The events subsequent to the exposure of the Niira Radia tapes have led respected figures from the world of industry and finance to worry about the state of affairs in the country. Top banker Deepak Parekh reflected in a recent television interview if the India story might not be over when everything seemed to be going just right. His worry is that the Manmohan Singh government might not be pulling as a team, or why would the tapping of Ms Radia’s phone — which showed up many in politics, business, journalism and the bureaucracy in poor light — be done for two long years. Does this not amount to deliberate and concerted invasion of privacy? If the government suspected the corporate communication honcho of violating laws, why was the tapping not focused and limited to a specified time period? Mr Parekh appears to imply that irritants such as unnecessary phone taps could deter future investments in India. This is conceivably true. However, an appeal to facts would suggest that Ms Radia’s phone was not tapped for two long years but for specified periods of time in two consecutive years. There is a world of difference between the two. Mr Parekh has also spoken of the business community’s other concerns. He fears the climate is getting less conducive: decisions by one arm of government are set to nought by disapprovals emanating from others. He cites in this regard the absence of clearances from the environment and mining ministries, and difficulties over land availability for industry, obstructing investments.
Before Mr Parekh, top industrialist Ratan Tata had spoken out in rather strong terms against the “banana republic” syndrome of rules and laws being disregarded and privacy being encroached upon. It is true we have seen considerable evidence of late of systemic corruption in a number of sectors. The 2G scam, in particular, appeared a case of match-fixing being merrily indulged in on account of promiscuity involving sections of industry and politicians and unscrupulous bureaucrats, with elements of the media too drawn in, willingly or otherwise — thus exposing the rotten underbelly of the Indian elite. It is a sorry state of affairs, but a banana republic? To suggest that is to disparage the panoply of our democratic institutions which seem to be holding up rather well, all things considered, and which are sometimes an object of envy by other countries. True, the environment ministry has held back in some prominent cases, but are these decisions born of caprice? At least that has not been pointed out so far, though many have fretted. The same ministry, after a rethink, has cleared the second airport in Mumbai. The issue of acquiring land for industry — the mining issue is a subset of it, especially in Orissa where the phenomenon has taken on a high profile — is an important one and has been raised in other countries as well. There are ways around it, although the land question is a tricky one, especially in a democracy, as it typically involves marginal or small farmers and sometimes tribal populations, as in the case of Orissa.
A balanced articulation of the country’s difficulties on several fronts is certainly in order. Identifying problems is after all the first step in finding solutions. Those in high positions indeed have a special responsibility in this regard. It was therefore surprising to see finance minister Pranab Mukherjee speak at a recent Ficci programme of our democracy getting “too noisy”, and appealing for some “silence”. The observation appeared directed at the world of business. This was hardly called for. If politicians and the media possess the democratic licence for ceaseless chatter, so do ordinary citizens — and that includes business leaders, whose general public profile is one of reticence.