Lovely poem by Dharmavir Bharti

Ravi Shankar Prasad from BJP quoted the first stanza of this poem- Munadi in the Parliament session of 27th Aug. This poem was written during the JP Movement by Dharmavir Bharti.

The MP wanted to draw the parallels of this poem with the existing movement lead by Anna Hazare

Time to say less and understand more

There is so much to be understood about Anna's movement against corruption. A remarkably chequered movement it has been but has attained a great end so far in terms of the Parliament passing a unanimous resolution in favour of the demands.

One of the common though highly simplistic understanding as voiced by the actor Om Puri but commonly found amongst professionals in India is that all politicians are able to buy votes through notes and liquor. The actor in a demeaning way ever termed the politicians as 'ganwar;. There are clear loop holes in the way our law and order has not been able to subvert such realities but to say that thats how political leaders capture the imagination of people in the country is naive to say the least.

Winning elections in this country is a really really tough mental game and few really capture the complexity of what it takes to jump into this foray. 


Sharad Yadav one of the leaders who has risen from student level politics gave a befitting response to this perspective when he said

“Without the wisdom of Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi,” he said, people like him would not have been allowed to bring even their cattle to graze in Delhi. “This House,” he said, “is the only place, where you can see the face of the entire nation”, where Dalits can be seen as equals and where names like “Ghurau Ram, Garib Ram and Pakaodi Lal” walk around as MPs. It is only thanks to Gandhi and his freedom movement that today a Pakaodi Lal can come here, he said. A Pakaodi Lal in your Lok Sabha? Does that answer Om Puri’s description of a place filled with ganwaars? And if so, does that make you feel embarrassed? Mahatma Gandhi would have only been proud.

One can image that if such a versatile actor who has attained national fame can carry such views and feel it fine to vocalize it as if its a shooting which is going on, what can we infer about the views of people at large. The other funny part is that a politician will not want to talk about technicalities of acting but an acting would be 100% sure about the technicalities of what politics is!!! At times its a funny arrogance with which we tend to interpret our worlds.


Politics is very less understood as its formal study generally ends with a a 100 page book read last time in grade 10th.  Rest it left for media to teach since there are few who really tend to venture into it profesionally. Time for Anna like movement to serve wake up calls for educated and uneducated alike. Indian democracy has a lot to attain.  We all need to grow up.

Stand & Deliver

Some news headlines state that the electoral results herald a new dawn in Indian democracy. It somehow rings hollow in my ear as anyone with even basic study of progress of Indian politics would understand that we are not meeting a party which is as fresh and promising as a morning star.

If we try to understand the results in the larger context of time horizon and also try to observe which party has come to power, it throws some salient insights.

Congress is not an altogether fresh party. In fact wherever we stand today as a country with all its ills and strength, the credit goes to a large extent to this party. The only thing that is positive about this result is that its the best possible result amongst whatever choices we had. Its not the ideal government by any figment of imagination.

A party which has pathologically burdened into the nation's design, systems which reek of corruption, practices which allow terrorism to flourish in the name of secularism, clear interference with key bodies like CBI, Police machinery as clearly indicated by sudden withdrawal of case by CBI just 10 days before elections, should rather introspect and understand what does Rahul Gandhi imply when he says that that he wants to change the politics of the country.

What does it mean to change the politics of the country?

Identity politics is one key cancer and only a national party like Congress could have given a jolt to it and it has done that. Though we can't say that it ignored the caste and religion of its candidates when it fielded them from various constituencies. Obviously that mattered but important thing is that this aspect didn't weigh too much on the large issues of national significance which was beyond the comprehension or interest of stone age parties. 

The UPA gets a new term but it comes to power with some clear legacy of dark practices which have weakened the nation at several levels:

Complete comfort with policy of reservation. Will they replace Arjun Singh with someone who is really deserving and understands the issues that mark the important sphere of Education. How will this important sector be approached. Its just so vital as a growth engine of the nation.

Dynastic politics- a system which gets its strength from centralized decision making by a certain family and sees results arising out of this non democratic behaviour. Why would it want to change it?

Sychophancy- A party where people live by expressing their allegiance to the high command. Whether you talk about a 21 yr old karyakarta or you talk about the haggards like Arjun Singh. Would they want to change this culture of nepotism and favouritism? Is that a good example for the youth to emulate.

Corruption- The issue of multiple thousand crores being stashed in Swiss Banks. What is the debate all about? Who are the culprits? Where are they? Why is this party silent about all that? A party whose methods and policies since post independenced have only entrenched the present day ailing machinery of government systems. Manmohan Singh didn't show any interest to work in this direction. There are surely corpses which are stinking in their cupboards. And its time that the government takes this issue with vigour.

Aversion to Privatization- With a clear stand favouring more of government control, will they be able to sense their own limitations and allow the market to decide who produces what and at what rate? Obviously there are riders to it and needs to be looked at from sector to sector.

External Security- A party which has shown utter ignorance to terrorist attacks. What would its stand be now? Who will handle this portfolio and how will they want to define importance of security as against their favourite word 'secularism'. Will they take any effort to check open gate infiltration from the eastern part of the country. 

Insecurity with local governance- Will this party show interst in bringing about true democracy by devolving power to small units at the basic urban and rural level. Its larger national machinery doesn't believe in this style which is heart of democracy. Would they look at it differently now.

Agreed that Congress showed great strategic insight to carve out this electoral victory, but just stating that they want to thank the youth of this nation and clean its politics is not enough. 

Passing the test of democracy should not be inferred as a step to absolve oneself of all the sin. Its no 'Ganga Snan' as the leading opposition party would like to put its faith in. Its simply that with our present day parliamentary form of governance, we as a polity were left with no better option and we still are optimists and feel that UPA can bring about a change.

The country needs to develop on several thousand accounts and its only through good governance, healthy politics backed by strong ethics that it can be made possible. 

The country as a whole has given this opportunity. Its time for the party to now STAND AND DELIVER

National issues deserve their due: Will the result of 15th LS elections reflect that?

The recent case of CBI giving a clean chit to Quattrochhi around the time of elections, raises suspicion on the way Congress has been known to interfere in statutory bodies like CBI who are meant to be away from political interference.

In this editorial by Pratap Bhanu Mehta he points out a very significant quality of any leader and also a political group of setting up institutions which would cater to the needs of the society without falling prey to partisan politics. He points out to a very serious threat the society faces on account of such irresponsible and self centered behaviour at the expense of loss of trust of the society at large on institutions which are meant to uphold truth and justice.

Thus the moot question is, whether there is any value in the public raising its cry over police reform as represented by mandates given to politicians prior to elections during citizen group meetings asking them to work towards it. Aren't we fooling ourselves when we try to ask lone MPs from one or two constituencies to work towards such key national level problems where probably as individuals they are powerless since the overall framework of these parties has clear stakes in allowing those issues to persist.

The only way in which the electorate can arm twist and make the govt act on such lines is by bringing to fore such issues as a collective during General elections. Unfortunately this is not to be seen in India since the electorate rarely votes on national issues. Despite the fact that Congress has shown utter ineptitude in responding to the menace of Naxalism and Terrorism, there is hardly any nation wide concern to be seen. And the reflection of the same can be seen when go through the political manifestos of the national parites wherein we realize that none of the manifestos talks about fundamental reforms in depoliticising institutions meant for social welfare like IIMs, CBI, Govt Hospitals etc. Moreover the birth of Coalition politics will only cause problems in fixing such vital bottlenecks.

Sitaram Yechury CPI(M) leader while answering to one of the questions related to fragmentation of our electorate, marks that 'I think it is a process of maturation. You cannot have a social plurality that is as wide as we have in India and have a political monolith. Your social diversity has to reflect in your politics. '

The point is that if this be the India of tomorrow, with regional parties coming up with their local issues during General elections, how are we going to decide the course of the country at a larger level. These regional groups will give rise to Coalition as an inevitable option but this is only going to relegate the national issues to the margins and whether we get a Maharashtrian PM or a Dalit PM at the top would be the sole subject of debate.

15th Lok Sabha polls

As our country enters into its 15th Lok Sabha polls, there are interesting changes in the social and demographic landscape which would surely have impact on the forthcoming elections. 

The most important and also tragic part would be the post poll zero ideology driven and only opportunism based power struggle which might lead to a very weak government at the center with most incompetent people at key positions.  

Candidates/Political parties whose performance in the Lok Sabha elections interest me more:

The political equation in Uttar Pradesh- The state which sends 80 MPs to Lok Sabha.  How does the pie get distributed amongst BSP, BJP, Congress and SP? A state which has remained backward on social as well as economic parameters doesn't seem to show any sign of coming out of this situation of poor governance.

Janta Dal (U) in Bihar- Apparently Nitish Kumar has done a good job in Bihar as the CM. If anyone can challenge the hopeless caste based politics in the state of Bihar, he seems to be the most promising candidate.

Lok Satta Party in AP- a promising party with strong leader- Dr Jayprakash Narayanan, but questionable second rung. The performance of this party would to a large extent decide how it 

manages to interest youngsters in other states. 

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena Party which has fielded 11 candidates in Maharashtra- a party trying to use violence to capture the issue of immigration in Maharashtra. A party which has the potential to change the contours of society in Mumbai around ethnic lines atleast in the next 5 to 10 years.

Praja Rajyam Party- Party started by Chiranjeevi in AP and being considering to have the capacity to give a strong challenge to Congress in that state.

Kalyan Singh defected BJP to join SP. Considering the baggage of Babri Masjid demolition in 1992 when he was the CM, how does his candidature help/dent the prospects of SP, which has always gone by Muslim vote bank politics

Arun Bhatia - former accomplished bureaucrat standing as an independent from Pune. The country is in need of such high performers

Mallika Sarabhai from Gandhinagar Constituency- she is standing as an independent against L K Advani

Rishi Aggarwal - an environmentalist from North West Constituency of Mumbai standing on behalf of Jagore Party- New party

Meera Sanyal from South Mumbai - independent against strong Congress, MNS and Shiv Sena candidates

Dr Mona Shah and Rajendra Thakkar- Candidates from Mumbai fielded by Professional Party of India. A new party driven heavily by the thought that Professionals can be good politicians but seems to sound too simplistic a solution to excite the electorate. 

Varun Gandhi- the idiot son of Menaka Gandhi and representative of BJP who came into limelight on account of the venom he spewed against the minority community. His electoral performance will be a reflection of the quality of electorate in Pilibhit.  Not much to say about BJP and its murky and convoluted ideology.

Last but not the least, Sadhu Yadav, the estranged brother in law of Lalu Yadav who has joined Congress. He is pitted against Prakash Jha from LJP (headed by Paswan) Considering the fact that this constituency is dominated by Yadavs and having defected RJD, its likely that this candidate would lose because of their loyalty to RJD.  

As far as completely new candidates are concerned, it would be interesting to understand the number of votes they are able to capture as that would be an indicative of how the electorate perceives clean chit candidates.

Other interesting statistics can emerge from understanding the popularity of the new parties like Bharat Uday Mission, Bharat Punarnirman Dal and Jagore Party. None of these groups seems to have a convincing mandate though they are talking about the promise of good governance

Corporate Political Responsibility ?

A dear friend of mine shared this campaign which was initiated in Accenture on behest of his brother making a strong effort to use the organization communication platform to promote citizenship amongst employees.

As much as we talk about turbulent times in economic terms, there are countries in the world which are seething from politically turbulent times and that too for years. In India we don't see it as a regular affair thanks to having a democratic base (irrespective of the quality of the people representatives) and our values which are rooted in peace and amity (generally speaking). But having said that, our democracy leaves much to be desired. To me it appears like an ugly distortion of the strong political ideology.

I think this initiative from Accenture is a big message which promotes its employee base to go out and vote by actually making it part of their CSR agenda. A very active way of promoting something which our country is acutely in need of.

These are signals of making politics more palatable for the educated class. It is a small step in terms of magnitude of effort actually needed for change to be realized, but a huge step in terms of symbolism of India Inc taking the problem of our weak democracy as part of its CSR agenda. It actually is Citizen Political Responsibility being promoted the CSR route.:)

It appears like an initiative to ward off politically turbulent times.

Are the cynics right ?

There is a lot of cynicism on seeing the sudden flurry of response of people in Mumbai- particularly youth, who otherwise don't have a great history of actively participating in matters related to better governance. Most of the speculation is that its knee jerk reaction, more like shouting when your own backyard is on fire, contrived anger and self centeredness otherwise.

In the midst of all this noise, the important thing is to take all this in a positive stride. I have pasted down below (in italics) one of the mails sent by a Superintendent of Police from North India in one of the group mails amongst dozens that were exchanged after the terror episode.
Really liked his view point

Mr C*******,

While your angst and annoyance is correct, even these initial expression of views and sharing of advices is one step ahead in the direction in which envision things. Can anyone deny that people are slowing rising out of their slumber and are thinking more and more of their responsibilities and about their National interest than ever before? The huge turn outs in Mumbai are the best testimony to this fact.So, every person who wants changes to take place in the right direction will have to be more patient. Your works are bound to have more and more takers, sooner or later.

Amitabh Thakur
SP(Intll),
Faizabad

Crisis of civics education

It seems there is a competition going on between two biggest democracies on who is worse on civics education

Mixed feelings at the Gateway meet

I will recount my personal experience about the assembly at Gateway yesterday which was organized to express solidarity for a better political order and to express the grievance about the incapability of the government in power to take strong course of action against terrorism.

I received an SMS on 30th Nov about this gathering. I had no clue who had called upon the meet and neither was I clear on what to anticipate from this gathering.

Though I am cynical towards general human tendencies atleast in terms of their involvement with things which require sustained commitment in the direction of politics, I wanted to understand if there are people interest in putting in serious efforts towards awakened citizenship.

Some observations:

1. I took a train from Andheri towards Churchgate at around 5:20pm. By the time I reached
Churchgate, the compartment was almost empty. Local trains are generally used by the middle class and below.
Inference: Not many people from the suburbs were targetting to reach that place especially from the weaker economic class.

2. As I got down at the station, I saw several youngsters flocking in groups sporting t-shirts with certain messages related to this gathering. I waited for my friend right across the station at Eros and saw hundreds of people heading towards gateway. They were mostly educated people comprising of professionals, students and some older age group people too. It was really nice to see this current of people in one direction from Churchgate towards Gateway. They were majorly the English speaking class of the city.

3. Then we started towards Gateway and were joined by some other friends of mine. Near that place it was extremely crowded while everyone was quite well behaved in terms of not getting into quarrels with one another or exchanging slangs and so on. People were shouting all kinds of slogans mostly of peace and order while primarily talking about removing the corrupt politicians and some were anti Pakistan as well (not surprisingly)

4. In terms of the gathering there were flocks of people moving in all possible directions. This was a clear indicator of the fact that people had not assembled there to listen to one voice but simply to express their sentiments in small ways. Thus it was more of a leaderless gathering of groups of people with the common thread being the angst as a result of poor quality of politics and ineffective governance

5. I went there to understand the possibility of a long term action and hence questioned some people about what beyond this evening? What would they do from 4th onwards (i.e the next day onwards) They didn't have any answer but they showed interest when i asked them for their mailids to propose an extended course of action.
Inference: The scene was dominated more by emotion rather than an attempt at doing something on a sustained basis

6. Someone handed over to me a pamphlet about some group by the name Mumbai Magna
Carta asking for Mumbai to be made independent of India with its own form of Presidential System etc which I really found in sad taste. Here we were gathering against corruption and poor politics and then someone starts talking about separtist outlook as if Mumbai is what only mattered to them!!!

Overall perception and feeling- The fact that we all could come together and express our sense of solidarity is a big first step since I have never seen anything of this nature ever in Mumbai by the educated class.
I am afraid that if this move doesn't get a vision and a focussed approach to long term action, the wave would subside. That is my biggest area of concern.

Considering the population of this city is close to 1.8 crore, for a strong social movement we need a much more inclusive and rigorous effort to improve the political order. We have to figure out ways of taking masses of people together with us.

Lets look for the next steps now.

'Chalta Hai' nahin chalega

The day my nation adopted or rather accepted the vice of chalta hai, we opened our windows to all kinds of debilitating practices.

We started spitting on the road, pissing by the side walls. Getting away by paying a fraction of the penalty for unlawful activities, became a subject of jest. Coming late to meetings got converted to the stale joke of Indian Stretchable Time. Using deceit in competition became a mark of ambition. Holidaying at the nearest picnic spot on the day of election, littering on the streets by taking our hand out of a Honda City, started sharing e-mails on how the select section of our brethren speak English and everything and anything.

The danger with this attitude is that it allows us to accept anything and everything which a more advanced nation would frown at. Gradually it reduces the shock value of things and acts as a nice tranquilizer and we stop getting angry at the above mentioned things. This attitude of chalta hai has done more harm to this nation than perhaps anything else. How can we assume a Shanghai out of Mumbai or any other transformation of sorts unless we start checking these things within and without!!!

The belief (which I have found in a lot of people) that we have rights and government has duties is a statement smacking of sheer arrogance and is to a large extent suicidal for overall development. As responsible citizens we have to settle for nothing but excellence in our day to day activities. Be it turning to the polling booth in largest number or mainting our nation clean.

We, as a nation have immense potential- we just cant allow it degenerate into mediocrity If we want our corporates to compete with the Apples and Googles of the world or want our government to match our infrastructure to Shanghai or for that matter see our atheletes match up to the mettle of their western counterparts, only excellence in attitude would be the key. Chalta hai nahin chalega.