Why I am hopeful of a better government ?

"Idealism is what precedes experience, cynicism is what follows" 

I am going to tell a story about how I became a cynic from an idealist. Now, the fact that we have a bad government is nothing new. So, when I came to know that Dr Jayaprakash Narayan, an honest IAS officer is going to start a new party, I became overjoyed. I was so excited that finally, after years of waiting, a credible, honest and knowledgeable person was coming into politics. His policies seemed so sound, so coherent that I started rallying behind him with posts cheering him here. Little did I know that I was setting up myself for bitter disappointment. As the results of the general elections 2009 were declared, all my hopes of a good government crashed. I was down but not out. Why - Because in Lok Sabha elections, the number of educated people who vote is very less. So I thought if educated people really voted and more people are educated about the policies of Lok Satta, then surely we will have a good government. That is why I was even more excited when there was a call for Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections. The percentage of educated people will be more in Hyderabad city. Moreover, Lok Satta launched a unique campaign in the elections, saying that they will pay fine to the people if they didn't resolve people's complaints within a posted resolution time. With this I thought they will surely win in the elections. And when the results were announced how many Loksatta candidates do you think won?  Zero, nil, zich, no one...!!!! And that is when I became a cynic... If people fail to know what is right and what is wrong and when there is a chance for change also they will not utilize, then I didn't know how change can come...


And for a long time, I remained a cynic, convinced that no good change will come. The IPL fiasco, the CWG corruption only confirmed and made me more of a cynic regarding politics. Do you think I am peddling cynicism? No - and even I don't want to remain a cynic, but I didn't find a single hopeful thing to cling to then... But some things were happening around that again sort of gave me hope that all is not lost. So I am here not to make all of you cynics, but to show you rays of hope and ask you to reflect that.

The first thing that caught my attention was the website done by an NGO called Janaagraha, called http://ipaidabribe.com. Being a cynic, I was not at all convinced what change could a site like that where people who gave bribes were sharing their plight could change. Though I supported it whole heartedly, I was not hopeful of it changing anything. But I was pleasantly surprised by the success of the campaign. People started taking it seriously. One woman threatened a doctor who asked for bribe saying she will post his name in ipaidabribe.com and he backed down. More heartful news is that a transport commissioner gave show cause notices to twenty of the traffic commissioners whose name had surfaced in compliants on IPAB.

The second thing which showed that people are thinking about the problems and people are thinking of doing something when I heard the speech of Siddharth at TIE Connect 2009.


Though the speech was given in 2009, I saw it recently and was really impressed by the solutions he proposes.He talked about lot of things like the smaller attention span of our generation, the lack of ability of any person to make a difference, the lack of records of facts but what really hit me was the fact that we need to glamorize good government. We are in a time when it is very difficult to concentrate on one thing. We hve constants interruptions with twitter, facebook etc. So we have an attention deficit. Thats why we tend to forget quickly.Hence we need to keep the discussion going and keep this always in front of the people. The fact that people are talking about it and thinking of solutions makes me hopeful. And as he said media is wasting a golden opportunity by not taking the chance to lead from front for this.

And this brings me to the next thing that makes me hopeful of that. I saw someone implementing a suggestions given by Siddharth, one person using his glamour and influence to talk about problems facing India and how government is responsible for that which automatically leads to selection of better politicians. SS Rajamouli is a movie director who hasn't given an flop in the industry. And thats why he is the director with the most craze in the industry. When he talks about something, people in AP listen. And he is utilizing his influence and craze to talk about problems facing India and discussing the solutions for them. It is a program called 'Come On India' in Telugu. The links are here if you would like to watch it. In this episode he talks about the healthcare system in India. It is a fact that if we get any health problems in India, government hospitals are hopeless and private hospitals attach unknown diseases to us to get as much money as possible. So it is a very important issue. He talks about the better systems all around the world and what changes are required for improving the situation in our country and responsibility of everyone involved, the government, the doctors and citizens. I am sure whoever has watched it has understood how better it could be and how can we get that.

With all these changes happening around us, it is not difficult to be hopeful of better days isn't it. So will it magically happen? No, there is more responsibility on us to spread the awareness, talk about issues and take a strong stand wherever required. So however you can, facebook, twitter, blogs, movies, videos, short films, tv programmers whatever you want to make, whatever discussions you want to have, keep the discussions going and spread the word, I am sure, we will live to see days with better governments and a happier and developed India. Jai Hind.

PS Thanks to friends  Saandeep, Bikram and wisedonkey for keeping the discussions going.

The Year that was - 2009 .. And a Happy New Year 2010

Image by b. inxee♪♫ via Flickr

2009 is a very eventful year for me. I have much to thank for and much to learn from this year.

Personally, it was a roller coaster from happiness to sadness to grief to happiness again. I got married this year and career wise also it was good growth. More than ever, there is more clarity that you have no excuses for not doing what you want to do. I am thankful for a loving wife, and wonderful friends in my life.

I have vacillated between contributing back to the society by various forms like volunteering for teaching, contributing money etc and going back on it due to lack of time or interest. And my new year will be the year of learning and sharing where the emphasis will be more on giving. And as on every Jan 1, the resolution of exercising daily does make an appearance. I hope I would be able to act on it this year. I think I will find more time for personal growth this year to run marathons, join new degree or venture into raw foods.

Regarding the other things which capture my mind, there have been quite a few wins like the introduction of nano car, Indian team becoming the number one test team. In Hyderabad, the PVNR express way was opened which gave me some cheer. As PC, the home minister said we were really lucky to get away in this year without a terrorist attack on any of our cities. This year will be remembered as the year of economic recession, but there are very good signs that economy is back on track. Even as the Indian govt says that inflation is reducing, the cost of food grains especially rice and pulses is steeply rising, which is a cause for concern. This year saw the reelection of congress both in center and in the state. But what I have been disappointed is the apathy of the voters in rejecting good parties (LokSatta) by staying away from voting and allowing the other parties a free run to run their corrupt show. The GHMC elections later this year was also a rude shock to me and to LokSatta as it proves that clean politics doesn't have a place. But I being eternally hopeful, am hoping that Loksatta will learn from its mistakes and grow its grass roots support. This year saw Chiranjeevi entering politics and is just learning. This year saw the end of YSR, who was a man of the masses but despised by many. The Telangana movement, which was down due to the strong leadership of YSR, came back to haunt the congress and the centre which has done flip flops and now it is seriously hurting the prospects of a United AP. The BJP has gone from bad to worse and is facing a serious leadership crisis. Google's Android continues to capture mindshare and market share from other mobile platforms. Google's wave launches but fails to gather mindshare. Twitter matures and I also have become a little more active on twitter in sharing links.

After living through the year, I somehow feel I am coming closer to the 'SthithaPragna' state defined by Sri Krishna in Geeta. As I have written elsewhere in this blog, the amount of goodness and badness in the world is same, if you feel that you can change the world it is just your innocence. It is that in helping the world to change, you are helping yourself. Hence I have already started to take all what comes with equanimity but ofcourse always working to get a desired outcome.

I want to end this post with serenity prayer which was told to me by Ketan in his comment to the 2009 new year post

God grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Wishing you a happy new year 2010

What can LokSatta learn from Telangana Movement?

Image via Wikipedia

Sorry folks it has been a long time since I wrote a blog post.... Just got married and hence took a small break from blogging. Not having an internet connection at home also made blogging difficult.

Anyway I am back to blogging with more passion than ever. Start reading..

Leader A:

He wanted to bring democracy back to the people. He wanted to clean politics of its murkiness. That person who left a most coveted government job of Collector to make our place corruption free. He has the best solutions to the current system's problems. He gave a guarantee that he will pay you a fine if government services are not rendered in the SLA specified. He wanted to change the face of politics as it is played now to ensure that money power cannot silence vote power. He started a movement called the second freedom movement to prove that democracy is indeed the government - by the people, to the people and for the people.

Leader B:

His record is murky. After being denied a bigger role, he came out of a party to form his own party. He just demanded for a separate state without telling what will he do if he comes to power. He became a laughingstock by talking utter gibberish. He once said he will start a fast-unto-death and had taken food by the end of the day. He broke all the promises he made to himself and to the people. He had no real agenda. Even this time, he was about to break his promise of fast-unto-death but being cornered by all the people who supported him had to undertake it.

By now you would have guessed who leader A and leader B are... Leader A is Mr.Jayaprakash Narayan(JP), the LokSatta leader and leader B is Mr. K.ChandraSekhar Rao (KCR), The TRS leader. These two leaders faced two tests.

Leader A, JP went all out in the recently concluded GHMC elections. But he was not able to win atleast one seat in the elections and hence he failed in the test.

Leader B, KCR had no options having got a drubbing in the recent general elections, didn't even contest in the GHMC elections. He took a way out in doing fast-unto-death. And he turned into a hero for a yet to be formed new state.

How did this happen? Person who looked credible in implementing an agenda got nowhere but a leader with the least credibility was able to achieve a big thing. Though I know that Telangana is a cause whose time has come and it was just crystallized because of KCR's efforts and it was not created just because KCR fought for it is one thing. I think there are a couple of things which LokSatta can learn from the success of KCR.

1. Elections are won on charisma: In the general elections, JP won because he had the charisma in LokSatta. No other leader had that charisma except Rathiah of Vignan, who had lost too we will see the reason in a minute. If someother person other than KCR would have done that fast-unto-death, I am not sure if the Delhi Durbar would have responded so promptly with the announcement.

2. An Emotional Connect is required: KCR had an emotional connect with the people of Telangana on the issue whereas, though each person hopes to get all the above in the agenda of Loksatta, nobody was really hopeful of getting it and was not really emotionally invested in its success. Loksatta needs to do more grassroots work to build up that emotional connect by telling how implementing each can change their lives.

3. Market it so that people make it their cause: KCR had to do just a little, most of the work was done by the student unions who created a war type situation in the state as they identified Telangana as their cause. So Loksatta has to market itself in such a way that people feel good governance as their cause. I couldn't but quote Seth Godin here - 'You are a marketer whereever you are' KCR is a better marketer than JP.

Hope LokSatta learns these lessons and grow from grassroots now so that it can win in the next elections.

Reflections on YSR

YSR is the first AP chief minister to have died on duty. On a wet wednesday morning, in his wish to know the problems of people he set out, only to never return.

I never had a good opinion about the congress party. When I was first analysed the politics of the state, TDP was in power and considered Congress as a bad opposition. I expected the TDP to win in the 2004 elections but Mr YSR with strong leadership had captured the hearts of the masses to win handsomely in the elections. I was a strong supported of NCB at that time and hoped he will win with all the development he had done in AP. I strongly believe that we should work to get our food and hoped that should be the same with everyone. When YSR introduced schemes like free power I wondered whether he was doing the right thing. He started many more populist schemes which took him even closer to the masses and I kept wondering if this what people wanted. Though he had started many populist schemes, the fact kept hitting me that 1. he is using tax payer money which could have been put to a better use than giving handouts. 2. He is not solving the long term problem.

So as always i thought, he is just pandering to the people to win in the elections. But one thing changed my opinion. His scheme Arogyasri, helped lot of people to live when the outcome could have been otherwise. Though there were lot of wastage in the scheme like doctors billing more for insurance etc, it has helped save people's lives. Now should he have considered long term and developed govt hospitals and infrastructure or he has done better by saving lives. By not developing hospitals and other infrastructure, is he not responsible for creating a life threatening condition which he only solves by giving insurance for getting it cured. Though it can be argued both ways, he has done what others even didnt think of doing. The same situation was there in NCB's time also with nothing much done, YSR has atleast done something to solve the problem.

It is always a question of allocation of scarce resources... And though I prefer a methodical and thoughtful way of LokSatta in solving such problems, we have to consider the fact that though he might not have made a big difference, he had made a difference to each beneficiary of arogyasri as in the story of the person who tries to throw the star fishes in the sea. When a person remarks it doesn't matter because there are too many star fish to save, he remarks 'It makes a difference to this one.' A certified coach Hanna Cooper says it best about the conflict here

It's partially a question of where we want to put our time and resources, as individuals working to make a difference, and as a society. We want to save individual starfish, but in times of scarce resources, where can we get the most impact from what we do? While it's certainly important to help individuals in crisis, what could be done to prevent them from getting into difficulty? How could we move up stream?

YSR chose to give the resources right to the people, which made him popular with the masses.

This type of help is best done by an individual but what we want from leaders is to solve the system problems and make sure it doesnt repeat. But in Indian democracy, the visibility is to those who have the impression of having given which makes people like YSR succeed. I am not sure how our people will get to elect people who will actually think about avoiding fires rather than always just putting out the fires. Though I was very enthusiastic around last time about LokSatta who rather see it systematically, but I understand to have that public mindshare, credibility and support from the masses, the systemic approach might not be suitable.

Ysr had his share of failings too. Though I am not sure how much of it is true, there have been stories around forced conversions to christianity. If this is true, then it is a big blemish on otherwise good Chief Ministership. It is also said that he has put a christian as an EO in TTD which could have been very easily avoided and that he has encouraged alcohol in Tirumala. I being an atheist dont have problems with these things but he could have easily left them to a wiser judgement of respecting people's sensibilities.

I would not doubt the fact that YSR really cared about helping poor people whatever his methods were. The irrigation projects which he started are really one good thing. I really hope all those projects are completed and his dream of irrigating a crore hectares of land comes true.

It is not possible to satisfy everyone and YSR is not an exception to this. What he has done might not be the best that could have done with the resources he had, but it was good enough to please so many people to put him back in power. YSR will surely go down in history as the 'Man of the Masses.'

After The Elections - Omissions in Electoral Rolls

First two phases of elections are over and some other states are still to vote. 

As these elections were happening after the Mumbai attacks, there was a lot of awareness and people were in the mood to vote. But it seems Mumbai registered below 50% voting. While people lament the absent voter syndrome, people like Rajesh who worked hard to increase the awareness of the political process, couldnt vote because of his name not being there in the electoral rolls. Questions were asked if it is because his open support to BJP. I am not sure but I am far from satisfied in the preparations of electoral rolls.

The problems start with registering your name in electoral rolls. 

The process is so cumbersome. I had applied thrice to get my name enrolled in the rolls. Though some initiatives like Jaago Re have helped in making the process easy, there is a lot to be changed. 

I had to go to the registration office to give my application. I have applied twice online but there was no way to know the status of that.. The application was thoroughly unusable. They ask for username and password to search electoral rolls. Why? 

One of my friends, though unwell, but interested in voting had to scour three polling booths near her home only to find that she was unable to vote. But she has voted in the previous elections, even Rajesh Jain says that he has voted in all the past elections. How come their names were removed this time? Do we need to register again every election season? What a waste of time and resources. These things will frustrate us no end and make us loose interest in the whole process. 

Agreed they could have checked their name in the electoral rolls prior to the election day but what could they probably do if they found that their name was missing- they have to apply again and anyway they couldnt vote this time. 

How to solve this? I think it is high time the single national ID is introduced. It will make the multiple IDS redundant and making of the electoral rolls very easy. 

Loksatta advocates the use of Post Offices as the nodal agencies for preparation of electoral rolls. As post offices cover very small areas and the post man knows his area very well they can just verify if all the people belonging there are available for voting and update accordingly. Rather than people having to apply and being clueless about the whole process, this would ease the process very very much. As soon the address of a person changes, he should place a request for change in address, which the post man verifies and all the required records are updated, his name should be removed from the electoral rolls of the old constituency and updated in the new constituency. 

Before the election, once all the voters are allowed to inform about the ommissions and additions that need to be made and then after verification from the post office, these can be made. They can send mails to existing people to confirm their prescence in the constituency and if they dont confirm it their names are to be removed. This way everyone will know that their name exists in the list or not and they are not surprised on the election day. 

I think this change is not far considering the experience in this elections. If BJP comes to power in this elections, they have implementing national ID in their manifesto, hope they implement it and we have hassle free voting the next time.