Worsening India-China Relationship

For last couple of decades the trade relationship between India and China is on the rise and now China is India’s biggest trade partner. But since the Sino-Indian war of 1962, the relationship between the governments of the two countries is far from being cordial. The relationship has been marked by a superficial engagement with an underlying sense of mutual distrust and suspicion. Chinese government’s recent protest on Indian Prime Minister’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh has worsened the relationship between the two countries.

China has been adamant in not acknowledging the de facto boundary between India and China demarcated by the British and claims that the entirety of Arunachal Pradesh is part of China and calls it South Tibet. The refuge provided by India to the Tibetan religious leader Dalai Lama and his ‘Government in exile’ has always been a thorn in the relationship between the two countries. Yet in the recent years there had been a sort of softening of rhetoric from the Chinese side on the border issue; but suddenly they have come up with an official stand against India’s long held position on the issue of Arunachal Pradesh being a part of the Indian republic. Analysts believe that the sudden change in the China’s attitude towards India is perhaps because of their increasing military and economic prowess vis-à-vis India.

It is not only the Arunachal Pradesh issue that is causing damage to the Sino-India relationship. India is also miffed at China’s offer to Pakistan on building a dam in the Pakistan occupied Kashmir territory. Last month, Pakistan and China signed a memorandum of understanding to build the US $ 12.6 billion Diamir-Bhasha dam on the Indus river in Pak occupied Kashmir, PoK. China has been a great ally of Pakistan and has been supplying investment and technology know-how to Pakistan including missile technology and weapons. Since the 1962 Sino-Indian war, China has been aligning themselves more and more to Pakistan in a bid to confront their ‘common enemy’, India.

It is not only to Pakistan that China is expanding their influence, but also to Nepal. China and Nepal find common ground in being nations leaning towards Communism. But India can passively watch growing influence of China in Nepal only at its on peril. The outrageous geopolitical ambition that China has on India’s neighbours should be countered effectively otherwise there is every chance that India would lose its position as a major economic power in the Indian subcontinent. Growing Chinese influence on Nepal would be a security threat to India in the long run.

India needs to aggressively pursue its foreign policy if it has to sustain any ambition of becoming one of the major economic power houses of the world. It must be noted that such an aggressive pursuance of foreign policy looks bleak from the present Indian Foreign Minister, SM Krishna. He is rather reactive than proactive, a characteristic feature not desirable for a Foreign Minister. As of now, it seems that the Indian foreign affairs machinery is rather obsessed with its relationship with the United States. There is less importance given to other countries, especially our neighbours like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar and China. Pakistan is enhancing its foothold on Sri Lanka and is leaving no stone unturned to improve their traditional relationship with China. India has almost forgotten Nepal and Myanmar and its engagement in Afghanistan is only because of the US interest in having India’s involvement in that country. These are all ominous signs for a country of India’s stature.

The border issue is not the only subject on which China has shown its inclination towards countering India. In colluding with Pakistan, China has been lodging its protest against the India-US nuclear deal, especially after Barack Obama came to power in the US. Moreover China has been working against India’s bid to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). China also tried to block the Asian Development Bank loan to build a dam in Arunachal Pradesh. What has agitated India recently was China’s act of providing visa to people from Kashmir in a separated sheet of paper, saying that Kashmir is a disputed territory. China recently denied providing visa to people from Arunachal Pradesh and said that those people don’t need visa to come to China as they are Chinese.

Media on both sides of the border has got a great say in the present condition of India-China relationship. The media in the Chinese side, particularly the official media, has been highly critical of India. In one of the recent articles in Chinese Communist party’s official newspaper, People’s Daily, there had been an article criticising India and its global ambitions. (Find that article here at http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90780/91343/6783357.html) There is a sort of diatribe against India, its colonial past and its alleged ambition to become a super power thwarting the aspirations of its other neighbours. At the same time, when Indian media alleged that China has increased its incursions in the eastern border of India, the Indian government accused the media of blowing things out of proportion and warned legal actions against the media. The official governmental stance was that there had been no “significant increase” in the Chinese incursions as reported by the media. That would certainly mean that the government is accepting that there have been continuous Chinese incursions along the eastern border of India all these years.

One of the most remarkable things about the recent India-China spat was the absence of any remarks from any of the CPI (M) leaders in India. Normally known for their rhetoric on any thing related to Indian foreign policy, may it be the Indo-US nuclear deal, the ASEAN pact or the climate change policy, they have been conspicuous with their absence in making remarks. And again that is not a surprise because the CPI (M) in India has always been a self-proclaimed supporter of Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government. Even the split in the Communist Party of India in 1964 was basically because of the party’s support for China during the Sino-Indian war of 1962. (Find more about Indian Communist Party's controversial stand on India-China war of 1962 at Wikipedia)

It is in the common interest of both India and China to bridge the divide as soon as possible. Both countries have to find areas where they can work together and try to solve all outstanding issues, including border disputes, through dialogue and abstain from making outrageous remarks that would further worsen the already diminished cordial relationship between the two countries.

Nobel Prize for Peace, Literature and Economics

Nobel Prize for Peace for the year of 2009 has been conferred to the President of the United States, Barack Obama. He is the third incumbent US President after Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson in 1919 to bag the Nobel Peace Prize. (Former US President Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002) According to the Norwegian Nobel Committee the prize has been given to him for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” The Nobel Committee gave great importance to his nuclear weapons free world view. He was honoured for his role in creating a new climate for international politics where conflict resolution is predominantly expected to be done using dialogues and negotiations. The Nobel Committee also lauded Obama’s initiatives towards climate change whereby the United States has vowed to take more active steps towards reducing green house gas emissions. The audacity of hope that Obama brings to the world has been instrumental in him gaining the most coveted prize for peace. Obama’s famous speech at Cairo, made to jettison the lack of faith that the Muslim world has for the intentions and actions of the United States, was also counted. Nobel Committee’s decision to award Barack Obama the peace prize should be seen as a call to action and an encouragement for his activities in the realm of international diplomacy.

Romanian-born, German novelist, essayist and poet Herta Muller bagged the Noble Prize for Literature. According to the Nobel Committee, the prize is given to Muller “who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed." Her writings depicted the harsh living conditions of Communist Romania under the tyrannical Nicolae Ceauşescu regime. She faced death threats at her native Romania as she refused to cooperate and become an informant to the Romanian secret police when she was working as a teacher. Muller immigrated to Germany in 1987 and since then has been involved in the international literary field. Her novel Der Fuchs war damals schon der Jäger, published in English as The Passport, has been a runaway success and has received great critical acclaim. She is also a recipient of Germany's most prestigious, the Kleist prize.

The Nobel Prize for Economics for the year 2009 has been shared by Elinor Ostrom of Indiana University and Oliver E. Williamson of the University of California, Berkeley for their individual studies on economic governance. According to the Nobel Committee, Elinor Ostrom is awarded "for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons" and Oliver Williamson "for his analysis of economic governance, especially the boundaries of the firm." Elinor Ostrom is the first lady to receive the Nobel Prize for Economics since the prize was established in 1969. Economics predominantly studies how economic transactions happen in market place. But economic activities happen in other place like associations, households, within firms etc. Though economic theories have always given great importance to virtues and vices of market places, they gave less importance to other institutional arrangements. The individual studies done by Ostrom and Williamson show that economic analysis can shed light on almost all social organisations. By awarding Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson, the Nobel Committee seems to be placing forward the idea that economic theories and researches should go beyond the conventional studies on market mechanics and should try to answer more complex sociological questions of human life.

(Information courtesy: Press release available at www.nobelprize.org)

Nobel Prize 2009 for Science for People Who Worked for the Mankind

I have been away from blogging for some days as I was a bit pre-occupied with some domestic works. But what a great way it would be to mark a come back to blogging by writing about some great people who used science to the larger benefit of the mankind. Nobel Prizes for Medicine, Physics and Chemistry for the year 2009 have been announced and I would like to take a look at the works of those eminent scientists that earned them the Noble Prize.

Nobel Prize for Medicine has been shared by Drs. Elizabeth H. Blackburn of University of California, San Francisco, Carol W. Greider of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore and Jack W. Szostak of Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. They received the Nobel for the study of chromosome; about how they are copied in a complete way and how they are protected against degradation. With their studies the Nobel Laureates have found out that the reason for the phenomenon can be found out at the ends of the chromosomes – telomeres and by an enzyme named telomerase that creates the telomeres. From their findings it was understood that when telomeres are shortened, the cells age and if the telomerase activity is high, telomere length is maintained and cell death will be delayed. The eternal life of cancer cells is because the telomerase activity is high and hence the cells keep on growing. At the same time, some inherited diseases are because of defected and shortened telomeres that result in damaging of cells. This discovery has major impact in the future studies on finding medicines for cancer treatment and on the treatment of some of the inherited diseases found in human beings.

Charles K. Kao of Chinese University of Hong Kong, Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith, both of Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, US have shared the Nobel Prize for Physics for their inventions that tapped the potential of light. Charles Kao was awarded for his studies of optical fibres that are now used in the field of communication. The digital age and the Internet owe a great deal to the invention of Charles Kao. According to the Kao a ray of light that is directed into a fibre, bounces against the glass walls and will move forward since the refractive index of glass is higher than that of the surrounding air. Today telephone and data communication flows through network of optical glass fibre all around the world that would account to about 1 billion km. The information revolution that we see around us is largely due to this contribution of Charles Kao in the field of Physics. Willard Boyle and George Smith are awarded for their invention of digital image sensor – the Charged Coupled Device or the CCD. It is the technology with which we use the digital cameras for capturing high quality images and in the digital transfer of images. This technology is widely used in images taken in the space using space telescopes and in the transfer of images from distant objects.

The Nobel Laureates for Chemistry include Ada E. Yonath of Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Thomas A. Steitz of Yale University, New Haven and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan of MRC Laboratory, Cambridge, and they are rewarded for mapping the ribosome, the cell’s own protein factory. Every living organism, from bacteria to human beings has ribosome in them and no living creature can live without them. Hence they are perfect targets for drugs and antibiotics mainly attack the ribosomes of bacteria and leave alone those of human beings. Therefore the studies of the Nobel Laureates, of mapping the ribosomes at the atomic level, will give a great impetus to the discovery of new drugs. Many bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics and this provides a great challenge to the medical field. The mapping of the ribosomes will therefore help in the creation of antibiotics that would surpass the resistance of the bacteria. The studies done by the Noble Laureates will go a long way in understanding how life’s core processes function and in finding new antibiotics against various diseases that afflict mankind.

(Information courtesy: Press release available at www.nobelprize.org)

A Tribute to Norman Borlaug – The Greatest Fighter Against Hunger

On 13 September, Norman Borlaug, the agriculture scientist who revolutionised agriculture production in the world passed away at Dallas, Texas at the age of 95. He is the only agriculture scientist to receive the Nobel Prize for Peace, which he won in 1970. Borlaug’s research in plant breeding led to quantum jump in agricultural production all over the world, which resulted in reducing hunger in many countries.

Norman Borlaug always denied accepting the title “Father of Green Revolution” and continued with his research and teaching. While working in Mexico in 1950, with Rockefeller foundation Funding, Norman Borlaug crossbred a dwarf strain of wheat, which when treated with fertilizers and pesticides produced far greater quantities of high quality seeds. His discovery was later commercially applied in Mexico in 1956 and the resultant harvest was six times better than the previous harvests. Borlaug’s new variety of seeds was introduced in South Asia in the 1960s, particularly in India and Pakistan. In those times both these countries were reeling under pressures of increasing population, stagnating agriculture production and recurring monsoon failures.

When we understand that he chose his career path of fighting world hunger by sacrificing a promising and lucrative job at DuPont, the world famous chemical company, we won’t be able to help but wonder about the greatness of the man. He is thus a role model for people to walk away from lucrative jobs and submit their lives for the society and the underprivileged people of this world. He launched an absolute assault on hunger with his insatiable appetite for research and incomparable hard work. Borlaug called on students of agriculture to head towards working in agricultural fields than staying at research labs.

Norman Borlaug’s humanistic spirit and never-say-die attitude helped millions of people, all around the world, to stay away from hunger and deprivation. A real tribute to him would be for people to carry his legacy forward and continue his struggle against lower agriculture production and hunger because even now a billion people the world over are malnourished. Norman Borlaug, whom MS Swaminathan described as “the greatest hunger-fighter for all time” was one of those rare men who dedicated their lives to the elimination of hunger, poverty and inequality.

The Peculiar Living - Life of a Temporarily Handicapped Man

In serious conversations and not so serious conversations, people used and re-used the expression “life is a journey” and converted it into a sort of a cliché. The expression being a cliché is not at all a reason for us to overlook its importance. For all human beings, life is nothing but a journey from the moment we enter this world from a mother’s womb crying, to the moment we get back to the bosom of mother earth making others cry. And we all are moving swiftly, without any time to rest or to look back. But I must confess that because of the accident that happened to me recently, I got some valuable time off from my all other mundane pre-occupations.

Accidents are inarguably terrible incidents; particularly so if they result in demise of human beings or if they result in the permanent amputation of their limbs. But fortunately, the accident that I met up with was rather mild and it made me only temporarily incapacitated – making my right hand to stay inside, what is called an “arm-bag”, for a month or so. And that invariably meant I had to have quite a boring life, without working on computers, bike riding, car driving, park trotting or dull sleeping. (For sleeping was a very difficult task as it always resulted in a change in the “optimum” position my hand should be kept for lesser pain) So all in all it was a peculiar living, different from the sort of life that I had been living till then.

The news of I meeting up with an accident spread like wildfire and there had been an array of phone calls from different parts of the world. And some people, being unsatisfied by the news that they heard through phone, turned up personally to meet me. There had been concerned inquiries from sisters and brothers, uncles and aunts, friends and relatives, neighbours and acquaintances. I almost got bored on explaining to people how I met up with the accident. Yet some others, who came to know about the incident lately, complained for not letting them know about it as soon as it happened, as if it was something of a newsworthy item which I decided not to advertise because of my perceived disregard for publicity of my temporary handicap.

It was some sort of a peculiar living that I lived for about a month or so. I was rendered so much incapacitated that the only logical thing to be done, left to me, was thinking, or as some would call it, day dreaming, though I would prefer to call it the former. It was the time that I got to reflect upon the life that I have lived, to take stock of the various experiences that I had, the various relationships that I had kept and I’ve been keeping and the various ways in which I had responded to people, situations and challenges that came my way. The first thing that came to mind was of course the audacity of the dog, which jumped into my way and brought me down with my bike, which resulted in my temporary handicap. So I was cogitating how differently I would have behaved if I had had the occasion to see the dog sitting across the road, knitting sinister designs of jumping on to my way and creating mayhem.

For one month my right hand was so much incapacitated that even moving it an inch was becoming a very huge and painful task. Eating food with the right hand was almost impossible that my mother took that task herself and I apparently got back to a situation similar to my childhood days, where feeding me food was almost always a task that my mother undertook solely. It made me once again realize that any food, however insipid it may be, would taste as piquant as piquant would be, if given by a mother with her divine hands. Yet some of us, when we grow up and become capable of standing on our own feet, jettison our mothers and abandon them to the mercy of fate and nature, under some fit of outrageous recklessness.

Reading was also rendered difficult by my incapacitated right hand, which was finding its rest in an annoying arm-bag, but yet I found some courage do that with my left hand. So there was some sort of a reading spree from Hemingway to Yeats and from Dickens to Wordsworth. Thus once again I got my hand on Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, which like all other of his books, had the touch of his amazing narrative. I have discovered, yet again that one can’t finish off reading even one page of his book without referring the dictionary at least twice. Dickens will make you really wonder about the strength of your vocabulary, every single time you venture into reading his works.

The story of my “injured” days will not be complete if I fail to write about a lady who has, quite literally, helped me get back to normalcy. She was the lady who did physiotherapy for me and helped me with those exercises that have helped me to regain the strength of my right hand. Isn’t it a true statement, if I take my chance to say that a pretty lady is a positive thing only for a romantic beholder, but if that same lady is talented in her profession, it would be beneficial for the whole society? She was one of those most amazing people in whom beauty and professional expertise found their near-perfect combination. She is someone who would have been living about two and a half decades of her life in this world. The chain on her neck, with a cross in it, has shown clearly that she is an ardent believer of Lord Jesus. She had her curly hair nicely tied behind using a band and hair-slides going all across her hair in a zigzag manner to maintain the exact form in which she wanted them to stay. She always placed her small, black bindi exactly in between two of her eyebrows in such a meticulous way that it was difficult not to doubt whether she always used some measurement devices to find the exact middle position in between those eyebrows to place her bindi. The bracelet on her hand and the skin of her hand indulged themselves in a sort of competition in a bid to outshine each other. When the incandescent light bulbs were switched on, her shadow that they made on the floor was picturesque. When her eyes were filled up with tears, probably as a result of a rebuke by some doctor, she looked more beautiful than ever before, which made me think that even though a weeping girl is a shame for the person who made her weep and for those people who behold that and one should invariably do everything to prevent that, it brings on a bizarre enhancement to a lady’s beauty as was evident from what I saw in her. If Keats would have seen her, he would have yelled, yet again that, “a thing of beauty is a joy for ever”; if Dickens would have got an occasion to see her, for explaining her, he would have used exactly the same expression, “tenderly beautiful”, that he had used to explain Lucie Manette; on beholding her, Yeats would have been very happy to find someone with “little snow white feet,” exactly like his own sweet heart. This genteel lady had the grace, elegance, nobility, integrity and all the other virtues that one normally associates with a traditional Indian woman, the Bharathiya Nari. For my two months of “injured” life, she was perhaps my best friend, whom I have seen the most, to whom I have spoken the most. In those months I have started to have such a bond with her that it seems quite difficult to put that easily into oblivion. She was such a beautiful, talented, yet a simple lady, that she would have bowled over many a young, bachelor heart, and I was no exception. (This same liberty to get bowled over by the beauty of a pretty lady is perhaps the greatest bliss of bachelorhood.) When I venture outside my home, I feel like I am seeing her and meeting up with her everywhere I go - on the streets, at the park, at restaurants, on shopping malls and among mobs – standing with her kind countenance and with that comforting smile on her face that had blown away pains and agonies of patients and had sunk their anguishes and apprehensions into a sea of comfort. As now I am back to my normal life, with my right hand working the same way it was working before the accident, I thankfully recognise and understand that she perhaps had the greatest part in it and would use this article as a praise and an accolade to her and wish her that her professional excellence may continue to be a boon to many more patients that come her way.

Now, as I reach the peroration of my discourse, I must note that one month of bed rest after the accident, has made me more logical, coherent and rational; while in the past, I had been, at times, an insolent, impertinent and officious bloke, who poked his nose into others’ affairs, unsolicited, thinking that I am doing a big service to them. That one month also marked my evolution as a commentator of current affairs as I got my first “death threatening” mail (if it is by any sense a sign that my articles are becoming effective and are reaching far off places) from an anonymous, silly chap with an email id priyaprem90@gmail.com, from somewhere in the Middle East, expatiating upon the severe consequences that I may face if I continue with my “tirade” on his party leaders, he being furious on one of my “controversial” articles about the leaders of a particular political party. (So that apparently means, if you people find me mowed down by some unknown vehicle or stabbed by some mysterious gang, then you certainly have an email id to inform the Police to start off the investigation) I am extremely happy to publish this blogpost of mine, after two long months of painful obscurity and I undertake to write as often as before, provided I am not harmed or killed by our anonymous, yet courageous friend, priyaprem90@gmail.com, who has vowed to do so.

Am a Leaf

“Am a leaf, floating lonely in the river,

No dreams of delight, no perils to quiver,

No desires or unrequited love to bother,

But an eternal morose on my mother.”

So whispered the lanky Sacred Knight,

In the graveyard, on a monsoon night,

And gazed he at the star spangled sky,

As if to tell the meteors passing by,

A story by no means he told in the past,

All of a sudden decided to tell at last.

Then when he told his tearful tale,

All those listened grew sad and pale,

The deceased souls, the desolate night,

All felt grief on poor Knight’s blight.

They asked why thus far he failed to tell,

And chose to squander chances to quell,

Woeful memories besmirched with pain,

And paved paths for loneliness to reign.

To that question he answered thus,

In a rueful sound, yet with no fuss.

“To tell I had often longed and longed,

And did tell some women who thronged,

But they, in their days of youthful thrill,

Didn’t fathom why I am weeping shrill,

And never reckoned my emotive grace,

Left me orphaned in absolute disgrace.

Albeit sombre, I am still firm and brave,

Hence never choose to rant or rave,

Cold winters don’t make me shiver,

Am a leaf, floating lonely in the river."

(This is my first rhyming poem. Dedicated to my father who would have been extremely pleased to read this one.)

Proudly Sharing My Birthday with William Butler Yeats

On the same day that I emerged into this world, but one hundred and seventeen years back, was born one of English literature’s greatest exponents, William Butler Yeats. He is considered as one of the greatest poets of the 20th century and was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in the year 1923. He was also an Irish nationalist, dramatist, prose writer and a believer in eastern mysticism. It was with great amusement that I found out, of late, that my most favourite poet was born exactly on the same date as I.

William Butler Yeats was born on 13th June, 1865 in Dublin, Ireland. His father, John Butler Yeats was a well known painter and his mother Susan Mary Pollexfen came from a rich Anglo-Irish family in Sligo. In 1885, Yeats’ first set of poems was published in Dublin University Review. It was in 1889 that WB Yeats met Maud Gonne, a young heiress who had dedicated her life to Irish nationalist movement. Yeats developed an infatuation and a great love towards Maud Gonne and he proposed her, but she refused as she thought Yeats to be a lesser revolutionary than what she was. As is the case with many poets, Yeats also gained a lot of ‘inspiration’, if you can call it so, from his lost love. There onwards this incident had a great impact on his poems and the world should be grateful to Maud Gonne for refusing Yeats’ proposal because if she had not done that we would have never got such great poems from this great Irishman.

To all those people who have been in love for a long time but haven’t got it reciprocated from the other side, Yeats gave his advice thus,

O do not love too long, Or you will grow out of fashion, Like an old song.

Yeats was so much upset with his lost love that in almost all his poems we can see a glimpse of his disappointment. In what is considered as one of the greatest love poems ever written in the English language, “He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven”, Yeats said,

I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

WB Yeats believed that his love for Maud Gonne was a very sincere one. But in the latter part of his life he had the conviction that Maud Gonne had never taken his love seriously. He came to understand that though his love for Ms. Gonne was a sincere one, she never had the same feeling for him. As a reply to, what he considered as her infidelity, Yeats later wrote,

She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;

But I, being young and foolish, With her did not agree.

She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs;

But I was young and foolish, And now am full of tears.

Though he was rather passionate about the beauty of Maud Gonne in his youthful days, he became more aware of the futility of beauty in his old age. In his poem “A Prayer for my Daughter” he brought out his scepticism about extreme beauty, as he believed that if someone is extremely beautiful, there is a chance for that person to get obsessed with beauty and lose his/her natural kindness. He said,

Being made beautiful overmuch,

Consider beauty a sufficient end,

Lose natural kindness and maybe

The heart-revealing intimacy

That chooses right, and never find a friend.

Yeats also had other shades to his personality. He was a revolutionary and stood for Irish nationalism and had been appointed in the Irish Senate in the year 1922. In his poem named “The Second Coming” he represents the political condition of his times in the words,

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Yeats died on 28 January, 1939 and his tomb is at Drumcliffe, County Sligo, Ireland. I would consider this to be a small introduction to the poetry of WB Yeats and to all those poem enthusiasts out there, I would recommend to read Yeats. Anyways I am extremely proud and feel privileged to share my birthday with William Butler Yeats. Two other great men who share the same birthday are the Communist intellectual EMS and one of the greatest Malayalam satirist-writer, Mannikoth Ramunni Nair a.k.a. Sanjayan.

(Republished from Vox SEO, the SEO writing forum in Calpine Technologies)

Come on Pinarayi; Face it in the Court Man

The SFI chaps and the DYFI blokes were having a very bad and boring time for quite some time, in fact for the last three years. And it is always so when the LDF is ruling the state of Kerala, as there will be no government actions to become offended about, no government policy to feel hurt about or no government initiative to be angry upon. Their government, their policies and hence a life without boisterous onslaughts on public property or hostile slogans on the “irresponsible” government; certainly a boring and dull life for the young comrades. But suddenly everything changed; the Governor gave CBI the approval to prosecute Pinarayi Vijayan, their greatest leader, on the SNC Lavalin Case. And this was a sort of opportunity that they were looking for. Cometh the hour, cometh the brave comrades.

One of the questions that is in the mind of us Malayalees is that if Pinarayi is really innocent, why are the party and himself so much keen on avoiding going to the court. Even if we accept that this case is a politically motivated one where the Congress Government in the centre used the CBI to come up with such a case, is it not the responsibility of the CPI (M) to prove such a conspiracy? And there are some good reasons for us to believe that the Congress government at the centre has used its leverage on the CBI for putting up cases against their political opponents. But this is not something new and is a clear truth of our system. Whoever comes to government will use governmental machineries against their rivals.

The CPI (M) now argues that the Governor has no right to decline the opinion of the cabinet ministers and therefore his decision to approve prosecution against Pinarayi is unconstitutional. This is because the cabinet ministers, after getting advice from the Advocate General, gave their suggestion to the Governor that there is no prima facie case against Pinarayi and hence there is no need to prosecute him. One just can’t miss the irony here. A cabinet headed by CPI (M) ministers deciding whether to prosecute their own party secretary or not. This is as if the accused himself making judgement whether he is the culprit or not. Can we expect any other suggestion than the one that was given by the cabinet ministers? And they say that they made the decision based on the advice given by the Advocate General and that they haven’t decided by themselves. Come on men, just think about the accusation you throw against your opposition before coming up with such a foolish proposition. You argue that the Congress government at the centre influenced the CBI for concocting a case against Pinarayi. So if we go by that argument, if the Government at centre can influence an organisation like CBI, can’t the state government headed by the CPI (M) members influence the Advocate General to come up with an opinion that suits it? That means there is no steam in that argument and hence we Malayalees who are more intelligent that what you politicians think we are and want us to be, reject the argument and jettison it completely.

Now the rule that you need the approval of the Governor for giving charge sheet to a minister or ex-minister is in itself a stupid rule. The governor is supposed to act based on the advice of the council of ministers and if the council of ministers is from the party of the person in question, the advice of the cabinet will certainly be in line with what happened in this case. So until and unless you have a set of politicians who think and behave in a more moral way, which is anyways not the case in our society, corruption cases on ministers and ex-ministers will have the same fate as that of this case.

For some time I want to be on the side of Mr. Pinarayi and want to reassure him and want to tell him that there is no need for him to worry. He should not worry about going to the court and then if found guilty, go to the jail as there has never been an instance in India where a politician got to the jail on account of corruption. Because our judicial system is so slow and malleable that it has always found it impossible to prove any politician guilty of corruption. So Pinarayi should have no qualms about going to the court. And again as you and your party men claim, you have been a brave comrade all your life with no fear of even walking through the dark streets in Kannur where there had been knife wielding opponents lurking in the dark. And secondly, even if the court declares that you are guilty, you can still make your party agitate against the judiciary, as has been the case always whenever there had been some judgements against the wishes of the party.

These days CPI (M) is hell bent to put all blame for its fiasco on the media. The party is saying that there is some media syndicate that is working to reduce the party to a thing of the past; saying that behind all these issues, there is the hand of the United States and other colonialist forces. In spite of all these doubts, the party has not been able to prove any if these things with ample proof. So it seems that the whole party is facing a sort of psychological problem called paranoia, where they feel that no one could be trusted and everyone around them are trying to kill them, kill the party. Or if it is not this disorder, then the party leaders in Kerala think that they are on par with great socialist leaders like Fidel Castro and Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara and hence the United States is after them and trying to finish them off.

Now coming back to the SFI kids, or say men. I had been the member of the SFI in University College and had participated in the so called “agitations against injustice.” And for that matter, everyone in the college was an SFI member, because party memberships were imposed on anyone and everyone with a nominal fee of Re.1. Of course it never mattered whether you have given the fee or not, the big hearted leaders of the party never asked for the nominal fee. Anyways being an ex member of the SFI, I am pretty happy to know that my new comrades have got a great opportunity to get to the streets and do whatever they like.

Priorities for the New Government

Most of us have voted in the recently concluded general elections and did our bit of the democratic duty. Some others, who were disillusioned with the type of politics being practiced in India, didn’t vote as they had already lost their belief in the system. Whether you belong to the former category or the latter, one thing is sure; the policies and actions of the new government are going to have an effect on your life. So it is always good to have an idea about the priorities that the new government must make, or probably will make. During the week that followed the 60th Independence day of India in 2007, I had posted an article called 'Setting Priorities on the 60th Birthday.' This post is similar to that one, the only difference being that this one is for the new government that has taken charge at the centre where as the previous one was for the whole country. The following is the list of things that the new government would be having in its mind in the various sectors.

1. Agricultural Production and Distribution – The agricultural sector or the primary sector is perhaps the most important sector in a country. If the monsoon fails and the agricultural production diminishes, that invariably results in slow economic growth and sometimes inflation in an economy as inflation is “too much money chasing too few goods.” So the new government needs to make decisions to improve the agricultural production in the economy, make sure that farmers are getting good prices for their crops, remove middlemen from the system, find direct market for the farmers, create irrigational facilities and develop robust and efficient logistic and infrastructure systems for the betterment of the agricultural sector. We in India are now facing the irony of ‘scarcity amidst plenty.’ We have overflowing granaries of wheat, but still have about 20% people living in poverty and hunger. The new government needs to find a solution for this state of affairs. The public distribution system in the country needs to be perfected to overcome this impediment.
2. The Social Sector – Even when India is considered as an emerging super power, a majority in this country lives in poverty and lack of social amenities. The new government needs to bring some revolutionary changes to improve this pathetic situation. The government needs to tackle malnutrition, pass the right to education bill, give importance to skill development among the young population, take steps to increase literacy, strengthen NREGA scheme, give emphasis in improving the living conditions of the urban poor, give more importance in bringing e-governance and implement actions to improve the social infrastructure system of the country.
   
3. Internal Security – A nation just can’t develop if its people are insecure about their lives and future. That would mean that the new government should take steps to make sure that another 26/11 will not happen in the future. The internal security system of the country must be made robust so that terrorists from outside the country and from inside would find it to be impregnable. Intelligence agencies like RAW and IB should be modernised, investigative agencies like the CBI should be made more efficient and accountable, should dramatically increase the number in the police force and bring in police reforms, make action plans to tackle terrorism and look afresh at the Naxalite issue.
   
4. Foreign Policy and Diplomacy – The new government will face one of its most difficult challenges in the foreign policy front as India now has a neighbourhood on the boil. We are confronted with a lot of diplomatic challenges in our neighbourhood and in our region. The militant Taliban that is gaining strength in Afghanistan and in the North Western Frontier Province including Swat in Pakistan, humanitarian crisis in the island nation of Sri Lanka involving the Tamils, China’s growing clout in Nepal, a Bangladesh that recently had a military revolt, anti-outsourcing issues with the United States, North Korea’s nuclear ambitions etc. are some of the foreign policy issues that we are facing now. The new government needs to take steps that would force Pakistan to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in their land, strengthen the pro-India democratic government in Bangladesh, pressurise the Sri Lankan government to address the alienation of the Lankan Tamils, confront China from playing the Nepal card against India, use diplomatic prowess to solve outsourcing issues with the United States and work along with the United Nations to prevent Pyongyang from kick-starting a nuclear arms race in the region.
   
5. The Economy – I saved the most important issue for the last. The most pressing need of the hour is the revival of the economy. It is an acceptable fact that the earlier UPA government was able to protect the Indian economy to some extend from the global economic meltdown. But more need to be done and the new government has got a clear mandate to press ahead with the good work they have been doing. The new government has to implement economic stimulus plan, bring new investment to highways and power sector, re-skill people who have lost their job owing to the economic slowdown and help them find new jobs, take measures that will bring back confidence of the exporters and the small sector, make prudent decisions on diluting the PSU stakes, bring reforms in insurance and banking sector and take steps to bring back global confidence on the Indian IT sector after the Satyam Fiasco.
   

The people of India have given the UPA alliance a clear majority and they will expect a good show by the incumbent government. We, as a country, are going through a very important phase and we need to take some decisive steps to strengthen our economy and our social sector and this is the time to do it. 

(Republished from Vox SEO, the SEO writing forum in Calpine Technologies)

Five AR Rahman Compositions You Mustn’t Miss

Since he got two Oscar awards, it has become some sort of a fad for people to write articles on AR Rahman. Being a Rahmaniac, I always love reading all those articles that celebrate the genius of the master musician. But I am not pursuing that often tread path again and would try to bring your attention to five Rahman compositions that you mustn’t miss. I am not going to speak about his popular numbers like say, Chayya Chayya, or Chinna Chinna Asai, but about those great compositions, that for some strange reasons, didn’t catch the notice of the general public. Make note that like all other Rahman compositions, these would also not attract you at once, but would overwhelm you only after you hear them for a considerable number of times.

1. Luka Chupi from Rang De Basanti – One of the most outstanding songs composed by the master. The song has been made as a conversation between a son, an Air Force Pilot, who got martyred in a war (most probably made with the Kargil war in mind) and his mother. In the song mother asks his son to come back to her as it has become evening, where as the son who is in the other world tells his mother that it is not possible for him to come back to the world where his mother lives. An emotional number that has been efficiently rendered by the great Lata Mangeshkar and Rahman himself. They compliment each other very well and the song has been extremely successful in bringing forward the great affection between a mother and her son and shows the listener how painful the life of a mother is when her son becomes a deceased soul. It is not often that in a duet Lata Mangeshkar get out-sung by her partner, but this certainly is one such occasion. In the latter part of the song, when Rahman starts singing the alaap he follows the style of his favourite singer Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and surprises all Qawwali pundits with his breath taking Hindustani Classical rendition.

2. Oru Poiyavathu Sol Kanne from Jodi – This song comes in a very rare genre in Tamil film music – Ghazal. There are three renditions of the same song in that film by three different singers – Sujatha, Srinivas and Hariharan. But it is the one by Hariharan that makes you understand that this is not yet another ordinary song that you have grown up hearing, but is a rare jewel from the music maestro. It is a love pathos song, made in the Ghazal style, sung by one of the greatest in the Hindustani classical music, Hariharan. The way in which Hariharan gives sound to the emotions of the song is really amazing and the beauty of the music is enhanced by its lyrics. This is a one-of-the-kind song and is a must hear for any music lover.

3. Sonnalum Ketpathillai from Kadhal Virus – The song starts with the use of one of Rahman’s most favorite musical instruments, the flute or the ‘pullanguzhal’. This semi classical soulful romantic number from the album Kadhal Virus is without doubt one of the best songs in the semi classical genre in Indian film music. The Carnatic music training received by both singers, Unnikrishnan and Harini, is very much evident in this great song. The clever use of chorus singers, one trademark quality of Rahman, is also quite apparent in this melodious number.

4. Theme Music of Duet – One of Rahman’s best orchestral numbers, where the song begins with an intriguing lull followed by Rahman’s trade mark humming of the chorus. Then saxophone takes the lead with the soulful rendition of the legendary Kadri Gopalnath in Kalyanavasantham raga. The song starts with silence, then picks up some pace, again silence and then takes some enthralling notes, ending up with the sound of waves crashing against the rocks. To make the composition more interesting, Rahman has added some sounds similar to that of birds in between this composition. The song moves from silence to various levels of Carnatic classical made from this very western-style musical instrument. Once you get the feel of this music after hearing it couple of times, it will take you to another world. Best heard in an environment of silence. A truly great composition that shows the musical genius of the great man.

5. Khwaja Mere Khwaja from Jodhaa Akbar – Another Rahman special, an extremely spiritual song, sung by the great man himself. One of the most amazing things about this song is that it is a “layered” song where by one singer sings the song but the listeners would feel that it has been sung by different singers. Sung in the Qawwali style, this song takes its very peculiar character because of the raw nature of Rahman’s sound. The spirituality in Rahman’s voice is the most striking feature of this song. The vocal of Rahman is being supported by harmonium, strings and hand claps. By singing this song, Rahman has shown that he is not only a great composer but also a skilful singer capable of treading new heights. A master piece and inarguably one of the greatest compositions in Indian filmy and non-filmy music.

These are just five among the umpteen numbers of great compositions by the master, whom the Time Magazine referred to as “The Mozart of Madras”. When you get some time off, don’t forget to listen to these songs as these are some of the greatest musical compositions of all times in any form of music.

(Republished from Vox SEO, the SEO writing forum in Calpine Technologies)