Spineless Nincompoops and Hitler Didi

Mamta Bannerji gets a farmer arrested for asking questions in her rally (sec 332/334), alleging he was a maoist. It was a professor earlier this year, who the police had detained on similar charges.

This is indeed the real India, but I thought this was not the metro India. I believed, such high handedness was not possible in metros. But politicians wielding the power that they do, it is quite possible.

The media once again snuggled with the underdog. Highlighted the high handedness of Didi and the concomitant public outrage secured the release of the farmer / bus conductor.

I sometimes feel we are a country of spineless nincompoops. There is a well-written law in the country. There are a host of educated people at the helm in the form of the civil servants who make the permanent executive, who are supposed to implement this well defined law in the country.

Why then do they obey whimsical and autocratic dictates of truant and corrupt politicians? Why does the commissioner of police not tell Mamata B, that the farmer cannot be arrested on such charges? Why does the police not tell the political masters trying to delay the arrest of Kanda, that he needs to be promptly arrested.

Why is that at the behest of a senior politician the police let the entire top brass of Union Carbide scoot out of the country?

Because we are all corrupt, we have misplaced public values (I here make a distinction with personal or social values ), and we are a bunch of spineless nincompoops, who can bend backwards to those who we believe are in places of authority.

While I was growing up, I always believed, women genetically and also by virtue of their role in society, would be more rational, tolerant, empathetic and kind in their handling of situations. But Bahenji, Indiraji, Soniaji, Amma and Didi, are all women and all quite ruthless, quite high-handed and also quite autocratic.

I too am a critic from the fringes, and from the little I understand of what plagues our country, I thing it is lack of love for it, and a lack of pride in ourselves, and a abjectly vague sense of duty. Two very simple ways of stemming this rot could be, re-instating a compulsory moral science class and making NCC compulsory till class 10 in schools.

Why Not Ramdev??

A section of the masses is supporting Ramdev. I don’t think Ramdev is a great yoga guru. But clearly he has made yoga popular. And imparted it a popularity that veterans like Aiyyangar could not.

Regardless, of yoga lineage, Ramdev has mass appeal and the cause he espouses has merit.

Once again the English media is going beserk. I have said this many times in the past. They bring clowns like Suhel Seth, English reaking of an  accent of upstarts and with material success gone into their heads, they become quite omnipotent. Mediocre caliber and they feel they can be universal commentators on all and sundry happening around them.

Ramdev brought in focus on black money. An issue that had been shoved under the carpet by one government after the other as doing so suited them all. And for bringing this focus Ramdev should be cheered and not challenged. The English speaking sanctimonious elite, have cornered plum positions for themselves at the cost of a constituency that is lower in its proficiency in English. And having done so, they feel they are in their right to criticize any person or movement that is "earthy". Which means that is unpretentious.

Madhu Trehan asks TV channels to boycott Ramdevs movement. She expects the media to expose Ramdev. In a democracy what matters?  The numbers. How do you put pressure on a government? By showing numbers. What then is wrong if Anna or Ramdev show numbers. When they dont show numbers, media starts lamenting loss of popular support. When they tom tom numbers, media and self appointed critics cry hoarse otherwise.

I am convinced about one thing. This English chatterati, couched in the comfort of their airconditioned homes, take such frivolously sanctimonious postions that they make a mockery of themselves, show complete lack of understanding of fundamental issues irking the people, and come to debate to appear elite and evolved with personal agendas cloaked in garb of make believe erudition and social wisdom.

It would be amply appropriate for Suhel to comment on Lakme Fashion week, and he may even make sense there, but he must decline invitations to panels that ponder on privileges of democracy. I also don't understand why Arnab should invite such people.

The Indian Caste System………..

One thing is clear. The Indian caste system is an enigma to the geopolitically and demographically Balkanized west and Europe in particular. The western scholars find the caste system so very intriguing that they spend a lot of time in delayering its complexity and getting to its kernel.

In its current form or even in the form that it was practiced a century ago, the complexity of caste system and its protean nature has always befuddled the western mind. One reason for this is, the western scholar wants to be a universal commentator on all cultures which is humanly not possible. He tries crash courses in cultures with the endeavor to understand, dissect and dissert on them, tries to objectively categorize facts, sets and subsets, with an objectivity that any evolutionary phenomenon would clearly defy.

Imagine, if an Indian or Chinese would try and document the evolution of the various sects of christanity, and try and fit every sect and cult in some corner of a 2x2 matrix. Fitting sects like the Mormons or Scientologists, the various other sects of Christians or some other cults like the Cargo Cult would not be simple for anyone who has not experienced the society from within and analyzed it from without.

But since the Indians and Chinese have never undertaken this lofty task of meandering the maze of western civilizational evolution and analyzing the western world, particularly with the abandon typical of mediocre scholarship with which the western world has always attempted to dissect the eastern one, the tortuousness of the task will never be well understood.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the term used for the “exterior castes” was “depressed”. This is how the British described the nether of the nether castes of south, whose shadow on the twice born Brahmins warranted purification.

When the British were in India, they spent a huge amount of money and equal amount of resource in getting a parameter of caste incorporated in the censuses. Well, equipped with this, it was simple to follow the policy of divide and rule.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, if you would ask a Sikh who he was, he would veritably say - Hindu. The British in their conniving trademark smartness which they called statecraft and I would call Machiavellian Statecraft, introduced Sikhs as a new feed in the censuses and forms of employment, and with ease created an new identity, and they granted on it a martial status (though the Sikhs had in their fold non martial castes also), something that the British to the hilt exploited till the terminal part of the their rule in India.

Similarly, an extremely scientific methodology was used to drive a wedge between the Hindus and Muslims. And Morley wired to Minto “ what you tell me about mohommedans is full of interest …………….and it has prevented them from any longer being representing the Indian Government as the ordinary case of bureaucracy versus the people” and the situation would not be seen as the British Government and the people of India, but as “Hindus versus Muslims”.

As an Indian, I really don’t understand why the caste system is so enigmatic for the westerner. If the South German is a better mechanic than the north, and French a better perfume maker, and Italians better tailors, and in Ukraine the Kozaks better warriors than the rest, then why is the caste system, the origin of which was in the division of labor, so enigmatic. So one would argue that these were not hereditary. But then the guilds once upon a time were indeed hereditary.

Whenever I am traveling in Europe, lot of educated European professionals inquire about the “Indian Caste system” and “arranged marriages”. Existence of caste system or social stratification is not so obvious in Europe and needs a discerning scholar to draw evolutionary parallels, but arranged marriages in Europe were happening till not too long ago.

The British also found the caste system intriguing, and wanted to use it to their advantage. If the country could be divided on caste and religion, their task of perpetuating a exploitationist rule would be that much simpler. And for this reason, they introduced caste in the censuses. Sometime I feel, if the French has colonized the country, the governance may have been poorer, but the effect of colonization may not have been so long lasting. The British, be it Israel or India or wherever they have been, have left bacterial strains which are all antibiotic resistant.    

               To be continued……………

A Victory for the Corrupt but Pyrrhic one

I have more often than not criticized the Indian Media, particularly the English Media for drumming up support for frivolous issues like the story of racial slur for an muslim ex army major.

More relevant and actually burning issues like Anna and Kejriwal’s fast against corruption or the turmoil brimming in the NE go under reported. Today most channels particularly the English ones, have been reporting the comparatively feeble support that Anna’s fast is getting this time. This conclusion is drawn from the crowds which are not teeming this time, as compared to last time.

The media is projecting this as a failure of “team Anna” or even their fading lure and popularity. How can this be deemed as failure of team Anna? Anna is fighting against corruption. If support of the people is dwindling, then it is defeat of the people, it is defeat of the fight against corruption and it is also a pyrrhic victory for corruption. The latter being usual for an India congenitally (birth in 1947) plagued with chronic corruption. 

Rahul Gandhi's Special Observer for Shopping Malls

I have been very verbose about the culture of VIPism so rampant in the country. And one of its most obvious manifestations is the beacon light on the car. Particularly in the NCR, adorning the car with a red beacon light is a disease symptomatic of a exploitationist political system poised to eventually collapse under its own weight.

MPs / MLAs mount these red beacons mostly without entitlement on their cars’ roofs, and emulating them, smaller wannabe ranks like Sarpanches of villages do the same. What advantage it fetches them is clearly beyond my ken.

Today I saw a red light on a Skoda Yeti HR 36 R 9799. This car also prominently displayed via a computer generated paper sticker “special observer deputed by Shri Rahul Gandhi”. I took a picture of this car, as I found this hilarious. And I am impelled to share this picture with you. One must have a disdainfully low IQ to be able to flaunt a signage of this sort on a car.

I believe, this is one of the many queer ways in which the Gandhi family could be rewarding unalloyed loyalty. But I only hope, Rahul Gandhi is aware of this observer who is already basking in the glory of such appointment. We saw this car parked prominently without a driver at the Spencers Mall in Gurgaon and then in Ambience Mall again in Gurgaon. It seems Rahul Gandhi appointed an observer to observe shopping pattern and habits of weekend mall trotters.

Barkha Spare Me.........

Just as an adulation starved star struggling to come to terms with the sun setting on his stardom, bid adieu to life, the press went in overdrive revving up un-foreseen nostalgia on television prime time, with chat shows hosted in admiration and honor of the dead actor.  I wish that the poor fellow who longed for this attention while he lived, should have had at least 2 more days of life, to experience that what he longed for - when it did finally fall his way.

What is interesting is that the media specially the supposedly suave English Media went ga- ga over the passing away of the star. It took this as an opportunity to revive the faded stardom, and of course in turn to resurrect its own TRPs.

The media is going berserk these days. I won’t mind living with Gabbar till  someone can save me the trauma that Barkha subjects me to through her high pitch anchored programs. Barkha Datta gets on my nerves. Yesterday, she took a harrowingly long program on Major ……  Muslim (who is clearly not a terrorist), who apparently faced racial slur from an airline.

We all face discrimination and all the time. We call it discrimination, but it is profiling. We call it profiling, but it is actually generalization. We call it generalization, but it is just human quest to seek patterns, and patterns that help us cope with or simplify complexity, and when you try to do this you generalize, and when you generalize, those who don’t fall in that general pattern will always feel persecuted, and that is what happens with some well meaning muslims. Brahmins may discriminate against others, hindus against Sikhs, whites against blacks, the black dominated government in S Africa against whites, the English against French, the latter against Germans.

I am sure, if you give 5 different ethnicity names to a group of muslims and ask to choose a name that could possibly be a terrorist, with a handsome reward for the correct answer, a majority from them would choose the muslim name. Not because they hate muslims, but because, they are humans and their brain also is continuously looking for patterns in behavior.

Again, if there is group of people, and from among them, you have to choose the Indian, then perhaps the one with brown skin will be chosen as Indian, which may not always be right, but that is how, in lack of prior knowledge, a person reacts.

Hear ten voices, and the ones high in pitch, will perhaps be the womans’, and would you call it profiling. What is the probability that a car reverse parked after many attempts was driven by a woman? High, is it not. Which does not mean there aren’t good women drivers. How can you deny, Islam is more aggressive than Christianity or Buddhism or Hinduism.

Why do then Barkha and her likes create a ruckus about issues of the army major type.

Can some one save me from her??

WHO WANTS TO COME BACK

I have done too much of travel in the last one month. Been out 3 weeks out of 4 and am flight fatigued. It is after many years that I embarked on a multi-country Europe trip, types of which I used to undertake as young business developer. But things are much simpler now, than then. Hotels can be booked via internet, you don’t have to depend on clients and agents. With the exception of the UK and Switzerland, you carry and use one currency – Euro, you monitor one Visa - Schengen. In the mid 90s, a 5-country trip meant as many visas and equal number of currencies. 

I was also traveling to eastern Europe after many years. When ever I am in eastern Europe, I feel more comfortable than I am when I am in Europe. The people look more relaxed. The architecture is syncretist - old communist with an abundance of red on the exterior with a fleeting presence of the Venetian as style journeys to the modern European, and the buildings are not yet monstrously sky scraping, people are smiling, the landscape verdant, mildness in mien - the body language is polite, and more than anything, there is hope in contrast to anxiety and anticipation that is writ large on the visage of the west European.

Well this was Slovenia, where I was for a day for a business meeting. And the architecture was a pleasant contrast to the heavy business architecture of Shanghai, where I was just 2 weeks ago. It seems the short Chinese want to make the tallest buildings. But that is China.

Dinner was at an Indian restaurant. An Indian couple travelled to Slovenia, and set up a restaurant there. The man came back after 4 years of living there, the woman stayed back, and re-married a Slovenian. The daughter / girl who runs the restaurant was born in Slovenia, and speak fluent Slovenia.

This story is not uncommon in immigrant familities, I can tell you. The man wanting to return to India and the woman wanting to stay back. I think we as a society give our women respect, but deny them on many counts their freedom. And this denial could manifest in multiple ways depending on which section of society she belongs to. For example, in the lower sections, you may force her to work in the field, but admonish her working in a public place. In the middle class, the man may work extra hard to provide for her, but disapprove her assigning priority to professional aspirations.

Besides, the very eco-system in India makes them lean on men for daily needs. The traffic snarls are so appalling, you need a lion’s heart to venture out to drive. For most women, reversing and parking being their Achilles heel, the over zealous parking attendant persisting to squeeze into the crevice of a parking space 2 cars where there is space for barely one is truly a nightmare.

And of course, the maze of relations and extended family and concomitant obligations are all very well to honor once a year, when you return to your country for a vacation, than to live in the whole year long.   

Have you heard of Khudiram Bose ? (Uday Vikram)

Yesterday, I stumbled upon a poem that my elder son, Uday Vikram, has written and since some of my friends wanted to read it, I thought of uploading it on my blog. I was myself amazed at the sentiment that urged him to pen this poem on the birth anniversary of Khudiram ----what I wish and pray for is that such feelings live in this lad as he grows and the reality of the world does not kill this zeal and sentiment. 

Have you heard of Khudiram Bose
(Uday Vikram)

Have you heard of Khudiram Bose?

He sure has heard of you

Gave up his life with no remorse

To end your servitude

Lively as they say he was

A sharp and hungry mind

Troubled with the thought he was

Of enslavement of our kind

Orphaned at the age of six

But Bose had no regrets

Because the mother whose love he so relished

Was clearly under threat

Vande Matram, he screamed

A young boy of fifteen

Vande Matram, he screamed

Calling out to a nation asleep

A call that shook the tyrants

A millions laathis fell

But it took a lot more than violence

To have her sons quelled

Vande Matram in the town

The streets it did fill

Young boys scuffled around

Distributing hand bills

Have you heard of Khudiram Bose?

He sure has heard of you

Gave up his life with no remorse

To end your servitude

In  Medinipur, 103 years ago

Assembled a crowd of youths

Cast they maddened looks around

But the air was free of hoots

No hues, no shouts

The morning lay in peace

But in came, to drive them out,

Goons of the police

Blood stained the court of guns

Merciless, the laathis came

But up stepped a loyal son

Sushil Kumar was his name

He snatched the weapon from the brute

A boy not older than me

The coward trembled in his boots

While the crowd cheered in glee

He beat the scoundrel black and blue

Before his screams were heard

But our young hero was captured too

And produced before Kingsford

With each stroke of the whip he yelped

But not for help or for himself

Vande Matram, he cried

After each blow was dealt

And to everyone who shed a tear of pride

The fire so fierce had not yet died

For now each drop of teenage blood

Was building up a freedom flood

Have you heard of Khudiram Bose?

He sure has heard of you

Gave up his life with no remorse

To end your servitude

Kingsford feared his death was near

To Muzaffarpur he fled

But to the sons the aim was clear

Sushil must be avenged

Summer’s April 1908

The Jugantar leaders met

Chose they Bose and his mate

To reap the creeper’s death

Prafulla Chaki was chosen too

To repay our beloved mother

Whom they both were loyal to

And thus set out the brothers

The bombs and guns coincidental

To free the mother they both strove

Where only the eyes and heart proved essential

To find the path they roved

Bihar, the home of countless legends

Had given birth to yet another one

With teeming talks of Marx and Lenin

But his mind was ruled by none

Ninth grade, when he first rose

To the service of his mother

And then the anger just explodes

And conquers like no other

A sense of wrong and right

Was all that was required

To bring them all to fight

And leave generations inspired

Have you heard of Khudiram Bose?

He sure has heard of you

Gave up his life with no remorse

To end your servitude

The duo reached the town

With no shoes on their feet

After days of following Kingsford around

They planned an ambush on the street

Around 8.30 as planned,

The judge’s carriage was spotted

They bombed it and ran

They thought they had got it

But Alas! What a disaster!

The carriage contained not the judge

But the wife of a barrister

Who with her daughter was struck

They both ran in different directions

25 miles of running

Before Bose stopped at Veni Station

A sight quite stunning

Clothes unkempt, bare mud -caked feet

And at once police became suspicious

Grabbed him from behind, the cheats

But not against his wishes

Grinned he mysteriously

As the traitors bashed him around

The pistols flew out of his pocket

And Vande Matram out of his mouth

Have you heard of Khudiram Bose?

He sure has heard of you

Gave up his life with no remorse

To end your servitude

Meanwhile, Chaki received some help

A civil servant with regrets

Felt it his duty to treat him well

Gave him shelter, did his best

Mokamghat station

Chaki was discovered

And with no hesitation

He uttered a salute to the mother

And shot himself dead

The English stood in consternation

But they did cut off his head

And sent it home for confirmation

A pity he died among knaves

A great warrior and son

But if we can produce someone even half as brave

The battle is already won

Bose appeared before court

Death was to be his fate

And on the train of martyrdom he climbed aboard

11th August 1908

He smiled as they marched him to his death

What a grievous loss!

But while lived he fought with every breath

And so should you with yours

Have you heard of Khudiram Bose?

He sure has heard of you

Gave up his life with no remorse

To end your servitude.

Rashtrapati Hazir Ho

Once again the matriarch has made a mockery of the electoral system, spited a country and its denizens. But why blame her, it is we who are letting her do it. The highest seat of the country has always been awarded and not attained by those who merit it, having duly followed a process as envisaged in the constitution. This time it has been awarded to a person considered safe and loyal. Coincidentally, the incumbent also happens to be experienced and capable, but that was of lesser relevance. Though the arithmetic supports Pranab Mukherjee, it is to be seen if he is elected un-opposed. The melodrama is on.

As per the constitution, the President of the country has to be elected by the “elected representatives” of the Union Parliaments and the State Legislative House(s). Mark this. The constitution does not even empower / entitle the nominated members of the Parliament or Legislatures to vote. And here, a matronly widow of an ex-PM decides on who becomes the president.

Once upon a time, under the crown, a middling resident commissioner or if you go back further, a petty clerk of a trading company called the East India company, would decide who would ascend the throne of a princely state.

With mirthful contradictions, contortions and back room machinations, the process continues, with a legitimacy that is imparted to it by a specious interpretation of the constitution and a cloak of democracy.  

A bruised Mamta sulks at home, spawning a strategy to get even. Mulayam buys peace for his son just recently in saddle, BJP struggles with internal contradictions to come out in unison. The electorate meanwhile continues to be cheated and betrayed.

RAJNIFICATION OF BOLLYWOOD

Indian Cinema in the seventies - it was the age of rage - anti establishment social rebels, fighting the powerful for the underdog.

Today, steeped in imbecility, one after the other, Salman Khan movies have been making it big, actually huge on the box office. But now Akki too has done it. Rowdy has crossed 100 cr and seems to be going steady. This seems to be heralding a new age in Indian Cinema, and going by the action scenes I would say this is the Rajnification of Bollywood.

Normally I would see such shots in south Indian cinema, and would switch channel in disgust. But now similar super man like scenes, men flinging cars with escape velocity into the sky, are there in Bollywood cinema also, and it is not important if those scenes are relevant to the storyline, but they attract a public which has disposal income, seeks along with excitement instant gratification, and is a generation which does not feel guilty pampering and indulging itself.

More importantly and even creditably stars like Salman Khan have finally discovered their groove. If you are doltish, dimwitted, have theatrical skills worth jeering, compounded by lack of credible educational qualifications of any mentionable worth, it is best that you act real on reel. In all probability, that is the type of role the audience will accept you in. If with the persona of an intellectual midget, you try smarty on celluloid, then the fate will be akin to Vivek Oberoi – oblivion.

For Salman with his diminutive IQ and countenance, acting smart and intelligent would be disastrous. But in acting stupid, (Sanjay Datta is the father of this school), gives the audience a mirthful experience and fetches sympathy for being unpretentious. And Salman’s steroid toned torso brings him the legitimacy to pull off such stunts that any other actor with normal build may actually fail to pull off.

Why Compare Churchill with Gandhi

It peeves me no end, when Sonia and her family is called the Nehru – Gandhi family. She is neither the Nehru family nor the Gandhi family. It also peeves me when some researchers having pretensions of scholarship endeavor to comparatively analyse Gandhi and Churchill. To me, this exercise if not only misplaced but frivolous too, as it compares apples with mangoes. Whereas, Churchill was a PM par excellence, Gandhi was a yogi, with a mission more noble and methodology more exalted than all else. While Churchill slaved no end to ensure that the sun did not set on the  ill-gotten empire of the crown, Gandhi led a people to enlightenment and freedom. 

Churchill was a great war prime minister and perhaps key in stemming the destructive tide that Germany had become. He could see the designs of Hitler succeed only if the Island Kingdome would collapse. So if England was saved, Europe would be saved. And Churchill did save Europe.

But his analysis of Gandhi was quite shallow and misplaced. He would always oppose any dialog that the Indian Viceroys would have with Gandhi, and desired that Gandhi be ignored and marginalized.

Churchill detested Gandhi not only at the plane of philosophy, but found him unbearable even in conduct, demeanor and mannerisms. He knew, that the east of different. Self denial and abnegation were virtues that the east admired so much that nothing could be a stronger rallying point for the people than Gandhi’s simplicity and self denial.

He also understood, this "middle temple lawyer's" - Gandhi’s ( Churchill pejoratively called Gandhi so) fetish for half dressing could actually wreck the textile industry of Britain. Gandhi’s fastidiousness about food, and his demand for special vegetarian food and milk diet at the Viceregal lodge (whenever he would go to meet the viceroy) in India, would have a mesmerizing impact on the entire country. A simple act of eating vegetarian food and mild will take India closer to freedom. As per the cultural ethos of the country, the age old traditions it cherished, it meant, marking a definitive cultural victory. It was not merely about food. It was a mood that marked ones civilizational superiority. The west was materially much more advanced, but that material advancement was being eschewed and denounced by Gandhi. The east was supposed to be metaphysically more advanced, and that is exactly what was being wooed by Gandhi. Churchill could see this.

But where Churchill failed was, he even remotely in his dreams never did imagine, a diminutive half clad man could deliver the country from the British yoke. He faltered in his judgment of Gandhi.    

SOME QUESTIONS TO RAHUL GANDHI

CHUM, WHAT IS YOUR AMBITION IN LIFE?

WHAT IS THAT YOU LIKE DOING MOST?

PEOPLE CLAIM YOU HAVE LIED TO THEM ABOUT YOUR EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION, IS THAT TRUE?

THERE IS ALSO A STORY YOU WERE DETAINED AT BOSTON AND FBI WAS ASKED TO INTERVENE TO GET YOU FREE, IS THAT TRUE?

WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IS YOUR SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION TO THE COUNTRY IN YOUR 40 YRS OF LIFE?

WHAT DO YOU THINK AILS THE COUNTRY MOST?

YOUR SISTER APPEARS TO BE A BETTER CROWD PULLER, WOULD YOU LIKE TO VACATE IN HER FAVOR?

CAN YOU PROMISE NOT TO LET YOUR ‘GETS ON MY NERVES’ BROTHER IN LAW WILL NOT RIDE YOUR FAMILY EQUITY AND ENTER POLITICS?

WHY DO YOU OR VADRA HAS Z++ SECURITY COVER?

The Joke Presidentship is

Finally tonight, I listened to a debate on how lack-lustre and controversy courting the tenure of Pratibha Patil was as president of India.

The Congress spokeswoman Renuka Choudhary exhibited her hallmark uninhibited eloquence as highlighting Ms Patil’s contribution to the nation by way of improving the gardens of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

This is India, and here, peoples’ expectations of their leaders is so abysmally low, that it takes eons for disillusionment to set in and even longer for political perdition to catch up with these politicians. So for a large portion of their active lives, their indiscretions, their improprieties and often brazen pursuit of personal priorities at the expense of public exchequer go unpunished and un-admonished.

In the US the lady governor of South Carolina was hauled up for her jaunt to Europe, which cost the exchequer USD 127,000 only. Compare it with the per capita GDP of the US. In stark contrast, look at the USD 40 mn that Pratibha Patil spends on her jaunts, and compare is to the less than a dollar a day on which most of India survives. But the ledger of public accountability is so weak, you can get away with murder. You are safe and will do your term as president till the time Sonia Gandhi is merciful.  

To add insult to injury, the congress spokeswoman Renuka called it a learning curve for the first woman president. Come on have a conscience.

President of India

Now there is politics about the new president of the country. Consensus candidate or a contested candidate that is the question. A moot question indeed. But the political polemics notwithstanding, this position even though titular is clearly the highest office of the country. Last time we saw, a diminutive Pratibha Patil, insipid, unsung and verily vapid, catapult into the top seat of the country.  A proclaimed loyalist of the Nehru – Gandhi family. Intriguingly, a family, that has merely a matri-linear link to Nehru, and actually no link to Gandhi, has nevertheless managed to usurp and copyright the Nehru-Gandhi appellation and milk its equity.

If you would browse the CV of Patil, she is merely a bachelors in law. But it appears, she has fought elections only to win and has never lost one. But in India we all know, how elections are won. I have never one bit doubted the sagacity of the Indian electorate, despite low literacy of its sizeable majority. But the whole electoral systems needs an overhaul. A system that is throwing some most undesirable people into high positions of public service like MPs and MLAs, clearly is crying for an overhaul.

Scrap the first past the post system, or scrap the multiple party multiple candidate system without endangering the Ferderal Structure and without undermining the constitutional pillars of our democracy.

Hamid Ansari for president, will make another insipid candidate after Patil, if he manages to steal the race from others. But of course, his credentials are much better. A civil servant of a batch 7 years before I was born. Therefore old. And this is another phenomenon that I can never understand. Why do we hunt out such old people for such positions. In the parliamentary system, the president’s is essentially a ceremonial office, but its passivity gets compounded by the shear age of the incumbents. Who can deny, that with age, as much as wisdom may not get impaired but even enhanced, energy levels seriously are.

Take a look at the BRICS document of the Delhi Summit. It is a clear pointer of the fact that emerging geographies if they would open their markets to advanced countries, it would not be without extracting their pound of flesh. They would like to have a say in world affairs. They would like to participate in deciding the fate of Iran or at least protect their interest with Iran.

In this changing scenario, when India is, along with emerging geographies deciding to throw its weight in global decision making, and is keenly wanting to eschew its position of a passive or at best fringe player, the position of president assumes even greater significance.

In the new normal, as economic development and growth gravitate to Asia, as China cedes some growth to India, as other markets like Vietnam etc. wait in the wings to outstep the best in GDP growth rate, as Russia prepares for the presidency of the G20 in 2013, as India ramps up its trade with Africa to USD 90 bn, that we have a president who is dynamic and can represent us such forums is extremely critical.