Non Corrupt is Not Anti-Corrupt

I read somewhere a poignant statement.

'Non Corrupt is not the same as Anti-Corrupt'

There are many who are personally not corrupt. But they also turn a blind eye towards corruption around them.

When I was in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation as Sales Officer of Coimbatore Sales Officer, I was a hothead, both uncorrupt and strongly anti-corrupt. I had a colleague of mine, who was an operations officer, and my neighbour. A gentleman who was the son of a legendary Sales Officer of ESSO (which became HPCL). The father was not clean. But the son was honest to a fault. Unfortunately, he had to work in the Coimbatore Storage point which was a hotbed for corruption, headed by a Depot Manager who was corrupt to the boot. My colleague, though personally clean, would never raise his voice against the all round corruption in the Depot, while I was raising hell and shouting at the top of my voice. My voice finally reached the Regional Office and I was called up - my first instance of being a whistle blower. But soon I found out that the whole excercise of an enquiry into the issue was a sham, as even the people in the Regional office was involved. But the coup de grace was when my friend was called up by the Superiors and he refused to back me up, prefering to say 'he was not corrupt' and he doesnt know anything about others. With dealers and tank truck operators fearing the wrath of the Depot Manager if they spoke against him, the enquiry was closed for want of evidence. I felt disgusted and asked my friend (with whom I had discussed for hours about these issues) why he kept quiet. He refused to look me in my eyes and mumbled something incoherent. That was the beginning of the end of a good friendship, for I never forgave him. And not long after I quit HPCL.

My father's advice was "It is alright for you to take on corruption. But remember that you are extremely careful in every single action of yours. People whom you take on will wait for you to make one tiny little slip". And I was very very careful and the effort was a tremendous strain on me, though I relished it.

This strain is why people, though personally non corrupt, do not become anti corrupt. The corrupt lobby is too well entrenched and will go to any length to silence the whistle blowers and the anti corrupt activists. They take the easy route of  'I am clean, and if other are not, then it is for the society and the authorities to take action. I have nothing to do with it'.

The Prime Minister of India belongs to this category. But in his case the defence that he will be victimised dont hold water. He has reached the pinnacle of his life and he can afford to take on the corrupt.

And that is why the Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan is revered by the Malayalees, despite his faults as an Administrator. He is strongly anti corrupt and runs crusades against the corrupt, though many dont reach the logical end. Still he makes it a point to take on the corrupt. And it is why, despite his party not wanting him to contest elections in 2006 and now, popular pressure ensured he was given a seat. But he is 87, and his breed is vanishing fast. So much the pity.

Quack, quack.....................

Indian PM Manmohan Singh and Pakistan PM Gilani are meeting at Mohali. This is how the conversation is likely to be,

MMS : Gilani. quack quack quack

Gilani : MMS, quack quack

MMS: The weather is quack quack .........

Gilani: I hope Pak players dont fix quack quack.......

and thus the 'quacks' went on and on.

No I am not crazy!

How else would two LAME DUCK PRIME MINISTERS sound when they talk?

The actual power centres in India and Pakistan are Sonia and Army Chief Kayani respectively.  These two lame ducks need to take their bosses permission even to piss. Then what is the use of them meeting at Mohali?

Nostaligia

I rarely cross post on my blog. But I have to make an exception to THIS POST by the Cricket Writer Suresh Menon, as it captures what I went through in many ways during my formative years and my passion for Cricket, which has never died.

The hours of playing cricket inside the house in the alley between the dining room and hall, the first bat purchased for Rs 8 at the age of 7, which  had a defect on the inside edge, oiling and seasoning of the bats, playing on the concrete yard meant for drying boiled paddy, getting up at 5 am to catch the first bus to Palghat 20 kms away to be in time for the morning session of the coaching camp during peak Palghat summer, travelling alone at the age of 14, 250 kms to Kannur to attend the State Coaching Camp lasting 21 days which was washed away literally by the unseasonal rain, having photograph taken by Indian Express as one of the two most promising youngsters, walking into the 10th standard class, after a Coaching Camp session,  after the 1st hour to be royally ticked off by Malayalm Teacher Ramakrishnan Sir who cared a fig for Cricket, standing on top of a stool listening to ABC commentary in a Valve GEC Radio which took 5 minutes to heat up, cutting newspaper pictures and pasting them on a notebook during the WI tour of India in 1975, listening to India win the World Cup in 1983 in disbelief, carrying pocket radios to the class in College, watching the Indian World Cup highlight on a friends house in a Cassette brought from overseas with 20 friends who have never seen cricket on TV before, going to a movie to watch 2 minute clippings of cricket in Indian News Reel projected before the film, setting up the antenna of the TV in 1986 to catch poor quality transmissions from Kodaikkanal HPT in Chittur, telling commentaries of imaginary cricket match while walking on the road to school - it all seemed long long ago.

Any why Suresh Menon's article brought back nostalgic memories.

Even we don't deserve him!

If Manmohan Singh had tried hard, he could not have found a more stupid way of ensuring India dont win the World Cup. It boggles one's mind as to the reason for the PM to convert the India-Pakistan Semi-final at Mohali into a political/diplomatic event by first announcing that he himself will attend the match, and then compounding the folly by inviting Pakistan PM and President to attend the match.

It is a known fact that post 26/11 Mumbai attack, Pakistan has tried every trick in the book to block the investigation and had run a misinformation propaganda against our country. They have refused to share information, have refused to co operate in the investigation, they have scoffed that Kasab is a Pakistani Citizen to the extend of even asking his family back in Pakistan to move away from their village and removing all records pertaining to Kasab. Added to this, they have not given an inch to India diplomatically, and have gone to the other extreme to take pot shots at every given opportunity. In fact we had reached an impasse with respect to bilateral relationship, and it would have been better to allow it to remain that way.

But by inviting Pak PM to the match, MMS has again shown to the World that India is a soft state and can be pushed around.

In the bargain he has put more pressure on the Indian Team. As such, this is a high pressure game. MMS should have better served the Indian cause by making some strong public statements against Pakistan as a nation, which would have resulted in a retort from Pakistan, and in turn would have put considerable pressure on Afridi and Co to win the match, just to prove a point and that would have been their undoing. And all Indians would have loved this, as this is precisely what they want.

But then when has Manmohan Singh ever understood the psyche of the common man? He has never won even a Municipal Election.

Frankly, even we don't deserve a Government and a PM like him.

Kerala - the transition

Decades ago, much before other States even began to think about it, Kerala concentrated on taking its economy away from Agriculture to Services. This despite it being one of the three States which had and still has a strong Communist presence - the other two being West Bengal and Tripura. Communists normally had worked for the upliftment of the Agriculture sector.  But the Communists (at least those of 50s, 60s and 70s) also emphasised on reading, art films, and philosophical discussions which all required education.

Many things contributed to the transition of Kerala to a Services Economy, wittingly and unwittingly. Kerala has limited land holdings and a high population density. Kerala's population density is thrice as much as any other State of India. And this despite the State being the leader in population control. The land reforms act in 1950s led to fragmented the land holdings and made the feudal lords redundant. The long term consequence was that with very small land holdings, it just did not make economic sense to do agriculture for a living, unless it is a cash crop.

Another reason can be dated back to the pre independence era - 1911 to be precise. The then Travancore-Cochin State took a bold initiative in improving the education and healthcare systems. These intiatives were continued post independence. Hence, by the turn of the century, we had the fourth generation who concentrated on Education and enjoyed better health care. Even when I was studying in 1970s and 80s, when Private School's role was very limited (this has changed since), the State was proud to have a Primary School within walking distance of any child, a Secondary/High School within 5 kilometer of any student and a College within 8 kilometers of any aspirants house. This, along with highly subsidised Bus Travel (we paid just 10 paise to travel upto 8 kilometers till late 1980s, and this subsidised rate was applicable in both Government and Private buses. Even today bus travel for School Children is <25% of the actual rate). The phenominally high circulation enjoyed by the many vernacular newspapers also went a long way in creating awareness.

Initially Kerala took the leadership in preparing its students for the obvious Industrial Economy that should have followed the Agrarian Economy. Many Junior Technical Schools (teaching technical vocational courses equivalent to High School) and Polytechnics (equivalent to +1,+2, +3) were started by the Government. However, the industrial sector in Kerala did not quite take off, because higher awareness and an organized trade union, resulted in higher wages for the workers, forcing many industrialists to move away from Kerala. But the thousands who passed out from the JTS and PTs found job outside the State initially, and later formed the core of the migrant NRI population in the Middle East. Somewhere in the 80s the State and the People becoming aware of the futility of converting the State into an Industrial giant, went one step ahead and wholeheartedly transitioned to the Services Economy. The focus of the education was more on generic programs more suited for the Services Sector, though Technical Education by way of Engineering programs is still the main draw. But most of these Engineers pursue a Management Program and pursue a vocation in the services sector, either in Kerala or more likely outside the State. 

The seeds sown by the Travancore- Cochin Government of 1911 on the healthcare front, and the continuation of that policy by the post independence Governments, also saw malayalis pursuing medical education in a big way. This led to the State making tremendous progress in the Doctor:Population Ratio (Kerala's ratio of Doctors to population in the Government Sector is 1:6000, and Doctors to population taking into consideration both Govt. and Private Sector is 1:2000, which is a tremendous achievement). However, more importantly, the advances made by the State in Nursing Education, has created generations of Nurses who, apart from improving the quality of medical care in the State, also brought in much needed Foreign Exchange by migrating to all over the World. In a way, one can say, the State has become dependant on the Services Sector, for both Education and Medical care come under the Pure Services category. It is immaterial whether these practitioners work in Kerala or abroad. That the State leads in controlling infant mortality, pre natal deaths, pregnant woman mortality, overall mortality and higher life expectancy is a side benefit of the above.

Where Kerala has missed out was in exploiting two sectors where it would have done extremely well - IT and Financial Sectors. The IT professionals would have loved Kerala for the cosmopolitan atmosphere, higher wage levels, availability of foreign goods through the numerous duty paid shops, a consumer economy and general levels of education. Similary, Kerala would have done well in the Financial Sector, and should have taken the step to make it a Financial Hub of the nation. Why we didn't think of this seriously or if we did think of it seriously, why we didnt pursue it aggressively is something which both UDF and LDF governments should intrspect. The Vallarpadam container terminal, Smart City Project and the various initiatives on the Toursim front is expected to develop the Services sector further. But if I were the Finance Minister of Kerala, I will go hammer and tongs at converting Kerala into a Financial Hub, and a Banking Destination. This would also help channelise the NRI funds and ensure higher returns for the hardworking NRIs.

Why is the Government happy about the attack on Libya?

My friend Budhirakshasan is a fly in the wall in the corridors of power in Delhi.

I was quite pleased when he appeared last night out of the darkness, just when  I was raking my brain for a suitable topic for today's blog post.

"Good evening Swamy"

"Good Evening Bujee" - I call him Bujee, (I had written about Bujee before), short for Budhi Jeevi, as a mark of respect for the space between his ears.

"Do you know why India abstain in the vote in the UN Security Council on enforcing the no fly zone in Libya and not oppose it?"

"Nope"

"Because India was sure it will lead to US, France and UK attacking Libya and leading to a spike in the oil prices"

"And why should that be in India's interest?"

"Swamy, Swamy!! You are so naive. Who said it is in India's interest?"

"Then"

"It is in Congress and UPA's interest to have a higher oil price."

"Why?"

"The inflation was showing no signs of coming down, and elections to 5 States are on in April and May"

"So"

"The government and the party was running out of reasons for not being able to control the inflation. With oil prices crossing $110/bbl mark, they have a ready excuse now for the next 6 months by which time Kharif harvesting would have started."

"Bujee, you are so cynical"

"Cynical, my foot. You dont know Swamy how devious these guys are"

Poof!! and he was gone

And guess what. Today's newspapers had this story.

Law of Unintended Consequences and 2 G Scam

I had writtten about the Law of Unintended Consequences before (read here).

Much despicable the actions of ex-telecom minister Raja is regarding giving away the 2 G spectrum at a throw away price, one has to admit that it has had a tremendous positive impact in empowering the ordinary people, especially the poor.

I had written way back in 2009 as another post, in this blog,

It is amazing how much an improvement in the earning capacity the mobile phones have brought in for the poor in India. The mobile penetration and the low calling rates have done much more to empower the auto driver, the priest, the jasmine seller, vegetable vendor, the house maid, the petty shop owner, the plumber, the electrician than any NREG scheme that the government uses to dole out freebies. To say the truth, the poor have leveraged the mobile much much more than the educated and the rich in India to further their economic interest. For them, it is a tool to earn, rather than a social networking facilitator. And that is how it should be. The mobile revolution has also enabled the poor to network professionally. I was amazed at how each one of them have created a network of other trade craftsmen/women to offer an integrated service to their clients. They earn more, have improved their productivity and as a result enjoy better living standards. This stresses the importance of having better grass root level infrastructure to eradicate poverty rather than taking the route of welfare economics.

Almost all the decisions taken by the Governments, Central or State, reeks with corruption. But at least in this case, we can rest assured that the Rs 1.76 lakh crore notional loss to the exchequer ultimately benefitted the poor rather than going to the deep pockets of big businessmen, like for example government acquiring lands dirt cheap for big business houses, who in turn sell it at a premium immediately, and the gain goes only to them. Raja made money, as did many telecom companies, and government definitely could have got much more from the sale of spectrum if it were auctioned. But the money thus raised would have gone down the drain through some social security programs like NREGS, where the end beneficiary, the poor, gets only 15%, with the rest lining the pockets of fat pig middle men. Or for running corrupt games like the CWG. But the low tariff rate, possible because Raja gave away the licenses for a pittance, changed the rural, economical and social landscape of India.

Raja never intended any of these when he gave away the licenses. His only aim was to make money for his party and himself. But the Law of Unintended Consequences came to the fore, much to the relief of the common man.

CC and BCC

I have a habit of wanting to know in detail every minute thing I do. We do quite a lot of things, and accept it as fait accompli.

I am a heavy user of E-mail, and use the CC and BCC option regularly, never bothering to find out what these acronyms stand for.

Well, CC stands for Cabon Copy, and

BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy.

(E)NDian team

"SehWAG will be the only decent player left after the World cup for India, said a WAG",  Budhikshasan, my friend, who was busy all these days following the World Cup told me last night.

 "But Sachin"?

"tENDulkar is reaching the END of his ODI career"

"Surely there is DhONi"

"You know nothing, Swamy. MSD is behaving more like a DON these days and  is resented by the powers that be"

"yuvraj SINgh is doing well" , I was not going to let BR get away.

"His SINs are catching up with him. Guy has drunk and eaten so much, he can barely move in the field"

I had to concede that. "Umm. HARbhajan, then?"

BR dismissed it succintly "HARam. Selectors think that retaining him is a sure way to 'HAR' in the future. The guy calls himself a spinner but can hardly turn a cricket ball, and worse still dont know how to take a wicket"

"gowtHAM gambhir looks a good captain for the future"

"But he is so HAM handed when it comes to pushing the scoring rate in the middle overs. Test cricket - yes. ODI - no"

"How about the younger brigade? Surely some of them are good"

"viRAT kohli is looking upto to yusuf PATHan to show the way, but as afraid the bad mouthed RAT will not survive the drenching created by suresh RAINa. RATs dont like RAIN, after all. piyush cHAWla can only hum and HAW, but cant bowl a decent over of leg break.

"The older pace brigade?"

Of the old guards, there is a strong opinion amongst the public that ASHish nehra  need to be burnt to ASHes after that disastrous last over against South Africa, and munAF patel is an oAF, and SANTHAkumaran sreesanth is anything but SANTHAm.

"zaheer kHAN?"

"HAN. Agree. You have a point there. That makes it two. Sehwag and Zaheer"

"And we may have a WINner in ashWIN" - I was not going to let BR get away with the last word.

How to win a Padma Bhushan .......... the Chatwal Way

How to get a 'Padma Bhushan' Award from Government of India?

If you thought the Padma awards were given to people who have had a long and distinguished career and service to the nation, you are mistaken.

All you have to do is facilitate the survival of the Congress led Government in Delhi during a Vote of Confidence by bribing MP's from the opposition.

If you are still in doubt, just ask the NRI Hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal!

He used his influence and his war chest to lure Akali MP's to support the UPA during the Vote of Confidence in the Parliament in 2008. And hey presto! He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in Jan 2010!! Mind you, not just Padma Sri, but Padma Bhushan itself!!!

How demeaning it must be to all the other worthy winners of the Padma Awards to see their life long accomplishments branded with a scum like Sant Singh Chatwal.

Hoax

For decades Volkwagon Beetle pulled off the biggest marketing hoax. The car has been in existence since late 1930's when Hitler came up with the concept of People' Car. Remember that those days, the cars were like boxes, crude and no one was even thinking of aerodynamics.

Why do I call it the hoax? Because VW somehow was able to drill into the customer that Beetle was an UGLY CAR. In reality, it was not (I can vouch for it,  because it was my first car and still the best. Read my earlier post on the subject here). The Beetle was an aerodynamic marvel and absolutely beautiful. It is one of the reason, it is the largest selling model the world has seen, and why it is STILL being marketed, though only the jelly bean shape is common with the original Beetle these days.

Another big hoax, but in a pure negative sense, is what the media and people say - That Manmohan Singh is honest and his integrity is beyond reproach. If this is not a fraud perpetuated on simple Indians, then I don't know what fraud is.

Look at the sheer number of scams under him. And look at how he has facilitated all the Scams. Not many remember, but the Harshad Mehta scam of 1992 happened when he was the Finance Minister. He was the No.2 in Narasimha Rao's Government which bribed Shibu Soren with suitcases full of money just before the trust vote.

MMS was in helm when the biggest 2 G scam of Rs 1.76 lakh crores happened. For years he kept quiet, till his hands were forced by the Supreme Court. The S-Band Spectrum Scam happened when he was PMO and in a ministry under his watch - Science and Technology. He tried unsuccessfully in 2006 to push the candidature of Thomas as CVC. And pushed it through successfully in 2010, only to have eggs on his face when Supreme Court annulled the appointment. The NREGA leaks and the scamsters have virtually hijacked all the money meant for the poor. That he sold our country's nuclear soveriegnity to US in 2008 for a few silvers is an open secret. That he heads a Government that tried to make thousands of crores through dubious land deals under the SEZ scheme is an open secret. Now, the wikileaks has shown him up for bribing MP's to save his government in 2008!

In any other democratic country, he would have been given the boot and prosecuted for criminal complicity. But this is India. Sab chalta hai! 

Will Japan fly high again?

I studied my Management when the buzzword was 'Japanese Management'. Japanese Management, during 1970's and 80's was fast developing as an alternative to the much maligned Western Management System. This was expected to make Japan a super power.

But with increase in wages ushered in by massive industrialization, a break down of the social structure due to western influence which  had an impact on the employment pattern (previously a Japanese employee stayed with a company for his life, and the company took care of him so well that even during times of layoff, he was loaned to another company, rather than being retrenched. Also, companies encouraged and workers prefered to educate and employ the next generation as per the company needs. It was more of a life long partnership) and the reluctance of the Japanese to take the lead in the Services Sector led to the gradual decline of Japanese Economy. By the second decade of the new millineum Japanese economy was in deep trouble.

The Japanese product, though superior in quality, was priced higher than those made in Taiwan or Vietnam or China. It lost its competitive edge in electronics to Korea and manufacturing edge to China. Unfortunately for them, during this period, the consumer preference world over started changing. The product life cycles became shorter and shorter, and consumers wanted good (not the best quality) products that are less expensive but would last at most a year or two. This went against the concept of Japanese products that were of the highest quality lasting longer, but were expensive. When they started compromising on quality for cost, they ended up in big trouble like Toytota did recently. Over the period of time Japan had started accumulating debt. The Country was being run more and more on debt, and it was falling into a debt trap. By 2010, the Public Debt of Japan had reached an alarming 196.4% of the GDP (compare this with US - 58.9%, Germany - 74.8%, India - 55.9%. Even the beleagured Greece had only 144% and Italy 119%. Japan was second in the list, below Zimbabwe)  and its fiscal deficit was 9.4%. Both unsustainable in the long run. Just prior to the Earth quake, the rating agencies were planning to downgrade the rating of Japan, which would have made it difficult and more expensive for them to get additional debt.

By the beginning of 2011, Japanese economy has been virtually red flagged. The unemployment rate was at a high at 5%, as against the long term average of 2.6%. Despite the interest rate being zero, the GDP was showing a negative growth rate (The GDP growth rate was -5.2% in 2009-10). The inflation was 0%, which is not good news, as a minimum level of inflation is required to encourage producers to invest in additional production.Even the exports were sluggish. Japan, like a typical Asian Country, saves more internally than it spends, leading to less reliance on the local demand, but more on the foreign demand.

It was in the above scenario that the Earth Quake and the Tsunami struck. The loss, in human terms, social terms and in economic terms have been huge. With the blast in the reactor adversely affecting the electrical supply, manufacturing could be badly hit. And food inflation is likely to be high, as the epicentre of the Tsunami were essentially the region which was known for agriculture. In the short run, the Japanese economy could be adversely affected.

But there is a ray of hope amidst the pall of gloom. Japan will require massive reconstruction. This means large scale construction activities. Demand for Cement and Steel will go up. And this would also lead to more jobs. More jobs means more wages and hence more money in ciculation, which in turn translates to more demand for products and services. The Japan Central Bank has already pumped in $ 184 billion into the market post earth quake. This is to facilitate lending for reconstruction. Add to this the huge amount of financial aid to be received from all over the world. We could see the Japanese economy reviving in the medium term.

Japanese people are resilient, if not anything else. National catastrophes like the one we saw last week tends to bring out the patriotism in people. They tend to work harder and longer. Remember, this was a country battered and bruised after the World War II. They were shocked to submission by the two atom bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But from the ashes of those cities, they built the modern Japan, made it the second largest economy in the world (till recently) and gave the world the wonderful concepts of quality management.

Let us hope they show the same spirit this time around too. That is the best way for Japan to pay homage to its earthquake/tsunami victims.

TMT Overestimated?

There is an old adage. A Cold will get cured with medicine in 2 days, or without medicine in 48 hours.

I have always wondered whether our doctors err on the safer side, prescribe unnecessary medicines, which does more harm than good.

I know of a paediatrician who rarely gave medicines, and his patients were none the worse for it. Then there was the case of another acquaintance, who returned from London, set up practice in Calicut, refused to give unnecessary medicines, and found he had no patients. When he enquired, he found out that his target market was predominantly families whose bread winner was in Gulf, and they expected the Doctor to write at least 2 tonics and 3 capsules for any ailment. The poor guy could never reconcile to this. Another anecdote is from rural Tamil Nadu, where the common folk have an obsession with 'oosi', which translates to 'injection'. The doctor is no good if he doesnt give an injection ("Doctor ayya sariyillai. Avar oosi podalai" - Doctor is no good, for he did not give an injection - is a common refrain).

With the concept of family doctor  (I had written about it before) almost vanishing, we are in an era of 'Speciality Doctors' working in Super Speciality Hospitals. The problem with these Specialists is that they tend to have tunnel vision, looking at all problems through the prism of their specialization. Then there is the commercial angle also. Unncessary tests and unwanted procedures, diagnosis aimed at increasing repeat  business for the hospital is a norm than an exception ( I am not discounting that these doctors and hospitals do a stellar job).

My above perception was validated when I read this report on TMT,

The ECG Tread Mill Test commonly used to identify people who are prone to heart attacks is not a fool-proof procedure to know the condition of heart especially among high-risk professionals like pilots, according to a latest study. The study is an eye opener and probably the established criteria for positive Tread Mill Test (TMT) needs revision in order to avoid treating healthy persons as heart patients, its author Colonel M J Jacob, head of the department of Nuclear Medicine, Army Hospital Research and Refferal said. The study has been published in the Journal of Associations of Physicians in India.

With increased prevalence of coronary artery disease, people especiall the young are anxious to find out about their risk of suffering from a heart attack in near future and hence, undergo TMT to clear the doubt.

ECG TMT is one of the main tests routinely used to detect the adequacy of the blood supply to cardiac muscles during rest as well as at times of higher stress. All those who test positive for ECG TMT are put through further tests and procedures.

"A total of 152 people including airline pilots, millitary personnels making it to higher altitudes, submariners and executives who reported positive for ECG TMT were analysed in order to ensure their cardiac fitness in stress conditions.

"It was found that the test grossly over-estimated the presence of cardiac problems and put healthy persons through unnecessary tests and procedures," Colonel Jacob said.

Chest discomfort could have been due to other minor problems unrelated to heart like acidity, chest wall muscle main etc, he said.

He said, "ECG TMT is one of the very common investigations being used in the periodic medical examination of high risk professionals.

"It's time we revise the test criterias. It's time we revise the test criterias in order stop person from being unduly being subjected to coronary angiography," he said.

A beacon of light amidst the pall of gloom

Do you know this gentleman? If not, you should.

He is a beacon of shining light amidst the gloom of darkness pervading and paralyzing our Country.

He had brought back dignity, integrity and sanity to the most  hallowed institution in India.

He is like a breath of fresh air, after the stinch generated by the previous Chief (In)Justice, Balakrishnan, who was corrupt, crafty and universally acclaimed to be the most undesirable and crooked rogue to have held the esteemed post of CJI.

The gentleman in the picture above is Chief Justice of India, S H Kapadia.

Hailing from a very lower middle class family, he started his carreer as an errand and tea boy in a law firm, and worked his way up the judicial ladder through sheer hard work. When he assumed office he wrote a letter to the nanogenarian doyen of Supreme Court Judges, Retired Justice V R Krishna Iyer, "I come from a poor family. I started my career as a class IV employee and the only asset I possess is integrity".

His landmark judgement on the CVC case is laudable. He strictly confined himself to the legal situation, and refrained from making any adverse remarks on the Executive. Judiciary's job is to ensure that governance is done as per the law and constitution of the Country. If there is a deviation, then they shoud reverse the situation and leave it at that. While judicial activism makes good news, it encroaches the powers of the executive, which is undesirable.

Thus it was music to the ears when I read the following (the highlightings are mine),

Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia today said judges must “not give lectures to society” while doing their job and should also not “judge the wisdom of legislatures”.

“The High Courts and Supreme Court are courts of principles... Judges should not speak anything beyond the principles of a particular case. Let us not give lectures to society,” CJI Kapadia said.

“The problem is sometimes we judges impose our own values, likes or dislikes on society,” he said. “Judges should keep in mind that we can’t judge the wisdom of legislatures. We have to work for constitutional principles. I am of the view that if judges take decisions on principles, many of the controversies will not arise.”

Touche!

We can rest assured that the Supreme Court is in good hands till September 2012, when he retires.

Thank god for small mercies.

When the mother nature discarded her benevolence

When the Kurukshetra war was over, the success went to Arjunans head. So when it was time to get down from the Chariot, he, with the arrogance of the victor who feels he has won the war on his own, vainly asks Sri Krisha to alight first, treating him like a mere charioter (more like our VIP's expecting the driver to open the doors for them). Sri Krishna, with a smile, politely tells him to get down first. When Arjuna was still defiant, Krishna gently but firmly pushes him out of the chariot first, and then gets down himself. The moment the Krishna alighted, the Chariot exploded into flames. Arjunan was stunned. Krishna reminded Arjunan that during the war, many lethal arrows were directed at Arjunan, which Krishna, using his divine powers directed towards the chariot and got it absorbed there, thus saving Arjunan. And the moment they got down, the chariot exploded. If Krishna had got down first, as Arjunan wanted, then that would have meant the death of Arjunan. Arjunan was humbled and realized the inadequacy of a mere mortal like him as compared to the divinity of Srikrishna, the incarnation of God, who is nothing but our nature.

I was reminded of this story on seeing the devastation caused by the 8.9 grade Earth Quake and the Tsunami that hit Japan. Benevolent Mother nature absorbs everything for years and we take her for granted. We become arrogant and think we have mastered the World. We do not show humility and take God & Nature for granted. Then the mother nature sheds her benevolence a teeny little bit, and puts us in our place, humbled and shamed. We realize then, our insignificance.

The slide show, which you can view by clicking the link, is self explanatory and horrifying. Words fail me. Let us bow our head to mother nature and pray for her to return to her sedate, normal, benevolent state.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/03/11/world/asia/20110311_japan.html

Amnesia is a blessing, when you are in deep shit

Though academically Manmohan Singh has a Doctorate, as Prime Minister, he is still in UKG. Or at least his behaviour is that of a UKG Student.

What does a UKG Student do if he or she does some mischief and teacher queries him/her?

"Miss, I don't know"

"Miss, I didn't see"

and then as a last ditch attempt,

"Miss, it is this boy/girl near by who did"

All in a cringing, whining voice.

Ditto with our Prime Minister.

When the 2 G Scam revealed Rs 1.76 crores being siphoned off, and when MMS was queried, he replied,

" I don't know what happened. I trusted Raja. Raja is to be blamed, not me. Finance Ministry gave clearances. So they are to be blamed, not me. I had some doubts and wrote to Raja (but he chose to ignore me!! and I kept quiet). Then I don't know what happened." All this while newspapers after newspapers were screaming of the scam for years. He must be deaf and dumb.

When the S-Band spectrum scam by ISRO blew on his face, he again claimed "He didnt know, was not aware of the deal", though ISRO comes under the purvey of a ministry under him.

When everyone and then his aunt and then his little niece knew of P J Thomas being charge sheeted in the Palmolein case, only our PM was ignorant of this. Yesterday I watched him speak in the Rajya Sabha live on this. He was pathetic.Singh said he was not aware of a pending chargesheet against Thomas before attending the meeting of the high-powered panel. The PM then went one step forward. The PM stunned the Rajya Sabha by shifting the blame on to Prithviraj Chavan — now Maharashtra Chief Minister and the then Minister of State in charge of the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) — for not informing him about the chargesheet against Thomas and shortlisting his name. And he didnt say one word about why, when Sushma Swaraj raised the point of Thomas's pending court case, he insisted on going ahead with P J Thomas, and Thomas only.

Two days back everyone knew DMK was about to pull out their ministers from the Cabinet. When MMS was asked about this, he came up with his " I dont know anything" act.

We thought, having a doctorate, at least he will shed some light on why inflation is double digit. But last month, he said, hold your breath 'He didnt know' why the inflation was not coming down.

He never seems to know anything that is happening around him. Is he sitting in a sound proof room or is he deaf, blind and dumb? or does he have Alzhemiers?

Or is it that "He doesn't know' he is the Prime Minister of India?

The UKG teacher had a simple cure to this 'I dont know syndrome'. She gave the 'Cane Treatment' and the concerned boy/girl suddenly found their memory lightning fast.

But then how do we spank a 80 year old man? Or who will take it up to spank a 80 year old man?

Amnesia is a blessing, when  you are in deep shit.

Illogical Adjournment

People and Institutions follow customs without understanding the logic behind it.

Take this case for example,

Parliament on Monday paid glowing tributes to veteran Congress leader Arjun Singh with the Rajya Sabha, of which he was a sitting member, adjourning for the day after the obituary reference. Soon after paying tributes to Singh, who died on March 4 at the age of 81, Chairman Hamid Ansari adjourned the Upper House for the day as a mark of respect to the departed soul.

I have absolutely no complaints about 'paying tributes' or 'mourning' the dead, even if it is a scum like Arjun Singh, one who took considerable leadership in destroying the integrity and probity in Indian politics. His last tenure as HR Minister was disastrous and he tried his best to destroy the social fabric of India. Let that be. All said and done, he was a long standing parliamentarian and part of the institution, and needs to be remembered.

 

My disagreement is with the Parliament adjouring for the day without transacting any business (I had written about this earlier too). This is atrocious. Last session, we heard people talking eloquently about how loss of each days functioning of the parliament results in a national loss of a few crores of rupees. The actual expenses incurred for running the Parliament Sessions (both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) a day is Rs 7.8 Crores!!!

 

The original logic in adjourning without transacting any business or giving leave to the employees of an organization, one of whose colleagues has just died, is to facilitate them to visit the dead man's house where the body will be lying and to assist the relatives with the last rites and cremation.

 

But in this case, Arjun Singh died on 4th and was already cremated by the time Parliament met!!! 

 

So what purpose will be served by MPs not doing their work in the Parliament?

'In'Justice

There are 52,000 Cases pending in the Supreme Court, 40 Lakh Cases in the High Courts and hold your breath nearly 2.6 Crore Cases pending in the Lower Courts.

It takes an average 15 years to dispose of a case in India (and that if one is optimistic)

There are 3,000 vacancies for Judges in various courts across the country.

The biggest litigator is the Government, which is either a plaintiff or a defendant in 60% of the cases. This is  because various government officials either violate the law, or apply the rules unevenly or where the public violate government laws.

Then there are frivolous cases, that should never have been accepted in the first instances.

Our justice system do not have sufficient provision for the judge mediating a settlement. The scope for plea bargaining is also very limited in scope. Add to this adjournments taken by the plaintiff or defendant or their lawyers for ridiculous reasons ( I have first hand experience of this when I was a young Sales Officer with HPCL. My lawyer one day told me that he is taking an adjournment in a case involving my company because 'his 5 year old daughter had a parent-teacher meeting scheduled in her school'!!!).

The ratio of Judge to Population in India is the lowest in the world. We have just 10.5 judges per Million people, which compares poorly with 41.6 in Australia, 50.9 in UK and 75.2 in Canada.

Is there any wonder why our country is slipping into anarchy and lawlessness?

The obvious solution is to have more courts, appoint more judges, computerize the whole system, screen the filing of the cases and have a time bound appeal system.

But the Government which has to fund this is least interested as it suits them because they have a vested interest. In the 60% of the pending cases where the Government is involved, majority of them are cases where it is the defendant. It suits them to delay the case as the plaintiff gets plain tired of fighting the might of the Government and in many cases dies much before a verdict is given. We see the ridiculous situation of the country in a crisis due to a case that has not even come up for hearing in the case of the CVC for 20 years!!. The Godhra accused who were left off were in the jail for 9 years and there are thousands of undertrials who are languishing in the jail similarly till their cases are disposed off. Recently a Kerala Ex Minister was sent to jail for One Year Rigorous Imprisonment in a case that dates back to 1980s. And he was just given one year RI against the original punishment of 5 years RI because the SC said the case is 20 years old!! Eh! What has that got to do with reducing the sentence? We have cases where electoral malpractice cases are disposed off after the tenure of a particular Lok Sabha or State Assembly. We see MPs and MLA's being disqualified after they have ceased to be MPs and MLA's. What about the legality of the various laws passed using their votes in the Parliament and Assemblies, where they should not have been there in the first place? Then there are cases against Government Servants, Ministers pending for want of sanction from the Authorities. This sanction process was set up to prevent non serious complaints against them that can impede their work. But every crooked minister or govt. employee has taken advantage of this immunity. Recently CBI asked the case against Quttrochi to be closed because it has taken 25 years!!! The Bhopal Gas Compensation case is pending since 1983. The Sikh Riots cases are pending since 1984!!!

It is time a one time excercise is taken to dispose off uninmportant long pending cases on a war footing to clear the slate and make a new beginning.

The adage is that 'Justice delayed is justice denied'. But in India, we dont even claim that one will get justice even if it is delayed.

Oh........for intellectual independence and original thinking!

For a country that has a civilization dating back to 5000 B.C, and which has given the world the concept of Civilization, Zero, astronomy, astrology, upanishads,vedas, arthasasthra, vedic mathematics ..... it is amazing that we have been reduced to a bunch of ordinary guys good at copying/importing concepts, ideas and technologies.

And we dont even bother to follow the Japanese 3A philosophy - Adopt, Adapt and Adept (Japanese are not original thinkers. What they are good at is Adopting ideas from elsewhere, then Adapting them to suit their/global needs to perfection, and then become Adept at using the adapted technology). We, in India, just use the imported concept technology/ideas as it is.

We have ceased to be original thinkers. Forget about the industrial sector (who have not spent enough on R&D), even our much vaunted IT sector cannot be accused of being innovative. At best they are sweat shops churning out programs and products which are nothing original or path breaking. When was the last time we heard of a truly original, earth shattering product concept emanating from Bengaluru or Cyberabad?

We claim that our ivy league institutions like IIT's and IIM's are at par with the best in the World (though of late the government has systemmatically tried to downgrade these institutions by increasing the number of IITs and IIMs rather than on improving the quality of the programs). But when was the last time these esteemed institutions have produced an invention? They have concentrated on churning out Engineers and MBAs by the numbers but have hardly seem to have done any original work. And sadly it has to do with the curriculum and the professors. We have  hardly seen any article of our esteemed professors published in Harvard Business Review for example. Nor have we created a think tank that shall develop an Indian Management Style. True that we had a leading management thinker from India C K Prahlad. But he became famous after he went to US, and we have little to do with his wonderful contributions. Occassionally we hear about some India specific technological innovations from an odd IITian, but none of them have become commercially successful.

The root cause of this problem had to do with India retaining the education system we inherited from the British.The British system was designed to create a bunch of people who will lack creativity, innovativeness but will work hard, long hours without questioning the system. It suited our political leaders to keep our population not dynamic, lest they become wise to the shenanigans of the leaders. And damn the consequences.

When the world is moving towards a truly knowledge economy, we, Indians, should have been the thought leaders considering our long history of original thinking, as depicted in Vedas and Upanishads. But a 'secular' education system, a fetish for following blindly the Western Education System (which was developed to suit the Western culture) ensured that we sacrificed our competitive advantage of universal knowledge and moral superiority at the altar of white man's self preserving interests.

Gandhiji got us territorial independence in 1947, but where is the messiah who will get us intellectual independence?

Who is running the country?

Who is running the Country?

It looks more and more like the Supreme Court is left with no option but to give executive decisions, due to the pathetic lack of ethics and governance by the Sonia/MMS led UPA Goverment.

The SC has to throw out P J Thomas, the CVC, who should not have been there in the first place.

The SC has to prod the Government to interrogate Hasan Ali, who owes the IT department a small sum of Rs 36,000 crores. Why the Government has not deemed fit to do that till now is a mystery, or perhaps not a mystery after all, for it is these money bags who are helping the powers that be to stash away thousands of crores, apart from bank rolling the Congress and other parties.

The SC has to step in to oversee the investigation into the 2 G spectrum scam, and but for its insistence Raja would not have been arrested.

SC is closely monitoring the CWG Scam investigation.

Though it is welcome that some action is being taken against the unethical and the corrupt by the SC, it should not be burdened with monitoring investigations. They are forced to do so only because the CBI and the Police are not doing their job properly or rather not allowed to do their job properly by their political masters. And there in lies the tragedy.

Caeser's wife must be above suspicion

"Caeser's wife must be above suspicion"

This is an oft repeated quote. Of late our PM had said this during a Congress meeting, emphasising his actions should be above reproach (that he has been caught with his pants down on the CVC case is another matter).

But what is the background to this quote.

One has to go back to 67 BC - the Julius Caesar era. His wife Pompeia Sulla held a festival called Bona Dea in 62 BC -- a festival that paid tribute to 'good goddess'. In this festival, held in Pompeia's house, only women were permitted.

But Publius Clodius Pulcher, a naughty, young and ambitious patrician, sneaked in dressed as a woman with an intent to seduce the beautiful wife of Caesar.

He was caught, well, pants down, and prosecuted. But during the trial, Caesar never acted or gave evidence against Clodius. The patrician was thus acquitted.

But days later, Caesar divorced Pompeia, saying "my wife ought not even to be under suspicion." This gave birth to the expression "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion."

Is there something similar in Indian History. You bet there is. And you can find it in Ramayana.

 

Post the death of Ravana, and the coronation of Rama, there appeared a murmer amongst the people regarding how chaste Sita was, for she had spent nearly 10 months in Ravana's custody. Despite the fact that Sita was pregnant, Rama did not hesitate to ask Lakshmana to take Sita to the Forest and leave her there. For he felt that as a King, his and his family's conduct, character and actions should be above reproach (I don't personally agree to this conduct of Rama, but I just pointed out this incident for the sake of comparison. However it is worthwhile noting that Ramayana, said to describe the era approximately 600 BC predates Caeser by a long way).

Good Riddance

Pride and Arrogance goes before a fall!

Just before the Kurukshetra War, Lord Krishna went to the Kauravas to mediate in order to avoid war. He started by asking the Kauravas to give back half of the Kingdom to Panadavas, which was their due. Duryodhana refused. Krishna progressively brought down his offer, from 5 states to finally 5 villages.

"I will not give them the space to stick a needle" , thundered Duryodhana, partly due to his arrogance, partly due to his pride and based on a false sense of infallibility.

The rest is history.

When the appointment of P J Thomas as Chief Vigilence Commissioner came up to the panel comprising of the PM, Home Minister P Chidambaram and the Opposition Leader Sushma Swaraj, the opposition leader pointed out that P J Thomas has a corruption case pending against him, the details of which was not in the dossier in front of the panel. She objected to the appointment saying a tainted person cannot be the CVC, a post that requires spotless integrity. Added to it, P J Thomas was the telecom secretary who objected to a Vigilance Enquiry in the biggest corruption case the country has seen - the 2 G Scam. His candidature was absolutely untenable. The panel met on a friday, and Sushma Swaraj asked for 24 hours time from the other two to verify the fact and meet again. Anyway the CVC had to take oath only on Tuesday next. The PM and HM, in their arrogance, bluntly refused the legitimate request of the Leader of Opposition. Sushma also said, she will agree to anyone shortlisted in the panel other than P J Thomas. But like Duryodhana, our PM arrogantly pushed his nomination through on a 2-1 vote, with Leader of Opposition noting her dissent.

Now with Supremen Court striking down the appointment as illegal, the PM and HM has no place to hide.

This raises many questions.

Why did the PM insist on P J Thomas and no one else but P J THomas? It is inconceivable he was unaware of the tainted past, as he heads the Ministry of Personnel Affairs.

Since he has no stake in P J Thomas becoming the CVC - the PM is personally clean - it is obvious he was doing it at the behest of someone else. 

And there is only one person who can string the PM along - Sonia Gandhi and she has many skeletons in her cup board.

The needle of suspicion points firmly to Sonia Gandhi.

But let us thank the Chief Justice and the Supreme Court for upholding the fact that ethics, morality, honesty and integrity should be paramount while selecting constitutional functionaries. The Country owes them a great debt.

P.S : The PM did not apply his mind. The FM did not apply his mind. But why did the honourable President of India, who appoints the CVC on the panels recommendation, not take note of the Opposition Leaders dissent. She has taken the oath to uphold the constitution. She should have sent the recommendation back to the panel to reconsider, but she chose not to. This is the problem with electing a Rubber Stamp nincompoop as President

1+1 just don't add up

Something about the budgetary figures dont add up.

Though the FM claims that the fiscal deficit this year will be 5% + as against 6%+ of last year, the truth is that this reduction is mainly because of the money received from the sale of 3G spectrum.  This is a one time sale of family silver, and do not reflect a serious effort on the part of the Government to reduce deficit through financial prudence. If you take this amount away, the Fiscal deficit for the current year will be back to 6.2%. Since there is no 3 G spectrum sale money available next year, the projected 4.6% deficit target for the next fiscal appears to be a bit too optimistic. This is bad news for those who want inflation to be controlled.

Another notable point is the projected rise in Government expenditure at just 3%, as against 19% last year. This too tests the common wisdom. With Government spending considerably reduced, one should witness a slowing down of the economy. But the FM claims the GDP growth will be 9% next fiscal. Reduced spending and higher growth rate?? Tough to believe. And reduced spending is bad news for the unemployed.

We need to take some harsh steps to reduce the fiscal deficit as it is adversely affecting our Real GDP growth in a big way. We were hearing about reducing the Fiscal Deficit to 2% not long ago, but no one even dare mention it these days. The rot started about 5 years ago, when we should have curbed non-plan expenditure, but we missed the bus and are paying the price for it.

Reduced Government spending and increased GDP growth? It means only one thing - The growth is to be funded by Black Money. And that is bad news for inflation.