Pensieve 2.0

What Sibal Doesn't Git: Wisdom of the Crowd

2011-12-06T23:55:00.001+05:30

So Kapil Sabil finally succeeded in nudging out Kolavari Di from Twitter trending topics ? Once more, one of the three musketeers of the Congress,the telecommunication minister, Kapil Sibal has raised shit-storm by asking Internet companies like Facebook,Google and others to impose censorship on Social Media to “take care of sensibilities of our people”. It is not just Kolavari Di, other important news item such as Anna Hazare and his team gearing up for fresh protests against the government on the Lokpal Bill, the FDI issue and other such issues of real significance have been put on back-burner as Sibal started the shit-storm by expressing desire to baby-sit more than 100 million Indian Internet users !

True, some content found on web are more than derogatory,they are vile and perverse but these people exist in physical world,amongst up. It is ironic that in the age of Social Web, on which online anonymity is on a rapid decline,replaced by physical world identity and existing laws viewed more than capable of dealing with these sociopaths, a democratic government should even be thinking of regulating content on web. It is not as if the governments are as helpless or even honest. One just needs to go through Google Transparency Report to get a glimpse of what exactly Kapil Sibal's guidelines for social media really means.

In 2009 Google launched Google Transparency Report publishing on the web statistics on the number of content removal requests and user data requests every country has made to it and how it has addressed them. It even offers raw data to let users make in-depth analysis. For example the chart below shows the number of times governments of different countries have requested Google for user data and/or removal and the number of times Google has complied. Interestingly India takes the second place!

Since India does have an IT law in place , one would expect the Courts to have asked the search giant for information during the course of a trial but a break-up of the report reveals that mere 6 requests have come from Court order, rest were executive orders out of which only 1 was related to national security while roughly 255 items were asked to be removed because of government criticism !

It is time, Kapil Sibal, the government and the political class understand that one of the reasons that the world wide web is ubiquitous in our lives today, is the fact that it is free from governmental control and censorship. Those in politics and/or in power, and many other believe that leadership and authority are indispensable for any and every group of individuals to exist, even if there is no physical interaction, crowd by itself cannot even sustain self. This remained the general belief even if the Delphi Method devised by Project RAND revealed that decisions taken by structured group of individuals are more likely to be correct than otherwise. However, success of world wide web changed the paradigm completely, It showed that far from falling apart, groups of people,collaborating over the Internet made a huge impact,.Linux was a shining example.

Wisdom of the Crowds and the concept of radical trust form an important part of the Web 2.0 meme. The Wikipedia is perhaps the best example of both; the wisdom of crowds and radical trust (I agree, politicians can never understand the latter concept :P ) Either ways, it is quite clear that it was users who made the web what it is today, government officials should have no jurisdiction over it, which means they may restrain people from indulging in certain behavior but they cannot impose or suggest rules to social networks without subverting our democratic foundation. There is no doubt that there are mischievous elements on web, propagating hatred,insulting individuals and communities (the category I call smut pirates) but if Mr Sibal were on web, he would have known how small the span of attention of a typical user is. If some people like to spend their time reviling a known personality,it is best to leave them alone, the web accommodates people from every segment, be it the Al-Qaida, Russian mafia, research scholars, blue-collar professionals , students and casual users without getting entangled in each others' worlds.

If Kapil Sibal has found something really unacceptable he can very well take legal action or use the same platform to discredit it but what he should understand is that the web is self-regulated, criticism of government is NOT against people's sensibilities.
(to be continued ,may be. As for now investigation the following phrases should keep you occupied ;)

"Ex Vulgus Scientia"

The Wisdom of Crowds

http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/governmentrequests/IN/?p=2011-06

http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/governmentrequests/map/

Lives And Legacies Of Steve Jobs And Dennis Ritchie

2011-10-19T16:27:00.004+05:30

The month of October 2011 has seen demise of two towering figures from the world of computers, tributes for one of them have been pouring down on the web almost infectiously while a very few people are aware of the death of the other person whose contributions has been incalculable . Of course, the first one is Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Inc and Pixar Animation Studios while the other is Dennis Ritchie who built Unix and C programming language. Together they represent the two ends of a spectrum- the digital and the physical world.

I must confess that I am not really sure why Steve Jobs' death turned into an Internet meme,his contributions to computing world or his life history. Jobs did have an interesting and eventful life. Born to a Syrian Muslim father who abandoned him, given up by mother for adoption,dropping out of college because his foster parents couldn't afford it, walking 7 miles for a full free meal at Hare Krishna Center, founding Apple and making it this big has all ingredients of a story of an individual's triumph over hardships that life offers. However, his single great achievement was his ability to marry artistic perfectionist in him with his entrepreneurship skill. Personally I find solace in the fact that despite his eccentricity,rule-breaking ways he could succeed to the level in a world that worships mediocrity.

However, I do resent the way most obituaries and tributes have portrayed Steve Jobs as a genius who changed the world. I have always followed the latin dictum De mortuis nihil nisi bonum (speak no ill of the dead), so I don't intend to criticize him but his fans seem to have gone overboard in singing paeans of praise. I am yet to be given information on how his work has made the world a better place. He was one of the best entrepreneur, a visionary and and a genius but he was also ruthless businessman interested only in profit. Nearly all his products are not meant for more than 90% of people worldwide because of the exorbitant price, and it wasn't his brain child either. Both Apple and Microsoft had borrowed the idea of mouse driven GUI from Xerox Parc and later fought with each other in the court on charges of stealing the design, followed by Xerox accusing Apple of the same.

So it was not Apple but IBM-Microsoft that took the PC to the masses, they weren't really doing anything different except going cheap and compromising on quality which Steve Jobs wouldn't allow, even if it was hardly affordable to common people across the world. Microsoft has often been criticized of commoditizing shared knowledge and monopolizing the market with it. Apple was a step ahead (or below) when it came to closing access to technology. A lot of people feel scandalized when I say I don't like Mac. There is no doubt that no other GUI comes anywhere close to the "look and feel" of a Mac but it also gave me the feeling of it being a highly interactive television rather than a computer which I can use in any manner that I want to. And its not just my discomfort,there is something unethical about making your users completely dependent on you. But those restrictions were nothing when compared to the restriction he imposed on iPod, iPhone and iPad and even on music industry through Apple DRM restrictions.

Richard M Stallman, GNU founder/guru, rather insensitively blogged

Steve Jobs, the pioneer of the computer as a jail made cool, designed to sever fools from their freedom, has died. [full post]

However insensitive the comment may be, Stallman's contribution to computing world has been greater as has been other Open Source stalwarts such as Linus Trovalds. Linux today finds use in a variety of devices, from communication satellites to $35 tablet yet I can't remember the last time Linus was in news. The web has become the indispensable communication,collaboration platform and a part of our lives ,yet I wonder how many people surfing web know the name, Sir Tim Berners-Lee who invented the World Wide Web. Where would Apple (OS built on Unix) or even Microsoft ( C programming) be if Dennis Ritchie did not create Unix and C programming language ? After his death Wired magazine did publish an obituary, Dennis Ritchie: The Shoulders Steve Jobs Stood On but even this was more of a lamentation on how supremely apathetic web users were towards the person who laid the foundation on which Steve Jobs and Bill Gates built their business empires. A very fitting (anonymous) tribute found on Web best draws the distinction.

  #include
  int main()
  {
  printf("goodbye, dad");
  return 0;
  }

What Apple (and Microsoft) fan boys and girls need to understand is that despite his creative genius his efforts were aimed only at making profit, not giving something to the world. What if Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Linus Trovalds , Dennis Ritchie, Larry Wall and a whole bunch of people like them had adopted Steve Jobs' attitude ? Similarly, in every walk of life, it is not the contributing individual who is given recognition but the already popular one. Isn't it ironic that in this post too, almost everything is about Steve Jobs ? I have made just passing references to Dennis Ritchie, Tim Berners-Lee, Richard M Stallman, Linus Trovalds, Ken Thompson and Larry Wall. !

Nearly all of them and more had far less eventful lives,their existence known only to those in the programming circles not the share-holders and neither mainstream journalists. I don't think they care much, they are too busy researching, innovating to take computing to the next level, until a lucky entrepreneur comes along. Products,however, advanced and sophisticated would with time and competition become obsolete, but technologies like Unix and C are the building blocks of the digital world and here to stay.

Facebook Profound Changes' Profound Implications

2011-10-01T05:17:00.000+05:30

For sometime now social media as well as traditional media sites have been buzzing with information on Facebook undergoing profound change. Lately, creating a media hype before release of a product (Google+) or a major Facebook upgrade (video chatting feature) has become an indispensible strategy but in this case I would wager that the change may really be profound. Facebook hasn't just changed the layout of the profile page, it has reinvented it too, incorporating various social web behaviour like listening to music or reading a book. The Gesture concept when properly applied may take us a whole level forward towards the Semantic Web. However,the idea of Facebook incorporating so much users data in their profiles is alarming , the privacy issue on Facebook gets more complicated and then there is the chance of Zuckerberg locking the users in.

Couple of weeks back Facebook redesigned the layout of the home page introducing replacing Newsfeed with Top News feature so that the updates that have been endorsed by other users became top news. However, the real-time feed wasn't eliminated but reduced to a ticker on the right hand side of the page. Now, Facebook takes one more step forward introducing a completely new Profile page with a Timeline, so that your life on web becomes an open book, with option to navigate through time and know what you were doing on a particular time. This feature could really help you separate signal from noise of your own updates! The feature has not been officially introduced but Facebook does let you enable it through Developer App. Here is mine.

Click for larger view

For me the most interesting addition is Facebook Gestures.

Facebook Like button may have become ubiquitous across the web but it is severely limiting when it comes to reflecting human expression,so Facebook would now,through Open Graph provide options to [verb] any [noun]. This implies that developers can make button out of every verb and create object out of noun. For instance, while creating the app to enable my Timeline, the verb I created was Read and the object was Book. As you can see in the screenshot there is an Aggregation option which allows the developer to aggregate the number of times the action has been applied on the object, This can help online businesses immensely.

Additionally, it also seems to be a step towards something bearing semblance to Semantic Web concept. In any other context, this would have sounded immature but with 800 million users spending a lot of time logged in, this feature may, through crowdsourcing, at least generate a repository of semantically link verbs and nouns. So it is now quite obvious that Facebook may undergo profound change but what remains to be seen is how much the web would change from the impact.

The biggest hurdle Facebook now faces is not from competitors like Google+ but from its own dedicated users. Zuckerberg is quite aware that users don't like changes and they don't take it lightly either, every time Facebook has made changes, the user response has varied from passive resentment to outright hostility but the protesters haven't quit the platform. However, no other social network has implemented such profound changes, so may be the reaction would be different. It is a fact that the way Facebook is developing and taking over our social behaviour, if we are not careful we are sharing on the platform, few years from now, we may find parts of our lives locked in

The 23-Year Old Visionary :Bhagat Singh

2011-09-27T20:48:00.000+05:30

Born 28th September 1907

Despite a recent surge in popularity triggered partly by Bollywood movies,Shaheed Bhagat Singh continues to be ignored, misunderstood, misrepresented by the vast majority. The very first thing that comes to our mind when we hear the name is that of a young revolutionary who fearlessly and happily faced the gallows for the sake of the nation. But then, he was accompanied by his friends,fellow-revolutionaries, Sukhdev and Rajguru,who were executed along with him for the same offence. In fact, the list of his co-martyrs would include Chandrasekhar Azad, Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqullah Khan and many more, why does Bhagat Singh's name stand out from the rest ?

Of course,one of the reasons for both is that Bhagat Singh was seen as an adversary of Mahatma Gandhi in terms of public support. Although Gandhi respected the patriotic spirits of the revolutionaries,he openly criticised their violent ways. Bhagat Singh's differences with Gandhi was not only on the question of whether violence should be used in national struggle for independence but also on much larger issues such as inclusion of peasants and labourers. According to Bhagat Singh, Gandhian struggle focused on seeking concessions from the British rulers instead of seeking independence and transforming the society as a whole. He disliked the idea of replacing white-skinned rulers with brown-skinned rulers without changing the discriminatory system.

Bhagat Singh was not just a revolutionary, he was a philosopher,writer and a brilliant strategist, he understood the power of idea and the importance of taking information to the people long before Julian Assange was born.Although he believed in armed struggle against the British, his acts of violence were seldom retributive only,they also served the purpose of amplifying his views. Even at the age of 23 his political philosophy was mature enough to counter that of Gandhi's and in some instances much ahead of his time. However, lack of established organization such as that of Congress prevented his views to reach the masses but ironically they did influence even Congress members. Here was a man who did not just issue statements but lived up to them even if it required immense sacrifice.

Bhagat Singh's words, "by crushing individuals they cannot kill ideas", which has seen much popularity recently, reflects the motivation behind much of his actions. The "assembly bombing" case in which Bhagat Singh and his comrade surrendered themselves was one such action where he sealed his own fate so that the idea may live and propagate. The public support for Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru was the catalyst that weakened the foundation of the British India. Some of his ideas were adopted by the Congress though it is still not acknowledged, it was only after Bhagat Singh's demand for complete independence that the Congress passed a resolution on it. Even Mahatma Gandhi's view of "ordered anarchy" being the ideal state reflects the profound influence Bhagat Singh's views and ideas may have had on the Congress. However, one of the 2 objectives of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, "social justice", remains unfulfilled.

The Wicked Wizard of Guj

2011-09-27T04:10:00.000+05:30

Activist Mallika Sarabhai arrested

Detention of Gujarati celebrity activist Mallika Sarabhai and other victims of the 2002 riots marching towards Gujarat University Convention Hall where the Chief Minister Narendra Modi is on fast as part of his Sadbhavna Mission reflects the irony of the situation. By situation I don't mean the three-day fast festival but the the nature of peace that Modi claims to have imposed in Gujarat last 10 years. Centuries back Roman legionaries annihilated entire nations to impose a state of relative calm called Pax Romana although Modi's approach bears more semblance with someone he already adores- Adolf Hitler.

Public fasts are undertaken as a means of protest and with a very clear objective (Anshans), fasting for self-purification or with religious intent (Upvas) are always personal and undertaken in the sanctity of one's home. Since Modi isn't fasting for either reason, it is clear that in the name of peace a lavish coronation ceremony is being held right under our noses, to catapult the regional satrap to the national political arena. Despite all my spite for him I must confess that I am hugely impressed by his leadership traits. Modi doesn't exactly have a clean image and it is not only the 2002 riots that sully his image,on the contrary,the enormity of the misdeed is such that it eclipses other issues from the media and the public's vision. There are so many of them that it is difficult to include them in a single sentence, so let's see, we are talking about BJP's future Prime Ministerial candidate :

who has been facing dissent within his own state unit of BJP all along.
who has been denied entry to USA and Europe (2010)
who has been accused of being involved in Haren Pandya's murder case which becomes more serious now that the High Court has acquitted 12 accused of killing the former Minister who did have major differences with Modi and had even testified before the tribunal indicting Modi's role in 2002 riots.
whose protégé and home minister Amit Shah has been indicted in the murder of Sohrabuddin and his wife and has since used the Gujarat Police as his personal army.
in whose administration at least four Senior IPS Officers have been arrested in the fake-encounter case which clearly points at Marble Mafia-Politicians-Police nexus
who has prosecuted every IPS Officer who has refused to toe the line,Officers such as Rajnish Rai Rahul Sharma,Sanjiv Bhatt, Kuldip Sharma are facing disciplinary action, ex-DGP RB Sreekumar has in an open letter to Modi accused him of punishing honest cops.
Sanjiv Bhatt's latest bombshell saying Sohrabuddin aide and police informer Tulsiram Prajapati who was also killed in a fake encounter was the actual killer of Haren Pandya opens up another can of worms,and Modi governments sudden desire of rapproachment with Rajnish Rai sounds conspicuous.
who supported and gained mileage from Anna Hazare's Jan Lokpal bill movement but was also issued notice by the High Court asking why he had not appointed a Lok Ayukta since 2003.And when the Governor appointed one, Modi reacted vociferously raising speculation if it had something to do with the charges of corruption levelled against him. (here are the details)

Gujarat 2002 Riot Victim Pleading

Can a person facing so many charges (excluding 2002 pogrom) qualify for the post of a Chief Minister even ? The answer would be a resounding no but not when the person in question is Narendra Modi. He is a political wizard of sorts who can convert adversity to opportunity and not miss a single opportunity to score more rhetorical points where an average politician would actually be on the defensive. This brings back to the question, what really was the objective of "Sadbhavna Mission". Was Modi just trying to get nationwide television coverage and showcase his popularity to justify his claim to national leadership ? Or was he also trying to put his past behind and reinventing himself as a moderate,almost secular leader ? I hope it was not the latter because it was a terrible idea. He may be a political wizard but he doesn't understand something very simple, the cultural fabric that holds Indian society together.

Muslim leaders with Modi - Sept2011

The presence of a sizeable group of Muslims in the hall during Modi's fast was meant to reflect his new image but it actually reflected the opposite. Since he has been accused of being hostile to Muslims, proactive support of some Muslim clerics should wash away the stain. The problem with this mindset is that it continues to reflect Jinnah's two-nation theory which has miserably failed. According to this mindset, there are two monolithic communities in India, the Hindus and the Muslims. Fanatics on both side may believe that the two communities are perpetually at war,but it is equally dangerous when fundamentalists notion of goodwill is sending friendly gestures to leaders and clerics of the "other" community. It is like a truce that two warring nation-states sign for a period of peace. In such a scenario the biggest victim is Indian nationalism because then it is replaced by Hindu nationalism and Muslim nationalism. But that is not what India is about, there have been clashes,massacres,bloodshed but the essence of the Indian culture continues to be its inclusiveness.

Till Death Do Us Part! Not Really!

Modi fails to comprehend that most of his fiercest critics are Hindus and the Sangh always had Muslim elements in their ranks. This lack of understanding led him to preside over one of the worst genocide to take place in India. When the coaches of the Sabarmati Express were set on fire,he held the entire Muslim community responsible and as a leader of the Hindus, he considered it justified that the Muslims should be taught a lesson,forgetting the fact that he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat and not of a particular group. Over the last few years many Muslims including Ex-VC Darul Uloom have spoken in favor of Modi, more than that Gujarati Muslims themselves have been praising Modi's administration but then why would a NDA ally party member criticize him ? There are no two nations at war, nearly all critics and activists are Hindus themselves,the protests and demand for justice for the victims are not being led by mullahs and moulvis (most of them were with Modi during the fast) but by members of the Indian Civil Society and intelligentsia. .

It is an ideological fight now, if Modi really wishes to go national, or try undoing some of the misdeeds he needs to question his own sense of nationalism. He needs to de-link 2002 pogrom from Godhra carnage,in both instances it was his job to provide security to people of his state regardless of religion,caste etc. He needs to apologize and rehabilitate the riot victims and separately apologize to the kins of those who perished in the fire that later engulfed Gujarat. And he must apologize to the people of India for tarnishing the image of our nation in the global arena.

Schmidt takes fall for Google's social shortcomings #in | Digital Media - CNET News [del.icio.us]

2011-09-13T09:29:43-07:00

A May 2011 interview,before Google+ was launched

Facebook + Twitter = Klout - Forbes #in [del.icio.us]

2011-09-12T15:53:54-07:00

If social web is to be your next battleground, it is only fair that your personal brand be measured and graded accordingly.

Quantum computer chips pass key milestones - physics-math - 01 September 2011 - New Scientist [del.icio.us]

2011-09-12T13:58:54-07:00

Moving beyond 0s and 1s ...........

Portrait Of An Internet Troll Or Is It Twroll ?

2011-09-12T20:19:00.000+05:30

Lately I have come across the word "troll" being used extensively on the Web and especially on Twitter and to be honest, every time I come across it there is a bit of resentment in me. Internet trolls are almost as ancient creatures as their folk-lore counterparts are supposed to be but the perhaps the former needs to be redefined. But then trolling was once considered an art (even if a dark art) which required some sort of skill but the latest breed of trolls on Twitter are more like sociopaths with 0 IQ.

Click on image to view in original size
(Source: http://getsatisfaction.com)

The first use of the word trolling, as a form of anti-social behaviour on the Internet, can be traced back to Usenet groups which were the only public forums for mature discussions ( Linux developers collaborated over Usenet ) but then trolling meant creating mischief by posting content that could derail the ongoing discussion. Often, the trolls had a clear agenda and posted provocative messages anonymously to groups being fully aware that the content was widely off the context. Interestingly, since there was complete anonymity on Usenet, victims of troll attacks could have easily ignored them, but these posts were at times intellectual challenges that tended to make the victim feel compelled to respond,leading to flame wars, with the .troll often taking on a group of posters rather than a particular user.

As it implies, at times a Usenet troll engaged with the victims on the same intellectual level as the victim and other participants. Sometimes I do think that Usenet trolls on Twitter could pass off as "Twitter celebrities" with the knowledge, dedication they exhibited. As a matter of fact, the analogy can be further extended to include any entity on the web or physical world, who tries to hijack constructive public discourse by introducing frivolous, unsubstantiated claims , spreading rumours and conspiracy theories. In recent we have seen such trolling behaviour in members of our political class, such as Dr. Subramaniam Swamy, Amar Singh, Manish Tiwari (he talks like a troll anyway :P) and others I need not name.

I digress,this post comes up in response to some of my Twitter friends ( @bdutt @joydas @desdemona14 @punditcomments @beeayenoowhy and @mryta ) with whom I have tried to discuss about trolling on Twitter. I prefer the word "twrolling" because the vandals on Twitter are by virtue of deed the opposite of Usenet trolls. The latter interrupt discussions, try to hijack or do some mischief that requires technical knowledge on the subject, Twitter twrolls just create false accounts and foul-mouth people they dislike and even make vulgar,sexist remarks and then delete the account or get suspended only to create yet another one and come back to commit more vandalism. Although,such elements were not found much on Usenet, I do remember of the use of the word "urchins" to describe the behaviour (I joined Usenet in around 1998,it was declining) but I can't find any records supporting it.

The resentment I mentioned in the opening block stems mainly from the fact that even if Usenet trolls were mischievous and even malicious, they still used coherent even if unreasonable arguments while committing their misdeeds and as a result they have contributed to the web but the Twitter twrolls are just malicious anti-social elements who do not contribute in any way. Perhaps, its time to work out a collaborative mechanism to stop these perverts.

Baand Remote: Next Gen Remote Control Is Here | Bit Rebels [del.icio.us]

2011-08-31T13:53:48-07:00

at the remote control could be anything other than just a p

Anna, Beware Of The Wolves In Sheep's Clothing

2011-08-16T16:21:00.073+05:30

What the fuck is going on in Delhi ? I am not known for proclivity towards profanity, in fact it is just the opposite. However, I can't find any "parliamentary" word to express for what is going on in Delhi now. It must require extraordinary mixture of stupidity and arrogance to respond in the manner the central government did by arresting Anna Hazare and his co-activists in Delhi. If this act itself wasn't outrageous enough,the administration sent him to Tihar Jail and put him in same ward with the person whom whole India at this point of time considers most corrupt. Perhaps the three musketeers of the central government, P Chidambram,Kapil Sibal and Salman Khurshid felt emboldened after the Ramdev fiasco but what they overlooked is the fact that Ramdev had followers while Anna Hazare has supporters.

However, the current atmosphere and the movement is different from that of April 2011. When Anna started fasting on 5th April demanding the legislation of Jan Lokpal bill it was the begining of revolution of sorts. Here was a relatively unknown septuagenarian, a Gandhian standing up against graft infesting every branch of the official machinery. It was a stand-off between the citizens and the entire political class,it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the entire nation stood behind Anna,something every government would be nervous of. But the grand old party of India would not have been able to rule the country for half a century if it weren't adept at manipulative politicking. It first sought to undermine Anna,discredit him employing expendables to attack and intellectuals to sow seed of discord in the civil society. But as more people joined, especially those with their own agendas, the right wing in particular, it was like a fresh breath of life for the Congress led government.

Anna Hazare's initial demand was quite reasonable. Of course each and every demand Anna made and Jan Lokpal Bill in its current form is not acceptable to many, including yours truly but the unreasonable demand could have been seen as bargaining chip. (impeachment of Justice Sen and upcoming Judicial Accountability Bill are reaisons enough to keep higher judiciary out of the ambit of Lokpal) I had found Anna as worth supporting because he wasn't fighting for personal gain but for the general good and importantly, the team wasn't just passively asking for change, it also had the prescription in the form of the Jan Lokpall Bill. Although a joint committee,comprising members of the civil society and government representatives was formed to draft the bill, what the governement introduced to the Parliament as Lokpal Bill was not even close to what had been promised. In the meantime the government had bought the only thing that can be bought to kill a bill- Time. Ramdev fiasco did hurt India Against Corruption movement but the government burnt its hand too.

When Team Anna resumed protest after the betrayal, their fundamental civil rights were denied to them and the rest is history. This time too, Anna and his activists have maintained their reputation, but some people joining in the movement had their own agendas and even if they were show solidarity with the movement.

This is where things went wrong. a anti-corruption vs corrupt officials battle was turned into a Congress vs Anna Hazare battle. The moment RSS declared its support to the movement, the Internet was buzzing with right wing ranting in the garb of anti-corruption messages. These rants are not very difficult to identify, they bear common characteristics - highly emotive,low on substance if not entirely fictional, targeting person(s) rather than issues and allegations impossible to prove allegationse. Regardless of what the issue is, the first salvo would be fired at Nehru-Gandhi family and sometimes with bizarre and even highly insulting allegations. To their perverse self, the origin of every ill plaguing India can be traced back to 10 Janpath. Isn't it sick to relate Robert Wadhera to the current government's decisions ? (a viral video on Facebook) Doesn't the allegation of a buisnessman/son-in-law of UPA Chairperson dictating the government of India imply that our entire political class,including opposition is impotent ? And I don't have to even mention media and social media. Then again what kind of twisted minset would it require to forge a document to "prove" that senior leaders including the PM have huge amount of money stashed in Swiss banks !

If these nutters were just fishing in troubled water,one could ignore them but the problem here is that these propaganda are weakening the main cause, the fight against corruption! It is not fight against Congress or any one political party or person, it is a fight against a vice practised by anyone who is in power. I have no qualms in saying that the Congress is the most corrupt party but we must not forget that other parties are corrupt too and them extending support to Anna is political opportunism. Ironically, while the drafting committee was meeting and the BJP criticizing the government, the latest case of corruption came from a BJP-ruled Karnataka. It was also the first case which gave us insight into how Lokpal/Lok Ayukta could curb corruption when Justice Santosh Hegde indicted the Chief Minister of the state in mining scam. But did the Karnataka BJP stalwart accept the Lok Ayukta's judgment ? Not at all! It took a lot of laptop smashing, slapping and pursuation by the BJP's national level leaders,that Yedurappa agreed to step down,but not before he declared his successor's name publicly much to the displeasure of the senior BJP leaders.

Narendra Modi has been a vocal supporter of Anna Hazare but is it because he agrees with Jan Lokpal Bill ? All of us know how much respect Modi shows to extra-Constitutional bodies but what is more bizarre is the fact that two months after he had pledged support to Anna and the bill in April 2011, the High Court rebuked him for not having appointed Lok Ayukta since 2003 (Lok Ayukta was functional in Gujarat from 1985-2003). Further, the Jan Lokpal Bill calls for protection of whistleblowers but in the above case, the petition was filed by father of a slain RTI activist seeking information on politically connected mines mafia. As recent as 13th August 2011, Gujarat IPS Officer Rahul Sharma was charge-sheeted after submitting important call records related to Gujarat riots to Nanavati Commission. As a matter of fact, this comes days after another whistleblower Gujarat IPS Officer Sanjeev Bhatt was suspended. And it is not just whistleblowers alone, those who appreciated them had to face the brunt too as the dismissed head constable,Naresh Brahmbhatt learnt after backing Sanjeev Bhatt's claim

Now, am I doing the same as the Sangh activists ? Draw attention away from UPA's misdeeds by pointing towards BJP's ? I don't intend to do that because the latter is too weak to pose serious threat to the UPA despite the latter's outrageous conduct. As the Congress learnt during last two elections,if it can capture the votes from the rural India, it doesn't even need to compete with the BJP in the urban areas which incidentally also has the largest number of non-voters and fence-sitters. So, a campaign against Congress in particular would be ill-advised since it takes the focus off the real cause, the Jan Lokpal bill that the UPA is reluctant to pass would love nothing more than a political mud-wrestling. If we really wish a strong anti-corruption law in place and the movement under Anna to succeed, we must take care to avoid playing into the hands of political parties.

For more information visit

India Against Corruption Movement – Code Of Conduct

Facebook,Google Pwning The Web: Why You Should Care ?

2011-08-01T19:47:00.046+05:30

The current phone-hacking controversy is a reminder that in the age we live in information is power. Well, my emphasizing it doesn't make it a breaking news,this has been known throughout history which is why the flow of information has been controlled by the powerful (which also means that they powerful because they controlled information). The Internet brought with it new means of communication,World Wide Web made the flow of information to ordinary people easy but it is its evolution into a communication platform called Social Web that broke all barriers to the free flow of information. The investigation into phone-hacking controversy has revealed how much political power media moguls like Rupert Murdoch possess but Wikileaks and its fallout and social media showed the power of information in motion. From Arab Spring revolution to crisis management to raising quality of life, information systems have been playing key roles in our lives and society.

Impact of Wikileaks
A key characteristic of the Web and most of its services is that they are unplanned, serendipitous which in turn makes them popular as they are designed as per user demand, but Julian Assange probably knew what he was doing when he founded Wikileaks. The impact of Wikileak has been much greater than is visible because it is too subtle. Leaked embassy cables and other confidential correspondence documents presented to us,a picture of the world much different than we were accustomed to from traditional media. Interestingly, in the Arab world a lot of people already suspected the double-speak, corruption and despotism prevalent in ruling circles but Wikileaks making it public as well as global gave them the impetus to revolt and bring the despots down.

Role of Social Media
Social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook played very important role in the protests as most people active on Web are acutely aware of. Facebook provided an excellent platform for the protestors to organize against the brutal regimes more fearlessly. Twitter had already proved itself as a potent politcial tool during the "Twitter Revolution" in Moldova, for the Arab protestors it was the holy grail of communication and coordination. Videos of police brutality on civilians circulating through Youtube and the uncensored reports and opinions through blogs brought the reality to the fore. The fact that the protestors knew that the global community was aware as well as in solidairity with them, is what turned a spark to blazing fire,two powerful dictators were brought down within days.

The Battle For Social Web
If you are not living under a rock you might be aware of Google's new Social Web service Google+ which is doing pretty well in comparison to its previous two attempts. For little less than a decade, Google has been the most dominant player on Web but the threat it now faces from Facebook is a serious one, especially since it seeks to make Google's mostly-algorithmic base, redundant in comparison to its own people powered base.Google has hit back at Facebook with Google+, a service that resembles most Facebook core features and given the wide range of services it owns,it's cosiness with Twitter, and the fact that it already has a vast user-base in its search engine users and those using Gmail as primary mail account, Google has a fairly good chance of pwning Facebook.

The Ungoogly Alliance
However, Facebook is not alone, Microsoft seems to have thrown its lot behind Facebook by not only investing in Facebook but also collaborating with it through the newly acquired Skype to bring in-browser video chatting. Besides, Microsoft is also upbeat about the yet to be released features of its search engine, Bing which is already indexing Facebook 'likes'. Further, Microsoft's 2009 alliance Yahoo and its latest alliance with leading Chinese search engine Baidu reflects the animosity with which it is trying to eat into Google's user-base even if it means losing millions of dollars. An alliance as formidable as Facebook-Skype-Microsoft-Yahoo-Baidu may be capable of defeating Google even pwning it if Google wavers a little in maintaining lead in search industry. Corporate rivalries are not new,but they are now taking an ugly shape, Google is already sitting over loads of user data gathered through tracking visitors and websites, Facebook on the other hand has a treasure trove of social data, either of them getting pwned would mean the winner taking over the entire web. The battle between the companies has become so fierce that I am sorely tempted tempted to quote the tagline of the last Harry Potter flick - neither can live while the other survives. (Prof Trelawny's prophecy).

Why Should We Care ?
What should concern us more is not the economic fallout of such an event, the socio-political fallout could be unimaginable. Now while we gloat over the power of social media and the Internet's role in democratizing the world, we tend to overlook the fact that social web services are created and owned by companies and much open to abuse at various levels.We have discussed above on the power of information and the effect Web has over our social and political lives,any corporation that can control the flow of information would become a superpower in itself, perhaps the first non-territorial entity that could change governments, regulate market prices, dictate government policies and pretty much do everything it wants to. It is a bit hard to believe but we have too many evidences to ignore beginning with the fact the none of the companies have been politically neutral.

In the ongoing Arab Spring Revolution the social media companies are just not only passively assisting protesters through there web-based services,they have gone ahead and provided innovative means to help the protesters communicate after the government started blocking the conventional means of communication and later even the Internet. Of course, we applaud them for taking proactive steps to help liberate oppressed people break free from tyranny and transition towards a democratic society. However noble their intentions might be and more importantly, in complete harmony with our own ideology, the fact remains that the companies do take sides which also means that they can be willingly or unwilling be used as tools by the dominant powers as is likely to have happened during mass protests in Iran, against alleged electoral fraud (remember GW Bush's controversial electoral victory in 2000 ? ) Considering the support the regime still possessed,it could well have been a crowdsourced black operation.

It doesn't really matter if Google triumphs or Facebook,Microsoft and allies do,its the web users and common people who lose. May be not. If wisdom of crowd and democratization of information has enabled the masses to topple dictators without taking up arms, Murdoch's News of the World had to be shut down completely as the information proliferated through each and every nook and corner of developed world, a corporate superpower too can brought down using the same platform. If everything fails, there is still an option,the reset switch ;)

Reference:
Pwn : A Leetspeak slang used especially in online gaming environment to mean something more than defeating. It originated from a typographical error by a writer who intended to use the word "Own". Ironically, the word "Own" or "Owning" wasn't adequate enough to describe the act, which meant thoroughly destroying the opponent and take over everything. ( remember Carthage ? Tyre or recent Palestine?) as to make it seem that they didn't exist in the first place.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pwning

Originally composed on 6/15/11

Redemption For Your Digital Soul

2011-07-31T02:51:00.000+05:30

[Source: http://www.emailintervention.com/]

If you think lately Google has been straying from its motto " Don't be evil",you may be in a rude shock the next time you login to your Gmail account. Well, if you don't have Gmail account, do not despair, redemption is at hand. For the blessed few (roughly 200 million) of us, a brand new link sits next to our respective inboxes to let us participate in the campaign Email Intervention and go unto the heathen that their digital souls may be saved. Were it not July I would have been sure of it being a Fools Day joke but April is far,the web is changing rapidly.

Letting users invite their contacts to create their contacts has been one of the best features of most Google products starting with Gmail but Email Intervention reeks of arrogance and may be a hint of despair. The bold headlines calling you to take action and save your friends from outdated email is but a glimpse of the over-the-top advertisement. I am not a huge brand loyalist (except 2- Delphi and Twitter),I do want those of my friends not on Gmail to create an account on it so we may be able able to communicate more effectively and I did wan't to invite a few contacts but without ego-bashing them or otherwise insulting their intellect. But, I feared that carrying on an email intervention in this manner would make the recipients think that I making poor jokes or insulting them !

The basic problem with Email Intervention campaign is that they have taken it out of advertisement/promotion domain and tried to integrate with social causes, especially on the lines of Facebook causes apps. Even that would have been fine but for the content that greets you on the homepage. After you click on the "Start The Intervention" button,it loads a list of your contacts whose email addresses do not have @gmail.com. Something I noticed but can't say with certainty is that it seems to pull non-gmail addresses of people I know but don't remembered to ever have added to contacts. This can perhaps be explained in terms of those group mails I may have replied to but there is no reason to list corporate email addresses of people who have their gmail accounts with same username or bot accounts such as customercare@somedomain.com I wonder how much time would have taken to modify the algorithm to refine the list.

Once you have selected contacts you want to send invitation to, you are presented with three pre-composed messages whose content are supposed to reflect one of the following three sentiments you harbour when you find your contact is not on gmail.

Straightforward - A blunt message asking your contact to just switch over to Gmail
Concerned - As a superior being by virtue of being a Gmail user, it is your duty to undertake the G-man's burden and liberate the lesser mortals by enlightening them on the email nirvana that Gmail bestows.
Outraged -How embarrassed you are that someone you know is still not on Gmail and that its now or never. Pity there is no cyber equivalent to the medieval Inquisition :P

If there weren't text accrediting few folks from Gmail team, you would have been sure that that the content was created by a veteran far-right evangelist! Though the word "evangelism" in context of a brand,service or platform is popularly used in Internet culture it was never expected to be stretched to this extent. The fact is I did want to invite a few people but I was sure it wouldn't have gone well with them. It was down right insulting. Further,it was surprising why Google would launch such a campaign, its not a startup, its the biggest web-based company, where did the hint of insecurity and despair come from.

Until last week I was pretty sure that Gmail was the leading email service provider but it was surprising to find it in the third place behind Hotmail and Yahoo. At the same time, it has also locked its horn with Facebook for the lion's share of social web data. What do Facebook, Microsoft,Skype and Yahoo have in common ? All of them are opposed to Google's hegemony on web and unlike in it previous attempts, the search giant has let its search engine competency dependent on success of Google+.

Save Lokpal Bill: Petition T hrough Avaaz

2011-06-13T03:06:00.004+05:30

As most of you would be aware, the ensuing media circus has taken the focus off the developments in the Lokpal drafting committee, the government representatives are now unwilling to bring certain important posts under the purview of the Lokpal. At the same time it has also invited public input though it hasn't been advertised much. Avaaz.Org has started a campaign asking its mehembers to flood inbox of the members with petitions with strong messages to save the Lokpal bill. All you need to do is visit this site and send the petition, it also allows you to add your opinion and send it to government representatives of of Lokpal bill drafting committee and UPA chief Sonia Gandhi.

Following the petition I sent adding a few words of my own (italicized). If you share a similar sentiment please visit this URL and send the petition.

Dear Ministers of the Jan Lokpal Drafting Committee, Prime Minister Singh and Shrimati Sonia Gandhi,

We urge you to include the Prime Minister's office and sitting Members of Parliament under the purview of the bill. We ask you to empower the Lokpal to be able to investigate all civil servants and corrupt judges by filing FIRs. We ask that you strengthen the Lokpal by bringing under its ambit the Central Vigilance Commission and the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Of course, it is for the member of the Parliament to draft and pass a bill but we have waited 42 years for a strong anti-corruption legislation but none of the governments have delivered.On the contrary, cases of corruption, especially in the higher bureaucracy and ministries have not only increased exponentially, these robberies of public money has been carried out with impunity and arrogance that offends us.

As you would have definitely noticed,there is a trust-deficit between the government and the citizenry; between YOU- our representatives and US - whom you represent on the floor of the Parliament. It is unfortunate that in a vibrant democracy such as ours, we need an Ombudsman but the alarming level of corruption in various departments of the government and staggering amount of nation's wealth being siphoned away leaves us with no other recourse.

Individuals and political parties may have politicized the issue for their petty gains but the call for the bill has been made by the common people, it is the voice of the nation.We welcome the fact that the government paid heed to the mass movement against corruption and constituted the drafting committee. All of you gentlemen in the drafting committee possess clean image, we urge you to listen to the voice of the people and your own conscience.

This is your moment to make history. We urge you to save the Jan Lokpal.

Sincerely,
    Danish Ahmed
    India

Note: this message was sent as part of an Avaaz campaign. To respond, please email reply@avaaz.org.

Lokpal Bill And The Ramdev Factor

2011-06-05T01:49:00.118+05:30

If you like me are wondering what the f..arce is going on in the nation's capital at the moment,I urge you to wind your clock back to exactly two months back. A relatively unknown Gandhian Anna Hazare began his indefinite fast protests against corruption on this date which quickly spiraled into a movement supported by the entire citizenry. Within days the government was forced to accept the reasonable demand and constituted the Lokpal bill drafting committee with civil society representatives as members which was just the beginning of the process not the culmination. Now the government representatives are weakening the bill,insisting that the PM and judiciary be kept out of the purview of the law. The government has asked for public input but before the public were even aware of the development the Ramdev saga began and continues like a roller-coaster ride.

It is intriguing why Swami Ramdev chose to start his campaign at a time when the Lokpal bill drafting committee was deliberating on the scope of the bill's applicability ? Before bending to the will of the people, Congress leaders had questioned if there was unanimity on who the representatives of the civil society were, it was Swami Ramdev's questioning of inclusion of Bhushan father-son duo, thus legitimizing the Congress leaders' contention. But what is more confounding is Swami Ramdev's decision to go on an indefinite fast. Such a step is usually accompanied with an immediate demand,when Bhagat Singh and his comrades commenced fast-unto-death,their demand was better living conditions inside the prison at least at par with facilities that British prisoners availed and according to international law. Gandhi undertook fast-unto-death demanding an end to the communal violence in Calcutta. Before Anna Hazare commenced his hunger-strike he had already made public the Jan Lok Pal bill which he wanted to be tabled in the Parliament. In all instances, the demands were something that could be immediately met with. What was Swami Ramdev's immediate demands ?

It is really strange that not many people, not even from the media are asking this important question. Of course, people rallying around Anna Hazare were his supporters but in case of Ramdev a lot of them can be called followers, not much bothered with what the demands were. However, there are some demands it seems but none that weren't in process or could be immediately met or just unacceptable. In fact, the demand for death sentence for corruption suggests that perhaps Swami Ramdev did not want to be taken seriously enough. The government's response to Ramdev's campaign further complicates the scenario.

When Anna started the campaign the government was simply unwilling to engage him until it was forced to but in case of Ramdev, the government rolled out a red carpet, sending four union ministers to receive him.The Prime Minister himself issued an appeal asking Ramdev to refrain and the senior-most Congressman, Pranab Mukherjee called on him thus shifting the focus on Swami Ramdev and away from the drafting committee meetings. The same day Kapil Sibal received Swami Ramdev shifting the focus of the media away from the drafting committee, here is what Sibal had to say-

"We are concerned that there should be no obstruction in dialogue and consultations, There should be no media blitzkrieg to divert the issue"

And while the government was going all out to woo the yoga guru, at least one senior Congress leader remarked on national television that the Congress was not afraid of Ramdev or it would have arrested him. He did not say why then, four union ministers went receive him and why the ministers were negotiating with Ramdev as he was speaking. It now seems the government had cut a deal with Ramdev and now accuses the latter of breaking it, but if the whole deal now is essentially about openness and transparency why didn't the government itself make it public then ? Was Ramdev being used to create,in Kapil Sibal's words, a media blitzkrieg to divert the issue ?

If the grand old party of India was using Ramdev as a piece in its grand game, why did it then stab him in the back ? While Swami Ramdev is not known to subscribe to the Sangh's exclusivist ideology (might hurt his sales), the Saffron Brigade saw in him an opportunity to attack the government, for the numerous financial scams which occurred under its watch and was mostly perpetrated by its own ministers, but which the Sangh had been unable to capitalize on because of its own handicap. As RSS,VHP supporters began to flow in and there was an apprehension this might become uncontrollable, it was the Congress's turn to shoot itself in the leg.

Update:
The midnight crackdown by police on Swami Ramdev and his followers defies logic and has rightly been condemned by all parties not part of the UPA and by the civil society as a whole.Lathicharge and using teargas on peaceful demonstrators including women,elderly persons and children is not only against democratic principles but is also violation of human rights. Ironically, it had almost discredited Ramdev by making his letter public which implied that the Swami had made a secret deal with the government but the crackdown has turned him into a hero.

Unfortunately for the citizens now that the BJP has joined the fray, the Lokpal bill faces the fate of being buried under political rhetoric as the monsoon session of the Parliament comes to an end on June 30.

Here is one of the things you can do:
Send a message through Avaaz

Osama Was Actually Killed in Egypt!

2011-05-08T00:54:00.003+05:30

Osama Bin Laden was killed in Egypt. Does that sound familiar even if you haven't come across this assertion before ? With the number of conspiracy theories floating over the Internet and the global and local media, it is becoming difficult to remember what the different theories espouse. Of course,refusal to present any pictorial evidence and incomplete,sketchy and contradictory statements coming out of the White House created a fertile ground for the breeding of numerous theories, ranging from divergent view from the official stand to bizarre conclusions drawn by self-delusional wannabe-somebody nutters. It makes me wonder if the differing accounts released by the White House was a result of demand of information by public being much greater than the rate at which the officials could corroborate and analyze reports coming in, the main news having been broken on Twitter and gone viral. Or was it a deliberate attempt to fragment public opinion, especially of the Al-Qaeda sympathizers, probably preempt a backlash ?

Since Al-Qaeda released a statement acknowledging the death of its leader , there have been small scale protests in various parts of the Muslim world but no backlash as such except the threat by Al-Qaeda. Significantly, early survey revealed 66% of Pakistanis believed that the whole thing was an eyewash and Osama had not been killed, their views may have changed after Al-Qaeda statement but the fact remains that an equal number of people, especially but not exclusively Muslims, have never believed that Osama Bin Laden was linked to the 9/11 terror attacks. From a non-partisan point of view, there is really no evidence to link them. Conspiracy theorists question why Osama was not captured if he was unarmed, why did they want to silence him ? The answer is, if he were arrested and given a fair trial, there was hardly any credible evidence that the prosecutors could have placed. They never wanted to take him in alive, Glenn Beck should at least know that!

This does not mean he was innocent at all, we Indians have experiences of similar situations. We know Dawood Ibrahim's group was responsible for serial blasts in Mumbai in 1993, we know Azhar Masood was responsible for the attack on Indian Parliament and Hafeez Saeed, the leader behind the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. In fact,on a slightly different line we also know that the current Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi was responsible for Muslim genocide in 2001 and Congress leaders such as Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler behind the massacre of Sikhs in Delhi in 1984. In none of these "known" cases, there are incontrovertible evidence again the accused, mostly because they are so high up in hierarchy that the trail goes cold at a certain level. But they are the leaders of the groups that have carried out such heinous acts. They are not leaders because they are the best in preparing explosives or carrying out stealth operations but because they are the ideological heads and espouse the causes that their foot soldiers carry out.

In case of Osama, even if we are unwilling to buy the official 9/11 story, we cannot deny that Osama founded the Al-Qaeda, as a militant group to attack the US, Western countries and even Muslim countries that did not follow a particular and a radical school of Islamic doctrine. In fact,his vision was something like Talibanizing the entire world. Such a world would have no place for many of his sympathizers, Shias, Sufis (majority population of Pakistan), and other non-Salafis in general and every clean-shaven Muslim in particular. Ironically, many of these sympathizers are aware of all of these but refuse to believe that Osama and Al-Qaeda carried out the 9/11 carnage. Why such child-like obstinacy ?

The only plausible answer seems to be the fact that they strongly disagree with Al-Qaeda's method but saw in Osama the only rallying point against the US and the West. But then are the Arabs in particular so opposed to the West ? The ongoing Jasmine Revolution,also called Arab Spring, is being conducted on the same principles and values the West swears by. In fact the Arab protestors have asked for support from the West in the ongoing revolution and the latter have responded favorably. Then why is the anti-American sentiment so high in the region ? The answer is pretty simple. For more than half-a-century, almost all Arab countries have been ruled by ruthless despots who deny their citizens even the basic civil rights, yet they remain in power undeterred as long as they satisfy the demand of their Western masters. Resentment against these rulers converted into resentment against the West and the US which is rightfully seen as the party responsible for their current plight.

Globalization and information revolution has flattened the world, anti-American sentiment hasn't vanished from the Arab streets but the angst is now directed at their own autocratic rulers. While Osama was hiding we-know-where, the Arabs found an unlikely hero in a poor Tunisian hawker Mohammed Bouazizi. Humiliated, deprived of his only means of livelihood, Bouazizi did not strap an explosive vest and blow up himself and everyone else in the headquarter, he did something more courageous by setting himself on fire as his oppressors watched. He died 10 days later but the flame had already spread across the Arab world forcing Tunisian President Ben Ali to flee the country and bring down the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Success in Libya and other states remains limited but such a huge transformation should not be expected to be over in a fortnight. And it is not just the Arab autocrats, extremists groups like Al-Qaeda too have lost relevance.What Osama with his private army, his billions,his oratory skill, his past CIA training and present rogue state support, could not do in a decade,Bouazizi did in 10 days, bringing down 2 of the most powerful dictators of the region. Now, more Arabs move towards democracy and transparency the greater would be their opposition towards Islamist terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda.
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We may not be able to write off the Al-Qaeda yet, but we can definitely delink them from Arab angst. Al-Qaeda-Taliban operating out of Pakistan is very different from Arab-based terrorists groups, mostly because in case of the former, too many factors are involved including duplicity on part of all actors involved. It is no more an ideology-based warfare and scope is getting more and more localized and need I say petty. The Navy SEALs may have gunned down the fugitive called Osama Bin Laden but the icon on whose commands scores of youths would blow themselves up killing innocent civilians, the leader of the globally dispersed Islamist terrorists, the most wanted terrorist in the world was defeated in Tunisia and decimated at the Tahrir Square in Cairo.

Digressive Rhetoric Dominating Public Discourse In India

2011-04-23T18:09:00.012+05:30

Public discourse is essential for the functioning of a progressive democratic society but sometimes too much of it can be counter-productive especially in a society such as ours where politics dominates every sphere of our lives. For a long time public discussion was compered by print media journalists, radio hosts and electronic media,which took and transformed most somber debates to desi tamashas. Social media revolution has had a very different impact,while it has thrown numerous thought-leaders who would otherwise have passed away in obscurity or limited success,social media has also brought in partisans,radicals and mischief-makers. I refuse to call them "trolls" which was originally used for Usenet users with single-point agenda,but even they were far more knowledgeable than some of the current twitter celebs :p (note to self: post a short entry to elucidate the point).Anyway, blaming a horde of hare-brained web users can hardly be blamed for hijacking public discussions on national television shows. The fault must lie with the greater part of the debating public.

As things stand now, public discussion are becoming intensely personal and reactive. The definition of the term reactive here has less to do with Newton's action-reaction law and more to do with the childish behavior of passing the buck to other children. Of course,children just pass the blame to prove innocence,adults don't even do that prove ourselves innocent,adults simply point to similar and bigger offenses of adversaries. The debates become competitive sport of sorts in which the players score browny points not by proving their own honesty but by the dishonesty of the adversary. So it longer surprises us that whenever the issue of Gujarat 2002 Muslim genocide is raised, the massacre of Sikhs in Delhi in 1984 invariably finds mention in the refutation. On this context, the two state orchestrated killing of innocent people have been so hyphenated that I think if go into a tunnel and yell "Gujarat 2002", my own echo would reply with Delhi 1984!

If the BJP charges the Congress over the string of scams , it never fails to remind the BJP that it too has a vulnerable spot in the form of Karnataka Chief Minister. However, the grand old party has touched a new low by getting embroiled in the controversy surrounding a video clip which allegedly implies that the co-chairperson of the newly formed Lokpal bill draft committee, Shashi Bhushan may have been involved in a ploy to bribe a Supreme Court Judge. It doesn't require much intellect to surmise that true or false the allegation itself was made not with the intention of detecting wrongdoing but as a ploy to derail or at least throw a spanner into the Anna Hazare led anti-corruption movement across India.

If it is saddening that even the ruling party indulged in digressive rhetoric and preferred to hurl allegation of corruption in response to public's call for measures to check corruption, it is outright tragic that the media and the debating public lapped it up. The other day when Barkha Dutt asked if the civil society representatives on Lokpal Bill Drafting Committee would step down the same way that a few ministers have done recently, she was over-generalizing separate issues. Swami Agnivesh's response to the question was even more generalized, which was bit of a shock for me considering the fact that he has been one of the very few genuine social activists in the country. Swami Agnivesh by taking personal potshots at Barkha took the same line of argument that those he is fighting against take as a diversionary tactic. Cases of central government ministers siphoning of billions of rupees from the public money, a dubious allegation against a noted anti-corruption activist and current co-chairperson of an Lokpal bill drafting committee and a news reporter accused of acting as a conduit between two parties during the pre-formation stage of a coalition government for, are three entirely different cases, how can they be treated in the same manner ?

Imagine the judiciary taking a similar approach. How easy the work of judges would be if it was all about generalization and categorization of cases based on allegations, instead of adjudging every case on their own merits! Heck, we could also do away with at least half of the judges and install software systems in their places. All the algorithm would have to do is compare values and categorize them. Adjudication was never an issue, the rich and the powerful often manage to get themselves acquitted and freed of charges if they don't delay the trial indefinitely when out on bail. So for the political class the judicial process is not as much a nightmare as is their being charged in the first place. However, that is not how thee judiciary works, so in the interest of justice, the media should refrain from over-generalization and not fall victim to the campaign of refuting charges by imposing more grievous charges on the adversaries.

The same applies to us too. While we are ever so eager to comment on most issues,are we really willing to spend time reflecting on those issues before taking stand on them.I am not so sure if it is our modern fast-paced life-style or an over-exposure to 24x7 news channels,the fact is we are becoming inimical to thinking for ourselves. I am not sure if its our shortening span of attention or shallow understanding, it is a fact that too many times we end up merely adding to the din. Public discourse of this nature is counter-productive, since the very objective of the debate is lost.

Politicians belonging to both the government and the opposition (and those in between such as Amar Singh,Mayawati) must be given some credit for being manipulative enough to invisibly control the content to an extent. So what we are served during the prime time are rhetorical games that do provide intellectual brownie points (emotive) from their supporters but are riddled with logical fallacies. From a less technical point of view these arguments invariable cancel each other out and the issue in question remains unanswered.

The most interesting part is that there often seems to be an unsaid agreement between those speaking for the government and those against it, to not go beyond a certain point. Public discourse's objective should be to apprise government of the general public's opinion not become a tool of the government or the opposition.May be this is the only lesson that the civil society can learn from politicians- unity !

Nuclear Dilemma

2011-04-21T18:51:00.001+05:30

This is in response to RT @PritishNandy: While nuclear power has become a no-no in most parts of the world, why are we persisting with Jaitapur?

After tweeting Mr. Nandy that I would blog on it, it struck me that I still don't have a clear opinion on the issue, just a bunch of arguments, facts and the compulsion of being politically correct and honest at the same time.:)
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So, about a week back I was in the no-no-nuclear camp,mostly because it was the most politically correct point of view, but lacked conviction. Just a couple of years back during the Indo-US nuclear deal, there were lots of voices commending the merits of clean nuclear energy, now just a few years later it can't have lost all of those! Of course the disaster in Japan was great and fear of nuclear reactor meltdown loomed large but is there an alternative, especially for us Indians ? What happened in Japan was freakish, only an earthquake of this magnitude could have caused this scale of damage to the reactor, and Japan is one of the very few countries where an earthquake of this magnitude could have occured, tsunami itself is a Japanese word. Somehow it seems freakish that all of these should have occurred naturally. Could a repetation of this occur in other parts of world ? The infographic that Guardian posted the world map displays seismic activities and nuclear installations around the world.

Here is an interactive Google Map displaying earthquake zones and nuclear plants across the world.

As is apparent from the map, India is not especially prone to earthquakes, Fukushima on the other hand sits right on top of the infamous "ring of fire ", zone with unusually high seismic activities.Rest of the nuclear plants in Japan,Koreas,China,Iran and even a few in the US are located in known earthquake zones too. Chances of a high magnitude earthquake or a tsunami hitting India's nuclear installation is quite bleak when compared to the plants of the above listed countries. But the threat may diminish,it doesn't disappear altogether so
question that still remains unanswered is, why the heck should we build nuclear plants in the first place knowing fully well the damage they can inflict if things go wrong. Frustratingly, the answer is the same we have heard all these years but may not have fully comprehended it- to avoid the impending energy crisis in the near future, in a magnitude that we cannot anticipate now.

A recent Op-Ed by former Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar's in the Times of India throws some important information to light. According to him, per capita consumption of electricity in India is half of the world average and a 14th of per capita consumption of developed countries. Going by the current paradigm of development,electricity would be the key factor in alleviating India's mammoth poverty stricken population. Even if we do not raise our per capita consumption but take electricity to all of our 1.6 billion compatriots, using thermal plants, our coal reserves would run out in 11 years. Our total hydro-potential can generate only 5% and solar can provide a mere 2%! Solar energy can be harvested more efficiently but the cost it would require now, would make it counter-productive.

At the same time, let us look at the risks we face in turning to nuclear energy. This whole debate has been triggered by the fear of meltdown of nuclear reactor in Fukushima. As of yet there have been no deaths directly related to nuclear radiation leaking from the reactor. Even the deaths of the workers of the facility have been attributed to the powerful earthquake and the accompanying tsunami that killed about 20,000 people besides them. Even in case of he worst nuclear disaster ever,Chernobyl, the number of fatalities is 47 and of the 4000 victims who developed cancer, 99% recovered from it.The same number of people, ie. 4000 die everyday all across the world because of indoor air pollution resulting from the use of solid fuels which the poorer sections use. Half of the victims are children.Going through the numbers reminds me of a Superman quote "Statistically speaking it's (air travel) still the safest way to travel" It is a fact that a lot of people tend to think that air crashes claim maximum lives among those lost while traveling. But the fact is, a lot more lives are lost in motor accidents. In a similar manner, we are so alarmed with a nuclear reactor accident that we forget that we are doing as much damage every day by polluting the environment and depriving future generations of their share of natural resources.

However, it cannot be denied that we are playing with fire but do we have a choice ? The first human who discovered how to create fire was also the first human to play with fire. Iron and fire are the means through which human civilization has progressed, cutting of trees is undoubtedly wrong but would our houses and furniture have existed without it ? Ever major technological breakthrough has come at a cost which nature has had to pay for. Installation of a nuclear plant does raise concern, it could be disastrous if things go as wrong as they did in Fukushima reactor but even in the current times a lot more Indians die every day because of their lack of accessibility to modern technological facilities.

PS: This post is focused on the perils vs advantages of nuclear installations and is not linked to Jaitapur protests. On the latter, my opinion is pretty bland, if the people if Jaitabur do not want the reactor built there, there is no reason for the government to build it there, just as was the case in Shingur, Niyamgiri or any other place.

From Rights of Man To Right Wing Sham

2011-04-18T05:34:00.015+05:30

French police have arrested two veiled women for violating the law banning wearing of burkha in public.

France is the latest to join the club of countries like Saudi Arabia,which believe that the state has the right to decide what its citizens should or should not wear. In recent years the whole of Europe is increasingly becoming an intolerant society,much like it was just few centuries back. However, this time its not the traditional Church that calls the shots, far-right intellectuals have taken over the role of medievel clergy. Ironically, it was the French Revolution that sent shock waves across the West, abolishing monarchies and autocracies and bringing in liberal democracies and rule of the people. It also liberated the State from the control of the Church and led to the adoption of secularism as a concept derived from the principle of individual liberty. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen drafted during the period was the precursor of the International Human Rights Law. This form of secularism has been followed so religiously in the later half of the century that it has become a religion by itself with its own set of presumptions and dogmas.Things now seems to have come to a full circle, like the mythical Ourobus that I so often allude to.

Now the cries emanating from France and echoing across the continent are not liberté, égalité,fraternité but something which goes against the very essence of individual liberty. As France's new legislation, banning wearing of burka, niqab in public place goes into force, it is both symptomatic as well as epidemic of xenophobia and intolerance sweeping across Europe. Netherlands,which recently asked immigrants to pass a difficult test on Dutch language and culture or face deportation, is now debating on a legislation to ban the burkha and niqab. Belgium already has a law banning garments that cover the face while town administrations in Italy have been fining veiled women on the local level. The respective governments of other European countries such as Denmark,Spain and Switzerland are already contemplating on bringing in similar legislation. Switzerland had a couple of years back displayed an unpredictably high level of Islamophobia in its citizenry during the Minaret Ban Controversy.

Those supporting the ban on facial veil have put on a number of argument none of which seems tenable. The argument that facial veil poses some kind of security threat may sound reasonable but only at the sound of it. Just how many major terrorist attacks across the world have involved burkha-clad operatives who escaped detection simply by wearing a burkha and carrying explosives inside ? As a matter of fact, the best disguise that the terrorists have used avoid to detection is by keeping an appearance that is indistinguishable from that of the common people. Let us not forget that the 9/11 hijackers were clean shaven, western educated youths and the explosives used in London bombing were kept in backpacks that students carry every day. Further, in cases of riots and robbery, rioters,robbers, burglars as a rule cover the face with masks,scarves or any piece of clothing. Burkha would be highly inconvenient a dress to wear when a great deal of agility and mobility is required.

Then, the people who put the second argument that the burkha and the niqab are symbols of enslavement of women need to get involved on personal levels rather than cracking the whip. Of course, there are sections of Muslim population where women are forced to wear by their menfolk in which case, any existing law against domestic violence can be applied by the authorities and against the errant husband,father or brother. However, that would constitute a small minority, most of the studies reveal that the majority of women wearing full face veil did so out of their own will and consider it as their inalienable right.

Why then would an enlightened society, enact such controversial laws which draw criticism from most humanitarian and human rights groups too ?
The answer lies in economics.
I was never good at economics, I still don't but I do understand that globalization, riding on the back of unimaginably fast communication technology has flattened the world. That and economic recession have weakened the level of control traditional nation-states had over their systems, leading to what John Robb calls hollow states where everyone is in competition with everyone else in the world. In a scenario as John paints in his blog or even one resembling it, populations of the Western nations are likely to be most hit. Citizens of welfare states, having developed a sense of entitlement on state provided facilities are unlikely to take it lying down, sharing it with immigrants only fuels resentment.

This is where the Right wing comes in, as did Hitler in war-ravaged Germany. It beats me why dimunitive, insecure men have been so successful in feeding on the people's discontent. Anyway, the current trend across Europe may be indicative of the economic factor more than the ideological differences.There is very little Sarkozy seeks to gain from banning the facial veil. Sure it will strengthen his position within his right wing constituency but I wonder how the fence-stitters would react after they realize the damage France's reputation has suffered.

Anna Wins The Battle,The War Begins

2011-04-10T01:38:00.039+05:30

So the government finally gives in to Anna Hazare & team's demand that the civil society representatives be included in drafting committee of the Lok Pal Bill. The battle of Jantar Mantar is won but the war of the Indian people against the menace of corruption is far from over. In fact,even this victory may not mean much if the guards are lowered prematurely. Not two days have passed and we can see questions raised on the representation of the civil society. There are clearly attempts at creating differences within the motley group of crusaders rallying around the Gandhian social activists.The biggest irony is that even though the timing may be conspicuous and reek of dubious intent,the questions raised are legitimate and are as a matter of fact, crucial to the future of the movement.

Demonstrations and protests against graft are nothing new in India,they are held almost every week by one political party or the other against the party in power,it doesn't really matter which political party is on which side. If Anna Hazare's protest movement spread like wild fire,it is mainly because he is a Gandhian social activist with no apparent personal interest nor ambition. But as his popularity and support base grows, political parties would try to take advantage of it in whatever manner they can. It is disappointing that many of the supporters of the movement including students of law and politics (as reported by the newspapers) have little idea on what the Lokpal is, what changes are being demanded, all that matters to them is that Anna Hazare comes across the self-less,principled leader of the masses who can lead them into a corruption free India. I doubt if that is what Anna really wants, his statements seem to deny it.

Although, in a timid minority, there are people, especially the Facebook generation who see the movement as something similar to the scene at Tahrir Square in Cairo . What they forget that the Jasmine Revolution is mass movement to bring down military dictatorships and monarchs and install a democratic polity in place. Post-revolution the objective of the Egyptians is to dismantle the entire political system and usher in a new era. India on the other hand is probably the most robust and dynamic democracies in the world, apart from being the largest one.We need to fine tune our system, remove clogs and grease it, not reinvent it. As such Indians face a much difficult task, and the youth in particular should be prepared for it. If at all we can learn anything from the Egyptian protesters, it is what Shaheed Bhagat Singh had said more than 80 years back, the cause is more important than the leaders (...you cannot kill an idea). The greatest advantage of the Egyptian protesters was that they were leaderless, the Mubarak government could not find a target,taking down which would have demoralized the protesters.

Thankfully, we in India don't have to think in terms of military science, but we do have to always remember the cause we are fighting for, every single day. People with vested interest in the existing culture of graft will make every effort to derail the movement, especially now that the leaders of this movement have been accepted as partners in draft committee. It might become easy for them to weaken the movement by various means, the way to prevent it would be to know what we are fighting for and not just under whose leadership we are fighting.

Here is a link to the

Jan Lokpal Bill by Public (English)

(via http://annahazare.org/)

In Jantar Mantar Sits The Fourth Estate

2011-04-07T22:47:00.024+05:30

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty
And 72-year old Gandhian Anna Hazare is the night watchman of India,having completed 3rd day of fast-unto-death demanding a new legislation to curb corruption which is assuming monsterous form. The support he has received from the people is tremendous, though I have come across skeptics speculating a hidden agenda of furthering any of the national political parties' interests. Since the BJP was leading a full-fledged attack on the UPA government for a string of corruption cases, Anna Hazare's people-powered movement can be seen by some cynical Congress supporters as adervtantly or inadvertently strengthening the BJP's campaign. Rightist hardliners on their part have been hinting if this is a Congress ploy to tone down the rage of the people by taking a hugely publicized corrective action.

Ok. Enough politics!

Jantr Mantar (WikiMedia Commons)

Anna Hazare is not targeting any specific instance of corruption case or any political party in particular, the demand that he and the people of India have been making is to put in place a mechanism to check graft. The fundamental disadvantage that we face in our fight against corruption is that the people who are assigned the responsibility and the power to curb are often the same people who themselves have been accused of committing similar crimes. In the Judiciary, it would be impossible to find a judge who has a criminal case pending against her/him. Yet, our governments find nothing wrong in appointing a Central Vigilance Commissioner who himself has been charged of corruption during his previous assignment. The sentence," person of impeccable reputation" may have very wide usage in legal parlance but I wonder if the use is even allowed in Legislature and the Executive.

The concept of Lok Pal has been derived from the Scandanavian office of ombudsman whose responsibility is to act as the intermediary between the people and the government, especially look into grievances involving corruption in government offices. The current bill pending in the Parliament cannot be called "Lok Pal" bill in the first place since it will not be able to register complaints from the general public, it can probe into only those complaints that have been forwarded by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha or by Rajya Sabha Chairman! Talking about the fox guarding the chicken coop;)

After the Karnataka drama, where an honest and upright Lok Ayukta Justice Santosh Hegde crusading against the loot of national wealth by the powerful mining lobby-Karnataka Government nexus, was forced to resign as he felt powerless and insulted, it is further insulting that the government should table even more toothless bill now. The same Justice Hegde was one of the experts of the India Against Corruptio n who have drafted an alternative version called Jan Lok Pal Bill which seeks to make the agency independent in the same way as the Supreme Court and the Election Commission are. Further, Anna Hazare has also demanded that the committee members include not just politicians and judges but also representatives of the civil society.

This last demand, that members of the panel include representives of the civil society does pose a technical difficulty. As the the Congress governments troubleshooters have been saying, our polity is based on West-Minister model and that there are no precedences of including unelected members into any such body. There is merit in the argument, no parliamentarian would on her own sweet will agree to it. True, the Right and the Left have extended support to Anna Hazare but if they really mean it or just going with the tide, is a question worth pondering. This is especially true for the BJP which just a year back not only undermined the power of but also made a mockery of the agency just a year back.

Without considerable public support, neither the Right, Left nor the Centre are likely to actually pass the bill or accept civil society,s representatives to it. We will digress here to reflect the origin of the terms, Left,Right and the Centre. They were first used during a Parliament session called by French Monarch Louis XVI in which the liberals sat on the left block of seats, while pro-Monarchists sat on the right side. Soon the terms became popular, Left with communism and Right with neo-conservatives. Centuries have passed and the occupants of these seats in the Legislature may fight amongst themselves but would still unite for causes like massive hike in salaries or preventing outsiders from sharing their responsibilities.

But then I am reminded of Burke's statement in English Parliament, "yonder sit the fourth estate." pointing to the gallery where the press crew were seated. Initially it was the journalists who were called the fourth estate but with the Internet and advancement of communication technology, the fourth estate now refers to the civil society as well as the media. Why can't then the members of the fourth estate, propose a legislation or become members of an agency, primarily established too protect the people from exploitation by politicians and government officials

Bleeding Blue Billions, Ain't Just Cricket

2011-04-05T17:13:00.038+05:30

Dhoni's sixer in the 49th over taking India to victory against the Sri Lankan team in the ICC World Cup 2011 was nothing short of a fairy tale ending to a grand epic. Lately, it seemed Providence did not intend to give India both the World Cup as well as Sachin Tendulkar at the same time. But then again, it wouldn't have been fair that the team for which the greatest cricketer ever played,never won a World Cup. So it was only fair that Sachin's captain and teammates win it for him, as they had promised to before the tournament began. And this is exactly how it happened. Sachin Tendulkar deserve a separate post, which lies in my drafts and which I will be posting soon,GOD-willing.

Team India's magnificent victory in the final demonstrate why cricket is a religion in India. Though moments of individual brilliance were strewn along the entire match, the final outcome was undoubtedly a well coordinated team effort. Team India truly reflects the multicultural triumph of the Indian State,most likely it is the only team, with players who come from so many linguistic and ethnic groups. Of course language is not at all a barrier now as it used be in the past (according to veteran experts) it still maintains the symbolic value.

Division on the lines of castes,classes,religions,languages,ethnicity run deep in the Indian society,but not enough to threaten national integrity. On the contrary,these differences only help color the rich tapestry that we call Indian culture. However, most of our political leaders, exploit these differences for petty political gains. There are volumes written/published on this topic, I will not add to it. Cricket has also served another purpose,eliminating the differences between India and Bharat, where the word Bharat is associated with the rural India. Most of India's new found wealth and opportunity are concentrated to prominent cities while the rural population,including those belonging to small towns live in a time warp if not in poverty. It is in cricket that players like Munaf Patel,coming from remote villages can still become far more popular and successful than their slightly less skilled urban counterparts may not be able to achieve despite being in advantageous position.

Further,it is not just success but also the character,aspiration and confidence that need to be compared and in this context Mahendra Singh Dhoni passes with flying colors. Dhoni is every bit what a columnist, whose name I regrettably forget :( , said, a strong headed,robust, mofussil man who makes his own way. Hailing from Ranchi, Jharkhand, MS Dhoni is a beacon of hope as well as representative of the rural and small town population.

Thus the Men In Blue in many ways represent our aspirations and our triumphs,sans the myriad obstacles every Indian faces in every day life. Hence, for decades now cricket has become one of those very few occasions when an average Indians get to set aside their petty differences, uniting to support under a single banner and asserting the national identity. In India, and after this World Cup victory, cricket has become a phenomenon much different from a religion, a phenomenon in itself

Mango Man elated from multiple scams.

2011-04-01T01:17:00.001+05:30

A new superhero is in town called the Mango Man but there is absolutely no threat to other comic superheroes and their franchises because Mango Man is neither attractive nor glamorous. More importantly, Mango Man is not always 'man' nor is it one physical entity. It is a class of people whom the ruling elite as well as the ruled elite call the common man or common people ( to avoid charge of gender discrimination). Of course it is a popular play on the Hindi words,'aam aadmi' but the usage here slightly of a different context. Almost every year, there is at least one reported incidence of poor tribal in Orissa dying after consuming mango kernel as a last attempt to ward of death from starvation. Now,starvation wouldn't be stalking just a few people and not their other family members which implies that they must have survived the poisonous meal. Therein lies the earliest signs of the superpower these people possess but this is not the only one. Often Mango Man can be found living in the midst of hazardous industrial wastes having been driven out of his natural habitat by the administration-corporate-

militant nexus lured by its rich mineral resources. Emmigrating to the nearest city,he settles in a derelicted site (called slum) which is subsequently demolished by municipal commissions,at the behest of powerful builders, to build a shopping malls,multiplexes at the site. Now he resides in the midst of toxic,industrial waste,generally dumped away in the suburbs. Of course, in comic books and Hollywood movies the neuro-chemical reaction might have given him one or more extraordinary abilities but in this case there is a greater probability of him developing a fatal disease and his children being born with physical or mental deformities.

The superpower of the Mango Man lies in his resilience and imperviousness to exploitation and tormentation at the hands of the priveleged few. Highly placed sources say Mango Man is elated over the strings of scams,investigations and leaks. It is not the detection,investigation of the scams that lift his spirit but the fact that the Indian state has had that amount of wealth in the first place. Corruption,misappropriation of public fund have become an accepted norm but the amounts of money embezzled is what catches Mango Man's attention. According to him, the knowledge that the fund necessary to fight starvation and malnutrition as well as access to basic amenities,did exist even if stashed away in foreign banks is a comforting thought. "As of now,the popular opinion was that the Indian state lacked the resources to uplift the under-privileged within reasonable time-frame. However,these revelations have proved that wrong and it gives us immense pride to know that the money embezzled in a single scam were sufficient for eliminating poverty in a group of villages.

The fact the these huge amounts of money stashed away in overseas tax-havens instead of being circulated in the market is just unfortunate. But the Mango Man undestands that the irrational gluttony of the leaders is a natural trait of some individuals and is willing to go the extra mile to help the next generations of gluttons. After all, he may not get a square meal a day,healthcare,education, electricity or any other basic ammenities but as an Indian his chest does puff in pride to see names Indian businessmen in Forbes list of the richest people in the world.

Remembering Bhagat Singh

2011-03-23T04:24:00.003+05:30

80 years back on this very day, a 23 year old Indian along with two of his closest comrades was executed in Lahore Jail but the echo of his war cry "Inquilab Zindabad" ( Long Live Revolution) was being heard all over India. His name was Bhagat Singh and his companions, Sukhdev and Rajguru, none of whom need introductions, their martyrdom has immortalized them in the collective memory of the Indian nation. It wouldn't be very wrong to say that they have been deified, every year, on their martyrdom anniversary we remember them,garland their photos, sing paeans of praise and then forget them until the next year. Now, there are people who revere Shaheed Bhagat Singh and remember him almost every day but how many of us have the courage to even voice his opinions, leave alone adopting his ideology.

What depresses me further is the fact that I have come across instances in which the martyr's name has been used for objectives which stand in complete contradiction with his own ideology and principles. Overwhelming evidences indicate that Bhagat Singh was an athiest, one of his last literary works, which he wrote in jail, bears the title "Why I am an Atheist", yet his garlanded photograph can be found in many political conclaves, along with Mahatma Gandhi, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and Nehru/Savarkar/Ambedkar (depending on the party in question) looking over the rabble as presiding deities. A few times I have come across rallies of right-wing parties with posters of Bhagat Singh and Netaji included among other icons.
Yet another disgusting trend I come across about half -dozen times a year,is a sudden wave of tweets, Facebook status, emails and messages with the content implying the then date as Shaheed Bhagat Singh's martyrdom anniversary and asking recipients to forward it further. The last time I observed this was on 14th February, Valentine's Day. It is apparent that some culture vultures frustrated by failure in sabotaging V-Day celebrations would have surmised that it would be smart of them to use Shaheed Bhagat Singh's iconic stature to wean away people from vulgar,alien cultural festival. I find this trick very perverse. Bhagat Singh, sacrificed his life for the nation but his concept of nationhood, comprised primarily of its inhabitants and especially the poor. He had made his view abundantly clear that transfer of power from British government to its Indian counter-part would only be the beginning, to gain real independence, we would need to build the nation. It still stands true, our nation building task is far from complete.

Before signing off I should that since the entire West-Asia is going through a revolutionary phase it would be a great tragedy if Arab revolutionaries haven't come across Shaheed Bhagat Singh's thoughts and writings.

Post-Egypt: Hezbollah Throws The Ball To Israel's Court

2011-02-17T04:56:00.008+05:30

As the Arab states face popular unrest, Hezbollah chief has asked his militants to be prepared to invade northern Israel if a war breaks out. Clearly, the Lebanon-based guerrilla group is trying to take advantage of the situation in West Asia, but it could also be a sign of extremists in the region feeling threatened by secular democracy activists undermining the role they have held for decades.

"Chaos and confusion in the streets of the Middle-East is what would follow if any of the incumbent regimes of the Arab states were overthrown in a mass uprising". This is what most "middle-east experts and observers" had been warning since decades and especially in the last decade. Ironically, after the Egyptian #Jan25 revolution, it is these experts and diplomats who seem to be panicking now. So I wouldn't hazard a guess on which direction Arab politics would head once the dust has settled down in Tahrir. And of course, the ramifications are going to be huge and far reaching. However,t it wouldn't be difficult to realize that certain entities do face huge threat after the recent turn of events, Israel being the crucial and most visible one.

If Israel feels threatened after losing its key ally in the region, its other allies such as the kings of Saudi Arab and Jordan may not only be at grave risk of being overthrown, but can also be seen as rulers who can longer avoid the demands of the people which undoubtedly runs contrary to Israel's policies.But we shouldn't forget there are other parties too who might feel threatened even if they are on the same side. Islamist militants have been fighting these very regimes and their supporters (read US) since nearly a century now, yet is was largely the secular class that toppled the last Pharaoh of Egypt.

The political maturity,civility and tolerance displayed by Egyptians during the Nile Revolution was exemplary. The self-restrain, and adherence to non-violence displayed even on the face of attack by government sponsored goons, would have made Mahatma Gandhi smile. Despite the Muslim Brotherhood being the largest opposition party in Egypt, the movement was absolutely secular in nature, with Muslim Brotherhood towing the line set by the secular middle class. It would be pertinent here to mention that the Brotherhood did not join the protest initially but was later forced by its younger,moderate leaders to jump in the fray. May be it is too early to say, but Hezbollah's warning could be a sign that Islamist militants are getting apprehensive of losing their standing and political clout in the Arab world.In repressive regimes where dissent is met with execution, the disaffected people are more likely to support or join militant groups as there is no alternative mechanism of expressing dissent or even demanding basic rights and justice. As the secular democratic movement strengthens, the clout of militants is likely to decrease, which may not be acceptable to the latter. As they try to keep themselves relevant, there is a likelihood that they would raise tension in the region by covert or overt means.

Strangely enough, the key to West-Asia's future lies more with Israel than any other entity. With Iran's getting increasingly closer to possessing nuclear weapon,Hezbollah winning the election in Lebanon and the current unrest in its Arab neighborhood, Israel's security seems to be seriously under threat. What could further tilt the balance in its foes favor is the fact that Hezbollah in particular has the psychological advantage since in the last Israel- Hezbollah contest, the former withdrew without achieving its objective, making the Hezb chief a hero in the Arab streets. In the recent 11th Annual Herzliya Conference on Israel's National Security Jewish leaders seemed reasonably concerned in the Post-Egypt political situation.

It says volumes about the perceptions of the dangerous changes in the region when the easiest foreign policy win is now perceived to be a peace deal with the Palestinians. To be sure, those who advocated for negotiations to begin immediately had different takes on the difficulties of achieving a final agreement, but all speakers, from Israel and abroad, implored Israel's current leaders to make that deal. This new conventional wisdom, post Egypt, is that peace with the Palestinians is the only way to prevent a return to Israel being surrounded by enemies,.... [ Huffington Post ]

In the din of the Egyptian uprising, Al-Jazeera's publishing of Palestinian Papers has not gotten the attention it deserves but it could be back in spotlight,as would Wikileaks disclosures, when the focus shifts to Israel. The leaked documents, in the words of President Shimon Peres, "as proof of how willing the Palestinians are, essentially destroying the oft repeated claim or, according to some, excuse, that Israel does not have a viable peace partner."
[ Huffington Post ]

As I said in the beginning, it would be unwise to try predicting how the situation in the West Asia would unfold but there is a probability of secular-minded democracy activists being able to tame the radical militant groups to some extent but apart from the US, how Israel reacts to developments would determine the future of the region.

Jan25: Egypt's Date With History

2011-02-05T01:39:00.129+05:30

Source: Guardian

In the streets of Cairo, proof that Bush was right. Not me, this is what a former Bush adviser had to say in a Washington Post column. I found in this column many proofs- proof that GWB is not a rare case, even his security advisers suffer from the same syndrome and proof that Mubarak is wrong when he says that Obama doesn't understand Egyptian culture. I am sure that Bush had no clue on what he was talking about when he stated that the peoples of the West-Asia deserve freedom, dignity and the right to chose their own rulers. If it all the statement signified something, it was the fact that as of then the American establishment had believed that the Arab states were not ready for democratic culture which was essentially a Western doctrine. It was a mantra that his predecessors had repeated while propping up and supporting autocratic regimes in the West-Asia.

It is insulting and downright racist to presuppose that some people are less qualified and less deserving than others in the context of individual liberty and democracy. These are rights that every human is born with, the state doesn't grant it, it only lessens curtailment of those rights for collective good. So the observation that if a single Arab state were to become democratic, it would quickly spread to neighboring states, is actually the concern Bush's predecessors dealt with. Most likely, Bush mixed up this falling dominoes theory with what his own advisers might have fed him, that a war on Iraq under the pretext of getting rid of a despot might be more salable to the global public. After all, he is notorious for making these kinds of misspeaks. Democratic movements can never be bombed into existence, they should grow organically from within. The only effect of Bush's disastrous policy came in the form of the people in the region uniting in opposition to the US intervention and since most autocratic regimes are clients of the USA, anti-Americanism automatically translated to opposition against these regimes.

The hawks in Washington were very wary about any mass movement in the Arab world but Obama comes across a much pragmatic and intelligent leader. According to a WikiLeaks release, the US was already backing protest leaders in Egypt since last few years. Most likely, he anticipated the current situation and wanted to have an ally in place in case of a sudden change of guard. Initially, his as well as the British response was unexpectedly in favor of the protesters and not in favor of the most important ally of the US in the West-Asia. It was Israel-Saudi alliance (with the possible backing of Jordan,UAE,Yemen) that came to Mubarak's rescue. Leading Israeli newspapers called Obama's support to protesters as back-stabbing Israel and Saudi monarch tried undermining the movement, saying it was being fermented by outsiders.

The reason that those opposed to Mubarak's ouster state is that the Islamists would seize power in the ensuing chaos that might accompany the transition from dictatorship to democracy. It is an opinion I held about Musharraf's Pakistan. After all Pakistan is the most radicalized society,its ruling elite was not only a key ally in the USA's war on terror,most of the human lives lost as collateral damage belonged to it too. With the anti-American sentiment so widespread in the state, there seemed a great probability that a free and fair election might provide the extremists with an opportunity to come to power. Yet, when the time came the people of Pakistan elected leaders who seem more (relatively) serious in combating extremism than Musharraf did.

Mubarak has been using the Muslim Brotherhood card to justify his lust for power over the Egyptian nation as do other autocrats in the West-Asia. Of course, it was the Anglo-American axis that first propped up these regimes and continues to support them on one pretext or the other. Ironically, many of the terrorist groups were founded by this axis as strategic assets during the Cold War, the Taliban and other foreign Mujahideen (including Osama Bin Laden) being the most popular and currently notorious ones. Conspiracy theories such as those alleging that terrorist groups work for US to provide the latter with an excuse to take control of regions rich with natural resources, no longer appear as weird though they still don't sound credible either.

The movements in Tunisia and Egypt have been remarkably peaceful, relentless and most importantly secular. In Egypt, when the pent up rage of a generation finally exploded into spontaneous protest across the nation, what the people demanded was their right to chose their rulers,and regain their dignity. The much feared Muslim Brotherhood initially did not even support the movement. It is quite understandable too. With their adherence to political Islam, they would naturally want to lead a revolution, an Islamic revolution, one can understand their reluctance at joining a movement of a motley crowd of students, professionals, traders; the poor, the middle class, the intellectuals. Ironically that comprised nearly the whole of the Egyptian population so the Brotherhood could not ignore it for long. But there are indications that in the process they themselves may have shed some of their extremism and also that there is a very little possibility of the Islamists can come to power in Egypt soon. Let us not forget that mandating the non-Islamist Nobel peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei to negotiate on behalf of the opposition is a very clear indication of the secular nature of the revolution. Of course, if the current regime with covert US support attempts to prop up the Muslim Brotherhood as an alternative to itself,things can change but the Egyptian people cannot be held responsible for it.

Whether the regime is overthrown immediately or not the movement has been successful and the flashpoint has been reached which will change the political dynamics of the entire West-Asia. The spark emanating from Tunisia has now transformed into a blazing fire that is all set to inter autocratic regimes in the Arab countries and North Africa. Yemen and Jordan are already facing unrest,demonstrations have also been planned in Morroco, all governments in the region have been quick to take steps towards reforms to preempt public uprisings. As of yet, the Western media has played a commendable role, supporting the protesters and apprising the world of the situation which definately has strengthened the movement. The leaders of the US and the West have been reasonable too in handling this situation but lately they have been reticent in their support for a democratic polity in Egypt. As I have mentioned earlier in this post,US reluctance to continue supporting pro-democracy supporters seems to be influenced by Israel-Arab concern on regional stability.

There is some truth in the concern but the greater truth is that the Mubarak regime did absolutely nothing to placate the protesters, on the contrary,it dug its own grave by attempting every possible and ruthless trick to quell peaceful demonstrations. How can the freedom loving American people whom Obama represents, possibly side with such an oppressive and ruthless regime ? Egyptian protesters are demanding democratic rights,the same rights on the pretext of which the US has in this very decade invaded two sovereign states. From a foreign policy perspective too, the US should avoid repeating the mistake it committed in Iran in 1959 by helping the Shah ruthlessly suppress people's movement. This only led to extremists capturing power in the revolution in 1979 and the nation has since remained perhaps the most vocal foe of the US.

The domino effect seems already to be in motion, Tunisia has already shown the Arab world that self-immolation is incomparably more effective than suicide-bombings, that random attack on innocents does immense damage to the cause while peaceful demonstrations with perseverance can bring down even the greatest of dictators. Anti-Americanism has been a major factor leading to the current situation but ironically it is not Americanism that the people despise but the support that America has along provided to regimes that deny them the same dignity that an American enjoys in her/his land. After all, more than one protester in Tahrir Square has said, they want to make Egypt "like America".

So how the peoples of West-Asia feel about the US in the future would depend on the decisions Obama takes now. If he sides with the people, the post-revolution governments in Egypt and the Arab world are likely to remain as friendly with the USA, and as a bonus it is likely to enjoy the goodwill of the people of the region as well,something the US has been losing massively in the last few decades. It is as much Obama's date with history as it for Egypt.

None Brutus, None

2010-12-26T03:48:00.002+05:30

Came across this interesting article in HT by @bdutt on some of the paradoxes of the Indian society. Initially I intended to drop a comment there but decided otherwise looking at the slugfest in progress. The derogatory comments actually vindicate the writer's opinion that public discourse in India is losing 'complexity of thought that is so crucial to an enlightened democracy.' The mood of the Indian public seems to oscillate between extremes- ecstatic self-celebration and masochistic self-criticism, hero-worshiping and witch-hunting, living in imagined past and fictional future. Its the typical herd behavior inherited from our primitive ancestors but with subtle differences, it is driven by pseudo-intellectualism and given direction by orators/street anchors with the maximum brownie points.

Anyone who has read Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is sure to reminiscence similar reactions Romans seem to portray, denouncing Caesar after Brutus' speech and baying for the latter's blood,eulogizing Caesar after Mark Anthony has delivered his. And then there is the scene where they lynch Cinna the poet solely because he shares the name with a conspirator. Its not just ancient Rome,in recent times, the American public has exhibited some of this traits while supporting GWB's self-destructive policies but then the intelligence of an average American is the subject matter of numerous jokes doing round the world. But there are hardly any other similarities between ancient Rome, present day USA and India except the facts that in all three establishment the citizens were prosperous and were empowered to think for themselves!

The prosperity part is not wholly true in case of India, which houses a third of the world's poor,living in sub-human conditions and oblivious of any "public discourse" as such but the reference here is to the new Indian middle-class, the well-fed upwardly mobile section immersed in consumer culture. The penetration and adoption of consumer culture among India's middle class is so thorough and complete that even newscasts today have become consumer products, devoid of any meaningful substance or message reflecting the social reality. The emergence of myriad 24-hours live new channels in English as well as vernacular languages and the nature and standard of their content clearly indicate that news reports are fast becoming consumer products rather than means of enlightening ordinary people in matters of governance and society.

In some ways, the lifestyle that accompanies the relative comfort of the consumer culture does not leave us with enough time or stamina necessary to nurture or even accept mature social and political thought which are not only relevant to the current state but also have long term implications. A typical urban professional hurrying to the office or returning late after a grueling day would not really like to analyze and form an opinion on a particular issue,she would rather buy a ready-made opinion,preferably small and emotive ( from news reporter,friend,coworker) much like buying canned food. .

The consequence is polarization and gross generalization of issues which the news agencies, especially news channels exploit rather than rectifying it are graver than it is popularly perceived. Of course, blaming the media for many, if not all social ills, has now become fashionable but the news agencies can always say that they deliver what their viewers/readers like, else their stories wouldn't sell. It is a vicious circle that needs to broken and its the media,which, as the face of the fourth estate must bear the responsibility. Mature discussion is the lifeblood of a civil society and vigilant citizens the guardians of democratic principles and practices; shallow opinions, self-righteous rage, extreme reactions indicate the intellectual bankruptcy, a large section of the educated population is heading towards.

Embassy Cables Reveal How Cold Start Doctrine Has Been Subverted

2010-12-07T20:46:00.003+05:30

US Embassy Cables, released by WikiLeaks, reveal how India's "Cold Start Doctrine" has been subverted by the Pakistani Army. Cold Start policy refers to a contingency plan drawn by the Indian Army to keep small,agile units ready to penetrate Pakistani territory and carry out swift retaliatory strikes (on terrorist training camps most likely) within 72 hours of a Pakistan-sponsored terrorist attack on India. The policy was introduced by the Vajpayee government after the Parliament attack and military stand-off between the two nuclear weapon yielding arch-rivals.

It seems elements within the Pakistani establishment took the plan and turned it on its head. If small,agile group carrying out a swift devastating attack was an important factor in Cold Start policy,the Mumbai terror attack seems to resemble it. Of course,the essence is lost, India intended to launch the strike in retaliation and the target wouldn't have been civilians. In fact that is the fundamental difference between a military operation and a terrorist attack.

Existence of India's Cold Start policy is what raised concerns of India attacking Pakistan among world leaders and the context on which US embassy in its cable, dubbed UK embassy's concern as over-reaction.But it was never clear if India would implement Cold Start as there were a number of ambiguity including the question whether a swift, targeted attack by Indian forces to punish Pakistan without destabilizing it would really prevent Pakistan from retaliating in the conventional way, keeping the nuclear option open. Besides, India also risked losing moral high ground in the eyes of the international community if it was seen as the one to initiate conflict.
However, all speculations were laid to rest after the Mumbai terror attack when the Government of India refrained from taking any such step. In fact, in the leaked cable, ambassador Tim Roemer provides some very interesting insights into the Cold Start Doctrine.

We think that the November 2008 Pakistan-linked terror attack in Mumbai and its immediate aftermath provide insight into Indian and Pakistani thinking on Cold Start. First, the GOI refrained from implementing Cold Start even after an attack as audacious and bloody as the Mumbai attack, which calls into serious question the GOI's willingness to actually adopt the Cold Start option.*

The definition of power does not lie in influencing behavior of other actors through the use of force,it lies in eliciting desired behavior by the mere threat of force. Cold Start Doctrine was conceived as a deterrence to dissuade Pakistani elements from launching terror attacks, India was displaying its power and willingness to punish such acts. However, it doesn't seem to have succeeded. The Mumbai terror attack clearly reveals that the Pakistanis elements are not at all deterred by the Cold Start strategy.

Second, the Pakistanis have known about Cold Start since 2004, but this knowledge does not seem to have prompted them to prevent terror attacks against India to extent such attacks could be controlled. This fact calls into question Cold Start's ability to deter Pakistani mischief inside India.*

This observation also removes any sort of ambiguity associated with Pakistani establishment's complicity in 26/11 terror attack. Further, Pakistan has not only been undeterred by Cold Start, the Pakistan Army has been using the existence of the Cold Start Doctrine as a bargaining chip with the US demanding more military assistance and aids in lieu of relocating resources from its Eastern borders to the Western front where it is battling the Taliban. It is yet another example of Pakistani Army's running-with-the-hare-and-hunting-with-the-hounds policy.

Even more so, it calls into question the degree of sincerity of fear over Cold Start as expressed by Pakistani military leaders to USG officials.*

If the strategy has been subverted by Pakistani Army, Indian government needs to look more seriously into its defense policies. As mentioned above and in the cable, the Cold Start Doctrine was formulated during the NDA government, after the change of guard in New Delhi the UPA government has not taken a stand on it, it has not officially embraced it but it has not abandoned it either. The government may have good reasons to pursue or not pursue a particular course of action, after all we are not privy to all state secrets,only those released by WikiLeaks! But now that the cat is out of the bag, the government should take a clear stand on defense strategies, especially, those announced during previous governments. In the ensuing confusion, the Pakistani Army remains the biggest beneficiary which is detrimental to the security of the entire region.

* http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/248971

Trial By Social Media

2010-12-01T01:26:00.154+05:30

Television Journalism is a funny business indeed, it pays even when you are being burnt at the stake. NDTV might have gained a record TRP tonight as Barkha Dutt hosted a debate on the Radia Tapes controversy in which she herself is at the center and which also explains why it has been dubbed/hashed #barkhagate!

Lately, I have been bit preoccupied to keep track of the latest buzz on the social web. But I must admit to having listened to the audio tapes on Youtube yet being the simpleton that I am, I couldn't see the connection of the conversation with the scam. I presumed there was more and I was simply unaware...may be I am still ignorant because I still don't see the connection. Of course, I don't mean to say that Barkha Dutt is absolutely innocent, but at the same time it would be wrong on my part to go on a condemnation spree simply because everyone else is. I do want to criticize and deride every person who is in that tape but I am also looking for a reason to fully justify it! Despite my best mental efforts I was unable to link these people with the current telecom scam and other cases of corruption.

However,the reaction of the people, mostly on the Internet, had me wondering. It was Manu Joseph's "killer question" on last night's show that helped me get a glimpse of the alternative perception. His question to Barkha was that if she was interacting as a journalist, why did she not take the story to the public, how the corporate lobbyists trying to influence the distribution of portfolios and Niira Radia was lobbying for getting the telecom portfolio to somebody,from whom she and her clients can rely on for lucrative deals.

Now this raises several interesting questions starting with, if lobbying itself is an illegitimate activity ? Sure,the idea that corporate leaders and their agents should influence the formation of ministries sounds deplorable but is it unthinkable ? Lobbies exist to influence governments in such ways that benefit their corporate clients and there are enough legitimate means to pursue them. The connection between corporate houses and politicians has existed even during the "socialist" era, in free market era it seems integral part of the polity. Where do the various political parties get the funding to spend on such extravagant campaigns? The moolah they stole in the last term would now be sitting in some dark cellar in Bahamas or Singapore, it is the business organizations that pump in money necessary for greasing the campaign machinery.

Why would private companies invest such large sums of money in a blackhole of sorts if they did not expect any return on investment ? The answer is, the return of investment in these investments are usually huge, but they are in the form of contracts,waivers etc. In fact, it may not require bending the laws. Influencing the formation of the Union Cabinet is not something lobbyists should have the capability of but one should not forget the circumstances in the back-drop of which the conservations in the Radia tapes leaks were taking place.

India is a functional democracy but the people chose representatives, ministers are chosen by the leaders of the political party with the majority of seats in the parliament. However, the last two decades, have seen coalition governments only with no single political party commanding majority in the House. Key portfolios are no longer distributed on the basis of merit of individual candidates but as shares of the constituents of the coalition. The coalition partners with the critical numbers get the tastiest slices of the pie. This too sounds despicable but is it if we look at it keeping in mind the basic principles of democracy ?

In the last two decades Indian politics has undergone massive transformation,in terms of power distribution. A large part of India no longer votes for a Prime Minister or government at Delhi, instead it empowers local leaders and groups that they identify themselves with, be it on the basis of region,caste,religion,class,ethnicity or linguistic identity. Whether we like it or not,these groups do represent a segment of Indian citizenry. More seats that a regional party occupies in the parliament,more power at the center it is entitled to. But these things are not clearly marked, in event of fractured mandate there is genuine confusion,fueled by all sorts of speculations and unverified reports in the media.

The scenario presents a lot of scope for diplomacy and negotiations between different parties irrespective of ideologies and aspirations. This is something seen in international politics,not domestic but then the trend cannot be wished away. In back-channel negotiations journalists make excellent emissaries as by virtue of profession they have access to the highest levels of commands, are presumed neutral in case of failure the prefect alibi and if successful they get to cover the story,which is what the modern media reporter probably lives for. They parties in turn retain the scope of plausible deniability.

Coming back to the tapes, I have gone through the transcripts of the conversations between Niira Radia with Barkha Dutt and with Ratan Tata only and in both cases I don't find enough substance to call for lynching them. Niira was trying to send a message to the DMK that Raja was acceptable to the Congress. Presuming, Barkha did pass on the message and Raja became the Telecom Minister, how does this connect her to the scam which took place 3 years later., unless has a time machine hidden in her basement or crystal-gazes under moonlight! As much as I know her coverage has not been partial in this 2G spectrum scam, neither has she portrayed herself sympathetic to Raja or anyone else. However, given the contempt with which politicians, especially corrupt politicians are held Barkha Dutt is guilty of sullying her reputation to extract her pound of flesh- breaking news. Lately,media reporters have been showing willingness to go to any length to get a saleable news story. Ethics, morality, people's safety,national security seem to be of no consequence to them when there is a story to be sold, even if it includes connivance with mischief-makers.

After the recent mob attack on Arundhati Roy's residence,the writer/activist, in an open statement, asked about the nexus between media and the hooligans,since the OB vans (of NDTV, TimesNow,News24) arrived before the mob did. In fact the police advised them to report if they found any OB vans around since they viewed it as an indication that the mob was on the way! A proof of media's lack of scruples damaging national security can be found in cable released by WikiLeaks. In the immediate aftermath of 26/11 attack, almost all embassy cables¹ mention Pakistan's decision of sending ISI chief to India for investigation,a decision which according to the US interpretation, could have helped India view Pakistan's sincerity. But the offer was quickly withdrawn after the Indian media went overboard..

Obsession with sensationalism,insensitivity, trial by media are few of the malaise that India now suffers from because of irresponsible and unscrupulous media. Barkha Dutt is as guilty as her fraternity members, and that includes Manu Joseph. More than the content itself it is the nature of content that has caught the imagination of the public, leaked video, audio tapes titillate us all the time no matter what the content is. Traditionally we are a bit more voyeuristic than others. If Big Boss is the most watched show because we get to peep and eavesdrop on the most intimate moments and discussions of a group of people, one can imagine the attention that a relatively new magazine can grab using "leaked tapes" of conversations between well known public personalities. Take Ratan Tata recorded conversation for instance, he has hardly said anything that was not expected of him, yet he has been dragged into this controversy simply because he had a tele-conversation with his PR consultant. No wonder, he is now mad with rage and has gone to the Supreme Court alleging violation of privacy rights.

Finally, I must say there is an element of poetic justice in all that has transpired, all the major television news agencies including Aaj Tak, NDTV, CNN IBN, Times Now, (need I say India TV :P) have been using every legal, illegal means to stay ahead in the trade. There are people from all sections whose lives have been turned upside down after having fallen into the trap of the media, some of these people probably deserved it but some may just have been innocent victims, not unlike victims of fake encounters. But life and nature go round in circles,like the mythical Ouroboros, the hunters are now hunted but make no mistake, hunters are hunters.

And by the way, even I forgot to add, this thing helps take focus of the actual 2G spectrum scam investigation!

Caveat: I don't have any material interest in writing this :P

1. I don't write for money, this blog is not monetized

2. Don't write for recognition, nobody reads it !

3. Placing this caveat for the above cited reason ;)

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