Arundhati Roy Rejoices

After all, Roy wrote just one decent book. Having earned her fame as a writer, she has parlayed it into doing what she really wanted to- be an activist in the garb of a writer. Well, then why should she be treated as a Booker Prize winning author at all! This is from the Guardian.

Let us hope the darkness has passed

India's real and virtual worlds have collided in a humiliation of power

Arundhati Roy

Friday May 14, 2004

The Guardian

For many of us who feel estranged from mainstream politics, there are rare, ephemeral moments of celebration. Today is one of them. When India went to the polls, we were negotiating the dangerous cross-currents of neo-liberalism and neo-fascism - an assault on the poor and minority communities.

Somebody please explain to me what neo-liberalism and neo-fascism mean? Is good economics now neo-xxx now ? Is being anti-communist neo-fascist now ? Do these neo-xxxs belong in the same category as neo-conservatism?

None of the pundits and psephologists predicted the results. The rightwing BJP-led coalition has not just been voted out of power, it has been humiliated. It cannot but be seen as a decisive vote against communalism, and neo-liberalism's economic "reforms". The Congress has become the largest party. The left parties, the only parties to be overtly (but ineffectively) critical of the reforms, have been given an unprecedented mandate. But even as we celebrate, we know that on every major issue besides overt Hindu nationalism (nuclear bombs, big dams and privatisation), the Congress and the BJP have no major ideological differences. We know the legacy of the Congress led us to the horror of the BJP. Still, we celebrate because surely a darkness has passed. Or has it?

Does it ever strike her that Congress and BJP agree on economics because that is the sensible thing to do! Does she realize that the Left is soliciting private investment in West Bengal while asking that the rest of India not do so. Given her penchant for the Left, shouldn't West Bengal be an economic miracle- a happy house. Why, then, is West Bengal such a basket-case. And are the thugs who are the CPM leaders in rural West Bengal examples of what Ms. Roy would mean by the "dictatorship of the proletariat" ?

Recently, a young friend was talking to me about Kashmir. About the morass of political venality, the brutality of the security forces, the inchoate edges of a society saturated in violence, where militants, police, intelligence officers, government servants, businessmen and even journalists encounter each other, and gradually, over time, become each other. About having to live with the endless killing, the mounting "disappearances", the whispering, the fear, the rumours, the insane disconnection between what Kashmiris know is happening and what the rest of us are told is happening in Kashmir. He said: "Kashmir used to be a business. Now it's a mental asylum."

What crappy argumentation, hidden by flowery language! Can Ms. Roy make up her mind if she's writing fiction or non-fiction? And Kashmir, in case she needs to be reminded, started with Nehru. The recent blow-up started in 1989, during Rajeev Gandhi's watch. I don't even want to get into the human rights argument- people who attack sneakily and kill barbarically have no right to crib when the chickens come home to roost. But I just want to point out, the NDA govt actually did enable elections in Kashmir even though it led to a *Congress* govt. Please give credit where it is due, Ms. Roy.

....

Each time there is a so-called terrorist strike, the BJP government has rushed in, eager to assign culpability with little or no investigation. The attack on the parliament building, on December 13 2001, and the burning of the Sabarmati Express, in Godhra, the following year are fine examples. In both cases, the evidence that surfaced raised disturbing questions and so was put into cold storage. Everybody believed what they wanted to, but the incidents were used to whip up communal bigotry in a haze of heightened Hindu nationalism.

In claiming that everbody has overlooked evidence that, as per Ms. Roy, is staring us in the face isn't she rendering herself open to the same argument: why is *she* overlooking the *other* , overwhelming, pieces of evidence that are also staring us in the face. Everybody else seems to see them clearly enough.

.....[more bullshit about atrocities. Her point about POTA misuse does have some validity though]

Meanwhile, economists cheering from the pages of corporate newspapers inform us that the GDP growth rate is phenomenal, unprecedented. Shops are overflowing with consumer goods. Government storehouses are overflowing with grain. Outside this circle of light, the past five years have seen the most violent increase in rural-urban income inequalities since independence. Farmers steeped in debt are committing suicide in hundreds; 40% of the rural population in India has the same foodgrain absorption level as sub-Saharan Africa, and 47% of Indian children under three suffer from malnutrition.

Precisely for that reason, Ms. Roy, are the reforms necessary. India is horribly poor, especially our rural population. We need to fix this, on a war footing. Lets see what hasn't worked until now: Your dear old communism hasn't done much for Russia, Cuba, West Bengal and Kerala (China is no longer communist, in any economic sense). So I don't think communism is solution for the ills it helped create. The generation of your mother might've liked Indira Gandhi's socialism but it really didn't get us much anywhere either except for "Garibi Hatao" and "import substitution". Look where "garibi hatao" got us. It is 200 years of British rule and 40+ years of pre-liberalization economics that is responsible for the wretched state that India is in. And raising the living standard of a billion people takes time. Even the fastest growing economies haven't really grown faster than 12-14% per annum (Japan, a few decades ago). India was already starting to hit that rate. Without reforms, there will be no growth. Without growth, where will the money to help the poor come from ?

Also, note the term "corporate newspapers". Ms. Roy is excellent at using words to muddy waters- mention "corporates" and "newspapers" in the same breath and let free association do its magic.

But in urban India, shops, restaurants, railway stations, airports, gymnasiums, hospitals have TV monitors in which India's Shining, Feeling Good. You only have to close your ears to the sickening crunch of the policeman's boot on someone's ribs, you only have to raise your eyes from the squalor, the slums, the ragged broken people on the streets and seek a friendly TV monitor, and you will be in that other beautiful world. The singing, dancing world of Bollywood's permanent pelvic thrusts, of permanently privileged, happy Indians waving the tricolour and Feeling Good. Laws like Pota are like buttons on a TV. You can use it to switch off the poor, the troublesome, the unwanted.

Once again, is Ms. Roy writing fiction or non-fiction ? And the question isn't that things are bad. They are bad. With a per capita income of $470 (U.S. has about $30000) things are bad. But what Ms Roy ignores is that 4 years ago that $470 was $380. Things are bad because they've always been bad. Very Bad. If Ms. Roy has her way, things will remain Very Bad. For a Long Time.

They said the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I can't even say if Ms. Roy has good intentions.

we'll have to wait and see. Fortunately the Congress will be hobbled by the fact that it needs the support of left parties to form a government. Hopefully, things will change. A little.

Here's hoping, too. Hoping that the reforms don't change.

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Aarghh...

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The Glorious Uncertainties...

WaPo's editorial put it well:

"Although the reasons for this upset will grow clearer as voting data are analyzed, the dominant theory is not encouraging. Mr. Vajpayee is said to have been punished for the pro-market reforms that fostered India's high-tech boom; voters in the villages felt left out and took their revenge at the ballot box. This suggests that even the world's most successful economic reformers run big political risks. India conducted poverty surveys in 1993 and '94 and again in 1999 and 2000; over that period, the rural poverty rate fell from 37 percent to 30 percent, so the idea that the villagers have not benefited from India's growth is spurious. Given India's continued boom since 2000, poverty in the villages has almost certainly fallen further. Mr. Vajpayee apparently got no thanks for this.

India will now be governed by a coalition dominated by the Congress Party, the political vehicle of the Gandhi family. The current Gandhi is Sonia, the Italian-born widow of the assassinated former prime minister Rajiv, who was himself the son of the assassinated former prime minister Indira, who was the daughter of the former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru."

Four generations of prime ministers- when will it stop! I guess one has to accept what a democracy comes up with, even if you think it is stupid. And being a non-resident Indian, the right to crib is even less, I think. After all, I didn't even vote.

Still, I get to rant since this is my blog. Since I get to rant, let me enumerate some of the things I want to rant about. The one thing I am worried about is the the Communists' greater strength. Their opposition to reforms, even if rhetorical, will be painful. And when it comes to privatization or labor reforms- it won't remain rhetorical. And those are one of the bigger issues remaining now. Congress has this horrible tendency of drinking its own kool-aid: rhetoric about bleeding hearts for liberalization-sufferers is fine. But you can trust the Congress to start believing its own rhetoric. And, of course, the communists still think Stalin lives and Cuba is showing it to the Big Bad Daddy. Hopefully, Sonia Gandhi will have the sense to have Manmohan Singh as F.M. and P. Chidambaram as Commerce Minister. Can they get Arun Shourie to change sides and keep managing Divestment Ministry ? That would be too much to ask for...

The other thing I am worried about is that Congress will have a different foreign policy just for the sake of being different- especially a turn towards the past. One of the finest performances of BJP government was its foreign policy. They got almost everything right. Right from the decision to perform the nuclear tests to the new oil diplomacy, Indian foreign policy is more sensible, more interests-oriented, less ideological and more pragmatic-- and even a little strategic. Does anyone even remember that Australia was the first country to call back their ambassador after the Pokaharan tests! Well, now they want to play cricket and hitch a ride on to the Indian economic gravy train. The only thing that they could've done better was to handle the Indian obssession of what the West, in general, and U.S., in particular, thinks of India.

"The Congress Party-led coalition is expected to swing back to traditional anti-Americanism, sounding off against the United States at the United Nations and perhaps challenging U.S. influence in the Middle East by launching its own peace initiative. All of which would test the Bush administration's reserves of forbearance and tact" (WaPo editorial again).

I thought that the issue of Sonia Gandhi being a foreigner wouldn't matter to me. But reading the news of celebrations in Italy hurt. After all, we do have a billion other candidates. And on top of that, Sonia is totally inexperienced- will she make a strong PM? Will the coterie return ? What about the famed "high-command" ?

There *are* some things that weren't so bad. BJP's loss in Gujarat, while lamentable in the general scheme of things, should be instructive to them. And as an IIT alum, I am glad the IIMs (and, potentially, the IITs) won't have the sword hanging over their head anymore.

On a related note, here's a crazy idea: India should cut loose its two most influential states - Bihar and U.P. OK, atleast Bihar. Let them fend for themselves- do not allow immigration in/out of them. No central govt money to/from them. These places are economic basket-cases anyway. Let them fix their own taxes and do their own services and build their own roads and what not. Let them declare independence if they want. Disclaimer: my home is in U.P. and I love the people there. I think it says something about the character of those two states that the bulk of Indian struggle for independence happened in these two states. But precisely because I am a native of one of these states can I say this without (and not take offense).

I just think that the general population of these states needs a big jolt and some education. They are stupid voters. How can an entire state re-elect Laloo Yadav so many times- especially given what he has done to that state. How can an erstwhile school-teacher (Mayawati ) amass Rs 10 crores (100 million) in a few years and still be referred to as the leader of dalits! A newspaper story suggested that the dalits vote for her because they think she can make them this rich too. Aaargh...its not even funny. These are states where if you try to fix the education system by cracking down on cheating, your opposition makes it a poll plank. And wins.

Once left to themselves, things will get worse for the people there. But they'll see other states having better governments and ultimately see the light. Once the voters of these states have sorted out their governments, they can come back and join in. Hopefully, the rest of India will have built enough wealth by then to share some with them. Didn't something like this happen with East Germany and West Germany ?

OK, I wasn't serious about this whole UP-Bihar thing. But I still think the stupid voters in these two states are one of Indian democracy's bigger problems.

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