One-child family trend for quality life in UK

Birth rates are falling across Europe, including Britain where it has declined from 2.4 children per woman to 1.9 over the recent 10 years. At the same time there is an outcry against immigration from anywhere in the world. Even within Europe immigration from eastern European countries like Poland, Romania and Bulgaria to more prosperous parts of the continent is causing generating lot of controversy. In Britain immigration has once again become a political hot potato. Earlier from 1960s onwards the chorus was against immigration from Asian, African and other Commonwealth countries on the un-stated grounds of colour. But since the turn of this century even white people from poorer parts of Europe are not so welcome, or rather decidedly unwelcome. In fact Britain’s membership of European Union is almost on knife edge on this issue. Unless Britain is allowed to bend the fundamental EU principle of the free movement (immigration) of people within EU, Britain could well be out of the Union. An additional EU demand of 2.1 million euro as contribution has made matters more difficult. Britain’s population rose from 52.4 million in 1960 to 64.1 million in 2013 -- about 20,000 only per year over 53 years in spite of all the Afro-Asian incomers. But the last ten years have seen an inflow of nearly one million – one lakh per year -- from EU member states like Poland and Romania! White or black immigration at the current rate of inflow is unaffordable, has fuelled the growing chorus of opposition. The mismatch between quality of life and number of people in the country is the core of the problem. And it is not only the growth in population from outside which is a matter of concern. For almost half the people, especially among the aspiring middle classes, even the internal addition to the family is a cause for concern and action. “Forty-seven percent of couples have decided to become a one-child family, according a recent survey by the Guardian newspaper and Netmums website. The number of single-child families across all social classes has outstripped other family groupings over the past decade, with average British woman now having 1.9 children instead of 2.4. In 2013 47 per cent of families -- or 3.6 million – had just one child , compared with 42 per cent in 2003.” More than a third of families with one child said they would love to have more children but life is too expensive. Most of the families taking part in the survey are fairly well off by any standard – generally having two cars, with all mod cons in a well furnished house. Yet they feel they can’t afford a second child. “We want to offer our son the best possible start in life by giving him access to trips, living in a nice house, in a nice neighbourhood, , with outstanding schools,” said a woman school teacher who with her company director husband together have an annual income of 80,000 pounds (Rs.6.6 lakh a month). Rising expectations and the desire to give your child the best are a natural urge everywhere. So is the urge to step up in the prosperity race. Catching up with the Joneses or joining the middle class is not easy. The increasing cost of joining the middle class and enjoying better family life is behind the falling birth rate, says the newspaper report quoting Dr Jonathan Cave, a demographics expert from Warwick University. “If you want to go along with those expectations of what a middle-class quality of life is nowadays, then you can probably afford one child. But if you have more than one child, you can expect to struggle.” Europe is fast learning the benefits of small family norm. Even highly religious Catholic countries like Italy, Spain and Ireland have achieved fertility rates of 1.4, 1.48 and 2.01 respectively, according to CIA world fact book. The struggle is much harder in countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Indian fertility rate is still around 2.58 even after more than 60 years of family planning programmes as a major objective of central and state health ministries. Even Bangladesh after liberation is doing better at 2.55 , though Pakistan is still at an unaffordable high of 3.5. Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka have equally discouraging fertility rates of 2.4, 2.13 and 2.17 respectively China has achieved a fertility rate of 1.55, though with draconian methods of forced abortions and jail terms. There are hints of recent relaxation of the policy but with heavy fines. Countries like India need not go the Chinese way but could have done much better with the easier availability of contraceptives like the pill and contraceptives over the last 30 or forty years. The implementation of family planning programmes has been far too lackadaisical. Other measures like strict observance of minimum marriage age of 18 have been less than half hearted. Higher minimum age for government jobs could have set a healthier trend. Some of the religious traditions have also been too much in the way. Pandits, mullahs and padres have not been cooperative in India, though Bangladesh has made some progress in winning over the religious leaders in the right direction. Other measures like the two-child family requirement as eligibility norm election to village panchayat posts have also suffered from half hearted implementation. Girls education has been the story of neglect or at least too slow progress. The school dropout rate among girls is far too high to inspire any confidence. With current attitudes of political and religious leaders, India’s target of stabilisation of population or achieving a fertility rate of 1.9 per woman looks nowhere in sight – not even by 2060, more than 110 years after independence. ..................................................................................................................................................................

Swachch Bharat or Photo-Op in Mahatma’s name?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Swachch Bharat’ or Clean India abhiyan or campaign first announced in his Lok Sabha election manifesto and later repeated by him and his faithful followers is set to reach its first round peak on 2nd October to coincide with Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday. In his rush to cash in on the Mahatma’s name and to pay him a public tribute at New York’s Madison Square Garden during his American tour, he re-named the Father of the Nation as Mohanlal(instead of Mohandas) Karamchand Gandhi ! It seems in Modi lexicon a lal here and a das there are fair game in pursuit of campaign propaganda. Back home his followers have been no less enthusiastic. In an early clean-up drive at Red Fort, the wall area normally kept fairly tidy with a semi-cordon, the civic authorities arranged to spread a few basket loads of rubbish so that the bosses could be seen cleaning it up for the benefit of the photographers ! Leaving aside such real ‘jokes’, we must concentrate on the broom in hand for the Swachch Bharat campaign. Dengue season is back, screams a news headline in Delhi, with reports of 75 cases till 27 September. “Dengue peaks in Delhi-NCR in September and October; so this is the time to use protection against mosquitoes and use repellent creams and patches,” says Dr Anupam Sibal of Apollo Houspitals. And it’s not just a Delhi problem. Eighteen other states, including Maharashtra and Kerala are also prone to it, while precaution is needed in the rest of the country too. “Over-prescription of antibiotics is a reality (in India) and we must act to check it. I welcome IMA’s move,” said Dr anoop Misra, chairman of the Fortes centre of Excellence for Diabetes, Obesity, Metabolic Diseases and Endocrinology. He urged the government to set up a mechanism to audit prescription of antibiotics, especially of the second and third generation variety, in all hospitals and nursing homes. The basic problem, of course, is lack of public hygiene and spread of infection in all its variety. Recently one Delhi hospital had to completely shut its eye operations for weeks due to an infection which couldn’t be identified. The surroundings of several hospitals, including Apollo, Max Healthcare and Saket City to name only a few, in the capital are an open source of infection spreading out of the dhabas or eateries and other rubbish in the immediate neighbourhood. Similar is the picture nationwide too. Perhaps the richer hospitals can spend a few rupees on keeping their surroundings clean. Peter Martensson, a Swedish expert, hit the nail on the head at the launch of a healthcare ‘Platform’ at the Swedish Embassy in Delhi last month. Citing personal advice given to him by his father, he told this writer in a side chat, that he avoided any use of antibiotics under all circumstances , and, touchwood, he was a picture of perfect health. Stop the infection and cut down antibiotics is the key to good personal and public health, according to Martensson who heads the India, Middle east and African operations of the Swedish company Bactiguard, a world leader in the protection of infection. Clinically named Bactiguard, the company specialises in reducing the number of hospital acquired infection benefiting over 130 million patients worldwide, thereby contributing to the reduction of the use of antibiotics. Surprise, surprise, a few days later (September-end), the Indian Medical Association launched its nationwide awareness campaign against the excessive use of antibiotics which has resulted in the emergence of new strains of drug-resistant organisms. “In the past two decades almost no new antibiotic has been discovered (worldwide) while bacteria have learnt to overcome existent ones. If we don’t conserve the existing antibiotics (by using them sparingly) ‘ a day will come when simple infections will become life threatening,” warns Dr Narendra Saini, secretary general of the IMA. The association hopes to spread its message of caution across the country through two and a half lakh member doctors who are on its rolls. All hands to the deck . Amen. Let us hope the Prime Minister’s initiative is implemented in full strength on a permanent footing, and not become just a temporary photo-opportunity for ministers and bureaucrats. .....................................................................................................................................................................

Two-child family not to blame for sex-ratio fall

As the world population growth is hurtling towards 10 billion mark and India towards 1.4 billion, population issues continue to be forgotten by political parties in the hurly burly of power chase and elections over the last decade and more. The two-child family norm which could help stabilize India’s population by 2060 continues to be a fitful idea than a realistic target. What is worse is that it is being blamed for skewing the male-female sex ratio in places where it is being implemented as an eligibility condition for election to public offices. A recent report ( Hindu, September 14) based on research by a couple of foreign based ‘economists’ suggests that the two-child rule as an eligibility condition for candidates in panchayat (village) elections in some of the states is skewing sex ratio. The research, limited to only 11 out of India’s 33 states and based on unquantified sample surveys, sends a wrong signal in tackling India’s sex-ratio in population issues. The so-called rule is more often flouted than obeyed even in these few states. The country’s sex-ratio is skewed not so much by the two-child ‘norm’ as by the massively practised female infanticide. With the availability of modern technology and ultrasound techniques, infanticide is turning into female foeticide in large parts of the country. “The implementation of the 1994 pre-conception and pre-natal diagnistic techniques (PCPNDT) Act continues to be poor, and the nexus of greed forged by clinics, doctors and the political class is proving difficult to break,” says social affairs writer and journalist Usha Rai. In a syndicated article (Infochange) appearing in a magazine under the heading ‘Death before Birth,’ she points out that even after 20 years of the pre-conception and pre-natal Act, the child sex ratio continues to be on the downward spiral. The 2001 Census revealed that there were 927 girls to 1,000 boys. Ten years later in 2011 it fell another eight points to 919, says Rai’s analysis based on the findings of 200 NGOs across 23 states of the country in 2012-2013. In a country where patriarchy rules the waves, sex-selection is rapidly becoming easier with the advances in technology. Mobile ultrasound machines are zig-zagging their way into rural heartlands and tribal India and medical advances have made it easier to determine the sex of the foetus through blood and urine tests. The machines are also getting smaller and easier to hide, further skewing the sex-ratio. And all this is on top of the old established crude methods of choking the new-born girl child with chilli powder or putting her head in the narrow neck of an earthen pot and shaking it wildly till the little life is extinguished. Snuffing out the girl child’s life remains one of the main causes of India’s skewed sex-ratio. Just before going to press, a shocking example of another variety of killing little girls emerged from Bharatpur district in Rajasthan where a two-and-a half year old ailing girl, was buried alive and her grave turned into a samadhi or a place of worship with claims by parents that she was a goddess ! Local villagers, instead of raising alarm, joined in by offering flowers and supporting the parents who committed the crime out of belief or inability or unwillingness to afford medical treatment. Burying her alive was the easy way out. Describing the incident as outrageous , child rights lawyer Ravi Kant said the circumstances prima facie indicate the involvement of the victim’s parents. Since her grave was turned into a samadhi the role of neighbours and other villagers could not be ignored. A former member of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Vinod Tickoo, said the incident brought to light the prevalence of barbaric practices like “female genocide”. Calling for stringent punishment for such acts, he said : “Female foeticide and genocide is still prevalent in Rajasthan and it is time to weed out these inhuman practices.” CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat added her voice by saying that the central government should have promptly taken action and instituted an inquiry. “Glorification of murder is unacceptable and should not be allowed under any circumstances.” The way to tackle the larger issue of falling male-female sex-issue and continuing population explosion is not by relaxing the two-child norm for panchayat election candidates and thus exacerbate the population growth but through spreading welfare schemes like the ‘Ladli’ plan in some states which offer a rupee cash gift at birth, besides Rs one lakh insurance plus free education up to secondary school level or even university stage. The worsening imbalance in sex-ratio needs both positive welfare measures as well as strong government measures to curb and punish medical practitioners flouting the law. The importance of panchayat election candidates as role models cannot be under-estimated in a country like India which has been caught in a population explosion for several decades in the past with no sign of escape in the near future. The two-child norm needs to be extended rather than reversed if the upcoming millions of youngsters are to be offered any hope of meaningful employment, hope, and a modicum of prosperity.

BJP, ‘Love-Jihad’ and elections ......

For nearly a month in the run-up to the by-elections to 11 assembly seats and one parliamentary seat on saturday 13 September in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP has been relentlessly playing its divisive ‘Love-Jihad’ card. The chagesheeting of Amit Shah, former party general secretary and now president, for alleged hate speech in April seems to be having no effect. Nor has the ban on BJP MP Yogi Adityanath or the election commission notice for violation of model code has had any effect. The country is witnessing an open defiance of the law of the land. In its bid to repeat its victory in parliamentary elections in by-elections on Saturday, the party is using every weapon in its armoury, however dangerous for peace and stability of the state and the nation. Not satisfied with its leader Amit Shah’s old slogan of ‘badla’ or revenge for the alleged disrespect (apmaan) to the majority community by minority community members during last year’s Muzaffarnagar riots , the Sangh parivar has sharpened its new love-jihad weapon. Yogi’s violation of both state government’s ban on his pulic meetings in Lucknow and elsewhere and EC’s notice is a double defiance. He has been unashamedly propagating the myth of Hindu girls being lured by Muslim men into marriage and conversion to Islam. Without any facts or figures the Yogi has been spreading his campaign of fear and suspicion. The EC’s notice has been served too late – only four days before the bye-elections! As in Amit Shah’s case, the damage has already been done. His hate campaign had a free run for several weeks. Even the Sangh parivar’s official news weeklies – the Organiser in English and Panchjanya in Hindi – have joined in the love-jihad campaign. Strangely enough the Election Commission has not served them any notice for violating the model code. By its very name love-jihad is an highly emotional and separatist weapon capable of poisoning young minds. It is a new kind of ‘khap’ which goes beyond sect and gotra and invades the religious domain or territory. It is Sangh parivar’s fatwa against inter-religious marriages. Real love and marriage have no boundaries. It is a matter between the couples and their God with no room for any politician or religious fanatic to interfere. The world today is witnessing not just cross-gotra, cross-sect, cross-religion marriages but even inter-racial marriages. Are the Sangh parivar and its counterparts in other religions going to annul (nakkar) all those marriages across the world? At a more local local, what about the case of BJP leaders Shahnawaz Hussain and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi who have been long married to Hindu women? asks SP leader and UP minister Azam Khan. Who has trapped (phasaya) whom? .....................................................................................................................................................................

Orwell’s ‘1984’ Big Brother echoes in India & abroad

George Orwell whose year-long birth centenary celebrations have been marked with an extended run of the stage play “1984” in a dramatic version of his prophetic novel of the same name in London has a double connection with India. It is known to many that he was born in Bihar just over 100 years ago in June, 1913 . What may surprise them is that his distant thunder reverberates through numerous emerging polities from Africa to Middle East and the sub-continent including India . And not just Asia and Africa, major Western democracies too are using thought control tactics to gag whistle blowers like Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and US whistleblower Edward Snowden. Government by an all-powerful Big Brother based on a single track thought process or ideology, the central theme of Orwell’s “1984”, is the order of the day in many lands. Be it of communist variety, or Islamist brand raging through Asia, or of Hindutva ideology in India since this year’s elections. In the Orwellian projection, global power bloc Oceana under Big Brother scores a big hit off the Malabar coast in the Indian waters against Eurasia , providing the “Proles” or ordinary people with fodder for jingoistic celebrations. In the same vein two-minute Hate rallies in front of two-way TV screens are held where the faithful shout their anger at Big Brother’s opponents, brilliantly enacted by stage stars at The Playhouse theatre in London. Turning the formula on its head, Indian election rallies witnessed hysteria in adulation of Big Brother Narendra Modi, successfully catapulting him into the pole position of the nation’s Prime Minister. As in Orwell’s work, Big Brother government is run by an “Inner Party” along with an “Outer Party”; so is Modi government run by hardcore RSS (Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh) the inner party, along with BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) the outer party. Like the Newspeak language of “1984”, Hindutva-speak is the language of India’s new government. Since assumption of power Prime Minister Modi seems to have dispensed with the well established tradition of ruling party stalwarts and ministers meeting opposition members and journalists over cups of tea in the Central Hall of Parliament for off the record banter. All information is increasingly channelled through rather faceless bureaucrats attached to PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) . On select occasions , he communicates his thoughts and policies through his high representative, finance and defence minister Arun Jaitley like O’Brien of “!984.” Old style exchange of views is being replaced with Hindutva newspeak. Across the sea in the Arab world the Big Brother has assumed Sunni, Shia and other sectarian identities , some openly militaristic, others religiously authoritarian with varying intensity. Yet others have assumed ultra jihadist identity, leaving no room at all for minority dissent. Suppression, conversion and expulsion of minorities has become the norm in large parts of this world ruled by potentates with priests or mullahs in their tow. All this is accompanied by cultural suppression of diverse kinds. Some ultra religious leaders have virtually confined women to life within the four walls of home; others have asked them not to laugh or smile in public. Song and dance are taboo in these mono-culture theocracies. The restrictions, of course, have not gone unchallenged. Opposition has been open and instant . Thousands of women in places like Istanbul went laughing and smiling on twitter in open defiance of high advice, an echo of the “1984” protagonist Julia’s declaration of sex and love as a “political act” in defiance of the Big Brother regime. Julia while embracing Winston, her partner in thought crime, fires another salvo at Big Brother by closing her eyes for a moment and telling Winston : “I have just killed Big Brother.” “Do it again” replies overjoyed Winston. Yara Hanna as Julia and Sam Crane as Winston execute this central dialogue and theme of Orwell’s work with a brilliant flourish. The torture which Julia and Winston suffer later is life shattering but not before they have lit the flame of soul stirring avowal of human spirit. An everlasting example of derring-do against the Big Brother in his various avatars world over and in times past, present and future. Directed by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan, it is a thrilling production which brings the Orwellian nightmare vividly alive. A co-pproduction of three groups -- Headlong, the Almeida and the Nottingham Playhouse – brought to London’s West End, it transmutes Orwell’s dystopia into a chilling reality. Its message was as relevant when the novel was published 60 years ago in 1944 as in our immediate world today with the probability of remaining alive through 2050 and beyond. And for India it is a matter of realisation and inspiration that governing party members like Nitish Kumar in Bihar state and local admirers and businessmen like Debapriya Mookerjee have come together to convert the dilapidated bungalow in Motihari town where Eric Arthur Blair (pen name George Orwell) was born into an Orwell museum and library. Help has been promised by authorities at the George Orwell Archive at University College London where the writer’s son, Richard Blair, is an executive committee member of the archive. The timing and significance of the museum initiative derives from the fact that it comes from thinkers opposed to the rising Big Brother Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India. ......................................................................................................................................................................

BJP’s 100 ‘achche’ days – courtesy UPA

The BJP is praising itself for the first 100 days’ performance of the Modi government. By coincidence the first quarter GDP figure rose to 5.7 per cent, its highest in the previous ten quarters. The government was quick to pounce on it and drummed it up as a sure sign of its success. Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Finance and Defence minister Arun Jaitley said the growth would be much higher in the coming days because of the steps “we have taken.” A day earlier at a newspaper ‘adda’ in Mumbai’s Taj Hotel he had declared that “achché din or good days” were already there. Jaitley claimed that there were enough food stocks in the country though inflation remained a cause for worry. And the press obediently echoed those claims. But Jaitley failed to mention who built up those food stocks and who had put the economy on a sound track which was now beginning to show encouraging results. Congress president Sonia Gandhi has been quick to remind the new government that it is stealing Congress policies. It was showcasing UPA programmes and claiming as its own. In a reference to Modi government’s “Swachch Bharat” slogan, she asked: ” Who started Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan in every village? Who made construction of toilets as part of MGNAREGA?” Jaitley while crowing about growth and success failed to remind himself and the general public that the achievements of the first quarter , first half-year or even a full year are the result of work done during the previous year or years and not the result of waving of some magic wand by new occupants of the seats of power. Congress leader P. Chidmbaram rightly pointed out that the UPA government deserved credit for the good economic growth that the country was now witnessing. He said that growth in the first 100 days or quarter was the result of the steps taken by the UPA in the previous year before the Modi government came to power. Clearly the Modi government is reaping the harvest of the outgoing Congress –led UPA government’s good work, and long may it go on reaping that harvest. After all it is all for the common benefit of the country despite the BJP’s pre -election tirade of rubbishing everything done by the UPA. It would do BJP no harm if it could give the Congress ‘devil’ its due. Even the groundwork for Prime Minister Modi’s Japan visit had been laid by the UPA government. Projects like the bullet train from Ahmedabad to Bombay had already been negotiated with Japan by the UPA government. Pilgrim trains to Katra for Vaishno Devi shrine in Kashmir or to Char Dham in Uttrakhand had been readied by the UPA. The BJP has only waved the hari jhandi or green signal ! Two sectors where the BJP is blowing its trumpet too loud are the so-called public-private –partnership or PPP development model and open gate policy on FDI. As with FDI, the home grown private investor is also driven by profit motive. The experience so far has been rather less than inspirational. Quite the contrary. The experience of Britain, the country which led with its Thatcherite export model, has shown that the confidence in the PPP strategy has been misplaced. There is widespread talk of re-nationalising the railways in Britain. Privatisation is no longer thought to be the panacea of all shortcomings. The PPP model instead has become the vehicle of private profit at public cost. It is common knowledge that the so-called private investment is nothing like what it is advertised to be. The private investment funds are in fact no more than easy loans from public banks. The loans are then trotted out as private funds to which more money is added directly from the government . Once the partnership business starts, very often costs escalate beyond control, forcing the public sector to rescue the operation from collapse. The Indian experience is no different . Perhaps worse. The so-called private investor is also the bank loan defaulter. The huge NPAs or non-performing assets of Indian banks are an ever bloating testament to that manipulation by vast section of private investors. The public sufferings caused by the rise and fall of Mallya’s UB and Kingfisher Airline and Sahara group are a warning enough. The government’s headlong jump for Foreign Direct Investment to speed up growth and development has been hailed in certain quarters. The Budget announcement to raise FDI limit from 26 per cent to 49 per cent in defence and insurance sectors has naturally pleased the foreign and national business groups. But the underlying security concerns in the defence sector cannot be underestimated. Even in non-defence sectors the FDI’s strong presence can have a destabilising impact on national economy. The native private players’ ability to resist temptations offered by the foreign investors could be put under severe pressure to the point of capitulation. After all the foreign investor’s driving motive is to make profit and increase his country’s influence in the recipient country’s economy and polity. ............................................................................................................................................

Budget – Modi Govt reaping UPA harvest

A newspaper analysis of the first month’s performance of Modi government afew days ago cooed that growth was already looking up and inflation cooling down. Without openly saying so, it seemed to be subliminally suggesting that the election slogan promise of “aché din or good days” is already dawning upon us. Exports rose 10.2% in June from a year ago,and industrial production rose to a 19-month high of 4.7% in May while car sales rose at their fastest pace in 10 months in June, clearly indicating that the consumer was more confident of the new government shaping recovery, the Economic Times said echoing government claims. By now of course, the new government is two months old and the upwardtrnd of exports and industrial growth may well cntinue. However, the paper failed to remind itself or its readers that the achievements of the first month, first quarter , first half-year or even a full year are the result of work done during the previous year or more and not the result of waving of some magic wand by new occupants of the seats of power. Clearly the Modi government is beginning to reap the harvest of the outgoing Congress-led UPA government’s good work, and long may it go on reaping that harvest. After all it’s all for the common good despite the BJP’s pre-election tirade of denigrating everything done by the UPA. It would do BJP no harm if it could give the Congress “devil” its due. Nor would it have harmed BJP image if Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s Budget speech slogan of Sab ka haath, sab ka vikas ( All hands for everyone’s development) had acknowledged the role of UPA’s Haath (Hand) in the country’s development during the previous ten years. Projects like the bullet train from Ahmedabad to Bombay had already been negotiated with Japan by the UPA government. Pilgrim trains to Katra for Vaishno Devi shrine in Kashmir or to Char Dham in Uttrakhand had been readied by the UPA. The BJP has only waved the hari jhandi or green signal ! Promising housing for all by 2022 and urban and rural sanitation under its Swatch Bharat campaign and cleaning the sacred Ganges river are all welcome gestures that must face future delivery tests. So are a myriad other plans mentioned in the Budget but not clearly spelled out in cold detail. Proof of the pudding lies in delivery and that is a long way off before any success can be forecast. So far the early measures of the new government which could start kicking in soon are small sweeteners for the lower middle classes who will see their income tax exemption threshold raised from Rs 2 lakhs to 2.5 lakhs while senior citizens’ limit will go up to Rs 3 lakhs from Rs 2.5 lakhs. A sweetener indeed for those who have this much money at command , yet it must be acknowledged that the vast majority of rural and urban people don't have even this modest amount and will continue to be left out of this charmed circle. What is worrying the vast majority of people is the new government’s veiled threat to cut subsidies to universal programmes like the Food Security Act and the MGNAREGA ( Mahatma Gandhi rural employment guarantee Act) which have gone a long way in reducing rural poverty over the last ten years of the previous government. The food security and employment acts have been hailed as the world's largest welfare package amounting to nearly $20 billion a year and it would be a shame and an egregious folly to undermine such vital programmes. Any undercutting of these life sustenance safeguards which ensure the poor daily food at Rs 2 per kg of rice and Rs 3 per kg of wheat, besides guaranteeing 100 to 150 days of employment , will seriously negate India’s claim to being world’s largest democracy. For a democracy shorn of some minimum wealth distribution and equality would be nothing but a sham. Finance minister Jaitley’s utterance in his Budget is more than a cause for concern when he says: “We have reached a situation where subsidy burden is too high. Subsidies at times can become unquantifiable amount given to unidentified people. It is this situation which we need to correct.” The outgoing UPA government’s welfare investment was neither unquantified nor unidentified. It may have been an electoral necessity for the BJP to run down everything done by UPA but calling food security and employment measures as wasteful was nothing short of scandalous and downright untruthful. Fortunately the BJP after coming power has begun to moderate its rhetoric and the country expects it to strengthen and not weaken the twin foundations of economic democracy bequeathed to it by the UPA government. Another area of concern where the BJP government needs to tread with caution is the so-called public-private –partnership or PPP development model. The government’s headlong jump for Foreign Direct Investment to speed up growth and development has been hailed in certain quarters. The Budget announcement to raise FDI limit from 26 per cent to 49 per cent in defence and insurance sectors has naturally pleased the foreign and national business groups. But the underlying security concerns in the defence sector cannot be underestimated. Even in non-defence sectors the FDI’s strong presence can have a destabilising impact on national economy. The native private players’ ability to resist temptations offered by the foreign investors could be put under severe pressure to the point of capitulation. After all the foreign investor’s driving motive is to make profit and increase his country’s influence in the recipient country’s economy and polity. Already there are hints the BJP government is planning to scrap 30 per cent domestic sourcing condition for FDI in single brand retail sector, reversing the party’s pre-election policy indications. The FDI is a double edged sword . Its unbridled scope is known to have promoted neocolonialism as witnessed in several parts of the world. Twenty- six percent is easily controllable; 49 per cent can lead to the edge of interventionist territory. Another area of concern where the BJP government needs to tread with caution is the internal public-private –partnership or PPP development model. As with FDI, the home grown private investor is also driven by profit motive. The experience so far has been rather less than inspirational. Quite the contrary. The experience of Britain, the country which led with its Thatcherite model, has shown that the confidence in the PPP strategy has been misplaced. There is widespread talkof re-nationalising British railways. Privatisation is no longer thought to be the panacea or cure of all shortcomings. The PPP model instead has become the vehicle of private profit at public cost. It is common knowledge that the so-alled private investment is nothing like what it is advertised to be. Private investment funds are in fact no more than easy loans from public banks. The loans are then trotted out as private funds to which more money is added directly from the government . Once the partnership business starts, very often costs escalate beyond control, forcing the public sector to rescue the operations from collapse. The Indian experience is no different . Perhaps worse. Very often the so-called private investor is also the bank loan defaulter. The huge NPAs or non-performing assets of Indian banks are an ever bloating testament to that manipulation by vast section of private investors. The new government should at least make sure that no private investor in a PPP venture is a bank loan defaulter. Ideally we should put more energy and money into making the non-profit public sector more efficient and workable with strict vigilance and less patronage. Time to tread softly, shed slogans, and work for results. ............................................................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................

India turns right in Modi wave

India took a decisive right turn after ten years of centre-left rule when the 2014 general election results were declared on May 16 with the Bharatiya Janta Party winning more than 272 out of 543 Lok Sabha seats on its own under the leadership of its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. It was indeed a BJP tsunami or a super wave which swept off the ruling United Progressive Alliance led by Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, her son and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi and the outgoing prime minister Manmohan Singh. It was also an advertisement and publicity tsunami costing hundreds of thousands of crores of (unaccounted) rupees, although the officially declared contribution by the country’s industry groups was less than one thousand crore each to the BJP and the Congress. The Congress was massively out-funded by the BJP , rued Jairam Ramesh, a minister in the outgoing government. The BJP also outsmarted Congress on smart phones, internet, Face Book, You Tube, Twitter and the lot over the years attacking its rival with a barrage of corruption charges while the Congress failed to defend itself even though the allegations remained unproven in courts. The sustained ferocity of mere accusations faithfully splashed across newspapers and television screens swelled the public perception into the tsunami which reduced the UPA election tally to a mere 62 seats with Congress itself slumping to around 47, its lowest since independence in 1947. Equally stunning was the fact that the Congress could not manage to reach the two-digit mark in any of the 29 states, according to latest, though not final, results. It lost all seven seats in the Union Territory of Delhi, the bell weather capital state of the country. Both Sonia Gandhi and son Rahul accepted the defeat and the people’s verdict on behalf of their party and congratulated the BJP for its victory in the true democratic tradition while the Prime Minister-designate Modi thanked the people, his party and alliance partners, and promised to work for all communities and parts of the country. Amen for the hopeful promise and democracy. ................................................................................................................................................................

God’s ‘chosen’ Modi and his soldiers

Just a day before he filed his nomination papers on 24 April to contest Varanasi parliamentary seat, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi declared via his hi-cost , hi-tech 3D television broadcast that he had been chosen by God for the difficult job that lies ahead. “God chooses certain people to do the difficult work . I believe God has chosen me for this work. Now I only need your (voters’) blessings.” Only a day earlier he had shared the dais with a fellow godman Shiv Sena leader Ramdas Kadam who called Muslims traitors (“deshdrohis) who will be “taught a lesson” by Modi once he comes to power. Modi will also find a “permanent solution” to problems caused by Indian Muslim mischief makers, besides setting Pakistan right within six months, Kadam thundered. Modi listened to his fellow speaker without any murmur, and only a day later issued a tweet distancing himself from Kadam’s outpouring after belated realisation of the potential embarrassment and public censure of Kadam’s rant against Muslim citizens and voters. In his own god-speak , Modi reeled off his success in advance of election results as he appealed for a big turnout: “ The polls on 232 ( 272?) seats have already decided who is forming the next government . That UPA is losing miserably is a foregone conclusion. So why not vote for a stable government? I urge all of you, especially the fence-sitters, to vote in record numbers.” Aiming even higher, the Gujarat chief minister told his followers that only a stable government could ensure development and so people should ensure BJP gets 300 seats. “A jod-tod (coalition) government, as that of the UPA , has brazenly used the CBI sword to keep itself in majority and save its chair. How can such a government work for the country? Give (us) such a mandate that we can lay the foundation for the next century of development.” The Gujarat strongman also mocked Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for indulging in poverty tourism. “ Rahul bhaiya goes for poverty tourism. He goes to villages and meets the poor to see if they have two legs, two hands, two eyes and a stomach. That’s because he has himself never experienced poverty.” For once Modi called Rahul bhaiya ( brother) and not by other names like yuvraj, prince or “shehzada.” A case of amnesia ? Whatever the explanation, amen. Over in Jharkhand, a pair of other BJP stalwarts, ex-national party president Nitin Gadkari and Bihar senior party leader Giriraj Singh had shared a dais in Deogarh area , last week when Modi’s critics were lambasted in unforgettable language. Giriraj went full steam ahead by declaring from the rostrum that those who opposed Modi ji “ have no place in India and should go to Pakistan.” “Woh log Narendra Modi ko rokna chahte hain, woh Pakistan dekh rahe hain. Aane wale dinon mein aise logon ke liye jagah Hindustan mein nahi, Jharkhand mein nahi, parantu Pakistan mein hogi.” (Those who want to stop Narendra Modi are looking to Pakistan for support. In the coming days there won’t be any place for such people in India or in Jharkhand because their place will be in Pakistan.” Conveniently and routinely, but belated, the BJP issued a disclaimer dissociating itself from Giriraj’s remarks. But the damage was done; mischief made; and trouble created. Equally routinely, an FIR was lodged against Giriraj but he remains defiant, despite district deputy commissioner Ameet Kumar’s report saying: I have examined the video-footage of his speech and found that its content was communal anti-national in nature.” All this , however, is par for the course in the current election season which has raised huge question marks about Chief Election Commissioner Mr Sampath’s capacity to control things or take prompt action . Not to be left behind in the race for grabbing news headlines, the inimitable Pravin Togadia of Vishwa Hindu Parishad launched himself into a flaming controversy by supporting Hindu residents of a colony in Bhavnagar opposed to a Muslim buyer of a house in the colony moving into his property and occupying it. In his inflammatory style, the veteran BJP ally is alleged to have asked Hindu residents to take control of the house by force if the owner did not abandon the property within 48 hours. “Take possession of the house and put up a Bajrang Dal board outside... you will not be hanged if you take possession of the house illegally,” he is alleged to have advised his followers, besides making other comments. Ram darbars and chanting of bhajans have been actually performed outside the house as a deterrent to the buyer, Mr Ali Asghar Zaveri. Routinely, yet again, the VHP firebrand has denied making any hate speech and even threatened to sue those spreading rumours. While the election commissioner has asked the district administration to investigate and file an FIR , the ground reality is that the buyer of the house has been effectively prevented from occupying his property even after months of payment and purchase. A shape of promised good governance, if ‘God’s chosen’ man wins? ..........................................................................................................................................................

Rahul pokes fun at Modi’s toffee model and self-image

The Gujarat development model has been in the news for an extra long run in the Indian political arena. Coined by the Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi himself, it has acquired a new sharpness over the last couple of years, especially in the run-up to the current general elections. Predictably he has been holding up his model unto other states as a cure for many of their shortcomings, though so far there have not been many takers for it. His model’s critics have come not only from Congress and other non-BJP political parties. Quite unexpectedly his own party colleagues from other states have been pretty vocal in distancing themselves from it. They have been holding up other models too, among them the Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh models. Party faithful like L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi have made no secret of admiring Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Chouhan’s and Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh’s models. Joshi even went to the extent of suggesting a hybrid model, merging the different models into a combined party model, implicitly denying the supremacy of the individual Gujarat model and suggesting a tongue-in-cheek denial of the individual supremacy of Modi himself! No surprise that the sharpest attack on the Gujarat model and its maker has come from the Congress party whose vice-president Rahul Gandhi has given it the tongue-tickling nickname of ‘toffee model.’ Speaking in Aurangabad on his party campaign trail, Rahul said the Gujarat chief minister had sold off 45,000 acres of prime coastal land in his state for a mere Rs 300 crore -- at the rate of just one rupee per square metre. One rupee, he chuckled, was also the price of a single toffee these days. A city of the size of Aurangabad, he said, had been sold at the toffee rate to one of Modi’s chosen industrialists. Similarly, Modi had doled out a loan worth Rs 10,000 crore at one per cent interest to Tatas for setting up a plant to produce its small Nano car in the state. In sharp contrast loans to poor farmers of Gujarat, Rahul pointed out, were being given at 12 percent interest. Such land deals for the favoured few were a proof of Modi’s ‘crony capitalism’ which meant not development but impoverishment of the poor farmers and common people. Rahul and his party’s counter attacks on Modi and BJP have been seen rather late in coming, yet Modi’s rebuttal of toffee model charge as Rahul’s ‘childish’ vocabulary has failed to find any buyers. In the current round of cut-and- thrust battle, Rahul has not spared any punches in calling Modi’s development talk as ‘eyewash.’ He reminded his audience of BJP’s 2004 ‘India shining’ claims after six years of party rule. The 2004 ‘ghubara’ or balloon, he said, burst in the party’s face and the balloon burst again in 2009. With a relish, Rahul asked his listeners to wait and watch for another bursting of the BJP balloon. Hopping to another rally at Kishanganj in Bihar the next day, Rahul named Modi directly for the first time when he cracked the joke : ‘ Modi ji, Hindustan ko ullu banana band karo ( Modi ji, stop fooling the people of India with your development model and the rest of it).’ Even in Bihar the BJP was trying to sell its toffee model, but the people of Bihar won’t be fooled by such tactics. They are a shrewd judge of political games and won’t fall for them, Rahul complimented his listeners to clappings and sounds of shouts of ‘ Very good (Bahut achcha).’ Attacking Modi and BJP’s campaign style, Rahul contrasted the arrogance and anger of BJP leaders with the lack of any similar traits among Congress leaders and workers and accused BJP of indulging in divisive politics and pitting Hindus and against Muslims. Instead of uniting the country the party was continuing its old divide-and-rule tactics. Referring to Sachar Committee’s recommendation for the upliftment of the poor among the Muslim minority, he said the report had been implemented in true spirit and any glitches would be removed. The process of ensuring justice for the minorities would continue as part of secular ideology to which the Congress party is committed. Rahul , however, reserved his punch for the way the BJP’s prime ministerial hopeful was conducting his election campaign. ‘For Modi ji the election is not so much about the condition of farmers or the poor but about himself. He is just interested in becoming the Chowkidar (guard) of the country and keeping the keys with himself, as if he alone can guard the country and set everything right. He is forgetting that if Gujarat or the entire country has been standing firmly for the last 60 or more years, it is because of the farmers and labourers who have been contributing to its strength. It is not any one man’s work. It is the work of all the people.’ ............................................................................................................................................................. Friday, April 04, 2014

No mercy for BJP’s admirers of Jinnah in India poll battles

As invectives and innuendos by parties and candidates are growing sharper and louder in the run-up to India’s general election, the split voices in BJP, the principal opposition party in the just dissolved parliament, too are getting louder. Jaswant Singh, a member of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s cabinet, is contesting the election as an independent from Rajasthan’s Barmer district bordering Paksitan’s Sindh province after being denied party ticket. For his sins of omission or commission, which include his admiration of Mr Jinnah as a secular leader in his book on Pakistan’s founder , he has been expelled from the party for six years. Another admirer of Mr Jinnah’s secularim, former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani was denied the party ticket from his preferred constituency of Bhopal and instead made to accept the Gandhinagar seat from Gujarat under the shadow of Gujarat chief minister and party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, once Advani’s protégé. The humiliation of Advani packed in this arrangement is writ large and is out on the national scene for all to see. Both Singh and Advani are party’s known faithful adherents and only mildly appreciative of Mr Jinnah’s secular image, but that is enough fire material for their detractors. Reacting to the treatment meted out to him, Jaswant Singh said there was “total confusion” in the party over the norms and values it stood for. “A party that cannot afford its most loyal adherents even the very basic courtesies and puts petty whims of individuals ( like current president Rajnath Singh and his clique) before the greater good of the people has certainly lost its vision and frittered away its virtues for temporary political gains. To what end, only time will tell.” An embittered leader, Singh said the BJP which he joined at its foundation in 1980 was no longer what its founders Vajpayee , Advani and others including himself had envisioned. Singh’s wife, Sheetal Kanwar, said that her husband had helped Rajnath Singh become party president for the first time and this is how he has paid back. “Rajnath Singh is an opportunist,” she bitterly added. Singh’s defiance of the party has put the spotlight on Rajasthan politics. It has become a prestige issue not just in Rajasthan but is seen as a test case for the party’s fortunes nationally. The Barmer- Jaisalmer constituency has a substantial chunk of voters who belong to the Pir Pagaro sect across the border in Sindh. Singh’s popularity among this bloc of voters could swing the election here in his favour. Singh’s family is well rooted in the Barmer-Jaisalmer area where the BJP has given the ticket to an outsider, Sonaram Chaudhry, a Congress party defector. The force behind Singh’ ouster from the party is none other than the newly elected Rajasthan chief minister Ms Vasundhra Raje of the old princely family. But given the caste equations and his own standing, Singh is confident of teaching the BJP’s ruling clique a be-fitting lesson. ..................................................................................................

BJP dumps Hindutva Taliban Pub attacker

It is election time in India and with parliamentary polls only days away, parties and groups are clutching at all straws. Whoever can bring in a seat or even a few votes is welcome. The BJP’s Hubli unit in north Karnataka was so desperate that it welcomed Pramod Muttalik of the 2009 Mangalore pub attack ‘fame’ to boost its Hindutva vote. State party chief Pralhad Joshi and former chief minister Jagdish Shettar ceremoniously inducted him into the party. They thought that Muttalik, the self-styled Ram Sene leader, ex-Bajrang Dal firebrand and protector of Hindu culture, would be good a catch. But the party’s central leadership, which wants to improve its image among Christians and other minorities besides general public, was quick to control the damage he could do to the party’s image. Manohar Parrikar, chief minister of Goa where the party is wooing lot of Christian voters was one of the first to ask the central leadership to throw out Muttalik clearly seen as a negative asset. Parrikar’s advice , tendered at Nagpur the party’s nerve centre, was immediately accepted by the central leadership. Muttalik was ejected from the party within five hours of his induction. Muttalik and his gang of molesters, who roamed the streets of Mangalore in the 2009 incident and beat up girls having a drink in a local pub on a Saturday evening, have the gumption to call themselves Sri Ram Sene , all in the name of Ram! Far from Ram’s sena they belong to Ravana’s sena for attacking defenceless girls. Far from being protectors of Indian culture, they are the enemies of Indian culture or any culture. They are the ‘Hindutva’ Taliban , disgracing the name of Hindu or any other culture or religion. Muttalik and his band, who hate pubs and Valentine Day celebrations in the name of their culture , belong not just to a single community. There are Muttaliks in other communities too. Shutting their eyes to things, places or traditions outside their own narrow vision, they refuse to understand what a place like pub means. It is a public house, as its name implies, where locals -- young and old, men and women -- get together for a chat or a laugh after a day’s work or during lunch break. It’s not a sin bin or a whore house as some of the mullahs, prohits, pandits and holier-than-thou politicians of the Taliban variety often shout from the top of their topis (hats). The nexus between the politicians and their ground forces under the banner of religious senas or jamats is all too naked, however much they might try to hide under their holy garbs. The BJP has done itself a piece of good service by ejecting Muttalik; other communities and political cliques who have their own Muttaliks, should also clean up their act and save themselves from such mindless extremists. ...........................................................................................................

Shifting loyalties colour India poll picture

India’s electoral politics never fails to surprise. The current bout ahead of the parliamentary elections is no exception. In fact it is already throwing up a bumper crop of surprises. Stalwarts of old parties when denied election tickets are jumping the ship for new boats and hopefuls of new outfits like Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are no less quick to shift loyalties if denied party ticket. The final results are as clear as mud while the ruling UPA combine led by the Congress party remains the target of attacks by all and sundry. Who will be the next prime minister or which group will lead the next ruling coalition is a wide open question. Veteran Scheduled Castes leader Ram Vilas Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party (L J P), who once quit as a minister in the BJP-led NDA coalition government over the role of Gujrat chief minister Narendra Modi in the 2001 pogrom against the Muslim minority in the state, has joined the current BJP-led alliance which is projecting the same Mr Modi as its prime ministerial candidate. He has bid good bye to his secular soulmate fomer Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. Yoga guru Ramdev has done a double shift in less than a week by expressing anger over BJP’s failure to allot party tickets to some of his nominees across the country, especially in Gujrat where Mr Modi is the sole arbiter. He has quickly seen the light and denied any rift with Mr Modi, blaming, as usual, the press for misrepresenting his words. Old war horse and anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare, guru of Yoga guru Ramdev, Kejriwal, ex-police officer Kiran Bedi and others, has fallen out with all of his protégés and they with him. Hazare has also fallen out with one of his new admirers, West Bengal’s mercurial chief minister Mamta Banerjee and she with him over lack of supporters and empty chairs at a rally in New Delhi. The BJP, which till a few days ago seemed to be the hot favourite of pollsters and private TV channels, has had its image tarnished by wide open internal splits, though not by many total walkouts. Party president Rajnath Singh who took over Lucknow parliamentary ticket annoyed local veteran leader Lalji Tandon so much that Tandon has refused to contest from any other seat offered by the party. So has cricketer turned politician and sitting MP Navjot Singh Siddhu whose ticket has been taken over by federal leader and outsider Arun Jaitley. But the arc light which overshadowed mere spotlights has been on Mr Modi’s grab of Varanasi (Benares) seat from the party stalwart and sitting MP Murli Manohar Joshi who has been summarily shunted to fight from Kanpur. More splits can be safely expected between the time of writing and the days ahead in the run-up to the grand 2014 general election festival from April 7 to May 16 to be conducted on nine days while the election machinery moves its forces to different parts of the country during the gaps. Notwithstanding all the confusion, the federal election commission conducted a marathon one-day voter registration drive on March 7 which took its officials and public by surprise—with an overwhelming response. It was a last-ditch exercise to include those left out because of various glitches, especially of internet form filling and non-working telephones. Nearly one million counters across the country operated by men and women worked the miracle. Over 74.5 lakh (7.4 m) potential voters turned out countrywide, including 1.7 lakh in national capital Delhi, more than five times the commission’s expectation of just 30,000 in the national capital. I was one of the lucky ones to file my papers (Form 6), having failed over the net and phones several times earlier. Why did I fail in my previous half dozen attempts to get my voting right restored after a mere change of address? I had only shifted from one flat to another in the same apartment block in the same old locality of New Delhi. Was it just an occasional glitch hitting the net and the telephone services? No. Going by the experience at offices like that of the Delhi Development Authority and others, one may not be far wrong in saying that our brand of e-governance is suffering from an epidemic of glitches. And it is not the fault of technology, nor is it the fault of our stars. The fault , dear Brutus, lies in our selves. Nor is it particular to India alone. Other countries too have faced similar glitches at the start of their experiments with net technology and over-dependence on answer-phone machines. I am reminded of the British experiment which I happened to share not too long ago. They have overcome the problem by putting a human face or voice at the end of the line, in case the customer fails after three or four dialling or clicking options. We can do it too and make a success of our e-governance. Congratulations to the Election Commission for putting men and women on duty instead of solely depending on internet and telephone networks in the run-up to the world’s largest election exercise covering nearly 820 million voters, more than the combined population of European Union and the USA. ................................................................................................................................................................

Net lesson ahead of India’s 2014 poll

By Subhash Chopra....... Last Sunday’s ( 7 March) voter registration drive by the Election Commission took officials and public by surprise—with an overwhelming response. It was a last-ditch exercise on both sides. Over 74.5 lakh (7.4 m) potential voters turned out countrywide, including 1.7 lakh in Delhi, more than five times more than the commission’s expectation of just 30,000 in the national capital. I was one of the lucky ones to file his papers (Form 6), having failed several times earlier. Why did I fail in my previous half dozen attempts to get my voting right restored after a mere change of address? I had only shifted from one flat to another in the same apartment block in the same old locality of New Delhi. Was it just an occasional glitch hitting the net and the telephone services? No. Going by the experience at offices like that of the Delhi Development Authority and others, one may not be far wrong to say that our brand of e-governance is suffering from an epidemic of glitches. And it is not the fault of technology, nor is it the fault of our stars. The fault , dear Brutus, lies in our selves. Nor is it particular to India alone. Other countries too have faced similar glitches at the start of their experiments with net technology and over-dependence on answer-phone machines. I am reminded of the British experiment which I happened to share not too long ago. They have overcome the problem by putting a human face or voice at the end of the line, in case the customer fails after three or four dialling or clicking options. We can do it too and make a success of over e-governance. Back to my own encounter with our net-phone services. On clicking the Election Commission’s site I was advised to fill 8A form which I did as per the instructions. After correctly providing my constituency and locality, I was stumped when asked to provide the Constituency Part Number. Those not able to do so were asked to ring 4848, the number which mostly sounded either engaged or too busy or dead. Then I thought of actually going to the nearest local Election Commission office whose address I found on the internet. On reaching the address (c22/23, Qutab Instititutional Area, Udyog Sadan ) I was stumped again to find that no such office existed there. The commission, like so many other public authorities, had not updated its computerised information. Since advice is free in India, somebody who claimed to know asked me to go to Pushp Vihar area office. Instead I took another auto to the Mehrauli area office which did not cover my particular area, but an officer there gave me the telephone number (1950) of Delhi’s chief electoral officer for pucca/ correct information. For two consecutive days I rang that number only to be met with a recorded message or a ringing tone but without anybody ever picking up the phone to answer with a human voice. Lo and behold, the next day’s newspapers contained Election Commission’s announcement to open 11,700 centres in Delhi (9.3 lakh centres across the nation) on Sunday with actual men and women block officers on duty to help applicants get on the voting rolls. I finally made it and am hoping to receive my polling card, thanks to actual human beings answering the queries instead of the ever ringing but seldom answering gadgets in our internet and phones services. I congratulate the Election Commission for putting men and women on duty instead of solely depending on internet and telephone networks, in the run-up to the world’s largest election covering 814 million voters, more than the combined population of European Union and the USA. But God help thousands of offices across the country – internet, telephone, municipal, hospital and other government offices supposed to be serving millions of hapless citizens , the real end-users! Let all public offices take a leaf out of the Election Commission’s book and put men and women behind the machines and not give the modern internet and telephone technology a bad name. .............................................................................................................................................................. Subhash Chopra is a freelance journalist and author of ‘India and Britannia-- An Abiding Affair’ and other writings.

AAP a breath of fresh air; battlelines blurred for 2014

IndPol

New Aam Aadmi Party – a breath of fresh air

By Subhash Chopra, New Delhi

A breath of fresh air in India’s noisy politics – thanks to the new Aam Aadmi Party. The country  witnessed quite a bout of surprises, political as well as social, in the dying weeks of 2013. The crop of political surprises that gripped the nation included the massive defeat of Congress party at the hands of not just BJP but more thunderously at the hands of the new commoners or Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The personal defeat of the three-times Congress chief minister Sheila Dikshit  by over 25,000 votes to the AAP leader  Arvind Kejriwal was the biggest upset of all.  Having snatched the symbolic top prize of Delhi state in these so-called semi-finals of 2014 parliamentary poll, the Kejriwal party has formed the government in the national capital state with himself as the chief minister, precariously supported from the outside by the Congress.

 The big surprise on the social front was the hurried passage of the Lok Pal (ombudsman) bill that had been waiting in India’s parliamentary corridors for 46 long years. The party political rush to claim the credit for its passage was not just hilarious but threw up open division among Anna Hazare-Kejriwal camp,  the most vocal drivers of the bill in the recent couple of years.  Anna Hazare welcomed the Congress-piloted bill’s passage and even thanked the Congress for its efforts while Kejriwal claimed that it was a “Joke Pal” bill lacking teeth and that Anna had not carefully read it.

The BJP’s decisive election  victories in the two big states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have put the party into the forefront of the 2014 parliamentary polls but not as spectacularly as it would  like to believe. For one thing, the so-called Modi ( Gujarat CM) wave did not make any impact. Madhya Pradesh’s Shivraj Chouhan, and Rajasthan’s Vasundhra Raje  won on their own. Chhatissgarh saw a pretty close battle with no role for Modi.  In Delhi , where Modi addressed a string of rallies, BJP failed to win even a wafer-thin majority – rather it fell short of clear four seats in the 70-member Assembly. Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party trained its guns more heavily on the Congress, letting the BJP well off the hook.  With the spotlight still on Delhi, the clean sweep by Congress in Mizoram for the fourth successive term went unsung.

The battle lines for the parliamentary contest  may have been drawn with BJP’s Modi stomping venues outside Gujarat and Rahul Gandhi  increasingly looking like the Congress prime ministerial candidate. The  battle, however, is beyond the control of both Modi and Rahul in the well established era of coalition government at the Centre. The real arbiters are going to be the regional state leaders whose choice will tip the balance in favour of either the BJP or Congress-led coalition as witnessed over the last couple of decades.  With coalitions still unformed, the parliamentary poll scenario remains blurred.

 Rahul’s emergence as the Congress prime ministerial candidate looks more certain after his bold refusal to back  his own party’s cover-up of Adarsh society  scam and earlier scrapping of ordinance plan to protect convicted politicians. Behind  the BJP  curtain,  Narendra Modi’s candidature is not quite settled in spite of the RSS drum beats. Modi’s candidature for the top job will have to wait till the emergence of a coalition favouring the party. Modi could well be out of favour of the coalition partners who may not like to join him because of his 2002 Gujarat  pogrom background. In such a scenario BJP could well be looking for a more acceptable face than Modi. A compromise candidate like old stalwart  L.K. Advani , party president Rajnath Singh or Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj  Chouhan  might well derail the Modi bandwagon. Strange are the compulsions of coalition politics  that simply cannot be wished away.

Meanwhile the debate in India continues to gallop to new issues like the recent judgement of the Supreme Court reversing a Delhi High Court verdict decriminalising consensual sex among gays, lesbians and transgenders.  Opinion in the country is divided with some of BJP leaders like party president Rajnath Singh calling gay actitvities  “unnatural’’. The Congress on the other hand has decided to seek a review of the Supreme Court  bench’s  decision which , in its view, drags India back to the 19^th century when the British colonial penal code was enacted in India. Britain herself has long gotten rid of that retrograde law.

       The corruption issue, however, continues to occupy centre stage. The Lok Pal Bill’s passage has been a great step forward. But it is widely regarded as only a step in that direction. While sharing the first step in the fight against corruption was initiated by Congress party when it brought in the Right to Information legislation. Lok Pal is one more step in that struggle, with more to come as it gets translated into implementation and action . As per the new measure, the federal Lok Pal will be appointed by a panel consisting of the Prime Minister, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, the Leader of the Opposition, the Chief justice of India, and an eminent jurist selected by these four members.       

  Headed by a chairperson, who can be a serving or retired Chief Justice or judge  of  the Supreme Court, it will have the power to probe complaints of corruption against prime minister, current and former ministers, MPs and bureaucrats. Any complaint against the prime minister will be probed in camera and  only  if two-thirds of the eight-member Lok Pal panel agree.

The complaints will be investigated by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation)  independently or at the instance of Lok Pal. The CBI will, of course, continue to function  under the central government, a provision fiercely opposed by Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party who wants the CBI out of central government control.

Tailpiece. While high decibel talk of corruption, imagined , perceived or whipped up for party political reasons, has given India a bad name,  India continues to be one of  world’s most attractive destinations for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI),  according to a recent report by the financial rating agency Fitch.

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Subhash Chopra is a freelance journalist and author of ‘Partition, Jihad  and  Peace’ and other writings.