Commentary/Yazad Darasha

The Indian businessman is not going to lay
down and die because a government falls

How tired we are of political posturing! How sick and utterly fed up we are of the mindless, unnecessary games our self-centered politicians play! How little we let these childish games affect our daily living!

This was unequivocally brought out by one statement by an Indian businessman after Congress president Sitaram Kesri played what has been described as his trump card, and withdrew support to the United Front government. (Played his trump card! Doesn't that show how much of a game we consider politics?).

It was also brought out by one more fact. More cricket was being discussed the day of the political turmoil - India were on the verge of a phenomenal defeat against the West Indies - than the Congress' posturing! On the political front, it seems we do not need any country to defeat us. We are doing a good job of it ourselves.

There was a lot of wordage and column centimetres of print generated after the Congress announced its decision to withdraw support. Political pundits and businessmen alike told newspapers the tritest things possible.

Statements like 'This was the wrong time to withdraw support'. Or 'This will affect the inflow of foreign investment'. And 'By such doings the credibility of India is at stake'.

What credibility? The only image India has outside India is the one that had prompted Moody's, the rating agency, to reduce India's country rating from stable to unfavourable. India, the last of the great banana republics, posing as a democracy! Thank you, Mr Kesri, for reinforcing that opinion!

And what does the 'wrong time' mean? For Kesri, the Congress and their politicians' games, it was probably the perfect time to withdraw support.

Only Kesri and the political pundits would know. Not being either species of being, I think what everybody meant by the wrong time was that it was the wrong time for the country. And that the politicians do not seem to care about that. Do they? Did they ever?

If we take that as a given -- that politicians as a rule (there are always honourable exceptions, of course) care more for what the country can do for them rather than what they can do for the country -- then all the posturing remains exactly that: posturing, with no meaning for the common man, or even the businessman.

In that context, a pearl that dropped amidst all the dross mouthed by pundits and businessmen in the aftermath of the withdrawal came from Videocon group chairman Venugopal Dhoot. One of the leading financial dailies that asked him for an opinion reportedly found that he was completely unfazed by the turn of events, saying that such happenings are a part of politics. "Everything is fair in war and politics," he is reported to have said. One presumes he especially meant Indian politics.

The response may sound rather cynical and unthought-out. But I have found that in private most businessmen - whether big-time like Dhoot or the small-scale variety - have stopped expecting anything good from our political firmament.

The cynicism runs deep. Although the public face is all concern and analysis, the private response is a tired shaking of the head with an equally tired: "What else did you expect from that bunch of scoundrels?"

Thank you, Mr Kesri. At just the time when certain elements of the Deve Gowda government were making a hesitant start to actually doing their jobs of listening (as opposed to the earlier practice of pretending to listen) to the people and trying to fulfill the people's genuine needs, you have dealt what could be a mortal blow to the already waning credibility of the politician.

And that is perhaps just as well. A coalition government would have to perforce listen to the people and fulfill their desires. It has to play every side to the centre. Which, to my mind, would be the ideal way to govern. But any government approaching an ideal is a threat to the incorrigible politician looking for power for power's sake, and has to be pulled down.

And so, Goodbye Mr Deve Gowda. It was fine while it lasted. But if it had lasted much longer, you might have spoilt us, the electorate, into expecting all politicians to be responsive to people's needs! And we cannot have that, now can we?

So the saga continues. The people -- the poor man, the middle-class wage earner, the businessman, the big-time industrialist -- continue to get a raw deal from a bunch of uncaring scoundrels in Nayi Dilli. So what else is new?

Where the businessman is concerned, well, he will survive. He has survived the scoundrels for 50 years. He has operated in an environment that has protected him but at the same time extracted an uncommonly large pound of flesh in the form of the babu raj, the licence raj, the permit raj.

Indian business has prospered in the face of 50 years of repression. Fifty years of seesawing policies. Fifty years of uncertain political equations and sometimes childish, sometimes ominous political games. The Indian businessman has made his money in spite of all the factors conspiring to prevent him from doing so. He is not going to lay down and die because a government falls!

Thank you, Mr Kesri, for being part of the establishment that made the Indian businessman into such a tough breed! Thank you for making him immune to lies and half-truths and laughable justifications. Like the one you trotted out about how your party was withdrawing support because the United Front had failed to check the growth of communal forces. Whew! That's a heavy one, coming from a Congressman! Especially a Congressman that has, by withdrawing support, probably ensured that the Bharatiya Janata Party would be the one to benefit. Or had you forgotten that the BJP is the single largest party in Parliament?

No, I am sure Kesri has not forgotten that. In fact, I am actually toying with a rather outrageous idea -- that Kesri is actually a closet BJPvaadi, that he is doing all this to strengthen the party that he actually does work for -- the BJP.

Is that too outrageous? Perhaps not. Look at the history of Indian politics. The one fact that jumps out of that cesspool and grabs your attention is that the Indian politician is a chameleonic individual. He will change garb at the drop of a large chunk of money or a position of power. Ideals be damned.

Given that, I do not see anything earthshaking in the Congress withdrawing support. It is just another childish game. Let them play it. It may keep them happily occupied -- like mentally challenged (the first time in this article that I am being politically correct) persons in occupational therapy at an institute of correction!

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