| The last fortnight has been a roller-coaster ride with many loops and inversions. As the nation entered its 61st year of independence, there was enough reason to be optimistic despite the many challenges that have to be tackled. An unexpected high came for me with the off-beat movie Chak De, which simplistically but effectively demonstrated that it needs just one strong, committed leader (or coach) to convert a bunch of talented individuals into a world-class, winning team. |
| Alas, the lows came thick and fast, too. The current imbroglio over the nuclear deal has the potential to bring the term of the current Lok Sabha to an abrupt end, while leaving India with a lot of egg on its face in the international community, its neighbours in the North and the West thrilled with this unexpected self-goal from the Indian politicians, and a certain slowdown in the growth momentum India very painstakingly picked up in the last three years after decades of wishful thinking. Ironically, all the opponents to the deal brazenly claim that their intransigence is entirely driven by their nationalistic instincts even though by most objective accounts, India seems to have negotiated a good one and hence the Prime Minister and his team should have actually been lauded by all, without resorting to partisanship. |
| Sensing impending elections, it is no surprise that the regional political parties and groupings have already starting preparing for the same by pandering to real or perceived vote banks. There can be no other explanation for the absurd action from the BSP government in UP over-ruling its own agricultural policy within three weeks of notifying it and simultaneously ordering the closure of some retail outlets belonging to one particular business house on absolutely ludicrous grounds that keeping them open would have created law and order problems from the farmers and small traders of the state! |
| It is India's tragedy that its leaders "" both political and business "" have largely used the bogey of "national interest" to propagate their own very private self-interest. The licence raj of the 70s and 80s gave way to crony capitalism, allowing the politicians and select bureaucrats to command their own "licensing" fees while encouraging many less worthy "entrepreneurs" to set up businesses funded by the state's own financial institutions. With the dismantling of the licensing era, many of these enterprises have become sick and changed hands even as a few of them continue to extract their pound of flesh through obnoxious regulations such as Press Note 18. |
| To protect the interests of the nation, entire industries were reserved for the small-scale sector for decades. It is no surprise that with increasing global consolidation, most Indian consumer product industries remain totally inadequate to compete, be it in toys and processed foods, or textiles and clothing. Protecting the relatively few jobs in the organised public and private sectors has been the primary reason for successive governments to give a short shrift to labour reforms, thereby stifling the creation of millions of jobs. Having a national airline "" primarily used by the political and bureaucratic classes as their private airline with free tickets and upgrades for their families and friends "" was responsible for the nation as a whole paying higher prices for decades till at least the domestic skies were opened up to competition. |
| Till the nuclear deal issue emerged as the most contentious one in recent times, opening the Indian retail sector had been one of the most hotly debated and least understood issues. There is irrefutable logic and evidence that a modern retail sector alone has the capability to catalyse the next Green Revolution, give a fillip to investment in a wide range of manufacturing activities, create jobs across urban and rural India, and benefit hundreds of millions of middle- and lower-income Indians by way of reduced prices while being offered generally better-quality and more genuine products, superior service, and more comfort and convenience. Almost every day, there are reports in the print media of how the farmers are benefiting from the emergence of modern retail, giving them more options to sell their produce at the highest prices available from the competing bidders. Yet, the BJP, the Left, the BSP and many others continue to rattle their sabre at any signs of opening this sector to investment "" whether internal or international "" and support hooligans who selectively trash retail outlets. In this instance, ironically it is a segment of the modern Indian retail industry that also has to accept blame for such a situation. In their own self-serving interests, some of these leaders have raised the bogey of harmful effects of foreign investment in retail even though each one of them is now tying up with foreign retailers. Of course, they could not have anticipated the turn of events whereby the situation has become one of confrontation not between foreign and Indian ownership but between big retail and small. |
| Is there a silver lining? I believe so. The very rapid build-up of public opinion against the Left parties' stand on the nuclear deal and the positive role played in this instance by the media by aggressively reporting this public opinion have probably gone home and hopefully, bring the Left's increasing tendency to resort to brinkmanship under some check. I hope the public at large and the media are equally vociferous in expressing what they believe is actually in their interests rather than letting politicians and few others exploit the same for their own personal gains. |
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