And the dole goes on..............

Mr. Obama has put in place a US$ 1.75 trillion deficit budget to try and kick start the crumbling economy in the US. This includes US$ 787 billion to be handed over to failing banks as dole so that innocent depositors do not lose their shirts while rich bankers and Wall Street types milk the system with unwarranted bonuses in spite of huge losses. Well, well, well – what does this imply – is the US going towards nationalization of banks which accept Government aid. Looks like wanton capitalism is taking a back seat to a bit of socialism in the principal capitalist nation in the world. Reality bites I would call it.

Another interesting part of this humungous deficit funding by the US is the dole to Pakistan – a miniscule US$ 5 billion towards a one time bailout for its economy and military. This is over and above the US$ 1.5 billion which the US gives Pakistan annually as dole. The interesting part is the handout is in spite of Government auditors confirming that Pakistan has fudged receipts (a la Satyam) to milk the US. Looks like some people never learn, the blinkers never come off and they just bend over asking for more and more…….. The Pakistanis keep giving it to them……… sad state of affairs. The argument is always that a failed Pakistan state is far more dangerous than one which is milking the US tax payer…..after all…..the deficit tomorrow is going to be bridged by revenues from somewhere…..and my friends residing in the US you are willy nilly part of the somewhere…..extra dose of taxes once the economy stabilizes – no escaping that!

In Pakistan democracy is being given a bad name…..the Court route has been used by Zardari to ban Nawaz Sharif from the Pakistani political landscape. If electoral politics is being put on the backburner – then as per US law – they should not be funding Pakistan – but the ubiquitous Presidential waiver will be brought in and money handed over. The sad part is India will have to bear the brunt and have to be ever vigilant to withstand the misuse of the American dole, a large chunk of which will as always be directed with clandestine activities in and against India.

India needs to be on its guard as with the forthcoming elections we will be in a vulnerable position as decision taking may take a back seat. The Government of the day needs to ensure that the armed forces morale is not brought down. The Government of India has also doled out budget sops to the central and state government employees by increasing the DA. I just hope that the government considers the armed forces as part of the Central Government. I really hope the Government finds the money to pay the armed forces in parity with their civil service counterparts. Let us not forget that the civil servants also owe their safety and liberty to the armed forces – in my opinion the armed forces should be paid more than their civil counterparts. Lets not have to see bravery award winners returning their medals in future because they are being given a raw deal by some mentally retarded politician/bureaucrat nexus.

KAUN GUESS SLUMDOG?

You must have guessed by now the meaning of the title…(those readers who do not know Hindi “kaun” means ‘who’). ‘Kaun Guess’ is a play on ‘Congress’ which went overboard yesterday in claiming credit for the movie getting eight Oscars. I think they definitely have a right to take credit…..because without their active connivance the movie would not have been possible…..in sixty two years post independence of ruling the state (except for a brief period of 5 years of Shiv Sena rule), they have actively connived in perpetuating the slums and helping them grow in Mumbai. Mumbai should appropriately be re-named Slumbai! Just imagine if the Congress had actually governed we would never have had slums…..so no movie would have been made…..so no Oscar would have been awarded……so Kaun guess karo Slumdog…. I bet you guessed right!! But I cannot give you a million dollars for the right guess….so sorry.

Slums in Mumbai are a huge vote bank….the electoral rolls get updated…..most of the middle class do not vote…..so these slum dwellers come in handy for some bogus voting. In Vakola/Santa Cruz East, a whole lot of new slums have come up on airport land. All these slums have to be removed…..but the politicians say free housing has to be given. It is all a huge racket promoted by a north Indian politician who gets elected from that constituency. Who pays for the free houses….the poor honest tax payer…..who gets the houses…if you think the slum dweller actually gets it, you have another think coming! Maybe in a few cases it does go to the slum dweller, in reality it goes to one of the hundreds of proxies of the politicians, MP’s, MLA’s who either rent these flats or sell them.

Most of these slum dwellers come back to occupy the same land and the cycle repeats itself. As per the Supreme Court order for Mumbai the first cut off for giving free housing was 1995, revised later to 2000 and now the politicians want it revised to 2005. Granted, in a democracy you cannot stop people from migrating from one state to another in search of a livelihood, but does that mean these migrants can be allowed to occupy public spaces. No wonder Mumbai is nothing but a big slum….Google Earth graphically displays the area covered by slums. It is more than half of Mumbai….take a look if you haven’t so far!

Go to any other metro and see for yourself whether such rampant slumming is allowed. You won’t find any in Bangalore and Chennai for sure. If at all they are there they will be there in some corner - I have traveled to both cities and so far not seen slums of the kind available in Mumbai. So what is special about Mumbai – is it the name which attracts slums – or is it politicians from outside the state who get elected from here who want to send the city into the dark ages. Why does it not happen in the other metros? Someone somewhere has to draw the line. Mumbai contributes a huge sum to the ex-chequer by way of taxes. Mumbai does not get anything in return for developing infrastructure – its lot is inadequate power, shoddy roads, pollution of all kinds and no balls to set it right. It is high time that the tax paying citizen hits the streets and stops paying taxes, be it property tax, water tax, profession tax, sales tax, excise duty, service tax or income tax. If we suspend paying taxes for a year, we will have the government begging for taxes – by using coercion how many people will they put in jail – Industry and the tax paying citizen should put their foot down and demand that Mumbai gets its fair share of funds for development.
Jai Hind, Jai Maharashtra, Jai Mumbai!

Some random thoughts

You know elections are round the corner when:
daily you see large full page advertisements being put out by the Government showcasing its “achievements” that too using tax payers hard earned money.

the Finance Minister announces certain indirect tax concessions just a week after announcing the interim budget – at that point pretending to be a saint and saying tax concessions are inappropriate with elections round the corner....hmmmmmm.

the Oscars for Slumdog, suddenly are an achievement of the Congress Party (TOI headlines February 24, 2009) …… more on that in a separate post.

the Government announces free houses for two of the six children only – is it because they are from the minority community…..smacks of partisan electioneering. If at all it was necessary, free education should have been given to all the kids…. What guarantee houses won’t be sold by the parents??

The government starts pushing proposals through cabinet to utilize unspent budgets….70 plans get the nod. For the last five years most of the plan expenditure remained unutilized, so now is the time to do a rush job and see that money is spent…..but is it well spent is a moot question!



It is really fascinating to know that after 26/11 the police force have been given Ak-47’s in lieu of the World War II vintage .303 rifles! But the best part is there is no ammo for either practice or defense …… apparently there is a shortage of ammunition. Guess the guns will be used for threatening protagonists only, and if the other guys have even pistols to shoot with… the AK-47’s can still be used as hammers or can be thrown as missiles! Apparently the Home Ministry has been sent a requisition to acquire the ammo….with elections round the corner won’t be surprised if this too does not happen…..the Indian dance of democracy is far more important.

Adnan Sami’s marital dispute is so news worthy that all the gory details have to be reported daily – even in a respectable newspaper like the TOI!

Pakistan continues with its flip flops on terror investigation….Antulay blooper being cited……Pakistani investigators want to question witnesses to Karkare shooting……looks like it is another red herring time. The US probably realizes this as familiar territory having willingly swallowed the red herrings thrown by the Pakistanis for the last decade or so!

Maharashtra has turned into a power deficit state from a power surplus state. In 15 years not a single mega watt of power has been added… the Enron project apart from being expensive is almost a non starter. We now have a peak hour shortage of almost 4000 megawatts. Summer is round the corner, if not here in Mumbai already…we can definitely expect hot and sultry powerless days! The state governments have been fiddling while Maharashtra was being ‘underpowered’!!

A final thought (for today, I plan to live some more) – do all these budget cuts really benefit the common man. A larger fiscal deficit means more money has to be raised to close the fiscal gap – where does it come from? From you and me of course!

Sleeping with the enemy

Last week has been very interesting in relation to the reactions of the international politicians with respect to the Pakistani government-military nexus with the so called “Taliban” in the SWAT valley. You have Hillary Clinton ranting away - “the activity by the extremists in Pakistan poses a direct threat to the government of Pakistan as well as to the security of the United States, Afghanistan and a number of other nations.” Hello!! Where the hell have you been m’am? India has shouted itself hoarse over the activities of Pakistan which has been using the ISI (or the other way around, doesn’t matter) for various terror attacks in India, presumably over Kashmir for the past twenty years and more! But no, its all about geo-strategic interests, all short sighted with blinkered vision, with the so called US interests in mind. The Pakistanis have still not got over the fact that they lost East Pakistan in 1971, because of its own negligent treatment of the region which is now Bangladesh. India just facilitated its formation. Indira Gandhi’s biggest mistake was to negotiate peace through the Simla accord when we had Pakistan on the mat, and Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw(God bless his soul) had asked for 48 hours to take over Karachi. But we sued for peace, you know why, the then US President had sent its Seventh Fleet into the Indian Ocean as a veiled threat to India to call back the advance, which we did. This was at the height of the Cold War, and I am sure the Russians would have done some saber rattling to counter the US presence if we had not wilted under the US pressure.

The US has been behind a lot of the global conflicts post World War II with “US strategic interests” in mind – whether it is Vietnam, Cambodia, Latin America, Libya, Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan, dictatorships in Africa, you name them and the US through its dirty tricks department (CIA) would have been there. The US has used funded its dirty tricks department to arm various dictatorships throughout the world, as it, of late has done in Afghanistan and currently does in Pakistan. The US has slept with the enemy throughout its post World War II history and has always got a bloody nose for it.

It is a well known fact that India has not attacked any nation throughout its long history – it is a land which has absorbed all the attacks and assimilated the invaders in its bosom to become, over time, a very vibrant country waiting to take its rightful place in the comity of nations. Through its resilience, intellectual manpower and economic clout – I am confident that in the next twenty years or so it will get there.

The Pakistani authorities have signed a peace deal with the Taliban in the SWAT valley, thereby ceding Pakistan’s most famous holiday destination to fundamentalists. How can a country cede territory to people who do not respect women? These people are animals who think women are only meant for satisfying their lust and for breeding and not for education, culture the arts etc. The US, like the rest of the world is shocked by the act of the Pakistani government. Actually, if you ask me, what would you expect from the former Mr. 10 percent? I am sure he would have taken his 10% cut from the ISI-Taliban coterie to sign on the dotted line. Mr. Zardari is a characterless person (a mental retard who – in public- joked about kissing Mrs. Sarah Palin) who has been made the President of the most unstable country in the world. The US has contributed to it by sleeping with all the previous leaders in Pakistan, thinking that by giving money for arms and the dying Pakistani economy they would somehow get salvation. That has not happened and the world has suddenly become very dangerous with the official sanction to the Taliban to rule over the SWAT valley. It is just the beginning - imagine what would happen if the Taliban along with the Al Qaida gradually activate all their sleeper cells in Pakistan and in the rest of the world – we are looking at very unstable times indeed. Pakistan has freed its jailed nuclear architect, Dr. AQ Khan, all these events point to a Faustian plan for ceding to the fundamentalists! If Taliban gets control of Pakistan, then the ultimate dream of an Islamic world ruled by fanatics does not seem too far away. The right thinking people of the world need to get together very fast to take care of this problem. It is high time the US stopped sleeping with the enemy. All it needs to do is take care of the nuclear assets of Pakistan - it had turned a blind eye to when Pakistan was building its arsenal – with even the self righteous Japanese helping the Pakistanis by supplying a large quantity of critical equipment for Pakistan nuclear plans. Let’s hope the people in power wake up and act decisively to help make our world a safer place to live in.

Education at St. Mary’s High School

There is a movement going on, initiated by Philip deSouza, to get in touch with all the students who passed out in 1977. The movement has gathered in frenzy and almost everyone from the batch have jumped on to the bandwagon. A Facebook group has been created where all the people are now connecting, thereby bringing back extremely warm and fond memories of the great time we had at school.

The purpose of writing this blog is not to go on and on about the batch, but rather to highlight the fact that the school gave us all not only a great academic education but also instilled in all of us values which, I am sure, - I speak for the entire batch – have stood the test of time. I was just going through the list of students, and what strikes me now, is that there were so few “Maharashtrians” in the entire batch – we had students from all communities, Catholics, Parsis, Muslims, and Hindus – but never once in my entire ten years in school were we ever discriminated on grounds of race, religion, caste, color, wealth, dress, etc.

On Fridays (if I am not mistaken, or was it Wednesday), the Catholics used to go to St. Mary’s Church for prayers and the non Catholics to the auditorium for watching documentary movies in lieu of the morals class.

It is only in college, when I joined Podar College for studying Commerce, that I came into contact with the “real” world. In college there were numerous instances, when race, religion and caste came in the picture, whether for sports or at the time of cultural activities. In hindsight, I realize, that the discrimination in college on grounds of religion and caste, is most likely because other schools did not instill the secular values which our school did! In fact the word secular was never used in school – it is only later on when I started reading the political news that I became aware of the term. Even at home we were taught about being good human beings. This was something my dad used to say when I was a kid. Even today, when anybody asks me what caste, I say “Indian” with religion of humanity.

Actually all religions subscribe to humanity, it is only inhuman people who have started using religion as a means to get political power and for lining their pockets clandestinely.

I really appreciate the fine education given by our school and thank my Mom and brother from the bottom of my heart for continuing my education after my Dad passed away in 1973. Hip Hip Hurray!! From the bottom of my heart to my family, the school and all the fine teachers who guided us through our formative years, by instilling good values and building our strength of character. A hip hip hurray! once again.

Doctors and Patients

Times have really changed from the early days of my childhood. In those days the family doctor used to mean everything. He used to treat the medical as well as mental symptoms – he used to be more of a family friend than a physician. He used to talk about medicines and also participate in family discussions, he used to be more of a friend, philosopher and guide to the family.

With the passage of time, the medical profession started becoming more and more specialized and commercial, in the bargain quite a few doctors have forgotten the Hippocratic Oath which they take at the time of passing out as young doctors. In the West, because of the threat of being legally penalized, doctors do not take even a small decision without running the patient through a gamut of tests. In India, earlier a doctor used to physically examine the patient by hand and stethoscope, listen to the symptoms described by the patient and arrive at a pretty accurate clinical decision and start to treat the patient. In the current scenario doctors prefer to refer patients to laboratories of their choice and run a whole lot of tests, whether necessary or otherwise, and get a cut from the lab – they have stopped using their analytical mind and succumbed to mammon! Many pharma giants also give cuts to doctors to push medicines from their company. The lure of money has become so pervasive that good sense seems to be dying an unnatural death. That is not to say that all doctors are commercial, but a majority are slowly going the commercial way and giving a bad name to a noble profession.

We have read about numerous cases, where the doctors do not accept patients, operate on the wrong limb, etc and get away with it. In India, we have a chalta hai attitude, and lax laws and corrupt officials which perpetuate this cancerous system, else the doctor could be sued for humongous amounts. The justice delivery system is so bad that sometimes the case lapses because the protagonist has passed away with the passage of time! In the West negligence is so prohibitively expensive for any professional and the justice delivery system so efficient that cases of negligence are hard to come by in the medical profession.

Unfortunately, in India, a lack of basic education along with the perception that all doctors are only interested in money and not the patient leads to blind violence against the doctors – in such cases the innocents get thrashed along with the not so innocent. In fact, in many cases the patient may not have died due to the negligence of the doctor but due to other causes but still the doctors bear the brunt of the violence. If doctor – patient relationships and the confidence the relationship inspired as in the earlier days had subsisted today one would not get to see or read the stuff one gets to nowadays.

The reason I thought about putting up this post is because of an article in todays’ TOI with respect to an eminent heart surgeon hiking his fees just half an hour before the operation. The fees which were agreed to were Rs. 7.5 lacs for the operation to be done at Lilawati Hospital and this famous specialist sends an SMS asking the patients son to call him. When the call s made he says he wants to revise the fees but does not quote a figure and the operation is called off at the last moment, resulting in the patient who was waiting for three days, getting angina pain and having to be admitted forthwith into the ICU at Lilawati. Dr. S. Bhattacharya, the doctor in question, has given some really lame and apparently false justification for his behavior. Just goes to show the extent to which even well known and extremely well of surgeons will go to for “just a few dollars more”! That is what actually induced my post – no ethics and morals any more – Mammon rules!

PC – Open to interpretation

I have been thinking about the above acronym for quite some time. What comes to mind when you think of the alphabets – ‘P’ and ‘C’ taken together? Well if you are a well read person who follows politics – Mr. P. Chidambaram comes straight to mind – PC the ex-finance minister and current home minister. PC in white lungi and kurta is a sight for sore eyes - he has dazzled the UPA government with the last four budgets – been part of the growing economic hype and was handed over the finance ministry when the curtains have more or less come down on the global economy. A PM in waiting has got the finance ministry again after 24 years – Pranab Mukherjee I meant – and this poor guy had to present a Vote on Account in the election year. He has come out with a damp squib of an interim budget, by-passing the chance to score brownie points - all to the considerable relief of the opposition BJP.

Have you ever heard of someone in politics holding a PC – hmmmmmm – holding Mr. Chidambaram? – not on your life! Personal Computer – again hmmmm - maybe the younger generation of politicians – definitely not the older. I have seen some senior bureaucrats and politicians eyeing the personal computer with Permanent Confusion – like if they try to touch some part of the machine it might Personally Chew some part of their appendage if it comes in contact with the Personal Computer – that would then leave these guys with digits Permanently Chewed – won’t that be a sight – they won’t be able to show the finger at election rallies and during the course of election speeches! That would be priceless – just imagine the headlines – “ Politician Chewed” – most people will not realize that the politician has been fingered – what will come to mind is the politician indulging in ‘Paan Chewing’ - another of their favorite pass times, specially up north.

In lots of meetings whether official or social you would have come across the phrase – stop the PC get down to serious stuff – meaning stop indulging in Polite Conversation and get down to the substantive part of the discussion. But no polite conversations in parliament - what do you see in Parliament? – again lots of PC – Parliamentary Calisthenics, we actually see a lot of that in the UP, Bihar and Orissa Vidhan Bhavans – that is when our elected representatives climb on to tables, pick up chairs or anything that comes to hand and throw – that is another interesting form of PC – in fact you could call it Parliamentary Communication by means of Parliamentary Calisthenics – easy way to let out your frustration – specially when the tax payer pays for the damage!

Enough of taking pot shots at the north – lets go south – in fact Mr.Mutalik of the Sri Ram Sene has single handedly made PC very popular in Karnataka! In fact so popular that all the ladies undergarment manufacturers had to come out with special manufacturing cycles to feed the building demand! For what, I heard someone say! For Pink Chaddis – you dumbo! – thanks to Mutalik, at least a small portion of our economy got a boost with some extra production and sale. Great going – to the people who ran the campaign – we could actually call it the Pink Campaign against the Peculiar Character of Mutalik and his ilk. I kind of like the sound of that! Muta‘lik’ and ilk! With all the Pink Chaddis available at his disposal, it was last heard that he is now getting into the Personal Care business, personally tending to customers for his pink chaddis!

Do let me know if any of you have any further interpretation on PC…..hopefully the most famous PC won’t mind!

Pakistan-Afghanistan-USA-India bond of discord

The USA for its geo-strategic purposes armed the Taliban so that they could get the USSR out of Afghanistan. This subsequently lead to the balkanization of the USSR. But by arming the Taliban the US has let the genie out of the bottle. The Afghans are great warriors and terrific hosts – but you cannot afford to have them as enemies for sure. US and Pakistan interests began clashing in the Pakistan backyard, that is when the Pakistan through the ISI, started clandestinely supporting the Taliban in trying to evict the government of the day in Afghanistan. Pakistan is dying to have some semblance of control over Afghanistan as that control gives it strategic depth against India. India for its part has spent millions of dollars in re-building Afghan infrastructure, thus trying to gain the Afghan Governments and peoples’ confidence. Looks like these four nations are tied together by an umbilical cord of discord!

Once the Russians were out of Afghanistan and post 9/11, the US started hunting for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and in so doing the Bush regime coined the phrase “War on Terror”. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? In this war on terror, the Bush regime pumped in billions of dollars into Pakistan, ostensibly in its economy but actually the money was utilized by the military junta for arming the country against India, its missile technology purchased clandestinely from North Korea and uranium for its nuclear reactors from China. Mr. Musharraf very smartly conned and blackmailed the US into parting with large sums of money, which technically should have bailed out the Pakistani economy if the money had been utilized for the purpose for which it was given. The Bush regime for eight years kept blindly certifying that the end use of money was proper in spite of the evidence provided by India to the contrary on many occasions. Its all about geo-strategic interest you see – its not about having permanent enemies only permanent interests! One's strategy changes with the global scenario!

The US under Bush went to a bloody war against Iraq on completely false premises, just to get its hands on Iraqi oil! Today, after loss of thousands of lives, Mr. Obama has said that they will be pulling out of Iraq, so looks like, the US under Bush screwed up big time in going to war and spending billions of dollars of tax payer money, which could probably have been of some help today in times of recession. It is easy for the US to project its power and play global policeman due to its geographic isolation – this advantage also makes it a country which can be easily defended.

The Pakistanis took the US and the rest of the world for a ride by talking about being a partner in the war on terror. The real terrorists were being created in Pakistan openly in the madrassas. Once a young mind has been brainwashed into thinking a certain line and trained to kill and die for the cause, then you have a human killing machine who does not know fear. These minds are told that they will go to heaven if they die for the cause. The cause could be anything, but it would be named “jihad” and these people would be let loose – be it Kashmir, Afghanistan or elsewhere in the world. In all these years China emerged as the worlds manufacturing hub, India as the worlds software hub and Pakistan as the worlds “jihadi” factory!

It has taken the 26/11 terror attacks on Mumbai for the world to realize that Pakistan has been running with the wolves and hunting with the hounds. The relentless pressure put by India and the US with solid evidence shoved in their face, the Pakistani government has ultimately admitted that the attacks did originate in part from Pakistan. But they are playing a dangerous game - with the ISI loathe to give up its clandestine activities – drug and arms running for its dirty tricks department – Bhutto’s dream of bleeding India dry through a thousand cuts! Pakistani courts have freed the biggest clandestine proliferators of nuclear arms technology Mr. AQ Khan thus fueling global fear on further nuclear proliferation and nuclear blackmail by Pakistan.

Pakistan will probably try to use this kind of blackmail to re-open the Kashmir question. We should ensure that this does not happen. The focus should be on swift investigation and timely action on the actionable intelligence provided by India and US against the 26/11 perpetrators. Pakistan has been playing a game of denial, lies, half truths and nuclear blackmail for a long time. This time though they have been caught out, with the new US administration not willing to play ball. Economic help they have been told will be forthcoming only if they co-operate in terror investigations.

Pakistan’s NWFP and SWAT region are already in the control of the Taliban. This, Zardari has admitted has been happening over a period of time (starting in Musharafs era) and now large swathes of Pakistani land are not controlled by the Pakistanis. Sophisticated arms are available with the hoi polloi, thus making Pakistan one of the most dangerous places on earth. It has nuclear weapons to boot – just imagine nuclear weapons in rogue hands – will give jihad a nuclear boost, uniting the worlds Muslims for one final assault to wipe out the heathens.

The only way to cut this umbilical cord is to boost democracy in Pakistan, bring the ISI under civilian control (easier said than done) systematically come down hard on madrassas which preach extreme action, ensure that they are cleansed and used for fruitful education of the masses which could in future bring about the economic revival of Pakistan. Let us hope and pray that good sense prevails in Pakistan and for once they do the right thing.

Western festivals in disfavor of moral brigade

I distinctly remember during my school and college days there was no particular fetish for “western” festivals like valentines day, mothers day, fathers day, friendship day etc. With the growth of the global economy and with more and more disposal income, marketing whiz kids came out with strategies to tap into this income. If you have observed, it is only in the last five to six years that all these “days” are being talked off and “celebrated”. Indian culture per se is family oriented, though with the pressures of modern day living some of us may not really understand the term family support. All you need to do is be a first generation migrant to the west to truly understand the meaning of “family support”. Earlier we used to have joint families – now we have nuclear families, so much so that children have started staying away from their parents or putting their parents in old age homes. The popular family slogan of “hum do hamare do” probably does not hold good any more as couples think of one child or no child.

With smaller families and friends/relatives being geographically spread – how do you celebrate? This is what the marketing guys probably realized and started pushing greeting cards and products for such occasions. If you observe there is a lot of advertisement, pushing various products just a week before such festivals – it’s all about business, the economy and in the bargain if people decide to express their love and feelings for their near and dear ones – what is the harm? Life is so fast paced that, today, maybe you require occasions to express your love. More the “days” to celebrate more the occasions to show you care, which opportunity may not be there if such “days” were not celebrated. Earlier, families and friends used to meet on local festivals, be it Holi, Eid, Diwali, Christmas – now you have an opportunity to meet almost every month with the celebration of some “day” or the other, the best part of these “days” is that they celebrate various relationships without any religious flavor, thus probably being more in line with the religion of humanity!

Unfortunately the moral police is out in full force to stop or protest against “Valentine’s Day”. It is necessary to understand that this day is not celebrated only by “lovers”, but is also celebrated by friends and relatives to give gifts and renew friendships. In this materialistic world it is necessary to show you care else you will be left with nothing but a hollow shell for a soul. Feelings need to be expressed and not denied due to the biased views of a few.

Today Prof. Manohar Joshi has got into the fray – maybe elections are coming near – I do not know – stating that Valentine’s Day is not part of our culture. How can anybody say for sure what Indian culture is? Over the centuries our culture has absorbed a lot from various invaders and molded itself to become more vibrant and tolerant – so why the intolerance?

Prof. Joshi has joined the all party political bandwagon who want to milk emotions by bringing in “against our culture dynamics” into the equation for petty political gains as the elections are just round the corner. I would like to ask the entire moral brigade what they think is Indian culture by posing questions the way Mark Antony posed to the public of Rome on the fields of Pompeii after Brutus and Cassius had back stabbed Julius Caesar.

Why do politicians change religion to marry another lady? Is it because Mr. Joshi and his ilk are men of culture and think this is part of Indian culture?
Why do politicians murder honest people if they do not bow to their wishes? Is it because Mr. Joshi and his ilk are men of culture and think this is part of Indian culture?
Where does Government aid disappear before it reaches the targeted people, if not into the politico-bureaucratic pockets? Is it because Mr. Joshi and his ilk are men of culture and think this is part of Indian culture?
Why do schools and professional colleges set up by politicians on land obtained cheaply from the Government charge exorbitant fees and premium for giving admission to deserving students? Is it because Mr. Joshi and his ilk are men of culture and think this is part of Indian culture?
Why do politicians wear western clothes in the normal course and not dhoti kurta? Is it because Mr. Joshi and his ilk are men of culture and think this is part of Indian culture?

One could go on and on about how the moral brigade is and how they ought to be – but that is not the purpose of this discussion. The question is - who are these people with no morals or ethics to dictate what one should do or not do in a democratic set up? Suffice it to say that if these guys can control their own children / family in the manner they want to control the rest of the country it would be good enough. But can they?

Leadership and behavioral science

I have been thinking of writing a few lines based on what we learnt in management and what I have experienced over the years in real life. Academically there are quite a few styles of management – namely Autocratic, Bureaucratic, Charismatic, Democratic/Participative, Laissez-faire, People oriented/relations-oriented, Servant, Task-oriented, Transactional and Transformational.

These different approaches or “styles” to leadership are based on various assumptions and theories. The style that fits one may not fit another as they are based on a combination of beliefs, values and preferences as well as on the corporate or organizational culture wherein the norms may encourage some styles and discourage others.

Autocratic and Bureaucratic styles are self explanatory. I would like to analyze the charismatic style in slightly more detail as this method is more individualistic and could vary from person to person – though remaining the same at the core. Charismatic relies on the charisma of the leader – this style could involve pumping in large doses of encouragement and enthusiasm into the team to motivate them to deliver organizational goals. The trouble with this kind of leadership is that the charismatic leader tends to believe more in himself than in the team. If you observe a charismatic leader in operation you will note that these guys are good at picking up the moods and concerns of both individuals and larger audiences and moulding their responses accordingly. When speaking such people make the person/s across the table feel that he/they are the most important people in the world thereby gaining their trust and getting their work done. Later acts may belie the trust reposed but that does not affect the organizational objective which would, by then have been achieved. This kind of leadership is very interactive and sometimes can go out of hand if the leader starts giving personal attention to the smallest detail in spite of having a professional team in place.

Leadership at the highest level in an organization should focus on growth and business strategy to give a vertical direction to the business. Sometimes due to overenthusiastic personal relations with the employees, such leaders tend to believe what is told to them by their “friends” and to show that they care, tend to take uninformed decisions, more out of emotion than reason. There are two sides to every coin and such decisions usually end up harming or polluting the business environment.

The charismatic form has a lot to do with behavioral science also as such leaders are invariably a very good judge of people and use this knowledge to their advantage. Such leaders are not immune to lying or giving out mis-information or dis-information to get what they want. The trouble is when you start deviating from the truth to achieve organizational goals and start believing more in your charisma, the human tendency is that one actually starts to believe the fib to be the fact. One actually starts getting enmeshed in ones own web of perceived facts till you reach a point where the actual facts do not really matter in the eyes of the leader – as long as the goal is achieved.

In these days where corporate oversight is quite literally intrusive and corporate governance norms are becoming stringent this kind of leader would need to do a lot of explaining on overall corporate objectives. But you will notice that they get out of tight situations because they are good judges of people and are glib talkers, explaining in extremely convincing fashion the goals, objectives and targets along with their plans to achieve them.

Sometimes you may find such leaders working in teams – wherein one plays the good cop and the other the bad cop. This team works beautifully to get things done, wherein the bad cop questions everything and the good cop plays the role of mediator to achieve the desired objective.

All the other forms of leadership mentioned above are also self explanatory. Servant style is in a way similar to democratic style wherein a group makes a discussed and informed decision.

I would like to end this post with a very relevant quote by William James – “The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook”.

Slumdog Millionaire – my views

The subject of “Slumdog Millioanire” has been flogged to death by a whole host of people – specially after Mr. Bacchan’s comments on his blog. The movie has been going from strength to strength with awards galore and is also expected to bag a couple of Oscars!

The movie has been brilliantly made and the music is something which you carry with you when you leave the theatre. This post is not about a critical analysis of the movie – I definitely am not competent to do that. Just one factual error which came to mind was whether the slums shown in the movie are Dharavi (as depicted) or Kurla. I say Kurla because I have not seen any airport which is close to Dharavi, the only slums which are almost a part of the airport are the Kurla slums.

What I wanted to write about is the hullabaloo being made on the sleazy underbelly of Mumbai – bad for tourism, India is not only slums, etc. But why run away from facts, that is how our slums are – they are ruled by slumlords who have the backing of some politician or the other and these slumlords are the guys who provide money and muscle during elections. Has anyone been inside Dharavi? It has probably one of the biggest unorganized leather products manufacturing units inside its underbelly. Almost all the wallets, belts, purses, briefcases, satchels etc made out of leather and sold through 5 star hotels at exorbitant prices are manufactured inside Dharavi. Just visit the factory outlet showrooms which dot the Dharavi “suburbs” – the road leading from Sion station to Mahim and you will understand what I mean. Try getting anywhere close to these factories without contact and you may find that your skin has gone into the leather products! What I mean to say is that without contacts there is no entry inside Dharavi and you could end up as a lost and not found statistic in Mumbai’s police records.

The slumlords do exist and they do kidnap children, maim them and put them to work begging – that is a sad fact of life, which none of our politicians or social workers have managed to address. For these unfortunate kids – life is one big round of begging and getting beaten up – it’s a dog eat dog world out there – and some of us are upset because the movie has just brought the underbelly into public focus.

The question is – now that there is awareness about the dirty underbelly – will we have the moral gumption to tackle the problem? Will social workers come forward and take on the begging mafia? Will local politicians offer support? Will cops register cases if facts of the begging mafia are brought in front of them? Knowing Mumbai’s cops, it’s easier to say it is not my jurisdiction, come tomorrow or find that a false case has been registered against you. Am not for a moment saying that all the cops behave in this manner, but if you are a regular reader of the newspapers you will understand what I am trying to say. The newspapers every day have some news item or the other which says that the police have not done their job the way it is supposed to be done.

The trouble is Bombay became Mumbai – but in reality it is Slumbai and who will deny that! The movie will definitely get accolades and awards and end up making its millions, but Slumbai will remain Slumbai with the people in power reluctant to bring about change. Rajiv Gandhi had sanctioned Rs. 100 crore for Dharavi redevelopment in 1985, the money was also spent – but do you notice any change in Dharavi? Nope! So where did the money go? Open secret huh!

Army unattractive for Youth

That is the headline in today’s Times of India. Guess what? How do you get today’s youth interested in the Army? Is it because of patriotism towards one’s motherland? How patriotic are our politicians? Would love to see even one of them join the army. But I am digressing. The whole point of this post is to highlight the fact that the Armed Forces in India just do not et paid well as compared to the civil services. You know why – the bureaucrats in cahoots with the politicians are the guys who decide the paycheck for the armed forces.

You have the 6th Pay Commission handing out hefty increments to all the civil services – you have the Maharashtra State Government (which by the way is perpetually broke) giving its bureaucrats a hefty pay hike (don’t know where the money will come from – more taxes maybe). In contrast you have the faujis returning their medals of honor to the President in protest against the step motherly treatment given by the 6th Pay Commission. Is that not a sorry sight! In times of conflict – external aggression or internal disturbances – who are the guys who come to the defence of the nation and the public. POLITICIANS, BUREAUCRATS --- NAAAH – it is the armed forces. They are the only class which have honor in our country – all the other services are pathetic and corrupt to the core – one licking the others arse to get whatever it wants – all at the tax payers expense. In any period of conflict or real danger – whether it is natural or man made – politicians/bureaucrats are always absent from the scene – it is the armed forces who are visible in action – the politicians/bureaucrats will come after the event to give their sound bites in front of cameras!

With the bureaucrats and ministers saying that they do not have the Rs 3700 crore to pay the arrears as per the 6th Pay Commission – but they find the funds for a much larger payout to the civil services. When we have such a sorry state of affairs – how do you expect modern youth to join the armed forces? You have to make the armed forces attractive – show that life is exciting and full of thrills and also financially rewarding for today’s youth to give it a shot.

The way to attract he youth would be through the modernization of the armed forces, by bringing in new roles for the youth, cyber warfare, cybernetics, spy satellite technology, imaging etc are some of the fields which could attract the youth. We need to change our mindset if we have to attract youth to the armed forces. Their pay packets should be in line with global standards so that the available talent is retained and groomed for the future.

PWC Partners admit to complicity in Satyam’s fudging

During the course of interrogation of the PWC partners, it has been found out that the auditors were part of the fudging process – in fact they have admitted to the fact. The partners, it is reported, were part of the monthly meeting by a core “accounting group” which used to meet to strategize on accounts to be presented to the public. I wonder how auditors could ever be a part of the accounting strategy team! Definitely a conflict of interest in my view! Accounting strategy and audit – it’s like saying the policeman is advising the robber on how to go about looting without getting caught!

The PWC partners admission has left the profession smelling of decay. We should be thinking rationally in bringing about reform to stop the stink from becoming universal and for regaining the lost confidence of the public from accountants. How can an MNC firm with regulatory oversight in various countries take the risk of destroying its global reputation? This is the same question which was raised when Mr. Raju admitted to fudging the accounts! What is apparent is that this is a fraud which had the auditors as partners for a few dollars more, and is going to raise a stink of far reaching proportions by the time the entire drama plays out.

The government and the ICAI have a lot to do to stop the rot and bring about some semblance of sanity to the accounting profession. During the BJP rule there was an Action Committee formed by Shri Gurumurthy to prevent the Big Five from coming to India as there is no reciprocal arrangement between the countries where they operate. But being ingenious people and having found enough Indian CA firms who wanted to globalize without looking at the repercussions or the direction which the profession was taking scrambled to become part of the Big Five. Of course we are left with only the Big Four with Arthur Anderson biting the dust over the Enron fiasco. Now we have the threat of the Big Four becoming the Big Three with PWC likely to be the next victim of a greedy practice overshadowing professionalism and ethics. It has been reported that all these firms have their headquarters in tax havens and not in the US or UK as otherwise thought. So we have a bunch of accounting “geniuses” exploiting every loophole available to not pay taxes.

The Indian government and the governments all over the world where PWC and the other big firms operate should go behind the veil to see exactly how these firms are structured. They operate through private limited companies which do not have any requirement of following ethical guidelines of the ICAI, they are free to advertise their services in the guise of advisory services. A visit to their websites will show all audit clients displayed in their list of clients, bypassing on the ICAI’s guidelines on maintaining web sites. Unfortunately the regulatory bodies have turned a blind eye to these practices, as some of the partners in the firm are part of the regulatory body. As a matter of self governance, the ICAI should ensure that its executive members who stand for elections are not a part of any of the Big Four firms who are operating in India through the back door.

The government should bring in regulations which debar the Big Four from operating in India – especially in the assurance services. There are a lot of Indian firms which have the capability as well as the capacity to undertake advisory services for the government – but just go through some of the tender terms which the government comes out with – these terms on capital adequacy, etc immediately rule out Indian firms thus leaving the Big Four only eligible for applying to the tenders. This kind of colonial attitude is what prevents the local firms from gathering mass and growing to international standards. Local firms have the people as well as the skills to take on the Big Four on an even playing field – if the government levels the playing field!

Cowardly abdication of responsibility in Karnataka

The Chief Ministers statement that the parents of people going to pubs should be responsible for their welfare was not only shocking but points to the cowardly impotence of the Government – all the more tragic as it is a BJP government in power. This party is supposed to be modern, forward looking and for the middle classes and they are the guys who are running away with their tail between their legs when a fringe right wing faction of their ilk decides to gain some publicity. Instead of treating this as a routine law and order problem and slamming the jerks into jail – we have the courts release them and the sensation hungry media running after them to showcase and publicize their views! I think the media is more worried about TRP’s than in balanced reporting of newsworthy items!

If the government is going to abdicate it’s responsibility on protecting the public from hooligans and ask the parents of the victims to do their job, then I do not see any reason why the tax payers money should be used in providing ‘Z’ category security to third class cowardly politicians. The politicians like to show that they are important by roaming around in cavalcades with sirens screaming and beacon lights flashing and inconveniencing the public at large – but when it comes to doing their job and taking responsibility for wanton acts of violence and threats of disruption of western functions we have the people in power showing their true colors. The color of the party is saffron but their behavior is black – I think saffron is too holy a color for this party – they should change it to black or yellow depicting either the nature of their hearts or the color of cowardice!

Like I have mentioned before in my earlier posts, I have always been a BJP supporter, but the exigencies of politics seems to have made the BJP a party of cowardly pacifiers rather than a party with an ideology to take the nation forward to its rightful place in the league of nations.

Let me be clear that I am not promoting pub culture – for that is the role of parents – to guide and educate their children on what is good for them. The question here is their fundamental right to live the way they want to. No hooligan can dictate how I want to live my life. If these activists are parents then they can tell their children how to behave, what to do, what not to do, we do not want surrogate fathers especially those who are psychopaths!

Let the rule of law prevail, else we are all heading towards anarchy. Once the people get too fed up with the behavior of the creators, preservers and guardians of the law, we will see the frustrated masses come on to the streets – and that is not something which would look nice in the era of globalization. The people have got a chance in the forthcoming elections – I hope they come forward to vote in large numbers and show that they will not tolerate fanaticism and parochialism of any kind from anyone.

Debt Trap for today’s youth

Today’s Times of India has reported that the youth in modern India are falling into a debt trap. There are examples of youngsters who have borrowed heavily to invest / trade in the stock market. Some people would have borrowed using their credit card, some would have borrowed based on their salary and some against existing securities. But the end object of most of these guys seems to be to trade in the stock markets or commodities markets and make some money. There is no harm in trading in the stock markets – but the whole ball game changes when the “GREED” factor comes into the human psyche – that is when people start over-extending themselves to try and beat the stock markets. This is encouraged in all probability by one or two instances of making some good amount in the initial trades on the stock exchange. I have seen a lot of people being sucked into the market like this – making some money initially and then getting burnt to exit the markets with only debts left to pay off!

There is absolutely no way to make more money than you can be reasonably expected to earn. My experience in my profession has always been that there is no easy money, in fact, even hard earned money is difficult to come by, as you have to constantly follow up with your clients for your payments. For salary earners, it is easier as you get the salary credit into your account at the end of the month. Cash flows can be planned based on what you expect to be credited into your account. This is what the banks look for while giving unsecured loans to “credit worthy” salary earners. In fact all banks are supposed to take an undertaking that the personal loans taken will not be used for trading on the stock markets. The banks know full well that the loan is going to be used for trading in stocks but by taking the undertaking from the borrowers they think they have done their duty. It just requires one really bad phase in the market for everybody to be exposed and made vulnerable. This is exactly what has happened to the youth today with a little help from the banks who lend recklessly with the end objective of increasing their business. The markets have crashed, real estate has crashed, prices have gone up and suddenly you don’t have money to feed your family after trying to pay the loans.

The retail banking system needs to be totally re-vamped when it comes to borrowing. You have direct selling agents of various banks promising you free credit cards and unsecured loans which encourage immature people to go in for this kind of easy credit. Initially every thing is always hunky dory as you have to pay off your credit card dues and loan dues at the end of the month. So you use the credit to splurge or to gamble on the markets. One economic downturn and you are left with a whole bunch of people requiring psychiatric help or debt counseling. People always think and spend like there is no tomorrow – specially today’s youth. This is the result of optimism which is not a bad thing, but one should always put aside something for a rainy day. Today thousands of people are losing their jobs – I know people who have borrowed heavily to buy houses and with no jobs, pressure to pay of loans, re-structure loans or sell off the house just leaves people mental wrecks.

Reckless lending has not left the banks free of problems. Citibank and ICICI Bank have a huge problem with the retail portfolio. Easy credit has resulted in huge losses in these segments for these two banks as they have been so aggressive in lending and racking up the numbers that they have not bothered for the quality of their loans. This has left them with a huge defaulters list. How do you cope with that. You have them hiring collection agents – who are nothing but a bunch of goons who end up using strong arm tactics. It is only recently with the intervention of the courts and RBI that some kind of sanity and control has been brought to bear on the operations of the collection agent.

In conclusion I would reiterate that there really is no easy money. One needs to forget the past, live wisely today and invest for a secure future. In life you have to learn to take the good with the bad. Once you learn to tide over the bad times with a smile, the good times will not really matter because you have come out smiling after hitting the bottom - thus finding the climb up the ladder of success easy to handle. Just remember success should not go to your head and make you arrogant – you need to be balanced through good times and bad – this will make you a good human being liked by one and all. It’s a matter of mind over matter – control your mind then nothing else matters. Conversely if you don’t have a mind again it does not matter!

Enforced Bandhs – violation of fundamental rights

There is a difference between strikes and bandhs. Strikes are undertaken by employees who have genuine grievance against their employers – maybe on grounds of inadequate salary/bonus, bad/unsafe work environment, injustice to a member of the trade union etc. What are bandhs? Loosely defined “bandh” means closed in Hindi. Bandh in the Indian context means a form of political protest wherein the aggrieved political party declares a strike for a day, either in a city, State or the entire country. It could be a “Mumbai bandh”, “Maharashtra bandh” or “Bharat bandh” for whatever grounds the party maybe protesting. When a “bandh” is declared by a political party, the public is expected to sit at home and offices, business establishments, shops and public transport are supposed to be shut an inoperative. “Bandhs” are supposed to be a powerful means of civil disobedience. Because this form of protest has a huge impact on the local community, bandhs as a form of political protest are feared by the general public.

“Bandhs” normally let the goons and anti-social elements loose on the streets to enforce bandhs, leading to violence and in many cases destruction of public property. The police normally play a passive role during the bandhs. In 1998 the Supreme Court had banned bandhs as a form of political protest though parties still proceeded with organizing them. In 2004 the Supreme Court fined the BJP and Shiv Sena for organizing a Mumbai bandh in protest against the bomb blasts in the city.

The reason I am putting up this blog, is that the Supreme Court has gone back on its 1998 decision and now says that bandh is a legitimate form of political protest. The bench headed by the CJI and comprising of Justices P. Sathasivam and J.M. Panchal observed that in a democratic country everyone had a right to express their feelings. But what about the people who live on daily wages – where do their rights go during a bandh. If a daily wage earner or a poor vegetable vendor does not make money in a day his family goes hungry. Or do these people not have rights. What if a shopkeeper does not want to participate in the bandh – does that give the political party the right to thrash the shop owner and vandalise and loot the shop in the name of enforcing a bandh? What about public transport? People work in shifts – they need to go home the next day morning only to find that trains, buses, autos and taxis are off the street – what happens to these peoples rights? Are they not a part of the democratic set-up? The right to live peacefully and earn a livelihood are fundamental rights of every individual – will not this decision trample on these peoples rights? Trains are stopped and burnt, buses, taxis and autos are stoned and the drivers thrashed – who gives these goons the right to destroy public/private property and get away with it?

The counter argument will always be “the bandh is announced in advance so you should stay at home”. Ya, right! But what about my fundamental rights? Suppose there is a medical emergency, how do I get the person to hospital?

A bandh has to be out of choice and never by force. This is one of the most backward and retrograde decisions taken by the Supreme Court. I sincerely hope they come out with a final ruling which takes into account the fundamental rights of all the persons affected by a bandh. Hopefully the Supreme Court will frame rules for holding a bandh which will be fair to all the citizens of the country.

Sachin and Inefficient/Biased Umpires

During the current tour of Sri Lanka Sachin Tendulkar has been literally shown the finger by the umpires every time! Poor guy, feel sorry for him. Apart from opposition bowlers he has to be careful of the umpires also. I guess most of the foreign umpires derive sadistic pleasure in showing him the finger. Maybe they feel that giving Sachin out earns them brownie points with the ICC!

If any statistician has the records to show how many times Sachin has been “umpired” out rather than have his wicket taken by the opposition it would reveal an abnormally high percentage. Maybe Sachin’s average would have been much higher than his current 54 and 44 or thereabouts in Tests one dayers respectively. It is tragic that the public is deprived of watching a player of Sachin’s class just due to the inefficiency of bumbling or biased umpires. Poor guy just smiles and walks off. It is so reminiscent of how players used to treat Pele during his heyday. He was the most roughly tackled football player probably the world has ever seen. Unfortunately for Sachin the rough tackles seem to be coming from the umpires!

Maybe Sachin should not carry his bat at all, maybe he should play with his legs – as it is the umpire is going to show him the finger if the ball touches his pads, regardless of whether the ball is going to hit the stumps or not.

The ICC should be progressive and let the third umpire take an informed decision based on TV replays and allow him to reverse the field umpires decision if it is blatantly unfair. This rule has been introduced in tennis and is doing wonders for the fairness of the game. The player just has to object to a line call and the TV replays decide the point in less than a minute. No major delay in the flow of the game and everyone is happy.

Hope people in control of the game see sense and change the rules before the game becomes more of a farce than a fair match!

Do we have to live in fear of goons?

It has been reported that the Mangalore pub attackers have been let off on bail. In fact they were all being displayed on TV walking out of court in a cocky manner with a huge grin on their faces. Just goes to prove that women in modern India are considered subconsciously by one and all to be kept at home to cook and bear children. When will people realize that the modern woman walks shoulder to shoulder with any man and in many cases has the emotional quotient apart from the intellectual one to surpass man in almost all fields of endeavor. By letting these goons off, a message has been sent that violence against women will not be punished, with even the cops siding with the goons by not making an effective enough case for these jerks to be kept behind bars for a long time. The fact that letting off these people is just going to create more trouble can be seen by the fact that the Sri Ram Sene has already issued warnings against celebration of Valentine’s Day.

As the world has become flatter and various western customs have been adopted in India and vice-versa, it is a sorry state of affairs if a miniscule bunch of goons are going to force their “moral” values on the majority. Are we an evolving democracy or is our ancient culture so rigid that we cannot absorb these new customs with dignity? If these people do not like V-Day, then they should go the whole hog and demonstrate fully that they are Indian in values and culture. They could start by wearing “langots” instead of underwear, “dhoti/lungi” and “kurta” instead of trousers, shirts, neck ties, coats etc. There are a whole host of other western systems and mannerisms which have been adopted and are considered second nature by us and hence not considered western any more, which if we were to banish, living in the modern world would be difficult. For example – sending kids to a good English school, that is the basic requirement if you want your kids to have a good education and do well in life. If you see, most of these goons or so called right wing activists will have sent their children to the best convents and then abroad for higher education. This is the worst kind of double standard on public display by these characters.

I am not propagating promiscuity in public, but the children of today are subject to whole host of TV programs where public display of affection (PDA) is normal. We have a Rajasthan Chief Minister ranting against PDA and saying that pubs should be banned, we have Mr. Ambumani Ramadoss, the Health Minister pitching in with his two bits, saying pubs should be banned or ladies from pubs should be banned. So willy nilly we have all mainstream political parties saying pubs should be banned. So the right, left and so called center all want pubs banned. Great! Lets just stop the manufacture of liquor in the country and forego the excise revenue, won’t have need for pubs then will we? We had Renuka Chowdhary on Times Now yesterday ranting against the Karnataka government (BJP) because of inaction. But she did not have to say anything about the lady who came to investigate the case from her Ministry, Nirmala Venkatesh, who did not interview the victims and just made a statement that pubs should be banned because they could not protect the victims. Whose job is it to protect the public from a violent mob, the police or the security guards of pubs? The security guards are just ordinary human beings doing a mundane job, who have no guarantee of protection if they act violently against mob culprits. Just imagine the hue and cry if one of the security guards had hit and injured one of the mobsters! It would have become a national political issue! That is because we do not care for issues of national import, we like to indulge in vote bank politics for short term gains.

It is high time we stop this ridiculous moral policing by people who do not have morals or values – if they had they would not behave with such violence against women! The people should ensure that such bigots are kicked out of the public mainstream and the Governments of the day are made responsible for real policing, maybe then we may actually see a reduction in crime and terrorist activities. But that may be expecting too much – just see the profile of some of our Ministers, you will understand what I am trying to say!

Right to Information – is it only for low level functionaries?

The Right to Information Act was passed in 2005 with the express intent of bringing in transparency in the functioning of public authorities. “Information” as defined therein means “any material in any form, including records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any law for the time being in force”. The definition of “public authority” as given therein means “any authority or body or institution of self- government established or constituted— (a) by or under the Constitution; (b) by any other law made by Parliament; (c) by any other law made by State Legislature; (d) by notification issued or order made by the appropriate Government, and includes any—(i) body owned, controlled or substantially financed; (ii) non-Government organization substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government”.

It has been reported today that the PMO won’t reveal ministers’ assets after initially agreeing to part with the information when in May 2008 it had made all the details available to the cabinet secretariat to deal with all such RTI applications. In an application made by applicant Subhash Chandra Agrawal, the PMO has claimed exemption under clauses 8(1)(e) and 8(1)(j) which pertain to immunity granted to “documents of fiduciary relationship” and “cabinet documents”. I have great regard for the integrity and honesty of our Prime Minister, under whose regime transparency has got a boost. The RTI Act itself has been passed after Manmohan Singh became the Prime Minister.

There is absolutely no reason why Ministers or for that matter any bureaucrat holding public office should be afraid of providing details of their assets. If the PMO denies this information under the guise of unsustainable exemptions under the Act, they are just proving to the public that they consider Ministers above the law. It is the Ministers who should be showing the way by being completely transparent as to their assets and with respect to their dealings when in public office. But I guess that is expecting too much from our politicians! Most of their ilk milk the public ex-chequer by siphoning off funds for Government projects and invest the same in property, hence the applicants query under the RTI is fully justified.

If the PMO is afraid that the information if provided would be inimical to the interests of the Ministers, then they should say that frankly and give out a press release that all their Ministers have created more personal assets from the time they assumed public office which is disproportionate to their known sources of income. Very Simple. This statement would prove what the public already knows – that all our Ministers have a big hand in siphoning off public money!

A simple analysis of rural employment guarantee projects, flood relief and other disaster relief projects where funds are released based on established criteria should be carried out by the CAG – wherein it can very easily be established what is the percentage of money which actually reaches the people for whom it is meant. We have people siphoning of money left right and center, so how can you expect transparency from the PMO. The CAG has established mis-use of funds by people in public office on numerous occasions. Has this information ever been used to investigate and then prosecute the guilty? If you know of even a single instance do let me know! They all get away scot free. But Manmohan Singh is different – and I do not expect such kind of responses from his office. Maybe his absence due to his illness has made his office take advantage in disposing of the application without his knowledge. I just hope Mr. Manmohan Singh notices this and does the right thing, at least to protect his reputation!

Happy days for Indian Sports

The big news was of Yuki Bhambri winning the junior title in the Australian Open. It was a good day for India at the Open, with Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles losing in the finals to the Bryans. Sania and Mahesh went on to win the mixed doubles title – Sania getting her first and Mahesh his eleventh. Also this was the first time that an all Indian pair has won a Slam title in the mixed doubles. Kudos to them and hope their performance helps and encourages others to take to sports. There is pretty good money and hopefully we Indians will get it out of our heads that only a college degree can get you a job. If kids are talented, it is the parents’ responsibility to nurture that talent to achieve its full potential. Today - a talented sportsperson earns far more money in the five to ten years that he he/she plays than an average salary earner can hope to make in a lifetime. Hence, if there is talent which is visible – then it should be nurtured – else I feel we will be failing in our duty both to the children and to the nation.

We had the national under 21 hockey team take on Argentina in a away test series, winning the first two matches and then losing the next and drawing the final match, thus winning the Test series 2-1. This is happening after a long time and hopefully the juniors will graduate and improve in time to restore India’s status in hockey – if not to the status of the golden era- then at least somewhere close. The national team actually managed to draw with Holland in the four nation Punjab Gold Cup tournament being played in Punjab. We have not beaten Holland in 12 years – hopefully we will do it in the near future.

The Indian cricket team also managed to win a humdinger in the second ODI to take its winning streak to seven games so far.

The tennis final’s between Nadal and Federer was a dream match between two extremely talented individuals. The game saw tennis of a quality unmatched in recent times. Each player kept raising his game to a level which one thought could not be exceeded, but exceeded it was! Ultimately Federer gave way in the last set – losing to Nadal quite tamely. You could see from his expression that he had lost the match in his mind, because whatever he threw at Nadal in the earlier sets used to come back to him. It was like throwing in the towel in the last set. But kudos to both the players for one of the most scintillating display of tennis seen in a very long time. Reminded me of the Borg-McEnroe clashes of the late eighties. Just goes to prove that you have to have a tough mind to go along with talent in your game to make a truly winning combination. I personally felt for Federer and was willing him to win – but that was not to be. I do hope he gets his 14th Slam title and then one more to surpass Pete Sampras’s record. I specially liked Nadal consoling him by saying ‘you are a great player and you will surely get the 14th title and then go on to surpass Sampras’. Just goes to show the human qualities of both these great players. Three cheers to them – Hip hip hurray, Hip hip hurray, Hip hip hurray.