Author: Rajiv Desai
Publication: The Times of India
Date: May 12, 2005
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1106812.cms
Introduction: Feudal India declines
as common man rises
A few days ago, when I was standing
in line at an airline counter, I was rudely shoved aside by two men checking
in an absentee dignitary. Not wishing to make a scene, I urged the flight
attendant to intervene. Amazingly, she told them to queue up. In that simple
statement, she challenged the feudal culture of privilege that has sapped
this nation's spirit for five decades.
In the event, the grandee in question
sat right next to me in the aircraft. I complained to him about the run-in
with his staff members. He took umbrage and curtly told me that his busy
schedule necessitated that he is checked in. I was taken aback that he
seemed to be justifying the discourteous behaviour of his staffers.
To my mind, the attendant at the
airline counter deserved a medal for egalitarian behaviour. It reinforced
my growing belief that India is finally getting rid of the privilegentsia
raj.
The privilegentsia is an outgrowth
of the state-centric model of governance that India pursued for most of
its life as an independent country. It refers to the clutch of bureaucrats,
politicians and academicians who ruled over the fate of millions of decent,
hard-working people. It was a curious perversion of democracy that the
people, who as voters should have held their rulers accountable, were instead
held in thrall by this ruthless clique.
The privilegentsia has been part
of my consciousness since I was 13. I remember going to a popular movie
with a friend, only to find that the show was sold out and ticket counters
closed. A tout came up to us and offered us tickets at twice the price.
We looked at each other and decided on the spot to pay the scalper's rate.
My friend's father, a senior official
in the state government, found out about it and admonished us for encouraging
the black market. He was very clear: "You should have called my office
and we would have phoned the manager to get you tickets. Plus you would
have been given complimentary passes", he said.
Even at that tender age, I wrestled
with the proposition: Free tickets through influence or scalped ones from
the black market. I concluded that both options were equally dubious. Since
then I began to question the system in which the choice was between influence
and black money. In those days, if you had no influence or money, you had
to stand in line for a Friday release with a red-haired Pathan bouncer
to contend with.
Influence peddling and kickbacks
were par for the course in the India of old. Either you paid extra cash
or used influence. The ability to get things done without black payment
was a mark of a person's social status. Growing up in the miasma of the
privilegentsia raj, I could do no more than accept it in a sullen manner.
When it got too much, I took the middle-class way out: I moved to the United
States, not just to enrol in a graduate programme but really to make a
dignified living.
Today, things have changed dramatically.
To go back to my movie example, touts have become irrelevant and so have
free passes for the privilegentsia. With multiplexes springing up in every
neighbourhood, no 13-year-old has to deal with the problem I faced. The
explosion of choice has challenged both the black market and the privilegentsia
raj. I remain convinced that the privilegentsia raj, for all its ideological
posturing, is a bigger blot on public life than the black market.
Over the years, the government's
emphasis has been on poverty and, lately, on religion and caste. But the
common man cuts across all considerations of class, religion and caste.
He is not necessarily poor; he may be religious and caste-bound but, above
all, he is a citizen seeking to lead a dignified life that the privilegentsia
and its handmaiden, the
black economy, have denied him
all these years.
Today, it is more difficult for
politicians and bureaucrats to lord it over the general population. For
the last 50 years, they have managed to sell the misbegotten notion that
they are taking from the rich to give to the poor. Despite all that Robin
Hood posturing, governments have sucked up to the rich and hoodwinked the
poor. It worked okay when there were a handful of rich people and the vast
majority was poor. Today, both poor and rich are on the fringes of mainstream
society. An explosive growth of the middle class has put the privilegentsia
on notice.
As the UPA government celebrates
its first year in office, I believe that a part of any success it hopes
to achieve will be traced to people like the woman at the airline check-in
counter, who showed the VIP's flunkies their place. Her act should be honoured
with a fanfare for the common man.
The writer is CEO of Comma.
