<WEEKEND RUMINATIONS T N Ninan / New Delhi April 05, 2008
Having listened over the past fortnight to stories from businessmen about the demands being made on them by politicians in different states, it is obvious that corruption in the states has reached levels that (most) politicians at the Centre can only dream of. One businessman talked of the chief minister of a state demanding Rs 500 crore from a problem-ridden industry, as the price for fixing its problems. Another businessman from another state talked of the state's rulers asking for 30 per cent of the cost of any project as the political contribution that would have to be made. A third businessman had his factory shut for several months under some environmental rule because he did not pay the sum demanded of him. These are numbers that we have not heard before in similar contexts, and they suggest rapacity on a previously unthinkable scale - to the point where doing business becomes impossible. The explanation for the new scale of money-making seems to be that politicians have begun reading about the billions being made by businessmen, especially through stock market wealth, and they feel that they had not been getting their "fair" share in the past. The consciousness of the stock market is borne out by the story from a businessman who said that demands are also being made for a significant shareholding in any company that is being set up! >>> http://www.business-standard.com/common/news_article.php?autono=319106&leftn m=4&subLeft=0&chkFlg=