Daily Times

Perhaps, due to the title, which dubbed capitalism a ghost story thereby implicitly supporting my sentiments, I ended up purchasing the book without realising its origins and author. Admittedly, prejudice has played a part all this time in deliberately ignoring anything associated with our eastern neighbour; perhaps also the reason I have shied away from comparing the two economies despite a view that their size aside, a historical comparison might throw up interesting insights into future policy actions for Pakistan.

I, however, confess that while I never was a great fan of Indian movies, I have been guilty of viewing certain of their television channels on the idiot box. Fortunately, PEMRA was the catalyst for curing me of that particular addiction. While the lobbies have succeeded in bringing Indian movies back to Pakistani cinema; one sincerely hopes that PEMRA remains resolute on the matter.

Let there be no doubt, they are shooting and killing our children and soldiers from across the border and are scheming to forcibly appropriate our drinking water even. What kind of policy allows the nation to be entertained by those who are violently suppressing our Kashmiri brethren?

“It was self-imposed censorship and not an official ban, “Zoraiz Lashari, chairman of Pakistan’s Film Exhibitor’s Association, told CNN Money. “The cinema business has been hit badly, and we will start screening Indian movies. “To rephrase an old heathen proverb: Nations the gods would destroy, they first make them blind with greed.

Curiously, the otherwise vigilante electronic media, quick to broadcast atrocities across the border and the sufferings of Kashmir, seems to ignore this issue altogether. Unconfirmed rumours at informal social gatherings suggest that certain news groups are themselves importers of entertainment from across the border; a pure conflict of interest.

“However, most of the Indian mass media is more vulnerable by the fact that a significant share of their revenues come from corporate advertisements. If that is not bad enough the line between the media and big business has begun to blur dangerously”, Arundhati Roy, in her book, “Capitalism — A Ghost Story”.

The book in question, or as mentioned on its back cover, was first published in 2014 and highlights issues with the world’s biggest democracy, which are quite similar to Pakistan. In fact, some of the revelations in the book were particularly shocking, and the similarity even more so.

The author very early in the book, while criticising acquisition of land by government for special economic zones, dams and highways ostensibly for economic growth, asserts that the connection between such GDP growth and jobs is a myth. And the basis for this epiphany is that after 20 years of growth, 60 percent of India’s workforce is self-employed and 90 percent of the labour force is in the informal sector. Pakistan probably has similar numbers, and it would be interesting to see economist’s responding to this insight; if true perhaps the focus should be more on jobs.

I for one was always under the impression, based on assertions by seemingly very smart people, that democracy flourished in India because of the emergence of a very large middle class which itself was a consequence of land reforms carried out by its government immediately post independence. Ms Roy argues otherwise. According to her, fighting for land reforms continued till the 1980s after which it has become undemocratic, even lunatic, to talk about redistribution of land to the poor.

Nobody talks about land reforms in Pakistan anymore as well. After all, it might put democracy in danger; how fragile is this system?

One bad thing about size and there are much more, is the mega corruption. The book highlights the predominance of public policy to dish out lucrative opportunities for earning monopoly rent from national assets to private corporations at ridiculous prices.

Ms Roy’s view about Indian action come as a major surprise as did the assertion that 830 million Indians live on twenty rupees a day. If after enjoying democracy for decades, the final fruit is Rs 20 per day, is it wrong to question the system? How many more decades are needed to realise that democracy’s edifice is based on the one vote, which is a commodity that can be bought by money.

The writer is a chartered accountant based in Islamabad. He can be reached at syed. bakhtiyarkazmi@gmail. com and on Twitter @leaccountant