Did Enron just show the legs for Dabhol rip-off?
It is no secret now that Dabhol contract between the Indian and Maharashtra govt, and Enron was a rip-off. First of all, how come such a one-sided contract with sureshot way to making the govt go bankrupt signed? Was the wily, and smartest people on earth - the Indians - such fools that they could not see the basics of what was asked in the contract, even after such great experiences with East India Company? Or was it just the fantastic, gym-made legs of Corporate VP of Enron that accompanied Kenneth Lay making all the Mahanrashtra netas drool swung the contract? And if it was indeed signed, how did things come to such a pass that the entire contract had to be called off, and new bids issued with no takers. I, for one, dont know how much taxpayers money was wasted by the the Indian netas in rebidding and then paying the damages for breach of contract to the high-flying Enron of those days. I still dont know if the same turbines are running, if at all, or it was indigenously redesigned, re-engineered to work by BHEL (Public Sector Undertaking or PSU - pronounced as PISSU) with no help from Americans in specifications, blueprints of the power plant who had flatly reduced after the Indian govt refused to honor the contract. Guess, with the demise of Enron, the Dabhol power players and the IDBIs and IFCIs also got lucky with no one breathing down their neck.
Whatever happened - one thing is clear - it was covered up, and the era of liberalisation started by the surdy-boy resulted in a spat that could only be matched by the razzmataz of Bhinderwale's guns. There was respite from Bhinderwale, but there is no respite from the mighty shitibanks that still rule almost every aspect of Indian FDI. Netas, particularly Babu Moshai might have learned a few tricks in calming the markets by making a few inane, silly comments every morning 9 AM of late, similar to the sun rising in the east, and setting in the west, but the shots are still called by the power brokers of the wall street, and their cronies and servile Mumdogs.
But there is no lack of respect in that, certainly not in India! With at least 1000 years of slavery and oppression, first under the Mughals and then under the British, and then under the Netas, the resilient Hindustanis have hung on to respect, as told to them. As anyone who has been in India - the populace at large has to suffer a lot more everyday than what could possibly be imagined at the hands of imperial masters, and the hegemonists and the racists, or the barbarians or Ghaznis or Khans. And with great power comes No responsibility as 10 Janpath would teach you, just get your surname changed by enticing a Kashmiri fool and the rewards are great.
That is not the point I want to make, though. The point is that no matter what has happened, the shitibanks and their cohorts wield awesome power in India. And they have conditioned the Indians, through those who have their foreheads stamped 'they were here, while others were not', to accept what is fed to them without argument and rationality. And the Dabhol contract was just a manifestation of such mindset and mentality. Although, I have mentioned it now, it cannot be changed in a generation, or 2 generations - the attitudes have concretitized to an extent that those look more familiar and homegrown than the true classical traditions of smartest people on earth - Indians.
If I extend it a little further, it means that many corporations who want to set up their offices or plants in India, for example, Posco would have done great if they opened an office in US and then came via that route. To make it a done deal with no land acquisition hassles, a white American can negotiate on their behalf, and rest assured, the files in the govt circuits will move with the speed of Formula 1 cars, wells oiled by the sheer pre-eminence of American power on the minds of Indian brethren and netas and generals, not to forget who have their alma-mater there and those who have sent their pillas to US and see their future in the American utopia. Dont forget after the Bhopal Gas Leak, Warren Anderser - a white American was taken on orders of Indian PM in a govt car to the airport to be flown in an Indian AIr Force plane back to US. In case, there is mild track problem for the files on the racing track of Bhavans, one just need to remind the smartest netas on earth its effect on the pillas who are studying Developmental Economics and MBAs in the free country. And the impediments it might create in getting those a pillas a ministerial berth when they return to Bharat Mahan.
PS: With Malice towards none, and benevolence towards none.
