It is all about charisma

“Have we as a nation properly understood the theory of charisma as originally proposed by Max Weber (1864-1920) in his ‘The theory of social and economic organisations’ or are we merely confused between charm and charisma.”

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“The [Congress] party which considers the nation a family heirloom never hesitated to destroy democratic institutions to cling on to power. Jawarhalal Nehru had the constitution amended to circumscribe the inconvenient freedom of speech. His daughter Indira wished to do away with the fundamental rights including the right to life. For the current crop ruling the nation by proxy, the constitution appears to be a mere nuisance. Its more important objective is coronation of its prince in 2014, banking on the premise of charisma.” 

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The following article, entitled, “It is all about charisma”, appeared in The Hans India of January 17, 2012. (Emphasis added.)

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Thomas Jefferson, the third president of America is credited with the aphorism: “A politician looks forward only to the next election; a statesman looks forward to the next generation.” One of the founding fathers of the American nation, he played a major role in its expansion and consolidation beginning with the acquisition of Louisiana.   

The wise men who drafted the Indian constitution envisaged the concept of affirmative action to bring certain disadvantaged sections of the society on par with the rest. The provision of reservations in legislative bodies, employment and education was to be a temporary measure even in the case of the most disadvantaged classes such as the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The original Article 334 of the constitution limits the provision of reservation of seats for SCs and STs in legislative bodies to sixty years. Additionally, the first part of Article 335 has a curious proviso. It states that the “claims of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes shall be taken into consideration, consistently with the maintenance of efficiency of administration, in the making of appointments to services and posts…” Unfortunately, India has been condemned to be ruled by politicians - not statesmen - for whom the next election has always been more important than the next generation. Compelled by the politics of competitive populism they have not only been extending the provision of reservations thus negating the original sunset clause but have been bringing in more and more sections into the ambit of reservations.

As an ideologically bankrupt Congress party falls back on the family ‘charisma’ to return it to power in UP in 2012 and eventually at the centre in 2014, it has come up with another round of reservations as an electoral sop. 

The party which considers the nation a family heirloom never hesitated to destroy democratic institutions to cling on to power. Jawarhalal Nehru had the constitution amended to circumscribe the inconvenient freedom of speech. His daughter Indira wished to do away with the fundamental rights including the right to life. For the current crop ruling the nation by proxy, the constitution appears to be a mere nuisance. Its more important objective is coronation of its prince in 2014, banking on the premise of charisma. 

Have we as a nation properly understood the theory of charisma or are we merely confused between charm and charisma?

The theory of ‘Charismatic Leadership’ evolved from ideas originally proposed by Max Weber (1864-1920) in his ‘The theory of social and economic organisations’. Weber, known as an economist and historian in his time may be said to be the father modern sociology. He was the first to use the word ‘charisma’ to describe ‘leadership’ that emerges in crisis situations. 

In Greek, the word ‘Charisma’ means ‘divinely inspired gift’. Charismatic leadership is neither traditional nor based on formal authority but based on followers’ perception that the leader is gifted with exceptional qualities. A charismatic leader, as conceptualised by Weber is gifted with a radical vision that offers solutions to crisis situations. He attracts followers who believe in his vision. The followers experience success that makes them trust their leader’s vision as attainable. This makes them perceive the leader as extraordinary.

What then are the traits of a charismatic leader? Literature on leadership defines precisely the attributes, traits and behaviours of charismatic leaders. Thus charismatic leaders have a strong need for power, high self-confidence and conviction in their own beliefs and ideals and are able to influence the attitudes and behaviours of their followers. But first a charismatic leader must have a vision that is both ennobling and appealing. 

The leader must be able to make his followers visualise the ennobling vision by expressive language and communication. The leader must be able to take exceptional personal risks and make self-sacrifices to attain the vision. The leader must consistently communicate his confidence in and high expectations from his followers. The leader must consistently ensure that both he and his followers observe role-modelling consistent with the vision. 

The leader must be able to build identification with the vision and finally he must be able to empower the followers to achieve the vision.

So what is the ennobling vision that a charismatic leader should have had and communicated to the people of a newly liberated nation? Why, it is the vision of a strong and resurgent nation, for the building of which the leader takes personal risks and makes sacrifices. A strong and resurgent nation, the concept of which every citizen identifies with and believes in. In order to be labelled charismatic did any of our leaders since independence believe in and communicate such ennobling vision? Did any of them take personal risks and make sacrifices for realising such ennobling vision? Does every citizen identify with and believe in such ennobling vision?

TAILPIECE: Malcolm Gladwell calls the misconception of ‘charisma’, the “Warren Harding Error” (‘Blink’, 2006. Penguin Books, New Delhi). Warren Harding was elected president because his electors could not distinguish between charisma in its popular misconception and charismatic leadership. The 29th US President (1921–1923) was tall, broad-shouldered and perfectly proportioned, had a bronzed complexion and a resonant masculine voice. Harding came to be described a ‘Roman’ for his good looks. He was affable and had an implacable desire to please. His father once told him that it was good he hadn’t been born a girl because, “You would be in the family way all the time. You can’t say no”. During his presidency, he busied himself with golf, poker and his mistresses while his cronies looted the exchequer ‘in a variety of creative ways’. 

Harding had the dubious distinction of being the second of ten ‘Worst Presidents’. Jay Tolson says that he was an ‘ineffectual and indecisive leader’ and his ‘claim to infamy rests on spectacular ineptitude’. (US News & World Report, February 16, 2007. Worst Presidents: Warren Harding, accessible from http://bit.ly/a3bRER).

The versatile genius

“If intimacy with Islamic scholars stimulated him to learn Arabic and Persian, kinship with Hindustani classical singers made him cultivate their style. The cultivation of the Hindustani style added a rare and unique hybrid timbre to his music not usually found in the rendering of Carnatic singers and won him many accolades including those from the Maharajah of Mysore and Rabindranath Tagore. This is because it was unusual for Carnatic singers to be able to sing Hindustani and vice versa. The hybrid style he developed left an indelible stamp on the progress of Carnatic music. It was adopted by later musicians including some of the greats of Carnatic music, marking it as the sui generis of Vizianagaram music. Eventually when Narayana Das became the first principal of Sri Vijayarama Gana Pathasala (the first music college in South India) it became part of the curriculum. The Maharajah of Vizianagaram established the Music College in 1919 to honour the Pandit and enable enthusiasts to learn music from him. The college produced many great musicians. Pandit Narayana Das inducted violin maestro Dwaram Venkata Swamy Naidu as a lecturer in the college. Dwaram succeeded Pandit Narayana Das as principal after the latter relinquished office in 1936.”

The following article on Pandit Srimadajjada Adibhatla Narayana Das appeared in The Hans India of January 8, 2012. The original may be seen here: The versatile genius

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Sri Narayana Dasu

Sir Cattamanchi Ramalinga Reddy, eminent litterateur, educationist and founder Vice Chancellor of Andhra University described Srimadajjada Adibhatla Narayana Das (1864-1945) as a ‘university’. Sir Ramalinga Reddy was not exaggerating, for Narayana Dasu was a linguist with proficiency in as many as eight languages, poet, philosopher, writer, composer, dancer, actor and the creator of the unique art form, Hari Katha. 

It is well nigh impossible to find a parallel for him in the history of Indian literature. Adibhatla Narayana Das was the only scholar who had mastery over four classical languages (Sanskrit, Telugu, Arabic and Persian) and translated from Persian and English into Sanskrit and Telugu; the only litterateur who wrote a comparative treatise on the works of Kalidas and Shakespeare; the only writer-composer who translated into Telugu and set to music Rig Vedic hymns and the only writer-composer who composed a geeta-malika comprising 90 Carnatic ragas. As a writer-composer who composed music in all the 72 Carnatic ragas, he was next only to Saint Thyagaraja. 

His literary output was voluminous. He wrote over 50 books in Telugu, Sanskrit and Atcha-Telugu (Desyandhramu or Telugu unmixed of Sanskrit). His works included original story-poems (Kavyas and Prabandhas), Harikathas, prose works, musical works, dramas, translations, treatises in philosophy and Vedic studies and children’s literature. For want of space, only a few of his works are introduced here:

Navarasatarangini (1922): A study that compares, contrasts and critiques the treatment of the nine rasas or moods in the plays of Shakespeare and Kalidas. A voluminous work, with a lengthy preface, it vetted the entire of body of dramatic literature of the two writers.

Rubaiyat of Omar Khaiyam (1932): Narayana Das felt that Edward Fitzgerald’s English renderings of Omar Khaiyam’s Rubaiyat were not literal and did not do justice to the spirit of the Persian poet’s philosophy. In order to demonstrate his thesis, Narayana Das translated both the original Persian and the English renderings into Sanskrit and Atcha-Telugu. “Hyderabad Bulletin”*, a prominent newspaper of the time felt the book merited a review - Here are some excerpts from the editorial entitled, “A Monument of Scholarship”: “[...] a careful perusal of the book fills us with admiration at the astounding scholarship of the learned Pandit […] In these degenerate days when scholarship has fallen on evil times, it is incredible to learn that a Hindu, with Telugu as his mother tongue, should have been so filled with admiration for a Persian poet that, after he had passed his sixtieth year, he took the trouble to master so alien a language, and translate the masterpiece not only into Telugu but into another classical language, Sanskrit.”

Jagajjyothi (1942-43): It was his magnum opus in which he analysed, discussed and critiqued ancient Vedic lore and tried to apply his theories to everyday life. It contains the quintessence of Narayana Das’ philosophy and outlook towards life. In this he was at once heretical and traditional, rational and religious. He distilled all that is good in all Indian philosophies and brought about a synthesis and propounded a new philosophy of humanism. 

Dasavidharaganavati Kusumamanjari(1938): An outstanding musical work of unparalleled erudition, it is a Devi stotram comprising 90 Carnatic ragas. The first half is in Sanskrit and  the second half in Telugu. 

Vizianagarm of the late nineteenth century was a haven of literary and artistic talent and was - to borrow a phrase from renaissance literature - in a state of intellectual ferment. Narayana Das’ innate artistry blossomed and flourished. Narayana Das used  to absorb knowledge the way sponge absorbs water. If intimacy with Islamic scholars stimulated him to learn Arabic and Persian, kinship with Hindustani classical singers made him cultivate their style.

Gajarohanam at Singareni

The cultivation of the Hindustani style added a rare and unique hybrid timbre to his music not usually found in the rendering of  Carnatic singers and won him many accolades including those from the Maharajah of Mysore and Rabindranath Tagore. This is because it was unusual for Carnatic singers to be able to sing Hindustani and vice versa. The hybrid style he developed left an indelible stamp on the progress of Carnatic music. It was adopted by later musicians, including some of the greats of Carnatic music. Eventually when Narayana Das became the first principal of Sri Vijayarama Gana Pathasala (the first music college in South India) it became part of the curriculum. The Maharajah of Vizianagaram established the Music College in 1919 to honour the Pandit and enable enthusiasts to learn music from him. The college produced many great musicians. Pandit Narayana Das inducted violin maestro Dwaram Venkata  Swamy Naidu as a lecturer in the college. Dwaram succeeded Pandit Narayana Das as principal after the latter relinquished office in 1936.

Pandit Narayana Das’ literary and musical accomplishments left him peerless in his time. The literary and musical elite of his time joined to honour him with the title of “Sangitha Sahitya Sarvabhauma.” The musical maestros of his time honoured him with titles like “Laya Brahma” and “Panchamukhi Parameswara” for his ability to sing to five talas, beat with two arms, two feet and head. Five musicians used to keep time with him when he performed “Panchamukhi.” The versatile genius breathed his last on January 2, 1945. 

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*To read the editorial review of Pandit Narayana Das' Rubaiyat of Omar Khaiayam by Hyderabad Bulletin please click here: A MONUMENT OF SCHOLARSHIP

Transforming Capitalism

Book Review

There were two diametrically opposing theses about business. The first assumed that the prime interest of business was mercenary and intended only to fatten its owners at the cost of the general public. The theory originated in an era when business meant only the production and distribution of goods in brick and mortar factories. The theory held that it would be in the larger interest of society if the state controlled the means of production and distribution of goods. This was the principle behind the ‘second world’ governance. It held sway for over seventy years beginning with the proletarian revolution in Russia in 1917.

‘From each according to his ability to each according to his needs’ was (is) an indisputably lofty ideal but to quote an old cliché, ‘human nature being what it is’, simply did not work. This was because the first part of the dictum was immeasurable and the second part highly elastic! In the end, governance required mammoth bureaucracies which acquired dynamics (or inertia if you will) of their own. The state had to increasingly intrude into the private lives of citizens to make the system work, as Orwell so vividly depicted in his Nineteen Eighty Four. But still it did not work and the utopia of Marx’s dreams simply imploded.

Marx must be spinning in his grave in capitalist England but Maslow’s theory of the hierarchy of needs amply explains the reason for the implosion. A human being, unlike an animal, can not simply remain satisfied if his most basic needs are met. After the basic needs are satisfied, there is a craving for needs in a higher plane to be satisfied. It was this upward spiral of ‘need, satisfaction & higher need’ that helped human evolution and development.

The other thesis is based on the principle of free market economy, on the premise that ‘wants are the prime movers of all economic activity’. The production of goods is to satisfy consumer needs. Therefore the premise of demand determines the sustainability of businesses. The incentive for the producer is the profit. But to sustain in business the producer has to understand the continually evolving and ever changing needs of the consumer. The system has its own checks and balances but is essentially based on individual freedoms. Theoretically anyone can start a business or exit from a business. It is the consumer who determines whether a business is successful or not. Sustenance depends on individual creativity and enterprise. But even successful businessmen who grow rich by virtue of their creativity, enterprise and may be luck are also part of the society. Are they free to enjoy the fruits of their labour irrespective of the vicissitudes of the lives of the others surrounding them? If they did, wouldn’t they be accused of vulgarity of greed and indecent exhibitionism? Wasn’t this – the huge disparity between the haves and the have-nots - the root cause of the proletarian revolution?

That even in the utopia of Marx’s dreams ‘some animals’ felt that had a divine right to be more equal than others, was a different matter. The recent march on Wall Street is a form of societal disapproval of the concentration of wealth in some individuals. As long as the common people were able to lead their lives normally they did not grudge the one percent of Americans owning (cornering?) eighty percent of the nation’s wealth. But after the collapse of the economic system when savings of a life time vanished overnight, when they suddenly found the future holding no promise and life insufferable, they suddenly woke up to find the grim reality of huge disparities. However it did not lead to America witnessing à la Russian revolution of 1917 because people are only too aware of what happened in that nation between 1917 and 1990. A revolution of the type was no solution. The harsh reality is, wealth not created can not be shared, no matter what the left liberal chatterati might crib about the inequities of the capitalist system.

What should businesses do to mitigate the situation?  As a tentative solution, Maira puts forth the opinion that ‘values are not measured by the wealth produced but by the means considered acceptable’? (p. 192) And more importantly managers should operate in two ecosystems: the ‘professional system of the business governed by the financial markets’ and the ‘wider system of people outside the company’s core activities’. (p. 91)

While the main thesis of ‘Transforming CAPITALISM’ is all about what businesses like to call Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Maira devotes a chapter to NGOs. The term NGO is loosely applied to all organisations from the International Red Cross to those funded by self-serving business and religious interests. The (Hindi) movie, Corporate provides a good example of how business interests fund and make NGOs subserve their not-so-honest interests. It might be bad manners to look the gift horse in the mouth but certainly one should err on the side of caution when looking at NGOs. Gulam Nabi Fai’s ‘Kashmiri American Council’ (KAC) was a respectable NGO which attracted quite a few Indian intellectuals till it was unmasked as a front organisation of the Pakistani intelligence agency, ISI and Fai arrested by the FBI. Curiously while Indian intellectuals did not have any qualms about being wined and dined by an organisation like the KAC, which overtly seeks to promote secession of Kashmir from India, India’s largest and most patriotic NGO, the RSS is persona non grata!

Much of what Maira says in ‘Transforming CAPITALISM’ may not be entirely new but it is cogently argued and well-written. The book is certainly worth reading. Some of the chapters in the book appeared as newspaper columns earlier. 

Maira, Arun. 2011. Transforming CAPITALISM – Improving The World For Everyone. NIMBY Books. New Delhi. pp 210. Price Rs 295/-

This review is part of the Book Reviews programme at Blogadda.com

Will Indians Against Corruption win?

Will Indians Against Corruption win? appeared in The  Hans India on December 29, 2011

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As a tumultuous year winds down to become history, the one issue that seems to resonate with the common folk is that of corruption and the government’s insouciance to combat it. The year opened with the unravelling of the 2G scam and the fall of the high and mighty. There were other scandals, such as the CWG and Adarsh Society scam, as venal as the telecom swindle, but it was the magnitude of perceived corruption and the nexus between politics, big business and the media involved in 2G scam that shocked the nation.

The clamour for democracy in the Arab street was a distant thunder. The ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement energised the anti-capitalists and perhaps briefly the communist ethos in its death pangs. But it was Anna Hazare’s first hunger strike that struck a chord and truly awakened the citizenry of this country. The groundswell of public anger against corruption fuelled the movement that was reminiscent of Mahatma Gandhi’s mass Satyagrahas. 

The most redeeming feature of Hazare’s movement is that the youth of our country have been at its vanguard, giving the lie to the popular perception that today’s youth are selfcentred and uninterested in political movements. Taking a cue from Hazare’s campsite in Delhi, hunger strike camps across the nation displayed pictures of Bharat Mata in the background. This was because today’s youth is proud of our rich and ancient culture, history, philosophy and spirituality. Unlike their counterparts of a few generations ago, they are not burdened by the tugs and challenges of ‘intellectual fashions’, which demanded disavowal, denial, denigration and negation of anything remotely connected with India’s glorious past.

However, this was where the first sign of discord in the coalition against corruption surfaced. The naïve Gandhian that Hazare was, he did not understand the importance of symbolism and nuances in India’s ‘secular’ political discourse. Hazare was advised by the ‘secular’ members (it is needless to point out that the ‘secular’ members in any ‘civil society’ group are ‘more equal’ than others) of his entourage that displaying Bharat Mata at the campsite would offend the ‘secular’ ethic of the nation as it amounted to crass majoritarianism. He meekly obeyed and banished Bharat Mata.

Be that as it may, Hazare was successful to the extent that he forced the government to bring in a bill that had eluded political consensus for over 60 years. As this piece is being written, the Bill as conceived the UPA was passed by the Lok Sabha, though many feel that it was not a strong weapon to fight corruption. However, the UPA failed to provide a constitutional status to the proposed Lokpal as it failed to garner the required number of votes. And it is yet to pass the test in the Rajya Sabha.

It would be unwise to assume that corruption, so deeply ingrained in the body-politic, could be excised with a single movement, howsoever popular the movement might have been. A small battle has been won but the major war is still ahead. The demon, so long used to feasting on the common weal of the populace like a gigantic parasite, is not going to give in easily.

It is going to fight back with magnified virulence, which can take many shapes and forms. We can already see the ‘dogs-of-war’ let loose by the principal Opposition - in this case, the ruling clique - attacking the fight against corruption on many fronts. These include smear campaigns against the movement’s principal protagonists and dilatory tactics like calling for reservations in the Lokpal, something which was unheard of in the constitution of Constitutional bodies. Even if the government gets the Bill passed through the Rajya Sabha, the reservation part might yet come under judicial scrutiny. 

TAILPIECE: The kickbacks involved in the Bofors scam were peanuts compared to the magnitude of today’s scams. But the subject of corruption in third-world countries inspired Geoffrey Archer enough to include it in his anthology of short stories, ‘A Twist in the Tale’, published in the aftermath of Bofors. Here are two snippets from it:

The finance minister of a third-world country approaches a Swiss bank, ostensibly to investigate the account one of his country’s politicians had with the bank. The senior official of the bank whom the minister approaches refuses to confirm or give any details of the account. The minister’s pleas in the name of ethics, morality, humanity and what have you and threats to close down all his country’s accounts with the bank were of no avail. Even his threat to kill the official drew a blank. The minister walks out but suddenly hoists his brief case on to the table and says ‘how about opening an account?’

Two ‘third-world’ government ministers meet in an international conference held in one of their capitals. They become friends and the minister of the host country invites the other minister to his mansion for dinner. The guest was amazed to see the opulence of his host’s mansion and wonders how he could build such a mansion in so poor a country. The host takes him to the top of the building and shows him a nearby river and a dam on it. He asks him ‘do you see the dam?’ The guest replies he does. ‘Well! Ten percent of it’, he says.

The next conference was held in the guest’s national capital and naturally the earlier guest now plays host and invites his friend to dinner. It was the turn of the other to marvel at the opulence of his friend’s palace. So the host takes him to the top of the building and points at the panoramic expanse of the nearby river. ‘See the dam there?’ he asks. ‘But I do not see anything there!’ replies his guest. ‘Precisely!’ says the host, ‘Ten per cent of it!’

How to tackle black money menace

The following article, How to tackle black money menace appeared in The Hans India on December 22, 2011

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In its report released in November 2010, Global Financial Integrity (GFI) a global watchdog of corruption and illegal money flows across nations estimated that India lost US$ 213 billion between 1948 and 2008 due to illegal outflows. If interest accruals are added, the figure rises to US$ 462 billion, twice the size of India’s external debt @ US$ 230 billion for the same period. GFI agrees that in all likelihood the figures could be understated. Additionally, the figures did not take into account smuggling, mispricing and gaps in available statistics. If these are added India’s losses due to illegal money flows in the sixty-one years between 1948 and 2008 could cross the half a trillion mark. The story does not end there. The estimated US$ 462 billion stashed abroad represents only 72% of India’s black economy, the remaining 28% being held within India. With that India’s underground economy reaches US$ 640 billion (till end of 2008) and represents – 50% of her GDP! The more worrying aspect of the report is that economic liberalization did neither halt nor reduce illegal outflows. On the other hand it accelerated them with increased number of high net-worth individuals (HNWIs) and companies brazenly resorting to stashing money abroad.

We might inch closer to the truth when Julian Assange (of WikiLeaks fame) makes his promised sensational revelations about Indian black money hoarders abroad in early 2012. According to media reports Assange warned that sensitive information relating India’s illegal wealth is being intercepted both by China and the West.

It must be noted here that although Switzerland has earned notoriety as a secret haven for parking illegal funds there are many others including Austria, Luxembourg and Lichtenstein (a small town in Germany) which offer the same services. GFI identified 70 such havens.

Corruption and black money may be said to be two different manifestations of the same disease. While corruption affects populations within a country, money-laundering may have more pernicious effects on a global scale. Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General found a cause and effect relationship between the two. In his foreword to the 2004 report on “United Nations Convention Against Corruption”, Annan said, “Corruption is an insidious plague that … undermines democracy and the rule of law, leads to violations of human rights … erodes the quality of life.” While conceding that it is a global phenomenon, however, Annan felt its destructive effects were more harmful to developing nations as it was a “major obstacle to poverty alleviation and development.” But it was Annan’s observation relating to transnational money-laundering that was more significant from a global perspective. He said that it aided and abetted organized crime and terrorism and allowed other threats to human security to flourish.

Recognizing this pernicious aspect of transnational money-laundering, the UNGA’s report to the Secretary General (“Uniting against terrorism: recommendations for a global counter-terrorism” - Sixtieth session, Agenda items 46 and 120 of April 27 2006) ratified the nine recommendations of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on terrorist financing. The most important of these is the one relating to denying financial support to terrorism. It demands that “[e]ach country should criminalise the financing of terrorism, terrorist acts and terrorist organisations.” And that “Countries should ensure that such offences are designated as money-laundering predicate offences.”  The US Patriot Act, passed in the aftermath of New York WTC bombing on September 11, 2001 has a specific section for “International Money-laundering Abatement and Financial Anti-Terrorism.” Other nations of the developed world made similar legislations to deny financial support to terrorism.

Till recently it had been impossible to make the Swiss or other tax havens divulge information relating to money stashed in their banks. Even legal measures did not help. ‘Suing a Swiss bank in a Swiss court’ had been no-go in a nation obsessed with protecting customer anonymity in its banking transactions. But thanks to the American and other nations’ legislations cited above to discourage financial support to terrorism and the pressure they have been exerting, the tax havens began seeing illegal money flows in a different light, much as they contributed to their national economies. As a result the US was able to pressurise Swiss bank UBS not only to agree to provide information about American citizens illegally hoarding money in it but also pay a fine of US$ 780 million being loss to the US exchequer. Even small countries like Ireland were able to collect back moneys illegally deposited by their citizens abroad.

The Indian government has been saying that it has been taking active measures to bring back illegally stashed money abroad by signing double taxation treaties (DTT) with various countries. This only amounts to sidetracking the issue. The ideal course would be to make stashing money abroad a criminal offence not just tax evasion. The government is also guilty of being not fully transparent even in signing the DTTs. For example, the revised Indo-Swiss double taxation treaty enables India to seek information on black money and tax evasion only from January 2011 and has no retro-active effect. Therefore we can kiss goodbye to the US$ 462 billion already lost! 

The GFI report mentioned above makes two pertinent points: one that the illicit financial flows from India pose a grave challenge to national security. It cites the FATF report to say that the anti-money-laundering (AML) / combating terrorism regime in India is weak as a result of which the country faces many risks. 

Secondly it says that countries with strong governance (e.g. Norway) have smaller illicit financial outflows whereas countries with weak governance (e.g. Nigeria) have larger outflows. The key to the conundrum lies in making tax compliance easy and tax evasion costly and attracting exemplary punishment. Only confiscating the culprit’s whole property and sending him/her into long imprisonment would meet the case of exemplary punishment. Why is the government baulking to do so? Whom does it want to protect?

‘Big brother’ wants to watch!

“The government’s stand on the issue of ‘freedom of expression’ may be termed as ambivalent and dependent on political considerations from time to time. Thus while functionaries of the government joined the votaries of ‘free speech’ in defending M. F. Hussain’s ‘freedom of expression’ to paint Hindu gods and goddesses in the nude, the ruling party at the centre had no hesitation in forestalling the publication of “The Red Sari”, Spanish writerJavier Moro's biography of Sonia Gandhi. Isn’t Sonia more sacred than Bharat Mata, Sarawati or Sita?”

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“Internet as an open democratic medium has earned the wrath of both the politicians and media persons for obvious reasons. If the politicians hated it because it does not respect their ‘more equal’ status, it has become bete noir for the media persons as it did away with their monopoly over dissemination of news. Now they not only have competition but the easily accessed, 24/7 medium subjected their conduct to relentless scrutiny.”

'Big Brother' wants to watch! appeared in The Hans India of December 12, 2011.

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Kapil Sibal has certainly set the cat among the pigeons when he demanded executives of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to screen content posted on social networking sites. The Information Technology (Electronic Service Delivery) Rules, 2011, the government notified earlier this year in April, are considered to be the most stringent compared to those in any democratic country. The rules require ‘the intermediaries’ (like Facebook, Google, Orkut etc) that provide a platform to users to post comments and create their own content to remove ‘offensive’ content based on an e-mailed complaint from an aggrieved person.

The immediate provocation for Kapil Sibal’s demand appears to be a cartoon posted on Facebook lampooning Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. Sibal termed it ‘unacceptable.’ In a party that lays great store by loyalty to ‘the’ family, Kapil Sibal, as Information Technology Minister cannot be seen to be deficient. In addition to loyalty Sibal has another reason to be chagrined with the internet, especially the role played by Facebook and Twitter in bringing the government to heel in the recent Indians Against Corruption (IAC) movement.

The government’s stand on the issue of ‘freedom of expression’ may be termed as ambivalent and dependent on political considerations from time to time. Thus while functionaries of the government joined the votaries of ‘free speech’ in defending M. F. Hussain’s ‘freedom of expression’ to paint Hindu gods and goddesses in the nude, the ruling party at the centre had no hesitation in forestalling the publication of “The Red Sari”, Spanish writer Javier Moro's biography of Sonia Gandhi. Isn’t Sonia more sacred than Bharat Mata, Sarawati or Sita?

Indian politicians, who strongly believe in the dictum ‘some animals are more equal than others’, have rarely taken kindly to criticism. They certainly could do with eulogy, thank you. Like Kapil Sibal in 2011, in 1987, M. G. Ramachandran’s government wanted to teach a lesson to irreverent journalists. S. M. Balasubramanian the editor of ‘Ananda Vikatan’ was summoned by the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly on April 4, 1987 to tender an apology for a cartoon the magazine published in its issue dated March 29, 1987. The Editor refused to do so because he was not given an opportunity to explain his stand in the matter. The assembly passed a motion by voice vote to award three months rigorous imprisonment to Balasubramanian. The sentence elicited strong reactions from the press and other quarters. Known for hunting with the hound and running with the hare, the Congress party played a curious role in the affair. After supporting the motion in the state assembly, its Home Minister at the centre, P. Chidambaram wished to defuse the crisis by offering an apology to the assembly - on behalf of Balasubramanian! The issue was resolved after M. G. Ramachandran appealed to the assembly to rescind the sentence. Balasubramanian was released after spending two nights in prison.

A similar drama was enacted in Andhra Pradesh during the reign of N. T. Rama Rao as Chief Minister. In 1985 the state legislative Council summoned Ramoji Rao, Editor of ‘Eenaadu’ over the caption of an editorial the paper published criticizing a ruckus in the Council. Ramoji Rao approached the Supreme Court for redress and the issue would have blown into a legislature-judiciary spat. N. T. Rama Rao, already unhappy with the Council’s intransigence over legislative business, resolved the crisis by abolishing the Council.

Internet as an open democratic medium has earned the wrath of both the politicians and media persons for obvious reasons. If the politicians hated it because it does not respect their ‘more equal’ status, it has become bete noir for the media persons as it did away with their monopoly over dissemination of news. Now they not only have competition but the easily accessed, 24/7 medium subjected their conduct to relentless scrutiny.

Much as Kapil Sibal and his government would wish to govern the internet to ensure ordinary folk show due respect to the politicians at all times, it is easier said than done. There are an estimated 100 million netizens in India. We are the third most populous netizen country in the world after China and the US. But how does the Indian government police content posted outside India? If every article, cartoon, video and comment posted on the internet had to be screened and cleared before publishing, the process would simply crash the system. 

Secondly, regulating information flow had never worked. The erstwhile Soviet Union did It for 70 years deluding itself that the ‘worker’s paradise’ was really popular with the masses. Nearer home, though Indira Gandhi bowed to international pressure and ended the infamous emergency in 1977, she called for elections with the smug satisfaction that her regime was popular, which was the impression fed to her by her own propaganda machinery. For it was she who disbanded four private news agencies and created her hand-maiden Samachar!

TAIL PIECE: There are many ‘iron curtain’ jokes but this one on the popularity of Russia’s mouth piece PRAVDA, though seemingly apocryphal, has a tell-tale lesson for the Kapil Sibal’s of this world: After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a citizen of Moscow went to his favourite coffee shop and asked a waiter to bring him a cup of the brew and the day’s PRAVDA. The waiter politely informed him, ‘Sir, I will bring you your coffee, but I am afraid I can’t bring PRAVDA because it was closed down.’ 

As the waiter deposited his coffee cup, the man asked him again to bring the day’s PRAVDA. The waiter politely replied again that the PRAVDA was closed down. However the man continued to ask for PRAVDA every five minutes. Finally, the exasperated waiter lost his cool and shouted, ‘How many times do I have to tell you Sir that PRAVDA was closed down?’ The man replied with obvious relish, ‘I want to hear it again and again and again!’