Sporting windfall!

By Manish Anand


The Subhash Chandra backed Indian Cricket League has finally brought riches to the Indians sportsmen, which had been hitherto confined to few cricket superstars only. No one should be complaining as it's only good for the sports. This has also forced BCCI to open its huge cash reserves for the players. For BCCI, it might be collateral damage, but for players it's their dues kept away from them all these years.

The Yash Chopra film "Chak De, India" is doing remarkably well with the audience with a bunch of women players holding the hockey sticks. The people in movieplexes are clapping at most of the scenes as they fill them with pride as the women bring to them the charm of the National sport. Indian football team is also showing signs of resurgence hinting at the fleeting thought that the might elephant is finally waking up and raring to go for the kill in the international soccer meets.

Sania Mirza continues to pride the nation with her feats. Her youthful exuberance is inspiring a whole lot of generation to take to the sports with realistic dreams. Post-Greg Chappel, the Indian cricket team is also coming back to the winning habits though the fear of loss still cripple it.

Corporatisation of sports has been substantially responsible for the turnaround in the recent years. The inspiration for players have always been the visibility, praise and money. When the sportspersons around the world are digging in the riches, the Indians too can not be left behind. Sponsorships, advertisements and match fees are scaling up to boost the players to put in that extra effort, which makes them extraordinary from ordinary.

Big corporate houses who are sitting on high cash reserves thanks to the windfall of the new economy have reasons to foot the bills of the turnaround of the Indian sports. It will only benefit them, because the "image" has become all the more important. And, successes in sports are the easiest way to sneak into the hearts of the teeming millions of Indians, who have turned into crazy consumers now.

Nuke(d) polity

By Manish Anand

Indian political stability stands nuked thanks to the Left's allergy to anything that involves the US. The Central government is also to lose its credibility to do business with other countries. The immediate neighbour China must have been laughing its heart out at the ugly dance of the political divide of the Indian democracy. Also, the nuclear scientists, the blue eyed baby of the Indian policies for decades, would be whining for loss of chance to fill in the gap created by their lack of capabilities through the Indo-US nuclear deal.

As the Congress in an effort to cling to the chair at any cost would buy time in the name of holding more debate on the deal, it would be up front for it to divulge all details regarding the nuclear research in the country in the last six decades. The financial cost of the research as well as the tangible and intangible benefit out of it should be put into the public domain. And, also let the nuclear scientists tell the nation how many more years they would take to produce the dreamy 20,000 MW of nuclear power. Whether they can do it or not, they should tell the nation honestly.

Also, the Left must tell with which nation it wants India to have strategic relations and why and the rationale behind their formulations. China has been an enemy, which needs no further elaboration. Pakistan has given the "hundred cuts" and continue to do so with impunity. Russia is a power consigned to the history books. Europe has no political standing at all. So, Left should tell the nation if not the US then with which nation India should have strategic relations to protect its national interest.

The Left should also come clear on why it's helping quite tangibly China to remain the sole superpower in Asia. What it has to say on the issue of Tibet and China's claim on Arunachal Pradesh. At the same time, the Left should come clear on the question of its ideological sovereignty independent of the Chinese comrades.

It's definitely not the time for India to go to the poll. The outcome of a mid-term is known to all parties, hence the parties should inform the people why they are imposing an election and why in logical and clear cut terms.

Finally, a woman President

By Manish Anand

At last, the Indian polity, exhausted after exploring all options for the post of President, chose a woman. In the last 60 years of India's independence it never occurred to any of the burly politicians that India needed a woman politicians, because this is the nation which believes in inclusive society and social justice to all. And, top posts have invariably been taken to symbolically serve that purpose over the years. Indian polity must be thanked for this.

Last month I had raised the issue why a woman should be elected the President of India. I had pessimistic view that such a thing would happen when so many senile veteran male politicians need to be given a retirement solution by the bosses of the political parties.

However, a picture of Pratibha Patil, who is into 70s, in one of the newspaper appalled me, because she was helped by two of her security personnel in helping her to walk. Instantly, I heard myself saying not again, not another Shankar Dayal Sharma. At least the president should be physically independent.

Ostensibly, the qualification that won Mrs Patil the post of President was she being the staunch loyalist of the Gandhi family. It just adds insult to the woes of the New India, which wants itself to unchain from the slavery of sycophancy and spineless toeing lines of the high command.

Hopefully, Mrs Patil would realise that once she is the President she has to do justice to her position in the most upright and objective manner that more honour comes to the post as achieved by two of her predecessors, Dr K R Narayanan and Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.

But, we must congratulate ourselves for another reason. The United States is yet to have a woman President! Hopefully, Hillary Clinton, if she is nominated by the Democrats ahead of Obama, corrects that anomaly.

Caste war

By Manish Anand

With 11 districts put under National Security Act in Rajsthan, a full-blown bloody caste war has become a reality in India, caused by the 50-year of misplaced reservation policy of the Indian government.

One caste group is on killing and loot spree, the fallout of any riots, with another dominant caste group in retaliatory mode, the government has been put to the severest test of its populist policy to tap mass votes by doling out the reservation carrot to various caste groups.

On the warpath are Meena and Gurjar caste groups in Rajsthan with the latter not enjoying the fruits of easy entry into the government jobs. Though Gurjars are in the OBC category, they find the job pie fully dominated by the Jat. So, they want an ST tag.

Meena have been the most affluent caste group in Rajsthahn (14 % population) and have dominated the ST category in the state and at all India level along with the Christian groups of the North-east.

Top government officials have been knowing for a long time that Meena could be straightaway put in the General category for their social and economic status. But the government can not dare to revise the beneficiary list ostensibly for the price that they would have to pay.

Few years ago, a Meena candidate in an IAS interview was thrown out of the interview board in two minutes by a short-tempered chairperson of the interview board, who just wondered why the Meenas should claim the reservation in jobs. The candidate had replied that as the benefit was there so he was claiming, the answer that fetched him 25 marks out of 300 and an unceremonious kick-out from the board.

Take a look into the IAS, IPS, IRS and other Central services, you would find end number of Meenas along with the Christian groups of North-east; all are the offshoots of a flawed reservation policy pursued without revision by the governments.

Aren't there other ST groups who too should be enjoying the pie of the sweet fruits!

Experts have been calling for a relook into the reservation policy for many failures without the governments noticing them. The case of Rajsthan is an eyeopener but the Central and the state governments hardly seem to have spine to go for the right diagnosis.

Ask any interviewee of IAS from the reserved categories, hardly any logical satisfactory explanation would come from them, who will fail to hide an embarrassed and guilty faces.

It's imperative that gradually caste groups have have left the stigma of being socially backward be removed from the reservation beneficiaries' list, which could be used to accommodate the caste groups who still remain at the lowest ebb due to theirs not making the politically dominant voice.

The message must go to the beneficiaries that that the reservation policy of the government has an expiry date.

And for the moment, the government must carry out the revision of the ST castes with immediate removal of the Meena and the Christian caste groups of the North-east who are socially (there is no historical rationale for their social backwardness) and economically well-off.

Wanted: A President for India

By Manish Anand


Indian polity is abuzz with the talk of the next President of India. With the bar for the high post raised by many a notches by the two immediate Presidents, Dr A P J Kalam and Dr K R Narayanana, India requires another President who could further bring prestige and honour to the post.


But the Indian polity is threatening to overlook the bigger picture to accommodate their petty political designs.


As a constitutional head of the largest democracy in the world, the first citizen must command a good constitutional judgement along with the spine to take independent decisions. Also, the post would require him or her to prop the government and citizenry to further raise their levels.


Has there been a woman President of India in the last 60 years of independence? No, there was none. When the nation takes explicit care to have an inclusive growth and takes pride in having Presidents from the dalit and minority class, then why the Indian polity failed to have a woman President so far?


It's an injustice that none from half the population could rise to the top most post in India. Also, it explains in some ways why the Parliament has not been able to pass the Women Reservation Bill so far when the same has been successfully implemented in the Panchayati and municipal bodies.


A symbolic act by picking up a competent woman to occupy the highest position would hasten their effective empowerment. Also, it must be taken into account that Indira Gandhi as the Prime Minister had instilled confidence and hope among women that they too could carve a

niche for themselves in the fast competitive world.

However, it would be a folly if an active politician is chosen for the high post. The reason being that Indian polity is undergoing through a churning process, which would keep throwing challenges to the President to ensure that the spirit of Constitution prevails and justice is done to all. Also, the post in no way be considered a retirement solution for the influential politicians. It would just embarrass the ever competitive Indians who want to be the best in the world.

The Congress and the BJP are in position to get their blue eyed baby to the high post. Also, the smaller parties have become smart to be herded around the bigger parties. So, the two leading parties could constitute a panel of five thinking people and come up with a list of five and the best among them be picked up at an all party meeting. Sonia Gandhi and L K Advani have seen enough politics by now to think big and could get the backing of A B Vajpayee and Somnath Chaterjee for an eventual selection.

Would the Indian polity rise to the occasion and bless the people with a President who can instill pride in people. Let's watch the unfolding of the process.

Great churning

By Manish Anand

It's a monumental churning in UP that Mayawati swept to power with a full majority. A feat achieved after a span of 14 years by any party and positions her Bahujan Samaj Party firmly in the heart of the Indian politics. This also consigns to oblivion the mathematical politics of the BJP, Samajwadi Party and the Congress.

The churning also puts the wayward mandalised politics on the backfoot with assertive dalits and brahmins combining together. And with few of the Brahmin ministers touching the dalit Mayawati's feet, the social engineering gets altogether interesting. A Brahmin advisor (Satish Chandra Mishra) helped an impulsive and directionless dalit mass leader (Mayawati) to capture the nerve of the UP people so firmly. It has to be read into and analysed further as here lies the future directions of the Indian politics.

Mulayam Singh Yadav with vote-bank of backward castes and Muslims gave UP crime, injustice and backwardness. The BJP with its vote-bank of forward caste and Baniya gave UP confusion on issues hardly affecting the daily lives of the people. It remains blindfolded to the fact that with millions of the poor around you the temple is least needed by the people. It's arrogance of having shroud mavericks in its fold, who dished out CD highly intolerable in a pluralist and secular society and who talked up of alliance with Mulayam Singh to whom it had alleged of having an ISI link, now lie in tatters.

The BJP in UP just proved that it's on the way to become insignificant soon with its superficial politics being paid least attention by the people. The Congress should rather pack up as its kid, another Gandhi avatar, proved that the party is guided by highly insensitive and disconnected people.

A sane voice must advice Rahul Gandhi that it's high time that he comes out of the mama's and papa's achievements and build a niche for himself. This UP election would definitely prove a big education for him.

Mayawati is most likely to reverse the path of UP going the Bihar way with strong hold on bureaucracy and law and order. The collective identity of UP, which was more identified by goons like Raja Bhaiya and Amarmani Tripathi, would hopefully go for an image makeover. She is most likely to make the bureaucracy come out of its British imperialism hangover and become a true servant of the people. This she could do if she is not caught in the web woven by the politicians, bureaucrats and judiciary to keep the status quo going.

And, people in UP could tolerate more statues of Kansi Ram and Dr Ambedkar along with elephants if they come up with law and order, development and social harmony.

Mukul Pathak: Psychology

AFTER rushing through a dusty lane in a crowded Munirka market in South Delhi about 40 or so young men and women, all aspiring to become IAS or IPS officers, had settled in a rectangular box called a classroom, and waited for a man, who could spoon-feed them to join the world of babudom. 

The box was reached after climbing up stairs with reddened wall. The Babus too work in holes in huge buildings, which can be accessed through stairs with walls showing marks of freshly splashed paan. The budding babus had also to breath in heavily high dose of ammonia, which welcomed all from open toilets on the way to the box. 

A stout and fulsome bodied man walked in and without wasting any moment faced the whiteboard and wrote MUKUL PATHAK and underneath PSYCHOLOGY. The man had arrived; and there was collective sigh of relief. 

The men and women knew that this was the man who had the key to their journey forward in red-beacon ambassador cars. After declaring his name and the subject, he faced the herd and showed all his teeth in a smile, which would last forever in memories of the herd. With wide lips and well polished teeth, the man could easily have been an ambassador for toothpaste advertisements.

With smiles shared and few introductions done, Pathak hammered out a number of definitions of Psychology, with utmost stress on the subject being a scientific study of human behaviour. This appealed half of the box, which belonged to the class of engineers, who had the nose to think of being intelligent and class apart. Also followed jargon like Psychology is a subject of scientific study of cognitive skills. 

DEFINITIONS satisfied most, that the man was capable to give them a leg up.

However, there were some who wanted to test the man and so shot off questions to their abilities. Pathak had seen enough of them. So, he latched on to the offered opportunity and demolished the collective pride of black sheep. Pride bruised, the doubting souls surrendered fully. 

Some of these black sheep had left Pathak's class mid-way and some found to their dismay, that civil services prelims was quite a tough nut to crack. 

With bundles of notes from which he would read out slowly so that all could write down (wonder why did he not give the copies to avoid this exercise) Pathak would mention studies of Gallaghar, Gestalt and so many to lay bare the world of psychology. 

The studies would mostly be done on rats from which inferences would be drawn for humans. Some experiments would also involve humans. But overall rats were the examples for human beings in understanding themselves.   

After Pathak dealt with nuts and bolts of Psychology, many beliefs were shattered. Psychology turned out to be most valuable subject which  should have been taught far earlier for far more benefit.

Making fun of the black sheep in the herd would be the usual approach of Pathak to command unconditional submission of the box. People, in fact, relish full belly laugh at other's expenses. Black sheep were in regular supply to him. 

A back-bencher eyeing outside for a glimpse of full moon or girls coming late on a valentine day or black sheep lending ears to their neighbours or some planting hard eyes at girls and their bra straps seen on a sweating summer afternoon made Pathak to split the box in riotous laughter. The man knew the mind of the herd, and, hence, was there as the herd master.

"A mere thought of him brings out image of his cheerful and mischievous face," an assistant income tax commissioner (a bright sheep in the herd with M. Phil in Economics) reminisced. He was a victim when Pathak called him an educated economist bitten by monkey, after he had asked something, which was considered funny. 

A humorous cynical easily enjoys attention of many. "Indians can never be a world champion like Australians," he would say, to drive home the point that lack of mental toughness plagues Indians. (Dhoni's men, however, have shown that Indians too have mental toughness to become world champion.) This was also psychological, because of emotional deficiency, which was blamed on for faulty upbringing, he would say. 

A shocker would come, with Pathak quoting Sigmund Freud's studies, that Indians are basically impotent (probably emotionally). This would naturally hurt manly herd in the box. Knowing well the mind of the herd, he would further quote Freud, that "women are incomplete entity as they lack penis". This breeds identity crisis in women, he would say. The explanation for this being that the baby girls envy love of mother, which she finds going to father and, hence, she thinks that if she had had a penis she too would have got the matching love and attention of her mother. It would further be informed, that Freud has answer to girls taking their mothers as their role model.

The herd would counter attack Pathak, as if it was he who had come up with such findings. Pathak would, however, calm the nerves by informing that Anna Freud, daughter of S Freud, had refuted his claims. She had reasoned that case studies of sick people can not be generalised.

AFTER Aamir Khan informed Indians on Satyamev Jayate show that we are killing baby girls even before they are born, Freud should be taken more seriously by doubting souls. Pathak would deal with Psychoanalysis part of the subject in most hurried manner, for personal shyness or to avoid wasting time in discussing penis, vagina and anus.    

For some days sheep in the box made efforts not to put ball-pen in their mouths, after it was explained that the behaviour was actually an obsession because of oral fixation (inadequate breast feeding).

List of psychological disorders was very exhaustive. Their awareness was also damaging. It turned out that most of the herd were having some of the symptoms of the disorders; obsessive compulsive disorder or neurosis or paranoia or panic disorder or even schizophrenia. After Pathak explained that most of the disorders had their roots in faulty upbringing, parents would naturally be in the firing line at the outside cigarette corner shops. An engineer would be heard telling another sheep, that his parents were indulging in pleasure when he was conceived. 

Pleasure could also be painful. Pathak would say so by disclosing that sexual intercourse is an act of pleasure but painful. The herd would not contest the claims, as most of them had walked into the box "virgin", to prove that they were horses with blinkers on to win the race for red-beacon installed ambassador car.  

Indians are laid-back, because their locus of control is outside (God or any extraneous factor). So, if we lost something we would say it was not due to our fault. So, we are not the people who would like to take initiative or would like to be held responsible, he would explain.  

The box was also a place where cupid struck dry soul. One did so, after sitting behind a girl every day to keep his eyes fixed on her to set his soul sailing into the body of his neighbour. 

LOVE which begins with lust hardly has longevity. Once love dies at the altars of worldly parents, victims have to find explanations to continue their journey beyond. There was one in the herd, who used Pathak's lessons to find such an explanation. 

"One does not love a person who is emotionally deficient and not independent enough. I resolved my crisis by telling myself, that I have to come out of dependence on others," said the cupid stricken sheep in the herd. 

Aspiring to become an IAS and searching a soul mate make for a deadly cocktail, which, sadly, take both aims astray.

Sad part was, Pathak would say, India being a nation of a billion people there were hardly one psychologist for a lakh population, while a healthy nation should have one for every thousand. He would inform that a career in Psychology is most lucrative in the US. 

Insanity is on the rise alarmingly in India too, which is true for the nation following in the footsteps of the US. In immediate future Barrack Obama should propose to his good friend Dr Manmohan Singh an FDI flow for psychiatrists as well.    

Pathak would not mind confessing to some, that people, including girls, had been sharing personal problems with him, that he felt like hanging himself upside down from a ceiling fan!

A number of sheep in the box are now serving the great Indian bureaucracy. 

                                         *****

A Note on Author:

Thirteen years have gone by since India's famed bureaucracy failed to admit me in its "steel frame". In place I joined "world's best profession" -- journalism. After a decade of being a political journalist, I have authored a book -- The enabler Narendra Modi: Breaking Stereotypes. 

The book is available at amzn.to/1CR528s  in India &  myBook.to/Indianpolitics  (The US)

The book has emerged #1 Best Seller on Kindle store. 

#1 Best Seller on Kindle 

How To Read Kindle Books: For android phone http://bit.ly/19c6Xpm for Apple phone/ IPad http://apple.co/1MrRaF5 for PC http://amzn.to/1ImLwl0

Courts rule

by Manish Anand

It's now a fact of the matter that the judiciary in Delhi has stepped into the shoes of the executive. This threatens to unsettle the fine balance between the three wings of the Indian democracy, namely the judiciary, the legislature and the executive. More unsettling is the pattern of an undemocratic power centre being created to rule the people in contravention of the spirit of the Indian constitution.

Be it catching monkeys or building a modern abattoir or disciplining the errant motorists or shutting down commercial premises termed illegal as per a Master Plan, which the experts called outdated, or resolving stand off between the MCD and the Delhi police or parking mess or the river Yamuna refusing to be restored to its epic grandeur; the courts are there to whip the executive, calling their representatives to explain the nitty-gritty of their functioning.

Last week the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke out the undesirable tension between the government and the judiciary with some other elected representatives pitching in with similar opinions. The former Chief Justice of India J S Verma also spoke out against the judiciary breaching its limits and stepping into the domain of the executives. More experts from the judicial fraternity are coming out in the open against the over heating judicial activism and are calling for a balancing act.

In a democracy, it would be prudent for the people to whip around the governments for their failings through various methods, which could long way to strengthen the democracy and empower the people in the end. A short-cut approach of the judiciary calling shots all the time would only belittle its prestige in the end with less and less their orders getting implemented in the true letter and spirit.

A fine dialogue is needed at genuine fora to decide what the limits are for the judiciary as it's already burdened with its real work. Judiciary is to ensure that there is rule of law in the society and the nation is run as per the constitutional provisions. There are far more work pending for the judiciary to look into then to step unnecessarily into the territory of the executives.

Despite the Supreme Court monitoring the construction of a modern abattoir in the capital, there is hardly any forward movement in the project. The monkeys in the capital remain a menace and the animal activists are not at all wrong when they say that the monkeys too have all the right to stay in the ridge area of the capital and it's rather humans who have disturbed them. The sealing and demolition drives are least likely to solve Delhi's problems in any ways.

Let the heat between the judiciary and the government cool off at the earliest to help out the fragile Indian democracy.

Sulking India

By Manish Anand

Failures know no father. Indian criketers now know it hard way. An end number of Indians at every possible fora are screaming to damn the likes of Sachins and Dravids for not meeting their bloated expectations. The emotional fools that most of the Indians are the humiliating early exit from the World Cup of cricket is hard to believe for most of them.

Did Sachin or Dravid promise anyone that they are going to bring the World Cup back or did the coach Chappel said anything like that? But they also failed to instil rationality in the unjustifiable dreams of Indians of World Cup glory. They now pay for their mistake.

Indian News channels are into business of making fast bucks. They unfailingly solicit SMSs for their polls and reactions, which are camouflaged as some pieces of news analysis. From bomb blasts in various Indian cities to the defeat of Indians in a crciket match, the voluble anchors and experts start screaming ignorant of repetitions and stupidity while soliciting SMSs. The revenue from the charged SMSs are then shared between the TV channels and the mobile phone operators.

The fledgling News channels have another reason to whip the Indian cricketers for making an early exit as they were denied a share in the pie of more than Rs 4,00 crore advertisements from Indian companies during the World Cup. This explains why the TV anchors are screaming even weeks after over the Indian debacle.

On the contrast the News channels are hardly seen devoting a fair amount of time to diagnose why so many farmers in India are committing suicide or why the digital divide between the two Indians are getting more intense to the extent of brewing rebellion within the nation. They are yet to give fair amount of time to diagnose the failings of the various state governments or pick up issues which the silent Indians are suffering from.

Cricket is just a game but unfortunately in India the people would give a damn to the productivity at their work places to watch the match on TV. A nation of huge unemployment found special flavour in Cricket matches as they help in killing the idle time of millions of Indians with the lazy folks adding to the band of the "Blue Billion".

The emotional drain that Indians are still suffering is nothing but a trap of crass consumerism fed on the TV channels by fat advertisement cartel willing to sale anything by exploiting the emotional weakness of the Indians.

The Sachins and Dravids would hit some centuries in the coming home series against England and they would again start selling the Pepsis and Colas with all zest and the Indians would brave the scorching heat to watch they duel with the cricketing heroes to assuage the hurt Indians!

Hard nosed

By Manish Anand

Delhi has the most intolerant and snobbish elders! Residing in the capital of India and exposed to them overs and shakers of the power play that influence the nation the senior citizens consider themselves a class apart and never lose opportunity to come hard on the young folks and others।

A lady in her 60s, wearing the dress of the teens, also did not lose the opportunity to tell another woman with all the air of a hard nosed senior citizen of Delhi that she had to switch off her cell phone in a movie theatre। This happened while the people were leaving the theatre after watching the movie The Namesake, which had large turnout of elders। To the disappointment of the domineering lady, the woman being targeted just ignored her and refused to look at her।

The best way to deal with mentally diseased people is just to ignore them when they just wait for you to react to their arrogant tirade so that they could come down on you howling with all ferocity। A response of "I dont care why the world is wrong for you" attitude leaves the domineering ones fuming with self and gives you the liberty to walk of with all dignity intact.

A mistake by the ticket man of the theatre also gave an insight into the difference between the two worlds: one that of young with fun and happiness as mark of their presence and the another of the elders with seriousness and eerie silence as mark of their presence। This so happened as earlier I was directed to the auditorium screening Namaste Landon though I had to see The Namesake। One just can not stop a smile of pride coming when sees the youth in group giggling and enjoying their time। But the elders in the theatre could not stop yelling for silence and making angry gesture to the giggling youth।

At some stage in life it's beneficial if one could just drop all the airs of identities to learn the meaning of life from the youngsters। The elders badly need that though they are always ready to give lectures to others.

Being a Journalist, I have come across lots of elders with an end number of complaints giving the notion that the world has just gone wrong and they could correct them if others could just listen to them।

Sometimes back I had hard time keeping my bewilderment in check when one of the lady in the apartment asked me to park my two-wheelers on the roadside as it being parked within the building premise gave her an impression of jhuggi-cluster though she had no regrets for parking her cars on the pedestrian zone, which is illegal as it's an encroachment।

Fuming she left as I talked of the legality of the parking rules with her husband pulling her away with embarrassment।

Boiling kitchen

By Manish Anand

A Delhi minister's wife recently picked up fight with her servant. The minister watched the spectacle with all amusement. The wife when given the monthly ration bill by the servant found out the previous month's bill and compared and lost her temper. The bill had just doubled up.

The tigress at home just could not understand the doubling up of the bill, and put all the blames on the servant with all the expletives challenging his honesty. Why the bill shot twice of the previous month's, the wife kept repeating.

The poor servant had hard time explaining the price rise with prices of vegetables and pulses simply touching the sky.

The minister at last intervened and explained the market economics. The servant was at no fault. Blame it on thickening of middle class and spurt in the export without matching supply in the market. Simple!

Hey, is it that simple?

Not at all as the India is a welfare state and the electorate choose a government to take care of their concerns and protect them from all market fluctuations. So, why the government is not intervening?

That too is simple as the governments post new economic era do not want to interfere in the dynamics of the market. The market would take care of all ups and downs itself, is the mantra of the government.

But what about the poor and the lower middle class? They can not bear the market abandoning them to the curse of the "want". They have to feed their children and have to ensure the minimum level of nutrition. What should they do as their income did not rise as the prices of their basic necessities leaped?

Very simple; just wait for the election and throw away the government which did not protect your interests!

That of course will not solve the problem except for satiating the need to express the collective mass anger. More efforts will be needed and that would be when people in real terms start governing themselves. Probably, solutions as put forward by the World Social Forum may be looked into.

It's time people start strengthening their communities and begin developing a self-sufficient community. Grow most of the basic necessities that you require and become immune to the market dynamics as the government always listen to the poor only when they need votes, which unfortunately is not that too frequent.

But what about those who live in big cities? They can not grow their needs themselves as they do not have land.

Are they helpless? Probably yes!

GDP at 9.2 per cent–reason for euphoria?

By Manish Anand

Headlines beamed this week that India’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) has been pegged at 9.2 per cent, which called for celebrations by the newspapers. Is it really so euphoric? A doctored way of development has been the GDP linked growth, which India remains obsessed with.

GDP is the aggregate of a nation’s produces, that is, all the services and goods originating from the nation and selling domestic or internationally.

Post new economic policy, the economic policy makers have been dreaming to touch a 10 per cent GDP growth on a sustained basis, which in their view would lift the lower strata of the society by the spin-off effect. We have been very near that dream, but that spin-off has not had the intended effect so far.

The spin-offs have been in the form of more millionaires and billionaires with few of the giant Indian companies buying out big ticket companies abroad, and yes thickening of the middle class with more people sneaking into this because of the creation of more and more jobs in the services sector, which account for more than 50 per cent of GDP, which again has always been taken as a cause of concern.

Simple economics says that a country of large population like Indian and China should be stronger on the manufacturing sector, which alone has the potential to create huge employment along with unleashing innumerable entrepreneurial potential in the nation.

India just missed the bus of being the manufacturing base of the world. The reasons are aplenty.

With more than 30 per cent of the people always at the threat of starvation, being below the poverty line, which is nothing but statistical maneuvering of the pampered babus, there is reason to question the GDP driven growth of the country.

With millions of people being shelter less despite shelter being the fundamental right of the citizen as mandated by the Constitution, there is reason to ask why the babus in the cool confines of the Lutyens’ Delhi do not step into the interiors of the country to gauge the effect of their policies.

With the law and order along with judiciary still functioning in the British mould it becomes necessary to ask if the policy makers are not single mindedly focused on GDP growth rate then to deliver services as promised in the Constitution in an undiluted manner.

With thousands of children going missing each year in this country, which takes pride in calling itself a welfare state, it becomes important whether the government really cares for the people or not or is it too busy to raise a toast for the Tatas and the Mittals.

Why have not we developed happiness index or well being index so far to really gauge the impact of the policies in the real terms? The suicides of farmers along with a whole lot of farmers not able to rid themselves of the debt trap are shame that the policy makers must take on them.

Why does it take Sonia Gandhi to dash off a letter, asking to look into the issues of FDI in retail sector, which can potentially make crores of people jobless and leave people at the mercy of the oligarchs, for the government to really start looking into the issue?

Do the people need Sonia Gandhi as an ambassador within their own country?

Thinking through

by Manish Anand

Faced with a dull face and little to offer brain overhead, the best escape is to look out of the window. This is a routine at the new secretariat, seat of power of the Delhi government, which is full of mundane and unexciting people.

Its architect must be thanked for developing an artificial pond on the northern side, which the migratory birds have really liked to their zest. The pond looks like islands of black and white dots, creating waves and floating on them. The black dot is a small bird and the white one is like a duck.

Bonding one must learn from the black birds (I apologise for not knowing its correct name) as hundreds of them have coupled with no distraction coming their ways despite innumerable of them being there. A couple is either making a circle continuously or chasing the partner with watery waves created by their tiny wings giving them a world of their own.

Envious attachment one can easily call with the thought waves recalling the saddened voice of a friend sharing the breaking off with his could have been life partner. A friend in Indian Revenue Services had found his soul mate with one of his batch-mate two years ago and had later firmed up their relations with resolve to get married despite immense cultural and linguistic divide. Their love ended in tatters as the girl got through into IAS with posting thousands of miles away from him making marriage impractical, and hence the breaking off.

Though the black birds are very small in size, they are not at all in awe with their bigger counterparts and have divided the pond in equal sizes. No intrusion and no violation of territorial sanctity for them with remarkable discipline one could spot in them. In contrast to them is this place full of people ready to chop off each other to move over. Humans have so little to trust each other with eyes speaking out their minds so clearly these days.

One could easily fall in love with the duck like white bird, which could be taken as the best bather in the world with even the princess nowhere near them in their art of bathing. Ruffling wings after nose diving on and on, the question just crossed the mind if it would take a break and just dry out like some of them doing so, who must have taken their ablutions earlier. Sparkling white with purity shining all the way, they could give a run for money to all the brand ambassadors of the beauty clinic products on any day.

Ah, they are the migratory stuff who know no distance and barrier and can fly off to their choicest destinations. Life in all zest these birds are really blessed with just a wicked man waiting somewhere to trap them and end their celebration of life.