Dear all

Many years before I had the opportunity to hear the lecture of Dr Manmohan Singh when he visited the Vadodara Chamber of Commerce and Industry. It was a time when NDA was ruling India, and Dr Singh spoke on the subject of Income disparity, addressing the students of economics of the MS University of Baroda. Dr Singh at that time talked vehemently about the need to protect the poor as India facing the risk of rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer when exposed to a globalised world. He said that after the industrial reforms of the 1990s, the private sector in India face a challenge from the global corporation to compete and innovate. Global capital will make Indian Industry competitive and also it would bring the need for new skills sets.

Time proved that his statements were true. India reached a 8 percent growth with Indian corporate becoming global and the Indian middle class living standards rising which i would say a rise from a Kirana culture to that of a Mall culture, where hoards of people flocking to retail showrooms buying consumer products en mass and people buying cars and high end mobiles . Cash flows of our business houses burgeoned and they started acquiring foreign companies overseas establishments and raw material sources. As Dr Singh then pointed out one India was shining and Bharat the poor India struggling for education, food, water and electricity. The then NDA government used that India shining jargon and faced the nation’s electorates only to be reminded that the poor has become more poor and with the same Dr Singh as prime minister a new government came in.

It was at the middle of his rule in 2008 that the global recession started  spreading and Dr Singh’s government by  astute policy management saved our nation from a major economic catastrophe. The nation paid back Dr Singh by bringing him back to power with hopes of a revival of the economy, but this time he was surrounded by  corrupt collision partners who gave him scandals after scandals as we see today. The lustre of Singh started eroding and he was seen as indecisive, silent and non responsive which was later  reflected in the articles published by Washington post and Time.

Creation of wealth in India by our corporate and their dependency on politicians for favourable policy initiatives resulted in a politician –corporate nexus in India, with a new breed of scandals  evolving .Unlike the earlier scandals like Bofors where there was a  cash transaction here the loss is in terms of opportunity costs running to multiple of crores of rupees loss to exchequer.

Coming back to Singh, he unfortunately was not able to control this and was myopic due to some unknown reasons which made him look like a PM without control of his ministers. It was at this juncture in this blog I had written that he should graciously quit and save his credibility.

Today he looks like a 10^th batsman trying to save a team from innings defeat and it seems he is too late. Time will only say.

All the best Manmohanji

Sanyasi

Dear all

A working paper in the Prime minister’s office, talks of 1 trillion dollar worth of investment plan. It was fun to read it. The FDI in retail, and all other measures recently taken seems to be too late like a struggling batsman chasing 100 runs in the last over.

The greatest mistake of our prime minister was that he was mum for a long time and when a foreign newspaper discredited him, he wakes up.

An issue like FDI in retail is sensitive because of the turbulent political condition and the doubts on the policy. Same thing happened when we decided to allow foreign companies to manufacture cars in India. But see now we all enjoy a Car revolution with cars available as like in a fish market.

What is missed is the ability of the prime minister to address the nation and get the nations confidence before the actions are taken. I remember the late PV Narasimha Rao’s message of hard decisions prior to the 1991 reforms. The initiator of those reforms who is the prime minister now, sadly did not have this wisdom.

Sanyasi

Dear all

A working paper in the Prime minister’s office, talks of 1 trillion dollar worth of investment plan. It was fun to read it. The FDI in retail, and all other measures recently taken seems to be too late like a struggling batsman chasing 100 runs in the last over.

The greatest mistake of our prime minister was that he was mum for a long time and when a foreign newspaper discredited him, he wakes up.

An issue like FDI in retail is sensitive because of the turbulent political condition and the doubts on the policy. Same thing happened when we decided to allow foreign companies to manufacture cars in India. But see now we all enjoy a Car revolution with cars available as like in a fish market.

What is missed is the ability of the prime minister to address the nation and get the nations confidence before the actions are taken. I remember the late PV Narasimha Rao’s message of hard decisions prior to the 1991 reforms. The initiator of those reforms who is the prime minister now, sadly did not have this wisdom.

Sanyasi

Dear all

Cricket years ago were an English Winter game, which has now become frenzy in the Indian sub continent. Today cricket is available even the remotest slums of India, and most of the cricket enthusiasts are rural youth. See the transformation. Once upon a time this game was a middle class status quo. Remember the seventies when Test cricket was played, and it was a status symbol for the lambretta scooter owning Indians to carry the hand held transistor and cheer Gavaskar’s boundary or kapildev’s wicket. Cricket has changed a lot since then, with one day matches every day, twenty twenty matches, IPL , Under 19 matches, what not to say, it is today a big business and Industry with a mix of corruption, media frenzy and glamour.

It is in this era when most of the majority Indian youth- a young Indian nation- welcomes Sachin Tendulkar to the cricketing arena. Each of his sixes and centuries bought gold not only to him but also to the hullaballoo of cricketing fraternity, commentators ranging from MBAs, models and past cricketers , sizzling cheer leaders, and to all Pepsees and Collas of this nation. Sachin was made to be the symbol of identity prestige and nationhood on which money flowed. In short a young sport man who only better than his compatriots becomes “ God of Cricket”’ with Bharat Ratna in the waiting..

At a time when he is miserably struggling to continue as a fictitious God of the game, no ‘’kars”’ (Read Gavaskar , majrekars etc) are telling him to retire peacefully in fame and continue to wear the GOD crown, before it further tumbles down, a la they did with Rahul Dravid and VVS Laksman, the moment they went out of form.

It is time now to move on and search for a new God to continue the cricketing mazala.

 

Sanyasi

Dear all

Manmohan Singh has made it again in the International media. This time the Washington Post article portrays him as a failure. It is quite interesting to note  that why the US media is on the onslaught against our Sardar. Infact he is credited to be behind the strong strategic and commercial ties that we have with US. So why this transformation from a poster boy of India's reforms to a lame duck Prime Minister. We all sitting in this country knows that Singhsab, is a victim of coalition and party politics and he is  unable to take decisions etc. I also do not deny the fact made by Times and now Washington post , about the deterioration of his credibility, but it need to be understood that the US media's new found onslaught is guided by the growing frustration of the business groups in that country over the uncertainty in our investment climate. Floating Capital in the US , is in desperate search to escape tax in their home country and be invested in the emerging economies as like in India. Being a democratic nation with proven credentials they find that it is safer to invest in India than an autocratic China. However the current political and economic conditions has brought down confidence level leading to frustration which is reflected in this media onslaught.

Anyway sardarji ka pagidi uttar gaya

Sanyasi

Dear all

It is very difficult these days to go to sleep without hearing a debate on some or the other scam.  Since last few years we are ‘’fortunate’’  to hear about scandals and corruption debates one after another . Immediately after the telecom scam, we could hear about the commonwealth scam and now comes the coal gate scam. When the bofors scam took place we talked about a scam value of few thousand crores which is now peanut figures and the numbers are now ‘’few’’ lakh thousand crores.

Judith Cook in her seminal book The Prize of Freedom (New English Library publication 1985) , argues that lack of fear (read chalta hai) is a primary reason for the recurrence of corruption which I think is true for our country also. After all crimes related to corruption especially for the political class is no big deal as being in tihar jail or their residence does not make much difference in their lifestyles. Whether it is Kalmadi or Kannimozhi they could spend some vacation time in jail and come back to their life hale and healthy . It is worth a risk if the returns from the corrupt deal  runs into crores of rupees.

Allocation of 162 coal blocks freely to the kith and kin of political leaders or to private companies which made the politician’s pocket fat is estimated to be nearly 3 lakh crore rupees is now being called as only an estimated opportunity cost and most of the blocks as unused. The government is brazenly un faced and thick skinned . The media and opposition parties shouts a lot, but, after some time a few of them will be send to jail and the nation shall prepare for the flavour of the next scandal and the cycle starts again.

The larger issue to be addressed here not just corruption , but how could we trust the political system anymore. We are today in a situation of systemic failure and the coal gate is one among such scams which is bound to recur. Whether this  cocktail of crime politics and business will eventually retard our economic growth and result in social uncertainty is only for time to say......

For a better understanding of coal gate scandal i recommend you to read Mr Vivek Kaul’s article in DNA Money Ahmadabad edition wherein he has given a beginners guide to this scam which is worth reading

Sanyasi