My friend’s status message on facebook asks a simple question to Papa Bear (Emperor of the Hindu hearts) – If Sania becomes a Pakistani by marrying Shoaib Mallik, how is Sonia still Italian?

It’s confusing. May be Thackerays were born into a matriarchal system, may be into a patriarchal system, may be they shouldn’t have been born at all.

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“my president, whose agenda can be derailed at any moment by a jihadist death cult using exploding underpants.”

And

what does the war on terror give us? Better drones, body scanners and a lot of desultory T.S.A. security jobs at airports. “Sputnik spurred us to build a highway to the future,” added Mandelbaum. “The war on terror is prompting us to build bridges to nowhere.”

This dangerous balance of the nation’s priorities was not reached in a day. The military-media-government-industrial-religious complex works the 24 hour news cycle, 365 days a year to push the society to a nervous state of fear. I think this article is very important in an American and Indian context. Policy makers should have the courage to make decisions which may not go well with the mob’s opinion, and the mob should understand that every news story is trying to prepare them to go to war. Such an understanding might help in realizing why the Indian left opposed making a missile man the country’s president, why Narendra Modis are always wrong even when they build spectacular highways, why every speculative article about Chinese aggression in India’s cess-pool broadcasters is not harming China but contaminating our national psyche, why we shouldn’t fight terrorists ourselves in our drawing rooms and facebooks and twitters, but leave that jobs to men who are paid for that, and why we should switch off the television sets and burn that copy of Times of India. The fight between the right and the left is not about 542 seats in the house, but about half a billion young minds in the making, and that’s why the Republic Day parade where missiles are displayed should be banned. Then may be we will create a country where the ‘mind is without fear’.

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T. Anjaiah, the Chief Minister of Andhra, yet another Congress chief minister installed through the “revolving door policy” of the Congress high command, was humiliated at the Airport by a novice AICC General Secretary – Rajiv Gandhi. This was all that took NTR to raise the slogan of ‘Andhra self-respect’, launch the TDP in 1983 and ride his rath into power in Hyderabad within 6 months. Back room installation of Kona Prabhakar Rao, by Governor Ramlal only led to further consolidation of ‘Andhra self-respect’ in favour of the Telegu Desham Party.

Coming back to 11th December 2009, to another political vacuum of Telugu’s land since YSR died. Since P Chidambaram’s executive announcement about splitting the state of Andhra. Andhra’s Congress Chief Minister K Rosaiah said Sonia Gandhi and the Congress High Command will take the final decision on the future Andhra.

And  one question remains in spite of my respect for the Gandhi family – “Who is Sonia Gandhi to decide?”

One full circle for ‘Andhra self-respect’.

Creation of Telangana is a larger issue than the creation of another state in the country. It is a larger issue than the question that if a country with 300 million people can have 50 states, why should a country with 1200 million people have just 28 states? If Telangana is created, it will be the first time in India that a linguistic state is divided. It will shove us into an identity crisis which Pakistan faced when East Pakistan became Bangladesh. The parameters will change from religion to language. If Pakistanis in 1971 wondered if religion wasn’t enough to keep their country together, people in Andhra would wonder if language was not enough. In more ways than one, any identity crisis is good.

But isn’t there an issue of respect in the way the new state was announced. The center announcing its decision to create a new state, adding that the Andhra assembly would move a motion for creation of Telangana, takes a couple of things for granted. Even when the center has power to create new states, it is ok to do that in cases of states without a cohesive identity like UP or Bihar or Madhya Pradesh, but Andhra is different. From Potti Sriramulu’s hunger strike which led to the creation of Andhra Pradesh, to KCR’s hunger strike which has almost led to the division of the state – Andhra, like Tamilnad, Karanataka, and Kerala has developed a cohesive identity based on language. Generations since 1956 have been born into this identity. If changes need to be made to that identity, it should be done in Hyderabad, and not in Delhi. When P Chidambaram announced the decision to divide Andhra from Delhi, he was challenging the ‘self respect’ of every linguistic state in India, not just Andhra.

What does P Chidambaram’s decision mean? Does it mean India’s central government had a sudden rush of ‘morality hormone’ and understood that the people of Telangana did not want to continue in Andhra Pradesh anymore, that they were fed up of the injustices done by coastal Andraites including the second canal to Nagarjuna Sagar, that they never stood a chance for development, and government jobs as part of a greater Andhra. Addressing perceived underdevelopment is fine, but how much morality does the Indian government have to address a question of identity through an executive decision than through a composite dialogue process in Hyderabad. I repeat Hyderabad.

An executive decision in this regard, can be taken by a country which has some moral authority in dealing with identity issues. It is illogical and hypocritical for a country like India which usurps Kashmir valley, Manipur, and Nagaland against the wishes of people who have lived there for centuries, to announce an executive decision in Delhi that it will divide Andhra. (or Maharashtra or Gujarat or Karnataka or Tamilnad or Kerala). This decision should have been made in Hyderabad. I repeat Hyderabad.

Another worthy question to ponder is ‘What if YSR was there?’. We can speculate on that. YSR R.I.P.

What Next on Telangana?

The movement for Telangana has reached its critical mass, and tipping point. The reasons being -

First – India follows a Westminster form of democracy, and the best way to determine how people of a particular area think is by looking at how their representatives think. This is because the MLAs and MPs from a region basically want to get re-elected and hence will represent what their constituents want.

Based on this logic, the big majority of representatives from Coastal Andhra and Rayalseema want a united Andhra ,and almost all representatives from Telangana area want a separate state. Now, the case in point being Telangana, the opinion of the legislators from Telangana matters most. Plus on top of this almost all political parties including Congress, TDP, and Praja Rajyam have taken a favorable stand towards creation of Telangana.

Second – If someone is ready to sacrifice his\her life for a cause, that which is the highest sacrifice a person can make, it is very difficult for any country with a conscience to fight that cause. I’m not talking only about KCR, but the student protests that dotted the Telangana landscape for over 50 years, and which intensified at Osmania and Kakatiya in the past several weeks. (long before national media’s radar saw the impending crisis in Andhra). Three hundred and fifty students died for a separate Telangana in 1971. They were ready to do that again. That is critical mass.

Two approaches are possible now that the issue has reached critical mass. First, ignore the protests and take the Kashmir route where we have send in the army and decimated popular expression. This is doable but will be a long and winding road, and its effectiveness in Kashmir where democracy is still in its mewling and puking stages may not be the same in a large and important state like Andhra.

Second, respect democracy, create Telangana.

Arguments against Telangana at this point are irrelevant as every political party is divided right in the middle on this issue, resulting in a highly divided polity. The arguments vary from ineffectiveness of Telangana’s political leadership to the investments in Hyderabad.

Telangana’s political leadership and Water wars

Three Chief Ministers of Andhra have come from Telangana region – PV Narasimha Rao, Marri Chenna Reddy,and T. Anjiah. But the surprising fact is that they together served just 6 years in the state’s 52 year history. Then again Rayal Seema had 4 stalwarts  N. Sanjeeva Reddy, Damodaram Sanjeeviah, K. Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy, and Babu Naidu who served for 20 years but remains another under-developed area. So the issue could be less about political leadership but more structural like the historical backwardness of the Telangana area.

But instead of 6 years, what if leaders from Telangana governed Telangana for 52 years? Would they have been better given the limited amount of resources? This is a larger Indian question, but one thing is sure about political leadership – smaller states have done well, smaller states have gone to hell as well – it depends on political leadership. Given Telangana’s backwardness in terms of human development and resources for industry, any new government in the new state will have a large incentive to start another water war because the head waters of Krishna and Godavari are located in Telangana.

The question of Hyderabad

This is a little tricky, but the argument that people from other parts of the state  who work in Hyderabad will be insecure doesn’t hold much water. People from Coastal Andhra and Rayal Seema also work in Bangalore, Chennai, and Bombay, and they will continue to work in Hyderabad. This is as illogical as thinking people in Telangana will stop watching Allu Arjun or Mahesh Babu if the state is divided. The shared culture and language will I guess make Hyderabad different for a person from Andhra when compared to Chennai or Bangalore.

The case of Babu Naidu investing a lot of tax payer’s money in Hyderabad has not much meat. When Andhra was left without a metropolis after Madras stayed with Madras Presidency, Telangana with its capital of Hyderabad (Andhra’s capital was Kurnool) was merged with Andhra. Telangana’s resources were exploited under the Nizam’s rule to provide for Hyderabad, and the Andhra state benefited from this. When Hyderabad came to Andhra Pradesh in 1956, it was the 5th largest city in India. In 2009, its still the 5th largest city in India. Babu Naidu may have invested in it, but historically speaking – it’s fair game.

I know it’s easier said than done, especially for people losing their identity. But this  one issue will trigger debates in the southern states which go beyond the fifty year old- taken for granted-identity of language. And that’s change and And that’s good!

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This essay of mine won the Discover India Essay prize at University of Michigan. The event was the first India Business Conference at Michigan. The Essay won me a certificate and whole lot of money in a beautifully organized and heavily attended India conference (though collecting the prize from one of Saffron India’s posterboys wasn’t the most enjoyable event of the night).

Discover India Essay: “One Billion and Counting”

Only the continent of Africa exceeds the linguistic, genetic and cultural diversity of the nation of India

-     US Library of Congress, Note on Ethnic groups

Today at school, we had the Alumni reunion, and outside the Siegle Café I met this alumnus from the 1958 batch. We talked for an hour about the housing bubble, the Ford Museum, the Korean War, the GI Bill, and as always what I lack in depth I compensated with breadth. And then the Alumnus asked –

“You are Brahma, right?”

I was surprised. How did he know my name? I am quite famous with my parents, but not so beyond that.

“I know that you ‘were’ Brahma because I’ve heard that Brahmas are the most intelligent and prosperous people in India”

It took me a while before I realized he was talking about the Indian caste called Brahmins. I did not get into a prolonged discussion with the white American with all his mid-western humility on India’s complex caste maze that evolved over many millennia.

But we do love generalizations, don’t we? When it comes to something as abstract and complex as India, we may love it even more. India, which Nehru called a myth and a reality at the same time, ensures you a catastrophe down the line if you approach it with a generalization.

In this essay, I’ve tried to put into perspective three core issues that define the billion population – Identity politics, Future indicators instead of lagging indicators, and Collective’s instead of Individual’s market.

The Politics of a Billion

“Nations are born in the hearts of poets; They prosper and die in the hands of politicians” – Mohammed Iqbal, Poet.

Caste is the Indian reality, and our politics is defined by that. Of course we can deny it for another thousand years. But anyone attempting to understand why a woman Chief Minister of one of India’s most impoverished states erects costly statues of herself in every junction would probably want to understand the caste hierarchy that permeates Indian society. May be the fact that, two decades or so ago, this woman could have been paraded nude and assaulted if she drew water from a ‘upper caste’ well would go a long way in explaining the politics of identity in the Indian Heartland.

Castes evolved in India as a form of dividing labor. For instance, the ‘Chamars’ were the caste of leather tanners, a line of work considered unhygienic. But irony and history has it that anyone who was born into a ‘Chamar’ family was henceforth treated as unhygienic and ‘untouchable’, even though he or she was not a tanner. This exclusion of about two thirds of the Indian population from the mainstream continued for well over two thousand years.

These castes started asserting themselves in different parts of India at differing times over the past 80 years, some states went through this essential identity churning before independence, but most of the states reached that stage only in the past two decades. This explains why democracy in India has different contours in different states. For example in states like Kerala, democracy is in a later stage where women’s issues and green issues are debated, while states like UP in the heartland are still passing through the churn of identity politics. Anyone who goes into India unaware of this deep fault line of caste is in for seismographic shocks. Caste defines the way India conducts business, and anyone aware of this will interpret the country better. And that will determine whether the ‘Billion’ is a challenge or an advantage.

The Future Indicators of a Billion – People, Technology, Education

The GDP debate around PPP notwithstanding, it would be worthwhile to look at the future indicators for India. India figures at 132^nd position on UNDP’s Human Development Index. HDI’s comparative measure of specifically child welfare, literacy and education leaves India high and dry. Despite marginal reductions in poverty – 60% of Indian women are under-nourished, 20% of the world’s out-of-school kids are in India, 25% of the world’s birth-related-deaths are in India, 74% of rural India has no toilets, and we are still arguing if we are the 4^th or 12^th largest economy in the world. You don’t create a developed nation and then develop your children, your children – the nourishment you give them, the education you give them defines the nation’s future. If we fail in that, we’ll be left with one billion challenges.

India has covered a lot of ground in poverty alleviation and the nation’s technology prowess is second to none. The effectiveness of the NREGA scheme for tackling unemployment in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh is a classic example of how effective legislation and technology prowess joined hands to make poverty history.

Why are we not able to replicate the above in case of mal-nourishment, education and Urban renewal? The Indian states have money, but not the management agility required of a prime mover. These are areas which present immense opportunities to organizations which have expertise and ideas in these fields.

The Possibilities of a Billion

India is a country where a unique idea whose time has come will catch fire easily. Then the mob takes it on their shoulders and dances around with it. It is a spectacle, a miracle sometimes. When Gandhi drew a handful of salt on a beach in Western India, night fell on the empire whose sun never set. The same happened with the green revolution that eliminated famine in India, and Operation Flood which multiplied the country’s milk production through the co-operative movement.

There are several instances where spectacular synergies between the Government and business changed history in recent times too. Rajiv Gandhi-Sam Pitroda team’s idea of tapping into India’s entrepreneurial spirit brought about the telecom revolution in India by connecting every village in India with a public phone. The cellular surge in India was another spectacle of Government-Business synergy, with regulations placed and removed at right timings. A very recent example is when middle-class India bought into TATA’s idea of the world’s cheapest car, and in a lesser known side story the cash strapped TATA (After the Jaguar deal) was able to stay afloat with the over 200,000 bookings in a month. TATA understood India, and India got the idea. And when that happens, you have a billion opportunities.

Indoxication

Predicting India’s future should not be attempted. It’s like marching to Moscow.

“When Nehru goes,” wrote Aldous Huxley, “the government will become a military dictatorship – as in so many of the newly independent states, for the army seems to be the only highly organised centre of power.”

I admire Huxley’s astute mind, his intellect. But he was wrong. When Nehru died, the army remained in the barracks. India survives always, and proves all experts wrong.

Arundhati Subramaniam writes “To the Welsh Critic Who Doesn’t Find Me Identifiably Indian.”

This business about language,

How much of it is mine, how much yours,

How much from the salon, how much from the slum,

How I say verisimilitude, how I say Brihadaranyaka,

How I say vaazhapazham

It’s all yours to measure, the pathology of my breath…

That’s what India provides -Indoxication.

*—————*—————*

P.S: Like India, this essay has severe limitations, esp the 1000 word limit. And I have listened to criticism of people who think they are Betrand Russell’s true inheritors. Any comments making fun of the essay (esp from the girl who writes “FO” on this blog) will be moderated.

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It seems Raj Thackeray said “he would beat Patil with shoes for neglecting his constituency“. And Patil, who effectively beat our terrorist cousins out of India, said “If he has the guts to come out in the open, I challenge him to a wrestling duel“. Patil is 74, Raj Shrikant Thackeray is 41, and an asshole.

It’s not a joke, if these morons manage to do something stupid like get killed or something doing the duel, they’ll do the republic a big favour.

Maharashtra Elections are around the corner, and NDTV and IBN have two blogs on the politics of Maratha land. I’m not a big fan of NDTV (With Barkha around no one can be), but the distance between Srinivasan Jain’s write up and Rajdeep Sardesai’s write up is clearly, at least for me, the distance between journalism and third rate journalism.

P.S: You can read about the original King Kong Vs Dhara Singh duel here.

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“If anyone raises a finger towards Hindus or if someone thinks that Hindus are weak and leaderless, if someone thinks that these leaders lick our boots for votes, if anyone raises a finger towards Hindus, then I swear on Gita that I will cut that hand.”  – Times

‘Gau hatya rukwana hai, Varun Gandhi ko jitana hai’ (Cow slaughter must stop, Varun Gandhi must win) and “Varun nahin yeh aandhi hai, doosra Sanjay Gandhi hai (Varun Gandhi is like a storm, he is another Sanjay Gandhi)”. – HT

Says Varun Gandhi of BJP on his campaign trail to make L K Advani the next Prime Minister of India. He is 29. Can you take this? Another nakli Gandhi for like another five decades.

But if there is anyone out there who believes what Varun Gandhi says, like the BJP which might be having gleeful visions of a Saffron Gandhi, they’ll most probably be proven wrong before the 2009 political season ends. Because there is none other more Secular than a Gandhi. It doesn’t matter to a Gandhi if you slaughter a cow, a muslim or a sikh. It doesn’t matter to a Gandhi if you do shilanyas or destroy a mosque or you forcibly castrate a thousand. It doesn’t matter to a Gandhi if you are a tamil terrorist or an Akali radical. Capitalism, socialism or public or private banks don’t matter. Nuclear deal or no deal does not matter. Forcible evictions for a car factory or a Kalawati doesn’t matter. Democracy or Article 356 or Emergency does not matter. All that matters to a Gandhi is the Gandhi’s right to power. In every possible way, a Gandhi is truly secular. Only arguable exception is Mohandas Karamchand asli Gandhi. Then again, even Varun wouldn’t dream of being a doosra Sanjay Gandhi. One reason is India has changed.  But a more persuasive reason is that Sanjay Gandhi’s mother’s name meant ‘India’ at one point in time.

The Gandhis contesting on the Congress ticket at least seem to have come to terms with their mortal nature, given the pre-poll alliances they are building. But some people back home in Kerala seem to be so keenly out of touch with reality (like  nakli Iron Man of India’s website) that they are indeed as Varun nakli Gandhi says ‘raising their middle fingers’ at Hindus.

Like Archbishop Daniel Acharuparambil of the Latin Catholic Church.

The powerful Latin Catholic Church in Kerala has written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi urging the party to consider Hybi Eden, chief of the Congress’ student wing, as party candidate for the Ernakulam Lok Sabha seat. – The Hindu

‘Powerful‘ as in,

Ironically, whenever the church sponsored a Congress candidate, with public statements and pastoral letters, he lost. Edezhath, a close confidant of the high priests, lost by over 70,000 votes to an LDF independent in 2004. – DNA

Here, as I am located, in the heart of the Ernakulam constituency, this stupid letter which claims even the number of votes Acharuparambil has will do no good to the candidate, the Congress party or the larger Catholic interests but will only help consolidate Hindu and Muslim votes in favour of CPM’s arguably weakest candidate in the state – Sindhu Joy. If Hybi is indeed the candidate and if Sindhu defeats him, Acharuparambil Archbishop will have to wear a uniquely malayali ‘thorthu mundu’ over his head while he ventures out of his den in Varapuzha.

Perhaps what Acharuparambil Archbishop should have done was to take a leaf out of Nair Service Society’s (NSS) Narayana Panicker’s Book of Strategics. This is how it goes – tell the media that you’ll defeat 10 candidates (across 20 constituencies), and tell them that the names are secret. After the election, minimum 20 candidates will be defeated, and then, THEN tell the media how effective you were in defeating 10 people and claim how powerful Samsthakerala Nairs are.

P.S: The two parties, CPM and Congress who fight for the torch of Indian Secularism, could may be go through this very simple test to prove their secularism (at least in the next 20 years) – A Christian Candidate in Malappuram or Ponnani; A Hindu Candidate in Eranakulam and a A Muslim Candidate in Kottayam.(how about next 50 years?)

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Assassinated

With less than three weeks until Election Day, a big question is looming over the campaign for the White House, and it has nothing to do with the economic crisis or the caustic exchanges between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain over character and credentials. It is race.  

Finally! The Trump card lies bare on the table. The long awaited last weapon is drawn. This absentee ballot was sent out to voters in Rensselaer County in New York state, wonder how many such ballots will be out on November 4. The RACE Card is on, and the race can go only down from here. America’s national shame, political cannibalism and the Right Wing backlash has reached proportions and unchained beasts that put Barack Obama’s life itself at risk. 

Inside that 6% lead

Barack Obama leads John Mcain by 6 percentage points nationally, but political pundits and psephologists are shaving off nearly 2 percentage points off Obama’s lead because when the White Christian hits the polling booth on November 4th, an ancient fear is sure to sway atleast a few of them even if they deny it in surveys. USA is 75% white and 75% christian – if one out of ten have a secret agenda this fall, a black man with a muslim father may not just make it. Because in several battle ground states, the lead is a wafer thin 1-2%.

Inside the Bible Belt  

John McCain has an adopted Bangladeshi child, but when he ran against W in the 2000 Republican primaries, frantic early morning calls went out across the Bible Belt that said he had an ‘illegitimate child’. By the time McCain’s campaign reacted, South Carolina was lost. Republicans steal elections, like all right wing parties, and this time they’ll do it for McCain because Jeb Bush is not running.

When Blue state voters on the Atlantic coast gather at voting stations on November 4, frantic calls will go across the Bible belt which will tell the voter that Barack Hussein Obama is a muslim, that Barack Hussein Osama is a terrorist, that Saddam Hussein Obama is an Arab, that Black Hussein Osama has a white mother and a black father while in the Bible God taught the children of Israel not to intermarry , and that Barack Hussein Oblackmana is gay and his wife has aborted nine times. If that doesn’t work they’ll ask the voter “The United States of America is all that the White people have, should we have a BLACK President?”.

Inside the Whisper Campaign

Being the son of a white mother and a black father has come to symbolize Mr. Obama’s larger mysteries for many voters. When asked about his background, a substantial number of people interviewed said they believed his racial heritage was unclear, giving them another reason to vote against him.  

When an old woman told John McCain that she knew Barack was an Arab, he corrected her saying, Barack was not Arab. What if he is Arab?The Republican campaign asks the voters whether they know who the REAL Obama is? They make it a point to stress his middle name ‘Hussein’. News reports on the ‘internets’ suggest people shout back ‘Terrorist’ and some even go to the extent of “Kill Him”.

The below ad was issued by the Sacramento Republican Party

Inside the Market meltdown…

…lies the germs of political extremism.

It was the economic meltdown of Yugoslavia that gave us Slobodan Milosevic. It was the collapse of the Weimar Republic that vomited up Adolf Hitler. And it was the breakdown in czarist Russia that opened the door for Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Financial collapses lead to political extremism. The rage bubbling up from our impoverished and disenfranchised working class, glimpsed at John McCain rallies, presages a looming and dangerous right-wing backlash.

There are dangerous, armed, white supremacy groups who believe that if Obama is assasinated, USA changes forever – perhaps a small street level civil war in the end of which there will be a climate where not a Black, or a Latino or an Asian would even in their wildest dreams imagine running for President . It sure is possible. Otherwise mail me the next time a muslim becomes chief minister of Gujarat .

One of those lunatics could possibly pull it off, probably won’t. It is scarier still. Barack has the perhaps the highest security detail in the world when I’m writing this, the system protects him. But Kennedy was shot dead, his brother Kennedy was shot dead – and the only doubt is how much the system was involved.

The Frankenstein’s monsters released by religious racial bigots have a unique property of getting out their creators’ control. If that happens, it would make USA’s move into socialism, into United Socialist States of America a lot more bloodier and a hell lot painful.

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….that time has come

- Signed: Prakash Karat, A B Bardhan, Debabrata Biswas, T J Chandrachoodan

- and a few of us sighed and others,

Good Riddance! said the TOI editorial,
Lal Salaam! said Bloody Mary and,
in the mayhem added that
airports must be privatized.

I dont know why Sagarika says that all the time,
maybe even the media has an agenda
Do I know what the Left’s agenda is?

then I don’t know why they’re leaving,
Or where they gonna go,
I guess they got their reasons,
But I just don’t want to know.

Because in early 2004, in reply to a mail which asked whether he was still alive an old comrade said “I am very much alive, and so is the hope for a non NDA alternative at Centre“. AMEN. Hope as a strategy works in theology, not in politics. But then YSR Reddy swept Andhra for the Congress, the BJP declined in key states and the Left posted their best tally ever. The national destiny was re-written with the UPA and Left coming together based on a Common Minimum Programme, and Sonia Gandhi delivering the master stroke by relinquishing the PMO and denying BJP its last straw.

Now that the UPA and the Left are parting, or cutting the flab, the Congress and the CPM are back to their pre-2004 line ups, it is time to take stock. Critics across the divide are looking at the half year they did not give the nation, but what about the four and a half years they gave the nation.

The Good of UPA-Left years

Stability with Dignity: If one remembers the NDA years, despite the coalition having 300 odd seats in the 545 member house, there was George Fernandes and Pramod Mahajan skirting from one “Allied” capital to another appeasing the allies, and the national political scene became a circus around the whims of Trinamool,the DMK, the Sena and other regional and single-issue parties. Despite their differences, and the fact that they are political opponents in the Left’s bastions of Bengal and Kerala, there was a certain dignity maintained by both parties even during the WB & Kerala assembly elections in 2006. Which other two political parties can do this?

The UPA too had constituents, if one looks closely, who don’t have any national accountability and could have rocked the boat any time. This was prevented by those 59 MPs from the left, who sat right in the middle of the house and to some extent by Mulayam Singh’s 39 who toed the Left’s line on any issue. The leaders of the Congress party and the CPM never crossed the limits, and India had 4 and a half years of a stable coalition that worked with dignity.

The Centrist Centre Stage: If one remembers the NDA years, the national stage was pretty much dominated by whether the Vishwa Hindu Parishad will give more time to the centre before they start building the Ram temple? or whether Godhra was the trigger for Gujarat riots? or whether Narendra Moditva can be replicated?

The debate shifted with the 2004 verdict. The Left had no need to interpret the 2004 verdict as one for secularism – for them it was an anti-Congress verdict in Kerala and Bengal, but they did.  “Pseudo-Secularism” – I haven’t heard that word used that often in the past 4 years. India started talking about inclusive growth despite the shining. Programmes like NREG and the Loan Waiver, despite the criticism, made the nation’s priorities clear. The national debate shifted to the left of centre.

Reader’s Words has sanely put it, in the tragic end of an experiment

If the UPA had not gone ahead with the deal, it might have suffered a temporary loss of face, and the Left would have taken the flak for its obstinacy. Ironically, it was Mrs Sonia Gandhi who used the Gandhian technique of sacrificing a position and winning a moral battle. Manmohan Singh has done exactly the reverse- he might have won a battle, but he has lost the war and put to rest the experiment to build a Centrist United Front.

It is a political oppurtunity lost, but I hope the Congress and the CPM come together again in 2009 because they are both patriotic parties and dignified partners. Hope is not a strategy in itself, but as my friend said in 2004, hope is alive for a non-NDA alternative at centre.

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The Kerala Government continues to refuse demands for withdrawal of the 7th Standard Textbook which promotes Atheism and questions God.In completely unrelated news, the Monsoon has literally kept out of Kerala, the state football team failed to reach the Santosh Trophy semi-finals and K Karunakaran turned 90.
The message from up above is clear. God Exists and he is punishing us!

On a Personal Note

BD‘s Comment on the textbook post read,

I think the thought behind the text book and the way its been designed is really good, enabling children to think about what is happening around them. But the biggest enablers, in this scenario will be the teachers, as you were telling me. All the lessons, in this text, are very idealistically put and the best in class if an objective discussion can be stimulated in the classroom. That would be wow! But thoughts can be directed to a particular direction, if a teacher wishes so. There is a thin line.

On a personal note, BD’s comment above is what I feel about the text. Whether the text will be effective or whether it will trigger positive changes is dependent on the teacher. There is a plenty of scope here, and hence it can go either way when a teacher interprets the text. I hope that sense prevails, that the sanity we lost in our debates is regained in our classrooms.

On a political note, if teachers are interpreters, shouldn’t they be appointed based on merit? by the Public Service Commision?. Why does the Catholic Church, the NSS, the Muslim trusts and SNDP insist that they appoint their own teachers, whom the state government pays with my tax money? Wouldn’t the teachers appointed by the Religious and Caste organizations interpret textbooks in a way favourable to those interests? Shouldn’t that stop first?

Eyes of 12 year olds, voice over by history

I have always considered TV Chandran’s 1995 movie, Ormakalundayirikkanam (It is important to have memories) a classic. The uniqueness of the movie is the fact that, it refuses to talk to anyone who doesn’t remember, and you need to have an understanding of history to make sense of the montage. The life around him seen through the eyes of Jayan, a 12 year old boy, in the 1957-59 time period, around the echoes of the liberation struggle with characters including Tharakan (Bharat Gopi), Tailor Bhasi (Mammooty) and even a large python. The movie does not make judgements, nor does it claim that 1959 was a CIA funded intervention, but it makes you uncomfortable by asking questions which you tend to hear only if you have an understanding of history. It is Critical Pedagogy for the audience, through the eyes of a 12 year old and through the voice of history.

The new 7th Standard Textbook has triggered debates and agitations in the state with a breadth similar to that of 1959, though nowhere near in intensity or scale. Major players in the Caste-Religion-Politico nexus of the “Right front” have come together and a joint struggle encompassing the Muslim organisations in the north, the Catholic Church in its 11 assembly strongholds and the Nair Service Society(NSS) in Travancore seems very much in the cards – perhaps within a few weeks. 

The condemnation of the state government and the CPM by the  NSS in its Budget session last week was perhaps the strongest direct warning about the consequences that await the Left front in the 2009 elections to Parliament.

And because warnings are not lullabies, it is important to figure out how potent they are. This is where it is very important to have memories

2009 Elections and Political expediency

These caste organisations are not potent enough and this is why I feel so -

In 2006, the Left front swept the assembly polls winning 100 of the 140 seats. This is what it looked like,

Across the state stalwarts of the outgoing government are facing defeat.Muslim league is facing defeat in all its bastions,fallen include its general secretary P.K.Kunhalikutty.The three top leaders of league Kunhalikutty,Muneer and Basheer have been defeated at home.Eleven time winner Gauriamma has been defeated,Balkrishna pillai,Murali and around fifteen ministers have lost,M V Raghavan and T M Jacob have been defeated.It is as if Keralites have chased and defeated the bad apples.In the southern districts Congress party has been wiped out,forts have fallen across the cochin belt and in Malabar,muslim league is facing its worst nightmare – malappuram the league fort has turned red.

But there were 2 results I found interesting. General Secretary of SNDP yogam (the largest caste organisation in the state), Vellapally Natesan had announced a HIT LIST of candidates whom the yogam will selectively defeat. Topping the list was two names, two Congress candidates – K C Venugopal and P C Vishnunath, both of them contesting in constituencies where the yogam held sway. Despite the “RED” wave that swept the state, both the Congress candidates won. Yes they did.

Insider logic said the NSS had stepped in to make sure that these two Nair candidates won. By that logic, NSS would have been the most potent force in 2006 elections, making a Nair candidate win despite a political and caste wave. We can verify that with the election result of R Balakrishna Pillai, the strongest NSS insider who contested from his pocket constituency of Kottarakkara. Balakrishna Pillai lost badly.

Read it along with the results from the so called Catholic belt and the Muslim belt and you see a Kerala different from 1959.

The Trivandrum Lok Sabha result is just one instance of this surprising change. When Pannyan Ravindran of the CPI won the election by a hundred thousand votes, someone who was not a “Nair, Nadar or Nattar” was winning the state capital for the first time. (don’t give me Karunakaran’s example).

My point is, 2009 is not 1959. The caste-religion nexus has recent history against it, and the Congress or the CPM don’t need to be afraid of them the way they are. Despite this I wonder why V S Achuthanandan nor Pinarayi Vijayan has the spine nor the political acumen to declare that the government will not succumb to the religious right nor the caste organisations. They have a Kerala that will more receptive to such a message, than the scheduled outcries from Changanassery and Thrissur.

Critical Pedagogy and Curious new names

One thing I like about the bearded leftists is the curious names they throw up every time. We’ve heard of Bakunin, Bretch, Neruda, Camus, Gorky, Foucalt, Chomsky,Trotsky from the bearded lot. The non-stop debates in the past 2 weeks across the 9 malayalam news channels throwed up another name – Paulo Freire. It seems the new textbook is modeled based on his vision of education.

Without going into details of Critical pedagogy which the left intellectuals seem to be so sure of and I don’t know head or tail of, I would like to touch upon an interesting pattern. The last left front government in the state made an audacious move to democratize development. Even the worst critics of the “Janakiya Asuthranam” [People's Plan] cannot deny the grass root changes it brought about. Every suburban centre or rural outpost will have something to point out, like a bridge or a small road or a water harvesting tank that materialised through the people’s plan. And Paulo Freire has ideas on democratization of education,

This is one of the few attempts anywhere to implement something like democracy as an educational method and not merely a goal of democratic education. Even Dewey, for whom democracy was a touchstone, did not integrate democratic practices fully into his methods, though this was in part a function of Dewey’s attitudes toward individuality. In its strongest early form this kind of classroom has been criticized on the grounds that it can mask rather than overcome the teacher’s authority.

More challenging is Freire’s strong aversion to the teacher-student dichotomy. This dichotomy is admitted in Rousseau and constrained in Dewey, but Freire comes close to insisting that it should be completely abolished. This is hard to imagine in absolute terms, since there must be some enactment of the teacher-student relationship in the parent-child relationship, but what Freire suggests is that a deep reciprocity be inserted into our notions of teacher and student. Freire wants us to think in terms of teacher-student and student-teacher – that is, a teacher who learns and a learner who teaches – as the basic roles of classroom participation.

The Minister for Self Government in the previous left ministry was said to be having “Power to eventually destroy Power”, as in centralised state power. It works well with the CPM’s ideology of working within the Indian republic to eventually destroy it. So is the textbook another of the lefts attempts to change an educational system little by little, so that an eventual systemic collapse is brought about? Only time will tell.

Why we are, Where we are

Unlike textbooks and teaching which try to create a historical perspective which enables students to answer the social reality of the day, the 7th standard textbook asks the students to answer why we are where we are and provides them with the historical perspective to answer those questions. It is a different approach, history will judge its implications and success.

Our Hypocrisy, and theirs

Why didn’t the textbook ask why the farmer in Kerala is not cultivating paddy these days?

Why didn’t the textbook ask the students whether we should thank the millions of malayalees in the Gulf?

Why didn’t the textbook ask the students whether it is the Coconut tree or the Rubber tree that is important for us?  

AND

If one can quote India’s first Prime Minister, is it wrong to quote India’s firt Opposition leader just because he is a Communist?

Is it wrong to teach children about Socialism? About Secularism?

When did Socialism become such a bad apple for the Indian middle class? for the Congress Party?

Socialism is one of the committed goals of the Congress Party. If you have a problem with Socialism or Secularism as an objective of Indian Republic, it is not the 7th standard text book you need to change, it is the Indian Constitution.

Here is the Preamble, in case you have forgotten or the system of education failed you,

WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens: JUSTICE, social, economic and political; LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation; IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION. 

and the Supreme Court Judgment on Kesavananda Bharati Vs Kerala State.

So without question, within the framework of the Constitution if you can teach that India should be Sovereign enough, you can as well teach that India should be socialist enough. The book doesn’t take that liberty.

On a related note – Manmohanism seems to believe that Sovereignty and Socialism are directive principles which can be compromised based on need or benefit. The only doubt is whether the Nuclear deal is a fallout of the 1991 reforms OR the Nuclear deal is a necessity if the 1991 reforms has to go forward. And that is the state of the Union in 2008.

The Outcome and a Classic Dilemma

Religion occupies a very important part in our psyche and plays a very influential role in our society. While one can list out the corrupting and retarding influences it has on young minds, there is no denying of the comfort it brings to a lot of people. The value system and liturgy of religions which sustains the holy remains of the feudal oppression cannot be wiped out in a go. To be poetical, religion resides in the heart of people and that is a belief, like Marxism, which does not require proof.

This is a classic dilemma that the Left faces in the state. A vast majority of the society that left tries to bring into its fold are believers – be it unionised and unorganised labour, government employees, students or teachers. No struggle lead by the left will be meaningful without the participation of these people who belong to one or the other religious group, who believe and need God, and look up to the Left front for thought leadership. Alienation of believers by going overboard in its opposition to organised religion will be a costly mistake. The natural and sustainable option would be to gradually remedy the socio-economic conditions necessary for oragnised religion to exist.

The only way to kill the beast, is to kill it with a thousand stabs. One stab at a time.

Thats exactly what the 7th Standard textbook did. The ensuing debate has dragged a lot of “sacred” things into the street. The political angle and controversy made sure that the people who opposed the text had to give a reason, and a lot of “sacred” people have made clowns out of themselves in the past few weeks.

This text book controversy will sow doubts in “hearts of people”, and create confusions within religious orders while they try to hold ground. A revolution in by next week? Well not exactly, a thousand stabs girl, a thousand stabs! This is just one of them, but an incisive one at that.

Like the confusion EMS created within the Muslim community when he blamed the Congress Government for US invading Iraq in 1991. The result was Kerala’s Muslim vote bank becoming an uneasy powder keg, with the sparks of  Dec 6, 1992 igniting it into a hundred splinter groups.

The controversy will get over, the government may relent, may be it wouldn’t. But as the song goes, We may win, we may lose, but we’ll never be here again. The damage is done, one hell of a controversy it was. Thanks to everyone who joined the party!

Good Night and Good Luck!

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Education Reform in Kerala - VIIth Heaven Standard….

Yet another pastoral letter across churches yesterday, KSU(Congress’s student wing) activists and police clash across the state, Muslim League enters the protests arena in its North Kerala strong holds, and today the opening session of the state Assembly comes to a virtual standstill on the issue. Education Reform in Kerala is in the eye of another storm and this time it is the revised 7th Standard Social Studies textbook. The pastoral letter has threatened protests till the book is withdrawn and asked the believers not to teach or learn the book; KSU, Muslim League and the Congress have called for an immediate withdrawal of the book.

Even though several issues have been raised about the new textbook, to be precise, one page in the textbook is in the eye of the storm. This is how Page 24  reads….

Page 24 – Titled – Jeevan without Religion (Jeevan means Life in malayalam)

The lesson is set in a school room where two parents and their kid meet the Principal for school  admission. The Principal fills in the forms,

Principal: “What is your name?”
“Jeevan”
Principal: “Nice…father’s name?”
“Anwar Rasheed”
Principal: Mother’s name?”
“Lakshmi Devi”

The Principal  looks at the parents

Principal: “What should I fill in for the kid’s religion?”
Parents : “Keep it blank…or else add No Religion”

Principal: “Caste”
Parents : “not needed”

The Principal leans back on his chair and asks solemnly

Principal: “What if he wants a religion when he grows up?”
Parents : “If he wants a religion when he grows up, he can choose the one he likes then”

End of Lesson

Do I see a problem with this? I do, based on yesterday’s Pastoral letter read across churches and TV Channels…

1. This revision in text books and deviation from the syllabus prescribed till now, in the name of improving the thought process of children is a handywork of Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP – Kerala Science and Literature Movement), the left leaning NGO in Kerala which has permeated every level of education in the state.
2. This lesson creates animosity in the minds of children towards religion and propagates atheism, which in turn will result in a society devoid of values.
3. The education department drops a hint through this lesson, that right from the Principal, every faculty should teach and propagate atheism in class.

This is not the first time the Left front government has tried to inculcate Communist ideology and Atheism in children, they have permeated every sphere of social and cultural activity through their shadow organisations like the KSSP and the Progressive Arts and Literature Society. The left front ought to be fought tooth and nail if religion is to survive in Gods Own Country. If the recent attacks by the left junta on Hindu God Men and Christian Charismatics be any indication – the Commies will have to be stopped in the streets if Ram and Allah and Jesus and their Mullahs and Mukris and Bishops are to have any future in the state.

As Youth Congress President Siddique pointed out on TV “…you dont have to create thought in children or let them think at this age, just teach them to read and write and the lessons…they’ll think for themselves”

Right On Siddique, we don’t need no education!

Then I remembered our last election in college, when the commies would say “use your brain” and Siddique’s party would say “use your heart”. In the final day of the campaign, before the commies swept the election, one of Siddique’s protégés got the message all wrong, he literally cried out through the microphone “Please! Please! Do not use your brain”

Are you listening Kerala? Please! Please! Throw that book away!

P.S: To sum it up - 7th Std Textbook – Good, Bad and the Holy Ghost

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