Undertake a Fast unto Death - Get a State

We have seen this shameful spectacle of K Chandrasekhara Rao going in a fast-unto-death and statehood for Telangana has been accepted. This is commerce at its worst. Go on a fast unto death and get a state in return. This is a fantastic bargain for the political class.

Are we going to see a renewed balkanisation of our country. A concept of an united India having braved many odss in its six decade old journey faces yet another crisis. I feared the worst as our unscrupulous political class would go to any extent if they sense a chance to further their interests. This is our worst nightmare come true. Suddenly, everyone seems to have a grievance or two and statehood seems to be the only solution.

Telangana has 119 representatives in the Andhra assembly. I find it very difficult to believe that for the last fifty five years these MLAs and 11/12 MPs never worked or could not work for the development of Telangana. M Chenna Reddy, a Telangana leader was the Chief Minister of the state and should one believe that he was powerless in this respect and could do nothing for the region. Now, with statehood being considered, is it possible that this political class can weave their magic and a backward region would suddemly become developed.

Gorkhaland in West Bengal has been the first off the block. The later has been vocal and violent to get their goals. They have an autonomous arrangement within the states of West Bengal. If backwardness is the criteria then every district in West Bengal should be asking for statehood.

Vidarbha, an arid part of the Maharashtra has been poor and backward for many decades. It shot to fame due to its poor farmers committing suicides. If the politicians from Western Maharashtra were enriching themselves, what were the Vidarbha representatives doing. Could they not further the interests of that region. They were voted to do that in the first place.

Carve out

UP into Bundelkhand, Harit Pradesh and Purvanchal.....

AP further into Rayalseema and coastal Andhra,

Karnataka into Mysore, Coastal Karnataka and Belgaum-Hubli-Dharwar and Bijapur / Bidar into separate states,

Maharashtra into Mumbai as UT, Konkan, Western Mah, Khandesh, Marathwada and Vidarbha....

MP, Rajasthan, Bihar (whatever is left of it), Tamil Nadu also have undeveloped areas. 

 

It took the genius of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and his tireless assisstant Mr Menon to put all apples in one basket. The genius of our current politicians seems to break the country back into the original 550 fiefdoms.

Jharkhand has been a complete disaster and we are seeing the manifestations. Chattisgarh has been battling the Naxals and Uttarakhand has not made any great impact either way.

This is a dangerous trend and must be put down by national level parties at the earliest. Congress has made its move and is looking very foolish now.

The contributing factors of poor governance, lack of transparency, massive corruption, ineffectiveness of our political representatives need to be tackled with more citizen activism. There are other ways to do all this. Claiming and getting statehoods is clearly not one of them.

The Rise of the Regional Political Animal

We started out with one all-India party and that was the Indian National Congress. The Communist Party of India was probably the next in terms of coverage, prominence and a fair bit of sympathy but no political power so to say.

In the first five Lok Sabhas, Congress was the single dominant party and the others were in low double digits. All other parties were below double figures. Similar pattern follows for the second, thru eighth Lok Sabha except for the sixth Lok Sabha which saw a Janata Party government. This position changed rapidly from 1989 onwards.

This indicated an all round preference for a national party.

This period also saw major reorganization of states on linguistic basis. As mentioned in my earlier post, this created space for large linguistic and culturally homogenous groups to be together. Though done with much reluctance, this eliminated all chances of culture, language and other similar emotive reasons from the political platform. This did not create any drift towards regional political parties.

What then contributed to the rise of regional political outfits and why did they get political legitimacy through the electoral process??

One of the first states to move away from national party system to state level entities was Tamil Nadu and the trigger was “imposition of Hindi”. There were widespread riots against the declaration of Hindi as a sole link language and emotions ran high. There was a speech made in Indian Parliament by C N Annadurai advocating the secession of the four southern states into a separate Union. When logic and good sense failed dramatic announcements like this shocked the nation and strongly polarized the electorate in TN. The 1965 deadline for change-over to Hindi was hurriedly kept aside and in the next elections TN was lost to a national party (read: Congress here) for ever.

Shiv Sena, in Maharashtra, was one of the earliest regional political outfits. They gained tremendous support and prominence fighting for Mumbai to be part of Maharashtra and not Gujarat. However, they gained political legitimacy much later than did the parties in TN and have been able to gain power only once. However, along with BJP, they now share almost 50% representation in the state.

Assam witnessed bloody and prolonged agitations during the late 1970s and early 80s. Their agitation was against outsiders – meaning massive influx of refugees mostly Bengali Hindus from the then East Pakistan (later Bangladesh) and complete lack of development and opportunity locally. There was also the emotive issue of “You are stealing our oil”. This bloody agitation eventually culminated in the Assam accord which made several commitments to the rehabilitation and revival of Assam. Most of them were never met by the famous rigid bureaucracy in New Delhi. We have a disgruntled and divided state and the situation made worse after the Congress has blatantly allowed illegal migration of Bangladeshi Muslims in most border districts turning a blind eye to the wider ramifications of narrow political considerations. This gateway to the North-East, hemmed by hostile foreign forces, is on fire and the situation is precarious.

Andhra Pradesh – NTR with his Telgu Desam was essentially born to save the “Telgu pride”. This was the perceived humiliation of Telgu leaders in Congress and discrimination against the state. The result is TDP a powerful regional party where a national party reigned supreme. It now has to share this space with two regional parties in the state. The scales have tilted back in favour of Congress since 2004.

Punjab has been through hell and wounds are still healing. It all began with the propping up of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale to pull down independent Congress leaders in the State namely Giani Zail Singh and others. What eventually happened and the cost that the state and the nation has had to bear is only too well known and fresh in mind.

One cannot forget large scale insurgency in Nagaland and Mizoram, essentially Christian majority states whose emotional, cultural and social integration in the Indian main stream has never happened. Whilst these two states live an uneasy peace, Manipur is on the boil now.

The latest headache now confronting many state governments is the armed rebellion by Naxalites.

What we have is a multi-linguistic, multi-cultural, multi-religious social structure coming together for the first time in a political union. This diverse structure is made more complex by a rigid caste system, deep prejudices, wide spread backwardness, lack of healthcare, education, opportunity and so on.

In such a milieu, what was needed was a fair and inclusive governance and emphasis on rapid development.

When one analyses each of these state crises, it is easy to discern

- a sense of callousness and high handedness,

- inability to empathise with local needs and sentiments,

- a political process that is arbitrary, favouring certain groups to the exclusion of all others,

- perpetuating deep rooted economic and social inequalities,

- perception of favaouritism / appeasement towards certain groups (favourite whipping boy of regional parties)

- attempts to initiate hegemony of thoughts, culture and language,

- government machinery perceived as brutal, biased and openly unfair,

- Existence of corruption at every level in society and the administrative set-up.

Against, this backdrop when you have a powerful voice addressing a limited regional group and promising fairness, equality of opportunity or opportunity for locals, resources for development, access to basics of life, value for minerals / raw materials, becomes an instant hero. These regional outfits gain prominence and legitimacy in eventual course. Over a period of time, these groups become political powerhouses.

What we see today is a very fragmented social structure and a fractured political class is only a reflection of the society it seeks to represent.

Post elections scenario

This post was written before the elections and the current wisdom might make this problem small. I earnestly hope this is so but the problems shall not disappear unless the root causes are attacked.

The open unashamed wrangling for seats should have given rise to immense revulsion but I see the gigantic state machinery involved in making the problem less severe than it really is.

There are many serious gaps in Centre – State relations and at the state level the problems are more severe. It will not be wise to say that regional parties have been shown their place. Infact, Elections – 2009 has shown many of them increase their vote share. The quirky nature of electoral arithmetic however, has ensured that they have lost seats.

Far-sighted thinkers and seasoned political figures from both major political groupings should seize this opportunity and, work towards expansion and consolidation of national political parties.

What a week this has been...

First the long break or rather an enforced one due to our broadband connection being down for more than two weeks. The link was restored after some persistent follow-up.

The interim has been virtually a roller coaster ride. The election results threw up surprises. The point, however, not to be missed out is - our expectations have sunk so low that we believe 206 seats for Congress and 261 for the UPA as a decisive mandate. The poor performance of and the role that regional parties will play be a point of much discussion in the coming days. I hope my series of posts on regionalism can add a different perspective.

The results seem to be giving way to euphoria and this has built up hopes sky-high and when this happens they are normally dashed (I hope not this time around). The ghosts of the past will come back to haunt Dr. Singh. We have been profligate and very imprudent in our national finance management and course correction will be a difficult and a painful exercise.

The stock market felt that it cannot be left behind and decided to defy laws of gravity and did an upward triple sommersault to register a classic "Black Swan" event. (To know more about Black Swan please read my post Hope Springs Eternal...). A never-before event of an "upward circuit" as traditional marketmen call it had many investors rubbing their hands in glee and many more sad at being left out.

I now look forward to commencing my journey after a longish pit stop.

Regionalism – Spilling over to Politics

In my previous post, I argued that –

“The existence of regionalism is a logical corollary to the idea of India. One cannot imagine a uniform and homogenous country like India. Regional vibrancy and its expression have a crucial role to play in this day and age.”

This was all fine till regionalism was restricted to all matters outside the sphere of politics. The leadership of the day after independence had to give a direction to this young new-born nation and set a broad framework to facilitate this.

The consensus that formed was to give to ourselves a written constitution. A group of political statesmen and men of colossal intellect and integrity came together to put on a piece of paper the hows and the why’s of governing this vast sub-continent.

It is interesting to note that even before states were formed on linguistic basis and regionalism was recognized as existing, these wise men thought that a “Federal” structure of government structure would suit India the best. Unknowingly, were sowed seeds of regionalism and partial autonomy in governance for different regions, whilst the Centre would play a strong and decisive role in matters more national in nature.

Politically, regionalism did not surface till about twenty years after independence. Infact, though there were many political parties, it always seemed as a single party rule in almost all the States of India. The carving of states on linguistic basis had been largely completed by the early sixties.

The Indian National Congress was the prime political party with a pan-India identity and presence. All other parties were small bit groups with little political support. The Communists were the first to capture power in Kerala in 1959 but the government was dismissed before completing its term.

What then contributed to the slow and steady rise of regional political parties? The States were definitely giving enough scope for regional groups to do their own thing within the ambit of the Constitution. Then what was triggering this need for a separate political group that would have done better than the INC in that state.

An analysis reveals that

Inner party democracy became one of the first casualties within the Congress and the Central High Command became very powerful. The irony of the situation was probably never appreciated. We prided ourselves on being the largest democracy in the world but our main political party showed scant respect to the concept and practice of inner party democracy.

This in many ways led to much disgruntlement at the ground level. Leaders were hauled to Delhi for flimsy reasons and were replaced arbitrarily. Much of the newer crop of politicians learned fast and focused on money and muscle power as the means to get the High Command attention. This was a great way to attract all lumpen elements to politics. After all, the perks of power and position far outweighed any possible punishment.

Genuine regional aspirations seem to have been brutally brushed aside. Regional fears were never dealt with to generate confidence, instead we had attempts to divide the people and create problems that ultimately became Frankenstein monsters. Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Assam are mute witnesses to this game.

This has been one long story of endless mis-management, men of straw and doubtful integrity at the helm of affairs, blatant abuse of power, instituionalised corruption, open prejudice, devious games, politics being kept as an exclusive preserve of a few classes to the exclusion of the vast majority, over centralisation, politics of appeasement, imposing social hegemony through language…etc., crony capitalism are just some of the reasons.

The Congress, being the major organized all-India political party has to take much of the blame for this. That is not all. We as a nation also have been mute witnesses to the wanton destruction of our cultural ethos and its utter degradation. Indian society – and that means all of us – has also to be blamed for keeping quiet and worse still conniving in this social downfall.

In my next post, I hope to examine a few such instances and policies which have suddenly made regional political parties appear as saviours.

India Under Siege – Importance of Emotional Support

We have just come out of a mind numbing and terrifying experience. Our senses have been pounded by the relentless media coverage of an audacious attack on Mumbai.

We had a ring side view to the brutality of the attack and the swiftness and decisive ruthlessness of the response.

Our immediate reaction has been of shock and disbelief. This slowly gave way to anger at the system, anger at our own helplessness and inability to do anything, frustration that we have to put up with this sense of insecurity time and again.

The next stage that we are in, presently, is trying to find out who is responsible for this mess. In India, the natural reaction is to shift our sights and blame the politician. We also observe that many find refuge in being highly cynical.

If you observe closely, it is clear that we Mumbaikars are, at the current moment, on the edge and highly strung. We are all ready to blow-up at the slightest provocation. We are inclined to believe any rumour and all that is worst.

The Mumbaikar is traumatized and emotionally devastated.

There is an urgent need to re-orient ourselves. We have absorbed too much negativity and are jumping around like a cat on a hot tin roof.

We, in Mumbai, can be broadly divided into following categories:

- Who were trapped during these attacks and survived,

- Those of us who lost a friend or relative,

- All residents in the vicinity of the affected areas,

- The rest of us spread out – not directly affected.

There is an urgent need for a cathartic experience which will help every one relieve their pent-up emotions.

We rarely talk about the need for a healthy emotional balance. It is very important and more so in the present context. After all, we do no want to be a brutalized and de-sensitised city, presuming we have not already reached that stage.

I invite fellow bloggers to share their views and it would be nice to discuss some concrete suggestions.

Why Obama? – We get what we deserve.

The election of Barrack Obama is now part of history.

The din has died down and the dust is just settling down. The victors are now busy trying to comprehend the magnitude of the task ahead and the losers in disarray. This post hopes to rationally see this phenomenon and hence a respectable interval from the actual event.

Whilst Obama’s ascendancy to the throne means many things to many people, what has struck me is the exuberance with which Indian bloggers have reacted to this. Further, and quite inexplicably, many have bemoaned our political leadership and the absence of an Obama-esque figure on the Indian horizon. We have a term in financial markets parlance, “Irrational Exuberance” and “Irrational Pessimism”

Our positive response to Obama has been mainly on account of following factors

• His colour. There is always that fantasy of an underdog making it against all odds and an Afro-American in a White dominated USA is a “bang-on” fairy tale script.
• Brilliant packaging, positioning and superb marketing.
• Flawless execution of a very detailed strategy.
• Unfailing magnetic power of rhetoric and oratory.
• Our own ability to be led down the garden path. An Indian disillusioned with our politics is ready to lap up this fairy tale.

Let me not be cussed and ignore what is worth applauding. It speaks volumes that the American society in five short decades has evolved from a society with deep divisions to a stage where a man of mixed parentage is elected to be President of that country.

Let me now turn to our lament on the absence of a Obama like figure in Indian politics and a detailed analysis on how our political leadership falls woefully short of these high standards. My response

First – We are different

We are still evolving from our clan-caste-village-region-state identity to a pan-Indian identity. We are trying to get rid of the shackles of extreme prejudice. We stick to leaders from our clan, caste or region.

We are also an emotional people and very quickly queer the pitch. Our response to anything tends to be irrational and emotional. You only have to watch any debate in Parliament or media to realize what I am saying.

Second – We get the leaders we deserve

Our leaders come from the same pool as we are in.

We conveniently like to believe that we are educated, sophisticated, dignified, cultured, well mannered, fair minded, broad minded, honest, democratic, secular, unifying, well informed and so on. This list of virtues is endless.

With equal convenience we paint all politicians as the exact opposite of what we believe we are and lament at our misfortune. To us a politician is uneducated, boorish, rough, aggressive, loud, ill mannered, narrow minded, dishonest, corrupt, feudal, communal, divisive, biased, ignorant, criminal and anything else that we can think of.

Is this possible???? It is ridiculous to believe this is possible. We get leaders we elect and more importantly deserve.

The fact is when we hold a mirror to ourselves and are honest, we will see shades of what we believe the politician is. The political class is a microcosm of our society at large and is only representative of the values that we stand for.

Now let us for a moment presume that we have found our Obama – who has captured our imagination and can lead us to glory.

If he talks about Hindus – we will label him communal,

If he talks about others – we will accuse him of appeasement and playing vote bank politics

If he talks of rationalizing fuel prices – we will label him anti-poor

If he wants to lower fuel prices – we will accuse him of poor economic sense and fiscal indiscipline.

If he talks of developing Bihar and UP – we will accuse him of favouritism

If he talks of reviving Mumbai – we will criticize him for ignoring the backward areas and their genuine needs.

If he wants to solve the Kashmir issue – we will accuse him of a sell-out and dividing the country

If he wants to act tough in Kashmir – we will accuse him of human rights violations and suppressing the people’s aspirations

If he wants a tough law on terrorism – we will incite the Muslims that this law will be misused against them

If he does not go in for a tough law on terrorism – we will say that we have a weak leader who has no will to take on terrorism.

If he wants to introduce Uniform Civil Code – He is anti-minorities and will divide the nation.

If he is against Uniform Civil Code – He is pro-minorities and not helping a State where law is same for every one.

This leader will be perpetually caught between the Devil and the Deep Sea.

So, Why crib with our present political leadership??...we are not supportive citizens either.

Unclear Leads – Political Drama Reaches its Climax

The high political drama that we witnessed till a couple of days was purportedly about the Nuclear Deal.

The climax scene was unique and never seen before. You had speeches with amazing qualities. Some were earnest, others vitriolic, and few were a dead sure cure for the most chronic and stubborn insomnia. Most were, however, completely off the mark. You also had a clever addition of a cameo by three “Roughies-Toughies” who did the “Jumping Jack – Magician” trick. They jumped into the well (not the paniwala) and materialized crisp currency notes out of thin air. (Because u could not have got all that stuff through tight security)

The next so-called economic superpower had to suffer the ignominy of the electronic voting mis-firing for atleast fifty-four MPs. I think this was deliberate as it added a dash of suspense at the end.

As we had seen earlier, there was no fixed script so all deviations and innovations were part of this new form of dramatization and they added to the rich hue of this play.

The script required some one to come out victor and as we all know the Cong/UPA side of the cast breasted the tape.

Like all “good things”, this too has come to an end. The audience was witness to some amazing and innovative drama form. The end was marked by relief, wild applause, gloom and outrage, depending on which section of the audience you belonged.

The curtains finally fell on what was a historic event in our history.

The jury is still out on whether this was a proud or a shameful moment.

Nuclear Deal – The Indian Political Drama

A lot of my fellow countrymen may be feeling that life is not the same boring humdrum existence that it normally tends to become. Suddenly, we have something of great interest that is monopolizing our attention. We Indians are being treated to an absorbing and a riveting drama being played out in our political capital. This drama belongs to the Political Satire genre.

Consider the ingredients of this thriller. There is spice, deceit, double crossing, secrecy, main plots, sub-plots, multiple characters, suspense, tragedy, fights, counter punches, loyalties, switching loyalties, bribery and many hidden twists and turns, emotional blackmail and so on...(Read the dailies and watch all channels – do not forget to sms your responses)

The frailties of human character are played out to perfection, highlighting pettiness, selfishness, and myopic vision of the players. (I am not listing all the frailties as we might just get derailed)

The best part of this drama is that there is no pre-written script. It is like a living organism which is evolving and mutating itself into different forms and shapes. All this is happening with the active and enthusiastic participation of the cast – our dear beloved politicians.

The plot owes its origin to a Nuclear Deal sought to be negotiated between India with the USA by the BJP led NDA. They lose power in 2004 and the succeeding Congress led UPA (supported by Leftie) seeks to complete what was begun by NDA.

Here comes the first twist – How can BJP/NDA permit Congress/UPA to take all the credit. After all it was their idea. So all efforts must be made to stall Cong/UPA. You queer the pitch by introducing the emotion of “Betraying National Interests” which shall sway the masses. Now enters the villain – our Leftie (Who has changed roles now). They up the stakes by threatening to withdraw support and topple the government.

Congress wants to enjoy fruits of power and Leftie keeps shouting “WOLF” every time Congress looks at USA. BJP/NDA goes shrill every time this happens, giving background music.

Circa – June 2008: Things heat up.

Congress is battered in many states. Inflation has taken its toll. Dream team of economists has messed up management of economy. Congress feels that this is time to cement their place in history. So they start moving and Leftie sulks and withdraws from the main stage vowing to topple Congress/UPA.

The pace quickens and the audience is at the edge of their seats. Suddenly there is hectic activity and there is movement in every direction. Everybody is rediscovering their love for the nation. They are in favour of statesmanship. Sworn enemies have turned fast friends – cum – saviours. A particular community is suspected of being vulnerable to radioactivity from all the “nuclear talk” going on so it is declared against their interests.

There are betrayals, fierce arguments, counter arguments, baits (Consensus is Rs. 25 crs), honey traps (maybe), silly postures and sillier statements.

We are at this stage now and the drama shall continue…………reaching new heights in theatrical expression.

Did I hear some one from the back seats say……”ENOUGH IS ENOUGH………Tell these old foggies to clear out………We need change……..”

Nuclear Deal - Our Delhi Circus

We are witnessing the “Delhi Circus” being played out everyday and is being brought to us with special comments from a biased media, biased political players, biased scientific establishment and lastly the industry lobby which has its own axe to grind.

The nuclear deal, political brinkmanship, deceit…. are all perfect ingredients to a racy thriller and we have not yet seen or heard the last on this.

What is, however, very surprising is that right from the beginning there is no attempt to examine what is involved in this deal, what are its strategic implications, what are the potential benefits of such an arrangement to us, what could go wrong and how well are we insulated from any such eventuality and in case the eventuality does happen do we have a Plan-B in place.

I understand that it makes no sense to publicly declare all those nuclear sites, which are being used for military purposes, or to discuss the quantum of plutonium we require as a strategic reserve or to debate on the number of nuclear weapons that should form part of the armoury.

It is, however, imperative to discuss threadbare the civilian part of the nuclear deal. It is also important that a clear policy is declared on what happens to the unique Fast Breeder Reactor program, which we have so doggedly pursued over the years and are probably near achieving important breakthroughs.

There are certain perspectives, which I want to lay out and examine.

First the nuclear deal.

a. The Indo-US deal or 1-2-3 Agreement is expected to permit civil nuclear commerce in exchange for full IAEA safeguards only on the civilian nuclear assets,

b. India would be permitted to identify assets used for military purposes and keep them away from international safeguards along with existing stock piles of re-processed uranium, plutonium and _ _ _ number of bombs that we may have,

c. There is the strategic angle of flexibility we will have on nuclear bomb testing and weaponisation,

d. Linked to this is the question of reliability of fuel supplies and whether this could be constantly linked to how well we “behave” (vis-à-vis our nuclear ambitions).

These four broad areas pretty much sum up the nuclear deal on which there seems to be so much hullabaloo. Everything else is incidental to the core. I wonder if these issues can ever be examined dispassionately in detail and we understand how this deal can impact us favourably or otherwise.

Sadly, emotional outbursts seem to be the order of the day and a rational evaluation seems remote.

The moot question is - Are we incapable of ever conducting a rational, organised and a strategic thought process? Overwhelming evidence suggests that we are not, but I am still hopeful.