AAP's letter to BJP and Congress: The Politics and Policy aspect

Letter to BJP and Cong by Arvind Kejriwal is an awesome political stem taken by him. But he should understand that having political support which is as fragile as Glass in India limits his leeway. One of the biggest takeaway from that letter is that he says to both of them is you all are corrupt and I am holier than cow. I found this statement to be very arrogant to use even against Lalu's and Mulayam's leave BJP and Cong aside. I have following points to make about this letter

1. It is like asking for support with a Gun pointed at you right away. Though he never went to BJP for support but putting so many conditions (even if they are good) strengthens my perception of AAP being a destructive and anarchist force. The wordings of the letter makes it impossible for BJP and Cong to accept this kind of humiliation just to save Delhi from one election. Actually it is too much of an attack on ego even if not accepting these conditions had meant a complete wipeout from the nation.

2. I would have been very much impressed had this letter been issued in an acceptable language and not with arrogance. Still I am impressed with political vision behind this letter. It will go a long way in establishing AK and his team's political credentials in the league of Bhajan Lal and Sharad Pawar.

3. Many of the identified points are good like simplification of VAT, Audit of electricity companies, Issue of Unauthorized colonies but problem will lie in defining neutral authority for audit and investigation. Anti corporate people like Prashant Bhushan, AK and Jhollawallahs like them can not be part of an unbiased panel.

4. I vehemently disagree with point on strengthening archaic law of Lal Dora. Lal Dora is a big road block for development in cities like Delhi. With Land Acquisition bill at the Center, exploitation of landowners is almost impossible and laws like Lal Dora only makes life tougher for people of Delhi. There are many flyovers which took more than 3 times the time they should have taken only becs land belonging to few houses could not be acquired and to add to the agony of house owners, after construction of flyover those house became inhospitable. Only change required in Lal Dora is limiting its applicability.

5. Many issues mentioned like better education than private schools, better healthcare than Private hospitals, female Security and Unauthorized colonies are utopian and everybody supports them but the big question is HOW?

6.Points like Janlokpal and Swaraj will be a giant step in ensuring better India but such laws can not be made in haste. Every clause needs a through discussion and I feel discussion is not possible with My way or no way attitude of AAP. Janlokpal was/is very flawed piece of legislation and need huge improvements and law on Swraj though highly desirable is not available even in draft format. So only a principle support (in AK's words) can be assured which he have highlighted as unacceptable form of answer.

7. The point I disliked the most is 1st. VIP Culture. Have they considered Governance some kind of Joke. Red Light issue have been addressed by SC recently, But Govt Bungalows and Security are a necessity for public servant which they have earned through hard work (Principally Speaking) and you can not rob them of these privileges. Employers have to take care of their employees and same should be the case with Delhi Govt. Also, best of perks are necessary to attract best of minds in Governance. There are already many disincentives for an honest and talented person to be in politics and removing these physical amenities will not help getting better people in politics. But more than this, this points makes me doubt the intention of AAP. By AAP’s perception present situation looks like Aam Aadmi (Common man not AAP supporter)  is trying to dethrone Khas Aadmi (Political and powerful class) of Delhi but remember only two person who succeeded in achieving something like this in last century without bloodbath were Sardar Patel and Nelson Mandela, both of them conceded grounds in the form of Privy Purses to Princes of Princely states during unification of India and Right to safety of property to Whites for ending the policy of Apartheid in SA.

Single Point Party called AAP

I respect most of the AAP leaders including Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan and Kumar Vishwas for what they have done and achieved including bringing corruption to the centre of public attention. Their achievements are not just limited to Anna Movement, Arvind Kejriwal did his bit for RTI, Prashant Bhushan fought like a warrior for 2G case and most of their other members have achieved much more than average Indian in their fields of work. Such warriors coming into politics should always be welcome as they are expected to be better than the current lot (at least in terms of honesty). But participating in politics and starting a political party are 2 different things. Generally, political parties are formed on strong ideological grounds. History and current lot of successful parties verify this. All over the world, they have some basic genetic ideology where they fall back upon (One may argue that their is no ideology in the times of opportunism but believe me one may digress from ideology in short term, time is a great leveler and it averages out digression) to answer critical questions they face during their lifetime. (Off course I am not counting Lalu’s and Mulayam’s while discussing this as for them power is the only objective) Democrats in US sights Social liberalism as central to them and Republicans put conservatism and hard core capitalism as central to them. I am quoting example of US as it is most powerful and successful democracy in modern world. In india too major political parties come with a central ideology, for Congress it is secularism, socialism and populism. BJP puts nationalism or Hindu nationalism (as some people call it) forward. Left parties are still stucked to idea of communism. In fact all the parties which are older than 30-40 years have some central ideology (Dravidian parties have Tamil nationalist, Shiv Sena have marathi superiority). India as vibrant democracy have seen experiments with politics without ideology in case of Janta Party of 1975 (Janta Party is very similar to current AAP of in having done “kahi ki ret kahin ka roda, bhanumati ne kunba joda” for single point target). During fragmentation of political issues in 1991 (Mandal, Kamandal) many political parties (SP, RJD) without ideologies were formed. These parties continue to exist today but reason for existence is a person or family. We have to give credit to Lalu’s and Mulayam’s that they are still able to get votes based on pure personal Charisma. These parties will face their challenges when patriarchs depart for better world. Shiv Sena is facing it as BalaSaheb Thackeray lost Charisma in his last few years.

Coming back to AAP, which is also a conglomeration of several people who agree on a single point agenda ‘Lokpal’. Apart from it they have nothing in common between their leaders. Leaders are clueless about issues of national importance (They hide themselves under the veil of focus on Delhi elections now) apart from cleaning up corruption or loosely say politics. While single point agenda organization are good for achieving the goal non-electorally it is very difficult to attain it electorally. If at all a single point organization achieves its goal in short run, they face questions of existence in long run( Janta Party 1977). So it is time for AAP leaders to define AAP. Saying things like “changing the system” may help them in getting volunteers and votes in the short term but it will jeopardize the applicability of organisation in the long run.

Tendulkar Memories

The moment arrived yesterday when we saw last of On Field Sachin. All we are left with is memories. Memories of that exquisite Cover Drive with full opened face and absolute still head over the ball, that perfect straight drive when ball kisses the Non-striker’s stump and attains speed of light (nearly) simultaneously. Some umpires know about speed of ball very well (It was brutal but shows speed of the ball). Memories of an magnificent innovator who opened new in-field areas for scoring like the area behind slips through uppercut which sometimes sailed over keeper’s head(literally), areas behind the keeper in leg side through elegant paddle sweep which no one could imitate. It is for cricket historians to notice but I am speculating that these shots will be counted equivalent to Ranjit Singh Ji's Leg Glance through leg side which opened area behind square in legside for scoring for others to follow. Some players have taken Sachin’s innovations forward (DilSccop) to make them more effective (although less stylish) in limited over cricket already (they are still too risky for tests). Another innovation was helicopter shot (Yes it was him who played it first, watch it here) which Dhoni have adopted and made more popular since. It is only Sachin who could have made this shot of brute power look so graceful. My favorite memory is the pull shot in 2003 world cup against Andrew Cadick when he knew the next delivery is going to be short ball well before bowler began his runup. A perfectly positioned pull followed and Caddick got recorded in the memories of hundreds of millions of fans forever indelibly. This shot was special because ‘Pull’ had been resting in the arsenal form long due to back pain and been used very sparsely since. Second one is more talked about conventional uppercut over third man against so called Rawalpindi express. There are so many others but I can’t fail to mention that flick(look at 6:33) during ODI 200 from outside off stump which he played against best bowler of our time and made him appear as helpless as a school kid being bullied by someone 5 year senior to him.

Individual shots form incredible pointed memories. They reminds you short burst of incredible joy you felt at that point of time and Sachin is not just about short burst of joy. Beauty of Sachin as a phenomenon lies in the fact that he not only offers so many pointed moments of ecstasy but also sustained period of bliss across 24 years. Agreed that there were periods of disappointment in between but then suddenly he will play a gem of an innings which will leave an enduring mark over psyche of the nation. Being born in 1988, I was too young to take note of his Pakistan adventure in 1989 and the unbelievable feat of heavy scoring against every opposition I faintly remember “169” in Cape Town” in 1997 but that is more because of mind blowing catch taken by Adam Bacher (Another cricketer who will find mention only either in memories of a Sachin fan or in archives of cricinfo). In 1998 when I was 10, Desert Storm happened and I saw a storm on the batting pitch which ignited a hard to control passion for cricket (rather Sachin) in me. I have followed cricket (Sachin)* since. Those were the best consecutive 2 innings anybody will ever play. I distinctly remember “155” against Australia when Shane Warne was routed for once and all and “136” against Pakistan despite the back pain which almost won the match for us, both played in Chennai (I wonder what Chennaites have done to be so lucky to witness display of so much divinity from God). There are so many of them that I can’t mention them all here, be it “241” in Sydney or “175” in Hyderabad. But I will mention “146” against SA in Cape Town which happened to be his last Test century. This Inning marked greatest spell of bowling form one of most potent bowler of all time. He was forced to retreat after failing to dislodge the warrior with a bat (his best weapon) in his hand. During this innings Sachin was not the usual self, he wasn’t dominating, he wasn’t hitting the ball all around the park; those cover drives, straight drives and on drives were not flowing as freely as they normally did, those quick sprints across the wicket didn’t happened because there were lesser mortals to be protected from an assault which was rarely seen from the bowling side (If you don’t remember Google “Sachin vs steyn cape town 2011” and you will know what it was). In this inning he was not looking as an immortal teasing and bullying the lesser mortals, instead he looked like a human who is vulnerable, who needs to negotiate but who can stand and fight against adverse conditions.

Sachin will not be creating any more memories for us now but nobody can rob us from the already existing ones. Cricket will not be the same and will be watched more on Youtube than on ESPN or Star Sports. This Probably is a natural progression which earlier saw radio, Black and White DoorDarshan and Coloured StarSports with multiple cameras and analysis. Thank You Sachin. It has been a pleasure following you and being a fan of yours.

* Cricket and Sachin have remained synonyms for me till now. Don’t know what will happen in future.

Cold war and its impact on human exploration of Universe

After reading a wonderful book by one of most accomplished experimental Physicist Prof. Walter Lewin, I spent 2-3 days exploring our current knowledge about Universe. It was indeed a humbling experience. This pic of Hubble Ultra Deep Field is enough to make you feel how small and insignificant Earth, Sun and even Milky Way is  (Look I am not even talking about Me, My Family, Community and Country and we keep on fighting about these issues). While reading through wikipedia I noticed a thing which have started bothering me. I noticed that off late our investment in space exploration is declining. During cold war, both USA and USSR was in a race to explore the universe to gain an edge over the other. It helped the technology leepfrog to next level year after year, especially in space exploration. NASA invested billions of dollars to get man on Moon, sent missions to explore Jupiter, saturn and deep solar system. We are reaping the results even now in the form of Voyager missions which are still flying away from earth and are reaching to the limits of solar system (For those who do not know, this mission contained 2 spaceships launched in 1977 which are still active and have reached to the limits of solar system. One of the recent pics by Voyager 1). Hence many new techniques were invented which in turn gave birth to new fields of Science like X-Ray astronomy (Prof Lewine is one of most respected X Ray astronomer) and Gamma Ray Astronomy. These new fields were instrumental in extending our knowledge about some wonderful universal objects like Nebula, supernova and Black Holes.  

NASA consistently send so many unmanned and manned mission to increase knowledge of mankind about Universe. Even  academic astronomers were given easy money to explore. Most useful of the missions was Hubble telescope which enable us to see deep (as deep as 13 billion light year away) in to the universe. It was launched during fag end of cold war in 1990. Since end of cold war, space exploration has taken a backseat as there is no race to prove superiority. For decision makers (Politicians) political doles or unnecessary wars are more important than Space exploration. NASA is witnessing deep budget cuts and retiring its space vehicles as they are old and it is too expensive to replace them.

Indian Mission of Mars is a fresh air when most of other countries are cutting budgets or cancelling space missions. India’s frugal engineering is one of the reason behind it. But ISRO is at least 20 year behind NASA technically and India lag by 50 years in terms of availability of funds for space exploration. It may sound like a cynic but I wish to see another cold waresque race which may result in another golder period of technological advancement.

On a different note private organizations have pitched in to fill the hole created by lack of funding form Govt. side. Google is sponsoring a competition where participants have to send an unmanned mission on moon before 2015

Technology World

Today I was discussing about technologies and future of technology giants in our world. We talked about hardware starting from iPhone, iPad to Google Glass and smart Watches that will be released soon and softwares starting from outright success like iOS and Android to some of the biggest failure like Samsung Bada and BB10 and also to still struggling ones like Microsoft Windows 8. This kind of discussions are good as you get to know about newer trends and technologies. So I thought of writing key takeaways:

1. Phone and portable PC fight is going to fought primarily by Google, Apple and Samsung now with Nokia having an outside chance of becoming major player in medium term.

2. Google’s Android is going to become biggest platform for integrating all the digital devices in future. Android will not remain limited to Cell Phones or Tablets. We will see Android powered Fridges and workout machines sooner rather than later. iOS will be left behind in this race because of its closed approach.

3. Google Glass will open a new horizon and will open a floodgate of innovation as Apple did with iPhone and iPad.

4. Apple haven’t came out with a earth shattering innovation since long after iPad. New Mac is good but not in the same league.

5. Social Media is also showing interesting race between Facebook and Google Plus. Everybody agrees that feature wise G+ is far more superior than FB but still it is not able to get users queue on to it due to many reasons including feature overload.

6. In Google plus, Engineers are doing a lot of work to roll out new features but marketing is not marketing them barring recent campaigns like #incredibleindia. For Google Plus problem is not the features but marketing. Engineers can spend their energy in simplifying the interface.

7. Photosphere is a wonderful app, for which people will find lots of uses for example they can post photosphere pics of houses with ads for rent and it can cause wonders.

Overall Next 5-6 years are going to be very interesting with Google fighting with Apple, Samsung, Facebook and Microsoft on different fronts. The fight will not be easy but rewards are also very high.

Sachin Tendulkar

So it came, The day I dreaded since I started watching cricket or say I became conscious, The day when Sachin Tendulkar said he will stop playing cricket. Its a known fact that he is one of best sportsperson India have ever produced. He is responsible in raising spirits of Indians during economic hardships, earthquake, tsunamis and terrorist attacks. Who can forget that 100 in Chennai after terrible 26/11. He was the reason that I (Ok we) could smile even after depressing things all around. Whether it is the slaps on cheek because a student screwed a maths (or English for villagers like me) test or the fines a biker have to pay just because a policemen had to complete his quota of challans.

Everybody who grew with Sachin’s batting (I am sure everybody in India have) must have some special memories. I am penning down some of mine. During my adolescent days when I was forced to study, he used to bring cheer to me. Most of us would have done it but for me it takes courage to admit that I faked stomach aches and headaches during my school days, to watch Sachin bat. I can never forget the desert storm innings which I could only witness in bits and pieces because my parents thought that it is too late for a 10 year old to remain awake after 10:30, while they continues watching that magician. It was my urge to watch my favourite batsman bat that made me feel thirst and headache every 10 minutes. I could sleep only after cheek treatment that we middle class children used to get at our tantrums. I slept weeping and cursing myself. I grew and so did my adulation for him. His batting used to abate frustration of being unable to solve a Physics problem even after spending 3 hours. He was the inspiration during CAT prep when ability of others made me feel like a lamb against a deadly wolf in that hyper competitive world. He was one of those who made me believe “I will do it” when whole universe was telling “Ch(*)uck it Dude!! Tumse na ho Payega“.

I (Hope many of you too) hated and made fun of a moderately good cricket (Look I still can’t acknowledge that he is best allrounder that we have) just because it was because of him that we can’t win against australia in Hyderabad despite an innings which only Sachin could have pulled off. Whenever Indian cricket team failed in cricket I made a promise to myself that I will lessen my madness towards this silly game but was never able to, because of him. Winning world cup was special because it was HIS dream.

For Indians Sachin is a single line answer to any argument put by Britishers, Australians and South Africans like Bangaloreans use “Bangalore ka weather acha h”. Only difference being it is as effective as the legendary “Mere pass Maa hai”. Now cricket will not remain the same. Life is intertwined with Cricket Sachin so much that retirement will leave a vacuum which will be difficult to fill. It is just an understatement to say You shall be missed.

How is it to work for Google?

First few weeks went into total awe of the scale at which things were being done, amount of effort being put in to take care of people and quality at which food (for those who do not know its free) was being served. I could have wrote lot of things about experiences of first week itself but time time to write about it have passed. I am already 6 weeks veteran at Google. First few weeks passed in “no time” as I was in state of euphoria of getting through one of the most rigorous interviewing process in the world. Only recently the feeling of “Yes I have done it” have started sinking in. My mind now accepts with ease that I work at Google.

As happens at most of the places first few weeks I didn’t had many things to do and spent most of the time reading about various policies and products. Apart from Technicalities, I already knew most of the things about products. It was policies, especially employee benefit policies which forced me to feel really proud about my workplace. Coming from a Baniya Family and having worked at a cost centric KPO before, focus on people was almost unbelievable for me. I found it to be too good to be true. So I Googled* “worst thing about working at google” and Google showed results, (I was scared to do it from corporate network after watching videos on Artificial Intelligence, fearing instead of results I probably will see a firing letter). First link was quora. I read few of the answers(This, I found as most apt of them all) and found I am already feeling connected to some. Most of the answers were pointing to the fact that  “It is so Good that It’s Bad” like they say “ It is so bad that it is Good” about Gunda (Youtube, Really (Really, Really) tough luck if you don’t understand Hindi). I will now watch this amazing movie which deserved 100 Oscars at least (I believe  Kanti Shah and entire cast should have been hanged as Shah Jahan ordered cutting hands of workers who constructed Taj Mahal). Wrapping up, I Still don’t see “Bad” part in being “So Good” but probably will see when I touch 100 kg(I already have gained around 5 kg despite Gymming for around 4-5 Hrs a week) from current 75, till then let me fill my tummies :)

*If you are my Colleague, please don’t tell my manager about it. If you are my manager or his/her manager, please ignore. It is not meant for you. I would have liked to make this content Unavailable for you but Blogspot still Doesn’t support it :(

UPA and Democratic Institutions

After writing on Modi coronation and AAP I thought now I will write something about ruling party, “The Mighty Congress”. There is lots of material already written over how responsible they are while mismanaging economy, corruption and lack of leadership. But one issue which have remained out of sight from general public is their complete disdain towards democratic institutions. It is irony that they call their opponent undemocratic and autocratic while they themselves have left no stone unturned to subjugate constitutional institutions to a level unseen since 1975. It is also sad that 4th pillar of democracy has remained ignorant towards systematic death of institutions which act as foundation stone for our democratic system (No doubt so many people refer them as paid media). I have compiled a list of several institutions which have faced attack from the Govt. during last last nine years.

1. Governors- We all know that Office of Governor have long been treated as retirement home for old politicians and previous NDA regime also placed old warhorses like Madan Lal Khurana and Vishnu Kant Shastri in governors office. (In my opinion Governor and speaker both should be impartial, read here)But Manmohan Singh’s Govt. have used them as a substitute to Article 356 to seek vedanta on opposition led state Govt. It all started at the very inception. They asked several Governors to resign because they were not from congress in first month in office. After that hell broke loose, as Governors acted like active politicians to defy the public mandate and push Congress led Govt. in various states. Cases of Goa, Bihar and Jharkhand were particularly serious. For Bihar, later Supreme court held, dissolution of Bihar assembly by Governor Buta Singh as illegal. This Judgement could have had far bigger impact on national politics had President Kalam not listened to PM and resigned from his post after this Judgement as he intended to (He elaborated this incident in detail in his book). After this decision we have not seen such blatant attack on opposition led state Govt but similar acts of immorality by Governors continued example being Karnataka where center have to reject recommendation of Hansraj Bhardwaj to impose president's rule and Gujarat where Governor’s act was criticised and found to be not in conformity with constitution by SC. I have not seen any other Govt. at the center closely as I was too young during Vajpayee’s time so not sure weather Governors have been acting like this even before but such blatant display of partisan behavior by Governors need public scrutiny.

2. PAC and JPC- JPC and PAC are committees privileged committees of parliament which have special responsibilities. PAC is responsible for examining reports published by CAG and presenting before the houses while JPC is constituted by the parliament for a specific purpose like current one is to examine and investigate allocation of 2G spectrum. In both these committees, MP’s belonging UPA are in majority owing to majority enjoyed by UPA in parliament. At various instances these members have displayed majoritism to not let any criticism of Govt. passed through. (I have written a satirical piece earlier over here). It have been 3 years both these committees have not been able to reach any conclusion because of this absolutist approach by ruling party MP’s(opposition MP’s are also responsible to some extent). They prepare report and then quash it on technical grounds. They are not allowing key suspects to appear before JPC( A Raja and MM Singh being case in point). Now they are adamant on filling seats vacated by DMK MP’s by having Congress MP’s on board so that they can pass a report which will absolve current PM and indict A Raja of all wrongdoings. (The report they are trying to push through have several comments criticizing Vajpayee Govt). No doubt, It will go long way in ensuring credibility of the report and JPC as institution.

3. CVC- Another incidence when central Govt. didn’t listened to opposition and have to face SC ire for it. They appointed a tainted man P J Thomas despite strong opposition from Sushma Swaraj using what else, majority (Selection committee comprises of PM, HM and LoP Lok Sabha). In the end have to facepalm as supreme court held this appointment as illegal. As expected our PM came with an excuse that he wasn’t aware (Dude, are you kidding? MoM’s of selection committee cites that LoP raised the same concerns). Even if we assume PM were not aware than it meant he was being misled by someone in Home Ministry.If someone can misled PM in this country with such ease and impunity (We never heard of any action against anybody for misleading PM) than God save this country.

4. CBI- After SC’s cage parrot remark I do not feel I need to write anything about it.

5. ECI- There was a case when Govt. appointed a person Navin Chawla (He was found to be unfit to hold a public office by a former CJI report for his acts during Emergency, that report was rejected by Indira Gandhi (who else), read Wiki Page) as election commissioner, CEC (N Gopalswami) of that time raised flag of disapproval and recommended his removal. Govt was able to save him due to legal technicalities. But Govt failed to understand that legal technicality does not mean morality and this incident had left a taint on the Election Commision of India.

6. CAG- Who doesn't know about CAG and former incumbent Vinod Rai. He is the man who brought major scams (2G, CWG and coalgate)to public scrutiny. He also have to pay for his honesty. Although Govt. couldn’t remove him because of strong systems which prevent Govt from doing witch hunt against honest bureaucrats, they criticized him at every possible opportunity. Now when he have retired, they have appointed Shashi Kant Sharma ( Bingo!! He is also tainted) as CAG. His appointment is controversial and is in courts. (Probably we will hear, I wasn’t aware statement in few days/months)

7. RBI- Strong systems meant Govt. can’t do much. But if FM wants to exhort (as we have seen him doing multiple times) RBI governor to follow Govt. dictate on monetary policy, what's the need for having independent regulator. I am sure Finance Ministry can create a mess of Monetary policy as they have done with Fiscal Policy.

8. Chief of Army- Former Chief of Army VK Singh also had many controversies including his DoB, his letter to PM for shortage of ammunition and his letter of Defence minister when he received an offer for bribe. Most of the matters are under investigation so won’t comment on them but so many controversies during tenure of a single officer generates some amount of suspicion especially when he shares dais with opposition politician after retirement and Govt. starts investigation against him just after that.

9. Office of President- Isn’t electing Pratibha Patil as President enough? Also, They once forced APJ Kamal to sign a bill related to Office of profit retrospectively while he wasn't willing. Another case is one I have described above when People’s President almost quit because of a partisan Governor

10. National Human Rights Commision, Press Council of India- Govt. appointed tainted(K.G. Balakrishnan, his son-in law is congress leader) and partisan(Justice Katju) ex. Judges to head these institutions and hence brought disrepute to them.

11. Office of PM and Union Cabinet- These two offices are perhaps biggest casualty of this Govt. Our PM doesn’t speak and even when he do, nobody listen to him. Powers of PM are being enjoyed by Sonia Gandhi and his cabinet by her NAC.