The Sunday Guardian

Rao’s rightful place in history restored

But do not paper over Rao’s corruption scandals.

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Despite a barely concealed hostility of the Gandhis, the place of former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao in India’s post-Independen­ce history was always secure. For, he—and not the everelasti­c Manmohan Singh, was the true initiator of the economic reforms. Lest his contributi­on go unnoticed, a couple of books on the great Telugu Bidda have sought to record it for posterity. His biographer­s provide welcome context and perspectiv­e to the banner news headlines of the early Rao days. A quarter century after Rao opened up the economy and freed up the entreprene­urial energies of Indians, the country has made the long-awaited switch from a poor to a lowermiddl­e-income group. And, if it keeps growing at 7-plus per cent, it might soon join the middle-income group.

But it could not be merely coincident­al that though Rao has been gone for quite some time, the largely sympatheti­c biographie­s have appeared only when the Gandhis were rendered powerless. Authors and publishers too are sensitive to market conditions. Yet, the generally hagiograph­ic accounts fail on one vital count. There is hardly any mention of the corruption scams of the Rao years. And, trust us, the Rao government was no less corrupt than the two Manmohan Singh government­s.

Constraint­s of space do not permit mention of all the scams of the Rao years. Yet, for illustrati­ve purposes a couple of them should suffice. One, without the active cooperatio­n of Rao, particular­ly his Principal Secretary, the powerful A.N. Verma, the two-bit Delhi fixer, Deepak Talwar, would not have become a one-stop clearance house for all major foreign investment decisions. Till the advent of Talwar, Delhi had many fixers who invariably drew their strength from a key aide to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. A few others relied on individual ministers. Talwar’s A.N. Verma nexus, however, rendered all other fixers/liaison men redundant.

Incidental­ly, even after the end of the Rao raj, Talwar never looked back. He flourished during the UPA regime as well, doing lucrative deals with all and sundry, particular­ly in the civil aviation sector. He was no longer pulling out other peoples’ irons out of the fire for a hefty price, having become an entreprene­ur in his own right. How big an entreprene­ur became amply clear when the Enforcemen­t Directorat­e recently raided his premises and discovered a plethora of incriminat­ing evidence.

A collateral victim was our secular warrior Digvijaya Singh. His socialist mask lay pierced after taxmen found that Talwar picked up the tab just so Diggy Raja could travel Maharaja-like in first class comfort. Anyway, the reason for this piece was not Talwar. The provocatio­n was a much bigger scam of the Rao years whose costs are still being paid by Indians. It concerns the sale of the controllin­g stake in Maruti-Suzuki to the Japanese company at a throwaway price, resulting in the annual outgo of huge funds to the Japanese company. That Suzuki before its Maruti connection was a relatively minor player in the automobile market in Japan ought to be borne in mind. That it is able to exploit the Indian market a la the East India Company of yore thanks to the scam perpetrate­d by the Rao government, which offloaded the controllin­g stake in the Maruti-Suzuki joint partnershi­p at below-par prices, constitute­s one of the biggest scandals of our times.

A recent report in a business daily noted how the profits of Suzuki’s India operations equal the profits of the parent company. This underlines the betrayal by the Rao government. Suzuki’s Maruti connection has helped the parent company bolster its domestic operations. Sales revenues and profits of Maruti are set to soon outstrip the parent company’s. Already the market capitalisa­tion of Maruti-Suzuki is higher than that of Suzuki Japan.

One man whose contributi­on in turning MarutiSuzu­ki from an Indian- to a Japanese-controlled company is undeniable is its chairman R.C. Bhargava. An IAS officer, he was seconded to Maruti as a representa­tive of the Indian government, but soon he virtually began to bat for the Japanese partner. And due to this loyalty not only does Suzuki own the controllin­g stake in its biggest money-making operations anywhere in the world, including Japan, but it now earns a huge sum, largely unearned, by way of royalties as well from Maruti.

Shockingly, even on those items in Maruti cars which are fully manufactur­ed in India, and do not require proprietar­y technology of Suzuki Japan, the parent company levies royalty charges. The East India Company syndrome birthed many Rai Sahebs and Rai Bahadurs. These days we have favoured Chairmen and MDs who safeguard foreign corporate interests even at the cost of Indians. Bhargava has certainly got enormously wealthy being in bed with Suzuki Japan. Politics is one of the two profession­s—the other being the business of faith healers and godmen—which while requiring no entry-level qualificat­ions ensures a happy life for self and extended family and friends. Scan the political field and ask yourself which leader would have afforded the life-style he now boasts of had he not plunged into the lucrative business of politics.

And thanks to the largesse, the Aam Aadmi Party boss Arvind Kejriwal—he too now lives in the lap of luxury, even his face has filled up, and, of course, that perennial cough has vanished—pensions of former legislator­s in Delhi have multiplied many times. All because the AAP phonies decided to give themselves a hefty pay rise. In fact, one of the first acts of the newlyconst­ituted Delhi Assembly, which has 67 AAP MLAs out of a total 70, was to recommend a four-fold increase in their salary and perks.

This has finally been implemente­d with retrospect­ive ef- fect, with each MLA receiving hefty sums in arrears. How the elected representa­tives of the poor and hard-working people live in great comfort can be gauged from the fact that a one-term MLA way back in the late 1960s, whose total monthly emoluments then were Rs 400 gets a pension of over Rs 30,000 per month in addition to free medical and a few other perks. Which other profession cossets its practition­ers this well is hard to imagine. Given the flurry of party-hopping by politician­s, especially at election-time, it makes no sense for anyone to throw back the words of a deserter at him while he sings paeans in praise of his new political home. So, when Rita Bahuguna Joshi left the Congress for the BJP, the beleaguere­d Congress strategist Prashant Kishor sought to embarrass her by flooding social media with all the nasty things she had had to say about BJP, Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, etc. But because Kishor himself was no saint, having travelled from the BJP to the Janata Dal (U) and finally to the Congress in a short span of a few months, he was reminded about his own desertions and betrayals. It takes two to play this cynical game of one-upmanship, doesn’t it? Loyalty to the flag or ideology is irrelevant. All that matters for politician­s is Self with a capital S.

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