One For The Master and None For The Little Boy

Today's DNA reports that the Karnataka State Food & Civil supplies minister has decided to write to the Government of India (GoI) seeking restriction on rice exports from the State. Apparently this move has been contemplated in the wake of rising rice prices in the open market, and that "the State has no role in curbing price rise."

We may recall in this context voluntary steps promised by the GoI towards controlling spiraling onion prices, again in the open market. These and many similar instances of government intrusion into a free and open market to regulate prices through lateral exercise of legislative and executive powers present evidence of loose interpretation of governance boundaries or an oppressive attitude towards an open market.

These episodes provide evidence to the fact that governments are exceeding their appointed charter to remain in popularity. But an even more interesting pattern that emerges from such episodes is that all the powers required to suppress free-market forces and regulate market prices seem to have been appropriated by the GoI - the master. The State governments, the little boys, as always, are reduced to mere observatories - which are expected to observe the price rise in local markets and obediently report them to the Center.

The Public Distribution System (PDS) is yet another instrument that portrays the State government as a mere spectator, what with the fickle Central ministry fiddling with the rationing of cooking gas and State governments mutely watching the show unfold.

Another burning matter that surfaces out of this issue is the matter of border and import-export control. If the State governments cannot exert control over what gets exported out from the State and they have to rely on the executive powers of the Center to exert this control, it exposes the sad state of control an Indian State has over its own physical borders. It exposes the mechanism in which the States have been made to bequeath control over their own borders to the Center, making States dependent on a less capable government (GoI) when it comes to protecting itself either from external attacking factors or from leakage of internal stuff through these borders - both against State interests.

These topics are fine examples that help understand the critical loopholes that can exist in a highly centralized governance mechanism. Such holes can only be plugged by proper decentralization of governance and powers. A comprehensively thought over devolution of governing powers is highly overdue in India.

Also read (in Kannada) about other border control issues: ಯಾರ ಗಡಿ ಮತ್ತು ಯಾರ ಪಲಾಯನ?

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.

Namma Metro: Will we climb this Mountain between the Valleys?

Namma Metro is here, and my, is it the talk of the town or what? As a weird coincidence of sorts, I had to head out of Benglur on the night of Oct 20, 2011 - same day when Namma Metro was officially launched for public use - flying from one valley to another.. from one Metro town to another. In this context, here's a roll-out of my observations on our Metro in comparison with the Metro running in another Valley on the other side of the planet!

Upon a quick survey of public transport in two Silicon Valleys, we find on one hand, VTA, the authority that runs a hybrid public transit system connecting multiple south Californian suburbs, and on the other hand two bodies namely BMTC & BMRC together connecting our own valley, Benglur. Standing among various differences between these geographies and organizations is the common factor that urban public transit systems are localized-by-design, in that their target audience and the traits expected of their operation are all locally attributable. These transport systems operate within smaller limits, earmark a limited demography as beneficiaries, and are structured to assist the lifestyles of the local people.

Similarities aside, there's a marked difference one finds in the nature of operation & maintenance of these transport bodies, a difference bearing in the way these bodies perceive commuters, and the bases on which they appear to be taking operational decisions. These differences could be in taking budgetary decisions, in publishing them, or using the smallest opportunity to thank people for their tax money. The VTA (and its like) seem to be voluntarily ahead with an upper hand compared to their Benglur counterparts, who in turn not only fail in attributing their existence & operation to public tax money, but also display clear aloofness in their publications (some really vital documents not in Kannada, the lingua-franca of Benglur) and in decision making that affect their functioning thereby impacting the people - its customers i.e.

What seems to be the Problem?
As a generalization, it'd appear that these govt. run transport corporations, like other govt. bodies chartered to directly serve people in commercial transactions, do not take public as customers at all! Be it the BSNL, or ESCOMs, or RTOs, or the Palikes or BMTC or BMRC, although their very existence (& profitability in some cases) is hinged on public turnout, their indifference towards customers has continued to cause frustration among the public. In return our governments are known to have showered unconditional love and protection covering losses of such organizations with more public money supply. In doing so their indifference towards customers is solemnized and perhaps even legalized, making customers of such public sector undertakings fall dumb prey, left with little choice to churn.
(Its a different matter, of course, that this very lack of choice could have paved way for severe corruption in our society. Although this is not uncommon knowledge, it is important we the people write & read about this!)

Where seems to be the problem?
For instance, the BMTC is a govt. sponsored company that runs bus services in Benglur city. While it owes allegiance to the Karnataka govt (and hence the people) for most of its funding and other sponsorship, it still needs to be told about the importance of using Kannada in all its customer interactions, not just in its administrative affairs. It needs to be continuously polled and complained at the first instance of playing Hindi music inside its city buses. Having prevented any competition from breeding, BMTC has in a way been abusing its sponsor's (the govt.) dominant position to take undue control of the market and at thereby denying good service in Kannada to deserving Kannadiga customers in Benglur.

BMRC: Heluvudu ondu, Maaduvudu innondu

Taking a look at BMRC - problems galore from day one. Marked with public exclusion all along, this project continues to shock with information in three languages, one of them Hindi - a totally out of context language in a locally run train service, nowhere cutting across lands of Hindi speaking people. Making it yet another instrument of Hindi imposition in the hands of a federally elected govt. in Delhi? BMRC's journey tickets are given weird names from the Hindi dictionary, and the boards inside the real train coaches differ markedly from their mock counterparts (see pic). All this talks volumes about public exclusion being practised big time in these organizations.

Well, where lies the problem, really? Is it in those government bodies? Is it in our own bodies? Are we being forcibly shortchanged by these government undertakings? Are such urbanization measures of governments feigning modernization running their hideous imperialist enterprises entirely at our costs? Are we ending up paying for all these Hindi imposition? Have we lost our grounds and forgotten our rights as a customer in all these situations? Have we unlearned the skill of running projects to meet what our society needs? Have we given up before the battle has even begun? The battle for better quality of living, for our rights as customers, for our rights as equal citizens.

Being Kannadigas, don't we remember anymore that service in Kannada is indeed our right!? Then why aren't we hearing people complain?? Come ooooooooooooooooon! Lets not buy our tickets after the train has left! Lets write to them: 
BMRCL - sivasailam@bmrc.co.in, sudhirchandra@bmrc.co.in, vasanthrao@bmrc.co.in, bmrcl@dataone.in. 
BMTC - "Chief Traffic Manager (O)" <ctmobmtc@gmail.com>, bmtcmd@gmail.com
Karnataka CM - cm@kar.nic.in

Let this September open our eyes!

The Indian union formed by the coming together of several provinces, and especially people from various backgrounds, practising different cultures and speaking many languages set a unique case in the list of democratic countries in the late forties. It is this diversity in India, and the diversity behind the one identity of Indianness that keeps India's attractive quotient alive even today. This diversity needs to be cherished, protected and nourished in order to insure a bright future for generations that inherit this nation from us.

With this background, a nation 'constructed' by the union of such diverse people would be expected to peacefully co-exist (internally) and prosper only when all of its shared heritages find equal respect in the union, and no one particular constituent heritage gets any special attention & focus of the government and its undertakings regardless of the expanse of geography and population who inherit that one heritage or culture.

Unfortunately in the last 6 decades this doesn't seem to have happened - with documents right from the Indian constitution to various legislations passed in the parliament and various rules framed for the executive wing to operate in - have all shown serious bias towards the Hindi language:-

1. Beginning right from "Part-17" of the Indian constitution which proclaims Hindi to be the "official language" of the Indian Union - one particular constituent language of the union is made Official here, indirectly rejecting all other Indian languages as unofficial and signaling them as second-grade or unwelcome in the union. 
2. The omnipresent Three-Language policy of the union government also makes Hindi usage (even in non-Hindi speaking areas) mandatory simply because the concerned organization is remotely, partly or fully funded by the central government - a govt that is elected so as to be neutral, equal & federal in its structure and operations! 
3. Legislations that bind appointed ministers to use only Hindi while speaking in the parliament, denying them basic rights to even speak in their mother tongue are but clear examples of such undue bias shown towards Hindi much at the peril of fair representation and progress of the Indian peoples speaking different languages.

As a result (Cultural) Diversity which formed the foundation stone of unity (& thereby progress) of this pillaring nation, has gradually been converted & demonized as something that the nation must dread and hate in the background while picturing Hindi in the foreground as 'one language' that can unite the different peoples of this subcontinent. All this at a dear cost to the various non-Hindi cultures of this subcontinent.


The various policies incorporated by subsequent elected governments at the center only seem to have imposed and further engraved in people's minds that uniformity (anti- diversity) is required to build & sustain unity in the Indian union. This unity rhetoric is dangerous, not just wrong, because neither unity nor progress, nor development of the Indian union retains any further meaning after the nation is left without its characteristic diversity and 'one selected' language is licensed to bulldoze upon all other Indian languages and permitted to feign representation of the entire linguistic & cultural landscape of the nation.

(image technology courtesy www.ragemaker.com)

However wrong that might be, incidental progress & developments continue to be shown as by-products of this unity. But this unity, whatever it is actually, is coming at the cost of several bonds being broken between people and their respective cherished identities. This Hindi imposition upon different peoples of India is sucking the rich diversity of India from within, creating big problems for all the non-Hindi speakers in India. Above all problems, Hindi imposition is a highly immoral and illegal activity for a democratically elected government to indulge in.


Going by available data, be it in relation to

• TV channels, 
• Textbooks,
• Banks,
• Railway network, 
• Airports, 
• Highways, 
• Museums, 
• Cultural, Tourist & Archaelogical hotspots
• Subsidy programs, 
• People enumeration/enrolment programs 

among other Union Government undertakings, even some state government undertakings, or even some projects that the emerging private sector in India runs in the post-liberalization era, the projected image of Hindi suggests that it represents the entire nation and its citizens, and this single medium is 'enough' to reach out to a massively diverse Indian society. This is the myth people of India need to wake up to. This is the myth we Kannadigas need to wake up to, and oppose Hindi imposition in all its forms. That is the only way this nation's tall pillars can be held strong, the only way people of all backgrounds, cultures and languages can get fair & equal representation and chance to retain their identity even while carving out better lives for themselves. For that is indeed true development of people - one that happens without requiring an individual to give up his/her inherited identity altogether.

Now, lets look at this in current context - on September 14th every year the Indian government runs nationwide celebrations labeled as Hindi Divas - a day, and lately a complete week (Hindi Saptaah) in which programs run under the aegis of center's Department of Official language drain public money - towards rewarding people & govt. organizations that display 'excellence' in Hindi, towards fostering better 'performances' in coming years promising & announcing promotions to people who successfully deploy Hindi in their daily usage at work instead of their respective mother tongues. While these expenditures appear biased towards Hindi and aren't justifiable themselves, this is just a valedictory of year-long expenditures of similar kind. For instance, statistics from various central govt. programs show that more money gets spent on Hindi programs than towards Civil Defence - most vital for internal security.

With such glaring examples, the ill-effects of Hindi imposition can't be clearer. I strongly oppose Hindi Imposition and the various programs & celebrations that follow on its lines.

Saku Hindi Herike Nillisi!

Hindi Imposition Must Stop!

When Regulation Borders on Sponsored Aberration

In these inflationary times one would not be surprised if the nation's central bank - RBI - finds its way into news stands every now and then. But it is a surprise when the top executives of RBI - banker to the nation's banks - while expressing their concerns over an apparent gap between common man's language and the banking language, mention that "Hindi has become the contact language of the country," and also go on to say that "Encouraging the use of Hindi is not only our statutory responsibility but it is also necessary for taking banking to the common person."

Somehow everything here doesn't seem to be in place. I am finding it difficult to link this set of words, as found in the RBI Act 1934, describing RBI's charter in India:

...to regulate the issue of Bank notes and the keeping of reserves with a view to securing monetary stability in India and generally to operate the currency and credit system of the country to its advantage

and the following words uttered by RBI top executives:

Encouraging the use of Hindi is not only our statutory responsibility but it is also necessary for taking banking to the common person.

What on earth is the RBI actually heading towards? 
On one hand we have a billion strong nation and a substantial percentage of them unable to support a square meal for themselves every night, and now the relentless food inflation has only made matters worse. On the other hand we seem to find RBI digressing, or unreasonably extending its charter (as said in the RBI Act) to include encouraging the use of Hindi under the pretext of statutory responsibility. It is also shocking to find RBI reasoning this by saying that it is necessary for taking banking to the common person. Is RBI aware of the problems such policies are actually creating to people of various languages in this country? Isn't RBI shooting itself in the foot by implementing such blind policies in the name of increasing financial inclusion?

Is RBI free enough to think & operate?
Looking at the caliber of statesmen that RBI has always employed, the tone in their words could drive anyone to speculate over the degrees of freedom RBI enjoys in performing its regulatory duties. Is RBI given enough freedom to perform independent research about the reasons for lower financial inclusion in this linguistically diverse nation? Is RBI under any diktat that spells its surrogate language policy instead of independently designing one based on its research? Are the people & businesses of this diverse nation being shown an empowered institution as the caretaker of policies related to banking, while being kept blind to the supply of these surrogate policies, themselves from the bygone era, through the back-door? By means of such policies that not only ignore the nation's diversity but also make-believe diversity to be anti-growth, is the RBI not being implicitly projected as the body that lowers, and not elevates, the bar when it comes to achieving higher financial inclusion. In this age of globalization, liberal markets and free information, how can such a statute body conclude Hindi to be the contact language to bank with the entire nation whereas people are actually demanding banking in their respective languages, day-in day-out? Isn't RBI being denied its prerogative to operate freely and instruct banks on topics of higher gravity and let the individual banks design their remaining policies based on market demands?

Wasteful, imposing policies
With an announced goal to achieve higher financial inclusion in the country, the RBI through its policies appears to be setting up the economy for exclusion, for such policies are only digging a moat separating the financial system from the non-Hindi peoples of India - a moat that is difficult to cross even if it were to fetch financial inclusion.

For instance, by making provision of service in Hindi & English mandatory, but service in regional language optional across all functions of banks & financial institutions under its ambit, people speaking non-Hindi languages are conveniently excluded from, not included in, the financial ecosystem. While assuming Hindi to be the contact language in India is grossly wrong, this assumption has catalyzed Hindi imposition in India and fueled programs that also waste huge amounts of taxes paid by non-Hindi people of India.

The need of the hour is much more independent and federal banking regulation in India, with freedom to base their policies on their own market research. There's an urgent need to limit banking regulation to policies that cannot be based on market forces. Bottom line is that banking in India is in urgent need to steer clear of all aberrations and usher in a truly fair market to all Indians.

Whether you're a citizen, or a customer, there's no Free Lunch!

A couple of posts ago I wrote about markets, democracy, and forces that exist within each of these, and how, in our society, we're finding them wrestle one another, but of course, not helping anyone in the end. Today I continue talking about these two devils - the market and a democracy, in a not very different perspective.

The reason I call them devils is both of them seem to possess a power derived out of our very own lack of wisdom - wisdom as citizens and customers respectively.

Every day in our lives whenever the reason for being represented (reason for democracy i.e.) or the reason for being a customer (reason for a market i.e.) is beyond both extremes, a new problem starts cooking underneath us all. Be it our farmers expecting a government support-price for their produce, or the rice-growers themselves seeking govt. subsidized rice and cereals, they form clear evidence of misunderstood purpose of government. On the other hand an aberration of an individual's needs as wants has led to the typical excessive consumerism syndrome in most urban settlements in our society. All these appear to portray a common issue - that of wrongly placed expectations from both a democracy and the market.

The 'representation misunderstood' problem

Why do the farmers (yield to) expect a govt. support price for their produce when there exists a market craving to consume them? They need to be educated about the purpose of a government, and about the existence of a market. Why do the literate settlers among us believe it to be the handiwork of some political party when petrol prices go up, or why do we feel the govt must fly in like Superman and save the sky-rocketing onion prices? Clearly we need to be informed about the role of government in all such situations.

The 'market misunderstood' problem

Why do the typical urban shoppers yield to consumerism, get seduced by calls of marketers, and forget the elementary difference between the needs and wants of life? Why does a majority of the urban consumer base appear to be buying/consuming stuff that it actually didn't need? Why so especially when those wants hide beneath them grave dangers for mankind? We need to be wary of our needs, and reassurance that discovering one's needs is more important than knowing one's wants. We need to also know that there are memories of the marketer's magic in our mind that make our wants different from our needs. And we need to realize that this disparity between needs & wants is dangerous to our economies and the ecology alike.

Let there be Jaagruti

In summary, aren't we misinterpreting the purpose of a government and a market? Said another way, isn't the government and the market not appearing to take undue advantage of the lack of awareness in people? Is it something in the system that has made the government and the market act that way? Or was it always built that way, expecting always, the constituents of the system to educate themselves so as to avoid disappointment? If latter be true, I guess it is time we realized that in a democracy, like in a market, there's nothing called free-lunch, and the only way to liberation is good education. People need to know what to expect from a government and a market, and not get these two mixed up! After all, education (jaagruti) is what man needs to go after - be as a citizen, or as a customer.

This ATM tells Hindi before Money

Quite sometime ago I had seen this on someone's T-shirt : "My Dad is an ATM." Good joke, but looking at most of our ATMs in Karnataka (like the one in the pic), I feel most Dads in our state still have long time left before real ATMs replaced them! Why? Because the ATMs in our state are hard to use and employ an alien language even today. Shockingly, this Bangalore ATM believes it has given its users a language choice!

A HDFC ATM in Bangalore (Photo taken in Jun '09)

The Indian government, under the Rajbhasha prerogative, regulates the national bank, RBI, to instruct all Scheduled Commercial Banks of India to follow a language policy in their operations; a policy fleshed in Hindi but clothed by the fabric of consumer welfare. Now, where in the democratic world, running a market economy, would a government regulate banks to use a particular language in their functions, operate their ATMs in a particular language? What such banking regulation and packaged goods rules prove is the existence of scrupulous efforts of Indian policy makers in spreading the blanket of Hindi imposition as wide across the society as possible. And all this, at the cost of every commoner's hard-earned money.

That a consumer's language has been exiled and replaced by Hindi in these ATMs is not the only concern here. The biggest concern is really about the customers' wallets! A concern about dwindling funds of customers when banks end up having to make unnecessary expenditure towards upkeep of all those Hindi implementation programs in their operations; programs while seldom serving any purpose to a majority of customers in India, has also caused harm in many an occasion. Of course that doesn't include stray incidents of losses customers incurred because of faulty transactions due to miscommunication and language mismatch! In a time when every Rupee is considered valuable in investing towards a better future, each such Rupee wasted because of such language policy is but a wastage of people's hard earned money and a crime no less.

The question we as citizens need to ask (ourselves first) is 'did we elect a government so that they could spend our moneys on imposing an alien language such as Hindi on us?' If not should the government not stop elevating Hindi as opposed to our language in banks in our own locality too?