A Just closure

Public and political pressure has forced the government to hang both Ajmal Kasab and Afzal guru. Whatever may be the reason one needs to applaud the government for once exceeding expectations and biting the bullet. Both the terrorists have hit symbols of India's pride one an economic capital the other the Nations parliament, in action on these cases would have refelcted poorly on India as a strong state. Such decisions by the government reinforce and give a message to future terrorists that this country does not tolerate terrorism.

For long India has been known for its prevarication on such issues more due to the sensitivities related to region, religion etc. The killers of Rajiv Gandhi and Beant singh are still alive. A closure on both these cases is needed. The state should be firm against anyone who tries to de-stabilize the country. I hope the cases of Ajmal and Afzal provide such precedent.

On Rabble rousers

Demagogy is a dangerous art and this has been perfected by politicians in India. Closer to home in Hyderabad we have two such examples of unfettered demagogy. The Owaisi family fed the Muslim population of the old city about the danger from the Hindus and thrived on being anti Hindu. This has created a closed community in the old city with little development taking place in the area. The Owaisis instead of using their voting block to push government for more funds and development have neglected their constituency. In the process they themselves became rich.

Over the years they ran the area without much resistance and crushed any rebellion. They have now met their comeuppance by needlessly trying to flex their muscles on the government and making hate speeches. A strategic mistake which MIM will regret sooner. This may be the start of decline of MIM brand in the old city. They have created an opportunity for others to enter.

There is the other type of demagogy from Jagan Mohan Reddy. His has mastered the art of emotional black mail of the people to seek votes. He thought his sophisticated methods of corruption will not be caught and went on an overdrive in making illicit money. He is secular in some sense that he does not care where the money is coming from as long as it comes. He too has made a mistake of pushing the congress leadership too much and is languishing in Jail.

Then we have Bukhari’s of the Jama Masjid Delhi who have ensured their community is under developed by playing obscurantist for change. The senior Bukhari was rabble rouser No 1 typically he used to make senseless comments on all and sundry issues. They had some political clout in the past but they seem to slowly loosing grip on their people and political parties seem no more interested in them.

We then have the Togadia types who also go on overdrive and create fictional enemies to raise the emotions of the people. The chief rabble rouser in the Hindu right.

As India becomes a mature democracy and literacy levels improve this kind of demagogy will end. India should attain higher literacy levels sooner to put an end to rabble rousers who use lower emotions to gain power.

Vivekananda - We need him now

Today is Swami Vivekananda’s 150 birth anniversary. A towering leader who has walked this land exhorting Hindus to shed dogma and apply practical Vedanta in their daily lives. He condemned narrow mindedness and counseled people to have broad view of life. His views on eliminating poverty, respecting women, nation building and a deep belief that all human beings are essentially divine is even more relevant today.

Swamiji would have been dejected to see the degeneration of values he stood for. He had particularly strong views on poverty and wanted poverty to be eliminated immediately. Here we are still debating if 50%,60% or 80% of India is poor, malnutrition etc, all this while we have surplus in the granaries. The topic of women’s empowerment was close to his heart and one can imagine the pain he would have gone through knowing the stagnation of their status in our country.

He would have scoffed at the spineless leaders who have no view of citizenship, nation building and governance. He would have rejected this whole lot as a bunch of goons feeding on the hard work of the country’s people.

Here are some gems from Swamiji. Remember he said these 150 years ago –

On the /dignity of labor he said - “The peasant, the shoemaker, the sweeper and such other lower classes of India have much greater capacity for work and self reliance than you. They have been silently working through long ages and producing the entire wealth of the land, without a complaint” - As we speak Government of India is still unable to end manual scavenging, such a shame.

On poverty he said – “ I call him a traitor who, having been educated , nursed in luxury by the heart’s bold of the down trodden millions of toiling poor, never even takes a thought of them. “

On Women he said – “ Why is it that our country is the weakest and the most backward of all countries?- because shakti is held in dishonor there. Writing down Smritis etc, and binding them by hard rules, the men have turned the women into mere manufacturing machines” – So relevant in todays context

On nation building he said – “ Our nation is totally lacking in the faculty oforganization. It is this one drawback which produces all sorts of evil. We are altogether averse to making common cause for anything, The first requisite for organization is obedience. – So true of our governance

On religion he said – “ First of all, you must remove this evil of hunger and starvation, this constant anxiety for bare existence, from those to whom you want to preach religion; otherwise, lectures and such things will be of no benefit. First bread and then religion.”

On Politics he said – “ No amount of politics would be of any avail until the masses are once more well educated , well fed and well cared for”

On Education he said- “ Education, education, education alone! Travelling through many cities of Europe and observing in them the comforts and education of even the poor people, there was brought to my mind the state of our own poor people, and I used to shed tears. What made the difference? Education was the answer I got. “

More on lower classes – “ The only service to be done for our lower classes is to give them education, to develop their lost individuality … “

On Liberty he said – “ Liberty of thought and action is the only condition of life, of growth and well-being”

On service he said- “ The poor, the illiterate, the ignorant, the afflicted – let these be your god”

There are many more gems of truth from Swamiji. If you want to know Vivekananda please read him thoroughly. It will be a transformational experience.

Direct cash transfer

Today is a significant day in the country with the rollout of direct cash transfer in 20 districts. There will be obstacles and misteps but definitely the right way. This should be spread across the country.

From a stage where only 10 ps out of 1 rupee reached the beneficiary any system that promises to do better should be welcome. Six decades since independence only the politicians and their cohorts have benifited with all the money that was spent under the social development programs.

Politicians will hate the sucess of the direct cash transfer since it will take away a significant leverage from their hands for attracting votes. They kept the citizens poor and used cash as a lure for getting votes. This will go away once citizens get independent with the direct tranfers and start thinking on their own. Basically this system will give self esteem to the poor. Till now the state and bureacracy have made the poor of the country miserable by throwing crumbs at them.

The direct cash transfer program is a technology led program and hence has more probability of success, we should just ensure that the required systems and processes around it are tight.

Well done Nandan Nilekani and team, this initiative is one of the surest way to eradicate poverty in the country. But will the political class kill it ?

Dismissive at your own cost

Our leaders have once again proved that they suffer from foot in the mouth disease. Some of the comments on the Nirbhaya incident show how far away from reality they are. Their frustation was evident in their incoherent utterances. They want citizens to be like cattle - be passive.Tthey hate demonstrations, they think they know what is good for us. You guys do not know how to run the country, make laws etc is the attitude.In the process they forgot that the new India is a connected India, there is no information gap like in the past. The new India is a danger to the political class they will keep embarassing them at every opportunity.

The response to the call from Anna on Lokpal was instantaneuos, the youth of the country for the first time rallied around him to push the government. The Delhi Nirbhaya incident is the second time. It is getting frequent and political class better be agile, be responsive and do not be dismissive.

The Khaps are still living in their own world. Thir end is not too far.

Democracies with a difference

As a keen observer of the US politics I find that both (one biggest and the other largest) democracies celebrate politics and the process of elections with gusto and fervor.

As in India the US electorate does vote based on race, beliefs (conservative, liberal etc), religion etc. The media in the US enjoys much more freedom but it is hard to get fair and balanced view since most media houses are openly biased towards a particular political philosophy (conservative, democratic, libertarian etc). Most of us around the world would have thought Obama would eventually win against a gaffe prone Romney representing a Republican party which fought on an openly anti-women, anti-gay and anti-immigrant platform. There was no way Romney would have won unless the white vote consolidated fully towards the Republicans but alas it was not to be. President Obama’s middle path has won him the day, his promise of not excluding anyone resonated with the aspirations of most Americans. It was hilarious to see debates on Fox news criticizing President Obama on almost all of his policies and attacking him viciously day in and a day out. In fact such strident advocacy against Obama may have pushed the rest of the electorate to vote for him.

Come back home, Indian media are good students of the government in power, they are not truly independent because of the constant fear of government using CBI as a weapon. There are exceptions like Tehelka etc but it is hard for media houses to survive taking on the government and political parties. Hence our political debates are muted. The standards are definitely improving but we have some way to go.

Elections in India are equally intense as in the US and even more colorful. Our elections are more of appealing to the emotions of the citizens (Vote for Indira Gandhi, Rajeev Gandhi, Vajpayee since they are good people etc) seeking loyalty and lacks serious debate on Health care, Education, Job creation, Foreign policy etc, it is more about parties promising something free, corruption related and some more local and peripheral issues. However Indians are more intolerant towards incumbents who seem not to have delivered on promises. There are exceptions however, today in Gujarat and Bihar Governments perform and all political parties are forced to talk about development due to the change leadership brought in by Mr. Modi and Nitish kumar.

Two exciting democracies with so much in common yet much different in how their politics are run.

Bring it on Arvind

Arvind Kejriwal revelations are no more shocking but are met with a shrug “we knew this was happening" expression. His rather indiscriminate firing has left him with no political friends. The congress, BJP, SP, BSP and everyone else are scared to death about his next revelations and are targeting him virulently. Is his model sustainable one needs to wait and see, but he certainly has a point, as he himself says his "specific charges" on Robert Vadra, Nitin Gadkari, Reliance etc and others have not yet been answered fully.

So why not launch a full scale investigation on all his charges, some dismiss saying Vadra is not guilty until proven (how can anyone be proven guilty before an investigation), others say why only Gakari why not investigate others too (first question are you clean), Reliance says their business conduct is above board. The most frustrating thing was some odd Haryana bureaucrats giving a clean chit to Vadra, it is a basically a slap on the face of the criminal-justice system and the nation.

Political-business and bureaucrat nexus is entrenched in the system and they will resist any move to break this union. This runs like a well oiled machine to the benefit of the few. Jaipal Reddy knows better, he asked Reliance a few straight questions that were uncomfortable and his portfolio has "changed".

While the above allegations of impropriety are few and far between, in general this is how the business works in the post-reforms India. Big money changes hands for all land allotments, resource allocations, approvals etc.

While i have no right to say politicians should not be business men but we should definitely ask how come (emphasis in India) in India most politicians are business men of some kind. Most of them have their businesses in real estate, education, mining, hotels etc, why, because these markets are not highly regulated and there is no entry barrier with lots of black money that can be ploughed in. Case in point Jagan Mohan Reddy, A Raja and others who have used their proximity to power to approve and allocate resources at whims and fancies.

I would say do not stop Arvind, keep bringing them on, name and shame.