AUGUST SURPRISE

AUGUST SURPRISE

August is supposed to be a month full of celebrations, but instead it has been full of surprise. The first on was the working of our Parliament. Instead of the mindless disruptions in the Parliament, we actually saw the opposition cornering the ruling government on CWG mess through some robust debates and facts. We were beginning to settle with adjournment and Logjams as synonyms for the parliament all thanks to our opposition parties. But good sense prevailed this time on BJP and finally the Loksabha looked like what it used to be. For the BJP, the debate was also a much-needed act of atonement. While the BJP's all-out offensive against the Prime Minister's Office for corruption over the 2010 Commonwealth Games might be part of a larger political strategy, there are certain charges that the government must answer. One of them is the appointment of Suresh Kalmadi despite three consecutive sports ministers writing to the PMO and warning against him and his style of working. Kalmadi may rightly be in the dock for wrongdoing, but he couldn't have had a free rein without the support, of his political bosses. Similarly, Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit’s role cannot be ignored after the allegations made by the CAG audit and Shunglu committee reports. Her Government is accused of favoring particular companies in getting imported lights for the streets of Delhi among other things. Multiple civic bodies and sub-committees set up to decorate the capital city for the international event only facilitated the lack of accountability and over expenditure thus resulting in a huge mess and loot of the public coffers.
Our Next surprises were on the international front. The London riots and their powerless Police. Also the sorry state of the world’s richest economy resulting in a turbulent market across the world including our own. “The return of the recession” seems to be the scary movie which we would all be watching for the next year or so thanks to the Udhaar State of America. Both these things will affect us directly. Whereas the markets are still not steady after the last week’s spin, the UK riots worry us, given the intensive India-UK trade ties and a large Indian diaspora. Britishers rake their heads to find reasons for mindless looting and rioting, among rising concerns on erosion of authority in the English society. A chorus of establishment voices responded to pictures of school-age children looting late at night by reaching to blame the parents. MPs and David Cameron were talking about a broken Britain and its culture, and London's mayor said adults and teachers needed to be given back the right to impose authority. With nation wide calls from the Prime minister himself and debates on poor parenting and bad schooling, we Indians and Chinese including Amy Chua are happy to see our methods of strict parenting and disciplined schools being endorsed by the our ex rulers. Let us hope that Amy Chua's 'Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother' would be the one book that would be flying off the shelf of the Bookstores in UK.