Ability should be the criteria

Readers of this blog would recall that I predicted that the Congress (and Sonia Gandhi too) would show some prudence in electing any seasoned politician from its camp (and there are many) to be the next Prime Minister. Sonia could still be the party supremo to act as the "source of inspiration" for the party workers as well as create a "power centre" within the organisation to dispel internal feuds and power struggles (as the newspapers report, Sonia atleast tried her bit by saying a firm no to the PMship yesterday). Actually, on her becoming the PM I have a mixed opinion. On one hand I have strong objections to the BJP stand on this on the other I don't find her too capable for the post too. This was something I wrote on my Hindi blog almost 6 months ago:

Few days ago, Atalji was delighted at the prospects of Bobby Jindal becoming the Governor of Louisiana. Had he won the elections, perhaps he would have penned down a poem on the rising stature of NRIs. It feels good to see an Indian rise on the political ladders of any other nation, even if the person does not regard himself an Indian anymore, but a similar situation happening in our own country hurts, even if she is a lady married to an Indian, even if she speaks better Hindi than a former Prime Minister Devegowda can.

As a matter of fact, any qualification on the basis of which you and I would get selected in exams and recruitment processes cannot form the basis of being elected in politics, be it the education qualification, Age limit or work experience. It's little surprise that we often end up selecting illiterate people, people with criminal backgrounds or those in the last stages of their lives. And who can talk of electing here? In an era of coalition politics you can never be sure that the parties you rejected would not come to power as a result of their brokering allegiance with the largest party.

I am not a Sonia devotee, but I have reservations on the points n which she is being opposed. Selecting a veteran like Atalji or a novice like Sonia, there is no visible benefit in either propositions. While in the case of novices like Sonia, the people who would benefit are the beaurocrats and the kitchen cabinet would run the government in proxy, in the case of experienced players indulging in suitcase politics cannot be ruled out. I feel we need to take a middle route.

I am worried that with Sonia at the helm, the government will have to spend most of its time justifying its each and every action, as the opposition will raise doubts on the integrity of such decisions, especially in matters of national security.

While on the topic:

• Why am I disturbed about Sonia as PM?


• We deserve a better Prime minister


• Tavleen Singh's anti-Sonia tirade


• Foreign Origin

Gosling coming to India

The Java "pitru-purush" (father figure), James Gosling will be on his maiden India visit this week. He would be here to participate in the Sun Tech Days, taking place on May 20-21 at Hyderabad. The theme for this year is "Turning Ideas into Innovation". It should be a grand event as there are almost 3 lacs Java developers in the country (almost half of the entire developer population) and the number is steadily rising. And the presence of Gosling must be the most inspiring part of the event. At present, Gosling is vice-president and Sun Fellow at Sun Microsystems and is also a researcher at Sun Labs.

The disinvestment card!

My father is a retired public sector undertaking employee. Having grown up in a city within a city scenario where this navratna organisation had created all kind of facilities for its employees sector-wise schools, colleges, dispensaries, shopping complexes, recreational facilities, everything the employee and their families would ever need, I have deep respect for public sector organisations. But over the time they haven't been able to sustain themselves. When I finished my graduation the organisation hadn't recruited a single engineer since 4 years, the employee quarters were slowly being sold-given on rent to outsiders, many education society schools were closed and a lot of checks were put on providing medical facilities especially to the retired ones. Obviously it hurts, but it also underlined the compulsions of such a public sector organisation. In this case this was a profit making enterprise but most of the otters aren't.

Which brings me to the core issue, the discussion started on scrapping of the Disinvestment ministry prorogated by the Left as it prepares to back a Congress lead government at the center. The leftist thinking obviously has roots in safeguarding worker rights. They maintain that disinvestments need a human face, don't sell the "family jewels", don't disinvest the navratnas, the profit making non-navratnas they say. This has caused much furore. The Samajwadi party terming Shourie as "a economic terrorist" says, "Sell only those that are not making profits". If you look at the primary reasons for disinvestment, they were manifold:

1. Removing government monopoly and allow private sector players to participate so that better competition leads to better services/competitive prices
   


2. Get rid of loss making organisations, organisations with surplus manpower, high overheads.
   


3. Redeployment of resources in areas that are much higher on the social priority, such as, basic health, family welfare, primary education and social and essential infrastructure
   

While I fail to understand how the disinvestment decision on the two petroleum giants, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) would have justified on the point (2), since they have consistently contributed to the Central exchequer, the last point is the one that interests me. Government should not certainly be burdened with running companies, but if it has to, as in matters of National security and safeguard (Atomic energy, railways for instance) and for social concerns, it should perhaps limit itself to the sectors mentioned at (3).

The disinvestment issue indeed is touchy and in all ways non-populist . Now there are umpteen ways to populism but they can cause serious repercussions too. Remember that Digvijay Singh lost in last assembly elections mainly because he refused to pay perks to government employees, who comprise of 1% of MP voters, and cut down posts as he had to cut the cost to the exchequer on salaries in order to satisfy the rest of 99% in form of subsidies (for example: in form of "free" electricity). Today many such governments will be shocked to discover, when they actually hold the steering, that infact there is no money in their wallet to entertain such populist measures. When people tend to feel that employment is being cut (it doesn't matter if in organisation alike the National Textiles people are drawing salaries sitting at home, rationale being where else can they go) they will protest. Third parties can always smell foul and say the the companies were under-sold or there was something fishy in the deals. We must remember that perhaps this was the reason that Arun Shourie was given the charge for the ministry, for his non-partisan, steady image. Thanks to the forward looking attitude of many such public sector employees like my father, atleast people like me are not sitting at home waiting for the trade unions to fetch us a secure sarkari job. These are not the days to leech to government run enterprises for nourishment simply because you voted for the government.

Congress has been the pioneer in playing populism cards (ranging from Castes to Ayodhya) but if they try playing with seemingly sane economy measures, just to appease the allies, they might just pay the price as well. The way of economy, India has started traveling on, I think no party ever can stop the pace. It's just a matter of public image, behind the scenes they will have to do what all others have been doing, whosoever comes to power. My advise to these politicians is: pick some other card to play.

Simplicity is the key!

If there is one thing that has undisputedly emerged as the winner at Elections 2004, it is the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). A country where 35% people are still illiterate, yet a country regarded as a super-power in IT manpower, infact a country with all kind of contradictions voted in this elections entirely through EVMs, with no problems. Credit indeed goes to the designers who envisaged this simple, no-fuss but robust machine. The upset for BJP in the final tally also proves the integrity of the devices and should put an end to the apprehensions that the logic in these machines could be doctored. In my comment to a post I had said that it wouldn't be prudent to reject any/all such claims because after all the software logic may be manipulated and hardware could get damaged during transit or due to sabotage. I also maintained however that, as far as software is concerned I don't think in a mass-production scenario anybody can really perform such manipulations to add his sinister-logic, however the robustness of the device does matter.

In one of the best analogies I have read so far, this post informs why a similar American experiment with Diebold might have failed. (It's time perhaps, the manufacturers think of getting few export orders! As far as the issue of carrying next elections on EVMs is concerned, I would reiterate that a better way to instill confidence among voters would be to make the source-code/internal details for the device public so that the initiated could debate. A closed-door affair will obviously lead to further apprehensions and speculations.

Technical conscience?

When I first saw the link to the gruesome video showing American contractor Nicholas Berg being beheaded in Iraq at Jihva's I had expressed my anguish over the internet rage such videos become in a jiffy. I wondered on what makes the Internet fraternity to happily pass on the links to such gruesome videos (I remember a friend of mine gleefully calling me to his cubicle and displaying the Daniel Pearl one, I had to leave as soon as the slitting began), the link Jihva refered to provided at least 4 links to sites and mirrors hosting the video apart from detailing the whole video with a poor rationale.

I feel the enjoyment (what else can I call it) such people derive by distributing the links is very similar to people attending public executions. I do not at all see an iota of any kind of sentiment in passing such links. One can discuss the issue, condemn it but telling others "hey, you cannot condemn this enough if you don't watch the video yourself" is as ridiculous as telling "man I told you it's gory". It is at times such as these that one realizes the futility of Internet!

I heard that the Malaysian web-hosting services, that started this, had taken the video down. The company said:

Though the decision to close the website was a technical one, .. the company would have acted earlier on moral grounds if it had known the site's contents.

Afterthoughts

Few afterthoughts on the Elections 2004 that I must pen down.

• Tough days ahead for Congress, reorganizing the cadres, dealing with inline power spots and above all running a coalition with a bloated ego. Though leaders like Paswan (who earlier backed NDA) want to be part of the government, many (like CPI(M)) will chose to stay outside. Such partners will only add to the risks. We are perhaps again going to have a super-sized cabinet.


• This is not a mandate for Congress in all probability, not a mandate for "secular" forces either. Anti-incumbency is a potent factor in India. People were bored with NDA, the campaign was "up-market", people at the grass-roots spend the election days wondering what "Feel-good" means in their local lingo, leave alone deciphering the publicised achievments of technological advances and swelling Forex reserve at the helm.


• Running a party and an election campaign like a company does not always pays. If psephological research work on the Indian voter mentality and trends were so accurate the exit polls would have predicted the outcome. Planning on papers is hardly a solution if the party worker is not content with the party; and remember, he is the only link to the denominator.


• People want entertainment even during elections now, reason why so many actors heading towards parliament this time, those who were famous and charismatic won against all odds.


• Past performance hardly matters, public has short political memories. Why was Jagmohan defeated? Why did Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Titler win?


• Don't shed your spots, BJP understood that. But will it go back to the Temple issue next time and will Vajpayee take a political sanyas now?
  

Thrills of Democracy

What a turnaround! Couple of weeks ago I was contemplating on how LK Advani will overrule Vajpayee after an NDA win. But in my earlier post on the Chandrababu Naidu debacle I had talked about the choice of Chip and Chapati that a voter of today is presented today. I am happy that he has shown that he can be affected but not blinded by the glitter of colossal campaigns run on money and charisma. He has shown that carrying a mobile is not an indicator of all round growth. He has shown that like the English term "feel-good" the campaign BJP ran was on alien terms. But is it a mandate for Sonia and the dynasty rule. My notion is No. Accept it or not Incumbency is a potent factor, this government lasted a full term log enough to bore people. On top of that imagine ruling BJP minus the Temple fizz, minus the Huinduist agenda, sheltering corrupt ministers like Judeo and Bangaru, making personal attacks on Sonia, an ageing PM un-approving of its party tactics. When your basic amenities are not guaranteed who cares for as rising sensex.

What I am worried about are the power brokers from non-entity parties who will now strive to strike the best deal from the Samajwadi party to the Trinamul, from BSP to CPI(M). Who will be the PM then, my bet is P.V.Narsimha Rao again (backed by a former PM Chandrashekhar, acceptable to all congress ranks, experienced, no worry of going on to next terms, acquitted by court from corruption charges he is stronger than ever. What? Manhoman Singh...ummm?

Prizes surprizes!

It has been long since I won anything in some contest or the like, so the last fortnight unveiled few pleasent surprises for me. First the Microsoft Wireless Optical desktop that I won at a competition at Bhasha India (stupid courier walas managed to do a vanishing trick on the 4 batteries though) and second a book on JFC Swings at Javaranch's giveaway. Wish the spree continues!

The Cyberabad debacle

They had a choice to go for a CEO or choose an able Chief Minister and people of Andhra Pradesh settled for the latter. The recipe of advances in the IT, economic reforms hardly mattered for 80% of the people who were dealing with abject poverty and lack of development. IT has been a pure urban revolution and who cares for such phenomenon when you are not promised your daily meal and basic amenities. Like Digvijay Singh, the erstwhile chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, the seemingly progressive image of TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu was a faltering shadow of similar issues. With no roots at the grass-root and intoxicated by power he was getting oblivious of the power of the people. Issues of Nizamabad emerged stronger than the conern for Cyberabad. While I am not making out too much for Congress in Loksabha from these results, BJP in any case had negligible presence in South, it is good to see that the janata still has the ability to think for its own good and turn the tables when it is needed. Murky or not, I agree that the water in the political swimming pool needs to be changed every 5 years just to ensure the health of a democracy. And when it comes to deciding on which is needed more, the chip or the chapati, people for whom survival itself is a daily battle to wage, know which way to go for.