Josy Joseph is a celebrated investigative journalist. His well researched stories, for those who follow him have blown the lid of multiple scams like the 2G scam, the Naval War Room leaks, the Commonwealth games loot and multiple other stories relating to our democratic institutions, industry and crime. He is also a winner of a host of awards in India and currently writes for The Hindu. He has been in this business for over 2 decades and has built a reputation as a fearless journalist with the tenacity to follow up a story and dig into the details and marshal them with facts and inside stories. He is still in his 40s and we can look forward to his exposes for another 2 decades on the buccaneering captains of Indian industry and our holier than thou politicians.
The book is like a summary of some of the stories that put India to shame in the last 2 decades. As we celebrate the success of Indian democracy and the multiple social development programs for the poor and also the rapid rise of free enterprise and all that it does to the India shining story – he digs below the surface. He peels the layers of the onion and goes beyond our normal self-congratulatory themes of success and discovers a host of ills. Some are so venal that you feel ashamed – leakages in the public distribution system, crony capitalism, wilful subversion of rules to suit some, extreme cases of skulduggery and political chicanery by our rising Industrialists….and the list continues. By the time you reach the end of the book – you get depressed at the state of the affairs which most of know but feign ignorance. I am not sure whether it is out of helplessness or plain indifference.
As an introductory chapter, he takes us to Bihar (our showpiece for dystopia and anarchy) and the state of utter lawlessness, leakages in the PDS and the pathetic state of affairs in the hinterlands of India (think education, sanitation, public health) where the doles / largesse of the government is usurped by all and sundry who can dip into it. Finally, either a small portion or nothing reaches the ultimate beneficiary after the politicians, the low-level officials, the middle men take their cut. This introduction will give a feeling of deja vu for those who have read P Srinath’s ‘Everybody loves a Good Drought’. The chapter is like a primer to condition the reader to the deplorable state of affairs, before he moves to the main book which focuses on the stories in the big cities.
Neatly classified into 3 sections on Middlemen, Private Sector and the Big league (the ones beyond the laws of the land who continue whatever they do with impunity), the author takes us thru multiple stories and investigative scoops – in mining and all related natural resources industries, aviation, defence purchases and numerous others, which leave you dumb-struck at the appalling state of affairs and the levels of corruption in this country…both in the political field and private industry.
Beyond the halo of our success as a democracy and show-piece stories of private enterprise, there lies a world of wheeling dealing, nepotism, sleeping with the underworld, self-serving politicians who sit on committees that take decisions on industrial policy which affects their own companies…..the list is endless.
Before some of the aggrieved parties file a petition for getting this book banned, grab it and read it – all the high and mighty are laid bare open in the book….most of us either consume their products or use their services on a daily basis.
Most of the stories are known to us, but not to this degree of detail.
Overall, the depresses you…..beyond the hype and hoopla…..we almost finally come out like a banana republic….and no different from what happens in Mexico, Brazil or Russia.
| 
