Anarchy

No.........I am not outraged at the death of the particular Gangrape victim and the clumsy way the whole episode was handled by the Government....................That is because this is not an isolate incident....The rape comes as no surprise.......Our cities and towns have become extremely unsafe for women.................it is not as if rape is new to India or to Delhi..............What was surprising was the middle class youngsters coming out to the street in large numbers, shedding their apathy............................Maybe we have to thank Anna Hazare, whose agitation last year against corruption inspired the very same constituency, or perhaps the parents, brothers and sisters of those took to streets this time...................

What is extremely regretable is the lack of courage and moral conviction shown by political leaders, who refused to come out and address the protesters..................the pathetic Government and the Nehru clan hid in their closets while the City was in turmoil.......................the Prime Minister finally broke his silence after a few days and made an ass of himself..................... the Home Minister, whose only qualification is that he belongs to Scheduled Caste, decided to outdo his one time predecessor Shivraj Patil, which one would have thought was an impossible act to follow.

One can understand the Queen bee, the Dump Prince and the Sphinx PM to be insensitive....It is in their genes........the future PM Meira Kumar was actually smiling while condoling the death of the rape victim................................Sheila Dixit trie to politicise the issue, even while the opposition refused to ( I wonder why. What prevented the opposition from taking up the cudgel and provide leadership!).................... What was shocking was the lack of moral conviction shown by the President, who refused to come out and meet the protestors outside the Rashtrapathi Bhavan.......................And we thought the current incumbent is an improvement on his disastrous predecessor......................Abdul Kalam would have definitely walked down the stairs of Rashtrapathi Bhavan if he were the President.............

We, as a Nation, have no leaders, no moral conviction, no policing, no detectives, no judges and of course no rulers............................the leaders are cowards....................the policemen dont prevent crime from happening.............detectives dont detect any crime and bring the criminals to justice.........judges are hapless in view of poor evidence submitted in the court (and we have a ridiculous case where a Kerala Minister was given a One year RI for corruption, and he walked out after spending 3 months in a 5 star hospital, having managed to get a pardon from a friendly Government and the Judges did not even deem it fit to pull up and imprison the CM who signed the order, blatantly violating the due process of law).....................the Government time and again proclaims that the law will take its course............but when it does, it goes out of the way to subvert it..................if you are in doubt, google Rajiv Gandhi Killers, or Afsal Guru or the guy in Punjab whose hanging is defered for fear of Akali backlash.................we have the case of two Italians who murdered Indian fishermen allowed to leave the Country to 'celebrate' christmas aided and abetted by a helping Indian Government...........

The Common man is afraid to go to the police station.............the criminals are supported by the police and the politicians...................the average policeman is unfit................................hardly one can run 400 meters without breaking down....................they have hardly any crime detection skills...................there is a disconnect between the IPS lobby and the ordinary policemen..............the Police and Judiciary are morally and monetarily corrupt to the boot..............the law is for the rich and well connected and not for the poor..........the Government is uncaring and insensitive...................

What we have is anarchy................anarchy in the Parliament..........anarchy in the Cabinet..........anarchy in the Government offices............anarchy on the roads.............anarchy in the police station.................anarchy in the courts................anarchy in the media.................

It is a wonder we are surviving as a Country.......................We have no right to

Muscat-Muttrah at its best - A Photo Feature

Muttrah Corniche with Fort Silhoutted against a setting sun

Evening time Muttrah Corniche

The road through the hills towards old Muscat is easy on the eyes

Come Winter the City is decked with Flowers - Sultan's personal Yacht can be seen on the harbour

Chanakya Sutra's relevance today

Chanakya Sutras have relevance even today;

In a state where the ruler lives like a common man, the citizens live like kings do. And in the state where the ruler lives like a king, the citizens live like beggars do - This is quite true of India, these days. One has to only look at the assets in thousands of crores of the first family, ministers and even first time MPs, and their lavish life styles to understand why 60% of the population still lives below the poverty line, and another 20% struggles to make both ends meet.

Wise men should never go into a country where there are no means of earning one’s livelihood, where the people have no dread of anybody, have no sense of shame, no intelligence, or a charitable disposition - Is it why India is not getting enough FDI? Our laws are investor unfriendly which affects foreigners making reasonable profits from their Indian operations, our businessmen have no fear of law and as such no dread of violating business deals, and shame and Indian businessmen are as far away from each other as possible

There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth - This is something Indian's dont understand. They cry hoarse when US supports Pakistan, not understanding that US does only what is good for their country and dont give a damn about relationship with India getting hurt. We expect everyone to be behind us, while refusing to take a stand on any single issue of relevance in the global stage. We neither form friendships nor do we protect our self interests. It is why we are friendless even amongst SAARC countries.

Omerta broken at last

Massive and unimaginable levels of corruption is the single most talking point in India these days. It is gnawing at the very foundations of Indian Economy, taking the country backwards, and as one infamous son-in-law remarked recently 'has made the country a "Banana Republic". One would expect any Prime Minister, who has at least a semblence of decency left in him, to provide at least lip service to the cause of fighting corruption. Instead, what we have from the moron is that 'Graft Charges bad for India's Image'. Note the meaning;  Graft is not bad for the Country, but Charges made of Graft are bad!!

For a long while, all the political parties have followed the old Italian principle of 'Omerta'. Silence about each others corruption (even if it is brought out for political purposes, a sham enquiry would be ordered and the whole issue dragged for ever till no one cares about it - remember Bofors, Harshad Mehta, 2G Spectrum, CWG? In Kerala, an Ex-Minister was convicted with a sentence of 1 Year RI, for graft after nearly 2 decades! And he was pardoned by the State Government after a few days in the Jail, of which 90% was spent on a 5 Star hospital for imaginable diseases. The guy has not gone near a doctor for the past one year since he has been released!!!) was the rule, as everyone was corrupt, and no one wanted to be compromised. It  was a win-win situation for the political leaders, with the only loser being the people of the country. It is also why, the opposition parties kept mum on Robert Vadra dealings, despite having evidence on their hands for more than a couple of years, and it is also why the massive corruption of Sonia and her family is not even mentioned casually.

But Aravind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan has broken the Omerta by taking on Robert Vadra head on. The panic reactions of Congress shows that they have much to fear about the next arrow hitting where it hurts most - Sonia herself. The beauty of Omerta being broken is that now all opposition parties will be forced to compete with each other in bringing out corruption deals of the First Family and Congress Ministers, or else they will be ridiculed by the common man. Watch out for more fun in the days to come.

Condemned to Suffer

The Government has recently hiked the Diesel price by Rs 5. And now,

"Raise diesel price by Rs 4 a litre, govt panel tells Centre: India should try to completely deregulate diesel prices by the start of financial year 2014/15 as part of a strategy to cut its ballooning fiscal deficit, a government panel report made public on Friday said. The report, submitted to the government on September 3, before a hike in prices of diesel in mid-September, also recommended increasing the price of fuel by 4 rupees a litre. It also suggested cooking gas prices should be raised by 50 rupees per 14.2 kilogram cylinder"

Till the last hike, the reason given for hike of petroleum products was the high oil prices, that leads to a foreign exchange outflow. Now Government is very quiet about this, because the Crude oil price is less than $ 90 per barrel.  If rise in Crude prices is an attributable reason for hike in Petroleum products price, then the corollary should be true. The oil companies have always parrotted that market price should define the price of petroleum products, and as such should we not be reducing the prices rather than increasing it?

Our Government is flat broke. It gave concessions worth $ 1 Trillion to the Big Industries during the recession in 2008-2009. And has continued to refuse taxing the rich. Wasteful schemes like NREGA and many others, initiated by Sonia Gandhi and her irresponsible leftist 'advisors' in the National Advisory Committee has destroyed the Country's finance. Government wants the common man to tighten his belt, while refusing to even make a token effort on its part or the industrialist's part to do so. The highly subsidised industrialists have siphoned off profits made in India to invest outside the country.

The FDI in retail, civil aviation followed by Insurance and Pension will not help Westerners as many thought. The Western companies and countries are broke themselves. They dont have money to pay their debts, forget about investing in India. What will happen is the Black Money stashed outside the country will find its way back to the country as FDI, FII through the opening up of the economy, and this will lead to higher inflation.

We have never seen a Government that is as apathetic to its people as the current one- and that includes the ones led by Indira Gandhi, and later by VP Singh et al. And this is saying a lot. It takes special skills to damage an economy to crumbs in 8 years, as Manmohan Singh has done. He can get his second Ph.D writing a thesis about how he did it.

But when the Country is run by a school drop out dumbo like Sonia Gandhi and a guy with a brain the size of a peanut - Rahul Gandhi, ably supported by downright idiots like Montek Singh Ahluwalia and a team of World Bank (which itself is in doldrums) experienced 'economists' who doesnt know Trivandrum from Aizwal, what else can you expect?

When Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa and wanted to join the freedom struggle, the great Balagangadhara Tilak asked him to travel across India to understand the problems faced by the countrymen across the length and breadth of the country. Gandhi was wise enough to follow the advice, and the rest is history.

If you look at the decision makers, Sonia Gandhi, Radhul Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Subbarao, Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ambika Soni, Pranab Mukherjee (till recently) and of course the NAC members, one thing common is that not one of them have any experience at grassroot politics nor do they have any contact with the common man. They just sit in their ivory towers and churn out western theory based text bookish solutions that is far away from the ground reality.

Only when our country is ruled by grassroot politicians, will we have an empathetic government. Till then, we are condemned to suffer.

Reforms? The Government must be joking

The so called 'reforms' supposedly unleashed by the UPA Government is the biggest joke of the year.

How come increasing the Diesel prices that lead to inflation (argument against is that not increasing diesel price will lead to fiscal deficit increasing, which leads to inflation - so it is a case of heads I win and tails you lose to the Government- it is inflation either way - one now, other defered) be categorized as a reform? In the first place why are we not asking the question "What led to the spiralling of the fiscal deficit in the first place?". Why are we not even talking about reducing non-plan expenditure, curbing the cost of the bureaucracy, discarding with the unwanted ministries? Why are we not doing a cost benefit analysis of the porous NREGS, where only less than 15% reaches the beneficiary? NREGS is the single largest culprit for the spiralling fiscal deficit. Why should only the common man pay for the profligacies of a wasteful government? Why are we not hearing about Ministers, including PM and the NAC Chairman doing a cost cutting on their security detail? We may not save much, but at least it gives a feeling that everyone is tightening their belt.

In the first place we need to be transparent about the claims of under recovery that leads to notional losses in the oil industry. I am an ex-oil industry guy myself. With oil prices remaining stable during the past one year, how come the subsidy bill is spiralling day by day?

What is required are sacrifices made by everyone, starting from the top, including industrialists. There are so many ways to raise revenue. Increasing tax collection ( tax evasion is very high in the country, especially sales and corporate tax), reducing expenditure, spending more money on infrastructure that generates employment, restructuring the government and the bureaucracy, abolishing at least 40 ministries at the centre and many more in the States, reducing interest rates that allows entrepreneurs and small businessmen to invest more instead of banks pampering the big industrial houses......... ............the list is endless............

We talk about FDI retail in another post.....................

Mid term polls in January -February 2013???

Few apparently unconnected incidents/policy decisions indicate Mid-Term Poll in India.

The Coal Scam in which the PM is heavily indicted. Sonia asking Congressment to be aggressive in taking on the opposition (Because the Scam hits close to home???). BJP has upped the ante and has not allowed the parliament to function till MMS resigns, not will it the next session too.

Mulayam Singh Yadav questioning Rahul Gandhi's credentials and announcing the decision to go alone in the next Parliamentary elections, thereby scuttling Congress's plan to form an alliance in UP. Also, the disasterous performance of Akhilesh Yadav's government means every day delay in SP pulling the plug on the UPA Government means loss of seats for SP, reducing its bargaining power in the post poll scenario.

Government deciding to hike the diesel price by Rs 5 and putting a cap on subsidised LPG cylinder to 6 a year. UPA is sure this policy decision will force some of its allies to withdraw support as it is so blatantly anti aam admi. Trinamool Congress and NCP have already made their displeasure known, and both are itching to walk out of UPA.

Now the final nail in the coffin.By allowing 51% FDI in retail, broadcasting and aviation, Congress has left SP, TMC, BSP with hardly any room for manouvre. Their opposition to FDI in retail is well known. They just cannot take this humiliation any more, which means they have to walk out.

Congress knows it will get less than 50 seats if it waits till 2014, knowing how discredited the current regime is. Better to get 100 odd seats now, and hope to support a third front from outside than be irrelevant in 2 years time. And they can take the high moral ground of having been forced to go to the people because of SP, BJP, TMC, BSP claiming they were victims of being reformist, after destroying the economy for 8 long years.

I will stick my neck out and predict that the General Election will be held in January- February 2013, so that Congress can confine Modi to Gujarat, whose Assembly election will also have to be held with it, rather than losing Gujarat now badly, and then having to face a stronger Modi in 2014.

Watch out for January-February 2013!!

Dispelling some myths #2

We are a Secular Country

There can be nothing further from the truth than this. Secularism means the right to follow the religion of ones choice freely. The current version of Secularism that is being practiced is a sham. We have one set of rules for certain communities and another for the majority community. The minority institutions can function under their own syllabus, do whatever they want and they are even supported by the government. The madrassa eduction, which cannot be in any terms called secular, is made to be on par with the conventional education. Even the Christian run schools promote their religion at the expense of other religions. But Hindus, by virtue of being a majority, cannot have any privileges for running their own schools. A veda pada sala, which should be encouraged as it passes on the wisdom of centuries of advanced human thoughts collected as Vedas and Upanishads, is branded communal and left unrecognized. Even the new Right to Education act and reservation in schools for the underprivileged is not applicable to minority run schools. So a minority benefits two fold- he gets reservation in a majority run institution and his seats are protected in his community run institutions.

Even the generic definition  of Secularism is not applicable any more. Would any minority community look passively if one of theirs convert himself or herself to a majority religion? There are numerous cases where people have been killed because of this, and there are many more that are left unreported by the secular media.

And why should the minorities enjoy special privileges in any case? They have as much right as you and me with respect to educational opportunities and employment opportunities on merit. If, after 65 years of reservation, they are still backward and needs protection, frankly they need to look inwards.

India is currently a country not for the majorities and as such not secular.

Dispelling some Myths - 1

We, Indians, tend to fools ourselves by beliving ardently in certain myths. It is time to shatter some of these myths, if we want to progress.

Myth # 1 - We are a democracy

Are we really? True, we have elections once in 5 years, but more often than not the choice is between tweedle dee and tweedle dum, both nominated by autocratic leaders. Does any of the parties have a democratic set up? Do they conduct elections of their office bearers or are they nominated by someone in Delhi? How are the candidates selected by the parties for a constituency? Ever heard of a thing called primary, which is common in US and UK, where card holding party members of a constituency vote for the candidate of their choice, who will fight the elections? And who gets elected? A guy who gets 35% of the votes polled, which itself is 60% of the total voters (meaning the winning candidate gets 19.8% of the total votes!!). This means the guy who is elected as MP or MLA has been rejected by 80% of the electorate!!! And we call this guy a 'representative'? Why can't we have a system where we have candidates elected by each party based on primaries, then have a first round of polling, and then allow the top 2 contenders to have a face off in second round, with a minimum 51% of the total votes polled mandatory for election?

The myth of us being a democracy doesnt end there. What happens in Parliament and Assemblies are nothing short of a national disgrace. Hardly any debate takes place, governance is done through ordinances, as no one is bothered about their primary duty, law making. Even a simple thing like a vote of confidence to prove the majority of the government cannot be held with dignity!

Then there are the cases of failed Loksabha candidates entering the parliament through the backdoor - Rajyasabha, by giving fake addresses. Our third longest serving prime minister, Manmohan Singh, has headed the Government for 9 years WITHOUT WINNING EVEN A MUNICIPAL ELECTION!! And then we have our current Finance Minister whose election was rigged and the courts have not found it fit to pass a judgement for the past 3 years, and he has taken decisions that affect millions without a proper mandate. Both A K Anthony and the till recent trouble shooter of the Government, Pranab Mukherjee are/were both not members of the Lok Sabha. And to cap it all, the real decisions are taken by Sonia Gandhi and her cocus who have no statutory rights whatsoever.

And how many States have conducted local body elections and have working gram panchayats? Your guess is as good as mine.

We are not a participative democracy. We need to rechristen ourselves as a Fully Autocratic Limited Democracy

We are not independent!!!!

Another Independence Day has come and gone!

While it is admirable that we are a politically free country (at least from foreign powers - well with the exception of the Italian lady), it is a moot point whether we are independent in the spheres that ought to be.

Economically, our policies are not independent of the Western powers, whose lackeys in the Government and the Bureaucracy has ensured our policy framework being allowed to be dictated by failing Western Countries like US and the Eurozone. Instead of dictating terms to these failed states, as China does, and asking them to open their economy to our products and services, we fall head over heels to oblige them, as the flawed nuclear deal, FDI in retail, FII liberalization shows. We search for the non-existant Western FDI, while the Indian Businessmen are busy investing the Capital appreciated in India, all over the World, except in India.

We are not independent from the political and dynastical tyranny of a few self proclaimed elite. Scams after scams have shown UPA government to be brazenly and shamelessly corrupt, but we citizens are impotent. Inflation has been very high for years now, but when have we seen a mass protest against this? Gone are the days when people took to the street in lakhs. Now, all you see is 10 people marching, and that too for the cameras. I remember waiting for hours to cross the road in Palakkad in 1980s, when a political jadha (procession) takes place, as it was not in order to break a jadha.

Our Police is not independent any more. They have lost all their credibility. CBI is a lap dog of the powers that be. Less said about the local police the better.Political interference and corruption has destroyed our police force forever.

Of late one suspects even the judiciary is not independent. How else could one explain the undue delays lasting decades that denies justice to the victims - Sikh riots, Bhopal Tragedy, Telecom Scam, Cases of the high and mighty (remember Sanjay Dutts, Salman Khans and scores of other cases which are yet to see the light of the day) .............. the list is endless.

We are not independent to acquire the knowledge that we seek. Our textbooks are highly concocted to suit a particular ideology. Studies about our ancient culture is scoffed at. Intellectual debates at the educational institutions are stiffled. I read recently that the Quit India movement of 1942 was a colossal failure!!! This is backed by solid data and research. But we were taught all these years that we got independence because of its success.

We are not independent from our diffident and apathetic attitude as a nation. We dont have pride in what we do. We dont feel the pain a young kid feels when Sushil Kumar lost his Gold medal bout in the recent olympics. He wanted India to win one gold at least and shut himself up in a room crying when he lost. The adults were like...............well, at least we got a Silver!!!

We are not independent from poverty. We are not independent from ignorance. We are not independent from corruption. We are not independent from the 'chalta hai' attitude. We are not independent from the 'it is like that only' shrug off.

It is only when we gain independence of our thought process, start questioning, and provide solutions that we can celebrate our independence day with a proud heart.

Till then we are confined to the sham Independence Day celebrations like the one in Red Fort where only highly vetted and sanitized people attend an hour of the most pathetic speech by the most ineffective Prime Minister of India, who does not even have the courage to walk with ordinary people without security cover.

Well, even he is not independent!!!

Watching Olympics always gives me immense pleasure. I was crazy enough to travel 48 hours in 1984 from Palghat to New Delhi to watch Olympics on TV!!! And my father was equally crazy to send me all the way to satisfy the whim of a sports crazy boy.

The very sight of World Class athletes, their joy and sorrow, their grit and determination is inspiring. Sometimes the learnings from it is carried forward to life. This is true of many other sports. I wrote a post on thinking from a different perspective 4 years back. I reproduce some excerpts,

It was cricket that taught me to think unconventionally to start with. Being a reasonably active player in the Age group tournaments, I was a permanent fixture in the summer coaching camps.

As batsmen, we were always told to look out for where the fielders are positioned to avoid hitting the ball in the air to them. Then one day our regular coach had a bereavement in the family and he was replaced by a new young coach who was considered to be a bit of a maverick. He scrapped the regular net session and replaced it with matches every day. While I was waiting for my turn to bat, he came sat with me and said, "Raja, try this out. When you go out to bat, don't look at where the fielders are, but concentrate on where the GAPS are. Since you are so obsessed with fielders, you tend to subconsciously hit straight to them. Think only gaps". Even as a youngster, despite my upbringing, I always had a rebel streak in me and was (and is) game to any scatter brained ideas. I went out, fixed in my mind only the gaps and the runs flowed. Anything and everything I stroked that day pierced the field beautifully. Score 1 for lateral thinking.

The next instance came in an inter zonal match. The pitch was turning square and the spinners were turning the ball a mile and beating the bat my the same margin. It was all 'oohs and aahs' but we just didn't pick any wickets as the ball was beating everything and the spinners, eyes lit at the sight of a square turner, putting more vicious spin into each ball. We came in for lunch and were quite animated. The coach didn't say anything at first. When we were about to go out, he said, "don't spin the ball, use your arm balls and top spinners more. success in a spinning track lies in not spinning the ball." I was leading the team. In the middle, I called my left arm spinner and leg spinner for a chat and asked them to try out the coach's advice for at least 4 overs. I changed the field accordingly. The slip was straightened, the short leg move a little squarer and left the mid wicket open. My spinners carried out the coach's advice superbly, they mixed up the odd turning ball with a majority of straighter ones and bamboozled the batsmen who were playing for the turn. We took the last 8 wickets in 41 balls after lunch for next to nothing. Score 2 for out of the box thinking.

................................................................................................................................................................

The most critical thing in football is off the ball running and positioning, not the actual ball play. Always analyse the teams from this angle.

Back to cricket. The dictum in spin bowling is that "spin is in the air and break is off the wicket". The spin is all about how much revolutions you can give to a ball in the air. The more the better as it will allow the ball to drift and dip, bite the wicket and then turn(break). Good spinners always beat the batsmen in the air, not off the wicket.

I was amazed at another wonderful analysis in the TV this Olympics. I had just watch Usain Bolt, the Jamaican, virtually decimate his opponents in the 100 m Sprint Final, and win by a good margin - a rarity in 100 m event which finishes in less than 10s ( 9.63s was the winning time this time around). Heck! he got at least 2 strides lead in less than the time it takes to count upto 10!!!. I have seen some great sprinters in my time - Ben Johnson, Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson etc...........But Bolt is something amazing.

But what was revealing was Carl Lewis's analysis of the sprint. While everyone was talking about how Bolt accelarated towards the end, Carl Lewis refuted the stand and said that 'in 100 m, sprinters actually decelerate towards the finishing line, and it is actually the sprinter who decelerates slower than others who wins'. Take that for a different perspective

Shifting of power

The politicians are scared of the Anna Hazare Movement.

It is not because they fear the proposed Lokpal will put an end to their corruption. With no reforms in the judiciary or police in the vicinity, and with our justice system and police totally impotent in getting conviction for the guilty in anything less than 20 years, the politicians need not have any fear of cooling their heels for a stretch of time.

If you dont believe me, just have a look at some of the high profile cases. A Raja is out on bail and his case has not even come to trial, and is not likely to for the next 3 years. Ditto for Kanimozhi. The Election malpractice case against P Chidambaram is not likely to be sorted out before the next elections. By the time P Chidambaram would have already taken many important decisions as Home Minister and as Finance Minister in the future, affecting our lives, when he has no right to do so. How about the Adrash housing society case or for that matter the open and shut case against Suresh Kalmadi, who virtually looted India as head of the Organizing Committee for the Commonwealth Games. And someone like Sheila Dikshit is not even being booked, and she is as guilty as Kalmadi. Has Lallu been convicted on the fodder scam or Rajiv Gandhi on Bofors? And less said about Sonia, Rahul, Robert Vadra, Sharad Pawar, Yeduyuriappa, Jayalalitha, Mayawathi, Mulayam et al the better.

As I said, the politicians are not worried about a fall in their 'real income' or about them being convicted.

But they are worried about the balance of power shifting to the people. The Right to Information Act has already caused much heartburn amongst the powers that be. RTI activists have really used it to bring many shady dealings to light, and the people feel more empowered. But possessing information of a misdeed or corruption is one thing, and getting people punished for it is another.

This is where Lokpal comes in. If it is really implemented, the power will shift dramatically to the people. The politicians over the years have formed a nice club, where the motto is 'you scratch my back and I will scratch yours'. Though some token cases are taken against political opponents, care is taken that the investigating agencies botch up the investigation to such an extend that, the only purpose of these cases is to use them as a weapon of blackmail against political opponents in times of need, and nothing more.

But a powerful Lokpal will change all that. The politician-crooked businessmen nexus will be broken and many reputations will take a beating. The aura created by the politicians as some one who is regal and above the poor man will be shattered, and once it is shattered, the fear and awe the common man will have for the politicians will be gone for ever, resulting in a powershift, which the politicians dont want to happen.

Hence their concerted effort to thwart the Anna moment.

Anbu Thollai!!

One of the things I miss in Gulf is the hospitality of the simple rural folk of India. Maybe because I have never been out of the Capital City of Muscat, I have not had a chance to experience the hospitality of the rural Omanis. But one thing I can say is that the hospitality of the fellow Indians in Gulf is miserable. Everything is artificial. One feels unwanted when one visits another apartment of a fellow Indian.

Years ago, when I was a Sales Officer in Coimbatore in early 1990s, I had a travelling job, overseeing the performance of Gas Stations (Petrol Pumps) in Coimbatore and the rural area surrounding it. The hospitality of Coimbatore people is legendary. They get offended if you dont drink the coffee offered, and they stuff you to the hilt if given a chance. Since I visit at least 5-7 Petrol pumps every day, and 4-5 Industrial customers, I had to drink innumerable number of coffees every day, spoiling my appettite. If I refuse the Coffee and the snacks, the dealer is hurt and takes it as a personal affront. When I confided this to a friend of mine, he gave me, what he thought, was a brilliant idea. He advised me to tell the dealers that I am under homeo treatment, and as such has to avoid Coffee and Tea. I put this into practice, without realising what this will lead to. All the dealers were pained to hear I was under treatment, but they just had to make me drink something. Coimbatore-Pollachi-Udumalpet belt is famous for Tender Coconuts. The speciality of the Pollachi tender coconut (which used to cost Rs 2 those days) was that they were HUGE. Each tender coconut containted at least 3 full glasses of tender coconut water. Imagine drinking 8-9 like this every day. I just couldnt refuse this offer as tender coconut is ideal for homeo patients!!!!. Since mine was a travelling job, I had to stop the car every 20 minutes to take a leak, like a dog will do!!! After 3 months of this 'anbu thollai' ( loosely translated 'nuisance love'), I suddenly announced that I was cured fully, and as such could now drink coffee and tea. But the loving dealers will have none of it!! They used to advise me to avoid coffee and tea, and stick to tender coconut, a much healthier drink. I still fondly remember the love and affection of the Coimbatore dealers who pumped me with tender coconut water 20 years ago!

Much earlier than this, when I was a young kid, I used to go with my father, who as in charge of rural electrification. And we did really to to some remote nook and corner of Palghat district. Late 1970s and early 80s, Pepsi and Coke were unheard of. Even Gold Spot, Thumps Up or Limca were available in District Head Quarters. The luxury drink in the rural areas was the 'Colour'. This was offered to only VVIPs, as it cost them 30 ps , as against a soda that cost 15 ps. This was nothing but aerated sweetnened colour water (Well!! this is what Coke and Pepsi is, isnt it?), filled in a 'goli soda bottle'. God only knows what were the ingredients of it. But you had to feel the love in the voice of the poor villager when he sends an errand boy to get 'Sir and his son Colour'!. And he and the other villagers would swell in pride when they see us drink it!!

Where has that life gone?

Changing World Structure and an unchanging India

The last two decades have seen the death of 'isms'.

Communism died with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the advent of perestroika in the USSR. The Capitalists rejoiced with the hope of creating a Global Capitalist Economy. Globalization, Privatization and Liberalization were rammed down the throat of the Developing Countries by the so called Developed Countries, who gloated at the prospect of controlling the global economy and living on the fruits of the cheap labour in the 3rd world countries. The Developed Capitalist Countries thought they had deep pockets, and their financial clout shall give them the controlling power over the rest of the world.

Lehman Brothers changed all that. The Sub-prime crisis and ensuing financial meltdown, showed the Capitalist Countries for what they are - countries full of hot air balloon, living on borrowed money and spending way beyond their means. All it requires to destroy a hot air balloon is one prick with a needle. The Lehman Brothers was the prick that destroyed the Capitalism for ever.

High Debt, negative Balance of Payments, rising unemployment, increase immigration, falling standards of living, no core competencies - these are the hallmarks of the Capitalist Countries now.

Greed and insensitiveness of the powers that be destroyed Communism. Greed and insensitiveness of the Bankers and politicians destroyed Capitalism.

The Developed Countries are going back to nationalism, protectionism. US has announced a series of initiatives to spur local entrepreneurship. France is looking inwards. As do many of the Eurozone countries. Even the GCC countries are going in for a purge of expat population by increasing local recruitment.

In this scenario, perhaps the only country that cares a fig for the nationals and their well being is India, under the current Government. We are still talking of FDI, FII, Nuclear Deal, opening up the Economy, killing local entrepreneurship through high interest rates and red tapism. Instead of chasing FDI, all the Government had to do is reduce the flight of capital. In 70s and 80s, we were worried about the flight of intellectual capital. Now, our industrialists are investing everywhere in the world, except India. And we dont do anything about it.

The foreign media yesterday called Manmohan Singh the poodle of Sonia Gandhi. At least the poodles do no harm and are adorable. The same cannot be said of MMS.

It is two weeks since MMS took over the Finance Ministry and asked us to liberate our animal spirit. Only problem is he didnt mention which animal. Perhaps guinnea pigs or white rats, who allow themselves to be used as experimental speciman by the rich scientists? In any case, MMS  hasnt shown any leadership during the two weeks he is at the helm of the Finance Ministry. Is it a clear indication that the mess is much bigger than it is? I guess so.

Globalization - Dealth Kneww

Globalization, as a concept, lasted barely 2 decades. It was an imperative for the strong Western Economies to cover up their weakness - rising wages and higher cost of production. Riding on the ability of their financial institutions misplaced ability to offer them unlimited credit, which was used by consumers and corporates for spending indiscriminately, pushing up the consumption and cost of goods/services, the West saw an opportunity in exploiting the cheap labour in 3rd World Countries as an alternative to get away from their high wages production scenario.

By pumping in FDI and FII, they thought they could control all the 3rd world countries through their financial might, forgetting that they were slowly getting into a debt trap themselves. The financial clout of the West was akin to a Ponzi scheme. It was bound to break down one day. And it did during the Global Financial melt down of 2008.

The West thought that their core competencies were in the areas of Finance and Intellectual superiority that led to them having a critical edge in the area of technological innovation, which they used to sell to the third world at a premium.

But the 3rd world, and mainly the emerging economies, were street smart. They invested in technical education and with slick marketing shifted the focus away from long lasting technoligally superior products to short shelf life, functional products which did not require high technology R&D.  The positive balance of payments obtained through export earnings, and the shifting of the focus from high tech, ensured the West losing its edge in one stroke. And with their own unlimited credit availability at risk, due to the poor health of their financial system, the West has no place to hide.

So what is the future? West will continue to crumble as their foundations are weak. Will it mean the 3rd World countries will replace them. It is unlikely, as the consumption levels of 3rd world is very poor. There is a real fear that the 3rd world producing countries might end up with higher inventory due to poor offtake, damaging their economies.

What is required is some visionary to take the lead to improve consumption. India was ideally placed for that role. Unfortunately, typical of us, we have missed the bus, as in the past.

Blistering Heat

We have had a blistering summer in Muscat. The high humidity adds to the discomfort.

Even the pigeons are affected, as the picture taken by me today shows. The black pigeon patiently waits his turn, while his friend has a sip from a swimming pool

Wanted - Non performers, with ability to swindle to head important posts with the Government of India

I know I have been quiet on this blog for a while.

When the Government lurches from one crisis to another or from one colossal stupidity to another then words fail, because of the futility of it all.

We have a tragic situation today. But for the fact that it takes India to abysmal depths, not seen even during the worst days of 1990's, one can even laugh at the absurdity of what is unfolding in front of us.

We have a Planning Commission, that has planned for 60 years and ensured that 60% of India's population still defecates in the open (forget about the health hazards, just imagine the indignity of having to defecate in the open - but who cares), spends RS 35 lakhs for 2 toilets in its headquarters. Even taking in the argument that these toilets shall have 20 seats in total, it still works out to a whopping Rs 1.75 lakhs per seat!!!. And this at a time, when the nation has been asked to tighten its belt. Instead of pulling the Dy Chairman up, our Cabinet found time to joke about it, with a Cabinet Minister requesting Montek to allow him to use the toilet, and Montek, with a smirk, telling him that he has to wait, as there is a big queue!!. And everyone having a good laugh over it.

"What did the Prime Minister say when the news about Planning Commission Toilet Scandal reached him?"

"Oh! Shit"

That is the same response of Indians these days when they hear their Ministers open their mouth.

There is a saying that 'No news is good news'. These days Indians wake up with a prayer that no Minister opens his mouth about a policy issue, for it is sure to hit the common man below the belt - whether it is Petrol prices, diesel prices, airline, railways, inflation, rupee devaluation etc etc......

We have a PM who has been a spectacular failure on all fronts.............And everyone wants him to be shifted to the Rashtrapathi Bhavan.

We have a FM who has taken the economy to depths..............He wants to become the President.

We have a Defence Minister who ensured our Army is unprepared and under whose watch a honest Army Chief was harassed to no end. The less said about the loot in defence procurement, the better.............and the powers that be in Congress wants him to be the President.

We have a Speaker, who travelled to 42 countries since 2009..........why a Lok Sabha Speaker should travel to 42 countries is beyond me............and she wont mind being the President.

We have a undercooked, juveline, low IQ, escapist idiot who lead Congress to spectacular defeats in Bihar, UP and all the elections it fought under him..............and Congress wants him to be the PM

We have a Home Minister, who blatantly rigged the polls last time around, and used his legal skills to ensure the case didnt come up for trial for the past 3 years (and thus seeing to it that it wont affect his tenure as HM). An added qualification is that he facilitated lakhs and lakhs of crores of loot through 2G Scam, Maxis Deal and what not.....................and he just wont resign and go owning moral authority.

We have a Railway Minister who is not even bothered to attend Cabinet Meetings............and our nincompoop of a PM cant even make him attend one.............and Rail accidents after rail accidents happen.

We have a Planning Commission Dy Chairman who feels it is alright for a family to earn Rs 28-32 per day and he is no longer poor............. and our PM wants him to be the FM

We have Rangarajan, Chairman of PMs Economic Advisory Council, who shamelessly tells the media, at the height of protests about Petrol hike, that Government should increase Diesel and LPG prices too...........and the PM is pushing for him to be the next FM, in case he cant get Montek through.....

And above all, there is the Super PM, who is not accountable to anyone, but who enjoys so much clout that even the Monarch despots in some of the oil rich countries pale in comparison to the powers she has..........and she uses the powers, not for common good, but to ensure she moves up from being the 4th richest politician to the first..............and she doesnt even earn a salary other than the MP salary!!!

And the person who is supposed to be the guardian of our constitution........the President...........is a disgrace..................she is busy travelling to all the exotic places in the world like Mauritius, Seychelles............at taxpayers expense, without any remorse, on the guise that these trips will improve bilateral relationship and bring aid to our country....................it is fine as long as it doesnt bring AIDS to the country!!

The Great Indian Tragedy

Two decades of Economic Reforms has helped discount at least one theory. It was always claimed by the proponents of Economic Reforms (they do even now!!) that liberalization and globalization would result in higher GDP Growth and the benefits would 'trickle down' to the common man. While the first part has come true, the second part has proved to be a mirage chased by the common man. His life has become more miserable as the higher GDP growth has brought with it higher inflation, while his plight has remained the same. Added to this, our country's fate has become so interwined with those of the decaying western economies, that a default by Greece leads to stock market crash and rupee devaluation in India. We hardly have any trade with Greece, and there is no reason why our economy should react to Greece defaulting, for being financially indisciplined.

The problem is that we have failed spectacularly to develop any core competency during the two decades of reforms, unlike China, which has focussed on low cost manufacturing ability, and has forced the high wage western companies to shift the manufacturing base to China. We can point fingers at the intolerent communist regime, but one needs to admit that China has indeed leveraged its strength.

India had the opportunity to be the IT focal point of the world and also a great financial hub. But we were content to be mediocre. Despite the earnings of the IT sector, one has to admit that our IT sector hardly created anything worthwhile, and they were none better than Chinese, using Blue Collar Engineers to produce programs based on low grade specs. No great IT discoveries were made in India. And the less said about developing ourselves as a Financial/Services hub the better.

The saddest part is that, despite evidence to the contrary, and with the economy in doldrums, we are still talking only about opening up the insurance, retail etc rather than on creating long term assets. In short, we are replaying the tape of the 1990s, that is a proven failure.

There is no informed debate about how to build the nation, either by the UPA or by the NDA, or by any of the Regional parties. The politics of corruption, mud slinging and one upmanship has ensured that we have missed the bus to take global leadership once again.

What a tragedy!!!

Economic Terrorism

Petrol Price Hike by 15%!!!

Rupee Depreciation by 20%!!!

Spiralling Fiscal Deficit!!!

Policy paralysis leading to Economic Melt down!!!

High Interest Rates!!!

Sustained Double Digit Inflation!!!

This is GOVERNMENT SPONSORED ECONOMIC TERRORISM.

My fellow Indians,

Uthishtatha jagratha prapya vara nibhothita 

("Awake , Alert , strive till the Goal is achived")

Kick out the current disastrous Government

Capitalism with a Caveat -Chanakya way

The fundamental Hindu philosophy talks about Nishkama karma, and basically advises against going after wealth and resources to enhance personal satisfaction. Renunciation is a virtue.

But Chanakya is more practical. As per him,

Dharmasya Moolam Arthah:

Dharmam (Ethical behaviour) is built on the foundation of Resources. 

When a person has not fulfilled his basic physiological needs - Food, Clothing, Shelter, he is not in a position to live ethically or pursue his duty diligently.

Ethical behaviour results in happiness for self and others. And it is money/resources that make ethical behaviour possible.

Thus it is imperative that one strives to generate wealth but share it with others to generate happiness for self and others

This can be viewed as capitalism, with a caveat - share the wealth with others!!

The Music Listening Evolution - 1

My early days were in a sleepy little rural area called Vadakara.  In early 1970s Vadakara was an extended village. We had an old GEC radio at home, which was the main source of listening to music. This was kept atop a Shelf, and I had to stand on a chair to reach it. All India Radio Calicut had some veterans from the field of Art and Literature as Program Directors, and the programs were of the highest quality. We did not own a record player, but could hear the melodious film songs which wafted through the cool rural breeze, that were played on a record player which inevitably was part and parcel of any local function. There was a beauty to the melodious songs waxing and waning, depending on the strength of the breeze.

We moved to Palghat in 1972, and by the time portable transistor radio had replaced our old GEC Valve radio. One could carry the Murphy (remember the cute baby in the Ad?) transistor wherever one goes, and the reception was much better than the Valve radio. Apart from AIR Calicut, we could also get AIR Madras, Radio Ceylon on the short wave. The Binaca Geethmala was a favourite of many, as was the malayalam songs from 3.30 pm to 4.30 pm everyday. We were dependent on the songs that were broadcast, which may or may not be the ones we want.

By mid 1970s, we had purchased our first music player - A Philips Record Player. I still remember going with my father proudly to the Philips showroom at the begining of the Big Bazar, opposite to the Bata Show Room, to buy this then aspirational product which cost a princely sum of Rs 1,600 then. We had only few records, which we played over and over. But at least we could listen to the song of our choice, even if the options to choose from were limited. And we had fun, playing the 33 rpm discs at 45 rpm speed and even at 78 rpm speed. We discussed threadbare about the 'diamond' stylus, scratches on the disc (it was really fun when there is a scratch on the disc, and the line kept repeating itself!!!). We even invited our friends to show-off our proud record player, and many were quite envious!! ................... to be continued

Wishful Thinking

Name the President game is on.

The saddest part is that we chose Presidents, not for their credentials, but because of symbolism. Take the last three Presidents.

K R Narayanan was a good diplomat. But he became a President because he was a Dalit. Not that he did anything special for the Dalits, either as a Diplomat, nor as a Minister in Rajiv Gandhi Government ( I should know, because he was elected from Ottappalam, near my home town, and did nothing for the constituency. I suspect he even visited the constituency even once after getting elected). He also played petty politics to undermine BJP forming a Government, based on the wrong advice of Gopal Gandhi, who is touted as an ideal candidate this time around.

Abdul Kalam was an eminent Physicist by right, but NDA brought him in as President mainly because he was a liberal Muslim. Though he endeared himself to the public, I personally feel he could have done much more, but chose not to. Remember, both K R Narayanan and Abdul Kalam had served as Government Servants, and their Babu mentality never left them, as it did not leave Manmohan Singh. But Kalam was instrumental in blocking Sonia become the PM (notwithstanding her claim of having made a 'sacrifice', the fact is that she went in to the Rashtrapathi Bhavan hoping to become PM, but came out being forced to announce the name of MMS). We should be thankful to him for that at least. He at least restored the dignity of the Office of the President, which had diminished over the years.

The current incumbent, Pratibha Patil, is a disgrace, who was elected only because she was a woman, and loyal to Sonia. Elevating her hardly did anything to improve the lots of women.

Then why are we still looking for symbolism while electing the next President?

Ansari is in the fray, because he is a Muslim, not because of his other credentials. Meira Kumar, because she is a Dalit and a woman. Gopal Gandhi, because he is from the original Gandhi family............. the list is endless.

Why not someone from the Army, which has been silently suffering and ignored? The President is the Chief of the Army. Would it not be ideal to have an Ex Service Chief as President? At least the Army will be proud when they salute him. And he can bat for the betterment of the Army. Why not General V K Singh? The guy is honest to a fault, has a mind of his own, and this is one master way of correcting the wrong done to him.

Or for that matter, why not the current Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia? (see pic on the right).  He is a gem of a person, eminent jurist and possess spotless integrity. He has single handedly restored the power and dignity of the Supreme Court, after the disastrous tenure of Justice Balakrishnan, who was corrupt to the boot.  If he can do something to straighten out the Legal system which is in a mess, the purpose would have been served.

At least we can do wishful thinking, can't we?

Past is Future

The Future looks more and more like the Past.

Our grandparents lived in an era where they didn't have electricity. With 10-16 hours powercut currently, and more in the offing, it looks like our next generation shall be emulating their great grandparents in managing their lives without Electricity.

My grandfather walked for everything. He rarely travelled by Car or Bus, till late in his life. And he walked at least 12-14 kilometers everyday. With Petrol prices going up, and with Manmohan Singh promising more hikes, the days of us having to resort to walking to commute is not far off. Heck! Who can afford a Car or a bike or even public transport if Petrol were to sell at Rs 100 and Diesel at Rs 80? (In this regard, it is interesting to note that the Government never utters a word about Petrol being over priced, but only talks of Diesel being Subsidized, along with Kerosene and LPG. Everyone in the industry knows that Petrol is priced at least 30% higher than it should be to subsidize the Diesel. But the Government never, ever talks about bringing Petrol prices down to its natural level)

Traces of Present in the Past - 1

Discoursers on various scriptures come up with wonderful interpretations, depending on the audience. A la 'Nostradamus' interpretation. The Nostradamus prophesies  can be attributed to many events that happened subsequently, and be still valid. Ditto for the interpretation of the scriptures. This is not, by any way, discounting the treasure of wisdom buried in our Scriptures. The Upanishads and the Vedas were not the thought process of a single person, but rather a collection of thoughts of many over centuries. Perhaps, someone shall do a similar compilation of the material in the World Wide Web for posterity.

What I am posting in this blog is nothing new. It has been said before.

Stenography is an art that is almost dead with the advent of Word Processors. But I am of the generation who had the fortune to watch a top quality stenographer at work and how they take down notations, and reproduce the content in a letter format with hardly any error. Till late 1990s, top quality stenographers were much sought after. Many Palghat Brahmins from poor family, migrated to the then Bombay during mid 1990s, learned typing and shorthand, worked their way up the corporate ladder, and created the foundation for future generations, who are all in top positions in India and abroad now. Palghat Brahmins fondness for Lord Ganapathy is well known. No function starts without invoking Lord Vigneswara. Is it because Ganapathy is the first known Stenographer? The story goes that Veda Vyasa asked Ganapathy to write down the Mahabharatha to be dictated by Vyasa. Ganapathy wanted to get out of it, but had to agree with a proviso that Vyasa should not stop the recitation at any point of time, doing so will result in Ganapathy being released from his obligations. Ganapathy knew it was impossible for Vyasa to conclude the recitation in one sitting. But Vyasa was one up on him. He put a counter proposal that Ganapathy should not take down any of his slokas, unless he understands the meaning of each verse. This led to an interesting battle of wits between the two, which resulted in the creation of the wonderful epic.

I don't know whether the later day Managers insisted their Stenographers understood the meaning of what was being dictated to him, but what I know for a certainty that most of these Stenographers were very close associates of the Top Management, privy to Company secrets, and were at times more knowledgable than even their bosses. The Top Managers come and go, but the Stenographer served these Companies for decades, and were virutually a Knowledge Repository, who did their duty diligently day in and day out, but hardly got rewarded for their efforts. They struggled to make both ends meet, but drilled sound values in their kids, gave them good education, and left this world content, that they had created the necessary infrastructure which took their family to greater heights.

All Ganapathy's, their presiding diety's blessings???  Perhaps. 

                                                                                                       to be continued.......................

Random thoughts

"Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi has called himself a 'Brahmin' while he reviewing the party's poor show in the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. According to Congress sources, Gandhi told a local UP leader "I am a Brahmin" and "general secretary in the party" while the worker cited upper caste arguments" - Now this clearly puzzles me. As far as I know, Rahul Gandhi's Grand Father was Feroze Gandhi, who was a Parsi. Admitted, his mother Indira Gandhi is a Brahmin. But in India, the kids take after the religion of the Father. As such, Rahul's Father Rajiv Gandhi has to be a Parsi, or at best half parsi/ half brahmin.  Rahul has a Catholic Mother and a Half Parsi/Half Brahmin lineage, which makes him only 25% Brahmin, even by the most charitable views. For him to claim he is a Brahmin, is a bit ridiculous.

An Italian Ship's sailors, in Indian Waters, fires indiscriminately at Indian Fishermen, off Kerala Coast. The Kerala Government and the Police, for once did a tremendous job, detained the ship, arrested the accused, despite tremendous pressure from Italy, and won accolades even from Italians for the spotless police work done. What would you expect the Central Government to do? In any other Country, that has an iota of self respect, it would have moved heaven and earth to bring the culprit to justice, as two citizens were murdered. But not our UPA Government led by Sonia and MMS. They filed an affidavit and argued in the Court that, hold your breath, 'Kerala Government has no locus standi in the case and as such should not have done a damn when two of its fishermen were murdered'. Thank God, the Supreme Court Judges are not stupid. They gave a fitting comment from the Bench virtually trashing the Centre's point of view. It is a known secret that the Vatican tried to influence the case through a local Cardinal. One would have thought that with Sonia's italian connection, the Government would have been more than careful in taking a stand favouring Italy. Or is it that the italian connection is working overtime?

Chennai Super Kings may carry on in denial mode, but their skipper M S Dhoni is an injured man. He is struggling to run a few yards across the field with a pulled hamstring, but such is the situation that he has to keep on playing without taking a break - Now, now. 'such is the situation'!!!!. What situation? This is just IPL, and not Cricket World Cup. MSD, who cribs about over cricket while representing India, has not uttered a word about his workload in IPL, while carrying an injury. Where are the Board officials and the Chairman of Selectors? But then N Srinivasan and K Srikkanth, are stakeholders in CSK. Everything is fair in IPL!!!

Let there be PEACE this VISHU and the YEAR AHEAD

Om dyow shaanti antariksha gwum:

Shaantihi Prithwee:
Shaantiraapah:
Shaantiroshadhayah:
Shaantir-vanaspatayah:
Shaantir-vishveydevaah:
Shaantir-Brahma:
Sarva Gwam shaantihi:
Shaantir-eva shaantihi:
Saa maa shaantir-edhi:

(May peace reign on the horizon, May peace be on Earth, May peace be in water, May peace be in medicinal plants, May peace reign in all forms of vegetation, May peace be with Guardian Angelic Beings,

May peace be with the non-form of God(Brahm), May peace reign in each and everything. May peace be to peace itself. May that peace be with Me)

LET ME WISH ALL MY READERS

A VERY HAPPY

VISHU

AND A PEACEFUL, PROSPEROUS

NEW YEAR

Couple of Decent Men caught in the murky politics of Defence Procurement

It is interesting to note that no one is talking about the person culpable for leaking the Confidential Memo sent by Army Chief General V K Singh to the PM regarding India's Defence Preparedness, or rather the lack of it.

An initial attempt was made to discredit the Army Chief by insinuating that he was responsible for the leak, but when he strongly refuted the allegation and indicated that the person responsible for the leak should be tried for treason, the whole issue died down.

And it pays to find out why the issue (in fact the letter leak is the lesser of the two issues, the main one being the contents of the letter - as to how unprepared Indian Army is!!) was brushed under the carpet.

Coming from Kerala, and having watched our Defence Minister A K Antony over the past 35 years, I can vouch for his personal probity. You can hardly see a politician who lives such a spartan life as Antony, and that includes Manmohan Singh. He is personally clean, possess assets that would shame even a lower middle class government employee. But make no mistake. Antony is street smart. He has come up the hard way through the students wing of Congress- KSU, in an era when KSU was not the mess it is today. He also had to fight a pitched battle with the other giant of Kerala politics K Karunakaran, for a space in the Congress political arena. And taking on the Leader, as K Karunakaran is fondly called, is no mean task.  But Antony survived and grew. And no one has been able to even think of throwing the corruption muck on Antony, a significant achievement in our tainted political scenario.

Many have accused Antony of indecisiveness. Antony is a careful decision maker by nature. He likes to err on the safer side. While there are many analysts who go to the town about how weak he is as a Defence Minister, they forget that he has been making an effort to crack down on the nefarious business dealings in Defence procurement. But since the first family is involved in most of the Deals, which is an open secret, Antony's hands are tied.

Antony respects the current Chief, and his honesty. And to be fair to him, he took the right decision to deny the Chief his request to revise his DOB. Even the Supreme Court upheld his decision. But throught the period when the Media was going gaga over the fight of V K Singh on his DOB issue, Antony maintained his decorum and never spoke out against the Chief or commented on the matter. For that matter, neither did the Chief. Even after the Supreme Court verdict, Antony kept his counsel and did not gloat over his decision being vindicated, but respected both the Court and the Chief's right to approach the Court for Grievance Redressal. The low profile maintained by Antony went a long way in diffusing the situation.

But Antony was indeed decisive. In the Cabinet meeting, post the letter leak, when everyone was baying for the Chief's blood, Antony stood his ground, backed his Chief, and virtually single handedly took the decision to not take any action against the Chief, thus showing his leadership. He also backed the Chief and the Army on the stupid Coup story, and made the PM issue a statement denying the story.

In fact, both the Defence Minister A K Antony and the Chief of Army Staff General V K Singh has behaved in exemplary manner during the last few months, while pursuing what both felt was right. They had a professional disagreement which went through the necessary redress channel and was resolved. Both maintained high degree of level headedness and propriety.

We should be thankful to them for that.

But the unanswered question remains - Who are the real culprits who created the DOB, Coup and the leaked letter Controversies?

The finger of suspicion points to people close to the First Family and to couple of powerful Cabinet Ministers, who are on the take with respect to Defence Kick Backs. This is evident from the brazenness with which these middle men work, their ability to manipulate the media and the public discourse, and finally the lack of progress on the investigation (if any!) to find the real culprits.

Sober Thought

Rupee's prospects do not look bright. With deepening fault lines in the economy, mainly due to mounting fiscal deficit, backed by an insipid budget, Rupee continues to slide and is expected to touch Rs 53 to US Dollar soon. While this is good news for NRIs like me, and for exporters, it is bound to increase the inflationary pressure.

Another major cause for concern is the mounting Non Performing Assets with Indian Banks. With interest rates rising, most of the Banks are seeing an alarming rise in their NPA. This is bound to have serious implications. The credit rating agencies have already started downgrading Indian Banks, making it dearer for them to get credit in the open market. With hardly any takers for loans, due to high interest rates, the play-cautious attitude of the Banks towards new loans, which is likely under the current scenario, will further slowdown investment in the economy. What is alarming is the total ineffectiveness of the Banks to initiate recovery proceedings against the defaulting Industrial Houses.

In the near term the interest rates will continue to rule high, banks will lend less and money supply will be curtailed. We are almost nearing the economic crisis point of the late 1980s. And that is a sober thought.

Larger issues pertaining to the Indian Army

Much has been written about the transgression of the Army Chief General V K Singh.

Let us take the issues on hand one by one.

First pertains to his fight over the Date of Birth. No one disputes that his actual DOB is in 1951, and the Army records depicting it as 1950 was a mistake. Irrespective of whether he should have had it corrected within 2 years of joining (what the heck, it was so long ago, when he was junior officer who never thought this will affect him at a later stage, and in an establishment that do not encourage people to question superiors!!), or that he accepted the DOB as 1950 twice, the fact remains that he was born in 1951, and not 1950. He had a valid case and approached the Army and the Defence Ministry to sort it out. When he did not get justice, he approached the Supreme Court, which he has a right, as a citizen of India. What is wrong in that? Everyone has the right to redress the grievance and escalate the grievance to the highest authority. When the SC gave a decision against him, he accepted it gracefully and carried on with his work. The argument that he taking the case to the SC tarnished the Army is specious, to say the least.

The second issue is his letter to PM, telling him how much the Army is  under-prepared. PM is the leader of the Nation, and what is wrong with the Army Chief writing a Confidential note to him? Wasn't he doing his duty? There is no evidence that he leaked the letter. If there had been a shred of evidence, he would have been hauled up by now. Since the Government is keeping a low profile, it is fairly certain, the leak came from PMO or Defence Ministry. Let us assume for the sake of argument that the General did indeed leak the letter. Again what is wrong with that? His detractors claim that it has given the enemies of India information that they dont know. This is crap. The enemy spies know exactly what our weaknesses are, more than us, with or without the letter. Also, the Chief, and many Chiefs before him, have written to PM and Defence Minister in past, but nothing has happened. The files have been put to pasture. Who elects the PM and the Defence Minister? The Public. What is wrong in bringing it to Public - the ultimate authority's- notice. None. A good Percentage of our annual allotment goes for Defence procurement. Why shouldnt we know how the proceeds are used in reality?

The third issue pertains to the alleged bribe offer made to him a year and a half back. He brought it to the Defence Ministers notice, who did not give him the right signals to proceed. Instead, he was asked to give in writing, which he should have. But, when your Minister, who is known to be honest, dont show the interest in tackling the issue head on,  dont give you the right cues, but rather give a bureaucratic answer, you tend to think twice. Perhaps he thought it fit to retreat a bit to win the war later. An error of judgement, which is understandable.

We are missing the bigger issue here. By attacking the General, we are forgetting the bigger issues that need attention - lack of flexibility in the army which makes it difficult for an aggrieved person to get justice, the corruption in defence procurements, the army totally unprepared to defend our country and the control the civilians have over the army, to the detriment of the same. If some of our top officers will compromise the quality of the equipments for a few lakhs, what commitment will they have to defending our country? And by setting a bad example, they are compromising their subordinates too.

And the politicians? Have you heard one solid action from any one in the Government as to how to tackle corruption in defence procurement? The answer is an emphatic NO.

And therein lies the tragedy.