My First Tryst with Mist

I don’t believe that it was a matter of traditional rivalry between the English and the Scotts, when my English friend discouraged me from planning a vacation to Scotland for the sporadicity of rain in that verdant country was far worse than it was in his country - England, and so were the mosquitoes – in his candid opinion.

To Indians, whose image of Scotland is pretty much borrowed from what they watch on TV or movies, Scotland is a verdant country that would mesmerize you no end with its natural beauty and abundance of water bodies. But on the contrary my English friend recommended that a vacation in Cotswold would be far more enjoyable than one in a mosquito-ridden Scotland.

Had it not been the referendum that went against the separation of Scotland from the UK, vacationing in Scotland would have meant needing a new currency in your wallet. Good that it did not happen, as at least now, you can spend pounds in Scotland just like you would in London.

MANSFIELD MANOR

When I am in London, for sheer logistical convenience, I prefer to stay at the Cumberland, which straddles the Marble Arch tube station. I have been patronizing this hotel I would imagine now for close to 15 years, and have seen it transition from a dilapidated property to a swanky one today, with majority of its patrons being from the Arab World. Hence, the colorful Hijab and black Burka is indeed the commonest attire that you see in the hotel.

In fact, I feel that Oxford Street, which this hotel on one side skirts, the language that is most spoken is Arabic and not English. The commonest site is of obese Arabs awkwardly ambling on the Oxford street with wads of cash in their pockets for their shopaholic wives’, and of the latter many of them do have more than one.

While, due to compelling schedules, I could not go to Cotswold, I did manage to take a reprieve to Surianelli Munnar. We stayed in the guesthouse of Harrisons Malayalam in the midst of a 2000-acre tea estate. Though technically the monsoons were supposed to have retreated, yet it did not prevent the rain gods from smiling, and I did witness mild drizzle off and on, despite the seasonality cycle proclaiming otherwise.

It was also my first tryst with mist. Having trekked at heights far more than the 1600 mts what Surianelli is at, and explored ranges loftier than this part of the Western Ghats, I had never had the opportunity to walk with my head in the clouds and my hearing impaired with the mist condensate trickling into my ear lobes.

Till I explored this part of my country, I too belonged to the tribe that obsessively marveled the scenic beauty of Switzerland, but the Medupatty masonry-lake cratered in the heart of Idukki district, ensconced in the midst of the Western Ghats is so pristine that it belittles all paeons sung in praise of Switzerland.

End of a Subservient Era

While most psephologists have already given a thumbs - up to Modi, they also believe that a BJP led government is inevitable. This sentiment seems to be traveling to the west as well, and many western powers with the USA in lead and its continental cousin the UK in toe are softening their anti-Modi tirade.

While the counting will start in a few days, the exit polls predict a sweep for Modi. Surprisingly, the sweep is not for BJP so much, as for Modi. For once, I think, the electorate wanted respite from non-issues and desired affirmative policies and sustainable growth.

There is of course a lurking doubt, that not being able to conjure up the requisite numbers, the party may need support from allies and instead of the BJP, it may be the NDA that forms the Government. In such a case, the candidature of Modi, may be contested and Rajnath Singh may emerge as the consensus candidate. While administratively, he is more sound than Modi, and has handled a state that is far more diverse and larger than Modi’s Gujarat, he is clearly more soft than Modi, and his policies may be more inclusive for minorities.

When I say, the policies are more inclusive for the minorities, I mean that the appeasement to minorities that may stop with Modi coming to power would continue if not in the same blatant measure as during the congress regime, yet in sufficient and calibrated measure under Rajnath Singh. While Modi may have started as a RSS Pracharak, today he is far removed from the philosophy of the Sangh, as that philosophy despises self-adulation, in which as of now, Modi is steeped in. The RSS is clearly a movement and philosophy and is never about an individual.

While till date the west has off and on treated Modi as a pariah, it is aligning itself to the writing on the wall, and seems to be warming up the Modi and his brand of governance. It is very important to understand the latter or actually what the west understands from the latter. The Modi brand of governance would be more independent, more resurgent and more nationalist, less tentative and more definitive. Whether that is true or not, is yet to be tested, but that is the common perception from all quarters.

Hereafter, it would not be easy for American diplomatic cadres or the department of State to push India over, or gloss over its priorities or ignore its point of view at international fora.

A hitherto weak-kneed and hesitating government would usually gulp all inane, humiliating and even crass remarks often made by global leaders and be ready to genuflect particularly in front of USA. And letting off without a rebuttal Barack Obama’s remark on Indians consuming more food and fuel as reason for prices increasing in the USA was clearly an act of such qualification.

A friend in RAW with nationalist moorings told me, that Manmohan Singh always addressed Obama as Sir in telephone calls, all of which are taped and therefore a matter of record. It is sad for the head of the largest democracy of the world to be so obsequious. But that was the quality that Sonia Gandhi saw in Manmohan Singh when she handpicked him for the PM’s post. A rare yet classic combination of intellect and subservience.

I only hope the new government will work consistent to national needs and lay the foundation for a strong and resurgent India.

Is Arvind Kejriwal a Person or a Phenomenon

Is he a Phenomenon?

Often in life you don’t have the luxury of choice. If you vacate a space or create a market distortion or an anomaly, you simultaneously create an opportunity for some one else to come and occupy that space and benefit from that anomaly. So you have to fiercely protect your flanks at all times, unless there is a strategic trade-off built in your conception.

It is precisely for this reason that the media today, is unable to boycott Kejriwal or his party, despite the direct insinuations that they have made on the former. While some high pitch anchoring did try to condemn Kejriwal’s comments and subject him some negative press, the fact remains, what he said about the media, cannot be wholly dismissed. There is private investment in the media, there are interest groups, there are alignments that lead to distortion, but as we know all too well, all involved actors are in mode of perpetual denial of such dalliances.

As a fervent votary of the school of thought that no allegation should ever be leveled against any body, institution or person without empirical and speaking evidence, I have never liked the manner in which Kejriwal and his party colleagues go about making allegations.  But the truth is, if you set out to gather credible evidence, then you lose the moment, and the power of that moment is actually what lends relevance to a particular allegation.

One thing that Kejriwal understands fully well is the pulse of the people of the middle class from which he himself hails. This happens to be the most dis-advantaged class in an in-equitable democratic society, as it bears the brunt of the taxation, is usually the recipient of the brutal stick of the government in the case of non compliance, and continuously craves for reason, transparency and semblance of sanity in the manner that the money that it pays as taxes is spent or squandered.

While the middle class in any society is usually the most disillusioned class and is willing to lap up any half-baked or half proven theory of connivance or complicity between sections of government, industry and media; it is also the class that dreams the most. It is to this class that Narendra Modi managed to vend a dream and it is again this class to which Kejriwal is managing to expose the distortion in the dream that Modi till this day is managing to vend. 

So while those at the receiving end of the AAP allegations like the media today may fulminate on lack of hard facts on their allegedly poor public probity, they lack the courage to proscribe this phenomenon to oblivion or wipe him off their pages and air-time.    

Yes, Kejriwal perhaps is not really a person. He is a phenomenon that has rapidly captured the imagination of the burgeoning middle class and the members of the lower class who are on the cusp and are aspiring to enter the middle class. Talk to a taxi driver perpetually harassed by the police, and you will feel the hope he has from the ilk of Kejriwal.

Kejriwal will prevail or fail depending on his organisational skills, the competence of his team and on the delivery of the promises that he has made. 

But whether the person ie. Kejriwal prevails or not the phenomenon shall surely prevail.

FOCUS ON MANUFACTURING

In the 1990s, Manmohan Singh painted the economic canvas of India, in a very different hue.

I was the president of the student body while at Masters, and he was the finance minister. I had invited him personally for my annual function, and he spoke to close to 90 mts without a shred of paper in hand.

The finance minister par excellence I believe has made the most insipid prime minister.

But from then to now, India has travelled a long journey.

Area 1990 2012 Agriculture 29 18 Services 44 56 Industry 26 27

While her performance in services is commendable, the performance in the manufacturing is pathetic.

Sustainability I believe shall come from industry and manufacturing. All other development shall be far more fleeting than that comes from manufacturing.

Even the resilient Indian entrepreneur is far more reluctant to put up a manufacturing unit, than a services unit. The owner of a manufacturing unit is treated like a sitting duck in the country. He is hounded by so many agencies and their clearances that he buckles under the weight of regulatory approvals.

Speak to any entrepreneur and he is repentant about having put up a manufacturing unit instead of a service unit, as the hassles right from unions to government clearances and officers’ unending greed for graft and unofficial gratification just bogs him down. What is even more repugnant to the very rationale of brick and mortar industry, is the ailing supply chain and rickety road system of the country. It takes just ages for commercial transport reaching a destination. The obstructions and check points faced by truckers in India is the highest in the World. The entire system is an anathema for trade.

Another phenomenon that is noteworthy is that the opening up and dismantling of the Raj benefited the south of India more than the North, while the population grew more in the North. One reason could be the far higher FDI that the India south of the Vindhyas has received, than that North of it. It could well be due to the diaspora being more from that region as well, and it is they who are ploughing back money to regions where they hail from and which they understand better.