Our Life, Our Times :: 27 :: Is it democracy or oligarchy

http;//www.bagchiblog.blogspot.com

We are in the midst of election season. As many as five states are going to polls this month and early next month. And then the General Elections for the Parliament are looming over the political class. These will be held sometime around next May. Modi will be seeking re-election and, hence, the fight is going to be tough.

Even the elections for the five state assembly seats are witnessing vigorous campaigns. Candidates of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) and the Indian National Congress (INC), the two major parties, are going hell for leather for a win at the hustings. The campaigns have increasingly become jarring, acrimonious and abusive of politicians or their families. This was seldom seen earlier unless, of course, one takes into account Sonia Gandhi’s description of Modi as a “merchant of death” in the 2007 Gujarat elections.

This time the level of political discourse has plummeted to a new low. While the Congress President called the Prime Minister a thief another petty politician, a newly elected member of Gujarat Assembly, called him “haramkhor”, a term in Hindi the English translation of which even Google could not find. The best it could do was to suggest that it could mean a rogue or a rascal. Taking up Rahul Gandhi’s abuse of Modi as a thief, it must be mentioned that there was credible evidence against Gandhi’s father about transfer to him of moneys from kickbacks from purchase of Bofors guns. And yet, no one ever called Rajiv Gandhi a thief, which, from all evidences, perhaps he was. Senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani had even mentioned in the Rajya Sabha the amount that was transferred to a German bank in the account of Gandhi’s father. Besides, everyone knows how a Central minister sat on the relevant file to allow Ottavio Quattrochi, a co-accused in Bofors bribery case and a close friend of Gandhi’s mother, to escape from the clutches of Indian Police. And yet nobody ever called Rajiv or Sonia Gandhi thieves. That nobody during the UPA regime pursued these matters is another matter.

More recently, the elections in which Modi swept to power in 2014 the issue for Bharatiya Janta Party was basically massive corruption indulged in by Manmohan Singh and/or his cabinet colleagues. While in the Coal Scam Dr. Manmohan Singh himself was involved, large scale corruption in sale of spectrum, purchase of a VIP chopper, the Commonwealth Games etc. took place and several ministers were and perhaps are being still investigated. As many as nine scams were discovered in the nine years of UPA Rule. While Dr Manmohan Singh presided over those scams as they were being committed strong rumours were circulating during his rule as to where the proceeds of the scams were being channellised to. The destinations for the loot was mostly said to be the residence of one family. It is also believed that this family and the Congress Party are, therefore, the biggest critics of demonetization carried out in 2016 as they lost all their ill gotten cash.

This time, there is another peculiarity noticed in the campaigns and that is about inclusion of the parents of Modi in the speeches of Opposition. While earlier Modi’s mother was brought into the speeches the latest is somebody seems to have made a mention of Modi’s father. Justifiably Modi has taken umbrage. None so far from the BJP has brought in Rahul Gandhi’s parents into the campaign and that is good as long it does not happen. Speechifying should be on the basis of ideology but in India these days ideology takes the back seat. The elections are all personality oriented and one will hear the Congress President taking the name of Modi in every address to the people in different towns. Modi too returns the compliment.

The skirmishes and the wars of words continue and the people, the voters, are mute witnesses. In fact, there is hardly anything in the elections for them. Their only role is to go and press some keys on the EVMs and then everyone forgets about them. The kind of democracy that we seem to be running is only for the politicians and their next of kin and certainly not for the general public.

There is enormous stake in the elections for the politicians. They seek the instruments of power and once they get hold of them pelf follows. Most of the MLAs and MPs are billionaires and they made their billions working the instruments of power. A recent newspaper report said that in Madhya Pradesh while the per-capita income rose by 50-odd percentage points the ‘per-MLA’ income rose by 153%. The feral fights that take place during the elections are all because of the state’s resources that are at stake. They are all there for the taking as one becomes an elected representative. It is true of every level whether it is a panchayat election, or a municipal election or an assembly poll or the general elections, the game is basically the same – the public resources the candidates see at the end of the fight; it is the rainbow that beckons them. People are shut away from these goodies. This is how billionaires are made and every five years there is a jump in the numbers of political billionaires.

A large amount of resources, energy and time are invested in an effort to catch the rainbow. The successful ones have their lives cut out – conjuring up wealth seemingly from nowhere. While the dynastic politics of the Nehru-Gandhis is condemned some start their own dynastic line introducing their next of kin into the game. Over a period of last few decades such closed units of political families have proliferated, facilitated, as it is, by the wealth that is made from public life – in actual fact, by purloining public resources. Such families, knowing the ropes, throw everything into the contests including their ill-gotten wealth knowing that much more could be made if they swung the elections in their favour.

India, therefore, is no longer a democracy; it in actual fact is an oligarchy. Only because of the large population the oligarchy is somewhat inflated. In the states, however, because the scale becomes smaller, it is only the few members of the oligarchy that call the shots.

27^th November, 2018

*Photo from internet

Our Life, Our Times :: 15 :: Indian speed merchants

http://www.bagchiblog.blogspot.com

Speedster Mohammed Shami with his skipper Virat Kohli

India won the third Cricket Test against South Africa by 63 runs at Johannesburg. Having lost two earlier Tests, India has avoided a white-wash by winning this Test. The victory at Johannesburg, therefore is significant.

 What, however, is more significant is that not a ball was bowled by any Indian spinner. In fact, with a clear swing away from tradition, not even a single spinner was included in the team. It was the wicket at Johannesburg that induced this highly unusual decision. Besides, as the cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle said after the match, Virat Kohli, the skipper, has a liking for pace. And, pace it was right through and twenty South African wickets were shared by the five Indian pace men in the Test.

To be able to field five pacers all at one time in the same test is something which is remarkable for Indian cricket. It has most of the time been handicapped for want of raw pace. What we mostly have been nurturing was medium pacers barring the interlude provided by Kapil Dev in the 1980s. Kapil was a genuine pacer and became available to the Indian team after a very long gap.

The gap commenced from the 1930s when Mohammed Nissar and Amar Singh were lost to Indian cricket. Thoroughbred pacers, this duo could make life miserable for even the English cricketers in their home grounds. After the eclipse of that duo what we had was a long line of medium pacers. The handsome and debonair Fazal Mahmood, who too could generate genuine pace, migrated to Pakistan leaving the pace department to Lala Amarnath, Dattu Phadkar and CR Rangachari – all, at best, medium pacers.

The intervening three or four decades were infertile in so far as appearance of a genuine pacer was concerned. None, perhaps, knows the reasons. Maybe, most of the players did not have the physique and strength to sustain long spells of fast bowling in tests, the only format that cricket was played in those days. Perhaps, the over-dependence on spinners, too, prevented from pitches being made that were conducive to pace bowling. No wonder, during this period India produced some distinguished, world-class spinners for whom the Indian pitches used to be tailor-made. While touring teams made Indian teams miserable with their pace attack, their batsmen were troubled no end by the guile of Indian spin bowlers. They would use everything - flight, turn, bounce, drift and dip – to confound the batsmen.

With the appearance of Kapil Dev in the late 1970s India saw for the first time in many decades a genuine ‘quicky’ who could deliver fast balls and also take wickets. His out-swingers were lethal and got him many batsmen of repute. What he used to miss was genuine pace support. Most of his associates in the fast bowling department of the team were medium pacers, barring, perhaps, Chetan Sharma who unfortunately did not last for long. Others who were playing along with him, like Mohinder Amarnath, Roger Binny, Manoj Prabhakar, Madan Lal or Ajit Agarkar, were all medium pacers. To that extent the Indian pace attack has always been blunted – regardless of the histrionics with the ball by Kapil Dev. Only Javagal Srinath did fill for a while the void that was becoming far too disconcerting.

Srinath was one of the products of MRF Pace Foundation where he was guided by none other than Dennis Lilly. Late in the 1980s a rich cricket buff thought of doing something for the country’s deficiency in pace bowling. He put his company’s money creating facilities for nursing potential Indian pace men towards making them world-class pacers with the help of outstanding international pace men. His MRF Foundation got Dennis Lilly to do the honours of guiding and coaching young Indians who had the potential to come good in the tough and demanding five-day tests.

Apart from Srinath the Foundation produced several winners like Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Bhuwaneshwar Kumar, etc. With the creation of an environment for fast bowling and improvement of pitches that support quick bowlers large numbers of youngsters have taken to fast bowling. Off and on one hears some names that have done well in knocking off established batsmen with sheer pace. A number of young men like Jaydev Unnadkat, Shardul Thakur, Basil Thampi, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, etc are waiting in the wings for opportunities to perform. Until they get into action against foreign teams they would need to be nursed carefully to obviate the possibilities of frequent injuries that fast bowlers generally are prone to.

The significance of pacers coming good at Johannesburg should not, therefore, be lost on the cricket-loving public in India. Among the pacers who played in Johannesburg there were four who were in the team to form the nucleus of the pace attack. They were all hurling the ball constantly at 140 kmph. The fifth one, Hardik Pandya, who is basically considered an all-rounder, does twirl his arms as a change bowler who too bowls in the range of 140 to 145 kmph. And yet, curiously it was two of the genuine pacers who, coming good at wielding the bat, put the Indian total in the second innings well beyond the capabilities of the Proteas.

If the quartet (Bhuwaneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Jaspreet Bumrah, Mohammed Shami) continue to perform in the way they are doing, sharing all the twenty wickets of the opposition in a match, they would seem to be putting the likes Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravinder Jadeja, Kuldip Yaday and such other spinners of the red cherry out of business. Remember, while Hardik Pandya did not get many overs, another speed merchant, Umesh Yadav, the fastest of them all, was not even played in any of the test matches in the series that just ended.

 So, if the knowledgeable cricket commentators call it the Golden Age of Indian Fast Bowling they wouldn’t be far off the mark. We can only join them and wish may the tribe of Indian fast bowlers increase to make the country a massive threat for other cricketing nations. Given that and the kind of batting line-up that it has, India could remain numero uno in test cricket for a long long time.

Missing the gold at Lords' and yet ...

http://www.bagchiblog.blogspot.com

Skipper Mithali Raj leads the team back to pavillion

It was just phenomenal. That the Indian women’s cricket team would be playing before a sell-out crowd at Lords’ in England at the Finals of the World Cup 2017, was really nothing short of a phenomenon. Though cruising well on the way to victory, the young team seemed to have come under the grip of nerves only to collapse within sniffing distance of a well-deserved victory. But, for this match winning or losing was not an issue. It was enough for their countrymen to savour and celebrate their entry into the finals after some very good cricket that they played.

There were sterling performances at the match by at least three of its members, Poonum Raut and Harmanpreet Singh with the bat and in the bowling department the old campaigner, Jhoolan Goswami, returned commendable figures accounting for three of the English ladies. The skipper, Mithali Raj, a consistent scorer, was unfortunately run out when only on 17 held back as she was by her spikes that dug into the ground while running a single. Despite a seeming collapse, contest-wise it was a close and thrilling finish.

It was a queer quirk of fate that the team lost to England in the Finals, a team which it had defeated in an earlier face-off. Likewise, it rode into the finals over a convincing win over Australia against which it had lost in a preliminary round. Obviously the team progressively raised the level of its performance during the tournament that took it to the finals for the second time but after a hiatus of more than a decade. A number of centuries were scored at the tournament, including an undefeated swashbuckling one of 171 (not out) off only 115 deliveries by Harmanpreet Singh in the semi-final that received appreciation from the world over and eventually saw her being included in the team of International Cricket Council.

Led by example by a consummate batswoman, Mithali Raj, the team was not expected to do so well in the tournament as it did. But Mithali herself scored 408 runs in this edition of the World Cup, only one run short of the highest scorer from the English side. She, however, went on to top the scoring charts by crossing the 6000 mark in Women’s Cricket, the highest ever by a woman. That was an individual accomplishment as it was indeed of her tall team mate, Jhoolan Goswami, who stood out with the figures of a total of 36 wickets – at the third position among the bowlers. Her 3 in the finals for 23 had almost snatched the match away from England

Goswami stated after the match that none of the cricketers had ever thought that the team would reach the finals. They knew it was underprepared and against seasoned campaigners they would be up against difficult and frustrating contests. But as the tournament progressed things started looking up. Smriti Mandhana who missed a century in the first match scoring 90 helped to win it against England. She showed great poise against a tougher team consistently lofted the ball to fly over close-in power-play fielders, That she did not do as well in subsequent matches was a surprise, Then Poonum Raut was in sublime form scoring a century. As expected Mithali Raj too chipped in with healthy scores including a hundred. It was the scintillating innings of Harmanpreet Singh against the Australians in the semifinals that captivated the supporters back home. The media literally went wild giving extensive coverage with photographs in print media. Harmanpreet’s innings was being likened to those of Sehwag in his hey days. Her 171 n.o with 20 fours and seven sixes was what sent supporters rooting for her. Incidentally, one never imagined that women cricketers could hit sixes. Hermanpreet had hit one at Sydney while playing in a professional league match that made the Australians to check her for any drug and her bat for some mysterious power.

Despite the fact that they lost the trophy, the team’s performance at the run up to the finals made them celebrities. Never before did women’s cricket was followed in the way it was this time and never before did women cricketers become the objects of such adoration. Receptions and celebrations followed on their return and the team members were lionized and feted all the way.  What was more remarkable was Mithali being named the skipper of the International Cricket Council team because of her cricketing qualities. Two more girls, Harmanpreet Singh and Deepti Sharma, were also included in the team. 

This is, perhaps, for the first time that the women’s cricket team has won laurels at an international competition and won so much of respect, love and affection. Even the Board of Control for Cricket in India was gracious in holding a reception for the team and giving a purse of 50 lakhs to each member of the team. As Mithali happened to note that it was a “revolution” that was taking place and only better efforts would justify the great love and affection showered on them by the countrymen.

 The Indian women have had relatively greater successes in Field Hockey and have won gold medals at several international tournaments because of which they came to be known as the “Golden Girls of Hockey”. A film was too made on them by the noted producer/actor Sharukh Khan. On the other hand, the Indian women’s football is in total disarray. It has somehow lost its way after a bright opening. But one presumes, it is politics that did it in. However, with the recent stand out performance of the women’s cricket team and adulation showered on it things are likely to change and efforts seem to be already afoot to improve matters in other games including football and hockey.

For those of us, who have seen the whole concept of women out on the playing fields slowly evolve, cannot help marvelling at the change. When we were in schools and colleges 50 to 60 years ago girls playing field games was unheard of. A stray athletic event would have a few girls competing, but field games were, apparently, a no no. At the most, they would play less strenuous kho kho or Badminton, otherwise they would confine themselves to in indoor games like carrom and occasionally table tennis.

 Slowly, things seemed to have picked up as the middle classes expanded and the conservatism regarding women “indulging” in manly sports was shaken off. The socio-cultural change brought in a fresh approach. Even the thinking in the governments changed and greater opportunities and sporting facilities were progressively made available for girls. This must have commenced about three or four decades ago. But while in other Asian countries, like Korea, China and Japan, women’s sports had a runaway success, we took time over matching their feats.

 Currently, however, we have distinguished female players in Tennis and Badminton and even in boxing who now are among the best in the world. God and governments willing, soon we are likely to have world beaters in other sporting events too.  

29^th July 2017

*Photo from internet

India's new highways

http://www.bagchiblog.blogspot.com

Betul-Nagpur highway

We were to travel by train to Nagpur to take the Indigo flight from there for Kolkata. But the train got cancelled because of the unprecedented rains and floods in Tamil Nadu, especially Chennai where all the rakes were held up. With no other available alternative we had to hire a taxi to travel by road.

Half the journey was pretty miserable, travelling as we were on an apology of a highway. In two decades, one each of Digvijay Singh and Shivraj Singh Chauhan, this trunk route between South and the North could not be made travel-worthy and respectable enough for living up to its venerable title of National Highway 69. It was one of the wretchedest roads that I ever happened to travel on. It seemed to be competing with the so-called highways of Assam, Manipur and Mizoram that I travelled on more than two decades ago. Of course the one that took me into the town of Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram, walked away with the cake. While travelling on the Mongoldoi and Goalpara stretches one wondered how the Army managed to mobilize its heavy equipment in the 1962 war through these roads which must have been worse at that time.

 But then, this was in the North-East which was remote and almost inaccessible fifty years ago. This one in central India had no reason to be so neglected connecting as it did the North of the country with the South. Metalled only in name, the patchwork repairs apparently carried out from time to time made it worse. Bouncy and hitting the spine where it hurt, a distance of 200 kms or so up to Betul, a district town, took as many as 4 tiring and painful hours.

With such rotten roads the state could never have progressed and, no wonder, it has remained backward, though the current chief minister takes pains to project it as a progressive state. If I recall, it was Mao tse Tung who had said that if one wanted prosperity, one had to build roads.  The US, too, set upon building roads and highways during the Great Depression of the 1930s to enhance the shrinking investments even if it was on behalf of the public. The network of national and state highways built during those few years took the economy on a flight. The country’s prosperity was largely contributed by the investments that were made on infrastructure during the Depression.

But there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel. Mercifully, our travail ended a little before Betul situated on the Satpura Ranges as a new spanking highway took off before the road entered the town. The new highway not only bypassed Betul, it avoided all small towns and villages on the way which slow down the traffic due to people using the road as an outer courtyard of their house. The four lanes of smooth level concrete with a pretty wide central verge with saplings in the process of growing up ran unhindered very much unlike an Indian highway with all its unevenness, pothole, ditches and the clutter. It ran right up to Nagpur, barring a few exceptions where, perhaps, the right alignment could not be found or, maybe, for some legal issues. The best part was up to Katol with excellent signage and directions for the commuters. For buses serving the towns and villages on the way there were “bus bays” with diminutive bus stops in each with seats and shelter for the passengers.

Many others may have used the completed national highways or travelled over the Yamuna Expressway but this was my first exposure to our new-age national highways which are and, hopefully likely to be like any highway abroad in industrialized and advanced countries. What were missing were the restrooms and arrangements for rest and recreation. Perhaps, these too will come by and by.

 Nonetheless, it was a very pleasant experience to drive through those one hundred odd miles. Later while travelling to Pench Tiger Reserve of Madhya Pradesh we drove over another lovely highway with teak forests on both sides but it is yet to be brought to the level of the Betul-Nagpur highway.

As far as Nitin Gadkari's part of the work is concerned on the

A heavy vehicle seems to be stationary on the highway

Betul-Nagpur highway, it is excellent. Some concerns about management of traffic, however, still remain. While an occasional bullock cart is still seen on the highway, cattle also stray into it obstructing the fast and even flow of traffic. Then there is the habit of our two-wheeler riders to take the wrong carriageways enhancing the hazards for the driving public. The foremost problem, however, is the proclivity of drivers, especially of trucks and buses, to take to the fast lane and stick to it for all they are worth. No amount of honking ever makes them yield the fast lane to faster vehicles. Sometimes, therefore, one wonders whether it is now time to switch to the American way of driving, reversing the current traffic rules which are not observed anyway.

One supposes that till the time the system of "highway patrol" is established travellers on our highways may have to put up with this nuisance. Our truck and bus drivers are all probably licensed and yet they generally believe that the lanes on the extreme right are meant for heavy, beefed-up vehicles, that is, for the vehicles they drive. Over the last sixty years or so that I have had the good fortune to travel off and on on highways no government transport authority or traffic police seem to have been able to disabuse their minds of their utterly wrong belief that could and, perhaps, should bring them to grief.

*Photos of Betul- Nagpur highway are from the internet.  

Frightening gallop of Indian population

http://www.bagchiblog.blogspot.com

We have hit the 1.27 billion mark. This only means that we are only less than three quarters short of 2 billion. In 2011 we were 1210 million and in less than four years we have added more than 60 million. It is now estimated that at this rate we will overtake the Chinese population by the middle of the next decade or thereabout.

It seems nothing has risen faster than our population – not our productivity, or our industrial base or even our agricultural output. Despite the general progress in agriculture we are still importing wheat, pulses and edible oils. Obviously, our efforts have not been enough to feed our own population and yet the numbers are relentlessly rising. One shudders to imagine the situation in the country when we become the most populous in the world. It would not be a moment to be proud of. We should then hang our heads in shame for not being able to handle something which was well within our own control. We let slip opportunities away again and again.

My generation has been witness to the rise of our population in monstrous proportions. In the late 1940s we were 35 crore in undivided India. The first census in 1951 after independence clocked a figure of a little more than 36 crore. In “One Life is Not Enough” K Natwar Singh, a former Indian diplomat and politician, wrote about a meeting of Chou Enlai and Pandit Nehru in 1960 when Chou was reported to have told Nehru that if “your 400 million and our 600 million” worked together the face of Asia could be changed. True enough, the 1961 Census revealed a figure of little more than 430 million – registering a decadal increase of around 7 crore. Imagine if we had frozen the population at that level how well-off would we have been with the present level of development? Unfortunately, we could not even restrict the subsequent decadal rises at the same level. Last decade saw a rise of 24 crores and the one before that a rise of 16 crores. We used to be sarcastically told that the country adds population-wise an Australia every year. And, yet the government remained impervious and passive.

Even after partition we were over-populated and worse, our poverty was abject and wide-spread, more so in remote rural areas. It should have been a greater reason for the government to have launched more proactive campaigns for birth control. That, however, did not happen. Though India was the first country to announce a population policy as an integral component of the “First Five Year Plan” yet the measures taken were far too soft. The “Clinical approach” that was adopted entailed opening of family planning clinics in the hope that these would be made use of for acquiring knowledge and wherewithal to prevent the surging birth numbers. That, however, did not happen. More importantly, these clinics were few and far between in the rural areas where they were needed the most. No wonder, for want of any incentives to visit a family planning clinic the policy proved to be misconceived. The realization of its failure came only a decade later when a targeted approach was adopted.

In the early 1970s a law was enacted to facilitate medical termination of pregnancies and the Health & Family Planning minister coined a catchy slogan “Development is the best contraceptive”. However, despite the truism being mouthed neither development took place nor contraception was effectively induced. The population kept surging relentlessly. That is when a ham-handed approach by Sanjay Gandhi, an extra-constitutional authority, veritably killed whatever chances of success the weak campaign run by the government had. Taking advantage of the Emergency, he took the targeted approach to the extreme and illegally assigned targets for mobilization of people for sterilisation to teachers, policemen and sundry government officials who were directed to fulfill them or else face severe penalties. The scramble for achieving the assigned targets resulted in many indiscretions and on numerous occasions in utter high-handedness and thereby hangs another story. The net result was “family planning” became a dirty word so much so that not only the people hated it, even  the succeeding government changed the name of the ministry supplanting “family welfare” for “family planning”. As talk of population control became politically unpopular and electorally dangerous no government wanted to touch it with a barge pole.

The governments that came later j­­­ust drifted along and despite population clocks put up at many places we kept on adding numbers. The programme of controlling births was seemingly put on the back burner. No wonder the decadal growth rate hit a high of 24.80% in 1971 decelerating only marginally in 1981 to 24.66%. However, for reasons yet to be identified the growth rate has been slipping since then, albeit at snails’ pace, and has now in 2011 hit a low of 17.64%.

Yet the absolute numbers are frightening and pose a serious challenge for the government for coping with the needs and demands that will be generated by a burgeoning population with aspirations. Our large numbers have hitherto been described as “demographic dividend” but what kind of dividend they would be like has not been indicated. Unfortunately most of the growing numbers of people we have are not in the workforce for want of jobs or skills or both. The dividend would have accrued had there been enough numbers of jobs to absorb them. The country has always been falling short in job-creation to match the accretions in the job market.

We have to face up to this situation for a few more decades because the basic reasons, apart from other well-known ones, for rise in our numbers – birth-rate being higher than the death-rate and the fertility rate, though falling, is still higher than 2.1 – are not going to disappear in a jiffy. More importantly, the government has not been effectively tackling the illegal or legal migrations from Bangladesh and Nepal. Migrants of both these countries taken together contribute easily around 10% of our population. These apart, millions of Hindus from Pakistan have fled to this country. The partition apparently has been nullified with both Pakistan and Bangladesh, unlike India, hounding out their minorities, mostly Hindus.

One can see a tremendous social stress ahead in the areas of employment, infrastructure that is already stretched, fast depleting natural resources, inequitable income distribution and so on. All these have tremendous potential for causing social tensions resulting in inter-community and intra-community stresses disrupting the social fabric of the country adversely impacting its peace and harmony.

The alarming figure of 1.27 billion has appeared while the politicians were in the midst of a slugfest and were unlikely to react and take necessary measures. Nonetheless, the Prime Minister seems to be wisely toying with the idea of exporting skilled manpower to countries that might be in need of them. That will, however, depend on how quickly the Skills Development Mission is able to build up a substantial bank of human capital. 

Vulnerable Indian rhinos

http://www.bagchiblog.blogspot.com

Whether in South Africa or in India poaching of rhinos has assumed alarming levels. In South Africa, which has the largest population of rhinos and which is an important country for their conservation, poaching has reached a crisis point so much so that if the killings continue at the current rate, it is estimated, the species could be pushed close to extinction. In 2014 as many as 1215 rhinos were killed and the South African Department of Environment calculated that that amounted to poaching of one rhino every 8 hours.

In the African Continent poaching of what are known as Black Rhinos is not confined only to South Africa. Smaller populations in other African countries such as Namibia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Swaziland and Botswana are constantly under threat from poachers. The White Rhinos found in Republic of South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Swaziland, and Uganda are by far the most numerous (around 20,000 individuals) and yet they are under threat. And so, indeed, they are in Asia. While Jawan and Sumatran rhinos are in the list of critically endangered, in our Subcontinent, i.e in India and Nepal, rhino poaching is rampant. It was recently a cause for a spat between the Governor and Chief Minister of Assam, the state which has the largest number of Indian one-horned rhinos. The Governor was shouted down in the local legislative assembly when he read his speech prepared by the government indicating that “firm steps had been taken (by the government) for protection of wildlife”.

This was, however, not the view of the Governor.  He was so worked up about the constant reports of poaching of rhinos at the 860 square-kilometre Kaziranga National Park in the state that he asked the government to change the agency that has been engaged for their protection if it was not able to prevent poaching. Obviously, the figures of increase in the rhino numbers from 2201 in 2009 to 2544 in 2013 did not satisfy the Governor in the face of frequent reports of of poaching. He said that a small number of criminals are killing a rare and threatened animal and surprisingly the government is neither able to catch them nor protect the beasts. Soon enough five people were nabbed from a neighbouring district, one of whom was a member of the forest protection force. Clearly, poaching of rhinos or, for that matter high-value wildlife, including tigers, is largely an inside job and the forest employees’ assistance is generally extended to poachers for substantial monetary considerations.

Rhinos have been rendered vulnerable for their horns. Every time a poacher kills a rhino he decamps from the site with its horn after cruelly hacking it away. Recently a gruesome video was put up on the YouTube of a rhino that was left to bleed to death after its horn was hacked away. The horns are something which fetch very high price in the international market, supposedly, for their basically mythical curative properties. Wildlife experts have clarified that a rhino’s horn is nothing but a cluster of hair with no curative attributes. Nonetheless, the animal is being hunted down for the supposed qualities of its horn to cure anything from dandruff to cancer. The roots of the myth can be found in the guidelines of traditional Chinese Medicine which suggest that the rhino horn is a potent fever reducer, body detoxifier, a cure for hangover, an aphrodisiac and a cure for cancer. This has astronomically raised the price of the horn as the demand for it has been soaring in the international market, particularly in China, Thailand and Vietnam where a kilogram of the horn could fetch Rupees 3 to 4 million (around USD 50000). Mercifully, its demand in the Middle-East has since tapered off where the rich Arab Sheikhs used to have handles made of it for their fashionable daggers.

Kaziranga National Park, a more than a century old park, and a World Heritage Site to boot, is the largest of the Assam national parks among Manas, Pobitora and Orang parks which hosts Great One-horned rhinos in larger numbers and hence feels the pressure of poaching. It is easily accessible from the North through the River Brahmaputra as well as from the South from the Karbi Anglong hills (formerly Mikir Hills). Nepal has been somewhat successful in clamping down on poaching; hence the pressure on Kaziranga has increased manifold. Besides, it is easier to smuggle out the harvested horns from here to the markets of South-East Asia through Nagaland via Myanmar and through Arunachal Pradesh to China. While it is the Nagas who are largely the people behind poaching engaging locals, the carriers, especially to China, are women who naturally are subjected to a perfunctory border checks.

Many solutions have been and are under consideration in order to save the rhinos from being killed for their horns.  One is legalising the international rhino horn trade. There is a stockpile of horns in Africa which could be sold off to feed the current high demand which, with adequate supplies, could taper off. But then it would not be long before the demand built up again and poachers start killing rhinos. Besides, one could draw a lesson from the partially legalised ivory trade that has not been successful. In fact, more illegal ivory is passed on as legal with no strict controls for legal ivory in place. China had won approval of the Convention on Illegal Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) and yet being the biggest importer of ivory it never demonstrated adequate commitment towards ending illegal ivory trade. China is the largest importer of illegal rhino horns as well and is likely to show the same lack of commitment for controlling their illegal imports once the trade is legalised. While opinions are polarised about legalising the trade, the overwhelming view is that the step was unlikely to work.

While de-horning of rhinos is not considered the ultimate solution, the Assam government recently constituted an expert committee to consider its feasibility for checking rampant poaching of rhino. According to Sanctuary Asia, more rhinos were killed after being de-horned in Africa as even after de-horning 10% of it remains and the animal could be killed for even that. Besides, poaching in Kaziranga being a nocturnal activity, none would ever be keen to check whether the target is horned or dehorned.

Apparently, there is no solution for the problem except taking good old measures that are conventional. And that would mean intensive human checks by a substantially larger security establishment, especially for extensive and widespread parks like Kaziranga. The Assam government has already decided to raise a 1200-strong specialised Rhino Protection Force for Kaziranga. For once displaying great political will the chief minister declared the force will be aided by modern arms and fighting gear, and other modern equipment like night-vision devices, thermal scanners, surveillance cameras, GPS etc. Even use of drones for tracking poachers is being considered. While incentivising protection from poaching of rhinos and other wildlife, he announced he would persuade the National Investigation Agency to investigate cases of poaching.

If the announced measures materialise the government, perhaps, would not need to try and experiment with Black Mambas, an all female unarmed protection force engaged within the Kruger National Park for preventing poaching – as eyes and ears working like a British Bobby. Their mere presence has brought down the incidence of poaching. That, however, may not happen in India.

 Across the border the rhinos seem to be thriving in West Bengal. In Jaldapara National Park, the second biggest habitat for rhinos after Kaziranga, their number has risen to 186 - a rise of 25%. A similar trend is likely to be shown by the Gorumara National Park – a much smaller habitat – when counting takes place there. The authorities of the two parks have claimed that they had not come across any case of poaching of rhinos. Apart from the other measures that the Assam government is taking, perhaps, it needs to look at the reasons for this somewhat strange phenomenon in West Bengal.

_____________________________________________

Photo: taken by self one foggy morning in 1989 in Kaziranga National Park, Assam

Shape of things to come - in Indian Railways?

http://bagchiblog.blogspot.com

Tracks fanning out of Beijing Railway Station

A recent news item indicated that the Chinese are coming to take a look at the Indian Railways and suggest ways and means to improve it in most of its aspects. A week or two earlier a 22-member delegation headed by the Deputy Administrator of the National Railway Administration Zheng Jian held talks with the top brass of the Central Railways at Mumbai

Nose like that of an aircraft

While there are numerous other countries which have developed and modernised their respective railway systems – France and Japan to name only two – perhaps pitching on China would be the right thing to do. Thirty years ago the Chinese Railways system was no better than ours as it is today. I had had occasion to

Sleeperette  seats

see it myself in 1982. But today they have a whole network of swanky bullet trains running at 300 kms per hour. They have gone through the whole gamut of processes for lifting up standards and modernisation of the System and the work is still on. The fast paced development was aided by accumulation of huge amounts of forex reserves and an authoritarian regime. Nonetheless, in our case, too, a beginning has

Stewardesses

to be made - sooner the better. Our Railways have been milked by the politicians in our self-destructive, chaotic democracy for so long that it had actually been brought down to the edge of a precipice.

The report hoped that a MoU might be signed in this regard when the Chinese President comes to India on a visit in September next.  The photographs sent to me by a friend are also posted. One wonders whether one would be journeying on such a train in this country any time soon. Not in my lifetime anyway!

Will it be like what we see here?

Indian Railways need a makeover*

http://bagchiblog.blogspot.com

Derailment of the prestigious New Delhi- Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express the other day near Chhapra in Bihar is virtually a wake-up call for the Indian Railways and its newly appointed minister. It is not yet certain what caused the accident that reportedly took four lives. Whether it was sabotage or plain neglect and incompetence on the part of the tracks inspection staff is yet to be ascertained. Inquiries are going to be conducted but a later report said that the Intelligence Bureau had sent an alert about a Maoist threat. The area is Maoists-affected. Nonetheless, it would be premature to arrive at any conclusion.

The fact, however, remains that there have been far too many railway accidents of late. This year alone has witnessed more than half a dozen accidents which have taken many lives. If these occurred because of negligence, inadequacy of equipment due to unavailability of funds or lack of supervision or monitoring, the Railways will have to contend with them as soon as possible taking lessons from the findings of the inquiries to allocate suitable financial, human, and material resources. This is one aspect of railway accidents in India. The other is terror. Terror lurks in this country almost at every bend of the road or a railway track. It could generally be of Islamic variety or of Maoist type. Acute watchfulness is necessary to ensure that they do not harm innocents travelling in a train or wantonly destroy railway property. They are desperados ruthlessly waging war against the State. Safety, therefore, has become an issue of prime importance for the travelling public and the Railways will have to see their way through to provide it.

We run a big railway system, the fourth largest if one goes by track-kilometres. But that is about all. It has only marginally improved since the British left and the erstwhile railway companies were amalgamated into one monolith of Indian Railways. Although considered the lifeline of the nation we failed to take railway transport to a higher level efficiency as some others in Asia, especially China and Japan, have done. We have always suffered from resource constraints. For the last decade or so the populist budgets with no fare hikes in the face of rising costs of inputs, particularly formulated by regional politicians who happened to be at helm, have worsened the situation.  Working only to nurse their respective constituencies and handing out freebies to different sections of the privileged, they neglected the railway finances and allowed them to go to seed.

Indians are, therefore, unused to face railway fare hikes for quite some years. No wonder there have been mass demonstrations against the recent hike announced by the new Railway Minister – a virtual necessity to avoid complete “operational and financial collapse”. The Opposition, the Congress party, is crying hoarse about it but its protests, as in many cases, are hypocritical. The hike in the fares was approved by the last Prime Minister but his minister was not man enough to implement it. That is precisely why one tends to think that the Congress never worked for betterment of the country; it only worked for votes.

With the Rajdhani accident questions are, therefore, justifiably being asked whether the fare hike would make railway travels safe. While no such guarantee can ever be extended but the Railways have to give a serious look within to diagnose what it really ails from. It has to look at the issues of repair, renewal and upgrades in every aspect of its functioning that have remained unattended for a long, long time. We had got a head start at the time of Independence when Japan was recovering from the battering of the World War II and China was in the midst of a revolution. And, yet in the 67 intervening years they have stolen not a, but several marches on us, especially in the field of development of railways and taking them to heights that we will take years to scale. Nevertheless, efforts have to be made and these cannot, certainly, be populist.

The Indian railways need enormous amounts of attention, upgrades and finances. All cannot be attended to at once. One feels that it needs to prioritise and start working on things that presently hurt the most. Everyone is talking about its collapsing finances. Like the Union Government, it, too, has to start economising. Last year Pawan Kumar Bansal, the Minister for Railways had announced (DNA 26-02-2013) that as the organisation was staring at a loss of 24000 crores “austerity and economy” would be practised rigorously. No such effort, however, ever hit the headlines. No effort was made to cut down and/or improve the productivity of its 15 lakh personnel and no effort was made to restrict the numbers of freeloaders who travel without paying a pie. Every budget virtually has seen their ranks getting enlarged. One can imagine the losses to the Railways if 15 lakh employees and an equal number of pensioners travel free of cost on it every year. Privy purses of the princes were abolished forty years ago but the erstwhile railway companies’ legacy of free travel for railway employees, even post-retirement, continues till today. Is there any logic?

 Then, every budget has seen introduction/extension of trains. Even Bansal, after talking of austerity introduced 67 new express trains and 27 passenger trains. Whether necessary traffic surveys were conducted for all of them is not known. From what happened with the Bhopal-Indore double-decker train which, on introduction, was starved of passengers and is yet to find a viable route to ply on, one would not be sure. Conserving and optimal utilisation of the available resources should be the watchword.

Today, with several accidents in the recent past safety in the railway system has acquired prime importance. There are two sources of threats – internal and external. One is from within the railways because of failure or ageing of equipment, carelessness, lack of commitment of workers and lack of modernisation. Comparatively, the US and China have recorded far lesser numbers of accidents than India. If and when the high speed trains become a reality safety on Indian railways will have to measure up to the ultimate standard. The other source, the external one, will have to be taken care of by utmost vigilance not only by the railways’ own inspection and security establishments but also by other available internal security forces. The elimination of terror on the tracks is necessary.

The internal governance of the railways will have to be tightened since that has direct fallout on passengers’ facilities and conveniences. It cannot remain untouched by the ‘Modi effect’ that has overtaken the Centre which has perked up its offices, breathing new life into them. Sanitation, hygiene and other sundry facilities including punctuality, as indeed the technology currently used, need to be enormously upgraded.

The Indian Railways need a change in its profile.

*The blog was written before the Railways budget was announed

Photo:From the Internet

Priyanka Gandhi's "ideological war"

http://bagchiblog.blogspot.com

The campaigns for the ongoing elections have since become too shrill, acrimonious and bitter for ordinary citizens to stomach. Allegations, insinuations, innuendoes, et al, have been flying thick and fast between the two major contending political parties, the Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In the process, a war has broken out among the members of the “first family” of the Congress. Priyanka Vadra, the daughter of Sonia Gandhi, the first lady of the Congress, happened to say, seemingly quite needlessly, that her cousin, Varun Gandhi son of her uncle Sanjay Gandhi, had gone “astray” and “betrayed the family”, presumably because of opting to be in the BJP, the party which is fighting the Congress led by her mother. Varun did not reciprocate the ‘compliment’ but said that the decency displayed in not doing so should not be taken as his “weakness”. This led to a further spirited attack by Priyanka. She said it was an “ideological war” and not “a family tea party” and, presumably, attempted to convey that such an attack was par for the course.

Although Priyanka did not elaborate what she meant by “ideological war”, one presumes, the term used embeds the age old semantic difference between the two political parties on what are generally reckoned as “secularism” and “communalism”. Come elections and these two words get bandied around by all and sundry; those aligning with Congress calling themselves “secular” and condemning the BJP and its supporters as “communal”. One has been hearing these two words with such frequency that it is now sickening to hear them knowing, as one does, that neither the Congress is truly secular nor the BJP wholly communal. The Congress now goes on to claim that it alone can protect the unity of the country because of its “secular” credentials whereas the BJP practices divisive policies on the basis of religion. Thus the claim is while communal BJP divides people, the secular Congress acts as a unifying force.

Before examining the claims of the Congress it would, perhaps, be worthwhile to see what exactly is meant by “secularism”. Secularism as it is understood in the West generally means separation of government institutions and officials from religious institutions and religious functionaries. The state is thus neutral in matters that are religious, leaving people to their own geniuses to decide for themselves in matters relating to their faith. Again, secularism entails public activities and decisions have to remain uninfluenced by religious beliefs and practices.

 The situation in India, however, is quite different from Western “secularism”. While India has no state religion its constitution requires equal treatment of all religions and religious groups. In so far as laws are concerned, though the Constitution required it under the Directive Principles of State Policy, the State has so far been unable to formulate and prescribe a “Uniform Civil Code” applicable to all citizens regardless of their religious beliefs or faith. Personal Laws, therefore, take precedence when in conflict with the laws enacted by the Parliament or state legislatures. Hence, while all religious groups like Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, etc. are governed by inherited or enacted civil and criminal laws, only Muslims are governed by Sharia-based Muslim Personal Law. 

Thus, despite being in conflict with the laws in existence to the contrary, the State recognises child-marriages, polygamy, extra-judicial divorces and unequal laws of inheritance among Muslims. To that extent the Indian State is not secular though declared a “Secular Republic” by an amendment of the Constitution in 1976 as it discriminates in the vital matter of applicability of laws to the Muslim community as against all others. The Constitution was largely framed by Congressmen and the Congress, therefore, cannot really claim to be the repository of all secular virtues.

This is further corroborated by several subsequent political developments. Since the very first General Elections the Congress looked at the Muslim community as a “vote bank”, a term that later got wide currency. Many political analysts have gone to the extent of even suggesting that the Congress did not want transfer of population at the time of the Partition as it knew it could use the remaining Muslim population as a secure source of support. That may or may not be true but whenever a Congress government was cornered by Muslims and their clergy it succumbed to their pressures. Shah Bano’s case, among many others, is an example where the government of Rajiv Gandhi, Priyanka’s father, enacted a law to nullify a reasonable Apex Court verdict only to deny alimony to a divorced Muslim wife of 44 years under the Muslim Personal Law. In plain language, it was the State that intervened to allow continuance of discriminatory practices against Muslim women.

Almost at every election the Congressmen went out to woo the Muslims. It would approach the Muslim Clergy, especially Shahi Imam of Delhi Jama Masjid who would issue his fiat to all Muslims to vote for it. Not long ago the Congress-led UPA government had mooted a proposal to carve out a Muslim quota of 5% from 27% reservations applicable to Other Backward Castes. It also attempted a census of Muslims in the defence forces. During the current election campaign Sonia Gandhi went to a mosque to talk to Muslim voters without ever trying to do likewise with the voters of other communities. Quite apparently, the secular claim of the Congress is a big fraud on the people. One wonders how Priyanka missed it, seemingly, more intelligent than her brother as she appears to be.

The Congress alleges BJP of “Communalism”, one of the definitions of which is strong allegiance to one’s ethnic group rather than to society. If one looks at BJP it would seem to snugly fit the definition. It, without being hypocritical, wears its affiliation with Hindu religion on its sleeves. Deviating from the definition, it, however, claims that it owes allegiance to the entire Indian society. Its current main protagonist, Narendra Modi, while asserting that he observes Hindu religion and its traditions, has affirmed his respect for all other religions and their traditions. He also declared recently that he would not be asking for votes on the basis of religion. His assertions would seem to be true as during his 12-year rule in Gujarat not a single communal riot between Hindus and Muslims has taken place.

 Harping on 2002 Gujarat riots, the Congress has used several vicious epithets for him – from “merchant of death” to “killer with blood-soaked hands”, “liar” and so on. In fact, while Modi has been cleared of all charges by the Apex Court-appointed investigators for the 2002 riots, the Congress’s memory lapses in respect of yesteryears when under its long rule in Gujarat Hindu-Muslim riots took place almost every other year. Curiously, its blinkered vision does not allow it to see the Godhra massacre of Hindus which precipitated the 2002 riots. It also does not acknowledge its failure to control the 1984 Sikh killings in Delhi.

Understandably, in electoral fights accusations and counter-accusations are common. But, regardless of what Priyanka and her Congress Party say, voters need to know that none of those in the fray is either really “secular” or entirely “communal”. The voters have to choose only those who are capable of delivering a better life to them.

Photo from the Internet

Indian Elections: Modi gains from Ayer's faux pas

http://bagchiblog.blogspot.com

By being undiplomatic in his language in a talk he delivered at a recent All India Congress Committee session Mani Shankar Ayer, a Cambridge graduate, a former career diplomat and a Tamil Brahmin to boot brought chai (tea) back into politics. Ayer promised to the gathering that the BJP PM candidate Narendra Modi would never become prime minister of the country in the 21^st Century. And, he went on to add, “But if he wants to distribute tea here, we will find a place for him."

The reference was to Modi’s background. A family of modest means belonging to Other Backward Castes (OBC), his father used to run an ordinary tea stall and Modi in his childhood used to carry tea in a kettle to the Vadnagar Railway Station in Gujarat to serve it to passengers as the trains steamed in. This was mocking the socio-

Chai pe charcha

economic background of an opposition candidate at its worst. Ours is a civilised country and none ordinarily would mock the lowly origin of a candidate. But Mani Shankar Ayer is different. Born with a silver spoon, having had the best of education in India and abroad and having worked as a diplomat even in most dangerous of places like Pakistan he had no qualms about making such an undiplomatic, insensitive, arrogant,  scornful and contemptuous statement. No wonder, he was roundly criticised by all right-thinking people and even the Congress Party distanced itself from the statement. The Congress Vice President, the Gandhi scion, even expressed unhappiness about it at a public meeting.

Ayer’s stupid jibe at Modi boomeranged with an uncanny force and the Congress was put on the back foot. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party was quick to make use of the deprecatory comment and capitalise on it and derived miles of advantage from it. Hundreds of Modi or “NaMo” (short for Narendra Modi) Tea Stalls came up in the country with photographs of Modi on their signboards. People

flocked to these tea stalls as much for showing support for him as for fun. In the rural towns and settlements these became centres of attraction and people would visit them for taking a hot cup of sugary overly boiled tea and indulge in some spicy political gossip. Not only indicative of the extent of support for the Party and for Modi, these stalls became an embarrassment for the ruling Party and its aspirants who were in the electoral fray.

This was not all. BJP organised what came to be known as “chai pe charcha” (discussions over tea) at many tea stalls and ordinary, no-frills restaurants. The idea rapidly caught on and “chai pe charcha” spread virtually all over the country. Even Modi participated in these discussions. One such “charcha” was held in Rajasthan that had 67 locations in the state connected with video links for question-and-answer session - a kind of teleconferencing. It became a perfect vehicle for public-connect for the BJP, striking the right chord with the people. Modi appeared on giant screens fitted in

several tea stalls and was connected live with the people and entered into public discourses with them expanding his views on several vital issues, such as empowerment of women. In an event organised in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, relayed live at around 1000 tea stalls Modi appeared on huge screens with a cup of tea in hand answering questions and expatiating on accountability in governance. These events got favourable responses from the press in the country as well as abroad. The Washington Post and the New York Times covered them and the French press made an unkind cut on Ayer by saying that in today’s world arrogance born out of lineage is a distinct disadvantage. Not to be left behind, the media houses too sent their news anchors to restaurants to discuss and ascertain the views of young voters on the main contenders.

While Ayer, with his expression of disdain for Modi, handed on a platter to the latter a vehicle for electoral propaganda, he, perhaps, unwittingly brought “tea” back into reckoning in politics. Tea has for long been associated with politics and to trace that one has to

Artists impression of tea caes being dumped into the sea

travel more than a couple of centuries back in time. Resistance against Britain’s power to tax colonies in America as evidenced by the Tea Act of 1773 gave birth to the Boston Tea Party, inducing a wave of resistance throughout the colonies against tax imposed on tea by the British Parliament. The Act also had its origin in Parliament’s effort to rescue the financially weakened East India Company, a victim of smuggling into America of cheaper Dutch tea, so as to continue benefiting from the company’s valuable position in India.

The hard-line taken by the British Government against the protesters known as Colonists, also called Whigs and sometimes Sons of Liberty, to emphasise the authority of the Mother Government to impose taxes on people in the colonies despite being unrepresented in the British Parliament gave rise to the movement for rejecting the tea that used to be imported from England. In May 1773 the Colonists, disguised as American Mohawk Indians, entered the ship berthed at Boston ferrying tea from India via

Add caption

Britain and dumped the entire consignment into the sea. It signified culmination of resistance against the Tea Act in the entire British America. The stiff resistance against Britain’s rigid and uncompromising attitude bore the seeds of the American Revolution and eventually became the precursor of the American War of Independence.

Much later, in our own times, as late as 2009, once again we heard of The Tea Party protests. The iconic events of 1773 have been used on several occasions to describe anti-tax movements as “Tea Party” movements. But the Tea Party protests of the last decade were ones that were mostly of fiscally conservative and socio-political nature that engulfed the United States. The protests were against several federal laws that were perceived to have sought to enlarge the sphere of influence of the Federal Government. These were coordinated throughout the nation with a libertarian philosophy against what the members of the Tea Party believed to be attempts of President Obama to create a “Big Government” that they thought would tread on people’s liberty. Some of them even later went so far as to call him a “Lefty”. The Tea Party came to wield such power that it had an official nominee of the Republican Party defeated in the 2010 Congressional elections for he was not enough of a libertarian.

There has also been unlikely fallout of Ayer’s off-hand and arrogant dig at Modi. Looking at the reaction and the support Modi received other candidates from the same caste-group or deprived sections shed their diffidence and broadcast their humble origins. Thus “Paanwalas” and “Chawlwallas” came out in the open seeking voters’ support, a phenomenon (though not quite a schism yet) that was unfortunately born out of Ayer’s derisive remark.

Photos: From the Internet