Author: Pran Kurup

With 2014 just round the corner and the Lok Sabha elections looming on the horizon, it appears that we have three potential outcomes ahead of us. One, the UPA could return to power. Two, the NDA could come to power. Three, there could be a coalition government with a hotchpotch of regional parties supported by the BJP or the Congress. All three of these options have been tried and tested in the past. Been there, seen it. Not surprisingly, all of them have similar shortcomings. None have any form of intra-party democracy whatsoever, all of them have hordes of corruption charges against their key members, all of them routinely give tickets to people with criminal records, none of them believe in having a transparent candidate selection process, and all their election campaigns are funded by black money. When it comes to bringing political parties under the ambit of RTI, not surprisingly, they are all unanimous in their opposition.

Let’s look at the leadership of the three potential alternatives. The recent ordinance saga is a perfect demonstration of UPA’s style of functioning. After weeks of internal deliberation and all-party meetings, the PM and his illustrious cabinet decide on an ordinance to aid criminals in politics. After mounting public criticism of the ordinance, Rahul Gandhi barges in at the eleventh hour and plays savior. It also proves that the current crop of UPA ministers, including the PM, are power hungry opportunists lacking even an iota of self-respect. Perhaps Rahul Gandhi is a little slow on the uptake and hence always a late entrant. He performed a similar “gig” on the Lokpal issue two years after the Lokpal battle was raging, with a speech in Parliament calling for Lokpal to be made an independent constitutional body. Of course, his rhetoric remained rhetoric and he did nothing to drive his party towards an acceptable Lokpal bill. There is little doubt that the Gandhis hold the real power in the UPA with no accountability whatsoever.  How long is the country going to tolerate this arrangement?

As for the BJP, we have Mr. Modi who has been anointed their PM candidate. Many of his fans believe that he is his own man. “When you vote for Modi, you get Modi and not the BJP,” they profess. “He has transformed Gujarat. He is not corrupt. He is a terrific administrator. India will develop under his leadership.” His fans can go on and on… They dream of a Modi-wave sweeping the country, though the BJP is now for the most part just a party restricted to the Hindi-belt.

Click here to read the rest of the article in The Economic Times

Every few weeks, we read news reports that the BJP is going to “annoint” Narendra Modi as its PM candidate. Almost immediately, we see other news reports of people in the BJP who are unhappy with this move. The net result is that things are in a limbo for the BJP.  There seems to be little doubt that if there was a popularity contest in the BJP today, Narendra Modi would be more than likely to win. The question is why doesn’t the party seize the moment to introduce a semblance of intra-party democracy? Let there be a vote among the BJP party members to elect the candidate for PM. Let Advani, or whoever else who wishes to be the PM candidate, oppose Modi’s candidature. Let the BJP show the country that it is a party committed to democratic norms and procedures. Let the BJP impress upon us that it is different from the Congress party in its operating procedures. Let the BJP stand out in its efforts to clean up Indian democracy by first setting right its own backyard. In response to this stalemate in the BJP, ironically, Modi fans indulge in chest beating and attacking his opponents in the BJP, instead of pushing the BJP towards instituting intra-party democracy.

The Congress party is historically a party that does not believe in intra-party democracy, though Rahul Gandhi travels around the country stressing the need for it. He talks openly about how he is in politics because of his family connections. After all this, what does he do? He turns around and accepts an appointment as Vice-President of the Congress party. He lets sycophants go to town crying themselves hoarse that he is the future PM. Everyone for Manmohan Singh on down to the last party worker is ready to sing his praise and offer him the crown. Why didn’t he opt for intra-party elections instead? Will anyone in the Congress party dare to contest against Mr. Gandhi?

And what does our media do? Instead of holding both parties’ feet to the fire for not adopting intra-party democracy, it goes completely “gaga” over a non-existent Modi vs Rahul battle – a heavy weight on one-hand whose popularity frightens the veterans in his party, and a light-weight who simply inherits the mantle in the family tradition. The net result is that we have two of India’s largest parties operationally no different from each other. While one is controlled by the Gandhi family, the other is run by the RSS. If this is the standard we set at the national level with no signs whatsoever of changes, then what hope do we have at the state level? The DMK has been run by Karunanidhi for decades. One of his sons is due to take over at some point in time. On the AIADMK side, Ms. Jayalalitha has run the show for decades after MGR’s death. Then there is Mulayam and son (and daughter-in-law) in UP, the Abdullahs in Kashmir, Mayawati of the BSP, and so on.

Click here to read the rest of the article in The Economic Times

The Chief Minister of Kerala, Oomen Chandy is embroiled in what has come to be known as a “Solar scam.” Unlike national level scams that hog the media limelight, this scam and its aftermath is largely restricted to Kerala. Congress sympathizers claim that the CM had nothing to do with it and that it was a case of his immediate staff indulging in fraud and misuse of power while enjoying the proximity to the CM. The opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF), meanwhile, grabbed this opportunity and insisted on an open ended dharna in front of the secretariat until the CM resigned. The LDF troops were marshaled and transported from across the state for the grand event. As you can well imagine, parts of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala’s capital city, were brought to a complete standstill. But the CM would not budge on the first day of the dharna. On the second day, the CM agreed to a judicial enquiry. The LDF, to the surprise of all and sundry and to the utter chagrin of its rank and file, who had been prepared for the long haul, grabbed the opportunity and mysteriously called off the strike! What started as a macho show of strength ended with a whimper.

What happened behind the scenes is unknown and open to speculation. But here are some well-known facts. Pinarai Vijayan, the CPI(M) leader has a CBI enquiry against him for what is well known as the Lavelin case. This has been in progress for several years. Next, a handful of CPI(M) “foot soldiers” are in jail for the brutal murder of TP Chandrasekharan, leader of the Revolutionary Marxist Party. It is possible and widely believed that some of the top leadership of the CPI(M) might be implicated in this case.

With the UPA in power at the center and the CBI under its control, the Congress party can do unto Vijayan as it does unto Mulayam from time to time. Every time Mulayam raises his anti-Congress rhetoric, the CBI is let lose on him and then he submits to whims and fancies of the UPA. His recent U-turn on the Food Security bill being a perfect example. As for the Chandrasekharan murder case, given the state of our justice system, it can easily be stalled for a few decades until public memory fades.

Click here to read the rest of the article in The Economic Times

Santosh Koli, an RTI activist turned Aam Aadmi party candidate from Seemapuri in Delhi, breathed her last yesterday. She died after battling injury wounds when a car ran into her while on a motorbike. A typical “hit and run” case where the attackers conveniently managed to escape. It’s widely believed that this was a deliberate attack on her. In fact, this was not new to her. She had been attacked several times in the past. Once the attackers even slit her throat, but she survived and continued her battle as a committed RTI activist.

I had the pleasure of first meeting Santosh several years back when I visited the Parivartan office started by Arvind Kejriwal, national convenor of the Aam Aadmi party. It was a small office in a basement where several people, especially the poor, came in to seek the help of the organization in order to file RTI applications. A diminutive young woman, Santosh was a bundle of energy and enthusiasm. Always bearing a smile, she portrayed an optimism that belied the visible hopelessness that was palpable in the area. She was clearly the go-to-person for the uneducated poor in the area. Through her RTI filings, she helped so many that she was soon well-known in the community. As expected, she had also earned several detractors.

I remember visiting a nearby slum and a government school with her. She also showed me a defunct fountain that was supposedly constructed by the government for several lakhs of rupees. She lamented the fact that the government went ahead with the plan to construct it, even though the people in the area hardly cared about a fountain. Her simplistic, yet sensible view was that the government should at least consult the people before going ahead with such an expense. The concept of empowering people to have a say in decisions that affect their lives (Kejriwal’s concept of Swaraj) seemed to be engrained in her mental make-up.

The nearby government school that she took me to was quite an eye-opener. The kids were doing whatever they pleased. Some classrooms had no teachers. In one classroom, a teacher was busy attending to her makeup while the kids ran around. There were papers and other garbage strewn around the classrooms and the corridors. The building was poorly maintained. We went to the headmaster’s office. He was an elderly gentleman who was sitting at a desk with one of his feet on the chair, trying to fix his own watch. He looked up at us, and quietly returned to fixing his watch. We later engaged him in a conversation thanks to prodding from Santosh. As we left the school, she expressed her deep disappointment about the state of our government schools. Despite her young age by the experiences gained through her work at Parivartan, she seemed to have a deep understanding of the challenges facing the people of the area and a genuine desire to serve. Not surprisingly, she was selected to represent the Aam Aadmi party from the area. As she gained visibility, her detractors perhaps grew more nervous. They decided it was time to attack her all over again.

Click here to read the rest of the article in The Economic Times

IIT Kharagpur is without a regular Director since July 2012! How long does it take it formally appoint the Director of a major institute in the country? Shouldn’t it be a priority of some kind? How can we expect the best from our premier institutions when the government takes such a lackadaisical approach to the appointment of its top leadership?

It turns out that the Ministry of HRD had selected Prof. Partha Pratim Chakrabarti as early as last July, but his final appointment was subject to a Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) clearance which is linked to a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)  case of 2007. The CBI had recommended minor penalties to Prof. Chakrabarti despite the fact that he was neither involved technically or financially in the project. The CVC, however, does not appear to be inclined to bring the case to conclusion for unknown reasons. In the mean time, IIT Kharagpur’s Board of Governors (BOG) cleared Prof. Chakrabarti of any wrong doing once in March 2012 and again on March 23, 2013.

Prof. Chakrabarti, being a gold medalist of IIT Kharagpur in the mid-eighties, has impeccable credentials and tremendous support and goodwill among students and faculty, both past and present. His commitment to the institute and his integrity has never been in question to many who have known and interacted with him over the years. Yet, his final appointment remains stalled over a case that many argue has little to do with him personally.

The intent is not to blindly absolve Prof. Chakrabarti of any wrong doing, if any. If the professor was, in fact, involved in a case of corruption, let the matter be brought to light. If he is innocent, then let the matter be closed and his appointment confirmed at the earliest. By letting the matter fester in a limbo, the government is adversely affecting a premier institution in the country and perhaps needlessly casting aspersions on a well-respected individual who has dedicated his life to the institute ever since he set foot there as a student.

Click here to read the rest of the article in The Economic Times

The display of public discontent with our political class began with the Anna movement in August of 2011 for the Lokpal. After deeply concerned citizens hit the streets across the country and Jantar Mantar in Delhi, our parliamentarians unanimously signed a resolution to end the impasse. Almost two years have gone by. The resolution is now forgotten. A ghost of the Lokpal bill is doing the rounds of parliamentary committees today. As things stand now, the Lokpal bill is dead for all practical purposes. “Mission Accomplished,” as far as our political class is concerned.

More recently, we have the CIC ruling to bring national political parties under the purview of the Right to Information Act. Once again, a very legitimate issue that strikes at the very heart of our deeply corrupt political system. As in the case of the Lokpal issue, once again, our politicians across party lines are unanimous in their opposition to this ruling. The primary reason, of course, is that all our parties have access to unaccounted and often illegal sources of money. This forms the backbone of everything, beginning with election funding to their day to day operations. In other words, our political parties have an established system that works for them, and they have no reason to reform or change it. As for the donors, they love the system too. They contribute to all major political parties, all their contributions are unaccounted, and they have everything to gain, no matter who comes to power. Besides, this system keeps out the Aam Aadmi and any new entrants to the political system who are likely to upset the applecart.

Not surprisingly, the government is likely to introduce an ordinance to override the Central Information Commissioner’s (CIC) ruling to crush the issue until later. As one can imagine, this ordinance is bound to have universal support among political parties. Meanwhile, savvy politicians on all sides take this opportunity to obfuscate the issue by suggesting that we need a broader discussion (in other words, a discussion that will never have a conclusive end!) which includes electoral reforms. “The CIC ruling by itself makes little sense without a discussion on electoral reforms,” they argue. Clearly, this is the very same strategy that reduced the Lokpal bill to legislative roadkill. Don’t address the issue at hand, but “broaden” the discussion so the fundamental issue is lost in the noise.

Click here to read the rest of the article in The Economic Times

Ironical as it might sound, Advani’s reason for quitting his various party posts was because ”most leaders of ours are now concerned just with their personal agendas.’’ It is easy to argue that the veteran BJP leader has his own life-long personal agenda of becoming the PM and yet blames everyone else in the party, particularly Mr. Modi of having his own personal agenda. Despite this irony, in reality, Mr. Advani is expressing a very valid concern that many in the BJP seem to concur with in private but do not have the stature or simply the “guts” to bring up in public.

For the first time in its history, the BJP has a leader in Mr. Modi who, through clever, sustained propaganda and self-promotional events, has positioned himself as a de-facto savior of the party. To his credit, he has repeatedly won elections in Gujarat. He also goes around talking of an agenda of development and progress, showcasing his successful administration in Gujarat. Over time, he has slowly developed a cult following of sorts, particularly in his home state. Party and ideology has given way to Modi masks. It’s a Modi show all the way. Today, there is one Modi and many Modi masks. Number twos or number threes in the hierarchy are non-existent as in Gujarat.  Have a lot of dough and want to start a project in Gujarat? No problem. Modi will personally lay out the red carpet, welcome you with open arms, sanction the land, and take care of associated irritants, crush environmentalists, or anyone else who stands in the way; and before you know it, you are in business, and of course, singing his praise. While this approach might seem attractive to young, restless, and ambitious Indians, the fact remains that this approach smacks of dictatorship. No one has a say except Modi. There is no debate, no consensus, little discussion, and virtually no inclusive process in decision-making. The fundamental tenets of democracy are thrown out of the window, in exchange for rapid pace of development in the name of progress.

Click here to read the rest of the article in The Economic Times

It is universally accepted that elections are the very source of corruption. You need several crores to contest and campaign in an election and ultimately win it. According to the Election Commission, each candidate is allowed to spend a maximum of Rs. 15 lakhs in a constituency in the state assembly election. This amount is a real joke in this day and age. Despite this stipulation, no candidate has ever landed in serious trouble for spending more than this amount. As a result, candidates, especially from major political parties, spend several crores of rupees to contest and win elections. Where does this money come from? Clearly, these are from vested interests and undeclared black money that pours in from different quarters. These contributors automatically expect favors once the candidate wins the election. So, compromises are made at the very start of the process.

None of the current political parties are ever going to bring about any reforms whatsoever to fix this problem. Over the years, they have established a well-oiled fund raising machinery that ensures the smooth and steady influx of hordes of cash to fight elections. This is often used to dole out goodies at the time of election ranging from liquor, plain hard cash, TV sets, laptops, etc., in order to win votes. The Election Commission has not shown the wherewithal to do anything about this either. So sadly, the practice continues undeterred. The amounts required to fight elections increase so dramatically with each election that it has now become virtually impossible for an honest candidate to contest and dream of winning an election without making compromises. Under these circumstances, what choices do we have? We can continue to remain bystanders while our elected representatives are well and truly sold out to big donors even before they are elected, or we can take steps to reform the process ourselves by crowd-funding candidates and parties we support that are committed to a process of open and transparent fund raising.

The Aam Aadmi party (AAP) has taken a unique step in this direction. They have sought funds directly from the people and routinely list the contributors and the amounts collected on their website. The party announced that it has managed to raise about 2 crores from the public. At the 15 lakhs per constituency stipulated by the Election Commission, AAP is going to need five times as much as it has raised to date before November to contest all 70 seats in Delhi. A tall order indeed. Considering that AAP is up against the endless funds of BJP and the Congress, this amount is clearly a paltry sum. Nevertheless, it’s a start. As a nation, if we care to curtail corruption at the very source, we need to step up and support parties like AAP that say no to contributors who wish to remain anonymous.

Click here to read the rest of the article in The Economic Times

The current clamor for Srinivasan’s resignation is in no way going to solve the IPL spot fixing mess and BCCI’s woes. While I am no fan of Srinivasan, the public must realize that the attempt to phase out Mr. Srinivasan is just a routine internal power struggle within the BCCI. If you think back, there was a time when Mr. Jagmohan Dalmiya (East Zone lobby) called the shots. Then, he was slowly phased out by the ever-savvy Pawar lobby. After Pawar captured the BCCI, he went on to greener pastures and became the head of the ICC. Then, it was the turn of the southern lobby. In came Srinivasan, despite opposition from veterans even from the south like Mr. Muthiah.

As in most other highly political organizations, there are always enemies who are trying to tear you down. Srinivasan, over the course of his tenure, made matters worse by getting rules changed, owning an IPL team, antagonizing advertisers and other IPL teams, and overruling selection committee choices. With the IPL spot fixing scandal at its peak, his detractors grabbed the opportunity to try and bring him down. The truth of the matter is that if Srinivasan is forced to resign, it will only signify a shift in power from one lobby to the other. Nothing as far as the BCCI or cricket is concerned is going to change.

There are a number of very fundamental questions that need to be addressed with regard to cricket administration in the country. Why should a private club of the rich and powerful get to control the most popular game in the country? Why should this club have the privilege of selecting the team that represents the country? Why should cricket enjoy the benefits of tax payer subsidies? Why should the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mr. Arun Jaitley, be the head of DDCA? Why should Narendra Modi be the Chairman of the GCA? Why should Jyotiraditya Scindia be the President of the MPCA? In short, why should active politicians, who are supposed to be serving the country, have to dabble in sports? Where there is money and power and no ground rules, the ones with the biggest clout simply annex key positions as a form of spreading their fiefdom. Cricket administration, with its complete lack of accountability, provides a fertile ground for such activities.

Click here to read the rest of the article in The Economic Times