Finally, the beginning of the end is here.
At first glance, the “election” of Jay Shah as the next chairman of the International Cricket Council seems like a mere reaffirmation of the old, old principle of nepotism in every single area of our national life. And, since we are prone to celebrate every minucule milestone, let us note with pride that Jay Shah, who is only 35 years old, will be the youngest chairman of the controlling body of the international cricket. After all, cricket is one of the few arenas of contest where India tends to perform well, and, therefore, it is only befitting that an Indian should, once again, be heading the international regulator. Thus, when on December 1, 2024 Jay Shah formally takes over the ICC position, India will get confirmed as an authentic vishwaguru. A truly great achievement to mark the beginning of the Amrit Kaal.
Admittedly, there can be no doubt, no discussion or debate that the only reason Jay Shah is set to become the next boss of the ICC is because his father is the junior partner in the old, faltering ruling firm of Shahenshah and Shah. True, Jay Shah happens to be the current secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and is deemed to be the boss of Indian cricket. But, again, he is in that influential position only because of the power and influence of his father – a quintessential political boss, and someone to be feared by friends and foes alike.
It has been pointed out that Jay Shah has had no achievement or experience that would qualify or prepare him for a global role. Not much is known of his educational qualifications nor of any substantive assignment in public or private sectors; his one and only asset seems to be his father’s name and position. This is that familiar pre-Naya Bharat family name working its magic in mysterious ways.
Fifty years ago, our politics got intractably roiled when “the system” contrived to ensure that a prime minister’s son would venture to set up a plant to manufacture a small car. Sanjay Gandhi got recognised as the embodiment of a creeping nepotism, just as opposition to him and his entrepreneurship was deemed as a minimum obligation to our own sense of public morality. The ‘Sanjay Gandhi phenomenon’ became a black mark in the purists’ book.
Once again, however, a new, clean, corruption-free “system” has contrived to ensure the elevation of a son. Though there is no evidence that the father has played any role whatsoever in promoting his son, that seamlessness is precisely what “the system” is meant to ensure. The truly powerful rarely allow themselves to get entangled in advancing a child’s ambitions; there are enough eager-beavers among the darbaris to “do the needful”. What is remarkable is the near absence of any sense of public dismay or disapproval at such a naked demonstration of nepotism.
Yet the question that needs to be raised about the Jay Shah affair is this: Why have the managers and the minders and the drum-beaters of “Naya Bharat” lost their voice and their capacity for moral outrage? After all, their New India was supposed to be a better, more virtuous proposition than the old. Jay Shah, admittedly, is not the solitary case of unseemliness. From the Securities and Exchange Board of India down, every area of regulation and governmental discretion in these last ten years has witnessed a return of all the old corrupt and corrupting practices and protocols – albeit with new justifications and with in-your-face brazenness, with the Great Demagogue providing protection.
In many ways, this regression represents a familiar syndrome. All ‘revolutions’ become routinised; all revolutionary leaders fall prey to the darbari syndrome or lock themselves in their bunkers. Each ‘revolution’ develops its own vested interests, creates its own expedient standards, incites its own slate of opponents, and, eventually sows the seeds of its own destruction. The Jay Shah business is yet another reminder that the so-called ‘Modi Revolution’ has run its course.
And, it would not be a misplaced assumption to suggest that perhaps the Modi establishment too realises this unpalatable reality. A sense of tiredness and spiritual exhaustion prevails atop Raisina Hill. Too many crooks and too many conmen crowd the corridors of power. There is no desire to chase idealism and ideology. The BJP of the Narendra Modi era is as imperfect an instrument of power and pelf as the Congress party ever was; even those supposedly uncontaminated pracharaks headquartered in Nagpur have discovered the benefits of expediency and other vices. The prime minister himself has no moral capital left to inspire an increasingly critical polity. Of course, the voters at large have already called his bluff. The Indian masses saw through the sleight of hand that was bunched as the promise of ‘Modi’s Guarantees’.
The Jay Shah Project needs to be talked about because it points to the crisis of governability in the making: the political regime has run out of steam but it remains subject to furious manipulation and machinations by vested interests, who insist on getting returns on their investments. On the other hand, the deprivations and demands of the masses will make them raise questions about how national resources are distributed and allocated. Unhappy days lie ahead for the republic.
