The Hindu Business Line : Defining Monday

10,000. Capers of the Sensex is the lead in all newspapers. That moment on Monday afternoon, the Indian economy walked into a future populated by scheming brokers, dodgy analysts and deafening media personalities. It was a defining Monday as Paul rushed from BSE Towers to broking outfits to get a fresh camera angle to shoot 10,000.

It was an important Monday as the Indian economy put to rest the many ghosts residing in Yojana Bhavan. The author of the story is Dr Manmohan Singh, though as Prime Minister he would like to disown the most popular business volume running into many editions.

This writer recalls a press conference in Bombay (now Mumbai) when one waited for Dr Singh to get a clarification on some point he had made earlier. Along with Kurup one stood by till Dr Singh was relatively free and the Finance Minister quietly and patiently explained the issue (something to do with economic reforms). Never has any Finance Minister done better though it is a different matter that the able Sardar is now more of a designer politician.

World history is split into B.C. and A.D. eras; the Indian economy could be dated similarly — the pre-10,000 age and the post-10,000 age. In the pre-10,000 era, as a trainee journalist one had to match the original share quotation sheet from the BSE with the printed version in the afternoon, as mistakes were not tolerated by my editors. There was no NSE, there was no SEBI and for the editors of business newspapers, share markets were something to be scoffed at. "Ah, that's a gambling den," was the defensive response from my socialist seniors unsure of shares and money. But they also flaunted a shred of virtue, if one may term it that, a sensitivity to the needs of the unfortunate poor.

Every government policy had to measure up to a rough and ready welfare gauge. Government undertakings more than corporates were edit matter in the eight-pages black and white business papers of those days. Public relations officers did not drop out of editorial chairs like they do today. For business newspapers, periodicals and channels, rural India, urban and rural poverty are non-issues.

On Monday, when Sensex climbed to 10,000, the Indian Express had on its front pages the death counts of cotton farmers in Vidarbha and an earlier edition had reports of onion farmers in Maharashtra selling their crop at 50 paise per kg when in Borivili onion is priced at around Rs 12 per kg. For the business media, the poor have no news value (or is it ad value?). In the pre-10,000 era, poverty was a live topic for men and women in the media. Like it or not they had a hot plate conscience.

Now a business journalist, to qualify as one, sports the trademark colours of one-day cricket. To make the cut, one has to market oneself with expertise. Like one-day cricket, sponsorship drives business media and economic reforms need to be backed by bulky sponsors (or going by the cliché, companies with deep pockets). Reforms are a species of petty selfishness.

There is the sure belief that reforms will undo gross inequality in the post-10,000 age when there is little evidence to prove the point. It is a faith as socialism was in the pre-10,000 age.

Growing spacious malls by tearing down textile mills in Mumbai will offer more jobs, is a holy aphorism none dares to challenge. The point missed is that the price of any item in a mall could be the monthly earnings of an ordinary urban Indian. In many ways a bulky book of political cartoons styled, "Don't spare me Shankar", Jawaharlal Nehru" is proper for the post-10,000 age.

It is a collection of cartoons covering the times of Nehru by the famed cartoonist Shankar. In a foreword, Indira Gandhi writes, " Jawaharlal Nehru enjoyed a hearty laugh - often at his own expense. ... .Shankar was not afraid to wound if there was reason to do so. From Jawaharlal Nehru he got affection and even indulgence. The title of this collection is indicative of Jawaharlal Nehru's own attitude to life." A cartoon (dated March 26, 1950) which this writer likes is one Jawaharlal Nehru trying to pull back another Jawaharlal Nehru with the caption reading: "Because I am liable to be emotional, excited and indignant, I see to it that I am not led away by emotion, indignation or excitement: Nehru."

Shankar has a dig at the efforts of the Planning Commission to relieve poverty. One has to feed on the volume in short bursts and it tastes fine for this writer who has lived mostly in the pre-10,000 period of Indian history.

Dated May 17, 1964, is Shankar's last but one prophetic cartoon on Nehru who died on May 27, 1964.

It shows a bare-bodied Nehru running with a torch in hand followed by Lal Bahadur Shastri, Nanda, Indira Gandhi, Krishna Menon and Morarji Desai. The volume has short essays (written by Shankar?) with "Man of the Era," dated May 31, 1964, concluding: "... . His vision took in the destiny of man. Systems, beliefs, 'isms, did not bother him one bit because he saw only man, the unit of thought in the discovered universe... . Nehru could not hate. ... His name will endure to the edge of doom."

In the pre-10,000 times, decent humans like Nehru tried hard to erase poverty; in post-10,000 times, small humans have time only for themselves.

P. Devarajan

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