8 ISSUES AND INSIGHTS | WEDNESDAY 11 SEPTEMBER 2019 >

tent people in an in-house staff of 75 > making it a “human-machine hybrid CHINESE WHISPERS Can AI chase away the media blues? app which has serendipity built in,” says Chandra. It is a point he keeps empha- sising. For instance, if like me, you are Background check A new app is happy to bring some sanity back into the news ecosystem not interested in sports, it will still show you the occasional sports story that is news. The app/tech reaches about 50 this column began with. “The way platforms (Google/ too big to miss; say P V Sindhu winning million people, says Chandra. A million In the pre-AI era, we were more likely Facebook) operate makes it difficult to a title. of these are through direct downloads to come across another point of view or sustain. The heart of the issue is how “Sundar Pichai (Google’s CEO) once and rest by being embedded on services read stuff on a random subject. Now, algorithms are designed. If they are told me that AI will work only when peo- or devices. Such as Airtel (an investor across the world, algorithms are driving designed for time, scale and speed they ple use it to disrupt their own business. along with HT Media) or Panasonic and people into ideological echo chambers cater to sensationalism, people want to And I am trying to disrupt the news busi- through strategic tie-ups with Twitter, resulting in a vicious, corrosive polari- be titillated,” says John Ridding, CEO, ness. We have nothing to lose: No turf, ShareChat, among half a dozen other sation that is tearing several countries Financial Times. no channel, no website. In fact, we are platforms/apps. Editorji offers 200 video apart. This, in turn, has created a crisis The entire fake news factory in sev- not interested in what Editorji can do news stories a day in a feed personalised of credibility and sustenance for main- eral countries relies on this bot-driven, itself as an app. That is not the core of MEDIASCOPE for you. They are selected by experi- stream media. TV news that is advertis- algorithm-driven ecosystem. “Hillary the firm’s offering. I genuinely want to The Bharatiya (BJP), which enced news editors from a pool of ing-, and therefore, viewership-driven Clinton is a Murderer” is likely to get change the (news) ecosystem,” says he. claims to be the world’s largest political VANITA KOHLI-KHANDEKAR sources including wire agencies such as simply goes after the lowest common millions of Americans clicking on a The firm has registered a bunch of party, has started member verification in ANI, AFP, AP. Each story is just 20 sec- denominator. Newspapers and a handful mythical story that makes money for an patents which drive the app. The more Madhya Pradesh to check the onds and you swipe to go to the next of websites continue to do journalism. army of teenagers sitting in Veles, platforms that use the underlying tech- background of its recent recruits. When f technology has created the prob- one. There are longer stories of two- But feet on the ground, good quality Macedonia. In India, Twitter, Facebook nology to offer plain video news without on the previous occasion the party lems the news industry faces, can three minutes each with explainers but journalism is expensive and almost and most importantly, WhatsApp are bias or opinion the better it is. opened its door to new members via a I it be harnessed to provide a solu- without any opinion. The app allows you impossible to discover in the online del- used with the same effect to offer fake If Indians start relying on a pure missed call, people joined the BJP in large tion too? to create your own newscast based on uge. That, in turn, has made Google and narratives on history, society or politics. reportage-based news app instead of numbers. These new candidates were The question hits you when you stories you like, which can be shared. Facebook the gatekeepers who walk away But isn’t Editorji another manifesta- shrieky news channels or dodgy taken in a hurry without proper check out ex-NDTV CEO Vikram The minute a story is uploaded, the AI with roughly three-fourths of all digital tion of the same AI-driven ecosystem? WhatsApp forwards, technology would verification. Later, it turned out that Chandra’s new venture, Editorji takes over. Your feed is personalised advertising globally. An article in Business Any form of personalising means an ide- have helped the news industry begin its many of them had criminal cases against Technologies Pvt Ltd. The 10-month old based on everything from your locality Standard may be read by say a million ological ghettoisation that kills serendip- journey to recovery. them. Now the state unit has appointed Artificial Intelligence or AI-based news to what you watch or search. people, but it might earn money for only ity. Chandra is emphatic that Editorji a three-member team to scan the app is described as the Spotify of video And that brings us to the question about 10-20 per cent of that audience. doesn’t do that. There are about 60 con- Twitter: @vanitakohlik membership registers and identify those with a tainted past.

Loyal but ignored After actor-turned-politician Urmila Matondkar quit the on Tuesday, The malleability of the plastic ban the growing disgruntlement in the party ranks became even more palpable. Many leaders pointed out how the party ignored Lacking serious government legislation and punitive action, the impact of the ban on single-use plastics is questionable loyal workers. Matondkar joined the Congress in March this year and within days of joining, she got the party ticket to fight SURAJEET DAS GUPTA MLP recycling is so negligible that no We Care is working on various ways still not specified the SUP definition. the election from the Mumbai North seat, one is ready to hazard a guess. to collect and dispose of MLP, which They question how CPCB can define but she lost. Some pointed out that while rime Minister ’s According to the Central Pollution includes using it as an alternative fuel recyclable plastics as SUP and bring Matondkar got the ticket, loyal workers like clarion call on Independence Control Board (CPCB), India generates in cement kilns, for waste to energy them under the purview of a ban. And Priyanka Chaturvedi had to quit the party P Day urging citizens to eliminate over 26,000 metric tonnes every day of pyrolysis to convert it into fuel, for road experts say an arbitrary ban has a seri- after being overlooked. A couple of the use of single-use plastics (SUP) from plastic waste of which 6 per cent is MLP. construction and even for making fur- ous impact on jobs. “Most of the bags Congressmen took to Twitter to bemoan October 2, the birth anniversary of But many believe that their share is far niture. Says We Care President Atul below 50 micron or plastic cutlery are their party’s priorities. “People who have Mahatma Gandhi, has refocused the higher especially in cities. According to Sud: “We are focused on creating an manufactured in the unorganised sec- loyally stood by any party tend to get spotlight on corporate India’s prepared- a global study by Alliance for end-to-end system for sustainable tor so a huge number of jobs would be overlooked in favour of political tourists,” ness in making his vision a reality. The Incinerator Alternatives, a grassroot management of plastics. There is also at stake. The people working here have tweeted C R Kesavan, a former spokesperson reason: India Inc is one of the key users research association, MLP constitutes a large unorganised sector that is not to be shifted to new alternatives, such of the party, on Tuesday. “We are political of SUP — ranging from pet bottles, tetra 60 per cent of all the branded plastic committed to meeting its obligations”. as making cloth bags. You cannot do it refugees, always overlooked for short-term packs, multi-layered plastics (MLP) to waste in 15 cities in 18 states which it In areas where corporate India has overnight,” says Sambyal. gains,” replied Pradyot Deb Barman, who milk pouches. randomly studied last year. The prob- taken bold initiatives — in PET bottles, Some experts say a ban on bags heads the Congress’ Tripura unit. But opinion is divided on the PM’s lem is that segregating MLP plastic for instance — the compulsion comes below 50 microns might fail because war on waste. Some say it is all optics, from the metal is cumbersome and from business logic. Reliance manufacturers will merely shift to bags lacking serious government legislation expensive, so rag pickers have no incen- Industries, which provides the resin, above 50 micron which are still cheaper and punitive action. But tive to collect it and this the key raw material, processes over 2 than cloth and can be reused by con- Together we can senior government officials packaging remains unrecy- billion pet bottles a year and according sumers and out of the purview of SUP, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief say they are planning to cled and in the ecosystem. to a senior executive is scaling it up rather defeating the purpose of reduc- Sharad Pawar met Congress President crack down on items such The other problem area is According to the Central Pollution three times to 6 billion in two years. ing plastic use. Consumers, too, see no Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Tuesday to as plastic straws, cutlery, milk pouches. The Centre Control Board, India generates over Like many others, it converts them into economic benefit in reducing plastic finalise seat-sharing between the two cigarette butts, PET bottles for Science and 26,000 metric tonnes every day of polyester fibre and some of it is used use. Industry estimates that one can parties for the 288-member below 200 ml (which has Environment (CSE) esti- plastic waste of which 6 per cent is MLP downstream to make fashion apparel. get 400 plastic bags for ~100; if they had Assembly polls due in October. According to been tried in Maharashtra) mates only 15-20 per cent of Gem Recycling, which retrieves the to buy cloth bags they would cost sources, the two leaders agreed that the and plastic bags below 50 TAKE the pouches are recycled. tweaked the MLP definition in such a waste PET bottle through its network, between ~10 to ~150 a piece. NCP could contest 104 and Congress 111 micron (banned in many TWO Corporate India is trying to way as to give companies a loophole to offers rag pickers ~20 per kg for pet bot- The CPCB is treading carefully too seats, and the two parties would soon take states). This, they hope, will ANALYSIS BEHIND make some headway in skip the deadline. Also, the rules did tles, which is far more attractive than and the ministries of consumer affairs a call on the remaining 73. They would allot stir India Inc out of its THE HEADLINES MLP, with some 30 Indian not mandate what percentage of the the other plastic waste they pick up. and food processing are pushing for a seats to smaller allies from their respective ennui on the serious issue. and multinational players MLP waste producers should retrieve, Gem converts them into granules realistic policy. Milk pouches are yet to shares. The NCP wanted to contest 144 Is it wrong to put the collaborating in a consor- giving them freedom to pay lip service which are sold to the textile industry come under the purview of the ban. seats, but has faced regular desertions onus on corporate India? To be fair it tium christened We Care as part of their to the rules. and makes reasonable margins from Even for plastic bottles, by concentrat- from its ranks to the . This has has done well in recycling PET bottles extended producer responsibility. Its The reality is that recycling MLP is the business. Gem director Sachin ing on a proposal to ban below 200 ml, strengthened the Sena’s bargaining power (80 per cent is recycled) and has made backers include PepsiCo India, Nestle a global challenge. Says Swati Singh Sharma: “Our total expense including the government has virtually protected with the , its ally. reasonable efforts with tetra packs (53 India, Perfetti, Dabur and Dharampal Sambyal, who heads the programme on paying rag pickers, washing, segrega- the beverage industry (only two brands The Sena wants to contest 135 seats and the per cent is recycled). But the big chal- Satyapal. The mandate is to collect MLP waste management in CSE: “The issue tion and bailing is ~30 a kg. We sell it at have water packaging below 200 ml). BJP an equal number. That leaves the lenge which seems not to be in focus and find alternative usages. is there is no viable alternative packag- ~33 a kg. We procure threads from com- Instead, it is concentrating on plastics remaining 18 seats for their smaller allies, is recycling MLP (such as snack pack- Will this work? In 2016, the central ing to MLP, so there is need for a lot of panies to which we sell the bottles and bags below 50 microns where state bans the Republican Party of India (Athawale), aging like Lay’s, or Hindustan Lever’s government pushed through the Plastic R&D. For instance, the industry is look- make products like T-shirts, bags, jack- have not made a significant difference. Rashtriya Samaj Paksh and Shiv Sangram sachet shampoos or Parle’s biscuit Waste Management Rules making it ing at standardising the polymers used ets under our own brand”. The question is whether Modi will be Party. In 2014, the four big parties had packs) which could be the key for suc- mandatory to phase out MLP in two in making MLP, instead of using differ- Many companies say the biggest able to galvanise India towards more contested separately. ceeding in reusing or reducing SUP. years. But experts say the government ent kinds, to make recycling easier”. challenge is that the government has responsible use of plastics.

INSIGHT > LETTERS

inequality can be minimised without International competitiveness imperative for survival We need solutions compromising on production. To that extent, his essays are just an excellent This calls for anti-protection policies contrary to what we are should target reaching the rank of 50 I refer to the three erudite articles written analysis of inequality but they are not in the coming year. by the famous economist Pranab useful to us for practical purpose. currently pursuing with increase in tariffs in successive Budgets n Diversify professional services Bardhan: “Does inequality matter when Sukumar Mukhopadhyay beyond IT and ITES to accounting, poverty is falling?”, “Equality-efficiency via email engineering, architecture, design, trade-off”, and “A link among inequality, product development, legal and med- conflict and cooperation” (September 4, Stop crying foul ical services. This requires urgent reg- 5 and 6 respectively). ulatory reforms of the services sector For an analysis of the relationship This refers to "Trinamool, CPI urge in India and negotiation of trade bar- between wide inequality in the economy Election Commission not to strip national riers within trade agreements. and economic development and various party status" (September 10). It was inter- n Promote skill development in labor- other factors, his articles are simply scin- esting to learn that the CPI, the TMC and intensive services. The changing land- tillating. His conclusion that the condi- the NCP has urged the Election scape of IT and ITES requires far tions of the poor may be improving but Commission of India to not take away greater emphasis on a diverse range of those of the rich are improving much their national party status solely on the expertise and domain knowledge than more is correct. He has busted the theory basis of their highly subdued performance JAYANTA ROY mere programming that call centres of “tolerating even a large dose of during the recently held Lok Sabha elec- ask for. The government and the pri- inequality if it improves the aggregate tion. They went to the extent of pleading vate sector together would have to con- economic performance”. He has dis- they should be given a fresh opportunity vert India’s large output of natural sci- agreed with the so-called trickle-down to improve their electoral performance. ross domestic product growth ence, arts, and commerce graduates theory. He says that inequality has Significantly, as per the Election has hit a record low of 5 per into employable resources in the diver- encouraged excessive risk taking in the Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) cent with dismal manufactur- with the GVCs, which combine goods, standing foreign policy that just sified professional services sector. financial sector. Finally, inequality can Order, 1968, a political party can be recog- G n ing growth. Economists are advocat- services and technology to promote needs to be complemented with A simplified tariff structure to have serious inefficiency consequences. nised as a national party if its candidates ing increase in investment and inter- exports on account of transaction costs matching next generation trade and encourage easy importation of All these theories are unexceptionable. secure at least six per cent of votes polled est rate cuts. But these are not and poor business climate. The gov- investment reforms. inputs/intermediates, and to reduce Had he written about India specifically, in four or more states in the Lok Sabha or sufficient to revive industrial growth. ernment’s focus should be to overcome We need to focus on the following tariffs on them. he would have also added how the assembly elections, and, in addition, it has In the globalised world to which we these deficiencies. India is well placed policies: n Regulatory environment that is growth of the super-rich distorts admin- at least four members in the Lok Sabha. are intrinsically integrated since 1991, to link to GVCs: n Fully implement the recommenda- attractive to FDI in manufacturing istration when politicians and bureau- In all fairness, the trio should gracious- we cannot succeed in sustained n We have a very dynamic services tions of the 2018 Logistics with emphasis on national single win- crats are simply bought up. ly accept they no longer enjoy the status industrial growth without being inter- sector — professional services — and Development Report of the Prime dows and timely decision making. His writing is comparable with that of of a national party and must start making nationally competitive. This calls for a very remarkable technology capac- Minister’s Economic Advisory Council n Finally, the Department of Industrial Thomas Piketty who published Capital all-out efforts to regain their lost position. anti-protection policies contrary to ity which are essential for task-ori- (PM EAC). Significant reforms have Policy and Promotion should focus in the Twenty-First Century in 2013. S Kumar New Delhi what we are currently pursuing with ented GVCs. been taken in trade facilitation as entirely on investment promotion with Piketty has given a solution, namely, high increase in tariffs in successive n We are yet a small player in GVCs reflected by tremendous improvement a strong value-chain focus. It should progressive tax, a re-distributive mecha- Letters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to: Budgets. India’s non-agricultural with much room to grow. Our MSMEs in the ranking of Trading Across be mandated to chase global majors nism and investment in education. Right The Editor, Business Standard average tariff level is about 14 per cent hardly participate in GVCs unlike Borders from 146 in 2017 to 80 in 2018. and innovators in specific value chains or wrong, these are of course, a prescrip- Nehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg New Delhi 110 002 compared to single-digit levels in suc- those in Southeast Asia, China, We now need to focus on implement- and attract them to India. We need to tion for developed countries only. Fax: (011) 23720201 · E-mail: [email protected] cessful ASEAN countries. It is high Korea, Japan, Mexico and some East ing the recommendations on logistics think value chains. Unfortunately, Bardhan has not indi- All letters must have a postal address and telephone time that we let our industry stand on European countries. reforms contained in the report under We need sustained growth in GDP, cated any solution. He has not said how number its own feet in this turbulent compet- n The same is true for the levels of FDI, the logistics cell in the Ministry of manufacturing, services, exports and itive global environment. This is especially efficiency-seeking FDI, Commerce and Industry which should jobs to cement our place as a major glob- > required for its long-term survival. We linked to creating a hub in India which report to the PM since logistics issues al player. For this we need to be inter- HAMBONE need to give up our protectionist poli- are at a dismally low level till now. are handled by several ministries . nationally competitive and closely link cies immediately. Indian industry Most of our FDI is market-seeking n Improve the business climate to allow our manufacturing and services indus- should be competitive enough to pen- catering to a large domestic market. a level playing field for MSMEs and try and technology to GVCs to promote etrate global markets as well as effi- n India is ideally placed to be a supply help them attract FDI since they are exports and efficient import substitu- ciently substitute some domestic chain hub given its proximity to the short of both investment funds and tion only. Make in India is to make for imports. For this we need to better high growth Southeast Asia and technological know-how. Again, we the whole world, not just for India. link our industry to global value East Asia. just need to build on the vast jump in chains (GVCs). n Most importantly, we have a govern- the Ease of Doing Business ranking The writer is a former economic advisor in So far, India is not well connected ment that has embarked on an out- from 100 in 2017 to 77 in 2018. We the Union commerce ministry OPINION 9 > STAY INFORMED THROUGH THE DAY @ WWW.BUSINESS-STANDARD.COM

Volume XXIV Number 21 ILLUSTRATION: BINAY SINHA MUMBAI | WEDNESDAY, 11 SEPTEMBER 2019 The rise of the extremes Political parties across the world are diverging t has long been argued that the practice of democratic politics renders extremist political parties unviable. There were multiple proposed channels for this widely observed moderating influence associated with seizing Ipower through elections. Perhaps, as the median voter theorem suggests, extremists cannot hope to win without persuading the median voter that they will responsibly implement moderate ideas. Or the nature of representative better system that enjoys broader support and will democracy, in particular, requires compromise in order to push through ele- therefore prove more enduring? ments of an agenda. Or perhaps extreme views within the political spectrum Back in the mid-1980s, Stanford University’s serve merely to push the “Overton window” of acceptable ideologies one way Robert Hall and Alvin Rabushka advocated what or the other, shifting the median voter but not capturing power themselves. was essentially a twist on a value-added tax (VAT) What is clear, however, is that recent years seem to have knocked a hole that segregated wage income and allowed for greater progressivity (even more so in a refinement pro- in the assumption that extremist political forces converge to the centre over posed by Princeton University’s David Bradford in time. Consider, for example, the fraught politics of the United Kingdom, his “X-tax”). A consumption tax (which is not a sales which is dealing with the looming Brexit deadline, the possibility of a general tax, but rather uses similar information to that election, and a de facto split in the governing party. There, both the required by the existing tax system) is simple and Conservatives in power and Labour in opposition have been taken over by a elegant, and could save a couple hundred billion hardline minority — of Eurosceptics and Marxists, respectively — pushing Benefits of a progressive dollars a year in deadweight accounting costs. them further apart from each other. In the United States, the Republicans Importantly, these plans contain a large exclusion have surrendered to Donald Trump and Trumpism, while the Democrats so that lower-income families pay no tax at all. But instead of using an exclusion for low-income have swung to the left following Hillary Clinton’s loss in 2016. In India, mean- households, the system can achieve progressivity while, the Bharatiya Janata Party is no longer the party of . consumption tax by providing a large lump-sum transfer (as in a uni- So, why are political parties diverging to the ideological extremes in versal basic income), as suggested by leading democratic polities, and what can be done about it? One reason lies, perhaps, Portuguese macroeconomist Isabel Correia, who in the radical changes brought about by technological progress. The ability In an environment where wealth inequality is rising inexorably, estimates that her plan would result in both higher to organise extreme interest groups within parties means that their greater the case for a new tax system has become increasingly compelling growth and greater income equality than under the enthusiasm ensures that they have an advantage in inner-party democracy. current tax system. Correia’s analysis focuses on the long run, but with a transition suitably designed to Thus, figures like Donald Trump or Boris Johnson have a head start when it s it time for the United States to consider switch- California, Berkeley — heavy hitters in the inequality protect small family businesses, it should be possible comes to winning primaries or the equivalent. Technology has led to a crisis ing from income tax to a progressive consump- literature — have endorsed Warren’s plan, estimat- to ensure short-run gains as well. of representative democracy: Rather than trusting the far-away representatives Ition tax as a way of addressing growing wealth ing that it would raise nearly $3 trillion over 10 years. Of course, in terms of fairness, much depends in the national capital to come to the best possible compromise with other inequality? Many economists have long favoured A number of prominent ultra-rich are also on board. on how large the transfers and exemptions are, and ideological factions, voters demand instead that they remain ideologically a consumption-based tax system for raising rev- But Harvard’s Lawrence Summers — a former how low the tax rate is set. Until now, it has mostly pure even at the cost of policy deadlock or extremism. In addition, when enue on the grounds of efficiency and simplicity. US Treasury Secretary and a towering figure in been a smattering of Republicans who have favoured politics is reduced to Twitter-friendly slogans and memes, centrist parties However, despite occasional vocal public finance — has argued that switching to progressive consumption taxes (though find it difficult to present their nuanced approach to the public. adherents, it has never gained polit- such estimates are wildly opti- a variant was championed by the liberal icon Bill ical traction. Is it time to think mistic. Summers and his co- Bradley, a former US senator from New Jersey). It is hard to see how democracies can break out of this dynamic. One pos- again? author, University of Ironically, one reason the idea has not received sibility is what can be observed in France, where moribund parties of the cen- One of the main objections is that Pennsylvania law professor broader Republican support is conservatives’ recog- tre-left and centre-right — the Socialists and the Republicans, respectively — switching systems would require a Natasha Sarin, have suggested nition that a consumption tax would be so efficient have largely been replaced in the public imagination by a new centrist force, potentially complex transition to that a better path to the same that the government could too easily raise funds to the En Marche party of President Emmanuel Macron. Mr Macron is not hugely avoid penalising existing wealth end would be to implement a expand social programmes. popular — but is still more popular than the alternatives. His ability to be holders, who would be taxed when broad range of more convention- Many on the left, meanwhile, respond to the decisive also means that he has not abandoned political agenda-setting to they try to spend accumulated sav- al fixes, including an increase in idea in knee-jerk fashion, believing that a con- either extreme. Across the democratic world, centrist forces that are able to ings on which they had already paid the corporate-tax rate and elim- sumption tax must somehow be regressive because income taxes. Yet, in an environment inating ultra-wealthy families’ sales taxes are regressive. They fail to understand coalesce and demonstrate that they are able to take progressive and forward- where wealth inequality is rising KENNETH ROGOFF ability to avoid capital-gains tax- that a progressive sales tax can be implemented looking decisions are those most likely to be able to fight off the rising power inexorably, that drawback may be a es through bequests. entirely differently. of the political extremes. The question is whether this process will ever be virtue. Moreover, a great strength of The debate is ongoing. Of course, any large change in federal taxation able to revive the political centre in the world’s largest democracy. a consumption tax system is that it does not tax sav- However compelling the moral case for a wealth tax has complex effects, including from its interaction ing, and also gives firms more incentive to invest. may be, it has historically proven difficult to garner with state and local tax systems. And the US Certainly, there are other, more straightforward large revenues from it. But Saez and Zucman have Congress probably has an innate bias in favour of a ideas for tackling wealth inequality. US Senator held their ground, arguing that much depends on complex tax system with lots of loopholes and Truth to power Elizabeth Warren has proposed an ultra-millionaire the resources the US Internal Revenue Service is exemptions, giving members leverage over potential tax on the 75,000 wealthiest American households, given to implement the tax. Regardless, both sides donors. But that is all the more reason to jump at The law should not restrict freedom of speech in a democracy which would amount to a 2 per cent annual wealth agree on the objective, and the general direction of the opportunity to clean up the system and help tax for those with more than $50 million, rising to 3 the debate foreshadows what to expect if a progres- mitigate wealth inequality at the same time. ver the past decade, the space for freedom of speech and expression per cent for billionaires. Warren’s bold proposal has sive like Warren wins the US presidency. guaranteed by the Constitution of India has been under increasing set off an intense debate among economists on just I am not unsympathetic to Warren’s plan, nor to The writer, a former chief economist of the IMF, is Professor threat. A growing number of Indian citizens have been hauled before how much revenue it would bring in. Emmanuel the Summers-Sarin approach, but both are complex of Economics and Public Policy at Harvard University. Ocourts and thrown into jail merely for criticising and parodying polit- Saez and Gabriel Zucman of the University of to implement. Why not target the same aims with a ©Project Syndicate, 2019 ical leaders, or revealing corruption and other scandals perpetrated by state authorities. A number of these arrests are made under the sedition laws (with assassination conspiracies occasionally thrown in). How does this development square with Constitutional guarantees under Article 19 (1) (a)? Politicians may drone on about the “anti-national” proclivities of those who bravely speak truth No end to the govt’s tax worries to power. But it took a Supreme Court judge, Justice Deepak Gupta, to point out why they’re dead wrong. Justice Gupta, 64, was elevated to the apex court’s he Indian economy’s growth prospects look gross tax revenue grew by more than 18 per cent If the government has to reach the 18 per cent Bench in 2017. He is one of the more low-key judges, though he did attract head- quite grim. Its gross domestic product (GDP) was in 2010-11. That was nine years ago. In the cur- gross tax revenue growth target in the current year, lines that year for hearing and disposing of 33 cases in a single day. Tgrew by just 5 per cent in April-June 2019 in rent year, the government had initially projected the collections growth in the remaining eight Unlike the Famous Four who held an unprecedented press conference to real terms, a six-year low. This was even lower than a nominal growth rate of 11 per cent for the Indian months of 2019-20 must be 22 per cent. This is a the 5.8 per cent print recorded in the previous quarter. economy. But the GDP’s nominal growth in the huge target in a year of economic slowdown. A bigger highlight anomalies in the then Chief Justice’s allocation of critical cases, Justice A decelerating economy has obviously posed first quarter of 2019-20 was only 8 per cent, a 17- worry is the extent of the tax revenue shortfall the Gupta spoke truth to power in a more modest setting. He was delivering the many challenges for the government. One of these year low. Achieving an 18 per cent gross tax revenue government may be staring at. valedictory address at a workshop organised by a non-government organisation challenges pertains to the government’s tax revenue. growth will call for a significant improvement in If the tax revenue growth remains as tepid as 6.6 in Ahmedabad on the topic “The Law of Sedition in India and Freedom of Even while the government formulates new pack- the tax buoyancy rate, which is unlikely. per cent, the revenue shortfall would be ~2.44 trillion Expression”. His lecture, however, proved a tour de force for its clear explication ages to help the economy recover Take a look at the tax revenue or well over 1 per cent of GDP in the current year. If of the history and legal intricacies of sedition law. No surprise, the speech from such low levels of growth, it collections in the first four months the government manages to end the year with a tax attracted national headlines. needs to worry about its own tax rev- of 2019-20. Gross tax revenue col- revenue growth rate of 10 per cent, which is unlikely enue as well. lections in April-July 2019 have given the current economic activity trends, the short- The burden of Justice Gupta’s speech was that “the right of freedom of How serious is the government’s grown by just 6.6 per cent, almost fall would not be much different at ~2.41 trillion. opinion and the right of freedom of conscience … include the extremely important tax revenue challenge? First, let us a third of the desired rate of 18 per Both the scenarios are quite worrying. right to disagree”. He cited several landmark judgments to make the point that disabuse ourselves of the estimates of cent. Collections of corporation Also, the adverse impact of such a revenue “[a]s long as a person does not break the law or encourage strife, he has a right to very modest growth in revenue col- tax, income-tax and central goods shortfall on the states’ finances should not be differ from every other citizen and those in power and propagate what he believes lections that the July Budget for 2019- and services tax (CGST) have underestimated. The transfer of tax revenues to is his belief”. The law of sedition, on the other hand, originated during the Raj, 20 had presented. Those tax revenue grown between 5.46 and 5.96 per the states has seen lower growth this year. At ~8.09 when the British sought to suppress dissent to their exploitative ways. Its most growth numbers were arrived at by cent. Worse, central excise collec- trillion, the transfer to the states will see an increase invidious provision covered comments expressing disapprobation of the admin- comparing the current year’s project- NEW DELHI DIARY tions, which largely come from of only about 7 per cent, compared to a gross tax ed numbers over the revised estimates petrol and diesel, have seen a con- revenue growth rate of 18 per cent. This is because istrative or other actions of the government “that excite or attempt to excite for 2018-19. As we all know by now, A K BHATTACHARYA traction of 10 per cent. This is a the share of cess and surcharges in the new levies hatred, contempt or disaffection”. This naturally provided generous scope for the gap between the revised estimates puzzle. Consumption of imposed in the current year has increased and judicial interpretation that usually ended in jail sentences. This was the law and provisional accounts for 2018-19 was huge — the petroleum products in this period has not declined, since these are not shareable with the states, the India inherited at independence but successive Supreme Court judgments nar- latter showed that the actual tax revenue was down though it registered only a marginal increase of less net transfer to the states has grown at a lower rate. rowed this interpretation to state that sedition did not apply if no law and order by ~1.67 trillion compared to the revised estimates than 2 per cent. But in spite of that the excise col- But if the overall divisible tax pool itself shrinks, problem was explicitly created. for the same year. lections should not have seen such a steep decline. even a small increase of 7 per cent in transfer to Yet, Justice Gupta highlighted several cases where the law continued to be Thus, achieving the gross tax revenue target of Central excise, even after the launch of the GST, states would become smaller. For states, already grossly misused, including invoking the notorious Section 66A of the Information ~24.61 trillion in 2019-20 will require the government accounts for about 12 per cent of the government’s struggling to meet their revenue targets and deficit to grow its tax revenue by over 18 per cent (when gross tax collections. Any decline of this nature goals, this will be another blow. Technology Act until the Supreme Court invalidated it in 2015. Justice Gupta compared to the provisional accounts of 2018-19), should set alarm bells ringing in the government. Of course, the government would be helped by rounded off his speech with some sage advice for India’s political leaders: almost double the 9 per cent growth the July Budget Interestingly, customs duty collections grew by the transfer of the excess contingency reserve of “Criticism of the policies of the government is not sedition unless there is a call had shown. The relatively low growth was because over 20 per cent, beating the projected rate of 18 the Reserve Bank of India. But that amount, an for public disorder or incitement to violence. The people in power must develop the July Budget had misleadingly used the revised per cent. But the share of customs duty in total estimated ~58,000 crore, would reduce the revenue thick skins.” In a country that demonstrably prides itself on its democratic cre- estimates for 2018-19 to arrive at the revenue growth gross tax collections is as low as about 6 per cent. shortfall, but would not be able to wipe it out com- dentials, and one that remains ever eager to attract foreign capital and expertise, numbers for 2019-20. Therefore, any such increase in customs duty col- pletely. If the government cannot bring about any Justice Gupta’s message could not have been better-timed. A tax revenue growth target of 18 per cent is a lections in the first four months is unlikely to help significant savings in its expenditure, then a sig- tough task even when the economy does well on the government meet its tax revenue target at the nificant slippage in the fiscal deficit target of 3.3 the growth front. The last time the government's end of the year. per cent of GDP looks very likely.

and lays bare the motivations and machi- against reservations and pay the price Mr Teltumbde disagrees with those wark against communism. nations of mainstream political parties and when they have hardly benefited from the Dalit intellectuals who claim a free mar- “The only people who could thwart this Dalit illusions the state when faced with dissent from the mechanism. He points to the killings of ket benefits the community, that markets project are his own followers, by resurrect- most marginalised of its citizens. Surekha Bhotmange and her children in do not recognise caste and have boosted ing him as the emancipator of the down- neering degree, another from Indian He makes a compelling argument Khairlanji in September 2007 to buttress entrepreneurial activities among certain trodden and hence on the side of the resis- Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and against reservations Dalits get in the Lok his argument that Dalits in politics and Dalits. He says it is empirically untrue tance to neoliberalism. But when they a doctorate in cybernetics. Sabha and state legislatures, in education government service tend to cater to the that there has been a spurt in themselves start to promote him as the Why, therefore, would the state arrest a and jobs. He wonders if caste-based reser- interests of upper castes, and that reser- entrepreneurial activities among Dalits, greatest free market ideologue, the coast is professor who has written books on man- vations have become a tool for upper castes vations help them and their families or that whatever is observed could be clear for a right-wing takeover,” he writes. agement and on Dalit struggle and who to defeat B R Ambedkar’s vision of annihi- instead of the community at large. attributed to these policies. Mr Teltumbde sees hope for Dalit poli- BOOK REVIEW could, at worst, be accused of committing lation of caste. The author says Dalits have In Khairlanji, almost the entire state On the recent glorification of tics in the rise of the Bhim Army and emer- the crime of exercising his constitutionally fallen prey to ruling-class propaganda that machinery, from the district police chief, Ambedkar, the author states that for the gence of leaders such as Jignesh Mevani ARCHIS MOHAN guaranteed right to dissent? The answer the system may have operational defects inspector of the local police station, to the ruling classes feigning love for Ambedkar of Gujarat, but cautions against the threat could lie in Mr Teltumbde’s book, The but is essentially perfect since Ambedkar doctor who performed the postmortem is far easier than stopping atrocities. He the Hindutva forces present to “what little ugust 29 marked a year since Republic of Caste: Thinking Equality in the designed it. were staffed by Dalits, most of them belong- says the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh good was accomplished during the last sev- Maharashtra police arrested civil Time of Neoliberal Hindutva. He writes that Ambedkar himself “had ing to the same sub-caste as the victims. is “nothing but the ideological enemy of en decades.” “Given the pace with which Arights activist Anand Teltumbde, Mr Teltumbde has based the book on declared quite plainly in the Rajya Sabha “Not only did they remain inert, some of Ambedkar”, but is trying to saffronise the forces of darkness are scaling the ram- along with some others, for his alleged role several monthly columns he has written in 1953 that he had been used as a hack in them made matters worse. This should him through “a plethora of literature parts, to persist in believing that technical- in the Bhima Koregaon violence of January for the Economic and Political Weekly over the writing of the Constitution”. Two years make Dalits sit up and rethink the logic of fraught with pure lies and half truths ities such as constitutional barriers will 2018, and claimed they were investigating the past decade. The 13 chapters look “at later Ambedkar had described the representation that has been the pivot of about Ambedkar”. “His utter contempt prove any hurdle to them would betray him in a purported Maoist plot to assassi- how inequality in India is deeply entwined Constitution as a “beautiful temple occu- their movement,” Mr Teltumbde writes. for Hinduism was neutralised by project- monumental naiveté,” he says. nate Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is with caste and religion, and how in our pied by demons”. Mr Teltumbde says the He argues that many social services tra- ing him as the greatest benefactor of the currently on bail. times, both caste and religious fundamen- first statement was a “painful disclosure of ditionally provided by the state, such as Hindus,” Mr Teltumbde says. REPUBLIC OF CASTE: Thinking Mr Teltumbde is one of India’s foremost talism have colluded with the market to truth” and the second was “a strategic water supply, education, healthcare, sani- The author believes the resurrection of public intellectuals. He has spent long years speak the language of majoritarianism”. retreat”. tation, transport, are now increasingly in Mr Ambedkar in public imagination has Equality in The Time of Ne- in the corporate world, taught management Mr Teltumbde challenges some of the Mr Teltumbde believes violence against private hands, which hits the majority of much to do with his economic views, since oliberal Hindutva at some of the country’s premier institutes, orthodoxies of the Dalit discourse, tries to Dalits is primarily a phenomenon of post- the poor, necessarily Dalits, hardest. he is the perfect neoliberal answer to the Anand Teltumbde including the Indian Institute of unmask the intent behind the Sangh colonial India. He says Dalits living in rural Privatisation of higher education also hurts icon of post-independence India, the Technology, Kharagpur. He has an engi- Parivar glorifying Dalit icon BR Ambedkar areas endure the upper caste grudge the poorer sections the most. nativist Mahatma Gandhi, and is also a bul- Navayana, 432 pages, ~695