Political Diary

New Delhi, 20 June 2008

Incredible India

A  CUE FROM BRITS WOULD HELP

By Poonam I Kaushish

India, is Incredible! A trip to London tells you just how much and showcases the warts and all. Let’s start with the new spanking Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway and one hits the first road block. People have their driving lanes all mixed up. Toll payers invariably queue up in the ‘smart tag’ lane. Not that it really matters because the tag system ---to help one automatically cross the toll barrier--- doesn’t work anymore! The toll collector has to now feed in the smart tag code before letting your car proceed.  Might have been better if all the lanes were priced, at least cars would move faster and the queues shorter.

True, Planning Commission Chairman Montek Ahluwalia’s trip to the airport recently had a salutary affect. Traffic moves faster and the queues at the departure gates are way less. But two things Ahuluwalia could not or has not been able to do: remove the people sleeping on the pavements of the departure area. It continues to resemble the railway station. 

Next, the lines at the immigration counters get longer and longer with various airline personnel running through people-lanes screaming flight departures, yanking passengers and breaking immigration queues. Why do the authorities take forever to clear our departure? They definitely need a rapid fire course in people management and politeness. Resourceful Ahluwalia should have given a piece of his mind to the Immigration Authorities, instead of picking a bone with the Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, who is the only one delivering on giving a face-over to our airports.

Feeling patriotic, one decided to fly Air India to see if our industrialist-turned Minister has really made a difference to the way Indians fly. Definitely yes. The new Boeings, the in-flight service and the food could give any other airline a run for its money. That he intends leaving his imprint was also evident. Crew and passengers described Patel as a “hands on” Minister. Said a crew member, “Beneath the velvet glove is an iron hand. He is very particular about punctuality. Once on a trip back from London he found the AI flight was delayed because of the crew. He simply boarded another flight. But there was hell to pay later. Besides, he is not only accessible but receptive to our problems, solves them, is pragmatic and yet a hard taskmaster and expects results.”    

However, the arrival in London was a let-down. Air India, it seems is being given the step-motherly treatment at Heathrow airport. We appeared to have made a ‘backdoor’ entry as the disembarking area was littered with garbage and the staff rude. Though the immigration line was longer, the authorities were way smarter and the clearance was faster. One had a choice of the mode of transport to the city: taxi, bus or the underground. The Asian mini cabs, driven by Indians, Bangladeshis, Afghans and Pakistanis’ seemed to have elbowed out London’s famous black cabs. They are half the price of what the normal ride costs.  

That apart, London continues to throb, brimming with joy de vivre. Beautiful sunny weather, loads of tourists all over Oxford Street busy shopping as if there was no tomorrow. The summer sales are on too. There are many Asians among them, not a few from Delhi. Many choose this time to travel in the hope of striking a good bargain. Asians today are the revered ‘rich’ customers. There is awe mingled with jealousy and a bit of animosity displayed by shop staff to serve them, who till the other day were disparagingly dismissed as poor immigrants.

Does that mean that the US sub-prime crisis and the ever-rising international crude prices are not hurting the people in London? A simple no. The difference is that people are taking it stoically. From 70 pence per litre (Rs 60) the price is up to 1.20 Pounds (approx Rs 100) and may go up to two Pounds. Sure, people feel the pinch but don’t crib. They realise their Government is doing its best to lessen the hurt.  

Like my Bangladeshi taxi driver said. “The cost of living hasn’t really changed. There is no marked increase in prices of groceries and food stuff and public transport remains the same. In all a tax of 10 pounds per day on vehicles plying in central London is imposed and the only sign of rising inflation is a downward trend in property prices.”

Yet the Gordon Brown Government is worried. Daily news brings reports of economic slowdown, worsening Government finances and rising prices. The House of Commons grapples with how the economy got into this mess and how to get out of it. There is no finger pointing, no acrimony and importantly the aam aadmi is not dragged into the nitty-gritty of prudent government money management.

The Bank of England is hanging tough, the private sector needs to keep wages down and some sense needs to return to the oil markets. Significantly, the Government realises its responsibilities and the need to be fiscally cautious. Towards that end it is making the right noises on the public sector pay rise, which would fuel inflation. Brown’s reply to all: This is no time to abandon Prudence.

What about our erudite Finance Minister Chidambaram? First, like a school teacher he reprimanded the aam aadmi for jumping the gun and promised to bring down prices within two months. Then he blamed the previous NDA Government for the financial mess. Now he has simply washed his hands off by confessing helplessness. Questionably, is that enough? Can we allow our Finance Chief to get away? He owes the country some hard and honest explanation for inflation hitting 11.05 per cent, the highest since 1995.

Scandalously, amidst all this the Government has decided to give itself a pay rise. Explained as ‘babus are poorly paid’. Never mind that the Sixth Pay Commission has added an additional load of Rs 12,000 crores to the fiscal burden. There is no talk of downsizing of staff even as the private sector has gone in for massive pruning and is streamlining its operations to ‘paperless’ offices.

Worse, even as the aam aadmi stoops under the burden of petrol price rise and its cascading affect on daily commodities and expensive travel, neither our netagan nor babudom has cutback on its cavalcade of cars. At times just to ferry them, their wives and kids home. What to speak of the increasing ‘diversions’ the aam aadmi has to take due to VIP movement, sic. So unlike the UK.

Significantly, Britons have regaled 7/7 as a bad dream. The rigid checking at Heathrow airport is still there but with a smile. Back home to the dismally long immigration lines one gets a taste of asli Bharat. Of petty clerks who painfully take forever to process your data. While the NRI and PIOs are allowed to sail through. It makes ones blood boil. Are we unwanted? 

The intermittent long queues in the baggage area and the taxi bay says it all. A multitude of humanity seems to have descended from nowhere. The aam aadmi sleeping on the pavement. Indeed, India is Incredible. Even as the 21 Century of Super India beacons we still have a long way to bring asli Bharat and Brand India together. ----- INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)