Emotion Free Governance

Good government and efficient governing people are the basic necessities for public welfare. Such a government and governing people are real blessings. Sometimes we get a good government and efficient governing people. But their high emotionality are real disguise for the nation. Currently we are facing such a situation where empty emotions are shaking the basic structures of the society. Undoubtedly Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a hardcore patriot committed to the full development of India. His nationalistic ideas and firmness to make India great in the comity of nations is not even doubted by his opponents. That is the reason why he keeps winning almost every election he fights.

No Prime Minister commands such a popularity in the Asian countries. Even at the world level very few leaders like President Valdimir Putin of Russia and President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan enjoys the level of public support commanded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His rhetoric has reenergized the masses and promises an India which is admired by every person on Earth. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s casual remarks have costed the nation billions of rupees. Wasted precious working hours of the population, increased the sufferings of the public, chaos at institutions and a big hit at the national economy. GDP in the last quarter has come down 0.3%. When the GDP is supposed to go up, it came down due to the demonetization exercise. Reserve Bank of India has clearly stated that the demonetization has failed to achieve its original purpose of exposing Rs.3 lakh crore black money in circulation. In a quick move, those who were holding black money were able to deposit it in the banks under several names by paying them their cuts. Even RBI has halved its dividend payment from Rs.70000 crores to Rs.35000 crores to the Government of India. The idea is not blame the noble intentions of the Prime Minister to kill the black money but it is to inform him that black money holding Indians work at jet speed to escape from the government’s clutches.  Those who are holding black money are known to the government. They should have been motivated to deposit it in the Garib Kalyan Yojana scheme. Otherwise they should have been legally punished. Instead of catching the black money holders, demonetization disturbed even the honest citizens who form the majority.

The introduction of Rs.2000 currency notes was an utter shock when it was already known that higher denomination notes are easy for enemy nations to send a large amount of fake currency notes.

People standing in long ques to deposit their Rs.1000 and Rs.500 currency notes and fighting to get their Rs.2000 new notes are grim reminders about the wastage of precious human resources.

Then everyday one or the other scheme asking people to link their PAN card with Aadhaar, Bank account with Aadhaar etc. This has killed the working hours of population enormously.

The Goods & Services Tax (GST) is a wonderful idea to ensure “One Nation; One Tax”. But the hurry in which it was passed may create troubles in the future. Atleast now the government authorities should ensure that there are no multiple taxes and the public is not harassed in the name of several taxes. Denied a big share of local taxes, several state governments have resorted to charging Municipal taxes in addition to the CGST (Central Goods and Services Tax), SGST (State Goods and Services Tax) and IGST (Integrated Sales Tax). There are some cess charged from the public. When most of the earnings go in paying taxes, there will be a complete social chaos. Union government should ensure the abolition of other taxes except CGST, SGST and IGST. Apart from the tax structure, government must look into the allegations against the GSTN (Goods and Services Tax Network). This GSTN is operated by several foreigners which may affect the national security. Please stop simply brushing aside saying that it will never happen. Remember 1962 when over trusted China inflicted severe war wounds on India.

Introduction of 24 hours of business houses is another setback for the development of the nation. When the terrorists are striking anytime, 24 hours business will definitely be a dampener for the security forces and common public.

Removing the condition that children cannot work in the traditional businesses, art and craft will definitely slow down the illiteracy eradication program.

Prime Minister wants to tax the already taxed share market income. On the one side, he is inviting investors to develop India’s business and industries, on the other side, he is threatening to tax them. This will pull down the growing business and industries.

For his part, the finance minister, Arun Jaitely wants to tax the farm income. It was an insensitive statement against the real farmers. He should have clarified those who are masquerading in the name of farmers will be taxed not the ordinary farmers.

Surgical strikes against the terrorist sending Pakistan must be congratulated. Making that an election issue and trying to draw votes from the death and destruction is not advisable. It is a big insult to the lakhs of soldiers who have dedicated their lives to the cause of India’s freedom and sovereignty. There are Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians and other people in the Indian military. They fight for our motherland – India. They don’t give significance to their religions while fighting against our enemies. Let the political parties both in the ruling side and the opposition sides’ stop politicizing the duties and achievements of Indian military.

Unlike intellectuals, ordinary public highly trusts the caliber of Modi to deliver. They have given him five years to perform. In the last three years, public was charged emotionally by P.M’s speeches.

Aptly Modi started his parliamentary journey and Prime Ministership by touching the entry stones of Sansad Bhavan. He prostrated before the gates of India’s parliament. This one gesture has infused confidence among the people that Modi will be divinely devoted towards his duty of Prime Ministership. He invited all the South Asian leaders for his swearing in ceremony and promised friendship. He shook hands with his opponents who bayed for his blood few days before in the electoral battle. He visited his predecessor Dr.Manmohan Singh’s house to seek his advise and he promised all the privileges for the former PM.

The initial signals were very good. He initiated Swach Bharat Abhiyan on Gandhi Jayanthi in 2014. Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana to provide free gas connection and cylinders to the poor houses. Skill India, Digital India, Jan Dhan Yojana, Atal Bima Yojana, Smart City and hundreds of other wonderful schemes which are creative and intended to create better India. Modi government’s foreign policy is one of the best in the recent times. His national security advisor Ajit Doval works 24x7 to give peaceful life to Indians.

Then came the utterly shocking – Demonetisation exercise, GST, Aadhar linkages, backward moving legislations like 24x7 business, allowing child labour in family businesses, NEET examinations, controversies in school textbooks etc. Most of these decisions were announced out of high emotions to change the country. Despite warning by those who guard these institutions, PM Modi went ahead with his emotional decisions. It seems that the RBI Governor and Finance Minister were not in favour of demonetization.

Modi is desperately needed for India to develop. If he goes by the guidance of the people whom he had chosen to guide, none can stop India becoming No.1 in all the socio and economic indicators in the future. Will he or some babas influence him to announce wasteful exercises like demonetization? His decision will decide the future of India!

Nitish Kumar's Kiddishness

A well performing Chief Minister and a man with least petty political behaviour is finally jumping into the dirty political bandwagon. Nitish Kumar, Bihar C.M's onslaught against Narendra Modi and trying to create a secular image will backfire on Kumar. The alliance between BJP and JD (U) can win majority of seats in the upcoming assembly elections. If Nitish Kumar thinks that he can win alone a majority then he is living in his sand castle when there is warning about political storm. It is better in the interests of Nitish Kumar to maintain silence and carry on with the alliance to continue the good work done for Bihar.



Shivanand Tiwary and Giriraj Singh debates in The Deccan Chronicle, 17 June 2010


To talk about this is to state the obvious. After five years of running a successful government in Bihar, with the cordial cooperation of a long-trusted, mature ally like the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Mr Nitish Kumar certainly needs the BJP to win hugely in the forthcoming Assembly polls, and return to power.

In a coalition government, success springs from the healthy functioning of every link in the chain. We in the BJP are proud to have contributed whole-heartedly to the historic success story of Bihar’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, and place it on the path of getting Bihar out of the list of “Bimaru” states. Mr Kumar and his Janata Dal-United (JD-U) have always been appreciative of the BJP’s concrete support.

Although JD(U), a regional party, and BJP, a national party, are two distinct entities with ideological differences, it is their coalition that has won the hearts of Bihar’s people. The empathetic coordination and understanding between them has made our two parties almost inseparable.

Without the BJP, it is unimaginable for Mr Kumar to return to power. That is simply because it was as much the BJP’s solid network of committed cadres across Bihar as the JD(U)’s regional appeal that ensured victories of candidates of both the parties in the past elections.

Shortly after Bihar’s 2005 Assembly polls, it was the BJP that played a crucial role in making Mr Kumar the Chief Minister in the face of stubborn internal bickering among JD(U) leaders who were unwilling to accept him as head of the JD(U)-BJP government.

It is completely incorrect to describe the BJP as a weakened political force in Bihar. This impression is partly caused by the media’s projections of the NDA government in Bihar. Just because the face gets better visibility, and becomes the recognition point, it does not mean the rest of the body is defunct. The BJP is a cadre-based party. It functions in Bihar at the grassroots levels with the help of several cultural organisations working actively with a nationalist zeal. Our people are active in each of Bihar’s 54,000 polling booths and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh runs 32,000 schools across Bihar. The Chief Minister understands this.
The BJP has never compromised with its self-respect anywhere, including Bihar. With its sheer cadre strength, proven commitment, and greatly widened appeal in Bihar, the party’s future is very bright in this state.
—

Bihar needs Mr Nitish Kumar. His government’s epoch-making achievements have placed him in a class apart, making him the man that Bihar needs more than anything else.
Being a leader who is naturally acceptable to every section of society, regardless of caste and religion in a fiercely identity-driven state, Mr Kumar is going to be the natural choice for Bihar’s electorate. Although he ran a coalition government, he strived hard to put the good of Bihar over everything else in the past five years. His successes are visible across the state after the long darkness of the 15 years of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-Congress misrule.

The JD(U) and the BJP in Mr Kumar’s coalition government have assiduously stuck to their common minimum programme so as to create development milestones in the face of obstacles by Opposition parties. But behind every success story written by this government stands the towering leadership and vision of the chief minister. To deny this is to falsify facts.

While the minorities and the dalits of Bihar had got almost nothing other than lofty promises and resounding pronouncements of secularism from previous governments, Mr Kumar’s vision and action gave them solid benefits and raised their self-confidence. It is Mr Kumar who, as the face of the JD(U)-BJP government, inspires faith and hope in Bihar’s Muslims. Bihar has been free from any communal tension in Kumar’s regime. Its dalits who wonder why other parties, involved in dalit politics did so little for them.

The JD(U), the senior partner in the state government, is on a superbly solid platform today. Last year’s Lok Sabha poll results bore ample evidence of this. While alliance with the BJP helped the JD(U) to come to power in the 2005 Assembly polls, the JD(U)’s reach has penetrated remote corners of the state due to the chief minister’s leadership, and the attention paid by his government to implementation of welfare projects. No other chief minister has visited as many villages and spoken to as many ordinary people individually as Mr Kumar.

Any comparison between Mr Kumar and Orissa’s Mr Naveen Patnaik (in the context of relations with the BJP) — however facile — must not overlook the fact that Mr Patnaik gained strength and legacy from his legendary father, while in Bihar Mr Kumar built his strength brick by brick. The people of Bihar are wise enough to decide for themselves.

Dump wrong cultural models for better governance

Culture matters in every sphere of society. Whether politics or corporate administration. Whatever the cultural traits of a particular society is reflected in the functioning of other branches of the society. India is more deep rooted in the traditional culture yet confusedly addicted to the Western culture. Due to this paradox it faces a chain of problems in all arenas of the society. The fungus and virus which are infecting the Indian society needs to be uprooted. The process also need to protect the Indian systems from the evils of Western model of development. Over celebration of the Western system and giving it a clean chit is very myopic and factually negative way of painting the development sector. The Western world is also full of flaws. What is required is a new and clean model of development. Whoever develops it needs to be practiced.

R. Gopalkrishnan writes in The Economic Times on 3 May 2010,


Urban middle class Indians think in English but act in Indian . For example, flexibility and compromise is very Indian. Nee katru, naan maram, yenna sonaalum, thalai aattuven (you are the breeze, I am the tree, my head will sway whichever way you blow), sang Hariharan in the 1998 Tamil film Nilaave Vaa.

Praising to persuade is quite Indian. Hanuman allowed himself to be captured so that he could deliver Rama’s message personally to Ravana. Everyone in the Lanka court wanted Hanuman executed. Only Vibhishana interceded by first praising Ravana and only thereafter suggested a lesser punishment.

Judging through background and appearance is Indian. Urban middle class Indians think that educated Indians (like them) who speak English are likely to be more reliable than their vernacular counterparts. The truth is that unless the raja and leaders are honest, the praja will not be honest.

In the Mahabharata, Duryodhana said, “Contentment and patience, though the virtues of ordinary men, are not virtues in kings.” With that pompous statement, he invited Shakuni to deploy his wiles at his court leading to the battle of Kurukshetra. Why culture matters: Culture matters in many things, including in corporate governance.

The Indian practice need not be completely different from the west, but it must embed cultural influence. The western mind is shaped by the Greek philosophical tradition of analysis, linearity and abhorrence of ambiguity. It believes in a unitary sense of right and wrong and lays great emphasis on meritocracy.

On the other hand, the Indian mindset represents integrative and perambulatory thinking with a great tolerance for ambiguity . Nothing is black or white, everything is shades of grey. Merit is important, but so are age, connections and lineage. These show up in many ways:

Alan Greenspan was Fed Governor in the US till 2006, just before the meltdown. In his book, Greenspan viewed instability analytically and wrote, “Regulation, by its nature, inhibits freedom of market action, and that freedom is what rebalances markets... I fail to see how adding more government action can help.” Dr Y V Reddy was India’s central bank governor.

He viewed the undefined issues of instability intuitively and wrote, “The challenge shifted from managing the successful integration of the Indian economy with the global economy to managing the impact of the global crisis on India.” Very different ways of seeing the same thing.

Indian events are a Grand Spectacle where a few are doers; a few more are lurkers, while many are watchers. For example, think of the doers, lurkers and watchers at our airport security, at a district government office or at an Indian wedding. Even cricket fits the doer-lurker-watcher pattern: four doers, 18 lurkers, and thousands of watchers!

Although the Mughal Empire had long spent its course by 1857, when the soldiers of the Gangetic plains wanted a leader for their movement, they agreed on an illogical choice: the defunct Bahadur Shah Zafar. Dynastic choice was thought to be less unacceptable than a merit-based choice.

Why institutions matter: Politics and government are poor examples of governance. The government is a poor custodian of public assets.

In a recent case at the Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court, the local government lawyer unabashedly stated that “the ants had eaten up 24 kg of charas from the official godown where the government had stored the charas seized from drug traffickers .” The drug racket by local public functionaries is not Goa’s best-kept secret!

Political leaders preach corporate governance , but are silent about political governance . Party accounts are never published, let alone quarterly or being audited by rotating auditors. Parties expect Anglo-American corporate governance but practise Indian political governance.

A few years ago, the government sold a majority shareholding in a PSU through an open process; the concerned minister was unhappy about the buyer and he expressed his unhappiness in several ways. Memorably , he wagged his finger that he would not allow the buyer to implement changes as it was ‘his money’. The 26% owner was warning the 45% owner that he would thwart attempts to change! And he got away with it.

The high-handed behaviour of some government directors on PSU boards and indeed the very functioning of many PSU boards set a poor example to the private sector. The message is right, but the messengers are not credible. How do we live with such contradictions?

It may be because of an awe of rulers. For 25 of the last 30 centuries, citizens’ local issues were sorted out by local panchayats. The ruler or king was a remote person, even thought to be God. Be it the Mysore Dussera Festival or the Nizam of Hyderabad, royalty has always been awesome to common folk.

May be that is why industrial captains are in awe of leaders either or may be for reasons of enlightened self-interest . Exceptions apart, many corporate leaders subconsciously adopt a subservient role in their interaction with ministers.

Politics and business share some things: dynastic leadership, confounding arrangements , one-upmanship and disdain for rules at higher levels. There is a further implicit connection between politics and business. Politicians used to view business as an akshaya patra for funds.

As deregulation denuded the akshaya patra, politicians themselves entered business with benamiidentities — as suggested by the ownership of IPL cricket — the mushrooming higher education colleges and private airlines. Though most politicians avoid garlands of currency notes publicly, they do possess enough currency to make many garlands!

While government pretends to govern, influential citizens pretend to obey them. Highly-connected offenders roam freely with the attitude that they can expose others or that the law is corruptible and inefficient, so nothing can happen to me.

In the US, allegations of the misuse of corporate funds or insider trading, like with Vinod Gupta or Anil Kumar, are brought to speedy conclusions. India cannot emulate this despite adopting the American corporate governance principles.

Like other institutions of democracy, the corporate sector too is flawed. The relationship between shareholder democracy, authoritarian leadership and company growth is not linear and it defies a neat mapping. Some thoughts: I am not sure how, but corporate governance practices need to be tweaked from being precise and prescriptive to being directional and intuitive.

Investors and independent directors should watch behaviour, not only compliance. A structural weakness in India is the poor performance of the institutional shareholders . They need training and encouragement.

They must focus on honesty of purpose and intent rather than just on the rules and regulations. The hard truth is that if the owner, CEO and CFO conspire, no corporate governance system can work. You can arrest the auditor and jail the director, but that will not prevent the next incident where evil intent is present. The Satyam case is the best evidence of this.

The giveaways of bad governance lie in behaviour. Pratip Kar, while at Tata Management Training Centre, showed that one or more of five signals from the C-Suite provide early warning: constantly being applauded by the media as being visionary and daring; displaying excessively risky but exciting ambitions ; showing high connections and lifestyle ; being hubristic and egoistic; being surrounded by ‘non-smelly’ individuals, yet appearing ‘smelly’ .

As former Sebi chief M Damodaran has said, Indian executives regard the boss or the promoter as the karta of the Hindu Undivided Family. The promoter is the ultimate. The top leadership may have managers who kiss up and kick down; who are eager to please the boss. These are telltale signals that need to be considered by intelligent investors.

Review related party transactions with care like a Lakshman Rekha. All related party transactions are not bad or suspicious. But this is the line that is normally breached to achieve differential enrichment . Just as Lakshman drew the line for Sita for her protection, independent directors should regard related party transactions as the watch-line for shareholders and be very alert in an intuitive way.

Independent directors need to be emotionally accountable to minority shareholders. Independent directors represent the interests of minority shareholders. They are elected by the shareholders. The role of the lead director can be strengthened and the lead director should feel accountable for initiating steps to protect minority interests. He can be answerable in writing or in person where necessary.

Focus the rule book on what a board cannot do. There are too many regulators and rules, but too little regulation. Corporate governance rules describe in minute detail how a board is to be composed and all that a board has to do.

In sports, the rule book tells you what you cannot do, and the rules are, therefore, simple. In football, you cannot touch the ball with the hand, you cannot physically push the opposing player and you cannot be ahead of the last opposing player (other than the goalkeeper) before receiving a pass to shoot for the goalpost.

Western intellectuals are reviewing their own model. Sir David Walker, the senior guru of UK’s corporate governance, has wondered whether the western system should be copied by the developing world because the eastern model seems to have advantages.

Magdalene College senior research fellow, Stefan Halper, has wondered in his new book The Beijing Consensus whether the market authoritarianism of the east has some virtue. I wonder whether India needs a modified kind of corporate governance rule book.

Manu's Parole Drama

Time and again it is proven that the money and power can break the law. For these powerful and mighty law doesn't matter. The law can be bought and sold.This is clear from the recent release of Manu Sharma the serial criminal despite objections by the Delhi police. The Government of Delhi needs to take the blame and fix this problem first before taking about anything else.

The Times of India writes (13 Novemebr 2009)


It has now been established that rules were bent when Manu Sharma, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of model Jessica Lall, was given
parole. Sharma had sought parole on three grounds: to participate in the religious rites of his late grandmother; attend to his ailing mother; and to take care of his business. Delhi police did not find any of these reasons good enough to grant parole. However, the Delhi government did not go by its own state police recommendations and cleared Sharma's request based on a report by the Chandigarh police. Incidentally, Sharma's father is an influential Congress politician in Chandigarh. Besides, Sharma's request was processed in unseemly haste.

The way parole was granted to Sharma makes a mockery of justice. The Supreme Court has ruled that every accused or convict should be released on parole once a year. In principle this is a good thing. But in reality parole pleas of ordinary convicts across the country have been gathering dust. This is true also for Tihar jail, where Sharma is serving his sentence.

The parole figures for Delhi clearly show that the system isn't working. This year, out of 132 applications for parole from prisoners in Tihar, only 11 were approved. And despite a court directive that parole applications be processed quickly it takes more than 8-10 months to decide most cases. In many cases the delay often negates the very reason for which parole was being requested. It's clear that very few convicts do manage to get parole, and Sharma was one of them. The situation in Delhi is further complicated because the lieutenant-governor and not the director-general of police has the final say. This could lead to situations where considerations other than urgency or merit of the application could creep in, as it seems to have done in Sharma's case.

That the parole system is not working is also evident from prisoners who have disappeared after being out on parole. These include terrorists and ISI agents. Clearly, the way parole is being handled needs to be overhauled. The SC's logic of being lenient about parole is laudable since that could be a way of reforming criminals. But if the system is being subverted to favour the powerful or to allow dangerous criminals to flee, that cannot be allowed to continue. The method of processing and tracking parole needs to be streamlined so that only deserving criminals, whether for good behaviour or the urgency of their request, are let out. The others, including dangerous criminals, must remain behind bars.

Good Seasonal Fortune for Congress

Almost all political parties make strategies. Congress party's strategies plus silence have paid rich electoral dividends in the just concluded bye-elections. A disarrayed opposition especially the BJP has given a solid growth for the Congress. Left front is fastly getting wiped out in its bastion Bengal. Kerala gives verdict to Left and Congress alternatively. Naturally the next turn is for Congress. The most surprising outcome is for the BSP. The statue saddened state had given good number seats to the self-glorifying Behenji.

The Times of India writes (11 November 2009)

There is reason for the Congress-led UPA to feel happy about the bypoll results declared on Tuesday. The alliance has done well in West Bengal
and Kerala and has wrested the important Firozabad Lok Sabha seat in UP from the Samajwadi Party. Its performance in other states is a mixed bag. But the Congress and its allies can take satisfaction that the BJP hasn't made any notable progress even in its strongholds like Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.

A standout feature of the current round of elections is the decimation of the Left Front in the two states where it holds office. The LF has lost all but one of the 13 constituencies in West Bengal and Kerala that went to polls last week. Most of these seats previously had Congress or Trinamul Congress MLAs and, hence, the front may claim that the results don't reflect a trend. Nevertheless, the LF has not been able to get its act together since the humiliating loss in the 2009 Parliament elections. The UPA almost swept both states then and has since maintained the trend. What must hurt the Left most is the defeat in Kannur in Kerala and Belgachia East in West Bengal. Trinamul won Belgachia East, the pocketborough of late CPM stalwart Subash Chakraborty, defeating his widow Ramola. In Kannur, a former CPM MP Abdullakutty defeated CPM heavyweight M V Jayarajan. Abdullakutty, who won the Kannur Lok Sabha seat for the CPM twice, was expelled from the party ahead of the Parliament elections in May and had joined the Congress. Though the Kannur assembly seat is a Congress stronghold, his success is likely to impact political undercurrents in this volatile region. Left leaders, however, were reconciled to a possible rout in Bengal and ran a low-key campaign. Clearly, the signs are ominous for the LF as the two states are set to face assembly polls in 2011.

A contrast to the Left's predicament is the remarkable performance of the BSP in UP. The party fared badly in the 2009 Parliament elections, but has recovered well to justify its success in the 2007 assembly elections. It has bucked anti-incumbency and the Congress's attempt to rebuild its base and has won a majority of the byelections since the Lok Sabha polls in May. The Congress may have re-emerged as an option in a Lok Sabha election, but seems to lack organisational network and grassroots leaders to take on regional players like the BSP and the SP in assembly contests.

The BJP's stock has slipped further in UP. Not only has it failed to put up a fight in the bypolls, the party even lost its sitting Lucknow West seat to the Congress. With the state unit in disarray and the central leadership clueless about the way forward, the BJP has a lot to worry about. Its predicament is remarkably similar to that of the CPM.

Abusing Vande Matram

The forgotten controversies over Vande Matram has been renewed by Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind (JUH). Unnecessarily it passed a resolution asking Muslims not to sing the national song. This kind of ant-nationalist politics must end immediately.

The Times of India writes on 6th November 2009

The patriotic credentials of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind (JUH) have never been in doubt. Hence the current controversy over a resolution regarding Vande
Mataram, adopted at the annual JUH meet in Deoband early this week, is misplaced. The resolution insisted that patriotism didn't require singing Vande Mataram in schools and supported a fatwa along those lines. The reservation among some Muslim groups towards Vande Mataram has a long history and the Supreme Court has indicated that the singing of national song must not be made compulsory for all. The national song is just another prop to celebrate the nation state and undue importance must not be given to it. Singing Vande Mataram must neither be made a test case of patriotism nor should people be obstinate about not singing it.

However, the other resolutions taken up at the JUH meet call for a closer look. The meet has taken an extremely critical - and in our opinion regressive - view of a host of public policies that have been legislated or are in the making. The JUH has opposed the move to decriminalise homosexuality and the Women's Bill that seeks to increase the presence of women in Parliament. Similarly, community members have been told to keep off government-run anti-AIDS programmes and to avoid cinema and television.

The decree against terrorism first pronounced by Darul Uloom, Deoband, last year was an attempt to clarify that political violence in the name of religion was unacceptable whatever be the reason. The JUH too has been active in decrying political violence and has projected avenues offered by parliamentary democracy as the legitimate platforms to espouse political demands. Such a modern political viewpoint is in sharp contrast to the organisation's conservative social agenda. The contradiction is not sustainable and is sure to unravel at some point. The experience of the Taliban is instructive on this count. Sections of Taliban trace their ideology to the Deoband school. The social conservatism of the Deoband teachings - attitudes to women, entertainment etc - is reflected in the political vision of the Taliban. The Taliban idea of a state is merely the political expression of its conservative social vision.

Hence it is important that organisations like the JUH take a critical view of their social agendas. Societies are not frozen in time. They are constantly evolving. Organisations that seek to represent communities must engage constructively with change and adapt accordingly. A regressive social agenda will prevent people from making full use of the opportunities offered by a democratic state. Whenever they fail to make sense of changing times, the politics of victimhood looks attractive.

Madhu Koda is One Among Many Hawala Politicians

Madhu Koda creates record in many ways. He is the first independent MLA to become Chief Minister. Along with these unbreakable records Koda had fallen in the Hawala scandal. The political parties which honeymooned with Koda are trapping him in the Hawala net because he is no more useful to them politically. Congress party which supported Koda and Lalu is suddenly whitewashing it as the cleanest party. It is a routine political matter to use CBI and corruption cases to checkmate the opposition parties. It is high time to rescue the legal arms from political hawks.

The Times of India writes (6 November 2009)


Madhu Koda's meteoric rise would have normally made for a heartwarming story. Once a labourer in iron-ore mines, he won assembly elections from
Jharkhand in 2000. Five years later and only in his mid-thirties, he was appointed state minister for mines in a BJP-led government. From 2006 to 2008 he was the Jharkhand chief minister. But now Koda stands accused of being part of a massive corruption scandal and faces the possibility of arrest.

Raids by the Enforcement Directorate and the income tax department over the past few days have unearthed Koda's alleged involvement in illegal transactions worth over Rs 2,000 crore, including several properties and acquisitions abroad. Latest investigations show that the former CM might even have been negotiating to acquire an SEZ in Noida for a staggering Rs 4,800 crore. The scale of allegations against Koda yet again throws the spotlight on corruption in Indian politics and the propensity of politicians to amass extraordinary wealth through illegal means.

Koda is by no means the first politician or even chief minister to be accused of massive corruption and to face arrest. Former Bihar CM and Union minister Lalu Prasad had been implicated in the multi-crore fodder scam, which first came to light in 1996, and was jailed for brief periods. That year, the CBI seized a few crores of rupees from Union communications minister Sukh Ram's house and subsequently arrested him. Lalu and Sukh Ram are distinguished by the scale of corruption charges against them and the high office they held. There are of course several corruption scandals that have tainted politicians big and small, including former prime ministers. Besides, many of our MPs face criminal charges. In the current Lok Sabha, nearly 30 per cent of the MPs face criminal cases.

In such a situation it isn't surprising that citizens have little faith in politicians. It is unfortunate that while investigating agencies and the media have highlighted corruption in the highest places, these cases have dragged on for years. Though some people have been punished in the Bihar fodder scam, it continues to make its way through courts at various levels. In the Sukh Ram case, a trial court found him guilty 13 years later under the Prevention of Corruption Act for amassing disproportionate assets. Sukh Ram has since appealed the verdict. The time taken to decide these high-profile cases gives the impression that politicians are above the law. If politics and crime cannot be prised apart, that represents the biggest threat to India's future.

In the Name of VIP Security

Security for the VIPS is important but not at the cost of common people's lives. Critically ill people, pregnant women and those who travel urgently are blocked by the khaki crowd for the sake of getting name from the moving VIPs. In general there will be just a word of condolence from the VIPs incase there is some tragic deaths during his/her movement. In the recent visit to Chandigarh, Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh's cavalcade had knocked the life of a critically patient by not allowing him to move to the hospital. VIPs should avoid causing inconvenience to the public. Using helicopter or not busy roads are recommended. Advance announcements are must to the public .

Rajesh Kalra writes in The Times of India (5 November 2009)
One patient in a critical condition died yesterday in Chandigarh as he could not enter the hospital where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was visiting, thanks to the over-zealous security set up.

All VIPs/VVIPs in this country are a nuisance, at least as far as their security is concerned. They strut around like Royalty and other minions must be ready for humiliation whenever these pests come visiting or decide to drive through.

I have always wondered why it can’t be controlled. Why should every Tom, Dick & Harry have some security, just because he thinks it gives him clout among his neighbourhood and satisfies his ego? Surely, we need a cheaper and better way to satisfy these morons’ egos than waste public money and make life hell for the common man.

I am not saying that all security is unnecessary. In some cases, such as the Prime Minister’s, it is an absolute must. We have had far too many instances where a little let-up has led to dangerous consequences with far too volatile repercussions. We all, for example, remember the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination, although she was killed by the very guards who were there to protect her. Her son Rajiv Gandhi too was assassinated when there was a let-up. And mind you, I am not trying to defend the PM or his security for the tragic death in Chandigarh yesterday. What I am grappling with is that why it can’t be done in a manner that does not hassle the common man.

I travel a lot and nowhere else in the world does security seem as invasive, or intrusive, as it is here. And despite that, it just doesn’t appear as comforting. The other day, I was on the panel for a book release function at the Parliament House auditorium. You would imagine that the security there would be foolproof, especially given the threat perception post 26/11 and also that the building itself was under attack not too many years ago. There sure was a lot of visible security, at least as far as the layers and security personnel were concerned. But was it foolproof? No! Visitors, for instance, were not allowed to carry mobile phones inside, but yet there were plenty inside who were moving around with them openly. Since these guys were not the security guys but among the general invitees, there obviously was some gap somewhere.

I am, in a way, mystified by the growing menace of all that is wrong in the society. Long ago, in schools, there used to be a lesson that talked about not being ostentatious with weddings. Decades later, this has only gotten worse, with politicians and industrialists being the biggest culprits. Same is the case with security.

Not too long ago, a Delhi University professor challenged the practice of stopping all traffic for long duration during VIP movements. Chastened by the courts, the Delhi Police committed (to the courts) that they would not hold up traffic more than just a few minutes and ensure that enough police personnel are deployed to clear traffic after the VIP has passed. To be fair, it worked well for a while, but, like all else, it is now back to the contempt of courts.

The habit of how dare you stop or not let my VIP pass without ‘let or hindrance” must be addictive. I have seen them all break rules with impunity, even when they are not on official work, or could be moving around on an errand as important as taking their spouses shopping.

One retired Chief of Air Staff, the one who a national daily (not The Times of India) had once accused of using 22 air cons at his official home, came up behind me as I waited at a busy intersection in Delhi years ago. Sirens blaring, the motorcade wanted me to move on so that the air chief does not have to stop. I knew then, and still do, that the only people who can JUMP the traffic signal are Police, Ambulance and Fire brigade. All others must wait unless it is the head of state or someone for who the traffic is halted. I refused to budge. Out came two security guards and walked menacingly towards me. My heart pumped hard, praying that the signal turn green. One approached my window, knocked on it, and just then the light turned green. I drove off. When I discussed this with colleagues later, they thought I was stupid. The guards could have opened fire. I realised my reasoning that I did nothing wrong was dismissed by my editorial colleagues as being no more than an act of bravado on my part. Mention of that incident still sends shiver down my spine, even though I have become wiser and never mess with the gun-toting demons any more.

As I said, there are a lot of unnecessary jokers who want security for their ego massage alone, but there are also those who genuinely need to be protected because their threat perception is high. Would love to hear from the readers how we can ensure a security set up that is effective even as it does not end up humiliating the common man.

Never Repeat the Past Mistakes P.C

Peace is desirable. But one must know to whom to talk about the peace. The dreaded red guerilas function in the name of Maoists should not be trusted. They are well-known for surrendering arms in the front but carry out armed violence at the back. The recent remarks by the home minister P.Chidambaram sounds easy but to difficult to implement. The Naxalites must be crushed and then they should be compelled to surrender. By offering peace in the beginning will weaken the moral fabric of the fighting forces.

The Times of India writes (30 October 2009)

The Centre on Friday said it will persuade the state governments to talk to the Maoists on aspects like land reforms and land acquisitions if they stop violence. Union home minister P Chidambaram made it clear that no talks could be held in an atmosphere of violence.

"We never said lay down the arms...We said halt the violence and talk...If they halt violence, the Centre will persuade the state governments to talk to them on issues like land reforms, land acquisitions," he told reporters here.

"If they halt violence, we will facilitate talks. I cannot ask state governments to talk when there is widespread violence," Chidambaram said.

He said if the Maoists are "serious champions of the poor", they should come forward for talks.

The home minister said Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh had attempted to hold talks with the Maoists but the moves were "futile".

He said the Cabinet Committee on Security has decided to provide help to the states affected by the naxal violence.

Noting that the government has been extending offers for talks, the home minister said the response so far has not been encouraging.

Asked whether the Centre would ban the People's Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) which had earlier this week hijacked a train in West Bengal, he said it was for the state government to decide as the activities of the outfit are confined only to the state.

"We are open to provide help. West Bengal government is competent ....The organisation is confined to West Bengal only," he said.

The "most serious threats" to the internal security this month came from the Maoists, Chidambaram said releasing the ministry's report card for October. He also listed the incidents of violence unleashed by the Maoists.

"The violence must end. The Central and state governments have a duty to end violence. It is with that objective that we have made a simple and straight forward appeal to the CPI (Maoist) :'halt the violence'," the home minister said.

Name Changing States

Politics play a dirty role in every decision of the Governments in Centre and States. Changing the name of a city or state is one of these many dirty games. It is understandable that localisation of the names is to respect the language and culture. But when even that local names are changed when governments change tell the malafide intentions. Uttranchal to Uttrakhand is the best example. Everyone is put under heavy strain with these name change tamashas. It must stop immediately.

The Times of India writes (24 October 2009)

Just when you were getting used to Bengaluru, they've decided to add another tongue-twister to your vocabulary. Orissa is Odisha and
Oriya is now Odia. And for anyone who says `what's in a name' ask director-producer Karan Johar who was forced to not just issue a public apology on the use of `Bombay' but also add a disclaimer to his film `Wake Up Sid'.

In times where being politically correct means not asking uncomfortable questions, the change in nomenclature was approved by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday without discussion. It will get Parliament's nod soon enough.

While Shiv Sena turned Bombay to Mumbai and similar political compulsions dictated changing Calcutta to Kolkata, our history is replete with examples of regional demands for name changing -- whether it is state, language, street or chowk. Erasing fancy sounding British names to earthy Indian ones is a favoured political pastime though it is unclear what dividend it pays.

The proposed change will now require an amendment to the first and eighth schedule of the Constitution which is likely to come up in Parliament soon.

The Orissa assembly had moved a resolution in August to change the state's name to Odisha and its official language from Oriya to Odia, saying the names had been used wrongly. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik moved the resolution in the House which was approved by a voice vote.

Officials said the state was keen to change its name owing to disparities in pronunciation due to the wrong spelling of the state's name. It is written as Udisa in Hindi and Orissa in English.

Major cities that have been renamed after Independence include Kanpur (formerly Cawnpore), Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Mumbai (Bombay), Chennai (Madras), Kolkata (Calcutta), Pune (Poona) and Kochi (Cochin).

Kalaignar Course in Madras University

Sycophants are crossing all limits to appease their leaders. Tamil Nadu which is well-known for the sycophancy is always in news for high pitch sycophancy. It is the state where followers fire walk, commit suicides, fast unto death and many other tamashas to catch the attention of their leaders. DMK supremo Karunanidhi who is known for encouraging these sycophants in an indirect manner initiated naming of streets in the alive person's names. One can find Kalaignar Karunanidhi nagar in Chennai, Tiruchirapali and other towns. It is insane to name a place after an alive person. Generally in memory of the dead person's name streets, buses, programmes are named. But for DMK glorifying the alive leader is the favourite past time. The latest one is chilling.

The Times of India writes (15 October 2009)


A proposal by the University of Madras to offer a Master of Arts degree in ‘Kalaignar Thought’, as mooted by new vice-chancellor G
Thiruvasagam, has sparked a debate on whether a state university can start a course based on the ideals and philosophy of a serving chief minister. ( Watch Video )

While there have been instances of theses and dissertations being done by research scholars on the work of chief ministers in the past, academicians do not recall any specialised course based on a living leader’s thoughts. Academicians are cautious about the idea, but made it clear that such courses could not be started solely on the basis of the V-C’s views; rather, it could be offered only if it was cleared by the academic council and other university bodies.

‘‘Any new course is welcome, but I don’t think such courses are essential,’’ said Prof P K Ponnusamy, a former vice-chancellor of the University of Madras as well as the Madurai Kamarajar University. He also pointed out that students should also evince interest in these courses. ‘‘We have to wait and see how many students join the course.’’

V-Cs could not make any independent decision, and the planned courses should be cleared by the syndicate, senate and academic council, Prof Ponnusamy said. He added that politics and academics had become inseparable in recent times and it was ‘‘inevitable’’ that such courses would come into being.

Caste, Charisma and Rahul Gandhi

Caste is a trump card. People will reveal it at an appropriate time and place. Rahul Gandhi understands this and takes it seriously. His hurricane visits without adequate information to the local police invites the media spotlight and appreciation even from his political adversaries. From Shaturgun Sinha in BJP to Jayaprada in SP all are singing Rahul praises. But Mayawati is shaky over Rahul's poaching into her Dalit base. If she is genuine about Dalit welfare, why should she be afraid? After spending all the time in building statues she don't have time for dalits leave alone the state in total.

Although Rahul ideas are good for the long-term prospects of Congress party he needs to eliminate the chamchagiri, sycophancy and corruption in the party. Without doing this he cannot ensure the all round growth of Congress which is vital for the national growth. He must weed out the non performing elements who are totally anti-antithetical to the very foundational principle of the Grand Old Party. If he is aware of this mission in his efforts then he is leading the Congress to the greatest time in the history of India.

Wishing Rahul Gandhi all the success to take Congress and India to the top of the world where there is less corruption, sycophancy and chamchagiri.

The Times of India writes (10 October 2009)

It was bound to happen. The Nehru-Gandhi scion's visits to poor households in poverty-stricken villages have come under fire from opponents for
being political stunts exploiting caste sentiments. Given the jaded grammar of politics in our country, it is not difficult to see why they would think so when the households that Rahul visited happened to be Dalit. But he has defended himself vigorously, stating that he does not believe in the caste system, and that he sees the issue from the perspective of economic deprivation. This is a necessary move, which has been supported by some of the UPA government's initiatives. Caste needs to be de-emphasised in the country's political discourse.

Granted, caste issues are a reality in rural areas. But, while the perception of caste does exist in urban areas as well, it's economic issues which hold the key there. And a look at population projections reveals that the share of the urban population in India is expected to reach 40 per cent by 2021. By as early as 2011, urban areas could contribute around 65 per cent of GDP. This is why it becomes necessary to frame the question of poverty and social backwardness in economic rather than caste terms. Given the overlap between economic backwardness and caste in rural areas, focusing on the former will chip away at the foundations of discrimination based on the latter as well.

Whatever one might feel about the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme launched by the UPA government, one of its virtues is that it breaks free from the obsession with caste. But while the political strategy of the Congress's main opponent in UP, Mayawati, is based on caste, Rahul's efforts have been based within an economic framework. Identity politics may have run its course, and caste-based social engineering is likely to yield diminishing returns at the political box office. Perhaps the cynicism prevalent in our political system makes it difficult to believe a genuine attempt to break away from caste politics. But Rahul deserves the right to make new political experiments.
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COUNTER VIEW
Accept that caste can't be ignored
Amrith Lal10 October 2009, 12:00am IST
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Rahul Gandhi's attempt to explain his visits to Dalit homes in UP in class terms is least surprising. Most of our political parties claim that
their politics override caste and similar identities but formulate tactics, especially during elections, by working out the caste arithmetic. This duplicity is, perhaps, a leftover of the dominant political paradigm of the Nehruvian era that refused to recognise that caste was the primary marker of social identity in Indian society.

In some cases, the preference for this paradigm is due to ideological reasons, as in the case of communist parties. They argue that caste can be explained in class terms. But many others refuse to admit the presence of caste as the most important category in determining political power because such an admission would inevitably force them to confront existing social hierarchies. It is impossible to admit the influence of caste and argue for a status quo in power relations. One way to preserve social privileges determined by caste is to argue that economic factors alone are responsible for an unjust social order. However, it's no more possible for political parties to argue this line. Since the Mandal revolution, caste has emerged as the main instrument for political mobilisation.

The Congress was the biggest loser as ground rules of politics, particularly in northern India, changed in 1990s. It is now in the process of rebuilding the social coalition that helped the party dominate Indian politics for decades. This coalition, in the party's heyday, included many upper castes as well as Dalits and tribals. But to attract them back to the Congress, the party has to look beyond old forms of patronage politics where the leader gave some sops and got back loyalty to the party in return. Rahul Gandhi's trips to meet and dine with Dalits are clearly part of a concerted effort to regain the trust of erstwhile loyal and now estranged social groups. It is more than a coincidence that most of the poor he is meeting are also Dalits. There's nothing wrong with all this. The point is to admit that caste is at the centre of all such political strategies. And, that's only being honest about the Indian reality.
TIMES VIEW: Welcome shift from identity politics

Family Politics in India

Politics is always a tricky business. Those who are involved especially in India have to sweat it out. There are very few families which can take a cool walk in the Indian politics.

The Times of India writes (28 September 2009)


Noble vocations are the manifest destiny of many a neta's offspring. Look at Maharashtra. When party tickets to fight elections are given to 'kin'dred souls, it's thanks to a kinship less of blood than of the sweat and tears that go into public service. Inspiringly, kids, grandkids, nephews and nieces of luminaries like the president and assorted people's representatives are entering or aspire to enter the assembly poll fray. The bad press they're getting for it is unfair. The child shouldn't pay for the sins (or bills) of the father; in politics, the favour's usually done the other way round. Why, then, must political GenNext be told 'no-kin-do' about a line of duty pa or grandpa chose? Why wait till kin-dom come to fulfil a higher calling?

As Friends of Kin say, the hereditary principle applies to everything under the son. Take the triumvirate doctor-lawyer-engineer that's pursued in the marriage market. Doctors' children become doctors, and it's not just to get the best brides. Shaadi-related monopolies stand shaken in any case due to post-slowdown job insecurity. Forget doctor & co, even golden babalog like phoren-settled IT engineers or bankers have been replaced by humble babulog as eligible bachelors. Like blondes, government servants now have more fun. That's thanks not only to Sixth Pay Commission generosity but also the babus' sinecure...er, secure...posts.

Besides, in 21st century India, people no longer wear job-linked straitjackets. There's eased professional mobility. The employment market is so diversified, the call of political duty even goes unheeded. Else, a potential political heir wouldn't step into Rakhi Sawant's stilettos rather than his dad's kohlapuris. Clearly, the Great Indian Wedding is itself now a televised career option. Just think: picking out a dulha or dulhaniya and getting paid for it! More, swayamvar or biwi-hunt assignments don't end with getting hitched. Getting unhitched and rehitched to the power of infinity is on hire as well.

Again, a political heavyweight in Maharashtra has an actor-son; a similar biggie in Bihar has a cricketer-son. Neither Junior has scored big yet, but neither desires vote-garnering as a job alternative. Finally, with the wrecking of the old work-linked caste system, greybeards too have professional wanderlust. A political veteran recently renounced mute membership of his strife-torn party, becoming an idol breaker-cum-bestseller writer. Refusing to say "Jinnah yahan, darna yahan", he took the plunge. So, political dynasty is doubtless a venerable institution. But its babylog on vocation should realise politics isn't always Naukri No. 1.

Private Interests in Parliament

Promotion of private interests using the parliament is worldwide phenomenon. This is happening for ages. Taking money and asking question was the latest nail on the head of the parliamentary democracy. There are sizable number of parliamentarians with heavy business background is well known to the public. They must refrained from using the public resources and positions in promoting their businesses.

The Times of India writes (26 September 2009)


A few days ago, this newspaper reported how MPs who own infrastructure companies sit on a parliamentary panel set up to review delays in the
execution of large public projects with private participation. The matter merits urgent attention since it concerns parliamentary ethics and accountability in governance. Parliament needs to address the issue as soon as possible.

Over the years, the composition of our Parliament has undergone a change. Increasingly, people from diverse backgrounds are entering electoral politics. In the past, professionals like lawyers formed the core of the political class. They saw parliamentary politics as an extension of their role as political activists and an opportunity to contribute to the making of public policy. Few industrialists took the effort or had the time to represent people in Parliament. That has changed. A number of businessmen have contested elections to the Lok Sabha or have got nominated to the Rajya Sabha in recent times. There is no reason to argue that our MPs ought to be full-time politicians. If other professionals, including businessmen, are willing to engage constructively with public affairs, they must be allowed.

However, parliamentarians are expected not just to legislate but also supervise the working of the executive. Parliamentary panels have enormous executive powers and, often, play a decisive role in enforcing transparency and accountability in matters of governance. They have powers to summon senior officials in the government, enjoy access to important files, and influence executive decisions. There is a conflict of interest if the owner of a construction company is part of a House panel that arbitrates in a dispute between the very same company or even a rival and the government. Unfortunately, such examples are not so uncommon now. It's even been said that MPs with business interests lobby to be part of parliamentary panels whose workings have a bearing on their corporate interests.

Parliamentary ethics demand that a clear demarcation be maintained between the private interests of an MP and his role as a people's representative. It is not sufficient that an MP abstains from a House panel when a case that involves his business interests comes up before it. A disclosure clause could help to avoid possible conflict of interest. Such information must be available in the public domain. Clearly, there is a need to have stringent guidelines regarding appointments to parliamentary panels and other executive bodies. MPs could surely use the floor of the House to articulate their expertise on corporate and other matters, but they must keep out of parliamentary committees that could lead to a conflict of interest.

Bypoll results are not an indicator

Recently concluded bypolls in 49 assembly constituencies are not an national level indicator. If we go by this results the Congress gets red signal. But the actual case is not that. The local factors play an important role in the bypolls.

The Times of India writes (21 September 2009)


The results of byelections held since August in 49 assembly constituencies spread across 12 states must serve as a wake-up call for the Congress.
Despite the crisis in the BJP, it has fared reasonably well and has won more seats than the Congress. While the Congress lost seven of the seats it held among the 49 that went to polls, the BJP tally went up by five.

What explains the Congress reverses, coming four months after its remarkable success in the general elections? The political dynamic of a general election and assembly polls, particularly byelections, is very different. Local factors development record of the administration, selection of candidates etc influence byelection outcomes more than national issues. Yet, the reverses suffered by the Congress in Delhi, UP and Gujarat and the Janata Dal (United) in Bihar were unexpected and, in many ways, instructive. Clearly, these parties failed to read the mood of the voters correctly and underestimated the ability of their rivals to regroup after the general election defeat. The JD(U), in particular, was impervious to the logic of its past electoral success. People supported the party because it promised to shift the paradigm of Bihar politics from the cynical identity management games conducted by Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) to matters of governance. Many of the JD(U) candidates who lost were RJD turncoats who had moved over to JD(U) after the general election. However, the BJP Nitish's ally in Bihar managed to retain its three seats.

The results are also a reflection of the organisational capabilities of the Congress and the BJP. The Congress was successful in projecting a united and credible leadership at the Centre while the BJP's central leadership appeared to be a confused and divided lot. This influenced the general election results. However, the picture is different in the states. Despite the ideological confusion at the top, the BJP doesn't appear to have lost ground in its strongholds. The success in Gujarat where the party won seats from the Congress and Madhya Pradesh indicates that its organisational clout has not suffered. In contrast, the Congress is yet to rebuild its organisation in states like Gujarat and UP. The party failed to win a single seat in UP where it had done reasonably well in the general election. In the absence of a well-oiled party organisation, it is difficult to sustain electoral success. And, that's what helped the BSP to bounce back in UP.

The big battle will be fought in Maharashtra and Haryana, two states that have Congress governments, where elections are due. Congress can't afford a repeat of the byelections in these two strongholds.

Tweeter Tharoor in Trouble

India is not a tweeter land. Yes, Obama won American presidency because of his massive mobilization of supporters in social networking sites Facebook, Orkut, youtube etal. Shashi Tharoor, the greenhorn politico and ex international bureaucrat is trying to do a la Obama and got backfired. Indian politicians and the world politicos in general should understand that social networking sites can take you to the top one minute and drops you to the bottom next minute. Be cautious in using these sites.

The Times of India writes regarding this controversy (19 September 2009)


Holy cow, what a row! Minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor referring to the economy class in airlines as the "cattle class" has
sparked off national debate. Indignant politicians have jumped to the defence of the 'ordinary Indian' who more often than not travel economy. It is, our esteemed representatives say, an insult to the aam janta, who do not enjoy the privileges of the elite.

The reactions to Tharoor's tweet on the social networking site Twitter has ranged from the amusing to the absurd. By and large, it seems our netas are more outraged than the common man on whose behalf they are ostensibly angered. The BJP wants him sacked; his own party castigated him via a statement pronounced by its voluble and proper spokesperson, Jayanti Natarajan.

Cattle class, by the way, is a turn of phrase that is in currency in the English-speaking world. It's not a pejorative as it is being made out to be. Seems like our politicians are ill-equipped to understand this manner of speaking. There are enough examples in Hindi, or other regional languages of this country for that matter, where animals feature prominently in idioms. When these are used in human interaction, we don't seem to get as offended. Then why make such a song and dance over the cattle class comment? Just because it refers to the cow, which is revered by sections of our society? Looks like the latest austerity drive includes being frugal with wit and humour as well.

Indian politicians are an infamously humourless lot. They take themselves far too seriously and can't seem to loosen up. If they took a trip to the House of Commons in England, they would be horrified at the personal barbs and jibes traded with gusto, which liven up things and provide much comic relief. Unfortunately this is one legacy the Brits did not hand down to our political class when they packed their bags all those decades ago. Humour and the ability to take oneself lightly are vital to maintaining perspective and keeping the social contract going. Go on, laugh out loud.
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Shashi Tharoor has landed himself in a soup over his tweets. The Congress has taken strong exception to his poking fun at travelling ''cattle
class''. Rival political parties have also roundly criticised him. While we may dismiss the Congress high command as a dour lot, Tharoor should have known better than to take potshots at his own party's highly-publicised austerity policy.

Even before his ill-timed tweet, Tharoor had undermined Congress's public rhetoric on austerity. At a time when the Congress was asking ministers and MPs to forego part of their salaries in solidarity with farmers affected by drought, Tharoor was staying in a five-star hotel suite while his official bungalow was being readied. Though Tharoor protested that he was paying from his own pocket, he was immediately asked by the Congress high command to move out. One would have expected Tharoor to steer clear of any further controversy.

But lo and behold, a day after Sonia Gandhi travelled by economy class, Tharoor responded to a query on Twitter by saying that he was travelling cattle class in 'solidarity with holy cows'. There was no way that the Congress leadership would have let this comment pass. Quite expectedly Tharoor was publicly pulled up by a Congress spokesperson. Some of his own party members, including the Rajasthan chief minister, have called for his resignation.

It's no point criticising the Congress leadership as humourless. They are aware that in India it is important to maintain a public image of being one with the common man. So even if a Congress politician has crores stashed away, he still dresses in khadi and eschews pomp in public. The austerity drive on the part of Congress is very much in line with this thinking. It has nothing to do with high principles; it is simply a calculated strategy that the party feels will go down well with its voters.

Tharoor, a greenhorn in politics, is oblivious to such political wiles. He is the only minister who is on Twitter, which is a platform that demands spontaneity. He hasn't realised that tweets and wisecracks about party leaders don't have a place in India's political culture.

Sports Ministry doing everything except sports promotion

Our honorable sports ministers are champions of all causes except sports. Union sports minister is generous to block Rs.200 crores Formula One racing track because we are not mass racers! One Karthikeyan is not enough for him!

The Indian government has, once again, come up with very old-fashioned views on matters relating to sport and tourism. In a letter written by the
Union ministry of sports to JPSK Sports, the promoter of Formula 1 racing in the country early, the ministry rejected the promoter's request to get approval for remittances of $36.5 million to host an F1 race in the country on the ground that it wasn't a sport. This has been supported by the argument that it has entertainment value and therefore amounts to a commercial initiative. Motorsports fans and bodies around the world have been left flummoxed by the government's views, especially in light of the previous support offered by the ministry to motorsports in the country.


To say that a sport is not one because it provides entertainment is ludicrous. Every sport, if it wishes to be popular, needs to be entertaining. The truly boring ones, like curling and croquet, are hardly sports with massive worldwide television audiences. India's favourite sport, cricket, is constantly changing and shortening its format to remain entertaining and to draw in viewers. If sport is a test of human endurance, then Formula 1 undoubtedly qualifies. Anybody who has seen Formula 1 racing drivers step out of their cars after a race cannot doubt their physical fitness or the abuse to which they subject their bodies. Man and machine work in harmony to push body and car to the limit and beyond and, yet, come away unharmed. It is as much a spectacle, if not more so, than a six hit out of the park. Moreover, technology has become a part of most sports today. Without the right cricketing or tennis gear, even the best player could lose.


As for the argument that hosting an F1 race will do little to encourage local participation in sports, who knows? Already, India's interest in F1 has increased since an Indian first competed in F1. The boost that motorsports in the country would receive if it hosted the world's premier auto racing competition would be huge.

Needed Out of Box Acting Leaders

A leadership without creativity is like directionless ship ruddered by a visionless captain. Any nation which lacks such creative leaders is doom to face troubles.

Geetanjali Kirloskar writes in The Times of India (22 August 2009)

The recession has, thank God, stopped all of us crowing about how India is rising and shining. Giving us time to reflect on it in terms of our
personal value systems and not "irrational exuberance".
But did the 'boom' pull everybody's quality of life up? Without doubt, agriculture only 20 per cent of our GDP but supporting 60 per cent of our population grew at a healthy clip.
The NREGS benefited 44 million families. The debt write-off made the lives of 43 million farmers a little easier. But travelling extensively around India, one cannot say that life for the poor and even lower middle classes has changed substantially over the past decade.

The tide is coming in and, if we grab the opportunity, every single one of us 1.1 billion Indians can rise. If this tide is not harnessed, it will result in social and economic conflicts leaving India worse off than before. The India growth story is on razor's edge in almost all dimensions.

India's young have driven the growth story. Our educated, English-speaking youth have made India the world's back office. But the back office business can absorb only a fraction of our almost limitless supply of the young which will continue to increase well into this century's third decade.
India must ensure all its young have a shot at getting educated well. The Right to Education Bill has been passed and i will be rooting for it to achieve its objectives. To paraphrase Franklin Roosevelt, we cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.

India must ensure its educated young have more avenues of productive growth than just the IT-BPO industries. More sectors need to take off. The central challenge is in promoting originality and innovation. India cannot emulate its way to success.
We cannot do a US or a Japan. The US's population density is 30 times lower than India's. The US had to do a lot less with a lot more resources. But India has time on its side. We can find sustainable growth models that harness modern technology provided we learn from others' mistakes and innovate.

India has no dearth of grassroots innovation yielding world class results in diverse fields. Consider the story of Ram Charan. He grew up in a small town in UP.
In his early years he worked in his family's modest shoe shop. As he saw his father juggle the shop's finances to meet the income rhythms of mostly rural customers, he learnt the importance of carefully managed cash flow.
Today he is a world-renowned consultant to global companies. In the recession his practice, unlike that of some consulting giants, is unaffected as he helps clients through turbulent times, adapting the lessons he learnt in his father's little shop.

Consider India's private health care sector. Doctors have fearlessly rejected new technologies like surgical robots and keyhole surgery kits despite these being popular in the West as fanciful and not cost-effective.
Instead they innovate, making breakthroughs like 'beating heart' surgery which causes less pain, does not require general anesthesia, has the patient faster on his feet and costs less! 'Beating heart' surgery has medical tourists from across the world flocking to Bangalore.
Paul Yock, head of Stanford University's bio-design laboratory which develops medical devices, thinks that amid growing concerns about runaway health spending, the global industry can find inspiration in India on how to serve need without being blind to cost.

The Indian as an individual has in every field across the world, including business, demonstrated innovation and originality. But as a society and as communities, India is among the world's least innovative.
In every social sector public education, public health, public infrastructure, public morality India is abysmally below world class standards, ranking below 100 in the comity of nations.

India has always been a land of contrast. But this contrasts between the achievement of individuals and businesses and the continuing rot of India as a society can destroy us all. India must and will find a solution. Indian society needs a new kind of leadership.
While the most visible component of a society's leadership is the people in the corridors of power, an equally if not more important component is at the grassroots: the village sarpanch, the wise teacher whose counsel many seek, the respected NGO worker, the journalist respected for his perspective and his integrity, the spiritual or religious leader who is his community's rallying point.

This ecosystem of leadership needs to shift from perpetuating the status quo to being a catalyst of change. To me, the greatest sign of hope is that this is beginning to happen.
The general election results were a symptom of this tectonic shift. More important, the most potent political force to emerge from the election is a quiet young man who continues to concentrate on building a new apparatus of leadership at the grassroots. With creative leadership, India will become innovative at the societal level.
Combine this with the innovative abilities of individuals and business and India could reach a strategic inflection point that finally puts it on a path that lifts millions to a life without lack.

The writer is chairperson, India Japan Initiative.

Unknown Flying Leaders (UFLs)

The Unknown Flying Objects (UFOs) are well-known. But unknown flying leaders are common in the Indian politics.

The Times of India writes (22 August 2009)

Scientists have discovered a critical component of all living things, the amino acid glycine, hiding in comet fragments from far, far away.

NASA says that this discovery aids the hypothesis that some of the ingredients necessary for life originated not right here on Earth, but in distant galaxies, and took the meteorite route to this planet. If this means we're all aliens, that sure explains a lot of things which would otherwise have remained shrouded in mystery.

It's not just a question of the mysterious and therefore inexplicable allure of the Teletubbies, or why we flock to see Steven Spielberg or Rakesh Roshan films to do with visitors from outer space. In October last year a question of great national import was posed and answered in the Rajya Sabha.

Did the Indian government have any information about a UFO strike on a Romanian jet plane? And how was it going to contain this grave existential threat? Minister of state in the PMO at that time, Prithviraj Chavan, decried any knowledge of the existence of UFOs. But the truth, as we all know, is out there.

If further proof were to be found that indeed ETs 'r' us, there could be imponderable consequences on Indian politics. Raj Thackeray, for example, may find it difficult to reconcile his belief in the supremacy of Marathi manoos with the knowledge that they hail from a planet some light years out of Mumbai.

The thousands of UFOs 'spotted' by believers in any given year many claim even to get abducted by them ^ would not seem so strange when one considers our species' intergalactic origins. What we think of as 'abductions' could just be reunions with long-lost extraterrestrial brethren.

The new perspective provided by the discovery that life may have originated elsewhere makes sense of a lot of our literature and films as well. We may need to revisit Men In Black as a prophetic tale about the future.

Then there's the literature which says that the gods of ancient and modern religion were super-advanced aliens who came to Earth and built giant pyramids, scratched incomprehensible symbols in South American fields and made huge sculptures on out-of-the-way islands.

And because such activities mean nothing without an audience to confound, one of their side projects may have involved mucking about with simian DNA to create, well, us.

Not least of all, never let it be said that Indian politicians aren't truly avant-garde or that they do not plan for the future. As the question-and-answer session involving Chavan shows, their concern for the public surpasses the earthly and material.

Uncommon Politics in Common Wealth Game in 2010

Politics played a dirty role on the run up to the Common Wealth games in Delhi in 2010. Due to the back stabbing and upfront assault by her own party men and women Sheila Dikshit is facing an uphill task in hosting the common wealth games.

The Times of India writes (2 August 2009)

With about 13 months left for the 2010 Commonwealth Games to begin in Delhi, there is a real danger that several projects associated with the
Games might not be completed on time. A Comptroller and Auditor General report submitted to the Prime Minister's Office and sports ministry has confirmed our worst suspicions. Work on 13 of the 19 sports venues is behind schedule with the aquatics complex and the hockey stadium in the worst shape. What is particularly galling is that the design for the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium - the main venue of the Games - is yet to be finalised. All 16 major infrastructure projects for the city are behind schedule, with the public works department admitting that six, including flyovers and road tunnels, won't be completed on time.


The situation is as bad as it can get. It once again shows up our inability to plan and execute major projects on time even when the deadline is known years in advance. The authorities will surely scramble and finish work on the sports venues before the Games begin. But projects completed at breakneck speed are very likely to develop all sorts of problems later. Besides, the Games are not just about building sports venues. Nowadays, major sports events are used to overhaul the infrastructure of the host city, showcase it to the rest of the world and reap the benefits for years afterward.


Look at what the Olympic Games did for Beijing. The Chinese government pumped in $40 billion to develop Beijing, building new highways, a vast subway network, the world's biggest airport terminal and a showpiece stadium. Similarly, England is using the 2012 Olympics to give London a makeover and revive entire neighbourhoods. Even if India can't match China's scale and ambition, the Commonwealth Games should at least be used to improve Delhi's crumbling infrastructure and put it on par with other world cities.


This has been done before. The 1982 Asian Games in Delhi was a good example of a major sporting event triggering a makeover. The Asiad changed the face of Delhi. Many of the city's flyovers and roads are a legacy of the Games. The Commonwealth Games present a similar opportunity. It's a pity that urban development has to wait for major sporting events. But if that helps in beefing up infrastructure and improving the lives of people, so be it. Delhi has ambitions of hosting the Olympics in future. But if India slips up in its preparations for the Commonwealth Games, it's unlikely that any global sporting event will come our way soon.