FUTURIST RAIL BUDGET

It's a futurist rail budget. They didn't mollycoddle you this time. No sops for the middle and lower classes. No Janta trains this time. No socialist fanfare to entice the masses. The fares and hikes came well before the budget. The budget itself was an exercise in financial and management initiative. It pushed the envelope just more further.
The vision is of a modern India. An international India. The selling point of the budget seems to be the bullet train. It builds the theme of the budget. There are talks of FDI and PPP. Railway stations which will look like Airport lounges. Online bookings for platform tickets and even general bogies asserts the aspirations of Hoi Polloi. Forget not, that the era of entitlement is over. Aspirations have been crowned the king.

HSGPC

The demand for seperate SGPC for Haryana Sikh community has become a tool for political parties to gain milage in the run for the state hustings. State Congress had espoused the cause for a sepearte committee. That had opened a veritable pandora box. Opposing Sikh factions are clashing on the issue.
Congress seks to divide and rule. It's strategy is to drive a wedge in the sikh vote bank and weaken the INLD mass base. It also seeks to undermine the Badal group's supremacy over the Haryana Committee. A seperate HSGPC will not only weaken BadalGroup's hold over Haryana sikhs. It will question its undiluted supremacy in Himachal and Punjab too. Haryana, Punjab and Himachal are the three states where Badal Group's writ runs supreme. 

MODI ON OFFENSIVE

Offense is the best form of defence. Narender Modi seems to have realized this after being at the receiving end of Election Commission's stricture. Modi apparently had flashed his party logo and delivered an election speech after casting his vote. Election Commission pulled Modi for it.

On the rebound, while addressing people in Asansol Modi came out strongly against the Commission. He dared the Commission to take action against him.

His motive seems to be twofold. First put the Congress on a defensive, lest it tries to rake up mud against him via the Commission. Apparently an IB report has noted about the large scale booth rigging in parts of West Bengal, Western UP and Bihar. Modi's logic was that the Government and Commission had ignored the report and chose instead to make him target for minor lapses.Hence, he kept  Congress at gunpoint, so to speak.

Secondly, Modi had been quite quick on uptake on any criticism or verbal attack made against him. In this episode  also he has kept his habit alive. With  two rounds of voting still to go, Modi doesn't want his name tarnished by any tarbrush of allegation. His strong comments purportedly shows his indigination and hurt, and as a consequence seeks to exonerate him from charges of electioneering lapses.

PRINCE AND THE DON QUIXOTE

It is the story of two wannabe's. One a reluctant prince. Other, an unshamed Don Quixote.
Rahul Gandhi and Narender Modi are two colours at the opposite ends of the political spectrum. Both draw their inspiration from a vision of resurgent India. Shining India, if I may. 

Both are strategist, or at least profess to be strategist. Rahul started and ended his corporate career as a long term corporate strategy consultant. Modi asserts he has a blueprint of national development pinned on his drawing board.

Rahul kickstarted his plan to revivify the Grand Old Lady of Indian politics by initiating corporate style workshops. His plans were restricted by the unwieldy Congress. His elbow room for manoeuvre was narrow. Party traditions and stalwarts breathed heavily down his neck. Rahul's vision is blurred and he still lacks a clearly etched vision document.He still is trying to gather and understand the  pieces of the problem that is India, and that of Congress itself. 

His election gameplan grew and evolved, as he himself grew and evolved. Getting roughed by his opponents and media, Rahul himself steadily shrugged off his moralistic posture and became more belligerent.




 

NADELLA AT MICROSOFT

Innovation seems to be the mantra of the newly anointed CEO of  Microsoft Technologies.
Innovation the compamy needs for sure. In a battle turf of new age communications and user-friendly technologies Microsoft had to bite the dust once too often. Collegiate grads became his nemesis. Google and Facebook maestros Page and Brin , and   Mark Zuckerberg  set the ground rules and Microsoft found itself floundering in catching eyeballs and garnerning clicks in areas of seach engine, cloud computing and business software solutions. Facebook was invested in, Google maintained it's independence.
Nadella's ascendency is thought to be a safe choice for the company. Where Google and Facebook are innovating 'for the moon,' Microsoft has been burdened with a top-heavy worldview and is finding it difficult to jump that generation gap, to walk in step with fast changing time. Nadella has his brief cut out. Innovate or perish.
Biil Gates has consented to be the technology advisor to the company, a father-figure who will guide Nadella find his steps to that elusive tech-nirvana. Here we have a parallel with Narayan Murthy of Infosys. Or for that matter Ratan Tata himself. Both have chosen to remain seated in the mentor seat post retirement.

However, Gates agenda is larger. He, along with Chairman John Thompson is going to woo the investors. These are the very investors who were clamouring for a more technology focus for the company. It remains to be seen how the angry Wall Street patrons will be placated.

AAP's NEMESIS

With Binny cocking a snook at the Aam Aadmi Party, expect a lot of fireworks in the coming days.
AAP has now come of age. It has become a political party in the existing currency of the term. In the short time span from inception to coming to power, it has been there, seen all experience for the Kejriwal Inc.
The party has seen and felt mutiny, expulsion, media bashing, extreme censure, belligrency and what not.
Now, it's time to move on to another phase of political experience. Anna Hazare seems to have closed ranks with Binny. Anna the sympathizer has advised Binny to go slow on his current dharna and go all out to do an expose campaign against the wrongs and misdeeds of AAP.
India Against Corruption, has also joined ranks with Binny to protest against AAP's misdemeanour's.
This is the same organization which has supported Anna during his Lokpal agitation.
The battle lines seems to drawn more clearly now. Animosities are coming out in the open. BJP and Congress seems to like it like never before. The sniping and all the dirty job is being done in proxy.
It's a clever and comfortable game of wait and watch.

A CASE FOR COURSE CORRECTION

With AAP throwing its weight behind Law Minister Somnath Bharti one thing is clear : the party is aware of its soft spot that the minister has inadvertently laid bare. The party which swears by honesty and transparency has gone all awry.
With attacks flush on Bharti and Kejriwal, the party has chosen to play a game which till yesterday was the domain of 'other' political parties.
Behind closed doors the AAP panchayat has exonerated Bharti of all blame. This action is a questionmark on the AAP brand of politics. It also points to the path of guile and grim gumption that the party is hurtling on to.
The path which Somnath took was self-destructive. It chose to override the rule of law. By going on a dharna to support the minister Kejriwal has not actually covered himself with accolades.
Supreme Court has now placed a showcause notice to the CM and matters have come to a headon course.
Kejriwal and AAP could well take note of all this and chart out a course correction. Political opponents will have it easy to nail them if they don't. AAP's own track record is also going to take a beating.

THE RELUCTANT PRINCE

Power is Poison. That's was the prescription of Mother Sonia. Seems now that Son Rahul has taken this prescription with a pinch of salt. His antipathy towards the Dynastic Rule seems to have evaporated in stages.

 Earlier he was was clearly opposed to being the prime minister. His worldview dictated his logic : Dynastic rule has to end. Even if it means embracing bachelorhood....

The next season saw him christened as the campaign head for 2014 turnstiles. His fire and brimstone delivery seemingly won him accolades, and sniggers.

Now the reluctant prince seems to waver still from his prior stance. As a first, he has acquiesed to holding the prime minister's post, if the elected Member of Parliament choose him thus.

SPIT-POLISH MAKEOVER

It is question of life and death. Of winning and losing. Winning means a lot for Congress at this juncture. It means all the more for the Gandhi family. The Dynasty stands questioned. It's legitimacy thumbed down by a surging AAP and a resurgent BJP.
To save the Grand Old Party from decimation and humiliation, to breathe life into the Dynasty, Sonia has summoned her siblings. Rahul will lead the party and Priyanka will be the back-office boss. Two able right hands for the Madam.
Priyanka has a track record for quelling dissent, and managing discord at the ground level. In 2007 she was assigned to save the Amethi Rae Bareilly constituency. Against a strong anti-congress wave she managed to mop up seven out of 10 seats and saved the Family from ignominy.
Today, she has to save her brother. Sonia has put her weight behind her lack-lustre son. The party has few options. In a scenario where IT'S DIFFERENT  is the reigning mantra, Congress has only one novelty - Rahul.
Reports say that a 500 crore campaign has been commissioned for a spit-polish image makeover for Congress and Rahul. Both need it desperately.
Image-makeover notwithstanding, Congress can sure do a lot with some basic and different agenda. It needs to voice it's election planks with care and cleverness. How well Rahul can do it is a concern. The party has woken up quite late. The winds of change are blowing hard and strong. Ordinance tearing and party bashing won't help.What will help remains to be seen.
On the other hand, Dr. Manmohan Singh  has made an ignoble exit. Till last he remained a puppet of the Family. He was used to clear the way for Rahul's ascendency. Maybe that would give some food for thought for the so-called heavyweights of the party.
The ease with Priyanka was made to slide into the decision-making echelon of the party again comments on the pliable and subservient structure.Where's is the inter-party democracy and meritocracy which should have been the been the hallmark of the Grand Old Party.
The whole setup reeks of a last-ditch effort to salvage the situation. What happens after the defeat, if and when it happens,will be interesting to see.

MAN BOOKER PRIZE

From  next year Man Booker’s Prize will change. It will no longer be an exlcusive domain of Common Wealth writers. From 2014 onwards the Prize will be open to entries from all over the world. As of now, writers who write in English and whose work has been published UK are eligible for the award.

The ostensible  logic of the move is to universalize literature. To bring writers from diverse regions on a common platform to compete. This move will change the face of prize for ever.

Uptill now, the award was a  great platform for non-English speaking population, specifically Asian and African writers from the Commonwealth region. The award had a great aspirational value for Commonwealth writers. It promoted talent, and gave a fillip to fiction writing. Indians benefitted a lot from the award. Salman Rushdie, Kiran Desai and Arunadhati Roy rose to prominence with their work being anointed by the award.

Now things are going to change. Commonwealth writers will face tough competition from transnational writers. This may raise their bar, it might also swamp them out.

The fine print of the decision points to the growing unease of publishing houses whose domain is being encroached by technology firms like Amazon, Apple and Google. They have brought out e-reading devices like Kindle and ipad . Internet has democratized publishing. Books are more and more being made and released online. This move from the print to the digital has seen a rapid decline in the number of publishing establishments. Publishing industry itself is witnessing mergers and takeovers.  Clearly, the publishing proprietors are facing the music. One wonders if the recent change in rules of game of the Man Booker is the result of a  lobbied effort by this beleaguered publishing group.

 

MALALA - the girl story

It’s almost a year now. On  October 9, 2012, a young girl was returning home from school on an open -back truck. The truck was waylaid by a group of armed men. They asked the name of each of the child, and finally zeroed on a teenage girl. They put a gun barrel on her forehead and ran a bullet through her head. The girl was Malala Yousafzai. Armed hotheads were Taliban extremists. Location was Mingon town of Swat district. Country – Pakistan.

The cause of her being shot was a trifle matter for a death sentence. Malala had raised objection against Taliban’s diktat  preventing girls from going to school.

Malala survived the attack. She along with her family is living in Britain. Despite the attack, Malala had stuck to her position. She continues to oppose the Talibani fatwa, and  continues to champion the cause of girlchild education. 

Malala has now spoken about her wish to become a politician to fight for  girlchild rights, among other things.

Rise of Malala as a child activist is an interesting story. The forces which chiseled Malala’s character and convictions lay around her while she grew up in backwaters of Pakistan. The very fact that a  teenage girl from an underdeveloped region  should have such sharpened insight and worldview points to moulding forces alive in her neighbourhood. 

What were her influences ? Her schoolteachers and fellow schoolfriends, her parents and relatives.

Obviously, subjugation of the girlchild must have been a potent emotion among her influences. Among her school friends and teachers, the feeling about treatment meted out to the girlchild must have been very strong. They couldn’t vent those feelings. Malala had the opportunity and zing to take Taliban front-on.

The backstory of Malala points definitively to one fact. Modern day repressive societies have a strong undercurrent of revolt. The young of the society primarily nurse this sense of revolt and angst. Even if revolt doen’t come from the young, it is fuelled by youth-power. Arab Spring revolt is a case in the point.

It was well that Malala was not given the Nobel Peace Prize. To have done so would have deified her. She is too young for that. She should be allowed to flower, to develop her own path of activism, find her own voice and worldview.