WHAT IS WRONG WITH US?

Sunday, 1 February 2009

Political parties will lose elections if they don't support Ram Sevaks
Mood:

cheeky
Now Playing: Majority in India approve of hooliganism
Topic: POLITICS OF DANCING
Have you ever realised why BJP will never tire of supporting Ram Sevak Sena who will thrash girls in Mangalore pubs, why Mayawati will support an MLA who has killed an engineer for not contributing enough towards her birthday bash, why Dr Manmohan Singh will repeatedly take a convicted murderer like Shibu Soren as his cabinet minister, why the ruling Congress government in Maharashtra will always support Raj Thackeray and his Bihari-bashing hooligans, why the CPI/ CPM will always support a terrorist like Mahdhani, why the Left will always justify Naxalism (though it is a bigger threat to this country than Islamic terrorism), why the People's Democratic Party and the National Conference will always support the separatist cause, and the very many other political parties supporting their pet issues.

We may all throw a fit watching television news every evening, well, almost all of us. Because many of us who are English educated, modern and given to following a western way of life will still be not against all the abominable actions of political parties. We have our own pet peeves.

On the other hand, English news channels in India may go hammer and tongs against these developments calling it uncivilized and talibanisation but even they make their choices according to their political proclivities. More so, because their constituency is the middle-class, which is the most fickle-minded and hypocritical.

The problem is that civil society in India is almost a non-existent society and democracy is all about majority opinion. When 3-lakh people gathered at the Gateway of India in Mumbai after 26/11 to show their anger against the political class one couldn't fail to notice that the crowd was mostly made up of young boys and girls from colleges around south Mumbai. There was no representation from the suburbs. Most of the youngsters though could speak Hindi with an irrepressible anglicised accent they could not help stop drawing examples of the fight against terror in the US. Many of those young boys and girls might have gone abroad and seen the world. But when Bollywood actors come on prime time news to explain that the days of indifference towards the victims of political violence as seen in Mangalore pubs are over you can't help smile at their naivety and grandstanding.

Howsoever we complain against uncivilised behavior we have to realise that the dice is loaded against the civil society in India. As pointed out in this blogsite earlier, media also would take sides not on merits but on political considerations. The words to describe events and people involved in all these incidents would be carefully chosen.

The best example of Indian civil society’s existential problem is seen in the support for Sanjay Dutt. Eight out of ten (actual survey done in a media house in Mumbai) among us support Sanjay Dutt who has been convicted in the first terror attack on Mumbai. We are same people who would hold candles at Gateway of India in a show of solidarity and our resolve against terrorists. Sanjay Dutt was one of the prime accused in the first terror attack on Mumbai, he was held for storing bombs and ammunition in his house used in the blasts, he was part of the conspiracy and was in the know of the terror plot for over one month since the ammunition was stored in his house, he also desperately tried to get rid of the evidence when the heat was turned on him and he has still kept in touch with the terrorists (Dawood and his minions) after the investigations started. Why all this breast-beating over some Ram Sevaks beating up a few girls in a pub, when we all in the civil society support and sympathise with a hard-core terrorist like Sanjay Dutt.

In a brazen display of hooliganism a few years ago dalits in Mumbai burnt down seven bogies of Deccan Queen after asking petrified passengers to alight midway between stations. Thankfully they didn't repeat Godhra. After that the dalit mobs went berserk the whole day in the almost-Singapore-financial-capital of India. They went into middle-class housing colonies, beat up people, vandalized and rolled out their TV sets and refrigerators while police roamed the streets looking the other way. The police did their best to prevent the middle-class population retaliate when the dalit mobs struck their colonies. The ruling Congress state government had given standing instructions to the police not to take action against dalits. But most of the next day's newspapers put the banner headline (with blown up pictures of the burning train): 'Dalit fury spills on the street'. It was as if dalits were justified in terrorising the city. The ostensible provocation for dalits to run riot in Mumbai was the desecration of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar's statue in Lucknow. Why did the newspapers not have the headline, 'Hindu fury spills on the street' during Godhra riots? Why is high-caste Hindu anger not considered as legitimate as low caste Hindu or dalit anger. The post-Godhra riots were always about genocide, fascism and Nazi leaders in BJP. Though what dalits did in Mumbai is equivalent to what Hindus did to Muslims in Gujarat.

Television news channels during the dalit riots in Mumbai instead of condemning the act tried to corner dalit politicians in Delhi over their inability to control their followers! Poor dalit politicians were lost for words as they were themselves learning about the events watching TV. Again, it was as if the dalits were being misled into hooliganism by politicians.

The truth is that it is the people who force their leaders to do their bidding. In all the cases related above if the political parties took a decision in favour of the civil society they would have lost the next election.

The basic fact is that India still is a Third World country and the disparity in wealth, education, access to basic necessities of life as well as political maturity all contribute to the loaded dice. The defining majority in India belong to the immature, unsophisticated class who think reservation policy, for instance, cannot have any effect on quality of products and services. Rather, they don't even think it is worth their while to discuss issues like quality.

The most damaging and disappointing aspect of today's politics is the way the prime minister has given up on his principles for the sake of political expediency. Shibu Soren has been convicted for murder, that too for killing a Muslim during a Hindu-Muslim riot. He is today out of the Union cabinet not because the prime minister wanted him out but because Soren lost the election. The image of the squeaky clean prime minister is shattered by Shibu Soren's continued existence in the Union cabinet for best part of this government's life. And the second event that really did Dr Manmohan Singh in was the cash-for-votes scandal in the Parliament. The PM did not even institute a nominal inquiry into corruption charges at the highest levels.

But not many are feeling outraged by the goings on. The corruption charges of Rs64-crore against Rajiv Gandhi had almost brought the country to a standstill in the 1980s. People felt betrayed and the election of VP Singh to prime ministership revealed how every community, be it majority or minority, was outraged. It was not just the civil society that picked up the cudgels. All that came to a pass when prime minister Narasimha Rao maintained a studied silence when Harshad Mehta (please give a google search if you don't know who is Harshad Mehta because there is so much to know about him that it could fill a blogsite) accused the PM in an open press conference of taking Rs1-crore bribe (piddly sum by today's standards) from him. Narasimha Rao, clever as he was, clearly knew that his constituency has completely changed. When economic liberalisation took place in mid-80s the civil society simply shrunk. After liberalisation successful crime has become a virtue. Even today every scamster, Harshad Mehta to Ramalinga Raju, has ardent admirers amongst the white collar, highly educated class.

And it is not just about crime, even children are brought up in an environment today where misbehaviour is not considered as a bad attribute. In the 70s parents would spank their children if they behaved badly with their friends. Today such behaviour is considered hip and progressive. And competition has ostensibly made parents to even support their children suffering from AIDS on realty shows with counter-questions like: "you think your kid is not having sex with his girl-friend?"

Now don't get this argument wrong. This is not about right and wrong. It is not about pre-liberalisation being good and post-liberalisation being bad. It is only about tectonic changes that have taken place post-liberalisation. The best example of this change in attitude is seen in the usage of the word 'gay'. In the 1980s any Indian school student would tell you that gay means happy and nothing else. Today a school student will tell you gay means homosexuality and nothing else. Ask any newspaper sub-editor today, he will tell you he does know what else can gay mean.

To sum up, the middle-class in India is witnessing a strange but inexplicable trend in behavioural pattern. In the 1970s and 80s children were told by their parents that good behaviour was the hallmark of their family upbringing and distinctiveness. Any middle-class family would emphasise on its distinct value systems. But in the last two decades there has been a marked change in upbringing. Today's parents practice as well as preach expediency. Dishonest means adopted to score better grades in exams are considered wrongful by parents only if their children are caught. Successful crime is a virtue like never before. That change in attitude and middle-class values has made bad behaviour fashionable. Today a well-to-do corporate executive would behave like a street-corner imbecile, complete with four-letter local language expletives, only to impress his colleagues of his street-smartness. It is in this context that the Mangalore pub incident should be taken. The majority in this country who are uneducated as well as most of us educated in English language, only pretend to belong to the civil society. As most seen on the streets of Mumbai, show of arrogance is macho while polite behaviour is feminine.

Look at the Raj Thackeray's campaign against Biharis. The basic premise of freedom for Biharis to take railway exams anywhere in the country just as any other community or linguistic group as long as they are citizens of this country is being denied. When dalits are asking for equal rights which is considered a perfectly legitimate thing to do why is Biharis' right as a citizen of this country being denied? And there is groundswell of support for Raj Thackeray. People openly make racist comments on Biharis in Mumbai local trains.

Also, if Raj Thackeray is forcing shop owners to change English signboards to Marathi the logic of market forces is defeated in the financial capital of India. A businessman or an entrepreneur knows best when it comes to the language he must use to attract his customers or clients. No businessman would desist from using local language if that would enhance his business prospects. Branding is such an important issue to be competitive today in the global market. By forcing change in language free-market philosophy has been given a convenient go by. Neither Raj Thackeray nor his supporters understand the requirements of today's business though every politician worth his salt would vow to convert Mumbai into a financial hub of the world. But it is striking neither Dr Manmohan Singh nor leader of Opposition LK Advani who are seen as 21st Century leaders have taken Raj Thackeray head on.

Making Mumbai into a financial hub obviously would entail attracting international financial giants, banks and investment companies to set up base in Mumbai. And the obvious comparison for global financial hub is with London or Singapore. But in case of London as well as Singapore international financial companies don't get bogged down in language politics. They are given absolute freedom to build their business. Else, they will go to some other place which is more conducive to their business growth. And these days there are increasing number of cities in Europe and South East Asia trying to woo international financial giants. Look at the number of little known cities in Europe advertising on CNBC TV18 to attract foreign investors.

Where does that leave Mumbai in the race for global financial hub with its constant assault on civil liberties. People should force Raj Thackeray to change his agenda from language politics to providing the city with modern drainage system, transport system, cleaner environment, and efficient utilities and security systems to even qualify for financial hub of the world status. But for that you need Mumbaikars to be as mature and sophisticated as Londoners and Singaporeans.

If movie-stars and news anchors think beating up girls in pubs and parlours actually make the man on the street livid, they are terribly mistaken. There is a huge undercurrent against the pub culture and show of ostentation in the malls. Indians might have left the Hindu way of life far behind but they have miles to go before they can adopt the modern, western way of thinking of freedom, maturity and sophistication. And politicians only do what we the majority voters want them to do. You can bet your life on the fact that politicians, be they from BJP or Congress or the Left, know which side of the bread is buttered.

**************

Posted by Anil Nair at 12:00 PM

Updated: Saturday, 7 February 2009 10:34 PM

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Tuesday, 27 January 2009

Slumdog Millionaire
Mood:

flirty
Now Playing: Learning lessons from a foreign movie on India
Topic: Movie Review
There are two starkly differing opinions on Slumdog Millionaire, the recently released pot-boiler on Mumbai slums, that is all set to become the first Academy Award winner with Bollywood actors. When you watch the movie on the first day of release at a multiplex in Mumbai back-to-back with Clint Eastwood's Changeling, you come out of the theatre feeling inured by all the debate surrounding Slumdog Millionaire. Changeling is by far the best movie to come out of Hollywood in the year past, and the best ever of Clint Eastwood. The period thriller is a true story of corruption, incompetence and high-handedness of Los Angeles police department in the 1920s. People in the Third World, rich and poor, would certainly identify with this movie, much more than Slumdog Millionaire. Angelina Jolie, as a victim of police subversion, lethargy and insouciance, plays her role with a conviction that is seldom seen in stars. Period movies have been Angelina Jolie's best performance platform. Last time when she played her role as an adulterer in the Original Sin the world sat up to take notice.

But full marks should go to Clint Eastwood's direction in Changeling. The narration of the story is simple and straight almost as if reading a book, shorn of much gimmicks that Hollywood is known for. His attempt at making audiences realise a mother's angst, misery and pain after having been given a different child by the police in place of her son who has been kidnapped, comes as a clean winner.

When it comes to Slumdog Millionaire the debate is consumed by the right and wrong of it rather than the film's excellence. To begin with, the direction and the story narration is as melodramatic as the breast-beating in Tamil movies of the 80s. Vikas Swarup's novel adaptation could have been in all sense better put, as R.K. Narayan once said of his novel Guide which created history when its story was adapted in Dev Anand's all-time greatest hit. Needless to say, Allah Rakha Rahman's music is as bad as it gets. The music sounded as if he had to complete composing the score in one night. If Golden Globe judges had heard Rahman's earlier works in movies like Indira, Kadhalan and many others they would have realised their mistake. The movie was done in a hurry, admit many of the technical team members of Slumdog Millionaire, and A.R. Rahman is known to deliver his tracks in his own sweet time. This time the pressure of churning out a quickie for a white production team took an obvious toll on the music director's delivery.

The story of Slumdog Millionaire, on the other hand, encapsulates almost all the dirt and squalor that one could conjure up in the slums of Mumbai. Eyes being gouged out of young children who are introduced into beggary, children dipping into sewage tank (very similar to the scene in Steven Spielberg's black & white classic Schindler's List) and garrulous prostitutes in dingy rooms lining both sides of narrow lanes all make up for picture postcards of Mumbai slums. But portrayal of sex workers in Mumbai could have not been better than in Madhur Bandarkar's Page 3. The fact remains the story, the direction as well as the portrayal of various characters in Slumdog Millionaire get extremely predictable or in Bollywood parlance, 'filmy'. The movie only did not have the Hollywood hero's trademark let's-get-the-hell-out-of-here retort to impress the western audience.

If the movie was couched in realistic terms so much so that Anil Kapoor as Amitabh Bachchan in Kaun Banega Crorepati sounded like the original star of the show, then Danny Boyle does not have any credible answer as to why Anil Kapoor was mocking at the contestant (a 'lowly chaiwala') almost to the point of indignation. Amitabh has every reason to be offended at his portrayal. Nor is the editing of the movie anything great to write home about. The whole build-up of hype around the movie reminds one of the new found appreciation of Miss World and Miss Universe organisers towards Indian beauty after our economy was liberalised to allow international cosmetic giants to sell their wares in India.

But Irfan Khan, whose role as a typical Mumbai police officer in the movie, has a point of view. According to Khan, the poverty shown in the movie is not unknown or fake that we should be so outraged. The real picture of poverty is so overwhelming in most parts of the city including the plush areas of south Mumbai. And as Mahesh Bhatt said, if we Indians are outraged by the abject poverty, the dirt and the squalor, we should be working towards eradicating poverty than protesting against the portrayal of that poverty in movies. But the question is not of portrayal of poverty, but having an agenda to ridicule and show a country in bad light. It is that agenda which the Slumdog Millionaire production team is accused of. Well, if a book like The World is Flat written by an American journalist can sing paeans to the Indian genius and put India amongst the technologically advanced nations then we should take films like Slumdog Millionaire made by an Irish as the flip side of it.

*********

Posted by Anil Nair at 5:36 PM

Updated: Wednesday, 28 January 2009 11:36 AM

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Wednesday, 14 January 2009

Satyam & lies
Mood:

don't ask
Now Playing: For corporates successful crime is a virtue
Topic: INDIAN HYPOCRISY

An Indian SME owner maintains two books of accounts -- one which is full of under-invoicing and depressed figures meant for his wife and the IT department, and the other which is full of inflated figures meant for his mistress. Ravi Mohan, MD & Head of South Asia, Standard & Poor's tells this joke quite often whenever he addresses seminars on corporate governance. Satyam would now qualify to be a SME unit after its market capitalisation eroded post-Ramalinga Raju's confessional scandal. What makes Satyam scandal so different from the earlier financial scams is that it is not just about the promoters. There seems to be incontrovertible evidence of foul play by auditors both within the company as well as independent firms which are amongst the world's most renowned ones, banks and top executives. On the sidelines politicians of all hues are shadow-boxing to bring their rivals down.

Though many in the media try to draw an analogy with the Enron scandal in the US, there is one big difference. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officials had actually confessed during the inquiry proceedings in the open court that they could not understand and decipher the complicated financial statements submitted by Enron. That was not surprising for Indian journalists as the power purchase agreement (PPA) signed between the government of Maharashtra and the company was admittedly way beyond the comprehension of Maharashtra State Electricity Board officials. At press conferences Ms Rebecca Mark, then chief of Enron would tire journalists with formulas and calculations which revealed nothing. Till now no official in Satyam or outside has made a pretext of complicated accounting systems and practices for the oversight. It is yet an open and shut case of forgery and deliberate non-disclosure.

The media and stock analysts have also got to take equal blame for the Satyam scandal because it was their job to unravel the truth. The fact of the matter is that few media houses have employed enough staff analysts and reporters to go through every annual report with a fine comb cover to cover. That way Indian media houses are much less capable than their western counterparts to find the truth in listed companies which have millions of investors.

The way PricewaterhouseCoopers has been saying that they had to depend on the data provided by Satyam officials while scrutinising the company account books reminds one of the scandal in the 1990s wherein top LIC officials were taken for a ride by a lawyer consultancy firm in a real estate deal. The LIC officials had bought a plot of land to build residential flats in Mumbai for their life after retirement. But the land owner had sold the same plot to two other parties earlier. Then it got mired in a legal tangle. When the lawyer firm was asked about its dereliction of duty as they had given a free-of-encumbrances certificate on the plot to the LIC officials the lawyer firm made a startling disclosure. It said that they depend on the documents provided by the land-owner and nothing else for issuing free-of-encumbrances certificate. It was incumbent on the LIC officials to check up municipal records to ascertain if the plot has any other claimant. In case of the external auditors of Satyam it is not just a case of dereliction of duty. It is like the police colluding with the culprits to share the booty.

We shouldn't be shocked, rather we should be amused, if several more corporates with large work force declare delinquency in the wake of Ramalinga Raju's disclosure. It is not the current downturn which forced Raju to resort to cooking up books, rather he started the window-dressing when there was a boom in the software industry. His calculations went wrong, according to reported revelations in the media, when he bought land at high cost along with his partners. He could not liquidate it when there was a slump in prices.

Though his partners gave up their holdings he alone prayed for better realisation. But the inevitable is taking too long to come as land prices are still in the dumps. The trail of money from the software giant to Raju's real estate venture will ostensibly be proved. It's just a matter of time. But many foreign investors might get unnerved by the callous behaviour of various parties involved in the scam. It is also inevitable that sweetheart deals between the auditors, top executives and promoters will be unearthed during the investigations. It is shocking that this went on for nearly 28 quarters. Quarter after quarter Satyam top officials sat at analysts meets with poker face glibly talking about their great performance and giving guidance on fantastic growth prospects. Investors lapped it up as they were not able to separate the chaff from the wheat. For them every top ranking software company was an Infosys and every promoter of these companies was a Narayan Murthy.

The fact that Ramalinga Raju could not cover up the losses of the conjured-up numbers in Satyam books even during the boom period makes investors, especially the foreign institutional ones, to ask if Raju had been able to turn the tide during the boom period the scandal would have never surfaced. Rather Raju would have become a hero in the software industry whose vision, foresight and the intrepid decision-making would have become case study material in management schools.

Now let me add a few personal notes. Honest businessman is an oxymoron, more so in India. Is there a single business leader in India who can say with his hand on his heart that all that he did in his business was ethical?! This includes the interim chairman of Satyam board Deepak Parekh, whose prophecy of real estate slump for the last five years has become a joke in industry. Millions of home-buyers have put off their plans to buy flats even as real estate sector bled on high cost of funds because of this man's statements. But perhaps the PMO could not get any better replacement for Ramalinga Raju than Deepak Parekh.

I have of late, come to realise that honest Indian is itself an oxymoron. As I explained somewhere else in this blogsite, have you ever wondered why Mahatma Gandhi was born in India to teach Indians honesty and truthfulness. And almost all religions emanating out of Indian subcontinent beseech its followers to abjure playing dirty political games in life. It is only because we Indians have unmatched quality in all these attributes, much more than our western counterparts.

Look at ourselves. How many of us pay income tax honestly. Rather, as I found much to my chagrin, paying taxes honestly only gets you a bad image of being a fool. You are considered smart and suave if you are able to produce fake bills in the office to avoid income tax.

And thirdly, if Ramalinga Raju has been inflating numbers, both in past performance of Satyam as well as future guidance he is only doing what we all are so adept at. Tune into any TV channel and you will find that every ad claims outrageous results of using various products and services. Axe deos are supposed to floor women, they are shown jumping into your bed. Children drinking Boost and Horlicks daily are shown to excel in their school studies as well as sports. Every month a new detergent soap comes on prime time television to tell us how it can remove stains without leaving even a mark. If Satyam guidance had been off the mark by a few crores of rupees what about headlamps and brake linings of vehicles promising to guarantee safe ride for the occupants of the car. Why is that when Satyam chief inflates numbers to bring in more business it is sacrilege, amounting to grave crime, media frenzy and name-calling on prime time news?

Lastly, let me ask you all a relevant question taking a leaf out of the recent history of companies going bust in the US. When Lehman Brothers, General Motors and Citibank were being bailed out by the US government with billions of dollars through a state intervention programme I was wondering why should government get involved in managing business. Let the market forces work their way. I was also surprised when markets across the world did not take kindly to these bail-out packages. The stock markets did not show any marked improvement on US government's announcement of saving the monoliths from sinking into the quagmire.

Incumbent US president Barrack Obama is planning for a trillion dollar bailout package soon after taking reins. Well, my opinion would remain the same. That is also why I am a little alarmed by the Indian government's stated intention of saving the 60,000+ jobs in Satyam. Good people will always get absorbed elsewhere and they don't need a job guarantee scheme. It is also not a good free-market policy to preserve jobs when there is no work. The idea of preserving jobs at Satyam is as bad as the reservation policy, which can only compromise quality, breed strife and inequality in society and cause grievous harm to consumer movement -- all that this blogsite and this writer stand for.

*********

Posted by Anil Nair at 10:17 PM

Updated: Sunday, 18 January 2009 1:17 PM

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Friday, 9 January 2009

Weeks of sabre-rattling ends with egg on govt's face
Mood:

don't ask
Now Playing: When television news channels waged war with Pakistan, govt twiddles thumbs
Topic: INDO-PAK RELATIONS
After weeks of tough posturing by External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee the government at the Centre has come to naught over responding to last month's Pakistan-sponsored Mumbai terror attack. Pakistan seems to have as usual won the game by its multi-pronged approach. Manmohan Singh government does not even have a fig leaf to hide its ignominy. Pakistan showed defiance all through the post-Nov 26 attack, sometimes refusing to hand over to India the 20 most-wanted terrorists and at other times denying that the terrorists hailed from Pakistan. All this when there was mounting evidence of Pakistan's complicity which has been provided not just by India, the US and the UK but even by the local media in Pakistan. Any other country in India's place would have singed Pakistan over the coals but our inept government seems to have lost all the goodwill and sympathy from the world community. All that the government did tangibly for the last one month was to ask External Affairs minister to issue statements like "Pakistan should fulfill its promise".

But look at the smartness with which Pakistan came out unscathed. Every time a European, Arab or American government representative including Condeleesa Rice came calling to Delhi media speculated that it was to sympathise with India and to arm-twist Pakistan. But after a month of hectic diplomacy no one is any wiser. Pakistan even today has not budged an inch from its earlier stand, leave alone taking action against any of the terrorists involved in the Mumbai attack. No terror training camps have been closed, all the terrorists responsible for the carnage are at large even while India is quibbling over newly-coined terms like 'non-state actors'. A government which is so brazen about playing communal politics cannot be expected to do what Bush government did to Pakistan after September 11: call President of Pakistan General Pervez Musharraf and tell him, "you with us or you are against us".

A month after the Mumbai attack the government of India is twiddling its thumbs over stopping all travel and trade between the two countries and putting economic sanctions on Pakistan. These were the basic measures expected from the government immediately after the attacks. Instead, we have the unsavoury debate on prime time television on whether we should play cricket with Pakistan now or a little later.

One cannot help miss Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee's leadership at such times. Soft-spoken though he was, he could put the chill down the spine of Pakistan's establishment. One remembers how Shri Vajpayee during the Kargil war even refused to meet US President Bill Clinton till Pakistan surrendered completely. Today, even after street protests against politicians and their tomfoolery you only find ministers mumbling inanities like "Pakistan is not doing enough".

The fact of the matter is that Indian government floated the "all options are open" and "surgical strikes on terrorist camps" theories in the media even as there were troop movements in borders areas of the Indian side. If you can't take threats to logical conclusions you should make sure you don't end up with egg on your face. Today it appears as if Pakistan is ready for war but India has developed cold feet. The way Pakistan has been able to turn the tables in the last 30 days it appears as if India is the perpetrator and Pakistan is the victim. All this because Indian government never took even diplomatic or economic measures to teach Pakistan a lesson. Other than seeking the support of the West and Arab countries the government has only been making a lot of noise for media coverage. No one in the UPA government is mature enough to understand that the US or Israel is not going to pick up the cudgel for India. The worst fear is that as Jews were killed in the terror attacks in Mumbai Pakistan simply would hand over the prime suspects like Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Maulana Masood Azhar to the US and close the chapter. India will be left holding the baby if after all the sabre-rattling Pakistan does not stop the training camps in their soil as demanded by India. Already Pakistan president has alluded to the fact that "terrorists are forcing the agenda on the government". That is perhaps to tell the US that if Pakistan government is forced to take action against the terror groups the government might fall, in which case the US fight against the Taliban in the north-west province of Pakistan with the help of Pakistan army will come up a cropper. On the other hand, the sway of foreign delegates on our government seems to be so over-powering that the administration has been in a limbo. Travel and trade between India and Pakistan are taking place as if nothing has happened.

What has now become a tragicomedy is that our government is seen by the world community as a pushover. What Israel did to Palestine in the last few days, in retaliation for terror attacks by Hamas which were much smaller in scale than seen in Mumbai, has the approval of the G7 nations. If we didn't intend to launch a military attack against Pakistan, the government should have ruled out military options right at the beginning. The grim-faced external affairs minister repeated the same statement on keeping "all options open". These statements everyday were as similar to the ones released the previous day. Television channels could have used the minister's previous day's statement as breaking news without anyone coming to know. Even today the minister has not stopped saying it, but channels have stopped airing them out of fatigue.

*************

Posted by Anil Nair at 11:33 PM

Updated: Saturday, 17 January 2009 11:54 AM

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Thursday, 1 January 2009

Can Antulay be faulted if PM has said worse things on vote bank politics
Mood:

bright
Now Playing: Minister has only taken a leaf out of PM's book
Topic: SECULARISM

Minority Affairs Minister A.R. Antulay’s statement that the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare’s death has been caused by Hindu radical groups is not surprising. The alliance at the Center which prided in scrapping POTA, so much so that its Common Minimum Programme (CMP) stated that as a matter of policy change to woo the minority community, should be expected to have cabinet ministers who would toe a Pakistan line of argument. Also, not surprisingly, there has been a deafening silence from the prime minister’s office on the issue. Mr Antulay when asked to clarify added for good measure: “I don’t need to explain anything to anyone”. After all, Mr Antulay has only taken a leaf out of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s book on how to pander to minority communities.

Till the time of going to press the Congress Party spokesmen were on a part-denial mode. Abhishek Singhvi’s statements to the media were laced with “our party completely disassociates from the minister’s statement in the Parliament”. The party spokesman who otherwise would not stay his hand when suggesting what Narendra Modi or Yeddyurappa should do, maintained a sanitised version of “we cannot suggest if the PM or the government should sack Antulay”.

One wonders why this politeness does not extend to opposition party-led state governments. Nor was this strict adherence to protocol seen when the NDA government was in power and the POTA Bill was passed. Congress party survives on the belief that public memory is short. Look at the ardent plea made by the new Home Minister P. Chidambaram that the new anti-terror law has to be passed with everyone’s consent in the House. “We could make all the necessary amends as we go on”, he said on the floor of the House while introducing the new anti-terror Bill. It must have been deja vu for Opposition leader Shri L.K. Advani.

Also, in this whole episode post-26/11, the BJP should be credited for showing its true nationalist colour. Shri Advani’s unconditional support to the government in its war on terrorism was a true reflection of the national mood. Earlier BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad made it clear in media briefings that BJP would support the government in any of the tough decisions to be taken in the war against terror. Juxtapose this to the post-Parliament attack in 2002. By evening of that fateful day Congressmen were busy cornering NDA ministers asking: “you passed POTA Bill with all the fanfare. Did that prevent the attack on Parliament?” The argument put forth was that POTA did not prevent the attacks as it did not deter the terrorists one bit. It took one viewer’s opinion shown on the ticker on NDTV 24x7 to put things in perspective: “traffic regulations are flouted everywhere, every time. Does that mean that we do away with traffic rules?!”

Mr Antulay’s reaction in the Parliament is a classic case of how the war on terror is compromised in this country. Every earnest effort made by the security agencies has been questioned and investigated by the secular governments. Former police chief of Punjab KPS Gill who brought terrorism in Punjab to a glorious end often states this at public meetings about how his officers are still doing the rounds in the courts because some human rights NGOs have questioned their action. The government does not provide any succour though it will take all the credit for bringing the tragic saga to an end in Punjab.

Antulay’s conspiracy theories may come in handy to pander to the minority community. Antulay can be forgiven for his comment in view of what the prime minister said a year ago in the midst of passing the Indo-nuclear deal that minority communities have priority in access to national resources.

But in Mumbai it is not just the politicians who have become discredited. Former Home Minister of Maharashtra R.R. Patil who has become so arrogant to say such small terror attacks in big cities are quite normal recently told a reporter: “will bullet proof jackets and better fire power prevent terrorist attacks?!”

The government’s hypocrisy and lack of understanding of the gravity of the situation have been underscored by pseudo-secularism. The other grave concern of the citizens of Mumbai is related to the lack of proper training given to any the state departments in dealing with a crisis seen on 26/11. Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata group, went on record to say that most of the security agencies and state utilities were at a loss in dealing with the crisis. Fire tenders came in late, policemen were found removing their safety gear at ground zero, some policemen even quietly left for home when they were informed of the terrorist attacks, police were found more engaged in crowd control than saving lives, television media was hysteric so much so that news anchors were howling at everyone on air and the most defining moment was the large crowd outside Taj hotel brandishing cell phone cameras trying to take pictures of terrorists who were still engaged in a pitched battle with the commandoes. If the terrorists had dropped a grenade from the top floor of Taj hotel on the crowd below the area would have looked like a scene out of ‘Saving Private Ryan”. Intelligence has failed, but the way various agencies were bickering over who is to be blamed for the crisis was most unnerving.

It’s tragic that Ratan Tata says his hotels will have their own anti-terror systems and personnel in place. Does this mean that the state has become so inept in providing security to its people. It is sad to see Bollywood actors scampering for enhanced personal security systems. It only means that the state has completely failed in providing security to people. As one Mumbai local train debate on the issue concluded that the world has entered the 21st century of sophistication but India is still caught in R.K. Narayanan’s Malgudy Days of simplicity and immaturity.

***********

Posted by Anil Nair at 6:24 PM

Updated: Saturday, 17 January 2009 11:57 AM

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Newer | Latest | Older

«	February 2009					»

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28