Friday, August 28, 2009

A week well spent

Achievements for this week (don't expect this to be a regular feature!)
  • Got the RSS feed aggregator widgets working more or less the way I wanted them to - check them out here
  • Successfully edited html in the Blogger template to get the formats I wanted at the feed widget site (looking at code after so many years felt weird!)
  • Finally got down to some less frivolous blogging and would really like to take that debate to a wider platform
  • Managed to get Disqus to work at Blogger, yet to try it out at WordPress - which I don't think will work since WP.com does not let you edit their html
  • Attended PTA meetings for BOTH the brats :P
  • Signed up on a new engagement! Am so excited about this one!
And now .. off to enjoy my well-deserved Glenlivet ... and maybe I'll have a Miles Davis evening. Be good, keep well and enjoy your weekend.

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Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Leadership begins at home

I think its about time the BJP leadership decided to call it a day. Too bad for L K Advani if it means that he can never become PM. Yesterday, Arun Shourie launched a philippic (not unlike Demosthenes) against the BJP top brass, to which the BJP has sought a clarification (it is a clarification, they clarified later to the press, not a show-cause notice). I'm surprised they didn't sack him over a phone call. Then today we see more anger and defiance - this time from Vasundhara Raje. Soon there'll be others ...

So much for the strong leadership they boasted about during their election campaign, while deriding Manmohan Singh as a weakling. How could they aspire to lead a nation when the stewardship of their own party is such a challenge? They should quit now, bring this to an end quickly and let the rebuilding begin, so that there is a robust Opposition Party in place soon enough. That would be the best way in which they could serve the nation at this point.

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Saturday, August 22, 2009

Intolerance of Dissent II: Are the other guys any better?

A friend shared an op-ed from the Hindu on facebook this morning, comparing the situation regarding Jaswant's book on Jinnah with Shashi Tharoor's book "From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond" (first published in 1997 and updated by Tharoor in 2007, according to the Hindu). The sub line of the Hindu op-ed says "A Jaswant-Tharoor comparison shows the Congress to be far more accommodating of internal criticism" and the article goes on to show how critical Tharoor's book was, about the Congress party and its dynastic leadership, and yet he was offered a Congress ticket in the 2009 general elections.

Call me a skeptic if you like, but frankly, does this really demonstrate maturity in terms of the ability to accommodate dissent, on the part of the Congress? When it comes to the art of the possible, anything is possible: convenience is key and opportunism rules. I criticized the BJP in my last post, but the Congress is not a party of saints either. As an Indian voter I follow a relative grading system and elect the lesser of the two evils (subject to change with every election, but tends to be the Congress more often than not, mostly by default), simply because I'd rather cast a valid vote than not. But as a global citizen or just another arb guy with a blog, I am free to evaluate these folks on an absolute basis.

So here was my comment to my friend's facebook post:

Interesting article, thanks for sharing. Two quick observations / points to ponder:

I think the Congress is only marginally more decent than the BJP ... if that. Tharoor wrote at a time when his future looked like he would be the UN Secy Gen, not an MP from Thiruvananthapuram on a Congress ticket. Its interesting to speculate over what might have happened if he wrote something like that now, in his current avatar. Would Sonia tolerate all that stuff he wrote about the Congress, about her husband Rajiv and her MIL Indira, if he wrote that now?

On an unrelated note - wonder why Vidya Subrahmaniam considers it necessary to translate the word 'toddywalla'. Or it might have been Tharoor in the original, just quoted verbatim in the article. In any case it is not an accurate translation: the word for toddy in English is .. guess what? Toddy! Not Liquor. Why do Indians tend to have an international audience in mind while writing in English?


Authoritarianism is not the prerogative of the BJP alone (just in case my last post suggested that I thought so), and in the history of Indian politics, several politicians have been sacked by their parties for dissent. In the more recent past, the former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee was expelled from the CPI because he did not toe the party line vis-a-vis the confidence vote in July last year. It may be that the post Indira Gandhi Congress is afflicted by a milder strain of the virus of authoritarianism, but to make up for that, there's the fact that in their case, authoritarianism is patrimony -- inherited and passed down the generations as family legacy. Even their pet canary commands more authority than the common koyal that might have accidentally come to power, except perhaps that it only commands it and does not demand it. Not overtly, at least -- their canaries are too sophisticated for that.

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Thursday, August 20, 2009

Intolerance of Dissent: the Descent of Decency

The big news yesterday was Jaswant Singh's unceremonious ouster from his political party, the BJP, of which he has been a loyal member for 30 years, and in more recent times has been an integral part of its senior leadership. Apparently it was about a book he wrote (though no one called it out as such, and this might have well been the last straw in a series of acts of dissension on his part). The book, which was launched earlier this week, is about Mohammed Ali Jinnah who, according to the hard right-wing in India, was responsible for the partitioning of India. And apparently he was honest and sincere in his analysis of Jinnah, in the book -- several members of India's intellectual elite seem to think so (I haven't read the book, but am inclined to believe them). And so the BJP high command wasted no time, didn't even bother to wait to come back home from their off-site ideological brainstorming meetings, and gave him the Dear John message over a phone call. What a way to go!

To make matters worse, Narendra Modi banned the book in Gujarat, presumably because it did not show Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in a very generous light. ("The book aims to tarnish the image of the architect of the country's unification and son of Gujarat. The state government has decided to ban the book in public interest" according to a press release issued by the state government -- source: ToI). Can this book be classified as porn? No. Was this book aimed at inciting people to commit acts of treason or violence or otherwise break the law? No. Then how different might banning the book make us, from Ahmadinijad's Iran or Kim Jong-Il's North Korea or the Taliban? Liquor is also banned in Gujarat, presumably because they don't trust its citizens to drink responsibly.

I guess Modi fears that citizens of Gujarat (a state over which he has absolute control, or so he'd like to think) will read Jaswant Singh's book and start admiring Jinnah and stop admiring Sardar Patel. If Modi had control over India, he might have banned the book across the whole nation, and if he had control over the whole world (what an orgasmic fantasy for hardcore megalomaniacs) he would expunge the book and make like it never even existed. I respect the citizens of Gujarat for their intelligence and their spirit of entrepreneurship (yet to understand how they tolerate Modi), but, man! am I glad I live in a state where I have the right to enjoy my single malts and to read a book on Jinnah by Jaswant Singh. And I hope and pray, really hard, that people like Modi and others of his ilk don't take control of this country.

At this time, it looks like the BJP is far from coming back to power at a national level, but one can never be too certain -- stranger things have happened. Which leads me to think about what I would do if this country were taken over by people who ban books and paintings (remember M F Hussain?) and other forms of intellectual and artistic expression. When they should actually be banning organized gangs of hooligans who molest women (remember the Mangalore pub incident?) and attack churches (Orissa, Karnataka and elsewhere). In a recent post at my 'main' blog, about a week before Independence Day, I wrote about how a leadership model based on fear might excommunicate dissenters -- an uncanny premonition perhaps, that this would happen to a man of Jaswant Singh's stature barely a week after Independence Day. Not that I am a big fan of his, but I am huge fan of freedom. As long as it comes with responsibility. Unfortunately, it seems the BJP considered Jaswant Singh's actions to be irresponsible, though several key BJP personalities went on air last night on various TV news channels, to admit that the book was 'intellectually honest'. But they hastened to add that it was not aligned with the party's ideology, and that he should have know better. Well, yes, he should have known better. He made a mistake alright -- in spite of 30 years of hanging with this crowd, he did not see the extent of their ideological fascism and their intolerance to dissent or diversity.

And so the BJP, in their wisdom and in their own spirit of freedom and democracy (zealously defended by their spokesperson in TV interviews last night), thought that they ought to be righting a wrong. But, sadly, have ended up wronging a right. A fundamental right. In the context of my last post here below, this represents yet another reason why I think that there just isn't enough sincerity in the voices that sing 'Sare Jahaan Se Achcha' these days.

Meanwhile, the controversy, which has erupted in all leading dailies today, will immensely increase demand for the book and its publishers will laugh all the way to the bank. Leaving a shocked and broken Jaswant Singh wondering what he did wrong.

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Sunday, August 16, 2009

Freedom and Responsibility

Yesterday was India's 63rd Independence Day. And a very special day, as it always is. But what I continue to find difficult to understand is why there's a sudden burst of patriotism in all and sundry only on that day (and, of course, on Republic Day). Why don't Indians (generally speaking) feel equally patriotic on other days? And if they do, why doesn't it show? And when it shows why is it mostly in the kind of patriotism that takes the form of 'Mera Bharat Mahan' written at the back of trucks (surreally juxtaposed with that other ubiquitous back-of-the-truck message -- 'Horn OK Please')? And when it is not that kind of patriotism then why is it of either the maudlin or the melodramatic kind?

Simple acts of responsible citizenship in everyday life represent a more credible expression of patriotism than mere sloganeering and flag-waving on two days in a year, and are a more mature manifestation of our love and respect for India. We won our freedom the hard way, and it looks like we need to inculcate in ourselves a sense of responsibility (that comes automatically with freedom) the hard way too.

My twitter message when I logged on yesterday, was "There's a fine line between patriotism and jingoism. Tread carefully, my beloved compatriots. Happy Independence Day!" and thats about what I could manage in 140 characters. But there's more that I wanted to say and here it is --

"Do your country, your fellow countrymen and yourself a big favour, and focus on the following key areas of improvement:
  • Civic sense -- Keep your neighbourhood as clean as your home. Develop a better sense of personal hygiene. Restrain yourself from activities that result in air and noise pollution
  • Compliance -- Follow the laws of the land, and in particular: obey traffic rules, pay your taxes, maintain queue discipline
  • Integrity -- Do not cheat and do not indulge in corrupt practices. Help clean up the culture of corruption that is corroding our institutions at every level
  • Tolerance -- Yes, we have 'unity in diversity', but also start practising 'equity in diversity'. Drop your prejudices and your false sense of communal pride and your regressive ideas regarding morality. We have always been an inclusive and a secular culture, and if you love your country for its culture, then walk the talk.
  • Intolerance -- Drop the 'chalta hai' attitude. Don't 'adjust'. Oppose. Acceptance of things that ought to change only perpetuates the degeneration and decay."
Excuse me for pontificating, but it would be really nice to hear the ring of sincerity in the voices that sing "Sare Jahan se Achcha", otherwise we're just kidding ourselves. Martyrs laid down their lives fighting for independence during the freedom struggle. Martyrs continue to give up their lives for our country -- not just on the battlefront but all over, and these days this is happening with an alarming regularity. However, there are others among us who die a slow death every day, fighting an uphill battle towards progress. True patriots must do what they can to make life easier for their compatriots, and perhaps put a few more years of life back into their lives. A few more years of a better life.

Vande Mataram!

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While I was away

My last preposterous post was a month (and a day) ago. And this is supposed to be my mini-blog, for shorter and more frequent posts. But there's a reason behind this and its not that I'm a slacker (which I may well be) ... I've just been busy putting together a web-site for my consulting services venture. No, not another blog -- a web-site: http://hemantputhli.com (though it does have a page for blog posts) which was quietly 'launched' i.e., opened for public access couple of days ago without any pomp and fanfare. So do go there and check it out and tell me what you think.

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