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.