Cultural barriers should not run across political frontiers. But when it comes to our paranoid neighbour, nothing is left outside the ambit of arm-twisting. Not even music that connected souls even before language was evolved. Little wonder then that Indian singers and musicians are not allowed to perform in Pakistan — where they have millions of fans and billions of illegal cassettes in circulation — but Pakistani artistes regularly stage shows in India and take home big bucks, tax-free. Padma Bhushan Jagjit Singh recently told me how happy he would have been to perform in Pakistan. ‘‘They (Pakistani artistes) are so much honoured in India and we are not even allowed there,’’ he rued. Years back, Islamabad scrapped Asha Bhosle’s concert at the eleventh hour after tickets were sold. No Indian artiste has been granted visas ever since. Bollywood’s popular singer Abhijit also called me up and both wanted me to raise the issue in Parliament. I remember when I was in Lahore to interview Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the legendary singer minced no words in criticising the Pakistani Government’s stand and later took up the issue with the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. But with the sole exception of Nusrat, no Pakistani artiste — from Noor Jahan to Abida Parveen — said a single word against Pakistan’s stand of not allowing Indian artistes there. A Pakistani friend of mine always tells me that the police won’t be able to manage the crowd if Lataji or Jagjit Singh perform in Pakistan. One can find cassettes of these artistes playing in every household. Go to any small village, and posters of Bollywood stars on the wall will greet you. Illegal audio and video cassettes from Dubai are available in bulk. The influence of Indian culture is already so strong that Islamabad probably thinks that allowing our artistes to perform there would create a wave that can very well nullify its pet hate-India campaign. Now I don’t think we should stoop as low as Pakistan and deny their artistes visa. But at least we should make them pay reasonable tax so that they make some contribution to our economy as well. Meanwhile, the MEA should also tell their Pakistani counterpart that we can’t keep playing the nice neighbour without any reciprocation. It makes good business sense for Islamabad to keep the illegal cassette industry going as it employs a number of Pakistanis. New Delhi should put pressure on the Emirates Government to come down heavily on this racket. The ever expanding overseas market for Bollywood yields huge profit but very little comes back to India. Underworld extortion apart, many producers dump the overseas profit in foreign banks. While the MEA needs to check such menace, the Finance Ministry should also review tax burden to encourage honest producers to bring home what can be a substantial and regular supply of foreign exchange. Scrapping of funds not the answer For all the controversy over the MPLAD issue, the bottomline should be clear. Under no circumstances should this scheme be scrapped. Sporadic aberrations cannot deny the fact that the MPLAD has been the most effective tool of development in most parts of the country. The late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi bitterly acknowledged how 85 paise of each rupee earmarked for development gets siphoned out by the bureaucracy at different levels and only 15 paise reaches the poor. In contrast, I dare say that for each rupee spent under the MPLAD scheme, at least 85 paise is properly utilised. Without MPLAD in place, all the money will go back to the bureaucracy and we know how much will eventually trickle down to the grassroot. In fact, the bureaucracy is responsible in a big way for whatever corruption has crept into the disbursement of the MPLAD funds. In this scheme, the only way money can be siphoned out is through commissions to the contractors and sarkari staff like engineers. Now if each and every district collector who is in charge of releasing funds makes sure that he double checks the credentials of the contractors suggested by individual MPs and reigns in the government staff, there will be no room for any malpractice. In any case, only a small number of MPs have dealt in questionable transactions. It would be unfair to deny the good work done by the vast majority of the MPs with their MPLAD funds. Visit any constituency and you can see for yourself how many kilometres of roads, how many hospitals or health centres or schools have come up and in what quick time through proper utilisation of MPLAD funds. The Left MPs know better than anybody else the gray areas in our bureaucratic system and they themselves have done good work in their constituencies. They should think twice before asking for scrapping of the MPLAD schemes. In a democracy, we can’t take it away from the people. Some good news for IT experts Contrary to popular belief, a recent NASSCOM-McKinsey study claims that the Indian software and services industry is expected to employ about 6,50,000 persons by the end of this month — an increase of more than 1,25,000 (about 24 per cent) over the numbers employed in March 2002. Approximately 55,000 engineers graduating from IT-related courses join the IT labour pool every year. The same survey notes that stiff immigration requirements after 9/11 have led to more work being done offshore in India. In the current visa regime, Indian IT pros who are visiting US, UK and other countries are on the payroll of the Indian companies and return to India after completion of individual projects. The NASSCOM-McKinsey study also claimed that if Indian software and Business Process Outsourcing industry has to achieve an annual revenue of $77 billion in 2008, the demand for professionals will be about 1.1 million by the same time. Supply of professionals, on the other hand, based on current trends, will be 8,85,000 professionals by 2008. While the government is in the process of setting up new software technology parks, e-governance application, Media lab Asia, it is also promoting new markets like UAE and Latin America. Granting fiscal concession is also being offered to make offshore services more attractive.
