A Budget for the Khaas Aadmi

As Modi Sarkar and its cohorts have already taken control of most of the large and powerful media conglomerates in India, one will find it most difficult to locate a critical account of the Budget 2014. Most of these media – print as well as TV - was busy singing paeans on the budget. Everywhere in these media there are accounts of how businessmen, the corporates and the multi-rich find the budget to be the one that will “take the country forward.”

Network 18 (of which CNN IBN, CNBC etc. are part) is already being controlled by corporate giants who had unequivocally rendered all the support for BJP’s election campaign. We now know where the fidelity of Zee network lies with after seeing what happened to an article in the online magazine DNA (controlled by Zee network) that showered grave criticism on the new BJP President. The Hindu, previously known as a predominantly leftist newspaper, has suddenly jumped over the fence and is sitting comfortably with the rightists, after the new management took over. Therefore in the mainstream media you will only find adulations and appreciations about the budget. In such circumstances many independent online magazines and individual blogs have gained a lot of significance insofar as finding a critical analysis of the budget is concerned. Hence this writer will also only focus on the cons of the budget; for the pros one can anyways read any of the popular newspapers of our day.

No tax surcharge on the super-rich: Amidst talks of fiscal prudence and reduction in fiscal deficit, the budget of Arun Jaitley plainly missed a great opportunity to increase the revenue receipts of the government by increasing the tax surcharge on the super-rich. When the present government in general and the budget 2014 in particular talk about reducing the fiscal deficit by cutting down the subsidies, it is curious that no one is speaking about increasing the revenue by slapping an increase in tax surcharge on the super-rich of our country. The rightists in the government today behave much like George Carlin pointed out about the conservatives in the United States. He had said – “Conservatives say if you don’t give the rich more money, they will lose their incentive to invest. Then they say as for the poor, they’ve lost all incentive because we’ve given them too much money.”

FDI in defence and insurance sectors: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has been Mr. Jaitley’s favourite catch phrase in his budget speech. Opening up of the strategically important defence sector to FDI could prove to be quite fatal in the long run. In the insurance sector also the government has decided to increase FDI investment limit to 49% from 26%. It is another matter that without management control available to them with 49% share, how many foreign companies would really look at investing huge amount of money in these sectors.

It is also a known fact that most of the money stashed away in foreign banks as unaccounted black money comes back to our country in the form of FDI. So by increasing the FDI cap to 49%, Modi Sarkar is effectively helping the money hoarders.

200 crore for a statue, 100 crore for women’s safety: In a classic example of a government’s misplaced priorities Arun Jaitley has allocated 200 crores for the statue of Sardar Patel in Gujarat, one of Modi’s pet projects, while allocating only 100 crores for women’s safety. BJP and its ideological backbone the Sangh Parivar have always been at the forefront in exhibiting their pseudo-nationalism with such absurd acts. Had the Iron Man of India, Sardar Patel, been alive now, he would have slapped the men who created such a proposal in a national budget when the nation is facing one of the worst fiscal crises in its history.

No significant increase in income tax exemption limit: BJP has turned out to be the biggest U-turn party in the history of our nation. During the election campaign BJP promised that they will increase the tax exemption limit to 5 lakhs per annum. Even the present day Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had asked the then government to increase the limit to 5 lakhs. However when he presented the budget he increased the exemption limit to just 2.5 lakhs. By extending the exemption limit to 5 lakhs the government would have put more money in the pockets of the common man, thereby increasing the domestic consumption, which would have had a positive impact on the economy. 

Nothing for primary education: One of the glaring omissions of the budget speech has been primary education. When there has been allocation for five new IITs and five new IIMs, there has been nothing for primary education or improving the quality of education in the country. When you increase the number of higher education institutions, you also need to worry about maintaining, if not improving, the quality of faculty in those august institutions of our country. However the budget is quite mum on that factor as well. 

No proposal on bringing back black money: Narendra Modi had been quite vocal about bringing back black money stashed away by Indians in foreign banks. However when the budget was delivered there was no concrete proposal in it about how to bring back that black money to India.

No concrete proposal for containing inflation: Together with worsening fiscal deficit and slumping growth, higher inflation has been much talked about economic factor during the election campaign. The BJP government that got an enormous mandate to find solution for the grave problems that Indians face, has done nothing up to now to control the price rise. There has been no concrete proposal in the budget to control inflation. The many decisions that the government has taken till now has only resulted in an increase of inflation; may it be the increase in freight charges in the railways, or increasing the import price of sugar or the increase in fuel prices.

Many schemes named after Sangh Parivar ideologists: Saffronisation of the government activity seems to be on top of the agenda for the ruling BJP, if the names of some of the new schemes offer any clue. Many new schemes have been unveiled that have the names of RSS and BJP idols like Deen Dayal Upadhyay, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, and Madan Mohan Malviya. 

Whenever someone criticises the present government, the supporters of the government immediately come up with an argument that 60 days is not enough time to judge a government. It is certainly true that 60 days is not enough time to judge a government on its performance, but it is certainly enough time to judge a government on its intentions. And if those intentions of the government are anything to go by then it is certainly not going to be good times for the common man, the aam aadmi, but is certainly good times for the corporates and for the foreign investors, the khaas aadmi. The “ache din’ that Narendra Modi promised seems to be too far away.

Image Courtesy: The Hindu

Smriti Irani as HRD Minister, Why Not

At a time when criticising the majority central government of Narendra Modi could be seen as an act of grave stupidity, it requires great moral courage and strength of conviction, not to mention the guts to bear ridicule, to attempt anything of that kind. However it is quite heartening that in a speech in the Lok Sabha the Prime Minister spoke about how he is open to all forms of criticisms and how criticism is the best form of guidance.

In a strange mutation, many of the earlier criticisers of our PM have suddenly turned approvers. When the triumphalism of his perpetual supporters is easy to fathom, what is difficult to understand is how many of his former detractors have suddenly jumped over the fence and became approvers. In this post-poll change of mindset, many Indians have comfortably abandoned many of the principles they had closely held in the past. This mindset change is most evident in the way in which Smriti Irani was easily accepted as the HRD Minister (read Education Minister) of our country. 

When it is most true that Indian constitution doesn’t prevent anyone from becoming the Education Minister on the basis of his or her education qualification; when it is most true that it is the prerogative of the Prime Minister to chose his council of ministers, it is extremely strange that even those who were pretty vocal in their calls to bring in only educated people as our elected representatives have suddenly become mum and have accepted a 12th standard pass as the Education Minister of our great country. We will talk about the false affidavits the minister had submitted to the election commission in the latter part of this essay, but will start with first things first.

Whenever someone makes an issue about this “12th standard pass” factor, he or she is immediately ridiculed as an elitist. Before jumping on to such a conclusion about this writer, his readers would do good to consider his arguments too. If Ms. Irani was an underprivileged person who had no recourse for continued education, it would have been a matter of real pity. However her family history doesn’t provide any clue that she was forced to discontinue her education after her 12th standard because of lack of financial provisions in her family. Even if she had - for an argument let’s assume it was so - she has been in the political field for more than a decade and in these years she had more than enough opportunities to pursue her education, but she chose not to. Being from a party whose manifesto speaks profusely about the importance of higher education, it was incumbent upon Ms. Irani to pursue her higher education. It is a matter of great shame that we as a country have an HRD Minister who personally doesn’t think it important to pursue higher education. How can we expect such a minister to take steps to make sure that higher education in the country is of the highest quality and most of those who aim for higher education get opportunities to pursue it?

Like many other commentators, this writer also doesn’t believe a person with a good educational background can invariably be a good administrator. The converse view that a person without a good educational background may well be an able administrator is also inarguably true. However to put the onus of a ministry as important as HRD ministry to a naive, untested newcomer as Ms. Irani is not a decision that would be called prudent by any stretch of imagination. Though she has been in charge of BJP’s Mahila Morcha for many years, she doesn’t have the administrative experience of governing even a panchayat. Otherwise she should have been someone whom the people of a constituency have elected with overwhelming majority; but she is neither that. Neither is she known for her erudition on matters of great national importance nor has she ever spoken about or written on her path breaking ideas on improving education in India. If she was either an experienced administrator or an educationist of repute or an extremely popular leader with an enormous mandate, one could have overlooked her poor educational qualifications. But if it is only the ‘hope’ that one ‘might’ come out as an able minister the basis on which we elect or nominate a person for a post as important as this, then it must be understood that we are setting an intrinsically wrong precedent. Therefore it is very important to question the rationale on which the decision has been made by the PM. As Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister of India, our PM now, it is important for us to trust his judgment, but to question that judgment on the basis of sound facts as explained above is neither injudicious nor stupid, contrary to the belief of many blind supporters of the man, who have unquestioningly bought the dreams he sold during his election campaign. 

A cursory glance at the list of Education Ministers India has had will make it clear that it was always learned men and women who have been at the helm. The argument that those learned people haven’t brought any considerable improvement to the educational scenario of the country is a churlish one only morons will make. From a country of grave illiteracy in the pre-independence era, India has undergone great and salutary changes in primary education. Our higher education institutions like the IITs and the IIMs are world class and they give the Harvards and the Cambridges a run for their money. At a time when education and human resources development are the fields on which global competition is played on, what kind of signal do we send to the world with an under-educated minister in the HRD ministry, who chose to ignore the personal need for continuing education to the higher levels?

Social media is abuzz with a video of Ms. Irani speaking extempore on a stage. Many of those who support her ascendancy to the ministership can also be seen boasting, via captions to the video, if there are any Congress leaders who can match her oratory skills (commenting on the ability of any Congress leader to match the skills would be childish when that party has world famous orators like Shashi Tharoor in its ranks). When there is no doubt that Ms. Irani is a lady of immense oratorical talent, it by no means advances her eligibility of becoming a minister of HRD. Angelina Jolie, an apt comparison with Ms. Irani because of their identical career backgrounds, speaks equally well on global stages. But a US president can never be expected to consider that as criteria to make her the Secretary of Education in the administration. Ronald Reagan, another actor who later became the President of the United States, had to show his mettle in many other administrative fields, including the Governor of California, before putting forth his candidacy to the top job. 

It is also quite bemusing to see those who were extremely vocal (and rightly so) about the lack of integrity of the UPA ministers have suddenly gone into their cocoons of silence when it comes to the questions on integrity of the ministers of Modi Sarkar. The discrepancy in the affidavits filed by Smriti Irani in 2004 and 2014 about her educational qualifications cannot be rejected as a mere oversight or inadvertent human error (if she is unsure about even her educational qualifications, then it is all the more reason to not accept her as our HRD Minister). Ms. Irani had promised that she will come clean about the issue, but hasn’t spoken anything about it till this day. Neither the media nor those commentators who were lucid about the importance of integrity for a national government appear to have any problem with it. May be all of them have also crossed over and joined the other side where real power vests now.

How NaMo Bhakts Think NaMo Will Rule India

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

The most ubiquitous thing in the Indian social media space today is the NaMo Bhakt. They are present everywhere, so much so that if Indian general election is done exclusively online, then NaMo will win hands down; not only will the BJP under him get to the magic mark of 272, they may even get 543 out of 543 Lok Sabha seats. These bhakts give unwavering support to NaMo and they all hope with all their heart that he will become the Prime Minister of India and will rule India and will bring prosperity to the nation in such a way that India will become a super power in the next five years time. These bhakts are generally abusive of those who criticise NaMo and think that those who oppose NaMo are traitors, with hardly any patriotism and are therefore prospective candidates for sedition charges to be imposed on. They were hardcore Rahul Gandhi haters until Arvind Kejriwal came up meticulously propping up facts about Gujarat’s flawed development model, when they sincerely transferred their hatred to the latter gentleman.  It is always good fun to keep following these bhakts and indulging in conversations with them. They all invariably keep similar sentiments on the subject of how NaMo will rule India. The following is how the NaMo bhakts think he will do it.

First of all the hyper patriotic bhakts (oh yes they think so) believe that NaMo will order an attack against Pakistan and will wage war against it if ever that country again attacks Indian jawans at the Indo-Pak border. No need to consider any other factors including the strategic issues associated with such an attack, the bhakts think NaMo will teach that country a ‘lesson’ if it ever shows the audacity to attack Indian jawans.

The bhakths also think that NaMo, being a lionhearted, patriotic Indian, will bomb China if it ever shows the belligerence to claim as their own any of India’s territory in the east. No such incursions from the big, powerful neighbour will be tolerated. Military might of the enemy, where China’s military strength is far more superior than India’s, will not be an issue as long as you have the courage to sabotage enemy intentions, bhakts think. They also think that timidity of those who ruled India until now is the main reason why a country like China keeps on claiming territories of India as their own and when the brave NaMo rules India, any country that shows the impudence of claiming any part of India as their own will rue their rashness.

Once NaMo becomes the Prime Minister, corruption would become a thing of the past in India. It was he, who was in the forefront of the crusade against the corrupt Congress, these bhakts tell us. NaMo’s party, their ideological mentor RSS, and above all, the bhakts will give him all the support required to make this happen. You know, he has already made arrangements to figure out the intricacies of the internal workings of corruption with the re-induction of two of the corruption tainted leaders in Karnataka. They will give NaMo an in-depth knowledge about how corruption works, which is needed to entirely wipe out the menace.

NaMo and his bhakts have been vociferously asking the UPA government to bring back money stashed away in Swiss banks by many politicians of India (read Congress politicians). The bhakts think that NaMo is serious about his intentions of bringing back the money to India. They believe that within one year, maximum two years, NaMo will bring all that money back to India. Anyways he already has the services of Dr. Subramaniam Swamy at his disposal, who incidentally knows more details about Indian politicians holding covert accounts in Swiss banks than those banks themselves. Therefore bringing back the money is quite easy these bhakts think; only what was missing was a brave heart to do that, which NaMo has.

The bhakts think that the Indian legal system should just hang all those convicts who are under death row. They think there is no need to follow what the ‘cowards’ call "due legal process". Just hang them all, is what they call for and they think NaMo will do that, because he is decisive (did I say ‘divisive’?). They think that all those human rights activists in India who call for abolition of death penalty are ‘traitors’ and the international human rights organisations that call for it, ‘foreign agents’ involved in espionage and possible sabotage in India.

NaMo-bhakts also think that Maoist insurgents in the red corridor in India are at best ‘armed nuisance’, nothing more than that and the reason why they still run amok in various parts of the country is because of lack of political will of those who governed India. What one needs to have is that strength of mind, which NaMo has and so he will just order the armed forces in the country to ambush the Maoists and they will be exterminated with ease. 

Terrorists should be shot at sight is what the bhakts think and they show the incident that happened in Gujarat as an example, where three alleged terrorists were encountered by Ahmedabad Police Crime Branch. Again, due legal process, is nothing but humbug for the bhakts and this is how all terrorists must be treated, only then can our nation become strong and safe and the only man who can do this is NaMo, the bhakts say.

The best thing that will happen to Indians, particularly the middle class, if NaMo comes to rule India is that we will no longer be made to pay that little annoyance of a tax called the ‘income tax’. NaMo’s Finance Minister-to-be Dr. Subramaniam Swamy has already explained his idea of a no income tax regime for India. Though it has been stalled for now, the bhakts think that Dr. Swamy will re-invent the idea at the behest of NaMo and that economic blessing will be showered on the Indians once NaMo becomes the PM, sooner rather than later. Now, that is a revolutionary idea from the ‘visionary’ NaMo, the bhakts believe.

Once NaMo starts ruling India, the world will know that the country has a strong PM. Then it is important to strengthen the nation further and the bhakts have no doubt that NaMo will take the right steps towards it. The most important thing to do then would be to increase the defence spending of the country so that we have the latest arms and ammunitions with us. We need to acquire more fighter jets, more nuclear war heads and more robust submarines, so that we have the strongest armed forces in the world. It may lead to lesser social spending on subjects like education and health; but who needs education and health when you have the strongest army in the world, the bhakts boast.

The bhakts ask other, “haven’t you seen the roads and highways of Gujarat?” and then shows that photo of some city in South Korea made famous by the online bhakts, with writings in Korean language in many places. The bhakts are generally quite innocent you know, and hence they believe such things instantly and so they will tell you that once NaMo becomes the PM of India all roads in the country will look like that in the photo of the Korean city, which the bhakt believes is that of some road in Gujarat. 

When NaMo becomes PM, the markets will rise with hope and investment from abroad will rush into India. When BJP governments came in many states in the recently conducted state elections in India, the Sensex soared and the bhakts show this as evidence that India’s economic condition will brighten up once NaMo becomes PM. They say that rupee will appreciate against dollar and will touch even Rs. 40 per dollar once NaMo becomes PM.  Nancy Powell has already come to meet NaMo and the bhakts believe that the day is not far off when Obama himself come to meet NaMo. It’s not that the bhakts need American approval for NaMo, but one can never reject if Obama appreciates NaMo, isn’t it?

All in all the bhakts think that once NaMo becomes the PM and rules India, to quote Malayalam script writer Sreenivasan’s famous dialogue, “dollar kunnukoodum, vyavasayashalakal uyarum, 5 varsham kondu nammude rajyam oru harithaswarga bhoomi aayi maarum”, which could be roughly translated as, “dollar will come in great numbers, industries will come up, within 5 years our country will become the greenest and wealthiest country in the world”. Many of us non-bhakts may think that these expectations of the NaMo-bhakts have ridiculously unsound logic, but haven’t these bhakts already Modi-fied conventional logic?

Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place

For all practical considerations, the Indian democracy has become much similar to the UK and US democracy insofar as the major political parties with a national appeal are concerned. Like in those two countries, citizens’ choice has been in the main restricted to two political parties – the Congress and the BJP. 

The conservatives and the liberals have been at loggerheads in most political systems. When the Tories and the Republican Party are the conservatives in UK and US respectively, the Labour Party and the Democratic Party are the liberals. Such absolute categorisation may not be possible in the Indian context, but Congress can be considered more liberal and BJP more conservative in their overall political ideals. However in the coming general election, the choice Indians have to make would not be as easy as between the liberals and the conservatives, because it is a choice between a corrupt Congress and a communal BJP. Without any other competent alternative, the Indian public, much to its dismay, is caught between a rock and a hard place.

As has been the case with general elections in the recent past a third front, a conglomeration of many regional parties under the leadership of the national parties CPI (M) and CPI, has emerged a few months prior to the election. The 10 party front includes the four left parties, SP, JD (U), JD (S), JVM, BJD and AGP (AIADMK had been a party to it, but later opted out). It is a loose association of political parties with a proclaimed policy of keeping Congress and BJP away from power, whereas in reality, most of the leaders of these parties keep a covert desire of being the Prime Minister of India and is perhaps their sole reason to join such a political front. Without a coherent political ideal and with many internal contradictions this front is bound to crumble after the elections, if not before. If by any chance such a front comes to power in the centre, they will face a mammoth challenge of creating a common minimum programme of governance that will have a national outlook. In the absence of a strong national party in the front (the CPI (M) is a national party only in technical terms, in real terms they are now a party with only a limited influence across the country), the satraps of the regional parties will probably govern with obtuse regional outlook, which would be inimical to the future of the nation.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has come up as an alternative form of political party; a party that has come with an image of being an outsider, something that seems to have the same dislike for traditional politics played in India as has most ordinary Indians. Though it is highly unlikely that it will get more than 9-10 seats in Parliament elections, it has given India an alternative way of playing politics. Many of the practical ideas and political ideals that AAP has been practising in their short term as a political party have already had great impact in the Indian political scene. Many traditional political parties including the BJP and the Congress have already started copying them, which is a good sign for Indian democracy. These traditional parties have understood now that those are the things that ordinary Indians expect from their political parties. In that sense the arrival of AAP in the Indian political scene is a welcome development.

The Congress doesn’t seem to have any new idea with them to run the country and the fact that Congress sees Rahul Gandhi as the only option available for them shows the ideological and organisational poverty that the party is afflicted with now. To save Congress from the nadir of corruption it needs a strong leader with high level of probity, but it doesn’t seem to be forthcoming unless Congressmen drop their foolish affinity to the Nehru-Gandhi clan. 

Modi’s BJP has been at the forefront of anti-corruption crusade against the Congress. But they are committing the same crime as those they oppose. They are not doing anything against corruption per se as can be evident from the fact that they are bringing back Yedyurappa and the Reddy brothers and some others who have been facing trials on corruption charges. At least there are two ministers in Modi’s Gujarat cabinet who are facing corruption charges. Still Modi and his bhakths want us to believe that he is working tirelessly against corruption. Many land dealings that the Adani group has done in Modi's Gujarat are far from being transparent. Arvind Kejriwal and his AAP have been asking many questions relating to this to Modi, but he hasn’t given answers to any of these questions. It is very important for Narendra Modi to dispel all doubts about him by coming out openly against the accusations and coming out clean on these allegations with his answers to them, as he is the Prime Ministerial candidate of the BJP.

It is a shame that a democracy as vibrant as India has only two options to choose from when it comes to the decision of who would rule it. In the absence of a good option, people would be forced to decide between the lesser of the evils. However, to decide between a corrupt-inept Congress and a corrupt-communal BJP, to decide between an incompetent leader and an authoritarian leader, would indeed be a hard task for us. We Indians surely deserve better.

British Council’s Website to Learn/Improve Your English

If you are one of those who are keen in learning/improving your English, both written and verbal, then ‘Learn English’ website of the British Council is a great place to be in.

You can find information and easy learning materials on grammar and vocabulary, can find interesting grammar exercises and listening activities, can learn the language with games, jokes, stories, can watch videos that will help you learn how the native speakers of the language use the language, can find resources to improve your business writing and academic writing skills and can even find IELTS tips, interview skills and mock papers. You can also find expert advice on your language related questions.

Click on the following URL, register and create a free account to learn and have fun.

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org

Hope this helps.

The Waning Dhoni Magic

Gone are the days when anything Dhoni touched on the cricket field turned gold. He was not always lucky with the toss, but for him that didn’t often matter either – it was always his style to salvage matches for India from points of absolute defeat. May it be his unique batting prowess or may it be his exceptional ability to read match situations as a captain, he always had that Midas touch in everything he did. But as they say, all good things must come to an end one day and it seems that the proverbial end is getting nearer for that Dhoni magic. If it is really not the end, certainly the magic is waning, and waning in an alarming rate for him and his team.

It had become a habit to the media and his fans, including this writer, to keep on boasting about the Dhoni’s magic as a captain. His decisions were always right, or in the medium term they turned to be right later, like persisting with Rohit Sharma in the team. However if one analyse how he made the decisions in the ongoing New Zealand series then one can find that they were mostly un-Dhoni-like. The most glaring of them all was the decision to promote the in-form Virat Kohli to open the innings and to put Ajinkya Rahane at No.3 in the 4th ODI at Hamilton. It defies logic why he made this obvious tactical error, when Rahane is an established opener and Kohli batting extremely well at No.3. And if he was really serious about trying out Kohli as an opener in the place of struggling Shikhar Dhawan, then why did he revert to using Dhawan as an opener in the 5th ODI at Wellington?

Every expert of the game, every fan of the Indian cricket team is scratching their heads, quite  unable to understand why Ishant Sharma is still in the Indian XI. Time and again the fast bowler (if he could be called so) has failed miserably and as Sunil Gavaskar had pointed out, Sharma is not all learning even after this many games to his credit. Even after playing so many matches for the country he hasn’t perfected bowling yorkers or slow balls at the depth. It seems that even a haircut can help him to better concentrate on the areas he aims to bowl at - but he is in no mood to change. It is high time to jettison him from the team and to advise him to play domestic cricket to get better, though chances seem to be less even for such a turn around.

Dhoni’s favourite spinner R. Ashwin is going through a bad phase in his career as well. There is no doubt that he is a talented cricketer and a thinking player. However as his personal coach Sunil Subramaniam says, many technical flaws have crept into his bowling. He has put on a lot of weight and he is not putting his body behind his deliveries and is bowling only with his spinning fingers, without any body involvement in it. He should also be made to go back to the domestic circuit, work on his technical flaws and come back as an effective offie. His batting has improved by leaps and bounds, but he and his captain must be careful about not losing his bowling prowess while he works more strongly in improving his batting. There are many bowlers who have committed this mistake - Irfan Pathan is a case in point. Even when Ashwin is struggling a great deal, Dhoni is not ready to try out Amit Mishra and the leggie has been travelling with this Indian team for a very long time without getting any match.

Dhoni’s CSK team mate Suresh Raina is another batsman who is struggling big time. Dhoni’s liking for his CSK team mates is well known, but he should not get tied down with them. It’s imperative that he thinks beyond them and look for other options. Vijay Sol and Sanju Samson are playing well in the under-19 level, Cheteshwar Pujara could be given a chance in ODIs too, Stuart Binny is another option he has got. When Dhoni gave a chance to Stuart Binny in the 4th ODI, we thought that the all rounder will get an extended run. But he was dropped from the team in the 5th ODI and even in the match that he played, he was not given a chance to bat and when he bowled, it was only for one over. These are not things that we associate the brave captain Dhoni with and these are surely signs of his withering  magic and waning self belief as a captain.

MSD was the kind of batsman who, when he was in the crease any target was achievable. He had the knack of pulling out India from every trouble, mostly single-handedly. But suddenly that ability is also missing from his batting. Yes he has been scoring runs recently, but his batting efforts are not yielding the same results as before. He is still making runs and doing everything in his hands to win matches for India, only that he is unable to work out the magic and bring success to his team. He is constantly getting out during a chase without completing his task, which is again quite un-Dhoni-like.

When one takes into consideration that the cricket world cup next year is in Australia and New Zealand, it is a matter of concern that the Indian team, the reigning Champions, are appallingly out of contention, if they are going about their tasks in the present day fashion. However it is also true that we cannot find a better captain that Dhoni now, as the world cup is round the corner. This writer still believes that Dhoni is the man. If Dhoni can get more flexible with his tactics, he can bring back the glorious days of this Indian team. We can only hope that Dhoni will someway get his magic back, which clearly appears waning now.

Who is Afraid of the Aam Aadmi?

One thing is for certain, and there could be no doubt whatsoever on it that the conventional political parties in India (read Congress, BJP, the leftists, other existing national and regional political parties) are shaken to the core with the emergence of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as a force to reckon with in Indian politics. With simple slogans and principled stance on many day-to-day issues of the people, it has caught the imagination of many. Its enormous popular support has forced all other parties to have a rethink on their policies and their election strategies. It is quite a fun to see how leaders of many political parties are claiming that they themselves are already aam aadmi parties. This shows that the brand ‘aam aadmi’ is becoming hugely popular and hence every party is trying to get a share of that popularity.

As is often the case with anyone or anything popular, the aam aadmi phenomenon, if one could call it so, has its share of criticisers as well. It can be seen that many political party leaders and ordinary party workers of most political parties are hell bent on finding fault with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). They suffer microscopic scrutiny from their rivals online and offline. In the social media and in traditional media there are criticisms of all kinds against AAP ranging from how impractical their policies are to how impossible it will be for a political party to survive in Indian political scene without credible and well thought out policies on economic growth, caste equations, national security and counter insurgency.

However such criticisms appear rather naive as there has never been a political party in human history that entered a political scene with well thought out policies on all issues in that political system or in the state where the party is trying to establish themselves in. It is always so that when a new political party confronts an issue they will have an internal debate and will then create a policy on that particular issue, on which they will hold onto tightly from thereon. Karl Marx’s Das Capital didn’t had ideological explanation on globalisation for the leftists to bank upon and it was later when confronted with the issues of globalisation that the Marxist Communist parties the world over deliberated on it and created a concrete policy on it. Similarly, given time, AAP will also deliberate among themselves on the various issues when they confront them and will come out with a policy stance. 

The political parties and their leaders will do well to explain what policies of AAP they find to be problematic. Are they against AAP’s policy of fighting corruption? Are they against stopping VIP culture in India? Are they against a strong Jan Lokpal? Are they against improving education standards in government schools? Are they against improving safety of women in the country? These are the main policies of AAP and if you are against these policies then you are certainly against the people of India. These are the things that Indians want and the overwhelming popularity that AAP has in India is certainly because they stand for what the Indians want.

It is very important for the people of this country to understand that those who say that the AAP phenomenon is a bubble that will burst sooner rather than later - political parties and some section of the media – are those who stand for interests of the big corporates in the country. They know that if AAP and its popularity are not demolished sooner, more people will join it and its brand of politics, which will be detrimental to the interests of the corporates. 

In the economic front there is no considerable difference in the policies of Indian National Congress (INC) and BJP. The deregulation of petroleum prices by UPA government is certainly a move towards helping corporates in the oil exploration and refining sector. When Narendra Modi led BJP won in some states in the recent state elections, the Sensex soared and BJP supporters were gung-ho that it is a sign of how Modi’s rule could reinvigorate the markets and will lead to further economic growth. However it must essentially be seen as a sign of what Modi’s corporate policies will be if he comes into power. They know that Modi will give them a free reign and will give them enough authority to make profits, even if it means putting common man’s economic security at peril. Without doubt Modi’s government will continue with the deregulation policy of the present government vis-a-vis petroleum prices. If AAP comes to power they will bring back government regulation of petrol prices (or so they say), which would be unfavourable for the corporates and the parties that take their support. It is such type of people who are afraid of the AAP and are constantly in the look out for opportunities to decimate the good-will of the party. It is the same group of people - corporates, politicians and the media – who run around saying that great calamities have happened when Arvind Kejriwal moved in an Innova or when Prashant Bhushan spoke out his opinion about Indian Army’s involvement in Kashmir. Many times before politicians have made such remarks and many times before political parties have distanced themselves from such opinions by their leaders. No sky fell down then; no sky will fall down now.

It should also be noted that all the major political parties in India were united in passing a bill that will keep them away from the ambit of RTI act. By doing so they made sure that they keep all their financial records away from public scrutiny. An effort to bring in more transparency into the working of political parties and their financial sources was thus thwarted effectively. In comparison with other established political parties in India AAP voluntarily came out publically with all documents that show the sources of their income. That was an act that showed that AAP was ready to practice what they preach. But other political parties were not ready to take over that challenge, which apparently showed that they have something to hide from the public. When political parties accept donations from the public and when they claim that they work for the public, it is their responsibility to come clean on their sources of funding. 

AAP claims to be the political party that will jettison the ‘business as usual’ mode of working of other political parties in India. That ordinary model of political one-upmanship was on public view when AAP accepted the support of INC and created a government in Delhi. When AAP was reluctant in taking the support of INC and BJP, they were criticised for being adamant and obstinate for not accepting the support; they were criticised for pushing the state into another election, which was going to cost the nation more money. But once they accepted the INC support, the same people who criticised AAP for not taking the support, started crying foul and questioned the intentions of AAP and berated them as ‘opportunistic’. The age old political mindset of Indian politicians, the wretched ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’, was the emotion of the BJP there, who was sulking at its inability to form a government in Delhi. 

When INC’s dislike for AAP is a result of AAP’s claims that they will seriously pursue corruption cases against Congress leaders, BJP’s aversion stems from the knowledge that had it been not for the emergence of AAP, BJP would have reaped the seeds of anti-incumbency against Sheila Dixit in Delhi. Had AAP supported BJP to form government in Delhi, they would have been happy and would have kept on singing AAP’s praise till the next elections.

People in India are fed up with the unscrupulous political parties and politicians. As this writer had written in one of his earlier essays, politicians epitomise all the vices that human ingenuity could invent. What we need is a new brand of politics, where promises made in election manifestos are kept in their entire essence, if not verbatim. A new brand of politics that will comprehend people’s needs and will work towards attaining them. What we need now is an army of politicians who are honest, principled and hard working, who work not for themselves or their parties, but for the people they represent. AAP claims to be such a political movement and if it can remain so all its lifetime then it is the one that Indians were looking for to change their fortunes. Let us hope that AAP will remain a principled political party devoid of all the ills that beset traditional political parties in India.

Disclaimer: This writer is not associated with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in any way.

Ashes Drama to Resume Tomorrow - Stage: Adelaide Oval

After the first part of the Ashes drama at Gabba, Brisbane, where all the protagonists played their parts well, all is set for the second part of it, this time the stage is Adelaide Oval and it starts tomorrow. High octane performance by the actors Michael Clarke, David Warner, Mitchell Johnson, James Anderson, George Bailey and others made sure that there was not a boring moment in the first test match. Mentally debilitated after the heavy loss in England, the Aussies were licking their wounds and were preparing well in anticipation for a pay back to the English. They walked the talk when they crushed England mercilessly and gave a tremendous blow to the confidence of the Englishmen.

Apart from a brilliant contest between bat and ball, there was utter chaos in the Brisbane test, with war or words between the players of the two teams often crossing the limits of gentlemanly behaviour. The now infamous “get ready for a broken f*****g arm” taunt from Michael Clarke to James Anderson was the tipping point of the whole controversy. If the Australian public has trained their guns on Stuart Broad (remember the banner at Gabba that said, “Stuart Broad, I know what you did last summer”, in reference to his refusal to walk after he nicked the ball while batting at Trent Bridge), the players have Anderson on their radar. It is sure that the sledged and bruised England will certainly seek vengeance and will come back hard at the Australians. A mouth watering contest is on the cards and the batsmen on both sides can expect a flurry of short pitched deliveries aimed at them from the fast bowlers of the other side.

Before the start of the test England has certain issues to sort out. First of all they will have to find a replacement at number 3 for Jonathan Trott who has left the team because of a stress related illness. There is every possibility that Joe Root will be promoted to that number as he is a much better player than to languish at number 5. If he was good enough to play as an opener in England, there is no reason why he should bat at number 5 in Australia. In that case there is a need to find a batsman at number 5. There is every chance that Root will be replaced at number 5 by his Yorkshire teammate, the Zimbabwe born, Gary Ballance, who would make his test debut. England also has some problems in the middle order as the charismatic Kevin Pietersen is terribly out of form. Though his good form will be just one innings away, England has been looking for that one innings for quite some time. The bad form of swashbuckling wicket keeper-batsman Matt Prior is another big worry for the visitors. If his dismissals in the first test are anything to go by, then he is completely out of sorts. English captain Alistair Cook, who is capable of making big test scores, isn’t completely in his brilliant self and his fellow opener Michael Carberry is a newbie, who is only trying to find his feet in the test arena. However the most important challenge for the English batsmen would be to negotiate the pace and bounce of Mitchell Johnson, who has vowed to continue with his short of length bowling approach.

In the bowling front too England has many things to worry about. The off spin of Graeme Swann had been one of the main reasons why England attained their supreme status in test match cricket. However he has been low on confidence recently and was not at his best in the Gabba test. In fact his offie counterpart in Australian team, Nathan Lyon had been a much better bowler in the last test. Swann gave lot of room for the Aussie left handers to swing their arms and received much lesser spin on the Gabba wicket than he usually gets. Stuart Broad was brilliant at Gabba and showed that he was not perturbed by the unruly crowd that was baying for his blood. But Anderson was not at his best and he was not able to swing the ball in Australia as he was in England and it should be a matter of worry for the English. A much greater worry is the absence of a third seamer who can support the new ball bowlers. Chris Tremlett was rather weak in the first test and hopefully England will replace him with Tim Bresnan.

However all is not lost for the visitors yet and they can overturn their fortunes if they can apply themselves. Cook could always play a captain’s knock anytime and his appetite for big runs, playing long innings, is well known. KP is a batsman who can turn it on anytime and if he gets into his hitting mood then he can blow away any attack. Ian bell had been the anchor around which other players batted in the summer edition of Ashes in England. The little Warwickshire right hander is a brilliant player who is capable of a long test match innings. Anderson, who had been the target of the Australians, particularly the Aussie captain, would be all fired up and on his day he is a handful with the swinging red cherry. The lanky Englishman Broad can trouble the Aussie batsmen with his steep bounce and could well be England’s answer to Mitchell Johnson.

All in all cricket enthusiasts are looking forward to seeing an awesome test match, where fire will be met with fire, bouncers with bouncers and words with words. The on-field umpires and the match referee will surely have a tough match on their hands. May the best team win.

How to Use “a” and “an”

We have learnt in our grammar classes that one should use the article “an” before words that start with vowels (a,e,i,o,u) and “a” before words that start with consonants (alphabets other than the vowels). But it is not as simple as it sounds. 

The grammar rule is that you use “a” before words that start with a consonant sound and “an” before words that start with a vowel sound. So it does not depend on how we write a word but on the way we say it.

Therefore it is simple enough when it is

• a cat
• a game
• a human being
• a very tall man
• a pot

and

• an apple
• an extremely good sound
• an interesting snap
• an old man
• an umbrella

However things get complicated when words that start with vowels are spelled with consonant sounds and words that start with consonants are spelled with vowel sounds. Here we have to judge whether to use “a” or “an” on the basis of the sound.

So when a word starts with a vowel letter but spelled with consonant sound you should use "a" as in

• a user (sounds as 'yoo-zer')
• a European (sounds as 'you-ro-pe-an')
• a one-day conference (sounds as 'won-day')

Similarly when a word starts with a consonant letter but spelled with vowel sound you should use "an" as in

• an honest lady (sounds as 'on-est')
• an hour (sounds as 'our')
• an FDI enterprise (sounds as 'eff-dee-eye')

Hope this helps.

Greedy BCCI Has Tarnished Image of a Great Man and a Great Game

Had it been not for the enormous passion with which we Indians adore the game of cricket, BCCI would have been an organisation that is observing its 15th odd death anniversary by now. But because we are passionate followers of cricket we mostly only glance over and often easily forget the many audacious misdemeanours of BCCI, bringing the game into disrepute and tarnishing the image of very many great servants of the game. 

The recent decision of the BCCI to bring in a two match home series against West Indies by cutting short the South African away series with the intention of having Sachin Tendulkar’s 200th test in Mumbai is an attempt to fill in its coffers by cashing on the Tendulkar mania in the country. By taking such a unilateral decision BCCI has prevented the cricket lovers the joy of watching a mouth watering contest between India and South Africa. Such a decision has also given a chance to the Tendulkar bashers to claim that BCCI has given him an easy opponent on his request to play against in his 200th test. Any observer of the game who has had the privilege of watching the game of Sachin Tendulkar all these years would certainly dismiss it as a ridiculous assumption, but this is enough to tarnish some image of the great man. It is a known fact that the financial power of BCCI, which it uses at its will every time, has been the result of the heightened popularity of the game in India after Sachin Tendulkar almost single-handedly put India as a force to reckon with in world cricket. When BCCI, not to mention Indian cricket, owes so much to the great man, at least it can resist from doing anything that would put blemish on the image of the great man.

Nothing like an Ashes test match, they say; any cricket match between arch-rivals India and Pakistan would be quite exciting as well and there had been some very competitive cricket whenever India and Australia met in test matches. However a long test match series between the top ranked test team South Africa and the top ranked one day team, the defending world champions India, would be equally exhilarating to behold. Many have the opinion that the present team is the strongest ever in the history of Indian cricket. A test series against the Proteas at their home would be a perfect stage for the present Indian team to test their skills and evaluate by themselves how strong or weak they are. How the likes of Dhoni, Dhawan, Pujara, Jadeja and others would fare against the fiery Dale Steyn’s pace, bounce and swing is something the whole cricketing world wants to see. Future generations would judge the present Indian team on the basis of how they play the South Africans at their den.

By curtailing the length of the test series the BCCI has curtailed such a magnificent opportunity for the players as well as the enthusiasts. It is quite obvious that BCCI is not focussed on improving the game in India or the development of the players’ skills, but only on making more money and thereby amassing more wealth and gaining more financial clout in the cricketing world. By unilaterally reneging on the promise made to Cricket South Africa on a longer test series, BCCI has also showed once again to the world what a nauseating bully it is. At home the BCCI bosses work like autocratic rulers preventing any attempt by the government to bring in transparency in its affairs and internationally they act like rogue states, insensitive to the aspirations of other cricketing nations and dismissive of the generally accepted norms of international conduct.

When IPL spot fixing scam was revealed to the world, there were allegations that some of the BCCI officials have also coalesced with the spot fixing agents. There was huge public anger against the BCCI officials and public opinion was hugely in favour of bringing in more transparency and governmental control into the working of BCCI. But as time went on all those protests died down and we got back to where we started. It is imperative that someone takes this responsibility and rein in the BCCI, otherwise its greed and avarice will tarnish the image of the game in India, the same way its recent action has somewhat tarnished the image of the greatest Indian cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar. 

We, the citizens in the Republic of Sachin, strongly and unequivocally condemn BCCI’s decision to curtail the test series between India and South Africa and the resultant dishonour it has brought to the image of Sachin and the image of India as a cricketing nation. When it is about Sachin Tendulkar, Cape Town would be the same as Mumbai and his 200th test match appearance, indeed a historic moment, will be celebrated with the same enthusiasm by his millions of fans, wherever in the world that may happen.