Jugaad Inc. !!

Hai kya koi Jugaad ?

Arrey yaar tum to bade jugaadu nikaley !

Are daro mat, mere pass bahut jugaad hai !!

Jugaad is everywhere, on Wikis, Harvard Business, Wall Street Journals and ofcourse in the hearts and souls of every Indian. What exactly is Jugaad - a solution to overcome a problem, somehow, anyhow, in the fastest possible manner, by spending least amount of time and energy ! Sounds some heavenly insane stuff, isn't it !

Is Jugaad our biggest asset or the liability ? Have we reached so far because of jugaad or we havent reached where could have because of jugaad. Is jugaad a solution or a full blown problem in itself...

The Birth of Jugaad -due to lack of time or resources or both or due to lack of understanding of the situation at hand, sometimes due to simple arrogance and sometimes out of innocence We the Indians have developed the concept of Jugad (ad-hoc arrangement). We dont want to face the problems today or at least now or we don't want to think about the solution because it might be too expensive today or we might have to work bit hard to resolve the real issue, so in order to save time, money, energy, resources 'today' we think of Jugaad.

The Jugaad usually delivers immediate results, makes the person who carried out the Jugaad a real cool dood in front of his rest of the fellow men, everybody appreciates him/her for presence of mind and for solving the problem instantly without much kharcha (expenditure)  and sardard (headache i.e. hardwork). Slowly the Jugaadu ( the ad-hoc problem solver) becomes the talk of the town and every kid in the town, wants to be like him.

Over a period of time, several centers of Jugaad crops up in every town. Sadhu-baba (holy man) becomes the main Jugaad (back door entry in this case) to the highest court of law. A seemingly innocent Panwala, Chaiwala, popular Bhaiya ji, a not so popular defeated politician, bus-conductor a TC/TT in the great Indian train becomes synonymous to Jugaad. From your first to last ritual the Pandits will recommend some jugaad for everything depending on your convenience and budget. Likewise from getting a birth certificate to import machinery without paying duties, the Babus are well verse of the jugaad to get things done. Looking at the current heads (2 Ps) of our democratically elected government, one can realize how high one can reach with Jugaad and bit of luck, even sky is within reach !

Foreign media, several renown business journals etc have openly endorsed the great India Jugaad. No matter what the government in the center wants us to believe, but the facts are we are world's largest democracy but we are not most successful one, we may become top 3 economy by 2025, but I dont think even by 2100 (yes, you read is correctly, 88 years from hence) we will be in top 30 nations in the world on the basis of Per capita GDP. We tend to believe that we are super kool in mathematics, accounting and economics but our koolness is mostly confined to calculating aXb or tallying the accounts the fastest, unfortunately not much beyond that. We are no doubt one of the most hardworking people in the world, but certainly not the most creative of the lot. We are great at cooking the books of a company to raise money form the market but we are yet to create companies which can change the rules of the market. 

Lets talk about world's most innovative companies, most rapidly growing companies, most respected universities in the field of arts, science, technology or business and we are almost sure of not finding any Indian entity. The reason is simple, we are still searching for the appropriate Jugaaad to make it and to break it into the league :) !

If not for the business Jugaad of Outsourcing, how else could American and European corporations would have made so much more money despite recession ! The value proposition in this Outsourcing jugaad is so much that it managed to survive 2 decades, thankfully.

I tend to believe that God has not created this Earth and its all some great cosmological accident, a.k.a the Big Bang after which it all began. But then I wonder if not for God, how else this massive, beautiful country of ours has survived all these years. Now that's what I call the ultimate Jugaad, Bhagwaan Bharose !!

Bhaktjan - Hey Prabhu is baar kuch jugaad lagwa de, agli baar se dhyaan rakhoonga !

Bhagwan - Oh no, Not Again !!

Democracy & Capitalism- Its Time to Adapt !

I wrote a post in March last year hoping that 2011 will be remembered as an year of Democracy. Things changed significantly since then. Though nothing concrete has been achieved yet, but we have taken a giant leap in its truest sense. Call it a coincidence, but somehow then I felt that the winds of change which began blowing from the deserts of Middle East can sweep the globe and can potentially bring change, for the good!

Below is the brief excerpt of the article written year ago -

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2011 will be remembered as the year of democratic reforms, reforms by the people, for the people, as it was meant to be. 2011 will also be remembered for the pace at which these reforms/ uprising/ revolutions have materialized. Let us leave the task of categorizing these events as people's reforms/ uprising/ revolution to historians, but what is more important is the fact that Arab nations which were never associated with ( in popular media, stereotypes) a place where free will, free speech prevails can embrace democracy. So whatever was considered impossible, is actually possible !

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As we are venturing into 2012, we feel more optimistic then we were couple of years before. Greed and lust for power and money bred anger and hopelessness. In 2011 we saw a controlled outburst of this anger caused by acute state of hopelessness, which slowly gave us the much needed hope and belief in ourselves ! We saw what  a common man in Syria and India can achieve.

Post World War II, Democracy and Capitalism have stopped evolving and past 2 years have highlighted significant flaws in both the systems. We always thought that these systems are perfect but slowly we ourselves discovered the severe shortcomings in both. What started on Wall Street ended up in ballot boxes of Middle East and soon it will be extended to ballot boxes in US and India.

In past few years, Democracy and Capitalism have learnt a lessons from each other.

We all are aware of the founding principles of Democracy - by the people, of the people and for the people. Easier said, wrote, discussed then executed. Democracy which was supposed to be all inclusive, equally beneficial to all has been grossly misused by a handful of people in almost any country of the world post second World War. Though we are living in a Era of Information, but still we cast our votes, select our rulers, government based on our age old instincts.

The premise of Capitalism lies on maximizing the benefits of the all the stakeholders in proportion of their stakes. Capitalism appreciates merits, pays for hard work. If Democracy (i.e We the People) truly starts appreciating the hard-work, fire the unworthy, identify and reward based on merit and not on birth, color or sex, things can change significantly over next few decades. A lot of problems about governance and corruption which democracy bred, knowingly or unknowingly can be solved if Democracy borrows few ideologies from Capitalism.

Capitalism though promotes merit, has remained highly selective and restrictive at times. Lot of people worked hard for generations, but remained poor, lost their voice. Capitalism enthroned 'selected few' on the other end of the spectrum. The 'selected few' grew rich, powerful, untouchable and even mightier than the democratic governments.

The gap between those sitting at Zenith and Nadir in both the systems, Democracy and Capitalism has increased exponentially in past few decades.

ultimately took a nose-dive off from the peak tasting dust. If Capitalism can be more inclusive and participatory, open and accountable as Democracy is, lot of problems of greed, financial crimes and corruption can be solved in a jiffy.

Quiet surprisingly, more than 15% of the people in the world do not seems to care about either. Lets see for how long !!

I am sure in years ahead will be bit more Democratic and a bit less Capitalistic!

Simple, Pragmatic Suggestions to Election Commission

Dear Sir,

We sincerely Thank you for providing us, reasonably good elections so far. While a lot has been achieved but still lot more is required towards Electoral Reforms. We realize that Free and Fair elections are foundation for any Democracy. We also realize that its we the voters who should come forward and play our part, but unfortunately we are sometimes occupied with our jobs, household chores, meetings or even watching the entertaining head over heels Bollywood movies. While all of our consumeristic heeds are important to push us ahead of China, we realize that by not sparing time to vote, we are insanely leaving our houses open, hoping that the Ram Rajya will prevail. While we have many other explanations about why we hope for Euphoria to prevail and prepare ourselves to be embraced by the daemons from heaven, we have few simple suggestions which can make our and your life bit more easy and comfortable. We are not challenging your or capabilities, but we believe that these suggestions can be easily incorporated -

1. Please try to plan to elections over weekends and/ or over lapping with some public holidays. I know that certain officials might not be inclined to work during such odd times, but I think that this step can significantly increase the voter turnout across all categories such as working professionals, students or housewives. We, the people wont mind spending half of the off day to vote, but the probability of voting decreases significantly, if its organized on one of the hectic weekend.

2. Please try to increase the number of voting booths, so that its easy for you to monitor voting in each booth and it takes less time, thus will not hamper many of us from voting, who cant afford to spend hours in que under sun, due to various reasons.

3. Please make some special arrangements for physically handicap, elderly people, pregnant women at the polling booths.

4. As you might be aware that in 20 major cities of our country more than 100 million people, reside, i.e more than 10% of the total population. A significant percentage (guesstimate> 50%) of people are not bonafide of that particular city, hence cant vote. Similarly in several Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and towns (by population). Overall all these migrants (in metros, major cities and towns, including the NRIs) should total to more than 100 million India citizens, who cant vote. So please make simple and clear policies so as to include this group into election process.

5.  Instead of investing your time and resources in taming the Elephant, please try to tame the Liquor barons, the free food, drugs, cash distributors. You may disqualify candidates who found doing these un-democratic misdeeds and all his relatives from contesting in election for next 15 years. Please go on and ban that political party from contesting in the election of that specific constituency.

6. In addition to publishing all information on website, please create information kiosks in each village, town and city from where the citizens can gather information about the affidavits filed by each candidate, current and previous election manifesto of each political parties etc.

 7. Please the Government of India to allocate more funds to you, so that you can round the year propagate and educate the citizens about their rights and responsibilities.

8. Mobile Booths - Big trucks or vans can be converted into a Polling Booth which can travel to remote areas, Colleges, Hospitals, IT Parks etc where lot of potential voters reside but who are not able to visit Polling Booths due to insane traffic, heavy work schedule etc.

Implementing above suggestions wont cost too much of Exchequer's money, but will definitely improve the participation of we the people thus bolstering democracy in many subtle but powerful ways.

Of course the above list is not exhaustive, please add your suggestions in the comments and we can subsequently send an email/letter to Election Commission !

The Lokpal Kolaveri !

Unfortunately I am not much surprised to see the Government of India behaving yet again like a class 5 student. They dont want to work, play, have fun at the expense of their father and mother, even if the mistake is their's they wont accept, they will spend the whole weekend partying around and only at 11pm on Sunday night they will start doing the homework and will complaint to their mom not to push them for completing the huge homework in 1-2 hours now.

Why does it always happens the same way. What was government doing from August, full 4 months. Why can these discussions, analysis happen well in time. 

I hope, looking at how things went on during 2011, Mr.Nilekani and Ms. A.Roy would like to rethink and revisit their articles, stance and opinion. Anyways, people have long forgotten their irrelevant statement and articles already, which neither contributed positively nor critically or negatively towards the Lokpal debate.

The government used its entire machinery in its totality in past one year so as to make sure that no strong anti-corruption bill is prepared, presented and passed in time. Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh have given speeches in recent past about their commitment to pass a strong Lokpal Bill, but the same people appointed Sharad Pawar about 11 months ago as the head of the committee responsible to prepare a strong anti-corruption bill. Income department was literally used a puppet doll to chase the IAC team. So instead of focusing on collecting Billions Rs. of outstanding Income Tax. In April they assured of August. In August they created a last moment crisis, suggested to make Lokpal a constitutional body and recently out of the blue they suggested to offer reservation to minorities in the Lokpal committee.

Interestingly if one reads and analyze the comments of MPs and Politicians outside the top 10 media savy, post gradute or PhD MPs and Politicians one can start believing what Om Puri once accidentally said out of emotional outburst few months ago.

On a positive note, I find all these political cards being played by Congress a positive development. NCPRI has a strong command over legislature but unfortunately they fail to understand the politics. Despite all their individual and collective brilliance they might not have been able to reach a stage where national debates are happening in great detail at various places across India for more than 6 months.

Now the reason behind my positive outlook despite of all this is the Bittu Singh Syndrome. Over the years I have observed all government officers, politicians using one of these Top 10 excuses over the years. Unfortunately media has not been able to dissect through these over done, stereotypical excuses and present real, in-depth and much needed analysis. Interestingly in the current case, due to tremendous and constant pressure created by team IAC over past One year, government has used and exhausted almost all of these excuses. So despite all this Kolaveri of government, I am sure what bill they might pass things are bound to change significantly in 2012!

So I ask the government why this Lokpal Kolaveri di? 

Middle East Expatriates In Transition !!

First of all let me confine the scope of current discussion to Gulf Cooperative Council which comprises of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain. Recently Jordan and Morroco have shown interests in joining GCC. I think that in few years Libya and Egypt too will join the league and GCC will become a economic powerhouse to reckon with.

Infrastructure and Oil and Gas sectors have created enormous job opportunities in this region, bucking the recessionary trend. Tax free salaries, high rise buildings and massive cranes working day and night and the debt crisis are some of the first few things which comes to mind when we talk about Dubai and Middle East in general. Beyond the glossy buildings, massive oil rigs lies some not widely discussed softer issues unique to this region.

Religious freedom is the widely discussed of the issues. Dubai, the most liberalized of the GCC nations has allowed church and temple but in some of the countries practicing your own religion even in privacy of your home can be an offense. Though there may not be any official record of imparting punishment on account of practicing religion, but several stories, incidents are heard when people were deported or were held in prison  for few days

Some raw facts- Recently Qatar government has increased the salaries only of Qataris working in government run companies by 50%-100%. Even before this move it was widely known fact that for a given post, a citizen will be given a much higher salary (30% to 50% high) as compared to a non citizen across all GCC nations.What amuses and sometimes baffles me is a not so officially discussed fact that Western expatriates are paid more as compared to their South Asian counterparts for the same position ! I agree that a $1000 monthly saving will mean a lot to a South Asian in his country of origin and perhaps it wont be considered something significant for a Westerner but that does not justify the implicit racism. As a consequence some unwritten rules are being followed, such as in a certain area only so and so nationals are allowed to stay, live etc.

The expatriate population in Saudi Arabia is close to 30% (8.4 million), whereas in Qatar 1.45 million expats constitutes 89% of the population. Qatar's population has more than doubled post 2006 Asian Games and is expected to double again in the run up to 2022 FIFA World Cup. The population of Emiratis in UAE is close to 11%, i.e 0.9 million, with 8 million expats. The newly constructed residential and commercial buildings in Dubai or Doha can easily accommodate at least two times of the current total population or at least ten times of the current local population. Owing to enormous profits reaped by consistently high crude prices many projects are being announced and will be undertaken in the decade ahead. So all this implies that the region needs expats to execute those projects, to fill on those buildings and multiplexes, in short to keep the region alive, nothing significant. But interestingly none of the GCC countries offer nationality to any foreign nationals, unless specifically approved by some influential member of the royal family.

So, an expat in Middle East will remain expat for ever ! I really dont know how monarchies of all these GCC nations plan to fill in these buildings, malls, restaurants, airports and seaports. On one hand all the Monarchies of GCC have started emphasizing on democracy so as to avoid any anarchy, on the other Socialism is being bred under the shadow of Capitalism, in the name of protectionism. But not everybody who stands to benefit or loose because of protectionism policies can comprehend the subtle difference between racism, socialism and national interest. On one hand GCC nations wants to liberalize, attract talented expatriates from all over the world, following difference religions including atheists and agnostics, on the other they do not seems to be in any hurry to give complete religious or political or even social freedom to them.

Though many cases of human rights violation have been reported in this part of the world, corrective measures were and are being taken from time to time. Although employer's permission is required to leave Qatar or Kuwait or No Objection Certificate is required to change employers within a country, but any reported labor law violations are treated very seriously here and strict actions are taken against employers. So on a piece of paper human rights, labor rights etc seems to be taken well care of.

Comparatively young, small, oil rich GCC nations have been importing thinkers, philosophers, planners and technicians from all over the world to shape their present and future. Can they live without them in near future? Is it possible to artificially implant technical skills within 2-3 years in the local work force of an entire nation? No doubt the money Asian expatriates makes in GCC as compared to their native country is good. General sense of safety and security and labor laws too are practiced religiously here. While a country is most obliged to fulfill the aspirations of its citizens as first priority, but can they simply choose to ignore the expatriates on softer issues such as culture, religion, freedom and politics. Unless the local government addresses these non tangible, human aspects of life, the Expatriates in Middle East will remain in transition.

From Wall Street to Ballot Box in Middle East AND Back !

The innocent looking, mathematics and business wizards, who were slogged in for 12 hours a day 5 days a week and partied for 24 hours on the weekends, who stood on their feet high, self made, a bit greedy at times for all the right reasons mostly never would have imagined how their shorting of all the traded asset classes, will affect the life of people sitting 5000 miles away in the middle of a desert.

At macro level when I think I am surprised to discover that by first half of 20th century imperialistic powers were thrown out and democracy was established in several third world countries, but many second world countries were and are still controlled by their own home grown imperialistic regimes who have allowed a selective or should I say restrictive freedom !

Interestingly the recent upsurges which swindled the thrones of hitherto venerated and often celebrated flamboyant, reasonably autocratic rulers such as Qaddafi, Mubarak and Ben Ali, have not impacted the GCC countries, despite their close political, cultural and religious ties. Instead the GCC countries have maintained the precious golden silence about all these surges, movements and have neither supported nor opposed any of the sides vehemently. Even more interestingly elections at various levels were organized within 3-4 months across these GCC countries.

The power in GCC countries is concentrated with very very few members of the royal family and almost anybody who has spent reasonable time in GCC knows this. The Kings and the Queens of these countries have used all their power and money to wield even more power and earn more money for themselves and for their people. All the royal families of GCC nations are popular amongst local nationals, are western educated and reasonably liberal too. So despite their old friendship with the likes of Gaddafi, they were wise enough to judge the changing times. Before their peace loving national could find spare time from shopping in the newly built swanky malls and artificially created islands, elections were declared, candidates were nominated, electoral lists were prepared and elections were organized peacefully and efficiently. While people were busy watching Al Jazeera and CNN to find the truth of what actually happened in Middle East, showcase reforms were conducted in a sweeping manner at the speed of light in this mighty oil rich part of Middle East now called as GCC. The local media and newspapers went all Gung-ho about these lip-service elections, but despite all the attempts to create buzz, voter turn out remained low (20%-40%). The voter list was prepared a bit arbitrarily though and not all the members of the family were allowed to vote. To impress the west and the rest, some women candidates were made to contest elections, but not many women were allowed to vote. The low voter turnout indicates the interest, perhaps necessity and efficacy of such elections.

In the increasingly connected world, the information is already being democratized at a much rapid rate and the consequences have been beyond what anybody could have ever imagined. The otherwise orderly GCC nations witnessed for the first time the chaos which was accompanied by movements/uprisings/struggle for freedom and democracy. At present the GCC nationals does not seems to be too much bothered about the idea of democracy. The generous government spending will ensure a high disposable income in the smaller of the GCC nations. However the not so oil rich and not so small nations are already facing the heat of dissent and public anger. The seemingly never ending supply of the Black Gold and its near all time high prices will ensure a constant source of revenue and hence prosperity for these nations. But for how long and how far, is the question which nobody wants to face right now. When all the developed socio-economic-cultural powerhouses of the world are busy in saving their today, these GCC nations can very easily afford to forget the distant future, which is very very difficult to predict in any case.

Tunisia and microscopically speaking the recession which was born and bred in the Wall Streets of the first world has catalyzed the process of democratic transformation in the second world but surprisingly most of the third world seems to be reasonably insulated. GCC nations have white washed their countries, the other Middle Eastern nations are celebrating their success, are busy pondering about their respective futures. Because of the autocratic regimes which lasted for decades, a political and leadership vacuum got created without anybody noticing it. So the new generation revolutionaries who knows how to Tweet on Facebook and fire AK 47 are digging mud to bury their past and fill up the vacuum.

The bizarre world we live in is getting more wired and weird every day. We are back to where we started this post, Full Circle as they call it. The snapshots are the same but the faces on both sides of the table are bit different this time. The flashy, egocentric, tyrants are being replaced by the suave, educated, liberal, capitalists, who are interested only in minding their own business. Infact they too would have never imagined, that such a day would come within their lifetime. As of now, they seems to be committing the same mistake which their counterparts from the Middle East committed, denial! Before they will realize things can become more ugly and violent.Will it end the same way?

 .Chaos the only Order.

How much our MP's' earn, REVEALED !!

Grammar Disclaimer: The As's' above was meant for the members and not the parliament!

PS: This post is not intended to ridicule the parliamentarian. I fully agree with GB Shaw on this one - Democracy is a device that ensures that we shall be governed no better than we deserve.

I sincerely hope after reading this analysis many more of us will be genuinely encouraged to join the politics as a full time career.

All the below data is available on Sarkari website . Though some numbers can be discussed, while some might think I over estimated, others might feel I underestimated, so I tried to remain reasonably conservative as much possible. In the analysis below, we are not even considering the indirect expenditures and benefits which MPs get such as security for self and family, subsidized grocery and almost everything else required to live a good healthy life from government canteens inside the parliament and other government canteens. We are also not analyzing the in kind benefits which our MPs tend to get during the festive seasons in the name of personal or party accounts, which causes their assets to grow 5-10 times within few years of coming into power. Such articles published in 2008, 2009 and 2011 can be read at leisure, to analyze the exponential rise in the total assets of those ruling us.

So from the table above as we can see, the conservative CTC (Cost to the Country) of an MP is close to Rs.35 Lakhs ($70k), excluding the cost of maintaining security guards, the cost of life long pension, insurance, sarkari vehicle etc. On an average 190 sessions of Parliament takes place in a year, so I have assumed that MPs in order to claim their Daily Allowance will attend all the sessions. Similarly the constituency allowance and the office allowance (which is meant to buy office stationery etc) will also be going invariably into the pocket. Pen, Mobile phones, grocery items, admissions to the local good schools and colleges, free gifts on all the festivals celebrated by any religion, in addition to birthday, marriage anniversary gifts etc are some vanila perks which are not even considered illegal by most of the laws in India, which MPs can enjoy.

So while government wants BMC to go on a strike to implement 6th Pay Commission on one hand, on the other hand they want to lower the line so as to reduce the number of people below poverty line (and thus reduce the funds/schemes for them) on another, on third hand (if it exists) they want 42 years to pass a Lokpal bill, but when it comes to their own salaries, the bill was created and passed by themselves quiet easily without much discussions.

They already earn highest of the monies, still I would suggest let's give them another 100% hike every 5 years based on performance, so that they make more money than any other member of parliamenterain in the world can ever imagine, so that the best of the breeds and the best of the talents would want to enter the politics not just for public service but for their own personal, short term, immediate gains and focus time and energies on things which they are supposed to be doing, so that we can proudly agree to GB Shaw.

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Image source - Google

Vacuum and Race for the top job in New Delhi !!

Heros Required ! Urgent !

4 years after, the position is still vacant, open almost pleading to be filled. The recent world cup victory and the Anna Hazare movement did gave platform to some hardworking and committed individuals to give us, the mortal countrymen some sense of direction.

I strongly felt and still thinks the same that its time our honest and learned PM should step down now.

Well then the question remains if not Dr.Singh than who else ?

Is it lack of my knowledge or a truth, but if its a truth, even if partial one, how it can be partially true even? We are talking about 1.2 billion, i.e 1200000000 people ! Ok, you might argue, with the same number of people, we barely managed 1 Gold in Olympics in past 50 years (remember the guy !?), but lets park that thought aside for the time being and focus on the VACUUM for the TOP JOB !

What qualities are we looking for? Track record of performance, integrity, national appeal (which is a combination of various factors), ability to take strong/necessary/timely decisions despite differences, ambiguity. Are we asking for too much?

We are and will remain proud of our cultural diversity, but is this vacuum caused by nurturing too much of diversity without much unity for far too long ! Are we mistaking ego for proud and cultural idiosyncrasy as the only way to promote our identity?

Some say - Politics is the art of compromise ! But how much is too much? For how long ca

n we allow a leader hide his inabilities behind the compromise called as coalition ? And by the way who decides how much of the compromise is sufficient? And we think we are a democracy !!

Its a no brainer that Congress failed miserably to rediscover itself outside the shadow of Gandhi family. I really doubt how much Jairam Ramesh or Manishankar Aiyyar really appreciate the crown prince, but like Pranab Mukherji or Sharad Pawar, they know that they dont fair well on the criteria we discussed above and will not be considered seriously for the top job. So they are left with no option but praise, persuade, defend and promote the desi royal family.

The opposition has shown equal bankruptcy of ideas. They have not been able to gather momentum on their own in past 7 years and how can they hope to without trying, without doing significant ever. No matter what they say and speak but we the people can read the real intentions behind the 3 day Air conditioned glamorous fast using our own money. Even the proposed Rath Yatra is irrelevant, out of context, desperate attempt to gain some short l

ived publicity so as to get some banners which they can enamor for rest of their lives.

The Entertainment field (which includes media, sports and arts) has been a

better performing section comparatively. We have had several internationally recognized icons, who are good at heart and has also gained mass appeal especially in past 20 years. Unlike west, Indian Entertainment industry is still in its infancy. We might have to wait for some more years before we get our own versions of Rupert Murdoch or Donald Trump. Not that I adore everything West does, but a mature entertainment industry will increase the options for us and we like options ain't it.

Coming to my favorite segment, the Industry. Here we have lot more to look upon to. Real hardworking, self made people, who created empires out of nothing, not just generating employment and revenue but nurturing lot of ideas, hope, aspirations, and dreams. Leaders from industry has been playing decisive role in policy making of not just India but any nation which ever existed anywhere. I believe Business is the next most important thing after gravity for a life form called as the humans !

The failures (partial or total) of the three above gave birth to a fourth section. The sector which represents Mangomen. Surprisingly it existed for quiet a long time now, but we Indians took 60 years to realize the significance and power of this section, i.e the Civil society. Please don't think for an iota of second that the picture below represents the Civil society completely. For that matter none of the pictures used in this article represents that section exclusively. Coming back to the Civil Society, The first half of 20th century the world got busy in testing the power it got from the advancement of science and technology. After World War II, we gained independence and we the civil society got busy in recreating

all that was destroyed. In the process we became consumers, unintentionally self obsessed and indifferent towards anything which was not affecting us that particular day. Some of us however chose to rebel and fought with the governments we elected and quiet surprisingly for us. Ironical isn't it ! We heard them speaking but never cared to listen attentively. Anyways, better late than never. Some of these commoners went on to achieve uncommon feats, shook our conscious, faced hardships but kept on working for our benefit, relentlessly. These are not common people any more. They gained the respect and most importantly our time and attention which they always deserved. All of us the 'Argumentative Indians' had opinions about the other 3 sections discussed above, but somehow our opinions rarely mannered. But now this newly emerged forth section, empowered by technology, armed with information and public support can very well become our bridge to the rest. Once again I am not even suggesting that we should stop thinking and acting altogether but we need to unite, we need to channelize so as to make sure that things happen for us, the way we like, the day we want.

So, while the race is on but the vacuum is clearly visible. My short list for the top job would be Dr.Jayprakash Narayan, Rahul Gandhi, Arun Jaitley, Dr.Narayan Murthy. What's yours?

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Image sources - via Google. Collages -thyself !

Free Willy Criticism !!

In my previous post, I tried to address some of the queries of those opposing Lokpal. I dont oppose the idea of opposing somebody, opposing some philosophy, discussing things out, criticizing someone to death, but we should be fair, we should be logical and should not commit the same mistakes for which we are accusing the other person. So here I am trying to address some more concerns primarily about romance and philosophy.

Highway or My Way- A popular misconception amongst the elite freewill thinkers who strongly believe that team IAC proposed Lokpal bill as per their dreams, whims and fancies and so they are killing the free will. I am not sure if they are aware of public consultations, debates, online referendums, meetings organized by team IAC across India between Nov 2010 and Apr 2011. I am not sure if they have analyzed it or not but the draft of Janlokpal bill as prepared by team IAC changed a lot between Nov 2010 to Apr 2011 and again between Apr 2011 to Aug 2011 as per suggestions made by several sections of the society, including government committee on Lokpal bill.

Before romanticizing with words such as free will and independent choices, we must understand that if there are problems with laws, provisions in constitution (none of which are sacrosanct by the way), they can be rectified, overcome by amending the laws, constitution.

Team IAC Against Political Class- I think we also need to distinguish between Cause and Effects.Team IAC was never against Politicians or government of the day. I am not sure whether you read about several letters and requests made by team IAC to government, including opposition parties before Ape 2011 to come meet, discuss about the Lokpal. After 16th of August the situation become Lokpal versus Politicians because of the actions and deeds of the ruling party, which nobody thought of/imagined before.

There was a clear lack of Political will, which made sure that Lokpal bill is never passed for 40 years and also made sure that the draft of Lokpal be made so weak that even after negotiations Lokpal will still be reasonably weak. And it is these acts which made the movement against Politicians (in addition to everybody's individual experiences with Politicians at personal, professional, theoretical levels)

Nothing/Everything will Happen- Those who are supporting Lokpal cause it will eradicate all corruption are simplifying the issues and so are those who are opposing stating that it will not achieve anything at all.

I think most of those opposing Lokpal bill are either opposing Anna as a person, or methods or team Anna or the recklessness of the crowd which was present in all the rallies, but which they are confusingly projecting as opposing Lokpal. In addition to imminent and obvious possible positive effects of Lokpal, we discussed about other indirect, long term and equally important benefits of Lokpal earlier in this post.

Yet Another Army of Bureaucrats- Yes, I agree that we need to simply the way we are governed and the way decisions are taken on our behalf. But we need to understand that India is a very unique country, a very unique democracy. I dont want to repeat the rhetoric about our cultural diversity here either, because all of us are well aware of it. So while, we need to simplify things, but we also need proper systems and agencies at all the levels (Panchayats, Block, Ward, City, Constituency, District, State, Nation). People are confusing this complicated political structure with structure of Lokpal. Infact the structure as proposed by team IAC is fairly simple and without much confusing hierarchies and conflict of roles and hay-wired responsibilities. As of now all these agencies working at various level are governed by different laws, most of them are left at sole discretion of politicians and hence are abused time and again. So they use this confusion to complicate the facts and make sure to sabotage investigations and hide truth.

So it is all the more important to have an agency which investigates and monitors all these agencies uniformly to avoid any confusion and give people many more chances to create confusion and get away easily after committing crimes.

Draconian Lokpal- Instead of worrying about draconian crimes and corruption, people are worried about the Lokpal before it started functioning fearing that the Lokpal will be a draconian agency which will rule this country with stick and nobody will be able to do anything about it. Perhaps the solution as provided by team IAC version of Lokpal will make the body a bit too large and with greater power and hierarchies comes bureaucracy and corruption slowly, silently from the back door.

However we have seen how swiftly our politicians resign taking responsibility for x,y,z go on holidays for a year and pop up again in some other state, some other bit obscure role. Sometimes or infact most of the times an issue has chains from the district, state to central government level,everybody from MP, MLA, SP, CM to Cabinet Ministers, everybody is involved. SO while on one hand decentralization of power is required, on another hand provisions must be made, so that the highes and the mighties cant easily dupe the laws, the Lokpals.

So, we must review the fine print, understand the bigger picture before unleashing our freewilly criticism before opening up a third, fourth or fifth front so as to appear different, grab attention and thus intentionally or unintentionally weaken this movement of the people, by the people and for the people so that the sanctity remains, the democracy remains and the fruits of progress and development can reach down the pyramid.

Cute Bitto, the Politician !

Mom to Bittu (3 year kid)- Bittuuu, where's the ice-cream your dad bought yesterday ?

Bittu - I dont know mom !!

Sonia to Kalmadi - SK where are $10 billion we gave you to spend on Common Wealth Games?

Kalmadi - I dont know mam !!

Mom to Bittu- Bittuuuuu, have you done your homework today?

Bittu (is playing outside, so over hears)- Yes mom, yesterday itself !!

Public to PM - Sir, have you passed the Lokpal bill yet?

PM-Yes, yesterday itself! I mean yesterday we had a meeting with Sonia ji, she said she will do something about it.

Mom to Bittu- wake up Bittu, its time to go to school !

Bittu - I cant, I will be having headache today, I mean I am having stomach ache today.

HC to Amar Singh- Sir, its time to go to jail via court!

Amar Singh - I cant, I will be having dementia (sh%t, Kalmadi), I mean I am unwell, confined to bed.

Mom to Bittu- Bittu ...

Bittu-It was not my mistake, you know my friend Sonu, he was pinching me from the back, so I slapped him!

Mom- But Bittu, I was about to ask why you got so low marks in the maths test! And by the way, is this Sonu a boy or a girl?

Journalist - Sir, why..

PM- no, no I was just following my coalition dharma !

Journalist -But sir, I was about to ask why have you sent Amar Singh with money to BJP MPs!

Bittu- Mom, Sonu is a girl, I told you last time also about her!

Mom - Ok Bittu, you have so many friends, I cant remember all of them.

PM- this time we will fight with them !

We the People- Oh, ok sir, we trust you again this time as well, because we cant remember your previous 179 promises in past 7 years and 2 months and 37 days!!

Bittu grows a young and smart now and starts receiving some missed calls now!

Mom - Bittu do you have a Girl friend?

Bittu - Noooooooo wayy mom ! None..Not at all !

We the people - Honorable Politician sir. Do you have a Swiss bank account ?

Politicians - well, you know the answer now :)

---

To be continued !!

The Great Indian Police Constable

A huge and diverse country as India requires equally huge and diverse set of Police forces. Fortunately we do have diverse Police forces ( State Plice, CRPF, Railways Police, RAF, CID) but the size and ultimately the effectiveness of Police for the Mango Man is really questionable.

An official statement from our government, which can be read here is certainly not very encouraging. So as per this statement, we have 142 Police personnel per 100,000 of population. Please be ware that this is the sanctioned Police force. The actual statistics are much disappointing. As can be read in this another sarkari report, the actual figures are almost 30% lower across categories ( Police/Population, Police/Area). So we the mango man actually have roughly 100 mango policemen per 100,000 mangoes.

Unfortunately our dear state governments are least bothered about addressing this issue, infact they are trying their best to make the matters worse. Its an open secret that most of the Police constables in any district are on duty at the official, private residents of respective MLA, MP, Ward President. Some of them are busy purchasing vegetables free of cost for the senior police officers or perhaps picking and dropping the kids of other wealthy politicians and powerful bureaucrats, round the clock. So it is safe to assume that hardly 30-40 mango policemen are ultimately made available for 100,000 of we the mangoes.

So even if you don't understand the Special Theory of Relativity, dont worry, I am sure you can easily understand and comprehend how effective will our mango police be.

Let us try to guess the reason behind, 30% shortfall in the mango police force. Eureka, its all about the money, mango honey !!

A mango police constable gets anywhere between Rs.3000 to Rs.9000 ( after 5-8 years of experience) officially, legally. Dont trust me, read for yourself the pay scale for Constables and other officials at the CBI website here You might also like to read the advertisement of Uttaranchal Police or Kerala Police. These constables are hardly 10th pass and are given some basic training. Maids in my small town of Ajmer in Rajasthan charge anywhere between Rs.600-Rs.1000 per month for 1-1.5hrs of work per day. These maids are working in 6-8 houses at a time and cumulatively are able to earn Rs.6000- Rs.8000 per month.

So, with an average salary of Rs.5000 per month, how high morale will a constable have? He knows that even after working for another 10 years his salary might be still around Rs.10000 and adjusting to inflation his salary might actually decrease with time. So naturally these constables and head constables would like to make some decent money for themselves and for their families and will be inclined towards getting into arguments on street so as to make an additional of Rs.50-Rs.100 per day. Forget the high profile cases, how many cases of thefts, minor crimes are actually solved ever in India? They dont get performance related bonuses, they get recognition, they don't even get proper training to combat the smart crooks and bloody terrorists loaded with modern arms and ammunition.

Let us assume that some of Police Constables are really exceptional and genuinely intent to work for the betterment of society and country. But time and again they are being deputed to buy grocery for some minister's wife or for providing special protection to late night birthday party of rich kid. While puppeting around our mango Police Constable looses his self-respect and slowly unwillingly falls in the trap.

So, How can they be motivated to work for the mango people and tackle crime proactively? Instead they are literally pushed to the wall and start focusing their time and energies on collecting ransom money from road side hawkers and small shopkeepers.

To make matters worse, these mango Policemen don't even get weekly offs or annual paid vacations. They are woken up at wee hours to accompany the 'baba' to airport or pickup some high profile guest of a local vip.

I am not trying to justify the corrupt activities our mango police gets indulged into, but we all know that no strong laws will be of any good unless law enforcement and monitoring agencies are vigilant, effective, motivated and really care about their neighbourhood and city in general. No doubts that India has some of the very well trained, educated and qualified IPS officers and at senior level the quality of Police officers is really at par with world, but we the mango people come across and interact with constables and the general perception about India Police is created as a result of these interactions only. As statistics reveal there's no money, career progress, learning and growth opportunities (the reasons for which most of us work) for a constable and so definitely not many will be interested to become one.

The IB, CBI, NIA, CID can only reach a very small percentage of people and unless our sophisticated and high profile agencies learn to use the and not just abuse the Police machinery to monitor and gather intelligence the criminals will live and die in peace. They know that by merely giving Rs.500 a new passport, ration card or a new license and hence a new identity can be attained and with some money and political protection Police or any other agency will not be able to take any significant action against them. We cant expect to combat terrorism and gather information about cross border crimes without gathering information at fringes. We must involve the Police in issues pertaining national importance.

While researching a bit for this post, I came across a elaborate and fantastic report report prepared by Dr.Jay Prakash's Loksatta team. Several individuals have previously attempted for this cause and Human Rights Law Network too has done a fantastic job it this report.

So, who's stopping the reforms. A sitter of a question indeed, no-one and everyone. If you will ask this question with any of the state government, they will tell how important these reforms are but they are not getting support from opposition or central government and similar lame excuses will be given by central government, the prime one would - police is a state matter! The Political parties will loose the discretionary power, the protection, the aura and hence all the money they make by running illicit businesses in the backyard of their party headquarter, if they bring in these Police Reforms on table. Hence they make sure to form committees, generate reports after reports and blame lack of 'Political Will' behind all their failures to implement these much needed reforms.

I strongly believe that if Comprehensive Police reforms are implemented our democracy will be strengthened to a very large extent, crime and terrorism will fall sharply and if we complement the Police Reforms with Janlokpal, Judiciary reforms, India can definitely get rid of corruption in our lifetimes! Its high time we understand that if we want to live in safety, we must safeguard the interest of guardians of our safety and security !!

---

Image source- BBC

Shayad Daag Achhey Hain !!

This time, we dont need to rely on Saridon or Disprin to address the hangover of this recently concluded India Against Corruption movement or should we say recently halted movement.

Without getting into argument about whether Anna is today's Gandhi or his follower, or trying to analyze who contributed more to this nation Arundhati Roy or Arvind Kejriwal or whether Nandan Nilekani was right in outright rejection of this movement, terming it as inane, whether end justifies means, whether Om Puri was right in calling more than 50% of politicians useless, whether laws can be made on street, whether Civil society movements can substitute Parliamentary democracy or whether existence of Parliamentary democracy implies civil society should restrict its participation to voting and sending request letters to their elected representatives only, whether or not 90% of people who participated in the rallies knew anything about the movement or whether 1000s of volunteers who are paid for participating in pre-election rallies know anything about the election agenda of the respective parties, whether Irom Sharmila thought through before calling Anna movement artificial or whether media should be blamed for not giving her sufficient coverage or whether team IAC rightly harnessed the power of media, without trying to find what was the main reason behind reasonable success of this movement, whether it was simplicity of the man or the accumulated frustration about the worsening situation, about the inability to do anything meaningful, about the inability to get things done without getting harassed, let us look at some good, positive key takeaways for all of us.

Confrontations

Perhaps we were getting too cozy and comfortable with all this system of giving and taking. Slowly what started as uncomfortable reality became a habit, a indispensable part of our life and culture to some extent. It's almost very easy to miss the forest for the tree. We have been so used to maximizing the short term benefits ( by saving few minutes, few 100 Rs. etc.), that we forgot to review, assess and understand the disease which each and all of us were nurturing. The first step towards solving any problem is to acknowledge its existence. We cant bury our heads in the sand for rest of our lives and behave as if nothing happened. This movement raised a loud shout, in the heads of we the public and we and them the polity. Now, we are confronted and now we should not try to escape. This realization, this first step towards catharsis will have far reaching impact beyond any of us ever imagined.

Heros

Availability of information has changed the dynamics of game overnight in the favour of we the people. The way team IAC and several other social activists, several other real life heros came forward and got the appreciation they always deserved by masses. I am not in favour of blindly following these new found heros but somehow I hope and I believe that these old stalwarts will not let us down. Most importantly these new youth icons will encourage several others like you, me and us to take the road less traveled by.

Positive Outlook

We grew up in a society in which everybody believed that nothing will happen. We saw, we resisted a bit and soon we became party to it. Nobody ever imagined that things can change, perhaps because many of us lot of individual efforts to bring change, went invain to a large extent. At the expense of over simplifying the matter, I strongly believe that IAC movement has bolstered the confidence and developed a bit of positive outlook in all/most of us that, if we try properly, things can change.

I am sure this movement will inspire a lot of us to bring in the positive change in our locality, vicinity, in ourselves, our families AT LEAST in the short term. We have started believing in an age old adage - if we believe we can !

Front foot

This movement bought we the people, perhaps middle class people a bit more to the front foot. I think it is safe to assume that a huge chunk of middle class interact with state much less as compared to someone living in village near or below poverty line. This can be attributed to poor/mediocre services provided by government agencies (barring very few) and ability or should I say desire of middle class to move up the value chain. The participation has increased and though they may like it or not, but the factors based on which we the people will vote, will undergo a sea change in years ahead. So, stop taking us for granted and start working for what you are paid.

Back foot

Though most of politicians are writing things off stating that few lakhs of people were on street and its not a big deal. Manishankar Aiyyar and several other eminent politicians went on camera stating that we go out and meet several millions of people during election campaign ! I think they realized that they can no longer afford to neglect the middle class just because they do not vote frequently and religiously. In the back of their mind, the politicians in both ruling and opposition parties know that this movement resonated with millions and millions of people who might have not come on street this time but CAN come out when called properly.

Proactive Participation

I am sure, many more of us will take the proactive approach now or in near future in whatever ways possible to bring in the change we always wanted, we always observed during our overseas trips. If 1000s of us start taking baby steps in the right direction, soon we can have the giant leap which we always dreamed of for our family, our neighborhood, our cities and our country.

Shayad Daag Achhey Hain !!

Because we like to consume chocolates and intend to take bath and wash our clothes frequently, Indian and Multinational companies put up advertisements on TV channels and the rate of these ads is determined by the popularity of a particular program, which is mathematically conveyed as TRP. But this time the matter was beyond TRP ratings indeed. Right from day one when the movement started to even now, when the movement is temporarily on hold, government has tried its best to malign the team IAC in one way or another.The more they tried to throw mud on IAC team, the more news media houses got, more and more we the people got angry, more we came to know about the inability of you the elected representatives to do something constructive, in addition to sleeping in or bunking Parliament sessions altogether !

I am not sure if they are aware of this or not, but let me make this clear dear Parliamentarians we have been reading newspapers, watching channels for decades now, recently we have started blogging and now we are on the streets.

The credit goes to the political class and their relentless efforts to blemish the image of team IAC, magar Daag lagane se kuch achha hota hai to, shayad...

An Unheard Land Scam in Textile Ministry !!

A report from Comptroller and Auditor General of India is available free of cost without filing any Right to Information. Surprisingly this issue was never discussed in Media or any steps were taken against the culprits. Instead some recommendations were made, to avoid these mistakes. The whole report can be downloaded from the Official Government of India Website.

I think as a country we are so used to and perhaps immune to scams in the range of few Billions of Dollars that scam worth Rs.800-900 crs are not even worth MEDIA time and attention.

A mere glance at first two pages reveal that a Loss of Rs.493 Crs due to Absence of Minimum Assured returns. To put it simply the Textile Ministry sold the land which belonged to government at a price much below the expected or open market price.

Most interestingly defect in Tender Documents resulted in loss of Rs.185 Crs. To put it simply the government bodies have not provided sufficient information in the Tender documents, which in turn would have reduced the chances of some bidders who were not having the insider information about the land and hence the Tender was prepared in such a manner that only few parties could have won this tender in any case. On Page 147, one can read the further details that ' By Mistake' some areas which was never intended for sale was included (though not clearly stated) in the Tender. So, to put it simply those who had insider information knew that they will get a much larger chunk of land than what other bidders might assume.

All of this simply implies that somebody purchased the land at a steep discount and will use this land to convert into Mall or some Residential Complex in near future. Needless to say, during construction of such Mall or Housing society several more laws will be broken and ultimately the hard-working, tax-paying Mango Man like Me and You will spend our huge chunks of our Salary, which we earn after toiling day and night mostly in private sector and perhaps most of us will repay these loans for a significant portion of our life and a huge chunk of our life will be invested in planning to repay these loans.

And now government, some elite social activists, some intelligent foreign educated bureaucrats and politicians, reporters and international prize winning writers says that we should not take things in our hands. We should respect the Parliament, the democracy, we should not demean the Political class. On the contrary I think, unless each and every such reports, such scams are bought into limelight, discussed and the pressure is kept on them to take action and resolve the matters, under close microscopic scrutiny, THEY WONT BUDGE, SHOULD WE ?

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The Link to CAG Report - http://www.cag.gov.in/html/reports/commercial/2009_27PA/chap_9.pdf

Popcorn Happiness

I know the 'Chotu' at tea stall,

Saw him from a distance,

Selling tricolor, in the rally.

I know about his slums,

Behind Mall.

I no longer live in the town,

I was born.

But I know they face,

four hours of power cut, everyday.

So, I wear a pair of rugged jeans,

Brand new, but torn.

I was ambitious, so I left.

Lack of resources, so I left.

What I left, never left me.

But after the the right I took, I think,

Nothing was left.

From Letters to emails to sms and tweets.

I religiously acquired all the apps.

Partying this weekend, so pardon me this time.

But I know the names of all the scams.

On my way to make it big.

Someday!

Yes, I do enjoy.

My Popcorn Happiness,

So, what's wrong?

----

Nitin

The Story of Magnifying Glass !

Magnifying Glass is usually used to read the fine prints. A classic and one of the most simplest of the gadgets, in use for centuries. For thousands of year, this magnifying glass was typically found in the house of the inquisitive and smart folks. Rarely in my house, because I was happy reading fiction, printed in bold.

Since the magnifying glass was not easily available, the I was not be able to read the books given to me by some mischievous boys, since the books were completely written in fine print. And so I was never read and tried to comprehend what the heck was written in that book. But life moved on and I never felt any pressing need to enlighten myself. And that's exactly what the mischievous boy wanted. He gave me the book, because he was obliged to, but he also made sure that I don't read it. To make sure that I don't read the book beyond couple of pages (In case I ever decided to read, by chance) the mischievous boy gave the book an insanely boring title and loaded first couple of pages with jargon. So rarely me or any of my friends dared to read beyond couple of pages. Surprisingly whoever read the book joined the gang of mischievous boys.

The mischievous boy was smart, very smart indeed. He managed to trick me for thousands of years. He never taught me how to read the book which he intentionally published in fine print, one version after another. He never gave me the magnifying glass. Once in a while, he casually requested me to read the book, but I was busy enjoying fiction. In parallel he gave me several other easy to read, far more entertaining books, with vivid images, eye catching titles and colours.

One fine day, I discovered the magnifying glass in the backyard of mischievous kid. Since I never cared to learn the actual use of magnifying glass, I started playing with it. After played for few hours I threw it in the dark corner. This was the same corner where I piled those books given by the mischievous boy. Accidentally it caught my eyes and I realized that I can read that fine print. It was all very clear now. Slowly I could read and understand what was written. With some really crucial help, I was able to comprehend the jargon as well. As I kept on reading, my fears started to surface, about what was written in those books. But I kept on reading more, with some help again, my fears started disappearing. Bingo !

I realized I was duped by the mischievous boy all those centuries. But then after reading some more books, I realized my mistake. I never cared to ask the mischievous boy about all those books he gave me. My life was going reasonably smoothly all these years barring few compromises, I never cared enough to read those books. Pretty soon, I shared my magnifying glass with my friends. I told them, what I learned from those books. And slowly the idea caught fire and rest we know is a history and it is still being written. But we need to be careful and should not repeat the mistake which mischievous boy committed. I remember watching the mischievous kid when he used the magnifying glass to gather the power of sun but ended up burning his own house!

The Beginning !!

Cast

Mischievous boys - Politicians, the Powerful ones

I - You, the common ones

The Books - Constitution, Laws, knowledge

AND

The Magnifying Glass - Internet, Media

Special Thanks

Crucial Help - Anna Hazare, Aruna Roy, Medha Patekar, Arvind Kejriwal and several other 1000s of selfless individuals who helped the me, the you and the society

Jan Lok Pal, India Against Corruption, Fast Unto Death and Democracy

I am sure the government never had a look at the ranking of India on Corruption Perception Index, otherwise they would have done something about it before India Against Corruption movement caught public sentiment!

Why despite of investing in so many schemes on employment, education and poverty eradication, not much has changed in past 20-60 years! How come nobody ever questioned the Ex-Prime Minister of India Mr. Rajiv Gandhi when he openly stated that ' Out of 100 paise of aid, only 15 paise reached the needy' ! This statement was once again endorsed by his son recently. How can the people sitting on the helm of power and authority say this AND do nothing about it for decades !!

Unfortunately I was wasted my time by watching this useless debate on NDTV I think the debate was badly anchored, what people were supposed discuss was not known and as always this debate must have added to the confusion of the masses even more, who are perplexed about various issues facing the nation. Anyways, I was able to gather some of the general qualms, queries and concerns have about the India Against Corruption Movement. To summarize some of those -

1. Gandhi ji used to fast for self cleansing and for the welfare of the society at large and Anna Hazare's fast cant be compared with Gandhiji fast !

2. Parliament is the supreme authority to pass bills, so why protests, dharna, hunger strikes .

3. Government is already doing so much about Corruption. So many ministers have been sent to jail in recent past, so dont challenge the credibility of the UPA government.

4.The bill is already presented to the Supreme Authority, the Parliament, so why fast ? By fasting unto death, team IAC and Anna is actually blackmailing the government, which is wrong, and why a deadline?

5. Who's team Anna? Whatever team IAC and Anna are doing is a gimmick, a farce and media child and is getting undue attention!

6. Far many more issues, many more people are doing fasts and have done fast, why has media not covered them properly?

7. Jan Lok Pal will not solve the problem of corruption, its rampant in day to day life, so why blame only politicians when the common man is corrupt from head to toe.

Sorry, but its going to be lengthy, so weak hearted may jump to the last paragraph.

1. Gandhi ji used to fast for self cleansing and for the welfare of the society at large and Anna Hazare's fast cant be compared with Gandhiji fast !

Team IAC and Anna said that Gandhi ji used to fight for what for their right and for what is fair and correct and that's exactly what they are doing- fighting for their rights, fighting for what they believe is correct and fair. I think the NDTV debate wasted precious time of the viewers by going into the technicalities, by discussing the time, date and venues for fast done by Gandhi ji pre-independence. The times are different, the context are different, the people for and against Gandhi ji were different, so I think its completely irrelevant to present debate to waste any more time and energy in comparing Gandhi ji with Anna Hajare.

2. Parliament is the supreme authority to pass bills, so why protests, dharna, hunger strikes !The bill is already presented to the Supreme Authority, the Parliament, so why fast ?

Without being an authority on Parliamentary affairs and Constitution, one can find so many loop holes, so many lacunas in the way parliament functions, laws written and enacted. So let's not get into that. The summary is - Constitution has been amended 100s of time in the past and constitution and parliament is not sacrosanct.

3. Government is already doing so much about Corruption. So many ministers have been sent to jail in recent past, so dont challenge the credibility of the UPA government. The bill is already presented to the Supreme Authority, the Parliament, so why fast ?

Not even once in the history of UPA/ Congress government they have attempted to analyze the reasons behind corruption, tried to find out the faults in the legal framework, constitution, judiciary and execution agencies and taken any bold steps to curb corruption. So please don't tell us about your (UPAs) intentions. If Supreme Court and Media has not broiled those issues, perhaps you would have been sleeping ever over CWG, 2G issues (which you anyway did for so many years, otherwise these scams wouldn't have taken place, right?). Everybody knows the role of Dr.Swamy and Supreme Court in ensuring proper investigations are done in 2G scam, everybody read about and hear the Radio tapes, so unfortunately Mr.UPA government you were not left with any choice but to do something, however nobody has been convicted yet and we dont think that justice will be done, the lost money will be recovered in 2G or CWG scam from the politicians and bureaucrats who's Swiss accounts benefited from these and many more scams.

Remember few weeks back when Baba Ramdev sat in fast on the issue of Black Money, government assured action, what's happening on that front ? Please dont tell us that everybody in your government was busy with Janlokpal Bill or perhaps in preparing strategies to make sure that IAC team dont get time to work on the bill!

4.By fasting unto death, team IAC and Anna is actually blackmailing the government, which is wrong, and why a deadline !

Because we are normal human beings, our common sense tells us that if we sow seeds of Neem tree, we cant expect the Mangoes ! The bill which you (UPA) has presented in the parliament is completely bullshit, spineless, hopeless bill. So how can we expect a strong anti-corruption agency as an outcome. For comparison between Janlokpal Bill (proposed by team IAC and Anna) and Lokpal (rather Jokepal) Bill as proposed by government, please review these article of Outlook or Times of India. You will realize how lame and useless Lokpal, government is proposing in the parliament. By excluding 95% of Politicians and bureaucrats, any common will tell you that, such a Lokpal will not achieve anything.

Now specifically about Why Fast !

Team IAC and Anna wrote several letters to PM, MPs, Sonia Gandhi before April 2011 requesting for meeting to discuss about Lokpal bill. NOBODY responded or showed any concern about team IAC and Anna Hazare. They were confident that many people have fasted in the past and lot of them have unfortunately died, so nobody can achieve anything by protesting against government. Unfortunately, after putting so much of drama by UPA government, they agreed to listen. The bill is pending for more than 40 years, so many people have filed petitions, wrote letters, requested governments to pass the bill, but nothing has been done. So how can members of society convey their demands to the government. The political parties don't even keep the promises they make during election campaign. Under constitution of India, no grievance redress al mechanism is in place, the government is not obliged to respond to the letters from ordinary citizens of this country then what can people do, so that they can be heard ! Outside the context of this debate, but everybody agrees that the Election process we have in this country, the so called democracy are all flawed and no political party is doing anything about it. So, Mr.Government the people will protest, shout slogans, write, fast and will do whatever they can to register their protests and you will have to listen to them.

Mr.Government you are so used to being lazy that perhaps you are not even aware that we the middle class face deadlines everyday, everywhere, there's a deadline to pay taxes, deadline to apply for Gas connection, deadline in the office, deadline from the client, so please get used to what rest of the India is undergoing. You will have to work within a deadline, it was not the case till now, but we the people of India have changed the rules. So please obey deadlines, else you will be fired.

5. Who's team Anna? Whatever team IAC and Anna are doing is a gimmick, a farce and media child and is getting undue attention!

Its really sad to know that people start alleging team IAC without knowing their background. They have not emerged overnight from nowhere !!

Basic Google search about Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan and Shanti Bhushan will give you details about their background and credentials. So I really feel ashamed of the people coming of national television or writing blogs about these people without even doing a very basic research.

So those who know them and read about them will understand that these people have been working in the field for years, fighting against corruption relentlessly. They do not crave for media attention and no power can corrupt them. Many other people working behind the scenes in team IAC are similarly infected, so please beware!

The movement got media attention, because government was not doing anything about corruption. Scams in every possible department have taken place in past 20 years, so what more should people wait for ? Of the 100s of scams, involving 1000s of billions of $, not even 100 people have been convicted and punished and NOTHING has been done to recover the money lost due to corruption.

6. Far many more issues, many more people are doing fasts and have done fast, why has media not covered them properly?

So you (UPA government) wants media to tell you on daily basis what you are supposed to do ? Agree, there are many more issues, but you are not doing anything about anything. So we the people will have to take the matters in our hand and start addressing one issue at a time. It's sad the most of the other issues have not caught the eye of media and common man as this movement has. This goes onto prove that how much common man is frustrated and media is providing the suitable platform this time.

Dont worry, we are at it and will make sure to solve all the problems which your Congress led government has created in past 50 years.

7. Jan Lok Pal will not solve the problem of corruption, its rampant in day to day life, so why blame only politicians when the common man is corrupt from head to toe.

The pseudo intellectuals and psychologists and sociologists will cite corruption as a deep rooted problem, in our blood, the indifference of the Indian masses at large and the corrupt activities in which people involved on day to day basis. All such arguments blames the common man and so all the super duper corrupt people (mostly those who have not been convicted or are charged under any case) points finger on everybody.

How can one give same punishment to a pickpocket and a terrorist! How can one argue that because someone killed someone in an accident, he will go on to become a serial killer?

So, we urgently need a strong, educated, powerful and independent agency to tackle corruption at all levels ! So how the hell can they say that the Rs.50 corruption done by a common man to get his birth certificate is same as Rs.5000 cr scam by Kalmadi or Madhu Koda !

What options does common man have? How can the government expect the common man to give a Petition, file RTI for each and every activity right from the illegal hotel, liquor shop license, delayed gas connection by HP/BP distributor, polluted drinking water and petrol mixed with kerosene, for the birth, the marriage and the death certificate, the post-mortem report of the only son so as to claim insurance, in the fodder, in the local stadiums, street light, damaged road and bridges and almost everything imaginable under the sun ! A 10th pass technician working in Middle East learns to obey the laws of the land and a highly qualified Westerner learns to bribe when in India to get things done ! Which means Indians are capable of following laws as well and perhaps better than westerners or easterners Provided We Have the Laws in place, the enforcement agencies and the judiciary in place !

I think you (UPA government) has not even read the draft of Jan Lokpal bill as presented by team IAC, members of civil society. Please understand that the if government goes by the civil society version of Janlok Pal, the day to day corruption common man is facing pertaining to traffic police, ration card, gas connection, electricity etc will be tackled as well. The present state of affairs is because public servants, bureaucrats, government officials and politicians are not afraid of the existing law and order, police, CBI and judiciary. All these agencies have been made complicated and are ultimately made to report to politicians, most of the time ignorant and uneducated.

So, we urgently need a strong, educated, powerful and independent agency to tackle corruption at all levels !