Today's Villians
Couple of weeks back I was seeing the movie 'Mr. India'. It was a great favourtite of mine and I thought it would be a good idea for me to watch it with my son, Vidit.
One thing that stuck me was the villians of the 80's were the merchants and the smugglers. Almost all the movies I can recall in the 80s were about the angry young man trying to fight for his survival and fight the villian. However today in the last few movies, the villians have now moved to strong men who are now mafia, builders and politicians.
With opening of the economy, merchants are no longer the villians. Almost all the items that used to be smuggled in the 80s (gold, video games, movies, and yes even coke cans) are now freely available in any market. Almost all the black-market that existed due to the government custom duties have now been removed.
However the government now has license over the big tickets such as land, mines, telecoms, food, education etc and this is where the patronage and the corruption is. Most of these license are being held on the pretext that they can do a good job of distribution to the masses. As we clearly know, an oppisite of this happens and only the rich few get favored.
One of the easiet way to kill corruption is to remove the discretionary power of the government and instead bring in a transparent level playing field. Though this system can also be abused it has less chances if all the government does is playing a referee rather than the coach.
One thing that stuck me was the villians of the 80's were the merchants and the smugglers. Almost all the movies I can recall in the 80s were about the angry young man trying to fight for his survival and fight the villian. However today in the last few movies, the villians have now moved to strong men who are now mafia, builders and politicians.
With opening of the economy, merchants are no longer the villians. Almost all the items that used to be smuggled in the 80s (gold, video games, movies, and yes even coke cans) are now freely available in any market. Almost all the black-market that existed due to the government custom duties have now been removed.
However the government now has license over the big tickets such as land, mines, telecoms, food, education etc and this is where the patronage and the corruption is. Most of these license are being held on the pretext that they can do a good job of distribution to the masses. As we clearly know, an oppisite of this happens and only the rich few get favored.
One of the easiet way to kill corruption is to remove the discretionary power of the government and instead bring in a transparent level playing field. Though this system can also be abused it has less chances if all the government does is playing a referee rather than the coach.
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