Bihar - The Agony, The Irony

As the dust settles from Bihar Assembly elections, PM Modi and BJP top leadership face an uphill task. BJP must have been counting on this election to get them required strength in the upper house of Indian parliament. Many reforms need to be passed and bills (including GST bill) need to become laws to help economy but it seems, despite having cleared them in lower house where BJP has majority, it would be a while till something gets done.

Critics of BJP attribute the loss to the argument that PM Modi and his government have not done enough after coming to power about a year and a half ago. There is a feeling of discontent among general public as the miracles they expected from him did not materialize. What we fail to realize is that things take time to mature, especially in a complex country like India. Our forefathers have written the constitution in a way that it is immune to tectonic changes and establishes decentralization of power. It has its benefit, prevents us from being like Pakistan where government is relatively easy to usurp. But at the same time, it makes it a herculean task even to shift the momentum of development from decline towards growth. Quick wins are not permitted, any change has to go though both houses and majority must vote in favor of it. The writers of constitution were perhaps under assumption that elected member shall by and large judge each bill on its merit, individually. The current political scenario suggests contrary – elected members subscribe to the directions from the party they belong to and a few party leaders make decisions. Independent thinking is discouraged; an example would be senior party leader Shashi Tharoor being rebuked by Congress for genuinely praising PM Modi. Further troublesome is the fact that these party decisions are generally not based on merit but based on politics of opportunism. Opposition is quick to support populist schemes no matter how detrimental they might prove for the country in the long run. They tend to oppose for the sake of opposing.

PM Modi seems to be trying to do the right thing, projecting India as a prospective manufacturing hub on a global scale and focusing on development. For a country where government officials generally work on kickbacks and politicians are generally opportunistic, manipulative and exploiters, establishing pro-developmental mentality cannot be an easy task. Indian politics is a quicksand which pulls back anyone trying to do the right thing. Bihar proves this again.

In this election, Bihar again demonstrated that its people are still unwilling to look beyond caste. This election was again won on the same basis. Anyone believing that Grand Alliance got votes on the basis of good governance image projected by Nitish’s must be overlooking the regrettable fact that Lalu Yadav's party has won more seats than Nitish Kumar's JDU. For Bihari votes, it seems having someone from their own caste in power matter above having good governance, therein lies the tragedy of Bihar – the 3rd poorest and populous state of India with maximum unemployment.

Another factor behind Nitish-Lalu victory is their ability to convince that BJP is a threat to India’s secularism. They were able to unite all small faction which were not part of mainstream, against common enemy - BJP. India is secular and there is no threat to it. Generally, it is the so-called-seculars that create differences in a society. In the name of secularism, vote banks are targeted and people are manipulated. Common man must be able to see this that every time someone screams secularism, it is not without an undertone of some personal agenda.

National Stock Exchange of India fell as much as 2.3 percent after Bihar results, the lowest since Sep 29 this year. It shows that Bihar verdict is seen as impediment to the economy and growth by trade pundits. I find it hard to imagine how voters in Bihar have ignored this basic indicator.

Having said that, BJP is also guilty of communalizing the election campaign. The divisive cow-based politics inciting Hindu vote bank deviated them from their agenda of development. Not only such politics is morally wrong, it was also a huge gamble which might have worked in Uttar Pradesh but not in Bihar. Bihar is divided more by caste than by religion. They say in Bihar, even a 10-year-old child can clearly state the differences between his caste and that of his friend. Regardless, I believe a simple and clean promise of growth and development would have produced better result than what BJP achieved.

In all of this, Bihar has the most to lose. An inherent handicap for democracy is that 51 fools can control 49 wise. Foolishness as Albert Einstein describes is repeating the same activity expecting different results. I don’t know what makes Bihar think that Lalu in power this time would be any different from Lalu of the last time when his governance was compared to ‘jungle raj’. For the sake of Bihar, I hope Nitish is able to pursue ‘Vikas’ without RJD holding his hands tight.

Modern India has to look beyond caste, religion and other differences and be united in sole perspective of inclusive growth. It has to discourage divisive politics and hold leaders accountable on their promises. They say, in democracy, people get the leader they deserve. If it is true, it is about time we raise the consciousness, awareness of the country and set aside personal gains. Because if we won’t, our leaders will never.

Dear Mr Prime Minister..

Dear Mr Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, 

    A very good morning to you sir. I believe the parliament is still non-functional over  the so-called "coal-gate" scam. So hopefully, you may have a few spare minutes in your busy schedule to at least gloss over my humble letter.  I heard that you recently retorted to opposition's attack in parliament with an Urdu couplet - 

"Hazaaron Jawabon Se Acchi Hai Meri Khamoshi, Na Jaane Kitne Sawaalon Ki Aabru Rakhe"

    This translates to  - My silence is better than a thousand answers, because it is veiling the premise/prestige of myriad questions. 

    I must say, it was an excellent repartee, a gambit to take the attack to the opposition and question the authenticity of their questions without having to answer one. Also, it exhibits your ability to hit back criticism. 

    But unfortunately, I was shocked to hear your words. Let me explain why!! 

    Democracy is established on accountability. Once a ruling party has been given the mandate to govern, it automatically becomes accountable to every citizen of the country. Accountability is the most primal distinction between democracy and autocracy or dictatorship. As a ruling party, it behoves you to listen to every citizen of India and answer every question any citizen of India has through proper channels. There is no way on earth, your refusal to answer questions of representatives of people (no matter how eloquently presented) can be justified in a democracy. It is blasphemy for a disciple of constitution and personally, this for me stands out as the biggest blemish on your term as PM. 

    I do not take sides. I understand opposition's unrelenting attack and exaggerated criticism for their own gains. I understand that clogging the functioning of parliament and asking for your resignation is again constitutionally reprehensible. You have the majority and if they have objection to you being the Prime Minister, they can introduce a no-confidence motion. But having said that, you cannot exonerate yourself from your fundamental responsibility of being accountable for your actions or in-actions. Our whole constitution is built around transparency, right to information and right to question. 

    I see you as a good, God-fearing man, of unparalleled academic acumen and humblest of demeanour. What I want to see is a man with gumption and fire in his belly to make things right. I want to see a Prime Minister who is passionate about his governance and defends himself through good governance KPI's. I do not want you to resign but I expect to see you come out and take the ownership of all of this. 

    Mahatma Gandhi, father of the nation always suggested that it is ultimate bravery to accept your mistake and rectify it. If you think mistake has been done, accept it and rectify it. To be honest, it won't even affect your vote bank. It would impress the cognisant because you would be the first among generations of politicians, to admit their mistake and work towards fixing it. And the in-cognisant shall vote the way they always do - under their local leader's influence based on whatever topic is exploited close to elections  - religion, region or caste. 

    Even after plethora of scams under your governance, commonwealth games, 2G, coalgate to name a few, everyone still believes you are an honest man who is finding it hard to discipline his coalition ministers and other senior party leaders. But history will not remember you as an honest man if you fail to address all this mis-governance. History does not remember what impression you have on people as much as the financial losses that government exchequer has suffered during your prime-ministership.

    I apologies if I disrespected you in any way in this letter. You are the leader of my nation and I submit to you. But at the same time, I have constitutional right to question you and this letter is a reminder of the same. 

Jai Hind
Yours Sincerely, 
Shivank Kaul

Reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sdvMzazpSs

IPL

I read a comment this morning, while travelling to work, in a news article titled "Mamta Banerjee riding on Knight Riders Victory" that raised my eyebrow . The seemingly insignificant comment was  - "Today is the true poribartan(change) that our chief minister promised a year ago." by Bengal Governor M K Narayanan, said in the backdrop of recent victory of Kolkata club team against rivals Chennai in the finals of IPL 2012.

Politicians have always been exploiting situational changes to their benefit regardless of their contributions, for a long time. This attitude of Bengal Government does not really spring any surprise. Indian politics is quintessentially a parody where famines and droughts are to be blamed on opposition and timely monsoon is direct result of efficient incumbent party.

My objection lies in the extent to which common man is being projected to a dishonest picture painted in rosy colors to leverage upon his emotions. Connections are being forged between his loyalty to a club and his loyalty to a region which in my opinion is grossly inaccurate.

Mamta Banerjee has no significant role to play in Knight Riders Victory; I am sure, someone would have noticed. KKR is not team representing Bengal in true sense. It’s a franchise owned by Shah Rukh Khan, with majority players coming from outside Bengal.

For some reason, this blatant disregard to common known facts seemed too hard to ignore. Here is a chief minister masquerading a franchise's achievement as her own that barely shares its name with Kolkata, parading it as her own laurels in front of 70,000 crowd at Eden Garden without considerations to actuality.

This whole situation just stood in my face while I tried to distract myself by reading titles of the books fellow passengers were reading. But just like a song that gets stuck in your head, I could not shrug this feeling of contempt. I kept wondering if common man has become exceptionally numb to such shenanigans that it no longer bothers him. Her being able to do so appears to be a scathing indictment upon our bourgeoisie mentality alluding that we may have stopped holding our leaders accountable. More so, the Governor hails KKR victory almost as if it were a promise made in manifesto of the ruling party.

Someone should ask the CM, the way she have come out in support of KKR, should she not extend such grace to the teams that are truly of Bengal - for example (not quitting our obsession with cricket) West Bengal's Ranjhi Cricket Team? May be Mohan Began at soccer? May be she could perhaps actually allocate some funds for good coaches and amenities for soccer enthusiast and contribute in building Indian soccer team.

In no way do I intend to downplay KKR's achievement, I am just trying to put things in perspective. I am not sure how many people would read this article, but if you do, ponder for a moment. It’s a club victory, it holds meaning only for Shahrukh and the players involved. It does not unfurl a new dawn upon the horizon. It is good TV, good entertainment but it certainly is not Bengal's victory or country's victory. Associating it with patriotism is like calling excellent TRP ratings of certain TV show as an achievement for the nation.

IPL is nothing more than entertainment, exhibition of all the skill and talent team owners can afford during auctions. It is glorified gambling in which everyone from the elitist - team owners, BCCI to the criminals - bookies are all involved. If at all, the whole IPL is a victory of capitalism, commercialism and cronyism.

- Shivank Kaul

Ref: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/mamata-banerjee-riding-on-knight-riders-victory-219876