Category: Politics

In the state of Kerala, leader of the Revolutionary Marxist Party, T P Chandrasekharan, who was expelled from CPI(M) a few years back, was attacked and killed by unidentified assailants. According to police, 50-year-old Chandrasekharan was attacked by assailants who came by a car while he was riding a motorcycle alone. Country-made bombs were hurled at him and when he fell off the motorcycle, he was hacked to death with sharp weapons. His face was completely disfigured. Sadly, this is not the first incident of its kind in Kerala. The true criminals behind similar incidents in the past have not been identified either. Arresting a low level thug does not strike at the heart of the problem. The “big fish” behind such crimes are almost never held accountable and the problem of extreme, brutal, and barbaric violence just continues to grow unchecked. If this is the state of politics in India’s most literate state, what hope does this hold for the rest of the country?

Move up north to India’s capital, and an RTI activist, Ravinder Balwani, was killed after a mysterious hit-and-run incident. He now joins the ever-growing list of slain RTI activists. Take the case of Shehla Masood, another RTI activist, who was gunned down last August. The investigations continue but there is no closure in sight.

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

In response to my recent article on Parliament vs. Team Anna, some readers responded by expressing their sense of despair and helplessness over the failure of the anti-corruption struggle in achieving a strong Lokpal bill. “Our corrupt political system is not going to change overnight. Our politicians are not going to turn righteous and pass a strong Lokpal bill. How do we get to our desired end-goal?” This seems to be the popular sentiment among those who genuinely care about change and reform. At the other extreme are the pessimists who say without mincing words, “This country will never improve for the next several generations!”

Sri Sri Ravishankar, in a recent article in the Huffington Post, advocated a two pronged approach. To pass the Jan Lokpal bill, on the one hand, and to create awareness among public about ethical and moral values against corruption, on the other. He rightly says, “An individual alone cannot fight the menace of corruption. Without strong community support, individuals are likely to succumb to corruption. Strong community which would help the weak and vulnerable is most essential.” This sounds like a worthy plan, but getting past the first hurdle of passing strong anti-corruption laws still seems insurmountable.

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

In a rare moment of bi-partisanship, the entire Indian Parliament joined hands to condemn Team Anna for its attack on the political class. Interestingly, Sushma Swaraj of the BJP, unwittingly highlighted the irony of the predicament when she said, “If MPs were looters, corrupt and rapists, then why did Team Anna send three of its demands to be incorporated in a resolution passed by Parliament.” The answer to this question says it all. The civil society has no other option but to “beg and plead” before an institution which is home to many who have serious cases against them and would be directly affected should Lokpal become a reality.

Arguing about the “who said what” and whether it was appropriate would be case of not seeing the forest for the tress. Clearly, this Parliament vs. Team Anna struggle has wider implications for India’s future. If you disregard for a moment the individual players in this struggle, their motivations and their allegiances, it does raise some very important issues that warrant significant public debate. Over the last sixteen months, the anti-corruption movement has been a major part of the public’s pre-occupation and a primary cause for an overall sense of dissatisfaction. Despite this, thanks to coalition politics, lack of leadership, and political will, virtually nothing has been accomplished to address these legitimate concerns of the people. Sadly, cases of corruption continue to be unearthed, the most recent being the one involving our Army. On the law and order front, RTI activists have been routinely killed over the years and most recently, Narendra Singh, an IPS officer, was crushed to death supposedly by the mining mafia in MP. Our Parliament has little to show in terms of concrete action on any of these fronts.

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

he recent assembly elections have, as always, thrown up some surprises. The biggest among them is the sweep by the Samajwadi party led by Mulayam Singh Yadav in UP and the complete rout of the Rahul Gandhi led Congress. Mayawati, another victim of the SP wave, who spent the better part of her tenure as CM erecting statues of herself and her elephants, is now plotting her next move towards the Rajya Sabha. Meanwhile, the Congress government in Uttarakhand is going to be led by Vijay Bahuguna, whose sister Rita Bahuguna heads up the Congress in neighboring UP. We have barely skimmed the surface of politics in two states and you have deeply entrenched political families—the Gandhis, the Yadavs, the Bahugunas, and Mayawati (who is more than a handful all by herself!)—battling it out for supremacy.

There has been plenty of optimism-laden talk about the passing of the baton to a new generation in UP, as Netaji Mulayam Singh Yadav makes way for son Akhilesh Yadav. No matter who is in charge, the pedigree is impossible to change and so is the baggage of history. The Samajwadi party is known for its “goondagiri.” This was apparent almost immediately after the victory, when SP supporters went berserk and assaulted their opponents. Mulayam Singh Yadav is possibly headed for a plum role in the UPA government, emboldened by his mandate at the state-level.

Are all these signs of progress? Is this state of our democracy supposed to make us proud? If you disregard the fact that we have elections today, how different is this from the days when Kings and Queens ruled different parts of our country? The headlines could very well have been, “Queen Mayawati voted out of power, King Mulayam crowns young Prince to be King and heads to Delhi.”

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

Team Anna announced a discussion titled “Save the Republic” to be held on Republic Day. I can almost imagine Team Anna’s critics going, “They first wanted their own version of a bill passed. Now they have problems with our democracy and want to Save the Republic.” Let’s start by setting aside the emotion and the ideological differences and objectively evaluate the state of the Republic after 65 years.

 

Today, India is run by a coalition government at the center and several regional parties at the state-level. This has been the norm for the last couple of decades and seems likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.  Parties come together to form governments driven by opportunism and political expediency rather than shared ideology. Almost every party is dominated and run by rich, affluent, families like a true fiefdom. The concept of intra-party democracy is non-existent and sycophancy is the order of the day. Control over parties is handed down from fathers and mothers to sons, daughters, brothers and sisters. To add another level of control, all parties are run by their respective party high commands. The party whip decides the party’s stance on every issue and all members of the party fall in line at the time of voting on these issues. This is a result of the anti-defection bill introduced by the Rajiv Gandhi government in the 1980s. The intent at that point was to prevent MPs from cross-voting in return for money and other favors. But now, after a couple decades the pendulum has swung to the other extreme. Instead of preventing MPs from cross-voting, the MPs today are crippled by the party whip and the high command. The elected representative is now a pawn of the party. Once elected, he or she can’t pay any heed to the wishes of the electorate in their respective constituencies even if they want to.

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

Team India’s recent dismal failure in Test cricket has resulted in a mad frenzy to find scapegoats. Leading the pack of scapegoats currently is VVS Laxman, followed by the captain, MS Dhoni himself. Many experts profess that the veterans should be phased out, beginning with VVS Laxman. Others believe that Dhoni’s stint as captain of the Test team needs to come under scrutiny. There are others who feel that the Coach Duncan Fletcher should be fired. Finally, there are those who blame IPL for India’s Test debacle.

 

The situation with Team India today is akin to a public company that has delivered consistently under its current leadership, but has seen a dramatic and embarrassing reversal of fortunes over the last couple of financial quarters. The stock market has run out of patience and shareholders are demanding a complete overhaul of the organization. Unfortunately, therein ends any similarity with a professionally run public organization – one that is ultimately accountable to its shareholders.

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

There budget session of parliament is fast approaching. Hanging in balance is the UPA government’s commitment to pass its Lokpal bill – a ridiculously weak bill that no one but the Congress is in favor of Getting the “Jan Lokpal” bill passed is India’s Mission Impossible (MI). Each MI has a different feel to it. This one, in particular, is clearly an all-desi version packed with the rustic oratory of our MPs, juxtaposed with the evasive, smiling, smooth-talk of the Harvard educated types, the spirited social activists led by an intermittently fasting Gandhian, and, last but not the least, our silent babu-like PM.

Team Anna rallied the masses and raised hopes of a utopian tomorrow – one with a clean and independent CBI under an incorruptible Lokpal. But after an entire year of wrangling with the government, the UPA summarily “checkmated” the social activists and drove them into existential crisis while simultaneously reducing the Lokpal bill to a “Ghost Protocol.” At the moment, the activists will be happier with the “no bill at all” than the current version of the bill tabled by the government. None of the political parties wants the Lokpal bill. Even if individual politicians want it, they can’t do a thing about it because their “High Command” does not want it. But the country’s future is at stake. The politicians are out to maintain the status-quo in order to protect their corrupt practices and ill-gotten wealth. But Team Anna has accepted this mission and is not going to relent until their goals are met.

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

The crux of the Lokpal battle has finally boiled down to the issue of independence for the CBI. The fundamental problem today is that the CBI is under the clutches of the party in power. Further, every party is firmly under the control of its “high command”. What this means is that the CBI is completely under the control of a few powerful people from the ruling party. History is replete with examples of political parties using this control over the CBI to harass and target their opponents. The current UPA government for example initiated CBI investigations against Jagan Reddy of Andhra Pradesh after he had a fallout with the ruling UPA following his father’s untimely death. Other present favorite targets include Ms. Mayavati of the BSP, the Reddy brothers of the BJP, among others. Similarly, when the BJP was in power, Ms. Jayalalitha was believed to have been targeted. Not surprisingly, there are no CBI investigations against those in power from the current ruling party. Also, historically, Prime Ministers have tended to appoint only their most trusted men as CBI directors. In fact, appointments and exits of CBI chiefs have usually been in sync with prime ministerial tenures. Thus, the manipulation of the CBI by the party in power to suit their needs and help achieve their political goals cuts across party lines. This mode of operation has become part and parcel of our national politics.

Let me give you an example from cricket, India’s most popular sport. Today, in cricket neutral umpires (umpires from countries other than the two playing teams) are taken for granted. Before the introduction of neutral umpires there were frequent cries of bias by visiting cricket teams. For example, it was widely believed that its next to impossible to get a favorable LBW decision against Javed Miandad when touring Pakistan. There was once a serious altercation between English captain Mike Gatting and a Pakistani umpire Shakoor Rana, over a bad umpiring decision. Likewise, umpires from New Zealand were under constant attack for their bias. Similar accusations have also been made against Indian umpires by visiting teams. But since the advent of neutral umpires, the accusations of bias have completely stopped. Today, the focus is mostly on the quality of decisions made by umpires. Further, metrics are available to analyze the performance of individual umpires and an international panel of umpires exists with a formal process for selection. Also, advancements in technology have made possible the introduction of the third umpire who has the luxury of watching television replays before deciding on an umpiring decision.

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

A number of myths have been propagated over the past year about the anti-corruption movement ranging from crafty attempts to derail the movement to gross mis-representation.

1. It is anti-Congress:  Those in the Congress (and unfortunately many among the general public) believe that the anti-corruption movement is against the Congress. The Hissar election is often cited as an example. The reality is that the Congress party is in power today as the head of the UPA and wields enough power to pass this bill provided it can muster the required leadership and sheer “backbone” needed to carry along its allies. Unfortunately, there isn’t consensus in the Congress. Many in the Congress starting at the very top shudder at the thought of an independent investigative body and simply can’t come to terms with the idea. The anti-Congress label is an escape route with no basis. An party in power that is unwilling to pass a strong anti-corruption bill would have faced identical protests.

2. It is pro-BJP: If you are against the Congress you are pro-BJP is the automatic conclusion but also an unfortunate gross mis-representation. Team Anna has criticized the BJP governments in Gujarat and Karnataka, to mention a couple of their anti-BJP moves. The fact that BJP participated in an anti-corruption rally organized by Team Anna does not in any way confirm their BJP links. The rally was open to all parties including the Congress party.  Sharing a dais does not equate to being idealogical bedfellows.

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

The legendary Sunil Gavaskar said his faith in the BCCI was shaken because they have reneged on a commitment to pay him Rs. 5 crores. “Sharad Pawar and Arun Jaitley both promised me that my dues will be cleared.” he said. The issue apparently came up for discussion in the working committee meeting after Gavaskar wrote to the BCCI.  Gavaskar talks to the BCCI chief and he offers him a verbal commitment of 5 crore rupees! No contract, no paper work, no transparency, plain and simple insider deal between the head honcho and India’s iconic cricketer. It begs the question – Why Gavaskar? Why not Kapil Dev? Why not some other player? How was this amount arrived at? Were others given a fair shot at such a lucrative sum of money? What gives the BCCI chief the authority to cut deals of this nature without any process or procedure whatsoever?

Next, we have the case of another legendary Indian cricketer, Anil Kumble, who recently quit as chief of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) after a supposed fall-out with the BCCI over his three year plan for the NCA. It has been reported that Kumble proposed the use of expensive software and it is believed that he might benefit from the sale of this software. Once again, a whole host of questions come to mind. Was this the only reason why his proposal was rejected? Clearly, Kumble knows a thing or two about cricket. Were there cricketing reasons for his proposal being rejected? If so, who are these individuals who opposed it? Were they more qualified than Kumble and what were the reasons put forward by them? Was there an open, transparent process where the requirements of the software were published and bids invited? Is this a case of administrators trying to stem the rise of former cricketers like Kumble, who are slowly but surely expanding their reach through key administrative positions, enviable engagements with IPL teams, and personal profit making ventures, among others?

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