HAGIOGRAPHIC ACCOUNTS
Despite a barely concealed hostility of the Gandhis, the place of former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao in India’s post-Independence history was always secure. For, he—and not the ever-elastic Manmohan Singh, was the true initiator of the economic reforms. Lest his contribution go unnoticed, a couple of books on the great Telugu Bidda have sought to record it for posterity. His biographers provide welcome context and perspective to the banner news headlines of the early Rao days. A quarter century after Rao opened up the economy and freed up the entrepreneurial energies of Indians, the country has made the long-awaited switch from a poor to a lower-middle-income group. And, if it keeps growing at 7-plus per cent, it might soon join the middle-income group.
But it could not be merely coincidental that though Rao has been gone for quite some time, the largely sympathetic biographies have appeared only when the Gandhis were rendered powerless. Authors and publishers too are sensitive to market conditions. Yet, the generally hagiographic accounts fail on one vital count. There is hardly any mention of the corruption scams of the Rao years. And, trust us, the Rao government was no less corrupt than the two Manmohan Singh governments.
Constraints of space do not permit mention of all the scams of the Rao years. Yet, for illustrative purposes a couple of them should suffice. One, without the active cooperation of Rao, particularly his Principal Secretary, the powerful A.N. Verma, the two-bit Delhi fixer, Deepak Talwar, would not have become a one-stop clearance house for all major foreign investment decisions. Till the advent of Talwar, Delhi had many fixers who invariably drew their strength from a key aide to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. A few others relied on individual ministers. Talwar’s A.N. Verma nexus, however, rendered all other fixers/liaison men redundant.
Incidentally, even after the end of the Rao raj, Talwar never looked back. He flourished during the UPA regime as well, doing lucrative deals with all and sundry, particularly in the civil aviation sector. He was no longer pulling out other peoples’ irons out of the fire for a hefty price, having become an entrepreneur in his own right. How big an entrepreneur became amply clear when the Enforcement Directorate recently raided his premises and discovered a plethora of incriminating evidence.
A collateral victim was our secular warrior Digvijaya Singh. His socialist mask lay pierced after taxmen found that Talwar picked up the tab just so Diggy Raja could travel Maharaja-like in first class comfort. Anyway, the reason for this piece was not Talwar. The provocation was a much bigger scam of the Rao years whose costs are still being paid by Indians. It concerns the sale of the controlling stake in Maruti-Suzuki to the Japanese company at a throwaway price, resulting in the annual outgo of huge funds to the Japanese company. That Suzuki before its Maruti connection was a relatively minor player in the automobile market in Japan ought to be borne in mind. That it is able to exploit the Indian market a la the East India Company of yore thanks to the scam perpetrated by the Rao government, which offloaded the controlling stake in the Maruti-Suzuki joint partnership at below-par prices, constitutes one of the biggest scandals of our times.
A recent report in a business daily noted how the profits of Suzuki’s India operations equal the profits of the parent company. This underlines the betrayal by the Rao government. Suzuki’s Maruti connection has helped the parent company bolster its domestic operations. Sales revenues and profits of Maruti are set to soon outstrip the parent company’s. Already the market capitalisation of Maruti-Suzuki is higher than that of Suzuki Japan.
One man whose contribution in turning Maruti-Suzuki from an Indian- to a Japanese-controlled company is undeniable is its chairman R.C. Bhargava. An IAS officer, he was seconded to Maruti as a representative of the Indian government, but soon he virtually began to bat for the Japanese partner. And due to this loyalty not only does Suzuki own the controlling stake in its biggest money-making operations anywhere in the world, including Japan, but it now earns a huge sum, largely unearned, by way of royalties as well from Maruti.
Shockingly, even on those items in Maruti cars which are fully manufactured in India, and do not require proprietary technology of Suzuki Japan, the parent company levies royalty charges. The East India Company syndrome birthed many Rai Sahebs and Rai Bahadurs. These days we have favoured Chairmen and MDs who safeguard foreign corporate interests even at the cost of Indians. Bhargava has certainly got enormously wealthy being in bed with Suzuki Japan.
UNSTOPPABLE GRAVY TRAIN
Politics is one of the two professions—the other being the business of faith healers and godmen—which while requiring no entry-level qualifications ensures a happy life for self and extended family and friends. Scan the political field and ask yourself which leader would have afforded the life-style he now boasts of had he not plunged into the lucrative business of politics.
And thanks to the largesse, the Aam Aadmi Party boss Arvind Kejriwal—he too now lives in the lap of luxury, even his face has filled up, and, of course, that perennial cough has vanished—pensions of former legislators in Delhi have multiplied many times. All because the AAP phonies decided to give themselves a hefty pay rise. In fact, one of the first acts of the newly-constituted Delhi Assembly, which has 67 AAP MLAs out of a total 70, was to recommend a four-fold increase in their salary and perks.
This has finally been implemented with retrospective effect, with each MLA receiving hefty sums in arrears. How the elected representatives of the poor and hard-working people live in great comfort can be gauged from the fact that a one-term MLA way back in the late 1960s, whose total monthly emoluments then were Rs 400 gets a pension of over Rs 30,000 per month in addition to free medical and a few other perks. Which other profession cossets its practitioners this well is hard to imagine.
POLITICAL TRAFFIC IS PASSÉ
Given the flurry of party-hopping by politicians, especially at election-time, it makes no sense for anyone to throw back the words of a deserter at him while he sings paeans in praise of his new political home. So, when Rita Bahuguna Joshi left the Congress for the BJP, the beleaguered Congress strategist Prashant Kishor sought to embarrass her by flooding social media with all the nasty things she had had to say about BJP, Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, etc. But because Kishor himself was no saint, having travelled from the BJP to the Janata Dal (U) and finally to the Congress in a short span of a few months, he was reminded about his own desertions and betrayals. It takes two to play this cynical game of one-upmanship, doesn’t it? Loyalty to the flag or ideology is irrelevant. All that matters for politicians is Self with a capital S.