1991 will be reckoned as a momentous year for India.In some ways, it is a more significant year than 1947, when India got its independence. 1991 is when economic reforms were introduced. Today's generation has no clue about how things were pre-1991.Let's say you wanted Hershey's chocolates.You would actually have to wait for one of your friends or relatives to get it for you when they went abroad.Anything that had to be imported required an import license and there were many items ( like chocolates, for instance) that were on the negative list because they were not considered essential for India's economy.
I remember when I had to go abroad in 1988 , I had asked for foreign exchange of US$ 2100 ( 21 days @ $100/day). I was called to the local RBI office in Chennai and an Officer there asked me about the purpose of my trip ( it was for product training) and whether it was really essential for me to go.He concluded by insisting that I should give him a copy of my training report!!
Anyway, let me start at the beginning of 1991.Chandrasekhar ( a Young Turk of the Congress) had become the Prime Minister of India.Karunanidhi was the DMK Chief Minister in Tamilnadu.Padmanabha, a leader of one of the splinter Tamil Groups of Sri Lanka had taken shelter in Chennai.He was assassinated in his Kodambakkam apartment and the general news was that the killer gang was allowed to move unhindered to the sea coast from where they escaped to Sri Lanka.DMK was considered to be close to LTTE at that time and therefore, on the grounds of national security, Chandrasekhar dismissed the DMK Government.
Very soon, the Chandrasekhar Ministry also fell in New Delhi and so elections were ordered both for the Centre and for Tamil Nadu.
Meanwhile, the economic situation had deteriorated. India's foreign exchange reserves had dropped down to something like 300 Million Dollars ( it's close to 300 Billion Dollars today) and India had to sell some gold in its reserves to the IMF.
Rajiv Gandhi had been out of power since 1990 ( mainly over the Bofors scandal) and he was criss-crossing the country in trying to win back power.The Congress appeared to be doing well and it was widely predicted that the Congress would sweep back to power in the elections to be held in June 1991.
Unfortunately, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in Sriperumbudur on 21st May 1991.The Special Investigation Team headed by R.K.Raghavan immediately picked up clues pointing to the involvement of LTTE.The reconstruction of the events leading up to Rajiv Gandhi's assassination was brilliantly done and the duo of Sivarasan and Dhanu were constantly on the run till they were cornered and shot dead at Konanakunte in Bangalore on 21st Aug 1991,3 months to the day after Rajiv Gandhi was killed and on his birthday.
The Congress rode on a huge sympathy wave and emerged victorious.The DMK was routed in Tamilnadu and AIADMK led by Jayalalitha came to power.
P V Narasimha Rao was made the Prime Minister and he chose Dr.Manmohan Singh as his Finance Minister.Soon the Union Budget had to be presented and it was a landmark Budget with the first hint of economic reforms.All controls were abolished and licenses were required for very few industries.
Can you imagine that any industry wanting to increase production above its licensed capacity actually had to seek permission from the Government to do so? The younger generation will hardly be able to understand these issues but these were the very hurdles to the growth rate and India's GDP growth rate of around 3% was derisively called "The Hindu rate of growth".
Meanwhile, the balance of payments position was so alarming that no foreign supplier was willing to execute an order placed by an Indian buyer unless a Letterof Credit was opened up front.Even when a Government Bank like SBI opened a Letter of Credit, the foreign banks were unwilling to trust the LC so the Indian buyer actually had to deposit money equivalent to the LC amount at the time of placing orders.
The Union Budget of 1991 removed all exchange controls and foreign money started flowing in.The cap of 40% on JV holdings was removed and foreign players were allowed even 100% equity in some sectors.
Was this liberalization too late? Perhaps by a year or so, but my personal opinion is that the controls imposed earlier were good for the country.It enabled India to become self-reliant and develop indigenous technology to the extent possible.All this stood the country in good stead when the economy was opened up.If not, we could have perhaps been too reliant on foreign capital and technology and may not have become as strong as we are now.
I've covered the economic situation in some detail because , when India's history is written in the future, 1991 is sure to be reckoned as a watershed year.
Sachin's Munji was performed in May 1991 at the Rama Mandira in Jayanagar.He had completed 12 years and was fast growing into a handsome young man.Sudha was just establishing herself as a dubbing artiste and was also busy with some monthly programs in Doordarshan. Sudha and I did the occasional Kannada drama in the Sourabha programe of Doordarshan.
One of the dramas we did was "Ward No 420"--- supposed to be hilarious but it didn't quite turn out that way. Doordarshan is a Government organization and its staff ( except for a few dedicated men at the top) was notoriously unionized.The cameramen and light boys, spot boys etc went about their jobs mechanically and were not really concerned with the outcome.
The Director for Kannada programs was one Mr.Bhaskar and he would call us up now and then to present a program.We would go there by 9 AM and get our make-up done.By the time this was completed, it would be lunchtime and so the actual shooting would start around 2 PM.If there were any mistakes during shooting, the cameraman would tell us to carry on and said that this would be taken care of during editing.
One such scene involved a person who is supposed to die. Lord Yama comes down with his "Pasha"( Rope") which he would throw like a lasso and take the hapless person's soul to Swarga ( or Naraka-- depending on the debit/credit of good deeds he had done in his lifetime).
OK, so here was Lord Yama on stage and he throws this lasso to the victim who is off stage.Ramesh was the poor victim.Anyway, when the lasso was thrown, it didn't quite reach off stage so Ramesh put his hand out and caught hold of the lasso and put it around his neck.This action was caught on camera.I pointed this out to the cameraman and asked for a retake.The cameraman assured me that this would be edited. Imagine our horror when we saw the final telecast and the entire scene of Ramesh reaching out, catching the lasso, putting it around his neck and then being "dragged" on stage was shown in glorious Technicolour!!! The people who were watching the TV program with us roared with laughter when this was actually supposed to be a very serious and poignant scene !!
That's it for now.My next blog will cover our drama adventure in Neyveli.
I remember when I had to go abroad in 1988 , I had asked for foreign exchange of US$ 2100 ( 21 days @ $100/day). I was called to the local RBI office in Chennai and an Officer there asked me about the purpose of my trip ( it was for product training) and whether it was really essential for me to go.He concluded by insisting that I should give him a copy of my training report!!
Anyway, let me start at the beginning of 1991.Chandrasekhar ( a Young Turk of the Congress) had become the Prime Minister of India.Karunanidhi was the DMK Chief Minister in Tamilnadu.Padmanabha, a leader of one of the splinter Tamil Groups of Sri Lanka had taken shelter in Chennai.He was assassinated in his Kodambakkam apartment and the general news was that the killer gang was allowed to move unhindered to the sea coast from where they escaped to Sri Lanka.DMK was considered to be close to LTTE at that time and therefore, on the grounds of national security, Chandrasekhar dismissed the DMK Government.
Very soon, the Chandrasekhar Ministry also fell in New Delhi and so elections were ordered both for the Centre and for Tamil Nadu.
Meanwhile, the economic situation had deteriorated. India's foreign exchange reserves had dropped down to something like 300 Million Dollars ( it's close to 300 Billion Dollars today) and India had to sell some gold in its reserves to the IMF.
Rajiv Gandhi had been out of power since 1990 ( mainly over the Bofors scandal) and he was criss-crossing the country in trying to win back power.The Congress appeared to be doing well and it was widely predicted that the Congress would sweep back to power in the elections to be held in June 1991.
Unfortunately, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in Sriperumbudur on 21st May 1991.The Special Investigation Team headed by R.K.Raghavan immediately picked up clues pointing to the involvement of LTTE.The reconstruction of the events leading up to Rajiv Gandhi's assassination was brilliantly done and the duo of Sivarasan and Dhanu were constantly on the run till they were cornered and shot dead at Konanakunte in Bangalore on 21st Aug 1991,3 months to the day after Rajiv Gandhi was killed and on his birthday.
The Congress rode on a huge sympathy wave and emerged victorious.The DMK was routed in Tamilnadu and AIADMK led by Jayalalitha came to power.
P V Narasimha Rao was made the Prime Minister and he chose Dr.Manmohan Singh as his Finance Minister.Soon the Union Budget had to be presented and it was a landmark Budget with the first hint of economic reforms.All controls were abolished and licenses were required for very few industries.
Can you imagine that any industry wanting to increase production above its licensed capacity actually had to seek permission from the Government to do so? The younger generation will hardly be able to understand these issues but these were the very hurdles to the growth rate and India's GDP growth rate of around 3% was derisively called "The Hindu rate of growth".
Meanwhile, the balance of payments position was so alarming that no foreign supplier was willing to execute an order placed by an Indian buyer unless a Letterof Credit was opened up front.Even when a Government Bank like SBI opened a Letter of Credit, the foreign banks were unwilling to trust the LC so the Indian buyer actually had to deposit money equivalent to the LC amount at the time of placing orders.
The Union Budget of 1991 removed all exchange controls and foreign money started flowing in.The cap of 40% on JV holdings was removed and foreign players were allowed even 100% equity in some sectors.
Was this liberalization too late? Perhaps by a year or so, but my personal opinion is that the controls imposed earlier were good for the country.It enabled India to become self-reliant and develop indigenous technology to the extent possible.All this stood the country in good stead when the economy was opened up.If not, we could have perhaps been too reliant on foreign capital and technology and may not have become as strong as we are now.
I've covered the economic situation in some detail because , when India's history is written in the future, 1991 is sure to be reckoned as a watershed year.
Sachin's Munji was performed in May 1991 at the Rama Mandira in Jayanagar.He had completed 12 years and was fast growing into a handsome young man.Sudha was just establishing herself as a dubbing artiste and was also busy with some monthly programs in Doordarshan. Sudha and I did the occasional Kannada drama in the Sourabha programe of Doordarshan.
One of the dramas we did was "Ward No 420"--- supposed to be hilarious but it didn't quite turn out that way. Doordarshan is a Government organization and its staff ( except for a few dedicated men at the top) was notoriously unionized.The cameramen and light boys, spot boys etc went about their jobs mechanically and were not really concerned with the outcome.
The Director for Kannada programs was one Mr.Bhaskar and he would call us up now and then to present a program.We would go there by 9 AM and get our make-up done.By the time this was completed, it would be lunchtime and so the actual shooting would start around 2 PM.If there were any mistakes during shooting, the cameraman would tell us to carry on and said that this would be taken care of during editing.
One such scene involved a person who is supposed to die. Lord Yama comes down with his "Pasha"( Rope") which he would throw like a lasso and take the hapless person's soul to Swarga ( or Naraka-- depending on the debit/credit of good deeds he had done in his lifetime).
OK, so here was Lord Yama on stage and he throws this lasso to the victim who is off stage.Ramesh was the poor victim.Anyway, when the lasso was thrown, it didn't quite reach off stage so Ramesh put his hand out and caught hold of the lasso and put it around his neck.This action was caught on camera.I pointed this out to the cameraman and asked for a retake.The cameraman assured me that this would be edited. Imagine our horror when we saw the final telecast and the entire scene of Ramesh reaching out, catching the lasso, putting it around his neck and then being "dragged" on stage was shown in glorious Technicolour!!! The people who were watching the TV program with us roared with laughter when this was actually supposed to be a very serious and poignant scene !!
That's it for now.My next blog will cover our drama adventure in Neyveli.
Ratlami Namkeen
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