Gottilla! Gottilla!

To all those "Kannada gottilla" speakers, here's my humblest response to your non-Kannada (especially Hindi) words spoken to me: "GOTTILLA!!"

In fact this approach worked like a magic this morning in my bus. One guy asked me about a bus stop in Hindi and I said the word - GOTTILLA pretty earnestly. After some murmuring and a long pause, the guy spoke again, this time in Kannada, however broken, and I gave a helping response in Kannada with a smile. He smiled too!

This should teach us two lessons - (1) that the people that come into our cities, no matter how fresh their migration is, they do have the capability to speak a few words because they want to make a living here, and (2) that it needs a little friendly, earnest and shrewd force to get those Kannada words out of their brains and mouths. We only need to be smart enough to realize (1) and strong enough to sustain (2)!!

Well this is the way relations can be strengthened. The imposition of Hindi, like a ghost-god that instills fear in the vulnerable, has instilled fear of attracting fellow countrymen's wrath of traitorship. This has made Kannadigas sitting ducks in the fire of Hindi Imposition and they've accommodated themselves to respond in Hindi on the very first utterance of that gottilla word.

In short the subtle negative in gottilla that has been working against us can easily, this way, be converted in our favour.

What's there in The Manifest Manifesto

In these days when everyone is throwing his hat in the manifesto ring, I took a look at manifestos floated by some renowned political parties and here's my summary of what one could gather from them and how one can use them as a scale to measure the respective party's political validity in one's constituency. Especially in LA elections during May 2013.

So here is my take on a common man's thumb-rule to reading Political Manifestos:

1. If the manifesto is not in the people's language, junk it and the party. Even if it is a google translation!
2. If the manifesto speaks more in Crores of Rupees than Crores of People, that manifesto is a pack of lies. So is the party too.
3. If the manifesto uses ongoing projects to pat its own back then this party doesn't have a real vision of its own, thereby redundant and potentially unqualified. Escapist.
4. If the manifesto is overly creative, yet fails to touch upon seething local public issues, that manifesto is Elitist, and reflects a party that just doesn't care, but seeks power nevertheless. Junk it regardless of how qualified its candidates could be.
5. If a manifesto echoes your concerns and describes a way it would address your problems, and those of your neighbor, and those of their neighbors, and theirs, that is a manifesto to pick, and vote.

Point #2 above is of special importance because such manifestos that speak about expenditures talk about action under the Executive pillar of our polity. But an election is a time when we elect Legislators who are supposed to make, remove and amend laws in order to protect and serve their people. A party that fails to represent its legislative roadmap is determined to fail on its executive roadmap too. So one can rest assured of not getting those kilograms of rice for One Rupee!!

Point #3 shows how some parties are politically unqualified because they cant even be creative in dreaming projects in the manifesto either because their party's philosophy precludes that or they simply lack the vision to dream. These parties are escapist and inept.

Point #4 shows how some other parties are politically unqualified because of the divine apathy they seem to show towards local public issues that are burning down welfare in local societies. These parties prefer to create a new parallel dimension in public life that is numb to real social issues viz drinking water shortage & excessive waste generation and walk that dimension attracting like-minded numb souls.

These points express how important a democratic process it is to analyze manifestos of parties before deciding upon one's final choice. A manifesto has hitherto been reduced to a grand gala release function akin to other political meravaniges (processions) thereby sidelining the importance people need to attach to these manifestos that are manifestations of the future.

Now, who can come up with a manifesto like the point #5 above? It can only be those parties that have bloomed from among the people in that society, not instead those parties that claim to be national. These local parties see national interest through the lens of local interests while the parties presenting the junk manifestos have just held the scope other way round and see local interests being limited, not achieved, by national interests!


Come May 2013: Vote Local. Vote You.

Of Indian Railways, Terrorism and the NCTC Debate

FIVE DAYS after the twin blasts shook Hyderabad, the central government (GoI) went through its annual chore of reading out a joke called the Indian Railway Budget. The uniqueness of this budget is it spells a comedy and a tragedy at the same time, what with the amount of distress it is indirectly bringing to all Indian States. Here's a look at the miracle as it unfolds in various sheets of newspaper this week.

Basking under the glory of being the largest public sector employer in the largest democracy, yet defying the existence of the Center's comptroller (CAG), Indian railways is the most loss making public enterprise that has never been debated or even considered for decentralization or privatization.

Public loss is Private gain?
Caring least for the massive loss Indian railways continues to make year-on-year and by offering Indian railways as a market agnostic cheap travel option, various central governments seem to have successfully used the public funded Indian railways to achieve multifarious goals like north to south migration, creation of nationwide employment deficits and socio-economic stress factors (like inflation, demand for rapid electrification and demand for urbanization) that could be turned into election manifestos of national parties - especially because national parties are well equipped to encash such factors into votes.

A closer look could reveal that financial loss is just a meager loss that Indian railways could be causing to the Indian union.

The Terror Angle
While alleged to be splurging our moneys and imposing Hindi on all non-Hindi peoples of India, Indian railways is also posing a serious threat to the nation's internal security by acting as an unchecked and unbiased carrier of innocent people and terrorists alike. Operating on such a vast juxtaposition of diverse territories together called India, yet operated by the central government alone comes with its own limitations in vigilance during daily operations. In the name of being an enabler to ensure people's right to move and settle anywhere in India, the railways have acted as an express channel for terror transport especially because of this lack of vigilance - which explains why so few terror attacks it is itself exposed to!!

With the debate around National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC) gaining traction again in the wake of these blasts, an important question to be raised will have to be a combination of the suspicion over a centralized Indian railways being the terror enabler and the federal angle that some States are approaching NCTC with: Is the biggest key to Indian terror in the hands of Indian railways, and should counter-terrorism not start by decentralizing it? Is the NCTC destined to fail as long as the Indian railways continues to be a centrally run show?

Will a Divided BBMP Make the Difference?

Growing! (pic:ces.iisc.ernet.in)

In what can be considered a brave effort at saving Bengaluru - a city plagued by the growth paradigm - Karnataka law minister Mr Suresh Kumar and his Chief Minister Mr Jagadish Shettar have hinted at the need to divide the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in order to make civic administraion more responsive and effective.

This move is laudable indeed because this points at various lessons public administration in India needs to learn in general. Talking about decentralization as the answer to current administrative challenges BBMP has been facing, the Chief Minister's adviser on urban affairs suggests how three smaller corporations could be better than one massive corporation addressing every city matter, centrally.

Scaling this to the national level, the Center still holds close to its chest a rather huge list of items of governance, and the state of administrative affairs in the vast country is no different from how it is in Bengaluru. For instance, if Arunachal Pradesh needs GoI's permission to get two roads laid in the State, or if Karnataka needed GoI's permission to double the railway tracks between two cities within the State, it is this pitiable state of affairs that is begging for increased decentralization in India.

Coming back to Bengaluru - while the idea of decentralizing BBMP and forming multiple corporations could increase efficiency and help control spiraling prices of various local commodities and services, what it cannot ensure by itself is a renewed need to further divide the BBMP, say in another decade, in order to cater to the then size of the city's demands. Apart from the proposed decentralization, the existing BBMP needs to take another brave step and frame legislation to monitor, regulate and wherever necessary restrict migration of people into the city. It will also need to ensure these new corporations inherit this new piece of legislation that is quintessential to making decentralization a success, and thereby a model for the nation to be inspired by. This will be the difference Bengalurians will look forward to from this division, after all.

If cities like Bengaluru can be subject to the adverse effects of poor governance and legislation at the Center and helplessness at the State levels, let us hope that if not negating those effects, this move by BBMP sends strong messages to the Center about decentralization in general, and its skewed nature of policies that fuel people's migration into localized spots across the nation. Over a period of time such migrant patterns are unsustainable and will only make such local hot-spots unmanageable, yet leave local governing bodies helpless to reform. Shall we say, way to go BBMP?

Anatomy of a Rape: Sponsored Crime and Consumer Awareness

LATELY, watching TV at home has become synonymous to watching 'public undressing' performances like this, this, and this (among many others) most of the time. TV today is giving birth to more voyeurs in this society than anything else ever did. It is sad that creativity has lost all its colors and reserved itself to blue!

Sponsored by Lewd Entertainers?

Snapshot of a disturbing AD

With advertisements restricted to 20% of the TV airtime per-hour, advertisers are pushed to the limit of retaining viewer attention, and resorting to 'public undressing' seems to be their way-out?! Watching these lewd visuals have gradually come to being an acceptable ritual in the living room. What used to be earlier a taboo to even talk about has suddenly become the tea-time pastime for a good portion of the TV market. And this very society is now plagued by rapes & other heinous crimes. These behavior changes sponsored by the market forces are not doing any good to us at all.

Daring Questions, But...
Clearly, as a society, you cannot undress in public (on- or off-screen) and not be plagued by crime at the same time! We've got to choose between these two. There's absolutely no logic in daring the opposite sex by taking them to the limit of hormonal tests by means of these public undressing performances. Likewise there's no logic in questioning the integrity of people when there's no way of separating the ones with integrity from the ones without it. It is enough trouble if each city has one rapist at large. But on similar lines demanding capital punishment to anyone that commits this crime, however heinous, doesn't help alleviate the problem. A judicial precedent means nothing for a mind that is weak enough to become criminal.

The Whole Anatomy
Rapid, unplanned and unsustainable urbanization has triggered unforeseen migration at national levels, leading to unhealthy inter-personal relations in an otherwise well-connected society, also causing a perceivable plummet in average moral values among dwellers. Viral consumerism, considered quintessential to running any urbanized settlement, has blinded the average citizen to the ill-effects of such sponsored behavior changes in a society. The aberration between market and society faced by common man makes him miss the big picture - that he is being modified (from within) in the pretext of being captured better by market forces. Even to the extent of approving the inappropriate and making their societies breeding grounds for criminals.

Although a weird one, this is a comparison I find convincing always - crime is like a river, with not a single clear source of its birth, innumerable tributaries contributing to its growth, all headed towards one common destination: an out-pour of the darkness out of oneself. This state-of-mind called crime cannot be culled by an act of law, instead it should be culled by an act of collective conscious minds. In fact drawing from experiences of various people in the same society, it can even be deduced that penal laws constructed out of similar compelling situations (viz., Sec 498A IPC) have only jeopardized harmony in the society and paved new avenues for corruption of the human mind. Like it is said, in the case of Sec 498A, it has heralded new ways of exposing the lowest levels of the executive & judiciary to corruption, who had been deprived of the benefits of erstwhile penal laws.

Hence, in the interest of public welfare, it would be prudent of the youth to not take up the cudgels for compelling the legislature to play a blind-game. Instead the same youth had rather display their collective sense and strength in warding off spirits in the market that, in the name of consumerism, convince people to even approve vulgarity such as 'public undressing'. Being a better informed customer is as important today as being a better informed citizen. Let us not build unnecessary fortresses of legislation when we can prevent such a need by being a better informed customer.

Rape, Crime, Decentralized Democracy & The Sarojini Mahishi Report

Circle of Federalism?

IF CRIME in general and rape cases in particular are on the rise in Delhi & other north Indian regions, the best way to protect women in other states (viz. Karnataka) is to closely monitor and reasonably control migration of people from Delhi & other north Indian regions into other states. Even while not curtailing what is popularly perceived as a fundamental right in India (to be able to migrate and settle anywhere in this country,) this measure will greatly help local authorities to plan development programs within the state, track settlement of migrants in host state and make sure migrants do not resort to unlawful activities. Had this been in place already, we would have had far lesser incidents like this one, this one, or may be this one...

If all the waves created by the media around this story serve as a cue to any government, it is the state government (Govt of Karnataka for instance) and these state governments urgently need to wake up to their real job of protecting their state and the state's interests.

For starters, here's a list of things each state government could do in the interest of common welfare, and prevention of migrant related crimes:

1. Demanding education back into state list of items.
• After all it is education, or the lack of it, that is leading people to commit crimes. 
• Education being in the concurrent list, and with an ill-equipped central government at the helm of education affairs in the entire nation, employment & economic disparities are easy consequences.
• This in turn leads to social disparity driving the social awareness disparity quotient high.
2. Demand decentralization of Railways - one of the major carriers of migrants across this country.
• Although not the reason for migration themselves, in the hands of a central govt. the railways are an easy pawn for interested parties to create vote banks out of potentially migration oriented peoples.
• When decentralized and handed over to state governments, railway policies will be governed by the respective state and its usage for induced, as well as uncontrolled migration will be curtailed.
3. The labour ministry at the center needs to be dissolved or diluted to have lesser jurisdiction and control than now, and lesser control than the states.
• Each state needs to be the ultimate point of control and legislation when it comes to labour laws and settling of labour disputes.
• Owing to this ministry being currently held by the center, the labour laws relating to various industries uphold homogenization across boundaries of labour market, and in process encourage excessive migration across the country.
• Proper installation of and enforcement as per Sarojini Mahishi Report (vote) will limit unnecessary migration of people into its state.

The points go on, and is not limited to the list above. Revolutionary changes such as these are not easy achievements and certainly not feasible achievements for political parties that have conflicting interests within and outside of the state. At political crossroads, a state with weaker political lobby always ends up losing the battle and thereby its interests. The dire need for all states that are part of this union is therefore an urgent up-rise of (regional) political parties that understand democracy and the urgent need to usher in federal forces to save this democracy from internal plunder.