The Great Indian Education System!!!

This year,We have been able to achieve something which, most probably , no other educational institution in any country in the rest of the world has been able to achieve. Yes, a 100% cut-off! As unprecedented and weird as it may sound , its a bit of an achievement for our great education system! Only we could manage manage such a feat!

Blame me for being Sarcastic, but what else do you expect ? A brief look at the Brobdingnagian effort which successive governments have made in the education sector since independence , and you'll know what i'm talking about!

We have set up universities when we needed schools, given reservation to the underprivileged when they needed books and pencils , and we have let our brightest minds desert us when we needed them to give back something to the society!

For more than 40 years after independence, we set up a few elite universities and colleges , boasted about the quality of education in these institutions , and forgot about the rest of the country! We forgot the underprivileged, the children in the villages,the youth on the streets. We were happy with just a handful of IITs and IIMs.

By the time the 80s arrived, we had to give them something! Somebody had to make up for the 40 years of ignorance and inaction. Somebody had to pay for the 40 years of incompetence and absurdness. When we looked outside our windows, we saw them but pretended not to , they were helpless , with stones in their hands, and flames on their bodies! So, we sat around a table. And we came up with "The Mandal".

It would be wrong to say that merit committed suicide the day Mandal came up. It was actually hung up the barn!


Suddenly, The great economic reforms arrived , and everyone else other than those who were meant to, which is the government, started building walls and ceilings , and we were told that these were modern day colleges and universities! We believed! Almost simultaneously, some of those people started building walls and ceilings which would make it easier for us to get into those colleges! They called it coaching institutes! We believed again!


Then came The Arjun! And just like Arjun , the mythological character in the Mahabharata, he too had an accurate and perfect aim. The irony being that the target was 'The Great Indian Education System'! Rest is modern History!

We played saviour to the underprivileged and the uneducated, but that would have been possible only when more and more people would be deprived of education. Its like keeping people in poverty, so that we can play Robin Hood!


The percentage of reservation increased instead of the number of colleges and universities. The percentages of cut-off increased , instead of the number of seats and courses.

And then came a day when a student was denied admission into an institution because he did not have more than 100% marks! The precipice had been breached. Our Education System did not die that fateful day.
It died a silent death a long time ago! What we are hearing today is the echo of its requiem. And the question which stares us in the face is.. What Next?


P.S.- I have used the word "WE" instead of "Our Government" deliberately. We the elite have chosen and rejected governments and policies over the past half a century and more in this country. Its about time we stopped blaming the government for everything , and owned up to a few mistakes we have made along the way!

Are we headed for a Financial Apocalypse?

As The White House and The Congress play a terrifying game of chicken over the US government debt ceiling , the 2nd day of August 2011 seems to be the D-Day.If President Obama and the Republican right in Congress are not able to cut a deal to raise the legal limit of US borrowing – which will otherwise reach its ceiling on 2 August – then a financial tsunami will hit the system with consequences which are impossible to predict.

For the past few months there have been om

inous warnings of a new financial crisis in the United States that would likely have global repercussions if the US Congress doesn't wake up and raise the government debt ceiling, or legal borrowing limit, now set at US$14.3 trillion.But why this hue and cry over a routine exercise? Raising the debt ceiling is a normal legislative exercise in the United States of America. It has been done 39 times since 1980 - including 17 times under Ronald Reagan, seven times under George W Bush , 4 times under Bill Clinton,and three previous times under Barack Obama as well.This time however, with a new Republican majority in the House of Representatives, it has become a hot partisan issue, with the Republicans determined to display their fiscal responsibility by demanding that a plan to balance the budget be approved before a deal on raising the debt ceiling is approved.

The grave predicament is that Lawmakers fear a big drop investor confidence in U.S. stocks and bonds, which could start in Asia and sweep towards Europe and the Americas, causing U.S. stock values to plunge.

Barring action by Aug. 2, the Treasury will run out of the money needed to pay all its bills, triggering a possible default that could seriously damage the domestic economy and send damaging waves across the globe.

Ireland's debt got downgraded to "junk" status last week and people believe that President Obama and his Republican foes will cut a last-minute deal to solve this Debt crisis. But don't bank on it. It's election year in 2012, many of them would be happy to see Obama defeated over rising unemployment – it's still above the lethal 9% — and don't understand what might happen if the world's reserve currency went wobbly. After all, they didn't get the consequences of letting Lehman Brothers go bust in September 2008.

So the second phase of the bank crisis of 2007-09 might now turn into a major sovereign debt crisis for the Western world, thus following the pattern of 1929 when recovery from the crash seemed to be underway before Britain – and others – plunged back down in 1931.

And if the United States of America does default on the morning of the 3rd day of August 2011 , the consequences would be nothing less than a financial apocalypse.

The War which we are losing... Everyday.

Mumbai 1993 . Mumbai 2003. Mumbai 2006 . Mumbai 2008. And now, Mumbai 2011. Five times in the last 18 years. Yes , 5 times. Mumbai has had to bear the brunt of terrorist attacks more than any other major city in the world over the past two decades. And its not just Mumbai which has been scarred and bruised over the past two decades. Pretty much the whole of India has the same story to tell. Every major city , be it New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore or Jaipur , has been targeted in the recent past.

And what do we always do? . We always end up blaming the forces from across the border. Some Jehadist organistaion is first cursed , then our government is abused , and then we pity on our secirity forces. End of story. Life back to normal. Have we ever had an honest introspection about the reasons for this terror? Have we ever wondered as to what has gone wrong with the security apparatus of this country over the last 20 years?. Sadly , the answer is an emphatic No.

The main reason behind this painful ordeal is our nonchalant attitude towards security. Just take a glance into our daily lives , and you will know what i'm talking about. For example , we have metal detectors installed at most railway stations and shopping malls. But how many of us bother to go through them? The answer is Very few! Our police force is generally equipped with arms and ammunition which , honestly speaking, is obsolete and useless. Our coastal secutiry is a shambles. Our investigative agencies lack the technical expertise to counter new age terrorism.

We expect hawaldars , who are generally 12th pass or just mere graduates , to prevent, counter and thwart highly trained terrorists, that too with obsolete arms and ammunition. And after a terror attack , we expect the same people to collect evidence forensically and crack the case.

If we expect a police force trained and armed from the 1970's era , with counter terror laws framed more than half a century ago , to fight modern age terrorism , we are just fooling ourselves.

There needs to be a debate in this country about the larger role of the people in the fight against terror. We need to discuss the real issues which are ailing us. Just hanging Kasab and Afzal Guru won't do. We'll have to hang our cavalier attitude and perfunctory approach as well.

Is Congress the Only Option?

We are less than three years away from General Elections 2014. And more than sven years after the UPA came to power in 2004 , it seems that mantra of "Congress ka haath, Aam Aadmi ke saath" is no longer refulgant. But in a parliamentary democracy , the opposition and its strength is as much of a presursor , as anti-incumbency. And this is what makes us wonder... IS CONGRESS THE ONLY OPTION?


The main opposition force in this country happens to be the NDA. And its performance as the principal opposition party has been disappointing to say the least. But lets leave the qualitative analysis for some other day. Rather , lets have a psephological analysis in this post.

Starting from the north , BJP looks vulnerable in Haryana and it has never performed well in Jammu and Kashmir. In the other states though , it will give a tough fight to the Congress.


The Western and the Centre states do not seem to be a problem , atleast till Narendra Modi is at the helm in Gujarat. But Maharastra is fast becoming a sinking ship for the NDA. Its alliance partner Shiv Sena looks a vague form of itself , and it is fast being obscured by Raj Thackeray's MNS. The BJP , on the other hand , suffers from internal conflict and poor organisational management. All this , even after more than a decade of Congress-NCP rule.

The East seems to be an opportunity lost for the BJP. With no major allies in West Bengal and Orissa , the BJP would draw a null from more than 60 seats in these two states. The decision to go alone in the recently concluded Assam polls has not yielded desirable results , and even a coalition with the AGP seems to be a weak force when compared to the Congress.

But the real problem lies down South. Apart from Karnataka , the BJP has nothing to show for as far as electoral arithmetic is concerned. With no major allies in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh , its credentials as a national party becomes dubious. Add Kerala to the whole scenario, and we have got around 100 Lok Sabha seats where even the mere presence of the NDA is debatable.

All these accumulate to roughly 180 seats , which is close to one-third of the Lok Sabha. And to add to the woes of the NDA , it is locked in a four way battle in Uttar Pradesh , which the is the most important state , as far as the road to Delhi is concerned. Even if we refrain from speculating about the purmutations and possibilities in Uttar Pradesh , its difficult to see the NDA bringing home the bacon in 2014 in its present form.


There might be a lot of anger and discontent with the performance of this Manmohan Singh led UPA Government , but the people of this country need a viable option to effect any change. In a parliamentary democracy , numbers matter as much as policies. And despite the pathetic performance of this government , the Numbers tell a different tale.

Come 2014, we might end up with only one option for a stable government which would last its whole term. And that option might turn out to be The Congress, again!.Wake up NDA!

When the People Spoke -Analysing Elections 2011

With the results of the State elections out last week, the political landscape of the country looks as different as ever. With the thumping win for the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and Congress itself in Assam, the UPA has gained some ground, which it lost after the Bihar and Jharkhand assembly elections last year. At the same time , the South looks anti-UPA as never before.

With the crushing defeat in Tamil-Nadu and Puducherry, the UPA looks to be struggling in the whole region. Even the win in Kerala was unimpressive and feeble to say the least.Come 2014,the UPA will be facing a 10 year anti-incumbency wave in Andhra Pradesh, the phenomenon called Jagan Reddy, and the discontent over the Telangana issue as well. If we were to consider classical psephology, the UPA is all set to lose a chunk of their Lok Sabha seats in the South in 2014.

However , The scenario in the East is remarkably different. The Left looks jaded and tired, and TMC is going ahead all guns blazing. And with Assam proving to be a Congress bastion,the East looks to be secure for the UPA. But the point to ponder upon is that whether The Congress has just rode on TMC's back in West Bengal, and whether change was so inevitable that policies did not matter? Maybe 34 years proved to be a bit too much for everybody in Bengal.








But what did these results bring for the BJP? Sadly nothing.
The NDA still continues to be a pale shadow of what it used to be. Unless and until it expands and brings in more regional parties into its fold, its sadly going to be a story of an opposition which never opposed , a challenger which never challenged.

The NDA desperately needs AIADMK and TDP in the south, and the BJD and the AGP in the East. Without more regional parties as its allies, The BJP wouldn't stand a chance in 2014. And the people of India will be left with only one choice for a stable government that could last 5 years.

With the illusion of the Third Front well and truly gone, lets hope that common sense prevails, and that these regional parties join hands with the BJP to give the Congress a tough fight, and a viable option to the people of India.

As Far as Mayawati's concerned, she can build her own statues all across Uttar Pradesh for 8 more months. The people of UP will take care of her next year. And to think that she was considered a Prime-Ministerial candidate just 3 years ago (July 2008, Nuclear Deal Confidence Motion).

Democracy truly has a way of surprising us more often than not.

SHE RULES.

As Bengal turned Green and 'Jaya Ho' became the chant in Tamil Nadu this morning , the political terrain of India has

changed significantly. Suddenly, a country known for its patriarchal male-dominated society now has four women chief ministers.This change is the result of the evolution of our democracy.Although it has taken a long time coming, but "HER RULE" has finally arrived.

Just a brief look at India's political landscape as of today,and we realise that that its our women who rule the country. India's most important political personality (Sonia Gandhi , some would call her the De facto Prime Minister as well) , the Leader of the Opposition (Sushma Swaraj , most probably NDA's Prime Ministerial candidate in 2014) , Speaker of the Lok Sabha (Meira Kumar) ,Nirupama Rao as India's Foreign Secretary, Mayawati as the Chief Minister of the largest state of India, Sheila Dixit as Delhi's eternal leader and , now , Mamata "Didi" Banerjee in Bengal and Jayalalitha in Tamil Nadu.

And as Mamata changes "WASTE BENGAL" to "WEST BENGAL" in the next 5 years, and while Jayalalitha cleans up the mess left over by an octogenarian leader, more women leaders will have a chance to stake claim to power. Vasundhara Raje Scindia has more than a chance to turn the tables on the Congress in Jaipur in 2013.

So, how did this astonishing change take place? Sucheta Kriplani and Pandit Vijaya Lakshmi were independent India's first major female political personalities. And then came the era of Indira Gandhi, arguably India's best Prime Minister ever , and maybe the worst as well. But after Indira Gandhi, the late 80s and the early 90s were a period of drought, as far as women leaders were concerned. But with economic upliftment, came the ambition and the recognition of the right to political power.

The change over the past 15 years has been unbelievable. And the result of this change is a country which is ruled by women leaders, from Delhi to Chennai to Kolkata. For years , we have been told to look at America and other

western countries and their democracies as examples. Its high time they learnt a few things from us about democracy. For all its prestigious democratic heritage , America has never had a women at the helm. Neither a female Vice-President ever.

Even though the Women's reservation bill remains stuck in the parliament , and even though the percentage of Women MPs is less than 20% in the Lok Sabha , it is a fact that almost all the political power, be it at the centre , or in key states, lies with women leaders. And this can only be good for our democracy.

With today's results , The Dominance of Woman Leaders in Indian Politics has been finally established, and the "ERA OF HER RULE" has finally arrived. Long Live India. Jai Hind !

20 years on... How much have we changed !!!

Indians may not be feeling especially good about themselves right now.. food costs a bomb, even the good'ol pyaaz n roti is now exorbitant ,there is corruption in every nook and corner ,the middle class is as disillusioned by its politicians as ever , the corporate sector is mired in controversy, and if all that was not enough, the army too finds itself under unprecedented scrutiny due to recent controversies.

But looking beyond the gloom of the recent past , the India Story continues to amaze the world. The economic rise of a nation from the precipice of failure, and the verge of bankruptcy, in just 20 yrs ago is mind-baffling. Looking back at 1991, who would have thought that we would be one of the FOUR major economies of the world in just 20 years.Two decades after we took the first steps towards economic liberalisation and opened our doors to the world, it seems that economic change has outpaced social and cultural change.

Its now economics that's driving change in India now. India could well be the default setting for the rest of the world. I say so because of a reason which we have celebrated for years , which is our diversity. many different societies in the world are fast becoming familiar with this virtue..for example about 25% of the population in London originates from outside the UK ,most of them Asians. The sort of diversity which we always have had in India is only beginning to come to other countries now and probably, many lessons on how to deal with that can be learnt by the rest of the world from India.

Since 1947, the politics of the country was hugely important in the policy making till the 80s ,but after the liberalistaion of the early 90s , its the economics which has been driving everything. Most of the social change over the past two decade is a result of the economic change.

There is a cultural shift in India which can only be spotted by those who witnessed India before Liberalisation. There seems to be a loss of simplicity and innocence. But these last two decades have shown us that no matter how much globalisation affects us , there remains something quintessentially Indian about us. There are certain traits about us Indians which nobody else can boast of in the world, be it bargaining or even the six-letter magic word called JUGAAD. Many of us might hav started to fly Kingfisher these days, but we'll still bargain with the sabziwala and the autowala just to get the cheapest deal. That's what u call BEING INDIAN !!!

In a country where the centuries co-exist, the 18th century India, where bonded labors and witch-craft still exist, and a 21st century India , where an iPhone or a Mercedes is no more considered a luxury...both these and many more in between , converge and conflict to form the IDEA OF INDIA. And that Idea is the result of a belief, a confidence and a conviction, which today is stronger than ever before...

Economic liberalisation has brought about a mobilisation which has broken down barriers. The self-made Indian ,the likes of Asim premji , Narayan murthi and Sunil mittal , mirror the once famous American dream which epitomised the success story of america.in a way ,you can be what u want to be today !!!

Hope of Democracy in the Arab World.

The dramatic events in Tunisia and Egypt over the past fortnight has raised the question "Could these events have an effect all across the Arab world?".
There have been popular revolutions in the Arab world in the past , but in the end, all of them have led to lasting dictatorships ,never to vibrant democracies.
Its still too soon to tell for Tunisia and Egypt, but there is hope for reform and democracy. We should see these events, not in isolation but as a part of a decade of change. There has been a pattern emerging over the past decade. A decade ago, the political landscape in the Arab world was bleak, but today,there are sprouts of democracy breaking out all over.Lets have a look:

Iraq - Although suffering from deep sectarianism, it has a somewhat functional democratically elected multi-party government and a vibrant free press,both electronic and print.Infact, Iraq today is the biggest functioning democracy in the Middle East.

Iran had a contested election and a genuine mass protest movement.The 2009 green revolution would have been unimaginable a few years earlier.

Lebanon has faltered of late with its government collapsing but Syria's direct control of that country has ended and we now can hope for a more open , although messy, political system, one in which Hezbollah has a key role to play.

Countries like Bahrain and Kuwait have flirted with reforms and who knows what might happen in Algeria and Syria in the next 10 years.

This sort of striving for democracy , is what Arab intellectuals have yearned for, speaking of the freedom deficit in their lands ,which is quite true.

And ofcourse a certain former POTUS in TEXAS, who goes by the name of George W.Bush, must have a smile on his face today . Afterall, he set forth to fix this problem,which he called,A FORWARD STRATEGY OF FREEDOM IN THE MIDDLE EAST.

Now whether these events are BECAUSE OF America's military PRESSURE or DESPITE IT...now thats a different debate alltogether.

In Iran , the democracy movement happened due to a rigged election and a mass movement. In Lebanon,it was due to political assassination. In Tunisia, it was due to the MIDDLE CLASS which had had enough of a dictator enriching himself while they suffered. In EGYPT it is a burgeoning middle class which doesn't want the keys to a kingdom handed down to a dynasty or the armY.

DEMOCRACY COMES OUT OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIETY,ECONOMIC GROWTH AND MIDDLE-CLASS RESTLESSNESS AND ABOVE ALL, THE POLITICAL FAILURES OF DICTATORS. IT CAN BE HELPED FROM ABROAD, BUT ULTIMATELY IT IS AN ORGANIC PROCESS WHEN IT IS SUCCESSFUL. But lets give former POTUS George W.Bush his due. He saw the problem and he believed that Arabs were not genetically incapable of democracy and he put America's moral might behind the great cause of Arab reform. That effort now seems to be reaping some favourable results.

Why India is a country of COWARDS !!!

Mahatma Gandhi was a wise man. His ideals have been a guiding light for this nation, at least in theory, for decades now. He preached brotherhood, non-violence, and truthfulness — simple and honourable goals for the individual as well as the society.



But I am writing this to point out how the father of the nation has become something of a security blanket. His philosophies, instead of fuelling our passion for the ideals he dreamed of, have become mere phrases we hide behind when cornered. Forgive me therefore, if i appear a little blunt.



One of my favourite quotes by Bapu is: “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” It is easy to see how this noble sentiment can be misread and used to justify cowardice.



When a big boy beats up a small boy and the small boy runs away and hides, he can tell himself that he didn’t hit back because he is non-violent. But it would be a lie. He ran away because he is weak and because he is a coward.

And this doesn’t even have to be a boys’ argument. Time and again, Indian intellectuals have written and spoken about the fake resilience that many of us take pride in. That Indians are angry about the continued bomb blasts all over the country by Pakistan-based terror outfits is obvious. The reason we don’t hit back is not because we are non-violent and forgiving. It’s because we lack the will to hit back. In fact, I would say we do not dare hit back.



Then we start what the protagonist of A Wednesday calls ‘adjusting to the situation’. Our news channels show us that we are back to work with our ever-famous resilience and our chests swell with pride as we tell everyone how peace-loving we are.



The unpleasant truth is that we are not peace-loving. We are full of anger. Indeed, if the recent retaliatory brand of “Hindu terror” (whatever happened to terrorism has no religion?) is anything to go by, our anger is spilling over into our own streets. Not only is our government unable to protect us from attacks in our own country, it also seems unable to do anything about the attacks AFTER they happen.



We have to stop pretending that we are unaffected by the violence aimed at us. That will be a good first step in making sure something is done about it. We have to stop blaming Pakistan for being what it is. We have to start blaming ourselves for being who we are — COWARDS.



It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.

The Revolt In Egypt - When a million marched for democracy.

Egypt is one of the oldest countries in the world. It has had roughly the same borders and capital city since 3000 BC and has always been seen as an embodiment of stability, a state ruled by the Pharaohs and a bureaucracy that never budged. Right now, Egypt is in the midst of enormous change. This may not be a revolution in the sense of a massive social transformation, but it is a revolt.

The first Arab revolt was in 1916 ,against the Ottoman Empire that ruled most of the Arab lands. What is going on now in Tunisia and now in Egypt is the SECOND ARAB REVOLT against the strongmen who have ruled these lands for decades. Tunisia was the spark which lit the fire . Television, internet and the social media has amplified and accelerated the forces of change, but in a strange sense ,these forces might have been set in motion by the successes of the Tunisian and Egyptian regimes in the recent years.

Tunisia and Egypt had been reforming their economies. This had stimulated growth as a consequence. Tunisia had been growing at 5% per year, Egypt even much faster than that.Economic growth stirs up expectations.It is this revolution of rising expectations that often undoes a dictatorship, because it is usually unable to handle the growing demands of its aspiring populace.

In Egypt, Hosni Mubarak's regime had moved forward economically but actually moved backwards politically, rigging elections,jailing the political opposition and signalling that the ailing 82 year old dictator intended to stay in power for eternity.

What should the USA do. Many journalists and intellectuals are urging much stronger support for the movement on the streets.Obviously we are all thrilled by the sights and the sounds of the people out on the streets of CAIRO and ALEXANDRIA and all over EGYPT demanding freedom. Everyone wants democracy and democracy in EGYPT could an EARTHQUAKE in the ARAB world.

But president Obama does have to balance his support for democracy with the reality that Egypt has been a partner with america for over 30 years. USA cannot unceremoniously dump an ally which has made peace with ISRAEL,fought AL-Qaeda,privately had talks with Hamas and brokered deals with the Palestinians. President Obama can firmly and strongly , but privately, tell Mobarak that he should resign. Perhaps not immediately but soon. Obama does need to get him to go.

America has been urging the Egyptian regime ,much like Pakistan, to reform for years,even decades. Hosni Mobarak never took these calls seriously. Had he done so, had he come in front of his people, he could have avoided this revolt.

But that is the story of dictators...it is often too little, too late.