I don't know how to write poems.Still....

जिन हाथो को पकड़ कर चलना सीखा

उन हाथो पर झुर्रीया पड़ते देखा हैं

जिन कंधो पे बैठ कर, दुनिया के तमाशे देखे हैं

आज उन कंधो को झुकते देखा हैं

जिन अटल पैरों ने हमें राह दिखाया

आज उन पैरों को कमजोर होते देखा हैं

जिनके चेहरे पे हमेशा मुस्कुराहट होती थी

आज उन्हे चिड़चिड़ाते देखा हैं

समय रेत है, काल चक्र अटल है, सत्य है

ये सब सुना है।

मगर क्या कभी तू नहीं झुक सकता?

कभी तू नहीं रुक सकता? कभी तू नहीं थक सकता?

तू किस मिट्टी का बना हैं? क्या वो मिट्टी हमारे अपनों को नहीं दे सकता?

प्रशस्त भारत

On the eve of election results I would like to summarize my wish list for the new Government, no matter whose it is going to be. Sequence is of no particular importance. So here they are:

1. More muscle to the Government: Undoubtedly, these are difficult times in terms of security of our nation. Beheading of soldiers, terrorist strikes, all have seen little or ineffective follow up action. While Maoism is trying to implode India, terrorism is keen on keeping the nation under constant fear, not to mention the “official” ceasefire violations at the border. Under this circumstance, only policy of love won’t do. The Government needs to have more muscle and adopt a no nonsense approach in security matters. In case of breach of trust by neighbouring countries, matters should be taken to a higher level than playing or not playing cricket. Goes an old adage “बिन भय होए न प्रीत ”

Not only in foreign relations, the Government needs more teeth in internal matters too. If an illegal building/colony has to be demolished, it should be demolished. Lack of discipline has led to blatant violation of rules expecting it to be regularized every time.

2. Armed Forces Morale Boost up: Recent naval accidents due to equipment failures and beheading of our soldiers evoking little strong response have done no good to the morale of our armed forces. A nation with a demoralized armed force can never be secure enough. Technology modernization and indigenization should be on the top of the agenda as we are still dependent on foreign technology majorly.

3. Right “Secularism”: Religion should not come in the way of law enforcement, job entitlement and other policy issues. “Indian First” should be the mantra for people of all religion. If a terrorist or a criminal is caught he or she should be punished under the law of the land irrespective of religion. And yes, first he should get caught irrespective of religion and strongest possible law should be made and implemented adopting a zero tolerance approach towards terrorism.

4. Interlinking of rivers: Large areas of our nation are bereft of development due to frequent occurring floods and droughts. Kosi region of Bihar is one such region which is prone to floods. Interlinking of rivers will go a long way in reaching out to impoverished areas.

5. Coherent policy: A coherent and practical policy should exist for everything from land acquisition, coal blocks allocation to environment clearances. Policy paralysis has seen corruption, flight of foreign capital, confusion in key sectors endangering energy security and fear among investors.

6. Encouragement to entrepreneurs: In some section of our society business is considered “bad”. India ranks 134 out of 189 in terms of ease of setting business. These two facts are not disparate. Many good people fear of setting up an enterprise because it involves running around government offices and even greasing palms of officials. In the process you also climb down the social ladder. Single window clearance for setting up of businesses along with clear cut policy and guidelines will definitely help. Only Government can’t create the number of jobs the country needs for its youth.

7. E-Governance: Changing people’s attitude is very difficult but creating a situation restricting leverage and personal discretion is easier. E-Governance which is nothing but technology penetration in Government is the most potent answer to corruption than even a Lokpal Bill. It can kill the scope to be corrupt. Not to forget the importance of a strong ombudsman.

8. Planned urban development: Development in majority of our urban clusters are haphazard

9. Skill Development for rural people: To put it straight it will not be easy to put all rural youths in well placed jobs immediately. Professional skill training and skill upgradation can go a long way in making them employable.

10. PURA: Provision of urban amenities in rural areas, a brainchild of APJ Abdul Kalam is the need of the hour to better the lives of villagers and to decrease migration resulting in less stress on our cities. A win-win game for all.

11. Energy security: The electricity situation in our country is still bleak. Almost 2/3rd of our petroleum needs are imported. All possible options of energy generation should be explored including nuclear.

12. Review of Article 370: The makers of the Constitution envisioned it as an ever evolving body. However, in some senses we have made it static. Article 370 may have been a political necessity when it was implemented. In modern days, there should be a discussion with all the stakeholders on the relevance of Article 370 according special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir and some provisions can be dropped like barring people from other states to buy land/do business in J&K. Integration with the rest of the nation only can draw Kashmiri youths from stone pelting to building a better India.

13. Production based economy: Having a made in India watch on American President’s wrist is still a pipe dream(pun intended). In fact it doesn’t matter if the American President wears made in India watch, what does matter is we should make other countries to rely on us for even supply of materials not only services. We are still a services based economy. We need to put more focus on expansion of our manufacturing capabilities. Given the pool of talent we have, we have huge scope in semiconductor,automobile,electronic equipments,textiles and other manufacturing sectors.

Of course the list is not exhaustive given the fact that I have not yet delved on key areas like agriculture, health education and many others. That would require more space and deliberation. But this is my small personal wish list for the new Government(not exhaustive).

 I would be better off without a pay commission but I definitely need a strong India.

Its not just about Anna

Many of us must have read Lance Armstrong's autobiography "Its not just about the bike." The book was about his fight with cancer and how he almost resurrected himself and went on to win the tour de france, the most coveted cycling competition in the world. As the title aptly suggests it was about hope, the indomitable human spirit and the human endeavour to to counter all odds.

As the current movement has progressed, much has been written about the differences between the govt Lokpal bill and the Jan Lokpal bill. In my post I will focus on just three issues:

1. Why Lokpal is not the panacea of all ills

2. Why I still support this movement

3. What can be done in my view

There is underlying fallacy in the argument that passing a bill or creating a Lokpal will get rid us of all the corruption in the society. Corruption is a multi-dimensional problem which can only be dealt in a multi pronged manner.At the same time, saying that the Jan Lokpal bill is a piece of crap will be highly unjustified as there is an urgent need for an independent, unbiased ombudsman to investigate cases of corruption.

First let us look within. One major cause of corruption in our country is the dowry system. One must "accumulate" money to get his/her daughter married in a "respectable" family. Of course this is no justification for graft but this is a reality. How many of us can gurantee that we won't take a single anna as dowry. In fact I know many people in highly respectable families who treat dowry as ROI (Return on investment) on their son's education. I know many boys (some of them my friends) who proudly put a price tag on themselves. I know some people(even in my extended family) who consider black money as a sign of prestige and judge a job by the potential it offers in terms of graft. Can an effective Lokpal change this.Surely not.The moral degradation in ourselves has been stark and only a moral revolution at personal level can change all this.

No system in the world can cure human intentions gone wrong. The biggest mistake our constitution makers made was that they thought that the coming generations in politics will be equally public spirited and thus they made trust the basis of our constitution.There is not a single institution which has not been compromised and subverted by the current lot (barring perhaps the National Security Guards). What is the gurantee that Lokpal will not go the same way.What if the investigative officers as stipulated in the Lokpal start harassing even innocent officers. What if they get involved in graft and submit a favourable report in corruption cases. Further, most of the cases of graft are based on mutual trust and interest and never get reported. Its only when the deal goes foul people come out with facts.

Creating a legislation is one thing, spreading awareness about it is another. From my own personal experience of working in a public sector organisation the fact remains that RTI is largely being used to settle personal scores.Of course RTI is necessary, so is Lokpal. But the point I want to put is that there is an absence of mechanism to educate the lower strata of the society about the various legislations which are being made. As a result these laws are mostly being used or perhaps "mis-used" by influential and rich local goons.

There are many more reasons why a team of 10 people under Lokpal will not be able to weed out corruption at the lowest level no matter how efficient,honest and of impeccable integrity they are. That obviously does not imply we don't need a strong Lokpal agency in the country. The Janlokpal bill is an effective legislation which should be applied in letter and spirit in public life.Remember that after all, this movement is rightly named a India against corruption and not India for Lokpal. The Jan Lokpal bill is the first step we need to take in our fight against corruption.The fact that it has been tabled in the parliament eight times and not passed it necessitates that the movement incorporates it as one of its demand.

Coming to my support for the movement, it stems from the fact this movement symbolises hope. Its not about one person Anna or about the Lokpal bill. Its about the anger and frustration the common man faces day in and day out. Its about the absence of leadership the current government is having. At the same time it represents the feeling that something can be done, something can be changed. And in my personal memory this is the only time our middle class has come out of their slumber, apathy and cynicism and went on roads to suport a cause.This is perhaps the only movement in the world which is not about overthrowing a regime or a "revolutionary" movement as put up by some ultra left people. Its a very normal,rational, non violent and sensible movement for reform in the existing system. This is not against congress or for bjp or any other political party. As against so many agitations from Telangana to Kashmir where public property were being burnt, this is one agitation where the leader appeals to the people not to damage public property.This is undoubtedly a movement with a soul. People needed a non corrupt personal of unquestionable credentials and uncompromising values and convictions and Anna, surely has given this movement a face, a soul and an inspiration.

Well, the solution to corruption: It has to be multi pronged. I will mention a number of them in a not so orderly manner.A strong Lokpal will definitely be a people's watch dog over the machinery. Alongwith this, we need systemic reforms on many fronts. E-governance alongwith heavy use of technology in all spheres is one of them. After all, its not just the election commission which stopped booth grabbing during elections it was the small and humble electronic voting machine which made peaceful elections a reality.Eliminating human intervention in day-to-day governance activities can go a long way in minimising corruption at ground level. The main cause of this movement is that people are fed up of the current government and they are feeling helpless as they are going to continue till 2014. Instead of providing our elected representatives a sort of lease for five years we should have a right to recall them midway if found involved in corrupt practice or for that matter acting against public good. Electoral reforms will help many young educated people to enter into politics. Talented and educated people are not able to enter politics because they know they are "unelectable" in the current system where money calls the shots. At the same time people of our generation have to leave the lure of fat pay packets and enter the public life. In an interview of an academician, he rightly said that the best brains of our country are selling soaps and shampoos. Further when we are creating a system to punish corrupt officers, we must create complementary system to reward honest people. At present honest people in the system find themselves helpless and find their jon thankless as they are put to so much scrutiny which takes away their productivity without getting rewarded for the good work they are doing apart from personal satisfaction.

I would like to sum up my post with a simple fact : "It was not about Gandhi, and it is not about Anna"

Cut the "Khap".....(oops..Crap...)

Recent times have seen a string of "honour" killings trigerred by the decision of few young men and women to marry, discarding the so called traditions of our society.

In a modern democracy which aspires to be in the league of superpowers, such regressive beliefs and practices are not only condemnamble, but highly derogatory.

Some of the killings were systematically ordered by the self proclaimed moral guardians and granted sanction by the village lords "Khap Panchayats" which disapproves intra gotra marriages.

Let us move towards the genesis of the two terms involved: "Khap Panchayats" and "Gotra".

Khap panchayat is an age old caste based body which controls the system of justice delivery by virtue of its caste members being in majority over a particular area. They were granted some sort of legal sanction during the british rule. After all the Britishers main aim was not justice delivery and the less nuisance they faced on this front the better it was for them. It helped them in maintaining social control and acted as a filter between the masses and the mainstream justice delivery mechanism.

Some vedic texts point to the fact the concept of Gotra emerged from the following of various religious saints. The followers of a particular saint were classified as being members of one Gotra and intra gotra marriage was prohibited. Thus the followers of Kashyap rishi were classified as belonging to the Kashyap gotra and that of Rishi Atri as belonging to Atri gotra. It is more to do with learning lineage than patrilineal descent. The motivating factor behind prohibiting intra gotra marriage was perhaps not incest but the belief that marrying a person of other gotra would result in increase in number of followers of that saint.

Now in the present circumstance how much of it is relevant?

To make matters worse the union of India has intervened in the social arena by making distinct laws related to marriage:The Hindu Marriage Act,1955 and The Special Marriage Act,1954. Section 29 of the hindu marriage act already prohibits certain kinds of marriages as being incestuous. At the same time it allows certain real incestuous marriages such as marriage with one's niece among some communities, considering local traditions. This itself smacks of appeasement of caste in-groups. The state cannot be on both sides at the same time. If you are giving sanction to the local sentiments, you will have to give value to all local sentiments irrespective of region, religion etc. Or otherwise the better option is obviously to have a uniform civil code which is compatible with the democratic ethos of a progressive country.The state has itself left the scope for illegitimate demands to be made from various groups.

In times when even the SC has asked the state to incentivise inter caste and inter religion marriages the state has created a separate piece of legislation "The Special Marriage Act" for such marriages though a welcome step in this direction but the 30-day notice period stipulated in the act itself smacks of double standards. I suppose even the makers of this legislation were not fully convinced with the idea of inter caste/religion marriages. I believe that apart from cricket and bollywood, the only thing which has the potential to create a non parochial, non fundamentalist society is inter religion, region and caste marriage. After all love knows no boundaries, so should marriage.

This was about criticising others, now let us come to our own selves. Many of us boast of being an "open-minded", "liberal" person but the truth can be gauged every sunday by just making a passing reference to the newspaper matrimonial ads. Almost all of them are highly educated people: some Manager in a top notch company, some IAS officer, all vying for marriage "strictly" within their own caste. We expect our politicians to follow the model code of conduct when elections are announced but we ourselves cannot devise a uniform code of conduct for simple thing as marriage. Don't forget that at least our political parties had the alacrity to develop a model code of conduct for themselves...but alas we don't have it.

Solution: another law? Obviously not. We already have the Section 302 of the IPC for murder and I think it is sufficient to deal with any kind of murder irrespective of its motive. If we continue to make laws based on each motive we will have hundreds, if not thousands. Moreover a new law cannot change long instilled social beliefs which have become regressive. Its time we change the mindsets of people around us, ourselves, our friends, relatives and what not. Let us atleast be vocal against such parochial mindset. Let all the religious leaders and community members meet and devise a uniform civil code for all of us. After all who is the state to decide who should we marry or not. And as far as the Khaps are concerned....lets cut the "Kh"(Cr)ap....

As far as I am concerned I don't know my gotra and not even concerned. Are you?

The "HR" lobby.......

Even before the quantum of sentence is announced in the 26/11 case the so called self professed proponents of Human rights are out with their knives. They are opposing the expected death sentence for Kasab.

This post is dedicated to Mr. Jug Suraiya (for his TOI article dated 05/05) and the others like him who constitute the so called HR(human rights) lobby of our society.

To quote Mr. Suraiya :"by urging his execution in the midst of an emotionally supercharged atmosphere we are endorsing the fundamental legitimacy of capital punishment. The death penalty represents the absolute power of the state to take life of an individual who has transgressed its laws. Shorn of euphemisms, capital punishment is the legitimisation of murder on the part of the state.Like all acts of life-taking it is an asymmetric right, in that the taker of life, is unable to give life, or to give back life, in case of an error of judgement"

First things first, Kasab is guilty of not only transgressing the laws of the state, he is guilty of taking the lives of 72 innocent Indians, irrespective of their age, caste or religion. This is a sweet coincidence that murdering also means transgressing Indian law under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.He is not only guilty of waging a war against India-the State, he is guilty of waging war against the very heart and idea of India and all that it stands for.He is guilty of shooting an 11 yr old girl , who is now on crutches. He is guilty of eliminating many a sole bread earner of their family. He is guilty of turning many people's supposed pleasant journey to a journey to heaven.

Under Indian law capital punishment is given under only rarest of rare cases where the complicity of the accused is beyond doubt. If Kasab's case doesn't fall under that category then whose will?

Its not only about a judge or a court, its about we the people of India whom Kasab was sent to murder. If you are criticising the court's right to take life of an individual then call for a referendum and see what the result is. Don't ask me for the result, ask the result from a 9 yr old child who has lost her father in the attack. Ask the result from Constable Ombale's wife who laid down his life to catch Kasab. You and I haven't, thats why we can have the comfort of typing out an article in our air conditioned rooms criticising death penalty for Kasab and either posting it to our blog or mailing it to the TOI.

You can call it "lynching', you can call it the "mob mentality" but this is what it should be, to deter future killers of humanity. To show them "look, this is what we have in store for you if you dare to kill our people". Realpolitik doesn't run on morality, its fuel is hard decisions taken in the interest of your people.

If it would for Israel or the USA, Kasab would not have the privilege of staying in a super speciality cell of the Arthur Road Jail. He would have been sent either to the guatemala prison and tortured or would have been hanged twice if possible, long ago.

Sometimes physics carry more marks than moral science.

I agree to Mahatma Gandhi's statement "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind",but you also have the newton's third law of motion and whether you or me like it or not it sometimes overrides or has to override Mahatma's vision.

Civil Nuclear (Zero) Liability Bill

After the Women's reservation bill, the Govt. aims to introduce the civil nuclear liability bill in the parliament. The provisions of the bill, though supposed to fix responsibility, smacks of over protectionism and goes a long way in insulating the US' corporations working in the nuclear field, in case of a nuclear accident. This is not a cynical anti-american stand but taken after a careful deliberation of the provisions of the bill. The fact that this act is necessary for the operationalisation of the Indo-US nuclear deal further accentuates this assertion.

First, the bill fixes the entire responsibility of a nuclear accident on the nuclear power plant operator, which is in our case is the the Nuclear Power corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL). The suppliers of nuclear equipments will not be just exonerated of charge but exempted from any investigation. This means the american suppliers can very well laugh their way to the bank without bearing any responsibility of lost lives, livelihood and long term damage to the environment.Only a detailed investigation can determine whether the cause is the operational failure or an equipment failure. But in this case any investigation would be a farce because the de- facto culprit will be the operator.

Second, it puts a ceiling on the compensation package offered by the operator at Rs. 500 Cr and the rest will be borne by the Indian government. This provision is aimed at preparing a "smooth playing field" for the entry of big corporations (both Indian and foreign) when the nuclear market gets "liberalised" or more aptly "deregulated".

All this is being done after we have already faced a major industrial disaster in the form of Bhopal Gas tragedy and there has been no fixing of responsibility of forgotten lives and lost dreams. till date, no one has been prosecuted. Warren Anderson, the american CEO of Union Carbide has successfully dodged extradition and arrest and is leaving a peaceful life in the US. Can an Indian CEO afford to do the same with americal lives.

The broad contours of the bill broadly underline that Indian lives are less valuable than american lives and will continue to remain so. The success of any economy is determined by how much value the government puts on the lives of its people. Of course, this cannot be quantified as growth rate. Successively falling rank of India in the Human development Index with rising growth rate is an indication.

The Big Indian Tamasha....

I recently overheard a conversation between my mother and a relative of us. The relative was talking about a girl ( a s/w engg. working for Satyam....in the US). She, according to her was not getting married because her parents are not ready to cough up their life's savings in order to get a "good" guy for her. In her words...." After all these days you don't get "suitable" boys for anything less that 2 million bucks" . It was not only a fact she was stating. She said this with unquestionable conviction and a hint of glimmer in her eyes (perhaps reinforcing her belief that the MRP she has set for her just-in-job son is not that wrong...."not" inclusive of all taxes..of course).
Sample this: a girl who is working in a top notch (well...not so after the corporate fiasco) software company...tht too in the US needs to cough up 2 million bucks to find a suitable match.
Compare this with a guy in similar condition....? His family must have gone gaga over him, telling all their relatives how is it like working in the US...and how much is he being paid and blah blah..... His relatives (even distant ones) would show immense proud in his achievements and how as a kid he was so close to them. Marriage proposals would have flown in.....and finally he would have got a "combo pack"....a beautiful bride + money(enough to feed him for 5 years flat even if he leaves his "high flying" job) and gifts (enough to ensure he doesn't have to spend a penny for setting up his "own" home.... (personally I don't know for what... these suckers earn))
I am not out here to give a long speech against dowry system.....that many people give(even those who take it for their son's marriage). I just want to portray what the real situation has become due to this system....for people who consider it quite pragmatic to give a "daughter's" share in her marriage...moreover I am not very sure what percentage of the groom's MRP actually goes to the bride's own kitty.....
When I was studying in nagpur i remember coming across a news article..... It reported that one girl in bhandara district committed suicide so that her parents don't have to carry the burden of saving money for her marriage, and her brother(who was about to drop out) can continue with his education...Female infanticide and foeticide have become rampant.....disturbingly more in so called "developed" states. After all a parent doesn't kill their new born baby..just for fun or sadistic pleasure...do they? Corruption has penetrated our society .....one prime reason of which is the pressure to amass wealth....so that people can marry their daughter off in harmony with their stature.
Solution: Anti dowry Act?.....no....that we made quite a few decades back....Pre Natal Diagnostic Testing Act....no? .....we have already made that 15 years back with no visible improvement in female foeticide.
The only solution is that the young generation takes charge and say no to this age old custom which has created enough of nuisance and nonsense in our society. Consider a groom who takes a high moral stand and doesn't agree to be sold off.....there's no way his parents can make him agree to their demands. This is not only about morals but also about self esteem which forbids us to be sold off in a market as vegetables are. After all when it comes to career choice and other important things in life we are so assertive and persuasive. I don't know why we become so docile when it comes to dowry. After all many of us convince our parents for a love marriage, for a career abroad, for a flat in Bandra instead of a mansion in our ancestral homes...... isn't it...then why not this?
Perhaps, in this ever increasing materialistic world everything comes with a price tag.....even love, relationship and morality....!!!