Harassing for Harassment

2 years back .. I heard people saying, "176000 crore ka ghotala (scam) was investigated and big names fell only because the Supreme Court of India intervened and pulled government on it"... it all started with the cancellation of 122 licenses in one go by a Supreme Court Judge ... spiraling into a movement in the courtroom which sent Raja to jail and government to shelters, which also, fueled Anna's movement on the street, which bred Kejriwal ...

Go back in the first para.. it all started with a SC judge cancelling 122 licenses worth some thousands of crores in one go .. that man is Justice AK Ganguly.. the same man who is now finding himself disgraced by charges of inappropriate (but so far unproven) behavior with a law intern... I am not here to defend his latter action (assuming if its true and there is a BIG if) but to question whether the latter allegation has any link with the former action (2G cancellation). If the second doubt is true, we have just discovered a new way to bring down tough judges and officials.... bribe them.. if you cant bribe... kill them (or run trucks over them) ... if you cant kill them, just trap them in some harassment allegation.

And of course, nobody is above law, but the way we treat sexual harassment in media is more from an "entertainment" angle and delivering "shock" value, where we chisel an instant "demonification" of the accused and "victimification" of the accuser, the name of the accused is flayed in the media while the accuser even when proved incorrect goes without penalty and in anonymity... I acknowledge we live in a world with Asarams (though even that isnt proven, but given the plethora of evidence seems true) but we also live in a world where law itself can be used to obstruct, humiliate and subvert justice and truth.

We need law correction and moreso a media correction.

Making Politics Young

In 2010, while visiting Australia, I came across a young boy beaming during a dinner meet. To my surprise, the youth, introduced himself as Wyatt Ryan, a Member of Parliament and surprisingly aged at only 20 years! We must accept it, at this age most Indian youth are barely thinking of contesting college elections – unheralded by national policy issues. Then I heard of a Canadian MP, Dusseault, who became a member of their House of Commons, at the age of mere 19 years. Both Wyatt and Dusseault command respect in their nations for their dynamism and upbeat approach to policy making.

Step aside from politics for a while and let us look at two most amazing companies of our times. Facebook, the world’s largest social network of a billion people and Microsoft, the largest software company of the world, were both started by their founders at the same age, 20 years. Youth is a time when ideas are not tied down by rusted beliefs – it is a time of the most innovative thoughts which any nation must tap into.

Let us come back to the Indian political scenario.

It seems the increasing life expectancy of Indians has had the most pronounced affect in the age of the Parliamentarians. In 1952, the first Parliament under the new constitution, the 20% of the MPs were over 56 years of age, today it is 43%, more than double. In 1952, not a single MP was over 70 years of age, today we have 36 such MPs.  Fundamentally, experience is not bad – but the right balance between experience and youth is what we are losing out.

But the real problem is actually in the composition of whatever little youth we have in politics. Although Indian Parliament is almost made up of fossils, 30% of all MPs are coming from deep entrenched political dynasties. Every single MP under 30 years of age are sons and daughters of significant politicians and across the length and breadth of India, one finds political families which run a network of politician-business-contractor model, often involving 30-40 members of the same family. Life is far easier if you have the political blood in your veins, sometimes reminds me that Royalty is back in the clothes of Democracy.

The problem to solve is how to ensure a truly democratic model of injecting youth into politics. First, Indian politics is driven by seniority, partly a reflection of our culture to blindly respect the older beings. Putting age akin to wisdom is a blunder in the age of internet where knowledge flow is at the speed of light. Parties need to begin setting age caps to their internal officer bearers and candidates – for instance even the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has to retire at 65, then why not the same cap for all candidates for elections?

Second issue is make actually make politics merit driven. For that to happen, we need to learn from the western world, where social activism, college elections, village elections and elections for the parliament are integrated with a clear path for good candidates to move from one level to the next higher level. Political parties need to go out to campuses, the best ones in a district, and pick their potential MLAs candidates from amongst the best leaders from there – somewhat like a talent hunt which runs so well in the world of music needs to be brought to foray in politics.

Third issue is the fact that politics is costly and risky profession. The actual spending for an MP candidate is official capped at Rs. 40 lakhs and unofficially it runs many times that number. It is time we extend “political scholarships” to meritorious young candidates who wish to enter politics, but are stopped from it because of monetary considerations.  This will help the best brain in the nation to serve in the most effective tool of democracy.

Sometime back, a prominent party in UP, decided to go an extra mile to ensure meritorious youth are allowed a chance to contest polls in upcoming Lok Sabha elections. It seemed a great idea, only to be rigged by thinkers themselves. In the end, out of all the youth applicants with sound professional backgrounds, who paid Rs. 20,000 each to enter into this merit based ticket “mela”, the only ones who walked away were the relatives of existing ministers and other favoured netas. In one particular instance, a cabinet minister’s tainted son, with the weight of a dozen criminal charges “out-weighed” a well known software engineer from the place. I asked the dejected engineer about his plans, he said, “Never again.”

The trouble is not only in lack of youth in the composition of the Lok Sabha or the Assemblies, but in complete absence of young thinking in our own minds. When we accept dynasty as a valid means of entry into politics we surrender our right of a true republic and when we allow hollow old men carrying the burden of old thoughts to rule us we surrender our opportunity of a golden future. But the question remains, till when will the youth of the nation keep discussing the political mess in the 15^th floor cushy offices in Gurgaon, and when will their real march to the Parliament in Delhi begin?

Srijan Pal Singh

24.10.2013

As published in a National Daily

What Rahul needs to learn from Sachin (published in a national daily in March 2013 post the Rahul Gandhi speech at CII)

Beyond the incidents of losing lines and misplacing paper, Rahul Gandhi’s much talked about appearance at CII went about peacefully. But did create a lot of noise later in media and featured extensively in the “common man’s daily talks”. Personally, I don’t think Rahul Gandhi was clueless as some sections of people are tending to claim, surely we have seen far worse from far senior politicians in the recent past.

To be fair to him, one cannot really expect him or anyone to come out with all the solutions for India’s 65 year old problems in a 25 minute speech. The truth is that the event itself has been overemphasized, almost as it was the next five-year program of the country. Or it was seen as an Indian version of US Presidential debates, with Rahul versus Modi contest looming large.

But given the criticism, Rahul Gandhi must be left wondering what more could he have done. He talked a well rehearsed speech, quoted from leaders around the world, walked around the stage to answer questions, and even did a small performance to show how India and China are different. He talked sensible things, gaps of education, infrastructure and delivery, he showed good knowledge of governance at the deepest levels and showed understanding of the tide of the dreams of the youth. At the school of politics, he would have got 9 out of 10 for this performance as an MP.

But things are different with Rahul, for he is never seen as an MP or a Congress leader, but almost as the Prime Minister of India – and the expectations were swollen likewise.

With the people I have met, almost everyone believes that of all 1.2 billion Indians, Rahul Gandhi does stand a better chance to be a PM someday than anyone else. Even the leaders from BJP and the staunchest anti-Nehru/Gandhi family leaders silently agree to it. So the burden of this expectation is unavoidable – which often leads to difficult demands, which dissolve the lines between a leader and a super hero.

And then India is a country which believes deeply in super-heroism, you like it or not, but it is just too deeply cultural. In treta-yug Lord Ram is believed to have single-handedly destroyed the all evils, in Dwapar-yug Krishna did the same. We celebrate how Gandhiji alone without an act of violence won us the independence and how one Dalit called Ambedkar, within his own lifetime, achieved a social justice which Americans took generations to achieve. Even Rahul Gandhi himself talked about how his grandmother won India the important 1971 war.

This is a country of heroes, which inherently would believe in superhuman efforts and often extraordinary results by its leaders in whom they trust their lives and welfare. Yes, it is welcome to empower the billion people, and it would be wonderful if Rahul Gandhi could be that hero who achieves this act – that is where we look forward to a plan in 2014 election manifesto of his party. I am sure Rahul can use his influence to push his great ideas of empowerment into Congress election plan– much like Akhilesh pushed his ideas of technology with his Samajwadi Party.  

Visionary leaders know how to go work beyond their limitations to achieve the impossible. They know how to tackle the weight of practicalities. One of the leaders Rahul mentioned was the American President John F Kennedy. Kennedy is a perfect example for Rahul and all leaders of the nation in his ability to inspire the impossible. In 1961, with America pitched deeply into a cold war with the Soviets, the most important race was the race to space. In 1959 Soviets beat Americans by putting the first human satellite, Sputnik into orbit. In 1961, they beat Americans again, by making a living man walk in space. Situation looked bad for the Americans as most of their counter missions were ending up in embarrassing failures. Kennedy then did the impossible. He stepped up and declared his plan to not only match but beat the Soviets in space race. Kennedy set a target that within the decade of 1960s Americans will put a man onto moon, and will be the first ones to do so. What followed is well known history. In July 1969, the first human, Neil Armstrong stepped on moon, the first human to do so. Till date, no other country has been able to send a man to moon. That is how leaders defy boundaries of practical and achieve the impossible. Rahul Gandhi is perfectly positioned to become such a visionary leader, an opportunity he cannot afford to miss.

The problem which Rahul Gandhi faces is that his every word, every fumble, every step is weighed, commented and compared. It is slightly unfair to him, but then with great admiration he also inherits extra ordinary expectations, everytime he steps out. It reminds me of the sight of Sachin Tendulkar coming into bat. Every single time, he would be barraged by deafening applause, chants and expectations of a record breaking performance. Yet, he would play his own game, do his super human efforts with the bat and sometimes, even as a bowler – and after two decades of a career he has records which none can question. Rahul Gandhi will have to learn from now his fellow MP this lesson in taking exceptional responsibility and delivering extraordinary results under breaking stress of expectations.

By

Srijan Pal Singh

Article (published in a national daily, April 2013)

Because even gold does not glitter forever!

“Sone ki Lanka” was the term used in Ramayana to describe the wealth of Ravana’s empire. Then came the phrase “Sone ki Chidiya” to describe the opulence of pre-British India. History and folktales, both describe how the richest of temples and kings were filled in the yellow metal and how “Paras Stone” had the ability to turn everything to gold. Gold was a measure of prosperity of a kingdom, might of an individual and devotion in religion.

The over reliance on gold as a tool of saving is a unique to India because of a variety of reasons. First, gold was easy to store and hide, and in a country which was overrun by numerous invaders it was the safest way to protect wealth. Second, because gold gained universal acceptance across India due to the endorsement of the religious institutions, its value remained high no matter where it was used. Third, because gold is chemically inert, does not contaminate, burn or lose shine it was a secured against the forces of nature.

Today, India accounts for about one-third of the worldwide gold demand and it forms the second biggest import item in the national economy, more than iron, steel and coal. As shown in the table, India consumers five more gold than USA, while being less than one-tenth of the size in terms of economy. Even compared to China, India consumers nearly 37% more of gold, and surprisingly, India is not amongst the top five gold producers.

Consumer’s Gold Demand vis-à-vis GDP
	Jewellery (in tonnes)	Total bar and coin invest (in tonnes)	Total	Economy Size (GDP) in thousand crore rupees
India	650	409	1059	8800
China	509	261	770	32450
Russia	70		70	8250
USA	119	94	213	81400
UK	25		25	12100
World	2018	1409	3427

In strict economic sense, this hunger for investing in Gold is a not a health trend for the nation. Gold is a static asset, a metal which does not grow, does not generate jobs, does not make an industrial input and does not create an income. And although it does provide cushions against economic shocks, it also serves as an excellent way to park black money. Moreover, in the recent past, it is clear that even gold prices can fluctuate sharply and are dependent on international markets.

 As nations advance, their technologies grow which leads to the opportunity to create more and more enterprises, which will deliver growth and profits to the economy. This is ideally where investments and savings should be directed for a better future instead of using gold which only adds to imports.

India needs a three pronged strategy to correct the gold rush it has witnessed over decades now. First, we need to expand the financial institutions like banks to reach out to rural and last mile people who can find it as a better proposition to save their money. Second, gold-backed financing needs to be aggressively encouraged to ensure that the gold in the safes of homes comes out and generate meaningful investment opportunities.  Third, import of gold for domestic consumption needs regulation. India is an economy which is already reeling under pressure from its oil import bills, and the added import of gold is only adding to the fiscal deficits.

As investors one must realize that the value of gold is derived from a variety of factors and it is as volatile as any other investment. Due to pressure on international oil market post Iraq war and Iran crisis and worldwide financial turbulence, in the past 3-4 years, gold gained value as an alternative investment. But whenever industry pick up momentum, the price of gold is bound to correct itself.

So will the current price of gold go up again? Yes, probably given the turbulence in Korea is escalating it may do so within the month. But, it is bound to see fluctuations again too when things ease out. Gold will always see the cycles of price because even gold does not glitter forever.   

By

Srijan Pal Singh

Crisis at Crossroads

Reflecting on the recent naxal crisis ...apologies but this a collection of little incidents across my life, and I will try to weave them together later at the end. 

I recall my own work in Naxal affected areas of Rayagada near Koraput in Orrissa while in BCG (2008).

The world is a lot different in the parts, diseases and lack of food is almost a pervasive problem - children feeding on rice husk was a scene which I personally would never forget. But more than the shortage of amenities, I saw the abject depravity of hope and trust. The villagers took everyone which suspicion - a similar featured face might be an undercover naxal hunting for spies, a not so similar featured person might be from police hunting for naxals. 

During that same time, I met a naxal sympathizer, (maybe even a naxal undercover), who said, "Saheb! You dont know you, we are dying to create a better country for deprived (adivasis). How am I different from Bhagat Singh who died fighting for the deprived people."

Back in Rayagada, in the middle of the road, I found young mothers picking mango kernels scattered on the sides from the previous day's haat... her children liked mangoes, but they could not afford mangoes, anything "sold" is a luxury for adivasis, who rely on picking their food from jungles. I observed their action in detail – the women collected the kernel and then soaked them for a few minutes. Then scrapped the surface, scavenging for the last layers of mango pulp which somehow might have remained stuck to the kernel. Children relish the sight, anxiously waiting for their turn, amongst their siblings. The government, the salva judum and the naxalites care little about the hunger of the adivasis – they are a simple burden and sometimes a recreation to all.

There was another day when we witnessed a road patch blown up by naxalites killing a couple of “informers”. Being exposed as an “informer” to either side is akin to a death sentence – either the police will shoot you or the naxal will deal in their own far gruesome manner. The next day, armed CRPF stormed at the place – picking up some adivasis men, the youngest one being 12 years of age.   Everybody expected them to never return – it would be lucky to receive even their bodies.  Fear and panic grips villages whenever attacks happen, they know who is going to be the “collateral” damage. I am sure my little Adivasi friends back in the Bastar land will once again be hiding in fear, hoping the damage is not them. Rape (in front of your father/husband) is frequent tool used by both parties to subvert. 

Last year, in Kalahandi, I was at the inauguration of a soup kitchen for tribals. An private mining company official told me, "we pay special taxes to naxals and book it under equipment and manpower expense. Also, if any individual's account goes above 3 lakhs, the low level bank workers inform the naxals who collected 50% of the amount above 3 lakhs as a Wealth tax".

 Other told me, that the idea was initially to set up a corpus to create village assets with the money - which for a few worked beautifully. In fact in my own experience, assets created under the naxal administration are far better in terms of quality, the contractors never mix sand with cement when it comes to naxal supervised assets - the punishment is death. However, with time, money induced rampant corruption in senior leadership of naxalites, and well, they fell to match the corruption standards matching those of the government. 

In 2012, I was in a conference comprising mostly of children from the elite schools of Delhi, some 400 of them... most of them the typical school bred accented types. I asked them do you know what is tribal or adivasis... 4 hands went up. I thought I didnt put the question properly, so I reframed can anyone tell me what is adivasis, 3 hands remained. I realized the problem was not communication but the urban children who were never exposed to direct sunlight, never knew of their adivasi counterparts. I asked on them to tell some unique things about tribals which they have read. He was uneasy, I gave him clues - "like something you have read about where they live, what they do, what are their music arts food and attire". The last word attire struck a chord with the boy, his eyes sparkled as if he recalled something - "Yes. They are naked" - he replied. The full 400 students along with their teachers laughed hysterically, as I felt like crying. This is what the well educated India thinks of its tribal counterpart. "Naked". These children, with the best of education, with all finest opportunity will rise in life, become the leaders of business, government and media, and all they will think of India in its hinterlands would be "Naked. The naked mad gun wielding naxals. Let us send army against them. So what if some other naked non wielding adivasis die!" The divide is within the heart.

3 days ago, two news flashed together in media. One was IPL, and how this mega "scam" (oh did you mean cricket) is unfolding and even then how the kingpins are still at large, even bluntly showing middle fingers to the authorities. Crores and crores are illegally exchanging hands, in this queer concoction of cricket, women, celebs and money. The IPL final and Naxal attack in Bastar were one day apart. The facebook mourners (and agitators) of 25th attack were yelling whistle podu the subsequent day, reminding me of how roman gladiators fights were the best way to divert public attention from issues of war and bad crop. In fact, whenever romans lost, or the farm suffered, the emperors would schedule longer, bloodier and sexier fights (even pitching women, who would usually tear each other's clothes than flesh).Where is our focus... 1/3rd of the nation suffers under this miserable poverty, young men and women are dying fighting for battles they both justify.

So who is responsible for the Naxals – mad men wielding guns? State which relishes on the corruption it generates in the name of development? Police and security who do not flinch a muscle narrating tales of their collateral damages? Us living in NCRs and Mumbais (or abroad) of the nation, doing little other than picking up the paper and saying, “ch ch … too bad problem. We must finish the naxals” without an iota of understanding of what is the state of life there? I don’t know the answers to these, but all I know is that the Adivasis of my country deserve better life, at least a guarantee to live. And seeing this, I don’t know who is Jonny and Tommy, but a nursery rhyme came to my mind thinking of this,

Ding, dong, bell,

Pussy’s in the well.

Who put her in?

Little Johnny Flynn.

Who pulled her out?

Little Tommy Stout.

What a naughty boy was that,

To try to drown poor pussy cat,

Who ne’er did him any harm,

(Sometime I feel I am the Johnny and I am the Tommy)

Srijan

Beckoning of a New Era: Youth will shape the nation

Beckoning of a New Era

On 17^th December 2010, Mohammad Bouazizi, a vegetable vendor, immolated himself in front of a police station in Tunisia (North Africa) to protest against the oppression of the local police officer. The story fumed the youth of the million population nation who took to streets against their repressive government. He passed away on 4^th January, and government fell ten days later.  That was not the end of the revolution – the news of youth power taking battle to people misusing power reached the entire Arab world – soon movements took shape in the streets of Egypt, Libya, Syria, Bahrain and almost the entire middle east. Within the year itself, Heads of States, in many nations fell like house of cards amidst the fury of the largely peaceful protestors.

Around the same, South Asia, especially India was seeing a similar phenomenon – when a village man of more than seven decades – Anna Hazare decided to go on a resilient, unto death fast for strong laws against corruption in the heart of the Indian capital – seeding crowds which began to swell from hundreds to lakhs in a matter of a week. A few months later, a yoga guru, Baba Ramdev repeated the same mass movement in his tailored version against black money. But the best of all happened last week, when an unaligned, leaderless movement grew in size and anger in the streets leading to the symbolic President’s Estate. On the self-created, largely hand drawn, placards we were asking justice for a girl whose name and identity none of us knew, but whose pain we all shared. The message was clear, “People in power, behold, the crowds are at your gate and this time they don’t even need a leader.”

Deep within, there is a general bitterness against the way the governments are being run, how the corrupted who get away all the time, against a judicial system which is failing under the burden of delays, and against the fact the while India remains to be one of the most highly taxed nations in the world – the public services, education and healthcare are a pittance. And yet, while there were only two dollar billionaires in India in mid-1990s, the number grew to 46 in 2012. The inequities arising from the struggles of daily lives of the poor and middle class, who toil day and night to get their children to schools, find healthcare for their parents and safety for their family, and yet keep paying taxes and duties which only keep increasing – have nurtured a sense of resentment against the system, specially the governance system of the nation at large. And same anger against the system, left uncared for, can easily take the monstrous shape of armed rebel, which one-third of India is seeing in the form of Naxalism.

Lessons to Learn

Let us learn from the lessons from past on how we and others have addressed the issue of youth movements.

First, “The power of the people is greater than the people in power”, reads a famous excerpt about the youth movements in Arab world.  One primary reason for such movement getting into streets is explained statistically by the Power Distance Index (PDI) which measures how the rich and powerful are able to control the middle and lower classes. Egypt (80), China (80), Lebanon (80), India (77) are poor performers showing large power gaps, while much of the advanced democracies nations like Norway(31), Germany (35) and New Zealand (22) show very low power gaps. High Power Gaps, are often shown by the politically arrogant attitude of people in power when a famous politician from Bihar publicly stated, “Raj raub se chalta hai”. Instead of using British methods of baton charge, tear gas and water cannons to wage a war against their own people demanding justice, the politicians need to consider shelving their security cover for a while and spend time with the crowds, braving cold winter in their wet clothes. 

Second, it also shows a poorly managed opposition. When people come to street against a government, state or central, it is basically because the opposition has not played a responsible role of raising the issue in the right channels – and making the government accountable for it.

Third, it must be understood why the youth are so concerned about issues. It is solely because the youth have the largest stake in the interest of the nation – after all  we have to live here the longest amongst all age groups.

This energy will expand

Looking at the history of other nations, the movements which began as ideas and spread in youth have only expanded. It was for the People in Power to either acknowledge them at the right time or be swept away completely in them. Communist nations like Russia (1905) and China (1949) came out imperialist regimes largely through the action of youth in early 20^th century, even religion nations like Iran (1979) have seen similar successful movement by the youth. It was the youth of USA, who in fact rose up against their own nation’s military aggressions in Vietnam (1960s) forcing a retreat of US Army and more recently, the same super power saw the Occupy Wall Street Movement  (2011) against corporate-government nexus spreading like wildfire and engaging a large participation. Most youth movements, sooner or later, end on the side of success. 

The reasons are simple. Youth are most creative and energetic segment of people. We have daring undiluted hopes of a better for us. We know well how to connect with each other, social networks, mobile phones, SMSs and emails have gone a long in spreading ideas across like-minded people. We are not easily broken down by the barriers of caste, creed and religion. And we are simply too many in number, India alone accounting for over 60 crore young people.

Road Ahead: Points to consider

While, the power of youth is unquestionable in any sense, I must also point out two issues which Youth movements are inherently more emotional in nature and there is distinct need for rational guidance which has to come from seniors, teachers and parents over complexity of causes which are youth are standing for. Second, in a nation like India, youth should not let their minds be narrowed down to only those issues are happening close-by, in big cities with media glare. Remember, that more than 41,000 farmers were forced to commit suicides in rural India within the last 12 years – we need to space for these issues on our canvas of compassion. 

In my interaction with all kinds of politicians, I often hear them dismiss the authority of such mass movements. One famous leader from UP told me, “Look these are Sunday crowds. People come to the protest because the offices are closed”. I had only one thing to reply, “Remember, the election day is also a holiday”.

By

Srijan Pal Singh
Columnist, Consultant and Co-author, Target 3 Billion (with Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam)

srijanpalsingh@gmail.com

This article was published in a leading daily.