Let him sweep clean!

Sketch courtesy my DNA ex-colleague Bhagvan Das.

Raju Korti
Writing on political affairs, more so as someone from the mainstream media, always comes with its attendant risks. For one and willy nilly, you run the inevitable prospect of being labeled as a stooge of some party or carrying out propaganda for some leader. Given the scenario that obtains in the Media these days, that is not an entirely unfounded fear. So a disclaimer here would well be in order.
Let me summon all my professional integrity and say on oath that I have never carried the burden of a political affiliation. In my more than three-decade career I have been witness to enough murky political dealings to turn me into an irretrievable cynic. My revulsion for politics stems from my considered belief that expediency and convenience are two sides of the same political coin. When these become over-riding factors, honesty is the first casualty.
The precise reason why I am laboring over this sincere disclaimer is my friends -- for right or wrong reasons -- are sharply divided on their political credo. In fact, I suspect this political divide has also dented their personal relationships to an extent but that will not reflect in their exterior.
It is therefore with some trepidation that I am venturing to make some pertinent observations about this new phenomenon called Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led by the feisty Arvind Kejriwal. It is not my case here as a political commentator but as a citizen who would like to -- in all fairness -- keep his irrevocable cynicism on the hold. At least until such time as AK and Co will hurtle me back into its throes with the kind of politics we all have become inured to.
From cracking IIT to UPSC and now the Delhi chief minister's office in one shot, AK managed to achieved too much in too little time. Its not as if the anti-corruption plank is new in India's electoral politics, but AK made it a part of national consciousness although he had a blow-hot-blow-cold relationship going with his self-proclaimed and battle-weary mentor Anna Hazare. The latter chose to keep away from politics while AK reconciled to the fact that a change in system could be brought about only if one became a part of it. But that is not germane to the points that I raise here.
I believe it was wise thinking on AK's part to take up the office after initial damned-if-we-do-damned-if-we-don't dithering. If the AAP refused to take charge, it would be criticized for running away from a responsibility. If they leaned on Congress, they would still be rapped on their knuckles for aligning the very corrupt they sought to dislodge. Thanks to a fractured mandate AK was put on the razor's edge. With BJP refusing to form the government, AK had a Hobson's choice. Neither AK nor Congress had the numbers to form a government on their own steam but AK shook hands with the Congress fully seized of the latter's penchant to pull down the governments they propped up in the past. "Aam aadmi ka haath Congress ke saath" was the derisive refrain. However, AK shrewdly calculated that in that eventuality the Congress would do itself more harm than it would do to the AAP although one  wonders if Congress is at all left with any reputation to damage it any further.
Well begun may be half done but AK has a tough road ahead. While he deserves all the concessions as a first timer, he also needs to rein the populism that he looks to succumb to in the euphoria that obtains in his favor. The Congress to a huge extent and the BJP to some have had their chance at governance. So let's not be outrightly dismissive of a party that has promised clean administration. In an era of coalition politics the ruling dispensation exerts only in doing a balancing act to keep its allies in good humor. So AK needs to be given some length of the rope before knives are out in the event of its failure. For AK's and people's sake, let's hope that prospect will not throw up.
My good projection of AK, however, comes with a dark lining. Ever since he took charge as Delhi's Chief Minister, AK seems to be in a tearing hurry to fulfill the promises his party has made in its manifesto. Howsoever he may try to rationalize that here lurks the danger of succumbing to populism.
AK began with the transfers of some bureaucrats which happen both for political as well as administrative reasons. However, for the moment AK needs to be given the benefit of doubt that these were not meant to have a pliant bureaucracy around him. He also discarded the red beacons that our public representatives flaunt as status symbols -- a move that gels with the ideals the party claims to espouse.
AK might be on the button as far as providing free water and reducing power tariff are concerned but these moves carry populist overtones. While the utility and compulsion of those could be argued for and against, he must bide his time before he implements them. The first he has already fulfilled and it has got him a few brownie points too, but the second is a little far-fetched.
The Delhi electricity regulator is none too happy with the move and argues the government has no right to interfere with the power tariff which is set as per the law and with due diligence. How does the AAP propose to downscale the tariff beyond a point as 70% of Delhi's power comes from outside and there is no control over the cost of power? Power companies already have accumulated losses amounting to Rs 1100 crore and if AK falls to rhetorical politics, the debate over grant of subsidies will be back on center-stage. Not a smart economic agenda.
Politics is a laboratory for bizarre and strange experiments. Having been vocal on weeding out  corruption from the country's vitals, one hopes for AK's sake he does not land into the anti-communalism quagmire. By hobnobbing with the likes Teesta Setalwad the AAP can only be its own destroyer. Being a part of the country's babudom, AK will do well to realize how the political class uses bureaucracy to further its own ends. If he falls into the same rut, his party will be the biggest misnomer and disillusionment of its time.
While these words of caution and restraint precede AK's tenure, he also gives us some pre-emptive hope. Said he: "We do not know how long our relationship with the Congress would last. We were a movement and as a political party we are in a nascent age. We do not have past experience but we have the will. We are here to honor all our commitments made during the election campaign. For instance, an immediate helpline to report corruption and appointing honest bureaucrats will be started forthwith. All change is not comfortable but when it is for larger good it has to be done. And we will. Beginning with doing away of VIP culture! We are not taking any big bungalows, pilot cars, PSOs or escorts. Security will only be threat-perception based. We are here to challenge the status quo of which the aam aadmi is disgusted."
If the BJP wants to checkmate the AAP, it must desist from making outlandish claims like the one my friend Nitin Gadkari made the other day. While accusing that the AAP-Congress deal was brokered by an industrialist, Gadkari forgot he himself played the broker on a numerous occasions to keep his party's alliance with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. But then you can't blame Gadkari. Most politicians suffer from amnesia and believe that people too are afflicted by the same malady.
It is too early to write an AAP score-card with the party's gambits. Its subjects -- the very aam aadmis -- will give their verdict. If nothing else, democracy will march on.

Disclaimer: The writer doesn't have any political leanings. The views expressed in this blog are not his but those of the aam aadmi.
 

Rehne do chhodo, jaane do yaar....

Raju Korti
The summary dismissal of the two-man judicial commission's report on the Adarsh scam that indicts many politicians -- including three Congress chief ministers -- can be summarily described as " Sarkari Dabangaai" because "brazen and shameless" have been used once too often to convey the actual meaning.

In its considered legislative supremacy, the Maharashtra government has rejected the report of the panel headed by retired high court judge JA Patil which nailed several politicians for "blatant violations" of statutory provisions. Among these are three former chief ministers -- Vilasrao Deshmukh who is no more, Sushilkumar Shinde now the Union Home Minister and Ashok Chavan who reluctantly put in his papers in the aftermath. Thanks to the diplomatic standoff with the US, Devyani Khobragade, who is alleged to have a stake in the society, also needs a honorable mention. For the uninitiated, the Adarsh Housing Society is a cooperative society in the plush locales of South Mumbai. The origin of the scam dates back to February 2002 when a request was made to the Chief Minister to allot land for the construction of a housing complex for "the welfare of serving and retired personnel of Defence Services." Over a period of ten years, top politicians, bureaucrats and military officers proceeded to bend several rules and perpetrate various acts of omissions and commissions to have the building constructed and then get themselves allotted flats in the premier property at artificially lowered prices. A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to the President in 2011 said : "The episode of Adarsh Coop Housing Society reveals how a group of select officials, placed in key posts, could subvert rules and regulations in order to grab prime government land -- a public property -- for personal benefit."
With the media firing on all cylinders in the scam and the heat getting to the government, the files relating to the society were conveniently lost in a mysterious blaze in Mantralaya, the government's seat of power. Although the chronology of events in the murky story have the trappings of a taut thriller, here is why it is "non news" to a dyed-in-the-wool journalist like me.
*The state government -- from the safe platform of the legislature -- shot down the report without thinking it necessary to owe the people any explanation. So what's new? This is not the first time a report has been trashed or kept in a cold storage. Nor will it be the last.
*Never mind it was the state government that instituted the judicial commission under the Commissions of Enquiry Act of 1952. So what's new? Who is bothered with a toothless commission whose findings are purely recommendatory? What interest is it -- if any -- whether such reports have been accepted in toto or in part in the past?
*The Patil Commision described the scam as a "bad precedent" which reflects "greed, nepotism and favoritism" by those associated with it. So what's new? A politician is yet to be born who isn't greedy and doesn't indulge in nepotism or favoritism.
*According to the report, Adarsh society enjoyed political patronage of Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde, Ashok Chavan, former revenue minister Shivajirao Nilangekar Patil, former urban development minister Sunil Tatkare and former minister with the same portfolio Rajesh Tope. So what's new? Honesty and integrity are not the virtues  people would associate with them. Recall how unceremoniously Nilangekar Patil quit after it was proved in the court that he had (mis)used his position as the CM to get extra marks for his daughter pursuing a degree in Medicine. Tatkare and Tope haven't exactly given a glowing account of themselves in public probity during their ministerial tenures. Being a minister and an elected leader is a license-and-shield for any wrongdoing.
*Ashok Chavan was the only chief minister charge-sheeted in the scam by the CBI but the Governor K Sankaranarayanan refused sanction to the investigative agency to prosecute him a few days ago. So what's new? The charge that gubernatorial offices are home to political machinations is not new either. The government believes in a singular motto: Government for the government, by the government and of the government, people be damned! Yet, the incumbent Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan airily announced that the decision to reject the findings of the commission "was taken by the Cabinet in the interest of the people." He, of course, left it to the collective wisdom of the people to guess how the decision was in the larger interest of the people.
*Those who angled for flats in the Adarsh Society are not Congressmen or their kin alone. The BJP and the NCP were also at it and some got them through benami deals. So what's new? Benami deals don't have to be declared to the Election Commission or to the people.
*The interim report was submitted to the government on April 13, 2002 and the Action Taken Report was tabled on the floors of the House on April 17, 2012. What action (taken) and against whom? It is almost as if the government is saying "Hamara action nahi lena ye bhi ek action hai." So what's new?
*The names of those in the government figure in a scam. The government announces a judicial panel to probe it. The panel names the wrongdoers to the government. The government dismisses the panel report without assigning any reason. It happens only in India. So what's new? 

Exemplary or exceptional?

Raju Korti

In the midst of a row

Those who cannot stop gushing forth on the uncharacteristically aggressive stand taken by a traditionally incompetent government on the "humiliation" meted out to Devyani Khobragade,  the deputy consul general at the Indian Consulate in New York, seem to have missed out on a crucial element in the controversy.
The Indian diplomat was arrested in full public glare and later released last week in connection with an allegedly 'fradulent' visa application for her housekeeper and babysitter. Even as a heated war of words erupted over whether Ms Khobragade was entitled to diplomatic immunity, the Indian government went through its standard operating procedure of lodging a "strong protest" -- until someone shrewd in the ruling dispensation realized that here was a strong political lever to shore up its fledgling image.
By all accounts, the Congress, whose fate seems to be sealed in the general elections slated for June 2014, couldn't have found a better platform to do so. In a surprise show of "self respect" and "dignity", the government, which has never had a track record of reacting strongly to any international outrage, decided to get even and took a series of swift measures to pay the United States back in the same coin.
Humiliation of international diplomats is not a new phenomenon. When relations between two countries sour to a nadir, the consulates are usually the first to get the boot. In this case, however, the government, whose response to any international row hardly travels beyond some diplomatic gibberish, decided in all its new found wisdom that it was time to stand up and be counted.
Riding on a massive public support for an apparently justified cause, the "fuming government" did the unthinkable. It asked the US embassy in New Delhi to submit the entire list of their Indian employees along with their salary details and work profiles. The preferred treatment given to American diplomats and visiting dignitaries at Indian airports was withdrawn as also other privileges relating to their security, retaining only what was “legally allowed”. The consular staff was ordered to immediately surrender the ID cards given by the Indian government. And the most ultimate insult which hits the Americans where it hurts most: withdrawal of duty exemption of alcohol import. In short, the status of the Americans who are not diplomats but work in consulates would be reduced to 'diplomats' but work in consulates would just be treated as ordinary expats.
While conceding that the Indian government's tit-for-tat reaction is unprecedented, it hasn't sunk into most people that this kind of bravado and bluster was nowhere to be seen even when its sworn arch enemies across the border were perpetrating one audacious outrage after another on the Indian soil. Despite a large number of people getting killed periodically, the Indian response remained confined to "strong protests" and "warnings" that were never translated into action. But the arrest of a diplomat for a violation not so grave, propelled the government into an overdrive as if it was in a hurry to sever all ties with the United States.
One suspects this has something to do with the country's home minister Sushilkumar Shinde being close to retired IAS officer Uttam Khobragade, Devyani's father. The Dalit card has been effectively internationalized in a show of righteous indignation and strong patriotism to a people fed on an impotent government. A specious and rhetorical master-stroke that will elicit just the kind of popular support that the tottering government needs so badly at this juncture.
Prima facie the government's reciprocal deserves to be hailed but the politics of vested interests takes the sheen off it. The nickel drops when you know that in the past the Indian government has hardly taken a belligerent stand on contentious international issues. This sudden show of spunk and solidarity is one-off and has to be read between the lines.
Till then appreciation needs to be couched in reservations.

Face saving 'grace'

Introspection ?

Raju Korti
Elections will come and elections will go. Puny Davids will make short work of towering Goliaths. Expedient politics will throw up strange bedfellows and 'new orders' will surface with every battle of the ballot. Yet, some things (will) never change.
I am referring to the regulation-speak political parties indulge in after the elections in the name of political post mortem. It is a script that reads like a pulp film of the self-chastising losers and self-aggrandizing winners -- and forgotten in no time.
After her party's shattering defeat, it was left to poor (!) Sonia Gandhi to "gracefully accept the public mandate" since all her garrulous and we-can-do-no-wrong generals had no other option but to beat a retreat from public exposure.
Said Sonia: "We accept people's verdict, but we shall deeply introspect what went wrong." There cannot be anything more hallucinatory than this -- the chairperson of the party that has had over forty- year crack at the country's governance unable to figure out what threw the dispensation out of power. For that matter every party that loses at the hustings promises to "deeply introspect" -- a promise that wears out in thin air like many other tall ones made in their manifestoes.
Even a teenager with a modicum of political understanding knows the kind of credibility the country's parties have -- granted the concession they do. One wonders what exactly do political leaders do when they "deeply introspect" because the sins of commissions and omissions are repeated when they return to power.
On the flip side, the winning party is too flush to temper its victory with the realization that its elevation to power has come about by default -- technically termed as "anti-incumbency factor". Accepting defeat or victory gracefully is not a virtue you would associate with our power-drunk parties.
Even as the Congress -- pipped in the manner it has been -- is trying to muster the courage to come to grips with its  rout, the rival BJP has gotten into its usual act of holier-than-thou. The "deep introspection" that it had promised in the post "India Shining" and "Feel Good"  elections that it so surprisingly lost, was consigned to the dustbin of history in no time. Now that it dreams of sweeping the general elections in 2014 as an "inevitable writing on the wall", its leaders are nursing grandiose delusions that they won on own their own steam. It doesn't seem to have occurred to the party of intellectuals that the Congress did so badly that people had to perforce look for the other option except in Delhi where the AAP broom worked better than a vacuum cleaner. But what can you expect when Arun Jaitley says with his characteristic arrogance "Let's see how this type (AAP) of arrangement lasts." Political parties in India steadfastly refuse to accept that a loss or victory is of their own doing.
Although handed the reins by default, the BJP would do well to shrug off its usual grandstanding and learn lessons from its shock defeat in the post-NDA era. What kind of "introspection" the party did after that is anyone's guess. Probably the same as what the Congress did (or did not) when the country's electorate slammed them in the post-emergency period. "Deep introspection" is a sham that doesn't cut ice with people even in an age when voters are lured with goodies and appeased on caste, election cards.
Take my word. In the run up to the 2014 elections, it will be back to Square One with these solemn utterances replaced by the usual bluster, bravado, allegations, counter-allegations, mud slinging, character assassination and cheap barbs. Political parties in India just cannot resist the temptation to score brownie points and get to accept the fact that they are better off at facing the people with a clean slate rather than paint their rivals black.
Politics will remain the first and last resort of the scoundrels. The story will continue at the cost of the people who can do precious little except to live on hope. 

Too good to be true!

Agree or disagree?

Raju Korti
Inspirational quotes, or wisdom quotes as they are sometimes called, are like astrological predictions. I suspect people connect with them mostly when they have experienced something to that effect. The surmise gets strong when one is on a social networking site like Facebook which is usually swamped by such quotes.
One does not have to be a social scientist to realize that the emotional quotient of most people on social networking sites is remarkably high. Wisdom quotes not only serve to soothe an agitated mind, they also save one's time of laboring over the right words to express their feelings. Little wonder, they draw a positive response from similarly affected people. No better antidote for a stifled or convulsed mind! But for many others like me, they are a case of too good to be true.
As a middle school student, I recall our class teacher had made it mandatory upon us to write at least one wisdom quote (suvichaar) as part of the institution's rigorous regimen to inculcate good values. It was all to the good but to our perfunctory minds this entailed the onerous work of scouring books from the library to find them. Unlike today when students blatantly resort to cut-paste, there was no internet then but they were also the days when your book rack was thought to be weighty because of a Dale Carnegie and similar writers who turned motivation into a profit-making and bestselling venture.
Getting wisdom quotes in such large numbers every day was a daunting task and also a needless one as most of us sincerely believed that the bones in our back would start creaking by the time we were through with the home-work. The teachers were strict and there was no question of defying or poking fun at them, something that comes to most students easily these days.
For us this was a desperate situation brooking desperate measures. However, a few of us were cerebral and enterprising enough to find a solution that wasn't exactly very honest one but it worked and how! True to the dictum that necessity is the mother of invention, some of us decided to turn great thinkers all by ourselves. The transition happened overnight.
While walking our way back home from the school, we all gnawed our brains to cook up some of the most brainy quotes that our fertile imagination led us to. Such was the profundity and depth of these quotes that the originals paled in comparison. What it did among other things was to spawn a whole community of us thinkers who spoke and wrote in a manner that would have given Albert Camus and Ayn Rand a few blushes. The pats earned from our unsuspecting teachers was taken with a relief that also poked our compunction, but then how did it really matter? A good thought was a good thought was a good thought. The school's own logo swore by the Rigveda philosophy of "Let noble thoughts come to us from all sides." Good thoughts were not the exclusive preserve of only some select greats!
There is no clear evidence or research on how much influence motivational quotes have on humanity, but without taking away anything from the well meaning people who post such quotes on FB, the fact is the academics of its age-old wisdom has been overpowered by its sentimental value. You can rest assured a wisdom quote is not just a chastening experience shared by a few affected souls but also a "feel good" factor and a cosmetic value in articulation.
Here is a sample example: A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.I have had many thrown at me though I am not too sure whether I have tasted success at any point of time in life. Conventional wisdom tells me why throw bricks at anyone in the first place?
Wisdom becomes redundant if all people behaved and spoke wisely. Doesn't that deserve to be a motivational quote?