The Big Story: Okay, Tata?

In the Bollywood of the 1950s, banias or seths – who stereotypically represented India’s capitalist castes – would often be the villains. Given the history of India during the 1940s, when business made huge profits as India starved, this was maybe not unexpected. In 1940s Bengal, the phrase “black marketer” entered the Indian lexicon, as Calcutta’s traders took to hoarding rice even as 3 million Bengalis were starving to death. Traders were typecast as so immoral that in Bengali and Hindi, the simple word for trader, dalal, itself became a sort of slur.

Things have come a full circle since then. In 1991, as India embarked on a programme of structural adjustment, India’s elites changed their mind about business. Now capitalists are to be adored and emulated, even as the politician has replaced the bania as the stock evil person in Bollywood. Nothing exemplified the good capitalist more than the Tata group. India’s long-running group has more than 100 lines of business and impacts the lives of a millions of Indians.

Yet, as a crisis breaks over the Tata group, it seems this adulation may have been a little misplaced. Earlier this week, Tata Sons replaced its chairman in a sudden boardroom coup. As Cyrus Mistry had to make way for the previous head Ratan Tata to take charge temporarily, he has made uncomfortable allegations about the conglomerate. Apart from accusing Ratan Tata, who was chairman from 1991 to 2012, of incompetence Mistry has also accused the Tata group of malfeasance. The allegations include fraudulent transactions by Air Asia and Indian Hotels acquiring property at inflated prices. Most importantly, Mistry accuses Tata of not shutting down its loss-making Nano small car business because the Nano plant would supply a mechanical part to an electric car maker owned by Rata Tata.

As irregularities in the Nano project come to light, it might be remembered that the West Bengal government, under the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had proceeded to forcefully acquire land for the car plant in Singur in 2008. While angry farmers had lashed out against their prime agricultural land being forcefully seized to make a small car, what is remarkable is the support the land acquisition plan received from urban India. Even the CPI(M), a party built on rural landowners, plumbed for Tata. Such was the trust that India’s elites had in Big Business and the Tatas.

This isn’t the only instance of Big Business taking advantage of that trust. Indian banks now have close to Rs 600,000 crore bad loans. Even high-profile defaulters such as Vijay Mallya have been let off, without much political blowback for the Modi government. If anything, the Tata fiasco needs to be a wake-up call for India. The country’s Big Suits aren’t above board.

Political Picks

  1. As a five-member Delhi team, headed by former Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha, held meetings with civil society groups in Jammu and Kashmir, voices are growing louder in the Valley for continuation of the dialogue process between New Delhi and Srinagar.
  2. Former chief minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader BS Yeddyurappa’s acquittal in the mining corruption case that almost cost him his career in 2012 could end up evicting the Congress party from Karnataka, the last big state it rules.
  3.  The feud in the Samajwadi Party showed no signs of ending with state unit chief Shivpal Yadav expelling from the party for six years minister Tej Narain, who is considered close to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
  4. The Union defence ministry overruled objections from the armed forces in issuing a controversial order on October 18 that downgraded military officers in comparison to civilian officers. The move comes at a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to reap political capital from the Indian Army’s striked across the Line of Control into Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. In Uttar Pradesh, which soon goes to the polls, the BJP is planning to send out Diwali greetings to the households of every serving military and paramilitary soldier.

Punditry

  1. By brokering a face-saver for the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Devendra Fadnavis has shown himself as a chief minister afraid of a bully, argues Julio Ribeiro in the Indian Express.
  2. Prime Minister Modi's broadsides at the Brics and Bimstec summits signifies a marked change of approach towards Pakistan, says Kanwal Sibal in the Telegraph.
  3. The Suez Crisis was a turning point for India’s foreign affairs. By showcasing its ability to play a genuinely independent role, India buttressed its standing as an Asian power, recounts Srinath Raghavan in the Hindustan Times.

Giggle

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Hope and fury in Malkangiri: A mother finds her son's body but yearns for her husband's return, reports Priyanka Vora.

Shirsha wasn’t the only one who was uncertain about whether the boxes actually contained the body of a relative. Laxman Rao from Maripakala in East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh, was scanning the photographs to see if his daughter was among them. “Some television channels were saying that Aruna had died,” he said. Rao said that he was proud of his daughter and the work she does for the welfare of Adivasis.For Rao, the identification process is not new. His son, Azad alias Gopal Rao was allegedly killed in an encounter in May by the Greyhounds – the special anti-Maoist force raised by the Andhra Pradesh government. Azad carried a bounty of Rs 6 lakhs on his head. “He had married an Advasi girl and was mobilising the Advasis to demand what is theirs,” said Rao

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