(A)satyameva Jayathe!

(A)Satyam Computers founder and chairman Ramalinga Raju has resigned from the Satyam Board.

Raju has written a letter to the board giving details of the balance sheet. Balance Sheet has inflated cash balances of Rs 5040 crore and accrued interest of Rs 376 crore is non-existent. Rs 1230 crore was arranged to Satyam and is not reflected in the books.

"As per the revelations, second Quarter numbers were inflated to Rs 2700 crore vs Rs 2112 crore actual numbers. No board member had any knowledge of the real situation of the books.

I cant believe this. What were the Auditors (it is Price Waterhouse Coopers or the legendary PWC. So much for the efficiency and integrity of the BIG 3)) and the Board of Directors doing? The financials have to be approved by the Board. How can the Board members claim that they had no knowledge of this? And remember, this is the company that got an award for Corporate Governance 2 months back. What a joke!

My worry is not about Satyam. Is this the tip of an iceberg? How many of our top companies are cooking up balance sheets and misusing funds? I am sure this is not a one off case. In any other country, the Government and the monetary regulatory agencies would have commenced a serious investigation into not only Satyam but other companies as well. They owe it to the small investors. But our Government/opposition is so weak kneed and so obligated to all these companies for election funds, apart from being bribed to the eyes, that they just do not care. The whole system is rotten

Nations developing competitive advantages

I have been closely following the Israel-Palastine imbroglio. I am not competent to comment on it for I do not have the full knowledge of the historical, current scenario.

But what struck me as significant is the groundwork laid by Israel prior to attacking Gaza. They have been planning this for two years, has done some intense lobbying with friendly governments and even non friendly governments over the past year. The muted reaction to their incursion is a victory for their diplomacy. How did they pull it off?

Someof it has to do with historical facts. But for a nation, that has more enemies than friends in the world, to pull this off means we can learn from them. They had decided long time back that they have to have US as their supporters. Towards this they worked solidly with the rich jewish lobby in Washington over the last 6 decades (ironically Israel became a reality around the same time India got independence). This lobby ensures continued support for Israel irrespective of who comes to power. Secondly, they developed a core competence in manufacturing world class weapons. They are, if I remember correctly, the third largest suppliers of weapons in the world. This puts many other countries in world at their mercy, for antagonizing Israel means these countries military becoming weak. Finally, they were never apologetic about what they do. Their objective is clear. Israels interest comes first, second and last. Towards this they will do anything. Believe me when I say that I do not approve of what they have done to the Palestinians, but you need to give credit to the Israelis. Despite all the hullaboo by muslims world over, did you notice one thing? The major Arab nations - Saudi, Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan etc has been very very quiet at the Government level.

Take Pakistan. They also go independence the same time as India. Their only core competence is that the country has a location that is a dream geo politically. Borders with China, India and Afghanistan makes Pakistan a vital ally. They threw in their lot with Americans during cold war, and despite being the nerve centre of jihadis, they are so important to USA that they will pump in billions of dollars to support them. And Pakistan leverages this and the fact that they are a nuclear power to the hilt. Also, they have developed a terrific competency in manipulating the western media. Indians need to take some lessons from Pakistan on how to use the media. How many times have they been the attackers and how many times have they managed to end up making the world believe that they are the victims. Even the idiot of a Prime Minister we have (who now bleats that the terrorists had Pak support), went so far to say that Pakistan and India BOTH are victims of terror. Need I say more.

That leaves us. We, as a nation, lives in the past. Yes, we do have a glorious past. But during the past 6 decades, we never created any core competency or levers that can be used when the time comes. Nehru went in for non-alignment, though subtly supporting Russia. Since we did not align fully with Russia, this didnt give us much advantage. And typical of anyone who places two legs in two boats, we sunk when one of the boats sprung a leak. We could have become an economic giant in 1980's. But skewed policies prevented us from becoming one. We opened up the economy 20 years too late, missing a golden chance to become an Asian super power. Even the current economic status is more wishful thinking. Though we are emerging as a strong economy, we do not know how to use that to our national good. We are considered to be an unworthy ally in international arena. We are humiliated time and again in international forums (Sashi Tharoor fiasco in UN is still fresh in mind). We have lofty ideals, but very little capability to follow up with action. China flexes its economic muscles to check US and the Western countries. Ditto Japan. See how Russia uses its oil to make a roaring comeback after the disintegration of the USSR. It took them all of 10 years to become an important player once again. But we dither. We dont take the lead. The global financial crisis, where we were not affected that much really, was a great opportunity for us to take the lead. We could have engineered a coup in the various financial institutions. But we let it slip. We could have used our IT prowess to control the whole cyberspace (at least a major chunk). But we never thought that way. We have one of the largest army in the world and we are a nuclear power. But we let even tiny Nepal, Burma and Bangladesh to cock a snook at us. We have lost our respect in international arena, despite the bravado of our successive rulers. We are still suffering from the hangover of the colonial era. We are still subservient to the white skinned. See how Manmohan Singh pampers and dances to American tunes. More than anything else, we dont have the steel in us to stand up and be counted. When the need of the hour is to be a bully (only that language works in the modern world), we are the worst of the cowards.

A few days back Pranab Mukherjee talked about India not hesitating to use all options against Pakistan. This reminded me of a story,

Once a namboodiri was very hungry in an alien place. He went to another namboothiris house and asked for food (those days it was a practice to give food). But unfortunately, the house belonged to a stingy namboodiri, who refused to give him food. His pleadings fell on deaf years. By then a small crowd had gathered. Our namboodiri finally raised his voice and said

"So you wont give me food? then i have no choice but to use the last resort. But believe me, it has far reaching consequences".

Now everyone was intrigued. Even the stingy namboodiri was shaken up. He was advised by the crowd to offer food, lest the namboodiri do something that will be harmful to all. The namboodiri was given food.

After he had eaten, one guy asked him with respect

"Namboodiri, may I know the last resort that you threatened with?".

The namboodiri smiled and replied,

"Oh! I would have just walked off to the next village and tried my luck there. What else could I have done?. That was my last resort"


Need I say more about what India would have done or will do?

Panchatantra -3

Panchatantra is full of philosophical vignettes that are extremely practical (I have highlighted the relevant part). Most of the readers would have read these stories but without attaching importance to the philosophy/advice behind it. It is actually these advices that was the intention of Panchatantra and makes it a wonderful book to read,


Three fish lived in a pond. Their names were Anagatavidhata, Pratyutpannamati and Yadbhavishya.

Some fishermen passing by the pond wondered, “Hey, we have never seen this pond. It seems to be full of fish. It is now evening. Let us come at dawn tomorrow and bag as many fish as we can.”

Hearing the fisherman, Anagatavidhata (the one who foresees a danger in time) called a meeting of all the fish and told them, “Haven't you heard what the fishermen were saying? We must move out of this pond tonight itself. As the wise men have said weak men should flee when a strong man invades or seek refuge in a fort. There is no alternative.”

“The fisherman will come tomorrow. I think we should not be here for even a moment more,” said Anagatavidhata.

“That's true. I endorse your suggestion,” said Pratyutpannamati. “Let's go elsewhere. Those who are afraid of foreign lands and those who are bound to their soil will die in their own country. He who can prosper anywhere does not die in his own land clinging to sentiment.”

Loudly laughing, Yadbhavishya said, “Your plans are not good. Why should we leave this pond, ancient home of our forefathers, because the fishermen have evil intentions. If it is destined, we cannot escape death even if we go elsewhere. Everything is in the hands of God. You cannot dispose what he proposes. Without his blessings people will die even if they have protection. With his blessings nobody can kill them even if they do not have protection.

Unable to convince him, the other two fish left the pond. Coming the next day, the fishermen took a big catch of fish in the pond. Yadbhavishya was one among them.

Those who foresee the problem and those who deal with the problem when it arises are always victors and those who trust their luck are the losers.”

Oh! for a real Chanakya as our ruler

Indian's preach tolerance and ahimsa as a way of life, forgetting the fact that the scriptures always held that the enemy has to be annihilated. The base krithi of hinduism 'Devi Mahatmyam' speaks of Devi in Satvic, Rajassic and Tamassic forms protecting the innocent by taking the Asuras head on and killing them. In Bhagavat Gita, Krishna says that 'whenever there is "dharmachyuthi", he will return to protect the innocent'. I had written in an earlier post that Gandhiji adopted Ahimsa because we were then without arms and it was the ideal weapon against the British. Had it been Hitler and Germany or Stalin and Russia, Gandhiji would never have advocated Ahimsa, for it would not have worked. There has to be horses for courses.

Once upon a time, on the banks of river Ganges, stood the city of Pataliputra, where lived a brahmin. He was humiliated by the then kings, Nandas, while sitting down for food. He took a vow to destroy the Nandas. Then one hot afternoon he was walking in haste. In his hurried walk, he stumbled on a stump of grass (Dharba reed which can be sharp) and was about to fall. He became very angry. The roots of that type of grass go deep into the earth. But he was undeterred. He wrath would brook no opposition. He sat down right there in that burning sun, removed that grass and the ones around that to their roots from the earth, and then resumed his journey. A young man was watching all this. He was impressed by the tenacity and the sense of purpose of the brahmin. The young man went up to the Brahmin and seeked his help to achieve his objective. The rest, as they say, is history. The young man was Chandragupta and the brahmin, later went on to become the renowned Chanakya.

Our politicians are quite fond of calling themselves the modern Chanakya, without an iota of his qualities. It will be worthwhile for them to understand Chanakya and his terrific qualities. Then and only then, shall we able to weed out the terrorism, that is a blot on our country.

Oh! for a real Chanakya as our ruler.

Indian Government to take a leaf out of BCCI book

I would have loved to start the blogging in the new year with positive things. But I am afraid, I may have to go back to the Mumbai attack or rather the post Mumbai attack scenario.

The Mumbai attack has seen the end of Shivraj Patil's reign. Chidambaram has started off reasonably well under the circumstances. The necessary laws have been tightened, NSA has been established and an internal security advisor has been appointed. It will take a while for the changes to come into effect, if at all. But at least it is a small step forward in our fight against terror.

What is galling is the absolute lack of abdiction of responsibility with respect to the Mumbai blast. It is true that Pakistan terrorist were behing the blast. It could also be true that Dawood Ibrahim was behind the blasts. But, such an attack could not have happened without local support. It is worthwhile to note that the Government has been very silent on this, and the people have accepted this hook, line and stinker.

Also, as a citizen of a proud nation, it is utterly reprehensible that we have abdicated the responsibility of the investiation in favour of the FBI. It is as if our responsibilty ends with giving the data to FBI. What a shame! Today P Chidambaram has declared that he is flying with evidence to show to US. This baffles me. Are we an independent nation or are we a vassal of USA? Are we telling the world that 60 years since we got independence, we dont have the polich machinery and the judicial system to bring the culprits to book and that we want others to do the dirt job for us?

USA is never going to back us again Pakistan. Their geopolitical interest is tied too strongly with Pakistan for them to ditch them. It is not as if USA or other Western powers do not know that Pakistan is a rogue state. They have known this for decades. But they need Pakistan to get a foot hold into Afghan, which in turn borders Iran. Also Pakistan is close to China. This makes them turn a blind eye to whatever Pakistan does. The Pakistan hand in the London blasts were very clear. Even there, USA did not do much to help its closest ally Britain. Then what chance do we have?

The paradigm of external threat has changed. This threat cannot be tackled using conventional army or conventional intelligence operations. We need to be aware of this. What we need is a network of agents (assets) across the rogue nations who will tip us off in advance of any attack. We need small, quick strike forces that will strike terror into the hearts of the enemy. These forces shall fly in the sly, attack terrorist camps and neutralize them. We need a zero tolerence towards any indian citizen who supports terrorism. The law should be swift and separate. Take them in, try them and hang them. Internal intelligence gathering should be tightened. The onus should be on prevention, rather than post attack evidence chasing.

Finally, what to do with Pakistan? Certain people understand only certain languages. We can and should isolate Pakistan locally and internationally. We can start with SAARC countries, who knows which side of the bread is buttered. Blackade Pakistan, cut off trade, show them we can hit them where it hurts most, economically. And take a leaf out of Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI)'s book. It took BCCI nearly 2 decades to take the reigns of ICC. Today the financial clout of BCCI makes everyone grovel. We need to do this. We are the emerging economy. Create a strategic plan to take over World Bank, ADB and IMF, through sheer economic clout. Then, then we can turn the screws on rogue nations like Pakistan and Bangladesh. Let us start now. At least the next generation will be free of these pests.

Back on Sunday

Blog takes a couple of days break. Shall be back on Sunday

Om Shaanti Shaanti Shaanti

Twameva Mata, Chapita Twameva
Twameva Bandhu, Cha Sakha Twameva
Twameva Vidya, Dravinum Twameva
Twameva sarvam mama deva-deva

Om Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah
Sarve Santu Niramayah
Sarve Bhadrani Pushyantu
Maa Kaschid Dukhabhaag Bhavet
Om Shaanti Shaanti Shaanti

Shubhamastu…Kalyaanamastu…
Aishwaryamastu… Udayostu… Udayostu


(Loose Translation in English

Oh Lord! You alone are my mother, father, brother, friend, the knowledge and wealth.
You are everything to me and the God of all Gods.

May everybody be happy. May everybody be free from disease. May everybody have good luck. May none fall on evil days. Peace, peace, peace)