The silence of the Bollygarchs

Should India’s tycoons speak up more about politics?

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Rajeev Pandey

Economist has, unfortunately, very little idea about the way business is conducted in India. Without a deep patronage nurtured over the years from political parties, the likelihood of any business taking off in India is remote, even if it is a mom and pop shop; he still has to pay a fixed monthly bribe to the local politicians and administration. 1991 has become a ploy to state liberalisation. Where is it? How many offices still one has to run around to get a business permit. Has ever Economist tried to find out? Just to set up a Power Plant based on coal feeds, there are 57 permissions that are at least needed from from various government agencies & that passes through at least 7 ministries over and above. Each of this sanction points are weight points where one has to put a paper weight(bribes) to get the sanctions and hob nob with the ministerial secretariat that acts as a tout to get sanctions & signatures. Is it possible for a common man to get a business permit or any licence without a middleman decorated as Lawyer, Chartered Accountants or simply Business consultant ? Answer is plain and simple NO as all of them help you pass on the "paper weight" inbuilt in their fees as "out of pocket expenses" to meet the need of a signature on a paper. Indian PM is rated as liberal, I think India has never seen a more decorated clerk. Rightly so, he was called a poodle by a British tabloid. All the scams involving bribery running into hundreds of billions of dollars have been only by political class with hand and gloves with the industrialists, including Ratan Tata, a "revered Businessman". Reverence in his case and for many is relative; while others rob 100 & I rob only 20 does make me holier than thou is what is been touted. In any developed world the misdemeanour's of Indian business houses would have definitely put them under public censure and closure. Classic examples Union Carbide & Everron & latest one from Maruti Suzuki, would they have got away with such acts in their country of origin? There still is hope for India but not as bright as it is made out to be. The public mood for them now and even in the past has been of suckers & is unlikely to change. All these Ambani's Mittal's , Birla's, Tata's & the likes are a precipitate of a deep rooted corrupt system that has only favoured them on reciprocation basis. After knowing and working in this corrupt system for more than two decades at the right levels, I can say this with convictions & without fear as I do not slave for any of these tomb raiders any more. Economist is advised to do the homework properly.


The author is addressing the wrong question. The Bollygarchs and business elite are well immersed in politics. They don't need to go public, as the author is suggesting.

Behind closed doors with regional political leaders is where the deal making is done.

Indian businessmen are extremely corrupt and cruel to the poor. India is a brutal society.


Mysteriously, the article provides the totally opposite view of the existing Indian Oligarchic Reality. How does the reputed Schumpter-Economist, give a clean chit to the interfering Indian oligarchs? Especially after their brutal control over the Indian State were inadvertently exposed in the infamous Radia Tapes. The Tatas were found to be flagrantly placing their candidate as the Telecom minister. And they are reputed to be the cleanest group! The tapes were silent about the shenanigans of the less clean Oligarchs who can cross all boundaries in their greedy determination. We can only surmise what horrors those devils were up to.

By Oligarchs one means just the Top 100 households or so whose Net Worth has exploded in the last decade. The awesome wealth of the oligarchs now means that the Dynamics of the Oligarch vs Politician/Bureaucrat relationship has been radically transformed over the last decade. It is no longer a relationship between Equals where the State can exercise control. It is now very unequal and more like a relationship between a master and his dog or slave. In dealing with billionaires the State just cannot muster up the courage to face them and stand up to their looting games.

Just now we have the exposures of the Coalgate scams where the govt has handed over precious natural resources (coal) to a handful of oligarchs for a song. When asked to bend the politicians and bureaucrats compete with each to crawl to the Oligarchs tune. The serial loot of public assets over the last 8-10 years is the visible proof. Indians are fed up to their gills with the Crony Capitalism which flourishes in New Delhi - reminiscent of Moscow of the early 90s. Telecom, coal, Oil, Gas, Iron mines, Pension Funds Misusing Public Sector Banks for Loans and write-offs. Everything is fair game. Our Oligarchs are a very busy looting loot even if they try to stay out of a preaching posture publicly. Gosh how can one misread the situation so entirely in favor of those whose net worth has shot through the roof in the last decade. One can understand that the monopolistic Big News Media in India controlled by the Oligarchs and friends paints a rosy picture in order to ameliorate their situation. But THE ECONOMIST?

Note - the rest of the business community without access to Power, works hard for a living with No Free Lunches - like everyone else .

Karna from Anga

"You’re a celebrity. Change the world". Unfortunately these "celebrities" are only interested in status quo, and not at all at a change, which would benefit the common man.

"They could denounce graft and even volunteer to be more transparent in their affairs." That's wishful thinking and not in the interest of the oligarchs."But someone needs to make the case for reform." This someone will certainly not come from the trading class.As Swami Vivekananda said, this someone will be somebody who is not poor, but also is not rich.Someone who suffers not from daily hunger, but has hunger to achieve greatness. The best sentence in Economist for a long time :"As things stand, never in human history have so few with so much said so little about the fate of so many."

James AntiBr

That is the problem with the so called BRICs.
They really don't care about the welfare of the common man, and
allowing freer competition as in the OECD countries.

I was somewhat a fan of India when I read about its Jugaad innovation, but
it was nauseating when I read that one of India's Bollygarchs, Mukesh Ambani,
build an USD1 Billion dollar Mansion in Mumbai (a city full of slums).

If the Bollygarchs were visionary people, Mr. Ambani, for example would have
built a 200 million mansion (respectable abode in any corner of the globe) and
used the remaining 800 million in start-up capital for Indian entrepreneurs of
all castes. If he carefully had chosen who to invest based on idea merit and
probably of success, his 800 million would have grown by many fold (even
accounting for say, arbirtrarily, 30 percent rate failures.

He did not invest in the lower castes like a Venture Capitalist in the U.S. would
(idea, merit and probably trumps whom a VC backs (i.e. race, gender, etc)

Therefore, the Bollygarchs are not different than their Latin American counterparts.
India should have been well ahead in both GDP and GDP per capita by now.
However, corruption and political paralysis continue.



"When Ratan Tata, a revered industrialist, tried to build a car factory in West Bengal, its populist leader flung him out, arguing that farmers were being unjustly forced off their land."

It wasn't the leader (at the time Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee of the CPM) who 'flung out' the Tata project, but rather the then leader of the opposition (now the chief minister - Mamata Bannerjee of Trinamool) who did so.

Maybe saying 'the current populist leader' would clarify who did the flinging out.


Agreeing with the comments of Mr Rajeev Pandey and Mr Rajesh-India, I wonder if The Economist was serious when it wrote this article! The 2G scam (Rs 176000 Crore) and the latest coal scam (costing Rs 186000 Crore) are examples that laugh at this article. We need not look further. Examples like Ratan Tata having to leave West Bengal are exceptions, and it happened at the state level. The central government headed by the once-famous economist, now-turned-crook Manmohan Singh is firmly in league with big business. Guys like Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Mittal simply get the policies they want.

Rajesh-India in reply to 7YmvUMgfHt

As you say, the Bollygarchs have become rich while others keep struggling in poverty. But it is even worse than that. The Bollygarchs have become super-duper rich in such a short time - by looting the Public's assets. All Our Coal, Iron Ore, Oil, Gas, Telecom spectrum is going every day to them virtually free because they are able to arm-twist our politicians and bureaucrats. Our Public Banks are abused by them for funds. This is a tale of unending misery. The Super Rich became Super Rich not because of hard work or innovation, but by grabbing Our wealth.


Why on earth does the Economist nag on like some aged hag about the Indian economy sputtering when the Western economies are in free fall and have made not the smallest move towards resuming growth? If the West is so smart why are its economic ideas such a miserable failure?

Doctor, cure thyself.


Why should they speak up? To have earned their fortunes, they have no doubt already learned how to exploit the numerous arbitrage opportunities that a dysfunctional political system would present to a clever and well-connected businessman.

Cool Beans

when you start asking for another rich, demanding group of people with spoilt kids to demand reform for a country, you know things are getting desperate, or at least, The Economist is sounding desperate - "Rich Oligarchs, please save the state of the nation from regional despots who have somehow managed to strengthen electoral turnout even though they're crazy."
Granted, governance in the country is shamefully poor, but don't delude yourself - the fact is that these fat cats are not saying much precisely because they're benefiting from several perks even if growth at this point is stagnating. Maybe the license raj is over but Lax environmental and labour laws, your "special economic zones" among a whole host of other goodies for these folks will keep them quite satisfied. It is precisely because a large number of these organizations are equally as corrupt that they really can't be bothered to dabble in double standards.


Agree wioth @Rajeev Pandey and @Cool Beans re Indian Big Businesses. These are mostly crony capitalist firms, who enjoy a monopoly based on subverting the system, and exploiting their own political connections. To expect them to become saviours, when they themselves have a stake in the present state of affairs, is ludicrous.


As long as the Anglo-US show no capacity to tackle their own incredibly corrupt and chaotic economies and polities no-one in the world is going to pay them the smallest attention. They can nag on at India, China, Russia, Africa, Latin America and whatnot and these lands will simply ignore them with absolute contempt.
The Economist which is the paper of the banking robber barons has not realised that the world has seen through their game and their credibility is now way below zero.
In old Russia the Jews had the following custom: When a Jew died his body was brought to the synagogue and his friends gathered round him and intoned: "So and so, son of so and so, know that thou are dead!
Well, that is what the Economist and the other tiresome Anglo-US preachers of the tired platitudes of capitalism need to be told: "Know that thou art dead!"


India is always boasting of its democracy,but democracy did not bring merits to it.In fact in a country like India ,democracy is inefficient,centralization of authority is the key.


India's bollygarchs have done so little for the society that it is almost sad to talk about them. They have clearly gotten richer while society as a whole in India continues to struggle with poverty, over-abundance of population, crime, etc, etc, etc. They should be doing more in an OVERT manner to create political and social changes. Sadly they only care to pad their own pocket books and building huge mansions to please their egos.

Rajesh-India in reply to Colin Sydney

I/ We Indians have nothing against Capitalism-liberalism per se. Healthy, well-fed, new-skilled people should compete on the marketplace. Venture funding should be available for those entrepreneurs having good ideas. This is the most productive, enriching, innovative model of eco-social existence known to man. But the problem is that India is very far from being well-fed, healthy and skilled in new skills. Some compromises have to be made for that. Secondly the market is an absolute failure in Monopoly sectors. Ultra Big Businesses can rival and exceed power of States and can and do twist public policy to their advantage. Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Telecom, Big Coal, Big Iron and perhaps most of all Big BANKS. Private Sector presence in Natural Monopoly sectors is far worse than Poison. It just screws up society no end. Once such giant monopolies-oligopolies are in place the people are terribly trapped in a dead end because The people are too small and defenseless to challenge and stop their merciless exploitation at the hands of these private monopolies. States become too weak and deferential and paralysed once private monopolies get established and reach Frankensteinian proportions. State Monopolies with all their huge inefficiencies and wastages and blunderings are a far far safer bet, far less riskier. Far more in control of the economy and the policy making process. States which are beginning their journey towards Capitalism should never never venture to privatize the Monopoly sector of their Economies and retain tight control. And stay safe.


Indians love wealth and its aspirations are driving force like people all over the world but it hates its wealthy with almost same passion.

This is more borne out of the fact that most of the wealthy business men are known to have immense shady dealings and have had enough favors curried by corrupt politicians which "accounts" for their wealth. There are far too many instances to be put dwon here.

However there are many "clean" entrepreneurs in India who have been successful without shenanigans with govt. like Narayan Murthy, Azim Premji and others, they are respected if not loved by Indians. Heartily their tribe is increasing.

And for these crony capitalist covered by Schumpeter their public involvement can be summed up as "Damn if they do and Damned if they

DAULATRAM in reply to The Misfit

I suppose you don't know that when Churchill was responsible for India, in 1943, it suffered a famine in which at least three million people starved to death while he deliberately stopped the US and Australia from sending food as they wished to. His own chief military advisor, Alanbrooke, said: "Winston seems to be content to let India starve while using it as a military base."
So much for Churchillian wisdom on India.

indica in reply to zmjh

Yes, India's democracy has taken a few wrong turns. Will it be able to correct itself? Or, would we see more anarchy?

With any political system, especially democracies, when the national government is weak, you will find anarchy out there.

As I see it, Shumpeter is right to raise the questions he has, since the 'bollychorchy' has a huge stake in India's growth story. Many, like Tata, the Ambanis, have devoted their entire lives to running their businesses.

BUT, they are dealing with a Premier, Mr.MICKY MOUSE Singh, a Boss-Madam, Mrs. Mini Meddle-Muddle Mouse Sonia, Goofy Rahul [and his side-kick, Rusty Dig-Dig Vijay Woof-Woof] - You can easily identify Huey, Dewy and Lewy mice in this pathetic excuse of a Government of India.

Clueless brain-dead and yet inclined to take short-cuts in the way they allocate coal blocks or other public resources, the present Government of India is casting a strong shadow on the entire country - not just upon its economy.

It is a NIGHT-MARE - how long will it go on?



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