In 2010, FE carried a series on lobbying and its role in Indian policy making. The set of reports was interesting for the denial mode that many people in key positions often adopted when asked to come on record. Colleagues at the newspaper reported being stumped as vocal commentators on several topics shut up as soon as the issue of lobbying was broached to them.
Those who were willing to go on record generally satisfied themselves with the claim that they had kept themselves away from any influence peddling. Most interesting was the argument proffered by a policy mandarin who explained why an industry representative dragging an industry chamber with him was most welcome in his chamber, while the singletons were not.
It is easy to figure out their discomfiture. India expects its key officials in public and even private sector to work even now without exposing themselves to any dialogue with anyone who is interested in the outcome of a project or policy. The brahminical attitude is based on the insinuation that any one who discusses anything knowledgeably has an agenda and is therefore to be avoided. As a result, India possibly holds the record for launching schemes and formulating plans which have to be revised extensively.
This is also evident from a Google search for the word lobbying. As expected, the US pretty much leads right at the top in searches for the word, but despite the vitriolic outbursts in India on the subject, lobbying does not figure too deeply in the list.
By painting lobbying black, India’s public leaders have missed out an understanding of the role of the interest groups. Lobbying is a vital element in a functioning democracy and the difference with autocratic regimes is that it is open and therefore transparent. Keeping lobbying dark has robbed India till now a great avenue to add pressure groups to its Parliamentary democracy. But of all the colour words in the Indian political discourse, lobbying has possibly the most acceptable pejorative status. Almost at par with nepotism.
The fear of lobbying for politicians has done us a fair amount of harm in political debates. Since MPs are apprehensive of the accusation, they are reluctant to take on any assistant who can help them with good background briefing. As a result, veteran Parliament reporters notice the MPs mostly restrict themselves to debates where the generalities are at premium. Bills or policies on matters like financial sector reforms, patents, nuclear energy or even defence may see large attendance, but the issues are only touched with a broad brush, avoiding searching queries that can make the government of the day squirm.
In this context, Sugato Hazra has done a fine job of writing a candid book on lobbying. He takes a long hard look at the world of lobbying that exists between the government and business and stretched even before independence.
The book often reads like a reportage, which one suspects was Sugato?s primary motive. In the process, he digs out several forgotten incidents of which my personal favourite is the lobbying industrialist GD Birla had to undertake to overturn a government tax inquiry on them, for having supported the freedom movement.
The chapters, especially those detailing the Nehru years and the ones immediately thereafter are gripping. The account of how acting prime minister Gulzari lal Nanda lost the race to Lal Bahadur Shastri brings out the details of the back room maneouverings.
These episodes become rather thin as the book approaches the recent event, though the sort of flagship event, the 2G scam, possibly because of the timing of the book is carried more in the introduction than in the body of the chapters. Sugato would have possibly done better to have explained in depth the socio-economic and political theory of the way lobbying has shaped up in India.
But even with these restrictions, the narrative of the book deals with plenty of the difficult phases that impacted India in the years since Independence. That is the strength of the book.
As the Indian economy matures, the field of play for interest groups will expand tremendously. So the role of lobbying will obviously. Having launched into this grey area, Sugato leaves the field open for debate on the topic that the polity is still coming to grips with.