Fear of freedom

In the late 1980s, when I was trying to find my feet in journalism in Delhi, I had the good fortune of meeting some politicians who took upon themselves to share their years of understanding of Indian politics and government with me. One of them was the late Hemvanti Nandan Bahuguna, considered as one of the most “clever and intelligent” politicians of his time. He was a successful chief minister of UP and Union petroleum minister, and he was hailed as the “future prime minister of India”. Such praise proved to be his undoing as an insecure Indira Gandhi and her son, Sanjay, clipped his wings, making his political journey difficult.

Bahuguna belonged to that old breed of leaders who took it as a responsibility to educate the masses. He did not even spare journalists. Every time I went to his house in Lodhi Estate, he would discuss the state of the economy and why journalists must read the business dailies. “If potato prices go up or tomatoes are not available then it can impact politics,” he used to say.

Former Congress general secretary and minister in Indira Gandhi’s government, late KN Singh, was another politician who belonged to this school. Though he lacked the brilliance of Bahuguna, he knew what moved the cheese. Singh’s help proved useful for a fledgling political reporter like me. He put me across to all those who could help me understand the dynamics of politics. Singh believed that journalists and politicians need to work in harness to make a difference in a country mired in poverty and deprivation. I might not have entirely agreed with him on journalists working closely with politicians, but he put me across to those leaders who provided the ideological underpinning to the Congress. One such invite helped me to meet late Raghunath Reddy, former minister of company affairs and governor of West Bengal and Tripura. Reddy kept track of my writing in the Mumbai-based weekly, Blitz.

As a minister of company affairs, Reddy had acquired a deep understanding of how the corporate sector influenced politics. He explained how most big corporate houses did not really compete with each other as they all had a common interest -- to undermine the authority of the government. He outlined the nuances of the RK Hazari report on the concentration of monopoly capital in India. Hazari, who was the deputy governor of Reserve Bank of India, through careful research, managed to prove how big companies had shareholding in each other and even the new companies that emerged were spawned by the big ones to ensure that the Indian corporate houses did not really “compete” with each other. Any suggestion of competition was a sham, a chimera, to fool the government and the people.

Reddy, for years, used to photocopy newspaper articles, World Bank and government reports on the working of the economy, to buttress his point of view and share them with me. This was a kind of education that no school would have taught. Reddy’s insight into the working of the Indian economy holds true even now. Ever wondered why there is so much domestic opposition to the entry of FDI in the retail sector and print media?