Radical Islam now reflected in Sports

I am a bit late writing this post , but nevertheless thought that the topic was too important to let it pass . All of us are well aware of the ridiculous comments that the losing Pakistani captain Shoaib Malik made in the post match press conference of the T20 finals at South Africa . His comments attracted some attention of the media , who in no uncertain terms denounced Malik's comments of support to the Pakistani side by all the Muslims of the world . His comments had some responses of sections of Indian Muslims who felt offended by Malik's remarks and for once seem to reject the concept of universal Islamic brotherhood . However Malik's comments need to be understood in a wider context . Today people like Malik unfortunately represent a larger radicalization of civic society in the sub-continent .

Pakistani society has undergone rapid Islamisation in recent years. Malik's comments were well thought through and was intended to assuage feelings of the ultra conservative galleries back home and telling them that though they had lost the finals, they were still good believing Muslims. The need for such public affirmation of faith is a trend which links to the rapid increase in the ranks of "24-hour Muslims" in Pakistan. I have been watching Pakistani cricket from the late seventees and never before has there been a need of players like Imran,Zaheer , Rameez etc to reiterate their religiosity because that constituency wasn't big enough then. Ultra conservative Muslims were still a insignificant portion of the civic society . Malik's comments prove that things have changed and changed very rapidly ......I am sure there has been a deep radicalization of Pakistani society for Malik to make the kind of comment that he did

The Islamization of the Pakistani team was lead by Inzamam ul Haque . Inzy made it a point to thank Allah after every match and his poor command of English was masqueraded by a few common sentences which he parroted out and which invariably used words like "Bismillah" , 'Insallah" and phrases like "By the grace of Almighty Allah..." and so on . Inzy was seen lead his men to great success (not on the playing field ..) to prayer meetings , ...this could have lead to the conversion of Yosuf Yohanna to Islam and the new look Mohd Yusuf sported a Maluvi beard to show his allegience to his newly adopted relegion. In Inzamam's team, where the captain was seen as a religious talisman, Shoaib Malik was part of the group which had joined the Tablighi Jamaat, a sect that preaches a bare-boned, conservative version of global Islam.

Sportsmen and cricket teams are resonable microcausms of the larger civic society and public affirmation of faith by the Pakistani team shows that ultra conservatives have taken over Pakistan . While this is indeed an internal issue , the implications on India which has more Muslims than Pakistan and also coupled by the fact that educated Indian Muslims are now participating in international terrorism (ex-Bangalore doctors case) is non trivial . Its high time that the UPA stop designing sop schemes to woo the Muslims anticipating a mid term poll and do some concerete work in defanging the threat of radical Islam in our own doorstep

Gandhi-My Father -Film Review and More

This is not a mere film review . I would like to forewarn the readers that this post of mine contains content which can potential hurt the sensitivities of large number of Indian's who worship Mohandas Gandhi . If you are a Gandhian , this post is blasphemy...so beware

I would like to begin by an interesting comment made by a representative of the South African Government on the occasion of Gandhi's farewell from South Africa , he said " Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi would like to believe that he is a saint who has wandered into politics , ...on the contrary he is a politician who belives that he is a saint..." . This quote in many ways epitomises the diabolical side of Gandhi which has rarely been touched upon by historians and the media . I would like to share some of my perspectives on Gandhi , in the context of Indian independence and also share my thoughts on the movie. Since the trigger of this post was the movie, I would like to start with the movie first ........ The movie is ordinary in terms of cinematography and content , it did explore the tumultuous relationship between Hiralal (his son) and Gandhi , and the struggle that Hiralal had to go through being the son of a famous father ....."To people he was a father, To his son he was a father he never had".....Hiralal rebelled against his father principles , embraced Islam in protest , was a compulsive drinker and a cheat. Some of the scenes in the movie catch your attention , particularly Hiralal's relationship with Kasturba . From the perspective of content , the movie disappoints .

However what the movie brings to fore is the darker side of the man Gandhi , he is no saint.... , he is dogmatic about his views of what India should be or should not be . He aims for a secular , inclusive Indian society but in his own way responsible for the riots that happened in the Eastern part of this country . His need to pussyfoot Islamic fundamentalists , lead to abandoning the Hindu's of the country ....... his dogma did not let him recognize a simple fact that partition of India was inevitable and it would only be fair that India be partitioned on the grounds of religion so that a reasonable transfer of population and property would have possibly happened without the extent of bloodshed that the country witnessed . While Muslims could chose to stay back in Bengal , the Hindus of erstwhile East Bengal were thrown out of the country . I come from a family who has been a victim of the politics of religion of Mohandas and so were many other families who lived in refugee camps in Kolkata and Delhi . Mr Gandhi's ridiculous obsession for misplaced secularism ensured that Hindus like us were murdered and looted in East Bengal and Punjab and left our land and lived in penury for many decades in the shanties in West Bengal and Delhi. My grandmother would often narrate the stories of woe that she had faced when she had virtually walked barefoot with her children in the cover of darkness from Pabna to Kolkata . I am sure this is true for many Muslim families , but the point is ,if Gandhi had clarity like Jinnah , the transfer of population would have be far better than it was and the loss of property could have been minimised by enforcing a Transfer of Property legislation . Mr Gandhi , the apostle of peace am sure was too preoccupied in Sabarmati (in God knows what..) to be able to think about the sufferings of millions of families ...........surely the father had left his children to fend from themselves .......

The politics of Mohandas ensured that he sidelined people like Subhas Bose , Sadar Patel and propped Nehru . Nehru and his party contributed brilliantly to ensure that the politics of division be played subtly in public life and judiciary ...it continues even today unabated . It is Gandhi's legacy that promotes disruptive politics in the form of reservations in almost all walks of life ....and here we are as a nation still celebrating "Bapu" and condemning Nathuram Ghodse...

The Saint is dead and thank god for that , but his shadow remains ....... I would like to know if India would be better off without its father ...what do u think

Jai Hind

30 years of Lal Salaam in Bengal

This month the CPI(M) lead Left Front Government finishes 3 decades of being in power in West Bengal , a feat which is perhaps unparalleled in the history of democracies across the world . The Left regime has undoubtedly had some very significant achievements which even a die hard critic of Communism like me would concede . The land redistribution ,agrarian reform are probably the greatest achievements in the last 30 years .However , here is what has not worked for them

a) Education

West Bengal would once take pride of its education infrastructure ...... the successive Left governments has ensured that education institutions are systemically destroyed all across the state . About a decade ago , I had the privilege of being a Visiting Faculty in the Universities of Burdwan and Midnapore and even in those times appointment to teaching position in colleges of these universities were based more on affiliation to the red flag than merit !!!

b) Erosion of meritocracy

The government has somewhat been able to sell the idea that the society/state owes its citizens a living , and hence has been able to create a class of babus who do not believe in hard work , they regale in their addas, pontificate about life , are found chatting in the street corner's of Kolkatta . These babus form the bulk walk of the CPI(M) cadre , a community which reflects the growing intellectual decadence of Bengal....The hard working and ambitious Bengali has long left Bengal and has found places like Bangalore , Mumbai or Delhi to be more hospitable to their ambitions

c) Industrial Unrest

Inspite and despite of Buddhadev's claims about industrialization , the last 3 decades has seen flight of all kinds of industries from Bengal. As a child , I have seen the thriving Hoogly belt which was host to companies like ICI , Dunlop's , Hind Motors, GKW , Metal Box etc ....all closed down or in marginal existence thanks to the belligerent CITU (the workers arm of the CPIM). I wish Buddha babu well in his efforts to get industry back to Bengal , but I think its an uphill task to undo the damage done by the Jyoti Basu's and Pramod Dasguptas of the world .

In conclusion

I can go on and on with this list ...but will leave it for some other day. All that I have written in this post is based on my personal experiences with the Left front from 1977 the year the front came to power (and we moved into Kolkata) till 1996 when I decided to leave the city ....probably never to come back again....at least till the "reds" are in power in my state . If God were to grant me one wish ...it would be "defeat the Left and lets have a progressive govt" ..Bengal needs it and Bengalis deserve it ...Amen

Schedule Tribe Status for the Gujar's !!!

I have been following the recent agitation of the Rajasthan Gujars for Schedule Tribe status . Lead by the Gurjar Mahasabha the agitation has already claimed fourteen lives in Dausa and has a potential to become full blown conflict . In this post I try and examine the rationale of their claims . To my reader I must confess that though I am not a professional historian ,I do have a sense of history and the caste system of India .

The SC/ST status is granted to group's of people who were considered outcastes in the 4 tiered Hindu caste system , and by virtue of being in the bottom of the social pyramid have been left out of any form of development generations. The reservation processes is an national intervention that aims at providing economic relief to these deprived communities . In this context it would be worthwhile to examine the veracity of the claims of the Gujar community for SC/ST status

History

According to historians the Gujars can be traced back to the Huna invasion of India , some historians beleive that the Gujars are possibly the descendants of Hepthalites (White Huns) . The Gujars are in large numbers in Pakistan as well (famous bowlers Shoaib Akthar and Mohd Asif) are Pakistani Gurjars....however trivia aside ....the ruling clans of Rajasthan like the Prathihara's , Paramara's ,Solanki's , Bhati's , Chauhans , are classified by many as Gujars . The Prathiharas were rulers of the large kingdoms in Northern India (6th to 11th century) and according to most scholars they were Rajputs . Similar controversies are there for the Paramara's , Bhati's and Chauhans , while one school of historians believe that they are Rajputs , there are many who argue that they are Gujars of Hepthalites descent . Whatever the case maybe the Gujars are classified into the Khastriya (warrior caste) category of the Hindu caste system .I can say with great degree of confidence and conviction that most Gurjar clans have been rulers and not serfs and therefore fair to assume that the Gujars have not been the bottom of the pyramid so far as the Hindu society is concerned .Additionally some Gujar groups like the Gaur Gujar's in Central India are classified as Brahmins -the highest caste in the chaturvarna (4 tier) Hindu caste classification .

Conclusion

My limited knowledge of the caste system of India , convinces me that the Gujars are not eligible for SC/ST status in any part of the country . There might be some confusion about some clans in Rajasthan (some people think they are Rajputs while others classify them as Gujar's) , but they are certainly not the bottom of the Hindu caste system . I am really curious to know the basis of their claim for ST status in Rajasthan........

BJP losing its ideological constituency as Maya sweeps UP

As the 2007 UP election results poured , it was evident by the noon of 11 May that Ms Mayawati and her BSP were all set to form the government in Lucknow . I am not a Mayawati supporter and hence there was nothing much for me to feel chirpy about and more so with the BJP being decimated

I am a BJP supporter and I pride myself of being a member of what the party calls the core ideological constituency-“the upper caste, right wing, educated Hindu”. The reason of the party’s attractiveness during the mid eighties to the early nineties was the clearly defined and sharply distinct right wing, pro majority, anti-appeasement agenda. The politics of BJP is based on solid ideological moorings, and like the Left parties over the years build a support base and a dedicated cadre which would stand by it in good times and in bad . The Ram Janambhoomi agitation catapulted the BJP into a position of power in UP and subsequently to central politics. In this process , its ideological constituency expanded manifold from the traditional Chitpawan Brahmin RSS support base to the broader section of Hindu’s .Prominent leaders like Kalyan Singh ensured that the OBC’s were firmly behind the party . BJP managed to create a solid social base amongst Hindu’s of all castes and therefore the setting was perfect for it to consolidate its position and deliver a pan India agenda (both economic and political). However, the myopia of the party’s leadership coupled with the complex caste dynamics of Indian politics has reduced the party into a spent force in UP within a decade

In the following paragraphs, I attempt to analyze the steady decline of the BJP and to me the most critical reason for it is:

Mis-management of political growth and dilution of the core ideology

The party suddenly tasted power in 1989 after being a marginal political force for many years (remember 2 MP’s in the 1984 Lok Sabha ….Rajmata and Pramod Mahajan). The inability of the party to manage the growth through a structured process lead to opportunity seekers joining the party in hoards, while these elements were required for the party to scale up politically, it also started the process of dilution of its core ideology. People who could deliver results at any cost rose to positions of power within the party hierarchy and the flag bearers of its core ideology were gradually marginalized. People like K Govindacharya and Jay Dubashi were no longer relevant in the new scheme of things .The dilution of its ideology made short term growth easier, but had far reaching consequences which the party has not recognized till date ….

a) Its inability to deliver on the Hindutva agenda lead to an erosion of its support base , people who were attracted by its pro-majority stand were soon disillusioned . When I asked this question to a certain section of the leadership within the party , I was told that to remain in power one has to make compromises ……but the cost of the compromise was the steady decline of the support base ……alas the party think tank continues to think differently

b) The party with a difference suddenly looked no-different, it had the same political gene pool (read the Congress...) which was the malaise of our society, it was the same wine in a different bottle ….

c) The party used the same tactics to remain in power and often resorted to improper means to stay in power , it had lost its moral authority over its political rivals , a consequence of not sticking to its ideology

d) Elected representatives of the party were charged of cases of corruption, brand lotus had not been able to deliver a clean administration.

The BJP has faced the nadir of its political achievements in UP in the last 2 decades , lets try and understand what really happened and is BJP going the Congress way in the UP

The 2007 UP Elections and the decline of the BJP

This elections saw the worst ever performance since 1991 , the BJP managed to garner 50 seats (down by 43) since last time , with its vote share falling 4% which one would imagine was transferred to the BSP ( vote share increase by 7%). Initial analysis says that Mayawati was able to successfully create a grand caste alliance of Hindu’s, though its Sarva Samaj Abhiyan – an all inclusive caste coalition. Mayawati was able to sell the concept of an inclusive society "Sarva Samaj" as against her traditional vote bank the "Bhaujan Samaj" . The process of building this coalition started a couple of years ago with her deliberate strategy of wooing Brahmins and other upper caste Hindus, to the extent that she gave more than 100 tickets to Brahmin candidates .The BSP caste coalition was so compelling and well designed that the party was able to get solid electoral support from all the Hindu castes and the thereby completely erode the core constituency of the BJP. The BJP Chief Ministerial candidate Kalyan Singh - the iconic OBC warrior in the Ram Janambhoomi agitation was not able to stem the migration of OBC votes from the BJP to the BSP. East UP with a Brahmin population of 20% , an area which has been a traditional stronghold of the BJP has voted overwhelming for the BSP. Rohilkhand and the Doab (Muslim majority areas) which are traditional vote banks of the Samajwadi Party have seen a huge migration of votes towards the BSP, so its safe to assume that the Sarva Samaj Abhiyan also include Muslims …..making it a deadly combination

In Conclusion

Still pretty much a BJP supporter and hopefully one for many more years , I am pained with the developments in the party and I hope that the party will go back to the drawing board and build the cadre from ground zero , rather than being bothered about short term gains . Advanji /Rajnath ji are you listening …….??

President of India -Somnath Chatterjee !!!

I have tried to steer away from politics in this blog (though I do have a strong views on the same )....barring some posts on reservations ...this blog has been apolitical. However when I came back from work today , an article in the Mumbai mirror provoked me to write this post .....which has political content and lashes out at Somnath Chatterje's candidature for the President of India .

The Context

In order to understand this post in its true spirit it is imperative for the reader to have a context of West Bengal and its polity. I was brought up in Kolkata ,.....we migrated to the city in 1977 and I lived there till 1995 . In these 18 long years , I have many experiences with the politics of the state -the good ones being :

caste free society

empowerment of villagers

the implementation of the land ceiling

However with this came trade union aggression , lock outs , strikes , depletion of employment opportunities ,scientific rigging , an aggressive and arrogant CPI(M) cadre etc . It did not take the Left many years to decimate the economic fabric of the state .When I qualified as a CA in 1995 , I found it very difficult to find a reasonable job in Kolkata and soon had to migrate out of the city.....today as an expat Bengali (Probasi Bangali) and with the current state of economic progress , I reckon the doors of the city are closed to me for ever ....

The CPI(M) and Somnath

Somnath Chatterjee, the MP from Bolpur was the Chairman of the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) during the tenure of Jyoti Basu. I will never forget those days , when almost everyday, leading Kolkata based newspapers would carry stories of innumerable overseas trips that Mr Chatterjee made to promote FDI in West Bengal. His penchant for signing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU's), many of which never came to fruition earned him the nickname Mou-da. The industrial climate was so despondent that industries closed down ............Dunlop, ICI , Bharat Metal Box, Hind Motor ...could not withstand the rage of the communist labor unions . It would be fair to say that our Presidential candidate was a one of the key facilitators of this regressive process , West Bengal once a leading industrial state was converted seamlessly to an industrial waste land courtesy people like Jyoti Basu , Pramode Dasgupta and of course Mr Chatterjee included . It is ironical that the current Chief Minister says that the process of industrialization of the state is irreversible .......building a few shopping malls in Kolkata is not exactly industrialization.

Here is why according to me Somnath does not qualify for the job at Rastrapati Bhavan

a) He represents a political interest group which has always worked against the development of this nation , in the garb of inclusive development the Indian Left has been a show stopper to the nation's development and neither have they been able to deliver as is evident in West Bengal , a state that they have been in power for about 3 decades now .Can we have a President from a political party which is not exactly buoyant with the 8%+ growth that we hope to achieve as a nation

b) His track record as WBIDC Chief is appalling and if that man could replicate the same performance as a President , our national anthem can well be " God Save India" !!

c) His views on Judiciary ,post the Supreme Court's stay on the OBC reservation issue , mirror the myopia of his party's top boss Sitaram Yechury , the least said about it is better......It truly amazes me that a lawyer by profession, Somnath has not learnt to value the independence of the judiciary.

d) In 2005, our pompous Mr Chatterjee was caught in a controversy over his statement on the Supreme Court orders related to the vote of confidence in the Jharkhand Assembly. He accused the Supreme Court of encroaching on the rights of the legislature

e) On a lighter note , as a President he would only go down well only with a Bangladeshi audience (courtesy his English with a thick Bengali accent ..) , I fear that his global trips ,(given his love for international travel -as displayed during his stint in the WBIDC) would be great occasions to erode the growing brand India

In conclusion

Have there been Presidents who have been worse than Somnath -the answer is a resounding yes , but the larger question to ask "can we afford a person like Somnath as the Head of State at a juncture of our history when the nation is poised for unprecedented growth" ...definitely not ..what say you ?

To your dream destination with Katara Travels

I wish to dedicate this post to all our elected representatives who are part of a newly discovered business -"Travel anywhere , anytime, without papers ..... for a premium" . Sadly this business has not received media attention in spite of being in operations for quite sometime . The post is titled "Katara Travels" in recognition of Shri Babubhai Katara -BJP MP (picture courtsey Vikram Nandwani), who was one of the first entrepreneurs in this sector to have been discovered by the national media . Other prominent competitors to Katara Travels are "Mayawati Darshan and Tours" -operated by Team BSP , and the recently discovered "Go Anywhere Destinations " lead by the TRS chief . I am hoping this sector has some more players like the "Milano Agenzia Di Corsa" blessed by the fist lady of Indian politics ......who will be discovered soon ....

Business Model

Pretty simple , pay a hefty sum of money anywhere between Rs 15- Rs 25 Lakhs and get dropped to the destination of your choice accompanied by a Member of Parliament of India ....can it ever be better.....and as expected , no papers required .....you will be travelling as his/her brother , sister , spouse etc (these guys have diplomatic immunity, by virtue of their status..)

Anyone interested ......contact the local travel agent in Punjab , Gujrat and Andhra ...that's where the services of these tour operators are presently concentrated....Happy Journey !!

Probity in Public Life

The lack of morality in public life is endemic to India and it cuts across political parties . The recent case of human trafficking conclusively is probably the nadir of probity in public life. Violation of a moral code of conduct is rampant before any large election in India and as expected the media reported cases of use of money and muscle power in the run up to the UP elections . However in spite of bringing all of these into the public eye , nothing much has been achieved , and hence it would be fair to conclude that the people are becoming indifferent to these issues , which raises a very important concern for all of us – “ Does apolitical public activism in India have a place in its democratic process” .

The reasons for indifference could be many, the ones that come to my mind are :

a) Where do I get data on where the money comes from and how is it used. It’s an impossible task to get it from the governments records
b) What can I do? , and more importantly how does it matter
c) Things cannot be changed , so why bother

These responses do not augur well for the democracy, and while I am sensitive to the fact that data is incredibly hard to get in India, but in this post, I am trying to build a case for apolitical public activism against issues of transparency and corruption in public life.

In this context it would be interesting to learn from US, which uses a combination of websites to bring in this transparency

a) Opensecrets.org – A comprehensive website which reports the where the money is coming from, where it goes to, who gets the money, there is data on each state as well

b) Maplight.org –This website provides the connection between money and politics in the state of California

c) Congresspedia- A citizen’s encyclopedia on the Congress which anyone can edit

These new tools provide unprecedented levels of transparency, and also expose patterns of influence that otherwise would have remained invisible.

Most of us are aware that the US model cannot be replicated in India in its totality , because of legislative issues which do not ensure that data regarding funding gets recorded in a structured manner and collated at a national level , hence we maybe far away from implementing something like Opensecrets.org at this point in time . However if the judiciary can embark on a well meaning judicial activism and take the first steps towards ensuring that there are processes wherein every political party discloses its cash receipts and payments and then the data gets uploaded in a website , we would have started in our journey towards transparency .This could be followed by a detailed statement of expenses of the MP’s funds ….over time it possible to get the data in a central website like Opensecrets.org and then let the citizens use the data to make more informed electoral choices …

Reservations -The Real Debate

The debate on the reservations for backward classes has suddenly been accentuated with the Supreme Court's stay order. The BJP blames the UPA Government for not having put the case to the judiciary well (an upper caste ,right wing party also wants the share of the OBC vote you see,…..) , the DMK is shocked - what happens to its Adi-Dravida vote bank , the CPI(M) expressed grief –after all it has been the messiah of the downtrodden in West Bengal …and by implementing its strategy of rampant industrial strikes has succesfully crippled the state to an extent that people who had decent jobs even a decade and half ago have become downtrodden , so that their supporter base continues to increase …..and finally Mr VP Singh’s comment “ all people issues are political…and therefore the reservation issue is bound to be politicized… is evidence enough that all the players in the political firmament of India want a share in the electoral pie of the reservation game .

The reservation process as Mr Arjun Singh would like us to believe is a surgical correction to bring the Other Backward Castes (OBC) into the limelight by providing opportunities for economic and educational growth…..to the extent of sacrificing meritocracy as a principle .

I would like to draw the attention of my reader on some fundamental issues of reservation as a social engineering process.

a) One cannot argue that some form of subsidy needs to be given to backward and poorer sections of society, so I agree that reservation in some form is probably not a bad thing.

b) Poverty in India is endemic ,and it's a flawed assumption to believe that if one is backward one has to be poor or vice -versa . I am not too sure if there is a direct correlation between poverty and being backward . The protagonists of the reservation process demand reservation based on this fundamentally flawed assumption......I have lived in Karnataka and some of my Vokaliga and Lingayat friends are extremely affluent in spite of being OBC’s , similarly in Maharastra -where I presently reside ,there are many examples of rich OBC’s. A supporter of the OBC reservation would like to dismiss this by saying that yes there is a creamy layer in the OBC’s and we can exclude them from the reservation process …however the implementation of reservation is incomplete if its restricted to the OBC’s alone …which raises the second question , what are the principles of reservation in our country ..!!!. I am tempted to believe that the design of the reservation program is not to empower people of weaker sections (both OBC’s and non-OBC’s) but a diabolical attempt to build a vote bank for political parties. Mr VP Singh- The Raja of Mandya (and now the Czar of Mandal…) when asked this question responded by saying “I agree , there must be 10% reservation for upper castes as well….” Thank you Mr Singh by being so considerate, but what is the basis of this 10% ….and obviously Mr Singh would have no rationale to offer..!!


The Role of Judiciary in the process

After the Parliament's approval of the OBC reservation, I had given up all hope of redressal and rationale in the system. I was extremely agitated that neither the media nor the public was asking the right questions of our elected representatives (though I admired the resistance that the Youth For Equality-YFE provided) . However my faith in Indian democracy has been rekindled after the Supreme Court’s interim order asking the UPA government to provide more data before the issue is closed once for all. The SC judgment opined that the last caste base census happened in 1931 and has requested the government to come back with more contemporary data with statistics that correlate poverty with caste backwardness. I am hopeful that there are enough checks and balances in our democracy which will ensure that the creative minds in the UPA government cannot conjure up data which proves that one is poor because he is backward by caste.

I have written about the implications of the reservations in a previous post which might be of interest to you as well

I continue to live in hope that good sense will prevail….are you as hopeful as I am?

Laloo vs Chidambaram -Who is a Leader??

The objective of this post is to make an attempt to compare the Union Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav (LP) and the Union Finance Minister Mr Chidambaram (PC) as leaders.

This however is not a research based exercise of collecting data over time and discussing the respective leadership styles of these gentlemen , but a limited effort of comparing them in the context of the recent budgets that they presented (The Railway budget and the Union Budget)

Backgrounds –

PC – Harvard Educated , suave , MP from Sivaganga , well known for his pro-market reforms and and for his bold steps to abolish red tape during his earlier tenure as finance minister between 1996 and 1998.

LP- The leader of the backward castes , has used caste equations to the hilt to win elections , has no credibility with the urban folks, the rustic ,uneducated village bumpkin , a man who would be ridiculed by most of us (me strongly included) . Image tarnished by the fodder scam, installed his wife as CM of Bihar and ruled the state through proxy


In the next few paragraphs, I am attempting to compare LP and PC based on the following 3 parameters only.

a) The Budget Speech
b) Reaction to the budgets
c) Implications on national development

I will not end this post with an evaluation , that is something that I leave my reader to do ……..

The Budget Speech:

LP engaged the audience with his rustic charm, as if he was addressing a rally in Champaran or Madhubani . The rival MP’s did not have much to say, the budget speech sailed through ……

PC was in his best English, he spoke in a manner which very few people in the country understand (and those who do don’t go to vote anyways…). I guess there was not much rancour in the parliament, considering the ability of our MP’s to comprehend reasonable English, I was not surprised, …..did they understand enough to comment on the content ??……. After the Budget speech , journalists asked PC the definition of the Aam Admi (or the common man…remember the common man ….and the Congress slogan…Congress ka haath Aam Admi ke saath…) . PC responded by defining the common man in about 5 minutes, and the definition of the common man was more philosophical and would obfuscate the most erudite listener, when the same question was asked to LP he comes back with a sharp and succinct reply ,the Aam admi is the backbencher of society whom LP wants to bring to the front benches

To me this is an example which displays rare clarity of thought and PC with all his erudition leaves the aam admi confused …!!


Reactions to the Budget

PC’s budget was labeled as regressive by the industry captains and also by his left wing allies ,Sitaram Yechury displayed his angst in public. Kapil Sibal tried hard to bail him out in the post budget discussions, but failed miserably

LP’s railway budget was looked upon as progressive and developmental, industry captains like Rahul Bajaj , and prominent people like Tarun Das hailed LP and his team's efforts

Implications on National development

PC’s budget was not seen to be growth friendly, the protagonists of his budget say that he has assumed that the industry would do well anyways and therefore he wanted to take away some things from them and to allocate it to the other sectors. People like me (the naysayer to this budget) would like to draw your attention to the increase in the Education Cess .Without a clear gameplan for its utilization it is indeed a regressive move (for additional perspectives on Education Cess you may want to read my previous post titled Education Cess-Lost opportunity for inclusive development http://niladriroy.blogspot.com/search/label/Education) . Well this is however a long debate and without going into the deadly details of the budget and its implications, its safe to assume that the Budget did not make either Corporate India or the Left parties happy.

LP’s railway budget reflected a clear game plan of process improvement, efficiencies, commercialization - a strategy that is clearly evident from the last 3 budgets that he has presented ( for some more details you may want to read my post on Laloo and Leadership ??- url: http://niladriroy.blogspot.com/search/label/Leadership) . I would suspect by not increasing the railway fares he did win a lot of goodwill from the Indian public.


I would like to leave my readers with the following questions:

a)Is PC the apostle of development? , or has times changed and the new messiah for inclusive development is LP !!

b)Can PC carry out the agenda of reforms through seamless execution , or do you need a hard task master like LP ?

c) Who is more equipped to spread the gains of development to larger sections of society –PC whose ability to connect with the masses is limited or LP who is the darling of the backward castes …!!

d)Is sophistication the only yardstick for acceptance of leadership by the urban elite?


These are my questions, and I am sure you have many such questions and parameters ….I would like to hear from you, .....your views and perspectives on the same ….looking forward to your comments on this subject


Cheers

Laloo and Leadership ??

I was watching NDTV Profit last night, Prannoy Roy was discussing the Railway Budget with Rahul Bajaj and Tarun Das. Both these distinguished gentlemen were endorsing the Railway Budget and the work that Laloo Prasad Yadav and his team in the Indian Railways has put in the last three years . While I was listening to them with great attention, I recalled a guest lecture from Mr Vivek Sahai , Additional General Manager Western Railways , the context of the guest lecture was the transformation of the Railways in the last few years .


A die hard Railway executive Mr Sahai spoke of things that one could never imagine would happen to the Indian Railways . After the lecture of Mr Sahai , I was left with a series of questions:

a) What really has happened to the Railways in the last few years ?
b) How did the government recognize the reason for change and more importantly drive the process of change with passion and conviction
c) How did a lethargic government suddenly become so customer focused and technology savvy

I knew the answer lay in transformation leadership across all levels of the Indian Railways but I found it very difficult to imagine that Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav would be part of the processes, least lead such a process. The mental image that I carried of Laloo was that of a village bumpkin , an illiterate politician a person who has always used caste equations to be successful in the polls , and a corrupt individual (remember the fodder scam) . I was convinced that people like Laloo are the cause of the nation’s misery and hoped that Laloo could be somehow removed from public life permanently …….. I was biased against Laloo and could not really believe that he could be an icon of any meaningful change ............


However if we take an unbiased view and look at the achievements of the Indian Railways in the last few years , I am now convinced that Laloo is a new age liberalization icon and here are some things that would bear testimony of that fact :

1.The last 3 railways budgets are in all in the direction of commercialization, process improvements (both customer and operational processes…) and higher accountability across the rank and file of the railways. He started small in the first of his three budgets and build up the momentum with the one that he presented yesterday.

2.It would be uncharitable not to acknowledge the set of processes that the new regime of the railways has designed to make the process of railway reservation transparent , the processes of online booking , checking your ticket and reservation status online are amazing process improvements. In addition to this he has announced that all TT’s would be given PDA’s from this year to make the process even better


3.The freight management processes and the creation of freight corridors has made transportation of goods seamless and efficient. This has made a great impact in the industry and also made the railways much more commercially viable

One could always argue that the performance of the railways has nothing to do with Laloo , it’s a function of the general buoyancy in the economy (resulting to higher freight realizations) and a great team , Laloo just did nothing ..he is not capable of doing anything good ….

Trust me , I am also a great Laloo critic , but I cant help but giving him credit of managing the Railways like a CEO , who drives profitability hard and empowers his people . Mr Sahai has been a distinguished officer in the Railways for a few decades and am sure he has worked under multiple Railway Ministers, but Laloo must have empowered many people like Mr Sahai to take the Railways to a different level of performance ….is that not leadership…..!!!

Indian politics has always debated the cost of development and our Left wing parties have always espoused that the development in this country is not inclusive (the gains of development do not percolate to the weaker sections of society..), but here is Laloo the icon of the underprivileged, leading a transformation and ensuring that development of the railways leads to sharing of gains with the underprivileged (more efficient railways networks, cheaper tickets..etc etc)…does that not make him the new avatar of inclusive development ,……is he not a leader that we all need……can we afford to write him off just because he is not urbane and sophisticated …..would love to hear your thoughts on the same ………do write in ….