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<b>Kanika Datta:</b> The business world, silent witness

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Kanika Datta
Okay, we know what writers, actors, dancers, critics, opposition politicians and sundry permanent fixtures on the TV punditry circuit think about the Ku Klux Klan-style hostility expressed by saffron wingnuts to anything they don't like, whether it is beef-eaters, atheists and rationalists, Pakistani ghazal singers and book-launching former foreign ministers, or Indo-Pak cricket matches. We know what the chief of the Indian Air Force thinks. We even know what our Head of State, ensconced in the powerless splendour of Rashtrapati Bhavan, thinks.

But do we know what the business community makes of all this?

This constituency is supposed to be Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Chosen One to achieve his transformative vision of India. Does this serial violence since mid-2013 - the Muzaffarnagar riots, Ghar Wapsi and Love Jihad campaigns, Ballabhgarh mini-riot, burning churches and attacks on Christians and the recent murders and ink-throwing attacks - have an impact on businessmen waiting impatiently to ride "Make in India" and "Digital India" and the economic boom that is supposed to be just around the corner?
 

We won't know because this instinctively pragmatic community rarely chooses to criticise publicly when its interests are perceived to be at stake. The uncharacteristic censure of "policy paralysis" not long ago was made in the certain knowledge that the United Progressive Alliance was on its way out. But recall the famed pusillanimity of leading businessmen during Indira Gandhi's Emergency. Today, business chiefs are wary of even off-the-record criticism. The lesson was learnt in 2004, when some lone voices such as Anu Aga, Azim Premji and Deepak Parekh courageously criticised the Gujarat riots only to be stifled by the institutional might of the CII in the form of a formal apology to then Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Last year, Zafar Sareshwala, the Mumbai- and Ahmedabad-based businessman better known as Mr Modi's most staunch Muslim supporter, raised his head above the battlements to make a heavily qualified statement. He told NDTV anchor and Business Standard columnist Sreenivasan Jain that the liberal Hindus who had voted for Narendra Modi's pro-development agenda would desert it in droves if such regressive, polarising campaigns continued. Also, he said, the prime minister had expressed distaste for this brand of politics ("The price of silence at the top: Modi's dilemma," September 17, 2014).

In Mr Sareshwala's assessment, a section of the Bharatiya Janata Party was intent on pulling down the PM by perpetuating all this violence. If that were the case, Mr Modi's position should have been considerably weakened by now but this is hardly the case. Meanwhile, Mr Sareshwala's loyalty has been rewarded with the Chancellorship of Maulana Azad National Urdu University in Hyderabad even though he is not known as an Urdu scholar - or any scholar for that matter.

A more down-to-earth assessment came from a wise Muslim businessman with wide global experience. Speaking on condition of anonymity just as the beef issue was taking centre-stage, he analysed the issue from an apolitical marketing point of view. "Narendra Modi has clearly done the analytics to keep getting re-elected," he said. "What is the majority religion in the country? Hinduism. Who will vote you back to power? Even if all the Christians and Muslims gang up with you, you can't win.

"Now, every religion has a thinking population and a hard-core fundamentalist element. Modi will get the first by delivering on growth, irrespective of religion. But as a hard-core marketer, he cannot alienate this vote bank. So every three months there's some incident. It's like launching a new flavour of noodles or, say, adding sparkles to washing powder to keep the product top-of-the mind with consumers."

As a thinking Muslim, he mused, this situation is scarcely different from what goes on in Saudi Arabia where the royal family stayed in power thanks to the support of Wahabists. "Tomorrow if the king says women can move around in miniskirts, he will be killed. Whether he believes or not, he has to keep this support base happy."

As far as this businessman was concerned, this manufactured unrest didn't affect him. "If you have ability, no one can stop you," he said. Mr Sareshwala was less sure. "Do you think Adani or Ambani will ever put up a plant in Uttar Pradesh? They will run away," he told Sreenivasan Jain in the context of the Muzaffarnagar riots.

If the Adanis and Ambanis, toughened to the Indian environment as domestic businessmen have to be, are expected to react like this, what will happen to the Googles, Microsofts and Facebooks, which are used to operating in one of the most politically stable and entrepreneurially dynamic environments in the world, when they come to fulfil "Digital India" ambitions? The carefully curated meets they organised for Mr Modi in Silicon Valley should have told them something about the nature of his regime. Ultimately, like Indian businessmen, they'll vote with their investments. That will be the prime minister's biggest test.
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper

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First Published: Oct 21 2015 | 9:48 PM IST

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