CABINET RESHUFFLE AND THE FARCE OF GOVERNANCE IN INDIA

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books The cabinet reshuffle that was announced this morning reminds me of the famous line that a hopeless and desperate measure can be compared with rearranging the deck chairs on the sinking Titanic. The Congress party over the past 10 years has presided over scandals of monumental proportions and in spite of Parliamentary inquiries nothing tangible has emerged. The Joint Parliamentary Committee which was to probe the 2G Spectrum Scandal was stymied right from the start by the recalcitrant attitude of the Congress party and this faced the main opposition party to quit the panel. The Coal Allocation Scandal has cost the national exchequer more the 6 billion US dollars and there is no visible sign of the scandal going away soon. To make matters worse, the Son in law of Sonia Gandhi seems to have built a real estate empire using funds from sources which are clearly illegal and dubious. Against this backdrop, the chances of the Congress doing well in the 2014 General Election are rather slim. However, the BJP is caught in its own internecine factional squabbles and this has left the party weak and in disarray. Except in Gujarat where the Party can boast of good governance, the BJP ruled states are all mired in corruption and mal administration with Karnataka being the most egregious example. Now ManMohan Singh has reshuffled his pack and as we know from history, the Prime Minister even in a coalition government has the choice of whom to appoint in his hand. In India since the Prime Minister is a nominee of the Dynasty, he enjoys no such constitutional freedom. He took orders from the Dynasty's Crown Price--Rahul Gandhi-- and all changes were made according to the whims and wishes of the Crown Price. So much for Democracy. Dynastic Fascism has reached such a level that even the pretense of constitutional propriety has been given up. The Newspapers were full of Reports to the effect that Rahul "thought" that such and such a person was to be inducted and such and such a person was to be shown the door. The net result being an elaborate exercise in futility. The fact that a corporate house, Reliance which is an important multi national company in the OIl and Petroleum Sector has succeeded in getting rid of Jaipal Reddy who was relieved of the portfolio< Oil and Natural Gas". The Supreme Court has also given its verdict against Reliance and yet the Governmant chooses to dismiss a minister rather than enforce rule of law. and there is also the mysterious matter of the death of Rajasekar Reddy who also incurred the wrath of this Company. I think Man Mohan Singh has sent out a wrong political message. Ministers involved in scams have been retained. Salman Kurshisd who is involved in a public spat with Kejriwal has been promoted and given a more important portfolio. Maken the Sports Minister at the time of the Common Wealth Games which were mired in financial scandals has been given the status of a Cabinet Minister. I think all those who deserved to be sacked have been rewarded and instead of helping to improve the image of the Government, this reshuffle will only strengthen peoples' opinion that it should go. or as Oliver Cromwell said, Go. In God's name Go.

india's china war; 50 years on an assessment

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Fifty years ago, almost to date Jawaharlal Nehru led India to a military diasater whose effects are still felt today. For a month from October 18th 1962 till the middle of November the troops of the Peoples Libaration Army, China punded India into defeat and inexplicably retreated back to their positions, beyond the MacMohan Line. The military defeat of India has been studied in the Henderson Brooks Report which fo9r some reason has not been made public. However, facts have emerged in recent years which clearly show that it was Jawarharlal Nehru and his then defense minister Krishna Menon who were primarily responsible for the disaster. 1962 lives in popular imagination, but the ghost of that stunning defeat have not been exorcized. The great Athenian historian, Thucydides wrote in his History of then Peloponesian War the states go to war because of (1) honour, (2) fear and (3) interest. This triad of motives still forms the basis on which inter state conflict can be studied. China and India have had two thousand years of peaceful coexistence which Nehru in his misbegotten ambition to overawe China and its revolutionary leadership almost destroyed. The two sectors in which India and China had serious disputes was the Aksai Chin Sector and the Twang Sector. In both these sectors the Chinese leadership indicated a willingness to negotiate, but it was the intransigence of Nehru and his factotum, Krishna Menon, which came in the way. The fact is that the alignments on the MacMohan Line pertaining to these two sectors were drawn up at a time when China was already been defeated in the Opium Wars and after the Western intervention following the Taiping Rebellion and more damagingly the surveys were undertaken after the Boxer Rebellion, particularly in the Ladak region adjoining the Aksai Chin. The British era maps as A G Noorani has shown in his book India-China Boundary Problem: History and Diplomacy were very faulty and often showed Indian claims as lying in China and Chinese claims as falling on the Indian side of the Line. As Lord Curzon and following him many have remarked that frontiers do not become boundaries. China was able to negotiate successfully with all the seven countries with which it had serious territorial disputes and there are questions only with regard to the Sino_Indian frontier. This fact clearly demonstrates that the Indian leadership was at fault. Instead of negotiating with Chou en Lai who repeatedly called on Nehru, the then Prime Minister and his Defense Minister" Krishnamenon advocated what they called a Forward Policy. The Indian Army was not in favor of the forward policy as they knew that the lay of the land favoured the Chinese and that the Indian Army did not have the means to tackle the Chinese. Without any preparation or even a strategy the political leadership forced the Indian Army to fight a battle/ war it knew it could not fight. The result was absolute chaos. China cannot be blamed for the failure of the Indian political leadership. The issue of the unresolved Boundary Dispute got further entangled by Indian involvement. much against Indian national interest in the Tibetan Issue. Anyone who knows the history of China will say that Tibet had always beenn a part of China. From the late nineteenth century, and more specifically from the time of Lord Curzon the Indian Government tried to make Tibet a client state by detaching it the suzerainty of China and almost succeeded. China which was very sensitive to the "unequal treaties" repudiated these agreements and India being an Asian country which had got freedom from colonialism must have encouraged China to assert its rights. Nehru unfortunately chose to uphold the colonial legacy and that mind set resulted in tension over the issue of Tibet. China was driven to war by the wrong and contradictory polcies of the Indian Government as articulated by Jawarharlal Nehru.

AAM ADMI to MANGO PEOPLE: ROBERT VADRA AND HIS LANGUAGE OF CONTEMPT

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books On his facebook, Shri Robert Vadra, Soni-ji's damad had talked about India being a banana republic of mango people. The mango people that Shri Vadra refers to is of course the subversive reference to the very slogan under which his Mother in Law fought the election: AAM ADMI KA HAATH CONGRESS KE SAAT. It is a story as old as the hills that those who enjoy wealth and luxury without straining themselves have contempt for those who earn their honest bread and keep. The "Msngo People" of India may be stupid for having voted the Congress but they are by and large hardworking and decent, something that cannot be said of the average Congressman. Vadra, a small time operator from Maradabad made it to the big league of movers and shakers by virtue of his marriage or put it more crudely by being the damad of the dynasty in power. Having got political power he wants to enjoy it like the Bourbons of France after the Restoration in 1815. His reference to Indians as "mango people" does not smack of elitism because Vadra knows that his background is anything but elitist. He has neither education nor the skills required to make him earn an honest livelihood,and his entry in politics during the last Assembly Elections backfired and was the main cause for the miserable failure of the Congress party. India does not have a hereditary aristocracy and the likes of Vadra with political clout along with the Rahuls, the Vikas. the Akileshes, the Marans and the Karunanidhis become the aristocracy of power. They perform an important role: they translate political power into money and wealth. The main reason why corruption has increased many time over is because of dynastic fascism of the sort favoured by the Congress and mindlessly of the so called "secular" parties. Only the Communist factions and the BJP are not touched by this tendency. In fact Patrick French inhis recent book has shown that the vast majority of the MPs in the current Lok Sabha are sons, daughters and grandchildren of politicians. In other words the pool of talent from which politicians are recruited is decided in the bed room and that is the reason for the phenomenal increase in corruption. Dynastic politics breeds monumental corruption and the recent spate of scams is proof of this statement. The other fruit that figures in Vadra's eloquent comment is Banana.The term banana republic came into being when the great pioneers of human rights and democracy,USA, started intervening militarily in the affairs of South American counties in order to safe guard the interests of the UNited Fruit Comapny. They routinely intervened in the internal affairs of Latin and South American countries and got rid of the authoritarian leaders whom they had propped up in the first place and replaced them with men of their own choice who they felt would do the bidding of the UFC. These kleptocracies were all tied to US banking and financial interests and so the term banana republic came to represent the corruption and filth spewed by US backed regimes. India has already become a banana repulic as there is a total break down of law and order and the only hope that remains is the judicial intervention. The Coal Gate Scam and 2G Spectrum Scasm both are symtomatic of crony capitalism of the worst kind. And why not Vadra. He gets a loan without interest from DLF to buy its own property ans such sweetheart deals are possible only in BANANA REPUBLICS WITH MANGO PEOPLE.

E J HOBSBAWM: A TRIBUTE TO A HISTORIAN

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books Writing History is not easy and to write the histories that endure is one of the most difficult intellectual tasks and E J Hobsbawm who dies in England yesterday epitomised this truth to the fullest extent. Along with Rodney Hilton, Christopher Hill and a handful of young activists of the British Communist Party, E J Hobsnawm was the founder of the Past&Present Society, a historical forum which pioneered the use of Marxist and Marxian method to the study of the past. EJ Howsbawm was also a rigorous advocate of the theoretical mode of apprehending the past which rejected the naive narrative of political and military events as the backbone of Historiography. The rise of the Nation State in the nineteenth century made it necessary for the newly emerged nations to seek legitimacy for their existence in the past and following the German historian Ranke, the professional historians rallied around the war cry of nationalism. The Marxist historians avoided the allure of nationalism, but fell to the seductive charms of the Communist World Revolution. E J Hobsbawm was an early adherent of this ideological label as he himself says in his extremely lucid autobiography. Hobsbawm can be called a social historian in the most complete sense of the term because he believed that events in history can only be explained when they are placed in the context of society in which the events are rooted. He is however not a blind follower of the economic deterministic model for explaining the past. Individuals act out of choice not necessity,but their choice is largely structured by circumstances transmitted through time. His best work in which this method of social history is worked out is his study of Bandits. This elegant work along with its companion volume, Primitive Rebels tries to explain social banditry in terms of a society which was transforming itself from an agrarian or peasant society to one in which commerce and industry were becoming increasingly salient. In Labouring Men, Hobsbawm tried to unravel the culture of the English working class as it was changing from an artisanal class to a work force in the newly industriaslizing parts of England even as it was reeling from the after effects of the enclosure movement. Hobsbawm historiography was rooted in the joyous optimism which as he is not tired of pointing out was inherited from his Jewish mother. There is a purpose to human existence and it is the historian's sacred duty to document the richness and clour inherent of man's struggle for survival. This meaning which the study of history imparts has been virtually thrown away by a whole generation oh historians who marched under the banner of post colonialism and literary perspectives. By diminishing history and making Historiography a variant of "discourse" and a discourse inflected with power in the Saidian sense, history stood impoverished and it was left to E J Hobsbawm to soldier on tirelessly against the demons of deconstruction and relativism. The death of E J Hobsbawm is a tragic loss to the world of History and this blogger not a Marxist but a historian, pay my tribute to a great historian whose work will continue to inspire generations of men and women who believe that human life has meaning and History is the only means available to record it,

MULAYAM SINGH YADAVA, MAYAWAT, MAMTHA BANERJEE AND THE CIRCUS OF INDIAN POLITICS

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and bOOKS. In Casablanca, the classic film of the 1940,s there is a famous line: One in one out, thats the way it goes. This line is equally true of Indian politics; One out, Mata, one in, Mulayam. This merry go round will continue until the next election which are scheduled to be held in 2014. Unfortunately opportunistic alliances of sheer convenience whose only purpose is to cling on to power at all cost is legitimized using the "secular" card. It does not take too much imagination to realize that the most corrupt and obsessively dynasty based are the so called secular parties. The DMK is neck deep in the 2G Spectrum scam and the old bandicoots daughter too was in jail for nearly a year, Laloo Prasad Yadava is caught in the Fodder Scam and though the witnesses are being killed systematically the case is still alive, Mulayam Singh Yadava if facing a disproportionate assets case and since the CBI is a coalition partner of the UPA, the case is weakening or strengthening based on the politics of the Yadava chieftain and there is no need to even mention Mayawati with her diamond nose rings and flashy salwars with bags in tow.With such specimens in the political field the UPA will not run out of partners who will suddenly discover the virtue of "secularism" in order to hide their sins. There is however, one snag in the calculations of the UPA and its potential partners in crime and power. All these parties are directly in competition with the Congress for the same political space and the more they support the Congress the more they will have to face the responsibility for the scams, scandals and corruption. It will also have to bear the backlash and it is inevitable for the FDI in the retail sector which will dominate the next elections more than any other issue. The Congress will be able to dilute peoples anger by pointing fingers at their partners, and therefore it is not in the interest of these parties to throw a life line to the Congress. Of all the regional players only Mamtha Banerjee has understood the inherent logic of the emerging political scene. The Congress Party is heading for a total disaster in the coming elections and with the revival of the Left in West Bengal, Mamtha had few options left. She pulled the rug from underneath the feet of the UPA hoping to create a crisis and she has succeeded eminently. The options before Mulayam and Mayawati are rather slim. THe next elections both these parties will not be able to retain their seats and they also have to take responsibility for all the sins of the dynastic fascist party, the Congress. Without understanding this basic issue both these parties are falling over eachother to extend support.

Aseem Trivedi Cartoons: An Essay

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books Indian politicians are getting touch and sensitive about cartoons. I think when a political order is in a state of absolute free fall, the decaying order becomes hypersensitive to the caricature in cartoons. The MPs and MLAs now know that the citizens of India are filled with contempt and anger for the egregious plunder they have indulged in over the years. Actually more tham corruption which is there in all political systems, it is the politicians like Laloo Prasad Yadave and D P Yadava, Jagdish Tytler and other such criminals who masquerade as "peoples" representatives which stokes the anger of peo on his carple. P Chidambaram, the Finance Minister, was defeated in the Sivagnagai Parliamentary Constituency but goes arpound with the emblem of the Republic emblazoned on his car. Rightly there is anger because the Constitution of India does not envisage a Kletocratic state. Dr B R Ambedkar and his team worked out a Constitution which would be the basis of a civilized political order underpinned by Rule of Law. We now have the rule of outlaws and some of them like Poolan Devi even were elected to parliament and I am sure that Tamil Badu would have elected Veerapan, had he not been encountered. Now the Cartoons. I have shown them with this blog not because the cartoon are of a high artistic value but because they succeeded eminently in doing what Shri Aseem Trivedi set out to do: provoke anger and contempt. There is nothing remotely seditious about the cartoons and to invoke the outdated Anti Sedition Law is outrageous. The arrest and imprisonment of Shri Trivedi only shows that the corrupt political class is hitting back using the instruments of the state and when this happens we know that the end is in sight. A discredited political order tottering at the weight of its own monstrous inequities is struggling to regain the ground that is slipping from under its feet and in this I do not see any difference between the Congress and the BJP. I was surprised at the response of both Kiran Bedi and Arvind Khejriwal who in an oblique manner justified the arrest and imprisonment of Shrri Asseem Trivedi. I see this issue as one that frames an informed citizen's right to critique the politics of his land. He has not offended any religious or identity group and his depictions are not scandalous. I have a complaint. I personally dislike the use of animals as symbols of evil. In ome of the cartoons the lions of the Republic are replaced by jackals. I like Juno the Jackal of Karadi Tales and I made him the hero of a whole series of stories on which my daughter grew up and I strongly condemn the use of the animal is this disgusting way. The lions could have easily been replaced by a Gandhi topi wearing kletocrat and it would have been OK. Otherwise these cartoons do make a powerful impact on the viewer. I appeal to the authorities through my Blog to release Shri Trivedi,

THE COAL SCAM AND THE SCANDAL OF GOVERNANCE IN INDIA

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books The 2 G Spectrum scan is still hanging like a cloud around the Congress led UPA Government and it has already claimed the heads of 2 central minister--Dayanidhi Maran and A Raja--both of whom belonged to a regional political party, the DMK. In Indian politics there is no such thing as a single author scam. It is very obvious that the highest summits of the political system which includes Sonia Gandhi and Man Mohan Singh had a hand in the scam but were clever enough to ensure that lesser mortal took the rap for it. Th coal scam is almost identical in its modus operandi, and the Congress Government is trying its best to wriggles out of the ever tightening noose around its neck. With 2 scandals with a net loss of nearly 20% of the GDP of the country, there will be a lot of froth flying thick everywhere. The problem with the UPA Government like the Bourbons of France is that they forget nothing and they learn nothing. From the 2 G Spectrum Scandal they must have learn that the auction route is the best way of allocating scare resources and ensure a hefty return to the state exchequer. However since political gratification is the objective, the UPA allocated 57 coal blocks in an arbitrary and non transparent. In the 2G Specrum Scam, A Raja could be sent to jail as he was a minister from a regional party and a dalit to boot. In the case of the Coal Scam the ministry was headed by the Prime Minister himself who retained the ministry under his direct charge. Now that the scandal has surfaced the Congress Party is trying its best to protect the Prime Minister and others who were involved in the decision making process. India has large reserves of coal and the state exchequer would have got nearly 15 billion US dollars had the auction route been taken. Instead prime coal mines were allocated to private parties which included Tata Power, Tata Steel,Essar Power Generation,Jindal Steel and many other power generating companies or steel plants. The criteria on which this allocation was made has not been spelled out. In the case of the 2 G Spectrum at least there was a fig leaf of objectivity in that the allocation was done on the basis of the first come first served basis. Even this lame defence is not available for the coal scam. As per the norms and procedure of the Government of India, the file for such major decisions has to be signed by the cabinet minister and only then it becomes operational. In the case of the Coal Scam the files were all signed by the Prime Minister in his capacity as the Coal Minister and hence he cannot now evade responsibility or accountability. The mines which were allotted to private parties are the most lucrative ones since they are all open mines and do not require too heavy an investment in infrastructure. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India in his Report submitted to Parliament has clearly stated that gross irregularities in procedure had taken plce causing a net loss of 1.86 lakh crores ruppees to the treasury of the people of INdia. The kind of Governance we have in India under the uPA aims at enriching the private players at the cost of the Government and obviously huge kick backs play a role in the formulation of such skewered policies. The principle opposition party the BJP has raised the issue in the highest democratic forum of the country, the LOK SABHA. Instead of answering the questions raised, the Prime Minster is indulg ing in cheap gimmicks when he stated in his defence that this was done to favor the opposition ruled states. It is only an accident that the coal rich states are presently under the BJP and the Congress is not known to have concern for anyone or institution except its "royal" dynasty. The coal ministry bureaucrats suggested public auction as the best method for pricing the coal blocks but it was blocked by the Prime Minster, just as was done in the case of the 2G Spectrum pricing. The effort now currently underway to amde the NDA responsible for the policy is untenable because the policy change was initiated only after the UPA GOvernment was formed in 2004. The Scandals which have undermined the present government will have their impact in the next election. The anti corruption movement led by Baba Ramdev is likely to create enough impact to tilt the balance in favor of the bJP in the next election. The 2014 elections can only be lost by the BJP due to political mismanagement and factionalism.