Anpadh, Ganwar and Nalayak

Posted on August 31, 2011 by indra

Om Puri called MPs ‘anpadh’, ‘ganwaar’, ‘nalayak’. Angry parliamentarians moved privilege motion. Speaker has admitted. Are these words unparliamentarian?

Anpadh is one who is not educated. According to Lalu, ‘bidya se buddhi nahin aati, buddhi se bidya aati hai’, that means intelligence does not come out of education, education comes out of intelligence. And all MPs have the intelligence, where as the highly educated Anna team are only educated. Unfortunately, Lalu doesn’t practise the famous Sanskrit sloka that says ‘bidya dadati binayam’ that means ‘education must give humility’.

Ganwaar is one with traits of the villagers. It, in English, can only mean those who don’t know the urban manners.

Nalayak is one who is not conformist.

Why did the two stalwarts from Bihar got so excited. Moreover, the parliamentarians must understand the anger and perception of the people at Ramlila and change themselves by their deeds.

Saturday August 27, was a special historic day for the country. Both houses were discussing a very serious issue that was to decide if Anna Hazare on a hunger strike for 12 days would break his fast. The whole country, for a change, was watching Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha TV channels that day. Both, the leader of the house, Pranab Babu and the leader of opposition delivered one of the best speeches. The others also followed almost with the same gusto.

But when Sharad Yadav came to speak, he decided to play jester for the MPs. He mocked in his typical rustic manner Anna Team members even naming some. He didn’t spare even digital media. Lalu followed Sharad Yadav and kept on entertaining MPs. Many of MPs kept on asking for more.

I give below some samples:

“One former police officer is lampooning us…. She will teach us politics…. She has enjoyed the benefits of government service while we have been on the streets and struggled.” Everyone can guess the person he referred. Can he be compared with her?

“People here roam around India Gate with their dogs, eat ice creams and then decide to go to Ramlila.” Will Sharad still hold to his perception?

And in his further exasperation, Sharad attacked at small screen, “Ye dabba has robbed us of our night sleep. Please do something and shut them.”

And look at the Lalu’s advice.

“Sab khela NGO ka hai (NGOs are behind everything). Keep NGOs out of Lokpal and the agitation will end.”

At least the actors from the Anna’s stage didn’t say anything so clearly against a particular MP.

Why do the trio of Bihar- Sharad, Lalu, and Ram Bilash keep on self- aggrandizing or play the same divisive cards of injustice to the minority, dalit and reservation every time and every where? Has corruption anything to do with that. Why can’t Lalu and Ram Bilash reconcile that they are failed leaders even in their own state and getting more and more into as historical figures with no contemporary relevance?

And it is not only me who thought so poorly of these two stalwarts from Bihar. Why should they keep on tarnishing the image of Bihar?

I wish the parliamentarians give up the idea of taking up the priviledge motion.

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Manmohan’s Credibility Loss and Alternative

Posted on August 29, 2011 by indra

Anna’s win certainly has exposed Manmohan and his total ineffective governance. Rahul Gandhi not only proved himself poor in assisting Manmohan to salvage the damage done in making multiple mistakes in handling Anna’s hurricane. Rather the way Rahul tried to get into the issue through his speech after a long silence stunned the youth and those who thought him as capable enough to handle the responsibility of the country. Perhaps Rahul wants to wait. And even if the party wished, Rahul perhaps is not having that self confidence that is necessary, otherwise he would not have abstained totally from the Saturday deliberations in parliament when a new history was getting written. He would have become a main character of the story but he didn’t try for it and for many such as the students of IIT, he became a minor villain.

Manmohan with a little proactive initiative could have stolen the show that went perfect with his saluting Anna but there after he allowed the role to slip out to Pranab Mukherji again and Pranab played with all elegance and statesmanship.

And the question and justification of the continuance of Manmohan has become a subject of wise speculation. India Today has written, “The sheer absence of leadership has ripped apart the credibility of the Government and raised questions about whether the prime minister can continue.”

I wonder why Manmohan and more so Rahul could hear the voice of millions of Indians and particularly of the crowd of young men and women from middle class, business community and even technocrats that kept on swelling from day one.

Manmohan couldn’t live up to the legacy as the prime minister of a billion plus nation even when the absence of Sonia provided him with the golden opportunity to prove the nation otherwise. The total management of the confrontation with Anna Hazare and every act of the government since August 16, be it the arrest and Tihar, was the Manmohan’s responsibility. I wonder he was too confident with Kapil Sibal and Chidambaram who could make Ramdev look pigmy.

Manmohan Singh in the process did not only lose his middle-class constituency but also fallen in the eyes of young MPs. The old guards were already loath to accept him as prime minister anyway.

As Dipankar Gupta writes, ‘Quite clearly, the youth appear to have forgotten Manmohan Singh’s academic past. Instead, they tend to see him today as just another politician. If Manmohan Singh appears to have lost his intellectual starch it is because he has repeatedly aligned his actions with the logic of politics (worse, coalition politics).

It is unfortunate that Manmohan has aged and is difficult to make him change to suddenly become effective and proactive. For example, why should it take seven months to appoint the head of NHAI, the vital for building roads? How many years will be needed to bring a suitable Land Acquisition Bill so that a company like POSCO ready to pour in $ 12 billion of investment would not be waiting for six years? How many Annas will be required to bring change in the governance of the country?

And it is the right time that Congress and Sonia interest of the nation decode for a change at the top, perhaps with Pranab Mukherji at least up to the time Congress wins again and Rahul dares to sit in the hot chair.

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Nano Sales: Case of Market Research or Marketing

Posted on August 26, 2011 by indra

Images-Nano Cars

I wonder if Tata Motors had undertaken a detail market research for Nano before deciding to set up a plant for it or it was totally unilateral initiative, decision or wish of Ratan Tata as expressed by him publicly that was carried out by the technocrats and managers of the company as was the practice in good old days. Even I myself experienced similar imposition of the CEOs or the private owner.

All along I have been expecting and promoting for the generation of a big volume for this car to become a globally accepted entry car.Nano sales in this July are just dismal. The number slipped to 3,260 units from 9,000 units in the corresponding month last year.

Tata Motors, as reported, have planned to set up plants in Latin America, Africa as well as South=East Asia. It has plans to promote and sell Nanos to the employees of the companies of Tata Group. Can it keep the production of Nanos growing and reaching the scale expected by the company?

Rural India could have provided a good market for it. But as all the roads that its rural owners are to use in course of their routine outings are not good enough, its large scale rural penetration will take time.

However, perhaps there are other sectors with good potentials where Tata Motors could have targeted to sell Nanos.

In every family that is having one or bigger cars must have one Nano too. It can be used for taking kids to the schools, coaching classes or tutors or to send the driver to buy few loafs of bread or vegetables. It can always be a kitty car unless the owner needs to show off her status through a huge car.

For the Gen Y entering job market with many with financial constraints, Nano can be made an attractive buy as the first car.

For, old men like me, living in a quiet little town or NCR with gradually reducing outside engagements, Nano can certainly be a choice. Unfortunately, I have not found any one to approach me or any of my friends to sell Nano. Tata Motors missed on marketing Nano initially with a hope of automatic queuing up of its dealers by its buyers. It must go for marketing now to generate a consistently growing volume.

Nano’s launch created a wave of India’s arrival in product design. The product was born out of a dream of Ratan Tata.

Will Tata Motors make his dream coming true, and realized?

Can the professors of IIMs and other top management schools of India and abroad make this a case study or a subject of a research project?

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Government Playing Smart

Posted on August 25, 2011 by indra

If the country believes the doctors attending on Anna, the situation is really becoming grim. But somehow it has become equally difficult to trust Manmohan or for that matter even the leadership of BJP. I don’t know why Manmohan is not taking a respectful exit and why Rahul and Sonia are not appreciating the need and agreeing for it. Why the other old man of BJP, LK Advani, is not hanging his boots and leaving the affairs to the leadership at the next levels, that doesn’t seem to relish his initiatives?

Manmohan has dropped his close aid Kapil Sibal and selected Pranab Mukharji to negotiate. And Pranab seems to be avoiding direct involvement and using Khurshid as intermediary that is causing misunderstanding and increasing the suspicion about the intention of the Party and the government.

Why are they negotiating in a way used for bargaining with the trade unionists?

One, who watched the proceedings of both houses of the parliament on August 24, the ninth day of Anna’s fast and read the opening statement made by the prime minister, can easily get confused. Why are the government and the prime minister playing smart with Anna?

On one hand it declared that it had sent the Jan Lokpal Bill to the standing committee. The other hand the prime minster statement says, it has requested the standing committee to consider Jan Lokpal Bill along with one from Aruna Ray.

“Accordingly, I wrote to him requesting him to end his fast and reiterated Government’s intention to pass the best possible Lokpal legislation with inputs from civil society and on the basis of the broadest possible consensus. I said that the matter was with the Standing Committee and the Committee was entitled to consider not only the Bill introduced by the Government but the Jan Lokpal Bill and other versions like those prepared by Shrimati Aruna Roy as well.”

I don’t understand why Jan Lokpal Bill as such can’t be the lone base to come out with the final bill? I don’t know why it can’t be introduced straight in the parliament for debate. Is it because of no precedence or the constitution prohibits it?

Different headlines in media are just emphasizing the Prime minister’s wish phrase of a strong and effective Lokpal with no breakthrough move to show that it really means that.

All the parties are singing their own tunes and there is hardly anyone to evolve a common tune in the interest of the old man and the nation. Perhaps they all are waiting when the health of Anna goes critical.

It’s unfortunate; the government appears to be directionless, the country doesn’t have a prime minister with guts and following to take a clear decision.

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Anna: Lessons for Gen Y

Posted on August 23, 2011 by indra

I pray that Anna doesn’t fast unto death against the insensitive and adamant leadership in the government. But the elite of the country and particularly younger generation must take some lessons from him, and vow to something more than only rocking to Anna’s beat. He is just one ordinary person with his root rural India intact. His honesty of purpose is weighing heavier than the intelligent and highly educated prime minister and ministers who are very good in the art of talking. Today, his call for making a corruption free India is resonating all over the world. I wish he succeeds. The battle for his version of Lokpal Bill is symbolic. If God provides a long life to him as all the people of India wish and must look for, he will go for eradicating many equally difficult bottlenecks to the country’s real development.

A lot of credit, if Anna succeeds, will certainly go to the overwhelming and exhilarating support of the Gen Next. And the older generation is looking for more from the Gen Next.

Fast is part of the Indian culture and the younger generation should appreciate that. It is not only for a cause but for self improvement too. It doesn’t weaken, it makes one stronger. It was interesting to learn that many students of IITs and IIMs have taken a vow of taking one meal a day till Anna fasts. Perhaps the whole country would have gone for that.

However, there is one more aspect from Anna’s life that one must learn. His contribution to make his small village, Ralegan Siddhi (Images), a model village to be followed by all coming from rural India and succeeding in life much more materialistically than what Anna achieved.

Anna after his army career came to his village. Anna’s first task was to uproot alcoholism. He could succeed in that and then went for establishing a Grain bank with the objective of providing food security to needful farmers during times of drought or crop failure. And his next target was the water management. With his various endeavours, he could completely transform the economy of the village. Why can’t this one aspect be emulated by all of us with successful careers in private or government sector or the entrepreneurs? Why do we forget about the villages where we were born? Why do we become one of those urbanites who look down upon the villagers?

As reported, “when Hazare came in Ralegan Siddhi in 1975 only 70 acres (28 ha) of land was irrigated, Hazare converted it into about 2,500 acres (1,000 ha). Earlier only 300 liters of milk was sold from the village. Now the milk production has gone up to 4000 liters. The per capita income of the villagers has increased from Rs. 225 to Rs. 2500.”

Even after 64 years of independence. 90% or more of Indian villages have neither the faculties of quality education for the children nor healthcare for the population. The same politician clan with different names in the system, be it village heads, MLA or MP are happy and content by enhancing the number of the people under poverty line, BPL and claiming for more doles from the government so that they and their men can become richer.

Can more and more of the countrymen and those who retire from defence forces follow the path of Anna to serve their village and help in transforming it?

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Anna Wave: Dissenting Voices and Worries

Posted on August 22, 2011 by indra

I got a funny idea last night. Would Manmohan Singh go for a fast for three days to appreciate what a fast means, if he really believes rationally that his Lokpal Bill will create an effective and strong Lokpal to fight the cancer of corruption or is better than one drafted by Anna’s team? After all, Manmohan and Anna are in the same age bracket, equally fit and equally emotional about their views.

Why could he call Anna on phone and talk with him? What is the ego? Alternatively, if Manmohan really means his readiness for ‘some give and take; and open discussion or negotiations, why can’t he depute someone who can sit with Anna and thrash out the differences?

Why does he or Congress try to test the sustainability of the movement including the number of days Anna can fast and the strength of Anna’s following by the number of people coming to Ramlila ground or parading or demonstrating in the streets and parks of the metros and towns?

Why can’t Manmohan appreciate the risks involved in postponing his engagement for long enough to see some major mishaps to happen besides the long term consequential damages to the interests of the country?

Is he not pained by seeing people putting a caste and community colour to issues of national importance such as corruption and black money?

Manmohan could have certainly influenced the members of the Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council not to press ahead with their version of Lokpal bill at this critical time with so much of media publicity that made many think that as one done on the government encouragement.

Aruna Roy, Harsh Mander, and even Arundhati Roy may have some reasonable points but now the Anna movement have gone beyond reasons. It’s with a large mass of people, their aspirations on one side and anger for the ineffective governance of the governments that they got in last few decades.

I really wonder why activist Shabnam Hashmi sees a threat of the communal forces taking over Hazare’s movement. I could also not appreciate the prominent dalit activists, intellectuals as well as the writers severely castigating Anna’s movement as casteist in nature.

Does a corrupt official give certain concession for someone from minority or dalit community?

While the media’s over involvement and the exuberance of the younger generation and middle class provides hope, its continuance for long makes me fearful. It must not affect the economy negatively.

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India- Another People’s Movement

Posted on August 19, 2011 by indra

Alok surprised me when on enquiry on phone, he told me that the local young men are also holding protest rally in Karaghar Block of District Rohtas, Bihar. In evening again, I found a group of young men passing in front of my Noida residence on motor cycles with national flags shouting slogans for Anna again and it amazed me. How have Anna and his movement become so popular?
Arguments coming out of Congress spokespersons be it Manish Tiwari declaring Anna a corrupt, or Rashid Alwai claiming the Anaa’s movement a handiwork of Americans can’t save Congress. As reported, Rahul Gandhi has asked the spokesmen not to do that. I don’t if they will follow.

People of all hues and clans, be the students, lawyers or IT workers, men and women, young and old, folk artists and poets from New Delhi to New York, from remote block head quarters of Bihar to London and San Francisco, are on streets for supporting the mission of Anna in fight to create a corruption-free India. Are they serious about the eradication of corruption? How many of the people on the road will take a written vow against asking for or giving any bribe? How many of them will dare to be a whistle-blower against someone demanding bribe from any acquaintance?

Domestic as well as world media both print and digital are full time busy in exhibiting and providing all the details of the Anna’s protest. Foreign media such as New York Times and Economist have covered the event. Many times, the crowd on the street appears to be as holiday revels with all sorts of painted faces and pushing to come under TV frames. Can they avoid making any inconveniences for the regular movement of the people or vehicles? Will they complete their professional assignments and only after the office hours join the protest? The nation must not suffer.

Many a times, I wonder if whatever is happening today with the whole India on road against corruption and the government that doesn’t assure a strong bill against corruption, will badly affect the image of India. Perhaps it will enhance its image and the depth of its democracy, if the corruption level goes down and transparency index improves.

After Jai Prakash Narayan’s ‘sampoorn kranti’ movement, perhaps it is the first time that India is seeing a people’s movement on such a large scale throughout the country. Even the POIs in metros worldwide are demonstrating. And it’s all peaceful. I pray no amount of instigation by unscrupulous agents to provoke the people for violence to succeed.

I wish the government would have opened the channels of negotiations with Hazare and his team members so that the fast could have ended soon. Hazare continuance in Tihar shows another failure of the government. The government would have persuaded him to move to some respectable guest house. His stay in Tihar sends a wrong message to the illiterate masses.

I hope India emerges stronger after the movement achieves its mission and the governance becomes more accountable and efficient.

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Government Still on Wrong Route

Posted on August 18, 2011 by indra

Even after seeing the mass upsurge all over the country in favour of Anna’s remand and bill on August 16, Manmohan Singh and his government are still in mood of confrontation and don’t wish to learn from its mistakes. Mass movements as clear from the reports in media, are not the wars of arguments and debates that can be faced and fought in court with lawyers and with elocution in legislatures. It requires mass leaderships to face the mass on streets and lanes that has certain perception created by the real or imaginary wrong doing against the people.

Manmohan Singh and his lieutenants still are trying to emphasize on the supremacy of parliament to bring all parliamentarians on their side when they are to focus on changing the perception of the millions on the street. The opposition just slammed the argument. Even if the aggrieved opposition MPs agree it will hardly help against the mass uprising created by Anna’s demand for a strong Lokpal through Jan Lokpal Bill instead of weakly structured government’s bill. Manmohan’s men are also spreading the misgivings in parliament and with media that Anna is rigid. He and his teams want only the bill drafted by them with no modifications to be passed by parliament. Instead of selling their failures, they must go for solutions to get over the unique but dangerous situation.

The solution can be one of the three.

Manmohan’s government agrees for taking over the motherhood of Jan Lokpal Bill and places before the parliament as its own. It’s may be difficult today as the bill is already with standing committee. The government has initiated the bills authored by civil society of NAC. Why should it hesitate now.

Alternatively, some MPs including some from the Congress or UPA but acceptable to Anna negotiate on inclusion of certain key issues or points of difference and make him agree through give and take and incorporate the negotiated aspects.

The government and opposition comes out fast with a new bill that is superior in every respect with Jan Lokpal Bill and perceived so and is sold to Anna
., his team and to the Indian people using mass media.

The sooner Manmohan and his men particularly Kapil Sibal and Chidambaram give up the confrontation, the better it will be for the nation.

Manmohan can have a face saving by retiring and the Congress must allow the better person in Manmohan’s cabinet to lead the nation as Rahul Gandhi will not be the right person at this juncture. According to me, Pranab Mukherji may be one person who can steer the country out of the troubled water.

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@ 65th Independence Day

Posted on August 15, 2011 by indra

On the eve of Independence Day, I was feeling miserable with the news of Team India in a state of free fall. I opened my TV to see something better, but then I came across Manish Tiwari, the repulsive spokesman of Congress vomiting venom and calling Padma Bibhusan Anna as a total corrupt in disrespectful language. He might have got inspiration from the curt letter of Manmohan in reply to Anna’s request for relief from the tyranny of Delhi police. And then Kapil Sibal and Ambika Soni on TV screen to present the government case.

Ambika is an old Sonia loyal and Kapil Sibal, a very successful lawyer joined Congress very late, some say, for vested interest. He is the most important cabinet minister today. Sibal reminds me of Sidharath Sankar Ray of West Bengal, who developed a great relation with Indira Gandhi that brought ultimately the infamous emergency of 1977.

I had decided to boycott watching Manmohan unfurling tricolour on Red Fort, but not going to news websites. I found President’s pre-independence day speech discovering that there is no single remedy to corruption. Manmohan had also filled his speech with his promises to fight corruption. He didn’t make any other promises this time as he usually did in past such as making Mumbai a Shanghai and forgot. Why does the government promise if it can’t deliver? If one compiles the promises made in last seven years from Red Fort or in Budget speeches and sees its present status, the truth will show its effectiveness. Is it not a dishonesty of those who promise? Let me give some promises. According one, all villages above 2000 of population were to have a bank facility. Similarly, all villages were to have a knowledge kiosk with computer, internet and broadband. Where are they?

I had written about the targets of Manmohan’s pet project Bharat Nirman. Has it provided the electricity to the number of villages it promised? Yes, it has at least installed boards declaring that the village is covered by RGGVP. However, the village hardly gets electricity even for an hour or two a day.

The police have denied permission for holding fast to Anna. Is it not against all democratic norms? On one hand even in his speech, Mammohan said, “I am aware of the differences of opinion on some aspects of the bill. Those who don’t agree with this bill can put forward their views to Parliament, political parties and even the press.” I am sure Anna has done only that. But why should Manmohan not allow his points of views to be discussed by MPs?

I am sure that the politicians, its administrators and corporate executives must perceive that they are fast damaging their brand images among the people or so called aam aadami. They are playing with fire. It will cause a serious damage to the dream of the nation to become a super economy.

Why is Manmohan trying to upset the cart of reform that he is credited to initiate? Can’t he understand the mood of the people?

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7T2

Posted on August 14, 2011 by indra

I had called OP Khanna to acknowledge his mail inviting for the golden jubilee meet of our batch mates of IIT. He mentioned in that the special significance of the occasion by reminding that ‘as we are all 70 and above, we don’t know when we meet next’. I mentioned to him not to bother: ‘We will meet perhaps in that ultimate much better or real challenging place, designed by the Almighty’. He understood and we laughed for some time.

As I look back, I realise that I have lived my life in semesters. Most of the semesters are now part of history. It started with a tribal childhood in the rural remote village. It had been exciting. Each semester, be it in the ever shifting school of Pipra, in Birlapur Vidyalaya of the industrial town on the bank of Hooghly River, in the prestigious Presidency College now University, Calcutta, or in the first Indian Institute of Technology started in Hijli prison premises celebrating its diamond jubilee this year, and then in the automobile manufacturing company of Hindustan Motors that pioneered car making, have been unique. I battled and enjoyed each of them well. I am now in the end semesters with its own surprises and excitement as well as small little skirmishes. I don’t know where it will end, and what will I score and how will I be judged. But as it will be others to judge, so I hardly bother.

Thanks a lot to all who have wished me on the occasion and also to those who would have wished but forgotten to do that. As I do. Thanks again.

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