Leave Mr. Chidambaram undisturbed

The matter that finance minister Chidambaram's wife appearing in a case for CBDT has become the latest problem to affect the normal functioning of the Parliament. Without deviating from their stereotype behaviour, the opposition- BJP specifically aims for his head.

Agreed that it is improper for a relative of the minister to take up some job that includes monetary benefits. It might have been impropriety on Ms. Chidambaram's part to have accepted the offer of CBDT, but this by itself doesn't merit the resignation of Mr. Chidambaram. Also, when Mr. Chidambaram says that he was kept in dark, it should be taken at face value.

We should keep in mind that PC is one of few ministers in UPA govt. who deserves to be a minister. He is honest, efficient, knows the subject and a no-nonsense person. He has been doing a good job as FM so far and we certainly require such persons in the ministry.

This hue and cry should stop forthwith and he should be allowed to do his job.

Buddha Speak

Believe me, it is a welcome change indeed. At least a section of our comrades are trying to realise the changes in the world. I am talking about the recent statements of West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on the need to attract more FDI, labour reforms (although not directly) etc. Of course, Manmohan is glad to find a friend in among the leftists and that will give him extra calories in his fight with them on reforms issues.

Most notably, he has indirectly talked about labour reforms, look at his words from a report in Financial Express, where he says that his party is trying to change the 'mindset' of workers. He goes further and hits the nail directly. "Issues like productivity and the quality of production are not the headaches of the management alone. You have to share them. Otherwise industries will collapse and jobs will be lost". This provoked Brinda Karat to criticise this as an attempt to link the lack of labour reforms becoming 'impediment' towards attracting FDI. I would just want to point out the recent Hero Honda episode and media reports suggesting a similar labour unrest in Maruti to her. If this trend is left unchecked, it will surely send a strong negative message to the investors.

It is only expected that his open views are bound to create ripples among the leftist institutions and intelligensia. CPM central committee members and other constituents of leftists are already up in their arms and Buddha's thesis has become CPI-M's anti-thesis. To balance it, Yechury has come in support of the beleaguered Buddhadeb rather strongly and that should make the fight more interesting. It is quiet natural that any attempt to bring in changes in an established doctrine will be met with stiff resistance, but the attempt itself is certainly worth appreciation.

Till this time leftists had been acting blind and deaf to see liberalisation and globalisation in India vis-a-vis the reforms initiated by Chinese post-1978 and it finally required Buddha to drive home the point of 'chinese model' to them. He has also cited the case of Vietnamese trying to attract US capital now despite the bitter memories of war in 60s. And media reports add that Buddha will now be looking at US capital after 'looking east'. This attitude should help the leftists to come over their blind and obscure dogma of anti-americanism.

Congratulations Mr. Buddha and good luck for your fight.

Free bicycle for everyone

Tamil nadu chief minister Ms. Jayalalithaa has recently announced the extension of 'free bicycles' scheme for higher secondary students. The scheme, first launched in 2001 for SC/ST girls, has been 'extended' thrice in a short span of 8 months since January 2005 and now it has become 'compulsory cycle scheme' (ironically, we are still are not talking about compulsory primary education, which is by far the most important). The idea is to prevent the 'dropout' rate among the students. Lets first have a look at the evolution of the scheme before analysing further.

• When launched in 2001, it was planned to cover the SC/ST girls at higher secondary level (plus one and plus two) studying in government and aided schools.
• In 2005 January, it was first extended to include girls belonging to backward and most-backward classes, benefitting 2.49 lakh girls from 2,254 schools and costing the government Rs. 44.76 cr annually.
• In July, the scheme was extended for the boys belonging to SC/ST, backward and most backward classes apart from extending it for students studying in self-financing sections of the schools. It was estimated to benefit 3.65 lakh students all over the state costing Rs. 66 cr. And for the academic year 2005-06, it was to benefit 5.75 lakh boys and girls costing Rs. 103.5 crores.
• The latest expansion came about a week ago, whereby it was extended for every higher student, which was hitherto confined to SC/ST, backward and most-backward classes. With, these the total no. of beneficiaries shot to 6.14 lakh students with the total expenditure of Rs. 110.52 crores in the current academic year.

Based on these figures, the scheme will cost around Rs. 55 crores annually targeting slightly more than 3 lakh students. All this in the name of preventing drop-out rates in the schools. But, will this scheme ensure drop-out, I doubt. What can the government do, if a student drops out after getting the cycle? Considering that, the government already has free bus-pass scheme for students upto plus two level, I fail to understand the purpose of free bicycles. You can not travel in both bus and cycle at the same time, right? And, what if a student already has a cycle/ scooter/ moped? Of course, the parents can sell the government cycle for good sum (and spend the money for liquor or whatever purposes they want).

All these freebies raises one basic question. Why should something be given to someone as free, who can otherwise afford it? In other words, does the govt. thinks that all the familes, who send their children to govt. & aided school are poor and that they can not afford the transportation cost (either bus fare or a cycle) to the school?

How many govt. schools have good laboratory for higher secondary level or equipped with a library? How many schools have the basic amenities like toilets and drinking water? Has something being done or planned to improve the quality of education in govt. run schools? Has something being envisaged for the continuous training of the teachers, especially for Maths and Science?

With the engineering education becoming increasingly popular, parents opt for private schools over the ones run by government for better quality. Looking at the statistics available at the official site of the TN govt. education department, it can be clearly seen that the percentage of enrollment falls to 70.6% at 16 years - a drop-out of close to 30% or about 7.33 lakh students. And when it comes to higher secondary level, the enrollment dips to 39.63%, resulting in 60% drop-out or 15.46 lakh students. Agreed, but, if the government is serious about reducing the drop-out, shouldn't it be thinking in different terms instead of giving free bicycles?

Assuming the drop-out is due to poverty we need to have more govt. schools which will be affordable to these students. This means we need affordable higher secondary education for about 15.46 lakh students. Do we have enough such schools? What about the infrastructure required? How does the govt. plans to go about recruiting teachers for so many students (first do we have enough teachers qualified for this or we should also be creating!! them)? Is the government planning to do anything about these?

What about the teacher-student ratio? Cursory look at the statistics from the education department site is revealing. At higher secondary level, govt. runs 1547 schools having a total of 17.72 lakh students and 42796 teachers, which means the ratio of 1:41 (1:25 is considered as ideal). At the same level, there are about 1340 schools with 10.61 lakh students on its role and with teacher-student ratio of 1:20, twice as better than govt. run schools. And just for comparison, the CBSE schools boasts the ratio of 1:24 (3573 teachers for 0.86 lakh students). Does Jayalalithaa have any plans for increasing the number of teachers required and more importantly the quality of teachers?

Resorting to cosmetic and populist measures is going to do no good for the betterment of education. We need more schools, more teachers, good laboratory facilities, good sports infrastructure and so on. Gimmicks like free bus-pass and free bicycle will never work.

Let our motto be quality education for everyone and not free bicycle for everyone.

Jayalalithaa and the Free Culture

Tamil Nadu chief minister Ms. Jayalalithaa, right from the beginning was known to be extravagant, defying any rational thought, if any. The five years between 1991-96 was well known all for wrong reasons - scams and corruption of unimaginable scale - from transport corporations to graveyard shelter to student slippers to saris & dhotis distribution, almost every project concieved by her government had an element of corrpution. Also, her first term in office was known for government functions of grandeur scale, which probably rivalled only the parties of the raj and erstwhile princely states. Not many would have forgotten the royal marriage of her foster son during her previous term.

To only be fair with her, her second term (beginning from 2001) was in stark contrast and she proved herself an able administrator (that she was never a friend of national media is a different matter). This was to be evident from the manner by which she shored up the financial position of the TN government, which was at precariously bad shape in 2001 at the end of DMK rule. Her handling of the strike by transport employees earned her praise from even the supreme court for a change, which otherwise have been highly critical of her on corruption cases. Her determination and ruthlessness in the pursuit of Veerappan and several terrories organisations including LTTE are definitely appreciable. Take the case of her handling the Tsunami relief & rehabilitation and compare it with the handling of recent rains in Maharashtra and you will certainly agree with me on her administrative ability. Also there are no charges of corrpution as yet in the 4+ years.

But, now after the election debacle in 2004, she is indulging in a different sort of extravagance with a single goal in mind - to win in the forthcoming assembly elections in 2006. Just look at the number of freebies and sops announced by the government - free power supply, free maintanence of footwear in temples, free parking lots, free bicycles, free mobile phones, free medical treatment and so on. It can be methodically shown, how each of these scheme is a drain on exchequer apart from not serving any meaningful purpose. The worse part is that, none of these schemes are budgeted in the annual financial plan of the government and it has to raise supplementary demand for allocation of funds.

Though, these are blatantly aimed at election 2006, the election commission can not interfere because of the technicality that poll dates are not yet announced and code of conduct comes into effect only after the announcement.

Sadly none of those - opposition parties or media, who should be opposing these measures - are doing their jobs. Opposition parties, because they don't want to be seen as anti-people and worse they are going to do the same thing if in power. Media, especially the Tamil media doesn't even have (save for the daily Dinamani) the culture of editorials or center page articles, but are more interested in gossips in tinsel world. Ditto, with the television channels.

Media attribute this as her learning hard lessons after election loss, but I wonder whether this is the right lesson? In my opinion, any populist measure goes against the norms of good governance, whatever it is. Does this not amount to organised bribing and does this not reduce the people as mere beggars, who vote for money or other sops? Is the ruling party not accountable for the fiscal condition of the state? Everyone should clearly understand that such measures can not be sustainable for long, given the limited availibility of resources.

Our only hope is judiciary.

Buta Singh and a wall called 'weaker section'

Ever since, the Indian Express published the letter written by Buta Singh to Lalu, the Bihar election theatre has come to forefront. Both Lalu and Buta are on record dismissing any wrongdoing by the governor seeking personal favour from a minister, who is accused of running proxy government through the governor and meddling with the affairs of the state, when it is under President't rule. And the officer in question is proud to announce his '20 years' of association with Buta singh. It is certainly not new that the gubernatorial propriety is tainted and lowered by the actions of the 'political governors'.

Buta, himself of guilty of several actions since his appoinment to the Patna Raj Bhavan. His report to the Home ministry recommending the dissolution of house, barely couple of days before NDA garnering simple majority in the assemply; his controversial and unwarranted transfer of bureaucrats, who refused to dance to the tunes of Lalu-Rabri are glaring examples of the Raj Bhavan leaning towards Lalu.

But, what makes Buta's present action stand unique is his attempt to cover up the incident behind the much abused 'social justice'. In its follow-up report Express quotes, Buta as declaring that he pleaded the case for a 'scheduled caste' officer and would do it again. Ha! so much social justice for a 'scheduled caste' officer against whom a vigilance enquiry is pending (the fact that cases pending against Lalu himself on more serious corruption charges is a matter of irony).

Politicians, bureaucrats and others taking shelter behind the wall of weaker section in the name of caste and religion, whenever they are caught on the wrong side of the law - has a long history in India. If Buta is the latest example, it is not in a distant memory that Mayawathi created a hue and cry, singing the popular targeted-for-being-Dalit tune after being exposed in the Taj corridor case. Salman Khan's outburst that he was being targeted earlier in the deer poaching case and in the recently leaked tape conversation (allegedly between him and Aishwarya Rai) because he is from minority community, tells a similar story. Ditto, with Mohd. Azharuddin in the match-betting controversy few years earlier. Of course, this list is grossly incomplete and will probably include many of our leaders and other personalities once completed.

All this shows how badly the politicians and others have abused the privilages accorded by the constitution, to certain sections of citizens on the ground that they belong to weaker sections or minority communities. You can commit a grave crime or accept bribes and grafts or involved in corruption - shortly do any thing which is illegal - but you can get away unquestioned let alone tried and punished, if you belong to weaker section or minority community. This illustrates just one of the damages resulted from reservations and minorityism.

Unless the caste, religious & vote bank politics is put in check, it would be difficult to stop creation of more such Mayawatis and Buta singhs.

Tailpiece: There is another dimension to this. The other day some Congress spokesman pointed out that the prime minister, the army chief are sikhs when questioned about Nanavathi commission report indicting congressmen. Astonishing, I thought Manmohan and J J Singh are in their respective positions because of their qualifications and abilities and certainly not because of they being sikhs. Probably, Congress drew example from Sonia, whom they believe can become prime minister or party president irrespective of whether she is qualified or able.

Time for a Philosophical Question

The question suddenly sprung in my mind out of nowhere. It might probably reflect the state of my mind in recent times, but I am keen to look for an answer. I am sure that lots of philosophers and others would have thought about that, but when I discussed this with few people who I knew have studied philosophy (formal or informal) they couldn't give me an acceptable (if I may say so) answer. Probably, this is an unanswered question, but I am not willing to take that for the answer.

Well, the question itself is deep philosopical in nature. Almost every other scripture pertaining to almost all the religions say somehing like 'God created the world'. Ultimately what do we face in this earth? Failure, misery, pain, anguish and you can of course think of more such words. Forget the man-made problems of war, religious hatred, greed for money, poverty etc. for a moment.

But, basically even without these external causes, are the humans happy and do they live in peace? Aren't the are people made to suffer personally for no fault of theirs (again leaveing out external factors) ? I am deliberate in not making it clear here, but people certainly feel the anguish for different reasons, personal, financial etc. Agreed? Anyway, this is the question:

"Why did God created the world?"

Is it because, he got bored to be all alone? Does he wanted to make fun of people by inflicting pain on them and then enjoying their sufferings?

Any thoughts?

Chandrababu Naidu: A myth exposed

Note: This was written immediately after the 2004 election results were announced for AP state assembly and prior to the announcement of the results of Parliamentary elections. It is just being published in this space now.

Pollsters are taken aback. Arguably the most popular CM India has ever seen- is now drubbed to never expected levels.

Mind you, though everyone were predicting trouble for Naidu & allies, none were even remotely expecting this complete rout. NDTV indicated close finish between the TDP and Congress, and ditto by Aaj tak, Star News etc. But, this unprecedented defeat has yet again ridiculed the opinion & exit polls.

Now there will be analysis and opinions that will tell us, where and how Naidu went wrong. Already we started hearing some wiser men giving us reasons like 'Naidu made arbitrary decisions', 'Naidu never groomed second rung of leadership' and so on and so forth. I am sure, we will hear more of such pieces in the next couple of days to come. But, did we ever heard such negative views about Naidu in the media before. How did the media, trumpeted to be the soul of the common man failed to gauge the public mood?

We have earlier witnessed populist politicians, who initiate popular schemes that are badly ill-conceived and go against fiscal discipline. Congress' promise for free power for agriculture is one such thing. Also we have seen politicians, who would incite madness and frenzy among people for short term gains, as the likes of TRS that demands Telengana and the PMK (in TN) playing the caste game. But, Naidu was largely against any such approaches. So, how did he gained the level of popularity he has been enjoying? The answer lies in the charm with which Naidu mesmerized the media not only in India but world over. If other politicians are populist, he is certainly a marketing guru, who will put an IIM marketing grad to shame. His seamless ability to market himself as a new breed of politician earned him accolades, that is envied by others.

Anything he did, fetched him considerable column inches in national and regional newspapers alike. Every news/report/article about him was positive (till the opposition woke up to the election fever few months back); from his meeting with the Clinton, Gates and Theresa to his foreign visits for attracting investments in India. Many people from outside AP, even dreamt of having Chandrababu for their own state. Naidu was rated as one of the top chief ministers by India Today.

But, for a long time now, I have been skeptical about the Naidu's way of governance. The media toeing Naidu's line reminded me the 'American Press', where only positive things about the president appear in the press. Naidu's visit to Germany to bring the Formula-1 circuit to Hyderabad was a cruel joke. His visit happened, when several people were dying at the peak of the drought in AP. Sounds like a modern-day Nero (Supreme court equating Modi with Nero is altogether different story)!!

But, the press was not completely indifferent to the plight of Andhraites as can be seen from a series of artiles that appeared in The Hindu, by P Sainath an award winning journalist. In the series, Sainath extensively covers wide-ranging issues such as state of education, drought, poverty and malnourishment, unemployement and migration. Remember, all these articles were written in 2003, nearly 8 years after Naidu ascended the throne. Farmers were committing suicides due to poverty despite Naidu exerting much pressure on Vajpayee and getting the astronomical amounts of food grains and assistance for drought relief, when compared to any other state in India. So, what was he doing all these days?

Surely, Hyderabad has improved a lot with swanky roads, big multinationals, IT & Pharma companies, increased foreign investments etc. But, at what cost? Agriculture has been in doldrums and the consecutive drought for three years added to the severity. Highest number of suicide cases by farmers was from AP than in any other state. Migration was and continues to be at peak in Naidu's period compared to the others. Naidu was unabated. All these pointers clearly implies Naidu's complete lack of interest in anything, save IT & Pharma. He simply failed to ensure a comprehensive, holistic and integrated development of all sectors and all regions of the state. His vision of 'Swarna Andhra', proved to be a hollow slogan and probably should be rechristened 'Swarna Hyderabad'. And, it is natural that Naidu pays for that.

Tailpiece: If Naidu is a person adored by the press; his neighbour in the backyard Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa is a person, whom the press loves to hate. During the last state election in 2001, she pulled an astounding victory, despite being at odds with the entire media and the opposition. That time too, the predictions went wrong, and this time again, they predict nothing but defeat for her. And what's in store for her this time? Personally, I'll go with the pollsters. But, we'll get to know it in two days from now.

Labour Rights - The Communist Double Talk

Indian Express (on Aug 2, 2005) carried an interesting piece. It was about Mr. Padmakumar - a photographer of Deshabimani (party organ of CPI(M) in Kerala) being sacked. His crime: he commented against idolising the general secretary Prakash Karat in the new screen savers installed in the office computers.

It is not simply about facing dissent and opinions that runs contrary to the power center in an organisation. What is surprising is that no charge memo was issued to Padmakumar or no inquiry conducted against him on record. Rather the CPI(M) state secretariat formed a committee and conducted an official probe (I don't understand whats' official if nothing is put on record). At the end of the probe, he was found to have committed 'grave indiscipline' and was told to quit failing which he would be sacked.

And no, this is not an isolated incident. The same report quotes at least two more persons being booted out in such manner. Appukkuttan, then associate editor (seven years ago) with the newspaper was thrown out 'for reading news reports that went against the party ideologies' (it is altogether a different matter to find out what those are) in Deshabimani's own library. Nothing could be more flimsy than that reason, especially when as an associate editor he was responsible for writing editorials after analysing the issues.

In a recent incident at Kairali TV (party's channel), the CEO Krishnakumar was made to quit in a similar way - no charge memos, no inquiry. It was said that he harassed a female employee, though the said employee never preferred a complaint against Krishnakumar.

In all the three cases the modus operandi is pretty simple. Don't bother about issuing memos/ show-cause notice or about organisational inquiry. So much from an organisation that shouts from the rooftop for the labour rights at the least opportunity.

Had a PSU fired an employee for a valid reason that too after going thro' all the formalities, the Karats, Yechuries and Bhardans of the world would have lovingly jumped at that opportunity and fought for the rights of the workers.

Remember the recent incident in Gurgoan, where CPI(M) participated in the demonstration supporting the workers of Honda, seeking reinstatement of suspended and dismissed employees. It may never register in the brains of communists that management might have resorted to the action for disciplinary reaons after going through all the prescribed norms (unlike the case of Deshabimani).

Honda workers in the least had communists to support them, but their poor counterparts in Deshabimani and Kairali are so unlucky that they have to fight it alone. My best wishes are with Padmakumar, Appukkuttan and Krishnakumar for their fight against the anti-labour attitude of communists.

And after this Padmakumar incident, when quizzed on this, all Mr. Karat had to say was that 'I don't want to talk about Kerala issues'. If that is indeed an issue in Kerala (as though it has nothing to do with CPM) and Mr. Karat doesn't have anything to do with that, I would like to what is that he and his other colleagues in CPI(M) were doing in a Honda issues?

I heard some double talk. Did you say anything Mr. Karat?