President's Right to Forgive

There has been much hue and cry on the hanging of Afzal Guru, the punished pertrator of Atack on Indian Parliament, as early as 2001. The Apex Court of India found and concluded that Afzal was involved in the terror attacks on the Parliament.

The drama started then. Guru applied for clemency to the President, who then was Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. For the last two or more years his applicaation for clemency is doing the rounds of the various tables of Union and State of Delhi Government.

Politics apart, a ridiculous thing is that in the name of clemency petetion to the President, a Supreme Court judgement is being subjected to the srutiny by the executive! This is the clear cut violation of the ethical prctice and theory of "judicial supremacy".

It may be reminded that the Presidents has been given the clemency power as merely a symbol for his recognition as the head of State. If he is not using that power and it has been assigned to the babu's, it is not justified. If the President uses his descretion and reasoning in allowing or rejecting a clemency petition then only has this right of the President any reasoning and rationale. Otherwise, we are subjecting Supreme Court's rulings as well as President's dignity to the executive scrutiny, anexecutive that is very much political in nature. Afzal Guru's case is the shining example of this.

How Safe Are We?

Today, as everyday, I was on way to my workplace on a local train with my daily friends and copassengers. One of them happens to be a rice miller. Being a rice miller puts him somewhere in a category of millionaires. He is a loudmouth. He was telling a story. His daughter is married and out of India. She happened to need some money and wanted it from her account. the Rice miller father armed with an authority letter not specifically for Bank's purpose, wanted to draw money. When the counter clerk objected, he went to the Manager, dropped names, and got the amount withdrawn.
The rice miller had no mala fide intention, and he was actually working on behalf of her daughter. But the bankers, as the custodian of deposited money, had ethical, moral, legal and technical right to disallow the father from withdrawing money. However, the father was irked on being prevented from having her say. His very common jibe is "जानते नहीं हो क्या?" and तुम अभी हमको पहचानते नहीं हो.
Amazing is it not? I think we should feel safe and pleased if some custodian is so honest to his job that he would not allow even the known ersons from getting undue favour. We don't. We are instantly hurt if the TTE comes and asks for our tickets, even if he might be recognising us, a policewalla stops us for security check, or we are asked to follow the queue to pay some bill or take a ticket.
In Mumbai, an acquaintance told that it tkes just Rs. 500.00 to get oneself verified to take a house on rent.
Why should terrorists feel unsecured in India. They are not likely to be checked or verified anywhere. Why raise finger on the government then, or even on Pakistan for that matter. We as a Nation are ready to take attackers. And we will be facing them a dime a dozen.

New Year Wish

It is another New Year. A lot of good wishes from anyone and everyone to anyone and everyone. But alas, if only wishes were horses!

There are so many wishes for a common man today, the world over in general and in India in particular. What the West is thinking is of coming out of the Recession. Indians are worried of terror attacks, and natural calamities, of rising food prices. Are these wishes likely to be zoomed in?

Pollution is on the rise. May be, the recession will also reduce to some degree the intensity of pollution. The only silver line in these dark clouds!

In India, as an Indian, I want a strong Indian state, capable of protecting itself and its interests, in stead of looking at the world community (implying the USA) for the same. Why, and how, the US asks India to depend on Pakistan to against the terror roots while it had the audacity of attacking Afghanistan (and also Iraq for that matter)? And, why India is listening to it? It is not desirable to attack Pakistan. A war is not the in-thing today. But this does not prevent one from attacking a hostile training camp situated inside a not-so-friendly country. Israel has survived the Arab hostility this way only.

Wish, India acts.

Corrupt India

India is doing great! After the Mumbai attacks, India is all fingers on Pakistan. There are warnings "act or else...", "handover our culprits or else...". Then, India says "next time you touch us, I will teach you". Great.

This is the way, India reacts on terrorism. This has been the way, she has been made to react.

Our leadrs claim of superior firepower, better diplomatic acumen (really?), and strong and convincing evidences. But alas, we end up bowing, we end up negotiating, we end up postponing our wrnings to the next attack. What is implied is, another, and another ... attack is welcome, it is very much expected!

Why is the state of affairs here the way it is? I don't think it is the fault of our politicians. It is ours, it has been ours. Are we, as individuals as well as masses, strict and unanimous in our decisions and actions?

I am sorry to say, despite being an Indian myself, that as individuals we may be honest, but as a community we are corrupt people. So much so that corruption is part and pacel of our culture and our daily routine. We grow with bribing our Gods. The practice of मन्नत is the evidence of our bribe to the Gods.

We thn come to real, hard life where we keep bribing people to make our life faster and easier. We do not mind paying a TTE enough to let him allow a place in the train which is not rightfully ours. And we do not feel ashamed on it. We tell ths story of gallant to many people.

What is wrong then, if a lowly paid police constable allows an explosive laden vehicle inside a major town for petty 10 to 20 rupees?

The Prime Minister ( or whomsoever taking decisions in his behalf) takes a lifetime to decide if Antulay has done any wrong, and whether he has done any wrong. Suddenly, Antulay bcomes a Muslim leader!!!! He is yet to decide.

So India is doing a great job.

Bringing Revolution!

Evey one heard Mr. Bal Thackerey denouncing the intellectual uprising all over India in the post Mumbai menace - 2008. He says that lighting candles does not bring revolution. He is right. He is very right.
Lighting candles is merely expression of anger of the intelligentia of this country. Revolutions are not brought about by learned people, it is brought about by common people. Educated people are supposed to write, lead, not to come on the road.
Mr. Thackerey, are you upset that the educated Indian, for the first time for a change, felt as an Indian the pinch of our polity? Is it ready to lead a revolution?
For Mr. Thackerey, revolution has to imply violence. Lighting candls does not involve one. Beating helpless students from other states by the great Marathi Manoos is a revolution of course. They are not impotent, unempoyed road-side marauders, you know. They are the revolutionaries.
So, You Educated Indian! Next time you feel like expressing your anguish, anger or ire, light up your politicians. That WILL be the revolution, I guarantee. You have a lot of them arund - the three Thackereys, Antuleys, Naqvis and many more. Just Identify them and light them.
But, there is another question that haunts me. Are the Mumbaikars aroused only when they are in danger? Is only attack on them attack on the Nation? Why did they not come out when non-Marathis were assaulted by the masquraders of Raj Thackerey?
This way also Bal Thackerey is very right.

Recession, Revitalising Industries and Hungry People

On my last blog, one of the comments was that my views are regressive. Could be. It is the view that you are looking. If others are looking from some other angle, they may not agree.
We look at any economic/financial problem immediatrely with an economist's eye -- how to boost industry to raise the employement opportunity leading to better earning capacity. Is this the crux of the problem? Why are we through this recession? Simply because one Lehmann or some other bank succumbed to bad debt it had released? Is world economy so fragile that a bank and an insurance company can rock it?
My point is, the real issue is food grain. We are not producing enough food for the people we have on earth. Go threogh an FAO report, quoted in the Times of India, New Delhi of December 13, 2008. Mind boggling 15% of Indian population is hungry, indicated by its malnutritional conditions. A report in the same newspaper (sometime around June 2008) told that a pregnant woman in Nigeria ate mud cakes for survival of the foetus. Is this the index of growth? What growth.
Governments are pumping liquidity in the market by boosting automobile and housing sector. More money, with less of food will lead to sectoral inflation. You may buy a cheap car but not foodgrains. Are governments, or even the economists for that matter, really concerned about the common man, or are they worried only about the industrial health?
They is no incentive for agriculture produce. Even agriculture can generate employment. Unfortunately, we have pltoed in agricultural production. The economists are eating into whatever agricultural land is left in the name of rampant, blindfolded industrialisation.
The reasons of recession are elsewhere to find, probably in our cultivable lands and fields. It is not the lack of money but the lack of food that has caused it. Our economists need to come down to the common man and his most basic needs the दाल चावल.

The Recession and the Reason

The world is aface to a new economic recession and every one is sceptic about the future. Many people are reminded of the Great Recession of the 1930s. I don't think the two recessions are same, or that their causes are same.

The recession had followed two Wars. Though we are witness to a so-called war against terrorism it cannot be equated with the two World Wars. The reasons, I think, are somewhere else. Probably this is the outcome of extreme and unashamed consumerism in the leadership of the West. In the recent past, materialism has been the only yardstick of success. Industries and industrialisation decide whether a nation is developed or developing. Do not forget, this industrialisation led the Great(!) Britain and other European powers to the colonial policies.

We have been exploiting natural resources at great pace. So much so that, through advertisements, demands are even being created. With growing population we need more foodgrains than cars, mobiles and other such luxuries. In order to provide more and more maenities to those who can afford we have been converting cultivable lands into either industrial plants or into dumping grounds for the industy's waste. Do we forget that even the so-called fast food comes from the fields and not factories?

Rich people relish in having numerous cars, moboles, even helicopters and their very own helipads. They are different people, feeling uneasy in sharing their common interest with the common people.

Rich people and rich nations are most to blame for this recession. They demand more than they need because they can afford. In turn they create a perceived need among those who cannot really afford or among those who do not really need. This rat race leads to over exploitation of the resources. The environmental degradation, global warming, calamities all are the outcome of this overexploitation. Even as the man does not feel like continuing its existence, the nature has to. All the evils that we assign to nature are caused by us, and are the defence machanism of Mother Nature.

The traditional Indian culture and thought of contentment are the answer to all the losses we have scored. संतोषः परम सुखम meaning contentment is the ultimate happiness is the answer to the problem. We are already late enough, but it is never late to start.

Coming back to recession, we have reached a level where the plat of demand has been achieved. There is not much space to even keep a car, let alone driving it through an overcrowded city. People walk miles after parking their cars, to reach their desination. Does it make any sense? People are building houses (not holes) for letting out, not homes because they have one. Can everyone have a home and another house to let out? It is ludicrous. And governments are still pumping in millions to strengthen their indutries. It is doubly ludicrous. Industries have their roducts ready for sale, but who is buying, WHO WILL BUY?

No, the call is not for MOVE AHEAD TO THE PAST, but a pause may heal, bothe the nature as well as the economy.