Take a figure. Let’s say, 37540623616. Now divide it by 1250000000. That works out to about 30. When Stephen Hawking was writing ABrief History of Time , his publisher warned him that every equation he used in the book would reduce his readership by half. The figures above tell a brief history of our time, and if only half of those who began this column continue to read it, I confess there’s more to come.
The second figure (beginning 125…) is India’s population. But what is 37,540,623,616? That’s about 3754 crores. Eleven digits, so it can’t be a cell phone number. It can’t be the amount of money an Indian cricketer makes in a calendar year (well, not yet anyway). It is not the strength of the audience that watched the US President being sworn in earlier this year (whatever he might say).
It is, in fact, the amount of money our government spent on telling us how wonderful it is, how it is the best thing to have happened since sliced bread, how terrible everyone else is, and perhaps includes what was paid to the cameramen to ensure that our leaders were photographed in the right light so we saw only their best profiles.
I now prepare to lose half the readers again. Take the figure 15,00,000. That’s fifteen lakhs, the sum our leaders said would drop into our bank accounts with a resounding thump once they were elected to office.
Thanks to the government’s advertisement blitz in the three years it has been in office, we can now expect only 14,99,970. We have each spent 30 rupees to pay for the government telling us how wonderful it is. It is a version of giving someone a stick to beat us with. About half the country lives on a dollar per person per day, so that would be about half a day’s wages for more than 60 million people. How happy they must be to know that our government is for the people, half the people. That’s nearly two-thirds Lincoln’s famous definition.
And all this despite not having to spend on many of our television channels which do the government’s bidding free of cost. To adapt an old verse,
You cannot hope to bribe or twist
(thank God!) the Indian journalist.
But, seeing what the man will do
unbribed, there’s no occasion to.
The missing 30 rupees from the missing 15 lakhs is worrying. It is possible that thousands might return the 14,99,970 in a gesture bound to be called ‘ Cash wapasi’. Or, maybe not. It is difficult to predict these things. News anchors will have another 14,99,970 reasons to froth at the mouth if that happens.
A Brief History of Time ends with the words, “it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason — for then we should know the mind of God”. At this time in our brief history, we would settle for knowing the mind of the Finance Minister.
Suresh Menon is Contributing Editor, The Hindu
