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.

JAN LOKPAL BILL

As everyone was trying to convince me .. "We just got our 'Tahrir Square' moment." They continued..  It was one of those moment where.. "Good won over evil" , "David defeated Goliath" or more popularly. "'It's civil society's victory..."


I remained unconvinced. In fact... I was skeptical. In my opinion.. we just got robbed at gunpoint.


It was not at all surprising that we got our "Revolution". Every sign indicated that we will have one.. Before it all started.. the atmosphere was pregnant with expectations. Our media was crying hoarse over Corruption for quite long. Every day.. was a day of new expose, every day some big scam came to light.The amount of money in these scams touched astronomical figures. And as it was.. there was competition between different media houses to show that the scam they unearth is biggest ever.
As it became the question of TRP.. it became necessary for media channel to 'unearth' scams and to proclaim loudly that "mine is bigger than yours". It was but natural.


 This created the atmosphere of distrust towards political class..As every allegation by opposition was countered with equally serious allegation by the party in power. For every 2G there was Karnataka.. For every Kalmadi, there was Reddy bros. For neutral observers unfamiliar with India will wonder if there are only 2 industries in India, doing scams and unearthing it.
 The BJP didn't help either.. as they continued to give credence to the astronomical figures of 2G scam.. i.e. 1.76 Lakh Crore Rs. or roughly 40 billion dollars.


And then, the international events like revolution in Egypt and other Arab countries showed the way to middle class and the media. They were waiting for their revolution, the D day.. and all they needed was a rallying point. And it was provided by a Anna Hazare.. an ex army-man, who have caricatured himself on Gandhi, and who had a fairly successful stint in his agitations back home in Maharashtra so far.
Media and civil society (i.e. urban, educated, majority youth,  who have access to internet and are fairly proficient in using computer and are regular on social networks - this is the most concise definition of civil society which is applicable in current context.) rallied behind his cause of stand against corruption and for jan lok pal bill like never before, and within 4 days, government capitulated, agreeing to their most demands.  Almost every party supported the bill, and it is sure to pass through the law making process of parliament. It's ultimate triumph of people power over political power.


Let us see some photos of the 'civil society' representing common people..

Civil Society - 1

Civil Society - 2

Civil Society - 3

(civil society representatives )

Or this is how the media projected it.


Let us look at it in a different perspective..
     After the overt media war and opposition's support to it and stalling parliament over 2G scam, congress was in defensive mode. BJP went into overkill using media as a main weapon in their arsenal and corruption at high offices as the main issue. The campaign was having it's effect on middle class, and failure of opposition to provide a pan Indian leadership and BJP's silence  and more damningly, support to Yeddy on Karnataka issue disenchanted them from political process.
This struggle against corruption gave the congress an opportunity to undo many things.. and to kill many birds in a single stone.. Let us see how.


When Anna started his campaign, his idea to control corruption was through a jan lokpal bill ..similar to what  Sonia Gandhi led NAC dominated by Harsh Mander Aruna Roy and company, and other  activists had in mind, which will create a super body to control over every aspect of corruption from starting the proceedings to leading the investigations to collecting information to giving punishment.OR .. in other words.. just like Khap Panchayats..


But cabinet refused to give their nod. And, even after getting the cabinet nod,  it was sure to get defeated in the parliament as no one in right mind will assent to the bill which was going to undermine all the parliamentary democracy. So , Sonia Gandhi and NAC decided to do it the other way.
Anna came to Delhi to start his fast. No one opposed him or stopped him from coming here.. (note Irom Sharmila.. who was shifted from Delhi to Manipur within days of her fast... who is on hunger strike for more than 11 years now...) The Delhi gave a suitable place for our "civil society" to get 'outraged', and our media to give second by second, largely larger than life image of the 'peoples war' (pun intended) (here an article by Mihir S Sharma will help http://www.indianexpress.com/news/breaking-fast/773642/2  )
 The atmosphere was created, now they just have to sit over it for few days to get it to boil.. in the media houses of course. Meanwhile every media house ignored the links of these people who were representing 'civil society' with the NAC (Kejriwal met with the members just before the fast started  here is the link   http://tinyurl.com/3c6u3eu     ) And also no one questioned when Swami Agnivesh talked for the 'civil society'.  The bankruptcy of logic in media houses was not surprising because they have given it up since long time.. and are now concentrating wholly on 'outrage quotient' of the news rather than the content of the news.
What surprised many of us is the way BJP gave up to the idea and Advani publicly supported the bill and promised that his party will ensure the passing of bill through parliament. Perhaps the realisation that BJP's core supporters, the middle class, was behind all this may have forced them to support the bill. They could not risk the public anger against them.. not now.
And the whole circus ensured one of the best coup by Sonia Gandhi.. (another was when Sushma Swaraj opposed her becoming prime minister and Sonia converted this in her advantage.)
The media was happy, the long estranged 'civil society' was happy and BJP is now supporting her viewpoint. What else could she wanted? (Perhaps Anna breaking fast by drinking lemon juice from Rahul's hand would have been icing on the cake.. but.. then, it wouldn't have been so subtle.)
Anna said he's grateful to sonia gandhi.. and what he's demanding is what NAC (lead by Sonia herself) is also saying.  (   http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/anna-s-latest-letter-to-sonia-gandhi-97204 


The coup was complete. But what's the problem with jan lokpal bill?? why is it against our interests?? especially the middle class interests?

1.  The bill will create a super body which will be all powerful and without any accountability to the people. Or in other respect just like NAC.. but more dreadful as NAC was only advisory in nature.. but this committee's recommendation will be authoritative.
2.  The jan lok pal, will in effect will just create another layer of bureaucracy which will not be responsible to the people and the institution created in the name of 'common people'  will only serve to 'special people' 
3. The people fighting for JLP bill and their ideology (especially swami agnivesh ) will only be injurious to the growth of the nation.
4. Left parties, who unequivocally supported the bill have taken a stand that all this corruption is due to the new economic policy adopted by Man Mohan Singh in 1991-92. In fact, NAC, dominated by left oriented people also thinks the same. The middle class, which is now in large number and is vocal thanks to Man Mohan Singh's policies, is now turned against their creator. (the computer and  internet through which majority of campaign is directed, was also opposed by this left ) Now imagine what will happen if you give all the keys to your future to people like this. In all the ceremony and bonhomie over passing of the bill in the youth , it looked like they were very happy signing their own death warrant.     
5.  Undermining of elected body like parliament will set a dangerous precedent, as it will allow groups who are opposed to elections such as separatists and maoists,  to press their demand without accepting the constitution. The precedent will undermine democratically elected bodies everywhere but especially so where they are not strong enough.. like  in far flung areas like north east and Jammu and Kashmir.
6. Even if the lokpal succeeds in establishing the corruption, will that lead to the individual being taken to task? Let us take an example.. a powerful Maharashtrian leader from konkan area who is now a cabinet minister is known to have amassed large estate after he entered politics. His sons are in politics now.. and they run a non government organisation 'to help people' and which is controlled by the family only. Suppose this leader gets summon let alone his arrest, it'll create a large law and order situation and it will become impossible to prosecute it. Incidentally, the mainstay of this organisation is the same youth the media and Anna hazare never stops praising over, it's just that they dont believe in non violence, and are not afraid from using violence as a means to attain their objective. Also, there is another case of one Baban Gholap from nashik against whom Anna have organised a campaign, now he do not belong to any party, nor do he have any constitutional post. Still he controls nashik. How? Well.. simply through his daugher, who is now mayor of nashik municipality.. and he's now enjoying power without responsibility. He's running nashik as his personal fiefdom.  
7. Even if we succeeds toremove and punish one raja or one kalmadi, what guarantee is there that there will be not future rajas and kalmadis? politicians will devise more ingenious ways  to do corruption.
8. The way we are showing our contempt towards elected representatives will be a downfall of us.. as it will be against our democratic principle.
9. The way we are supporting unconstitutional bodies, it will create big problems in the future..as it will create more problems in the long run that solving some in short run.
10. You must have seen the tweeter account of Jan Lokpal. It gives the impression that it  it have 'some' political and ideological affiliations which it is using to target some specific leaders only. This just reminds us the example of what happened in JP movement.. who used this movement to spread their views through their committed cadres using the backdrop of JP. Couldn't help but thinking..''Is this happening again?''
11. The fact that BJP is going forward with it's support to the bill without considering it's merits and demerits and disregarding the facts of association of known maoists sympathisers with it.. suggests that bjp is only interested in cashing on public outrage and the prevalent perception in the masses and do not care a bit on it's long term effect on the middle classes. The way the twitter handle janlokpal is behaving  gives credence to this.

So , what is the alternative? 

There are many .. dilute the discretionary powers of the elected representatives.. remove their power of 'patronization' .. remove the sources from where they get more money that is make economy more open. 

Also we need reforms in our election system which will allow honest people from pursuing a career in politics.. like increasing the salary of elected representatives and making him more accountable (interestingly.. every one in our 'civil society'  disagrees with increasing the salary of MPs and MLAs).


This discretionary power comes when govt have large amount of power to allow and disallow things from happening. Here is an example.. 'Make alcohol illegal.. then when people want to buy/drink it (people will not stop drinking just because it's made illegal..).. demand money/favours to allow them so..'
This is just one example.. but what it suggests is that more discretion for govt creates more opportunity for corruption.The industrial class who want favours from politicians in this closed and closely controlled system, will not hesitate to pay these bribes.. and the ultimate payers of these bribe will be common man again.(let alone big industrialists.. even the small street vendors will say that they pay money to local police and goons to allow them to do business in the area.. which, ultimatelycomes from customers pockets. )


The Anna movement is largely focused on big names only..(the hue and cry over raja, kalmadi and .. if you go by campaign on net.. especially twitter and facebook..well of course.. sonia and sharad pawar.. who else.. )and do not take into account the small players.. for example.. most of us will pay traffic police some money instead of paying for ticket.  Also, all of us who have passport will say that they paid some bribe to the police at the time of mandatory police verification in the process. What we should work to remove these type of corruption. The top to down approach of dealing with corruption will never succeed until and unless we do not close the small cracks in the system. What we require is a bottom to top approach to corruption.


Of course.. the option to limit corruption are unlimited.. and it really requires a sincere will and efforts to stop it. The current approach does not satisfy.. IMO.. any of this.
I am strongly with this feeling that corruption is the real nemesis of the nation.. but I also strongly feel that this is not the correct approach to it.

a tribute to teachers

We had a visit by a teacher from local primary school 3 days ago. As you guessed it rightly, it was for filling census form. Throughout the form filling process he never made any complaint about anything, about the heat of the afternoon, about how some people didn't even allow him into the home and he had to write all answers standing in the door only, about how he had to climb many stairs in the hot summer afternoon and sometime  people never bothered to offer even water to him. I could think of many such problems that i witnessed in my building itself.. but he had only one response to my query- a smile!

Then he told me he was teaching to 9th standard students and how it was important for them to finish the syllabus early so that they could start the 10th study.His only grudge was that due to this election duty, he could not finish the syllabus himself and now a substitute teacher is teaching them. Even in those few minutes of interaction he spoke about his students.  (it is surprising how government care little for education of students from government school.. they think they can snatch their class teacher whenever they want and can substitute with anyone they want.. )

When i offered him some sharbat, he declined politely and said he have to visit many homes and could not afford to waste time. Within 10 minutes all the form was filled and he left the home.

In all this interaction, i could not show the simple courtesy of asking his name or say thank you to him.. and i felt ashamed for it. 

But now i realised he was just a faceless representative of millions of teachers who had this responisbility of gauging the nation's potential, through the nation wide program of census. He represented all those whose first love is students but who will not shy away from a national duty.

During all these exercise, he had to visit many areas where people like me will not visit for anything. I wondered how he takes the journey to areas many people will shy away  from or afraid of visiting.. like areas dominated by maoists,  ghettos, red light areas.  

But still, his work is largely unrecognised. All big plans, assumption, projections etc based on the census should always acknowledge the contribution of teachers in the preparation of their grand plans. But sadly, here too, he remain largely uncredited. 

This is a tribute to those teachers who made sincere contribution in the nation building. Consider it as a personal tribute too as i am also one of those who studied in government primary school.

What's all the fuss about JPC?

There is a saying that "sunlight is a best disinfectant."

This saying can be used for the current spates of scams and all the allegations of scams.
And to clear all this muddle.. real and hyped, an open system of investigatins can be the only effective way. A Supreme Court controlled investigation could have gone a long way if all the parties have agreed to it. Any investigation by a select committee could end into some backdoor negotiations which will just put the problem under carpet.

But BJP Left and other opposition parties are not interested in this type of openness. In fact some allies are also (allegedly) against the open investigation and they will prefer investigation by parliamentary committee instead.

Despite congress's opposition to JPC for whatever reasons, they have finally agreed to have a JPC.
Good! BJP had their way.

Now as a citizen, i expect some outcomes.

1. BJP alleged that any investigation short of JPC will not be effective. Now that they have JPC, I want an in depth investigations, with the guilty person involved getting caught and CONVICTED in a time bound fashion.

2. BJP consistently made an aleegation that the scam is of 1,76,000 crore rs. They were adament on this figure even though many experts said the figure could vary. BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad also exhorted this figure from time to time on every media forum he could get to. Now the time has come for this 1,76,000 Crore rs to be returned to the government of India's exchequer. I will not accept a rupee less than this. This even meant that they take money from the companies who bought the spectrum who will be then charge it from the people. If the money is not recovered in a time bound fashion then BJP (a) have to accept the futility of JPC in public and should work with government to create a forum to deal with such charges. or (b) should be considered the party to the corruption as it will then be assumed that they got their 'cut' from the backdoor deals. and (c) BJP should agree that the figure they were quoting was indeed wrong and for that they should apologize to the nation .


3. There had been JPC earlier on Harshad Mehta scam which was alleged to be of some 5000 crore. But JPC could not trace the money. This money was lost forever for the nation. Only some beneficiaries were some people who were involved in the JPC, directly or otherwise. Also there were no foolproof recommendations that could have gone a long way to stop such share market scams from happening again in the future But within few years we witnessed a more massive scam in terms of Ketan Parekh scam.
This time, I want JPC to give a concrete suggestions that can stop future scams into 'spectrum allocation' from happening. If they fail in this, then it is a failure of the whole reason of JPC.

I hope opposition do not disappoint me and in fact surprise me by fulfilling all my expectation s.

omar abdullah and how well he adapted to tweeter

This is going to be a short post.
Omar Abdullah joined tweeter and he became an instant hit with tweeples. And no, there was no controversy that made him a hit with masses, but his continuous dialogue with all shades of opinionated people on tweeter. He displayed a remarkable openness in talking with people. And while talking to him, we don't feel as if we are talking with a chief minister of a state, but with someone close to us.
here is an example of his chat with someone illustrating the same

Omar tweeted about how gulmerg is beautiful these days of the year:






in response to that someone with tweeter handle ashwin_naidoo said:







Omar said:







ashwin:








to this, Omar replied.. (and this is the best thing of all):






It was really overwhelming for me how a chief minister of state can be so accessible to people.
I was simply bowled by this gesture of CM Omar Abdullah.

2G RAJA MEDIA AND OPPOSITION

the recent spate of scams to hit the headlines with alarming frequency is troubling in more ways than one.
one of the big trouble is inability or indifference of the media to understand how the figure quoted is derived and how this scam happened exactly. for various reasons, one of them being TRP .. they accept and in fact propagate these mind boggling figures.

one of the biggest scam to hit India - as media is often quoting it , to come into limelight recently is 2G spectrum scam. everyone agrees that there is a scam..but the figure quoted varies widely with the political affiliation of the person quoting it. it ranges from amazingly wild 1.76 lakh crore rs. quoted incessantly by BJP to "0" a rather hilarious atempt by mr Kapil Sibal. :)
in fact CAG have quoted a range of figures for the loss due to 2G spectrum auction from 50,000 crore to 1.76 lakh crore.
the figure varies.. but all are certain.. to lesser or greater degrees that A. Raja is the villain.

But no one in the mainstream media have made an effort to put the scam into perspective, taking all sides into account. all believe that CAG is sacrosanct and whatever it says is whole and complete truth.
It is not so.. Let us see how..

CAG works on estimates, on what could have happened/not happened .. if so and so things were done/not done. They don't deal with policy matters but only take notice of the accounts concerned.
the quoted loss (in 2G spectrum ) is based on a bid by one company for the 3G spectrum - failed - because the company itself was not sure that they can recover money if they pay so high price.. hence withdrew.

also CAG takes the number of mobile users into account. as if the number is going to increase irrespective of policy.
Let us take an example..
A bridge was built, and a committee was set up to determine the amount of toll charged from vehicles. Committee settles on rs 5 per vehicle but a lone dissenting member in the committee says rs 5 is to minuscule and considering the cost of building the bridge etc , the toll charged should actually be rs 500.
now after a year, if the total toll revenue was declared as 1 crore. The CAG will simply report that if the rs 500 per vehicle was charged as that member suggested, the toll revenue would have been rs 100 crore. thus loss to the exchequer is rs 99 crore!!

They dont take into consideration that if the toll was made rs 500 the number of vehicles who used the bridge would have been drastically reduced.. and possibility that the the revenue wouldn't even have touched rs 1 crore mark.

Such are the mysterious ways of CAG's working. *

the figure derived by CAG is similar.


Blaming raja only for the policy matter such as this is rather erroneous as policy making involves large number of people... bureaucrats, technocrats, foreign experts, those who have studied working of such spectrum allotment and it's impact in other nations, industry people all come together to decide the policy.
In this case TRAI wasthe main body on whose recommendations the 3G auction was based.
Now government policy was "getting revenue is not the aim of this spectrum auction "
That was clear from the outset.. and every minister from Arun Shourie to Kapil Sibal agrees with it. The main aim of the auction is to award the spectrum to reliable players who have the expertise to spread the network in shortest time all over the India.. hence benefit the customers the most.
And here exactly raja falters.
Raja is responsible not for the loss due to policy.. but in fact the loss to the national exchequer and to masses for not actually following the policy.

Raja had not followed the "first come first serve" policy of spectrum allotment. He changed it arbitrarily, changing the date of allocation, changing the parameters of allocation so that few players get more benefit than others.
Raja changed (preponed) the date arbitrarily from 1 oct to 25 sept arbitrarily so that some serious bidders were unable to furnish details and few chosen ones get the spectrum.

He is accused of setting some front companies like swann telecom , where , it is said that he have interests, so that they got the spectrum for some 1200 crore and within less that 3 months they sold it to serious players for rs 45oo crore. (the loss there is not only of govt's but also of masses who paid more amount to companies.. who naturally charged more rates to the costumers to recover their money)
Also TRAI's guidelines about confiscation of spectrum if the player fails to reach the minimum requirements of towers, number of customers etc about service specifications within a year, were not followed. some players got more leeway, and their spectrum was not confiscated and allotted again to serious players. some companies just sat on the spectrum and then sold it at very high amount to these big companies.
An ordinary citizen lost much more in all this. he had to wait for long for the service.. also the quality of service was not good. and also he had to pay much more for it.

Raja is guilty, not because he lost 1.76 lakh crore (whatever that amount meant.. i'm not sure how many 0's are in it) but because EVERY person in the nation suffered because he wanted to favour some people.

Raja is also guilty of sitting for long time .. almost a year.. on 3G spectrum allocation for reasons known to him only. When the world is getting near of 4G.. we in 2011 have 3G service in only selected cities. (Japan had 3G since 2001) Here too the talk is he wanted to favor some companies.. but as they were not yet ready for 3G specifications.. he sat on the spectrum for long and only opened it to bidding when these big RELIABLE companies were ready.

In the process we can imagine to the loss to the nation, as mobile connectivity is like roads, electricity.. have cascading effect on nation's development. And due to Raja's indifference to nation's needs.. nation's development had been halted or slowed down.

Raja is not guilty of just loss of such minuscule sum as 1.76 lakh crore. He is guilty of halting a speeding nation.. stopping it from becoming superpower.

now to the media and our esteemed opposition BJP.. a word of advice.. if you play by the rules of TRP, misinformation.. you'll die by TRP and misinformation.
BJP should take into consideration that just rabble rousing is not going to benefit it.. they should work as a responsible opposition and should go beyond just sloganeering and yatras and make some useful contribution to the nation's development.
BJP should understand that by accusing govt of scams everywhere, it is reducing it's reliability as eventually people will not listen to it even when it have to say something serious.
Media should introspect too.. for how long will you rely on breaking news and some information leaked (many a times deliberately) by govt officers. they should not just be the conduit of information as they are doing it now.. but a processor of information. they should pause a bit and talk about policy than figures (that are making little sense nowadays as the scam amount have now astronomical figures)

*about CAG.. is CAG is such ineffective ?
the answer is NO! CAG figures are used in PAC to understand the policy and cornering govt for a policy they pursued.
Also CAG figures can be useful for future policy making as one could now know what they expect if other policy routes were used.

on modi

in India, we preserve what we should not and we destroy what we should. Some memories are best forgotten, like riots, disasters etc.. and a new start must be made. But we indulge in past and name calling.. meanwhile the offenders don't get punished, victims suffer.. in short nothing positive happens. 
Examples are aplenty. Consider Bhopal, the disaster that destroyed not only a city but many industries from starting up in India. Bhopal victims suffered.. the offender went away scot free, only some Indian hands were given punishment that too after 25 years, for RI of 2 years. 
India should have been better served  if, (after inability to catch the offender and him put to justice) victims were paid through the national exchequer taking care that new industries do not suffer and given license to work only after suitable safety criterion are fulfilled. Also legislating on these issues so that there should not be "next time"..

But instead we indulged in politics, offender never got caught.. victims never got compensation.. new industry suffered due to govt inability to provide them safety in charged environment.. and no one assured us that there will never be 'next time." 
Bhopal became a "fossil".
Similar was the case with 1984 Delhi riots.  
In 2002 riots.. again.. this whole thing was repeated. people suffered.. victims never got any compensation.. offenders were never arrested.. and politics went on as usual. but this time there was a significant difference.. that was mr. modi. he was different than others in many ways.. after coming to power.. he made sure that such incidents don't happen again.. people were given a better life.. roads were improved.. industry was improved.. and Gujarat grew at tremendous rate.. the recent summit is the example of that. even many reports, particularly Sachchar committee report had indicated that Muslims have better living standards in Gujarat than anywhere else in India.Local Muslims can't remain outside the govt for long.. they will also start supporting modi for they cant afford to be in opposition forever. No one wants to remain of defeated side forever.. the recent support of Modi by Vastanavi is the case in point. Sure.. he still opts for rhetorics.. that makes him unacceptable at all-India level.. but if he stops that.. I'm sure.. opposition will have a difficult job ahead for them. now.. when someone says 2002.. it just shows they don't have any new point to say.. and they go on defensive every time using 2002 as an example of modi's state. if you could not punish him then... probability is .. you can't never punish him. but modi's state have moved on.. it's time that others too move on.

khap..a concept

Today.. news came about khap panchayat banning women to wear jeans.

it was hilarious and ridiculous to many of us twitterati . But it's not just laughing stuff when they kill couples based on the concept of same gotra marriage.

Few months ago.. there was outcry over many such killings in parts of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan.. Ironically media gave it the name "honour killings" when in fact how can there be any honour in killings? People were outraged over how can such ridiculous thing is still happening in modern India.. They were surprised and angered.

But this anger was manifested more in urban India.. on net.. in media houses.. the area where these killings occurred was surprisingly calm. no outrage was visible there.. in fact people were supportive of the killings in many snap polls conducted by media then. (that means when they stopped someone midway to his/her work and asked them their reaction. )
This was more surprising for urban educated masses where they could not believe such practices can have sanction of society.
That was nothing.. they discovered soon.. as even MPs from that area.. notably Navin Jindal , an educated leader also supported Khap Panchayat.

why this happened..? why people apparently behave like barbarians?

Hence some point are necessary to understand some basic issue.

the opposition to inter caste marriage is everywhere in india.. especially in landed classes.. this opposition takes different forms in different areas.. and in north.. this took the form of opposition to same gotra marriage.

the objection of khap panchayats to same gotra marriage is based on the belief that. a 'gotra' constitutes people who are from same lineage.. thus they are related to each other. thus the girl and boy from a gotra are nothing but brother and sister.. and the marriage thus becomes incestuous marriage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotra

but but this concept is wrong.
let us see how..


the gotras are basically named after brahmanas who did all the religious ceremonies for the king and lay people. the names such as
Vishvâmitra, Jamadagni, Bharadvâja, Gautama, Atri, Vasishtha, Kashyapa and Agastya indicates the names are that of ancient sages which performed the ceremonies.

thus .. strictly speaking, the gotra concept .. that is.. belonging to same lineage ..(even if it is true.. ) is valid only for brahmanas.

now.. one wonders how people from other varnas.. (4 varnas.. brahmanas, kshatriyas, vaishyas and shudras ) get the gotra..?

the answer is..since pre-gupta times.... when people lived in villages.. a sort of closed economy.. where the all the religious ceremonies were the responsibility of group of brahmanas.. who had different gotra. they divided between them different parts of village.. sometime based on areas.. and sometime based on occupation .. and the religious ceremony was complete responsibility of that brahmana. this went on for centuries.. almost 7-8 centuries.. and people who were served by brahmana's lineage for generations.. acquired the gotra identity that of brahmanas who served them.
thus even the other varnas acquired the gotra .. in this case.. people from same gotra were not necessarily brothers and sisters.. and it's this fact that the current debates on gotra totally ignores.

thus khap panchayats.. who quote Hindu scripture for the kind of behavior they indulge in.. are in fact.. acting without any basis of scriptures.


but the urban middle class.. especially not from north.. must understand the reason of the support these khap panchayats enjoy..
in india.. where the legal system is notorious for indefinite delays.. and complex laws.. the khap gives the affordable, easy to understand, quick, and at the door redressal of grievances.. khap is invaluable for these people. and they will not move away from khap for anything.

hence my suggestion is two point formula.

• 1 make these people understand that the practice is against scripture.. and hence against hinduism. this is a powerful idea as religion is biggest motivator as well as biggest hindrance to any behaviour. clever use of religion will go a long way.. as everyone will think twice before acting against religion.
  

2 provide them with alternate redressal system.. which is based on principle of panchayts.. but not caste specific.. but village specific. (this is tricky as people in one village generally belong to one caste..) or any other type of local court.. which is final authority..

if we don't provide them with alternate redressal system that is also as accessible easy to understand and affordable as these panchayt proved to be.. then it will be impossible for govt to wean away these people from khap panchayats.


of course.. it's beyond my knowledge and expertise to give a solution to such complex question. but what i want is active interference of govt.. with a carrot and stick approach.. using all avenues at their disposal.

saffron terror.. a wholly different take

as i was watching the news today.. one news item in particular caught my eyes..

it was.. http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?706477

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article995789.ece



as it happened.. the news interested me in some different way..
here was allegations that an Indian- a Hindu.. was arrested in a terror plot..

what made this news interesting was an article by @acorn

http://acorn.nationalinterest.in/2010/12/28/gurukanth-desai-is-not-of-indian-origin/


now.. as you have noticed.. it was a pseudo-name that this person has assumed.. a Hindu name.. so that he gets away from suspicions.

in this respect i news in early stages on investigations of David headley was also significant.. where P. C. Chidambaram said that because of his name.. and nationality.. he was never suspected earlier when he visited India multiple times.

it made me curious ..

now.. in a seminar of police chiefs of states, chidambaram used the term saffron terror" .. to stress the point that in investigations they have to be vigilant as anyone .. even with a Hindu identity.. can be perpetrator terror. while suspecting someone.. his/her religious identity is not the determinant..

it was crucial point.. and should have taken in the right spirit by all.. but it got politicised.. and the real issue was lost on all those who criticised chidambaram for the term. instead of standing behind chidambaram.. bjp and allies sought to politicise the issue..
according to bjp and allies.. a hindu cannot be a part of terrorist activities.. and dangerously.. the same idea is being used by some terror groups..

apparently.. in order to avoid suspicion.. terrorists use every way possible.. assuming a different religious identity and name is one of the easiest. and going by the example of headley.. it almost succeeded.
(even giving those 26/11 perpetrators sacred threads to tied on the wrist was one such idea.. they could have lost in the crowd.. if they wanted to.. without anyone suspecting)

so.. bjp should wake up to their din of "a Hindu cannot be terrorist.. and should not politicise this policy issue.. which can help our security to streamline the security "

(i know.. even while writing this.. I'm assuming only those ppl with false hindu identity can be terrorists.. they are not Hindu per se.. but it's a no-brainer while suspecting someone.. or investigating someone. )

when Kashmir was burning with daily stone pelting and protests

whenever i see movies like children of heaven, captain hook or bridge to terabithia.. makes me cry ..

today.. whenever i hear the news of Kashmir i feel very sad for Kashmiri children .. sad that they are losing their childhood.. sad that they will have no good memories of their childhood when they all grow up.. sad that they are missing the best part of their life..

they are shouting protests against India..
they all want azadi.. India is something devil they say..
but i am sure they have no idea what they are saying..they are believing what they are being told.. being shown.. and being children.. they believe in it totally.

is this their demon of my childhood's fairy books?? maybe yes..
a fairy demon.. one who we believe in when we were children.. but knew that all it was just our imagination..

whenever some of us talk about hard action.. by using force on those protesters.. i feel like we are destroying something.. and it may work in short term.. but will haunt us forever in future..

somehow i feel that every policy in Kashmir must be seen seen keeping in focus on the children.. we have to make sure that those demons they have heard from their elders (which they must have heard from their elders) is just as imaginary as childhood bogeyman.. and the reality of India is quite different..

if we use force now.. we are making sure that the impression of their childhood will haunt us in future too..

this cycle must break now.

after Salmaan Taseer's murder

the murder of salmaan taseer has shocked everyone. and the murderer is a person in uniform.. who had the responsibility of guarding him.
this had great many implications for Pakistan, India and the world.. in that sequence.

1. the reason for killing him : apparently.. he was killed for his attempts of repealing ghastly blasphemy act.. under which court recently ordered death sentence to aasia bibi. he was killed for challenging this barbarous law.. which is inhumane to say the least.. but according to hardline mullahs, it's according to sharia.. and taseer's attempt to repeal this was violation of sharia.
note that.. salmaan was not entirely progressive figure. he had many times used his twitter account to ridicule India.. and that's not criticism.. it was ridicule.
he was killed for his support to progressive cause.. one, which would certainly have improved the life of minority a bit.
hence those criticizing him in India now.. should consider this thing.. he may have lived for different causes.. but he died for one cause that should be supported by all means.

2. the person who killed him: he is not some obscure person hailing from some remote village on the border of Afghanistan,, where he was indoctrinated into hardcore fundamentalism.. but a police guard.. who hails from Rawalpindi.. and considering his work etc.. must have a decent middle class living.
this just shows the indoctrination has reached city life.. and even professionals and particularly police is also grossly indoctrinated. this is a serious cause for concern.. as the poison from gangrenous north western part has reached main body of Pakistan.
not surprisingly.. this indoctrination taking place at almost every school, where students undergo a curriculum vitiated by lies, falsehood and glorification of some events while avoiding mention of many significant ones.
to correct this.. Pakistani liberals must come out of their boardrooms .. and change the system for better. first thing on the radar must be education.. and controlling madrasa education in right direction. the process will be slow.. but it's only sure way to success for Pakistan's long term future.

3. what happens to the bill now : is the most important thing on which future of Pakistan is based. and in fact all the world.. and especially India is watching closely what actions will politicians take now. this will give a sense of the where Pakistan is heading.. and we should all hope that Pakistan govt should not get into hiding.. fearful of more attacks.. but assert themselves so that the bill gets passed.. whatever the immediate consequences. this is surely the first step.. but important nonetheless.. anything opposite of the above will send the wrong message to those who killed him and to the world in general.

something i wrote about the path ahead for UPA II

There are few things i want to mention.
when UPA govt came to power second time in 2009.. there were widespread rumors that MMS is just tempeorary PM.. and Rahul will take over from him within a year or two.

that made the PM look like a sitting duck.. and his will to steer through the parliament diminished.

His influence was low also because of his complete lack of political ambition for himself or his family and also for a faction behind him.. if any.
Add to this , his complete lack of ability to nominate a successor to the post of prime minister made him just administrative head of govt.. and not political head who can cajole or if necessary, punish the erring minister of his own party. This was again made complex by coalition politics.. where too , his command to chose person was zero.

Earlier some faction in congress started naming Rahul as possible successor to MMS, just because they wished not to find themselves on the wrong side of history. :) What made matter more complicated is that Rahul's declaration that he do not see himself as prime minister in recent future.. That opened the floodgates in the ministry..(and outside it too) to be in the good book of madam.
as it happened, the sole person who can nominate or select prime minister in congress is Sonia Gandhi.. everyone from pranab mukherjee to chidambaram to even Diggiraja started playing their individual games .. where every ministry is seen as working hard.. but many times.. to undermine other ministry run by possible rival claimant for throne.

Manmohan Singh's plus side of uncorrupt image is tarnished by his utter lack of political leadership. Now the way forward for congress if they want to continue with MMS.. which they should.. is IMO.. "choose someone as a vice prime minister" .

this will be good for congress and the nation.. as it will give full stop to the speculations on 'who after MMS..' and also stop infighting in various ministry as the hierarchy will get established.

plus he can wield some political power and can address with authority to issues of importance.. on which PM do not speak.. when he's away or simply when he do not wish to speak.

it will also control recent painful trend within congress leaders of speaking out of turn despite repeated warnings.

one thing can be of importance.. if this candidate have political ambition.. as he should certainly have.. then he might create groups within congress.. that may prove to be problematic for high command. Hence choosing the right leader who is faithful to 10- janpath is of prime importance.

my review of 3 mistakes of my life... by chetan bhagat.. my first attempt to review book..

First of all, let me tell you that this book is as good as previous one's.... and not a bore....as many have claimed it to be....
I think they claimed it (failure) because everyone have an intrinsic desire to see Bhagat to fail miserably....just because his previous two were blockbusters...and no one can get, according to them , a complete piece of cake ...along with all the icing..

Now enough about book critics..., will talk about book...
Let me assure you that this is a very good book..Still a very different from previous one's...and a lot darker than them...
We start with the title...
Now, Bhagat is all about numbers, I think...
First 5 pt somone.. then 1 night @cal center and then 3 mistakes...
The love about numerals is unmistakable....the title is catchy...but not a cool one I think....
Anyway, this book contains everything.... cricket, religion, politics, romance, tragedy...and a bloody climax...all the material you want for a good masala film...this book is written with films in the mind.

A story of (three) friends (with anyone of them having girlfriend...) written in flashback mode..is becoming a specialty of Bhagat... Bhagat should take patent of this formula...
This story have a background of earthquake hit Gujarat and then ...the gory background of rioting Gujarat...the biggest tragedies India have witnessed in 21st century...
three boys....want to chose their destiny...by starting business... and then destiny plays with them...in such a way that at the climax...they are all broken... But as usual Bhagat's book ends on a happy note...

I will not tell you about characters or the story plot...for that you have to read the book....
But for the first time chetan bhagat has addressed political question in his book.
The way communal parties propagate their politics by blaming so called secular parties for betraying the cause of their people is so believable that you think you are actually present there listening to their balderdash...

Jeffery Archer who is currently on tour to India is famous for his novels which are so full of politics, romance and change of fortunes of men involved...though sometime he is accused of not true to the facts but to create his own 'facts' to fit in the story...
Truly chetan bhagat can be called Jeffery archer of India...for his book contains a heady cocktail of politics, religion, romance, and yes...the true religion of Indians....cricket...

Bhagat consciously avoids using political party names and instead use terms like secular party and communal party...still while reading the book, you identify them and make a mental note of the events that occur in the book and relate them to the party concerned...
In this way .....(in my opinion..) This book can serve as a propaganda material in youth...especially when the elections are nearby...

The book is shadowed by politics .... Still you can not miss a romance quotient given to the book by introducing girlfriend of one character as a sister of his friend to whom he gives tuition...easily...this is done to give a space to heroine without whom Hindi movies cannot be said to be complete...and this book is going to be movie... :)

Now earlier I have said that I will not say anything about characters...but I want to make a small exception to this by mentioning one name......Ali....
The boy with extra ordinary talent for cricket, thanks to his so called hyper reflexia... who don't have much to say in this novel...but still is a central figure in the novel around whom all the novel revolves...

Still this book is not perfect....in fact far from perfect...
There are some things that you wish should not be there...
Like the frequent use of 'F' words.... though they were used where situation demanded such words....but still he could have avoided using them frequently...

Personally (second) thing I did not like is the unnecessary description of bondi beach in Australia...(sour grape..Huh!!) :-)

And there are according to me some faults which can easily be corrected...may be in the next edition...
Like tennis ball never cost rs. 8 in 2000-01 and leather ball was also costly...(and not rs.25 as described in the book.)

But still there are moments in the book which can be correctly described as chetan bhagat moments...
Like the use of Australian lingo...is amazingly funny...
Also the 'pi day' is sort of thing only chetan bhagat will come up with...

Highly recommended for those who are bhagat fans... and also with secular outlook...without any prejudices against any community...

after a long break.. i want to start writing blog again.. :) hope this time.. i can maintain it.