For the past few years, all of us have noticed how the Union Gov’t, State Gov’ts, almost all large corporate entities and even individuals of any relevance in this country seem to be talking about growth or otherwise of the nation’s financial system only in US Dollars. Rarely does one come across mention of the poor Indian National Rupee (INR) when the topics under discussion are the Budget or corporate growth or some such high sounding issues. Such acts seem to display the desperate wish of Indians to be ‘internationally acceptable’ and so they take great pride in talking in foreign currency, foreign collaborations and even foreign managing directors.
When a nation is so very hell bent on being international, it should also understand that there is the other side of the coin. The other side, obviously, is the downside. Corporate transparency and resilience are the first to be tested for a business that is trying to go beyond the borders.
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To see a ‘foreign hand’ whenever there is sharp criticism of the government for its acts of omissions and commissions by agencies and people outside India is a bogey often raised by ruling parties. The same thing is being witnessed now in the wake of allegations of share market manipulations by the “biggest conman in corporate history” Gautam Adani, caustic comments on Prime Minister Narendra Modi by billionaire financier-philanthropist George Soros and the BBC’s two-part series on the pogrom in Gujarat in 2002.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on 17 February 2023, 92-year-old Soros said, “Modi and business tycoon Adani are close allies; their fate is intertwined.” He went on to say the conglomerate’s troubles would “significantly weaken Modi’s stranglehold on India’s federal government” and “open the door to push for much needed institutional reforms.”
This opened floodgates of bitter criticism of Soros by BJP supporters and two Cabinet Ministers of the Modi government who described the billionaire as an agent of “subversion” and “regime change”, out to pull down the Modi government to further his own personal economic interests. They also called into question the motive of Soros’ foundation – The Open Society Foundations – that has billions of dollars at its disposal to fund activities to uphold democracy and free society across the globe. One minister went a bit far and termed Soros as an “old man” which could be termed as gerontophobia, an unwelcome adjective for any responsible person who himself is a retired government executive, now a minister.
The most significant remark made by Soros is that Modi is “silent” on the revelation of Adani’s alleged manipulations and that the PM “will have to answer questions from foreign investors and in Parliament.” It could be that Soros is expecting too much when he said he hoped for “a democratic revival in India” out of the turmoil in the Adani conglomerate’s financial reverses following the expose by the US-based Hindenburg Research on January 24. In fact, the seven listed companies of the apples-to-airports Adani group have together lost about $120 billion in market value since the allegation that the conglomerate improperly used offshore tax havens and manipulated stocks.
The aphorism, “speech is silver, silence golden,” may not always be sagacious enough, especially when silence runs the risk of being construed as a tacit approval or admission of wrongdoing. In this sense, Soros’ charge of Modi’s silence on the tsunami of sorts in the share market caused by the Adani group’s losses does tend to strengthen the suspicion of the crony capitalism the Modi-Adani alliance seemingly represents. It is anybody’s guess how much funds of the public sector Life Insurance Corporation of India and State Bank of India have been invested in the Adani group’s companies thereby putting the common man’s money kept in the two government agencies at tremendous risk.
The PM’s silence is deafening and it only lends itself to criticism by people both inside and outside the country. It is also preposterous for the BJP leaders and ministers to go after Soros this way. They need rather to answer why their supreme leader is still maintaining a studied silence on his links with Adani and how the latter has seemingly held the Indian economy at ransom for his personal gain, apparently taking advantage of his connection with Modi.
The government has also to answer for setting IT officials to search for alleged tax-related offences by the BBC at the latter’s offices in Delhi and Mumbai. But this is not new. One is reminded when Twitter started flagging tweets emanating from BJP sources as “manipulated media” in May 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Well known for its lethargy and unwillingness to act, the Delhi police immediately swung into action and raided Twitter offices at Delhi and Gurgaon in the late evening when offices were all closed and staff working from home. That time also the intention was to send a message of threat. The same method was followed against several other media outlets for their criticism of the Modi-government.
On the other hand, in its efforts to gain international stature, India started organizing the Goa International Film Festival. It is perfectly fine to want to be something like Cannes or Berlin in matters of film fests. But when a whole committee of international and Indian jurists headed by Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid scrapped The Kashmir Files movie as “vulgar propaganda” then the saffron brigade should not have lost its cool. It is presumptuous to consider that because Lapid is an Israeli therefore he will, per force, hate Moslems.
The Kashmir Files told a story of how Kashmiri pundits were persecuted by Moslems. Similarly, during the farmers’ protests in 2021, when pop star Rihanna had tweeted in favour of the protesting Indian farmers, all hell broke loose and she was abused by BJP trolls in the filthiest of language. Such reactions seem like we as a nation are undecided whether to put ourselves up for deep scrutiny or not. When India gets even a small international acknowledgement, the media and government blow the trumpets loud enough to turn everyone deaf. The moment the international voice is unpleasant to the ears of the powers that be, the poisonous bile comes out in every vulgar manner possible.
