8 ISSUES AND INSIGHTS | 18 JANUARY 2020 1 > The Kiwi role About public service and private profit The BJP’s message is that since the past can’t be checked, it must be reinvented as creatively as imagination allows model When not using his professional suffix “Yogi”, in such murderousness. it’s not enough to be content with the stem- Ajay Singh Bisht or Ajay Mohan Bisht (Google Indian politics being the art of the impos- cells and plastic surgery to which he himself records both unfamiliar names), aka sible, West Bengal’s governor is heir to several famously drew attention, ignoring the mirth Adityanath, might say outrageous things and such conflicting and contradictory traditions. of realists. The BJP’s message is that since fter a white suprema- do worse. But does he really shoot critics He has travelled a long way, possibly longer the past can’t be checked, it must be rein- cist went on a shooting “like dogs” (are even dogs indiscriminately than the road from the Vadnagar tea stall in vented as creatively as imagination allows. Arampage in two shot?) and “drag them away”? When Dilip Gujarat’s Mehsana district to the newly- Rising manfully to the challenge, Mr Christchurch mosques last Ghosh, West Bengal’s BJP chief, says this is renamed 7 Lok Kalyan Marg. Starting out from Dhankhar first trotted out that ancient March that resulted in the standard practice for BJP chief ministers, he Kithana village in Rajasthan, Mr Dhankar finds Hindus piloted their own uran khatola or fly- death of more than 50 people, is probably only fantasising about what he himself in the grandeur of a palace built for ing machines. When listeners murmured this New Zealand Prime Minister would like to do if ever his soaring ambition British viceroys modelled on Kedleston Hall in was old hat like Ganesh’s transplanted head, Jacinda Ardern led from the WHERE MONEY TALKS lands him in Writers' Building. Or, Derbyshire, stately seat of the he broke new ground (as he thought) with front with compassion rather perhaps, he is savouring what should Then as now, Curzon family, where liveried lack- Arjun’s nuclear-tipped arrows. That should than hot-headed rhetoric. She SUNANDA K. DATTA-RAY be done to “a female demon, a political life eys disregard ’s earn Mr Modi’s gratitude. He can now COUNTRY CODE visited mosques of course, but Lankini”, as another BJP legislator, bristles with advice and call governors demand that instead of being harassed with also pushed through a law dis- ince West Bengal’s governor is a scholar Surendra Singh, calls Mamata careerists who “Excellency” and their spouse “lady NPTs and CTBTs, , as the nuclear pio- RAHUL JACOB allowing the ownership of with evidence of Ram’s historical exis- Banerjee. If Assam’s chief minister, may start out to governor” or even “governess”. neer, should be the sole inter-galactic author- military assault weapons Stence, he may also have heard of Oscar Sarbananda Sonowal, whom Mr do good but stay Anyone who scales such dizzy ity for licensing nuclear weapons. within a week of the attack. (The contrast with the US on this Wilde. He may even be aware of the Wildean Ghosh also mentioned, is guilty of on to do well heights must keep eyes and ears Bengal grandees like Maharajadhiraja issue was stark.) Ardern famously refused to refer to the ter- bon mot, “Imitation is the sincerest form of such criminal murderousness, it open for every rustle of change in Bahadur Sir Bijay Chand Mahtab of Burdwan rorist by name, arguing that he desired notoriety. “I implore flattery” whose less-quoted conclusion is “that must be attributed to his difficulty in recon- how the wind blows, trimming sails and turn- and Nawab Sir Khwaja Salimullah Bahadur of you: Speak the names of those who were lost, rather than the mediocrity can pay to greatness”. Not that ciling the Citizenship (Amendment) Act with ing coats accordingly. Mr Modi’s announce- Dacca who sniffed that Marwari stood for name of the man who took them,” she said in a speech that was Jagdeep Dhankhar would dream of demeaning a lifetime of hostility to Bengalis, especially ment in Kolkata’s Old Currency Building the “more-worry” would have been impressed Shakespearean in its use of language as it was statesmanlike. himself as “mediocrity”. But, undoubtedly, he from East Bengal. other day that nation-building means “pre- by Mr Dhankar’s virtuosity. Having prostrat- As majoritarian populism takes an enormous toll on the reveres Narendra Modi as “greatness” epito- Little does Mr Ghosh realise that his reck- serving” India’s heritage and history sent ed themselves before the British Crown to pillars of democracy everywhere, from Donald Trump’s mised, and repeats – perhaps even tries to less utterances confirm that with friends like aspiring listeners scuttling around to demon- be appointed Knight Grand Commander of America to Boris Johnson’s Britain to Narendra Modi’s India, improve upon -- the Prime Minister’s brave him, the BJP needs no enemies in West Bengal. strate their inventive zeal by renaming The Most Eminent Order of the Indian tiny New Zealand (population: 4.7 million) is an unlikely assertions about the mythic achievements of He has also warned the centre (inadvertently of Calcutta Port Trust after the Jana Sangh Empire and Knight Commander of The Most role model. It has problems, of course; housing prices have ancient Hindus. course) that if it at all wishes to earn the coun- founder and proclaiming Mr Modi the new Exalted Order of the Star of India they knew spiralled out of the reach of many. In a country much visit- Bharatiya (BJP) loyalists are try’s respect for responsible governance and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. all about public service and private profit. ed for its idyllic countryside, rural suicides are growing in the most stridently devoted in states that — high- upholding the law, it must invoke Article 356 in His further complaint that shallow post- Then as now, political life bristles with high teens. Yet, from climate change to dealing humanely decibel propaganda notwithstanding — they Uttar Pradesh, Assam and wherever else saf- Independence historians overlook important careerists who may start out to do good but with immigrants, New Zealand lives on the seismic faultlines don’t have a cat in hell’s chance of capturing. fron rule permits men and women to indulge aspects of the past was a clear reminder that stay on to do well. of our zeitgeist. It is fashioning responses that do not evoke the anxiety attack that the once futuristic, even auspicious, year of 2020 has prompted from Washington DC to New Delhi. In our global dystopia, a country whose politics do not LUNCH WITH BS > ABHA ADAMS | EDUCATIONIST ther had a job at that point — the two bought a evoke unbridled pessimism seems a hopeful place. In neigh- 17-year old Ambassador car and drove across bouring Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, a staunch the Himalayas, discovering parts of the country denialist of climate change, bumbled through the crisis of they didn’t know existed. The car died on them bush fires that by last weekend had claimed the lives of one on the way back! billion native animals and more than 20 people. The unconventional With all their savings spent, Adams first One example of the Kiwi focus on the environment is the approached Doordarshan for a job since request to clean the soles of one’s shoes as you walk on paths Abha Adams tells Anjuli Bhargava how she unintentionally broadcasting was what she knew best. But it in reserves in order to save the magnificent kauri tree which was like “entering Dante’s Inferno without the risks extinction from dieback disease. On a mostly deserted ended up becoming a brand fires burning”. The dusty office with spools of beach on Barrier Island that tape resembled "baba adam ka zamana” and One example of the looked an idealised, photo- bha Adams, 66, has an abiding memory one of the nuns at her school, began to come to she quickly retreated. She then decided to go Kiwi focus on the shopped vision of a perfect beach, of her own school days. Standing with the surface, much to the chagrin of her con- back to teach at LSR and found the place total- environment is the my host fretted that some young Aher two think plaits among a long line of ventional-minded father. ly unchanged while she had grown by leaps request to clean the men horsing around were running cherubic girls as Mother Superior’s voice looms The seeds of rebellion had been sown in the and bounds. soles of one’s shoes too close to a cluster of birds that loud: "Girls, I want you to be like limpid water in young girl, who would soon be attracted to most That’s when someone mentioned that the as you walk on paths are endangered; the fright could a crystalline vase”. And she thinks to herself: things forbidden and nun-hood would be jetti- Delhi-based Shriram group was setting up a in reserves to save cause permanent stress. “Wow, what wouldn’t I give to be limpid water in soned. Indeed, Adams has never been one to new, experimental and very out-of-the-box the magnificent The battle to preserve our envi- a crystal vase”, even though she didn’t know conform. Even today she attempts to be politi- school. She joined the group to set up the sen- kauri tree from ronment — notably absent in the what it really meant. cally correct but prod her a bit and she spills the ior school and began what she describes as the extinction public consciousness in India on The strong moralistic values and sense of beans, laughing with gay abandon. “best phase of her life”. The founding team — issues such as conserving water — duty that were ingrained in her through her Real rebellion kicked in during college with she reels off the list and I know many of them is as urgent as the challenge of democracies managing diverse convent school days in Delhi led her to envision her joining Barry John’s Theater Action Group personally — put their “heart and soul” into cultures. New Zealand is grappling with high net inflows of her future as a nun. “I was a disgusting goody — that her father derisively referred to as “nau- what they saw as their “baby”, several of them migrants of 1.5 per cent of the population annually, whereas two shoes through most of my school years”, she tanki” — with the likes of Siddhartha Basu and with no background in academics or educa- most countries track well below 1 per cent. Every other Uber says, a quality she found hard to shed even in lat- Lilette Dubey. Much to her father's horror, she tion but “personalities” nonetheless. Fourteen driver was from India and came to the country on a student er life. So much so that when she first met Bill, also experimented with radio and appeared in years flew by, in a whirlwind of activity, led by visa, many studying at obscure technical institutes where who she would marry later, he asked her “what’s a television show, Around the World. At 21, she Adam’s own spontaneity and infectious diplomas became a track to citizenship. New Zealand’s pop- with this should and ought”, the only two words started teaching English at Lady Shri Ram energy. She gives full credit to Manju Bharat ulation will pass 5 million this year, a jump that has taken 14 she appeared to have in her vocabulary. When College for Women in Delhi after securing her Ram — the founder of The Shri Ram School years rather than the 30 years that increasing from 3 million he advised she should just “follow her heart”, it master’s degree. — who she describes as a true “visionary” in 1976 to 4 million in 2006 did. Inevitably, there is a debate sounded like blasphemy to her. After she lost her father around that time, her in the education space. The Shri Ram starting on the levels of immigration but little of the harsh We are meeting for a hurriedly fixed lunch at mother’s plans to arrange a match or her went School became a brand under the leader- rhetoric that one has heard against "immigrants" from India’s The China Kitchen at Hyatt in New Delhi, with haywire, thanks to the rebellious streak that had ship of Adams and Ram. government over the past several months. While Australia time at a premium for us both. She orders a stir- started raising its head. Young Adams had no After 14 years, it was time again to move on. herds illegal immigrants on a harsh, sweltering island that is fried sole fish and Udon noodles and I opt for intention of getting tied down at that stage but After Adams resigned, she began to get calls expected to act as a deterrent to others, New Zealand has some stir-fried vegetables with fried rice that she agreed to go out for a coffee with a prospective from all and sundry asking her to lend her offered to give them shelter. The articulate cab driver taking agrees to try. match. After she was seated comfortably, she name to their new school ventures. Some me to Sydney airport Sunday said that while Aussies had As we wait for our food, she tells me a bit asked the waiter for an ashtray and lit a cigarette. offered to pay absurd sums of money for just patronisingly regarded New Zealand as “a kid brother”, nowa- about her childhood, a phase that many of Needless to say, the wedding bells failed to ring. her name, suggesting that she needn’t even days it seemed the other way round. New Zealand is also former students and parents can’t even imag- After teaching for six years, Adams felt the come to the school. That’s when she realised richly bicultural in respecting its original Maori inhabitants ine. “Abha was once a school girl! Can’t even need to move on and applied for a second mas- she’d become a “brand” like TSRS! It was a and Maori heritage in ways that, for example, the US and imagine that!” is how one reacted when I men- ter’s degree in theatre arts from the University once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to earn a tonne Australia fall short. I was at the gay wedding of a Kiwi friend tion my meeting with her to a few people who of Leeds, UK. Thereafter, she left on a scholar- of money for doing very little but her con- this month where the wedding dinner abounded with know her. Most of them swear by her... her ship for a year-long course in practical theatre, science didn’t allow her to go ahead. Finally, it moments made more beautiful — the presentation of a feath- charm to be precise. In fact, many say she is enrolling for an MPhil in the subject, one she was Ritu Suri’s offer to set up Step by Step in ered cape to a son getting married by his mother — because “charm personified". never finished. Upon leaving the Indian shores, Noida in 2006 that resonated with her. That’s they were distinctively Maori. Watching the funeral of a Kiwi Adams learnt her p’s and q’s in a highly she felt the need to rediscover the “Indian” in ILLUSTRATION: BINAY SINHA where she spent the next 12 years of her life, friend’s father a few years ago, I was struck by how many Anglicised atmosphere in her Kolkata home her and started working on dance and theatre building almost an equally formidable name in eulogies were in Maori. from one Mrs Robinson who used to turn up in performances with the Indian community in setting up a development agency, Aditi, for another part of the city. Part of the country’s charm is how laidback it remains. her starched black dress with white cuffs and the UK. She began working with artistes and South Asian performing arts. For two years, she At some stage, however, Adams felt her work A mecca of fitness for fitness lovers worldwide is Les Mills, spent hours perfecting Adams' handwriting theatre personalities and doing ballets like worked to bring together dancers, artistes and there was done and she quit in 2018, deciding to founded in Auckland, now a global group fitness phenom- under her watchful gaze. Adams' mother — a Ramayana, operas like Savitri and productions performers of South Asian origin and “learnt like end her affair with the high-end schools of the enon unlike any other with its patented high-intensity class- school principal and a stoic nationalist who like Dularibai. never before” while helping with advocacy, pro- national capital region and spend more time es taught in 16,000 gyms worldwide. Last week, an exercise imbibed many British customs nonetheless — There she also met Bill, her to-be-husband, motion and training. on Ahvaan, a teacher training and mentoring class was a minute from starting when the owner of the took the young girl regularly to the national who she found "radically different from the In early 1992, when he was only 44, her NGO that works in the government schools company, Phillip Mills, gave up his spin bike to a member library in Kolkata and let her loose, a delightful average Indian male" she had encountered. husband developed a serious heart condition space. She’s writing a book on the (mainly) neg- who had just walked into the full class. I tried to imagine this memory for the avid reader. "He had no hang-ups, no ego and made me and was told he didn’t have much longer to ative fallouts of the increasingly digital- and happening in India, but couldn’t. I have not only worked for In the 1970s when she was 10, Adams moved laugh." He could deal with her confidence, live (Bill is 73 today). The upshot of it all was social media-led world on today’s children. a diverse Kiwi macroeconomic research firm, but am such from the rich, cultural ethos of Kolkata to Delhi encouraged her to break every norm and live a decision to return to India, something she Students in elite schools "are self-harming in a sycophant of Les Mills Kiwi instructors in Hong Kong that that seemed like a “large, electrified village”. life to the fullest. fought at that time. large numbers", she tells me. She starts recount- I retain a gym membership in a city I left six months ago. But After lapping up "duty, convention and moral- In 1984, she landed a job with the BBC, With the main course over, we order a choco- ing some related stories when we realise we the lessons from tiny New Zealand about mobilising to pre- ity" in the first few years at school, Adams began learned to broadcast from the best in the busi- late bruele (a poor cousin of crème variety) and need to wrap up as time is running out. vent an environment going up in flames around us and to find herself dabbling in the performing arts, ness, presented a prime time show in current decide to share it. On this somber note, Adams breezes out, combating the feral WhatsApp politics of hatred are in many expressing herself more freely and going on to affairs and became education producer for Later the same year, Adams found herself leaving me to absorb the dull Abha-less envi- ways Gandhian — and global. We should all sign up. become the head girl at Carmel Convent at some Broadcasting House, Leeds. She then joined the back in India, unsure of what she was really ronment. Try meeting her once and you’ll stage. The spirit imbued in her by Sister Candice, Great Britain Arts Council in London which was qualified to do. Instead of looking for a job — nei- understand why she’s the brand that she is. NPR anyone? An ode to marmalade

students to her ability to out-walk her security must have had a rethink. One day just as we I’m not one to complain, but in those cream. Through it all, my wife was only and her party men in her by now famous were going to sit down for dinner he years of socialist austerity when fewer resolute in one thing — she would not protest walks, all point to a level of energy announced that he had checked the list. things were available at the neighbour- make marmalade. which I admire. “Mine is fine,” he said but your name has hood grocer’s, each of us guarded our Over time that expectation faded. I I had been observing of late that in all her been changed. “To what?” I asked in alarm. hoard of imported goodies with selfish now bought back armloads of marmalade meetings to protest the CAA and NRC she has To “Keya Nilmoni”, he said. “It is fine in zeal — whether chocolates, cheeses, or from my travels, soaked in whisky in been advising all those who come for the ral- Bengali. It reads Keya Sarkar. But in English jams and jellies. Given my wife’s sweet Scotland, steeply priced from Fortnum & lies to do her one favour: “Please update your it is Keya Nilmoni. Your father’s name is also tooth, you’d expect her to raid the fridge Mason, artisanal varieties from voter card,” she says repeatedly. “You must do Amiya Kumar Nilmoni,” he said with what I for puddings, but she took a liking for Switzerland, in jars large and small — so me this favour,” and “I will protect you with thought was a hint of glee. marmalade instead, slathering her toast many that they remained untasted past my life,” she promises. I would have laughed too if I wasn’t con- PEOPLE LIKE US from edge to edge with greed rather than their use-by dates. By now I’d renounced PEOPLE LIKE THEM Having heard this many times on televi- cerned about having it corrected. Thankfully good sense. She might not make it at my morning toast in pursuit of a diet, so it sion I urged my husband to check our details we had Somenath’s number. We called him KISHORE SINGH home, but she could certainly eat it. was my wife who ate her way through the KEYA SARKAR on the National Voters’ Service Portal. He and asked how this could have happened. Waging battle over a jar of marmalade stock, generous dollops over her now mar- was reluctant to make an effort. Primarily He, of course, blamed it on “technical error”. hirty-four years, one month and seemed petty beyond belief so I simply ket-bought bread and croissants. ith not much to watch on television because my existing voter card was fine and An error which he said had changed all nine days after we were married, lost my craving for the preserve. So it was a surprise to see her stirring and there being only one movie hall secondly because only recently a surveyor “Sarkars” of the locality to “Nilmoni”. Since Tmy wife finally made a vat of orange Not that my wife was averse to cook- up a treacly mix from a recipe borrowed Win the whole of Santiniketan I find had come home to update our details for I know no other Sarkar in the neighbour- marmalade at home. It was not at my per- ing up a storm in the kitchen when she from a friend’s friend’s mother, coaxing myself watching a lot of news. Of course, the voter card. Since this was a few months hood I had to take his word for it. suasion, dear reader, the illusion that she chose. Two years and a few odd days after me to “just taste it” and waiting for the pr- with the CAA and NRC protests my time in before the NCR/NPR debate there was no He helpfully informed us that we could would pander to my tastes having being our marriage, she decided to make toma- onouncement. “It’s perfect,” I assured her, front of the screen has gone up in the recent reason to view him with suspicion. And as it correct the error online. While I sent in a shattered 12,449 days ago. Having a fond- to sauce in somewhat alarming quanti- “just as it ought to be — sweet enough, but past. In any case, for a long time now I have happens in small places everyone knows request for the change online my husband ness for bitter rinds in the conserve, and ties. Kilos of tomatoes were deseeded, bitter too. I love it.” The enthusiasm wasn’t been a great watcher of news on TV. My everyone else. and I were wondering how any data input finding local brands in the stores sicken- pulped, cooked and poured into empty feigned though it might have been better to friends often joke about my daily need for a So Somenath who we knew (from a near- person could create such a strange mistake. ingly sweet, I might have expressed the bottles purloined from friends — but, alas, moderate it because my wife decided that “Mamata-fix” but I am a pretty serious fol- by village) fed in our data and confirmed that Our logical minds were trying to find a plau- hope that tiny mandarins from the garden she’d forgotten to add sodium benzoate, sharing was her way of caring. “I might lower of her daily public appearances. our details were correct. He stayed on for tea sible explanation. And then it struck us. be turned into confiture. My wife wasn’t resulting in the spoilage of 39 bottles of give some to my kitchen garden ladies,” Not that I agree with all that she or her par- and apprised us of how many people had Actually before we had been introduced to one for such ministrations. “If you want homemade ketchup. Over the years, that she announced. More portions were pack- ty prescribes but I am totally in awe of her per- died in our area since the last elections and Somenath who used to teach in a school for homemade marmalade,” she told me in no list grew – 18 miscellaneous sized jars of aged into handy containers and sent off to sonal stamina. From district level meetings how the number of voters had shrunk. tribal children run by some friends of ours we uncertain terms, “you can ask your moth- chilli pickle, a few dozen pitchers of gua- acquaintances. This morning, when we sat where she pulls up officials to her presence in So reposing immense faith in Somenath, used to know his father. He was called er to make it — or your sister,” and just to va jam, 21 (or was it 22?) pots of mango down to our 12,450th breakfast together, the control room in times of natural disasters, my husband thought the need to check the Nilmoni! make sure no family members were left chutney, failed attempts at baking our she suggested toast with orange mar- the way she charms protesting university voters list quite superfluous. However he NPR anyone? out, added, “or sister-in-law.” own bread and making our own ice- malade — store bought, naturally. OPINION 9 >

Volume VII Number 25

MUMBAI | 18 JANUARY 2020 have investments in India or employees and other interests. Who wants “panga” with a strong govern- WEEKEND RUMINATIONS Return of the Bharatiya ment? Even the mighty Vodafone CEO has to retreat after saying in agony that he will have to leave India, T N NINAN although he still might do that, after writing off a couple of tens of billions because of regulatory and taxation shocks and unpredictability. Not the obvious solutions ‘Baniya’ Party Want more evidence? See how Jeff Bezos’s pre- vious visit to India went in 2014, when he was feted ne of the lessons which the Modi government has yet to learn is that the solu- BJP under Modi-Shah is returning to its trader mindset with a by Mr Modi and others, and his peremptory dis- missal now. The explanation also sounds like tions to economic problems can be counter-intuitive. In other words, not the first vengeance, underlining that strong, full majority governments Dandavate of 1990: I am not against FDI but... thing that strikes your mind. As we saw with demonetisation, the solution to can also be more risk-averse Oblack money is not necessarily to attack cash holdings, since most of the old notes ou still want to know where this sentiment or came back to the Reserve Bank. Similarly, the solution to a tax shortfall is not necessari- Ypush comes from? Play back the part of RSS chief ly to raise tax rates—a suggestion aired briefly in the context of the goods and services tax— ommerce and Industry Minister seen as something to celebrate. But no foreign Mohan Bhagwat’s Dussehra speech last year, when any more than the solution to a trade deficit is to put up the shutters to imports. As the has been quick to clarify his remark on investor was impressed. he lays out his economic doctrine. We can describe 1991 experience showed, the solution to a large trade deficit may be to open up the econ- C Amazon founder Jeff Bezos not doing India a it in one word out of these: Protectionist, xenopho- omy, not putting up protective walls; and encouraging exports could be done more effec- favour by investing here. He now says all invest- he reform of 1991 changed things. But attitudes bic, swadeshi. Or, it could also be stated as, “We are ment is welcome as long as it complies with India’s Tdeep down didn’t. India had already had four not against FDI, but only in sectors where we need tively by scrapping export subsidies and adjusting the external value of the rupee instead. regulations. You can’t argue with that. decades of “socialist, protectionist, swadeshi, it, as long as it doesn’t hurt Indian business, and con- These and similar lessons don’t seem to have been learnt, if recent experience is any- Although, if read with the fact that the monopoly import-substitution; exports are good/imports bad” trol remains with Indians”. thing to go by. Thus, the response to pharmaceutical price increases has been to impose watchdog Competition Commission of India had toxification across the political spectrum. The only The most fascinating aspect of Mr Modi in his price ceilings, just as the response last September to a domestic shortage of onions was hauled up Amazon earlier this week for “unfair” force of the economic Right, the once-powerful sixth year with a big majority is how compliant his to impose an export ban. As critics of Donald Trump’s trade policies have pointed out, trade practices, a move hailed breathlessly by Swatantra Party, had been destroyed and entombed government has been with Nagpur. It has delivered imposing additional import duties on goods from China has raised the cost of supplies Swadeshi Jagaran Manch and trader/retailers’ asso- under ’s populism. Even the Jana on all of its big concerns: Cow, Article 370, the domestically (JP Morgan calculates the impact on a family budget to be $1,000 in a ciations, you wouldn’t make such a benign inter- Sangh by this time was singing the same socialist Citizenship Amendment Act, triple talaq, anti- pretation. It won’t be some diabolical conspiracy song, only fortified by its own economic national- Pakistanism, and so on. Yet, it has reversed two year). Someone should do a similar exercise in India to work out the cumulative costs of either. It’s only pure politics. It will underline the ism. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the only truly reformist decades of reform on trade, FDI in retail, and tech- the additional duties imposed on steel imports, the cost of tariff hikes and export subsi- BJP’s inevitable return to its basic instinct: BJP leader in a modern free-market sense, ran with nology to harmonise itself with the RSS, not defy it dies on offer in the effort to make India a manufacturing hub for things like mobile Mercantilism. the baton of reform. He had too like Vajpayee did. phones, the potential impact of additional duties on imports in the “others” category, This needs explanation. For little time. In 2014, and again in 2019, India elected a the likely cost to the consumer of banning palm oil imports from Malaysia and petrole- decades, until the Congress-Left, Old ideologies, and we say this “strong” government and prime minister because it um from Turkey, and so on. post-, began describing in a purely non-partisan sense (as was fed up with a “weak” one for a decade under Dr Then we have the snarky response to Jeff Bezos and Amazon. Given how much of the BJP as a Hindu party, Indira in Left or Right, Congress or BJP), Singh. It has been stronger and more decisive in Gandhi had avoided doing precisely are extremely obstinate. Like the many areas, from retaliation for terror attacks to world trade is intra-firm, and how important it is to become a part of global supply that. In an earlier National Interest, I proverbial dog’s tail, you can’t Article 370 to anti-corruption activism. But not on chains, Mr Bezos’s promise of additional exports of $10 billion should have encouraged had quoted from a conversation with straighten or bend these even in a the economy. Besides goods and services tax, how- the government to welcome the announcement, or at least to hold its peace. Instead, the Seshadri Chari, former editor of RSS dozen years. Some individual lead- ever flawed, and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy response was far from friendly—influenced, no doubt, by the fact that Mr Bezos owns a mouthpiece Organiser, that she only ers can make a difference: P V Code, it is difficult to find one big, bold reform newspaper that is critical of the Modi government, and by lobby pressure from small described the BJP as a baniya (trad- Narasimha Rao and Manmohan although I recently listed 10 bits of good news even traders who fear unfair competition from a company with deep pockets. But the er caste) party. The BJP has shown NATIONAL INTEREST Singh for the Congress, Vajpayee in gloomy times for the economy. Competition Commission was created to deal with such problems, even if it does not signs lately of proving Indira Gandhi for the BJP. Under others, the “tail” Think about it. A government as weak as Dr right and returning to its trader goes back to the way it always was. Singh’s had the courage to deliver the India-US always move when it should (such as in the Jio case). The larger point is that small store SHEKHAR GUPTA mindset. Over the past five and a half nuclear deal, thereby fundamentally shifting India’s owners do not have the ability to create large supply chains that feed into international This is where the philosophical years, we have seen the protec- geostrategic posture. Mr Modi’s strong government, markets, nor to create a manufacturing base that generates quality jobs. Once again, the impulse of swadeshi also comes from. If someone tionist, anti-MNC, technophobic old notions return meanwhile, is struggling even to seal a tiny, partial tactical response has been the wrong one. has to profit from trade and entrepreneurship, it with a vengeance. This government now gives a 20 trade deal with the US, even as it celebrates this A particularly striking example is offered by Jharkhand, which gives employers a had better be one of our own. And even if we let an per cent advantage to capital goods made in India “strategic partnership” co-founded by Dr Singh and subsidy of ~5,000 per month for every employee taken on board in the garment indus- outsider come and do so, he’d better be grateful to us over imports, signalling a return to the old regime. George Bush/Barack Obama. Vajpayee’s weak gov- try. Surely, this is a measure of the lack of competitiveness of the country’s garment rather than the other way around. Several strong All it meant was that now a foreign company ernment ushered in the cotton revolution by per- emotions get meshed in this: Nationalism, protec- could ship its kits to India and assemble, for exam- mitting genetically modified seeds. Mr Modi’s strong industry—bear in mind that labour cost cannot be the most important reason for lack tionism, mercantilism, and arrogance. Who the hell ple, metro coaches in a “joint venture” with an government is pussyfooting about on agricultural of competitiveness because China is by far the world’s leading garment exporter despite are you to walk all over my market, out-compete Indian minority partner or, even directly, and sell the biotechnology, more respectful of Swadeshi having much higher labour costs. Although the subsidy seems to be generating a posi- my native businessmen, and then expect me to say same coach at a price much higher than an import. Luddites than a Vajpayee would bother to be. tive response from industry, there has to be doubt about whether this really is a “good thank-you? In Budget after Budget, we’ve seen tariffs go up, sec- This takes us to our old argument: Are strong, news” story. Foreign direct investment (FDI) had first started toral protections extended — steel is only the most full-majority governments necessarily good, or do Any industry will invest if it is given a large enough incentive, but there may be bet- becoming fashionable in 1990-91, just as the Cold visible example — and all kinds of government agen- they have a problem? More to lose, no excuses to put ter ways of using the taxpayer’s money if the underlying reasons for lack of competi- War ended. It was also a time when a deep econom- cies, from regulators to quasi-policing organisations, off ideological demands and compulsions, and a tiveness were to be addressed—like a bloated currency that prices India out of world ic crisis was building up in India. Madhu Dandavate go after foreign investors, especially in retail. After constant need to save face? Are weak governments was finance minister in V P Singh government. the last Budget and the BJP discourse around it, actually more decisive and less risk-averse because markets. It might be argued that sometimes the best can be the enemy of the good, espe- Addressing one of those industry chamber gath- that happily forgotten old, Indira-esque expression they have greater flexibility and humility? It is a cially if the former is hard to deliver. But too many such lazy compromises are what cre- erings, he famously — or infamously — said some- “import substitution” staged a comeback. particularly contrarian and provocative point, ate a high-cost economy of the kind that we have lived with for long, and from which we thing like, “I am not against FDI. But I won’t go look- That is the reason global business has seen its which, indeed, is what it was intended to be. had been moving away until recently. ing for it.” Since he was a dyed-in-the-red old romance with Narendra Modi’s India fade. No one socialist, even this reluctant acceptance of FDI was would say so in public, especially those that already With special arrangement with ThePrint Moral considerations and profit maximisation Le Carré’s moral compass EYE CULTURE Man (2008). In all, Le Carré has written American multinational corpo- still being sold to the South another camera company, Toubro built the notorious 12 novels since the end of the Cold War, ration (MNC) possessed cutting African government through Eastman Kodak, which gen- bridge on the River Kwai using SUHIT K. SEN though he returns to that era in 24th edge photographic technology various local distribution chan- uinely exited. Kodak quit South prisoners of war. Siemens used n 2011, one of the most formidable novel, A Legacy of Spies (2017). that made it a world leader. Its nels. Africa cold, refusing to allow its slave labour sourced from living novelists in the English lan- Many concerns and engagements technology was integral to the Ambiguous or wholly evil? products to be sold there. Other German concentration camps I guage was nominated for the Man interweave in Le Carré’s work. Two of South African Passbook system. Many corporates have done MNCs tried the effect of official- during the war. Booker International Prize, awarded the important concerns are exploring The Passbook was an internal much worse. Polaroid was, as it ly pulling out while allowing the There are countless other every two years for lifetime contribu- moral ambiguities using espionage passport that every non-white happens, the first distribution of examples of corporates sup- tion to fiction. John le Carré, whose almost as a metaphor. These moral had to carry. It carried all sorts major multina- There are countless their products. porting horrible regimes. real name is David Cornwell, issued a ambiguities play out in arenas ranging of details about the individual, tional to exit examples of corporates McKinsey pulled United Fruit, Shell, Rio Tinto statement saying, “I am enormously from patriotism, an individual’s rela- which had to be endorsed by South Africa. supporting horrible out of South are some of the better known flattered to be named as a finalist of the tionship with the imagined communi- VIEWPOINT the police and his or her Most stayed right regimes. United Fruit, Africa when an up cases. In recent times, there’s 2011 Man Booker International prize. ty we call a “people”, or ‘nation’, to an DEVANGSHU DATTA employer. Anybody caught in there for sound Shell, Rio Tinto are some and coming Rajat Cambridge Analytica and, However, I do not compete for literary individual’s relationship with other without a Passbook risked a jail economic rea- of the better known Gupta stated he arguably, Facebook. Then there prizes and have therefore asked for my individuals. This concern is embedded sentence and was subjected to sons. White cases. In recent times, felt uncomfort- are all the companies working name to be withdrawn.” in a search, I believe, for a bedrock of n March 1971, about a 100 brutal interrogation at the min- South Africa was there’s Cambridge able with that in face recognition, AI-driven But Le Carré’s finally got his award. humanism in which to anchor human employees of Polaroid imum. Anybody in a whites first world in Analytica and, arguably, nation’s colour autonomous weaponry and He’s been given the Olof Palme Prize, existence. I demonstrated in front of only area, carrying a Passbook terms of per capi- Facebook. Then there are bar. other technologies that enable instituted in 1987, which is given for The character Le Carré has chosen their corporate headquarters. which did not authorise him or ta income, and it all the companies Corporates evil regimes. outstanding achievements “in any of to be the vessel of both these themes is They ceremonially burnt sever- her to be that place was also had a vast pool of working in face tend to stay with Corporates are supposed to the areas of anti-racism, human rights, George Smiley, the master spy who is al cameras. This group called liable to a jail sentence. skilled, cheap, recognition, AI-driven undemocratic maximise profits. But how far international understanding, peace unlike any spy in popular imagining itself the Polaroid Polaroid sacked the two coloured labour. autonomous weaponry regimes and to will they go in that endeavour? and common security”. Le Carré is the or fiction — a seemingly lost, utterly Revolutionary Workers employees. It also sent a mixed The profit mar- and other technologies enable them if It’s a question Indian corpo- 33rd recipient of the award, but only nondescript and donnish man. But Movement (PRWM). It was led race team to investigate the gins were approx- that enable evil regimes there’s profit to be rates need to ask themselves. the fourth writer to get it. The three Smiley, the protagonist of the classic by two black American employ- South Africa situation. It issued imately twice made. Polaroid Starting with Aadhaar, there’s writers to get the award before him Smiley trilogy — Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, ees. The PRWM had a three a statement saying it abhorred that of other First World coun- enabled the South African a raftload of government were playwright and political dissi- Spy; The Honourable Schoolboy; and point agenda: It wanted apartheid. It made a partial pull tries as a result of these factors. colour bar with its technology. schemes, which will generate dent Václav Havel (1989), who went Smiley’s People — has a moral compass Polaroid to exit South Africa out, stating that it would stop By the mid-1980s, moral In an earlier era, IBM helped profits, if moral considerations on to become president of that rarely betrays him even as he goes completely; it wanted the com- servicing government con- pressure had built up on corpo- Hitler set up the enumeration are ignored. Construction com- Czechoslovakia, Danish novelist about his business without compunc- pany to issue a statement that tracts, but it would continue to rates operating there. Although system in concentration camps. panies will make money build- Carsten Jensen (2009) and the Italian tion. condemned apartheid; it want- operate in South Africa. It com- Margaret Thatcher chortled that Once America ended up at war ing detention centres. journalist and author of Gomorrah, The perfect metaphor for the moral ed Polaroid’s profits from its mitted to equalising salaries really “teeny sanctions” were with the Axis Powers, Big Blue Information technology com- Roberto Saviano (2011). ambiguities that Le Carré explores is South African operations to be and supporting various organi- being imposed (her son Mark doubled up by using its punch panies will make money on the That Le Carré is one of the greatest caught in Smiley’s relationship with donated to support African lib- sations working for people of had business interests), corpo- card technology to set up the enumeration of the CAA, NRC living British novelists ought not to be his wife, Lady Anne, who is serially eration movements. colour. Much later, it was learnt rates had started feeling the internment camps for Japanese and NPR. Being evil pays. Does in doubt. Over a writing career span- adulterous, leaving him often and At that point of time, the that Polaroid equipment was heat. Oddly enough, it was American citizens. Larsen & it pay enough? ning almost four decades, he has writ- returning equally often, though fleet- ten 25 novels, beginning with A Call ingly. But Lady Anne’s adulterous for the Dead (1961) and running up to betrayals never shake Smiley’s belief gets an insight into what sort Agent Running in the Field (2019). In in her, not even when she has a rela- of research the RBI is encour- between, he’s written short stories and tionship with his colleague Bill An agenda for Dr Patra aging. non-fiction collections, the latest of Haydon, who, as part of a coterie with- This publication is also which is The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories in the “Circus”, the British Secret But after 2013, it suddenly a proper account of the state throes and no one in govern- something that Dr Patra needs from My Life (2016). Almost all of Le Service, works towards and succeeds in stopped publication. The last edi- of finance in the next RCF was ment even noticed. to take in hand and raise it to Carré’s novels are in the espionage fic- supplanting Smiley as number two in tion was in 2013. No explanation fully warranted. international standards. The tion genre, save his second novel, A the service. was given by , In fact, Dr Rajan also need- Reviving RBI research objective must be to make non- Murder of Quality (1962), which was a It is during Haydon’s time in who was then RBI governor, and ed to explain his decision to But now that Michael Patra is RBI researchers also vie to crime novel, and his sixth, The Naïve charge that the service discovers it Urjit Patel, who was deputy gov- adopt the Basel III norms. He deputy governor who has to publish in it. and Sentimental Lover (1971), which has been infiltrated by a “mole”— a ernor, for their decision. must have had good reasons supervise the research depart- There’s so much ferment defies classification. double agent. Smiley, out of favour Actually, even D Subbarao, but what were they? Was there ment, the RBI should revive out there which we are not cap- If you’re looking to pigeonhole, Le by then, nevertheless relentlessly who was governor from 2008 a proper debate? The RCF the report. After all, Dr Patra turing on an institutional Carré was primarily an espionage nov- pursues the mole, who turns out to be to 2013, needed to explain why would have been the best place would have surely worked on it basis. Much of this has now elist. He made his reputation with his Haydon himself. Just as Smiley refus- LINE AND LENGTH the five years after 2008 were to do it. We would all have at some point in his long career been relegated to the scatter- third novel, The Spy Who Came in From es to judge his wife, he refuses to combined in a single report understood, as would have the at the RBI and is in a better shot mercies of the twitterati. the Cold (1963). Le Carré’s early novels judge the flamboyant Haydon, at one T C A SRINIVASA-RAGHAVAN when, in fact, two were need- writers of RBI history who will position to appreciate its value In particular, I would urge were set against the backdrop of the time a close friend, though he spares ed. Those were the crucial toil without access to the files. than were the outsiders. him to associate economists Cold War — from Call for the Dead to no effort to run him down to earth. Le or several decades, the stimulus years after the My complaint is that if Dr Moreover, the seven-year from the Indian Economic The Secret Pilgrim (1990), his 13th nov- Carré’s superimposition of these two Reserve Bank of India Lehman collapse. Towards the Rajan and Dr Patel thought the break provides a great oppor- Service (IES) in the effort. They el. If anyone had even remotely feared betrayals and Smiley’s reaction to F (RBI) used to publish the end of his term Dr Subbarao RCF was redundant to require- tunity to focus on new devel- may not have PhDs from for- that with the collapse of the Soviet bloc them seem to betoken the author’s comprehensive “Report on kept complaining about irre- ments, they could have opments in monetary theory eign universities but they and the end of the Cold War, Le Carré’ own refusal to be drawn too easily Currency and Finance” (RCF). sponsible fiscal policy. explained why they thought and global practices. The understand the Indian econo- would run out of themes and issues to into judgments. It was an excellent report, both These gripes did come out so. If they thought it was poor- Indian bits can be woven in. my’s dynamics better. engage him, they could not have been In his Cold War novels, especially, as current reading on the eventually in the last RCF of ly written, they could have This is not the only thing Over the years, the IES has more in error. Le Carré began his post- Le Carré gestures at moral equiva- Indian economy and as 2013 in a well-argued and improved it. Instead they on Dr Patra’s plate. The RBI become a sort of a subordinate Cold War career with a stunning debut, lences between the East and West in archival material. properly supervised set of behaved exactly like the vice- also brings out a publication service which gets virtually no The Night Manager (1993), the story of terms of betrayals and belonging that In its first avatar it used to essays on fiscal-monetary chancellor of Jawaharlal called “Occasional Papers”. encouragement, not least an undercover intelligence agent infil- make it difficult for us to hold on to have two parts like the interface. Nehru University (JNU) This contains research by its because their head, the chief trating the inner circle of an arms deal- conventional positions predicated on Economic Survey — one for Next, Dr Rajan and Dr Patel behaves — arbitrarily. In the staff. The last issue came out in economic adviser, has no time er to eventually destroy him. ideas of patriotisms and us-and-them analysis, the other for data. needed to explain why they absence of an explanation, July. It comes out once in six for it. was the Since then Le Carré has taken on identities. It is here, perhaps, that he Then around 2001 came the quietly junked the RCF. After that’s how it appears. months. sole exception to this tendency. the pharmaceutical industry in The has contributed immeasurably to annual RBI Handbook of all, having started the whole As an aside, let me ask what One problem with it is that I am sure Dr Patra will get Constant Gardener (2001); the devas- “international understanding, peace Statistics. So Volume 2 of the full disclosure of non-per- the reaction would have been it has become something of a the fullest cooperation from tation of the Congo by big finance in and common security”. RCF was discontinued. After forming assets and the prompt if this had happened after vanity publication and the the finance minister, who The Mission Song (2006); the war that it became a theme-based corrective action thing, which Narendra Modi had taken over. quality is highly variable. needs workhorses, not prima against and destruction of Chechnya in Every week, Eye Culture features writers publication which came out in no mean measure has led to But in 2013 no one said a thing. Nevertheless, it serves a use- donnas constantly looking to Our Game (1995); and the horrors of with an entertaining critical take on art, once in two years. the present banking doldrums, The UPA was in its death ful purpose inasmuch as one improve their CVs. the “War on Terror” in A Most Wanted music, dance, film and sport