First Ball, and it's a huge Six!

The best way to describe today is a six hit on the first ball by the opening batsmen in a test match. This is what Narindra Modi did today. To precisely compare it with cricket, Modi Govt has 5 years like a test match has 5 days so in that regard, I guess today was the first ball. In a matter of few hours he took charge of his office and then had meetings with the Head of States of SAARC Nations and unexpectedly, there wasn't just a diplomatic protocol followed. He asked tough questions to Nawaz Sharif, PM of Pakistan about the 26/11 trial, infiltrators and cross border terrorism. Similarly tough questions were asked to others. Mauritian PM was questioned on the tax evasion policy followed by them making Mauritius a tax haven and Sri Lankan PM was asked not to treat fishermen (who cross international borders unintentionally) like infiltrators. Afghan PM has been in constant touch with India as the latter has invested heavily in that country and after the withdrawal of NATO forces, Afghan army and police will be trained by India, an exercise which has already begun. 

After the meetings with the Head of States, Modi chaired a cabinet committee which took the all important and very controversial decision on the formation of SIT for the probe of black money stashed abroad. This, however one may argue they had to do because the Supreme Court had directed the Government to form the same by the end of this month, but never the less, it was a welcome and an extremely important move. One cannot rule out that if UPA was in power, they would have come up with some lame excuse against it. 

The highlight of today was that on the first day of office and at 10 PM at night, 7-8 new ministers were on AAJ TAK debating their policies and plans for future. Never saw this in last 10 years at least. Never expected to see it. Hardly saw ministers coming on debates except for just a few faces. Probably they had nothing to say and show of their performances. Just had and still have spokespersons like Sanjay Jha and Kesavan trying to defend UPA by shouting and bringing up 2002 riots. 

I got a message today about an article which I have posed above. It's quite appalling what is written in this article. 'UPPER CASTES RULE CABINET, BACKWARDS MOS'. Like the title suggests, it is trying to reflect on the clear demarcation of Cabinet, stating that MP's from upper castes were given Cabinet berths and MOS were given to backward castes. This is actually an extreme low point in journalism if people with the power of pen will try to divide even Cabinet on the basis of caste. Not long back we had Barkha Dutt asking every BJP politician about the lowest Muslim representation in Parliament this time and why all Muslim candidates from BJP lost. So how will Mr Modi win the trust of this community?  

I don't know if trust can be won by just giving speeches or saying sugary words. They can only be won by intent of good work followed by actions. 

Another big news for today is that Arvind Kejriwal has agreed to submit a bail bond to get out of Tihar Jail. Wondering what happened to his principles by just spending few days behind bars. So sad that he wouldn't be able to call himself a freedom fighter just as yet. My heart goes out to that fateful Valentines Day when he resigned as Delhi CM. If he had a time machine he would immediately go back and reverse his decision, but as of now, he's quite written off! 

Cabinet sworn in, expectations begin!

Modi cabinet has sworn in. Expectations from citizens and criticism from opponents will follow. Already seen opposition questioning his stance on dialogue building with Pakistan considering he was a fierce critique of 'talks cannot go with terror' philosophy. Of course, new to office he will try to get a dialogue with everyone India has an issue with before taking a tough or soft stand.I think it's a very good approach and his invite to all neighbours will only strengthen his position in South East Asia. This will give out a clear indication that he is open to talks till it's in the larger interest of mankind. 

We see a relatively leaner cabinet as of now with a probability of expansion in future. Great deal of responsibility on few individuals like Arun Jaitley, Ravi Shankar Prasad and others given more than one ministry. It is certain that it's on basis of capabilities and trust shown in few men. For me, it's exciting times ahead, to see how the PM will manage his resources and to what extent will indulge in important ministries himself. We already know that he's told the secretaries of 80 odd ministries to prepare a 20 mins presentation on their role, achievements, road blocks and plans for the future. As I'm writing this blog, NaMo has tweeted that he's reached Gujrat Bhawan from the swearing in and now will start meeting officials. Meeting officials at 11 at night?? That's unheard off! Specially in our country! He said as much that he'll work 24x7 for the nation but who expected this! This brings us to two points. First that he will in fact work round the clock and with him, will all others associated like ministers and bureaucrats. Second, he's very communicative. Now, that's news as well. Never earlier we had a head of state in India who was this communicative. It's almost like we all have an open channel to him and he's just an arm's distance away. We are used to have a massive bureaucracy between us and our leaders that it was unimaginable to get to them. Here it seems like he's around, how far is yet to be seen though. 

In my growing years and getting influenced by the politics I always had a thought that we should have a leader who is approachable, one who communicates his ideas, his work, his achievements, asks suggestions and take everyone along. Somewhere in 2006, PM Manmohan Singh gave a statement which came out in newspapers. He said that 'The drivers on road should be more careful while driving'. At that time, having no choice of communicating, I chose to write a letter to him stating that because he is not a very good orator, his personality is quite docile and he doesn't communicate with the people, his words won't make an impact on the public of this country.  Indians won't take you seriously because you lack charisma which is probably required to lead a nation like ours. I also suggested him to be more close to the countrymen by talking to them, coming out and give a speech in troubled times. Over the years we all realised, that would never happen. 

When MMS was declared the PM in 2004, my childhood memories of discussion in school bus came alive where someone told me that Nostradamus predicted a superpower which will rule the world and will have a leader with blue turban. Don't know how far thats true but I was excited to the core at MMS being the new PM. So it came as a big surprise to me when he was what he was in first few years. I got so concerned and upset that I decided to write that letter. No prizes for guessing that I was never replied. 

Today I wonder, how can somebody be so close to what I had thought our PM should be. According to me his time is for the country and periodically, the PM should come on national television and update us on his work and also give a social message with it. Now, imagine Narindra Modi saying on national television that the drivers on road should be more careful while driving and saying that the civic agencies should keep cities more clean. I'm sure this will have a different reaction to what it had when MMS said it. So just to prove that.. Do you remember him saying it?? I guess not.. You got your answer! 

So now our new PM has this, let's see what else he's got! 

With no assumption, more expectation and extreme optimism,  

Jai Hind! 

Arvind Kejriwal does it again!

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/arvind-kejriwal-in-tihar-jail-he-refused-to-give-bail-bond-in-defamation-case-528203

Arvind Keriwal never leaves an oppertunity to be amid controversy! He probably looks out for any reason. Today is no different. Just giving a background.. he was asked to furnish a bail bond for ₹10,000 in a defamation case filed by Nitin Gadkari, which he refused saying that it's against his principles. The Judge asked him that if he is an aam aadmi as claimed by him, why does he expects a differential treatment to which he replied that this treatment should be given to all as it's a fight against corruption. Subsequently he was sent in judicial custody. AAP leader Som Nath Bharti tweeting that he is the first victim of 'acche din'. 

This is probably the best bet for AAP to gain some lost ground and show the people of Delhi that he went to jail in his fight against corruption. He will project himself as a freedom fighter who fought against corruption and in the process went to jail. AAP supporters are also harassing the commuters near Tihar Jail causing 5-7 kms of traffic jams by protesting over there. No, protesting is not bad in democracy and that is not what I'm trying to suggest, but I'm just wondering that what are they protesting for? They are protesting against the administration for following the law and doing what is written in the law books. They are protesting in favour of their leader who had no business being here had he followed law and furnished a bond. 

Are AAP leaders trying to suggest that by not following the law and getting punished for that, bad days have come? 

These are just mind games which have been played in this country on the pretext of sacrifice. But I do think, today the generation is smart and understands this. The biggest example is the very fact that AAP was wiped out in Lok Sabha elections after AK quit in 49 days, killing a million expectations. 

It's really a surprise to me that Arvind Kejriwal thinks that this kind of stupidity would help his cause. I think this will really go against him as the public and  media are aware and will not fall for this futile and half-baked theatrics. 

God..  give him some sense! 

Bigger challenge for Narindra Modi – Re-Branding of Politicians

On 26^th May 2014 finally Narindra Modi will be sworn in as the 14^th Prime Minister of India. Undoubtedly, it was a fiercely fought campaign on the issue of corruption and development by BJP and on the issue of secularism by all other national and regional political parties.

So what is the biggest challenge for the new Prime Minister?

Of course the answer to this is jobs, revival of the economy, “secular” security, corruption free governance, stream lining of taxes and various other areas, but I do feel one of the biggest challenge for NaMo in particular is the Change of Perception of Politicians.

If you look at our history, it is laden with corruption and greedy approach for power. If we talk about the foundation of our country, the very basis of partition was for the attainment of the same objective. The early days of the country’s governance where Jawahar Lal Nehru was the head of the state for nearly 17 years and is still the longest serving Prime Minister, one may argue that it wasn’t totally in the right direction of development. There is no doubt that very good steps were taken like the focus on education which gave India some strong pillars to stand on, but there were also a lot of corrupt practices which were prevalent and leaders like Sardar Patel and Lal Bahadur Shastri were sidelined. After Nehru, Indira Gandhi also went on the same path of lust for power at any cost, which was evident by her enforcement of the Emergency in 1975. There were unconfirmed reports of a massive treasure found at Jaipur which never made as the property of Union of India but was taken away to Italy so it can be the First Family’s equity. It is well known that abundant amount of money is needed for keeping one self in power during the time of crisis.

After Indira Gandhi it was her son Rajiv Gandhi who had charges of corruption in the famous Bofors scandal. After he lost power, other leaders from various Janta Dals like V.P Singh and Chandra Shekhar weren’t saints either. In fact, Chandra Shekhar’s government was known as ‘cash and carry’ government because of unprecedented corruption knowing that he won’t last too long at the top.

In 1970’s, the politics of the country faced a new challenge, the introduction of criminals. They thought, if the politicians can come in power with the help of muscle, then why they can’t, and thus the “Goondaism” of politics started.

This glorious history of corruption in our country has always made us think of politics a synonym of corruption. People born in 1970-80’s must remember countless number of Hindi flicks made on the story of corrupt and criminal politicians and now a subject of this sought goes unnoticed because we are so abreast with the idea.

If we look at a really optimistic and to a lot of extent an unrealistic picture of a corruption free India from the very start, we would realize that we would have been in a great situation by right now. By no corruption I don’t really mean no corruption at all, I simply mean a controlled fanaticism for the lust of power. Small corruption or favors have and would exist forever. Here by corruption I mean

    a.     corruption of massive finances (like the 2G, CWG, Coal)

    b.     corruption of secularism (vote bank politics and minority appeasement)

    c.      corruption on terrorism (underlying interests of politician in terrorist activities) and

    d.     corruption on law and order (riots happening coz of favor to a particular section of society and supporting the criminals).

These are the types of corruption which has plagued our country since its inception. We have seen the country’s internal security and sovereignty being compromised for personal gains and ambitions. We did see in the past the apprehension from the central government to punish a terrorist fearing that they might lose votes of a particular community and more recently, anger from a state government at the idea of pushing out illegal immigrants.

This is a type of corruption which is much more dangerous than the financial one. A little of financial corruption may not affect too much but even a micron of others will hurt for decades and may end up in humongous loss and sufferance of life.

This is actually the first time in history that having such a diverse political scenario, population of the country has given a clear mandate to a person on the issue of development and laid faith in his hand for a corrupt free India in all regards. I say this as the first time because in 1984, Rajiv Gandhi had the sentimental votes going for him and before that we had an incommensurable politics. But like they say, with power comes great responsibility.

So now it’s time for Narindra Modi to prove his mettle and justify the immense trust showed in him by this country by doing what he is expected on the economy front, but for me, he has a bigger fight than this. He has to change the perception of the politicians in mind of the country men. He has the responsibility to Re-Brand them from brutal, heartless and callous to something more soft and responsible who cares for the country. That is exactly what he said in his ‘One India’ campaign.