AAP ki Delhi

We all got used to the "paanch saal Kejriwal" song and we eventually do have AAP in Delhi, hopefully for a longer time this time. Amid all the nuances of psephology and the complications of sociology, the Aam Aadmi Party’s spectacular victory represents a hopeful pattern in Indian politics. Indian voters are looking for agents of change rather than stasis, hope instead of easy cynicism, aspiration instead of fear, positivity instead of defeatism, and the future instead of the past. Contrary to the mean arithmetic of social scientists, politics is less about ideologies, programmes, buyouts and freebies. Politics is always more psychological. It requires the projection of qualities that are not simple to project: sincerity, credibility, perhaps even a sense of adventure. Which is why politics is always more contingent. No alternative is perfect. But voters are willing to give a chance to those who, at a given moment, best represent this new disposition.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s own victory was, in part, due to his ability to occupy this narrative. One simple way of looking at the story is this. In Delhi, the tables were turned. The BJP looked old and less credible. Led by the prime minister, it was more petulant than positive, aggressive than constructive, reeking of cynicism rather than idealistic, full of hubris rather than humility, and stale rather than new.

The AAP, on the other hand, wears the imprimatur of a new revolution. It is a party that defies the conventional wisdom that you need big money or a sectarian interest to be successful in politics. It is a party that, in response to the crisis of the Indian state, wants to deepen participation — in a new language of democratic experimentalism. In Arvind Kejriwal, it has a leader who, even in disagreement, exudes a sincerity that is impossible to match. He did what no politician has done in India. When he made a mistake, he simply said sorry. It allowed him to move on.

It has, at least in Delhi, a genuine organisation with youth and idealism behind it, a cast of spokesmen who try to exemplify public reason more than clownish antics.

If the BJP has any sense, it will draw the right lessons. For one thing, it should break the cynical awe in which Amit Shah is held and empower other voices in the party. The line between being clever and being too clever by half is very thin. The BJP is now transgressing it — witness its shenanigans in Bihar. Second, voters are feeling betrayed by the BJP. The prime minister is now trapped by his own mystique. His vacillations in the face of reactionary elements in his party and the sense that the talk is running ahead of the walk are growing. The municipal elections in Rajasthan were also a signal about this in minor key. Third, Modi now has a Congress problem. Other than the ones who predate Modi, the BJP is failing to nurture local leaders who have an independent base and voice. Cooperative federalism cannot be run with a centralised party. The BJP should be grateful that it has got the jolt early enough to correct course. But Modi has to realise that political capital dissipates fast.

But the AAP’s victory is full of possibilities. For one thing, it sharpens the battle against plutocracy, a major poison in Indian democracy. Second, it gives the Opposition some momentum. A different government with street power a few miles from Race Course Road is not to be underestimated, though the AAP will have to exercise judgement in using this power. Third, for a polity looking for a new kind of politics, there is now something of a model that can be replicated, at least in urban India and in states like Punjab, where the search for alternatives is growing desperate. Fourth, while the AAP has deep roots in the politics of the poor, it showed how it could also reach out to the middle class, particularly younger voters. It is also a pointer to the BJP that even a slightest consolidation of the non-BJP vote bodes ill for it.

In terms of long-term structural changes, there are two tantalising possibilities. The first is the creation of a new institutional culture. This includes not just the performative dimensions of the relationship between politics and the people, but also far-reaching institutional changes: authority and accountability could be relocated in ways that are more functional. The entire architecture of urban governance — the relations between state governments and local bodies and development authorities — needs to be set on a new footing. This will be Kejriwal’s first challenge.

The second challenge and opportunity is this: It was fashionable to portray the AAP as unleashing another populist class war, fiscally imprudent and insensitive to growth. This was a gross exaggeration unleashed by those who were engaging in class warfare anyway. But the central challenge facing India is how to create cultures of negotiation around important issues where we do not oscillate between cronyism and populism. All the important issues facing us — pricing water and electricity, managing land and environment, access to health and education — have been stymied by this oscillation. Even now, the fog of obfuscation and false choices in these areas is threatening our future. Creating credible and inclusive negotiation on these issues is the central task. In India, the rich have evaded accountability by raising the spectre of class warfare, and the poor have been cheated by populism. There has to be a liberal critique of oligarchy at the top, and a social democratic critique of populism at the bottom. We hope the AAP is the harbinger of this change.

As a parenthetical aside, the ridiculous campaign by some sections of the left intelligentsia that this election would be rigged or that somehow elections are bought merely by money or deluding rhetoric needs to be mentioned. It not just shows their bankruptcy. It also shows that they have not grasped the most important thing about India: democracy now has the passion of a religion, the thrill of a mystery. Anyone who doubts it, or shows contempt for it, through hubris or condescension, will come to grief.

The movies and their contemporary relevance

TURING AND HAWKINGS

Does sexual preference or gender cast a shadow over the brilliance of the mind? Two films currently running in theatres in India answer with a resounding no. They also provide important insights. The films have much in common, but their differences are revealing.

The Theory of Everything and The Imitation Game are both biopics focused on two brilliant British scientists born 30 years apart. The first film covers the life of Stephen Hawking (born in 1942), a mathematician and theoretical physicist who changed forever our thinking about the origin of the universe and the nature of time. The second brings alive Alan Turing (1912-54), who gave us the early computer (the Turing machine) and laid the foundations of computer science, without which the development of modern computers that have transformed our lives would not have been possible. The ending of World War II more than two years before it might have otherwise ended, thus sparing millions of lives, is attributed to the work of Turing and his team. Both Hawking and Turing are today recognised as brilliant men to whom humankind and the world of science owe a deep debt of gratitude. But here the similarity ends. One major difference lies in their sexual preferences — Hawking is heterosexual, Turing was gay — with vastly differing consequences for their ability to live and work in peace.

Hawking, diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 1963 at the age of 21, and given only two years to live, is miraculously still with us — productive, world-renowned, much awarded and decorated, and surrounded by friends, colleagues and family, including the three children he fathered with his first wife, Jane Wilde. Turing committed suicide in 1954 at the age of 41 — alone, hounded, his remarkable wartime work buried under the British Official Secrets Act, and indicted for indecency for his homosexuality under then prevailing British criminal law. He was subjected to oestrogen injections (a form of chemical castration) in lieu of prison. It was barely a year ago that the queen of England posthumously “pardoned” him for his 1952 conviction — ironically, for what should not have been seen as a crime in the first place.

Perhaps Turing would have found life less fraught in today’s Britain. But what about in contemporary India? In fact, Turing has a notable India connection. His father was in the Indian Civil Service and his maternal grandfather was the chief engineer of the Madras railways. Had he lived to visit India, Turing would have been pained and horrified to find that Section 377 continues to criminalise gay people, and that some of our politicians still believe they can cure homosexuality medically. As I have argued before, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was written by the arch-colonialist, Thomas Macaulay, but many in our government who are working hard to vanquish symbols of our colonial past ironically continue to defend this law.

The films also have interesting takes on the position of women. In The Theory of Everything, Wilde sets aside her doctoral research at Cambridge for several years to build a life with Hawking and bear their children. In The Imitation Game, Joan Clarke, a brilliant mathematician herself (with a double first from Cambridge), solved in under six minutes the puzzle Turing set for inducting people into his team, and which he himself took eight minutes to solve. On the files, she was listed as a linguist, since the British Civil Service had no protocol for a female cryptanalyst, although in practice, she was an indispensable part of Turing’s select team that broke the German Enigma code, and its only woman member.

After the war, Clarke did not become a university professor in mathematics (as Hawking did at Cambridge, and Turing at Manchester). She married an army officer, and long years passed before her later work as a numismatist received recognition. Clearly both Wilde and Clarke sought intellectual companionship over other traits in potential partners: Wilde married Hawking despite his illness and Clarke was willing to marry Turing knowing he was homosexual. Today, exceptional women such as these would have many career opportunities, some on par with their male colleagues at universities like Cambridge and Manchester. But what would their situation be in India? How many Indian women are recognised among our top scientists?

Sexual preference, gender, caste, religion — these do not determine the power of the intellect. But they have much to do with the obstacles that we, as Indians, place in the paths of extraordinary minds, swamped as we are in the morass of social discrimination and prejudice. As Turing’s friend, Christopher Marcom, tells him in the film: “Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of, who do the things that no one can imagine.”

We might wonder how many brilliant men and women in India, faced with severe physical or social disabilities (our potential Hawkings or Turings), fail to achieve the unimaginable, because we fail to allow them the opportunity.

Aftermath of Arab Spring

Libya has come a long way since Muammar Gaddafi’s death in October 2011, when Tripoli seemed ahead of Tunis and Cairo in its democratic transition. That early promise is a distant memory now. Tuesday’s attack on the Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli by suspected Islamic State (IS) militants occurred against the backdrop of a country that appears to be falling apart — a spate of bombings and kidnappings in its west; the state split between two rival governments based in Tripoli and Tobruk, each with its own militia; the country fighting not one but two civil wars, against Islamists in the east and a complex multipartite battle in the west.

Two things appear to have gone wrong in Libya. First, each of its warring groups — Islamists, rebels who ousted Gaddafi and the old-guard — preferred to win first and then have democracy. Libyans have had no experience with democracy, and the absence of institutions saw five governments come and go since October 2011. Second, Western powers who midwived Gaddafi’s fall were too quick to abandon Libya. The September 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, in which its ambassador was assassinated, sealed Libya’s predicament. Given the ground complexities that preclude any neat distinction between the “good” and “bad” guys, a military intervention is difficult. The just-concluded peace talks in Geneva are the only sign of progress in a long time, with the two main warring factions declaring a ceasefire, although a third party didn’t turn up.

In January 2015, Tunisia alone can boast a post-Arab Spring success. Cairo is back in the hands of a strongman, albeit elected, after the divisive rule of a democratically chosen president. Syria’s civil war has transmogrified into the larger battle against the IS. Shiite militiamen in Yemen, home to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, ousted the president before Tuesday’s deal to form a “salvation” government. For now, making peace seems as difficult as going to war in the failing post-Arab Spring states.

THE HISTORY OF PARANTHE WALI GALI

A decade-and-a-half had passed since the Mutiny. Chandni Chowk had started settling under the new governance of the British. Year 1872 - Pt. Gaya Prasad, a yong man in early twenties, left his home in Tehsil Bah in Agra and came to Delhi in search of greener pasture. He put up a shop in a lane entering the Kinari Bazaar in Chandni Chowk and started making hot and sizzling paranthas. Soon the popularity of his paranthas grew so much that he had to call his brothers and cousins to help him in the business. Gradually, there came up almost a score shops - all belonging to the extended families of Gaya Prasad. Little they would have realised and imagined that the lane itself would become popular and famous after their paranthas as Paranthe Wali Gali (Lane of Paranthas) !
Thirty five varieties of Paranthas are served in the four shops that are now left in this lane. The fillings range from the usual, aaloo (mashed potatoes), gobhi (grated cauliflower), gaajar (carrots), mooli (radish) and paneer (cottage cheese); to the adventurous, methi (fenugreek), pudina (mint), karela (bittergourd), bhindi (okra); to the exotic, kela (banana), khurcha (thick layer of cream) and dry fruits. The usual fillings are rolled into a ball of dough and flattened with a rolling pin on a wooden or marble base. In the exotic parathas, the filling is spread on a flattened layer of dough and covered with another layer. The layers are then neatly tied and are ready to fry.Unlike the usual way of frying the parathas on a 'tawa' (flat griddle), the parathas in the Parathe Wali Gali are fried in a 'kadahi' (iron wok).

The parathas, fried in the 'desi ghee' (clarified butter) are then served in a 'thali' accompanied by 'kaddu (pumpkin) ki sabzi', 'aaloo mattar' (potatoes and green peas), 'aaloo mattar paneer' (potatoes, green peas and cottage cheese in gravy) 'kele ki saunth' (slices of bananas in thick jaggery and dried ginger chutney) and pudina (mint) chutney.The choice of vegetables and chutneys, served as accompaniments, have remained unchanged all these years.

The owners mention - with a gleaming pride - about the celebrities who have savoured the sumptuous parathas at their joints. Among these are Kabir Bedi, Salma Agha, Akshay Kumar, Gauri (wife of Shahruk Khan) and Amithab Bachhan. The shop of Pt. Gaya Prasad Shiv Charan (claimed as the first shop among the lot) has proudlydisplayed a unique picture of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru along with Vijaylaksmi Pandit (Nehru's sister) Indira Gandhi and Babu Jagjivan Ram dining at Parathe Wali Gali eating the paratnthas served in 'pattal' (plates made of leaves) and 'kullhad' (bowls made of clay) Paranthe Wali Gali has seen more than a century and a quarter go by. And all through, it has been a major destination for the locals as well as the tourists who throng the place to satiate their gastronomical pleasures. All but four shops are now left in the lane. Many, from the original count of nearly a score, have diversified into other business. But those who have chosen to remain in the traditional business speak high of Mr. Sreedharan, the doyen of Delhi Metro.

 Anjali, the sixth generation female owner of the shop Pt. Baburam Devidayal, feels indebted to Delhi Metro for bringing in more and more customers from the far flung areas of Delhi. The Chandni Chowk station of the Delhi Metro opens right in front of the Paranthe Wali Gali.

Ukraine moving towards NATO

The new Ukrainian Parliament’s overwhelming vote last week in favour of the country opting for membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is a contentious signal from a pro-western government to further cement Kiev’s strategic ties with the West. The decision reverses the country’s policy of non-alignment with any political and military grouping, codified under former President Viktor F. Yanukovych in 2010. Instead, it paves the way for Ukraine’s strong military and strategic engagement with European powers and the United States. Eventual entry into the military alliance may still take years. But the current context of the continuing separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine lends the legislative step a provocative edge, from a Russian standpoint. Moscow has characterised Ukraine’s move as confrontationist; one that is consistent with its decade-long and stout opposition to the eastward extension of the military alliance. The Russian stance is also in sync with influential thinking in the aftermath of the disintegration of the Soviet Union that grew sceptical of the relevance of NATO in a post-Cold War scenario. Whereas the disbanding of the Warsaw Pact followed the emergence of the new democracies in the former Eastern Europe, NATO has continued to expand in the more than two decades since.

Clearly, Kiev’s latest move cannot be viewed in isolation. Earlier in December, both Houses of the Congress adopted the Ukraine Freedom Support Act with the avowed objective of countering threats from Moscow to the territorial integrity of the Slavic nation. The Russian response has been the establishment of the Eurasian Economic Union with Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan to promote regional trade. The Kremlin came under criticism for the annexation of Crimea following a referendum earlier this year. Its alleged role in aiding Ukrainian separatist groups with military equipment has since remained in the spotlight. Meanwhile, the United Nations said last month that nearly a thousand people have been killed since September 2014 when the ceasefire between the Ukrainian forces and separatist rebels came into force. Besides, the months-long conflict has claimed a few thousand lives. Moreover, the number of people who have registered as displaced by the conflict has risen by over 50 per cent to 460,000 in the same period. In the absence of swift and concerted diplomatic initiatives to address the scale of the humanitarian tragedy, the region runs the risk of prolonged instability. That is in the interest of neither Russia nor the western powers. Kiev’s overtures at this juncture to join NATO would merely raise the rhetoric and deepen mutual suspicion.

NOW THAT THE GENIE IS OUT OF THE BOTTLE

Yes folks, the electorate has won and brought to power an outsider in New Delhi with such a scintillating majority. Mr Narendra Modi, touted as the messiah and the Mr fix-it has been hailed as the winner of the 16^th Lok Sabha elections. After three decades, has a non-Congress party come to power with absolute majority. The prime reason for this victory of BJP is Mr Narendra Modi’s success story in the form of Gujarat development model; and also the anti incumbency of the Congress. The BJP has committed itself to good governance and development through it’s manifesto. So here in this piece, let’s analyse the things being expected from NaMo and his government.

India Inc. has hailed Modi’s victory and the markets have been bullish about his win as shown by the record-breaking rallies. Modi is expected to bring into action the innovative ideas he talked about in his campaign and the ones he showcased in Gujarat. Shoring up growth rates in the Indian economy is the biggest task ahead of him. And for that, building the investor confidence is of the essence. This would translate into the need for a consistent policy; i.e. the mistakes of the previous government like the retributive tax laws as seen in the Vodafone case and the drastic changes in the tax incentives given to the SEZs needs to be avoided in all circumstances.  In order to bring more investment in the economy, the previous investments already done in the economy need to lift off, i.e. the gestation periods need to reduce. This can be done only by enhancing single window clearance mechanisms, cutting the red-tape, and finally, bringing more transparency and accountability. Everybody craves to see the India in which we know where a certain file is going and where it has been stalled. In that way, we won’t anymore have certain Environment ministers sitting on hundreds of files, stymieing the development of the country.  Creating a uniform market all over the country is also a step ahead in unleashing the potential of all regions and harnessing growth in all sectors. Passing reforms like goods and services tax in the parliament can do so. And I say so because now there is so much majority in the LS that reforms won’t be as tough to come by. And I say that this should be done in the honeymoon period of the first 10 months itself. Let’s look forward to the upcoming budgets for it.

We need to also see more of Made in India tags around the world and for that, the manufacturing sector should to be given a boost like never before. The small and medium sector enterprises need to be given a conducive environment to unbridle their potential and spread their wings so that the hub and spoke model of development can play out as the ancillary industries also get the required boost. Not just this, labor laws need reformation too, and that too, ASAP! For the Index for Industrial Production (IIP) to show the rise, the core sectors need to be paid special attention so that there is more of growth and employment generation.

Not enough can be said about the need to develop infrastructure for faster growth of the country. Certainly, we do need all-weather roads, freight corridors, rapid railways, power supply, banking services et cetra. While the manifesto talks about most of these issues, the proof of the pudding shall be in the eating. So, let’s wait and watch how things happen this time around. And while I’m talking of infrastructure still, I shouldn’t leave the human capital. Skill devt is the key factor in reaping our demographic dividend, i.e. to make sure that the citizens actively contribute in India’s devt and stand to gain from it. Let me just lay down the simple cycle of all the good things that may happen- when the people are skilled and the business climate is favourable, more money is pumped into various sectors of the economy which creates jobs and people get salaries. This increases consumption and the purchasing power of the people, which in turn further creates more incentives for the companies to produce and make more investment.

One issue, which specifically bothers me, is the stature of India in the world. We have seen the times when Mr. Bush was fighting the world to get India the nuclear deal and when Mr. Obama was saying aggressively everywhere that India deserves the seat in the UNSC but suddenly India is not talked about so much now. I see the main reason for this as the downturn in the growth trajectory of India. We are no more at or even in the vicinity of the 9% growth rate and we are just a 2 trillion dollar economy, which is literally nothing in front of the $9tn China and $16tn America. So, while some years ago there was the notion of Chindia and BRICS, the idea is dead now. To arrive back on the platform, economic revival is of utmost importance. Also important is building regional cooperation with our neighbouring countries. Till the time they are not made co-partners in our growth, the rise of India seems rather bleak. Thus, the foreign policy amendments to be taken by the govt need to be seen with eagle eyes.

A catchy thing in the manifesto was the growth of 100 smart cities. While the schemes like MGNREGS are meant to keep people in the rural areas and to keep them from coming in the cities, the hard fact is that development happens not by ruralization, but by urbanisation. We urgently and desperately need these cities for the cycle of events I mentioned in the previous paras. But this doesn’t mean that I don’t look forward to Rurbanization, that is also another key point of the manifesto i.e. to provide the urban amenities in the rural areas so as to develop them too. All these promises done by NaMo fill me with optimism and I shall track them closely.

NaMo would be the first Prime Minister who has been the Chief Minister with a successful tenure of 12 years. He has had no parallel yet. This gives me a ray of hope that Centre- State friction would reduce because he has been on the other side of the table. His understanding of such issues would be first-hand and would come handy. Whether it be the resounding question of having or not having the National Counter Terrorism Centre; or putting the onus of Central Schemes partly on the states; his proposed idea of PM-CM association would be of real benefit to our maturing federalism.

As I write today, he has already given his 67 point agenda to tackle inflation by addressing the supply side bottlenecks. But despite of all the positives, I would like to stay cautiously optimistic because it still remains for us to see what stand he takes on subsidies, reservations, fiscal situation etc. But let us give them enough time to show sustainable results and not expect our messiah to mend every pot hole on the road and electrify every rural village in a jiffy. Nevertheless, I’m elated to say that after so many years of dynastic rule in our country, the Indian Spring is finally here.

Mainstreaming shame

We’ve all grown up hearing about the stratospheric ideals of ‘unity in diversity’ and ‘Incredible India’ but hardly few of us actually embrace it in its true spirit. We have been calling South Indians as Madrassis and North Easterners as Cheeni for a long while now. We consider ourselves as living in that imaginary cocoon wherein only North India is the heartland and the rest is a foreign land. This mental construct of ours is deplorable. On the contrary, on a dinner table, we are also deeply unsettled with the word that sounds like RACISM. We take it rather personally when an Australian beats up an Indian or when David Cameroon visits Amritsar and doesn’t apologize for the Jalianwala bagh massacre. What does one call that in plain English? Hypocrisy. We Indians are hypocrites.

Recently, the death of a young Arunachal guy named Nido Tania and rape of a Manipuri girl in the capital have spurred the double standard issues that we have. Why are the north easterners not given their due? Why are they treated like foreigners in their own country? Why are boorish comments on their hair style and dressing sense so common? The problem is much deeper than it seems on the surface. Right from the elementary level, the school curriculum doesn’t include much about the north east. It is only at the exam time when mothers make their kids mug up the capitals and dance forms of these seven states. Children are not given even the slightest of knowledge about anthropology which could make them cognizant of the fact that it is just the face of a mongoloid race which makes them that way but in spirit, they are still the same as any other Indian. There is also no interaction among the students of the north east and the rest of India that can possibly reduce the strangeness between them which could aggravate into aloofness in the future.

A lot has been said about ‘mainstreaming’ the north east so that they can be active participants in the growth process of India but what has actually been done? The students of the north east are driven by the lack of opportunities for higher education and jobs to the mainland of India where they have no option but to face the feeling of being an ‘outsider’. Delhi is in fact a mini India and thus rightly a melting pot. But what infuriates me is the fact that Delhiites are not receptive and welcoming enough to people from other states. There are some folks who are just six feet from the edge and they vent it out on other people who are already feeling like ‘outsiders’. Yes, the north easterners dress differently and they talk differently but aren’t we supposed to respect that? They own Delhi as much as we do.

Those seven sisters have a border with the foreign countries, some of whom are aggressive too. People there face competition from the infiltrators from Bangladesh and others just because the Indian government hasn’t been able to stop infiltration in all these decades since independence. Trafficking of drugs is a normal issue there. Connectivity still remains a humongous problem as these seven states are connected to the mainland only through the chicken corridor which if closed, would cut the northeast from India. If this was already not enough, the Kokrajhar incidents happen too. After all this, the question remains, have we after all, given the north east as much attention as we should have? Answer to this question also lies in the difference of reaction of the Indian government to the fast that Irom Sharmila is sitting on since 14 years to repeal the Armed Forces Special Protection Act(AFSPA) and Anna Hazare’s fast for anti corruption bill. I can bet if Irom Sharmila was doing this fast in Delhi, even the media would cover it well. What to talk of a fast if cognizance is not taken of the different time zone that our North Eastern region is in. There is a difference of about 2 hours between IST and the time standard that NE should have. This deprives them of the daylight hours which could be used productively and also distances them further from the happenings in the mainland of India. Just imagine about the prime time at 9 news which comes here at 9 pm in the night would actually come at 11pm in  Arunachal. Enough sensitivity has not been shown to their plights and we talk of ‘mainstreaming’ them. Such a sham!

And if it were not for Digboi, Naharkatia and the gas pipeline from the north east, can we think of our energy demands being fulfilled? Or can we think of India without the Brahmaputra or the Manas wildlife sanctuary? The point is that north east is way too important for us to ignore and its people are our brethren. I say, exemplary punishment must be given to the people who mistreat them and immediate actions should be taken. Simultaneously, the mindset of the people needs to be changed and the children should be made more sensitive about the diversity that India possesses. It's time that India  showcases how ‘incredible’ it actually is.