Electoral Indifference

I am not sure if the generation of my mom and dad was as polarized as we are at this age. Were they as filled as we are with the juices of 20s – as spellbound as we are by the magic of youth? I cant go back in time and whatever the older generation remembers is bound to be wrong or not accurate enough to make any reasonable assessment, after all their juice is running out. Oh! Wait – They were in era of Indira Gandhi and they were in their “youthful” years when Mrs. Gandhi imposed emergency, they saw a political revolutionary in form of Jay Prakash Narayan, they and also saw rise and fall of Junta Party first hand. There were people who hated Indira and sought messiah in JP; there were those who reviled JP and worshiped Indira. Look where are your parents now? Look around and see where is our country now? I don’t know which side of aisle my mom and dad were. I only hope that they chose a side, and were not indifferent about India’s future – which I fear they were.
Elections, and the drama around it brings best and worst out of our politicians; mostly the worst. Elections also bring out best and worst among us those who have selected a side. What are we? Are we fans, followers, believers, or are we just empty earthen wares, eager to be filled and easy to be replaced, rolling around and finding ourselves at one side or the other. The sliver of Indian population that I observe while sitting on my desk, is not enough to infuse statistical confidence in anything that I might suggest or proclaim. But from what I see, I wonder if this very population is unaware about the difference between the meme and fact, media and news, information and knowledge and most importantly are they unaware that there is a big difference between standing behind a politician and standing behind principles. My observations suggest that many of us are picking memes over facts, media over news, information over knowledge and politicians over principles. Reason many are doing so is because at a deeper level – they are also indifferent.
We are the youth of India, and nothing is impossible for us besides accepting the challenge that our fragility poses before us. It is comforting to believe in what is easy to believe. It is easy to digest information and time consuming to process the knowledge. It is easy to view our world in black and white and forget what it takes to make black black and white white. It is easy to be on one side and not hear and see what other side has to say and show – as assuming deafness and blindness is our Gandhian right.
This drama, 2014 Lok Sabha election will soon end. I have seen your marked fingers, post coitus images of your vote-porn. It seems you have played your part in this drama. Well done. Till 16th of May, your assumed deafness and blindness will be towards things that are external, after 16th, slowly and slowly, this blindness and deafness will spread towards internal agencies. Once back in your cocoon you will resume what you we know best – total indifference. Some would be happy while they recede in their cocoons, some will be sad for the demigods that they worshiped or believed in would either be in the Parliament or not.
What about me? If I am one who is watching it all from the distance, where will it all leave me at the end? I think I will be left tired and pained, as the main actor according to me would have given a flaccid performance and yes, I will still be sitting on my desk. 

 

Disappointed in my friends

To be honest, I am seriously disappointed in some of my Indian friends because of the way they are indulging in political debates. My male friends stand as educated men, representing fine pedigree. Their education, pedigree or civility however exits to another dimension, when it comes to discuss politics of the country. When it comes to political debate, their tone is accusative at best and offensive at worst. They rationalize unrationalizables, and it seems that process of reasoning is something alien to them. They have picked sides, and now they prefer to be deaf. Devoid of thought and filled with empty rhetorics, there lies a legion of my friends who hold bricks that were to be used to build our nation. Same bricks, which they are now busy throwing at each other. Such are they, locked in their political camps, sounding angry, often pitiable and frequently obnoxious.
Then there are my female friends; quiet as ever. Opinionated but silent. Oh! they have a vision, probably brighter, but they prefer to keep it to themselves. They are waiting for a podium, right place to put their thoughts, for things like Facebook/Twitter does not deserve their vision or opinions. Therefore all that my prying eyes can see is a blind masculine version of politics in my country. Probably in a very Mahabarat-isque way, my female friends have assumed blindness.
So the overall political debate that is happening is overtly masculine in nature, devoid of civility, with copy-cat logic, and for me – Painful.

Refusing to Arrive Late on Same-Sex Marriage

Businesses going gay! via New York Times

This insistence of American businesses will have a global impact. Governments in countries like India, which are very much open to international economics will be forced to take sides legally. In hyper-competitive societies like India and China, inclusion takes different propositions and become more complex. Thus ‘$’ becomes an important tool in solving the sociocultural Gordian knot.

Mr. FM, smart phones needs to cost less, not more

I sometimes (all the time) fail to understand the real purpose of itemized taxation, the way it is done Indian budgets. What confuses me further is the insight thrown into determining which item should be taxed more and which one less.

Ideologically I am not averse to higher taxes, given government provides better services, or nation needs my money, which in India’s case, it does. But I am left perplexed by latest tax increase on smart phones.

Government or Finance Minister is being parochial by thinking that smart phone is a luxury item. India is still a country where rationalizing of buying a new computer is comparatively tougher than doing so for a mobile phone. When we are talking about smart phone, then we are talking about significant amount of computer power in hands, literally, in hands of people who do not wish to invest in computers. Again, India is a country where mobile penetration is higher than broadband penetration. Smart phones or so called higher end phones thus becomes a gateway for information.

There are other positive externalities too. Specially so in case of software industry. Major portion of industry is either shifting towards mobile or in other words mobile software industry is seeing great deal of activity and investment. By increasing the price of so called high end devices, you are simply reducing the demand. Lesser number of smart phone means less impetus for developers for developing apps and softwares for Indian audience. More importantly we are not going to see Indian development houses any time soon. This also means that the internet speed would be meager, because there is no competition from wireless internet option, simply because not many people would be having.

On account of deciding not to sound far reaching, I am not including any argument of how this move may stymie hardware development growth in India. Just to put things into perspective, the cutoff point is at Rs. 2000.00 (~$40). For any phone that is going to cost more than this figure, will see a 6% rise in excise duty.

In the time when I would have been happy with a reduction in prices, this increase, however meager it may sound to few, does not go down below my throat. Yeah, there is a lump forming…

Fiscal sensibility is one thin, and fiscal foresight is another. I am not sure, how much good this move will do, but I definitely think that this decision per say lacks foresight.

On an unrelated point, I am exceptionally happy with increase in excise duty on cigarettes and SUVs. They have low net worth for the society and brings small gain for individuals who consume them.

Case of missing social network

There is vast literature on how people in society collate and form groups. Success of any democratic structure depends on this collation. It is for this reason, that autocratic regimes primarily attack on groups or group formation. In a group, 1+1 ≠ 2, it is always greater than two. 

If you have to appreciate the power of groups or social networks, then you may want to stand in a road side tea stall in India. Often, the average literacy will not cross high school at such places, but the discussion or at least the intensity, will match the talking heads in CNN or BBC. That is an example of a social network. 

My contention is that as a country, India could not develop enough social networks for youth, specially post high school. One will surely have a set of network generated because of how one is embedded in to the system. Say, if I am in college, I am bound (mostly) to have a social network because of the mere fact that I am there. I will make friends in college and hence I will have network. But what after that? Gym? Yes. Different academic coaching classes that people take will also provide another avenue to enlarge ones social network – which will overlap heavily with ones college based network. The overall diversity of network would be low. 

There is another major issue why I will shy from ranking these social networks highly. They are predominantly formed because of how one is embedded into the system (read society). Diversity in social network would be lower, and level of independent choice would be dismal. Since one does not have much choice in formulating such a social network, there are not many avenues for democratic experimentation. Hence, there are no democratic lessons learned and none is practiced. 

Please be mindful that democratic experiments or lessons that I am talking about need not just be those which involve voting; there are multiple lessons that very implicit in nature and are learned because of our experience. 

There is not a single ‘Meetup’ group in Bhopal. There is no event which ‘Eventbrite’ can show. And I found similar statistics on other similar sites – sites that help in organizing group activities. People are not forming groups that exposes them beyond their environment in which they are embedded. They are not organizing themselves. They are not interacting with people who are not from their immediate network but think like them. They are not exploring human connections – and hence doing nothing to strengthen democracy. 

During various discussions, people ask me how we as Indians can solve our problems, corruption being the primary one. The underpinnings of this problem are same in almost all the democracies. They ask me because, it is me who put two years of his life to soak in knowledge related to public policy, and they think I know the answers. It is often tough to tell them that I dont have the answer and hence I get into these discussions which soon convert into debates. Most of the times people (my friends) are asking for immediate solutions; a quick respite. I do fall into this trap and try to formulate some solutions, and often disown them because of some fault or other. I do tell them (most of the times) that solution to such devious problems cannot be quick. And the solution to problem like corruption cannot be direct. If direct then in context of India, that solution cannot be sustainable. One of the important steps to fight corruption is to strengthen democratic structure.

What makes democratic institutions strong? Groups. Networks. People. 

If people are meeting, discussing and interacting with wider set of people then they will inadvertently expose themselves to wider set of ideas. There would be wider appreciation of different views, and better understanding of ‘real issues’. Which God I believe in does not in any way affect my discussions on photography or the risks that one might face in street photography. But are there any avenues where I can be part of such a self organizing photography group, in Bhopal? I dont know. I havent seen any.

When groups form, they lead to multitude of positive externalities. It makes society more fertile for new ideas, and set it for innovation and development. I am emphasizing on this not because it is the solution to our social problems, but it sets the foundations for solving them. 

The social network which is beyond the one in which we are embedded is missing. Unless we create one or find it, till then I am not sure will be able to produce sustainable solution for our problems.

The Soul of India

The body became free on 15th of August, 1947. The soul got freedom only on 26th of January, 1950. ‘India’ as a concept is not about borders or being a nation state, it is more about being a part of the civilization. As a citizen of oldest living civilization, we have time and again performed the phoenix act, as we did post independence. In Geeta, Krishna emphasizes on the frailty of body and immortality of soul. As the citizen of India, it is our responsibility, or as Krishna would have said, “Karma” to keep this soul free.
As a civilization, the Indian civilization has never been about being supreme, but has been about the continous perseverance towards the ultimate truth. As esoteric as it may sound, thats the philosophy we have inheritted. We may be the oldest living civilization, which has evolved over the time, but we are still young as democracy. Therefore with what we have inheritted, we the present generation has to invest time in introspection, personally as well as collectively. This we have to determine to realize our potential not only as citizens of India but citizens of this planet.
Are we doing our job correctly in the home that we call world? Are we providing the thoughts that can drive the next generation of this world? How do we want to be known as? Are we steadfast enough in our path of “Karma”? Do I have an answer for any of these questions? No, I dont. But am I looking for answers? Yes, I am!
Why is it important? It is important because being the youth we carry the responsibility of 1.2 billion strong nation. Once 1.2 billion people reach their potential, the world will start taking care of itself.

Towards literate politics

Indian politics is not that different from other democratic politics around the world. Even in terms of corruption, I dont think we are that different. I am not saying that to make myself feel good, and hide away from the perilous state of Indian politics. I am referring more towards the qualitative aspects of Indian politics. Democratic structures around the world tend to follow similar cues as does autocratic structures. 

India’s political path, though follows a slightly different path, it is right there between American capitalism and European socialism. It is not a choice of political class, it is a choice that public has been making since India freed itself. 

This begets a question. Are Indian political problems unique? Looking broadly, answer would be, ‘NO’. But if one tries to see bit more closely, then there is this unique difference, that sets Indian democracy apart from other successful democracies (while factoring in economic and geographic size) – literacy rate. 

Indian public has been smart, much smarter than what political-wonks give it the credit for. It has regularly changed ruling party across the structure, time and again – with dismal literacy rate. Currently it is around 75%, maybe a reality that political class does not realize. 

Why is literacy important for democracy? 

In words of Abraham Lincoln – 

“To immancipate the mind from this false and under estimate of itself is the great task which printing came into the world to perform. It is difficult for us, now and here, to conceive how strong this slavery of the mind was; and how long it did, of necessity, take, to break its shackles, and to get a habit of freedom of thought, established. It is, in this connection, a curious fact that a new country is most favorable — almost necessary — to the immancipation of thought, and the consequent advancement of civilization and the arts.”

In simpler words, literacy is important so that public can push political class to answer the most important questions. This might be over simplification, but it serves the purpose. “Important questions”, that is where the key lies, only a person with free thought can recognize a truly important question – even if that question is selfish. Democracy by its statistical nature will then bring forth the most important question of all. 

To summarize my thought – it is not necessary for the person sitting next to you to have same political views, but it is extremely important for him or her to have an informed political view. And literacy (think beyond lingual literacy), my dear friend is what helps in getting informed. 

 

Potato Politics

The political debate that happened in Lok Sabha on FDI highlighted few very interesting things. Primarily it showed lack of understanding of the topic by several politicians on both the sides of aisle. More interestingly it showed that middle class Indian is not in the picture of political calculations. That is why most of the politicians continued their jingoistic rhetorics without giving any thought (ref: potatoes). It is for this reason none of them bothered to illustrate the arithmetic behind FDI in multibrand retail.
Political flip-flopping does not bother me as I reckon that it has more advantages than disadvantages. What concerns me more is the fact that there is no one to voice middle class concerns in Indian politics. 

Argument on FDI became an argument around class divide, and since middle class is most loosely defined class, it didnt featured in the discussion. Leaders like Mulayam Singh, Lalu Prasad and few more didnt have much to bring to the table and yet were allotted big chunk of time, which Mulayam Singh surely wasted. 

It would be interesting to see how Indian middle class gets featured in forthcoming elections. Till then we can wonder over the size of our potatoes. 

Wassup India, Anna and Beyond…

I hate writing/reading “wassup”, it reeks ‘wannabe-ness’ to me, but that is essentially the reason why I am putting it in my title. If you have been paying attention to international news then I am kind of sure that you might have missed news about India and the social movement currently unfolding in India. I have written once about the social movement, but not in detail. You will find few links at the end of this post for those who are unaware of the premise (which means international audience) of the social movement. Nevertheless so as to set you up for what you are going to read, I must provide some information to help everyone appreciate where I am coming from, as in my views.

Under the aegis of a 72 year old ‘Gandhian’, or in plain contextual terms, a person who follows non-violent ways of protesting, there is a social movement that is happening in India against the establishment and mainly against the government in power. I wrote about the marketability of ‘India Against Corruption’ but it seems that the name has been readily picked up by Indian population, at the least banners flying in rallies inform me so. Anna Hazare, the ‘Gandhian’ is the cornerstone of this moment.

Now that the 13 day extravaganza has ended there is plenitude of questions regarding the movement, its underpinnings, rationale, motive and its far reaching effects. It is one of those things where nobody can give a view that is perfect and no view can be completely wrong. But then, one has to look at the weight and the significance of few facts and decide upon whether the so called ‘Anna’ movement was something good, bad or grey. Dealing with the whole movement in its entirety will be almost life-gobbling task, which I have no intend to take as I have already promised to keep thing terse on this blog, therefore I will deal this issue topically.

Democracy

Issue: Whether this movement strengthened or weakened the democracy?

My view: When many people define democracy then sometimes I find it almost laughable specially when it is presented as something sacrosanct and immovable. One must understand that few tenets of democracy should indeed be unquestionable but the institutions associated with democracy shouldnt be considered immovable. Society by its nature is an evolving entity, and so should be democratic institution. I also feel that democracy in India hasnt moved much since independence and has never been aligned to Indian psyche or the Indian way of doing things.

Meanwhile coming back to the issue, I think this movement has been a step in evolution of democracy in India. Evolution always have two aspects, construction and destruction. This movement has constructed few things and has also destructed some. Therefore the question that democracy has been strengthened or weakened does not arise. Democracy will evolve, and this movement has played its role in evolution. People have voiced their opinion and that is important for successful democratic structure, therefore I consider this as important evolutionary step in Indian democracy. Roles of the pillars of democracy will change with time, and each country will do it in its own way.

Anna Hazare

Issue: He is the leader, he helped youth voice their opinion, he is like Batman (immovable wall – incorruptible) vis a vis Joker (unstoppable force of corruption) a modern day Gandhi / He is a nice bloke but his followers are dumb, they dont know the reality and are asking too much and their whole tactics is nothing but blackmailing.

My views: Now in issue I have put two contrasting issue just to elucidate that there are two opinions surrounding Anna Hazare and then there is other as highlighted by my favorite writer (sarcastically) Arundhati Roy. One must understand, that there are few things that are integral part of being Indian. We put people on pedestals, we like to worship them, follow them and believe them without question. That is how we became a nation with million Gods when other culture fought for finding just one. So yes, we did put Anna on high pedestal, and yes he do have some views with which many people wont be comfortable with… so what? Rather than being intelligent moron, and trying to discredit his achievement, I will advice them to use their intelligence to fine tune the movement. Oh! Sorry, I just forgot that these very well educated fellows are living with egos big enough to fill entire ocean and cant be part of someone else’s movement because of lack of space for their views.

Mr Hazare is not perfect and neither are his views towards corruption, even several solution that he and his team suggest may not prove as efficacious as they are pronounced as. But then for a truly rational individual who believe in ends and not in means, this should not be the premise. Premise here should be to find ways to reduce corruption in India. So when Nandan Nilekani says that ‘Jan Lokpal Bill’ isnt the solution then he is wrong, because the fact is that ‘Jan Lokpal’ or any other method cannot be the solution but only a part of the solution. No matter how faulty the ‘Team Anna’ led movement may be, but it has lead significant number of people to voice their opinions against corruption. So rather than losing him on the first utterance of a faulty logic by him, try to catch the theme. Sometimes few things are more important than the semantics.

Youth

Issue: Role of youth. Informed/mis-informed/agitated/concerned or confused?

My view: Being objective is certainly a wonderful thing. But not being objective doesnt mean that concerns are not valid. One question that was wildly leveled against the youth by political brass was whether they read different versions of lokpal bill or not, if not then their views held no weight and hence will not be entertained. This attitude reeked nothing but pretentiousness and political snobbism. Once again, semantics aint that important because being part of same country both the sides are supposedly working for the development of the same country.

Yes, youth was misinformed, yes youth wasnt always objective, but all the time their concerns were grave, for all this time they were trying to communicate the urgency of their grievance. So when politicians said on national TV that they understood the grievance of common man, I always wanted them to know that it is not just about the grievance but also about the urgency attached with it. Therefore people discrediting the impatience are probably too lost in their grey hairs or lack of it.

Meanwhile, time has taught Indian youth to be more objective, and this movement will give its own lesson. Next movement will definitely see youth with more objective approach.

Movement

Issue: Nature of movement.

My views: Well any movement needs leaders therefore those who argue by saying that how come only few people are leading this movement…ummm… when was there any movement without any leader? I dont have anything else to say on this argument.

People then also pointed out that this was mainly a middle class movement and wasnt as inclusive as it should have been. Yes this could have been more inclusive, but using ‘middle class’ as a tool to discredit whole movement is childish and as unlearned as me discrediting a wine. Middle class has maximum stakes in this country right now in terms of tax that it pays. Middle class will soon constitute 50% of the population. I rest my argument. Yes, nobody can argue against requirement of this movement being more inclusive, but once again, discrediting isnt necessary to make it so.

This movement was no drama. I have seen people voicing their opinion, being vocal, being thoughtful, being part of decision making, appreciating democracy and it’s powers. People wanted their concern to be known, and Anna banner provided them a safe way to do it. It  should now become part of their culture, voicing concern is important for thriving and evolving democracy.

Should public outside parliament dictate terms to parliamentarians… hell yes.

Should there be arm-twisting… hell no.

This movement did saw some arm-twisting, which should not be repeated, and this should be communicated to the youth. How? Well by providing them better and concrete channels of voicing their opinions before they become so urgent that only arm-twisting seems like a valid option.

Government

Issue: What is a government?

My view: Sleep…okay…sleep. Government in this case was sleeping. India saw uprising in Africa, looked at it, and then brought it home and converted it into Indian. Government saw the same thing and couldnt anticipate what was to come to their doorsteps.

But the broader question is what is government actually? Is it the monolithic structure sitting in capital or seats of powers as distributed by legislature and administrative pillars of democracy? Or is it representation of people. If it is representation of people then how can it be so preachy. I think the bigger challenge and one of the important learning not only from the events in India but in general from around the globe is that government and its attitude should evolve because people are evolving, their interaction is evolving, the rate of interaction among people is evolving, so if government has to truly represent its people then it should evolve accordingly. The nature of government requires a post of its own and I may soon come up with one.

Gandhi

Issue: Relevance of Gandhi?

My view: Oh! Dear Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. People will love you, they will hate you but they will never be able to ignore you, which to means that you were change maker. Gandhi made more than few principles of peaceful coexistence more digestible than they are presented in tomes.

Was this movement Gandhian in its truest sense…. No.

Was it needed? No.

Then why was Gandhi’s name used? Well he is brand, that too under creative commons. 😉

Lets stop cribbing about purist interpretation of Gandhi because he is not a Shakespearian play. Since time arent same, since situation isnt same, therefore usage will not be same. Ideas are not absolute, only 0 is absolute. Life of Gandhi is more like a tool kit now and we need to accept this as a modern fact. People will use it like that nonetheless no matter how one may crib about it.

Me

Issue: What am I doing in all this?

My view: Ahh! well I am developing my understanding of human life and their desire to bring upon change and their ability to cling on to the status quo, because this I think is essence of developing a successful social intervention.

India / Corruption / My Stand

What do you have to say about this? asked my friend and I was like, thinking, ‘i know you want special comments from me, but I have none…’ but still I replied that I am against corruption but not with the Lokpal movement. Luckily my friend is not a fanatic supporter and he listened me and also appreciated my concerns, like a friend, packed with few jibes, few taunts, few cuss words and pack of laughter.

I always like to point out and more importantly think that India being as diverse as continental europe (or more so) and theoretically as democratic (or more than) as anywhere in the world is yet at its nascent stage of evolution and things are tough to manage out there. This post aint going to be long so bear with my 2 pennies.

On corruption –

Corruption is a serious issue that needs serious treatment

Corruption is outcome not problem in itself, problem is somewhere else

It is not us vs. them. It is us vs. us, you vs. you, I vs. I.

On Lokpal bill –

Confusion, there would be too many organizations doing similar kind of job

Dont force it in this short time. Delay of 40 years does not mean that it needs to pass in 4 months now.

On current movement (just go to any indian news site) –

This is not Gandhian as it does not address people at large, it only addresses polity by putting them on firing line (well they deserve it to), this makes this whole movement parochial.

Peaceful. I like it, and this is again an example of what can be done peacefully.

Arm twisting. Its putting government in a corner, and government like a cat in fear retorts like a cat in fear, without grace

Bad but only option

It doesnt address common man, puts them as victims when they are not, they are part of game as much as government is. Freedom struggle and specially the Gandhian part of it addressed common man more than it addressed British government

On Anna Hazare and team –

Dont talk about economics

Poor planning, sometimes thoughtless

Get into talks, be intelligent please

Thanks for being apolitical (proof being the timing of this campaign, if this campaign fizzles out in 3-4 months then the overall impact on government when election comes will be lower, campaign closer to election would have lead to extreme knee jerks from government)

On people –

Address yourself, dont address government

Stop promoting corruption the we have been doing for quite some time, be courageous.

On myself –

I am sitting in US and yearning to come back to India and see all this first hand and maybe take part in it if someone decides to reduce the burden of loan from me.

I will keep on posting on corruption, India and myself

On India –

This is again that one off moment in history of India, where if we do things successfully we will become role model for countries far and beyond. God bless its people, God bless India.

 

I have kept post concise and in case you feel that I need to explain my stand on any of the point, then just post your comments down below