We all need a Citizens' Charter

I belong to a very interesting Whatsapp Group, that was formed to debate issues important to the Indian Nation, and to share ideas and suggestions on Policy that could work towards the betterment of some aspect of public life. 

This group called Illuminati, had tasked me with the drafting of a Citizens Charter, which would list out some critical behavior expectations from an enlightened citizen, which all the members would debate and adopt or revise as per majority vote. I reproduce the first draft here, and I would love to receive comments and suggestions to make the same more useful or robust.

Illuminati Citizens Charter

We, the members of this movement to encourage an ever increasing number of Indian Citizens to agree to voluntarily submit themselves to a Citizens Charter defining the ideal standards of Ethical, Democratic and Egalitarian behavior expected of a Citizen of India. 

I, the undersigned, having appended my signature to this Charter, do pledge to abide by this Citizens Charter in letter and spirit, and shall do my utmost to encourage my family and friends to similarly abide by the same. 

1. Franchise. 

I solemnly swear that I shall always exercise my Right of Franchise. I shall unfailingly cast my considered vote for the most suitable candidate in all elections that I am eligible to vote in, whether they be for the Local Body, the State Legislature or the Parliament. I shall do my utmost to encourage such Candidates who I sincerely believe support Meritocracy, are Patriotic, and place the Nation and the Indian Constitution above narrow Self Interest and abhor considerations of Caste, Creed, Community or Religion based politics. 

2. Abhor Corruption. 

I pledge to do my utmost to discourage corruption in public life in any form. Whether it be a low level act to escape a traffic infraction or a high level one involving Corporates and Governments and, everything in between. I promise to never be personally involved in any corrupt act and also counsel others to abhor such practices if it comes to my knowledge and information. 

3. No Discrimination.

I will never practice discrimination of any sort and I will oppose, with all the vehemence at my disposal, any discrimination on the basis of Religion, Caste, Gender, Color, Race, Place of Origin or Sexual Orientation. If I come across anyone indulging in discrimination in word or deed, I promise not to be a mute spectator, and shall endeavor to educate and prevent or report such individuals. 

4. No Animal Cruelty. 

I shall never indulge in any act of cruelty towards animals and undertake to actively work towards the prevention of any act of cruelty to animals, whether they be pets, beasts of burden or wild animals. If I do consume animal products, I shall restrict myself to food products and avoid fashion and Fur products that are obtained by inflicting cruelty. I assure that I will make every effort to ensure that the products I consume are obtained humanely and I shall restrict my consumption to only permitted animals and avoid products obtained from Protected, Exotic or Wild animals and Birds. 

5. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

I swear that I shall responsibly consume scarce resources or products that have a deleterious effect on the environment. I shall be prudent in my use of Electricity, Fossil Fuels, Disposable Plastics and products manufactured using fuels and methods that add large quantum of carbon into the atmosphere, such as burnt bricks, etc. I shall actively promote the planting and nurturing of trees and prevent any wanton or irresponsible tree felling. Thus, I shall strive to minimize my Carbon Footprint and aim to achieve a Carbon Neutral existence for my family and myself. 

6. Civilized Drivers. 

I undertake to always drive my vehicles in a responsible and courteous manner. I promise to follow all the traffic rules and also adopt a civil and the Right-of-Way principle of driving, and strive to drive on public roads causing a minimum of inconvenience to other users. In the event that I am involved in any accident, I promise not to bolt from the scene, and shall make every effort to provide medical assistance to anyone injured in the accident. I also promise that I will report all accidents to the jurisdictional Traffic Police and undertake to assist them in their investigations. I shall endeavor to be a Good Samaritan on the roads and offer assistance to victims of vehicle accidents, and inform the authorities about the incident and assist them in their attempt to provide Medical Attention and to bring the guilty party to book. I will never permit my under aged children to drive a vehicle, and shall inculcate the highest standards of safety and courtesy in my children who are licensed to drive.  

7. Local Body Rules. 

I promise to help make my city, town or village more livable by following all the Bylaws and Civic Amenity Rules. I promise not to deviate from Sanctioned Plans and default on Setbacks and FSI regulations, and ensure that Light, Ventilation, Privacy and Safety are not denied to my neighbors due to my transgressions, as I expect my neighbors to care for my hygiene aspects. I undertake to also not tolerate others for their deviations from the bylaws and shall bring such deviations to the notice of the concerned authorities. I also promise to practice all mandated aspects of Good Urban Citizenry like Rain Water Harvesting, Waste Segregation at Source, Not Dumping of Waste in public areas and Never Littering or Spitting on the streets of my city. 

8. Athithi Devo Bhava. 

I promise to make my country welcoming to tourists and visitors both from within India and from outside. I will try to be Pleasant, Warm, Helpful and Accommodating of the needs of our guests and will try to ensure that all others do so too. I will try and prevent anyone from taking undue advantage of our guests in any manner and do my utmost to present a positive picture of our country and culture that expects us to treat our guests like God. 

9. Taxes and Duties. 

I solemnly pledge to truthfully and dutifully pay all the taxes and duties that are payable by me towards the Local, State and Central Governments. I will not take recourse to any illegal or questionable methods for assessing my taxes and undertake to do so only by using the legally permitted provisions and exemptions in a fair and transparent manner. I realize that taxes are my way of contributing to the development of my nation and I shall do my utmost to get everyone I know to similarly comply and contribute.

Place:                                                Name:

Date:                                                 Signature:

Lift the ban on India's Daughters. On the documentary too, of course.

"India's Daughter". A Documentary made by a sensitive and concerned film maker, who herself is a survivor of violence against women, Ms. Leslee Udwin, produced by the BBC and promoted in India by NDTV. The background of the documentary is the horrific gang rape of a bright and promising medical student in a moving bus, at an 'earthly' hour of 8 pm. Her male friend was also thrashed and immobilized while four animals and a juvenile took turns to rape her, while 'punishing' her for resisting. Apparently the punishment included biting, beating and violating her with an iron rod, which resulted in catastrophic injuries including the separation of a portion of her intestines, which a juvenile perpetrator pulled out and threw away. Chilling.

The documentary attempts to study the incident and understand as to what kind of criminality and social conditioning could create such despicable monsters in India, and the resulting status of women, and their safety in society. The film maker conducted a series of interviews with the accused and their lawyers, experts in criminal mentality and women's groups to present a balanced report on the macabre truth about the status of women in some regions of India. Instead of applauding the efforts of the film maker, the Government in an ill-considered move, decided to ban the documentary!

I'm really amazed how any sensible Government can ban a documentary as important as this one? I sincerely believe that the documentary is actually performing a great service to our nation, by exposing the disgusting underbelly of gender issues in India.

Well researched and immaculately presented, '‪#‎IndiasDaughter‬' must in fact, be made compulsory for every Indian to watch and introspect about. The status of women in the minds of the 'poor and marginalized' males is apparently not even worth feeling any guilt or remorse, after brutally gang raping her, physically assaulting and disfiguring her, and throwing her out of the bus naked on the street. The most poignantly shocking being the patriarchal and misogynistic views of the so-called educated Lawyers. It is simply shameful, and shatters the image I had about my country and it's people who are descended from a 5000 year old civilization. "So, where is this civilization that everyone speaks of? I wonder."

In any event, why is the Government making such a concerted and yet ham-handed attempt at preventing me from seeing this documentary? I cannot think of any conceivable reason for them to do so. In the form of an apt analogy, I am reminded of a story in which an incredibly stupid person refuses to get treated for a dog bite on his butt because he was embarrassed to show it to the doctor. Mr. Home Minister, the country will fall victim to this 'rabies' if we do not choose to wake up and start doing something by way of changing mindsets. Please stop this silly retrograde action and permit Ms. Leslee Udwin to hold a mirror to us, and show to us Indians our warts, as it were. We need to see them, and hang our heads in shame. Hopefully, it will help change the mindsets of millions of people who treat their daughters as less than equal, and do not have the basic parenting skills to teach their sons the difference between wright and wrong.

India always touts the fact that we have the youngest and most productive population in the world, and this Human Capital is verily treated as primary equity that will help take this nation to the top of the comity of nations. I shudder to think that untold millions of this 'human capital' would be possessing such a warped and retrograde outlook of life. Forget taking us ahead, they will condemn us to the medieval age if we do not root this virus out. 

I strongly urge everyone to see the documentary from wherever they can access it. We need to be shocked when faced with the truth. We need to introspect and change. If we do not, we have no hope of becoming a modern and developed country and an egalitarian society. As the Government has gone to the Courts seeking a ban, I still see a glimmer of hope, that the enlightened in the Judiciary will throw out the undemocratic ban, and set a positive precedent.

My heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to Ms. Udwin, @BBC and @NDTV for the documentary. @ArnabGoswami I really am a Big Fan, but you were horribly wrong on this one. If you ever read this, I hope you will be able to tell us "what the hell were you thinking, when you launched so silly a tirade against the making and telecast of this important study"...

The Agent Orange of Indian politics – Narendra Modi

The Election Map 2014.

Photo courtesy NDTV.

One has to only see the Map of the Elections 2014, to understand what a 'Saffron Wash' looks like! I have never imagined that a vast and complex country like India would suddenly all fall in line and vote for the future, placing their collective faith in one man, and one party - the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but that is how it turned out to be, on that historic day, 16th May 2014.

Caste and Community Politics

For too many years, parties like the Congress, Janata Dal [Secular] (JDS), Janata Dal [United] (JDU), Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and many others have been fighting their elections by appealing to voters along Caste, Community and Religious lines and tasting electoral success due to the polarization of the voter base. The first to perhaps use this as a tactic was the Congress where they used the Minority card with spectacular success, and perhaps this emboldened all the other parties to practice the politics of divide and rule, due to which large sections of the populations were kept in status-quo on development parameters so that they are encouraged to vote along caste or communal lines, i.e. primarily be 'predictable' to the Party's Election Managers. 

One believes that this approach has retained the minorities and the backwards firmly in the underdeveloped sections of our society, as their education, financial self-reliance and intellectual independence or individualist thinking were inconvenient to such political parties. It is also a personal impression that one carries, that political parties who practiced divisive politics did so only for the sole aim of capturing power, and once they were in Government, tended to just work for personal benefit and collect funds for future elections. Any genuine development that happened was in spite of the political leadership and not because of them. (Perhaps an extreme view, maybe even too cynical a stand, but one is entitled to ones opinion in a democratic polity, however cynical or dismissive it may be, as one is disappointed at the development rate of the country since independence).

We can play this game too!

The BJP, when it was formed, apparently wanted to fight elections on the laudable plank of Gandhian Economic and Nationalist principles, as they perhaps saw the rot that Indian politics had seeped into in the late ‘70’s. Thus, what was a ‘Back-to-the-Basics’ political approach in 1984 seemed to give them very poor dividend with just two seats in the Parliament, and they perhaps strategized that they could play the game too, but by reaching out to the ignored majority, as all the other parties of the day, spoke exclusively for the minorities, who were kept largely illiterate and willing to be motivated to vote en mass along religious lines as advised by the Political leadership or the Religious leadership that the politicians harvested. 

Thus, it looks like the BJP was perhaps forced to play the same game and represent the voice of the majority. On account of this strategy, the benign and affable persona that both Advani and Vajpayee embodied was studiously replaced by strident Hindu Nationalism or Hindutva, and again, by dividing the population up, they tasted fleeting electoral success. Unfortunately for them, the entire political class could now boldly wear their minority / caste appeasement politics on their sleeves as a prize with which to stop the BJP, and thus was born the 'Secular Card' in Indian politics. In actual fact, it was the Communal and Casteist Card, but as the parties practicing it could use it to beat down the majority population and seen to be speaking for the minority or oppressed voices, it achieved a smokescreen of acceptability. 

Due to the coming together of the so-called ‘Secular Forces’ to vote out the 13-day NDA 1 Government in 1996, the 13-month NDA 2 Government in 1999, and finally replace a full-term NDA 3 Government in 2005, the BJP was perhaps forced to become more stridently ‘majoritarian’ in their politics and speak for their own Vote Bank, as that was after all, the card game that all the big boys were playing. Unfortunately, it was a slippery slope, and despite providing perhaps the best six years of governance India had seen post independence, they lost power, and India was forced to endure the most corrupt and retrograde government for 10 years, virtually pushing us back into the dark ages. (Please read my other post on this subject, at: http://sharmahemanth.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-story-of-indias-politics-policy-and.html). 

Economic model of the Left Leaning

It may be prudent here to mention that the polarization was not just on account of politics and Vote Banking, but the same was seen in the economic policies of the various governments too. I may disagree very strongly with the economic policies of Nehru and the socialist slant that I believe kept India under developed and impoverished for many years, but I genuinely admire the man, as I think he did what he did, because he honestly and sincerely believed that it was good for the nation. Unfortunately, his daughter, Indira Gandhi chose to wear Nehruvian Socialism on her lapel like a badge, and brought upon this country the most impractical and undemocratic economic policies that kept the nation desperately poor until the Balance of Payments crisis in the 1990’s which forced World Bank mandated economic reforms. It seems like she did so, not because she honestly thought it was beneficial to the nation, but because, by using it, she could foist upon us a Begging Bowl Style Welfare State, where every largess is given by the hand of the Government, and the act of giving of these scraps would keep her party in power forever. Thus, in every election, she was able to flog the ‘Roti-Kapada-Makaan’ slogan, and never had to invent another memorable slogan while she led the Congress. 

Unfortunately, the only bunch of truly honest politicians (political honesty of course, not personal - as I have no knowledge of the same), the Left Parties, perhaps feeling that Indira Gandhi’s economic policies resonated with their own world view, chose to support her, and they ended up even developing close political ties as well, landing plum posts in academia, and our history books and all school textbooks were authored by left-leaning academics perpetuating a uni-polar world view. Thus, when the NDA 2 and 3 Governments sought to redefine some of India’s most ridiculous economic policies, like the rationale of a Public Sector Industry, the rest of the political spectrum stood shoulder to shoulder, shrilly denouncing their reform measures as Anti-People. This begs the question, "One wonders what was really Anti-People, the Income Tax act of the 1970’s which imposed an atrocious tax rate of 97.75%, or the NDA’s decision to have a Disinvestment Ministry"?

Agenda Changers

Thus, observing India and its politicians from independence to the 1990’s, one is left with the impression that all the political parties tried hard to locate and create a series of buttons on the people of India, that they could press when they needed and control the actions of the compartments of caste, religion and community that they had devolved the population into. This was a nice and cozy arrangement that was protected by a conspiracy of silence so that power could be won; corruption indulged in, crony capitalism practiced and generally to perpetuate the practice, that we jokingly back in school, called “Downliftment of the Uptrodden”! A pun on the Congress mantra of Upliftment of the Downtrodden. Making everyone equally poor and keeping them that way was the order of the day.

A few enlightened political practitioners, perhaps the most patriotic folk from a much sullied clan, began to see through this Divide and Rule policy that was keeping India in the dark ages, and began several movements to challenge the established order. Perhaps the most articulate and visionary person of those that wished to break the nexus is Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan, who founded the Loksatta Party, to fight elections on the basis of an Anti-Corruption plank and genuine Local Development issues. Dr. JP, who is a gentle and somewhat self effacing intellectual has unfortunately not been able to inspire a mass movement, but remains the darling of a small group of patriotic Indians. 

The national stage for a shrill and noisy Anti-Corruption plank was however taken over first by India Against Corruption (IAC), and later by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). While one is not very clear about their views on the issues of polarization and communalization of politics, they effectively showcased the 'Good Governance', 'Probity in Public Life' and 'Corruption-Free Politics' approaches, that seemed to deeply resonate with the mood of the people. 

I believe that even as recently as the 2013 Delhi Assembly elections, the BJP fought their campaign on traditional hindutva policies, and were perhaps shocked to see AAP picking up the second largest block of seats and preventing them from forming the Government. I wonder if this single experience was a turning point in the life of the BJP? Did it make them sit up and think? Did it perhaps give them the courage to jettison the shallow hindutva agenda, and perhaps focus on 'Good Governance', 'Overall Development for All', 'Economic Advancement' and the other enlightened policies that it now espouses? If yes, then the AAP has perhaps willingly or unwittingly bestowed upon India the best gift in politics.

Politics in a New India

After the BJP has recorded such a historic win, in which one believes would not have been possible if millions of its traditional non-followers have not positively contributed, giving them a chance to form a stable BJP Majority Government or an NDA Tsunami Government of 336 seats in Parliament (the Election Commission is yet to officially declare the results while this is being written), I believe it will be very difficult (if not virtually impossible) for any party to unseat them using a communal or divisive agenda. To get them voted out, NDA would have to perform miserably poorly on their poll promises, be more corrupt than the UPA, or the incumbent will have to promise and deliver even greater development and social advancement assurance. 

One finds it difficult to envisage a stage in future when a Deve Gowda or an I.K. Gujral can form a Government simply because they wanted to “keep communal forces at bay”! I genuinely hope that the influence wielded by Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati, Lalu Prasad Yadav and other caste or communal satraps will fade away and all the people of India join together in future in demanding the highest economic and social development indices from their Government, for all of India, and stop clamoring to be declared ‘backward’ so that they can pick up the few scraps thrown into their enclosure by a welfare state.

Sadly, even as I write this, I hear on the news that there is talk among the decimated parties like the Congress, the JD(U), the RJD and others who are speaking about all 'Secular Forces' uniting to counter the 'Communal BJP'. It looks like some people will never learn, as they are Pathetic, Myopic, Political Pygmies and their small minds can think of no other counter to the development agenda that India has mandated. Please grow up! India does not care. The Youth of India does not care. The vast thinking minority population does not care. Even your own electorate will probably not care if you intend to keep them starving while the rest of the nation looks forward to the fruits of development. 

Unfortunate collateral damage of Agent Orange

While one is glad that India has spoken and spoken very clearly in favor of the Parivartan & Vikas i.e. Change & Development Agenda of Modi and rejected the divisive politics of the UPA, one has to take stock of the collateral damage too. Just like Agent Orange, the blind and ruthless instrument of the Vietnam War that destroyed all types of green cover, regardless of whether they were useful, inconsequential, or environmentally threatened, or whatever, similarly, several excellent politicians have been swept aside by the Modi Tusnami, and India and the Parliament will be poorer in their absence. Some of the people that India will no doubt miss in the Lok Sabha for their suave and articulate presence are Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan, Arun Jaitley, Jaswant Singh, Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora and Yogendra Yadav. Gentlemen, all.

Personally speaking, I will not miss the presence of Mani Shankar Aiyar, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Salman Khurshid, Kapil Sibal, Manish Tewari and Chidambaram. I believe these people were the button pushers perpetuating the old order under the dispensation of the Congress First Family. I hope they will see the folly of their ways, reform themselves and aim to serve the nation instead of a family. Each of them being brilliant in their own right, could put their vast intellect to better use.

The Election results 2014

Photo courtesy NDTV.

The painful creation of the State of Telengana

Those of us who have been following the Telengana story for the past few years will have mixed feelings about the creation of the state, particularly about the methods adopted by the ruling dispensation to do so. Sometimes, I wonder if India is really a democracy or not.

There are several pockets in India where the residents feel that their culture, language or way of life is being ridden roughshod over by the majority population. In some cases, it is also a situation of the area being neglected in terms of development or distribution of revenue, despite that area being a positive contributor. I personally feel that anyone who is feeling oppressed enough to seek a separate state should be given an opportunity to state their case, and if practical they must not be denied the right, especially in face of objections by the majority group or oppressors.

This is the analogy that makes sense. I see this as a case of one of the children in a family complaining that he is feeling claustrophobic while sharing a room with a domineering older / bigger / meddling brother and needs a space to call his own. Any parent that would like to see all their kids get the best opportunities to grow and blossom should have no objection to such a request. Why should the people of Seemandhra have any say in this matter? The resolution in the state assembly rejecting the motion of a separate state, is akin to the domineering older brother having a right to veto the separate room request of the oppressed younger brother, is it not?

Ideally, the best solution is a Referendum carried out only in the area that is seeking a separate state, and open only to the residents living there. Unfortunately, India is a poor Democracy and does not have any legal provision for the same, nor does it have a clean record on this issue. To understand the views of a few more people, I recently posted the following Status Update on my Facebook Wall and requested my friends to respond. This turned out to be a very interesting discussion, and I thank my friends for their active contributions. Please see an extract of the same below:

Hemanth Sharma

February 10 near Malleswaram

I'm really perplexed with all this brow beating and dramatics on the Telengana issue. Why should some folks have an objection if some other folks want a separate state? It is after all, going to remain within the Indian Union and unquestioningly bow before the Indian Constitution, right? 

An apt analogy is a parent getting a request from one of their two kids that he wants to have a separate room, because he wants to put up posters of his favorite bands, paint the walls in his happy colors and listen to his kind of music, without having to constantly live according to the dictates of his bossy older brother, with whom he has uncomfortably shared a room for 60 years!

Which parent will object to such a request? Also, why will the 'bossy older brother' in this case, even have a say in this matter? It really beats me!! Anyone sees this the way I do? Please write in!!

Sharath C. Srinivas From what little I have heard from my Telugu friends - it apparently is all about Hyderabad, the crown jewel, as that is where a lot of the wealth and power is. It is like one brother wanting to keep the big screen TV in his room.

Ramnath Venkateshwaran It's more complex all of big brothers friends use and claim the room and younger brother is made to sit outside like ..aatak untu lekhak..illa.. (a Kannada saying that means you can play with us if you want, but your score will not count).

Ramya Ramnath The brother should also learn to share the room if needed. In this case, Telengana wants all the Andhra people to leave that’s not fair!!

Hemanth Sharma Thanks, Ramnath, Ramya & Sharath for continuing to use the ‘separate room’ analogy. If it is about Hyderabad, so what if it is in another State? Seemandhra investors in Hyderabad will continue to own what they already do, and are legally free to invest more in Telengana. So what’s the risk? There’s more to it than meets the eye!

Praveen Paul So let Hyderabad remain a "twin state capital". Chandigarh has benefited so profitably from such bigamy....:0

Sharath C. Srinivas The risk is about losing the clout and the influence, as non Telangana politicians will be outsiders and won't get a piece of the pie. A major portion of the corporate gain in Hyderabad gets shared with those in influential positions, and outsiders won't be welcome to the grand party next (bedroom) door.

Hemanth Sharma Sharath, this is what one hears, but it doesn't make sense. Most of the investors in Bangalore are not Bangalorians and they face no issues in enjoying their properties. Why should an Andhra investor be worried about his investment in Hyderabad? His rights are protected by the rule of law, is it not?

Hemanth Sharma Praveen, actually, the situation is ideal for the development of a new, modern and high tech capital city for Andhra. They should take the opportunity to create more gold plated real estate, more industries and businesses.

Sharath C. Srinivas Rule of law? , and it will take a few generations to create another city equivalent to Hyderabad. The same issue exists all over, even here in the state of New York, the vast majority of the tax revenue comes from NYC, and the rest of the state is actually poor, even by US standards. 75% of the state of Georgia's tax revenue comes from Metro Atlanta, and the rest of the state is very poor, by global standards.

Anand Srinivasan Agree with you. Looks like both sides want Hyderabad as part of their state, as it is the largest cash cow.

Hemanth Sharma Anand and Sharath, The protests are apparently not anything about the revenue that Hyderabad that generates for the state, as the Central Government will handhold the new state for 10 years. It actually seems like a more self-centered objection as considerable personal wealth seems to be at stake. Where is the national interest in that?

Praveen Paul Show me the money...Or as they say in Tamil...kai le kasai...wai le dosai.. (one eats well if one has soiled ones’ hands by working hard).

Hemanth Sharma Thanks, Praveen. If all the Seemandhra protesters stop trying to be holier than thou (“we want our homeland to be united” farce) and admit that they are actually protecting their own personal wealth, they would be so much more believable.

Raghuveer Rao Let the people decide ...have a referendum.

Hemanth Sharma Raghuveer, there's a catch to this, unfortunately. India being a Representative Democracy, the people are expected to leave all the decision making to their elected leaders, and there is no genuine precedent for a referendum. However, in this case, I agree that it may be the best tool to gauge public sentiment and must be tried.

Of course, a referendum must be carried out only in the districts that make up Telengana and not across the state. To return to my original analogy, it will not be fair if the bossy older sibling is given a right to veto the request of the younger for a separate room!

Hemanth Sharma Praveen, Sharath, Anand and Raghuveer I shortly would be writing a blog article using this discussion. Thanks for your views.

Chris Anand We have enough division in the name of diversity. This stereotyping is handed down through generations and I can tell u that some have been passed down from my late grandparents to me as well. Hopefully education and a world view will break that chain and we can expect a more unified India one or two generations from now.

Hemanth Sharma Chris, going back to my original analogy, how do you address the claustrophobia that the younger sibling feels? Should a parent not ensure that his personality also gets as much chance to shine as the older sibling?

The central issue here is that one bunch of people feel that their culture and their opportunities are being overshadowed by the dominant bunch. Is a common language a sufficient bond? Apparently, not.

Raghava Gopi Krishna See, it is more a political game to mislead people. People of AP have seen their worst government in last 10 years, and AP which is known as the Food Bowl of India, but during this government, which claims to be farmer friendly, farmers have even declared a ‘crop holiday’, which is unprecedented. Lack of governance takes a big toll on job creation and Hyderabad is suffering.

The only one thing that happened well is the loot, at a never before scale, where an Ex. CM’s son is implicated in scams of 50k Crores. This is a record in itself. Now just as it did in 2009, the ruling party and its cronies are out to fool the People by getting some new flags (political parties) that will eventually merge with some or other party for their personal gain.

Things will change only when people became more rational than emotional, besides creating state will only increase non plan expenditure for both states as it will have 2 Governments and all their usual excesses, which the poor people have to foot.

Raghuveer Rao In 1948, Junagarh joined India based on a plebiscite. So there is precedence.

The problem with representative democracy is that elected representatives from other states, who may or may not have any sense of sentiments on the ground effectively get to decide the fate of the people.

Hemanth Sharma Raghava and Raghuveer, excellent points. However, what I meant was that there is no legislation that mandates referendums and also, India has not covered itself in glory while using this route. 99% of the residents of Nagaland apparently voted for independence, but India overruled them and annexed the state. A referendum carried out in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, which were Portuguese colonies, on the question of whether they want to join India was apparently never even published, and other such inconsistencies.

Please see http://www.tfd.org.tw/iri-asia/cms_file.php?id=75&dl=1

Perhaps a genuine referendum, that is carried out only in Telengana will accurately measure the mood of the people. I’m fully supportive of such a move.

A similar exercise is being carried out for the grant of possible independence to Scotland from the UK. If the referendum is extended to all UK residents instead of just Scotland, I wouldn't be surprised if the independence motion is defeated. Since it would be confined to the people of Scotland alone, I'm expecting a new nation to be born soon.

It would be ideal if we did the same here. But as Raghava says, perhaps we are too corrupt and politically sleazy as a nation to do the right thing. We definitely need to learn a thing or two from our former colonial masters!

Support for Ms. Durga Nagpal IAS

The country is awash with the news of the Samajwadi Party's (SP) Government in Uttar Pradesh bowing to the pressures of the so called Noida based Sand Mafia and getting the officer in question, Ms. Durga Nagpal IAS, suspended on what seems like spurious charges. The powers that be in SP, must have assumed that like in the past 65 years, they could ride roughshod over this lady, and via their retrograde action on her, send out a stern message to all other officials - that they will face similar consequences if they do not toe the Party line. Being Democratic Dinosaurs, the poor chaps may have never imagined that the entire nation will erupt in anger and condemnation, as is happening now, in response to their illegal actions.

On the first hand, we understand that the Sand Mafia is an entrenched lobby with close connections to the ruling party honchos. Thus, it is quite conceivable that goons from the Mafia, who have been facing the brunt of Ms. Nagpals’ official actions, would have complained to their Political Godfathers to fix this ‘pain in their side’ Officer. After suffering the seizure of several trucks and many Crores of Rupees worth in fines for the illegally mined natural resource, the Mafia would have naturally chafed at the ‘interference’ in their activities and resented it. Naturally.

While I do not support retrograde action of any sort, I believe that the SP Government should have handled this with more finesse. If an officer is causing you problems by preventing your cronies from say, looting, then you would typically look for a more pliant Officer and post him / her in place of the honest and upright Officer. Such action is permitted by law and is well within the boundaries of civilized governance and decency, even if the action was contemplated for less than honest reasons. But, to give the whole issue a religious and communal color to suit their actions is reprehensible and deserves condemnation in the strongest possible language and the strongest purgatory actions permitted under the Constitution.

The Officer was just doing her job and apparently following a Supreme Court order prohibiting the sprouting up of religious structures illegally on Government owned land. Media reports suggest that she herself did not get the structures demolished, but in a most mature and sagacious manner, managed to convince the villagers themselves to abide by the law and demolish the structures in question. Even while this needs to be proven, one must express ones’ total and complete admiration for the maturity of the young officer. If this is indeed true, without doubt she needs to be felicitated and publically adored instead of being witch hunted, as the SP Government seems to be doing. Another report in the media also mentioned the fact that her superior Officers at the District level have given their reports to the Government that there was no evidence of malafide intent on the part of Ms. Nagpal, and that post her actions on the demolition of the Mosque structures, there was absolutely no evidence of communal tension or unrest, nor was any complaint received protesting her actions. All this seems to show the SP Government in very poor light, unfortunately.

Thus, for the SP Government to latch on to this flimsy excuse and accuse her of taking actions that could Endanger Public Peace and be Detrimental to Communal Harmony is just a whole lot of rot. This is Minority Appeasement and Communal Politics of the basest order, and their using it as a fig leaf to cover the disgusting naked illegality of their action in suspending Ms. Nagpal, and later serving her with a Charge Sheet, is plainly visible to every right-thinking citizen of this country.

We the people of India have to protest this illegal action and make it clear that we will not stand for such Banana Republic Politics any longer. Since the SP Government seems to have decided to brazen it out and continue with this travesty of justice, we are forced to turn to the Judiciary to set thing right, as usual. Unfortunately, the Judiciary is currently, the only arm of Democracy that still overwhelmingly stands up to scrutiny, particularly at the level of the High Courts and the Supreme Court. Thus, it is inevitable that we petition the Respected Chief Justice of the Honorable High Court at Allahabad, and seek his intervention in the matter.

• The Actions of the SP Government are illegal and anti-Democratic in nature, and Bad in Law.
• The principles of Natural Justice and the Fundamental Rights of the IAS Officer Ms. Nagpal seem to have been undermined.
• The actions of the Government looks to be strongly in response to the spectacular work the Officer has done to preserve the Natural Resources for the public good, which apparently impeded the functioning of the Sand Mining Mafia.
• In smothering the faculties of an honest and upright Officer, the SP Government has verily extended its tacit support to corruption and crony capitalism, to the detriment of the nation.
• Instead of encouraging and motivating Good Governance, the SP Government seeks to exercise pecuniary control over its Officers, and encourage yes-men and pliant Officers who look the other way when an illegality is being perpetrated.

To do my bit, I have created an online petition, addressed to the Respected Chief Justice, and am collecting signatures in support of the same. Please click on the link below and sign the petition, and then share it with all your contacts, exhorting them to sign the same too. It is hoped that we can all manage to collect 500 endorsements. Thank You.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Protect_honest_and_upright_IAS_Officer_Durga_Nagpal/

Maoism in India - Why the Kid Gloves?

Every so often, we hear of an attack perpetrated by Maoists or Naxalites, in which several Policemen lose their lives and public property is destroyed. These outlaws have in the past also indulged in kidnapping, intimidation, revenue theft and have even ‘punished’ local people with torture and execution style killings, accusing them of being police informants, or similar 'crimes'. The politicians and the Government are generally seen doing a lot of hand-wringing and “strongly condemning the Maoist action”, but I do have to express my puzzlement at why, without any exception, in every State where this problem exists, the Maoists need to be treated with kid gloves – like just so many wayward children being a tad naughty!  With so many police families having been orphaned over the past couple of decades, and the loss of Governmental control over vast sections of the country, and the destruction of public property, machinery and assets, including the snatching away of thousands of police issue firearms should have been reason enough for any sensible government to launch a concerted effort to rein these terrorists in, using whatever means that it has at its disposal.

However, instead of strong and determined action, surprisingly, we hear politicians insisting that they do not advocate the use of the Army or the Air force "to fight our own people", and hence they will insist on the use of the poorly trained and ill-equipped State Police and Para-military forces, who seem to be like sitting ducks as happened in Dantewada. I was also quite shocked to hear a similar view being espoused by a former Army Chief, who was part of a television debate on the aftermath of the Dantewada incident. He seemed to suggest that the armed forces should be used only to quell an attack from across the borders, like traditional armies all over the world have been doing for about 5000 years. I cannot believe that a notion so outdated is still the view held by a man once tasked with the protection of this nation. Any entity or group waging war against a democratically elected Government should be equated to a traditional enemy, in my view. However, to make this decision easier, there is sufficient reason to believe that the Maoists have sympathizers across the borders judging from the ever increasing number of foreign made weapons that they possess. Thus, coming to the conclusion that they must be actively supported and financed by powers without – is something even a lay person will arrive at. In conclusion, if even one pistol or one grenade has been provided to the Maoists by a foreign power, for whatever reason, this becomes a war like any invasion of our land was before. There is no doubt in my mind that we need to quell such movements, and hence, the inability to understand the “they-are-our-own-people” approach.

This has been going on for a couple of decades, during which thousands of lives have been lost, and it is increasingly evident that it seems that we have a lot of Maoist sympathizers in the political establishment. The same establishment had no qualms about brutally attacking and thrashing up sleeping women and children peacefully protesting against corruption along with Baba Ramdev, or water cannoning and baton charging the thousands of young protestors seeking justice for the Delhi gang rape victim. However, when it comes to dealing with the Maoists, the selfsame establishment becomes all shy, coy and ties itself up in knots. Is this an acceptable and ethical position when “our own people” have taken to arms, some of which are reportedly supplied by foreign powers, and have been wantonly killing other Indians like policemen and villagers who are also “our own people”? Why should the Army not go in and disarm these groups using Arial reconnaissance and tactical support from the Air force?

Of course without a doubt, these groups should be first given the opportunity to surrender and abhor the armed struggle, join the political mainstream, and offered a time-frame of 12 months to turn in their weapons. I am a very staunch supporter of democratic processes and if the Maoists have the conviction that their cause is just, and that the people will be benefited by their movement, they should join the electoral process and become part of the Government. Clearly, only those who refuse the rule of law, and ignore the democratic process need to be brought to book using every power that is at the disposal of the Government. Why is such an action illegal or unethical? Can someone explain?

Drought and Cloudbursts, Manmade Monsoon Fury

The past week, has been quite a dramatic one - if one is a viewer of any of the 24x7 Television News Channels. We have been constantly bombarded with images that one normally saw only on viral YouTube videos prior to this. Two and Three storied buildings just collapsing like a pack of cards, cars floating furiously away along in the current, dashing into other cars, bludgeoning buildings and bridges along the way, and dramatic pictures of mudslides having decimated holy towns on the banks of the Ganga, after they having stood strong for over a hundred years.

Officialdom is as usual, wringing its hands and begging us to appreciate the fact this is a natural calamity of gigantic proportions, and hence their sorry and uncoordinated rescue attempts need to be seen as brave and heroic by all patriotic Indians. Only the Armed Forces seem to be doing anything credible or worth appreciation in the search and rescue efforts. On the other hand, News reporters have already alleged that this is a 'manmade disaster' and have started pointing out that most of the buildings that were damaged, were illegal or permitted to be built on the river banks in contravention of Environment Ministry norms, and ignoring even the basics of engineering design. Focusing on the illegal structures alone seems to indicate that the reporters too are willing to accept the view that the cloudbursts are indeed natural disasters, and only the consequences thereof were manmade. It is depressing to observe that no one is studying this from a continental perspective, as I sincerely believe that this problem is entirely manmade, including the cloudbursts and feel that nature is wrecking her revenge on us for having raped and pillaged her incessantly for the past 40 odd years. What follows is my perspective as to the causes of the sudden cloud bursts and consequently, the still unknown number of lives lost and immense loss to property.

I’m sure everyone who was a child of the ‘70’s and the ‘80’s will remember the Weather Reports on the Doordarshan channel, in which, the progress of the monsoon used to be tracked from the 1^st of June onwards, by showing a Monsoon Front Line moving in slowly over the sub-continent until it was shown to cover the entire Indian landmass by the first week of July or thereabouts, when it finally became a spent force while battling the might of the Himalayas. One could see the front moving faster over the sea due to the absence of obstruction, and lagging over the land by a few days. The terms used the news readers are still fresh in my mind “The Monsoon front has progressed to cover Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Costal Kerala, South Interior Karnataka, North Interior Karnataka, Rayalseema and the Konkan regions. It is expected to further progress over the Deccan Plateau, Goa and Coastal Orissa in the next two days. The Monsoon is also expected to reach Delhi and Rajasthan which are currently reeling under heat-wave conditions, by the 30^th of June”, or something to that effect.  Thus, an entire month of rains starting from the 1^st of June had to first drench the rest of India before it could even reach the foothills of the Himalayas. This time, it took just about 10 days, and like it has done over the past few years, it has entirely skipped Karnataka and Maharashtra, and reached Delhi and the foothills. Why could this be happening?

In a similar vein, I am also quite irritated whenever a discussion on climate takes place on TV for instance, where residents of Bangalore mention that they never saw temperatures in the high 30’s back when they were kids, and the ‘Experts’ will be quick to point out that in some obscure date in May of 1937 or 1928 or whatever, Bangalore had recorded a temperature of 38.7 Deg. C, and hence there was no truth in the alarmist theories of Global Warming. The so called experts are also quick to point out that the 'Average Temperature of Bangalore has remained more or less constant over the past 100 years'. This needs to be debunked in the strongest possible terms, as I have personally seen the change in the temperatures in Bangalore, and never before was it as hot as it is in summer or as cold as it is in winter now. Thus, it seems that nature has a way of ensuring that the average is maintained – warmer summers are compensated by colder winters and thus, when the average temperature is mapped for the entire year, it will seemingly remain same as the average recorded in the ‘70’s. What this average hides is the earlier maximum – minimum range and what change that has undergone over the past 40 years. Similarly, showing us a record of some extreme temperature when our Grandparents were kids in Bangalore misses the fact that back then, such high temperatures were an absolute rarity, and may have appeared on a couple of days due to some global phenomenon like the El Nino effect, while these days, we see Bangalore suffering temperatures of mid-to-high 30’s for over 45 days in April and May, which was unheard of back then. For a city that needed no ceiling fans when we were kids, this is tragic. Nowadays, an Air Conditioner is the ubiquitous adornment for most bedrooms, adding to the environmental impact and climate change, making them more and more inevitable each season.

So, getting back to why the monsoon traversed the sub-continent so rapidly, I think it basically boils down to this – Deforestation. The monsoon front used to traverse very slowly over the peninsula landmass due to the very extensive forest and tree cover over the Malnad region of Karnataka, and the greenery of the North Karnataka and South West Andhra regions. This green cover not only slowed down the movement of the front, but also divested of it a major portion of the water content in the monsoon clouds by forcing copious yet gentle precipitation for weeks. This helped to not only slow down the movement of the front, but also resulted in controlling the amount of precipitation they retained when the winds finally hit the Himalayas, as the mountains seemingly possess the ability to extract every last drop from the clouds. Now, with the forest cover in Karnataka reducing each year, and the whole of Hyderabad Karnataka and Andhra a veritable gaping wound due to the open cast mining rampant there, means that the clouds are able to just pass over the entire landmass virtually unchallenged, and hence arrive still swollen with rain at the foothills of the Himalayas. This leads to cloudbursts, simple. Thus, this extreme weather phenomenon has been caused in part due to the greed of man, and of course, corruption. Greased palms have never possessed the ability to protect our forests, and much like the rain bearing clouds, they slip through the rules, and lay bare larger and larger swathes of forest land.

Touching upon the aspect of how the Himalayan region has been managed, and why the raging rivers have managed to wreck so much havoc, one only needs to look at the flood waters to understand that even in the Himalayas, the greed of man and the lucre of money has apparently laid bare the timeless hills. The water is a deep chocolate brown due to the millions of tons of precious topsoil that has been washed off the hills due to the absence of a tree root network that once bound it together. Further, it must be understood that this is pretty much a one-way street - as water that is mixed with soil and moving at a fast rate becomes virtually an unstoppable force, as the density of the mixture rises, so does its destructive power, eroding away more and more soil to feed the frenzy. Add to this a million trees, a few hundred thousand boulders, several houses and an assortment of cars to the mixture, it will be no different than a weapon of mass destruction, and nothing will stand in its way, especially not the shoddily constructed illegal guesthouses and cheap hotels that sully the banks of the Ganga all along its course.

I do hope that the Experts will wake up and instead of just rationalizing the problem, do something about it. We need to revert Karnataka to the earlier forest cover, ensure that the bald wounds inflicted by the iron ore mining are all greened over, and the forest cover of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh are similarly improved to form an effective monsoon barrier or sponge, that traps the rain in a gentle and sustained manner. In the hills themselves, the pressure of human settlement has to be eased and extensive reforestation taken up to prevent topsoil runoff. All along the banks of the rivers, a respectful buffer zone or Ecological Zone needs to be created and the course of the rivers and their flood plains kept unpopulated. Finally, all buildings on the hills have to be restricted to a single level only, so that the pressure on the inclined soil plane is minimized. The officials tasked with the maintenance of ecologically sensitive zones need to faithfully perform their duty and preserve our nation and its precious ecosystem for our children.

Lastly, India as a nation – every single man, woman and child will have to abhor corruption. As long as we are willing to pay a bribe as speed money for our own selfish reasons, the officials will see no reason to reform themselves. Ultimately, it seems that any disaster, natural or manmade can be connected tenuously or otherwise to acts of corruption. This has got to stop!

Justice and Social Integration - The Suryanelli rape victim

One prided oneself on the fact that one was fortunate to be born into the worlds’ largest and arguably the freest democracy, where all citizens were assured of equality and justice. This pride has suddenly been punctured recently, as it became increasingly clear that equality and justice was available to only about half the population – the male half, that is. With depressing regularity one reads about how little girls, students and aged women are tortured, assaulted, brutally raped and even publicly humiliated to ‘punish’ their families, communities or caste. We see on TV how medieval minded Khap Panchayats ban women from wearing jeans, owning cellphones or are even ordered to forcefully marry their rapists. Disgusting. Perhaps this has been the situation all along, and we – educated India, have chosen to be blissfully unaware of it. Thanks to the concerted efforts of the Media, this sad state of affairs is now increasingly in the public domain.

A few weeks ago, I was saddened to read the article 'Trial and Error' published in the Week Magazine, in which the horrific experiences of a 16 year old victim of abduction, illegal detention and repeated rape read virtually like a sick X-Rated novel. The Magazine had started a campaign to lobby for justice to the Suryanelli rape victim - something I readily support. In fact, a lot more than just getting her the justice she deserves is necessary, and other critical actions that ensure her re-integration into a society that has chosen to shun her will be required.

It is quite tragic that except for her parents and her lawyer, virtually everyone seems to have deserted her. One learns that she had been given a Government job on compassionate grounds, and recently faced suspension on account of corruption charges – which she denies. One wonders if this corruption charge is some sort of retribution for daring to appeal to the Supreme Court? The timing of the corruption charge certainly seems to be a little too convenient, to say the least. Thus, it looks like every stone is being overturned and every trick in the book is being used to subvert due process. It is absolutely shocking to learn that such concerted attempts at denying justice in this manner is even possible in this day and age, which is also denying a victim the right she has of receiving the support of society.

It seemed quite apparent to me that a 'Grade A' cover up process has been achieved, and the entire Justice System - right from the Social Worker, the Police and the Judiciary seems to have failed the victim, leaving her to battle this horrendous experience virtually on her own. What a brave little 16-year old she must have been to take on the system that cared nothing for her. From day one, the Police investigation and the judicial process seemed to have focused only on protecting the political bigwigs allegedly involved. One can understand the spineless approach of the Police, but a lot is expected from the Judiciary, as they are entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring every citizen's fundamental rights. While the lower Courts may be less independent, one assumes nothing but the best support from the High Court. Despite that high expectation, it really shocked me observe the inexplicable Kerala High Court ruling that stated the victim had 'consensual' sex with her 42 rapists, and acquitted all but one of the accused! This strange ruling was given when the law is very clear on the Age of Consent being 18 years. One is no legal expert, but it seems plain as day that the judgment was faulty. As, even if the 16 year old had consented (a preposterous argument in itself) to having sex with each of those 42 men, every one of them, as adults, would have committed Statutory Rape, and should have faced the full might of the law. Instead of recognizing this, no less an institution than the High Court of Kerala has chosen to pass such a verdict. We need to hang our heads in collective shame for this. Each and every one of us – right from our founding fathers down.

This verdict has to also be seen in the context of a recent incident, the Delhi Bus Rape and Murder of a Paramedical Student. What a strange Juvenile Justice system we have in this country, that rules that a mere 16 year old child has attained the age of consent for sexual contact and ‘chose’ to be ravished and exploited by no less than 42 men, and was hence undeserving of justice, while at the same time, we have a 17-and-a-half year old Delhi rapist and brutal murder accused - an adult by any yardstick, being fed the 'milk of Judicial kindness' as it were, where he has been sent to a nice safe remand home, and is being provided every protection by law, including anonymity, and faces a maximum jail term of only 3 years if convicted. We live in a sick society if something like this can happen in our watch, and we do nothing to remedy the situation.

Our Juvenile Justice System has to be recast to ensure that never again will anyone who is accused of a heinous crime receive the safety net of society. It surprised me no end to learn that India has one of the most liberal Juvenile Justice Acts (JJA) in the world, where any person who is even a couple of days shy of the age of 18 years, enjoys the full benefit of being a minor. Both in the US and UK, on whom much of our Justice System is modeled on, have rules that exempt minors accused of heinous crimes from seeking refuge in the JJA. Children accused of Rape or Murder in these two countries face the same charges and could receive the same punishment as an adult would. Why we in India, in our JJA, choose to be so protective and nurturing of underage criminals? Of what use is our JJA that protects a sadist rapist-murderer, while failing to ensure justice to a 16-year old victim of another rape and sexual exploitation case?

Our Criminal Justice System and the Juvenile Justice System are both worthless if they cannot ensure that justice is meted out in the Suyranelli case. I sincerely hope that each and everyone accused of raping the minor victim will be soon finally brought to book and face the maximum terms of punishment. As thinking individuals, we need to also lobby for the identification of all the people involved in the alleged cover up, regardless of their position. Whether it be the policemen, the lawyers, the prosecutors, the judges or the politicians - anyone involved in a cover-up (if one can be proved) are given exemplary punishment that will deter anyone in future from contemplating such horrible a miscarriage of justice.

Finally, a concerted attempt needs to be made to reintegrate the victim into the mainstream society, and every person who chose to shun her is made to see the folly of their ways. Firstly, the victim must be suitably compensated financially both from the Government and from exemplary fines collected from each of the convicted persons. She should also be afforded an opportunity to face society with her head held high. This can be achieved by conferring on her a Bravery Award for the steely resolve she has exhibited in seeking justice - not only for herself, but for all women. She is richly deserving of that singular honor.