Opinion Fifth column: Petty cogs in the wheel?
Last year, I was in Madison Gardens and reported in this newspaper that rock stars would be lucky to get the adulation that Modi got, writes Tavleen Singh.
-
Share -
-
-
“There is deep disappointment” pundit friends murmured happily “because he (Narendra Modi) has simply not been able to do the economic reforms that investors hoped for”.
There are things that we who inhabit the high realms of political punditry in Lutyens Delhi often cannot see. So before the Prime Minister left for the United States we concluded that this time he would not be given the rock star reception he got last time. “There is deep disappointment” pundit friends murmured happily “because he has simply not been able to do the economic reforms that investors hoped for”. Even I, someone who believes that Narendra Modi brings the first real hope that India will shake off the legacies of Nehruvian socialism and the licence raj, began gloomily to share the apprehensions of my fellow pundits.
Last year, I was in Madison Gardens and reported in this newspaper that rock stars would be lucky to get the adulation that Modi got. But this year I agreed with my fellow pundits that there would be disenchantment and not rapture. So it was a shock that the rock star treatment began in Ireland and has continued on the other side of the Atlantic. With even Rupert Murdoch endorsing Modi on Twitter as ‘the best leader with the best policies since Independence’. The next shock came in a poll by the Pew Research Centre that revealed an approval rating for Modi of 87 per cent among Indians.
So why have us pundit types missed all this? Why have we been making predictions of doom and gloom? Why have we given so much more space in recent months to the Prime Minister’s critics than we did last year at this time? I was pondering over these questions when I got a call from DHL telling me that they had a package for me, but could not deliver it until I could prove that I lived at the address on the package.
When I asked why, they said that according to a new Customs rule, they were obliged to do this and if I did not upload on to their website proof of my residence and existence, they would have to trash my package. The package contained a diary for 2016 that I get every year from Smythson in London and I have never had problems before. This time it took me a week to get it released after paying hefty Customs duty. So I will never get Smythson to post me a diary again. But what if I was a businessman waiting urgently for samples to help me do business in India? Would I not simply pack my bags and go to a country where it really is easier to do business?
The trouble I had getting hold of my small package reminded me why a certain disappointment now exists with Modi’s government. The rule under which my diary was held up is a new one. And there are plenty of bad old ones that remain unchanged. An investor arriving at an Indian airport, travel weary in the early hours, often puzzles over the extra checks he has to undergo. After having his passport stamped, he has to show the stamp to another official who is policing the immigration official. After he collects his bags and puts them on a trolley, he has to unload them at Customs and pass them through an X-ray machine. Then there is another official who collects the Customs slip. These checks are uniquely Indian. And remain unchanged because petty officials have since licence raj days revelled in their powers to obstruct and harass.
Modi promised that India would become the easiest country to do business, but we continue to rank below Bangladesh and Pakistan. And according to the latest rankings, it was easier doing business in India before. Could this be because the Prime Minister has not understood the power of the petty official to disregard the best-laid plans of ministers and policymakers? It is true that high officials are more skilled when it comes to doing this, but it is also true that there are many more petty officials in the business of governance so they can cause more trouble.
What should the Prime Minister do to bring petty officials to heel? First he must acknowledge that the problem exists and then he must find out why there are so many useless rules and regulations from which they derive their power. One example. Since the glory days of
Mrs Gandhi’s licence raj, there is a small army of officials who are employed at Indian airports to censor foreign magazines. Usually they put angry blue stamps on maps that show Kashmir as disputed territory. It was a useless exercise always, but is completely useless now since the magazine can be read online. So why is there no change?
What must change urgently are the rules and regulations that give petty officials the powers they have. Why is this not happening already?
Share
