John Elliott, who I believe is a fabulous correspondent when it comes to talking about South Asia, has this article put up on Jyoti Basu. It starts very aptly:

India desperately needs charismatic and respected political leaders who can lead coherent policy-based opposition to the Congress Party and its coalition governments. Only two men have qualified for this statesman role in recent years. One is Jyoti Basu of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), who died yesterday aged 95. The other is Atal Bihari Vajpayee, 85, a former prime minister and leader of the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), who is in ill health and is no longer politically active.

The article explains why Jyoti Basu should have been the Prime Minister when opportunity had arrived once. (It was the time when Deve Gowda, instead, became the PM).
Read the complete article here.

Vir Sanghvi’s article on Manu Sharma and the parole issue.

In the case of Manu Sharma, parole was granted for a reason that is already so unusual as to raise eyebrows — Manu wanted to check how his business was doing. Two other reasons were tagged on. His grandmother had just died and his mother was unwell.The Delhi Police, which was asked to investigate the reasons, reported entirely accurately that a) Manu’s business was doing okay, b) his grandmother had died a few months ago so the rites were over and c) that his mother was fine.

Vir makes an important point with this paragraph of his:

Can it be a coincidence that even after the case hit the headlines, Opposition parties offered only a tepid response? There were no calls for the chief minister to resign. No demands for fresh elections. No jail bharo campaigns, etc.When it comes to its children, the political class is united. It’s them first. And it is the rest of us afterwards.

What is needed the most right now? A political reform? Or an improved judiciary and police machinery? Where do we even start from?

A good friend of mine (and a former classmate as well) left a comment on the Facebook Wall asking me why I hadn’t posted here for a long time now. Well, here I am and I would like to thank BV for getting me back on track on this blog. I must mention here that he runs an excellent blog on movies – Srini at the Movies

There have been many things to update, but just not enough motivation or time to write them down here. However, off-late, I have been more into micro-blogging (twitter etc) than blogging. Some of my recent updates on Twitter are:

Bhadmanus – A play in Hindi at Rangashankara on Tue, 31st March. Telebooking on 9739803104 , 9739096270 | Onlinebooking: www.indianstage.in

Just finished reading book 1 (Kapilavastu) of the series Buddha by Osamu Tezuka. Its a beautiful graphic novel. Recommended read.

Watched Majid Majidi’s highly acclaimed film – The Song of Sparrows. Visual metaphors abound and make you think – http://tinyurl.com/d9ye9w

Coming back to more interesting details, the media frenzy over the upcoming elections has been fun to watch. Every news channel worth its hosts is selling the election fever. One such piece of news was that of the emergence of a professionals’ political party – which aims to get into politics on the strength of the proverbial educated class of the society. The television campaigns urging people to vote has worked well on me and I am ready and armed to go to the polling booth. Bring the candidates on the inspection stage. The only problem, however, is that I am not quite sure whom to vote for. All the parties currently contesting have dubious track records and not-so-morally-correct candidates. I am aware that there is a vote to “not vote” , but I hope I don’t end up doing that. Because in that case, I would have had no say in the government that will be formed post these elections.

The emergence of the Third Front has been a welcome addition to the already full newspaper columns. It wasn’t enough to have the Left and the Right. We needed a third direction, which will perhaps not take us anywhere, but at least it is an option. Then there are the inflammatory speeches by certain candidates and retaliation from the others.

At one point in time, don’t you feel really disgusted at this whole song and dance show? At this mad craving for power at no matter what cost?
And we running to the poll booths to satisfy the hunger of these authority-seeking supposed servants of the public? I don’t know about you, but I do feel disgusted on seeing this crazy circus during pre-elections.

Yet, I shall go vote. Because I also believe that only by voting can we bring about a change. It might be a slow, very slow process. But it will be worth the effort. And, lest you forget, it will give the news channels something to talk about.

Enjoy.

In this previous post of mine, I had spoken about the discrimination that people from other religions and castes continue to face in our society. In this context, it was very heartening to hear Omar Abdullah’s speech during the UPA’s confidence motion debate.

His speech began with the following words:

“I am a Muslim and I am an Indian,” he began. “And I see no distinction between the two. I don’t know why should I fear the nuclear deal. It is a deal between two countries which, I hope, will become two equals in the future,” said Abdullah. “The enemies of Indian Muslims are not America or deals like these. The enemies are the same as the enemies of all those who are poor — poverty, hunger, lack of development and the absence of a voice.”

While the BJP, the Left and other parties in that huddle continued to say that the nuclear deal was anti-Muslim, here was an opposition leader trying to bring some unity back in the thoughts of people. It is clear that politicians play the divide and rule game very often and this is becoming more and more disgusting as time progresses. I am glad that we have younger and more thoughtful leaders like Omar Abdullah in the Parliament, a place which currently houses at least 50 criminals.

Excerpts from his interview with The Indian Express:

“There has been a concerted effort to create this perception that first the Muslims are against the nuclear deal with America and also that the nuclear deal with America is anti-Muslim. This is all rubbish and this perception is being created by those political parties who always want to brand Muslims to be against the interests of the country,” he said. “That’s why I did emphasise that I am a Muslim and I am an Indian and that the two are not mutually exclusive”.

Read the interview and excerpts of his speech here.

The popular dubbing right now, I am told by a close friend, goes as ‘Singh is King’. The UPA government managed to scrape through and is now in power without the nudging Left.

I watched bits of the debate and it was appalling to see the stature of politicians who have the nation’s blood supply in their hands. Although Manmohan Singh did not get a chance to speak, he submitted his speech to the Speaker, and which is now made available for the public.

Read the entire speech here (I highly recommend you do so).

The conclusion of the speech stands out brilliantly:

The Management and governance of the world’s largest, most diverse and most vibrant democracy is the greatest challenge any person can be entrusted with, in this world. It has been my good fortune that I was entrusted with this challenge over four years ago. I thank with all sincerity the Chairperson of the UPA, the leaders of the Constituent Parties of the UPA and every member of my Party for the faith and trust they reposed in me. I once again recall with gratitude the guidance and support I have received from Shri Jyoti Basu and Sardar Harkishen Singh Surjeet.

I have often said that I am a politician by accident. I have held many diverse responsibilities. I have been a teacher, I have been an official of the Government of India, I have been a member of this greatest of Parliaments, but I have never forgotten my life as a young boy in a distant village.

Every day that I have been Prime Minister of India I have tried to remember that the first ten years of my life were spent in a village with no drinking water supply, no electricity, no hospital, no roads and nothing that we today associate with modern living. I had to walk miles to school, I had to study in the dim light of a kerosene oil lamp. This nation gave me the opportunity to ensure that such would not be the life of our children in the foreseeable future.

Sir, my conscience is clear that on every day that I have occupied this high office, I have tried to fulfill the dream of that young boy from that distant village.

The greatness of democracy is that we are all birds of passage! We are here today, gone tomorrow! But in the brief time that the people of India entrust us with this responsibility, it is our duty to be honest and sincere in the discharge of these responsibilities. As it is said in our sacred texts, we are responsible for our actions and we must act without coveting the rewards of such action. Whatever I have done in this high office I have done so with a clear conscience and the best interests of my country and our people at heart. I have no other claims to make.

To give a personal opinion, I stand for the nuclear deal. Hence, I am glad that the UPA got the go ahead to pursue the deal.

In the last budget, the Finance Minister had announced a significantly sized loan waiver for farmers. While this had economists starting to talk and the pro-farmer lobby to celebrate, I was keen to know how this plan was implemented and what is its real impact on the people concerned.

After some searching, I found that Mint has been running a sort of constant coverage of events related to the loan waiver.

There are some interesting things happening out there, cut-off from our inflation glazed spectacles:

1. On Day 6 of the Yavatmal, Maharashtra coverage, the report states that there is a new class of farmers who are agitated and disappointed. Reason? The Government had promised that waivers will be given to farmers holding lands upto 5 acres in size. Now, in the Yavatmal region, the measurement system adopted is a traditional one where 2.2 hectares make up 5 acres. According to the Government and the new measurement system, 2 hectares make up 5 acres. Therefore, many farmers who hold 5 acres according to the traditional measurement system will lose out on the waiver. In fact, this makes one question the idea of a size limit. What the article states is that in areas like Vidharbha, the productivity is low and hence farmers need to have larger holdings of land in order to earn on par with farmers in other areas.

2. In Mandya district of Karnataka, a farmer M. Maraiah has a loan of Rs. 10,000 against him. This loan has been waived off. Reason for Maraiah to celebrate right? Wrong. He had already sold off that land since he was unable to pay back that loan ages ago. So the waiver didn’t really make any difference to him. His current profession: Daily wage labourer. Agriculture is just not viable, he says.

3. In the village of Sampla, Haryana, the farmers don’t care about this whole waiver stuff. Real estate prices are so high here that almost every farmer is a potential millionaire. No debates happening here.

4. In Bharatpur, Rajasthan, less than 4 out of 10 farmers default in their loans. Quite naturally, majority of the people are highly discontent on this waiver scheme. An excerpt:

A farmer from Talimpur village, who took a Rs2 lakh loan for sinking a borewell on his farm, was also all set to start paying off his dues. “I could not start paying back last year because the crop failed,” said the farmer, who identified himself only as Ashok. “This year, with early rains, I was thinking of paying off but now I am expecting to qualify for the loan waiver.”

Check out Mint’s complete coverage here. There are views of bankers too, which convey a different picture from what the politicians say. I found the insights very interesting. Economics isn’t really just about demand and supply, is it?

We were away for a week-long vacation, and that explains the silence around here.

The vacation did us more good than we had imagined. A week cut-off from mobile phones and internet connection is, trust me, a good thing for you.
I, of course, had withdrawal symptoms but in the end emerged victorious.

Coming back to Bangalore was a good thing (There is a lot of ‘good’ used in this post for some reason). I saw some witty advertisement hoardings asking Bangaloreans to vote in the forthcoming elections. There are equally witty radio ads as well. As a law-abiding and civic-sense-prevailing concerned citizen, I too want to vote. I have voted in the past, and will most likely vote this time around as well.

However, in the past, I have voted for candidates solely on the parties they represented. A Vajpayee’s persona automatically translated to a vote for the BJP, a Manmohan Singh translated to a vote for the Congress and so on. I knew little about the candidate of my constituency. This time around, I want to know more about whom I am electing. Ideally, I would want to engage in a discussion with the candidate to know about his/her long-term and short-term plans for my constituency. His/her knowledge about various issues and their standing on certain points of debate. All this, sadly, is not possible in our country. Of course I haven’t tried it yet, but I am not clear even about the starting point. Are there public forums held by potential candidates where they encourage discussions with the public or foster debates and exchanges of ideas? I haven’t seen them. All I have seen so far are rallies where the candidates proclaim various goods (that word again) for the masses (that word again). No concern about basic economics or about real issues.

Faced with such a situation, how should one vote? How should one react to those ads running all over Bangalore’s radio stations, shouting at you – “Ree, vote maadri“. Sure, I want to vote for the right candidate. But, how on earth can I evaluate whether he/she is the right candidate or not?

On a related note, Chilli sends the following links via mail:
The ABCs of the Candidates
The Background information of the various Candidates

Foreign Policy and Prospect have come up with a list of Top 100 Public Intellectuals. (Link obtained via Cosmic Variance).

The list includes the following people from India:

Ramachandra Guha – Historian
Ashis Nandy – Political Psychologist
Sunita Narain – Environmentalist
V.S. Ramachandran – Neuroscientist (Richard Dawkins calls him the “Marco Polo of neuroscience”)
Amartya Sen – Development Economist

Also, you can vote for your top 5 public intellectuals out of this list to decide who should get the top honours.
The criteria of selection has been to consider those who have had the maximum impact on public discussions related to various matters of public importance.

From one of the graphs depicted on the site, it was interesting to see that a majority of the top 100 are political scientists. And in the minority are Environmentalists.
I suppose this confirms the trend of minimal environmental concern that the public has as compared to its focus on politics and economics? The US Presidential Elections vs. Global Warming campaigns is a good analogy eh?

A couple of days ago I watched Steven Spielberg’s Munich. Interesting movie and I suppose I am late in the day in talking about it.

Today early morning (which is close to 7 am), I open the main door to pick up the morning newspaper. As I bend to pick up the strewn pages of the two papers, a horde of men enter my street.

I pick up the paper and look at these people. I am sure it was quite a sight for them to see this person standing there in pajamas and t-shirt, hair dishevelled and holding a bunch of crumpled newspaper pages.
There were roughly around 20 of them, all wearing different colours and hence not looking like a team. However, there was a sense of hurriedness about them which made me look at them. There was hardly anyone up and about on the street. Seeing me, their eyes lit up and they came towards my gate.

“You speak Kannada?”, he asked.

“Yes”, I answered in my trying-to-be-neutral accent. I added a “Sir” for added effect.

“Good. I want to inform you that this area is now falling under the ABC constituency”, he said in pure and impeccable English. After that, he added a smile.

I had just woken up so I tried to register what it meant for me.

“Okay, nice to know sir”, I offered.

“So, welcome to this constituency”, he held out his hand over my gate and continued to smile. I shook his hand gratefully and said I am glad to be welcomed.

All the other people smiled with some sort of satisfaction, as though the day’s work was done.

I turned back with the newspapers in my hand to go back inside. One of the guys in that crowd lingered at my gate and called me back with a whisper.

“He is also the candidate for our party”, he spoke slowly, tilting his head towards the person who spoke to me and was now walking away.

“Oh, nice”, I again offered.

“His name is Mr. DEF and of course you know our party”, he smiled and pointed at the banner he was carrying.

I smiled and returned inside. Some of the people were clapping as the party leader returned into the group of people standing in the middle of the street. They turned around and went back in the direction from where they came. It was as though they wanted to talk about the new leader to someone, anyone.

The Mrs. and I stop by at a restaurant to have breakfast on our way to work. We have our fare of dosas and coffee and I suddenly notice an elderly gentleman sitting opposite our table. I instantly recognize that face, and walk up to him.

“Sir”, I interrupt his conversation and tell him my name.

“I am from your school sir, passed out more than 10 years ago from there”, I tell to my former principal.

He looks up, smiles at me and as soon as he heard I was an alumnus, holds my hand and leads me to sit next to him.

“I am an old man now and my memory is no longer very good. But I am very pleased to meet you”

“Thank you sir. It has been more than a decade since I passed from the school”, I continued.

“Tell me. After 10 years, are you a happy man?”, he asked with the customary smile with which he greeted anyone who approached him back then.

“Yes sir”, I tell him. He remembered my father’s name. I tell him he is no more.

“Very sorry to hear that. Are you married?”

“Yes sir”, and I introduce my wife to him. I found adding the ‘sir’ bit a lot more appropriate and reverent than the sir I had used earlier in the morning.

“Good. It was very nice meeting you”, the old familiar smile on his face said.

We return back to our table and head off to our respective work places. What I take away with me is a feeling of having met someone who had significantly impacted my life, maybe in an indirect way, and I had an air of gratefulness around me.

I had used “sir” to address two different kind of people – one was a political leader who had the potential to influence my life and the other was a teacher who had already left his impact on me. The word used was the same, but the feelings were entirely different.