I am...

A description of me so apt I had to put it up here:

"YOU...you, my friend, you're a standard liberal. A nice, center-left leaning, unoffending, politically correct internationalist silly liberal"


No prizes for guessing who came up with this description.

Mostly sweet & a bit bitter

Now that the dust has settled and the picture clearer, I feel vindicated following my earlier post a day before I cast my vote in Bangalore. The only party who could morally lay claim to govern India has been chosen by an incredible & unexpected majority of voters right across the country. My delight is obvious and I can only hope now that the likes of Milind Deora, Sachin Pilot, Shashi Tharoor & P. Chidambaram provide strong leadership and accellerate reforms in this country. I am especially excited at seeing the likes of these gentlemen representing India at home & abroad. Like our cricket team, our politics too seems to be approaching a period of renaissance and I can only feel optimistic about the future.

An unsurprising outcome though which has left a bitter aftertaste for me are the results in my state of Karnataka and especially in my city of Bangalore. All 3 seats contested in Urban Bangalore have been won by the BJP and Karnataka saw the BJP record its best performance among any states in the country! When did my home become saffron? I have no idea. Despite recent events where Hindu fascist groups were on the rampage, the people in Bangalore felt it better to side with a militant ideology. Of course, the Congress did no favours to itself here by putting together a shockingly shoddy and disorganised campaign. However, I am still disappointed and feel some of the more liberal reforms this city needs (longer hours for bars, restaurants etc, abolishing ridiculous bans on creative expression, lowering atrociously high excise duties on foreign products etc etc) will not now happen. It seems like the citizens of Bangalore are leaning increasingly to the Right and that more than anything is the worrying bit. For now, I'll comfort myself with the numerous images of our Prime Minister waving the V sign with "Singh is King" playing in the background! :-)

A voice from the valley

My good friend VJ sent me a link of Omar Abdullah being interviewed by Dawn, the Pakistani media group. Apropos of my below post on Kashmir and the Hurriyat, I am posting the link to the first part of the five part interview. It is a must watch. This man has conviction, no double standards, plain speaking and clearly a man with if not a vision, then at least a good sense of what needs to be done to bring change to Kashmir and I think India too. And most importantly he seems like a guy who can get things done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFDpQsVme2M

I would suggest that you watch all 5 parts. Very rarely does a politician elicit this level of respect. Especially watch out for his comments on nuclear weapons, on dear General Musharraf and best of all, his reaction when prodded about dynastic rule in politics. This was pre-Mumbai so the world has changed again since this interview but a lot of what he believes in would remain constant despite Mumbai. If India had a system of direct, individual election to the highest office, mine would go to this fellow without a moment's hesitation.

How not to matter

I was waiting for my daily dose of Asia business news this morning on the BBC and right after, there came a story on the elections in India. This news clip's focus was on interviewing the Hurriyat conference leader Mirwaiz Omar Farooq. From previous debates and discussions on Kashmir that I have seen, I remembered the Hurriyat as an incendiary, unreasonable and mostly illogical group, given to chest beating and nay saying more than anything else. And this short interview with this Mirwaiz fellow was no different.

His spectacular demands and opinions included:

- Discussion on independence of Kashmir with India Kashmir and Pakistan.
- Debate and decision on independence of Kashmir to be decided by Kashmir and Pakistan (quickly corrected to Kashmiris)
- Allegation that elections in Kashmir are rigged since according to this chap the "Indian army counts votes". ( Hmmm...maybe he hasn't heard of electronic voting machines the poor fellow.)

Initially, this misguided chap mouthing his party's stance angered and puzzled me. But as I thought about it on my drive into work, I realised that he was also not completely dumb. The Hurriyat was formed on the basis of seeking independence for Kashmir. However, "independence"really means integration with Pakistan. I don't know now how many Kashmiris and indeed separatists want to integrate with Pakistan! So now Mirwaiz and his ilk are drumming for self determination and choose not to test their own standing in India's general election, instead choosing to use the almost comical reason that elections are rigged. The entire free world looks at the Indian election process as free and fair but of course its not good enough for our dear secessionists, separatists or whatever it is they call themselves today.

This of course comes back to the old problem of how this all started in the first place. After much reading and cross referencing I have arrived at a few simple conclusions. I may not know all the facts but basically:

- Jinnah and his cronies wanted Kashmir to be part of Pakistan. Why? Because they were a muslim majority state. Someone should have tapped him on the shoulder then and told him that creating a nation based on such an idiotic ideology would only lead to disaster. I believe Gandhi tried but obviously failed (but he failed because creating Pakistan wasn't at all about a separate homeland for Muslims. It is clear for anyone who cares to look closely now that it was more about a slighted Jinnah wanting to leave his legacy on the world. Why else would a pork eating, whiskey loving atheist demand a separate homeland for Muslims?)
- When the Hindu King of Kashmir wasn't sure about joining forces with the newly formed Islamic state, the Islamic state sent in about 40,000 irregular pathan goons into Kashmir to foment trouble and to try and annexe Kashmir
- When this tactic was seen, the King went to among other folks Nehru and requested Indian assistance to repel these goons. The condition put forward (and conveyed by Krishna Menon) was to sign the accession document to India and India would then be able to intervene
- The King signed, Indian troops went in, the goons were thwarted and the Indian army was reclaiming the land occupied by the goons. However, this is when Nehru made one of his legendary mistakes: he went to the UN to seek mediation instead of allowing the army to do its job. The UN came, decided on a plebiscite but troop withdrawals on both sides were not adhered to and hence the plebiscite was never held
- Status quo seemed to hold for a while with even elections happening in Kashmir and then in 1965 came Operation Gibraltar.

Of course post 1965, things really go to hell and breakfast. There are massacres, vote rigging by India, more massacres of muslims and hindus, incursions and then in 1989, militancy is born, funded by Pakistan and this continues to go on despite all of Pakistan's platitudes. The Lashkar e Toiba has as recently as last month issued a "warning" to all people in Kashmir that suicide bombings would be conducted if Kashmiris voted in Indian elections.

All this is grist for the mill. The bottom line is this: there is no point revisiting 1947, 1965 or 1778 or whatever date when whatever atrocity or injustice occurred. This Mirwaiz wallah and his minions are living about 2 decades back and are unable to realise how the world has changed since, especially post 9/11. While there may have been sympathy for Islamic secessionist movements before, it is fast drying up today. The solution for these guys to be heard is to participate in whatever available democratic processes there are and then raise issues about injustices. However, it is far easier to sit in a house in Kashmir or Srinagar, fuming and fulminating about injustices to the BBC than it is to actually draw up an election manifesto, fight elections and win the trust of people by creating jobs, developing the local economy through sound public policy initiatives. Instead, what our dear ewe lamb Mirwaiz is insisting upon is "talks with India and Pakistan" to resolve the "Kashmir issue". Yes, yes let us sit on the same table with Osama's minions and the greasy Zardari and talk about how all girls' schools in Kashmir can be destroyed. The BBC reporter interviewing this gent was at his sardonic British best, resulting in much squirming on the part of Mirwaiz. Such fun.

To conclude this post at least, sadly there is no doubt that Pakistan must be involved in reaching some consensus about Kashmir. But that possibility has been put back by years after Mumbai. Even if Mumbai didn't happen, I think India and the world have many more things (nukes, Taliban, more insurgents etc) to be concerned about first with regards to Pakistan than the plight of the poor Kashmiris who have become nothing but victims of a cruel circumstance, almost exclusively not of their own making. So long as the Mirwaizs of this world are given importance and Kashmir looked at through the lens of being an Islamic society, things will never be resolved. Only if religion is taken out of this equation can Kashmir truly be solved but sadly a state that is founded (by an atheist!) on this very basis cannot well set that aside and more importantly, the guardians of Kashmiri people who believe Kashmiris are Muslims first and Kashmiris second have only doomed themselves and their people to a lifetime of hardship and uncertainty.

I realize also that people may have varying opinions on what I have written, some may be enraged, some may differ in their view. I just want to make it explicit that this is not about Muslims in Kashmir nor is it about Pakistan - baiting. Faults if we want to apportion them will I am sure be apportioned across the board. I am all for finding a solution and I sadly do not see a solution materialising when there are the likes of the Hurriyat who claim to represent aspirations of a people without in any way, earning legitimacy to that claim.

Inked!

It felt quite exciting to walk into the polling booth this morning. Being Malleswaram West constituency, it's among the most upper middle class neighbourhoods inBangalore. There were no sycophants hanging around, no hangers on, no sign even that an election was on! I just strolled to the polling booth, walked in to find no one there but the election officials, displayed my card. They found my name in under 10 seconds on the list, handed me 2 slips of paper, I first had to sign against a register, hand over the slips of paper to another desk in the room, get my left index finger inked and then proceed to another desk covered with make shift cardboard where there were 2 electronic voting machines clearly displaying the names and party symbols of candidates. One simple press of the button next to the "hand" symbol, the machine chirped in acknowledgement and that was it. No lines, no waiting, no nothing. After that the feeling of freedom and some sort of empowerment came rushing back: yes my candidate may not win nor may my party of choice but at least my opinion will be counted. Jai Hind!

Jai hind!

My blog is finally functional again (thanks Dody!) and there seems to be so many things that I'd made note of which required copious amounts of expostulation and reflections on absurdities: Varun Gandhi, IPL in South Africa, N. Modi's disgusting speeches and fascist character, the dangerous resemblance between N. Modi and the other better known gent from Germany in the '30's and 40's, L. Modi and how a combination of short sighted administrators are destroying Cricket, Delhi oh Delhi...Lodhi Road the tombs the parks friends old & new...Rajpath...Delhi, more weddings, great books, a nostalgia trip to Pecos and so much more. Ah well...

For now, on my drive into work this morning my mind wandered to Nehru and how despite all his flaws and despite the shackles he chained India with for many years, how the ideals and values cherished by him continue to be respected in this country almost 7 decades after. And how unless something drastically changes, I will continue to support the political party which seeks to propogate those values. It would be easy to laugh as most cynics are likely to do, candy floss you might say but the truth also is that the Indian constitution was a consequence of people like Nehru and their ideals. Our founding fathers may not have been perfect but visionaries they certainly were. I vote tomorrow in the belief that I will be supporting Nehru's dream of a free, just, secular and liberal society. A society which is not riven by which God you pray to or what your Father did for a living, a society (to borrow a phrase) where all men are born equal and all have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

But most importantly, I also vote because I can, because it is the direct manifestation of the most highly evolved & mature idea yet stumbled upon by humankind and because I harbour a quiet pride that I live in a country where this idea is the centre of its existence.

Salute!

Republic Day is another one of the many Indian public holidays which hold no significance anymore...indeed if it ever did. Our constitution was unveiled and India became a republic....there was a big ad in the newspaper that quoted the Preamble to the Indian constitution...big words like liberty, freedom, equality & fraternity. So much nonsense when girls are being attacked for drinking a beer andNarendra Modi's Gujarat is corporate India's favourite destination (how could Ratan Tata share the same podium as Modi? It still rankles) but that isn't the half of it.

Remember this? : (from Amit Varma's India Uncut)

She allegedly protected her brother from murder charges, and mismanaged a cooperative bank she controlled by cancelling loans taken by her relatives.

Reading the above you'd think this is the story of R. Raju's close associate but you would be wrong. This is much bigger and better than any corporate scam. That above excerpt was about none other than our dearly beloved first ever woman President of India! The most disturbing image I have seen in recent times was not the Israeli massacres in Gaza nor of the Taliban whipping people in Pakistan nor even of young girls being roughed up in Mangalore but of Pratibha Patil saluting the armed parade on Republic Day. Can irony get any more bitter?

Read Amit Varma's commentary on our honourable President here

At least I still live in a country where I can publish such posts...if I was in Beijing or Peshawar I'd probably be fertilizer by now. Small mercies I guess...

Pro what?

"There is something about reproductive health - maybe the sex part - that makes some Americans froth and go crazy. We see it in the opposition to condoms to curb AIDS in Africa and in the insistence on abstinence-only sex education in American classrooms (one reason American teenage pregnancy rates are more than double those in Canada). Retrograde decisions on reproductive health are reached in conference rooms in Washington, but I've seen how they play out in African villages. A young woman lies in a hut, bleeding to death or swollen by infection, as untrained midwives offer her water or herbs. Her husband and children wait anxiously outside the hut, their faces frozen and perspiring as her groans weaken."

Cause and effect. Public policy and the challenges. Read the whole article here

From Jezebel

"I'm a crazy Republican, I voted for McCain," he said. "But I like Obama. Look at him, he is smart and came from nowhere to Harvard and he has dark skin, it is time for someone with a little dark skin. Why have the same people over and over in charge? So one person can lead and then their son and their wife and their daughter can lead as well? I come from Pakistan and I never liked Bhutto. Her grandfather was a politician, her father was a politician, now her son is a politician. Let someone else do it for a change. Obama is a great speaker because black people are great speakers. Even black people who are not educated or have nothing, they have great voices, they can sing, they can make you feel inspiration. And look, not all black men are in jail, look at this one!"

Fantastic piece by Jezebel. Read the entire piece here.

Options

"I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran," she said. "In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them."

How is this kind of rhetoric any different from what Ahmadinejad spews? She might be better than the incumbent in that she could probably find Iran on the map but that just makes things all the more dangerous.

I guess alternatives there are no different from alternatives here. In a list out today, H D Kumaraswamy, our esteemed ex- con...I mean ex chief minister has seen his net assets go up from 3 crores to almost 50 crores in 4 years time!

These are the alternatives we have and we're lectured about voter apathy...

To free or to save?

It used to be just another t-shirt slogan for me. Something akin to "just do it" but more recently I've begun to think a little more about t-shirts that say "free tibet". Do the people who wear these shirts actually understand what they are passively demanding? I have my reservations. On a related note, my complete contempt for the Communist party of India (and all their splinter groups and parties) has always been evident, none more so than now, blocking India's progress in the name of defeating "imperialism". More recently, Prakash Karat (who makes me grind my teeth in frustration everytime he spews his rubbish on TV) said that Indians must be careful about advocating "free tibet" due to simmering nationalist sentiments at home. Of course this was a speech that seemed to be scripted and faxed from Beijing but there was a grain of inadvertent truth to what he said.

Many supposedly liberal Indians vociferously put down China's human rights record in Tibet, forgetting completely our own history of suppression, intimidation and neglect of our own peoples. At a recent seminar, I was asked by a lady from Brookings, "Tell me Aaabhijeeet, what exactly is the north east of India?! Is it all one big state?" I wanted to tell her that it might as well be. The north - east is but one example of how India's development policy continues to foment trouble there.

Lets rewind to post 1947 and the States Reorganisation Act. India used force then to amalgamate the princely states. India uses force today to suppress (illegitimate?) separatist movements in the North East, not to mention Telangana. The Nagas fought for a separate homeland whereas Telangana is fighting for a separate state within India. In both cases, there are continuing examples of India using force to crush separatist sentiments. I will not quote Kashmir here as I feel its a wholly different kettle of fish.

Keeping this in mind, India and Indians need to be careful what they advocate. Carving out parts of existing nations into separate nations is almost impossible to do today. The case of Tibetans may be stronger than the case for Telangana or the Nagas but there never will be a "free" Tibet. At best there will be a region called Tibet with a chunk of the population being Tibetan. What India and Tibetans should fight for is preserving cultural identity and religious independence. Something China is loth to do and hence, China should rightly be hung out to dry in global diplomatic circles. Seen in this light, the case of Telangana, Nagas, ULFA, Bodos etc loses much credibility when contrasted with Tibet. All the former already reside in a democracy which promises to preserve their cultural identities. This situation is reversed for Tibetans in Tibet. We must switch from "free Tibet" t shirts to "Save Tibet"and that pretty much, is all we can hope for.

Woman Power

India truly is a democracy in every sense of the word. Truly I am proud. Otherwise, how else would this be possible? In a true democracy, almost anyone has the chance to become President no? Well...OK I said "almost" didn't I? Amit Varma agrees and evidences too.

It is I, Satan

I find it deliciously ironic that Salman Rushdie has become Sir Salman Rushdie around the same time that I am reading one of the best books I've ever picked up, by another Muslim author titled "My Name is Red" penned by Orhan Pamuk.

It gets better because I just finished reading a chapter in the book which is titled "It is I, Satan". Without giving too much of the book away, the way Pamuk has written the entire book is in a series of chapters where the narrator of the chapter is one of the many characters in the story. So the way he (magically) weaves the entire tale is through this incredibly powerful style of writing.

"It is I, Satan" is a chapter where Satan is speaking in the first person to the readers about how he (Satan) is unnecessarily vilified, cursed and hated by mankind. Satan goes on to share with us his perspective on why man does the stupid things man does and how Satan is, for the most part just a stirrer of the pot, a stoker of the flame or even a mere (albeit gleeful) bystander as Man goes about his own demise.

The complete significance of this chapter, I have not yet understood. Is Pamuk secretly mocking (God forbid) Islam's beliefs of right and wrong, of what is Evil and what is not? Is this chapter his way of heaping scorn on radical Islam or even extreme religious beliefs that judge us on what is pure and white and what is the dark side?

It seems to me that Pamuk's writing is replete with messages for those who care to spot them...maybe one of the things he's telling us is man has enough latent malice and evil within himself and it really doesn't matter if Satan tempts you.....or if people like Sir Rushdie write the things they write. And of course right on cue the "satanic" element is there for all to see with Sir Salman Rushdie's knighthood being condemned by Pakistan (!)

Its a reflection of our society (in India, Pakistan and the other Islamic and supposedly secular nations) that we treat one of the brightest intellects of our time in a manner befitting a social leper. India has of course stayed true to form in displaying her hypocrisy by long banning one of his best pieces of writing, stating it not fit for a "secular" society and it not being kind to the "sentiments" of certain people. At least we still have countries and societies such as the United Kingdom that have the fortitude and foresight to do what should be done, to have the conviction to challenge misbegotten beliefs born out of an unholy alliance of religion and degeneration.

Where will it end?

Yet another...

Yet again bombs have been detonated in a major Indian city by those who don't like peace and are deluded by a misled sense of being left behind or being denied...honestly I don't know why. Anyhow, immediately following the explosions riot police came in to defuse other devices that were planted and to disperse the mobs that had gathered at the site of the explosion: the biggest mosque in Hyderabad. In the ensuing confusion, violence broke out and the police fired shots into the crowd killing 4 people.

The next day, several Muslim - political organizations and supposedly "activist" groups (mainly Muslim) supported by political parties, staged day long protests in Hyderabad indulging in (the now almost routine Indian practice) of burning effigies of the chief minister of the province. What left me confused and bewildered was the fact that these groups weren't protesting any security lapse in protecting the mosque or anything of that sort. Oh no, they were denouncing in their hundreds, the police firing that led to the death of4 people.

Here we have possibly a terrorist outfit exploding bombs in one of India's global business hubs and the next day we have people coming out to protest, not the insanity that was setting of explosives in a mosque but the ensuing police action. As is now routine I'm left with the inability to understand.

I'm not with him on this...well not completely anyway but Dylan I guess reached his own conclusions when he sang:
People are crazy and times are strange
I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range
I used to care, but things have changed

We are like this only

My Government is totally against imparting sex education. The Government is against aping Western culture in the school syllabus. Sex education does not go well with our country's culture and traditions

And since I hadn't ground my teeth in frustration for a couple of days, our beloved, charismatic & iconic Chief Minister Mr. H.D Kumaraswamy had the above to say yesterday as a reaction to the central Government's directive to impart sex education to school children. I didn't vote for the gent mainly because I wasn't in the city then and am not likely to vote for him or the travesty to democracy that his coalition represents, in the future. And if we were to trace back to how the honorable gent came to power, we will see that it really is HIS government and not the people's.

But that's besides the point. Obviously Mr. HDK is oblivious to 1.2 billion people living in the same country he does, not to mention Khajuraho or Bollywood. And of course he doesn't read...I mean the Times of India that is. So we are all children of God and were brought into this world by way of immaculate conceptions or severe "yajnas" (rituals) & penances performed before Agni, Vishnu, Shiva and the hundreds of other Hindu gods. How dare you say we have sex to procreate??! Preposterous...

And interestingly...Mallya Aditi Int'l school ( an ultra chic premier unaffordable-for-most institution) offers sex education as part of an integrated life skills curriculum that includes conflict management, health & hygiene. The divide is only on the increase & I can feel but pity for some poor (literally) kid from a government school who'll contract AIDS because he or she had no idea what a condom was. I think its time to see that "free hugs" video again, dream sweet Netherlands dreams and go to sleep.

Livemint

Is a Wall Street Journal newspaper recently launched in Bombay. Among other things, it carries 2 regular columns which I thoroughly enjoy: "Mobius Strip" by Ramesh Ramanathan & "Thinking it Through" by Amit Varma.

In his latest piece, Amit Varma eloquently echoes a sentiment I keep sharing with anyone who cares to listen: that the Nehru - Gandhi legacy in Indian politics is the prime reason India is about 50 years behind several other Asian nations and about a 100 years behind Western Europe. And the scary bit is it isn't over yet.

Jawaharlal Nehru was one of our foremost freedom fighters, but the freedom he fought for was restricted to the political domain. Once the British had been ousted, he replaced them with a new oppressor: the Indian government. He distrusted free trade, and once famously told JRD Tata that profit was “a dirty word.”...continue reading

Money honey

India's Harvard educated Finance Minister was addressing a massive press conference after presenting the annual budget. Watching him parry & answer questions with the panache only he can garner, one is reminded of a combination of a boxer, a ballet dancer and an arrogant young man (though he's well into his 60's)

Being a South Indian, a funny and common occurence throughout the press conference was when a journalist ostensibly from the North or some such other part of India asked a question in Hindi. Mr. P Chidambaram would lean to his right, get the question translated and then answer in English. What the hapless journalist from say Ranchi or Allahabad comprehended, I am really not too sure but it was funny all the same.

To a question, ''Sir, why don't lawyers fall under the service tax net?'' he smiled and said ''Because no one believes that lawyers render service of any kind!''

The more things change.....

I just saw a Hindi movie titled Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi. Apart from being a fairly well made film, it brought into sharp relief the Emergency period that was brought about by then prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi in 1975. I am always left with a feeling of incredulity, anger, disbelief and horror that this actually occurred in my country, often touted as the world's largest democracy. All the "participative democracy'' mantras I am so excited by were rendered puny and inconsequential with a single stroke. One might take some comfort and believe we have progressed, that our political system & bureaucracy have more checks & balances. But then again, I visited Gujarat only a few months back......

Lets go ''shopping''

Ah! I rub my hands with glee for it is approaching that time of year again. Polish your tridents, spears, iron rods, crow bars, cricket bats or hockey sticks; don the saffron bandanas or head bands preferably with ''Om'' on it, stock up your supply of discarded old tyres and diesel oil; don't forget the book of matches and lets go "shopping''. All because it's soon Valentine's Day! I am unsure about the etymology of the verb ''to shop'' but in and around this time in many parts of India, it takes on hues similar to the act of ''working up a frenzy and having a jolly good smash up''

For those unaware of the interpretation of Valentine's Day in India, we like to celebrate what the day symbolises (i.e. - love, courtship & romance) by getting out onto the streets of our cities in frenzied mobs & smashing up shops, restaurants, bars who have the audacity to decorate their surroundings with despicable & immoral artefacts including cute pink hearts, heart shaped candy, cuddly soft toys & cards with warm expressions of love. And no, hanging pictures of Dr. Raj on your shop fronts won't help either. Although a garlanded life size cutout of Bal Thackeray, L.K Advani, Narendra Modi and a few of the RSS- Bajrang Dal chappies with tridents might hold you in good stead. Oh lotus flowers might help too. Valentine's Day here we come!