Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s recent six-day tour of America has elicited more than its expected share of drama and hoopla. He was subjected to a litany of baseless and fake allegations — from the claim that the Standford University invitation was a hoax, the trip sponsored by a radical Islamic outfit, and hobnobbing with separatist Khalistani groups to the outlandish and laughable charge that Rahul had visited the White House to plot the overthrow of the Narendra Modi government.
It takes enormous masochism to cook up such absurd claims and inflict public shame upon oneself.
Amid all these preposterous lies of what Rahul did in the US, there was one truly radically different thing that he actually did, which no one seemed to have caught wind of until it was released publicly. Rahul rode in a 90-foot trailer from Washington DC to New York with a Punjabi truck driver. A month ago, Rahul had ridden a lorry from Delhi to Chandigarh with a Punjabi driver to understand their lives, experiences, and daily hardships. Thereafter, he posted a YouTube video on his channel, documenting the ride. Buoyed by this experience, he decided to similarly ride a truck, this time with a Punjabi ‘Indian American’ driver in America to compare notes.
It turned out to be a truly fascinating experience — another recorded video of the American experience was released on Rahul’s YouTube channel. Beyond the images of the colourful Indian lorry and the intimidating American trailer, it offers some profound lessons in social structures, governance, and economics.
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Not simply ‘developed’ vs ‘developing’
The difference in the tone and confidence of the two drivers is perhaps the most striking feature of these videos. The Indian lorry driver is distraught and thinks of his job as a necessary curse. The Indian American truck driver, though, oozes with confidence and is upbeat about the opportunities to earn a good living by driving a truck.
To be clear, this is not a simplistic ‘developed’ versus ‘developing’ world living standards issue. The Indian driver feels strangled and choked at every stage, from permits to drive the lorry to checkpoints to toll booths to harassment by the police. Meanwhile, the Indian American driver cherishes the freedom to perform his job with very little interference.
This is symptomatic of a deeper difference in governance philosophies of the two nations – in India, the State views people (particularly the underprivileged) as guilty until proven innocent, while in America, they are innocent until proven guilty. The labyrinth of government rules, checks, and controls in India is a reflection of a State mindset that seeks to control and dictate. Freedom is not merely an abstract idea for philosophers to debate. If any, it affects the truck drivers’ lives more than the philosophers.
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‘Maalik’ vs employer
The other main highlight of the two conversations is the old Marxist idea of the balance of power between capital and labour. The Indian lorry driver feels neglected, abused, and exploited by his maalik (feudal lord), while the Indian American driver is far more charitable to his employer. This is perhaps a reflection of the strength of labour to mobilise and organise themselves in the two nations. The Indian lorry driver feels helpless and has nowhere to go to air his grievances about his owners due to the lack of a union or an organisation.
Contrary to belief, organised labour is a key and integral component of a free economy. If India’s most significant economic asset is its large young workforce, then it is even more critical to strengthen labourers than to crush them. It is myopic and naïve to think of a strong and organised labour force as being antithetical to Indian capitalism. It is only cheerful workers that lead to cheerful owners in the long run.
The third noteworthy takeaway from these truck driver stories is the access to capital for small individuals and businesses. The Indian American truck driver is absolutely sure that his success was mainly due to his ability to borrow and build his business. The Indian driver will likely not even be allowed inside a bank, let alone borrow money. In fact, in the video, the Indian American driver alludes to how difficult it is for the same person with the same pedigree to access capital in India versus in America.
It is no secret that entrepreneurship and creativity in India are stifled and choked by the capture of the banking system by large businesses. For a capital-starved economy like ours, this is a double whammy where nearly all of the limited resources are controlled by a handful. Unleashing capital access widely is the most critical need for India’s economic future.
Move on from Left vs Right
One more important observation: In America, the driver sat to the left of Rahul Gandhi, while in India, the driver sat to his right, and it isn’t just about the difference in driving rules in the two countries. It is symbolic of the puerile ideological economic divide that India’s economists and commentators agonise over incessantly. Left or Right economic stereotypes shouldn’t occupy our minds. Instead, our focus must be ideas and policies, anchored on the balance across freedom, labour, and capital. These matter as much to a truck driver and a MNREGA worker as they do to academics and scholars.
A tall Indian political leader and a potential future Prime Minister riding a truck in a foreign nation may sound unconventional and even daring. But Rahul Gandhi is not your conventional political leader. He astutely understands that it is time to be iconoclastic and break norms — he showed that by walking over 4,000 kilometres in his Bharat Jodo Yatra. Watch the two truck driver videos to understand.
Praveen Chakravarty is a political economist and a senior office bearer of the Congress party. He tweets @pravchak. Views are personal.
(Edited by Humra Laeeq)