Democrocy Side Effects!!!

As everybody in India, I am also proud to be citizen this democratic country. But past few days I am getting thought about our democracy. Are we really justified in calling ourselves democratic? Well few incidents in recent days have fuelled these thoughts.

First issue is the reservation for OBC’s. Well nobody in political circles is prepared to investigate the real problems and needs of this issue. Govt does not have valid data about OBC social status in India. But nobody can dare to ask for sake of loosing votes. Just fuel public sentiments and derive political mileage is motto of the politicians. Does anybody have nay data on how this reservation policy has actually helped real needy people? Can the govt explain why the percentage of reservation gone up from 8.33% in 1950 to 50% (67% in places like Tamil Nadu). But who cares. For politicians these communities are just vote banks even these kind of issues don’t help them in long run. Remember the biggest debate of last decade it was Mandal vs Madir. And see where are two leader who were at forefront of these issues L. K. Advani for Mandir and V P Singh for Mandal. In fact V P singh has now come down to local issues like slum demolition in Mumbai.

He was who introduced Mandal report which likes of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi had rejected to implement. In fact Rajiv Gandhi once said the report to be can of worms (how correct was he!). But I think Congress and Sonia have short (or convenient) memory. Thanks to vote bank politics of democracy.

Another issue is banning films like Da Vinci Code. I can not understand if the film gets released in Italy/Rome why it can not be shown here. Let people decide what to watch and what not to watch. Again Govt feels to look after the minority vote bank of Christians. I am sure there would lots of Christians who would not mind release of this movie. But still there are hurdles for movie even if majority of people want to see it. (including good amount of Christians). But some Bishop or Mulla creates a hue and cry and whole thing stops. This I call as Minority appeasement.

Today I think the debate between people like Agarkar and Tilak over Good Governance or Self Governance took a wrong turn. I think Good Governance was required before self Governance. Of course I don’t want to suggest the freedom struggle was un necessary. I truly respect all people who selflessly sacrificed their lives for our freedom. But after 50 years of freedom why these politicians are still making billion fools out of us. To me only the colour of the ruler has changed and not the style of ruling that is divide and rule on caste. Shame on us!

Mandal Again!!!

The latest controversy related to govt is related to education sector reservation. Thanks to tireless Mr. Arjun Singh whose only qualification seems to be creating controversies (be it IIM, Aligarh Muslim Univ or in toxification of text books). This time he has recommended 27% reservations for OBCs. This threatens to snowball in Mandal-II controversy.
The question is my mind is has this policy of reservation paid any dividends? Have we assessed its real benefits to the downtrodden sections? In my mind it has actually harmed those very sections. To elaborate this I count on my experiences in Engg College. I passed out from a reputed Government college in Maharashtra where cut off for Mechanical engg in general category was above 98% and that for reserved category was @ 55-60%. Well that’s fine. But bigger issue is out of the 50% seats filled through reservation only 5-10% manage to complete their degree course in 4 years. Rest of population takes 6-8 years and some actually drop out. I am sure medical and other professional course have similar story. That means all these government measures have failed to improve the standards of education in this sections. And nobody is bothered about it. Can Mr. Arjun singh find answer to this?
There are different possible reasons for it.
Government policy is not reaching to people who are bright and unable to provide for the education expenses as majority people stay in villages and small towns where general standards of education are really questionable and disgusting at best.
Because of these reservations the general mindset in community is they get job even if they are not very good academics. This mindset has become root cause for the non developments. If you look at history, people with fewer choices become more efficient and smart. E.g. student in UP/Bihar are good at UPSC exams because lack of other alternatives like engg/medicine courses. Brahmins are good at education as they are taught value education and most importantly have no means like huge farms/political power.

Now what are disadvantages of this policy? Well institutes like IIM/IIT are known for their best talent. There is cut throat competition to get good job. Lets assume that we get 1000 such engg from IIT every year. With 27% reservation, there will be 270 people with lesser capabilities to deal with the competition. (We can take 25% of these students actually able to compete). That means now we have only 800 people who have the required capabilities. That means 20% reduction in supply of skilled manpower. With economy growing at this pace can we afford this? More over it reduces competitive instinct from these students that are in danger of lacking for ever.

So what is solution?
Best way is reservation of Economically Backward classes (EBC) rather than caste based reservations.
This will ensure needy gets the support and politicians can not play vote bank politics.
Second most important thing is improve the quality and availability of education at grass root level and rather than creating mark getting machines create citizens with different abilities. Today the student in 10th or 12th is blindly attracted towards engg/IT/medicin rather than realizing what he is good at. With economical progress, there are a lot of different avenues today for making a good living. But who knows and cares for them.

This will actually help in removing the caste discrimination in society. Because if the govt itself is not willing to get rid of caste how can it expect it removed from society. For any govt favour economic abilities should only be the criteria and nothing else.

Nuke Deal Debate

There has been a loot of debate over India- US Nuke deal in media. While some articles are good some are really written just to either oppose or support the deal without checking the facts.

One such article opposing the deal was recently published in the Hindu. The author says that Gas energy is energy of future and is available abundantly. Well I do not know the source of this argument, but I do not think that way certainly. Gas and Oil are forms of Hydrocarbon fuel and are fast vanishing. In fact as per estimates of major energy and power companies around globe, the gas stocks will lat another 20-25 years maximum. Most of these companies are in business of power plants based on Gas. So we can not doubt that they are spreading this argument for their benefit. But because of this eminent shortage of Gas, these companies are going to derive gas from coal which is abundantly available in India and China which are going to be biggest guzzlers of power in coming decades. But the challenge these are to meet emission levels.

Well I am neither in position to oppose or support the deal because of lack of knowledge on entire issue, however these kinds of arguments are nothing but twisting facts for your own cause.

BCCI Back to Basics

Today the team for third test is announced. Wasim Jaffer replaced Ganguly!!! Is this some kind of joke? Or is it new BCCI master ushering in?
Well after the way Ganguly Played in second test, there was no reason for him being dropped. Gautam Gambhir would have been ideal to be dropped. But They dropped Ganguly and that too for an opener!!! Well I must say who ever had a say in this decision deserve to be thrown out first as they do not understand cricket.

Bihar Elections

Now that the elections in Bihar are over, all channels and newspapers have a long thing to chew upon other than Indian Cricket and Saurav Ganguly. But the important point is being most fair and free election in Bihar’s history will it prove to be turning point in India's once (1951) best administered state's future. Well time will prove that. But people in Bihar have expressed their vote in a decisive manner. Kudos to them and also to the Great Election Commission of India. But surprisingly very few people are talking abt Bihar aam janata who are the real heros of this election.

I think in India a ‘Bihari’ is second most ill famous tag after ‘terrorist’ thanks to our media and ugly politicos of Bihari. No not only Lalu Prasad but entire generations of Bihari politicians have ruined the state. And poor and hardworking bihari aam janata is suffering.

Lets hope this is beginning of New Bihar and also New India as majority of Indian rural scene resembles Bihar in some or other context. Let Bihar lead the way in this new change.