Revisiting the JanLokpal debate

For some organizational purposes, friends and myself from ITEC visited Justice Santosh Hegde, former Lokayukta and a core committee member in the "Team Anna", and I was looking forward to meet him in person after all the initial genuine work he did, and the intrigue grew subsequently after the media portrayed him as the lone anti-corruption crusader.

Warm, humble and sensible are the words adequate to define him.

During the course of our discussion, as I was hoping, the discussion did get routed into the Janlokpal debate.

If some of you have been closely watching the Janlokpal (the debate about the bill, not the TV drama!), the points of contention were about who would be brought into the ambit of the bill. And the media was chewing the cud over and over again about the PM being brought into the ambit of the bill. While more saner heads around were asking everyone else to look at the obvious miscreants, and pull the corporates and now the latest threats NGO's into the bill.

But, the media and NGO's both are run by the Corporatocracy, as is most of the Government itself. And the media has hushed up about these two aspects.

While I was certainly endorsing the idea of bringing the corporates and NGO's into the ambit of the bill, I had presumed that Mr.Santosh Hegde would have adhered only to bringing the PM into the bill (my ignorance), and making it 'stronger'. While we were more on making it 'stronger' and 'sharper'.

It came as a surprise today: The first thing he spoke about while discussing the Janlokpal bill was the fraudulence associated with majority of the NGO's, and how myopic the bill was without bringing in the Corporates into the bill.

His frustration about the NGO's and their parasitic nature of thriving on the misery of others was a lot more sensible than whatever TV appearances he's been making. The venting out against the Corporates with all the work that he's been doing is something that few people have given heed to.

It is intriguing to see how we are all made to believe that the real villain is our saviour.  That is, talking about the role of corporates, who are pretending to be
the nice guys, and acting as if they were the ones who could abolish
poverty (ex, recently the Coca Cola -NDTV school campaign!)...
Irony in the first place is that, it is because of such profit seeking monopolies, that the disparity globe across has grown to this extent.

Bottomline: Corporates need to be brought into the Janlokpal bill, if ever it is going to be implemented.

Confessions of an Economic Hitman

Reading this autobiographical, tell-all book by John Perkins seemed surreal.
I am not someone who is very naive about manipulations; I would at least be able to discern between genuine attempts of foreign support, with those of attempts towards hegemonic domination, better than a lot many of us who are blinded and fooled by the corporate media.

But, this detailed reporting from an insider sends shivers down my spine.

A "superpower", pushing beyond the realms of being anything but ethical in order to dominate countries under its vindicative goverment, run by selfish, greed mongers in the background is hard to believe. The USA with its ancient Manifest Destiny and other crap, now has accomplished an indomitable position, where it has the say about anything and everything about every country.

While even countries like India (ironically the largest democracy in the world) is far from being soveriegn, as revealed in the recent WikiLeaks cables, where a cabinet reshuffle in Indian Ministers portfolio was instigated by the lobbyisits of US. When such is the case with the largest democracy, other countries in the middle east, African continent and Latin America, except for a 'few nations' are all entangled in this web unleashed by the aspirations of one country in its distopian dreams of a global empire with a "free" world market, based on exploitation of the majority for the benefits of a small minority, increasing the disparity ruthlessly at a global scale, including amongst its own people.

Instiutions such as the IMF, World Bank and even the UN have evolved to become primary tools used by this superpower and its allies to arm twist countries retaliating against the submissive nature of their hegemony.

This book gives a scintillating account of all the dirty tricks, evil ploys and inhumane nature of functioning of the system as it is today.

Defying the system when it is this hostile is the most natural response anyone who recognizes this hostility would end up doing. But, the efficacy of this system has been its subtle and orchestrated perpetration which keeps all of this hostility hidden from us.

That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system, and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.
Something on the lines of what Morpheus says to Neo in The Matrix, is the current state of the world.

Nonetheless, this ain't no movie - People are dying, countries are getting impoverished and future is getting bleaker. We are all part of this megaplan of hegemony and exploitation,both by getting exploited and exploiting at various levels.

Defy and change!
We need to change it to a different world: A world as we dream of it, as John perkins puts it in the book.
Now what is the dream of the world we wish to live in is upto each individual to choose upon.

Fast Forwarding India: Anna and Baba way!

If I were one of the high TRP media channel ( almost all the hundreds are in fact of high TRP!), who feeds junk to people, at this moment I would be gleaming at my own fortune! Drama, action, emotion, music, and even some Indian acrobatics ( yoga) in impeccably packaged episodes running to full houses for quite sometime now.

By the way, if there's anyone apart from me, who's also finding it difficult to relate to the time period we actually are living in, given the course of events unfolding, here's a reminder: It certainly is the 21st Century, after the age of Communications, well into the age of Information and Technology.  And in this time frame, we are witnessing some of the greatest regressive approaches to revive India, by Fast Forwarding her: : Anna and Baba way,

Corruption is not something new to India, or to any society for that matter. The sudden surge, a giant leap forward in the scale of corruption is what has come to the notice of the civil society off late. Thanks to some loyal Govt. officials like the Lokayukta and a specific Gandhian to have had it echoed throughout the country, which otherwise is comfortably dormant, highly middle classed society.

Looking back, before a couple of months during the Anna phenomenon, almost all of the tax paying, middle class citizens were poised together with Anna Hazare to put a full stop to corruption in India by tweeting, facebooking, reading the bill draft, participating in meetups and discussing out of desperation the pros and cons of an inherently flawed approach towards tackling corruption.
This entire fuss about eradicating corruption and the antidote in the form of another parallel bureaucratic system called the "Jan Lokpal", which has been under way is, if at all implemented going to be a superficial medication for a deep rooted problem in a severely wounded system.

The entire polity and economics of the system must be resuscitated and revived to see any hope of betterment.

Without delving into this repetitive argument on my blog, let us look at the situation at hand.
A Yoga Guru, who is left out of the Drafting Panel of the LokPal committee for obvious reasons, decides to redo the exercise of emancipating the country within a couple of months after the hysterical Anna Hazare movement. He is doing it again because.... I'm not really sure! Maybe the Lokpal committee didn't want to incorporate his ingenious demands to curb corruption. Demands like capital punishment for the corrupt, demonetizing Rs.500/- and Rs.1000/ currency notes, and the Prime Minister being directly  elected by the people, which apart from being unviable are simply ridiculous.

With other demands like undoing Indian black money in foreign banks, Ramdev had hit the chord of double standards: While he has declared his own assets which reach upto Rs. 1000 crores and Islands as property (with suspicion on the sources) he seeks an anti-corruption campaign!

Like the Congress is now branding Ramdev as a thug, he is at the first place unfit to call for a campaign for a cause of this nature. I might even tend to pardon him, but not the gullibles who went behind him, including the UPA Govt. Imagine the spite of the Government,when it sends four of its ministers to negotiate with a thuggish Baba who threatens to go on a fast along with his followers.

Now, when the police in a surprise action has shaken up the India Fast Forward program by the Baba, in an agreeably undemocratic manner, they have made an unnecessary Hero out of a thug. I can only hope not for all the drama that is going to unfold in the bleaky days to come.

And the BJP with their saffron connection with Ramdev and his act, would be more than happy to lift off from the "Ramlila Maidan atrocity" directly to power. They have already started comparing the incident to JalianWala Bagh massacre of 1919 and PM and Sonia Gandhi to General Dyer!

Where has all the sense in this country vanished!

I only can hope that there aren't anymore Fast dramas,and people concentrate on the real issues which are giving rise to these high levels of corruption and injustices.

Corruption and Price rise: Campaign by Samudaaya

After two weeks of Jaathas across Karnataka, both the Samudaaya teams converged in Bangalore on the 28th of May, 2011 for the culmination of the event.

“What we want to do is: Sensitize creative people to use their creativity as a means of expression to take up issues of social importance and reach out to the masses”, says Surendra, General Secretary of Samudaaya, the cultural troupe in Karnataka that has been on a state wide touring called Jaatha. In this Jaatha, Samudaaya is reaching out to the rural masses, increasing the awareness about corruption, price rise and their causes.

Samsa Open Theatre is where the final Jaatha happened in Bangalore. This Jaatha  was presided over by some of the eminent anti-corruption activists and progressive thinkers in Karnataka.
Justice Santosh Hegde, Lokayukta of Karnataka, who is currently at the end of his term is one of the recent officials who has striven hard, given the restrictions and limitations imposed on him to make impact on the corruption scene in Karnataka. If not systemic changes, he has been an instigator for the ever dormant middle class to at least shake off the frost and voice some opinions against corruption.

In his speech during the Bangalore Jaatha, a witty point made by him about the Prime Minister does hold good. Justice Santosh Hegde compared the self proclaimed helplessness of the Prime Minister with that of the elders who witnessed in silence the act of harassing Draupadi in the mythological Mahabharata. Justice Santosh Hegde also picked on the famous statement by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about the “Zero tolerance for corruption”, which according to Mr.Hegde should be interpreted as the “Tolerance towards the number of zeroes being appended to the figures of the scams”. He urged the citizens to dispel corrupt politicians, without endorsing them over and over again with all their glorified flaws. He appreciated the efforts taken up by Samudaaya, of educating the masses, which according to him is the most important step in the fight corruption.

K Maralusiddapaa, former chairman of the Karnataka Nataka Academy went ballistic against the Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization phenomenon in the past two decades. He equated this process to be a morphed means of nothing but exploitation. Exploitation of developing and the third world countries by the developed ones, and in turn internal exploitation of the weaker sections by the powerful people. He also raised doubts about the Anna Hazare movement, and he warned the supporters to be cautious of the other organizations which are clinging on to Anna Hazare, apprehending it would become another JP Movement. KMS again appreciated the efforts by Samudaaya at the grass root level amongst the rural population and the urban youth.

T N Sitaram, famous small screen director, took on the aspect of increasing disparity and the lifestlye of the capitalist barons, calling them unethical and inhumane. In order to convey the point that elections are won only when the candidates are rich and powerful, he went on to say that even Mohandas Gandhi would not have got a seat in any of the major parties in Karnataka, and likewise at the centre.

Professor GK Govindarao, expressed his anguish against the “common man”, who is complacent and doesn't bother to question the system beyond superficial discussions at home. He also expressed his deep dissent against the media for their charlatanry in the way they make and feed news to people. His rest of the talk comprised of blatantly spilling out facts agaisnt the BJP governance in Gujarat and Karnataka.

In all, the speakers were in unison in their ideals agaisnt Corruption and price-rise, with each one of them urging the common man to dive into the cleansing process.

As an addendum to the Samudaaya campaign, a recent development in the campaign against corruption : Wikileaks was proposed by Senthil, from the Free Software Movement-Karnataka, wherein he touched upon the need for publishers such as Wikileaks, by using instances of RTI activists and whistleblower deaths in India.He urged the gathered supporters to also endorse this latest means to fight against injustice.

The final speech was impeccably presented by Mr.Hudugi, who is the Secretary of Samudaaya. He briefed about the Jaathas. Mr.Hudugi arrived upon the proactive nature and strong conviction of individual citizens to fight against injustices which ultimately lead to consequences such as corruption and price-rise.

While all these talks were in progress, interleaved with the talks were a few excellently written and sublimely rendered protest songs which were sung throughout the Jaathas. Finally, the Maalur Samudaaya team put up a play, an adapted version of the famous “Vikram and Bethal” fiction story to match the agenda of the Corruption and Price-Rise.

The message this Jaatha has left behind is that we need to shake off the frost and get into action against injustices. No more should we bear atrocities such as corruption and price-rise. A movement from the grass root level should compel systemic changes for the good of the society.

More on Samudaaya and the Jaatha : http://samudaaya.wordpress.com/

Corruption: The Opium of today's masses

It has been overwhelming for the past four days here in India, with the Anti Corruption anguish of the people taking shape in the form of a nation wide Gandhian style hunger strike, protests,extensive discussions and substantial involvement of 'the common man' in India.

The Jan Lokpal bill which has been endorsed by the entire country ( well, at least the majority of them) as the solution against corruption, that has gotten deep rooted into the system was the driving cause for this national agitation . The Government now obliging to frame this bill which would include 50% of the committee ombudsmen from the civil society, while the other 50% as appointed by the Government, this team will be looking into the the nation's scams-convict the guilty and reclaim all the losses to the country in terms of revenue. Although the draft is in circulation, the final version will be drafted in some time, which will be looked into by the Union Law Minister, and the other ombudsmen: Most important of them being Anna Hazare, the social activist who was the nodal point and instigator of this ad-hoc (soft) revolution.

"Cynicism has now turned into optimism", said one news reporter.
True. 'A don't care attitude' to, 'We care' is a great improvement.

Lot of arguments have been flying between my friends and myself about the impact of this entire hysteria, which I am so tempted to call a 'Soft Revolution', (by the way, that's not the Free Soft Revolution I'm talking about); Soft as in fluffy.  Well, I was and am in full support of this campaign against corruption, but when I observe people bluntly believing that this bill could eradicate corruption is I must say : absurd.

Corruption is a consequence, not the cause.
We are talking about corruption, which is the culmination of all the loopholes in the Democratic System in Independent India for 63 years. It is a ramification of multi-layered flaws in the governance of the country, and corruption is only the most visible manifestation of it. Trying to tackle only the most visible symptom is analogous to treating blood cancer by bleaching just the skin!

Old habits die hard
A bill like the Jan Lokpal, unless implemented and its pragmatism is not tested out, the hype around it is only an exaggeration. Unless the system is not restructured to avoid the voids which gestate corruption, bills such as this one might have impact, but not all the necessary impact.
Something is better than nothing, doesn't quite set well in this context.

Mass hysteria
The post caption reads "Corruption:The Opium of today's masses", and the statement is not a speculation, but articulation of the already witnessed manifestation. I have been part of a mass movement that raises its voice for multiple causes, and if there's one 'cause' which rings bells and pulls out people from their lousy lives to the streets is Corruption. Why only Corruption is a pretty much straight forward analysis, and hence it is the Opium.

My big concern through out this Anna Hazare week has been that people will settle after the Government agrees to draft the bill. People will go into hibernation, if not, will already feel that their national duty for their generation has been done and their quota of patriotism has been shown. My skepticism about this bill has been interpreted as cynicism, which  I actually don't bother to distinguish about. What does matter is sustaining this urge to better the nation, not only by fighting for a bill, but to stand adamant and change the nation's will.

This is not the end people; Let this nationalism be a consistent one, and let it perpetuate; There's little that has been done, and there's lot more to do!

Collateral Damage: The State and the Centre duo

First a recap of the proceedings in India, with some points specific to Karnataka:

• The overall inflation has hit 8.8 %, with food inflation at about 17 %; While the Central Govt is attributing this anomaly to be symptoms of growth, i.e, necessary for increasing the GDP, citizens are the ones who have fallen prey to this firestorm. [ A recent central govt report recognizes that 70 % of the population survives on Rs.20/day] So, where is the growth?
• Since the deregulation of  fuel prices in India ( i.e., variations in fuel prices would be in synchronism with the International market, without much intervention from the Govt.), there has been a sharp increase of about 20% within a span of less than an year.
• Central Govt.'s hush-hush methodology (or inaction?) until now, towards the speculated 1.5 Billion USD worth of tax evaded Indian money in the Swiss Bank accounts, is also a matter of grave concern.
• Showers of other scams, which fancy themselves, unashamedly with dizzying figures attached to them.   India shining? Yes, very much.  The bars are set high this time: Prerequisite for any scam to hit the media and make news has become about 100 crore Rs; anything less than that is not even covered by the media!
• Continuing increase in farmer suicides, and their rate of retrition from farming have aggravated the already ineffective agricultural system in India
• The State Govt here in Karnataka has been busy dodging the allegations and corruption charges against it. So, it has least bothered about the perilous state the citizens are being pushed into.
• And as one of my friends had pointed out, there is not even a pretense about citizen welfare amongst the State legislators these days, and are busily 'flinging mud' (media phrase!) at each other
• A state sponsored and imposed Bandh today, to protest the Governor's grant to prosecute the CM, according to the ruling party was to be observed as 'Indication of people's support to the CM'! If Public transport is shut off, and commercial establishments forcefully closed it can only increase the anguish against these morons of Nth order. 

While these and more chronicles of the pathetic Governance are getting ever ubiquitous, we the citizens are 'Silently witnessing the grand Spectacle'!

By the way, do we still have an independent judiciary? Or, is Judiciary the next addendum to list of terms that are limited only to the text books, joining the list of these attributes: 

Sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic! 

This is what the Constitution promised India to be, and where do we stand today? Who is to be held responsible? Why has the system gotten this rotten? Who is the culprit?

I cannot propose a pragmatic solution at this juncture, but can clearly see each of us being responsible for this pathetic state of affairs. No salvation would be feasible from this mess, without the active and activated participation of each one of us.

BPL India vs IPL India!

The post caption gives a deep, contemporary insight into the ever growing disparity in India.
BPL (Below Poverty Line) population in India is a massive section of it, and while most of the real BPL remain left out in the Government's segregation. There is also the never-ending controversies surrounding the criteria and benefits availed to this section  of the population. Nevertheless, what one needs to absorb out of the term BPL in India is that, a major portion (a conservative figure of at least 30%) of the country's population is not in a position to afford basic food, shelter, health and education, while there is another extreme section of the population that is well and far beyond this population, who are oblivious of the BPL.
A statistic would accentuate this disparity: Just 52 individual Indian citizens own assets that is worth 25% of the entire nation's annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Further, when the democracy is tending towards anarchy, the media does well by catalytically euphemising this transformation.
The 'breaking news' for the past two days on all popular media enterprises, which have forcibly invaded into our lives, is that Player X has been sold in a fearsome bid, or that Player Y has gone unsold in the shameless IPL bidding. All of a sudden, the chaos surrounding the scams (~ status quo?) seems to have mellowed down. The media has temporarily forgotten about them, and will revive them when their TRP hint going downwards. Off late, I haven't been able to contain my frustration against the highfalutin media. But, then I realize it is just a ramification of a peril that is deep rooted into our systems.

The arguments and ideas pertaining to changing India have been happening for long. Corruption has become systematized, as in, the system provides for immense opportunities of embezzlement, nepotism, and other 'rich varieties' of corruption, inviting the great scamsters to eat the country from within.
At this juncture, one sigh of worry by an important Indian is worth mentioning:
"India can ill-afford crony capitalism..."
Dr.Manmohan Singh,Prime Minister of India

When the disparity is accelerating, corruption is rotting the country from within, there should be a lot that each of us can do to nullify these perils.

The Corruption Saaku Campaign - Bengaluru

Bengaluru is witnessing one of the peak periods of protests and campaigns as a result of the reckless attitude of the Government ,here in Karnataka by the BJP, and then at the Centre by the UPA-2.

While Karnataka is being branded the 'Most Corrupt state of India', from being the 'Haven for IT and development', Citizens seem to have finally started bothering about it beyond their coffee discussions and newspaper reads.

Manifesting their concern today, a whole bunch of e-networked tax-paying professionals, students from a set of colleges, few NGO's and the organizers together held the "Corruption Saaku Campaign", as a part of the National Campaign Against Corruption.

I came across this initiative in a mailing list, and was following up their developments for the past week.
Today, I did participate in the Corruption Saaku Campaign to voice my opinion, and more so to see what solutions were being churned and presented in this initiative.

The turn out was really good: There were about 400-500 of us, and the Walk from Kanteerva Stadium to Shantinagar Grounds did make the rest of the public attend to. The T-shirts, posters, stickers, handouts, slogans and banners did convey the intentions of the rally in an attractive manner. The walk lasted about an hour, and at the end of it all of us gathered at the Shantinagar Grounds. I was more keen on the propositions that would be presented at the venue by the Organizers of this event, to get insight into the future actions.

Before analyzing the objectives and measures, and their feasibility presented here, it would be of interest to analyze the variety of people gathered for this campaign.
As mentioned earlier, major portion of it were tax-paying professionals and students, with a few activists from the various NGO's organizing this event. It definitely did not represent all the sections of people who are being affected by this "Multi-headed and tentacled demon called Corruption", as put by one of the participants.
Given that this is the start of a prospective mass movement as portrayed by everyone, it would have been appropriate to include people from all sections of the society. As for today's proceedings, I see no initiatives on those lines happening.

Further, the course of actions, future objectives, which are of more import did end up disappointing me.
The speakers were hinting at empowering the vigilance institutions, increasing the powers of Lokayukta, citizens abstaining from giving bribes, and other measures which I believe would only act at the superficial level. There were no clear measures discussed as to how the "Rotten system"could be cleansed.
It appears that the inherent flaws in the system which invite Corruption to breed would be left untouched,  as a temporary solution the weeds would be chopped off only from the surface.

And no agenda or course of actions were presented which would guide this movement to grow and take a better shape in future.

I am not complaining about the efforts put today. These were genuine enough, but without the long term vision of eradicating a deep rooted parasite like Corruption entirely, it wouldn't bring about any real and permanent change in the system. Attempts to tackle such perils from the surface will only give temporary solace and will be infested again.

All the passion shown today by the concerned citizens should be enveloped together, bringing together people from all sections of the society.
They must be guided with a vision to cleanse the system from its roots. That is when protests, campaigns and attempts to bring about movements such as today's can sustain, and, at the least embark upon the path of salvaging people from the current hostile conditions of the society.