A Feast of Vultures: The Hidden Business of Democracy in India Kindle Edition

Enjoyed reading the book 📖 The author has informed the reader about facts and the corruption at the highest levels .From the controversial dealings in aviation to all the other scams this is a very informative book if one wants to know what it means to live in a society where your most vulnerable if you don’t have contacts finances or a roof above your head .It also informs the readers how the multi billionaires get away by building the best on land meant for others .Its very surprising that most people who start up businesses are never questioned as to where they get the money to invest from but once they vanish all such questions are raised this especially in the case of Jet Airways .Its disheartening to read about all the crooks who have absconded and not paid the people .The justice system must step up faster or as truly stated by the author we will never see that India whis is fair to all irrespective of caste or social status .Well written and an informative book and I found mostly the aviation part interesting as I was working for a domestic airline in the 90”s.

I have enjoyed Feast of Vultures. It shows how the place operates and in my view is no different to another other country where lobbyists makes lots of money making the wheels of government turn for the advantage of those with financial advantage. In my own country Governments often propose things which are outrageous and obviously for the benefit of the wealthy people who stand to make money at the expense of the general community. It then takes lot of effort by vocal groups of people to turn this around to something sensible that benefits all. This also works in a negative sense where those with advantage use money and lobby systems to prevent changes to their negative practices which clearly only benefits them. A clear example of this is the intense pressure that religious organisations put on Government to stop laws which would impose financial transparency of these organisations many of which would not be in business if not for government grants.

Awesome book

Great book !!

Anonymous intermediaries lubricating the political machinery in the country, ingenious and resourceful middlemen greasing a multitude of palms to enhance the positions, potential and power of both the needy and the greedy, entrepreneurs masquerading as politicians and politicians disguised in the garb of entrepreneurs, dreaded underworld dons with inextricable links to businesses run by an influential elite boasting a standing at the very pinnacle of a pantheon of greats, all make a stupendous albeit infamous appearance in Mr. Josy Joseph’s incendiary work – “A Feast of Vultures: The Hidden Business of Democracy in India” (“the book”).Blasting an otherwise secure lid hiding within its confines, the salacious, sagacious and savage underbelly of corruption, crime and collusion, Josy Joseph’s endeavor is extraordinarily bold, exactingly well researched and extremely revealing. The impunity with which democracy in India is held to ransom by impropriety, immorality and indiscriminate dealings representing the preserve of elected representatives, select bunch of businessmen and a network of cronies and lackeys, has led to an erosion of confidence in the rulers among the ruled (‘rulers’ and ‘ruled’ being appropriate words since every elected party more or less treats the country as its personal fiefdom and the citizens as refined serfs). Published in the backdrop of a whopping banking scam involving a couple of unapologetic thieving jewelers, an unscrupulous bunch of bank employees and a loss to the exchequer to the tune of a dizzying Rs. 11,000 crores, Mr. Joseph’s book is a MUST READ!Whether the Government will be successful in extraditing Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi and subject them to the wrath of the judiciary, and whether a shamefaced Punjab National Bank will be able to recover its gargantuan dues – one thing is crystal clear. The perpetration of scams, scandals and sham transactions in India will be a routine part of normal existence, unless there occurs a generational shift in thinking and a paradigm change in taking the right actions. The first reformative steps in both these spheres would be taking immediate measures to identify the perpetrators of crime as starkly laid out by Mr. Joseph in his book. Whether it be the Choudharies amassing a fortune by brokering arm’s deals; the dynastic family of the Gandhis, entangled in a plethora of suspicious transactions ranging from the Bofors kickbacks to the Robert Vadra land grabbing insinuations; suspect but affluent businessmen such as Naresh Goyal, Naveen Jindal, Gautam Adani and the Ambani Brothers who go about merrily accumulating plaudits and money – everyone must be tethered to the pole of the law and dealt with as prescribed and stipulated by the Constitution of the country. An impartial, unbiased and expeditious investigation into multifarious scams is the only way out if India needs to regain its rightful economic, cultural, social and political standing in the world.The obliteration of this rot needs to begin right from the top – the Parliament. Consider this passage from the book that grimly highlights a brazen conflict of interest between the administrators and the businesses being administered: “over the years, various parliamentary committees have been the playground of businessmen. Kalpataru Das, an MP from Orissa whose family has vast business interests in mines, sat on the select committee that scrutinized the new mining bill in 2015; Vijay Darda, whose family owned the Marathi newspaper Lokman, the Hindi newspaper, Lokmat Samachar and the English newspaper, Lokmat Times, was a member of a committee that dealt with media regulations through the first decades of the new millennium; Chandrapal Singh Yadav from Uttar Pradesh sat on the standing committee on chemicals and fertilizers when he was the chairman of a fertilizer company in 2015…….”There cannot be a more classic case of inmates running the asylum! As Mr. Joseph ably, eruditely and chillingly demonstrates it is less of a cumbersome exercise in India to construct a sprawling 170-meter personal dwelling abode by spending a nausea inducing Rs. 10,000 crores than getting a simple approval for constructing a road with an altruistic and urgent objective of linking a tiny non-decrepit village to the nearest hospital. We seem to be living in times where noble deeds are an invariable but unfortunate outcome of noblesse oblige. Such obligations are some of the hardest things to obtain.Mr. Joseph also portrays with remarkable alacrity the ironies, paradoxes and contradictions that are the edifices of a liberalized, modernized and economically advanced India. In the sleepy village of Raigarh, homes are inundated with fly-ash and coal dust emitted by energy consuming pollutant spewing monstrous machineries generating electricity and power and constructed by one of the most renowned faces of Indian entrepreneurship, the Jindals. When deserving protests are launched by the affected and helpless public they are made to lead a harrowing existence, harassed by preposterous civil suits that makes them commute hundreds of miles, tormenting their near and far relatives and even attempting to murder the lynchpin among the protestors. When foxes are made to guard chicken coops, the inevitable result can only mean perdition – for the chickens at least!As India steps into a new threshold of prosperity and progress, it also suffers from a plethora of social, economic and political malaises. Income and wealth inequality, rampant corruption, skewed reforms and an uneven terrain of development constitute dangerous spanners in the works of peace and prosperity. If left unchecked, they may signal the death throes of hope and aspirations. The need of the hour is for intrepid and courageous voices such as that of Mr. Joseph to come to the fore and ensure that a teeming mass of interested, impacted and ignored populace take on the administrators, elected representatives and policy mavens by the scruffs of their tainted necks (metaphorically speaking) and rouse them from an unforgivable reverie of gross negligence and willful default. A reverie that takes for granted the helplessness of the people and their unfortunate fate to be exploited. The Kafkaesque red tape of Indian bureaucracy needs to be rend asunder for a new era of accountability, transparency and ownership to be ushered in.Even if India does not need revolution, the likes of which put many a French ruler to the sword (literally), there needs to be ringed in a change which would ensure that Mr. Joseph’s vultures finally stop feasting!

Shows a clear and authentic view of what happens behind the scenes in our so called democracy. How business elites collude with the governments of the day to ensure that everyone but the common man wins. A lot of masks will be forced away from many of our celebrated businessmen and politicians. We all wear masks, but the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin.

Joseph packs the book with titanium KO’s simmering with his background and experience in on ground reporting. This book can be best summarized as a sum all of things wrong at the top brass in India. What it lacks is a smooth narrative.

Excellent read, we informed and clearly expressed.

Reading ‘Feast of Vultures’ after reading ‘Panama Papers’ was a good thing I did even though the order of purchase was reverse. Barring a few counties, the political philosophy all over the world is predictably straightforward: Loot of public assets and resources - by a few powerful. Being democratic (with all demons available at home) India could not be different. Josy Joseph picks up a few threads from the warp and weft of the India’s corrupt system beneath the multitudes diverse colours and ideologies. The narration is beautiful and takes the reader around to seemingly unrelated places and people to finally complete the jigsaw puzzle.Of all the stories I was shocked to read the ‘Battle for the Skies’ which starts with the brutal murder of Thakiyuddin of East West Airlines, a pioneer in Indian air travel. It is a chilling story of how one airline manipulated things and pulled strings so that nobody would flourish.The last story was about Mukesh Ambani’s house in Mumbai. I was in Mumbai during 2010 when it was completed. But never had the opportunity to see it from close. In spite of being in Government we were struggling to get necessary certificates from the Municipal Authorities for occupying the four-story office building we constructed in the very same Colaba. I could not pay any bribe and Mumbai will to yield without it. I thought Mumbai is a horrible place for the poor and deprived, who can look with awe at ‘Antilia’ and ‘Aadarsh’ and say they also belonged to this city (pavement!).The book is a good read. While I completed reading this book, Pakistan had acted on the revelations by Panama Papers. We Indians have started forgetting it altogether. It is better not to read such books which expose the underbelly of corruption and crime so bare. You read it, and you will be in eternal fear. For there are only two classes in the new system – the victims and the other! Josy Joseph is optimistic. I am trying to emulate him.

In Indian politics nothing surprises us anymore. But even so, every chapter through this book manages just that and on so many level that it is an 'unputdownable' validation of the horrors of governance and administration that politics has bequeathed to the idea of democracy for the citizen.With facts on the table, the 'feast of vultures' is aptly titled and is a must read for everyone interested in India and its future as a democracy in its true meaning.Though focusing on middlemen their role as a central cog in the wheel, it provides a picture into the reality of what It takes to keep the wheels turning even if it ultimately tramples on the citizen and his/her written rights.An experienced insight cannot be written better !

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.-AristotleA feast of vultures, the hidden business of democracy in India is a stellar piece of investigative journalism. And before I write on this topic I wanna salute to the author of this book for being courageous and honest in his thoughts.And the USP of this brilliantly written book is that within few hundred pages he unravelled the dark reality of the world’s largest democratic country, India.So, let’s start with some basic questions. What is democracy? Who are those people who are running this country (India)? And how dangerous is the lethal combination of Politicians-businessmen-criminals-middlemen, for India and it’s inhabitants? And what are the solutions to save India and it’s institutions from such kind of vultures?Theoretically speaking, Democracy means ‘People’s Rule’, but in reality it’s an another form of exploitation of the common man by the elected representatives.And the people who are running this country are the heinous combination of Politicians-businessmen-criminals-middlemen. These people decide the fate of the 1.3 billion People. From the shady defense deals to the construction of an airport are decided by these people who sometimes works below the radar.And the best example to show that how dangerous these people for the country can be gauged by the fact that ‘India is a rich country with too many poor people’.These narrow minded people always put their self interest first and they also make sure that all the wealth of this country resides in their hands only. They promote their own family members to the top position of this country. They have the habit to fool the people of this great country in the name of pseduo-socialism and pseduo-secularism.And to save this country from these vultures we have to shed the slave mentality which sadly ingrained in most of the Indians who foolishly accepts the hereditary transition in Politics as well as in bollywood too.I will end with these lines of Dr BR Ambedkar :-Democracy in India is only a ‘top dressing on an Indian soil, which is essentially undemocratic’.My Ratings : ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5)I hope you like this, thanks for reading, Jai Hind.

Read it primarily for Jet airlines story but got to know so much more. Great to get to grips with current realities in India.

this book exposes the unholy nexus between our political leaders corporate and bureaucracy. It also destruct the myth that one political party is better than other.After reading this book you will know that the democracy has become a joke in this country and resources of this country are being looted openly by corporate with the help of political executive.In the era when news anchors have become spokesperson of the government and journalism is at its low,this book demonstrates the courage of a brave journalist