Hey! Hey! Hey! What's Going On?
Author: Arindam Banerji, Ph.D., CA, USA (
[email protected])
Publication: IndiaCause.com
Date: June 7, 2003
URL:
http://www.indiacause.com/OL_030607.htm
Arindam Banerji, the author of this article, took the usual route of going from the IITs, through a Ph.D in the US, to finally working in sundry research labs. Currently, he is a scientist of some repute, the kind whose ideas actually get used by people, and an entrepreneur, with, he says, not much success. Some day, he says, he�ll go back to India, but for now, as time permits, he is a writer and political thinker on South Asian geo-political issues.
Hey! Hey! Hey! What�s Going On?
Last week was nothing short of a disaster for Indian journalism � according to my powers of observation, we pulled off at least 3 different Jayson Blairs, all in the space of 1 short week. Three very visible journalists/columnists published articles with random half-truths and lies, with nary a rebuttal nor a correction to follow anywhere. Facts are created and distorted seemingly for political conclusions. Everybody of course has the right to their opinions, but our veterans here seem to have their own version of facts, too. Where cooked up facts will not do, some are audaciously hidden while others are put in contexts that do not belong at all. All in the name of making some obtuse, perhaps political point.
All right, all right, let�s not crucify them, before perusing their stories.
Mr. Aiyar spreads some numbers around
First, let�s take the odd case of Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyer � on a jaunt to Islamabad, he takes the time out to continue his lobbying efforts on the behalf of Pakistan. He writes "
Shaukat Aziz ... announces that the Pakistan economy in the current financial year, July 2002-June 2003, has recorded the fastest growth in South Asia. He does not say so but the sad fact is that they have overtaken India as we slide downwards and they slither up. Per capita income in the current fiscal year, he adds, has risen by a double-digit figure...";
Note that he makes three claims:
1. Per capita income has gone up by a double digit figure
2. Pakistan recorded the fastest growth in S. Asia.
3. �have overtaken India as we slide downwards and they slither up�
The problem is that though none of them are strictly incorrect, Mr. Aiyar deliberately shades the truth in each. The end result is pushing his political interest in playing up the Pakistani economy, while at the same time denigrating the Indian economy. So, once again lets look at the facts:
Per Capita Incomes
First, let us look at the pesky per capita income numbers. Reality is that Pakistan's per capita income ($420.00) has declined to below that of Sub Saharan Africa ($460.00). Mr. Aiyer's magic numbers that proclaim a $10.00 in per capita income growth fails to take into account the re-evaluation of most currencies against the dollar - thus, automatically, the Indian Rupee has gone up by 4% and so has the Indian per capita income. [Parsuram, BRF]. So, most everybody�s per-capita numbers have gone up somewhat, since Uncle Sam is printing up dollars night and day - incorrect implications by Mr. Aiyer here. In fact, if you look at income growth over 1990-2000, an average Indian was fifty per cent more prosperous in 2000 compared to his (or her) situation in 1990, while a Pakistani gained only 13% in the same time. So, yes Mr. Aiyar tells the truth, but at best half-the-truth about per-capita incomes.
Fastest growth in S. Asia
So, what about those great growth numbers brought about by Musharraf�s policies. Taking a closer look at Pakistan's claims of growth, Dr. Assad Sayyed (a Pakistani economist, not an Indian one) says "General Musharraf and his economic mandarins generally highlight ...the military regime has been able to reduce the fiscal deficit to 5.6% of the GDP compared to � 6.1% in the 1990s. As much as 41% of this reduction in the deficit was achieved through slashing public investment.". Or in other words, Pakistan cut out critical public investment to prop up the numbers. Mr. Musharraf in order to protect his gaddi, has doomed the Pakistani public to many more years of minimal improvements in living standards. So, in this particular case, Mr. Aiyar without giving a source for his data, compared true Indian progress with propped up numbers, resulting in a false politically motivated insinuation.
As we slide downwards and they slither up �
Finally, let us consider this canard of �have overtaken India as we slide downwards and they slither up�. Explains Farrukh Saleem, a Pakistani journalist by the way of background "America buys Rs100 billion worth of Pakistani textiles a year. "Made in Pakistan" labels are available in some 5,000 retail outlets throughout the US. In Pakistan, 60 per cent of the total labor force - some 25 million workers is employed by the textile sector.�. In short, the textile industry is Pakistan�s largest legitimate industry and in fact, the only legitimate industry of any significant size.
Unfortunately, it seems this very industry is in a lot of trouble, as
"American Eagle Outfitters and Perry Ellis have stopped ordering Pakistani apparel altogether. ...Orders from large American retailers are down more than 40 percent ...(or)... 64 percent reduction in orders for clothes that would be made from December through February.". As a consequence, at least �150,000 Pakistanis have already lost their jobs and some 177 manufacturers have closed down shop. .. Spill-over job losses would eventually run into a million or so (when apparel workers don't have the money to buy eggs poultry workers also suffer and so on).�. This trend is not going away any time soon � just like countries do not want to play cricket in Pakistan, they seem to be shying away from doing business in Pakistan.
The very same Farrukh Saleem talking about the state of the Indian industry says the following: -�Mumbai is now home to at least three dozen American companies including Kodak, Heinz, Monsanto, Warner Bros, Federal Express, Bank of America, Bankers Trust, Parke Davis, Intel, JP Morgan, Kellogg, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, American Int�l Group, Exxon-Mobil, Delta and Boston Consulting.
Delhi has AT&T, GE, General Motors, Oracle, Pepsi, Unocal, Xerox, Lockheed, Raytheon, Rockwell, Honeywell, Adobe, AES, Alcoa, American Express, Northrop, McKinsey, Amway, Polaroid and Coca Cola. Bangalore has Caterpillar, Dell, Sun, Texas Instruments, NCR, Hewlett Packard, Motorola, Lucent, IBM, Novell, Ingersoll- Rand, American Data and MetLife. Hyderabad has Microsoft, Cognizant, Chip Engines and Brigade. Chennai has Ford, Caltex, Tenneco, Covansys, Diebold, Citibank, Ernst & Young and Price Waterhouse.
A large majority of US corporate giants are now dependent on Tata Consultancy, Infosys Technologies, Wipro, Satyam Computer Services, HCL Technologies, Patni Computer Systems, Silverline Technologies, Mahindra, Pentasoft, Mascot, Mascom, Mastek, Polaris, L&T and Hexaware (all Indian software giants).�
The list goes on and on � in fact, now at least 77 MNCs produce intellectual property (not sweat shops) in R&D labs in India. Mr. Aiyer,
how many companies have done the same in Pakistan in the last few years? On the other hand, can you name any significant export products from Pakistan, other than textiles, low-end sports equipment, drugs and terrorism � can you name any intellectually relevant commercial products?? Nope. But, then why put India down? What was the need for the half-truths and distortion, Mr. Aiyar?
Speaking on Behalf of Indians
Praful Bidwai�s communist-anarchist dementia took an unusual turn in his latest column in rediff; criticizing Indo-Israel relations, he says: "... and is now trying to buy the "Arrow" missile defense system in whose development S Y Coleman, a firm headed by Lt Gen Jay Garner (yes, of Iraq fame!) was critically involved."
It would seem from his statements, that Bidwai is opposed to the Arrow anti-missile system, since it comes from Israel and people with links to Iraq. Essentially, it is more acceptable to him that my family in Delhi get vaporized, in stead of India getting the defensive Arrow anti-missile system from Israel.
Isn't that EXACTLY Pakistan's position?
Of course it is, but more importantly, how is this, according to Mr. Bidwai the opinion of most Indians. Indian freedom of speech gives Mr. Bidwai the right to propagate Pakistani national interests in his column. But, how does this give him the right to pass off the Pakistani national interests, as what is good for India or even as the majority Indian opinion? I�m quite sure that all my friends and relatives in Delhi would rather NOT be vaporized � they would prefer to get an anti-missile system, even if it comes from North Korea or Saddam Hussein.
Fetish for Terrorists
Sarmila Bose, an assistant editor and columnist for Ananda Bazar Patrika and The Telegraph newspapers in India, writes "For the hypothetical choice between Narendra Modi of Gujarat and General Musharraf, it's no contest really - the truly disturbing sign of the direction India's democracy has taken is that the 'Paki in khaki' would get my vote any day over the saffron-draped Hindu nationalist peddling the politics of hate".
This article, again is an example of clear obfuscation of facts and plain one-sided presentation of facts to make a spurious point. Much as I detest her conclusion, she has a right to make it � but does she have the right to delve into half-truths and openly hide facts to do this. The question that one has to ask is what was this big political point that she hoped to make through such obfuscation?
Musharraf as the Great Dictator
Ms. Bose who has shown this same fetish for terrorists before, sings Musharraf�s praises without telling her audience, any of the following:
1. In May,1988, the Shias, who are in a majority in Gilgit, rose in revolt against the Sunni-dominated administration. Zia put an SSG group commanded by Gen. Musharraf in charge of suppressing the revolt. Gen. Musharraf transported a large number of Wahabi Pakhtoon tribesmen from the NWFP and Afghanistan, commanded by bin Laden, to Gilgit to teach the Shias a lesson.
http://www.jammu-kashmir.com/ insights/insight20000206b.html. These tribesmen under bin Laden massacred hundreds of Shias. In its issue of May,1990, "Herald", the monthly journal of the "Dawn" group of publications of Karachi, wrote as follows:
" In May,1988, low-intensity political rivalry and sectarian tension ignited into full-scale carnage as thousands of armed tribesmen from outside Gilgit district invaded Gilgit along t he Karakoram Highway. Nobody stopped them. They destroyed crops and houses, lynched and burnt people to death in the villages around Gilgit town. The number of dead and injured was put in the hundreds. But numbers alone tell nothing of the savagery of the invading hordes and the chilling impact it has left on these peaceful valleys."
2. Musharraf started the Kargil conflict, which caused the death of at least 533 Indians, injuring many more.
3. Musharraf, as COAS has directly controlled the jihadi terrorism against Indians killing tens of thousands over the last decade. In fact, his belief in jihad is captured by his own statement as ""the acquisition of Kashmir by Pakistan can wait. What is more important is to keep the Indian army bleeding in Kashmir just as the Afghan Mujahideen kept the Soviet troops bleeding in Afghanistan". The US state department in 2001 said " Pakistan's military government, headed by Gen. Pervez Musharraf, continued previous Pakistani Government support of the Kashmir insurgency, and Kashmiri militant groups continued to operate in Pakistan, raising funds and recruiting new cadre."
4. Musharraf as COAS and then President directly helped the Taliban kill tens of thousands of Afghans in a brutal war. In fact, the air-lift of Kunduz after the US invasion was started to move out key Pakistani army officers amongst the ranks of the Taliban.
5. Musharraf scuttled plans to capture Osama by the US, thus leading to eventual the death of many innocent civilians in US and Afghanistan. In fact, in the last 3 years all major international terrorist attacks can be seen to have a Pakistani hand (led by Musharraf, of course).
6. "General Pervez Musharraf says the press in Pakistan is free. Journalists' experience and reports by! indepen dent sources on this issue suggest there is not much truth in this claim. Green Press' report too - State of Press in Pakistan - finds there is no "press freedom" in Pakistan. Besides attacks against the press, the report has also chronicled all violations against freedom of _expression and curbs on entertainment from May 2002 to May 2003. The report documents more than 50 cases that it says amount to "crimes" against press and other freedoms. Most of these actions were allegedly masterminded by the state to suppress dissenting voices. None was probed or culprits punished" Friday Times also available at http://
www.pakistan-facts.com/article.php/20030502121837343
Of course, all this was considered "much" preferable to any as yet unproven accusations on Modi. (Please note the recent Nanavati report). Preferable, to an extent that she chose to hide all the facts. Why was it necessary to paint this picture of a terrorist general?
ooh, that great Pakistani economy once again
Bose further claims "The reality is that in terms of these crucial issues, the military dictatorship of General Musharraf from 1999 to 2002 arguably provided better governance, not only compared to previous elected governments of Pakistan, but also compared to the democratically elected government of India during the same period". She further adds "Secondly, General Musharraf seemed at least to try to deal with pressing policy matters including economic problems. Some of his economic successes are directly related to his decision to do a policy somersault in Afghanistan and become America's ally in its 'global war against terrorism' - a practical move most certainly in his country's best interest. In India the economic reform programme is adrift while issues of temple-building or 'cow protection' take centre-stage."
Somehow, the whole governance issue and Pakistan�s handling of their economy has made both Aiyer and Bose gush and blush.
Of course, this period of governance has seen Pakistani editors regularly flee the country due to risk to their families and witnessed open threats to the life of one of the most visible editors in Pakistan. Almost all civilian organizations are now run by military men. Bernard-Henri Levy's recently published book says "Pakistan is the most delinquent of nations" and claiming that Pakistan was the real key to all Islamic-led international terrorism, he said that the US had solved only 1% of the problem by deposing Saddam Hussein.
This is about Musharraf's Pakistan, about which Shaheen Sehbai says the following
"Last week the Inter Services Agency (ISI) of General Musharraf kidnapped the Deputy Opposition Leader of Punjab Assembly, Rana Sanaullah Khan, beat him blue and black, shaved half of his head and half of his moustache and abandoned him on a deserted road, all for criticizing the Army Generals. In another move the bold and brave Lahore newspaper "Weekly Independent" was directly threatened with a senior official warning the publisher: "Enough is Enough"." - SA Tribune
Further, Dr. Assad Sayyed writes in May 2002, "This assessment of Pakistan's economy - based for the most part on official data � shows that economic indicators pertaining to the lives and livelihoods of the Pakistanis have performed dismally in the last few years. In fact, some of them are even worse than those in the 'lost decade' of the 1990s. More importantly this deterioration in the economy apart from the drought - is in large part due to the policy framework adopted by the government."
India in the same time period, has done some of the following:
Fact #1. "Citing the 18.05 per cent rise in exports, Jaitley said, with this India share in the world exports in merchandise goods has increased from 0.4 per cent in 1992-93 to 0.7 per cent in 2001-02 and 0.8 per cent in 2003. If the present trend is maintained, we might even reach one per cent share in world exports before the target year of 2007," he said." - IE
Fact #2. "Despite an overall sluggish growth, many sectors in the economy are growing. And, growing at very handsome rates too. According to an ET Intelligence Group study, a large number of industries are growing at rates over 10%. Iraq or not, and SARS be damned. Compared to the growth rate of the real economy, that's stupendous" - TNN
Fact #3. "Auto part exports to rise over 100% to $2bn in 2 years" - ET
Fact #4. "Agricultural and processed food exports rose 23% during April-October 2002" - ET
Fact #5. "Electronics components' exports have posted a 20.35 per cent rise in 2001-02 to Rs 2200 crore compared to Rs 1,828 crore in 2000-01, according to an estimate by Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council." - ET
Of course, her agenda would not allow her to "expose" the following truth about the adrift economic reform program: "The winter session of India's 12th Parliament adjourned on Dec 21,2002 after setting something of a record for the legislative business carried out. Lok Sabha the lower house, had passed 42 pieces of legislation and Rajya Sabha,the upper house had approved more than half of them. A few dead laws were repealed. Some were fine-tuned. The reach of the legislators has been wide. Commentators say that the bills passed will reform the markets, strengthen the economy and make life a little more equitable." - goodnewsindia.com
Do we really want to compare Indian economic successes with Pakistan's terrorism extortion-money based economic bubble? Do we really want to compare Indian governance with Pakistani governance? From the above evidence, it appears not. While I�m sure that the Indian economy could be handled more efficiently, what was it that stopped Ms. Bose from giving a more factual description?
How does this happen?
The most important thing to note is that these are some of the columns that came to my notice just within the last one week. I have clearly missed many more.
While, I have strong opinions on why these veterans chose to skate on thin ice � I�ll not make them here. I�m sure folks on the right side of the fence do the same too and others should look into them just as closely. But, the upshot of all this is that the Indian readers� opinions get biased by things other than facts.
How much of this brain-washing happens every day in our media that goes completely unnoticed? Why does it go un-challenged? Finally and much more importantly, what overall effect does this have on the Indian readers? How many false opinions of the Indian populace is based on such facts. You tell me.
Arindam Banerji, Ph.D.