyam Computer Services, HCL Technologies, Patni Computer Systems, Silverline
Technologies, Mahindra, Pentasoft, Mascot, Mascom, Mastek, Polaris, L&T
and Hexaware (all Indian software giants)."
The list goes on and on - in fact,
now at least 77 MNCs produce intellectual property (not sweat shops) in
R&D labs in India. Mr. Aiyer, how many companies have done the same
in Pakistan in the last few years? On the other hand, can you name any
significant export products from Pakistan, other than textiles, low-end
sports equipment, drugs and terrorism - can you name any intellectually
relevant commercial products?? Nope. But, then why put India down? What
was the need for the half-truths and distortion, Mr. Aiyar?
Speaking on Behalf of Indians
Praful Bidwai's communist-anarchist
dementia took an unusual turn in his latest column in rediff; criticizing
Indo-Israel relations, he says: "... and is now trying to buy the "Arrow"
missile defense system in whose development S Y Coleman, a firm headed
by Lt Gen Jay Garner (yes, of Iraq fame!) was critically involved."
It would seem from his statements,
that Bidwai is opposed to the Arrow anti-missile system, since it comes
from Israel and people with links to Iraq. Essentially, it is more acceptable
to him that my family in Delhi get vaporized, in stead of India getting
the defensive Arrow anti-missile system from Israel.
Isn't that EXACTLY Pakistan's position?
Of course it is, but more importantly,
how is this, according to Mr. Bidwai the opinion of most Indians. Indian
freedom of speech gives Mr. Bidwai the right to propagate Pakistani national
interests in his column. But, how does this give him the right to pass
off the Pakistani national interests, as what is good for India or even
as the majority Indian opinion? I'm quite sure that all my friends and
relatives in Delhi would rather NOT be vaporized - they would prefer to
get an anti-missile system, even if it comes from North Korea or Saddam
Hussein.
Fetish for Terrorists
Sarmila Bose, an assistant editor
and columnist for Ananda Bazar Patrika and The Telegraph newspapers in
India, writes "For the hypothetical choice between Narendra Modi of Gujarat
and General Musharraf, it's no contest really - the truly disturbing sign
of the direction India's democracy has taken is that the 'Paki in khaki'
would get my vote any day over the saffron-draped Hindu nationalist peddling
the politics of hate".
This article, again is an example
of clear obfuscation of facts and plain one-sided presentation of facts
to make a spurious point. Much as I detest her conclusion, she has a right
to make it - but does she have the right to delve into half-truths and
openly hide facts to do this. The question that one has to ask is what
was this big political point that she hoped to make through such obfuscation?
Musharraf as the Great Dictator
Ms. Bose who has shown this same
fetish for terrorists before, sings Musharraf's praises without telling
her audience, any of the following:
1. In May,1988, the Shias, who are
in a majority in Gilgit, rose in revolt against the Sunni-dominated administration.
Zia put an SSG group commanded by Gen. Musharraf in charge of suppressing
the revolt. Gen. Musharraf transported a large number of Wahabi Pakhtoon
tribesmen from the NWFP and Afghanistan, commanded by bin Laden, to Gilgit
to teach the Shias a lesson. http://www.jammu-kashmir.com/ insights/insight20000206b.html.
These tribesmen under bin Laden massacred hundreds of Shias. In its issue
of May,1990, "Herald", the monthly journal of the "Dawn" group of publications
of Karachi, wrote as follows:
" In May,1988, low-intensity political
rivalry and sectarian tension ignited into full-scale carnage as thousands
of armed tribesmen from outside Gilgit district invaded Gilgit along t
he Karakoram Highway. Nobody stopped them. They destroyed crops and houses,
lynched and burnt people to death in the villages around Gilgit town. The
number of dead and injured was put in the hundreds. But numbers alone tell
nothing of the savagery of the invading hordes and the chilling impact
it has left on these peaceful valleys."
2. Musharraf started the Kargil
conflict, which caused the death of at least 533 Indians, injuring many
more.
3. Musharraf, as COAS has directly
controlled the jihadi terrorism against Indians killing tens of thousands
over the last decade. In fact, his belief in jihad is captured by his own
statement as ""the acquisition of Kashmir by Pakistan can wait. What is
more important is to keep the Indian army bleeding in Kashmir just as the
Afghan Mujahideen kept the Soviet troops bleeding in Afghanistan". The
US state department in 2001 said " Pakistan's military government, headed
by Gen. Pervez Musharraf, continued previous Pakistani Government support
of the Kashmir insurgency, and Kashmiri militant groups continued to operate
in Pakistan, raising funds and recruiting new cadre."
4. Musharraf as COAS and then President
directly helped the Taliban kill tens of thousands of Afghans in a brutal
war. In fact, the air-lift of Kunduz after the US invasion was started
to move out key Pakistani army officers amongst the ranks of the Taliban.
5. Musharraf scuttled plans to capture
Osama by the US, thus leading to eventual the death of many innocent civilians
in US and Afghanistan. In fact, in the last 3 years all major international
terrorist attacks can be seen to have a Pakistani hand (led by Musharraf,
of course).
6. "General Pervez Musharraf says
the press in Pakistan is free. Journalists' experience and reports by!
indepen dent sources on this issue suggest there is not much truth in this
claim. Green Press' report too - State of Press in Pakistan - finds there
is no "press freedom" in Pakistan. Besides attacks against the press, the
report has also chronicled all violations against freedom of _expression
and curbs on entertainment from May 2002 to May 2003. The report documents
more than 50 cases that it says amount to "crimes" against press and other
freedoms. Most of these actions were allegedly masterminded by the state
to suppress dissenting voices. None was probed or culprits punished" Friday
Times also available at http:// www.pakistan-facts.com/article.php/20030502121837343
Of course, all this was considered
"much" preferable to any as yet unproven accusations on Modi. (Please note
the recent Nanavati report). Preferable, to an extent that she chose to
hide all the facts. Why was it necessary to paint this picture of a terrorist
general?
ooh, that great Pakistani economy
once again
Bose further claims "The reality
is that in terms of these crucial issues, the military dictatorship of
General Musharraf from 1999 to 2002 arguably provided better governance,
not only compared to previous elected governments of Pakistan, but also
compared to the democratically elected government of India during the same
period". She further adds "Secondly, General Musharraf seemed at least
to try to deal with pressing policy matters including economic problems.
Some of his economic successes are directly related to his decision to
do a policy somersault in Afghanistan and become America's ally in its
'global war against terrorism' - a practical move most certainly in his
country's best interest. In India the economic reform programme is adrift
while issues of temple-building or 'cow protection' take centre-stage."
Somehow, the whole governance issue
and Pakistan's handling of their economy has made both Aiyer and Bose gush
and blush.
Of course, this period of governance
has seen Pakistani editors regularly flee the country due to risk to their
families and witnessed open threats to the life of one of the most visible
editors in Pakistan. Almost all civilian organizations are now run by military
men. Bernard-Henri Levy's recently published book says "Pakistan is the
most delinquent of nations" and claiming that Pakistan was the real key
to all Islamic-led international terrorism, he said that the US had solved
only 1% of the problem by deposing Saddam Hussein.
This is about Musharraf's Pakistan,
about which Shaheen Sehbai says the following
"Last week the Inter Services Agency
(ISI) of General Musharraf kidnapped the Deputy Opposition Leader of Punjab
Assembly, Rana Sanaullah Khan, beat him blue and black, shaved half of
his head and half of his moustache and abandoned him on a deserted road,
all for criticizing the Army Generals. In another move the bold and brave
Lahore newspaper "Weekly Independent" was directly threatened with a senior
official warning the publisher: "Enough is Enough"." - SA Tribune
Further, Dr. Assad Sayyed writes
in May 2002, "This assessment of Pakistan's economy - based for the most
part on official data - shows that economic indicators pertaining to the
lives and livelihoods of the Pakistanis have performed dismally in the
last few years. In fact, some of them are even worse than those in the
'lost decade' of the 1990s. More importantly this deterioration in the
economy apart from the drought - is in large part due to the policy framework
adopted by the government."
India in the same time period, has
done some of the following:
Fact #1.
"Citing the 18.05 per cent rise in exports, Jaitley said, with this India
share in the world exports in merchandise goods has increased from 0.4
per cent in 1992-93 to 0.7 per cent in 2001-02 and 0.8 per cent in 2003.
If the present trend is maintained, we might even reach one per cent share
in world exports before the target year of 2007," he said." - IE
Fact #2. "Despite
an overall sluggish growth, many sectors in the economy are growing. And,
growing at very handsome rates too. According to an ET Intelligence Group
study, a large number of industries are growing at rates over 10%. Iraq
or not, and SARS be damned. Compared to the growth rate of the real economy,
that's stupendous" - TNN
Fact #3.
"Auto part exports to rise over 100% to $2bn in 2 years" - ET
Fact #4.
"Agricultural and processed food exports rose 23% during April-October
2002" - ET
Fact #5.
"Electronics components' exports have posted a 20.35 per cent rise in 2001-02
to Rs 2200 crore compared to Rs 1,828 crore in 2000-01, according to an
estimate by Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council."
- ET
Of course, her agenda would not
allow her to "expose" the following truth about the adrift economic reform
program: "The winter session of India's 12th Parliament adjourned on Dec
21,2002 after setting something of a record for the legislative business
carried out. Lok Sabha the lower house, had passed 42 pieces of legislation
and Rajya Sabha,the upper house had approved more than half of them. A
few dead laws were repealed. Some were fine-tuned. The reach of the legislators
has been wide. Commentators say that the bills passed will reform the markets,
strengthen the economy and make life a little more equitable." - goodnewsindia.com
Do we really want to compare Indian
economic successes with Pakistan's terrorism extortion-money based economic
bubble? Do we really want to compare Indian governance with Pakistani governance?
From the above evidence, it appears not. While I'm sure that the Indian
economy could be handled more efficiently, what was it that stopped Ms.
Bose from giving a more factual description?
How does this happen?
The most important thing to note
is that these are some of the columns that came to my notice just within
the last one week. I have clearly missed many more.
While, I have strong opinions on
why these veterans chose to skate on thin ice - I'll not make them here.
I'm sure folks on the right side of the fence do the same too and others
should look into them just as closely. But, the upshot of all this is that
the Indian readers' opinions get biased by things other than facts.
How much of this brain-washing happens
every day in our media that goes completely unnoticed? Why does it go un-challenged?
Finally and much more importantly, what overall effect does this have on
the Indian readers? How many false opinions of the Indian populace is based
on such facts. You tell me.
Arindam Banerji, Ph.D.
