Charvak Philosopohy is one of the major streams of Indian Philosophy that have not influenced much of the so-called Hindus in India; though, it seems to have influeced the philosophy of Buddhism and Jainism. I gather that Charvak philosophy believes in Lokayat or what we see and perceive through our senses is what exists: the body, mind, physical universe et all are what exists and there is nothing beyond. This view therefore does not allow the scope for God to exist outside of whatever we see and perceive (unless of course the sage philosopher Charvak had admitted the imagination of God as something that cannot be seen or comprehended and yet perceived to be somewhere inside everything and containing everything else that we can see and perceive through our senses including the mind and the intellect: in which case Charvak would have to agree with the infinite, ceaseless Paramatma God as defined in Gita or the Adaitabad derived from the Upanishads: Charvak philosophy is developed also from certain parts of the Upanishads). So, Charvak philosophy accepted the political leader and ruler of human beings, then called Kings, as God/s because the reality is the accepted and observed supremacy of the Kings. Modern World also believes in this Charvak philosophy conclusion: those who rule citizens/ nationals by using or abusing the sovereign powers of the God ad therefore can behave like all powerful Kings are Gods.
In the current hierarchy of Gods, there are Presidents, Prime Ministers, Ministers and people representatives however elected or selected are all parts of the God, Almighty.
At childhood I had heard my Bengali folks say that Charvak philosophy prescribes the rule 'Wrinam Krutitwa Ghreetam Peevet' meaning one must borrow to consume the relatively expensive healthy and tasty milk-based product called Ghee (a class of clarified butter that originated and commonly used in Indian and neighbouring south Asian countries like Bangladeshi, Nepali and Pakistani). As a child I would wonder who could continuously get borrowings to consume Ghee if does not have the prospect of earning income enough to repay the loans borrowed to finance consumption of Ghee. Now I understand what Charvak meant some 4 millenniums ago: Political Rulers, currently called National Governments can only practice this prescription. They have the powers to borrow without limit, if necessary by repaying past borrowings by raising fresh increasingly large amounts of borrowings and enjoy the comforts of life and distribute such comforts to what the Political leaders in power consider as their henchmen of vote-gathering constituent agents.
The modern national governments are publicised as all powerful God containing all the nationals' as their subservient subjects and make their over-bearing omni-presence in each national can promise to solve all problems in the World and carry out whatever activity they would like to (they can get their Constitutions amended any time to increase the coverage of their operation in the name of economic growth, justice to all, reduction of inequity, restoring balance in economic fluctuations, creation of unemployment and x- or t-protecting regulation). So borrowing ans consuming is the foremost priority and privilege of national governments. And even if they bring in disasters and inflict economic slowdown, loss of jobs and high inflation, national governments are assured of the continued existence - if necessary only the politicians using or abusing the all pervasive powers may change from time to time.
Therefore, the Government of Ireland remains in existence despite defaulting in debt. Greece, the Great Defaulter stays afloat and other national Gods have already waived repayment obligations on 50% of Greece's outstanding defaults in debt. Political rulers, democratically elected institution of Governments, are assured of bail outs from their emerging situation of debt default. France and the US governments have questioned the authority of down-grading their credit worthiness rating by private rating agencies and brushed such down-grades as foolishness. The Sovereign Government of China forces the nationals not to consume beyond 50% of their earnings and lend almost the entire amount to the Govt. or government sposored agencies. So does India's national governments at the centre and the provinces, running fiscal deficits at close to 8% of the national income. Except for a few governments in the world, political regimes are completely addicted to debt and fresh borrowing - desire that is insatiable.
Charvak probably did not say how long and how far the almighty powerful Gods can go on borrowing and enjoying the comforts of life in this material World!
Nov 9, 2011
Oct 16, 2011
Business of Serving Political Democracy: Economic Statistics
At the age of 10, my soccer playmates elected me as the captain of the under-12 boys of our local club through a spot democratic election conducted by a senior club official charged with the responsibility of facilitating daily football play for our age group. We were all nurtured in democracy quite young in the fledgling, independent Indian Democratic Republic. We grew up from early childhood with Democracy as our faith, hope and ideal, much more valuable than God, family or knowledge. In the high school we came out stronger in conviction with our faith in the most modern, romantic dictum’ of the people, by the people and for the people’. Only at the post graduate classes, a slight doubt had occurred when I had to read articles/ books of Noble Laureate economists on the complications of deriving optimum societal choice from individual choice: I guessed that my elections as Captain in my childhood had been as unscientific and irrational as the evolution and practice of democracy.
In my romantic endeavour with democracy I did not care to put the nebulous concept of democracy to scientific test of consistency and integrity: I did not try either to find out the probable adverse implications of democracy on the lives of citizens. As I grew up, I found how democracy ensured total surrender of my elementary individual rights to the elected representatives and the politicians authorized to exercise their privilege of commanding rights in the name of State’s sovereign power. I started experiencing how democracy as a political philosophy empowers a few to exploit the citizens in various ways.
I failed to remain a blind devotee to worship democracy after I quit working for a living in 2002 as my mind’s eyes enjoyed plenty of time to view the democratic dramas engulfing the nation with social irresponsibility, oppression, exploitation, cheating and corruption. The addiction to democracy continues despite the inherent weaknesses of the concept of democracy unfolding ceaselessly entertaining melodramas that parallel the dramas enacted during the days of with monarchy, aristocracy and dictatorship regimes in history.
Since 2009, I used the democratic right to entertain myself without affecting others through postings in this blog as a tribute to Democracy’s strength to survive repeated fooling of the citizens of democracy. Today, I received an email from one of my former pupil where in he has extracted, he says, from a former elected representatative's blog. I now know how the business of delivering democracy is commercially sustainable. The worshippers of democracy may find that extract reproduced below as good entertainment:
( source: http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/extraordinaryissue/entry/is-your-mp-underpaid - Pritish Nandy's blog)
"I was an MP not very long ago. I loved those six years. Everyone called me sir, not because of my age but because I was an MP. And even though I never travelled anywhere by train during those years, I reveled in the fact that I could have gone anywhere I liked, on any train, first class
with a bogey reserved for my family. Whenever I flew, there were always people around to pick up my baggage, not because I was travelling business class but because I was a MP. And yes, whenever I wrote to any Government officer to help someone in need, it was done. No, not because I was a journalist but because I was an MP.
The job had many perquisites, apart from the tax free wage of Rs 4,000. Then the wages were suddenly quadrupled to Rs 16,000, with office expenses of Rs 20,000 and a constituency allowance of Rs 20,000 thrown in. I could borrow interest free money to buy a car, get my petrol paid, make as many free phone calls as I wanted. My home came free. So did the furniture, the electricity, the water, the gardeners, the plants. There were also allowances to wash curtains and sofa covers and a rather funny allowance of Rs 1,000 per day to attend Parliament, which I always thought was a MP's job in the first place! And, O yes, we also got Rs 1 Crore a year (now enhanced to Rs 2 Crore) to spend on our constituencies. More enterprising MPs enjoyed many more perquisites best left to your imagination. While I was embarrassed at being vastly overpaid for the job I was doing, they kept demanding more.
Today, out of 543 MPs in Lok Sabha, 315 are Crorepatis. That's 60%. 43 out of the 54 newly elected Rajya Sabha MPs are also millionaires. Their average declared assets are over Rs 25 Crore each. That's an awfully wealthy lot of people in whose hands we have vested our destiny. The assets of your average Lok Sabha MP have grown from Rs 1.86 Crore in the last house to Rs 5.33 Crore. That's 200% more. And, as we all know, not all our MPs are known to always declare all their assets. Much of these exist in a colour not recognised by our tax laws. That's fine, I guess.
Being a MP gives you certain immunities, not all of them meant to bediscussed in a public forum.
If you think it pays to be in the ruling party, you are dead right: 7 out of 10 MPs from the Congress are Crorepatis. The BJP have 5. MPs from some of the smaller parties like SAD, TRS and JD (Secular) are all Crorepatis while the NCP, DMK, RLD, BSP, Shiv Sena, National Conference
and Samajwadi Party have more Crorepatis than the 60% average. Only the CPM and the Trinamool, the two Bengal based parties, don't field Crorepatis. The CPM has 1 correlate out of 16 MPs; the Trinamool has 7 out of 19. This shows in the state-wise average. West Bengal and Kerala
have few correlate MPs while Punjab and Delhi have only correlate MPs and Haryana narrowly misses out on this distinction with one MP, poor guy, who's not a correlate.
Do MPs become richer in office? Sure they do. Statistics show that the average assets of 304 MPs who contested in 2004 and then re-contested last year grew 300%. And, yes, we're only talking about declared assets here. But then, we can't complain. We are the ones who vote for the rich. Over 33% of those with assets above Rs 5 Crore won the last elections while 99.5% of those with assets below Rs 10 lakhs lost! Apart from West Bengal and the North East, every other state voted for correlate MPs. Haryana grabbed first place with its average MP worth Rs18 Crore. Andhra is not far behind at 16.
But no, this is not enough for our MPs. It's not enough that they are rich, infinitely richer than those who they represent, and every term makes them even richer. It's not enough that they openly perpetuate their families in power. It's not enough that all their vulgar indulgences and more are paid for by you and me through back breaking taxes. It's not enough that the number of days they actually work in Parliament are barely 60 in a year.
The rest of the time goes in squabbling and ranting. Now they want a 500%pay hike and perquisites quadrupled. The Government, to buy peace, has already agreed to a 300% raise but that's not good enough for our MPs. They want more, much more.
And no, I'm not even mentioning that 150 MPs elected last year have criminal cases against them, with 73 serious, very serious cases ranging from rape to murder. Do you really think these people deserve to earn 104 times what the average Indian earns?
In my romantic endeavour with democracy I did not care to put the nebulous concept of democracy to scientific test of consistency and integrity: I did not try either to find out the probable adverse implications of democracy on the lives of citizens. As I grew up, I found how democracy ensured total surrender of my elementary individual rights to the elected representatives and the politicians authorized to exercise their privilege of commanding rights in the name of State’s sovereign power. I started experiencing how democracy as a political philosophy empowers a few to exploit the citizens in various ways.
I failed to remain a blind devotee to worship democracy after I quit working for a living in 2002 as my mind’s eyes enjoyed plenty of time to view the democratic dramas engulfing the nation with social irresponsibility, oppression, exploitation, cheating and corruption. The addiction to democracy continues despite the inherent weaknesses of the concept of democracy unfolding ceaselessly entertaining melodramas that parallel the dramas enacted during the days of with monarchy, aristocracy and dictatorship regimes in history.
Since 2009, I used the democratic right to entertain myself without affecting others through postings in this blog as a tribute to Democracy’s strength to survive repeated fooling of the citizens of democracy. Today, I received an email from one of my former pupil where in he has extracted, he says, from a former elected representatative's blog. I now know how the business of delivering democracy is commercially sustainable. The worshippers of democracy may find that extract reproduced below as good entertainment:
( source: http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/extraordinaryissue/entry/is-your-mp-underpaid - Pritish Nandy's blog)
"I was an MP not very long ago. I loved those six years. Everyone called me sir, not because of my age but because I was an MP. And even though I never travelled anywhere by train during those years, I reveled in the fact that I could have gone anywhere I liked, on any train, first class
with a bogey reserved for my family. Whenever I flew, there were always people around to pick up my baggage, not because I was travelling business class but because I was a MP. And yes, whenever I wrote to any Government officer to help someone in need, it was done. No, not because I was a journalist but because I was an MP.
The job had many perquisites, apart from the tax free wage of Rs 4,000. Then the wages were suddenly quadrupled to Rs 16,000, with office expenses of Rs 20,000 and a constituency allowance of Rs 20,000 thrown in. I could borrow interest free money to buy a car, get my petrol paid, make as many free phone calls as I wanted. My home came free. So did the furniture, the electricity, the water, the gardeners, the plants. There were also allowances to wash curtains and sofa covers and a rather funny allowance of Rs 1,000 per day to attend Parliament, which I always thought was a MP's job in the first place! And, O yes, we also got Rs 1 Crore a year (now enhanced to Rs 2 Crore) to spend on our constituencies. More enterprising MPs enjoyed many more perquisites best left to your imagination. While I was embarrassed at being vastly overpaid for the job I was doing, they kept demanding more.
Today, out of 543 MPs in Lok Sabha, 315 are Crorepatis. That's 60%. 43 out of the 54 newly elected Rajya Sabha MPs are also millionaires. Their average declared assets are over Rs 25 Crore each. That's an awfully wealthy lot of people in whose hands we have vested our destiny. The assets of your average Lok Sabha MP have grown from Rs 1.86 Crore in the last house to Rs 5.33 Crore. That's 200% more. And, as we all know, not all our MPs are known to always declare all their assets. Much of these exist in a colour not recognised by our tax laws. That's fine, I guess.
Being a MP gives you certain immunities, not all of them meant to bediscussed in a public forum.
If you think it pays to be in the ruling party, you are dead right: 7 out of 10 MPs from the Congress are Crorepatis. The BJP have 5. MPs from some of the smaller parties like SAD, TRS and JD (Secular) are all Crorepatis while the NCP, DMK, RLD, BSP, Shiv Sena, National Conference
and Samajwadi Party have more Crorepatis than the 60% average. Only the CPM and the Trinamool, the two Bengal based parties, don't field Crorepatis. The CPM has 1 correlate out of 16 MPs; the Trinamool has 7 out of 19. This shows in the state-wise average. West Bengal and Kerala
have few correlate MPs while Punjab and Delhi have only correlate MPs and Haryana narrowly misses out on this distinction with one MP, poor guy, who's not a correlate.
Do MPs become richer in office? Sure they do. Statistics show that the average assets of 304 MPs who contested in 2004 and then re-contested last year grew 300%. And, yes, we're only talking about declared assets here. But then, we can't complain. We are the ones who vote for the rich. Over 33% of those with assets above Rs 5 Crore won the last elections while 99.5% of those with assets below Rs 10 lakhs lost! Apart from West Bengal and the North East, every other state voted for correlate MPs. Haryana grabbed first place with its average MP worth Rs18 Crore. Andhra is not far behind at 16.
But no, this is not enough for our MPs. It's not enough that they are rich, infinitely richer than those who they represent, and every term makes them even richer. It's not enough that they openly perpetuate their families in power. It's not enough that all their vulgar indulgences and more are paid for by you and me through back breaking taxes. It's not enough that the number of days they actually work in Parliament are barely 60 in a year.
The rest of the time goes in squabbling and ranting. Now they want a 500%pay hike and perquisites quadrupled. The Government, to buy peace, has already agreed to a 300% raise but that's not good enough for our MPs. They want more, much more.
And no, I'm not even mentioning that 150 MPs elected last year have criminal cases against them, with 73 serious, very serious cases ranging from rape to murder. Do you really think these people deserve to earn 104 times what the average Indian earns?
Jul 4, 2011
Dictatorship of Elected Representatives: A Closed Political Regime
Gandhi left India in time: he had no chance in dictatorship of the democratically elected people's representatives. Gandhi was a popular man with large following among the Indians as a National Leader. He could be designated Father of the Nation. But he could not have become the President of India or the Prime Minister or the Speaker unless he was so elected by the people's elected representative in Independent Democratic India. The country could not have progressed if Gandhi had, as an apolitical Prime Minister or President of India, had forced forced his Government with a threat of going on indefinite hunger strike, to ban all modern textile industry and allowed only charkhas spinning wheels and hand looms to clothe the India nation. Gandhi might have been a good father of the nation but he cannot be allowed to dictate over the hundreds of legislators elected by the people of India.
What would have happened if Gandhi lived a few years more and went on hunger strike till the Nehru Government adopted a Lokpal Bill that would have created an Independent Lokpal organisation with power to try and punish, if found guilty, any government employee, elected representative, any minister including the Prime Minister, and any judge of any court in India for even the smallest charge of corruption ? Gandhi would have been whisked away to Hospital for failing heath due to hunger strike? If Gandhi had nominated Anna Hazare and Yogaguru Ramdev to negotiate with the Government on the drafting of the Lokpal Bill, what would have happened? I do not know about the past.
But one can reasonably assume that today Gandhi, Anna Hazare and Ramdev would have been described by the political parties as uncivil unelected members of the so-called civil society. A legislator elected by elected representatives of the people would have commented based on his leanings at the Nehru University that he was a civilized members of the society and being an elected legislature could not allow unelected civilians to interfere in the process of legislation against corruption. All the political parties met together not to discuss what should be contained on the Lokpal Bill or the merits of the suggestions of Anna and Ramdev but declare the sovereignty of the democratically elected parliamentarians over the so-called undemocratic civil society representatives.
Did Anna Hazae or Randev tried to interfere with the Parliament's right to legislate Lokpal Bill? The politicians are trying to establish the theorem that anyone demanding a particular draft for the Lokpal Bill is adopting unconstitutional, undemocratic methods which cannot be tolerated and must be stopped from doing so. If Maoist are extremists and terrorists rising against Parliamentary democracy and the National democratic governments, aren't Anna and Ram extremist, terrorist civil society movements against Parliamentary Democracy and the Constitutionally constituted Government?
This is the way politicians and political parties frustrate popular movements. Everyone knows that Anna and Ramdev enjoys popularity among the people. They got more popular by going on strike against corruption among government employees, ministers and others in high positions. They were trying to become people's representatives through undemocratic process and demand anti-corruption lokpal legislation that the legislators had failed to enact thrice during the past and was not showing any urgency to enact promptly. The 60-year old institution of the Parliament still does not have competence among its members to promptly evolve consensus on the Lokpal Bill contents and pass it in the last three sessions, while corruption scandals get unearthed in regular intervals over the last two years! The debates are about yhings like whether the Prime Minister should be covered and the Court Judges be covered or whether CVC and CBI should be under Lokpal or whether only govt. officers of the ran below joint secretary should be outside Lokpal/s purview. Instead of debting we could have passed a bill that provides for inclusion of the Prime Minister and the Judges as also of government employees below the rank of joint secreataries only on the recommendation of the Lokpal after five years with due approval of an amedment of the Lokpal Act by the Parliament. Similarlly the setting up independent ivestgation agency for the Lokpal could provide for merging of CVC and the CBI after five years based on the recommendation of the Lokpal with due approval of appropriate amendment by the Parliament. Parliament is all soverign: it can enact new Laws, repeal any existing law or modify an existing law any time: there is no need to drag on debates indefinitely to stll enacting the existing consnsus with enabling provisions for review on controversial points based on recommendations of an already established Lokpal Authority..
Let Parliamentarians take their time to evolve consensus, refer to Select Committee for evaluation and so on. But if the common people are already frustrated with the extensive corruption at the lowest levels in the Government and political parties and some Anna and Ramdev - not interested in politics as such, pained by the degradation of social values reflected in widespread corruption, leads a popular movement against corruption by demanding the Government to take immediate legislative action against corruption, why should the political parties feel threatend and raise a great hue and cry?
The political parties have been threatened not because Anna and Ramdev has waged a War against the Constitution or Parliamentary democracy. The threat comes from the underlying loss of credibility of elected representatives' inability to curb corruption affecting the lives of the common people who are getting frustrated. So, first the politicians drew Anna and Ramdev into discussions and then tried to prove that these to civil / yoga society leaders as unreasonable and impractical and then organised dramas that would show them up as cowards or proteges' of communal elements. This has been done. Now the political parties assert that they are the undisputed authority on what is to be done about corruption. And, then they will take their sweet will and time to debate about what legislation of Lokpal to be appropriate.
Indian democracy is based on various premises. one of which is that the elected representatives belonging to political parties have not only the right but also the wisdom about what is the best for the country, society and the Nation. If there happens to be some knowledgeable, experts outside the political parties, they must join a political party or beg for political patronage for them to be merely heard and not necessarily to be endorsed by the political parties. There is no role for social activists or civil society. If the Parliament has failed to enact Laws to curb corruption or if the Government has failed to enforce laws effectively to curb corruption, the people have the right to feel frustrated but they cannot give vent to their frustration through social activist / civil society agitations. The only recourse is to work through political parties or abstain from voting at the time of elections at the end of every five years.
Indian democracy does not recognise philosophers, historians, scientists, environmentalists, economists, technologists, educationists, educated and knowledgeable expertise that do not come through endorsement of political parties or governments: such people cannot claim independence from political parties and become leaders of people to contest for power to influence the society and nation - a power exclusively reserved for the politicians, especially the elected representatives. That is the reason why most States have abolished the upper house (not clear why MamataBannerjee determined to revive Bidhan Parishad in West Bengal) and the Rajya Sabha members are elected politicians or political affiliates by elected legislators of various State assemblies. f people think that what Anna and Ramdev are asking for is the correct thing for the Nation to accept, then people should wait for people like them to form political parties, get election Commission recognition, contest the next General and State elections, vote them to absolute majority and get their frustrations redressed through democratically valid methods.
People who are writing and talking about corruption in anger and frustration have two choices: follow what the elected representatives have said in the all party meet or continue to find new methods of agitation to force the elected representatives realize the writing on the wall: no political system that does not heed to official / unofficial people's referendum on national issues on a continuous basis irrespective of the tenure of elected legislatures.
What would have happened if Gandhi lived a few years more and went on hunger strike till the Nehru Government adopted a Lokpal Bill that would have created an Independent Lokpal organisation with power to try and punish, if found guilty, any government employee, elected representative, any minister including the Prime Minister, and any judge of any court in India for even the smallest charge of corruption ? Gandhi would have been whisked away to Hospital for failing heath due to hunger strike? If Gandhi had nominated Anna Hazare and Yogaguru Ramdev to negotiate with the Government on the drafting of the Lokpal Bill, what would have happened? I do not know about the past.
But one can reasonably assume that today Gandhi, Anna Hazare and Ramdev would have been described by the political parties as uncivil unelected members of the so-called civil society. A legislator elected by elected representatives of the people would have commented based on his leanings at the Nehru University that he was a civilized members of the society and being an elected legislature could not allow unelected civilians to interfere in the process of legislation against corruption. All the political parties met together not to discuss what should be contained on the Lokpal Bill or the merits of the suggestions of Anna and Ramdev but declare the sovereignty of the democratically elected parliamentarians over the so-called undemocratic civil society representatives.
Did Anna Hazae or Randev tried to interfere with the Parliament's right to legislate Lokpal Bill? The politicians are trying to establish the theorem that anyone demanding a particular draft for the Lokpal Bill is adopting unconstitutional, undemocratic methods which cannot be tolerated and must be stopped from doing so. If Maoist are extremists and terrorists rising against Parliamentary democracy and the National democratic governments, aren't Anna and Ram extremist, terrorist civil society movements against Parliamentary Democracy and the Constitutionally constituted Government?
This is the way politicians and political parties frustrate popular movements. Everyone knows that Anna and Ramdev enjoys popularity among the people. They got more popular by going on strike against corruption among government employees, ministers and others in high positions. They were trying to become people's representatives through undemocratic process and demand anti-corruption lokpal legislation that the legislators had failed to enact thrice during the past and was not showing any urgency to enact promptly. The 60-year old institution of the Parliament still does not have competence among its members to promptly evolve consensus on the Lokpal Bill contents and pass it in the last three sessions, while corruption scandals get unearthed in regular intervals over the last two years! The debates are about yhings like whether the Prime Minister should be covered and the Court Judges be covered or whether CVC and CBI should be under Lokpal or whether only govt. officers of the ran below joint secretary should be outside Lokpal/s purview. Instead of debting we could have passed a bill that provides for inclusion of the Prime Minister and the Judges as also of government employees below the rank of joint secreataries only on the recommendation of the Lokpal after five years with due approval of an amedment of the Lokpal Act by the Parliament. Similarlly the setting up independent ivestgation agency for the Lokpal could provide for merging of CVC and the CBI after five years based on the recommendation of the Lokpal with due approval of appropriate amendment by the Parliament. Parliament is all soverign: it can enact new Laws, repeal any existing law or modify an existing law any time: there is no need to drag on debates indefinitely to stll enacting the existing consnsus with enabling provisions for review on controversial points based on recommendations of an already established Lokpal Authority..
Let Parliamentarians take their time to evolve consensus, refer to Select Committee for evaluation and so on. But if the common people are already frustrated with the extensive corruption at the lowest levels in the Government and political parties and some Anna and Ramdev - not interested in politics as such, pained by the degradation of social values reflected in widespread corruption, leads a popular movement against corruption by demanding the Government to take immediate legislative action against corruption, why should the political parties feel threatend and raise a great hue and cry?
The political parties have been threatened not because Anna and Ramdev has waged a War against the Constitution or Parliamentary democracy. The threat comes from the underlying loss of credibility of elected representatives' inability to curb corruption affecting the lives of the common people who are getting frustrated. So, first the politicians drew Anna and Ramdev into discussions and then tried to prove that these to civil / yoga society leaders as unreasonable and impractical and then organised dramas that would show them up as cowards or proteges' of communal elements. This has been done. Now the political parties assert that they are the undisputed authority on what is to be done about corruption. And, then they will take their sweet will and time to debate about what legislation of Lokpal to be appropriate.
Indian democracy is based on various premises. one of which is that the elected representatives belonging to political parties have not only the right but also the wisdom about what is the best for the country, society and the Nation. If there happens to be some knowledgeable, experts outside the political parties, they must join a political party or beg for political patronage for them to be merely heard and not necessarily to be endorsed by the political parties. There is no role for social activists or civil society. If the Parliament has failed to enact Laws to curb corruption or if the Government has failed to enforce laws effectively to curb corruption, the people have the right to feel frustrated but they cannot give vent to their frustration through social activist / civil society agitations. The only recourse is to work through political parties or abstain from voting at the time of elections at the end of every five years.
Indian democracy does not recognise philosophers, historians, scientists, environmentalists, economists, technologists, educationists, educated and knowledgeable expertise that do not come through endorsement of political parties or governments: such people cannot claim independence from political parties and become leaders of people to contest for power to influence the society and nation - a power exclusively reserved for the politicians, especially the elected representatives. That is the reason why most States have abolished the upper house (not clear why MamataBannerjee determined to revive Bidhan Parishad in West Bengal) and the Rajya Sabha members are elected politicians or political affiliates by elected legislators of various State assemblies. f people think that what Anna and Ramdev are asking for is the correct thing for the Nation to accept, then people should wait for people like them to form political parties, get election Commission recognition, contest the next General and State elections, vote them to absolute majority and get their frustrations redressed through democratically valid methods.
People who are writing and talking about corruption in anger and frustration have two choices: follow what the elected representatives have said in the all party meet or continue to find new methods of agitation to force the elected representatives realize the writing on the wall: no political system that does not heed to official / unofficial people's referendum on national issues on a continuous basis irrespective of the tenure of elected legislatures.
Jun 12, 2011
Increasing Marginal Utility From Consumption of Equality & Equity
God, according to a simplistic interpretation of Adyavat of Santana (now referred to as Hindu) Dharma philosophical scriptures of ancient origin, is all prevalent, exits in everything - infinitely large or infinitesimal - that is there in the Creation that we know, discover and imagine, and is container of everything. It follows that each and everything is nothing but God and each and everything is equal and there is nothing iniquitous in this Creation or the Creator, irrespective of whatever we believe in as the origin of God.
Yet, physically each infinitesimal entity is not necessarily the one and the same thing as the other entity as we perceive from our senses: many things look different, tastes different, behave differently and interact with each other differently. This applies to human beings as well. But human beings urge for equality and injustice, especially if one happens to perceive that one is unjustifiably handicapped compared with others. So, there is demand from the God to make every thing identically equal. God has not cared to listen to these prayers and different things continue to maintain their different identities in terms of length, width, area, volume, force, capabilities, attitudes, mentality, tastes and preferences, etc.
This is a great problem. The religious leaders and spiritual leaders have tried to promote the concept of universal love to remove all perception of differences, inequality, inequity and distinctions: ignore the formal difference and love everything as being equal and part of the same identity of God. This makes people to believe and practice the knowledge of Unique Singularity in everything and forget formal differences. But these preaching have failed to ensure equality and equity in the world of individuals, groups, societies and nations. The scientists have not given the humans a technology that would ensure that from a specified date in future all human beings will be born as identical human beings in all respects and remain so throughout their uniform life: that would have ensured that after a later future date there would not be any scope for distinction between men and women, between higher and lower IQ, between tall and short, fair or dark skin, and so on. Because a single compulsory dose of medicine served at birth will ensure that the child could produce during its life time only x number of children without any need for sexual cooperation and all children produced by the medicated children at birth will be of identical configuration without any influence of parentage and genes. So, the medical solution to equality and equity in human race is not yet available.
But the cleverest of the human race, the politicians have found a great and sustainable business of distributing equality and equity. For they understood clearly that the demand for equality and equity will be the only permanent and perpetual: the want for equality and equity is essentially insatiable. If one gets to eat a sweet, delicious fruit, one will demand for another and after consuming the second will demand yet another. But the law of diminishing marginal utility will set in at some stage when the person will stop demanding another fruit to eat. Rather, the person will demand different item of consumption. Unlike this, the utility from consumption of the item called equality and equity is not afflicted by the law of diminishing returns. It is rather under increasing marginal utility rule.
Let us consider a recent example. The Government of a State made education from primary to higher secondary to college and university education completely free for students from poor families with income below a minimum cut-off level. People were all happy - a great decision by the Government, unlike the unchangeable, rigid God. This government produced good of equality and equity in education has a positive external effect: more educated people is expected to provide a better social and cultural environment besides contributing to economic growth by supplying more productive educated labour for industry, agriculture, trade and industry as also creating in the process a greater demand for all other goods and services in the country. Unlike the other method of generating equality/equity product through reservation of seats in education or jobs that reduces the supply of school/ college/ university education seats to the non-poor students and thereby leading to an external negative effect on consumption of equality/equity goods produced by the State, the direct supply of equality/equity goods through what some economists called entitlement / endowment/ empowerment approach is liked by both the direct consumers of the goods (the beneficiary students and the poor families they come from) as well as the others who has to procure the same education good at a cost besides giving taxes to the Government to fund the free distribution of education equality/ equity goods to students from poor families. Everyone is happy.
But the consumers of education equality/ equity goods demand more such goods because the consumption of these goods exhibit increasing marginal utility. Even after primary education was made free, many students from poor families did not regularly turn up at the school. So, free mid-day meals for students attending the school improved the quality of the education equality/ equity product and consumption of this product increased.
As soon as some students from poor families were promised free education at the university / college level because they scored very high marks in the Higher Secondary Examination, it was not only welcomed by all but some demanded an up gradation of this new education equality/ equity products. It was pointed out that these students are essentially of quality of students from rich families but will still suffer a handicap of lower nutrition food intake: so they need to be provided with the same food as the students of rich families get from their parents. Financial grants to such students would help improve the quality of the education equality/ equity product in university education.
But soon it would be realised that these poor student scholars with free university tuition and financial aid would still suffer a handicap in that they would have to face the consequences of family problems related to illiteracy and inadequate awareness of their parents as compared to the educational and financial strength of students coming from rich families in the cities and towns. For example, the richer students could afford special coaching by paid private tutors, personal computers and Internet connection at home and air-conditioned rooms at home along with more knowledgeable parents' help. So, the demand would be for free supply of computers, Internet broadband service and special coaching facility as part of the education equality/ education product. Problems would still remain to be solved: the poor students need to be supplied with knowledgeable parent-like loving guardians at the university and hostels so that they have a level playing field to compete with brilliant students from rich families in cities and towns.
Extending the same kind of logic, there would be demand for school children from poor families in rural areas to be supplied with rich pairs of adopted parents with proper educational backgrounds. The equality/ equity product improvement will have to be extended to parental gene levels. All engineering colleges have to become of equal standard Indian Institutes of Technology, all MBA schools have to be of the same quality Indian Institutes of Management, and so on.
The demand for improving the educational equality/ equity product will be never ending as the marginal utility from consumption of these products are characterised by the law of increasing utility. Governments, especially democratic ones, will have continuous growing business in selling these products at the cost of the tax payers. Equality and equity will improve as a result: but will the quality of education outputs improve?
Recently, I heard a few learned people discussing about international equality/ equity in teachers' promotion system in universities. A former Indian bureaucrat currently teaching in government funded private management institute complained that Indian teachers in Indian centers of higher education with record of publication in international / foreign journals get higher scores than those Indian teachers who publish their articles in Indian journals. This according to him and some others was discrimination against one's own country and probably reflected the mentality of slavery to the foreigners. Everyone knows that Indian research journals have not been able to get international recognition of their quality simply because international scholars do not find it worthwhile to publish articles in Indian journals. But the State has not been able to figure out how Indian scientific research journals can become accepted by the international community of researchers. So, there could be a demand for education/research equality/equity product that would remove the handicap the large section of Indian teachers who cannot get their papers accepted by internationally recognized research publications vis-à-vis the small section of teachers who can. What could be the essential design features of such a product by the government? One product could be like this: a special financial reward for each publication of any teacher/researcher in internationally recognised journal if that article is followed up by another publication in internationally recognised journal, which is co-authored by an Indian teacher employed in an Indian education/research centre who had not earlier been able to publish any article in an internationally recognised journal. The provider of the education / research equality/equity products, namely the Governments of poor countries surely should be highly innovative in designing such products, given the immensely high business potential in these countries for these products. But will the quality of the talent pool of Indian teachers and researchers improve as a result to bring India to the frontiers of education and research in at least some fields of knowledge that the World is pursuing?
Yet, physically each infinitesimal entity is not necessarily the one and the same thing as the other entity as we perceive from our senses: many things look different, tastes different, behave differently and interact with each other differently. This applies to human beings as well. But human beings urge for equality and injustice, especially if one happens to perceive that one is unjustifiably handicapped compared with others. So, there is demand from the God to make every thing identically equal. God has not cared to listen to these prayers and different things continue to maintain their different identities in terms of length, width, area, volume, force, capabilities, attitudes, mentality, tastes and preferences, etc.
This is a great problem. The religious leaders and spiritual leaders have tried to promote the concept of universal love to remove all perception of differences, inequality, inequity and distinctions: ignore the formal difference and love everything as being equal and part of the same identity of God. This makes people to believe and practice the knowledge of Unique Singularity in everything and forget formal differences. But these preaching have failed to ensure equality and equity in the world of individuals, groups, societies and nations. The scientists have not given the humans a technology that would ensure that from a specified date in future all human beings will be born as identical human beings in all respects and remain so throughout their uniform life: that would have ensured that after a later future date there would not be any scope for distinction between men and women, between higher and lower IQ, between tall and short, fair or dark skin, and so on. Because a single compulsory dose of medicine served at birth will ensure that the child could produce during its life time only x number of children without any need for sexual cooperation and all children produced by the medicated children at birth will be of identical configuration without any influence of parentage and genes. So, the medical solution to equality and equity in human race is not yet available.
But the cleverest of the human race, the politicians have found a great and sustainable business of distributing equality and equity. For they understood clearly that the demand for equality and equity will be the only permanent and perpetual: the want for equality and equity is essentially insatiable. If one gets to eat a sweet, delicious fruit, one will demand for another and after consuming the second will demand yet another. But the law of diminishing marginal utility will set in at some stage when the person will stop demanding another fruit to eat. Rather, the person will demand different item of consumption. Unlike this, the utility from consumption of the item called equality and equity is not afflicted by the law of diminishing returns. It is rather under increasing marginal utility rule.
Let us consider a recent example. The Government of a State made education from primary to higher secondary to college and university education completely free for students from poor families with income below a minimum cut-off level. People were all happy - a great decision by the Government, unlike the unchangeable, rigid God. This government produced good of equality and equity in education has a positive external effect: more educated people is expected to provide a better social and cultural environment besides contributing to economic growth by supplying more productive educated labour for industry, agriculture, trade and industry as also creating in the process a greater demand for all other goods and services in the country. Unlike the other method of generating equality/equity product through reservation of seats in education or jobs that reduces the supply of school/ college/ university education seats to the non-poor students and thereby leading to an external negative effect on consumption of equality/equity goods produced by the State, the direct supply of equality/equity goods through what some economists called entitlement / endowment/ empowerment approach is liked by both the direct consumers of the goods (the beneficiary students and the poor families they come from) as well as the others who has to procure the same education good at a cost besides giving taxes to the Government to fund the free distribution of education equality/ equity goods to students from poor families. Everyone is happy.
But the consumers of education equality/ equity goods demand more such goods because the consumption of these goods exhibit increasing marginal utility. Even after primary education was made free, many students from poor families did not regularly turn up at the school. So, free mid-day meals for students attending the school improved the quality of the education equality/ equity product and consumption of this product increased.
As soon as some students from poor families were promised free education at the university / college level because they scored very high marks in the Higher Secondary Examination, it was not only welcomed by all but some demanded an up gradation of this new education equality/ equity products. It was pointed out that these students are essentially of quality of students from rich families but will still suffer a handicap of lower nutrition food intake: so they need to be provided with the same food as the students of rich families get from their parents. Financial grants to such students would help improve the quality of the education equality/ equity product in university education.
But soon it would be realised that these poor student scholars with free university tuition and financial aid would still suffer a handicap in that they would have to face the consequences of family problems related to illiteracy and inadequate awareness of their parents as compared to the educational and financial strength of students coming from rich families in the cities and towns. For example, the richer students could afford special coaching by paid private tutors, personal computers and Internet connection at home and air-conditioned rooms at home along with more knowledgeable parents' help. So, the demand would be for free supply of computers, Internet broadband service and special coaching facility as part of the education equality/ education product. Problems would still remain to be solved: the poor students need to be supplied with knowledgeable parent-like loving guardians at the university and hostels so that they have a level playing field to compete with brilliant students from rich families in cities and towns.
Extending the same kind of logic, there would be demand for school children from poor families in rural areas to be supplied with rich pairs of adopted parents with proper educational backgrounds. The equality/ equity product improvement will have to be extended to parental gene levels. All engineering colleges have to become of equal standard Indian Institutes of Technology, all MBA schools have to be of the same quality Indian Institutes of Management, and so on.
The demand for improving the educational equality/ equity product will be never ending as the marginal utility from consumption of these products are characterised by the law of increasing utility. Governments, especially democratic ones, will have continuous growing business in selling these products at the cost of the tax payers. Equality and equity will improve as a result: but will the quality of education outputs improve?
Recently, I heard a few learned people discussing about international equality/ equity in teachers' promotion system in universities. A former Indian bureaucrat currently teaching in government funded private management institute complained that Indian teachers in Indian centers of higher education with record of publication in international / foreign journals get higher scores than those Indian teachers who publish their articles in Indian journals. This according to him and some others was discrimination against one's own country and probably reflected the mentality of slavery to the foreigners. Everyone knows that Indian research journals have not been able to get international recognition of their quality simply because international scholars do not find it worthwhile to publish articles in Indian journals. But the State has not been able to figure out how Indian scientific research journals can become accepted by the international community of researchers. So, there could be a demand for education/research equality/equity product that would remove the handicap the large section of Indian teachers who cannot get their papers accepted by internationally recognized research publications vis-à-vis the small section of teachers who can. What could be the essential design features of such a product by the government? One product could be like this: a special financial reward for each publication of any teacher/researcher in internationally recognised journal if that article is followed up by another publication in internationally recognised journal, which is co-authored by an Indian teacher employed in an Indian education/research centre who had not earlier been able to publish any article in an internationally recognised journal. The provider of the education / research equality/equity products, namely the Governments of poor countries surely should be highly innovative in designing such products, given the immensely high business potential in these countries for these products. But will the quality of the talent pool of Indian teachers and researchers improve as a result to bring India to the frontiers of education and research in at least some fields of knowledge that the World is pursuing?
Jun 6, 2011
Democratic, Socialist, Secular Corruption System!
It is not so easy to recognize and accept the Reality that for 60 years the politicians in India prospered under a democratic, socialist, secular (for shorter period) republic based on a foundation of State-designed Corruption mechanism, that as a result corruption has become so secular, so democratic and so socialistic that almost 90% of the people have become corrupt or have accepted corruption as a way of national life. People do not mind corruption generated favoritism, nepotism, bribery of up to a few lacks of rupees and black wealth of a few hundred cores. When reports come about very high value corruption of 100 cores or more, people start thinking that this might be bad and jealousy over the riches of a few such big corruption beneficiaries leads to outrages demanding effective Jan Lokpal legislation and black wealth recovery by the State. A political economic system that encouraged black money / wealth generation in the country is difficult to change: it is the beyond the capacity of political parties even if their leaders wished to: rather the current political parties will be starved to death if corruption is rooted out and therefore they will never readily kill corruption: they can at best try to show that they are trying to curb black money through various measures (that would ultimately prove to be ineffective – at least that has been the history so far. And, yet people continue to believe in the political parties as gods and saviors.
Mar 28, 2011
From State-Slavery to State-Independent Civilization
Today human beings cannot live without the Nation-State / government, Has the concept and institution of Nation State as a polity become a burden of liability to humam civilization?
There are two propositions in this post:
(a) The current architecture of polity based on the nebulous concepts of the State, its sovereign power and the unrestricted access to such power by Governments does not seem to be delivering the protection the people continues to seek from all risks and uncertainties to life and quality of living.
(b) Maybe the time for abandoning this polity architecture and the concepts on which it is founded on. But some thing new, more effective is yet to evolve: a Stateless civilization is still not in the imagination of man to work on its practical design, leaving the citizens to suffer irrespective of the level of GDP, the index of quality of life and the risks of sustainability.
Most human beings want someone else to protect them from all uncertainties and risks of life and living. At the dawn of mankind with little knowledge of Nature and using Nature to advantage, Man created the concept of God to get help from HIM. Man worshipped God to get an insurance against shortage of food, loss f dependable shelter, disease ad accidental injuries as well as oppression by other human beings and wild life. But nothing could be done if God was not pleased enough wit all prayers and worship to grant such full protection cover. So, man invented within the mankind three demigod groups to emerge as persons with more than ordinary power: (a) the brave, bold, muscle power leaders called kings, (b) the piety-powered leaders apparently with some sort of direct communication with God to enhance the effectiveness of prayer and worships of God, and (c) the strong intellect-powered leaders of science and technology. We call them these three groups as political leaders, the pontiff leaders and the pundit scientist/ technologist leaders.
While political leaders and pontiff leaders need and seek followers among all sections of the society to achieve their goals, the pundits do not need and seek but happens to attract new pundits. The pundit scientists and technologists by their action may help improve the quality of human life irrespective of whether or not they are accepted as leaders of human beings, the political leaders and pontiff leaders promise to help enrich the quality of life of their followers. Pundits prescribes rules that one is at liberty to not to follow at his own risk. The political leaders and pontiff leaders set up rules that are binding on followers if they wish to remain as followers. One can bribe out of punishment for violations of political and pontiff leader-laid rules, but one cannot avoid the consequences of violating scientist/ technologist prescribed rules.
Not many scientist/technologist pundits have ever become simultaneously political leaders. No political leader has become at the same time a scientist/technologist pundit or a pontiff leader. Some pontiff leaders have become pundits at the same time and some pundits have become pontiff leaders after giving up the goals of a pundit. But pontiff leaders have several times tried to become political leaders as well. Most Pundits have accepted, if not become followers, the political and pontiff leaders. Even if the political leader or pontiff leader refused to recognize a pundit, the pundit remained a pundit among the pundit class and recognized as one such by most human beings even after their death.
Since the beginning of civilization, the political and pontiff leaders ruled over the people. But for quite a while, the political leaders and the pontiff leaders cooperated and mutually agreed to divide the spheres of their jurisdiction over the control over the people. Often though, these two groups had come into conflict over exercising influence and control on the people’s minds and lives. Even now this phenomenon continues. In Iraq, for example, the political leadership is taken over by the pontiff leaders. In countries like China, North Korea and Cuba, pontiffs of the opposite variety, piety-powered believers of non-existence of God provide the political leadership. Political parties rule in many democratic countries like USA, India, Japan, UK, France, Germany, Australia and Italy. In some countries like Libya and Indonesia, political parties do exist but the ruling political leadership is a dictator or a military Junta.
Over the years, political leadership has usurped all-pervading powers to an abstract illusive concept of the “State” and reduced the scope of individual freedom and liberty to virtually nothing. Individual citizens have very little scope to seek redress from State/ Government’s denial of even the little freedom / liberty they are entitled to under law or constitution through judiciary because individual resources to fight the State in the courts is generally very little. The ruling political party enjoys all that power is partly shared with elected representatives of the other political parties where democracies function. This power includes the power to oppress the citizens, murder them at will and forcibly appropriate the properties and assets of citizens, though in some countries the judiciary continues to exercise a degree of power to stop such atrocities and oppression of individual citizens by the State.
Let us have a look at the performance of the State as an institution so far in various spheres of the lives of the people. First, have nation states remained nation states. Answer is mostly yes but there are many and continuing failures. Consider, the former USSR. Within fifty years, it has disintegrated into different Nations. Consider the Islamic State of Pakistan of former Indian Muslim Nation: it split into two nations of Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. Iraq is still held together as one nation but the Shyias and Sunnis have not really merged into a single Nation. Sri Lanka after years of fight with the Tamil Tigers has extinguished them to become a single nation. In India, Muslims in a small part of the land in the North India still continues to demand that they are a different nation. For years, small populations in different parts of the Northeast India have gone on with armed struggle to become free nations different from the Indian Nation. In Africa, new nations have emerged. There are many Arab nations and some of them do not recognize the people of Israel as a nation. In the UK, it is not clear which is the Nation – the so-called blacks and browns or the whites. The German have reunited but the Koreans are split nations. The citizenry basis of the definition of State seems to be very instable, weak and fragile.
Second, how has the concept of State performed in the area of providing stability of law and order situation? The incidence of crimes, violence, rape, smuggling, corruption, fraud has not declined in any significant manner to make the citizens of the various States feel that they are better off than they were 200 years ago.
Third, how far has the State as an institution helped progress of education, science and technology? Yes, we have seen tremendous progress in all these areas in the last hundred years. But how far has this been due to the State? The States have deployed lots of resources in these areas and provided lot of encouragement and coordination. The spread of the impact of science, technology and education has been spectacular all over the World. But the discoveries, the innovations and the research and development efforts in the frontiers of science and technology continue to be concentrated in a few countries. Most of the States buy or borrow technology: some States are too small in size or too poor in quality of people to be an equal partner in the advancement of science and technology. People in States with large and poor populations look at the TVs in wonder as to how some parts of the World are so affluent in the way they derive the benefits of technology in their lives. By becoming a citizen of a sovereign State, very few individuals, households or corporations have access to the best of modern education, technology or science.
Fourth, how far has the State as an institution provided economic growth, quality of life, economic stabilization and economic equality? Reconstruction & Development Economics have made great strides with the World Bank, International Finance Corporation (Washington) and helped strengthen State-led initiatives for economic reconstruction and development in Japan, Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa over the last six / seven decades. Russian economy and China made tremendous economic progress under State-led mechanisms. So, did Singapore, Korea, Thailand and Philippines. But State-led planned economic development failed miserably in India and Pakistan. Development finance institutions lost their prime status over the last two decades. Development economics has shifted emphasis on utilizing market mechanism for economic growth rather than merely on State planning and control. And, yet large parts of the World are afflicted by huge populations living below the poverty line, low productivity and stagnation in economic activity. The institution of State has not proved a panacea for faster and broad-based economic growth every where and for all times. Even the advanced economy States (governments) seem to be fumbling to maintain consistent economic growth as economic globalization progressed fast in the last three decades.
The institution of State has also not been able to show exemplary success in economic stabilization except for brief periods: recessions, stagflation, hyper-inflation, depressions have recurred time and again. Even attempts of State-led fiscal policy and monetary policies have shown mixed performance in ensuring stabilization: where the States succeeded in stabilization, they also created economic problems of high debt burden and external account imbalances. In the globalizing environment, the States have performed very poorly in terms stabilization. State is no longer a panacea.
Yes, the States have through the use of tax and subsidies effected considerable redistribution of income. But, inequalities of income and wealth continue to be a major problem facing most of the States. Even the communist States have not succeeded in achieving economic growth and egalitarian societies simultaneously.
Interestingly, the failure of the States to deliver the promises on a consistent basis all over the World has happened despite considerable international cooperation and dialogue among the States at the United Nations and other forum. Discontent with State performance persists almost everywhere. There is no stop to terrorism, corruption, warfare, drug trafficking, piracy and violation of human rights. Wherever the State operates, it has shown considerable wastage, low productivity, and high inefficiency, high costs, leakages of funds and corruption, delay in response. The State has failed to produce the magic solutions it has promised.
And, yet there is a vested interest in retaining the institution of the State as the best solution to mankind. The major beneficiaries of the institution of the State are political leaders (and to some extent the bureaucracy which serves them). The business of political leadership has become immensely profitable attracting many to enter politics to gain the right to use the sovereign power of the State. The business of politics has now become the dominant market share in the aggregate expenditure of many economies. The sovereign power to tax and borrow without limit is the key to sustaining the growth of the business of political leadership in modern economies. Government expenditure as a proportion of annual aggregate expenditure by all economic agents (households, corporations and governments) has increased from probably less than 10% hundred years ago to average of 40%-50% now.
Now, most learned people will disagree with the view here. First, they will cite so many successes. But they will forget the numerous incidences of failure. This proves the point that the concept of State is not a panacea for the citizens of the States or the World at large. Second, they will point out that the failures are on account of factors not within the control of the States. That is exactly the point - the concept of State does not help mankind to control social, economic and technological behavior of all the people: the institution of the State has no magic wand and unequal to the tasks of protecting mankind.
The wise and learned would say that the institution of the State is the second best magic wand available and the best is not in sight. That is exactly the point of view here. But once it is accepted: two courses of action are possible: one, how best can the concept of State be modified and altered to improve its performance and two, search for an alternative concept. No one it seems is interested in either course of action. This is unfortunate but natural. Concepts are not discarded till they threaten the very existence of human civilization.
There are two propositions in this post:
(a) The current architecture of polity based on the nebulous concepts of the State, its sovereign power and the unrestricted access to such power by Governments does not seem to be delivering the protection the people continues to seek from all risks and uncertainties to life and quality of living.
(b) Maybe the time for abandoning this polity architecture and the concepts on which it is founded on. But some thing new, more effective is yet to evolve: a Stateless civilization is still not in the imagination of man to work on its practical design, leaving the citizens to suffer irrespective of the level of GDP, the index of quality of life and the risks of sustainability.
Most human beings want someone else to protect them from all uncertainties and risks of life and living. At the dawn of mankind with little knowledge of Nature and using Nature to advantage, Man created the concept of God to get help from HIM. Man worshipped God to get an insurance against shortage of food, loss f dependable shelter, disease ad accidental injuries as well as oppression by other human beings and wild life. But nothing could be done if God was not pleased enough wit all prayers and worship to grant such full protection cover. So, man invented within the mankind three demigod groups to emerge as persons with more than ordinary power: (a) the brave, bold, muscle power leaders called kings, (b) the piety-powered leaders apparently with some sort of direct communication with God to enhance the effectiveness of prayer and worships of God, and (c) the strong intellect-powered leaders of science and technology. We call them these three groups as political leaders, the pontiff leaders and the pundit scientist/ technologist leaders.
While political leaders and pontiff leaders need and seek followers among all sections of the society to achieve their goals, the pundits do not need and seek but happens to attract new pundits. The pundit scientists and technologists by their action may help improve the quality of human life irrespective of whether or not they are accepted as leaders of human beings, the political leaders and pontiff leaders promise to help enrich the quality of life of their followers. Pundits prescribes rules that one is at liberty to not to follow at his own risk. The political leaders and pontiff leaders set up rules that are binding on followers if they wish to remain as followers. One can bribe out of punishment for violations of political and pontiff leader-laid rules, but one cannot avoid the consequences of violating scientist/ technologist prescribed rules.
Not many scientist/technologist pundits have ever become simultaneously political leaders. No political leader has become at the same time a scientist/technologist pundit or a pontiff leader. Some pontiff leaders have become pundits at the same time and some pundits have become pontiff leaders after giving up the goals of a pundit. But pontiff leaders have several times tried to become political leaders as well. Most Pundits have accepted, if not become followers, the political and pontiff leaders. Even if the political leader or pontiff leader refused to recognize a pundit, the pundit remained a pundit among the pundit class and recognized as one such by most human beings even after their death.
Since the beginning of civilization, the political and pontiff leaders ruled over the people. But for quite a while, the political leaders and the pontiff leaders cooperated and mutually agreed to divide the spheres of their jurisdiction over the control over the people. Often though, these two groups had come into conflict over exercising influence and control on the people’s minds and lives. Even now this phenomenon continues. In Iraq, for example, the political leadership is taken over by the pontiff leaders. In countries like China, North Korea and Cuba, pontiffs of the opposite variety, piety-powered believers of non-existence of God provide the political leadership. Political parties rule in many democratic countries like USA, India, Japan, UK, France, Germany, Australia and Italy. In some countries like Libya and Indonesia, political parties do exist but the ruling political leadership is a dictator or a military Junta.
Over the years, political leadership has usurped all-pervading powers to an abstract illusive concept of the “State” and reduced the scope of individual freedom and liberty to virtually nothing. Individual citizens have very little scope to seek redress from State/ Government’s denial of even the little freedom / liberty they are entitled to under law or constitution through judiciary because individual resources to fight the State in the courts is generally very little. The ruling political party enjoys all that power is partly shared with elected representatives of the other political parties where democracies function. This power includes the power to oppress the citizens, murder them at will and forcibly appropriate the properties and assets of citizens, though in some countries the judiciary continues to exercise a degree of power to stop such atrocities and oppression of individual citizens by the State.
Let us have a look at the performance of the State as an institution so far in various spheres of the lives of the people. First, have nation states remained nation states. Answer is mostly yes but there are many and continuing failures. Consider, the former USSR. Within fifty years, it has disintegrated into different Nations. Consider the Islamic State of Pakistan of former Indian Muslim Nation: it split into two nations of Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. Iraq is still held together as one nation but the Shyias and Sunnis have not really merged into a single Nation. Sri Lanka after years of fight with the Tamil Tigers has extinguished them to become a single nation. In India, Muslims in a small part of the land in the North India still continues to demand that they are a different nation. For years, small populations in different parts of the Northeast India have gone on with armed struggle to become free nations different from the Indian Nation. In Africa, new nations have emerged. There are many Arab nations and some of them do not recognize the people of Israel as a nation. In the UK, it is not clear which is the Nation – the so-called blacks and browns or the whites. The German have reunited but the Koreans are split nations. The citizenry basis of the definition of State seems to be very instable, weak and fragile.
Second, how has the concept of State performed in the area of providing stability of law and order situation? The incidence of crimes, violence, rape, smuggling, corruption, fraud has not declined in any significant manner to make the citizens of the various States feel that they are better off than they were 200 years ago.
Third, how far has the State as an institution helped progress of education, science and technology? Yes, we have seen tremendous progress in all these areas in the last hundred years. But how far has this been due to the State? The States have deployed lots of resources in these areas and provided lot of encouragement and coordination. The spread of the impact of science, technology and education has been spectacular all over the World. But the discoveries, the innovations and the research and development efforts in the frontiers of science and technology continue to be concentrated in a few countries. Most of the States buy or borrow technology: some States are too small in size or too poor in quality of people to be an equal partner in the advancement of science and technology. People in States with large and poor populations look at the TVs in wonder as to how some parts of the World are so affluent in the way they derive the benefits of technology in their lives. By becoming a citizen of a sovereign State, very few individuals, households or corporations have access to the best of modern education, technology or science.
Fourth, how far has the State as an institution provided economic growth, quality of life, economic stabilization and economic equality? Reconstruction & Development Economics have made great strides with the World Bank, International Finance Corporation (Washington) and helped strengthen State-led initiatives for economic reconstruction and development in Japan, Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa over the last six / seven decades. Russian economy and China made tremendous economic progress under State-led mechanisms. So, did Singapore, Korea, Thailand and Philippines. But State-led planned economic development failed miserably in India and Pakistan. Development finance institutions lost their prime status over the last two decades. Development economics has shifted emphasis on utilizing market mechanism for economic growth rather than merely on State planning and control. And, yet large parts of the World are afflicted by huge populations living below the poverty line, low productivity and stagnation in economic activity. The institution of State has not proved a panacea for faster and broad-based economic growth every where and for all times. Even the advanced economy States (governments) seem to be fumbling to maintain consistent economic growth as economic globalization progressed fast in the last three decades.
The institution of State has also not been able to show exemplary success in economic stabilization except for brief periods: recessions, stagflation, hyper-inflation, depressions have recurred time and again. Even attempts of State-led fiscal policy and monetary policies have shown mixed performance in ensuring stabilization: where the States succeeded in stabilization, they also created economic problems of high debt burden and external account imbalances. In the globalizing environment, the States have performed very poorly in terms stabilization. State is no longer a panacea.
Yes, the States have through the use of tax and subsidies effected considerable redistribution of income. But, inequalities of income and wealth continue to be a major problem facing most of the States. Even the communist States have not succeeded in achieving economic growth and egalitarian societies simultaneously.
Interestingly, the failure of the States to deliver the promises on a consistent basis all over the World has happened despite considerable international cooperation and dialogue among the States at the United Nations and other forum. Discontent with State performance persists almost everywhere. There is no stop to terrorism, corruption, warfare, drug trafficking, piracy and violation of human rights. Wherever the State operates, it has shown considerable wastage, low productivity, and high inefficiency, high costs, leakages of funds and corruption, delay in response. The State has failed to produce the magic solutions it has promised.
And, yet there is a vested interest in retaining the institution of the State as the best solution to mankind. The major beneficiaries of the institution of the State are political leaders (and to some extent the bureaucracy which serves them). The business of political leadership has become immensely profitable attracting many to enter politics to gain the right to use the sovereign power of the State. The business of politics has now become the dominant market share in the aggregate expenditure of many economies. The sovereign power to tax and borrow without limit is the key to sustaining the growth of the business of political leadership in modern economies. Government expenditure as a proportion of annual aggregate expenditure by all economic agents (households, corporations and governments) has increased from probably less than 10% hundred years ago to average of 40%-50% now.
Now, most learned people will disagree with the view here. First, they will cite so many successes. But they will forget the numerous incidences of failure. This proves the point that the concept of State is not a panacea for the citizens of the States or the World at large. Second, they will point out that the failures are on account of factors not within the control of the States. That is exactly the point - the concept of State does not help mankind to control social, economic and technological behavior of all the people: the institution of the State has no magic wand and unequal to the tasks of protecting mankind.
The wise and learned would say that the institution of the State is the second best magic wand available and the best is not in sight. That is exactly the point of view here. But once it is accepted: two courses of action are possible: one, how best can the concept of State be modified and altered to improve its performance and two, search for an alternative concept. No one it seems is interested in either course of action. This is unfortunate but natural. Concepts are not discarded till they threaten the very existence of human civilization.
Feb 25, 2011
Poor, Law Breakers Right to Oppress Tax Paying Citizens
Democracy provides a big opportunity for encouraging the poor to break the laws and oppress the tax-paying residents in collaboration of resporceful law nreakers capable of making law enforcement agencies inactive.. And this is done with the active support of the Law Makers and Protectors of Law. There is no need for the poor to unite and participate in bloody revolution. The Police and the Civic Administration ensures that the poor can oppress the tax paying residents at their will.
One such taxpayer lady recently posted her helplessness against such oppression from immigrant labor occupying the public space for their residence at www.karmayog.org - a platform for social and civic issues:
"100 yards from the Anti Corruption Bureau office on P B Marg, right in front of the sprawling Kamala Mills Compound, diagonally opposite the Hard Rock Cafe, a large group of migrant labourers have taken up residence... with plastic sheets, tiles uprooted from the pavement, railings and bamboos pilfered from a nearby work site, and bits and pieces salvaged from trash heaps. They have even built a makeshift temple very recently out of these scraps where elaborate puja is conducted by the women. The pavement is completely blocked. So they have spilled out on the road. They have set up cooking fires on the road itself and defecateand bathe openly on the road itself. They also use the road itself to make their wares ... garlands and baskets and trinkets and food items which they sell. The children, specially the very young, crawl directly on the road. This road has become a very busy thoroughfare recently, due to all the offices in the neighbourhood. But half the road is taken up by the squatters. Pedestrians inch their way down the middle of the road, trying to dodge buses and cars. Young girls working at the BPOs in adjacent offices, run the gamut of walking through crowds of young men lolling around in their underwear, squatting on the road. At times, violent fights break out between the inmates, spilling out into the opposite lane. At peak hours, huge traffic jams start as the traffic moves forward in a single lane, barely inches away from the cooking fires burning awayon the road. And at night, buses and trucks roaring down the ill lit road are ingrave danger of running down the barely seen huddles of people sleeping directly on the road.
Apart from being filthy, insanitary, a breeding ground for disease, apart from being a traffic hazard and a safety hazard, apart from being a complete transgression of all BMC and RTO rules, it is unthinkable that human beings are being given permission to live like this on such a busy thoroughfare - and they must be given permission by SOMEONE, because they can't just live like that in open sight, breaking all the rules without someone in authority turning a blind eye.
So who is this someone we need to speak to? Who is there in BMC who can help? Or the police? The local police have obviously been looking the other way and it obviously is worth their inattention. So nothing to be gained by complaining.
Any ideas? "
It is fortunate that she was born in India, even as she must be proud of India and Indian democracy. She however has failed to understand that how fortunate we are that the politicians who makes the laws and administer them also enjoy the powers to break the laws and allow others whom they like to break the laws. That is the fundamental principle of democracy. The politicians want the rich and the not-so-poor to give all sorts of taxes for the benefit of the politicians, their employees on the rolls of the Government and the poor at large. They also want that the rich and the not-so-poor share the poverty and poverty-related style of living along with the poor in the neighborhood. That is what the taxpaying residents of PB Marg in Mumbai must willing accept to do and endure. This is a cheaper and safer alternative that the politicians and their administrative employees and policy army offer to the residents. If sharing the neighborhood with immigrant labor wass not accepted, the costs of construction of buildings and projects would go up and there could be revolutions organised by the politicians to force the residents to share their residences with the immigrant labor. The residents must therefore accept what is happening.
Clearly there is no point in complaining to police, municipality or the government or the politicians. Democracy still provides a solution that have a chance of success. The residents must form civil society groups to agitate on the roads and government offices, provided they can mobilize the active support of the electronic and print media along with the active support of a few socially-responsive High Court Lawyers who could file and pursue public interest litigation cases free of cost and fees against such gross negligence of responsibility and obligations of the police, municipal officials and the State Government. There are judges who still like that laws are enforced and not broken with the support of the civic authorities, police, administrators and politicians.
Enjoy also the various interesting responses to the Lady citizens cry for help:
1. "u can complain to the encroachment dept of bmc in vt with a copy to worli police station."
I wish immediate redressal of the problem on complaining as above. It is very surprising, encrachment of public property by illegally by immigrants in a city observed by residents are not known to the Encroachment department and Police Station. The Indian Constitution provides for only right to complaint of law breaking in broad daylight at the same place for days together and no obligations on the Govt. and the Police to act suo motto against continuous, uninterrupted unauthorised misuse of public property.
2."It is definately the job of BMC to remove the encroachments as the pavements and road maintenance comes under the jurisdiction of BMC. For getting the right information you may fill in the Application form for The Right to Information Act 2005 addressed to Asst. Engineer (Bldg. & Factories) Brihanmumbai Mahanagarpalika whereby you can put in your queries and the queries are addressed withing a period of say 45 days. I would also like to inform you that Government officials are very slow in taking action, but keep writing, you may also visit the BMC, Asst. Municipal Commissioner at your Ward, there is a timing for meeting the AMC, which you may find out at the BMC office pertaining to your ward."
3. "It is sad but true that only monetary loss spurs many public servants into action. Therefore, it is suggested that the salaries of the ward officer and workers be held up for as long as it takes to clear out the enchrachers and a proportion of each higher-up's salary (right up to the Commissioner) be withheld till such time. Maybe this is all wishful thinking since surely, such action will require suitable legislation."
4."The least we can do is to spread this message to as many Mumbaikars as a possible. Some of us will know BMC officials, Maharashtra Govt officials etc. A repetitive and persistent sending of this message will move the right people to act some time at least."
5."Keep Media out, What they do is mere Business, Similarly, Also Keep Legal Help out, At times what one needs is simple help And if Namita cannot write directly to BMC, I can do it,"
6"Even under the existing municipal laws and Police Acts there are ample provisions to deal with such situations. The pavement dwellers have to be mercilessly evacuated but they have to be kept in specially prepared shelters in public spaces. It should not be difficult for the government to provide such shelters which can be taken as modern versions of free Dharamshalas (inns). Encroachments by humans themselves for residence or for trade (like keeping pushcarts for sale of goods, etc. or extending shops on to the pavements or keeping chairs, tables on the pavements as also goods and clothes for display either by shop owners or other sellers, etc.) should not be tolerated and dealt with as expeditiously as possible so that they will have no accrued rights of possession and hence sympathy."
7. "This is the case in almost all cosmopolitan cities and towns. Poor farmers and sgriculture labourers migrate to cities in search of livelyhood or brought to cities with false promises by the labour contractors. These labour contractors are in league with local politicians or their henchmen. No local police dare to look at such problems in right earnest. On the otherside of the facts where else they can live when once they are forced to leave their homes due to accute poverty? Has any government formulated schemes for their welfare? It is better some local NGOs take up the issue with the local authorities and find ways to overcome the problem and at the same time provide shelter to such orphoned people."
8. "Dont complaint to the police constable, Instead meet ACP of that area &Asst Municipal commissioner who is supposed to look after the area. Dont go alone take some members socially committed like you. Go to the officials with photos &writeups. If they dont cooperate politely tell them that you approaching higherofficials Senior officers . I think this may solve this problem."
9. I can understand your frustration at the lack of information as to who is responsible for dereliction of their duty. I would suggest the following: File a written complaint, possible with names and addresses of a few other concerned individuals like yourself, to both the BMC and the traffic police. - Written complaints DO work File an RTI request enquiring who in the BMC is responsible for encroachments for that particular ward.
In this way the authorities cannot claim that they were unaware of the problem and would have acted if they would have known. Once you have the name of the officer, who gets paid by public funds and has decided not to do his job, or look the other way, file a complaint against them requesting departmental action. Involve the local press."
10."...unless the government and civil society breaks the nexus between builders, underworld and politicians, we can never have affordable housing in this city and would continue to see such encroachments growing. You think anyone would want to stay like this on a pavement, with families and kids? I am sorry but I found this comment elitist by this citizen who seem to be insensitive to the core issues faced by this city,....Am sure this sight is nothing uncommon about many areas of Mumbai. Most of these pavement dwellers work in unorganised sectors as labourers. Majority are employed by some mega infrastrcuture projects (metro or flyover or towers) in this city whom all our citizens, like Ms. Namita want to get finished soon, yet they would get so offended by such sights. These pavement dwellers can hardly afford a basic roof over their heads...even in slums, where the rentals are unimaginably high. So what choices do they have? Please find that 'someone' who do not displace them but rehabilitate them in a decent housing!"
11. "Ask the authority to force them to move out. Arrange an alternative place for the residents and suggest them. This may help to prevent agitation and protest."
These are very interesting. Everyone is of the view that complain, complain and complain even if in vain! We have a Democracy by Complaints and of Complaints and for Complaints.
Another respose is:" The real problem is not that your sensibilities are offended and that the middle class would rather that these poor people labor "out of sight", but that the builders/contractors have not provided transit camps, basic sanitation and classrooms for the people which is required under the law. The reaction of people to this issue is really disgusting. Find out which projects they work on, who the builder/contractor is and then find out why they have not provided them with facilities? Or else just use another road."
But the question remains: how did the authorities concerned gave parmission or clearance to construction projects or other projects of private parties or public sector or government department without their showing how they will ensure that the temporary immigrant labor does not affect the civic life of the residents. So, there is a clear connivance of convenience to all - the sposors of the project, the project contractors, the police, the temporary workers to force the tax paying residents to endure the hurt and bear the risk of damage.
One such taxpayer lady recently posted her helplessness against such oppression from immigrant labor occupying the public space for their residence at www.karmayog.org - a platform for social and civic issues:
"100 yards from the Anti Corruption Bureau office on P B Marg, right in front of the sprawling Kamala Mills Compound, diagonally opposite the Hard Rock Cafe, a large group of migrant labourers have taken up residence... with plastic sheets, tiles uprooted from the pavement, railings and bamboos pilfered from a nearby work site, and bits and pieces salvaged from trash heaps. They have even built a makeshift temple very recently out of these scraps where elaborate puja is conducted by the women. The pavement is completely blocked. So they have spilled out on the road. They have set up cooking fires on the road itself and defecateand bathe openly on the road itself. They also use the road itself to make their wares ... garlands and baskets and trinkets and food items which they sell. The children, specially the very young, crawl directly on the road. This road has become a very busy thoroughfare recently, due to all the offices in the neighbourhood. But half the road is taken up by the squatters. Pedestrians inch their way down the middle of the road, trying to dodge buses and cars. Young girls working at the BPOs in adjacent offices, run the gamut of walking through crowds of young men lolling around in their underwear, squatting on the road. At times, violent fights break out between the inmates, spilling out into the opposite lane. At peak hours, huge traffic jams start as the traffic moves forward in a single lane, barely inches away from the cooking fires burning awayon the road. And at night, buses and trucks roaring down the ill lit road are ingrave danger of running down the barely seen huddles of people sleeping directly on the road.
Apart from being filthy, insanitary, a breeding ground for disease, apart from being a traffic hazard and a safety hazard, apart from being a complete transgression of all BMC and RTO rules, it is unthinkable that human beings are being given permission to live like this on such a busy thoroughfare - and they must be given permission by SOMEONE, because they can't just live like that in open sight, breaking all the rules without someone in authority turning a blind eye.
So who is this someone we need to speak to? Who is there in BMC who can help? Or the police? The local police have obviously been looking the other way and it obviously is worth their inattention. So nothing to be gained by complaining.
Any ideas? "
It is fortunate that she was born in India, even as she must be proud of India and Indian democracy. She however has failed to understand that how fortunate we are that the politicians who makes the laws and administer them also enjoy the powers to break the laws and allow others whom they like to break the laws. That is the fundamental principle of democracy. The politicians want the rich and the not-so-poor to give all sorts of taxes for the benefit of the politicians, their employees on the rolls of the Government and the poor at large. They also want that the rich and the not-so-poor share the poverty and poverty-related style of living along with the poor in the neighborhood. That is what the taxpaying residents of PB Marg in Mumbai must willing accept to do and endure. This is a cheaper and safer alternative that the politicians and their administrative employees and policy army offer to the residents. If sharing the neighborhood with immigrant labor wass not accepted, the costs of construction of buildings and projects would go up and there could be revolutions organised by the politicians to force the residents to share their residences with the immigrant labor. The residents must therefore accept what is happening.
Clearly there is no point in complaining to police, municipality or the government or the politicians. Democracy still provides a solution that have a chance of success. The residents must form civil society groups to agitate on the roads and government offices, provided they can mobilize the active support of the electronic and print media along with the active support of a few socially-responsive High Court Lawyers who could file and pursue public interest litigation cases free of cost and fees against such gross negligence of responsibility and obligations of the police, municipal officials and the State Government. There are judges who still like that laws are enforced and not broken with the support of the civic authorities, police, administrators and politicians.
Enjoy also the various interesting responses to the Lady citizens cry for help:
1. "u can complain to the encroachment dept of bmc in vt with a copy to worli police station."
I wish immediate redressal of the problem on complaining as above. It is very surprising, encrachment of public property by illegally by immigrants in a city observed by residents are not known to the Encroachment department and Police Station. The Indian Constitution provides for only right to complaint of law breaking in broad daylight at the same place for days together and no obligations on the Govt. and the Police to act suo motto against continuous, uninterrupted unauthorised misuse of public property.
2."It is definately the job of BMC to remove the encroachments as the pavements and road maintenance comes under the jurisdiction of BMC. For getting the right information you may fill in the Application form for The Right to Information Act 2005 addressed to Asst. Engineer (Bldg. & Factories) Brihanmumbai Mahanagarpalika whereby you can put in your queries and the queries are addressed withing a period of say 45 days. I would also like to inform you that Government officials are very slow in taking action, but keep writing, you may also visit the BMC, Asst. Municipal Commissioner at your Ward, there is a timing for meeting the AMC, which you may find out at the BMC office pertaining to your ward."
3. "It is sad but true that only monetary loss spurs many public servants into action. Therefore, it is suggested that the salaries of the ward officer and workers be held up for as long as it takes to clear out the enchrachers and a proportion of each higher-up's salary (right up to the Commissioner) be withheld till such time. Maybe this is all wishful thinking since surely, such action will require suitable legislation."
4."The least we can do is to spread this message to as many Mumbaikars as a possible. Some of us will know BMC officials, Maharashtra Govt officials etc. A repetitive and persistent sending of this message will move the right people to act some time at least."
5."Keep Media out, What they do is mere Business, Similarly, Also Keep Legal Help out, At times what one needs is simple help And if Namita cannot write directly to BMC, I can do it,"
6"Even under the existing municipal laws and Police Acts there are ample provisions to deal with such situations. The pavement dwellers have to be mercilessly evacuated but they have to be kept in specially prepared shelters in public spaces. It should not be difficult for the government to provide such shelters which can be taken as modern versions of free Dharamshalas (inns). Encroachments by humans themselves for residence or for trade (like keeping pushcarts for sale of goods, etc. or extending shops on to the pavements or keeping chairs, tables on the pavements as also goods and clothes for display either by shop owners or other sellers, etc.) should not be tolerated and dealt with as expeditiously as possible so that they will have no accrued rights of possession and hence sympathy."
7. "This is the case in almost all cosmopolitan cities and towns. Poor farmers and sgriculture labourers migrate to cities in search of livelyhood or brought to cities with false promises by the labour contractors. These labour contractors are in league with local politicians or their henchmen. No local police dare to look at such problems in right earnest. On the otherside of the facts where else they can live when once they are forced to leave their homes due to accute poverty? Has any government formulated schemes for their welfare? It is better some local NGOs take up the issue with the local authorities and find ways to overcome the problem and at the same time provide shelter to such orphoned people."
8. "Dont complaint to the police constable, Instead meet ACP of that area &Asst Municipal commissioner who is supposed to look after the area. Dont go alone take some members socially committed like you. Go to the officials with photos &writeups. If they dont cooperate politely tell them that you approaching higherofficials Senior officers . I think this may solve this problem."
9. I can understand your frustration at the lack of information as to who is responsible for dereliction of their duty. I would suggest the following: File a written complaint, possible with names and addresses of a few other concerned individuals like yourself, to both the BMC and the traffic police. - Written complaints DO work File an RTI request enquiring who in the BMC is responsible for encroachments for that particular ward.
In this way the authorities cannot claim that they were unaware of the problem and would have acted if they would have known. Once you have the name of the officer, who gets paid by public funds and has decided not to do his job, or look the other way, file a complaint against them requesting departmental action. Involve the local press."
10."...unless the government and civil society breaks the nexus between builders, underworld and politicians, we can never have affordable housing in this city and would continue to see such encroachments growing. You think anyone would want to stay like this on a pavement, with families and kids? I am sorry but I found this comment elitist by this citizen who seem to be insensitive to the core issues faced by this city,....Am sure this sight is nothing uncommon about many areas of Mumbai. Most of these pavement dwellers work in unorganised sectors as labourers. Majority are employed by some mega infrastrcuture projects (metro or flyover or towers) in this city whom all our citizens, like Ms. Namita want to get finished soon, yet they would get so offended by such sights. These pavement dwellers can hardly afford a basic roof over their heads...even in slums, where the rentals are unimaginably high. So what choices do they have? Please find that 'someone' who do not displace them but rehabilitate them in a decent housing!"
11. "Ask the authority to force them to move out. Arrange an alternative place for the residents and suggest them. This may help to prevent agitation and protest."
These are very interesting. Everyone is of the view that complain, complain and complain even if in vain! We have a Democracy by Complaints and of Complaints and for Complaints.
Another respose is:" The real problem is not that your sensibilities are offended and that the middle class would rather that these poor people labor "out of sight", but that the builders/contractors have not provided transit camps, basic sanitation and classrooms for the people which is required under the law. The reaction of people to this issue is really disgusting. Find out which projects they work on, who the builder/contractor is and then find out why they have not provided them with facilities? Or else just use another road."
But the question remains: how did the authorities concerned gave parmission or clearance to construction projects or other projects of private parties or public sector or government department without their showing how they will ensure that the temporary immigrant labor does not affect the civic life of the residents. So, there is a clear connivance of convenience to all - the sposors of the project, the project contractors, the police, the temporary workers to force the tax paying residents to endure the hurt and bear the risk of damage.
Feb 19, 2011
Response is in the Perception of the Brainholder
From poets to pedestrians, politicians of different hues and social scientists of different colors, intellectuals to high government officials, representatives of civil society to the faithful if particular ideologies, and, of course, from ministers to the scared girls, their parents and the common people have shown different reactions to the single horribly sad and distressing incident. Everyone is aghast and angry that such a disgraceful incident can take place.
It was few minutes before midnight on February 15 when three drunk young goons insulted and molested a 21 year lady returning home from her work and murdered her 15 year old brother who tried to plead and protest against the goons' outrageously uncivilized behavior while the brother was riding home in his bicycle along with his elder sister from the Rail station along a road that is flanked by the policemen-guarded residences of high-ranking government administrator, police official and judge in the populous town of Barasat, about 45 kms from the City of Kolkata. The girl had sought help from the armed policemen guarding the government official residence in vain while her brother was being beaten to death. The boy was taken to hospital by some passing rickshaw van puller while the murders fled. The boy soon thereafter died in the hospital. This is not the first incident of its kind in West Bengal cities and towns in many years: such incidents are regularly reported with high frequency in the Calcutta dailies and TV channels. Even as one of the murders of February 15 was arrested by the Police, reports of further similar incidents that led only to injuries inflicted by goons but not death have been reported in the next two days.
It is an interesting study of varying perceptions and the poor quality of Bengali intellect that gets revealed from the reactions. First are the Chief Minister’s actions: he visited the bereaved family to console them the very next morning, offered them all help and two lakh rupees as assistance.He did just the right thing as he must have perceived that as the chief of the political administration in the State he needed to be beside thethe family affected by a gruesome incident. He also had perceived something more. After returning to office, he issued fresh instructions to the police that they need to be more vigilant in patrolling and should be responsive to demand for quick action while the goons are busy committing crimes, etc. This was indeed the just reaction from his perceptive perspective as the minister in charge of the police department. How wide-angled had his perception been that the Chief Minister did not see that he as the minister of the police department needed to own the moral responsibility for the incident resulting from allowing the Police to function so incompetently that they were not guarding/ patrolling roads known to be the roaming place of goons and criminals at night, causing danger to common people who needed to use the road. He was probably very nervous about his failure to discharge the responsibility of protecting citizens traveling on a major road from known, operative local goons. The danger was known to even the common residents but his policemen did not bother beyond guarding the security of the residences of the government officials. His perception might have been that this was a rare incident and the police department should wake up to its basic responsibility only now. So, he forgot to appeal to the citizens’ at large seeking their pardon for his failure to keep the police department in proper shape to serve the basic cause for which a police department is supposed to exist. He must have done right as he never perceived that he has done any wrong or mistake and that he has no accountability for the acts of the goons freely roaming along the main road to commit crimes at their will.
What did the politicians do? The same thing they do in case of murders: claim that the victim was their supporter. Each political party's perception was that the incident, though very sad, is one over which they could draw sympathy from the public towards them in the current environment of continuing political murders throughout the State of West Bengal. Each party's perception was that this would be also yet another opportunity to blame the other party for being the home of the murders. The political parties reacted as per the common political party's perceptive perspective in these days. What they did must have been appropriate.
This time however the bereaved family and the neighbors objected to political party association and did not allow any political party to capture the opportunity to carry the dead body in a procession towards the cremation site. Whole of West Bengal knows that all most all goons and criminals in the State either enjoy the patronage and support of one political party or the other (and some enjoy a close friendship of the Police), or, patronize one politician or another (some patronize one policeman or other). So, the political parties' calls for a local bandh (strike) against the incident fizzled out. The next day the residents of the town made a silent condolence and protest signature campaign and lit candles and disallowed any political party activists/ members to come near. The common people had their own perception about the incident: they did not want any one responsible for creating conditions that have given rise to these kinds of incidents any where around during the expressions of protests and grief. They wanted the politicians to leave them alone in their moments of silent grief and tearful eyes enduring suffering under the oppressively idiotic political regime in the State. They must have been right in what they did: for a while they breathed air unpolluted by politicians and their armies.
Having failed to exploit a sad incident to their advantage before the forthcoming elections, they rushed to the TV studios to participate in debates over the sad incident. All f them expressed sadness over the incident. They did what they perceived their role to be: as leaders of people, each one of them expressed their sadness and grief over the murder and the incident (the chief minister did the same along with the Governor; the intellectuals and commentators did the same). As if without their expressions of sadness the public at large would be less sad! As if the people were waiting to see them expressing their sadness on the TV screen! They must have done the right thing.
But what do the politicians and intellectuals do during the debate other than expressing sadness. The opposition parties blamed the 34-year misrule of the CPM-dominated communist/leftist coalition government: this communist government, according to them, had patronized criminals and goons, had made the police force work according to the needs of the ruling party rather than in accordance with the responsibilities of the police force in a civilized, democratic State, and had encouraged the proliferation of liquor shops in every corner of the streets / roads of the State to get the youth turn into goons of the type capable of crimes witnessed in the incident of the 15th February night. No common apolitical citizen of the State would doubt the thesis of the opposition parties. The opposition parties did what was right: they gave us a brilliant analysis of the situation that gives birth to the incidents of this type.
The ruling party also did what they considered right. According to their perception such incidents are few and far between in the State and reported much less in terms of their occurring as compared to other states in India, that it is not possible to guarantee such-incident-free conditions to the 85 million citizens of the State with a 0.5 million strong police force, that the cause of youth taking to drinking at heart's content to become potential girl-molesters and murders on public roads is the consumption-oriented (capitalism) that has gained ground in the last two decades because of the Govt. of India's economic policies. Their response must be right because the whole world witnesses such incidents, because countries with capitalistic consumerism witness such crimes and because perceptions do not require to be justified by scientific and empirically tested/testable arguments. The only strength of their analysis is that they seemed helpless in not concealing their apprehension that given the consumption-oriented societal life, such incidents have to be experienced and endured even in leftist rule. They did right in stating the Truth at least on this occasion: people must be prepared to accept incidents like the one of February 15th night as part of life so long as the society remains consumption oriented and pursues the path of capitalism, globalization and liberalization. People must think what they want to do: the Maoist extremists are calling everyone to join them to destroy the current socio-economic set up of capitalism and consumerism! Or, do they want to endure crime against women.
What did the social scientists have to say? They perceived that all these kinds of criminal behavior of youth are essentially due to their upbringing in the family: today's murders and women-molesters are born out of neglect from parent's love, training and lack of education and extreme deprivation as well as the progressive disintegration of society into dispersed units without bondage of affection and cooperation. That is again a master piece of analysis: as if not widely known by most of the TV viewers. The social scientists are right. People have to wait. There is no magic wand available. Each parent must provide adequate love, affection, time, education and training as also facilities at childhood so that the children have difficulty of growing up with goons of the February 15th fame as their role models!
What about other intellectuals? They used their intellect to blame one or more of the following: the incompetence of the police force, the criminalization of politics, the turning of police from being the servant of the State to one of the ruling party politicians, the politicization of education and educational institutions, the inadequate generation of employment activities in the state, the degradation of societal value systems, and the like. They demanded immediate apprehension of the culprits and exemplary punishment to them (as if the common citizens were waiting for their considered opinion to demand the same).
The considerate commentators were worried that the criminals were drunk, as if crime committed in drunken state constituted a lesser crime than the one committed in a non-drunk state. They must be right as they perceive drinks are the villiain of piece and known goons have the right to commit crimes in drunken state on the roads. There seems to be a law prohibiting driving cars in drunk state, but committing crime in drunk state on the road is not prohibited! Some others are sympathetic to one of the three goons apprehended so far comes from a poor family and hence must have been exposed at early childhood to regular incidents of torturing of women by men at home and in the neighborhood. These are real beauty gems of expert opinions: the child became adult and did not know what he was doing was a criminal act. God and the society forgive them who does not know what they are doing! God and society forgive them those responsible for preventing crime from allowing those ignorant of what constitutes a crime to commit crimes.
One government official however was a bit cautious: he seemed to have said something like 'nothing can be said about the incident as the investigations have just started and that the murdered boy's elder sister was probably a divorcee'. He was right in his perception: the risk of a divorce attracting attempt of molestation was higher. Maybe women will try henceforth not to get divorce, once married! A lady poet did write a column praising the bravery (as did all others praise the bravery in the face of beating and weapons with the criminals) of the 15-year old who protested at the time of the crime being committed but expressed her apprehension that in future such bravery would receive a great jolt because the brave people would be cowed down by the fear of getting murdered. Most interesting however was her perception that such incidence are the result of the age-old basic trait and instinct of Men perceiving women as a commodity of consumption. She is right: men are like that, it is immaterial that the man-dominated societies made laws to categorise certain behavior against women as punishable crimes and the 15 year old who tried to save the honor of his sister was not a man but a mere boy. Maybe she had not heard of a policeMan, Bapi Sen, who was killed by goons when he tried to stop them from committing crimes against some women a few years ago in her own city.
The different elite sections of the Bengali society have done extremely well in throwing lot of light of knowledge, wisdom and prompt response after the incident. However, one is not sure if the roads will be illuminated enough or the girls and boys enlightened enough not to become victims of infamous incidents of the 15th February disgracing the entire Bengali society!
It was few minutes before midnight on February 15 when three drunk young goons insulted and molested a 21 year lady returning home from her work and murdered her 15 year old brother who tried to plead and protest against the goons' outrageously uncivilized behavior while the brother was riding home in his bicycle along with his elder sister from the Rail station along a road that is flanked by the policemen-guarded residences of high-ranking government administrator, police official and judge in the populous town of Barasat, about 45 kms from the City of Kolkata. The girl had sought help from the armed policemen guarding the government official residence in vain while her brother was being beaten to death. The boy was taken to hospital by some passing rickshaw van puller while the murders fled. The boy soon thereafter died in the hospital. This is not the first incident of its kind in West Bengal cities and towns in many years: such incidents are regularly reported with high frequency in the Calcutta dailies and TV channels. Even as one of the murders of February 15 was arrested by the Police, reports of further similar incidents that led only to injuries inflicted by goons but not death have been reported in the next two days.
It is an interesting study of varying perceptions and the poor quality of Bengali intellect that gets revealed from the reactions. First are the Chief Minister’s actions: he visited the bereaved family to console them the very next morning, offered them all help and two lakh rupees as assistance.He did just the right thing as he must have perceived that as the chief of the political administration in the State he needed to be beside thethe family affected by a gruesome incident. He also had perceived something more. After returning to office, he issued fresh instructions to the police that they need to be more vigilant in patrolling and should be responsive to demand for quick action while the goons are busy committing crimes, etc. This was indeed the just reaction from his perceptive perspective as the minister in charge of the police department. How wide-angled had his perception been that the Chief Minister did not see that he as the minister of the police department needed to own the moral responsibility for the incident resulting from allowing the Police to function so incompetently that they were not guarding/ patrolling roads known to be the roaming place of goons and criminals at night, causing danger to common people who needed to use the road. He was probably very nervous about his failure to discharge the responsibility of protecting citizens traveling on a major road from known, operative local goons. The danger was known to even the common residents but his policemen did not bother beyond guarding the security of the residences of the government officials. His perception might have been that this was a rare incident and the police department should wake up to its basic responsibility only now. So, he forgot to appeal to the citizens’ at large seeking their pardon for his failure to keep the police department in proper shape to serve the basic cause for which a police department is supposed to exist. He must have done right as he never perceived that he has done any wrong or mistake and that he has no accountability for the acts of the goons freely roaming along the main road to commit crimes at their will.
What did the politicians do? The same thing they do in case of murders: claim that the victim was their supporter. Each political party's perception was that the incident, though very sad, is one over which they could draw sympathy from the public towards them in the current environment of continuing political murders throughout the State of West Bengal. Each party's perception was that this would be also yet another opportunity to blame the other party for being the home of the murders. The political parties reacted as per the common political party's perceptive perspective in these days. What they did must have been appropriate.
This time however the bereaved family and the neighbors objected to political party association and did not allow any political party to capture the opportunity to carry the dead body in a procession towards the cremation site. Whole of West Bengal knows that all most all goons and criminals in the State either enjoy the patronage and support of one political party or the other (and some enjoy a close friendship of the Police), or, patronize one politician or another (some patronize one policeman or other). So, the political parties' calls for a local bandh (strike) against the incident fizzled out. The next day the residents of the town made a silent condolence and protest signature campaign and lit candles and disallowed any political party activists/ members to come near. The common people had their own perception about the incident: they did not want any one responsible for creating conditions that have given rise to these kinds of incidents any where around during the expressions of protests and grief. They wanted the politicians to leave them alone in their moments of silent grief and tearful eyes enduring suffering under the oppressively idiotic political regime in the State. They must have been right in what they did: for a while they breathed air unpolluted by politicians and their armies.
Having failed to exploit a sad incident to their advantage before the forthcoming elections, they rushed to the TV studios to participate in debates over the sad incident. All f them expressed sadness over the incident. They did what they perceived their role to be: as leaders of people, each one of them expressed their sadness and grief over the murder and the incident (the chief minister did the same along with the Governor; the intellectuals and commentators did the same). As if without their expressions of sadness the public at large would be less sad! As if the people were waiting to see them expressing their sadness on the TV screen! They must have done the right thing.
But what do the politicians and intellectuals do during the debate other than expressing sadness. The opposition parties blamed the 34-year misrule of the CPM-dominated communist/leftist coalition government: this communist government, according to them, had patronized criminals and goons, had made the police force work according to the needs of the ruling party rather than in accordance with the responsibilities of the police force in a civilized, democratic State, and had encouraged the proliferation of liquor shops in every corner of the streets / roads of the State to get the youth turn into goons of the type capable of crimes witnessed in the incident of the 15th February night. No common apolitical citizen of the State would doubt the thesis of the opposition parties. The opposition parties did what was right: they gave us a brilliant analysis of the situation that gives birth to the incidents of this type.
The ruling party also did what they considered right. According to their perception such incidents are few and far between in the State and reported much less in terms of their occurring as compared to other states in India, that it is not possible to guarantee such-incident-free conditions to the 85 million citizens of the State with a 0.5 million strong police force, that the cause of youth taking to drinking at heart's content to become potential girl-molesters and murders on public roads is the consumption-oriented (capitalism) that has gained ground in the last two decades because of the Govt. of India's economic policies. Their response must be right because the whole world witnesses such incidents, because countries with capitalistic consumerism witness such crimes and because perceptions do not require to be justified by scientific and empirically tested/testable arguments. The only strength of their analysis is that they seemed helpless in not concealing their apprehension that given the consumption-oriented societal life, such incidents have to be experienced and endured even in leftist rule. They did right in stating the Truth at least on this occasion: people must be prepared to accept incidents like the one of February 15th night as part of life so long as the society remains consumption oriented and pursues the path of capitalism, globalization and liberalization. People must think what they want to do: the Maoist extremists are calling everyone to join them to destroy the current socio-economic set up of capitalism and consumerism! Or, do they want to endure crime against women.
What did the social scientists have to say? They perceived that all these kinds of criminal behavior of youth are essentially due to their upbringing in the family: today's murders and women-molesters are born out of neglect from parent's love, training and lack of education and extreme deprivation as well as the progressive disintegration of society into dispersed units without bondage of affection and cooperation. That is again a master piece of analysis: as if not widely known by most of the TV viewers. The social scientists are right. People have to wait. There is no magic wand available. Each parent must provide adequate love, affection, time, education and training as also facilities at childhood so that the children have difficulty of growing up with goons of the February 15th fame as their role models!
What about other intellectuals? They used their intellect to blame one or more of the following: the incompetence of the police force, the criminalization of politics, the turning of police from being the servant of the State to one of the ruling party politicians, the politicization of education and educational institutions, the inadequate generation of employment activities in the state, the degradation of societal value systems, and the like. They demanded immediate apprehension of the culprits and exemplary punishment to them (as if the common citizens were waiting for their considered opinion to demand the same).
The considerate commentators were worried that the criminals were drunk, as if crime committed in drunken state constituted a lesser crime than the one committed in a non-drunk state. They must be right as they perceive drinks are the villiain of piece and known goons have the right to commit crimes in drunken state on the roads. There seems to be a law prohibiting driving cars in drunk state, but committing crime in drunk state on the road is not prohibited! Some others are sympathetic to one of the three goons apprehended so far comes from a poor family and hence must have been exposed at early childhood to regular incidents of torturing of women by men at home and in the neighborhood. These are real beauty gems of expert opinions: the child became adult and did not know what he was doing was a criminal act. God and the society forgive them who does not know what they are doing! God and society forgive them those responsible for preventing crime from allowing those ignorant of what constitutes a crime to commit crimes.
One government official however was a bit cautious: he seemed to have said something like 'nothing can be said about the incident as the investigations have just started and that the murdered boy's elder sister was probably a divorcee'. He was right in his perception: the risk of a divorce attracting attempt of molestation was higher. Maybe women will try henceforth not to get divorce, once married! A lady poet did write a column praising the bravery (as did all others praise the bravery in the face of beating and weapons with the criminals) of the 15-year old who protested at the time of the crime being committed but expressed her apprehension that in future such bravery would receive a great jolt because the brave people would be cowed down by the fear of getting murdered. Most interesting however was her perception that such incidence are the result of the age-old basic trait and instinct of Men perceiving women as a commodity of consumption. She is right: men are like that, it is immaterial that the man-dominated societies made laws to categorise certain behavior against women as punishable crimes and the 15 year old who tried to save the honor of his sister was not a man but a mere boy. Maybe she had not heard of a policeMan, Bapi Sen, who was killed by goons when he tried to stop them from committing crimes against some women a few years ago in her own city.
The different elite sections of the Bengali society have done extremely well in throwing lot of light of knowledge, wisdom and prompt response after the incident. However, one is not sure if the roads will be illuminated enough or the girls and boys enlightened enough not to become victims of infamous incidents of the 15th February disgracing the entire Bengali society!
Feb 11, 2011
Excellence Through Corruption
In the previous post, I had referred to my young friend's e-mail on a new School. He has now sent me the mail.. I should reproduce it here as the source of inspiration to the immediately precceding post.
National Corruption Institute Of India (NCII)
[Affiliated To Indian Parliament]
Listed on the World Corruption Index as the World’s Best C-School
Invites Applications for 3 Years Undergraduate Bachelors Degree in Corruption (BC).
Earn your BC from the World’s Most Reputed Institute for Corruption Studies
OUR COMPREHENSIVE SYLLABUS INCLUDES:-
Financial Theory and Practice
Transfer of funds through HAWALA for creation of MASS GHOTALA
FINANCIAL NETWORKING -Movement of money through well engineered networks between State Party Units and Central Party Unit.
Solicitation methods to increase donations towards Party Fund.
Theory and application of Popular BRIBE concepts and methods like ‘Chai Pani’, ‘Parcel’, ‘Change’, ‘Gift Box’ , ‘Color TV’, ‘Foreign Trip’ and the ever popular ‘Children’s School Fees’
Public Relations (PR) and Media Management
Learn how to be MISQUOTED BY THE MEDIA.
Learn to say the right things to be QUOTED OUT OF CONTEXT.
Excellent training in PARTY SPOKESMANOLOGY .Learn how to argue on TV with other Party people on TV like Professor Tewari and Professor Prasad.
Develop public gestures like NAMASTE and HAND WAVING.
Learn the art of proving all allegations as “BASELESS AND POLITICALLY MOTIVATED”
Advanced course in proving that VIDEO FOOTAGE IS FALSE AND MANIPULATED.
Law and Order Module:
Efficient MURDER and RAPE
Keeping POLICE under control
Get BAIL super fast if you are ever arrested.
Apply and get speedy ANTICIPATORY BAIL so you don’t get arrested in the first place!
FIGHT ELECTIONS FROM JAIL! Special lectures by visiting Professors Shabudin and Pappu!
Advanced Riotology
Methods to build your own storage houses for HOCKEY STICKS AND WEAPONS to engineer riots.
Identify and develop your own fuel depots for easy and widespread dispersal of RIOT FRIENDLY PETROL TANKERS
Full study in CONTEMPORARY BUS BURNING. New age exciting methods for INSTANTANEOUS BUS COMBUSTION.
‘2G SPECTRUM – A Telecommunications Perspective’ By Professor Raja
‘Flat Taking From Army Jawan’ By Professor A Chavan
‘Sports Medal or No Medal, In Corruption Always Get Gold Medal’ By Professor Kalmadi
‘Application of Corruption on Non Human Species – Stealing Money for Cattle Fodder’ By Professor Laloo Prasad Yadav
‘Building A Corridor For The Taj Mahal Can Cost More Money That Building The Taj Mahal Itself’ By Professor Mayawati Kumari.
SO FORGET B-SCHOOL! BE COOL JOIN C-SCHOOL.
National Corruption Institute Of India (NCII)
[Affiliated To Indian Parliament]
Listed on the World Corruption Index as the World’s Best C-School
Invites Applications for 3 Years Undergraduate Bachelors Degree in Corruption (BC).
Earn your BC from the World’s Most Reputed Institute for Corruption Studies
OUR COMPREHENSIVE SYLLABUS INCLUDES:-
Financial Theory and Practice
Transfer of funds through HAWALA for creation of MASS GHOTALA
FINANCIAL NETWORKING -Movement of money through well engineered networks between State Party Units and Central Party Unit.
Solicitation methods to increase donations towards Party Fund.
Theory and application of Popular BRIBE concepts and methods like ‘Chai Pani’, ‘Parcel’, ‘Change’, ‘Gift Box’ , ‘Color TV’, ‘Foreign Trip’ and the ever popular ‘Children’s School Fees’
Public Relations (PR) and Media Management
Learn how to be MISQUOTED BY THE MEDIA.
Learn to say the right things to be QUOTED OUT OF CONTEXT.
Excellent training in PARTY SPOKESMANOLOGY .Learn how to argue on TV with other Party people on TV like Professor Tewari and Professor Prasad.
Develop public gestures like NAMASTE and HAND WAVING.
Learn the art of proving all allegations as “BASELESS AND POLITICALLY MOTIVATED”
Advanced course in proving that VIDEO FOOTAGE IS FALSE AND MANIPULATED.
Law and Order Module:
Efficient MURDER and RAPE
Keeping POLICE under control
Get BAIL super fast if you are ever arrested.
Apply and get speedy ANTICIPATORY BAIL so you don’t get arrested in the first place!
FIGHT ELECTIONS FROM JAIL! Special lectures by visiting Professors Shabudin and Pappu!
Advanced Riotology
Methods to build your own storage houses for HOCKEY STICKS AND WEAPONS to engineer riots.
Identify and develop your own fuel depots for easy and widespread dispersal of RIOT FRIENDLY PETROL TANKERS
Full study in CONTEMPORARY BUS BURNING. New age exciting methods for INSTANTANEOUS BUS COMBUSTION.
‘2G SPECTRUM – A Telecommunications Perspective’ By Professor Raja
‘Flat Taking From Army Jawan’ By Professor A Chavan
‘Sports Medal or No Medal, In Corruption Always Get Gold Medal’ By Professor Kalmadi
‘Application of Corruption on Non Human Species – Stealing Money for Cattle Fodder’ By Professor Laloo Prasad Yadav
‘Building A Corridor For The Taj Mahal Can Cost More Money That Building The Taj Mahal Itself’ By Professor Mayawati Kumari.
SO FORGET B-SCHOOL! BE COOL JOIN C-SCHOOL.
Feb 9, 2011
What does C stand for?
A young friend was reading out from an email forward. It was so entertaining that I had requested him to forward the mail to me. Probably, he forgot or by chance deleted the mail. I cannot recollect the contents of the mail but I can recollect the subject matter. So, I thought of making up one piece that would give a sense of the subject. It was about a new University degree that is being launched in some country. The admission brochure runs something like this:
University of Emerging Technologies
In replacement of the MBA Degree, the University has launched the MCM Degree in view of the huge potential of self-employment, employment and wealth generation potential of C- Technology and C- Culture.
Details of the Two-Year Master of C-Management (MCM) Degree Program are given below:
Program Objective:
(a) Provide Advanced Education to the Aspiring Wealth & Power based on state of the art Knowledge in the area of C- Philosophy
(b)To impart effective and competitive C-skills needed to succeed in life in fast growing C-based economies.
Eligibility for Admission:
(a) Age - Between 18 and 30; for meritorious students of up to 45 years may be considered.
(b) Qualification – A graduate degree in any subject: those with demonstrated aptitude in application of C-skills may not require more than high school exposure.
Fees: Negotiable with a minimum Amount equivalent to US $ 100000 payable in 4 equal installments.
Other Requirements: Students have to make their own arrangements for accommodation, boarding and lodging.
Target Students: Those already active or desire to join democratic business institutions and firms in the area of administration, investigative journalism, auditing, political leadership, liaisons and public relations, event organization, etc.
Loan Facilities: Easily Available from C-skilled financing firms
Faculty: Internationally well recognized leaders of C-Philosophy and C-Skills with successful track record in practice like Professors Dr. SP Ower Dr. La Loo, Dr. May Awatee, Dr. R Aja, Dr. L M Ody, Dr. Kalm Adie, Dr. Achau Han, Dr. Y D’apa, Dr. R Eddee, Dr. NR Adea and Dr. SS Wamy. Special lectures will be delivered by icons from Prime Time TV anchors, Political Commentary lobbies, political parties and retired C-professionals.
Program Details:Semester 1: 30 hours of lecturers, group discussions, project work in each of the following 6 Papers of 100 marks each:
1.Basic C- Concepts, terminology/ language
2. Simulated Simple C-Games,
3. Introduction to C- Philosophy,
4. History of C- Development from ancient times to 2050AD.
5. Use of C-oriented Statistical Methods
6. C-Communication & Presentation
Semester II: 30 hours of lecturers, group discussions, project work in each of the following 6 Papers of 100 marks each:
7. Fundamental of C-Economy and C-Economics
8. C- Accounting & Finance
9. Principles of C-Marketing
10. Organization and Methods of C-Operations
11. Design, Evaluation/ Appraisal of C-Projects
12. Analysis of 6 Major Reported C-Cases
Semester III: 3 weeks of internship in C-flourishing and C-constrained Organizations
Semester IV: 30 hours of lecturers, group discussions, project work in each of the following 6 Papers of 100 marks each:
13. IT-oriented C-skills and C-applications
14. Ethics and Values in C-Applications
15. C- Team work Principles and practices
16. C-Leadership
17. Legal Framework for C-Operations
15. Humane Relationships in C-Environment
Semester V: : 30 hours of lecturers, group discussions, project work in each of the 6 specialization papers of 100 marks each in any one of the specialization areas:
1. C-oriented Media and Public Relations
2. C-based Politics and National/ State/ Local Policy Design and Implementation
3. C-Infiltrated Administration and Regulation
4. C-induced Non-profit Activity
5. Spiritual Living in C-Environment
Semister V will provide indepth exposure to frontiers of String Operations, Stealth Planning, Collusive Strategies, Communications Tapping, Audit Proofing, Investigation Jamming, Record and Trail Erasing, Probe Insurance including JPC gaming, Threat Annhilation, Disaster Blusting, Trial Disintegration, PIL Foiling and Effective Spoil Distribution Strategies.
Campus Recruitment: Assured employment on completion of degree in political and economic firms and government consultancy / service assignments. Earnings Prospect -sky is the limit but guaranteed minimum of US $ 250000 pm to pa.
What does C stand for?
University of Emerging Technologies
In replacement of the MBA Degree, the University has launched the MCM Degree in view of the huge potential of self-employment, employment and wealth generation potential of C- Technology and C- Culture.
Details of the Two-Year Master of C-Management (MCM) Degree Program are given below:
Program Objective:
(a) Provide Advanced Education to the Aspiring Wealth & Power based on state of the art Knowledge in the area of C- Philosophy
(b)To impart effective and competitive C-skills needed to succeed in life in fast growing C-based economies.
Eligibility for Admission:
(a) Age - Between 18 and 30; for meritorious students of up to 45 years may be considered.
(b) Qualification – A graduate degree in any subject: those with demonstrated aptitude in application of C-skills may not require more than high school exposure.
Fees: Negotiable with a minimum Amount equivalent to US $ 100000 payable in 4 equal installments.
Other Requirements: Students have to make their own arrangements for accommodation, boarding and lodging.
Target Students: Those already active or desire to join democratic business institutions and firms in the area of administration, investigative journalism, auditing, political leadership, liaisons and public relations, event organization, etc.
Loan Facilities: Easily Available from C-skilled financing firms
Faculty: Internationally well recognized leaders of C-Philosophy and C-Skills with successful track record in practice like Professors Dr. SP Ower Dr. La Loo, Dr. May Awatee, Dr. R Aja, Dr. L M Ody, Dr. Kalm Adie, Dr. Achau Han, Dr. Y D’apa, Dr. R Eddee, Dr. NR Adea and Dr. SS Wamy. Special lectures will be delivered by icons from Prime Time TV anchors, Political Commentary lobbies, political parties and retired C-professionals.
Program Details:Semester 1: 30 hours of lecturers, group discussions, project work in each of the following 6 Papers of 100 marks each:
1.Basic C- Concepts, terminology/ language
2. Simulated Simple C-Games,
3. Introduction to C- Philosophy,
4. History of C- Development from ancient times to 2050AD.
5. Use of C-oriented Statistical Methods
6. C-Communication & Presentation
Semester II: 30 hours of lecturers, group discussions, project work in each of the following 6 Papers of 100 marks each:
7. Fundamental of C-Economy and C-Economics
8. C- Accounting & Finance
9. Principles of C-Marketing
10. Organization and Methods of C-Operations
11. Design, Evaluation/ Appraisal of C-Projects
12. Analysis of 6 Major Reported C-Cases
Semester III: 3 weeks of internship in C-flourishing and C-constrained Organizations
Semester IV: 30 hours of lecturers, group discussions, project work in each of the following 6 Papers of 100 marks each:
13. IT-oriented C-skills and C-applications
14. Ethics and Values in C-Applications
15. C- Team work Principles and practices
16. C-Leadership
17. Legal Framework for C-Operations
15. Humane Relationships in C-Environment
Semester V: : 30 hours of lecturers, group discussions, project work in each of the 6 specialization papers of 100 marks each in any one of the specialization areas:
1. C-oriented Media and Public Relations
2. C-based Politics and National/ State/ Local Policy Design and Implementation
3. C-Infiltrated Administration and Regulation
4. C-induced Non-profit Activity
5. Spiritual Living in C-Environment
Semister V will provide indepth exposure to frontiers of String Operations, Stealth Planning, Collusive Strategies, Communications Tapping, Audit Proofing, Investigation Jamming, Record and Trail Erasing, Probe Insurance including JPC gaming, Threat Annhilation, Disaster Blusting, Trial Disintegration, PIL Foiling and Effective Spoil Distribution Strategies.
Campus Recruitment: Assured employment on completion of degree in political and economic firms and government consultancy / service assignments. Earnings Prospect -sky is the limit but guaranteed minimum of US $ 250000 pm to pa.
What does C stand for?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)