Mango chutney for the soul

My dream for India

These are challenging times indeed. On the one hand the nation is looking to brave the global economic meltdown caused by unbridled corporate greed in the west and on the other hand it is reeling under vicious acts of war unleashed by Islamic terrorists and an alarming lack of ability to deal with it in any form or fashion. It is at such times that the need for unwavering, stout leadership is felt so deeply. The kind of leadership that you should be able to look upto and feel comfortable that the country is in safe hands. The kind of leadership that has been missing in India for a long time now, too long if you ask me. Where is a Sardar Patel or a Lal Bahadur Shastri when you need one? Heck I will even take a Narasimha Rao or an Indira Gandhi (not that I can truly back anyone from the Nehru clan, but you gotta admit, the lady had spunk). I have said it before and I will say it again, coalition and weak-majority governments at the centre have created a breed of stomachless, anemic politicians whose policies and actions are centered completely and endlessly around staying in power. Too long have we suffered under non-leaders like V P Singh, I K Gujral, Deve Gowda, A B Vajpayee, Sonia Gandhi and their ilk. And the really scary part is that even as I write this, I will be the first to admit, that I have nary a clue on how to save the country from this horrible downward spiral we are being sucked into. Sure, I can come up with ideas like a two-party system, infusion of young blood in the administration, campaigns to eradicate voter apathy among the educated and all that funk - but it doesn't change the fact that we don't have true leaders in the political classes anymore. Even if the whole country comes together to change the destiny of the nation, who will we vote for? The choices on the list are just more of the same. So, where have all our leaders gone ? I believe they are there - in every walk of life but politics - you will find them in the armed forces, in hospitals, in corporate corner offices, in risk-embracing entrepreneurs, in spiritual institutions - men & women with foresight, imagination, strength, courage and confidence that make them capable of taking decisions to deal with adversity. Men & women who have the drive in them to carry the rest with them through troubled waters. But none of them are available to run the nation. And we know why that is. The political system has been overrun by rejects of society, greedy, self-centered narcissists suffering from an incurable God complex, whose brains are hardwired to seek nothing but personal gain. Oh sure there are exceptions, but the few good ones are weak and hopelessly incapable of overcoming the drag created by the others. So, it is natural that the more straight-thinking, intelligent and relatively honest populace will shy away from the repugnant bog that is politics. Why would one even consider wading into that muck when every other career path looks a gazillion times more attractive. The only ones who consider it these days are those who have neither the skills nor the predilection to be successful in other paths - the others are relics from another era who entered politics in the distant past and are too disconnected from today's realities. Are you scared? You should be.

I will be sure to vote in the elections - but I can't do much to change who figures on the list of candidates. What I can do is, define what I truly believe would be an ideal leader that India sorely, scratch that, desperately needs. Imagine a Prime Minister who, to start with has a strong majority behind him (or her, I will just go with 'him' for the rest of this prose to keep things simple) and is nobody's fool. A prime minister who knows that a successful leader is one who surrounds himself with a team of people more intelligent than him and is conscientious in every ministerial and secretarial position assigned. A prime minister who will not pander to any vote bank "sensitivities". A true leader who is able to see years ahead, who has the good of the nation at the bottom of his heart and ruthlessly follows his heart. A statesman who has the cunning to outfox his worldwide counterparts. A planner and analyst who doesn't let planning and analysis get in the way of execution. A person of courage and firm convictions who doesn't hesitate to act. A captain who can rally his troops and can silence a room when he speaks (our Manmohan is a gentleman, but the man says "we will defeat terrorism" in the same tone that one would use for ordering food in a restaurant - not exactly inspiring). If such a true and remarkable leader were to be at the helm of our nation today, the following would have already happened or would shortly happen:
1. Declare Pakistan a terrorist state, cease all diplomatic relations with that country, shut down all links with that country (including, road, rail and air), come up with aggressive measures to censure and proscribe that country at every available forum.
2. Come up with a creative way to punish Pakistan's army and its terrorist hordes , be it via covert or overt action. (Has Pranab Mukherjee heard the phrase "element of surprise" ?)
3. Create a commando unit for every urban police force (at least the big cities to start with) and arm them with modern weapons and training in urban warfare.
4. Come up with a mechanism to identify and deport all illegal Bangladeshi immigrants on a war footing - they are a huge threat to the security of our nation and viewing them as vote banks is no less a crime than what the terrorists perpetrated in Mumbai.
5. Fence the border with Nepal and Bangladesh and procure and use the most modern equipment available to monitor the borders with Pakistan, PoK, Bangladesh and Nepal.
6. Hang Afzal Guru (for those with short memories, he is one of the terrorists who attacked the Indian Parliament and was sentenced to death by the supreme court of India). How can this possibly be a sensitive issue? It is as black & white as it gets - killer commits horrific crime, killer gets punished according to the laws of the nation. (Note the muslim community's refusal to bury the dead terrorists in the recent Mumbai massacre - why would they treat Afzal's execution any differently?)
7. Enact a law that prescribes quick and severe punishment for foreign offenders on Indian soil and anyone found assisting them - the punishment should fit the crime.
8. Change the visa process for international visitors that if they have visited Pakistan in the last 30 days, they will not be eligible for an Indian visa - one way to discourage businessmen / investors from doing business with Pakistani companies.
9. Cleanse the country of all of Dawood Ibrahim's associates and seize & foreclose all his properties overnight (its a crying shame that we demand that Pakistan deport Ibrahim, but allow his operations to run in India)

The list can go on, but I will stop here. These are not some brilliant ideas borne out of any extraordinary thought processes, but simple thoughts that have surely crossed the minds of most of my fellow citizens after every devastating and humiliating terrorist attack. Yet, somehow it mysteriously evades our nation's leaders. If we need protests with catchy messages scrawled on placards, petition signing campaigns and other bells & whistles to point these intrinsically obvious things to the government, then we have a huge problem on our hands. The government needs to stop hiding behind rhetoric which swings from bellicosity on one day to rapprochement on the other, and for once let its actions speak for itself. Imagine if we had such a leader running our country - that is my dream for India.

Epilogue: The drums are rolling in the background, the guitars are wailing and in my mind I can hear Steve Tyler belt out "Dream on..."

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The Nuclear Deal

Lets give credit where its due - Manmohan Singh and his team pulled off a deal that everyone (including yours truly) had written off as dead. The US administration certainly pulled its weight to push things through - so we can't claim that our congresswallahs pulled any magic out of their turbans, however it is fair to say that for the first time in many decades they showed that they can make a convincing case on an international stage. The Dutch representatives for instance, were the first to admit that Pranab Mukherjee's address at the NSG meeting won them over. The Chinese were at their insidious best - trying to scuttle the deal from behind the scenes at the meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. I find it hard to swallow that the Indian team was actually "shocked" to see the chinese opposition despite their overt messages that they will support the deal. Surely they can see more clearly than armchair analysts like me, that the Chinese revel in playing the role of two-timers? The double game they played was clear as daylight - they never led the opposition against the NSG waiver, but were sneaking behind any other country which was opposing it. So, they could deny that they opposed it and smile for the camera should the waiver be ratified and rejoice that their efforts worked if the waiver had been rejected. According to some reports, the Chinese prime minister and president refused to take calls from Manmohan Singh during that time and it took a phone call from the US president to get the chinese in line. Insidious is an understatement.

I will admit, that I am hopeful that this deal will prove its worth in gold, in the coming years, although I have my apprehensions too. Is this one of the hallmark events that India will look back at a few decades down the road and say "That was a visionary move" - the way we like to hark back on the Narasimha Rao government's policies that liberalized our economy (with who else but Manmohan Singh as the Finance Minister) in the early 90s? Or will it be a gargantuan faux pas that will shackle our progress to dictats from "developed" countries ? Only time will tell I guess - but one must appreciate the sudden spark of risk-taking displayed by our otherwise geriatric and rusty government machinery. Dumping the communist meatheads from the government was a great start - congratulations Mr.Singh, though your congresswallahs probably had other compulsions to suddenly dump the commies, it was nevertheless a great service to the nation! The BJP could have showed that it can rise above petty politics for the good of the nation and welcomed the nuclear deal - it could always have added some cautionary notes if it really has some genuine concerns. But, they frittered that away and indulged in partisanship by raucously condemning the deal. Even Bal Thackeray, the unpredictable fire-brand, came out in praise of the deal.

France has already signed an agreement with India that allows transfer of nuclear fuel and technologies to India for use in the energy sector. The one with USA is almost done - and more will likely follow. To be sure - these countries are not doing this as a favor to India - they are pretty open that their interest in this is purely monetary - it will result in big bucks for their nuclear energy industry. The GEs and the Westinghouses are licking their chops to get a piece of the action. India, should certainly reward contracts to the countries who were most vocal in their support for the deal - but we should also exercise caution and not slip-slide into reckless spending. The right approach would be to steadily increase the capacity of the existing powerplants and start planning for new ones as well - but in parallel invest in renewable sources of energy. The next decade or so should see an India where power-shortage, diesel-powered generators and "load-shedding" are things of the past - an India powered by a healthy mix of nuclear power, renewable sources (Solar, Hydro-electricity) and to a smaller extent conventional fossil fuel-based plants. If there is one thing that the government should remember amidst all the back-slapping and self-congratulations - it is that we don't want to put all our eggs in one basket.

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A time of terror

On July 25th, I was at an employer-sponsored social event at a resort a few kilometres outside of Bengaluru. A bit after lunch we were relaxing in the pool and just as we managed to drag ourselves out of the water - close to 2 pm - one of my co-workers passed by with a grim face asking "have you heard the news?". Sensing a foreboding tone in his voice I asked "what news?". "There have apparently been bomb blasts in the city" came the reply. My heart skipped a beat as we rushed to the TV screens in the lounge where a small crowd was already gathering to hear the news. Headlines were flashing in garishly big fonts, crying something along the lines of "blasts in five different parts of the city - many injured". As was the reaction of everyone present there, I fished out my phone to call family to make sure everyone was ok and to inform them that I was ok as well - managed to call most of them before the phone lines started jamming because of the thousands trying to call. The anxiety level increased considerably when the news channel flashed an update that another blast had just occurred. After some discussion, we decided it was safer to stay where we were and head back to the city in the evening as originally planned. The thought that weighed most heavily on my mind that afternoon was "So, this is what the people of Mumbai/New Delhi/Varanasi/Hyderabad/Jaipur and many other towns have experienced - our dear Bengaluru is no longer safe from terrorist designs". Not that it ever was - but you just live in the illusion of safety until you experience the horror. As we know now, the blasts in Bengaluru were of relatively low intensity and didn't snuff out as many lives as one would have feared. But, tell that to the husband who lost his wife at the bus station where one of the bombs exploded. The series of blasts in Ahmedabad the very next day were far more vicious and took many more lives - one of the bombs was placed in a hospital where some of the injured from the earlier blasts were being treated! What kind of dark-hearted evil can spawn such a plan?

Weeks have passed - people have returned to their normal lives - except of course for the near and dear of those killed and the grievously wounded. That's the one natural defense mechanism I guess we are gifted with - a remarkable ability to put tragedies behind and move on with our lives - especially those which didn't affect us directly. So - what could have prevented this heinous crime from being committed? More than anything else, I think it points to the lack of a robust human intelligence network. You can have all the spy satellites in the world, the best in breed of weapons and all the amazing widgets and gadgets that technology can conjure up - but when it comes to combating human-induced terror, there is nothing like human intelligence that can return better results. That is not to say that technical advancement is pointless - reliable technology surely has a number of amazing uses, but it can only complement and never replace human intelligence. How extensive is the reach of the Indian intelligence agencies in their own backyard, let alone on foreign shores? Are they deeply entrenched in the pockets of society where terror nests are likely to grow? Be it the SIMI, the naxals or the ULFA - how much intelligence do we really have on these shadowy groups, apart from research papers written by "experts" and the occasional arrest due to unsuspecting traffic stops? The Gujarat police claim to have made a huge breakthrough by arresting the alleged mastermind of the Ahmedabad blasts along with his cronies. But until it stands in a court of law, one can never be certain if the police were more interested in "solving" the crime than in bringing the real perpetrators to justice.

Then there is the situation in Jammu & Kashmir. The state government earmarked a piece of land for putting together temporary facilities for Amarnanth piligrims and the political wolves in Kashmir seized on it to further their agenda. The Mehbooba Muftis, the Omar Abdullahs and of course the Hurriyat bandits potrayed this as a step taken to change the "demographics" of Kashmir (?!) and orchestrated violent protests. The government of course, in a grand knee-jerk response, announced that they are revoking the land allocation. This resulted in a string of protests in Jammu demanding that the government not revoke the land allotment. Trouble in J&K - could the ISI be far behind? sure enough, the Pakistan army has significantly increased incidents of providing cover-fire to allow jehadi terrorists to cross the line into India and create more mayhem. Most attempts have been less than successful thanks to valiant efforts by Indian armed forces - but a few that got across recently killed innocent civilians in Jammu and took a family hostage. And as usual, every time there are protests in Kashmir, the same string of events follow - the "me-too" celebrities gaggle on about the "azadi" for Kashmir, the political analysts raise the same-as-always questions "should there be plebiscite in Kashmir?", "is Kashmir too expensive for India to hang onto" and the BJP bemoans the mismanagement of the situation by the government. The only thing different this time is the string of protests by a Jammu populace sick and tired of the Kashmir-centric policies of the government which has always handed step-motherly treatment to Jammu and Ladakh, that caught the government by surprise. So, what is the right answer? The answer is a strong and visionary leader who is able to navigate the best path for India without vote-bank biases. We all know the odds of that happening. The winners in this situation are the Hurriyat bandits who suddenly find themselves relevant again and the Pakistanis who are able to find a wonderful distraction for their home-grown terrorists who will otherwise spend their energies bombing Pakistan.

Please bow your heads and devote a moment of silence to the thousands who have died because we have failed - so miserably - at finding a true leader who can lead the country out of this tragic mess.

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Mere elections don't, a democracy make

Show me a country on this blue planet where the following events occur on the same day:

(i) political leaders of all hues come together in an orgy of shifting loyalties to decide an unstable goverment's fate
(ii) a soldier is killed on the Western frontier by a neighbouring army who is allegedly following a ceasefire
(iii) another soldier is killed on the eastern frontier by another neighbour who won independence with the help of the same army that it is now attacking

- and I will show you a comical-tragedy called India. I truly cannot think of another country in this world where this can happen.

The feeding frenzy leading up to the trust vote on July 22nd, where the UPA had to prove its majority to stay in power, showcased a new low in Indian politics. It started with the Left parties (CPM et al) pulling out of the UPA coalition to express their displeasure over the nuclear agreement that India and the USA have resuscitated. Why the Congress suddenly decided to bite the bullet at the near end of the government's first tenure, after mollycoddling the CPM all along - is another topic - one that we will save for now under "Ulterior motives and all that muck". Anyways, the minute the comrades pulled the plug, the government was on the respirator and had to win a "trust vote" to stay in power. And there you have it - all the two-bit parties and their dim-wit leaders were seen salivating at the prospect of gaining something from the situation. Prakash Karat's CPM and Chandrababu Naidu's TDP smelled an opportunity in coalescing with Mayawati's BSP, while Mulayam Singh yadav's SP and Shibu Soren's JMM sought their respective pounds of flesh from the UPA in exchange for their vote. All hell broke loose after that - Deve Gowda flew North to see what he can eke out of the "auction", parties started squabbling about give and take, MPs started changing parties - clearly their loyalties lay with the highest bidder. Take the case of one Mr. Shahid Siddiqui, an MP from the SP party - one morning he was assuring the world that there would be no horse-trading and that his party unequivocally backed the UPA and its pet project nuclear deal - the same afternoon he defected to the BSP claiming that he had always been uneasy with the nuclear deal! There isn't even a pretence of integrity! As a citizen of the nation - how does one react to such chicanery by the very people who are responsible for governing the country ? The rap sheets on half of these MPs read like the Magna Carta. We have witnessed this time and again - yet there is no law against all the cloak and dagger games played by the political parties. Where is a vigilante judiciary when you need one?!

In the end, after the dust had settled and all the "transactions" had been done with - the UPA won the trust vote - a pyrrhic victory make no mistake (as Pyrrhus once famously said "One more such victory and we are lost"). On the bright side, at least the Chinese spies - er - the Left parties are no longer part of the government. The big bone of contention - the nuclear deal - has many an obstacle to deal with on a perilous road which will take it via the IAEA, NSG (guess who is in this group - you guessed it - our friends from the country with the giant wall) and the US Congress (choc-a-block with senators and other cold-war remnants waiting for their day in the spotlight, who were the inspiration behind the term "Non-proliferation Ayotollahs"). With all this, should we Indians expect to see a day soon where quiet Nuclear Power Stations have sprouted across India and the ubiquitous little generators become a thing of the past? Stranger things have happened. Now that they are unshackled from the Left nay-sayers, will the Congresswallahs show some gumption and proceed with much-needed reforms or will they spend the remaining months leading up to the elections, planning their survival strategy ?

While the nation was consumed with this prime-time-worthy TV sitcom called the trust vote, our Jehadi neighbours were up to their familiar treachery. I honestly think we were better-off with a pre-election Pakistan, when they were busy blowing each other up and had precious little time to worry about us. Now that the spoils of the elections have been shared by the victors, might as well get back to pleasing the crowds. Why do all the Indian authorities insist that there is a ceasefire at the LOC? When the Pakistan army feels free to open fire on Indian troops every week - it is NOT a ceasefire. And then there are the politicians of J&K - they have been busy letting the terrorists borrow their cell phones. "What's that - you are unable to get a cell phone in India - yeah our rules are a little ishtrict these days, here use mine.". Which brings me back to what I started off saying - I truly cannot think of another country in this world where this can happen. And please save me the "but we are a democracy" sermon - I don't think that term applies when there is such an astounding gap between what the people need and what the government delivers.

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Back to where it all started

So we finally did it. After years of planning, thinking and agonizing, we are back in India - for good. Left the lobster-lined shores of bean town Boston to the monsoon-laden skies of good old Bengaluru. It feels good to be back home.

Its been a decade since we lived here, but we had been visiting frequently enough that there were not many susprises. The bustling metropolis with the inner, outer and the in-between ring roads, the endlessly blaring horns of varying decibels, the listless apartment towers every hundred feet, the various hallis (hamlets) that have now been sucked into the vortex of the city, the cows, the dogs and the occasional swine, the spine-breaking lumps on the road that pass-off as "speed breakers", the sprawling tech parks in every corner of the city, the swanky new cars added to the roads everyday. the yellow-topped rickshaws, families of four on a Bajaj scooter - yada yada yada - you get the picture.

Elections were round the corner when we landed and my wife managed to vote - her name was in pristine condition in the hallowed voters list - I will be the man and admit to more than a twinge of jealousy. Yours truly has been missing in the voters list since memory can serve. Well, at least the state has a government now.

The little one loves the sun, the cousins and most of all the various accents she is able to absorb. The distances have become so much more because of the suburban sprawl - we live a good hour's drive away from our families. The first compromise I had to make was to agree to buy a gasoline-burning vehicle. I am yet to get any, but the chances of buying an electric car as I had originally planned seem less than slim now.

And the rains - how I had missed the wonderful aroma of the soil after a heavenly soaking. The malevolent storms that bend trees like putty and snap electricity poles like tooth picks. Never mind the swarms of mosquitoes that appear after the rain - one must learn to take the good with the bad. It feels good to be back home.

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Men or mice?

Regardless of which coalition is in power, the Government of India is notorious for making its citizens wring their hands in helplessness and hang their heads in shame - especially when it comes to foreign policy and conflict resolution. The Congress-led UPA administration has taken this to a new low with the way they have handled the Ogre to our East - China. There have been more than a handful of incidents in the recent months that were clear opportunities for the Indian administration to stand up, swing fists and even pull a few punches at the absurdly aggressive Chinese government. But that was not to be - big surprise. All the spineless leadership did, was to play the incidents down as "exaggerated by media", issue a few half-hearted cliched statements and refuse to make eye contact with the aggressor - basically tucked their tails between their legs and ran around like mice. To a newly resurgent India whose young population is scaling newer heights of success everyday, this is a very frustrating and humiliating experience. On the one hand, we have examples like Tata Motors announcing their arrival to the world by buying premium auto brands Land Rover and Jaguar - on the other hand we have ceded control of the nation's political destiny to chicken-hearted floosies who get slapped around by tiny failed states like Bangladesh and megalomaniacal giants such as China alike.

Take the recent reassertions by Hu Jintao's officials that the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh belongs to China followed by repeated incursions into that state by Chinese troops - what exactly did Sonia Gandhi's sycophants do? They just reiterated that "Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India" and denied any incursions by the Chinese! And we wonder why we get pushed around so much! It is simple, all our neighbours are aggressive towards India for one simple reason - because they can. There is no fear of retribution - they know they can poke us with a stick or beat us with a club and we will just take it and do nothing about it. And then the Tibet issue flared up again. Last week, dozens of protestors were brutalized and murdered by the Chinese troops in Lhasa. It was a chance for the Indian policymakers to make their position known on this issue and also use that for leverage with the Chinese. All they did instead was feel embarrassed about the whole thing and arrest the Tibetan protesters in India! And then the Chinese took it a notch higher and displayed their belligerence by summoning the Indian envoy to China - Nirupama Roy - in the middle of the night to express displeasure that Tibetan protesters had stormed the Chinese embassy! When Hollywood actor Richard Gere kissed Indian actress Shilpa Shetty on the stage during a charity event, hundreds of protesters crawled out of the woodwork to burn effigies, file a court case and even threaten to kill the actors - all on the basis that the event was disrespectful to women and was not the Indian way. Where are these imbeciles now? The Chinese summon a lady envoy in the middle of the night in a virulent act of intimidation to our country and nary a peep from our protesting herds ?! No disrespect to women there - no sir! Ask our CPI comrades - they will sell you books on how Ms.Rao is a conniving capitalist who deserved such treatment by the Chinese.

Here is what the Indian administration should have done. They should have announced an aggressive time-bound plan to shore up the border infrastructure in Arunachal Pradesh, doubled troop presence there and returned the Chinese favor by sending our troops patrolling into Chinese territory. When the Tibet issue blew up - they should have let the Tibetans in India protest in peace and smirked at the Chinese saying "Hey! Unlike you guys, we are a democracy - people are free to protest here". They should have given the Dalai Lama a bigger stage to speak out, made noises about how Tibet does not have enough autonomy and behind closed doors negotiated with the Chinese to revoke their senseless claim on Arunachal if they didn't want to be embarrassed during their moment of "Olympic glory". For China, who will do anything to be viewed by the rest of the world as a developed superpower, the thought of an embarrassing distraction during the Olympics would have been too much to take. Even if the tactics didn't work for India - at least we would have made it known that we are not afraid of standing up for the Tibetans. They should have even threatened to boycott the Olympics - it would have won enormous support from the rest of the world and China knows that. Now that would have been, looking the aggressor in the eye. During the recent Taiwan elections, India should have covertly or overtly supported the Democratic Progressive Party's Frank Hsieh who was less enthusiastic about ties with China - a clear signal to the Chinese that we can play their dirty games too. The operative words here are "should have" - I can come up with many "should-have-dones" - but reality is sadly different.

Led by Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, the entire cabal of ministers - be it Shivraj Patil, Pranab Mukherjee or A K Anthony - none of them have the vision, courage or leadership abilities to do the right thing for the country when faced with such aggression. How can they? They spend their time and energy on appeasing their pro-China Communist allies and staying in power. Will the young turks entering the political scene show more spunk? Are they capable of captaining this ship in the direction it needs to go to secure the future of its citizens? I don't care what party they belong to or what their political affiliations are - I would vote for them in a heart beat if they show me that they have what it takes.

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Pakistan's circle of destruction

The chaos in our neighbourhood (read Pakistan) has grown more lethal in recent weeks with the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. It is eerie how the same events repeat themselves in Pakistan - almost as reliably as the sun setting in the west every evening. Ever since Jinnah and the Muslim league carved out a new nation from the Northwestern part of India, that new country's political system never matured and has constantly oscillated between a few years of building tensions under a fragile elected government to full blown anarchy triggered by a military coup followed by an assassination. The recent assassination of Benazir Bhutto was no different than the killing of her father and brothers or for that matter the suspicious death of General Zia ul-Haq, another of Pakistan's infamous military dictators. Throw in the ever growing shadow of fundamentalist Islam, the national obsession of bleeding India, a nuclear weapons arsenal, the absurdly paradoxical love-hate relation with USA and the violent in-fighting among Sunni and Shia muslim communities and what you have is a raging inferno that is waiting to explode into a fireball the size of the moon.

Or will it? Is it possible that Pakistan is stuck in such a tight and infinite cycle of simmering unrest and military coups that all the doomsday theories associated with Pakistan will never come true? It is possible, but unlikely. The one big difference between the current situation and the past, is Al Qaeda. The international terror group has blended into the fabric of society in Pakistan like never before and plays a significant role in the future of the country. Not only have attacks become a common feature in Pakistan and in neighbouring Afghanistan, but attacks in western countries are being orchestrated from Pakistan. Hence the references to Pakistan as "terror central". The lines have blurred between various terror groups, Islamist activists in the military and intelligence communities and wahabi tribals creating an indecipherable tangle that makes it very hard if not impossible to target.

Pervez Musharraf stepped down from the post of army chief but retained the post of President despite vehement protests from the main opposition parties. His country is burning, but that does not stop him from galavanting around the world seeking support from leaders of other countries, spinning yarns about championing democracy. It is only a matter of time before the kernel of power transfers to someone else and Musharraf rushes to pick the country where he can seek asylum. The USA is too preoccupied in Iraq and its own upcoming election to take any concrete steps towards improving the situation unfolding in Pakistan. So much so that the one battle that matters - i.e. to save Afghanistan from the Taliban - has been faltering for a while now. The other NATO countries involved in Afghanistan are either disinterested or are under pressure back home to bring their troops home. Should Afghanistan fall again to the Taliban and the terror machine, it will spell disaster for India and the rest of the world. With all this, does anyone really believe that the upcoming elections in Pakistan will be free and fair? And even if it is, only the naive and the deluded really believe that any political leader who comes to power, can reign in the military-Islamist terror malaise.

Coalition politics - India's Kryptonite

There are two major political crises that have been looking to upset the applecart of India's progress for months now - one with the central government and the other with the state government of Karnataka - a state whose capital, Bangalore, plays a key role in the growth of the Indian economy. The issue with the central government revolves around the nuclear energy co-operation deal that India struck with the United States. The left parties who are part of the ruling coalition, spearheaded by the Communist Party of India - Marxist, have started a vicious campaign to prevent the deal from being operationalized. This is not the first instance of the left standing in the way of any progressive steps - the Congress-led UPA government has left a trail of shattered or buried initiatives in its three years of being in power.

The situation in Karnataka has been brewing for a while as well. In the 2004 elections, the electorate returned a fractured verdict making room for more coalition politics and dirty horse-trading. Congress and JD-S entered into another unholy marriage to form a government, but JD-S was never really happy that the Chief Minister post went to the Congress candidate Dharam Singh. So finally in early 2006, Kumarswamy, the son of JD-S chief Deve Gowda, staged a coup and entered into another coalition, this time with the BJP, to unseat the Congress-led government. The agreement this time was that Kumarswamy would be the Chief Minister for twenty months, with BJP's Yediyurappa as deputy chief minister (only thoughtless coalitions have a laughable "deputy CM") and Kumarswamy would then hand over power to the BJP. Would anyone really trust Deve Gowda and family? Well the BJP did, only because they wanted to grab power. No thoughts on whether the two parties can work with common goals for the state - who has the time for any of that. After sputtering along for twenty months with no significant achievement or policy to show for, this dysfunctional government bumped up against the transfer deadline on October 3rd. A couple of months before the deadline, there were already rumblings by Deve Gowda and his cronies that the power transfer would not happen. Sure enough the deadline came and passed, Kumarswamy refused to hand over the Chief Minister post to the Yediyurappa, BJP pulled themselves out of the coalition and crash fell the government. The governor of Karnataka prevented any further horse-trading and declared president's rule on the state. I have one word to describe this situation - yuccckkk!! How much lower can the political community in India sink? Thats nearly four precious years lost for the state.

The congress-led UPA government at the centre is no better off. In 2004 the elections once again returned a fractured verdict and it came down to which party can cobble together a coalition the fastest. The congress party jumped and created another Frankenstein called the "United Progressive Alliance" or the UPA, an alliance which included the communist left parties, an alliance which made as little sense as packing a balloon and a pin together. And since that day, the government has been in a constant state of paralysis, with the left blocking every move the government has tried to make which did not fit with China's designs for India. But most of that tames in comparison with the rabidity of their opposition to the nuclear energy co-operation deal that the government signed with the USA. The writing is on the wall that the deal will more than likely fizzle out because Prime Minister Singh and Congress Chairperson Sonia Gandhi don't have the mettle to stand up to the communist dinosaurs. Now, as a disclaimer, I must state that I am not sure if the nuclear deal, had it been operationalized, would have been a win or a loss for India. But, what I do know is the supply-demand ratio of electricity in India is abysmal and without fixing that, the country has no chance of significant progress. Could nuclear power help fix that - it is a possibility. Another thing that I do know is that the left parties have been consistent in opposing anything remotely progressive or has the smell of bringing India closer to the USA or most importantly goes against the wishes of their Chinese masters (which reads "anything good for India"). Therefore, by extension, anything that the left opposes, must be good for India. But, there you have it, the congress party clearly has its priorities right - stay in power at any cost, screw the country.

So, as part of the citizenry that has suffered through many insufferable coalitions, I submit that we change the constitution of India to a two-party system. Want to be a candidate in the elections - pick one of two parties that you want to be aligned with. What's that you say - you don't really like either of the parties? Well, you can go in as an independent candidate. But I want to float my own party you say? Too bad - suck it up. We, the people have spoken - we are tired of fractured verdicts, we are tired of clowns forming parties at the drop of a hat that represent a particular caste, subsect, same eye color, same taste in liquor - and whatever other asinine things bring people together. No more of that please. Once elected, we want the political representative to focus on keeping the people who voted her/him to power happy and not a raucous "ally" whose only job is to threaten to pull the rug. We want the elected government to focus on leading the nation forward and not on keeping alive an ill-matched coalition of cantankerous nay-sayers. That, sir, is why you are paid a salary by the people of India. With that, honourable judges of the Supreme court - I hand the baton to you - please, for the good of this country, run with it.

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60 years - a perspective

India celebrated it's 60th anniversary since gaining independence from the British empire on August 15th 1947. Sixty years back the priority of the hour was to establish the institutions needed to run the country, alleviate the poverty that had permeated in the four hundred years of foreign rule and provide education and basic amenities to the citizens. Sounds cliched, but in the past sixty years a lot has been accomplished, but there is still so much to do. There are many areas to focus on, one of which is currently in the eye of a political storm. So, what's new you say? I hear you.

India and the United States have been trying to put together a nuclear co-operation agreement that would allow the US to transfer technologies and materials to India to assist in it's nuclear energy program. India has been denied such access since conducting nuclear weapons tests in 1974 and 1998 and has developed its own indigenous technologies with laudable success. But, as things stand today, the electricity generated in India is so far behind the actual energy needs of its people and the growing economy, that diesel-powered generators are a common feature in every small, medium and large business across the country. Currently, nuclear energy is only 3.1% of the total electricity produced in India, with thermal energy being the source of nearly 65% of the total - thermal energy produced by dirty fuels such as coal and oil. Without some urgent and effective remediation, the energy situation can slowly but surely stall the economy and the country's overall progress, not to mention exacerbate global warming. Clearly, importing more oil and gas is not the right answer and even if there were more untapped coal reserves, it can only last so long. What is needed is renewable sources of energy. That translates to increased generation of hydro-electricity and significant investments in sources such as Solar, wind and nuclear energy. The most scalable option of these is nuclear energy - of course with significant safety measures to prevent a Chernobyl from happening - the country suffers from enough natural disasters and man-wrought destruction already - we don't need a nuclear accident of any proportion to add to that. Now having said this, I must clarify that this does not mean I automatically am in the cheerleading camp for the Indo-US nuclear agreement. While I do believe that India needs to urgently increase its electricity production using any safe means possible, I am not convinced that the agreement signed with the US administration is in India's best interests. Especially given the pains that the respective administrations are taking to explain their interpretation of the agreement which goes from "The deal is invalidated if India conducts another test", "The agreement virtually makes India an NPT signatory" to "India can conduct a nuclear test any time it chooses to". Prominent Indian nuclear scientists who were against the deal, forced the Indian administration to effect some changes to the agreement and eventually came out in support of it. But, for those of us not directly involved in the country's nuclear program, either the civilian or the military one, the administration has some explaining to do. Are we really concerned that we won't have the materials to build more nuclear weapons ? Comparing a dire need that affects the entire nation today to a secretive weapons program that everyone hopes we will never ever need, seems a bit, how do I put it....out of whack to me. But, with China and Pakistan as neighbours, the lines of reason are squiggly crests and troughs - perhaps too abberant for us simple minds to follow.

Now, what really gets my goat is the political brouhaha created by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), who are part of the motley coalition that is in power. They are threatening to pull support to the Congress party-led UPA government, if the nuclear deal is operationalised. I feel compelled to mention here that I predicted disaster when the Congress party allied with the communist dinosaurs, just to grab power. If I were the vindictive type, I would point to the Congress leadership and do a "ha-ha", ala Nelson Muntz from the Simpsons. Yes, the opposition parties, led by the BJP, are having a field day with this as well - but since when do Indian political parties put the country's interests ahead of their own? The Communist party's teeth gnashing does not fit into this pattern - they are already part of the ruling government. So, what is their motive here? Sudden concern for India's nuclear weapons program? I think not. These are the same dinosaurs who were against India defending itself against China's offensive in the 1961 war. What is likely going on here is that the Chinese masters have conveyed to their CPI hand puppets, their concern for the nuclear deal with the USA and how that dilutes their plan of keeping India more than a few notches below China on the economic and military scale. Where is the infuriation at this treachery in the guise of political activism ? Where are the hordes of protestors demanding that the CPI honchos be arrested and tried? This is the same country where a corporate icon who authored one of the greatest business success stories in India that created thousands of jobs and helped uplift the Indian economy into a new zone, was accused of "insulting the national anthem" for something so trivial that one would need a schizoid imagination to sense anything remotely insulting in it. And while Mr.Murthy had to put up with national humiliation, our egregious communist comrades the like of Brinda Karat, Sitaram Yechury and Prakash Karat don't get so much as a raised eyebrow. Out of whack seems to be the theme of the day. The left wing in the US is not to be left too far behind - the non-proliferation militants have been yelling themselves hoarse that the nuclear agreement with India flies in the face of the NPT and that the US government is committing a grave sin by providing such access to India. But deep in their guts they know that what it boils down to is leverage. The US has leverage over India - it can threaten sanctions and deny access to technology when it chooses to, said nuclear agreement not withstanding, and there isn't much India can do. Likewise, the CPI-M has leverage - they can threaten to withdraw support to the coalition government and there isn't much the Congress party can do, except perhaps call their bluff and hope that for the CPI, the lust to stay in power supersedes the subservience to their "chairman".

For reasons that are perhaps best explained by Jack Finney's "Invasion of the body snatchers", there will continue to be a faction of my fellow citizens who will cast their ballot in favor of the CPI and they are free to exercise their franchise anyway they want. But, if sixty years from now, India still has an impoverished majority in its populace, there will be plenty of blame to go around, but the CPI and their marxist-bots can pat themselves on their backs for playing the protagonists. Do the right thing now, Prime Minister Singh and dump the CPI from your government.

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How to kill a farmer

If you peruse Indian newspapers of the past few years, one news item, among others, that you will find to repeat over and again is that of farmers committing suicide in India. Recently, this unfortunate pattern has been more prevalent in, but certainly not limited to, the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. Have our senses been pounded into immunity by these headlines, that they just become another set of words with no meaning ? "Five more farmers commit suicide in..." - yaaawn - move to the sports page. Perhaps we are all guilty of this - it is hard to even begin to empathize with a farmer in some remote village that I have never heard of, who is so crippled by debt that he sees only death as a way out - sounds so far from the reality of my humming laptop computer on which I am reading the news in the comfort of my living room. As apathetic and heartless as that sounds, it is far less grievous than what the Government of India and the respective state administrations have done.

The numbers are appalling - "Every five hours, a farmer commits suicide", "More farmer suicides in Karnataka than Vidarbha", "Farmer suicides in Andhra Pradesh" - and this is just a sampling. The administration's response has been languid, to put it generously, in the form of announcing a lame "package" as our politicos love to call all their half-hearted, severely temporary measures. Is that all, messrs Manmohan Singh, Chidambaram and the state governments can come up with? Is there not a single brain in the administration who can come up with a creative and long-term solution for this crisis? Doubtlessly, the problem is not one with a trivial solution and likely does not have have a single magic-bullet answer. But, surely a reasonably intelligent mix of economists and political entities with an earnest concern can come up with a solution better than just an aid package ? "Earnest concern" is probably the operative characteristic that is most lacking here. Consider Mohammed Yunus' and his Grameen Bank's microcredit solution for the poor in Bangladesh for which he won the Nobel peace prize in 2006. The Indian administration should consider catalyzing a rapid adaptation of such microcredit institutions to make available funds for the rural poor. Private money lenders, banks which disburse loans in an unscientific manner and other exploitative sources are what the farmers turn to when they need money for rearing their crops. It is quite obvious that any solution must involve the creation of a non-exploitative and more sensible source of money for the farmers.

There is also a lot of strife in agrarian regions of India, where the government is looking to setup "Special Economic Zones (SEZs)" for the manufacturing sector. The conflict is between farmers who don't want give up their land or are dissatisfied with the compensation offered and the industries that need space to develop. Indeed, this is part of the struggle that a country reshaping itself from an agricultural economy into a more balanced one of manufacturing, agriculture and services, has to face up to. However, it is critical that the balance is very carefully established and one side is not elevated at the expense of another. There will be lobbyists, centrists, leftists, rightists, activists and factions that will each further its own agenda and it is important to look at each conflict objectively and do the right thing for the larger good. Consider the pitched battle being fought in Singur, West Bengal. The West Bengal government has allowed mammoth business house Tata to acquire agricultural land in a small hamlet called Singur, to build a large automobile plant. The farmers are unhappy - some are despondent that they will be left with no means of making a living if their land is taken away while others are unhappy with the compensation offered by the government. Joining this stage is an incendiary gamut of politicians seeking mileage out of the controversy - the result being a shoving match that has polarized the two factions. The government in WB is ruled by the Communist Party of India Marxist (CPI-M) - so it is very surprising that they have shown any inclination to industrialize. So, what is the right thing to be done here? A large factory can provide employment to hundreds and create secondary businesses needed to support such an operation - not to mention the potential benefit to the thousands of ordinary Indian citizens who are shareholders of the company. On the other hand, what of the poor farmers once their land is sold? Sure - they get some money from the government - but can that substitute a lifetime of farming income? And while there is a good chance someone in their family can gain employment at the new plant when it comes up - it might not neccessarily be appealing to be unskilled labor in the plant. It is all about balance again. For starters, the government has to have an equitable and open process that provides fair market compensation to the farmers whose land is acquired. There is uncertainty about this, that the government has done nothing to clear. Also, the government has to have a very scientific process of identifying the land that is consumed for the plant, taking into consideration the type of crops that the land is used to grow and the effect stopping that production can have. Again, there are varying versions of how the land was identified. There is also a growing fear amongst some factions about food security - the rationale being, if all these SEZs reduce the area of land used for agriculture, sooner or later we will start experiencing a shortage of food grains and will have to import them. It is difficult to assess if this is a credible fear, but it is certainly a very important discussion that needs to be studied seriously. Gopal Krishna Pillai, who is the Commerce Secretary and also the chairman of the SEZ approval board, made a case that SEZs are good for India and stated that only .000012 percent of arable land is being allocated to SEZs. Now, being the diplomat that he is, he might be using distorted interpretation of facts to make his point - but even if the reality is different, is it significantly different to make a dent in India's food security? Food for thought - ahem - no pun intended.

Eventually, we have to rely on the administrative powers to have a good sense of the balance needed between industrialization and fostering a healthy agricultural sector. Relying only on an underdeveloped agricultural economy did not serve us very well as the past decades have demonstrated - so modernizing the agricultural sector and enabling the others such as manufacturing and services to grow as well is key. Reckless and haphazard industrialization can be perilous to the environment, the farming community and the food security of the nation. Is our government capable of steering the nation on the right path of balance? My fingers are crossed.

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