I will tell Mommy!

Ajay Maken, our Sports Minister had a good thought. A lot of sports bodies receive crores of rupees, so why not get them under greater public scrutiny? Even though the BCCI does not receive government funding directly, it deals with hundreds of crores and as reported on the NDTV website, it is under investigation for foreign exchange violations during the IPL. The BCCI is a private organization but claims to select India's "national" cricket team. So it makes perfect sense to bring it under public scrutiny. Further logically speaking if there are no skeletons to hide the organization then there should ideally be no panic reaction to Maken's proposal.

Did the cabinet agree to this proposal? Well, there are no prizes for guessing the answer. Farooq Abdullah among others opposed an upper age limit clause. He said by that yardstick he should not have been a cabinet minister too (hmm, is that such a bad idea?). If the esteemed minister uses his good judgement it would be perfectly obvious that for a minister's post age can actually be advantageous because of the experience carried with it. For sports on the other hand, I do not think most would agree that the younger the administrator and the more related to that sport the administrator is the better it is.

Another clause seeks to restricts terms to 2. For as long as I remember, Kalmadi has been the head of the IOA. See where he is today (and where for that matter our Olympic performance is). Apparently a very significant portion of sports bodies are headed by politicians. This is not restricted to any one party, but is common across the political spectrum.

Thus in my humble opinion it makes perfect sense to have some government oversight on our sports bodies and to bring all of them under the RTI. However if members of the cabinet already hold positions on sports bodies does it make sense to expect the cabinet to come to an impartial and objective conclusion? Sharad Pawar, our Agriculture Minister actually asked the Prime Minister to reduce his work load so that he could spend more time on cricket! Is it any wonder that food inflation is so high and Indian agriculture is said to have stagnated in its growth? Now coming to the title. Sharad Pawar is reported to have said in the cabinet discussion that if the bill was approved by the cabinet he would take up the issue with Sonia Gandhi, the chairperson of the UPA. Keeping aside the practicality of this when she is supposed to be recovering from surgery, doesn't this sound childish? It is like two kids fighting, one kids hits the other, and the hurt kid bawls, "I am going to tell mummy!"

Dear people, this is the Indian government!

On the Cash-for-votes Turnaround and "Girl Marks"

The BJP which was trying to corner the government on the cash-for-votes scandal is in the dock now, a chargesheet having been filed against its own members. This decision by the Delhi Police however raises some questions.

First of all this chargesheet has been filed three years after the actual incident, and that too after the Supreme Court pulled up the DP for inaction. Further the government would like us to believe the DP is independent. This is evident from it trying to shift the blame onto DP for the recent arrest of Anna Hazare. Now the DP chargesheet does not name the Congress MPs. It is probably a classic case of the hunter becoming the hunted. Amar Singh has been named and the case against the BJP members seems to be one of entrapment. Now are we to believe that Amar Singh conspired with the BJP to discredit the Congress? If this is not true then what conceivable reason is there for Amar Singh to be a participant in this entire episode?

Moving on, the decision by the IIMs to award marks for being a girl are, in my humble opinion, blatantly unfair. Some of my closest friends are girls, however I'm sure they too would agree with me at least to some extent. Awarding extra marks to non-engineer candidates might still make some sense if it is restricted to the mathematical portion of evaluation. In today's world of equal rights this is a retrograde step. The combined faculty of these esteemed institutions could surely have come up with another solution to increase diversity. I'm pretty sure the male candidates are all for increased diversity, but not at their expense. This country seems to be increasingly becoming a difficult place for a "forward-category" male students.

The BJP which was trying to corner the government on the cash-for-votes scandal is in the dock now, a chargesheet having been filed against its own members. This decision by the Delhi Police however raises some questions.

First of all this chargesheet has been filed three years after the actual incident, and that too after the Supreme Court pulled up the DP for inaction. Further the government would like us to believe the DP is independent. This is evident from it trying to shift the blame onto DP for the recent arrest of Anna Hazare. Now the DP chargesheet does not name the Congress MPs. It is probably a classic case of the hunter becoming the hunted. Amar Singh has been named and the case against the BJP members seems to be one of entrapment. Now are we to believe that Amar Singh conspired with the BJP to discredit the Congress? If this is not true then what conceivable reason is there for Amar Singh to be a participant in this entire episode?

Moving on, the decision by the IIMs to award marks for being a girl are, in my humble opinion, blatantly unfair. Some of my closest friends are girls, however I'm sure they too would agree with me at least to some extent. Awarding extra marks to non-engineer candidates might still make some sense if it is restricted to the mathematical portion of evaluation. In today's world of equal rights this is a retrograde step. The combined faculty of these esteemed institutions could surely have come up with another solution to increase diversity. I'm pretty sure the male candidates are all for increased diversity, but not at their expense. This country seems to be increasingly becoming a difficult place for a "forward-category" male students.

First they ignore you...

How can I be the only one not to comment on the ongoing Lokpal agitation? :) So here's my two cents' worth.

There has been some discussion on the crowds that have been gathering at Ramlila Maidan (RM) with P K Bansal and Ashwani Kumar from the Congress commenting that anybody can draw large crowds. This has obviously led to some strong responses too. Now let us pause here for a moment. 

When I saw a movie called Tagore in Telugu, starring Chiranjeevi, I was taken aback at the crowds that gathered towards the climax of the movie. Probably it was crowds like these that encouraged Chiranjeevi to set up his party and contest elections. But he ended up losing from one of the two constituencies he had stood for election from. So the crowds do not seem to have necessarily translated into votes. 

So I think we can safely assume that the crowds that gather to see a filmstar politician are there more to see the filmstar than anything else. The non-beneficial crowd is especially true in political settings where people can be paid to attend. Another incident is the support that Jagan is garnering in Andhra Pradesh. This is somewhat surprising. Whether or not people believe he is corrupt I am sure many people would agree there is more than what meets the eye as far as Jagan's wealth is concerned. He has of late taken to sending bulk messages to Church Fathers asking them to pray on their behalf, pandering to the Christian community too. So is Jagan right as he draws such huge crowds (not to mention the margin by which he and his mother won their elections)?

Where the Jan Lokpal campaign is different, I would argue is with respect to the increasing and (inter)national participation it is drawing. Crowds for 1-2 days may have been dismissed. However the crowds are only increasing day-by-day. Further, people cutting across states (though I think the response has been quite muted in the south) and even continents are supporting the agitation. The response of the powers-that-be in a way betrays their panic at the response the movement has gathered. It is simply arrogant to dismiss the crowds that have gathered.

However the establishment is right to an extent in asking Anna's team to follow established democratic procedures. I say to an extent. This legislation has been pending for a very long time, further as everyone is aware new cases keep tumbling out on a regular basis today. So the citizens of the country cannot be blamed for a trust deficit. Anna's team has shown some flexibility during negotiations for the duration and venue of the present fast. If the same can be shown and if the government lets go of its arrogance we can hope for a better India. 

To end, I quote a line attributed to Anna's idol - First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. Should the government note the pattern? Jai Hind!

Black Money at the Top?

Everyone must have heard about the arguments happening with respect to including the PM in the ambit of the Lokpal Bill. I recently came across an interesting article. This was in German and seems to be an article from 1991. What it seems to say is that Rajiv Gandhi had CHF 2.5 billion (Swiss Francs) in secret accounts. 

As per the current exchange rates this translates to more than INR 125 billion (12500 crores). Now I do not know if this is true or false. If it is true I wonder how Rajiv Gandhi was came to possess so much money. Rajiv Gandhi was our PM and hence this is about the prestige of the country too. If the report is untrue the Indian National Congress can probably think about filing a defamation case. 

Anyway, politics does not seem to be a bad career option at all!

On the Bhushan tapes

Shanti and Prashant Bhushan are in the news for the wrong reason of late. The elder Bhushan has been "caught" on tape saying his son can fix a case with a judge. Apparently different labs are giving conflicting reports. There are two questions that come to my mind.

1) The government was in the news, again for the wrong reason of tapping phones some time back. So does the CD contain voice samples that were somehow obtained by the government by surreptitious means?

2) I wonder if it is possible to fake the CD. First you splice the individual samples together giving the appearance of a continuous conversation. This can probably be detected by forensic labs. Now if you play this "conversation" via a high audio fidelity device and record it onto a different tape/CD can a forensic lab detect this?

The Moon and His Star

Once upon a time long long ago
and trust me, it happened so
a lovely star the moon beheld,
and felt he like a big oak felled

the star too was smitten by love,
for at work was cupid's bow
many an hour, together they spent
on that lovely night, deep and silent

soon the star saw the morning glow
and she let the moon's hand go
his glare frightens me, she said
and though in love, she fled

every night, although in vain
the moon did tell her of his pain
of no avail was his pleading
though both their hearts were bleeding

the sun will be back, all fire and show
said the star and kept lying low
but so would the moon all cool and nice
little, this did the star realize