McDonald’s and a drummer boy

Rewarding entrepreneurship’s an intriguing concept for Indians

Bibek Debroy

December 2 was celebrated as World Capitalism Day, in 115 cities across the world, India chipping in with Delhi and Mumbai. There was a Walk for Capitalism, sponsored by Prodos Institute’s Capitalism Worldwide Campaign. The official position statement of the Walk for Capitalism is the Bernstein Declaration, written by Andrew Bernstein, author of “The Capitalist Manifesto”. In brief, this is what it says. “The more capitalist a culture — the greater its freedom and prosperity. Less capitalism means more human misery. Capitalism is successful because of freedom. Men and women of all countries unite — in your support of capitalism. You have a world of joyous achievement to win.” And implicitly, your chains to lose. Henceforth, the first Sunday of December will be thus celebrated. Every year.

In Delhi, the walk was organised by Liberty Institute. Assemble at “A” Block, Inner Circle, Connaught Place, was the instruction. At 1.15 in the afternoon. The walk will start at 1.30. People begin to assemble in trickles. In ones and twos. There are placards and banners. Blue caps marked “Walk for Capitalism” for the heads. For those of you not from Delhi, Connaught Place is closed on Sundays. Most shops are closed. Not too many other people, the odd tourist. A few Indians with nothing better to do on a Sunday afternoon. Soon, there are around 50 walkers and around 20 curious bystanders. The bystanders are puzzled. “What film shooting is going on?” asks one. The walk doesn’t start at 1.15. Permissions are required for such walks. From police and local administration. The permission is for 2.00. Before that, the tempo and the cycle-rickshaw with loudspeakers, music system and sundry other props will not be allowed in. In any case, the rickshaw will not be allowed. By 2.00, things are sorted out. The Master of Ceremonies makes a speech. Appropriate music is played and the walk is flagged off.

The plan is the following. Circumambulate Inner Circle clock-wise. Certain establishments have been singled out for special citations, representative of the virtues of enterprise and capitalism. Respect for law, property rights and the right to choose. There is a list of these establishments. Stop at these. One walker makes a brief speech, highlighting why that establishment has been chosen for the citation and the award. The citation and a double-blue ribbon are then formally presented. The dark blue in the ribbon symbolises capitalism, the light blue infinite opportunities. Cheers are raised for that particular establishment and the walk moves on. When the establishment is closed, as happens often, the citation and the ribbon are stuck on to the front door. Twelve such establishments have thus been singled out, with four awards in reserve. Other than the cheering, no slogans.

The walk begins and is soon joined by around ten urchins. Eight of them are plain beggars, hoping for some money. Two are more enterprising. They have drums with them and the walk proceeds to the accompaniment of drumbeats. (The drummers are monetarily rewarded at the end.) The establishments belong to three categories. Some are completely closed and life is simple. Stick the stuff on to the door and move on. Some are partially open. There is a security guard hanging around or some employee working over-time. Bit of a problem there. Security guards are suspicious, though they haven’t heard of Anthrax. Compromises work. The envelope with the citation is handed over to the guard and the ribbon stuck to the door.

The ones that are open are the problem. If a citation is to be presented and a speech made, one would like someone from the open establishment to come out and be present. Receive the citation for God’s sake! Doesn’t work that way. Whoever has heard of people being rewarded in India for entrepreneurship? People don’t come out. Even if there are no red flags, you might be beaten up, with fifty characters around. Why take the chance? The prime example of this is McDonald’s. “It is against company policy,” says the manager. What is against company policy? To receive a citation, as opposed to sticks and stones? To come out of the premises to receive it? The answer is not clear. There is a suggestion that the award be given to Nirula’s instead. But no Nirula’s is immediately in sight. So the award is stuck on to the McDonald’s door and the walk moves on. To keep the record straight, NIIT behaves differently. The representative grins from ear to ear as he receives the award.

Four reserve awards. For special awardees. A cigarette and paan shop owner, an auto-rickshaw driver, an ice cream vendor and a shoeshine boy. Who else battles the inspector raj so consistently to earn a living? The cigarette and paan shop owner doesn’t bat an eyelid. He has been witness to several such tamashas. He keeps on rolling his paans, he has no time to waste on such trivialities. He signals with his hand that the walk is welcome to stick the award on the shop and move on. That done, one moves to the ice cream vendor.

The poor guy is in a state of shock. But stomachs the sight of a ribbon stuck to his cart. Probably takes it off immediately afterwards. The auto-rickshaw driver is a different proposition. He is in a queue with other drivers, waiting for customers, and this sudden bolt from the blue raises his esteem in the eyes of fellow-drivers. The ribbon is proudly stuck to the windscreen. No signs of a shoe-shine boy though. They have all disappeared. Perhaps it is the Sunday effect. Perhaps they are discouraged at the sight of most of the walkers wearing sneakers rather than normal shoes. As a substitute, one of the drummer boys is rewarded instead. He has displayed enough enterprise.

The walk is over, having returned to where it started. There are more bystanders now. Goaded by the sight of bystanders, slogans are raised for the first time. “Socialism murdabad. Capitalism zindabad.” The bystanders seem happier. These guys are normal after all.