Wheeler-dealer Amar Singh and his exit

The media went all ballistic to report expulsion of Amar Singh, the vintage "dealer", from the Samajwadi Party. All the top honchos of the media a beeline at the doorsteps of Mr Singh, popularly called by his loyalists as Thakur Sahab, to get "exclusive byte" from him. Mr Singh, though accused in general to be the deal maker on the strength of his erstwhile party in the Lok Sabha, has been a drawing room politician and famously known for giving juicy bytes to the media. This author has spent long hours to catch his trivial bytes from the time he emerged as the saviours of the Congress led UPA government, which could have sunk in 2008 over the Indo-US nuclear deal.

In politics the obvious and the stated versions may not necessarily be true. So, a caution must be there for those interested in politics. Also, Mr Amar Singh is known for his theatrics and histrionics. He can stage drama and later on can even disown his acts. There is nothing wrong when people damn it by saying that "Politics is the last refuge of the scoundrels". For just an afterthought: Is he staging a drama in collusion with his master Mulayam Singh Yadav to save the party which has sunk too deep that no immediate revival of its fortune could be seen, that he could go into the camp of arch-rival Mayawati to destroy her politically (as he did with Mulayam!). Just an afterthought!!!

Why is Mr Amar Singh, the wheeler-dealer of Indian politics, so important for the media? The answer is that he symbolises the very character of Indian democracy, which since the time of Mr V. P. Singh in 1989, has been dependent on people like him to function. It will be quite a travesty of justice if a person like K Chandrsekhara Rao, famousely called KCR, emerges as the father of new Telangana state in Andhra Pradesh. However, such a travesty can not be ruled out, as Shibu Soren has finally succeeded in becoming the chief minister of Jharkhand. Was not his party men involved in taking suitcase of currency from the representatives of the government led by Late Prime Minister Narsimha Rao, again to save his government from sinking in the Lok Sabha. The list of such travesty is simply too long.

The son of Mulayam, who is an MP, Akhilesh had told this author that his party would go for restructuring in the month of January, after a series of poll debacle having dented the confidence of his followers. The party, which had banked on MY (Muslim-Yadav) support to survive had seen the whole minority flock deserting it in the recent times. Mr Singh's expulsion could give an elbow room to Mulayam to undo his mistakes by opening the door for leaders like Azam Khan, Salim Sherwani, Shahid Siddiqui and many more. Not a bad trade off for stars from Bollywood who were brought into the party by Amar Singh in the end one can say.

Amar Singh had told this author once that Mulayam used to ask him what benefit does his party get by his talking to the Delhi media all the times. Amar Singh could also have said what benefit does the party get from him. Finance could have been a possible answer if this question was asked. But Mulayam had to bear with the loss of his daughter-in-law Dimple or rather his izzat (honour) at the hands of bitter rival Raj Babbar at Firozabad, with Akhilesh never tiring to explain that the loss was because he could not match the money power of Mr Babbar. If this is true, then Amar Singh has to take the blame, as he is alleged to have poured in his money power to ensure the victory of Jaya Prada fom the Rampur Lok Sabha constituency last year.

Where does the UP politics, which is most interesting for any political pundit to watch for, heads now. It must be stated here that Mulayam is going to be much more stronger than what he is today after the weeding out of Amar Singh elements from the party, which could be a bad news for Rahul Gandhi, who is toiling hard to win the cow-belt.

Queen's republic!

A Queen with her coterie at her command and a prince treading rough terrains to improve his understanding and a whole herd of dalals at command capture the state of affairs of this country which heads to celebrations of ceremonies. The occasion is another reminder, though somewhere deep buried, that the nation is a republic.

An old man, who spent most of his productive years abroad, sowed seeds of kingships veiled in the romanticism of democracy, by institutionalising cult of installing foreign bred at high offices. A whole era has passed by now and it is quite in the fitness of the things that one should sit down at a remote corner of India Gate lawn, overseeing the architecture of monarchy, with President's House overseeing centres of power at South and North Block, to reflect on country's state of the affairs and people whizzing past to meet their mundane works.

First look at the person who occupies the palatial building at the President's House, which spreads into acres of land and employs hundreds of people at the expense of tax payers' money for ceremonial work. Can the person inspire even a single man or a woman or rather ask a commoner what made the person to earn a position at the imposing position?

Ask a question here: In Delhi alone there are 1,50,000 homeless people dyings dogs' deaths on city roads, when the institution of ceremonies occuply hundreds of acre here. Why and what for?

Then turn to the man who heads the courtiers' wings. He should have people's mandate to take the seat to shape the destiny of the country but not though he is into his second innings -- a rare feat.

The subject though dulling the mind then has to trun to the place where the seat of real power lies in and who she or he is. The place is not at the usual spot and rather it is at somewhere else. The buck stops there. All those in charge with the task of shaping fortune of the nation and a milling millions chasing big dreams drop down there in absolute homage.

Sixty years of republic and what kind of political sytem people are blessed with. The largest political party is a family owned enterprise. Even a layman investor feels shaky in putting his money into the stocks of family run business ventures.

Move on and look at the ministers in command at the centre. Dalals rule the most in this domain. Sugar prices soard three times and equally short times, bringing in huge fortune to all the mills of this commodity. This man has direct interest in this business and he singulary stoked the prices high -- unchecked and unpunished. Irony is that he inspires the most to the new chief of the single largest Opposition party. The list is long.

In the states, collective loot is taking place and again unchecked and unpunished. The laws are rather to chain the people in place of liberating them. The police appears to be one orgainsed gangster serving the interests of the dalals heading the establishment.

Triple the size of the organised economy happens to be that of the black money. Fortunes are stashed in Swiss banks. The tax base remains minimal. Prices are at sky thanks to the power of the black money --a great gift of about sixty years of this nation being a republic.

Let the mind slip six decades. The nation relied on borrowed leadership. All those who captured the front positions mostly hailed from rich families and were educated by foreigners. Genuine home bred leaders remained among the last man standing -- overawed at the flawless communication skills in the English language of the "leaders", who shared one thing in common that is they were all "theorists". The result was license raj, giving birth to the cult of dalals, faulty economic and foriegn policies, which in the end not only pushed the country much behind but also plagued the nation with cancerous neighbours.

The apologetics safely take recourse to a quote again of a foreigner which stated that "democracy is as good as the electorates", failing conveniently to note that a cancerous system first needs a sustained chemotherapy to again start "living".

A new independence movement must be somewhere taking birth -- from the cult of dalals, family worship, fatalism and perennial inferiority complex. Ceremonies have bored the people enough and now they can step back. Let a new republic be born which can satisfy aspirations of those who have gone into the jungles of naxalism or to other extreme forms of disenchantment.

Vibrant Bihar on anvil?

The spectacular growth rate of 11.04 per cent in the last five years in Bihar has been music to the ears. The icing on the cake is 11.4 per cent growth in last fiscal, with experts raising hope of the "Bimaru" state turning into a miracle economy.

Immediate explanation could be a very low base which could have given a double digit groth rate. Preceding the NDA rule headed by Nitish Kumar, the misrule of 15 years by Lalu-Rabri combine had taken the state to the abyss. Coming out of a long dark tunnel, a glimpse of light could be sparkling enough to fill the hearts with hope. Bihar hopefully appears on the verge of a historical opportunity to script a new beginning of hope fuelled by an abundent and ambitious human resources, who have otherwise been flocking other places for better lives.

The fact hitherto unknown to others in rest of the country is the robust deposits in the banks of Bihar. However, killing the economy or rather discouraging the enterprising youth of the state is the fact that the banks have been too shy to lend. The credit to deposit ratio (the amount of money lent to the people against the deposits in various forms like savings, etc.) as per the Reserve Bank of India is a meagre 32 per cent. A growing and health economy shall require this to be above 50 per cent. This shows that though the money is there it's not being given by the banks for growth to the people for reasons best known to them and easily explained for their known prejudices. A case could easily be made that Bihar's money is being used to help other states to grow at the expanse of this poor state, which requires a much more benign banking system.  

A visit to the state after a long time was quite a pleasant surprise. Roads are much better. Police is more responsive. People have a better attitude, a departure from fatalist world view that they used to have. The people now openly express that a government in the state can really deliver and has delivered. Kudos to Mr Nitish Kumar and his team. A stark comparison befits a mention here. Your travel on Bihar roads will now be pleasant but the moment you cross into the neighbouring Jharkhand you should feel the urge to swallow a pain killer given all the bumpy rides that the crumbled or rather disappeared roads there offer you, which shall stand a testimony for five years of organised loot under the then Independent chief minister Madhu Koda.    

It must be noted that the growth in Bihar has been achieved with an apathetic Central government, whose Babus have been more interested in Mumbais, Delhis and Ahmedabads for the growth of the country. The success of Bihar should be a slap into the face of the jaundiced Delhi Babus, who badly needs to take fresh lesson in governance.

Paid news: India's new cancer

After a long time The Hindu drew admiration for doing an in-depth analysis of the cancer afflicting Indian democracy in the form of "paid news" to fool the people. Seasoned journalist P Sainath in his article in The Hindu on Nov. 30 brought forth the scam of Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan in using the media to further his political interests through paid news ( www.counterpunch.org/sainath11302009.html). Kudos to him. Late journalist Prabhash Joshi had also raised the issue of the paid news and had also filed a complaint with the Press Council of India, which, however, is a toothless body and is hardly heard by any.

The cancer of paid news is now a full blown cancer for India. This could not only be a forgery but could even be a fit case for section 420 of the Indian Penal Code. Punjab Keshri has been doing this for a long time and during election times its reporters make lakhs of rupees. Now, the whole herd of the Hindi newspapers has joined this collective shame. Before the Delhi Assembly elections last year, the kinds of Navbharat Times, Nai Duniya, Hindustan among some more had gone aggressively to sell their space for sponsored news items in favour of candidates in the fray. The modus operandi was simple that apart from buying the space the sponsoring candidates will buy newspapers in bulk, in thousands, and circulate in their constituencies to influence the voters in their favour.

This cancer is more deadly than any afflicting the nation. Corruption in media will not only undermine the very foundation of the country but will condemn the people to high dose of disinformation, which they might not distinguish from the information. Adding to this menace is the disinformation campaign is the propaganda war unleashed by the incumbent ruling party, which has government's resources at its disposal. Just recently the Haryana government had gone aggressively to publicize its "achievements" in the media before the election dates were notified. The Congress led Delhi government had also before Assembly polls had gone to the town with tall claims of one lakh homes for the poor (Not even a single home has been handed over to the poor despite one year passing by since elections), regularization of unauthorised colonies, which stoked the real-estate prices there but none has been done so far and many more.

The crisis is very deepened and challenges the Election Commission of India to wake up from its deep slumber, else the very foundation of the democracy will come tottering. The alarm bell is ringing.