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.

Two extremes of emotions in 24 hrs one of a modern, efficient and developed India and one uncaring, brutal and apathetic. We all go through these emotions on a daily basis, working in swanky corporate campuses, shopping in beautiful malls to an immediate change in scene to broken roads and general administrative apathy in our country. A switch to extremes in minutes, It is truly “Incredible India”.
A ride in the Delhi Metro last week made me feel that we have arrived, a day later a visit to Secunderabad rail station caught my attention on the plight of two elderly citizens struggling to make it to the train, disillusionment again whether we will make it to the top.

For the Indian Railways to be truly world class, it is definitely not about resources alone, it is about having a vision to be world class and the government taking necessary steps in that direction. The annual Railway budget is a joke with the only objective of introducing new services on the already stretched and broken infrastructure with total disregard to safety of passengers. This annual drama should be stopped and precious paper saved. Does it strike to the Railway board that there are things like Passenger amenities, Passenger safety linked to modernization, automation of Infrastructure that need to be carried out immediately. They have plans to do it while some more accidents keep occurring. Talk about ostriches burying their head in sand.

A historical day, is it a watershed moment for India

Every idea has a time and the time and need for a strong and compelling Lokpal for curbing corruption in public life has come and hopefully will be a reality soon. It was envisaged 45 years earlier, had many intermediate failed attempts, nevertheless today is a historical moment for Indian Democracy, today the Indian Parliament stood up and took on the challenge posed by Anna Hazare and the civil society. They have debated the issue brilliantly and passed a near unanimous resolution for an effective Lokpal. By doing so they have instilled confidence in a billion people that they are sensitive to their aspirations.

However there were discordant notes on the methods used by Shri Anna in achieving the outcome, some in parliament were uncomfortable that they are being driven to act by the civil society. Some MPs tried hard to impress upon the supremacy of the parliament in making laws. Some of them are scarred that the civil society will resort to the same tactics to achieve their objectives. For once they are at the receiving end. They had to climb down from their high horses and surrender to the will of the people. But isn’t it democracy all about, for the people. As the Prime Minister said post the session that the “Parliament spoke for the people”.

But in the whole episode there was disappointment in terms of the leadership shown by the congress, they failed to seize the moment, they were defensive, more concerned about the opposition scoring brownie points, they lost the plot and may lose in 2014. Opposition did not do better but recovered well and were sensitive enough to understand the pulse of the people. Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley were brilliant in the debate, the congress member’s rebuttal was weak. Once again they were defensive and addressing the opposition rather than the nation on their stance on Lokpal and corruption. It was an opportunity lost for Mr. Rahul Gandhi too, his lecture missed the point, he should have been advised better. Leadership is about rising to the occasion and he has missed a brilliant opportunity to put himself in the race for the country’s leadership. Kudos to his cousin Varun he was extempore and relevant.

It is a historical day in our democracy and it was thrilling watch the proceedings’ on TV both in the parliament and at the Ramlila maidan, there was a sense of expectation throughout, in the end democracy did not fail us. It is still vibrant though imperfect.

Fight corruption not Anna

Ask the government to make a mess of straight forward issues, post the dis-agreement with the governments version Anna has announced that he would be back with his protest by Aug 15 if the government does not revise its version (read make it stricter), instead of engaging him government chose to ignore him, they underestimated his resolve and his popularity, they hit him below the belt making wild allegations. They are paying the price. He is running away with the popular mandate.

They treated the old man with dis-respect, but this old man is no ordinary person he can run after 3 days of fasting, he is simple and uncomplicated in his demand (pass Jan Lokpal bill), he is not as intellectual as some of the cabinet ministers and congress spoke persons who are trying to besmirch him. He is the proverbial David in David vs. goliath. He does not understand technicalities like Parliament is supreme blah blah, he just wants his bill to be debated in the parliament, he wants to see if our great elected class has the courage to come out openly against corruption, they are terrified with his version, they are talking vague legislative terms but not able to convince the citizen why it is so difficult.

Anna’s Jan Lok pal may be on the other extreme but there needs to be a debate on what is the most effective bill (so called middle ground). Anna has touched a chord with the youth and middle class of the country. Is this a water shed moment for India to get rid of the corruption in public life. All sorts of intellectuals are debating and are pointing fingers at Anna, they are saying he is arrogant, he is highhanded, his ways are undemocratic etc. I agree, may be his methods are not exactly democratic but for a common man he is a messiah, the citizen is tired of the corruption in the system.

Life is hell for the common man, all interactions and interfaces with the government are troublesome, there is no transparency, they hound you for money for all transactions. The government and political class are not in touch with the ground realities, folks it is tough to live in India, inflationary conditions for over two years, high prices, 600 million BPL citizens who find it hard to have a square meal, we let food grains rot but not distribute it to the BPL families, there is no accountability in the system. Hence we see the spontaneous reaction to Anna’s call, it is genuine, and it is needed. If not now it may take 60 more years. Government should act now, next in line should be electoral reforms.

Anna all the best, your methods I don’t know but your intent we are with you.

Changing Equations

The Egyptian uprising had Facebook as a medium (Wael Ghonim from Google used it to reach out to youth in the country) to mobilize opinion and crowds, back home response to Anna Hazare’s fast against corruption generated tremendous support in towns and cities across the country and that too at a rapid pace (less than 24 hrs), one thing that is common to both mass movements is access to information by the citizen and how it is challenging the government. In this social networking world information is no more a privilege of a few, it is getting difficult for the governments to control it. (In perhaps the most secretive anti-terrorist operation in the world, we saw a commoner tweeting innocently that something is not right dead at night). There is nothing secret in this world anymore.

For 60 years Governments and bureaucrats in India could hide and while away time withholding information from the public, this of course lead to entrenchment, corruption and under development. Today the momentum in the country is against these evils and the enabler has been access to information. The RTI act, aggressive visual media and mobile penetration is leading to dramatic resurgence in public reaction to issues that concern the nation. Indians who have given up hope on development, corruption, education, health care etc can now aspire to live in a better India by forcing governments to act.

The response of government to Ramdev’s fast against black money is an indication of the new found eagerness to address such sensitive issues faster before it gets out of hand. Of course there is a counter argument if the methods adopted by Anna and Ramdev are proper in a democracy. I am not sure about the pros and cons of such information lead mass movements but I am sure the elephant called Indian democracy will start moving.