| |
VIEWPOINT: POLITICALLY CORRECT
Arresting Image
Jayalalitha has wrecked much more than a rival's pride
in Tamil Nadu
By P. Chidambaram
In
D.K. Basu's case, the Supreme Court of India laid down elaborate rules
for the arrest of an accused person; no police officer observes them.
In Joginder Singh's case, the court listed four situations in which an
arrest may be warranted; the majority of arrests effected everyday does
not fall under any of these situations. Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer of the
Supreme Court once ruled: "Bail
is the rule, jail is the exception." In actual practice, magistrates
and judges remand accused persons for 14 days, as a matter
of routine. I have often felt that to work a democracy based on
the rule of law everyone requires a minimum education in law,
but none more than magistrates and police officers. The
political consequences of the arrest of M. Karunanidhi,
former chief minister of Tamil Nadu, and two ministers of the Union Government
are rather obvious. Less obvious are the economic consequences.
Murasoli Maran is the minister of industry and
commerce-the Union Government's face to the business and commercial world.
At Seattle, he shared the head table with President Bill Clinton
and George Yeo. Clinton is no longer President, but Yeo is still Singapore's
minister of trade and commerce, and a potential candidate for higher office.
In 1997, Maran visited Britain as the Indian prime minister's special
envoy and carried a personal letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair. Blair
has just won a resounding mandate for another five years.
 In
our obsession with Sun TV and Jaya TV and Star News (may the Lord have
mercy upon Jennifer Arul), we forget that the same visuals and the same
news are carried, with less or more importance, in the media in Singapore
and Britain. As well as in diverse newspapers and magazines in South Africa,
Mauritius, the west Asian countries, the US and Canada.
Let me recall to your mind some of the ugliest
images: police entering (never mind breaking into) the bedroom of Karunanidhi
who is wearing a vest and a lungi. His wife is also in night clothes.
Karunanidhi sitting on the ground outside the prison, as Judge Ashok Kumar
observed, "like a beggar". Maran being bodily dragged out of
a car and carried by six police constables and
laid on a wooden bench in a police station in his underwear and
a torn shirt.
Governments-both Central and state-think that
all they need to do is to draft an investor-friendly policy, hold a press
conference, make a dramatic announcement and money will pour into India
or into the state concerned. They are wrong. It takes a great deal of
effort before the board of directors of a foreign company can persuade
itself to make an investment in India. And once it is in India, the company
will weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each state, before it decides
to opt for, say, Tamil Nadu.
Tamil Nadu is just one among a thousand investment destinations for a
foreign investor. Ditto for an Indian investor. First, he has
to be motivated to make an investment or start a business-when
tax-free government bonds will give him a return of about 10 per cent.
Second, he has, theoretically, 30 states besides the Union territories
to choose from. Why should he choose Tamil Nadu over other states? Besides,
investors look at other non-business factors before they decide on a business
location. Is the state government too corrupt or tolerably corrupt? Is
the chief minister accessible? Is the bureaucracy investment-friendly?
How good are the schools and colleges in the state? How difficult is it
to
get good office and residential premises at reasonable prices? Can one
get quality medical services? I know how Hyundai and Ford were persuaded
to choose Tamil Nadu. I also know how Toyota chose Karnataka. Each of
these victories may be small, but is important.
In one fell blow, J. Jayalalitha has frightened
investors away from Tamil Nadu. Nothing is more horrifying and frightening
to investors than a marauding police force, gross violation of human rights
and an obliging magistracy.
Contrast what I learned when I met Francis Sermet,
a senior official from the state of Vaud in Switzerland. For 20 years,
he and his team of only 10 officers have been attracting investments to
Vaud (capital: Lausanne) by promising company registration within seven
days, work permits within four weeks, advance rulings on tax which will
be binding for 10 years, help in acquiring accommodation and finding schools
for children and so on. Vaud is attracting new businesses at the rate
of one per week. If you had 100,000 Swiss francs (that is the minimum
required investment) and a choice between the state of Vaud and the
state of Tamil Nadu, where would you put your money?
(The author is a former Indian finance minister.)
|
|
METRO TODAY
Web
Exclusives
