I just happened to watch "the Dark Knight" and it gave this sudden adrenalin rush about being a arbiter of justice and putting my "physical strength" to better use. It usually happens to me when I watch superhero movies, I tend to oversimplify things and get into an imaginary world where no logic resides. Things happen as I want them to be and I solve many a problems that plague our society, "single handedly". I behave for a while like Superman without a cape and am filled with this new found machismo. Soon enough, the effect of the movie wears-off, and I return to a world with realities and hard facts. This happens to all of us and the trick is, to always remind yourself that the effect of the movie will wear off soon, meanwhile not to do "stupid things" that we might have to regret for the rest of our lives.
We Indians suffer from this syndrome more than anyone else. Maybe, its because we have never felt "power" in reality and hence we continue in this imaginary world where we have power to change anything and everything. Every time we find ourselves in a bad place, we, as a nation, look to our certain neighbour and say out aloud "At least we are better off than them. Look at that mess". There are times however even this "being better off" syndrome doesn't help and that is the time we look for ways and means to be called a "WORLD POWER". Our media begins to pick out small news items from various parts of the world where someone, somehow and in some context said the following... "India is a global power". Then this news item will be broadcast with supporting theories that we are actually a world power. The reality is far from that, the moment "India- the world power" tries to flex its muscles to try and control an errant neighbour, we as a nation realise that we are a power as long as we don't actually exercises the power. Cos if we do, we will realise that our voice doesn't resonate enough in this world. We have to come out of that glamour effect and realise the reality that we do not have the clout to pull off adventures.
The latest adventure of Uncle Sam in our neighbourhood aka "Operation Geronimo" where-in the President of the USA authorised a small team to hunt down the dreaded terrorist Osama Bin Laden caught the imagination of Indians and sure enough we were caught in the "superhero" effect. People in India started suggesting the Government Of India start authorising such raids on India's most wanted living in our neighbourhood. We again started to hear comparisons saying they killed Bin Laden and yet we continue to feed Kasab in our prisons. India should emulate American way of hot pursuit on terrorists. Then as usual the BJP started with why is Afzal guru not hanged yet?? and the Congress responded saying why did we surrender terrorists in Kandhahar?? Sure enough the superhero effect will wear off and we will realise that we do not have the money / political / military clout to breach the airspace of a sovereign state and make them feel stupid rather than retaliate. Should we be expecting India to behave in a way Uncle Sam pursued Osama Bin laden?? I think its not the way we operate and every single time we equate India to America, remember one single thing. The US spent $1.3 trillion over 10 years to neutralise one person and marginally disrupt his network. The day India can spare that much money after its usual expenses on education, health care, upliftment of poor, social schemes, writing off farmer loans, upgrading infrastructure etc. we can surely bankroll our neighbour into allowing us the liberty of making them feel stupid. Until such a time, we need to stick to conventional means of pleading with others to talk sense to them. Our neighbour will not change, so maybe in 10 years time we will actually get this chance to embarass them. Until then, lets just watch the Americans pull off such daredevil acts and lets applaud the effort.
So long...
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
Osama must die... but should we celebrate?
May 02 2011, the dawn that saw the end of most wanted terrorist on the face of the earth, i.e. Osama bin Laden. In the wee hours of 02 May, a small contingent of US forces conducted a raid using two army choppers and engaged the residents of a palatial house at Abbotabad. Couple of hours later, all the five residents were found dead and one among them was Osama bin Laden. The US forces took custody of the his remains and broke the news to their boss who was more than happy and congratulated them for a job well done. At 23:00 hours EDT, the world heard of the news from the US President Barack Obama about "justice done" after 9 1/2 years. The President was cautious and told his fellow Americans that the war on terror was not won as yet. This news brought large crowds of Americans into the streets of New York city and many other cities all around the US. People were seen celebrating the death of a terrorist who had inflicted a major damage to the US in recent history. Most politicians extended warm greetings to fellow Americans on this day of victory and joined in their celebration. This forced me to think, should we be so happy about this event? Have we, as a society become so vengeful that we celebrate the killing of people who have wronged the society. I can understand the families of people who died in the 9/11 carnage feeling a sense of justice, but celebrations were way over the top. It was a solemn event and I expected the President (whom I admire) to advice his countrymen that this was not an event to rejoice but an event to stand solidly behind the US Marines who are working so far away from home to bring those people to justice who wronged the Americans. It was an event to feel sorrow for the loss of another life and the irony that it was necessary in the larger interest of society. Rejoicing the event of death does not speak well of a civil society.
Ever seen a judge rejoice the event of awarding a death sentence to a convict? Even if the accused has committed a heinous crime that owes no leniency, the judge awards the death sentence only in "the rarest of the rare" case. It shows the sacredness that we attach to life, like the old adage "when ever blood is spilled, humanity dies". In a society, where justice that takes away the life of a convict is treated as a solemn event, public rejoicing of the killing of one's wrongdoers, seems a little barbaric. In any case, the fight against the scourge of terrorism did not start with Bin Laden nor will it end with him. It is a continuous process and has to carried out always. There are several layers to that fight and each one of us can contribute in a major way. The security forces should have to interfere only in extreme cases and we should be aware that lives will be lost in that eventuality; so it should never be the first response to terrorism. Terrorism breeds with the insecurity and one person's terrorist is another person's hero. This can be known from the facts that there was a huge following for the likes of Hitler, Bin Laden even though they authorised mass murders. So the problem are not these individuals, its their ideology. If we as a society have to defeat terrorism then its time we stop hunting down Bin Ladens and Al Zahawaris or radical religious groups. Pointed killings take a racial/ethnic/religious overtone and creates a mistrust among the society. If we have to defeat these groups, we have to defeat their ideology and to defeat an ideology, one has to bend a little to pick up the people around you. If we are too stubborn to bend or are not accommodating to other people's views, then this war on terrorism will be a perpetual one. I hope the better sense prevails among the leaders of the world after the demise of one of the most wanted terrorist and they use the event to reach out rather than to celebrate.
So long....
Ever seen a judge rejoice the event of awarding a death sentence to a convict? Even if the accused has committed a heinous crime that owes no leniency, the judge awards the death sentence only in "the rarest of the rare" case. It shows the sacredness that we attach to life, like the old adage "when ever blood is spilled, humanity dies". In a society, where justice that takes away the life of a convict is treated as a solemn event, public rejoicing of the killing of one's wrongdoers, seems a little barbaric. In any case, the fight against the scourge of terrorism did not start with Bin Laden nor will it end with him. It is a continuous process and has to carried out always. There are several layers to that fight and each one of us can contribute in a major way. The security forces should have to interfere only in extreme cases and we should be aware that lives will be lost in that eventuality; so it should never be the first response to terrorism. Terrorism breeds with the insecurity and one person's terrorist is another person's hero. This can be known from the facts that there was a huge following for the likes of Hitler, Bin Laden even though they authorised mass murders. So the problem are not these individuals, its their ideology. If we as a society have to defeat terrorism then its time we stop hunting down Bin Ladens and Al Zahawaris or radical religious groups. Pointed killings take a racial/ethnic/religious overtone and creates a mistrust among the society. If we have to defeat these groups, we have to defeat their ideology and to defeat an ideology, one has to bend a little to pick up the people around you. If we are too stubborn to bend or are not accommodating to other people's views, then this war on terrorism will be a perpetual one. I hope the better sense prevails among the leaders of the world after the demise of one of the most wanted terrorist and they use the event to reach out rather than to celebrate.
So long....
Monday, April 25, 2011
Hum to aise hi hain bhaiyya...
In Indian English we say, "We are like this only". This one line summarises all that is wrong with Indian mentality. It could be a culture shock for any person from an European or North American or even Asian background that Indians justify all their fault lines with one classic line "Hum to aise hi hain bhaiyya". This does not have to be inane habits like free loading, hard bargaining or even curious food habits, we Indians justify even many illegal activities (some criminal too) with this classic line. Apparently, this "sab chalta hain" attitude is not just unique to common citizens, it runs all through the power corridors; all through to grass root levels. Its shocking that sometimes we come across as very callous and inhuman because of this attitude, yet we happily harp on this "carefree" nature.
There are several examples I could state here to hammer in my point but I would stick to 4-5 points that affect us on a day to day basis. Firstly, we Indians suffer from a superiority complex that is very strange. Strange because at one end we pride ourselves calling our country among the poor countries and pass off all our failings with the following, ".... after all we are a poor country"; but at the same time we want the world to salute our cultural richness and we want to show that we are the only country rich with customs and traditions that go back 3000 years from today. We feel that this one argument (our cultural richness) should win us the crown of being the best country in the world. The fact being, most of the cultural richness has been lost in the past few centuries and we are left with being just brash prudes. We Indians, just want to be holier than thou and just do not see our own failings. Our Khap panchayats, caste system, untouchability, religious fanaticism, racism are legendary; but we pass them off as "..this is our custom for thousands of years". Fact being we are one of the most intolerant class of people to people different from us. We, in 2011 still live in ghettos and do not have a community system. We, still believe in killing our children and young adults who refuse to follow the archaic tradition of caste system and call it "honor killing". Even though we want to pass off as a modern society, we still treat our women as commodity and property. With so many failings, we still want to brag about our cultural richness.
Indians, along with Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are a select group of people who have very low respect for the rule of law. Everyone living in the subcontinent thinks he or she should be exempt from the rule of law. Most of us want to cut lines and processes put in place to expedite our work. To get this done, we are ready to pay off the authorities and/or politicians. We subvert the rules so often and in such high frequency that subversion of rules becomes a rule and compliance starts to look an exception.
Ex1: We are so used to eve-teasing and groping females on our transport system that if some woman stands up to the offender, she is asked not to make a "big fuss". Even her family asks her to change her routine or dress habits or to avoid taking public transport. We seem to have accepted eve teasing as a way of life rather than an offense.
Ex2: We are so used to corruption that if we find a police officer/ bureaucrat /politician who is upright, he stands out among the lot when in reality, it should be the other way around. We should have so many honest people in government service that the corrupt should stand out like a nail waiting to be hammered.
We like to spit on our roads; piss on our walls; be disrespectful to women; misuse public properties and if stopped we have the guts to ask "tere baap ka kya jata hain"... in other words, we have no sense of ownership of our country and are okay with our country going to the dogs as long as we are doing fine, making money and living a peaceful life.
We Indians, have never got out of the feudal mindset. We were ruled by kings and foreigners for so long that even with the advent of democracy, each authority has a feudal touch and every government organization is run like a personal fief. Very few regard that they are simply discharging the constitutional obligations of the chair or post they are holding and the authority they command is due to the chair and not to them personally. Long after demitting office, people continue to exert influence and want to remain drunk in power. This creates a VVIP culture that is unique to India, we continue to use official perks even after retirement, we hate to relinquish powers and always hang around the power corridors for bragging rights and influence. We have so many exceptions to the rules that it becomes impossible to implement any kind of security establishment without loop holes. Indians are unique in a way where a person breaking laws continuously is a sought after person for "jugaad" or his range of influence rather than being treated as a felon who should be behind bars.
Freeloading is another bad habit I hate in us Indians, we simply do not want to pay for the facilities we use. We want free goodies on the stuff we buy, we want tax benefits on the loans we take, we want cheap power, we want cheap fuels and the worst, we want a share in the social schemes meant for the poor and downtrodden. People wonder how after 64 years of independence we have so many poor in India. The reason is very simple. We have no qualms in using up the resources meant for the poor to become richer when they are dying by the hundreds everyday. Government of India provides for subsidized fuel, food grains, loans and even college education for the poor and downtrodden. In fact, no other country spends as much on upliftment of poor and on social schemes as the Government of India, and yet we are a poor country. That is because most of the subsidized fuel is used to drive the gas guzzling SUVs or is used by mafia to pilfering. The middle class, uses the food grains meant for use of the poor to cut their household costs; restaurant owners use the subsidized fuels and grains to cut operating costs, people use fake income certificates to usurp the rights of poor students to a decent college education. The result, the Government budget for social schemes keep inscreasing and the poor don't get an ounce of the proceeds. Its a viscious cycle and everyone is onto it. The lack of moral fibre in our society appals me. I feel sorry that we as a society have grown to be a bunch of free loaders who would rather use up some one else's resources for a better tomorrow than provide it to a poor and needy person who needs it today. We do all these things and then have the guts to be self righteous and preach morals and ethics to others.
Actually, Indians are one of the most industrious and smart people. We are good with numbers, we are agile to changes in the world and very very adaptive. We have so many qualities that help us win and most of these qualities come naturally to us. We just have to be little more civilized and little more in-tune to needs of others as compared to ourselves. We should stop using our rich culture as a shield to cover our failings as its amply clear, there are many aspects of our culture and tradition that would shame many a societies. We must be grounded with the thought that like most civilizations we have our pluses and minuses and with an eye to improve on our minuses, we have to keep making best use of our plus points. We should be Indians first and religion must take a back-seat always on your identity. Lets stop being proud of "hum to aise hi hain" and try and improve our society.
So long...
There are several examples I could state here to hammer in my point but I would stick to 4-5 points that affect us on a day to day basis. Firstly, we Indians suffer from a superiority complex that is very strange. Strange because at one end we pride ourselves calling our country among the poor countries and pass off all our failings with the following, ".... after all we are a poor country"; but at the same time we want the world to salute our cultural richness and we want to show that we are the only country rich with customs and traditions that go back 3000 years from today. We feel that this one argument (our cultural richness) should win us the crown of being the best country in the world. The fact being, most of the cultural richness has been lost in the past few centuries and we are left with being just brash prudes. We Indians, just want to be holier than thou and just do not see our own failings. Our Khap panchayats, caste system, untouchability, religious fanaticism, racism are legendary; but we pass them off as "..this is our custom for thousands of years". Fact being we are one of the most intolerant class of people to people different from us. We, in 2011 still live in ghettos and do not have a community system. We, still believe in killing our children and young adults who refuse to follow the archaic tradition of caste system and call it "honor killing". Even though we want to pass off as a modern society, we still treat our women as commodity and property. With so many failings, we still want to brag about our cultural richness.
Indians, along with Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are a select group of people who have very low respect for the rule of law. Everyone living in the subcontinent thinks he or she should be exempt from the rule of law. Most of us want to cut lines and processes put in place to expedite our work. To get this done, we are ready to pay off the authorities and/or politicians. We subvert the rules so often and in such high frequency that subversion of rules becomes a rule and compliance starts to look an exception.
Ex1: We are so used to eve-teasing and groping females on our transport system that if some woman stands up to the offender, she is asked not to make a "big fuss". Even her family asks her to change her routine or dress habits or to avoid taking public transport. We seem to have accepted eve teasing as a way of life rather than an offense.
Ex2: We are so used to corruption that if we find a police officer/ bureaucrat /politician who is upright, he stands out among the lot when in reality, it should be the other way around. We should have so many honest people in government service that the corrupt should stand out like a nail waiting to be hammered.
We like to spit on our roads; piss on our walls; be disrespectful to women; misuse public properties and if stopped we have the guts to ask "tere baap ka kya jata hain"... in other words, we have no sense of ownership of our country and are okay with our country going to the dogs as long as we are doing fine, making money and living a peaceful life.
We Indians, have never got out of the feudal mindset. We were ruled by kings and foreigners for so long that even with the advent of democracy, each authority has a feudal touch and every government organization is run like a personal fief. Very few regard that they are simply discharging the constitutional obligations of the chair or post they are holding and the authority they command is due to the chair and not to them personally. Long after demitting office, people continue to exert influence and want to remain drunk in power. This creates a VVIP culture that is unique to India, we continue to use official perks even after retirement, we hate to relinquish powers and always hang around the power corridors for bragging rights and influence. We have so many exceptions to the rules that it becomes impossible to implement any kind of security establishment without loop holes. Indians are unique in a way where a person breaking laws continuously is a sought after person for "jugaad" or his range of influence rather than being treated as a felon who should be behind bars.
Freeloading is another bad habit I hate in us Indians, we simply do not want to pay for the facilities we use. We want free goodies on the stuff we buy, we want tax benefits on the loans we take, we want cheap power, we want cheap fuels and the worst, we want a share in the social schemes meant for the poor and downtrodden. People wonder how after 64 years of independence we have so many poor in India. The reason is very simple. We have no qualms in using up the resources meant for the poor to become richer when they are dying by the hundreds everyday. Government of India provides for subsidized fuel, food grains, loans and even college education for the poor and downtrodden. In fact, no other country spends as much on upliftment of poor and on social schemes as the Government of India, and yet we are a poor country. That is because most of the subsidized fuel is used to drive the gas guzzling SUVs or is used by mafia to pilfering. The middle class, uses the food grains meant for use of the poor to cut their household costs; restaurant owners use the subsidized fuels and grains to cut operating costs, people use fake income certificates to usurp the rights of poor students to a decent college education. The result, the Government budget for social schemes keep inscreasing and the poor don't get an ounce of the proceeds. Its a viscious cycle and everyone is onto it. The lack of moral fibre in our society appals me. I feel sorry that we as a society have grown to be a bunch of free loaders who would rather use up some one else's resources for a better tomorrow than provide it to a poor and needy person who needs it today. We do all these things and then have the guts to be self righteous and preach morals and ethics to others.
Actually, Indians are one of the most industrious and smart people. We are good with numbers, we are agile to changes in the world and very very adaptive. We have so many qualities that help us win and most of these qualities come naturally to us. We just have to be little more civilized and little more in-tune to needs of others as compared to ourselves. We should stop using our rich culture as a shield to cover our failings as its amply clear, there are many aspects of our culture and tradition that would shame many a societies. We must be grounded with the thought that like most civilizations we have our pluses and minuses and with an eye to improve on our minuses, we have to keep making best use of our plus points. We should be Indians first and religion must take a back-seat always on your identity. Lets stop being proud of "hum to aise hi hain" and try and improve our society.
So long...
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Not thus.. not thus..
I had promised myself to tone down the political rhetoric in my blog posts and take neutral subjects up for discussion but last night events pissed me off big time. Seriously, I have never been more angry than I was last night. It was just a news item I was watching and all of a sudden I began to unravel a pattern and (maybe it was overdue) I felt disgusted about all events surrounding us. Let me take names and shame some people today. Frankly, they deserve it and deserve it thoroughly. A few days ago, there was a major "uprising" of sorts with thousands of people "voluntarily" taking to the streets to rid India of corruption. Media called it "India's jasmine revolution" and went hammering on the points that modern India's most corrupt government was ruling at the centre (the United Progressive Alliance) and it was time to force the government to act against corruption and introduce stringent legislation to that effect. It was all over the news channels with TIMES NOW dedicating 90 minutes of its prime time to telecast LIVE from Jantar-Mantar where the people gathered to agitate against the government. In the days to follow many senior editors (print and electronic) criticized the kind of coverage the media gave to the agitators and did not provide any platform to the government to give a point of view. I vividly remember mention of Tahrir square and Gadaffi in a agitation of people against a "democratically" elected government. I was not sure what was the point Mr. Arnab Goswami (editor, TIMES NOW) was trying to hit at, after all India is not governed by a dictator and the present Government had received a fresh mandate not 18 months ago. So how is this a Tahrir square or Gadaffi's Libya ?
Before the advent of Anna Hazare and his crusade, TIMES NOW was after the CWG scam nailing Mr. Suresh Kalmadi (Congress leader), before that Adarsh society scam nailing Mr. Ashok Chavan (Congress CM), before that 2G spectrum scam nailing A. Raja (union minister for telecom). Yesterday, TIMES NOW ran an exclusive 1 hour program on how Pondicherry L-G Iqbal Singh (a nominated head of Union territory) used his office to get benefits for trusts run by his son and relatives when the rest of the channels were capturing a watershed moment in West Bengal politics (Mamata Banerjee crushing the Left front) Let me point out, Iqbal Singh was a Congress MP before he became the L-G of Pondicherry. In the Hasan Ali case (stashing crores of rupees in foreign banks), only the names of ex- congress CM and MPs are doing the rounds in the media. If we go by the views of Mr. Arnab Goswami, Congress is the single largest threat to India and most corrupt organization (political or otherwise). Maybe, Mr. Goswami, just like me was highly irritated of how blatantly politicians indulge in corruption today. Even more, they get away scot free most of the times and the money they launder is almost never recovered. Today, there is hardly any important politician who is not involved in corruption of one form or the other. If I may say, this scourge is so grave that people should not trivialise this and more importantly, not politicise it. However, the reality is far from this. Over past 4 months, I have seen TIMES NOW selectively pick out scams involving Congress ruled states. So there was CWG, 2G, Adarsh scam, Ashok Gehlot (Rajasthan CM), Shiela Dixit (Delhi CM) and Iqbal Singh (L-G, Pondicherry) and more might come in the near future. However, the mining scam in Karnataka, de-notification of prime land by the CM of Karnataka, Operation LOTUS which involved in the Bellary Reddy bothers paying 20 non BJP elected representative a sum of Rs 30 crores to resign as MLAs and get re-elected on a BJP ticket, Madhya Pradesh Government giving away land at throw away prices or the Gujarat government's complicity in so many encounter killings failed to make the glorious list. Perhaps, these "little" scams were not honorable enough to be mentioned or maybe like Arun Jaitley says "they were not mother of all scams". My humble request to Mr. Arnab Goswami, the BJP politicians are trying their best and working overtime to get a honorable mention in your channel's so called crusade against political corruption. Don't let their entire effort go waste by covering up these scams and never mentioning them in your shows. They are sad because you and your channel never acknowledge their presence and have been talking only about Congress and the Congress-centric crusade. I do agree that Congress politicians have been most involved in scams, maybe because they have ruled the longest. That does not mean, we have to make this anti-corruption crusade an anti-congress crusade. Anna Hazare quotes the Mahatma and says "paap se grunha karo; paapi se nahi"; yet Arnab Goswami, Kejriwal, Bhushan(s) and even Anna Saheb seems to hate Kapil Sibal, Sonia Gandhi, Digvajay Singh and even Dr. Manmohan Singh more than the scourge called corruption. This is so noticeable that one cant help but see a political scheme behind this entire exercise which is threatening to take down the entire anti-corruption crusade. If it does, no one will ever trust any crusade and will be cynical of the fact that the most honorable intents in this country are politically motivated. Time to think right people. Chuck the media frenzy and put on your thinking hats.
This week started with the Bhushan(s) father-son duo being caught in malicious campaign for not being morally-fit to be in the panel drafting the Lokpal legislation. All of a sudden, we had everyone saying this is attempt to discredit them and their campaign, it is politically motivated and the Congress is behind this. Maybe they are, but can you blame them,? Over past 18 months, the opposition parties have realised that Dr. Manmohan Singh's non corruptable image is an asset for the Congress and they will be re-elected time and again on this plank. As a result, the opposition parties have gotten together with media houses and started this malicious campaign against Dr. Manmohan Singh. Time and again they have mentioned that he heads the most corrupt government of all times. Even his personal integrity was brought into question. Now I ask, does he deserve this? The PM has spent an entire life time building this image of honesty in politics and it took mere 6 months of malicious campaign to discredit him forever. Likewise Sonia Gandhi is targeted every time as a remote control or the real beneficiary of the corruption in 2G, CWG scams etc. These are honorable people who have never been personally involved in any wrong doing and have always taken action against anyone caught on the wrong foot. Political compulsions may delay the action by a bit, but it has happened always. Is it wise to discredit the PM and fight for the honor of Bhushan(s).
My submission, on the lines of most right thinking people in India, spreading a slander is easy, targeting politicians is very easy but building a reputation within politics is very difficult and Anna Hazare and rest of them must have realised that living a life of full public probity is very difficult. Anything and everything that you have done in this life will be used as a tool to defame you. In times like these, there are very few leaders who have a reputation of being incorruptible and our honorable PM, Dr Manmohan Singh is one of them. Let us use same amount of restraint while defaming politicians (no matter how cynical we are) as we might show in defaming any other person. Just because one is in politics, let him/her not be a fair game for all criticism and slander. Today, Mr. Shanti Bhushan and Mr. Prashant Bhushan realise, its easy to target individuals and give out sermons about impeccable integrity, its very difficult to be in public life and maintain sanity when you are the receiving end of politically motivated rumours and slanders. So if the same yardstick apply, I don't see the reason why the Bhushan(s) should continue in the draft panel. After all like Sharad Pawar, they are tainted too. Wat say Anna Saheb??
So long.....
Before the advent of Anna Hazare and his crusade, TIMES NOW was after the CWG scam nailing Mr. Suresh Kalmadi (Congress leader), before that Adarsh society scam nailing Mr. Ashok Chavan (Congress CM), before that 2G spectrum scam nailing A. Raja (union minister for telecom). Yesterday, TIMES NOW ran an exclusive 1 hour program on how Pondicherry L-G Iqbal Singh (a nominated head of Union territory) used his office to get benefits for trusts run by his son and relatives when the rest of the channels were capturing a watershed moment in West Bengal politics (Mamata Banerjee crushing the Left front) Let me point out, Iqbal Singh was a Congress MP before he became the L-G of Pondicherry. In the Hasan Ali case (stashing crores of rupees in foreign banks), only the names of ex- congress CM and MPs are doing the rounds in the media. If we go by the views of Mr. Arnab Goswami, Congress is the single largest threat to India and most corrupt organization (political or otherwise). Maybe, Mr. Goswami, just like me was highly irritated of how blatantly politicians indulge in corruption today. Even more, they get away scot free most of the times and the money they launder is almost never recovered. Today, there is hardly any important politician who is not involved in corruption of one form or the other. If I may say, this scourge is so grave that people should not trivialise this and more importantly, not politicise it. However, the reality is far from this. Over past 4 months, I have seen TIMES NOW selectively pick out scams involving Congress ruled states. So there was CWG, 2G, Adarsh scam, Ashok Gehlot (Rajasthan CM), Shiela Dixit (Delhi CM) and Iqbal Singh (L-G, Pondicherry) and more might come in the near future. However, the mining scam in Karnataka, de-notification of prime land by the CM of Karnataka, Operation LOTUS which involved in the Bellary Reddy bothers paying 20 non BJP elected representative a sum of Rs 30 crores to resign as MLAs and get re-elected on a BJP ticket, Madhya Pradesh Government giving away land at throw away prices or the Gujarat government's complicity in so many encounter killings failed to make the glorious list. Perhaps, these "little" scams were not honorable enough to be mentioned or maybe like Arun Jaitley says "they were not mother of all scams". My humble request to Mr. Arnab Goswami, the BJP politicians are trying their best and working overtime to get a honorable mention in your channel's so called crusade against political corruption. Don't let their entire effort go waste by covering up these scams and never mentioning them in your shows. They are sad because you and your channel never acknowledge their presence and have been talking only about Congress and the Congress-centric crusade. I do agree that Congress politicians have been most involved in scams, maybe because they have ruled the longest. That does not mean, we have to make this anti-corruption crusade an anti-congress crusade. Anna Hazare quotes the Mahatma and says "paap se grunha karo; paapi se nahi"; yet Arnab Goswami, Kejriwal, Bhushan(s) and even Anna Saheb seems to hate Kapil Sibal, Sonia Gandhi, Digvajay Singh and even Dr. Manmohan Singh more than the scourge called corruption. This is so noticeable that one cant help but see a political scheme behind this entire exercise which is threatening to take down the entire anti-corruption crusade. If it does, no one will ever trust any crusade and will be cynical of the fact that the most honorable intents in this country are politically motivated. Time to think right people. Chuck the media frenzy and put on your thinking hats.
This week started with the Bhushan(s) father-son duo being caught in malicious campaign for not being morally-fit to be in the panel drafting the Lokpal legislation. All of a sudden, we had everyone saying this is attempt to discredit them and their campaign, it is politically motivated and the Congress is behind this. Maybe they are, but can you blame them,? Over past 18 months, the opposition parties have realised that Dr. Manmohan Singh's non corruptable image is an asset for the Congress and they will be re-elected time and again on this plank. As a result, the opposition parties have gotten together with media houses and started this malicious campaign against Dr. Manmohan Singh. Time and again they have mentioned that he heads the most corrupt government of all times. Even his personal integrity was brought into question. Now I ask, does he deserve this? The PM has spent an entire life time building this image of honesty in politics and it took mere 6 months of malicious campaign to discredit him forever. Likewise Sonia Gandhi is targeted every time as a remote control or the real beneficiary of the corruption in 2G, CWG scams etc. These are honorable people who have never been personally involved in any wrong doing and have always taken action against anyone caught on the wrong foot. Political compulsions may delay the action by a bit, but it has happened always. Is it wise to discredit the PM and fight for the honor of Bhushan(s).
My submission, on the lines of most right thinking people in India, spreading a slander is easy, targeting politicians is very easy but building a reputation within politics is very difficult and Anna Hazare and rest of them must have realised that living a life of full public probity is very difficult. Anything and everything that you have done in this life will be used as a tool to defame you. In times like these, there are very few leaders who have a reputation of being incorruptible and our honorable PM, Dr Manmohan Singh is one of them. Let us use same amount of restraint while defaming politicians (no matter how cynical we are) as we might show in defaming any other person. Just because one is in politics, let him/her not be a fair game for all criticism and slander. Today, Mr. Shanti Bhushan and Mr. Prashant Bhushan realise, its easy to target individuals and give out sermons about impeccable integrity, its very difficult to be in public life and maintain sanity when you are the receiving end of politically motivated rumours and slanders. So if the same yardstick apply, I don't see the reason why the Bhushan(s) should continue in the draft panel. After all like Sharad Pawar, they are tainted too. Wat say Anna Saheb??
So long.....
Monday, April 18, 2011
To kick a hornet's nest - story about rookie mistakes
Friends, this is my third post dedicated to Anna Hazare (how I wish, it was Anna Kournikova :P ) . Every where you see, the man is present, giving his 2 cents of wisdom about anything and everything. The Sunday Times had him as a guest editor on 04/17/2011 and for once, he splurged all his wisdom in that one edition of newspaper. People call him a "naive villager" who is being "used" by the wily urban crusaders into fighting their battles. I call him plain stupid. I hear Anna Hazare was in the Indian Army, maybe he was better served remembering a thing or two about how the army operates - less talking; more walking.
When some wise man said "Silence is Golden", he was surely thinking about the likes of Anna Hazare and his cronies. Honorable intentions and plans will burn up in the political cross fire and before we know what happened, the entire "Jan-Lokpal andolan" will be derailed and the politicians will have the last laugh. Common man will again be short-changed; anti-corruption crusade will go into a limbo; people will say "man, I trusted this Anna dude, he too was one of them". Rest will be history. It has been like this and will continue to remain like this until people understand the importance of silence. Mr. Shashi Tharoor might coach Anna Hazare on the importance of silence, for it was the only difference between him getting out of the cabinet and Mr. Sharad Pawar still being inside, despite having serious corruption allegations against him. My only advice to Anna saheb and his chelas, if you want to do any good for the country, please shut up and do the work you are appointed for. I want to say there is still a chance for them to succeed, but I cant be hopeful. So many rookie mistakes in the last few days...
1. Holier than thou: If the aim is to fight corruption and bring in a strong legislation to that effect, then the people involved should focus on the task and work on it. Until the objective is achieved, they must shut out the rest of the world and have single point focus. The 5 musketeers, in this case have been babbling their mouths ever since the gazetted notification has been out nominating them to the draft committee of Lokpal bill. First, giving sermons on how government should work, then, singling out ministers and targeting them for alleged corruption charges, finally, giving out advice on whom should resign as ministers and who should remain. Snide remarks are not welcome, especially an elected government will not tolerate this for long. They might not trade charges publicly, but be rest assured that they will dig out some embarrassing information from the past that will ruin the credibility of the 5 musketeers as crusaders for corruption free India. It will happen for sure and its a question of "when will it happen", rather than "if". I wouldn't blame the government if it turns the heat on these people as no government will take a punch on the chin if someone is running them down day-in, day out. So, if I were Anna Hazare, I would stop my daily sermons on governance and giving smart-ass interviews. After all, the Lokpal bill is more important than gloating about personal achievements. "Benefit of many over benefit of few", Anna saheb.
2. Stick to the agenda: "If the aim is to get a hot girl to bed, then a man should succeed more often than not. The problem is the moment he sees her cute friend, he plans an impromptu three-way. Then on everything goes south". Like wise with our crusaders. If they stick to the demand of legislation and work only on that agenda, they will achieve their objective. In meantime, if they go picking more subjects for future crusades or try and overreach by trying to enforce too many conditionality on the government, they are bound to fail. Just because the government agreed to include non-MPs in the draft panel for an important legislation, it does not mean that the government has fallen to their knees and its okay to take a cheap shot. Every such attempt will fail and will end up showing the crusaders in bad light. In the end, government will say "Look, we tried to reach out to them, they were not serious about the legislation and only wanted to be at loggerheads with the elected government of the day".
3. Don't praise Narendra Modi: Personally, I have nothing against the Gujarat Chief minister. I don't grudge the fact that he has been an able administrator but there are other aspects of his personality and political career which are not so glowing and are awaiting reconciliation. Mr. Modi is the only leader who instantly divides the polity on communal lines. The mere mention of his name creates a political war of words. So it is wise to leave out such controversial people and not to mention them (in good or bad sense). The last thing we want is to get into a political war where the cross fire will drown the main agenda.
4. Illusions of grandeur: The fact that people came out to support Anna Hazare voluntarily does not mean that he will get the same response always. There were several "fast onto death" escapades taken up by Anna saheb and most of the people don't even remember what the causes were. The CWG scam, 2G spectrum scam etc brought the political misappropriation to the forefront and in this season of scams, people found a messiah in him and his cause of fighting corruption was supported it voluntarily. So in short, the timing was perfect. Now, Anna saheb is saying that his fasts can dislodge elected governments. He is also saying that he will continue to "blackmail" the government, if need be. This attitude will not help Anna saheb or his cause. Perfect timing is a rarity in politics and will not be always available. So its time he lets go of the illusions of grandeur. He is no Mahatma Gandhi that people will support all his causes. He should know his limitations and not overreach himself.
PS: I have no personal hatred or animosity towards Anna Hazare or any of his followers. Its just that every time someone with a capacity of change comes on the horizon, they brew a recipe of disaster by getting too involved into politicking and losing focus of the tasks at hand. It would be a shame if history repeats itself with Anna saheb.
So long....
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
The root cause analysis
Bhagwaan Buddha said "desire was the root cause of unhappiness; so let go of your desires to attain nirvana (eternal bliss)". In today's politics, he would also add "election funding is the root cause of all political scams; solve this issue to attain true win over corruption". If you think of it, he would be absolutely right. If we carefully trace back the root cause of all the major scams, only about 0.01% of the total funds embezzled are used for adding to personal wealth; 99.99% is used to fund one election or another. In India, we are truly democratic, as in at any given occasion we have one election or the other. There are Village panchayats, Zilla parishads, Taluk Panchayats, municipality, state elections and general elections. So many elected bodies and each with different lifespan, politicians find it hard to afford the continuous electioneering and tend to take up the easy route of entering into "quid-pro-quo" arrangements with corporates for generating large sums of money as party funds or embezzle the exchequer to create a large portion of grey wealth (unaccounted) which is used by political parties to bribe the voters into voting one way or the other. Today, the extent of rampant corruption is so much that having a "clean image" is more of a bane than a boon for a candidate because it hampers his ability to generate funds for fighting elections. Every political party (howsoever clean they may be) has to overlook some acts of corruption within its ranks as they need the money to fight elections and more so because the Indian electorate who knows the ill-effects of corruption do not vote (urban lot) and the ones which vote are so poor that all they care for the bribe they receive in-lieu of their vote and not the ill-effects of their voting pattern. Lack of education amongst the voting public also hampers the "informed choice" criteria of successful elections and we end up churning out wrong kinds of elected representatives. It’s a vicious circle and we need major electoral reforms to break this cycle some time in the near future.
I would like to suggest some out of the box solutions that could be tried by the Election commission of India to choke the use of illegal wealth in elections and make sure that over a period of time, the society churns out meritorious politicians. Some of the solutions are very basic and obvious ones so if you feel "Duh!!!!”, kindly bear it in mind that I have to mention these because some of the best solutions are often the simplest.
1. One ring to rule them all: Have all levels of elections (local bodies thru national assembly) at the same time or around the same time to have consistent voting patterns and effective utilization of the election funds. It is great to have the executive and legislators free of electioneering activities for at least 80% of the stipulated 5 years term. It will force them to spend the time participating in important debates in the assemblies and meeting with their electorates; planning the development of their constituencies rather than perpetually canvassing for elections. Also having consistent voting patterns will ensure homogenous governments being elected and better usage of funds allocated with governments not being at logger heads. Nations wealth will trickle down faster to the grass roots and the GDP will be a more inclusive in representation. Also, having fixed term for elected executive will let the executive to perform for a full term without fear of being dislodged midway through the term.
2. None of the above: It’s been a long time coming; we need the right to vote with a right to reject. If political parties come up with bad candidates, corrupt / criminal record candidates, inefficient / uneducated candidates; it forces the voters to choose among the lesser evil. This is not exercising the right to vote in its entirety. The voter must be able to let it known to the political parties to raise the bar for eligibility criteria for our public representatives. Every ballot must have a "none of the above" option; if the number of votes for "none of the above" goes beyond 30% of the total votes cast, then the election in that constituency will be countermanded with fresh polls ordered at a later date. The rules for this second round of polling would be that all the political parties contesting from that constituency would fund the second poll from their pockets, fresh candidates have to be picked, fresh deposits have to be made and all the candidates of the countermanded poll will lose their deposits. This would stop the political parties from dumping unelectable candidates upon us and also get more people to the voting booths as they would know they actually have a right to elect rather than choose the lesser evil. The electorate have to use this effectively and not reject candidates for flimsy or non political reasons.
3. Raise you own funds / make sure you use them: In the western democracies, there are intellectuals / celebrities who are associated with various political outfits who help raise funds for the elections. We have these eminent people giving guest lectures, sermons, doing door-to door campaign explaining the election manifesto to the general public and letting them know that if they find some substance in their plans, they need to contribute to help the candidates run for the elections. It would ensure that each and everyone (mostly) know what their candidates stands for and what are his plans for the term that he serves as the elected representatives. Corporates know if the regime is going to be industry friendly or otherwise. Working class would know if their taxes are going to rise or fall, how well the government will use the tax money it generates. Empowered with all this information, they make an informed decision to help fund a particular candidate. Collection of funds should be transparent and mostly in cheques with limits set for individual and corporate contributors so that political outfits do not use coercive means to generate funds. It also helps the electorate to identify a particular celebrity /intellectual with a particular political outfit and attracts smarter/ better people to politics which is considered a dirty game presently. Over a period of time, this cleans our polity. Since it takes a lot of effort to generate funds, political outfits will be thrifty in spending them and will budget their expenditure judiciously (since its a finite sum of money). Excess splashing of wealth or vulgar display should be stopped by the election commission. It will make the elections a victory of merit rather than a victory of money power.
4. Have registered supporters: In India, getting a ticket to run for a public post is also a source of generating party funds for all the political outfits. This method of party nominating a particular candidate is against the democratic sensibilities. Not all people planning to run for elections have that kind of money to buy out nominations. Instead, political parties should be mandated to elect suitable leader amongst them by holding impromptu election among registered party supporters (youth wing/ student wing etc.) It helps bringing up well qualified candidates who have the backing of the organization and its cadres. With this kind of backing, the candidate can generate more funds for the party to fight elections and most importantly win elections. Nominated candidates fail to enthuse the party cadres and fizz out the elections mood as the cadres think of it as a victory of money rather than victory of merit. This has to be mandated by the election commission so that better grass root candidates are thrown up and party tickets are not bought for huge sums fuelling large scale corruption.
These are a few ideas that are obvious to me which should be incorporated by our election commission if we have to stomp out corruption some time soon. Rest, I leave to the better sense of the government to add many more clauses. Maybe Anna Hazare and company can plan another crusade after they install a Lokpal. As long as my country gets the best of the politicians, I don’t care who fasts to achieve it. Petition the government, people!! Let’s force our political parties to have some suitable eligibility criteria for our representatives so that the shrill Ms. Mayawati and the rustic Lalu Prasad Yadav don’t epitomise the Indian Politician. Let a suave Dr. Manmohan Singh or an enigmatic Pranab Mukherji or a brilliant Shashi Tharoor or a calm Shivraj Chauhan or the earthly Nitish Kumar or a smart Rahul Gandhi represent the face of politics in India.
So long....
Who is this Anna? What has she done?
"Who is this Anna, Anna everyone is talking about?" the young woman asked, looking around the room. "Does anyone know who she is or what she has done?"I swear I am not making this up. This was a fashion journalist at one of our leading publishing houses asking the question when the Anna Hazare agitation was in its third day. But though her obliviousness to the world around her must be extreme, there is something in what she says. Who is Anna Hazare? What has he done so far? I don't mean it in any derogatory way, but Hazare's claim to fame is that he has lived a lifetime in Mahatma Gandhi's footsteps. Vinoba Bhave was Gandhi's best known disciple because he worked on a large national canvas. In the case of Baba Amte, the scope of activism was reduced while the ideas and methods remained the same. Anna Hazare worked on an even smaller scale, ensuring clean water here, going after corrupt Maharashtra MLAs there. All the while he lived a very frugal life, with no material possessions and no family to "distract him" (his words) from his mission to "serve humanity" (his word again).Apparently at a very young age he tried to commit suicide because he despaired of the futility of life. When he failed to kill himself, he enlisted in the army. In one of the Indo-Pak wars he became a driver of a military vehicle. In a recent interview, he talks about deliberately exposing himself to all kinds of dangers on the battle field but surviving, while his more careful colleagues got killed. God wants me to live, he thought, and it must be to serve my fellow beings.
There are echoes of Gandhi in his perceptions of a family as a distraction, his ultimate resolve to serve people and the extreme frugality of his life. But there the resemblance ends: Anna Hazare swam in a very small pond, and there he would have remained if it hadn't been for this uncharacteristic move to Jantar Mantar in Delhi. He did what great men do through history: he seized the moment. What made him do it no one knows. Why someone else – say a Swami Agnivesh – didn't do it too no one knows.If Anna Hazare had tried to launch the same agitation a year ago, it would have flopped in a couple of days. But now, with scam after enormous scam grabbing our headlines and rattling our brains, the nation was at a point of complete and utter helplessness coupled with a seething anger. On one hand, most of us worked hard and honestly to make a living while on the other, there were these scum bags for whom a crore was small change.We were a nation also at a strange intersection: on one side there was Shining India now talked about with awe in every country in the world, while on the other side there were people whose venality knew no bounds and whose greed and contempt for rules brought our country down in the eyes of the world.In other words, we were ready to explode. And, who knows, the Jasmine Revolutions of the Arab World, while seemingly so distant, had a subconscious effect on us, which is why, equipped with the modern weaponry of tweets and e-mails and texts, we entered the battlefield, a battlefield made even more attractive because the enemy went into hiding.I mean no disrespect to Anna Hazare when I say that anyone coming out at this point to lead the battle would have had the same success. But it was he who saw the opportunity and took it with both hands, and for that we should forever be grateful to him.Now, of course, the real war begins.
PS: This post is written by Mr. Anil Dharkar named "Anna anna pe likha hain". Very crisp in his points and sharp and intutive outlook. Loved it.
So long........
Friday, April 8, 2011
People ask me why I am not fasting with Anna
Anna Hazare seems to have captured the imagination of India and within a short period, everyone who is anyone is out on the street doing what they call "a second Satyagraha for a second Independence". This crusade has everyone hooking on and we had people calling Anna Hazare the second Mahatma. Indeed, we Indians are emotional in nature; we are forever frustrated with our Government and the moment we see a window or platform to hit back at the Government, we latch onto it. Anna Hazare is providing one such platform (a honorable intent) and look how everyone has found a satyagrahi in themselves. People kept asking me over past 3 days as to why I was not fasting with Anna for corruption free India and I told them I have my reservations about fasting. Its not that I cant bear hunger, maybe so, but the main reason is I don't believe that an important legislation like this could be achieved with a gun to the head of the Government.
First of all, I am all for action rather than re-action. Today, what we are seeing is a reaction to long years of governmental corruption. All these years no Anna told us not to pay bribes to get out of traffic tickets; no Kejriwal told us not to pay capitation fees for admits into centres of higher education. That's right, we started this wheel of mis-fortune. Someone amongst us; long long ago; started paying government servants "baksheesh" (gift) for getting their work done swiftly. Apparently they wanted to expedite the movement of their files and jump the queue. People who did not have grades to get into engineering and medical schools began to pay hefty sums to the management to procure an admit (despite lack of aptitude). People who barely knew what a vehicle was, procured driving licences. People who were not qualified to run for representation of local bodies began running for state representatives (MLA) and national representatives (MP) by bribing the voters into voting for them. In short, over the last 50 years, more so in the last 30, we slowly but surely esured that money power could buy almost anything in India. We did it, at first voluntarily and now, that its become endemic, we are forced to do it grudgingly. Somehow, Anna Hazare and gang seems to have forgotten the history and are gunning for the Government to make radical changes and in a haste. I want to ask a basic question to Anna, "would we have corruption in India had there been people unwanting to pay bribes"? If your answer is "NO" then instead of gunning for the government, you and your followers have a bigger problem i.e. educating the masses to not indulge in corruption, because even a Lokpal will not be able to stop corruption if both the bribe giver and taker are complicit in the crime.
People took notice of the "fast" because of the latest disclosures about huge financial mis-appropriation in governmental business. People are aware of this because of judicial activism by the Supreme court of India, the media going gaga over the "scams" and to a large extent by the Right to Information act (RTI). The time was opportune for Anna Hazare to begin his crusade, and people simply latched on. I agree to an extent that we must rid India of corruption, but the means are as important as the cause. The problem started from grass root and has reached the highest echelons of governance, in my humble opinion we must eradicate it the same way. Unless we stop paying bribes, we can never hope that installing a "Lokpal" or "super Lokpal" will help anyone. As long as there is one person amongst us ready to pay to get ahead of the line, there will be no use of Lokpal. Its mostly like polio or small pox, even one infected case risks manifestation of the disease called corruption. Its difficult, but its the only lasting solution. So if people are out on the streets hoping Lokpal will be the super man /woman who will cleanse the society, they are in for a shock. Anna and company went on and on about how corrupt the government was and how many people are coming out in the streets to support them in their crusade, I would humbly point out, "jitne log Jantar-mantar pe aaye, usse 3 guna jyada margin se Sharad Pawar saheb election jeete hain". My point is, we can keep arguing that the government is corrupt, but as long as the same people keep voting them back with huge margins, no one will listen to us. So if we want a change, target the voters, not the twittery and Facebook audience; the people who actually care to vote. Its all glitzy to walk into a studio and say "I want a change" and then when elections come around, go on a family vacation saying "how can my single vote change the system" . As long as people from Maharashtra keep voting for Mr. Pawar, they don't have a right to cry hoarse that he is corrupt. Likewise about Mr. A.Raja or Mr. Suresh Kalmadi, the list is long. So Mr. Kejriwal and Anna, if you actually care, nominate a few to fight elections and rid the society of the Pawars and Kalmadis rather than sitting on a high pedestal and fasting unto death.
Let me get to the crusade at hand; err the "Jan-Lokpal" as they call it. Yet another legislation, yet another institution and maybe yet another duplication of job description. People may not be aware that the provisions of the "LokPal" are already in our system. We have a Chief Vigilance commission, Central Bureau of Investigation, departmental vigilance, right to information, public interest litigation, ... the list is long. Our founding fathers and subsequent governments have wisely (or unwisely) provided constitutional provisions for the government to provide clean administration and for all of us to have legal redressal; also, mechanism for punitive actions against the slackers/or indulger of corruption. I may not be wrong in saying that we already have provisions what we want in our Lokpal, its just that we are not using them properly. Instead of strengthening the existing institutions like CVC/ CBI and provide them with more teeth to deal with new trends of corruption, we are running behind an elusive dream that somehow Lokpal is the solution to all problems. This is classic diversion tactics, we do not use what we have effectively and always go for new legislation to give a false sense of action to the common people. Who can guarantee that in a country where CVC/CBI etc have failed, a Lokpal will magically work. Isn't it better to use existing institutions effective by granting them more powers, than to create redundant institutions and they in turn keep fighting for jurisdictions, on the lines of the JPC and the PAC. Maybe; and this is a very teeny weeny maybe, we all jumped the gun and landed on this Lokpal bandwagon too early. So be it, only history will tell us if we were right. The Jan-Lokpal bill was drafted by Anna Hazare et. al. on December 10 2010. So lets not say we waited 42 years, we just waited 4 months and then got desperate and forced our government into submission by strong arm tactics. If we get this wrong, we are only ones to blame. For once, it wouldn't be fault of the government (sic). Moving on, let us get to the composition of the draft committee. Anna says, the government alone cannot draft the legislation as they are "sevak" and the citizen are "maalik". With no due respect to you sir, are we acting crazy?? Firstly, the government is "of the people", meaning the people who run this country are from amongst us and have as much of right on this country as common citizen, so don't call them sevak. Secondly, its "by the people; for the people", we have empowered the government with executive powers to run the country on our behalf. Again, Anna saheb.. they are not sevaks, we, the 1.2 billion of us have given them the authority to run the show. You cannot undermine 1.2 billion voices, its a travesty of democracy. You cannot hand pick a few people who do not represent anyone to draft a legislation and undermine the politicians who have won the right to run this country. Sore losers are we??? Today, if we set this precedent, tomorrow all factions of society would want to draft legislations to suit their needs, afterall, they are "maaliks" too. How would the government stop them. Do you see Mr. Anna Hazare, that you have opened up a can of worms that we have to pay- for, someday real-soon. To all the people who blindly fasted for 5 days, its easy to disregard the government and blame them for all our shortcomings, but can we take a solemn oath to never indulge in paying bribes to get ahead in life. If we cannot take that oath, then we should stop this charade and get back to work. The only Gandhi whom I respect once said, "be the change you want to see in the society" and if we as a society are not ready to be corruption free, maybe we don't deserve a Lokpal.
I would like to quote Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the father of our constitution "the first thing we must do is to hold fast to the constitutional methods. We must abandon civil disobedience, non co-operation and satyagraha. These methods are nothing but grammar of anarchy. The sooner they are abandoned the better for us.” I leave it your judgement Anna saheb, are you brewing anarchy??
So long....
First of all, I am all for action rather than re-action. Today, what we are seeing is a reaction to long years of governmental corruption. All these years no Anna told us not to pay bribes to get out of traffic tickets; no Kejriwal told us not to pay capitation fees for admits into centres of higher education. That's right, we started this wheel of mis-fortune. Someone amongst us; long long ago; started paying government servants "baksheesh" (gift) for getting their work done swiftly. Apparently they wanted to expedite the movement of their files and jump the queue. People who did not have grades to get into engineering and medical schools began to pay hefty sums to the management to procure an admit (despite lack of aptitude). People who barely knew what a vehicle was, procured driving licences. People who were not qualified to run for representation of local bodies began running for state representatives (MLA) and national representatives (MP) by bribing the voters into voting for them. In short, over the last 50 years, more so in the last 30, we slowly but surely esured that money power could buy almost anything in India. We did it, at first voluntarily and now, that its become endemic, we are forced to do it grudgingly. Somehow, Anna Hazare and gang seems to have forgotten the history and are gunning for the Government to make radical changes and in a haste. I want to ask a basic question to Anna, "would we have corruption in India had there been people unwanting to pay bribes"? If your answer is "NO" then instead of gunning for the government, you and your followers have a bigger problem i.e. educating the masses to not indulge in corruption, because even a Lokpal will not be able to stop corruption if both the bribe giver and taker are complicit in the crime.
People took notice of the "fast" because of the latest disclosures about huge financial mis-appropriation in governmental business. People are aware of this because of judicial activism by the Supreme court of India, the media going gaga over the "scams" and to a large extent by the Right to Information act (RTI). The time was opportune for Anna Hazare to begin his crusade, and people simply latched on. I agree to an extent that we must rid India of corruption, but the means are as important as the cause. The problem started from grass root and has reached the highest echelons of governance, in my humble opinion we must eradicate it the same way. Unless we stop paying bribes, we can never hope that installing a "Lokpal" or "super Lokpal" will help anyone. As long as there is one person amongst us ready to pay to get ahead of the line, there will be no use of Lokpal. Its mostly like polio or small pox, even one infected case risks manifestation of the disease called corruption. Its difficult, but its the only lasting solution. So if people are out on the streets hoping Lokpal will be the super man /woman who will cleanse the society, they are in for a shock. Anna and company went on and on about how corrupt the government was and how many people are coming out in the streets to support them in their crusade, I would humbly point out, "jitne log Jantar-mantar pe aaye, usse 3 guna jyada margin se Sharad Pawar saheb election jeete hain". My point is, we can keep arguing that the government is corrupt, but as long as the same people keep voting them back with huge margins, no one will listen to us. So if we want a change, target the voters, not the twittery and Facebook audience; the people who actually care to vote. Its all glitzy to walk into a studio and say "I want a change" and then when elections come around, go on a family vacation saying "how can my single vote change the system" . As long as people from Maharashtra keep voting for Mr. Pawar, they don't have a right to cry hoarse that he is corrupt. Likewise about Mr. A.Raja or Mr. Suresh Kalmadi, the list is long. So Mr. Kejriwal and Anna, if you actually care, nominate a few to fight elections and rid the society of the Pawars and Kalmadis rather than sitting on a high pedestal and fasting unto death.
Let me get to the crusade at hand; err the "Jan-Lokpal" as they call it. Yet another legislation, yet another institution and maybe yet another duplication of job description. People may not be aware that the provisions of the "LokPal" are already in our system. We have a Chief Vigilance commission, Central Bureau of Investigation, departmental vigilance, right to information, public interest litigation, ... the list is long. Our founding fathers and subsequent governments have wisely (or unwisely) provided constitutional provisions for the government to provide clean administration and for all of us to have legal redressal; also, mechanism for punitive actions against the slackers/or indulger of corruption. I may not be wrong in saying that we already have provisions what we want in our Lokpal, its just that we are not using them properly. Instead of strengthening the existing institutions like CVC/ CBI and provide them with more teeth to deal with new trends of corruption, we are running behind an elusive dream that somehow Lokpal is the solution to all problems. This is classic diversion tactics, we do not use what we have effectively and always go for new legislation to give a false sense of action to the common people. Who can guarantee that in a country where CVC/CBI etc have failed, a Lokpal will magically work. Isn't it better to use existing institutions effective by granting them more powers, than to create redundant institutions and they in turn keep fighting for jurisdictions, on the lines of the JPC and the PAC. Maybe; and this is a very teeny weeny maybe, we all jumped the gun and landed on this Lokpal bandwagon too early. So be it, only history will tell us if we were right. The Jan-Lokpal bill was drafted by Anna Hazare et. al. on December 10 2010. So lets not say we waited 42 years, we just waited 4 months and then got desperate and forced our government into submission by strong arm tactics. If we get this wrong, we are only ones to blame. For once, it wouldn't be fault of the government (sic). Moving on, let us get to the composition of the draft committee. Anna says, the government alone cannot draft the legislation as they are "sevak" and the citizen are "maalik". With no due respect to you sir, are we acting crazy?? Firstly, the government is "of the people", meaning the people who run this country are from amongst us and have as much of right on this country as common citizen, so don't call them sevak. Secondly, its "by the people; for the people", we have empowered the government with executive powers to run the country on our behalf. Again, Anna saheb.. they are not sevaks, we, the 1.2 billion of us have given them the authority to run the show. You cannot undermine 1.2 billion voices, its a travesty of democracy. You cannot hand pick a few people who do not represent anyone to draft a legislation and undermine the politicians who have won the right to run this country. Sore losers are we??? Today, if we set this precedent, tomorrow all factions of society would want to draft legislations to suit their needs, afterall, they are "maaliks" too. How would the government stop them. Do you see Mr. Anna Hazare, that you have opened up a can of worms that we have to pay- for, someday real-soon. To all the people who blindly fasted for 5 days, its easy to disregard the government and blame them for all our shortcomings, but can we take a solemn oath to never indulge in paying bribes to get ahead in life. If we cannot take that oath, then we should stop this charade and get back to work. The only Gandhi whom I respect once said, "be the change you want to see in the society" and if we as a society are not ready to be corruption free, maybe we don't deserve a Lokpal.
I would like to quote Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the father of our constitution "the first thing we must do is to hold fast to the constitutional methods. We must abandon civil disobedience, non co-operation and satyagraha. These methods are nothing but grammar of anarchy. The sooner they are abandoned the better for us.” I leave it your judgement Anna saheb, are you brewing anarchy??
So long....
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Sanity in Insanity
People find various ways to justify their acts of being in-human, inconsiderate sometimes illegal. There always seems to be a valid reason and explanation for their behavior. I have heard so many stories about people jeopardizing their relationships based on past bad experiences. I have heard stories about bad childhood, bad parenting being cause of crime streaks in young adults. Men justifying rapes as an act of 'revenge' and/or 'witch hunting'; the list is long. Recently, I visited a slum area, notorious for theft in the adjoining plush locality. The people living there were of the opinion that the "rich society" had enjoyed a free run for far too long and as part of their plan for social justice, their kids took up thieving to reduce the disparity seen in the society. "Robin Hood" syndrome was in vogue in this slum and they somehow did not see the "illegality" of their actions. This is just an example I am taking in context, I believe in social justice too. However, I cannot justify crime as a solution. I can still remember the words of Gujarat CM, Narendra Modi justifying the Gujarat riots as a "mere repercussion" to the Godhra train carnage. I could not understand till today, how can this be justified. How the killing of 2000 Muslims could be justified as a repercussion or a spontaneous act of revenge. Politicians across the board have been justifying humanitarian crimes as a valid tool to gain political advantage and split the people on communal lines. However, when left in political vacuum, people exhibit amazing human traits that restore my faith in humanity. In times of major calamities, human beings (not politicians) actually stand together for human spirit and not use it as an excuse to inflict further pain upon others.
14:20 hrs (local time) on 11-03-2011, a Tsunami hit the coast of Japan after an earthquake measuring 8.9 hit the pacific coast of North Eastern Japan, the world saw the crude face of nature's fury. Sendai, a small town of NE-Japan, lost almost its entire population to the tsunami. I remember watching BBC footage of the entire town being swept under waves after waves destroying everything in sight and purging the town of its people, buildings etc. The aftermath of this was not any better. For the week that followed, there were many after shocks felt in Japan and each one created a fear of another tsunami. The Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant was shut down causing fear of a major nuclear meltdown that would affect millions of lives in Japan and elsewhere. People were homeless, without food or any necessary items, without power in the darkness and a nuclear threat looming large. Yet, in their collective grief, they elevated humanity.
1.THE CALM
Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated.
2.THE DIGNITY
Disciplined queues for water and groceries. Not a rough word or a crude gesture.
3.THE ABILITY
The incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but didn't fall.
4.THE GRACE
People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something.
5.THE ORDER
No looting in shops. No honking and no overtaking on the roads. Just understanding.
6.THE SACRIFICE
Fifty workers stayed back to pump water in the N-reactors. How can they ever be repaid?
7.THE TENDERNESS
Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak.
8.THE TRAINING
The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do. And they did just that.
9.THE MEDIA
They showed magnificent restraint in the bulletins. No sensationalizing. Only calm reportage.
10.THE CONSCIENCE
When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly.
1.THE CALM
Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated.
2.THE DIGNITY
Disciplined queues for water and groceries. Not a rough word or a crude gesture.
3.THE ABILITY
The incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but didn't fall.
4.THE GRACE
People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something.
5.THE ORDER
No looting in shops. No honking and no overtaking on the roads. Just understanding.
6.THE SACRIFICE
Fifty workers stayed back to pump water in the N-reactors. How can they ever be repaid?
7.THE TENDERNESS
Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak.
8.THE TRAINING
The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do. And they did just that.
9.THE MEDIA
They showed magnificent restraint in the bulletins. No sensationalizing. Only calm reportage.
10.THE CONSCIENCE
When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly.
Human tragedy or loss of human life is always a moment of grief, we all bow our heads to honor the departed souls, but, its the people who were left behind in the carnage; whose lives are changed forever; some handicapped for life, who actually show the way. Some choose to make an issue out their experience and milk the situation to extract benefits; some others are so deeply grieved that they find it impossible to live on; some use the grief to seek revenge of the perpetrators and a only a handful, peacefully accept that the event was destined to happen in their life and celebrate the victory of life over death and destruction. We all stood with our Japanese brothers and sisters in their hour of grief, but the fact that they stood by each other is what acted as a soothing balm to the deep pain inflicted by nature's fury. The politicians did not make an issue of the Government handling of the emergency and each one pitched in to help the cause of their brethren. Even the media held restraint and did not dramatize the entire episode to garner TRPs. They were merely reporting the events and not looking for stories. (Some tips for TRP crazy Indian media)
We need to learn to grieve in a dignified manner from Japanese people. The world is bound to face many a calamities, some natural, some with human intervention. What is important that we never let go of humanity and at all times stand up for the victory of human spirit. People salute the "spirit of Mumbai", I feel even Mumbai can learn a lot from the Japan, for its very difficult to maintain sanity in the times of insanity.
PS: Special mention to Dr. Amruta Nayak Pai, whose e-mail inputs taken into account while writing this post.
So long...
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Insaaf ka Talwar.. or was it tarazu
The law is blindfolded and does not consider any aspect of the person before it except, what is placed in the balance that she carries. Once all facts are placed, you see which way the balance is tilted and decide upon the case. Now, it doesn't not matter to the law, that you are the "father" of the victim and according to you, it is impossible to think of killing your dear daughter - the apple of your eye. What matters is, when all the facts are before the law for consideration, Dr. Rajesh Talwar and Dr. Nalini Talwar seemed as much culpable for the double murder of Arushi Talwar and Hemraj (may rest in peace) as any other accused in the case.
I was filled with disgust when Dr. Rajesh Talwar was first accused of killing his own daugher and her "lover" Hemraj because he caught them "in the act". The media reports had gruesome details and I was wondering why don't the media weigh their words and stop maligning a beautiful relationship of a father and daughter. I felt sympathy for him as a "soft target" in this case and was all for a speedy investigation so that Dr. Talwar is acquitted and he can go back to his home and reconcile with the fact that his only daughter is no more. My heart went out for the Talwars and felt that it was an unfair media trial. No father deserved this. I was utterly shocked when the CBI filed its closure report on 29-12-2010. The facts and questions raised by CBI had no answers. No explanation could be given by anyone about certain stunning facts and it became more and more certain that the CBI was right in first place and the father might have actually planned and killed his daughter and servant in cold-blood.
Here are some facts about the case:
1. Aarushi Talwar and Hemraj died within hours of each other and the terrace door, that was always open, was locked for one whole day and guess what, Hemraj's body was found on the terrace.
2. Aarushi's bedroom has a lock, just like the main door and the keys were with her or her mother Dr. Nupur Talwar. The door was locked from inside and there were no marks of a forced entry anywhere.
3. Aarushi's body bore no marks of fight. Naturally any person does put up a fight for his/her life. Her body was nicely placed on her bed covered in sheets and no item in her bedroom missing or moved.
4. The cut on her neck was of a scalpel like object (usually used by surgeons for incision) and was done expertly. There was a mark of golf club at back of her head (so also in the case of Hemraj).
5. There were no finger prints of her parents anywhere in the room. Consider, on the night she died, her parents claim they were with her in her room. There ought to be few prints here and there. Someone had carefully dressed the scene of crime.
6. The Golf clubs were found at a later stage and found recently cleaned. The only object that was present was a flask of Whiskey, blood stained and bore finger imprints of Hemraj and another set. It seemed planted there.
7. Her parents sleeping in the next room did not hear any sound all night and the Internet modem was supposedly used to browse Internet till 3:00 am. So they were awake and not in slumber. Strangely they din hear any noise.
8.The moment the maid came in the next day, Dr. Nupur Talwar enters her daughter's room and cries saying "look, what Hemraj has done". Normally seeing your daughter in a pool of blood, takes you into shock that you are numbed for a while. With mind in such a state, nobody thinks of blaming the servant. It was a ploy to deflect the blame and confuse the investigation.
9. No one was allowed to use the terrace for a day and it was next day that Hemraj was found dead on the terrace. Turns out, he was killed within hours (if not minutes) of Aarushi's death.
10. Aarushi's private parts were cleaned and this was verified by doctors who performed autopsy. (What was reason for this)
11. Dr. Talwar's brother used political influence to get the doctors, not mention that Aarushi was sexually active in the autopsy report. (Sorry Aarushi, no offense meant). Some angle of investigation was tried to be misled deliberately.
There are some horrible cover up stories made by the family to explain these facts and none of them sound convincing to even laymen. Let alone the CBI experts. If we place all the facts, Dr. Talwar(s) and his family should be tried for the murder of his daughter and servant and for blocking investigation and obstructing justice. I do agree that the murder was so well planned and the crime scene was dressed up so that there will remain some missing links which would not allow the case to be airtight. Maybe Dr. Talwar will be acquitted for want of evidence. Does that mean he is innocent??? Thats a different question altogether.
So long....
I was filled with disgust when Dr. Rajesh Talwar was first accused of killing his own daugher and her "lover" Hemraj because he caught them "in the act". The media reports had gruesome details and I was wondering why don't the media weigh their words and stop maligning a beautiful relationship of a father and daughter. I felt sympathy for him as a "soft target" in this case and was all for a speedy investigation so that Dr. Talwar is acquitted and he can go back to his home and reconcile with the fact that his only daughter is no more. My heart went out for the Talwars and felt that it was an unfair media trial. No father deserved this. I was utterly shocked when the CBI filed its closure report on 29-12-2010. The facts and questions raised by CBI had no answers. No explanation could be given by anyone about certain stunning facts and it became more and more certain that the CBI was right in first place and the father might have actually planned and killed his daughter and servant in cold-blood.
Here are some facts about the case:
1. Aarushi Talwar and Hemraj died within hours of each other and the terrace door, that was always open, was locked for one whole day and guess what, Hemraj's body was found on the terrace.
2. Aarushi's bedroom has a lock, just like the main door and the keys were with her or her mother Dr. Nupur Talwar. The door was locked from inside and there were no marks of a forced entry anywhere.
3. Aarushi's body bore no marks of fight. Naturally any person does put up a fight for his/her life. Her body was nicely placed on her bed covered in sheets and no item in her bedroom missing or moved.
4. The cut on her neck was of a scalpel like object (usually used by surgeons for incision) and was done expertly. There was a mark of golf club at back of her head (so also in the case of Hemraj).
5. There were no finger prints of her parents anywhere in the room. Consider, on the night she died, her parents claim they were with her in her room. There ought to be few prints here and there. Someone had carefully dressed the scene of crime.
6. The Golf clubs were found at a later stage and found recently cleaned. The only object that was present was a flask of Whiskey, blood stained and bore finger imprints of Hemraj and another set. It seemed planted there.
7. Her parents sleeping in the next room did not hear any sound all night and the Internet modem was supposedly used to browse Internet till 3:00 am. So they were awake and not in slumber. Strangely they din hear any noise.
8.The moment the maid came in the next day, Dr. Nupur Talwar enters her daughter's room and cries saying "look, what Hemraj has done". Normally seeing your daughter in a pool of blood, takes you into shock that you are numbed for a while. With mind in such a state, nobody thinks of blaming the servant. It was a ploy to deflect the blame and confuse the investigation.
9. No one was allowed to use the terrace for a day and it was next day that Hemraj was found dead on the terrace. Turns out, he was killed within hours (if not minutes) of Aarushi's death.
10. Aarushi's private parts were cleaned and this was verified by doctors who performed autopsy. (What was reason for this)
11. Dr. Talwar's brother used political influence to get the doctors, not mention that Aarushi was sexually active in the autopsy report. (Sorry Aarushi, no offense meant). Some angle of investigation was tried to be misled deliberately.
There are some horrible cover up stories made by the family to explain these facts and none of them sound convincing to even laymen. Let alone the CBI experts. If we place all the facts, Dr. Talwar(s) and his family should be tried for the murder of his daughter and servant and for blocking investigation and obstructing justice. I do agree that the murder was so well planned and the crime scene was dressed up so that there will remain some missing links which would not allow the case to be airtight. Maybe Dr. Talwar will be acquitted for want of evidence. Does that mean he is innocent??? Thats a different question altogether.
So long....
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