Snap it up

Jug Suraiya
27 February 2014, 10:46 PM IST

Why 'selfies' have become all the rage, and what they'll do to us

President Barack Obama likes to do it to himself. So does British Prime Minister David Cameron. Maybe so do Rahul Gandhi, Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal. Why not? After all, everyone — or almost everyone — seems to be doing it to themselves these days. Taking selfies, that is.

When i first heard the term selfie, it puzzled me. What on earth did it refer to? Was a selfie someone who belonged to the so-called 'me, my, mine' generation, a selfish person, in short? Was a selfie a self-appraisal form that you had to fill in and give to the head of HR in your company if you wanted a raise? Was a selfie an act of auto-eroticism so hush-hush it wasn't even mentioned in the Kama Sutra?

As it turned out, a selfie was none of these things. A selfie was you taking a picture of yourself — along with a couple of your pals perhaps — on your cellphone. And selfies have become all the rage these days.

Telephones were invented so that people could speak to each other from long distances. While talking to people over long distances is still one of their functions, the primary use of phones now is to take pictures of the owner of the phone from a very short distance.

How and why this happened is a story of technological progress. Thanks to the invention of the jetliner, people began to travel to far off places, which boasted exotic landmarks, like the Taj Mahal.

Now what was the point of taking all the trouble and expense of going to all those exotic places if you couldn't prove to people back home that you'd been there, done that? Problem was, even if you remembered to take your camera with you, you had to depend on other people — often total strangers, other tourists like you — to take your snap against the Taj, or the Mysore Palace, or Mukesh Ambani's humble abode of Antilia, or whatever other marvel of the ancient or modern world you'd travelled far and wide to sightsee.

And sure enough, the person would take a picture of you with the backdrop of the Taj, Mysore Palace, Antilia, whatever. Except while the person had got the backdrop (Taj, etc) in perfect focus, he'd knocked your head out of the frame. So what you had was a picture of a headless person posing against a famous landmark. And no proof whatsoever that the headless person in question was you.

That's when the selfie invented itself. Now you didn't have to depend on some dumbass stranger to shoot you and in the process cut your head off. Now you could shoot yourself, head and all. Say cheeeese!

Selfies have changed the primary function of the cellphone, which is no longer an instrument for talking to other people, but an instrument to provide visual evidence of you having been to wondrous places and seen spectacular sights.

There is only one problem. While technology is ensuring that selfies become sharper and clearer, there is an anatomical problem to the taking of the perfect selfie: the length of the human arm. If our arms were longer our selfies would have that much more pictorial depth, be that much better.

Will genetics kick in? Will the innate urge for selfies cause our arms to grow longer so that, orangutan-like, they dangle down past our knees? If so, the next step in human evolution will have been taken. Homo sapiens sapiens will have become homo selfies selfies.

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Hypocritical India

Sanjeev Ahluwalia
28 February 2014, 09:19 AM IST

Indians are affably, argumentative (Amartya Sen, 2005). Less likably, the Indian State is intensely hypocritical. It remains very medieval despite its veneer of modernism. 

Examples of medievalism abound. We value Indian lives very low. No minister has ever resigned because citizens, in their charge, starved to death or died due to lack of emergency medical aid or if large numbers of students fail to pass in public schools. Corruption is a leitmotif of even the simplest public transaction like lodging a First Information Report at a police station (this is something which should even be possible by email or sms or whatsapp); avoiding getting arrested for drunk driving; getting a copy of case records from the lower courts or seeking protection from physical harassment and assault.

The best illustration of lingering medievalism and nascent modernism is the conscious use of hypocrisy by the State, to keep alive the hope of change without disturbing the status quo. There are many such State hypocrisies but five major ones stand out.

The biggest hypocrisy is the Constitutional provision that religion does not matter for State policy formulation and execution. Everything points to a different truth. The Shah Bano episode (1986) is the best example of how religion and politics have been inseparable. In this case the Supreme Court granted maintenance to a divorced Muslim woman (as is the right of any Indian woman) but the government rescinded this progressive judgment through a perverse, new law to appease orthodox Muslim sentiment. Meanwhile, to placate orthodox Hindu sentiment, which was being fanned by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (a Hindu rights outfit), it also opened the gates of the disputed site of the Babri Masjid which had been locked by the government since 1885 to preserve the status quo on counter claims to possession rights by Muslims and Hindus. Incidentally 1885 is also the year the Indian National Congress was founded. By 1986 (a century later) the Congress was not averse to play the communal card with an eye to the 1989 elections.

Other more visible "red flags" of regressive religious politics are the low pan-Indian representation of Muslims in government; the increasing ghettoization of Muslims even in new urban areas; blatantly pro-Muslim or Hindu political parties and decreasing levels of productive social interaction between the two major communities since 1947. Let's face it. The religious cleavage exists in an antagonistic form and is increasing. It is only once we accept this that we can get to talk about how to bridge it.

The second big hypocrisy is that all Indians are created equal. Democracy and the positive affirmation (reservations) policy have solidified caste much more than the dilution effect from urbanization. If Pandit Nehru saw Sardar Patel as a biased Hindu he would be shocked at the manner in which political leaders today pander to narrow interests of backward caste and Dalit vote banks. After religion, caste is the next most significant political identity of Indians. The majority of Indians wed within their caste and vote for caste candidates. Indians are not born equal. They struggle to overcome the inherited, rigid social and economic barriers of caste and very few succeed, despite the Constitution and a range of laws prohibiting caste based biases.

The third big hypocrisy (which we share with much of the World) is that women are treated equal to men. They are not and never have been. The good news here is that since this is an international problem, the state of play is fairly advanced. Policy, law and programs are working to empower women economically in the hope that social change will follow; to measure their levels of satisfaction; to assess results and to provide special protection to them in the transition period.

The fourth big hypocrisy is that poverty is reducing at a satisfactory rate. This is far from true. Even worse, asserting this statistically, as the government does, lulls us into believing that following the current path and simply doing more of what we do already, will get us to a poverty free India. It cannot.

Average per capita income needs to triple in real terms and inequality to reduce significantly before we can even claim to have found the correct direction. Some measurable indicators are a consistent growth above 8% per year; a more equal sharing between the rich and 70% of the rest of the benefits of incremental growth (we don't monitor this periodically) and the rate of job creation in the formal economy. 

The fifth hypocrisy is that the existing governance architecture of Parliamentary Democracy is suitable for India. It is not. Both Parliament and Cabinet have ceased to play their intended role as checks on personal aggrandizement and protecting minority interests. This has been true for State Governments over the last three decades but over the past decade even the GOI Cabinet has become the poodle of Party bosses. The sanctity and effectiveness of Parliament is eroded by the behavior of lumpen elements, more familiar with brute force than reasoned argument or moral persuasion. Corruption vitiates executive decision making to the extent that the judiciary becomes the aam admi's "de-facto government" for seeking redress.

How can this familiar tale of woe be altered?

First what is not measured and recorded cannot be dealt with. Enumerate caste/tribe and religion in the census so we know the numbers; the spatial distribution and their wellbeing. Map caste and religion data on a publicly available GIS down to the village and urban ward level so that government interventions can be calibrated to local social norms and results assessed by third parties. Assess poverty levels bi-annually using mobile based rapid data collection instruments to better relate schemes (like the Right to Food or the Right to Work) to poverty reduction outcomes.

Second review the existing incentive structures for diluting religion, caste, gender inequality, poverty and improving the functioning of the executive, parliament and judiciary.

Caste based affirmative action (reservations) clearly perpetuates an "us versus them" psychology. Diluting it by adding poverty criterion, requires more data and monitoring, but can lead to the dominance of more modern pressure groups like professional affiliations (farmers, business owners, employees), locational interests (Biharis or Mumbaikars) or ideological solidarity (environmentalists, big or small government advocates, gay rights advocates).

All government programs and projects should be evaluated for their poverty reduction potential before approval by the government and income enhancement targets fixed. Achievement against targets must be monitored by third parties with the results made public. This will reduce pork (roads to nowhere) and gold plating (capital heavy projects which do nothing for jobs-why not let private business do these?).

The Constitution should be revised to completely separate the Executive from Parliament. The PM and her deputy to be directly elected with minimum vote shares prescribed in each constituency to ensure inclusion. The ministerial executive team to be nominated by the PM and endorsed by the Parliament. The internal emergency provisions should similarly require the endorsement of parliament to protect state government autonomy from an aggressive PM. The 2014 elections are being fought in any case on the basis of "US President like" identities.

This simple change can ensure that the PM is popularly elected and is not just a "shoo-in". It can also improve the quality of MPs by getting rid of those who contest for Parliament seats (often by paying for them) only as an avenue for eventually getting into lucrative executive positions. Legislative ability requires skills in law and social sciences apart from a feel for the local interests an MP represents. Executive ability requires specialization and narrow experience. The system must present separate choices to the electorate and to those desiring to enter politics.

The bottom line is to transit from being an affable but hypocritical India to a more results oriented and honest India. In the modern world time is money and the long route to poverty reduction whilst changing incrementally is costly. Social stability is a merit good in the Indian plural context. But the price for social stability must be paid by the rich and not the poor or the marginalized. 

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Rethink reservations

Jug Suraiya
28 February 2014, 01:32 PM IST

Are political parties having reservations – or second thoughts – about caste-based reservations, or quotas, in jobs and educational institutions?

In what has been described as a 'bombshell', a BJP spokesman, a former minister in the NDA government and a scheduled caste morcha chief, Sanjay Paswan, has said that if voted into office in the forthcoming elections, his party was "actively considering" having a re-look at the reservation policy for SC/STs which has been in place ever since Independence.

One of the proposals being considered is that no member of a dalit family with a monthly income of Rs 1 lakh and above will be eligible for a government job on the basis of reserved quotas. Children whose parents both have Class II government jobs, and children one of whose parents has a Class I sarkari job will not be eligible for government employment through the quota system.

The BJP is reportedly also planning to produce a white paper on the status of dalits over the past 60 years. While a few have benefited thanks to the reservation policy – creating what have come to be called self-perpetuating 'creamy layers' among the lowest castes – many dalits, particularly in the rural areas, are still subject to brutal social and economic oppression by upper castes. Violence against dalits, particularly sexual violence against dalit women, remains a deep-rooted stigma on Indian society.

Affirmative action is still very much needed, not only for dalits but for all persecuted minorities, of which there are far too many in the country. But as shown by the increasingly glaring inequalities which are obvious within the dalit community, the current reservations policy has to be radically reformulated, by bringing class – economic status – as well as caste into the equation.

However, linking class and caste has long been anathema in mainstream Indian politics. When senior Congressman Janardan Dwivedi recently suggested that perhaps it was time that reservations were based on economic criteria instead of only caste, his unorthodox views was dismissed by the party as being his 'personal opinion' and not reflective of the official Congress line.

Indeed the Congress has sponsored a scheme by which dalits entrepreneurs will be favoured in the bestowing of government contracts, and is also seeking to make SC/ST reservations mandatory in the private sector.

The Congress's take on this issue – as on other related issues on poverty alleviation and social uplift – seems to be hopelessly behind the times. There is a huge internal diaspora taking place as people – particularly young people – are moving out of caste-stratified rural areas into urban environments, where class – economic status – matters much more than caste.

In the melting pot of urban India, the millennia-old Indian reality of caste identity is swiftly giving way to class, or economic, status. A  BPO employee earning Rs 30,000 a month is, in terms of social discrimination, no longer a dalit – or a Yadav, or a Brahmin, or any other caste.

Increasingly, voters particularly young, urban voters, want politicians to give priority to growth and job creation rather than play the caste card by promising populist freebies based on caste distinctions, which only further Mandalise our already caste-divided polity.

The BJP's reported proposal to reformulate the reservations policy, giving greater weightage to economic factors, is a welcome and bold breakthrough. Will such an initiative help eventually to break the stranglehold that caste continues to have on Indian politics? That can only happen when elections can be made to break free from the stranglehold of vote bank politics. And that depends not on our politicians, but on us as voters, who should cast our votes on the basis not of caste but of merit.

 

jug.suraiya@timesgroup.com

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Queen

Meeta Kabra
27 February 2014, 03:59 PM IST

It is always awesome when you start watching a trailer with eyes ready to roll and instead they turn wide with amazement. Kangna Ranaut is actually playing a lively character with such honesty and grace, let alone without screeching.

The brilliant bit is that the writing is so good that it is difficult to distinguish if it is Kangna Ranaut or her character who is unpretentious and fresh. The story by itself is something that is intriguing but can go either way - a small-town Indian girl is stranded in Europe on her honeymoon.

Though Raj Kumar Yadav doesn't seem to have too big a role in the film, it is great to see him slotted against Kangna Ranaut - an unlikely couple. That along with the fact that the director, Vikas Bahl has co-directed Chillar Party makes me want to look forward to the film.

The music is quirky as one has come to expect from Amit Trivedi. Just wondering if my inkling, that the film will match up too, will be right.

Music Reviews:
Apun Ka Choice - "4/5"
Bollyspice - "4/5"
Bollywood Hungama - "2.5/5"
glamsham - "3.5/5"
IBN Live, IANS - "/5"
koimoi - "4/5"
Milliblog - in a 200-worder, "Queen is Amit Trivedi proving he's king… again!"
Music Aloud - "9/10"

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India must note Morocco’s important role in Africa and Middle East

Rudroneel Ghosh
27 February 2014, 05:08 PM IST

My previous blog on foreign minister Salman Khurshid's recent visit to Morocco had raised some eyebrows regarding the utility of such a trip. Several readers have questioned the minister's north African tour – Khurshid also visited Tunisia and Sudan – at a time when he is about to demit office. However, such an analysis fails to appreciate the current situation in Africa and the Middle East, and the role being played by Morocco in regional affairs. Indeed, I predict that Morocco will also play an increasingly pivotal role in the days ahead – not only in terms of promoting socio-economic stability in the Sahara and Sahel regions, but to help actualise an international plan to broker peace in the Middle East.

Morocco's unique position is underpinned by the fact that it is at the forefront of tackling three critical issues spanning Africa and the Arab world. First, there is clear evidence to suggest that several nations in the Maghreb and Sahel face serious threats from radical Islamist militancy. The US-led military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq over the last decade forced Islamist militants to take shelter in north Africa and its surrounding regions.

Then came the Arab Spring wave that swept aside several autocratic leaders from power. And it is here that Muammar Gaddafi's death in the Libyan civil war had a huge impact on regional security. With Gaddafi out of the way, huge caches of arms harboured by the deposed regime flooded the Sahara and Sahel, providing a fillip to armed militias of different stripes.

With a deadly cocktail of arms and militants pouring into Africa, the situation became ripe for a major confrontation. Such a conflict materialised in Mali where militants affiliated to al Qaeda took advantage of the tensions between Bamako and a nationalist Tuareg movement to make serious inroads in that country. In fact, the radical Islamists tried to impose their fundamentalist writ in northern Mali, exposing the dangers that the rising spectre of jihadism posed. With countries ranging from Somalia to Algeria sporting fertile conditions for an Islamist upsurge, the international community couldn't sit back and do nothing.

This is precisely what motivated the French and ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) military intervention in Mali last year. The international military coalition eventually pushed out the Islamists from northern Mali. But the crisis represented a veritable example of what lies in store for the international community if the Islamist scourge goes unchecked. At the same time, stakeholders in Africa also recognised that fighting jihadi terror required a long-term solution, as opposed to ad hoc military interventions.

This is where Morocco comes in. Inspired and led by King Mohammed VI, Morocco has taken it upon itself to stabilise the situation in Mali through a host of bilateral initiatives. This includes training the Malian army for counter-terrorism/ counter-insurgency operations, mediating a political truce between Bamako and the rebel Tuaregs in Mali's north and cooperating with the Malian government to develop diverse sectors such as trade, banking, health, education, etc. But most importantly, in order to counter the spread of radical Wahhabi ideology, Morocco has agreed to train 500 Malian imams in its own brand of moderate Maliki Islam. This initiative, in particular, needs to be lauded and expanded in scope to fight the shadow of Islamic extremism that looms over Africa – something that was highlighted yet again with the recent Boko Haram attack on school students in Nigeria.

The second area where Morocco is making significant contributions is inter-African cooperation. As part of his latest four-nation African tour, in his recent speech at the Morocco- Côte d'Ivoire Economic Forum, King Mohammed VI emphasised on the need for greater South-South collaborations. Urging African leaders to take their destiny in their own hands, the King asserted that Africa did not need humanitarian aid as much as mutually profitable partnerships. Pitching for solidarity between African peoples and respect for states' territorial sovereignty, the King outlined a new paradigm of African unity and development.

This is interesting given that Morocco is not part of the African Union (earlier Organisation of African Unity). Although a founder-member of the pan-African organisation, Morocco relinquished its membership in 1984 following the admission of the nebulous and controversial Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. In any case, it is well recognised that over the years the African Union had become an old boys' club for Libya's Gaddafi and his fantastical illusions. If the dream of African unity and cooperation is to remain relevant today, it would be greatly helped by Morocco's leadership under King Mohammed VI.

The third area where Morocco is quietly playing a constructive role is the Palestine-Israel conflict. King Mohammed VI is the chairman of the Al Quds Committee, which is a branch of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The body is tasked with implementing all OIC resolutions on the Arab-Israeli conflict. At the 20^th session of the Al Quds Committee held in January, King Mohammed VI made some interesting observations.

He called upon the Al Quds to become a permanent mechanism of the OIC to catalyse the Palestine-Israel peace process. He further pledged his support to the Palestine National Authority led by its President Mahmoud Abbas and urged efforts towards the creation of an independent Palestine state living side by side in concord with Israel. King Mohammed VI also called on the committee members to join forces to foil the designs of extremist groups that exploit the Arab-Israeli conflict for vested interests and terrorism.

Seen in the context of the latest US-sponsored efforts to fast track Palestine-Israel negotiations for a peace deal within a specific time frame, King Mohammed VI's Al Quds address was a clear endorsement of the two-state solution. Add to this ongoing negotiations between the West and Iran over the latter's nuclear programme, and it is easy to see that Morocco through the Al Quds Committee is trying to shepherd all Arab stakeholders in Palestine towards a common platform for permanent peace in the Middle East.

Taken together, it is clear that Morocco is playing an extremely crucial role in both Africa and the Arab world. Why is this important for India? Although it has legitimate interests in Africa and the Middle East, New Delhi has very little strategic capital in the region compared to some of the other players. Yet, as the largest democracy in the world, India can bring a fresh perspective to regional issues here. This is precisely why it needs to partner with Morocco. And it is in this context that foreign minister Khurshid's recent visit to Rabat was so significant. Enhancing bilateral cooperation between the two countries would not only benefit traditional stakeholders in Africa and the Middle East but also greatly expand India's strategic space in the region.

Hence, this is not about minister Khurshid himself. Should the opposition BJP come to power following the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, it would do well to make relations with Morocco – and by extension with the larger Middle East and Africa – an area of priority. This will also help India book its place at the high table of international diplomacy.

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Not the way to appoint a Lokpal

Arun Jaitley
27 February 2014, 05:54 PM IST

The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 was enacted 46 years after the idea was first mooted. Institution building is a challenging job. The best in terms of credibility, competence and fairness should be picked up for the appointment of four judicial members and four non-judicial members of Lokpal. It is regrettable that the outgoing UPA government is in a terrible hurry to make appointment on the eve of elections. For this purpose, it is cutting short procedures in order to ensure that an appointment is made. In the process, both legislative provisions and propriety are being violated. Let me elaborate in detail the violations which are taking place.

1. Violation of Section 4 (4) of the Act: Section 4 (4) of the Act provides that "the Selection Committee shall regulate its own procedure in a transparent manner for selecting the Chairperson and members of the Lokpal".  The Selection Committee has met only once that is on February 21, 2014. In the said meeting, I understand that members of the Search Committee were appointed. Instead of the procedure for selection being laid down by the Selection Committee, the Department of Personnel Training (DoPT), had taken out an advertisement on January 17, 2014 i.e. on a day that the Selection Committee had not been constituted, inviting applications for appointment as judicial and non-judicial members of the Lokpal. I had written to the Prime Minister on January 20 and January 30, 2014 in this regard. Though I had received two replies from the Prime Minister, they did not address my principal concerns. Even though the DoPT has no role under the Act, it has framed rules to assign itself a role. Under the Act, that role belongs to the Selection Committee and Screening Committee. In the present case, neither of the two have any role in issuing the advertisement or inviting applications or short listing the applicants. This entire functioning has been usurped by the DoPT.

2. Expecting eligible people to apply for the post: In my letter to the Prime Minister on January 20, 2014 I had written that "the very idea of retiring or sitting judges of the highest court having to move applications for a post-retirement assignment is repugnant to the dignity of the office that they have held. Retired judges who lobby with the establishment with their CVs compromise their self-respect and dignity. A job-seeking judge may not be the best person to be appointed as a member of the Lokpal. In any case, whether applications are to be invited or not has to be decided by the Selection Committee". The Government went ahead and invited applications by February 7, 2014. I know, for fact, several sitting judges have refused to apply because they felt it compromised their dignity and self-respect. However, some others have forwarded their applications to their Chief Justices for being forwarded for consideration. The advertisement expects sitting judges in Paragraph 15 to send a detailed statement giving the CV including work experience and other achievements. In Paragraph 16 it expects judges to give a detailed justification as to how the applicant fulfills the conditions for the post applied for. This justification has to be written within 200 words. Who decided this procedure? It is certainly not the Selection Committee or the Search Committee but the Minister in charge of DoPT. He has no role under this Act. However, the DoPT has usurped a role to itself.

3. Search Committee work discretion reduced by DoPT: The rules framed are ultra vires the Act. Rule 10 of the Rules states that the Search Committee shall prepare a panel of names to be considered by the Selection Committee only from amongst the list of persons provided by the DoPT, Govt of India. The short list from amongst the applicants is being prepared only by the DoPT. The discretion of the Search Committee is being further reduced. It will only be involved in the clerical exercise of selecting the name from the shortlist prepared by the DoPT.

The media informs us, that one of the eminent members of the Search Committee, Shri Fali S. Nariman has declined to accept the honour of being on the Search Committee. Obviously, men of stature will not agree to become rubber stamps. The Government had decided to pack the Search Committee with its supporters. Amongst the names suggested for the Search Committee included the names of government lawyers. Thus only government lawyers from the legal fraternity and ade facto Congress spokesman from amongst the media were proposed on the Search Committee. Smt. Sushma Swaraj did not agree to these names. The Government should realize that an institution does not belong to one political party. The more fair and credible institutions we create, the better it will be for the system. Marginalizing the Search Committee or deciding to pack the Lokpal with 'friendly names' is not necessarily in the interest of the institution. The UPA has done enough damage to the CBI, CAG, PAC, JPC and the CVC. I hope, the Lokpal survives this assault. 

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An Indian on trial in Dhaka

Man is driven by ambition. To lead India is the ultimate honour an Indian cricketer can aspire for. Equally, it is a prize that once you get hold of, reluctant to let it go. You tend to dig in your heel, even when the tide is turning against you. Such are the corridors of history that creak and let a situation turn from an opportunity to crisis.

Virat Kohli is a young man, climbing towards the mountain of greatness. He is, however, at the base camp. He is leading India's Asia Cup campaign in Bangladesh. He is more than a stand-in captain for an injured and tired and defeated Mahendra Singh Dhoni. At 25, Kohli is mastering the art of batting and learning the politics of leadership. He is the one man that Indian cricket should bet on. For that BCCI should take a bold and an honest call to declare its intent that Kohli is the man for the future. One can argue that there is still time to decide who should lead India in England during the five-match Test series (first time since 1959) and five match ODI series in July-September. But now is the time for BCCI to show faith in Kohli.

Asia Cup is important for India, a team that is on a losing streak, and it is more important for Kohli, who has more at stake than anyone else in the current squad.

Let's be honest. Kohli wants to lead India. And if India does not win Asia Cup — against all familiar enemies — and goes down to Pakistan in the March 2 group encounter, he will lose chances of leading India in England. All that N Srinivasan needs to cement Dhoni's place as Indian captain is a faltering step by the rival. Kohli is on trial in Dhaka.

There is a near consensus among former cricketers that Dhoni has been given enough chances to perform abroad as skipper but failed miserably. Some have put forward the absurd theory that Dhoni is a good captain at home (see, he has won many Tests in India, thrashed Australia, humbled the West Indies, etc.) but a poor leader abroad. Pray, is that jet lag? If someone is a good strategist in Chennai weather, does he lose it in New Zealand because he is in a cooler clime and a different time zone?

If you are willing to set aside the punditry, captaincy is all about luck. As Napoleon asked "is he lucky?" is all that matters. The best captains are those who have lady luck as his 12^th woman. The best illustration is Dhoni's career. In the T20 World Cup final against Pakistan in 2007, how could anyone justify Dhoni asking Joginder Sharma bowling the final over? In not keeping an in-form Irfan Pathan for the crucial over Dhoni had erred as a captain. It would have been all over had Sreesanth spilled the catch when Misbah-ul-Haq miscued. Dhoni's captaincy career would have finished there, even before it had begun.

But Dhoni the skipper has survived through many such bizarre decisions and in the process has been hailed as a super cool genius. May be genius is not climate-proof then. It is important for Srinivasan to realise that luck has deserted his Super King. Or has she only taken an injury-break?

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The Mad Hatter’s ball begins...

Pritish Nandy
26 February 2014, 08:55 AM IST

The strangest things happen at election time.

Anna Hazare has dumped his favourite acolyte Arvind Kejriwal and endorsed Mamata instead. So has Imam Bukhari. This has pitchforked her onto the national stage as a likely third front candidate for The Big Job. Salman Khan was last seen flying kites with Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad. Modi fans pitch this as a clear sign that Muslims are no longer averse to their leader. At least Bollywood's poster boy is not. Nor is the original AYM, who is no longer so young nor so angry. He is Gujarat's most hardworking salesman.

Not to be left behind, the ageing disco dancer has dumped his leftist allies and become Didi's MP. While the bejewelled fat man who scored the disco number is now singing ditties to Didi's bête noire.

In the midst of all this, Amma has gone for the big kill. She has decided to set Rajiv's assassins free, now that the Supreme Court has spared them the gallows.

The freak shows on the side are as winsome. Kalmadi and Pawan Bansal, who brought ignominy to the Congress, look all set to fight the elections again on Congress tickets. The party has let Ashok Chavan go scot free even as Rahul demands stricter action against the Adarsh scamsters. Ofcourse Chavan, like Home Minister Shinde, is neck deep in Adarsh. So is Uttam Khobragade whose daughter has single-handedly managed to destroy Indo-US relations over an underpaid maid. In gratitude for the Congress support, Khobragade Sr has now staked claim to the Ramtek seat on a Sena-RPI ticket. 

Kiran Bedi has dumped both Anna and Arvind, aligned with the BJP. She expects a Lok Sabha ticket, having declared Modi as the best man for 7 RCR.  But Arvind is attacking Modi for shielding the corrupt. And AAP is fielding the Mahatma's grandson, Rajmohan Gandhi against him. Meanwhile, Kiran Reddy has resigned as CM because the Congress is breaking up Andhra to win some seats in Telengana with TRS, till recently its sworn enemy. And Tarun Tejpal, who has entrapped cricketers and politicians, lies rotting in jail for 80 days. He claims he's the victim of a BJP honey trap.

But the guys who take the cake at the Mad Hatter's Ball are not politicians. Penguins are pulping copies of Wendy Doniger's book just to welcome the incoming regime. The world's leading publishers prefer to shred a book rather than hurt Hindu sensibilities. While the self declared new leader of the Dawoodi Bohras, the late Syedna's son, has asked all followers of the Islamic sect to not only declare their allegiance to him but abuse his uncle who the Syedna had anointed as his spiritual heir 50 years back.

Sharad Pawar still thinks he can make it to 7 RCR. So he won't fight the elections. Instead, like Manmohan Singh, he has sneaked into the Rajya Sabha and is contemplating who to back. One day he declaims that Modi is not a criminal because the courts have cleared him. A fortnight later, he calls Modi a mass murderer. But Ashok Singhal, the venerable VHP leader, has the last laugh. Every true Indian, he argues, must produce 5 kids to keep Hindutva refreshed.

Rahul's high voltage campaign is a damp squib. Wherever I go I see him staring down at me in different, pensive postures from posters, kiosks, hoardings. (I have even seen a poster of him where he looked as if he was digging his nose.) Proving once again that monster budgets can't assure you monster impact. When your credibility is zero, you can spend thousands of crores but it won't fetch you one extra vote.

The tragedy is that even the Congress' most loyal supporters can't find a good enough reason to vote for it. The only votes it may get are from those who want to keep Modi out. This will get some seats for AAP too. But then, AAP is fielding some fine people. The Congress looks as if it will go with its old rogues. One good outcome of this bad decision may be that the entire lot could go missing from the Opposition benches in the new parliament.

As for Modi, I can't figure his strategy. He goes to Bihar, runs down Nitish. He goes to Orissa, runs down Naveen. He goes to Bengal, runs down Mamata. Where is he going to find alliance partners? Or does he really think he can do it on his own?

The Wonderland of politics has its own crazy logic. The more you turn things upside down, the better they tend to look. We are, as Vishy Anand would say, in zugzwang. Once the new MPs sit in Central Hall, the Mad Hatter's Ball could be replaced by a switcheroo. Hopefully it will be as much fun.

Why is a raven like a writing desk? The Mad Hatter asked Alice. She had no answer. But if I were you, I would beware the Jubjub bird and shun the frumious Bandersnatch.

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The dilemma of Pollgate

Jug Suraiya
26 February 2014, 04:12 PM IST

Is your opinion for sale, without you even knowing about it? It could very well be. Because it seems that a lot of unsuspecting people's opinions are being bought and sold without they themselves being aware of what's going on.

A recent sting operation mounted by a Hindi TV news channel has reportedly uncovered a political opinion poll racket, involving some of the biggest and best known agencies which conduct such polls.

Secretly taped recordings made of the conversations between the channel's staffers posing as party workers and the CEOs of the polling agencies are said to contain proof that many such organisations are prepared to skew their findings, by as much as a crucial 5%, to favour  whichever political party is willing to pay for such falsification.

A skewed poll comes at a sizeable premium – invariably payable in cash, and not by cheque, so as to leave behind no tell-tale paper trail – compared with a regular survey.

In one case, a polling agency was asked to come up with opinion poll results showing that a particular party would win 200 assembly seats in UP polls. Subsequently the same agency agreed to do a poll for another party which would show that that party would bag 200 seats in the same election. How could the same agency come up with two such self-contradictory results? By the simple ploy of conducting the second poll under the name of a new polling agency formed overnight for just this purpose.

The sting operation – called Operation Prime Minister – will generate much heated debate in the country's already surcharged pre-election atmosphere. Already AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal has accused the media of being biased towards the BJP by highlighting opinion polls showing the party spearheaded by Narendra Modi to be leading the field, an accusation that has been censored by the Editors' Guild.

The Guild has also taken to task home minister Shinde who threatened to 'crush' the media for supposedly favouring the BJP for the sake of vested interests.

Shinde – who is known for putting both his feet into his mouth – subsequently clarified that the media he had threatened to crush was not the regular media  but 'social media' – a clarification which earned him deserved wrath on Twitter, Facebook and other increasingly popular and influential social networking sites.

But the real issue that Operation Prime Minister will bring into focus is the ongoing debate on the legitimacy of political opinion polls in a democracy.

Those against such polls argue that they can act like self-fulfilling prophesies, in that poll prediction can influence undecided voters and cause them to vote for the party that the pollsters favour, since voters might feel that unless they vote for the party predicted to win, they'll only be wasting their votes. This argument is likely to be strengthened by the revelations of Operation Prime Minister, which shows that voter choice can easily be manipulated by money power working behind the scenes.

However, despite the expose of what might be called Pollgate, there is a valid argument to be made in favour of opinion polls under the constitutional rubric of freedom of expression. The freedom to express your opinion is the very essence of democracy. Indeed, democracy is nothing but the meeting point of different – and often widely divergent – opinions. Opinions, and the freedom to express them, are indispensable to a free society.

Maybe there should be an opinion poll on whether or not opinion polls should be banned. Problem is, what if that opinion poll is also rigged?

That's the dilemma presented by Pollgate.

jug.suraiya@timesgroup.com

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Pathribal and Patriotism

Aarti Tikoo Singh
01 February 2014, 03:10 PM IST

The idea of patriotism is not necessarily or inherently "a pernicious psychopathic form of idiocy" that the witty Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw called it once. Human feelings of love and attachment with one's place of birth and upbringing and selfless service for its betterment,  after all, are benign, natural and perhaps, evolutionary too. But patriotic notions can become exactly the idiocy Shaw referred to when individuals or institutions symbolizing patriotism attain stature of unquestionable gods and dogmatic religions.

The Indian Army which remains emblematic of supreme patriotism, has unfortunately become one such institution that cannot be evaluated critically. Any censure of the Army, no matter how decadent and corrupt the institution may be, is an invitation to earn the blemish of being anti-patriotic, anti-national, seditious and traitorous. Drawing attention to the evidence of Army's institutional malfeasance is overlooked completely in all socio-political discourse.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) 2012 report that indicted the Army in the Pathribal extrajudicial killings, for example, remained an irrelevant proof against the Army's word. The Indian Army last week closed the case that accused its officials of killing five innocent Kashmiri Muslim youth in Pathribal village of Anantnag district in the Kashmir valley following the massacre of 34 Sikhs in Chattisinghpora by Lashkar-e-Taiba in March 2000. The reverence for the Army is so deep that patriots find it difficult to trust CBI's report that incriminated the Army for wiping out all the evidence by blowing up and burning the hut where the victims had been shot dead. A patriot is unwilling to ask why the CBI called the Army's 'encounter killings' "cold-blooded murders" and held five Army officials responsible for the murders and sought exemplary punishment for them. Indian patriotism does not accommodate questions such as why the Centre invoked the Armed Forces Special Powers Acts (AFSPA) that grants, besides enormous powers to the Indian Army in disturbed areas, dangerously the right to have infinite legal immunity. Or why the senior counsel Ashok Bhan, a Kashmiri Pandit, would tell the court that the AFSPA was intended to protect any action of the Army only done in exercise of official duty. Or why the CBI argued that it was necessary to prosecute the Army officials to ensure "public confidence in the rule of law and dispensation of justice". 

It is again meaningless to patriots to ask why the Supreme Court in January 2012 pulled up the Centre and the Army for denying justice to the victims but only three months later, gave the army a choice to try the accused either by court-martial or by criminal courts. It is unpatriotic to ask if the Army was encouraged by the court's  free pass and if it led to its own acquittal. It is no bother to a patriot's conscience that the Indian Army lied to the country that the Pathribal youth were the terrorists responsible for the massacre. Both the mainstream opposition parties and the 24 hours hyperventilating electronic media, therefore, did not consider the denial of justice by the Army worth any patriotism. The Army allowed itself to be guilt- free and its worshippers to remain sightless. The travesty is not only that justice was denied in the Pathribal case but also that the very act  remained unchallenged under the convenience of  blind patriotism of the citizens.

So why has Indian patriotism, that originates from the very principles and duties enshrined in the Constitution, come to mean not questioning institutions such as the Army? Why has Indian patriotism begun to fit the description that Shaw chose for it? Why has Indian patriotism taken the epithet of 'blind'? Because somewhere down the line, our selfless service to India got determined not by our moderate, liberal and inclusive constitutional ideals but by illiberal and exclusive ethno-religious or cultural mores. This trend in India started since the rise, rather revival, of the Hindu Right wing and the fabrication of a glorified monolithic Hindu past, tradition, culture, customs, rituals and values. The Hindu Right wing revivalists cherry pick and associate only certain ideas of the Indian Constitution with patriotism. Socialism and secularism, as such, are not patriotic values but integrity of the union is; protection of minorities is not a patriotic value but protection of national symbols is. Patriotism has thus been redefined in the lexicon of the Hindu Right and only select institutions epitomizing patriotism are therefore immune to scrutiny. Constitutional patriotism, which was meant to uphold the constitutional ideals (including constructive criticism) in totality, has been replaced with discriminatory and blind patriotism. It is this untempered patriotism that trusts the Army's word against the CBI evidence.  

It would be unpatriotic indeed, even from a constitutional point of view, to disparage Army's services to the country. The Indian Army has made immense sacrifices during the defense of the borders and citizens of the Republic in the last 65 years. Those sacrifices rightly place the institution at the highest pedestal of patriotic veneration. But it is disservice to the Constitution and constitutional patriotism if the Army is the accused and also gets to be the judge, jury and pardoner itself and most patriots choose to stay quiet about it. Constitutional patriotism will be undermined if the truthification of lies told by the Indian Army in the Pathribal case goes unchallenged, if the excesses and human rights abuse the Army has committed against the people it is supposed to defend are not questioned. At the risk of being demonized and dubbed as a renegade, one must still ask why soldiers implicated in innocent civilian killings should enjoy absolute impunity and how such exemption serves the country and its constitution. One must still ask if state abuse and impunity could be the undoing of a liberal constitutional democracy.

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Modi's wife - the secret is out

Sanjeev Ahluwalia
01 February 2014, 04:46 PM IST

At last the horrible secret is out. Courtesy an Indian Express scoop, we know that Modi has a wife, whom he hasn't seen or talked with in the last 42 years.

Apparently, they never got divorced. Jashodaben is reported to have said they only saw each other occasionally for the first three years, of which they spent only three months together, since Modi travelled a lot on Shakha business. Thereafter Modi applied himself solely to the RSS. Jashodaben, as advised by Modi, got herself educated and worked as a teacher. She never got any support from Modi, or his family, but was not ill-treated either, by him, or his family. The marriage simply died away and she returned to her brother's home.

A tragic tale of millions of middle class, urban Indian girls, whose only future and function in the 1960's was to get married.

How is this likely to affect the Modi electoral juggernaut? The bulk of the electorate is unlikely to bother much. Abandoning wives to their own devices, is a national habit, which whilst not celebrated, or condoned, is accepted as a possible outcome of poverty or other compulsions. This approach is aligned to traditions which prescribe socially limited roles for wives. This is evidenced by Jashodaben's own placid acceptance of the situation; continued admiration for Modi and his spectacular "personal" achievements and a willingness to share in his glory should he invite her to do so.

The few who are horrified, view this incident as yet another piece in the puzzle which unpeels the true Modi. A socially backward looking, egotistical man, focused on self-advancement. Of course this is the correct view.

National leaders are rarely expected to be sinless unless they are American Presidents. Obama is so squeaky clean that he is unreal. His only sins are lighting up a smoke and a light hearted "selfie" at Mandela's funeral with the attractive, blonde, Danish Prime Minister and Cameron. India is today more aligned to the American way of doing things, than ever before. The Lok Sabha elections themselves are being managed like Presidential elections. This makes the personal lives of "Prime Ministerial" candidates fair play, in the run up to the elections.

Godhra, "snoopgate" and Jashodaben are now three issues that Modi needs to publicly talk about.

After Arnab's scoop of Rahul's TV interview, it is time Modi gave a similar opportunity to a Hindi TV channel. Modi's executive capabilities are well known and not all the Planning Commission's rebuttal statistics can convince people that Bihar is a better place to live in than Gujarat.

But Godhra does need to be put to rest. Rahul's interview confirmed the widely held view that the Congress was complicit in the 1984 riots and subsequently loathe to pursue the criminals. It is not enough for Modi to rely on the serial judicial confirmations exonerating him and the positive statistics on convictions by the court in Godhra versus the low conviction rate in 1984 . He needs to be open to a free-wheeling discussion about what he went through, whilst Godhra was happening. He should explain all that he tried to do personally to control the violence and subsequently to resettle the victims. BJP representatives have often shared this information but not hearing it from Modi and his not encouraging a discussion around minority security does not serve him well.

"Snoopgate" and now the case of Jashodaben are both broadly similar in that both relate to Modi's personal life. Is Modi a Brahamchari? Was he personally involved in snoopgate? Why did he abandon his wife? Does he still consider himself married to her? Is he keen to have her live in Racecourse Road in a grand, happy conciliation of earlier personal inconsistencies? This is rich material for Modi to reach out in a reality show, not just to the electorate, but also to the World and allow it to understand him better.

In all this, the only real winner is Jashodaben, who comes like the role model she is; dignified; proud without being an egotist; accomplished, competent and determined. The modern World would of course disagree and call her a loser for not dragging Modi to court for abandoning her and not seeking support or even for not divorcing Modi. All these actions would have been justifiable. But Jashodaben, by refusing to beg for favors and living life on her own terms; by being self-reliant and courageous, emblemizes the best in Indian womanhood.

Modi publicly worships his mother. He would do well to worship Jashodaben too, for she loves him as much and wishes him as well.  

At last the horrible secret is out. Courtesy an Indian Express scoop, we know that Modi has a wife, whom he hasn't seen or talked with in the last 42 years.

 

Apparently, they never got divorced. Jashodaben is reported to have said they only saw each other occasionally for the first three years, of which they spent only three months together, since Modi travelled a lot on Shakha business. Thereafter Modi applied himself solely to the RSS. Jashodaben, as advised by Modi, got herself educated and worked as a teacher. She never got any support from Modi, or his family, but was not ill-treated either, by him, or his family. The marriage simply died away and she returned to her brother's home.

 

A tragic tale of millions of middle class, urban Indian girls, whose only future and function in the 1960's was to get married.

 

How is this likely to affect the Modi electoral juggernaut? The bulk of the electorate is unlikely to bother much. Abandoning wives to their own devices, is a national habit, which whilst not celebrated, or condoned, is accepted as a possible outcome of poverty or other compulsions. This approach is aligned to traditions which prescribe socially limited roles for wives. This is evidenced by Jashodaben's own placid acceptance of the situation; continued admiration for Modi and his spectacular "personal" achievements and a willingness to share in his glory should he invite her to do so.

 

The few who are horrified, view this incident as yet another piece in the puzzle which unpeels the true Modi. A socially backward looking, egotistical man, focused on self-advancement. Of course this is the correct view.

 

National leaders are rarely expected to be sinless unless they are American Presidents. Obama is so squeaky clean that he is unreal. His only sins are lighting up a smoke and a light hearted "selfie" at Mandela's funeral with the attractive, blonde, Danish Prime Minister and Cameron. India is today more aligned to the American way of doing things, than ever before. The Lok Sabha elections themselves are being managed like Presidential elections. This makes the personal lives of "Prime Ministerial" candidates fair play, in the run up to the elections.

 

Godhra, "snoopgate" and Jashodaben are now three issues that Modi needs to publicly talk about.

 

After Arnab's scoop of Rahul's TV interview, it is time Modi gave a similar opportunity to a Hindi TV channel. Modi's executive capabilities are well known and not all the Planning Commission's rebuttal statistics can convince people that Bihar is a better place to live in than Gujarat.

 

But Godhra does need to be put to rest. Rahul's interview confirmed the widely held view that the Congress was complicit in the 1984 riots and subsequently loathe to pursue the criminals. It is not enough for Modi to rely on the serial judicial confirmations exonerating him and the positive statistics on convictions by the court in Godhra versus the low conviction rate in 1984 . He needs to be open to a free-wheeling discussion about what he went through, whilst Godhra was happening. He should explain all that he tried to do personally to control the violence and subsequently to resettle the victims. BJP representatives have often shared this information but not hearing it from Modi and his not encouraging a discussion around minority security does not serve him well.

 

"Snoopgate" and now the case of Jashodaben are both broadly similar in that both relate to Modi's personal life. Is Modi a Brahamchari? Was he personally involved in snoopgate? Why did he abandon his wife? Does he still consider himself married to her? Is he keen to have her live in Racecourse Road in a grand, happy conciliation of earlier personal inconsistencies? This is rich material for Modi to reach out in a reality show, not just to the electorate, but also to the World and allow it to understand him better.

 

In all this, the only real winner is Jashodaben, who comes like the role model she is; dignified; proud without being an egotist; accomplished, competent and determined. The modern World would of course disagree and call her a loser for not dragging Modi to court for abandoning her and not seeking support or even for not divorcing Modi. All these actions would have been justifiable. But Jashodaben, by refusing to beg for favors and living life on her own terms; by being self-reliant and courageous, emblemizes the best in Indian womanhood.

 

Modi publicly worships his mother. He would do well to worship Jashodaben too, for she loves him as much and wishes him as well.  

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North by North-East in South Delhi

Veeresh Malik
01 February 2014, 05:07 PM IST

 

Lajpat Nagar-I in Delhi is where the smallest plot allotments were made after Partition - 50-80 square metres. This is where refugees including some of our relatives came and set up homes under asbestos or tin roofs. Numbering was often mixed up, as plots were exchanged, swapped, divided or merged.

I know most of the lanes here (the backlanes between plots were long ago swallowed up as plots "grew" in all directions - up x 4-5 floors, down x 1-2 basements, sideways for corner plots and front/back for the rest) as I also went to school in Lajpat Nagar and had a lot of friends who lived in Lajpat Nagar then.

I can not think of many friends from school days who have continued to live here, especially those who were in small houses, most everybody has moved on. Pretty much every spare square inch of land that could have been utilised has been used and some places I recall as parks or open space are now commercial complexes or houses of religion or a combo of both. Some streets are totally commercial, others are mixed use, and the advent of the Delhi Metro as well as the popularity of the Central Market has seen property values go higher than other "posh" colonies nearby.

It is said that Jawaharlal Nehru visited the refugee camp in Lajpat Nagar and told the people there that India was free and they were also free to do what they wanted to prosper in the new India they had chosen. Truer words were never spoken.

I had an office for a shipping business there for almost a decade, the automobile market here came up in the '90s while I evolved into a motoring anchor, and even today, I command a fair amount of goodwill and respect with people there. So while the demonstrations and protests continue outside the Police Station, I went for a walk in the area where the incident took place.

I also had an Uncle, managed to escape being killed during Partition with sword injuries to his legs, rose to join the Indian Army and retired as a Brigadier, married a Naga lady, whose son also joined the Indian Army and died while on ROP during IS duties with 22RR in Kashmir. I do not recall how many times I have gone through the lanes of Lajpat Nagar with that branch of my family too.

One time, many many years ago, along with a few other friends, some guys called my cousin a "Chink". And not just called him Chink, but did it in a way which was worse than abusive. My late cousin, just in from a YO and Commando course, think of a 6' tall Punjabi frame with a Naga face, along with another friend of his who had a Gorkha surname, asked me to hold his glasses, not to interfere, and the two of them made short order of about 8 of these guys.

The parting shot from some of those who ran away was - wait, we shall call the Police, and fix you. Since these two young guys were serving officers, we did not wait, because we know whose side the local Police will take. Later on, I was told that these ruffians were "outsiders", I saw them again after that but they never dared look at me also. 

That's because with the people who live there, this sort of stuff is simply "not done", and the people who lived there ensured that this was never forgotten. Lajpat Nagar has always welcomed successive waves of new-comers and refugees. That's a fact.

Here are two photographs which may give you an idea of the area.

So as I walked the area, to the sound of kirtans being held and people gathered around, while life flows without an ebb in the rush of commerce-I listened. 

"This was an argument and a small fight that went bad"

"When bad times come, nobody can stop trouble"

"Pakistani Muslims are coming back and creating trouble, they are different from Afghan Muslims"

"You know the Police, can anybody do anything here that the Police does not know or take part in?"

Point is - for every one incident of blatant racism like the Nido Taniam episode, or the one involving my late cousin the now deceased Indian Army Major, or going further back, the ones involving my Naga Angami aunt in Nagaland and my Punjabi Refugee Uncle in West Punjab, there are thousands of other self-correctives taking place too.

But yes, Lajpat Nagar is what it is - a destination for hope. I am very sad, I am also angry, but I hope things will improve after this. For the new Free India.

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