New Industrial Policy: All wrapper, no candy
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik rolled out last week another fakery, Industrial Policy Resolution (IPR) 2015. like putting lipstick on a pig, the IPR of 2007 has been tweaked here and there just for effect. It is the same old policy with some seemingly investor-friendly measures as the new topping. Threadbare nostrums of ‘single-window authority’ and ‘high-level authority’ were re-robed to lead investors up the garden path. But discerning investors know it is only a vacuous regurgitation of what was already there in the old policy. It is like lipstick on a pig. Policy per se does not attract investment; effective delivery system does. Hardware may have been replaced, but what about the more important softwareIJ It is not enough to just aim. One must shoot. The new industrial policy is long on vision but short on sight. Quick and effective decisions are the alpha and omega of an industrial policy and practice. It is here that Patnaik has repeatedly proved himself to be a laggard. If the most important man behind implementing the policy is a chronic ditherer, a visceral temporiser and a congenital procrastinator, no policy, howsoever brilliantly scripted in purple prose, will cut any ice. All these character flaws have sapped and hollowed the credibility of Patnaik’s industrial policy. He is largely seen as an anti-industry wolf in the oversised clothes of a pro-industry sheep. He can fool investors once, but he can’t fool them over and over again. Quick and sensible decisions are touchstone issues for the investors. Even as Patnaik was unveiling his new industrial policy, the CEO of the Rs40,000-crore Vedanta Aluminium was doing the rounds in the Secretariat begging him and his officers for raw materials to keep his plant running. Indian Steel Association representatives who met Patnaik last week for a discussion - obviously in two different languages — on the acute shortage of raw materials they are facing say they are forced to run their plants at 50 per cent of their capacity. When the existing investors are knocking at his door, he thinks it is a noise. This alone shows the ugly face of the Government’s industrial policy and its implementation. Mineral resources, policy framework and incentives are of no use if decisions are not taken in time. For proof, look no further than the Posco. A rock-hard determination is required for industrialisation, not woolly-minded wishfulness. Hopelessness has permeated the public as never before. To be optimistic about the industrial future of the State, one has to be Dr Pangloss on steroid. The policy may be in place and a few top officials may be knowing the importance of the symphony. But where is the conductorIJ The place to look for the conductor is clearly the Naveen Nivas. But is he willing to play the roleIJ Most, however, see him as posturing on industrialisation but dangerously clueless on why it is not happening. His new industrial policy is like egg without yolk. The real tragedy is Patnaik neither loves nor hates industries. He is simply indifferent to it. His new industrial policy is too cartoonish for the serious investors’ taste.
A tale of two police chiefs
Police handling of the mob violence at Kendrapada on August 7 and at Jhiinti on 31 provide a study in contrast. Kendrapada SP Satish Gajbhiye didn’t flinch from ordering lathicharge to stop a violent crowd from lynching Sarathi Baba and destroying his and public property. The SP was suspended for his action. Police Commissioner RP Sharma, wiser after the Kendrapada incident, scrupulously refrained from taking any action to stop a similar mob from attacking life and property at the Trahi Achyuta Ashram at Jhiinti. Under his watch, a violent mob torched more than two dozen vehicles and damaged many more. Properties worth lakhs were destroyed and damaged. Hundreds of portable properties were stolen. Sharma saw the mob going wild but did nothing to stop them by using any of the crowd control devices, teargas, water cannons and rubber bullets, available at his command. Was Gajbhiye wrong and was Sharma right in their respective approaches to mob violenceIJ The fact that forthright Gajbhiye was suspended and shrewd Sharma was spared indicates that the former was tactless and the latter tactful. But discerning observers think otherwise. Gajbhiye paid the price for doing his duty - protect life and property and maintain public order. Sharma allowed wanton destruction of property under his watch. He simply abdicated his duty and responsibility. His stand had expediency written all over it. He was like a soldier fleeing away from the frontline. He didn’t catch the criminals in action. He preferred to catch them afterwards by watching them on television screens. Gajbhiye didn’t know or probably didn’t care to know the consequences of his action. He simply plunged headlong to do what was expected of him in a situation where right and wrong were so clearly pitted against each other. He took all the risks to protect others. But Sharma took all the safeguards to protect him. I for one would always choose Gajbhiye rather than Sharma to be the police chief of the area where I live. What would you do, sirIJ
Another day, another Baba: They are the cholera of our time
Currently, the S series of the Baba scandal is holding its premiere. After Sarathi and Sura, it is now Sankaranand. Their Svengali-like ability to attract thousands of followers has got to be admired. like lemmings, devotees throng their ashrams. Their motives are more complex than any stereotype can explain. But poverty, superstition and lack of education play an important part. The vast mass of them are infantile halfwits who believe the Baba knows how to remove the obstacles in their life. It is just one of his small acts that will open up their closed life. Generous donations to the Baba can change their lives forever. A deprived and depressed man can’t think rationally. Religious belief and spiritual life can’t bring instant results for him. But he knows God is ever beneficent. Something is mysteriously depriving him of the God’s blessings. It is here that the Baba explains that mystery. The Babas are cunning psychologists. They can read the minds in one-on-one meetings. In those meetings, the Baba displays his con tricks to hypnotise the follower. Then, the news of his supernatural powers spreads like wildfire. All that the Baba has to do is to mesmerise just one man, preferably a fool. Obstacles in life oftentimes go away on their own, but they are all attributed to the Baba’s blessings. The devotee chants chapter and verse of the Baba’s miracle powers and the credulous people, particularly the uneducated and superstitious women, swallow them at a gulp. The rest is the Baba’s clandestine marriage with unfettered hedonism until exposures do them part.
(saratpattanayak@hotmail.com (M) 9437962121)