"All of us who are
worth anything, spend our manhood in unlearning the follies, or expiating the
mistakes of our youth."
-
Percy Bysshe Shelley (English, 1792-1822))
Word for the day
Fumarole (n)
A hole in or near a volcano,
from which vaporizes.
(Source: Dictionary.com)
Malice towards
none
Rather frenzied response to
any suggestions against commutation of Yakub Menon's hanging in 1993 serial
blast case should worry the government.
It may be indicating a
blemish in the primary fabric of Indianness in the garb of patriotism.
Thank Mr. Tharoor and move on
Shashi Tharoor won accolades from Indian Netizens, including the
prime minister, for his passionate and impressive arguments for reparation
payable by the British crown to the people of India. (see the video here)
Encouraged by the overwhelming acceptance of his argument, many
must be wondering whether he should be made the Minister for Reparation of
India and sent to Afghanistan, Iran, Mongolia, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan,
Greece, Portugal etc. for seeking reparation for the plunder of India by Turks,
Mongols, Huns, Greeks, Afghans, Portuguese, and Mughals invaders over past
2000yrs.
There are some dissenting voices who find the Tharoor's argument
rhetorical and entertaining rather than substantive (e.g. Akar Patel -see
here).
I being a philistine and unenlightened soul unlike Mr. Tharoor or
Mr. Patel, however do not see any merit in discussing this tokenism of pride,
retribution and justice.
I believe that the tendency to embellish our trite socio-economic
with this sense of pride in our ancient past might in effect be harming us. The
need of the time, in my view, is to move past 20th century and embrace the 21st
century that may truly belong to India and Indians.
Let's accept that who British and others plundered were mostly
disparate group of feudal lords who did not believe in the idea of India as a
nation; many of them were equally cruel to their subjects and hence more than
equal partners in invaders' crimes and plundering.
Since independence our attitude and policies towards foreign
businesses and investment have been suffering from the false sense of pride in
our ancient past and phobia of East India Company, Mahmud of Ghazni, and Muhammad of Ghor, et. al.
If we want to execute our vision of re-establishing India at top
of the world in 25yrs we cannot afford to reinvent the wheel. We will have to
rely on the technologies already developed and capital already accumulated. It
is highly improbable that we could grow emulating China's cultural revolution
by closing our doors to the world for a decade or more.
Nehru gave assurance to foreign investors in 1949 that there will
be no discrimination between foreign and Indian capital and foreigners. The
emphasis was however changed in early 1970’s with the implementation of FERA
which marked the first major departure from the stated policy of welcoming
foreign capital. In 1990’s FERA was repealed and replaced with much softer
FEMA. However, there have been frequent flip flops on the of issue foreign
investment in India despite deep recognition of the need and desirability of
such capital.
Frequent controversies surrounding foreign investment through
Mauritius route and recent cases like Vodafone highlight the lack of conceptual
clarity and consistent framework for foreign capital.
It would be wrong to suggest that the complete removal of capital
controls is desirable at this stage. However, inconsistency and incongruence in
the framework governing the foreign capital is completely avoidable.
We need to remember investors will come when they like and not
when we want them desperately.
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