Rural India is now a changed place!
50% of the GDP now comes from rural India. Also, nearly 50 % of the rich and very rich are rural households.

This is how a leading national newspaper headlines its story! Rural India in shambles! Rural India had been a game for long. It is both good politics and bad morality, a pricking one at that!

Too many experts,  academic theoreticians and screaming headlines grabbing journalists do a great disservice to the rural India. From Gandhi to Kalam, we have had it enough! Too much utopia-building, too much easy chari fantasising!

Rural India is throbbing with a new sense of optimism and it is thriving. This positive reality is not conveyed by our growing competitive media industry, print and TV media!
Even the so-called highly respected and highly rated print media houses have become  so pro-establishment and also  faced with competition from rivals that often they resort to the simple device: sensationalism!

The Hindu(August 9, 2007) in its edit-page article by P.Sainath with his new found honour of the Magsaysay award for journalism, has written a piece on “the growing decade of our discontent” In this piece he cites so much statistics to show, among other things, about the rising farmers suicides and in this survey of growing inequalities and inequities he cites statistics to show that the last”15 years show the ruthlessness with which the inequality is engineered. The cynicism with which it has been constructed and the scale  on  which it exists”.

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The PM hasn’t allayed India’s fears about American defence relations!
Fears about Indo-US co-operation on our strategic defence not allayed by the PM and his advisers.

The Indo-US nuclear deal has created a deadlock for the UPA. The Left is posturing. Everyone who knows the history and the mentality of the Indian Communists says that the Left is always trouble makers and they don’t do anything to promote India’s progress.
The real question before India is what is the future of India? What are the perceptions of India’s real security concerns?

India is emerging as a major economic and strategic power for the simple reason we are the largest democracy and an economic power driven by the IT revolution. India is the world hub for outsourcing that has made Indian technical human resources number one in the world.
That is why the USA needs India’s friendship and in turn India too needs US friendship. This simple truth somehow gets politicised for various reasons in various forms.

Yes, we all know that there is a strong anti-American feeling worldwide for the obvious reason America is a sole world superpower and in a world of 200 states, most of them small and economically weak, it is just natural that the big power is always resented. Also, the globalisation has given rise to new perceptions and new aspirations. There is a historically unprecedented economic growth, thanks to globalisation (what is globalisation and its plus and minus points is another separate topic) and the new prosperity of the new century needs to be properly appreciated by the thinking sections in India. Certain historic perspective is needed to appreciate this.

For instance, the last half a century, after the end of the second world war and also after the old colonial empires all disintegrated in the wake of the end of the world war, the last half a century has been free of a new world war. Though there have been minor wars, the disintegration of Soviet Russia in 1989 and a new sense of awakening leading to new states seeking their own identities that is why we saw the wars in the Balkans, in the Middle East and also the rise of a new international terrorism.

The USA has to bear the brunt of the superpower status and in a world that is free of a world war; the new issues have led to some uncertainties. The international terrorist attack in New York had shaken the old confidence of the USA. This was the first time a major attack takes place against the USA. As such the US resorted to a unilateral war, first, in Afghanistan and then in Iraq.

Now, after the two years of Iraqi war experience, the USA seems to have learnt some lessons. The Iraqi war seems to be going on wrongly for a long time now and the next moves, after the exit of Tony Blair, seems to be somehow bring in the UN into the war management. As Eric Hobsbawm, the historian has pointed out that in Iraq, the USA doesn’t deploy the US army personnel as such, in fact, it is noted that about 30 thousand private (profit-making) army contractors, war contractors are engaged to fight the war!

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India must articulate our own global vision and an independent strategic broad picture Indo-US nuclear deal is clearly for India’s advantage So,why this running away from realities and our weakness for factionalist politics?

It is a great pity that after the Left threat to withdraw support for the government,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh still chose to sound adamant and in a subsequent public function,asserted that India needs nuclear energy for its energy security. He didn’t choose to defend the nuclear deal on the grounds of its need for India’s strategic concerns.He really doesn’t seem to have a more broad picture of the world into which India would have to finds its path.

In a world that would be free of great power tensions or in any possible return to any new Cold War situations. India has to have an independent strategic role.And this,the present government,fails to articulate.India has to realise it is a mature democracy where new ideas and new ideals must emerge out of our own thinking and a confidence in our own capabilities to emerge as a major world power.

When I read about the sudden developments on the political front over the Indo-US nuclear deal,my thoughts went not forward but backward.Not to the future of India,of which I am so confident but of the century old India when the great sanyasi,Swami Vivekananda,went to the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago and thundered about India’s unique strengths and asserted Hinduism’s great universal appeal.

I went to a Ramakrishna Mission school.It was both a Ramakrishna and a Gandhian school and as such I grew up imbibing both patriotism as well as a love for the country as a repository of all the great wisdoms.So,whenever I see any faltering on the fronts of India, be it India’s great past or its great future ,I feel a special emotion or sentiment to rise up and stand for what I consider to be India’s great potential.

So,when I find the Prime Minister falter in truly explaining the many dimensions of the nuclear deal I thought of jumping at the Parliamentary gate and rushing into it to say what I feel like saying. Now,the nuclear deal is a process started earlier under the Vajpayee era.And let us remember that this is not just a Manmohan Singh handiwork and why this background is not explained to the MPs?Everyone wants to score a point and be it Yashwant Sinha or the CPI(M)and CPI wallahs,they seem to imagine that they only have the patent to stand up to the USA! It is a great illusion. The world is changed a lot these days.Globalisation and much of what the world was when the Cold War lasted had gone off.What we have is a unique historic situation,of course with the current dangers like international terrorism etc.The USA has been the sole superpower for the last 15 years or so and everyone knows it.Russia and China know this world reality,if not the Indians. All this doesn’t mean that what the USA has done in Iraq is justified.That is why India hasn’t sent troops as even other countries have done.This itself is a justification why India should reciprocate in other areas of co-operation.

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How to assess Sonia Gandhi’s leadership?

Kiran Bedi can’t have the cake and eat it too! While serving in uniform, you can’t play a Medha Patkar or a Mamata Banerjee!

Women empowerment is taken, mistakenly,as putting women in political office! This is just an empowerment by accident! The “widows syndrome”! In the Western societies women empowerment is much more rationally understood, where women come to social and political leadership through a process of educational and cultural attainments of women. In the USA, women have made to the top of the corporate world, we have so many success stories as with women CEOs!

In India, we don’t yet fully appreciate the women’s participation in male-dominated world. Even in bureaucracy, we see the gender discrimination blatantly. A Veena Sikri is fighting for information or a Kiran Bedi is fuming and the government, in panic, is said to have offered secretly Governor’s post!

Even the political parties don’t yet believe in the 33% women’s quota! The Communists make a ritual noise, the Dravidian parties only ask for OBC quota, the North Indian parties are more honest!

So, women empowerment should be seen from a broader angle, now many new avenues are opening up for competent women, media, corporate world, army, police and sports. IT industry has brought a radical change in employing an increasing proportion of women in software and related areas.

After the election of a woman President of India, we seem to be going through a process of new debates and deliberations about women empowerment. Mrs.Sonia Gandhi ,after announcing the ‘nomination’ of Pratibha Patil as the candidate said famously, this was a historic moment! How historic is it and how justified such a statement?

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India should  respond magnanimously and with confidence in the future!

The USA is  a super power not in the ordinary sense of the term in which it is always couched and understood.To understand the current world developments,the globalisation and all that we need to have a look at the past,a look at history  of the long  past and the recent past as well also understand the context of the present times.
There is much talk of the globalisation.How this has come about? Various explanations are offered.One,some historic event.An event like  the mastering of the technology of navigation led to the discovery of America by Columbus.That turned the geographical face of the world  trade,from East to the Atlantic West.That was one stage of globalisation.Another,the industrialization 200 years ago.That also had something to do with the technological revolution.Now,the third phase in modern history,this current globalisation.Again, caused by the IT and the telecom revolution that cut the geographical borders for the flow of information and knowledge.
So,this globalisation has  impacted  the world’s developed  economies and the markets in a particular way,in a particular direction.That is towards  the flow of funds and  goods and services where the large new markets are.Also,one consequence of the Information Technology  revolution is that given the telecom revolution making the world ‘flat’ that the most economical way of doing business is through ‘outsourcing’ to  countries where the labour is cheap and the manpower highly qualified and in abundance.That is how India has come to acquire the current almost cult status among the developing economies for  outsourcing.
Along with the opening of the markets,the flow of foreign funds have led to a new investment boom and a new economic growth boom also.
One great attraction of India for the outside world,though this is not widely admitted openly by the more developed countries is the fact that Indian democracy is a great asset to India and the world.As George Bush used to say that India is a country of one billion people,one million problems and a great democracy.In the place of the”vision thing” we in India must learn to put the”democracy thing”as our great inherent strength.
Thus,an India that is also a sort of de facto leader of the Third World countries,the Non-Alignment Movement gives India a unique historic context and a current relevance in the American scheme of things.America,in the post Iraqi war phase needs friends to bolster its image in the world as a responsible and mature power.This,only an India can give to America,however much the rest of the G-8 countries might add to US muscle power.America needs a moral  legitimacy for much of its world reach and for winning over new allies in its new coalition partners. That is how one  former national security adviser to the US Presidents,Brent Scowcroft, puts it in a recent column.The typical American simplistic”you are for us or against us”view wont win friends anymore,given the way the world is polarized today.Also,the many new approaches like the”regime change” as happened in Afghanistan and Iraq wont happen anymore,either in Syria or in Iran and one can be sure the US in future would not rush to act as Bush did in other parts of the world.The old  Cold War might have disappeared but a new Cold War is waiting to happen.We have just to see the Russia and China acting through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and also the new tensions that might arise over the  sharing of the gas and oil over which countries like Russia and Iran have much stake.
Even in extending the sphere of influence in other parts of the world,the US needs allies outside its narrow prism of the world scenario.As the expert says that people increasingly are unwilling to give the USA the benefit of doubt and the world cant be divided into good and evil or the US yardstick of democracy also wont win favor with many a country or a regional blocs.
So,in a way George Bush would go down in history  as the one who launched the unilateral wars with such disastrous consequences,no launcher of a war for whatever reasons,ever gets any positive rating,even the “war to end all wars” didn’t get much recognition by historians and so Bush has one more feather in his cap as he prepares to leave the White House.That is his peace moves with the civil nuclear energy cooperation deal with India.That is a mutual recognition of both the democracies.If not for anything else,India must respond with vigor so that the world becomes a more safer place for lesser powers and  at least the dictatorial regimes and the terrorist groups might be pushed further for gaining more courage.

Thoughts on the new crisis that grips the Prime Minister

The US,in alliance with  UK,still think of winning the war in Iraq.That is the assumption.But  major powers, the G-8 and other powers,think otherwise.The point is that to fight the war against terror is also fraught with problems,as the terrorists constitute an invisible  state!
So,America needs many more allies in this new war on terrorism.Can India be an equal partner with the USA in its new quest for a new world order?A  major question for anyone who have the India of the future in mind.
The ‘conclusion’ of the  Indo-nuclear deal saw the sudden eruption of the Lefts anger  to the point of  disrupting the very existence of the government.As we write there is no clear picture but the PM’s decision to call the Left’s”bluff”as it is described in the media  has certainly created a new  dimension to politics in India.More so,to the India of the  future and the future course of politics and very likely to the very strategic direction this country might take in the foreign affairs. The completion of the 60th year of Independence must have given the government and the people a rare occasion to celebrate and rejoice at our progress on several fronts.But unfortunately,the nuclear deal has created a new uncertainty for the government and politicos in the country.
The occasion otherwise led to many wide-ranging discussions,by various panels to take stock of the  developments so far in the country,in economic sphere,in the politics,thought processes and arts and the media and much else.One saw the new generation achievers,the new billionaires,stars in their own right,from the IT and the telecom industries and also the media stars,again from the new generation achievers from the television channels and the media was well-represented both in the print and the electronic forms,the news channels giving a new  impetus to bring before the viewers the new  generation of achievers,professionals and the articulators of the public mood.The women empowerment is now a strong force for change in much of the social fields and this was in evidence in the many panels  that were  constituted by the news channels.
Unlike the previous Independence day occasions,this time,one saw the interest of the international media and observers too,more so after the very important international foray of the government in the form of concluding a strategic Indo-US nuclear deal.What in fact,set the tone  for a rather  sombre mood was the sudden eruption of a war of words between the Congress and its prime ally,the Left.So,the many reflections on the occasion was in the nature of an introspection.

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Agriculture, a soft topic or  soft target?

The magic 4 per cent  farm growth will elude the Prime Minister,we warn!
The  Independence day  came and the Prime Minister could not feel free to speak!
Yes,he was faced with a  major  crisis!The Left allies in the UPA threatened to withdraw support for his government on the Indo-nuclear deal!
So,he skipped the major achievement of his government as he saw fit.
Instead he had to take recourse to  other topics.What would catch the fancy of the Delhi crowd,mostly government servants and politicians?It is agriculture,education and such soft topics!
Agriculture ,a soft topic or a soft target?Whichever way you look at it,the Prime Minister choosing to skip the more weighty issues like Indo- US nuclear deal,or the great many achievements of India on the completion of the  60th year of Independence had a certain irony!
And he chose to speak on agriculture and yet he didn’t speak with any candour or sincerity.He didn’t mention the continuing crisis ,the farmers suicides,the  compulsions to import wheat at such high costs etc.Instead he resorted to a sort of homily,an innocent-looking  approach to agriculture.Much more damaging to the farmers community is that he didn’t say anything new,he seems to care to know anything more substantial nor  he seems to bother there would be a critical audience  when he doesn’t speak anything substantial.
After all,it is his nature to depend more on bureaucrats  than even  on his own instincts.That is why he repeated the same  speech,almost verbatim,what he said at the previous National Development Council. Except the fact that we are told now that this is the 53rd meeting of the NDC! Also,this time,soon after the Independence day celebrations,almost the next day,the Cabinet met and announced the old allocations,already announced and this time re-worded as Additional Assistance Scheme(ACS) and also in the same breath it is called ,Additional Central Assistance(ACA) for the farm sector! And what is much more demoralizing is the fact that this ACS or ACA is for the  11th Plan only,that is for the entire five years!What is new here?Nothing,almost nothing ,except the new language like”incentivising” the farm sector with “visible” district plans.

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Mass tourism is welcome! But provide more infrastructure!

Preserving heritage sites,visiting the monuments and appreciating the same is  what constitutes man’s search for identity,a link with his past.
Heritage education, cultural  heritage must be integrated with the religious and spiritual quest of the  pilgrimage in the new age of mass tourism.Some thoughts.
India has a rich history of many kingdoms and empires and many dynasties of very  interesting achievements.So too the trail of the pilgrim centers of great antiquity  is too long and too varied.The belief system of the various regions and religions and communities that inhabitated this country are also too  varied and very rich in history and ancient lore.
What is missing today in India is the clear enunciation of a cultural policy for preserving and protecting the ancient monuments and pilgrim centers and heritage sites.
Our rich antiquity can match,if not exceed the other antiquities of yore like Babylon and Egypt and ancient Greece. Here are some thoughts on the great Indian past  of religion,myths and antiquities. Archeology is a fascinating subject.Whenever and wherever I find an opportunity to visit  a site of antiquity or a heritage site or a pilgrim centre I always reach out to the science of archeology and what I have read from the archaeologists.Leonard Woolley’s”Digging up the Past”has been a minor classic on the subject and it gives me endless source of excitement whenever I glance through a page or two of that little gem of a book.This time too I thought much of the antiquities of the pilgrim centres of Tirupati and  Kalahasti in Andra Pradesh
Tirupati has been a perennial favorite pilgrim centre and the richest shrine in India.There are always  hundreds of pilgrims lined up in the cage-like steel structures in the hills of Tirumala atop the hills for a glimpse of the god,Lord Venkateswara.The crowds often  surge to unmanageable strengths and it is this belief of the mass that creates the mass hysteria and that is turned into a thriving business operation by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthana(TTD),a mini-government  in itself.
The  state of Indian society is such that as  the society progresses in all directions,in material conditions as well as in education and awakening,there is an inverse relationship with the rise of mass hysteria for the worship of the popular deity.
So,in the process all supposed sanctities are thrown overboard by the temple administration and the priests seem to have a field day.I found that in the name of several pujas,sevas,the priests seem to have evolved  clever formulas to fleece the un suspect believers and precious time and energy of the people is wasted.
This I found out for myself when at a  recent incident  I found out for myself how even the most intelligent can be misled!
Unfortunately,the  enlightened state government doesn’t seem to have realised that in the crowd control the first objective is to minimise the sufferings of the visitors.First of all correct and reliable information must be given to visitors.This is not now forthcoming and every tries to give false information or try to mislead the  visitors.The chairman of the trust board is a prestigious name and so too the executive officers.But the real clue lies somewhere in the nebulous area of ticket issuers and the  men at the  entry points!
Anyway,what I found  rather disappointing is the lack of any reliable and scientific information about the antiquity of the temple so  revered in the public memory.By chance I saw a notice inside the main temple premises some historic data about how the idol in Sri Rangam,near Trichy in neighbouring Tamil Nadu was hidden here in Tirumala in the 13 century when the Muslim invader Mallikapur invaded the South.So,there is a link with the famous  Sri Rangam temple and this one in Tirumala.But there is no bookshop or any other source where I could get a reliable,archelogical information.That is a pity.
Our people ,both the common and the elite ones,don’t care for such niceties of historic truths or try to link the present feelings of  religion or religious traditions with the past of us.Archeology is all about finding out the exact  external evidence to link our past and thereby we establish and thereby enjoy and enhance our  existence with the past links with our own ancestry.It is the high point in any of our supposed search for god or  a sense of spiritual fulfillment,this understanding of our past with the present.
Tirupati is now a thriving town,a  mini city  and  houses three universities,one regular,another for Sanskrit learning and the third one a full-fledged women’s university. Yet,I didn’t have a hint of the prevailing enlightened sense,the impact of our education and culture and our sense of understanding the environment we live in seems  to  be very poor.It is a great pity.
The neighboring town,Kalahasti houses another famous shrine and this is the one made famous by the Bhakta Kannappa,who gave his eyes to his favourite Lord,Shiva! There is a hill shrine before we enter the main shrine to Isvara,but there is almost no information forthcoming even in a small booklet that was sold there.The book by a Telugu Pandit,Vidwan,M.A.and Ph.D. has written pages and pages of  unintelligible mahatmiyams of the place and even there is a chapter on the Kannappan.But when you look through the pages,there is none at all! Such is the superstition of even the learned that we care more for legends and miracles,less for the exact information,the geography,the history or the archeology of the places we seem to care much for their antiquity.Kalahasti is really a very important centre,its ancient temple of the Chola period is real huge,much more well-planned and elaborate stone works,than what we see in Tirumala and yet the place seems to have been neglected for some unexplained reasons.Surely,the town requires a full-scale  research and a thesis and a book.
So too the Tirupati temple’s worthy antiquities.
The one really  enjoyable visit was the  site of the famous Vijayanagar  period fort at Chandragiri,some 10 km away from Tirupati town on the Bangalore highway.This is the second time I visit the fort.The archeological department has done a good job in manitaining it so well and the  visitors are treated to a history full of twists and turns when the fort came into being after the fall of the Vijayanagar empire  till the fall and disappearance of the dynasty and the disrepair into which the fort has fallen.A very important  reason why this fort acquires so much relevance is that it was here,in this fort,the document pertaining to the lease of the piece of land in Chennai was given to the British traders who later  built their British empire in India!I remembered to have seen the document when I last visited the place,But this time when I visited the said document was not there but there were original receipts issued by the Chittoor collector to the fort  authorities  confirming the fall of the first as an independent kingdom.Some relevant pieces of information taken from archeological Survey’s small pamphlet is given here.

Time for introspection!
We are celebrating 60 years of Independence! What thoughts grips the minds of citizens?
Of course India has come a long way. Our first five year plan had only Rs.20,000 crores as the plan expenditure!We had just 25 universities!
The best salary of  the best brains,be it ICS or the corporate CEOs then were mere peanuts!Today,the young man or woman,just past 25 years  start earning Rs 10,000 to Rs.20,000 in the BPO sector!
India today has the largest number of dollar millionaires!
IT and the Internet has revolutionised the Indian economy and much more importantly,the Indian mindset!
Even the names of Gandhi and Nehru sound a bit quaint!
Yes,they belonged to an era that is long past the memory of the present  generation!
Big theories,big talk,utopian thoughts,even any hint of the old style hypocrisy sounds unpardonable sins!
Just now,I read that the PM,Dr. Manmohan Singh,calling” Gandhi’s message still relevant” highly hyprocritical! The same day his government’s public sector banks advertised collectively their message from Gandhi’s famous quotation on”a customer “in their premises!
This is the height of our double talk,a national bane!
Our national character flaws need much introspection on this day of celebration!
There is a great deal of debate about India’s development strategies.There are optimists and pessimists.The optimists are those who look at the developments in the last 10 or 15 years.One need not be an apologist for the  government when we see the radical developments in the IT industry.It has single-handedly,I mean without any help or even understanding from the government has suddenly burst upon  us  one fine day!
Historians in future would search the exact beginning of this revolution.One happy thought for me is that either knowingly or unknowingly I was a witness to this sudden revolution in the mid-eighties.At that time I was a frequent visitor to Bangalore and I could say I was at the exact point of this great change, this historic change when Bangalore was giving way to a new wind  of change.The city till then was still in its old world charm,the pace of life was still very slow and there was lots of space and  clean air everywhere,the people were moving in their old  sense of certainty.I remember buying the book,the “Silicon Valley Fever”,in Chennai one day and after going through the book I was really astonished,I wondered often whether such a change can take place in technology,I never realised that such a change would very soon hit us here in the very  city where I was  exploring my way through some business ventures.

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An unequal and inequitous society?
Our society is inegalitarian; hierarchical only!

Only social sciences can give us that rare insight into human behaviour,human psychology and also much of the social dynamics without which we can’t talk possibly with any deeper sense about the future.

A new Liberalism in times of so much terror and destruction and violence?

The Social Justice ministry presided over by Meira Kumar, the distinguished daughter of the late great leader Jagjivan Ram, has written to the government, the ministry of braodcasting, drawing attention to the need for the media, in particular,how the names of specific castes be addressed.The current usages like “upper castes” and “lower castes” give a derogatory impression and so the correct scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and other backward castes are better in public discourse.This is a right message and the right sentiment,given the discriminations that abound in our society.
The terms “castes”and”classes” are always problematic and troublesome in our social discourse. They convey often conflicting meanings.
Society is a unique human organisation that accommodates and assmilates all the humans and their aspirations. Their often contradictory natures, the individuals and groups within societies, are turned into some structure and given meaning in differing manners suited for each age and times.
The various progressive measures to bring in a new sense of social justice have done much to ensure this but the more political solutions like 69 per cent reservations for OBCs have been stalled by court cases and at present the 50 per cent reservation seems to be one solution for justice.But the political solutions remain political, only a vote bank politics and the society as a whole has remained immune to the march towards what is called social justice.

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