LUNCH WITH BS: Amitabh Kant

In defence of elitism

Amitabh Kant

The Spice Route at The Imperial in the capital could easily top the Lunch with BS'Hall of Fame, despite our attempts to steer guests towards more unconventional choices.

But when Amitabh Kant suggests it for our Friday lunch after a year-and-a-half of failed attempts (two last-minute cancellations, several unfulfilled promises for "some time next week"), BS agrees to play host at Spice Route without protest.

I'm superstitiously early at the restaurant, and Kant is late, but this time round I'm convinced he'll keep his date, just as I'm sure he'll ask for the trademark Kerala stew and appams for lunch.

Having made his mark in Kerala Tourism, he was handpicked for the assignment as joint secretary in the ministry of tourism in New Delhi with joint charge as chairman-and-managing director of India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC).

Rakishly handsome, he has been the face of tourism in spite of a secretary above him, and having served two media-savvy ministers (Jagmohan under the BJP regime, and now Renuka Chowdhury).

I'm gratified that when Kant does show up and we get down to the business of ordering, he asks for appams with a prawn stew that isn't on the menu, accompanied by avial, all of it preceded by a tom-yum soup.

I've had my share of appams at Spice Route and am recommended duck instead, with fried rice (don't ask me!). The restaurant's signature raw papaya salad is our choice as appetiser.

Crunching the peanuts in the salad, Kant launches his offensive/defensive dialogue that will mark much of our lunch. His Delhi experience, of branding destination India in the highly successful Incredible India campaign targeted at focus markets worldwide, clearly saw India ride the 9/11, Afghanistan and even the Iraq crises "with growth in numbers and value".

Kant would like the campaign intensified, but is "not a great believer in the numbers game because that way we only get junk tourists. I believe that values must rise constantly, and our earnings from tourism have gone up in one year from Rs 13,500 crore to Rs 17,500 crore and must grow to Rs 25,000 crore in the next year. We must grow by 60 to 70 per cent in value over the next four or five years."

Yet it's ironic that India's share of incoming world tourists is likely to be 3 million this year (about half the numbers that travel out from India). With figures so minuscule, surely even talking "the numbers game", as Kant calls it, is laughable.

He ignores the implied sarcasm, saying instead that it is value that is "the ticket to growth of infrastructure, with the government merely an enabler of infrastructure, and the private sector playing the role of wealth creator".

All right, I interrupt him in between spoonfuls of his soup, but shouldn't even the numbers game have minimum numbers? "No," insists Kant, "the focus has to be on high value. If you enhance the unit value realisation and the elite come, the masses will follow."

Clearly, we have to agree to disagree, but Kant says the ministry has a clear strategy to make brand India a viable option: "First, increase capacity by 60,000 rooms in the next three years; second, crack new markets, noticeably China and Korea; next, work closely with the Archaeological Survey of India and the state governments to build unique experiences at World Heritage Sites and other monuments."

But the tourism ministry has historically had a rough run from other sectors and been given short shrift by the Centre, I remind him.

"Not any more," he says, "there's greater commitment from the office of the Prime Minister and President, and from the other ministries. Tourism is now a national priority. Everyone's aware of its employment creation potential. At Transport Bhavan (headquarters for the ministry), new ideas are floating around on how to work with the private sector and take the partnership forward through identifying catalysts that will become the main driving force."

We've been served our main course: Kant, obviously recognised as Mr Tourism by the restaurant's management, gets the benefit of ludicrously large prawns in his stew, and though my duck is good (I'm still iffy about the fried rice), I can't help feeling his choice is the better. Suppressing a stab of envy, I ask him how the ministry hopes to deliver on its strategy.

"We're in touch with state governments, asking them to change urban development land laws to allow more mid-range hotels to come up on smaller plots, with permission for parking in basements, and increasing commercial usage from the current 5 per cent to 20 to 30 per cent. We're also in touch with the Railways to put up 100 budget hotels," he ticks off on his fingers.

"Then, we've reduced the overseas India Tourist Offices from 18 to 13 and, for newer markets in south-east Asia, in China and Korea, we should be able to have functional marketing representatives who have knowledge of that language and market."

As for enhancing the sightseeing experience, he says a lot of innovative work has been done at Ajanta-Ellora, Hampi, Mahabalipuram and Bodhgaya "on a scale never done before".

He's aware that the nature of work has to be practical "in terms of backward-forward coordination, and the results won't show overnight but in the next two to three years."

And yes, he tells the waiter, he'll have another appam. Would I like one too, the waiter asks me, and even though I'm tempted, Kant doesn't look likely to share his prawn stew, and I'm not sure the duck would do justice to the appam.

Kant, meanwhile, is extolling the achievements of his ministry. "We've managed to extend the tourism season from four-and-a-half months to 11-and-a-half months," he says and, before I can ask, defends: "The capacity problem is only in the cities, not in the interiors "" Khajuraho, Sanchi, Shekhawati, interior Karnataka, the Malabar region of Kerala...."

Working closely with the civil aviation ministry has meant "increasingly more permissions to fly and the opening of different regions such as Hyderabad, Kochi and Chennai by airlines such as Thai Airways, Singapore Airlines and Malaysian Airlines, driving growth in traffic there. In fact, till the mid-1980s, 68 per cent of traffic used to be for north India, but now the region gets only 42 per cent."

The shift to southern tourism also has to do, he points out, with integrated development in civic life, better roads and airports, Kerala being a classic example. But, I interrupt again, hasn't his belief in elitist tourism meant that Kerala has become an expensive destination?

"We learnt from Kovalam," Kant is unrepentant, "that the backpackers were getting more from the destination than the destination was getting from them. Kerala's strategy evolved in returning to its roots in terms of culture, architecture, service and cuisine, to create boutique products." In other words: you want a unique experience, you pay top dollar for it.

To an extent, this is what the Incredible India campaign is built on, of branding experiential India so younger entrepreneurs can cash in on the opportunity provided.

"It's the fastest route to create employment," he suggests, wiping the last of the stew off his plate, "we must use it as an instrument of growth."

However, he'd like to see the "buzz translate into a similar exercise on the ground. The brand must eventually be owned by the service providers "" the taxi driver, customs, guides...everyone "" and the dichotomy between the brand and the service must go."

As head of ITDC, his main task has been "to consolidate after the disinvestments, to raise morale, and to trim its size", the result of which has become visible in the flagship Ashok, which, with its leased-out restaurants and now even a spa "has become profitable".

But why has ITDC held on to the Ashok while divesting its other properties?

Kant is clearly uncomfortable fending questions on the corporation: "I'm not a believer in the government running hotels," he concedes, "but [the selling of] the Ashok is a decision the government will have to take at the highest level. Till then, it is my intent to run it in a manner that will generate profits."

It's been a long lunch, and though I'd have liked coffee, Kant, who exercises regularly, has time for neither dessert nor coffee. Reluctantly, therefore, I see him out. The Spice Route, on its part, offers a generous 50 per cent discount on the bill.

Whether it's on account of BS' exemplary patronage, or Kant's presence, is something we won't know until our next lunch there.