The Fiery Dragon, the Roaring Tiger and the United States of America
“Sir, Can I understand what exactly are you going to do in the United States of America”?
We, here in India,are not used to such dignified conversations very often in public offices, and I was impressed by the cordiality that marked the American's Consular Officer's voice as he looked at my US visa petition request.
“Sure!” I started. “ Amongst a wide range of responsibilities at my Client's location in the USA, one of my primary responsibilities would be to brief the testing teams already there about the Loan Origination System developed here at offshore over the last 2 years. As the lead developer of this system, I would share my expertise in handling the system behavior, to enable them understand it before they can start testing them with critical real time data. ”
I answered him in the best english that I could muster with my Bihar-Jharkhand background,
I hoped he would understand what I had just said. And that he did, atleast that was what he told me.
“Very well, sir.”
However, all the while that I answered, he never took his eyes off the petition, filling up certain blanks with utmost dexterity and poise . For some reason, he did not want to look at me or know who I was. So, as I spoke, I was looking at the walls nearby, across the bulletproof screen which seperated the first and the third worlds.
After a dozen odd questions, he brought this up.
“But why doesn't your company recruit somebody in the United States Of America instead of you going there all the way from India? Sir? ”
He sounded like Obama there. With a distinct difference in his interrogation this time, I suddenly felt like the poor accused in the courtroom waiting for the questions of all kinds to be framed, to which he has no answers, but has to present one, to escape punishment. The American Consular sounded like the indifferent judge who has already assumed you are guilty and doesn't give a damned to what you have to say. Heck! Didn't I just tell him I was an expert at the system? I still went on explaining just why on earth, it was important for me to go to the USA, hoping he will have the guiding light of human logic.
“This is a mission critical project Sir, and my team has been selected on the basis of a very refined skillset, which takes not less than 3 years to acquire. Since the project is critical and has a time line ,given the government regulations attached to it, recruiting someone at this juncture would increase the training and knowledge transfer costs to my client, and also put this entire system testing in jeopardy. Moreover, with the kind of sensitive data that the system is designed to handle, an expert in the system is a primary requisite.”
It was the best I could have done with the question , since I was never told that I would be asked such 'why's ?' and 'what ifs ?'. I patted myself on having played it pretty straight, and my interrogator looked pretty satisfied too. I waited for this man to end his verbal questionnaire and look at me for heaven's sake. It is difficult to hold a conversation,or an interview for that matter, when the addressee of your statements is imaginary. Meanwhile, he was stamping every thing on my petition as I waited for him to tell me “Congratulations Sir! Have a nice stay in the United States of America, the great nation !”. (Yeah right, That's what they generally say when they oblige you with a Visa. Meanwhile ,you are supposed to be smiling very cordially. That's what the Visa Cell told me at the visa briefing prior to this interview/ interrogation.)
And the next moment, I was walking out with a DENIED visa printed in BOLD GOTHIC over an orange sheet with something scribbled illegibly. I am sorry to be skipping the last part of our conversation here, where the American consular nullified the Great-American-Dream of a Third world Software Engineer. Its pointless to reproduce it here, since the end result was an orange sheet saying I wasn't skilled enough to enter the United States of America. Moreover, this write-up isn't about an individual phenomena, so this author's personal ordeals are besides the point really.
The sequence of events described above happened well over an year ago, and through such time and since the post liberalization reforms in the 90s, me, like about 2.3 million other Computer and IT Engineers and service personnel across the Indian subcontinent have worked on a plethora of global projects, big and small, witnessed stunning innovations in the IT products space in India, winning accolades for our employers and ourselves in return worldwide, including the United States of America. American companies, which constitute the largest clientele of the Indian software products and its services, were up in arms hailing the wonderful Indian software guys, who've made managing these big companies a hell lot easier, and with what panache! fantastic!
Well, Not really. Everything is not fine just yet, and everyone is not happy either, since the recent economic downturn witnessed in the world's leading economies and political superpowers has left the incumbent governments of these countries with acute disorientation about the road ahead, and the most affected country, of these macro-economic failures, is the United States of America. The incumbent and famously 'Black ' president of the USA, Barack Hussein Obama was elected amidst great hope and expectations of a messianic retrieval from this economic dropdown. His election, one still remembers, was hailed as the day when History was made, America had chosen its first Black President and in an irony of sorts, with a Muslim middle name.The American people saw this charismatic orator and his bunch of Democrats as the chosen ones, to bail them out from what then threatened to be and today is, the worst attack on its economic structure and institutions post 9/11. Since the time that the Great American Slump started, the causes of which induce case studies across the globe today, America at present stands as a country plagued with a punctured housing bubble, its Banking system on Artificial Life Support after plundering away billions of dollars to fuel the hollow consumerism, the highest ever unemployment rates in its modern history, and a growing Islamophobia in the wake of being the E.N.O(Enemy Number One) of the Islamist terrorist organizations across the planet.
The American government is having a tough time even contemplating a strategy to any of these, an exercise that has been further aggravated by the growing relevance of the US affairs to the Sino-Indian economics, which not only defied the decrees of the recession that hit the world, but also jumped out of it surely and strongly showing the world, just how to go about it. Sadly, America, instead of hailing the Eastern powers' formula supported by sound economic and monetary policies and fiscal prudence particularly in Indian context, is instead citing them as one of the chief factors that are propelling its economy southwards.
The United States of America cites trade issues with China, which recently claimed the status of the world's second largest economy, to be the bedrock of its losing competitive edge in the world trade. America accuses China of boosting its exports, which are already the cheapest in the international markets, further by devaluing its currency, the Chinese Yuan. It hails China as a violator of civil liberties, with regards to freedom of Information on the internet as well as off it, and there is a rising concern over the exponential rise in the American trade deficit with this Eastern powerhouse. Also on the table are other such bones of contention, the most important among them being the slipping American geo-political advantage in this part of the world, that is increasingly drifting in favor of the Chinese, who are present almost everywhere from North Korea to Afghanistan and now the Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
Whilst some of these issues indeed carry some credibility, such as China's steep trade deficits with its trading partners, it's facade of democratic exercises amidst global condemnation circling its denial of political freedom to the Chinese people and a terminally sick civil society , most other American accusations against China are just knee jerk reactions to this unstoppable dragon. Ironically, the top American Economists and China watchers worldwide have come up with predictions of the Chinese economy growing by over 10% through the next 2 decades (much like the last 3 decades), before it topples America to become the largest economy in the world.
That too, is no good news for America, and its concerns are out in the open.
Coming to the Indian context, Indo-US diplomacy thrives on the politics of the world's 'Largest' and the world's 'Oldest' democracies. The science of such politics is rather ironical, since the two typologies form the extreme ends of a democratic dichotomy. The foreign policy drivers, the present issues facing each country, the growth trajectory to be followed, and their historical backdrops are all poles apart, however, the 'largest-oldest' rhetoric imparts a much needed diplomatic cover to the wrap the differences underneath. More recently, despite a successful nuclear deal with the Indian nation (which again, has the strings of protecting US advantages at any cost, attached to it), the USA has come out openly, blaming the Indian services sector for its unemployment woes.
It all started with Mr. Obama, as I mentioned earlier, who was elected as the epitome of Yankee renaissance, savior of the failing banks and the redeemer of jobs lost, and meanwhile India watched these developments in Washington from close quarters. In a democracy, which America is, an election is a big event that marks and creates a government and in turn shapes its national policies. But that's only until the next one. However, each government is expected to frame its foreign policies with regards to its historical relations with the country in question, so as to preserve the groundwork done by the previous regimes. And that's precisely what Mr. Obama needs to realize here.
Ever since the democrats assumed office in the White House, the United States of America has blatantly accused Indian Information Technology and the Services sector of eating away American jobs, and blasted American Technology firms of cheating the American people by outsourcing American jobs to the guy in Bangalore. Such American firms have been warned with the consequential punishment of ending tax breaks to curb offshoring of jobs. The American companies on the other hand are at their wits end, since they are bound to lose out on the cost advantage(by as much as 70 percent) that India offers with its low-cost high-skilled techies. The bitter irony of the fact being that all this in a country which is the epitome of Free Markets and a champion of Globalization, accusing other nations of protectionism at the slightest instance of deviation from its interests, which again are not any stable either.
At the receiving end of the new found US wrath are Indian IT&ITES firms and Indian techies, who to tell the truth have little to do with the unemployment in the United States today. Apart from the humane angle to the woes of a jobless American, to which all of us fully acquiesce and sympathize, an Indian firm, if it operates in the US today, is primarily due to the masterly lessons on Globalisation and Free Market setups by non other than the United States. The democrats need to learn and realize that these very firms are also the ones responsible for creation of a lot of jobs and employment in the US, apart from the best- in-class services rendered. In another U-turn from its globalization sermons recently ,the United States has now hiked the H1 and L1 Visa fees by over 200 percent and come up with more stringent procedural blocks to deter Indian companies from sending their skilled personnel to the United States.That it cited the 'strengthening of its porous Mexican border' to curb illegal immigration as the purpose that the increased fee hike would serve, just goes on to show the extent of the diplomatic hypocrisy involved under the false bonhomie.
The latest of such measures of the new American Protectionism , as the Indian business houses are now labeling it, has been the gubernatorial decision of democrat-run state of Ohio, which has henceforth banned Indian companies from acquiring any business which is funded by the taxpayer's money. This essentially means that even if an Indian firm offers a quote to get the work done at a cost which is 70% less and also the best-in-class than an American Company offers, that work order will end up to the American Company. The logic behind such a ban is simple, to bring into effect the populist measure of job creation and retention (doesn't matter if that comes at twice the cost ) ahead of the congressional elections scheduled later this year. The Ohio governor also for that moment stepped into the shoes of a quality auditor, branding Indian Software exports as
'Sub- Standard', though the top bosses of most of the Fortune 500 companies have repeatedly hailed Indian IT products and Services as the best in the world, and not just products of 'Chop-Shops' as one American senator would like to think.
Today, What America is facing is precisely what India has faced ever since it was free again. The problem of unemployment has long been a hurdle to economic progress and inclusive growth and is a standard issue across democracies of the world. To blame it squarely on Outsourcing and Offshoring is merely to close one's eyes to the problem underneath, and that is just what the Obama administration is upto. Despite being the Oldest democracy in the world, American government is acting in ways that can only be termed as immature. The problem of American unemployment is largely due to the consumer centric policies of the past and its capitalistic tendencies, to draw its youth away from the art of production towards hollow consumption. The sub prime crisis was just one example of this lack of fiscal prudence and unlimited spending on credit. While a sub prime crisis has its remedies in bail out packages and other stimulus measures, the problem of unemployment is a persistent one that cannot be treated overnight and which would require much more from Mr. Obama than blaming the Indians about every job lost. It would need a revival of the Great American spirit of Innovation alongside acknowledging the fact that the great nation of the USA is not the sole contender for economic supremacy anymore. Americans like everyone else need jobs, and more jobs come only from more business. That's also what the Americans have been teaching everyone all through, so why bend the rules now?
Nearly a year after Mr. Travis Allen, the American consulate officer, refused my Visa request, I now understand why he was behaving strangely then. Probably there were talks in the American Embassy of outsourcing the Visa Interviewing process too, and probably he thought his job would also land up with another Travis Allen, somewhere in Bangalore. But If our Travis does it better and faster, why not?
So,Where did the buck stop?
The operations against them, they start again.
The Para Military Forces camp the jungles, making their presence felt again,
The Naxals have their strategy in place again, and the brave jawans fall into a great ambush all over again,
The nation at the breakfast table mourns the barbaric murders of the great men again ,
Fathers. husbands ,brothers and sons travel back home in majestic State Coffins again,
Hail! The Minister! owns up to the “Moral ” Responsibility.. yet again!,
The news channels air the massacre again and again and again...
until Everything is normal again,.. until life moves on again
And The operations against them,...they start again.
A friend recently aired his views on a certain social network about the strategy that 'should be' against the Strategy that 'is' ,in dealing with the Maoists' war against the Indian State. In a matter of minutes he had managed a number of responses criticizing his position on the Indian State resorting to Machiavellian tactics to deal with the insurgents. The responses were all from friends and acquaintances who ,like the civil society of modern times ,wanted India to be patient with these under privileged and misguided youth and gradually align them to the mainstream. A noble thought indeed, and I would admit that is the most just thing to do under the watchful eyes of a vigilant International community, The Rights groups and such activists . I am also perfectly aligned to the massive underdevelopment debate that does its rounds in the Civil society meetings and concerns the Educated and the Elite. Dialogues indeed, could save the situation for both the State as well as those who want to usurp it. However, no one's talking beyond this.
In the aftermath of such a barbaric massacre of men brings onto the front some pressing concerns and questions:
What happened to the Government's call for a dialogue with the anarchists? Why aren't the Naxal leaders ready to give it a try? Why aren't the civic rights activists and groups coming forward to broker a truce between the warring parties? What explanation do the Naxal sympathizers like Arundhati Roy and Mahasweta devi have to this bloodbath? What are the 'questions' they have for the government now? And just when, are they going to be part of the solution?
While we can have all the civilized debates of this world about a strategy to deal with this threat to India's internal security, any such exercise would be futile unless the interests of the stakeholders around this issues are upheld. The speed-bumps encountered in such an effort to arrive at a consensus would be manifold. The biggest among them is the policy line to be towed, the question of whether to continue being the 'Soft' State, or confront the insurgents with brute force? The more real problem of identification.. just who is an insurgent and who is the innocent villager? A major hurdle in zeroing down to an action plan is the bipolar alignment of Center-State relationships in India, and the consequent reluctance of the states to implement non populist policies formulated by the center. Then, there are other issues of human right violations, matters of crimes against humanity et al.
It is indeed a complex web let us admit, and let us also assert that no single strategy would work like it did elsewhere and neither would it satisfy every stakeholder circumscribed by the menace. Any strategy that emerges out has to be multi-pronged, from confronting the extreme insurgency with force if need be so that the insurgents do not go into a killing spree like they did in Dantewada and several other places recently, to dealing with the moderate factions of the such groups with Soft power and ensuring their long term rehabilitation.
Any such rehabilitation has to be a long time exercise , from the immediate concerns of food, shelter, education and a respectable living to the long term exercise of inclusive growth and nation-building.
Such an assertion is more likely to cover lost ground than the ones that are prevalent ,where actual groundwork has given way to political chaos and strategic confusion.
The men at the helm of the Indian home affairs and the ones handling the states need to think out of the box to arrive at something that works real time and something that is not just food to destructive populism. The negative development and steep inequality meted out to all such remote areas(which now form the infamous Red Corridor ) of the Indian federation are amongst the concrete reasons that fuel such hatred against the political sovereign. As responsible pressure groups, the civil society which cries foul at every step the government takes, needs to be the bridge that joins rather than the one which divides. It has an important role to play in any truce that has to be brokered between the state and the anti-State forces so that all stakeholders can participate in working out an intelligent and workable solution to put an end to these unspeakable acts of violence, mutilations, and innocent deaths.
I wouldn't take too long, because any amount of black and white would only be on papyrus until implemented. There are just two sets of innocent people who lose their lives, the insurgents who are baptized by the fire of false propaganda and the innocent men in uniform who are just 'doing as directed'. Let us not get carried away with the ideology and what nots of the Naxalism or any such Marxian deviation. There is no ideology to such acts of madness. Had there been any, probably the biggest naxal leaders would perish fighting for it instead of the small timers.
There are probably a zillion ways to interpret this conflict of interests, and one could use any nomenclature to describe the 'battle' between the State and the Stateless, the bourgeois and the proletariat, the lords and the serfs , the state and non-state actors or between status quo and total revolution, but there might just be one solution to end the barbarisms such classifications unfold . And that one solution, has to be engineered sooner than ever, before another Dantewada happens.
The Para Military Forces camp the jungles, making their presence felt again,
The Naxals have their strategy in place again, and the brave jawans fall into a great ambush all over again,
The nation at the breakfast table mourns the barbaric murders of the great men again ,
Fathers. husbands ,brothers and sons travel back home in majestic State Coffins again,
Hail! The Minister! owns up to the “Moral ” Responsibility.. yet again!,
The news channels air the massacre again and again and again...
until Everything is normal again,.. until life moves on again
And The operations against them,...they start again.
A friend recently aired his views on a certain social network about the strategy that 'should be' against the Strategy that 'is' ,in dealing with the Maoists' war against the Indian State. In a matter of minutes he had managed a number of responses criticizing his position on the Indian State resorting to Machiavellian tactics to deal with the insurgents. The responses were all from friends and acquaintances who ,like the civil society of modern times ,wanted India to be patient with these under privileged and misguided youth and gradually align them to the mainstream. A noble thought indeed, and I would admit that is the most just thing to do under the watchful eyes of a vigilant International community, The Rights groups and such activists . I am also perfectly aligned to the massive underdevelopment debate that does its rounds in the Civil society meetings and concerns the Educated and the Elite. Dialogues indeed, could save the situation for both the State as well as those who want to usurp it. However, no one's talking beyond this.
In the aftermath of such a barbaric massacre of men brings onto the front some pressing concerns and questions:
What happened to the Government's call for a dialogue with the anarchists? Why aren't the Naxal leaders ready to give it a try? Why aren't the civic rights activists and groups coming forward to broker a truce between the warring parties? What explanation do the Naxal sympathizers like Arundhati Roy and Mahasweta devi have to this bloodbath? What are the 'questions' they have for the government now? And just when, are they going to be part of the solution?
While we can have all the civilized debates of this world about a strategy to deal with this threat to India's internal security, any such exercise would be futile unless the interests of the stakeholders around this issues are upheld. The speed-bumps encountered in such an effort to arrive at a consensus would be manifold. The biggest among them is the policy line to be towed, the question of whether to continue being the 'Soft' State, or confront the insurgents with brute force? The more real problem of identification.. just who is an insurgent and who is the innocent villager? A major hurdle in zeroing down to an action plan is the bipolar alignment of Center-State relationships in India, and the consequent reluctance of the states to implement non populist policies formulated by the center. Then, there are other issues of human right violations, matters of crimes against humanity et al.
It is indeed a complex web let us admit, and let us also assert that no single strategy would work like it did elsewhere and neither would it satisfy every stakeholder circumscribed by the menace. Any strategy that emerges out has to be multi-pronged, from confronting the extreme insurgency with force if need be so that the insurgents do not go into a killing spree like they did in Dantewada and several other places recently, to dealing with the moderate factions of the such groups with Soft power and ensuring their long term rehabilitation.
Any such rehabilitation has to be a long time exercise , from the immediate concerns of food, shelter, education and a respectable living to the long term exercise of inclusive growth and nation-building.
Such an assertion is more likely to cover lost ground than the ones that are prevalent ,where actual groundwork has given way to political chaos and strategic confusion.
The men at the helm of the Indian home affairs and the ones handling the states need to think out of the box to arrive at something that works real time and something that is not just food to destructive populism. The negative development and steep inequality meted out to all such remote areas(which now form the infamous Red Corridor ) of the Indian federation are amongst the concrete reasons that fuel such hatred against the political sovereign. As responsible pressure groups, the civil society which cries foul at every step the government takes, needs to be the bridge that joins rather than the one which divides. It has an important role to play in any truce that has to be brokered between the state and the anti-State forces so that all stakeholders can participate in working out an intelligent and workable solution to put an end to these unspeakable acts of violence, mutilations, and innocent deaths.
I wouldn't take too long, because any amount of black and white would only be on papyrus until implemented. There are just two sets of innocent people who lose their lives, the insurgents who are baptized by the fire of false propaganda and the innocent men in uniform who are just 'doing as directed'. Let us not get carried away with the ideology and what nots of the Naxalism or any such Marxian deviation. There is no ideology to such acts of madness. Had there been any, probably the biggest naxal leaders would perish fighting for it instead of the small timers.
There are probably a zillion ways to interpret this conflict of interests, and one could use any nomenclature to describe the 'battle' between the State and the Stateless, the bourgeois and the proletariat, the lords and the serfs , the state and non-state actors or between status quo and total revolution, but there might just be one solution to end the barbarisms such classifications unfold . And that one solution, has to be engineered sooner than ever, before another Dantewada happens.
The Indian Kaleidoscope
Looks like everyone is getting talkative by the day! suddenly almost everyone in this world has something to say to the other. India is suddenly willing to have a dialogue with Pakistan. To me that just sounds cool, and it ends there.No matter how much I try, I am never too sure if anyone in Pakistan is ready to listen to what our cabinet ministers have to say. And I can only take refuge in the assumption(which again,is purely mine),that our diplomats are not dead, they are just no diplomats anymore. The problem here is everyone in the UPA regime is utterly confused.
Winning a general election by the clearest of mandates that Federal India can now deliver,The United Progressive Alliance is just out its wits today.With inflation in food items rising exponentially since their election and reaching nearly 20% to end 2009,Mr. Sharad Pawar today is a lonely man. He has been blaming anything and everything under the sun for the Rs.116/kg pulse ,excessive cricket matches,the IPL's schedule,lazy farmers and a sleepy Prime Minister during the food fiasco damage control meetings. Having read a newspaper daily after these guys got elected to Parliament, I remember this gentleman talking of some 100000000 billion tons of wheat, rice, and every variety of pulse that can be, 'stored' somewhere in Utopia , the 29th state of the Indian Union. And as luck would have it a kg of ganga's hilsa is cheaper today than that elusive dal. A super market I recently visited in kolkata put an apt label to section on foodgrains.
It read:
'It'll set your PULSE racing!!'.
The Bombs, the fast-unto-deaths and the landmines
The Ministry of Home Affairs, headed by the Harvard Educated ex-Finmin works in a rather unusual way I would say.I perfectly understand , and with all humility,that managing Home Affairs is not a joke. However, Mr. Chidambaram's department is turning the whole thing into a really poor one.With all the hype and hoopla that they created over the National Investigation Agency post 26/11 what we have today is another agency that's a high profile “fire extinguisher”. So, where's the problem? The problem lies in the fact that the Fire Broke in the first place. The NIA essentially is a noveau post mortem therapy and not the preventive medicine India expected.
These days, a typical terrorist strikes at will, and the irony of the matter lies in the fact that the Home Department is in a state of an Intelligence Overload. And that makes one think, probably, for once he was right when he spoke of splitting the Home Ministry . Probably, Mr.Chidambaram is now aware that this is getting too much a pain for him to handle alone.
People in general donot laugh at bad jokes, but one couldnt help but laugh at the Telangana Fiasco over the last couple of months. On a personal note, I would definitly feel cheated if you promise me a thing and then tell me that it was a Joke. Atleast KCR didnot quite enjoy it. I mean, think what KCR went through, after so much stomach spasms that he resisted (atleast seemingly so) what he achieved was a Joint Action Committee . And if that wasnt enough, today he has lost all support from the Congress MLA's from Telangana, and the Committee, the only “take away” from the massive violence perpetrated by the TRS and Telengana supporters, is only studying the feasibility of a Telangana and a United Andhra(United Andhra??,well ,until the Committee appeared, i thought it was already there!).I am not too sure what the Pro-Telangana people want to do from here really, since, to do the least, they're waiting until December 2010, the deadline for the committee headed by Mr B.N Srikrishna to deliver something fruitful.
Andhra Pradesh is making news everyday, but for a very different set of reasons than what used to be its favourite subject once, the Maoist Problem. Again, probably the Maoists there have found real competition in KCR and company and ever since have ramped up their struggle for uprooting the Indian Union in states like West Bengal. Its a complex situation here in WB, since these maoists in the borders of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa have discovered local support and it has become increasingly difficult to say who's a maoist and who's not. The Centre probably saw a solution in the much talked about operation GreenHunt. But the states like Jharkhand and West Bengal, are not too keen on resorting to force since the contemporary leadership of such states finds a considerable share of votes from the maoist affected areas. So the age old problem of the center-state relations in a democracy, and however hard Mr. Chidambaram might have tried, a effective solution is still not in sight. Both sides , the center and the maoists want to talk and have gone on the record emphasizing it too, but the real thing is just not working.
For me, I am not surprised, since the UPA has not been able to stop anti-political parties like the Shiv-Sena, the Maharashtra Nav-Nirman Sena and other such fundamentalist groups tendering violence and hate speeches just to make it to the primetime , One cant really expect them to cover any ground in the real time issues of the Maoists in states that are to top it, are under a different party rule.
Probably, we have a full view of a democracy in function these days, Coalition Politics at its best, and a grilling opposition ready to pounce over every question that's asked in the Parliament and an underconfident government, which is faultering at almost every decision that matters.
Winning a general election by the clearest of mandates that Federal India can now deliver,The United Progressive Alliance is just out its wits today.With inflation in food items rising exponentially since their election and reaching nearly 20% to end 2009,Mr. Sharad Pawar today is a lonely man. He has been blaming anything and everything under the sun for the Rs.116/kg pulse ,excessive cricket matches,the IPL's schedule,lazy farmers and a sleepy Prime Minister during the food fiasco damage control meetings. Having read a newspaper daily after these guys got elected to Parliament, I remember this gentleman talking of some 100000000 billion tons of wheat, rice, and every variety of pulse that can be, 'stored' somewhere in Utopia , the 29th state of the Indian Union. And as luck would have it a kg of ganga's hilsa is cheaper today than that elusive dal. A super market I recently visited in kolkata put an apt label to section on foodgrains.
It read:
'It'll set your PULSE racing!!'.
The Bombs, the fast-unto-deaths and the landmines
The Ministry of Home Affairs, headed by the Harvard Educated ex-Finmin works in a rather unusual way I would say.I perfectly understand , and with all humility,that managing Home Affairs is not a joke. However, Mr. Chidambaram's department is turning the whole thing into a really poor one.With all the hype and hoopla that they created over the National Investigation Agency post 26/11 what we have today is another agency that's a high profile “fire extinguisher”. So, where's the problem? The problem lies in the fact that the Fire Broke in the first place. The NIA essentially is a noveau post mortem therapy and not the preventive medicine India expected.
These days, a typical terrorist strikes at will, and the irony of the matter lies in the fact that the Home Department is in a state of an Intelligence Overload. And that makes one think, probably, for once he was right when he spoke of splitting the Home Ministry . Probably, Mr.Chidambaram is now aware that this is getting too much a pain for him to handle alone.
People in general donot laugh at bad jokes, but one couldnt help but laugh at the Telangana Fiasco over the last couple of months. On a personal note, I would definitly feel cheated if you promise me a thing and then tell me that it was a Joke. Atleast KCR didnot quite enjoy it. I mean, think what KCR went through, after so much stomach spasms that he resisted (atleast seemingly so) what he achieved was a Joint Action Committee . And if that wasnt enough, today he has lost all support from the Congress MLA's from Telangana, and the Committee, the only “take away” from the massive violence perpetrated by the TRS and Telengana supporters, is only studying the feasibility of a Telangana and a United Andhra(United Andhra??,well ,until the Committee appeared, i thought it was already there!).I am not too sure what the Pro-Telangana people want to do from here really, since, to do the least, they're waiting until December 2010, the deadline for the committee headed by Mr B.N Srikrishna to deliver something fruitful.
Andhra Pradesh is making news everyday, but for a very different set of reasons than what used to be its favourite subject once, the Maoist Problem. Again, probably the Maoists there have found real competition in KCR and company and ever since have ramped up their struggle for uprooting the Indian Union in states like West Bengal. Its a complex situation here in WB, since these maoists in the borders of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa have discovered local support and it has become increasingly difficult to say who's a maoist and who's not. The Centre probably saw a solution in the much talked about operation GreenHunt. But the states like Jharkhand and West Bengal, are not too keen on resorting to force since the contemporary leadership of such states finds a considerable share of votes from the maoist affected areas. So the age old problem of the center-state relations in a democracy, and however hard Mr. Chidambaram might have tried, a effective solution is still not in sight. Both sides , the center and the maoists want to talk and have gone on the record emphasizing it too, but the real thing is just not working.
For me, I am not surprised, since the UPA has not been able to stop anti-political parties like the Shiv-Sena, the Maharashtra Nav-Nirman Sena and other such fundamentalist groups tendering violence and hate speeches just to make it to the primetime , One cant really expect them to cover any ground in the real time issues of the Maoists in states that are to top it, are under a different party rule.
Probably, we have a full view of a democracy in function these days, Coalition Politics at its best, and a grilling opposition ready to pounce over every question that's asked in the Parliament and an underconfident government, which is faultering at almost every decision that matters.
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