Rome was not built in a day!

Mahtma Gandhi set a very high moral standard.

He did not indulge in leveling blatant accusations and he had no hatred for his enemy. Reason why the common men of Britain identified with him and rejected the hero of WW-II -Churchill- and voted for Clement Atlee (in the post war general elections of the UK in July 1945) and that paved the way for Indian independence.

Drawing a parallel with Chauri Chaura:

After the Chauri Chaura incident (in 1922), where 22 police men were burnt alive by the angry mob- instead of indulging in a spat with the administration for their high-handedness Gandhi admitted his moral responsibility for Chauri Chaura incident and immediately called off the ongoing nation wide satyagraha. He candidly admitted that the masses were not ready for such a fight. Next two decades he would spend essentially doing that- preparing people to wage a moral rebellion. The work was clearly visible when Gandhi waged the salt-satyagraha (12 march 1930), where hundreds valiantly faced the police lathi without indulging in any violence against the perpetrators.

26 January 1930- the first independence day of India!

The call for the Civil Disobedience Movement- better known as salt satyagraha of 1930 followed the declaration of independence on 26 january 1930. Hence the relevance of reminiscing about the incident after 84 years!

Politics Vs constructive work:

It's politically wrong to admit certain facts. However; as I have no political axe to grind and my association is almost exclusively ideological; let me speak my mind.

The IAC movement was launched to cleanse politics and the nation of corruption through Gandhian means, so as not to spread anarchy. The AAP build up is fast and unprecedented (in the recent decades).

IMHO, to sustain such lofty ideals we'll need sacrifice and hard work; for Rome was not built in a day!

A quest to preserve our “secular democracy”:

A quest to preserve our “secular democracy”:

After ages a leader with a lion heart has come to lead the people of India against the cohort of power and position hungry jackals:

Friends; AK- Arvind Kejriwal- is fighting for the aam aadmi ( mango men in the words of Robert Vedra :) )

Many of us- volunteers- are fighting for 2 enabling principles: democracy and secularism. At present perhaps AAP is the only party, which holds out a hope for fighting corruption effectively while upholding the above two virtues.

We are not after any pelf or position. However, there is truth in people’s allegation, when they say that there are many opportunists in AAP. Some of the people are coming to get a ticket and win elections in the name of AAP.

Incidentally, which party is free from such people?

We- at AAP- are planning transparent systems and devices to wed out such people and field the best candidates. Hence, though there are aspirants in most constituencies we may not field candidates in many places.

At now; perhaps AAP is the only party, which is systematically planning to field the best candidates in ALL constituencies. No nepotism no dynastic politics in that.

Preserving the secular democratic framework:

True, preserving the secular democratic framework of our polity would need a lot of effort. With the rise of strong communal feelings, that one cannot be assumed to be self-sustaining.

The communal brigades - across the country and in most part of the globe- are trying relentlessly to win people over to their side. By and large they doctor or manufacture history - of a glorious past under their respective religious orders- to fool the masses.

Unfortunately, till date they have been quite successful in that; what else explains the survival of a large number of Islamic Republic?

In such a world, mere wishful thinking that, such tall virtues would survive themselves in India is not tenable.

The myth of “Tolerant Hindu”:

Tolerant Hindu is a myth. The internal contradictions and the historical injustice for Dalits, who constitute the majority along with non-upper class Hindus, make it impossible to bring Hindus together.

The more non-Brahmins become literate it'll be more difficult to glorify the Indian past, where oppression of the Dalits was so very common. The literate Dalits would not buy the exaggerated stories of oppression by Muslims and Christians, while completely missing out the real tyrant- the Brahminical idea of low and high-class people. The oppression along the fault lines of caste lasted over centuries/ generations and very unfortunately that oppression, at a reduced scale though, is continuing till date!

Have you marked; there is no finger pointing at the Brahmins. As Gandhi said hate theft not the thief, more so in case of historical wrongs we'd not blame the progeny but the idea that created such a rift. Hence this effort to expose the diabolical idea- Brahminism- that grossly ill-treated millions over centuries.

So, let’s not get fooled by the “tolerant Hindu” myth. Let's squarely address the problem of casteistic politics and to contain its negative fall-out let’s invigorate the virtues of secularism.

Is it a crime to seek a "life with dignity":
It's a real irony: many Dalits got converted to Islam and Christianity not just for some monetary benefits but also to live a "life with dignity". And now they are branded as anti-nationals!

Friends; you call it whatever you want, but this is a critical time and if you side with communal demons, fooled by some doctored history and statistics, then the posterity will not forgive us for paving the path for creation of a Hindu Pakistan!

The choice is yours (Period).

A rape that shook the nation!

A 23-year-old female paramedical student was gang-raped and tortured in a moving bus on 16 Dec 2012- Sunday- night.  Even after a week, as per medical report, her situation is still very critical. Because due to extreme brutality almost all portion of her intestine is not existent now.  

She has already undergone through five surgeries.

We do not have words to describe our anguish and frustration. There are no two words that the perpetrators should be given exemplary punishment. Despite being a votary of Gandhi I can not agree more with the people who demand public hanging of such animals.

75% of the rape cases- reported- in India do not result in conviction! When a sensitive case like rape or outraging the modesty of a woman drags on for more than a decade, what else you expect?

So, introduction of one more draconian law would not make much difference. Besides that; do we need draconian legislation, which would again be misused by the mischievous crooks, at the first place? Appropriate amendments to the existing laws would just do fine,

We know, for a fact, in the past very respectable people are slapped with frivolous attempted rape cases to assassinate their character. So this bogey of death penalty for rape is nothing but cheap politics. I can not agree more with Ms Girija Vyas here, when she says; then, such raped women would also be murdered. The party whose senior members obliquely support the practice of Sati would obviously turn a Nelson’s eye to such a possibility. So the amendment to bring in capital punishment only in case of rarest of the rare cases with appropriate caveats would advance the cause of justice, while not keeping it’s flanks open for misuse.

Very often the victim is further victimized by societal pressure. However, just because a woman gets raped, she should not be killed either by the rapist, a Khap panchayat or her relations. Neither should she commit suicide or be encouraged to commit suicide. What should happen in a civilized country is: the perpetrators of such crimes should be brought to justice and in extreme cases- like the present one- the culprits should be given exemplary punishment. The society – as a whole- should reach out to help the victim to move on with as much normalcy as possible.

Change is in the air:

The government has already promulgated an ordinance to bring in death penalty for rape in rarest of the rare cases (like the present one). I tend to support the demand for a special session of the Parliament to expedite that.

What is more, now instead of dissipating the movement – for justice- the movement should take a more definite shape by making the demands more specific.

Punish Ram Singh by 26 January:

What is the need of the hour is: certainty of punishment to the wrong doers and that too within an acceptable time line. So, to facilitate the above the following 6 point plan should be adhered to:

1-   Demand the hanging of the prime accused Ram Singh – not all 7-by 26 January 2013.

2-   For the above to happen, retrospective amendment to relevant statutes to include death penalty for rape in rarest of the rare cases should be brought in.

3-   The passing of an ordnance is one route to facilitate the above but a better one would be passing the above the both the houses of the parliament. So that calls for a special session- immediately.

4-   Trial on a daily basis in a special fast track court is required to do justice with in 35 days.

5-   The pressure should be kept on by continuous protest marches and demonstrations- as it happened in case of Jessica Lal murder case- till justice is delivered. The catch is: we’ve to keep those absolutely peaceful, even when the police and administration provokes for violence.

6-   Then, all other accused persons should also be brought to justice by 15 August 2013.

Though that’s a tall order, its doable and the public mood just underscores that. Any takers for this line of thought?

Is Jesus the ONLY way?

Here is a fable, which is regularly used by Christian evangelists:

Jesus told a parable about a young man who demanded his inheritance, left home, wasted all his money on wild living, and then one day found himself working in a pig-sty keeping pigs and eating their slops. He admitted his foolishness but dreaded going back home to face his father, but when he arrived home he discovered to his great surprise that the door was already open and that all his father wanted was to be near to him again.

My two cents on the above:

One of the fundamental assumptions on which Christianity is based is: "Jesus is the ONLY way".  No one can go to heaven otherwise; certainly not through good deeds. So, even a Mahatma Gandhi is destined to go to hell! As per Christian belief, “good deeds” are equivalent to “rags”- clothes soiled with menstruational discharge of women!

Christian clerics package this so called great appeal of their faith in the following way: ‘Redemption is free but it is not without a cost’! For, the cost has already been paid by Jesus by shedding his blood on the cross. Inherent in this is another claim: Blood of Jesus is incomparable with that of anyone else, because only that is PURE (Virgin birth).

Similarly, a believing Hindu finds it difficult to challenge the "Atma"- soul- and the "Paramatma"- Supreme soul- theory and the antecedent claims regarding “purpose of life”; which as per Hindu belief is: the ultimate union of these two. Hindu theologians try to score brownie points by claiming that theirs is a holistic world view as theirs includes the entire cosmos. Through the enigmatic “rebirth theory” and the antecedent claim of transition of the soul through 640 million genitals they feel they have a water tight theory!

The Hindu / Vedic / Buddhist claims look more rational to people who are on wanderlust of searching “meaning of life”. Even Mr Bertrand Russel- a Nobel laureate and a declared Agnostic- accepted the philosophical appeal of these nebulous ideas.

However, in both the above streams of religious thoughts, the entire superstructure- for clarity's sake let's call it 'Purpose of our life'- is built on some priori arguments!

For example: as mentioned above, for Christianity: "Jesus is the son of God", “Virgin birth of Jesus” and “crucification of Jesus being the ONLY legal tender for a passage into heaven” are priori arguments.

The modern day Christian theologists know that these are INDEFENSIBLE. So instead of addressing the root of the cause they try to build their arguments around some seemingly acceptable notions.

With due respect; the Jesus parable, about a young man who demanded his inheritance, left home, wasted all his money on wild living, and then one day found himself working in a pig-sty keeping pigs and eating their slops; is one such attempt!

An uninitiated person would fail to understand that here there is a veiled attack on people who are searching meaning of their lives by sampling other faiths; where as, the TRUE path/ religion- is theirs for asking! The reference to “home” is also figurative and means the man always belonged to Jesus so coming back to Christianity is equivalent to home coming.

It is not surprising that with minor or no modifications this story would wonderfully suit the purpose Hindu and Moslem evangelists!

Hindu evangelists?

Till recently Hinduism was a non-proselytizing religion, not so now! Now there are many religious cults, predominantly preying on believing Hindus, who are actively involved in increasing their numbers. ISKON, Prajapita Brahma Kumaris and Satya Sai Baba’s denomination are a few representative examples.

It is another thing that 'a man eating slops' – as described in the impugned parable- would grossly fail the test of reason. As these are not meant for people who exercise their reason and such facile arguments are good enough to fool simpletons like poor uneducated tribal in Odisha, these enjoy a wider circulation. It goes without saying that, such stories are a dime a dozen. However, when we are engaged in an informed public debate these need to be debunked.

From a pure strategic perspective; the above approach is a good ploy!

In legal parlance also willy lawyers regular practice that. The guiding dictum, where they have an indefensible brief is: When your arguments- in favor of your client- do not have a leg to stand upon; don't try to prove those. Instead, try to dilute the claims of the opponent by bringing in every possible doubt- mostly imaginary.

Conclusion:

If we apply reason, it is not clear why Jesus should be the ONLY way? However for generations millions of people have fallen for this claim and hence today Christianity, with all its spin-offs, is the largest religion! However, things are changing and Abraham Lincoln’s prophetic assertion: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time” is also turning out to be true! What else explains the decisive power shifts, in favor of secularism of various shades, in most of developed states, where Christians are the religious majority? 

How to do away with wasteful meetings:

The other day I attended a meeting where we wasted 3 hours:

A bulk of time was wasted in waiting as the convener did not command the respect and besides that he himself had little respect for time. What else explains a participant-me- readying the meeting room as he grossly failed to tell this even to the maintenance staff? His reaching just on time- may be because of his fear of me- and waiting another 30 minutes to bring the next participant obviously reflected poorly on him?

What about the output?

The output achieved could have been achieved by just 15 minutes purposeful engagement-over the phone! Yep- that's it.

The process would have been far more superior if the discussion had happened by circulation through e-mail. But that needs vision, clarity of thought decisiveness and some amount of leadership.

Lack of purpose leads to lose of sovereignty!

There are people who just love to boss over and when one of the major purpose of calling a meeting is to dish out plain sycophancy, that leads to no where. 
Coming back to our impugned meeting: at the end of 3 hours we left the venue with a sense of emptiness and with serious doubts about the future utility of the decisions taken (subsequently our doubts were proven correct and NONE of the decisions were implemented)

 ... When we go through such a wasteful experience we rue the fact that we decided to participate in the meeting at the first place. 

But please be forewarned : when methodical and honest people simply leave the platform in disgust, genuine management space is ceded! The void is immediately usurped by lumpen elements, who are waiting under the wings! What else explains the caliber and credibility of the current leadership of our country?

So do not give up. If you are not happy with the way a society, committee or a country is functioning; do not just crib and complain, come forward and lead by examples. At a minimum insist on two things:

1. the meeting should have an Agenda- How-so-ever tentative and
2. the meeting should end and start in time

Here is a pertinent article on the above:

http://blog.socialcast.com/how-3-billion-meetings-per-year-waste-time-money-and-productivity-in-the-enterprise/

My take on containing corruption - 3 June 2012

The stalemate in governance continues at the center and if we want to get out of the quagmire then no magic wand but best practices, like facilitating business and industry is the need of the hour.

In this regard, Swami's take is very apt and timely:

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Swaminomics/entry/wanted-a-new-social-contract-between-business-and-politics

Our Babu's are not known for their efficiency and unless we have firm turn-around times, for issuing  certificates, licenses and permits, then these are not issued. What is more, after setting turn around times the time limits should be progressively reduced to bring in efficiency.

Our high rate of unemployment could actually be a boon here. For any and every license to be issued there should be a turnaround time for the government officials and then the pending application should automatically go to another bucket, where private accredited agencies would do the processing; again within a stiffer deadline. For this to happen the processes are to be documented and then seamless digital license approval processes should be instituted.

As courier agencies can track the position/ stage of the consignments, the applicants for various licenses should also be able to track the status of their application from their offices. Any additional compliances required should be intimated to them on-line and provision should be made for most of those compliance to be made without a visit to any office.

When the government officials fail to do something and hence that is passed over to the private agency then their performance should be compared to that of the private players and where ever necessary the stick should be welded.

The performance of the private agencies should be monitored and evaluated against  pre-fixed parameters and the focus of combating inefficiency / corruption should shift to this leg; for now there would be little corruption in the government agencies where private parties are attached at the backend.

Justice is our birthright and we‘ll achieve it!

We’ve less than 15,000 trial judges to adjudicate cases at the first stage; ideally we should have at least 50,000. Hence the undue delay in dispensation of justice. So, to bring in a rule of law, we need to appoint 10,000 trials judges each year for 5 consecutive years.

Very recently there was a news article that GOI is going to appoint 100 K soldiers to man the china border. A defense analyst may interpret this as an apparently populist measure. For, no longer wars are fought by foot soldiers and it is technology that settles the results of the wars. However, from this we can safely infer that, now we have the resources/money to appoint the required number of judges. What we need is political statesmanship to stand up to the demand of the time and deliver a plan that would usher in a climate of justice.

How we wish; in the next parliamentary elections all parties would declare when they can ensure that a murderer would be sentenced in 1 year and a rapist will be sentenced in 6 months. Mind you, that would require a paradigm shift from rupee 2/-kilo rice to judicial accountability.

So lets dream that in the next parliamentary elections (2014) the election manifesto of all the political parties would reassuringly claim something similar to this:

“If elected to power we would clear all pending cases (more than 2.5 corers) in 5 years and after that – from 2019 the following time duration for SENTENCING in the first trial court:

Crimes:…………………….Time required:

Murder: ………………………6 months

Rape…………………………..6 months

Theft………………………….3 months

Arson…………………………4 months

Hooliganism…………………3 months

Petty crimes………………….9-12 months

Bribery……………………….. 9 months

NB: if the above charges are brought against Group-I officers, MLAs and MPs; then those will be resolved in less than half the time indicated above- as these would be tried in fast track courts/ Lok Pal. 

…so please vote us :)

A respected chartered accountant wrote: 
The question is how do you select right kind of people for judiciary.In our time mostly who could not get anything better thought let us read law and they are now in high echeleon of justice.The state of lower judiciary is even more pathetic.Now you expect the number of trial judges should be 50000 from the present level of 15000.Please think is it necessary to have a law degree to be a judge in which case the system will perhaps always be wanting quality,therefore let us encourage youngsters who are reading integrated law etc now to join the service instead of only eyeing on law firms.

My humble answer to above rejoinder:

You’ve a point here Sir!

However, lets examine whether we can fast track the process. We’ve more than 800 K registered advocates in our country. The total number of qualified law graduates might be twice that. (Please check with peer reviewed sources and let me know if I have erred)  Even if we assume the quality of an average law graduate to be suspect, yet there is room for optimism. Now, we have more than 1.7 lac CAs and some of these CAs are also qualified in Law (LLB). There are many others - either in jobs, practice or business - who are also qualified to be judges.

So with criteria like 10 years of post qualification experience with a law degree- either in the bar or else where- these people can be recruited after further screening through 2 rounds of written tests and a round of interview. Then they would be drilled through relevant digital justice delivery procedure for a further period of 6 months before they are deputed to “Justice factories”!

These judges could be recruited on a contractual basis- say for 10 years. My hunch is that a good number of CAs/ CWAs/ CSs and class-I serving bureaucrats would qualify and bar councils might fume and fight such appointments.

These Judges- appointed on contractual basis- would be used to clear the backlog, at the first trial stage (lower judiciary). From the beginning they would walk in as First class judicial magistrates and would retire as such- No promotion, no pay rise.

To strengthen our judicial process, we should also start an IJS- Indian Judicial Services- in line with IAS/ IPS. Through IJS an entrant could go maximum up to High Court, to maintain the hallowed independence of our judiciary. Yet, once such a process is set in motion, the people who would retire from that service would be eligible to go into the collegium, which selects judges for High Court and Supreme Court from the bench. Their entry into these collegiums would address the “Uncle Judge” concern. Setting up of IJS may require constitutional amendments and the full result of this cadre can be harness after 3 decades of setting the process in motion. This issue –IJS- requires and independent article, so lets get back to our present concern- appointing contractual judges to quicken the justice delivery process.

To attract quality professionals the minimum contract period has to be 10 years and the minimum salary should be 1 Lac per month- fixed for the entire period or a start up consolidated salary of 50K per month and an annual increment above inflation levels. In order to manage the cash flows and also to offer pension and post retirement free accommodation, the government may declare that only 30/ 40 % of this salary- which may be a consolidated package- would be take home salary and the rest- post adjustment of tax- would be credited to relevant funds.

Besides managing cash flow, this – delayed payment- would also help maintaining independence of these judges. For, now the Judge would not have a motivation to amass illegal wealth and they would be assured about their post retirement life. In each state capital ‘retirement complexes with all recreational facilities’ would be built for these Judges. As per their choice they would be allotted a flat in one particular retirement home and they could stay in any other home, for a brief period- subject to availability of accommodation. The additional facility would be in line with the ‘time-share’ concept and that would make this offer quite attractive. Besides, they would also enjoy subsidized travel on national careers- preferably on the rails and other incentives, as it is available for retiring first class magistrates.

These retirement homes would belong to ministry of justice and hence after the demise of these retirees other judges (say those joining in the newly set-up IJS etc.) could be allotted vacated flats/ accommodations.

Here is another pertinent article to consider:

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/australian-firm-says-indian-judiciary-under-govt-thumb-in-corporate-row/872383/

Now the fig leaf that is protruded to cover the shame is administrative delay! And that’s what we are concerned about.

How can you delay projects involving thousands of crores and thousands of jobs for years without and then claim it was due to administrative delay! Then do we need such a hopeless administration?

The message on the wall is loud and clear: When it’s a matter of the livelihood or honor of millions of common men, we cannot afford to have such delays. Just compare this with the situation when terrorists hijacked a plane to Kandhar and demand the release of dreaded terrorists lodged in high security prisons. Within 7 days they are released to save the skin of the kith and kins of these well-connected people. Ditto for Rubayiya Sayeed- in 1989, for her father was the then Home minister! And when it’s about development and inclusive growth ‘administrative delay’ is the ‘fall guy’. Sorry, we do not buy this argument!

We need justice in time and that’s our birthright! And, we’ll achieve it!!