MY Letter to the BANGALORE MIRROR
criticizing the EDIT PAGE ARTICLE “We are like this only” by ANUVAB PAL,
BANGALORE MIRROR, Dated February 21, 2018
FOLLOWING is the TEXT of the above mentioned ARTICLE:
WE ARE LIKE
THIS ONLY
By: Anuvab Pal
Does something in our DNA propel us to game a system, any system? Perhaps a tiny atom of Nirav Modi lives in all of us, manifesting in things like breaking a traffic signal or jumping a queue
The question to ask in the midst of this Nirav Modi imbroglio is a bigger one: is there something in our DNA that propels us to do stuff like this? To which you say, ‘What? Are you saying a billion people are dishonest?’ Statistically speaking, unlikely. Although, perhaps, a tiny atom of Nirav Modi lives in all of us. It doesn’t manifest in a
Rs 3,600 crore LoU backed by no assets, but it does in things like breaking a traffic signal, or looking for ways to cut a queue, or avoiding a tiny tax. Ego, thinking, if there’s a way around a system, we’ll find it.
If one looks through the operations of most Indian companies, you’ll be hard pressed to find one where there isn’t some sort of manipulation. Just like if you look through every building society in Mumbai, almost all of them have some sort of litigation involving rule-breaking. Which begs the question — when ALL have broken the rules, perhaps they aren’t the outlier; perhaps the system is.
I once dropped a wallet in the second-class compartment of a train, and a homeless person sleeping on the platform ran after me to return it. Direct theft, breaking the law overtly as a crime, is not in our DNA, regardless of economic status, which makes foreigners wonder, “Whoa, look, that person has nothing to eat and he won’t steal. India is great.” Similarly violent crime; unlike South Africa and Brazil, rife with burglaries and house break-ins, our cities are relatively safe at night and people don’t go around shooting up schools. Where we do outdo nations though, is in the ingenious manoeuvring of systems. If a handful of shady entrepreneurs think they can take a public-sector bank for a ride because the public-sector banks’ internal systems are weak, that’s not viewed as a crime in our culture, but as business acumen. The same is true for the actual employees within the bank as well. In some circles, the Vijay Mallyas of the world are seen as people who’ve outsmarted a system, not broken it.
The argument isn’t that every Indian promoter wants to take money and never pay it back, but that all of us — from the person who wants to adjust a menu in a restaurant, to the person drinking and driving, to the person illegally extending their balcony — we all have that tiny sliver in our head that says, “Well, why not try and bend the rules. No harm in trying.”
Nobody knows what the actual facts are in the diamond merchants’ case, and whether the amount is Rs 11, 400 crore, or a lot less or more. Currently, the easy narrative the media can shout about is that a man has taken Rs 11,400 crore and run away. Nobody is asking simple questions like, if that was the plan, why not shut shop and leave with all the diamonds, rather than leave behind hundreds of jewellery stores filled with jewels and 2,200 employees? The knee-jerk reaction, and the idiotic one, is always to arrest everyone from the promoters’ cook to his barber, none of which will actually help recover the money. What is indisputable is that Nirav Modi noticed a loophole in the system, as perhaps did Mallya, by convincing a banker that funding an airline was a good thing, as did Harshad Mehta, or 2G spectrum allocators, or people getting coal licences, or Lalu Prasad’s ability to see revenue in cow fodder. Spotting where a rule can be bent is intrinsic to who we are — it’s a talent. All that varies is the scale — for diamond merchants, it is Rs 3,600 crore; for the guy that goes down a one-way illegally, it is avoiding a Rs 200 fine.
Beating the system feels like a small victory, and it doesn’t matter what the system is. This is why we wouldn’t survive for long in Sweden or Norway. Not because they are advanced, but that everything in the system functions so smoothly that rules don’t need to be broken — and that would bore us.
As an aftermath to this, lots of honest small entrepreneurs who’ve maybe taken loans and deviated from the system (staying true to their DNA) in very small ways will bear the brunt, unfairly, of this one giant manipulation. As will the middle manager at the bank who may have made a little adjustment from bank norms to help a unique customer. Suddenly, everyone will try and prove that we are moral, upright people, and these things are not in our system — and that nobody has ever made an undue ‘adjustment’ anywhere for anything. Perhaps, after scam after scam, we need to realise that these people aren’t one-time criminals, but giant versions of our DNA.
Does something in our DNA propel us to game a system, any system? Perhaps a tiny atom of Nirav Modi lives in all of us, manifesting in things like breaking a traffic signal or jumping a queue
The question to ask in the midst of this Nirav Modi imbroglio is a bigger one: is there something in our DNA that propels us to do stuff like this? To which you say, ‘What? Are you saying a billion people are dishonest?’ Statistically speaking, unlikely. Although, perhaps, a tiny atom of Nirav Modi lives in all of us. It doesn’t manifest in a
Rs 3,600 crore LoU backed by no assets, but it does in things like breaking a traffic signal, or looking for ways to cut a queue, or avoiding a tiny tax. Ego, thinking, if there’s a way around a system, we’ll find it.
If one looks through the operations of most Indian companies, you’ll be hard pressed to find one where there isn’t some sort of manipulation. Just like if you look through every building society in Mumbai, almost all of them have some sort of litigation involving rule-breaking. Which begs the question — when ALL have broken the rules, perhaps they aren’t the outlier; perhaps the system is.
I once dropped a wallet in the second-class compartment of a train, and a homeless person sleeping on the platform ran after me to return it. Direct theft, breaking the law overtly as a crime, is not in our DNA, regardless of economic status, which makes foreigners wonder, “Whoa, look, that person has nothing to eat and he won’t steal. India is great.” Similarly violent crime; unlike South Africa and Brazil, rife with burglaries and house break-ins, our cities are relatively safe at night and people don’t go around shooting up schools. Where we do outdo nations though, is in the ingenious manoeuvring of systems. If a handful of shady entrepreneurs think they can take a public-sector bank for a ride because the public-sector banks’ internal systems are weak, that’s not viewed as a crime in our culture, but as business acumen. The same is true for the actual employees within the bank as well. In some circles, the Vijay Mallyas of the world are seen as people who’ve outsmarted a system, not broken it.
The argument isn’t that every Indian promoter wants to take money and never pay it back, but that all of us — from the person who wants to adjust a menu in a restaurant, to the person drinking and driving, to the person illegally extending their balcony — we all have that tiny sliver in our head that says, “Well, why not try and bend the rules. No harm in trying.”
Nobody knows what the actual facts are in the diamond merchants’ case, and whether the amount is Rs 11, 400 crore, or a lot less or more. Currently, the easy narrative the media can shout about is that a man has taken Rs 11,400 crore and run away. Nobody is asking simple questions like, if that was the plan, why not shut shop and leave with all the diamonds, rather than leave behind hundreds of jewellery stores filled with jewels and 2,200 employees? The knee-jerk reaction, and the idiotic one, is always to arrest everyone from the promoters’ cook to his barber, none of which will actually help recover the money. What is indisputable is that Nirav Modi noticed a loophole in the system, as perhaps did Mallya, by convincing a banker that funding an airline was a good thing, as did Harshad Mehta, or 2G spectrum allocators, or people getting coal licences, or Lalu Prasad’s ability to see revenue in cow fodder. Spotting where a rule can be bent is intrinsic to who we are — it’s a talent. All that varies is the scale — for diamond merchants, it is Rs 3,600 crore; for the guy that goes down a one-way illegally, it is avoiding a Rs 200 fine.
Beating the system feels like a small victory, and it doesn’t matter what the system is. This is why we wouldn’t survive for long in Sweden or Norway. Not because they are advanced, but that everything in the system functions so smoothly that rules don’t need to be broken — and that would bore us.
As an aftermath to this, lots of honest small entrepreneurs who’ve maybe taken loans and deviated from the system (staying true to their DNA) in very small ways will bear the brunt, unfairly, of this one giant manipulation. As will the middle manager at the bank who may have made a little adjustment from bank norms to help a unique customer. Suddenly, everyone will try and prove that we are moral, upright people, and these things are not in our system — and that nobody has ever made an undue ‘adjustment’ anywhere for anything. Perhaps, after scam after scam, we need to realise that these people aren’t one-time criminals, but giant versions of our DNA.
MY Letter to the BANGALORE
MIRROR criticizing the EDIT PAGE ARTICLE “We are like this only” by ANUVAB PAL,
BANGALORE MIRROR, Dated February 21, 2018
Dear Sir,
SUBJECT: Apropos
the Editorial Page Article - “We are like this only” by
ANUVAB PAL, BANGALORE MIRROR, Dated February 21, 2018
The Article “We
are like this only” by ANUVAB PAL, BANGALORE MIRROR, Dated February 21, 2018 is
one that to BLATANTLY tries to COVERUP
the CULPABILITY / Responsibility of Modi’s / BJP Central
Government AND Nirav Modi & his UNCLE Mehul Choksi ( Big MODI’S “Hamare
Mehul Bhai”!) in the MAMMOTH Rs. 11,400/- crores ( or even BIGGER?) P N B scam!
The
entire THREAD / PLOT in the article “We are
like this only” by ANUVAB PAL, BANGALORE MIRROR, Dated February 21,
2018 - is directed towards psychologically affecting the READER to form an
OPINION that “All of us Indians have a SIMILAR habit ( He calls it D N A) of
CHEATING / CUTTING Corners at Govt regulations / rules AND so he CLEVERLY puts
across the MESSAGE IN BETWEEN HIS LINES – “why BLAME only Nirav
Modi & his UNCLE Mehul Choksi” for SUCCESFULLY DOING
the SAME “CHEATING / CUTTING Corners of Govt
regulations / rules”!!!!!
It is
truly MIND BOGGLING to note as to HOW & WHAT this writer is ATTEMPTING to
accomplish! He is EQUATING a minor
TRAFIC OFFENCE, a MINOR BBMP Plan Deviation and so on and so forth and similar
minor, say - “CRIMES” with the GARGANTUAN 11,400 Cr ( or may be 21,000/-
Crores) SWINDLE by Nirav Modi & his UNCLE Mehul Choksi ( Big
MODI’S “Hamare Mehul Bhai”!)
From
my above observations it is EASY to surmise that either this writer Anuvab Pal
was trying to be “too CLEVER by HALF” to appear distinctly DIFFERENT from other
CRITIQUES by other writers on this SHOCKING SWINDLE by a few, due to their
CONTACTS / CONNECTIONS with the P N B top Brass & POLITICAL BIG WIGS; (Big
MODI’s declaration “Hamare MEHUL BHAI” for Mehul Choksi - uncle of NIRAV MODI, showing
how INFLUENCE PEDDALING is RAMPANT now!)
OR
, this ARTICLE is CLEARLY an ARTICLE that has been COMMISIONED by the Central
Government ( as many other ARTICLES have started appearing in various Govt.
Controlled Websites & News Papers?)and this writer is CULPABLE of TAKING
COMMISION for writing such articles that provide, in a manner of speaking, “
COVER UP FIRE” to the Culprits so that they may escape LAW’s NET!
I
now would like to KNOW whether like the “TIMES NOW” –TV news Channel, Bangalore
Mirror too has been commandeered by your owners / boards to toe the line of Modi /
BJP Govt and to PROTECT their interests / ideology / policies at any cost both
NATIONALLY & even in KARNATAKA,{ and simultaneously be DEAD against their
OPPOSITION PARTIES (Read CONGRESS) again, both NATIONALLY and in KARNATAKA},
for the SAKE of getting some equally GARGANTUAN PATRONAGE that
is similar in value to their SCAMS you are require to put under the
carpet?
I
do EXPECT that this letter of mine will duly find a place in your “Talk Back”
column, just like the MANY and REGULAR ANTI-CONGRESS letters that find their
place in the same column and also LIKE the ANTI-CONGRESS NEWS REPORTS that have
become a DAILY AFFAIR in your tabloid.
Shahabuddin Nadeem,
