There’s more to it than B’lore airport

There’s more to it than B’lore airport
The landscape of government-business equations is rapidly changing

Financial Express

Vinayak Chatterjee
At first sight, it appears to be all about Narayana Murthy and Deve Gowda and Dharam Singh and Karnataka state-level politics. But, choli ke peeche is the rapidly changing landscape of government-business equations.

And this changing equation is about renowned, ethical, ‘world-class’ Indian business leaders not being coy any more about demanding a better deal from the government. This ‘new deal’ is not about tax reforms, license-quota permissions and inspector raj relaxations, but about a far greater ‘voice’ in how urban centres are run and how resources are allocated to increase the quality of infrastructure to enable their companies to be run competitively in globally challenging situations.

It is also beyond ‘voice.’ ‘Voice’ has, for too long, been associated with the rural impoverished and the urban downtrodden, and had to be heard through the NGOs. Now it is about corporate India’s angst, moving on to ‘affirmative action’ with big business, telling government that it is not diffident about the fact that it increases the size of the economic pie from which redistribution of income and better quality of life can be crafted.

And when does corporate affirmative action cross the line from sugar-coated suggestions to political discomfort?

When business leaders of eminence, recognition and stature publicly attack the political class for non-delivery, lethargy and self-interest. Like when the IT leaders of Bangalore go as far as to almost boycott the Karnataka government’s IT Exposition. Or, when Mumbai’s industrialists stridently demand far higher resource allocation for city infrastructure as their rightful claim to be India’s (not just Maharashtra’s) economic powerhouse. And, a few even demand separate statehood for Mumbai to better take care of their city’s destiny. The entrenched political establishment does not like it. Not after five decades of private favour-seeking and public sycophancy from two generations of business leaders.

The bureaucrat class is greatly uncomfortable, too, with the rising and increasingly assertive demeanour of the new-age corporate honchos who are not leaving punches unpulled. Being far too comfortable for too long in the cosy nexus of collective personal gain, the industrialist-bureaucrat-politician self-serving triangle of ‘socialist’ India looks like it is set to be rocked by these new age industrialist gurus, aggressively seeking delivery, not patronage.

There is apprehensive recognition that the gates of public life are slowly opening to let in a new breed...the widely recognised and acclaimed business leaders who are beginning to claim for themselves a part of the political turf.

Add to this, two other emerging paradigms. One, the increasing emphasis on public-private partnership (PPP) in India’s infrastructure development. And, two, the changing nature of public accountability. PPP mandates the almost equal partnership between the state and private business in major public utility projects. And along with private sector funding and management, come heavyweight business and corporate leaders. And they are poised to share power with the political-bureaucratic establishment in the new horizons of airports, airlines, urban transport, water supply, telecom, broadcasting, national highways, ports, SEZs and industrial parks.

The political class, too long used to wielding power singly, is still getting used to breaking bread equally at the table with big business, as distinct from throwing the crumbs across the room since the 1950s. And finally, the increasingly uncomfortable nature of public accountability is adding to the woes of the establishment. Never before has the flashlight begun to focus with a beam so bright and steady to allow the general public to peer into the snakepit. And you thought it was about Narayana Murthy, Deve Gowda and Bangalore Airport!

The writer is chairman of Feedback Ventures (P) Ltd