A word of caution for Nilekani

Tushar Gandhi, June 29, 2009
Financial Chronicle

There has been a lot of euphoria and many welcome messages greeting the appointment of Infosys’ Nandan Nilekani as head of the task force that will provide every Indian citizen with a ‘unique personal identity smart card’ within the next three years. If anyone can successfully perform this Herculean task, it is Nilekani. However, I hope he is going in with his eyes open. Before him, many people have burnt their fingers rather horribly.

When Rajiv Gandhi became the prime minister, he was brimming with ideas and had a clear-cut vision for the India that he had inherited. After a landslide electoral victory, he set up various technology missions to look into and solve India’s chronic problems. One of these was the technology mission for communications and information technology, or ‘computerisation’, as it was then known. Rajiv brought in non-resident Indian Satyendranath ‘Sam’ Pitroda from the US. Within a few months, Sam charmed the nation. I remember sitting mesmerised in the auditorium of KC College in Mumbai as ‘Sam’ expounded his vision and spoke about technologies that were unheard of until then. We were fascinated, a saviour in shining armour had arrived.

Sam was dismissive of the bureaucracy and political vested interests. He had a mission and he was going to be single-minded about its success.

Sam recruited a team of brilliant young minds. He set up C-DOT, an organisation that would spearhead India’s communications revolution. C-DOT was able to get the best of minds and provided them with the best of facilities. There were no questions asked, since it was working directly with the Prime Minister’s Office. C-DOT came up with one revolutionary concept after another. This was the time when urban telephone exchanges were changing over from the ancient cross bar exchanges to electronic exchanges. C-DOT took the old cross bar exchanges refurbished and modified them and made small exchanges, which were installed in rural areas, providing many villages with communication lines for the first time after Independence.

Rajiv Gandhi’s dream of providing a phone in every village soon became a reality. Sam was flying high. But in his crusading zeal, he had stepped on many toes, and had also hurt many political egos. He had made a lot of enemies in New Delhi. Soon, the knives were out for Sam Pitroda. He was charged of favouritism. Because he was in a hurry while importing some technology, Sam used his company in the US as a vehicle. The babus and politicians found the stone to crush Sam Pitroda. Sam was hounded. Allegations were made in Parliament and an inquiry was instituted against him. Rajiv Gandhi was battling Bofors and could not come to his rescue.

From a knight in shining armour, Sam soon became the hunted one. Bureaucrats threw the rule book at him, every move of his was scrutinised. It was a witch-hunt against him.

C-DOT was dismantled, the technology missions were scrapped. Finally, after a lot of anguish that took a toll on his health, Sam returned to the US and underwent multiple bypass operations. His business also collapsed. His honeymoon with India had ended in bitterness.

However, Sam resurfaced during the past tenure of Manmohan Singh and was invited to head the Knowledge Commission. His brief was to study the education system and suggest changes to make it more effective. Once again, he went about it with evangelical zeal. And once again, babus and politicians thwarted his zeal. In his second innings, Sam had to contend with the wily old fox, the then human resource development minister Arjun Singh. The Knowledge Commission was doomed. Singh insisted on nominating his ‘people’. There were ego clashes and Sam, the lone wolf, was thwarted again. Singh shot down every recommendation made by the Knowledge Commission and ensured that it became a lame duck. Sam Pitroda walked away in a huff again and the commission was aborted prematurely.