AFTER THE NADIR, A RAY OF LIGHT

How many of us have noticed the stark difference in the reaction of the media and intelligentsia to two recent developments of great import, one of which we should be proud and the other that should shame us? It will not a surprise if the answer to this question is another question: which ones? Even after the answer is known don't be surprised if many believe that the good development is actually bad and the really bad one, good.

What has happened in Andhra Pradesh is something that should shame us all, no? The sordid drama that turned one people into foes overnight because of the manner in which the separation of Telangana was announced at midnight, should have had the media out screaming. Who does not know that the whole charade was the direct result of the manner in which YSR Reddy, according to reports, enriched himself and his family beyond all proportions in just five years, turned much of the rest of the political class into plunderers and royally ignored Telangana leader and ally CS Rao?

Not only were most media mega stars were afraid to even whisper this bitter and damning truth, the usual suspects also overnight started selling to India the idea that there is great merit is having smaller states on all kinds of specious and often blatantly dishonest grounds. All that just to make the unprecedented plunder of Andhra look good and keep the Congress High Command unsullied. No conscience, no honesty, no nation.

Had it not been for the unbelievably foolish Shekhar Gupta, the real ugly underbelly of India's rulers, plunderers as he proudly called them only to make the division of Andhra lucrative for those who will suffer huge financial losses, would not have been so starkly revealed. In the process, he also unwittingly destroyed the credibility of sections of the media and exposed its complicity in keeping a lid on something that should have rudely woken Indians up and made them realise that their nation was in very wrong hands indeed. Remember how Bangaru Laxman was hounded by Tehelka and the rest of the media for taking Rs 1 lakh? YSR Reddy reportedly plundered close to a mind-boggling Rs 1 lakh crore, but there is praise for his dynamism! Do you think that would have happened had YSR not been protected, promoted and 'blessed'?

Coming to the second development; what do you think would have been the response if it had been thought up by someone but announced in the name of Rahul Gandhi? Tearing headlines, fawning TV studio discussions and relentless, saturated coverage to project how this original thinking signified the real change of guard, the arrival of the youth and the new direction that India's stagnating and failing democracy sorely needed.

Unfortunately for those who breathe not for India but their own little nests and empires, the man who has thought of one step that has the potential to set right some unacceptably enervating ills of India's democracy, is someone who is hated to death by them. Why is he so utterly unacceptable? Gujarat 2002, they will say in chorus, forgetting conveniently what one foolish decision, with no deaths involved, has done to one people with no history of animosity, much less sub-terranean tensions born out of many past riots and killings. That is only a - and the only - convenient chink through which they want to make a fatal penetration and fell him. Why? He poses the gravest threat to the comfort of status quo and the rot of corruption and nepotism that has enabled them to amass riches, power and titles and rise to levels that Laurence Peter never could have imagined people like them would when he propounded his famous principle.

Narendra Modi has stunned everyone by making voting compulsory in municipal corporations, municipalities and panchayats in Gujarat. Along with it, he has also given the voter the much-needed power to cast a negative vote and reject all candidates. This move, believes Modi, with great justification, will bring "the voter rather than the political party centrestage"

One more crime has been committed by Modi. In India, no one else other than the 'Congress', it seems, has the right or ability to do something good for the people. Other politicians and parties, if they are opposed to the Congress that is, can do only evil either because they are communal or because they are with those who are communal. The media and the accompanying paraphernalia have a clear cut role: create a non-existent genius in Rahul Gandhi and a villain in anyone who can rock his boat.

After the elections in Maharashtra, all these guys were lamenting the apathy shown by voters, particularly of Mumbai, and bemoaning the fact that some of those who shout the loudest in TV studios had mentally seceded from India. In hindsight, does it not appear absolutely elementary that someone should have thought of doing something about increasing voter participation, to get people fully involved in the electoral process? Should not people have been worried about this failed model of democracy, even when the PM himself had sounded the warning bell?

But, no one had the time, much less the inclination. They were, as always, having a good time and doing little more than waiting for their solitary fountain of wisdom to say or do something that they could applaud, add to most imaginatively and propagate in terrific prose. Keeping Indians believing in tomorrow even as institution after institution crumbles around them is no easy task!

Now that Modi has stunned them, once again, the reactions are predictable: Modi wants to exploit the superior organisational structure of the BJP to mobilise more voters; voting is a right not a duty; voting by dictat is dangerous; it is impractical to implement it across the country that has over 800 million voters; it takes away a fundamental right; it is an infringement of individual rights etc. No one, repeat no one, can honestly fault it as a partisan move that will benefit the BJP, or any other political party, at the expense of another. No one wants to mention the fact that 32 countries, including Italy, have already made voting compulsory. No one can question the intrinsic merit of the proposal but hardly any one with a reach is willing to risk his/her future and applaud it.

Why did only Modi think of it and give it shape too in such a short time? How did he, a Hindi/Gujarati-speaking guy from a humble background, once again manage to keep many feet ahead of the many Ivy League stars who adorn the Congress, and make them look like less than ordinary mortals, even midgets? As I have already written earlier, it is primarily because he is has no family to promote and is selflessly committed to Gujarat and India. He has a clear vision and is possessed by the belief that India can do much, much better than its leaders have allowed it to till now. And he has already demonstrated that it can be done even within the existing system that others have only exploited and then conveniently blamed, by tuning it to deliver. He is also scrupulously honest and leads a spartan life. But as Chief Minister, he is working with single-minded devotion to ensure that Gujaratis become rich and Gujarat becomes better than the best in the world.

Such men can do what has so far remained undo-able. Such men can awaken opiated masses who have not been allowed to shed their raja-praja mindsets that makes them accept plundering by 'royals' as their divine right and their own miserable fate as divine retribution. Such men are poison for those who have become plunderers, big and small, of their own land.

That is why, no matter how much India may need such men, the feudalistic elite who have taken over this country and the dynasties who have grotesquely twisted democracy to further their family businesses, will gang up against them to protect and further their own interests. That is why what should have shamed India is being covered up, justified and even obliquely praised. That is why what should have been welcomed as a positive, even if small, step to rid India's democracy and politics of the filth that has come to dominate it, is either being ignored or criticised.

But, there is hope yet. If Shekhar Gupta created a new Nadir by celebrating the plunder of India by its Indian rulers, Narendra Modi has re-kindled hope, fearless of the treacherous minefield in which he has been put. He has shown that there still are Indians out there whose hearts genuinely beat for the ordinary Indian waiting still for freedom to reach his doorstep; there still are Indians who have the strength, fire and moral courage to stand apart and away from those who have lost sight of their sacred duty to the suffering millions who have given them power with trust and hope. The spirit with which our forefathers fought to free us of yoke has not been snuffed out completely.

A ray of light is visible in the dark cave.
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Related reading:
1. Will Modi accomplish his 'Mission Impossible'?
2. Politics and media: a new Nadir
3. The Telangana domino: time to transcend parties, talk India
4. Covering up the mother of all corruption scandals
5. Wake Up...
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POLITICS AND MEDIA: A NEW NADIR

Like conquerors of the past, India’s politicians love to rule, and plunder cities... In older times, cities attracted conquering hordes who wanted to sack them for their riches. Now, in democracies, the political class knows that while their votes lie in the countryside, the real money sits in the cities and their real estate.

If the new Andhra can get over the loss of Hyderabad, use what it gets in compensation and its own enterprise to build a new capital city...its politicians will figure soon enough that the money-making opportunity a new city offers is much greater than an old metro nearing saturation, howsoever energetic.

Can you think of a more shocking, immoral and sickening call to make the 'people' of emaciated Andhra Pradesh accept a decision that will have disastrous long-term consequences for India? Can you swallow the casual manner in which this gentleman has, with pride almost, spoken about the nadir that democracy has touched in this country?

How will you react when you get to know that this call, this 'indecent proposal', has been made not by an anonymous analyst or a lowly reporter paid to write these words, but by someone who is at the very top of the media pyramid and has deep tentacles inside the top leadership of the Congress and other political parties? Will you ever believe again that the media is our watchdog and not the pet dog of the plunderers?

A state that consists of people of "the same caste mix, same ethnicity, culture and so on", and language, is being split primarily due to fatal mistakes made by 10 Janpath that have made people of as homogeneous a mix as one can get in a state, enemies overnight. But that does not agitate this media luminary at all. He manifestly has a brief which he will not exceed, no matter what. That is why the people of Andhra do not figure anywhere in this argument. His sole job is to convince plunderers to part with the jewel that they have pocketed in the last five years. The promise is that they will not only be given more than ample "compensation" by bigger plunderers sitting in Delhi, but will also be able to plunder much more than they have been able to in Hyderabad. Don't be surprised if this carrot results in a demand for not one but two new states; two new cities to plunder.

Let us wake up and understand at least now that the call and the capitulation for a separate Telangana have nothing to do with the people who are celebrating there and those who are protesting in Coastal Andhra and Rayalseema. Had it been so, this gentleman would not have been, without any shame, publicly celebrating the plunder of India, not by alien conquerors who have long gone, but by leaders chosen by the people through the much celebrated process of "free and fair" elections.

He has something more to say to entice them to accept the division of Andhra: the second largest hydrocarbon discovery in the world after Mexico, which YSR Reddy used to fuel economic growth in the coastal regions and not in the drier and poorer area of Telangana. As per him, there are "nearly $35 billion worth of under-construction irrigation projects, new ports and power plants" there while Telangana has nothing more than Hyderabad. Drool plunderers of New Andhra, you have an El Dorado waiting to be looted; dump the bare bone.

Are we getting an idea about why CS Rao really went on a hunger strike to call for separating Telangana from Andhra? If reports are correct, the greatest plunderer in the history of Andhra Pradesh, YSR Reddy, made billions in real estate in and around Hyderabad almost all alone after the 2004 elections. He could not have done it in the manner that he did had 10 Janpath not plucked CS Rao from Andhra and got him to Delhi. And YSR, like all plunderers - I am borrowing the word - of the past, only looted from Telangana. All big ticket investments, totalling nearly $ 35 billion, were made in his part of the state. Why did nobody ask that if KG basin gas can power Anil Ambani's power plant in faraway Delhi, what was YSR's difficulty in locating major gas-based projects in neglected Telangana?

Now that YSR is dead, CS Rao has forced 10 Janpath to let him claim his share of the plunder. The people of Telangana, who have wrongly discovered the messiah in him, have compelled Sonia Gandhi to, finally, look at her neglected step-child - "I am like her son" - and open the gate of fortress Hyderabad for him. YSR's 'benami' troops who had virtually taken over the city's real estate, are running for cover; their game is up, the losses huge. That is why they don't want the state to split; that is why our man is telling them that they should not worry; they will be covered for immediate losses and will also be able to plunder much more over a period of time.

India's people had lost respect for politicians long back. Over the years, they had resigned to the fact that, sterling exceptions apart, politicians were corrupt. Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, they still had some faith left in India's free media. Shekhar Gupta, editor-in-chief of one of India's leading national newspapers, Indian Express, and anchor and co-host/panelist in a number of programs on a leading TV news channel, NDTV, has, in one stroke, destroyed all illusions of separation between the two and killed hope.

Nadir Shah came from afar and became immortal for the new low he created. He did know not then that in the 21st century, Independent India would produce a new breed of home-grown plunderers who would unashamedly loot their own people. Not once, not twice, but non-stop. Even worse, they would also employ conscienceless drum-beaters who would not only celebrate this rape but encourage it.

Politics and media have surely touched a new low. What should we call this new Nadir?
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Related reading:
1. Telangana domino: time to transcend parties, talk India
2. Covering up the mother of all corruption scandals
3. Don't 'beggar-my-buggering-neighbour'; strengthen him

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TELANGANA DOMINO: TIME TO TRANSCEND PARTIES, TALK INDIA

Surely one of the most idiotic arguments being bandied about in the aftermath of the Telangana fiasco is that small states are needed for better governance. India's politicians can do little better than think beyond their immediate gains. But what about the so-called intelligentsia that often parrots the same nonsense, camouflaged in fine prose?

Yesterday, on CNN-IBN's Face The Nation program, Ajit Singh was making out a case for Harit Pradesh, to be carved out of UP. His main argument was that people had to travel 700 kms to Lucknow. Due to that great distance, he wanted you and I to believe, people had lost touch with the government. Of course, he padded this absolutely stupid and dishonest logic with culture, language etc. What he did not say was that, thanks to a fair concentration of Jat voters in the proposed state, he would be able to become Chief Minister. If 'culture' and 'language' were really driving his demand, he actually should have been asking for merging many of these parts of UP with Haryana. But such a logical merger will not help his personal cause.

A few days back, MJ Akbar had also spoken of a carving out a Harit Pradesh in the same areas of UP. But he did not ask for it because Lucknow was far away or because of any cultural affinity that he shares with Ajit Singh. His demand was based on essentially the same separatist argument that Jinnah and other Muslim leaders had used to create Pakistan as a separate homeland for India's Muslims: a well-defined political space for Muslims. A separate state, according to Akbar, would become a natural "socio-economic magnet" for Muslims. Such a demand in times when violent Islamic extremism is posing a threat to the whole world is just the fuel that is needed to create fresh frustration among more young men so that they too get seduced by the call for jihad. Jinnah's 'Direct Action' in a different form.

Plant the seed of a need in people's minds and then fan it in the hope that others will capitulate when it goes out of control. This dangerous argument has already seen the Partition of India. This very seed is now fuelling demand for smaller states along all kinds of illogical, even dangerous dimensions. The domino effect is kicking in, with demands for at least nine more states already being articulated, with many more to follow.

Why smaller states alone? Why not smaller countries? If Ajit Singh wants a separate state because people have to travel 700 kms to the state capital, then why not separate countries for people living thousands of kilometers from Delhi? Who will decide how far is too far? What about the distance of Novosibirsk from Moscow? Or Lhasa from Beijing? Similarly, if it difficult to govern big states, should it it not, by the same logic, be easier to govern smaller countries? How many countries should India be further cut into? And, pray, how much better are the much smaller and much more homogeneous countries of the sub-continent being governed? Is Pakistan an example to follow of a religion-based creation? Is Bangladesh proof that a country with one predominant religion, culture and language is better governed? What about Nepal? Why is no one talking about the scorching success story of China and its huge provinces?

Look at the irony. European nations, which were at each others' throats for centuries, are dismantling borders and converting a continent into their common, secular home. Yes, it took countless small wars and two world wars for them to wake up from their follies that needlessly killed perhaps hundreds of millions of them. Do we need, still, to go down that route again? Our politicians are not concerned either about the past or the future that they are creating. That is why, thanks to their limitless greed and no-holds-barred lust for power, after 63 years of Independence, they are trying to even further divide its people. Lessons of colonial rule and slavery lie totally forgotten.

If Telangana becomes a reality, the ordinary people who are dancing in the streets with joy are not going to benefit in any manner whatsoever, no matter what the historical basis of the demand for a separate state. Only their new rulers will. The manner in which they are being robbed will remain the same. As the Koda example shows, it may even get worse. India's people need to understand one thing very clearly. Their political leaders will go to any extent to mislead and weaken them and even make the nation vulnerable, if it can get them power and pelf.

The manner in which Sonia Gandhi has capitulated to the unexpected blackmail of a frustrated KC Rao who was left out of the loot cake, thanks primarily to her total dependence on and faith in YSR Reddy who made billions as Chief Minister, does not augur well for the nation at all. This surrender is many, many times worse than a one-time exchange of a few terrorists to save lives of ordinary citizens. It will have a domino-effect whose effects will be nothing short of disastrous.

Sonia Gandhi needs to be reminded that she is India's Queen not because she is a European or because she belongs to a minority community. She is where she is only because of the surname she sports. Unfortunately, many developments of the last few years suggest that she has been completely insulated from the idea and spirit of India that her husband and mother-in-law believed in. Her chosen coterie is manifestly quietly using her to take India in a direction that they would never have even considered, much less promoted.

The BJP needs to understand that the dynamics unleashed by KC Rao's un-Gandhian fast are far too serious to be exploited to score cheap political points and have fun at Sonia Gandhi's, or anyone's expense. The matter is too grave to be used as an opportunity to push for creation of more states solely with an eye on the next elections. It might even be tempted to get one back on the Congress on the Kandahar issue. That will be nothing short of a shame. The party must not forget that it had touched a new low in Parliament on the issue of the Indo-US Nuclear Deal. It has a lot of work to do to reclaim its almost destroyed credibility as a responsible national party that is expected to place the nation above all else.

Politics is not about hungering for power, as some media luminaries and politicians have come to believe. If it is not about empowering people and strengthening the nation, then it is no different from banditry.

There are times and issues that must transcend party lines. This is one of them. The two national parties need to rise above petty politics to ensure that the Telangana drama does not give wing and wind to any development that will weaken India in any manner whatsoever. If Vajpayee can embrace Musharraf who attacked India, why can Advani not sit with Sonia? Their objectives surely are not as irreconcilable; they should, semantics apart, actually be the same. It is now up to both of them and their parties to not fail India. Again.
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Related reading:
1. Akbar turns Jinnah, asks for Muslim state
2. Covering up the mother of all corruption scandals
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