Bad losers
The two unrelated incidents of Vodafone tax trial and Mamata Banerjee cartoon give out the common message that the people in power are vengeful to the core today, writes Meha Mathur

If there’s one skill that our highly-stung politicians can take today from the common man of India today, it’s taking defeat, criticism and setback in stride. Numerous instances of common man taking law into his hands to fight injustice notwithstanding, majority of us submit to the law of the land with a sense of resignation. After all, how can we fight the mighty system? I still remember the UTI scam which had broken out during the NDA regime, and which had wiped out the savings of so many hard-earning, middle class families. Media had flashed interviews of helpless, elderly couples who didn’t know how to recover the amount that they had saved over their entire working life. But they did submit to fate.

Not so our haughty politicians. And the Vodafone tax case has brought to the fore this ugly face our polity too clearly. A novice at economic matters that I am, I am still stunned at the unfairness with which Vodafone has been treated. The case pertains to Vodafone International Holding’s takeover of Hutchison Essar a few years ago. The IT department demanded that Vodafone pay tax to the tune of `11,000 crore, whereas Vodafone claimed there was no tax liability on this foreign deal. The case went to Mumbai High Court, and then to Supreme Court, which ruled in favour of Vodafone. In the review petition too, it took the same stand.

The Government of India should have accepted the Supreme Court ruling with grace. But in the meanest manner, it went on to change the very act on the basis of which the Apex Court had passed the judgment — The Income Tax Act 1961. A retrospective change spanning 51 years was made in the Budget, proposed by Pranab Mukherjee in mid-March. A fuming Vodafone has threatened to drag the Indian Government into international arbitration, and rightly so. After all, how safe are investor interests, given this arbitrariness?

But that is not the key point I am raising in this article. The issue I am raising is that of accepting defeat with grace. Usually it’s individuals who get this sermon, but this time, it’s the Government of the world’s largest democracy, which is need of this lesson.

The problem afflicts certain State heads too. Mamata Banerjee is known for her mercurial temper, but now that she has power with her, she has revealed the vengeful side of her too, by having the professor who posted her cartoon on facebook, arrested. To let a cartoon hurt your ego is not a sign of a great statesmanship. And it wasn’t the meanest caricature too! Cartoonists have punctured many a politicians’ egos with some more devastating depictions (including Pt Nehru, Atal Behari Vajpayee and Narasimha Rao) and they have all taken it in stride. Can such stung leaders be trusted with the reins of this country?

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