FDI in retail may be thwarted by India's endemic corruption

The other day, I read an article about how, notwithstanding the hyperbole over FDI in retail, there is an element of despair in doing business in India. Many foreign investors cannot stomach the level of corruption in India. Those who venture in prefer paying hefty kickbacks to doing business in China where the prospect of profits is dimmer.

We do have fewer permits and licences to negotiate today, but these are still way too many for the foreigners. The administrative machinery is fiercely entrenched at every level of setting up shop in the country. A peon in a small suburban municipal ward office in Mumbai is said to have invested in a house worth Rs45 lakh in Navi Mumbai. The house is under construction and he pays all his instalments in cash. He is an unaggressive person who doesn’t really need to arm-twist the dough out of any of his providers. The money comes smoothly to him. A non-graduate, he makes more than what an MBA from a prestigious college would make after five years of service in the country. And, by all accounts, his colleagues are better off than him.

It’s not as if the educated are any cleaner. Their takeaways are many notches higher. The head of a government teaching institution in the north is believed to have homes in western countries, apart from holiday homes all over the country. These luxuries cannot stem from a sixth pay commission pay packet, however wise an investor he may be. He has also overstayed his tenure by far, which in itself implies complicity of his seniors. One can only imagine why his continuation, in violation of norms, is so important.

Corruption plagues not just those interested in multi-brand retail. It is an all-inclusive phenomenon in a country that knows no other way of living. So much so that after a couple of spirited protests, the Anna Hazares and Arvind Kejriwals seem to have given up on their pet peeve. More’s the pity because the Congress, leading the country for the larger part of its life, knows all too well that Indians are so inured to corruption that the people are unlikely to stay indignant for long.

We are distinct from others not just in our culture, but also in our outlook to life. We are not capable of a violent revolution. We are not Libya. We do things civilly but we are not Egypt. We can’t hold out; we run out of steam. The Gandhian way of protesting calls for enormous reserves of patience, resolve and effort. The passivity that defines the Indian character is not the passivity of nonviolent resistance which is anything but. It’s the passivity of dormant acceptance arising from the inability to summon the courage to fight for as long as it takes.

And till that part stays, we need not worry much about the foreign invasion on our economic shores. If at all they manage to negotiate the do’s and don’t of investing in the retail sector, the foreigners will come but not in droves. And when they do, we have our way of outwitting them. The other day, I bought a packet of mineral supplements from a chemist in Mumbai. After paying Rs146 for it, I saw the packet had one strip of tablets whereas the jacket mentioned two. A relative bought the same packet from another chemist in Pune. He too had paid for two and found one strip inside.

Living and working in India calls for enormous amounts of vigil and resilience. Most foreigners may not quite measure up.

The author is a senior journalist based in Mumbai.