'Vulgar' tokenism

The government has now trained its austerity gun on the chief executive officers. First, it got ministers to travel “cattle class”. When the ministers were asked to travel by budget airlines, at first glance, it seemed a welcome decision. But it was soon reduced to another political tokenism, frustrating the entire exercise. The area surrounding these heavily cashed cows travelling this cattle class was cordoned off, milking the exchequer even more than what the executive class would have done. When Rahul Gandhi decided to travel by Shatabdi, it was splashed all over the media, electronic and print. However, few read the fine print: Three coaches accompanying this political scion were “booked” for security reasons.
Now minister of state for corporate affairs Salman Khursheed has requested corporates to refrain from paying “vulgar” salaries to CEOs. This move has been blindly borrowed from the West, which has been taking steps to trim CEO pay packets to counter the economic downturn. Of course, Khursheed has added a dash of desi byte to spice up his austerity funda by saying: “I don’t think anyone in India today, in politics or outside politics... has reached the level of liberalism where vulgarity is also a fundamental right,” he has said. “We are moving away from control to regulation. But it does not mean that you are going to be completely free.”
The minister also feels the time is to discourage conspicuous consumption. He has supplemented his comment with figures: the annual pay of at least one CEO works out to over Rs 50 crore — more than 12,500 times the per capita income in the country.
Pearls of wisdom, and very well put. Thank you, minister.
I agree, the enriched corporate world has not really been socially responsible. But, can the government please stop playing this politics of tokenism time and again?
Let me start with the assets of politicians. Maharashtra is going to polls next week. Every day, the newspapers focus on a constituency, listing those who are in the fray and their assets. These “declared” assets run into several thousand crores for most aspirants. Agreed, Maharashtra (housing the infamous suicide belt) is the nation’s cash cow. Let us not be naïve about the multiple benami land holdings, luxury farmhouses and other assets these ministerial aspirants possess. Where is austerity?
In a country like India, festivals and wedding dry up most of the household resources. With this festive season, news space on every newspaper has shrunk, giving way to advertisements from clothes and jewellery, to exotic sweets and even designer diyas. And, whatever the social strata, Indians will spend a chunk of their income on these. Where is austerity?
Indian weddings are just getting fatter. In 2007, it was Rs 1.25 trillion. It is expected to jump by 25 per cent this year. The size of Indian weddings of course is directly proportional to the income group. So the haves will obviously say: have it, will spend it. But even the poorest families will beg, borrow or steal (to use a cliché) to buy the groom a gold chain and cycle, or even a motorcycle. And, the middle class, caught between the top and bottom, is always struggling to keep pace with the haves. Where is austerity?
The government’s austerity drive is hollow. It is like an antibiotic, trying to suppress the pain, and always ignoring the long-term agony. Will we ever get serious on serious issues and not get stuck with this political tokenism? Let us, instead, talk about reaching education, healthcare and sanitation to the every nook. Shall we stop talking about austerity and concentrate on the austere needs of this country?