September Involution

Before it became annus horribilis, 2010 was going along nicely. The usual crises surfaced but their lifespan was brief and impact digestible. A good monsoon promised a bumper crop, some crucial legislation like the Food Security Act seemed on the anvil, the main Opposition party appeared to be getting its act together after a period of disarray, the economy shed its lethargy and there was talk of double-digit growth, inflation was coming down. India was not a bad country to live in.

Our estranged neighbour, having failed to convince the international community that the war in Afghanistan could not be won without solving the Kashmir problem, realised that the terror infrastructure it had financed and nurtured was coming back to devour its creator. We were showing more spine against the Chinese and matching them in rhetoric and coercive diplomacy. Indo-American relations under President Obama picked up after a sluggish start; Britain’s David Cameron went the extra mile, warning Pakistan that it could not look “both ways” on terrorism.

And then Suresh Kalmadi happened. Starting from September, a series of media exposes revealed the ugly face of the Indian Olympic Association. When the Commonwealth Games preparations began, there was little doubt that Mr Kalmadi, given his past record, would mess things up. What the country did not anticipate was the flagrant and crude diversion of public funds into private pockets. From toilet paper to gymnastics equipment to housekeeping expenses, the robbery took one’s breath away. Some last-minute emergency measures saved the day but not before the nation had been shamed in front of the world. The putative superpower could not organise clean toilets!

From then on, it was downhill all the way. India morphed into the Republic of Scams. The Adarsh scandal cost the head of the Maharashtra chief minister; the P.J. Thomas CVC bungle, which despite talk of Caesar’s wife, turned into a farce when the government announced that “impeccable integrity” was an impractical idea. Mr Yediyurappa, through bluff, bullying and blackmail, continued to show the V-sign to the cameras despite being caught in flagrante delicto.

Finally, the affair of the Niira Radia tapes in which this magazine had a small role to play. The debate took a curious turn. Everyone went for the hapless Ms Radia, accusing her of every sin under the sun. According to me, Niira Radia is the side-show in this awesome subversion of our democracy. She is merely the aggressive lobbyist she is supposed to be. Consequently, we tied ourselves up in knots arguing whether lobbying needed to be legalised or left to free enterprise. What we should have been arguing about is how the lady got so far with so many different and influential people. She is the bribe-giver. But what of the bribe-takers? The rogues’ gallery constitutes the creme-de-la-creme of Indian society.

To top it all, the country was faced with the privacy issue. Outlook is in court on this subject, so I had better be careful, but even a cursory hearing of the tapes shows the content is of compelling public interest. I have avoided prime-time discussions on the issue in the interests of my marriage and my dog, but can any sane person seriously maintain that Outlook is guilty of violating individual privacy?

The past four months have left me so depressed that I have cancelled my annual foreign holiday. Instead, I shall be drinking a glass of Sula wine on New Year’s eve in Nizamuddin East hoping for a less stressful 2011. I hope you will join me in raising a glass, wherever you are.