Wake Up Anna

There is a flip side to the Anna Movement. Something that detracts, something that unsettles, something that is omnious.

The rush of adrenalin generated by mass-hysteria has made people leave their hearth and work to protest at the ground zero level. The following has cut across class barriers. The executive, the NRI, the entrepreneur, the student, the villager and the housewife are rubbing shoulders for the cause. A good thing. But the hysteria has also made people fanatics. Their reason has been blindfolded by the do-or-die spirit. Anyone who is not pro-Anna is an enemy of the people, of Nation. Debate has been subverted by a spirit of dissent that is proving cannibalistic. It is devouring all that is contrary to the cause. It’s a subtle form moral fascism.

Agreed that Anna is not a true-blue Gandhian. Still his undue stress on legislative changes through public pressure without personal commitment to avoid corruption at the individual level can prove the achilles heel of the crusade.
Gandhi knew this well and laid great importance to personal change along with societal changes. Anna has been silent on this.

So it won’t long after the anti-corruption hysteria is worn off that the millions of his votaries will find themselves bending rules by greasing palms to get the work done. Won’t the now-proselytized person spend that extra buck to get his railway tickets in an emergency, or get a school admission for his kid by paying monies to the management.
This is the Janus-faced devil that the movment has unleashed and has to face. Demanding probity from public repsentatives without a corresponding personal commitment is hypocritical.

Anna has a bagful of other demands which he will pursue using similar pressure tactics.
Indo-US Nuclear Deal, Farmers Rights, RTI and so on. Which means law making will increasingly become the agenda of so-called civil society. A society which is adamant about its charter of demands, is dictatorial about the means to achieving them and is seized by its own correctness and high morality. It unleahes hysteria and frenzy amongst people, appropriates national symbols and has portents of transforming democracy into mobocracy.

As the UPA 2 fumbles and bumbles in face of this new `enemy,’ the opposition geares itself to gain every ounce mileage from the faceoff. A bunch of parties have formed a front to fight corruption. Advani has asked for the resignation of the Prime Minister and asked for fresh elections.

Anna’s movement is being used for their narrow ends by the ever- opportunistic opposition. Anna should realize all of it early in the day and make appropriate course corrections before he becomes a hand-maiden of his own noble movement.

Anna Hazare : True Blue Marathi Manoos

Anna is fast building up into a social brand. His slow and steady rise from a humble social activist of Ralegan Siddhi village to a still more humble but infinitely more powerful social activist at the national level has been phenomenal.

In his own way Anna has carried forward the hoary tradition of social reform of Maharashtra.
Right from 18th century onwards Maharashtra had seen saints and reformers fighting against ingrained social and religious inequites.

While the patron-seer of the Bhakti Movement like Sant Eknath, SantTukaram, Sant Dyaneshwar unleashed social reform through their religious activities, reformers like Maharishi Karve, Jyotiba Phula and Dr. Ambedkar carried social reconstruction with an equally strong social missionary zeal. Their social activism merged with the Freedom Movement and made it all the more strong.

The fire of social reform had never really died in the state. There is an inherent quality in Marathi people to resist injustice. Even now social activism is very strong in the grassroot level. NGOs are vibrant. And the average marathi manoos is relatively more vocal about his immediate environment.

Anna, then, is the product of his times. He caught the angst of his village folk and provided leadership to solve their problems. He forced the Maharashtra Government to frame the Right To Information Act which proved to be the base of the National Act. He worked extensively for rural upliftment, untouchability and democratic decentralization at the Gram Sabha level.
It was here that he learned to deal with the shrewd ruling class and have his way. A lesson that is proving useful right now.

Part of Anna’s charisma lies in his rural moorings. A simple dhoti-kurta clad villager, who writes in Marathi, speaks in Hindi and who is totally unpretentious. It is this self abnegation which probably has succeeded in moving the urban youth from their depths. A youth fed up with scheming urban slickers.

The Dhoti, Kurta which probably would have died a natural death gets a new lease of life. The Gandhi cap lives again. And the political class squirms uncomfortably in its seat as this son-of-soil of Maharashtra wakes up a somnolent and lethargic India.

Mahatma Anna Hazare ?

Will Tihar Jail make Anna the new age Gandhi?
Government’s kneejerk reactions to Anna’s subtle nonviolent manoeuvring has put the UPA II in a tight spot. It has made a bigger hero out of Anna.

As with Baba Ramdev’s satyagraha so with Anna’s movement. That seemed to be the logic of the Government. But Anna proved his mettle as the true wily satyagrahi and used his calm judgement to outmanoeuvre the stupid government’s brute-like moves.

Public pressure made the government to eat humble pie and order the release Anna. But Anna has used the release-order as a bargaining counter to bring the government to its knees.

This move has striking similarity with the 1919 Champaran Satyagraha of Gandhi. Fighting for poor,oppressed peasants he was sentenced to jail by the British. But under intense public pressure the court had to ask Gandhi to deposit a bail amount and leave. Gandhi refused to pay the amount and preferred to be jailed. Finally the court had to release Gandhi unconditionally. The people of Champaran anointed him as Mahatma. And Bapu was born.

Few facts stare at your face as the Anna episode unfolds.
· Government has no clear cut strategy to counter the movement unleashed by Anna.
· Government has a bunch of immature advisers
· It has put democratic and ethical/moral norms on the side by tackling Anna.
· Initiative on corruption and proactive action is increasingly being appropriated by Civil Society and the Judiciary.
· The Anna bandwagon grows day by day, by each misaction of the government. It has portents of becoming a monolithic mass movement, and may cost the UPA 2 its power seat.

Will the Tihar sentence make a new age Gandhi out of Anna? That only time will tell. But one thing is for sure. It is the fumbling UPA 2 government which will make a mahatma out of Anna Hazare.

Close Encounters With Shammi Kapoor

Yahoo Star is no more. Shammi Kapoor, one of the most flamboyant stars of yesteryears breathed his last on Sunday the 14th of August. He was 79.

Shammi Kapoor potrayed romance with a spontaneous gay abandon which none could surpass. He spun, sang and danced his way into his tinsel paramour’s heart and into the very dreams of his ardent fans. Yours truly was one of them.

I had the privilege of crossing his path three or more times in my life. Those memories came back as a flash to haunt me as the news of his death sank in.

The first time I met him was in 1999 when I was had just started my career as a rookie TV journalist in Mumbai.
The then newly elected Chief Minister of Maharashtra Vilasrao Deshmukh had called a meeting of a crosssection of prominent personalities at his residence.Shammi Kapoor was there too.

I met him after the meeting and he talked at length about his passion of life at that time. The Internet. He was the founder-member of Internet Users Community of India and was also very much involved in the setting up of Ethical Hackers Association. His passion for the Net made him start and maintain a website for the 'Kapoor family’. http://junglee.org.in/.

My first personal interaction with him was unsettling. His rockstar persona had given way to an altogther ascetic figure. Long flowing robes, strings and strings of heavily- beaded malas, a prominent tilak and a pair of heavy-duty glasses had changed him, at least physically. But he talked with the same glint in his eyes, unleashed the same unexpected tilts of his neck as you saw in his movies and exuded a strong charisma. He still is a rockstar, I thought.

Years later I met him again at the Gold’s Gym, off Kemp’s Corner. He had a heart problem I guess and used to come at the gym to do the treadmill and some exercises. He had grown weak and lean since I last saw him. But his trademark energy and verve was very much there. We talked a bit about his golden years in moviedom and his nostaglic memories. He relished those years.

Few years later again I happened to cross his path, although in a different way. My Dubai-based friend Barkha Mulani happens to be quite close to Shammi Kapoor’s son Aditya Raj Kapoor. Barkha shared a daughter-like relationship with Shammi Kapoor. So when Kapoor senior fell seriously ill and was recuperating Barkha asked me to send a get-well-soon bouquet to the thespian at his South Mumbai residence. Shammi Kapoor greatly appreciated the gesture.

In fact whenever I happened to call him up for an telephonic or TV interview he was more than eager to talk. We last spoke on the death of actor Feroze Khan.

Today as the iconic star passes away into Infinity he leaves behind him not only his magnificent screen persona but short and sweet memories in the heart of many like me who lucikly happened to know him for that just little while.

Riots in England

As riots spreads from Tottenham outward to engulf other parts of England memories of violence and looting during the inner city riots of the 80s under the premiership of Margaret Thatcher revisits the nation.

On 8th August as protests went out of hand and turned into a looting spree economic angst and anger of the blacks and other underprivileged ethnic minorities came to the fore.

Great Britain, the great haven of minorities burst into flames of violence sparked by their very own proteges.
The ostentatious purpose of the protests and riots was supposed to be the killing of the 28 year black youth by the police. The undercurrent was however different. It was frustration fuelled by years of economic deprivation and ghettoization of the depressed-class minorities.

Over the years a series of Enquiry Commissions had been instituted by the British Government to fathom the causes of periodic riots by the minorities. Each time the conclusion has been same. Outburst of repressed anger of the young black people against the police.

The riots have demolished the chimera of the multicultural utopia that is Britain is supposed to be.
Digest this :

· Ethnic minorities make about 8% of the total British population. Of this half comprise of Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. One fourth of the minority population is of Blacks.
· Unemployement rates amongst the Black Africans, Bangladeshis and mixed ethnic groups are three times the rates for White British.
· There are seven times more Blacks than Whites in British jails.
· Tottenham, from where the recent riots got triggered, has fourth highest level of child poverty in London and an unemployment rate of 8.8%, double the national average.

The Tory-Liberal Democrat rule is still grappling with rising unemployment and is trying to find means to avoid spending cuts which would adversely affect the social welfare measures. These have a direct bearing on the underprivileged class, bracketing a large ethnic minority population.

United States Ratings Downgrade

As Standard & Poor’s downgraded the long term credit rating of United States from AAA to AA+, the icon of world economy, the American Dollar plummeted vicariously,shocking and shaming its votaries. It again did a freefall on the news of yet another downgrading.

The rating agency explained its downgrading move to the fact that the political parties have failed to work out a credible plan to solve the problem of $14 trillion US internal debt.The agency held that the political parties are too polarized to come in grips of the fiscal deficit and debt overload.

S & P maintained that the fiscal consolidation plan that the White House and the Rebublicans inked to cut spendings by $2.1 trillion was too little and too late.

The credit downgrading was an unprecedented though not unexpected move by Standard & Poor’s.
It was the first time that the US was downgraded since it received AAA by Moody in 1917. It has held the S & P ratings since 1941.

Credit downgrading will imply increased borrowing cost for the US government and consumers and businesses.

The slashing of credit rating of world’s Big Brother by a private ratings agency has undertones of irony.
The McGraw Hill owned agency has no public mandate to call its own. It is a pure business concern involved with the ratings of financial instruments and debtors worldwide.
It’s word is law. This is because the agency has hardwired its rating system with international banking norms. But S &P is not infalliable. Earlier it had been pulled up by the European Union for biased ratings.
Even in the current scenario it is charged with a ‘$ 2 trillion flaw’ in calculating the US debt unworthiness.

Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman sums it up pithily. ‘ The people who rated subprime-backed securities are now declaring that they are judges of fiscal policy.’

Obama is in an unenviable position. With the presidential elections just two years from now he could have well done without the rating cut.

There is much mud slinging on the onus of the debt mess. Republicans no-tax policy, their reluctance in plugging tax loopholes and the decade old tax cut program of George W Bush are in for a blame.

Background of the current debt overload can be traced to the George W. Bush regime.
In February 2001 Bush initiated a $ 1.35 trillion tax cut program, and held that in the next ten years the surplus will stand at about $ 5.6 trillion.
Most debt accumulated due to what is now known as the ‘Bush tax cuts’ and deficit financed wars.

Bush’s calulations were also mislaid when in December 2007 United States entered the longest post-World War 2 recession which included a housing market correction, a subprime portgage crisis, soaring oil prices and declining dollar value.

Further the collapse of Lehman Brothers and that of the US state-backed housing finance providers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shook the foundations of the American financial system.

The response of the governments around the world to the financial crisis and recession was to increase public spending, at a time of falling tax revenues, to compensate for the collapse of household consumption and private sector investment.

This artificial proping of the financial system was to prove dysfunctional and public debt cascaded.

There is a clear cut ideological difference between the two parties. The Republicans are in favour of spendings cut instead of tax hikes. The Democrats hold that spending cuts affect the poor , and argue for taxing the rich.

This difference in stance led to aggravating of the crisis.

The Republican and the Democrats were unwilling to go in for harsh spending cuts and they shrugged off the onus unto joint commitees formed for the purpose. Even here the policy deadlock continued. Finally Republicans had their say and a blueprint of anti-inslovency action was chalked out. They came out with a $2.1 trillion cut plan which the agency thought to be ‘too little, too less.’

The American debt issue is as much a financial as a political maliase.

In India things have been kept in check due to a continuity in economic policy of liberalization, which was initiated in July 1991 in response to balance of payment problem and dysfunctions of Licence Raj.

Though National Advisory Council has a penchant for populist spends, the mature Planning Commission has countered the trend.

Living within our means and foreplanning and course-correction can steer India from any debt trap.