The Maharashtra Police - The Most Debased Organization in the World. (or… Why Government in India is the Problem)

Most Indian government servants are parasitical scum. They are amongst the most unabashedly corrupt, inefficient, incompetent groups of people in the world – and are generally filled with a completely unjustified sense of self worth. This may seem like an extreme statement, but the events over the last few months lead me to believe with increasing conviction that this is true. India has consistently figured among the more corrupt countries in the league tables published by Transparency International. The quality of government services we receive is truly pathetic – as anyone who looks at the quality of infrastructure in India can attest. Various arms of the Indian government would, in my view, dominate any list of the absolute dregs of humanity. But as the Mercedes Benz ad goes, “any list must have a leader…”, and heading the list of the most debased, third rate organizations in the world is the Maharashtra Police.

There is no better illustration of this fact than a casual read through yesterday’s newspapers (Times of India and Hindustan Times date January 4, 2008). On the front page is the reporting on the Juhu molestation case. To recount the facts, 2 couples stepped out of the 5 star JW Marriot Hotel heading for Juhu Beach in the early hours of New Year’s Day. They were set upon by a bunch of vicious, drunk loafers – the women were molested for a considerable period of time before a cop responded to the urgent pleadings of two journalists who witnessed the events and dispersed the mob (without making any arrests). When this matter was highlighted by the journalists to Archana Tyagi, Deputy Commissioner of Police, her major concern was that the witnesses and victims had gone to the wrong police station after the incident. And the Commissioner of Police, D.N. Jadhav, had the gall to say that this was a minor incident, which was being blown out of proportion by the media. Despite the HT of January 2, 2008 publishing photos of the culprits, the police took no action, on the specious ground that the victims (who are California based NRIs visiting Bombay) has not lodged a complaint. It was only after an entire day’s blanket coverage of the incident in various news channels that the police deigned to file a complaint against the culprits. The following day, 14 members of the mob were arrested. The cops cited this as an example of efficient policing – though the shameless Jadhav remained patently unrepentant, continuing the blame the media for hyping the incident. But after spending a scant 12 hours in jail, the 14 accused in a case of molestation were released on bail. Most of them claimed to be mere “bystanders”, who happened to have been caught in the camera frame. Why such innocent bystanders failed to rescue the women who were being assaulted by “others” (who were not caught on camera) was not explained.

The attitude of the cops seems to be that the women who were wearing western clothes, drinking and roaming around late at night (even with their own husbands), were “asking for it.” The impact of the Maharashtra police’s attitude towards molestation charges was borne out by reporting in today’s paper – Maharashtra has amongst the lowest rates of conviction in cases of assault and rape in India – merely about 15%. This of course is calculated as a percentage of cases in which charges are filed. Given that the police was so reluctant to even file charges in a case where there is photographic evidence of the crime on the front page of a newspaper; one can imagine how low the odds of a rapist or molester being convicted actually are.

The same day’s Times of India also carried a repeat of an article published on November 3. This deals with the case of K Lakshmana, a Bangalore based employee of HCL Tech, who was arrested and charged under Sec 295A of the Indian Penal Code and Sec 67 of the IT Act, for allegedly having published an image maligning Shivaji. The shameless scumballs at Google (who claim to “do no evil" ; and admittedly who are the guys who provide me the space to publish this blog for free) gave the IP address from which the post had been made to the Maharashtra Police. And the idiots at Bharti Airtel, the ISP from which the post had been made, actually screwed up and erroneously gave Mr. Lakshmana’s name as the user who posted the material.

Mr. Lakshamana was held without bail or trial for 55 days along with common criminals. Allegedly, the “crime” of maligning Shivaji on the net (which offends the religious sentiments of the grand religion of Shivaji Bhaktism -:))was so serious that bail had to be refused. And the amazing thing is that the detention continued for 3 weeks after Bharti realized its error and gave the identity of 3 others who were promptly arrested by the police. (and presumably held without bail). Asked to react on this matter, assistant commissioner Netaji Shinde says, “Yes, we made a mistake. So what?’’ That’s the reaction of the arrogant cop about the jailing of an innocent person for 55 days without bail.

Compare the speed with which the police act because someone uses his freedom of expression to insult a long dead king to their reaction when women are molested on the roads of Bombay. Compare the period of 55 days without bail to the alacrity with which the 14 people caught on camera molesting women are freed. (or even the speed at which people convicted in the Bombay blasts case for plotting murder citizens through terrorist acts get bail). Can any rational person fail to consider a police force that acts in such a wanton manner anything but a bunch of scum?

BTW, what happened to the three people who actually insulted Shivaji? Are they still in jail? No idea – I could not find anything more about their fate. Is insulting Shivaji a crime? Personally, I think he was a hero, who saved Indians from being converted into Islam (and what fate could be worse than being a Muslim?). But I am sure there are plenty of people who do not agree. The fundamentalist Muslim might think of him as a villain, who ensured that India once again became “Dar-ul-harb” instead of being “Dar-ul-islam." His troops, like all soldiers of their day, may have molested those who owed allegiance to rival kings (though they were certainly not as bad as Aurangazeb’s men they fought against) – and people who were affected may nurse grudges against him for that. And the fact is that even a random, wanton, unreasoned insult to Shivaji does not harm either Shivaji’s memory or anybody else. Like the Danish cartoonists, someone who insults Shivaji could be held guilty of bad taste but nothing else. Insulting Shivaji (or anyone else) online (or offline) is NOT a crime. Any law that holds that insulting Shivaji is a crime is clearly violative of the freedom of expression that people have under the Indian Constitution (and also under international laws on Human Rights). And those who prosecute people who insult someone online or offline are nothing but a bunch of “excretory orifices” who must be treated with absolute and utter contempt.

These two contrasting reports on January 4 clearly show why one can call the Maharashtra police one of the most debased organizations in the world. But there are several other instances that prove this. The most recent is the case where a police inspector, P.D. Shinde, has confessed before a magistrate that three senior IPS officers, joint commissioner Arup Patnaik, additional commissioner Bipin Bihari and assistant inspector Jagdish Shail of Juhu police station pressured him into filing a false case against a builder, Rajendra Chaturvedi, alleging that Mr. Chaturvedi had hired assasins to kill a rival builder. The press has been speculating that perhaps one of Mr. Chaturvedi’s rivals paid off the cops to implicate him. Or perhaps it was part of the general blackmail operations conducted by senior police officers to raise money. While no one knows what the facts of this case are, the fact the senior officers could be implicated in such a case shows the depth to which the Maharashtra Police has sunk. The Telgi scam, and the fact that the Mumbai commissioner of police was implicated in the same, also illustrates how the debasement of the force has taken place at all levels.

People in India often see the government as a solution for all their problems. We tend to call for government intervention to protect ordinary people from real or imagined problems. But as the debasement of the Maharashtra police shows, government in India is clearly not a part of the solution – it is in fact the problem that is preventing progress in this country. Countries like Singapore and the Scandinavian countries are blessed with a culture of honesty – India is cursed with a culture of dishonesty. All of us are guilty of contributing to this culture. But Indian government servants are the lowest of the low – people who pimp their motherland because it profits them. There is no scope for progress in this country as long as these shitheads have power. We need a laissez faire economy, where people stand on their own feet, and do not expect the government to contribute. We need to vote in politicians who pledge to shrink government – pay the b@$tards their salaries if necessary but keep them away from positions of power where they can do harm. And all of us must stop expecting government to solve our problems and should instead fight to put government employees in their true place – as the servants of the people instead of their masters.

Scrap the AICTE … Free Our Educational System

The Delhi High Court yesterday upheld the claim of the AICTE that the CFA Institute offers “Technical Education” and hence must subject itself to the jurisdiction of the AICTE. The implication of this verdict is that Indian students who wish to complete the CFA program offered by the CFA Institute (as opposed to its local clone offered by the so called ICFAI University of Tripura – undoubtedly the “capital” of finance knowledge the world over)are currently barred from obtaining this qualification.

First let us look at the background of this case. The CFA designation from the CFA Institute (formerly AIMR) is undoubtedly one of the premier qualifications in finance the world over. In the early 1990s, ICFAI started offering the CFA program in India, initially under license from the CFA Institute (if I am not mistaken). The tie up quickly ended, but ICFAI continued to offer its programs bearing the CFA designation. As an MBA student in the mid 1990s, I too considered taking up the ICFAI program, but decided to skip it once I discovered from colleagues in the US that the local qualification was not recognized by international financial institutions. Towards the late 1990s, with the liberalisation in exchange controls, a number of Indian students started enrolling for the CFA Program offered by the CFA Institute, paying for the materials with international credit cards, and going to centres like Singapore to take the exams. Subsequently, the CFA Institute started offering its examinations in India – and a large number of Indian professionals were able to obtain the CFA qualification in this manner. In the meantime, the CFA Institute continued to litigate against ICFAI to prevent it from using the CFA designation. For a while it looked like the CFA Institute would win, with the Delhi High Court barring ICFAI from using the trademark. But over the last 12 months, there have been a number of dramatic reverses suffered by the CFA Institute, the end result of which is the above judgment which unnecessarily penalizes Indian professionals.

The first step was when ICFAI converted itself into a university based in Tripura, called the ICFAI University Tripura. Tripura, for readers who are not from India (and perhaps even for Indian readers from Bombay or Delhi who can’t see beyond the ends of their noses) is a small state (pop 3.1 mm), in the North Eastern corner of India, surrounded by Bangladesh, which is famous for being the only part of India other than West Bengal and Kerala that regularly votes in Communist governments. Like West Bengal, Tripura has been ruled by the CPM for most of the past four decades. Unlike West Bengal, which used to be India’s industrial capital at one point in time, and consequently has quality finance education (notably at IIM Calcutta, my alma mater), Tripura is however not noted for the quality of either its businesses or its educational institutions. I personally can’t think of a single listed Indian company with a headquarters in Tripura. Such a communist state, without any significant business activity, is undoubtedly the right base for a high quality finance university.

Shortly thereafter, a petition was filed in the Agartala (capital of Tripura) bench of the Guwahati High Court, asking for the AICTE to take action against the CFA Institute for illegally running a technical education program in India. The Court promptly acted on the petition and directed the AICTE to look into the matter.

AICTE issued notices to the CFA Institute, and promptly came out with an order directing it to cease all activities in India. This order, issued very shortly before the CFA exams, led to considerable consternation in the business press. The Delhi High Court was moved, and it gave an interim stay permitting the exams to be held in India. The argument the CFA Institute took was that it did not run a technical education program and hence did not fall within the jurisdiction of the AICTE. The AICTE, like all third rate Indian government bodies, disagreed – and claimed that it had the right to regulate all kinds of higher education in India. The Delhi High Court, in its recent verdict, seems to have agreed with the AICTE, and barred the CFA Institute from operating in India.

In my view, the CFA Institute was making the wrong argument – trying to take a narrow technical interpretation of a law was clearly not the path to succeed – what needed to be questioned was the fundamental constitutionality of the AICTE Act. The AICTE, incidentally publishes on its website, a list of unapproved institutes offering technical education courses in India with foreign collaboration. Institutes on this list include the Indian School of Business, the CII Naoroji Godrej Centre of Excellence, the Great Lakes Institute of Management in Chennai, and assorted branches of IIPM. The fact that students would much rather study in, and recruiters would much rather recruit from ISB than 99.9% of AICTE recognized management institutes (viz. all recognized institutes other than IIM A, IIM B and IIM C) is irrelevant for the scum ball bureaucrats at the AICTE. All that matters to them is that all educational institutions must come crawling before them for accreditation.

What is the basis on which AICTE gives an institute accreditation? A glance at the AICTE website reveals the process. Fill out a form, specifying the address of the institute, the courses it runs, its permanent location (which must be approved by the AICTE), the land area, the number of classrooms and their area, the number of library books, the sources of funds et al ad nauseum. Certify that you will not run any unapproved courses, follow AICTE guidelines for admission, and not charge capitation fees. Thereafter, the bureaucrats will grant you approval, if they deem that the information you have provided is in line with their norms for a quality educational institution. All of this, of course, is governed by an act of parliament, and recent regulations put out by the AICTE governing operation of foreign educational bodies in India. The purview of AICTE covers programmes of technical education including training and research in Engineering, Technology, Architecture, Town Planning, Management, Pharmacy, Applied Arts and Crafts, Hotel Management and Catering Technology etc. at different levels. From the above definition, it does not seem to me (as a lay person) that Financial Analysis is included in the purview of the AICTE. The Delhi High Court obviously thinks otherwise (perhaps Financial Analysis is covered by the including and etcetera -:) ) – we will need to wait and read its reasoned (!!!) judgment in this regard.

So what next? I guess an appeal to the Supreme Court will follow. If the High Court verdict is not overturned, Indian residents will no longer be able to register for the CFA Program. The CFA Institute will lose some students, but the market will continue to reward those who secure this qualification. How will people get around this problem? Those who are studying or working outside India will be able to register with an offshore address. Those who can afford it may take up a temporary residence outside India to register for the program. Perhaps the CFA Institute will tolerate white lies – allow people to register without insisting on a proof of foreign address as long as they pay through a credit card from outside India. (The stock of NRI uncles will suddenly rise…). But ordinary resident Indians will be impacted – and will undoubtedly lose some opportunities as a result. Is it the end of the world? Of course not! The CFA Charter, like IIM MBAs, is a signalling mechanism – and those who are good will find some other way to strut their stuff.

The bigger issue is that the AICTE will undoubtedly be inspired by this victory, and start tilting at other “unrecognized” educational bodies like ISB. And that is the fundamental point. In a country which is woefully incapable of providing basic education to children, why should there be a government bureaucracy which approves what adults can study? The CFA charter and the ISB MBA are both post graduate qualifications. People going for a post graduation are surely capable of taking care of themselves, and deciding if a qualification helps their careers. Even for undergraduate courses, the fact is that unrecognized GNIIT qualifications offer much better prospects for students than most Indian university degrees.

The very existence of a third rate body like the AICTE reveals the statist mindset of Indian bureaucrats and politicians. They believe that they have the right to control all that the Indian people see or do. This attitude has no place a democratic and liberal society. Fortunately, the mainstream media has for once taken a reasonable position on this issue – instead of slavishly parroting the government line, there have been a few editorials asking the AICTE to live and let live – by listing unrecognized educational institutions but not stopping their operation. But this, in my view is not enough.

Government control over education is clearly a violation of the fundamental right of free speech –even with the overly broad exceptions that the constitution of India provides to circumscribe this right. Hence the AICTE Act is almost certainly ultra vires the Indian constitution. So it must be scrapped – either by parliament recognizing its mistake, or by the Supreme Court. I plan to right to my MP in this regard – so must you. And if any of the PIL brigade reads this, please go ahead and litigate – I would even be willing to right a small cheque to support your cause.

BTW – just realized that the AICTE had passed regulations restricting operations of foreign universities in 2005 – so all this is the b@st@#d Tendu Raja’s doing.

Nandigram – Why is anyone surprised?

The events over the past week in Nandigram have finally managed to draw mainstream media attention to the true nature of the CPM. The so called “liberal” media and “intellectuals” have traditionally adopted a fawning attitude towards the CPM (and the rest of the left front), claiming that they are nothing but a bunch of perhaps misguided, nice guys. As mentioned several times in this blog, the fact is that communists, who represent an ideology responsible for more murders than any other, can never be decent human beings – just as Nazis can never be decent human beings. But this has often been ignored by the media, which loves to pretend to be supporting the underdog.

Finally, the CPM seems to have overreached, and temporarily, at the very least, drawn attention to its unsavoury side. The historical record in Nandigram is fairly clear – the CPM attempted to grab land for an SEZ to be set up by an Indonesian (if I am not mistaken) company. The people of Nandigram (like those in Singur earlier) protested – and the land grab was withdrawn. The bigger issue for the CPM was that the agitation united the anti-CPM forces, and led to a transfer of power at the local level away from the CPM’s goons. In true commie style, the CPM struck back, bringing out its vast cache of hidden arms, in an attempt to murder and rape its way back to power at the local level. A large number of people have been killed, raped et al. The amazing thing is that even after almost a week, the media has not been able to make its way to Nandigram (the best that people have achieved is isolated shots smuggled out by locals of one guy being shot dead in cold blood), and one does not have a clear picture of what is happening. Stalin and Mao would no doubt have been proud!

Even more disconcertingly, despite this evidence, people continue to treat the CPM with kid gloves, and seem almost apologetic while gently quizzing its spokespersons on the events taking place in Bengal. Further, no one has commented on the sudden appearance of well armed commie troops, using military style manoeuvres to capture Nandigram on behalf of the CPM. Where did these arms come from? Who funded them? Who trained the commie troops? No one seems to know or care!

For people like me, this only reinforces a long held belief– there should be only one untouchable force in Indian politics and that is the commie bastards. Men like Jyoti Basu, Karat and Yechury represent an anti-national thuggish ideology, and use a sophisticated veneer to hide their true nature. Further, the sudden appearance of such” armed soldiers of the revolution” also provides evidence for the true nature of the CPM’s repeated victories in Bengal elections, despite the remarkable lack of development in Bengal over the past 30 years. Rural Bengalis who dare vote against the commies undoubtedly have time and again faced such threats (outside the media glare), and like the Iraqis under Saddam, choose to buy peace by voting for their oppressors.

What should the rest of us do? The first step is for industry to recognize that investing in Bengal and Kerala only provides funds to the evil communist rule – all socially responsible companies should therefore pull out of Bengal. Second, the media must stop wearing rose tinted glasses, and let the communists know that they have been unmasked, and will no longer be treated like decent human beings. Third, all other political parties must combine to isolate the left – the need for a centrist alliance that believes in economic liberalism is paramount. Else the commies, like their predecessors in Russia (and the Nazis in Germany) may seize on differences among democratic forces to inflict irreparable damage to this nation.

Strange Bedfellows – The Similarity between the Extreme Left and the Extreme Right

A number of commentators have been surprised at how the BJP has gone out and tried to make common cause with the Commies in their opposition to the Indo US nuclear deal. This has been seen as rank political opportunism by the BJP – wherein they are so blinded by their hatred of the Congress that they are willing to work with “anti-national Chinese agents” to bring the current government down. But in my view the factual position is different – the extreme right wing parts of the BJP and RSS have a lot more in common with Karat & gang than most people seem to realize.

The BJP, like any other political party, is a coalition of different interests. At one end of the spectrum is the sensible, free market oriented wing epitomised by ABVP, Jaswant Singh and Pramod Mahajan. This is the part of the BJP that dominated the NDA government, particularly in its latter years. This part of the BJP recognizes that India has been an abysmal failure of a nation for the last several centuries, and that openness to the world, and proactive action to correct our weaknesses is essential for India to progress. However, this wing also is the more optimistic part of the BJP – with a faith in the ability of India to improve its lot through initiative. Fortunately or unfortunately, the members of this wing by and large also preferred the “good life”, consorting with industrialists, and bringing the so called “mobile culture” into the BJP.

At the other end of the spectrum, is the RSS / Swadeshi wing, epitomised by Murli Manohar “Mad-dog” Joshi. This wing does not care about the economy or helping the country make progress – they want to take India back to an imagined inward-looking utopia, rejecting all outside influences, irrespective of what damage that inflicts on ordinary people. These are the jokers who believe that they have to right to decide for others what they should watch (no FTV), what they should where (no Jeans please) and what sort of a life they should lead. All actions of the Swadeshi brigade in my view arise from an extreme inferiority complex – the belief that India as a nation does not have what it takes to compete successfully in a dog eat dog world. This wing clearly was extremely uncomfortable with most decisions taken by the NDA government – whether increasing co-operation with America, reducing barriers to trade or privatising state owned enterprises. They acted as speed breakers in most attempts by the ABVP government to carry out economic reforms, and only tolerated some of the actions of the government because of the desire to avoid losing power. They were also convinced about their own moral superiority, arising from their relatively higher standards of personal integrity (narrowly defined as being less likely to take bribes), and disdain for lucre. Without the need to actually do anything to deliver results, they could afford to take ideologically pure positions and rant against everything positive the government tried to do.

The role of the Left (which includes not just Karat and Yechury, but also the left wing of the Congress - idiots like Mani Shankar Iyer and Tendu Raja Arjun Singh) in the current government has been very similar to that of the Swadeshi brigade in the NDA government. They too have been in the position of having power without responsibility, which has given them the license to prevent progress without coming up with alternate solutions. Ideologically too, the left are in many ways similar to the Swadeshi brigade. Apart from a common liking for Swadeshi solutions, they too have an intense distrust for openness to the outside world, the belief in their own moral superiority and personal integrity, a dislike for lucre, and the belief that they have the right to decide for others what is good for them. The Swadeshi brigade and the Left have a common belief in the primacy of the state and society over individual initiative. They also have in common an inferiority complex, a belief that India cannot succeed as a nation, and the best way to avoid defeat is by sitting on the sidelines. They also worship totalitarian religions, in the case of the RSS an invented, fundamentalist Hinduism (or Hindutva) (a misnomer if there ever was one, since Hinduism lacks a “fundament”), in the case of the Left, the religion of Marx and Mao.

The defeat of the NDA in the 2004 elections unfortunately seems to have led to the BJP drawing the wrong conclusions. The belief that is commonly voiced in the media (and in the BJP itself) is that the “India Shining” campaign cost the government the polls – and the solution for the BJP is to return to the fundamentalist roots of the RSS and the Swadeshi brigade. The manner in which L.K Advani (who despite his hard-line image, was probably always a lot closer to the Vajpayee camp than to RSS hardliners) was dealt with following his comments on Jinnah have sent a clear message to the party about the way the internal wind is blowing. Instead of comparing and contrasting the rapid pace of reforms in the NDA era (the fruits of which we are still reaping), with the severe regression the country is undergoing under the present government, the BJP has gone into a shell – and is on a suicidal path of opposing the government without having a positive story to tell. And even people like Arun Shourie, who was the poster-boy of reforms in the NDA government, have decided that discretion is the better part of valour, and are kowtowing to the RSS’ whims.

What is the best hope for India? In my view, it would come from vertical splits of both the Congress and the BJP, to create a new Liberal Democratic Party, which believes in free markets, minimal government and personal freedom. This would create a new centre, with broad support across the nation, and could act to build a new and better India. Yechury and Mad-dog, in such an event, may find that they have a lot more in common than they had ever believed – and could act as a counterforce, determined to drag India into a morass. Individuals stance towards the current Indo-US nuclear deal thus would clearly show which side of the real divide they lie in – whether they have a belief in a strong, growth oriented India - and are willing to deal with the world on realistic terms, or whether due to a pervasive inferiority complex, they would rather have India retreat into a shell, and keep gloating about our moral superiority in being the poorest people in the world.

P.S. The funny thing is that this similarity between the extreme right and extreme left can also be seen in the US – look at how an unlikely coalition of left wing Democrats and religious fanatic Republicans stymied the immigration reform bill in the US.

I Hate the Shiv Sena too!!!

As anyone who has read this blog knows, I am certainly not a fan of Sonia Gaandi and her stupid ilk. But after recent events in Bombay, I must confess that I Hate the Shiv Sena too.

The Shiv Sena has always been the last refuge of incompetent, low IQ, good for nothing wimps, whose only source of pride is causing mob violence. The strength of the Shiv Sena lies in the fact that successive governments in Maharashtra have refused to act against the blatantly criminal acts that members of this mob have repeatedly carried out. In any civilised society, Bal Thackeray would have been arrested and would be in jail for repeated acts of incitement to murder and violence. But neither the government, nor the police, nor even our sainted courts who so rapidly intervene in every other matter have bothered to act against this outrageous man.

Under the Udhav regime, one had developed the faint hope that the Shiv Sena would metamorphose into a decent conservative right wing party, which would act as a reasonable alternative to Sonia Gaandi's commie minions. But the perceived threat from his even more incompetent and rabid cousin Raj, has led Udhav down the path of competitive stupidity.

The attacks on restaurants such as "Bombay Blue" and "Bombay High" are the latest manifestation of the Shiv Sena's "Goonda Raj". The ostensible reason is that these restaurants use the evil name Bombay instead of Mumbai which the Shiv Sena wants us to use. First lets look at the merits of the name "Mumbai". All over the world, it is a well accepted fact that places can be known by different names in different languages. Germany for example is Deutschland to the Germans (or rather Deutsch) and Allemangne to the French. England is Angleterre to the French, while Holland is "Pays Bas". The same applies to cities - Singapore is written as Singapura in Malay. And Bombay will always be Bombay in English, Bambai in Hindi and Mumbai in Marathi / Gujarathi. The renaming mania across India, be it turning Madras into Chennai, Bangalore into Bengaluru and stupidest of all, Calcutta into Kolkata represents a mania among idiotic politicians to assert their power over the rest of us. Further, Bombay is not a city that was built by Marathi speakers alone - it was primarily a British city, which has subsequently grown through the efforts of Parsis, Gujarathis, Marathis, Punjabis and every other community from India. So the merits for the renaming of Bombay to Mumbai in English are non-existent.

But even if the city has been renamed, how can anyone ask for a business enterprise to change its name based on the renaming of a city? Businesses have the right to brand themselves in any which way they want - and the name Bombay is a part of the name of several corporations (Bombay Dyeing, Bombay Rayon), newspapers (Bombay Times), food items (Bombay Duck, Bombay Halwa), bloggers (Bombay Addict), the Bombay High Court, the airport code for Bombay (BOM) and restaurants. The same applies to other names such as Madras (most Shiv Sainiks would still refer to all South Indians as Madrasis, and I for one certainly enjoy tucking to food at Madras Cafe in Matunga). Threats against a restaurant chain the force it to rebrand represent the lowest form of criminal intimidation. The amazing thing is that the Maharashtra police (and rememeber, Maharashtra is a Congress ruled state) have not taken any action against the criminals who vandalized Bombay Blue or scum like Udhav for instigating them.

Instead the police wants to take action against Orkut for hosting a community called "I Hate the Shiv Sena" - and have written to her highness the Gaandi's censors to shut access to the site down. The Bombay police commissioner talks as if the site is responsible for spreading the wilest form of hate speech. When all it is doing is ranting against a real bunch of thugs. But perhaps that is only to be expected. After all, the most powerful leader in the Maharashtra Congress is none other the Narayan Rane, a murder accused, who as per his own admission represented the most thuggish element of the Shiv Sena. And the Congress / NCP were the thugs who vandalized the Bhandarkar institute for publishing James Laine's book.

So the only hope lies in the blogosphere (until the Government once again attempts to ban blogs too) - so let's all rise up in unision and say that "We Hate the Shiv Sena Too".

The Myth of the Liberal Left

One of the most irritating myths that the media in India (and perhaps even more so, Western media persons covering India like Tully and Luce) have propagated is that the Congress and its Commie allies represent a more liberal, tolerant and decent strain of Indian polity compared to the BJP. This myth gained considerable currency during the BJP regime, particularly due to factors like the Gujarat riots (esp. Khooni Modi’s action-reaction remark), Mad-dog Joshi’s attempts to manipulate education, and ride roughshod on academic independence, and the vicious attack on people who funded Tehelka. The antics of idiots like the Thackerays and the Bajrang Dal mad-caps added to this perception. But 3 years of Congress – Commie rule in India have shattered this myth completely.

Let’s look at each possible dimension of liberalism. The primary driver of a liberal society is freedom of expression, including freedom of the press. The Congress, particularly the Gaandi family, had time and again demonstrated its strong belief that freedom of the press is fine only so long as the press toes the government’s line. (e.g. the infamous Press Bill of the Rajiv Gaandi era, the independence of DD, and of course Emergency) It’s only once the Gaandis lost power that private broadcasters could flourish, giving us the ability to watch everything from Sting Operations, to Item Numbers and Quality sports broadcasts.

The Gaandis have systematically set about eroding this freedom ever since they came back to power. They started in seemingly innocuous ways – by asking channels to refrain from telecasting uncensored song clips. But in the last few weeks, the government has set about trying to clearly establish who is boss, and bring all channels under its control. It started with a bill to force sports broadcasters to share telecast rights for cricket matches with DD. The government rushed through an ordinance (as if this is the most important thing on earth) and thus gave itself the ability to steal the intellectual property of sports broadcasters at will. What is the impact of this? The direct impact is that sports broadcasters lose money, and the flow of cash into sports like cricket from the media will slow down (perhaps not such a bad thing, given the lousy performance of the Indian team). But the bigger issue is the principle it establishes – viz. the government can decide to steal the private property of broadcasters at any time it pleases. The comments of the ass-licking shit-head Das Munshi demonstrate this – wherein he ranted about Neo Sports going to court against the Government’s dictats while simultaneously applying for uplinking permission. But this is clearly the first step in a slippery slope – its cricket today, could be Wimbledon or Formula 1 tomorrow, and why not “Kyunki…” day after?

This was followed by the ban of AXN, without any kind of due process, for telecasting a program that did not fall within the ass-licker’s definition of public morality. The ban was lifted only after Sony, in typical groveling MNC style, fell at the idiot’s feet and apologized for the offence. Once again, this is a strong signal to broadcasters – toe the Gaandi’s line or we will shut down your business. Most news broadcasters in India are part of media conglomerates – and they now clearly understand that the government can hurt their business if it does not like them.

The third nail in the myth of Congress liberalism was when the Naxal-loving AP CM, Reddy, passed an order arrogating to himself the right to punish the media if it dared to criticize his government. This was clearly directed at one particular newspaper chain. Fortunately, for a change, our wimpish media united against this, and embarrassed even the shameless Gaandis into backing off, and withdrawing the order, allegedly because a low level bureaucrat did not follow the right procedures.

So the Congress clearly does not believe in freedom of the press. But what about freedom of religion? Aren’t minorities much freer under the Congress regime? People who comment on the Gujarat riots very often ignore the first case when an Indian government actively colluded in the murder of members of a minority – viz. the anti Sikh riots that followed the assassination of Indira Gaandi. The parallels with Gujarat are amazing – the belief in action - reaction at the highest level (remember Rajiv Gaandi’s infamous statement on falling trees), and the alleged complicity of government ministers and party members in murder (men like HKL Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler were reportedly as guilty as members of the Modi government). The recent “Freedom of Religion” bill in HP is another example of the same trend – the Congress will appease any kind of religious nut when it suits it.

What about freedom of the academia? Tendu Raja (whom I have talked about before) and Anbumani Ramadoss have clearly proven themselves to be far worse than the ham-handed Mad Dog Joshi. They have attempted to chop and change at senior levels in our best institutions like the IITs, IIMs and AIIMS, attempted to modify sylabbii to suit their own whims and fancies, and worst of all, forced these institutions to dilute standards and increase the number of seats to accommodate OBCs from the creamy layer. The IIMs in particular had succeeded in achieving a substantial degree of financial independence (which is the corner-stone of academic independence) over the period of BJP rule. The OBC quota, and the dependence on government funds that it fosters puts paid to a decade of progress.

The next, and oft neglected, dimension of a liberal society is the freedom of businesses to grow without government interference. This is the one area where the BJP government made substantial progress, by privatizing government companies, and unshackling business to let it grow. To their credit, the Commies never made claims to be liberal in this area. The Congress on the other hand, by flaunting the “Dream Team” before us, made some of us believe that it would be at least as good as the BJP. 3 years of Congress – Commie rule, and especially steps taken in the recent past, show how false this belief was. The Commie influence on the CMP led to the privatization process being stopped. This was followed by the attempts to introduce quotas in private companies, trampling on the freedom of business to hire those who are best qualified for a job. And finally, the government has revealed its true colors by starting to micromanage the economy, ostensibly on the grounds of tackling inflation.

Forcing publicly listed but majority government owned oil companies to toe the line on petrol and diesel prices was the first move. This was a clear violation of all principles of corporate governance, with a majority shareholder directing the board (which has a fiduciary responsibility to all shareholders) to follow its dictates at a heavy cost to minorities. The ban on sugar exports was the next step – with the government establishing the principle that it would not hesitate to play with demand and supply. But both of these were somewhat understandable (though in my view wrong-headed and counter-productive) – sugar and fuel prices affect the poor directly and visibly and the government perhaps had to be seen to be doing something.

But in keeping with my hypothesis of creeping illiberalism, the government has now taken to micromanaging cement and steel prices – arm twisting industry into toeing its line. The statements made by Kamal Nath on the possibility of controls over the cement industry clearly show that we are heading back to another license permit Raj. And Indian industry has once again reacted in an utterly cretinous manner – with industry associations releasing statements that the decision by the cement industry to hold prices is a sign of maturity. And the message to the rest of industry is clear – listen to us or we will squeeze your balls.

The SEZ policy and the acceleration of tax sops under this government are yet another attempt to muzzle independent voices. The government is clearly attempting to pick winners – and in their short-sighted greed, our industry leaders are once again heading down the slippery slope by consorting with the government.

The murders of people who attempted to protect their property rights by the West Bengal government epitomizes this trend – the Congress – Commie alliance clearly believes that it alone has the right to decide what it good for the country, and anyone who gets in the way can be killed – whether by killing a business as in the case of the AXN ban or the threats to the cement industry, or literally as in the case of the peasants of Nandigram.

In summary, the Left in India (be it the centre Left Congress or the extreme Left Commies) are not a force for liberalism – but an evil statist force, eager to concentrate power in their own hands. And while the BJP has a lunatic fringe, an unbiased look at its record on all the dimensions of liberalism shows that it is a far more decent force in Indian politics than the Khooni Lal Brigade.

On Muslims in India

The findings of the Sachar Committee on minorities have been widely reported. The Committee has found that on an average, Muslims are only marginally better off than the SC/STs, and worse off the OBCs, Upper Caste Hindus, as well as other minorities like Sikhs and Christians. The usual suspects from the Left have promptly latched on to these findings to allege massive discrimination by the Indian state and society against Muslims. Mulayam and his slime ball cohorts have even gone to the extent of demanding 15% reservation on religious grounds for Muslims. Even normally level headed people seem to have been shocked by this “data”, and are wondering where we have gone wrong.

But these allegations of discrimination against Muslims in India clearly do not tie-in with even a very casual look at people at the top of various fields in India. In every field, qualified Muslims have been able to make it big. Let’s start with President Kalam, who was born in an ordinary Muslim family in the small town of Rameshwaram, rose to the top of the DRDO based on his competence and is now our President. In cricket, we have Irfan, Zaheer, Munaf and Kaif in the team today, and stars like Tiger Pataudi and Azhar in the past. In films, Shahrukh, Aamir, Salman and Saif dominate the “heroes” business. In arts, we have Hussein, Amjad Ali Khan, Bismillah Khan et al. But hold on you might say. Are these exceptionally talented people in fields where discrimination is impossible? What about business, and employment, you may ask.

Until about a decade ago, Leftists journalists used to repeatedly insist that Muslim businesses were discriminated against, that there were no Muslims among the Top 100 business houses. Fortunately, these statements have stopped now – though allegations of discrimination continue. But if Azim Premji could build Wipro to one of India’s Top 3 software exporters, and in the process make himself India’s richest man (ok, third richest right now), why can’t other Muslim businessmen? And the answer is of course they can, and they have. Muslim businessmen are doing extremely well across the board – apart from Premji, we have Habil Khorakiwala (of Wockhardt) and the Hameeds of Cipla at the very Top of our rich lists. Thousands of other smaller Muslim businessmen are doing extremely well. Even among professional managers, we find a number of Muslims at the very top – be it Ishaat Hussein of Tata Steel, or Adil Zainulbhai of McKinsey. In every field, Muslims have risen to the very top based on their capability. Allegations of discrimination against Muslims are clearly not borne out by the ability of talented Muslims, in every field, to rise to the very top.

But what about the Sachar Committee findings? Why is it that most Muslims are poor? Clearly not because of discrimination – if India discriminated against Muslims, neither Kalam nor Premji would have made it to where they are. In my view, the answers lie partly in the historic background arising from partition, and partly due to attitudes prevailing within the Muslim community itself.

The (leaked) Sachar committee findings seem to suggest that Muslims are far worse off in the Hindi belt and in West Bengal than in Gujarat, Maharashtra or the Southern states. The presence of West Bengal in this list, along with the Hindi belt, provides us with the first reason for the poor position of Muslims in Indian society. India has clearly failed to create a socially mobile society – while middle class people may become rich, it is very difficult to break out of poverty in one generation. In the Hindi belt and West Bengal, a substantial proportion of middle class Muslims migrated to Pakistan or Bangladesh at the time of partition. This did not happen to that extent in the South. The absence of a Muslim middle class clearly has impacted the ability of Muslims in those states to progress. Under representation of Muslims relative to their population is thus partly because of the starting conditions – there were fewer middle class Muslims who stayed behind in North India post partition compared to those in the South, and hence Muslims are more under-represented in North India.

But the bigger factor behind Muslim under-representation, in my view, clearly lies in Muslim attitudes towards education. Muslims tend to have extremely regressive attitudes, particularly towards the education of women. It has clearly been demonstrated that where women are uneducated, education of the entire family suffers. The unwillingness of Muslims to let their women gain access to education therefore impacts the educational achievement of the entire Muslim community. This is accentuated by the preference among Muslims for a Muslim religious education in Madrassas. In cities like Bombay, Hindus parents (even among the poor) are extremely keen to get their kids into English Medium “Convent” schools run by the Catholic Church – people are willing to run the risk of their kids being exposed to a Catholic religious environment, to give them high quality education. Muslims, on the other hand, are much more reluctant to send their kids to English medium Christian schools. Further, education in Urdu, and knowledge of the Persio-Arabic script are clearly useless in a job environment which requires knowledge of English or Hindi. (except from the perspective of getting jobs in the Middle East). The Gulf boom may have been a contributing factor – perhaps it misled ordinary Muslims into thinking that educating their kids in Madrassas would give them a better chance of making it to the Gulf, without realizing that it hurt their chances of success in the Indian job market.

These two factors help explain why Muslims are behind most other Indian communities in terms of their representation in the Middle Class. A smaller a priori middle class population and reluctance to study in English would result in Muslims being under-represented in middle class jobs. But how can they be only marginally richer than SC/STs, who clearly had much weaker starting conditions?

In my view, this results from Muslim attitudes towards women’s employment. In most of urban India, female participation in the work-force is extremely high amongst the poor. Most women from SC/ST (and other poor Hindu or Christian) families residing in Bombay slums would seek work as maids in middle class households. In a number of cases, they act as the main earning members of their families. But among poor Muslims, women’s participation in the work-force is close to zero. Net result, poor Muslim families have half the earning members that poor SC/ST families have. The fact that Muslims have higher household incomes than SC/STs despite having approximately half the workforce participation of SC/STs clearly demonstrates that employed Muslims are far better off than the SC/STs.

The stark findings of the Sachar committee therefore are a lot less surprising if one looks at the condition of the Muslim community in India through an objective lens. Palliatives like reservations or contract allocations for Muslims are clearly not necessary. What is needed is an alteration of attitudes among poor Muslims, particularly those from North India, towards education and women’s rights. Muslims, like other Indians, must realize the need for English language education to help with upward mobility. More importantly, they must realize that unless their women are educated, entire families will be handicapped in their ability to learn. And finally, society must look at the average income of various communities relative to the level of workforce participation amongst members of that community. Any community where most women do not work will obviously be poorer than communities where women are employed.

There is no point in hyping so called discrimination against Muslims in India. While there may be a few instances of discrimination from time to time, discrimination against qualified Muslims is clearly not wide-spread. And in a competitive market, where talent is scarce, organizations that discriminate against Muslims (or any other set of people) are only hobbling themselves. The level of poverty among Muslims in India may be shocking. But its cause lies in history and in the attitudes prevalent in certain sections of the Muslim community, not in discrimination.

Yet Another Ridiculous Judgment from Bombay High Court Judges

Judges at the Bombay High Court seem determined to outdo each other in their attempts to interfere with people's lives, even surpassing cretins like the Karnataka Government. First came the ridiculous Mill Land judgment. Then followed their attempt to police what we watch by censoring Cable TV. And now, they are attempting to extend their jurisdiction to the whole world, by asking the Maharashtra Government to take action against Google for allowing a community called "I Hate India" on Orkut. Was planning a long post on this, but it has already been covered by prominent bloggers like Great Bong and Rashmi. When will this bunch of jokers learn? Why can't they get around to clearing the 20 year back log in cases rather than wasting time hearing inane petitions by idiots? Why the f#@k are they hell bent on wasting tax payers' hard earned money, to get their names on newspaper front pages? And can't we do anything to put these idiots in their place?

The SEZ Scam

It is not very often that I find myself on the same side of an issue as Sonia Gaandi. But I must admit that I agree with her opposition to government acquisition of land from farmers for the construction of SEZs.

Unlike infrastructure facilities such as dams, roads or airports and certain types of mineral related industries like cement or steel plants that need to be built in a specific location, industrial parks and SEZs can be set up just about anywhere in the country. In absence of a compelling reason to locate an enterprise in a particular location, the government (and or private entrepreneurs) have no right to forcibly acquire others property.

Despite Indira Gaandi’s having deleted the right to property from the list of fundamental rights, its my firm view that the right to property is the most basic of the fundamental rights – surpassed only by the right to life. Governments must therefore expropriate others property only in the rarest of rare circumstances. Setting up a dam or a road is a justifiable cause (these cannot be built anywhere else); building an SEZ for software or petrochemical exports is certainly not one. If Reliance (for example) wishes to set up an SEZ near Bombay, it must acquire the land from the owners through arms length transactions. The definition of arms-length is one between a willing buyer and a willing seller. If sellers are not willing, the buyer must raise the price – or locate somewhere else where willing sellers are to be found.

But what about the greater common good, you may ask? SEZs will generate employment and exports – and benefit the country as a whole. In my view, any value creating economic activity will take place even without government promotion. SEZs are being given a very large number of incentives, which should make them an extremely profitable activity for their developers. If despite these incentives, the developer is not able to make a project viable by paying the market rate, then it only means that the activity is not value creating. We do not need anymore government directed wastage of capital, be it on third rate public sector steel plants or white elephant SEZs. The right to property must be restored as a fundamental right. And the use of “Eminent Domain” to seize property must be restricted only to a very narrowly defined set of activities.

What about the SEZ policy in general? SEZs like Shenzen were extremely successful in China and that has created a strong lobby in favor of having a similar policy in India. But the circumstances in which the Chinese SEZs were created were very different. Prior to the setting up of the SEZs, China was a communist state. They did not want to liberalize throughout the country, and saw the SEZs as a means of getting round the restrictions they has imposed on themselves thru their stupid communist system. SEZs were a means of experimenting with capitalism without shaking the foundations of communist party rule. India on the other hand is a democracy, and has always had a vibrant private sector. Export oriented sectors have been growing rapidly in the last few years. The major bottleneck for goods exports arises from the woeful infrastructure in our ports, and draconian labor laws. The other impediment arises from the high rates of duties that India charges on imports – which make exports less competitive (and also less attractive compared to domestic sales).

The SEZ policy seeks to address some of these issues. It provides for exemption from customs and excise duties on imports, freedom to sub-contract and most importantly a 10 year income tax holiday under Sec 10A. The original policy also intended to provide SEZ units an exemption from the applicability of labor laws – but this was withdrawn (to the best of my knowledge) due to opposition from the left. The SEZ policy does not directly address the infrastructure bottlenecks that impede Indian exports. Do we under the circumstances really need an SEZ policy?

Successive governments have over the last several years reduced customs duties to a peak level of close to 12.5%. This hopefully will be dropped further to the 5% range in the next 2 years. With 5% import duty, exporters would be reasonably competitive without any special incentives. Further the anti-export bias favoring domestic sales too would more or less have disappeared. Hence the SEZ policy is not needed to address this issue.

Would SEZs act as special enclaves that would provide better infrastructure to industry? The answer clearly is no – industries could get together and create SEZ standard infrastructure without such a policy. And SEZs do not help address the port and inland transport bottlenecks that hobble our exports.

As mentioned earlier, SEZs also do not help address the handicap imposed by our labor laws – the labor law benefits that were the original driving force behind the SEZ concept in India (since this is the one aspect of our laws we may not be able to change at a national level) have been scrapped.

So why are so many people rushing to set up SEZs? Two reasons:
1) The 10 year Income tax holiday (which implies that "nascent" enterprises like Reliance and Infosys will not pay taxes for several more years)
2) The fact that the government is acquiring land at below market prices and handing it over to SEZ developers

The SEZ policy thus represents a massive transfer of wealth away from ordinary Indians towards extremely prosperous SEZ developers. While people like you and me pay 34% income tax on our tiny earnings (anything above ~ USD 5000), people like Narayana Murthy and Ambani will continue to get vast portions of their incomes in a tax exempt manner. And land will be taken away from moderately wealthy farmers and given to industrialists and real estate developers like DLF for a song. The recent proposal to restrict the number of SEZs only makes things worse. The lucky few whose projects are approved would stand to gain several billion dollars compared to those who are stuck outside the SEZs. And any system where a bureaucratic decision can generate billions of dollars of profit will see several hundred millions flowing to the political and bureaucratic decision makers. This is nothing but a reincarnation of the license-permit Raj.

Am I starting to sound like one of the Commie idiots I rant about all the time? Perhaps. But I am sure that any true believer in the power of free markets will agree with me. There is absolutely no reason for the government to decide which sectors are worthy of getting tax benefits. High import duties that penalize exporters were bad. But tax holidays for exporters are more of the same. The government certainly should not be able to steal peoples’ land against their wishes. A system where the government has arbitrary powers only leads to corruption and inefficient investment. The SEZ policy is not needed. It is economically wrong, inequitable and against market principles. It will undoubtedly create a scam to dwarf all those that have occurred in the past. The SEZ Act must be scrapped!

P.S. I am also against government acquisition of land for non SEZ projects like the Tata car plant in Bengal. The Tatas are surely capable of negotiating with land owners and acquiring land without government support.

The Looniest Government in India – Part 3

The runner up for the post of “The Looniest Government in India” is the bunch of Commie Nuts led by VS Achutanandan who have gained power in Kerala.

Kerala has always, in my view, been a paradoxical state. It has seemingly done everything right in creating the fundamentals for a economic growth - achieved 100% literacy, good social indicators (such as the status of women) and decent higher education. Mallus also tend to be quite hard-working when outside of Kerala, be it in the Gulf or even in other parts of the country. But virtually all Kerala governments, be it from the Congress or the Commies, have been reflexively anti-industry and anti-development. The reason why educated Mallus tolerate a succession of governments that are anti-growth, and that are responsible for an economic environment where everyone is forced to migrate to find work is a real mystery to me. It is almost as if Mallus have decided that they want their home state to remain as a pristine retirement home, and that all the money they need to earn can come from outside the state.

Over the last 5 years however, Kerala finally seemed to be shaking off its stupor. It had established itself as an attractive tourist destination, with policies strongly supportive of the hospitality industry. Further, the government seemed to have finally grasped the strong fit between Kerala’s strengths and the opportunities offered by the IT and ITES boom – and had set up a series of policies designed to attract such companies to the state. But in the last elections, Kerala swung left again, and brought to power a bunch of unreconstructed Commie Bastards led by VS Achutanandan.

Even by the abysmal standards of the CPM, VS Achutanandan is an extremist piece of shit. In the past, fellow partymen have tried to keep him out of power because of his extremist views. But at 80+, they decided to finally let him realize his ambition of ruling Kerala. The previous government had signed an agreement with Dubai Internet City to setup an IT park on 300 acres of land. This government has promptly (how many times will Indian state government do this?) torn up the contract. The Kerala government also forced BPOs to shut down on August 15 (as if customers abroad care that it is India’s Independence Day), and is attempting to foist trade unionism onto this nascent sector. The government has been at the forefront of the fight against foreign investment.

The most pernicious act so far has been the arbitrary ban imposed by the Kerala government on the production and sale of Coke and Pepsi following the pesticide controversy. Even while in opposition, the CPM had been fighting to shut down the plants of these majors, for the ostensible reason that they were depleting ground water. The controversy following the ridiculous CSE report (attacking the cola majors for microscopic quantities of pesticides in their products, while ignoring the much larger pesticide levels in other food products) was used by the Kerala government as an excuse to try and fulfill its long-standing objective to force the symbols of MNC capitalism, Coke and Pepsi, out of Kerala. Without following any process whatsoever, the commie idiots arrogated to themselves the right to ban these products. Even after the Kerala High Court ruled in favor of the soft drink majors, the Kerala commies, aided and abetted by the government, are resorting to violence to try and achieve what they could not do through the misuse of law.

For determinedly following a set of policies that are designed to drive all investors out of Kerala (and perhaps even out of India), this government gets the runner-up award for “The Looniest Government in India”

The Looniest Government in India – Part 2

My vote for the worst government in India would undoubtedly go to the BJP – JDS Coalition in Karnataka led by HD Kumaraswamy, the son of the prime scum H D Deve Gowda. This government truly represents the worst of all worlds – a bunch of low IQ, criminal, village thugs aligned with the worst elements (viz. Mad-Dog Joshi wing) of the BJP. For the people of Bangalore, who till recently had one of the best CMs in the country ruling them, this undoubtedly represents a big let-down.

The first step of this government was to pick-up a fight with the IT companies that have been responsible for the transformation of Bangalore from a sleepy retirement home to the most dynamic city in this country. At a time when CMs including nominal communists like Budhadev B are trying to woo the IT majors to their states, this government accused companies like Infosys of being land-grabbers, and Narayana Murthy of not having done anything for the state. They went out of their way to assert that they would not do anything to improve Bangalore’s pathetic infrastructure.

The next step was to attack the Bangalore – Mysore corridor project. In keeping with the tradition established by the Maharashtra government in the DPC matter, this government has been attempting to tear up a contract that a predecessor had signed, and to rob the consortium which is implementing a vital infrastructure project of certain contractual benefits that have been promised to it. At a time when India desperately needs to attract private infrastructure investment, such actions by the State Government are a recipe for disaster – they will dissuade investors from participating in future projects, and increase the risk premiums that the few intrepid souls who continue to invest will expect.

The Karnataka government was also among the few state governments which reacted to the stupid CSE report on pesticide levels in colas by attempting to ban the sale of these products, albeit in a much more limited manner than the ham-handed Achutanandan government in Kerala.

Through these actions, the BJP-JDS government firmly established its anti-industry, anti-progress credentials. But these actions were more or less par for the course in the current environment in India – wherein governments are using the fiscal flexibility arising from the success of reforms, and the growth of Indian industry to take steps to please their low IQ rural vote banks by attacking those who are successful. The overall economic impact of these steps would be to shift some investment away from Bangalore and Karnataka towards other states (and some investment away from India to other countries). But it clearly did not represent the end of the world. This was something to be expected from a government led by a member of the Deve Gowda family. But not sufficient to win the award for the “Looniest Government in India”

What clinched the award for this government is of-course the action taken by the Karnataka education minister Basavaraj Horatti (an apt name – he is undoubtedly a dirty Whore!) in the last week. Mr. Horatti decided that 1400 schools, teaching over 250,000 students, should be shut down because they conducted classes in English instead of in Kannada as required by a loony 1994 government order. This is undoubtedly one of the most evil and regressive moves that any government could possibly undertake. Karnataka has always had a loony xenophobic fringe, epitomized by the film star Raj Kumar and his fans, who have sought to drive out everyone who does not speak Kannada from the state. The 1994 order was passed to appease this loony fringe – and banned any new school from offering primary education except in the Kannada language. This was clearly an extreme step – and was followed only in breach until last week. The order has also been challenged in the Courts, but the case has not been heard in over a decade after the order was passed.

Despite all the hype about the quality of education in India, the fact is that most Indians receive education that is of undoubtedly abysmal quality. A small minority (people like me, and most Indian bloggers) study in very high quality English medium schools. Some of these are very expensive, but especially in cities like Bombay and Bangalore, there are a number of old, high quality, government subsidized schools to which even an ordinary person can send his children. Thereafter there are a number of private, lower quality, English medium schools which have started in cities over the past 2 decades. While one cannot say that these schools are the best that can be, they provide access to English medium education to ordinary people. As mentioned in an earlier post, my maid-servant in Bombay sends her children to one such school – in the hope that the kids would grow up to be at least competent enough to take up a call-centre job. Beyond these schools comes the Government schooling system. In most states, teaching here is conducted in the local language, which places the students of these schools at a great disadvantage when they seek professional education in future. In rural areas, these schools often exist only on paper – with staff drawing their salaries but never showing up to teach. The drop out rates in these government schools are huge – and people who study there have virtually no chance of making it to any professional organization. Governments in India have of course never bothered to address the weakness in the primary education system – and instead choose palliatives or token gestures such as reservations in higher education.

The good news is that over the past few years, people from even the poorer sections of society have started seeing English medium education as a means of upward mobility for their children. A large number of private English medium schools have opened up to serve this need – and are doing a reasonable job of giving children from the poorer sections of society in the cities a chance to compete with their more affluent peers. Like Karnataka, most states have misguidedly been discriminating against such schools. In Bombay, English medium schools set up after the 1980s are not eligible for government aid – with the result that my maid servant pays higher fees for her children than some of my friends. The 1994 Karnataka order takes such discrimination to an extreme level – barring all new schools from teaching in English. So the affluent who can get their children into older schools in central Bangalore can continue to reap the benefits of English education, but the less affluent (and people settled in newer parts of town) must make do with Kannada education. It amazes me that a government that claims to be “pro-poor” can resort to such a blatantly discriminatory policy. Perhaps for this reason, governments over the past decade have only been paying lip-service to this order, and have permitted schools to offer “de-facto” English medium education.

Mr. Horrati's move puts an end to this. 250 k students are to be turned out of their schools, and forced into already over-crowded government schools. Kids who have been learning in English for a number of years will suddenly be forced to start afresh in a new language. This hopefully will be challenged in Courts - who hopefully will take time out from censoring TV to providing relief to these children. But that’s beside the point. Mr. Horrati’s move undoubtedly makes the Karnataka Government the easy winner of the first award for the “Looniest Government in India”

PS: What really galls me is the limited exposure that this issue has received on both TV and in the blogosphere compared to relative non-issues like sec 377 and reservations in higher education. Perhaps because this does not really affect People like Us!

The Looniest Government in India – Part 1

The Looniest Government in India – Part 1

Readers of this blog would be no doubt aware of how disappointed I am with the performance of the Sonia Gaandi – Manmohan Singh Government at the Centre. But compared to some of our State Governments (admittedly including ones where Sonia’s minions are not in power), the Central Government is doing a commendable job.

My nominees for the Looniest Government in India are:
1) The BJP - JDS Coalition in Karnataka led by H D Kumaraswamy
2) The CPM Government in Kerala led by V S Achutanandan
3) The DMK led coalition in Tamil Nadu led by M Karunanidhi
4) The Congress – NCP coalition in Maharashtra led by Vilasrao Deshmukh

The surprising thing about this list is that all the governments that I have nominated are from the so-called advanced states of the South and the West. One cannot think of any grave sins that either Nitish Kumar in Bihar, or Naveen Patnaik in Orissa have committed so far. So is the pendulum swinging? One of the major concerns I have had over the past few years is the increasing gap between the fast-growing states of the South and West, and the slow-coaches from the North and East. I have been hoping that governance in the North and East improves, so that these states stop dragging down the rest of India with them. Unfortunately reversion to the mean seems to be taking place from the opposite direction – viz. the high quality governments in the South have been replaced by utter incompetents, while there has been some improvement elsewhere, particularly in the East. (My home state of Maharashtra is probably the only place listed above where the quality of governance has not deteriorated in the recent past – we have had a succession of incompetents and criminals in the last decade, with the elevation of murder accused Narayan Rane to CM representing the time when we hit rock bottom)

In my next few posts, I will look at each of these loony governments one at a time.

The Vande Mataram Controversy

The recent controversy about the singing of Vande Mataram in schools and colleges epitomizes all that is wrong with Indian society. There are far too many groups in this country who believe that they have the right to decide what others should do.

Personally, I find the traditional Vande Mataram a bit of a dirge – I don’t understand its words and the music is criminally slow. Even Jana Gana Mana is better from a pure acoustic perspective. On the other hand, I really liked the A. R. Rehman version – and believe that making it our national anthem or song would not be a bad idea – it reflects my India much better than the traditional version.

The recent controversy of course started with Tendu Raja passing an order calling for all schools to compulsorily sing Vande Mataram on September 6, which is allegedly the centenary of the song. Promptly, the Islamofascist bunch jumped into the fray, and issued fatwas stating that any Muslim who sings the song is guilty of apostasy – and calling for Tendu Raja’s order to be withdrawn. Tendu Raja immediately backtracked, and said that singing the song is not compulsory for Muslims. The right wing nuts then jumped into the fray – with the Shiv Sena making singing of Vande Mataram compulsory for anyone who wants to stay in India. Reams of newsprint, and tons of TV channel airtime have been devoted to this episode.

In my view, the solution is fairly clear. Neither Tendu Raja nor the Shiv Sena have any right to force anyone to sing Vande Mataram, Jana Gana Mana or any other song. However schools do have the right to organize singing of the song whether to commemorate its centenary, or for any other reason. Students, who do not like the song, whether of the Muslim faith or any other, have the right to stay silent while it is being sung. At the same time, the Islamofascist jerks have no right to force Muslims who wish to sing the song to refrain from singing it.

The problem is that time and again, people in positions of power, be it politicians, the judiciary, or the clergy arrogate to themselves the right to decide what others should do. And if India is to emerge as a civilized nation, this clearly has to stop.

The Bombay High Court Strikes Again

Readers may recall my earlier post “Stop Judicial Overreach…” in which I protested against the attempt by Randy and Dandy, two loony judges from the Bombay High Court, to impose their views on the city and block the redevelopment of mill lands. Their judgment was clearly illogical and unreasoned, and was torn to shreds by the Supreme Court. Of course given the complete lack of accountability that judges have to society at large, no action was taken against the troublesome duo, despite their having caused damages worth several hundred million Rupees. At that time, I thought that Randy and Dandy were perhaps exceptions, and hoped that most judges in the Bombay High Court were of a higher quality. But now I find yet another ridiculous judgment emanating from this High Court, which leads me to conclude that there is clearly something rotten in this formerly august body.

I am of course referring to the recent judgment by two more idiots from the same Court, Lauda and Cur-nik, acting on a PIL filed by a good for nothing bitch, Pratibha Naithani, whose day job is as a professor at St. Xavier’s college. Ms. Naithani had strong objections to the telecast of “A” certified films and uncertified films on channels like HBO and Star Movies, which she received through the cable TV network. She felt that such films might corrupt her children. Unlike most sensible parents who would activate the child-lock facility present on their TV set, Ms. Naithani filed a PIL with the Bombay High Court, calling for a ban on telecast of “A” certified films.

Some background would be appropriate here. Unlike so-called “Adult Entertainment” in the West, which is a euphemism for pornography, “A” certified films refer to movies that the highly prudish censor board of India deems unfit for children. Examples of “A” certified movies include recent hits like “Rang De Basanti”, “Omkara”, “The Da Vinci Code” and most movies other than those specifically made for children. Adult citizens of India have the right to watch “A” certified movies – in most urban households, parents are also willing to let children watch the relatively innocuous “A” certified movies like RDB. Cable TV in India, like in all other countries, is available only to those who take out a subscription for the same. Channels like HBO are uplinked from jurisdictions like Singapore and Hong Kong, and transmit an encrypted signal into India. Most cable operators have a central station where they receive these channels and send an unencrypted analog signal into homes. Increasingly, they also provide the option to subscribers to receive an encrypted digital signal through a set-top box, which gives subscribers the option of choosing the channels they wish to receive.

Parents who do not want their children to watch “A” certified movies therefore have several options:

- Subscribe to a digital cable service and opt for only those channels which do not show movies

- Subscribe to a normal cable service, and supervise their children / activate the child-lock on their TV sets to restrict access to channels they deem unsuitable

- Stick to watching DD, which still broadcasts free to air

Some more background on the judicial process and state of policing in Bombay. Courts in Bombay, like in the rest of India, typically work at a glacial pace. Judgments in most civil suits take well over 20 years. in high profile cases like the “Bombay blasts” of 1993, a preliminary verdict has not been passed even after 13 years. By the time that case makes it through all the appeals, it probably would be over 30 years since the blasts took place. Judges are always cribbing about how short-staffed and overworked they are.

When it comes to the ability of the police to maintain law and order, the less said the better. The police failed to take any steps to prevent the recent blasts on trains in Bombay. They have also failed to make any headway in solving that case. They are also unable to control the various criminal gangs that are making parts of the city virtual no-go zones. Given this state of affairs, it is fair for a tax paying citizen like me, who ultimately pays the salaries of judges and cops to expect that they will focus on maintaining law and order, instead of wasting their time on frivolous matters.

Any judge with even a modicum of IQ or decency, on seeing a case like Ms. Naithani’s, would have asked her to go home and mind her children instead of interfering in other people’s legal right to watch the kind of movies they choose to. Instead, the two dolts before whom this case was raised chose to pass an order barring channels from telecasting movies that have not been rated “U” by the Indian censor board. When the channels, which are based outside India and therefore outside the said judges jurisdiction, did not comply, the judges directed the police to seize the equipment of cable operators who were transmitting the said channels. Deciding that this was the most important case they had on hand, our great cops launched raids on cable operators, stole their equipment and prevented them from telecasting these channels. The cable operators went to court complaining that they could not control the channels, and asking for relief. So did some public spirited citizens, who argued that the judges had no right to stop adults from watching “A” rated films on TV. But the great judges, guardians of our moral values, chose to disagree. They claimed that adults were free to visit cinema halls or purchase DVDs of the said films – but could not watch them on TV. They even went on to extend the ban on “A” films to DTH services, which operate on a pure conditional access basis.

Net result, I can no longer watch HBO, Star Movies nor any other movie channels, despite the fact that the only residents in my home are self and wife, who are both adults. Several questions rise from this:
1. Who gave the Bombay High Court the right to decide where adults should watch “A” rated movies?
2. Who gave it jurisdiction over broadcasts that are up-linked from a foreign country?
3. How can a Court decide that children are being harmed by a cable TV service that their parents voluntarily subscribe to?
4. Where does a Court, which is not capable of ensuring the completion of a trial in a serial bomb blast case in 13 years, find the time to pass an order on a clearly frivolous PIL within a few months?
5. Where does this thought-policing stop?
6. How many brainless, interfering judges does the Bombay High Court have? Randy, Dandy, Lauda, Cur-nik… the list seems endless!!

Unfortunately in this case unlike in the mill-land one, there are no substantial financial interests involved. Murdoch would in all likelihood prefer to comply with this order rather than risk governmental interference in his overall business. And in the absence of monetary interests, any appeals filed by people like you and I would languish awaiting a hearing for the next 20 years.

This case once again demonstrates that by supporting Courts as they expanded their authority thru the concept of PILs, we have opened a Pandora's Box. High Courts have time and again passed orders that can only come from the brain-dead. The Mill-land case and this judgment are only two examples. Our politicians may be corrupt and idiotic. But we have the ability to throw them out. Equally corrupt and/or idiotic judges like Lauda and Cur-nik however are accountable to no-one. Courts have a function – interpreting the law. They have no right to decide on the moral values that society should follow. Or what movies adults should watch! Neither the Government of India nor the Bombay High Court has the right to exert an extra-jurisdictional power over channels telecast from outside India. And the adults have the right to watch what they choose to – whether thru DTH services, cable TV or down-loads from the internet. The fundamental principle of common law, on which our judicial system is based, is that “a man’s home is his castle” – the government and judges have no right to break down these walls and interfere with what he does there except if the rights of others are being infringed.

So I call for Lauda and Cur-nik to be impeached – and this ridiculous ban to be lifted at once.

Independence Day Special – An Assessment of Indian Prime Ministers

My views on Indian PMs follow:

Jawaharlal Nehru – 1948 to1964

Articulate, handsome and inspiring, Nehru was a classic example of form over substance. No one could beat him in the ability to turn a phrase – the Tryst with Destiny speech in my view still ranks as one of the most inspiring pieces of political speechifying anywhere in the world. One must give him credit where it is due – he helped firmly establish India as a democracy, set up the IITs and IIMs, and set India on a path to modernity instead of succumbing to the pressure from within his party to adopt a suicidal path of Gandhian economics.