Movement at the cross roads

There is a sense of smugness in the Congress now that some muck has been thrown at the Anna’s team. Minor transgressions by Kiran bedi’s NGO etc. Basically to prove even you are corrupt so don’t preach. Anna’s team should have expected this, government will use all its good offices to get even. The good news is that even though attempts have been made to damage Anna’s personal reputation he seems to come out clean, it is good for the Jan Lokpal movement. It is not about the core committee it is about the movement and its symbol Anna.

Coming to the core committee itself they are definitely not doing themselves any favor by committing political blunders, Prashanth Bhushans Kashmir comment will not be taken kindly by any well meaning Indian ( his opinions are well regarded on anti-corruption not on all and sundry issues). In the same way Kejriwal’s Hisar trip and taking sides is no way to cultivate popular support. Having tasted success during the Ramlila fast they may be falsely assuming that public are behind them for all the issues they espouse, they need to be more grounded and understand that the public support they are enjoying is issue based. Indians are fed up with corruption and will hitch on to any group that is fighting for the issue. Anna may be advised to get rid of some of the core members who have foot in the mouth disease. His battle is better fought being apolitical, he will lose the battle in the political arena.

What next for Anna, I think his movement has lost some of its sheen due to political color the issue has taken. Digvijay singh and team have ensured to raise doubts in the mind of public about team Anna’s credentials.

Anna himself is the person who can save this movement; he should lead from the front once again to garner public support for the most important issue in post independent India. There is a definite impact of this movement which can be seen in the high profiles arrests and investigations that are going on in the country, but will these arrests culminate in sentences, we have not yet seen that in India. Hence it is important that Anna’s mission is successful and only he can save this movement. Meanwhile his team should practice what he is doing “moun vrat”. There is a lesson here - In silence Gandhiji achieved much

TTD and Mis-Management

Indians like Pilgrimages, our gods are spread far and wide across the country and many of us try to cover as many pilgrimage locations as possible in a life time. In the most popular ones there is a perennial rush of pilgrims. Temple management for all the important shrines is under the control of Government (Devadaya, Dharmadaya Sakhas). Like in other areas of governance, temple management is corrupt, unimaginative, lacks in focus on pilgrim comfort and safety, devoid of focus on tradition and heritage and is mostly a commercial proposition. They ride on the gods in their money making endeavors.
Perhaps the most famous deity is Lord Venkateswara of Tirupati since he is known to bless his devotes with abundance (aapada mokkula vadu, which means that he is the lord who hears to help you in misfortunes) The temple is the richest pilgrimage center in the world, after Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, of any faith (assets over INR 50,000 crore) and the most-visited place of worship in the world. The temple is visited by about 50,000 to 100,000 pilgrims daily (30 to 40 million people annually on average), while on special occasions and festivals, like the annual Brahmotsavam, the number of pilgrims shoots up to 500,000, making it the most-visited holy place in the world. Despite all the richness the management lacks vision to provide for a holistic pilgrim experience. The aspects of safety, sanctity etc, they are bothered more about the VIP experience than the commoner experience.

I visited the temple town of Tirumala/Tirupati last week on the last day of Brahmotsavam. I took the steps to reach to the hill top. After waiting for 5 hours in the general queue (dharma darshan) we were led to what is called Pilgrim holding centers (vaikuntam complex). I had no qualms standing for whatever time in the queue to have the darshan of the lord (it is worth the effort for that fleeting experience of bliss for the devout). I used the time to understand the queue management and safety procedures in place at the vaikuntam complex. My conclusion is once you enter the complex you are basically entering a building without any fire safety, crowd control and fire exit facilities. It is amazing that so many people go in and come out of this complex every day and the temple administration has not paid attention to this crucial aspect. Instead of investing in infrastructure and implementing end to end queue/pilgrim management models TTD is basically boxing people into compartments without any fire exits and fire safety procedures and basically playing with lives.

Such a shame for the world’s richest temple body to treat its visitors. One can understand the overwhelming rush but there should be methods to have an end to end view of the entry and exit of the pilgrims with safety.

Governor of AP has congratulated TTD for the successful conduct of the Brahmotsavams, he must instruct TTD to conduct a study of safety procedures in the temple queue and see for himself the thoughtless ways of TTD.

A loosing proposition

Farmers are the most exploited community by our politicians, every politician and political party shed crocodile tears for this extremely hardworking class and use them as vote banks. On an average a south asian farmer works around 3000 hrs/year doing hard physical work in the paddy fields. This is the highest in terms of hard physical work compared to any other profession. Yet this community which feeds the country is often taken for a ride by the government. Jai Jawan Jai Kisan (hail the soldier and hail the farmer) a slogan given by the late Lal Bahadur Shastri equates the responsibility of a soldier who defends the country to that of a farmer who carries the burden of feeding the country.

While nature, pests, insects pose unavoidable challenges in this profession, it is the policy, implementation and political issues that hurt the farmers most. Take for example the recent issue of paddy procurement and minimum support price for the farmers. When there was a bumper harvest of paddy this year, government did not or delayed procurement of the crop and at the same time set a minimum support price which is far below the real cost to the farmer, added to the insult they banned rice exports making life even difficult. Farmers in the Krishna and Godavari deltas (which are the rice bowls for the country) could not make a decent profit despite a good harvest. Most farmers sold paddy in a fire sale and the beneficiaries are the middlemen and export companies (their stocks are doing great) who are raking in the moolah due to the recent lifting of the export ban.

The farmer suffers either ways, during a drought and worse even after a good harvest. They are in a perennial debt cycle. Once in a while government throws some money on the poor farmers to keep their mouths shut but they never try to address the real problems affecting the farming community. Creation of supply chains, Mechanization for higher productivity, modernization of canals, creating markets, forming strong co-operatives and making exports competitive in the world market are issues that are addressed half heartedly.

The issue is closer home since I see my father going through the grind from start to finish year after year. The pain starts right from procurement of seeds and fertilizer for which government is directly responsible. With amazing irresponsibility year after year they make farmers life hell by not releasing the requisite seeds and fertilizers on time and in enough quantity. They seek pleasure in the pain of this hard working community.

India is still an agrarian economy with 60% of the population making a living on farming. India’s success in reducing poverty is deeply connected on how we tackle the agrarian crisis.

Anna Hazare was apt when he said “Naache bandar khaye madari” about the state of farmers during his recent fast. These folks are always on the loosing side.