MNC Bashing: Playing Chicken with the Economy

(Originally appeared in the 1990s in the Times of India, as published in M. D. Nalapat's book "Indutva", Har-Anand Publications, 1999)

Lizards have a trick of shedding their tails when in danger. The

animal chasing them gets diverted by the wiggling castaway,

and the lizard escapes. In like fashion, instead of pursuing the

terrorist monster threatening the land, the Hindutva champions

are getting diverted by a wiggly "tail" of an issue—Kentucky

Fried Chicken. Not that one should blame them, it is less

dangerous to attack two pieces of chicken on a plastic plate than

to, say, organise anti-terrorist demonstrations in Sopore or

Srinagar.

Those familiar with the hygiene conditions in Delhi’s

eateries—and obviously Madan Lal Khurana is not one of

them—may wonder why KFC was shut down rather than given

an award because only two flies were found in its New Delhi

outlet. Most of the rest have a larger number per square foot.

More importantly, by making Delhi—and India—an international

joke, the Hindutva crusaders should be awarded the Nishan-e-

Pakistan, having furthered one of the primary objectives of the

Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of derailing the developing

economic ties between India and the US. ISI strategists fear that

should such links develop, a lobby could form in the US which 

would reverse the traditionally pro-Pakistan tilt of the State

Department and the Pentagon.

This is not to deny the fact that the Clinton tilt is responsible

for KFC'S woes. It is no coincidence that after more than four

years of economic liberalisation, only during the past year has

there been a surge in anti-MNC (specifically anti-US) sentiment.

This is the result of the US policy towards New Delhi and

Islamabad, a policy which is about as ”non-aligned" as Cuba’s

was during the period when the USSR was still around. Pakistan

is given critical defence equipment but not India. Islamabad can

arm and train terrorists to wage a war against this country, but

India should not protest. Abdul Ghani Lone can meet key US

officials who, if Lone is to be believed, encourage him to break

up the Indian Union, but Altaf Hussain, despite avoiding any

talk of secession from Pakistan, is kept at arm's length lest

"Pinky" (Benazir Bhutto) minds.

And yet, despite the Clinton administrations bias, opposing

KFC and other US companies because of Clinton’s military help

to Islamabad makes about as much sense as the 1928-33 line of

the German Communist party that the Nazis and the Social

Democrats were "not antipodes but twins". Thanks to this

policy, much of the time of the comrades was spent in breaking

up socialist meetings and in abusing the SPD in the communist

press. Helped by this internecine war between their two biggest

enemies, the Nazis came to power in 1933 and promptly liquidated

both the socialists and the communists. By punishing KFC and

other US companies operating in India for the misdeeds of the

Clintonites, our Hindutva warriors are antagonising the one

force in the US powerful enough to end Washington's love affair

with Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s stengun-wielding "moderate

democrats".

An investigation into those leading the Chicken War would

show that most have visited the US several times, and many

have children studying there. Barring a few, the lifestyles of most

of them are elitist. Is it to cover this up that they rant about

chicken and flies? It is one thing to demand a "level playing

field" for foreign and domestic industry, another to seek to ban

external competition totally. Such an approach does not take

into account the strengths of local brands. In fast food, for

example, it is highly unlikely that brands such as Nirula's can get

affected by KFC’S entry—unless they are killed by their owners

themselves and are sold out to the foreign competitor, like

Thums Up was. Indeed, brands such as Nirula's have the

potential to go international, just as Taj and Oberoi have already

done in hotels. Crusaders like our chicken fighters may not,

however, appreciate this.

Where India scores over Pakistan is in the fact that it is a

liberal, secular democracy. In the Narasimha Rao era, one of

many beneficial changes is the fact that government is no longer

regarded with awe. Whether in the print media or on celluloid—

as films such as Oh Darling Yeh Hai India exemplify—even the

'PMji' is getting a taste of the lampoon. By their ISI-style

fanaticism, the Hindutva chicken fighters are attempting to wipe

out the difference between a tolerant India and a bigoted

Pakistan.

Yes, there are major threats to Indian security. For this,

antidotes need to be found through the development of defence

systems, not by protecting our intestinal tracts from harmless

chemicals. Lest we forget, the one factor that will keep this 

country from becoming another Bosnia is economic progress.

And the antics of those with flies on the brain is threatening this 

progress almost as much as the ISI fanatics are.