Month: December 2012

The Culture of Hysteria and Despair: Delhi Rape Episode

It seems Delhi is well on its way towards being crowned with infamy of being the Rape Capital of the World surpassing Johannesburg in sheer outcry. The last week has been in the spotlight regarding sexual crimes one after the other, spontaneous protests and irrational political response, and the this entire conversation is being mediated by a even more irrational media establishment. Rational and sane voices seem to getting drowned in the cacophony of irrational rhetoric.  The right issues are being sidelined. Men and Boys have to be taught how to respect women from a young age. Rape is cowardly act, a symptom of inferiority complexes. Our esteemed Presidents Son called the protesters at India Gate ‘Painted and Dented’ , a horrible male chauvinistic quip being a public figure. Use of Water Cannons and Lathi Charging the crowd is abominable, as is the death of the poor constable on duty.

The sensationalism of the media adds to the chaos. Sexual Crimes are the greatest shame of a civilized society. A deep rooted catharsis of our male dominated culture needs to change. The word rape is getting raped in India as eminent Kashmiri tweeter Shehla Rashid wrote.  Rape is about exertion of power and not sex. It is equal to murder of flesh, spirit and soul.

All the participants in this conversation; media, intelligentsia, youth, government are all getting it all wrong. But the anger is palpable, although Bollywoodesque Rang De Basanti type candle light vigils at Carter Road, Mumbai and India Gate, Delhi are not the solution, but thats the best that the youth can engage in. What other way do we have.

Effective Policing is needed, not more laws. One of the most desensitized places a woman can go is to a police station.  People passing the onus of responsibility to women to dress sensibly are simply passing the buck. The Buck needs to stop somewhere and concrete measures need to be taken. The last sentence was written with a sigh of exasperation.

That woman did not die in vain. She struck a chord in our national consciousness.

The inflection point for change is now.

Serangoon to Saki Naka…..

This year has been quite eventful. This year started off in Singapore and is ending off in Mumbai. Started off as a Grad Research Candidate in Singaporean University in the Liberal Arts to now as a consultant with a prominent engineering services major. From Social Research Methods to Contaminant Remediation, the spectrum has been eclectic lah!  Well, i moonlight my days as a writer and a social sector contributor in my very small way too. Writing and expressing myself in the written word has been a passion since my teenage years. Contributing to the public discourse as an aaam admi is vital and web 2.0 has made it even easier.

Serangoon for the uninitiated is an area in Singapore and an interchange on the purple and yellow lines of the MRT. Quite a major locus of the public transportation hub in the tiny red dot. Saki Naka is a major intersection in the suburbs in Mumbai. Busy is a gross understatement. Serangoon is a metaphor for a quite residential HDB Town with a brand new expanded MRT with a new shopping mall next door. It stands for renewal in a way. Saki Naka on the contrary symbolises the raw energy and dynamism of an urban megapolis in the developing world with upcoming office blocks of glass capturing the uneasy globalization with thesis office blocks emerging out of former slum housing. The dialectics of growth and progress. Stands for hope on one side of the coin but sacrifice on the other. This year has quite been in that vain. Sacrifices of a past life have laid the pathway for the future. Dropping out of my second grad program was not easy but the opportunity to enter ‘real world’ was equally tempting, so hence took the plunge in to the deep end of the pool. From a life of planned surety of Serangoon to the dynamic chaos of Saki Naka, this year has been one hell of a journey, for the better professionally atleast.

I still yearn for the serenity of Serangoon but the traffic of Saki Naka teaches me a lot more everyday. And I am thankful for my Blessings and have learnt to treat Chapati and Noodles with equal wattage. Though I love Teh more 😉

Rubanised India: Changing Development Narratives

A lot of states in India are predominantly urban. Delhi NCR, Haryana, Goa, Punjab along with Coastal  Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat have urban landscapes. A large number of folks have moved on from agriculture to the service economy, given up their lands in lieu for SEZ’s and made an attempt to join the community of wage earners in the network economy. Four Lane Highways are built, new factories are set up- the marginal farmer now works as a gate keeper in on the same piece of land his farm land used to be on (Ala the movie Shanghai). This has made a few farmers rich who drive Pajeros in Gurgaon but the tenant farmers who are now landless move to cities to join the unorganized economy.

Urbanization and the proliferation of towns and new expanded cities are the locus of the neo middle class with global aspirations. He wants to send his kid to a public school and not a Kendriya Vidyalaya and works in a IT related job. The new workforce is tiny and has transitioned past caste or religion based affirmative action to find them work. This although has not changed basics: attitudes towards women, religion still plays a major role in our social fabric and the ills of caste still persist.

As cities expand in to the hinterland, the villages in the periphery of these cities demonstrate symbols of modernity such as a motor bike and a dth box on terraces. Sadly these same places lack clean drinking water and primary health centres that are poorly staffed.

Rubanization is a two way lane; the physical infrastructure will have to complimented by social software of cultural up gradation, medical facilities and maintaining natural social capital. Urban communities have a propensity to rediscover identities in their faith and exert a community centric politics. Delhi Sikh Riots and Gujarat 2002 are illustrations to make that point robust.

The politics of urban India is changing too. Manifestos proclaim the free distribution of laptops and slogans of India Shining and Bengal Leads flood the airwaves. This though has extremely limited political payoff. The mantra of Bijli Sadak Paani is commonplace in political discourse. Newer actors have entered the scene such as the Aam Admi Party and Team Anna, espousing Middle Class India’s grievances. The Shiva Sena and MNS base their survival on the Urban Vote, along with the BJP and the Congess in Delhi.

Narendra Modi’s victory for the third term has vital implications for the politics of urban development in our country. Modi won 80% of the urban seats in Gujarat to drive home his win. Dixit in Delhi is the three term CM of the Congress with a urban banner.

The down side of rubanization is the inability of our economy to create meaningful employment away from the land. The Demographic Dividend can tick way to a Demographic timebomb if proper environment and opportunities are not rendered to the youth. In this Web 2.0 globalised age of social media on our cell phones, expectations are rising and the demand is not being met by the education sector nor by the industry. Frustrations can leads to a politics of politics and parochialism if not checked in time. Structural reforms are needed to create jobs.Development is often all about employment. Youth are already angry with the inflation and the widening chasm between the have and the have nots. Not everyone can join the global economic mainstream. It needs a distinctive skill set. The MBA degree is now a mere pre requisite for a job of any sort.

This mega trend will accelerate in the coming decade and has a potential impact on politics and demographics beyond current estimates. Interesting times are certainly coming up.

The Conversation Gap: disconnect in political participation

I notice a lot of chatter on social media platforms regarding civic activism on twitter and facebook regarding the recent rape in Delhi, the un necessary chatter about Foreign Direct Investment in Organised Retail and the o fcourse the latest flavor of the season whether its cricket or Bollywood  keep on shifting. One thing is constant, that the online space has provided which the mainstream does not. What option does a working professional have in expressing his interest in public life apart from shouting on social media? 

The mainstream political entities are incredibly dynastical in character, getting an electoral ticket from my assembly seat would be almost as hard for a middle class guy such as me as reaching the moon. And i am not kidding, the extent of money power, muscle and connections matter in Indian political life, make it the profession or a calling with the highest entry barrier. 

The young, educated and concerned citizen is relegated to a silent spectators on the stands of a Democratic Gladiatorial Theater. Well, the fortunate few join Think Tanks in Delhi like CPR, Observer, Vivekanada Foundation can still play a part in shaping the national conversation. Academia is another way, but again restrictive in nature. Media is a way, but the influence is again only at the high table. Political Parties are simply incapable of attracting the best professional talent for political activism in the current scenario. The Civic Society oriented Kejriwal led AAP is a beacon of hope, but its efficacy is still to be evaluated. Still, this is a positive development in an Island of Gloom.

I most certainly feel disenfranchised in the world’s so called largest democracy which at best a dynastocracy with divisive and parochial agendas which the ideology of the significant players. Can the Middle Class which sleeps, finally have a voice?

Redefining Secularism- time to chart a new course?

This post has been inspired by a friend’s post on this very topic of Secularism. This is not a retort but a ideologically heterodox individual’s perspective that the issues of today are beyond narrow ideological construct of the Left and the Right. There is something right regarding the left and vice versa as per the period of history that one is treading through cautiously. The Word Secular has been abused to the extent that its original essence of a plural and inclusive polity has been bastardized beyond recognition. The term ‘Communal’ is used to tarnish anyone who is proud of a Hindu Heritage. Its usually utilized liberally by the folks of the liberal elite. 

Secularism’s definition is broken- all that the notion stands for today is vote bank politics of caste and parochial identities. Its idea needs to be restored to its original essence of the 1976 amendment to the preamble. The Idea of a plural and inclusive polity depends upon the edifice of secularism. 

A drastic requirement is there of this very hour to save Indian Politics from a static rhetorical rut, a bankruptcy of intellectual energies which is leading us to a paralysis in our discourse. We simply cannot think beyond the binary structures of Left and Right;  ‘Sickular’ and Communal.

There needs to be a realization that folks do vote for the Right as well as vote for the communists in this nation. The Secular Politicians from Maharashtra do travel to Pandharpur very year and so too the Right Wing Politicians who pay homage to their respective shrines. Very Few are Manishankar Iyer who worship at the altar of Secularism and pay respects to 10 Janpath. Well, that’s Idol Worship of a kind too.

Welfare 2.0 : Direct Cash Transfer as a Killer App?

When Nandan Nilekani’s Biometric Identification card initiative : Aadhar commenced in 2009, it seemed to be an ambitious public information infrastructure project, without any political pay off for the ruling establishment. Well, it was Nandan Nilekani- India’s celebrated IT CEO turned cabinet minister level technocrat, having repeated run in’s with the Home and Finance Ministry’s over security concerns and budgetary allocations. Turf Wars in the Bureaucratic mess of Delhi.

I am an advocate of State based welfare schemes and have been pro MNREGA and other big ticket schemes (folks might call them mega scams generating options too). Well, because scams might take place because of leakages in the system, the state should not abandon its  Public Goods Deliverable’s. Welfare is often the only resort of the poorest of poor.

Steps might be implemented in terms of plugging in the leakages via adequate implementation of existing policies or even introduce a legislation such as Lok Pal. One of the four basic services which the Government should provide are Public Goods such as Subsidy. Diesel subsidy for running SUV’s is a blatant exploitation of the loopholes.

Applying large scale IT solutions can help track loop holes, but local level innovative solutions are required to monitor graft and leakages. Manpower is in shortage to implement existing programmes, so additional heads are required that such a mega project can work. Announcing a scheme and executing it with the allocation of relevant resources; local and central are a pre-requisite. Involvement of civil society and private sector are paramount in bridging the skills shortage.

Direct Cash Transfer can help cut out the middle man in disbursing pensions and scholarships where financial infrastructure is absent. I am not really confident if it can replace the Public Distribution System for Subsidized grains in the near future. Entitlement based welfare has to be multi pronged in strategy.

This initiative has given Nandan Nilekani’s project a political life and Congress a life line for 2014. Aapka Paisa aapke haath, sounds empowering to the common man but it leaves him also at the mercy of the market forces of demand and supply as the cash transfer is a rigid and finite event.

Who said Technology cant drive political innovativeness? never underestimate the likes of Jairam and PC to pull out a trick out of their hat. Did i mention that Jairam and Nandan were batchmates at IIT Bombay?