Demilitarisation For Peace? Bah!

The Pakistani Prime Minister puts forward a ridiculous suggestion - that demilitarisation could be a step towards peace in the sub-continent. Doesn't he know that Punjabiat could be the key?

PS: If you don't want to wade through my verbiage here is the direct link to Ms Tavleen Singh's article. The issue-clinching quote is of course this:

Meanwhile, let us celebrate Punjabiat because, as analysts cleverer than I have pointed out, it could be the key to peace on our benighted sub-continent.

Power To The People

An glimpse into some steps proposed for private players' entry into the electricity industry and the lessons learnt thus far, by Prem Shankar Jha in DH.

The Prodigal Son Returns

My ongoing thought on the continuing unsuccessful extradition of Salem was : Hell. Do India's concerns matter at all outside its borders? Hence naturally, my first reaction yesterday on hearing of the successful extradition of Salem and his lady was : So. India's voice is also carries some weight. Good show folks!

There is always the worm in the fruit though. It turns out the extradition was based on two conditions. No life sentence, no death sentence. The decision to accept these was the UPA NDA government's, NDTV newspapers report. The government will go on the mat once again, though it really shouldn't have to. Already there are reports of the court reacting angrily to the conditions.

The Portuguese must have a pretty low opinion of our judicial system if they put these conditions right? And our government must have displayed unpardonable weakness by accepting the conditions, no? No. The facts are different. The Portuguese have a law that bans extradition for crimes which are punishable by death. And Portugal has banned life sentences itself. So, it isn't such a bad deal at all, is it? The choice to me looks like this:

Abu Salem in India facing jail for a maximum of 25 years and the potentially huge amount of information he brings OR nothing.

Is it a really difficult choice to make? I think not.

Mutlabi PM

Whose parliament votes against a measure to detain people without a charge for 90 days, up from the current 14. Who do we copy now?

Metro Rail Meets Its End

So long, it was good to know you.

“The government is not against Metro Rail. But the project in its present form would increase the financial burden on the state government beyond its capacity,” Mr Sindhia [Finance and Industries Minister] said.

Natwar Goes

Vijay Times said it best I think: Natwar becomes 'External' Minister. Of course why he still remains a minister without any work is good question. Why spend public money on him? They can't even take credit for doing the right thing - removing him from his External Affairs post.

Not to be outdone, the BJP has shot off a letter to the UN. They are acting like cats on a hot tin roof. Jumpy is the word. The Congress has too, but as Shashi Tharoor said on NDTV yesterday, it can't be blamed since the report mentions its name.

Also, a short history of the oil-for-food scandal. Some excerpts from a blog regarding the documents on which the Volcker report is based:

The alledged documents come from the Oil Ministry. You know, the one that Ahmed Chalabi heads. It seems strange in a country where oil output is about half of capacity during a time of high oil prices that the first thing he would do is fish Galloway's name out of a mass of paper. Particularly when Galloway had already won one libel suit. This is coming out of the Republican Congress because that is the only entity on the planet that wouldn't be sued for defamation on this.
...
Note that the memos haven't been produced, and will never be produced in such a form as to be open to examination. Given the long sordid history of manufactured memos, for example Yellowcake Forgery, it should be fairly clear that the credibility of self-serving documents from Ahmed Chalabi or anyone associated with the Administrations Iraq agenda are, to put it mildly, highly suspect.

Ahmed Chalabi being the guy who fed stories of Saddam having WMD to the US media and intelligence agencies and administration.

Staying with Iraq, U.S. Should Repay Millions to Iraq, a U.N. Audit Finds.

The Golden Goose Dying?

This is scary stuff.

The Web Turns 15

And this person thinks the web is amazing. OK, I do too. Link via Atrios.

Why Even Bother

Talking to the Americans? They keep coming up with more and more demands. On the other hand, this could be one more arm-bender for the upcoming Iran vote.

Most Misrepresented Report

Says the WB though not so explicitly. I was meaning to post on this sometime ago with link to a related presentation by the World Bank. But I the WB people have done it now. It was all based on a survey of 200 firms, half of them 'small firms'.

Silly Gowda.

Volcker And The Oil-for-Food Probe

I refuse to believe anyone who looks like Natwar Singh could have ever taken kickbacks. I mean, surely that permanent angry look must stand for something? Most crooks flash wide smiles as they are led away by the constabulary. Not Mr Singh. He has something more serious on his mind than money and oil and even food perhaps.

If you are looking for more, let's say, mundane reasons for why he could not be involved, The Hindu has them here. I'll give a short excerpt here:

The second major problem with the investigative exercise was the composition of the "Independent Inquiry Committee." It was headed by Paul A.Volcker, former chairman of the chief occupying power's Federal Reserve Board. The two other members were Justice Richard J. Goldstone, a former judge of the South African Supreme Court and Constitutional Court who had made his mark in the law during the days of apartheid; and Mark Pieth, a Swiss law professor specialising in the tracking of transnational corruption, money laundering, and organised crime.

This composition explains the part Spanish inquisitional, part modern investigative, and, in consequence, biased and insufficiently transparent approach of the Committee. It explains the snap judgments and the loaded vocabulary of the report, starting with "manipulation" of the OFFP, "illicit income," and "humanitarian kickbacks." Functioning in the shadow of the U.S.-led military occupation of Iraq, the exercise fails to come clean on all its data sources, above all on the evidentiary basis of its listing of non-contractual political and other beneficiaries of Iraqi oil sales.

As an aside, the right-wing in the US has been tracking this probe with great anticipation. They don't want the UN to exist as it is. The president's nomination to the UN, Mr Bolton, has even said that nothing much would have been lost even if the top 13 floors (or thereabouts) of the UN building in New York is bombed. Mr Volcker himself is not very much in favour of it. This report could be so much red meat thrown to the packs.

Also, this episode has thrown up another joker. The reporter of the article asks him lots of question but one: why was he offered those millions by Saddam? What was the quid pro quo?

PS: I had Mr Bolton's comment on the UN wrong what he actually said was :

"If you lost 10 storeys, it wouldn't make a bit of difference."

More fun quotes here.

IBM Acquires Land In Bangalore

Why, oh why can't they work out of rented apartments? Why do they need land? Aren't companies working out of rented premises providing jobs to Kannadigas? Why don't they listen? Are they going to start a malicious campaign too? Where will it all end?

In A Spot - 021105

Next in the series. This time Tavleen Singh sees a grandiose clash between civil society and the political class in the Deve Gowda-Infosys spat. Like a true sage she foresees that the clash will only widen. Yeah, I'm sure people like Ramesh Ramanathan, who are working towards a partnership between these two, just don't get it.

Ms Singh recalls a recent visit to Bangalore and how she was impressed by the mid-day scheme run by ISKCON, and supported by Infosys. Enough to say airily:

It is my view that if Akshay Patra could be replicated in every district in India we could eliminate malnutrition and illiteracy.

Welcome to the real world ma'am. The political class beat you to it by at least 25 years, if not 50 years. They realised it and acted on the realisation, though learned people thought not very highly of their doing so. As one of the writers says:

Watching the 2004 drama unfold brought to mind a visit my colleague and I had made many years ago — 1980 to be specific — to Chingleput district, near Chennai. We made a round of visits to schools in villages run in sheds or under a tree to make a study of the Midday Meal scheme launched by the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M.G. Ramachandran. Of course, the learned scoffed at the idea and the newspapers had dismissed it as a populist stunt.

Italics mine. One can always count on the learned to know better I guess. Also, the GOI launched the mid-day scheme in 1995 apparently, though the SC had to get into the act to force some states to go with it.

As for libraries, the government seems to have thought of that too. We used to and still have have City Central Libraries run by the government. There were no restrictions on who could go there. I myself finished reading Home's Iliad in one such library, a bit pretentiously I should add. They were good once upon a time, before the masses (including me) tore the books up and dog-eared them and wrote on them and then openly stole them.

This is not to say that Infosys, Infosys Foundation, Mohandas Pai, Sudha Murthy or Rohini Nilekani are not doing good. I have the utmost respect for what they are doing and are able to do. My crib is with Ms Singh who can be so "humbled" by individual private acts of goodness, but can only see government actions through a prism of negativity. I don't mean Mr Gowda when I say 'government'.

Blind Justice

Another development over the weekend was the indictment of a top government official, Scooter Libby, in the Bush administration. The background is this:

In the run-up to the Iraq war, as the Bush government tried to make the case for the war, some documents surfaced that seemed to show that Saddam Hussein was trying to buy some stuff in Africa that could be used for making WMD. The CIA sent a former diplomat to verify those claims. He found that the claims were false. But Bush had already included those claims in an important speech he made. The diplomat went to the press alleging that the administration falsified information to make the case for war stronger. The administration then started a campaign to discredit this person, by claiming that he was sent on the recommendation of his wife who worked at the CIA, and hence he was somehow not fit enough for the task and his opinion was worthless. Apparently, 'outing' a CIA agent is a felony in the US. The CIA asked for an inquiry as to how the name got leaked. After a 2-year investigation a special prosecutor has indicted the chief-of-staff of the vice-president. He is still investigating the political adviser to Bush, who may also be indicted. The current indictment is not for the act of 'outing' the agent, apparently there wasn't sufficient proof to bring that charge. It is for 5 other counts, one of them is obstruction of justice. Libby apparently tried to lead investigators down the wrong alley by lying at the beginning of the probe.

I watched the press conference of the special investigator. It was inspiring. He spoke in simple words. But the message was quite powerful. The guilty will be punished. At least in the US.

Republicans, even before the much-anticipated indictment were trying to spin it, saying that the indictment would not be for the actual crime, but would be based on 'technicalities', and so he should not bring the indictments. This is what the prosecutor had to say when a reporter asked him about this :

I'll be blunt.

That talking point won't fly. If you're doing a national security investigation, if you're trying to find out who compromised the identity of a CIA officer and you go before a grand jury and if the charges are proven ... that the chief of staff to the vice president went before a federal grand jury and lied under oath repeatedly and fabricated a story about how he learned this information, how he passed it on, and we prove obstruction of justice, perjury and false statements to the FBI, that is a very, very serious matter.

And I'd say this: I think people might not understand this. We, as prosecutors and FBI agents, have to deal with false statements, obstruction of justice and perjury all the time. The Department of Justice charges those statutes all the time.

When I was in New York working as a prosecutor, we brought those cases because we realized that the truth is the engine of our judicial system. And if you compromise the truth, the whole process is lost.

...

And if a truck driver pays a bribe or someone else does something where they go into a grand jury afterward and lie about it, they get indicted all the time.

Any notion that anyone might have that there's a different standard for a high official, that this is somehow singling out obstruction of justice and perjury, is upside down.

If these facts are true, if we were to walk away from this and not charge obstruction of justice and perjury, we might as well just hand in our jobs. Because our jobs, the criminal justice system, is to make sure people tell us the truth. And when it's a high-level official and a very sensitive investigation, it is a very, very serious matter that no one should take lightly.

Take that, youse! Now a criminal trial will start, but the indicted person has already resigned. For some more on the signifance of the forthcoming trial, read this from The Guardian, via DH.

The Delhi Blasts

One more attack. The K-problem needs to be solved fast, because it is very unlikely that our neighbour will help stop these attacks. One way not to go about it is what a front-page editorial in TOI (couldn't find the URL though) recommended. It concluded that this is war and that we need to put in place some tough laws, like the US has. This is not war, it is an act of terrorism. As for strict laws, what laws could we put in place that we don't have now? This Indian Express editorial, elaborates, taking lessons from Mr Blair's handling of the post-London bombing situation:

the message the government sent out was that there would be no compromising on national safety, whether at the political, social or legal level, even if it meant reversing some of the more liberal laws of entry, citizenship and prosecution.

It is difficult to disagree with that, but let me try. It is easy for the British and Americans to reverse 'liberal' laws of entry - they just hold people that don't look like them to a stricter scrutiny. We can't do that in our country - we all look alike, like south Asians. And even if we made entry tough - we have long borders where an entry could be affected, though not as easily. Laws of citizenship - the British say that they will send back anyone who preaches extremism. We are a country of 1 billion. Who will monitor who is saying what. As for laws of prosecution - the editorial is probably referring to holding suspects in secret, with recourse to legal help, with a little torture thrown in, a la Guantanamo. We already have that.

The Indian Express editorial is also funny in its belief that Mr Blair did something worthy of emulation post-bombings. Apart from the above, it notes:

The most important message sent out by the Tony Blair government was that it would not rest until it systematically got to the bottom of the entire episode and dug out the origins, methodology and purpose of the perpetrators. That steely determination was in itself a confidence building measure for a nation that had briefly lost its bearings.

Yeah, so he said he would find out what happened. Why does that even need to be said? What 'steely determination'? I think all he did was speechify in his usual high-sounding way. The changes to the laws effected may not suffice either. After all, the London bombers were British-born, British-educated citizens.

Of course, we need to catch the perpetrators before they do harm, but to rely only on that is to treat the symptom only leaving the root cause unattended to. And the root is finding a mutually acceptable solution to the core issue. The Hindu could be more relevant here.

Back

From a short visit to Hyderabad. Kingfisher does not provide their famous beer on this flights, but they do run on time. Hyderabad itself is nice - whatever we saw of it. Lots of things to see and do. We couldn't do too many things in the time we had, just a few. NTR park in the evening, washed out by the cyclone though. The award-winning Nehru zoo, clean and well-tended. It is huge, and we walked through all of it. It will leave you with a keen appetite, but extremely happy, especially if you have a wife and a 2-year-old with you. After that, you can take the safari ride and say hello to the lions and lionesses. Then Charminar, crowded beyond belief on account of Ramzan. The monument has been allowed to go to seed a bit, which is a tragedy. But the shopping around there is good. Lots of colourful things on sale during this season, and more than a handful people. Salarjung museum, very much worth the visit. The nice'ish drive along Hussein Sagar lake. The nicely-lit up Birla Mandir which we couldn't visit though. Boards advertising a mysterious Lasa and Lamsa Tea.

The place to quench that keen appetite is Paradise Hotel. We gorged ourselves with its biryanies. Apparently no one does anything else there. Three floors of seating and people still throng the takeaway counters. It does not even close during the late afternoon like we're used to in Bangalore. Maybe it was because of Ramzan. Whatever. I'm still pining for that biryani. And the kalmi kabab.

Away

With your leave, till sunday evening.

The Morning After

The Karnataka state government wakes up:

The State government will study the largescale violation of building by-laws in City Municipal Council limits around Bangalore, Chief Minister Dharam Singh said on Wednesday. The study has been prompted by the floods and human misery witnessed in the CMC areas in the last few days due to encroachment of lake beds and natural drains, he said. “We will look into why it happened... On what basis the CMCs sanctioned the buildings on the lakes, ” the chief minister said.

Why was the government sleeping in the first place? Is it not their job to see that the law is followed? (Update): I notice this happened with Mumbai too after their nightmare last month (or was it earlier?) - the HC had to ask the government to do a study on lake/natual drainage areas being used for development. I'm sure it will happen with Chennai too. Is it too difficult for those in charge to come up with and stick to a good plan for their respective cities?

Also, Bangalore roads to get a facelift with help from the Centre. The word 'facelift' is chosen well. It describes what they were getting thus far and what they could expect to get in the future. They were definitely not getting a comprehensive rejuvenation package. They could do without the facelift at all. It will only mean more money landing in the pockets of the shamelessly corrupt authorities and contractors.

Son Of The Soil

This letter-writer to DH says it well (the title means: son of Bangalore's soil, a take on the self-given title of Mr Deve Gowda : son of the soil):

Bangalore Mannina Maga!

Sir, I have been watching the political life of Mr Deve Gowda after he lost the prime ministership and can only pity him. As an ex-prime minister, he is expected to air his comments on international and national issues. On the contrary most of the time his concern seems to be real estate in and around Bangalore, so much so that he crusaded the exit of eminent people from important agencies. The people of Karnataka lost the services of Mr Jayakar Jerome soon after Mr Deve Gowda formed the government with Congress. Now it is Mr Narayana Murthy.

Mr Gowda calls himself a “Mannina Maga”. Does ‘mannu’ refer only to the land in and around Bangalore?

SUBBU HEGDE Bangalore

Getting Worse

The misery deepens. Now look at the picture in the middle which is of the IT.in venue. That does justice to the absurdity. But unfortunately Mr Gowda, knowing what is good for him, has decided not to attend. OK, I need to go get an extra cup of coffee.

Update: Rain records broken. And Mr Gowda did attend.

Innundated

Bangalore. The amount of rainfall during this month is expected to surpass all previous highs. The blame game is on. People blaming the authorities and the authorities blaming the people. Both are to blame obviously and I would lay more of the blame on the people. Hopefully people will stop littering and encroaching and the authorities will try to sincerely curb development which creates this waterlogging mess. But that hope breathes its last as soon as it is born.

Meanwhile, IT.in kicks off tomorrow. The picture is presented in all seriousness I suppose. Though the one in DH's print version is better - it is in color and makes the contrast between the building and the water funnier. Note the chief guest's name too.

Tangentially, we always hear about the effect we may be having on the environment. But what about the effect on cows? Today morning, driving during the morning rush hour, I saw a cow hurrying along beside the rest of the cars and two-wheelers. It had started to rain, again. The cow was alone and there was no apparent reason for it to be running. But there it was running, head bowed, with an expression exactly like someone late for work. Strange.

Then there was this mini-truck driver. He had a wiper in his hand, his hand pushed out throught the driver's window, wiping the windshield with the broken wiper as he drove. And finally, the traffic cops earning their, very bad by all accounts, pay. What a thankless job they have.

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

That's Steve Jobs, in his Commencement address at Stanford. (via pankaj).

It's The Real Thing

Vijay Mallya has the name "Kingfisher" all over TV (and print media too I presume). He must be a happy man. No one can call this surrogate advertising can they?

Big Man Talking - Again

DH has the details. I am still groping in the dark as to the reasons for this whole outburst by Mr Gowda. Thus far I have these potential candidates:

1. The alleged 'malicious campaign' against him by 'some quarters' in the IT Industry. An reference most probably to Infosys. The whole things explains itself then as a grudge against the company.

2. Apprehension on his part that he (and the politicians in general) may lose control to the people.

3. Something that actually occurred during the original meeting which blew his lid off.

Reading today's DH article, linked above, my antenna pointed towards No. 3 again, since the presentation on local government for urban areas seems to have been only one of the topics discussed. Mr Gowda:

“I had also asked him for his suggestions on what is best for Bangalore – the Bangalore Metro, monorail or ELRTS. In what way have I hurt him?”

So he asked Mr Murthy about the metro rail. But why the second setence? It is well-known that Mr Gowda has been against the Metro rail and in favour of the monorail. Did he try to get a endorsement from Mr Murthy for the monorail, but was rebuffed and did that get his hackles up?

Further down the article this occurred - No. 1 this time.

Barring Infosys, no other IT company in the city was interfering in the State’s administration. This is because some officials and vested interests had invested in Infosys, he alleged.

The second sentence can be safely ignored - whatever the 'officials and vested interests' do or don't, their investment is safe. Nothing they do is going to affect the company. It is too big for them. He is basically complaining against Infosys. And some 'quarters in the IT ind.' are, as he seems to think, indulging in 'malicious campaigning'. Thus No. 1.

Or probably it is a mix of all three. Who knows?

He makes a new point in the article - that Infosys has asked some land in Yelahanka and that this will render many farmers landless. It would be good to hear what the farmers themselves have to say. And I wonder how many have already sold their land to real estate developers. Anekal farmers started the process of selling their land some time ago. I know. I had been to see some of it myself last year.

It is the turn of BDA and BMP next. Mr Gowda believes in giving sufficient notice before he strikes. The Bangalore Development Authority and the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike better watch out:

Today, I have discussed issues of infrastructure and airport; next will be BMP, BDA.

Update: Adding reason No. 4 which is : Alll this is the result of Infosys getting caught up in politics unintentionally, or more corrrectly, with good intentions. Going back to the days of the S M Krishna government, one recalls the erstwhile BATF and also that Nandan Nilekani (CEO of Infosys) was associated with it. His intentions must have been entirely blameless - to contribute his mite to Bangalore with the help of a progressive Chief Miniser. As it happens, Mr Krishna and Deve Gowda are close to being sworn enemies of each other. And in addition, Janaagraha too got going during those days, and Nandan was associated with that too (along with others). Unfortunately, S M Krishna was voted out. And your enemy's friend is your enemy. Infosys is left out in the cold now, at least where Mr Gowda is concerned.

Update 2: Reason No. 5: Mr Gowda is doing this to gain political capital - comes across as a common man's fearless hero by taking on renowned companies and personalities.

Update 3: Read this post from another blog (link via Amit Varma).

Infosys Rebuttal

Infosys responds to Mr Gowda's charges. This blog has the details.

Futures Trading With A Difference

The process by which a judge gets to sit on the Supreme Court in the US is a bit different than ours. I'd lightheartedly commented on it here. But I found out today that there is a futures market which trades in such things (link via Talking Points Memo). Real money changes hands apparently.

While you are there, note this contract which is also trading - OSAMA.CAPTURE.DEC05 (Osama Bin Laden to be captured/neutralised by 31 December 2005). The bid is 5.6 - that is, a probability of 5.6% of him being captured by that date.

Can He See The Future?

I asked here what happened in the meeting that made Mr Gowda get so worked up. Well, I wonder. Is he a visionary? Does he see the power of ideas such as this and this and this? Can he envision the transparency which would set in if firms like this have their way? Can he imagine these ideas spreading all over the state? Does the thought of all that make him afraid? Does he fear losing control to the people?

And A Resignation

Mr Murthy resigns as the Chairman of Bangalore International Airport Limited. The IT industry's cup of woe is filled to the brim.

Who Wants To Be A Mill-Owner?

In Mumbai, not many I suppose. A bit stale news, but here it is. HC distributes NTC land in Mumbai equally between mother nature, the oppressed slum-dwellers, and the mill-owners. Nice and refreshing.

Junk those glitzy malls.

Now, A Panel

Now there will be a panel to see if the land was 'given' to Infosys following the government's norms. Even if the answer if yes, the panel will revamp the norms such that it will look shady in retrospect and make sure no more land can be given. Unless the company goes through the normal channels and bows in obeisance to the big man himself presumably. And there is no doubt that the target here is Infosys. And the person heading the panel is M P Prakash who was handpicked by the big man for the Deputy Chief Minister's post recently. Anyone can guess whose inputs will go into those ears.

Whether anything will come of it or not, it leads one to ask - what exactly pricked the big man during the meeting that day? There must have been something. Apart from all the "malicious campaign" by the IT companies against his party. Why else would he wake up so suddenly to the land issue?

Party With Differences

This article spins the simmering leadership crisis in the BJP and notes that it may not be such a bad thing for the party after all. An excerpt:

The crux of the matter is that a spell in government changes the outlook and approach of party members and leaders, especially if they had been in the wilderness for long, as in the case of the BJP top brass. But while the Congress had taken over two decades to be reduced to that position, the BJP lost its morale and ethos after just six years in government.

A more crucial question in this context is whether a divergence of opinion in a party is unhealthy per se and its absence should therefore be celebrated.

It digs (a bit deeply) into the history of the Congress and comes up with instances of dissidence - and concludes:

If ... a party struggles to practise internal democracy and a periodical change of leadership and suffers a setback in the process, it is not its end. It can be a new beginning, in fact.

I agree. I came to the same conclusion before reading this article. Still, there is a difference. The instances he quotes were surely not played out so openly and surely not with such bitterness. And this is after all the party with a difference. Iron discipline and all that I mean.

FDI In Retail

Prem Shankar Jha makes some points in this article. It would be a pity if the corner shops vanished. But will they really go a way once the big stores come, given the unique Indian context? Will Indians be able to manage once-a-week shopping from the big stores? Difficult to imagine that happening given our unique context. Bad roads, bad traffic, no one-car-per-family. We ourselves avoid shopping on saturdays and sundays as far as possible and our stores are located less than half-a-kilometer away. The rush is almost unbearable and we can't use our car because getting parking is impossible. But for durables - my better-half would travel half the city to get the best buy without doubt.

JEEZ - How Is That Possible?

News report on the rationale for the new entrance scheme for IITs. Apparently a study was conducted which led to the changes. This is interesting though:

...the screening test and the main examination have been selecting the same 4,000 students since 2000, the study found.

Pimples

Mr Deve Gowda strikes back.

A day after a close-door meeting with Infosys chief mentor Narayana Murthy, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda ridiculed Mr Murthy for his suggestion on urban governance ...

At a press conference in Bangalore on Sunday, Mr Gowda was critical of Mr Murthy’s suggestion for shifting the focus in the State to urban governance and setting up urban bodies on the lines of grama sabhas. Mr Gowda remarked that “the views of high-profile and elite personalities are different from ground reality.” Mr Gowda wondered if Mr Murthy knew the problems of rural life.

He also sought comparison of employment generated by such companies including Infosys, which have taken government land, with other IT firms like Wipro, HP and IBM which have not been provided any government land.

Mr Gowda said: “I am sure companies like Wipro, Intel, Accenture, IBM, HP and Honeywell, which have not been allotted government land and functioning mostly in rented buildings, account for more than 85 per cent jobs provided by the IT firms in Bangalore.”
...
He alleged that a number of companies, including a few IT firms, had not fully utilised the government land allotted to them to preserve the land for real estate purpose.

Let's try to enumerate the problems with his statements.

1. Just saying that "high-profile" and "elite" personalities (as he puts it) are not aware of the ground realities is not enough. He needs to specify what exactly are the facts on the ground that make the proposal ineffective. The presentation was by Ramesh Ramanathan of Janaagraha who has been working extremely closely with the government and local bodies for more than five years. What exactly has eluded him that hasn't escaped Deve Gowda?

Let's see what the proposal was. From the previous day's DH:

Mr Ramanathan mooted the concept of urban citizen bodies, wherein citizens would have a greater say in urban governance. He also made a strong pitch for urban decentralisation and a “credible coordination mechanism” between civic agencies.

The Infosys chief said today Bangalore was hobbled by myriad problems. Tomorrow, it could be the turn of smaller cities like Mysore and Hubli. “We need to think beyond infrastructure and Bangalore. We need to tackle urban issues such as poor quality of life, housing, education, water and sanitation. We need to put our heads together, look ahead and plan accordingly,” Mr Murthy told reporters after the meeting. Mr Murthy said Karnataka had a concrete system for rural governance, but lacked the same for urban areas. He felt the economic opportunities in cities could be leveraged by putting in place a robust structure for urban governance.

I don't see anything elitist in that. Mr Ramanathan has been putting out these ideas for sometime now. Here and here for instance. He also has the figures: With a population of 3.2 crores, rural Karnataka has 84,168 representatives - at the zilla, taluk, gram panchayat levels. With 1.7 crore people, urban Karnataka has 5,023 representatives - at the city corporation, city municipal corporation, town municipal council, and town panchayat levels. That is a representative for every 380 rural persons, but one for every 3,400 urbal persons. 100 rimes more representation in the rural areas than at the urban areas. As he puts it:

Measured one way, the distance between citizens and their elected representatives is almost 10 times greater in urban areas than rural Karnataka; in Bangalore, 100 times greater, explaining the relative anonymity of local governments in towns and cities.

In addition to this, the gram sabha in the rural areas has got legitimacy, if not actual on-the-ground usage, with the idea that every registered voter should participate in decision-making. In contrast, the urban areas have a concept of the wards committee, hampered by the combination of a debatable nomination process, limited citizen representation and an ambiguous mandate.

So where is the problem with this idea? What are the realities that intrude?

2. He asks if Mr Murthy knows the problems of rural life. Not relevant to this conversation. I don't think Mr Murthy is suggesting that the government ignore rural areas. He is suggesting a way to ease the urban situation. The two need not be mutually exclusive.

3. He links the land allegedly "given" by the government to Infosys to the employment generated by the latter. I give up on this one. I don't understand what he is trying to say.

4. His accusation that "some" IT companies are playing the real estate game on the side too doesn't make too much sense. Are these individuals in the companies making hay? I can't believe that. On the other hand, if it is the entire company making killings in the real estate market - that does not hold much water either. A $2 billion company doesn't need to make a few crores on land. It has no material impact on anything.

So one can only conclude that Mr Gowda is talking through his hat. But it is not hard to see where this angst comes from :

He alleged that there was a systematic malicious campaign from some quarters in the IT sector to brand the coalition government as anti-IT and one with no interest to improve Bangalore infrastructure.

Politicking as usual.

Reading this news report on the front page of DH today I was reminded of one thing. In the preface to Volume 1 of Anton Chekhov's short stories by Raduga Publications, Maxim Gorky recalls his impressions of Chekhov. In it he recounts a visit of a government prosecutor to Chekhov at his house. The prosecutor begins by trying to engage Chekhov with his analysis of one of Chekhov's characters. Realising that he is putting it on, Chekhov switches to lighter topics which really engage the prosecutor. After the prosecutor leaves, Chekhov says this about him (a bit unfairly according to me):

"And it's pimples like that on the backside of justice who dispose of the destinies of men."

One would be hardpressed to think of something which would make the above description not fit people like Mr Gowda.

Attack Of The Salesgirls

I need help desperately. Salesgirls selling battery-operated electric shavers knock on my door during broad daylight. Opening the door and checking the rising panic, I tell them no, I don't want them since I only shave once a week and five minutes in a week is not enough of a trouble to warrant investment in a possibly very short-lived contraption. But they say just see how easy it is to use and suddenly lunge towards me with the shavers held out in front of them, going for the few days-old stubble on my face. I dodge them only to have them shave off the hair on my forearms in a smooth move.

I have only one question: have they lost all sense of what is right?

Chimp Quits Smoking

Spare a thought for our dumb chums and their problems. Solitude and grief affect them badly too. This chimp took to smoke after his two partners passed away and his daughter left him. Thankfully his zoo keepers have cured him by making his life more colourful. Sony would have hardly had chimpanzees in mind when they designed the Walkman though.

Perceptions Of India

L K Sharma, DH's man in the US, is keeping a close eye on proceedings affecting the nuclear deal in Washington. And writing down his thoughts with a tongue firmly in cheek as usual. He notes the three groups India is up against

• Those who objected to India hobnobbing with Iran [but] had no problem with the accord itself because they believe that President Bush can do no wrong.
• The non-proliferation lobby that is not afraid to speak out against Mr Bush and, of course, against the Indo-US agreement.
• Then there are sarkari academics analysing the world’s trouble spots for the good of their country, either having worked for the government or hoping to work. They are shocked by the Indo-US agreement because they had never expected it.

One academic having "close friends both in India and Pakistan" has apparently disturbed Indian diplomats by telling lawmakers that

"the presence of very large arsenals raises the possibility of India and Pakistan sharing their nuclear weapons with other states, perhaps by extending a protective umbrella over them or simply giving them to other states.”

Full testimony here. Read it. It is definitely interesting - some facts and figures, sometimes down to earth, sometimes peppered with sudden bursts of imagination like the suggestion of India's space program being suddenly diverted for military purposes and used to 'blind' US satellites!

We The People

This column by Ramesh Ramanathan of Janaagraha was lying in my mail box for some time before I read it today. In it he tries to draw some lessons from the recent confrontation between the Delhi government and the people. Stressing on the importance of getting people to participate in the process of decision-making he says:

Lesson 4—It is better to work from the front foot than be cornered into these positions: allowing participation is not only morally right, it is also strategically useful. Citizens today are getting away with taking pot-shots at government, with no accountability of their own, either in taking tough decisions on reforms, or in being honest participants in public services. For example, one of the sore points in the power crisis is the 50% power theft. While the responsibility to ensure compliance is the service providers’, in a society where contractual enforcement will take time, local stakeholders can exert far more pressure than a discom. Being completely open also allows the government to demand responsibility from citizens and constructive solutions from critics, rather than allow procedural criticism to obfuscate fundamental reform debate.

Exactly. Someone has already said it - we get the government we deserve. We as a people are challenged (as in mentally challenged, visually challenged) when it comes to doing the right thing - we break traffic rules, building rules, evade taxes, steal power, sell borewell water on the sly, dump waste at the street corner. Who knows, many a politicians may be saying: "Look at these people, they break rules themselves, and they expect us to be upright. People are all inherently bad, corrupt, and interested only in themselves and their families. They have no time to think of the public good. I've completely lost faith in them".

Maybe we as people need to change along with or before the politicians change.

In A Spot - 011005

This is not another one in the series. Not the usual one at least, because Ms Tavleen Singh shows that she can write sensible articles if only she doesn't try to drag her favourites peeves into it - like Sonia Gandhi and her allegedly rubber-stamp PM and her dynastic and decaying party.

She still cannot prevent the occasional slip like this, but that's ok I guess:

Had they paid attention then instead of slums in Chembur there would have been affordable housing for the poor. Instead of evil slum lords there would have been legitimate real estate companies controlling the housing market.

Right. Slum lords evil. Real estate companies pure as the driven snow. Tell us another one please.

Surging Ahead In Road Accidents

Every country wants to be the first in number of road accidents apparently. This report from DH says

A sharp increase in the number of road accidents resulting in more than 90,000 deaths in the country has given India the dubious distinction of accounting for 10 per cent of the world’s total road accident deaths, highest for any country.

No source mentioned. And this from China's People Daily Online dated June 25, 2004

Lastest research shows that every day in China at least 300 people are killed in traffic accidents, ranking the country top in the world for both the death toll and the death rate. And the figure is accelerating by 10 percent every year.
... in 2001 [the figure for all accidents] had leapt to 750,000. Last year the figure was more than 770,000, with 110,000 people losing their lives and 560,000 injured.

A Principled Stand?

Then there is this article by TK Arun in TOI's sister in which he tries to retrofit principles on the Iran vote. Why is this necessary? He argues that the interesting question which is getting overlooked in the whole Iran vote criticism is this: how India’s voting serves India’s interests, rather than Washington’s or Teheran’s. He blames the Left for ignoring this point and blames the government for allowing this side-stepping of the interesting point to occur. The government (he says) should have plugged a good nuclear doctrine acceptable to the political class and the people. If only they had done that then (according to him) the above question would've been addressed. Then we would have had a debate, or so he seems to sugggest.

He then presents a principle to serve this purpose passing through some impossible hoops in the process:

What can be a principled position on Iran’s nuclear programme? There is no quibble over a peaceful, energy programme. But should India endorse Iran’s sovereign right to develop its own nuclear weapons? How can India oppose such a right, after having become a nuclear power itself?

India stayed out of the non-proliferation treaty because India stood for universal disarmament and was not willing to accept asymmetrical rights of certain nations alone to have nuclear weapons. Universal disarmament remained a dream. India is too large a nation and too complex and diverse a polity to become anyone’s client state. So it developed/ is developing its own nuclear capability, both bombs and delivery vehicles. This is not all that absurd.

Second-best options are, at times, radically different from the best possible solution, rather than its close approximations. The way to the unchanged goal of universal disarmament probably lies in effective deterrence constituted by dispersal of countervailing force in a number of power centres that together provide equipoise, enabling gradual roll-back. Proliferation will only hinder, rather than help this process.

Boiling it down over a medium flame for 20 minutes we get this:

India wanted universal disarmament once upon a time. But it was a dream. We thought it was not right that only some nations should have nukes and not others. And we were too proud to become anyone's client state. So we developed nukes. Agreed, this is not anywhere close to universal disarmament, but now we've changed our minds. Now we think it is better that certain select countries have nukes (of course including us). This will make it possible for everyone to start rolling back towards nuclear disarmament. If countries other than us get nukes it will make things difficult.

That does not make sense to me. It suggests to me that if a country believes in nuclear disarmament and is proud it can go right ahead and develop nuclear weapons. I mean, disarmament is still a dream - a far bigger one if I may say so. A nightmare in fact.

As for Iran in the current context specifically:

Iran is a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty. It has signed away its right to develop nuclear weapons.

So what if Iran walks out of the NPT like North Korea did? He has an answer to that too:

And it is not in India’s interest for another country in its neighbourhood to develop nuclear capability.

Two close friends of ours have nukes and we share a border with one and are at a stone's throw distance from the other. How would Iran getting nukes be different? And we are supposed to be friends! Get real sir.

No, the only justification for the vote is what someone in this newspaper's editorial (no link, they don't put the edit out on the web) today had the sense to suggest:

We need the nuclear fuel because we are getting crippled without power. If the nuclear deal is aborted we will feel much pain.

Also, there is some spin being spun, that we prevented the immediate referral of Iran to the Security Council. This is a Reuters report from the days before the vote. It says the EU backed away from immediate referral on account of pressure from Russia and China. The report may not be fully accurate, but I heard no news to the effect that India prevented that thing from happening. (Note: No news until after the vote itself I meant).

Note 2: I'm not sure if it wouldn't be the best thing the govt can do - to actually explain the vote in terms making the power situation better. Makes a forceful argument. But there is always the issue of how to explain it away if the US still refuses to play along.

Note 3: Worth noting once again what The Hindu wrote about the resolution: "It is possible that it is designed to short-circuit the prospect of a negotiated solution, and to push the world towards another major confrontation...The U.S. and its allies want to rewrite the rules so that they will be able to control both the nuclear fuel cycle and the commerce around nuclear fuel and reactors". Now mull this: The nuclear industry has donated $8 million to Bush and his party since the 2000 elections.

Note 4: And this too:

India's position on the Iranian nuclear question at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) appears to have been one of the key conditions to the successful negotiation of the India-U.S. nuclear deal on July 19.

A Rose By Any Other Name

Would smell as sweet, but corruption by any other name slips under the guard of the people. They don't even realise it is happening and if they do it is so boring that they yawn and go to sleep instead.

Ahead of everyone else as usual, the US has gone ahead and found another name for corruption. Pork. Those of us who have watched CNBC TV18 between 6:30 pm and 7:00pm last week or so would have seen a segment called Porkbusters which they are running (the 6:30 - 7:00 time is for the direct broadcast of the MSNBC program Squawk Box as it appears on TV in the US). The background to this is that the US government passed a $280 billion transportation bill - you know building/maintaining/upgrading roads and other transportation-related infrastructure. But then two hurricanes happened and now they need money for rebuilding the affected areas. The US is running massive fiscal deficits already. Where to get the money from? Suddenly everyone seems to realise that the $280 billion bill is filled with mainly useless projects with no other objective than to benefit the politicians in whose area the project is located. This is known by a specific name, viz., pork. Why pork and why not beef or fish I don't know. Anyway, Squawkbox is getting individual US Congressmen on the show and trying to shame them into giving up their portion of the federal pork. Hence the name Porkbusters.

One more background fact: one of the hurricane-affected states has requested $250 billion aid from the federal government for reconstruction.

I brought up all of that since I wanted to link this article from Washington Post which talks about this phenomenon. I think it explains how the US stays out of the corrupt countries list by refusing to call it corruption. Some excerpts:

[we], are still learning how deeply corrupt America's legislative branch has become. Most of the time, members of Congress don't accept cash bribes in unmarked envelopes. Most of the time, senators don't pay for their daughters' wedding receptions out of government slush funds. Most of the time, American politicians don't put their ill-gotten gains into numbered Swiss bank accounts or get the Mafia to launder their money. But corruption comes in many forms, and in this country it comes in the dull-sounding, unglamorous, switch-off-the-television form of infrastructure appropriations.

Then it mentions the hurrican affected state's request as follows:

They are playing by the rules of the only system for distributing federal funds that there is, and that system allocates money not according to the dictates of logic, but to the demands of politics and patronage.

And touches on the transportation bill:

Nor does this logic apply only to obvious boondoggles such as federal transportation spending, the last $286 billion tranche of which funded Virginia horse trails, Vermont snowmobile trails, a couple of "bridges to nowhere" in rural Alaska and decorative trees for a California freeway named after Ronald Reagan (a president who once vetoed a transportation bill because it contained too much pork). On the contrary, this logic applies even to things we supposedly consider important, such as homeland security. Because neither the administration nor Congress is prepared to do an honest risk assessment, and because no one dares say that there are states at almost no risk of terrorist attack, a good chunk of homeland security funding is distributed according to formulas that give minimum amounts to every state. The inevitable result: In 2004 the residents of Wyoming received, per capita, seven times more money for first responders than the residents of New York City.

One question arises: will this money end up with the people who need it most ? Or will it stay in the pockets of those who want it more? I would guess most of it would stay with the latter - the businesses and corporations. How could this happen in a form of government which is of the people, for the people, by the people?

Conclusion? Call it by its real name:

Of course, there are risks to writing about this subject. The very words involved -- "infrastructure," "funding" and "pork" -- cause readers' eyes to glaze over, and Washingtonians' eyes to roll. Government waste is, after all, as old as government itself...

...But maybe at least it is time for a change of terminology. After all, taking $200 million of public money to build a bridge, name it after yourself and get reelected isn't merely "pork." Demanding $250 billion of public money for your hurricane-damaged state -- in the hope that voters will ignore all the mistakes you made before the hurricane struck -- isn't just "waste" either. As I say, corruption comes in many forms. But whatever form it comes in, it will be easier for voters to identify if it's called by its true name.

PS: $250 billion is equal to Rs 11,25,000 crores.

Making Out In Cars

Came across a blog by accident. Read this one. Nice story (No, it is NOT the one about the cute little girl who is dying).

Detecting Away

If I have read my detective stories right, the first thing the sleuths look for when solving a a murder is the motive. Who gains from this person being dead? If the husband gets to inherit the wife's fortune, he goes to the pokey.

Now, today's DH has a story on the front page. Kannada activists storm Infosys. It set me thinking. Who gains from this?

One gainer will be the Kannada Rakshana Vedike whose members "stormed" Infosys. They get publicity from this protest against a extremely well-known and respected company, morale-boost for the organisation, possible cash payments for the protest. That may sound cynical. After all, they might have been really concerned about the lack of jobs for Kannadigas. But I don't remember them doing any protesting for solving real problems - for instance, the poor state of government schools, health care, horrible conditions in poorer sections of the city. I did a Google search for their name. Their main campaigns have been protesting against other language films, and the Playwin lottery:
Kannada rakshana vedike members attack other language films.
The Hindu Business Line : Playwin lottery office attacked in Bangalore.
One could argue that their raison d'etre is to fight for language related campaigns. I say then they should change their raison d'e. Nothing is going to happen till there is universal education.

There is a bigger gainer though. The government. How? It provides a counter for the demands of the IT industry. This already started happening in the case of the proposed boycott of the IT.com event by the Bangalore IT firms recently. It is a straightforward issue - You crib against Bangalore infrastructure, we will hang the Mahishi report implementation sword over your head. But can governments carry out such protests? I'm sure not, but a nudge here and a hint there by individuals within the government can probably result in some such thing undoubtedly. The conspiracy theorist in me simply refuses to go to bed.

Kannadigas will not gain - much more than now. Infosys has people from many parts of the country. Kannadigas are also present, but they were selected entirely on their merit. The IT industry has made it clear that such reservation would not be possible. If Infosys agrees to non-merit based reservations to any non-trivial degree for its core business it has to watch its competitors take away some or all of its business and shut shop eventually. It would not be surprising if the company chooses to relocate to better climes rather than face that. And language-based reservations for its core business is what the activists want. Not blue-collar work.

So there. This is what I have been able to detect (or is it deduct?). Honestly.

Sign Of Maturity

Says Indian Express. It does not bother with double-standards, going back on our words, or the merits of the case except to starkly say that Iran was cheating:

"That no one in the 35-member IAEA board of governors, barring Venezuela under the maverick leadership of Hugo Chavez, has voted with Iran suggests how isolated Tehran is on the nuclear issue. There was no reason for India to condone Iran’s cheating on its nuclear obligations; nor is there any shame in not jeopardising its own interest in nuclear cooperation with the international community for the sake of defending a regime that has been caught red-handed cheating on its nuclear obligations.

12 of the 35-members were sufficiently opposed to the resolution to abstain from voting including Russia and China. That's a lot less isolation than the editorial suggests.

Hard-nosed Realism

The first of the appreciative articles appears on TOI in which we learn that the vote

presages a drastic reorientation of India’s foreign policy at the risk of being seen an American camp follower.

Hard-nosed realism with regard to future strategic goals and not a reflexive clinging to past positions marked the Indian decision, officials say.

As for Pakistan which abstained from voting, it had a pretty underhand and mean motive for doing so:

...Pakistan, a US lackey ... is trying to build bridges with both Russia and Iran even as India moves closer to the United States.

So now that Pakistan has left the US for Russia and Iran, India can be the undisputed lackey in this region, apparently.

And what were the reasons for the volte face? One is as follows:

For years, Washington has bristled at New Delhi’s stance at international fora, particularly at the UN, where critics say India has recorded more votes against the US than even its traditional bugaboos such as Cuba. In fact, this was cited as one reason why Washington would not back India’s candidature for the UN Security Council seat.

As for the question: what changed? Even that is answered:

So what changed between last week, when India expressed itself against the US resolution ... and Saturday’s vote?

Officials say the PMO and the MEA undertook a detailed assessment of India’s long-term strategic and economic before arriving at the decision.

(I think they meant strategic and economic interests). So did the vote have anything at all to do with the nuclear deal? No way:

"Any suggestion that our decision is under pressure from the US on account of the nuclear agreement we signed with them is totally wrong," a top Indian official said. "This decision is anchored in our larger national interest."

Will it help at all, in some peripheral, indirect, remote way?

Still, New Delhi’s unambiguous decision to go with the US is expected to pay dividends in the immediate context of the U.S-India nuclear deal which is expected to come up before Congress shortly. It deprives Washington’s non-proliferation lobby and partisan lawmakers of their primary ammunition to attack India.

Someone else seems to think that another screw will be tightened now that we are on the US wagon:

India’s vote for the European move at the International Atomic Energy Agency yesterday is likely to shift the focus of the American debate on nuclear cooperation with India from Iranian proliferation to the size and shape of New Delhi’s own nuclear arsenal, leading experts here say.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Strobe Talbott, Deputy Secretary of State in the Clinton Administration, said the Iran issue might have ‘‘created a static’’ in Indo-US relations, but will not undermine the nuclear pact.

‘‘There is no way on god’s green earth, that there will be significant opposition to the nuclear deal with India,’’ Talbott said. He, however, pointed to the discomfort within American arms control community that the Bush Administration has not got India to accept any restraints on its nuclear arsenal.

(emphasis mine). It is very difficult being a developing country nowadays.

Blackmail Pays

At least in this case it did.

Stating the facts briefly, we were against reporting Iran to the Security Council but we still voted in favour of a resolution which calls "on the IAEA board to consider reporting Iran - at an unspecified date - to the UN Security Council." (Italics mine).

The whole Iran issue is an issue because of one thing - Iran wants to generate its own nuclear fuel which is done by uranium enrichment. As it happens, the same enrichment technology can be used for further enriching uranium for the purpose of making nuclear weapons. Why does Iran want to do the enrichment itself instead of buying its nuclear fuel as others like India do? It says it cannot trust outside suppliers. They may be subject to American influence. Ring a bell? Yes, the exact same position India finds itself in - begging the US to lift sanctions so that it can beg the US, France, the UK - anyone - for fuel. True, we are under US sanctions because we developed nuclear weapons, but it is not difficult to imagine other reasons for the US imposing the same on a country like Iran. The US has enough sticks to beat everyone with.

The other aspect of the scam is that Iran is a signatory to the NPT but hid its enrichment program for 18 years. This is against the NPT. But this I suppose is a mere technicality. Many others went ahead and produced nuclear weapons - and no one can say they advertised the entire process. Like ourselves. India was wise - we did not sign the NPT and happily produced nuclear weapons. But we have to still beg for our civilian nuclear energy needs. Let's say that again: we did weapons, but cannot do civilian nuclear energy. Iran wants to do civilian nuclear energy but we oppose it fearing it may want to do weapons. Nice. Pakistan and Israel were also wise enough to do weapons first/simultaneously. North Korea, in its inimitable style, has become wise now all of a sudden. It has withdrawn from the NPT and says it now has nuclear weapons. Mind you, the NPT allows nuclear enrichment by members, the condition being that it has to be done under inspection by the IAEA.

Another interesting point is that it can now be taken as confirmed: Bye-bye little bird. Bird as in the Iran-Pak-India gas pipeline.

There will be many opinion pieces in our newspapers appreciating the trade-off between principles and pragmatism. But we will still be left wondering why not even the African countries supported our bid for a Security Council seat. We simply don't deserve it!

Update: The Hindu is the only one commenting on this today. Here are some excerpts:

... This Bush-led resolution is unjust as well as provocative ... Iran and the IAEA have resolved most of the issues in dispute; in fact, the IAEA Director General reported to the Board as recently as September 2 that "good progress has been made in Iran's correction of the breaches and in the Agency's ability to confirm certain aspects of Iran's current declarations." ... It is possible that it is designed to short-circuit the prospect of a negotiated solution, and to push the world towards another major confrontation.
...
It's a bit rich that India — which has refused to join the NPT, has turned its back on accepting full-scope IAEA safeguards, has conducted six nuclear explosions (in 1974 and 1998), and is a declared nuclear weapons state — is able to join in a `proliferation' indictment of Iran. This means embracing the worst kind of double standards.
...
At stake is not the danger of proliferation — nobody has produced any evidence that Iran is pursuing, or has ever pursued, a nuclear weapons programme — but the right of a sovereign country to develop peaceful nuclear power as a source of energy and engage in the nuclear fuel cycle. The NPT allows all parties to the international nuclear bargain to develop uranium enrichment facilities of the kind being built at Natanz, provided they are safeguarded. The U.S. and its allies want to rewrite the rules so that they will be able to control both the nuclear fuel cycle and the commerce around nuclear fuel and reactors. That is why the non-aligned group of countries has tended to stand with Iran on this issue.

Nuclear Blackmail

This is from the joint statement by Manmohan Singh-Bush in the US recently:

President Bush conveyed his appreciation to the Prime Minister over India's strong commitment to preventing WMD proliferation and stated that as a responsible state with advanced nuclear technology, India should acquire the same benefits and advantages as other such states. The President told the Prime Minister that he will work to achieve full civil nuclear energy cooperation with India as it realizes its goals of promoting nuclear power and achieving energy security.

Now this:

Gary Ackerman (Democrat-New York), chastised New Delhi for not unequivocally supporting the US position demanding that the UN Security Council handle the issue of Iran's nuclear programme that Washington alleges is aimed at weapons production.

"...we'd like India to rapidly review its relationship with Iran: Earlier this month... representative Tom Lantos (Democrat-California) used strong language to criticise New Delhi for seemingly equivocating on supporting the US bid and taking the stand that efforts by the European Union to negotiate with Iran must be exhausted before the Security Council was approached."

"The Prime Minister has previously indicated, I believe, that he would not favour referring this to the Security Council. That's not a good decision in the minds of most Americans, and in the minds of most members of the India Caucus. I don't speak for everybody I'm sure, but the overwhelming majority certainly." Asked if this would influence legislation regarding civilian nuclear cooperation, Ackerman gave an unqualified "Yes".

Italics mine. So, all that stuff about India being a responsible state was just bunkum. Till we decide to support the Iran issue going to the Security Council - that is, till we toe the US line - we will not get a whiff of nuclear cooperation. Of course taking the issue to the Security Council will allow some future US president to wage a war against another energy rich country - only incidentally having the second largest natural gas reserves in the world - on the pretext that it is violating a Security Council resolution.

Everything else aside, one aspect of this is so ironical that no one even comments on it. The US is the only country to have used nuclear weapons to date. They have used it as recently as the current Iraq war. And they are going around proclaiming which country should have use nuclear technology and which should not.

Bubble Or Not?

Prem Shankar Jha calls it a bubble. Funny timing too. The market tanked 260 points before recovering most of the losses and closed just a little in the red.

Things should get interesting in November if he is right.

He Goes In Dec

This was one family quarrel that was quite serious. Unlike what I'd imagined.

One good thing is that at least now the BJP could become the party with a difference again. It was looking more and more only like a party with differences.

In A Spot - 180905

The latest in the series. Two quotes (emphasis added):

... the stranglehold on the economy of the bureaucracy remains intact. Why does this situation exist when we have a Prime Minister who began his term by admitting that administrative reform was at the top of his agenda?

So the prime minister thinks administrative reform is important. But wait, look at this:

If India is to ever become an economic superpower the bureaucracy has to be curbed and it can only be curbed through serious administrative reforms. Neither Sonia Gandhi nor the Prime Minister have shown any sign that they understand this.

Admitting that administrative reforms are at the top of his agenda is not a sign. Nope. He would have to make a personal gesture to Ms Singh - a slow wink during a speech or a slight nod of the head or something.

Could it be that Ms Singh has not the least idea what actually needs to be done hence falls back on blaming her favourite punching bags? For, of course, there is little doubt that the bureaucracy needs to be curbed/reformed/rightsized. How to do it is the crux of the problem isn't it? Because it involves people - us. And we are not too happy to be curbed/reformed/rightsized are we?

Ma'am, May I?

I think I may need a bathroom break. Is this possible?

That's the leader of the free world at the UN asking permission to visit the loo from his Secretary of State Condaleezza Rice. I'm not kidding. It's on Reuters. Link via Eschaton.

Update: Oop! Is this photograph for real or was I taken in - a la Times Of India? Well, check this analysis from a website tracking urban legends:

We don't doubt the authenticity of the photograph, as Rick Wilking is an established photographer with 12 years' experience shooting news photos in Washington (including various White House assignments) who recently covered the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans (leaving that city only, according to Editor & Publisher, "after his laptop and two cameras were stolen from his car parked near the convention center"). As well, Reuters carried other pictures of the same scene from the United Nations, including one that appears to have captured the back of President Bush's head. We've left this as "undetermined" for now to allow for the possibility that the President was merely responding to or adding comments to a note written by someone else.

The last line does look a bit different than the rest of it - the 'I' is different for instance. Still, why would the leader of the f.w. be even caught with such a note at all?

Update 2: It is for real. The photo was taken as it appears and the photographer says the baby Bush wrote it. Via Crooks and Liars.

Armed To The Teeth

We continue to purchase arms furiously though human development languishes in the country. This editorial lays it out. India was the biggest purchaser of arms last year - $5.7 billion vs $2.2 billion spent by China. We were 127th on the Human Development Index last year and we are 127th this year. And now we hear of the 7 submarines to be bought from France.

Good going.

Fixing Is Back

Two officers of the ICC's anti-corruption unit in Dubai visit India leading to new speculations about a match-fixing probe. A fair lady is involved too.

According to DCP Kamalakar, diaries seized from Tarannum have revealed names of several bookies, including one named as “DJ” in the betting circle, as well as cricketers.

Names of two Sri Lankan cricketers – one batsman and another a leg spinner – have been mentioned as being her contacts in betting racket.

Sources in the police department claimed that the ICC sleuths had tapped phone calls of some international cricketers, which led them to a particular number in Mumbai. That number reportedly belonged to Tarannum, who has now confessed of indulging in betting heavily on cricket matches.

During long hours of interrogation first on Saturday and then on Monday, she admitted her involvement with the betting racket.

She admitted of having betted heavily on the England-Australia Ashes game and also nearly Rs 1.75 crore in the India-Sri Lanka final.

Why is 'DJ' known to cricketers? Why were the international criceters calling the lady? Why did she wager such a huge sum - Rs 1.75 crores? She must have had some extra info surely?

Mohinder Amarnath cast his net too narrow when he called the the Indian selectors a "bunch of jokers".

The Flat Earther

"Tom, the playing field is being leveled," Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani told him. On the car ride back to his hotel, Friedman, as he is wont to do, began chewing over the phrase. "What Nandan was saying, I thought, is that the playing field is being flattened," he writes in the book. "Flattened? Flattened? My God, he's telling me the world is flat!"

Thomas Fried-man on how he came up with the title of his latest book. From here. That to me is the supreme example of completely muddled thinking. Nandan says that companies can now compete with each other on equal terms, and his interlocuter hears it to mean that the blue planet is flat. How the jump? How? And to think that even by his own logic, the earth cannot be flat. It is being flattened - it is not yet flat. He says so himself! And it is true, the process has not yet ended - barriers to completely free competition, in the form of tariffs, subsidies, and other forms which I don't know about, are still very extant as far as I know. So where the hell is the question of the earth being flat? How to explain that jump? The man must be out of his mind.

I haven't read the book. But after this review (mentioned in the Fortune article above) - I might just pick it up - but not if I can borrow it instead of buying. Just to see how much fun can be had with it.

Land Of Surprises

India is a land of surprises. It surprises me too sometimes, though, of course, I'm a native and have been one for more than 35 years.

Since about a year or so, utility bills in our city can be paid 24x7x365 - bill payment has been automated. The machine scans your bill, accepts your cash/cheque, and gives you a receipt. But there are two catches. Some people don't know how to operate it. Simple voice-based instructions/prompts in Kannada, Hindi, English would have probably helped, but this has not been provided. So there is a person standing next to the machine to help you. He gets the machine to scan your bill, feeds the cash into the machine, and hands you your receipt. The other catch is that the machine refuses to accept some notes. New notes, old notes, big notes, small notes - it rejects them all at one time or the other. And the solution is again the same - the human interface to the machine helps you - he folds the note down the middle, so that a V shape forms and then feeds it. Sometimes the machine plays along. Other times he goes into the utility office to get change or replacement notes.

I went to pay my electricity bill two days ago. There were three people already there. I saw the helping hand shoot into the main building as I entered the gate. He's gone to get the change I thought to myself. A customer was in the process of handing out cash to the machine. He was at the end of his patience I could see. I've felt like that many times myself. But I was a bit taken aback all the same to hear him talking to the machine - he was asking it something. And I have just got over the shock of seeing mobile phone users, for all practical purposes, talking to themselves in droves. But then something else happened which was more astonishing - the machine was talking back. And the voice was human. Strange. It was asking him if he had put the note inside. He replied yes, and the machine asked him to put the next note. A real conversation. Then the whole thing became clear. The human interface had somehow got into the machine from behind - and he was doing something there to help the afflicted customer. Who can deny the fact that ours is a land of surprises?

Finally the man was done. Before leavng he helped the next person in line with the initial part of the process. He chose the mode of payment as 'cheque'. But the person actually had only cash. So he was left staring at the screen prompting him to enter the cheque date and number. There was no way to cancel or exit. I entered some date and cheque number expecting the heavy hand of the law to fall on my shoulder any moment. But it worked and we began his transaction anew. The next person in the queue had two bills to pay and two five hundred notes. But the bills were for Rs 600 and Rs 400. Things looked like dragging on for sometime so I left.

I went back today. And there was the good samaritan (he must be getting paid though). And the machine was talking again. How was that possible? Someone else was working behind the scenes. And the earlier manual cash counters had been re-opened (I don't know since when). So there we have it. Automated bill collection has led to additional employment as advocates of computerisation have always claimed. The two men at the manual cash counters still have a job, and there is one additional person to man the machine, with an additional part-time employee doing an inside job.

Some Disaster

Could this be happening in the US?

It's hard to describe. It's something I never could conceive of ever seein gin a major city like New Orleans. It is hard to believe. This is New Orleans Louisiana we ware talking about. We spent the last few hours at the convention center where There are thousands of people just laying in the street. They have nowhere to go. These are mothers. We saw mothers. We talked to mothers holding babies. Some of these babies are 3, 4, 5, months old living in these horrible conditions. Putrid food on the ground. Sewage, their feet sitting in sewage. We saw feces on the ground. These people are being forced to live like animals. When you look at some of these mothers your heart just breaks. We're not talking about a few families or a few hundred families. Thousands of people are gathered around the convention.

I want to warn you. Some of these images that you will see they're very very graphic. But people need see this. The people that are down there have been down there for days. People need to see what it is really like here. We saw dead bodies. People are dying at the convention center and there's no one there to come get them. We saw an older woman, someone's mother someone's grandmother, in a wheelchair. Her dead body pushed up against the side of the convention center with a blanket over it. Right on the ground next to her another dead body wrapped in a white sheet.

People are literally dying. Right in front of us as we were watching this a man went into a seizure on the ground. It looked like he was dying. People tried to prop his head up. No one has medical training. No ambulance can come. It is just heartbreaking that people are just sitting there without food or water waiting for the buses to come tak ehtem away. People keep asking us - when are the buses coming. And I just have to say, I don't know.

Link via Eschaton. Will try to get the right one, this one seems to be partial. Watching it on CNN was sad-making.

Accountability-free Moments

It turns out Bush and his politics may have a hand in how bad the New Orleans damage has been. But people are denying him his 'accountability-free' moment. "Enough!" seems to be the cry.

Fatwa Or Opinion?

Commenting on one of Tavleen Singh's columns where she discussed the Imrana case, I'd written:

...it is not even clear apparently that there was a fatwa. Could it have been someone just giving their opinion?

Well it seems that both could be true and still not contradict each other. That is, even if there had been a fatwa, it would have been someone just giving their opinion. This article notes:

...a fatwa is strictly an opinion given by a mufti on religious matters to a querist who seeks some clarification. The recipient has the option to accept it; otherwise, if he so desires, he could seek a fatwa from some other mufti. Thus a fatwa is never a legally binding decision.

It goes on

As a consequence of the tremendous development of the media, if the subject matter is such that it has ingredients enough which could be played about to sensationalise it, it becomes a hot topic.

Hence a fatwa, which is really meant for the querist, gets disseminated widely by those whose only interest is to satisfy their morbid curiosity. But it continues to be a fatwa, i.e. a subject matter between the questioner and the mufti. Even after it is published in a magazine or a newspaper, it is not as if it becomes applicable to all its readers!

...according to its traditional and proper meaning and scope, a fatwa cannot be issued suo motu by a cleric who calls himself a mufti, on a subject on which no one in particular has asked for an opinion by addressing a query to the mufti.

So much for sensationalisation of news. And even editors are not far behind with their opinions. In response to another recent 'fatwa' against women participating in elections, which led to some women opting out of the UP municipal (or similar) elections, the Economic Times immediately delivered a fatwa calling for a Uniform Civil Code. Having heard clearly on TV that it was another dedicated reporter who had sought the opinion of the mufti or pesh imam or whoever it was, it was funny reading the editorial start off as follows:

Darul Uloom, Deoband, has ruled that Muslim women should not contest elections, and if they have to, they must do so from behind the veil. It’s a regressive injunction which deserves condemnation.

Finally, a view from the other side of the Uniform Civil Code argument.