The Greatgrandmother Superior

Kawcaw
                     
            The great-grandmother superior



           There are four generations living under a single roof in our house. The youngest members are my two grandsons. The second level is represented by my son and daughter-in-law. The third tier is occupied by my wife and me. And at the apex of the pyramid is my mother, who is knocking at the door of nonagenarianism.

         My siblings and I call her Mummy or Appi and other members of the family address her as Mataji. She started life as Prabha and became Somawati after her marriage. When  my uncles got married, she became Badi Bhabhi.

         She got married at the tender age of eleven and a half. She was a frail little girl with slim arms and legs and initially had to fetch water from a distance. Her father saw his daughter performing this arduous chore with great difficulty and financed the installation of a tap in the courtyard of the Kaw household.

        When she was fifteen and a half, I arrived. The Second World War was on and sugar had disappeared from the market. But I was the oldest child of the oldest son. So honey was used in place of sugar and kehva was served to all visitors who came to congratulate.

At age 21 she delivered another male child, a bonny baby who was tentatively christened Jang Bahadur. The poor fellow lost his battle against pneumonia when he was just fifteen days old, leaving behind a disconsolate household.

Soon thereafter, at 23, mother gave birth to Kakaji who later grew to be the famous scientist Dr. Predhiman Krishen Kaw.

At this stage, our nuclear family got its first chance to live separately as a unit when my father was posted to Jammu. But this charming escapade did not last long. The cities of the Indo-Gangetic plain sent their bewitching messages about high salaries and my father shifted to Delhi, following the footsteps of his two younger brothers.

In Delhi, Mummy had to change over from the hearth to an angithi fired by hard coal. As our financial situation improved, we moved on to kerosene stove, Janata wick stove and later to cooking gas.Her preponderant memories of this decade of joint family life in Delhi is that of having to bake dozens of chapatis for the large household.

We used to feel quite hungry in those days. Today, when my grandchildren balk at having their third chapati, I have to remind them that at their age I used to take six chapatis and large ones at that.
It was in this crowded milieu that sister Asha, the future Chief Secretary of Himachal Pradesh, was born. Other daughters-in-law also had children. Things started hotting up, with grandma Yemberzal alias Dyed enforcing discipline. When Mummy was 36, my father and his two brothers got Govt. quarters. So we separated into nuclear families. Four years later, Dyed bade us goodbye and grandpa followed two years later.

When my mother was 42, I got married.Six years later, my brother followed. And Asha got married when Mummy was 50. Grandchildren came naturally in quick succession and they numbered seven.

Before you could say Jack Robinson, the grandchildren also entered the holy state of matrimony and had kids of their own. Except for my son’s family, the rest are strewn all over the globe.

These days Mummy is sleeping most of the time. When she wakes up, she keeps us busy answering her limited set of questions.

Her preeminent concern is for security. ”Is the door bolted?” she enquires several times. “Did you bolt it after the maid left?” she wants to know.

The second concern is for the greatgrandchildren.There are two of them living with us. They stay with their parents on the first floor. ”Where is Achu?”she asks. If we reply, “I don’t know” she is not satisfied. If we say ”He is upstairs”: she may gulp it temporarily. Soon she is back with more questions. “ Have the parents come back from office?”

She will then suddenly change tack and shift to the younger boy Amrit.”Where is Aamu?’she will ask. Suppose we falter and tell her the truth, “ He has gone to the Park to play football,” she will have numerous concerns and observations. How did he go at this late hour? How did you permit him to go when it is so dark? Who has accompanied him? Where is his mother? How can the parents be so careless? Etcetra etcetra.

The winter has set in. These days she is averse to taking a bath. So the day starts with a query, ”Do I take a bath?” My wife says yes. She expresses her reluctance. Finally after much consideration she defers the event to the morrow.

And so it goes. The best is when she enquires about my whereabouts.I am mostly at the computer or in the drawing room with a magazine or a book or a visitor. Every half an hour she wants to update my GPS coordinates. It is good that I am retired and remain mostly at home. So she does not have to worry too much.

Am I making fun of my mother? Her father used to say with a smile,”Asun laayakh nayi gacchhiham” ( If I had not become an object of ridicule). When someone in the family loses his or her cool, I warn them that we are all getting old. Do we know what we are going to become if we live to be her age? There is Alzheimer’s. There is Parkinson’s. There is the vegetable state. There are a host of other strange phenomena just waiting around the corner.

You mock her at your own risk!



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TheTruth about Nehru

                     
                     The Truth About Nehru


                      The Indian National Congress is in terminal decline. Even if we take a charitable view and hope for a miraculous revival at some stage, it is definitely in a temporary state of debilitation. These are testing times and challenge the loyalty of the faithful to the hilt. The easiest targets are the leaders, whose policies and performance can today be adjudged with the wisdom born out of hindsight.

                    Nehru is a specially vulnerable victim. He is seen to be a latter-day Babar, a founder of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. He is visualized as a 20th century Porus who suffered an ignominious defeat at the hands of China. He is portrayed as a greedy villain who conspired with Mahatma Gandhi to stab Valabhbhai Patel in the back, in order to become the first Prime Minister of independent India. He is depicted as a namby pamby peacenik who allowed the UN to unnecessarily intervene in the Kashmir dispute. He proved his “secular” credentials by lightly trifling with the Hindu law enshrined in the Manusmriti in the teeth of severe opposition from Hindu leaders, while not daring to impose a uniform civil code on the Muslims. He inflicted the Soviet model of centralised planning with its public sector behemoths which resulted in the Hindu rate of growth, possibly the only “Hindu” element in Nehru’s attainments. And above all, he is represented to be a lecherous widower who engaged in lusty affairs with sundry Edwinas and Padmajas.

What is the veracity of the allegations? Let us examine these in seriatim.

Did he found a dynasty? If he had wished to do that, he would have steered the top leadership of the Congress towards the fulfilment of this objective. He did not die suddenly. He had a paralytic stroke and he remained conscious to the end. Had he wished to ensure that Indira succeeded him to the throne, he would have elevated her to Deputy Prime Ministership; or declared her to be the senior most Cabinet Minister after him. He would have made her chair meetings of the Cabinet and its important committees. He did none of these. He merely appointed her as Minister for Information and Broadcasting, hardly a portfolio to give her either clout or stature.

That is Humayun’s position .As far as Akbar and Jahangir are concerned, they were toddlers in Nehru’s time. And Shahjahan had not yet been born.  So how did Nehru found a dynasty?

Also, witness the course of events as it actually transpired after Nehru died. He was succeeded immediately by Gulzari Lal Nanda and later by Lal Bahadur Shastri. Shastri was Nehru’s favourite. He had scaled new heights by his resignation as Railway Minister just because there was a railway accident. He had a most successful tenure and he proved conclusively that the apprehension expressed in a section of the media around the theme “After Nehru who?” was misplaced. Had Shastri not suddenly died at Tashkent he would have stayed in office for at least ten years.

It is no one’s case that Nehru got Shastri killed at Tashkent. So how did Nehru found a dynasty?

Let us now come to Alexander’s invasion. Nehru was not a warmonger nor did he build a huge arsenal to overawe his neighbours. He was a genuine votary of peace and harmony. His spiritual guru was Mahatma Gandhi, who was a veritable apostle of non-violence. Gandhi followed the advice of Jesus Christ literally. And Jesus had advised his followers thus:

“That ye resist not evil; but whosever smiteth thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” 

Gandhi had gone to the extent of seriously advising Nehru to disband the army. It was a good thing that Nehru did not take him literally. God forbid, if he had done so, we would today be a province of South China and you would be reading this article in Mandarin Chinese.

So when the Bandung conference was held and the principles of Panch Shila were enunciated by Nehru and accepted most vociferously by all countries, Nehru did not feel like Porus. If a historical analogy was required, he would much rather ape Asoka the Great with his Shilalekh (rock sculptures), advertising the lofty thoughts of Gautama the Buddha.

Unfortunately for him Chou en Lai played foul. After shouting slogans of “Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai! ”with exemplary vociferousness, he sent in his troops into Indian territory. Had Nehru been a normal politician, he would have bided his time, built up his armed strength , and when he was good and ready, he would have repulsed the attack and won a memorable victory, just as his daughter did nine years later against Pakistan.

So what did Nehru do? Did he turn the other cheek as Jesus taught? Did he put himself in a state of readiness and give the enemy a drubbing he would remember? He did neither.. Like a confirmed pacifist, he went to neither extreme of Christian non-violence nor the other extreme of Alexander-like war-mongering. Least of all did he behave like Porus, defend his territory with might and main, and although technically defeated, give such a fright to Alexander and his cohorts that they slunk away in the general direction of Macedonia with fear writ large in their hearts.

He acted as a confused pacifist would normally do. He tried to look brave and made a casual offhand remark, “I have asked the army to throw the infiltrators out.”That showed his Hamlet like indecision—“To fight or not to fight, that is the question.”

Next allegation is that Nehru was a greedy villain who conspired with Gandhiji to deprive Patel of the prime ministership. Short answer: both men were incapable of conspiracy.

                   .Contemporary accounts show that Nehru came close to the Mahatma right in 1915 when he collected funds for Gandhi’s struggle in South Africa. He was so overwhelmed by Gandhi’s personality that he got converted from an Anglicised drawing-room orator to a khadi-clad man of the masses who plunged heart and soul into the various movements that Gandhi launched. He was a truly secular person who genuinely felt for the minorities. Gandhi had certain reservations about Patel’s secular credentials, although he admired him greatly for his administrative acumen. Three times he had to choose between Nehru and Patel. Each time, he selected Nehru.

How serious is the charge that Nehru mishandled the Kashmir problem? Cabinet minutes show that the decision on Kashmir was taken by the Cabinet when Patel was present. Mountbatten also played a role by persuading the Maharaja to sign the instrument of accession. At the same time, he dissuaded Jinnah from sending in reinforcements in the form of regular troops of the Pakistan army to assist the raiders. Kashmir was indeed a complicated issue, for which Nehru alone cannot be singled out for blame.

About the amendments in Hindu law, the experience of the last sixty years amply bear out Nehru’s vision of a modern Hindu society with full gender parity and a balanced approach towards divorce. If the Indian Muslims wish to stick on to outdated practices like triple talaq which all other Muslim countries have forsaken, they are themselves to blame.

The most uncharitable criticism is levelled at Nehru’s economic policies. People tend to forget that radical land reforms were a necessary prelude to the green revolution. They suffer from amnesia with regard to the absence of basic industries like chemicals, machine tools, steel, fertilisers, rail coaches, transport vehicles, power plants, heavy electricals and so on. It was only when Nehru gave a kick-start to these critical industries that the way was smoothened for the private sector. In that sense what Nehru did was an inevitable precondition for the emergence of private initiatives in industrial development.

The last charge against Jawaharlal Nehru was that he carried on affairs with various women. He was a famous man and a widower. He had a charming personality. Such men always attract persons of the  other sex. Whether such relations were intellectual, platonic or physical is a deeply personal matter into which we need not and should not delve.

This year when we celebrate the 125th birth centenary of this great intellectual, patriot, pacifist, freedom fighter, writer and a true blend of the nationalist and the internationalist, let us remember the radiant personality of Jawaharlal. Let us recall Chacha Nehru with his love for children. Let us see the handsome Kashmiri wearing an achkan and churidar with a rose in his lapel.

Memorandum to the Seventh Central Pay Commission

Memorandum to the Seventh Central Pay Commission

                  This memorandum is being presented to the Seventh Pay Commission by the IC Centre for Governance which has indefatigably worked on governance issues for the last more than a decade.

                  According to the terms of reference, the Seventh Pay Commission is “to work out a framework for an emoluments structure linked with the need to attract the most suitable talent to Govt. service and foster excellence in the governance system to respond to complex challenges of modern administration and to recommend appropriate training and capacity building through a competency-based framework.”

Rightsizing the bureaucracy

                         The Fifth Central Pay Commission (5^th CPC) had recommended a massive rightsizing of the bureaucracy. This involved not filling    up 3.5 lakh posts that were vacant at that time and a reduction in manpower by 30% over the next 10 years. No retrenchment was suggested; mere non-filling of the vacancies as they arose would have achieved the result.

                              Half-hearted measures were taken to implement this recommendation, but nothing concrete was achieved due to the opposition by the staff side.

                        We recommend that the 7^th CPC take up this question once more and make a forceful recommendation in this regard. A bloated bureaucracy is an unnecessary burden on the exchequer

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Rationalisation in the working of the Central Govt.

                         There has been a repeated onslaught on the efficiency of the Central Govt by creating additional ministries and departments. This has been done in order to accommodate disgruntled politicians and coalition partners. Luckily this kind of limitation does not apply to the present Govt. The BJP has been able to secure an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha.

The Govt. has also decided to abolish the Planning Commission in its role as fund giver to the States. This would necessitate the creation of mega-ministries in order to coordinate the functioning of subject-matter ministries.

                          Hence, the present appears to be the most opportune time to rationalize the division of work in the Central Govt. To give a few examples:

i)                    The Ministry of Human Resource Development could encompass the subjects of Culture, Youth Affairs, Sports and Women and Child Development.

ii)                The Ministry of Industrial Development could include the subjects of Heavy Industries, Public Enterprises, Industrial Policy and Promotion, Small, Medium and Tiny Industries, Agro-based Industries and Food Processing.

iii)              Ministry of Rural Development could cover the subjects of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, Panchayati Raj and Cooperation.

      iv)   Ministry of Power could deal with Petroleum and Natural Gas, Coal, Nuclear Power, Non-Conventional Energy Sources and so on.

v)                Ministry of Infrastructure Development could include the subjects of Roads, Surface Transport, Inland Water Transport, Shipping and Ports and Civil Aviation.

Agencification and disinvestment:

Another method of reduction in the role and size of the Central Govt. could be the disinvestment of the central Govt’s share in the share capital of selected PSUs and the farming out of certain activities to independent agencies.

Parameters for restructuring:

Some of the parameters that could be kept in view while restructuring the Central Govt. could be the following:

Ø The total number of ministries should be reduced to fifty. Each Ministry should be headed by a single Secretary, so that decision-making can be kept within the ministry and matters of administrative coordination do not go to the level of the Minister.

Ø Important subjects could be headed by Special and Additional Secretaries.

Ø Subjects that do not fall in the sovereign functions of the Central Govt. should be handed over to independent and semi-autonomous agencies.

Ø Suitable subjects could be covered by public-private partnership.

Restructuring the cadres in the central secretariat:

                             The 5^th CPC had suggested certain basic changes in the supporting cadres in the Central Secretariat. These included the following:

•                      There could be massive rightsizing of Group D officials.
•                   All clerical and stenographic cadres could be merged into a multi-purpose cadre of Executive Assistants.
•                  All working could be based on the Desk Officer system.
•        It could be laid down that no file should have to travel to more than 3 levels for a decision.

Number of pay bands:

                              The 6th CPC reduced the number of grades to twenty, as compared to the 35 grades suggested by the 5^th CPC. There does not seem to be any justification for further reduction.

Ratio between lowest and highest salaries:

                          The 5^th CPC had kept the ratio at 1:10.67.This was modified by the 6^th CPC to 1:12. If we have to learn lessons from the private sector, the salaries at the highest level should be raised substantially while the salaries at the lowest level should be pegged down. The financial implications of even small increases in the lowest salaries are colossal, due to the large numbers involved.

                            It is, therefore, recommended that the ratio may be changed to 1:15.

Highest salary:

                           The highest salary for a Secretary to GOI was fixed by the 5^th CPC at Rs. 28,000. In the 6^th CPC it rose to Rs.80, 000. It is recommended that it should now be fixed at Rs. 3, 00,000.

                            If the ratio is to be kept as 1:15, the lowest salary would then be Rs. 20,000.

Merger of DA with pay:

                             The 5^th CPC had suggested that as and when Dearness Allowance reached a level of 50%, it should be merged with the basic pay for all purposes. The 6^th CPC did not repeat this recommendation. As a result, it is currently not being merged. As the cost of living index   rises very fast, the denial of the benefit recommended by 5^th CPC upsets the domestic budget of the employees very substantially.

                             It is, therefore, recommended that the suggestion given by the 5^th CPC be implemented.

Age of superannuation:

                            The 5^th CPC had recommended that the age of superannuation be raised by two years from 58 to 60 years. This recommendation was accepted. The 6^th CPC did not recommend any further increase.

                             Two decades have passed since the 5^th CPC submitted its report. Since then the medical services in the country have improved and longevity has substantially increased. No doubt, an enhancement in the age of superannuation leads to diminished possibilities of recruitment and promotion to the younger people. But we have to take a balanced view.

Accordingly, we propose a modest increase in the age of superannuation to 62 years.

Protection of integrity:

There are a number of ways in which the integrity of officers approaching the age of superannuation can be subverted. If we desire a bureaucracy that can tender objective and fearless advice, we should take the following steps:

  The provision regarding grant of extension in service should be deleted from the FRs. It was so done after the 5^th CPC submitted its report, but a way around was soon discovered.

  Posts in PSUs, Corporations, Authorities, and Gongoes etc. should be filled up by serving officers.

  Retired officers should not be eligible for appointment as Governors, Ambassadors or Consultants.

Increasing the availability of Govt.institutions for citizens:

                         In order to have governance that is fully responsive to the needs of citizens, Govt. institutions and employees have to be available for longer periods. The following recommendations are made to meet these objectives:

v Govt. should revert back to the six day week.

v There should be only three gazetted holidays—Republic Day, Independence Day and Gandhiji’s birthday.

v  Number of restricted holidays should be raised to six in a year.

v The concept of extended vacations in institutions like judiciary and academia should be given up.

v Tea should be served at the table of each employee.

v Mobile phones should be allowed to be used only during lunch hour.

v Employees should punch their times of entry and exit in a biometric time clock and wear a geo-positioning device.

                                                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The Inimitable Prime Minister

               The Inimitable Prime Minister



                 Like many of my compatriots I have seen and judged Narinder Modi from widely different perspectives. There was a time when I saw him as a mass murderer who had engineered or, at the very least, permitted the anti-Muslim riots. He was portrayed by some as a lackey of the Adanis and the Ambanis, ready to oblige them out of the way and then travel in executive jets for his election campaign at their expense. He was labelled as a dictator who treated his ministers with contempt and was an incipient Hitler.

                     Today many of us have a revised version in our hearts. The new Modi is a person risen from  a less affluent background ,who forsook the pleasures of  family life and spent decades as a Vivekananda- style parivrajak and an RSS pracharak. A man driven by a passionate vision of his beloved country, which he wants to establish as the jagadguru of the world as in days of yore, a work alcoholic who slogs day and night without fatigue, a Prime Minister who is bubbling with ideas on how to improve the quality of life of billions of Indians and a leader who interprets Hindutva not in the parochial sense of anti -minorityism but the efflorescence of  a perennial philosophy that gave tolerance and equidistance from all faiths to the Vedic rishis and made India the broadhearted land giving  shelter to the oppressed of all nations.

                         How has Modi wrought this miracle? I think the magic began when Mani Shankar Aiyar lampooned him as a chaiwala during the election campaign. Another person might have taken offence or hit back at the Stephenian arrogance of this nose-in-the-air ex-diplomat. Modi playfully launched a chai chaupal across the country and invited his countrymen to enjoy a cup of tea at his expense and gossip about this and that with him. He has since used the chaiwala tag frequently to define his humble origins and made political capital of his ability to raise himself to the highest post in the country!
                         He got transformed in many hearts when he called Nawaz Sharief’s bluff and cancelled the talks at the foreign secretaries’ level because Pakistan  tried to be oversmart and asked  its High Commissioner to go ahead with his tea party to the Hurriyat leaders. We warmed up to Modi when he ordered the para-military forces to give a befitting and punishing reply  to the indiscriminate shelling by the Pakis.

                      All of a sudden, India’s Kashmir policy, Pakistan policy and Muslim policy acquired  new definitions.

                      Modi has already fired the first salvoes of the new dispensation. His prime confidant Amit Shah has declared that the strategy this time is to form a BJP-led coalition in J&K. Many observers feel that he will be able to do so. Even the calamity of the unprecedented floods is working to BJP’s advantage, as the flurry of activity in the central forces is contrasted with the somnolence of the local administration. This would  represent a tectonic shift and effectively counter the pro-Muslim bias that has infused the State Govt. policy ever since the State acceded to India in 1948.

                                     Compare and contrast the Vajpayee-led NDA Govt which tried to start a conference of the Central Advisory Board of Education with Vande Mataram and faced a walkout by the education ministers of Congress-ruled States, with Modi who ended his Independence Day speech with Vande Mataram, thus forcing children of all faiths to repeat this slogan without recourse to any overt melodrama.

                       Modi’s Muslim policy is not yet clearly enunciated. Yet one can discern an emerging pattern. He seems to be moving inexorably towards the Australian model of a policy towards Muslims.  Two Australian Prime Ministers have made national broadcasts on the TV, asking the Muslims to behave or else leave . They had not invited the Muslims to come and settle down in Australia. The Muslims had come of their own volition and so they would have to follow the Australian laws like the rest of the population. Their children would have to attend Govt. schools and sing the prayers laid down for all students.

                              The Indian Muslims have not had anyone talking to them with  similar frankness. On the contrary, they have been treated with kid gloves, they have been mollycoddled and treated like a vote-bank. They are permitted to have their own maktabs and madrassas which breed  youth proficient in mindless intoning of scriptural texts but ignorant of modern languages, science and mathematics.

                           For the present, the strategy seems to be to unleash the extreme right of hindutva and permit  low-grade communal skirmishes, with mild reproofs being administered by lower echelons of the BJP hierarchy. If the lessons are not learnt the soft way, there may have to  be a one- time major confrontation to embed the teaching in the psyche of a whole generation. That is a lesson the Hindus  learnt the hard way when the Khalistan movement was buried at one fell swoop. That is the moral many Hindus  have drawn from the way a stable communal peace has prevailed in Gujarat after the post-Godhra violence

                             A  positive point in Modi’s favour is the neat way he has tied up his foreign policy with the fulfilment of domestic promises. On his recent tour of Japan, not only did he persuade the Japanese to invest heavily in India, he   involved them in his pet projects of bullet trains, revamping of cities, building of a new Varanasi as a blend of the ancient and the modern and even the cleaning of the Ganga.

                          Some of us used to feel apprehensive about Modi’s alleged dictatorial attitude. This notion was strengthened when he seemed to be fashioning the PMO as the fulcrum of his administration. And especially when he appointed his old protege Amit Shah as the party president.
But this negative point has been stood on its head by the positive results that the system seems to be achieving from such centralisation of authority. Decision making has been hastened by the abolition of the cabinet committees which had ceased to be vehicles of coordination and got converted into instrumentalities of delay. A bunch of Ministers and MLAs was not allowed to visit Brazil during the World Cup at State expense. A Minister was seen wearing jeans at the airport and ordered to go home and first change into something more decorous. Maneka Gandhi was quietly chastised for making an uncouth bid for Varun’s political ascendancy by denying him a place in the party top brass. Bureaucrats started receiving calls on the RAX phones from the Prime Minister himself, who incidentally also ensured thereby that they remained in office for the mandated twelve hours. There was a not so oblique hint administered through the grapevine that bureaucrats who played golf on week days would not be preferred.

                            Today most people are saying that India voted for Modi mainly because we wanted a strong leader. So we have no business cribbing about Modi’s strong leadership.Was Lee Kuan Yew not a dictator? Was Deng Xiao-Peng not a dictator?

                            A very important factor in my reassessment of Modi is his tremendous sense of humour.I liked the way he played the flute and beat a drum in Japan (although Rahul the heir-apparent did not). We all relished the replies he gave to school students on Teachers’ Day. His frankness in admitting to his childish pranks was admirable. How he stapled the clothes of gentlemen and ladies standing close to each other in marriage parties. How he and his  class -fellows dangled  mouth-watering tamarind before the shehnai artistes   and forced them to suspend their music .
He made fun of his political opponents by predicting with an impish smile that his presenting a copy of the Bhagwad Gita to the Japanese Emperor would be criticised in India as being an act of promoting Hindutva. And not surprisingly, his secular antagonists promptly fulfilled his prophecy.
Talking of prophecies, I cannot but allude to the prediction supposedly made by Nostradamus, in which he not only foretold the rise of Narendra Modi as the leader of a country surrounded on three sides by water, but he also spoke of his phenomenal emergence as a global leader presiding over the destiny of a superpower. He also talked of Hindu nationalism and the re-emergence of India as a world teacher. Other predictions include the disappearance of Pakistan and the integration of Kashmir by India .

                                But Google also takes you to Ramani’s blog, which claims that research has proved that this whole news is a spoof.

                              Be that as it may, many of us have the feeling that Modi was not joking when he obliquely told a boy on Teachers’ Day that he (Modi) had nothing to fear till 2024. He has hinted even otherwise that he will be there for ten years at least. In 2024 Modi will be 73 , very close to his self-imposed upper age-limit of 75 years for political leaders holding high office. What he will do thereafter  is anybody’s guess!



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A kick to the Rickshaw

                  A   Kick to the Rickshaw

                  It was Shrawan Purnamashi.I had worn two rakhis already, one from my sister Asha and the other from Brahma Kumari Asha, the head of the Brahma Kumari chapter of Delhi who has been sending me a rakhi for almost two decades now. I was waiting for Usha, my sister from Gurgaon, who had promised to come on D-Day to tie the rakhi in person.

          Suddenly, the phone rang. It was Usha.

          “Bhai Sahib! I am sorry. I will probably be too late for lunch. You people carry on.”

          “What happened? Where are you? It is not too late as yet. We can wait.”

          She said, “You know how I travel. I took the metro to Hauz Khas. Now, for the last half an hour, I have been trying to persuade some scooterwallah to take me to Pamposh. They all say that there have been heavy showers in Greater Kailash. The roads are blocked. So they cannot come.”

          “Keep on trying, Usha. I am sure the water must have receded by now and the scooter rickshaws will resume their services. There is no hurry. We shall wait for you,” I replied.

          I had just finished reporting on Usha’s conversation to my wife Raj, when the doorbell rang.

          “That must be Usha,” said my optimistic wife. Although this appeared improbable, it did turn out to be Usha.

          The next one hour flew on the wings of joy and happiness. We partook of the special Barfi from Rewari that Usha had brought from Gurgaon. She put the tilak on my forehead and tied the rakhi. Raj had prepared special dishes and we tasted these with relish.

          When we sat down to a post-prandial gossip session, Usha raised the issue of how the rickshaw-wallahs could be tamed into submission. She suggested that there should be a law so that the rickshaw drivers were prohibited from refusing to offer their services on certain routes.

          I told her that such a law already existed. All we needed was a Modi who would enforce the law.

          I recalled that I had encountered a similar situation a few months ago, when my cousin Rup Krishen Baqaya came to pay me a visit. He is an expert on astrology and I am interested in his predictions. So the time flew on with terrific speed. We did not realise that it was already six p.m. and he had to go all the way to Nirman Vihar.

          Rupji was a pampered bureaucrat who retired as a Chief Commissioner of Income Tax. Every time he came to Delhi, one of his numerous chamchas would send a car with a chauffeur. He was always mobile. This was the first time he was on his own.

          I decided to see him off in a scooter rickshaw. We walked down to Gate No. 1 of Pamposh Enclave. A vacant rickshaw slowed to a halt near us. We told him about Nirman Vihar. His face fell.

          “I would have been happy to take you to Nirman Vihar. But there is a problem. I just received a call on my mobile. My wife has suddenly been taken ill.  Have got to get home. Sorry.”  And he whirred off.

          When the same scene was repeated four-five times with minor variations, Rupji lost his cool. “What is all this? One fellow‘s son has not yet returned from school, another has exhausted the CNG gas and is unable to get a refill from any of the petrol pumps. We have a fellow whose time-span is over and he has to report back at the owner’s house. And so on and so forth.”

          “You must have noticed,” I pointed out, “that no one has as yet refused to go to Nirman Vihar. You see, under the rules, they cannot refuse. And they are very particular that they do not.”

          “I am sick and tired of them. Can we take a taxi?” Rupji said. “Why not”, I replied, “Although it will cost a pretty penny.”

          “How much?” he asked. “Around 400 rupees,” I hazarded.

          We walked down to the Haryana Taxi Service. Rupji asked him about the fare.  “500 rupees,” the driver said. Rupji looked at me. “How about 400 rupees?” I asked. The driver shook his head with an air of finality. “It is very far…across the Jamuna.”

          I told Usha, “At last, we crossed the road and Rupji took a rickshaw up to ITO. ‘Beyond ITO, I shall see ’Rupji said. ‘Either I shall persuade this chap to cross the Jamuna or take another rickshaw’. He boarded the rickshaw and that was the last I saw of him.”

          Raj looked at a portion of the sky visible from our bedroom. “I think, Usha, you better start on your return journey. This sky is threatening to bring about a heavy shower. Get a rickshaw before Greater Kailash gets flooded.”

          Within minutes, Usha was on her way!

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Kashmir_ TheSimmering Dish

            Kashmir: The Simmering Dish


A few years back, I asked Mr. Maharajkrishna Rasgotra, ex- Foreign Secretary, as to what he thought would happen to the Kashmir situation twenty years later. “It is simmering today. Twenty years hence, I guess it will still be simmering.”

So far, his forecast has held out. But if Modi is the Masterchef that he claims he is,  a dish that has simmered for decades is hardly  the Super Royal Delicacy  he has promised the  125 crore Indians.
Imagine some alternative scenarios.

If Kashmir had acceded to Pakistan with 70% Muslims and 30%  Persons belonging to Other Religions, the percentage figures would have  by now changed to Muslims (99%) and Other Religions (1%).

Had it been annexed by China, the soldiers   of the People’s Liberation Army would have married the Kashmiri girls and created a new , distinctly recognisable mixed breed that was neither Han  Mongoloid nor Caucasian Aryan.

The Hindu rulers of India have, in a spirit of benevolent secularism and non-violent tolerance been mute witnesses to the conversion of district after district  in all the three regions of the State of Jammu & Kashmir to Nizam-e-Mustafa.

The fidayeen of Lashkar-e-Toyeba  consider this to be a mere opening gambit. Their ambition is  nothing less than the  conversion of the entire lot of 125 crore Indians to Islam.
That is the challenge. And it has to be squarely met with all the resources at our command.

The Problem:

Ever since Islam came to the region, the Muslim rulers have tried to convert the Kashmiri Pandits, who had been living in the Kashmir valley for 5000 years, to their own faith. One of the worst genocidal attempts was made in the reign of Sikander Butshikan. The slogan coined in his time was Raliv(Convert), Chaliv(Run away) or Galiv (Die). The three options were clear and unequivocal. The Pandits could either get converted to Islam, or run away from the valley or die. Legend has it that all the three options were exercised, leaving just eleven families alive and still practising Hinduism.
 Some historians have claimed that Sikandar’s son was a visionary. He saw that the Pandits contributed much to the intellectual capital, administrative acumen, skills as teachers and medical practitioners and so on. His administration was paralysed. So he called the Pandits back. There are not many details available of the reverse movement, but one can make a fairly shrewd guess of what must have transpired. Although much is made of Badshah’s benevolence, there is little evidence of the Pandits returning to the valley in large numbers.

Seven exoduses has taken place so far. The lesson of history is clear. Exodus is immediate, sudden and wholesale. If at all there is a reverse movement, it is slow, deliberate and in driblets.

So let Modi try to learn from history. Return of the Kashmiri Pandits is not a financial problem. It is a facet of a larger bundle of issues. How Modi tackles Pakistan,how he punishes the terrorist gangs who bleed India almost on a daily basis, how he treats those Indian
Muslims who for whatever reason show a misplaced loyalty toPakistan and not to India. It is a tangled web of disparate factors: Wahabi Islam, the Taliban,the balance of power in the SAARC region and the subdued but resurgent forces of Hindutva.

A practical solution: building a conducive environment:

Let us look for practical solutions to this seemingly intractable problem.
The first and foremost step is to tell the whole world what happened in 1989 to cause the Seventh Exodus. Pakistan and its agents have been spreading the canard that the then Governor Jagmohan advised the Pandits to leave. We all know the real story. It can be pieced together by assembling the reports of intelligence agencies, newspaper accounts, documentation done by associations of Kashmiri Pandits, judgements of the National Human Rights Commission etc. There is enough material available to cull out a credible narrative of what happened and why. Govt. should place this in the form of a White paper before both Houses of Parliament.

The second step is for the Prime Minister to express his regret at the Government not being able to protect its loyal citizens and hold out a credible promise to send them back to the valley with honour and dignity.

The third step is a little difficult, but not impossible. While making peace overtures to Pakistan and talking glibly of improved relations between the two countries, Modi should hit out at the infrastructure of terror and physically destroy it.

The fourth step is to declare that anyone living in India and giving overt and covert assistance to Pakistan will be construed as engaging in seditious activity and be incarcerated. Or if diplomacy does not permit such an open declaration,follow this as the undeclared policy.

The fifth step is to nominate two Rajya Sabha members from the KP community , create three constituencies in exile for the J&K Legislative Assembly, give a minority status to them and declare them to be Internally Displaced Persons and make them entitled to all the provisions of the Geneva Convention.

The sixth step is to pass the Temples and Shrines Bill as presented by the community through an Ordinance.

The seventh step, which is optional, is to abolish Article 370.There is much houha about this, but there is actually little of Article 370 left. All  Indian laws are already applicable to J&K and all Indian institutions have jurisdiction. Contrary to popular belief, it is not Article 370 whih stands beteween demographic colonisation of the state; it is an order issued by the Maharaja in 1927 which defines who  a State subject is and what his rights are. In any case, such restrictions on acquisition of property are also applicable to other hilly, tribal and backward states of the country.

Is this proposal too hawkish?

When I place the above steps in an informal discussion forum, my friends accuse me of being too hawkish. Hindus have always had this psychological barrier to realpolitik. Look at how Mohammad Ghori behaved. He attacked India seven times. When he attacked the Rajputs, he lost and out of compassion  Prithviraj  Chauhan let him go. The next year  Ghori  returned and won the battle by breaching the rule that there was to be  no fighting at night. He made Prithviraj a prisoner and blinded him.

The misplaced sense of history

The other major problem we have is a misplaced sense of history in our top leadership. Jawahar Lal Nehru had written “The Discovery of India” and was bedazzled by the achievements of Ashoka the Great and Akbar the Great. Somewhere in his mind he held the ambition to go down in history as Nehru the Great. That is the only credible explanation for his friendship with China, which should have struck him as the natural rival of India in the Asian continent. That is the only explanation for his ordering a ceasefire when the Indian Army was fully poised to throw out the Qabaili raiders and the Pakistan Army from what is now known as Pak-Occupied Kashmir and his puerile reference of the Kashmir “dispute” to the UN Security Council.

To a lesser extent, this was Atal Behari Vajpayee’s problem also. When the NDA Govt. took over, many of us expected them to do what the Congress had failed to do, to wit, teach Pakistan a lesson,build the Ram temple at Ayodhya, abolish Article 370, enforce a uniform civil code and take the KPs back to the valley.

But we had not reckoned with Atalji’s sense of history. So we had Lahore, Kargil and Agra. Had it not been for a Joint Secretary of the MEA , a KP bearing the surname Katju, one doesn’t know what sort of agreement would have been signed at Agra.

One only hopes that Narendar Modi does not suffer from similar illusions of greatness and does not sacrifice the few Kashmiri Pandits left at the altar of a misplaced sense of history, so as to be known as the architect of SAARC on the pattern of the European Union.

The Revised PM’s Package

So now we can prescribe the kind of revised PM’s package Modi should announce:
 10,000 jobs in the Central and State Govt and their PSUs without upper age limits, affidavits, conditions, to be filled within one year
 Immediate access to transit accommodation at district headquarters, and around tourist and temple complexes
 Construction of multistoreyed complexes in modern, well-designed residential colonies
 Option of going back to one’s house in town or village if the security situation so allows
 Declaration of all sales as invalid, with suitable compensation to the purchaser
 Settlement of KPs in their traditional or preferred occupations in agriculture, horticulture, trade, industry, tourism etc.

Implementing the Package:

What the Central govt. should have grasped by now is that the Kashmiri Muslims who are ruling the State since 1947 are very much interested in keeping the Pandits  out. They want everyone out. Left to themselves, they would make it a 100% Islamic state. So if you expect them to implement the package, you have another guess coming.

The moral of the story is that the Central Govt. would have to do it themselves. So we need a National Commissioner for Welfare of Kashmiri Pandits in the MHA.

We have seen how the meagre sums placed at the disposal of the State Govt. have been surrendered year after year. Then there is the unseemly spectacle of proposals getting shuttlecocked between  the MHA and the State. Budget is kept under “Security Related Expenditure”. What is required to be done is to keep  budget provisions under suitable heads of development expenditure, to be spent by the MHA.

Monitoring:

At the top of the pyramid should be two Monitoring Committees or authorities (we know how allergic the PM is to committees). Let the PMO and the HMO monitor. The Pandits are only interested in the results.


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(12th July,2014,1645 words)

Review of Kaw Caw Silly Point by Prof. O.N.Koul

	[Year]
	Review of Kaw Caw Silly  Point by Prof. O.N.Koul

Review of Kaw Caw Silly Point by Prof. O.N.Koul

Governance, Modi Ishtyle

                           Narendra Modi is rewriting all the established theories of governance. He started by coining the moolmantra for his ishtyle as “minimum government, maximum governance”. Pundits are even now trying hard to understand the esoteric meaning hidden in these four innocent-looking words.

If we interpret “government” as the actions of his ministers and “governance” as his own initiatives as Prime Minister, perhaps we shall approach the impenetrable occult import of his overall strategy. Modi sees himself as the fountainhead of all brilliant ideas, which would be faithfully implemented by the loyalist babus imported from Gujarat, with the Ministers providing a smokescreen and a camouflage.

                               From all accounts, this ishtyle has been successful  in Gujarat, and one would not like to be a cavilling critic on the facile assumption that what works in a State need not work at the centre. Let us analyse Modi’s report card for the first  three weeks and see how he has fared with reference to the babus.

                              One of his first acts was that he appointed Nripendra Mishra as his Principal Secretary. Most of us know Nripendra and were happy at the choice. And just as we were celebrating the appointment came the devastating news that  there was a statutory embargo on the appointment of a former Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. A lesser man would have been shattered, but Modi is made of sterner stuff. Before the matter escalated into a scandal, he had persuaded the President to promulgate an Ordinance. He did not allow himself to be deterred by the consideration that laws are not amended to cater to an individual case, or that an Ordinance is justified only to meet an emergent situation when the Parliament is not in session or likely to hold a session.

                                         Modi met all the Secretaries. Previous Prime Ministers had also held a meeting with the Secretaries but more as a ritual.The difference this time around was that he shook hands with each one of them, saw and heard them , and  memorized their names and faces. (They say he has a photographic memory.)

                                       He asked them to come early and go late, and dispose of the files with speed. He assured them that if they gave sound and fearless advice, they would be protected. If they had a problem with their Ministers, his doors were always open for them. They could come directly to him and seek his protection.

                                        He responded positively to the general complaint that it was impossible to get a posting in the Government of India unless the Minister sponsored your name. And he has acted fast. The older procedure of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approving all senior appointments has been restored. Plus as a bonus, Modi has decreed that the Department of Personnel will use information technology to choose officers on the basis of their qualifications and experience.

                                    The good news is that the babus have realized that finally they have a boss. The babus are like mettlesome steeds and only an expert rider can control them. Modi has started with the basic virtue of punctuality. He has used the tried and tested techniques of inveigling the babus into the office. The central government is supposed to work from 9 a.m.  to 6 p.m. The burra sahibs who used to lazily saunter in around 11 a.m. are now seated in their offices at 8-45 a.m. and they cannot leave before 9 p.m. because there are too many deadlines to meet. Resultantly, the chhota babus are in office at 8.30 a.m. and the cleaning staff has to be wakeful and working at 7 a.m. Thus the various Bhawans present a look of cheerful industry and merry diligence.

                                   Having started this campaign, Modi should not stop there. If he can pull it off ( and if he cannot pull it off, no one else can!), he should revert to a six-day week. And while he is about it, why not also implement the strong recommendations made by the previous two Central Pay Commissions and reduce the number of gazetted holidays from sixteen to three? India is the only country of the world where all the Government offices are closed just because the founder of a religion was born on a particular day, even if his followers constitute just one or two per cent of the population. Government can simultaneously increase the number of restricted holidays from three  to six, thus enabling the followers to celebrate their holy days without forcing a holiday on the entire nation.

                               The judiciary has raised the issue that having vacations in the courts is an ancient practice not justified in the present day and age. One could easily persuade the Supreme Court of india to abolish this antediluvian custom. And if the courts can do it, why not the educational institutions? Can you believe it if I tell you that universities work for about 80 days in a year! And if you request the faculty to mark their presence in the attendance register, there is the threat of a strike.

                                  One needs to go institution by institution and remove these hidebound practices which are the remnants of a pre-historic era. And increasing the number of working days is not enough. We have to ensure that government employees come to office in time and do not leave it on various pretexts, that they do not disappear from their seats  for precious hours to have tea in the office canteen and that they do not spend most of their time talking to their friends and relatives on the mobile.

                                          So if the Government is sincere about bringing about a sea change in the working atmosphere of Government offices, the following steps have got to be taken:

·      Employees should be required to punch in their entry and exit timings in a biometric time –clock.

·      Employees should be provided with an identity card with a built-in GPS, so that their geographical whereabouts can be monitored at all times during office hours.

·      Tea and snacks should be served at the table and canteens should be abolished.

·      Employees should have to surrender their mobile phones at the entrance.

·      Important establishments like hospitals, dispensaries, banks and shopping establishments like Mother Dairy, Super bazar etc should be kept open in the mornings and evenings to enable employees to use these facilities without having to absent themselves from their offices.

                              The great point about Modi is that he has his fingers on the pulse of the burra sahibs. The grapevine has it that Modi has called for a list of senior officers who play golf. That is the Achilles’ heel of the civil services. I suggest that when he has embarked on this heroic  enterprise, he should also compile a list of officers who play bridge and paploo!

                               Let us close this piece on a note of optimism. The Chief Minister of Goa had decided to send an official delegation of politicians to Brazil so that they could see how the traffic was being managed during the FIFA World Cup. There was an uproar in the media, but to no avail.

                             Suddenly, the CM announced that the officially sponsored junket had been cancelled. Those who wanted to witness the World Cup would have to bear their own expenses.

                            I have no evidence that would stand in a court of law. But a little bird tells me that a call from the PMO did the trick.

                              That is governance Modi ishtyle with a capital G!

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