In Praise of Tears.

In Praise of Tears.

The great German Romantic poet A. W. Schlegel, asked in the lyrics of "In Praise of Tears," : "Words, what are they? One tear will say more than all of them."

Tears are the most powerful tool of communication and crying is considered superior to words as a form of communication.  It’s a survival mechanism which we are born with. When the chief justice of India broke down in front of the Prime minister, it became the national news and trending hashtag. His emotional outburst was very child like as it was a cry to attract attention and demanded a fulfillment of a long pending demand from the Man in power. Do tears betray an unforgiveable weakness or cast our leaders in a refreshingly human light? Have we finally accepted that tears are no more feminine? An anonymous British pamphlet from 1755, Man: A Paper for Ennobling the Species, proposed the idea of "moral weeping for the man. It distinguished weeping into two general kinds, genuine and counterfeit; or into physical crying and moral weeping.  Moral weeping it said, comes from the heart, and is always associated with real sentiments.

 Being a woman who demands equality from men and institutions; I always tell my male students & colleagues about two things which were exclusively a part of woman’s domain, but are now shared generously with the men folks. Tears & the color pink. I am happy that crying has shed its tag of weakness and emotional immaturity. In short it is no more feminine. In fact the leaders have recognized its worth and are using this emotional tool to its fullest for making a powerful point. Few decades back Emotions were seen as a weakness in leaders, but ever since Daniel Goldman’s theory of Emotional intelligence became popular, it has gained fair amount of acceptance with leaders, entrepreneurs, sportsmen, performers and heads of nations. In today’s challenging world, showing your emotions is not a sign of weakness or lack of leadership but a sign of strength. To put it in Charlotte Brontë words —Crying does not indicate that you are weak. Since birth, it has always been a sign that you are alive.'

In recent times, male politicians have rushed to bare their sniveling sensitive souls in public. Abraham Lincoln skillfully employed tears in his oratory. In Modern times, every US president since Reagan has deployed a strategic tear or two to be seen as human and powerless. Barack Obama, the most powerful Man on earth, has cried several times on National Platforms. So much so that the catchy phrase “No-Drama Obama” is used both to praise and criticize the President. Most modern-day US presidents or candidates have succumbed to their emotions in public. Former presidents George Bush - both junior and senior, Bill and Hillary Clinton, have all been caught crying at some point. The Ex Brazilian President Lula da Silva was known for his emotional outbursts, memorably shedding tears in 2009 after the announcement that Rio de Janeiro would be the host for the 2016 Olympics. Other leaders who are catching the teary band wagon are, the Ex President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, the Macho leader of Russia, Valadimir Putin, the colorful leader of Italy Silvio Burlesconi, to former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke,who became famous for crying during his time in office. Despite his tough-guy image, he cried while talking about his daughter's drug addiction.

Back home our own Strong Prime Minister Modi has surprisingly choked up on few occasions, the first being the day when he entered the Parliament. Omar Abdullah, Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, and every other judge( not the SC/HC one) who appeared on talent shows, not to forget Amir Khan, who almost cried without shame on every episode of Satyamev Jayate. 

Steve Jobs, the maverick innovator, was a highly emotional person. He often cried when thwarted in some minor goal or ambition, according to Walter Isaacson’s biography. He cried over just about everything. He cried at the beginning of Apple after his friend and partner Steve Wozniak's father pushed his son to take more ownership of the company because he thought Jobs wasn't doing much work Jobs cried when his employee badge and roll call was reduced to #2 instead of #1( wozniak), then ended up getting badge #0. He cried when Apple pushed him out of the company. He cried at Pixar during a battle with Disney. He cried when Time put the Mac on its cover instead of him. He cried when he saw the famous Apple "1984" ad for the first time. He cried about Windows "copying" the Mac. He cried over design questions, He cried over deep issues of personal privacy, , He cried because he wanted the original Apple II to have a one-year warranty, rather than 90 days, and Phew! I simply lost the count of his weepy shows in his biography. 

Women leaders are usually damned if they do cry and damned if they don't. When Hillary Clinton cried during her presidential campaign against Obama, the event was seized on by critics as "proof" that she was "not tough enough" to take it in the top job. And soon Obama proved the entire anti- tier lobby wrong. He has deployed this lethal weapon several times and proved that if used at the right time and in the right place, tears can soften our hearts and make often distant-looking politicians appear human. He should be credited for giving the tears an acceptability which was long overdue at an international platform.

But why do these powerful men cry?

Crying is a natural emotional response to certain feelings, usually sadness and hurt. Most psychologists agree that it is seen as far more acceptable to cry in public than it was several decades ago. We want our leaders to be stronger and smarter than we are but no less human.  Letting your guard down shows you don't have all the answers, so when you ask for help people know you're sincere and are much more likely to respond.  It may also indicate that you are frustrated, overwhelmed or even just trying to get someone's attention, which researchers call a ''secondary gain'' cry.

So how should be calibrate the tears of CJI Thakur? Was he petitioning to the Prime Minister with his tears? In Saint Marie Magdalens Funeral Teares, Robert Southwell writes of tears as if they were attorneys: "Thy tears will obtaine. They are too mighty oratours, to let any suite fall, and though they pleaded at the most rigorous barre, yet haue they so persuading a silense, and so conquering a complaint that they by yielding ouercome, and by intreating they comaund." 

Did the CJI figured his tears as attorneys, just as Southwell suggested? Did he combine the tears of worship, tears of heroism and beauty, and tears of petition in a slightly new way?  Was the CJI displaying a pure emotion out of frustration?  or was it a ‘secondary gain cry’ to attract the attention of the Prime Minister? Were his tears simply serving a social function? to win support from the executive to get what he wanted?  Whatever it was, it did tell us that tears are no more a pitifully self-indulgent symbol of modern times, it can make hearts melt & leaders listen, as soon after, the Prime Minister suggested that they need to meet in private.

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In defense of friendship in the era of social networking

“Without friends, no one would want to live, even if he had all other goods.”- Aristotle:

“What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies." Answered Aristotle,  who wrote extensively about the concept and importance of true friendship. Friendship it is said is the greatest source of good health. It is the most valued relation after the family and often placed higher than family. In fact the closest family relationships are measured in terms of friendship.  Couples aspire to be best friends, and many parents strive to befriend their children. Friendship is vital for our wellbeing. Research points out that if your best friend eats healthily, you are five times more likely to have a healthy diet yourself. Married people say friendship is more than five times as important as physical intimacy within marriage. If you have a “best friend at work”, you are seven times more likely to feel engaged in your job. It may sound surprising, but our social life is more important for longevity than our healthy diet and exercise. Who your friends are is correlated to what kind of lifestyle you have. Good friends have a potent beneficial impact on your health, more than the Gym, and your gluten-free, sugar-free, vegan protein shakes and diet.

In a world of hyper-connectivity driven by technology, what is happening to true friendship? Is it on the decline? Is true friendship really possible? Has social media changed the definition of friendship & intimacy forever? Is it promoting the kind of meaningful existence that Aristotle was seeking and advocating?

Recently I began to seek answers to these questions when I went through a bout of depression. Being a person who expresses my emotions through writings, I ended up posting a series of sad & melancholic poetry on my Time line one after the other. Within minutes I was flooded with messages, phone calls, mails and offers of help, suggestions and invites from my friends. What surprised me that these offers not only came from my old and cherished friends, but from some of my new found friends whom I had befriended on social media and had never met. Being a person who strongly believes in face to face communication, I was taken by surprise at such a response. I realized that in this increasingly disconnected ‘flat’ world as per American journalist Thomas Friedman,  relationships are actually thriving!

To overcome my depression, boredom and to rejuvenate myself,  I  took a trip on my own to visit some of my cherished friends in three different states of India.  During my travel, I realized that every time my flight landed, instead of scrambling like others to get my hand baggage from the overhead storage, I would be busy sending message of  ‘landed safely’ to several worried friends and family on my phone and also to save my phone from the deluge of  messages asking me ‘have you reached safely?’ This made me realise, how blessed I was to have so many people keeping me in my prayers for safe journey. Because despite of erratic weather, it is easier to have faith in a flying machine, but increasingly difficult to have faith in a pilot’s mental health. And prayers have the power to heal mental health too!

Another thing that struck me was that, While I enjoyed immensely the company of my treasured friends (some of whom I met after years), I was constantly on my phone with a set of friends whom, either I had befriended very recently, or have met on social media and has never even seem them. Although in my middle age, I still make friends with considerable ease. The era of digital communication has helped and changed the face of friendship to a great extent. My bouquet of friends is in all hues and colours. I have Twitter friends, Facebook friends and WhatsApp friends apart from my work friends, childhood friends, Mohalla friends, Alumini friends, friends of my children and those of my husband. My son who is often shocked and alarmed at the lightening speed with which I make friends seems to be perpetually worried at the risks I take by meeting my social media friends on and off. I can never forget the horror on my adolescent son’s face one day, when I told him that I was going to meet a twitter friend over a cup of coffee. He complained with shock and anger in his voice, and said, “What? I cannot believe you Amma? All my life you have taught me not to talk to strangers and here you are, going to meet your twitter friend?” Caught on the wrong foot, I immediately reasoned him out with the wealth of  my wisdom and my greying hair and of course took refuge behind my loving husband who was accompanying me for a late night coffee sojourn.  Being a Scorpio, I am blessed me with a rare insight at choosing friends. In a glance I decide the worth of a person and if I need to further engage with him/her, I get an immediate feeling - whether someone is likely to be a friend or foe. Rarely has my instincts betrayed me. On the social media I look for discourse markers and linguistic abilities, background and authenticity, to decide if I can friend a person or not. Thanks to my research in Nonverbal communication, these aspects have always protected me against wrong choice.

Writers have always fascinated me. I fall in love with Poets instantly. This weakness of mine has accelerated the speed with which I make friends on social media  Anyone who writes well is followed by me and I often interact with them on regular basis, and if they write humour, I make sure I know them closely. These thinkers, change makers and satirist fuel my imagination, spice up my skepticism and charge my energies to bring in change through words. It is indeed a delightful experience to read posts from such people about some issue that has been bothering me, in a perfectly crafted, agonizing, complaining post laced with Pun, humour and hope, all in one. This make me think "Oh well he/she thinks like me?" and similarity of thought connects me with them.

As a child I had few ‘Pen friends’ as they were called during the 70s. Magazines in those days regularly published addresses of people from around the world, who were interested in being pen friends. The communication happened through letters only as there was not much possibility of meeting or talking to them in real life thanks to scarce tele-density and near non-existent luxury/ holiday travel. Internet friendship somehow provided the same taste to me. In today’s world relationships that travel through the internet and navigate in non digital world or get stuckup somewhere in between have certain amount of weirdness in them. Since there is a lot of stigma attached to online friendship, I am amazed  at the amount of space virtual interaction in  relationships have taken over in this age of social media. Of course the suspicion of the semi anonymous nature of the net has its risks, but with little experience and age one can decipher easily between the real and the fake. The internet represents the broadening of the spectrum of relationships. I have several WhatsApp friends whom I have never met in real life and may not meet ever in future, but they are as good as my other face to face friends; Compassionate, caring & funny (sense of humour is a must in my friends). The merit of these friendships lies in their mutual likes and respect. Friendship now develops in digital and physical realms, often crossing freely between the two. It is thriving in this 24x7 wired world, thanks to the low cost maintenance of friendship, you only require a smart phone and a data pack. Although the online friends are qualitatively different than your in-person friends, they shape you nevertheless. They can also be your source of life support. They can make you miserable too, especially if you get caught in the “friendship paradox” (the research which says that most people on Facebook have fewer friend). But let this thought not keep you away from making good friends who have similar thoughts, taste & sentiments as you.

In today’s time-starved, stressful, highly mobile society, friendship has never been more necessary. It is believed that loneliness and isolation contribute to more deaths than cancer. Nor have our standards of what constitutes true intimacy in friendship been higher. But the essence of friendship—frequent, lengthy face-to-face conversations—has grown ever more elusive. Hence If we cultivate friendship (online and offline) it can lift some of the burden from our apparently unhappy and  isolated selves. Authentic friendship has two faces-  a therapeutic one, which constitutes listening, affirmation, and unconditional support.  The other is the "feminine" side of friendship that values communication, emotional expressiveness, closeness, the sharing of feelings, and intimate self-disclosure.  Grab any relationship that fulfills these essence of friendships.  Sometimes people hundreds of miles away can make you feel better than the ones near you.

As I recommend and suggest in investing in friendship, there are cautions to be considered too. Friendship thrives on mutual revelations which are concealed from the rest of the world, it flourishes within the boundaries of privacy. The idea of public friendship sounds like an oxymoron, hence apply these long researched notions of friendship to your social networking platforms. It should give you a sense of ‘community’ which is often missing in hollow of the social networking. Its important that we maintain a balance of offline friends and connection with long lost ones through online networks. Use your Whats App and private messaging more often than your wall posts. So how do we know if we are having a cushion of meaningful social relationships around us?  The answer to this question may not be easy, but to be sure ask yourself: Outside of your family, how many people would you be willing to call in the middle of the night if you needed help, and how many of them would be willing to get out of bed and come to rescue you? And: What if you had a great news to share, Who would you call? If you don’t have at least two people (apart from family) on both of your lists, perhaps you should take more seriously the role of friendship or social relationships in your life. If you pick the right friends, they could play a crucial role in your longevity. Trust me, I returned happy, strong & optimistic after visiting my friends.  

My social studies teacher Mrs. Ullal truly empowered me.

It was in my class sixth in St.Joseph's convent when one graduates from junior school (class5) at the ground floor to a senior school in class 6th at the first floor. Both the promotion, that of the floor and from junior to senior  school made us very proud and to some extent arrogant. The pride in attending the senior school assembly was enormous. we were awed by the big Big didies standing next to us. The pride has just started to swell when a new social studies teacher entered the class room. She was Mrs. Ullal, a Goenese who could speak no other language other than English. She was a wife of an army officer. This was in 1978

She started the class by laying certain rules in a highly Anglo Indian accented English. the class began with the reading of the lesson. By chance the student who was reading was almost stopped at every word for her improper pronunciation. In fact so frequent were the interruptions that we all out of fear paid no attention to the lesson but instead to the English in the lesson. It seemed she was here to teach us English and not social studies. The girl who was almost shaking with fear managed all the interruptions and further proceeded to pronounce Buffalo, as 'buffaelo'. all hell broke loose at this point and Mrs. Ullal asked her to repeat the pronunciation. Now completely pale with fear, she did it again by stretching further her 'ae'lo.. the immediate reaction which came from Mrs. Ullal was a gasp, an exclamation, followed by a shout. Oh! My God, you villagers, it is not Buffaelo, but it is 'bufflo' . The whole class was punished to pronounce it several times. thank God that we all were saved by the bell that day and the next period being a PT one, relievd us immensely. we all stood in a line and with due discipline went to the ground. The moment we landed there we all started to shout Bufflo, Bufflo... and erupted into laughter.

Mrs. Ullal was known to dislike our English and kept correcting our pronunciation regularly after that. But this is not what i remember her for. The humble social studies book was full of errors in spellings and often wrong citations. Not only that Mrs. Ullal did not like the book at all and would get the entire chapters deleted and re written by her ( the reasons i don't know), as it pleased her. I admired her for her independence and clarity of thought what should have been taught and what should not. she was vociferously critical about the content and by the term end we almost had cut 75% of the content and re written as per her wishes. This women was amazing. She taught me then and there not to believe in everything written in a text book, question everything, delete what you do not like. create your own book, and overall... that,  social studies does not mean wrong English. I also remember how she distributed social studies test papers during a school picnic, where most of us had performed  disastrously. we cried,  felt disheartened at our performance, called her names, but soon after forgot all about it and moved on by playing. Thats how life is. manage your set backs, and don't' let the enjoyment stop. 

Years later when I was in college, i happened to meet her at a family wedding and related these incidents to her. she laughed heartily and enjoyed listening to my impressions of her.

I often wonder and realise that she truly gave me an important lesson in empowerment. In an era where books are routinely banned and burnt, she taught me to read what i want to read, to simply delete and move forward after a few self mutterings as protest, to write my own books after criticisng them, and overall to be empowered enough to change course my self. make my own destiny. Thank you Mrs.Ullal for teaching the most important lessons of life in a very subtle way. You were truly an amazing teacher. Be it for English or social studies!! 

BHOPALI BIYAS - FROM BEAUTIFUL TO BOLD

BHOPALI BIYAS - FROM BEAUTIFUL TO BOLD

The filing of the chargesheet in the murder of Shehla Masood may have brought this shocking tale to an end, but has left a question mark on the Bhopali society and women in particular. The whole episode was orchestrated by the women against a woman, all belonging to the same community, in the most auspicious and holi month of Ramadan. All the girls have pious religious parents & family background, educated in the best schools & institutions of the city. The life style of Shehla, Zahida & Saba is largely reflected in many household of the bhopali families. The story narrates a shocking tale of ambition in the women of this rather sleepy town with a large number of muslim population. Shivraj singh Chowhan must have found it difficult to build inroads in some areas of this town due the traditional Muslim- BJP anarchy but his MLA seems to have build inroads into the heart of the community’s women. The story of ambition, love , hate and competition between Zahida & Shehla reflects the falling standards of society and culture among the traditional Bhopali Muslim women or as they are popularly called ‘Biya” (a popular form of address for women in Bhopal) of this beautiful town. Pained at the deteriorating culture many of us are forced to aske what is going wrong with the society?

Bhopal has been known as the city of begums as it was ruled by the women for more than 150 years.  Bhopali women has always been extraordinary not only in the sense of their beauty, complexion & traditions, but also in their state of empowerment. A culture which discourages dowry and welcomes the birth of females has always stood out. During the weddings the family of the girl always have an upper hand while deciding the formalities. They take all the major decision from the number of guest to the amount of Mehr (dowry to be paid to the bride and entered in the marriage contract). Giving dinner to the baraties is an option and not mandatory with the girls family.  Asking for dowry in Bhopal is still rare, though many dowry cases are registered in Bhopal courts which are quite often used as a tool in case of bitter divorce battles. A daughter in a Bhopali family is cherished and appreciated. They are brought up with more love and attention than the boys. All this infuses them with a rare self-determination and freedom. One walk in the by lanes of Chowk Bazaar and you get to understand the remarkable spirit and independence of this rare class.  Although dressed traditionally and often in a hijab they could be seen driving from a scooter to a typical Bhopali jeep on the roads without apprehension. Women empowerment might have been a recent phrase in the vocabulary of gender literature, but Bhopal had embraced it for over a century ago.

The ghastly Murder of the daring RTI activist, Shehla Masood was traumatic to the upper middle class Muslim Bhpalies living in the Kohe- Fiza and other Muslim dominated area of the old town. It was a setback for the high spirited, educated and ambitious Bhopali women. Zahida belongs to a traditional and well placed family of Bhopal.  Young, beautiful and self-sufficient – Shehla, Zahida & Saba are the symbol of a new breed of educated, independent and daring muslim girls of the society. Their story and lifestyle has posed several uncomfortable questions for all. Their proximity to RSS /BJP activist and politicians reflects their fierce ambition and attitude in order to attain success in their professional life.  While they flaunted their connections, no one in their family ever objected. The whole incident happened in the Holy month of Ramadan, which the devout bhopalies spend in prayers, charity and self introspection. Unfortunately the planners & perpetrators of the murder were all Muslims. Erosion of religious values is evident here.

 One is forced to ponder if this is an isolated case of revenge between two  women fighting for the attention of a flamboyant MLA, or is this a picture of deteriorating social structure and decaying  Bhopali “tehzeeb’. The rising cases of Divorce and ‘Khula’(a practice where a women asks for a divorce forfeiting her mehr) is already a cause of worry among the Mullahs and community elders. Divorce is not a taboo  in Bhopal and women often get remarried here with much ease which needs to be appreciated. But it is often attained for frivolous reasons. A typical Bhopali Bia is miles apart from her counterparts residing in different part of Bhopal. Their lifestyle attitudes and priorities are bizarre. This is easily reflected in any party, function or a marriage. Attending anybody & everybody’s function is a must.  Always late to arrive past 10 pm, their dedication to self is above all and is clear from their mannerism & makeup. Latest fashion in clothes, extreme glittering makeup with matching eye lenses straight out of salon and late nights, defines them.  A working day ahead or their children’s school does not deter them. The children are fine tuned to this routine from their childhood. Most of these families sleep late after midnight and wake up late. One reason why there was no witness to Shehlas’s murder is that the majority of Muslim dominated areas of Bhopal come to life after 10 Am compared to other areas of working class like BHEL. Even the educated and non working mothers depend on private tutors to take care of their kids homework of class one & two. One look at the Urdu section of any CBSE schools (which consists of 95% bhopali kids of good families) tells you the sorry state of these children’s education. Lack of seriousness on the part of parents is often the cause for pathetic standards of these children. Although the children are given good education in elite schools of Bhopal but the contribution to their studies at home is negligible. Girls largely excel in education leaving behind the Motorbike crazy teenage boys carrying their proud mothers as pillion riders without license of course.  Majority of the Boys start driving without ever attending any driving school or getting a valid license much before 16 years. What amazes me are that often the most notorious of children in bhopali families have extremely religious parents. They are least participative in their children’s activities & lives. Most teachers agree with my opinion of poor parenting and lack of attention to the children in these families to be one of the cause of notoriety in them . Largely the women in bhopali household have the power and the capacity to regulate their day- to- day lives in the social, political and economic terms unlike their counterparts in other cities. This power has enabled quite a number of them to move from the periphery to the centre stage of Politics, business and society. I admire the independent strength of many of these Bhopali ‘biyas’ and a large number of them have brought in a positive change in the society. But the wanton spirit of the likes of Zahida and alike is a warning to many homes. The Shahla Masood episode is a wakeup call for the Bhopali society.

Turbulent times

“Air India is sick and I hope it doesn’t reach ICU” was the honest announcement made by the Minister of Civil aviation Mr. Ajit Singh while combating the fresh threats from the Air India Pilots. His candid admission of the problem faced by the National Carrier did not take any body by surprise. In fact it is common knowledge that the once smiling maharaja is not only sick but on the verge of death. En mass the pilots have actually reported ‘sick’ to halt the operations of the airlines is double irony. This comes a t a time when the entire nation was waiting for the sick AI to take off on a bailout package of Rs.30, 000 Crore and hoped that perhaps this time round the package may cure the airlines of its cancer. But it seems that this cancer is not curable and the Government & its inefficient ‘Babus’ are largely responsible for this malady. The overstaffed jumbo organization is in a complete mess after the merger of the Air India and Indian Airlines. Before its merger in 2007, both were doing just fine and earning profits. The cause of the strike is also rooted in the concern of the senior Pilots of the Air India against the training being given to the erstwhile Indian Airlines Pilots to fly the prestigious 787 ‘Dreamliners’ due to be inducted in the fleet. It is clear and admitted by the Honorable minister himself that all did not go well with the merger. All mergers & acquisition take place after much research and a clear plan to accommodate the smaller company & its executive in the mainstream. The government has miserably failed in providing professional leadership and management strategies to run the airline after the said merger. The sarkari  Babus simply did not do the essential pre-merger exercise and ended up with surplus staff and heart burn among the Indian Airlines Pilots.  The airline has a massive Rs 40,000 crore debt enough to fund and run at least 80 airlines. It has around 475 employees per aircraft as against 70 in Indigo & others. The humongous staff, enormous debts, incompetent management and lack of political will to run it on commercially viable routes, have all contributes greatly in grounding the AI. No wonder the Minister himself admitted that the Government should not be in the business of running an airline which is essentially a service industry.

The Government should learn its lessons from the British Airways & Lufthansa which were privatized some 20 yrs back and are now a much recognizable brand in the aviations sector. It should invite experts like Gopinath, the founder of air Deccan, who have proved their mettle in this sector and start the process of disinvestment to revive the airlines through a credible & strategic partner. On the other hand the highly-paid pilots should sit across the government and solve their problems through dialogues rather than holding the airlines and its passengers to ransom. The government should immediately implement the recommendations of the Justice Dharmadhikari committee report which has suggested ways & means to tackle the problems of the merger of the two giants, and integrate the problems of the human resource, training etc in AI. The problems do not exist only in AI, the Indian aviation sector itself is facing turbulent times, with Kingfisher also running up huge losses and struggling to turn around their operations. The Government must create a vibrant aviation sector and devise long-term plan and vision for all players. It should formulate policies and incentives to increase the percentage of the domestic passengers to competitive international levels and lift this ailing sector from its comatose state. If a surgery is required then it should be performed immediately to save the  smiling Maharaja from death.

Economic Hiccups

Popular perception over the slow pace of reforms got strengthened by our outlook being lowered from stable to negative by Standard & Poor. Slow pace of economic reforms and the numerous hurdles in the way of clearing several crucial legislative Bills has damaged our prospects of growth. An avalanche of criticism followed with every economist blaming it on policy paralysis.uge negativity has settled over the promised 7% growth in future. The lowered outlook jeopardises India's long-term rating of BBB-, which is the lowest investment grade rating.  Kiran Majumdar Shaw’s tweet- “Unfortunately FM's cajoling statement "No need to worry about S&P's downgrade" has no credibility to back it”- reflects the falling hopes of the business community.  S&P ratings for India are the lowest for any of the BRICS nations. From an august company of BRIC nations to the company of countries like Tunisia whose economy is in tatters after last year's revolution is a shame for the UPA government.  There is also the speculation of India being replaced by Indonesia in BRICS. One would believe that perhaps the Finance Ministry’s chief economic adviser Kaushik Basu saw this coming. Just last week he gave out a warning that growth will slow down further and inflation will be back if “political and economic alignments” are not in place. If these alignments work, he said, India will get back to its earlier levels of buoyant growth.

But regional satraps like Mamata Bannerji, are determined to put a spoke in the wheels of economic growth over one pretence or the other. After derailing the Railway Budget presented by the fellow Dinesh trivedi and getting a roll back in passenger fair of lower class, opposing the FDI in retail, the fiery lady is all set to oppose the proposed diesel price rise in the coming days, despite of Government’s agreement in principle to de regulate it. The opposition & Non UPA regional heads are behaving like a pack of unruly teenage kids, who are determined to shoot any proposal put forward by the center without measuring its merits in the national interest. They are more worried about their regional packages and portfolio promises even if it clashes with the larger benefit of the Nation. Unfortunately the very same congress which brought the growth to India had its hand tied by the communists in UPA1 and by its own bullish allies & corrupt partners in UPA2. It has failed in economic management and seems to be slipping even in allies’ management.

Reform is too serious an issue to be turned into a political slugfest. Instead of pointing fingers, the Centre and the opposition need to join hands at all levels to neutralise the threat of S&P’s negative outlook becoming a permanent fixture. Coming from the most conservative of the rating agencies, it’s a wakeup call for the governments to do something meaningful. The long wait for implementing reforms in retail, Insurance, and raising the fuel prices has resulted in the mobilisation of powerful opposing forces against the logic of reforms by itself.  Reforms in a democracy like ours can continue unrestricted only if the regional power heads, political beneficiaries and stakeholders are on the same page. Manmohan Singh’s administration is facing one of the most challenging periods of its second innings. Stung by corruption scandals and failed in statecraft, it is now a humungous task for him to deliver the promised economic growth and improve perceptions. It is not that the solution to the problems is not known. The point is that we just need to implement these solutions now. As the saying goes that "It is not the deficiency of knowledge but the efficiency of execution that separates achievers from the rest." 

Towards a Womenless India

The tragic end of three-month-old Neha Afreen, who was allegedly battered by her father in Karnataka, is a blot on the collective conscience of society and governments across India. If you thought Bengaluru district was any different and more progressive than districts further away, in the state's interiors, think again. The child sex ratio here too has fallen from 943 to 941 over the last decade. While the falling ratio is alarming enough, it is also lower than the average child sex ratio of 944 in the country. Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Vikramajit Sen expressed concern over the death of battered baby Neha Afreen while suo motu hearing a Public Interest Litigation on the increasing deaths of children due to malnutrition in the State. “Parents harming their own children is a matter of serious concern. Children were treated as treasure, but look at baby Neha’s plight,” the CJ observed.

Afreen’s is neither the first nor will it be the last such case. Sometime back, the death of another battered baby girl (Falak) caused a sensation but it was forgotten soon after. This is because the problem is endemic in nature and there is no region or community free from the virus of female foeticide. Many factors come into play to explain this: infanticide, abuse and neglect of girl children. The decline is largely due to the increased availability of antenatal sex screening. Use of technology like ultrasound to determine the sex of the unborn child has been banned by law but, only a few violators of the law have so far been punished. The government has been forced to admit that its strategy has failed to put an end to female foeticide.

Until 30 years ago, India's sex ratio was "reasonable". Then in 1974, Delhi's prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences came out with a study which said sex-determination tests were a boon for Indian women. It said they no longer needed to produce endless children to have the right number of sons, and it encouraged the determination and elimination of female foetuses as an effective tool of population control. By late 80s, every newspaper in Delhi was advertising for ultrasound sex determination. Clinics from Punjab were boasting that they had 10 years' experience in eliminating girl children and inviting parents to come to them. The results of the dangerous phenomenon are already visible in states like Punjab and Haryana, where shortage of girls compels marriageable men to look for brides elsewhere. The government woke up quite late in 1994,and came up with the Pre-Natal Determination Test (PNDT) Act which outlawed sex-selective abortion. In 2004, it was amended to include gender selection even at the pre-conception stage.

At the all-India level, there are only 914 girls for every 1,000 boys, according to the 2011 census. When Nobel-laureate Amartya Sen wrote a watershed, nay prophetic, essay in ‘The New York Review of Books’ entitled ‘More Than 100 Million Women Are Missing’ in 1990, many questioned its basis. Interestingly, he concluded the essay paying tributes to the high status women enjoyed in Kerala. However, latest census figures show that female foeticide has caught up in the southern state too. Unless society as a whole realises the dangers of a womanless world and ends the murder in the womb, there will be more Afreens.

ELUSIVE JUSTICE

ELUSIVE JUSTICE
The Gujarat communal riots of 2002, in which nearly 1500 innocent Muslims were killed by mobs across the state, has been the subject of many reports and analyses over the last 10 years. The continuous denial of justice to minorities and negligible healing measures for survivors had prompted the Supreme Court to portray Gujarat Chief minister Narendra Modi as modern ‘Nero’. “The 2002 violence against Muslims in Gujarat persists as a dark blot on India’s reputation for religious equality,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Instead of prosecuting senior state and police officials implicated in the atrocities, the Gujarat authorities have engaged in denial and obstruction of justice.”
The riots have been scrutinised continuously for the past decade by the media, courts, NGOs and the common man. This apocalyptic event have kept NGOs on their toes to undertake various activities either as an academic exercise or as a genuine attempt to understand what caused the whole tragedy. A Large number of them have come up with the answers that suggest that riots were the result of deliberate acts of omission and commission by politicians, bureaucrats and policemen. The anti-Muslim upsurge was not so much the result of failure of governance as of the wish of state's politicians to reap rich political harvest from the riots.
The tone, tenor and thrust of Modi's response to the riots have been highly questionable. Till date he refuses to apologise for the incident which has cost him an international ire and suspended US visa, but earned him local fame. He managed to install himself as the metaphor for Gujrat & Gujrati pride among the hard working and highly entrepreneurial community. He has asserted himself in the public sphere in a paradoxical manner. Not only has he personalised politics in Gujarat but he also projected himself as the spokesman of all Gujaratis. The obvious aim of this strategy was to get electoral dividends through mobilization of Hindus on communal lines which seems to have worked for him. The most striking aspect of this Modi’s “success story” lies in the marginalisation of freedom. The supporters of Modi admitted it candidly the last time they voted for him in 2007. A CSDS survey of early November 2007 showed that 34 per cent of the interviewees (and among them 37 per cent of BJP voters) considered that Modi’s style was “dictatorial”. This tells us something about the state of democracy in Gujarat, a place where the consensus of Beijing (that Modi visited recently) applies more than anywhere else in India: economic growth prevails above liberty.

But their lies a glimmer of hope. Unlike any other violent episode in India's recent history, Gujarat 2002 tested the strength and resilience of many of our democratic institutions to the fullest. The National Human Rights Commission, Supreme Court, and the National Commission for Minorities. Each came forward and acted. There were many laudable instances of police officers enforcing the law very much against the wishes of their political masters. Some of them now suspended still carry on the battle against Modi. Modi’s popular stand of development does not stand ground where many riot victims are still marganilised and ghettoed in fear. Social equality and justice evades them. The state has not given Muslim victims and their kin the compensation to which they were entitled to. The central help & scholarship for minorities has been stalled by the state government. Justice still eludes the victims of Gujarat. And without justice, we cannot move on and no amount of development or ‘sadhbhavna’ will add the much needed shine required to paint the tainted leader of Gujrat in order to occupy the center stage.

Democracies in Peril

Double Trouble in the neighbourhood.

The burning Political crisis in the two neighboring states of Maldives and Pakistan has created an unstable situation in the region. The MEA corridors are busy analyzing both the situation. It is believed that a political chaos in the Maldives, could open the way for a resurgent Islamist movement. Whereas in Pakistan, the tussle between the military, Judiciary & the Government could either bring in dictatorship or early elections.

After Gilani’s indictment by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the country has been thrown in a highly chaotic & confusing situation. The present stand-off is a direct result of the divergence of views of the military and the civilian government on the memo issue. The Supreme Court appears to have thrown its weight behind the military. It wants corruption cases against hundreds of politicians, including the president, reopened. Despite the history of coups, another one is unlikely at the moment, as the military this time prefers to let the Supreme Court use "constitutional" methods to go after the government. The government's choices appear clear. If it allows itself to be booted out and its leaders thrown in jail, it will wash off the stigma of bad governance, corruption and economic mismanagement for which it has been criticised throughout its tenure. But if it survives the crisis, it will emerge as the first ever civilian government to have established the supremacy of parliament over other state institutions. This ominous turf war between the top state institutions is taking place at a time when numerous opposition groups are shuffling to gain a foothold in the run-up to general elections, due in early 2013 but likely to be held earlier. Among them is the cricketing legend Imran Khan and the former dictator Pervez Musharraf. With all this happening, Pakistan appears to be heading into a period of massive confusion which many believe could translate it either into a stronger parliamentary democracy or a total collapse of the system.

New Delhi has continuously turned a blind eye to a developing tsunami in the Maldives, the nation of islands. Ever since September 2007, when a bomb targeting Chinese, Japanese and British tourists went off in Malé's Sultan Park, security experts have feared a paradise for jihadists instead of tourists. Its 1,200-plus islands are near-impossible to police, which means terrorists could use them as bases to target India's western seaboard and even Europe. Hence within a day of Nasheed’s resignation, Indian Prime minister spoke to the new President Waheed and assured him of India's cooperation in all matters. As delegations from the U.S., the Commonwealth and the European Union set up camp in Male to figure a way out of the crisis, the world is looking towards India to lead. Will India grasp the immensely fragile moment at hand and ensure that peace and stability returns to the Maldives and that fresh elections are held, sooner than later? By doing so , it will be setting an example to the regime not only in Male and elsewhere in South Asia which is littered with authoritarian rulers.

Whats in a date?

WHAT'S IN A DATE

The final Say in the Age Row of General V K Singh would be decided by the Supreme Court on 3rd February. Last week the Indian Army was dominating the media discussions not because of the republic day but due to the age row of the General V K Singh of the Indian army. Our neighboring Army was not far behind and was trending the media chatter albeit for a completely different reason. An interesting SMS doing the round summed up the whole scenario in a light hearted but truthful manner. It said that “In Pakistan, the Army chief decides the government's age. In India, the government decides the Army chief's age!''

This Light hearted Joke aptly sums up the civil military interplay on either side of the border. In Pakistan, the generals rule the roost, and have screwed up elected government throughout its independent history. But, the apolitical, secular and uncontroversial Indian generals have always remained much disciplined under the grip of the neta-babu combine. Some charismatic army chief like Sam Maneckshaw or K Sundarji managed to get some wiggle room and had their way once in a while.The armed forces have always felt slighted by the civilian bureaucracy, resenting as they do the "interference'' in their Service matters as well as operational tasks in the name of "civilian control''.Hence the Indian military chiefs hardly ever, "rocked the boat''. So, when Army chief general Vijay Kumar Singh took his prolonged age battle with the government to the Supreme Court, it was bound to unleash a tsunami across the sprawling South Block and beyond. Gen. Singh may claim it's a "personal'' battle to "protect'' his "honour and integrity'' but the repercussions for the politico-bureaucratic versus military equation are huge. This episode may change the equation forever.

There are a many documents , including a birth certificate and a school-leaving certificate, that prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that General Singh, whose father as well as grandfather were Army officers, was born on May 10, 1951. Due to clerical errors there is a mismatch in the date kept in the records of two branch of the army. General Singh has been at pains to explain for years getting this corrected. A highly decorated officer like General Singh, who is recognised as a brilliant strategist and tough on corruption, would never lie about his date of birth. Any misgivings portraying him as a power and privilege hungry officer must be rejected with contempt. Instead of fighting the case in the Apex court the Government should immediately come with a constructive solution and restore General Singh’s Honour

The Year Of Protest 2011

The Year of Protest- 2011
At the risk of writing history too early, 2011 may well be remembered as a year in which demands for honesty in public life popped up around the world like desert flowers after a rain.
2011 can easily be called the year of protest. The world saw many uprising and changes. The political landscape around the world has shifted and people across the globe are taking a stand, being influential in their nation's affairs, in all aspects and even overpowering dictatorship empires. The world has never seen revolution and protesting on a scale as high as it has in 2011.
We saw folks from all walks of life demonstrating and marching and occupying, all to challenge the broken governments that have ignored or oppressed them. This year, protesters, against seemingly impossible odds, managed to speak truth to power and, at times, got that power to listen. Whether it is Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo or Zuccotti Park in New York, the defining images of 2011 will be those of thousands of ordinary folks gathering to make their voices heard. From Athens to Madrid, from New Delhi to Moscow, people have been on the march and protests became the expression of choice against injustices, real or perceived.
Granted, causes haven`t been the same everywhere. The Arab world has seen an explosion of protests against autocratic rule. Breathtakingly, leaders in four major Arab nations were toppled this year – Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. Movements to curb official corruption also shot up in Brazil, Russia, India and China – the BRIC countries. Occupation as a form of protest has become increasingly popular. Starting from the Occupy Wall street protest it spread to many towns and countries against inequality. These marches and occupations are clashes between individual freedoms and centralised control, either in the form of the military or perceived inhuman capitalism.
Protests in western democracies, by contrast, have not been so much about the absence of civil and political rights but rather than against economic mismanagement and deteriorating material conditions. India, too, presents different political conditions from the Arab world. In India, civil society protests have focused not so much on the absence of democracy but rather on the limited choice made available by political parties within the democratic space. With scam after scam unearthed this year, most parties, regardless of ideological inclination, looked indulgent on corrupt practices when it suited them. Matters are made worse by the fundamentally statist terms of economic policymaking, with no party offering any real alternative. The result is that the political class as a whole looks clueless in tackling the economic distress that the average Indian - squeezed between slowing growth and rising inflation - had to contend with this year.
The lack of political choice and frequent disruptions, few substantive debates taking place in Parliament - reinforces the notion that all parties, rather than coming to grips with the problems of 21st century governance, merely offer variations around a sub-theme in identity politics. Civil society protests against this political order have a radical and amorphous quality, as represented by the Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption movement. Running through it all is policy paralysis, a leadership deficit, and geriatric leadership, which remains out of touch with the needs of an emerging, aspirational, predominantly young India. As long as this fundamental disconnect continues, protests are unlikely to subside.
It’s been quite a year, a messy and confusing year, a year of a lot of false starts and inspiring firsts, lingering injustices but also bursts of heroism and beauty. I don't know what the future holds, but you can't say that we are in the same place at the end of 2011 as we were at its start. So it strikes me that another slogan from the light projection is a fitting epitaph for the year that was: “This is the Beginning of the Beginning.” .

Reducing army's footprint

Reducing Army’s Footprint
It’s draconian, it’s deadly and it’s detested. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) imposed in the regions of Jammu & Kashmir and the North-East is highly unpopular with the civil society, Human rights group and the people of these states. It vests with the security forces unrestricted and unaccounted power. There are allegations that the Act has been grossly misused in the areas of its operation. Disturbed Areas Act as well as the Armed Forces (Jammu & Kashmir) Special Powers Act, both of which have been applied to the state since 1990, when militants from Pakistan crossed the Line of Control and instigated an insurgency that was to claim thousands of lives over the next couple of decades. Civilians have come to dread both pieces of legislation because they empower security forces to arrest without warrant, enter and search premises in order to make such arrests, fire or use force against those assembling in numbers larger than five, while officials cannot be sued or prosecuted because they are provided with legal immunity. A Report by the government appointed team of three interlocutors and data provided by the Union government published on Thursday supports the call given by the J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to remove it partially from districts of Srinagar, Badgam, Samba and Jammu.
The analysis of central government recently published data shows that insurgency hit state is safer than many of its peaceful counterparts like Haryana. In population-adjusted terms, violent deaths in J&K — those of terrorists and security force personnel, as well as murders of civilians, whether terrorism-related or otherwise — were at the same level as in Bihar, and not significantly higher than in Delhi. Violence due to militancy & terrorist activity has seen a steady decline since 2001-2002. In 2004, 707 civilians, 976 terrorists and 281 police and military personnel were killed. In 2009, the numbers plummeted to 64 security personnel, 78 civilians and 239 terrorists.
Even though Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram has backed the idea, New Delhi has proved unwilling to act, due to bitter resistance by the Indian Army, BJP & Congress itself. The Union government is in a fix since defence and the home ministries are pulling in different directions. The State government contends that the decline in violence, as well as enhancements in police strength, means a number of these troops could be withdrawn and, as they leave, the Act lifted. The Army acknowledges the decline in violence, but argues that there is a continued threat from across the Line of Control, which necessitates the Act remaining in place. Many argue that the AFSPA-free enclaves will be safe havens for terrorists and militants. This makes little sense, since the Army is not present in these enclaves anyway and has no security responsibilities. These areas are largely managed by the local police assisted by CRPF. Chief Minister Abdullah's proposal leads to some risks. Yet not taking those risks involves heavy costs — key among them, creating a reservoir of frustration and anger that will undermine the hard-won peace that so many Indian soldiers gave their lives for. Looking at the stability which the north-eastern states have already achieved with the help of local police, the time has come when a well trained & equipped J&K police should be given the responsibility to manage peace and security of their own region. It`s time to think beyond AFSPA now and give its withdrawal a chance.

Reducing army's footprint

Reducing Army’s Footprint
It’s draconian, it’s deadly and it’s detested. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) imposed in the regions of Jammu & Kashmir and the North-East is highly unpopular with the civil society, Human rights group and the people of these states. It vests with the security forces unrestricted and unaccounted power. There are allegations that the Act has been grossly misused in the areas of its operation. Disturbed Areas Act as well as the Armed Forces (Jammu & Kashmir) Special Powers Act, both of which have been applied to the state since 1990, when militants from Pakistan crossed the Line of Control and instigated an insurgency that was to claim thousands of lives over the next couple of decades. Civilians have come to dread both pieces of legislation because they empower security forces to arrest without warrant, enter and search premises in order to make such arrests, fire or use force against those assembling in numbers larger than five, while officials cannot be sued or prosecuted because they are provided with legal immunity. A Report by the government appointed team of three interlocutors and data provided by the Union government published on Thursday supports the call given by the J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to remove it partially from districts of Srinagar, Badgam, Samba and Jammu.
The analysis of central government recently published data shows that insurgency hit state is safer than many of its peaceful counterparts like Haryana. In population-adjusted terms, violent deaths in J&K — those of terrorists and security force personnel, as well as murders of civilians, whether terrorism-related or otherwise — were at the same level as in Bihar, and not significantly higher than in Delhi. Violence due to militancy & terrorist activity has seen a steady decline since 2001-2002. In 2004, 707 civilians, 976 terrorists and 281 police and military personnel were killed. In 2009, the numbers plummeted to 64 security personnel, 78 civilians and 239 terrorists.
Even though Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram has backed the idea, New Delhi has proved unwilling to act, due to bitter resistance by the Indian Army, BJP & Congress itself. The Union government is in a fix since defence and the home ministries are pulling in different directions. The State government contends that the decline in violence, as well as enhancements in police strength, means a number of these troops could be withdrawn and, as they leave, the Act lifted. The Army acknowledges the decline in violence, but argues that there is a continued threat from across the Line of Control, which necessitates the Act remaining in place. Many argue that the AFSPA-free enclaves will be safe havens for terrorists and militants. This makes little sense, since the Army is not present in these enclaves anyway and has no security responsibilities. These areas are largely managed by the local police assisted by CRPF. Chief Minister Abdullah's proposal leads to some risks. Yet not taking those risks involves heavy costs — key among them, creating a reservoir of frustration and anger that will undermine the hard-won peace that so many Indian soldiers gave their lives for. Looking at the stability which the north-eastern states have already achieved with the help of local police, the time has come when a well trained & equipped J&K police should be given the responsibility to manage peace and security of their own region. It`s time to think beyond AFSPA now and give its withdrawal a chance.

THE RISE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS

Anna Hazare’s Movement has gathered an unprecedented support from the oft lazy Middle class Indians. Their unrelented support throughout his fast has stirred many sociologists. Whether one agrees or not with the substance of Hazare’s Lokpal bill, we are undoubtedly witnessing a remarkable social movement. What is surprising that Why has India’s urban middle class become the social base of Hazare’s movement? And why has this class chosen the route of movement led by civil society, as opposed to electoral politics led by political parties?
India now has one third urban population, according to the 2011 census. This growing is financially powerful and carries disdain for the politicians. Politics, for it, is not about democracy and constitutionalism. It is about delivering governance – even if it means electing CEOs to run cities rather than mayors and politicos. Corruption and bribery are obstacles to its progress. This is why it is backing the Jan Lokpal Bill. It may not know anything about the Bill’s specifics, or the Draconian nature of the Hazare version of it. But it will back the Bill just because it promises to put the fear of Lokpal into netas and babus. This new middle class is reared in private sector post 1991. It encounters the state only when it buys property, applies for a driving license, birth or death certificate, pays income tax, wants a passport, drives a vehicle or has an accident. These arenas of public life are highly corrupt.
Anger, frustration and helplessness has for the first time driven the middle class to come to streets and protest against corruption and assert its citizenship right to get a cleaner Government. The ironic part is that it is fighting for a bill which will reduce corruption at higher level but won’t bring in much change at their level. Routine corruption is more likely to go down if the middle class re-engaging itself in politics. Indian democracy is rural centric. Village panchayats receive more attention than municipal governance. Decisions about the city are made not by elected municipalities, but by state and central governments, who are more concerned with the rural vote. The situation has now changed. India is more urban and more affluent than before. The urban middle class should use the new political movement to return to electoral politics and start fighting for electoral reforms and push criminals of out Parliaments. They must take up issues which directly affects them. Like Police, economic, political & educational reforms. I would not debate about the merits & demerits of the Janlokpal Bill, but one thing is certain; reliance on civil society alone will not fix India’s governance problems, urban or rural. An anti-corruption Lokpal can only be part of a larger political process; It will not be a magic wand. . If the middle class wants cleaner and better governance, it needs to step into the arena of politics and change the system by engaging themselves into it.

This movement has achieved one advantage. It has shaken the politicians out of their slumber. It has sent a huge message across the Parliament that the time has come when the elected representative start behaving responsibly, else matters will now be decided in Ramlila maidan.

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.

Yeddy Dumped

When B S Yeddyurappa became the chief minister, his big promise was, “My mantra will be development… development... development”. Cut to the present: His name has become synonymous with development, not that of the state but of his family. Yeddyurappa had been walking on minefields ever since the powerful Bellary Brothers revolted against him. Apart from mining he is accused of illegal land allotment and land denotification scams. A couple of unusual transactions, a bank name and a 11-digit account number mentioned in the books of a mining company led Lokayukta sleuths to the trail of the kickbacks which B S Yeddyurappa and his family members received from mining companies. These details, at first glance seemed mild, but has finaly led to the fall of the master survivor. His bold attempts at taking the kickbacks in the name of Prerana Education Trust in cheques from Jindal Steel Limited (JSW), reflects his self confidence and the powerful and unquestionable position in the state, of which even the BJP was scared off. Despite his fears about various land scam, he never imagined that illegal mining could take him down specially after reigning in the Reddy Brothers whose area of operation, Bellary, figured prominently in the report. Turning a blind eye to these allegations would have been political suicide for the BJP. It could have completely destroyed its anti- corruption campaign at the national level. The party should learn its lesson from the fate of DMK in Tamilnadu, and should not allow its regional satrap to dictate terms on the basis of lingayat vote banks. Karnataka’s electorate are equally smart and would quickly respond to outrageous corruption by ending its dream run in south. The BJP leadership should ensure that his successor is not only above reproach but also has the requisite political acumen and administrative capability to head the government
The Lokayukta report brings into perspective two other issues. First one is the need for mining to be reformed thoroughly. Mining now needs regulatory authorities and cannot be left at the supervision of civil servants, who have been found equally guilty of corruption. Another thing that has come clearly out of this report is that a strong Lokayukta can deliver his duties and we do not require a new kind of ombudsman with overarching powers for real effect. Since the topic of a strong Lokpal is being hotly debated at present, Justice Hegde serves as a shining example to all (coincidentally he is also a member of the civil society’s drafting committee). His example is strong enough to deliver the message that an upright and strong Lokpal with vigilant media, informed and mobilized citizens, and a fast paced criminal justice system will be more effective against corruption than anything else. Both civil society and the government can learn a few lessons from this.

Tryst with terrorists

Mumbai’s tryst with terrorist

Mumbai is truck again. It’s a sense of déjà vu for all. We saw the same horror scenes repeatedly on TV, the same rhetoric by the Govt. the same debate on talk shows. Nothing has changed after 26/11. Our booming economy and our status as a rising power has made Mumbai & Delhi as the most vulnerable cities to terrorist attacks. Look at the past four months and we were given enough warnings about a bigger attack in future. The number of failed bomb attacks – in Delhi high court, Delhi's Gargi College, Sealdah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express and elsewhere. They were dismissed as pranks. Perhaps these were the result of the Karachi Project which David Hadley revealed in his interrogation to FBI. Mumbai blasts could be an indication that the Karachi Project is blooming in India. Home grown Jehad group have been active and our Intelligence have failed to trap them. Not one of the five urban terrorist attacks that preceded the latest Mumbai bombings has been solved. Perhaps the lull after 2008 has set in complacency in the intelligence agencies. This was evident in the goof-ups in the 'Most Wanted' list that was posted to Pakistan. It's clear that coordination among security agencies in India is still lacking. And why not as many of the internal security reforms proposed after the 26/11 attacks have bitten the dust. Despite decades of terror attack we haven’t been able to pluck the shortage in the Police personnel in our country. As per the home ministry, about 5,40,000 policemen were immediately required to make up the shortages in our police forces. But less than a third of that number has been recruited till date. Our projections for policing are well below the UN recommended ratio of 222 policemen per 1,00,000 citizens. Worse still, for a country repeatedly targeted by terrorists, India's internal security budget is less than 1% of its GDP, whereas India's defence budget is about 2.5% of its GDP. If the responsibility of the government is to protect its citizens, then it simply needs to spend more on equipping, training and arming our policemen to achieve greater efficiency. We urgently need to spend a huge amount on CCTV Camera installed on strategic positions. These footage are crucial in catching terrorists. The London bombers, the Time square bombers and Kasab were all caught on camera. We need to model our Police and surveillance on UK, which has about 1.85 million CCTV cameras and the average Briton is caught on camera 70 times a day as per the police figures. Living in a surveillance society is the need of the hour. We also need to adopt the idea of community policing from UK which has protected London which perhaps has the largest movement of terrorists through it but remains secure.
We need to accept that the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and its cut in aids to Pakistan will make our neighborhood a secure field for the terrorist to play as they want. Mr. Chidambaram has rightly pointed out that India is located in one of the most dangerous regions in the world. Our neighborhood is the global terrorism's epicenter. It is their aim to target India's economic rise and its cities, which remain crowded, disorganized and vulnerable. We need some elementary steps that could make citizens secure. Upgrading our police force, investing in technology for internal security and the long awaited national intelligence grid initiative could help fill this void, but it is still some years from being completed. Until then, we are left at the mercy of the terrorist.

Tryst with terrorists

Mumbai’s tryst with terrorist

Mumbai is truck again. It’s a sense of déjà vu for all. We saw the same horror scenes repeatedly on TV, the same rhetoric by the Govt. the same debate on talk shows. Nothing has changed after 26/11. Our booming economy and our status as a rising power has made Mumbai & Delhi as the most vulnerable cities to terrorist attacks. Look at the past four months and we were given enough warnings about a bigger attack in future. The number of failed bomb attacks – in Delhi high court, Delhi's Gargi College, Sealdah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express and elsewhere. They were dismissed as pranks. Perhaps these were the result of the Karachi Project which David Hadley revealed in his interrogation to FBI. Mumbai blasts could be an indication that the Karachi Project is blooming in India. Home grown Jehad group have been active and our Intelligence have failed to trap them. Not one of the five urban terrorist attacks that preceded the latest Mumbai bombings has been solved. Perhaps the lull after 2008 has set in complacency in the intelligence agencies. This was evident in the goof-ups in the 'Most Wanted' list that was posted to Pakistan. It's clear that coordination among security agencies in India is still lacking. And why not as many of the internal security reforms proposed after the 26/11 attacks have bitten the dust. Despite decades of terror attack we haven’t been able to pluck the shortage in the Police personnel in our country. As per the home ministry, about 5,40,000 policemen were immediately required to make up the shortages in our police forces. But less than a third of that number has been recruited till date. Our projections for policing are well below the UN recommended ratio of 222 policemen per 1,00,000 citizens. Worse still, for a country repeatedly targeted by terrorists, India's internal security budget is less than 1% of its GDP, whereas India's defence budget is about 2.5% of its GDP. If the responsibility of the government is to protect its citizens, then it simply needs to spend more on equipping, training and arming our policemen to achieve greater efficiency. We urgently need to spend a huge amount on CCTV Camera installed on strategic positions. These footage are crucial in catching terrorists. The London bombers, the Time square bombers and Kasab were all caught on camera. We need to model our Police and surveillance on UK, which has about 1.85 million CCTV cameras and the average Briton is caught on camera 70 times a day as per the police figures. Living in a surveillance society is the need of the hour. We also need to adopt the idea of community policing from UK which has protected London which perhaps has the largest movement of terrorists through it but remains secure.
We need to accept that the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and its cut in aids to Pakistan will make our neighborhood a secure field for the terrorist to play as they want. Mr. Chidambaram has rightly pointed out that India is located in one of the most dangerous regions in the world. Our neighborhood is the global terrorism's epicenter. It is their aim to target India's economic rise and its cities, which remain crowded, disorganized and vulnerable. We need some elementary steps that could make citizens secure. Upgrading our police force, investing in technology for internal security and the long awaited national intelligence grid initiative could help fill this void, but it is still some years from being completed. Until then, we are left at the mercy of the terrorist.