Rahul Writes

Indian democracy becomes a joke when we talk about equality of all castes and religions. What our politicians actually practice is “vote bank politics”. Any group, be it a caste, religion, or gang, can demand and get anything and everything, if they are united and ready to “vote en mass” for or against any political party or leader. Caste based reservations, or popularly called Quota, are an example of this.  

Caste based reservations were devised to benefit the poor. The rich, no matter belonging to which caste, are always protected in this world which runs on money. But just like the rich among all castes are basically “rich by caste” - they are another group altogether, their lobbying has resulted in a lot of manipulation of original policies to benefit the rich at the cost of the poor. Creamy layer was a system devised to counter this practice.  

Creamy layer system was created to pull out the rich and powerful people among the reserved castes, so that the actually deserving candidates who were very poor, could benefit. So far the limit was Rs 4.5 Lakh per annum, which itself was very high given the socio-economic condition prevailing in India. But now, our super efficient government (check which political party is in power) has raised this limit to Rs 12 Lakh p.a. in metro cities and Rs 9 Lakh p.a. in non-metros! 

Here is the news: 

OBC creamy layer ceiling raised 

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/obc-creamy-layer-ceiling-raised/articleshow/10762780.cms  

Another shocking reality is the timing of this decision. While the nation is busy fighting corruption and media highlight is on other issues, from the backdoor they have passed this rule thereby benefiting the rich and powerful among the OBC castes!  

In my opinion, caste-based reservations are totally against our democracy and it mocks the principles of equality which our constitution assures to provide. I believe any right minded Indian would oppose the systems like discrimination based on castes, which indeed this Quota system is!  

Long live our democracy! Let us remove all caste-based reservations and schemes! Let the poor come up and prosper!  

Taken from: http://myview-counts.blogspot.com/2011/11/obc-creamy-layer-ceiling-raised-to-rs.html

Mamata Banerjee has been called ‘Railway Minister for West Bengal’, because of her ‘Rail Budgets’ showered disproportionately higher largesse on her home state West Bengal alone. In 2009-10 budget, she started 19 new trains for WB alone, shifted some proposed factories from Bihar to WB (revenge on Lalu Prasad), and also announced a mega power plant for the state – schemes for other states were muted. In 2010-11, it got better: 40 out of 99 new trains were announced for Bengal alone in the Rail Budget! In fact her intentions were made clear in a few days after she became the Rail Minister – she shifted the Railway Ministry itself, from New Delhi to Kolkata! This was done in order to enable her to give her proper time and attention to the upcoming state assembly elections in WB!  

Now somewhere her recklessness had to bite us. And it not only bit us, but also killed, injured and mutilated us. If not to all of us; then to a lot of us for sure. Read this statistic:  

Mamata’s track record in Railways: 14 major railway accidents claiming over 700 lives in the past 2 years.  

Read detailed analysis here: http://tinyurl.com/3e5q93a It comments on other grave issues like impact on Railway’s profitability due to her political moves, to count as one.  

Now some people said that a large part of these accidents and deaths were the results of Naxal attacks, which were also a responsibility of the state govt. Hence Mamata should not be held responsible for this pathetic performance. Here is my reply:  

Only Gyaneshwari Express was a major Naxal attack. And even in that, the actual casualty happened when a goods train came and collided with the derailed passenger train. Naxals didn’t want to kill people - they had only derailed it. They didn’t know that the driver of goods train would be blind, or any rescue for the derailed train would be lame. In any case 170 dead in Gyaneshwari still leaves a mammoth 530 to be counted for other accidents. And I am not counting accidents without any deaths yet; or the injuries, or the minor rail accidents.  

Just view this page; a mere glance tells something horribly wrong went under her period. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_rail_incidents  

Railways was never her “priority”. It was her mere “means” to get power in Kolkata. She never counted the dead and injured, all she counted was the new trains she started for West Bengal. And we had to bear the consequences for her “priority mismatch”…  

Thank God that she won the West Bengal elections. Let us hope the new Rail Minister has some wider vision. 

- Rahul

If you search Google with “Keralite mafia”, my blog post would appear on the second from the top! (as on 12 April 2011) 

Here is the search:  

http://www.google.co.in/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=keralite+mafia&aq=f&aqi=g3g-m1&aql=&oq= 

And here is my blog post:  

http://blogs.rediff.com/rahulwrites/2011/03/16/keralite-mafia-or-nexus-is-there-something-hidden-from-the-public/

All governments keep some pretty little secrets which never come out in the public domain. These are sacred secrets. Those who try to infringe on these, are made to go in the oblivion without any news reports covering them. It is pretty common like this, in most parts of the world. But such schemes were never threatened in the way they are being made so thanks to the Wiki Leaks and one brave man called Julian Paul Assange.  

Recently, WikiLeaks has made a very important revelation which raises the curtains from over the way govt of India works. Here is what the Telegraph India writes in its news title “CPM smirks at US pressure ‘leaks’”.  

A cable the US embassy sent to Washington in 2005 described M.K. Narayanan’s appointment as national security adviser as an addition to the “Keralite mafia” in the PMO. Narayanan is now Bengal governor. 

“Along with principal secretary T.K.A. Nair, Narayanan constitutes what is now a Keralite ‘mafia’ in the PMO,” the cable said. 

It added: “In a bureaucratic culture dominated by north Indian Hindi speakers, this Keralite lock on the PM’s inner bureaucratic circle represents something of an anomaly, which could in the long term create new fault lines around the Prime Minister.” 

The controversy over the appointment of chief vigilance commissioner P.J. Thomas, who too is from Kerala, has had many in government circles talking about how some of India’s top bureaucrats, particularly in the PMO, are from Kerala. 

Among the Keralites in the PMO are current national security adviser Shiv Shankar Menon and additional secretary R. Gopalakrishnan. The other senior bureaucrats from the southern state include foreign secretary Nirupama Rao and home secretary G.K. Pillai.http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110316/jsp/nation/story_13722264.jsp  

Also read: Narayanan plays down Wikileaks revelations: ET http://tinyurl.com/6kgva5k and I’ve nothing to say: Narayanan: TheHindu: http://tinyurl.com/6b355vf  

In a way these revelations are not new to the political analysts. It has long been observed how Keralites were given priority in key roles in governments. To some extent I think it was happening because of the very talent, skills and character which Keralites brought on the board. Even though it is a generalization, but Keralites are always appreciated for their professionalism, and unbiased nature on most of the politically sensitive issues, apart from being intelligent and headstrong. But things as it seems didn’t remain unadulterated for long. When you generalize or label one particular group with some quality, the worst among the lot take advantage of the labeling to get some selfish motives fulfilled. As it happened in the case of CVC Mr. Thomas, on which Dr. Singh relied without even slightest doubts, all leading to his own humiliation by the Supreme Court (also remember my blog post challenging Kerala IAS Association of supporting tainted CVC Mr. Thomas all as a display of regional chauvinism and bias). If people are granted critical positions on the basis of something other than pure merit, the system degrades.  

So the the US embassy’s observations indeed hold water. In my opinion there is no doubt on that. But I am actually worried if India and Indian media would miss the case because of the provocative title given to the lot: “Keralite Mafia”. (Reminds me of ‘Italian’ Mafia). Even the true mafia doesn’t want to call them a mafia, and to call someone so is now almost politically incorrect. So if the embassy chose some other term to describe the phenomenon, may be a nexus, group, or whatever – it would have made a stronger case to shake the polit-circles. (But in personal communications, which never imagine to be made out in the open by WikiLeaks, we are bound to be ‘honest’ and choose whatever fits our thinking better.)  

Many of us were not happy when Congress had won the last state election in Maharashtra even after all had happened before, during and after 26/11. Terror attack was not a single issue, the issues ranged from farmers’ suicides to all round corruption. In the citizens cry after 26/11 attacks, the party only replaced the CM to show to the hapless public that it had acted against the ineffective CM. But Vilasrao was made a union minister, as if being rewarded for the inaction and corruption. Today, a Supreme Court judge had the guts to tell the truth to the whole world. I hope Congress supporters are reading this:  

Vilasrao’s cabinet post a shameless act: SC judge 

TNN, Feb 7, 2011, 03.29am IST 

Supreme Court Justice A K Ganguly has expressed dismay that the Centre allowed Union cabinet minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to continue “in full glory” despite being slammed by the SC barely two months ago for grossly abusing his power as Maharashtra chief minister to shield from criminal action a moneylender family which was squeezing debt ridden farmers of Vidarbha dry. 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Why-is-Vilasrao-Deshmukh-still-a-minister/articleshow/7440199.cms

Wikileaks did a great harm to the image of Rahul Gandhi, the crown prince from “the dynasty” in India. He would never have imagined that his letter to the US Ambassador would be made public, where he said that Hindu extremism was a bigger threat to India than the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) or Islamic terrorism. The fact that he was saying all this not to any other elections but to a foreign nation like US of A, made the matter worse. The diplomatic and long term repercussions of his irresponsible communication, which many believe is Congressi propaganda against right wing parties, were to be immense. But such revelations also put a question mark on his ‘ability’ to become a Prime Minister of India, where 80% population is ‘non-minority’.  

Watching the political scene from soon after these exposures/leaks, I can see another clear line shaping up. One ‘Swami’ Aseemanand has been caught and he is said to be making confessions to own up all possible terror attacks that happened in India, starting from his date of birth onwards. He is said to have made bombs to blast trains, all in rupees 25,000 each. And as main conspirators, he is naming dead persons. Remember that for the same Samjhauta express blasts, the SIMI had owned up responsibility. Official statement reads: “The Samjhauta blasts were carried out with the help of activists of SIMI with the help of Pakistani nationals who had come to the country from across the border.” - Safdar Nagori, chief of the SIMI Nagori faction. And now, out of heaven, a ‘Swami’ (this needs to be highlighted in order to put the blame on the larger Hindu organizations as a whole) appears, wearing all saffron clothes (this color is again very necessary to be captured in all journalists and news channels’ cameras), and he owns up the same Samjhauta express blasts! What is in the store for future? A confession that he was the real famed Spiderman about whom they made movies? Or that some more dead persons who wore saffron clothes and belonged to that Hindu organization at one time in their life had carried out each of the terror attacks and even all the anti-Sikh riots of 1984?  

I feel there is something cooking up for pure political reasons. And I think “Prince” with his gloomy beard and foreign eyes is beginning to smile. Only, I do not wish the Queen with a long life; nor will I wish to see the Prince as the PM of the country I love and our freedom fighters died for.  

I believe most of my friends think that Gujjars’ demand for caste-based reservations was wrong and their violent methods of protests which caused grave inconvenience to commuters for weeks should have been dealt with harsh rap. But, ultimately they have succeeded in what they wanted.   

Gujjars start returning home from rail tracks 

Jaipur, Jan 6 (IANS) Hundreds of Gujjars, squatting on railway tracks near Bayana in Bharatpur district for the past 17 days to press their demand for job quotas, have started packing their bags to return home after an agreement with the Rajasthan government.  

The Gujjars were Wednesday assured five percent quota in government posts following several rounds of talks. 

http://www.sify.com/news/gujjars-start-returning-home-from-rail-tracks-news-national-lbgnkkddhdh.html 

I feel it’s a shame and cowardice for the world’s largest democracy to give up to the unjust demands of violent mobs. But when political power in India is shared between so few hands (or political leaders), we can expect more such situations to arise. Wonder where our discriminatory system of giving jobs and educations after looking at our castes and religions would take us to!

Caste Politics is perhaps the ugliest part of Indian democracy. Those leaders who claim to be supporting the weakest, often are those who grab their opportunities away, all in the name of political vote banks.  

Caste based reservations in jobs and in schools and colleges was a very bad idea to start with. That is why it was planned to be applicable for a limited period of 10 years. But the corrupt politicians made the policy become an eternity – as they secured them strong vote banks from amongst beneficiary castes. The list of so called ‘lower’ castes was regularly enlarged in order to attract votes from maximum castes possible, and even those castes which took pride in being ‘upper’ are now fighting for a ‘lower’ tag. It is indeed a race towards the bottom. To ensure the politicians get patronage of maximum voters; they expanded the bracket of ‘Creamy Layer’ income limit. Therefore, today the poorest among the benefitting castes (from reservation policy) remain in oblivion while richest among the same benefitting castes (covered under quota) grab and swallow all the seats meant for the poor.  

In a very welcome move the Supreme Court has allowed a petition which challenges this unfair raise in Creamy Layer income limit:  

Creamy layer income: SC admits plea 

TNN, Dec 13, 2010, 08.51pm IST 

NEW DELHI: The SC on Monday admitted educationist P V Indiresan’s petition challenging the legality of the UPA government’s decision to raise the creamy layer income limit from Rs 2.50 lakh to Rs 4.50 lakh per year for OBCs. 

Appearing for the petitioner, senior advocate K K Venugopal said that by this increase, the poor among OBCs would be pushed out of reservation benefits by the rich among the backward classes.  

The government had defended the decision saying it was a reasonable increase despite many elected representatives demanding raising it to Rs 25 lakh. 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Creamy-layer-income-SC-admits-plea/articleshow/7094417.cms#ixzz185NDq94Q 

This is good news. I believed Creamy Layer limit has been hiked for political aspirations of corrupt leaders. It should be set at 1 Lakh maximum, otherwise the rich among the OBCs swallow the seats meant for really poor. Let us hope some sense prevails in the “mad rush to the bottom”.

Should a national level politician holding stakes in the government disclose one’s personal detail, when asked by the public? UPA head Sonia Gandhi or her children don’t really believe in this.  

High Court dismisses appeal seeking information on Sonia Gandhi’s religion

Press Trust of India, Updated: November 29, 2010 

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday dismissed an appeal seeking details of the “religion and faith” of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and her children under the RTI Act, saying the petitioner was trying to encroach on their privacy. 

“It is evident that the petitioner is making efforts to make unjustified inroads into the privacy of the individuals even if they are public figure and consequently the information cannot be made public,” a division bench of the High Court said. 

Former Haryana DGP PC Wadhwa had sought details of “religion and faith” mentioned by Sonia Gandhi and her children during the last census under the Right to Information Act from the Central Public Information Officer (CIO) of the office of Registrar General, Census Operations, under the Union Home Ministry. 

Ref: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/high-court-dismisses-appeal-seeking-information-on-sonia-gandhis-religion-69356?cp  

I want to make two points here:  

1) Compare this case with the USA where world’s best functioning democracy exists. Here is what current President Mr. Obama said, publically: “I’ve been to the same church - the same Christian church - for almost 20 years,” Obama said, stressing the word Christian and drawing cheers from the faithful in reply. “I was sworn in with my hand on the family Bible.” he said. (Ref: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22767392/ns/politics-decision_08/ ) So what makes Obama confident enough to declare his “personal” faith in public, while in India, we have to file an RTI request and still get rejected to know the “personal” faith of Sonia or Rahul Gandhi? Our democracy should think about it.  

2) Congress party and UPA government supported the idea of “Caste Census” which is scheduled now at the expense of Crores of rupees. The census would gather data on people’s religion and castes. The exercise is done at the request (or threat) of casteist politicians like Mulayam and Laloo. The census is done so that the politicians can know the castes (and religion) of the masses. If it is proper; should not it be done the otherwise too? Don’t the masses deserve to know the religion and caste of their leaders, if they are made to reveal their “personal” religion and castes in front of the politicians?  

I think we have a long way to become a proper democracy. At present our democracy is lost to suit the needs of one dynasty.

Here is very interesting news.  

In Nitish’ backroom, students from Harvard, IIT and TISS 

It started with a student from Bihar at Harvard with a question as ambitious as it was simple: How can the leadership evolve in a predictable manner, not left to genetics or accident? The question had a specific context. It was encouraged by the spectacular turnaround story scripted by Nitish Kumar back home, evidence of the difference that good leadership can make. Beginning January 2010, when he came to Patna on a month’s break, Ghanshyam Tiwari’s question grew in size and reach. Soon, it drew a team around it. Eventually, it became a shared seven-month project that fed into Nitish’s poll campaign. The “Bihar leadership project” is one of the small untold stories of this election that was all about new things happening in the state.  

Read Full Article here: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/in-nitish-backroom-students-from-harvard-iit-and-tiss/716132/0  

Also visit: http://beta.friendsofbihar.org/

All of us remember the NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee with various feelings. Some of us appreciate that government, some of us like its decisions, some of us miss the quality of ministry it had, and I think most of us miss the sheer charisma of Atal Ji. But if “all is well that ends well” goes true, then most of us also remember NDA/BJP government with the curious slogan of “India Shining”. Some of us ridicule it (mostly because our media ridiculed it after NDA/BJP lost elections); some of us think it was a bad idea; some of us remember it as most massive PR campaign we ever had, and then some of us have also learnt a lot from it. One lesson that came out of it was, as per a popular view, that most Indians get a ‘nationalistic feeling’ only when either there is a war or there is a victory on Cricket grounds. Otherwise, our nationalism is a sleepy and stumpy creature. This explains why we got so very agitated when 26/11 happened, but soon after, we gave back power to the same guys who had created it. So much blood, tears, candles and TRP, went for nothing. Our public memory is so short that it takes only a cracker or a Saina Nehwal to forget all. This is why I suspect if we would still feel a need for a proper investigation of CWG corruption, after we witnessed such a grand inauguration and closing ceremony for the games.  

Anyways, let me get back to the theme I started with. The NDA/BJP government had inherited a weak national economy. Our forex reserves were not good enough; our share markets were not hot. Loss making and bleeding public sector companies were a burden on the tax payers who were subsidizing them. Our private sector was craving for FDI and had a glass ceiling to break in the international space. Then came the NDA government which had the brightest non-political set of ministers India ever had in my opinion. These ministers had a lot to prove and a less incentive to care for their own political dynasties. The result was a complete turnaround. Our forex reserves touched new heights, share markets became hot-bed for investors, golden-quadrilateral roads were built, sick PSUs were divested with, and salaried class Indians had more money in their hands to spend. In those days, to whichever country our PM went, the Premiers broke protocols to welcome him warmly. Indian businesses became behemoths with less red-tape and NRIs started looking back to India because it had now prospects for them. In those times, somewhere around 2003, the government of A.B. Vajpayee also won the bid to organize Common Wealth Games after much effort. The Games were to showcase what we had achieved; the Games were to be a Gateway to the New Resurgent India! But as we realize some times now, such highly patriotic show-offs and our nationalistic feelings slip away even from the word go. So I guess we would just enjoy the opening/closing ceremonies of these games, would hail our sportsmen and would get back to our individual personal lives, completely forgetting that these games were also the most Shameful Games for India. Would we care to remember the mess that our corrupt government officials had thrown at us in terms of lousy preparations, the roads dug and covered, the shameful media reports which tore down our international image, the apathetic response of corrupt politicians at the helm of affairs and the crores of tax payers money which were siphoned off by corruption in the contracts and organization.
As a nation, we love entertainment. These Games have provided us with more entertainment than any other. Now I guess it’s time to go back to our collective numbness. Until, perhaps, the next time when we are again in similar mess. Then we would again curse the politicians, light some candles, watch TV news and then go back in our cozy couches. After all, this life is a game. But if we don’t play it, they will. If we don’t reject those corrupt ones in power, they will keep doing this again and again to us. Dozing, already?  

UPA government has included some more castes in the OBC list in the caste-sensitive states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Rajasthan and some others.  

Government approves inclusion of more castes in OBC list 

July 22, 2010 15:07 IST Email  

New Delhi: The government today approved the inclusion of more castes in the central list of OBCs for various states. Sources said the Union cabinet has given approval to most additions from Jharkhand and Chhattishgarh in the Other Backward Castes list. 

“Inclusion of these communities in the central list of OBCs will enable them to avail benefits of reservation in the central government services as well as in the central education institutions” an official spokesperson said. 

The Adrakhi Mahato caste of Bihar is one such community, whose inclusion in the central list of OBC for Bihar was approved today. Similar changes have been approved for inclusion as well as amendments in the names of castes and communities in the OBC’s central list for Chhattishgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Rajasthan and the union territory of Daman and Diu.

Link: DNA India 

When we had debated about the SC/ST/OBC population in India and whether we should count them, I had made a point that their population and % can be as much as politicians desire. By including more castes in the OBC list, the government can easily inflate the OBC % out of total population and later make it a ground to aim for higher reservations and quota.  

Caste based reservations are clearly an attempt to divide our society on the basis of castes and are part of divide-and-rule policy of political parties including the Congress (INC). I hope the party looks back at what the view of our first PM Jawaharlal Nehru was on the issue of reservations. Caste based reservations are part of caste based vote-bank politics and should be strongly denounced.

Recent news says Muslim bodies are supporting the UPA Govt’s plans (however genuine) to cut the annual Rs 900 Crores Haj Subsidy. And they have come up with some very interesting theories and reasons.  

Muslim leaders back cutting Haj subsidy 

The UPA government’s plan to gradually stop financing the Haj pilgrimage is a step in the right direction, several Muslim leaders have said. 

Their backing is crucial for a clean pullout, without rubbing the community the wrong way. 

From the Muslim Personal Law Board and Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind to the Milli Council, influential Muslim lobbies on Saturday said it was time the government pulled out of the Haj business. “The subsidy has been inconsequential,“ Rajya Sabha MP and Jamiat leader, Mahmood Madni told Hindustan Times. 

About 1,50,000 Indian Muslims flock to Mecca each year for Haj, one of the five pillars of Islam. The government bankrolls the pilgrimage by partly paying the airfare. 

Madni said the subsidy actually went in bailing out Air-India, while exposing Muslims to charges of appeasement. So, Muslim leaders want global tenders for airlines so that the lowest bidder gets the job. 

A decades-old bilateral treaty between India and Saudi Arabia stipulates only the state carrier will fly pilgrims. 

A major gripe is that Air- India’s fares are sharply higher than routine fares. Each year, the Cabinet decides how much the Haj Committee, the facilitating agency, should charge as airfare. Last year, passengers were charged Rs 12,000 each. 

Going by last year’s subsidy of about Rs 826 crore, the Air India fare must have been between Rs 80,000-90,000 per passenger, according to Haj Committee CEO Mohd. Owais. 

The current round trip economy fare to Jeddah at present is about Rs 18,000, a Saudi air- line official said. 

“Air India’s monopoly should be ended,“ Jama Masjid imam Ahmed Bukhari said.

The state carrier charges higher fares on the ground that it has to pull out planes from regular operations for dedicated Haj travel. 

“The Haj Committee should be given three-years’ subsidy at one time as seed capital and the subsidy stopped after that, “Manzoor Alam, Muslim Personal Law Board member and Milli Council chief, said.  

Ref http://bit.ly/bH0xCq (Hindustan Times)  

I think this is a new propaganda that Muslim leaders are coming out with. They want it both ways - one, to receive the (unfair) benefits and two, no acknowledgement (and hence no gratitude/accusations) of having received the benefits. So GOI has been turned into a thankless entity, forgetting that without govt’s support not many of the poor Muslims would ever have gone to do Haj-pilgrimage.  

If Muslim leaders want GOI to release global tenders for airlines, they are still asking for GOI’s help, which is in conflict with their so called support to subsidy-pull-out. 

And the question arises as to why should govt of India pay them 3 years subsidy as a seed capital? The sum would be about 2700 Crores which is huge. When we look at the sum they are asking for, the true intention of the Haj committee and other Muslim organizations come out: they want power. They want exclusive power.  

If GOI doesn’t manage the Haj trips and gives the right to Haj committee or to any other Muslim body along with Rs 2700 Crores pay cheque, it would be giving too much of power in too few hands with two few checks and balances. Such Muslim groups and hence their leaders and chairpersons would create very powerful places for themselves. We would never know how exactly they would spend the money: they can always show crores of rupees spent to build their offices, (or homes), or ghetto Madrasas or to buy stationary or to build toilets. 

The best way is to leave the Muslims to manage their own Haj trips. Let them save enough to go to Mecca or to Switzerland, if they feel it is good for their religion, and hence allow them to keep their religion as their personal belief. Let them book their own tickets in the airline of their own choice. Let them truly fulfill the requirements for one of the pillars of Islam, as it is called. Afterall, I hope GOI doesn’t hope of receiving some of Allah’s blessings by helping thankless Muslims do the Mecca journey, right?  

On the other hand, countries like UAE and Saudi have been earning lots of money from Haj tourism. Also, they keep enjoying some blind reverence from people of foreign nations like India, just because of religious sentiments, which poses a long-term political risk. Indian Govt should not keep being a victim of the religious fancies of Indian Muslims. It is a huge capital that goes outside India - in thousands of Crores of rupees. Such money should come from those who choose to go outside India on tourism or on pilgrimage. Why should I and you - the common tax payers - pay for their religious trips? 

I think GOI should apologise to our secular constitution for the years it has been paying Muslims their Haj subsidies, and immediately get out of the scheme. It should not become yet another victim of Muslim Mullahs by getting into debates about Air India and global tenders for airlines. (Though I doubt if our UPA govt would do that - almost all actions of our govt are guided by minority-appeasement.)  

And yes, we should also push for UCC - uniform civil code and strive towards India’s secularism from existing pseudo-secularism.

- Rahul

In the wake of worst ever Naxal attack in Chattisgarh on April 6^th, I think it is time our Home Minister should realise that his so called hard talk would only result in more such retaliations from the Naxal terrorists. The average Naxal militant is not literate enough to read P. Chidambaram in newspapers when he challenges Naxals calling them cowards. The average Naxal cares for the food, money and power that comes to one through him/her remaining part of the ‘revolution’. GOI should rather do something to cut supplies to Naxal’s food, money and arms rather than our Home Minister keep visiting affected villages and the Naxals killing other innocent men in frustration.  

The recent attack on April 6^th should be taken as a verdict that our Home Minister’s art of passing the buck to the state governments and going the populist way to newsprints to challenge the Naxals won’t work. The moral responsibility of the deaths is on his chair. I think its time when GOI should seriously rethink its decision not to oblige states like CG who have asked to deploy Indian Army to finish the Naxal menace once and for ever. Srilankan success in routing LTTE should serve as inspiration.  

- Rahul

The manner in which the government of India is officially and unofficially harassing the legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan is a very sad face of our so called great Indian democracy. (I find anything written by me on this topic as fruitless; because I fear those would neither change nor console anyone: decades of such deeds have been tolerated by our masses and the same culprits are elected back to power term after term.) Yes, I am definitely talking about Nehru/Gandhi dynasty. Any individual or family which challenges or harms the interests of this dynasty is doomed. The harassment may start from the levels of slandering (accusing AB of supporting so called mass murders in Gujarat) and reach allegedly to the limitlessness of being sent to the gallows (so many stories on the round about politicians eliminated for challenging one Mrs or Mr Gandhi – who knows how many of them are true). If there is a permanent enemy (anyone who challenges the dynasty is seen as an enemy) like one CM of Gujarat – the person would be damned for life, thanks to the sponsorships and seeding that our main stream media gets from the ruling deities (Nehru dynasty). 

So many years have passed, but some Special SIT is still probing a Chief Minister who called Sonia Italian (which was no lie). On the other hand, it seems no one cared to bother if our late tainted Prime Minister (courtesy Bofors scandal) Rajiv Gandhi was probed for his role in anti-Sikh genocide. So a Narendra Modi would be ostracized and an Amitabh Bachchan would be seen as a pariah if they dared to question and criticize a party or its leaders. I wonder if this was the democracy which we opted in 1947. 

Is it time we ask the despots to step down? Is it time we reclaim our democracy? I doubt – after all just a few days back Sonia Gandhi was again made chief of National Advisory Council which gave her the rank of a Cabinet Minister (and still some people say she never enjoyed power herself). This happened after the chair was removed from the Office of Profit list – especially for her to enjoy it! The sad state of our democracy is that it has been scrupulously tailor-made to serve the interests of one family and one political party. Real democracy and Amitabh Bachchan, both can wait till eternity.
 
- Rahul

The Union Cabinet has Okayed the Foreign Educational Institutions Bill which allows foreign universities to open campuses in India. This bill would now be passed by the Parliament. Government says that the intent of this bill is to curb outflow of Indian students and money towards foreign countries (In 2008-09, 2.25 billion USD went out of India to fund Indian students studying abroad).  

As such the bill looks good. It allows foreign universities either alone or in collaborations with local universities to offer programs in local campuses, just like any other private institution. Such universities would not have to implement any caste-based quota and can decide on whatever fee they want to charge. As a check, such universities can’t take back any profits earned out of India. Still, I doubt the success of the scheme towards its goals of stopping outflow of Indian students and Indian money abroad.  

Firstly I doubt if the best of the foreign universities would be inclined enough to set up local brick and mortar campuses in India. The reason is that their foreign mother institutions depend heavily on Indian and Asian students filling up their seats (very critical in recession times too). If they start local campuses, they miss such students and hence money reaching up to them. I fear only the rank-B foreign schools would come to India. And these institutes would not stop the outgoing students. When one decides to join a foreign university, money or class room education is not the only things in mind. One goes to get a global exposure, studying with diverse set of students from all across the world. Such local campuses of foreign universities would not fulfil this very important expectation from the students. And then there would be concerns about quality of education and exorbitant fee being charged without getting back enough values in return. The cream of Indian talent still prefers IITs or IIMs over many foreign universities, unless they have intent to settle abroad. The students who have money but are not talented enough to get into IITs/IIMs, go for foreign universities for higher education. Such students would still go abroad. Also, the students who have intentions to settle abroad after studies would still go join the foreign universities rather than their local campuses because that is the shortcut to their goals. For the clause of not allowing profits to be taken out of India, they always can get creative to utilise the money in ways of self-fulfilment, like funding student exchange programs, funding training and research of their global counterparts, and in many other ways, not allowing this clause to harm their interests. On the other hand, I fear such local campuses of not-the-best foreign universities would be harming interests of Indians in more ways than one.  

The high fees of such local units of foreign universities would definitely result in Indian private universities hiking their fees too, claiming their own standards being no less than those. Then, such universities would eat up some market share out of Indian universities, in terms of talented faculty members and quality students. Also, it would be very difficult to ensure that their courses are best designed for Indian environment; otherwise we would end up creating misfits.  

I doubt if the government has thought enough around the bill before pushing it to the parliament. I am not sure if the time is right for such a bill too: the newer IITs and newer IIMs are still to establish grounds. If the education reforms are continued, and quality education is ensured by proper regulation, I think this bill may be welcomed after 10 years from now. In the present times, such a bill would harm our interests and would fell short of its target of stopping expatriation of Indian students and money.  

- Rahul

It was amusing to see our national media singing a political raga and standing behind the bill reserving 33% of parliament seats for females. When Rajya Sabha passed it yesterday (attempt to pass it on world women’s day was a political gimmick), the media and the government celebrated the move as if some great contribution has been made towards women’s rights and cause. If we think about it, there is hardly anything done yet.  

Democracy can’t work with symbolism and political gimmicks. Given what the women politicians have done so far – be it Sonia Gandhi who used her status as a widow as an entry pass in politics, or Mayawati and Jayalalita whose are names synonym with corruption, or Uma and Mamta as political hysterics, or Sheila Dixit who sits on chair while her state makes worse records of crime against women everyday, women politicians have proven remarkably nothing of note. If we go back in time then we had Indira Gandhi as our first elected dictator. I believe we have seen enough of politics in India to come to the conclusion that women politicians are as corrupt, as weak, as brainless, as power-hungry and as self-obsessed as their male counterparts; if not more.  

India or Indian women would gain nothing just because there are more sarees than kurtas in the parliament – unless the ground realities of politics change.  

The government which virtually forced an achiever like Kiran Bedi out of her badge doesn’t deserve the rights to self-glorify itself as one fighting for the women’s cause. The party (INC) and the man (Rajiv Gandhi) who decided to appease some minority mullahs at the cost of women’s rights (Shah Bano case) don’t deserve the right to be called pro-women. The women who entered and thrived in politics due to their husbands and fathers (living or deceased) don’t deserve to be called representatives of new-age women.  

When real democracy fails, politicians ask us to settle for symbols. This women’s political quota bill is one of the same. We should not rejoice, but feel sad about our state of politics.  

- Rahul

These are some of my random thoughts on Rahul R. Gandhi’s (Future PM of India, courtesy Nehru dynasty) much publicized recent visit to Mumbai: 

Rahul R. Gandhi’s PR agent should be given the award of the best PR in India. The recent spurt in the North Indians Vs Maharashtrians issue had actually come up when RSS asked its member volunteers to protect any so called ‘outsider’ Indians from getting harmed on the streets of Mumbai. This was one and perhaps first such strong and unselfish support to the cause of our national unity (earlier Lalu, Nitish and other parties had made noise for political reasons). But it was Rahul R. Gandhi who stole the centre stage, with making the right noises at the right time and at the right place. Today, most of the people think it as Rahul Vs Sena conflict. But actually, Rahul R. Gandhi parachuted himself into the controversy and denied RSS the goodwill from fighting for the right cause.  

Shiv Sena miserably failed to stop Rahul R. Gandhi from harvesting his Mumbai visit. And it was very disappointing because there was so much that the party could do just by applying proper strategy at the right time. For example Rahul’s ride over Mumbai local was much publicised as an example of his humility (though from TV footage I noticed that he had travelled in a First Class compartment). What people care about is their own convenience. If Shiv Sena could have asked at least two dozens of its members to just stand in front of the train which had left with Rahul G on board, and mind it that on the busy Mumbai tracks a few minutes of emergency delay of one train would have led to all the subsequent trains getting cumulatively delayed, it would have resulted in souring the mood of Rahul G and his supporters. People would have then cursed the ‘spoilt kid’ Rahul R Gandhi for being too jealous and making a drama which went out of his hands and led to so much commuter inconvenience! If that disruption of rail services could have went through, Mumbaikars would have remembered Rahul’s trip to Mumbai as a let-down! Along with this, no one would have actually blamed Shiv Sena for disrupting the services because people genuinely believed that Shiv Sena had all legitimate rights to protest Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Mumbai with a ‘Mumbai free for all’ agenda in his mind and on the lips.  

The Indian Youth, be in Mumbai or elsewhere, lack the long term vision, are judgemental and have no patience. They are easy to be deceived by charisma of a leader. Rahul R Gandhi’s visit to Mumbai was to attract the youth for the youth wing of INC and he was successful in his attempt. He made all the right gestures (e.g. withdrawing money from an ATM for purpose we don’t know; as he could have used debit or credit cards for his spends) which made the youth feel he was one of them. I don’t know if the youth would be able to see that almost all the young faces in the party are sons or daughters of the past generation of politicians who were loyal to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, and hence those who are serious about politics may not have great chance in the party.  

People in Mumbai in general have seen much more drama than provided in this trip. They are immune to it too. So I think this trip would not have given the Congress any single more vote. But it would definitely have thrilled and consolidated the Congress’ present vote banks. On the other hand, I don’t see any cheering from the so called ‘outsiders’ too. If the Congress govt in the state could make a safe heaven for Rahul R Gandhi and he could travel and move around easily without anyone harming him, didn’t the aam admi (common man) too had the right to live with dignity? Was not the same Congress govt in power, 2 years back, when the MNS goons insulted and beat the poor taxi-wallas on the streets, or when they tore away the answer sheets and wiped out the bright career of many of those who had come to appear in the competitive exams? The junta knows that no matter how hard Rahul R Gandhi tries to prove himself as ‘one of them’, he would remain blue-eyed because he has Nehru’s genes. 

- Rahul

Five years ago, the BJP had strongly opposed inclusion of Shibu Soren as a minister in the UPA government as he had several criminal charges pending against him. Today, the same BJP joined Shibu and his JMM to form a government in the state of Jharkhand. 

These two sentences may appear to make a “full story” until I shout objection!  

One, the BJP now is not the BJP that was 5 years back. How? The BJP, until some time back used to believe that issues like corruption, terrorism and food price hike can make “election issues”. And hence, the party would oppose inclusion of criminal and corrupt politicians in the UPA govt (there were plenty of such faces). What the last general election has proven without doubt is in contrast to any such hint. This has also been proven in many other election results, e.g. the recent one in Maharashtra. Indian voters have accepted the most hitting issues like corruption, terrorism and price-rise as a “fact of life” and they just don’t make their voting decisions on these apparently real issues. The issues that they have in mind while voting can be touching cords of casteism, regionalism, favourism, groupism, mutual-beneficiating, and some more things which definitely would be too far away from issues like corruption or terrorism. And the most heartening was to find that our main opposition party has leart this lesson! (though we can debate if it came too late) 

Today BJP chief Nitin Gadkari says, “There was no option for us. People in Jharkhand have elected Shibu Soren. In politics you have to do such things”. So true. People of Jharkhand have elected Shibu Soren; very well knowing that he has been accused (and proven in perception) of charges as cruel as murder. Yet, if they have sent him to assembly and his party has got so many seats (equal to maximum in the state) it does tell that people are ok with him becoming even as a CM. Parties like Congress would have grabbed this opportunity to team up with Soren and his party to form a government. But as it turned out, the BJP has learnt lessons and came as the ‘winner’. Doesn’t winning in politics also mean defeating the opponent?  

It may not be ‘ethically’ correct for a person with blemished records be made the head of a state (I am sure it is not correct) - but we can’t have our cake and eat it too. We can’t have a functioning democracy and yet we trying to filter public opinion on basis of our definitions of ethics and morality.  

In democracy, we get what the majority of population deserves.  

- Rahul

(Politics)

It's the people, stupid!

My previous post on assembly elections in Maharashtra was proven erroneous by the election results which came out today. The ruling political party of Congress (INC) whom I had blamed for many things including visibly evident poor economic management (resulting in farmers' suicides) and sitting duck (institutional lapses in Mumbai terror attacks and hiding probe report) comfortably retained power. The party of regional chauvinist Maharashtrians which had beaten taxi drivers for not being Maharashtra born, the MNS, did very well in cities and urban areas. And the opposition of BJP - Shiv Sena were outsmarted.

I talked to my Maharashtrian and Marathi friends and I stand corrected now. The discovery was personally disappointing to me:

1. People in Maharashtra (or at least those who voted) are Maharashtrians first and then they are Indians. This explains why they ignored MNS' rioting against non-Maharashtrians and supported it. And this was the attitude of higher than average educated, urban class, Maharashtrians. They are numb to what happens to people not born in Maharashtra.

2. After years and decades of Congress rule, people in Maharashtra (or at least those who regularly vote) have become habitual of the political abuse done to them and they suffer from a kind of Stockholm Syndrome. "They weren't bad people. They let me eat, they let me sleep, they gave me my life" this is what a hostage from Flight 847 had said. People in Maharashtra have shown thankfulness for the ruling party for not doing what worse they could have done.

3. People in Maharashtra (or at least those who vote) can't live without hero-worship. And I always believed hero-worship was a kind of inherent weakness of character and it finds its origins in some superstitious tribals. Maharashtrians have since long done this in form of Shivaji worship! The shift of part of the traditional Shiv Sena voter base to the MNS proves this point. This set of voters identifies itself to all principles of Shiv Sena, except that it wants to see Raj Thackeray as the leader. Meaning: person is above party and the principles. (As such this phenomenon is a common in the underdeveloped nation like India: it used to explain why INC became weak whenever some one other than from Nehru family got at the helm of the party.)

There can be many more observations and conclusions, but we would keep it short here. We should also note that while making the above three conclusions, I have put the whole blame on the junta. If electronic voting machines were played with, if currency notes were distributed to purchase votes in constituencies, or if the electoral and administrative machinery was put to help the ruling party win, then those can make up for the missed points.

I would end this with congratulating the honorable President of India, Smt. Pratibha Patil, for her son's victory on a Congress' ticket. Even she was a Maharashtrian first and an Indian second, which was proven by the exceptional support to her from Shiv Sena, while she had got elected. And now, her second generation is on his path to glory

(Rahul)