Political Diary
New Delhi, 15 March 2016
Crony Capitalists
& Buddy Babas
POLITICAL GODS OF
DEMOCRACY
By Poonam I Kaushish
This is a sordid but juicy saga of hedonistic crony
capitalism and buddy babas which
played out on India’s
political theatre last week. With the winner taking it all!
The tragedy of India is that
today it has become a ‘democracy of concessions’ or ‘concessions of State
power.’ Bluntly, corrupt
and venal politicians help cronies
through the “politics of direct sale”, wherein tax payers money is squandered
on friends by surreptitiously telling public sector banks to ‘loan’ people’s
funds without verifying how the borrower will return the money.
Sadly, a surfeit of classic illustrations of the unholy
nexus of crony capitalism abound. From
the 2G spectrum scam, Adarsh Housing Society scandal, Coalgate to Mallyagate
which exemplifies how he milked public sector banks of over Rs 9000 crores to
set-up his defunct Kingfisher airline and is now ‘absconding.’
Most
scandalously, not only did our rajnetas and
bureaucrats wily nily bestow these favours but even got the CBI to change his
“lookout notice” to enable him to leave the country. Worse, till date not only have
the banks not sold the ‘King of Good Times’ shares pledged
to recover their money but thanks to his political friends, Mallya has ensured the
banks do no sell his collateral, thereby leaving the door open to stay afloat.
Today, though Mallya’s personal wealth is pegged at Rs 615
crores he only has Rs 9150 in his bank account. It now emerges that the aam aadmi’s hard earned money was being
used to support his hedonistic lifestyle in India and abroad. Recall, he had
famed Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias to serenade him on his 60th
razzmatazz celebrations at the Kingfisher villa in Goa.
Obviously, our netas had
to condone his waywardness. After all hadn’t he lavished money on Hegde-Deve
Gowda’s Janata Dal, purchased his Rajya Sabha MPship from the BJP besides
financing many a politicos off-springs shaadis.
Clearly, leaving one with a sneaky suspicion that they don’t want him back,
lest he squeals their secrets. Sic.
Alas, today Mallya is not the only one. Recall, Union
Highway Minister Gadhkari cruising on the Ruia’s of Essar fame yatch in the
South of France recently. What to speak of others of his ilk using
industrialists friends company jets and lavish homes for personal pleasure.
Company accounts are fudged to feed the voracious appetite of their political
and Governmental mistresses.
Also, bribing bureaucrats is de rigueur wherein instead of success being determined by the rule
of law, a billionaire’s success is dependent on the favoritism that is shown to
him by the Government. A powerful trickle down effect where the lowliest
officials, bank managers and policemen expect their palms greased just to do
their jobs.
The fiddle is in the process Crony capitalism operates at
three different levels. First you get a Minister, babu, bank Chairman/director and officials to give you monies to
ensure that you don’t have to put your own money. Thus, you borrow heavily from
banks with very little of your own equity. So even if your venture sinks, it is
the banks which lose money.
Two, one ensures that rivals do not get similar favours.
Bluntly, you lobby not only for yourself, but also push against competitors.
Lastly, in regulated industries like aviation, besides politicians one has to
‘manage’ ex-bureaucrats manning regulatory agencies, herein the Directorate
General of Civil Aviation.
Aware of the havoc wrought by crony capitalism, the Planning
Commission in its 12th Plan document made a reference to how crony capitalism
was dictating Government decisions and suggested “transparent measures” as the
solution.
Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan too came down heavily
on crony capitalism which, he said, is killing transparency and competition, is
harmful to free enterprise, opportunity and economic growth” by creating
oligarchies that slows down growth.
Pertinently, this was dittoed by Ruchir Sharma in his book
Breakout Nations which emphasized that any country which produces too many
billionaires, relative to its size, is in all likelihood off balance. He
quantified this by adding, “If the average billionaire of a country has amassed
too much wealth, not just billions but tens of billions….and can travel the
country with no fear for their safety, the lack of balance can not only lead to
stagnation but this genial state of affairs could change quickly.” His
predictions it seems might have been reached.
This apart, our New Age Babas
fancy the trappings of power and status of our political Gods. They revel
in playing footsie, or is it the other way around, with them. So on one hand we
see the grand spectacle of Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s three-day World Culture
Festival on 1000 acres of the Yamuna floodplains last weekend, which was a heady
cocktail of administrative malfeasance and environmental violation and breach.
The riverbed was flattened; VIP
ramps and platoons bridges constructed by the army, temporary structures
erected that too without permission of authorities. Succinctly, the Yamuna bed
was vultured. But none stood up against this vandalism by the Guru-neta nexus, not even the courts.
The Delhi High Court pronounced
the event an “ecological disaster” but refused to stop the unauthorised
construction. While the National Green Tribunal merely slapped a fine of Rs 5
crores on the Guru’s Art of Living of which only Rs 25 lakhs has been
grudgingly paid. Despite the damage to the riverbed being pegged at over Rs 100
crores! Somebody would be crazy in the head to do so, in the face of cosmic
synthesis between our political Gods and Babas.
This crony synergy between the
Godmen and State is most evident in the way Baba Ramdev is treated. From being
provided Z-plus security to having the State-owned Central Industrial Security
Force guarding his business conglomerate Patanjali is symbolic of the creeping
phenomenon of crony Babaism.
Shockingly, the Guru and Baba are the Hindutva Brigade’s
nascent much-favoured and fawned sarkari
Babas, read global brand
ambassadors of India’s
spiritual power. Who can forget that both Godmen mobilised their bhaktas for the now-forgotten
anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare’s movement which saw the emergence of
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and BJP’s Prime Minister Modi. As a reward
the Saffron Sangh gave one Parliamentary seat in Delhi each to the Babas among a few others.
However, the duo are not the
only ‘political’ swamis. For reasons
best known to them, our netas love
Godmen. Remember Indira Gandhi’s Dhirendra Brahmachari, Narasimha Rao’s
Chandraswami et al. Indeed, we are overly blessed with a surfeit of ashrams, maths, deras along-with their cosmic
cult spiritual masters who twist political authority for their Holy benefit.
Further, the crony Baba is not the traditional Raj Guru, who denotes moral authority
nee Rajdharma. His Holiness’s refuse
to get entangled in Dalits and women being allowed entry in to temples, instead
they revel in all things spiritual encompassing citizens well being. The Holy
Pretender trying to resurrect religious rituals in our increasingly globalised
village.
More. These self-styled spiritual gurus acquire wealth and
worldly baggage which needs protection from the law. This vulnerability nudges
the Holy Baba into the unholy tentacles of crony netaism.
What next? Clearly we need to
put in place a clear and transparent regulatory framework and stop crony
capitalism riding roughshod over bona fide businessman. Calling for a halt to
the hedonistic splurging of public wealth by Indian billionaires the Supreme
Court has rapped the RBI on its knuckles and asked it to provide a list of
defaulters who owe public sector banks over Rs 500 crores.
All in all, time to halt these
political-business-babas birds of
feather flocking together to rule by
wealth and rule by theft. How long
will to continue to pay for the sins of crony capitalism and buddy Babaism? Who will God side? ------ INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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