Forty Three Percent Democracy

When a group of gunmen attacked Mumbai, in November 2008, I was watching the news coverage on TV. I remember one clip where a CNN lady reporter was near one of the troubled sites when a bunch of nitwits gheraoed her and created a commotion. A couple of them were shouting at the woman reporter, and one idiot placed himself in front of the camera and started making faces.

On April 30 Mumbai went to poll. I don't know what these nitwits were doing on that day, but I am guessing that they did not vote.

During and after the attack, lot of people made lot of noise on how the politicians have failed us. Lot of well-intentioned and not so well-intentioned discussions happened. Largely people were upset with the attack and the way the authorities handled it. When the time came to take action, however, only 43% people turned up. Only 43% of eligible Mumbai voters exercised their franchise.

What do the rest 57% people hope to achieve by not voting?

I have also heard some people suggest that no one should vote. They don't even pause to think how that will improve anything. Even with a largely free and fair elections all kinds of criminals, thugs, corrupt, racists, bigots, hypocrites, and vested interests come to power. Do the 57% people actually expect to get better governance if the electoral democracy fails? Well... I don't think so!

Someone rightly said that people get the government they deserve. So if the next government is going to be a 'coalition' of mediocre nitwits, may be that is what the doctor has prescribed!

India: Biggest Democracy or Mobocracy?

A section of the Indian society has taken to mobocracy in a big way. There have been many instances of organized and systematic mob attacks on fellow Indians. And everytime they get away without any punishment! Disgusting as it may be, what is a decent Indian to do?

A friend of mine forwarded a blog entry by someone who was victimised by this mobocracy. This person and a bunch of people stuck together and did not give up. Please read the post on http://vishshanker.sulekha.com/blog/post/2009/02/this-happened-in-bangalore-bengaluru-shocking.htm.

Public institutions meant to provide service to the citizens are being taken over by the mob elements. I hope there is some way of cleaning this rot and restoring decency.

Just another day in a terror stricken city

Today mording I started for work on time. I got out of the house and walked up to the bus stop. I board my office bus from the BEST bus stop on the Western Express Highway. There is a cluster of three bus stops adjacent to each other. New bus shelters with seats have been build few months ago.

When I reached my bus stop, couple of people were sitting inside. On getting near the stop, I saw an unattended plastic bag kept on the seat. With bomb blasts happening every other day in India you can't help but be wary of such unattended bags. I went near the bag and inspected it closely without touching it. It contained some old cloths.

I concluded that there is nothing dangerous. But I did not feel like moving the bag, or touching it. Normally I would have taken a seat to wait for the bus, but now I quickly moved away from the stop and stood on the road. Then I wondered that if there is nothing suspicious in the bag why I stepped away from the stop. Realising that it was an over reaction I moved closer to the stop and stood there.

Few other people arrived at the stop and took the empty seats. They seemed to ignore the unattended bag.

In a moment a police van with six to seven men drove slowly past the bus stop. They seemed to be looking out for something. As they drove past the stop I thought it must be a routine patrol. I had never seen a patrol van in the morning hours.

It occured to me that I could have stopped them and pointed out the unattended bag. Then my logical mind took over and reminded me of the conclusion that it was unlikely to be a bomb. Anyway the moment had passed and the cops were gone. But when I turned, I saw the police van parked few yards away.

After wondering why the police van stopped there, I turned away to look out for my bus. In few moments I was thinking that maybe some one could walk up to the cops and tell them about the bag. Thankfully logic prevailed.

When I casually looked towards the police van again, three cops had already got out of the vehicle and were walking towards the bus stop. Now that got my attention. In a minute they were at my stop and were looking under the seats. Since people were seated it would have been difficult to notice the unattended bag. They moved on to the adjacent bus stop few yards away.

On seeing the cops the people who were seated in the bus stop seemed to get uncomfortable. A couple of them got up. I decided that it is time to take action and walked up to the cops. The cops meanwhile had checked the other stop and started walking back. I walked up to the first one and told him that there is an unattended bag there and pointed towards it. He said that they had come to check that only. Now everyone got out of the bus stop.

I walked back with the cops and saw that there were actually two bags there. The bag that I had inspected had old cloths and the other one had food in it. The cops concluded that some begger must have left the bags there. On occasions I have seen some vagabonds sleeping in the bus stop. The cops picked up the bags and threw it away.

I saw my bus approaching at a distance and got ready to board.

Indian Cricketing Debacle

I am not a fan of cricket so I would refrain from commenting on the Indian team performance. I would, however, comment on how we collectively responded to the situation.

Have we really responded to it? No! On the contrary we reacted. We come across a lot of reaction from all and sundry. Have you observed that collectively we, as Indians are more reactive than responsive?

My take on this is that why has the cricketing authority not done anything to ensure decent performance? Why do we have to react with shock after every thing is over? Did we have a plan/strategy to win? What role did the cricket board play?

The Indian coach Greg Chappell (a foreigner) had the decency to accept part of the responsibility for the poor performance. In contrast the establishment hasn't demonstrated any ownership. They do own loads of money though. (Indian cricket board is among the richest)

Indian Hockey team was among the best at one time. However, once their performance hit a valley, the concerned authorities have not shown any visible initiative to bring it back on track.

Sports bodies are supposed to ensure that the respective sport is given adequate support and create a strong national team. They need to ensure that our team has a credible standing amongst the other country teams. It is high time that the establishment took responsibility for the country's performance.

The Rise of India

The Rise of India, a new book written by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha, offers insightful perspectives on how India reached its current level of economic prosperity, warts and all. An editorial-page editor with Mint, a new financial daily in India, Rajadhyaksha uses wide-ranging interviews and hard data to back his arguments.

In an excerpt from his book, published on Wharton University site, Rajadhyaksha argues that new solutions are needed to tackle poverty, including moving beyond squabbling over how to best measure it and toward more equitable income spreads. He also describes the ill-effects of globalization and argues that poverty has more to do with unproductive employment than unemployment.

To read the article click the following link:
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm?articleid=4156

Some facts and figures...

• Between 1950 and 1980, Average incomes rose by a mere 1.2% a year. Average incomes have increased by over 4% a year since 1991.
• According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), in 2002, India had one of the most energy-intensive economies in the world -- 2.88 times that of the rich countries. So India needed nearly three times more than an average rich country to produce an equivalent amount of output. (the energy-intensity of an economy is the amount of energy needed to produce one unit of GDP)
• China, whose economy is powered by manufacturing, is less energy-intensive than India. India's energy intensity is almost 24% higher than China's, despite the fact that both countries are at the same level of development.
• Austria's energy consumption in 1992 was the same as it was in 1973, though industrial output was up 70%.
• Agriculture accounts for barely a quarter of the Indian economy but employs about 60% of the labor force.
• Economist Omkar Goswami and marketing consultant Rama Bijapurkar have constructed a detailed representation of rural India based on economic, demographic and consumption data from 530 districts in the country. They say that rural India accounts for 52% of India's GDP. They break this into the three basic components: agriculture accounts for 46%, industry for 21%, and services for 33% of the rural economy.
• The 1991 census showed that only 30% of rural households lived in permanent houses. Ten years later, the next census shows that 41% of rural households have decent housing. (This fact is contrary to the politically attractive view that the whole of rural India is suffering because of problems on the farm)
• According to estimates by Ifzal Ali, chief economist of the Asian Development Bank, one unit of economic growth created 0.384 jobs in the 1980s and 0.312 jobs in the 1990s. This shows that the ability of the Indian economy to create new jobs has undoubtedly diminished in the past 15 years.