Category: India

The Union Home Minister, Mr. Shinde made a huge blunder by calling for an investigation into the funding sources of the Aam Aadmi party (AAP). The supposed motivation for the probe was that AAP is the beneficiary of foreign funding. The more likely reason for the probe was that Sheila Dixit requested one in a desperate attempt to destabilize her new adversary – the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). For the first time in India’s political history we have in AAP a party that depends entirely on donations provided by the common man – bulk of it is received online. It does not take a rocket scientist to understand from the AAP website that the donations are listed almost instantaneously. In fact, it’s fascinating to see donations of all sizes coming in every few minutes – an unheard of level of citizen engagement in Indian politics. Just seeing this level of transparency is enough to give any true lover of democracy goose bumps.

Anyone who knows anything about technology should know that AAP can simply export a spreadsheet and provide the government the details of every single transaction in no time. Also, anyone who knows anything about technology should understand that if the donation page does not appear it is most likely because of an overload of traffic on that page. Spokespersons of political parties trying to evade direct questions on their party funds is bad enough, but these folks take this one step further with completely inane comments about the donation list page on the AAP website not loading when they accessed it. The spokesperson for a major party showed his complete ignorance when he said, “Your website is ok except for this donation page? This must be the greatest invention since Google.” An infuriated techie friend who saw the clip said, “I wish there was a way to provide virtual slaps when participants go beyond the scale of permissible ignorance”

NRIs who contribute to the AAP are asked to provide their passport information before they can make a donation. This is as transparent as it can possibly get given the current state of technology and government guidelines. Ideally, there should be a way to dynamically verify passport numbers against a government database (or semi-automatically) of passport numbers. But given the state of our government and security and privacy concerns this level of sophistication is perhaps a long way off. The only scope for foul-play of any sort is if someone deliberately posed as an NRI and provided a fake passport number in order to donate to AAP. Now what are the odds of that happening? How crazy would someone be to even attempt such a donation? And even if they did the government should be able to identify this from the spreadsheet that AAP can provide and the party can simply return the donation.

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

There are times when you don’t know whether to laugh or to cry – Like when you watch the spokespersons of political parties such as the Congress and the BJP parrying pointed questions about the sources of their funds. The Union Home Minister’s decision to probe funds of the Aam Aadmi party (AAP) just complicated the discussion even more for the Congress and BJP. “Why target a fledgling political outfit which has raised a paltry 19 crores through tens of thousands of small transparent donations when as per publicly available data the Congress and the BJP have handsome kitties of 2000 crores and 800 crores respectively — a majority of which were received in hard cash and can’t be traced to specific donors?” – is a fundamental question that comes to mind.

While there are no easy answers for both the Congress and the BJP, by raising a furore the two have unwittingly put AAP on the media map and in the forefront of the public consciousness.

For the first time in India’s history we have a political party starting from ground zero with no money whatsoever and promising to raise funds directly from the public. In the spirit of transparency the party has listed every single donation on the website and continues to do so as the issue is being debated threadbare. The NRI community has stepped up to support AAP through online donations and the government now calls that “foreign funding”. Perhaps the government thinks NRIs are Not Really Indians. Sadly, the Government’s interaction with the NRI community has been reduced to having a dog and pony show once a year on Pravasi Divas.

And what does the BJP have to say on the government probe into AAP’s donations? It says the AAP is a front for the Congress and that is why it has taken them so long to institute a probe. Applying the same logic, the AAP rightly pointed out that since the Congress or the BJP have not called for probes on each other’s sources of funding for years, they are probably working in collusion! Not surprisingly AAP has accepted the challenge and turned the heat on the Congress and the BJP by asking for a probe into their respective finances.

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

There appears to be widespread discontent, especially among the educated classes, with the UPA government. However, with the Lok Sabha elections of 2014 just round the corner, a firm and united alternative to the UPA seems like a distant dream. Modi fans dream of a Modi wave. But the electoral math indicates that the BJP has a strong presence only in a handful of states. The chances of forming the next government almost entirely depend on coalition partners. Unfortunately for the BJP, the NDA is now a shadow of its former self as partners fear losing the Muslim vote should they cosy up to Modi. The dubious third front, meanwhile, is plotting an anti-BJP and supposedly anti-Congress platform. In the backdrop of this impasse which will have to be sorted out post the 2014 elections, it is heartening to see the rise of the Aam Aadmi party (AAP) in Delhi, and with it, a resurgence in idealism.

If you look back at the days of India’s independence, it was the culmination of several years of hard work put in by a number of people mobilized by Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr. Ambedkar and others. So when India won independence from the British, a number of those who participated in the independence struggle transitioned into politics. At that stage in India’s history, it was perhaps “cool” to be in politics. Serving the country was a good and noble endeavor. Parents never batted an eyelid when their sons and daughters joined politics with the aim of contributing to a better and free India. The mindset that prevailed at that stage appears to have served the country well for the first couple of decades since independence. Not surprisingly, we had leaders of the stature of Nehru, Shastri, Rajagopalachary, Dr. Radhakrishnan, Rajendra Prasad and others – Leaders who are widely respected and revered even to this day across party lines. But after the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri and the rise of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, family-owned political parties and dynastic culture slowly became the norm. Unfortunately for India, this resulted in a dramatic change in people’s attitude towards politics. Most people, especially the educated class started to shun politics. The common wisdom among the educated class was that, “If you are good for nothing, you enter politics.” As a result, those who entered politics were only those from political families or those with strong political connections. Moreover, the voices of the “good people” who joined politics were stifled as they were constrained to adapt and operate within the boundaries of a fundamentally flawed system. Sadly, this situation has persisted to this very day.

The entry of the Aam Aadmi party has started to change this dynamic quite a bit. An unprecedented number of people, especially the young, have put their jobs, education and businesses on hold to serve the party like never before. Should AAP win in Delhi, Indian politics will never be the same again. First and foremost, politics will start to become “cool” again. Many who worked for the party’s election campaign will possibly continue to serve in politics. Several others will join politics anew. No longer will politics be restricted to those with family connections. It will open up the playing field and attract new entrants like never before. The country will soon have new role models in politics. Moms and Dads across the country will wish their sons and daughters became the next Arvind Kejriwal.

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

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi has experienced a gradual but definite electoral surge in recent weeks. A party written-off by most as a product of “OB-Van” frenzy that won’t last has now established for itself an impressive position in the electoral race in Delhi. Arvind Kejriwal and his team of Anna’s foot soldiers in the India Against Corruption movement appear to have come of age and are on the verge of emerging as the true champions of the Aam Aadmi in Delhi. After 15 years of Congress rule and a weak opposition in the form of the BJP, the people of Delhi seem to be leaning slowly but surely towards an alternative that never existed until a few months back – The Aam Aadmi Party.

There is little doubt that everyone including the media completely missed what could turn out to be a tectonic shift in India’s political history. AAP’s consistent message and extensive ground campaign operation seems to have resonated with the people. Even Sheila Dixit who pooh-poohed AAP for the longest time seems to have recognized that “AAP has captured the imagination of the people.” The BJP meanwhile appears to be shaken and has decided to change horses midstream – out goes Vijay Goel and in comes Harsh Vardhan. Modi fans are now gravitating towards, “Kejriwal for CM, Modi for PM” mantra. Clearly, India’s two leading parties appear to be on the back foot on a turning electoral wicket.

As the AAP bus leaves the station, many are jumping on board and not surprisingly this includes the media. After blatant threats from industrial powerhouses the media had stayed away from covering AAP for several months. In hindsight this seems to have served as a blessing for AAP. While Kejriwal and his rag-tag team of die-hards were busy doing the hard yards going door-to-door spreading their message of anti-corruption, accountability, transparency, and reform in governance and simultaneously winning the hearts and minds of citizens on the Internet, the media was busy focusing on the wrong stories. “What would you do if AAP lost the election?” they would repeatedly asked Arvind Kejriwal in the hope that they would land a sound bite that could rake up their TRPs. Frankly, how does it matter what Arvind Kejriwal does should AAP lose the elections? Does the media ask Sheila Dixit or Harsh Vardan (or whoever else is the leader du jour of the BJP) the same question?

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

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