ALL INDIANS MUST READ THIS
I would like to sum up our performance in the 20th century in one sentence. Indians have
succeeded in countries ruled by whites, but failed in their own.
This outcome would have astonished leaders of our independence movement. They declared
Indians were kept down by white rule and could flourish only under self-rule. This seemed
self-evident The harsh reality today is that Indians are succeeding brilliantly in countries
ruled by whites, but failing in India . They are flourishing in the USA and Britain .
But those that stay in India are pulled down by an outrageous system that fails to reward
merit or talent. Fails to allow people and businesses to grow, and keeps real power with
netas, babus, and assorted manipulators. Once Indians go to white-ruled countries, they
soar and conquer summits once occupied only by whites.
Rono Dutta has become head of United Airlines, the biggest airline in the world. Had he
stayed in India , he would have no chance in Indian Airlines. Even if the top job there was
given to him by some godfather, a myriad netas, babus and trade unionists would have
ensured that he could never run it like United Airlines.
Rana Talwar has become head of Standard Chartered Bank, one of the biggest multinational
banks in Britain , while still in his 40s. Had he been in India , he would perhaps be a local
manager in the State Bank, taking orders from babus to give loans to politically favoured
clients.
Rajat Gupta is head of Mckinsey, the biggest management consultancy firm in the world. He
now advises the biggest multinationals on how to run their business. Had he remained in
India he would probably be taking orders from some sethji with no qualification save that of
being born in a rich family.
Lakhsmi Mittal has become the biggest steel baron in the world, with steel plants in the US ,
Kazakhstan , Germany , Mexico , Trinidad and Indonesia . India 's socialist policies reserved
the domestic steel industry for the public sector. So Lakhsmi Mittal went to Indonesia to run
his family's first steel plant there. Once freed from the shackles of India , he conquered the
world.
Subhash Chandra of Zee TV has become a global media king, one of the few to beat Rupert
Murdoch. He could never have risen had he been limited to India , which decreed a TV
monopoly for Doordarshan. But technology came to his aid: satellite TV made it possible for
him to target India from Hong Kong . Once he escaped Indian rules and soil, he soared.
You may not have heard of 48-year old Gururaj Deshpande. His communications company,
Sycamore, is currently valued by the US stock market at over $ 30 billion, making him
perhaps one of the richest Indians in the world. Had he remained in India , he would
probably be a babu in the Department of Telecommunications.
Arun Netravali has become president of Bell Labs, one of the biggest research and
development centres in the world with 30,000 inventions and several Nobel Prizes to its
credit. Had he been in India , he would probably be struggling in the middle cadre of Indian
Telephone Industries. Silicon Valley alone contains over one lac Indian millionaires.
Sabeer Bhatia invented Hotmail and sold it to Microsoft for $ 400 million. Victor Menezes is
number two in Citibank. Shailesh Mehta is CEO of Providian, a top US financial services
company. Also at or near the top are Rakesh Gangwal of US Air, Jamshd Wadia of Arthur
Andersen, and Aman Mehta of Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corp.
In Washington DC , the Indian CEO High Tech Council has no less than 200 members, all
high tech-chiefs. While Indians have soared, India has stagnated. At independence India was
the most advanced of all colonies, with the best prospects.
Today with a GNP per head of $370, it occupies a lowly 177th position among 209 countries
of the world. But poverty is by no means the only or main problem. India ranks near the
bottom in the UNDP's Human Development Index, but high up in Transparency International'
s Corruption Index.
The neta-babu raj brought in by socialist policies is only one reason for India 's failure. The
more sordid reason is the rule-based society we inherited from the British Raj is today in
tatters. Instead money,muscle and influence matter most.
At independence we were justly proud of our politicians. Today we regard them as
scoundrels and criminals. They have created a jungle of laws in the holy name of socialism,
and used these to line their pockets and create patronage networks. No influential crook
suffers. The Mafia flourish unhindered because they have political links.
I have heard of an IAS probationer at the Mussorie training academy pointing out that in
India before the British came, making money and distributing favours to relatives was not
considered a perversion of power, it was the very rationale of power. A feudal official had a
duty to enrich his family and caste. Then the British came and imposed a new ethical code
on officials. But, he asked, why should we continue to choose British customs over desi ones
now that we are independent?
The lack of transparent rules, properly enforced, is a major reason why talented Indians
cannot rise in India . A second reason is the neta-babu raj, which remains intact despite
supposed liberalisation. But once talented Indians go to rule-based societies in the west,
they take off. In those societies all people play by the same rules, all have freedom to
innovate without being strangled by regulations.
This, then, is why Indians succeed in countries ruled by whites, and fail in their own. It is the
saddest story of the century.
