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.

Personality-based Television News

TV news format is a-changing. Quality news reporting is now thought to be just an appendage, a material to produce a popular studio-based show.

The focus is now more on maximizing the airtime and TRP returns from a good stand alone report.

Cost of production is one factor. Studio based shows cost less compared to a similar show comprising of reports from the field.

Grabbing airspace for extended prime time TRP ratings is another.
Stand alone reports , however incisive, can't be stretched for long.
News programming demands airtime by the half-hour (24 min).
Discussions and talking heads serve this purpose well.

Due to populist motives, for the most mundane or intense discussion a celebrity guest is producer's demand. Thus we find a Mahesh Bhatt, a Shobha De and a Shabana Azmi, a staple of guest lists.

The output department of a news channel is a past master in translating miniscule footages into hot property programmes. They all well know how to chisel out a popular show from a clip/byte from a common news source.
Here news is at a premium. Holding ground to the maximum period while sustaining viewer's attention is more important.

TV News anchors/news editors are celebrities in their own rights and it is only logical to cash in on their persona to gain eyeballs.

The bottom line is personality based television. Where the reporter and his report has fallen on bad days.
It's the 'news executives' based in the studio who are setting the news and programming agenda with an eye on TRP.

Charms Of Hina Rabbani Khar

Pakistan’s opening gambit has paid off well. Pakistan’s new foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar has taken India by storm,so to speak.

She is being showered with epithets as the elegant fashionista, a graceful and attractive lady and much more. But less is being heard spoken of her office and agenda.

It’s showtime for Pak’s diplomacy, and what could achieve this more than a beautiful face as it comes from a feudal, repressive society.

In the ensuing brouhaha the diplomatic agenda of Pak has taken well-intended backseat, and what is dominating the headlines are the Robert Cavalli sunglasses , the Rs. 15 lakh Hermes Birkin bag and classic pearl jewellery of the foreign minister.

It seems that the Indian diplomatic team had been so smitten by the feminine charms of the lady that they were waylaid into adopting a soft and misleading joint statement at the end of joint parleys.

More seriously, quite like earlier times, now too we find India bending backwards to engage Pakistan. And once again Pakistan has done a diplomatic encore by by its well executed oneupemanship.

Sample this :

1. The joint statement says that both sides were ‘ satisfied on the holding of meetings on the 26/11 trials’

Nothing can be far from the truth.

Pakistan is going slow on trials. Since 2009 four judges have been changed.
Small-fry are being tried. Main culprits JuD’s Hafiz Saeed, LeT’s Sajid Mir and ISI officers Major Iqbal and Major Sameer Ali have neither been arrested or questioned.

Despite P. Chidambaram’s 2010 Pakistan visit, the country has refused to hand over voices samples of arrested men to India. Chidambaram had expressed his disappointment over Pakistan’s attitude on the 26/11 trial.

True to her job, we found foreign secretary Nirupma Rao defending the joint statement.

2. After landing in New Delhi the first thing Ms. Khar did was to meet up with the leaders of the Kashmir separatist group, Hurriyat Conference.

This was equivalent of cocking a snook at India. India made a token objection in the meetings and then it was business as usual.

There was an agenda of a business détente and freerer interborder trade at Kashmir that got sanctions from India. The joint statement ignored the Pakistani intransigence on the matter.

Apparently the glamarous Hina Khar has executed her brief to the T.
A beleaguered Pakistan needed an injection of oomph in its foreign ministry to soften its image as a terrorist-state.
Sometime in the near future Ms. Hina’s destination will be Washington DC. It is here that she will earn her grades.

Return Of The Action Hero

It’s return of the action hero in Btown.
Ajay Devgan is the newest fellowtraveler on the action bandwagon. He has left behind his dark brooding image for more brash and brawn. Singham. Six packs, tattoo and flashing fists are just the way to start off, probably.

Our handful of brawny stars apparently had had their fill of mushy, emotional roles and comic caper.
The box office returns had shattered their narcissism. The script had somewhat dissatisfied them, and peer pressure woken them up. They wanted desperately to reinvent.

It all started with Gajani. The 2008 southern remake grossed Rs. 100 crore at the BO and woke up the Khans and everyone else in Bollywood.

Later a beleagured Salman followed suit with Wanted and set his career record right. Now the man has an impressive track record of hit action flicks under his belt. Wanted. Dabangg, Ready, and has Bodyguard and Kick to follow.

Badshah Khan didn’t wanted to be left behind too. Enough of buddy Karan’s tearjerkers. He has pumped his own dough in his ambitious project Ra 1, and will follow it up with Farhan Akhtar’s Don 2.

Perfectionist Khan is donning the role of a dishum dishum cop in Reema Katgi’s cop caper. He will also be seen in dark shades of character in a hardcore action role in the third installment of the Dhoom franchisee.

Saifu Miyan nowadays is busy shooting desi James Bond in his home production Agent Vinod.

Original action hero Akshay Khanna will come a full circle with his action flick Rowdy Rathore.

So who is left behind….??
No one. No one wants to be left behind.

Action …maara maari….which was uptill now thought be a B and C centre draw has become a raging urban phenomenon…a multiplex draw.

The actors are getting back their money’s worth for the time spent in gym. Six packs are the new uniform and tattoos are just adding to the lucky charm.
So you have Sanju Baba sporting a new sheath of muscle and eye-hurting tattoos all over for his Kancha Cheena role for Johar’s Agnipath remake.

Action sequence have also got a new birth. They have become more stylized. The shots, cuts and edits have become more snazzy.
The stunt masters of the yore who were grouped till yesteryear in a qaint and ludicrous credit title of ‘’ Thrills’’ have moved on to become action choreographers or action designers.

Even directors are succumbing to the charm. They are stealing thunder by ‘designing action’ and appropriating action credit title. Check out Rohit Shetty’s extra credit score in Singham !!.

It won’t take any skills to predict that the next round of scripting will be around the action hero. Special effects, Sci-fi themes, item numbers and star cameos will be thown in good measure to hook the moffusil and the metro audience.

Mumbai Bomb Blasts

Once Again In Mumbai :

Once again Mumbai has been rocked mercilessly by killer bombs.

Once again terrorists have ripped the city apart by blood, gore and fear.

Once again police have found themselves holding the short end of the stick.

Once again politcians have sung the same old rhetoric-rhyme.

And once again Mumbaikars have suffered for no cause of their own…..


Since the March 12, 1993 bomb blasts this has been the 13th.
The unlucky 13th.
Whichever way you count.

If there is a method in this madness, then let the terrorism analysts explain it.
To the untrained mind and eye an old pattern runs through all the post-blasts breastbeating.

Here’s my checklist.

# 1. Once again there is blame-game on the intelligence failure. Once again reports surface that the central intelligence agencies had informed the state intelligence in advance and the state had failed to take action on it.


# 2. Once again politicians speak off-the-cuff on the attacks and create controvery. If after the terror attack at the Taj Hotel the then state home minister R R Patil put his foot in mouth by saying that ‘such small things happen in big cities,’ then now Rahul Gandhi has shot his mouth by saying ‘one percent margin for terror attack is always open.’


#3. Once again Government reiterates its resolve to go strong on terrorism, and to nab the culprits at the earliest.

#4. Once again Pakistan offers sympathy and shows solidarity in fighting terrorism.


#5. Once again paens are sung in media about the never-say-die spirit of Mumbaikars. Casting aside fear and grief city folks are back to work the very next day. (well, what else can they do. Sit at home ?)


#6. Once again Bollywood is in news !! The celebrities are all over castigating and condemning the attack.

#7. Once again right after the blasts terrorist groups are named. This time it is Indian Mujahideens. However no concrete evidence is there for pinpointing the group.


# 8. Once again media does routine stories on the blast.
Terrorism analysts/stratagem gurus of all hues surface in panel discussions.
Exclusive reports become a TRP game of TV Channels.
Newspaper editorials adopt academic postures on terrorism and preach policy to government from their ivory towers.


#9. Once again fashionistas and page 3 die-hards grope for their candles for that condolence march.

# 10. Once again some smart-alec in Bollywood announces a movie on the blast……


And once again Mumbai lives to die…….once again…..

Katrina Kaif : Life & Times of a Bollywood Cat

She is the smartest of the Bollywood cats. She knows well that though the proverbial cat may have nine lives but Btown’s glamour furries live only once to meow. So Katrina lives as if Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. And claims every crown tinsel town has to offer.

Gossip mill has always pointed out that Ms. Kaif is no innocent babe, in fact she is a smart operator. Well nothing wrong in that. In the cat-eat-cat world of moviedom one needs beauty plus brains to move ahead.

Her detractors point that Salman Khan was used well and proper by her to reach the present starry heights.

An affair that probably started during the making of Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya (2005) and ended on rocks in 2010. There may be a grain of truth in it, or probably the love cycle could have happily coincided with Katrina’s karma.

In 2003 Kat was fresh from the debacle of Boom. Then in 2005 Maine…happened.

People noticed Katrina in the film and she rode the wave of success with Sallu by her side.Namaste London, Welcome, Partner, Singh Is King…are but those few movies that spelled success for her during this period.

Salman was her soul partner all this while. For a newbie, a British model, a flop actress, a non-hindi speaking heroine, the support of the Khan must have mattered most.


But let’s not take it away from the lady. Katrina had loads of oomph. Pass-grade histrionic abilities and a good star friends (Akshay Kumar for one).

And she had that fire in her belly. She had seen life. In a family of eight siblings. In a working mother. In modelling in London. So she fought to make it big.

She worked hard on her Hindi.( Now she doesn’t gets her lines dubbed. She speaks them herself in Hindi). Worked hard on her relationships. And made the grade.

She never wanted to get tied down in sentimentalities of a love relationship. For her career was prime. That’s why when still in relationship with Salman she did sizzlers with Sallu’s sworn foe John Abraham in New York.

Then she went ahead and did films with Ranbir and painted the town red with talks of her romance with the Kapoor Junior. That again showed her independence.


Later she sighed her desire of working with Badshah Khan !!!

Clearly Salman had outlived his utility in her life.

Now she is the hot property of Yash Chopra camp. But hey, even here she has kept her steel intact and said no to biknis.
For a girl who dared and bared all in Boom that’s quite a resolve.
But that’s the sort of branding she wants now on her image.


Katrina Kaif is now in the phase two of her career.
She is single. An actress with no camps. Lots of helpful male costars.Darling of masses.
And has both cerebral and masala directors panting to sign her on the dotted lines.

With such a beautiful setup no wonder she is living as if Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara.