tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-104081072024-03-07T13:17:40.039+05:30Beyond Labelsthe soapbox of an unrepentant freethinkerseethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03595747396350996728noreply@blogger.comBlogger162125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10408107.post-87250084553357518682022-05-23T14:22:00.002+05:302022-05-23T14:28:41.289+05:30<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"> <b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;">An Important and Informative Work</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfwDnO91JhC3anDxx2sR6bAYH5qlILHQqtnOfxqDf2l784avl0tjGRfdzfQH9qhsIFIld6l8yxRMfMOfzt8jp9d53pr-4VS3ezQVMkqP1SMS0C1e2DWvVka6ZCxxz9e9kpyyVxXdLA6ralBA_wnapvD0BNeWmWdQlC4soycQ-W96u4MlNMBw/s2325/hinduscience0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2325" data-original-width="1664" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfwDnO91JhC3anDxx2sR6bAYH5qlILHQqtnOfxqDf2l784avl0tjGRfdzfQH9qhsIFIld6l8yxRMfMOfzt8jp9d53pr-4VS3ezQVMkqP1SMS0C1e2DWvVka6ZCxxz9e9kpyyVxXdLA6ralBA_wnapvD0BNeWmWdQlC4soycQ-W96u4MlNMBw/s320/hinduscience0001.jpg" width="229" /></a></span></b></div><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"><br /> </span></b><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Modern Worlds. Alok Kumar. Jaico Books. 2019. Pp: 197.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rs 450/-</span></p>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;">Two extremes have marked the discourse on ancient
Indian, specifically Hindu, knowledge in the past decade or so. On the one hand
are those making fanciful-bordering-on-bizarre claims. On the other are those
who rightly mock these claims. But in doing this, they are silent about, and
thus unfairly deny, many genuine achievements of ancient scholars. So there is
an entire generation growing up not knowing that zero is India’s gift to mathematics,
Aryabhatta’s contribution to mathematics and astronomy, Susruta’s and Charaka’s
contributions to medicine and much, much else. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;">Alok Kumar’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ancient
Hindu Science </i>is an important book in this context, helping separate the
whacky from the sane. As he himself writes, he has “sorted out the hard facts
from fantasy”. This is not a boastful claim. This book is actually a very
well-researched one, as the copious footnotes and 22 page bibliography show.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;">The book deals with Hindu contribution to six areas –
mathematics (the most extensive section, and one which can be daunting for
those who don’t have a love for numbers), astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology
and medicine. The book has a wealth of information on ancient India’s
contribution in these six areas.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;">Zero is not the only contribution to mathematics, the
word sine in trigonometry also has its roots in Sanskrit. Aryabhatta assigned
diurnal motion to earth and kept the sun stationary centuries before
Copernicus. Charaka, Susruta and Kautilya had written about oxidation,
calcination and distillation. The claim that Ganesha’s elephant head is proof
of plastic surgery in ancient times is much mocked; Kumar points out that
Susruta had described the technique to graft skin – a procedure adopted in the
west only in the fifteenth century. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;">For those who want western/foreign validation on
anything related to India, Kumar quotes ancient and modern foreign scholars who
have either acknowledged Hindu contribution to these fields or have lamented
the lack of such acknowledgement. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;">Fortunately, the book is written in simple language,
which makes it easy for the lay reader, who may not be a mathematician, scientist,
geologist, chemist etc. Experts in individual fields may already know much of
what is in this book. However, there are points at which interest does flag,
when it reads like a mere recounting of achievements. But these is a very minor
quibble.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;">It is possible that someone will challenge much of
what Kumar states. But that does not take away from the value of this work.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"> </span></b></p>
seethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03595747396350996728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10408107.post-42659140118775137302021-07-29T16:59:00.003+05:302021-07-29T16:59:56.681+05:30The Gupta Empire Trilogy: Filling a Gaping Hole in Indian Historical Fiction<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span>“The
story of the Gupta emperors was indeed lost for many, centuries, even though
the Gupta Age was India’s ‘first spring’. . . It was economically prosperous,
politically strong, vibrant, cosmopolitan, cultured, liberal and enlightened.
However, the Gupta Emperors have, unfortunately, not received the kind of
interest or patronage that turned Emperor Ashoka before them and the Mughals
after into an intrinsic part of our cultural consciousness.”</span></span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">
</span></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span>That is
Nandini Sengupta writing in her foreword to her third book in the Gupta Empire
trilogy, <i>The Ocean’s Own</i>. The other two are <i>The King Within</i> and <i>The Poisoned
Heart</i>. All three have been published by Harper Collins.<br /></span></span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">
</span></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><i>The
Ocean’s Own</i> is the story of Samudragupta, his ascension to power after his father
Chandragupta’s death, how he secures his empire and expands it to encompass the
Dakshin (southern) kingdoms of Kanchi and Palakka. It is also about his turbulent
and complicated relationship with Angai, the warrior princess from Kanchi. <span> </span></span></span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">
</span></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span>Though
this book is the third in the series, the other two are about Samudragupta’s
descendants. <i>The King Within</i> is about his son, Chandragupta Vikramaditya and
<i>The Poisoned Heart</i> is about his great grandson (Chandragupta Vikramaditya’s
grandson), Skandagupta. So if someone is interested in reading the trilogy and has
not already read the first two, it is best to start with the third book first. </span></span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">
</span></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span>Nandini
Sengupta has very deftly interwoven historical facts with a bit of fiction (and
historical figures with fictional characters) to give three wonderful stories.
Each story has a woman character with whom the emperor has a complicated
relationship – Angai in the case of Samudragupta, Darshini, the
courtesan-turned-Buddhist in the case of Chandragupta and Rohini, the half-Hun enigma
in the case of Skandagupta.</span></span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">
</span></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span>Between
the three books, the Gupta era and the social mores, the governance, the attire
and fighting techniques are depicted wonderfully. The research is stupendous. What’s
more, details are woven in so deftly into the narrative that at no point does
the interest flag. <span> </span><span> </span></span></span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">
<span style="line-height: 107%;">In the preface, Nandini Sengupta lamented the
lack of attention to the Gupta era. This trilogy is certain to pique interest
in the Gupta dynasty and the period during which it ruled. More importantly, it
also fills a gaping hole in Indian writing in English – fiction set in ancient
India. </span></span></span></div>seethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03595747396350996728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10408107.post-80437427877575376432021-05-26T15:54:00.000+05:302021-05-26T15:54:02.090+05:30Book Review: Insightful Takeaways on Governance <p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">METHOD
IN THE MADNESS: Insights from my career as an insider-outsider-insider</span></b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">.
Parameswaran Iyer. HarperCollins, 2021. Pp 245. Rs 499<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When I started reading this
book, India was reeling from the utter collapse of governance and
administration in the wake of the second wave of the Covid pandemic. Questions
were naturally being asked about bureaucratic competence as well as
inflexibility, and the hoary generalist-versus-specialist debate had
resurfaced. I hoped this book would give some answers. Fortunately it did. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The day after I finished it,
the clip of a district magistrate physically assaulting a young man for
violating the lockdown in Chhattisgarh had gone viral. That brought back
memories of another district magistrate in Tripura, who was also caught on
camera slapping people at a wedding for a similar offence. Obviously one
started wondering about bureaucratic arrogance and whether something in the
system either actively fosters it or simply fails to discourage it.
Unfortunately, this book doesn’t yield any answers on this count.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">But this is just an aside. It
would be unfair to burden <i>Method in the
Madness </i>with the expectations of readers revolving around incidents the
author is not even remotely connected with. In any case it isn’t Parameswaran
Iyer’s failing alone. From what I remember of the memoirs of other bureaucrats
that I have read, no one touches upon this very real problem of high-handedness
with the public. They dwell on, as does this book, their training at the Lal
Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, being constrained by – and
getting around – hidebound rules and budget constraints, navigating political
undercurrents and corruption, the specialist-generalist debate. But this issue
is glossed over. Maybe some future memoir will make up for this lack. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Iyer, who was in the Uttar
Pradesh cadre of the IAS, became a household name because he was the face of
the Swachh Bharat Mission, but he also has under his belt the success of the
Swajal rural drinking water programme in the mid-nineties. And he also went
back and forth between the government and the World Bank, specialising in the
water and sanitation sector. So this book ends up offering wonderful insights
on work cultures and problem solving approaches – not just in the government
and World Bank but also in other countries he dealt with when working with the
latter. It is a very readable account and Iyer peppers it with pithy management
tips highlighted in boxes. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So what are the key
takeaways from the book?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">One, there is a case for
specialisation after a point of time (Iyer feels it should be after 15 years of
field experience), but specialists with a good grounding in
administration/management can deliver better results. But the civil services
system is not inclined to encourage specialisation. A year into the Swajal
project, Iyer was offered a more attractive posting but he turned it down to
his senior’s befuddlement. This was a case of him being offered something; he
might well have been transferred summarily. Indeed, how can any developmental
project succeed if the person helming it is to be transferred within a year? After
his return from the World Bank, Iyer was posted in higher education despite his
domain expertise and then to environment in less than a year. Such stories
abound in the annals of civil service history. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Related to this is the issue
of lateral entry into the civil service – can domain experts with no knowledge
of how the `system’ functions be effective? People like Mantosh Sondhi, Raja
Ramanna, D.V. Kapur have proved they can but this may not always be the case.
Iyer’s stint outside the government certainly helped him implement SBM with
innovative methods, including getting young professionals to help district
magistrates. But could he have, say, broken down silos without the benefit of
knowing how the system works? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Two, it is important to get
the political leadership on board. In 2002, Kerala was all set to launch a
public-private-partnership for handwashing with soap (PPP-HWS) along with
Unilever. But the state government scrapped it, despite the support of the
senior bureaucracy, as it was seen as a “World Bank/capitalist (multinational
soap company) ploy to undermine the socialist traditions of the state”. Years
later, while helming SBM, Iyer met Akhilesh Yadav, then Uttar Pradesh chief
minister, who promised all help to get two districts open defecation free.
Nothing happened for months. Things changed, he writes, when Yogi Adityanath
became chief minister. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">And then there are chief
ministers like Mayawati who do not let political
considerations override good economics and administrative practices. In the
mid-nineties, Mayawati overruled opposition from her entire cabinet to a
proposal to get rural communities to share the capital cost of the Swajal
scheme. Women have to bear the burden of fetching water and a small
contribution by the community to get piped water to villages is perfectly
alright, she said. No wonder Iyer observes “political leadership is a golden
ticket to implementing big ideas”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">An interesting tidbit: when
touring China during his World Bank days, Iyer found that water was not
supplied free; water utility managers had to collect a minimum percentage of
the dues and even poorer households were willing to pay. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Three, any successful development
programme requires community involvement. Iyer demonstrates this in the context
of the Total Literacy Campaign during his years as district magistrate, Swajal
as well as SBM. In the case of Swajal, community involvement reduced the
project scheme cycle from 27 months to 18 months. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Four, the lack of enthusiasm
among district level officials for a particular development programme is not
always due to their apathy. In many cases, it is because of the sheer number of
schemes they have to implement along with other responsibilities; they find it
difficult to focus on any one. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Iyer has edited a volume on
the Swachh Bharat revolution, but the account in <i>Method in the Madness </i>is more suitable for the lay reader. It is a
fascinating telling of the two daunting challenges of scale and speed, overcoming
resistance within the bureaucracy, deciding between the carrot or stick
approaches, involving the community, breaking social taboos, using whatever
leverage was available, dealing with negative commentary in the media and much
more. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">This
is a good read for anyone interested in how the government works and how it can
work.</span></span></p>seethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03595747396350996728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10408107.post-72535460723345382722021-05-03T18:01:00.004+05:302021-05-26T15:40:27.325+05:30Book Review/A Much Needed Compilation of Dalit Icons<p><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">MAKERS
OF MODERN DALIT HISTORY</span></b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> by Sudarshan Ramabadran and Guru
Prakash Paswan; Penguin, 2021. Pp 172; Rs. 399</span> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To anyone who is not a
Dalit, any discussion on Dalit icons instantly brings to mind the names of B.R.
Ambedkar and then social reformers like Jyotiba and Savitribai Phule as well as
politicians like Babu Jagjivan Ram, Kanshi Ram and Mayawati. Names like Sant
Janabai and Soyarabai (key figures in the Bhakti movement), Dakshayani
Velayudhan (the first Dalit woman graduate), Kerala folk musician Ayyankali and
Telugu poet Gurram Jashuva would be mostly unheard of – except perhaps in the
regions/states they hailed from, and even then, it is quite possible that their
caste may not be known. For example,
everyone familiar with the freedom struggle would know that Udham Singh killed
Sir Michael O’Dwyer; hardly anyone would know he was a Dalit.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Makers
of Modern Dalit History </span></i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">attempts to address this lack, profiling
eighteen personalities who are believed to have shaped Dalit history and
consciousness. Regretting that many of these personalities “have been redacted
from mainstream historical and intellectual discourse”, the authors say the book
attempts to “enable them to be a source of inspiration to the Dalit community”
(though they also say the book is not just for a Dalit readership). This is, no
doubt, an important task – any community which has suffered oppression for
centuries (and continues to face discrimination and humiliation) needs more
than one or two iconic figures to look up to. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The profiles of the lesser
known personalities are eye openers. Nandanar, one learns, was the only Dalit
Nayanar (the sixty-three Saivite saints from Tamil Nadu). Janabai, a
maidservant of Sant Namdev, earned the title of Sant. Dakshayani Velayudhan was
not only the first Dalit woman graduate but was also a member of the
Constituent Assembly. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And yet one finishes the
book with a sense of discontentment, as the chapters fail to flesh out the
individual personalities or highlight pivotal incidents in their lives. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Take the example of
Dakshayani, who was from the Pulaya community in Kerala which was forbidden to
walk on public roads and whose women were not allowed to cover the upper part
of their bodies – at the most, they could use beads. The fact that she was the
first girl from the community to cover her upper body with cloth is buried in
the chapter! What gave Dakshayani the courage to do what she did, what was the
reaction to her very inspiring act of defiance? One doesn’t know. Apparently
the name Dakshayani (which means Durga) was never used by the depressed classes
told. Who chose the name? What role did her parents play in her evolution into
a strong woman? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Of the six pages on Rani
Jhalkaribai, two are about how Indian academia has been unfair to historical
figures like her. This is a general problem, not specific to her. Kabir, we are
told, was one of the few figures in history to have undertaken holistic
intervention to end casteism. But one would have liked more details on how
exactly. His being equally critical of Hindu and Muslim orthodoxies does not
explain his approach to Dalit upliftment. This lack of elaboration on such
crucial issues is a lacuna in other chapters as well and, unfortunately, stands
in the way of a good book becoming a great one. For this, the publisher has to
bear the larger blame. This is the kind of shaping of a book that editors
should do. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Perhaps this could have been
addressed if there was conceptual clarity: is the book about people who
determinedly shaped Dalit consciousness or people who became icons because they
overcame innumerable odds to achieve success? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">One reason for this shortcoming
could be, as the authors admit at one point, lack of information about these
figures. Perhaps they could have spent some more time researching and writing
about the lesser known figures if they had consciously decided to leave out the
more well-known personalities? The life and work of Ambedkar, Savitribai Phule,
Jagjivan Ram, Kanshi Ram, K.R. Narayanan have been very well documented. Fitting
them into this has resulted in their achievements being summarised in nine to
ten pages, which does not capture the magnitude of their achievements. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Their inclusion was perhaps
necessitated by the title of the book – any compilation of modern Dalit history
without these figures will be preposterous. But what if the book was about
Forgotten Dalit Icons or The Other Dalit Icons? Then perhaps space could have
been devoted to the other thirteen personalities, which include Ved Vyasa and
Valmiki, and how they `made’ modern Dalit identity. Also, other lesser known
personalities could have been included; there could have been a chapter on,
say, Dalits role in the 1857 war of independence. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The conclusion chapter,
which lists what the authors call ‘today’s Dalit heroes’, is quite problematic.
This is not to question the credentials of those included – Milind Kamble and
Kalpana Saroj of the Dalit Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DICCI),
economist and Rajya Sabha member Narendra Jadhav, educationists Bhalchandra
Mungekar and Sukhdeo Thorat, to name just five. These are very worthy names. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The problem is really about exclusion.
Two names come readily to my mind – that of Chandrabhan Prasad and Bezwada
Wilson. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Prasad was, along with
Kamble, one of the driving forces behind the setting up of DICCI; indeed Prasad
has been advocating Dalit capitalism for long. He is at the forefront of
shaping a Dalit narrative that is more empowering rather than the purely
atrocities-led narrative that finds favour in popular discourse. Prasad and DICCI
seem to have parted ways but mentioning Kamble and not Prasad makes the authors
as guilty of airbrushing personalities as the academia they accuse of redacting
the personalities that figure in this volume.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Wilson has been campaigning
relentlessly against the practice of manual scavenging – an occupation that is
still reserved for Dalits. Ideologically, he is the exact opposite of Prasad
and Kamble; not for him ideas like Dalit capitalism. His criticism of right
wing ideology and politics can be extremely harsh and strident. But that should
not have led to his being excluded from any list of those shaping the modern Dalit
narrative and situation. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">These quibbles, however, do
not detract from the importance of this book.
It is actually more than a compilation of profiles. The nearly
forty-page introduction gives an insightful snapshot of the history of Dalit
awakening, including the evolution and importance of the term Dalit. It talks
about how subaltern literature has come to represent the quest for dignity. It
takes readers through early Dalit literature in the nineteenth century – from
Maharashtra, the erstwhile Central Provices, Bengal and Punjab, with special
praise for the last. “No other language perhaps has so far had Dalit literature
of such high literacy calibre.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p>
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">There
are, no doubt, a number of academic works doing much the same. But those would
not appeal to the lay readers – Dalit and non Dalit. This book does and that
increases its value immensely. Sudarshan Rambhadran and Guru Prakash Paswan
deserve to take a bow for this work; and they deserve applause.</span></p>seethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03595747396350996728noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10408107.post-26679491206165165072018-09-13T10:48:00.066+05:302021-05-27T15:04:51.603+05:30On Her Own Terms<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz2f_5Tx_3xajISt1tqi0_0Ve25_OKlZW70Da_7gvM6zoYdyMavb7qs5NE4pk33cKOWWz3_Z73z0XH6THdjB5P-ZkdhC6QIdfwO6FG6etVl_N2Qif-89Gi4l0tLmTix072QE-x/s1600/Patti_2009.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz2f_5Tx_3xajISt1tqi0_0Ve25_OKlZW70Da_7gvM6zoYdyMavb7qs5NE4pk33cKOWWz3_Z73z0XH6THdjB5P-ZkdhC6QIdfwO6FG6etVl_N2Qif-89Gi4l0tLmTix072QE-x/s320/Patti_2009.jpg" /></a></div><br /> <span style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;">“This picture
defines auntie”, a young woman in my neighbourhood said when she saw this. The
very words I had used when I sourced this picture from my niece. This dates
back to 2009 when the two of us and my sister’s family had gone on a trip to
Himachal Pradesh. This was on the lawns of the hotel in Narkhanda where we made
the first stop. The paper was either </span><i style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;">Indian Express</i><span style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"> or </span><i style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;">The Tribune</i><span style="font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;">.</span><p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Rangamani Parthasarathy simply HAD
to read the newspapers – note the plural – every day. And she would make sure
she got it. On that trip, whenever we passed a wayside shop, the car had to
stop and we had to check if an English newspaper was available. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Amma was always up
to date on the news – after going through the newspapers, she was constantly
switching between her Tamil serials and television news channels. Often it was
she who informed me about breaking news events, knowing that I don’t watch
television news. She knew the biases of every news channel and which anchor is
fair and which one is patently unfair. `<i>Yenna adaavadi</i> (what brazenness)’, was
a constant refrain as she watched the 9 pm panel discussions. She would give me
the low-down on the discussions and I would tell her to stop wasting her time
on those.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">How does one even
begin to describe her?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was a bundle
of contradictions in many ways. She was beautiful, as these photographs show, but she frowned on any preoccupation with looks (she has never applied lipstick; <i>pottu</i> (bindi) and kajal were her only adornments). </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">She combined tradition and modernity in her own
unique way. She was the source of strength to her four daughters but was never
the conventional mother. She was God fearing but shunned ritualism in any form.
She lit the lamp in front of her deities every morning and spent some time in
silent prayer, but she never chanted mantras or observed fasts or attended
bhajan sabhas/kirtan sabhas. But she made sure all festivals were observed the
way they should be.</span></p><p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The first photo was when she was one or two years old; the second when she was 16; and the third when she was in her 40s. </span></p><p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgItjw8gC3iz-iTXFPfS9Eo1nKrC0HNFS7obZQaZQ-WGGu-Eiozi0SnkkS7fSLfwhFDn6Lj66wxe3SzM_9OyGEslnJ59FbonlUfzlKuXbfTnLd2ZT8L5AAP2ipj_0D6EMM5-il_/s1240/rangaat20001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1240" data-original-width="844" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgItjw8gC3iz-iTXFPfS9Eo1nKrC0HNFS7obZQaZQ-WGGu-Eiozi0SnkkS7fSLfwhFDn6Lj66wxe3SzM_9OyGEslnJ59FbonlUfzlKuXbfTnLd2ZT8L5AAP2ipj_0D6EMM5-il_/w218-h305/rangaat20001.jpg" width="218" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn-Kldzn5yvBAnnrKIV8OsIpTB3It5Lu2w3wRqXtKVncBwhJvu-OI6mSYoJkoADy-8S6aamHlZnuSM0VS-4qq9_xq2ueQeX9wvIQbTWK6gLKjTAHy9dGzL5ZlLH9qDaa3ajXHs/s672/patti-megha0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="672" data-original-width="419" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn-Kldzn5yvBAnnrKIV8OsIpTB3It5Lu2w3wRqXtKVncBwhJvu-OI6mSYoJkoADy-8S6aamHlZnuSM0VS-4qq9_xq2ueQeX9wvIQbTWK6gLKjTAHy9dGzL5ZlLH9qDaa3ajXHs/w150-h262/patti-megha0001.jpg" width="150" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjTVC-LyLPaDfv_8kePEG1zno8FBZMXMQt3YHYwR0xUuCet954HDVonBG8PK9PAwlZO1sOQViuh58FSdWw3Ch3zhjOpvkA-MX8UwqG0sUDUzzBvUxRl2vypwHx0AFN8EI0TWrY/s567/amma0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="567" data-original-width="436" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjTVC-LyLPaDfv_8kePEG1zno8FBZMXMQt3YHYwR0xUuCet954HDVonBG8PK9PAwlZO1sOQViuh58FSdWw3Ch3zhjOpvkA-MX8UwqG0sUDUzzBvUxRl2vypwHx0AFN8EI0TWrY/w198-h257/amma0001.jpg" width="198" /></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Where she came
from is best described </span><a href="http://beyondlabels.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-amazing-vk-family.html" style="font-family: georgia;"><b>in this post about her family</b></a><span style="font-family: georgia;">. She was highly educated –
BA from Queen Mary’s College, Madras, BEd from Central Institute of Education,
MA through correspondence course in geography from Aligarh Muslim University,
and PhD in urban geography from the Delhi School of Economics. Her PhD thesis
was a talking point when she submitted it in the seventies. The central
argument was that Connaught Place would decline in importance as a retail
destination and markets in what were then the suburbs – Greater Kailash, South
Extension etc – would rise in importance. She was interviewed by </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">Hindustan
Times</i><span style="font-family: georgia;">, I remember. Her prediction did come true, though Connaught Place is
regaining its lost glory now. I remember accompanying her on her field trips,
as she went around markets noting down details of shops and talking to
residents about their shopping habits.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">She was all
dynamism, but she lacked that certain something that should have made her a
successful career woman – she taught in schools for short spells and did some
post-doctoral research. That was just about it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Her focus on her
education – even though she was married straight after school – did not mean
even the slightest neglect of her daughters. She wanted all four of us to be
strong, highly educated, independent women with successful careers and went all
out to ensure we got the best possible education. As one of her sisters-in-law
once said: “Ranga lives for her daughters”. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">But the
relationship is best described in the modern lingo: “it’s complicated”. She was
a strong-willed woman – some would call her headstrong and she would accept it
as a compliment. So were her four daughters. Clashes were, therefore,
inevitable, though she backed us to the hilt in our choices of academics,
careers and life partners. So what were the clashes about? When one looks back,
trivial things in comparison to the areas where she let us simply be.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">One frequent
reason for fights used to be her penny-pinching ways. ‘For heaven’s sake, we
are not so badly off, I can afford this,’ one of us would invariably snap.
`Just because you can afford it, doesn’t mean you have to blow up money,’ she
would retort. And the final word was always hers: `It is because I am like this
your father never had to take a loan for educating all you or for marriages.’ <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">But was she
perhaps also responsible for some of our weaknesses? She was never one of those
pushy mothers who put pressure on their children to top the class, come first
in school, excel in this, surpass in that. Knowledge was more important for her
than a mere exam, substance scored over appearance/style. But even in those
days, marks and appearance were becoming more important than mere knowledge and
substance. I keep swinging between “I wish she had been like that (switching
between conventional and pushy mothers)” and `Thank God she wasn’t like that’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">She would say
marriage should not define a woman, but she worried herself sick that I did not
marry. But she also tried her best to ensure that I never came to know of this,
just so that I did not feel pressured into getting married. When my younger
sister was going through a divorce, a neighbour came and said `<i>hamare sanskar
mein divorce nahin hota</i>’ my mother snubbed her saying in her broken Hindi (she
spoke atrocious Hindi even after six decades in Delhi) that if one goes by
tradition, then she should not have allowed an inter-caste marriage. There was
no confusion in her mind – her daughter had made a mistake and wanted to
correct it and she had to give her full backing. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Concentrating on
her education also did not mean neglect of the kitchen or outsourcing to a
cook. We had two brief spells of cooks, but even then it was her domain. The
sweets/snacks at every festival were made at home till she was well into her sixties. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">One lady in her
neighbourhood told my sister, `<i>aapki</i> mother <i>to gai thi, gai</i>’. We all had a
hearty laugh about that. Amma was no gentle soul, as plumbers, electricians,
carpenters, masons and neighbours who were a nuisance very soon realised. We
would cringe with embarrassment and try to stop her but to no avail. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">In the eighties
and early nineties she was involved in the consumer protection movement. She
came up against crooked ration shop owners and stood up to them. One dared to
send our rations home. She not only returned it immediately, but went to his
shop and ticked him off. Another took the name of the local MLA. Off she went
to see him and tell him what the ration shop owner said. Soon the MLA would
invariably make a stop at her home when he was on his rounds and touch her
feet. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">She used to
control the queue at the Delhi Milk Scheme counter and at the vegetable trucks
sent by the Delhi government civil supplies department (something she was
instrumental in arranging). Invariably that involved clashes with those trying
to jump the queue. Some times there were personal attacks, and that became
another source of our fights at home. But she wouldn’t stop. Soon many of those
who had fought with her would concede that she was fair and often ask her to
arbitrate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She became famous as <i>doodh
vaali auntie</i> and <i>alu-pyaaaz vali auntie</i>!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">She continued to
remain physically and mentally active till the end (she was discussing politics
with my aunt till one hour before she passed away). If the maid didn’t come,
she would not leave vessels piled up like many much younger women would. If we
stopped her from doing anything or from going out to the market alone, she
would get furious:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>`don’t make me an
invalid’. Of late, she had stopped her evening walks (she was diabetic) because
she found walking difficult but that didn’t stop her from climbing three
flights of stairs to her sister’s home just because she wanted to go there on
account of having missed the cremation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I would tell
people, my mother is never going to suffer from Parkinson’s or dementia and I
was right – she went quickly, peacefully, in full control of her faculties till
the end. In her eighty-six years, she had never been hospitalised except for
the deliveries of her daughters. She didn’t trust government hospitals and was
sure private hospitals only exist to fleece patients. And she ensured that she
was not admitted to hospital even at the fag end of her life - she had a heart attack and was declared
brought dead when we took her to the hospital, so there was no question of her
being admitted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I guess this is
one of the rare examples of someone who lived and died on her own terms.</span></p>seethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03595747396350996728noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10408107.post-52457795847823577532018-08-31T20:40:00.023+05:302021-05-27T15:13:01.523+05:30The Amazing VK family<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-IN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">There <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>are<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>just<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>three left now. Out <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of a brood of 11. And what<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a brood – bright, strong, temperamental, tempestuous,
best of friends, best<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of enemies, innocuous conversations leading to massive
fights where<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>some wouldn’t talk to each
other for months, years. The VK family fights and politics were legendary. And if
any of us cousins railed against this or ribbed them about it, the combined
put<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>down was swift – we may have our fights,
but in times of trouble we will always be with each<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>other. And as one aunt married into the family
said today – look, they always used to say they would be together despite all
the squabbles and so Babu and Sukumaran went<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>within days of each other and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Mythili (my aunt, sitting) and Ranga (my mother, standing) within less than 24 hours.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-IN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5FinQyeJilt5O2ozNKj2UcCqhqiWAImVD9Dd1YKC5TJWlBYi3IZ5YMI4ANJ54PNdmMFk9toaGza0bkcU5rGAaJJ6c6XY822Jnoc2H_reAZTYpob-humtKHFqE7QbAg1-Wis-L/s693/amma-mythili0001.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="509" data-original-width="693" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5FinQyeJilt5O2ozNKj2UcCqhqiWAImVD9Dd1YKC5TJWlBYi3IZ5YMI4ANJ54PNdmMFk9toaGza0bkcU5rGAaJJ6c6XY822Jnoc2H_reAZTYpob-humtKHFqE7QbAg1-Wis-L/s320/amma-mythili0001.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-IN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I often used
to say the oddballs of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the VK family
need to be chronicled, but today I will forget about their eccentricities and
celebrate them. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-IN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The VK
referred to V. Krishnamachari, my grandfather. He trained as a lawyer but
refused to practice after a point because he didn’t want to wear trousers – his
way of opposing British rule. So he became a journalist in <i>The Hindu</i>. He <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>retired as assistant news editor and was a
legend there. G. Kasturi particularly held him in high regard. My mother and her
elder brothers have read proofs of pages carrying news of World War II that
used to come home for checking. But journalism was such a badly paying job that
he didn’t want any of his children to become one. Many years later, his
youngest son (who was just four when he died) became one – in <i>The Hindu</i>. And then
two granddaughters also did, one me and the other<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in <i>The Hindu</i> again. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-IN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Then there
was his wife Chellama. Daughter of a railway<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>official, my mother is not sure if she went to school but she was a
voracious reader in Tamil and English and <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>apparently even wrote short stories in a little
notebook. So broad-minded was she that when<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>my mother nervously told her that my eldest sister wants<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to marry a <i>baniya </i>from Uttar Pradesh, she said, if they are
decided<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>then<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>just<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>fix
the earliest auspicious date.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And when
my second sister took her Kerala Christian husband to meet her, she immediately
took my sister to buy her utensils. Not once did she come in the way of her
daughters’ education.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-IN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Between VK
and Chellama, they raised a remarkable brood, particularly the four daughters.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-IN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">My grandfather was insistent that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>all his daughters would be at least
graduates. My mother, Rangamani (sibling number 3, daughter number 1) was married straight after school,
but when searching for a groom, my grandfather insisted that she should be allowed
to go to college and become a graduate. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She
went on to do her BA (she was pregnant with my eldest sister while giving her
third year exam), MA, B.Ed and PhD (she was pregnant with my youngest sister
then). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-IN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">After her
was Mythili (sibling number 4, sister number 2), who became a doctor. When VK died of a heart attack a
few months after my birth, his youngest son was only four years old. Mythili shouldered the burden of educating all
her younger siblings, deciding to remain unmarried. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-IN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sister
number 3 (sibling number 6) Shakuntala Chellappa (the second of the siblings to
die) was a school teacher as well as a gifted singer who was a staff artiste on
All India Radio, Hyderabad. She passed on her musical genes to her daughter, Nandini Srikar. Daughter number 4 (sibling number 8) Vatsala Mani is an
economics PhD from the precursor<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of JNU - School of International Studies. By the way, all the daughters had to learn
music. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-IN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The sons were
qualified and highly respected professionals – from a telecommunications engineer
(V. K. Aravamudhan, a crack solver of cryptic crossword puzzles); a veterinary<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>doctor
(V. K. Seshadri, a voracious reader who could quote passages out of books he had read years earlier); a mining engineer (V. K. Raghavan); IAS (V.K. Srinivasan);
IPS (V.K. Rajagopalan); journalist (V.K. Raghunathan). V.K. Soundarajan was the
only one who lagged behind, thanks to an overdose of anasthaesia when he broke
his arm as a child. The reputation of Srinivasan and Rajagopalan for being non
corruptible bureaucrats and sticklers for rules was legendary in IAS and IPS circles. Raghu
too got drawn to music – rock music - in college and continued his interest
through his career. He had his own band at one point.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-IN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">All the siblings had a ear for music. With Tata Sky, Srinivasan, Mythili and my mother would often be tuned to Carnatic music programmes on various channels and would be constantly calling each other almost every evening to listen to this new singer on this channel or an established singer on another channel. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-IN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I’ve just read
this again and it reads flat. That’s because the eccentricities of the VK
family don’t figure. But that’s for another day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
seethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03595747396350996728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10408107.post-55378244066323198742017-10-10T12:47:00.000+05:302017-10-10T12:47:13.652+05:30Fight Crackers on Your Own; Don't Bring the Government, Courts into It<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Last year on Diwali day I wrote this article, <a href="https://swarajyamag.com/culture/everyone-who-criticises-the-way-festivals-are-being-observed-is-not-a-hindu-hater" target="_blank"><b><i>Everyone Who Criticises The Way Festivals Are Being Observed Is Not A Hindu Hater</i></b></a>, that earned me the wrath of, and consequently countless abuses from, the cultural right, a loose group that claims it is out to save Hinduism not just from other religious groups but also what they call `Hindu-hating Hindus’. I was making a simple, nuanced point: I don’t agree with the campaign against crackers, but not everybody wanting them banned or restraint on their use is a festival shamer or Hindu hater. Of course, I was promptly labelled as both (apart from a lot of other things).</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">This year, my criticism of the Supreme Court order banning sale of fire-crackers in Delhi before and till well after Diwali could earn me another label, this time from those who are rejoicing over the court order – Hindu fanatic. Apparently only this lot, which wants to add to Delhi’s air and noise pollution and has no consideration for people and pets affected by the smoke, will object to the order. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Now, one has reconciled to the death of nuance in any debate, but even then this is a bit much. When will people get this: someone asking for a ban on crackers or for some restraint in over-the-top celebrations of any festival is not necessarily a Hindu-hater. And someone criticising the Supreme Court order is not necessarily an inconsiderate Hindu fanatic/sanghi/BJP-sympathiser. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">That apart, the Supreme Court order is wrong because it is a clear case of judicial over-reach. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">There is no clinching evidence that firecrackers are the main cause of air and noise pollution in Delhi. Monday’s Supreme Court judgement quotes an earlier order of September 12 which says: </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">. . . from the material before us, it cannot be said with any great degree of certainty that the extremely poor quality of air in Delhi in November and December 2016 was the result only of bursting fireworks around Diwali. Certainly, there were other causes as well, but even so the contribution of the bursting of fireworks cannot be glossed over. <i>Unfortunately, neither is it possible to give an accurate or relative assessment of the contribution of the other identified factors nor the contribution of bursting fireworks to the poor air quality in Delhi and in the NCR. </i>(emphasis added)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">So, then, why the ban? Apparently the 2016 order restricting sale of firecrackers came after Diwali and the Court wants to see the effect of the ban around Diwali this year. This is not convincing enough. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Those welcoming the order say this judicial intervention was necessary because this is a serious and very real social problem that affects the health of people in Delhi and the government was not doing anything about it. Okay, point conceded. But then wasn’t the issue of accidents on highways due to drunken driving also a serious social issue, which led the Supreme Court to prohibit state governments from granting licences to liquor vends and bars along state and national highways? </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">But that sparked enormous outrage from the very sections that are hailing the current Delhi-centric ban. Many of the arguments at that time cited lack of evidence that all drunk driving deaths on highways were caused by people who drank at liquor vends along these roads. So why doesn’t this lack of evidence apply now? </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Gautam Bhatia and other legal experts have pointed out on social media that the order on firecrackers is faulty because there’s no specific law being violated. Bhatia also cited the example of the Court’s interim order on standing for the national anthem, which was justified on the basis of the lack of a law on the subject, as another example of overreach. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">But that order attracted widespread condemnation by the very sections that are welcoming Monday’s order. Go figure.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Am I indulging in whataboutery? Yes, unapologetically so. Sometimes whataboutery is needed to call out hypocrisy. One cannot say judicial intervention is justified when it serves your pet cause but not justified when it does not. (Incidentally, this applies to the `cultural right’, that is lambasting the order, as well. You cannot hail the Supreme Court when it orders people to stand up for the national anthem and criticise it for banning firecrackers on Diwali.)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The Indian Constitution, which many of those welcoming the order swear by, has certain tasks set out for the three arms of government. There is a principle called separation of powers. The issue of liquor vends along highways, firecrackers during Diwali and standing up for the national anthem are all areas where the executive and legislature need to act. Just because you cannot persuade them to do so, you can’t seek and justify judicial intervention. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Am I belittling the issue of the problem of over-the-top firecrackers during Diwali? No. It is a serious problem and not just in Delhi. Even someone like me who loved bursting firecrackers (and initiated my nephew into bursting them) and think Diwali is incomplete without them cringe at what goes on these days. I know the problem asthma patients face – my sister used to be asthmatic and my parents had a hard time keeping her away from crackers and keeping her indoors when the smoke got too much (incidentally, she did not stop her son from bursting crackers). I know a lot of devout Hindus who are distressed by the noise and smoke. In Delhi, at least, crackers have always been more about display of wealth than anything else. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">But getting the government, or failing that, the Supreme Court to ban it is not the solution. This only gives the government more power over our lives. We cannot bring the state into every your-freedom-ends-where-my-nose-begins issue. There are some issues we have to address ourselves. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">So, go ahead appeal to your colonies/housing societies to regulate use of crackers, raise awareness about the ill-effects of crackers, call the cops when you find people bursting crackers beyond 10 pm (instead of saying `how can we complain about our neighbours, it doesn’t look nice’), don’t give or accept sweets and presents from neighbours who burst crackers. But don’t bring the government or the courts into it.</span></div>
seethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03595747396350996728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10408107.post-87515189683505426952017-09-05T22:49:00.001+05:302017-09-05T22:49:20.004+05:30Goodbye Brave Gauri<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I was sitting at my computer and writing an article – was not on the net and don’t watch news television – when my mother called. “Didn’t you have a friend called Gauri Lankesh?” “Yes,” I said, “but I haven’t been in touch since. . .” My mother cut me short: “She’s been shot dead in Bangalore.”<br />As I got on to Facebook and Twitter and switched on the television, numbed, so many memories came to life. <br />Perhaps the most poignant one was a practical joke Gauri played, which backfired badly. It was the first memory of Gauri that popped into my mind as I grappled with the news. <br />This was in the mid or late nineties. After some years in Times of India, Delhi, where we were colleagues, Gauri had moved to Bangalore office. She, me and Kalpana Jain used to exchange letters over the office air bag. Gauri’s Hindi was a joke and once she wrote a letter to us – Hindi in English script. Kalpana and me responded with English in Hindi script.<br />Some days later, I was on night shift when I got a call from office saying news has come that Gauri has died of a heart attack. If I remember right, there was then a call saying this was a practical joke (or perhaps I learnt about it when I reached office).<br />This is what had happened. Gauri, the brat that she always was, had sent a message over the office telex machine addressed to Kalpana and me, saying “this is to inform the sad demise of Gauri Lankesh. She died after receiving a letter in Hindi. . ..” <br />The teleprinter operator had handed it to Kalpana, who was on the afternoon shift. She read the first sentence and, shaken, didn’t read beyond it and handed it to the news editor. He too did not read beyond the first line. Apparently the editor was informed, a short meeting was called, condolences offered. Then one of the senior editors – either editor Dileep Padgaonkar or resident editor Ajay Kumar - called the resident editor of the Bangalore office to get some details. He was taken aback saying she’s right here hale and hearty! Gauri had to face some disciplinary action for that (since the office telex had been used) but she bounced back.<br />Oh, how I wish this news too was just a practical joke. Unfortunately , it is all too real. <br />Gauri was spunky. In those days in Times House, women journalists who did smoke would not do so in the large hall on the second floor where journalists of Economic Times, Times of India and Navbharat Times sat. They would go to the women’s loo and smoke. So did Gauri initially, seeing the others. It used to irritate me and I used to tell them to smoke openly in the hall like the men did. One journalist said she couldn’t because her father (also a journalist) would come to know. Another had some other feeble excuse. But Gauri decided to go ahead. One night shift, after the dak edition andas we were preparing for the city edition, she lit up. The peons were aghast. But the unwritten rule had been broken. <br />So many times I have rested at her home in Defence Colony when I was out on meetings for an article I was writing and had to report to for night shift on the desk. My first haircut went horribly wrong and it was Gauri who took me to another and told him what to do. I continued with him for nearly 10 years. <br />Like I said earlier, I hadn’t been in touch with her for ages – just the normal drifting apart that used to happen in those days when there were no cellphones or email or Facebook. I used to keep hearing news of her and reading about her. The last time I had a serious discussion about her was when she lost the defamation case. When I read about details, I felt she had been on weak ground on that and had talked to a former boss and another journalist about it. <br />I doubt whether Gauri and I could have bonded like we used to very much if we had met recently, given our political leanings. That would have come up after the initial pleasantries. But she did not, absolutely did not, deserve to be shot dead. <br />Goodbye brave Gauri.</span></span></div>
seethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03595747396350996728noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10408107.post-56541583221399528442017-09-03T18:50:00.001+05:302017-09-03T18:50:37.377+05:30Modi's Cabinet Reshuffle: What A Waste of an Opportunity <div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">So the biggest move (game-changer, said one over-the-top anchor) of Narendra Modi in this cabinet reshuffle is making Nirmala Sitharaman India’s first woman defence minister? There are women serving in the army and the mere appointment of a woman minister is the breaking of a glass ceiling? If the gender of a minister – and not any policy or directional change – is a game-changer, it is a sad commentary on our expectations from government. As for the media, the less said the better. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">This cabinet reshuffle has certainly been a disappointment, barring some heartening exceptions.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Let’s get the exceptions out of the way, first. Piyush Goyal taking over from Suresh Prabhu as railway minister is good news. Prabhu was undertaking some significant reforms in railways – his only problem was that he was unable to deal with a railway bureaucracy running rings around him. It is unfortunate that he put in his papers after a series of railway accidents, but Indian politics requires such meaningless optics. Goyal is a go-getter and his chartered accountant background could be useful in dealing with the mess in railway finances. He has addressed some of the fundamental problems in the power sector (though how the UDAY scheme plays out in the long run remains to be seen). He will be getting an equally go-getter of a Railway Board chairman in Ashwani Lohani. So he is well placed to take Prabhu’s creditable legacy forward. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Fortunately, Prabhu has been given an equally important portfolio in commerce and industry. His immediate task will be to prepare for the World Trade Organisation ministerial in Buenos Aires in December. There are several knotty issues there and he will be on top of things. India needed a competent negotiator for the ministerial and Prabhu will fit the bill. The ministry holds other challenges for any minister – the need to grow the country’s exports at a time of increasing protectionism, the need to get investments going, to name two crucial ones. Prabhu’s presence gives a sense of reassurance. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The fact that Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi got promoted to cabinet rank is also a positive. All three have earned their spurs. R. K. Singh replacing Goyal in the power and renewable energy ministry is being touted as a positive, but one will have to see how he performs; the power sector is a pretty knotty one, after all. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">But this reshuffle has certainly not been about rewarding performance. If that were the case, there would have been change in the agriculture ministry. Radha Mohan Singh’s stewardship of the ministry has been uninspiring, to say the least. Agriculture is in deep crisis and there was need for a dynamic minister there in the run-up to the 2019 elections. The argument being put out that Modi did not want to take any chances with new people having to learn the ropes does not wash. Singh has been given three years of chances; it has not worked. Sitharaman, too, did not exactly set the Yamuna on fire with her underwhelming stewardship of the commerce and industry ministry; yet she has got a promotion in rank and portfolio. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The performance-oriented reshuffle line draws strength from a shifting of additional charges of some ministers. But none of these are going to make a big difference to governance, which should have been the main criterion for the cabinet rejig exercise. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">If this reshuffle was about performance, what explains ignoring the core strengths of people when allotting portfolios? This has been a common malaise in most governments over the decades and, unfortunately, Modi is continuing on the same path. What is the logic of putting Hardeep Puri, an extremely distinguished diplomat who would have been better placed in external affairs, commerce or defence as minister of state, in the urban development ministry? And in giving Alphons, a seasoned bureaucrat who shook up the Delhi Development Authority and was PS to Ram Jethmalani when he was urban affairs (or whatever that ministry was called those days) in Atal Behari Vajpayee’s cabinet, responsibility for tourism, a ministry that has no business to even exist? The befuddlement at these postings is best summed up in <i><a href="https://twitter.com/d_extrovert/status/904253489076813824" target="_blank"><span style="color: #073763;">a tweet by Kunal Singh @d_extrovert</span></a>:</i> “In India if you have specialised in a particular field, it is counted as a negative in ministry allotment”. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A slight digression here to deal with the jeers about the induction of four ex-bureaucrats into the cabinet. That, Modi’s legion of critics say, is a sign of the lack of talent in the BJP and further proof of Modi’s preference for bureaucrats. This is a silly criticism. One, there is a factual problem with this. And all four are BJP members, Alphons since 2011. Two, if there is a lack of talent among elected representatives, that shows talented people lack winnability and that is a reflection on us voters. But R. K. Singh and Satya Pal Singh have won elections. Three, if you are bemoaning lack of talent, how can you object to Modi bringing in talent from outside? Doesn’t it show Modi in good light – he is accepting the lack of bench strength and is addressing it? Four, why should former bureaucrats not come into politics? </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">What completely boggles the mind is the way ministers have been given additional responsibilities. There is very little synergy with the main ministry in most cases. When Modi in 2014 clubbed power with new and renewable energy and, more importantly, coal, that seemed to indicate he understood the need to combine related ministries. But that principle has been completely undermined in the latest reshuffle.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">What synergy does petroleum and natural gas have with skill development? Why has coal been de-linked from the power ministry? Goyal has additional charge of coal along with railways. The only link between coal and railways relates to movement and coordinating that does not require the railways minister to be in charge of the coal ministry. On the other hand, coal is important for the power sector and that is why the two ministries had been brought under a single minister in 2014. Why has Gadkari been given additional charge of water resources; what does it have to do with the transport related sectors he is looking after very competently? He’s pushing for inland waterways but that is a small part of what the water resources ministry deals with. What is the logic of clubbing mines with rural development and panchayati raj?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">All in all, this exercise is a waste of opportunity. Pity. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
seethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03595747396350996728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10408107.post-65438135651057084972017-09-02T21:36:00.001+05:302017-09-02T21:38:25.133+05:30Why This Blog and Why This Name: An Update<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Quite a few people have been curious about my blog (which I resumed after a long gap) and I have had to refer them to my first post in January 2005, <i><b><a href="http://beyondlabels.blogspot.in/2005/01/why-this-blog-and-why-this_110675385869087392.html" target="_blank">Why This Blog and Why This Name</a></b></i>. Then I started reading the post myself. And I realised nothing has changed since then. In fact, things have gotten worse now. <br />The sharpening of polarisation in discourse had, even in the early 2000s, made normal conversation difficult. Now it has become impossible. Not virtually impossible. Not next to impossible. Just impossible. <br />Nuance was fading then. It has disappeared now. There was some labelling then. There is outright name-calling now. And yes, it is all centred around Narendra Modi – the Divine Deliverer or the Devil Incarnate, depending on which side of the ideological divide one is on. If you believe – like I do – that he is neither, that he is as much capable of getting things right as getting things hopelessly wrong, then your plight is worse than that of the proverbial <i>dhobi ka kutta</i>. <br />This is not about the bhakt brigade alone. Stories about their trolling, abusive name-calling, peddling of lies and fake photos/news and assertions that whatever good is happening in the country is only because of Modi are well known. I am not going to spend time repeating them. <br />This post is equally about the Modi/BJP/RSS haters. In fact, it is more about them, because they are not being called out sufficiently. They rue the demise of nuance and the rise of intolerance, but they have contributed to both in no small measure. Try saying something positive about this government at a gathering of Modi haters. Try pointing out factual inaccuracies and logical flaws in their arguments. Try outing their fake news and fake photos (yes, they too indulge in them). Hell, just try joking about their obsession with Modi. You will not emerge unscathed. They are as sneery and spew as much venom as the bhakt brigade, except that the English is better.<br />Nothing brings this out better than the cacophonous debate over demonetisation. The DeMo Deriders (an assortment of libertarians, Modi hating liberals or MoHaLis and opposition politicians) are no less shrill and unreasonable than the DeMo Defenders (an assortment of liberals and Modi bhakts). It is one thing to question someone’s claim to being an economic liberal/libertarian or their understanding of basic economics if they made even a `yes, but’ kind of equivocation on the issue. It is quite another to question their professional and personal integrity. The bhakt brigade calls anyone who doesn’t agree with them a Congress chamcha. The hater brigade calls anyone who doesn’t agree with them a Modi chamcha. Is there a difference?<br />Personally, though, my experience has been slightly different. I have liberal friends who are bhakts and liberal friends who are allergic to the very mention of Modi. The former lot are okay with my not deifying Modi. They don’t bully me. The bullying has come only from bhakts whom I don’t know. I have been told to change my name to Soorpanakha (which explains my Twitter handle) and go back to Lanka (Pakistan is not an option for me, clearly). <br />But my MoHaLi friends, have a huge, huge problem with my refusing to demonise Modi, and have not hesitated to bully me. I have been told I need to fight the good fight, that my pox on both houses stand won’t do, that my obsession with facts is irksome and so on and so forth.<br />But I am not going to be bullied by either side and I will continue to strive to be beyond labels, through this blog and other writings. The writings on this blog will be more free-wheeling than in my journalistic pieces. I believe the need for this blog is more in these times. As in my journalistic writing, I will take a stand on issues based on facts. Regardless of what the bhakt brigade or the hate gang feels. Just one word to members of both: don't waste your time posting abusive comments; comments are moderated.</span></span></div>
seethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03595747396350996728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10408107.post-60341424752489604212017-09-01T08:10:00.000+05:302017-09-01T08:10:35.853+05:30Moving Beyond DeMo and GST: Growth Crisis is More Deep Rooted and Needs Tackling<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Posting after a long, long time.😊</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The economic growth figures released by the
Central Statistical Office (CSO) will have the strident critics of
demonetisation in a see-we-told-you mode and the ardent supporters more subdued
than they have been in a while. </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Fiscal year 2017-18 has started out on a
dismal note indeed. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew a measly 5.7 per cent in
the first quarter (Q1, April-June) against a healthy 7.9 per cent in Q1 of
2016-17. <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Other economic data also released
yesterday too did not give cheer – eight core industries grew only 2.5 per cent
in April-July 2017-18 against 6 per cent in the same period of 2016-17.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">For a government that has been patting itself
on the back for pulling the economy out of the morass it was in when it assumed
power, this is not be welcome news.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The DeMo Deriders insist that the note ban is <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">solely</b> responsible for this worst-ever
quarterly growth figures in 13 quarters. However, it would not be entirely factually
correct. The other explanation, that the draw down of inventories by
manufacturing companies ahead of the goods and services tax (GST) rollout is also
responsible, is not the spin that this lot insist it is. It is not just the
government that is offering<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>this
explanation; most economic analysts are saying the same. Not all of them will
trot out the government line.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">It is the combined effect of demonetisation
and preparing for GST that saw growth in gross value added (GVA) in the
manufacturing sector plummeting from 10.7 per cent in Q1 of 2016-17 to 1.2 per
cent in Q1 this year (though base effect could also have played a role). The
higher growth posted by the trade, hotels etc segment – 11.1 per cent
against<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>8.9 per cent in Q1 of 2016-17 –
shows sales were happening. Anubhuti Sahay of Standard Chartered also<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>said on Bloomberg Quint that de-stocking has
been far more than was expected. It is this manufacturing slump that has pulled
down overall GDP growth.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The only sector where demonetisation can be identified
as the sole cause of slowdown is construction and real estate. Growth in
construction has fallen from 3.1 per cent to 2 per cent between Q1 of 2016-17
and 2017-18. Chief Statistician T.C.A. Anant pointed out that in the `financial,
insurance, real estate and professional services’ segment, real estate has done
poorly, though he said this was a longer, pre-demonetisation story. But cement
production figures in the index<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>of<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>core industries also shows a de-growth,
month-on-month since November 2016.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">But one needs to move beyond the
demonetisation explanation. Because the fact is that the economy had been
slowing down well before November 2016. This has been said before and has been
dismissed as spin, but it bears repeating.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">After a blip in Q3 (October-December) of
2015-16 when year-on-year growth fell to 6.9 per cent over the Q2
(July-September) year-on-year growth of 7.8 per cent, there was a rebound to 9
per cent growth (year-on-year) in Q4. But, thereafter, from Q1 of 2016-17,
there has been a steady decline, every quarter. Yes, the deceleration sharpened
after demonetisation, but it had set in before.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Blaming the slump entirely on demonetisation
will give the government a ready excuse – this is an expected but temporary
fallout, which will peter out. And it will allow the government to escape an
inconvenient question – you promised to put the zing back in the economy, why
did it start slowing down under your watch? Have you identified the cause and started<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>doing something about it? One has to keep the
focus on these questions.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Beyond demonetisation and GST, there are
clearly some deep-rooted problems that are pulling the economy down. And the
signs for the near future are not very good.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Private investment, which is crucial for
sustained and robust recovery, is still sluggish. There is a slight uptick in
investment as a percentage of GDP – from 25.5 per cent in Q4 of 2016-17 to 27.5
per cent in Q1 of this fiscal. But this is way below what the economy needs and
it is not certain if this will sustain.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">What is also worrying is that this comes along
with a slight dip in private consumption as a percentage of GDP; this has been
fluctuating through 2016-17 and in Q1 of this fiscal has dropped to 57.3 per
cent. It needs to get back to the around 60 per cent plus levels of the boom
years of 2004 to 2008. The economy needs both consumption demand and investment
demand. Earlier it was the former which was holding things up, but if this also
begins to flag, then there is a serious problem at hand. How much of a boost
government spending alone can give remains to be seen. Government expenditure
has risen 17 per cent in Q1 and this is because of the front-loading of
expenditure thanks to advancing the budget.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Economists continue to debate about whether it
is interest rates or other reasons (including the twin balance sheet problem) that
are holding up private investment. The government needs to get to the bottom of
this urgently and do what it takes to get companies to invest.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">There are challenges on the agricultural front
too, as evidenced by the difference between the real and nominal agricultural
GVA growth (2.3 per cent and 0.3 per cent. This is an indication of a problem
in prices and this could translate into a dip in rural demand. A State Bank of
India research notes cautions that agricultural growth in the coming quarters
could be muted as the monsoons were deficient in key food grain producing
states in the first three months.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The laundry list of what the government needs
to do at a general level is pretty well<span style="margin: 0px;">
</span>known; it needs to get down to it. The government has moved<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>on some fronts – subsidy reform, bankruptcy
reform, indirect tax reform (though this will be a bit painful initially) – but
it needs to move<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>on others as well – drastically
paring down the public sector, banking reforms, to name just two.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="margin: 0px;"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The government’s spin doctors are explaining
away what is said to be the economic failure of demonetisation by saying the
note ban was a political move. The government should now see economic revival
as a political matter and do all it takes to get growth back. </span></span><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>
seethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03595747396350996728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10408107.post-43257049693714448122014-07-13T21:30:00.000+05:302014-07-13T21:30:18.407+05:30Earth to Mr Jaitley: socialism is not pro-poor, markets are not anti-poor<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://firstbiz.firstpost.com/budget/earth-to-mr-jaitley-socialism-is-not-pro-poor-markets-are-not-anti-poor-90604.html">http://firstbiz.firstpost.com/budget/earth-to-mr-jaitley-socialism-is-not-pro-poor-markets-are-not-anti-poor-90604.html</a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So why did the Narendra Modi government, whose high-pitched pre-election rhetoric promised a decisive rightward shift in the management of the economy, debut with a budget that would have done the Congress proud? This is something both Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former finance minister P. Chidambaram have smugly pointed out. <br /><a href="http://www.firstpost.com/india/why-budget-2014-was-socialist-modi-wants-to-be-seen-as-pro-poor-1614537.html" target="_blank">This piece by M. K. Venu</a> argues that the maiden budget was `socialist’ because Modi wanted to be seen as pro-poor. Venu quotes finance minister Arun Jaitley telling him in an interview done for Rajya Sabha TV that in a country with so many poor people, any economic philosophy which is totally market based will not work.<a href="http://www.rajyasabhatv.com/will-run-away-challenges-fm.html)" target="_blank"> Listen to the interview here</a>.<br />That is the problem – the assumption that socialist policies are pro-poor and market-friendly policies are not. This fairly widely-held assumption is itself based on two wrong assumptions, one about socialist policies and the other about pro-market policies. <br />That socialist policies are pro-poor flies in the face of evidence from India itself. India’s economic policies were overwhelmingly socialist before 1991. Indira Gandhi’s socialist agenda got an emotional anchor, as it were, with the Garibi Hatao slogan. Apart from the plethora of anti-poverty schemes, all economic policies supposedly had a pro-poor focus. And yet the pace of poverty reduction has been faster post-1991, once India embarked on pro-market policies! <br />All manner of subsidies have been rolled out in the name of the poor; any withdrawal is slammed as a move to abandon the poor to the vagaries of the market forces. But, barring a few, these subsidies really go to the better off. The poor are anyway left to the market forces. Take Delhi, where highly subsidised water and electricity supplied by the government go to the middle classes while the poor, who live in slums and unauthorised colonies, pay several times more for the same facilities supplied by the market. Yes, the rates are exploitative but the so-called pro-poor state is just not present in these areas peopled by the poor. Yes, the issue is that of governance, and that precisely is the point. Good governance is not about socialism or capitalism; it is about how efficiently the state goes about fulfilling its responsibilities. <br />Now for the other bogey that Jaitley seems to be mindlessly parroting – that a pro-markets approach necessarily neglects the poor. This stems from the trenchant criticism by the critics of socialism of the dole-centric approach to helping the poor, especially the rights-based entitlements legislations that the Congress initiated (and the BJP supported). But the question whether doles are more effective in helping the poor needs to be examined. This question came up last year when poverty figures released by the Planning Commission showed a sharp decline in poverty levels between 2009-10 and 2011-12 and also a decline in the absolute number of poor. The Congress party was quick to claim credit – not for the years of highest ever economic growth during UPA 1 (which they otherwise kept boasting about), but for welfare measures during its rule, especially the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). <br />But economist Surjit Bhalla questioned <a href="http://www.indianexpress.com/news/the-unimportance-of-nrega/1145676/" target="_blank">this claim in this article</a>. Using NSSO data, he pointed out that MGNREGA accounted for only 1 percentage point of the 13.1 percentage points decline in poverty between 2009-10 and 2011-12.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/(http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/the-great-growthdole-tradeoff/1144134/0" target="_blank"> In this second article</a>, he gives a more direct link between growth and poverty reduction. <br />Now to the wrong impression about pro-market policies. <br />Venu’s article argues that Modi’s statements that government coffers are meant for the poor is `very socialist in its tenor and intent’. This reinforces the completely fallacious image of pro-markets ideologues as unfeeling cads who want the government to work for the well-off and the rich. Not even free market fundamentalists (except those in the loony fringe) argue against measures to help the poor. There will, they admit, always be disadvantaged people who will need the helping hand of the state. The point of divergence between socialist policies and pro-market policies is not about helping the poor; it is about how to help them. <br />The socialist approach is through price-distorting doles and welfare programmes (no matter how leaky and inefficient they are). The pro-markets approach is to get the state to stop meddling in, and micro-management of, the markets and to concentrate on providing public goods, thus ensuring high growth which will bring more people above the poverty line (no matter how high or low it is set). <br />Venu cites two new schemes in Jaitley’s budget - Deendayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Rurban Mission – as examples of BJP social sector schemes and calls this BJP’s own brand of socialism. But these are not welfarist schemes; these are schemes to provide physical infrastructure - clearly the role of the state even in a market economy – that will spur economic activity and growth. Socialist policies do not bring high growth; pro-market policies do. We have seen that in India.<br />High growth will not only help address the problem of poverty, it will, far more importantly, provide the resources for targeted interventions to help the poor and the needy. If there is no money in government coffers, even socialist states cannot help the poor. Such interventions should ideally be through income support and cash handout measures than inefficient welfare programmes that are liable to corruption and cornering by the better off, leaving the poor where they are. Even Amartya Sen has not argued against excessive state intervention in the markets; he too believes growth is necessary for poverty reduction. It is another matter that he prefers inefficient welfarism over more efficient income support measures.<br />The problem with the discourse on political economy in India is that words like socialism, pro-poor and market friendly are bandied about, especially by politicians, without adequate understanding of what they mean. Jaitley’s statements prove this. </div>
seethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03595747396350996728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10408107.post-29857473906065901712014-07-09T21:35:00.000+05:302014-07-09T21:35:15.648+05:30India just published its most explicitly pro-markets policy document in history<a href="http://qz.com/232064">http://qz.com/232064</a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Each year, the Economic Survey offers a snapshot of the economy and a glimpse into the government’s thinking on important policy matters. Along with the budget, it is the most important annual statement on policy made by the government of India.<br />This year, the Economic Survey tabled by finance minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament earlier today, is an emphatic statement. It is the first policy document in modern India that has explicitly pitched for a market-based economy and for the government to work on an enabling regulatory framework. It goes to the extent of saying that market failure should be demonstrated before the government considers stepping into any sphere of economic activity.<br />If this document is any indication, the Narendra Modi government intends to usher in an unprecedented policy push towards a markets-based economy and away from the welfare-centric approach favoured by all the previous governments, including the earlier governments led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) .<br />Since the mid-1990s, Economic Surveys have pitched for many reforms—of the labour market, real estate market, agriculture, the food economy and the subsidy regime. But none have set out a case for the market economy in such explicit terms as this one has.<br />Consider this: a chapter titled <i>Issues and Priorities</i> has a section called <i>Foundations of a Market Economy.</i> The opening paragraph says: “The biggest challenge today is improving state capacity suitable for a market-based economy. A long-term, careful and systematic effort is required for undertaking institutional change.” This is perhaps the closest a government can come to in moving away from a socialist legacy which has got enshrined in the Constitution. The Preamble to the Constitutions describes India as a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic (the words socialist and secular were inserted in 1975).<br />And mull on this: “In a market economy, the economy thrives because the state interferes only when there is ‘market failure’, i.e. monopoly power, asymmetric information or externalities.” The Survey argues that any restrictions on private activity must be “part of a known and predictable regulatory regime unlike now where a lot of restrictions—well intentioned as they are—are not part of a stable framework.”<br />That is probably a veiled reference to the retrospective amendment of tax laws by the previous government, an issue that has been making foreign investors extremely jittery. It could just as well be interpreted as a reference to the ruling BJP’s opposition to foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail. One of the first actions that the BJP government in the state of Rajasthan did was to rescind the earlier Congress government’s decision to allow FDI in retail. There are differing schools of thought within the ruling BJP on economic matters.<br />Though the Survey speaks about the state intervention in the case of market failures, it insists on credible and strong grounds for such intervention. “Before a state intervention is initiated, it is important to demonstrate that there is a market failure. It should be shown that an intervention will solve the market failure. Further, the costs to society of government intervention should be outweighed by the benefits.” The significance of this is underlined by the fact that even a reformist government like the present one thinks it fit to impose stockholding limits on potatoes and onions and clamp down on exports when prices of these vegetables started heading north.<br />Will these issues influence the budget that is to be presented tomorrow?<br />Many of the issues that need to be addressed in order to lay the foundations of a market economy are not within the scope of the Union budget—they relate to other ministries and to state governments (state-level regulations do more to hamper economic freedom). Within the BJP itself there is a group that is not in favour of a genuinely free market economy; it prefers to protect domestic business against foreign competition.<br />How much of the prescriptions in the Economic Survey will be carried out by the government? This depends on the degree of consensus that differing factions within the BJP can reach. In the past, Economic Surveys have made bold and reformist suggestions. The governments of the day have not always closely followed the policy recommendations.<br />But as the Survey points out, this government may not have the luxury of inaction. Setting up legal and regulatory frameworks for a market economy is one of the three key measures it recommends to revive investment (the other two are ensuring a low and stable inflation rate and fiscal consolidation). There is hope, then, that this government will move—slowly—in the direction of a real market economy.</span></span></div>
seethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03595747396350996728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10408107.post-82609237241924111682014-07-07T21:05:00.000+05:302014-07-07T21:05:09.544+05:30The Essential Commodities Act is essentially problematic<a href="http://firstbiz.firstpost.com/economy/why-modi-should-scrap-essential-commodities-act-not-invoke-it-to-control-food-prices-89747.html">http://firstbiz.firstpost.com/economy/why-modi-should-scrap-essential-commodities-act-not-invoke-it-to-control-food-prices-89747.html</a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Perhaps it is not surprising that the Narendra Modi government has brought onions and potatoes under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. After all, a committee of chief ministers that he headed on the issue of food prices had recommended that offences under the Act should be made non-bailable and cases should be tried by special courts. <br />That a committee which rooted for liberalisation of agricultural markets and reform of the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Acts should want an outdated piece of legislation strengthened is a bit of an anachronism, but the Indian political economy is full of such contradictions.<br />Yesterday’s move has come on the back of steady and rapid rise in the prices of these two items, throwing already stressed household budgets out of kilter. There have been reports of hoarding, which is what prompted the decision. But is this the right way of going about it? <br />The Essential Commodities Act has its origin in a pre-Independence wartime measure - the Defence of India Rules of 1939. These were promulgated to address the problem of wartime shortages and consequent hoarding. Section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act gives the central government powers to control the production, supply and distribution of specified essential commodities listed in it. The list is drawn up after joint consultation between the centre and the states, and the latter impose stockholding limits on the listed commodities (these vary as conditions and food habits in states differ widely).<br />The intention may be noble – after all one cannot deny that hoarding and creation of artificial shortages does happen. The retail price of onions in Delhi has been double of what it is in the Azadpur mandi. Ahead of the Delhi assembly elections last year, tomatoes started disappearing from the market and prices headed north. Charges of hoarding were scoffed at, especially since tomatoes have a lesser shelf life than onions and potatoes, till the market was suddenly flooded with stocks and prices crashed the day after voting. <br />But invoking the Essential Commodities Act is problematic. Stockholding limits do not distinguish between food processing industries and food retail chains, which need to hold large stocks for their operations. Food processing industries especially need to keep stocks for a few months at a time so that fluctuating prices don’t throw their economics out of gear. But under the Essential Commodities Act, these can become liable at least for harassment. These are corporate entities with large, earmarked storage facilities which can be easily identified. So it is easy for inspectors to go after them. <br />On the other hand, identifying the actual hoarders is not at all easy. These may not be small traders but their operations are not corporatized and they have many avenues to spirit away and hoard supplies. The conviction rate under the Act is also abysmally low. So the hoarders go scot free and genuine players in the food economy are harassed. <br />The Act is not in tune with present times. It made sense at a time when the transport infrastructure across the country was poor and markets not integrated. So a production shock in one part of the country could lead to hoarding and black marketing. That’s not the case any more. Shortages in one part of the country can be countered if there is ample supply somewhere else. <br />So does that mean no steps should be taken against hoarding? Certainly not. The state has to step in where there is a clear case of market distortion. There is another legislation called the Prevention of Black-marketing and Maintenance of Supplies of Essential Commodities (PBMSEC) Act, 1980 which the centre and states can invoke to check hoarders. <br />There is, however, a problem with this law – it is linked to the Essential Commodities Act. So action under the PBMSEC Act can only be taken against offences punishable under the Essential Commodities Act. The list of items that the PBMSEC can be invoked for comes from the Essential Commodities Act. And it is the stockholding limits under the Essential Commodities Act that defines hoarding. It is this anomaly that needs to be addressed, not pushing more and more items under the Act whenever there is a price shock. <br />The Essential Commodities Act is out of tune with current realities and needs to be either scrapped or drastically overhauled to deal with crisis situations like supplies getting disrupted due to war, natural calamities and breakdown of law and order. But if even an otherwise natural reformist like Modi wants the Act to be retained and strengthened, looks like the country is going to have to live with an ineffective, harassment-prone law. And ordinary people will continue to suffer. </span></span></div>
seethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03595747396350996728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10408107.post-21919441681194904442014-07-07T20:57:00.000+05:302014-07-07T20:57:15.835+05:30Do a FRBM on subsidies, Mr FM, put a cap on the subsidy bill<a href="http://firstbiz.firstpost.com/budget/budget-2014-mr-jaitley-do-a-yashwant-sinha-on-subsidy-enact-a-law-to-cut-it-progressively-89938.html">http://firstbiz.firstpost.com/budget/budget-2014-mr-jaitley-do-a-yashwant-sinha-on-subsidy-enact-a-law-to-cut-it-progressively-89938.html</a><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">President Pranab Mukherjee, once the finance minister, has often been blamed for the mess the economy itself is in. Why, even his successor from his own former party, P. Chidambaram, has often hinted that the economy may have been in better shape if the fiscal easing that Mukherjee had done in the wake of the global meltdown had been reversed a year earlier than it ultimately was. <br />But one has to give credit to Mukherjee for one initiative in his last budget in March 2012, which has not got the attention it deserved. Dealing with the vexed issue of subsidies, Mukherji had said he would try to restrict the subsidy bill of the Centre to under 2 per cent of GDP in 2012-13 and bring it down to 1.75 per cent of GDP over the next three years. <br />It is another matter that the subsidy bill in 2012-13 actually shot up to 2.54 per cent of GDP, up from 2.41 per cent in 2011-12. Mukherjee could perhaps disown responsibility, using the excuse that he had moved to Rashtrapati Bhavan within a few months of that landmark statement. <br />But it is a pity – and a surprise - that Chidambaram did not take this ball and run with it. After all, he had, in his first stint in North Block in the United Front government backed by the communist parties, made bold to commission a discussion paper on government subsidies. He got an update done in 2004 soon after assuming charge during his second shift. In both his stints – and in between – he had constantly stressed the need to trim this bill. <br />Capping the subsidy bill is a sound idea and one that Arun Jaitley needs to push. It imposes a measure of discipline on the government, saying this is all the cloth you have, now cut it in a manner as to make the most of it. Decide which subsidies are more important, give more to those, less to the others but all within this limit. <br />Mukherjee took the initial step; Jaitley needs to take the next one and get legislative backing for this, something similar to the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) law. Once the cap is set – to be achieved in a phased manner over a period of time like Mukherjee suggested - any move to spend more than the cap will have to be get parliamentary approval. How will this help? <br />Right now the subsidy burden is a problem of only the government in power. When it attempts any trimming exercise, the rest of the political class comes together to force it to roll back subsidy cuts. Getting legislative backing for a subsidy cap will force Parliament to debate on an appropriate ceiling. Hopefully, it will be one that will not threaten macroeconomic fundamentals. Indeed, the very process of debating the need and level of the cap will reinforce the logic of reining in subsidies, highlight wasteful and unjustified ones, bring out hidden ones, strengthen the case for the necessary ones and focus attention on effective delivery. Importantly, the ownership of that cap will be that of Parliament as a whole. <br />Since breaching this cap will also require parliamentary approval – an exercise that will involve going through the legislative rigmarole – governments will not be so cavalier in infringing it. This might force more serious efforts at ensuring that only the really deserving get subsidies. <br />And even if a government does go back to Parliament, once again the entire debating process will again highlight its own inefficiencies and put a black mark on its fiscal performance. So it will try to come back on track soon.<br />This does sound too easy and good to be true. After all, Parliament did legislate the FRBM Act. And Parliament itself allowed it to be breached. But no party is denying the legitimacy of the milestones set in the FRBM Act and the fact that the UPA government breached it is something that it is constantly pilloried for. The whole process of legislating the FRBM Act – from the time the idea was floated to actual enactment – took a few years and intense debate. Thanks to this, Parliament is serious about it; there is no talk of raising the deficit caps or postponing implementation or even scrapping it.<br />In taking the initiative to legislate a cap on subsidies, Jaitley can show his party as a fiscally responsible one. It was Yashwant Sinha, during the NDA regime, who initiated the FRBM legislation. It just so happened that the Act got passed toward the end of the government’s tenure and the UPA government notified the rules, allowing it to take credit. But the sheen was taken away from that credit by the fact that first Chidambaram asked for a pause in its implementation (in 2005) and then Mukherjee amended it to relax the deadlines. <br />Jaitley can now do for subsidies what Sinha did for overall fiscal consolidation. It will be a feather in the BJP’s cap both economically and politically. </span></span></div>
seethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03595747396350996728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10408107.post-42050841836252675782014-06-25T19:00:00.000+05:302014-06-25T19:00:48.231+05:30Planning Commission should go, but its expertise should be used<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This piece was published in quartz.com. That heading doesn't capture what I am saying- that it should go forever but giving the link anyway.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://qz.com/224804" target="_blank"> http://qz.com/224804</a></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> So, for the first time since 1950, the country does not have a Planning Commission. The fact that the rooms of Yojana Bhavan, the building that houses this ode to a socialist economy, are still populated does not mean anything. <br />Technically, the Planning Commission is the deputy secretary and the various members. The denizens of Yojana Bhavan are merely the secretariat to the Commission. Technically, they are all jobless, as of now.<br />The Narendra Modi government may not have formally rescinded the March 1950 cabinet resolution setting up the Planning Commission, but by not naming a new commission, even a month after taking over, it has indicated that it has little use for the body that dominated the management of the economy for 64 years. Already one of its central functions – Plan allocations in the budget -- is being handled directly by the finance ministry. It was rather ridiculous for one body to sit and determine how much funds ministries and states should get and what they should spend it on.<br />This rather dismissive approach is not new. It was expressed in far more contemptuous terms by Rajiv Gandhi, who ridiculed the Commission as a bunch of jokers. But he stopped short of dismantling it. None of the post-1991 governments too questioned the Commission’s relevance. The closest anyone came to it was Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which, in its manifesto of 1998, said `the Planning Commission will be reformed and reorganized in light of the changing developmental needs of our country’. However, the revamp plan drawn up by Jaswant Singh, the deputy chairman during its 13-month first tenure, only attempted to expand the Commission’s empire. Subsequent BJP manifestos remained silent on this matter.<br />But the idea that the Commission needs to be recast in a different mould stayed. Singh’s immediate successor, K. C. Pant (in the National Democratic Alliance government of 1999), roped in private consulting firms to suggest what the Commission’s role should be. In the United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA) second stint, Manmohan Singh tasked member Arun Maira to suggest how to overhaul the Planning Commission as a Systems Reform Commission. We never got to know what this meant, though Maira has been vocal in complaining that nothing got done. Nevertheless, the proposed name change itself was a major gain; it showed growing acceptance of the irrelevance of the Planning Commission in a liberalised era. <br />So, the Modi government’s failure to name a new Commission is welcome. In fact, it is high time the cabinet passes a resolution quashing the 1950 one. <br />But should all the economist-bureaucrats in Yojana Bhavan be given a golden handshake and the piece of prime real estate be turned into a money-spinning office complex? (Incidentally, this was a suggestion given in the late nineties by a Congress ideologue before he took a ideological left turn.)<br />Perhaps not. Over the six decades of economic management, the Planning Commission has built up some expertise and resources which could be put to good use. What could these be? Here are four possibilities:<br />* It will be silly to assume that economic policy making will be done in a vacuum, without any forecasts and projections on macro-economic indicators. Sure, there’s a chief economic advisor and a planning unit in the finance ministry but that need not preclude an independent think tank kind of body that will monitor economic developments, assess their impact on India and provide intellectual inputs for economic policy. During Pant’s stint as deputy chairman, a Delhi-based consulting firm ACOR had suggested something on these lines, comprised of experts on contractual appointments. It had said this could be called the Planning Commission Policy Research Institute or the Strategy Research Institute of the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission nomenclature will have to be dropped, though.<br />* Why not, as former minister, Arun Shourie, suggested in a recent newspaper interview, replace the Planning Commission with a Reforms Commission? There is a slew of second generation reforms that are needed; there could be many more that are not evident right now. A Reforms Commission can suggest how to sequence reforms, how to implement them and also help in the political management of reforms. It could be something similar to the Productivity Commission of Australia which its website describes as the `government's principal advisory body on all aspects of microeconomic reform’. Its recommendations, which cover both private and public sector, are based on extensive research and public enquiries.<br />* Another option could be to have something like the Congressional Budget Office of the United States. The CBO, though it is part of the Congress system, provides independent assessment and analyses of the economic and other costs of every legislation. Its recommendations are taken with utmost seriousness. This is something that is completely missing in India. There is hardly any impact analysis of laws and the result is that the government is ill-prepared for the costs – economic and non-economic - that surface at the time of implementation. India sorely needs a body that assesses the impact of our multiple regulations and laws both before they are passed and periodically when they are implemented. <br />* We have seen enough examples of inter-ministerial wrangles making for messy policy, policy paralysis and implementation problems. The Prime Minister’s Office is supposed to sort these issues out but sometimes it may need some expert inputs to work out a compromise. For years, the Planning Commission has played a coordinating role between ministries as well as between the Centre and the states. Why not institutionalise this in a new organization? <br />A body that replaces the Planning Commission can do any one of these or a combination of these. The basic idea should be that the idea of central planning is anachronistic and contradicts the spirit of a liberal economic order. It’s time to make a clean break from the past.</span></span></div>
seethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03595747396350996728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10408107.post-25400653421992518962014-06-17T10:55:00.000+05:302014-06-17T10:55:01.788+05:30Some bad days are needed for good times to roll<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This was published in Nai Dunia, 17 June 2014. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://naiduniaepaper.jagran.com/Details.aspx?id=686267&boxid=13104">http://naiduniaepaper.jagran.com/Details.aspx?id=686267&boxid=13104</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Giving below the English draft that I sent.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks in Goa on Saturday that tough economic measures will have to be taken to put the economy back on track have invited predictable jokes about achche din and bure din. Perhaps the BJP brought these jokes upon itself by overdoing the achche din aane vaale hain message during the elections, but this is neither the time nor the subject for jokes. <br />Because the simple truth is that the economy is in a bad state and government finances are in even worse shape. It is true that the UPA government was not fiscally responsible. Former finance minister P. Chidambaram may have kept the fiscal deficit at 4.6% of GDP, but this has been done by postponing some expenditure (which the new government will have to bear) and getting some revenue in advance. So the Modi government’s first economic step will have to be to restore some order to government finances. Sound government finances are the foundation of a robust economy. <br />The other major problem facing the government is that of inflation, which is still not in the comfort zone. The Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan has moderated his hawkish stand on interest rates to give the new government time to address the structural issues that are fuelling inflation. The government needs to get cracking on these to create an environment where he can bring down interest rates. <br />So what are the tough measures that Modi is planning? It is clear by now that the only person who knows Modi’s mind is Modi himself, but if he is really serious about doing what he has indicated, these are some of the steps he could – and should - take.<br />One, on the revenue side, increase in tax exemption limits may not happen (though media reports say this is expected). The inflation monster has not been tamed yet and giving people more money to spend without addressing supply shortages and bottlenecks will not be a wise step. The economy certainly needs a demand push, but this has to be calibrated. Besides, an increase in the exemption limit to Rs 3 lakh is expected to cost the exchequer Rs 60,000 crore a year, according to the finance ministry. This is certainly not the time for such giveaways. The corporate sector, too, will have to reconcile itself to having some excise cuts given by the previous government taken away. <br />Two, on the expenditure side, there will be a drastic overhaul of the subsidy regime. The President’s address and Modi’s own statements during the elections show a welcome emphasis on infrastructure. This will mean that the bias towards revenue expenditure – which is 86% of total expenditure – will be corrected and capital expenditure will get the focus it sorely needs. <br />But revenue expenditure has one item that is committed expenditure – interest payments, which absorb over 40% of tax revenues. Defence and salaries too cannot be touched. That leaves subsidies, which eat up 25% of tax revenues. Interest payments do not affect people’s budgets directly, so it can be safe to assume that when Modi speaks of tough measures, he intends to cut the subsidy burden significantly. This is something the economy has been crying out for. <br />Subsidy reform will not mean withdrawing all subsidies or drastically cutting allocations across the board. What it will mean is better targeting, which means only the genuinely needy will get subsidies and a lot or undeserving people will not. <br />If Modi is really serious about subsidy reform, then the cap on subsidised LPG cylinders should go back to nine. That will not only result in a saving of nearly Rs 4000 crore, but it will still cover 89% of the population. <br />His government should also allow decontrol of diesel prices or at least allow price hikes. This will have an immediate inflationary effect, but that will fade out in time. Importantly, it will also moderate wasteful consumption and bring enormous savings to the government. <br />A far more tricky issue will be tackling the food subsidy, the biggest subsidy item at nearly 40% of the total bill. The BJP backed the National Food Security Act (NFSA) which could lead to the food subsidy bill ballooning. But this problem will have to be tackled. One way to bring down the food subsidy bill would be to bring down the cost of procuring foodgrains. This could mean not allowing huge increases in the minimum support price. There are other ways to reduce this cost – reforming the procurement mechanism and eliminating inefficiencies but that will be a long-drawn out process. The farmers will be up in arms, but the government will have to remain firm. <br />There are a whole lot of other tough measures that the economy needs but these are the ones that will bite the people. That is why governments are generally loath to take them. The fact that Modi seems to be preparing the climate for these unpopular measures is a good sign. It shows two things. One, that he is not going to let politics prevail over good economics. Two, he has realised the necessity of explaining things to the people, something all reforming prime ministers and finance ministers from 1991 onwards have ignored. <br />People are not unwise. They know the need for belt tightening and cutting wasteful expenditure – they do it all the time with their household budgets. Surely, they will realise that if they want achche din forever, they will have to put up with bure din for some time. </span></div>
seethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03595747396350996728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10408107.post-91971890219174318432014-05-29T11:21:00.000+05:302014-05-29T11:21:05.151+05:30Modi’s government may be small; the state continues to be big <div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Narendra Modi’s 45-ministry government has attracted a lot of attention. It is also being hailed as the first step in what could be his signature style of governance – minimum government, maximum governance.<br />Sorry, but it isn’t. <br />Modi’s government is certainly a lean government, but it isn’t a minimum government. Let’s not confuse the two concepts. A lean government is about size and numbers. A minimal government is about a philosophy, a certain view of the role of the state. <br />A minimal state, as defined in the classical liberalism lexicon, is about the state confining itself to just a few areas. There is consensus on two – defence of external boundaries and enforcing law and order as well as upholding the rule of law. There are departures from this point on details. Some liberal streams include the provision of public goods as a responsibility of the state and there are differences on the definition of public goods as well. But the broad point is this: the state should not get into too many areas and most definitely not in areas where people are able to manage their own affairs through their own individual enterprise. <br />India is not familiar with the idea of a minimal government. Before 1947, it was used to a colonial-feudal set up and post 1947 that got converted into a mai-baap sarkar. The state kept assuming more and more responsibilities till it was present in practically every aspect of the lives of individual and enterprises, riding roughshod over personal and economic freedoms. And yet the size of the government remained relatively small. Indira Gandhi, remember, ran lean governments. The unwieldy size of ministries is a post-seventies phenomenon. Remember also that gargantuan cabinets continued even after 1991 even as the command-and-control economy structure got steadily dismantled. <br />It was only the Swatantra Party that came close to articulating the idea of a minimal state. The second of the 21 principles of the party stated: `. . . The party stands for the principle of maximum freedom for the individual and minimum interference by the state consistent with the obligation to prevent and punish anti-social activities, to protect the weaker elements of society and to create the conditions in which individual initiative will thrive and be fruitful. . .’ It is unfortunate that the party did not get much traction. <br />Modi’s government doesn’t quite pass this test. <br />It will if his government decides that the state should not be running hotels, airlines and providing telecom services and gets rid of the public sector in these areas. Instead, Modi talks about strengthening public sector undertakings. It is not clear if the government will pursue an aggressive disinvestment agenda. <br />It will pass with flying colours if the information and broadcasting ministry, steel ministry, culture ministry and the Planning Commission were disbanded. These are clearly, clearly relics of the socialist era. There are a host of other ministries that could make it to the axing list, but changing their role instead into a more of facilitating/regulatory role can be a subject of debate. Closing down these four is a complete no-brainer; no debate is needed. <br />There are some who argue that since the increase in the role of the state led to the unwieldy size of the government, limiting the size of the government will automatically result in a reduced role for the state, since administration will be a challenge otherwise. This argument is flawed. One, as already noted, Indira Gandhi ran a tight ship but one which was omnipresent and omniscient. Two, reducing the number of ministries and departments will not lead to shedding of work. On the other hand, technology can make it easier for the state to have its tentacles everywhere – far, far more easier than in the seventies. <br />Though Modi’s minimum government maximum governance idea does talk about the government moving from an interventionist to a facilitating role, the focus is more about using technology to speed up processes, clearances and permissions and make them transparent. It does not question the need for the myriad procedures that any interface with the government involves. It does not question the number of points of interface with the government. It is about making the government efficient in its current role, not about questioning its role. <br />Maybe that will come. Maybe Modi will realise that the problem with governance in India is that the state/government has taken on far more responsibilities beyond what should be its core responsibility of defence, law and order, upholding the rule of law and provision of public goods. Maybe he will realise the need for the state to focus on just these and do its job well. <br />Modi must be persuaded into making the 45-ministry government the first step of an ideological leap of faith. A small government must also mean a small, but effective, state. </span></span></div>
seethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03595747396350996728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10408107.post-89574306970199135782014-05-20T21:53:00.000+05:302014-05-20T21:53:42.075+05:30A call to arms: Time to get the classical liberal agenda going<div style="text-align: justify;">
What does the stupendous victory of the Narendra Modi-led BJP in the recent elections mean for India’s liberals - the genuine liberals, not the left-of-centre variety?<br />But first, let’s get definitions out of the way. The word `liberal’ has been appropriated by far too many pretenders and it’s time for the real liberals to reclaim the tag. The genuine liberals are those who believe in the supremacy of the individual, a small but strong state and no overbearing state intervention in the economy. Not for this section a paternalistic state, one that encourages a dependency syndrome in the garb of empowering people. Not for this section any compromise with personal, intellectual, cultural and economic freedoms. And with the rule of law.<br />This section was starved of a political voice after the Swatantra Party disappeared from the scene in the mid-1970s, though it has been making itself heard, especially after 1991, through other forums. It cheered the initiation of the economic liberalisation process but despaired at the continued overhang of the socialist era, in the form of the paternalistic-cum-nanny state. Contrary to the lampooning of it by the leftist brigade as `neo-liberals’ pushing the agenda of big business, this section has been warning against the economic reforms process being more pro-business than pro-market and pressing for a correction of this skew. <br />This group (barring a section that is firmly with the Congress) has, undoubtedly, aligned itself with Modi, decisively rejecting the fear-mongering by the leftists and the Congress. His articulation of the minimum-government-maximum-governance idea, spot-on linking of corruption with lack of transparency in governance and promise to address that, disinclination for sop-driven welfare-ism, clear focus on infrastructure and an enabling business environment has resonated with them. Other post-1991 governments had opened up the economy, but no Prime Minister (not even Atal Behari Vajpayee) had articulated a cogent view of the role of the state the way Modi has. <br />The liberals have quibbles with Modi’s silence on privatisation and his opposition to foreign multi-brand retailers, but see these as minor details that don’t detract from the fact of a directional shift in economic policy and the role of the state. <br />This, the liberals seemed to have realised, is the closest they could get to the old Swatantra model. For them the decisive mandate that Modi has got is an affirmation of their belief fact that people – even if they don’t understand ideological labels – are instinctively against dole-centric policies (it isn’t as clear as that but let’s leave that for now). <br />This group will obviously want Modi to deliver on completely dismantling the socialist edifice that had been built up in the pre-1991 era. They know it can’t be done overnight – the stroke-of-pen reforms got over in the early 1990s. It will be a long-drawn out process, with roadblocks aplenty and even some rollbacks. But they will give him time so long as his focus is clear and he reins in the swadeshi economics brigade in the BJP and the sangh parivar which gave the Vajpayee government a hard time. Some leading lights of this group could get closely involved with a Modi government. <br />But there are concerns. <br />One, what if Modi’s promise of a new economic paradigm isn’t what it seems? What if, as <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/PKSqUTdJRzo8OWCssnuLNI/The-heart-of-Modinomics.html" target="_blank">Vivek Dehejia asks in this article</a>, `Modi’s instincts are certainly pro-business, but are they pro-free market’? Wouldn’t this run the same risk of encouraging the kind of cronyism that became rampant in the past decade? Two, will he decisively junk the dole-centric welfare model, which the BJP is not entirely averse to (after all it merrily went around supporting the rights-based entitlement legislations)?<br />Three, and this is a larger concern, what about the role of the RSS in the personal, cultural and intellectual space? The fact that Modi will not allow the RSS to dictate the economic agenda is clear; that he will do so in other areas as well is not. He hasn’t revealed his mind on the issue of non-economic freedoms, the upholding of which is just as important to the liberals as the ensuring of economic freedoms. He has, till now, remained silent on this. There has been no reaction to the Supreme Court order on Section 377. He has also never come out and expressly condemned attacks on intellectual and cultural freedoms as well as provocative statements against Muslims by the rabid right-wingers. <br />Also, though they don’t buy the mass-murderer imagery that the so-called `secularists’ propagate, they are critical of Modi’s failure to check the 2002 riots. Upholding the rule of law and protecting life and property is an essential part of the classical liberal agenda. <br />So there is a dilemma. <br />Should the liberals remain silent on the social issues, and concentrate their energies on getting the economic agenda going, ensuring particularly that this agenda is a pro-market one and not a pro-big business or worse pro-business house one? After all, the entire left-of-centre brigade will be extra-vigilant on the non-economic freedoms, looking for the first chance to trip Modi up. Should the liberals focus on redefining the role of the state in a way that it doesn’t get into the personal and intellectual space and on strengthening institutions so that they can never become compromised regardless of the regime in power? But what if the doomsday predictions of the `secularists’ come true and gangs of sanghis go around attacking minorities, young couple indulging in PDA and getting books and art shows banned? Should they remain silent spectators because the economic issues are getting addressed? <br />Would criticising Modi strengthen both the fringe elements in the sangh parivar, who want to push their exclusivist and conservative social agenda, as well as the leftists/Congress supporters, who are just waiting for any opportunity to discredit and pull down India’s first avowedly right-of-centre government? <br />These are questions the liberals have to wrestle with in the coming days. <br />The problem they will face is that if they criticise the government, they will be at the receiving end of the ire of the online and offline Modi fanatics as well as the we-told-you-so jeers of leftists and Congress supporters. If they remain silent, the latter will label them fascist sympathisers waiting for suitable rewards. <br />But is this twin attack new to them? Haven’t the liberals always been criticised and labelled by extremists on both sides, as well as Congress sympathisers masquerading as neutral intellectuals? Should the fear of such name-calling come in the way of making the most of the first opportunity they have got to expand the genuinely liberal space in India? <br />Certainly not. <br />The Swatantra had limited success because the intellectual climate in the sixties and seventies was overwhelmingly leftist. That is no longer the case. <br />So why can’t the liberals work with the Modi government, flooding it with new ideas and creating an environment for greater receptivity to economic reforms, something that has been sorely missing till now? At the same time, any attempts to subvert institutions, impose an artificial intellectual consensus or a conservative social agenda and snuff out dissenting voices (including left-of-centre voices) should also be opposed. The two approaches need not be contradictory. <br />History will not forgive India’s real liberals if they pass up this opportunity. </div>
seethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03595747396350996728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10408107.post-13485906001858090532014-04-26T21:24:00.000+05:302014-04-26T21:24:54.603+05:30The Scalping of Daljeet Kohli: A Silly and Wasted Effort<a href="http://www.firstpost.com/politics/the-scalping-of-daljeet-kohli-a-silly-and-wasted-effort-1498385.html">http://www.firstpost.com/politics/the-scalping-of-daljeet-kohli-a-silly-and-wasted-effort-1498385.html</a><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In December 1997, this writer had gone to interview Pranab Mukherjee, then an ordinary MP of the Congress Party. The news of a Congressman, Rangarajan Kumaramangalam, joining the Bharatiya Janata Party had broken just an hour earlier. When I mentioned this to Mukherjee, he burst out with an incredulous look on his face: `Mohan-da’s son joining the BJP? How is that possible?’ <br />For those who don’t know, Rangarajan (popularly known as Ranga) was the son of Mohan Kumaramangalam, a leading light of the Communist Party of India who joined the Congress in 1967 and became an integral part of Indira Gandhi’s leftist band. He had died in 1973 and so was spared headlines similar to those playing out a day after Manmohan Singh’s half-brother joined the BJP. <br />Mukherjee’s reaction to Ranga jumping parties and the current buzz over Singh’s brother shows one thing will never change in this country – the typical Indian refusal to see an individual and his or her choices outside of the family context. <br />Mukherjee’s reaction was not to a Congressman switching sides, but to a left-wing Mohan-da’s son joining a right-wing party. Daljeet Singh Kohli was just another businessman, whose decision to join a party would have been a `non-event’, as finance minister P. Chidambaram quite rightly put it. The only reason the BJP made his entry into its ranks a huge spectacle was his relationship with Manmohan Singh. <br />Modi’s reported statement on the occasion – `Dr Manmohan Singh’s brother has joined the BJP and this will add to our strength’ – reflects poorly, not on Singh and the Congress, but on himself. Is the BJP in such a bad shape that it requires the entry of a little-known brother of a man whom its leaders have never ceased to mock as the weakest-ever Prime Minister to give it strength? Does a party which is supposedly riding to victory on a Modi wave have to resort to such gimmickry? <br />Even as a political strategy – to show that everyone from the party to the family is abandoning Singh – it doesn’t make sense. It would have, if Singh was standing for elections and was prime ministerial candidate. He is not; he will retire from active politics and perhaps go into oblivion after his Rajya Sabha term is over. So what is to be achieved by `embarrassing’ him? It will only give a Congress which has already abandoned him a chance to say in private – see, we were right to junk him. <br />By the way, the Congress too has not shied away from splitting families on political lines, the most famous example being of the Scindia family, where Madhavrao was wooed into the Congress fold, deeply hurting his mother, Vijayaraje Scindia. So let the party not take a moral high ground on the Kohli affair.<br />The way the media has reported this is also a comment on its intellectual bankruptcy. Why should Kohli joining the BJP be an `embarrassment’ for Singh? Why is one brother said to have `deserted’ another? Why is this a `psychological boost’ for the BJP? Didn’t the person writing this – and the editors clearing the copy – stop for a moment and think of the inherent contradiction between stories of a BJP on a high and requiring Kohli, of all people, as a psychological boost? Perhaps the most ridiculous aspect of this is Chidambaram being asked about it at a press conference where he was rubbishing Gujarat’s economic model. Shouldn’t the questions have focused on pinning him down on the UPA’s shaky economic performance, instead?<br />This is not the first time the media has tried to put Singh in a spot over the political leanings of his family members. The fact that his youngest daughter was working for a human rights organization in the Untied States criticizing the government’s counter-terrorism drive after 9/11 was, we were told, certain to embarrass him and affect his equation with the Bush administration. Didn’t it occur to anyone that this would be a non-issue in a culture which celebrates individualism and will not hold family members accountable for each other’s opinions and ideological leanings? <br />But why this obsession with family at all? <br />Why is Karuna Shukla quitting the BJP not about a senior party leader being sidelined but about Atal Behari Vajpayee’s niece on being ignored? If she were not Vajpayee’s niece would it have been alright for her to be ignored? Kohli too brings in the family angle. He says he joined the BJP because he was unhappy with the way the Congress treated his brother. So there is no ideological affinity with the party. (The irony of joining a party which has repeatedly mocked his brother in rather insulting terms is probably lost on him.)<br />Individuals can make choices that are different from that of their families. They are doing that all the time. They break away from the traditional occupations of their families and pursue their own paths. Children rebel against parents. Siblings take different paths. Families break up permanently with a lot of bitterness. And family members may even have irreconcilable ideological differences. <br />What’s more, this is quite common in Indian politics. Mohan Kumaramangalam’s father, P Subbarayan, who was a Congress leader, was supposed to have cried when his son became a communist. Subbarayan’s daughter, Parvati Krishnan, was also a member of the CPI. Ranga’s sister is in the BJP while his son has joined the Congress. <br />There are examples galore of families with members in different parties (apart from the Gandhi bahus, of course). Anil Shastri, son of Lal Bahadur Shastri, is in the Congress, while another son, Sunil, was with the BJP for several years before returning to the Congress, and a third son’s widow, Neera, is still with the BJP. One grandson, Siddharth Nath Singh, is in the BJP and another, Adarsh Shastri, has joined the Aam Aadmi Party. Noted lawyer, the late L.M Singhvi was in the BJP and his son Abhishek Manu Singhvi is a leading light of the Congress and was so even when his father was alive. Digvijaya Singh’s brother, Lakshaman Singh, quit the Congress for the BJP where he remained for 10 years before returning after a vituperative personal comment about his brother by Nitin Gadkari. <br />The ordinary public is quite aware of these differences in political families and their only reaction is one of amusement or cynical taunts about these families having ensured that they will benefit regardless of which party is in power.<br />How will they view the BJP holding up Kohli as a kind of trophy? There will be a few more jokes about Singh (mostly from die-hard BJP and Gandhi family supporters), some more about Kohli, but many more about the BJP. Is Kohli all that they could get, people are already sniggering. But mostly people will shrug it off. Singh is not even on their radar. That’s why the scalping of Kohli makes no sense at all. </span></span></div>
seethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03595747396350996728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10408107.post-89738417601273538902014-04-20T17:08:00.001+05:302014-04-20T17:08:50.590+05:30Why Left’s intellectual bullying won’t work any more<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://www.firstpost.com/blogs/navyana-controversy-why-lefts-intellectual-bullying-wont-work-now-1487389.html">http://www.firstpost.com/blogs/navyana-controversy-why-lefts-intellectual-bullying-wont-work-now-1487389.html</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">`We cannot so easily hand over a good writer to the Modi camp, not without a fight. . .’<br />Those are the words of S Anand, founder-publisher of Navayana, <a href="http://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/navayana-would-like-to-publish-but-d-cruz-refuses-to-engage-with-us-s-anand-114041700967_1.html" target="_blank"><b>in an interview with Business Standard</b>.</a> Navayana is the publishing house that withdrew an agreement to publish the translation of a novel by noted Tamil author Joe D’Cruz because he praised Narendra Modi. <br />So, the intellectual world’s worst-kept secret is out. Writers and artists belong to `camps’. They don’t inhabit the free, boundary-less world of ideas where, yes, there are rightist and leftist slants, but only to give an edge to debates. Those belonging to one ideologically-rigid camp will not tolerate one of their members being tolerant of, or agreeing with, the other. Anybody doing that will be found guilty of apostasy and be bullied back into the fold. So, contracts will be reneged on, books and articles will not be published, and opprobrium will be heaped on the renegade. And if that fails, they will be blackballed. <br />What else is Navayana’s action, and the words Anand has used in the interview, other than bullying? `We genuinely hope and believe Joe will eventually reconsider his views, which have drawn flak in Tamil literary and political spheres’. The implication is clear - the publication of the book (perhaps with another translator) will depend on D’Cruz revising his views on Modi, or at least publicly saying so. <br />Even when he is admitting that Navayana’s action may have been a bit haste, Anand cleverly shifts the blame on D’Cruz, accusing the latter of airing his support for Modi after signing the contract because he sensed the translator and Navayana would not have come on board otherwise. As writer Mukul Kesavan (who can by no stretch of imagination be called a Modi sympathiser), asks very aptly in <b><a href="http://www.telegraphindia.com/1140418/jsp/opinion/story_18242543.jsp#.U1DR9KJCmho" target="_blank">this piece in The Telegraph</a></b>, what if D’Cruz had aired his views after the book was published – `would Navayana have physically withdrawn the book and pulped it? Stacked the copies up and burnt them?’ He adds: `just to ask the question is to know the answer: of course not.’ Maybe he is right, but that scenario is not entirely beyond belief or possibility.<br />The D’Cruz affair has shattered another myth - the left-of-centre intellectual brigade’s sanctimonious pretence that it is the sole defender of intellectual freedom against the right-wing - specifically the Hindu right-wing – ravagers of this space. <br />The intellectual terrorism of the oxymoronic left-liberal brigade has actually been the elephant in the room for very long. Navayana’s immature action and rationalisation has only brought into the open what has always been done silently and in a very sophisticated manner. The rabid right-wing has very stupidly got books, plays and art exhibitions banned, physically attacked independent writers and artists and vandalised buildings and very rightly attracted public revulsion for itself and sympathy for the objects of its attack. <br />The left clique, in contrast, has for decades labelled people who hold positions diametrically opposite to it – American agents, World Bank-IMF stooges, corporate apologists, pro-establishment, Hindutva types, and, lately, sanghis – and banished them to intellectual and academic Coventry, far more effectively and without any taint of censorship being attached to it. <br />Sometimes, it has not been silent. There have been occasions when an award or a official post being given to someone perceived to be a right-winger, or supported by a right-winger, or simply opposed by a left-winger or two on some selection committee has been openly and hysterically attacked. Let us not forget how, through the sixties and seventies and even part of the eighties, universities and academic institutions were systematically packed with left-leaning academics and right-leaning ones effectively sidelined.<br />If D’Cruz hadn’t gone public with what happened, his would have been yet another unnoticed case of successful gagging of non-left voices. Anand sounds peeved that the author `chose to speak to the media before he responded to my and Geetha’s [the translator of D’Cruz’s novel] emails or calls’. Is that a grouse that D’Cruz didn’t give them space for intellectual intimidation? <br />Can you imagine the outrage that would have ensued if a publisher with a right-of-centre ideological bent had dared do what Navayana did to an author who criticised Modi or wrote something that would have got<i> khakhi</i> knickers all a-twist? The muted criticism of Navayana is almost akin to deafening silence, in contrast. <br />Instead, there are too-clever-by-half attempts at sophistry, drawing distinctions between right wing and left wing intimidation. What happened to Wendy Doniger’s book was censorship, we are told; this is only a publisher exercising his right to freedom to publish only certain kinds of authors. So, here is a publisher saying his decision to publish a book will be determined not by its contents but by the political views of its author. That’s not censorship? Anand is not a left-wing Dinanath Batra, the self-appointed guardian of Hindu history? Seriously? <br />For far too long had the right-of-centre band (the economic and social/cultural liberals as well as the conservatives) been edged out of the public discourse space by the left-of-centre cabal. But they are beginning to challenge this mafia and reclaim their place. They will not be intimidated any more by either whispered calumny or open taunts, by social or intellectual ostracism or by allegations that they have struck cosy deals with the New Establishment. Their resolve to fight back will not be weakened by broad hints that their freedom is short-lived and dependent on their not criticising the New Establishment. If and when they face attacks from this New Establishment, they will not go running into the arms of the self-appointed Sole Upholders of Liberal Values and beg to be forgiven for their transgressions and be taken back into a left-leaning world. <br />Joe D’Cruz has shown the way by standing up. The country needs more of his kind. </span></div>
seethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03595747396350996728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10408107.post-84774177861443566562014-01-09T17:55:00.000+05:302014-01-09T17:55:53.580+05:30An Adarsh lesson for babus: Don’t flirt with political bosses<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/standpoint-straight-from-fantasia-bjp-s-bank-transactions-tax-1947973">http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/standpoint-straight-from-fantasia-bjp-s-bank-transactions-tax-1947973</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">There has been a noticeable silence from the bureaucracy over the decision of the Maharashtra government to go soft on the politicians indicted by the J. A. Patil commission on the Adarsh Housing society scam, even as proceedings against the officials allegedly involved continue.<br />Contrast this with the outraged reactions when retired coal secretary P. C. Parakh was named in the first information report (FIR) in the coal block allocations case. Or when young IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal was suspended for taking on the sand mining mafia in Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh. Serving and retired IAS officers demanded that safeguards be put in place to ensure that bureaucrats are not victimised for bona fide decisions and actions they take in the course of their work.<br />The contrast in responses is natural. Parakh and Nagpal were seen as honest officials being persecuted for legitimate decisions. The officers named in the Adarsh scam are seen as having benefited from illegal actions. <br />Important though this difference is, dare one suggest that the bureaucracy’s silence in the Adarsh case is a tad misplaced? The issue is not whether the officers are innocent or not; the issue is the patent double standards that the Maharashtra government has adopted. <br />The state government sees no duplicity. The politicians, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan quibbled, had merely extended political patronage and not indulged in any criminality. He is perhaps technically correct. After all it is the bureaucrats who initiate files, make notings and, in some cases, sign on decisions. Politicians merely indicate what they want done. <br />In Andhra Pradesh, eight IAS officers are facing criminal charges in cases of alleged corruption by former chief minister, the late Y. S. Rajashekhar Reddy. Some politicians are also in the dock, but the officers became more culpable because they had done the paperwork. <br />Look also at what happened when Parakh’s name figured in the coal block FIR. The Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement which detailed the movement of the file related to the allotment of coal blocks to Hindalco. The statement said that the Prime Minister merely signed something Parakh had proposed. Worse, information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari and external affairs minister Salman Khurshid said ministers could not be going through every word and notation on a file before signing it.<br />This has a clear message for the bureaucracy – when push comes to shove, politicians will stand by their own and disown official. This is not just an end to the days of anonymity of the bureaucracy – the unwritten code that existed in the fifties and sixties that ministers would take responsibility for decisions they had signed off on. It is an indication that politicians now expect bureaucrats to take the rap for everything, much like drivers have to own up to hit-and-run accidents committed by their rich employers.<br />Who is to blame for this state of affairs? Unpalatable as it may be, the truth is that the bureaucracy has brought upon itself a lot of the problems it is facing today. Indira Gandhi has rightly been blamed for politicising the bureaucracy, but could it have happened to the extent it has unless bureaucrats also played ball? <br />The onus of change, therefore, cannot be on politicians alone. Why would they initiate change in a system that works for them all the time? It is the bureaucrats who must now put the political establishment on notice – that they will no longer be willing accomplices or supine doormats. <br />But this will mean doing a lot of things differently. <br />It will mean not taking verbal orders, especially if they are illegal. There is a convention that verbal orders are recorded in a note without delay. The fact that the Supreme Court had to recently give an order insisting on this practice shows how rarely it was being followed. <br />It will mean using the various protections that service rules offer to resist pressure and do one’s job with integrity. <br />But above all, it will mean bureaucrats presenting a united front to the political establishment. Many bureaucrats succumb to pressure because they cannot fight the system alone. They need to have the confidence that their colleagues and seniors will stand by them. This solidarity cannot be episodic but has to be sustained. <br />Harassment in the form of frequent or clearly vindictive transfers can be checked by the cabinet secretary at the Centre or the chief secretaries in the states. But often they do not pull their weight adequately. If the head of a service refuses to stand up for those under his charge, who will? <br />Political bosses find ways to get around stubbornly upright officers by using other pliable officers. A senior officer can use his position to browbeat a junior. And a willing-to-be-compromised junior can put the senior in a spot by drafting a note or manipulating a file in a particular manner. Ashok Khemka, the controversial Haryana cadre IAS officer, has accused two other officers of conspiring with the state government to harass him because he tried to block some allegedly dubious land deals of Robert Vadra. One of the two officials, he has alleged, had a role in approving these land deals. Clearly, for every upright officer, there are several others who not only facilitate wrongdoing but also the harassment of conscientious and principled colleagues. <br />The Adarsh case should be a wake up call for all those bureaucrats who either willingly collude with the political establishment for rewards ranging from comfortable/lucrative postings to material gain or silently acquiesce in wrongdoing. At the first sign of trouble, the politicians will abandon them and leave them holding the can. And then their colleagues are not likely to rally around them. <br />There are two lessons for the bureaucracy. One, don’t get into too a cosy relationship with the political bosses; stay within the boundaries set by the Constitution. Two, stand by your own, especially when upright colleagues are being harassed or facing pressure. But the second will not be possible without the first. No Supreme Court order or administrative reform measures will work if bureaucrats willingly break ranks to flirt with their political bosses. </span></span></div>
seethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03595747396350996728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10408107.post-22402528370851231722014-01-08T19:07:00.000+05:302014-01-08T19:07:59.937+05:30AAP’s volunteers shouldn’t be Youth Congress redux<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://www.firstpost.com/politics/volunteers-or-vigilantes-the-perils-of-aaps-anarchic-politics-1328297.html">http://www.firstpost.com/politics/volunteers-or-vigilantes-the-perils-of-aaps-anarchic-politics-1328297.html</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">`This is like a return to the Emergency days.’ That startling comment came from my mother yesterday as she was reading the newspapers. She was referring to <a href="http://www.indianexpress.com/news/minister-dismantles-hospital-panels-aap-volunteers-walk-in/1216283/" target="_blank">this report in the Indian Express Newsline</a> which said that the Delhi health minister Satyendra Jain has dismissed the existing hospital management societies, Rogi Kalyan Samitis, and that Aam Aadmi Party volunteers, with their trademark caps, were conducting inspections and helping out with administration in government hospitals, apparently without formal orders. <br />The RKSs were headed by the local MLA and comprised representatives of hospital administrations, doctors, civil society members and patients. They were part of the National Rural Health Mission eco-system and were the interface between hospitals and the public. Jain said the samitis were defunct and that he had received a lot of complaints of corruption and malfunctioning. <br />Three days earlier, Delhi’s education minister <a href="http://www.aamaadmiparty.org/Monitoring-facilities-in-Delhi-schools" target="_blank">Manish Sisodia had announced</a> that volunteers would be recruited to monitor government schools. They will visit government schools and monitor toilets, water supply, cleanliness and presence of teachers and report their findings to the education minister every day. <br />So what’s all this to do with the Emergency? Apparently during those dark days, similar volunteers from the Youth Congress would go around `checking’ various things – from the working of government babus to the number of guests and the quantity and kinds of food being served at weddings (those were the days of guest control order). Needless to say, bullying and muscle flexing was common and the `volunteers’ would often be `pacified’ in various ways. <br />Going by the Indian Express report, the muscle flexing may have already started. Hospital administrators and doctors are complaining about the AAP volunteers barging into labour rooms and calling doctors out of surgeries to complain and threatening filing of Right to Information (RTI) applications. <br />One needs to allow for a measure of hyperbole in these reports. Let’s face it, public hospitals are not the best run places and any attempt at reform will affect those who are benefiting from the current mess. The Indian Express journalist does not appear to have personally witnessed any bullying but is going by the accounts of doctors and managers. It would be natural for them to exaggerate things in the hope of derailing what could be a welcome initiative by discrediting it. <br />It’s also a bit unfair to liken the AAP volunteers to members of the Youth Congress which, at least in Delhi, was viewed with a fair bit of alarm. In contrast, AAP has come to power on the wings of a lot of goodwill from the public and its activists are fired by a sense of idealism about changing the way politics is conducted – the kind of politics the Youth Congress represented. <br />And yet, there is need to set off the alarm bells. <br />The current system of governance in Delhi needs to be overhauled completely but little is to be achieved by dismantling existing structures in a hurry. Jain, according to the Indian Express report, plans to replace the RKSs with new Jan Swasthya Samitis, which will be devoid of political interference. But shouldn’t that have been done before the RKSs were wound up? Why create an anarchic situation with volunteers having a free run of hospitals? Anarchy is romantic and even acceptable as long as an organization is in an activist mode. Once it comes into a position of responsibility, it has to function according to a set of rules and procedures. If these procedures are blocking reforms, then change them by all means but creating a vacuum is not the answer. <br />Delhi needs an active and vigilant citizenry; but this should not become an aggressive vigilante mode, which is susceptible to misuse. The initial lot of AAP volunteers may be an idealistic bunch which would not misuse powers, but can AAP stand guarantee for each and every volunteer, especially those flocking to it in droves after it formed the government? <br />Even if there is no misuse, reckless vigilantism is also dangerous. People who believe they are morally superior – as many AAP volunteers do – invariably adopt to a `my way or the highway’ route. This was precisely the attitude of Anna Hazare, from whose Jan Lokpal movement AAP was born. There is a certain impatience with and disdain for any criticism or urging of caution. <br />So it wouldn’t be surprising for overzealous volunteers to refuse to accept perfectly valid reasons for some official not being able to do things the way they want it to be done. Not all of them will be able to distinguish between genuine problems in doing things their way and clear attempts to block reform. The Delhi law minister forcing the law secretary to call a meeting with judges (something only the High Court can do) and accusing him of siding with the old regime is a case in point. When this is the case with the law minister, can ordinary volunteers be capable of more discretion?<br />A Firstpost article had wondered if the AAP revolution was similar to the French or the American revolution? But remember what happened during the French revolution, when vigilantism gave way to mob rule? <br />Governance in Delhi needs to be shaken up, no doubt. Only AAP has this as an agenda. But in implementing this agenda, the party needs to take care that its cadres don’t become like the vigilantes of the French revolution. Or like the Youth Congress during the Emergency. </span></span></div>
seethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03595747396350996728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10408107.post-84743254895949538452014-01-05T19:16:00.000+05:302014-01-05T19:16:34.649+05:30Modi's poochandi effect on Congress<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://www.firstpost.com/economy/quick-modi-is-coming-fear-spooks-cong-into-reform-action-1311349.html">http://www.firstpost.com/economy/quick-modi-is-coming-fear-spooks-cong-into-reform-action-1311349.html</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Harassed Tamilian parents troubled by their naughty children invariably use two words to get them to behave. <i>Poochandi varan</i> (<i>poochandi</i> is coming) or <i>poochandi koopuduta</i> (should I call the <i>poochandi</i>). <br />A <i>poochandi</i> is a fictitious fearful person – I remember being told as a child that a particularly frightening looking vagabond was <i>poochandi</i> - who would, children were told, take them away. The threat invariably worked – children ate their food, drank their milk, went to sleep or did whatever their elders wanted them to.<br />Narendra Modi seems to have had a similar <i>poochandi</i> effect on the Congress Party (thought it is rather difficult to think of a 129-year-old political party as a below five-year-old child). Psyched by the very real possibility of a Modi-fronted BJP coming within more than touching distance of power in 2014, the Congress and the government that it leads are suddenly in a policy and implementation overdrive, doing all that they had dithered over all these years. <br />Gone is the arrogant complacency; there is now a new sense of purpose. So an obstructionist environment minister is shown the door; the norms for approvals are eased; coal supplies to nine power plants have been cleared as have some port projects; and Rahul Gandhi is no longer sounding lost and confused. His focussed speech at Ficci last Saturday and a press conference on the Lokpal Bill the Saturday before that signalled this change. His press conference yesterday following the meeting of Congress chief ministers could be another sign that the party is not taking its eye off the ball. Lost in the noise over the rap that Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan got are the four actions Congress-ruled states have been told to take to tackle price rise and reach essential commodities to the poor. <br />One of these is time-bound. By January 15, the states have to remove fruits and vegetables from their respective Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Acts. They have also been told to be strict in implementing the Essential Commodities Act (ECA) to deal with hoarders and to invoke the Prevention of Black-marketing and Maintenance of Supplies of Essential Commodities (PBMSEC) Act, 1980 against chronic offenders. And they have to take steps to immediately implement reforms in the public distribution system (PDS) in line with the Food Security Act. Finally, Congress-ruled states have to open fair price shops run by state governments on self-help groups of women to sell essential commodities like fruits, vegetables and eggs at reasonable prices. <br />Clearly, someone in the Congress has finally got the message that rising prices is not something the Reserve Bank can control through higher interest rates and that supply bottlenecks have to be eased. Delisting fruits and vegetables – the items that have seen the highest levels of inflation – is a good first step in that direction. Of the 12 Congress-ruled states, three – Maharashtra (Vashi), Karnataka (Bengaluru) and Andhra Pradesh (Hyderabad) – have the largest fruits and vegetables mandis, according to the <a href="http://www.financialexpress.com/news/congress-unleashes-wholesale-reform-of-fruit-veggie-mandis/1212558" target="_blank">Financial Express</a>. This move will enable framers to bring fruits and vegetables directly to the market, which will help in easing prices and bring some relief to household budgets, though some agriculture policy watchers like Devinder Sharma are skeptical of this happening. It remains to be seen if the chief ministers can take on the powerful lobbies that control these mandis merely because Rahul Gandhi has asked them to. It will be great if they can.<br />The other steps Gandhi announced may not be so effective. <br />The Essential Commodities Act (ECA) is dusted out and deployed every time the inflation dragon rears its head, but its effectiveness is somewhat doubtful. Both its critics (who want it scrapped) and supporters (who want it to continue) agree that the ECA has not been able to check price spikes whenever there is a shortage of some food item. On the other hand, it is implemented in a ham-handed manner and often becomes a tool for harassment. <br />The logic behind setting up more fair price shops to sell fruits and vegetables is not clear. If these items are delisted from the APMC Act, and if silly rules don’t hamper hawkers and street vendors, the cooling effect on prices will make such steps redundant. Special outlets work only during times of price spikes. In Delhi, for example, government sales outlets were set up to sell onions at cheaper rates. Unless this is a way of doling out shop licences ahead of the elections. <br />The PDS reforms will take time to pan out. They have more to do with improving the last mile of the PDS chain – transporting food grains from godowns to fair price shops and then to the consumer – to eliminate diversion. This requires the deployment of technology – Aadhar, digitization of ration cards and list of beneficiaries, smart cards, use of GPS and SMS to track movement of food grains, to name just a few. These can’t be done overnight. <br />Questions naturally arise about the haste that is driving the flurry of decisions and actions. Are decisions and actions being pushed through without enough thought going into them, just like the Lokpal Bill was passed without sufficient discussion? Could these then lead to more problems some months down the line – when the Congress isn’t around to deal with them? These are questions that need to be asked and answered.<br />There are reports that Veerappa Moily, as environment minister, may give the go ahead to GM crops. The hyper-active and obstructionist green lobby has been red-flagging this and had managed to persuade the previous two ministers, Jairam Ramesh and Jayanthi Natarajan, to block field trials. But in overturning these, are essential precautions – that are in place in countries that have embraced BT foods – being given the go-by? When easing environmental norms for large industrial projects, are necessary safeguards being junked? <br />Is the fear of the Modi <i>poochandi</i> leading to rash decision-making?<br />Actually, it was the Congress and those whom economist Arvind Virmani calls the LIMPs (Leftist Intellectuals, Media and Politicians) who first portrayed Modi as <i>poochandi</i>. Except that they used the H-word from Europe of the 1930s. <i>Poochandi varan</i>, they warned the public, pointing to 2002, fake encounters, Haren Pandya’s murder, the snooping controversy and a lot more. Your freedoms will be jeopardised; your lives will be in danger, they all warned. But the public didn’t get spooked.<br />I remember a young cousin turning the <i>poochandi</i> tables on my grandmother once. Should I call the <i>poochandi</i>, she asked, when my grandmother did not do something she wanted. It was a sign that she wouldn’t be frightened any more.<br />Voters in four states have, in effect, shown that they are not going to be frightened into not voting for the BJP. They, too, have turned the <i>poochandi</i> tables on the Congress. <br />Whether the <i>poochandi</i> comes or not is immaterial. What matters is the effectiveness of the threat. It is the Congress that is now being spooked into action. Someone now has to ensure that it is the right action in the right direction. </span></span></div>
seethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03595747396350996728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10408107.post-4171910740892539942014-01-05T19:09:00.000+05:302014-01-05T19:09:04.420+05:30Inflation needs a political solution<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://www.firstpost.com/economy/politicians-hold-the-key-to-taming-inflation-dragon-1298845.html">http://www.firstpost.com/economy/politicians-hold-the-key-to-taming-inflation-dragon-1298845.html</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">So, India’s central banker Raghuram Rajan did not hike rates on 18 December, even though both wholesale and retail inflation persisted at elevated levels. The man who was expected to act like a hawk, is being panned for behaving like a dove, taking a benign attitude to inflation. <br />Rajan made it clear that he is not comfortable with such labels and that, far from being soft on inflation, he was keeping a close eye on it. If inflation did not ease, he said, he would act appropriately. Maybe he had a problem with the choice of birds, and would have preferred to be compared to the wise owl instead.<br />Will inflation – particularly food inflation – ease over the next month? Given that general elections are due in a few months, the government and the Congress Party will certainly hope that it will. The results of the recent assembly elections made it very clear that the public will be unforgiving about rising prices. However, opposition parties would do well not to gloat about the government’s plight. What India is seeing today is not a cyclical or seasonal high inflation that will correct itself. High inflation, especially food inflation, has got entrenched and is not likely to go away soon. It is certainly going to pose a huge challenge to whichever government comes to power in May 2014. And there is no quick solution for it.<br />The persistent high inflation that we are seeing now is an economic problem created by politics. The solution, too, is rooted in politics. The UPA cannot escape the blame for the current high inflation. The unchecked populism during its ten years is mainly to blame. Finance minister P. Chidambaram admits that higher farm gate prices and higher rural wages (thanks to the NREGA effect) had played a role in rising inflation. But he justified both decisions as being right. “The argument that inflation must be contained by suppressing farm gate prices or rural wages is a specious argument that ignores the needs of the poor and deserves to be rejected,” he said at the Delhi Economics Conclave in mid-December. <br />It is by now well established that the rising food inflation is the result of increasing demand, thanks to growing prosperity, far outstripping supply. This statement, however, needs to taken with a bit of caution. While expenditure on fruits and vegetables (which has seen the highest levels of inflation) grew by 42 percent between 2004-05 and 2011-12, data from the National Horticulture Board shows that production increased 53 percent. Dr Ramesh Chand, director of the National Centre for Agriculture Economics and Policy Research (NCAP), explains this discrepancy, pointing out that given the huge increase in demand even a marginal fall in production in some months has a huge multiplier effect on prices. This becomes more marked in vegetables that lend themselves to hoarding – potatoes, onions and tomatoes, which have almost become necessities now. So clearly, there is a supply bottleneck issue that needs to be addressed. For this, traders and the entrenched cartels in farm goods are to blame. <br />How is this to be tackled? The solution is an economic one – liberalising and bringing in more competition into agricultural trade. But politics is not letting it happen. <br />The issue of monopolies and cartels in agricultural trade has to do with the state-level Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act which set up regulated zonal wholesale markets to which farmers in a particular area are bound to sell their produce. This not only encourages monopolies, but also stands in the way of the integration of farm production with the national market. According to an ICRIER report on the non-alcoholic beverage sector, even in cases where food processing firms buy produce directly from the farmers, they have to pay the APMC cess. <br />There is near-unanimity that the APMCs need to go or at least be modified to allow more competition and that a barrier-free national market is the best way to tackle food inflation. Unfortunately, this is something that is solely in the realm of state governments. A model APMC Act, which allowed for more competition, was drawn up by the Centre during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. During the NDA and the UPA reign, there have been attempts to prod states to adopt this model legislation. A committee of state ministers in charge of agricultural marketing has unanimously endorsed the need to adopt the model Act. And yet, only 17 states have done so. So strong is the political hold of the vested interests that control these markets. <br />When food inflation started heading northward in 2002-03, the NDA government cooled prices by releasing part of food grains stocks through the public distribution system and selling grains at cheaper rates to millers. The government is sitting on huge food grain stocks, but it is wary of offloading this because of the requirements of the Food Security Act. Can the damage be contained? There is a provision in the legislation to move to a system of cash transfers, which will obviate the necessity of huge public stockholdings. This is again a political call that either the present or future governments will have to take. Do parties have the gall to take this route? Remember that this unwise piece of legislation was green-lighted by all parties. <br />Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha recently recalled an anecdote from his tenure about the finance minister of a northern state losing his temper when the Union finance secretary suggested that states abolish a tax on trade in food grains in order to keep food prices down. For the minister, filling up his state’s coffers were more important than the larger macro-economic implications of rising food prices.<br />When politicians across the country and across parties refuse to see economic logic, can there be an easy solution to the inflation problem? There is no point drawing comfort from the fact that high inflation is being driven by food prices and that core inflation is largely at acceptable levels. As C. Rangarajan, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, has warned, sustained food inflation gets generalised and spreads to other sectors. Given the current levels of distortions in the marketing of food grains, cereals and fruits and vegetables, high food inflation is unlikely to be a temporary phenomenon. Rajan, at his press conference on Wednesday, clearly said that the RBI could not indefinitely wait for the supply side to catch up with demand pressures on the food front and that if necessary, he would take steps to bring demand closer to supply. That is obviously the only solution that will be left. <br />But just because inflation targeting is one of RBI’s mandates, is it justified to put on it the entire onus of solving a problem that is not of its creation in the first place? In doing that, isn’t the political class that is responsible for the situation being let off the hook? Won’t the use of monetary policy to address a supply-side problem lead to other problems? These are questions all political parties need to mull over. It is time inflation is seen as a political problem requiring political solutions. The structural problems cannot be addressed overnight. The benefits also will take time to materialise. If any new government does not take action early enough, five years down the line (or even earlier during elections to state assemblies) it will find itself in the same situation as the UPA. <br />In October 2012, when Rajan’s predecessor D. Subbarao hiked rates to tackle inflation amid fears that it would hurt growth, a miffed Chidambaram had said he would walk alone if necessary to face the challenge of growth. Chidambaram or whoever the finance minister will have to walk alone to address the challenge of inflation. At any rate, they can’t expect the RBI governor to walk alone on this issue. They – and the entire political class – will have to support him.</span></span></div>
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