Two developments in two different parts of the globe this week show that big money always bows down before “strong leaders” – be it the First world or the Third.
Time zones apart, in the United States and India, industry captains are genuflecting in their own way before the leaders of their respective countries, Donald Trump and his friend Narendra Modi – both of whom are known for doing things their own way and for a disregard for established norms of doing things.
Newspapers in India – specially the pink ones – were filled with full-page ads on Saturday morning thanking Prime Minister Modi profusely for removing some of the obfuscation around the Goods and Services Tax (GST), making it an even, two-tier structure in most sectors after years of complaints.
Never mind that it was Modi’s government that put in place such a complex system in the first place that Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi’s jab – calling it Gabbar Singh Tax after the iconic Hindi film Sholay’s iconic villain – hit home.
“From the bottom of our hearts to the heads of our nation,” screamed one such print advertisement.
Dairy giant from Gujarat, Amul, has also been gushing with praise for the GST reforms. In related news, allowing dairy products in India is a point of contention in the US-India bilateral trade agreement negotiations, the fate of which is up in the air.
On August 15 this year, from the ramparts of the Red Fort in the capital, Modi had promised a Diwali gift, a sweeping reform in the much-criticised GST, unrolled eight years ago and rates revised several times over the years.
Needless to say, the image in most of these ads was of only one person: PM Modi.
The Fertiliser Association of India’s “thank you” note carried a smaller image of the Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman with a larger one of Modi to its left.
“Thank you for a reform that supports farmers and fertilizer sectors,” the ad said.
Both the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) and Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) have also heaped praises on the announcement made by the GST Council late on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile in America
In Washington on Thursday at the White House, US President Trump and the first lady Melania hosted 13 billionaires and others worth millions of dollars at a dinner.
Many of the guests had their own reason to thank Trump.
Take Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Alphabet and Google. On Tuesday, a federal Judge Amit Mehta ordered the tech giant to share some of its search data with “qualified competitors” to resolve its monopoly, though the US Justice Department was in favour of a harsher ruling, in an antitrust case.
According to US media reports, referring to the federal court ruling, Trump told Pichai during the dinner: “You had a very good day yesterday.”
“I am glad it’s over,” Pichai told the US President.
Google cofounder Sergey Brin received Trump’s praise for his girl-friend Gerelyn Gilbert-Soto’s MAGA (Make America Great Again, Trump’s slogan) leanings.
“Sergey, you were saying a lot in the Oval office. I figured you’re somebody that likes to speak with his really wonderful MAGA girlfriend,” Trump told Brin.
Gilbert-Soto, who was egged on by Brin to speak, said: “Truly, every time I’m here in your presence, I’m so grateful, so thank you… it’s like, I can’t believe it every time, the inauguration, here. I think you’re doing amazing work.”
Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, who sat next to the first lady, was all praises for Trump’s “vaccine push” – even as Trump’s health secretary Robert Kennedy Jr is waging war on vaccine mandates for children.
“The President and I are talking about taking American innovation to the next level to cure and even eradicate some of these diseases,” Gates said during the dinner meet, while praising the host’s “incredible leadership”.
Trump’s ties with tech companies were frosty in his first term. During the campaign most had stayed away. After moving into the White House, Trump had criticised some of the tech companies for not supporting his campaign and his agenda.
An exception was Apple CEO Tim Cook, who has always maintained close ties with the Trump administration.
Ahead of the last presidential elections, the tech companies changed tack. Mark Zuckerberg, the social networking pioneer, was among those who spoke with Trump after the failed assassination attempt. Zuckerberg, who was among the invitees at the White House dinner Thursday, was the first to speak at the event.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos was there, too.
Of course, one familiar face missing from the billionaires table was Elon Musk. The Tesla CEO and the world’s richest man, however, has reportedly slammed the brakes on his plans to float a political party after he seemed to fall out with Trump.
Moral of the story? Even in America, the torchbearer for the free market, the market titans know that Barack Obama was right when he said at a campaign speech in 2012: "Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business, you didn't build that."