A revelation attributed to Ruchir Sharma, the well-known author and head of the Emerging Markets division of the globe-girdling financial services megacorp Morgan Stanley, that 23,000 dollar millionaire Indians have shaken the dust of this country off their feet and migrated abroad in the past three years, hasn’t received the attention it should in the public discourse. It surely is — or should be — a matter of grave concern that so many successful businessmen are exiting from an economy loudly proclaimed as the worlds most promising for foreign investors. Clearly, successful Indian tycoons well-acquainted with ground conditions and the unwritten rules of doing business in India, don’t agree.

The primary reason why proven entrepreneurs — and some of the best professionals — cut and run from this country at the first opportunity, is because of our socialist legacy and mind-set, which doesn’t accord them due social respect. Instead of being appreciated as brave risk takers and job providers, in the popular imagination shaped by envious politicians and Left intellectuals enamoured with government jobs without accountability, they are branded crooks and exploiters, illegally minting money.

In this connection its worth remembering that Mahatma Gandhi valued the enterprise and skills of businessmen who succeeded despite the blatant discrimination of the British Empire, and co-opted them into the freedom movement. The rubbishing of private enterprise began with Jawaharlal Nehru, his daughter Indira Gandhi, her son Rajiv — all of whom held the office of prime minister — and Rajiv’s widow Sonia who served as de facto prime minister (2004-10). None of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty had any employment or professional experience before being parachuted into the office of prime minister. Little wonder they had no regard or respect for businessmen, successful or otherwise.

Ruchir Sharma’s research indicates that the latest flight of dollar millionaires from this country followed the assumption of office of the allegedly business-friendly BJP/NDA government, which had promised to create millions of new jobs and accelerate economic development. The fact that 23,000 accomplished businessmen have emigrated after the Modi administration was sworn-in, is clear proof that on-the-ground conditions for entrepreneurs and businessmen have not improved under the present dispensation. Contrary to popular expectation, the BJP government has shown no urgency to dismantle the licence-permit-quota system, or denationalise public sector enterprises which continue to drain the economy.

The Modi administrations equanimity about thousands of business magnates fleeing the country, and being rolled out the red carpet elsewhere, is an indicator of how deep the belief that bureaucrats and clerks can run businesses and generate employment — notwithstanding the country’s disastrous 70-year public sector-led development experiment — has permeated the national mindset.