Only Want to Show Your Protest? Please Find Some New Ways

For two days people in India were under a siege, unable to go out of their homes and do their jobs, unable to go out to meet their friends, unable to eat out, unable to go for a movie, all in the name of a general strike called by the trade unions in the country. The general strike on February 20 and 21 that was called by the Central trade unions and backed by all non-Congress parties, held the whole country to a standstill. Now that the general strike that was observed for 48 hours is over let us ask the question what have we gained from the general strike? As this writer had written in one of his previous essays, what have we achieved from the hartals?

The general strike was called for as a protest against rising petrol and diesel prices, rising inflation, for increasing the minimum wages of workers to Rs.10000, for putting pressure on the government to create more jobs etc. It is anyone’s guess that even after the strike none of these demands is going to be heard by the government. So when the intention is only to show our protest, can’t we find some new ways of doing it rather than going for archaic practices like complete shutdown of a country? 

It is a shame that workers unions in our country, which have a great tradition and history, are unable to change with the times. There is no doubt that it is high time they find some new ways of protesting that would not hit at the economic well being of the country. It is an irony that workers who are protesting against government policies that are weakening the economy are further putting pressure on the same weak economy by complete shutdown of the country. If we go by the numbers put forwarded by ASSOCHAM, Indian economy has lost Rs. 26000 crores as a result of this 48 hours strike. 

As is the case with all strikes in our state of Kerala, in the last 48 hours too, people who were going to their work places were threatened by the supporters of the strike. We also saw in the media that passengers were intimidated and in some cases manhandled by protesters. Even this writer was stopped by the protesters and was sternly told to return to his home or face the “consequences”. It is another matter of irony that workers unions that were formed to protect the jobs of the people and to create a favourable environment for work are themselves stopping workers from going to work.

Laws should be made and strictly enforced to make sure that strike supporters are not vandalising public and private property. If at all any sort of vandalism happens, those who are calling the strike should be held accountable for the damages. But such a law must be created by our law makers, the politicians. Therefore there is no hope for such a law to come into force. Unscrupulous politicians and party workers of all parties think that it is their birth right to cause destruction of public and private property on a strike or a hartal day. Such a situation should change or otherwise a time is not far when ordinary people fed up with such violence during strikes and hartals would take to the streets and physically confront those who indulge in it. If such a day comes, it would not be good for our country and its people.

Difference between "few" and "a few" / "little" and "a little"

The usage of the words “few” and “a few” as well as “little” and “a little” has often confused many of us. Though they may appear simple and straight forward, many are not sure which one to use when.

First of all, “few” and “a few” are used with countable nouns. E.g.: few friends / a few friends, few books / a few books, etc.

Whereas, “little” and “a little” are used with uncountable nouns. E.g.: little time / a little time, little sugar / a little sugar, etc.

“A few” and “a little” express a positive idea; it means that something is present. For example, a statement such as “I have a few friends there” shows that the person making the statement has SOME friends there. The statement “I have a little time for exercise” shows that the person making the statement has SOME time for exercise.

“Few” and “little” express a negative idea; it means that something is largely absent. For example, a statement such as “I have few friends there” shows that the person making the statement has NO friends there. The statement “I have little time for exercise” shows that the person making the statement has NO time for exercise.

Hope this helps.

Therefore, on reading this post if you got some knowledge on the usage of few/a few and little/a little, you can say, “I got a little knowledge from this post” and if reading this post was a real waste of your time, you can very well say, “I got little knowledge from this post”.

So, what would you say?

Strike on Contributory Pension – Much Ado about Nothing

The strike organised by the teachers and employees groups associated with the opposition front LDF, which is underway in Kerala, against the introduction of contributory pension scheme to the government employees getting into government service after March 31, 2013 should have been avoided. As the new scheme is not going to affect anyone who is already in service, there are no logical justifications for this strike. If those who are striking are saying that they are striking for the future generations (future employees in the government service) then those arguments will not stand the test of the real facts, some of which will appear in this essay.

What is contributory pension? - As of now we follow a scheme of statutory pension in the state where the government employees on retirement will get a specific amount as pension based on certain criteria. According to the contributory pension scheme all employees who join the government service from April 1, 2013 will contribute every month 10% of their basic salary and dearness allowance each to a central government managed Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA). The state government will also contribute the same amount to the fund every month. When an employee retires he/she can withdraw 50% amount from the fund and based on an annuity scheme he/she will get pension from the rest of the amount. Thus the government and the employee will work together in providing his/her pension. 

Kerala is already a consumer state and at a time when we are facing acute shortage of fund for social welfare measures it is impractical to continue with the present method of pension scheme. To validate the above mentioned point, let us see the following economic figures. 

Annual revenue of the state for the financial year 2011-12 will come to 29197.09 crores. The salary and pension of government employees amount to 23536.68 crores, which is 80.61% of the annual revenue of the state. That means the government spent 80.61% of its revenue for the government employees, who is less than 5% of total population of the state. If we add interest payable by the state government, the amount required would be 29895.11 crores, which is 102.39% of annual revenue of the state. 

If we also add the contribution made by the central government, then the revenue of the state would become 39587.85 crores. Then the percentage of salary + pension will come down to 59.45% and the percentage of salary + pension + interest will come down to 75%, which is still quite high, leaving very less money in the hands of the state government to continue with its social welfare measures for the millions of poor people in the state. 

When the situation is already quite dismal, in the future, things will get more difficult and miserable. Future governments will have little money for the social welfare programmes and in the absence of money, government schools and colleges, government hospitals and other such social welfare organisations of the government will have to either reduce or completely stop their activities. Such a situation would be detrimental to even the existence of our state and is a sure recipe for violent upheavals. Any citizen with a little civic sense would understand that the government has decided on introducing contributory pension scheme taking into consideration the future of the state. 

One needs no great intelligence to comprehend that the ongoing strike is one with political intentions only. The striking political parties should know that when they come to the government, they will also face the same problem of lack of money for welfare measures if the present day government doesn’t adopt the contributory pension scheme now.

With their united strength the government employees have successfully thwarted the attempts of the government to bring in a system where the salary revision will be applied only once in ten years. Now they have salary revision every five years and they are also getting many other benefits as well. Even then, the quality of service that they provide for the common man has not improved at all. 

The laymen have no favourable opinion on the government employees and that being the case there is no way they are going to get a sympathetic hearing from the common man on their strike. The CPI (M) and other left parties are trying to give the strike a violent form by taking the strike to the streets by allowing their students and youth cadre to support the strike. The students and youth wing of the ruling Congress party are making things worse by confronting those striking employees in the street as well. It would be prudent if the government and the striking employees find some amicable solution to the present problem. As far as the future generations of the state are concerned, it is quite important that the strike fails and the contributory pension scheme prevails unless their future would be in jeopardy. 

Statistics: ‘Budget in Brief’ of Government of Kerala, available in public domain

Grieving for My Sister, the Delhi Braveheart

Delhi Gang Rape Case, a Reason to be Ashamed on Being a Man

It took more than one week for this writer to come out of the shock and the mental distress that he went through after knowing about the gang rape of a 23 year old girl in a bus in Delhi, for it was only recently that one of his younger sisters had explained to him the various harassments that she faces in her everyday bus journey through the city roads of Thiruvananthapuram. He had no courage to write about it hitherto as he was appalled and completely taken aback at what happened, for in his mind the Delhi gang rape survivor (she should not be called a victim, but a brave survivor, for she is showing tremendous bravery and courage in the hospital) suddenly become his own sister; her pain, his own sister’s pain and the agony of her parents and brothers, his own agony.

Whole of the country has joined with the protesters in Delhi streets to ask for justice for the girl. While the most important thing now is doing everything to save the life of the girl, making sure that the culprits get maximum punishment for the horrendous crime they committed is one of utmost importance as well. Though this writer, along with Amnesty International, for which he is a Voice Ambassador, has always taken a principled stand against capital punishment, he wonders what other punishment could be given to the culprits of this gang rape, who behaved worse than the beasts. The maximum punishment for those convicted for rape in our country is a life imprisonment of 10 years, which by any standards is grossly inadequate. Life time imprisonment for 10 years, together with permanent castration seems to be an adequate punishment for rape, which is a crime that must be considered a much graver crime than murder, as murder would end the life of a victim, but rape would put the victim under terrible lifelong trauma and social stigma. Though it is true that rape is not only about sex, but is about power, violence, intimidation and humiliation, it seems logical that the threat of castration as a punishment to rape will act as a deterrent.

The conviction rate of rapists in our country is abysmally low (studies show it to be as low as 20%) and most of the rapists go scot free, which gives a sense of impunity to them. Therefore for the rapists, it is not the enormity of punishment like capital punishment, but certainty of punishment that could act as a deterrent. The legislature should not only make strong laws to give model punishment to the rapists, but the police machinery should be made capable of providing incriminating evidence to nail the culprits in a court of law. A lot of onus also rests on the judiciary and there is an urgent need to create an environment in the courts where the victims are not further tortured while they are examined in the courts. The judicial system in India also needs to debate why the conviction rate in rape cases is less.

The impressive protests at Delhi show how the lay people feel about the whole issue – they are outraged, angry and livid. They call for justice, not only for the gang rape survivor, but for all women in the country. The protests see participation from all sections of the society; men and women, students and professionals, young and the old, people from various political parties and the apolitical. Women’s right to life is being threatened and they are protesting to save their freedom and to save their lives. The men folk are protesting because in such an environment of insecurity and danger no man can rest assured when his sisters, daughters and mothers are out travelling in public buses, trains and on the public roads of the country. The situation must change and the protestors are asking for action and not mere words of assurances uttered by the government machinery. 

The central government has some answering to do as the law and order situation in the capital city is directly handled by the central government. There is an urgent need of better policing in the country, particularly in the capital city of Delhi.  The government and the parliament must work together and bring about a stricter rape law. Fast track courts must be established to try rape cases and model punishments must be handed down. As Kiran Bedi has suggested there is a need of social audit to keep track of the how the police is functioning and to give valuable suggestions to improve the functioning of the police department.

The most important change that needs to come is not in the legal functions of the judiciary or the executive tasks of the police department, but in the social mindset of the country. In the patriarchal social order in India, women are still considered as second rate citizens, with unequal status when compared to men. Girl children are unwanted to many and female foetuses are destroyed in the womb itself; women are subjected to harassment at the workplaces and at homes; most husbands think the rights of their wives are to be trampled upon; wives, daughters and sisters are not allowed to make their own choices and many wives and even girlfriends don’t live their own lives but live lives that their husbands and boyfriends want them to live. It is high time we work to change this social mindset. Boys and men need to be trained from a very young age on why it is important to respect women. Teach them the importance of respecting their mothers, teach them that their sisters have the same rights as they have, teach them their wives and girl friends are free to have their individual choices, teach them that their daughters should be given exactly the same opportunities as their sons, teach them that a woman is not a sexual object but a human being that deserves respect and dignity, teach them that touching a woman’s body without her consent won’t make him a man, but a coward. 

When this writer’s younger sister told him indignantly that ‘all’ men are harassers, he got ashamed but took umbrage on that comment as he honestly believed he had never been a harasser of women and so told her to change her opinion and asked her to add the caveat ‘many’ men instead of a more generalised ‘all’ men. It is a matter of dreadful ignominy and pathetic shame that our sisters and daughters have started to think that all men are harassers. The men folk have no one else to blame but themselves, and as long as news about rapes, harassments and eve teasing come from any part of the world, men all around the world would be faced with occasions such as the one this writer faced, where he would be ashamed on being a man. 

Why Sachin Tendulkar Should Not Retire Now

Amidst the cacophony of diverse voices baying for the blood of Sachin Tendulkar, this writer, a self-confessed emotional fan of the great man, would point out some facts by which he would like to tell why this is the not the right time for Sachin to announce his retirement. When the instinctive Tendulkar-bashers and the so called pundits of the game are burning the midnight oil to come up with logical points to prove why Tendulkar should retire now, this writer would try to counter them with his own style of reasoning, which is an assortment of logic as well as emotion - without some emotional discourse, what is an Indian? 

First things first. One of the main arguments that the pundits put forward to say that it is high time for Tendulkar be asked to retire by the selectors is the fundamental philosophy that no one is bigger than the game. Now, let us face it, let us face the truth – Sachin Tendulkar is bigger than the game, period. The popularity of the game soared to magnificent proportions in India during the 90s only because of the great man Sachin Tendulkar. People flocked to the cricket stadium not to watch the game, but to the see the young prodigy at work; they left the stadium en masse the moment he got out. For a generation of Indians, including this writer, he has been a role model, a symbol of courage, dignity, hard work, perseverance, righteousness and an embodiment of a never-say-die attitude. For them he has been the living model of an emerging India after the opening up of the economy to global competition, confident and brave, competing in the global stage to make a name of itself. When he scored runs, the whole country rejoiced, when he got out cheaply, the whole country despaired. Millions of poor people in the country found a little redemption from their sufferings when the Little Master scored hundreds. When he scored runs against the English, people felt centuries of British domination of India is getting avenged, when he scored runs against Pakistan, Indians felt he is fighting a brave battle against the arch rivals for all of us. When his father passed away during the 1999 World Cup, the whole country mourned and when he got back to the team and hit a century few days after his bereavement all his countrymen praised the strength of human spirit that he showed. It is not a matter of ignominy, but a matter of human triumph that a mere mortal became bigger than the world that made him. And it is not the first time in the history of mankind that someone became bigger than his/her field of activity. Indian politics did not define Mahatma Gandhi, he defined Indian politics; pop music did not define Michael Jackson, the ‘King of Pope’ defined pop music; English drama did not define William Shakespeare, the great playwright defined English drama. 

The Indian team is going through a transition phase after the retirement of the greats Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. This is the time that the youngsters in the team need someone who can groom them and this makes it extremely important that Tendulkar remain in the team. If the detractors of the man come with an argument that he is not scoring runs and in such a circumstance how sensible it would be to retain him in the team, it must be noted that no one in the current Indian team is scoring consistent runs. Sehwag, Gambhir, Kohli, Yuvraj, Dhoni have all scored cheaply in the current series. 

It is again not that lot of great talents in the domestic circuit are knocking the doors of the Indian team to get in and take the place of Tendulkar. Names of Ajinkya Rahane, Subramaniam Badrinath, Mohd. Kaif, Manoj Tiwary, and Suresh Raina are going the rounds as the probables for replacing Tendulkar. All these players have got chances to play international cricket, but none has shown strong batting technique while playing against international bowlers, not to talk about about foreign match conditions. So it is not that there is a long queue of prodigious talents waiting for their entry in to the Indian team prevented only by the presence of Tendulkar in the team. 

Sachin Tendulkar still puts more efforts in constantly improving his batting skills and in rectifying technical glitches than any other of his teammates. It shows the commitment of the man and his determination. Even the great Sunil Gavaskar didn’t put a lot of effort in practice sessions during the fag end of his career. If about age being a factor, 37 test centuries in total have been made by 17 batsmen after they passed the age of 40. Englishman Jack Hobbs made 8 of them after he passed the age of 40 and he is also the oldest to make a test century at the age of 46 years and 82 days. So there are batsmen in the world who have defied age and hit test hundreds, notwithstanding the talks about reflexes getting poorer as you get older.

The retirement of the great Ricky Ponting, a contemporary of Sachin Tendulkar, has come as a shot in the arm for all those who call for the retirement of the great man. But one must note that the condition of the present Australian team is completely different from the condition of the present Indian team. Though the Aussies lost their recent test series against the Proteas, they are still a strong batting side. Michael Clarke is at his topmost form and is making lot of runs at will (this calendar year Clarke scored four double hundreds, a first time in the history of the game, even Sir Don had hit only three double hundreds in a calendar year), Michael Hussey, as always, is rock solid in that middle order, David Warner and Ed Cowan are good opening batsmen, Shane Watson is a brilliant all-rounder, already being compared to the great Jacques Kallis and the new comer in the team, keeper-batsman Mathew Wade has already shown he is not any bad with the bat. So the retirement of Ponting is not a serious setback for the Australians, but only a matter of natural transition. Therefore a comparison of Ponting retirement with Tendulkar’s is not correct in any way. 

At a time when the Indian cricket ship is sinking at a fast pace it is not 'Tendulkar-like' to jump off it, escape and look to save only his life. Many times the great man has single-handedly carried the whole weight of the team, like Atlas carried the earth on his broad shoulders, and rescued the team from many an ominous situation. The great Sachin Tendulkar has been a fighter, many times a lone fighter for his country, and one can hardly find him retiring now with this team in big trouble, unless of course he is forced to make such a decision by the team selectors who might humbly ask him to do it after convincing him that it is good for the team. And he always did what is good for the team, didn’t he?

Courtesy: Mohandas Menon for the statistics, the busy statistician found time to reply to this writer’s request in Twitter

Image Courtesy: PTI

Sponsor a Child’s Education through ActionAid

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. ― Nelson Mandela

For many children in India, the dream of going to school and get education remains only that, a dream. Abject poverty prevents them from going to school and they are made to work to help their families make both ends meet. Now you could lend a helping hand to these children and help them get school education through ‘Sponsor a Child’ programme of ActionAid.

ActionAid is an international organisation with 40 years of experience of working with the poor and the marginalised in India (find more information from www.actionaid.org/india). Through the ‘Sponsor a Child’ programme of ActionAid, you can sponsor a child’s education by contributing Rs.6000 a year. You can either contribute this amount as a one-time payment, or in three instalments – Rs.2000 in each quarter. You can use your bank cheque, your credit card or your debit card (in case of debit card you can make only the one-time payment of Rs. 6000 at ActionAid offices) to make the contribution. 

You can find more information about ‘Sponsor a Child’ programme from the following url.

www.actionaidindia.org/sponsor/

Will you join with me in brightening a child’s future?

Be the change you want to see in the world.- Mahatma Gandhi

Disclaimer: This writer is not professionally involved with ActionAid and this post is only a general appeal.

Protecting Freedom of Expression in the Online Space

A Facebook status message can put you behind the bars. When you heard such news from countries in the Middle East, China and many other authoritarian states, you thought that it would never happen in India, the country we all blissfully consider the largest democracy in the world. But what happened in those countries could happen to those in India as well, as discovered by two young girls in Palghar in Mumbai, as they were arrested for dissenting against the shutdown in the city after the death of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackerey.

Arresting someone for voicing sentiments not liked by people with power is nothing but an act of fascism which has no place in a democracy. Everyone knows that not all shops and establishments remained closed on the day of cremation of Bal Thackerey not because of the respect for the leader but out of sheer fear. And the girls were only expressing their frustration on this sordid state of affairs, without naming anyone. In fact, as Justice Markandey Katju rightly pointed out, the girls were only echoing the sentiments shared by the Supreme Court on the illegality of bandhs in the country. Though the Maharashtra government suspended the police officers who arrested the girls, damage had already been done. The incident had created a sense of insecurity among the netizens in India and there was a sort of lull in the social media space in the country for some time. People thought a second time before scribbling their opinion in the virtual space. A healthy democracy can ill afford such as situation, where the citizens are afraid to speak out and express their opinions fearlessly. 

Silencing dissent has suddenly become the fad in India among many political parties. It was only recently that a man was arrested for tweeting that Karti Chidambaram, the son of Union Finance Minister P Chidambarama, was corrupt. In the month of April Kolkata police arrested Professor Ambikesh Mahapatra for posting a cartoon critical of the Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee. In September this year anti corruption crusader and free speech campaigner Aseem Trivedi was arrested on charges of sedition. After the arrest of the girls in Palghar for their innocuous comment in Facebook, another man was dragged to the police station by MNS workers in Palghar, alleging that he had posted a status message that was “disrespectful’ of Raj Thackerey. 

The internet and the social media are powerful tools of political freedom, where the common man can express his opinion freely and it is better for a democracy to encourage people to express their ideas openly and fearlessly. In a democracy anyone has the right and freedom to articulate what he/she believes is right and express those ideas in way that is not inimical to the life and freedom of another person. If that freedom infringes upon the rights and freedom of another person, then existing laws can interfere. 

It has become imperative for the Indian government to review the Section 66 (A) of the IT Act 2000, the basis on which the Palghar girls were arrested. Many experts believe that the section is not in line with the Constitution of India and internationally accepted standards of freedom of speech and expression. The nebulous wordings of the section could be misinterpreted and abused by the various law enforcement agencies in the country. There is an urgent need to lay down clear and comprehensive explanations to the restriction on free speech in the IT act.

If freedom of speech and expression, which is the corner stone of democracy, is taken away from the people, we as a country will fail and the democracy that we are so proud of will meet its end sooner rather than later. 

An Accident(al) Writer

After a few minor personal tragedies, including an accident that saw him confined to the metaphorical ‘four walls’ of his house for a month, this writer is back in blogging mode after exactly 2 months since he posted his previous article. In the past he had eloquently explained to many why he was an ‘accidental writer’, who started writing when he was once in a depressing period of joblessness. Now after two accidents within a time span of 3 years and 3 months, it would only be fair to call him an ‘accident writer’ too, whose right hand that bore the brunt of both accidents has become a subject of self pity to him and a matter of wit and humour to others.

When it comes to accidents, how often could be termed ‘frequent’ is a question that this writer has been confronting all these while, for many have asked him why he is frequently meeting with accidents. On his part, this writer strongly believes that a time span of 39 months between two accidents could by no means be called ‘frequent’ and any man worth his salt would be very much capable of matching or surpassing his feat any time in the future. 

At the same time, this writer has great respect and admiration for his professional organisation, for it hasn’t fired him for his predilection of falling unceremoniously on his right shoulder, skidding off from his two-wheeler, that too twice in a time span of 39 months that saw him away from work for one whole month each time.

Unlike after the previous accident, where this writer had many things to write about The Peculiar Living - Life of a Temporarily Handicapped Man, this time around he has no claims to make, no situations to explain and no pretty physiotherapist to rant about (with due respect to the professional talent and kindness of the lady who helped him with the physiotherapy). He has only a prayer that he may not be subjected to such painful confinements in the future, neither 'frequently' nor rarely, which would put him away from work and away from blogging.

Hope the UPA Would Come Down Crashing Now

Now that Mamata Banerjee has withdrawn her support for the UPA government in the centre, this writer, like many other common men, hope that this Manmohan Singh government would collapse. There have been few governments in the recent memory that have tested the patience of the country and its people as much as the incumbent government. As if the very many corruption skeletons that tumbled out of the government cupboards were not enough, it made the lives of the people difficult with many increases in the petrol and diesel prices and its inability to rein in inflation, thereby increases in prices of food and other essential commodities, with effective fiscal and monetary policies. The immediate reason for Mamata’s decision to pull out of the UPA is the recent anti-people policy measures of the UPA government including raising the diesel prices, restricting the supply of subsidised cooking gas to six cylinders per household, and opening up India's huge retail sector to foreign super-chains.

This is Indian politics and therefore one must be very careful while making statements on how tomorrow will unfold. Mamata’s ministers will give their resignations only on Friday, which makes one wonder if they are waiting for some compromise formula to come up so that they can stay in the UPA. Though the ministers have denied any such possibilities, one would never know. The UPA would be hoping that Mayawati with her BSP would come and rescue the government with their 21 MPs. Unlike Mulayam’s SP and Mamata’s Trinamool, who got thumping victories in the assembly elections in their respective states of Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, Mayawati’s BSP won’t be all that happy with an imminent general election as they have less chances of making any gains. Moreover Mayawati is depended on the UPA government as there are many corruption cases pending against her and any government at the centre with Mulayam’s SP would spell doom to her personally.

Dr. Manmohan Singh of the UPA2 has been a disaster. When the Time Magazine called him an ‘underachiever’ and accused him of ‘unwilling to stick his neck out’, the Congress went berserk and accused the Magazine of not giving Dr. Singh a chance to be heard. Though being a great economist, Dr. Singh was unable to provide a direction to the faltering economy of the country in terms of its senile growth rate and ever increasing inflation. With Coalgate, his image as a man of impeccable integrity took a serious beating. The eternal ‘Yuvraj’ of the Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, seems to be always preparing to take up the mantle of Prime Ministership, but he never appears to be completely ready to take the responsibility.

In the eventuality of the crashing down of the present UPA government what other possibilities do we have at hand? The NDA under the command of the BJP would be the first choice for making a new government. But do they have the numbers? It is pretty unlikely that they have. LK Advani is the leader of the party but it is to be seen if he gets enough support within his party to become the prime minister. Narendra Modi seems to be the choice of many in his party for being their prime ministerial candidate and you can always find many comparisons being made in the media between Manmohan Singh and Modi. However, if Narendra Modi is the prime ministerial candidate then there are fewer chances for the NDA to survive as Nitish Kumar and his JD (U) are opposed in making Modi the prime minister.

What are the chances for the creation of a third front with the leftists in the lead? Many discussions are being held for a non-Congress, non-BJP third front. Mulayam Singh still has his prime ministerial ambitions intact and buoyed by the recent electoral gains made by SP in Uttar Pradesh he would well be taking a lead in making a third front possible. CPI (M), CPI, RSP, Forward Block, Telgu Desam Party, Biju Janata Dal and the AIADMK would all possibly join with SP. With the tension that JD (U) is facing in the NDA on the issue of Narendra Modi being made the prime ministerial candidate, one would never know what Nitish Kumar would decide once there is a possibility of a third front.

As this is Indian politics you can’t be sure what would happen in the future and what all changes can one see in the political dynamics in the country in the event of the fall of the UPA government. This writer would personally like to see the emergence of a third front and a government being made by this third front, with the leftists participating in the government. The leftists have been making all sorts of accusations on the UPA government on the mismanagement of the financial sector, retail sector and the energy sector, to name a few. It seems that the leftists have a magic wand in hand for all the curses of the country. Let them come to the government and using their magic wand bring back the Administered Price Mechanism for petrol and diesel prices and roll back the recent hikes in those prices, control inflation, bring down high prices of commodities and all in all present a new development direction for the economy of the country.

With the government of the third front at the centre, with many regional parties, there could be a danger to the federal nature of our democratic system. But with the availability of the leftists in the front, with a national policy on most matters concerning the country, one could safely imagine that federalism would not be compromised.

For the time being let us stop making predictions on how things would unfold and wait for political parties in the country to make their calls. However, this writer joins with many of his other countrymen in wishing that the UPA2 government would bite the dust sooner rather than later.