Manufactured gloom.

I am angry with the things going on nowadays in the country. The political atmosphere is so vitiated by poisonous debates on many non issues and many important issues which can be game changer for India are not discussed at all, be at political level or in general public.
But i am not angry for the present situation. The real problem i am afraid is for the coming future, whichever party is in power then.

  The BJP, the principal opposition party,  have behaved in such utterly irresponsible way that they have poisoned all the body politic of India. The way they attacked the UPA govt on non issues while demanding no answer for it's follies on many fronts will cost India dear in future. Let us take one example at a time. 

The BJP's attack on govt on 2G issue based on CAG report and media , blindly accepting the figure of loss of astronomical amount of 1.76 lakh crore and viciously propagating the same in many interviews by their media faces is their biggest folly. What CAG report said as a loss is, as we all know is only notional figure and the loss is calculated based on the different policy recommendations by different people and do not constitute corruption per se. If only the investigating agency discover the money trail from ppl who benefited to people in power is established, (as was established in Raja favoring some companies where the TV group owned by DMK directly received some 200 crore "lone"). True, the immediate loss to the govt  exchequer might be great, but this was all compensated because of amazing expansion of mobile sector all over the India and because of cheap call rates almost everyone now have a mobile, thus reducing the technology gap between poor and rich. The govt must have collected more revenue (through revenue sharing model) than the loss quoted by CAG.
BJP's continuous importance to CAG report will only make matter worse for them in the future when they are in power. Do they really want a opposition, holding a CAG report in their hands, breathing on their nake when they are in power?  Really surprised by BJP's this move where they are ready to sacrifice the future for the current gains. 

The second example is their apparent backing to the jan lokpal andolan. The move was great considering that BJP had to do very little as the govt was continuously busy shooting their own feet at every opportunity they could find. But the support to the 'Gandhian' Anna movement and so called civil society movement by BJP is fraught with danger in the future as many well wishers of BJP will recognize. Do BJP  really want all the dictating power to go to the man with whom they do not share much of their ideology ? What will BJP do when they are in power when the same civil society takes an issue  in their hand which is contrary to the BJP ideology ?  What will BJP do if the same civil society takes the issue of communal violence bill ?


Another is the use of media and living on it's propagating power by continuosly using rhetorics to cater to the masses. But then they should remember that those who live by the media, die by media. The gory picture of the corruption they are creating based on media reports will come back to haunt them when they are in power.


Also I am angry with all so called national parties who do not have consistent ideology. While they will support land acquisition for a project in one state , they will oppose the same in other state. While in one state, a party will support the 'green' cause , in other state it'll do exactly the opposite. In one state they support the clemency for a accuse of murderer, in other they will make great hullabaloo over it. This double standards by any political party divides the nation against itself. The people in one region may feel that they are less favored compared to other region.
This opportunistic politics , though not new, is a curse and must change. We should demand clear cut policy based political parties. This holier than thou attitude of today's Indian political parties will not lead India anywhere in the future. Congress and BJP both are guilty of this type of politicking. I was angry with congress when they took the issue of farmers agitation in UP while at the same time they were doing the same in Haryana.


In short, BJP is destroying the current govt but not gaining anything for itself for it's future govt.. And saddest part is that they are showing the way for future agitation to congress when it is in opposition. In all this nation is going to suffer as no new investment will come in India for the fear of it's political instability. The politicians and bureaucrats are happy to just sit on the file rather than to take decisions for which they may be called corrupt in any future investigations. The case in point is Maharashtra CM Mr clean Prithviraj Chavan who is sitting on many files without taking any decisions for long time now due to the fear of being called corrupt. In an interview after the Mumbai bomb blast, he revealed that the process of acquiring security technology (case in point was cctv cameras then)  is a tortuous one and when the order is placed for them, in the meantime the technology has became old. So no purchase was happening even though the funds were available for the fear of being called corrupt and taking bribe in the futre for buying inferior instruments and technology when the superior one was available.

The lack of trust in the netas is a widespread feeling in the middle class, which, instead is turning to mavericks who guarantee 100% solution to every issue. This partly explains the recent phenomenon of awakening of middle class.The discontent is catered to by the privately owned media who constantly goes on using ultra nationalistic rhetoric giving away the sound reasoning and truth. The 2G loss figure is now household figure in middle class and they take it as a reality. This discontent is manufactured and in reality middle class in urban areas is much happier can be seen through the full page advertisements of home appliances and stuff in newspapers and the overflowing malls and shops almost in every city. Contrast this with the gloomy picture in the world, particularly in Europe, where there is existential crisis for middle classes. India is in reality, shining,  but what we get through our media and newspaper is the report of gloom and doom.


I am not sure why. 
We are wasting the opportunity of lifetime to take the mantle of world leader in our squabbling on non issues while no one is catering to the reality.

'Left wing' extremist - my take

Supreme Court just few days ago gave the verdict on Salwa Judum. Supreme court was right. State have a duty towards every citizen and cannot arm one citizen against another. The reactions to it were as usual, predictable. And that is where, in my opinion, needs a new thinking.

  Supreme Court said in their judgement that the naxalism or Maoist problem is not just law and order problem, but is caused by development deficit in the area. While Govt's policy is almost on the same line and many experts have supported it, I am going to say just the opposite. I am going to argue that the problem should be treated as one of the law and order one and Govt should try to avoid linking it to the ideology. Let us see why.

   The leadership of left wing extremist was since earliest time was provided by highly educated urban youth who one day happened to discover the "Real India". These youth leaders and ideologues of left wing extremism, from Charu Majumdar  Nagi Reddy, D. V. Rao , Pulla Reddy , Vinod Mishra to the most recent one Kobad Ghandi had one thing in common. They were all urban educated, sensitive idealists (Charu's father was renowned freedom fighter of the area) and got suddenly attracted towards left wing extremism. The movement took different forms in east and central India and had it's fortunes fluctuating, but it never died down completely because it got new blood and brain every now and then. This is because the ideology never die.

If govt continues to portray the movement as left wing, it will continue to get the support from the urban educated people and the universities will continue to produce the brains for future leadership.While criticizing them, it is important to note that what these urban educated people are supporting is not the mass murderers but ideology, the ideology of egalitarianism, the sensitivity towards the poor. They do not support the killings, by any side, but then, they will certainly take side of poor people against what they feel as a corrupt govt bent on looting these poor.

While media and political parties continue to give due importance to this issue, the fact is that the reactions from political parties are almost always, predictable, along their ideological lines. If they criticise the 'Maoists' for killing people and policemen, they forget to criticise police excess and vice versa. The problem is not solved, but it is then mired into controversies about ideologies and the see saw battle between 'Maoists'  and security establishment continues depending on which ideology helds sway at the Centre.

What we need is 'de-linking'  the "armed extremism in the central India against government machinery" from ideological support.

   Lets stop calling it "left winged" , as practically there is nothing 'left' in their behavior. They abduct people, blasts schools, spread fear in the minds of people, extort money, kill people using landmines and explosives, which, as you know, doesn't only kill people of one ideology only. The abduction of the IAS officer in Odisha who was known to work for poor people with extreme determination is one such example of so called 'left' wing thinking.The recent reports of some type of linkage between Jehadi elements and so called Maoists hardly qualify them for being a left group.

   All they do is with just one objective in their minds.. anti-government thinking.  They will oppose anything and everything government say and do. This shows that they really have a political goal in mind.

    While exposing the so called Maoists , it is also important to criticise government's follies.. Like high handed behavior of security forces, most of which not well trained,  in the area and the disregard for tribal poor. Due credence should be given to legitimate grievances of the local population i.e. tribal. The PESA (Panchayats (Extention to Scheduled Areas) Act) should be implemented in letter and spirit. Tribals should have a greater say in their affairs.

Government have to expose the Maoist from the ideological cover that they have used all these years. This, they can do by championing the cause of tribals, by giving legitimate space for their grievances to be heard. In this process, many people may leave the fold of shoddy organisations and embrace the mainstream. This is important and must be highlighted as it will help more defections in the future. 

Also, by championing the cause and exposing the Maoists as just another miscreants, who don't have anything with the ideology, we can stop the supply of new brains to their organisations.

  If we want to see the end of armed struggle in the immediate future, it is important to deny them any legitimacy or cover of ideology. Otherwise the war will continue forever as ideologies never die.

SCAMS : how much is reality, how much is perception.

We had our land-line in 1997.. after around 1 and half year in waiting. That was very happy day for our family. We celebrated it like a small festival, by distributing sweets in our building :). One of our close (and jealous ) relative, who got their land line just 6 months before us, after almost 6 years in waiting line.. who kept asking my mother how much bribe did we gave to the telephone linesmen to get the job done so early!! We enjoyed the days, when we have to book a trunk STD call to call my uncles situated in other city. and every time we had to talk we used to talk late in the night, after 11 PM , so that the rates were 1/4th of the normal. I remember the minimum fare of those trunk calls was something 50 rs or so. But still it was a great feeling. Surely, telephones were luxury then.

The picture changed quite dramatically in the next 7-8 years.. thanks to what we call telecommunication revolution. Now, almost everyone have a a phone. It's common to have more than one mobile in a family.. (the telephone became individual property rather than a family one.) The situation changed so dramatically that many people have more than 1 phones.

And it was not just the number that exploded. The price has gone down tremendously. Let us see some benchmarks.

• The waiting period of few years has come down to at max 2-3 days.. for verification of ID papers. And you cont have to be rich and famous )(or VIP in Delhi language) to get this type of treatment.

• The trunk call facility do not exist for all practical purpose.
• The rates of the call, which used to change according to the time of the day, and were lowest in night, now are constant throughout for all landlines and that too are very low.
• Greatest change came when the govt owned companies  decided to do away with STD charges altogether.  (  govt decides to do away with std charges altogether  )
• The rates of mobile calling changed dramatically from some 16Rs/min for outgoing call and also around 4Rs/min for incoming calls in 2002 to now almost 0.3 Rs/min for outgoing call to null for incoming. (the charges vary with companies.. also there are some schemes who offer almost free same service calls..) the prices i am quoting are an average, and they differ slightly from one service to another.

• The service of the telephone calling also improved greatly (although some glitches still exist there) when in earlier times, the dead telephone was a common occurring to now quick service ..( or if we are still unhappy.. a chance to change the service operator.)

These are some points which suggest there is sea change in last 10 years.. and mostly through the mobile telephony.The good effects are felt by not just rich and powerful but also the lowest of our social and economic spectrum, with the spread of the service now embrace almost entire India.The small businesses who depend on telephone for their daily work can tell you the difference. It have created almost new class of people benefiting from it. Today's middle class. Also the biggest beneficiary of the mobile revolution is today's youth.. who can certainly vouch for my this claim that they can't imagine life without telephone.

The sector is now not just about telephone, the audio service, but provides multitude of other services that have become part of our life.. like SMS, Internet, Daily alert (for farmers, share market enthusiasts, about weather, about any calamity like flood earthquake etc where the collector uses this to urge people to stay calm and also ask them to take some corrective measures). The mobile phone has become a lifeline for many.


And all this change did not came out of blue. The sector have expanded so much because of some great policy initiatives taken by then telecoms minister Arun Shourie and then followed by A Raja. The principle of 'First Come First Serve' or 'FCFS' was a great policy which was responsible for this massive expansion of the sector benefiting billions of people. It was best example of Public Private Partnership in a way where govt allowed private companies to lead a way and gave them almost free hand in their dealings, but also expected them to serve the nation by providing cheap affordable and good quality service to people. And these private players did not disappoint either, not because they cared for people, but because hey cared for profits, by expanding service and competing with other players for customer in the department of prices.

Hence the recent spate of allegations about 2G loss to the govt exchequer and the quoting of astronomical figures of 1.76 lakh crore Rs .. ( almost 40 billion $) made me uneasy. Everyone found fault with the FSFC policy. And they blamed Raja of giving undue favours to the industrialists by giving the licence for the spectrum to very low price. The CAG estimate was based on the failed bid by one company to get 3G service (because they backtracked as they found that they could not get their money back after quoting very high) and then extrapolating it to the entire spectrum. As such the method was faulty, but nobody complained about it. The opposition blamed congress for "the loot of the nation" (their words)  and congress, equally pathetic, instead of defending the policy and explaining it to the public (they did, but that was not their main point) blamed Arun Shourie who was telecom minister earlier, whose policy only was followed by Raja; they claimed.

The media went into frenzy and the figure was quoted so many times that now it became a 'fact' from 'guesstimates'. No one questioned the figure now. Any attempt by anyone to say that the loss is not there was seen with contempt, he was ridiculed and was called a congress agent {twitter was fantastic in this.. using the words like chormedia , dalalmedia for media.. (specially ndtv and barkha dutt) and sickular or pseudo sickular} The opposition, instead of searching for truth, went into overkill mode (what else will happen when we have lawyers on both side as their party's mouthpiece?) The (middle class urban) youth was angry, especially so because their source of information is mainly net, and English news channels which was highly polarised. The middle class was angry, or they were portraid as such by the media. 

But in all this narrative the truth was never revealed. Politicians, Media and almost everyobe blamed the FCFS policy for the loss, which in fact a gross error by all of them. THEY ARE BARKING AT THE WRONG TREE. 

  Common man from middle class almost always give it to the perception battle which is faught in the newspapers and media which only thrive on sensationalism... and hence almost always make big claims of fraud against the govt in power. Middle class have the history ofnot standing behind their benefactors and swayed by perceptions than reality. In Anna movement too they stood behind Anna and his cause without understanding the effect of all this is going to have on them.( 1.) 


The real loss in 2G was not due to A Raja followed  FCFS policy, but due to his not following it. He gave licences to some players by changing the rules, and once by changing the date. The total loss runs around in some thousand crores(!!) (allocating spectrum to swan to some 1300 crore which it then gave to some other company for some 4000 crores in 3 months) and the biggest reason for this is out of bound allocation to players like swann and unitech who were never telecom players till then.
But the real loss occured when these companies failed to roll out their services in time as was required from them according to the rules by TRAI. The customers and hence common man lost out the good effects that usually occurs when multiple players compete with each other for customer's attention and thus improving the quality of service and the multiplier effect of these basic services as it happens with other infrastructure projects.


But the media ignored this. The opposition ignored this. And they focussed their whole argument on the revenue loss issue. Now, after 3G allocation, see how many cities have 3G service? And how affordable it is? the answer to both is in negative. Ultimately the common man is suffering. The nation is suffering. When the world is entering into 4G services.. we still haven't rolled out 3G services outside few metro cities. 

The controversy is having it's effect on govt officials who are now afraid of taking any decision.. afraid that tomorrow they may land in jail for any decision taken by them..they prefer to do just sit on it rather than being accused of corruption.

The media is happy that they have served the nation by unearthing the big scam and also garnering big TRPs and big revenue through ads, but they will blissfully ignore this effect of their overenthusiastic campaign. The BJP is happy that they have cornered the govt in very uncomfortable position. The left is happy, as they were always opposed to the privatisation. But common people are going to suffer in long run if this goes on longer. The controversy as imagined by media and many netizens was never what they imagined it to be is confirmed by the niira radia's statement before PAC. radia's statement before PAC .  Even PAC do not mention the figure of loss anywhere. (It has since then have become polarised.. just like parl.) It seems that the entire 2g scam, with leak of files, tapes etc was some corporate rivelry (with some ministers also taking part in it) gone terribly wrong.

What will emerge from this is certainly very different from the media has been saying for so long. But in the meantime..common people are the only one who are on losing side. They are paying too much for the service and also the quality of service is also not improving much. The day will not be long when the India loses it's edge as a nation of technology genius. When the world have 4G with fast internet on mobiles, it seems we still are living in stone age.