What is the history made today?

What is the history that’s been made today ? Members of Parliament will be unmindful of people’s view, leave alone needs, unless the people are led by some real social-welfarist; or a good-samaritan who believes in his goodness but may not have more than a nebulous vision for the society he believes he represents. Or by a charlatan.

The many twists and turns, the tamaasha, the foregrounding of ‘youth’ in Parliament and in the much larger society, the media-mayhem for almost two weeks, the Central Government’s attempts to hold off the inevitable capitulation, the Opposition’s attempts to score points in the joust, everyone’s hope to avoid being worsted, crumbling edifices and weak moves to prevent a collapse using pest-ridden scaffoldings, a fearful sheltering behind rules… all this and the hard-working back-channels have established beyond doubt that Indian Democracy is as spurious as it can get without crossing over into a mafia state.

People pay taxes, direct and indirect, and fill the treasuries and the governments takes loans from every possible source, only to enable the politicians and the businessmen to siphon away the largest portion of the resources. In turn people make do with small pickings from dubious sources using dubious methods. Those who can not do that live in ways we will not want to imagine. They die in ways we will never be able to imagine.That is the status of social life and political life in this country.

At statutory intervals the governments change. Nothing else does.

Till the average good man or an above average charlatan decides to manipulate the system. This is certainly not an ideal context in which to live and script history. But that is precisely what’s been happening.For 64 years.

Will the Anna Hazare phenomenon be a defining moment for India? Or will it be a bit like Indira Gandhi’s 1969 coup against the older Congressmen; or Jai Prakash Narain’s Total Revolution that created an all too brief interregnum in post-independence Indian political history; or like NT Rama Rao’s political foray into Andhra Pradesh politics; or like Manmohan Singh’s entry into politics under P.V. Narasimha Rao’s umbrella; or like Kanshi Ram’s BSP?

Won’t governments automatically work for the people without flashing chimeras in order to win elections? Will India always need Anna Hazare-like figures? From time to time, someone who’ll get too difficult to handle and fearing a backlash from his support-bases the Governments and Oppositions beat strategic retreats?

The pressure that Anna and the people built up was difficult to handle only because the “system” was “ Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike” (Alexander Pope). What happens if the hard-lines hardened further and the government did what Indira Gandhi did in 1975? Please be aware… that what happened today was no honourable resolution.; only a pitiable or indeed shameful display of the self-preservation instinct.

After the celebrations, gentlemen, ,all too short I dare-say, will have to begin a real soul-searching. Otherwise the country—all 100 crores of us—will be facing hard times and facts. And harsh acts.

A pyrrhic victory will necessarily be followed by a dire calamity if we drop our vigil. Let there be sobriety lest there follow something sombre.

Tough Time ahead Anna

Having supported Anna Hazare and the people of India against the way our parliament and the government has functioned all this while, I must now take a different direction.

The UPA government has agreed to discuss, indeed debate, the issues raised by Hazare’s group and those of Aruna Roy and of Jaya Prakash Narayan (the AP MLA). Most certainly under rule 184 of parliamentary procedures, which requires VOTING.

Till now, only the Congress, the largest party in the UPA government, has had to bear the brunt of opposition and criticism. The Opposition Parties have managed to side-step the issues and have revelled in the acute discomfiture of the Congress and the PM’s team till now.

Now they can not. They have to take a stand on the issues, point by point, and the mechanics step by step. And the stand will be public. That is, known to Anna, his team, all of us his supporters, and a much larger section of the people-- who have been spectators—than the undeniably large numbers who have been on the streets and in the media-glare.

What happens if the Opposition parties have views on the inclusion of the PM, quite similar to those of the Congress? After all, isn’t the opposition hoping to have its own government and PM at some future time? Will any MPs and PM want themselves under the scanner of a powerful and independent LOKPAL?

Will any one want to commit themselves to time frames via a citizens’ charter?

Will…

Let us all, including Anna Hazare and team, wait and watch.

Will parties issue a whip? Or will they tell their MPs to let their conscience speak?

Let us all, including Anna Hazare and team, wait and watch.

Will Sibal and Advani stick to their positions?

Let us all, including Anna Hazare and team, wait and watch.

AND Anna Hazare, Kiran Bedi, Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan… please be aware that NOW you have a bigger task than before. Once there is indication that the Opposition Parties have their own reservations against your draft, then…

Ask them the uncomfortable questions you have asked the Congress-led UPA.

Go on a fast to help them change their minds.

Gherao them, protest against them, continue sitting in at the Ramlila Maidan and the places in other cities across India.

That’s when your credibility will be established beyond doubt. You may still be called fascist. But your intentions on this issue and the visible support of the people will have enough justification.

Tough time ahead for your team, Anna, meaning all of us. Once and for all, let us establish our credibility and the power to lead the governments in a direction that is truly democratic and people-friendly.

Good luck to the Opposition Parties.

Good luck to ourselves, Anna. Back in 2 days, then.

Democratic Mess versus Messianism

Prabhat Patnaik, former Professor of Economics at JNU wrote that the substitution of people by one man ‘and the reduction of the people’s role merely to being supporters and cheerleaders … is antithetical to democracy’ (“ Messianism versus democracy”, The Hindu, August 24,2011, p.12).. He was, as most people these days are, writing about the Anna-Lokpal issue. He went some distance to argue that Anna and his supporters were subverting democracy and destabilizing the centre, undermining the supremacy of the Parliament. In effect Anna and his group of mesiaiahs were “holding a gun to the head of the center, and by implication of Parliament, and dictating…” terms to the democratic structure and processes of India.. He agreed, certainly, that the Indian parliament had not exactly won acclaim in the last couple of weeks in dealing with the Anna phenomenon. Nevertheless, the response of the people to Anna’s group and its Jan Lokpal draft, was a cause of serious concern to him. What if this method sets a precedent and the ‘messaiah touches a raw nerve among the people and pressurizes the government to implement his solution (diktat)? What happens to the decades old parliamentary democracy?

No need for such despondence Mr. Patnaik. It won’t happen in India for another 6 decades. Pranab Mukherjee, Kapil Sibal, Chidambaram, Manmohan Singh, and Advani, Yechuri and a motley of that ilk will continue to misrule India through the parliament with utter impunity. The hectic parleys throughout this afternoon and evening ending in a brief unanimous resolution asking Anna to end his fast is ample proof -- that no matter how many messaiahs and supporters turn up, the democratically elected parliament and its procedural dilations, its brownie points, its points of order, its adjournments, its well-rushing, its work-stalling, its pusillanimity, its lack of regard for people and messaiahs, its plain paralysis at the greatest moments of need, its abki-maar-tujhe-dekhloonga view of all forms of external interference and internal strife and subversion, and its tacit approval of exchequer-milking by its MPs and any others who can manage it—these WILL CONTINUE longer than you willingly argue for, Mr.Patnaik.

If a peoples’ parliament disregards people and their voices, their demands, indeed their pleas; if a peoples’ parliament remains silent and the Prime Minister is mute when the issues are crying for quick-fixes; when the wounds bleed and the surgeons wait for police and legal formalities to be completed before opening the Operation Theatre; when people like HKL Bhagat can die of old age despite allegations of crime and conspiracy left uninvestigated because of proximity to powerful men in the parliament ;when emails with all details get circulated that the Summary of All scams of India from Harish Mundhra down to Hasan Ali is Rs. 910603234300000/- (almost 92 thousand crore rupees) ; when I have to contact a high official in the state secretariat to influence the Passport Office to issue my son’s Tatkal passport after 20 days have gone by (Tatkal is 7 days @ Rs. 2500/- or 15 days @Rs. 2000/- as per rule); when my son’s electoral ID card is full of mistakes despite manual filling-up by a graduate; when a nurse in a corporate hospital does not administer Ringer Lactae to my daughter for 4 hours despite the attending doctor’s “immediate” instructions---- well, well, well… something is terribly rotten in the state of Bharat AND A MESSIAH WILL COME.

Whether it is Christ the Tiger; or Kalki on a white stead; Or Anna Hazare.

As Lord Krishna said: Yada yada hi dharmasya glaanirbhavati Bharatah/ Abhyutthaanam adharmasya, sambhavaami yugey yugey.

. Doubt this not, Mr. Patnaik.

And doubt it not, too… that the messiah will come ONLY when the parliaments fail the democratic principle of people’s rule, and become an end in themselves, answerable to none, Supremely disdainful like Sibal and Chidambaram, supremely incompetent and indifferent like Manmohan, and supremely opportunistic like Advani, and supremely glib like Yechuri or Pranab da. Not one moment before.

Crumbling Institutions must be demolished Mr. Patnaik, not shored up by adducing and positing principles. That is what the people are saying today. A temporary revamping will not do. If people have to wait the Pleasure of the Constitutional Head and elect once in five years, without a right to recall, and any criminal with money and men behind him can get elected for 5 years only to nibble away at the public exchequer; then, may be… maybe, its time to do a thorough overhaul of the system. And if a messaiah is needed to galvanize the people into an electric mood.

And the term blackmail used for Anna’s fast and the movement! What is this fasting as a political tool? Well-fed people on a crash diet to reduce weight!! These are some of the comments we hear. Don’t the Jains have methods of self-mortification? Haven’t all systems advocated fasting and prayer and penance? Is Vicarious Suffering good only in Milton and the Bible?

If democracy is only a way of postponing decision-making (the Women’s Bill is another glaring example); if it means ignoring the voice of the people for the next 5 years; if it means letting supporting political parties burrow through the wealth of the nation; if it means messing up the health of the nation, then why, why should there be a democracy in name? Unless it is obligatory for legislators to meet their constituencies regularly in between legislative sessions to acquaint themselves with the views of the people; unless these views are represented and legislation carried out accordingly; unless the governments stop giving routine, lame excuses for not curbing inflation; unless coalition dharma and other such lame phrases are summarily expunged from the diction of law-makers…

Messiahs will come and keep coming. May Anna, Aruna Roy, Kejriwal and others emerge as the conscience –keepers to the nation. May they shake up the foundations of such ‘democratic parliaments’ which are paralyzed for no reason other than the fear of punishment for wrong –doing.

There have been many exposés in the last few days about Anna Hazare and his past and his ‘ideology’. How come there are no such exposés about Kalmadi, and kanimozhi? What about the grand tale of Manmohan’s permanent residence in Assam from where he is a MP of the Rajya Sabha? When reality is such a blatant lie, does it matter that Anna had a past, if he did, in which he did something wrong? A Valmiki was not born a sage. We’ll take Anna as we took Valmiki. Anna’s fast is his penance. That is the stuff of messiahs. Not the weak-kneed behavior of a Manmohan Singh and his democratic, procedurally bogged down parliament. Don’t compare Anna with Hitler and the Nazis. That is blasphemous.

We chose to support Anna, Mr. Patnaik. And Our choice, people’s choice IS DEMOCRACY.

Let no one insult the intelligence and the sensitivity of the people.

Anna ko Jai(l)

It’s now a little past 3 AM Indian Time (Wednesday ,17^th August).

From 7.30 in the morning (Tuesday, 16^th August), Delhi and many parts of the country have been witnessing amazing scenes.

Arresting Anna Hazare is the most foolish thing yet done in India by any Indian government. Even JP and the Emergency following Tulmohan Ram, Pondicherry License scandal, LN Mishra’s fund raising methods and death at Samastipur, Indira’s technical knock-out by the Allahabad High Court in the Raj Narayan case, were sufficiently political in nature for historical purposes. But Anna’s yet-to-begin fast and ‘detention’? By doing this and then going into huddles and tangles (Ramdev did not teach them how to get untangled!); by media conferences justifying the action, the Indian government got such low ratings as Standard and Poor have never thought of. Releasing one after the other, and then facing Anna’s sit in at the Tihar, the GOI has truly eaten humble pie.

Let us see what Chidambaram and Sibal and Ambica Soni were saying:

but, as he was ambitious,we
jailed him. There is … honour for his valour in the Army;

and jail for his unparliamentary ambition of a free India.

Chidambaram tried his best to look grim and sad , but there was no glycerine on offer. He said, in effect :

Friends, Delhiites, Indians, lend me your ears;
I come to jail Anna, not to praise him.
The evil that Gandhi did lives after him;
The good was scattered long ago with his bones;
So came about Anna . The noble Sibal
Hath told you Anna was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Anna answer'd it.

Here, under leave of the PM and the rest--
For the PM is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men--
Come I to speak at Anna’s Jailing .

You all did see that he asked for thirty days of fasting
When I presented him a simpler choice of three,
Which he did straight refuse: wasn’t this ambition?

Foolish frail fond old man

Three score and twelve years old,

Attired in white from top to toe,

Black in heart, set to arrest the processes of Law-making,

Challengeing in speech and demeanour

Elected representatives and their legally wily ways

His motley brinded dogs in tow

Matching his country-bred ambition to our trained parliament-ways;

Now refuses release from jail,

And refuses room of his own

After Kalmadi’s cell!

What dire designs he draws from the sprites that tend on Kalmadi

in the few hours of joint jail!

He must remain

In jail or Ralegaon.

Delhi be out of bounds.

Else the brinded following swells

Calling for stringent Bills

To include Premiers and princes of darkness

that thrive on deep patronage so near and familiar.

Anna reeks of ranks, not authority

Jail is good for him, not civil liberty.

As always, Shakespeare came in handy for me . Mr. Chidambaram, we can turn a phrase better than you.And Anna can speak a simpler yet directly effective tongue.

Un- Parliamentary Protest

So Manmohan ji and the Congress cronies want Parliament to be respected, and protest to be parliamentary, not the street variety of Anna Hazaare.

Anna has , therefore, been denied permission to protest in his way.

Yes Anna’s method is not parliamentary. He has never been elected and has not attended a session of the parliament or the legislature. He must first learn. Lalu, Mulayam, KCR etc. can be great role models.

Some of the methods are:

1. Be on your feet the moment the Speaker commences a session

2. Stall Zero Hour or Question Hour with an adjournment motion on lack of grass for grazing for the Holy Cow.

3. Speaker advises you to sit, but don’t ever sit. Some one from the treasury benches begins to answer a question, or move a motion, or table a bill. Don’t yield.

4. Treasury benches get vociferous. You raise the decibel level. They go one better. You Rush into the Well waving papers or placards.

5. Speaker adjourns for 30 minutes.

6. Session resumes after 30 minutes. You jump to your feet and bawl out. Some one does one better. You wrench the table mike and wave it threateningly protesting that it is a defensive gesture against possible physical threat from one of that mob.

7. In UP, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh it now turns into a free-for –all. In Tamil Nadu you attempt a Vastraapaharan of whichever woman member is near at hand.

8. Speaker summons Marshalls while directing the secretaries not to note down anything, or expunge what they already have noted down.

9. The Marshalls and the elected representatives are now engaged in a free-style wrestling bout more impressive than WWF professionals.

10. Speaker adjourns till the next day and walks away with an indulgent smile.

11. PM and Kapil Sibal and Chidambaram are happy with the day’s protests. Excellent demonstration of the Parliamentary method.

Anna Hazaare , instead, follows antiquated methods like fasts-unto-death, and singing bhajans at the RajGhat. Obviously Delhi Police will not permit such senseless methods of the Civil Society. .

And Anna is not aware of the most fundamental issue.Protests require money to organize. Where does he get his money from ? Very suspicious sources.

The Elected Reoresentatives, on the other hand, are quite above board. Completely transparent .

They spend well accounted and audited peoples’ money at Rs. 987/= per MP per minute of Parliamentary time..

Jai Parliament !!

The English Riot

England has run riot in the current cricket series.

But what is really troubling is the London riot that spread to Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool…

Flaming shops, looting youth, caning police… pictures all too familiar on TV from various parts of the world; but London? England? The great Briton that ‘civilized’ the world?!!

England’s economy was whatever it was when it was the great imperial power. After the Second World War, and decolonization, did England ever recover its pre-eminence as a world-class economy, and a world power? That’s a question that English governments must have asked themselves over the years since 1947.

Around mid 1970s the coal and energy crises in England were so alarming that England resorted to the measure of a 4-day working week. Clearly the economy teetered on the edge. The American downswing in the last 3 or 4 years, which affected most world markets, and the economies of many countries caused some concern. But governmental support directed by a group of world leaders helped a recovery for a period.

The downgrading of the US by Standard & Poor in the face of a possible debt default dealt the world markets another hefty blow. Suddenly the spurt in gold-prices has begun to assume the aspect of an economic daemon.

Will the economies manage to provide enough employment and will the production of goods continue to be at least stable? Will Industry face a recession? Will service sectors sustain themselves?

London riots gave a brief but graphic glimpse of the prospect. Arson, and looting by organized gangs of unemployed or under-employed people; and police action to restore law and order; possibility of deploying armed forces to restrain the rioters… not a pretty picture at all, Mr.David Cameron!

And to think of England as the harbinger of civilization in so many countries for nearly 200 years…well, well, well.

Just under the skin was raw flesh and blood as the riots demonstrated. All for LCD TVs and bottles of liquour. Did some people grab for food? Was hard currency snatched?

One English woman said on television that it was time “these people knew what real guns and bullets” were. Would that quell the riots? Or ignite more? Her assumption was that only the coloureds were involved in the rioting… that is what the TVs showed. Is there more to it than sheer opportunistic, ‘copycat’ criminality?

The economies, friends, are failing. The looters who took TVs and liquor are simple people who reated to an economic indicator. Real looters such as Raja and Kalmadi and their counterparts in England and elsewhere have already done their bit … with the willing or unwilling support of Camerons and MM Singhs.

London riots are a warning bell to the economies and the governments of the world.

All is NOT well gentlemen. Like the Indian cricketers, there is an urgent need to pull up the socks and play the game well.

Indian Cricket's English Test

Yes, India has fared poorly at the English Test.

Went to England as 1^st rankers despite an average series with the West Indies. Wasn’t it clear that the Indian cricket team was already on the downswing?

Harbhajan had no business going on the tourts at all. Zaheer Khan should have declined like a gentleman. Sehwag should have known better than to travel half-way round the world with a sore shoulder. Yuvraj has always been inconsistent. Raina, Kohli , Amit Mishra are a little short of being top professionals.

Sachin’s anxiety for that elusive century has affected his game. Dhoni’s luck has probably deserted him for the time-being. Ishant is about 10 km slower than he was when he broke into the international arena.

So, do we go on analyzing the performance and turn the team into a punching bag? Is the doleful call for Gary Kirsten again warranted?

At all events the obsession with victory and the Number One Ranking is simply silly.

Men will do well for a period. Then they will start tiring and playing indifferently. Why should we demand that they be supermen? Why are we so demanding and mindless? How many of us work well each day of our active lives?

Stop being hysterical, please. If a better team defeats our team, accept it and move on. Find some ways of improving. But don’t degrade an already beleaguered team. They did not go there promising to sweep everything in sight. All we know is that the team has not played well, and there is need for some changes, the most important being a change in our attitude.

Otherwise, the team has been just as inconsistent as Indian teams of earlier times.

Failing the English Test is a good reminder that our expectations were unrealistic. Let’s grow up and be more realistic about victory and defeat.