The dying lakes of Bangalore…

This blogger was part of a workshop “Urban Lakes and Bird Life” conducted by Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation Centre (WRRC) under the able guidance of Dr. Subramanya Sastry (popularly Subbu). We went to five lakes in the city, each a case study, exploring different aspects of threat and challenge that lake in Bangalore faces (indeed it is true and applicable for any burgeoning urban settlements across the world). Before I get into the trip -the learnings and observations, let me quote Justice Mr. N. K. Patil who headed the committee constituted by Karnataka High Court to examine the ground realities and prepare an Action Plan for preservation of lakes in the city of Bangalore…

“Bangalore is on a course of rapid expansion, transforming itself from a metro to a Mega city. During this process, the worst hit (sector) is the lakes of the region, which are put to misuse, threatening the water security, ecology and environment of the region. The estimated population of Bangalore by the year 2020 would be around 120 lakhs (12 million) and it demands a very proactive regulation, planning and execution system in place, to face the challenges of water scarcity and to keep the City habitable”

We were thirty odd people packed in two mini buses skirting around the length and breadth of the city, what began at 6.30 in the morning ended at 6pm. Must say it was an eye opener in many ways. Our first stop was Kasavanahalli Lake that is on the southern outskirt of the city. Almost a jungle but not for long as one see frantic construction around the lake. We treaded the bushy embankment (omg! it’s the same old lantanas!) keeping an eye for diversity of species, try spotting skills and gain some standing within the motley crowd, while the uninitiated (fortunate ones, I would say) utilized the occasion trying to know one another and exchange admiration for fancy cameras many brandish. I must point here to one Deepa Mohan, an active lady who was terrific with butterflies and moths. Subbu is a treasure trove, knowledge immense and passion infectious. The intention to visit this lake was to point out pre urban intervention state of lakes. Though the lake looks pristine, the bird population has come down drastically in recent times. There are signs of sewage, invading species changing the ecology of the lake. First signs are shown by foreshore plantation. The situation is acute at Bellandur Lake; the ‘lake’ is sludge of industrial waste and frothing with effluent. It stinks, covered by weeds and devoid of any life. A saddening sight indeed. When lakes are contaminated there are two major consequences
• It increases the BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand), that is, amount of dissolved oxygen, and thus kills the species within the lake
• The lake turns from seasonal to perennial which brings about cataclysmic changes. It’s a death knell for resident and dependent species as their life cycle is broken

One of the biggest lakes in Bangalore is a case study of callousness on the part of policy makers. It also is a pointer to what could happen to lakes in urban areas. Kasavanahalli Lake will very soon be like Bellandur Lake is a horrible reality. There is an urgent need for policy action. Every industrial unit must have sewage treatment unit, and each housing colonies proper sewage disposal system. No one has any right to treat lakes or rivers as dumping yard. The situation is catastrophic and the repercussions are already being felt, if stringent steps are not taken against polluters then this is the end. If Thames River could be resurrected then all is not lost, we still can hope. GDP can grow but once toxic enter the water table, when diversity is lost, no more GDP will help.
Subbu mentioned BOD of Bellandur Lake is more than 500, while what is needed for water to hold life is less than 5!!. The policy makers, we are told, are looking for lakes as possible of potable water source, Subbu says “Why not they start with Bellandur?!!” Good suggestion.

Kaikondanahalli Lake was our next stop, another pristine lake that has substantial bird population, but this lake too is showing signs of sewage seepage (presence of hyacinth is one indication). There are constructions happening around the lake. This will have impact at two levels
• The catchment areas for the lake gets depleted, directly affecting the water table of the lake

• The houses that are constructed in these catchment areas will have flooding during rains, a common features these days as more and more catchment areas are converted into real estate

We were told that authorities tried to ‘develop’ Kaikondanahalli Lake, there were grand plans for boating and Children Park. Thankfully after much protest these were shelved. What is to be noted here is that Acacias (commonly Babool. By the way the word 'khaki' comes from Acacia!!... Please read Pradip Krishen’s seminal work Trees of Delhi for these interesting nuggets) are abundant across the lake and give salubrious green cover, but looks can be deceptive and therein lies another story of insensitivity. Acacia nilotica –the sturdy shrubby Indian specie, is preferred by nesting herons and storks while Acacia auriculiformis –Australian specie that grow tall and don’t support these nests. The acacias planted around the lake are Acacia auriculiformis if it were Acacia nilotica there would have been a heronry here. What a waste. Though, I must add, there is a hidden danger here too. As Acacia wood have high commercial value and could be targeted as has happened, so very blatantly, in Tirunelveli recently.

These are lessons on why local species are much suited to region’s biodiversity and should be encouraged. There is a symbiotic relation that exist between different species in nature and when exotic varieties are introduced these are undermined. Atleast opinions of experts must be taken when planting trees and so on. Thankfully they have shown preference towards arjuna trees (Arjuna terminalia), that hold well under slushy conditions, unlike eucalypts (ridiculous, I say).

After lunch we had a long ride to Hebbal Lake, time to relapse. Delonix Regia (gulmohar) is in full bloom and in abundance, strange that these Madagascarian trees are now threatened species in that island. Though one may encourage local specie (and that is how it should be) I cannot help thinking what many Indian cities will look without these amazing trees. Of course Delonix like Eucalypt does monopolies water and nutrient of the vicinity. Another tree throwing its own private riot in Bangalore is African tulip, these trees though host barbets –soft wood- are nightmare for two wheeler riders, the flowers are slippery and dangerous to maneuver over. My vote for flowering tree in Bangalore will definitely go to Tree jasmine (Millingtonia Hortensis), the flowers from the canopy cascade into showers. What an enchanting sight. Haven’t really seen these beautiful trees in other cities, Bangalore is truly blessed.

Hebbal Lake presents another aspect of development related ecological concern. The lake apparently is well maintained with a garden alongside that is popular with people. Easy for the eyes it maybe but privatization of lakes is a serious threat and Hebbal presents a case for it. The fishing rights are held by private parties and that has seriously affected the avian population (the exception being Pelicans). So it is reduced to a well maintained fish farm (of economically valuable fishes, it has replaced small variety of fishes that used to feed on mosquito larvae) than a lake that supports diverse species. Further the mound in the center of lake doesn’t support bird species due to choice of trees. Plans from luxury hotel chain to develop water games were successfully resisted. Their zealousness to keep the lake clean has seen to it that all weeds are removed. The issue here is not all weeds are a threat and not all water plants are weeds, and some amounts of weeds do support species.

Puttanhalli Lake in the northern part of the city was our last stop, probably one of the smallest lakes (11acre area) but has largest concentration of avian species (I roughly estimated about 30 white ibis in a folk!!). “This is how Bangalore used to be during my childhood” Subbu reminisces. What has saved this lake and its biodiversity is that it has least human intervention and is zealously guarded. Though last few years the sewage is dumped from adjoining areas, particularly from adjacent CRPF camp -they even threaten anyone who protests against their misdeeds with dire consequences. Is this how a central force expected to behave? Indeed they should be guardians of these lakes.

Though Puttanhalli Lake too is in a precarious condition the visit taught a valuable lesson. It is possible to create lake and attract diverse species. Responsible corporate (and there are many who are concerned about degrading diversity) could make it part of CSR. Buy few acres of land, and work it out with ecologists and other experts (there some really talented people). It is possible. With that hope and on a high note we ended a wonderful day.

Barbaric end to a brutal dictator

Of course he was a dictator, a megalomaniac, but the way he was dealt was barbaric. Wonder what is the difference between the fighting forces here? Who is fighting for just society? Both sides are barbaric. This doesn’t augur well at all. This looks like a long road for Libyans. Replacing one brutal force with another may seem to be beneficial for oil thirsty neo-colonial powers but it is destabilizing the region and with it the world.

The events in region are a warning in many ways. Firstly, dictators better watch out. Give way to democracy -basic rights and dignity to people. And yes if people catch you on the street unarmed they are unlikely to hug you. Saleh, Assad….and all others better watch out. These are not normal times. These are times of technology driven connectedness and transparency. Hitching on patriarchal traditions and feudal norms will not work. Secondly, the event also brings in a dangerous precedence of NATO intervention. NATO –military alliance of West, has no mandate and shouldn’t be allowed to work as machinery of UN (at least that is what is being positioned, surely this is far from the truth). NATO’s actions are illegal. The mandate of the international community is for UNPKF and not NATO. Any repeat of NATO taking over UN mandate should be thwarted.

Spooky: the above pic does have an uncanny resemblance to the picture in the blog below!!

Is keeping exotic pet part of American dream?

First a nut was able to “collect exotic animals” (that puts severe pressure on conservation effort around the world, animals have a context and habitat) in a country that claims to be blessed by the none other than god, where respect for wildlife is non-existent. Then the nut let the animals free. The authorities then slaughter these hapless animals -49 animals, including 18 rare Bengal tigers. What kind of people are these? Are they humans? What kind of country is this?

So what is the learning for the Americans….well nothing much just that they will have more reasons to stock firearms and guns. All alien invasions, exotic pets gone wild –spiders, crocodiles, snakes…gods knows what, that is churned out from Hollywood apart from asserting “Americans as ultimate protectors of the world” is a victory of gun culture. Of course there are now ‘incredible animal videos’ to be made that Murdoch &Co will have to churn to the world, intervened by what car to buy and not to buy (here people are struggling to cope with inflation of food items while high end of crony capitalism is struggling to decide on which car, ads definitely seem to understand these cronies....well if you can decide by watching such nonsense surely one must be dumb. Wonder why so much money is spend on these nonsense while workers protest for better pay. Capitalism seem to favoring these dimwits. Crony Capitalism has more to do with mediators and manipulators...where some Indians truly shine). It’s a celebration of freedom of expression.

The kind of havoc Americans have played on the environment in many decades is nothing short of catastrophic (it’s the same model that is sought to be replicated across the world by the elites of the society as part of globalization). They have severely depleted the natural resources by their irresponsible lifestyle. American dream is world’s nightmare. And thank god they are in recession. Indeed the ‘development model’ is such that recession anywhere in the world is good for Nature.

God may save America but must definitely save us from Americans.

Condolence: On the death of one of the original and respected Malayalam writer Kakkanadan (George Varghese)

Protesting against a skewed system

The Wall Street protest that is spreading across the world is against a system that goes against the grain of democracy. The protest is against a system that has turned exploitative. A system that is making the rich richer and poor poorer. A system that has benefited less than five percent of people while billions live on margins. These are facts that have been documented for decades now. Till recently the richer countries were cushioning these exploitation, and so the impact of these skewed system was least felt. It was pushed to poorer countries across the world. As many societies slipped into exploitation the economists called them as ‘cheap labour’. Despite the fact that they put in the same work, a worker located in developed country stand to gain many times more. With globalisation ‘cheap labour’ became natural option for ‘cost cutting’ and ‘profit’. Therefore jobs were shifted to poorer societies and therein lay the seeds of the problem. The richer society who till now were enjoying the fruits of exploitative system start to lose. Their advantage was turning into disadvantage, while the sweat shop in poorer countries went in the ruse of creating jobs. If at international level globalisation is unleashing imperialism then at national level (in countries like India) it is consolidating feudalism.

Capitalism that channelizes ideas, entrepreneurship and enterprise is how it should be, and this is what it was meant to be. Capitalism that values labour, hardwork, innovation...Alas Capitalism now thrives on manipulation and exploitation. It’s about ‘seizing the moment’ (thanks Crude Woman for the insight), it’s about nepotism and shady dealings that seems to define 'financial system'. At the core Capitalism is reduced to gambling (also referred to as ‘speculation’), greed of few who play with people’s hard earned money. And quite startlingly they don’t pay for nothing. The losses are transferred to people, and leaders around the world scramble to save the system (also called ‘deficit’). The Stock Exchange across the world epitomises these manipulations. It is in this world of manipulation and exploitation that crony capitalism thrives. Poorer societies where feudal norms are intact these system severely undermine any attempts on democracy. Capitalism has only added fillup to feudalist norms in the garb of development. It’s reduced to a sham. Exaggerated importance on Stock Exchange are fuelled by these very exploitative system to have a manipulative space, indeed they hold (blatant in many case) a threat to elected government and are used for forcing favourable policy decisions.

In India where the ‘fundamentals’ seems to be always ‘strong’, the crony capitalism has reached new high (India definitely is a case study on crony capitalism). With technology induced transparency more corruption cases are in open (a clear indication on how much loot must have happened in last many decades) but what ‘honourable’ Minister is concerned is as to how it will affect business!! Thankfully for us ordinary mortals Supreme Court ticked him off to restore some sanity. These are zombies of crony capitalism who don’t even know what they are talking about. Crony capitalism has the habit of creating self sustaining logic. In India serious issues that affect millions of people are only alibi for self serving people to create system for exploitation. It is in this context, it is not surprising that some crony capitalism driven media in India has sought (sought is the wrong word, manipulation is the apt word but I cannot keep using the same word again and again) to see Wall Street protest as agitation against price rise (incorrigibly cute).

These protests in the richer societies are significant; it is an indication of how things have reached its limit. And change could have come from West only. Countries like India have elite who are mostly direct beneficiary of crony capitalism –an extension of feudalism, they are co-opted. They have even co-opted democratic norms. This blogger sincerely hopes that these protests lead to some major systemic changes. Few people shouldn’t be allowed to play around with the lives of billions of people.

some people do change the world

There are some people who change the world; Steve Jobs was undoubtedly one of them. What a guy!!

Like everyone else I too have my moment (tribulation to begin with) with computers. In my final days of college I was wondering what exactly I should be doing, since most people had started to speak about future and so on. I recall sitting in the college library with a piece of paper charting my future!. And I distinctly remember crossing computer from list of future involvement. I will have nothing to do with computer. This was the time when people were rushing into computer, C+ so on were quite popular. Many of classmates were hectic about Y2K, and attended training and moved to US. I just could not get it. I somehow found sitting in front of box not to my liking, and to know that Y2K was about correcting dates didn’t excite me at all. Much later computer morphed and internet became available, for once I knew the potential of this one and latched on to it as early as 1998, when internet became affordable. Since then it’s been an amazing experience. The contribution of likes of Steve Jobs in these innovations, I gather, has been phenomenal. Of course ipad, iphone etc though exceedingly significant has not really percolated to common people’s level so far. But I am sure these will eventually (I though believe mobile phones have been the most significant innovation that has reached to the lowest level and increased comfort never conceived before).

People like Steve Jobs are rare. They change the world as we know. It’s an Apple moment. They did make our life comfortable. And we are grateful to them aren’t we?

That's a Triple WoW !!!

Deeply saddened

The Mahogany Tree
The noon sun, cobalt sky,
mahogany seeds spinning in dancer’s delight
where it lands
where it will sow
are matters of passing breeze
and reclining thoughts

I am shocked. This blogger expresses his heartfelt condolence on the sudden demise of Wangari Maathai. I have been following Green Belt Movement through her website (that is linked to this blog) for last many years and found her exceedingly inspiring

The wrath of nature on quaint Sikkim

Sikkim truly is one of the beautiful states in India. Unfortunately on a seismic zone, and so mindless suffering and death. The scale of devastation is yet to unfold because of difficult terrain and landslide. It is saddening.

This blogger has high altitude sickness so didn’t venture towards north of Gangtok but must say wherever I traveled within this picturesque land it was worth the time. Splendorous Sikkim indeed. I use the adjective in its fullest sense and fervently hope things are back to normal and people find solace.

What has ex Chief Justice of India, ex Union Cabinet Secretary and ex Chief of Army to do with Coco Cola?

Who can be against India Environment Council, it sounds good but when you know that it is created by “India Advisory Board of Coca-Cola” then there are reasons to be suspicious. Maybe this blogger is giving the impression of going all out against “soft drinks” for exploitation of natural resources. Sure it is, these are of course symbolic references, then there are liquor companies (that too come under luxury products. Drinking maybe personal choice but promotion of liquor should be illegal, even the surrogate ads). How much this not different from illegal mining? Not denying that it is good to see that private parties are taking initiatives, but the concern is why Government not taking action in protecting natural resources. Luxury product’s use of natural resources should be scrutinized and taxed heavily. It should be put in the context of basic needs of people and sustainability. Most seriously it is likely that these very MNC are using their clout to scuttle any strict law. So it is a very old wily game plan. Create a perception of goodness, use pliable people to spread aura. But when you have very senior people like ex Chief Justice of India, ex Union Cabinet Secretary and ex Chief of Army in the Board then this is a very serious matter, how much they have compromised. Why would these people be on the Board? What is their insight? Also Consider that Indian Army had serving officer suggesting us to drink this brand not too long back. Unethicality is accentuated by the fact that these were promoted by officer sportsperson wherein the product has no nutritive value, indeed its harmful affect is documented. Further, the trust and respect placed on the Army was sought to be accrued by MNCs. How much policy makers are compromising or succumbing to onslaught of MNCs is a mute question. Now this brand name is sought to be used for school…well for better brand recall catch them young! If they are so concerned about condition of schools why are they using their brand name?

It is being revealed recently that US Government officials tried pressurizing the Kerala government on opening of now closed exploitative Coca Cola plant. We all know that US government actively supports and promotes its business but when a powerful nation colludes with a MNC that is exploiting natural resource then you know why they call it neo colonial. There are too many people around the policy makers who are facilitating this loot. It is evident that it runs deep into the policy making, it is grievous.

Post script: the above ads –an earlier Coco Cola ad, states that “…babies who start drinking soda during the earlier formative period have a much higher chance of gaining acceptance in ‘fitting in’ during those awkward pre-teen and teen years…..start them on strict regimen of sodas and other sugary carbonated beverages right now….” Marvelous. Now they have gone sophisticated but the intent is same. We have Indian Army for help in 'fitting in'. Jai hind sirji!!

Bolivia celebrates 'Day of the Pedestrian'

All motorized vehicles were taken off the street for a day in Bolivia. The usually congested streets were instead occupied by street artists and other performers. The president of the country even taking part in marathon. Wonderful

Gufthaguf with crude woman: I must leave this blog with an insight from Crude woman. Universally disliked and shunned Crude woman makes her presence felt in public space using TV studios with amazing dexterity. I found her going through the book on Thugs in Medieval India. A veteran in matters of manipulation, she has her own PR working for her personal halo. She explained that one has to be in a strategic position to maximise all events, whether it is celebration, death or protests. The way she justified her crassness was shocking “See look at the picture of these thugs”, she showed the illustration. Group of rough looking men were hiding at vantage position across the hill overlooking travellers. It made their job easy for a surprise attack on hapless travelling party and loot the booty. She explained that she has her PR working for her vantage space. The first step for capitalising, or shall we say seize the moment, is to exaggerate the person. Once inflated, he will fall (“outsiders are novice on matter of thuggery” she explained), so one has to be ready for suck. “Like this” and took a raspuri from the table and stuffed it onto her mouth. In matter of seconds she spat out the seed, dry and clean. All the while she tweeted using her left hand and a desultory smile (to show me how easy these things are) “let us join Anna, Anna thum marthe raho hum thumhare saath hai”. Within moments it was ‘breaking news’ in many TV channels; they flashed “Crude Woman says Join Anna”. It was an amazing feat. Exactly a minute later her competitor (its self consuming world they create, and try to suck us in) was 'breaking news' with her own one liner. She smiled “pahunche hue logon ka takkar hamesha pahunche hue logon ke saath he hotha hai”. I was told by the servant (a tall man with amazingly sad eyes) that recently crude woman had started to suffer from an affliction; she is startled from her sleep, clutching one of her ears as if it is a microphone and shouting “I want to rebut ..please let me”, and then slumps back into deep sleep. Later I came to know this has become a common occurrence in many cities wherein any member of the family was known to have visited TV studio....I guess it is time to leave this crude world but must add this one has lot of potential to be a full blown short story. Maybe i will work on it whenever i have time.

Libya's next war: freedom from foreign intervention

People of Libya have done immense sacrifice and had to undergo untold hardship to remove a despot (next in the line is mass murderer of Syria) and gain freedom. This blogger like anyone else in the world is happy for Libyans (at one point there used to be lots of Keralites in Libya, I even knew about a girl who was named Libya!!). The war in Libya is far from over. After capturing Gadaffi and putting the criminals on trial the Libyan people will have to worry about the extent of foreign intervention. There is a neo colonial agenda that is a serious cause of concern. The reason why NATO has more say than UNPKF. People of Libya have a serious cause of worry.

Writes Stratfor, the geopolitics thinktank in Forbes magazine "For the United Kingdom, Libya offers a promise of energy exploitation. It is not a country with which London has a strong client-patron relationship at the moment, but one could develop if Muammar Gaddafi were removed from power. For France, Tripoli already is a significant energy exporter and arms customer. Paris' interest in intervening is also about intra-European politics … [French President Nicolas] Sarkozy has a history of using aggressive foreign relation moves to gain or maintain popularity at home."

We will have to take these views very seriously.

Defining moment all right, does it augur well?

We are grateful to Anna Hazare for what he has done. He and others with their tremendous effort have put issues related to corruption at the centre stage. It is expected that an effective Lokpal (rather than strong lokpal) is created through the process of negotiation and consensus. Hopefully these don’t become Frankenstein monsters and threaten the democratic institutions itself. Indeed Lokpal is only one aspect of the issue; it isn’t an end in itself. I am glad that Anna and followers have decided to focus on electoral reforms. It is something that 'superior' parliament should have focused long time back. Do they realise how much misery their inaction has caused? Political parties seem to have got trapped in a self sustaining morass. It was necessary for an outside agency to stir things. Anna Hazare movement has done it. What is gladdening is that they have kept it at a simple level for the common people to relate to and understand, thus able to galvanize people. Which is refreshing considering these were accrued by Delhi based activist brigade, mostly fed by interest groups, that end up in get-together and seminars (I always found the menu sumptuous!!).

That the country got into this impasse is reflections of growing disconnect that elected representative have with common people. Those who are not having criminal background seem to suffer from such arrogance that they manipulate with impunity. They are chiding common sense of people. The inflated egos seem least concern to our problems, they value everything in terms of spin. The problem is small timers are masquerading as leaders, expertising in devious means. Unfortunately, in a way, they are by product of competitive democracy. Their concern seems to only score debating points with opposition. Another reason why two party system is so very dangerous, it reduces all issue into binary X vs Y- that market media loves to amplify to suit its narration. What is lost in these competing cacophonies and simplification is nuances of the issue that affect the people. What is lost in the clarion call of victory and defeat is varying views and multitude nature of society.

Corruption is a serious issue and the surging support is a reflection of common people’s angst, no less consolidated by anger at obvious attempt to manipulate by the Government. This anguish was channelized by media and Anna group. It is a rare occasion that there is a surging unanimity therefore overwhelming response. I am shocked to see how Congress Party can stoop to such cheapness, this moral bankruptcy was exploited and so Anna gained such credibility (and rightly so, the man is honest) despite elements of insular or that most people may not know what a Lokpal really include. It is sad that a Government that started with so much promise has been reduce to this. NAC is a brilliant conception and RTI is no mean achievement. This blogger believes that RTI was a watershed Act. But somewhere the manipulating elements seem to have taken the initiative. It is very likely the growing influence of the market- the PR fixers (i met Crude woman the other day, she insisted that she could have done better fixing!). They seem to have crept into higher level of policy making. It is a grievous concern.

This blogger sincerely hopes -despite my high regards for Anna, that these kinds of agitation don’t repeat. I am concerned since attempts to diminish the stature of parliament/politicians has been quite vocal among elites, in last two decades a significant section of people from lower strata are exerting their presence through ballot. The role of money in ballot has been apparent in the last elections. But the politicians will still have to go to common people for vote. They have to listen to people who are not necessarily watching TV debates. This representation however skewed cannot be undermined. It’s a collective faith of common people. If any attempts are made then we have only government to blame. The government should show genuine concern on the issues raised, and be seen as a positive presence. That is what people’s representation means. The Government should realise that art of governing is not manipulation. It is not fixer’s job. And yes it is not about creating perceptions. The market media might use terms like ‘fight for perception’ -it is a self justifying argument, but the fact is world doesn’t go round on perceptions. People’s lives are not matter of perception. If you are truthful, if your intents are clear and is meant for betterment then people will support you. The problem here is some of these ‘leaders’ are amazingly corrupt. They do manipulations and double talk to scuttle the issues that concern people. The exaggerated concern for perception arises from these. Secondly how can you work on perception? By coming in few TV channels? What a ridiculous understanding. Truly India shining. They seem to think if they engage few debating clubs they can solve problems of a billion people. It never happened that way and it never will.

Only market –as seen by ads, works through manipulations and by creating perception. India is not thankfully America, this not how things should work. Market (indeed market media) should have very limited role. Their exaggerated presence is a serious concern. There is a nexus that is detrimental to common people. I strongly suggest that there should be a core groups that handle mass media, that has focus and strategy (apart from the spokesperson) it is not the job of Cabinet minister to give exclusives. It is a travesty and waste of valuable time and money. It is a form of corruption.

It need also be understood that common people (indeed people like Anna) come from a space that carry idioms and context that is existent for thousands of years. In the debating club and media groups based in cities (particularly Delhi where the stampede is acute) they have carved out turfs for daily wages. The ideas and linchpins they create for defining secularism, freedom...etc vary quite significantly from common people. To take an example you go down to any small town in North India it is very likely you will be greeted with a “ram ram”, back in activist stampede of Delhi you could be classified as fundamentalist (RSS, mind it!) and condemned forever. In the meantime fabindia crowd score brownie points against each other. The so called human right activists based in Delhi (who i am sure are fed by powerful people, and also carrot for position and foreign tours) seem vicious set of the lot. It is understandable when you have so much to lick with so little effort (it boils down to shouting). It is so easy to speak for a billion people sitting in Delhi-Mumbai studio and accrue as much. Amazing, the fight against corruption. Since debating is now almost a game may i suggest the need for dope test, some of these speakers surely seem to be on steroids.

Anna Hazare is an excellent outcome but sooner or later the market media will find the going difficult. Already the discussions are interceded by glimpses of Formula One car race (that i am told is going to be ‘India is proud’ moment). How is that not corruption, forget corruption these are unethical. Market media has its own reason to create synergy against political class, in this case they have done a great job and Anna is a believable mask. But the way Indian media deals with issues in itself matter of scrutiny. You will have to see debates in foreign channels like say BBC to know how mediocre and frivolous Indian media is. Their penchant for small timers from movies and adworld (there are exception, like say Prasoon Joshi) in serious discussions reduce it to farce. There is rarely any much insight; “rebuttal” is a popular word. It’s disgusting.

The problem here is Anna is too real and a committed person (there though is a streak of avuncular patriarchy – not a major problem), he in a way epitomizes understandings of substantial section of society. Anna is made of studier material and is unlikely to compromise on his values. His outlook towards consumerism and worldview arising out of it –the one that market thrives on, will definitely clash with quaint world media has created. Anna is a mask that market media is trying to get their moral halo. For the time being it seems to be working.

You have made your point Mr Hazare

Anna Hazare has made his point well and clear, and yes we are grateful to him for bringing the issue of corruption into forefront of the policy conscious. The way things are moving is grave cause of concern. This kind of unilateral posturing is dangerous, Anna cannot dictate terms however well intentioned. His methods are now definitely in the realm of undemocratic. He must look for inclusive –conciliatory, stance from here on. These statements against political class and democratic institutions are crossing the line. An effective Lokpal (rather than a strong lokpal) is the need of the hour apart from other institutional checks and balances.

In the meantime the Union government’s performance on the issue of corruption has been regrettable to say the least. There is an increasing trust deficit. Manmohan Singh will have to go. The writing is there on the wall for some time now. This blogger hopes fresh/honest new faces are elevated into policy making at the earliest. And yes Rahul Gandhi cannot shirk responsibility any longer; he is being irresponsible if he does. The support for Anna Hazare is much more than lokpal, its the general anger/frustration among significant section of population on various issues. Further those who may not support these agitations too are not satisfied by the competence of the present government. It’s time for some significant changes otherwise this government is going down murky road of history.

Cartoon time!!

criminality, pure and simple

The Anna saga: Indian government seems to be working with a manipulator’s (fixer would right word) mindset. In the meantime is it arrogance or stupidity or combination of both? Some leaders are blaming the media, indeed they themselves are the one who gave ‘exclusive interviews’ and nurtured these “few thousand people in front of the camera”, at the expense of billion people. Well as they say the chickens have come home to roost.
The issue of corruption is firmly on the center stage, and hopefully some stringent steps/ laws are created for systemic changes, are gladdening outcome. Of course Parliament is important, but elections in last few decades or so have amply proved the hold of money. Many MPs/MLAs have criminal background is also a well known fact, many other serve for Corporate interest. The reason why non political figures are given so much trust by people, refreshing though it is but matter of concern. But not as much grave as the extraneous influence in policy making.
Why the Government is not serious about electoral reforms, or for that matter all these archaic laws that has been existing for centuries? Despite recommendations by Commission after Commission why the government doesn't seem to be interested in rectifying? Clearly it is helping certain section of society. And very clearly political parties (particularly at the national level) have entrenched elements that thrive on status quo. They have been sucking on common people. Anna-whatever reservation one may have on the modus- is no doubt a good start.

There were actors and then there was Shammi Kapoor !!