Sachin Tendulkar is India's greatest (cricket) batsman. He is also a gentleman; he has never misbehaved in the field. When, in 2002, he matched Don Bradman's 29 test centuries, Fiat presented him with a Ferrari 360 Modena. The 120 per cent import duty on it would have come to Rs 11 million. There was a move in Parliament to exempt it from duty; but there was a public uproar. Finally, Fiat paid the customs duty. In this column in Business World of 19 August 2003, I criticized the Indian Parliament for seeking to waive the duty .
Shame on you,
Sachin!
Eight years ago, Kamal Nath was a
minister in Narasimha Rao’s cabinet. He returned from abroad with half a dozen
suitcases. They caught the attention of an upright officer named Shakuntala.
She got his PA to go to his home, wake him up, get the keys and return to the
airport. When the suitcases were opened, they were found full of expensive
luxuries such as crystal and champagne. Shakuntala charged the minister customs
duty of Rs 85,000 and a penalty of Rs 30,000. For the temerity she paid
heavily. She was transferred out of the airport and sent to the worst jobs the
Central Board of Excise and Customs could find. Those in power saw to it that
her career was ruined.
Soon thereafter,
Sukh Ram, a ministerial colleague of Kamal Nath, went on a junket abroad. While
he was away, the Central Bureau of Investigation found, amongst other things,
some Rs 25 million in his prayer room. The case against him winds on, and will
forever.
These incidents
were big news in their time. Since then, management in the government has
improved. Every once in a while a senior revenue official is found with a few
million; he is quickly removed from public sight. Or the personal assistant of
a minister of state is seen too blatantly collecting bribes. Suddenly the
minister and his flunkey vanish; their offices are cleaned up, and all trace of
them removed. It is as if they never existed. A group of journalists films
senior politicians – male and female – take cash for favours they promise their
benefactors. The government appoints an enquiry commission and buries it in the
back yard of Vigyan Bhavan; in the meanwhile it slaps over a hundred fake cases
on those who exposed its corruption, and makes sure they will never even think
of ever exposing its dirty deeds again.
It would not be
news if that government awarded a Bharat Ratna to a political shoeshine boy or
gave a hundred acres of public land free to a religious business empire. But it
is still news when it bestows Rs 16 million of taxpayer’s money on Sachin Tendulkar.
For it was the taxpayer’s money that Sachin misappropriated. That was the
import duty he owed the country on the swank new racer he was presented with;
that money might have paid for some schools and bridges if he had not used it
to enrich himself even further.
It is not news
that he did not pay the duty. Hardly any politician in power pays it; many
others evade it by knowing the right people. It is not news that so many are in
the racket of evading taxes, or that so many get into or close to the government
to enrich themselves, or that power and tax evasion are so closely aligned.
What surprises and saddens is that Sachin had joined this gang.
It will be
argued that Sachin did not misuse power, because he is not in power. But it was
not as if the finance minister just guessed that Sachin was bringing in this
shining red racing machine, that Sachin did not have enough cash in his pocket
to pay the duty, and he helped Sachin out. Such favours do not materialize out
of thin air. Sachin would not have got this duty exemption if he had not
dreamed of it, he had not thought of it, and he had not mentioned it to someone
who can get these things done in the corridors of North Block. It does not
matter. Sachin had access, and he used it to enrich himself.
But – does not
the nation owe Sachin something? Has not Sachin brought it unprecedented glory?
Are we not honouring ourselves by honouring Sachin? Let us not bring us and the
nation into this. It is the NDA government that granted Sachin the duty
exemption, it was Sachin the importer of a luxury car that accepted it, and it
was money that would have financed government expenditure.
As a master
cricketer Sachin deserves all honour; and this nation has given it to him. No
one has got the acclaim in his short life that he has; no one has earned the
kind of money he has got; no one has been so admired as he has. And that is why
he should not have done it. Millions of young people look upon Sachin as a
legend and an icon. He can bring forth a million heros – and he can inspire as
many scamsters.
That is why
Sachin should not have asked for that favour – it was a favour not from the
leader whom he asked, but from the people weighed down by taxes. That is why he
should think again. That is why he should, even now, send a cheque to the
finance minister.
