Nerve Endings Firing Away

Via Gaurav’s Vantage Point, I came across this excellent snippet of CNBC India wherein the reporter grilled the Indian commerce minister, Kamal Nath. As Gaurav mentioned, the reporter is well aware of common (yet uncommon) economic principles and uses them to grill Kamal Nath. The minister is an educated man too and probably is letting his ideological leanings color his economic policies but it is rare in Indian media that a cabinet-level minister would be subjected to such intense grilling.

You can sense the minister’s irritation and obvious denial in his voice when asked about his role of banning exports in the sugar sector that led to almost killing it off. Many manufacturers are reporting losses and this is as factual as it can get. Instead, Kamal Nath chooses to use words like ‘profiteering’ and ‘excessive’ profits and deflect attention on the farmer’s plight (completely unrelated.) Kamal Nath’s policies reek of a time when profit was considered a bad word and the reporter was smart to ask the minister, when is profit considered excessive and probably he should have sneaked in, who decides if that profit is excessive. Upon faced with a similar question on potential losses, Kamal Nath chose to hang up.

Politicians in India display a particular brand of arrogance that lets them assume that they are above questioning. The license raj made us almost servile and we dare not risk pissing off their fickle temperaments. But even after this control was taken away via liberalization, they continue to expect that we treat them with respect that they never deserved. The demand for respect leaves me with no choice but to treat them with contempt. Sadly, the media has often obliged their requests for irrational influence so it is a refreshing sight to see someone like this CNBC reporter take on a cabinet minister head on and grill him based purely on sound economic knowledge especially when the minister feigns ignorance and resorts to the populist tactics that got them elected. If you know the name of the reporter, please let me know via the comments [Update: the reporter's name is Udayan Mukerjee; thanks to Sqrl for Googling]