The Amul Advertisement 

The question is, are they ? worthy that is… not in my opinion. they represent the worst of all other Parties in India, the corrupt brazenness of the Congress, the willingness to take to the streets and disrupt like the BJP, the parochialism of the regional parties, the unwillingness to look at an open market like the left front parties. But, above all, the aspect that gives them their own unique flavour is the nexus between the criminals and the Party. While others may take covert support, there is nothing subtle about the presence of criminals in the SP. It is upfront and present.

But I guess people deserve the Governments that they elect  and UP has elected this lot. The rest of India, as always, will pay a price for the largest, most populous state – remaining backward.

It is strange and surprising that the Congress and the BJP targeted Mayawati and her administration to such a level, without having their own organisational mechanics in place. While Mayawati may have been imperious, and mercurial and turning a blind eye to corruption, – those were not the reasons to target her. It is, as a Dalit Activist friend pointed out, the feeling that “how dare she ? How dare a Dalit Woman not know her place”… that was behind a lot of the attacks on Mayawati.  When you read the English language press on her, you realise how deep rooted caste is in the psyche ..’how dare she wear diamonds’ ‘how dare she carry a bag’ …There are others as corrupt, if not more – remember the scenes of Jayalalitha’s adopted son’s wedding ? – but Jaya speaks English, is convent educated, is one ‘of us’.. Maya, unfortunately, is not.

Yesterday a commentator on DD made a very interesting point – he said that the campaign attacks by Rahul Gandhi, the BJP were so virulent that they served the purpose of shifting the vote to the SP rather than the Congress or BJP.

—————————

The Punjab, the Uttarakhand and the Manipur elections were neither here nor there. Yes, they took place. yes, someone won. Should the winners have won — if there was any sense of right and wrong in the world, no … the Congress should not have won Manipur. the SAD/BJP should not have won Punjab. Khanduri should never have lost…yet these were the results .

The only election result that gives me some hope is Goa. The people of the State came out in large numbers – cutting across caste, community and religious lines – to vote out a Government & a criminal cartel that has pillaged their state, and voting in an Honest, effective man. Manohar Parrikar gives me hope to the same extent that the Samajwadi party drains that hope from me.

————————-

And finally, If the Congress wants to win, it needs to decentralize power & let others come to the fore. This is not a family business, and over reliance on one family is suicidal.  The reason for this rout is neither corruption nor any other issues. It is Organisational Paralysis brought about by all decision making – party and Government – being concentrated in the hands of two or three people. If the BJP wants to win, it needs to consolidate power in fewer hands. Too many chiefs and too few followers. Where leadership was clear, they won. Where there was too much they lost.

And why do i care ? because I don’t want a third front government. Rather one or the other – the Congress or the BJP ….but, for that they need to get their act in place.

Bhavna Jain is one of the Candidates fighting the BMC elections from ward 64 in Juhu. She represents the Congress and is part of the Congress NCP alliance. The ward has around 50,000 voters.

I went to meet her at her office right next to Kishore Kumar’s bunglow in Juhu. . She had popped out for lunch and I sat there watching her party workers doing whatever it is that party workers do.  Sitting there, in an observer mode, a thought crossed my mind – despite lip service to equality, politics is very much a man’s world. Any woman is automatically at a disadvantage, especially in grass-roots politics. And, if you are a first generation aspiring politician – who has lived a middle class life, then it is all the more daunting.

But, Bhavna takes this

Bhavna comes from a fauji family. She has lived all over India. She finds ward 64, that she hopes to win for her party, a microcosm of Indian diversity. The ward extends from SNDT college to Juhu airport – has the koliwada (fisher colony) inhabited by Konkani speakers, has an enclave of Rajasthani Muslims, there are a bunch of Tamil speakers, plus a small enclave of people from UP – both Hindus and Muslims and of course the middle class, Juhu is one of the more prosperous parts of Mumbai – a number of people from the film fraternity, businesses, eateries etal.

An Engineer/MBA by training, Bhavna moved to the US with her husband way back in the 1990′s. They both returned 5 years ago because they wanted to be part of the India story. She joined politics because she believed it is important to take that plunge if you want to make the difference.

Why the corporation elections, i asked. After  all, not every aspiring politician looks at local government to make a mark. She smiled as she said that this was the most important form of Government as it could directly impact the lives of the people who lived there. Her priorities are water, sanitation and schools.

She has given up her US green card to stay on and take part in politics. I felt it was kind of extreme, and told her so. She said that she didn’t’ want her opponents to have a stick to hit her with ….. she was here to stay and work.

It is so easy to give up on the political process or say it is a dirty game not for ‘people like us’.  it is so difficult to try to make a change despite all that you know about the system.

Many thanks to Priyanka Chaturvedi for that introduction

This is from the Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh’s Facebook Page :

The Cabinet, presided by Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh on Sunday night, gave green signal to the draft National Food Security Bill after a brief discussion

Once the law is implemented, the food subsidy bill is expected to rise by Rs 27,663 crore at nearly Rs 95,000 crore, while foodgrains requirement would go up to 61 million tonnes from 55 million tonnes, as per the Cabinet proposal.

The Indian National Congress had promised food law in its manifesto for 2009 election and President had announced this in her address to the joint session of Parliament in June 2009.

In rural India, up to 75 percent of the people will be covered, with at least 46 percent under priority households (which is same as below poverty line families in the existing public distribution system).

Up to 50 percent of people will be covered in the urban centres, with at least 28 percent under priority category.

The bill seeks to provide 7 kg of rice, wheat and coarse grains to per person per month to priority households at Rs 3, Rs 2 and Rs 1 per kg, respectively.

This is much lower than the rate at which foodgrains are currently supplied to poor through ration shops.

Under present PDS, 35 kgs of wheat and rice per month is supplied to 6.52 crore BPL families at Rs 4.15 and Rs 5.65/kg, respectively.

General category would get at least 3 kg of grains at a rate not exceeding 50 percent of the minimum support price.

At present, about 11.5 crore APL families get at least 15 kg of wheat and rice per month at Rs 6.10 and Rs 8.30/kg, respectively.

The proposed law has been under consideration of an empowered group of ministers, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, since September 2009.

Smt. Sonia Gandhi led National Advisory Council (NAC) and an expert committee headed by Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) Chairman Shri.C Rangarajan had also submitted their recommendations on the bill.

Can see the next election slogan : 1 2 3 or it could be 3 2 1

I only wish that it comes in with targeted delivery – directly to the household, an overhaul of the PDS system and economic reforms v2 to pay for these. Hope this does not mean more tax – nothing worse than taxing yourself into a recession to pay for welfare.

There are a 1000 loopholes that come to mind, but I can’t see anyone – in power – seriously objecting to these. Not unless they don’t mind losing elections. The key is going to be in delivery. Would be very interested to know how they plan that.

Some questions that would need to be sorted out are:

a) How do you decide BPL. I know a figure has been set. But, how does a family/individual prove that they are BPL ? 

b) How are you going to deliver the food to the households? Is it via the ration shop? is there some other mechanism? what is this mechanism?

c) If the government is going to buy and sell grains – and in effect becomes the monopoly food aggregator and reseller – what happens to food prices for the rest of the country – those not covered by the FSB? is this going to push people APL down to BPL? We are not talking about huge economic differences between the two. 

d) Instead of subsidised food why can the Government not look at a cash transfer, once a month/once a fortnight/ at regular intervals. Let people figure the food they are going to eat. I understand that the NAC opposes this because they are afraid that the men will use the money for alcohol, but the monies can be given to the female. Besides, there is nothing to prevent him from selling the food to get the booze. or indeed selling his wife. The Government is not nanny. Not its job to keep people away from the bottle. 

e) How, for example, are the urban homeless going to be targetted to receive food. Will they receive food? Where will they cook it ? 

f) How frequently are the food transfers going to take place – once a month, once a fortnight, every quarter … how is the government going to store the food? 

g) How is this going to be paid for ? Is the government going to print more money ? is it going to raise taxes? Is it going in for growth. 

For the record, i don’t oppose welfare. I believe that if we have aspirations to be a great nation, a just society – you can’t have over half your population going to sleep on an empty stomach. I also know that this 50% is below the radar of market forces. Non people. non consumers. My concern is two three  fold ,

•  the food should reach the intended.
•  The cost of reaching the food to the intended should not pauper a new set of people – those just above poverty line. 
• you don’t open up one more avenue for leakages & corruption.   

Yesterday, Parliament didn’t work for the 20th day in a row. It was disrupted from doing any business. I almost expect the headlines, in the next few days to say — “today MP’s did work” ….

What does that mean – that means, that the Government that the people of India have elected to power to deliver a certain set of goals – could not deliver what it is meant to do, because the Opposition – or the bunch of people, that the Indian voter did not think fit to exercise power – decided that this is the way to bring about their agenda.

What are the issues:

The Opposition Stand
The opposition parties - the BJP and the Communists – want a Joint Parliamentary Commission (JPC) – to look into the allocation of 2G licenses. They believe that there were massive kickbacks involved in the process. They claim that the loss to the exchequer in forgoing the auction process (which was followed in the 3G allocation) cost the country some lakhs of crores. They claim it is the single largest loss to the exchequer in history. The CPM is slightly flexible  on the JPC. the BJP is not.

Do I agree with the Opposition’s stand - yes & no. there needs to be investigation. However, where I disagree with them on disrupting Parliament.

There, in my view, is this petulant childlike  obstinacy on the JPC, only the JPC and nothing but the JPC – and where their behavior scares me is that if we don’t get our way, we won’t let you – the State – discharge its duties. And, we shall hold our breath, throw a tantrum and generally be disruptive till you do exactly what we want. Furthermore, the three JPC”s held to date have really not done too much except muddy the issue more – the first, for example, was on Bofors, the second on insider trading and the third on pesticides in Colas and ground water pollution…

My major objection with the opposition stand – The Opposition in India is behaving like the opposition in the Weimar republic - in discrediting the system – not the Government -and paving the way for a more unilateral system…..

The Government Stand

The Government – the Congress and its Allies – say yes there were irregularities. But they say that the loss was presumptive. What does this mean – it means that had it been auctioned x would have been  earned, but since the UPA didn’t follow auctioning and went in for revenue sharing – this is not the loss, for there is money going to be earned in perpetuity. But, the UPA admits that there were irregularities, says that it will be investigated bur refuses the JPC. It has set up a one man committee to investigate the issue

note: Presumptive loss – the best analogy i can give is on gender. Lets’ say you – dear reader – are a woman. As a woman you are a presumptive male – for, If your father had contributed the other chromosome ( Y) you would have been a man:)
In economics, this is also the opportunity cost of making a decision – in life this is the road  not taken

Do I agree with the Government’s stand – Yes and No. Yes – it is a presumptive loss. No – that they behaved like ostriches on corruption and flouting of the system. and i am also bugged with the fact that they tried to brazen this out till the heat got too much.

I personally want to see the loss recovered, the matter investigated, the accused investigated and the guilty punished. It matters not whether it is a PAC, a JPC or a XYZ.  What I would be unhappy with is a coverup. I am unhappy that the Government has taken so long to figure out that something was drastically wrong in the process, even more unhappy that it has taken so long to get out of collective hibernation to take action.

__________________________________________________________________________

The Congress needs to understand that it is in Government. And this is for a 5 year period and not perpetuity. You cannot hide behind ‘coalition dharma’ – if the coalition partners are that dirty, dump them and call for elections. You have not been elected to power -you have been elected to Govern – it is time that began happening….

The BJP needs to understand that the people of India didn’t want to elect it to power or to govern  twice in succession. They need to ask why. Is part of it their own petulant behavior? Their desire to flout the system and take to the streets and disrupt everything if they don’t get their way. Maybe the BJP needs to dump its leadership and find people who are rational and in step with the mainstream electorate – not fossils who are as compromised as anyone in the UPA….

_________________________________________________________________________

Finally, if I – the voter – want a change from the UPA at the centre what is my choice ….. a political party that behaves like a 3 year old spoilt child in a mall ???

… because  they evoke violence in non violent people.

I am mostly non violent.

But, there are times when i watch or hear TV – not often, because I have severely curtailed news viewing since 26/11 – that I have this desire to reach through the screen and ‘bajaofy some poeple, kaan ke neeche “. I can’t help it. It is instinctive. It has nothing to do with their politics or the parties that they represent. It has more to do with who they are and the ‘snake oil salesmanship’ that oozes out of their entire being.

I am sure that I am not alone in finding the bulk of the political class unbearable. But, these especially get me thinking of violence against my poor TV set. So in no particular order of their ability to irritate are my top nominees

Ravi Shankar Prasad – ‘let me tell you my good friend ” he starts, and then the whole conversation derails. He is patronizing, dogmatic and just the kind of person you don’t want to listen to. the kind of older uncle you have, who says ‘what do you know – when i was your age….”

Rajiv  Pratap  Rudy – if I was casting, he would be the used car salesman. His handling of Tharoor and Parrikar have been seriously bad – reeking of envy rather than opinion & have ended up making his party seem even more inept.

Manish Tiwari – I am quite sure that every time this man turns up in public and opens his mouth – he loses his party supporters. He is seriously irritating, ill informed and blunders where idiots fear to tread.  The first search result when you search for him is this, and what it says is apt for him :

Content will come here.Content will come here.Content will come here.Content will come here.Content will come here.

Abhishek Singhvi : the kid in class who wants to get the eye of the teacher, the one who will bring her a flower or an apple. Smart, the way a school debater is, and just as blinkered. Life is not about scoring points, nor about defending the indefensible – it is about the courage of conviction.

Brinda Karat : EVerytime I hear her, i have the urge to throw something heavy at the TV screen.  The kind of person who, along with her husband, has destroyed the ideological ingrity of the Communists.  When I hear her on China, I want to ask her “where do your loyalties lie ”

Ram Vilas Paswan - His desire for power has been so great, that he can fight on any side of the issue; maybe even simultaneously . He epitomizes the line ” how do you tell a politician is lying; his lips are moving” – more than anyone else i can recall in polity

Which of them get your goat ?