Fifth Column: Delusions of Grandeur

India Today
November 2, 1998

FIFTH COLUMN
Delusions

The BJP is confusing Delhi's durbar with India's reality.

Tavleen Singh

This has to have been the gloomiest Diwali in years. Of course, those who constitute the Delhi durbar barely appear to have noticed. Amid the regular festivities in the capital the prime minister also celebrated the birthday of his granddaughter, hitherto an unknown quantity in Indian politics but now a creature of such importance that cabinet ministers and captains of industry kowtowed to her on her birthday. When the little princess was duly felicitated, durbar style, our rulers would have repaired to their colonial bungalows to enjoy their first Diwali in power.

It is truly a thrilling experience to be a Union minister when Diwali comes round. With it come gifts in such enormous quantities that more important ministers can spend weeks giving away dry fruit, sweets, silver salvers, bottles of liquor and God only knows what else. The more circumspect will usually not accept more expensive gifts like Mont Blanc pens (minimum price: Rs 10,000) and Cartier watches (minimum price: Rs 1 lakh). But these days, when power comes and goes so quickly, there will be few who will say "no" at Diwali time.

Besides, have they not waited their turn for years? Have they not watched Congress ministers build up whole museums of watches and pens? Have they not heard stories of how even humble secretaries of powerful Congress politicians have built themselves collections of Mont Blancs and Rolexes. So now that the Ashoka Chakra has come a full circle, why shouldn't they enjoy the pleasures of Diwali in the Delhi durbar?

Beyond the boundaries of Lutyens' Delhi though Diwali amounted to a harsh reminder of the bad year that has been and the worse one to follow. In Mumbai, where I spent it, there was so much gloom in the air that it hung heavier over the city than the smoke from firecrackers. This time round there were not a lot of those either.

"There simply isn't any money around," said one dejected shopkeeper, "usually on Diwali this shop would be so full that you would have to wait at least half an hour for service. But look around you. Do you see any queues?" None. Not in any of the shops.

If this were not bad enough, one newspaper reported soon after Diwali that times were now so tough in the underworld that "cash-strapped gangsters" were widening their extortion activities to include the middle classes: doctors, lawyers, engineers and even corporate executives. So far they have made their illicit earnings out of only the rich and famous -- movie stars and big businessmen. If it's bad times for criminals it's not hard to imagine how much worse it must be for those who try to earn an honest living.

Yet the prime minister and finance minister tell us the economy is showing signs of recovery. Where? How? When? Unless that is only the way it looks if you spend your time luxuriating in the splendours of la dolce vita, Delhi durbar style. If so, it is probably quite easy to forget that it is not just the half of India which lives on less than a dollar a day which is finding life hard but even the half which supposedly enjoys middle-class comforts.

When the prime minister is troubled by occasional doubt, he appoints an economic advisory council. He has two in operation: one of bureaucrats and economists, the other of industrialists. Unfortunately, nearly all those he has chosen are inextricably linked to former Congress regimes. So they can hardly be relied on to come up with new ideas. We need these if the country is not going to end up being in even more dire straits next Diwali.

At the top of Atal Bihari Vajpayee's agenda should be administrative reforms. His ministries should be asked to submit reports on how they can cut down administrative costs and speed up the process of governance. If such an exercise were undertaken the prime minister would discover that despite the so-called joys of liberalisation it takes almost as long to get something done now as it did before.

He may also discover, as P. Chidambaram did, that the last 10 items in any ministry's lists of demands could simply be chopped off without anyone noticing they were gone. There is room for only one small example so may I mention that vast funds prop up the Indira Gandhi National Open University. It is supposed to provide daily lessons to rural students. But a small investigation will reveal that we are spending lakhs of rupees a day telecasting to a handful of urban students, if any at all. We can't afford such waste. But when are we going to realise it?

The Government also needs to speed up economic reform. What are we doing about our hopelessly outdated banking facilities? What of opening up insurance? Why should this sector not be opened up to Indian investors while we debate the percentage of foreign equity to be allowed? What about the new Companies Act, in the works for nearly 10 years? Ditto FERA. Why is Ram Jethmalani not being allowed to scrap the Urban Land Ceiling Act? Why is his ministry not computerising land records so that we can stop following 19th century methods to buy and sell land?

The list of things the Government could be doing is long. Which is why it is even more depressing that our ministers manage to find time to kowtow to the prime minister's granddaughter. What we do not need is another Delhi durbar of the kind the Congress gave us for 40 years. What we do need is a modern government.

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