One hundred days of 'ache din' ?

When Narendra Modi was elected as the PM of India, it was the denouement of the grandest marketing gimmick in recent political history. One of the catch phrases of this gimmick was the promise of 'ache din' - the transformation of India into to an utopian society. It would be really unfair to expect these good times to arrive within hundred days, given the complexity and diversity of India. Nevertheless, the events that have been happening over the past few months makes me wonder if the ache din was actually meant for someone other than the people of India.

Communal Politics
When Modi urged Indians to shun communalism, casteism and regionalism during his Independence Day speech, it seemed like Modi was slowly cleansing himself off the communal stain caused by the Gujarat riots. But when the same 'talkative' PM remains silent when his partymen and key allies involve in communal violence in different parts of the country, it makes one wonder if it was just another of Modi's rhetoric. If this doesn't sound convincing, then look no further than the current BJP chief. Modi's 'Man Friday' Amit Shah has been rewarded with the post of party chief for helping the party secure a landslide victory in Uttar Pradesh. Even die-hard BJP supporters agree that Shah's modus operandi in orchestrating this massive victory was communal polarization. Infact he had been censured by the election commission during the campaign trail for his highly inflammatory speeches. So when Modi says he is serious about communalism, he is surely joking.

Dubious ministers
When you appoint someone as a cabinet minister and that someone was found unfit to serve as your party president on charges of financial irregularities, then it shows you aren't serious about corruption. That was the signal Modi sent out by appointing Nitin Gadkari as Union Transport minister. Another dubious choice is that of Uma Bharti as cabinet minister for Water resources, River development and Ganga rejuvenation. She had been indicted by the Libherman commission for inciting mob violence during the demolition of Babri Masjid, a charge she refutes but is proud to take moral responsibility for the demolition. Though she wasn't in Modi's good books, there is a belief the RSS pushed for her candidature. And our 'strong' PM had to give in. Finally there is Smriti Irani, someone who has probably occupied as much newspaper real estate as Modi himself. Her appointment as union HRD minister means only one of the two things - either there is no one better qualified than her for the post or the Modi government doesn't take the HRD portfolio as important as the other explicitly important ones as defence, home and finance. At some level it doesn't matter whether the education minister was a former actress or doesn't have very good educational qualifications. But it certainly is an issue when the minister lies about her educational qualifications.

Judiciary interference
Among the three pillars of democracy - legislative, executive and judiciary - the judiciary is by far the most respected in India. It is partly because it has been relatively free of the clutches of the legislative and executive. But all this is set to change with certain actions of the Modi government. The supreme court collegium is a judiciary body that elects judges to the supreme court and the high courts. As part of protocol, the collegium sends the candidates list  to the council of ministers for consideration. The ministers can only give their reservations if any but the collegium has the final say. In an unprecedented move the Modi government unilaterally segregated the name of one candidate - Gopal Subramanium a supreme court lawyer - from the list of Supreme court judges. The reason given by the government is that of unsubstantiated allegations about the candidate in a report submitted by the IB and the CBI. But this sounds very unconvincing when taking into consideration these facts - one is that Gopal Subramanium's competence as senior advocate in the supreme court and his potential for judgeship is perceived to be impeccable in the judicial fraternity. And another that he was an amicus curiae in the Sohrabuddin encounter case in which Amit Shah was one of the accused. Looks like Mr.Amit Shah is the one having all the ache din!     

Saffron saffron everywhere
The right-wing is back in town after a decade and they have already started to paint everything in their favorite color saffron. To begin with, the new chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) - India's premier body that funds historical research - is one Yellapragada Sudershan Rao who is a long time believer of the Sangh Parivar's Hindutva agenda. His appointment is seen by many historians as an attempt by the BJP to resume their history re-writing project that begun during the previous NDA rule. In a recent article in Frontline magazine it was reported that his approach to historical research was similar to other Sangh-affiliated historians who try to give simplistic, folklore-based explanations for significant periods of history and dismiss any complex interpretations and inquiry. He also seems to have scant respect for minorities, Dalits and justifies caste system based on brahminical interpretations of ancient religious texts. The Hindutavadis next stop seems to be education. Recently there were reports that the Gujarat government had presecribed a series of nine controversial books on Hindu culture for supplementary reading in primary and secondary schools. These books were written by Dina Nath Batra a long time RSS activist and cover a wide range of topics like science, geography, literature and mathematics. The problem with these books is that the author projects folklore as science, denounces rational thinking and endorses racism. To know more about this absurdity, look here. But the real problem lies else where. All these books have a forward written by Modi himself and these books have already traveled to Madhya Pradesh which is another state ruled by the BJP. So how long before it makes an appearance at the national chance is anyone's guess.        

Gujaratization of India
The phrase that had been on the lips of most Indians for the last one year was 'Gujarat Model of development'. It was the creative output of the notoriously invisible but very effective Modi's PR machinery. Modi and his team used this as a springboard to catapult themselves to power at the centre. The core argument of this model has been that Gujarat transformed into the most developed state of India due to the highly efficient and corruption free government of Mr.Modi. But in reality a lot of credible reports have showed that in terms of economic development Gujarat was always among the top spot even before Modi came to power and data shows that he has just been able to maintain the status quo. And for that he can take credit. But at the same time in terms of social and educational development a lot of other states have done much better during his tenure. Infact the HDI index released by the UN places Gujarat at the 8th position taking into account different aspects of development. And now the government is planning to replicate schemes from this development template all over the country. Take for example the Ganga rejuvenation project. The government has directed the concerned officials to study the Sabarmati riverfront development scheme and implement something similar to it. But the fact is that the Sabarmati river remains as polluted as always and only a small stretch of it flowing through Ahmedabad has been cleaned up to create a recreational space within the city. So the Sabarmati example is just a beautification project and not a conservation effort that is required for Ganges. Another example of Gujaratization is the indication that the centre is planning to replicate the 'Beti Baccho Abhiyan' or 'Save the Girl child campaign' of the Gujarat government. But even after six years of implementation, the scheme hasn't been able to make any dent in the skewered sex ratio of Gujarat. Whereas similar schemes in Haryana and Punjab have had significant effects.    

So where are the good days then ? Currently they are only in speeches, announcements and manifestos. Modi appears like the proverbial 'storm' after his 'calm' predecessor. But just in words. So if not a storm of ache din, the lest I hope for is a light breeze in the coming days.         

The King, the Prince and the Knight

In our school days we have been taught about 'right to vote', 'upper house', 'lower house' et.al in our Social Sciences class. My motivation for learning these was not in awe about the largest electoral process in the world but rather for the sure shot 10 mark question about 'fundamental rights' that would appear in the final exams. As time passed, the earth obediently added few more rotations around the sun and back on earth I underwent quite some physical and emotional changes. And one fine day I turned eighteen and it was time to vote! But who do I vote for? I wasn't a big fan of politics, consigning it to the domain of the corrupt and immoral. Either that or I was busy following the 'Little Master' and the girls in the neighborhood, that I didn't have time to follow our Netas. But most importantly I didn't care if the Indian economy was suffering from inflation or recession, because what mattered most was the pocket money that my father gave me. So it was only natural I voted for the person preferred by the man who was funding my life. 

Now for the first time since I started to vote, I am eagerly looking forward to the general elections to be held this year. So why this sudden enlightenment? Because I am at that stage of my life where I myself have to finance my day-day existence and other social compulsions. So I can't afford to not care about the Indian economy. Also India is ranked as low as 136 in the Human Development Index (HDI) released by the United Nations. In this era of rapid globalization if we need to hurtle a billion (and counting) people up this ranking, we need to formulate well thought out and creative domestic and foreign policies. And the commander-in-chief of these policies is none other than the Prime Minister. Thats why these elections are so crucial. Also what makes these elections very interesting is the contrasting personalities of the men vying for this all important post.

The most familiar of the candidates is someone who rose from very humble origins (tea boy ?) to become the chief minister of the state marketed as the 'most developed' in India. Any guesses? He is planning to build the tallest statue in the world at the cost of 2500 crores which he hopes will magically unite the people of India! Now it should be as clear as daylight that I am talking about Mr.Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat. But in my opinion he would make a great marketing professional rather than a Prime Minister, for creating the myth that Gujarat is the most developed state in India. There is no denying that Modi has been able to sustain the development produced by previous regimes and has also created an industry friendly environment in Gujarat (though at the cost of tribal livelihood). But that doesn't justify the high decibel levels with which he is blowing his trumpet. Because in reality Gujarat is ranked only 8th in the HDI rankings for Indian states and is one among the less developed states in a list released by a panel headed by RBI governor Raghuram Ranjan. And how can we talk about Modi without mentioning Gujarat riots in the same sentence. Though he has been given a clean chit by the Special Investigation team (SIT), the communal stain hasn't been removed completely as there are a large number of people who still believe he was to some extent complicit in the massacre. And on top of it he is self-obsessed bordering narcissism which is evident in the excessive brand building he has accomplished by manipulating the social and electronic media. So if I start a company in the future I would have him in the marketing division but not as the commander-in-chief of my country.

If Modi is the most noisy then candidate #2 would be the most discreet. Infact discreet enough that we don't even know the identity of the candidate. That is because the Congress party is yet to figure out their man who can offset the huge negativity about the incumbent UPA government owing to their massive corruption. But history suggests that it will be only one of the Gandhi namesakes - Sonia, Rahul or Priyanka. Since the assassination of Indira Gandhi, women from this family have restricted themselves to running puppet governments rather than indulging in direct governance. So that leaves us with only one choice, Mr.Rahul Gandhi. From the beginning Rahul Gandhi has portrayed himself as an outsider to politics who is bent on fighting the corrupt practices of the political establishment. But apart from occasionally moonlighting as a crusader who makes guerrilla attacks on his own partymen in full public, he hasn't done much worthy of a prime ministership candidate. Sensing this the Congress party of late has been portraying RG as the driving force behind all key decisions taken by the party. And just when it seemed some people might buy this gimmick, he opened himself up in an interview with Arnab Goswami which made him look both stupid and irritating - something that his interviewer is famous for! I don't think even the 172 crores that the party is spending on the Bharat Nirman campaign (which is eerily similar to the ill-fated 'India Shining' campaign) is going to do any good now.

Just when Indians were confused about whom to chose between the belligerent king and the meek prince, there arrived the knight carrying a broom, riding the Delhi metro and wearing a muffler around his head. From an anti-corruption campaigner to chief minister within a span of one year, Mr.Arvind Kejriwal and team have been at the center of the biggest political revolution seen by our country in recent times. Over the past few years people's confidence in the political establishment has hit rock bottom. Corruption has grown exponentially threatening to even blow up the the numeral system. Crimes against women have become so despicable that animals in the wild seem more evolved. If you wanted any proof of the obscene nature of these crimes, then look no beyond the Anna Hazare movement and the anti-rape protests that rocked the country. Because it isn't very easy to wake up the Indian public which is generally sedative about social causes. And one of the by-products of these movements is the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convened by Kejriwal. This party has shunned the VIP culture, displayed transparency and tries to connect with the common man - everything that is an antithesis to our political establishment. Its like a live political experiment unfolding in front of us. But the one small concern I have with them is, in their search for perfection they sometimes sidestep pragmatism for idealism. Also some of their members engage in frequent verbal accusation of other politicians, which even if true is unnecessary as they have a lot of work in front of them. As it stands I would love to see the AAP win this elections. But this is a very tall ask given the lack of time for them to consolidate at the national level. So I hope they atleast dent the vote bank of the two main national parties which will send a clear message to politicians that they need to buckle up or their doomsday is around the corner.                  
     

Unity in Adversity

A terror attack has again been unsuccessfully averted. Political heads have rolled. Indians have expressed a spectrum of emotions from angst to desperation. And Pakistan buckling under pressure from US (and apparently India too), ostensibly seems to be in hot pursuit of its home-grown terrorists. At the end of the day, unimaginable and irrevocable damage has been done to the lives of many a people. Lets temporarily pause here and shift our attention to another problem plaguing the world currently - 'financial whatsoever'. When the bubble first burst, I was frustrated as to how the 'financial wizards' could have committed such a blatant blunder. But as the sun kept rising and setting, the frustration has turned into awe as to how the crisis can transmit itself across the global without any loss of information (networking at its best!!). Everything under the sun seems to be affected, to the extent that having a job by itself could make you the most eligible bachelor in town. So these two adverse scenarios set me pondering if there was anything positive that might pop out?The fact that countries across the globe irrespective of their ethnicity, geography and economy are falling prey to stateless extremists, gives them an opportunity to group under a common umbrella to shield themselves. The sharing of intelligence, joint counter-terrorism exercises and joint monitoring operations could infuse some sort of good-will between nations. A fine example is how the US and NATO forces have come to depend heavily on Pakistan to purge the Talibans out of Afghnaistan. In the same way, Pakistan feels the urge to engage with India to wrest its country free off the same terrorists which it had surreptitiously trained to be used against India. When US was feeling the heat of insurgents in Iraq, it vaguely hinted at seeking the help of Iran with whom it had severed all diplomatic ties since 1979. On similar lines, the financial downturn has elicited an unequivocal consensus that only a concerted action by world nations can rescue us out of this carnage. The egos of developed countries has been severely dented and they are looking up to developing countries like China and India to play a key part in their rescue. Infact economists have been suggesting that China can play a key role in rescuing the US financial system by lending $500 bn from its huge forex reserve of $1800bn. Similarly developing countries like India which have an 'outsourcing' economy, need a buoyant economy in the US, EU and other developed countries. Russia with its 'petro' economy is also wary of the global recession as oil prices are plummeting with declining demand. A lot of relationships that are forged now might be symbiotic, but we can hope the positives that come out of these associations enthuse nations to carry the camaraderie forward.
Mother Earth also for its part provides us with frequent opportunities to unify ourselves in the face of natural disasters. But at the end of the day if such crises and disasters fail to motivate us towards a common goal of universal harmony, you can only wait for divine intervention. And people like me have to wait for some extra-terrestrial intervention.

ENGINEERING A SUPERPOWER

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With the disintegration of USSR well under the way, UK and France still reeling from their World War wounds and Japan pursuing pacifist ideologies, USA was cruising along as the sole superpower for almost two decades since late 80's. But during this period there were some significant tectonic movements in the geopolitical landscape of Asia. On one side, the Chinese were rapidly and steadily building an empire founded on an oxymoronic ideologue of political communism and economic liberalism. On the other side, Russia was exorcising the disintegration demons of Mother Russia under the dynamic and assertive stewardship of Vladimir Putin, with the abundant natural resources at its disposal. And our own India was starting to reap the benefits of the demographic seeds it had sown for a long time - courtesy economic liberalization and IT revolution. And now the stage has been set for an intriguing battle of superpowers.

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If becoming a superpower is a politico-economic feat, sustaining it is an engineering one, though not in the literal sense. When a nation is evolving into a superpower, it develops quality infrastructure, optimally utilizes national and international resources and attains socio-economic supremacy. But once there, it starts hogging into global resources and exerting its influence on global political scenarios to maintain and assert its hegemony. And to do this, it sets in motion many Machiavellian endeavors (which the esoteric political scientists seem to decipher only when its well and over). And the pioneer of such “engineering” attempts has been our Uncle Sam. If its botched attempts to assassinate Castro was to undermine communism, then the war on Iraq and its ardent support of Saudi Arabia are to quench its thirst for oil. Even the much touted Indo-US nuclear deal is suspected of some hidden foreign policy agenda. But if there is one political goal that it has pursued steadfastly, it is to undermine the supremacy of USSR (and now Russia). From the 70's race for outer space to arming the Afghan mujahideens against the Soviet forces to the expansion of NATO, the US think-tank is more concerned about eurasian politics than its one. Even the recent Georgian crisis seems to have been maneuvered by US (atleast to some Russian parliamentarians). And many of these political misadventures have come back to haunt the US and also the world at large. The recent economic downturn has its roots in the Iraq war and the Islamist terrorism had its progeny in the hegemonic Middle East policies of US. So its the world which is paying for the misdemeanors of Uncle Sam. Not a worthy engineering pursuit, looks like.

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