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.

How AAP is not a game changer in politics

Last week, one of my friends donated Rs. 10,000 to Aam Aadmi Party and posted his certificate of facebook. I posted a comment, which another friend, who is volunteering for AAP didn’t liked and we ended up discussing it over facebook comments. I was critical of AAP (Based on perception) and his adulation to AAP was similar to average BJP supporter’s to Modi (read about Modi being named BJP Prime Ministerial candidate here). He advised me to go to website of AAP and read about them and I did that. First thing that drew my attention was their claim that they are different. They had listed 12 points how they were different- here is what I think how they are not that much different as they claim to be

1. There is no central high command in Aam Aadmi party. The party structure follows a bottom to top approach where the council members elect the Executive Body and also holds the power to recall it.

This is an utopian aim, In every political party it is only members of some committee who elects president, its just that nobody fights against Sonia in Congress and Mulayam in SP. Some political parties like CPM follow this principle pretty much, I believe. No difference between most of the political parties and AAP at least conceptually.

2. No MLA or MP of this party will use red lights or any other beacons on his or her vehicles.

Great.. even law doesn’t permit it (only ministers are permitted), Nothing out of the world if they say we will obey law.

3. No MLA or MP of this party will use any special security. We believe that elected people's representatives need the same security as a common man.

It can appeal to general public, but it is not desirable, Public have spent crores of Rupees to elect MP’s and MLA’s and in modern world security remains a concern specially for VIP’s which MP’s and MLA’s are. I will want my leadership to be secure, But if security for general public is improved, good to see someone talking about it.

4. No MLA or MP of our party will live in opulent and luxurious government housing.

They are state employees (pretty important one) and general HR practices will say you should give best perks to your important employees. Secondly to attract good people to politics you need to have sounds benefits for them. I think this connects to the general perception that politics is not for ambitious people. But we have to understand that leaders like Lal Bahadur Shastri are a thing of past. In modern world, politics need to compete with high paying private jobs for best minds. No doubt it is a point of difference but it can prove to be detrimental to the quality of leaders as everybody is not as selfless as Kejriwal is.

5. No one would need to buy an election ticket in our party. Candidates contesting elections from an area will be selected by the people of that area.

No political party will ever claim that its tickets are for sale. Second- Had selection of people been good there will not be any need of AAP or different politics

6. In all political parties today criminals and mafia goons are given election tickets. Such people will never be given tickets in our party. A thorough screening process will ensure that no one with a criminal record or proven corruption charges could stand for elections from our party.

Everybody likes to talk about criminalization of politics. How will you ensure that somebody is not being framed? For example what will happen if tomorrow some random girl accuses Kejriwal of Raping(Congress and BJP surely can get this done). We know police investigation can (will) take years to complete. Of course, Internal screening process will find Arvind innocent. But how that internal screening is different from the internal screening that found Nitin Gadkari and Robert Vadra innocent(They did not conducted any investigation in Vadra’s case but it can always be forged, in his case even Govt. investigation will not find any fault)?

7. This party will function with full financial transparency. Every single rupee collected by donations to run this people's party will be publicly declared on the party's website and all expenditures will also be declared on the website.

This point really stands out. Full marks and respect for it. Though I will like to see the implementation and how AAP will tackle the onslaught of political leaders who will dole out cash for votes during election.

8. Every member of the Aam Aadmi party will have to follow a strict internal code of conduct or internal Lokpal. This independent body will be headed by 3 jurists and other eminent personalities with impeccable public records and will investigate charges of corruption, crime, substance abuse and moral turpitude against all office bearing members of the party. Any citizen can present proof of wrongdoing against a party member. If internal Lokpal finds the party member guilty, he or she will be subjected to appropriate disciplinary action as decided by the internal Lokpal.

Please see concern raised in point 6.

9. No two members of the same family will be eligible to contest elections in our party and no two members of the same family can become members of the Executive Body.

Very fresh approach. But on a cautious note what if 2 very capable people are from same family. We see it in many other fields Cinema, sports. even in politics Karats (Vrinda and Prakash (Karat’s) are both good).

10. Today we give our vote to a candidate, he or she wins the election, and then they disappear from our life. Today most elected representatives make no time to listen to the problems of their constituents. And in the current electoral system, the people have no choice but to suffer this candidate for 5 years. We want to create an alternative. We will enact a Right to Reject law wherein the common man does not have to wait for 5 years to remove a corrupt MLA or MP from office. People can complain to the election commission anytime to recall their representative and call for fresh elections.

This is very interesting. Right to reject will be a great step forward though penalties to contestants if “none of them” gets maximum votes needs to be debated. But right to recall is an absurd utopian idea. What if some opposition party members or sympathisers keep on going to EC every say 3 months. In this case will we have elections every 3 months? No, I assume the answer will be. We still will have to define at least some minimum tenure for elected person which is 5 year now. If we reduce it than the question will be how much? Also, Frequent elections will means complete hibernation of state machinery during election time. Its good that AAP have good intent here but right to recall is impractical and utopian idea

11. Aam Aadmi Party is fully committed to the principles of gender equity and will represent women and students amply at all levels of party organisation.

Women are already occupying important posts in most of mainstream national parties. Sonia Gandhi, Sushma Swaraj, Mayawati being example. Bringing in students is refreshing but they come with a baggage of lack of experience. Still worth trying.  

12. Aam Aadmi Party is committed to the principles of justice for all and will coopt representatives from the Dalit and other minority segments of society at all levels of party organisation.

Same, all parties at least talk about that and some have good record as well.

The conclusion of this whole analysis is while AAP brings a few (not as many as they claim in political rhetoric) points of difference at the time of inception. It needs to be seen whether they are able to carry it through elections where differences gets buried deep in cash and liquor voters demand. Some of the readers especially AAP supporters will find me cynic but experience with politics in this nation have taught average Indian including me not to build high hopes. We have seen generational shift changing so called “Party with a difference” in “Party with differences”.

Modi Coronation: Alarm bells for Mandal politics and caution for supporters

Yesterday on 13 September, BJP took the decision of making the obvious, official. They named Narendra Modi as their prime ministerial candidate as being demanded by cadre from long. It is this beauty of democracy the India is that a person who was a tea vendor 40 years ago is now aiming for being most important person in India. And going by the support I see not just on Social Media but on streets (at least urban), he have more chances of succeeding than failing. We must congratulate BJP on doing so, It wasn’t long ago that intellectual pandits used to call it as Brahman Thakur Baniya Party and they have named a lower caste OBC as their top most electorate contender. While Modi himself, his party and his supporters do not see him through caste prism, we have to note that India never had any OBC Prime Minister. Here Modi and his party not identifying himself through his caste is understandable as BJP and RSS has always tried to put forward a united Hindu face but his supporters (mostly Brahman, Baniya and Thakur clan people) bypassing caste credentials is a small step in right direction which will go a long way in moving India away from Identity politics. Hopefully it will seep through other communities and India will get rid of Identity driven electoral battles which have kept real issues at bay for far too long. Although it is too early to say but it can well be a distressing sign for people who have benefited most by playing Identity politics.

This elevation have generated a lot of euphoria in BJP cadre which is understandable because after long they will have a leader who will be giving them a sense of ability to compete. 9 year of marginalization and continuous infighting among top leadership had sucked out enthusiasm. Modi has been able to restore enthusiasm and faith in the workers . Now they will fight hard to help their leader reach where they want him to be, 7RCR. While Congress Govt. and Manmohan Singh have done everything possible to make their job easier, still it will not be a cakewalk.

Biggest challenge to BJP and supporters is to keep their feet rooted during this phase of euphoria. It is very easy to convert dedication to a leader in over adulation and complete subversion to everything he does especially when mind is in state of extreme joy. While I myself is a big supporter of decisive leadership, we need to be careful about a trait in personality of Modi which media and opposition have exploited to project him as authoritarian. There is very fine line between being decisive and authoritative. Modi currently, I believe, is on positive side of that line but we know power gets to head quicker than weed. So this is a note of caution to the cadre, its a job well done but be careful. Importance of Advani’s, Sushma’s and Yashwant’s is equivalent to Rajnath’s and Jaitly’s if not to Modi himself. Cadre must not push them to sidelines and become similar to Congressmen under Sonia Gandhi.

Social Media and Accountability

In last few months we have seen social media gaining importance in spreading information quickly to the masses. It has been proved to be extremely beneficial for most of the people as information was available freely. It played its role in bridging the information gap and is also helpful in reducing the information arbitrage some people charge for information advantage they hold. One of the example of information arbitrage is the brokerage, real estate agent charges while helping you find a place or tenant to rent. Another one is advertisements we are forced to see while watching or reading traditional media. Now because of social media public have access to most of the information easily, hence they are not ready to let information brokers take an arbitrage as easily as they are used to. So these brokers are trying everything to stop/ prevent this flow of information. Some (like real estate agents) have tried to spam and hence make discovery of information difficult while others (like our so called esteemed journalists) have resorted to more intelligent methods like defaming (remember Internet Hindu) or seeking outright ban or control on it due to content or some bad elements on it. By saying this I, by no way am trying to defend the so called trolls (They actually are spammers who makes the information discovery difficult). But Social media is by no way responsible for what is being written on it. Holding Social Media responsible for what’s being communicated is like holding paper or loudspeaker responsible. When I saw some of the esteemed journalists holding twitter and facebook accountable for what is posted on them I found it funny and hence attempted this satirical piece on it.

Media demands ban on air and light to prevent people seeing and listening provocative views

After holding facebook and twitter responsible for recent riots in Muzffarnagar, now some people have started questioning the role of air and light in inciting violence. They argue that even banning facebook and twitter will not solve the problem as people still can see what happens in society. So according to them it is better to prevent the basic natural mechanism through people hear and see. They are seeking a ban on light and air itself so that no one can see and hear things which can cause trouble(For scientifically challenged readers sound needs air to travel through while human eye needs light to see anything, In other words more than ear and eye, air and light are responsible for whatever we hear and see). They also connected it to vision of Gandhiji and his three monkeys that conveys that one should not listen, see or say anything evil. One of them said that action against air and light will ensure a society truly based on principles of Gandhiji where no one will be able to hear, speak or see anything evil.

If you liked this, you might also like an old post about India's parliamentary practices