Insincere attempt

As I write this blog history is being created in Independent India with the passing of the Lokpal bill (though it has to be passed in Rajya Sabha). It took 60+ years to get here. Meanwhile country has suffered irreparable damage with corruption destroying public institutions and has set India back by a couple of decades in terms of development.

The bill in its present form does not provide for a truly independent Lokpal but is some step anyway. No wonder it took so long since the class that needs to fear the most from the bill crafted it very carefully and ensured that they have a hold on the institution. It was evident that none of them wanted an independent investigating body like CBI.

As usual high sounding statements like parliament is supreme were made. SP and BSP with dubious credentials in fighting corruption walked out saying the bill was not strong enough. Lalu Yadav was ferocious in opposing the bill, he has to for obvious reasons. At the end of it our parliamentarians do not want to be subjected to higher scrutiny on their integrity. Together they proved that in India politics is not about service but about self importance to the elected individual and of course looting the public exchequer at will.

If one were to make a list of ongoing scams in the country – telecom, mining, food procurement, road contracts, liquor bids it is powerful ministers and elected members who are behind them. They are running scared about Lokpal, RTI itself is causing them sleepless nights. There are noises RTI should be amended.

Anna’s movement has scarred them enough to pass a diluted Lokpal, I am sure Anna will continue to exert pressure on the parliament to amend the bill to make it more powerful. Political analysts and TV pundits have changed their tone and have started to question Anna’s methods, they too are talking about parliamentary supremacy etc…. it is shameful. The fight for ending corruption is directly related to the country’s development and aiding the socially and economically backward progress. We will be crushing their dreams if a stronger Lokpal is not brought out. For example the Food security bill is aimed at providing subsidized grains to 70% of the population, it is a fantastic ground for our leaders to make big money and I am sure they will make a killing.

There is nothing to show for the largest democracy in the world in terms of achievement in the areas of human development, Infrastructure, literacy, world class institutions etc, we are just happy to claim we are the largest democracy in the world. Corruption is the root cause for India’s underdevelopment and this opportunity should not be lost.

Children with HIV and its costs

There are 1.1 lakh HIV (estimates vary from 70,000 upwards) infected children in India, I had an opportunity to meet 56 of them today. They are being provided shelter and care by Desire Society, Hyderabad. The society is run by Mr. Ravi Babu and Ms Mohanty with support from philanthropists and government.

According to a recent finding by the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) these children suffer from the ailment due to parent-to-child-transmission (PTCT). Talking to these children who are between 5-10 years of age and trying to imagine their future is at once depressing and scary. For no fault of theirs children are suffering from this horrendous, incurable and debilitating disease. Many of the children are disowned by parents once they come to know about the child’s infection, NGO’s like Desire are the only hope for them to lead a dignified life.

The whole thing comes back to the need for more focus on public health and government’s role in prevention of HIV/AIDS. Most of these children come from BPL category (almost all them belonging to the unorganized sector and daily wage earner families). I could gather from the visit that all 56 children are from BPL families.

The cost of health care for providing regular medicine and sustaining HIV infected children is very high and is a burden on a poor country like India. State Governments need to focus on Education on PTCT, improving communication approaches for prevention amongst BPL families and improve monitoring and reporting systems. Government action is not visible except for the customary noise on International Aids day.

Visit - http://desiresociety.org/

Killer Hospitals

Fire at Calcutta AMRI hospital has consumed 90 lives, there is lot of grief and anger in the country, there is wide spread condemnation, there are calls for justice and some blame game. We had the same grief during the Uphaar cinema fire and during multiple building collapses in Delhi, Mumbai, Surat and Hyderabad. But as a nation our grief is fleeting we forget and move on till the next disaster happens. Our governments are blind and deaf.

It boils down fundamentally to the rotten system we have created, fully corrupt municipal administrations who certify buildings for fire safety closing their eyes. Corrupt town/urban planning officials who let buildings violate all rules (and regularize them after couple of years). All across the country business houses and greedy officials collude, take advantage of the lacunae in building permits and laws and violate all rules with impunity. These departments stink of corruption.

Surely AMRI authorities will face the law but I am afraid they may get out of the case with lighter sentences like in the Upahaar case. The struggle to ensure safety in public spaces and create accountability for innocent lives lost remains a distant dream in India.

There is space for the Mall and the Kirana

Cricketer Mohinder Amaranth once called selectors a “bunch of jokers”. One cannot but have the same feeling looking at the way our parliamentarians behave, stall debate and progress in the country. One has to give it to the ineptness of the ruling party’s political think tank for messing up issue after issue and creating political confrontation with the opposition and allies on almost all critical policies. The opposition is equally obscurantist but the onus of opening a healthy debate and consensus is with the party in power. Middle ground is a forgotten term for our elected representatives.

FDI in retail, there is no doubt it will benefit in development of infrastructure (cold storages, ware houses), improve supply chains and finally benefit the farmers (middle men are hurting the country’s farmers), ultimately it will bring done costs to the consumer because of efficiencies across the chain (there is no way we can compare the cost efficiencies of our malls to that of Walmart or Carrefour etc) malls in India are for the upper and middle class and they are taken for a ride by the mall owners). There is enough proof of the success of FDI in retail contributing to growth in china (100% FDI limit), Brazil, and Singapore etc. In china itself 600 + hyper marts have been built over the past decade leading to large scale employment, employment in the sector in china rose by 100% between 1992 to 2001 (from 28 mil to 54 mil). Are we anywhere near China or Brazil in the retail space – our pathetic infrastructure destroys fresh produce and more than 30% of the fresh produce is thrown as waste. On products other than fresh produce we are inefficient in costs.

Folks who are fighting for the neighborhood kirana shop are raising a bogey, kirana will survive or transform itself if the big retailers are ever going to have an impact on them, I think there will be no impact, shopping habits are hard to change and we will still walk across to the kirana shop to buy the toothpaste and dal. The same bogey was raised when KFC and Pizza hut entered the Indian market, they have in fact contributed positively to the economy by generating employment. At the same time Saravan bhavan’s, Kamat’s and Nirula’s are still doing their business briskly. We are big country and there is space for the kirana and the mall. Ultimately our objective should be to generate quality employment for our millions and at the same time invest in improving our infrastructure, technology, supply chains etc.

The ongoing ruckus is going to have an impact on FDI in aviation, this sector is struggling and badly needs cash infusion and strategic partners. Delay in formulating and rolling out a forward looking aviation policy will hurt the private players which is unfair. Why keep pouring public money in Air India while we penalize the private players with whole host of regulations?

A Slap on the face of Public

There is unanimous condemnation by one and all on the slap gate incident involving Sharad Pawar. All of us agree, civilized societies are not supposed to encourage such behavior. The shoe throwing incident in Iraq on George W has ignited the imagination of people globally, since then all sorts of material has been pelted against public leaders (read politicians). It is now a common practice worldwide rather a best practice. Coming back to the incident, I am sure a significant portion of the population would not really have the sympathies for our political leaders being humiliated in public. As Anna said tongue- in- cheek” Just one slap” would have been the refrain from most countrymen.

This is not about Sharad Pawar, he happened to be at the wrong place, this feeling is against politicians in general. Why is there a sense of victory when such incidents happen, there is a sense of achievement, quiet glee. It is an incorrect way of protesting but there we go. There is a general frustration in the society on the overall governance and against politicians in particular for they place themselves above law and are not accountable for delivering on promises once elected. They slap the general public on a daily basis, a slap on their stomachs with the uncontrollable inflation, a slap on their purse with rising prices. Pranab da post the incident said “I don’t know where the country is going” I agree it is time government wakes up and acts on issues like inflation, rising fuel and food prices and corruption that are making life difficult for the common man. Public anger needs an outlet and someone like Harvinder will keep doing such acts. A divided polity who place themselves above the country deserve collective condemnation and ....

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.