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EDITORIAL
Dearth Of A Salesman
The Government has to market both PSUs and the idea
of reform
It would
be easy to see Dattopant Thengadi's criticism of the finance minister
as yet further evidence of intra-Sangh Parivar tensions. As president
of the RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), Thengadi is, after
all, very much a member of the saffron old guard. Viewed in another light,
the issue is less family quarrel and more economic illiteracy. Thengadi's
speech was applauded by thousands of BMS members, indicating there is
a market for his ideas. That the BMS has often collaborated with leftist
trade union groups to protest against reform should not be lost sight
of either. All of this does not justify Thengadi's demand that India walk
out of the "fraudulent" World Trade Organisation (WTO) and set
up a "parallel club" of "developing countries". Nevertheless,
it does signal how poorly the BJP-led government-like its predecessors-has
sold the idea of liberalisation to the people.
 Take
the privatisation of BALCO. Thengadi, and numerous others, smell mischief
not because there is evidence of wrongdoing but because the Disinvestment
Ministry was so pigheaded. When a flood of information and spectacular
transparency were required, India was asked to believe a minister simply
because he had a reputation for honesty. The lifting of quantitative restrictions
(QRs) as part of WTO obligations is another example. It should have been
preceded by a propaganda offensive on how freer trade would benefit India,
in the short run as well as the long run. What use is the prime minister's
rhetorical flourish if it can't convey his economic policy in the popular
idiom? Nor has the government done anything to efface the perception that
its agenda is written by a variety of corporate lobbies. In short, the
big shot gets the PSUs, the little man the VRS scheme. No wonder Thengadi
has so many listeners. He talks to the people, the liberalisers to each
other.
To The Banner Born
New Flag Code: people first,
government much later
Poison kills poison,
goes the old line. It took the Inter-Ministerial Flag Committee (IMFC),
no less, to rid the Indian tricolour of bureaucracy. In a report submitted
to the home minister, the IMFC has recommended liberalising the Flag Code,
the set of regulations that decides how, when and by whom the best-known
national emblem can be displayed. So far, flying the flag was a privilege
limited to specific government offices-the ones designated "public
buildings". While the most insignificant minister was at liberty
to embellish his car's bonnet with the flag, the ordinary citizen had
no such luck. He couldn't unfurl the flag at his residence or office other
than on "national days". It took a particularly patriotic and
pertinacious industrialist from Madhya Pradesh to drag the government
to court. The IMFC's recommendation is a tribute to this individual's
resolve.
 The
Flag Code controversy may have ended satisfactorily but the larger issue
of how India views its nationhood is far from over. In the US, citizens
can wear the flag on their sleeves, literally, and even burn it. The permissiveness
need not be borrowed but the underlying idea should be. The Stars and
Stripes belongs to the American people; in India, the state has arrogated
to itself ownership of the flag. In other democracies sovereignty is a
popular concept; in India it is a public-sector unit. to guard such symbols
in the immediate aftermath of Independence was forgivable. Today it is
plain silly. The reference points of India's national functions are either
control-centric or military-oriented. The government tells you how to
celebrate and generally allows itself a dash of pageantry on your behalf.
The Flag Code is only the beginning. The next task is to make the Republic
Day ritual less remote-and more public.
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