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Irani chai with Russian salad.

February 22nd, 2012 No comments »

This post deals with Iranian
tensions and today’s world that has become a playground of competing Union of
regions of the world.

The Chinese union, the
American union, the Russian the Indian unions and the European union. I guess
the way these unions are run is also representative of the interpersonal human
relationships. Like when we travel in a packed bus or a train we don’t seem to
account the difference between us, and religions, casts, communities, languages
etc don’t even cross our minds, because the primary objective is to reach the
destination. It seems that is what is keeping the Unions like the US going.

This side in the east it is
slightly different. We have unions of poverty. Poor are more generous then the
rich. A little money people start exploiting others, women are exploited for
what they have, children are exploited and men are exploited for property or
the potential to execute exploitation. And such people go back to the home
looking for the same thing they do to others. The rich cannot even tolerate their
own family. But for the poor there is no fear of loss and everything is for
everyone, I guess the Indian union is like that; we seem to get along with each
other because we are poor (needless to add I guess, our problem is in dealing
with prosperity not otherwise).  

Now going on to another
human relationship, I don’t mean to imply that the union of Europe is like that
relationship, even though it has a strange resemblance to it. The live-in
relationship where a young couple gets into it with a lot of enthusiasm and
soon the girl grows out of the early bash of youth, and then she thinks she
needs to give her partner time to grow up. But that would never happen, because
the more time she gives, he gets more comfortable with the time, and that
comfort zone become so dear to him that he starts philosophizing about it. And
then comes a time when he is ready to give up the relationship for his comfort,
and starts finding problems with the relationship and the girl. If the EU
wanted to get in to a Union they would have made a government (marriage).

So I don’t think a
government would ever happen in Europe under such mindsets. And I don’t think a
super Germany of the northern Europe is practicable. Politicians around the
world may say, ‘mind your own business’ but I think they are pushing the world
to another cold war and that’s everybody’s business. What I mean is that even the
US with the Iran tensions may claim nuclear fears, but I think they are pushing
China and Russia into closer cooperation in event of weakness in Europe.

Because no-one can belittle
the assent of north America in the hydrocarbon economy, the Shale gas and
hydrocarbon reserves recently increasing its importance not just for its quantity
but also the type of hydrocarbon seems important to take note of. When you have
long chain and complex Hydrocarbons coming out in form of a gas it is bound to
put pressure on refining business world wide and would pressure not just fuels
but also petrochemical and polymer industry. So where dose all this put Russia?
 

It seems to me that the attempts
to force India to change its traditional policy are a shortsighted and a casual
approach.              


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Kicking cans down the road.

December 14th, 2011 No comments »




I was reading the other day of a statement by one of IMF policymakers saying that the eurozone authorities had, in the familiar phrase, “kicked the can down the road so much” that by the time Ms Lagarde took over, “she had an awful lot of cans to deal with and not much road left”. But it seems kicking cans down the roads seems to be the favorite past times of leaders around the world, and for far too long. In India we have the same problem, they want to sell a bag of unrealistic expectations, to deal with them another day. And that day never comes; today what we are seeing is the same. In India they will not move towards a stronger political union, to reduce the scope of competitive ‘political expectation building’ in the states. But what is worst is that todays leaders are bent on kicking cans pushed by some of our early governments. They diluted the Nation by multysectoning it on linguistic grounds and today a couple of political organizations want to keep their monopoly on the national space.

In the Provincial governments, it has become a fashion to take the examples of Mr. Narendra Modi, or Nitish Kumar, or for that matter Ms Mayawati or Ms Mamata Banerjee on the social equality side. But no one says what our PM could have done if he was afforded the same capacity as a CM has in the state at the national level.

So I think our problems are more political than of economy. 

Because the PM has no room to cut deficit, we are living off our capital. It is like a family spending more than it earns, and has to sell off its assets bit by bit to survive. To me using revenue generated by selling assets of our collective inheritance in current account is a very bad idea. The money should go intact in form of assets to the generations of the future and not spend away by an irresponsible generation. It seems the states are pampered as they have all the powers, and if the central government points something, they start pointing fingers at the federal structure. I think what we lack is a common goal, and all of this is because the states don’t produce national political organizations but linguistic once, that have a very limited agenda.

 Without a meaningful national government, we cannot move towards economic viability.

The question of FDI is the same. The real problem for business environment is the cost of money and unequal opportunity to indigenous business. So the government wants to have a quick-fix to the problem by bringing in business who have lower cost of money and unequal opportunity against the indigenous business, instead of bringing level playing field.

If unequal competition of FDI was good, what was wrong with the British? They also brought FDI, state of the art governing skills, some of the most advanced cities, hill stations, communication, military equipments, one of the most advanced air force of its time, rails, roads, etc. Why did we push them out, if FDI is such a good thing? 

One would try and elaborate with the example of FDI in Retail. Our PM goes to China and admonishes them for the creation of a “ruling class” and takes a moral high ground. But comes back Home and embarks of on the creation of the same ruling class back home.

I mean it would not take rocket science to guess the real beneficiary of opening of retail. They say often these days that only the ruling class are hoarding large acres of fertile land, and they are also the ones who hold the keys to the low cost money to put new SMEs.  So it seems unlikely that the government has any intention to help the poor. Because in long-term, after the initial business experiments die out, a couple of corporations would hold the lions share in the large market of India. So a ruling class and corporate bureaucracy, what a winning combination, and if that is not enough, our government also intends to give the control of Energy, Banking, Insurance, and other sectors.

With time so many governments would change hands, so many managements would change hands. So is it a good idea to bring in a cartel of some open-door policy of the US and an evermore powerful ruling class (both of who would like to keep their influence come what may) together.

So my question again is what was wrong with the British? That all these nations would do backdoor lobbying and the British did it up-front, is that the difference?

It is common these days to compare India with China, but we often forget, both India and China have had different history. China’s proximity to the US is only natural, but for us, to ape them is it a good idea? I doubt.   

In todays geo-political environment, India has no scope but to manage itself better against what ever way Europe goes. Because no one knows in Europe, if it is a union in its infancy and it’s teething troubles or if the infant going to die. But if they break up, none of them are in the position to weather the headwinds of polarization between China and US, and may even be the end of the western dream, because the opening of consumption in China could be too big in that case. And if they stay together it is even worst news for India and our subcontinent, because the three powers US, Europe, and China, could be too big a combination.

So it seems to me that the geo-political drivers could have a huge influence in the way leadership in south Asia rallies together, and I have a good amount of hope that many of the political cans would be picked for collective good.

I was very impressed by some of the announcements by the BSP to throw its weight in the geography politics, and I won’t be surprised if they make big moves in to Andhra and North Karnataka in days to come, and become an influential force in the South due to geography politics. 

Because bringing back Madras Presidency seems to be the most viable solution to the Andhra deadlock, and long term good of the region. And although AIADMK has some unique advantages in Karnataka and TN. For the BSP, the TRS has already shown its inclination and besides BSP also has a good cast advantage in TN and a more likely alliance for AIADMK. And as BSP and BJP would have contrasting interests in Karnataka, I am sure both Congress and the BJP would be working with their own strategy for the South, and this kind of competition is only a win-win for the nation.

Any way I don’t know too much about politics, but by commonsense it seem that there could be a large scale re-making of maps of south Asia at surprising speed. Like for example, it is in best interest for the subcontinent to break its partitions, and surely Bangladesh would like to move quickly to procure a better bargain for themselves in the national politics.

I guess the biggest impediment for any Muslim majority region to come in to the union is our reservation policy. I don’t buy the argument that the armed forces of the two neighbors are some monsters preventing them from important decisions. Because by history these are professional forces and they will fit straight back from where they parted (as for the dictatorial past, it seems it is possible for any system to create power imbalance and then every constituent of power has its own point of view of what is important for the nation, we could also have imbalance if we get the power balance wrong but that’s besides the point in this post).

Looking at the fast pace of change one is optimistic, as most political organizations have taken steps and the political system has already moved towards making out reservation policy equal to all communities.

But the question that visits my mind again and again is that, is it enough to strengthen the Union? Or we need to do something more. The hint of this comes from Britain not going deeper in commitments to EU. It seems to give a feeling that most of the Commonwealth may be looking at working out a common trading block. But I guess the problem with Commonwealth is our colorblindness, we see only black and white like dogs. So to sum it all up one feels that, unless there is a QE3 we won’t be able to kick more cans, and  obviously India will have to get into a substantial trading block to pull itself safe in this world of US and the Chinese currency clashes, and Europe the way it is, may be we have awful lot of cans to deal with and not much road left for ourselves.

 

So to end this blog one would repeat a disclaimer as in my earlier post, that one does not claim to be an expert on any or the above topics, theses are just commonsense views of one of a common blog on the net.


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Is Socialism Anti-Business?

October 17th, 2011 No comments »

 The impression is not misplaced because of the notorious Robin hood image of socialism in the past, but today we see that discounting it outright has put the world face to face with more serious consequences, but irony is that no one wants to agree to it. 

When one has an opinions about the effect of organized retail on the natural ways of doing business in the society, it is thought to be a protectionist idea. And I would agree, parts of my opinion have touched upon the case study of Walmart effect on societies around the world, but have nothing against them. 

When today US is struggling to keep its people employed, where have all the jobs gone? 

Today half of the world is open to the great american dream, everyone wants to put-on a pair of jeans, every child wants a Disney toys to play with, but at the flip-side the people in a nation with the most advanced polymer industry and the best cotton in the world are struggling to keep employed. When President obama talked about Harley-diversion as a symbol of American culture during his visit to India, I had written that the President is living in the past, America has lost the capacity to produce such symbols anymore. I can be wrong but it seems the organized supply chains have taken away any  incentive to create at home, and are now selling to the world what was once the american creativity. Now there is nothing socialist or protectionist or what ever one may like to call, about this thought. I think the difference is as simple as that of a Genetically modified food and an organic food. Once upon a time GM was high tech but today organic is trendy, so both co-exist. I don’t know what is the difficulty in accepting this idea, why is it anti-capitalist? How can protecting culture and creativity and way of life of a society be anti-capitalist? The fact is that the competition and the cartel between supply chains has made peoples enterprise uncompetitive. And there is no anti-competition law that protects the small businesses.     

So the ball has been roiling between the Republicans and the Fed, and I don’t know if they have any answers. Although the Republicans are claiming small business (so many so much dependent on housing) can save jobs even in this environment, and the fed says it has tools. The government is reluctant to re-look its Visa policy and export some of the excess housing to aspirants in the developing world. Low cost tourism is not welcome, where are the answers? Or just as in India there are no good questions. 

Although unprecedented and courageous but the US government printed huge dosages of money, and all of it went abroad because the local economy had no capacity to absorb in the system. Temporarily the exporters got some benefit as such injections boosted the emerging markets. But where are the longterm solutions? Longterm solutions are in providing the society to show its creativity in all possible vocations, it is not the question of up-gradation but aptitude.   

I am not critical about Obama regime because he has foreign relations to defend, but it is in common good not anti China, and some debates for upcoming presidential elections, the civil-society and its Wall-Street assertions do have some of such pointed questions, but but they lack leadership and surely not enough. 

Any way the idea behind taking this discussion to Obama policies is not to be critical but to appreciate his foreign policy, as I have said earlier his Nobel peace prize is every dine deserved. And now his work on the Middle-east is unprecedented.  To the best of my knowledge of history, I have never come across any US president say to the Jewish community, that Modern Israel was build in response to the Holocaust. It seems important to bring down expectations on both sides rather than the world using the differences between the two communities. It seem what he actually meant by the above was that, had the British not colonized that part of Asia, the Jewish people would have lived in harmony as the community lives respectfully and in cooperation, all around the world. In India we have had one of the most revered and the oldest Jewish shrines and never in history has recorded difference with the community.

So I am  quiet appreciative of the Obama regime because on the other side by standing by the Jewish community on the curtail vote in the UN and emphasizing the need for bilateralism, they seem to have done a good job, and also equal to both south Asia and the Middle-east. 

I don’t know why India took a stand diagonally opposite to the US stand. If such is their stand one really doesn’t understand what is their thought process on Kashmir and what does the main opposition party think about it, because even they did not oppose the government on this. It is popular these days to talk about transparency in financial dealings, but I don’t know why it is not equally important to be transparent about the thought processes. I don’t understand why leaders of Asia want to take Asia backward in time. I don’t know what referendum brought the two Germanys together, I don’t know either Germany or France having any referendum on the EU. So why do the leaders in Asia intend to dilute legitimately elected governments and press confusion on set process of governance around the world. Why after having two world wars and one cold war and a history of disagreements Europe can think of having a central bank and our subcontinent is struggling with a partition decades after the event. How can there be a solution to pressing problems till all problems are seen as India-Pak problems, and as the world deals with the Palestine problem, a similar one is waiting to happen with the Hindu-Sikh and Buddhist minority in some where, and threatens peace in the region, so the solutions are not outside. People talk of shortcut solutions like autonomy etc, but as is the experience of Europe, there is no economic union without the political union, Europe is struggling with the idea that our founding fathers had already thought of, and that is why we have our Constitution. So by that idea, it seems no region can be above the Union, if new regions intend to join the Union, they get the same and equal treatment. So where are the solutions? I don’t see any quick fix. I think the best bargain is that we do away with the partitions in the east and the west and give a common currency, common market, and a common union a good try, besides there are other social advantages to this kind of union that I have discussed earlier in other blogs. 

And that brings us to the problem of the present political environment. The idea of removing the partitation seems so inconceivable and so idealistic, that it seems almost impossible. So is it a problem? I guess the problem is that once upon a time it was possible for any national leader to get elected from any constituency in the country. Today all that is a thing of the past. Today hardly few political leaders can call themselves national leaders. A national leader is a one who can be elected from any constituency in the country and there are a very few today. 

But this can change if only the political leaders across party lines could unite to give the people of south India a united Deccan state, if in case they intend to conceed the demand of Telangana. Because once they cross the threshold, things will never be the same again, as it had happened in the first place with the formation of Andhra. They are faced with a historic choice as dramatic as the choice before the Seventh amendment. On one side is formation of states on every possible polarity from this point on, and the other side is a constructive, nationalistic politics, where religion and casts and languages would play a peripheral role and not the central role, I think it would be best if they undo the seventh amendment and leave the choice open for the people to define their own way forward, because I am sure every political party would like to take the first-movers advantage on it, and that is the best thing that could happen. 

I think in politics every issue is related and it is important to understand the intricate nature of this connection, I think corruption and present political system are closely related, even ideas like Right to recall and reject are related to it. I will try and explain how, if some young doctor goes back to his village and wants to serve his people, the people decide he should stand for election, but they find their seat has been reserved and this doctor can’t contest. Now even if the village reject all the candidates they cannot get the candidate that they want. So first is the right to choice of candidate(2009/05/19— Women Power), then reject or recall.         

 So let me come back to the topic of this discussion, is Socialism Anti-Business? some people say that by opposing organized retailers we are going back to seventies socialist movement, they say we should forget twenty percent of our population employed in the unorganized sector, and look at the sixty-five percent employed in the agriculture, what they don’t say is that in a business where the scale is everything they would be actually competing with a large section of small farmers who would not aligned with them, for recourse, farm-labor, pricing, scale etc. They talk about SMEs but they would out smart the existing supply chains of home grown retail by challenging cluster SMEs, and existing supply chains would have to compete with their Terms Of Engagement (so they will choose their competition and cartel), what will it do to the clusters and the banks who have stake in such clusters. The China model cannot be repeated in India the global market does not have much appetite for such model any more. So what is the bargain? So by having such discussions we are not going back to seventies but preventing that from happening a few years from now. Socialism does not need to be Anti-Business, for example, people had apprehensions about the proposed ‘land acquisition and rehabilitation and resettlement bill’ but now as the world is in trouble and banks find their wealth protected because of possible reduction of supply, we have a lot of agreement to the bill. I think at the back of our minds we all understand that we cannot even imagine what inclusive growth can bring to us in the long-run. 

The purpose why I covered politics, foreign policy, and economic policy was to picture out a security environment that our leaders are pushing us into. It is important to understand that, it is not just Karnataka and Maharashtra who would face the heat of the formation of Telangana, but every state, and specially in Maharashtra it cannot end with Vidarbha, and the ownership of Mumbai could be a very painful thing. So the turmoil around the country in the next decade could be very painful. And along with it imagine if they wish to reintroduce a kind of Zamindari system, take away freedom of enterprise, land for development, and other domestic and international issues what kind of security environment we are looking for. And it is good we are talking about corruption and we need to deal with the issue, but by diverting from pressing problems, how do we enforce a law if there are undemocratic governments and mayhem on the street.

  

  So in my opinion Socialism is not Anti-Business, but could be a holistic view of the socity, any way I think I should end this post with a sort of disclaimer, as I am seeing much criticism to my views. And that is one dosent claim to be intelligent or to know too much about any of the subjects discussed above and these are my personal views. 


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Right to cultivation.

September 11th, 2011 No comments »

The idea of this post
revolves around ‘The national Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and
Resettlement bill (LEHR)’, one was encouraged with it, because it looks like a
serious attempt by the government to do something without the persuasion of a
lobbyist groups. And also because of some coincidence, many of the concerns
pointed out by my post ‘100% off. Socialism for sale’. (June 9th, 2009) did
find a place in the bill. But there is much more in the intent and the idea of
that blog that one would discuss in this post. But there are a few things that
are bothering me for a past few days and would wish to pen them down before
moving to the topic.

 

The Omar Abdullah tweets, TN assembly
resolution about Rajiv Killers, I was just wondering what the Soldiers
and the general public must have been thinking about all this. The families of
the Soldiers who lost lives in such operations must be feeling so very bad
about all these media games that politicians play. Sad isn’t it?

But at the flip side of it is the
question visiting me time and again, can the politician really be blamed for
this opportunist politics?    

And then comes another question of corruption,
when all of us talk about the astronomical levels of corruptions in the
political system.

Can the politician really be
blamed for it?

Simplistically yes, but if
observed closely.

The problem is that the system is
in such a fix that no one has the courage to bell the cat.

Both the Politicians and the
Lobbyists seem to take the public attention away from the real issue, and no
one is interested in making the change that the subcontinent is buried in. The
politician will not do it because they have committed themselves to the divide
and the Lobbyists will not do it because there is no glory in it (often social
lobbyists are said to bend for UN or Western Appreciation charters.
Incidentally it also makes the case for dismantling the UN for a pluralistic
and transparent world body). But I have a fervent belief that UN or no UN,
eastern politician or the western, bomb-blasts or terrorist attacks the
partitions of languages and religions that have colonized the subcontinent
harboring corruption have reached a peak, and the moment the civil society and
the political system picks up the pen, it will have to go.  

Anyway, jumping out of the box
from the Politician and the Lobbyists rhetoric.

Both questions, the TN assembly resolution
on Rajiv Killers, and the astronomical levels of corruptions seem to
have the same origins, The seventh amendment to the Constitution of linguistic divide.

 Imagine when we ridicule politicians in Maharashtra, Tamil
Nadu or other places for their linguistic politics. Are they really responsible
for the linguistic divide?

They didn’t start it.

They seemed happy with Madras
Presidency or the Bombay Presidency, and till that time all languages in India
were equal (some thing that has to be larded about the British Administration,
and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s constitution).

Then how did this division based
on languages come into existence? I think with the seventh amendment the
Congress conveniently agreed to the demand on lingual divide with an idea of
inventing Hindi vote-bank politics. But what is the result in long-term?

History has it; that the Hindi
language was born in the interaction of the east, west, north, south with and
against the Moguls. It is not an alien language, its a creation of our own
history.

So why today Hindi language is thought to be a culturally invading
force on non-Hindi parts of India?

Now just for an example, down
south the Hindi-Tamil divide is on the premise of the hypothesis of some stupid
western historian about Devnagri Vs Tamil (Aryan Vs Dravid), but deliberately
concealed is the fact that Devnagri was extinct in India even as early as Asoka
and was re-exported from south during Maratha expeditions, so where is the
divide, who are Aryans and Dravids. I think we have to be suspicious about
doctored history hypotheses.

The real problem between
languages is that we have long been in a stage where there is no space in
national politics for a National party (national commonality Vs regional
polarity). Both Congress and the BJP survive because of religion. And because
they have no real space they try to force themselves with high cost of
propaganda, purchasing power and divisive power and the Lingual opposition has
to shout even louder and keep collecting even more money to protect their own
territory and keep sufficient monetary reserves in case of a political poaching
by some other party. So a system without room for leadership (power-bubbles) is
the mother of all corruption in India (needless to say what
is keeping our brethren in Pakistan and Bangladesh).

But corruption or otherwise, in
my opinion even for what happened in the TN assembly could have never happened had the
CM been heading a united southern state. And same is the answer for the
corruption as well, if there was space for national parties, we would have had
national parties from the south and north, east and west.  And with a level playing field, you
don’t need much propaganda for a good candidate, do you?   

Until the civil society workers and political
workers show leadership to make political competition constructive and
creative, we cannot find escape velocity out of our corruption or opportunist
politics mess.   

 

So going back to topic of this
post on the
national Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement bill (LEHR). It
seems like a good idea.

Opposition to the bill also has a
point, but we have to trust the market forces to set things straight. Market
price is a very dependent term, and if both the public and the privet land
acquisitions work on the same yardstick, instead of competing with each other,
the market value is nothing to worry about. Because the proposed legislation
only talks about giving the benefits of the sale through a prolonged period of
time, but going beyond the opposition or the merits of the proposed
legislation, and touching upon the idea of rehabilitation.

What is rehabilitation all about?
It is giving someone a reason to relocate, but also at the same time not making
them refugees that would happen in a hostile relocation in case of war,
calamity, etc.

But just like, as in India we
have a parallel economy of black money there is a parallel economy of
displacing poor people and making them refugees on their own land, and people
hoarding land without any program for optimum use are to blame for it, because
such hoarding cannot create jobs nor produce a harvest to reduce inflation.

 

So along with this kind of
legislation it would be desirable to bring in several other efforts to put
villages into cooperative society for collective farming and collective leasing
of land. All land owned by a village be treated as the sovereign property of
the village, and the village community should benefits from every sale purchase
or land-use of such collective ownership (discouraging migration, reducing risk
to micro finance industry).

But paramount is the fact that any land should be utilized to its
optimum productivity, if not in use (privet or government) land should as legislation,
be leased for cultivation or other land use till the land-owner (small or big)
finds use for it. It is the problem of land hoarding that has to be dealt with
for the benefit of the community around the land and for food security of the
nation. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that today, more than seventy
percent of cultivable land is not in use because of land hoarding. Our forests
are getting depleted because villagers and businessmen want to own land but not
use it. And if there is a legislation to make cultivation or leasing for
cultivation mandatory, it could go a long way in addressing many problems
(including inflation, migration, swelling cities, shrinking resources,
shrinking forests, etc). Now as this post has become yawning long, maybe one
would continue with the topic in ‘Right to cultivation part (II)’.


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Killing The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs

August 31st, 2011 No comments »

Killing The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs is among the best known of Aesop’s Fables and use of the phrase has become idiomatic of an unprofitable action motivated by greed.

A cottager and his wife had a Hen that laid a golden egg every day. They supposed that the Hen must contain a great lump of gold in its inside, and in order to get the gold they killed it. Having done so, they found to their surprise that the Hen differed in no respect from their other hens. The foolish pair, thus hoping to become rich all at once, deprived themselves of the gain of which they were assured day by day. (Wikipedia)


Before I go to the goose, let me quickly reflect my opinion on the current-events that took the nation by storm (not so much of a surprise on my blog). It has only filled me with more appreciation for the Government, Opposition, Media, and the Lobbying group. 

 Talking about the Lobbying group affectionately called by the Media as ‘Team Anna’ for the towering contribution by Shri Anna. It is encouraging because of the new leadership on the horizon. 


Leadership because as the PM said in the parliament, describing his twenty years of contribution to the nation as a part of the government. Surly enough, India has come a long way. From near bankruptcy to what we are today. But what is amazing is from our independence we have come, from twenty years life expectancy of an average Indian before independence to sixty years today, from frequent famines before independence to public distribution of today. The Parliamentary democracy in India has done a very good job. But at the same, corruption has been a growing impediment where we are now at a stage where we have a choice of going back to dependence or an absolute free for all, and it calls for leadership. 

 

The Lok Pall bill is thought to be a magic want to remove corruption. One is not an expert on it, but as a survey (so called referendum) was conducted by the lobbyists, I guess they don’t need experts and so I guess one can also comment on it. 

Personally to my mind Linguistic distribution of sates was a process of creating power bubbles, making the national parliament almost as an imperial predator of power of the states. Now we plan to impose another power bubble on the system, opening doors for even more and bitter center-state conflicts, business interests able to batter each other and the government, and so on. Personally I liked the idea of a constitutional body but with the provisions recommended by Aruna Roy version of distributing power.

Any way lets move on to The Goose with the Golden Egg.

Many people are now talking about opening up retail and distribution and how by removing middlemen and traders the economy will flourish, I don’t completely agree with it. 

I am of the opinion that the naturally grown channels of distribution are an efficient tool of keeping money circulation in the economy, instead of it showing on the balance-sheet of some corporation on the Wall Street.

Today when we are talking about a resilient Indian economy and that it is an internal consumption story. How is this consumption growing? it is because the economy is able to absorb money better due to the naturally developed channels. 

But now if someone tells me, cut the middle-men cut unorganized retailing and unorganized distribution.In my opinion they are talking about cutting The Goose with the Golden Egg. 

One would go on to an extent that, if the Europe and the US want to find ways to have a sustainable and insulated model of employment of its people, they will have to look for the naturally developed models of distribution and retail, but I am afraid such channels are almost extinct, to a level of non-option. So I have my own doubts to if we in India have learned anything from them.


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Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea-III.

August 19th, 2011 No comments »


One is sympathetic for the PMs and his catch-22
situation, where on one side is this huge public awakening wherin the civil
society leaders get the credit of the work, but if the amendments go wrong, the
posterity blames the PM for not doing what he was elected to do. As the
congress is often blamed for so many things (Partition, linguistic byes, civil
nuclear deal and so on) but there is answerability in this blame game, because
we can at least blame some one and expect them to improve.

Civil society tomorrow would be back to its
elements, they are not going back to the people to seek election every five years, so
who is answerable? So what ever may be the pressures of the Civil society the
ultimate responsibility is in the Parliament only.

On the other side is this huge public outrage
that has developed over years of facelessness, the same answerability that the
people are looking for, is just not there, the compelling limitations that the
PM is very telling, he has often remarked about week federal
structure giving no room for his leadership in the states, coalition politics
obstructing his work and so on.

 

And these are the very reforms that they have been
sitting on.

Making smaller states in UP that even the BSP
has committed, situation in Telengana, the land reforms, the process of
removing the partition between India, Pakistan, Bangladesh (into one single
Nation). Are the areas where leadership is required but the political system
will just not appreciate it, till someone else in the society takes up the
crusade and they are outdone.

The concerns of the political system are
understandable but they have themselves to blame. And they should thank the
civil society for doing what they should be doing, and more importantly
providing a peaceful exit for the stored-up emotions of the people against the
political system.

 

When today the people in politics are blaming
the external forces for the humbug at home, it seems for one finger they are
pointing three fingers are pointing to themselves. The meaningful political
decisions that can really make a difference in the lives of the people, they
will not take. And sit till some lobbyist makes news for them.

For the US that they are blaming, there is a lot
at stake in India, the PSU disinvestments in India, everyone wants strategic stake in them, to
influence policy,to influence industry and to influence competition. They want a
monopoly amongst other sectors on the energy sector in production and
distribution(for themselves and the partners), they want Indian armed forces to
get dependent on their weapons industry and so on. And a new government is always
better to deal with, and an unstable government is even better. But most of all,
such types of movements are more for the benefit of our neighbors (copycat
movements) then smaller goals in India.

But I don’t see any of the members in this present Civil Society leadership
of such background (and if the government has inputs on it, they should make it
public). And any-witch-ways if the congress party is serious about making
meaningful changes to the politics in India, they have to do what is not in the
interest of the same foreign forces they are blaming, that is break the
partitions and barriers in the subcontinent and make life better for the people
of the subcontinent.


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From politics to science, agreeing to disagree.

August 16th, 2011 No comments »


Inkeeping with the title if one would start with politics and especially from the politics in Europe, the two are closely linked (politics and science), always were. Hitler for example promoted science n technology to an extreme and even today the free and united Europe is reaping benefits of that revolution. Only difference from then and today is that Europe has lost the balance between science and technology (more of science less n less of technology). But we would come to this opinion of mine in just a bit.


Staying with the politics it seems, what was wrong with Hitler was that people around him were in uniforms and they could not say the word ‘no’. So by that analogy only free people can say no. And only people with the power to stay with the voice of the conscience can say this two-letter word in pressing dilemma.


Now I am not signally pointing to what is going on in Gujarat. It goes without saying that Gujarat is exceptionally lucky to have the present CM after a period of total lack of leadership. And the development and achievements of last few years are exceptional and worthy of appreciation. But crimes against Humanity are a different matter; if the allegations against the CM are true then he has built his carrier on the pain and helplessness of his own people. I recall the three days of absolute horror in Maninagar (Ahmedabad), in Gujarat during Godra riots (I happened to be there) and how after three days the Army came and it was forced to conduct flag march in Garbage trucks. It is up to the people in the thick of it to decide, because professionalism in police and armed forces is a highly personal thing.


But what about the people? I am of the opinion that if during the partition of India, had the people of India decided that it was a stupid idea, and we don’t agree to the two-nation theory. It would have sounded like mutiny but the partition would have never happened.

And so I see nothing wrong with the movement started by the civil society, and at the same, it is very wrong of the government to obstruct in their protests, because it is a fundamental ownership of the people. So much that if the civil society during the partition had realized, the subcontinent would have never been divided.

Even if today the people of this country decide that we will dissolve the partition. No uniform, no politics, no obstruction can come in the way. If the people of the country decide that language and cast biases cannot be the dividing factor of federal distribution of administration in this country, it cannot continue. 


So why doesn’t it happen?   

I think the media has been very professional in exposing this, how much does it take for a lobbyist to make a politician ask a question in the parliament is all in the public domain. Corruption at this astronomic proportion did not reach over night; it was pushed. The linguistic byes started in Andhra, but since then how mush has changed in this country, two assassinations (said to be international conspiracies), instability, complete dearth of leadership, vision, not of just economic betterment but bridging gaps in the society instead of taking advantage of divisions. This has led to the total break down of moral and led to opportunism, and total and a complete weakening of the nation, so much that today we find it difficult to stand straight. And now if a few agencies in the west make selective leeks about all the money stalked abroad in this process, I have my own doubts about buying the idea on the face of it.

So in my opinion a crusade against corruption is good and a welcome movement, but are like treating the effect and not the cause. So from this it has to go to a different level. And both the civil society and the government have to form a coalition to make a lasting change.

And it is the same in Europe, every one is blaming the politicians for the mess that Europe is in, but no one points figures at the academicians who have taken the place of some high-priests of some bygone times. Because until Europe makes fundamental changes in the way it thinks, where is the hope?


What I mean is, for example Stephen Hawking comes with a theory and everyone claps and thinks science as god, Susskind overturns his theory twenty-five years later still everyone claps and thinks Science to be some god (by the way, I also subscribe to Susskind’s opposition to Hawkins, and agree that Professor Susskind is in US).


But what about Cern (The European Organization for Nuclear Research)? How can the String theories and M-theory justify use of public money to the tune of billions and billions of dollars, and the public has no objection to it. I think the civil society should tell the government to invest equal amount in technology so that jobs get more profitable. Germany has been able to invest in technology equally as science but what about the others? The economic mess in the world today has more to do with the lack of leadership both from the political side and from the civil society side, the inability to disagree, the ability to say the word NO. is at the backbone of most problems. One only hopes that civil society across the world be able oppose the governments for valid points and the governments are able to appreciate such oppositions for long-term good.


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Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (Part II)

July 6th, 2011 No comments »


Andhra Pradesh has always been a trendsetter historically. During the Moguls it was the Riyasat in Telangana that gave the Mogul empire an all India presence, before that Mogul empire was a just a north Indian political force. 


Even for the Marathas, after the demise of the two sons of Chhatrapati Shivaji, and loss of almost all its territory to the Moguls, the brave Maharani Tarabai came back from the ashes due a Telangana uprising against the Nizam.  


Andhra also holds the distinction of being the birthplace for the demand for   Seventh Amendment act, 1956. of the linguistic byes to restrictor Indian States. 

And now as the political process asks for separate state of Telangana, dissolving Andhra Pradesh its it is both a happy and a sad thing; Happy, because the birthplace of the linguistic division is also becoming its graveyard, and sad because free India is inventing newer ways of dividing its people.

In the recent past the linguistic byes of India has been the backbone of most of the problems in India. If today the world complains about India’s indecisiveness as against any other nation in the world, it is a very real problem. So much so that even after having a gem of a Prime Minister we are not able to deliver, and he always complaints about coalition politics and state v/s center problems. The inability of any national party to muster absolute majority and such an idea looking like history is a testament to this fact. We have bought ten horses and tied them all in different directions, and now we expect the chariot to move in one direction. It’s not possible. Until we rectify the problem we will never grow out of it. 

Having said that one does not agree that the answer to a problem can be making of more problems. Creation of Telangana is a legitimate aspiration and I don’t support or oppose it, but in my opinion the problem is in The Constitutions “Seventh Amendment” act, 1956. 

I don’t know if one day the Lokpal will also have to take up the role of the protector of the constitution in its intention and spirit from thoughtless amendments, because the political system is unable to do that. 

And as we have come to the topic of the Lokpal, I don’t agree to some political leaders that the people pushing for a different version of the lokpal draft have no mandate, because if it is so, then why is the government of the day so afraid of them? They can simply ignore someone on fast as they do for so many baseless demands. Its not the fast they are worried about, it is the public support to the cause they are appreciating. 

It seem the so-called civil society group have the mandate that the political system of the day has lost. People don’t have any trust in the political system of today.

I think this is because ruling or opposing they only ask for vote based on divisions in the society, (vote because you are or not a Hindu, and then vote because you speak a language or don’t speak a language, if that is not enough the cast system) so when the people unit for any cause political system of the day loses its mandate. All political parties claim they were raising the issue of corruption before the civil group got together. So the question is, then why did the people not take them seriously? And why a non-political entity has runaway with their initiative?     

A decade before the Second World War, psychiatrists in Germany had predicted possibility of the public mindset throwing a dictator of monstrous proportion, and today they are saying much for India, of a possibility of a sporadic revolution like the type of the French Revolution.    

One does not agree with the Villain image given to some political personality for taking a decision or not taking a decision because the problem is in the system. And every one is suffering because of it. But the problem is that no one wants to fix the problem.  


People of today are fed-up seeing a total jungle-raj in the name of democracy, the political system of the day is harboring every goon and grabber and making them rich, and the leaders of such people are seen looting the nations wealth and hoarding in the western banks, the police is helpless, the judiciary is frustrated with both the police and the politicians, government employs close to the same system get rich. And all this not because the political system does not want to deliver, but because they cannot deliver. In my opinion the political executive are trapped as much as the people, so and such that an upright person like the Prime Minister has to complain about compulsions of coalition politics and the compulsions of a loose and powerless federal system of the day. 

All this can only change if we are able to do away with the “Seventh Amendment” we can never have a National perspective if the nation is diluted. And what is a nation without a government. 


This post does not disparage or glorifies the demand for a separate state of Telangana, dissolving Andhra Pradesh, but speaks about the distress amongst the people because of a mistake in the past with a controversial amendment, the Seventh Amendment act, 1956.  Made against the spirit of the Constitution of India, and a concern for such amendments. 


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Devil n the deep sea

June 23rd, 2011 No comments »

 There is a story about the great singer, the late Bade Ghulam ali Khan, he was a person of liberated thought (above any religion) and was known to be a very charitable person. After the partition he went to Pakistan but as people objected to his singing about Hindu gods, he came back to India. In the process lost all his money. Some of the lovers of his art collected money for him, but the same day someone came to him talking about his pain; Bade Ghulam ali Khan in his generosity gave all that he had to the man in pain.

This subcontinent is full of examples of such great people, but even more of the respect between two religions and their peaceful coexistence. 

Extreme ideas have always been a constant nag. But people have  coexisted for centuries with good warmth and goodwill. 

It is said that the British administration coming from the crusade culture of the west highlighted the disagreements between the two religions to create a permanent divide.

The modern day politics has only made use of such polarization, with one trying to discomfort the other pole and political establishments making the best of such divide, and each blaming the other for this dirty game. 

It is the same for other forms of polarization of the people in the name of languages, casts and origins. 

So if someone says that they are the legitimate representation of the democratic representation of the people. it may not be all that true, because they only represent a population divided into poles of disagreements. 

And it would be wrong to disparage the genuine discomfort of the people with the system (that has created a ruling class of divides). 

Our people are often seen looking down up on China, as promoting a ruling class phenomenon. But we are as bad. In our own country people associated with Politics and Power are always  better-off than anyone else in the subcontinent. And our politics is all about divides amongst people. and that is the backbone of the corruption too. Because without any legitimate logic for politics, politicians are bent upon buying different pole representatives to bring a majority. 

so in the present-day context of a movement to cap corruption, I don’t think Political establishment can discount the general discomfort of the people (because if suppressed for too long it would represent violently). 

And if someone is able to provide leadership to general popular perception in a peaceful and meaningful negotiation, it is a vey big opportunity to take meaningful steps.

However I personally don’t agree that shortcuts like the Loakpal bill can change the system (however it is a good step).

Because the reason for widespread corruption is not absence of laws but pressures of todays Political system and a complicated legal system.


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empire strikes back

April 5th, 2011 No comments »

ek din sab laal ho jayega !’ history has it that the great Maharaja Ranjeet Singh on being shown a map marked with red for British possessions in India said, ek din sab laal ho jayega !’ meaning one day they will cover all of India.
So what is the relevance of such history with this post? I think in our subcontinent we have a habit of repeating history. It is like a story of a parrot that was thought ‘if you see a hunter, just fly away’. and kept on repeating it so much that one day when the hunter captured the bird it was still repeating “if you see a hunter, just fly away”….. I guess we Indians are so good at mugging up our lessons and vomiting all of it in our answer papers mindlessly during our exams, this habit has made us parrots even about our own history. I think it is very true about at least, (as the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh refers) “Ruling Class”.
The other day I was reading the article on rediff by Jeremy R Hammond ‘The CIA does not want Dawood in Indian hands’. http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/dec/22mumterror-why-the-cia-does-not-want-dawood-in-indian-hands.htm, it explores the intricate nature of CIA’s involvement in India and the one of the most feared gangsters in India. And now when political people and business people are said to be obliged and bought out by the same dreaded Gangster (what Jeremy R Hammond article would suggest bought out directly or indirectly by the CIA). It reminds me of the history of the British colonization of India.
What is worst is that, as the wikileaks expositions suggest, it is a twister grip on south Asia. On one side they are buying out south Asia through such shady channels on the other side they are working overtime to get a place in the mainstream diplomatic associations with South Asia.
And so the danger is not just becoming the Nuclear dustbin of the world, consuming aged technology, and nuclear waste, but a nation with total dependence in this episode of our very own ‘empire strikes back’.


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