Review: Bullshit Quotient

The complicated frauds behind common practices in Indian corporate, social, political and legal life. Manjula Narayan writes.

Bullshit Quotient
Ranjeev C Dubey
Hachette
Rs. 359 pp 248

Bullshit-Quotient-by-Ranjeev-C-Dubey

Bullshit Quotient: Decoding India's Corporate, Social and Legal Fineprint is a clear-eyed look at what the blurb pronounces is "the bullshit that surrounds aspects of modern Indian corporate, social, political and legal life".

While he does this, the author, who is the managing partner of a law firm, strips off the very many layers of hypocrisy with which the English-speaking Indian cloaks himself.

This is a refreshing book for its humour, its honest look at People Like Us, for the way it explains the complicated frauds behind common practices, and for its seemingly compulsive need to push the reader to accept his own self deception.

While the chapters on the "bullshit" in our corporates, in the legal sphere, and in politics are all illuminating, it is Dubey's insight into Indian society that impresses: "We decry the corporation that front ends the crime while thoroughly enjoying the fruits of the crime. Clearly, these corporate crimes are a downstream consequence of the choices that you and I are making; of the lifestyle and the visions that you and I are touting."

A must read if you'd like to hack through the hypocrisy that permeates much of Indian life.