When Does Democracy Become Demon-cracy?

Before I go to explain my views on the question in the title of this blog, I would like to tell you a small real life experience that I had some time ago.

It was the time when the city where I lived during those days was on the verge of beginning a real estate bloom for the first time. It was not a metro, but a booming tier-2 city with a population nearing about a million.

Since plenty of farm land was available around the urbanized areas, lateral development was not much of a problem. The city planners had been pretty liberal in approving land diversion from farm land to housing plots. Land for building independent bungalow type houses was not very expensive.

Things got changed as the lateral expansion of the city reached its limits due to mismatches in the infrastructural development with regard to roads and public transport. Then the real estate businessmen of the area came out with new housing offers in the form of apartments and flats.

Many people, who did not want to get in to the problems of roads, water, electricity, transport, safety, etc that plagued the independent houses offered by the colonizers in diverted farm lands, thought the multi storied buildings which contained the flat type houses would be better. I too was one among them.

The purchase and getting in to the hotel type living in the flat were not much of a problem. For us it was like living in the heart of the city in a large hotel by spending much less. Initially, the flat owners and residents hardly felt any problem as the apartment complex was kept managed by the builder. The resident owners of the flats were a happy lot because they hardly realized the hardships of administering the complex!

There were security guards who saluted us at the gate, cleaning staff who cleaned the vitrified tiles of the corridors and the parking areas better than we ever imagined, staff who collected the wastes from our doors and others who did pretty odd jobs for the owners without any hue and cry. The water supply in our taps inside our flats was a neat 24 x 7 and so was the electricity. The lifts worked smoothly to take us up and down from all the floors! And all these things happening in the heart of a busy city! It was marvelous and totally enjoyable!

Our joys did not go like that for ever. A couple of months later, the general manager of the real estate company invited us to their office for some important discussion. There we were informed that our honey moon days are over and we, the flat owners are now of our own. We were told to take over the day to day management of our apartment complex. The responsibility of the builders was over, we were told. We were reminded to read the fine prints in the sale deeds to which we were all signatories when we signed up for making those deeds registered in our names.

Nothing to worry, though. They re-assured us. All we have to do is to form a democratic association of the owners, register it, get it equipped with an elected management committee in accordance with the laws of the land. We have to form a registered society of owners with its own bye-laws and an elected committee of our own representatives who did the management of our apartment complex in accordance with the law of the land.

Many of our co-owners resisted the move. No-no! This is injustice. We do not have time to do all these things. We do not have the expertise for this. Had this been the case, we would not have purchased this flat. Is this the way it happens elsewhere? 

As the majority group opinion was against, we simply moved out without any action plan. We were typical citizens who liked to enjoy all facilities but not with those thorns of responsibilities!

But the builders went ahead as they had told. One fine morning the security guards and the staff were all withdrawn from the premises of our large apartment building.

All of a sudden there was great anarchy. There was no security, no cleaning, no water and the stench of the filth accumulating became nauseating!

I was too surprised to find the ignorance of the educated upper middle class house owners in these matters. All the rules of the game were given to us well in advance and we all had all documents to make us aware of the situation. But none of us bothered to know. The majority of us were neither willing to accept any responsibility nor had the enthusiasm to enhance our basic knowledge in these matters so that we could responsibly act for our own sake.

I also remember the pains I had taken to gather a few like minded flat owners, educate them with the consequences and the action plans to mitigate the problems that we suddenly got into. I remember the pains I had taken to draft the bye-laws of our society and the joint efforts some of us took to get it registered and take over the day to day management of our apartment complex from the builders. It was one of the first of that kind of acts in that city at that time! I was one of the founder members and one of the office bearers of our society. I had to spend much time and efforts to manage the day to day maintenance of the building complex by doing the honorary service as an office bearer.

Now being directly involved in the day to day management of our residential apartment building, I learnt certain things. 

For me personally, it was not a difficult task. But I experienced that this otherwise simple administrative task could  turn out  pretty bad and embarrassing  unless I honestly do my honorary service with sincerity ensuring cooperation with others in the management committee.

The service you do and the decisions you take on behalf of others are much more difficult than similar things you do for your own.     

It  is not so easy when you have to do your service or take decisions in a democratic atmosphere. You are bound to be criticized or opposed even for those things that you consider as the most appropriate and desirable! 

If there are ten people, there would be at least ten opinions and preferences. Your fellows will not agree with you for many things unless they too have the same understanding level as you. When your fellows all seem not liking your ideas or when you have to devote much time to convince your fellows for your wise decision to get implemented you are bound to become frustrated! More than thinking and adopting the best administration for every body's good, the requirement now demands some thing else. You have to manage your fellow beings 'cleverly' for a good administration to set in. 

Thus it would become important for you to adopt the game of politics for managing the day to day administration! 

The game of politics thus becomes an important necessity when democratic administration is implemented. Democracy is rule by the people. But when the people are a mix of individuals with varying degrees of mind development, they can be considered as good and bad all at the same time! 

You realize that you and your fellows are all with two opposing qualities built in one. All are essentially demonic with some divine qualities  incorporated within their minds.

The good and bad traits are not equally distributed, but are in varying degrees. In many groups now, the root mean value is obviously trending towards bad or demonic. So when demonic qualities predominate, democracy becomes essentially a tricky game of politics making it demon-cracy!

In other words, democracy is the best when the root mean quality of the concerned group of people is essentially good. Otherwise, democracy tends to become demon-cracy and the demonic game of politics becomes its integral part!

And in the game of politics, every thing is right or there is nothing termed as wrong.

But the game of politics in demon-cracy slowly does wonderful things for the people. Its gaming experiments enhance the experiential mind capacities and slowly make the people recognize the desirability of  adopting good over bad. In simple terms, this means the era when people naturally seek goodness or divine qualities rather than slipping in to the darkness of those bad and evil attributes of the demons!

Divine goodness is superior to demonic evil. All evil and bad things will vanish and good things only prevail  as things get forward in the evolutionary progress.

The only hitch is that it, the evolutionary progress, takes long time spanning several generations!

The Politics and Strategy of Bans!

Many leading personalities in my country are very good strategists, who understand the great potential of artificial scarcity has in accumulating wealth in a selective manner.

They understand the first principle of economics very well which states: 'Demand is inversely proportional to supplies'. Simply put, it means that the demand for any goods (or even services) is more when its supply is less. In other words, if something is in excess, it would be difficult to realize good money from it because its demand (and price) would be less.

Would You Like to Ban the Plants from Growing?

So, if supply is abundand, there would be some problem for the suppliers to make good money or wealth for them. So if supply is abundant either more demand has to be created or else the supply is artificially cut from the consumers for creating an apparently high demand. 

If tea production is less, some straight forward producers adopt the technique of marketting which involve in enhancing the tea consumption in consumers by various advertising techniques. But this method is time consuming and expensive.

But you can perhaps make more money by less production through artificial scarcity created by the modern marketing technology called the ' ban technique' which is widely used in developing nations such as my own India.

Ban technique is relatively simple. It uses democratic power of administration and the psychology of humans.

First about the psychology of humans. Human beings, both men, women and children are naturally bound to do some challenges before they acquire their desired possession of food, partner, toy, recreation, freedom and the like. If food is abundant, they do not feel like eating! If it is not available, they feel so hungry that they can do anything for it!

If a man or woman is free to move around, then they do not feel the importance of freedom. But if they were imprisoned, they are prepared to spend any amount to buy their freedom!

So the ban technique is essentially involved in preventing people from getting what they need.

So, if a high demand for tea is to be created, you can use the ban technique instead of other less effective marketing methods. What is done in this is to make the people who are involved in government or administration to promulgate a law or ordinance which bans the possession and consumption of tea by people. If any one is found to violate the law, various kinds of punishments are stipulated. 

If the people are found not taking the law seriously, the law enforcing authorities need to catch a few harmless violaters and punish them in accordance with the provisions of the law to make others scared of the new law.

When this is done, tea would become a banned item and people start feeling the desire for this item which is now scarce and illegal. Some fellows might even become so entrapped in their desire for drinking tea that they would now be willing to spend a fortune for it. The tea which used to sell for Rs.250/- a kg would now begin to sell for Rs.25000/- a kg! The producer would now make a killing by less production. The only thing that he has to do now is to share a good part of his huge profits to the ban enforcers!

Ofcourse, the ban equations need not be so clear and obvious. For bans to become effective, they need to be implemented cunningly and deceptively! The good thing here is that the ban supporters are normally very clever people with very good intelligence than the average common man. They know exactly what they are supposedly doing or have to do.

So some enlightened leaders of the people may advice the less developed folks about the reasons why they took the trouble to ban the sale of alcoholic liquors in a particular state or a region or country. Alcohol brews are very easy to produce. It could be produced in the homes of the ordinary people just as they make their normal foods. If it were so, these alcoholic drinks would not have been a charming thing for the people to spend money for getting it and consuming it. They would never have liked its obviously nauseating taste! They would not have liked the half poisoned state of their mind and bodies after consuming it!

But then the clever leaders have been doing the ban technique on it for centuries in various nations and regions of the world that people have developed the motive force of attraction to it because of its ban and undesirability forced upon them.

Same is the case with all kinds of bans. The more you ban, the more the motive force of desirability developing in the people affected by the ban.

You deny some thing to your child and your child will develop the curiosity and eagerness to go after it. The more you try to punish, them for their violating your ban rule, the more they get the impulse to violate. When you try to stop a natural flow, pressure builds up. That is the natural law. The build up of pressure can go to such heights that it could even burst to full destruction of the thing that prevented the natural flow!

The americans a few generations ago had been experimenting with the ban technique on various things. Many of them in the current generation are realizing the follies of their previous generations. The current move to liberalize marihuana (ganja) could be viewed as an example to this kind of drastic changes in thoughts.

If you want your child not to go after some food or drink or drug or other kind of  perceived sins, the wise way is not any forceful ban technique. Do not create the ban presssure on the child to instigate him or her to violate your diktat. The best and ideal way is not to project any negative clamour on any thing resulting it to gain some degree of sin value!

Just as it is applicable to the child, it is applicable to groups of people as well.

Clever fellows who are proponents of the ban technique are trying to enhance the so called sin value to otherwise normal things such as alcohol, beef, pork, porn, meat, drugs, coffee, tea, carbonated drinks, packed foods, plastics, books, ideas, and the like. By doing so, they are enhancing the marketability of such things in an indirect fashion making those otherwise non-desirable things as most desirable to many fellows who are possessed with a bit more adventure type characteristic deep in their minds.

Do not be under the impression that the ban proponents do their ban propaganda for your good. All propagandas are for gaining some benefits. Bans are promulgated by governments and governments of modern times act only when propagandists do their work with full force. And for creating that full force propaganda, money is required. That money comes from the beneficiaries who spin money from the bans.

But humans are not same in mind. Their minds have so many things in varying degrees. While some say yes, some others are bound to say no! All propaganda naturally generate counter propaganda! For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction!

But then what should be done by us? Should we go with the ban proponents or the ban antagonists? 

My dear friend! Remember this universal law: Anything in excess is destructive poison. You have the freedom of choice. But your freedom should not harm my freedom or their freedom. While you live in this world, you should respect others who too are living in this world. How much and how best you proceed is well recorded in your mind itself. That is called human maturity and wisdom. 

But unfortunately, some humans do not have enough receptive power to tune to their own wisdom. Else they do not have the patience to do it. Some of them even forget that they are short lived humans and keep thinking that they are even greater than God!

What a pity!

When Religious Organizations Run Educational Institutions For Money and Power, the Damage to the Society is More!

To be very frank, I am pained by the way the Indian education system has deteriorated over the past few decades beyond redemption. When I talk about the deterioration, I do not mean the physical deterioration of the infrastructure that the Indian educational institutions have. In fact, the physical infrastructure in many private educational institutions have improved tremendously when the governments have allowed the private educational institutions to charge heavy fees from the students, several times more than what existed a few years ago. So, the deterioration is not on that count.

On the other hand the deterioration I am talking about is the moral deterioration that has been taking place in the education system in India. Again, it is not about any explicit immorality that I am concerned with but about certain kinds of indirectly discernible acts of certain private school managements  that cause the students to get distorted ideas about morality and ethics that are applicable to the citizens. While publicly most schools display their concern for morality, discipline and high ethical standards, what they actually practice convey some thing else!

Most of the school managements cannot set any moral examples for the students because the ones who manage the schools are often ruthless or ignorant people who either do not believe in any moral values or who do not know what it actually is. 

The educational institutions they manage boast of high disciplines, highest standards of education and the like [There are people who can frame all standard objectives, rules and regulations for them to get all statutory clearances!] But those who really manage these are without any of these qualities in most instances. In reality these institutions kill the real creative talents and innocence of the children and reduce them to biological human robots whose ability is measured in terms of the scores or grades that  they obtain in examinations. 

Indian education system as it stands today in the schools and colleges essentially measures the memorizing capacity of students! The training for memorizing begins even before a child learns the mother tongue, killing the child's creative abilities and its abilities for understanding meanings and values! The children and their parents are pressurized and to the highest possible levels all throughout their school education years only to be repeated again when these students become parents again a couple of years later!

In the process, most of the children who are trained through these institutions become intrinsically fearful persons who either have lost their wisdom to live a life according to their inner consciousness or become clever cheaters who do not feel the mind pinch to do any thing immoral or illegal so long as they could do those without getting caught. The children and the parents have been forced to become helpless and rotten on account of the education system forced on them by people who have never undergone through such a torture. The latter are the cleverest ones who know well to control all those who want to become great through what is being cleverly projected as the 'highest quality education'. 

Some children watch the material success of those VIPs who were managing their educational institutions and many of them are intelligent enough to understand the clever games the so-called successful people play. The children also witness how some of their teachers are exploited by the school managements. Those teachers who are not pets of those who manage the schools have been reduced to persons with no self esteem! The children also watch the benefits that some of their teachers who are the favored ones of the management get and they also sense the disparities that exist among their teachers based on various factors which are not logical or justifiable to their young minds. Some of their teachers are good teachers in their eyes but they are not that way before the management or the principal. 

The principal is the visible management representative whose main function is to enhance the institutions' image so that it attracts a steady stream of parents every year who are too willing to get their wards admitted to the institution by any means. Private managements of many of the educational institutions of India are too willing to spend much on the principal and showcase him or her as a living example of pomp and show to boost the image of the institution in the public gaze! 

It is not difficult to find such principals of private schools in India who sit in such lavishly furnished offices which could even make the CEOs of large business groups feel pretty ashamed of themselves. 

Such principals, especially those of the schools,  move around in expensive chauffeur driven vehicles! 

On the other hand, within a few hundred yards away one may also find government run schools or even some private government aided academic institutions having perceptibly higher societal importance getting much less or no facilities of that kind. 

Projecting the principal is a new technique some private educational institutions have adopted to boost the image of their school and hoodwink the gullible parents. More and more private schools and educational institutions are now resorting to this technique in India. But if you happen to talk to any such VIP head of any such institution, it is likely that you soon realize the hollowness of the person sitting on the chair as a neo-aristocrat! 

Meeting such a principal of an educational institution would be perhaps much more difficult for the parents than to meet the Chief Minister of the state. Many principals are also known to show favoritism to the parents according to the wealth and status of the latter. They treat wealthy and powerful parents with visible politeness while they show no such politeness to those parents whom they consider as of no consequence. 

Such favored parents are too happy to oblige to any request the principal may occasionally request from them! This way such principals soon become influential persons of the locality. 

Soon the wards of the less favored who happen to be students of such so-called prestigious educational institutions develop a feeling of class differentiation and a general antagonism within their minds which explodes in manners that we can never imagine, sooner or later! Wards of the lesser privileged in the locality who happen to study in such schools might develop a kind of inferiority complex which gets reflected as psychic anomalies later in their lives. 

Hype generation by educational institutions managed by societies formed by groups of people with motives and objectives for building public influence and power is understandable. At least  they are not making any false claims on morality! Again, there are many educational institutions in India which are essentially family run but officially run in the name of Societies formed by select group of individuals from the same family. Sometimes the name of the society that manages the educational institution might bear a misguiding name! But such acts are done by business oriented people who went in to the profitable education business in the guise of the non-profit societies because they had no other choice to establish such a business declaring it honestly as a profit making venture! How could any body believe that some one would spend scores of millions to establish an educational institution for charity alone? It is quite unlikely. So all those private educational institutions in India run by business groups under the banner of registered Societies are run for profits in terms of money and also for gaining influential positions in the country. That is the reason why India now has hundreds of private engineering colleges, medical colleges, universities and management institutions all competing each other to woo parents to sent their wards to them by paying high fees.

But what pinches is the manner in which even many of the educational institutions run by Christian church groups and other religious organizations slowly getting adapted to the new trends!

In the process they seem to forget what they preach and practice some thing which is not compatible with their teachings! 

The objectives in their bye laws may be good but many of these societies stand hijacked by people who do not possess the moral and ethical strengths of their predecessors. This is because of the democratic nature of these societies where it is very easy for characterless people to enforce their dominance over the majority members many of whom might be good and simple people. Such hijacked educational institutions are capable of creating much damage to the social moral fabric.

Since they could perpetuate the moral and ethical decline through the students of the concerned educational institutions they keep managing, I consider it as much more serious than those doing the education business! 

It is foolish to think that our children are blissfully ignorant about these double standards of our educational institutions set up and managed by our religious organizations! When religious organizations err, the moral damage to the society is many fold!

The educational institutions which boast of high standards and proudly announce their cent percent results in the final examinations are in reality managed by narrow minded pseudo practitioners who are too eager to exploit the ignorance and anxiety of the gullible Indian middle class parents. 

These parents are under the false concept that it is the English speaking students who find success in their career. This erroneous concept has been forced upon the gullible public minds by the very same pseudo educationists of India by using various techniques reinforced by either inaction or wrong actions by the state and central governments.

Let me categorically tell you this. I am not against English medium education. But imparting the education in a second language other than the usual mother tongue or the common language of the locality for a child is highly damaging and it actually kills its ability to understand language and meanings properly in its later years.

There exists a group of people in India who try to show to the rest of India that they are different from others by speaking in a foreign language and directly or indirectly projecting this quality as one of the essentials of measuring knowledge and educational superiority. Coupled with their outwardly lavish life styles and their peculiarly accented English speaking usually create inferiority complex in those people who are not of this category, in spite of many of the latter being better of than the former. 

This growing inferiority complex fuels the fire of aspirations of gullible middle class of India who want their future generations to acquire the much needed aristocracy through the so called English-medium education. Those who cannot fulfill this aspiration then become antagonistic to the system which generates this disparity. A new caste system begins to establish.

Children whose mother tongue is not English and who are compelled to get education in English right from the Kindergarten or nursery levels are bound to develop a language deficiency which is difficult to explain. They are highly handicapped to understand higher meanings. I have seen this deficiency in grown up people who have undergone such an education. 

In my opinion, it is not at all necessary to have English medium education for getting English language proficiency. 

Of course, English is now the international language and proficiency in this language is definitely an advantage for Indians under the present circumstances. But that does not mean that the Indian children should be taught in English right from age two. By creating a situation like this, India is generating a future generation who are not good in any language!

I am pained to read one of the clauses of the a private English medium school under their 'general guidelines for students' that is published on their website. It reads like this:

"Conversation in English - During the school hours but for Hindi classes the students are informed to converse in English which is essential in developing communicative skill in English.  Other than Hindi periods in the class and in the campus and also in the bus English must be the spoken language; if not spot fine will be charged."

So this school threatens the students to speak in English only, in the campus and also while they commute to the school by the school buses. Else they would be fined. The school is honest to declare that they do it to encourage their students to speak in English! Obviously, the school tries to tell that communication skills in English is the most important thing to develop in life as a school going boy or girl for future success! 

And this school is not an exception. There are several such schools in India who frame their ill conceived rules this manner, many of them contradicting the Constitution and the laws of the country in this manner. 

This school is managed by a society formed by Malayalam speaking members of a Kerala based church located in North India. The school administration  is carried out by an elected management committee, having very ordinary folks as its members having pretty no idea about the rules and laws that the governments issue from time to time. Effectively, they are guided by one or two external advisers who pose as chartered accountants and lawyers with some contacts in the concerned government departments. The school committee thankfully take their advises and perhaps even obliged to take 'other' kinds of helps that are required to keep them safeguarded from the government officials who are likely to pounce on them for possible violations of government directives that keep coming from time to time.

Thus a new kind of game gets started. The schools do the education business and money pours in as fees. The more the schools reputation with results and the infrastructure the more the students they get. The more the students, the more the money they get as fees. The more the money, the more the government departments come in to monitor them. The more the government scrutiny the more they have to spend to be compliant with government directives. The more they try to be compliant by unfair means, the more they spend later directly and indirectly for escaping government's punishment acts. The more such indirect acts needed for compliance, the more the chances of the managing committee members to make personal benefits!

This process then leads to a kind of give-and-take friendship among the players. Both sides become influential.

This way running any educational institution could be done by any one in India even if they do not know any thing about the law or about the field that they manage. The educational institutions in India are not managed by any eminent educationist. Any teacher or professor employed by an educational institute who is in the good books of the educational society eventually becomes an eminent educationist.  

The members of the educational society need not have any experience of their own to vouch for the efficacy of English medium education. Even the teachers need not be those who are excellent in teaching in English. What they need to have is the desire to imitate what the so called Indian educationists elsewhere are apparently doing. And that desire is not essentially based on their desire to turn their students to English speaking Anglo-Indians, but by the desire to promote a pseudo aura about the school's elitist culture that would attract more and more parents to send their children to them! And that would ensure them to earn a steady future income and also maintain their influence in the society indirectly.   

But who are responsible for this situation? It is easy to blame the over anxious parents who want the best education for their kids. But personally by analyzing the situation, I consider the parents are not to be blamed. Most parents I talk to and even me myself have been mere victims of the situation. The existing educational institutions who have been doing yeoman service to the nation have been clandestinely closed down by creating situations for their closure or non-performance. 

Is it the unholy or rather ill conceived nexus between  the governmental authorities and the private educational institutions responsible for creating such a thing to happen in India? I am not sure. 

I think it is the unwillingness of the governments to open up education system in India. It is an erroneous thinking that educational societies are formed by eminent citizens with desired levels of qualifications and experience to establish and manage educational institutions effectively for the common good of the nation. Unfortunately, the Societies Registration Acts in force in many states of India are too vague and have no practically effective supervisory controls in regulating the education activity in India. The governments control the education sector by using various administrative orders and also by controlling the examination boards , the universities and also the entrance examinations.

It is again to be stressed that eminent educationists and highly educated and experienced people who are capable of understanding the psychology of children well have no role whatsoever to play in the education management in India. Just as the Indian politics, the Indian education has also degraded to such levels that people with some self respect cannot think of associating with it! Education in India is in the hands of people associated with religion, politics and the like and they would not allow those who are not of that kind to enter into that field.

Artificial scarcity in education in India has made education black market. Helpless parents are anxious about the future education of their children. Fees are sky rocketing year after year. A parent who has a transferable and non-influential job in India posted in a city faces his or her greatest ordeal in life to get a school admission for his or her son or daughter. Many young people are shying away from having children for the dread of education for their children!

Educational societies are making a kill and are not answerable to the most important stake holders-the parents and the students. Unless one is having political blessing, no educational institution can be established. Individuals or companies are not allowed to enter into the formal education field in India.

Education stands as a clandestine business just as public transport, liquor trade, petroleum trade, health industry and the like in India. Those who know the tricks of the trade, big fortunes are awaited at the cost of the poor children and their parents! What a nice country to live on. Any wonder that the Indians who go the USA or Canada for a job do not want to return any time later?

But the worst that can happen is the hijack of Indian educational institutions established by religious organizations by those who have no religious good left in them!

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What Do I Expect From the New Central Government of India to be Formed in May 2014?

Media men and women of India have been  chasing the common men and women on the streets for the last many days with their microphones and camcorders for capturing  the latter's voices on their expectations from the politicians who would get elected to form the national government shortly. 

The folks on the streets may not have high aspirations from any government because that is what time has taught them. Yet, they are too enthusiastic about the general elections and are eagerly siding with some party as their own this time. Some of them might even risk their lives for their preferred parties and their preferred candidates even while they know that their support would not give them any real or lasting benefits. For that matter they might even do the same for their favorite cricketer or film star! It is like being in a big game and elections in a democracy are indeed big games that some people play and want to play at the cost of the majority whose roles end the moment after they return from the polling booths.

And there also exist a large group of people who are neither any party members, candidates or their near and dear ones and also not the enthusiastic voter who support and vote for the sake of getting the thrill of being in a contest. And they are the people like me, who are merely silent observers who may or may not go for voting realizing pretty well that their votes and opinions make no difference to any one even while some pseudo intellectuals preach otherwise! They are knowledgeable and responsible citizens who are concerned with their nation's progress, development and governance but are shy to raise their voices or try to assert themselves because experience has made them realize the folly of their gentlemanly behavior among the majority who have no such self imposed restrictions!

Being a wise and gentle person having some good human nature is not some thing that could draw some regard and respect from those who haven't acquired these qualities yet. A man who stands for principles and ethics cannot be a political leader who could win the confidence of the majority people of the present day. He or she could be considered as a weakling who could not be depended upon. What the people of the present day want is a leader who would not hesitate to assert his authority to have his way. If it hurts the people, they might moan, but yet they might feel proud of their authoritative leader. A circus lion has the strength to tear its trainer, but it won't do it so long as the induced fear resides in its mind. Common people are like such lions! The lion in the circus cage would be happy if it gets its meat and the cage floor to sleep and it won't mind those occasional lashes from the trainer!

The political leaders are like those circus trainers. They know pretty well to engage their caged lions dance to the tunes of the circus band! They know pretty well about the needs of their caged lions and the lions would sleep for hours in the cage if they are not fed well. If they roar in protest, those whips are sufficient to keep them under command. 

So what do I expect from the new government of India? If I am like the circus lion, what I expect is nothing to be elaborated much.

If I am like one of those lions in the wild, perhaps I may expect not to be caged just as those other lions who are there. Better hide away from the circus trainers!

I do not want to be either way. I do not also want that the political leaders to be like those circus trainers.

I want to live like a human being in this country. I also want the political leaders who form the central government to be like human beings and facilitate people like me to live like human beings. And not exist like those caged lions!

Some Unsolicited Suggestions to Capable Indians to Think and Initiate Improvements in the Indian Politics!

Indian democracy unfortunately has no system to receive feed backs from the individual citizens and to initiate some serious thinking about such individual suggestions. Perhaps, the privileged elites belonging to the media, connected NGOs and pampered institutes might poo-poo such ideas as non practical.

So for all those who want to be heard have to adopt some proven or novel techniques to come to the limelight to be heard by others. Unfortunately that is the prerequisite in any underdeveloped democracy.

I am fully aware of it and I know pretty well that my lone voices that I try to spread out through this platform would not make any effect any where!

So what I am writing here are obviously unsolicited suggestions only to sooth the hearts of a few others like me if ever they happen to read these!

So here are a few open suggestions that I want to tell our political parties today:

Firstly, let the Indian political parties make some changes for those elected to the parliament or the state assemblies using their party tickets. Let them allow these poor elected representatives of the people to vote and voice according to their inner consciousness and knowledge on various issues concerning the people to arrive at some true democratic decisions. Let the parties not use their whips on the MPs and MLAs to influence their voting decisions on common issues concerning the people. Let them use the whips only for those decisions that is concerning their support to the government to rule! Why I suggest this change is because the Indian political parties, none of them for that matter, truly follow any political ideologies any more. They are all the same having different individuals having different mindsets and egos sitting on their controlling positions! At least this way some of our MPs and MLAs who are sufficiently learned and sufficiently clean to be considered as good persons would be in a position to use their brains in a free and unbiased manner to think for the common good of the people!

Secondly, let all the political parties agree to make a law that enable the election commission to recognize only those political parties who get at least 5 % of the total assembly votes, parliament votes, assembly seats and parliament seats. Let the election expenses be made from an election fund controlled by an administrative authority under the supervision of the Election Commission of India . Let this authority refund the election expenses to those candidates of the recognized parties who have polled at least 5% of the total polled votes based on documentary evidences subject to a ceiling as fixed by the authority as per the availability of funds. Simultaneously, let there be a provision in the law describing the rules and regulations for setting up of political parties in India and their internal administration and finances. 

Thirdly, the law that governs setting up and administration of political parties in India should allow parties to have paid employees and managers to manage their political organization and such persons should not be allowed to contest elections so long as they are paid employees of the political organization. The political organization could be in the form of a registered society or non-profit company and the income of such political companies should not be subject to income tax. However, it should be mandatory for them to audit their accounts and publish their annual statements on properly maintained websites. Besides, the Election Commission of India shall be allowed to enhance their activities by having more man power and permanent offices in all Indian states. It should also be empowered to monitor the activities of the political companies! The political companies should have a governing board of elected or nominated directors to oversee its functions and policy making. The political companies should be allowed to set up their offices and political awareness centers across the country to propagate their ideas among the people and to train their party volunteers.

No political party should be allowed to field candidates to become future MPs or MLAs unless they have some desirable and specified educational qualifications and experience. This is because, they are the people who are required to frame and pass the legal frame work of the country. Unless they have the desired competency, they could lead the country to legal disaster. 

It is highly improbable that the existing political parties would favor such an idea. Because, they are mostly family fiefdoms. But it could be tried out by large business establishments who have the money and vision. They should think of making non profit societies and fund such societies to establish properly made political establishments who could make a difference in the future! Let them employ our youngsters with good intellectual capabilities to work for some years to make it a success. Indian public would come out of their prejudices when they are properly approached with some basic honesty and proven objectives. 

Let the business leaders of India think of it and pool their synergies to make it happen instead of funding the political parties in some clandestine manner.

If the Rajas and Ranis and their royal families could go forgotten from the minds of the people and pave the way to democracy in its infancy, it is possible for the same democracy to grow to its youthful vigor aspiring to experiment novelties!

After reading this much and if you agree with these ideas in principle, consider sharing it with your friends and followers as well. 

Halfhearted Privatization in India: Making a Nation Stoop in Shame!

In a democratic country, if major policy changes are to be implemented it has to be done in such a way that it would stand vindicated before the people and before the accepted principles of justice. 

After independence for nearly over forty decades, India's political arena was more or less stable with one major political party determining its fate. The views taken by the leaders of this party in those days were to have India progress in a quasi socialistic pattern where the government was responsible for major economic stability and growth.

All key economic activities in production and services during those days were almost the sole responsibility of the government. There was no field of activity where the central and state governments were not involved. Education was almost fully government owned and it was offered almost free. The fees, even when levied were very negligible and affordable.

For example, I paid no fee for my entire education up to a post graduation in engineering as a general category student.

Personal income tax was not a major contributor to the government income. The Indian government also fought many wars during those days with its neighboring states. Yet all these used to be managed within the government's income. Of course, the government used to borrow a lot, both from the public and from other sources. Huge budget deficit used to be a common feature.

Then came the era of the minority governments and the governments directed by nominated economic wizards. The political leaders apparently lacked the wisdom of complex economics. They were guided by scores of economic wizards drawn from the so-called top intellectual circuits.  It was further fueled by some politico-economic groups of the West led by the UK and others. These groups pushed the globalization agenda to all nations to follow under what was called the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs or GATT.

The time was approaching for the so-called hard core socialists known as the communists too to accept the benefits of capitalism. Communist nations led by the erstwhile USSR began to collapse under pressures of globalization and privatization ideologies. Even hardcore communist China too diluted its policies and adopted capitalism under name sake communist leadership.

In India, as in the case with other nations, the professional politicians were failing to understand the complex nature of the international economic scene. They were forced to sign agreements drafted by international pressure groups, ably aided by a bureaucracy without having much competency  to understand the intricacies of the rules that would emerge in the near future.

The media and media professionals played the drums for these transition. Perhaps they did not have anything much to lose. They simply aimed for spicy news that either scared or titillate the literate public.

For the Indian governmental leadership, the stakes were too appealing to be ignored. They wanted to privatize India at the earliest. Some economic media men projected the great resources that India government would accrue when they sell the hitherto held shares of its public undertakings. They urged and supported the government to sell and divest

But the government did not have the much needed democratic majority. The political opposition was making hue and cries. Unfortunately, in the democratic politics, those in this profession some how consider opposition as opposing everything irrespective of it being good or bad. Many times the governments took shelter in the opposition views as an excuse for not making effective laws or implementing laws effectively even when they are passed. Many times the executive considered law abiding a problem area.

So the need for going in for halfhearted privatization without much transparency. 

Nearly two decades have passed now. India is still a mixed economy. To some extent a worst kind of mixed economy. You cannot make any rational laws without hurting any one, now. You cannot proceed without any one yelling a foul. Too many contradictory policies. Too many chances for arbitration. Too many opportunities for courts and law enforcement agencies to jump in. 

Where are we moving? It is sheer common sense to realize that you would make yourself shear apart if you stood on two vehicles moving at different paces.  Could your economy move forward on two different strategies or policies ? It is bound to shatter. It would take time for us to realize it. When a huge ship sinks, a good majority are perished. But some would also survive!

Now the governments of India have shed their responsibilities of giving affordable education or health care to its citizens. Affordable power or fuel are also not coming under their responsibility. Government is also out from giving any social security to its people. Nothing is done free of cost any more. Every thing is chargeable. That too dearly.

IITs and IIMs take millions now in fees, while they maintain the same old facilities or nothing much improved. Their teachers and faculty have not got comparable pay hikes as they had hiked the fees. Neither are there any assurance of these bright students getting any opportunities to use their skills and training for the benefit of their nation. Forget those who are picked up by the multinationals and eventually converted as non-Indians!

Incidentally, I met the father of a bright young management graduate from one of the reputed IIMs today. She together with another four from her institute was recruited by a South Indian company offering a pay pack of over a million rupees per year. That was through the campus selection process. Once inside, the company refused to pay them or give them any proper pay slips. The company was one among the few such fronts used by a clever Indian for doing dishonest business. His recruitment from the IIM again was just a show business. The girl and her classmates somehow managed to get out in a few months of 'captivity' in this company and its unscrupulous promoter. But what is surprising is the disturbing fact that the IIMs do not have any idea or research data regarding the companies and others who come to recruit from their campuses! The employment situation is not so rosy in emerging India now that it is not easy even for the IITians or the IIMans to get a decent job. Forget those millions who pass out as engineers and managers by paying hefty fees to fill the coffers of many family run 'educational and charitable societies'! There is no reliable data on this count in India. How could any one publish such disturbing information? What would happen to the education business that flourished in a clandestine manner in India post privatization if such information is known to the public ?

The uncertainties of economic policies and their lack of transparency in India have made several Indians to become overnight billionaires. Uncertainties and confusions are best suited for some to make a killing!

But what about those who do not have such a mind set? None can assume that all Indians are like that!

India is fast changing into a land of unscrupulous vested interests. Thing are okay so long as no one raises any voice of concern.

It is easy to govern a large country of divided  and ignorant people in the guise of democracy. But how long?

Is it the India that we are going to give to our children?

I am not against privatization. But halfhearted privatization is another thing. If the policy of the government is for privatization let it be that way. But then what is the responsibility of the government? Let them concentrate only on providing a level playing field in a justifiable and transparent manner to all. Let the public interest be the prime concern for the government when they make policies. Let them not make policies for making high profits and income alone just as a greedy private businessman. Let them concentrate on areas where private players are not able to start any sustainable activity and provide those with the necessary support. Let them make policies that are not changed every now and then. Let those in governance act like sane drivers and not as drunken drivers!

Whatever it is, we are going to be doomed when our fates are determined by dishonest public servants, whether they come through politics or through public selection processes .

It is high time that we put this country back on  the right tracks! Every citizen of this country with some right thinking mind should be concerned with it.

Would there be a day in the near future when India and Indians are not required to be ashamed of what they are !

Compulsory Crash Helmets For Two Wheeler Riders:Reason Why I Left Riding Those Cute Machines !

I purchased my first scooter way back in 1981 and it was an yellow Lamby-150, which was a modified version of the good old Lambretta originally made by Innocenti of Italy. At that time, it costed me about Rs.8500. During those days, the other scooters in the Indian market were the bulky, imbalanced Bajaj scooters, following the designs of Vespa of Piaggio, Italy and the Indian version of the Lambretta made by the Public Sector company, Scooters India Limited, in the desi name , Vijay Super.  

My Lamby was similar to the one above!

Picture courtsey: Google Images

During those days, the common men of India were just experiencing the pleasure of motorized self travel. There were a few motor cycles as well such as the Royal Enfield, the Java and the Rajdoot, the latter being the most preferred means of transport for the farmers of North India.

All these models of scooters and bikes had their dedicated customers. Scooters were for the urban class and bikes for the rural folks used to be the unwritten rule. Perhaps, the rural roads were not good for the small wheeled scooters. 

Being in a well planned city with relatively good roads, it was a pleasure for me riding my Lamby and I liked it very much. It was a perfect, well balanced and sturdy one. The only problem encountered at times was its starting trouble. Perhaps, this one aspect made the unbalanced Vespa models of Bajaj, the most preferred scooter in India at that time. These scooters did not give much starting problems. All one had to do was to tilt the machine to one side for the petrol to flow to the carburetor before attempting to kick the start pedal. With such an advantage over the other few scooters, the common man at that time was ready to pay almost the equivalent of a new scooter as premium for a second hand one even when it was almost a decade old. The Vespa never failed in starting, though proud owners of these scooters tilting them to one side before attempting the kick starter, used to be a common sight on the roads in those days. My Lamby too was not so unreliable. Only thing needed was to know the trick of starting its engine without the petrol flooding its cylinder causing an embarrassing delay in starting. Somehow, I knew the trick ! 

The only harassment the two wheeler owners of India faced from their democratic government used to be the insulting manner in which the policemen stopped them on the road for checking  the 'papers' which meant the license, registration book and the insurance policy. What they gained by checking these papers used to be an unsolved question for most of the owners and the non-owners of these vehicles alike. Perhaps the ruling class wanted to show their existence and power to harass those not in power ! Perhaps, they wanted to show that they are with the genuine owners and not with those thieves riding these machines without the papers in proof of legal ownership in their possession. Frankly, I have no idea ! But, it is widely talked in private that these vehicle checks are for aiding another form of  forcible tax collection in the form of penalties specified in the motor vehicles act. It acted as a means of filling both the official and unofficial coffers!

I was fortunate that I escaped from these police men's traps during those many years when I owned my scooters, the Lamby and then the modern gear less Kinetic Honda. I normally avoided those routes and times where these policemen in groups wait and catch their preys. Yet, I was caught one day.

It was an evening. A friend of a friend came to meet him. At around 9 PM, my friend came to me with a request of dropping his friend at the railway station to catch the late night train. In those days, perhaps even now, this city where I lived, did not have any worthy public transport. Interestingly, this city is a modern city of 1.5 Million people in central India. During those days, the population was around 0.4 Million.

My friend too wanted to see off  his friend. Thus, it was inevitable that we three make the trip on my Lamby. Though my Lamby and I were capable of  doing that, the police did not allow such things. And I told my reluctance to break the law to my friend. But, the situation was such that there was no other way than to break the law. The police would not be there any where at this time, was the assurance given by my friend.

So, we three proceeded to the station on my Lamby. For the first five kilometers nothing happened. Then, suddenly on an unlit square, they appeared, stopping me. We three tried to plead, argue and beg with the officer. No use. My friends decided to walk the other 2 kilometers to the railway station in the night leaving me alone with the policemen. After harassing me for about half an hour, they agreed to leave me making me poorer by Rs.100, a good amount in those days. The money obviously did not go to the official chest as the uniformed men were kind enough not to give me a receipt. If they make it official, it would give me more trouble in the courts ! That was their reasoning ! With the ordeal over I felt relaxed and was happy even with the loss of the money. More than the money, it was the mean minded looks and talks that these government officials mete out to the public that is common knowledge to all. The policemen are not normal humans who can recognize other normal humans. That is what  I felt that day !

So, whenever I see these uniformed men on the road, a kind of panic sweep my whole body. I have not broken any law and I am no criminal. But, a law breaking policeman could easily make me one if he so desires. That is my worry. I have known senior police officers, many of them perfect gentlemen and I have known many policemen as well who are also good people. Just as there are good and bad people there are good and bad policemen. Yet, my worry remains. In these days of democracy, many people take the troubles of gaining power through their involvements in the so called politics and try clinging to such political powers for getting some influence over this tactical government machinery. All over the world, it is like this ! They make rules to create a vicious organization with whimsical powers thinking that it would do good and then keep amending it thousand times for controlling it, making it a double edged sword that harms the good and the bad equally and always. A ferocious dog might give a pseudo security feeling to its master, but when masters keep changing, the dog becomes confused and no more be willing to obey some of its masters any more !

It is the invisible power of God that has been protecting me from such visible and invisible forces. That is what I believe. Yet, it is not wise to get in to the traps of such dark forces, knowingly.

And that is the reason, I decided to sell off my last scooter and decided not to ride one any more. The authorities introduced a new rule which made wearing crash helmets compulsory for bikes and scooters. The authorities are wise men and women. They know better than common people like me. They introduce rules and laws for the benefit of people like me. That is what we are all supposed to believe! But in a society composed of a mixture of good and bad, semi-perfect and imperfect beings, perfect rules and perfect justice can never arise !

They have found that riding scooters and bikes cause accidents. A good percentage of accidents become fatal for the rider. And the major reason for fatality is head injury. So, wearing a helmet can reduce the head injury and the fatality. That is the simple logic. Scooter and bike riders should be happy to wear the crash helmets to save their own lives.

But, given a choice, most riders do not wear the crash helmets that are now available in the market. Initially, I too purchased one helmet.

To my horror, I find wearing a helmet enhances my chances of making and accident. Without a helmet I am clearly conscious of the surroundings and the vehicles nearby. There is little chance that I hit someone or someone hit me. But with the helmet, my vision is hindered, my hearing is tampered and my perception is lowered. My chances of making accidents enhance many fold. Besides, my perspiring head keeps me irritated always. If I do not make an accident, it is only the providence of God !

So, I considered it wise not to wear the helmet while I ride my scooter. For me, prevention was better than a cure. Wearing a helmet increased the chances of an accident and also improved the chances not losing life due to head or spinal injuries. But it will not prevent you from getting other injuries and fractures. You can still be in the hospital bed for days or months. So, how do you make the choice ?

I had experienced the difference of riding a scooter with and without the helmet and I took a considered decision that not wearing the helmet was better for me. Because in this case my chances of making an accident is reduced. Unfortunately, it is difficult to prove this, unless the researchers take honest feelings of the riders into consideration instead of relying on statistical accident data for conclusions.

Regrettably, the authorities go by the latter route and preferred to take  away the choice of the riders. They made it compulsory and empowered their police to harass those riders without wearing these helmets.

I did not want to get into troubles with the police again. You see, there are good and bad ones there. The latter in more numbers !

So, I sold off my last scooter and became a four wheeler driver instead for my personal movements in and around. I know, it is not an energy efficient decision. Nor it is one I enjoy much.

There are many like me and now the roads are no more good for any smooth traffic.

The wise authorities are perhaps thinking to empower their police with yet other restrictive rules !

I am waiting to leave my four wheeler and walk for good ! I do not know whether that too could make me safe !

Why did the Plastic Carry Bags Get Banned in the Indian Cities?

Polyethylene (PE) or simply polythene, Polypropylene (PP) , Polystyrene (PS) and Polyurethane (PU) are perhaps the most commonly used plastics that have revolutionized the way people used packaged products of various kinds. Without a proper plastic packaging, it is impossible to think of products like food items, medicines, mineral water, aerated drinks and many other consumable items are getting sold to the consumers. Plastic bags, both use and throw types and re-usable ones have made shopping a pleasurable and easy task for people both in the cities and the rural areas. 

The success of the polymer industry that makes these plastics have made tremendous profits for the petrochemical giants of the world. These industrial giants make the monomers and the bulk polymers which are the raw materials to the numerous small and big  plastic making industries around the world. 

But all these success turned out to become a curse in the recent years that even the mention of the word 'plastic' is making the otherwise gentle environmentalists furious and ferocious !

In the recent past, some city governments in developed nations like the US have considered it wise to ban plastic carry bags in their cities. Indian environmentalists and politicians, all keen to project themselves as green ambassadors and green saviors of the nation are quick to follow with wide spread bans of plastics making the job of the otherwise lethargic local police men more lucrative and active ! It is yet another point to investigate to find out their real agendas in banning plastic carry bags, the item which made life simple for many citizens all throughout these years. 

The thin plastic bags that the local trader happily handed out to the fish, meat and vegetable buyer in the local market for their customer to take home their daily needs without any hassles have all of a sudden have become a dreaded material comparable to perhaps the nuts and bolts of an AK-47 that made a famous Indian actor confined to the dreaded jails of India. Possessing and carrying plastic carry bags of negligible thickness has become a crime in India ! Of course, the Indians are just imitating their big brothers else where!  Unless the big brothers come out with some solutions, the Indians cannot possibly have some solutions !

How could they ? These bloody plastic bags are clogging the drains, the sewers of the apartments, the stomachs of the holy cows and what not ! It is so a big mistake that it was allowed to proliferate to this extent, some of the plastic haters argue ! But my brain is not digesting the logic of banning the thinner plastic carry bags while the thicker ones and plastics are allowed to be used. But this information is hidden in the government orders and not given much publicity that the common man is getting frightened by the sight of any plastics. His fears are indeed genuine because he is not sure how the local policeman would act or react while seeing a piece of plastic in some one's possession !

But allowing the the thicker plastics perhaps would be a boon to the petrochemical giants. Now their tonnage is bound to increase ! It is not yet clear whether the authorities want the citizens to wash their thicker poly bags again and again and use it till they are worn out ! They are also not telling what to do with the thicker worn out pieces of those plastics !

While all these are happening, I am surprised at the silence of the world leaders in plastic production, the petrochemical giants! It clearly shows that they are not affected by these bans ! Even in India, the projected consumption of plastics is continuously on the rise ! ( Read the wikipedia article here !)

The average life span of a plastic item is about 8 years. That means the billions of tonnes of plastics that are manufactured by using petroleum as the starting raw material become a waste material in about 8 years time.

This poses two kinds of problems.

Firstly,  the scarce hydrocarbon petroleum reserves are consumed for the production of plastic materials. Secondly, the used plastics become non-biodegradable polymer wastes.

But they also serve some very useful functions during its life span. Modern packaging industry depends totally on plastic products. A good number of industrial equipment resisting corrosion are also made of plastic materials. Modern automobiles, airplanes, boats and ships depend heavily on plastic materials as their components. A good number of plastics are gets recycled to form inferior products ultimately becoming some sort of non usable waste material. 

But regrettably every usable material is bound to make some waste some point of time. Some wastes are biodegradable in a shorter period of time. But, till that time they are not fully degraded back to join the natural elements they are bound to cause some nuisance. Food is good, but spoilt food is not. Water is good, but spoilt water is not. Plastic is good, but spoilt plastic is not.

All waste materials can be used in some way or the other, provided we know how to do it properly. Thus waste food, waste water, waste soil, waste oil, waste biomass and waste plastics can all be processed for some usefulness. That is the universal law of nature. It there is a will, there is a way. That is as simple as that.

Are you scared of life because your body excretes all that waste materials every day ? Haven't you devised methods and means to tackle that problem ? Will you stop eating food and drinking water because that produce noxious wastes to come out of your body ? You will not. Then, why to ban these carry bags made of plastics ? Are we so underdeveloped that we can not develop a system of collecting and processing these waste plastics ? No, never.

Then what is the problem ?

No problem technically. There are many ways of tackling the problem. There are even ways by which the plastic waste processing would become profitable business options. Of course, no business is possible without administrative blessings by those who rule !

For that matter, 99 % of the cities of India have no solid waste management systems, what to talk about the plastic wastes. Technically and technologically these are not big issues. But, administratively and politically they are !

Because administration and politics are not as simple as engineering and technology. They are not at all straight forward. Two plus two may not be four in these superior human disciplines!

It is very difficult to understand. Have you now understood why there are not many institutions that teach politics and political administration ?

Did you get why the plastic carry bags got banned in the Indian cities ?