Why Anna is not Gandhi?

The modern-time Gandhi is not a Gandhi. Gandhi, a fan of Jesus Christ, asked us to turn the other cheek, if we are slapped. Anna Hazare, an apostle of Gandhi, enquired whether it was just one, when he heard a man giving a tight slap to Sharad Pawar.

The disappointment at the ‘just one slap’ that he didn’t even try to conceal testifies folksy innocence so as exposing his non-Gandhian facet. It could even be a reflection on his hearty sense of humour. But it came out at wrong time. People want to see Gandhi in Anna. And, alas, he is not to be.

Not that his spontaneous response to the paraphrased slap gate was in supportive of violence, for the incident, in the first place, was so trivial that nobody including Pawar has taken it seriously. Public nuisance, committed by a suspected insane, cant be termed as violence. It was not a case for Anna’s sermon on the goodness of non-violence. But he preached the one after his initial lighter-vain reaction attracted severe criticism. And that, in fact, made him non-Gandhi. Gandhi did never take a U-turn on his stand, no matter how unpopular it was, to match with the popular sentiment or to avert criticism. On realisation of his stand not bought by anyone, he would dare to ‘walk alone, walk alone,’

Anna, in the first place, would have not joked on the news of somebody slapped somebody, if he were to be Gandhi. Gandhi’s endearing traits include a heartfelt laughter, but it was never at the expense of a slapped one. A joke cracked by him on such incidents, regardless of its power of punch, would have been uncivilized. As he pioneered civil disobedience, Gandhi was a champion of civilised culture.

The way Anna is gripping on Ralegon Siddi, his native village and open laboratory for his Gandhian experiments, has made him seen as a dictator. Assuming a tinge of dictatorship is required for a leadership to bring in order Anna is acceptible and even Gandhi wanted to be a dictator. “Sometimes I feel the requirement of dictatorship to bring in good. If you make me dictator for a day the only thing I would like to do uproot the toddy palms in the country. I will se to it not a single tree standing,” said Gandhi. His dictatorship was aimed at prohibition of drinking alcohol and it would have not hurt anyone. Anna too is earnest in bringing in prohibition, but flogging of drunkards is not acceptable. Many of the objectives of Talibanis might possibly be noble, but their method of implementation has made them demons. How can we, rejecting Taliban, accept Anna’s intolerant attitude of flogging the sinners?

“Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding,” said Gandhi. Anna’s anger against corruption is righteous and it is respected. But, when it was vented out the form of an unreasonable verbal onslaught on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh it was clear that Anna had no correct understanding because he was in the firm grip of the two enemies.

Anna used the most effective weapon, given by Gandhi, to goad the government to the Jan Lokpal bill: fasting. But the methods adopted made people calling it blackmail. And Anna didn’t feel shy to say he would continue to blackmail, if his methods are called blackmail.
Tusha Gandhi’s observation on Anna can some-up and explain why he is not Gandhi: “Bapu’s method of fasting was completely different than that of Anna. Bapu would have not threatened anyone the way Anna has. During Bapu’s time, fasting was never used against an opponent. Rather, it was used to lead a friend to the right path.”

The court magic: foes are friends

This year, the judiciary showed its effectiveness in many ways. It looked so simple when the powerful paraded into jail as the judiciary turned the impossible into cheaply possible. It was magical.

While you can adjudge the metaphorical judiciary the man of the year award for having put a record number of corrupt behind bars, at national level in general, it deserves a state level bonhomie prize in Karnataka. It has achieved an impossible feat by bringing arch enemies close to be thick friends.

Just a year ago, the possibility of the JD(S) of H D Deve Gowda joining hands with Reddy brothers was unthinkable. The Reddys moving closer to Congress was unimaginable and Yeddyurappa befriending with Kumarswamy was just impossible. The judiciary has made all it possible. It played a leveler bringing them to book. And the birds of same feather flocked together.

The Reddys who had slapped a bribery case on him are now banking on Kumaraswamy for their man’s victory in Bellary. They had even filed a murder case against him, while he and his father retaliated with the charges of illegal mining. Now the chumminess is prevailing and Kumaraswamy has put his man to work for their man Sriramulu. The senior Gowda is generous enough not to put a candidate against him.

Yeddyurappa, after serving twenty-three-days of jail term thanks to the cases instigated by Gowda & Sons, has now pledged not to talk ill about the first family of the Karnataka politics. He has long forgotten that the former prime minister had once called him a bastard. The hatchets are buried. In response of the new found affability, the patriarch has shown his readiness to build a new political platform for the disgraced BJP man just in case he leaves the party.

The Congress that went on its foot all the way from Bangalore to Bellary to show the world the demons called the Reddys is now keen on supervising the comforts given to G Janardana Reddy at the Chanchala Guda jail. The mining lord is finding the VIP cell better than his Bellary palace to pull strings.

How did it happen?

Take Yeddyurappa’s case. After he refused to bend below the floor, Deve Gowda showed him the taste of his politics. His two men mounted fifteen cases on Yeddyurappa, while the governor played the supporting character sanctioning his prosecution. Deve Gowda’s direction turned superlative with a skillful script writing of Ananthkumar and able production management of L K Avani. Santhosh Hegde was just a light boy, but his contribution is worth mention.

After all Yeddyurappa is a Deve Gowda of BJP. He gave back with the same coin and as a result Gowda’s two sons and a daughter-in-law stood in the dock. The magic started working. Kumaraswamy first got anticipatory bail followed by Yeddyurappa getting an interim stay on legal proceedings against him. The cases against Kumarswamy and his wife Anitha were quashed followed by Yeddyurappa getting bail and anticipatory bail. Eldest son of the Gowda clan Balakrishne Gowda too got stay on his DA case. And at the end, foes are the best chums.

After the god mother dumped them, Deve Gowda was better god father for the Reddys. While Janardana Reddy moved close to Congress through CBI, Sriramulu struck a chord with Kumaraswamy. The realization was that all were in the glass cage of their own and throwing stone would bring mutual destruction. Better bet was to unit together to destruct the world.

With such a remarkable to feat to its credit, the court is shy of a step to complete accomplishment. The judiciary is still not able to goad Gowda going for a jadduki jappi with road builder Ashok Kheny. The long drawn battle between the two Goliaths is continuing taking its toll on legions of poor Davids called farmers, who are supposed to have lost their land for the express highway. The court can’t put an end it because the first Goliath Kheny is an expert in winning court cases- he has won 543 cases so far- and he is not scared of legal battle. The second Goliath Gowda is a diehard politician who sees a political opportunity even in the death of a farmer. Guess who can save us.

Mallya and Rajeev Chandrashekar: what's the similarity?

Corporate debt restructure (CDR) can be a fraud if a lender shows up his vulnerability as a reason for his failure to recover debt from a rich borrower. It’s the fraud especially when the public money is involved. It’s cheating when the government ruthless on common taxpayers spells out its intention to bail out a self-indulgent business house.

The lenders- a 13-bank consortium- could not figure out the way to get back money from the king of good time, after many rounds of deliberations and they have requested him to come out with a ‘credible’ plan. What a credible plan can the borrower propose other than finding a safe escape rout for himself?

And the debt burden they are trying to soften is not a small amount. It’s hovering around Rs.7057.87-crore that is almost equal to the budget size of the Bangalore city municipality. And whose money is it, after all?

Banks are not the only ones who are at Vijay Mallya’s mercy. His Kingfisher Airlines has defaulted payments wherever it found it possible. Oil companies, airports, and leasing companies are praying for Mallya’s prosperity so that they can fill their emptying coffers.

But, there is no apparent link between Mallya’s prosperity and his debt repayment. As the trend goes, with a rich borrower getting richer his defaulting rates go high and the lenders rally behind him with all possible CDR formulae. And the government finds itself in a fix and starts looking for ways and means to bail him out, because it would be a question of survival for the public companies for which the rich is owed to pay or repay.

So, better the oil companies and the airports bet on the pressurised government for the bail out package rather than indulging in a pointless prayer to the listless god. Let the economy go to dogs. If the bail out widens the fiscal deficit gap, then there is the tax tool to peg it up. Rest assure when the expert economist on the helm.

And then, Mallya is a Rajyasabha member. It would not be difficult for him to pull strings from the very corridor of power. He knows how importnat the power is, especially after Jitin Prasada spoilt his design to get a waiver of Rs. 600 crore from HPCL, last year. And you should have seen how cleverly he handled politicians in Karnataka to ensure his entry to the upper house. It seemed, then, the loss of Kingfisher Airlines was the gain of the legislators who supported his candidature. Fortunes of each JD(S) MLA went up by a Fortuner and a purse of cash. And the media reports on the political corruption were effectively stalled thanks to his efficient political secretary who is also his media advisor. An ex-journalist, she knows how to handle the hacks.

The success formula in this sort of riddle seems to be one, and it is amazing to note a similarity in the methods of Mallya to that of his fellow Rajyasabha member elected from Karnataka. Rajeev Chandrasheakr is now a media baron in the state claiming his iconic right over Namma Bengaluru got entry to the Rajyasabha through the same JD(S) rout as Mallya did and before that he had got a CDR settlement with the banks and shored his company up from the debt burden of Rs.2000 crore.

It’s a old story that Rajeev Chandrashekar and his father-in-law TPG Nambiyar stage managed a quarrel between them that ended in an out-of-court settlement. Nambiayar had complained that his son-in-law had fraudulently diverted funds from BPL Ltd to subsidiary companies floated subsequently after the flagship company availed bank loans to the tune of Rs. 2000 crore. He managed to get a CDR scheme, in 2005, which converted the debt burden to mere Rs.80 crore to be repaid in equated monthly installments.

But, till now not an installment is paid and the banks are not complaining. We know how the MP did this. But, we won’t write it because we are scared he will pull us to the court. Moreover, he is in the forefront of the anti-corruption crusade, these days.

The TCS Story...and beyond- a book review

When a person sets out to tell the story of an organization he headed and was part of it for more than four decades, unavoidably it becomes his life story. So, ‘TCS Story …and beyond’ is also the story of S Ramadorai told by himself.

And he doesn’t deny it. “This book is autobiographical because my own life and that of
TCS have been inextricably linked,” says Ramadorai.

What strikes you, while reading the book, is that there is an enthralling story teller in the garb of a star CEO and the trait helped Ramadorai building a loyal core team around him, while for the work force, at large, he was a charmer. And he says attrition was never a problem for the TCS when the rivals were finding talent retention an imperative challenge.

This of skill of story telling is evident in the book by an unlikely author, as his self-description goes, and makes for an absorbing reading, which otherwise would have been a retired business executive’s self-congratulatory autobiography. While a lucid and intimate style of writing takes you through a great journey of a conglomerate pioneering such a significant domain as IT that changed the face of new India, it will have you so engrossed that you will forget wondering there was a flipside of the success story. If there was any, in reality, the book gives no hint. Ramadoaria suffers from a lifetime disappointment that he could not convince his management to take up hardware business though.

While it is autobiographical, the book is an authentic document of the contemporary history as it outlines shaping up of IT industry and modern Indian economy that steered the change in governance and policy making as a result of which the country ushered in era liberalisation.

Early steps taken by a fledgling TCS, in the late 1970s, were historical as they seeded the IT industry. And we find a visionary in Ramadorai, who was at the forefront to find the way. The first real ‘outsourcing’ contract the TCS signed for Burroughs was a pretty small with an amount of $ 24,000 and involved converting a hospital accounting package called the Hospital Information System. Following this, the company began to establish itself with IBM and work onsite. Recounting those moments, Ramdorai writes, “Even so, winning just one client was a big thing. It was very tough, but somewhere deep down I believed that we were not building a mere business but a new industry for India, and that was a dream worth working towards.”

Further, a management meeting at IISc, in Bangalore, that gave a vision to the company to become ‘Top 10 by 2010’, the way it opened to Y2K challenge and tackled it to spearhead Indian industry through the IT boom, and going public through IPO are the footprints of the modern history and the book traces them in an endearing fashion.

Computerization of National Stock Exchange (NSE) carried out by the TCS gave rise to dematerialization that revolutionized investment market and turned the stock trading a household affair. And the way the Tatas fought against the nightmarish license raj and taking part in the strife that ultimately uprooted it is an absorbing episode of a thrilling saga.

The narration of the book unwittingly adopts the language spoken by the IT world and it is interesting to note how the country got to speak in a new idiom with the evolution of the new domain.

Although it is an insider account of an industry leader that provides a deep insight into the Indian IT industry you will be disappointed if you are expecting to get the details of the strategy that made the TCS the market leader as a wily CEO does not spill beans on that count. And he is so conspicuously silent on the contemporaries- Infosys, Wipro and others.

Towards the end of the book Ramadorai has put in his thoughts on education in India and how vocational training has to be brought in and strengthened as that would open up more avenues of employment for the students passing out of the numerous schools and colleges. It would give a different means to livelihood to the millions who today strive to find a job and then try to find satisfaction with whatever job comes their way rather than being able to select a job as per their abilities and likes.


Although he says he is “unlikely candidate for writing a book”, Ramadorai finds writing consuming and he is happy with his “first-time writer” role. As there is a next-time for any first-time, we can expect lot more from his pen. And he is welcome because the new generation is ready for the benefit.

Advani brings smile on ever-grin face

No wonder a BJP man is saying this. D V Sadananda Gowda, who is not
able to find a clean person for the post of the Lokayukta, said,
“There are few people not facing allegations of irregularities. It is
difficult to find such a person.”

It looks like a soul searching statement because Gowda, who came as a
replacement for the tainted chief minister Yeddyurappa, is not above
board himself. He was welcomed for the post with media reports on
illegal amalgamation of his BDA site with an adjacent one. He had got
the site under G-category even when he had a property in his name. His
leader Yeddyurappa had gifted it so as the chief minister chair.

A grateful Sadananda Gowda is prompt enough to push Justice S R
Bannurmath for the Lokayukta because he is Yeddyurappa’s choice. As he
is known for his austerity he is also an epitome of the great
principles like honesty and loyalty. He is honest to himself and loyal
to his leader. And it is always easy to flaunt your austerity, if the
leader is behind you to alleviate your poverty. No risk of getting
caught and no chance of becoming a villain in public eye. All that you
need is to be loyal and trustworthy.

Gowda knows it well, so if Yeddyurappa reserves Lokayukta office for
his community and chooses a Lingayat, then he follows it dutifully. If
the outgoing is a Lingayat, then incoming must also be a Lingayat.
While it is the easiest principle to follow, hard to find a Lingayat
not so tainted, and Gowda is lamenting: “It is difficult to find such
a person.”

There is another easy way out for him: don’t find anybody. Any how, it
is Yeddyurappa’s best option too. Keep the Lokayukta post vacant, in
any case there is an Upa-Lokayukta who can act as the Lokayukta. Best,
Justice S B Majjigi he is a Lingayat. Further best, it is in alignment
with Modi formula, the Bible word for the BJP. He kept the Lokayukta
post vacant for seven years in Gujrath, and if any BJP chief minister
wants to bring in a Gujrath model of development, then he must see to
it that there is no Lokayukta in his state.

For a change, the governor has come handy this time around. He is
sitting on the proposal of the Lokayukta appointment saying he was
convinced with the choice, but this gives a pretext for Gowda to pull
on.

And there is no threat for his cabinet with L K Advani, the paragon of
virtue, sharing the dais with R Ashok against whom the Lokayukta
police have filed FIR. That means no minister is required to resign
when he is charged with corruption. Advani will demand it as his job
is done after ousting Yeddyurappa and sending him to jail. Now he only
says, “The accused are only accused, they are not proven guilty. They
need not have to quit.” Good for the stability of his cabinet, so it
is good reason to smile for an ever-grinning Gowda.

Further, as he as discovered it, there is no human being who is
infallible on the earth, Gowda can allow himself to be fallible and
you should not mind it. After all politics is a hamam and in hamame
sab nange.

Controversially Yours- a book review

‘Attitude’ is the word haunted his life and career all along. While,
in a relative term, it is good and bad in his own view, the attitude
has made Shoaib Akhtar one of the most controversial figures of the cricket
realm. He is never scared of controversy, but on the other hand
seems to have fascination in introducing himself as ‘Controversially Yours’, so the self-description aptly fits into title of his autobiography.

He says: “Controversies have hovered around me since the day I was
born. Take my name, Shoaib, for instance. In Arabic, it means the one
who brings people together, but it can also mean one who separates.”

He never tried to separate people, as we know from
his life story chronicled in the book of 271 pages. Contrary to his
wish to be a binding factor, he used to be banned from his band.
Suspensions he was punished with -be it from
his classroom when he was a student or be it from the Pakistan national team when he was a star cricketer-were not justified but inevitable in the given situation. The culprit
was his mistaken-attitude of inwardly respecting people without toadying to them.

But, if you really want to pick it up for its title, disappointment is
in store for you for nothing is there in the book
that you don’t know, especially, if you are a cricket follower. The
details about his drug abuse, admission of ball tampering, the way he
came out of the ‘chucker’ stigma and a rape charge, are all much read
about and talked about subjects and the book doesn’t offer anything extra.

His remarks on the Indian greats Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid had
certainly raised some dust as his terming them ‘not the match winners’
had been taken as blasphemy because one of the targets is none other
than the god of cricket, while the other is the great wall that the
greatest demolishers struggled to find a breach in it. His observation
that Tendulkar was scared of his bowling had definitely incited rage
among the Indian cricket fans, but the controversy element stops at
that and his adulations for the little master shown in the book did
not get the publicity to the extent that the negative coverage the
pitfall could have attracted even before its launch. Perhaps, this
disappointment factor has played the downer and the autobiography of
the supposedly fastest bowler of the world is not a hot cake on the
stands.

Although he is candid in recording his tumbles and fumbles, the hot
hunk disappoints you even on the most important count; he talks about
girls and even mentions Bollywood glam dolls, while spilling beans on love lives of his own and of his team mates, but he never names them.
His rational face gets unveiled when he castigates the hypocrisy of
the Pakistan team management insisting upon the team members doing
namaz in the dressing room. He has not spared Inzamam-Ul- Hak, as the
captain, from ridiculing for his clownish insistence on nammaz that
forced them doing it even on board of flight. But, he does this with
an authority as he is also well-versed in the Islamiath, the essence
of Islam, and he is a great believer. The beginning of his talimaat,
learning, of the Islamiat from a murshid, which continued for fifteen
years, is itself is a poignant episode in the biography. He is so
scholarly that he could interpret the real meaning of namaaz, which is
a far cry for any Pakistan cricketer. You can add this to the duality
of his persona that has otherwise given him a bad boy image.

What really moves you is his response to a few in Pakistan- an
insignificant minority as he puts it- dancing in the streets after
26/11 Mumbai attack. He vents out his angst: “I recall thinking in
horror, people die in Mumbai and you celebrate! Are you human? Don’t
the people of Mumbai have red blood like yours?” His heartburn
over Pakistan players (losing) IPL participation, after the ghastly act, is just an added pain.

While reading an autobiography of a flamboyant cricketer like Shoaib
Akhtar, it is unfair to look for literary value in the book.
But, the narration of Anshu Dogra has done justice with her prose being
a mix of lucidity and banality in patches.

Ashok and Advani's amnesia

‘Ulta chor kotwal ko danta’. H R Bhardwaj had to quote this when Yeddyurappa attacked him for sanctioning his prosecution. He had used this adage, then, figuratively to explain his position as the governor dealing with the chief minister facing graft charges. Now, it applies, in literal sense, to the prevailing political scene in Karnataka.

The Lokayukta police have filed FIR to investigate a case and the main accused in the case is their boss: the home minister.

R Ashok, who is accused of de-notifying land illegally, has promised cooperation with the police. If he had real intention to cooperate, he would have stepped down after the FIR is filed. His intention is to getaway with what he has done and the current position helps him in that.

As a home minister, he rules the police department. He can punish a police officer when he feels like doing it. Then the police officer can say: ‘Ulta chor kotwal ko danta.’

The rational behind demanding his resignation is nothing but to avoid this farce. But, Ashok is too brazen to budge. In fact the brazenness is his qualification. But for the brazenness, he couldn’t have become the minister.

When he became the minister for the first time, in 2006, he didn’t know what a department secretary was meant for and had no regards to the process of legislation for he was ignorant of the process. For every media query he encountered with he would say: “We will bring in a new act to address this issue.” When the secretary reminded him of the said act was already in force, he would insult him in public. Somebody had apparently taught him a minister would grow strong if he scolds bureaucrats in front of general public, and he followed it blindly. He was unmindful of the officials making fun of him in the back.

When he was the health minister, the government doctors were crowded at the BBMP with a job of counting garbage vehicles. They were there on deputation to evade service at rural area and Ashok didn’t know how to send them back to their mother departments. He would not listen to the officials as he believed he would be weak in their eyes, if he follows their advice. And the comedy was hilarious.

His public speeches were another act of the comedy play. He could not have pronounced Kannada words properly; his lisping would confuse and the audience would burst into laughter once they get hint of what he was really meant.

Such a man has politically grown up now. He has grown up to such an extent that the corruption charges are filed against him. He is not really dumb when it comes to the land issue. In fact was the one who brought the illegal encroachments to the fore during S M Krishna tenure. Then, he was in the opposition and now, he is in the ruling; the roles have been reversed and he is promptly practising what he learned by observing the ruling party members, while sitting on the opposition bench.

But, the real shocker is from L K Advani, the paragon of virtue. The patriarch, who has embarked upon the rath to cleanse corruption, is fine with Ashok continuing as the minister even after the police filing FIR against him. He had pledged that he would not step into the parliament until Yeddyurappa stepped down as the chief minister, when he was implicated in the Lokayukta on illegal mining. And he saw to it Yeddyurappa resigned.

Why he is not using the weapon on Ashok? We can believe in somebody, if they say it is due to amnesia as the age factor is in Advani’s side. If the amnesia is selective, then it is nothing to do with anybody’s age.

Licensing the media and getting rid of weeds

Manmohan Singh is credited for terminating the license raj, when he was finance minister. Ironically, the government is seeking to tighten the licensing norms on news channels, when he is the prime minister.

When de-licensing industries is hailed as a great step towards liberalization that is supposed to have turned around economy, how licensing the media is justified?

Champions of liberalization including Manmohan Singh say, “The government has no business to be in business.” Then, how the government that saw no business in the business sector found a business in media? Not so easy to comprehend. It is as riddled as a live chat happens between an anchor and a reporter about breaking news aired even before its confirmation.

It’s easy to understand that the freedom of press is ensured, if the government stays away from media because it is a simple proposition of democracy. It’s not easy to understand the double-talk of the politicians because it is a complex proposition of demonocracy.

Dayanidhi Maran, now darling of CBI, has a dubious distinction of not issuing a single TV channel license during his tenure as the minister for information and broadcast. He didn’t feel any necessity of new channels, when his brother was running a group of channels sitting on mountains of profit.

He thought market would be cluttered with the entry of all and sundry. He saw a need to check the mushrooms and stonewall the market place. And he did it with dead ease as he had a powerful weapon; authority to issue license. He simply denied license to new entrants. As a result the market remained clean and uncluttered; while his brother, who was already a media mughal, held the fort and went on to expand his empire from media to aviation.

The argument of the present policymakers is nothing different. They are concerned about non-serious players entering to spoil the business. A simple way they found to keep them at bay is to raise their required net worth from Rs.3 crore Rs. 20 crore. Sad, there is no Nobel for such a great invention: net worth is the index of seriousness. The leaders have understood it very well and that is why their net worth is going skywards.

Finding three violations or five violations to cancel the license is another great idea; otherwise how can you control these inglorious bustards? How dare these unbridled TV channels barking and biting and stinging, while the demagogues are planning to step up their net worth to be serious to rule the country? They need to be chained and kicked out, if they found to be mischievous. This is a serious issue and that is why the government is taken it seriously and seriously said it wouldn’t concede to demands of non-serious media.

Indira Gandhi was the first visionary to see this. She did not put up with the nuisance, when her party colleagues were toiling day in and day out to increase their net worth with an honest intention of being serious to be worthy to rule the country. She brought in censorship for the media and the newspapers looked decent under the emergency rule. Now, we can only laud the Congress for having paid tribute to its great leader by bringing in control over vulgar visual media.

In fact, it is better the government expands its horizon to clean and uncluttered the other sectors also. It would be great if an industrialist is made the industry ministry, as in the case of Karnataka. Let a miner handle the ministry of mines and geology. Hand over education portfolio to a medical college owner. A cargo businessman should be the transport minister. They know how to de-clutter the respective markets and how to take out weeds in their respective fields.

Steve Jobs, the Baba

In a Rajnikant film, the protagonist turns ‘Rajnikant’ after a visit to the Himalayas. In fact, his conscious goes there to meet a Baba and the hero becomes ‘Baba’. He acquires a magical power taking the potboiler to the dizzy heights of entertainment.

Steve Jobs was the ‘Rajnikant’ of tech world. His words were prophecy to come true. His touch was magical turning dead hardware a lively world of fairy tale. He was a magician.

How could he do that?

We Indians have fascination in believing in miracles. The magician Jobs was born after Steve Paul Jobs came to the Himalayas. He became ‘Baba’ after he met a Baba there. There after Jobs was a great entertainer; business became entertainment and the entertainment reached its dizzy heights under him.

A 19-year old Jobs arrived in India, in 1974, accompanied by his friend Dan Kottke, who later became Apple’s first employee. Soon he had swapped his jeans and T-shirt for dotis as he set out from Delhi for the Himalayas.

While he was searching for Neem Karoli Baba, Jobs chanced upon a mendicant from whom he begged for food. The mendicant was the real Baba. Seeing upon him sitting there devouring, the Baba walked over to JObs and sat down and burst out laughing. The language was not a barrier as the Baba knew how to address a soul. As the conversation continued, he rolled on the ground with laughter.

Then he grabbed the young man by his arm and took him up the mountain trail. Jobs found it little funny, because there were hundreds of Indians who had traveled for thousands of miles to hang out with this guy for some fleeting moments and he had just tumbled in only for some thing to eat and was being dragged up the mountain path by the Baba.

When they got to the top of the mountain, they found a little well and pond, and the next thing Jobs knew was the Baba dunking his head in the water and pulling out a razor from his pocket to start shaving his head. Jobs never quite understood why the bizarre Indian Baba dragged him away from the rest of the crowd and shaved his head atop a mountain peak.

Ours is the land where an atheist Narendra becoming a champion of divinity and religion just by a touch of his master, to conquer the world. For us it is not a wonder the Baba gracing the Jobs to become Jobs.

Then how else an unwanted child, who was given away by his unmarried parents to someone for adoption on account of their inability to raise him as they were just students, could have scaled up such heights? He was the guy never finished college, never went to business school, never worked for anyone else a day in his adult life. So how did he become the visionary who changed every business he touched?

But, attributing the feat to mere miracle is not only doing injustice to the genius but also reflecting on our pettiness unable to reconise the task done. The achievement was not for no reason. David Pogue, in his obit, writes ‘the story of Jobs boils down to this: Don’t go with the flow.’

‘Steve Jobs refused to go with the flow. If he saw something that could be made better, smarter or beautiful, nothing else mattered. Not internal politics, not economic convention, not social grace,’ Pogue says.

We saw a man swimming upstream, against the currents, to show even a lesser breed can reach the heights and it is the miracle of the perfect focus on the target regardless of any distraction. Did he get the focus after his head was shaven in the Himalayas? Let us believe so, because it can make us believe Jobs is ‘our Baba.’

Gaft law and ravenous vultures

The graft law implies asset growth of corrupt is inversely proportional to that of the government bodies.

In the last five years, the net worth of one of the sons of H D Deve Gowda went up from some Rs. 10 crore to Rs.500 crore.

A petition admitted in the Lokayukta court said H D Balakrishne Gowda, eldest son of the former prime minister, had amassed wealth disproportionate to known sources of income. When he took VRS as a KAS officer, in 2005, his monthly earnings did not cross Rs.75000. Then how could he become so rich by 2010? Rs.500 crore is just an approximate figure and the petitioner has said it could even be more. The Lokayukta police are probing. Let us wait for the result.

When Balakrishne Gowda took VRS to take charge of the family administration, his younger brother H D Kumarsaswmy took charge of the state administration as the chief minister. The Gowda family prospered under the big brother’s stewardship; each member’s wealth grew to touch the sky. Only NICE man Ashok Kheny knows what the total worth of the family is. Even Deve Gowda can’t tell.

And how did the state fare under the statesmanship of the small brother? Here is a sample. The BBMP attained bankruptcy, in the period. Its reserves that were at Rs. 500 crore, in 2005, came down to nil at the beginning of the current fiscal year.

With its coffers were empty the BBMP delayed its budget presentation by three months and it had to borrow heavily to foot salary bill. Forget about the pending payments for the finished works, there is no money to take up the new projects. Hence you are riding on bumpy roads full of pot holes. The council officially passed a resolution to stall some 1700 works citing shortage of funds.

The BBMP’s budget for last year was ambitious. The estimated size went up from previous year’s Rs.4246 to Rs.8488.54 crore, but it was revised to Rs. 3856 crore at the end. While they could not even reach half of the estimated targets, the abysmal figures were only achieved after market borrowings. The assured amount of Rs.1500 crore as special grant from the state government did not come. The bankruptcy of the BBMP is piggybacking on that of the state.

This year, with a projected outlay of Rs. 9,196 crore, the budget is carrying forward an opening balance of Rs.85.25 crore. Can you find a magician to turn it around? Is there any trickster who can do a work worth Rs.9, 196 crore with Rs. 85.25 crore on hand?

The state government could not extend financial assistance to the BBMP because the finance department did not approve it because there were no funds in the government. After Kumaraswamy took over the chief minister, B S Yeddyurappa took charge of the finance department and he continued as the finance minister till he had to step down as the chief minister facing graft charges, last month. And his good friends Katta Subramanya Naidu and R Ashok were the in-charge of BBMP. Do you want any more reason to explain the bankruptcy?

The change the Karnataka witnessed after it became the gateway for the BJP rule in South India is this: The party that could not even feed lemon rice to its polling agents has grown into a money bag that can spend Rs. 1000 crore to win an assembly polls. A party worker toiled hard to grow from a rice mill accountant to the level of opposition leader could amass such a wealth, after becoming the chief minister that he could build his own republic in Shimoga. And two obnoxious weeds, who divided the city with equal shares to rule it as in-charge ministers, grew into ravenous vultures devouring BBMP and any thing that looked like asset.

One vulture is in jail now, while the other is still at large to guttle the carcass of the dead BBMP.

Modi medicine for Lokayukta malice

Lokayukta Justice Shivaraj V Patil’s premature exit has thrown up a rather cynical question: do we really need the ombudsman? If a wolf comes in to herd sheep, better avoid the shepherd.

It’s not a question of Patil availing a site from a fraudulent house building society or the illegalities behind it. Nor his resignation can bail him out of his misconduct. The question is how you can bring in a fool-proof system when you are handing over the role of a watchdog to an individual.

When he was the Lokayukta, Santhosh Hegde insisted on suo-motto powers to prosecute anybody including chief minister, while the others were demanding absolute powers for the Lokayukta. We need to thank Shivraj Patil for providing us with a case study for the perils of such powers bestowed on one individual. He had clarified he didn’t want absolute power as the Lokayukta, but his gesture only added to the suspicion that he had come in to safeguard the interest of the ruling party.

His very appointment was ominous with the chief minister Yeddyurappa neck deep into corruption choosing his fellow Lingayat to be the Lokayukta, while the incumbent Santhosh Hegde engineered his fall through his tricky report on illegal mining just before his retirement. So dark was the caste shadow cast on the appointment of Patil that the government brought in a Brahmin R Gururajan as the second Upa-Lokayukta because S B Majjigi, Upa-Loakyukta in place, was a Lingayat and a balance act was called for.

The rot was in the root of the appointment and it took its toll on Patil even before he could complete 47 days in the office, and Vyalaikval House Building Society scam just came his way as an escape route. Smart guy he is, Patil jumped at the opportunity and resigned. Otherwise, his position was awkward; a watchdog assigned to guard the thief and bite the house owner.

Lokayuka Act is a state act and the chief minister is the authority to appoint the ombudsman. Opinion of the chief justice of the High Court and leaders of the legislative houses are just notional with dominant presence of the leader of the ruling party. Did you not hear Chief Justitice Jagadish Singh Kehar cribbing over ignoring him in Patil’s appointment? He said, “Patil’s appointment was government’s unilateral decision. I was not heard.” Who cares?

H D Kumaraswamy, when he was the chief minister, appointed Santhosh Hegde as the Lokayukta and was naturally possessive of him. Hegde broke his heart by calling L K Advani a father figure and took back resignation he had tendered in rage at his behest. Kumaraswamy was further shattered when his name was figured in the report on illegal mining. He didn’t expect it for two reasons; first, he had furnished incriminating documents against BJP and Congress that were vital for the report and second, he thought the report was only meant for cornering Yeddyurappa.

The possessiveness gave rise to a slang match between him and Hegde in public. Kumaraswamy questioned Hegde’s night life and Hegde asked how many wives Kumaraswamy had.

Hegde’s predecessor N Venkatachala was even more dramatic. He used to take camera crew of TV channels with him while trapping corrupt officials. His dialogues for the camera had made reigning silver screen stars dimmer. He was a rock star and people chose him the man on the year, year after year till his retirement. And what did he do at the end? He joined the BJP soon after his retirement, begging for a party ticket to contest assembly polls. The party didn’t find him worth and denied the ticket.

Has the team Anna advocating absolute powers for the Lokpal and Lokayukta for all the states taken note of Karnataka’s example? Hegde is the super star of the team and it should know it from him well.

Anna had no hesitation in seeking Patil’s resignation after he was caught in site scam, but can he approve any one of them in the queue to fill the vacancy? The names of Ravindran, N K Sodi, and S R Bannurmatt are doing rounds. Better not talk about their background now.

Or why doesn’t somebody advise Anna to support Narendra Modi? Modi knows it better and that is why he didn’t bother to appoint any Lokayukta for seven years. Leave Anna alone, an old-fashioned Gandhian. We can bet on the new chief minister D V Sadananda Gowda. He can follow the footstep of Modi; after all, he is the one wants to adopt Modi formula for Karnataka.

Look for battle of brahmacharis

Sushma Swaraj first disowned her political kids from Bellary and then distanced from them. L K Advani resorted to embark on his trade mark rath for another yatra with Anna Hazare’s theme of anti-corruption. Now Naredndra Modi is doing the other part of Anna: fasting.

Methods of these BJP stalwarts are distinctly different, but the target is the one: prime minister kursi. With any one of them is allowed to hit the bull’s eye, as the rule of the game, we see the top leaders scrambling.

As such there is no vacancy at the top. Vacancy can be created if they put concerted efforts to humble UPA in the next general elections that is due for 2014. Then, why is the hurry? The hurry is not to fill the vacancy now, but to be eligible for it. Chair of the prime minister is the final destination; the fight is now for the first step: prime ministerial candidature.

They know concerted effort is required to defeat the UPA. But, each one wants a concerted effort under his or her leadership. This is how the Janatha Parivar failed to overcome the Congress post emergency. Their concerted effort brought them to the power, but the government didn’t last long. Indira Gandhi’s Congress looked inevitable. Now, the Sangh Parivar is doing the Janatha Parivar even before the power is seen in the vicinity. The Congress has a reason to smile, no matter how many scandals dogging the government at the centre.

The enthusiasm is evident in the Congress. It inducted its scion Rahul Gandhi into its central election committee. He will lead the party in the Uttar Pradesh to face the assembly polls and it will be a do or die battle for him to keep his prime ministerial aspirations alive.

The booster dose has come for him from the US. The US Congressional report has predicted that the 2014 parliamentary polls in India would be a face-off between Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi. It’s a double booster dose for Modi because it is an indicator that the US that had once denied him a visa for his fundamentalist image is now ready to accept him as the prime minister.

Buoyed by this, Modi Bhai is into complete make over from ‘mouth ka soudagar’ form to messiah of secularism. See how his apology-like public letter reads; It said ‘Indian history is a witness that casteism and communalism have never done any good to society. This is also my own firm conviction.’ If you feel like Modi stealing words from the Congress, it is not your fault. But don’t recall the over used adage ‘devil quoting scripture’ because scriptures are meant for quoting and anybody can quote it.

Another transformation seen in Modi is equally significant. He was known for keeping an arm's distance from the media. His don’t-care attitude towards the media had in fact earned him accolades. But, what did he do on Saturday before launching his three-day fast? He made sure that all news channels were there when he prostrated to his mother, who handed over him a copy of Tulsi Ramayana as a gesture of blessing, and made sure the Muslim participants are seen prominently at the venue of Sadhbhavan Mission.


While there is no apparent resistance for the metamorphosis from any cornrer, Modi’s new gesture is definitely a dampener for the chariot master of the BJP. The patriarch made sure his presence at the venue of fasting to call Modi Bhai “a phenomenon”. Before that, he even blogged : “ Now, American lawmakers and the state deportment are being primed for the return of BJP to power in New Delhi, with Modi at the helm as Prime Minister, following what US analysts say is a ‘precipitous’ decline in the Congress party’s fortunes due to a string of corruption scandals.”

But, his efforts are on in Gujrath to see the BJP government facing embarrassment in the issue of the Lokayukta appointment and corruption cases referred the ombudsman. This was the formula he adopted in Karnataka to get rid of Yeddyurappa. But, he has little chance of success this time around with the RSS backing Modi. He is not even encouraged for his chariot excursion.

Another contender Sushma Swaraj is busy in finding an escape route from the mess that her problem kids have created. As such there is no challenge for Modi within and he is free to take on the Congress.

So you can look for the fight between two bachelors: Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi

Hail jail and bail

Jail and bail are the words of the year 2011. The next in the pecking order might be ‘anti-corruption’ that was in the highest decibel thanks to Ramlila.

It is difficult to find a politician, who was not somniloquous about these words, while they had turned them insomniac. People wanted to see them in the jail and the corrupt chanted the word bail.

Both were the pet words for the top lawyers, for they enjoyed a windfall gain from them. But, the Supreme Court was the show stealer putting the impossible behind bars.

Twice the Supreme Court struck. After managing to get bail from a lower court Ramalinga Raju could not live happily for ever after. He barely spent two days with his family before the apex court cancelled the bail. The cancellation did not come before the Supreme Court asking the Andhra Pradesh High Court to take up the slack before releasing the kite. Its ultimatum to the accused in Satyam case to surrender before trail court came as tempest to wipe out cynicism prevailed. People were complaining the powerful would getaway with their fraud. Raju’s case was the first case to bring smile on their faces after proving them wrong.

The Supreme Court was more scathing on the Mumbai High Court for granting bail to the master tax evader Hasan Ali. Terming the High Court’s judgment erroneous, the Supreme Court bench observed it was "deeply disturbed" over the way the trail court judge conducted the proceedings. Till then dead in the eyes of a common man, the judiciary suddenly turned alive to roll out like juggernaut.

They way the Supreme Court sent A Raja, Kanimzhi, and Suresh Kalmadi to jail was a leson for the lower courts and it made the judges double cautious. As a result, the Kattas, Yeddys, Reddys started falling in line. Remember how Katta Subramnaya Naidu, who was dodging the Lokayukta special court, made a return trip from a foreign country to India to appear before the judge, who threatened to send an arrest warrant, and joined his son en route to Parapapna Agrahara Jail. No bail for him despite spending crores on the lawyers.

Yeddyurappa is also spending crores on his lawyers. He knows, like others knew, that a jail term before getting bail is the only punishment that an accused get at the given situation as the trail goes on for years and the courts take ages to decide on a case. The under trails out on bail can rule the roost, while their court appearance will be as routine as their attendance in their daily work. The media forgets about their cases once they get bail and they enjoy freedom. The glowing examples are Jayalalithaa and Lalu Prasad Yadav. Nobody knows what happened to their cases. We heard the trail is on.

Y Samapangi, Haratalu Halappa, and Renukacharya are now free birds enjoying life. Can you remember these politicians once made headlines in Karnataka when they were booked under criminal charges? Their lawyers got bail for them and they slipped out of the media glare. Who knows whom Sampangi is extorting, whom Halappa is trying to rape, or whom Renukacharya is romancing with?


This is the reason why the Yeddys and Reddys are betting on the lawyers and investing hugely on them. But, the courts are giving run for their money.

The ever-elected representative of Lingayat masses, a man used to think the chief minister chair his own property, is making trips to the court. The Lokayukta court is to decide on B S Yeddyurapap’s bail plea.

The ever-elected representative of Bellary’s toiling masses, a man ignoring even court summonses, is suddenly behind bars. The CBI court in Hyderabad remanded G Janardana Reddy to CBI custody after rejecting his bail application.

The trend is so pertinent that even film stars are facing the heat. See how challenging star Darshan’s heroism was challenged? He is now learning dishum dishum can earn applause only on screen and beating wife in real life will bring a jail term. He is the son of a great actor, who was loved by the audience as a villain. Tugudeepa Srinivas led an austere life and his wife donated her kidney to him. His son is a hero and he could not win his wife’s heart.

The court yet again played a leveler and proved people can still believe in judiciary.


Then, how could Kumaraswamy get bail? He can achieve anything because he is the son of Deve Gowda. And Deve Gowda is Deve Gowda, the real Rajni Kanth.

Advani said he knew it

L K Advani’s rath is set to roll out for a fresh leg of yatra after a lapse of twenty-one years.

The theme is not temple or Hindutva this time around. It is anti-corruption. The objective is not only to bring back the BJP to power but also to push himself to the prime ministerial candidature, for he is sure the post is no longer reserved for him.

And that is the real hitch.

It starts from the very theme. Anna Hazare might have provided amphitheater for all those who can spiel on anti-corruption, but what Advani has to say to the audience with Yeddys, Reddys, and Modis in to his ranks and files?

He has dared the UPA government to arrest him in the cash-for-vote scam, for he was aware of the sting operation carried out by his party men. He knows no one can arrest him for the crime of knowing the sting operation. But, what about knowing the misdeeds of the Yeddys, Reddys, and Modis, and keeping silent on them? Can he ask for a jail term for himself for this crime?

In fact, it will catch imagination of the audience, if he makes this as the theme of his rath yathra.

Leave alone Bangaru Laxman, who caught in camera while collecting wads of currency notes from deal masters. Advani knew the poor chap was only accepting donations for the party fund. The money collected by his two MPs could have also been converted into the party fund had it not aimed at the stabilization of the UPA government. The sting operation conducted by Tehalka was politically motivated, and the sting operation done by the BJP MPs is done to do a great service to democracy. And Advani knew it better.

He knew B S Yeddyurappa could win elections for his party in Karnataka and he was happy to handover the leadership to him. How jubilant he was when he came down from Delhi to Bangalore to bless the new chief minister, who took oath on the steps of Vidhana Soudha. He knew the Karnataka poster boy could establish the first BJP government in South India only due to money and muscle power of the Reddys, who have despoiled Bellary. So he congratulated the mining lords for inventing ‘operation lotus’ to poach MLAs from the opposition parties. He knew they could have achieved it by spending money like water.

He also knew Sushma Swaraj, his successor as the leader of the opposition in the Loksabha, making annual trip to Bellary on Varamahalakshmi festival to collect ‘lakshmi’, and he knew the Reddys presenting luxury gifts to his party president Nitin Gdakari. But, we don’t know whether he knows about what Janardana Reddy has singed in the CBI custody.

He knew Narendra Modi dodged for seven years without appointing Lokayukta in Gujrath. Still he and his party are the patent holders of Anna Hazare’s ant-corruption manthra.

He knew his son-like Santhosh Hegde sitting in the position of Lokayukta could come handy in getting rid of Yeddyurappa in Karnataka, while there was none in Gujrath. The row over the appointment of the Lokayukta there, and the corruption charges against the state government might help him in getting rid of a contender for the PM post: Modi.

He has to say all this in his rata yatra.

Now consider the question of his prime ministerial candidature. It is a pity that the patriarch, who is credited to have brought the BJP from two seats level to the ruling party status, had to say he had taken the permission of Gadkari for his proposed rath yatra. And what was Gadkaris’ reaction? The BJP president said, “There is no question of the party going under an individual leadership. It is collective leadership we are thinking about.”

Another prime minister in waiting Sushma has bluntly thrown water on Advani’s enthusiasm by saying rath yathra wouldn’t produce a prime minister.

We know Advani knows all this and that is why we are doubtful on the take off of his yatra.

Dance of demonocracy

Anna might have once orchestrated dance of democracy, but who is there to stop an unrelenting dance of demonocracy?

The demons are our speakers and governors conniving with the power-hungry party leaders.

Speaker of the Karnataka legislative assembly K G Bopiah is demonstrating an extreme fairness in case of Sriramulu, who resigned as a BJP legislator last Sunday. He is taking time to decide on the resignation. It is a due diligence to make sure that the Bellary MLA had acted on his own will without anybody’s bad influence, and it was not a hasty decision. A speaker has to do this, in the interest of democracy, because it is a question of an elected representative, while it involves the popular sentiment of the electorate.

So far Bopiah has relieved fourteen MLAs after they resigned. All are from the opposition parties- the Congress and the JD(S) - and he took maximum of fifteen minutes to accept their resignations. The average speed of response was five minutes. It was ‘operation lotus’ launched to poach legislators from the opposition parties adding to the strength of the ruling party. The swiftness was very much required, in the interest of democracy, because it was a question of stability of an elected government, while it involved the popular sentiment of the electorate.

Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa was fortunate to have a speaker, who knew his business as a guardian of democracy. Bopiah was sensible enough to understand the sensitivities of the ruling faction of a ruling party. Remember how he disqualified sixteen MLAs a few minutes before they could topple the government. His conduct was so saintly on that day that the abuses hurled at him in the house did not fell on his ears. He was so courageous that he did not show a sign of fear even when the floor turned gang war zone between the ruling and the opposition members prompting police entering the house.

Great service he rendered to democracy. He denied voting right of the rebel MLAs by disqualifying them lest they would have pulled down the government doing disservice to democracy.

The Governor H R Bharadwaj is no less a valiant guardian of democracy. He guarded it by denying voting right of these rebels after the Supreme Court reversed Bopiah's decision disqualifying them. He didn’t allow the assembly session to happen till he was overcome by the BJP legislative party resolving to show confidence in Yeddyurappa. Even the Congress frowned on his antics as more loyal than king.

The sixteen MLAs wanted to throw out Yeddyurappa government before Bopiah disqualified them because they were assured of money and power by the JD(S). By the time Supreme Court restored their membership they wanted to support the government because they saw greener pasture in the ruling BJP and promptly came back to Yeddyurappa’s fold. In fact, this was the real dance of democracy. The rock stars were the speaker and the Governor. They rocked at the Rock and Roll party with the rebel legislators ably essaying the role of summersault clowns.

Now that rebel in Sriramulu is vanished with his leader G Janardana Reddy landing in CBI dragnet. He has apparently dropped the idea of launching his own political outfit up against the BJP as leaving the party no longer suits his needs. Protecting his interest is in the interest of the BJP now. And a loyal party man he is, Bopiah is just doing what the party wants him to do.

He could have rejected the resignation had rules permitted. Rules say, a speaker can reject resignation of an MLA if it is reached him through a third party or by post or by fax. Sriramulu, when he had a high, had chased him all the way to Medikeri to handover the resignation letter in person, and Bopiah has no excuse to reject it.

Only way left is: Sriramulu has to withdraw resignation. He is expected to write to the speaker shortly, but there is no guarantee Bopiah returning the resignation letter immediately. He has to wait for the party signal. And the party still doesn’t know what exactly is in its interest.

The dance drama will continue.

Jobs gone, and jobs gone

‘Jobs’ was the obsessive word of August in the US; when the Steve Jobs called it a day, the month recorded no jobs in the market.


The employment report, released on last Friday, shows the economy adding no jobs in August - zero - and the anemic numbers for June and July were revised downward. The unemployment rate is stuck at 9.1 percent, but it would be 16.2 percent if it included the swelling ranks of those who find only part-time work and the millions who have given up looking for jobs that simply do not exist. Alarmingly, the White House said the unemployment rate was expected to stay that high through at least 2012.

While the report leaves no doubt that the United States is in the grip of a severe and worsening jobs crisis, it has lent a sense of urgency to the speech on jobs that President Obama plans to deliver, on Thursday.

Alas, politics in America is no different than that in India. Obama had to address the joint house on Wednesday, but the speaker turned down the request citing a procedural lapse. The fact is that two Republican presidential candidates are scheduled for a debate, on Wednesday, and John Boehner, a loyal Republican he is, didn’t want presidential address overshadowing the performance of his fellow party men.

Didn’t it remind you of our K G Bopiah, who jumped to disqualify 17 legislators in a bid to save Yeddyurappa government? Party blood is thicker than parliament water. Although speaker is the second in the US presidential line of succession, Boehner chose to defy the White House.

While it is unprecedented and shameful, the development reflects on the vulnerability of Obama. Perhaps he is the weakest president in the history. The White House immediately seized on the report to bolster the president's impending call to action. Republicans countered that the numbers were further proof that the stimulus policies of Mr. Obama, whom they quickly dubbed "President Zero," were not working.

The main cause of unemployment now is a lack of consumer demand. Americans -unemployed, underemployed, underwater in their debts, and understandably anxious about the future - are unwilling or unable to spend.

This is worrisome back in India because the parameters in the US are indicating the possible double dip recession. It has already cast shadow on our job market with exports already down sliding is tending to hit further low.

But, the internal situation is not so bleak. The fundamentals are still strong and the markets are doing well with the foreign institutional investors are finding India more safe given the global situation.

It is interesting to note that the consumer spending peaked in India in August, when it was traveling valley side in the US. Indian retailers managed to mop up their highest sales ever in a month as consumers splurged on daily household items, apparels and durables during the Independence Day week sales clubbed with the end-of-season sale discount last month. The spur can not be dismissed attributing to end-of-season sale discounting as the discount was no longer bait with the inflation continuing to be unbridled.

The sluggishness of the US economy and the bullishness showing up in India can prompt the Indian businesses to turn inwards and tap the domestic markets. While it would be better bet for them, the move will help improving supply side dynamics that in turn helpful in containing inflation.


The end of Libya crisis is expected to result in falling of oil prices that would further eases out inflation.

So, it’s time to rejoice, if you are not looking for a job in the US.

Want to be Anna?: dont ask note for vote

Lokpal Bill might not be a magic wand wiping out corruption. The movement for the Bill might be seen as a big scale drama for a small pie. But, it created a strong anti-corruption brand: Anna Hazare. And that is the real gain of the historic groundswell.

The brand and the brand ambassador are one and the same in this case. Hope Anna has realized its importance, while he is embarking upon his next leg of mass movement for electoral reforms.

It is practical to say corruption can not be abolished by law. The menace is so ingrained in the social culture that the Lokpal Bill is a weak brush to scrub it. It is required to convert minds and change the culture. So it is natural to say Anna had to be in connection with people at the ground level perusing them for the awareness against corruption instead of putting up a TV show with fancy characters in T-shirt.

True, he could have traveled, as he has done it earlier, but before doing it one big shout from the roof top was required. And the shout was from Ramlila. It was thunderous and now Anna Hazare is a known factor in the country. More popular than any bollywood superstar, now he can pull crowd wherever he goes.

Before Lokpal movement it would have been impractical to expect an effective social reform from him although he had made name as Gandhian and anti-corruption crusader. His crusade was unknown to the T-shirt activists and the gen-x would have not responded to him as the Gandhi topi was not yet a style statement. For this one reason we must thank TV channels. They successfully launched brand Anna with their non-stop coverage of his fast.

Now, Anna has to tap the potential and channelise the energy. Otherwise the ardor will die down with the euphoric waves subsiding. System will be back to normalcy with bribe givers and takers thriving. If time is spent, Anna has to re-start from the scratch and there is no guarantee of the same response, as it would not be for the first time. People always like an unpredictable drama rather than a re-enactment of older one.

Psychology of the society is that we all think that corruption is something that other people practice. Or it is I-can-do-but-it’s- not- for- others- to- do syndrome. It is deep-rooted in social structure and public life; everyone willingly, or otherwise, consciously, or otherwise, is a participant. The real issue is not this bill or that law. The real issue is: how do we change ourselves?

Anna’s next leg of movement must focus on this. His Ramlila revolution was blamed for keeping dalits, lower strata of society and rural folks out. His whirlwind tour must be inclusive and strictly he must say no to fasting drama and rhetoric of Kiran Bedi brand. When pressure tactics become inseparable from blackmail tactics, they lose their moral strength and become another form of corruption.

Electoral reforms must not be restricted to talk about state funding of polls or recalling representatives or rejecting candidates but to focus on bringing in a holistic change in the system. More importantly, people must be inspired not to get note for vote, especially in rural area. In urban area cynicism is the malice and they must be inspired to come out for voting. The Gandhian way of social reform can definitely change the mind set and bring in electoral reforms.

Then, next step should be whipping in NGOs and corporates. Without cleaning up these two sectors you can’t cleanse corruption.

Anna is not answer to judicial comedy

Had there not been Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption noise the parliament would have created history in fighting corruption this week. Justice Soumithra Sen would have become the first judge to be impeached to be removed on graft charges. It didn’t happen in the Loksabha because of Anna factor. Did it sound ironic?

After the Rajyasabha passed a vote favouring the impeachment of the Kolkata High Court judge, it was the Loksabha's turn on 24 Aug. As it turned out, Anna's fast eclipsed the proceedings and; the Soumitra Sen question will now wait till 5 Sept.

larger irony is that the judiciary, so effective in cracking down on corruption these days, is so corrupt.

2G spectrum scam, CWG scandal couldn't have reached this stage and no big fish would have have been netted but for judicial activism. Ramalinga Raju and Hasan Ali would have been bailed out had the Supreme Court dozed. The CBI court had granted bail to these master swindlers before the apex court intervened to turn it down and rap the investigative agency for its amnestic overtures.

While CEC has become the watch word in Karnataka and illegal mining is taking route of 2G scam, the Supreme Court is seen as an unstoppable juggernaut rolling on to cleanse corruption. The force is so reckoning that people even frowned at the activism bridling the other two pillars of democracy- legislative and executive. No qualms, so long as the delivery is ensured. The BJP corruption in the state is apparently nearing the logical end just because of the judiciary breathing to full life. Otherwise who could have stopped Yeddyurappas, Kumaraswamys, and Kattas?

But, K G Balakrishnans, and P D Dinakarans of the world are from judiciary. As the former shined as the chief justice of India his relatives made the hay in shine and their wealth soured, the latter was a shame as the chief justice of the Karnataka High Court. The day when Dinakaran delivered his controversial judgment allowing mining in the forest area a property was registered in the name of his mother-in-law in picturesque Oooty.


While these two are almost nailed, many corrupt judges are at large. Soumitra Sen’s misconduct is nothing when compared to the scale of fraud they have committed collectively or individually. ‘Contempt of Courts Act’ is the weapon they brandish to scare their adversaries. Even media fears to tread in this scary terrain. The court had brought the media on its knees when reports were published on a group of judges caught in sex scandal, and the news papers in Karnataka had to apologise before the High Court to avert contempt proceedings on them.

When MiDDAY's Delhi edition exposed the then CJI Y K Sabarwal's nepotism, its journalists had to serve a jail term before the case was decided in thier favour. In Bangalore, the tabloid won a contemt case against the son of sitting judge of the High Court. But, these are the rare cases. Corrupt jusdges bully the the world, and that is the norm.


If you are in such a positive frame of mind, you can say judges are not above law and even they will also be netted one or the other day. But, have you got a stick to beat a chatter box sitting on the bench? Indulging hallow talks is the latest trend with the judges. They have crass observation on anything under the sun and there is no restrain. As if they are into rhetoric competition with lawyers in the court room the judges talk too much and their dialoguebaazi is no way related to the case or the judgment. If an outrageous judge suggests closing down a municipal council just because the authorities are not performing well, how should the world react?

The tendency is growing as a menace because the waywardness undermine the very effectiveness of the court.

A chief justice in the Karnataka High Court was notorious for cracking sleazy jokes in the court room. He was insisting on laughing at his jokes otherwise threatening to crack more dirty jokes. If a justice in the court turns a court jester, justice delivery system will be the laughing stock.

Even Anna Hazare’s Jan Lokpal Bill is not a panacea for the malice because it is completely out the reach of this folksy innocent. No hope on Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill panting in cold storage.

Narayana Murthy: farewell on a different note

It’s the end of an epoch. The cliché goes well with the description of retirement of N R Narayanamurthy as founder chairman of Infosys because his tenure was an era of middleclass dreams taking wings, while his own rags to riches story was the guiding spirit.

Although he holds barely two percent of the share of an IT company with revenues Rs. 27,000 crore, Narayanamurthy is the richest in the eyes of a middleclass man in Bangalore, while he is seen as a creator of India’s first generation of salaried millionaires. Many of his Kannada speaking employees wanted to emulate him mimicked his simple way of leading life by moving to a two-bedroom house even when they were capable of building a bungalow.

Those who were invited to marriage of his children -- the daughter Akshatha married last year and the son Rohan entered the wedlock this year -- were impressed not by pomp but the dignified austerity. The intimate atmosphere was warm with a typical middleclass hospitality not filled with dazzling display of wealth. The newly wedded couple didn’t shake hands with those who wished them, but folded hands seeking their blessings. The guests had a sense of fulfillment by blessing rather than handing them over a formal best wish.

The ambiance was completely Kannada at the Leela Palace (receptions of both the weddings were held at this five star hotel) with poetry of the language being played in instrumental, and the delicacies on menu were with native flavour. Pleasantries exchanged between the guests and the hosts were so natural in the language that people came from places like Hubli and Bijapur felt at home. English was earmarked for those who were from outside.

Muthy’s wife Sudha is a notch up as far as Kannada is concerned. She writes in Kannada and wants to be recognised as a Kannada writer. Her patronage to Kannada Sahitya Parishat is in line with her interests and taste.

Yet, Murthy was opposed when the government chose him to inaugurate Viswa Kannada Sammelana, a world convention on Kannada. His selection was perfect as he was the global face of the brand Karnataka, but he was seen as an opponent in the literary circle because of his indifferent stand on the learning of the language. In their view, he was just a crony capitalist tending to capitalize on English boom uprooting the very culture of the land. He was allowed to deliver the inaugural speech, following a long drawn bargain, but the address was a compromise and miserably failed to strike chords.

While he could have been an icon for the poor aiming high, Murthy is paradoxically seen as a nouveau riche taking potshots at the system encouraging poor to get good education. His admirers frowned at his stand condemning reservation at IIMs and subsidised education for the underprivileged. His concerns over the standards of education coming down by allowing poor to sit next to rich in classrooms were unfounded and completely alienated him from the crowd at the ground level. Paradox is that Murthy is from such a poor background that he got his primary education sitting on the floor under a thatched roof.

People remember Sir M Visweswaraya with gratitude for illuminating their lives without pinching their sentiments and self respect. Illuminating the lives is also in literal meaning because he was the one who brought electricity to the state. His vision shaped the industry, education, commerce, and modern culture of the state. In fact, the brand Bangalore was built at those times and it was a glowing peck on the globe.

Visweswaraya and Narayana Murthy have many similarities in them considering their background, vision, and outlook excepting the former was a great administrator endeared by identifying with the mass, while the latter is a great enterpreneur envied by standing apart from them.

Murthy's name was propped up for the presidential candidature before Prathibha Devi Singh Patil was elected. He was pushed back after he kicking up controversy by allegedly insulting national anthem.

Although, he has said he had no belief in things like second innings, we can expect him to play a long innings differently, while the country needs his visionary ideas. After all he is still 65.

Visweswaraya was conferred Bharatha Ratna. If he can take a leaf from the book of his fellow Kannadiga, Murthy can even be our Bharatha Ratna with or without the crown.

Anna, show us real Gandhi

He was about to court arrest, when they detained him. Heavens fell when he was taken to jail. At the end they wanted to let him go, he refused to go. Tamasha factor returned to haunt the Lokpal struggle that otherwise would have been a historic mass movement against corruption.

Anna Hazare wanted to go on fasting after his release from Tihar Jail, while the government was weighing the options keeping further action to be unfolded in view. The bargain took more than a day, and when they arrived at an agreement there was only disagreement and no one was happy.

High decibel arguments were on the citizen’s right to protest. The roar reverberated in the parliament, while the T-shirt activists on streets were in their full form. Those were the feasting moments for the TV stars on panel discussions, and festive occasion for sound bite givers. The channels did their best to cash in on the frenziness through non-stop coverage. The angst was against the government preventing the crusader from choosing his own way of agitation.

But, what happened to the main cause? No one was talking about corruption that every one wanted to curb. Not even the Jan Lokpal bill was the priority for a while. Jubilation was in waiting to mark the government’s defeat that would have allowed Anna to fast.

This way, can any one hope putting an end to a widespread menace like corruption?

Why the government did detain Anna and later show it as arrest knowing the consequences very well? If at all the Delhi police are so free, as Chidambaram described, how Rahul Gandhi could get them taking back the charges against Anna? The awkwardness of Anna sharing the jail ward with their fellow party man, who is there on corruption charges, moved the Congressmen to act so quickly in the mid-night? Or were they enjoying the situation that gave them a good opportunity to divert public attention from scams dogging the government?

And why Anna was so particular on the hunger strike in a particular way? Was he not aware of the principles of Gandhigiri that says cooperation with the authority is effective non-cooperation? Had he really followed the Bapu’s path he would have held the protest whereever he was allowed to do it under any condition. And there would have been no noise and no fake faces seen in the vicinity. Gandhiji chose the way of obedience for his civil disobedience and spiritualism was the guiding spirit.

While it would be blasphemous to compare the lunacy with Gandhiji’s satyagraha, flash of intolerance and clash of ego was the crest of disgrace. Smearing and slander are something non-Gandhian and both the warring sides are guilty of this sin.

Jawahalal Nehru had once warned Gandhiji, in a lighter vein, of the consequence of his civil disobedience in free India. It was a few days before India’s independence, when Nehru said, “Bapu, I will have to put you behind bars if your histrionics continue in the self rule. Better you tie your spinning wheel in the attic.” Gandhiji replied, “True, you will be the head of the state and I will be on the other side of the fence. I will be free to protest, and you will be free to arrest me. But, don’t worry I will be obedient.”

Nehru didn’t have the chance to arrest Gandhiji as the Bapu was no more when he became the first prime minister of India. Even had he been there, sure he would have found an innovative way to goad the government of free India as the old methods were meant for the foreign rulers.

“Bapu’s method of fasting was completely different than that of Anna. Bapu would have not threatened anyone the way Anna has. During Bapu’s time, fasting was never used against an opponent. Rather, it was used to lead a friend to the right path.” said Tushar Gandhi.

The new generation overwhelming in extending support to Anna may not know Gandhi. Anna knows him very well, and it is his duty to introduce the champion to them in a right manner.

Anna, don't let us down

Yeddyurappa was among the supporters of Anna Hazare, when he launched hunger strike last time for an effective Lokpal. Now, while the crusader against corruption is preparing for his second spell, the endearing face of corruption is freer with no chief ministerial responsibility on his shoulders. So, why don’t we see him on the ground zero of fasting this time around?

It is not a cringing idea considering the faces hogged limelight at the Jantar Mantar last April. We heard sermons preached by the corporate giants in their new avatar of anti-corruption jehadi no matter how many thousands of corores they have gobbled up after making monkey of banks and tricking the public. The venue had provided a ramp for the catwalks for film stars and party animals, while it was a new found hangout for the fun lovers in the garb of neo-activist.

In the hysteria no one could even laugh at the corrupt giving sound bites against corruption. He is a sinner who has not added his noise when the whole country was into din. Why, namma H D Kumaraswamy was at the forefront in extending support to Anna. What a great speech he delivered on the evils of corruption!

True, you can’t say there was no seriousness in the air, while no one could question genuineness of Anna and his team. You can’t deny the effect of the historic groundswell that goaded the government for the draft bill. Anna knew its importance and he didn’t want his movement slipping into hands of politicians. People rejoiced the way he chased out Uma Bharathi, who appeared at the spot.

But, we expected similar ardor, when he visited Karnataka as part of his whirlwind tour following the first spell of Lokpal struggle. He was scathing at Congress, while mute on Yeddyurappa. And that disappointed us because BJP corruption is an obsession in Karnataka so as UPA corruption in Delhi. We know UPA is the villain in the story of Lokpal, and the BJP is on the other side of the fence. But, corruption is across the party lines. It is beyond the scope of discussion on whether prime minister to be brought under Lokpal or not.

This move of Anna gave scope for the obnoxious weeds like Manish Tiwari pointing finger at him. Kapil Sibal could even call him a BJP agent. They were audacious to refer to Justice Swanat report indicting Anna for diverting funds from his NGO. Rs. 2.2 lakh was spent to celebrate his birthday and Sawanth himself has confirmed it.

Now, the strife has reached the crescendo with Anna bracing for the decider. Delhi will witness the start of the decisive battle on Tuesday morning. And Jai Prakash Narain Park is the ground zero this time.

While praying for Anna squad’s victory, it is natural for us to expect from them a valiant fight minus farce. The tamasha factor will kill the very meaning of the movement turning it into futile. Anna must be merciless for the noutanki players who are expected to swoop down on the spot.

Mahatma Gandhi had chased out those who were not in Khadi, when he launched Satyagraha in 1940. Choosing Vinobha Bhave as the first Satyagrahi, he told him, " A noble deed without discipline is sin". Vinobhaji followed it and he was the Acharya for his followers.

Hope Anna remembers Gandhi’s words, because he has come as aandhi and people want to see in him a second Gandhi.

Peril of land acquisition

Farming or farmer? which one of these two you want to protect while acquiring farm land for private industries? Naturally, the farmer comes first becuase he is the voter.

And this seems to be the letter and spirit of the draft bill on land acquisition. The government has woken up to the riots in Singur and Bhatta Parsaul and its cautiousness reflects on the draft Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill (LARR) 2011 released by the rural development ministry. It has many carrots dangling to lure a farmer to sell his land regardless of the factors like ensuring food security and ecological balance.

The bill is no different from the archaic Land Acquisition Act of 1894 designed by the British rulers suiting their needs to exploit locals excepting more additive sugar on the coated pill. It has a provision to fix the compensation amount at six times the market value of land for rural land-losers, while it is twice the market value in urban areas.

As for rehabilitation and resettlement, land losers will get Rs 3,000 subsistence allowance for 12 months and Rs 2000 monthly annuity for 20 years, indexed to inflation. There will be mandatory provision for employment of one person from each affected family or a one-time grant of Rs 2 lakh for the family.

It is expected to be revised owing to the dissatisfied farmers' appeal to the government. The demand is for the increment of annuity from Rs 2,000 to Rs 12,000 a month for the period of 33 years in place of 20 years. If a land owner has five sons, all of them have to be provided similar benefits. While the provisions of the bill are applicable to land acquisitions in excess of 100 acres, the demand is to extend the same to even lesser area. And the rural development minister has nodded approvingly.

All that is fine keeping the welfare of land losers in mind. The measures are effective in silencing the rioters and converting them to voters. But, can you ignore its impact on socio-economy? The bill does not talk about agriculture laboureres, while protecting the interests of land losers. Nobody is obligated to ensure their livelihood. We know they are also voters, but the leaders know their votes are dirt cheap to purchase.

The largesse in the bill is at the cost of the exchequer and in other words it is subsidising private businesses. An investor developing an SEZ can earn untaxed profit for the first five years, thereafter conditional taxation depending on reinvestment of profit. No part of the profit percolates to the common man or a land loser. This will hold true for non-SEZ private investors too.

The industries always eye fertile land because of the water table, and the bill is mute on the protection of agriculture land. It is blind to the fact that the cultivated land is diminishing because of urbanisation and industrialisation. In 2001, 64.6 percent of total area was agricultural land in Karnataka, now it has come down to 52 percent. Global Investors’ Meet has estimated the land requirement for the new industries at 10,300 acres that would make a further dent. You know you can’t bridle inflation unless you have a control over supply side. And how can we ensure perpetual food supply with diminishing cultivated land?

The existing law bars a non-agriculturist buying an agriculture land. An additional need is to restrict an agriculturist to sell his land for the lure of money. A farmer should not be entitled to sell a farm land just because he is the title owner. Fertile land is state property and its conservation is imperative in ensuring food security and ecological balance.

Aaya sawan Jhoom ke...

Shravan is auspicious indeed. Fresh breezes are blowing as if they have come to cleanse the evil this time around; cynicism is dimmed in the festive fervour.

Yeddyurappa was waiting for the end of Ashada to step down. His resignation marked the beginning of Shravan, while flagging off the roller coaster.

You thought the corrupt will never be punished. Ask Katta Subramanya Naidu how he slapped his son sharing a cell with him in Parappana Agrahara for the wrongdoing that landed them in the central jail. He chided the son like a good father for being friends with bad guys. Katta Jagadish Naidu was a bum chum to Yeddyurappa’s sons and the grouse is that he is in the dragnet while the real beneficiaries of Itaska golmal are walking free.

The junior Katta could have reversed it on the senior because Subramanya Naidu’s friendship with Yeddyurappa was the beginning, while the chumminess of the juniors was just a beginning of the end.

But, Shravan has not spared the bad guys either. Yeddyurappa and sons will have to be present in the court with a bail application. If the application is rejected, they will meet their friends at Parapppana Agrahara before the end of Shravan.

The holy month has not even spared the enemy. H D Kumaraswamy, who spooked B S Yeddyurappa all along, has a good chance of shaking hands with him behind the bars. He along with his wife is facing the same fate of his erstwhile friend and current foe.

Amazingly, all happened on the same day,on Monday, when the new chief minister D V Sadananda Gowda formed his cabinet, stinking old juice in the brand new sachet. Kattas were sent to jail; Yeddyurappa and his relatives were summoned by the court in innumerable cases, Kumaraswamy was issued summons relating to illegal mining, same to same for his wife Anitha in a land scam.

Even Sadananda Gowda, who has come as a contrasting factor to corrupt Yedyurappa, resorted to a corrective measure on the day, on his personal account. Gowda is seen as comparatively honest, but the amalgamation of his BDA site with its adjacent one was illegal. The media reports on it coincided with his taking over as the chief minister, last week, and his corrective response came on the day when his fellow party man went to jail along with the son. His under construction building is partly demolished to correct the impropriety.

More remarkable thing is the isolation of the Reddys. The rulers of Bellary, who ruled the state for three years, were gnashing their teeth when Gowda was posing his trademark grin for the cameras at Rajbhavan, along with his new cabinet. The Lokayukta report on illegal mining has recommended for the removal of the Reddys from the cabinet and strict legal action against them. Now, they know they can't bite the CM, so they are grinding their teeth. But, it is unlikely to help them escape from a jail term.

This Shravan has also brought them a separation from their political mother. Sushma Swaraj will skip her Lakshmi Pooja at Reddys’ residence this time. Eyeing prime ministerial responsibilities she thought better distancing herself from the mining goons; sensible enough.

Exactly a year ago M P Prakash had said Sushma’s annual visit to Bellary was to collect Lakshmi from the Reddys, and the mining barons had cursed him back to death. The gentleman politician is no more now, but he is not turning in is grave for one reason at least: Sushma has dropped the programme of collecting the Lakshmi. And that is the biggest festival gift from the BJP leader to the people of Karnataka.

And don’t you have to thank Yeddy for all this? He was right in choosing the timing of his departure. He had said he would not do either good or bad thing in the month of Ashada, and would wait for Shravan for the good deed. He kept his promise and good things followed.

So, thank him and sing Aaya Sawan Jhoom Ke…

The US crisis: blessing in disguise?

With the very integrity of Standard & Poor in question, its downgrading the US credit rating is unlikely to have a lasting impact on the global economy. Also it has brought some good things to cheer about.

The BSE may well have crashed by 460 points on Monday morning, but investors pressing the panic button is just a kneejerk reaction which is in alignment with the global stocks sliding temporarily. The fall in the market in fact provides you with a buying opportunity. If you go by Warren Buffet's tips, buy when others are selling. “I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years,” he said. So, say thanks to S&P, buy and hold it.

You have to thank S&P for one more reason. With the US sliding one notch down from triple A to double A plus, it has to pay more interest on its bonds on account of default risk, and the crisis has come as a blessing in disguise for investors. Now, technically we can say bonds issued by the UK, France, Germany and Canada are superior to the US bonds in terms of safety as these countries continue to enjoy AAA rating. But, none of these bond markets has the liquidity or the depth of the US markets. So, enjoy the windfall.

China, the top most creditor of the US, is trying to create a hue and cry, while India and others are adding to the noise. The move is uncalled for, but necessary to put pressure on the still biggest economy to reap benefits of the crisis. The child who doesn’t cry will not get milk.

However, the crisis has a thing for exporters to worry about. With the US ending up spending more on debt service it might trigger slowdown if not a double-dip recession as the world fears. The slowdown stoked by the weakening greenback might make a dent on their profits, and currency insurance would be a better bet.

But, there is no immediate solution for the decline in sales that slowdown is expected to result in. The nervousness of software companies is already being felt and the bellwethers have shown the signs of cutbacks and lay offs.

A weak dolor will help bring down prices as it will reduce the cost of oil imports which has been a large contributor to inflation. Weakness in the US markets would also curb demand for commodities and keep the process under check.

Alas, lower inflation is not useful for the end user in India as the very calculation of inflation is defective. Do you remember the paradox of people paying high prices, when the government was moving heaven to earth to avert deflation amidst the downturn two years ago? People were not able to comprehend the cruel joke of the government projecting a lower inflation rate when in reality commodity prices continued to tread northwards.

The urgent need is to change the archaic method of assessing inflation. Revive the basket by including commodities that matter in daily life, and go for consumer price index regime. The current wholesale price index system is a bogus with not passing on the benefit of the lower prices to the consumer. We know there are many hurdles to put CPI in place, but it is the time for us to take it on the chin.

Dual pricing regime: welcome solution

Dual pricing of diesel is a good idea, although not a very good news for car makers.

It has double advantage: checking misutilisation of subsidy, while helping in bridling inflation. With subsidy bill reduced, fiscal deficit comes down, and it’s an added advantage.

If finance minister has his way, price of diesel used in passenger cars will go up by around Rs. 7 a liter that is now paid by government in form of subsidy. It will go and the car owners have to take the burden, while subsidised price for the fuel used for goods vehicles will continue.

Diesel is inflation-sensitive so long as it is a fuel for goods vehicles. Its price has cascading effect on the commodity price, and it is importnant to keep it stable. The stabilization exercise has cost the exchequer Rs. 122000 crore in the current year, which is around 12 percent of the budget size.

With the trend changing, diesel is no longer a poor man’s fuel. The gas guzzler SUV craze is gone and people across the globe now want a fuel efficient car, and diesel is preferred. While diesel is 45 perecent cheaper, the diesel engine is 30 percent more efficient than that of petrol. Catching up with the trend even luxury car makers have increased their assembly lines adding up to the stock of diesel engines.

The large price differential between the two auto fuels is the main reason for the spurt in diesel car sales in recent years, in India. While the government has decontrolled petrol prices, allowing oil companies to align retail rates with international prices, diesel is still a regulated commodity.

Now, around 35 percent of passenger cars in the country are diesel driven. They are the biggest consumer after trucks, and owners of these cars are not poor, hence don’t deserve subsidy. And since they never carry goods the price burden on them won’t stoke inflation. In fact it works the other way round. The car owners may consume less fuel due to its dearness resulting in further easing of price due to less demand.

By going for the duel price, the government can save an estimated 15 percent of the oil subsidy bill. And that much will be of a great help for Paranab Da, who has promised us to bring down the fiscal deficit from whopping 5.1 percent to 4.6 percent.

Although the move could prove dampener for the auto industry that is already suffering from the slump in sales on account of rise in interest rates and petrol prices, the major players are appear to have prepared to take it in their stride. Diesel was leading to the growth momentum; in a sluggish market, and any major increment in the fuel prices could slow this. But, there is no other go but to face the reality.

The stand taken by SIAM (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers) in this regard is positive and healthy. While welcoming the move, it said it had always advocated a market-link pricing for the automotive fuel and even it supports full market pricing of diesel.

Then there is other hitch; the challenge that would be posed by dishonesty. Officials in the finance deportment have already expressed concerns over a parallel economy that would create. “If a dual pricing structure is in place, people would come in tractors, fill up drums with diesel and then sell it to car owners at a premium, but below the market price for passenger cars,” said an official.

What is the solution to these sort of problems? Step up the vigil at the petrol bunks and punish the culprits. Most importantly, you be honest.

medieval society made by media

Can a society turn barbaric in modern times? Indian society can. Pity is that media is the driver.

Villagers were brutal when they lynched nine thinking they were thieves. The act was brutal because they were not sure whether their targets were real robbers. Had they been in their senses they would have handed them over to police even if they were culprits.

Look at the way the chilling drama unfolded, on Tuesday, near Chintamani, a 60 km drive from Bangalore. A gang of suspected thieves attacked a woman in a field. Since she didn’t have any valuables, they tied her to a pole before leaving.

The villagers launched a hunt for the gang whom they thought had come in an auto rickshaw and in an SUV. Spotting an auto with five people, they started beating them up. By the time police were seen, three were dead and two were grievously injured. They caught six traveling in an SUV and beat them to death. No confirmation that the dead were the thieves, police are yet to identify.

Why the incidents of public taking law into their hands are on the rise? Police point figure at the TV channels enjoy airing such visuals counting on them for TRP. Many a time, cameramen insist people to beat properly so that they can record it conveniently. If the target is an eve teaser or a stalker, then there is a special treatment for him. Women beating an infidel woman is the most sought after. A case of fighting husband and wife is not a private affair so long as it is an enjoyable drama on screen.

The attackers are shown as the heroes, no word of caution or no reminder of law of the land. And people waiting for the opportunity call up the TV crew before embarking on the heroism.

The media turned inhuman when a group of truck drivers caught a man strayed from a mental asylum near Ramnagar and beat him up suspecting he was a wheel thief. A TV crew arrived late at the spot requested to repeat the act because they had missed the visuals.

Brutes are rarely booked as they are supported by the media, leave alone punishing the mastermind- the news creators behind the camera. Police tried to make TV channels party in the Ramnagar case, but they had to withdraw the case. Can the poor chaps take on the mighty media?

Who actually enjoy medieval scenes on TV? The national channels did not gain much in terms of TRP ratings despite their repeated shows on a bike rider dragging a thief tied to his vehicle in Bihar. The reaction to the orchestrated visuals of ‘operation majnu’, in Lucknow, or to the pub attack, in Mangalore was a public outrage towards the brutality, but not an overwhelming response to the entertaining drama as many channels believe.

Supposing there is evidence to say people like these clippings and their interests can be tapped for gaining TRP, there is nothing wrong in doing it. But, can we call these viewers a civilised society? If they are not civilized, is it not the duty of the media to show them a way to be civilised?

If you say media is a part of the society and it is just mirroring what it is, then there is no hope.

A triumphant glee was evident, when a lady reporter was harping on how she could beat the rival channels in breaking news of a rape case. She said, “We were the first to reach the spot where a teen-aged girl was raped just now.” Pointing to the spot, she insisted, “Right here.”

Thank god, she missed the visuals.