Tuesday, January 3, 2012

International Diplomacy-A synonym of opportunism


I was reading an article on the Economist site:-

http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2011/12/nagorno-karabakh-and-kosovo

It just amplified what the world knows as opportunism and the diplomats as game theory. Every country’s relations with other nations are based on its beneficial agenda, and rest is hogwash. Leave aside rightness or morality of the issues; they are just worth pondering, not executing in reality.

So, I literally got crossed when India didn’t raise its voice in support of Pakistan against the NATO bombings. Come on, many soldiers were just slaughtered in the name of war against terrorism. If they would have been US Marines, then terrorism would have shown in heinous portrait. But here, there was no remorse, or at least, a decent acknowledgement of the mistake. All lost in the international chess-game contours. Pity the world.

All this coming from an Indian.

I contemplate then, what if I am in Foreign Consulate of India, and I do have authority to put forth the observations. Will I just circulate everything in the name of correctness, and not by weighing it against the historical dots or future leads? I think, I will have to toe the line. This is the way, how the world functions and has done so since its inception.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Corruption in India-Enough is Enough



India witnessed two things in the last two weeks which my generation would have only heard of. The first was Cricket World Cup win, which happened 28 years after the future-defining win of 1983. Then followed a Gandhian protest by Anna Hazare and co against the rampant corruption prevalent in India. People said it evoked memories of Jay Prakash Narain (JP) movement of mid-1970s. While the Cricket win was celebratory in nature for us, the agitation invigorating. It did help matters that both happened in succession, as the sense of pride associated with the World Cup win made people steeled and passionate to attack a bigger venom-the corruption in India.

Contexts aside, the reason people stood so massively against corruption is that this devil has confronted each one of us. We all know how things, especially governmental, don’t move if bribes and favours are not attached with them. From the top till the bottom-the phrase is apt for corruption in India. But while the trivial infringements at the lower levels, viz. electricity, phone, posts services etc are pardonable, if not justified, the diabolical scams at the top are nation’s soul devouring. And when the economy of the nation has moved forward vigorously in the last two decades, the scope of corruption too has. Sadly but unsurprisingly, most of these have cropped up at the top levels of politicians and bureaucracy only.

The nation’s empowered mindset though couldn’t take things lying down this time around. Anna Hazare’ call seeped through each one of us. Never mind the fact that what Anna is asking is actually unconventional and a bit, unconstitutional too. Laws are to be made by Legislatures and executed by Governments in this country. Civil societies are only to advise, scrutinize and criticize. But what makes this case acceptable, even if exceptional, is due to the sheer apathy shown by successive governments against the anti-corruption agenda.

Soon after Independence, Corruption had set in Indian functioning. Santhanam Committee (1962-94) did a thorough analysis of this disease, and on its prescription, Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) was set up in 1964. To corner the problem even more, the First Administrative Reforms Commission (1966-69) recommended the formation of Lok Pal at the Centre and Lokayukta at the States. At their widest definition, these bodies would have prosecution powers against the guilty politicians and bureaucrats, including the PM. But political fear and disinterest never made these recommendations into realities. Since 1968, Lok Pal bill has been introduced in the Parliament eight times, but no Govt has shown the urge to get it passed. Some states have created the office of Lokayukta, but it is significantly reduced in its power.

Thus, the lack of ombudsman has proved to be a festering ground for the unscrupulous officials. India's anti-corruption law, Prevention Against Corruption Act, 1988 is hideously weak, and doesn’t conform to the guidelines of UN Convention against Corruption, which India indeed signed with much fanfare and promise to implement it. A sense of propriety, if not accosted by legality, can’t be attached to any Government functioning. However the investigative agencies might pursue the corruption cases of Commonwealth Games, 2G Spectrum, Adarsh Society etc, the guilty persons will go scot-free, because there is nothing concrete in law framework to implicate them. The teeth are missing, they say. The teeth will indeed be missing, if the face is missing. To create this face, we need this Jan Lokpal Bill which has a wider mandate and promises to provide that all-encompassing coverage, right from govt jobs admission, services delivery to complaints registration etc.

The nay-sayers might want to slay this proposal by questioning its unbound powers and doubting its efficacy: This Lok Pal will have more powers than even PM and President; if the Judiciary could not wipe out the corruption, how could it; this is a haste response to a complex problem. May be all these apprehensions are true. But we have erred enough on the side of caution; better err, if we indeed are, this time around, on the side of frantic but just action.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The Curious Case of China



The President of China, Hu Jintao’s visit to US has generated a lot of euphoria, some eddying on an impending US-Sino all-areas conflict, and some baulking at and pitying the meeting’s nothingness. It has indeed been a Chinese story in the world economy and polity, and now military also, for the last few years, and the world is struggling to evolve the right equation with China. What is common in all the rustle-bustle though is the general pre-conceived notion about China being the new naughty jingoistic nation aiming at world domination. Let’s see how?

Its political system of single-party rule is an aberration and affront to democracy, as it brooks no real representation of people through elections, and hence a genuine government. The ruling Communist Party, aided by its People’s Liberation Army (PLA), since 1949, has ruled with an iron hand suppressing every dissension. Tiananmen Square Tragedy (1989), when a group of protesters demanding more political say were murdered by the government, is a telling tale of its dictatorial dispensation.

China’s human rights records are appalling. If people show some political opinion, they are eliminated at the drop of a hat by implicating them in anti-national activities. Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize Winner of 2010, has been jailed for voicing his opinion against the Govt. Tibet has been brought under its forceful control, and the native Buddhist Tibetans continue to be abused under the authoritarian regime.

The world economic disorder is being arraigned on Chinese overt devaluation of its currency, Renminbi Yuan, which has lopsided the import-export balance of the world in its favour. Its huge holding of US Treasury bonds, its cheap-manufactured products of every conceivable ilk, its dumping strategy et al are an eyesore for the world.

China is expanding militarily faster than has been ever done by any nation. In its gall, it flaunted off J-20, the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft, just before the arrival of Defense Secretary of US, Robert Gates, for talks. Its plans are for induction of heavy new technology weapons into its military arsenal. It has started claiming areas ruled by other nations and got embroiled in disputes of military nature– Senkaku island with Japan, South China Sea with Philippines, Askai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh with India, Tibet with its natives.

China is not amiable to the idea of supporting global peace. It has no qualms against doing trade with the despotic regimes-Myanmar, Sudan, Niger etc. In fact, it has started investing in these countries to gorge and guzzle their raw resources, in turn endorsing and abetting these governments’ crimes.

With reference to India, nothing could be more betraying than the 1962 Indo-Chinese War when it flouted openly the Panchsheel Agreement, signed between Pandit Nehru and Zhou en Lai in 1954. It has illegally captured Askai Chin part of Indian Kashmir, and is putting its claim over Arunachal Pradesh of N-E India. To bruise more, it blindly supports Pakistan, India’s primary foe, over Kashmir.

The above list is only the preface. A book of tome quality can be easily written highlighting the various Chinese nefarious designs, as widely preached in print and electronic media alike.

As per me, all the above are true, but I can’t help feeling that history is being rewritten here. Also it is shortsighted. And in this Chinese bashing, no body can take the moral high-ground, as everyone wants to grind its own mill.

Doesn’t China have a right to follow its own political system? What was China before the Revolution of 1949? A puppet fiefdom of Western powers under the toady Chiang Kai Shek. Mao ZeDong policies were the response of the capitalistic play perpetrated on China for long. Read the Cutting of Chinese Melon theory. Mao’s policies (esp. The Great Leap (1956-59) and Cultural Revolution (1966-76) )didn’t alleviate the situation though. He put stringent political control over the nation, and the subsequent rulers too followed the suit. But China did release economic control in 1979, when Deng Xiaoping felt the need to do so. I hope or believe their rulers will realize they need to do something similar in their polity also.

Human rights violations are a universal crime, and like every defaulting country, China too should be lambasted, but not ostracized. I don’t agree with Chinese ultimatum given to several countries for skipping the 2010 Nobel Ceremony, but this incident shouldn’t be used to compare its govt. with the Nazi Regime highlighting a similar act done by Adolf Hitler when he barred Carl von Ossietzky from receiving the 1935 Awards. Such comparisons are hideous.

China’s military expansion is its right. US has got F-22s, supposedly the most advanced fighter aircrafts till now, but no hullabaloo was raised over their development. Are F-22s for peace and weapons developed by other nations only for war?

The world economic mess, in 2008, was created by the fall of the unscrupulous banks in US and various European nations, which had lost hold of both financial sagacity and morality in dishing out loans to sub-prime candidates. It is/was capitalism at its monstrous worst. The intentional currency devaluation by China is not financially prudent, for it will generate inflation, low-purchasing power, low productivity in the country in the long run. It is adopting this approach though to boost its exports and garner substantial positive trade balance. But are the Western powers responding to it positively? What about the US Federal Reserve’s decision to buy back bonds worth $600 billion in order to push the dollar down, despite knowing that dollar’s artificial fall in this way will cascade deep changes in the financial market worldwide? This aside, nothing could be more laughable than the US Treasury Secretary, Mr Timothy Geithner’s imploring in the recently held G-20 conference at Seoul, for all the countries to keep their trade surpluses within 5% of their total trade. Seriously, would US have done that, if switched places?

With respect to India’s, my own country, relations with China, I can only say that the pictures being portrayed by media and governments on both the sides are so hazy that it is impossible to gauge what is right. The 1962 Indo-Chinese War was a bad defeat for India, and a treachery by Chinese on the popularized Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai (India and China are brothers) slogan so enthusiastically brandished earlier. I abide by it, but invoking this time and again in every dealing with China is not going to solve the problem. Boundary disputes are never one-sided affair. If the Indians realize that current Arunachal Pradesh was never an Indian territory and was only a British annexation to expand the empire’s limit to the Tibetan borders, and if the Chinese realize that a legal Treaty was signed between British and Tibetan Govt in 1914 giving veracity to the boundary, then a lot of reconciliation can take place. One can’t go back to history to rewrite today, otherwise Adam and Eve would come back from heavens to lay claim on the Earth.

What I want to drive home is that this game of buck-stopping being played right now is both disgusting and defeating. As I said earlier that history is being repeated and it smacks me of the farce that was played during late1930s by the European countries towards Germany, which neither corralled nor cornered Germany.

If the countries seriously want to reign in suspected Chinese diabolical intentions, they need to get their own actions right first. They need to respect China as what it is, and not try to foist on it their ideas which themselves are warped and wrapped with importune leeching intentions. I am not a Chinese supporter, and I would like to see China being taken to task, if it ever dares cross the line of nationalistic autonomy. But till that time, I would also like to see other nations, including India, to treat stones as fire-lighters and scimitars as weapons, and not the other way around.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

What is it in a democracy?



Democracy is what India thrives on, political analysts say. It has not escaped the attention of its citizens, so it remains the most flaunted off thing. The world’s largest democracy, a glue of different cultures, religions and regions of India, an answer to the doomsayers of the world et al. You pick any book on Indian political discourse, and you will see this point grinded to smidges.

Democracy-the rule of the people, by the people and for the people, Abraham Lincoln had theorized. Its genesis is believed to be in ancient Greek, though different cultures, including India, mention it as their child. Such has become its lionization that it is now the universally accepted form of rule. In modern times, it got materialized after the American War of Independence (Philadelphia Conference-1787), though French Revolution (1789) ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity too leant a great deal of perfecting themes to it. Subsequently other nations adopted or are trying to adopt it.

But is democracy the be and end of all? If some one asks me, am I proud of Indian democracy, so vividly expressed in the last 63 years, then I would emphatically say, yes. But if someone asks again, am I proud of its achievements, then a firm no. I do question this in context with China. China has a single-party political rule, ridiculed worldwide as a dictatorial regime. It nevertheless has achieved stupendous results, esp. after the Deng Xiaoping economic liberalization (1979), and it continues to run faster than India. I wonder what rights Chinese citizens don’t enjoy which we do and by the dint of which, we consider ourselves superior? Do we really enjoy the so-advertised freedom of speech, liberty, choice and all the sundry rights? Haven’t we been mere pawns of the unscrupulous politicians all these years? What we want more- rights or development? These are some of the vexing questions which bother every citizen of every society/country. After some rumination, I come around my dubious sense, and realize that India still is a better model of polity, at least in theory, than China and hence preferable. It is just the malicious handling of the system, which has created such a mess, unlike in China, where the system brooks no sort of tolerance.

It is nevertheless a solacing view, and it has been never exhibited more vehemently than by the former US President, George W Bush. He wanted to convert the whole West Asian political regime, read Arabic, from the long-continuing monarchy/dictatorship into democracy. His country invaded Afghanistan, attacked Iraq, manipulated findings – all just in the belief that the new rule will ameliorate the situation. It is a decade now, but has the situation improved? I am not getting into any result analysis or debate, but just wondering.

Yesterday, after the so-named Jasmine Revolution, the 23-year dictatorship of Ben Ali, the President of Tunisia, came to an end, when he fled the country to Saudi Arabia. People are now baying for Hosni Mubarak, the President of Egypt. Jordan, Libya, Saudi Arabia etc all are on watch now. The Lebanese Government, Saad Hariri’s, has fallen recently, which itself came some time after the country's Cedar Revolution (2005). Mahmod Ahmedinejad crossed all limits in his attempt to get reelected in 2009 elections in Iran. The thesis is that politics in all these places is indeed very individual centric. There are problems galore there-unemployment, price rise, rising fundamentalism, Palestine issue etc. But is regime change the answer? What is the guarantee that Mr Ben Ali will be replaced by Mr Good Ali? Isn’t it change in society that is a first-needed thing?

I don’t know. History, esp of political revolutions, don’t substantiate this point to total acceptance either. But what I have come to accept increasingly is that any political system becomes good not by its ideals, but its handling. A monarchy run by an efficient king is much better than motley of jokers practicing democracy. So, this soul and body sacrificing search for democracy is futile. While Politics remains the most defining place for initiating change, the effort should also be to better people who themselves will come together to choose their best authority.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Hope of Obama



It is seriously out-of-moment to talk about Mr Barack Obama now, considering that he has foundered, in his plans and popularity alike, more rapidly and deeply that even his worst detractors could have hoped for. But I had always wanted and in fact, vowed, to start my political blog with his auspices, and that had happened no later than the time of his crowing of the US Presidency. Since then several momentous occasions have passed: Health Care Reforms, the Peace Nobel Prize win in Dec 2009, his India visit in Nov 2010 etc when I almost penned down the story of my fascination with him. Perhaps it is felicitous that I am writing it now when he has been projected more as a show-pony that a doer everywhere, more so in his own country, having been inflicted with a terrible drubbing of his Democratic Party in the 2010 US Congress elections.

Why would an Indian, living proverbially seven-seas away from US, be in awe of this man? Is it just the influence of the rhetorical aura that he has/had created, which has likewise encapsulated many of my ilk? May be, yes. But may be, it is just the right kind of talk induced epiphany that is needed in this world. Have no doubts, he is not one of those bourgeois gentlemen, who just had to decide when they wanted power. He is you and me, and every youth, milling on the road, traveling in a bus, working in a company … He is the quintessential man, who started believing in the ideals as his life unfolded, and wanted to make a mark in this world. Not to mention the prevalent odds, read racism, ostracism, oddities etc that he had to trump to move forward. A veritable course-book story of human spirits soaring above the impediments underneath to kiss the sky. But there are thousand such stories, aren’t they, in every walk of life? In fact, every successful person wears these kind of legends.

But what is more influencing is the arena in which he has entered to take on the long- colluded insanities of the world? He became the President of the United States, arguably the strongest person of the world; he chose to talk about Black Rights; he wanted to mend ways with Muslims; he prioritized on nuclear disarmament; he took care of poor peoples’ health rights; he focused on climate change arrest; he fancied universal brotherhood? Who the heck, in Politics, base themselves on these values? For some, it is War Against Evil, for some it is Expanded Nationalism or Economic Might. No one wants to believe that he is a human first.

The first place where values of life are needed is Politics itself, as it has the widest scope amongst all disciplines, to shape a country in particular, and world and society in general. And hell to those, who think that mere internal chicanery or parochial diplomacy can carry along the realpolitik. Whatever the failings in US right now, sluggish economic growth, high unemployment, high religious discontent, general despondency etc is not because of the steps taken by Mr Obama. The reasons are varied, as are their remedies. And he is trying to provide those remedies through just means. Maybe he is inexperienced, but he is earnest. But above all, he is hopeful.

I start this blog, not to gloss over the Indian and World Politics, but to mirror the mired unideal Politics that is followed in this world today, and to reason why it is so. Also to put forward why we, supporters of justice, must be cognizant of Politics around us. Let’s not let anyone take us for a ride. Believe we must in values in Politics and make them too.