|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Escape from the
Benevolent Zookeepers: The Best of Swaminomics
Some of the best writings of the prolific writer have now been compiled into this impressive book. On re-reading, they appear so refreshingly familiar and also prophetic. He reminisces about those frustrating times in the introduction to explain the title of the book. He calls socialist politicians Benevolent Zookeepers who led our Independence movement and then shackled us for decades through the licence-permit raj. They were not really evil. On the contrary, they were rather golden-hearted, benevolent leaders determined to banish poverty. It is just that they chose a model that perpetuated poverty which they avowedly wanted to abolish. Instead of allowing India to export its way to prosperity, they sought economic independence by retreating from international trade into a cocoon of self-sufficiency. They reduced us to the level of the Hindi rate of growth. What we needed was an activist government that developed rural areas and strove for universal literacy. What we had got was a government that did nothing. What we really needed were not fat-cat businessmen but a competitive marketplace that would force businessmen to be productive in order to survive. Swaminathan was one of the few columnists who differed with them firmly and expressed his views forcefully, and in a cogent manner. They had a price to pay: being called running stooges of capitalism. Alas, the government changed track only many years later. Many articles of that era make one lament that had his voice of reason been heard, India would not have been lagging behind many countries which were as poor as it at one time but then surged ahead by embracing liberalisation and privatisation much before India did. Not only did the hares start earlier but they also moved faster, while the tortoise treaded on, also taking many breaks on the way, which are the privilege of only the hare in the fable. Ironically, he reveals that he too was a socialist in his youth. Who wasn’t? He even supported the neta-babu raj but had the intellectual honesty to admit by the end of the 1970s that he was wrong, much earlier than others did. Swaminathan hasn’t written about economics alone. His essays have also been a telling commentary on the governance of the country in general and what ails it. So, there have been articles on globalisation and empowerment, politics and governance, the threat of communalism, knowledge economy, history and its ironies, poverty and its discontents, unreformed education sector, environment, freedom of expression and international relations. The bedrock is economy of course, but every aspect of administration is analysed threadbare. He is at his best while tearing apart politicians whom he blames for most of the ills of the country. His thesis is that the nemsis of the numerous sins that they have committed is already upon them. As a class, they are the most despised and ridiculed lot. If he rubbishes Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s Gaurav Yatra as not much different from the flag march that Brigadier General Rex Dyer held in Amritsar in 1919 and then opened fire killing hundreds, he ridicules Ashok Singhal’s theory that the Tehri Dam would spoil the purity of the holy waters of the Ganga. The title of the piece? "Ashok, Teri Ganga Maili Ho Gayee". He does not hesitate from locking horns with a person of the stature of Amartya Sen, the celebrated Nobel Prize winner who had argued for banning private tuitions. He does not mince words and says that "Sen’s thesis is not merely a denial of rights, it is rank hypocrisy". He is equally forthright on Manmohan Singh and argues that he is less a Prime Minister than a regent, keeping the dynastic seat warm till the new Nehru-Gandhi generation takes over. "This is one reason why the regent always goes the extra mile to accommodate the Left Front and Laloo Yadav: this buys time for Rahul and Priyanka." Such plain speaking aside, the overall message that the book conveys is of hope. If the country can provide good quality infrastructure, good communications, reasonably hassle-free systems, reasonably efficient bureaucracies and sensible economic policies, the Indians can wrought miracles. Many of them have already done that abroad. Carry on Swaminathan, we indeed have escaped from the cage of benevolent zookeepers. Our feet are wobbly because of lack of exercise. Still, we have taken many small, halting steps on the ladder of success. There are miles to go. But some day we can make it. Amen.
|
THERE
are many like yours truly who find economic topics rather soporific.
Yet, thousands of them were drawn into this complicated but fascinating
field because Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar’s articles could make
the bone-dry subject lively and interesting. His Swaminomics became the
must-read column in The Times of India not only because he was so
deceptively simple to follow but also because he never hesitated to
apportion blame where it was due. And my word, there was a lot to
criticise the way the government was running the economy of the country
in the time before 1990s.