Another Turf.

Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica showed no one ‘likes’ facing a good fast bowler.

‘Ishant Sharma produced high speeds and awkward bounce from all the sweet spots on the pitch’ observed AR Hemant on Yahoo! Cricket. And he got 3 wickets to show for it. He is still not the same Ishant Sharma who bowled flat out in Australia a couple of seasons ago. He is capable of sustained pace as well as intelligent variation. Then came injury, lay off, and a fall in form. Straight away he turned into a line and length bowler. And the promising pace –bowler who could terrorise Ricky Ponting, was looking quite pedestrian. Thank God! that he rediscovered his pace.

Praveen Kumar could bowl faster than he has hitherto displayed. Swing-bowling got him three wickets, good. But what about speed?. Kapil Dev was once termed a ‘slippery’ bowler by the Aussies. He was clocking just around 81 miles per hour. He got plenty of wickets all right, including an 8 wicket-haul in one innings. It must be remembered that he was setting a trend for Indian pace bowlers at that time. Then followed a stream of bowlers who enjoyed bowling as quick as they could. Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel, R.P.Singh, Sreesanth. But…

Injury-prone, and often ‘guided’ by defensive Captains, these bowlers slowed down perceptibly to a point where a legendary West Indies fast bowler quipped that Praveen Kumar has become a spinner!

Reality is, Indian cricket does not encourage pace bowlers. It waits for them to slow down, exhorts them to become line-and-length bowlers who may restrict batsmen, then let the spinners snare out the batsmen. Any wickets they get are a ‘bonus’.

There is ample proof of this tendency. Srinath never got the new ball till Kapil retired. Munaf did not get a place till he had slowed down.

Now, Varun Aaron, touching a healthy 88 mph or more did not get selected for the Windies tour. Too young, our Board will tell us. He has to learn to control the ball better. His time will come. Meanwhile ,he’ll slow down, learn a few variations, and to respect the opponent batsmen enough not to go too hard at them. And become another medium-pacer who’ll prise out wickets after much plotting. A Shoaib from across the border, a Malinga from a little island down south, a Thomson or a Shane Bond from farther South striking fear in the hearts of batsmen is not for us. A stump splintered in half at impact… a batsman bewildered and beaten for sheer pace…

When will the Indian Selectors pick a Varun Aaron and let him bowl at bruising pace? When will the Indian team have 3 FAST bowlers , all terrorizing the rival batsmen? If Ishant and Praveen can combine well, what may Ishant and Varun Aaron do?

Especially on another turf…

Chewing Gum

For children it is fun.

For teenagers and young adults, a sign of defiance; the jaw works nonchalantly and the eye slants cockily.

For someone in the Office of the Finance Minister and officials of the CBI, it is a sign of some sinister plot.

Sixteen spots where an adhesive, presumably used for surveillance bugging, were found in the FM’s office. Pranab da found it sufficiently significant to write to the PM. The CBI , as usual unequipped to deal with this, nevertheless swung into action. It soon came up with the opinion that the adhesive was just chewing gum.

Whoever chews so much gum and leaves it indiscriminately, and irresponsibly, in unlikely places of the Office of the FM must first be traced and trained in office-etiquette. His behavior was like that of a child whose toilet-training is inadequate if not incomplete.

And the conservancy staff in that North Block office must be given a wage-cut for failure in carrying out their duty.

Many of us in office have for years dusted our office-table and chair routinely. But what happened in the North Block is unpardonable.Pranab da can not be expected to clean his entire office. Indeed it is worth probing whether his predecessor, Chidambaram, looked carefully enough for bits of gum stuck under his table or a crevice in the wall. Did the staff clean up the place daily or were they guilty of dereliction of duty? What was the state of the office when Pranab took charge from Chidambaram? Was there much gum that went unnoticed ? Aren’t the two stalwarts , in some way responsible for the gummy state of the finance ministry?A whole lot of investigation from top to bottom must be undertaken.

The CBI, already having identified the adhesive as Chewing Gum, will not be keen about reopening the case. They need a Supreme Court intervention to reopen a case … they were about to close the Arushi case for lack of evidence. There is an alternative , though, in the making, and just exactly what mechanism was necessary.

The Lokpal.

All Gum and no teeth.

The Authorised Version

What Friendship might Subsist between the Hammer and the Anvil? Asks TS Eliot in Murder in the Cathedral.

An elected parliament, with diverse members of diverse political parties; most members with access to money-making ways; and an electorate comprising people whose money goes into making the parliament members’ wealth at least moderately enviable—

What friendship might subsist between the hammer and the anvil?

As of last evening, irreconcilable differences continued to plague the Lokpal drafting committee.

Now is the time for MPs of all parties, whatever their ideologies, to demonstrate solidarity.

Keep out the MPs.

Keep out the PM.

Keep the powers to appoint and remove the Lokpal.

Keep jail term to the minimum.

Keep it simple, silly!

How can people and parliament be friends? People elect the members because it is statutory to do so. MPs will then rule people with an iron-hand. The relationship is inevitable So is the beating people must take. What is the noise that Anna, Kejriwal and the Bhushans are making? They must relearn the art of silent suffering and show the people they believe they represent how one must take a beating with dignity. When Bills are drafted and eventually enacted as laws, they are meant to be obeyed by the people.

Members of different political parties are but governments in waiting! How can they accept the people’s irrational demands which have the potential to curtail their possible power? Keep people out of this sacred law-making business.

But there is a problem all right. The current Prime Minister has long nurtured the reputation for transparent honesty and a disdain of power. . He has gone ahead and called a meeting of the UPA for this evening. Don’t know whether he took the blessings of the presiding deity; but he has called a meeting. What if… in an attempt to sustain his reputation he agrees with the Civil team instead of Team Sibal? What if he persuades the allies to go along with the brothers rather than the Keepers?

This is where the sagacity of Digvijay Singh comes in handy.

Baba Rahul has just celebrated his 41^st Birthday. Now he is definitely primed for the top job, opines Digvijay. If Manmohan does not sing the right tunes, The young Baba can always be promoted to the highest post. That would be consistent with the unexpressed wish of the party president, the unvoiced demand of the youth of India, and very importantly, the dynastic tradition of Indian Parliamentary Democracy.This young man, like his father , will make an ideal makhauta for the party.

Then we can have a nice authorised version of the Lokpal bill

The Lok Bal bill.

The Baba and the Bagula Bhagat:

Chetan Bhagat, the underaged optimist, wrote in today’s Times of India, that he was disappointed with the Baba’s tame surrender besides the mark of questionability of his yogic powers. He could have lasted longer; but he turned out to be an unequal soldier in the cause of the nation. Ramdev’s language, deportment, following and the cause he espoused suggested that he was a worthy opponent. Instead, he displayed uncommon weakness and gave in quickly, as the government hoped he would.

The Bhagat stood at a safe remove, observed the event, and made his comment.

On the weakness of the common man found everywhere in India.

After all, what is Ramdev, or Anna Hazare before the Majesty and Might of the Government of India? Unless the GOI permits,one may not even protest, much less fast or feast. Once the Home Ministry decides, enough is enough, and a Raj Bala becomes an unfortunate victim, regrettably, but ...there is no alternative, you see! That is what every right-thinking common man must be prepared for. He must know that his is not to question why, his is but to do and die. Given such knowledge, what protests, five point someone, observes the Bhagat.

The well-chosen members of the GOI and the spokespersons of the Ruling Party used the English Media, which was only too willing, to unleash vilification and cool-mockery at the common man, told him firmly that he had neither the power nor the sophistication to run a parallel government and confounded him with innumerable technical issues where he had taken up a single issue which he thought had a bearing on his routine life.

Cleverness and cunning two facets of the same coin.Like Amitabh’s coin in Sholay , the GOI had the advantage either way.A plain-speaking Anna and a bumbling Baba were no match to the Sibals and Pestles of the GOI.

What surprises is Bagula Bhagat’s disappointment at the petering off of Ramdev and the common man. Common men are not meant to be clever or cunning. Or to have great stamina. Before they have raised an issue, the prices of petrol and commodities rise enough to force them to look at issues of day-to-day living. That is why governments are put together in place, so that they can do most of the thinking leaving common men to mind their daily lives.

Admittedly, the Baba ,presiding over a few hundred crores is not as common as the common man. But he is very common compared to the scamsters in the UPA government who have set the country back thousands of crores of resource. Dayanidhi Maran still awaits a possible interrogation in July. Ramdev and his followers had just a few minutes at midnight before tear-gas guns volleyed and thundered.

Bhagat’s observation disheartened me, among other common men for the deceptive ease with which he joined ranks with the government spokesmen

Bhagat should have been disappointed strongly at the government’s exhibition of cunning.

The Bull and the Bill

An Ongole Bull kicked the Andhra Pradesh Speaker with its hind legs.

There is a lesson somewhere tucked away in this. Not the well enough known Aa baile mujhe maar one. In a fortnight’s time Sri Nadendla Manohar may well recall such a muhaavara , if Telangana based legislators, regardless of Party affiliations, do indeed submit valid resignations in pursuit of a separate State.But let us, for a moment, look at national, not local significance of the Bull’s Feat.

It is common wisdom that Bull’s tend to use their head to butt and horns to gore when frontally confronted. And that donkeys pack a powerful hind- kick. Are bulls behaving in unpredictable ways in response to the rapidly evolving societal changes?

It is an interesting riddle.

One basic inference may be that no one wants to take the bull by the horns. Even the best matadors will tell you this is potentially dangerous to life.Our own Jallikattu testifies to this, every year. Generally all this happens in the sport of men.

But an English bard pointed out once that we are like flies to wanton boys....they [Gods] kill them for their sport.

English educated legal minds that Chidambaram and Sibal are therefore wary of sport, especially the bull-by-the-horn variety.So they agree on a new strategy, attack the bullish from behind.

At the national political level, this is certainly gaining popularity across party lines.Only simple-minded Mamata will stick with the age-old strategy. Shrewd Sibal and Clever Chidambaram will use dumb Digvijay and macho ( no,don’t confuse with MC, BC swear-words) Manish to make moves up-front, while they themselves can manage the hind quarters.

That is how they tried to deal with Anna bhai.

The old man believes in the dictum: to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. Bullish. The old bull and the old bill is the sport-line. Will the Bill be drafted and will Team Anna stop its ‘uncivil’, bullish attempt to run of a parallel government?

This is where the AP Speaker and the Ongole Bull enter the picture.

Sibal and his team will find that this sport is Aa Bhai, mujhe maar!

No matter how you approach a bull, it will devise its mode of attack. If it is not a bull’s way, it will be a donkey’s... depending on what you deserve.

.

Lok Pall:

Lok Pall:

There is a pall over it all now.

Speakers on TV Channels want to know how the mantle of civil leadership fell on Team Anna.

Thiru Chidambaram wants to know whether Bills are drafted by Fasting anywhere in the world.

Maanyavar Sibal ji firmly believes that there are so many intricate issues that 10 members of the drafting committee, much less the 5 ‘civil’ members can not possibly arrive at a consensus but only discussible formulas.

There is the belief that the Bill must apply only to positions of Under-Secretaries andbelow.

There is a question about who ‘selects’ the Lokpal and members, on which criteria, and who is to oversee the Lokpal ?

God!

God won’t be too keen to be the oversight authority , I presume, given the pall of confusion so expertly woven by the intelligentsia of this wonderfully democratic country.

There will not be more than 2 points to be addressed, truth to tell. 1) Is the Lokpal desirable?; and 2) Should the Prime Minister of India and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court be within the ambit of the Lokpal? If there is no agreement on these 2 points, there can not be a meaningful Bill.The PM within its ambit would automatically draw the cabinet of ministers and all members of the parliament within its scope. The same holds good for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. One does not have to argue over the defence services, the administrative services etc. because they are directly under the executive power of the PM, and the legal scrutiny of the Courts of Law.

Only a clear NO to the inclusion of the 2 highest functionaries under the ambit of the proposed Lokpal gives rise to the nitty-gritty of who’s in, who’s out.

Who oversees the Lokpal? If a 7-member Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court issues a majority verdict , the Lokpal shall have to accept that verdict in the case of political and civil men and matters. A three fourths majority vote of the Combined session of the parliament, in matters of justice, should hold good over the Lokpal—in case the Lokpal ‘s sentence is challenged at all. In both cases,the Lokpal must be given a mandatory hearing at either forum , as relevant. A media-trial, at all events be ruled out, but the scrutiny of the lokpal by either forum must be nationally televised.This will enable people to decide the course of the quinquinnial elections.

Instead of spelling out the purpose, the committee has manipulated itself into a complication over the modalities.

The committee’s intention is obfuscation. Who but morons would ,otherwise, ask for the credentials of the ‘leaders’ of the civil society? Obviously, when the parliamentary democracy or an imperial administration, or a dictatorship falters again and again in delivering a reasonable life for the people of the country, a Tiananmen Square, or the demolition of the Berlin wall, or the Tahrir square happens.

Lok Nayaks do not represent by elections or nominations. Jai Prakash Narain happened. Anna Hazare happened.

One Mohandas Karamchand happened... and he drafted an entire script for independence by fasting, forget a mere parliamentary bill.

Know Your Place – Parliamentarians Uvacha

That’s the new pastime.

Civil Society trying to interfere with Parliamentary Democracy must be shown its place. One Mr.Muckerjee says they can not be allowed to hijack the Parliament’s role.

What is Civil Society? And what is Parliamentary Democracy?

As being used in India, Civil Society means the loosely organized group of people, small or large, which hopes to exercise moral power as different from the Government which is Constitutionally invested with legislative and executive power. In this sense, Civil Society, very strictly, has no locus standii vis-a vis the Government. At the best, it can expect to be heard, not even consulted.

Again ,in India, Parliamentary Democracy once put in place through periodic authorization via the electoral process, has virtually all power to wield without commensurate answerability to the people who put it together in the first place.

The term Democracy is of Greek origin-- Demos (Greek), people, and kratos (Greek) strength, are mediated through the parliament ( French – parlement from parler; to speak) ) in Parliamentary Democracy. In India it’s a travesty of the philosophic ideas underpinning the form of self-governance. Ironically, a monument where elected representatives may speak about, discuss, deliberate on ,issues relating to the people they represent-- and execute the will of the people for the greatest good of the greatest numbers-- has turned into a cocoon that shelters and protects a bunch of empowered representatives from the very people who have empowered them… to a point at which the symbolic monument and the discussants set themselves against the loosely organized group of people.

In so distancing themselves , the elected representatives have seen themselves as superior to the ‘civil society’ of people, virtually setting themselves above the legislation they enact for the people. They are beyond the pale of those laws and ‘civil society’ may not question the law nor the ‘immunity’ of the representatives from all forms of answerability. True, the Judiciary is , technically, a balancing power-structure, but in India , given the lengthy procedures and the general lack of time-frames, judicial review of parliamentary action is as prone to inordinate delays as all civilian litigation. Besides, “Judicial Activism” has been frowned upon for long, and the last has not yet been heard on questions of power-delimitation and supremacy. It is quite another matter that there is a necessary complementarity that has yet to be understood and practiced.

As such, it is not a wonder that the Parliamentary Democracy that Pranab da in his inimitabhle bhay, Chidambaram in his suave sermons, wish to protect is in fact no democracy at all, but an oligocracy with the representatives as the sole stake-holders. It excludes the people of the ‘civil society’ without any attempt at even polite deception.It is bare-faced aggression with which these parliamentary ‘leaders’ show the ‘civil society’ and its vanguard their place. The devolution of power, they say, places people at the bottom; and that’s the way to stay, anna .

Baba bleats and decides not to have fodder. Laalu , an expert in such matters, says ‘we will force-feed him’. That is sevice, like it or not.There are millions who don’t have a meal per day in this country. How dare you , with ample resource, don’t eat? Want to give Indian Parliamentary Democracy a bad name, aligning with a National Self-Serving Scheme group and their political masque, Indian Peoples’ Party? Go, go… BreakFast is ready.

Indeed there is more grain than our warehouses can store.Ditributing it through the PDS system , as directed by the Supreme Court, is not feasible said the country’s executive head. The grain may soon begin to rot. Under such circumstances, you refuse to eat! Go… BreakFast is ready. You, the civil society, the Supreme Court are all trying to hijack power.People have no roles to play in a Parliamentary Democracy except casting a vote when called upon . Mind your business.

Take the Service of the Parliamentary Democracy as is given to you. Like a Cow from a Bull.

Law-Making : Who Are Stake-Holders?

Who are the stake-holders with whom legislative bills must be discussed,Mr. Ashwani Kumar?

The Honourable Minister for Parliamentary Affairs was ticking off the upstart Anna Hazare for ‘resorting to fast unto death at the drop of a hat’.

Anna was behaving like a stubborn child who’ll settle for nothing less than a lollipop NOW! He must understand that "law making is not at will. Law making is a functioning of a process".

Anna , beta , remember that the Lokpal Bill has been in the making for over four decades now. Why, even the Women’s Reservation Bill has been in the making for ten years or more! It’s not like making a will, you see; more like making up the will of an entire parliament. Some Bills are easy… can be passed , say 20 bills in 14 minutes. But a Lokpal Bill… has to be pally enough for “ stake-holders, assimilate everybody's view”

Now, that is a big thing.The people of India ,including Anna, Shanti Bhushan must be mindful of the interests of the stake-holders :the PM and the Justices of the Highest Courts of Law, not to mention sundry powerful businessmen and politicians must have a pally Lokpal Bill. In a parliamentary democracy since the persons holding such positions and powers keep changing the views of the stake-holders keep changing. See, how difficult it is to ascertain and assimilate the views and process the Bill.

For God’s sake, Anna, realise that all one hundred crore people can not be stake-holders, and can not be consulted; even their self-appointed representatives such as you may have to be ignored. Let us agree: we won’t drop the hat anymore, and you don’t go on a fast.

Good Boy . For God’s sake hold your tongue and leave us to work for the stake-holders.Engage yourself better. For instance,you may learn a lot by looking at Gandhi’s minted face that patiently waits for so much change to happen.

Through the US eyes: Rana and Osama

The Verdict is out. Tahawwur Rana is NOT guilty of the Mumbai attack of 26/11. He had only provided material support.

A nice knockdown argument. One may sell, even give away an AK 47 and be perfectly innocent of an assault with the weapon. The intention was to sell or give away the weapon, and had nothing to do with the use to which it was put.

One who sold the weapon, or the one who gave “material support” is only following his calling; perversity is the domain solely of the end-user!

Interesting!… how logic is a subtle slave.

My logic says Osama was not guilty of 9/11 or any of the other acts imputed to him. He only provided material support; besides intellectual, strategic and ideological support. He had nothing to do with the end-use of these inputs. After all, he did not personally supervise , or carry out any of these acts, did he? Pakistan and Islamic Jihadi groups are quite right in questioning and condemning the US Drone attacks in the interiors of sovereign foreign lands, leading ultimately to the planned execution of Operation Osama. How Barak Obama’s logic enabled him to justify the out-of-court verdict that Osama was guilty, is slightly mysterious. Perhaps unquestionable power confers superiority on questionable logic. The uncertain status of India’s power allows it only to express its disappointment, not question the logic of a US Jury.This is the ambiguous fate of India being neither Pakistan nor America in a world full of Jihadi Powers with considerable abilities to shape suitable logics.

India will not get access to Rana or Headley. A PM whose tremulous voice betrays India’s logical (and logistical) weakness, an extra-constitutional power-center whose ground-strength lies outside of India, and a people who expend all their energies in petty, mutually recriminative quibbling will ensure this.

Osama was guilty because a powerful US was attacked.Rana is not guilty because the attacked India is not powerful. Q.E.D.

Exiled by Culture: MF Husain

News came in from London that MF Husain has passed on to another stage of journey in the universe. India to Qatar to London to…

A mournful, wistful voice of another star of India, Mohd. Rafi came to my mind instantly : “Do gaz zameen bhi na mili kooye yaar mein…,” Bahadur Shah Zafar II wrote from jail in another land after the British exiled and imprisoned him in Burma after what they called the Mutiny of 1857. The Mughal patriarch pined away for homeland as his two best-known kalaam iterate. The power of the Empire was such that Zafar could only look around and bemoan the stretch of solitude and isolation. And express his anguish through verse no one could hear. But… sang ,though there be no audience (koyii na miley tau akaeley mein gaana… I wrote in my opening blog ). Na kisii ki aankh ka nor hoon/ na kisii ke dil ka qaraar hoon. His exile dispirited him no end.

Zafar wrote, Rafi sang almost as if for Maqbool Fida Husain. If Zafar went by dint of the politics of Imperialism, MF Husain went by “virtue” of the politics of Culture. His depictions of Gods in the Nude did not go well with people who arrogate the power of cultural proscription to themselves. May be ,they were right. But it is arguable whether gods have the form of humans, and whether nudity is assignable to them and whether nudity is an awful form of existence and creation. Is nudity not metaphorical of ‘soul’ without body, analogous to body without clothes? Isn’t ‘God’ abstract and without attributes, nirguna? Does our culture teach us of one single ‘God’ or of numberless ‘Gods’ according to our perception based on karma? What forms do the ‘Gods’ take in the ViraatRupa… are they dressed for dinner or for bed or for an official meeting… are they ever undressed at all?

The truth must be that Gods, if there are Gods, can not have human shape or human attributes. An anthropomorphic imagination plays what tricks it will. At all events, WE Don’t Know.

On such grounds was a man exiled from his land.Our cultural assumptions are no more than our assumptions and do not confer the power to threaten and to banish . True, Husain’s was more of a self-exile. But a bunch of cultural radicals did enough to force an exile From 2006 onwards, Husain stayed out of India, telling any one who was ready to listen, that he wanted to return to India.

Unfortunately (some one used the word very tellingly the other day) we have a government which can only pander to the sentiments of differing cultural blocks. So Husain died in England without setting foot on Indian soil again.

And his last rites are to be performed in England. MF Husain coloured in Zafar’s words , “main woh bekasi ka mazaar hoon.”

Santon dekha hu jag bauraana

Koi Hindoo koi Turak kahaavai

dono maram na jaana… said Kabir.

India ,still in the zero tolerance mode, may not know how to celebrate the colour-filled life of MF Husain.

Democracy: Parliamentary and Civil

He supported leaders of civil society voicing their concerns; but," I don't support elected representatives yielding their obligations and responsibilities to civil society representatives. Let us remember that the foundation of this country is parliamentary democracy," said P. Chidambaram this morning.

Very sophisticated distinction, we must admit. Only men of considerable sophistication such as PC can understand such fine distinctions. Persons who came up from the lower ranks of the army, physical instructors of a traditional kind self-help volounteers of the country variety are rather too uncouth to form part of such discourse. One needs training at sundry places such as Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, Yale or Sorbonne, you see!

Civil Society id such a loose term, nameless, by and large unrecognizable people can walk in a door and walk out from another. They form the parcel of democracy, good for electoral rolls, paying taxes, suffering petro-price-hikes with due resignation and a , no-longer just Hindu, view of detachment.

Parliamentary democracy… Ah! on the other hand, is the very pith and substance of what the founders of this country envisioned… the PART of the Parcel. The constituents of the parcel vote and choose from time to time those who constitute the main part of the democracy: the Parliament and the Legislatures…

Once the franchise is exercised the elected representatives will discuss and debate in those Romanesque buildings, how the parcel must be shaped—this is televised, so there is no need for more debate with people outside the parliament… thus spake the One whose Chitta is the Space and the people and the Universe and its Wrappings.

Kubla Khan’s Xanadu was not more majestic than the Indian Parliament.

The very Representatives of Gods spoke the Words there.

How should this magnificently structured democracy open the doors for an influx of the gibberish that the leaders of the civil society let loose?

Democracy is not the civilian people; it is the representatives who are sent into the building for five years at a time. People should learn to wash their hands off with Lifebuoy, not experiment with rolls of paper as people in the west do.

But uncouth civilians with a low rank army background can not understand this. Will Doordarshan educate and sophisticate them please?

Manmohan and the Magic Wand

Unfortunately …

He can not wave the magic wand to banish corruption in a jiffy

He can not find an alternative to a mid night police raid on the Baba and 50,000 blacksheep

Only tear gas and lathis are available with the state machinery to disperse the oldest, the littlest and the least at the maidan.

He can not find an alternative to coalition dharma

He could not do anything but mildly warn Pakistan against harbouring terrorists when 26/11 happened to amchi Mumbai

He could only ask the US to hand over Rana and Headley

Unfortunately…

we have begun to think Manmohan is incapable of waving it, even if he had a magic wand. He can not use it even to cure himself of his own timidity.How will he learn to use it to chastise others even if the Mother-Goddess gifts it to him?

Mr. Pusillanimous…

Perception of Domain -- Deschooling Kapil Sibal

Did some one say ‘the proper study of mankind is man’? Kapil Sibal is the new-age avatar of that honourable syllogist.

Baba Ramdev is a yoga guru. He should teach yog aasan, not political aasan. You know, the proper job to do, don’t go beyond the limits into another’s domain. Put in your thumb… pull out a plum… and say what a good boy am I !

For long, this country has been obsessed with the notion of suitability. It is suitable for a Brahmin’s son to study the Vedas; for a kshatriya’s son to study warfare and learn warlike arts… so on.

Today a doctor’s son becomes a doctor, an actor’s son becomes an actor, a cricketer’s son becomes a cricketer, an IAS Officer’s son becomes an IAS officer, a politician’s son becomes a politician, a Prime Minister’s son becomes a Prime Minister… logical, dynastic and divinely ordained.This is India. We are like this only.

So, said the wise Kapila, to the yoga guru, stick to your field and thou shalt not fail. You and your generations, teach yoga aasanas.

The catch ,of course, is that this is Swatantra Bharat, Independent India. Some times, political convenience, nay expediency, demands that an actor, or a cricketer or a fire-spitting Swami don the role of a politician. Nargis, Sunil Dutt, Chetan Chauhan, Azharuddin, Shatrughan Sinha, M.G.Ramachandran, N.T. Rama Rao, Jayalalita. Some Exceptions, please.

Else, what does an actor know of anything but grease-paint, dupes, dubbing and some facial contortion? What would a cricketer know except a red ball coming at ones head and the frantic need to run back to the pavilion?

Kapil Sibal sahib , you need deschooling.

Is there any activity which does not involve politics? Is there any man who takes a stance and asserts with conviction that it is NOT a political stance? Is all life except that of career politicians devoid of political strategies? Is an actor less of a human being than a member of the political class? Is not a cricketer a member of that society which is governed by politics? Is a taxi-driver less of a politician than the corporator whom he drives to the municipal corporation? Does not an Iraq war impact his understanding of petro-politics and economics? Are these members of the social structure unaffected by taxes, inflation, caste and communal politics, politics of language, region, ideas if not ideology?If they are cut, do they not bleed? And if they are hurt, will they not revenge?

How childish and vainglorious Mr. Sibal!!

Baba Ramdev has as much right to indulge in political aasan as you have, Mr. Sibal. In fact he is more fit for the rough and tumble of politics. You, Mr. Sibal need Yoga aasanas to shed the flab, physical and mental, that envelopes you. The Baba’s agitation is about you. The more time your government gives itself on measures against corruption, the flabbier you grow. When corruption grows you rot, you decay and decompose.Trim up, learn the right aasanas, tighten the Lokpal Bill…
and you’ll see how good Anna and Baba are for you.

Diggy and Thuggee

Digvijay Singh went to press asserting that Baba Ramdev was a cheat, “thug” ('He cheated people. He is a thug. …. He had said he was going to have a yoga shivir but he was trying to agitate people)

Kapil Sibal preached in his inimitable style that a yoga guru should teach yoga aasan, not political aasan.

There are big issues here: the capacity of the Indian government and its ministers/ spokespersons to fudge and to prevaricate.

This is getting interesting. If the Baba was a “thug” he could not possibly teach yoga. As for political postures, what can this man teach astute politicians such as Sibal and Digvijay, pastmasters of the art of political thuggee? Were they ‘talking’ with the Baba a few days ago… quite unaware of the Baba’s thuggery!

Ramdev was whisked away to Haridwar to prevent his running riot in Delhi, said Digvijay. After the CWG, Kalmadi went about free to visit China for the Asian Games. After UPA-1, Dayanidhi Maran has moved about freely though he was reported in 2007 for the 323 BSNL phone connections and for spectrum allocation. In UPA-2 Raja and Kanimozhi were free long enough to have at least a chance to manipulate the evidence in the 2G spectrum case. Elsewhere, Shibu Soren walks about free while Courts of Law have been mulling over criminal case for over 20 years. Pappu Yadav could contest elections and become an MP despite grave cases against him. Harshad Mehta was hailed as the biggest tax-payer before getting embroiled in the suitcase issue. Satyam’s Ramalingaraju passed off for a great business-magnate. Much before these instances, Jayanti Dharma Teja took advantage of Nehru’s trust. All of them rubbed shoulders with the highest powers of the land.

In between,a venerable Babu who forgot to pay an income tax of over 10 lakhs in 1960s was exonerated and made a political party chief and an important minister. Mr. Anderson of Union Carbide was allowed safe passage before a warrant was issued. Mr. Win Chaddha, a Bofors beneficiary, flew away to a Gulf country with utter ease 24 hours before a warrant could be issued. The Quattrocchi story (Bofors, again) is more or less closed. The CBI asked for closure of the Aarushi Talwar case before the intervention by a court of law… otherwise the Talwar couple were free. No one killed Jessica.

Who is running riot in Delhi Mr. Digvijay Singh? The thugs are all over, including Mr. Sajjan Kumar of the Delhi Sikh massacre-fame

Baba Ramdev, a thug, eh? Let's concede... as all public figures are, in some degree.

Next, Hazare will be termed Anna, Bhai of Mumbai underworld parlance.

Capacity: Ramlila Maidan and the Indian Government

The Delhi Police said it was a potential law and order problem… over 50,000 people and more pouring into the Ramlila Maidan whose capacity was about 30,000.

Strange. In 1971(December 10^th ,I think), Indira Gandhi addressed a mammoth rally of “lakhs” and won an uproarious applause for the defiant statement against ‘which-so-ever great power’ tried to interfere in the Bangladesh war. The not so veiled reference was to the US which had dispatched the USS Enterprise of the 7th Fleet towards the Bay of Bengal.

Again, in 1977, Morarji Desai and a number of Janata Party heavy-weights, and other leaders from a ‘spectrum’ of allies, shared their euphoria with a delirious mass of people; “lakhs’ of them had gathered to celebrate the overthrow of the Indira Gandhi government after the Emergency.

From “lakhs” to 30 thousand! The Ramlila Maidan’s capacity has shrunk (among other things like the credibility of the government and the media). Ram’s leela or that of Land-sharks?

Or is it the capacity of the present government to take criticism and absorb protest?

The Baba, and the Blacksheep,part 2

The Blacksheep and blackmoney won hands down on the Black Night of June4th/5th.
The Saffron-Knight was bearded at his camp. Ram ki Leela!
We have seen this unholy sight in the last few weeks in many parts of the world. When people rise, governments quiver, whether they be democraies or dictatorships. The prompt response is the use of State Arsenal-- lathi, tear gas, thadi paar... anything to crush protest against a government in power.
Independent India's darkest hours were in 1975, though pre-independence history chronicles numerous instances which imperial power dealt with all its might. The Congress (UPA--2?) governments handling of the Baba and Blackmoney issue is a little reminiscent of the pre-1975 events leading to the clamp-down of an Internal Emergency.
One would have thought the series of massive scams involving people in power were cause enough to invoke Emergency powers to unravel the mysterious happenings via fast-track courts and restore the money and the integrity due to the nation. Instead, the protesting people are targetted. The offenders are relatively safe , under police and legal protection. Aam aadmi and a 'yoga-guru' with obvious following among the administrators, face lathis and tear-gas. Probably the Congress was giving a demo of what their predecessors experienced in the 1st half of the 20th century--- this is what built the Congress into a perpetual contender for administrative power in India. And YOU chaps talk of little things such as a few scams!
There is room for many more you know! In Kaliyug Kalki Baba will come only when there is much corruption... here a scam, there a scam, everywhere a scam-scam. Kalki Baba... sorry, Kal ka Baba. He will come riding a huge mandate to give India the good governace it deserves. He will be known as Rahul Gandhi, at the moment the darling Baba of the Congress and its baba-brigade. Baba Rahul will come.
Meanwhile don't be misled by Baba Ramdev. We have chased him away, anyway.

The Baba, and the blacksheep

Baba Ramdev may indeed be a charlatan.
But not any more than the ministers, the babus ,the businessmen, and the media bhadralok.
After all, the issues he raises, post-Anna Hazare, are major ; and that the Song of Trivialization by the Conqueror of the World (Dik+Vijay -- a common sandhi in Indian grammars), the dismissive inclination of the Brains (I utter Phatkar with an English plosive and syllable stress as Phatkaar in Hindi), and the TV anchor's misplaced anxiety about a democratic government under unconstitutional threat ,are ludicrous, must be obvious to every member of the aam janataa. These people whom the business representatives and the media-men see as gullible and in need of protection from the Baba, are supporting him and Anna Hazare not as 'leaders' but as emblems which indicate the path of a new democracy ( if India is to survive as one) ,against the terrible odds of corruption which will soon smother the country if not tackled now. In less than three decades 64 crores (Bofors--Win Chaddha) has risen exponentially to thousands of crores which Kalmadi, Koda, Kanimozhi, Maran and Raja have swindled with such remarkable ease. If successive governments see no urgency to act NOW, Why do we need these governments at all?. The moment petro prices internationally, Indian administration will burden with another Rs. 5/= the people's bent spines; but when the spines try to recover a bit of their spring and shape, governments backed by business and media cry foul about blackmail tactics?!
If Anna and a hazaar Babas come out demanding a semblance of honesty, and a measure of welfare and a couple of lakhs of people support them, surely they deserve some appreciation.
AND if governments quake, surely they have plenty of reasons to.The blacksheep must answer the people if not the Babas ,

Did Kabir wish to be heard?

Did Kabir wish to be heard?
Each time the refrain "suno bhai sadho" wove itself into his observations, did Kabir address an audience?

The consensus must be that he was neither insistent nor indifferent : it was upto an audience to hear, analyze, interpret, reject, accept, memorize, cherish.

Raj Kapoor's song in Jis Desh Mein Ganga Bahti hai , "Mera naam Raju..." presents a new-day, cinema version of Kabir's refrain : 'kaam naye nit geet banaana/ geet banaa ke jahaan ko sunaana/ koyi na miley tau ,akeley mein gaana..."

People observe and make their own ballads, songs out of their observations; some do it well, some not so well; and offer these songs, varied false notes, varied versification slips ... but earnestly , hoping some one will hear... and say: that is what I was about to say.

I am neither Kabir, nor Raj Kapoor. I am , not too secretly at all, one of the people who hopes to be heard, but appears nonchalant, influenced no doubt , by ideas of impersonality and detachment.So, let me drop the pretence, and go on to warbling in a middle-aged falsetto. I will no more quiet, my world!