Final year projects for sale!

There is a lot of hue and cry about the employability of graduates and post graduates in India, so much so that some companies have started programs to train the work force before they actually begin work. I come from an engineering background (these days, who doesn't?). I occasionally put a question to my peers - are you an engineer or did you pass engineering? In my opinion people who actually go into design and to some extent implementation/maintenance of equipment are true engineers. I shall leave my readers to judge which category I fall into!

Whether it is post graduation or graduation students get worked up when it is time to decide the final year projects and guides. I am sure most engineering graduates will confess to have approached seniors for their projects. This was taken to a whole new level by a poster I saw today. Bhubaneswar has a lot of engineering colleges in and around it. I stay very close to one of the more prominent ones and hence the area I live in has a large student population. Today I had gone into the market to purchase some items when I found a notice pasted on the wall outside a shop. It advertised a phone number which students could contact for "professional-looking" final year projects. I might be paraphrasing but that was the gist of it. I was taken aback by the sheer brazenness of the poster.

Is this a sign of the things to come? There were apparently days long gone when people were pure (probably no one alive today has seen them). Then there was a time when injustice or acts of dishonesty etc were perpetrated but stealthily. Have we finally come to the day when a dishonest act does not need to be cloaked?

What Kejriwal should learn from Chanakya

There was a Telugu movie some time back titled Leader. It features the now-hunk and he-of-the-single-expression Rana Daggubati. It was about the son of an assassinated Chief Minister who becomes the CM in line with his dying father's wishes and sets about cleaning up the state's corruption-ridden politics. I don't see this movie actually happening in the real world but it is a good watch.

In the movie the protagonist moots in the state legislature a proposal to set up an anti-corruption body which will have the power to prosecute everyone. There is vigorous opposition from politicians cutting across political lines (sounds familiar?). He is advised by an elderly politician to remove politicians from the list of people the body can investigate and this immediately finds favour. The logic was that the people in the upper echelons depend on bribes from the lower echelons. If the lower echelons were trapped automatically the bribes for the top will stop. So he was employing one class against the other.

Now coming to today's India Kejriwal and team seem to be after all politicians in India. He must remember a few things. The memory of people is short-lived. Indira Gandhi was voted out of power in 1977 post the emergency. However she came back to power soon. This was at least in some measure due to the incompetence of the Janata government. However people were willing to forgive her. Salman Khan has been accused in hit-and-run and animal hunting cases. In the recent past he is probably the cinema actor whose films have grossed the most at the box office. Kejriwal has decided to take on the entire political establishment. This is foolish, to say the least. For one, in my opinion people of our country don't care enough. Even if they do they care for a very brief time. Look at the fate of Anna Hazare's movement. Hence Kejriwal needs to take a leaf out of Chanakya's book.

What Chanakya had done was probably not ethical but was steeped in realpolitik. He first took the help of some rulers like Malayaketu to remove the Nanda dynasty. Later he removed Malayaketu as he was a threat to Chandragupta. I request correction if I get my facts wrong. Kejriwal should understand and apply the concept of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". If he is correct he should use the current opposition parties to rid the ruling coalition of unwanted elements. Later on he should focus on the current opposition. I remember a discussion on NDTV where there was an NCP representative, Prakash Javadekar from the BJP (I seriously think he should be replaced) and Ms Damania among others. The discussion, or should I say arguments started with Ajit Pawar. The NCP rep who is also the head of one of Air India's pilots' union was brazen in his arguments which was quite irritating. He was being cornered when Damania raised the issue of Gadkari and she and Javadekar started fighting much to the relief of the NCP rep. In this din the whole issue gets forgotten.

So my dear Kejriwalji, please get your focus right. Apparently comedy is all about timing. Let us ensure that the current anti-corruption movement does not end up as a sad joke.

Gadkari - the man of the season

First of all, I do not want to be sued by Nitin Gadkari. Recently Anjali Damania, an RTI activist went live on national TV to state that Gadkari tried to dissuade her from pursuing her investigation into the alleged irrigation scam in Maharashtra. I am not very sure what proof the lady is carrying and it is perhaps very unwise to make that allegation in absence of any proof, even if it is true. 

Now apparently Gadkari had said that there were business dealings with Sharad Pawar. I am not very clear on this. However I was suddenly reminded of a Sanskrit sloka when I saw a news article that an amendment has been made by the BJP to its Constitution to enable heads of the state and national units to serve a second term. The most prominent beneficiary of this move would appear to be Gadkari as his terms ends in December this year. This was done apparently because the RSS felt that the job of overhauling the BJP begun by Gadkari was incomplete. Maybe he is indeed the best person suited for the job. I am not making any allegations, but to my knowledge the richest BJP President till date has been Gadkari who is a businessman and agriculturist (the link to Pawar?).

The sloka goes like this.

यस्यास्ति वित्तं स नरः कुलीनः 

yasyaasti vittam sa narah kuleenah
स पण्डितः स श्रुतवान गुणज्ञः 

sa panditah sa shrutavaan gunagyah
स एव वक्ता स च दर्शनीयः 

sa eva vaktaa sa cha darshaneeyah
सर्वे गुणाः काञ्चनमाश्रयन्ति

sarve gunaah kaanchanamaashrayanti

The meaning goes something like this - the one who has wealth, he is said to be of noble ancestry, said to be a scholar, a man endowed with good qualities. He alone is an orator and a handsome one. All qualities are dependent upon (possession of) wealth.

When the BJP is gearing up for the 2014 elections (though far away) and a possible election before that (unlikely though) would Sushma Swaraj or Arun Jaitley who are leaders of the opposition have been better choices? There is a lot of talk about Modi being the next Prime Ministerial candidate. Would he have been a good choice? The last choice is difficult as Gujarat is scheduled to go to the polls soon. Still, just wanted to express my opinion.

Also Yeddyurappa is in rebel-mode again. He is not very subtly giving hints to the BJP by praising the Congress saying they have never let their leaders down. Seriously? If this is indeed true this could have been because the tallest (officially at least) leader for most if not all of the time has been a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family. Apparently Gadkari started out as a BJP worker and is today party President. I hope this continues and we don't see people who think of party posts as family heirlooms (more than the case is today, if I may say so).

Vanka leni...

The attitude of a certain political party towards the CAG somehow reminds me of the Telugu saying which natives will recognize from the title. The Hindi equivalent (kind of) is naach na jaane, aangan tedha (blaming the slanted floor for not being able to dance). Before I am lampooned I shall admit that the Telugu equivalent for this is aada leka maddelani annattu (blaming the instrument for not being able to play it).

The spokesperson of this party has blamed the CAG for the monsoon session. In reality the opposition parties have to definitely take the blame. However if the government had not provided the fire the opposition would not have provided the smoke. A previously active spokesperson had to quit after his colourful private life was exposed (pun unintended). The present spokesperson took the easy way out and blamed the easiest target. The CAG has generally not responded publicly to any allegations against him. So the political party is kind of safe.

Moving on, the powers-that-be in India have once again proved how intolerant we are of dissent. The cartoonist Aseem Tripathy perhaps got a trifle carried away when he portrayed wolves instead of lions in the national emblem. Ideally this should not have been done. But arresting the guy is taking things a little too far. The interesting thing is in this case though there are accusations of politics behind the arrest, it is the police who seem to have become too active.

And what is this item in the news which says wives will get salaries? As can be said, "78% of all statistics are made up, like this one". I mean no disrespect to homemakers, my wife is one. But is paying your family member a salary the only way to give "socio-economic empowerment" to women? So tomorrow will we find guys turning homemakers, asking their wives to work while they get salaries from them? This is apparently a way in which we will get a "truer picture of GDP in our country". Has the government lost all hope in its team of lawyer-ministers and bureaucrats? Does this government believe India's growth story is so dead that we will have to resort to (badly) creative accounting to inflate our GDP figures which by some estimates might go below 6% also this fiscal?

Quo Vadis NaMo?

Many in the BJP would want Narendra Modi to be the PM candidate in the next general elections. The JD(U) with an eye on its Muslim supporters is extremely unhappy with this idea and Nitish Kumar has made some not-so-subtle remarks to this effect.

Now Modi is in extremely troubled waters. First a BJP MLA has been sentenced to 28 years in prison for the Naroda Patiya massacre. Next Modi is also under flak for his remarks saying that malnutrition is because of girls becoming figure-conscious. The BJP which has been on the offensive for the last few days on the coal "scam" has suddenly been forced to stop and think. Modi is already facing opposition from non-Congress sections in Gujarat (read Keshubhai Patel who has put up his own party). It remains to be seen if and how Modi will extricate himself from this situation.

Coming to the coal scam the government is increasingly being painted into a corner. First came the CAG report. Then Chidambaram was accused of painting a "zero-loss" portrait a la Kapil Sibal on the 2G issue. Recently it has come to light how Subodh Kant Sahai recommended that a company of which his brother was a director be allocated coal. Now the coal ministry itself is planning to cancel allocation of those companies which have not been able to develop their allocations. All of this is adding ammunition to the opposition to further take on the government.

However the opposition is not justified in holding Parliament to ransom. They are elected representatives and are responsible to their respective electorates. Let Parliament function. The issues should be taken up on the floor of the house. Beyond this they can always take the issues up in public. Does the opposition believe that the PM will actually resign? Looking beyond the protests it might also appear the opposition is trying to drown out the issue as apparently some non-Congress states had also opposed auctioning of coal blocks.

When legislators unite

I saw a few articles in the online edition of the Times of India and NDTV which prompted this post. There are rare occasions when our legislators display unity cutting across party lines. This is especially true on two occasions - when they face some common threat to their facilities or authority, and when the issue is vote bank politics, namely reservation.

We have a range of reservation quotas in our country, SC/ST, OBC and god knows what all. The Supreme Court had said some time back said that quotas for promotion should be backed up by solid figures to show actual backwardness of the categories. Does this make sense? Well, to our legislators it appeared to be a golden opportunity to amend the Constitution and introduce reservation quotas for the SC/STs. Another occasion when our legislators were united was during the recent agitation against corruption when cutting across party lines they remembered to mention that parliamentary processes enshrined in the Constitution have to be respected.

Another thought-provoking incident is the recent rallying around of ministers in the Andhra Pradesh government. There are a few accused of colluding with the late YSR Reddy and his son Jagan in quid pro quo cases with corporates. Dharmana Prasada Rao has recently been chargesheeted by the CBI. He is the second minister after Mopidevi Venkataramana to be investigated by the CBI in a case related to a company called Vanpic. A number of ministers have unitedly asked the Chief Minister not to give permission for his prosecution. There is a saying in Telugu which says that the guilty person is the one who makes the maximum protestations of innocence. These ministers bring to mind this saying. I do not recall the exact time but another time ministers are united is when they give raises to themselves in terms of salaries and facilities.

In these times of government austerity a large panel will be going abroad, flying business class and also going sight seeing. If the government was serious about austerity it should have curtailed at least the sight seeing trips, for it is the tax payer that is financing these jaunts. However in this age of lip service can we expect anything more? Politicians rally around Baba Ramdev when he talks about the need to bring back black money from abroad. How many of them are willing to publicly list all properties owned by them, their ministers and civil servants? On the other hand we have an opposition which is hell bent on disrupting proceedings of Parliament.

The BJP must be smoking something if they seriously believe that either the PM or his government will resign because of their protests over the coalgate (I am sick of this "gate" syndrome) issue. Why do they insist on disrupting the house? The UPA might have the moral authority to rule or govern. If in the next elections the NDA comes to power it will be more because of a lack of alternatives than anything solid or constructive that they have done while in opposition. These are the times when one years for the no-choice option on a ballot paper or an EVM.

Will our politicians ever unite like this for a Lokpal or something which is actually useful for the nation?

Glorification and de-humanisation

The civil services and the armed forces are legacies of the British rule in India, however modified they may be from their original versions. This article is based on some assumptions I am making. If I am wrong please feel free to correct me.

For many years Indians were not allowed into the civil services. In the armed forces also Indians were taken into the jawan ranks and the officers were primarily Britishers. So when we consider the erstwhile officers in the civil service or the armed forces there had to be distinctions between the sahibs and the natives. This probably explains the (extravagant?) facilities enjoyed by the officers whether it be in terms of accommodation and transport or attendant servants.

Now 65 years after independence we are still following the same practices. I met a jawan on a train once. He was complaining how tough life was for the average jawan. Refer to this article also. A little while back I believe there were reports of police constables being used by their seniors for household chores. Giving good facilities for the officers is one matter, dehumanising others is a separate matter. Take the instance of accommodation. In lots of places defence officers stay in apartments in their enclaves. Why can't the same model be replicated for the civil services also? Take Lutyens's Delhi for instance. Each MP has a huge bungalow. Why can't these people be shifted into 3 or even 4 bed-roomed apartments? Give them serviced apartments if the situation demands so. Imagine the amount of real estate that will be freed up either for commercial development or for any other purposes! Even if corrupt public servants eat up a part of this there will still be a lot of land which can be used profitably.