Vijaya's Mocktales from The Week: July 2015

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Anti Congress ..or anti Gandhi? Modi & BJP still fear the Congress

Is Modi really anti Congress?

By Vijaya Pushkarna/July 2, 2015

PM Modi participates in the cenenary celebrations of late Congress leader Girdhari Lal Dogra in Jammu /AFP

Congress mukt Bharat (Congress-free India)”. That is what the Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have been wanting, and working towards, ever since the campaign for Lok Sabha 2014 began.

The old Congress leader Devkant Barua who was president of the Congress during the Emergency in 1975 said “Indira is India and India is Indira”. The BJP's top leadership seems to believe that Congress is the Gandhis and the Gandhis are the Congress.

So what they wanted boils down to Gandhi mukt Congress. For they had no compunction when it came to taking Congress leaders who could have won, on the eve of elections, chopped off their Open Hand, which is the Congress symbol, fixed in its place a lotus and fielded them as BJP candidates. And some were adjusted in the Rajya Sabha. One of them, Rao Inderjit Singh, is a junior minister, and another, is Chaudhary Birender Singh, the Union Minister for Rural Development. The number of such MPs in the BJP now is 162. Not that this kind of trapezing, without caring to hold the flimsiest of ideological string, is rare. But then, BJP took pride in being a party with a difference, claiming a high moral grandstanding.

That the party is ok with Congress minus Gandhis became evident a day before Eid, when Prime Minister Modi visited Jammu, to participate in the centenary celebrations of late Congress leader Girdhari Lal Dogra, who was the finance minister of Jammu and Kashmir for about 27 years—could be a record. Long dead, Dogra could not have swung across to the BJP to contest elections. But the PM and the BJP had a grand celebration because Dogra's son-in-law is none other than Finance Minister Arun Jaitely, who helps the party open doors for Congressmen, and helps them win. Never mind that he lost to Congress leader Capt Amarender Singh in Amritsar during the Lok Sabha elections.

Modi praised Dogra. Not for the finance minister he had been. He did not even mention the financial package the state has been asking for. Nor did he talk about the regional disparity that people and leaders of Jammu division keep talking about. Modi praised Dogra for choosing a son-in-law like Jaitely! And then he connected to Robert Vadra, and attacked the son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Jammu was another parliamentary constituency—Amritsar was one—being mentioned in connection with Arun Jaitely before the elections. Perhaps they will field him from there on a future date: for Modi praised Jaitely for pursuing his own political ideology and never depending on his father-in-law for anything—unlike the Gandhi son-in-law.

That is the low to which the political discourse fell at a centenary celebration, and holding forth was the very communicative and eloquent Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Often enough, the party leaders show the map, and proudly point out the expanding saffron sphere, and diminishing Congress presence. They have won successive elections, barring Delhi, which they lost, not to Congress, but to the Aam Aadmi Party. We have delivered on our promise of Congress mukt Bharat, party president Amit Shah told the media some months ago. But, clearly, the grand old party has not become a ghost to be brushed aside. Nor the Gandhis to be written off by them, regardless of the uncharitable references to its Vice President Rahul Gandhi.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Speak English & become an Englishman? !!

Tongue in Check

It was shocking to hear Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh equate English speaking with “trying to be like an Englishman”! Singh was addressing the convocation of students graduating from a private institute at Noida on the outskirts of the national capital. He went on to elaborate that “English bolne se gyan nahin hota”, meaning that English speaking does not add to knowledge! “Don't be just an Englishman, be an Indian first” he said.

The minister said he was not asking them to speak in Hindi, but in any Indian language that is their mother tongue. He chided youngsters who said “hi” and “bye” to their parents, and asked them to wish them “properly”. Maybe, by that he meant “Say Ram Ram”? He urged them to touch their parents' feet and seek their blessings. And to ensure he was not misunderstood, Singh clarified that he did not want anyone to hate English!

Ironically, he went on to talk about Digital India, for it was an institute of Information Technology. Does the leader know that digitalisation is global and whether we like it or not, English—in its UK, USA, Australian or Indie avatar—along with numerals, is at the heart of it?

Singh, by the way, was a mass leader in Uttar Pradesh around the time he was chief minister there. And no leader of any Indian state, let alone of the Hindi heartland, can miss the desperate craving of people to speak in English, and using it, climb the social and economic ladder. People in small towns and villages prefer to starve, but pay the fees and send their children to a private school instead of sending them to a government school. The reason is private schools advertise the fact that English is the medium of instruction and government schools are at the whims and fancy of ministers of the time! Millions of people attend English speaking classes with hope, dreams and aspiration.

Will speaking in English, or attempting to do that, make people forget their mother tongue? I think not, having heard many brilliant speakers of the language count numbers in their mother tongue when they have to do a quick calculation. Or enjoy a joke, a comment or a story in their mother tongue. Hindi, Malayalam, Bangla or Tamil, or any other language... they are not so weak that they cannot hold their own in front of English.

Tagore's Gitanjali won the Nobel after it was translated into English. Most kids who speaks English can recite “Where the mind is without fear and the head held high...”. But can a bright student from the most literate state of Kerala say that in Bangla? English has united India, possibly more than the Indian Railways.

What is India's biggest strength compared to China? It does not require a scholar of Indo-China studies to say English—the knowledge of the language and the skill to speak it fluently.

English language skills do not just add to our strength, visa vis, the economic power that China is. Our fluency in the Queen's language is also the reason why the huge Indian diaspora is a success story, whether in the UK, the US, Australia or anywhere else.

Soon after the Modi government assumed office, they tried limiting the press notes/tweets of the Press Information Bureau to Hindi. They had to roll back in no time.

Here is hoping Rajnath Singh rolls back his views, and speaks up for more English. And in English.

Monday, July 13, 2015

What emails reveal....

Females through email

The emails a person sends and receives reveal a lot about him or her. Recently, it came to light that Hillary Clinton who is running for American presidency, had used her personal email id to communicate with top aides of President Barack Obama, when she was the secretary of state. The state department had clear rules against employees regularly using personal email for official work. But as people responded using the “reply” button, most officials she communicated with appear not to have noticed it. And an odd person who did notice it, did not jump to the conclusion that she had used that exclusively. She indeed had.

So when an American government website, in response to a court ruling, showed a batch of emails from her time in office—including her truly personal mails—it revealed a lot about Hillary Clinton, the woman as well as the leader who drove Obama's foreign policy. It revealed: that Obama aide David Axelrod had written “You are an all-star player, and we need you for the long run”, her invite to Strobe Talbot for lunch or dinner to talk policy, how she struggled to use a fax machine and her concerns over what was for lunch or dinner and about tweets.

But in India, monitoring of emails of ministers or officials, on whether they use official or personal mail, is not routinely carried out. In any case, the mail is generally “put up” to the minister or officer. On issues they wish to be totally secretive in their communication they avoid email and try to meet personally. If that too is not possible, they make a phone call—after ensuring that the phone is not tapped.

And so it was that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj decided to call up Keith Vaz, the British parliamentarian of Indian origin, who has now become a known name in India, recommending help to IPL czar Lalit Modi.

In a mail dated July 31, 2014, to Sarah Rapson, an immigration official in UK, Vaz noted, “Foreign Minister of India has spoken to me making it very clear that the Indian Government has no objection to the travel document being granted, which is contrary to what the refusal notice has stated. Mrs Swaraj has also spoken to Sir James Bevan, who even though is on leave, said he will speak to the relevant person in the Home Office.” Vaz signed off saying, “ Frankly everyone has been involved in this apart from Ban-ki-Moon”.

Little did Sushma foresee that Vaz would refer to that phone call in an email and eventually land himself in trouble in UK and make her the huge collateral damage in India!

But back to Hillary Clinton's emails. A news report on these emails also mentions that she and her closest staffers communicated “in a sort of code, using nicknames”!

Lalit Modi-Sushma Swaraj expose has perennial recall value

Sushma Swaraj: Hurt but not out

"Yeah, she has erred I agree. But she should continue, I hope she does". That was a Whatsapp message from a female entrepreneur in Bengaluru, asking about the latest on the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj story. Will she resign? Will she be sacked? Her messages expressed hope that she will continue in office.

The Sushma fan also knows and believes that she has erred, and grossly so, in helping fugitive Lalit Modi with freedom to have fun with his black money—said to be the loot of the IPL he fathered. And also glossing over the conflict of interest she faced—her husband Swaraj Kaushal and daughter Bansuri were the legal eagles for the flamboyant man who cares a hoot for law—Indian or otherwise.

There are indications that she won't be sacked or asked to resign. But it is not because of any newfound fondness Prime Minister Narendra Modi has for her. He will support and retain her where she is, because he does not want to give the Opposition an opportunity to score a political brownie point.

While they were in the opposition, the BJP gloated over the many “wickets” they took in the UPA regime. Suresh Kalmadi, the head of Indian Olymic Association was sacked thanks to the Commonwealth Games scam. Then home minister Shivraj Patil fell to the terror strike at Mumbai's Taj Hotel in 2008. Then Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal was thrown out of the cabinet when it was found that his nephew had taken money for promotion to a senior post in the Railways. Ashwini Kumar, the minister of state for law, was ejected when it became clear he had whetted CBI files that were to be presented in the Supreme Court in the coal scam. Ashok Chauhan, chief minister of Maharashtra, had to go for his involvement in the Adarsh Housing Society scam.

Individuals lost ministerial berths, but the entire party—the Congress—was punished by the people, as BJP asked them to vote out the scam ridden party of leaders who are corrupt and cannot govern. So Sushma Swaraj may not become the first wicket to fall. There are a couple of other reasons why she will stay put.

The BJP will be able to fish out cases where the ministers in the UPA regime have similarly used their position to favour people. Rahul Gandhi's admission to Harvard for one. The time he was caught with excessive money, again in the US, with then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee playing uncle and rescuing him.

Sushma has impressed all with her good work as a leader, be it in her party, the Parliament or her constituency. She has friends and admirers across the political divide. That goodwill will also count with the party.

Yet she has hit herself where it hurts. Any story on her, even 50 years from now, will come with the add-on line, “Sushma Swaraj, who helped the controversial fugitive Lalit Modi...etc etc.” It is indeed an indelible scar, for the Lalit Modi-Sushma Swaraj expose has perennial recall value.

Tailpiece: Years ago, Rupan Deol Bajaj, the Punjab cadre IAS officer (since retired) was pursuing a case against super cop K.P.S. Gill, for outraging her modesty. She wanted the court to punish him with a token one rupee deduction from his pension. How will a one rupee deduction matter? “When he receives his passbook or pension slip or whatever, it will show the pension, and it will show 'the deduction on account of verdict in the case... .' He can never forget his crime”, she explained.

Emergency's living hero forgotten

Democracy day, Modi style

If there has been an excess of Emergency in the media lately, it is thanks to the Modi government. No, this is not to suggest that it is born out of fear that Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the 56-inch chest fame may impose Emergency to get things moving the way he wants.

It is because the darkest period in independent India could never have made it to the media, public debate and discussions in a Congress regime. The Congress did every thing to duck responsibility for it, and even more, to erase public memory of it. And while in office, the Vajpayee government did precious little to tell the young people of those years how hard won their freedom was. Even while in opposition between 2004-2014, the BJP did nothing towards this end.

So, why did the BJP organise a function to mark June 25—the 40th anniversary of the Emergency—as the Democracy Day?

There could be a few reasons. Possibly, they genuinely wanted to do it because it was all over the media—The WEEK brought people born in the post-Emergency period up-to-date with the “mid night knock” and all that it represented. Senior journalist Coomi Kapoor told her story of those months in a book titled, “The Emergency – A Personal History”. The dark 19 months had in fact been brought out of the closets and put in full view of the public.

The day also gave the BJP and Prime Minister Modi the opportunity to come down heavily on the Congress whose leaders appear to have finally learnt to oppose. With documents, facts and harsh statements Congress is busy exposing the Modi government over the Lalit Modi slush in which senior BJP leaders found themselves covered!

But above all, sources say, the BJP organised the function, and invited almost all and sundry, to snub former deputy prime minister Lal Krishna Advani. In spite of being the senior most leader to have witnessed the Emergency from close quarters—in jail—Advani was not invited to the BJP event, where other party leaders who were jailed then were honoured. The party veteran's crime: he had said that the politics of the country has not given him the impression that there will be no encore of the Emergency. Much to Modi's chagrin.

Not inviting Advani gave the impression of a petty prime minister and a petty party president, between them lacking two things at least: regard for seniors, something the RSS-BJP boast of, and plain courtesy. More importantly, they missed the point that democracy is all about tolerating diverse view points.

A speech by Advani at that event would have made it clear that he was not pointing fingers at Modi when he said that another Emergency cannot be ruled out. But it is nobody's fault if Modi has not heard of stooping to conquer! Or even agreeing to disagree!

Tail piece: Advani was not the only BJP leader active during the Emergency to have been left out of the Democracy Day celebrations. Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi and party leader Jagmohan, too, were not invited. They were active then, but on the other side of the political divide. Maneka was Sanjay Gandhi's wife, and Jagmohan executed the demolitions at the instance of Sanjay Gandhi.

Cronies, sycophants...what's different about the BJP?

RIP The Party with a Difference

There is no epitaph, for the mortal remains have been immersed in the Holy Ganges. It was a party with a difference. Note the word 'was'. But it is not as if the party is dead. The Bharatiya Janata Party is alive as never before. With 281 seats in the Lok Sabha, a number that surprised the party. The difference is what died, somewhere along the campaign before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Various senior leaders have at different times eloquently and beautifully explained what was different about their party. One striking point was they were a party that stood for collective leadership.

When leaders expressed different, and sometimes contradictory view points, it was very rightly attributed to inner party democracy. Members had the freedom to have views and the freedom to air them and that included the right to criticise. But once a decision was taken or resolution passed, everyone fell in line, and that became the party decision, the collective decision.

Collective leadership was also about a team where everyone was equal, each prized and cherished for his or her contribution to politics, party and Parliament. Everyone felt the party was his or hers. Now it has almost become a two-man show.

A difference they took pride in was that everyone stood a fair chance at becoming the first among equals—within the party—and rubbed in that it was unlike the Congress, where one had to be born in the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty to occupy that chair.

Now, the ideological parent has become to this political party what the Nehru-Gandhi womb they say is for the Congress. Those who do not have the blessings from the ideological parent stand no chance of making it to the top.

There was yet another difference. Cronyism and sycophancy were alien to the party and belonged only to the Congress. When the party's founders and those who gave it their blood and sweat in the early years of formation were mentioned or their virtues extolled, it was not like a sycophant would, but done with reverence, in a historical perspective.

The qualities that made it a party with the difference died one by one, over the last year plus. How brazen have the sycophants become? Sample this:

“For nearly a thousand years, Indians have been waiting for a messiah like Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Uma Bharti, Union Water Resources Minister, said to a packed gathering at Jaipur on June 5. Even before he became prime minister, the party slogans had less of BJP and more of “NaMo”.

But even those who boasted of theirs being a party with a difference, did not squirm. “The Namo Namo tamasha, the decision making process in the BJP smacks more of the arrogance of the Emergency in 1975 and less of taking everyone along,” said former BJP leader and many times cabinet minister Jaswant Singh. He could afford to say it because he was on the verge of leaving the party or being shown the door.

Modi Govt's One year in Office

What people want : Ease of Living

ThThe e The celebrations for the Modi governments one year in office will last for a week | PTI for the Modi governments one year in office will last for a week |
There may not be the razmatazz that accompanied Prime Minister Narendra Modi's September 2014 event at New York's Madison Square Garden, but the Modi government will celebrate its first year in office, in a big, election-campaign style across the country. The slogan, saal ek kaam anek (one year, many tasks done) coined for the event was swiftly changed to a more realistic saal ek shuruvat anek (one year, many beginnings).

Beginning on May 25 and spread over a week, the celebrations will include 5,000 small and big jan sabhas—public meetings, 200 big rallies and as many press conferences. There will be 500 roadshows and exhibitions, and 340 vans will screen 20,000 videos of the government's achievement in 365 days. The Rambhakts may be huffing and puffing that the government has forgotten its promise about building a temple at Ayodhya, but it is from Krishna Janambhoomi Mathura that Prime Minister Modi will tell people about what he has done for them during the last one year.

The anniversary is being celebrated as Jan Kalyan Parv, meaning festival of public welfare, and the biggest talking point will be the universal social security net launched by the government recently: the insurance, accident insurance and pension schemes. People, were no longer blindly enthused by his name, but wanted something tangible. That became clear to the Prime Minister when the Modi magic failed to bag the Delhi government in February last.

The Prime Minister will launch Kisan television channel dedicated to the nation: it's 24x7 programme will be farmer-centric and agri-centric. It may not solve the agrarian crisis in the country, or assuage the hurt of farmers who were expecting a 50 per cent hike in minimum support price, but got only 3.4 per cent. The programs will not compensate farmers whose standing crops were washed away by unseasonal rains recently. But it will be a centrepiece to deflect their anger over the Land Bill, to show farmers that he is enabling them with knowledge and skills that will be enduring unlike the doles or subsidies that the UPA gave them. It is another matter that farmers are more likely to be watching a rerun of Kyonki Saas bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi on an entertainment channel!

What the aam admi and the kisan actually want appears to have been lost sight of by the party in the din of figuring out how best to make for “ease of doing business”—what the corporates want. It is ease of living. In the one year of this government, there has been no change in processes with regard to filing an FIR, getting fire clearance for a building, freedom from affidavits, getting a driving licence or motor vehicle registration, birth certificate and death certificate etc. Many poll bound states had tried to address this by passing a right to time bound delivery of services law, covering points where people interface with the government. They listed more and more services. The centre does not have such a law. Many state governments don't. That this ease of living is what people want is a point the government appears to have missed.

Can Yamuna become the Thames of Delhi?

Yamuna: Looking for a Saviour

A man throwing puja offerings in the Yamuna River in New Delhi | PTI

Till a few years ago most people would sound almost apologetic when sharing their Yamuna paar or trans-Yamuna address. Not any more. The metro has linked Yamuna paar areas to Connaught Place, the heart of Delhi. Akshar Dham, is a huge attraction. The six-laned National Highway 24, the malls and multiplexes and the exponential development of the NCR in Gaziabad and Noida have made trans-Yamuna localities almost as happening as the rest of the capital.

But the same cannot be said of Yamuna, the river. In fact, for most part of the year, it looks little more than a drain, with tiny streams of water at places and filthy discharge of effluents, pollutants and toxic stuff. There are flowers, coconuts, fruits and clothes “offered” to the river by the devout! Because the Yamuna has dried up, the river bed is used by locals. They grow vegetables using the filthy water, illegally.

In December last, the Delhi Development Authority set up the Unified Centre for the Rejuvenation of River Yamuna (Restoration and Beautification) with the aim of conserving the river, among other things. The National Green Tribunal has come up with the idea of charging a fine on those caught throwing waste into the river. The tribunal asked the Delhi Jal Board to get the Sewage Treatment Plants functional and add to their numbers.

When the Delhi Metro was building its Yamuna Bank station near the riverbed, its then chairman E. Sreedharan had a suggestion for the Yamuna. “If the Yamuna is to be saved, there is only one way. Control the width of the river, not allowing the flood waters to inundate the low-lying areas of the city and allow the river to reach its own natural regime in the constricted width... Two large longitudinal sewers should be built behind the rampart walls to intercept all the sewage falling into the river, take the sewage to a far-off place, and after proper treatment, let the effluents flow into the river.... The low lying areas behind the masonry embankments should be released for high end development...leaving a corridor of 300 metres reserved adjacent to the river bank for gardens, promenades and recreation centres...” he wrote . This was in 2009.

Was he describing how the Yamuna can become the Thames of Delhi? He was. That is the way river banks in Paris, Budapest, New York and Moscow are developed to keep the river clean and ensure the city is not smelly.

There was furore all around. This is Yamunaji, not the Thames, was the general cry.

The Supreme Court, which has its eyes on the river, said in October 2014 that they were looking for a “miracle man” like E. Sreedharan, who delivered the Delhi Metro and the Konkan Railways. He had them on track ahead of their deadline and without any cost escalation. Both these feats are not rare, but rarest of rare instances in infrastructure development in the country. “An honest person with a technical brain” is how they had described the Metro Man, and thus, the kind of profile they were looking for, to rejuvenate the Yamuna.

Should we be surprised if the eventual plan for Yamuna conservation happens along the lines suggested by the Metro Man? Perhaps not. The opposition then notwithstanding.

Juvenile Rapist and the Law

Too young to be punished, but not to rape..

(File) The Juvenile Justice Bill 2014 was passed in the Lok Sabha on May 7, 2015 | PTI

The reference to the Nirbhaya case comes up almost every day. It is used as a reference to the sum total of most gender based crimes, including a very different issue: marital rape.

The case has come up for reference in Parliament, where the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill 2014 was passed in the Lok Sabha on May 7, 2015. It will now be discussed in the Rajya Sabha before it hopefully becomes a law. There is a lot in the bill, but at its heart is the provision to try juveniles in the 16-18 age group as adults, for heinous offences.

The Justice Verma Committee, appointed when the nation was in a seemingly endless state of shock and horror post Nirbhaya, made suggestions that have resulted in positive changes in the criminal laws. But the Committee did not favour the reduction of the age of juveniles from the prevailing 18 to 16.

Of the six accused in the most horrific rape and murder case that ever rocked India, one committed suicide in jail. Four were convicted and awarded death sentence, which they have challenged. “The most brutal” of the six, according to the chargesheet by the Delhi Police, was a 'juvenile', 17 plus but under 18. He will be out of a reformatory home, by end of next year.

The Juvenile Justice Board presented the age of the juvenile, based on the birth certificate and school documents adduced on his behalf. The board successfully opposed a bone ossification test to determine his age.

Women's groups may scream that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is guily of abandoning his wife Jasodaben. But they cannot say he did nothing by way of following up the Nirbhaya episode to the extent possible—though he too cannot guarantee women's safety at home or outside.

Encouraged by the report of an informal group of ministers to go into the subject, the ministry for women and child development put up a proposal before the cabinet, which unanimously approved the bill. In doing so, it brushed aside the report of a parliamentary standing committee, opposed to this reduction of age for the purposes of trying and punishing juveniles under 18.

Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh had a couple of years ago said “they are boys, mistakes do happen, we should forgive and forget”. But now most MPs would like the men (anyone who can rape cannot be a boy, can he?), who do what the juvenile did to Nirbhaya, punished. That is the scene that has emerged so far in Lok Sabha.

Among the 80,000 plus emails that were sent to the Justice Verma Committee's inbox was mine, favouring unsparing adult-like punishment to a rapist, regardless of age.

Why should the criminal law be the same for under 16-rapist as for a 36-year-old rapist?

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor appears to have answered the question when he spoke on the bill. Determination of age of a child is difficult. Lightly, he pointed to the fact that the minister of state for external affairs, general (retd.) V.K. Singh, would know as he had used a supposed wrong entry of his date of birth, as reason to seek an extra year as army chief! Tharoor's jibe is one of countless light moments in our Parliament, and it is totally parliamentary language.

But the important thing is the “juvenile” we are letting off the hook, may not be one. Anyway, he is a rapist. The Juvenile Justice Bill should become law to punish the likes of him.