The Lobby for Lobbying

The timing of “Radiagate” couldn’t have been more strategically inopportune. Far from Lobbying providing a shot in the arm to economic development, we shall now move a dozen steps away from legitimizing lobbying. There are various reasons why we need streamlined and organized lobbying today.

For starters, there is a not-so-subtle difference between a “lobbyist” and a “fixer”. Lobbyists are meant to leverage their knowledge of policy, international best practices and procedural loopholes to influence the moving parts that determine regulation. While I have not listened to all the available “Radiagate” tapes, some of them do seem to reveal an objective, no-nonsense approach with a comprehensive understanding of all arms of the power establishment. There was reasoning behind most of her persuasion attempts as opposed to sycophancy. In case she has gone on to merely grease palms for achieving her end-objectives, she has in effect gone on to nullify what she brought to the table. There is after all no dearth of “agents” who could comfortably lug currency filled suitcases to the relevant LBZ addresses. There are few though who can straddle between the likes of an urbane Vir Sanghvi and a "son-of-the-soil" A Raja with equal ease. (not to mention comfortable parleys with Ratan Tata himself). This skill, coupled with subject matter expertise on chosen industries is what ought to have singularly set her apart. From the looks of it, she chose to widen her “proposition” by possibly breaking the law in addition to influencing it. That is disappointing because it seems needless.

The need for organized lobbying gathers further import if one examines our governance structure. At one level we have elected politicians who are the public face of policy making. The nuts and bolts though are managed by bureaucrats who are typically drawn in from the civil services. The nature of this service imparts superior administrative skills, diverse assignments and an unmatched understanding of the ground realities confronting governance. What it fails to provide though is deep understanding of the more complex and technical issues around some of the new economy industries. Managing these invariably calls for some level of specialization given their very nature and relative nascency on the evolution charts. The need for an expert to influence policy therefore becomes more pronounced.

Governments have historically appointed “consultants” for this purpose. Some empanel big names who churn out lengthy reports which I suspect are seldom read. Others appoint their former bosses as consultants and generate income for them. This becomes a self-serving practice as subsequent incumbents are also meant to follow suit and the consequence is rather malignant. Lobbyists would perhaps engage with similar consultants but distil the relevant stuff and convert it into something more actionable for both, their principal and the policy maker.

Our socialist conscience seems fairly shocked at senior journalists proposing scripted interviews. It is par for the course in developed economies. George Bush launched his autobiography recently and followed it up with a series of rather obviously scripted interviews with “hard nosed” TV journalists. In fact there were TV debates on whether some of the scripting had gone a bit too far since the wit on display seemed too misplaced to be spontaneous. Interviews are an integral part of a PR exercise and TV Channels are as focused on bottomline as public service. To expect journalists to remain eternal Holy Cows was a wee bit optimistic. Sooner than later, treachery around the hitherto sacrosanct omerta was inevitable.

Make no mistake I am not even remotely suggesting that lobbyists of the Niira Radia variety are misunderstood angels. The moot point is the emergent need for part of her skill-sets making an important contribution to the changing nature of the economy. Sadly, a public revelation of her seemingly devious attempts at maneuvers in territory that ought to have been out of her designated domain shall be a setback for “legitimate” lobbyists (if any) for a long time.