30s harking back 20s

by Manish Anand

Invited by a friend, who like me is into early 30s, at a bar in afternoon where he had been taking drink all alone, I had reasons to brood on our age induced behavioral changes. Speaking less and taking broad views on issues around us, I thought we were not at all the “rocking youth” that we used to be when we were in our 20s.

We are now grown ups and the talks that used to thrill us in our yesteryears sound frivolous and boring ways to kill the abundant time that we had.

Soon, we were joined by a group of five, who were early into 20s or were they teenagers. Rocking band of new generation youth, must say, who give a damn to most of the things in life nowadays. A solitary girl among them ordered beer and rest settled for hard drinks, puffing cigarettes hard.

Though we in our 20s hardly ever talked with girls given the society that we grew in, it was amusing to hear these kids discussing body parts of their female friends with all the gusto with a girl in their group taking great joy at vivacious descriptions.

As they made most of the noise, we turned towards them many a time. We also looked into them with our perspectives. My friend quipped if this is the new generation what would be our kids when they grow up. Hypothesizing, as most of the “grown ups” do, we also wondered if these rocking band ever thought of being first be able to buy a drink by their earned money before stepping into a bar.

It’s a different matter that the liquor law in Delhi prohibits youth below the age of 25 being served liquor. The laws in Delhi are just for booting them!

Recently, I came across an Orkut group called “Need No Advice” with its punch line: “We are grown ups. And even if we aren't, we are better off without advice. And hey we dont give a f*** abt wat you think.. WE ARE THE KINGS OF OUR OWN WORLD..”

Frightening or bewildering!

Just wonder if anyone had ever lived a life without advice in one way or the other.

Are the 20s’ folks living a pseudo life with a world full of misplaced perception created around them by their parents for reasons best known to them? A friend some years ago was left gasping when his student gave the definition of a poor. “A poor is one who drives Maruti 800 car and lives in a DDA flat,” she had said.

I must say that I have no remorse at all being into early 30s and growing up when Indian socio-polity and economy were in tumult, thus educating our generation socially and intellectually.

De-cluster Muslims

by Manish Anand

The Indian government has been finally enlightened with the fact that Muslims in India are worse off than scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs)! Was anyone in India unaware of the fact, which the Sacher Committee has dug out?


Muslims unfortunately have not grown up as community so far and remains waded up into the pre-independence mindset when they had aligned with the Muslim League, for motives which was purely communal. When the SCs and STs kept on making educational and social advancement with keen interest of many co-religious and missionary support, the Muslims in India remained a laid-back community deeply rooted in madrassa based education.


The Central government led by the Congress, which is faced with total erosion of popular support base in North India, is threatening to play the communal card for political purposes. There could be nothing more alarming than the statement of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, hinting at much abused affirmative actions to socially and educationally uplift the Muslims in India.


It has been pointed out many a time that Muslims in India are cursed by them being clustered for political purposes, which exploited the religious insecurity deeply entrenched in the mindset of the Muslim leaders. Abysmal representation of Muslims in government services and judiciary could be ascribed the community still refusing to join the national mainstream. Also, the community could never come up with any socio-religious movement like Arya Samaj, which gave DAV schools and colleges, or many Hindu reform bodies who emphasized on socio-educational reforms in the community. Did any Muslim body come up with any broad-based socio-educational movement, which could have empowered the community effectively?


It must be noted that whereas the middle class and the upper middle class Muslims have been reaching out to the English medium schools even in the interiors of the nation, thus benefiting the fruits of good education, the majority remain still entrenched in madrassa based education, which take away any chance of the community youth to fetch government jobs and place in judiciary. Theirs being the largest in jails for criminal charges has nothing to do with religion but with the socio-economic conditions.


Any affirmative action for the Muslim community by the government taking advantage of the much abused reservation exercise in jo0bs and educational institutions would be fraught with surrendering of the governmental responsibility for exploiting vote-bank opportunity. The community must come out of the shell and join the mainstream. Muslims must be de-clustered. They have to be like Christians, Sikh, and Zorastrians, who are all into the mainstream, and never crib about being under-represented in jobs and judiciary.


However, the first step that the Muslims need to do is to come out of the political and social blindness.

Jaipur jottings

by Manish Anand

A visit to Jaipur recently was a great escape from maddening Delhi. The pink city as it’s called has all the stuff to make other city planners sit and learn. Also, as ideally a city should reflect the culture of its people so does it with all the finesse.

Waiting for a friend to turn up to pick me up at the bus stand, I lent my ears to the lingo of the passersby. Nothing much to hear of those great verbal expletives that Delhi is renowned for and which puts off any newcomer. Also, the people do not shout much as is the case with Delhi where all seem to be patients of high blood pressure.

The next morning as I was being shown the city while my host drove the car, an executive in a private firm, I was told more about the city. What about the traffic? People hardly ignore traffic rules. When some does a group of police men turn up and query with all the politeness. “I could have given Rs 1000 in place of Rs 100 that I was challaned as the cops told in all politeness the reason for the challan,” said my friend.

People hardly use their mobile phones while driving or smoke as cops appear as swiftly as such things are resorted to. Effective policing at its best, must say.

What about city planning?

None of the buildings I saw looked ugly. No encroachments on public land. No parking in front of homes or on road-side, which have seen the service roads virtually disappearing in Delhi. Any violation of building by-laws invite swift demolition action as should be the case.

Yeah, poverty and slums! How could Jaipur remain free of them? As these things can not be solved overnight, the best thing that the city government does is to erect long wall in front of jhuggis with all the art and culture of the state on the display. So, a tourist does not see the stinking slum, and in place sees the art. Great idea isn’t it!

What about the crime?

Very easy to know!. A mere four feet boundary walls around the residences of the people. Security guards hardly visible around the city. The rich and the middle classes have homes alike, and that settles the score on the crime front. But, yes large immigration of people from western Uttar Pradesh and Bihar has unsettled some of the crime figures, and the cops keep an eagle’s eye-view on anything related to these states.

So, what do you think of Jaipur; asked my friend as I readied for Delhi. A great city to be in to enjoy life with all the prides intact was my parting reply.

Garibi hataao?

by Manish Anand

CONGRESS once again is out to lure people in next year mid-term polls in some states and the 2009 Parliamentary polls with the slogan of garibi hataao. The slogan sells and gets people in power, hence the efficacy of the slogan. Unsuspecting half of the population willingly let themselves get fooled by this slogan year after year.

Indira Gandhi gave this slogan in 1971, and since then Congress has always been coming in power to remove poverty (garibi hataao). But poverty stays. It’s not an Opposition party that could be removed by a slogan.

Poverty not only stays but stinks as well. Suicides by farmers in thousands last year, which still continue, though jolted the self-patting economic planners of the nation and mock at the very approach to poverty alleviation.

The cronies of Indira Gandhi had prodded her for such a slogan who knew nothing else to make their master to come in power. The same class, who be default manage the Indian democracy, has again pushed the Indira Gandhi incarnate, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, to exploit the slogan again, and possibly get her son, Mr Rahul Gandhi, elected as the Prime Minister of India, which has been the fiefdom of his family.

Is Congress nervous?

The Congress came into power because its predecessor National Democratic Alliance built a mirage of great economic achievements translating into all round prosperity of all Indians. The bubble burst as farmers started committing suicides in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Poor started selling their children for even Rs 50 in Orissa. All claims of NDA of an economic miracle were rank falsehood sold unashamedly by its suave politicians, which were well read into by the people.

The Congress is in the same position after three years of governance. Two years is a very short period to correct the chronic flaw of Indian economy.

Farmers are still committing suicide in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Children are still sold in Orissa. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar buried Congress long back for its utter political exploitation of these two states without bothering to economically better people there.

So, Congress has every reason to be nervous, and that too when the Rahul baba is to be handed over the political future of the Congress.

Early this year the finance minister P Chidambaram had dropped in a shopping mall in Noida with his family to watch a movie in one of its movie place. He was astounded to see so many people shopping. The next day he declared that lots of people are buying, and that shows that India is really growing fast! No finance minister in India unfortunately visits the interior of the nation.

Where is the time from the endless meeting with big corporate heads, representatives of World Bank and IMF, etc. Also, finance ministers are hardly repeated. So, the cool comfort of the South Block besots the minister all the time. And, all news of the finance of India in mess irritates him, calling journalists illiterate and ill-informed.

What ills Indian economy?

Isn’t Indian economy all for the middle men? Profiteering middle class has made the most of the new economy, leaving the lower strata getting deeper and deeper in poverty. Everybody cried get the poor to save money. Grow their incomes. Corporatise farm sector has been the call for the last one decade, but for no result other then of snatching the land of the farmer at throwaway price.

Details are all in public domain about answers to the woes of Indian economy. But a class which comes in power on the basis of sloganeering remains convinced that sloganeering could be milked further. So, nothing to worry if more and more people migrate from rural hinterlands to end up living an 18th century miserable industrial lives, it hardly matters to the political class.

Another election preparation, and again the need to go back to the time tested plank. Garibi hataao with some 20 point programme, which is nothing but fraud on the Indian poor, gets unrolling. Let’s see if the Congress could succeed in fooling people once again.

Hang Afzal, damn it!

by Manish Anand


Indians are the most apologetic of the people. Even when its sovereignty is attacked, it dithers whether to punish the culprit or not. Emotionally weak are those who lead the nation, and suffer from rank indecisiveness. Having short memory, its people yield to emotional chorus for mercy for perpetrators of heinous crimes.


The president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam has referred the mercy petition of the wife of Mohammad Afzal to the home secretary, and that stays the scheduled hanging of Afzal on 20 October as of now. Afzal is charged with waging war against the nation as he orchestrated terrorist attack on Parliament, which resulted in seven deaths, including of four security personnel. The attack also brought India and Pakistan close to a full-blown war.


Now, with the Special Court having held him accused and condemned him to death by hanging, the media suave colleague of him swung into action to save him. SAR Geelani, also accused in the same case, commands impressive media audience, and has stepped up efforts in this regard. The Jammu & Kashmir has been painted again in rebellious colour with its renegade politicians making Afzal a martyr for its freedom cause. The Congress leaders as weak as ever have been bowled over by the hue and cry made in the valley. The Congress High Command advisors have equally developed cold feet over hanging of Afzal.


So, where do we go?


The home secretary is expected to turn down the mercy petition. Because, pardon will portray the nation again as a soft nation, which she has been fighting hard to wriggle out of. The eyeball to eyeball response post-Parliament attack was to assert that India is not to tolerate the Pakistani design of giving her hundred cuts. And, attack on the symbol of soverignty was just intolerable. All these haapen just four years ago, not long back.


If Kashmiris really need martyrs, they can get hundreds of them as terrorists get killed by security personnel in the valley. The portrayal of Afzal as a martyr is again a voice typical of those who dream of merging with Pakistan, hoping that they would get an Islamic umbrella to enjoy fruits of life with dignity. The Congress leaders in Jammu & Kashmir as well as those of its alliance partner People's Democratic Front had always dubious credentials about their loyalty to the Indian nation-hood.


Think of those who shed blood in the name of saving the dignity of the Indian motherhood from the nefarious design of her enemies. Thousands of security personnel have laid down their lives thwarting Pakistani attempts. Their children not beaten down still dream of getting opportunity to serve for the cause of Indian nationalism, which is of course an idiotic concept for the burly aristocratic bureaucrats, feeding on British arrogance, as well as by the new class for whom the best in life is all that America has.


Damn it! Get tough against those who kill and maim innocents. Highest crime is waging war against the nation. And, for highest crime, we have capital punishment. So, go ahead and execute Afzal.


Huh, what about the neo-liberals, who call for scraping of capital punishment. Europian Union has done so, and hence India too should do so! Just tell these people to pack off to EU, because India is not Europe. India is a nation, which is always at war with its neighbours, who are well entrenched deep into India to inflict innumerable cuts upon her. Let there be a credible permanent peace, and then we would debate if we could do away with capital punishment. Till then just shut up, and let the law reach its logical conclusion.


Just hang this bloody Afzal for the sake of instilling deterrance in terrorists.

Truly sadistic !

by Manish Anand


Lost in technicalities could best describe judicial engagement on making Delhi a rule following city. For more than eight months the Supreme Court has made the Capital a city living in fear. Fear of sealing! Sealing that cripples business, entrepreneurial activities, and which makes a mockery of the new economy offshoots.


A nexus of politicians, bureaucrats, and lawyers have been living a dream of making Delhi a city like Paris – a city with few people, mansions housing burly breed of these classes, old romanticism associated with a Capital city.


The judiciary this way or that way has got into this tangle; to correct the haphazard growth of the city in the last four decades. Now, it has to be corrected, because the Master Plan for the city, which incubates its growth, which also became obsolete on 2001 itself, does not approve of the way the city turned out to be.


So, the Supreme Court stepped in, guided by an idiotic piece of land-use rule book (Master Plan 2001) , to pack off more than five lakh traders and another one lakh of entrepreneurs out of the city, governed horribly by the local government as well as by the Central government, because they make the city look bad; aesthetically, architecturally, and gives scary moments to those who dream of the city becoming Paris.


Even poor make the city look bad, isn’t it! Jhuggi-jhopri, lining the city landscape with stinking smell emanating from them, dots the city. Their inhabitants also defecate on the pipeline supplying drinking water to the city. Their children beg at red-lights, make nauseating sights. Many of the anti-social elements also live there. Many of these folks also sleep in night on road-side or under the city flyovers. Sometimes they come under the wheels of the over-drunk kids of the super rich of the city. Though Rs 10,000 get these murderers out of the reach of the long hands of the law, it’a always troublesome to visit police stations and lower courts with such premises having none of the air-conditioners that they can not live without.


So, why the judiciary and the political class do not step in and calls for shooting dead 20 per cent of the population who are at the bottom of the poverty. Welfare state that India is may become a hindrance in executing such a decision as it will bring shame to the nation worldwide. Definitely, great Indians, politicians, bureaucrats, lawyers, lecture all around the world about how great welfare state that India is!


Grow up folks. Czars were thrown up and shot dead by firing squad. Let the city live as it developed into. Knocking at the belly of lakhs of people brigs only upheavals, which sometime may refuse to recognise government and judiciary. It’s never too late to recognise the folly committed and make amends.

Corporate Mandal — a Manmohan reform?

by Manish Anand

(This article appeared in The Hindu (www.thehindu.in) on 28 September 2004. It's put here as it still has relevance)



MANDAL COMES back to haunt the nation once again thanks to the politics of mediocrity. The UPA government has appointed a committee to talk with the corporate world about the modality of introducing reservation for the SCs, STs and the OBCs. The UPA government has also hinted at parliamentary intervention to effect its intention. The message goes loud and clear that the politics is in for a new low.

Ambedkar had reluctantly agreed for reservation just for ten years. The reason behind was the need for an effective empowerment of the weaker sections than going for "quick fix simplistic solutions". The Constitution gave the right to make "positive discrimination" in favour of the weaker sections of society to the government (Ar. 15(2)). But successive governments chose to feast on the politics of populism ignoring the aberrations.

Impact of reservation


The socio-psychological explanation has been that the disadvantaged sections of society need a helping hand to join the mainstream of society. At the same time, years of deprivation instil a sense of incompetence in the psyche of the disadvantaged people. Also, people need to identify with the immediate role model of their own community to act as motivator.

In the realm of public services, it is said that the people of the disadvantaged community are better equipped to empathise with the deprived sections of society and are likely to do better than others for the improvement of their lots.

The social impact of reservation policy has been highly divisive, spreading hatred and discord among people. The assumption that the benefits will percolate down the social strata has been belied, with the affluent classes pocketing them in a major way.

The concept of a creamy layer, applicable only for "other backward castes", has failed to serve any purpose. The culture of guilt that the reservation policy instils in the beneficiaries may also be contributing to the lack of efficiency as well as rampant corruption infecting the system. To instil a culture of pride, the "policies based on positives" complemented with a non-discriminatory procedure is required. And it is pride that keeps people committed and efficient, not otherwise.

Those who suffer because of the reservation policy exhibit "apathy and contempt" and do not identify with the system, contributing to less than the desired performance.

The corporate model


Ironically the initiator of "reform" in the economy with the twin principles of "efficiency and competition" is asking the corporate sector to compromise on the lifeline of the modern economy.

The corporate sector ruthlessly practises the principle of "perform or perish", and that has brought out the best among their employees propelling them to higher standards of excellence. Why should they let the petty politicians wreck their hard built culture of excellence? With the WTO regime around, does the government expect companies to compete tolerating substandard employees on their pay-roll?

Lack of initiative


In the last one decade, economic development has left much to be desired. Regional disparity has led to the compounding of socio-economic malaise, with utter neglect of human resource.

Schools and colleges are still wallowing in the obsolete traditional methodologies removed from the demands of the modern economy. The politicians of the States suffering from a "culture of poverty" find no answer to the unmanageable unemployment, leaving them to harp on the much milked reservation bogey to keep their vote bank intact.

The government and the community leaders had the option to impart the skills and competencies to enable the people to compete and excel with others. The special education scheme imparting traditional knowledge as well as vocational training with industry interface could have been an option to explore. The required socio-psychological support system could have filled the gap in the emotional level. The government chose the bureaucratic approach that distanced it from the needs.

The intervention at the elementary levels lacks the professional requirements. The end result has been a mismatch between the requirements and the provisions. And with failure looking deep into the eyes of the politicians, they find the easy way out to fall back on the policy of reservation.

The response


Industry has shown much enthusiasm in supporting and conserving the initiatives to develop and promote excellence, knowledge, and skills. They have made it clear that if there were sincere efforts in this regard, finance will be no problem at all. Will the polity rise to the occasion and respond to the demands of the people in an objective, imaginative and visionary manner?

(Copyright The Hindu, article in part or in full shall not be published by anyone without authorisation from The Hindu)

Lurking xenophobia

by Manish Anand


Fate of 12 Indians on board the Dutch airlines is just a pointer to widespread xenophobia, which is gripping the world at an alarming rate. Demarche served by the Indian government to the Dutch ambassador is nothing but a meek reply to the humiliation meted out to the Indian community. Islamic terrorism has led to the setting in of suspicion and then of fear and then of paranoia in the minds of the white about all black with Muslim names. Human frailty has no ends, and in the times to come such incidents may unroll racial hatred of much larger proportion across the nations.


Apropos to the British security agencies that they averted mid-air explosion of near dozen US bound airlines. Suspects again proved to be disgruntled muslims, having roots in Pakistan. The impulsive statement of the US president, George Bush, that Islamic fundamentalism poses great risk to the world is though a blunt admission of truth widely accepted, but badly delivered to the consumption of Islamic community.


Israel raiding Lebanon, hunting for Hezbollah guerilla, has also made the West Asian Muslims pliant in the hands of the fundamentalists. Deaths of innocents in Lebanon have been widely reported with pictures of maimed and killed drawing worldwide condemnation of reckless arrogance of the Zionist state.


Four years ago while delivering a memorial lecture in Harward University, the former US president, Bill Clinton, had brilliantly captured the psyche of the divide between Muslims and Christians. “Every mother in West Asia tells her sons and daughters stories of crusade. Brutalities of Christians against Muslims, magnified manyfold, are told to kids. They grow up hating Non-Muslims, with revenge deeply etched in their minds. Any peace effort if it has to have a chance of success has to target this psyche. And, for that to happen current problems there have to give ways to peace,” Clinton had remarked to spell-bound audience, which was telecast live by BBC World.


But the way the events are unfolding there is hardly any reason to be optimistic. Threat perception is much larger. No one is safe. Terrorist attacks have acquired alarming precision and reach. The world map is dotted with enough places, which can act as perennial reasons of indoctrination. Impressionable minds are in abundance, ready to join ranks with hardened militants.


An ex-intelligence official with wide experience in Kashmir and having experience of breaking down most of hardened terrorists while interrogating them had an interesting experience to share with officers of the Steel Frame of India. “The only militant I could not break down despite one full year of interrogation was a 14-year-old boy. All methods were tried. His mother was brought to him, and told that she would suffer for his refusal to open up. But he disowned her as his mother. One year later his commander was arrested, and was broken down with ease, and he told everything. But when the boy was encountered with new information, he just said that the arrested militant was lying,” the retired intelligence man had remarked.


A 14-year-old kid could be so steeled!


A collective effort is awaited, which must ensure that tension between nations and their peoples as well as between different religions lessen if they do not end.

Rocking the wall

by Manish Anand

Hundreds of medicos are being tear-gassed near Supreme Court, the custodian of rights of citizens of India, while the government presents Bill for reservation in educational institutions. The Bill would be referred to the standing committee, and students would return to classes. Few days of anger will peter down, and the political class will have its ways eventually. A pattern well etched in the functioning of Indian democracy.

The judiciary should not be expected to police the ever-cunning politicians. It’s just too much for asking. Still, the worst fear of an average Indian is an encounter with the behemoth Indian federal state.

My bedroom window faces the road where there is a permanent police ticket. While my eyes feel weariness reading literature, I stand by the window to look outside. Policemen there are stopping all the bikers, checking their documents, and as happen in the night-time, one goes on fun ride, forgetting license, the cops there are ever ready to pounce for their shares. While their colleagues might be sleeping in police stations, these folks are on their toes, as their hard work of the night yields fattened pockets.


Though Delhi has much more informed citizens, ready to fight for their rights, the vast swathe of India face the might of the all-pervasive Indian system. A visit to a court in a district town, because it had a good restaurant with non-vegetarian stuff at economical rates, had bewildered me with the functioning of judiciary some years ago. Every nook and corner on the road side, the park, nearby ground were occupied by men in black robes, waiting for their never-ending clients trickling in to them.

Curiosity led me to enquire who these lawyers were, and hard truth turned out to be those who found no other jobs in the world, taking admission in law colleges where there was no need to attend classes, and passing exams were the easiest things in the world. Probably that would have been small town stuff. But what about Delhi. No difference at all! While here law school students prepare for IAS exams, they get a little 50-page guide, called tiggi, which contains all questions and answers that would appear in the exam without any surprise. If you happen to get a job of your choice, well and good, otherwise the wilting, wounded million citizens of India, caught in innumerable litigations, would keep you and your family thriving.

Never mind if you happen to have just few clients, as they will keep you paying till they die as cases run for life in Indian courts.

Power comes as well when you wear black. Cops will always yield and will make an alliance for the thriving business of fattening of purses.

Ever heard of National Judicial Commission. All talks of judicial reforms, which kept print media busy with views and counter views! Political class chose to give it a silent burial as it well served their interests.

Thanks to the Indian judiciary and the police, it’s simplest to harass anyone in India. Few months ago a deputy inspector general of police of Uttaranchal enlightened the author that more than 80 per cent of rape cases are filed either by prostitutes or out of vendetta. Even if cops know the motives, the laws unfolded blindly as accused landed behind the bars with reputation gone with the wind.

The home minister Shivraj Patil while accepting the proposal by women activists for broadening the ambit of sexual assault had well opined that there has to be mechanism to ensure that the law does not become tool in the hands of those who want to harass others. But such tools never exist, or are ever looked at by the law enforcement agencies. Long way to go before any meaningful functioning of law, legislature, and democracy see the day of the light!

Medicos must be better advised to look for alternatives then face tear-gas.

Tradition lost

by Manish Anand

The demise of Ustad Bismillah Khan must be a great loss. It just can't be compensated. The man enthralled millions, made each Indian proud of him, spoke chaste Hindi, unusual for celebrities, remained mired in typical middle class trifles of cribbling for more and more money, and in the end died, complaining of the state not doing much for him.


Shehnai would miss his lips, the music which brought happiness, and peace amidst all cacophany dished out by the new era of music. Banaras, the city of tradition, would rememeber the worthy son of the soil for ages as the son never disowned the cultural city. Not a music critic, but as a novice I listened to his performances, and spellbound I though that only a magician could get the dead wood pipe to take its audience to the journey of bliss.


The state could never do much for him. He implored former prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, to get some jobs for his sons. He interrupted his recitals with elaborations of his poverty. Sometimes, he sounded a greedy man, asking for his booty for being the custodian of a great art. Awards came his way like his admireres.


But probably, he remained poor because he did not know the art of managing his finance. Nothing unusual as such is case among many middle class Indians. Goddess Luxmy is so chanchal, she cant stay at one place for long. Also, he was affected by not being able to take on the garb of the English speaking as others of his ilk did. So many get maddened by the new crowd of aggressive Indians, pushing themeselves ahead of others all the time.


The next time we hear Sehanai at a marriage function, our hearts would definitely wonder if the great master would again touch the wooden pipes for the sake of humanity. He must!

Profiteering offices

by Manish Anand

President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam finally assented to the Office of Profit BIll, basically an amendment to Prevention of Disqualification Amendment Bill, 2006. It aims to legitimise the profiteering business of being a parliamentarian or a legislature.


Politicians make their livings the hard ways. Also, most of them get lady luck smiling for few years when they enter parliament or a legislature. Otherwise, they get lost in the labyrinth of many khadi-clad sloganeering band. That puts them into hyperactivity to milk the mamarries of the welfare state, but even their hard sucking fail to dry them.


More than 40 odd MPs must kneel down to the Congress president Sonia Gandhi, because it was she who made the Union government to pass the Bill in all haste with showering booty on all; caste, creed, sex, religion no bar. Now, Sonia herself can return to Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and many other such organisations with abundant staff drawn from Steel Frame of India.


Cynical minds should not lose their sleeps over the president assenting to the Bill. It just institutionalises what has been the norms across the length and breadth of the nation. It’s just the greed of we Indians, which remains insatiable no matter what one accumulates.


Typical mind set to milk to the hilt comes to mind by an anecdote. A senior IAS officer along with his family had come calling to a district town. While leaving the place, the stern bureaucrat asked a cop in attention to fetch water for him. Being a constable and used to tantrums of superior officials, he had no guts to ask for the cost. He brought one Bisleri water, which sent the wife of the babu into a frenzy. “One bottle for the whole journey. You idiot, don’t you have any sense! Bring a dozen bottles, fast. Constable was left poorer by the visit.


Culturally, we oblige our acquaintances. They have to be kept happy. Some have to be awarded with the highest honour of the land. Some grey minds have to be rehabilitated with paychecks. Many commissions and committees have to be appointed. No wonder, the economists in India are having party with one among them at the helms of affair.


Also, we are a bull-fighting nation with all at war with each other. As all can not be peaceful under the one roof, some have top be packed to other places for peace of mind of those in power. So, there are boards, council, etcetera, etcetera.


The parliament has done no blasphemy by passing this Bill. It was long overdue, something so obvious to put into black and white. Another step to institutionalise bribery. Why not pay incentive for work done by officials, clerks, staff, and millions of babus to cover bribery. May be efficiency would leapfrog. Time to be innovative, and get going.

(Read Upmanau Chatterjee's "Mammeries of welfare state" for insight into working of Indian State)

Suicidal spate

by Manish Anand


Delhi is unfortunately threatening to earn the sobriquet of a "suicide Capital" in place of the tag of much maligned rape Capital. Print is just full of reports about too many suicides committed in different parts of the city. Disheartening at the most, but ironically sociologists are yet to take notice of the alarming trend. Probably they must feel alarmed and institute a study to probe what's going wrong in the city of hearts.


I always feel horrified about the incidents of suicide. I had the most horrible time listening to the story of a suicide told to me by one of my friend from Kerala, which is infamous for reporting the largest number of suicides by any state in India.


"A friend of mine just gave up after being condemned to the cruelty of poverty," my friend began telling me the story with me staring him with my skin going cold. "He just threw himself against a train running at full speed, and his body was found in the worst possible condition," he said. And, why did he do so, I asked meekely. "He had no father, no income, and no other means to support his four unwed sisters. For some time he became reclusive, would not speak to anyone. Just for being in an hopeless conditions he gave up," said my friend. He rounded off the discussion with the sad truth that too many youth in Kerala were committing suicide.


The most terrific moments that I recollect is from my childhood. Just seven-year-old, I remeber the chilly month of December damped by continued rains at that moment. A 12-year-old girl had gone with her younger brother to a dam where women used to celebrate "Chath" festival just one day before the festival. On the way, the boy was asked to go back home, which he did most obediently. The next day the swollen body of the girl was found on the bank of the dam with her shoes on in the beautiful frock, which, however, was bloated.


Later on I overheard that her father always wanted her to come first in her class, but that time she unfortubately had come second, and she was subjected to the most cruel treatment that he father could have given. However, grown people added at that time that the girl was always beaten up with her mother watching her helplesseley. That suicide had something to do with her misfortune at home, elders concluded.


I too had a close encounter with the dreaded suicidal tendencies. One afternoon, driven mad with hackling of all around me on my knack of all round failure in competitive examinations, I had taken a long march of more than five kilometer to take a jump in the riven Ganges in my hometown. However, at the most crucial moment I started thinking about the consequences of my act, and the thought dawned on me that my parents will have to live under a permanent shame because of me, and I took a retreat.


However, the first place where I went was my friend's home whom I told about my aborted move. And, my friend, though alrmed, shared my agony, empathising with his own experiences, which were similar to mine, said: "Look, we all have to go to God one day. What's the hurry in this wwhen it's a certainty. let's take our time and endure whatever comes our ways." These were words permanently etched in my mind, and despite seeing more worst times in life, I contune to live.


Social collapse no doubt is leading to suicidal spates. Anonymity of lives in lage cities with belief setting in that there is no one to care for you may be another reason. The reasons may be numerous, but social compassion is the most missing link in today's society, that must be noted earnestly.

For Love of words

by Manish Anand

A great sight yesterday was an old Sikh with a book yellowed due to ages, reading intensely while he came out to his gallery out of curiosity to peep at the bustling road below his window. Books, which give reasons to live, are still vogue, and many more people are reading them. Most exciting sight was a girl reading a novel while waiting for the Metro standing among innumerable people jostling for a space. Nothing can get the girl away from the book that she was soaked into.

I shared my literary passion with a one-time room-mate, Solgy, now an Indian Revenue Service Officer. Recently, as we chatted I dangled my great experience or having read “100 years of solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Expecting that it will lead to discussion on Marquez’s masterful skill of story-telling, I was caught unaware as he gave me a virtual dressing down.

“You bloody! You read this book now! You should have read it 10 years ago. What a pity you could have been a different person if you had read the book earlier,” he retorted.

Then, he went on to tell about his experience with Marquez. “I first read the malyalam translation, and feeling restless I read the English version. The moment I finished reading, it I began re-reading it. What a book! The magical realism in literature at its best. You believe while you read all the stuff,” bristled Solgy.

Then he read out “when humidity peaked, the fish started flying”. Reading and re-reading a fiction are testimony of a good book as Garcia Marquez wrote in his autobiography “Living to tell a tale”. “I did not consider a book good as long as I did not re-read it,” says Marquez.

Yes, I am under the spell of Marquez with his exquisite writing. I do not think I am going to stop as long as I read most of his literature.

As Marquez reproduces the words of red-light district girls, it turns out the masterful skill of presenting a world so distant to be so near that you can find it in your neighbourhood. “I you people fucked the way you all shout, we girls would have bathed in gold.” Only a genius could come up with such masterful portrayal.

The other evening I was reading the autobiography while the bureau chief of the newspaper I work for came and asked what I was reading. The moment I took the name of Garcia Marquez, the boss came alive, brimming with all energy. “A great artist. What a wonder." Glee in his eyes, he poured his art out for the great Latin American Novelist.

“Read his small book, Chronicle of a death foretold,” he told me. “What a book. In the first sentence, he tells what the whole story. And, then he goes for another 100 pages, and you remain glued to the book,” said my boss with energy so original. “The book is all about our helplessness. We know that we all are doomed, but still we can not do anything,” he said about the book.

Again elaborating, he gave his parting note about the book as he walked away. “You know that you are being fucked, but you can not do anything about it.”

The world of literature can live till humanity lasts for the talent of Gabriele Garcia Marquez.

Merchants of tragedies

by Manish Anand

The Mumbai serial blasts were very much in the making. And, so are many more like that across all parts of India. Security and intelligence experts after hanging their boots had time and again stressed how easily common civilians in India are waiting to be maimed and butchered. Listening and acting on that have become virtues of past with everyone yelling to speak, from rank idiotic stuff to sheer bull-crab, adding to cacophony of public discourse.


Quite expectedly the breed of intellectually bankrupt television journalists with deadened grey cells started yelling their crass “in-depth analysis of blasts” with bemused panelists, soaking into collective surrender of sanity.


News channels have to make fast bucks and deaths on large-scale in India just like a one-day cricket match make the advertisers scurrying for eyeballs. Added to that is the business of SMS – “make your comments heard by SMSing either yes or no to a pointed question irrespective of whether you are capable of answering the question or not". And, why should you feel that you can not answer a question if you are not equipped by skills when the TV anchors can reach to a conclusion with just the skill of speaking and patience for sitting for hours while their beauticians polish them for the camera.


Deaths and disasters are abhorrent for any normal person. A poise of maturity and a determined resolve to fight all odds have been the hallmark of any mature society. Security lapses and intelligence failure are always reasons for terrorist blasts. And, when the nation is at an open war against the known adversary who has succeeded in filtering into the ranks of the minority community who number around one-fifth of the population, it becomes commonsensical that no powerful nation despite all resources can avert a determined bid of terrorists to bleed the nation.


Yes, there has been a justifiable demand for a federal bureau of investigation, but did any of the yelling news channel succeeded in having any fruitful discussion on the subject. The mushrooming madrassas on the border areas of Bangladesh on the Indian side have been the breeding ground of hardened terrorists. Did anyone get a commitment from the politicians of the border states that schools of terrors on Indian soil would be dismantled?


The main suspect, which happens to be Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), still flourishes in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Kerala with the monetary channel funding them flowing without any check from the Gulf countries. Nothing happens on this front as well.


India is blessed with the worst Union home minister, Shivraj Patil, under whose regime the nation has just seen bloodbath in all his tenure, but nothing again happens.


In another two weeks, we shall be dancing to the tune of the shots of Sachin and Sehwag, and the Mumbai nightmare will be a matter consigned to general awareness.


God forbids if there were to be another terror strike at least the News Channels should show bare minimum shame and desist from crass commercial exploits of tragedies. Media is above all not merchants of tragedies!

Is Brain Drain II on the anvil ?

Manish Anand/ SNS

For long India’s politicians lamented the slowdown in the country’s progress, attributing it to the brain drain of the late 70’s and early 80’s when a huge amount of young talent made an exodus to greener pastures, a la the USA. Unfortunately, neither did they take into account the reasons which contributed to the exodus and nor are they doing it in circa 2006. If at that point in time United States welcomed immigrant talent with open arms, allowing it to contribute to its intellectual property, today you have similar opportunities in Europe, Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, China and even small countries in Africa, acknowledging India’s strength especially in the field of Information Technology.


It was the extraordinary reservation policy of the Tamil Nadu government in government jobs and professional institutions which pushed Tamil Brahmins to the wall. When seeking admissions in state engineering and medical colleges became an onerous task, they began scouting around for options in USA, Europe and the Middle East and, in due course, made their mark in a land which respected their talent and allowed them to be adopted by the nation in return.


If past trends are any indication, another brain drain of much higher intensity is on the cards, with the Union minister for human resources development, Mr Arjun Singh, hell-bent on “mandalising” professional institutions. “The government has failed miserably in developing educational infrastructure at the highest level these past years. With more than 50 per cent reservation being pushed through, the general category students are left with practically no choice but to head to the US for higher studies. A much larger brain drain is imminent with professional institutions coming under the ambit of excessive quota,” said, Mr Vikash Aggarwal, an IIT-Kharagpur alumnus. Add to this are the plethora of private players in the market with foreign universities aggressively wooing Indian students with not just top of the line professional and educational courses but also facilities of loans, easy repayment options et al.


No formal assessment has been made quantifying the kind of work that Indians have done in the USA or the quality of intellectual capital that the Indian community has created in the last three decades, be it in the field of medicine, law, IT, science and technology, military science, research, business or economics. NASA is driven by Indian engineers’ talents. Indians constitute more than 25 per cent of Microsoft’s staff strength at its Seattle headquartres. Some of the finest doctors across USA are of Indian origin. Sam Pitroda, the blue eyed man from Rajiv Gandhi’s inner coterie and also probably the Indian with the highest number of patents is a prime example of what India could have gained by holding him back. Afterall the STD revolution in India, especially in the rural hinterland, is thanks to him. Although attempts are being made to involve him in the Knowledge Commission, we have still lost out on the man’s genius which could have steered things back home in India.


Historically, it is immigrants who have given America its hugely distinct character and contributed in a major way to its wealth creation. If they as a nation have monopolised the world politically, economically, and militarily, it is because of those millions of people who abandoned, unrecognised and unrewarded in their own homeland, chose to toil in a nation which at least recognised their potential and allowed them to blossom and prosper, in the process contributing to their rising GDP and development.


Ironically in India, no one has bothered to question the plank of social and educational backwardness on which the reservation policy is being pushed. Had the plank been justifiable, the reservation in government jobs and educational institutions would have uplifted a vast chunk of population in a broad based manner. However, the fact belies the justifiability of the much milked plank for what are largely political compulsions. According to a senior bureaucrat with the Central government, “the benefits for the scheduled tribes have been mostly pocketed by the Meena tribes of Rajsthan and by those in the North-east region. The former are the most affluent section in Rajsthan with most being landowners. The North-east tribes have never been socially backward and have still enjoyed financial assistance by the state and Central government. Scheduled caste tribes of Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Kerala, and other states were left behind in the process of social empowerment through the reservation policy,”


A Union Public Services Commission member while interviewing a candidate from the Meena tribe in an All India Services Examination was curious to know why he was claiming quota facility when he hailed from an affluent family. “You have already claimed the reservation facility in Rajsthan and now you are a sub-divisional magistrate. Why are you claiming the facility once again? The smug response was, “since the facility exists, I might as well claim it,”


A 2002 batch IAS officer had the modesty to acknowledge that it was the mindless reservation policy that allowed him entry into the prestigious IAS along with his three brothers who too would never have been able to make it had it not been for reservation. He humbly said, “I know I do not deserve to be in the service. Having been in the company of the general category students who were preparing for IAS, I could clearly see that I lagged behind in practically every area. Yet, inspite of my father being the director general of police of a state and the fact that I went to the best school in Bhopal, I still availed of the reservation policy and exploited it as a matter of right, first for IIT and then IAS.”


After 50 years of India’s independence when the practice of reservation should either have been done away with or revamped, we have in a regressive manner embarked on a path which will only lead to greater chaos and not to forget a mass exodus of talent in the form of Brain Drain. All is still not lost. The youth is a very potent force in any country, moreso in India, which is on the verge of an economic boom with the front runners being its young people.


A critical review of the policy can instill hope. Parliamentarians must rise above the small gains of petty vote bank politics and examine the efficacy of the policy in totality. “At least the government could ensure that the quota policy benefits one member in a family and the facility is taken just once in a lifetime by a beneficiary,” said a senior Indian Revenue officer, frustrated with endless benefit that the quota policy bestows on its beneficiaries. However, politics based on populism can hardly be expected to do the needful to bring in sanity in reservation based politics. It was understandable when a junior doctor sitting on hunger strike at AIIMS in the Capital bemoaned that no politician has visited them despite more than 100 of his colleagues collapsing due to the hunger strike. The hurt and disappointment of the youth who feel that they are the new untouchables, since they have taken a stand that is politically untouchable, could hurt the country’s growth and development, unless quick steps are not taken to address these specific concerns.

The crumbling steel frame

Manish Anand/ SNS

The Indian bureaucracy is a white elephant in the typical sense. Just as the owner of the white elephant never gets rid of it because of the legacy attached to it, the bureaucracy too remains part of the Indian governance system with all the flaws afflicting it.


Babudom, a Raj relic, is in urgent need of a revamp before it becomes redundant and undermines the democratic advancement of one billion plus people. But governments and legislatures refuse to look into it as they sit over reports for reform of civil services, the fulcrum of the Indian bureaucracy.
The state of affairs can be gauged from the flurry of visits IAS and IPS officers made to new ministers after the change of guard in Bihar recently. A cabinet minister in Bihar had this to say: “Everyday I am visited by IAS and IPS officers, all claiming to be loyal to my party and promising their commitment to me.”


Bureaucrats do not even shy away from cashing in on their caste equations with ministers in power. And when ministers refuse to meet them, the babus lobby for postings with close attendants of ministers. “We used to be in such awe of these IAS and IPS officers, but now with so many of them making a beeline everyday we feel sorry for the Indian administrative system. They make a case for themselves out of belonging to the same caste as the minister,” said an aide of a cabinet minister in a state.


It has got so bad that IAS and IPS officers are branded for their political leanings at the junior and middle levels and some also at the senior level. “We have identified all the IAS and IPS officers who were loyal to the previous government and who did their best to subvert our chances of winning elections. All of them will be shunted out in due course of time and all those who suffered at the hands of the previous government would be brought back to important postings,” said another cabinet minister in Bihar.


“Many upper caste officers had taken central deputation during the rule of the previous government, and now with the change of guard in Bihar they are coming back with a favourable government now in place,” said a social activist from Bihar.


No surprises that the cabinet secretary of Uttar Pradesh has been branded the most corrupt IAS officer by her peers in the state. Also, the Magsasay award winning IAS officer Gautam Goswami is languishing in Beur Jail, Patna, for swindling money meant for flood relief in Bihar, reportedly in collusion with top politicians of the state.


Apologists always come out with so-called shining examples of bureaucracy to cover the diseased set up. Yes, there are officers who challenge Naxalites to open debate; who visit Muslim villages during communal riots and deliver speeches in chaste Urdu, instilling hope in the system; who mingle in a crowd of thousands of agitating students over the killing of their colleagues, empathise with them and to promise that they would be heard; who openly chastise villagers for keeping lower caste people away from their domain. But they have always been in a minority and suffer at the hands of the political establishment of the day.


Instances are abundant to paint the bureaucracy black, but the irony is that the Central government and the Parliament just refuse to take notice of the fact that their so called “steel frame” is disintegrating.


In the recent past, the Hota committee and Alagh Committee reports on reform in the civil services were submitted but both of them are gathering dust. Parliament has no time to look into the recommendations and take action. Both the committee chairmen extensively toured foreign countries and took a long time to submit their reports, which undoubtedly incurred huge costs paid out of the taxpayers’ hard earned money.


A joke doing the rounds in official circles is that if you exhaust all extensions of services after retirement, just lobby for chairmanship of some committee and go abroad to enjoy the luxury of taxpayers’ paid out working holidays. “The Indian bureaucracy has always been trained to write reports and they are internationally recognised for their caliber in this regard,” remarked a career bureaucrat.


Serving bureaucrats have damned both these reports as extreme reactions, which could never have been accepted by parliamentarians. “From lowering the age limit to 25 years to recruit candidates just after their 12th examination as well as sending bureaucrats for corporate postings to improve their skills in governance were just simplistic solutions that Mr Hota and Mr Alagh reached. They did not bother to attend to the archaic structure of the bureaucratic system from recruitment to training and postings as well as professional growth,” said an IAS officer.


“The average age of recruits in the civil services is 28 years, and all the training modules were developed with the assumption that the average age of recruits would be 21. Now, how do you expect to mould such people who have fully developed beliefs and attitudes. Despite that the training runs for a minimum of 19 months for Indian Revenue Services and 36 months for Indian Police Service. Is there any match between training requirements and age of trainees?” he asked.


How much importance is given to training of budding bureaucrats can also be gauged from the fact that postings at training centres are considered punishment postings. “With serving bureaucrats reluctant to take up training assignments, top officials dish out promises of postings of their choice if one takes a training posting,” said a serving bureaucrat.


The recruitment process of civil services has not seen any change for a long time. It still practices the “scaling system” to pare down all optional subjects that candidates take for the examination. Expectedly, after implementation of the Right to Information Act (RTI), many candidates applied to know how their papers were evaluated and how this “scaling system” works. But the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) did not oblige the candidates and still keeps under wraps its unique “scaling system” for different subjects taken as optional papers.


The result is that a few optional papers are more scoring than others, benefiting a few candidates and proving to be a disadvantage to others. “Why do the Indian vernacular languages fetch so much more marks than other subjects? Can the UPSC tell us what makes such subjects so special?” asked a serving IPS officer.


“The written examination (2000 marks) makes the personality test (300) almost redundant. There are many IAS and IPS officers who got 90-150 marks in the personality test, which makes their ability for such jobs suspect,” added another IPS officer. The UPSC doesn’t differentiate between the job of an IAS officer and a departmental job like the postal services, he added.


But larger issues are politicisation of bureaucracy, which belittles the delivery mechanism of governance for the common man. Politicians have a short-term agenda, and they make the bureaucratic set up milch the common man as a buffer for their election campaigns as well as to be financially secure. And the bureaucrats are more often than not loyal to politicians rather then their professional commitments.


“It’s in the interest of politicians not to keep themselves away from influencing career moves of bureaucrats as well as their day-to-day functioning in the name of democracy. This way they can always play on the insecurity of officials,” said a serving IAS officer. “Do not expect separation of the functioning of law enforcement agencies and law makers as well as of policy makers and implementation of policies. The separation will undoubtedly benefit the common man and the nation socio-economically, but it is suicidal for politicians. And, it’s not going to happen with the current bunch of politicians either,” he added.


It’s in this context that a general category candidate can take the civil services examination till the age of 30, and other backward caste candidates can do so till 33 and scheduled caste and tribe candidates have no age limit at all. Hence, there is no possibility of reform either in recruitment or training process. The system has to go on as it suits the highly insecure politicians that Indians are blessed with.


And what if someone is determined to make a difference. For them an assistant income tax commissioner has this to say: “Four assistant income tax commissioners were posted in Delhi and in three months all of them were shunted out to far-off places. Their crime was that they did not take Rs 10,000 packets to their superiors on Diwali-eve. The punishment taught them the rules of the services and in future they will not slip up.”


Questions people can always ask such as why do so many die when floods visit a state or why do so many farmers commit suicide when drought strikes or why a stretch of the Golden Quadrilateral caves in or why do criminals with heinous crimes on their records find their way into Parliament and legislatures or why money meant for pensioners and the aged finds its way into the pockets of babus and netas or why the children of ministers go abroad for higher education. But people are pacified by promises of investigations.


At the end of the day, people are to blame as they do not know how to exercise their rights and make governance accountable. But the journey is long and full of rigours to test the collective character of all Indians.

Reform NCW

by Manish Anand

National Commission for Women is a bewildering organisation. It baffles all interested in its work. At best it remains an organisation to make statements when an incident takes place and let people past their prime to make speeches, declaring themselves the best champion of women’s cause.


How badly it suffers from poverty of ideas could be gauged by putting its chairperson under a scanner. “We are ever thankful to the media as most of our jobs are done by them, Mrs Vyas remarked recently. She was attributing to the seriousness in taking up issues concerning women by the media.


Supposed to give instructions to BPO industry over women workers’ security, NCW could only repeat what the BPO association had themselves agreed to like police verification of cab drivers, radio tracking of cabs among other things. Nothing to contribute, but to enjoy the goodies that come at being in NCW! 


In October, NCW had compiled in association with NGOs and independent lawyers a comprehensive bill to amend laws concerning sexual assaults on women, but it remains in cold storage till date. Worse while presenting the bill to the Union home minister Shivraj Patil, Mrs Vyas had expressed much hope that Patil (calling him his elder brother) would be able to get the bill passed in the winter session.


But the minister found many of the suggestions tough to implement and in the fashion of ‘you propose and i dispose’, he washed his hands off the bill.


The utter incompetency of NCW breeds from the very unprofessional approach of the government. The post of chairperson has turned out to be that of rehabilitating politicians who do not fit into other scheme of the party. How do women expect themselves to be represented by someone like Girija Vyas who at best is a puppet.


And puppets do not stand for any cause!


If the National Human Rights Commission could be headed by the retired chief justice of the Supreme Court, why not National Commission for Women. At the same time, this body should not be into the hands of those who play the game for the cunning NGOs who have mushroomed for making fast bucks.


Till date there remains nothing substantial that NCW has made to the cause of women in India. And it would remain so if it’s into the hands of politicians. Politicians are the biggest enemy of any change that society demands. The fate of women’s reservation in parliament symbolises their intent best.

Central varsities in limbo

by Manish Anand

Indian Universities are off the radar of the Central government. The focus of course is on building new science and technical universities. Three dedicated science varsities are coming up to take care of basic scientific research in India. So, dismay among the vice-chancellors of central universities, 20 in number, is understandable.

All arguments of capacity to achieve the objectives of the government to take scientific and technological research to higher level if given an opportunity by the central varsities fell on the deaf ears of the government this week. Jawaharlal Nehru University hosted the third annual central universities’ V-Cs meet where they tasted the bitter salt of step-motherly approach of the Congress-led UPA government.

The pleas of vice-chancellors to let them do the task of taking India to the higher plan of scientific achievement was shot down by the Union science and technology minister Kapil Sibbal on the pretext of flexibility in hiring faculty independent of rigid UGC regulations and focussed approach. “You can rather built a world class new airport, but can not upgrade the existing ones to that level” was the argument put forward by Sibbal in rejecting plea of the V-Cs for better attention to the existing central varsities.

No shock that one of the V-Cs chose to lapse into deep slumber when Sibbal went into verbal jugglery, akin to that of an apologist, showing dreams to kids which are beyond reach.

“Think out of the box” was the directive from the voluble minister, exhorting universities to tie-up with private sector in raising resources on the pattern of foreign varsities. Is India at par with the United States or the European Union that its universities will garner funding by the wealth-obsessed private sector? Has the government let them to come to that position where they can attract investors by their works? Shooting off advises out of blue has been the fort of Indian politicians for a long time and it remains so despite the nation facing daunting task in a World Trade Organization mandated regime.

Our universities are dying a slow and painful death. Even the best of the best universities like JNU, Delhi University, Allhabad University and others remain tied down for want of fund. The government remains apathetic to all ideas of reform in UGC and its funding pattern as well as recruitment process. “A junior faculty member in IIT gets more than what a senior faculty member gets in universities. How do you expect us to attract best of the talent to teach the young minds,” asked the V-C, JNU, Prof. BB Bhattacharya.

It’s all right singing tunes for IITs, IIMs and other fews, but the mass come to numerous universities to actualize their dreams. And at the end of the day, science and technology and management is not what a nation looks for to grow into a developed nation. There are other streams too which need the blue-eyed attention that few gets.

The government can afford to be myopic only at the cost of its own peril and a disadvantaged society.

Sheer madness

by Manish Anand

Congress is known for its scant regards to Constitution. It has always been so and on many occassions it has played with constitutional provisions. And it has done to save its face either to keep its vote-bank intact or to save the culprits in its own flock.

The Allahabad High Court rightly ruled that Aligarh Muslim University is not a minority institution. How can a central varsity be a minority institution. And more importantly when the university gets its funding from governmnet. We are a secular nation constitutionally. Constitution has no provision for minoritism based on religion. At best it recognizes linguistic and cultural minorities Article 34. And more so Artcle 14 mandates equal opportunities for all and no discrimination on the basis of caste, religion, sex and colour is permitted. In this context, the oft-repeated word of affirmative action under the garb of positive discrimination in favour of a religion fails the test of constitutional propriety.

Ordinance has been the much abused instrument that a government led by Congress has used to serve its vested interests. So, the talked about ordinance to restore the minority status to AMU fits into the retrograde culture of Congress. In the same way It's trying to stall demolitions of illegal buildings in Ulhasnagar in Mumbai through an ordinance when the matter is actually under judicial consideration. And who owns properties in Ulhasnagar. It's Congress MLAs councillors, workers. The same ordinance route is being thought over by the Delhi governmnet led by it, but not resorted to because of political reasons. Sheila Dikhit has been much harassed by the Delhi Congress chief Ram Babu Sharma in the last couple of years due to various reasons. And he controls MCD which has to go to election next year. Defeat is certain and that would dilute his power and lessen Mrs Dikhit's troubles. She is not bothered of her own political future as Congress is certain to lose the Delhi elections when it's held after three and half years and even if it wins miraculously she will not be the chief minister thanks to her not being a part of the group of cronies of Mrs Sonia Gandhi.

But its stand on AMU is worst. Constitution mandates a secular nation and bonding of all cultures and religions into one nation. There can't be multiple nations which is being perpetuated by Congress. Minoritism is an anti-thesis of one secular nation which falls on deaf ears of Indian polity. Students Islamic Movement of India found its base in the safe and archaic confines of the AMU. Before it could be banned it had inflicted incalculable damages to India's secular fabric as well as national security. Why should taxpayers' money be used to perpetuate an anti-India movement.

The central government's plan to modernise Madrassa and recruite Urdu teachers (religious teachers) is equally baffling. The plan is at best a plank to keep the Muslims backward and make them vulnerable to the designs of India's adversaries. Why not Muslims should be going to common schools and learn what could fetch them jobs. It equally botches all attempt to evolve an inclusive nation.

Congress must learn to respect Constitution.

3,550 years ago…

by Manish Anand

Public memory will now be refreshed with a historical epoch that a man made. Exactly 3,350 years ago the man who changed the face of civilization and collectively uplifted the human consciousness was born in India’s neighborhood. Gautam Budhha who chose his own path and dawned en era of peace and prosperity in the kingdom of Magadh which was torn into intercine war with its neighbours was born in a peaceful and comfortable lap of Himalaya in the second century BC.

A historical lecture is not intended, rather a peep which is highly relevant in this age when the world is torn into a never ending wars and clashes, leading to the loss of too many innocent lives. The violent might of the invading army of Mohammad-bin-bhaktiyar Khilji snapped the last remnants of Budhha’s teaching and the torchbearer of his wisdom from the land of Buddhism in the 14th century. Many Budhhist monks fled to Tibet as history records, but there too they have met the might of communist China, which is hell-bent to end the last link to the Buddhist way of life.

Sri Lanka, which was converted to Buddhism by Ashoka’s son and daughter, has been witnessing an endless internal strife. The toll is being put in millions. But for what! Only to carve one’s own nation because Singhalese and Tamils can not live together. In Budhha’s time, Magadh too was locked in a bloody war with its neighbours like Vaishali and others but the teaching of mutual tolerance made them to call truce and live together. No one now can teach that art to the warring nations and to the domineering nations like the United States, China and others who are heading towards destroying the world with their intolerant political designs.

The land of Buddha too has forgotten him for all practical purposes. While Nepal suffers from a despotic king, India is yet to get back its pluralistic culture that it was proud of in ancient India. Remember in the Magdhan Empire or in the Gupta Empire or in the Upanishadic time, many streams of belief and faith lived together and prospered. Ashokan rock and pillar edicts depict that there was a mature civilization with multitude of streams of beliefs and faiths. India gave secularism to world when they were living in Dark Age. Irony is that in the same land intolerance runs high and deep with no one to moderate different beliefs into one living community.

Budhha must reborn and that too in large numbers as the world has turned into a higher mess that what he had faced 3,350 years ago.

Bania shops of Journalism

by Manish Anand

Boom in Television News Channels has fuelled unprecedented mushrooming of media institutes in Delhi apart from other cities. All are on the bandwagon to sell the great journalism dreams.

You can be Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt and others, the media business tells hoards of students. It’s a different matter that Barkha and Sardesai had different path of career growth which can in no way give credence to these institutes methodology.

At the end of the day, these institutes are more of a bania shop selling journalism certificates with no tangible trainings imparted to their pupils. Cost for these certificates is also at its high. Don't be surprised if you were told that minimum cost for a diploma is Rs 30,000 and it runs as high as Rs 2 lakh. But cost is no deterrence as students make beeline to get admissions in such institutions.

But the silver lining is that many of working journalists or those who are past their prime have got something to make easy money by. Their pockets have deepened no doubt. And they too say that there are many idiots with lots of money then why not get a share from them. Efforts are also least as you just need to talk and journalists are never at a loss of words when it comes to chatting. There are so many stories to be told; own experiences to be precise. And students will think oh how knowledgeable the faculty is. Poor folks indded!

The boom is unjustified and unreasonable because journalism industry is too small and highly competitive apart from being uncertain. Flip side is that these institutes tell their customers that opportunities are tremendous and exciting. “Interviewing a Prime Minister or taking a pot shot at the government, bureaucracy, polity is something that few professions can enjoy, an often repeated encouraging remark that the shopkeepers dish out.

At the bottom of the barrel lies many of these ambitious journalism students who end up working for content writing, press release writing and at worst working for free as interns at media organisations for months. Prime time wasted never comes back is not properly understood as yet and most importantly in backward regions of India. There could be other exciting options as well, both professionally and monetarily rewarding.

But, meanwhile, young men and women are not really bothered paying a hefty sum for a two-hour daily class to get a journalism certificate. It will bust that is for certain, but will leave many broken hearted.

Stupefied BJP

by Manish Anand

A stupefied Bhartiya Janta Party unrolled itself at its Mumbai national executive. Dramatis galore, the sheen of the incumbant BJP president Rajnath Singh was stolen by the Vajpayesque of Pramod Mahajan as the designated mascot of the party. Rajnath shouldn't be sulking either as he is the plant of Mahajan for the time being as per the reading goes on.

Bolt for the party was the controversy of Mahajan favouring Reliance and benefiting by proxy by more than Rs 1,000-crore coming in the media. How could sanity in the top BJP leadership decide the future baton of BJP to be passed on to a man with such a battered image. Clash of personalities has always been the undoing of the party. An alternative in the making to Congress is definitely now under question mark.

Interestingly, Mahajan represents the true face of BJP. His organisational skills, raising funds for the party have always been appreciated except for the way the funds were raised. And the party heavily depended on his skills all these years. Remember, the India Shining jaggernaute that BJP unleashed and the man behind the whole exercise.

LK Advani finds it very easy to ascribe the garbage in the party (men caught for cash-for-query scam or sex scandal) to the Congress culture. This is the most simplistic way of washing one's hand off the mess. Advani is now too weak and old to take responsibility for the stink that the party has gathered in its backyard.

The signals coming from Bihar where BJP along with JD(U) has come into power also indicates the compulsiveness of BJP to make goods with the power that it finds itself in. A senior BJP leader and who was tipped to be the deputy chief minister in Bihar twisted officials of his department (he is a minister) for filling up of his vehicles with oil while he along with his family members was on a private trip to Varanasi to pay obeisance to Lord Shiva after he bacame a minister.

Old habits die hard, someone had said. Power trap is too irresistable for BJP to come clean out of it.

Worse is the poverty of idea at the level of top leaders. Probably, they are no more leaders but followers of their folks.

Under these contexts it becomes imperative for Mr Rajnath Singh to be a man of the occassion. Stand up to the challenge and weed out rooten eggs in the basket. Pretty challenging the task is, but must be taken up as he stands at a moment where BJP can either mar its prospects or come stronger in character and commitment.

Early signs do not seem encouraging. Congress must be thanking its stars for being bleassed with its main Opposition party in utter disarray.

India’s ‘06 task: Face it

by Manish Anand

The new year 2006 dawned with new talks on the Indian political horizon. While the President Dr APJ Kalam remains cosy with his ‘Visions’, the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, is still engrossed in his rightist economist’s mould. The most acute challenge for Indian polity as well as the coalition government is to bridge the galloping divide between rural and urban India.

While the urban India (metropolis mostly) leapfrogged in the last decade, thanks to boom in the service sector, but rural India kept on sleeping into the quagmire of poverty and lack of opportunities. Divide is alarmingly acute. The babus manning India’s economic policies have systematically ignored starvation deaths by tribals, suicide in large numbers by farmers from Andhra Pradesh and Maharshtra, exodus of rural people to urban centres, massive erosion in the quality of life among urban and rural people due to obvious reasons, and worst, lack of symmetry in India’s social and economic growth.

Aping the west has been the easiest way out for the Indian government, and it still remains so.

Sustainable growth has been captive of experts’ past time activities in India, and a photo opportunity for ministers. Hence, S Swaminathan, Sandeep Pandey, Rajendra Singh, Baba Apte and few others remain a miniscule community. The apologists see India’s economic growth in software professionals criss-crossing transnational borders, stock-market peaking record high, mushrooming of shopping malls in metropolis, boom in the telecom sector, and yes, so many young men and women getting jobs in various call centres.

However, it could be explained fairly easily as ministers and bureaucrats responsible for the panning and implementation process seldom come out of their comfort zone in New Delhi and other developed cities. To peep into interiors of India can wreck their comforts!

The Indian government must let many growth centres to take roots in the interiors of India, and most importantly in the socially and economically backward regions. Agriculture and small scale units have to revitalise their economies with much wider participation of people. These centres must set in the process of reverse migration of people. Yes, they will have to compete with the transnational giants, which could be made possible by nurturing niche markets with across the board collaboration among media, government and people at large.

Small islands of self sufficient economies are possible as few examples are already there in India. The need is to take them to higher level. To make effect to this possibility, the babus and netas will need to undergo changeover in their mind-sets and policy approach.