Attended Sree Sreenivasan’s talk on the use of social media as part of a TiE-sponsored talk at the ISB yesterday. Very interesting insights, and good use of an hour or so on how you (and your business) must be serious about being on the social media.
As an entrepreneur in a new-age business, made notes to “upgrade” my presence on social media pronto.
The recent central government cabinet reshuffle was underwhelming to say the least. With all the scams that have dogged the government, a bigger shake-up would have been appropriate to at least show their seriousness in doing things differently.
Apart from the allegations of massive corruption, what should worry the government managers is that there is a lot of negativity about their performance as well (governance deficit). Global macroeconomic conditions such as fuel price increases and softening of global recovery isn’t helping, but the government can do much internally to ensure India can use its internal demand engines to grow. There has hardly been any reform over the last 7 years of UPA rule, dis-investment / privatization has died, and your and my taxes are just rotting everywhere without providing better infrastructure of even succour for the poor.
Getting in some more fresh faces, maybe even the junior Gandhi in a high-profile ministry would have revitalized the government. A number of young parliamentarians in the Congress party (even if they got elected for their surnames) have been completely wasted, and could have done much to get them a third term if they were allowed to use their erudition and intelligence. Instead, what you get is a number of key ministries still left unfilled, and full-time ministers in the areas of Corporate Affairs, Science & Technology and the like.
Same targets, same old responses, same lethargy. Except for those closest to the victims, does anybody care?
Maybe the news channels do, they get a lot more eyeballs when there are such “events”. At least on this occasion, India hasn’t jumped to blame Pakistan without a proper investigation. Not that there isn’t a good chance they would be behind this one as well.
It is well known that the rich do not vote in Indian elections. Their reasons for vote might be many, but generally, it is apathy for the politicians and lack of belief in the power of their vote.
You would not assume, however, that many of the ills of our general elections would be exactly replicated in the election of an association of a largish housing society. One can assume that financially most owners of a 2000+ flat community will be from the upper income strata and many of them do not vote in general elections, because it is just too inconvenient.
The same case played out in the recent association elections, with less than one third bothering to vote in the first-ever election (half of which were through proxies put in by the builder, who actively sought them to install their puppets in the association), even in the face of well known allegations that the builder had vested interests and was openly trying to influence the outcome of elections. One would also think that most owners in a housing community would be well educated, computer-savvy and vocal in expressing their opinion, at least on the digital space. But less than a sixth of the 2000+ community is on the email group, and even from this small group most would not bother to be anyone but an armchair critic.
Association elections for a housing community are more likely to directly affect the residents than any general election, and several important questions about cost of amenities, quality of service providers, corruption were already moot points, but these were just not enough to get the mass of residents to come out and have their say.
You can be inspired to do something good when people care, but when nobody cares, why would you continue to slam your forehead against a big brick wall?
With the trouble in Telangana, there is a real chance that some Congress MPs from the Telangana region will be forced to resign. If the central government cannot quickly solve the Telangana issue, TRS can be persuaded to vote against the government. Also, Jagan Reddy (who has broken away and is biding time before he attempts to bring down the AP state government) controls some of the MPs in AP who will risk disqualification and not vote for the central government.
Pervasive corruption is one topic where it might be possible to align the entire opposition, from the far left to the far right, and given UPA government’s poor record in tackling food inflation, it is probably the best time for the opposition to try and force elections. UPA 2 has done precious little by way of governance, reforms and development since it came to power almost 2 years ago.
A quick analysis of how the parties and major alliances stack up in the 15th Lok Sabha, courtesy wikipedia.
| Sl No. | Party | Area of influence | Members | Alliance |
| 1 | INC | National | 208 | UPA |
| 2 | BJP | National | 116 | NDA |
| 3 | SP | UP | 22 | Neither |
| 4 | BSP | UP | 21 | Neither |
| 5 | JDU | Bihar | 20 | NDA |
| 6 | Trinamool | WB | 19 | UPA |
| 7 | DMK | TN | 18 | UPA |
| 8 | CPI(M) | WB & Kerala | 16 | Neither |
| 9 | BJD | Orissa | 14 | NDA |
| 10 | SS | Maharashtra | 11 | NDA |
| 11 | AIADMK | TN | 9 | Neither |
| 12 | NCP | Maharashtra | 9 | UPA |
| 13 | Independents | 8 | Neither | |
| 14 | TDP | Andhra Pradesh | 6 | Neither |
| 15 | RLD | UP | 5 | Neither |
| 16 | CPI | WB & Kerala | 4 | Neither |
| 17 | RJD | Bihar | 4 | Neither |
| 18 | SAD | Punjab | 4 | NDA |
| 19 | J&K National Conference | J&K | 3 | Neither |
| 20 | JDS | Karnataka | 3 | Neither |
| 21 | Forward Bloc | 2 | Neither | |
| 22 | JMM | Jharkhand | 2 | Neither |
| 23 | Muslim League Kerala Committee | Kerala | 2 | Neither |
| 24 | RSP | 2 | Neither | |
| 25 | TRS | Andhra Pradesh | 2 | Neither |
| 26 | AIMIM | 1 | Neither | |
| 27 | AGP | Assam | 1 | Neither |
| 28 | Assam UDF | Assam | 1 | Neither |
| 29 | Bodoland People’s Front | WB | 1 | Neither |
| 30 | Bahujan Vikas Aaghadi | 1 | Neither | |
| 31 | Kerala Congress (Mani) | Kerala | 1 | Neither |
| 32 | MDMK | TN | 1 | Neither |
| 33 | Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) | Haryana | 1 | Neither |
| 34 | VCK | TN | 1 | Neither |
| 35 | Swabhimani Paksha | 1 | Neither | |
| 36 | NCPagaland People’s Front | Nagaland | 1 | Neither |
| Total | 541 |
UPA has about 255 MPs. However, some parties, potentially NCP, considering Sharad Pawar’s ambitions might be tempted to switch. The pillar of support to UPA comes from BSP, and the opposition will have to find a way to convince her to vote against, to ensure the government loses the trust vote. Mayawati can be a tricky customer, and UPA has kept her happy so far by systematically dropping corruption charges against her in various scams she is alleged to be involved in. A similar tit for tat, with additional sweeteners would most likely be required.
However cheesed off we might be at the Shiva Sena and MNS and the Thackereys in general for bullying the state and several eminent personalities, they are succeeding in scoring political points. Together, there is little doubt that MNS and Shiv Sena both live off controversies such as the ones created by their opposition to Pakistanis / Australians in IPL, or criticism of Mukesh Ambani, Shahrukh Khan etc. etc. for saying the obvious that Mumbai and Maharashtra are a part of India. Without these controversies, the political discussion in Maharashtra shifts to real issues like governance, development, law & order etc., a discussion that is neither very interesting to catch eyeballs consistently nor something that both parties have any major experience in, especially in the last 10 years or so. MNS is a new party, and being in the news either for right or wrong reasons is even more important for them. One more party in in the “marathi manoos” political space can only mean higher competitive intolerance as both parties try to raise as much hue and cry as possible to remain relevant. That Thackerey Sr. (what is his locus standi on the issue?) needs to be met by the BCCI President to convince him on not protesting the presence of Australian players in IPL is a pity – he and his band of followers should be be detained for threatening disruption of screenings / matches.
Release of a large no. of undertrials who have already spent significant amount of time in jails awaiting trial is a very welcome step. It is an irony that most people in our jails have not been convicted, but are awaiting trial (often for petty crimes). About 200,000 of 300,000 undertrials, many of whom have served more than 50% of the maximum jail term that could be awarded for the charges against them but are still waiting for their trial to begin are proposed to be freed. This will significantly reduce the burden on our jails, save taxpayer money without compromising our sense of justice. Undertrials awaiting justice for heinous crimes & crimes related to national security will not benefit, which again is a good thing.
Smaller states are better, but should we wait to find differences to create them? i have been saying for a while that there should be a formula to calculate the most efficient size of the state. State borders should ideally be straight lines – there is no need to create or encourage regional feelings by putting people with similar language, culture into one state and allow them to differentiate themselves against people from other states.
Let us have smaller states by all means, but we should not have smaller states based on regional and sub-regional feelings, but for purely administrative reasons. And in case we have states for purely administrative reasons, shouldn’t the borders (or which city falls in which state) matter at all? Or, would it matter if we had straight line borders like some states and even countries have?
Supreme Court earlier today suggested that prostitution be legalized as a way to better take care of the folks plying the trade and also to reduce its prevalence.
There are two other really good reasons.
The primary reason is that it is a victimless crime, and it should not be a crime to pay for sex, however hollow it may sound. It is someone’s personal decision to pay rather than woo, and in case there is another person who is willing to trade sex for money (there are all kinds of people in the world, and I dont see much wrong with people who might be willing to do that) it becomes a private contract between two people that the state has no business getting into. There is the cause of people who have been forced into prostitution, and legalizing it will actually help them get out of their tormentor’s clutches because they can approach police without the fear of being put into jail themselves.
The second reason is, as a large and flourishing business, it is a great source for service tax. When the central government admits it is not able to prevent it, for whatever flimsy reasons it may have to interfere in people’s lives, there is no reason why the government should not legalize it and get tax revenues from it. Legalizing prostitution and making condoms available at brothels is likely to promote safe sex, and thus reduce AIDS and other STDs that are completely avoidable.
People often confuse the morality and legality of prostitution with rape. Prostitution is a profession, even if it is not the most respectable one. Rape, on the other hand, is obviously forced (by definition) and needs to be met with the strictest punishment. There are people who have been forced into prostitution, but then there are cases of people who have been forced by others or circumstances into many other professions that are neither respectable, nor liked by the people in it.
The argument for prostitution (I have tried to be gender-neutral throughout) holds valid for women, men as well as transgenders who may be engaged in the profession. The argument holds true for heterosexual as well as homosexual prostitutes.
I hope our spineless government is soon forced by the courts to make prostitution. It will probably be the most progressive and empathetic step we would have taken for those in the trade.
The expulsion of Jaswant Singh, who was their Leader in Rajya Sabha, their External Affairs and their Finance Minister not before long for writing a book echoing views somewhat similar to what L K Advani said (who still remains a key figure in the BJP) a few years back is diabolical to say the least.
Does this mean RSS is getting back to pulling strings big time after Vajpayee and Advani (to a lesser extent) kept it at bay? Two consecutive defeats in national elections have left it confused, and a throwback to the “core ideology” shows the second generation leadership’s nervousness and clueless-ness in taking the party forward. Somewhat like Congress, BJP now seems to be dominated by people who are not necessarily popularly elected, or have eroding bases of popular support that are not likely to hold for long. The attempt to sideline Vasundhara Raje Scindia seems to have massively backfired after she proved conclusively that the majority of BJP MLAs in Rajasthan still supported her, and the expulsion of Jaswant Singh smacks of a cheap manoeuvre to show who is still in control before the December organizational elections in BJP.
Despite Kandahar, Jaswant Singh was one of the more respectable leaders in the BJP, someone that the English-speaking voters connected with for he was seemingly erudite and moderate. BJP has now lost that face and seems set for a turn to extreme right under the tutelage of RSS and a confused leadership.
