Kanpur loss: India needs to make some hard decisions

You need to chase down 304 in an ODI, your opening batsman makes a 150 and still you lose then it is time for some serious introspection on your game plan and strategy. In the first ODI of the Gandhi-Mandela series at Kanpur, India was on the brink of a victory, but still lost by 5 runs. There could be many reasons for a loss, but when one of them is poor team selection, then questions are raised on the captain and the team management. The Kanpur loss makes a case for such an analysis.

Rahane has no place in Indian ODI team: Ajinkya Rahane is one of the most talented batsmen in India today. Time and again he has shown his worth in the Indian test team. With such brilliant show of talent in the test arena and with some scintillating batting performance for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL, Rahane made it impossible for the selectors to ignore him in the Indian ODI side. However as the Kanpur ODI loss shows Rahane’s inclusion in the playing eleven creates a lot of problems for the line up. If he is not playing as an opener, which is improbable as long as the right hand-left hand combination of Rohit Sharma-Shikar Dhawan plays well, accommodating Rahane could cause imbalance to the team. If he is made to play at No.3 then you need to move down Virat Kohli from that number, which is undesirable owing to Kohli’s brilliant performance over the years at that number. At the same time if Rahane is moved further down, he may have to bat in the death overs, where he may have to start hitting from the first ball itself, which a player of his style may find difficult to adopt. Before the start of the Kanpur match, Dhoni had also hinted at the possibility of not considering Rahane in the playing eleven.

Kohli at No.3: Virat Kohli has the highest average while chasing. At Hobart against Sri Lanka in 2012, at Nagpur against Australia in 2013 and at many other successful Indian chases we have seen the No.3 batsman taking his game a notch higher. While Kohli has such a good record at that position, it is silly to remove him from that position in order to accommodate Rahane. In the match at Kanpur one could also see how disturbed Kohli appeared when he was not sent in to bat at No.3. During the season of 2002, Indian had experimented similarly with the batting position of Sachin Tendulkar whereby he was removed from the opening position and was made to bat at No.4. The strategy was reverted after a short span as no particular benefit had come to the team from such a move.

Dhoni at No.4: As Shiamak Unwalla argues in his article in Cricket Country, Dhoni is no longer the finisher he was in the past. It is quite visible nowadays that Dhoni’s finishing abilities are on the decline, as seen in the Kanpur ODI. However it is would be foolish to assume that his days as a batsman are over. Again coming back to the example of Sachin Tendulkar, we have seen that in the latter part of his career, the legend adopted a new style of batting, quite different from the dashing style he had had in the former years of his career. Similarly Dhoni’s position now in the team would be more of the anchor that teams need in the middle overs. Dhoni himself has shown his interest to bat at No.4, from where he can control the pace of the game. He is one of those batsmen who is good at finding the gaps and making singles and doubles, a skill much needed in the middle overs of an ODI.

Binny’s place untenable: It is a shame that India’s quest for an all-rounder ended with Stuart Binny, who can at best be described as mediocre. One can hardly fail to notice the fact that Roger Binny’s position as a national selector when his son Stuart is in the probable list is a matter of conflict of interest. And when you consider junior Binny’s record in the international matches he has played so far, you cannot help but think that he is in the Indian team only because his father is a selector. If he is the bowling all-rounder then he should at least be able to economically bowl his full quota of 10 overs, if not taking lot of wickets. If he is the batting all-rounder, he should be able to play a match winning innings with the bat. But as of now he hasn’t shown any particular talent in either of the department. It is high time India move on and find an all-rounder who has the abilities to become a match winner.

Dhoni has always been known as a person who adapts well with the changing circumstances. He also has the services of Ravi Shastri, often considered a walking example of practical wisdom, as the Director of the team. They both need to come together and find solutions to the problems so that India could turn the tide and get back to winning ways.

Commuting woes of Infoparkians

They say that the corporate life of a techie is a bumpy ride. Deadlines, client expectations, performance appraisals, office politics, backstabbing and the likes make it a very difficult proposition altogether. Education institutions of our day have been following a practice of giving training to the students to help them prepare for this difficult ride of corporate life. By following such a salutary practice, Infopark Kochi seems to have embarked on a similar mission – of preparing employee mentally to face the bumpy corporate ride. For that they have meticulously prepared approach roads to Infopark that give the employees of Infopark, the Infoparkians, a bumpy ride, quite literally, during their daily commute to their offices. 

If you are relatively new to Infopark and its immediate neighbourhood, you could only watch with envy the skill with which Infoparkians ride and drive their vehicles through the Infopark approach roads besmirched with potholes of all sizes and variants. The deftness with which they negotiate those potholes, though often jumping into them, but emerging out unscathed, is some sight to behold. An Infoparkian’s commute to Infopark is no less perilous than a soldier’s patrolling the frontiers of our nation, both facing similar threat to life, though with dissimilar probability of occurrence. Those who have laughed at the foolishness of driving tests in Kerala – through ‘8’ shaped track for two wheelers and ‘H’ shaped track for four wheelers – are now marvelling at the long-sightedness of those wise men while they travel through these Infopark approach roads. If not for that well practised pyrotechnics how we would have traversed these bumpy roads?

The Kakkanad-Edachira road to Infopark is so much in shambles that if you tell a person that once there had been a well-laid road there, he/she would find it almost impossible to believe that. The road has been deteriorating for so many months now that it is a grave crime that the authorities haven’t done anything to restore the road. To make matters worse, recently two deep pits have been dug out on that road, with concrete slabs on top of them, thereby raising their height by at least by 5-6 inches above the residual road. These two pits have made sure that vehicles are unable to pass from both sides simultaneously, thereby causing terrible traffic blocks. For what purpose those pits are dug, God only knows.

By the stroke of luck, if somehow you reach The Carnival building (formerly Leela building) after that arduous journey through the Kakkanad-Edachira road, a new challenge awaits you. The Infopark-Brahmapuram road has been awaiting beautification and the laying of 4 lane road for quite some time. The process of tarring the road was started some two months back, but the work is not complete till now, resulting in lot of dust particles floating around in the air. Infoparkians who have the misfortune of walking on that road are in grave danger of contacting lung diseases. To add up to the chaos in that road, you have illegal car parking on both sides of the road. As there are no enough space for car parking in the Carnival building, employees working in that building are forced to park their vehicles on the road. The whole affair shows the terrible absence of proper planning.

After getting so much troubled by commuting through such terrible road if you decide to change your track to office and make use of the Express Way to reach Infopark, you will be faced with a more serious threat. If at Kakkanad-Edachira there is only some probability of getting killed, journey through Express Way has in reality taken some lives in the recent past. It was only a few days back that two lives were lost in an accident at Express Way. Accidents have become so much of a routine affair that the district administration has taken special attention to find solutions for this menace, after many complaints from the citizens.

All in all, daily commuting to Infopark has become a matter of life and death for Infoparkians. It is a shame that the Thrikkakara municipality, under which the Infopark comes, is not taking adequate care in making life any easy for them. Professional tax deducted from the salaries of these Infopark employees accrue to the coffers of Thrikkakara municipality and still they are unwilling to spend money to build good roads, to do maintenance works and to create better traffic system. Employees at Infopark are not organised and hence district administration and municipality tend to disregard their grievances. However if things continue in this fashion Inoparkians would be forced to organise themselves and agitate against the authorities. We have seen how the workers of Munnar organised without the banner of any political party and succeeded in gaining their rights. Infoparkians could well follow suit.

Picture Courtesy: Deccan Chronicle

Hit by the Lodha bouncer, can BCCI get back to its feet?

The decision of the Lodha committee to suspend Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) for the next two seasons and to ban Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra for life from participating in anything related to cricket has been a well directed bouncer that has hit the BCCI right on its head. Had any wise men ever reminded the BCCI of the famous adage ‘a stitch in time saves nine’ during the IPL spot fixing scandal, a lot of embarrassment could have been avoided. But when the establishment itself becomes part of the problem, there cannot be a lot of valid options left for it to take. 

The moment BCCI allowed its President to own an IPL team it invited trouble. Anyone with a little common sense would know that it is a matter of serious conflict of interest. But the then President N. Srinivasan was adamant and always tried to brazen it out whenever it was pointed out to him. His son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan, for all discerning eyes, was the real authority of Chennai Super Kings and was always seen with the team, even on the ground. But when the allegations of match fixing came to light and aspersions were cast on Meiyappan, CSK claimed that he has nothing to do with the team and he was only an enthusiast. The CSK owners even made India and CSK Captain MS Dhoni to make the same claim. Now that the Lodha Committee has found Meiyappan to be involved in betting, his father-in-law’s position as Chairman of ICC has become highly untenable. The logic behind such a position is simple – N Srinivasan is the owner of India Cements that owns CSK. His son-in-law, who for all practical purposes was the owner of the team or was assigned the role of ‘Team Principal’, was found involved in betting, which by extension puts the owner of the India Cements under the scanner too. In view of the Lodha committee decision BCCI has to take action against the teams and if one of those teams is owned by the Chairman of ICC, how can BCCI take disciplinary action against it? 

During the initial phases of IPL, while the discussions on the structure and compostion of the IPL format were going on, some laws in BCCI rule book were twisted to allow the President of BCCI to own an IPL team. There were no questions asked and a group of people did this as they wished. It was highly improper for the BCCI President to own an IPL when it was the prerogative of the BCCI to make and amend rules for IPL, when it has the sole responsibility of running the show. Now that the Lodha committee has come down heavily on Srinivasan’s CSK, he is trying to distance himself and the team from Meiyappan, thereby paving a way to retain his ownership on the team when it will get back to the IPL fray after the two year suspension period. Such an act of impropriety must be stopped or else IPL and BCCI run the risk of bringing further disrepute to the game.

Opinion pieces in newspapers and blogs and discussions in social media and visual media will keep on explaining how much important it is for N Srinivasan to step down from the Chairmanship of ICC. But those who know about how the BCCI works will expect nothing forthcoming from the organisation. Here is an organisation that is accountable to none, answerable to none, an organisation that works based on the whims and fancies of the governing council, a body filled mainly with self-serving politicians and some self-obsessed businessmen, who have no particular love for the game of cricket, but only a keen mind to identify opportunities to make profit. What credibility and accountability can we expect from such an organisation?

One of the biggest anomalies in the administration of cricket in India is the existence of politicians and businessmen in the BCCI, who hold sweeping powers to control and influence the game in India. It defies common sense when we see fewer cricketers in the various committees of BCCI but many politicians of different hues in them. It is one place in India where politicians of different ideologies come together and share a great rapport. At present we have BJP’s Anurag Thakur as the Secretary of BCCI and Congressman Rajiv Shukla as the IPL Chairman. It is high time for the BCCI to bring in reforms in their bylaws to include more cricketers in the committees. Cricketers are in the knowhow of what is required for the advancement of the game. They would know more about the requirements of budding cricketers. They know the technical details of the game, about who the coaches should be, what type of pitches are needed for the new generation of cricketers to sharpen their skills and what all things are required to keep the current players fit and healthy. It is a poor argument that cricketers would not be good administrators. There are umpteen numbers of examples to prove that argument wrong. Professional sports bodies around the world had and many still have players as able administrators managing the affairs efficiently.

If one tries to find out the reason why India never sends its cricket team for Asian Games one will find that the Indian government has no say as far as the commitments of the Indian cricket teams are concerned. BCCI is the sole representative body of Indian cricket and it is an autonomous body that has no relation with the Government of India. It is a shame that cricket, the greatest national unifier, is not owned by the government or the people of India, but some independent body called BCCI that elects its members from among members of its own regional cohorts.

Contrary to the opinion that many detractors of IPL hold about it, this writer believes that IPL is inherently a good initiative for the budding cricketers of the country. By way of IPL matches, youngsters of our country are getting an avenue to rub shoulders with the best in the world - to compete with the best and to gain valuable inputs from the best. While trying to rectify the flaws in IPL, we must guard against throwing out the baby with the bathwater. BCCI must change and come clean, trouble makers must be jettisoned and people with love for the game must be given a chance to bring back the reputation of the game that it lost due to the fraudulent exploits of some unscrupulous forces. 

Image Courtesy: The Hindu

Mysterious deaths, corruption, impropriety, fake degree: BJP in a soup

As this writer wrote elsewhere, criticising the NDA government under PM Narendra Modi could be considered a grave sin by many in this country who voted for it believing the promises of ache din that the then PM candidate quite ostensibly gave. At a time when the whole country was invariably annoyed at the various corruption scandals that came up against the UPA government, Narendra Modi, a master tactician, effectively sold to the Indian people a dream of a corruption-free, nepotism-free, development-oriented government that would take India to enormous heights. To stroke the passions of the common citizen, Narendra Modi was touted as a future PM who has come up from a very humble background (at a time when the truth remains that all Indian Prime Ministers, with the exception of those from the Nehru-Gandhi clan, have all risen from humble beginnings). However one year into the office, the ruling party and the Modi government are in a soup owing to continuation of ministers with fake degrees as well as allegations of corruption and impropriety.

Of all the leaders in BJP, scandal hit first the most widely respected of them all – Sushma Swaraj. Unlike in the case of other political scandals, the media and even the opposition were very sceptical and calculated in making allegations because they knew that they were pointing their fingers at someone who has had enormous goodwill among political supporters as well as detractors. Ms. Swaraj’s extension of a helping hand to the absconder Lalit Modi in gaining travel papers to travel to Portugal for his wife’s surgery was shown as humanitarian assistance by the government and her party. While the opposition and the media alleged that what she did was an instance of grave impropriety if not illegality and a matter of conflict of interest. One fails to understand why Ms. Swaraj bypassed all governmental procedures of the External Affairs Ministry and spoke directly to Keith Vaz MP of UK to arrange travel documents to Lalit Modi. The whole government machinery was kept in dark by Ms. Swaraj, at a time when both her daughter and husband are part of Lalit Modi’s legal team. Even if for the sake of argument one accepts that Ms. Swaraj helped Modi on humanitarian grounds, as an External Affairs Minister she could have done so many other things to make use of this occasion to bring the absconder back to the country to face the charges (16 of them in total by Enforcement Directorate). She could have asked the British government to give him travel papers for one time visit to Portugal, so that he could have no other option but to return to India after the visit. Instead she allowed the British government to give him travel papers for two long years. The opposition was increasingly training their guns at Ms. Swaraj when she was dubiously saved by the bigger scandal of Vasundhra Raje helping Lalit Modi to stay in UK.

During their investigation on the Lalit Gate, media dug out evidence suggesting that Vasundhra Raje Scindia, the Chief Minister of Rajasthan, had furtively filed an affidavit in an UK court in 2011 favouring Lalit Modi’s immigration application in the UK when she was the Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan Assembly. What made the case more curious was that in the affidavit Ms. Raje had requested the UK court not to make her affidavit known to Indian authorities. Simultaneously the media had also found out that Lalit Modi had diverted some funds from one of his bogus companies in Mauritius to the company owned and run by Dushyant Singh, son of Ms. Raje. This was being considered by many legal experts as a matter of money laundering.

When the BJP was thus engulfed in such scams related to Lalit Modi, it got another blow from a Delhi court as it took cognisance of a complaint that HRD Minister Smriti Irani had given false information about her educational qualification to the Election Commission of India. In many interventions during social media discussions this writer had made the point that it is a matter of absolute shame that India has an Education minister who has faked her education degree. Though the minister as well as her many supporters kept on claiming that one should judge her only by her work and not by her college degrees, what many failed to accept is the fact that it is not the degree or the lack of it that is the major issue, but that she lied on it that should bring out outrage in the country.

The emergence of Vyapam Scam in the state of Madhya Pradesh has shocked the conscience of the nation. Mysterious deaths of 47 persons associated with this scam made news, while the Chief Minister of MP, Shivraj Singh Chauhan of BJP, against whom there are allegation of complicity, claimed innocence. During the initial phase of the scam, where there was calls to transfer the case to CBI, the BJP government in the state resisted it. But when petitions were filed in the Supreme Court, asking for its intervention in transferring the case to CBI, BJP changed their official position and proclaimed that they are ready for it if SC asks them to do so. Like the rest of the nation, SC was also unnerved by the magnitude and enormity of this scandal. The apex court also issued notices on a plea to prosecute MP Governor Ram Naresh Yadav for his alleged complicity in the scam. Even when Mr. Yadav has been named in the FIR, the central government doesn’t think it important to remove him. When BJP was quick to remove many Governors appointed by the erstwhile UPA, it smacks of dubious intent when we find that BJP is quite reluctant to remove the MP Governor, when he is also someone appointed by the UPA government.

At a time when BJP is embroiled in controversy after controversy or ‘scam-a-day’ as the social media likes to call it, what is most conspicuous is the studied silence of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Someone who gained a name as the most eloquent of all political leaders in present day India, Mr. Modi has surprised both his supporters and detractors equally with his silence on these issues facing the nation. At the same time he still goes on merrily in social media by congratulating even many insignificant nations of the world on their independence days, wishing birthdays to many world leaders, sometimes in their own languages and speaking voraciously on many of his pet schemes in his monthly ‘Mann ki Baat’ on Indian radio. Mr. Modi had in the past made fun of Manmohan Singh’s silence by calling him ‘Maunmohan’ Singh, but when he came to power he is closely following his predecessor’s footstep as far as remaining silent on national issues is concerned. By not giving out his ‘mann ki baat’ on national issues he is increasingly losing his sheen as a decisive leader. His blistering eloquence has made way to deafening silence, his defiant rhetoric to uneasy quietude. Now the nation knows that his electoral promise of zero-tolerance to corruption was no more than a gimmick to fool the people and garner their votes.

Political analysts are also remarking that all the corruption and impropriety charges have come up against Narendra Modi’s political rivals in the party, save Smriti Irani, who is a Modi loyalist. So it could well be a ploy hatched by the Modi-gang in the party to politically thwart his critics and buy their silence. Even if it is so, with the emerging facts about large scale corruption and impropriety in the central government and other BJP ruled states, PM Modi’s and his party’s image has received a serious dent, rectifying which would be quite a difficult task.

Image Courtesy: Cartoon 'Politickle' by Manjul

Ache Din dream sinks once again in dearer petrol

Petrol and diesel have become dearer as petroleum companies have increased their prices owing to, in their opinion, the increase in international crude oil price and a depreciating Indian rupee. Since the UPA government removed Administered Price Mechanism (APM) for fuel pricing, petroleum companies have a near free reign in deciding the price of petrol and diesel. 

Though in theory the prices would be decided on the basis of the market forces of demand and supply, our practical experience suggests that the companies are not always inclined towards passing on to the end customers the gains they receive as a result of decreased crude oil prices, but they always show great alacrity in raising the prices when there is an increase in global crude oil price. Moreover, only a naive observer will assume that the central government has no influence on the petroleum companies vis-a-vis their power in deciding fuel prices in India. Therefore the government can hardly put the whole blame on the petroleum companies in a bid to save its face when there are protests against fuel price hike.

In the last two weeks fuel prices were increased twice resulting in an aggregate increase of Rs.7.91 for petrol and Rs.5.69 for diesel. When asked about the fuel price hike government managers in channel debates are pointing out that petrol prices were decreased when there was a major decrease in global crude oil prices and they complained that people didn’t appreciate them when that happened. However, even a cursory glance at data for the past one year will show that when crude oil prices were reduced up to 54% (prices have since increased), fuel prices in India were reduced only up to 10%, which would mean that the advantage of decreased crude oil prices were not passed on to the end customers but were used to fill the coffers of the petroleum companies. 

Now let us see some calculations to find out how the petroleum companies, with the connivance of central government, fool laymen and increase their profits. On 16 May 2014 when international crude oil price was $109.75 per barrel, petrol price and diesel price in India were respectively Rs.71.41/litre and Rs.56.71/litre (Delhi price). When today, exactly one later on 16 May 2015, international crude oil price is $66.57 per barrel, petrol price and diesel price in India are respectively Rs.64.24/litre and Rs.52.28/litre (Delhi price). Therefore, when international crude oil price has reduced by 39.34%, petrol price and diesel price have reduced only by 10.04% and 7.81% respectively. If the companies were to pass on the whole benefit of reduced global price of crude oil to the common man, they should have sold petrol for Rs.43.31/litre and diesel for Rs.34.40/litre (Delhi price).

Modi government also can’t excuse itself from the blame of increase in fuel prices. When the global crude oil price decreased the government had increased the excise duty to claim a part of the benefit that lay Indians had received. Now that the crude oil price has increased the government appears in no mood to reduce that increased excise duty to lessen the burden on the people. Modi government came to power riding on the huge wave of resentment against the UPA government largely due to its inability to control price rise. But once in power, Modi government is treading the same path of economic policies that UPA had travelled. Decrease in global crude oil prices had eased out inflation in India and the Modi government was boasting about the said reduction. Now with this increased fuel prices inflation is all set to come back.

Weakening rupee has been cited as another reason for the rise in fuel prices in India. When pre-poll surveys had predicted the probability of Narendra Modi assuming the role of Prime Minister of India, some financial experts had predicted about rupee growing stronger and even reaching 40 per dollar (this view was even endorsed by lifestyle guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar). But as of now no such positive movements are seen arriving.

A perusal of the balance sheets of major public sector oil companies in India, which are available in their websites, will show that the loss they claim to be making because of volatility of crude oil prices is a farce. They are by no means incurring huge losses but only a reduction in profit volumes. When the government remains silent on the face of such blatant deception from the oil companies it becomes clear that it does so for the benefit of private oil companies like Reliance and Essar and for the public sector oil companies.

Ache Din was supposed to come to Indians once Narendra Modi became the PM, or so he and his supporters had claimed. But till now it doesn’t appear to come even from the very distant horizon. Any dream of ache din, which those poor people who had voted for Narendra Modi had in their minds during voting, is in grave danger of being sunk by the avalanche of costlier petrol and diesel.

Stronger Tories take charge of the United Kingdom

The 2015 elections at United Kingdom sprang up a surprise when, contrary to expectations of political pundits, the Conservatives under the leadership of the incumbent Prime Minister David Cameron won by a simple majority. Requiring 326 seats for a simple majority in the 650 seats British Parliament, the Tories won 331 seats, which has allowed them to take charge of the country without the support of the Liberal Democrats, with whose support they were in power for the last 5 years. When the Lib Dems faced a near rout, the Labour party fared below par with 232 seats. The Scottish National Party (SNP) took the election results by storm, winning 56 out of 59 seats in Scotland. Left-wing Green Party and the right-wing United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) have won 1 seat each.

Scotland had always been one of the historic heartlands of the Labour Party, but the emergence of Scottish National Party as the main voice of the Scots has made sure that the Labour lost big time in that country. Though the SNP was unable to convince the Scots that separation from United Kingdom was for their benefit during the referendum, they had made strong inroads in the minds of the Scottish people, which was made all the more evident from their strong electoral show in the country. The SNP has made sure that the voice of the Scottish people would be heard loud at Westminster. 

Liberal minds of United Kingdom would heave a sigh of relief on finding that the UKIP has got just one seat in the election. The right-wing, anti-immigration party was very vocal in their policies and ideas against immigration and immigrants. They had also called for UK’s independence from the European Union. It is heartening to know that the space for the extreme right in UK politics is still quite narrow. Even UKIP leader Nigel Farage failed to win the elections as only Douglas Carswell was able to win it for the party. The party won a vote share of 13%, which would roughly come around 3.8 million votes.

One of the main issues on which the election was fought was the economy. Big budgetary deficit of UK has been an issue that was in the minds of every party. The Tories and the Labour had been promising people that they will cut the budgetary deficits to manageable levels and even create a surplus by the end of the term of the Parliament. Parties also promised increase in employment opportunities or jobs for all who are willing to work. While the Conservatives pledged a tripling of loans to business start-ups, Labour promised to raise minimum wages from the existing level.

Membership in European Union is a contentious issue in United Kingdom. The Tories promised to hold an “in-out” referendum on Britain’s renegotiated EU membership by 2017. At the same time the Labour party promised that they would guarantee no transfer of power from Britain to the EU without a referendum.

Britain’s growing economy has been attracting many skilled and un-skilled employees to it, mostly from other countries in the European Union. There is a growing sense of discontent among native Brits on the influx of immigrants and the right-wing UKIP has been at the forefront in making use of this for political gains. Labour had promised to ban recruitment agencies that recruit only from other countries, whereas the Conservatives claimed that they will reduce immigration by making it difficult to immigrants to gain benefits in UK.

Now that David Cameron has a clear mandate to govern Britain he can longer use the excuse of coalition pressure to not act on his promises. However he would surely be tested on many fronts. Thumping win that the SNP has achieved in Scotland would embolden them and Cameron will have his task cut out in managing their aspirations vis-a-vis another referendum on the Scotland question. He will also have to take immediate action to reduce the budget deficit, bring back the economy on track, settle the EU predicament, find amicable solution to the immigration issue and set his foreign policy priorities. He may also have to fend off in-party challenge from the backbenchers and move on with his agenda.

At the same time Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats have to find new leaders and chart out a plan to get back to the reckoning in the minds of the Brits. The Labour Party has to find a replacement for Ed Miliband after he resigned from the leadership of the party after the terrible loss. The centre-leftist party must regain its lost ground in UK, particularly in Scotland, where it has ceded ground to SNP. Nick Clegg of the Lib Dems has relinquished his leadership of the party and now the party should also defenestrate the neo-liberalism expounded by Nick Clegg and co. and regain their social democratic heritage, if they want to remain relevant in UK.

Narendra Modi’s renowned hatred for the S-word

Being a secularist who gets constantly trolled by the sanghi trolls online, this writer very well knows the kind of abhorrence they have for secularism and secularists. The Hindutva elements in our country see secularism as an irritant that prevents their ultimate goal of making India a Hindu nation. Therefore it is not a matter of surprise that Narendra Modi, a former RSS pracharak, share that emotion of dislike, to use a milder word, for secularism and its proponents. He has made that emotion clear many a time, but what makes it curious is the place and occasion he chooses to make his comments. It was always when he was on his foreign trips, which he has had many in the last 10 months, that he makes his disparaging comments on secularism and secularists. When in Japan he had mocked secularists in India when he had said that secularists in his country would be kicking up storm on his gifting Bhagavad Gita to Japanese Emperor. And recently, when in Germany, he gave a second swipe at secularism when he suggested that in India respect for secularism and Sanskrit can never go hand in hand. He further suggested that when in the past German radio had Sanskrit bulletin, India hadn’t due to false notions of secularism prevailing in our country. 

On foreign soil when the Prime Minister himself makes fun of his country and its principles what impression does he leave behind on the audience about his country? That too from someone who is from a background where they claim themselves to be ultra nationalists. It is also from the head of the same government that had prevented Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai from going to London to criticise a mining project in India claiming that she would have embarrassed the country in front of foreign audience. Is it not an act of hypocrisy that Modi is now doing the same thing that he had accused Priya Pillai of planning to do – embarrassing the country in a foreign land?

Unlike Thomas Gradgrind of Dickens’ ‘Hard Times’, Narendra Modi is notorious for his blatant disregard or ignorance of facts. Like always he got his facts terribly wrong when he connected secularism and Sanskrit. In 1956 it was the government under ‘secular’ Nehru that made a series of recommendations on the promotion of Sanskrit in the private and public media. In 1974, it was during Indira Gandhi’s government, which tried to include the word ‘secular’ in Indian constitution, that All India Radio introduced news bulletin in Sanskrit. So his connecting Sanskrit and secularism in India has no factual basis.

Now what prompted Modi to take up this pointless subject on Sanskrit and secularism during a foreign trip that was supposed to be all about ‘Make in India’? It would probably be the controversy that erupted in India last year about Modi government’s thoughtless decision of replacing the teaching of German with Sanskrit in Kendriya Vidyalaya Schools. But it defies logic why he took up the point of Germany’s respect for the Indian language Sanskrit when what his government did was unceremonious defenestration of German language from the curriculum. 

The mocking of secularism, a constitutional principle of India, by Narendra Modi is unbecoming of a PM. It is high time he stop behaving like an RSS pracharak and start assuming the role of Prime Minister of all Indians, with adequate respect for the constitutional values of our country.

Who will win Cricket World Cup 2015?

It is an overused cliché that cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties and hence anyone who predicts the winner of a cricket world cup may have to swallow the humble pie once the tournament reaches its climax. However, without making a prediction on the winner of the tournament, this writer aims at analysing the chances of the eight test playing nations competing in the tournament. 

India: Let us start with India, the defending champions will play once again under the charismatic leadership of MS Dhoni. There is no doubt that India will have a very tough task ahead in defending their title. With the kind of team India has, with weak bowling and out of form batting, it will find it extremely difficult to face even average oppositions. Indian bowling has never been particularly strong, but the current crop of bowlers is appalling as far as discipline and abilities are concerned. With the absence of Ishant Sharma, fast bowling department of Indian bowling is awfully weak. When Bhuvaneshwar Kumar is a pretty decent bowler, it can’t be said about either Muhammad Shami or Umesh Yadav. Lack of consistency would be a major handicap for both of the bowlers. Their lines and lengths are wavered and their inability to master yorkers or slower balls, vital skills in an ODI bowler’s armoury, will definitely put them under the sword against quality batting. 

It is yet to be seen how much purchase spin bowlers get in Aussie and Kiwi pitches. Though wrist spinners have had some good record in those pitches, finger spinners rarely had good times there. Therefore it is highly unlikely that Aswin, Jadeja or Axar Patel will have big say in the affairs of a match. 

Indian batting line up is also in tatters and with the exception of Rohit Sharma and may be Rahane and Raina, no one is in the thick of their forms. Dhawan and Kohli are struggling, Rayudu is at best a mediocre operator and captain MS Dhoni appears past his prime. And if Stuart Binny is the best all rounder in India, then you know India is struggling quite terribly in that department. All in all, if India survives the first knock-out stage it will be a real wonder, but you can never completely write off Dhoni’s men.

Australia: Australia will always start any world cup as one of the favourites to win the cup and when the tournament is played in their backyard, they become the hot favourite to win the championship. It is yet to be seen if Australia will begin the tournament with Michael Clarke as captain as he is still unsure to play owing to the injury he suffered. The opening combination of Aaron Finch and David Warner will threaten any bowling side in the world. Steven Smith is in the form of his lifetime, Glenn Maxwell can blast away any attack with his unconventional style of batting, Mitchell Marsh can use the long handle well in the slog overs, James Faulkner is the best finisher among the current crop of players, wicket keeper-batsman Brad Haddin is as resilient as ever and if Shane Watson and George Bailey find their form then stopping Australia from scoring big will be extremely difficult. 

When it comes to bowling Australia has one of the most deadly combinations of fast bowler including Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, all three who can bowl at 145kms/hr and above. The two Mitchells have been at their top form and when they get the support of the pace and bounce of Australian pitches, they would be a handful. Though the spinning department with Xavier Doherty is a matter of worry, it could be so that Australia may even never look at playing him in the eleven. With Smith and Maxwell bowling their part time spinners well, Australia may look at using them as the spinning option. All-rounders Watson, Marsh and Faulkner add more firepower to the Aussie attack, not to mention the importance of brilliant strategies formed by the astute manager Darren ‘Boof’ Lehmann. 

South Africa: On the sheer basis of talent there is no better team to win the world cup than the Proteas. It is another matter that the most important thing that they have to fight off to emerge as champions is their own ‘choker’ image. In world cups they have had many a slip between the cup and the lip, starting from 1992 when they played world cup for the first time after many years of Apartheid. However things could be different this time around under the fiery captaincy of the one and only AB deVilliers.

One of the biggest headaches for bowlers around the world in this world cup would be how to tame the batting power of South Africa, and particularly the explosive, innovative and unstoppable AB deVilliers. ABD, as he is often called, is perhaps the most dangerous batsman of the present day. When he is going, nothing, absolutely nothing seems to be able to stop him. There is no challenge for a bowler in cricket world cup 2015 greater than stopping ABD. Add to it the brilliance of Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis, David Miller, Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy and the new kid on the block, Rilee Rossouw, you have the most dangerous batting line up in the world.

When it comes to bowling, South Africa has the best opening bowlers of the day – Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel. The pace and bounce these two fearsome men generate will test the best of the batsmen. Supporting them would be Vernon Philander, Kyle Abbott, Wayne Parnell, Imran Thahir and Aaron Phangiso. The high standards they set on their fielding would mean that an opposition team will get 10-15 runs short than they would have got against any other team.

Sri Lanka: “Let’s do it for Mahela and Sangakkara” would be the war cry that Sri Lanka would be making in this world cup. This would be the last time that the legends, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara would be playing World Cup for Sri Lanka and their team will do everything to give them a great farewell by winning the world cup. For the past few years, Sri Lanka has played a lot of final matches but was not able to finish off at the winning side. Last two world cups, they played the finals but lost at the last pitstop. When in 2007 Australia denied them the cup, in 2011 it was India.

Under the new captain, the super all-rounder Angelo Mathews, Sri Lanka is a formidable side. Other than Mahela and Sangakkara, they also have the experience and skill of Dilshan to call for. Add to it the youthful spirit of Dinesh Chandimal, Lahiru Thirimanne and Dimuth Karunaratne, they have a very strong batting line up. 

Bowling will be spearheaded by the inimitable Lasith Malinga, who will be supported by Nuwan Kulasekara, the all rounder Thisara Perera, Suranga Lakmal, Rangana Herath and others. However one weakness that would affect the Lankans would be the lack of precision in bowling with the exception of Malinga. Herath and Senanayake are good spin bowlers, but at the wickets in Australia and New Zealand, they both are unlikely to be effective.

New Zealand: It was in the year 1992 that a very brave Kiwi by name of Martin Crowe took his team to the cusp of glory when it played Pakistan in the semi-finals. But they fell there and were not able to make it to the finals of World Cup till now. Now is there chance to make immense and put their hands on that coveted cup. When the Kiwis take the field under the spirited leadership of Brendon McCullum, the cricketing world would look at them with great hope. Their captain is in top form and on his day he can tear apart any bowling attack in the world. Add to it the young, champion batsman Kane Williamson and the very talented Ross Taylor, Martin Guptill, the comeback man Grant Elliot and the Aussie-turned-Kiwi Luke Ronchi, New Zealand is a champion batting line up. And we haven’t still mentioned about the whirlwind batsman, Corey Anderson, the all-rounder who till recently had kept the record of the fastest hundred in ODIs.

Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Mitchell McClenaghan, Adam Milne, Nathan McCullum and the ever so young Daniel Vettori will manage the bowling attack. The fast bowlers of this side can test the reflexes of many a batsman with their speed. The guile of Vettori, perhaps the greatest left arm spinner of our times, is renowned all over the world. If New Zealand can really get together and put their best efforts, they can be the world champions this time.

England: Under the captaincy of Eoin Morgan, England will play this world cup with an intention to leave behind their ordinary world cup record and to emerge as a new champion of world cricket. They have swashbuckling opening pair of Alex Hales and James Taylor. They would be followed by Joe Root, Ian Bell, Moeen Ali, Gary Ballance, Ravi Bopara and Jos Buttler. 

English bowling is also strong and under the leadership of James Anderson they boast an incisive attack that also includes Stuart Broad, Steven Finn, Chris Woakes, Chris Jordan and James Tredwell. Though they are good side, recent form doesn’t give a lot of confidence to their supporters. But one can’t never write off the Englishmen either.

Pakistan: Pakistan is the dark horse in this world cup. It has always been an unpredictable team, which could win from an awful position and can lose from a favourable position. Under the captaincy of Misbah-ul-Haq, the finisher par excellence, Pakistan boasts a good batting line up that includes Shahid Afridi, Ahmed Shehzad, Nasir Jamshed, Umar Akmal, Younis Khan and an army of un-tested, new batsmen who would be raring to go and show their strength.

However, though Pakistan is generally known for their strong bowling line up, in this world cup it is pretty weak. In the absence of Saeed Ajmal, Pakistani bowling would be spearheaded by Wahab Riaz. Giving him company would be Rahat Ali, Mohammad Irfan, Ehsan Adil and Sohail Khan. But what opponent batsmen would really fear in this Pakistan line up would be the fast leg spin of Shahid Afridi.

Pakistan has really been handicapped by the absence of many of their important players, noted among them would be Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Hafiz and Junaid Khan.

West Indies: Like Pakistan, West Indies is also an unpredictable team. The absence of their key players Dwayne Bravo and Keiron Pollard, however, would affect their tournament performance. In the absence of those two key players, greater responsibility would come on the shoulders of Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels and Darren Sammy. With the kind of firepower that the above mentioned batsmen can generate, West Indies can always threaten any opposition.

Once upon a time West Indies bowlers had intimidated batsmen around the world with their pace. But today it is a thing of the past and the West Indies bowlers no longer generate a lot of fear among the minds of batsmen. Under Kemar Roach and Jerome Taylor, they still have some pace, but not the sharpness to threaten batsmen. However in limited over matches they can be quite handy and we could write them off only at our peril.

Bangladesh: The Bangladesh Tigers have often defeated bigger teams in world cup tournaments and outside. Though they emerged as a good team a few years back, they no longer have the firepower to be considered a giant killer. Bangladesh experimented with many captains and in this world cup they play under the captaincy of Mashrafe Mortaza, when two other former captains, Sakib al-Hassan and Mushfiqur Rahim are also in the team. Tamim Iqbal and Mahmudullah are also key players in the team, but the fortunes of the team would depend mostly on how Sakib will show his all-round performance.

Though he might end up having egg on the face if he resorts to prediction in a world cup cricket tournament, this writer would predict the four teams in the semi finals. Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. From there on it would be anyone’s game and the team that gets two good days will become the champion. As an Indian cricket fan this writer however hopes that some miracle would happen and India would defend their title. In the end, let us stop with another cliché, may the best team win.

In Delhi AAP wave decimates the Modi wave

When a party that won general elections with an overwhelming majority incurs a crushing defeat in a state to a party that came into existence just a couple of years back, you know that you are witnessing history. The Modi juggernaut was rolling on claiming win after win, in the general elections of 2014, assembly elections of Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and then in J&K. The party and its supporters were on cloud nine when electoral tragedy struck, which has brought down all of them to earth. The combination of the master speaker Narendra Modi and the master strategist and the former’s right hand man, Amit Shah has been running the party as their fiefdom and all important decisions of the party have been taken by them. Therefore as the credit of the election victories deservedly went to them, the responsibility of this huge loss must also rest with them. Out of 70 seats in Delhi, BJP was able to win only 3 seats, 29 seats less than what they got in 2013. AAP, under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal, made a virtual clean sweep as they won 67 of the remaining seats. How did BJP slump to such a huge loss in Delhi?

Though they boast about and roam around the country claiming to be master strategists, Modi and Shah made the strategic mistake of not calling for elections in Delhi along with elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand. It is still unclear what made them postpone the decision for so long. One line of thought is that the duo assumed that in a few months, after the defeat in the general elections, AAP will disintegrate and disappear into oblivion. In that case BJP could have had a free run with no strong opposition to counter them. However in the intervening months what happened was something the duo didn’t expect. Instead of disintegrating, AAP strengthened their grass-root level actions and their volunteers. They worked with the common man and created a strong base that flung into action during the elections. When BJP’s state leadership and activists were involved in deep infighting, AAP’s activists and leaders were concentrating on rebuilding their lost trust after the 49 day government resigned much to people’s discontent. Kejriwal was forthright in apologising to the people for his ill-advised move and requested Delhi-ites to give him another chance to make immense.

Anti-establishment emotions have been very strong in India in general and in a state like Delhi in particular. During the run up to the 2014 general elections, Narendra Modi was able to position himself as someone who is not an insider of the establishment. He made good use of his chaiwallah image, which made common people believe that he was one among them. He positioned himself as the underdog who was fighting against the corrupt establishment, which was Congress. However, after assuming power at the centre as the Prime Minister of the country, Modi lost his image as the common man. His high profile foreign visits, which squandered a lot of public money, came for criticism from the public. The 10 lakh suit with his name printed on it that he wore during the Republic Day celebration established him in the public eye as a narcissistic leader who gives a lot of importance to self image and lavish lifestyle, a characteristic feature of those in the establishment. His arrogance and sometimes laughable show of self-importance were on display on all his public appearances, which flashed into the public’s eye through live television coverage.

Narendra Modi had been the star campaigner for BJP in the general elections and state elections after that. However signs of his losing popularity was evident when only a very few numbers turned out to listen to him in the first public rally he addressed in Delhi. This made Amit Shah understand that Modi wave was not going to work wonders for the party in Delhi. He understood that BJP needed someone with big public acceptance as the BJP’s leader to counter the Kejriwal effect. For that Shah inducted Kiran Bedi to the party and made her party’s Chief Ministerial candidate. But this didn’t augur well for the party as long time BJP workers felt let down by Amit Shah on bringing an outsider as their leader. Public was also able to see through the dishonest political ambitions of a late turncoat like Ms. Bedi. She was not able to garner the support of her party or gain the trust of her electorate. 

When BJP understood that they are losing their battle against AAP in Delhi, they resorted to a lot of mudslinging to discredit AAP. Such a negative campaign didn’t go down well with the people of Delhi. BJP roped in their 120 MPs and 25 ministers of Central government for the negative campaign against AAP. Even Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, otherwise known as a lady of impeccable integrity and dignity, was used to disgrace AAP, where she called AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal a ‘chor’ on the issue of alleged dubious donations to AAP. BJP used cartoons to bring disrepute to Kejriwal and even dragged his family into it. All these negative campaign tactics not only didn’t work for the BJP but also backfired on them.

Another reason why BJP had to face a terrible loss in Delhi is because it was unable to reign in the divisive, Hindutva elements. Delhi voters were clever enough to understand the sectarian agenda of those bigots who attempted to dictate their cultural and lifestyle choices. The likes of Sakshi Maharaj and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti have alienated the liberals in the country from the BJP. Though the aspirational young voters of the country are not moved by the traditional politics over ‘secularism’, which often means minority appeasement, they are not influenced by the inflammatory statements made by the Hindutva elements in BJP either. The Hindutva elements in BJP are not the fringe elements, they are mainstream elements, and it is the development-oriented people who are the fringe elements in BJP. With his silence on such utterances made by the extremist elements in his party, Narendra Modi appeared to have a silent complicity in these acts. If he remains silent people will believe that he connives with those in the party who take forward disruptive Hindutva policies like Ghar Wapsi.

Narendra Modi should now understand that his hollow promises of development won’t work anymore and unless he fulfils his promises with some real work on the ground his popularity will sink to deep depths pretty soon. He should stop playing the role of a King with his ostentatious display of costly suits, lavish foreign trips and orchestrated stage performances abroad. Instead he should get down from his thrown and should work to better the lives of millions of people who voted for him after believing his promises of a better India. 

BJP has credited the Modi wave with their emphatic performance in the state elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and in J&K. But now when they have slumped to one of their biggest defeats, the party is trying desperately to save Modi’s face. If the win was because of the rampant Modi wave, this loss is certainly because the wave is waning in strength and has ceased to be rampant. Moreover, if the party is not ready to consider the Delhi loss as a dangerous sign and continue to derive satisfaction on the technical fact that it has maintained its vote percentage in Delhi, then the party is all set for a nosedive into further embarrassment. 

Obama’s India visit has taught us ‘bromance’ and ‘megalomania’

It is the habit of English media in India to dig out queer words from the dictionary and keep on harping on them whenever any news event of rareness unfolds. For a language lover, such occasions are certainly exciting times as he/she will get a great opportunity to add to his/her vocabulary some beautiful words. American President Barack Obama’s visit to India has certainly been the most newsworthy event of the new year and the media hasn’t disappointed us even this time. The bonhomie between the American President and the Indian Prime Minister as well as the controversy that was kicked up after Modi’s extravagant suit with his own name etched on it came up have resulted in the arrival to the scene of two incredible words – ‘bromance’ and ‘megalomania’. Let us look into these words one by one, taking the positive word first.

Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘bromance’ as “intimate and affectionate friendship between men.” The Indian media was quite gung ho about this bromance which was on display between Barack Obama and Narendra Modi. Obama is the first American President who is the Chief Guest of India’s Republic Day celebrations. 

If there was one casualty of this tremendous bromance, then it was protocol. Many a time protocol was broken to make way for this magnificent expression of bromance between the two leaders. In the beginning of the visit, Modi broke protocol and drove in to receive the American President immediately after Air Force One landed on the runway (during 2010 Dr. Manmohan Singh also broke protocol and went in to receive Obama). The bromance was again palpable when the two leaders greeted each other with a spontaneous hug. Observers were quick to point out the growing personal relationship between Obama and Modi when the two went for a brief walk on the lawns of Hyderabad House. They also observed that the bromance between the two became all the more evident when Modi addressed Obama by his first name ‘Barack’, whereas Obama addressed the Indian PM as ‘Modi’. Protocol once again bit the dust when Modi chose to sit to the right of Obama during the Republic Day parade, when protocol would have wanted the chief guest (in this case Obama) to sit between the President of India and the Vice President. Modi appeared so much immersed in his bromance with Obama that he even shoved away the Vice President to gain a seat near Obama. During the parade, Obama and Modi were seen chatting together, smiling away and applauding jointly like two men joined together after many years of painful estrangement. The bromance between the two men was so deep that even Jai and Viru would be jealous of them.

The word ‘megalomania’ has been in vogue in Indian media since Narendra Modi’s expensive suit, with his name etched on it, became the talk of the town (and the international media). Oxford English Dictionary will come to our aid once again to explain to us that the word ‘megalomania’ means “delusions of power or self importance.” 

If someone who wears a suit with his own name embroidered on it is not someone who excessively believes in his self importance, then who is? Designers say that even by conservative estimates the suit would have cost around 5-8 lakhs and when a man who roamed around India on a stupefying election campaign claiming to be a man of frugal lifestyle wears such a costly suit, questions are bound to arise. Washington Post reported that “Prime Minister Modi wore a suit that takes personalization to a ridiculous extreme.” Such flagrant show of megalomania must have shocked even his most ardent fans. It must be seen if Narendra Modi would ever don the suit again and if he is not going to wear that ever again, spending so much money on such a cheap show of flamboyance should be questioned. Another pertinent question is who sponsored this suit for Modi and if it has been brought using the tax payers money, then Modi should come under serious scrutiny for such a shockingly narcissistic display with the use of public money. With the kind of self endorsement and self promotion that our PM Modi has made a habit of, we can rest assured that the media will not allow us to forget the word megalomania anytime soon.

As a common citizen of India, this author would hope that the bromance between President Obama and Prime Minister Modi would flourish profusely, if that could provide some gain to the country. He would also wish whole-heartedly that PM Modi would take himself a bit lightly, relinquish pomposity and would get on to work for keeping the big promises he had made during the election campaign. However as an English language enthusiast, this writer welcomes the emergence of both ‘bromance’ and ‘megalomania’ with equal relish. Let us prosper; let the language prosper.