Careless Whispers

TN, The Welfare State!

2011-12-03T15:47:00.001+05:30

Fewdays back someone had casually mentioned that private bus operatorsin TN had paid a sum of Rs. 25 Lakhs (INR 2.5 Million) each as individual contribution to the ruling party AIADMK, with a request for Bus fare hike across the State. I did notgive much importance then to this unconfirmed and unverified information during a casual conversation. Only when I saw this small news item atPage 9 of The Hindu dated 2^nd December, it reminded me ofthis conversation last week.

Busfare hiked to favour private operators: Stalin

Equippedwith this unconfirmed and unverifiable piece of inside information,suddenly I found myself in a much better position to “understand”the below comment made by Mr. Stalin in this news item:

“Thesecret behind such a steep increase in bus fare will come out soon.”

Surelyhe knows better the reasons and the background to all decisionssuch as Bus fare hike and the kind of motivation that prompts them – to be more direct and precise, “beenthere, done that”!

Butthis is just a piece of co-incidence and trivia that I share here.
What took me by complete surprise in this article is the below quotefrom the ever-so-young Octogenarian Mr. M. Karunanidhi himself. Here is the excerpt, emphasis is mine:

Evengovernment officials, citing the huge loss incurred by the StateTransport Corporation, had sought a hike. But, Mr. Karunanidhisaid that he was not bothered about the corporations' loss.

“Thecorporations were introduced for the benefit of the people. I willnot burden the people,” he had said.

Nowjust to clarify that this statement was not in the context of raising Corporation tax or any other Taxes; but in direct response toBus fare hike requested by the State Transport Corporations. Either this kind of statement would pass as “smart politics” to please themasses of a Welfare State, or it shows complete bankruptcy of common-sense among the leaders of this country.

Pitythat the masses, including the educated and employed, get carriedaway by such irresponsible statements made by the leaders of the status of a Chief Minister. This statement should have been shot down andquestioned, seeking clarifications. Corporations are run on thetax-payers' money and public servants running these corporations,taking directions from such irresponsible politicians, have no authority to let the public corporations bleed, just to satisfy someone's politicalgains and objectives.

Butthe problem here is not the politicians alone. The very fact thatthey get away with such remarks and statements and we, the people,admire and listen to their speeches shows that we are all a part of thisrotten system, together. Even worse are these "private" bus operators, if indeed they have voluntarily contributedto this corrupt practice. In which case, they are not private businesses but theextended arm of collection-agents and rent-seekers of the political parties inpower.

As common people, itis very important to educate ourselves on the finer aspects of a Welfare State and clearly understand that there is no such thingas free lunch. I conclude here quoting these lines from a very nicearticle by V.Anantha Nageswaran, explaining in very simple language, the functioning of a welfare state and how it ruins the Economy andSociety at large:

The rupee, a mirror for India

Whengovernments at the Centre and in the states promise to offereverything free to the citizens of India, someone has to pay. ...

Eitherit taxes people to a greater extent or it asks the Reserve Bank ofIndia to print more rupees and lend those rupees to the government.This government is doing both. The former discourages economicactivity and the latter leads to inflation. So, inflation arises dueto governments promising to offer everything free to the peoplebecause such an approach raises demand, and kills incentives to workand produce. This is not economics. It is common sense. ...

KM Zero

2011-11-09T13:40:00.000+05:30

During one of the visits to a department store in Italy, cameacross this new counter “KM 0”. Got curious with the name and started totalk about it with the staff at the counter. In spite of the limited knowledgeof Italian, it generated enough interest & curiosity to request a change inthe Dinner Venue to a “KM 0” restaurant same evening.

As I find this concept extremely relevant to the Indiancontext, sharing here key take-away of trivia and some insights gathered at thisdiscussion over a “KM Zero” dinner.

“KM Zero” restaurantsare considered up-market fine dining destinations and the concept is catching up fast acrossEurope. Originally started in Italy about 5-6 years back, as a veryinformal and a social cause in small towns and villages. As a result of typicalItalian branding & promotion, what was considered rural and poor has now been duly promoted and turnedinto a full blown “high-fashion and exotic dining experience”. Italy is onecountry that has the knack of making a Brand out of almost nothing at all and thisphenomenon was no exception. Such a branding, if brings along socio-economicchanges for the betterment of people, is a perfect icing on the Cake.

Strictly speaking, the very concept which is now called Zero KM is actually age-old, when there were no facilities for storage and transport of perishable food items. In recent times, technology has made thingseasy and possible for the perishables to move from one end of the globe toanother; and enable storage and shelf-life for months, before they finally getconsumed. Therefore “KM 0” is kind of nostalgic and “coming back full circle”in terms of food & dining preferences.

As the name suggest, “KM Zero” restaurants basically offerlocal stuff on their Menu – means something that is produced, baked, cured,farmed and cultivated in and around an area of say 50 KMs or so –product rangeinclude primary food ingredients such as Milk, Fruits, Grains, Vegetables,Cheese, Honey, Oil, Cured Meat, Wine & Liquors etc.

In Veneto region of Italy, this concept officially started off by the Italian Agricultural Union called Coldirettisometime in 2007. This was an initiative to sensitize consumers to buy local productsdirectly from the farmer’s market and also promote restaurants that servedlocal products. Anywhere within a radius of 50 to 300 KMs is given a “KM Zero”status, depending upon the local regulations of the State. Basically theconcept is “Farm-to-Table” - and it comes with direct incentives to both – thefarmer and the consumer. The huge costs towards distribution, transport & storage thus saved are passed on tothe consumer and in the process of selling directly to the consumer, farmersare also able to enjoy better returns on their produce. Stores dedicating about30% of their shelf space to KM Zero products are also entitled for incentives suchas discounts on property, rentals, parking etc.

I was amazed how relevant this whole concept could be to ushere in India as well. Given the kind of diversity and variation that we enjoyin terms of food, eating habits and farm produce by region, we could as wellpromote a similar concept across India. With very little help from the State,an Amul kind of “KM Zero” farmer’sco-operative initiative, working along the free-market economy model, could bringin some real-time sustainable benefits to the ailing and poor agriculture economy. I am not a specialiston agriculture and hence unable to identify any fault-lines in this concept but fromcommon-sense and a free market perspective, I clearly see the following keybenefits:

Farmers will get the platform to showcase and selltheir products directly to the consumer at market prices.
Cash and carry model enables cash paymentsdirectly in the hands of the farmers.
The long and never-ending distribution chain in“Farm to Table” shrinks drastically thereby removing all agents and middlemenwho involve in hoarding and illegal practices, including the State.
Consumer would get better value for money as theywould buy directly from the farmers.
Costs saved on transport, storage, distribution areshared between the farmer and consumer.
Direct market access provides key information tothe farmers, in terms of consumer preferences, pricing, food habits, buyingpatterns, demand / supply etc.
Consumers get fresh seasonal farm products atreasonable prices, which are currently being sold at a very high premium in thename of “Organic”.
Farmers will be motivated to rotate crops by theseason to match market trends, requirements and consumer preferences.Advantages of crop rotation are well documented by agricultural scientists.
Once farmers get used to the concept and startreaping the benefits of the model, they would be further motivated to move up the value chain and open up restaurants of their own.

This concept could go a long way in empowering the farmer,who currently is the last man standing at the wrong end of the distributionchain. To a large extent, farmer will be freed from the clutches of the "agri-mafia" (goonsand middlemen), who in the name of agents and a key link to the Mandi (markets), squeeze them of their life.

Travelogue: Satpura National Park & Tiger Reserve, MADHAI (मढ़ई)

2011-10-25T19:45:00.001+05:30

There could not have been a betterlocation to celebrate the Family Re-Union after almost 14 years.Everything was pre-arranged and booked well in advance for thisJungle trip by the senior-most member & Head of the family. Rightfrom booking the air-conditioned 12-seater Force Traveller van todrive all of us together all the way and the room reservations at theForest Resort at Madhai. A short vacation with a stay of Two Days atMadhai was absolute bliss, which every member of the Family from 5year old grand-son to 77 years old grand-father would cherish for therest of their lives.

Satpura National Park & Tiger Reserve

The Jungles of Satpura, now known asSatpura National Park and Tiger Reserve, established in 1981, spreadover a total area of 1427 km2, encompassing Pachmarhi (पचमढ़ी) and BoriSanctuaries; as kids we have grown up accompanying our father andtravelling with him into these thick dense forests much before theywere declared as “Tiger Reserve”. Probably the single largest Reserve Forest, declared in 1999 as Satpura Biosphere Reserve, covering the dense and rich Teak heritage forests of Bori, Pachmarhi Sanctuary and Satpura Tiger Reserve. The trip to these jungles was a trip down memory lane, revisiting our past. Nostalgiabecause it was none other than my Father (a retired IFS, ForestOfficer) was then deputed to these Jungles and a member of thecore-team responsible for developing the blue-print for SatpuraNational Park. This was the link that brought the whole family backhere after all these years.

Madhai is about 136 KMs from Bhopal andit takes anywhere about 5 hours of driving time, depending upon thetraffic, the road conditions and stop-over. Best time to visit isOctober to April. The National Park is closed for visitors during themonsoon months of July through October. This spot is nothugely publicized and promoted just yet and hence not corrupted and abused by the commercial touristactivities. This makes it an ideal jungle safari to enjoy wild-lifein a truly natural and undisturbed surrounding under the dense thickforests. Unlike many other commercialized National Parks where Tigerscan be seen like domestic cattle.

We stopped over at Sohagpur to visitMr. R.P. Singh (Field Director, Satpura National Park) and Mr. Nagar attheir offices, basically to meet with them in person and thank themfor the room-reservations at Madhai Forest Guest House, which happensto be a very busy and preferred location for all the visiting VIPs.The meeting turned out to be very informative as well since they wereextremely helpful in sharing with us some of the key developments andthe current status of Flora and Fauna of the region.

Boat Ride into the Forest Resort

We arrived Madhai late afternoon, wellbefore the sun-set. Madhai Forest Resort is located right at thebanks of Denwa river and is the entry point to Satpura National Park& Tiger Reserve. The private vehicle must be parked on this sideof the river and we are then ferried with bag and baggage in aMotor-Boat that is owned by the Forest Department, for the verypurpose. This feature of the unusual entrance to the resort by itselfgives a complete twist to the normal boring story, whereby oneusually drives into a guest house or a resort. The late afternoonboat-ride took away the fatigue and tiredness of 5-6 hours of drivethanks to some of the worst roads (State Highways) one could imagineacross India, all the way from Bhopal. After this short boat ride,every one was fresh as a fiddle, ready with their Cameras and theBinoculars to enjoy the setting sun alongwith a cup of Hot Tea.

Deer species at the Forest Resort

BlackBuck, Cheetal, Sambhar and Blue Bull were fearlessly walking aroundinside the resort campus.

Mr. Mishra and Staff

We were welcomed by theOfficer-in-charge on location Mr. Mishra, who gave us a briefintroduction about our stay at the resort, the food and also plannedout events for the next day for us. The resort is losely protected bybarbed-wire fence and we were categorically instructed not to ventureout beyond the fence. This, with other such rules and restrictions,and rightly so, we were not used to while as kids, and it did dampenthe spirits a bit of some of the family members who have recentlytaken to serious bird watching and environmental studies. But thenonce in a reserved forest environment, one must follow the guidelinesand respect the instructions.

Solar Panels

The resort and the whole set-up surelyis not designed or meant for the weak-hearted, luxury-seeking urbantourist. One has to have a keen interest in nature, wild-life andenvironment to be able to overlook and ignore mundane comforts andsmall details. There is no electricity and hence no fans andair-conditioners. However, it was heartening to see the installationof Solar Panels, which provide limited electricity during the night.Special light fittings designed to suit the Solar Energy wereinstalled in all the rooms and common areas. Use of this green andenvironmental friendly electricity in the heart of nature wassomething to be so proud of; and the credit entirely goes to the verypeople running the project. There were no mobile signals as well,which was absolutely fine in such a serene setting. After all, whowould want to spoil the beautiful surroundings and noises of thenature with ringing cell-phones? The rooms are neat and tidy withclean and well maintained toilets and this is more than enough for anature enthusiast. The staff was very well behaved and always readyto help.

The next day we made two Jungle Safaritrips in the open Gypsy – early in the morning and another on a different route inthe evening. The vehicles were well maintained as well and thedrivers extremely well-trained and well-informed about the jungledetails. We discovered some more rules on this day - driving aroundafter-dark was totally prohibited; and so was stepping down from theGypsy during the safari trip. On the contrary, we as kids always wentaround on night-safari in open Jeep with search-lights in hand,looking for the wild night-life and always walked down to the nearestsprings or to study pug-marks. That small fun and adventure wasmissing but things have changed since. Now it is no more an open forest but a National Park and a Tiger Reserve.

Wild Indian Bison

We managed tosee most of the Fauna such as – Wild Bison, Wild Boar, Wild Dogs,Bear and plenty of Deer species etc. We missed the Big Cat though, aswe were lttle too early into the Jungles just after the monsoons.There was enough water for The King to get down from deep insidethe mountains looking for food and water. Also the general behavior of wild-life and activities of the Jungle were too obvious and normalto be signalling the presence of the Big Cat anywhere close. Thisreminded us of the large wall hanging at the resort office, whichsays – “You might have not seen me... But I have seen you”.

You might have not seen me...But I have seen you

We sat in the open veranda outsideuntil late night under complete darkness and thoroughly enjoyed theJungle. We then noticed a motor boat idling away slowly inthe middle of the river and then moved rather fast and disappearedinto the darkness. We went across to the staff quarters to alert themof the incident and were pleasantly surprised to know that this wasthe night patrol team that has just left for the usual rounds. Itwas nice to see the team of forest guards working through the night,without supervision.

Rising Sun ( सूर्य नमस्कार)

Next day in the morning once again enjoyed the Sun-Rise and also noticeda few Crocodiles floating in the river and were told by the staff that this part of the river has plenty of crocodiles and theyare visible when the water recedes during summer. After aleisurely morning and a heavy brunch, we started back. The Motor Boatferried us across the river Denwa back to the parking lot.

पंडित जी की कचौरी

We were told not to miss and do stopover at Sohagpur to enjoy “Pandit Ji ki Kachauri”. Pandit Ji hasbeen making Kachauri at this shop since last 45 years. It was anabsolutely delicious stop-over and a little bit of chit-chat withPandit-Ji revealed that he has served Kachauries to every visitingVIP, including Dr. Abdul Kalam. His sons are well settled now withGovernment jobs and he continues making Kachauries; and he said thathe will enjoy doing so until he has customers coming to him – thisis passion in the true sense of the word, nothing less than a BillGates or a Steve Jobs!!

Lastly, this travelogue would not find its due place on this Blog if it does not leave behind Socially and Politically relevant footprints. So here we go:

The drive between Bhopal and Madhai was actually theworst part of the trip. Every time I have visited Bhopal in the last15 years or so, I have always admired the city of lakes and the way it isbeing maintained. But I never got the chance to drive around theState Highways in MP. This trip was the realization of the fact thatthe development in MP, if any, starts and ends with the city limitsof Bhopal, the capital of MP. Driving through the Sate Highways evenin Budhni, the constituency of current CM, Mr. Shivraj Singh Chouhan, we noticed that the road wasalmost non-existent. In fact, the small narrow roads (actuallyjeep-tracks) inside the Tiger Reserve were much better maintained than theState Highways. This shameful state of affairs of Road and Highwaysinfrastructure in MP is even more relevant to the fact that this beltwithin a 5-6 hours of driving distance from Bhopal boasts of not one,not two but THREE out of the total 27 World Heritage Sites in India –Bhimbetka Rock Shelters, Sanchi Stupas and Khjuraho. All successivegovernments at State, whether Congress or BJP, have done preciousnothing to improve the infrastructure across the state of MP.

Throw garbage in the bins, not in Narmada

Only garbage in Narmada, nothing else!

On our return journey we stopped over for a short while at Hoshangabad, a small town located at the banks of Narmada, fifth largest river in the Indian subcontinent. We were there on the day after Durga Pooja and we could not believe what we saw. There was not even an inch of clean patch of water on the Ghat and one would not dare even put a hand into it. There were notices and boards all over the place instructing the religious crowds not to litter the river and use only garbage bins, but these two pictures taken at the same spot but in opposite directions, speak volumes.

So first the Roads and then the River, neither the infrastructure nor the environment is of any priority for the government. Public is equally apathetic to both the issues. Life goes on...

Liberalization V2.0: Manufacturing Reforms

2011-06-22T15:44:00.000+05:30

Mr. Arun Maira (Member - Planning Commission) writes in ET Edit Pages quite frequently with a specific focus on Manufacturing. First up, Mr. Arun Maira is a man with highly decorated professional career and a proven track record through some of the finest companies. While commenting on his writings, this is to put on record that his credentials & professional work is always appreciated and respected. What draws my attention to his articles on Manufacturing is the evident lack of substance, sheer emptiness, semantics and the romanticism about the general manufacturing scene and scope in India. I ask myself - what happens to these extra-ordinary people with a glittering professional track record the moment they arrive at a position of such authority and power as that of a Member Planning Commission? This is where they actually can contribute big time, rather than just comment or rant like an ignorant common-man like me.

The fact is, as a country, we have completely skipped the Manufacturing revolution. Thanks to the political apathy and the complete absence of a focused and aggressive manufacturing policy, labor reforms etc; to support and build a robust manufacturing sector. Liberalization of the 90’s did nothing to directly help the manufacturing sector. As a result, we have jumped the gun from Green revolution to the (knowledge-based IT) Services revolution. The mixed bag of Socialist, Socialist-Communist and the Socialist-Liberal (read Crony Capitalist) policies never allowed the manufacturing sector to bloom and grow in a truly free-market economic environment. Therefore any talk on Manufacturing has to start from this point, failing which I would simply call it as empty talk, semantics, romanticism and rant. Quoting Mr. Arun Maira from one of his earlier articles: "India needs a strategy to grow manufacturing 12% to 14% per annum, create 100 million new manufacturing jobs in the next 15 years to realise its 'demographic dividend', and create more depth in capital goods industries and innovation for its manufacturing sector to be competitive and sustainable." Very well said and I fully agree – but the timing of this comment in the year 2011 I thought was completely misplaced – it sounds like a “period” rant - this was supposed to have been written in the late 80s and early 90s. It is too late to make such a generalized comment now, and too naïve coming from a Member Planning Commission of the stature of Mr. Arun Maira. In yet another and a more recent article of 13^th June ET – Releasing Brakes on Manufacturing, Mr. Maira once again used key words such as Competitive-Positioning and Competencies. Long winding explanations and almost the entire article laced with management vocabulary was totally devoid of any mention of a crying need for a policy guideline to make this whole manufacturing thing work for India. The very brief and almost insignificant mention of “Constraints” is very beautifully generalized so as not to hurt any of those who matter - to him and his current position, I guess. Sitting in the high offices, as the Member Planning Commission, from the position of framing national policies and advising the Government on key policy issues, I would have expected a better and more specific material in his articles rather than “generalized comments”. We need a more focused and specific point-by-point road map leading to the manufacturing revolution. Incidentally, in the same newspaper, few pages away is a very catchy headline that reads – Factory Floor, Not IT Park, Crucial to India Growth, by Sanjay Mathur. A very convincing and a solid argument put forth as to why India needs to focus on manufacturing economy.

Where are the basic policies to support the manufacturing economy? Where is the political-will and the determination to promote and open-up the Industrial & Manufacturing sector in the true sense of the word? Where the labor pool is going to come from to fill up these large factories? Where are the training and skill-set development institutes (Polytechnics and not the IITs) to support large scale manufacturing? Needless to even mention the usual road-blocks: shabby infrastructure, deep-rooted Corruption starting at lowest levels, Bureaucratic hurdles and red-tape. Even today you show the same old rule book to the Indian manufacturer - The Factories Act, 1948.

Factory Inspector, Pollution Control, Fire Inspector, Labor Inspector, PF, ESI, Sales-Tax, Income-Tax, VAT, Service-Tax, Customs, Central Excise; these are but a few of your esteemed regulators, the list goes on and on. An Indian manufacturer must always remain in the “good books” of each one of these offices – complying every single rule which. On a best effort basis, it is almost next to impossible for any manufacturer to comply 100%, and hence you pay protection money and rents at regular intervals. Even worse, complying 100% does not mean one can get away without paying friendly rents - as per the current practices, only if the paperwork is in order and everything is perfect, one must pay rent. Non-compliance means huge protection money with little penalties on paper. If not, no manufacturer would survive even for a day. So you first create barriers and then seek rents to allow safe passage. Everyone, including Mr. Maira, is fully aware about this monster army of notorious regulators and inspectors. And yet you chose to ignore the ground realities, write nice sounding articles which readily find due space on the edit pages of leading newspapers. Talk of Manufacturing growth @ 12% to 14% per year, 100 million new jobs over 15 years to be able to reap the benefits of ‘demographic dividends’ and so on.

Of course, a manufacturer must pay due taxes, follow the governing laws and regulations, observe fair employment practices and you do need a regulator to monitor all such compliance. But it is high time you changed the Manual first – The Factories Act, 1948. More precisely, The Factories Act, 1948 (Act No. 63 of 1948), as amended by the Factories (Amendment) Act, 1987 (Act 20 of 1987). That rule book was exclusively designed by the Hardcore Socialists to monitor and regulate State-Manufacturing post independence, duly preserved and followed in word and spirit, by the next generation of even more corrupt Socialists, more so to extort rents and share the loot. Surely you are not serious and would not expect a manufacturer in 2011 achieve global competitive-position and competency, complying with the dated Hand Book of 1948. It is like generously allowing one Mr. Vijay Mallaya to own F1-Team at Formula-One circuit with a rider that he can only use the 1948 Ambassador to compete with the Ferraris of the world.

Despite the poor governance, pathetic infrastructure, almost non-existent manufacturing policy and dated labor laws, Indian manufacturing has done its bit as shown in this article – India among world’s top 10 manufacturing nations: UNIDO. This article says some nice things about Indian manufacturing and highlights the small contribution of Indian Manufacturer making a big difference to the Indian economy. Just to counter Mr. Arun Maira one last time and specifically his latest article about Competitive-Positioning, I quote from this article: "Competitiveness of Indian manufactured goods in the global markets has significantly improved," Chief Statistician of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) Shyam Upadhyaya said while releasing the report. A more recent article on 20^th June ET shows some hope and light at the end of a long dark manufacturing tunnel – New manufacturing policy likely to give impetus to the sector.

Travelogue: Egypt, March 2011

2011-05-09T17:13:00.000+05:30

Tahrir Square

Egypt, the name itself resonates with a feeling of historical romance, the Pyramids, magnificent Nile, Deserts, Ancient History. But, it was much more than the history this trip, a new chapter in Modern History had just been scripted at Tahrir Square - the birth place of the most peaceful and non-violent civil revolution in recent history to have sent a dictator packing, who ruled and looted the country for three long decades. Having followed the revolution closely and the events that followed , was looking forward to a visit to Ground Zero – The Tahrir Square.

Due to similar problems of civil-unrest and freedom-struggle brewing in other countries in this part of the world, noticed while in transit at Bahrain airport that it had a completely deserted look. A housekeeping employee, originally from Kerala who worked at Bahrain airport, mentioned that most of the Indians had already returned home and he was one of the very few left behind. He was also curious to know as to why I should be going to Egypt during such a tense situation.

Cairo airport, on the contrary, was full of local people, buzzing with activity. Unlike Bahrain, there was hardly any sign of a post-revolution tension or a disturbance. During the stay, met & interacted with lot of people – young and old – had very interesting discussions with some of them - on religion, on dictatorship, on democracy & elections, on the politics of USA & Oil etc etc. It was very interesting to know their diverse viewpoints.

The spirit of a Free Country (freed from the clutches of a dictator who ruled and looted the country for three decades), ready to embrace Democracy, was clearly visible in the general mood with vibrant and confident smiles subtly conveying the message – “we have arrived”. Everyone seemed to be happy & contented with what they had witnessed and achieved as a common citizen, proud of the fact that they were part of such a Historical Event.

Fire at Police HQ

But there was also another face to all this celebration – very little tourists, hotels were near empty, local people repeatedly cautioned avoiding lone walks even in the beautiful downtown Cairo. Law and Order was pathetic as only 10% of the Police force had reported back to work after the revolution – the remaining 90% allegedly still soft on Mubarak are viewed as pro-Mubarak supporters, ready to strike anytime. Lot of gypsies had also landed into the city from surrounding desert areas indulging in looting and arson. People I moved around with were carrying personal arms for self protection. The “sound and light show” at GIZA Pyramids was almost empty, as is evident in this picture.

GIZA Pyramids - Sound & Light Show

I digress and would like to go back to Tahrir Square revolution and the socio-political events that followed, as that is so very relevant to our country in the current scenario, and would make this post meaningful and interesting. Met a young and educated businessman, 29 years of age, who led the Tahrir Square revolution from the front. He shared some very interesting insight and details, some of which may already have been in the electronic media but it was an experience to have a first person account.

I would not want to get lost into details but some important points that emerged from this discussion are as follows:

The Protest started on 25^th January, in a very small way and with very few numbers, nobody actually thought that this would spin out in a full blown historical revolution of this magnitude.
A very small group of people gathered at Tahrir Square initially, with a list of some usual demands from the civil society.
The event initially started with Facebook and went viral within one week,
In the next 4-6 hours on 25^th January, the number of protesters went up from a small group to a few hundred and within 2 days to a few thousand people, women and children included. I saw the picture of his 3 year old son, waving the Egyptian flag in the crowd.
It was the Youth of the country who actually started the revolution and took it to its logical end. It was never on the agenda to demand complete removal of Mubarak and freedom from his dictatorship.
The tipping point was the violent attack on innocent protesters (on the “6^th of October bridge”) by Mubarak’s supporters & army who arrived on horses and started killing people on the street. THAT, one single incident actually put Mubarak out of job. Until then it was just a protest for a list of demands but from that moment onwards, it turned into an all out anti-Mubarak protest and people asked for nothing less than a total change of Regime.

I asked some questions - How were they able to sustain the protest for so long? How were they able to get the increasing number of people joining in every single day)? How were they able to build-up and keep public interest alive? How could the common man who is forced to go to work actually afford to find time to join the protest at Tahrir Square instead?

He clarified agreeing that it was difficult to gather momentum initially for the first two days, but soon it turned into a National issue – Facebook and SMS worked wonders and people started travelling to Cairo from all over Egypt to join the protest at Tahrir Square. They were well aware of the fact that the world was watching them closely as they could see thousands of journalists and TV crew covering the event live. All the offices and establishments started closing down soon as people refused to go in there and join the protest at Tahrir Square instead and THAT helped a great deal.

I further asked if there were any Social or Political groups leading or backing up the protest? The answer was an emphatic NO. The protest & the revolution was purely the effort of the common man. A federation of focus groups of people called “Coalition of the Youth of the Revolution” actively co-ordinated all the efforts, without a leader and without a political group or support. Muslim Brotherhood was not even seen anywhere around during the protest and surfaced only after everything was over and the country started looking ahead for options. It seems Muslim Brotherhood claims a 30% vote bank but they are not considered a very popular choice.

Among the people from older generation whom I met during the trip - in their late 50’s and 60’s – they were candid enough to admit the fact that they never had imagined that they will ever be free from the dictator. They never thought and never considered this also was an option. One of them said – “we have spent major part and the prime of our life serving the dictator - we could never have achieved this” and credited the educated and liberated youth of the country.

I had arrived Cairo on a Monday following Saturday’s (19^th March 2011) referendum. As per the unofficial and unconfirmed figures that I would gather during the conversations, I was told that as much as 70% of the total voting population of Egypt (40 Million odd) turned up to cast their vote, as against 41% to 62% that I had read in the media. Over 77% voted as YES to the referendum, leading to the list of some 11 points for Constitutional Amendments. NO to the referendum would have meant more agony, extended freedom struggle, extended army rule, more civil unrest, more violence and turmoil etc; stretched over an indefinite timeline. But then the take away would have been a complete change in the existing constitution and framing of a new one. This was the clear choice of the other 23% who voted NO. This was a rather tough choice for the majority of 77% of YES vote – especially people from the very poor plus the lower income group as they were running out of resources and wanted to return to normal life and their work. For them, any change from the Dictator Regime would be good enough for now. 23% of those who voted for NO, a majority came from well-to-do family backgrounds, educated, liberated and believed that they needed a complete change and freedom, supported by a fresh new constitution. They are not happy at all with this outcome as they feel that after all this struggle and the revolution that they went through, the two leading political parties - Muslim Brotherhood and National Democratic Party (of Mubarak), would be the ultimate beneficiaries. No wonder, Muslim Brotherhood hugely supported the YES vote.

Everyone is now looking forward to a free and fair democratic election that is due to be held in six months time – September 2011.

The Nile

Walked through the beautifully maintained streets of downtown Cairo in the late evenings and dined at some really nice and exotic restaurants along the Nile. Also drove down through the Desert Road to Alexandria for a day and went past the beautiful and brand new “6^th of October city”. Finally, the Light & Sound show at Giza Pyramids was something that cannot be put into words, was worth an experience.

The Buck Stops Here?

2010-11-27T15:01:00.002+05:30

Niira Radia at the ED Office

So much has been written and talked about the taped phone conversation transcripts of Niira Radia. I read the full text this last week-end and have reached the conclusion that it is like a Balance Sheet: it conceals much more than what it actually reveals.

I ask myself - what would one expect from all these people whose names have appeared in the various phone conversations, considering our “corrupt-to-the-core” politics and business practices:

· Niira Radia – She is the top PR Woman in the country today - a highly “connected” and a very well known “fixer” and a “political lobbyist” in the corporate world – do we really expect her to be CLEAN?

· Politicians of the topmost corrupt order: DMK (Delhi Money for Karunanidhi) Team: MK & Family, Raja included. What would we expect their telephone conversation to be like? We haven't heard the worst, not just yet!

· Doormats at the Congress High Command – Ahmed Patel and GNA (Ghulam Nabi Azad): Better not to waste precious time & space writing about them.

· Corporate Heads like Mukesh & Anil Ambani, Sunil “Airtel” Mittal: They are already well known & infamous for using political connections and links purely for commercial gains.

· Suhel Seth? India is full of this breed – they are known as several names – Socialites, Urban Elites, Armchair Critics, Idle Commentators, Twitteratti etc. Their job is only to comment from the sidelines and they never contribute a cent worth to the Society. Their only job is to look for opportunities for 30 seconds of personal fame on English News Channels, mainly thanks to Arnab Goswami. Sample this: yesterday he Tweeted and I quote “Please watch Times Now at 9.10pm tonigjt!!! Will spear the politicos...” This is it, nothing more to add.

The most unexpected name was Ratan Tata – this was a shocker and truly disappointed that his name shows up there. His conversation with Niira was limited to harmless trivia and some Delhi Power Gossip; never ventured into anything even remotely indicating “political lobbying,” yet, the very fact that he is now grouped together with the likes of Mukesh, Anil and Sunil puts me off completely. I thought he stood apart as a much taller Business Leader than any of these new generation Big Boys of the corporate world.

Barkha Dutt Vir Sanghvi

Now, Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi – Yes, the buck stops here!!

First off, its a shame that the Main Stream Media (Print & TV) has once again failed the country and the very profession of Journalism by going completely silent on both Barkha and Vir.

Except for the magazines who took the lead in publishing the transcripts and the two leading national newspapers, who followed up the story instantly and carried related articles on the unethical and corrupt intent and practices of these two legendary and hip journalists of the 21^st century. Why all the leading news channels kept themselves away from covering these two powerful journalists? Why, the ever-so-jingoist Arnab Goswami, never talked about these two names? But he still keeps the Kalmadi Torch alive even after more than 3 months?

The fact is they are equal partners in this crime, just that these two names have been exposed. They are basically serving their designated objectives and are nothing more than a mouthpiece of their Masters. They have no voice of their own and are completely “sold-out” to the corrupt politicians and criminal businessmen. This is the actual level and the standard of our leading news channels.

Of course, there are exceptions who have fearlessly condemned, published and exposed their own and they are our only hope as fine examples of the Indian Journalism & Free Press.

I just can't resist myself putting some highlights of the original text transcripts of the phone conversation:

Barkha Dutt: (Emphasis mine)

“Oh God. So now what? What should I tell them? Tell me what should I tell them?”

“No, I know. We have taken that off. We have taken that off...”

“That's not a problem, I'll talk to Azad right after I get out of RCR.”

“No, I'll set it up as soon as they get out of RCR.”

“No, you see Congress's condition is Baalu should not get Surface Transport. Not Baalu, DMK should not get surface transport, beyond individuals right?”

“You see, what happened was everybody I know in the Congress was at the swearing in, so I haven't been able to speak with the top guys, and now I just finished and I am going to make my set of calls.”

And she has the audacity to Tweet that she was saddened with all this and it was a part of her duty as a journalist to dig out & seek information – do we need to say more? Do we need to comment further on the Padmashree and various other Awards? Sab kuch saaf-saaf dikh raha hai, Barkha!

Vir Sanghvi: (Emphasis mine)

“What kind of story do you want? Because this will go as Counterpoint, so it will be like most-most read, but it can't seem too slanted, yet it is an ideal opportunity to get all the points across.”

“But see Anil can't afford to give interviews because he will be asked about Amar Singh, so many things, so the advantage Mukesh has is that he can talk and there is nothing for him to be embarrassed about. So many skeleton's in Anil's closet that he doesn't want to clarify. If he comes on, he says. 'Amar Singh is my close friend,' he is f****d. If he comes on, he says, 'I have no relations with Amar Singh,' Amar Singh will kill him. I mean there are so many awkward things, so Anil has decided to avoid the media. Mukesh doesn't have that problem. Mukesh can talk straight, can say things. You can rehearse. You can work out a script in advance. You can go exactly according to the script. Anil can't do any of those things, no?”

“No, it has to be fully scripted. I have to come in and do a run through with him before.”

“We have to rehearse it before the cameras come in.”

“Then it is worth doing.”

“Yeah. That message we will get across, but what other points do we need to make?”

“I was supposed to meet Sonia today, but I’ve been stuck here. So, now it’s becoming tomorrow. I've been meeting with Rahul, but tell me?”

Mr. Vir Sanghvi – not a Vir at all from whichever possible angle I see him. With this expose he has turned out to be a real coward, a Fakir - who is completely bankrupt as far as the ethics & values of a journalist are concerned. He lost his manhood just by asking this slave-like question regarding the kind of story that his Master wants on his most popular column - Counterpoint. Just by growing stubble and a little bit of Delhi-style aggression, you don't become Vir.

Moreover, not only are they corrupt but they have also shown how stupid and empty minded they are. They are supposed to be specialists in the business of Journalism where sting-operations and expose are routine – but they themselves are caught on tapped phone conversations.

This incident also goes to show how easy it is to make money & fame these days, just by digressing a little from the line of values and ethics; even win wards and become a celebrity journalist with a little bit of help from a Niira Radia, a Mukesh Ambani or Ahmed Patel. The fact is, no media house worth its salt (I can think of only BBC at this moment) would ever tolerate even for a day, the likes of Barkha or Vir caught in such a mess. Only here in India we live and tolerate such degenerated souls and still follow them on Twitter & FB.

Shame them, I say! They both are hyper-active on Twitter, with Barkha @ 200,000 plus and Vir @ 400,000 plus followers. They both should be socially isolated, deserted and their fan-followers must stop following them. How can they continue to enjoy this celebrity status granted to them by 600,000 plus followers put together, on Twitter? Unless we see this happening in real terms, it would only go to show that we Indians have grown completely insensitive & apathetic towards such deep rooted and ugly corruption, favouritism and nepotism in our society. Why talk about the corrupt politicians then? Let us show these people that it is not “Cool” anymore to follow a corrupt Vir or Barkha, just like a corrupt politician. We do not need any court judgement, legal technicalities or legally valid evidence to stop following them on their programs, on Twitter or on FB and completely stop supporting all such corrupt professionals.

As for the Naive audience of India and Bharat: Consider this a wake-up call, to truly evaluate & understand the “face-value” of what is being dished out on TV channels. We are so gullible and easy-to-please as a Nation - we still consider Reality Shows as Real, so much so that we cry and rejoice along with the contestants.

Last Minute Update: Just before this post goes on-line, I must add here that some news channels have finally started talking about Barkha & Vir – whether it is due to the huge and ever-mounting Twitter pressure or a belated self-awakening, to put it very mildly – Too little too late! This is Stale News and we do not want anything of this anymore!!

A story of Gangland Democracy

2010-10-28T22:42:00.000+05:30

There would be no better timing than the ongoing Bihar Assembly elections, to re-read, refer-back and review

We the people of India, A story of Gangland Democracy –

by Mr. Maloy Krishna Dhar

E-Book is also available for download here.

While the book is originally written in English, I decided to go for the translated हिंदी version – गेंग्लेंड डेमोक्रेसी चुनावी गुंडाराज. I felt that Hindi version would not only help brush-up my forgotten Hindi vocabulary but more importantly, reading about the Indian Politics (actually supposed to be a political fiction but it does reflect ground-zero realities) that revolve around Bihar, would be simply fascinating. Accordingly, part of this post would have हिंदी lines as original quotes.

The book is aptly dedicated to the Indian Youth and Generation Next. I review this work here as I would like to recommend this as a “must-read” for every Indian Voter - to get to know the ground realities of Indian Politics & the Elections. Politics is all about perception and this book takes us through the dirty, dangerous and very rough terrain of the political minefield starting from Bihar to New Delhi and tears apart all the Perceptions.

Below are a few excerpts from the book, just to sample a few anecdotes & definitions - some of you may find them to be a crude satire, hard-hitting and sarcastic.

ON COMMON MAN:

During a conversation on Page 84-85, the protagonist सत्य describes the common man in these words:

उनके बारे में सर मत खपाओ| आम लोग पैदा होते हैं, शादी करते हैं, बच्चे जनते हैं, खाते-पीते हैं और मर जाते हैं| तुम्हे यह सुनिश्चित करना होगा कि उनकी न्यूनतम जरूरतें पूरी हों, ताकि वे जिन्दा रह सकें |

आम आदमी ईंट और गारे की तरह होता है | लोग राजनीती में ऊपर चढ़ने के लिए उनकी हड्डियों और कंकालों का इस्तेमाल करते हैं |

आम आदमी वादों, कभी-कभार मिलने वाली खैरात, थोडा चावल, नमक और मिर्च से ही संतुष्ट हो जाता है |

Page 340: हम भारतीय नागरिक सरकार से जो मिलता है, उसी में खुश रहते हैं, चाहे वो जूठन ही क्यों न हो | इतिहास बताता है कि हम भारतियों का लक्ष्य कभी बड़ा नहीं रहा | हम राजाओं, पुजारियों और जमींदारों के फेंके हुए टुकड़ों से खुश थे |

ON POVERTY:
Page 237: उनका मूल्य है | उन्हें पैदा होने , पलने-बढ़ने , बच्चे पैदा करने और मर जाने का अधिकार है |

Page 285: लेकिन एक बात का ख्याल रखना कि न तो वे समृद्ध बने और न ही गरीबी रेखा के नीचे जाएँ |

Page 303: लोगों को दास बनाये रखने का सबसे अच्छा तरीका यह है कि उनके बीच गरीबी के मामले में समानता लाओ |

ON ELECTION EXPENSES:

A very detailed estimate spread over 23 account heads is drawn up on page 211 for contesting लोक सभा elections and it concludes as follows:

कुल खर्च - महत्वपूर्ण निर्वाचन क्षेत्र में 25 से 30 करोड़ रुपये और सामान्य निर्वाचन क्षेत्र में औसत 8 से 10 करोड़ रूपए ...

These 23 points include some very interesting details such as: cost of constituency ticket, muscle-men, expenses on buying independent candidates, rigging & booth capturing expenses, audio-video films, entertainers from Bollywood, expenses on guest voters, expenses on buying opinion polls / election analysts, expenses on buying and entertaining media reporters, expenses on polling and counting days.
Another interesting हकीकत on Page 191:
हमें दो खातों की जरूरत है - एक चुनाव आयोग को दिखने के लिए और दूसरा अपने खर्च का हिसाब रखने के लिए | चुनाव के बाद चुनाव आयोग बिहार को भूल जायेगा, लेकिन हमें अपना खर्च किया हुआ पैसा तो निकालना ही होगा |

ON HORSE TRADING:

An interesting comment on Horse Trading -

पता नहीं किस मूर्ख ने विधायकों या सांसदों की खरीद-फरोख्त को "घोड़े की सौदेबाजी" कह दिया ? राजनीति में हम किसी का दांत, त्वचा की चमक और खुरों की मजबूती नहीं देखते | यहाँ केवल सिर मायने रखता है |

ON CORRUPTION:
Page 51: बिहार में छोटी-मोटी चोरी करने के लिए तुम नहीं बने हो | एक हाथ से लोगों को लूटो और दूसरे हाथ से उन्हें खैरात बांटो| देने और लेने में संतुलन होना चाहिए |

Page 236: राजनेतिक सत्ता लड्डू नहीं है कि तुम अकेले खा जाओ | तुम उसमे से जितना बाँटोगे, उतना ही अधिक खाने के लिए पाओगे | यदि तुम उसमे हिस्सेदारी नहीं करोगे तो तुम्हारा आगे का रास्ता बंद हो जायेगा |

Page 237: लूटना और भुगतान करना सफलता का हाईवे है | लेकिन इस प्रक्रिया में उस जनता की न्यूनतम जरूरतों का ध्यान रखना जिसने तुम्हे वोट दिया है | उसे भीख मांगने देना क्योंकि भिखारी तुम्हारी सत्ता को चुनौती नहीं देंगे |

ON RIOTS, CRIME & INDISCIPLINE:
Page 50: चारों ओर अराजकता फैलने दो | अराजकता फैलने पर ही तुम राजनीति में फूल-फल सकते हो | लोगों को यह सोचने का मौका कभी मत दो कि वे तुम्हार बिना भी सुरक्षित रह सकते हैं |

ON BASIC PRINCIPLES OF POLITICS:

23-point basic principles of politics are listed in detail from page 296 to 301. These are so very detailed and specific that only someone like Maloy Ji could cover the subject in its depth and width.

ON FISCAL PRINCIPLES OF POLITICS:

Chapter 10 ends with a detailed 13-point Fiscal Principles. It starts with the following words:

जिस दिन पैसे के प्रवाह पर तुम्हारा नियंत्रण हो जायेगा , उस दिन बाजार , जनता और राय पर भी तुम्हारा दबदबा हो जायेगा ...

ON GOVERNOR POSTING & ROLE:

एक क्लेर्क नियुक्त करने के लिए सेवा चयन समिति को लिखना पड़ता है | पुलिस में कोंस्तेब्ल के पद पर भर्ती करवाने के लिए दो लाख से पांच लाख रुपये रिश्वत देनी पड़ती है | लेकिन राज्यपाल चपरासी की तरह होता है | उसे जब चाहो नियुक्त करो और जब चाहो हटा दो |

ON EDUCATION:

Page 302: यदि तुम लोगों को अच्छी शिक्षा मुहैय्या कराओगे तो वे अपने अधिकारों के लिए आन्दोलन करेंगे |

ON BUREAUCRATS:

Page 205: वे नाव के चूहे हैं | उन्हें मालूम हो जाता है कि नाव कब डूबने जा रही है | ये चूहे डूबती नाव को छोड़कर सुरक्षित नाव में कूद जाते हैं | यह प्रक्रिया का नियम है |

I personally believe that each of the above lines & description from this political fiction are so very relevant and close to the ground reality that we witness everyday. These are just a few sample quotes from this masterpiece of political-fiction. For a complete overview of what exactly goes on inside the corridors of power, the rules of the political power-play, the dirty tricks of winning an election in the Gangland-Democracy of the "mother-of-all-political battlefield" called Bihar, it surely would be worth spending time going through the complete work.

Independents in Indian Politics

2010-10-23T19:16:00.000+05:30

At the outset, every Independent Candidate deserves an applaud and complements for their courage, determination and the willingness to come forward for public service and offer themselves as an option to the electorate at large. It surely needs certain amount of strength – physical, mental & financial, family-support, to fight against the System by contesting elections as an Independent Candidate.

With due respect to every single Independent Candidate, and there are 4000-odd such individuals from the last elections; in my honest opinion, given the current System and the Indian Political scene, they are nothing more than “wasted cannon” in the political-war on poor-governance, inefficient and corrupt System.

Independents are also known by various other names and characteristics – King Makers, Fence Sitters, Cat on the Wall, Proxy-Candidates etc. A very large number of Independents are known to have hidden agenda that directly or indirectly links them to such a category. Then there are some who “just do it” for the sheer kick of it, some do it for local-publicity & social status and some purely to enjoy their Candidature as a Constitutional right - they are willing and can afford to burn an indecent amount of money on this luxury.

Then there are the serious ones, those with exceptional track record, good educational qualifications, who have proved their credentials and excellence in society by way of public-service or business or social-work. They are the leaders in the true sense of the word. These are the fine individuals & leaders who actually belong to, what we at FTI call, the “White-Forces”. They contest as an Independent since they do not want to identify and relate themselves to any existing political party. But they are so very few and far away from each other. They are scattered across India, without a link, a common identity, a common policy guideline & objectives. Each one of them run their own individual political manifesto, individual agenda and an individual plan to fight against the System. They are not given due consideration and importance by the electorate at large. They do not get as much media attention as they deserve. They do not get the desired space and exposure in the relevant public debates & forum. As a result, they are lost in the crowd & the noise - lost as an individual and as a voice. They lose their hard earned precious resources and achieve nothing more than a personal satisfaction – I did my bit.

Even if the voter is well aware of their candidature and their election-symbol; and knows that they are truly deserving candidates; the voter also knows the fact that ALONE, they can do very little to actually help resolve the current issues and problems, at national or even at local constituency levels.

This is the crude reality and this needs to be seriously addressed if these fine leaders (the white forces) really mean serious business and truly believe that India needs to be fixed. If they need to fight the Black-Forces democratically, they first need to assemble and organize themselves as White-Force. The very fact that these individuals are not aligned to any existing political party is a clear indication that they will find common meeting grounds. This may call for some serious “give and take” too – but then India is much bigger a cause than an Individual - they would need to shed their personal egos – they would need to shed their “celebrity” or any other such tags, if they have one attached; they would need to interact and mix with each other, work shoulder to shoulder at equal levels, on a common national platform / forum. They belong to the White-Forces should be reason enough for this congregation. Everything else would be secondary.

Of course, when true leaders join together, there are bound to be some differences in their opinion and thoughts and ideas. But true leaders also agree to disagree and work together as a team for a common long term Vision & Mission. There will be time to settle the differences among the White-Forces internally, by extensive mutual debates and discussions on Policy, Systems and Governance. For now, the growing strength of Black-Forces is a much bigger threat to the nation than personal differences.

A true leader works for the long-term Vision, the Goal, the Mission; which in this case happens to be common to all the Independent White-Force: Fix India. There could be no better Cause for these fine individuals to join together and build a strong and vibrant White-Force to take charge of India. Considering that even 10% of the total Independents fall under this category of White-Forces, we are looking at 400-odd fine Leaders spread all over India, who could contest and lead their respective constituencies under one single banner and platform at a national level.

Freedom Team of India is one such platform that invites Leaders to come together and join the White-Force. It is not a political party, not just yet. Political party at the national level will be formed only when FTI will have at least 500 leaders on board and will agree in principle on a certain political ideology and policy framework. Until then, India has to suffer at the hands of the corrupt and the inefficient Black Forces.

Of Religion and Politics

2010-08-06T19:12:00.000+05:30

“Under-developed minds normally create differences. Developed minds create visions and differences disappear” – Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.

I have been following this huge debate on Shantanu’s blog - Satyameva Jayate for the last week or so - this post is kind of response to the debate on Religion and Politics. The debate initially started off well, discussing FTI (Freedom Team of India) policies in general but then digressed to the highly emotive Mandir-Masjid / Hindu-Muslim issue, leading to nowhere.

Mr. Amar Akbar Anthony (am using a hypothetical name here just to keep the religious affiliation out of the discussion), is a typical common-man in India, God-fearing & self-respecting, always trying to be on the right side, struggling with life to make two ends meet, mostly interested in mundane issues directly affecting his daily life, is genuinely worried and concerned about things like:

The rampant corruption around him - from CWG (common wealth games - that does not affect him directly in anyway) to the local Panchayat Office for getting his small little apartment assessed for property-tax (that affects him badly and directly).
The ration shop in his area is always out of stocks.
The roads are in a terrible mess due to which he has to leave his vehicle for service and maintenance almost every month.
Farmers in his home-village are committing suicide every week as they are unable to feed their families while hundreds of thousand tons of grains are left as unattended stocks in the open, rotting in rains in other parts of the country.
He is struggling to get his voter ID card for years, even after filing repeated applications. Last he was asked to locate and search his Voter ID card among millions of cards floating around in the flooded premises.
He is fighting a legal battle for his ancestral property in his home town for almost a decade. Local goons have encroached upon his father’s property and are now claiming ownership.
Electricity & potable water supply is in an absolute mess.
His son did very well in school but was still not able to get a medical seat as he could not pay the huge amount of 30 lakhs in the name of capitation fee that was demanded to be paid in Cash up front.

The suffer-list is endless and could go on and on, but lets get back to the point. Almost all of the above problems and issues are fundamentally arising out of State Functions & Policies – while some may be classified as first order, some are second order functions. But they all would find a solution in Political Leadership and Policy. May be I am missing a point somewhere and if so, would like to be seek clarity on these questions -

How relevant is the Religion in the above picture?

How would Religion help solve any of the problems of Mr. Amar Akbar Anthony’s life and reduce his suffer-list? Would any of the Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian or any other religious faith leaders or followers be able to help solve any of these issues for Mr. AAA (Mr. Amar Akbar Anthony)?

If the answer to these basic questions is indeed a clear No, then why do we mix religion with politics at the first place? Mr. AAA following a particular faith or a religion is a matter of his very personal choice and preference. In case Mr. AAA has any problems with respect to his religion or religious feelings and sentiments, he is free to approach his respective religious leader and seek a solution or a clarification. State Function or Policy should actually have no role to play in this domain, except to protect his right as an individual to practice the faith of his choice.

I wonder if this is something so very difficult to crack or those who oppose this have some other hidden agenda.

FTI (Freedom Team of India) has published a draft policy on the issue of Religious Freedom and Tolerance. All FTI policies will remain as drafts until they are formally agreed to by at least 1500 FTI leaders. Comments are most welcome as they will help the development of these policies. Please visit here and provide comment.

Law-ly-pop Politics

2010-06-17T16:56:00.002+05:30

Cartoon Courtesy: R K Laxman

I just realized that almost every single politician visible on the daily dose of our Mainstream Media is a qualified Lawyer of some kind – criminal, celebrated, experienced, technically (read politically) sound, elite and media savvy, legally correct, knowledgeable (of all the escape routes and legal loopholes and clauses – basic qualification). Normally, it is the Mafia and the Underworld that is known to have “employed” a battery of top notch lawyers not only to take care of all their dirty business and keep them safe and outside the prisons; but also to advise them on property deals, hawala businesses (money laundering), tax havens and investments across the world, criminal laws and procedures etc and finally, to officially and legally represent them in public. Do we see some kind of a similarity building up here? If the answer to this is in positive, which indeed it is, then let us accept the fact that we are simply being run by a Political Mafia. We as a country in fact are being run by Mafia with their respective lawyers in a court-room without a Judge.

The Political Mafia bosses actually cherry-pick and “employ” the most crooked lawyers to be at their service and command, making them look like “democratically” elected party workers raised through the long hierarchy running across millions of party cadres. These “Men-in-Law” are then often allocated the role of party spokesperson or projected as the media-face of the party – to shamelessly and legally deal with the uncomfortable questions and unpleasant situations every single day, created by their own “employers” sitting inside the Parliament. Their only job is to justify all the actions (or inactions) of their masters. Any action or a decision, right or wrong, is duly justified in legal parlance and technicality that has nothing to do with the Truth, Humanity, Civilized Society or any other such legally invalid consideration. Then as an additional responsibility and a necessary qualifier to their progress within the ranks, these appointed lawyers also protect and serve the party bosses in their individual capacity, with timely legal help and advice. Considering their long years of service and loyalty to the high-command, some of these lawyers are then offered a seat inside the parliament and even a portfolio. All this drama is crafted to perfection and made out as if these esteemed Lawyers have “arrived” democratically and on their own merits.

I can draw up a list of at least a dozen such high profile names but there is absolutely no need to get personal here. We know the jokers so well, thanks to our mainstream media, these Liars visit the drawing rooms of every common Indian household, every single day, blatantly lying and shamelessly smiling; and yet they get away with all the visibility and attention. Our media incidentally contributes heavily in making them what they are today, actually out of nothing at all. They are invited to the prime time debates and talk shows every day; some of them even rudely bash up the anchors for taking too much of their time as other channels are waiting for them, back to back. On any given day, one just has to surf 3-4 leading English news channels (leading in TRP terms and not in content) to simply enjoy this reality drama. Same faces, same crooked smile, same shirts, same legal technicalities, same jargon and above all, the shameless and blatant “in your face” lies; only the channel logo and the anchor is different. I wonder, what makes a CNN-IBN different from TIMES-NOW to HEADLINE TODAY to NDTV? There is a lot to talk on this issue but may be in another post, apologies for the digression.

The point I want to drive home is this – The days of “Law-ly Pop Politics” are over. All this was fine until now and India somehow (some say “Ram-Bharose”, meaning with the help of God) managed to crawl and survive through 60 long years. Going forward, India badly needs the services of serious people with deep understanding and knowledge of Ground Realities, Economics, Policy Making, Foreign Affairs, International Diplomacy, Rural and Agrarian Economy, Urban Development, etc. This will never ever happen with the elite goons & cronies from Doon School; nor with the uneducated thugs and rowdies from the hinterland; nor with religious fanatics and Babas; nor with the “high-command” (even in its new younger avatar, that is still living with the legacy and Socialist roots of grandparents and has failed to offer anything new so far), and surely not with the help of their toady lawyers.

The moment I look at it from this new lens, a completely new requirement and an urgent need of a new leadership emerges. I ask myself – what these guys and their lawyers are doing here? We surely do not need lawyers making important policy decisions on our behalf. We need specialists. The answer is among us. We, the people of India have to now come forward, if these guys have to be replaced and sent back where they once belonged. Surely we can find among ourselves a few hundred people (actually speaking, Leaders) with the desired knowledge and skill-set that is required to run this country any better. So now it is up to us, it is in our own hands, we get the leaders we deserve, we reap what we sow. We all can find like-minded groups and forums and platforms of our own choice and start building upon those initiatives and support them. This will not happen tomorrow, not so soon and may take a long time. But at least we make a beginning somewhere and a sincere effort in this direction could offer a better India to our children, hopefully.

If not, “All Ij Well” of 3 Idiots will soon become “All Ij Hell” for a billion idiots!

An open note to Arundhati Roy

2010-06-05T16:33:00.002+05:30

Picture Courtesy - The Hindu

At the outset, I admire and appreciate your courage and determination to raise your voice for the poor, weaker and more recently the tribal sections of our population. This immediately qualifies you to a responsible citizen status and upgrades you well above the rest of the Sheep (btw, Shashi Tharoor calls them cattle class).

However, I have very serious issues & strong objections with your understanding of the enemy and the root cause to the problems that you are fighting for. This strong difference of opinion lies in your quote from your speech at the just concluded meeting of Federation Against Internal Repression at Chennai –

“Capitalism is actually the most totalitarian ideology ever”

Your understanding of Capitalism sadly seems to be completely misplaced and quoted out of context. What you actually are referring to is known by many names such as - “Crony-Capitalism” / “Nehruvian-Socialism” / “Socialist-Liberalism” or more simply “Nepotism and Greed”; that has been passed on as a legacy and has plagued our country for the last 30 years; prior to that it was pure Nehruvian Socialism in its original avatar. It is by no means called the “Capitalism”, if understood in its true form and spirit. India is yet to embrace a Free and Fair Capitalist Society, where every citizen is free to pursue her happiness and is treated with respect and dignity.

Thanks to the Elitist and the Educated class of Indians like you, not able to understand the true meaning of Capitalism and its merits, a mixed product of Communist and Socialist ideology, we are having to fight this battle of Freedom and Liberty in our country, ever since Swatantra Party was launched by Rajaji and had to quickly fold up & disintegrate into non-existence. It was precisely people like you, who branded Swatantra, the only political party with an ideology of Individual Freedom and Liberty, as the party of the Rich and Businessmen and forced it to die its pre-mature death. You never allowed Swatantra Party to survive and blossom to offer the innocent people of India (including the Tribals in Orissa, that you have taken to represent and fight for) the option of Freedom and Liberty, as a result of which the country always had to choose either the Hindutva (BJP) or the Socialist (Congress) ideology. Both of which are extremely regressive, divisive, corrupt and have failed the country repeatedly.

If you actually trace back the history of events that have unfolded over the last 30 years and the very cause that you have now so bravely taken up to fight against, you will understand the difference between Capitalism and Socialism. If the Indian constitution was not amended and the Right to Property Act was not demolished, it would provide the constitutional right to own a property to every single citizen of this country, including the Tribals of Orissa. As per your own claim, the market value of Bauxite reserves in the state of Orissa is said to be worth US$ 4 Trillion. The Tribals and locals would be part of all this rich mineral wealth by way of their right to ownership. But as per your misplaced perspective, they would then automatically be part of a truly Capitalist society and consequently partners in the crime called Capitalism. You would actually be enjoying your life after Booker as a celebrity writer full-time, rather than fighting this losing battle against the corrupt politicians and mining mafia, part-time.

It is never too late though. You would be doing a great service to the nation by not shooting the messenger and calling the MNCs as the culprits and issuing such regressive statements as above. It is the state, the politicians, their failed socialist policies, their greed for money and power, their extended families as Benami mining mafia – The Black Forces - who are directly linked and responsible for this disaster that we face today. Please do not strengthen them further by making regressive statements against Capitalism. Instead please go after them and criticise their Socialist policies of the last 60 years. Please promote the concept of Liberty and Individual Freedom. Please join the White Force. Please associate and partner with the Freedom Movements and offer yourself and your voice to the cause of individual freedom and liberty and good governance.

Capitalism is Amoral and not Totalitarian.

You may also like to read one of my earlier post on the Maoist Terror.

Nero’s Guests, the age of inequality: A Review

2010-06-01T17:46:00.003+05:30

The reason why I have taken up to write a review of Nero’s Guests is because it needs to be widely circulated, written and talked about, as much as possible; so that everyone gets to see it, those who still do not get the time to watch it, may further need to be motivated to do so, and only then it will reach out to the wider audience and be able to make a real impact.

The mainstream media today is totally degenerated and corrupted as it does not cover anything that is not “breaking news” or that is not considered “glamorous” enough to catch eye balls. For this obvious reason, Nero’s Guests has been completely ignored by the mainstream media (both print & electronic) and is not given its due space & visibility.

The subject itself is not new to any of us and it has become a part of our daily lives - mere statistics. It is about the severe agrarian crisis that the country is faced with, as a result of which farmers are still committing suicide and as many as 200,000 farmers have already paid a price by giving away their lives, over the last decade or so. It has been written, talked and debated about in certain sections of the press; but the film is extremely thought provoking, highly emotive, heart rending and at times is absolutely shocking and painful.

The angst and frustration of journalist P. Sainath, Rural Affairs Editor of The Hindu (Protagonist and the man behind the film), is highly contagious. His aggressive and emotionally charged narration (supported with well researched facts and data) has been able to drive home the message loud and clear. It not only brings out the absolute failure in handling of the crisis by the respective Center and State Governments (both BJP & Congress) but also their complete apathy & inaction towards the crisis, government after government.

Directed by Deepa Bhatia, a noted Bollywood film editor with heavy commercial titles such as Taare Zameen Par and My name is Khan to her credit, this one comes out as a brilliant body of work in the script, the fluid edits without any frills and fills.

Sainath’s talking straight into the camera between the shots, apparently without any pre-rehearsed lines and caution, immediately connects with the audience through interactive viewing and a strong storyline.

Though would love to but rather not talk about the title of the film that finds its origin in Roman History and Tacitus – I would leave it to Sainath himself for he alone would be able to do full justice explaining the background and the relevance of the title to the subject.

The film is a documentary on ground report, narration of facts and situation in the rural India. It does not talk about any solutions or remedy. Sainath believes there could be more than one way to solve the agrarian crisis but it is the apathy and inaction towards farmers committing suicide that actually brings him to this business.

Finally, it was this below line in Credits that drew my attention:

This documentary has been realised with the support of
The Jan Vrijman Fund
Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

For those in a rush, just to get a glimpse of the documentary, here is the Trailer, courtesy: IDFA.

Conclusion:

Sorry, but Socialism and Socialist Policies can just do this much. A step ahead, Socialist Liberalism is nothing but Crony Capitalism. It can only make the rich even richer and the poor even poorer, thereby increasing the divide, the poverty and the disparity among its citizens. And if this is topped with the corrupt and inefficient governance, we can only thank God for not taking us through a civil war already. There will be many more Nero’s Guests and life will go on.

If this has to change for good, we need to look for serious alternatives – alternatives to change the complete system of governance – to throw away Socialist Policies and embrace Freedom and Liberty.

First of all, the educated common man has to come out of this “I don’t care” attitude, tagged as “Apolitical” and start seriously thinking about connecting with Politics and Governance, as a responsible citizen. This does not necessarily mean everyone needs to jump into active politics, but everyone must be politically aware and actively support a political movement or initiative that could bring about a change to the degenerating Indian Polity which also matches to their personal ideology. There are plenty of such new initiatives trying to make a difference in this space and one has to just look around, identify and connect with.

One such serious movement catching up momentum, the one and only propagating concept of Freedom and Liberty is Freedom Team of India (FTI). Please join FTI as a Freedom Team Member or just become a Freedom Partner to connect with and support FTI on various social networking platforms. There is a lot happening around here and one just needs to “get involved” to feel the excitement.

This, in my honest opinion, is the only way to refuse to be among the Nero’s Guests list.

Is it Maoist or Socialist terror?

2010-04-08T21:58:00.001+05:30

It was a heart-rending sight indeed on almost all the leading news channels last night. 76 out of total 82 CRPF Jawans were laid to rest inside those Boxes. These 76 CRPF Jawans gave away their precious lives to the nation, fighting Maoist insurgency in the jungles of Chattisgarh. They leave behind dependent family members, widows with small children, who will now face the brunt of it all for the rest of their lives. An old man who had not even recovered from the loss of his son in this horrific incident was already talking about sending his next son to fight for the same cause. The injured hospitalized Jawans who were fortunate to survive the attack, talked about going and fighting back. With Moist, not Maoist, eyes I thought - This is the India and a true Indian spirit one would die to live for.
The question remains – Is it all worth it? So very unfortunate but the number of casualties and this incident will simply go down on record as mere statistics, in the files and offices of our Babus and Politicians - and their life would go on to the next promotion and the next election respectively. India too will soon forget the tragedy.

While the nation pays them last respects and tributes, and prays for the well-being and settlement of those 76 terribly grief-stricken shattered families, it is the Politicians and Babus of this country who must be asked and forced to answer some very uncomfortable and inconvenient questions. Nobody would ever come to know what exactly happened and how it happened? What were the chronological events that lead to this horrific attack? Where are all the leaders from the Central and State Governments and other State Agencies (CRPF and Police)? Who was supposed to be on top of this Joint-Operation?
I was rather disappointed with Arnab Goswami at Times Now for running a totally irrelevant debate on Maoist Terror over last 2-3 days, almost leading to Jingoism. It was more about who is on which side as if taking an IPL poll. Rather than to ask relevant and serious questions as to how and why it happened at the first place and who was responsible for this? Surely it is not the Maoist but the State that is directly responsible for this attack. For sending innocent CRPF Jawans without proper planning, equipments and protection-gear into the Jungles and with no proper prior planning required for fighting insurgents in jungles.

A flash back trip into the last two decades clearly shows that we are now fighting a monster called Maoist Terrorist, created by our very own Socialist State and Policies. Consistently, and irrespective of the Congress or BJP or any other regional / coalition government – they all are equally responsible for taking the wrong Socialist decisions, for and on behalf of the local Tribals and Adivasis settled along the Red Corridor districts and states. Where are the policies to empower and educate the local tribals and adivasis? Who is protecting their rights and honor as a citizen of this country? Who is protecting their property? In the name of Liberalization, what the Socialists actually practiced is Crony Capitalism. The same Mr. P. Chidambaram, in his existing capacity of Home Minister, now declaring an open war on Maoist Terror never considered these states such as Orissa, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh as Human Capital for any meaningful social development in his earlier Avatar of Finance Minister – he merely looked at these states as mines and identified them as Bauxite, Aluminium and Iron-Ore. All these years the local state governments and their agents were busy filling up their respective coffers for the Politicians and Bureaucrats. Every single move towards any kind of social development and infrastructure was mercilessly and meticulously blocked in a planned way. An educated and developed Tribal or an Adivasi was not at all desired by our Socialist politicians, fearing that it would block their free supplies and family businesses arising out of their personal State property and land-banks. In the year 2005, all these stake-holders got together and legally created an army of unemployed gangsters, hooligans, ruffians and criminals duly funded by the State and aptly named it as Salwa Judum – which means – Collective Peace Campaign. So that they all could run their personal mining and State businesses, collectively and peacefully. Wow!

So what happens to the Tribals and Adivasis then? The State does not need them and want to push them deeper and deeper into the forests to create the Land-bank for mining purposes. The Police beat them up all the time. The Salwa-Judum got the State License and the Guns to kill all the Men and Rape Women, at sight. The courts would not hear them. As for the Media, this is not breaking-news material and something that would not heat up their TRPs to bring them higher returns. So the poor tribals start getting together slowly and find comfort and support in Naxalite and Maoist forces. This was the beginning and the birth of a monster that we would call Maoist Terrorist. Maoists gained in terms of their strength in sheer numbers by as much as 22-times, after Salwa Judum started their so-called peace operations.
Any kind of insurgency basically erupts as a direct end result and consequences of years of neglect, discrimination, poverty, corruption, social inequality, lack of development and education, ineffective law and order, totally corrupt and inefficient governance. This is what the Socialist Governance has given to states like Orissa, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh etc. in particular and to the country in general.
I am no supporter or sympathizer of Maoists, No not at all. But also I am not a fan of Socialists. Whatever the Socialists leadership has been doing to the country for more than six decades now, the Maoists are starting to do it now. This probably clarifies and explains the topic of this post. I personally believe in Liberal principles and policies where every human life is guaranteed with equal opportunity, and treated with equal dignity and respect. And everyone has the freedom to pursue his or her own happiness under an accountable and participative government.

When they give you Lemon, make Lemonade!

2010-02-27T12:37:00.005+05:30

The Ministry of Science & Technology is busy making Lemonade under the able guidance of Jairam Ramesh and Dr. Manmohan Singh.
This note is not about criticising Genetically Modified (GM) Crops. There is an ocean of information already published out there in the public domain, by veteran scientists and specialists from the field, from India and the West, who have very strong opinions & views against GM Crops; and their views and opinions are duly substantiated and based on pure scientific data and facts.
This note is about the very clear and visible danger of an end to whatever little Freedom and Liberty that we have so far enjoyed in India, as compared to China. The very tenets of Liberty and Freedom are now at stake as there is an unprecedented muzzle in the form of a proposed bill called Biotechnology Regulatory Authority Bill (BRAB) of 2009.
Going by the front page report that appeared in Indian Express of 26th February, the draft bill - BRAB of 2009, that is proposed to be tabled in the current session of the Parliament, if passed, would put an end to all future public debates and opposition with respect to GM Crops in India. BRAB 2009 proposes under Chapter 13 section 63 of the Draft Bill - six months to one-year imprisonment with fine of up to Rs 2 Lakhs, or both; to whoever found misleading the public about the safety of the organisms and products without any evidence or scientific records. The Draft Bill becomes even more draconian under Article 27 (1) where it seeks to keep all the information related to research, approval and science of GM products out of the purview of RTI Act. Why? Because this would then ensure a Freeway to the Indian Agriculture Seed market for companies like Monsanto and other MNCs, who already control as much as 30% of the total Agriculture Seed market in India.
So what this politics of GM is all about? Who is selling to whom? What is the Cost-Benefit analysis? Who is the ultimate beneficiary? Clearly the stakes are very high, and on both sides, to the extent that our politicians are even willing to compromise and let go of the freedom of speech.
Operation successful, Patient dead!
Long Live GM!!

RTI Ke Peeche Kya hai, Babuji?

2009-12-08T15:07:00.002+05:30

Great Indian Babus (IAS Officials) are now trying to hide behind the fine technicalities of RTI – Intrusion of Privacy under section 8(1)(j) of RTI Act. This small piece of interesting news shows up in TOI dated 7th December 2009.

First it was the Judiciary that made every possible effort to keep itself out of the reach of RTI. Call it Public Pressure or Strong Political-will, RTI was indeed enforced upon the Judiciary, in word and in spirit, thereby keeping intact the constitutional values of Freedom, Accountability, Transparency. Never mind the continuous efforts and the hard work that is still being put in there by the CJI to get his team out of the dragnet of RTI.

Now is the turn of our Babus, to look for loopholes and hidden technicalities under the RTI Act and to stay clear of RTI. A public servant’s property & all other financial investments must always remain transparent and in the public domain - it cannot be termed as Private at any given point.

Mango-Man (Aam-Aadmi) – A common Indian, has found the easiest way out in publicly and openly blaming the ministers and politicians for just about everything – from rising prices to civic infrastructure to terror strikes to water to insurgency, even the garbage clearance and the growing street-dogs population in a locality. But while doing so, we are blissfully ignorant of the fact that the Politician is there as an elected representatie, only due to our valued Vote. At least, he offers himself and his candidature to the public service, contest elections, and we send him there as our elected representative. In case our choice of the elected representative turns out to be wrong, it is only us to be blamed and not the politician as an individual. Also, once the politician completes the given term, it is once again back to the electorate to send another one (Read: Unknown Angel) or re-elect the same one (Read: Known Devil).

“Chatteratti-Anger” is the most befitting term I would like to use for such verbal diarrhoea that can be seen across all leading news channels. Page-Three celebrities, the so-called Citizen Journalists & Citizen Speakers, coming from totally irrelevant and unrelated fields, are given a permanent seat, an empanelment to debate and express their unsolicited views & advise on issues related to the Governance, Policy and the Indian Politics. Issues like - 26/11 anniversary, mid-air scuffle among the airlines staff, Climate-Change Summit, PM’s Press Meet at the White House, Water Shortage in Mumbai, etc provide excellent fodder for all these debates which actually lead to nowhere. Pure “TRP” Tamasha and nothing else. A colossal waste of precious hour of Prime-Time news and every Indian household across India.

It is high time all this public anger, the debates and the blame shift completely to the most deserving breed of all times – The League of Extra Ordinary Men - The Indian Babus - The IAS Officials. Who actually get there on their own merits (Read: Resources). The current unethical and questionable selection procedures are an open secret, both at National and State levels. The moral and ethical character of some senior and highly placed and respected people, who actually examine and evaluate these young bureaucrats, is also highly questionable. This is plain simple logic as is evidently clear from the quality of IAS Officers inducted during the last decade or so. How else once could explain the deteriorating quality & increasingly Corrupt, Inefficient, Incompetent and Selfish Babus?

Ironically, IAS officers are supposed to be Public-Servants, but their Master, that is the very Public whom they are supposed to serve, has no right whatsoever to question them or re-call them from their services, unlike the elected representative in politicians & ministers. This is the big difference between the Devil and the Deep Sea, that a Mango-Man finds caught between. While the Minister goes to the election battleground and fights it out hard to be elected for the seat and that too for a fixed term, a Babu simply gets in there, using all kinds of just and unjust resources, and stays there until retirement.

Politics is like a stream. No doubt this stream currently is carrying contaminated & unhygienic product but there is some hope in the Indian Electorate, who would be able to change the course and the direction of this stream in due course of time, for a better quality and a healthier output. But the Indian Babugiri (Bureaucracy) is a pond of stagnated and highly contaminated slush. Ideal breeding ground for deadly germs and viruses, which keep growing but never get cleaned up. It has slowly started entering our homes and personal lives now.

We talk of a Systemic Failure in our country – actually it is the complete Bureaucratic Failure. Every single problem that our country faces today is identified and linked with, directly or indirectly, to an inefficient, incompetent and a corrupt bureaucracy.

We better wake up to this harsh reality and start looking at options and solutions to –
a) Cleanse the System – the corrupt, incompetent & inefficient Babugiri, and
b) Reduce their interference and their role in running our daily lives.

Unless & until this actually happens, we will continue to witness the prime-time debates and the Chatteratti Anger, irrespective of the fact whether or not RTI finally applies to Babugiri - to expose them & their financials in the public domain or to provide them with a comfortable cover of Intrusion of Privacy under section 8(1)(j).

When KEEPERS become KILLERS of FREEDOM

2009-08-29T17:40:00.004+05:30

Indian constitution provides the Judiciary with ultimate powers to Safeguard, Secure and Protect the Constitution, in word and spirit. Judiciary therefore is expected to practice a Zero-Tolerance policy on every single issue related to corruption, Code of Conduct, Transparency, Political Interference / Influence, Personal Favours / Bias, Nepotism etc within the organization.
The founding fathers of the Indian constitution would be very sad if they were to witness the degenerated and corrupt state of Judiciary and its apex body SC that is responsible for upholding and protecting the Constitution. It is not in the concept but the fault lies in the people running these apex institutions. The concept of a Free and Fair Judiciary to protect the Individual Freedom of citizens of a sovereign nation is perfectly in place and well founded.

Justice R Raghupathy of Madras High Court had made a statement in the open court that a Union Minister had telephoned him in a matter concerning a mark sheet forgery scam which was investigated by the CBI. "According to reports, the judge has subsequently clarified that the minister had not spoken to him directly but that the lawyer appearing in the case on behalf of the accused had come to his chamber and informed him that the Union Minister would like to speak to him and even dialled the number to facilitate the conversation," the single page memorandum read. (Ref Link)
The issue had gathered huge public debate and angst, even to the extent that 180 MPs in both the Houses of Parliament submitted a memorandum to the PM requesting his intervention; and the issue was subsequently nailed and buried with a passing comment by none other than the CJI (Chief Justice of India) himself, stating & clarifying that no such thing has ever happened – means no minister ever tried to influence the judge ever. How ridiculous!!! The upside of this whole episode lies in the fact that the first time ever a High Court Judge has taken the lead and shown some teeth and courage to speak out in public, yet it did not reach any logical conclusion is a different matter. CJI either lives on some other planet or simply lying to the public by denying facts. Even a child in this country could tell how people use contacts and influence to get out of a situation and this particular case was no different.

Now coming to the transparency issue at the Judiciary. On Nov’ 2007, an activist files RTI application seeking information on Supreme Court (SC) judges declaring their assets. SC Information Officer refuses to answer the RTI query stating that SC is outside the purview of RTI. On January 2009, CIC (Central information Commissioner) rejects SC’s contention that CJI (Chief Justice of India) is outside RTI purview. But Delhi High Court stays CIC order on appeal of the SC. As if in some kind of a great hurry, the Government of India pushes for the BILL to keep SC Judge's declaration of assets as a closely-guarded secret, by excluding it from the purview of RTI. On 3rd Aug, thankfully and fortunately, the opposition forces law minister to defer the Bill. On August 09, Karnataka HC judge plus Punjab & Haryana HC Judge declare and make their assets public. Mounting public pressure and the division within the ranks, finally forces SC to accept making assets public. This acceptance however comes with a rider that the SC Registry would still not entertain any queries, even under RTI act.

“One judge can not embarrass the Judiciary” – says CJI – New Indian Express dated 25th August. This statement of CJI was in sharp reaction to a High Court Judge from Karnataka going to the press and declaring assets in public domain. Shall we say then that one CJI can embarrass the whole country?

The only counter point in support of assets not being made public by SC Judges all this while was that in case the assets are made public, the details could be misused. Very Sad indeed, but this is the level of commitment, accountability and the sense of responsibility of Judiciary towards the public at large and the right to information. What is it that the CJI actually wants to hide from public and why? Why the Government is also supporting & covering up for CJI and SC??

CJI says on 28th August in a press conference as below:
A) All judges have been filing statements of assets as per 1997 regulations
B) The delay is because some of the judges filed their statements in 2002-03 and they are updating the details.
These are two contradictory statements and being issued in the same press conference. If the judges have been filing statements of assets then why are they updating only now after 2002-03? He further goes on to say - “The only thing is that these details were not disclosed to the public. Now, because of the changed circumstances we are putting it on the website”.
What are these “changed circumstances” and why the Judiciary was dragging its feet in offering this transparency?

India needs a radical and complete turn around and a clean-up, now even at the Judiciary.

Eureka - The Museum School at Chennai

2009-08-08T18:59:00.004+05:30

Here is the link to the pictures of today's soft launch of Eureka - the Museuam School at Birla Planetarium at Chennai.

Eureka - The Museum School, Chennai

THE MUSEUM SCHOOL

2009-08-07T17:15:00.003+05:30

Making Education & not the School itself, A Desirable Necessity:

Today’s education system has become a rote-learning manufactory designed for grinding out uniform results without any understanding and popping out degrees and certificates like popcorn. A mouthful does not get you anything, a handful is not sufficient. To top it all, it is the exorbitant costs that make higher education unaffordable for the vulnerable poor.

The Government has been trying its bit to fulfil the basic educational needs of children through its various programs towards providing free textbooks and uniforms, bicycles and mid-day meals, to protect them from malnutrition. But the children have still remained elusive from education for fear of examinations, failures and many other factors. Education, to many in the rural areas and urban slums, is only a second priority after work and play. With the new RTE (Right to Education) Act this week, the landmark Voucher System is proposed, as per which, every private school will reserve 25% seats for the economically poor children and the expenses towards the same would be subsidised by the Govt. Going by the past track record and the current “15 Paisa to a Rupee” kind of trickle down rate, execution of the same still remains the major cause of concern.

The very concept of making education as attractive as a movie, and the school as attractive as a playground, lags far behind. Scores of successful experiments on fun based learning models have remained limited to small groups, and on-the-job work based education has not been recognised by the Government.

It is not the freebies but the assurance of employment or some skill set development that can guarantee them their livelihood in the long term can only attract poor children to education. Theoretical education is considered a waste of time that leads to nowhere, by many in rural areas and urban slums. The faith on the education system to be able to provide jobs is dwindling.

Education is considered the foundation of the country and every individual has a fundamental right to quality education. Yet there is a huge disparity in the quality of education of a rich child and a poor child in the same city. If there is a disparity in the foundation itself, how can we dare to dream of equality in our country? In the same city, while a rich child gets the best infrastructure, best teaching aids and 5 Teachers (B.Ed) for one class in a private school, a poor child gets minimal infrastructure, almost no teaching aids and 1 Teacher (Non B.Ed) for five classes in a municipal school.

Organization for Awareness of Integrated Social Security (OASiS), a non-Government social organisation based at Bhopal (MP), embarked upon a mission to remove this disparity in quality of education in urban areas, identify and collaborate with different learning centres, and educate the school runaways, dropouts and the never-been-to-school ones, from the economically and academically deprived society to groom them as independent and responsible citizens.

The education pattern at OASiS is based on the learning from a study conducted by OASiS on established experiments in Education like Guru Rabindranath Tagore’s Shantiniketan (WB), and Aurobindo Ashram’s International Centre of Education (Pondicherry) and The Japanese system of Education. OASiS has combined the best practices of all these models to design its project “PARVARISH” that provides holistic education and grooming of a complete, independent and responsible citizen.

OASiS strongly believed that School itself should not come into the way of imparting education to the young ones. OASiS believed that the museums in a city provide the best learning atmosphere and the exhibits and working models help in learning practically without any books or references. No teaching aids in any school can ever match the quality of the exhibits of the Museums. Yet the exhibits are not used as teaching aids by anyone.

The Museum School approach thus designed by OASiS, identifies Museums in the city and collaborates with them to make them the school for the children, uses the exhibits and working models in the museums as teaching aids and collaborates with colleges conducting B.Ed courses for practice teaching by B.Ed students. The children of The Museum School come to the Museums (their school) everyday by school bus (just like other privileged children), and are taught by the B.Ed students through the exhibits of the Museums according to the curriculum. Thus the model provides poor children with the best school infrastructure already set up by the Government (The Museums), the best teaching aids (Exhibits and working models in Museums), and the best teachers (B.Ed students doing practice teaching) and removes the disparity in quality of education without any further investment.

The model follows a curriculum designed to provide holistic education starting from behavioural changes to literacy, to academics, physical and adolescence education, and finally ending with vocational skills and entrepreneurship development. While the children are mainstreamed through the National Open School for examination and certification, the objective is to make them self-employable, confident, responsible and independent in Society.

Brainchild of Mr. Pradeep Ghosh (Ashoka Fellow), founder member of OASiS, was called Project PARVARISH. Parvarish at Bhopal is successfully running since last four years independentally by Mrs. Shibani Ghosh, a highly trained & committed Teacher herself, adding on poor children from the slums who are basically rag-pickers, year on year. Of course, in collaboration with 3 Museums: Regional Science Centre, National Museum of Mankind and Regional Museum of Natural History.

8th August 2009, The Museum School is scheduled for a soft launch in Chennai as “EUREKA – The Museum School”. Three museums in Chennai: Egmore Musuem, Birla Planetarium and Dakshinachitra have offered their consent for their premises to be used for the weekend classes.

It will shortly start in Delhi, where 5 Museums: National Science Centre, National Museum of Natural History, National Crafts Museum, National Rail Museum and Shankar’s International Doll Museum have already expressed their interest and acceptance.

Through this model, OASiS is trying to show that the urban poor can also be given the same quality of education as that for the urban rich, by just making optimum and effective utilisation of existing infrastructure (The Museums) at practically the same or maybe lesser cost that the Government today incurs on urban education.

Let us give the Museums their true place in the Education System.

OASiS is always looking for suitable partners who would like to replicate ‘The Museum School’ in their cities, for poor urban slum children.

Slapgate Saga

2009-07-13T14:28:00.005+05:30

It all actually started when Congress Party decided to BUY the non-congress MPs for last year’s UPA trust vote – and this is what they bought - a bunch of uneducated, uncultured & uncivilized thugs. Manda Jagannadam, the Congress MP from Nagarkurnool constituency in AP is one such case, who had switched loyalties from TDP to Congress during the UPA confidence vote last year.
Now that he was well settled in the Congress camp, he shows his true colour by walking into AP Grameen Vikas Bank and misbehaving with the Manager Mr. Ravinder Reddy to the extent of even slapping him. He then goes on to say that he was just trying to pacify the Bank Manager by putting a hand on his shoulder but accidentally it touched his cheek – Tsch! Tsch!! Poor innocent Mr. Manda. His misunderstood and misinterpreted act got canned on a live camera and he could not get away with his humble act. Then the usual Tamasha starts – political noise, frantic phone calls, political points, the breaking news and repeated clips for the next 24 hours, followed by a Happy Ending typical Bollywood style - where nothing has changed, before and after, the Bank Manager is happy for getting an unconditional apology from Manda, and Manda is happy for he is where he was, still with the Congress; and life goes on.

More importantly, during the peak of all this drama was a debate on Times-Now News Hour. It was very interesting to watch the educated, polished & “politically correct” young dudes - Manish Tiwari of Congress, Nalin Kohli of BJP, and the super cool quiz master Derek O’Brian (the brand new Brand Ambassador of Mamta Didi of TMC) – all coming together crossing their respective party lines for a common cause – to protect and support these thugs & unruly crowd in their respective parties. They all felt very offended & went emotionally ballistic when they were bunched together with the likes of Manda and protecting the fellow politicians of their respective parties for uncivilized actions. Yet none, and I repeat, NONE of them came forward with strong condemnation of the act and the deteriorating culture and conduct of their fellow politicians. When pushed for a demonstrable action required on behalf of Dr. Manmohan Singh & team, we only heard the usual remarks advising the public & media to be patient, enquiry commission report, legal technicalities etc. The speaker from Professionals Party of India made a brilliant comment that it is not the fault of people like Manda, for they only know this behaviour given their background and track record; it is actually the fault of political parties that support them and give them tickets and seats. The ever so pretentious and proud Derek O’Brian was his true aggressive self, shouting nonsensically in response to this statement.

It was clearly evident that when it comes to owning up responsibilities and showing some demonstrable actions, all political parties in the current system fail miserably.

Mr. Manish Tiwari, Mr. Nalin Kohli and Mr. Derek O’Brian may like to know that any person (Yes, even a politician for that matter) is judged by the company that (s)he keeps or the group or political party (s)he supports . Wonder if these guys would ever be MAN enough someday and stop hiding behind the technicalities of law and politics. Till then, it is safer and better that they are all painted with the same brush as Manda.

Whose money is it anyway?

2009-07-04T16:54:00.003+05:30

The Politicians & Bureaucrats in India, cutting across all party lines & positions – are only interested in looting and siphoning-off precious funds and financial resources of the state, generated by the Indian Tax Payer. We the common people, as tax payers, neither have the right, nor the intent, nor the time, nor the recourse, to know how our funds are being utilized and if required, question these servants of ours, for their accountability towards this gross mismanagement of our hard earned tax money. We are only busy looking at those complicated and ever-changing sections and sub-sections allowing various deductions and their respective threshold limits etc., to reduce and save our taxes year after year. We are happy & content with a little bit here and a little bit there kind of tweaking of these tax laws, giving us some perceived and notional relaxation. In fact every single government has used these tax laws as Vote Bank instruments. But we as voters have never ever tried to bring a government down for the loot and theft, questioning them where and why all this money has been going all these decades. We never get to look at ways and means of putting a full stop to this perpetual and non-stop laundering of state funds taking place over the last 60 years, so blatantly and so openly.

With every new budget, new schemes and policies are developed and designed in the name of poverty alleviation, education, healthcare, infrastructure etc., which ends up as nothing more than instruments and conduits for siphoning-off money from the system. These so-called Flag-ship Social Schemes – and incidentally there are NINE of them right now – so it is a Naulakha (a necklace made from precious jewels and stones worth Nine Lakh Indian Rupees and hence the name Naulakha). Sounds like very harsh words but unfortunately a crude reality as a quick look at what we have spent on some of these schemes during 2001-08 and their respective results are glaring examples:
SSA – Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (Education for all) – We have spent a whopping INR 60,000 Crores (US$ 12.5 Billion) that is INR 7500 Crores (US$ 1.56 billion) per year and YET 50% of children mostly coming from landless labours, backward classes and other such BPL backgrounds drop out by 8th Standard. This is no mean amount and clearly is not being spent the right way.
MDMS (Mid-Day meal scheme) – INR 33,000 Crores (US$ 6.88 Billion) spent on this scheme during 2001 to 2008 that is INR 4125 Crores (US$ 859 Million) per Year and yet 41% of our children go hungry and underfed. Only 11.74 Crore children are the beneficiary of this scheme so far and further calculation of per child cost would raise unbearable stink.
NREGS – We all know this scheme very well as it has been used as a branding & promotion tool for Rahul Gandhi to get to the right seat. Having spent INR 44,480 Crores (US$ 9.26 Billion) in 3 years (2006-09), it has delivered on an average 48 days of work to only 50% of 100 Million registered job card holders, State-wise results of this scheme are highly erratic for various factors and reasons.
ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) - INR 32,000 Crores (US$ 6.66 Billion) were spent during 2001-08 mainly on food, the quality of which has been deteriorating over the years. The scheme mainly targets nutrition and healthcare for children up to the age of 6 years. Out of the average 20 Crore children in the age group 0-6 years, only about 7 Crores (35%) are official beneficiaries.
NRHM (National Rural Health Mission) – This relatively new scheme launched in 2005 deals with healthcare delivery system for over 700 Million of rural population of our country. While the centre allocated INR 31,000 Crores (US$ 6.46 Billion), states have not been able to use as much as one third of these funds (thankfully so) and hence the total spend of only INR 20,000 Crores (US$ 4.16 Billion) during 2005-09. Achievements? Well, 647,000 accredited social health activists (ASHA) have been appointed out of which only 40% have been trained to level 2 and only ONE percent have completed all 5 levels of training. Only 64% have received the Drug kits. The very logic of appointing ASHA and not providing them with proper training and kits to carry out their duties is beyond any explanation and a perfect recipe for NIRASHA (Disappointment).

I have only talked about jewels above that are worth INR 10,000 Crore plus spend (US$ 2 Billion plus), just to keep it short and sour. The story of balance 4 schemes is no different in terms of the quality of their delivery and efficiency levels.

Also some of the other current issues related to our tax money being flushed down the drains, these examples are more principle based rather than the amounts itself:
- Penalty on non-utilization of committed loans sanctioned by IMF & World Bank: India has been slapped with penalties to the extent of INR 1400 Crores (US$ 291 Million) – out of this as much as half is for the period during 2004-09. This may not be such a huge amount considering the above schemes, but this penalty simply means paying for nothing, without any product or services in return. So it is a straight loss to the state exchequer.
- Mayawati is going around all over the state of UP installing her own statues to seek immortality in stone at a whopping cost of INR 2000 Crores (US$ 400 odd million). A shameless & crude act of spending state funds for purely personal gains & wishes.
- Delhi Civic Body from its total monthly wage bill of INR 207 Crores (US$ 43 Million) pays salaries to 45,000 staff, who do not even exists and this fake employment scheme has been going on for years, right under the nose of the current and all the previous Governments.

These are only a few odd cases to show that small tip of a huge mountain of corruption that is holding India back from unleashing its full glory and moving ahead as the new world super power.

Medical Seats: STING Operation.

2009-06-22T17:53:00.004+05:30

Waited for a couple of weeks to get all the dust settle down over this issue and for the media attention to deviate to some other breaking-news after this “TOI-Times Now” joint sting operation of the selling of seats and rampant corruption in admissions in Private Medical colleges.

Just one basic question – did we all not know about it already? Why we Indians are in this mode of perpetual denial of the crude reality around us? What this sting & expose is all about? Looks like it is just to create some cheap media sensation and a discussion leading to nothing at all, except for some instant spark in the viewership (TRPs) and circulation of the Times group. Everyone then goes back to conducting their respective businesses, right from the willing parents to the Medical Council.

Two consenting parties, even better if called as traders – the student and the institute, are negotiating and transacting business in a peaceful manner. Why should it bother anyone and why take the pains and spend good money on exposing some dirty business which everyone already knows about? Each one of us are very well aware and are deep into this mess all together - including the innocent and naive public (?), smart and watchful media (?), educated and wise teachers (?), ambitious students & their desperate parents with tons of Cash, Extremely efficient & honest Medical Council of India, neat and clean state and central governments (?) – all are in near perfect order and harmony. So what are we talking about and why blame the institute that is putting up a cost to offer a seat? OK, the transaction is in Cash and without a receipt – that’s it? We should be rather proud to have so much of Cash within the country, in spite of all this recession, bad economy and the job losses etc, making it that much more convenient for the Govt. Of India, not to plead and run behind the Swiss Banks to bring back the slush funds.

Above image is from the front page of TOI dated 3rd June 2009. Look at the transcript of the conversation - the clarity, the rules, the straight-forwardness, No grey areas, No confusion, No fuss – pure simple business.

Politicians are behind every single private educational institution run by a Benaami partner and we do not need no sting operation to find this out. Higher Education & Health are THE MOST favoured businesses / investment options from “Return on Investment” point of view as far as the Black Money is concerned. The who’s who of the Board of Directors of any organization is an open-source information and in public domain. It has been more than two long decades that Mr. Ketan Desai is successfully and notoriously running the Medical Council of India, which has been branded as a “Den of Corruption” by none other than Delhi High Court (Ref: TOI Front page of 6th June 2009). Is this at all possible without a government or political sheltering / support? So it is no surprise that Mr. Desai is on the Board of such an institution which happens to be a Benaami of a Cabinet Minister.

Are we not missing a BIG picture here? I have not seen anyone writing or talking about it in the media. And this is not restricted only to Medical but also Engineering Colleges. WHO is paying such an indecent amount of money in Cash and Without receipts? Institute will not demand a price for a seat unless there are real & willing customers (students / parents) to buy. Clearly it is market driven and dictated by a universal demand-supply theory. This opens up many more unpleasant questions – where this money is coming from? Are we not supposed to question the source of such funds that common people among us are willingly doling out in Cash and without any receipts? Should the authorities not trace back every single student (now the well placed and respected doctors / engineers somewhere)& their respective parents as well, who has passed out from all such colleges and start asking them uncomfortable questions about the source of such funds? What level of quality (medical / engineering) education is being dished out from these colleges, for some of these colleges are affiliated to UGC even when not one single batch has passed out? These children, once they pass out as future doctors or engineers, will have the sole objective of making this money out, in the shortest possible time, playing around with the lives of other common people.

Black money can only buy & produce Black Doctors and Black Engineers.

WE can continue to blame the politicians and the policies till eternity but what are WE, the common people, doing about it? Unless, WE the people, stop sending our children to such institutes, stop paying money in Cash without receipts, start demanding the quality education for the good money well spent on our children, these institutes will continue to flourish and no sting operation is going to hurt nobody, but our self & the nation in the long term.

Freedom Team of India

2009-06-10T13:41:00.002+05:30

As we all know, even after 62 years of independence, India’s governance shows no sign of improving, stumbling from one crisis to another. Our security is threatened, our economic growth stumbles every few years, we have terrible infrastructure, and one of the lowest standard of living in the world. Even after a major part of our GDP coming from agriculture, we have our fellow Indians who do not get even one square meal a day, their children do not know anything about education, and, they cannot afford proper health facilities for themselves and their families.

Since, the last two decades the Indian scenario has begun to change, some for the good and some for the worse. While each of us feels proud of the Indian dream as an emerging economic superpower, we know this dream can be a very distant one if things around us don’t change soon in other important national spheres.

It starts with lack of nationalistic leaders, a political system which is corrupt and decisions driven solely for the vote bank and not in the larger interests of the society and the country. The British formula of “Divide and Rule” has somewhat been deep drilled in the mindset of the Indian political class and they swear by it. This hatred is being rapidly disseminated amongst the Indian masses. The social fabric of the country too is deteriorating as we are becoming increasingly polarized and indifferent towards the state of the nation, our environment and even our families.

We, the educated class of the country have long been rightfully accused of not standing up against the blatant wrong that is quietly witnessed every day. There is enough evidence that this attitude has caused a lot of damage not only to us individually but to the society and country at large. While most of us are momentarily saddened and frustrated to see the current state of affairs, and, end up lighting candles, there are a little few of us who choose to act to bring a change. Most of us learn to live with it accepting it as destiny, while a lot of us leave the country for a more “peaceful” life in a developed economy. Instead of facing the truth, fighting against the system, trying to bring change, we run away, or, sit twiddling our thumbs – discussing governance and state of the Indian polity merely on dining tables, kitty parties, or, organizing debates in schools and colleges. We advise our children to become Doctors, Engineers, CA’s. We dream of becoming entrepreneurs. We guide them to join the civil services and top notch MNCs. But, we seldom want to choose politics as a profession for ourselves. Nor do we encourage our children to take up politics. So, who will lead India? And, thus, India is what it is today.

Time has come, when there is a strong need for the citizens to act together responsibly and stop the steady descent of India. We need to create a sense of pride in India and Indianism. We are responsible for what we make of this country’s present and future. We will be responsible for what we hand over to our children and the generations to come. If we want to see some progress during our lifetimes, we will need to act together. And, hence, “The Freedom Team of India”. Each one of us in the Freedom Team of India has vowed to act, and, act now to bring a change - a change to make India as the India of our dreams - a land which is proudly honest, immensely prosperous, and considered by the world as the land of opportunity.

The Freedom Team of India – is a movement to defend our freedoms and bring good governance to India. It intends to bring together such like-minded liberal citizens of the country to Lead India from the front - to build a platform which can collectively work towards a common simple goal – to make India a better nation.

If you are thinking about a new career option, or, are planning to start a new entrepreneurial venture; if you have been successful but not satisfied with what you have achieved; if you have been wanting to do something selflessly and concrete for India but haven’t had the opportunity to do so; Or, you have been contemplating a platform that can offer this generation of Indians a chance to take India to true greatness, then Come, Join the Freedom Team of India! There are at least 1400 vacancies for great leaders! History beckons you to be a part of this grand organised effort.

To join the freedom team of India:

1. You should be a person of integrity and humility and have the aspiration to lead.
2. You should be a liberal, and, a firm believer of the principles of Freedom with accountability.
3. You should be willing to contest parliamentary or state elections anytime in/after 2014.

If you feel you fully satisfy the above requirements, please join here.

To know more, before you join: please visit: http://www.freedomteam.in

Lastly, I would like to point out that winning elections is not a simple task. The people of India won’t vote without great confidence in the policy platform and the leaders. Hence, the importance of preparation! FTI doesn’t believe that just by starting a political party good candidates will be found and people will start voting for policies of freedom. It needs significant preparation. Finding good candidates takes time. Preparing them takes even a longer time. Agreeing to a policy platform and publicity material takes more time. That is the key to success. So, if you have your doubts about joining FTI, please be assured that FTI will not take the plunge without sufficient preparation.

The movement to join platforms of likeminded and learned people has also started in the earnest. Our effort is not just opening another political front but to give a serious viable political alternative to the electorate with a full range of well thought out policies based on freedom and liberty. It is thus your first serious chance to be charting a clean political career and be part of history.

Now, if you feel, right now you still are not prepared for it, may I then request you to kindly send me the email addresses of at least 2-3 people of impeccable integrity, who you believe are capable of and may be willing to take up this great responsibility in front of us. We will personally get in touch with them. Alternately, you can forward this to a few such people. But, please do not spam or mail it to everybody in your mailing list.

Thanking you and looking forward to having you in the Freedom Team.

FREEDOM TEAM OF INDIA
TOWARDS A GREAT INDIA – A FREE INDIA
www.freedomteam.in

IPL Anonymous – A Spoilsport for IPL-II?

2009-06-06T17:29:00.003+05:30

Fake IPL Player Blog - 7972 followers and 46 blog posts in 6 weeks flat – 120,000 profile views – WOW !! Here are some very interesting snippets indeed from this curious & mysterious cricketer turned blogger:
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QUOTE from Blog – “Another sitting with the broadcasting folks has brought out some interesting facets of how thing's work out here. Being right here, I can tell you that the grounds are pretty sparsely filled, especially during the first inning. But the broadcasting team has been told to keep talking about the excitement and the fever at the ground. The camera men have been instructed not to pan towards empty stands. And the producers keep telling the spectators to scream and shout when the cam pans to them. I don't know what you guys sense on TV, but watching it from here, the so-called 'excitement' and 'energy' seems even faker than this blog.”
My comment: This one is for those 200 million IPL fans and followers who have spent their precious hours sitting & cheering in front of the TV sets, every day of the month, deeply engrossed, emotionally charged and sold out to the completely false and made-up popularity of IPL-II.
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QUOTE from Blog – “Most of us went out for dinner together last night. Word has it that our team sponsors are asking very uncomfortable questions. Some of the sponsors are threatening to pull out their ads with our team featuring in them. The heat has been put on Boy George. Dildo's asking him to justify almost every decision he has taken through the year. Every expense is now being scrutinised. I think the ground work is on for some heads to roll by the time we return to India.”
My Comment: This is yet another evidence of the sinking popularity and absolute commercial failure of this mega event called IPL-II. Nobody would ever come out with the real story as they all are into it, TOGETHER!
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QUOTE from Blog – “I wanted to take some time to answer a couple of questions that have come up several times in the comments section.
One, many of you have questioned the ethicality of this blog, given that I am being paid by Dildo. I don't think so. Dildo's not paying me or anyone else. We are being paid by the 200 Million Indians who are following this tournament. Everybody who has put in money - the tournament organisers, TV channels, team owners etc. - sell rights and properties to brands for big profits. The brands, who have already paid millions, put in a few millions more and advertise on every inch they can lay their hands on. Eventually, all you guys who have spent 4-8 hours in front of your TV watching a little bit of cricket and a lot of advertisements go out to the market and purchase the colas, the mobile phones, the clothes, and the potato chips that you didn't really need. And that's how brands make their profit - from every rupee of your hard earned money that you spend on them. So, my friends, Dildo's not paying me. If there's anyone who's paying me, it's you. It's my duty to entertain you. And I am doing the best I can, with the limited talent I have at my disposal.
My Comment: How very true! This guy is not only a cricketer, a blogger but also seems to be pretty good at understanding the brand promotion, retail, consumer market and media.
Two, some others have been asking me if the matches are fixed. I want to ask you, why fix matches when you can fix the game? You take a 5-day game, make it into a day game, and then further shorten it to a 3.5 hour game. Throw in scantily dressed dancers, cleavage-showing anchors, beauty contests, dumb ass commentators with stupid jokes. And some seriously good competitive cricketers. And you have a magic potion that can hypnotise 200 Million people for 4 hours every day for more than a month. That 200 Million population has more money in their hands than any betting syndicate in the world.”
My Comment: He only got better with every blog post. Experience does add value! Nobody has ever expressed the rapid transformation of Classic Test Cricket into T20 format any better than this, in such few words.
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Please also read my earlier post - ipl-league-of-extra-ordinary-babes-and-hunks, that was posted in March'09, well before the event started.

T20: Tweens and Twenty-Something

2009-05-26T18:52:00.007+05:30

This article is about the generation falling under the age group that can be best described as the first-time voters during the 2009 elections plus the ones who would be ready to vote for the next 2014 elections – so Thirteen to Twenty something and hence “Generation T20”.

This T20 generation is all about - I, Me & Myself - My Mobile, My I-Pod, My Playlist, My Network, My Games (Online and Play station), My attitude, My Freedom (?). What is completely missing from the list is: My Country, My Culture, My Society, My Locality, My Family, My Values and above all My Character. This may sound like a very strong negative comment to the extent of being unfair to this Innocent, Naive and young generation of T20, but unfortunately this is a reality. Quoting from TOI, March 29th 2009 issue, an article in its supplement on this generation described as being: “Angry & Loving it, Manipulative, Aggressive and Bitchy!!! Further it says, according to a survey finding, 42% Boys and 45% girls in the age group of 17 to 25 years agree what goes on Reality Shows is REALITY. It’s cool to be rude.” I do not find these attributes / comments in this survey as anything positive at all, in fact they are rather disturbing and thought provoking.

It would be very unfair to generalize and include each and every T20 citizen into this category but the majority clearly determines and indicates this trend. There always are exceptions and they deserve to be excluded from being hyphenated in this majority of the degenerated T20 breed of Young India. Also it is the quality of parenting that is the reflection of this degeneration of T20 over the years.

Here is the story of a T20 – Sidharth Krishnan - please visit www.aeronautics.nasa.gov/competition_winners or simply Google “sidharth krishnan+nasa” to see at least a dozen search results on his recent work submitted to NASA, that has brought him this international recognition. Sidharth, I call him Syd, is all of 12th Grade and has made his country and his parents proud. The reason why I quote him as a case-study here is due to the fact that I personally know his last school in Chennai (SBOA) and his parents (Savitha & Unni) so very well and hence am fully aware of their respective contributions. Just like every other student of SBOA, Syd had started getting tensed-up and preparing for the long & uncertain journey towards writing the IIT, with absolutely no guarantee of making it through, not because he was not capable but because of the fact that every capable student does not make it to these top courses anymore. In the meanwhile, he earned a merit scholarship and migrated to Singapore for higher schooling – not because he wanted to stay away from writing an IIT or just stay overseas for fun (that is where he had spent a part of his childhood already). But purely due to the fact that he wanted to pursue what he actually liked and that is PHYSICS. Had he tried doing it here, he would have been simply branded as one cranky teenager, out of sync with the reality and the rest of the crowd. But clearly, this T20 had his plans well laid out, was determined to pursue his passion and was successful in doing so and how. Once he was placed in an educational environment that is: Top Quality, Offer Freedom to Choose, Fair to all with equal opportunity – he pulled it through with hard work, focus, passion and of course, with his parents support & guidance!!

In a country of about 160 Million T20, it would not be very difficult to find a few thousands like Syd. Even on the same page as the NASA link above, there are at least 4 other Students of Indian origin apart from Syd. This is not a one-off story, every year students of Indian origin show up not only in this NASA but many more such lists. Why are we not capable of providing, mentoring & tutoring these young talents with all the required educational resources and climate here in India? Why do they need to leave their parents & family behind and go overseas to fulfil their dreams and pursue their careers of choice and passion? India is supposed to be a Knowledge Powerhouse and we proudly score points over China on this one. Clearly there are huge gaps and loopholes in our pathetic education system that refuses to offer any freedom to chose, pursue one’s career out of passion and in-built strengths and capabilities. This country needs to produce much more than mediocre and low quality Engineers and Doctors in thousands of numbers every year.

Unfortunately, this agenda still does not show up anywhere on top of the national priority. On the contrary, we continue to witness ever growing and lucrative business models out of Higher Education (read Privatized and Low Quality Engineering and Medical Colleges) every year, delivering mediocre and poor quality professionals. For example, one of the leading Engineering colleges from South, has just wrapped up a 6 months duration semester course within 40 Days, for whatever the reasons best known to the management. A 40 days semester can only produce engineers & doctors of that calibre – half cooked and half baked.

This brings us back to the same oft-repeated agenda of Primary Education & Education System. Schooling, Education and its Content during the formative years of 6 to 16 should remain on top of every National Policy & Funding as that alone can help build top quality National Human Capital, in the form of Patriotic, Self Respecting and Healthy citizens with strong Moral and Ethical character, with top quality knowledge and vocational skill set. Of course good parenting will always be as important and a common denominator.

By the year 2020, average age of India is expected to be 29 years - working age population of India is expected to grow by 47 Million plus - if the basic issue of quality of this lot is not addressed on top most priority TODAY, the biggest ever problem that India would face 10 years hence would that be of a weak and poorly educated Human Capital. India therefore needs a complete restructuring of its education system and policy that should be based purely on Excellence in Content and Employability.

A National Shame:

2009-05-05T15:08:00.005+05:30

Indian Armed Forces convoy was attacked by Civilian & Political Hooligans. Shocking pictures of this act appeared all over the Indian Press on Sunday, 3rd May 2009. I could not stop asking myself if such a degenerated, uneducated and misguided Indian society really needs to be protected and is worth the Blood and Sweat of brave soldiers and Jawaans of our Armed forces?

Are these pictures not a mockery of our democratic rights and freedom that we have grown so used to and is taken for granted? These pictures are proof enough that we have crossed the line dividing the cherishing, protecting and enjoying the democratic freedom over to abusing it. I see no difference between this and 26/11 Mumbai – in fact this is even worse than a 26/11 as the enemy is among ourselves and the attack is from within.

There can be no justification whatsoever for such an act. Nothing will happen and nobody will ever get punished for this act. Indian judiciary will sleep over it for years and then one morning handout a historic judgement to let these guys go out with a token punishment. Unless, the nation calls for a total & complete boycott and a ban on the political organisations behind such an act - not just the frontline goondas and hooligans – they are only the messengers. Unless, the leaders of these organisations are punished by the Indian voter to lose their deposits, never ever to come back asking for votes.

As for these hooligans, they should be forced to wear the Indian uniform and packed off to be air dropped in Af-Pak regions to fight and save their own lives, for wild animals should be left where they belong. They have to earn their freedom and survival and only then will they know the very meaning and importance of it - and also learn to respect the very people who provide them with Free & Sovereign India.

2009-05-05T13:57:00.005+05:30

One of the best pictures of Election'09 I have seen in the Indian Press so far.

Epidemic called MEDIOCRITY – Part II

2009-04-25T14:16:00.004+05:30

This article is about how a mediocre short-sighted business & economy model is aped from the West, adopted by India Inc and how it is affecting India’s Socio-Economic fabric.
West has already seen it all and reached the high point of saturation and point of no return, and the consequences of which are: Sub-Prime Crisis, Global Meltdown & Recession, Toxic Debts in Multi-Trillion Dollars. Clearly & surely, a meltdown (mess-up would be a better word) of this enormity could not have happened in a short span of a couple of years.
India as a country is rocking with a revised 6.1% growth projected for 2009, right behind China’s 6.5%, especially considering the current gloomy, depressed and flat business & economic climate. India Inc has come a long way during the last two decades of our liberated economy and How! We have literally converted the sleeping towns of Suburban India into knowledge-worker powerhouses, with the opening up of ITES, BPO & Call Centre shops all over. It is quite obvious to talk about our economic & technological achievements quoting relevant statistics & numbers. Mobile Telephony and Internet penetration across India, Computer Literacy, Increase in Per Capita Income, shrinking BPL Population (BTW, more than a third of our population is still living under extreme poverty and barely able to earn a Dollar a day), Huge & Growing Middle Class consumer market, Technology-enabled Administration & Services, Nuclear Energy (Indo-US Nuclear Deal), Space Research (Chandrayaan etc.), Tata Nano are some of the milestones that would be worth mentioning. All this clearly shows that India Inc has finally arrived and is not limited to producing cheap T-Shirts and answering phone calls.
But then, there is a Collateral Damage that is not so apparent and hidden beneath this hype & growth story - we have paid and we continue to pay a huge price in the form of:
A) Degenerating society in terms of Physical, Mental & Moral health: 54% of IT, ITES and KPO & Fin Services workforce suffer from chronic & lifestyle diseases - depression, severe headaches, obesity, chronic backache, diabetes & hypertension – as per the latest ASSOCHAM study & survey. 24X7 work culture - the result is a shocking 27 Yrs the new Burn-Out age as against 40. 40% attrition rate of fresh employees (less than 1 year) – inspired & disillusioned by punch lines - Yeh Dil Maange More (Pepsi) – Karo Zyada ka Irada (Max New York) - looking to switch loyalties at the slightest of an opportunity for a few thousand rupees – Blissfully ignorant of the fact that in the process, they are reduced to a product that is available for trading by the body shopper (placement agency) - the more they are traded the more money everyone makes. This surely does provide a healthy and sustainable career growth. Non natural working hours – work by the night and catch up with sleep by the day? Not only is this abnormal but against the very law of nature and our biological clock. Moreover, working by the night, especially for the women workers, have exposed them to becoming soft targets for related crimes, while outside and at work all through the night.
B) Consumerist and Materialist Dustbin out of NMC (New Middle Class): Cheap, Easy & Hassle Free Loans, made it immensely attractive and possible for the CCC (Call Centre Couples) and NMC (New Middle Class) profile to fulfil their materialistic and consumerist needs, stretching themselves beyond their affordability limits – as a result, they commit themselves to long term re-payments, spreading over a horizon of 5 to 25 years, depending upon the product – White Goods, Electronics, Cars, Property etc.
C) Widening Socio-Economic Inequality, increasing gap between the haves and the have-nots - Poor have remained poor while the rich have prospered. Bharat was left somewhere far behind in the India Shining growth story. This non-inclusive growth (that still remains an unfulfilled election promise and agenda for all politicical parties) has been the major cause for the ever increasing gap among the rich and poor.
D) Compulsory Primary education has remained a distant dream. Private schools and higher education (mediocre and below average) was vigorously pushed across and are considered extremely lucrative business models, to churn out more and more mediocre graduates to feed the ever increasing demand of a low cost Off-shoring / Call Centre / BPO businesses.
E) Inherent and internal strengths of the country are ignored and not marketed / negotiated to its optimum at the international level. Two-thirds of India’s population still works in Agriculture. Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing still accounts for appx. 25% of our GDP. Where do we hear and talk about promotion and marketing of this strength at the national and international levels? Why are the farmers are hungry and committing suicides, living below poverty lines or at subsistence level, when they contribute to almost a quarter of our GDP?

Fortunately today, it is these very strengths of Bharat that has actually prevented and saved India Inc from sinking and touching the base, unlike the rest of the WEST in this global recession and meltdown. Hope this would be a wake-up call for the India Inc to revisit their strategy and marketing plans and look at areas we have ignored during all these years. There is a huge opportunity out there, waiting to be tapped and if that is done, we will be once again the India of 1835 – as reported in Lord Macaulay’s address to the British Parliament on 2nd February 1835 and I can’t think of any better lines to end this article with his quote below:
“I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief, such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such calibre, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation.”

The Monkey Act by PADMASHREE Akshay Kumar:

2009-04-07T17:49:00.007+05:30

Sorry to have put this horribly awkward and obscene picture up here but it is just to draw a ready reference to what I call a MONKEY act – while media & fashion calls it The UNBUTTON act. This is where the mankind has actually evolved from but it is sad to see that some of us have still remained just that - the monkey. Now this monkey has created quite a controversy all around us and is being hotly debated in all media & public forums.
Latest I have heard is that one among us, a self respecting human being, has filed a case against this Monkey & his wife in Mumbai courts for being naughty and obscene in public. My views on this whole episode are slightly different and precisely for this reason I have picked this up as a topic to write about.
While going through the detailed list of Padmashree Award Winners last week, I was rather amused on the overall quality of the people & the personalities in those names. At the end of the long list was a huge question mark - on the credibility and quality of the panel members behind this whole prestigious National Award Tamasha. It was a co-incidence that I had just written about how Mediocrity is spreading as an epidemic in our society and THIS was yet another incident; staring and mocking at me, my views and the deteriorating society at large.
So among all these Padmashree Awardees was also this Monkey – Akshay Kumar. Nobody knows how and why his name was included there. Quite likely that he would have jumped and danced around on a Singh is King number at the wedding reception of a panel member’s son or daughter and this was a part of the compensation deal or a favour returned. From any stretch of my imagination I cannot think of any other valid reason for his name being in that list.
Sure enough, he was there at the award ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan, strictly dressed as a human being (as per the protocol and probably as instructed), moving among the high and mighty to receive his dues for his last year’s shaadi ka jalwa appearance at the farmhouse. And a few days later, he was back to what he actually is – at Lakme Fashion Week - indulging in this monkey act.
We can not expect a monkey to change into a human being in one lifetime or behave as a human being by giving him one Padmashree Award – this is too much to expect from this poor creature.
On a more serious note - Why do we shoot the messenger all the time? Who are the panel of judges for this list? Who is the brain behind the final list of all the National Awards? Why are they not responsible for this act? How can they include monkeys in this list? Have we as a nation run out of any better quality Indian citizens worthy of these awards?
Ashish.

50% Reservation Quota for Youth at Parliament.

2009-04-06T11:34:00.003+05:30

Below is the full text of my Blog at lead India'09.

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82% of YOUNG India wants to be under Reservation Quota at Parliament...
50% Reservation in Parliament for Youth: 82% say, YES.

This is with reference to the on-going “Young India Asks” poll - 50% Reservation in Parliament for Youth? I am very disappointed that 82% of us have already voted FOR, until the time I start writing this blog. This number would surely go up further. It may even cross the 90% mark.

I am going against the tide a little in this blog by bringing a sensitive but very important issue up here in this forum. But the facts must be highlighted, actions corrected, debated and argued upon to find the best way forward, in a true democracy like ours. Young India seems to have lost its focus and objective if 82% of us really feel that we need 50% reservation in Parliament. Do we actually deserve this? Will this solve the problem? Have we run out of steam to get there on our own merits, strengths and determination and would need the help of a Reserved quota? 82% of us who have voted FOR the reservation need to stop, re-visit their decision, their vote and then decide if they really need and rightly deserve this Reservation. If we can not think positive and make an educated, intelligent & informed vote on these opinion polls, do we think that the YOUNG India is ready just yet for the final assault – Voting at Parliament Elections?

We all want a change - a complete turn-around, we are restless, we have run out of patience, we are fed-up, we are raring to go: but go where? What change? Who will replace whom? How to bring about this change? Whom do we send their as our true representatives? Would they be capable and better than the current lot? How do we ensure that? These are some of the questions for which I am looking to find answers around here.

We, the youth of India, have not even understood the very meaning, objective, intent and the logic behind the word Reservation. We are so very used to and obsessed with ASKING, which is slowly turning into DEMANDING (without even knowing what it actually means) - we want ..., we need ..., we must get ..., we wish ..., Come on, Young India, Wake up! Reservation if at all, is needed for the suppressed, forgotten, downtrodden, backward, poor, Specially-Abled and other such helpless & weaker sections of our society. I am sorry to say that I am not and would never like to be a part of such YOUNG India that would fall into any of these categories. If 82% of us still feel so, by all means, go get it !!

Ashish.
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http://leadindia.itimes.com/content.php?cid=82307
Posted by Ashish Jauhari in Education on Sun, 05 Apr, 2009

Youngistan needs Young Neta but ...

2009-04-06T11:29:00.003+05:30

Full text of my Blog at Lead India'09, excerpts of which (as in Bold Italics) appeared on Page 2 of TOI dated 4/4/2009
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Everyone is talking about voting-in the young leaders for 75% of India is below 40 - Good to know but this is sheer statistics and numbers. Going by the same statistics and some basic thumb rules, the reality however is quite different - more than half of them would be below the voting age so that makes it 37.5%. From these remaining 37.5%, at least half, if not more will fall in BPL category so they are only worried about their next meal my friends, and not the elections. That leaves us with just 18% of youngistan. There are 36 such leaders in Parliament already who would fall under Youngistan category. The point I am trying to drive home is, we are fairly well represented over there already. So, before we all join in this holy task of cleaning up the deadwood to inject some fresh blood into our Parliament, may we please have a report-card published on the past performance of these current 36 sitting ducks who fall in this category? The result actually would be a big ZERO - most of us are blissfully ignorant that we already have some representation there during the last 5 years. 36 per 5 Years is 180 Man-Years and this is not a small number, if they really wanted to achieve something together, cutting across party lines. So we have to be very careful not to send an army of 100 such members out there - there is no point in shifting their base from Cafe Coffee Day and Barista to the Parliament of India. If our Parliament is an ICU patient in desperate need of some fresh blood, we must thoroughly scan the new blood before it is being injected.
Young India is very energetic and charged up to its full capacity today - the climate is such - it is in the air all around us - Hawa hi kuch aisee hai - it is the need of the hour - doom and gloom everywhere - and every single Young Indian wants to be a part of this change for the better -like a Freedom Fighter - desperately wants to be Freed from corruption, poverty, crime, terror, social inequality, unemployment, poor governance. This charged up ultra high voltage current needs proper direction and guidance. Let us not get carried away by just slogans and jingoism - JOSH alone is not enough in war - needs to be combined with HOSH in equal amounts. We need to educate and equip ourselves with enough knowledge and wisdom, seek proper guidance, right direction, ask questions, and then arrive at a clear and consolidated wish-list of what we want for ourselves and what we would pass on to our next generation.
I am absolutely convinced that together we can bring this change but we need to tread with extreme caution and make no mistakes.
Ashish.
Tags : young leaders
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http://leadindia.itimes.com/content.php?cid=81742
Posted by Ashish Jauhari in Civic infrastructure & amenities on Fri, 03 Apr, 2009.

Epidemic called MEDIOCRITY – Part I

2009-03-30T14:26:00.002+05:30

It is an epidemic that is spreading real fast and getting deep-rooted in our society & our system – it is everywhere – in values, services, business, art-forms, our daily lives, actions and inactions – the effects of which not only can be seen today all around us, but will also affect the generations to follow and may probably even contribute in shaping the future of our nation accordingly. This epidemic has such far reaching and diverse consequences that I will have to talk about it in two parts in order to be precise, focussed and brief, all at the same time. So Part I would only focus on how Mediocrity is fast creeping into our Society and affecting the Social Fabric of our country.
India is still very much considered a THIRD World country all over the western world – we may or may not like to agree and face it, has nothing to do with what the West thinks of us and is not going to change. Some of us might find happiness in the fact that until 20 years back we were the country of Snake Charmers and Elephants but today we are a country of children from the slums getting maimed and forced to beg or swim through shit and yet become millionaire on a reality game show. We have come a long way indeed, but still a Third World - thanks to Mr. Danny Boyle and to the millions of Indian fans who celebrated his mediocre film Slumdog Millionaire. I couldn’t think of any better and more relevant example of Mediocrity-worship - how we, as a nation, have grown to contribute, admire and appreciate without even realising it.
Question is: Who is responsible? Media, Films, Music, Fine Arts, Politicians, Administration, Industry, Schools - The blame list can go on and on but... What about US? As Parents, as Young India (Youngistan) and as Children, What are WE doing to fight this epidemic?
As parents, why do we accept a product or a service that is anything but excellent for our children? Why do we not simply refuse to accept everything and anything that is dished out to us and is not the very best in its category? Whether it is a 24-Hour non-stop non-sense on a TV channel or Education System or Sport or a Film or any other product or service that we see as below-average for our children, for their upbringing as a future responsible patriotic citizen of this country.
Youngistan India - A country with as much as 70% of its population below 40 years is moving ahead with mediocrity, means just that – a mediocre and below average society in the future. The rate at which this epidemic of mediocrity is growing is much higher & faster than the statistics of GDP or Per Capita that we read and talk about everyday; and THAT should be the major cause of concern to every educated patriotic Indian; even more important a cause than Water, Air and Pollution. The focus is on voting-in the young and voting-out the old ones from our parliament during the upcoming elections. Young India needs Young energetic leaders – point very well taken! But have we ever peeped into the past performance of these young ones who are already sitting in the parliament since last 5 years? There are 36 of them currently who would fall in Youngistan age group of below 40, more or less. Their overall attendance and participation in major policy related issues and debates has been abysmally low. None of them have done anything worth writing home about, except for feeding us with pleasing sound-bytes on TV news channels, that too very well calculated and politically correct ones (thanks to the political lineage of most of them). Sometimes even resorting to Jingoism as noticed immediately after the 26/11 attack on Mumbai. Do we now need this spineless and worthless young crowd in the Parliament too? Cafe Coffee Day, Barista and the Shopping Malls are not enough for such a crowd to CHILL-OUT and HANG-OUT?
The fact is YOUNG India has been extremely disappointing in showing its maturity, objectivity, focus & determination. This is the very first generation of a Mediocre India. The result is out and loud in front of all of us. I am horrified to even think of the next batch 10 years down the line – imagine even more degenerated, even more confused and even more lost in their objective and far from the Indian reality.
My travels and direct exposure to the West during the last 20 years has helped me build up a first-hand impression and closely witness a degenerating western society, year after year. And now to see & witness all of this happening back home is not a very good feeling. Independence and Freedom are not synonyms and not inter-changeable terms – they are very different and if history is to be believed, all too often the attainment of one meant the end of the other. Well, this is pretty much the case with India too. While Independence came to us after a long, hard and bloody war, we are yet to achieve Freedom – is it yet another collateral damage and cost of Independence?
The apathy & to a great extent, the sheer acceptance & unintended promotion of mediocrity lies in the simple fact that everything that is mediocre is EASY & FAST – Excellence, on the contrary is always difficult to deliver & to seek. But we forget that the returns on Excellence are far much superior, cherishing & everlasting than a Mediocre product / service. Mediocre is “To Use & Throw” whereas Excellence is “To Cherish Forever”. Apply this logic to everything happening around and the difference between the Mediocrity and Excellence will be loud and clear.
Being a third world agriculture, manufacturing and service based economy as we are in reality, there is no place for Mediocrity. Especially the Gen X and Gen Y, should know that there are no shortcuts and to make it big & successful in life, they simply cannot remain mediocre anymore. Each one of us must strive hard towards excellence rather than stay contended with mediocrity.
To sum it all up – Lets change from Aa Dekhen Zara to Aa Ab Laut Chalein – Embrace Bharat!
Ashish.

IPL – The League of Extra Ordinary Babes and Hunks.

2009-03-25T17:23:00.003+05:30

The show must go on!
Just after someone has passed away or after a huge tragedy, people are so restless to get on with their life as they must continue to make some more money, they normally would say – The show must go on! Often heard on the showbiz circuits and award functions like Filmfare, IIFA, Oscars, Grammy etc. It actually means – let’s not waste anymore time in brooding over the tragedy and let’s get on with our lives.
This is exactly what has happened to Cricket in India – It is dead and gone as a True Sport. But the show called IPL – INDIAN Premier League - must go on! If not in India then in South Africa. Venue is not so important, Money is. Money of all the stake-holders. The buying and selling ceremony (Player Auction, as they call it) was a boardroom style Tamasha. The way Ms. Preity Zinta, Ms. Juhi Chawla and the legendary Ms. Neeta Ambani entered the five start hotel in their sexiest business suits & dresses - to buy and sell players - was evident of how proud and full of energy they were – enjoying the high and the thrills of it. And then strolls in the super cool Vijay Mallaya (in his signature “been there done that” style), wearing all of his jewellery and the beach shirt, probably just after the photo shoot of his latest 2009 Kingfisher calendar - looking fresh from the groovy party on those unmanned island locations. A well organized CASINO event for the neo-rich from Bollywood, Petrochemicals and Liquor industry (mafia) - in the full glare of cameras and national media. Soccer, all over Europe is played in leagues including the players being bought and sold by various clubs but not like this – in your face ! A national shame indeed !!
A classic and a grand old sport of Cricket in India has now turned into a Biz + Pleasure + Sport, in that order for no biz, no pleasure and no sport. It is now run by the hunks and their babes. The Hunks invest for sheer pleasure and the kick and their Babes bring in the ROI. Hunks are SRK, Vijay, Mukesh, Ness (?), Raj Kundra (those who have not heard of him just yet – well, he is an NRI angel “investor” and sleeping partner of Shilpa Shetty – excuse me, in Rajasthan Royals). The babes are: half a dozen items from bollywood & kollywood, Neeta Ambani, Preity Zinta, Shilpa shetty to name a few. Then there is this shameless arrogant aggressive super dude CEO – Cheap Executive Officer - Mr. Lalit Modi – the common caretaker of all the stakeholders of IPL. Adding some fizz, masti and action are the Tons of Cheer Girls – willingly offered with pride from the respected upwardly, poor and aspiring middle class parents. Competition here is very tough I heard for each one of these cheer girls have to pass through a chilling and grilling auditions. How fair and lovely! A perfect and deadly combination for a truly masala bollywood flick !! Mr. Karan Johar, where are you?
IPL was constituted last year on the same lines and in the national spirit of the constitution of India – For the people, by the people and of the people of INDIA. The nation was given its due importance, priority & recognition as the very first word INDIAN of IPL. Not anymore, now that it has moved to another location - South Africa. Now it is just another show biz event like a Miss Universe, a Miss World or IIFA or whatever. For all you know, next year the IPL 2010 venue could be The Sun City and the IPL matches will be played on the ramp. It is not Cricket anymore – it is TRICKET. The team with the deadliest, dirtiest and the most expensive tricks will win the event. The Oomph factor, the Pomp and Show must decide who takes the IPL trophy home. A lot of money would be at stake and each and every stakeholder would do EVERYTHING and ANYTHING possible to take IPL trophy home.
India is a large country and hence a market for everything and anything - so is for IPL from SA.
Jai Ho!
Ashish.