Corruption - Will Leigislation Help?

We have seen the issue of the Lokpal bill capture our attention like nothing before. Tempers have run high on both sides - the civil society and the political class. Most of the political class realise that this is the potential time bomb waiting to blast, and, blast if it did, many so-called leaders will sink in oblivion..forgotten for ever. 

The question that comes to mind is whether this struggle to create an institution will in itself help in the fight against corruption. Lokpal, by itself, would be an authority with powers to investigate and bring the rich and powerful political class and others at deciding levels in governance or other authorities to book  So, in a sense, Lokpal is sought to be a deterrence. So were the police and judiciary, when we started out.

Will deterrence help in curbing corruption? or is it possible that we see a replay of all that has happened to our institutions in the past. Vested interests shall try everything in the book or otherwise to impede the Lokpal and weaken the whole institution by appointing "men of straw" to office.

Deterrence has never helped in curbing crime and it will not help in curbing or eliminating corruption.

How does this go forward? 

Do we wait for the process of evolution to take its own time  - people to reform from within so that the need to be corrupt itself is eliminated..This sounds utopian and almost impossible given current social conditions and especially when the current underlying theme of acquiring money, power, pelf and control runs very strong.

Is there sense in creating such institutions and hope that innate goodness in humans takes over and we start moving to the right track.There is no clear answer and it appears that cynics are having a field day. Sceptics seem to say "I told you so....there is nothing one can do"...

I am more sanguine and perhaps feel that awareness amongst people about such matters is very high. There is an emotional identification with the revolution sought to be started by Anna Hazare. There is anger and disgust amongst the middle classes. It will require the frail and dimunitive figure of Anna saheb to convert this to a mass revolution with a belief that the change we so desperately need can be ushered in.

When I looked at it from all angles, I felt that the Lokpal is a new institution brought into existence with a lot of thought and wide participation. Further, we can be vigilant and prevent its deterioration. More importantly, when every other institution is deeply mired in mess and has lost credibility, we have something that may deliver what is expected of it.

Society can, .meanwhile, make all efforts to voluntarily clean up its act.

Battle Against Corruption - A Tough Crusader

In the last few weeks, headlines have been hogged by a frail man in his seventies, who captured the imagination of our country with his anti-corruption crusade. This man found spontaneous support and the government eventually had to bow down to all his demands. A Government bogged down in so many scams did not want to be seen as unwilling to legislate a law against corruption.

Let us look back a little and understand why Anna saheb has a pathalogic dislike towards corruption and contempt for our political class. This will also tell us a little about this crusader.

Anna Hazare, a retired army soldier, a social reformer and one involved in rural development, has seen how corruption at the lowest level placed untold hurdles in his work at his village Ralegaon Siddhi. He sought redressal at the next level only to be horrified at the extent of corruption and shamelessness and impunity with which officials flouted every rule in the book.

Not to be rebuffed, he sought redressal at the political level. What he saw here truly shocked Anna saheb and probably made him wonder whether his mission of social reformation and selfless service were all in vain.The spread of corruption was like cancer that had spread beyond control and had gripped the vitals of our society. Enough to deter any person.

Anna saheb has been a person with a different DNA make-up. He is often under-estimated because of his diminutive physical stature and an apparent lack of sophistication, strategy and guile. But believe me, looks could'nt be more deceptive. He is a tough fighter and the fact that the Government of Maharashtra has initiated more than thirty cases against him in different courts, does not seem to ruffle him in the least.


Speaks volume of the reservoir of inner strength that he has.

This time he has moved to the national arena, a far more complex structure and perhaps far more vicious opponents. The odds stacked against him are very high as the Govt. of India has come out guns blazing on many fronts, determined to frustrate every effort at cleansing.

I still believe that the Govt. should not under-estimate Anna Hazare and get about the task with more sincerity. Anna saheb has no personal axe to grind and has nothing to lose. This is exactly the reason that makes him very dangerous,

India in Turmoil

In less than a week, we shall draw curtains on the last year of the first decade of the 21st century. A decade is long enough a period to reflect on how much we have progressed as a nation or regressed as a society.

The last decade has seen tremendous strides being taken in all matters economic. Despite periodic hiccups, we seem to have regained our bearings, rather quickly, and, have stood up, marching ahead all the time. These pauses have helped us to get a sense of perspective about our progress.  We have made astounding progress in terms of technology and development all across. We can see visible signs of development trickling down to those who require it most, though this has not been fast enough nor has it been uniform all over.

Yet, it appears that our society seems to have regressed back to anarchy. We had set some rules  of orderly governance and existence but nd brazenly gone about flouting every one of them. We have been totally overtaken by greed and the new motto is " I, Me, Myself" and have gone about amassing wealth or power with both hands and more. Damn the others, damn the country and damn your own conscience.

The scams should be seen in this light and the speed with which the "privileged" have gone about this indicates a sense of fear that all this may not be possible and every opportunity needs to be capitalised on. Common Wealth Games, 2G scam, food grain scam, political conspiracies, defence purchase scams, real estate scams, scams that have surfaced and those that have not seem to blotch the canvas.

There is a loud protest at this, as it should be. The question to be asked is "Are you outraged that this is happening? or Are you angry that you missed the chance of being part of the loot?" 

The second, equally distressing, is the prominence gained by insensitivity, sometimes bordering on cruelty. This has led to strife, divisions in society and rebellion. The political class seems to have been completely bought over and they have in turn mortgaged the country's interests to the highest bidder. Back breaking inflation has focussed all energies on survival.

We see large swathe of our population in turmoil. There appear clearly two sides ranged against each other with no clear victor in sight. 

The whole space has become acrimonious and we have been witnessing a very regressive 2010. Our minds are in turmoil, our society is in turmoil, governance is absent, leadership has gone back into text books and suddenly things certainly seem bleak. The morning newspaper brings no glad tidings.

Do we cross over into a new year with a jaded mind set, defeated and fearful of our future?

Navratri........My Search for Meaning

Dasara or Dushera is a major Indian festival and is the culmination of and follows a period of nine days preceding it. This day is also known as Vijayadashmi, the tenth day - a day of victory. It is celebrated in most parts of India.

In a large country as ours and with diverse cultures co-existing, it is but natural that there will be varying interpretations. This is often seen in different themes that seem prominent in each region.

To me, a product of post independence India, and, moulded in the liberal school of thought, this was a dilemma of sorts. What is this festival? What is its significance?  

I found that most of us had no clue about the deeper meaning. It was identified as an event that happened in hoary times...destruction of the demon Mahisasura by Goddess Kali or the defeat of Ravana at the hands of Lord Rama. At some places it was identified as worshipping the feminine aspect of the divine and thus Goddess Durga was worshipped for the first three days, Goddess Laxmi for the next three and Goddess Saraswati for the last three days. The "Devi Kavach" honours the nine forms of the Goddess.

Come west to the state of Gujarat, and Garba takes centre stage. I do not refer to the modern day dancing to film and pop music. Traditionally, Garba form of dance was a worship of the Devi-Shakti, and the earthern pot with with a "diya" lit inside represented the womb and fertlity.

I felt these linkages seem symbolic and a message is being conveyed or these indicate that it is time to introspect, review and change.

In my next post, I hope to share with you all how I understood the significance of Navratri and what it really meant.

An Attempt at Self Destruction

Much has been said about what has been done or what has not been done for Commonwealth Games - 2010. This has been dissected in great detail and the potrayals have been overly negative.

Our "free" and often "irresponsible" media went berserk and every invective in the dictionary was hurled at the organisers and the Games. Some even went to the extent of criticising the decision to accept these Games in the first place. There were veiled suggestions that we bribed many nations to get the Games awarded to India.

The hype was so great that the foreign press just had to add their bit and the impressions were of a disaster waiting to happen. Many athletes probably dropped out reading this stuff.

One minister Mr. Mani Shankar Iyer went to the extent of calling this a colonial relic and a waste of money. Every attempt made was to scuttle the whole event from taking place. An open and blatant attempt at self-destruction. 

I am sure the then NDA government never imagined that we would live to see a day like this, when they went all out to get the Games to India. 

It was an effort to project to the world about a young and modern India, a resurgent and confident India, an emerging heavy weight in the world hierarchy. It was also an exercise that would have inspired us Indians to excel in our pursuits and break those limiting shackles that time and our weak minds have imposed on ourselves. An opportunity to mobilise all Indians to come together and create something outstanding.

We were ready to 

junk our image to mud. 

believe that all these efforts are way beyond us. 

believe that we did not deserve the glory that is rightly ours.

Self-destruct.

It would have been tragic if all these had come true. What surprises me is inspite of our manifold strengths, we repeatedly fall into that same trap and believe that we are so fallible. 

The inaugural extravaganza was stunning and I was definitely very impressed with the effort. Coming on the back of very low expectations, the impact may have been higher. This, however, does not dilute any credit  that the programme deserves. I am sure the rest of the Games would stick to high standards.

I remember Swami Vivekananda's words and wonder what the result would have been had we remembered his words:

"Man has infinite power within himself, and he can realise it. Arise, awake,sleep no more;within each of you there is the power............"

"March on! Anything that makes you weak physically, intellectually and spiritually, reject as poison"

Let these words inspire us to our best and not our media and TV channels who happen to believe only in our worst.

Back to Roots

In my earlier post, I had mentioned our road trip across parts of Karnataka. The most important part was the initial six days. We were journeying through "our native place". Native place is a very Indian concept (or shall I enlarge it to say Oriental concept) and a very fascinating one at that. Inspite of being away from the land of our forefathers for two generations, there is still that "something" that identifies and connects you with that place. Our social etiquette permits us to stray into personal space and ask people where they hail from. I am rightfully a Mumbaikar and culturally identified more with Maharashtra than Karnataka.  Yet, people insist on knowing "where I really/originally hail from?".

This always struck me that there is a  strong link to our land of origin. It may appear that we try and slot people as Kannadigas, Konkanis, Goans, Malvanis....but is that our true identity? It is not threatening in any way and just our habit or culture, if you will.

I wanted to know more about this identity of mine. This identity that no UID card will be able to capture, this identity that goes beyond my place of residence, this identity that makes people welcome me so spontaneously despite having "migrated" generations ago. 

This journey, though short, was through North Kanara district, now officially known as Uttara Kannada district. People from my community - Chitrapur Saraswats - adopted names of villages as their surnames. Suddenly, all those hamlets, villages, towns small and big seemed very familiar. They were surnames of many many relatives, friends and acquaintances. I knew nothing about those places but suddenly and inexplicably felt at home. The icicng on the cake was finding  and visiting "Mavinkurve". A small island on the river Sharavati was where it all began a few of centuries ago. 

In the limited time I had, I managed to visit many places around. 

Doors were thrown open and strangers would talk as if "the prodigal son had returned". Remember, we had no contacts, property or a house back there. In this short stay a bond started developing almost unnoticed by any of us. On our return, we realised that bond seems to have strengthened. We are already talking in terms of the next trip. An adventurous thought does not rule out having our family home there...........

It seems that I have now donned a dual identity. Further and strangely, I seem comfortable with it. A city slicker living in relative anonymity in a megapolis and, as a native, in a script that is still being written.

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.

I am a Voice without a Form

...so said Swami Vivekananda at the begining of his mission.

I want no name - I want to be a voice without form....Through the Lord's will, the desire for name and fame has not yet crept into my heart and I dare say never will. I am an instrument and HE is the operator. A brilliant life that lived to its fullest potential, Swamiji was and (I would say) still is a great inspiration to us Indians.

His was a life conveying complete surrender to the Divine and yet so rooted to the ground realities of India of those days. He represented limitless energy and tireless action with a serene mind devoid of any feverishness or sense of attachment.

His appeal crossed all boundaries but to us Indians he foresaw the rise of this giant more than a hundred and ten years back. He was a live wire and sought to awaken a mass which seemed to be in very deep slumber for over a millenia. He awakened Indian society to the new realities and inspired them to be strong and purposeful.

As I read more about this divine soul, I am awe struck by an amazing clarity of thought and an ability to pinpoint to where we as a society had gone astray. His advice to our society is so apt and relevant (even today).

We seem to have all the wisdom and knowledge within our culture and somewhere it is ingrained in our psyche. The question which keeps repeating in my mind is why inspite of all these treasures we seem to be constantly looking outside for inspiration and direction. Why is it that our society appears so fractured and where have we forgotten this noble way of living?

It is tempting to presume that our society has descended into a black-hole never to recover or are we just being too pessimistic?

I would like to share some examples of this "Eternal Wisdom" in the following posts and hope to reflect on our current state. I have liberally referred to various books and published material and would refer them in quotes with appropriate acknowledgements.

With this, I dedicate my fiftieth post to the blogging world.

Swinging between Extremes

It has been an amazing month that has passed us and what strikes me is our tendency to embrace the extreme at every possible opportunity on every possible matter.

Let me list a few of these extremes:

Election results:

The results were a surprise to every one including those in the Congress Party. Anybody who claims that he had foreseen this would be lying.

- We went around town screaming about the decisive mandate. Decisive Mandate???? The government is in a precarious situation and depending on the support of a couple of allies.

- We shouted from the roof tops about the maturity of the Indian voter. Maturity???? The votes were divided as never before.

- An impressive showing in UP was touted as the master strategy of Rahul Gandhi and how he had arrived on the scene.

- The orchestrated chorus in which every one joined to plead with the PM to include RG in the cabinet
- That this was the demise of regional parties


Stock Market:

Post the election results, the stock market decided to join this celebration and achieved what no other stock exchange has achieved in the world. We saw exuberance in its wildest form as the indices hit, what is known in stock market parlance, the upper circuit and we saw a 30 - 40% jump in prices of almost every share. Some exceeded even this.

Nobody has been able to fathom what had changed between April and May. Economic indicators seem as buoyant or lacklustre as earlier. The clouds have vanished and investors feeling left out of this rally are furiously buying as if there is no tomorrow.

Our instant switch from irrational pessimism to exuberance has no explanations, but such extreme swings seem very normal.


Reservation Bill for Women:

This is classic. One section behaved as if this was manna from heaven and would have us believe that womenfolk was on the verge of deliverance. All the oppression, prejudice and age-old rigidities seemed to have vanished like clouds on a windy day. That this enabling platform would deliver us women confident of taking the bull by horns overnight.

The other extreme were the menfolk who felt threatened by this expected onslaught and were compelled to resort to theatrics.

Tokenism...zindabad!!! Tapping potential gene pool ...zindabad!!!


Sports:

Let us look at cricket. Mahendra Singh Dhoni was the perfect cool headed captain who could do no wrong. He was the best in the world and the T-20 world cup was as good as bagged.

What a fall from grace in just two weeks....I understand his effigy was burnt today and the media lampooned him for his "mistakes".


It is plain that none of the positions we took or none of our reactions were based in reality nor were they representing a sense of proportion.

Are we a nation of "extremists". I am amazed at our continued tendency to take extreme positions. We seem to have forgotten that there exists a middle path. Irrationality takes over and we react emotionally to all matters of social and national importance. There is then no hope for a proper debate.

Is it a trick to throw the real issues off-balance? or are we just hard wired in this fashion?

Either way, I note this characteristic with a sense of amusement and just wave it away. Should I also adopt the maxim - "If you can't convince them, confuse them" and add to the chaos. A tempting thought......I must say.

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.

The Concept of Nationhood

India has been, is presently and will continue to be at crossroads…so said somebody. Well, we have to constantly make choices for our collective journey through time. As we stand today, pausing and wondering on which path to take, I would like to discuss in this post the concept of nationhood that confronted us and our struggle to grapple with this new idea. Read on…..

An ancient civilization donned robes of a new-born nation at the stroke of midnight of 14-15^th August 1947 hoping to wake up from its long slumber and make its “Tryst with Destiny”.

An ancient race that was spread over a vast multitude of kingdoms and jagirs woke up a new reality of a vast nation – India or Bharat desh or Hindustan to many more. This, probably, was an abstract and a scary concept as against the cocoon like security of one’s small kingdom.

A population that owed allegiance to a central figure – the King and his family suddenly came alive to the vague concept of State and distant rulers.

People used to a certain form of governance for ages had to suddenly learn an alien concept of “Democracy” and come to terms with the niceties of debate and consensus building.

A rigid and feudal structure and a society divided along caste lines were confronted with the frightening possibility of having to live the rest of their lives practicing “Justice - Liberty – Equality and Fraternity”. This value was sought to be transplanted by those who had access to modern education and had a dream of how this young nation should shape up in the decades to come by.

Till we attained our Independence, the sole focus of our people was to attain Independence from the British. Naively, people believed that all our ills were just due to colonial rule and once independent, they would just vanish into thin air as wisps of smoke, if you will. No thinker, probably, recognized the many inherent contradictions existing and simmering just below the surface.

A pan-Indian identity was as alien as sharing the same bench in a school with an “untouchable”. We grew up and limited our identity to our jagir - Kingdom or Province.

These and many contradictions came to the surface and in fact still keep doing so at repeatedly at regular intervals severely testing our faith and patience. Many wring their hands in despair and are convinced about the futility of our experiment with newer ideas and in some extreme elements the idea of nationhood.

Are we close to writing the final verdict? Where and how do we go? Is the political process over-shadowing everything else? Is there hope at all for us? These and similar questions arise in our minds and torture us as we stand almost decade in this new millennium.

I am more sanguine.

What we see today and what depresses and disturbs us should be seen in the light of what I have discussed above. The last sixty two years have been a process of overcoming these inherent contradictions, assimilating newer concepts, learning a new way of life.

We began as a group of nations and commenced the journey to meld together as a cohesive whole. Our society is grappling with many known and unknown currents and evolve it will. This belief is not based on foolish hope but on a study of human behaviour. Given the diverse background, a sense of identity and reconciliation will emerge in due course and all divisive and disruptive elements would quieten down and merge into the mainstream.

After all sixty years is just a small patch across a canvas stretching over tens of millennia or more.

Give India time…..we will sort ourselves out.

Edited to add:

Priyank made a very pertinent observation. We began an experiment six decades back that EU has just started a decade back and the complexity, religious and social diversity is much more that what EU can imagine. Let me add here - all this has been done without two world wars and tens of millions of human casualties. This is amazing and very creditable and we should be proud of ourselves.

India – At Crossroads

India is an ancient civilization tracing its origin back deep into the past well beyond five - six thousand years. In fact, there is no definite date or period to which its origin can be pegged to.

India, as a political entity, is a young nation in its sixty second year of existence, a toddler compared to the civilization it seeks to represent.

This, in an essence, holds a clue to this “Grand Puzzle” called India. In this apparent dis-similarity lies the clue to this current chaos that reigns supreme. The sense of despair and helplessness that drives us up the wall and makes us exclaim in frustration, “India….What is your future?...Where are you hurtling?”

In my very first post, I had this to say about India

This is that ancient land which claims to have the answers to the deepest riddles that have foxed mankind eons on end and yet it struggles to find answers to various issues that seem to keep it chained to the dark ages.

India has been an unending mystery where the ancient co-exists with the modern, where a fledgling democracy wages a valiant battle with feudalistic mores, where modern values attempt to heal deep societal divisions.

Yet, India is fascinating and deep.

India presents the picture of a modern fledgling “avatar” struggling against an ancient social structure. At the same time one can clearly discern ancient mores and a traditional way of life at significant variance with a more permissive and egalitarian segment of society.

This gives rise to a pertinent question….”Is India at Crossroads?” and how and where do we go from here?

I now hope to embark on a completely different journey. I will attempt to study this complex juxtaposition of the ancient and the youthful and try to make sense of it.

This will be a new series and I also hope to continue with my series of posts on Financial Literacy and Financial Planning.

Welcome 2009………What a way to start

“Greed, for lack of a better word, is Good” said Gordon Gekko in a 1987 film “Wall Street”. B Ramalinga Raju took it to heart and acted on it.

The Satyam drama has hit us square in the face and it has been a KO punch to the employees, clients, non-promoter shareholders, regulators, State and Central Government, the IT industry and many other stakeholders.

Much has been said and written on this and in the coming days tomes shall be generated. Officers shall investigate through mountains of information and give their verdict. Raju and his band of “corporate pindaris” may yet be found guilty and may be spending the rest of their lives in the slammer.

This is corporate-politician nexus, crony capitalism, manipulation, deceit, treachery all rolled into one and at its worst.

Is that it? – Just a Corporate fraud………or something more

What is more serious and unpardonable, Satyam has inflicted a grievous wound to

- Our faith in ourselves,

- Our belief and capability to build world class businesses

- Our capacity to rise above the murkiness and create something in an atmosphere of transparency and fairness,

- Our capability to rise without a powerful surname, and

- Our trust.

Our faith and trust has been trampled upon with impunity whilst presenting a straight face to the world. This is a letdown of Himalayan proportions. We now have to be apologetic for this skeleton in our cupboard.

We shall view every entrepreneur and his success story with a jaundiced eye half expecting a cooked up story. We shall view every big company with suspicion. There will always be a thought lurking whether we are being taken for a ride.

Who or what can we trust hereafter?

Does this whole episode have a good part to it?

I think the financial markets will be ruthless and any Company / Entrpreneur who cannot stand to exacting standards and high levels of scrutiny will be dumped to the trash bin and sumptuously reward the honest.

Am I being utopian? Is this too much to ask? ……..in a system that has institutionalized corruption and entrenched interests first enrich their small closed clubs to the complete exclusion of everybody else.

Hope Springs Eternal……..

The sun has finally set on what has been a wild roller coaster year leaving us dazed and breathless at the same time. Unimaginable events have taken place and the pace of events has been unprecedented.

In fact, 2008 can be called the Black Swan year. “Black Swan” is a concept coined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan – The Impact of the Highly Improbable.

A Black Swan is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics – its unpredictability, its massive impact and, after it has happened, our desire to make it appear less random and more predictable than it actually was.

This year has seen a series of continuous Black Swan events both in India and globally with some serious impact.

Let me try and recount some from an Indian perspective….

1. The stock market crashes in January and October has been a severe and traumatic experience. Millions of investors suffered large losses.

2. The commodity meltdown was unexpected, sharp, sudden and deep. This has hurt investors, companies and thousands of businesses. Large losses have meant businesses have become ultra cautious.

3. Hyper - Inflation in oil prices and its equally sudden and inexplicable fall has left deep scars on the Indian fiscal scenario. Food inflation has led to a piquant situation.

4. Series of terror acts climaxing with the Mumbai attacks have had such a deep impact on our collective psyche, that even a month later we are not too enthused on celebrating the onset of the New Year. The mood is somber and most have preferred to stay at home.

Well we also have had our share of successful black swans. These have been in the pipeline for some time and we should be seeing the fruits soon –

1. Launch of the Nano – showcased the capability of the Indian brand of frugal engineering and world class quality.

2. The Chandrayaan launch has been a harbinger of sorts. I believe that this small step will eventually lead to great leaps for India in the coming three – four decades.
3. The IPL T20 cricket tournament has the potential of redefining cricket as a game and spectator participation
   

It is normal to magnify the bad memories and make light of the good. The mind has a tendency to blindly accept the negative and doubt the positive.

At this critical juncture and as we march on to a new page on the calendar, our confidence is dented, we are angry at our political class and frustrated at our inability to be assertive and take decisive action against Pakistan. We are also staring, perhaps for the first time, at job insecurity, pay cuts and a possible economic slowdown.

In the midst of all this gloom - Hope Springs Eternal in the Human Breast

And

We shall bounce back!!!

I feel that we have so much going for us and there is so much work yet to be done, then why are we so despondent? We just refuse to recognize our strengths and find strange comfort wallowing in despair. The so-called economic woes are temporary and there is no need for IRRATIONAL PESSIMISM.

I would like everyone to believe that the best years lie ahead of us. The onus is on us to make this possible. Please share your thoughts and optimism and those believing otherwise do come here – we may have a cure for you.

Let me end this post wishing my blogger fraternity a GREAT YEAR AHEAD.

Lessons we can draw from 26/11

November 26^th happened and we witnessed three days of vicious battle. It also united the country like no other incident in recent memory has. Public anger bubbled over and there was savage criticism of the government in general and the political class in specific. The government of the day was forced to make changes and hopefully something concrete emerges out of it.

I was analyzing the entire episode from a very dispassionate angle and read with great interest all material available on all the planning that went behind this operation. At the end of it, what emerged was an absolute professional approach to the task at hand.

Let me issue a disclaimer here. This is not a post to glorify the terrorist nor does it seek to justify their objective or their actions. This is a dispassionate attempt to understand the approach and the lessons it holds for us.

When I look at what happened and the background information that emerged subsequently, a sequence of activities becomes clear. I will not repeat the activities but look at it from a management perspective.

1. Complete clarity of objective,
2. Multiple teams in place,
3. Thorough information gathering,
4. Detailed planning right down to the brass-tacks,
5. Rigorous and professional training,
6. High levels of motivation and passion,
7. Complete unanimity in the execution team,
8. Complete clarity of each team member’s role,
9. Constant communication with central point,
10. Real time alignment depending on ground situation,
11. Ruthless and professional execution.

When you mull on these points, it becomes clear that any top notch world class management would have had the same approach.

I just wondered if we in India had imbibed these principles in our nation building efforts, we would have been an economic and military superpower by now. It is important that our recent efforts at revamping our security apparatus are carried through carefully and with a degree of thoroughness that has not been visible till now, more so as the opponent has a highly focused, organized and ruthless approach.

It also highlights that anything done as a job with little or no interest results in poor output and in times of emergency a complete rout. We need to inject passion and enthusiasm in many of our efforts and the tenacity to stick through. May this shock jolt us from our deep slumber and prod us on to meaningful action.

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.