BEYOND THE DIPLOMATESE - DARWIN WAS RIGHT , IT'S A JUNGLE OUT THERE.

 The generally received wisdom is that international affairs is so arcane a subject that it should be left to experts and diplomats to interpret. Which they usually do in language that no one understands. But even that is fine so long as we can make sense of the moves on the global chessboard. That is not, however, the case today, post-Trump, as we see the global order unravelling before our eyes, open licence being granted for slaughter of innocents, the legitimisation of a new era of colonisation and genocide. We would, therefore, be justified in feeling that the future of billions cannot be left to the mercy of diplomats, just as war cannot be left only to Generals for, as Portia asked: "If you prick us, do we not bleed?" The world is bleeding now, and we, the common citizen, have every right to ask: What the hell is happening?

The world is now dominated, and dictated to, by three unscrupulous leaders; one has been convicted on 34 counts of felony and would have been in jail if only the American Democrats had played their cards better, the other two are alleged war criminals, accused of  crimes against humanity for whom arrest warrants have been issued by the ICC. They have now joined forces to carve out the world amongst themselves, in a macabre replay of the Yalta Conference of February 1945. But whereas Yalta marked the end of a period of violence and killing, this new meeting of minds marks the beginning of a period of renewed killings and oppression.

These three have completely upended the rules-based international order (RBO), which has more or less governed international relations since the UN came  into existence on 24th October, 1945. The use of the veto and military power has ensured that the RBO has been replaced by the law of the jungle- open annexation of sovereign territories, blatant genocide, forcible grabbing of mineral resources. Putin will be gifted Ukraine as the main course and can help himself to Eastern Europe and the Baltics as dessert, while Trump gets his Akhand America and Netanyahu swallows up most of the Middle-east. China will probably pocket Taiwan and all the islands within the nine dash line.

International cooperation, and the organisations meant to ensure this, are as good as dead. The United Nations has been put in moth-balls, for all the influence it has on the world now. It's just a debating club now, and not even in the same league as the Oxford Union Debating Society. It's impotence has been underlined by the fact that Israel- a member state- has banned the entry of the Secretary-General into the country, killed more than 200 of its staff, disallowed the functioning of its aid organisations like UNRWA in Gaza, attacked its schools, hospitals and refugee camps, and there's nothing that can be done about it. Working for UNRWA can now get one arrested and deported in the USA. The ICC arrest warrants and orders to end genocide in Gaza are not worth the paper they are written on- in fact, Netanyahu has now extended the genocide to the West Bank and the USA is issuing sanctions against the judges of the ICJ! The WTO is in a shambles with Trump imposing unilateral tariffs and other countries retaliating in similar fashion. The WHO is facing collapse with the USA backing out, ditto for any effective climate Accord as the world's largest polluter disassociates itself from climate change agreements and expands its fossil fuel extraction.. A huge sink hole has just opened up under the edifice of global cooperation.

Other portents are even more worrying for the future of mankind. We were all aware of a creeping right-wing, intolerant and authoritarian wave moving across nations, but now the Italian Prime Minister has proposed a confederation or alliance of right-wing rulers: Trump, Modi, the Argentinian President, Netanyahu and herself to begin with; no doubt the likes of Erdogan, Viktor Orban of Hungary, and other wanna-be strongmen will also be lining up to join this unholy gang. This can only spell more danger for a world where democracy has been in retreat since the late 1990's.

The world is in a more dangerous place today than it has ever been since 1948, with this powerful troika abandoning all principles of international law and the sovereignty of nations, crushing underfoot the hard fought-for values of human rights, negating agreements built over decades by  painstakingly achieved consensus, withdrawing from international organisations established to bring about cohesion and equal development, repudiating global covenants such as the Climate accords, intimidating other nations by the use of their military prowess. Even more alarming, their lawlessness and unpredictability  is forcing other countries like Japan, South Korea and Poland to consider acquiring nuclear capabilities to hedge their safety bets.

And where does India stand amidst all this chaos, I wonder? It appears to me that we stand for nothing- we are not what we are, we are what we are not. The traditional bedrocks of our foreign policy-the "Panchsheel" principles, support for the Palestinians, anti-colonialism, a nuanced neutrality, the values of liberal democracy- have all been jettisoned in favour of cronyism inspired GDP, the image of one man, and the desperate desire to sit at the high table of global politics. This is sought to be achieved by a supine surrender to the new Satan on the block, shameful abstentions in the United Nations, silence when our own citizens are shackled and humiliated, putting money over morals. This is all disguised as "neutrality" but is just strategic cowardice. And it's not working either: we have zero influence today over global affairs, we can no longer claim any leadership of the global South, we are isolated within BRICS, Trump doesn't give a tinker's curse for us, nobody knows what we stand for anymore notwithstanding a pulpit-thumping External Affairs Minister who sounds more and more like Mr. Micawber and Uriah Heep combined from the Dickens novels every day.

The "experts" will probably say that all this is very naive and simplistic, that what we are witnessing is unilateralism vs multilateralism, or a battle between liberal humanism and evolutionary humanism, or a tussle between Marxist socialism and neo-capitalism. But the truth is far more simple, as all great truths are. And the truth is that the blood thirsty phenomenon we are observing today is pure and simple Darwinism- the survival of the fittest. Which may have been acceptable 200,000 years ago when homo sapiens was still at the hunter-gatherer stage of our evolution, but not today after millenia of progress. Today it is evil, a threat to humanity itself which cannot be removed by armies or the law but only by the people themselves, the people who have birthed these mutants in the first place.

These are, as I said, dangerous times for all nations, but do we have the leadership that can navigate the country safely through these troubled waters? I don't know because right now it is busy in trashing a stand-up comic, demolishing houses, demonising live-in relationships, digging up mosques, figuring out more novel ways of winning elections, taking over Waqf boards and declaring more meat- free zones. World affairs can wait.

 

DOG- WALKERS AND THE FUTURE OF EMPLOYMENT

 

                      DOG-WALKERS AND THE FUTURE OF EMPLOYMENT

 

Sometime back the Union Minister for Labour and Employment, Shobha Karandjale, blamed the spread of education in the country for the high unemployment rate: we have far too many graduates, she added, in case you missed it the first time. This immediately caused a huge uproar on social media and various liberal groups, with someone even suggesting that we should now have an UNEDUCATION policy. Come to think of it, however, she was not far off the truth.

In India, everyone who cannot migrate illegally to Trumpland wants to become a graduate: the country produces ten million grads every year, most of whom (according to India Inc.) are unemployable. This is further borne out by a recent report that of 263 applicants (all lawyers and civil judges) who appeared for an exam for the post of District judges in Odisha, not one passed the qualifying test! Adding to the problem is that there are just not enough new jobs being created every year, even if we accept the govt’s cooked-up figures. Which is why, according to the ILO Report (2024) the rate of unemployment among graduates is ten times that of the uneducated: in India, the more educated you are the lesser the chances of your finding a job!

We refuse to accept the laws of either economics or mathematics, everyone wants a job as a babu in an office (hence the need to be a graduate), hands-on skills are looked down as undignified “labour”: the “knowledge worker” is placed high above the “skill worker.” Even though, while the former spend their days idling at home or attending political rallies, it is almost impossible to get hold of one of the latter when you need one- an electrician, carpenter, plumber, para-medic, driver, to mention just a few. Our cook, a smart young girl who chose to drop out after Plus Two and earn a respectable living rather than go to college and join the ranks of the unemployed, comes for two hours every day and charges Rs. 8000 per month. She works in four to five houses and makes Rs. 30000 to Rs. 40000 per month, something which even IIT grads are happy to receive these days! A mason in my village charges Rs. 1000 per day, if you can get hold of one, that is!

And things are about to get much worse for the grads and white collar workers with the advent of AI. The founder of Atomberg, Arindam Paul, predicts that 50-60 percent of white collar jobs could be lost to AI in the coming years in India and there would be no middle- class left. The infotech and hitech firms have already fired tens of thousands of their employees as a precursor to a much bigger bloodbath : the knowledge worker can be easily replaced by AI, whether he or she is a doctor, engineer, coder, data analyst, copy writer, advertising executive etc. AI softwares like Grok are making even doctors redundant. The skill or blue collar worker, on the other hand, is irreplaceable, whether on the factory floor, a mechanic's shop, your flat or selling momos on the street. These are the jobs and professions which will survive, as evidenced by the the innovative start-ups being launched every day. We have arrived in the era of innovative and niche-based job creations, and those who possess the entrepreneurial  spirit of exploring these options will be the winners. My housing society now provides well paying occupations which were unheard of even a decade ago- Dog Walkers (Rs.4000/ per house X 5 houses a day), Dog Groomers (Rs. 1000-1500 per doggie, almost the same Neerja pays for her monthly visits to Barbara's or Trois Ne), the Pigeon Net maker (Rs. 12000 for three balconies), and so on.

The smart guy will ferret out where demand for a product or service exists-and provide it, just like Swiggy, Amazon and Blinkit have done on a much larger scale.I came across a couple of unlikely occupations during the course of my readings, which I must share to prove how the job market is changing:

Sumadi Ibrahim served for 22 years as a Navy diver in Malaysia; since his retirement 10 years ago he has carved out a most unusual niche for himself: he retrieves lost golf balls from the water hazards of  golf courses outside Kuala Lumpur. He works three days a week, collects about 500 balls, and sells them to the same guys who lost them! He makes RM 8000 ringgit each month ( Rs. 1.60 lakhs), which is three times what a worker in the formal sector gets. Jim Best, an ex US Navy frogman, does the same on the Florida golf courses: he estimates that there are 70000 golf balls waiting to be found- a small fortune for entrepreneurs like him!

Demand has created a new breed of workers in China- "pei pas" or "climbing buddies", fit and athletic young men who assist outdoor tourists and enthusiasts in climbing or trekking up mountains, acting as guides and providing logistical and physical support. With millions of tourists opting for outdoor adventure, demand is booming. A climbing buddy charges between USD 50-70 per trip and can make upto USD 2000-3000 per month, far more than the average monthly wage for office workers. Good looking buddies can demand a higher price from single ladies or ladies' groups!

Another new class of professionals has now emerged- consulting declutterers. The inter-generational passing down of possessions- furniture, cluttery, mementos, clothes, books, photos- has become an issue: the younger generation now has smaller flats, believes in minimalist life styles, moves from place to place, and has no desire to clutter their lives. The "handing-down" older generation, on the other hand, values much of this stuff as family heirlooms and would like them to be retained for pure sentimental reasons. How to balance the two desires/needs? Enter the professional declutterer (at USD 125 per hour), who will talk to everyone, assess their emotional and physical needs, put a price on the items, advise on their disposal. He/ she is both a valuer and a psychological consultant.

As lifestyles change, as technology alters the way we once lived, and as new needs emerge, new areas for jobs are being created to replace the traditional white collar office jobs. Those who are innovative, possess unconventional skills and dare to be different are the ones who will prosper. As the Florida frogman told a reporter: " There's a job somewhere for everyone." He may as well have added: "Provided they're willing to shed their white collars."

19.03.2025

 

A NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN.

 " There's a new Sheriff in town," was what the newly minted TD Vance, Vice President of the USA, informed Europe in his typical hillbilly way on his first visit there. He was, presumably, referring to Trump and not to the federal marshal, Musk, who appears to be riding shotgun for the former as the American prairie schooner rides rough-shod over what's left of the rules-based global order. But this piece is not about American sheriffs- it's about the new sheriff that has just arrived in India.

It's name is Grok, Grok 3 to be precise, which has just been released by Elon Musk and  is instilling more fear among India's powerful than Wyatt Earp and Doc Halliday ever did in the Wild West, to continue with the frontier imagery. In just a week of its launch it has had the hombres and rats running for cover, and forced Amit Malviya to observe a "maun vrat" while he tries to figure out how to make his untruths Grok- proof. It's not hard to figure out why.

For any near-totalitarian state the main tool to control the population is not the police, it's disinformation- fake news, witholding of information and official data, capturing the media to disseminate only propaganda, build narratives based on lies, distort history. This has worked very well for the ruling party in India so far, for there are now very few channels of authentic news left, and the govt's official data (unemployment, household consumption, census, deforestation, inequality, poverty, electoral data) is either suppressed, distorted or outright denied. The voter has no choice but to rely on whatever is manufactured by govt. agencies.

Not any more, for the new sheriff in town is changing the rules of the game, albeit in a much more democratic and kosher way than Sheriff Trump. In just a few days, in response to questions put to it, Grok has thoroughly exposed and contradicted the narratives we have been fed on for the last ten years. It has told us, for example, that there is no evidence that Mr. Modi (or Mrs. Irani) have a degree, that it was Muslims and not the RSS that participated in our freedom struggle, that Mrs. Sonia Gandhi was never a bar dancer, that Arnab Goswami and Sudhir Choudhry are the top sycophants among the godi media anchors, that Rahul Gandhi has held 43 press conferences compared to Mr. Modi's 1, that Nehru donated Rs. 196 crores of his personal wealth (current value Rs. 49000 crore) to the country in 1946, that when he became UP Chief Minister in 2017 Yogi Adithyanath had 28 criminal cases registered against him, all of which he withdrew. The country's sold-out media would never have shared these gems with us.

No wonder the rats are bolting into their holes. For the credibility of Grok cannot be questioned: its responses are based on archival data from across a multitude of sources-left, right and center-, it has no ideology, its algorithms have no political leanings, it relies on hard data and not presumptions or manufactured  narratives. The ruling party and its right wing acolytes cannot even accuse it of bias, for does it not belong to the friend of our Prime Minister's buddy Doland? Irony just died a thousand deaths here.

As access to Grok multiplies, and as social media and Youtubers become more aware of the possibilities, expect a torrent of authentic, hitherto concealed information and data to flood our information universe, with more and more exposures of the disinformation blanket thrown over the country these last few years. This can only make for a more open society, a better informed citizenry, and a more responsive government. But I am more excited than the average Joe (it takes a lot to excite me these days) for I visualise a limitless potential for this magical AI tool.

Take, for instance, the RTI apparatus which has been almost completely disembowelled by the govt. Grok has the potential to replace our RTI Commissions to some extent because it will unearth and mine information from millions of disparate sources on any subject/ question in a nano second, which your PIO cannot or does not want to do. Even better, can we hope that some day Grok will replace our lumbering courts with their 50 million pending cases, their judgments increasingly based on preferential expectations and majoritarian ideology, their benches staffed by indifferent practitioners of law, accused waiting for years for a judge's pleasure just to get bail, forget about a trial ? Can you imagine a judicial system where there are no lawyers, no judges, no pendency? Just feed the facts of a case (civil or criminal), the evidence, the pleadings, previous case law into the algorithms of Grok- and hey Presto!- you have a judgment in minutes! Based on law and merits, which is becoming a rarity these days. I don't know about Donald Trump or Mr. Modi or Justice Chandrachud, but Solomon would certainly have approved of this. And oh! Umar Khalid too.

[Also published in The Tribune of 23rd March 2025]

ARE BANKERS DRIVING YOU BONKERS?

                             ARE  BANKERS  DRIVING  YOU  BONKERS ?

Unlike our Prime Minister or Mr. Narayan Murthy, I do not labour for 18 hours a day; in fact, I don't labour at all- having toiled for 35 years I have now left it to others to clear out the mess I've created during that period. But this doesn't mean I don't put in many productive hours every day- for, as the L+T Chairman never said: "they also serve who only stand and stare." Deleting the hours I spend in sleeping, and staring at Neerja, I do work for about four hours every day at my office table which I picked up at a Delhi "chor bazaar" just before someone nicked my wallet. But- and here's my grouse and the trigger for this piece- about 2 of these hours is spent sorting out issues with my banks.

This constitutes my daily nightmare, of the digital kind. All banks have now gone online and that has its advantages, especially in the matter of withdrawing cash through ATMs, making payments, opening FDs etc. through net-banking. Beyond these, however, if you have an issue like change of phone number or address, or a suspect credit or debit, or closing an account, and need to contact the bank or its manager, or do a KYC, then you need to gird up your loins, prepare for a few frustrating weeks and long for the old days when you could drop it at the branch to have a cup of tea with the BM while your issue was sorted out in a cordial manner. Not any more. These days you have to deal with an anonymous, faceless, algorithmic monster called Customer Service, a legal fiction which you are led to believe exists (like God) but actually doesn't (again, like God).

I have accounts in four banks, having decided to spread the risks when they start collapsing whenever Mr. Adani decides to buy Cyprus or St. Kitts and move there with his trillions. But, since it's now quite clear that he is happy to stay in India and buy this country instead, I decided to close two of these accounts before dementia catches up with me and I forget about all of them. I've been waging a battle with one of these banks for the last month to close one account. A Speed post letter to the Branch Manager has elicited no acknowledgement-I suspect he is also a legal fiction and doesn't exist. Six emails to Customer Service ("we value our relationship with you") have elicited six identical responses saying it can't be done online and that I should visit the branch with as many papers as I carried to my UPSC interview 50 years ago. I pointed out that I am a senior citizen and should not be expected to physically go to the Branch which is twenty kilometers away: no response from the bot at the other end, but I thought I could hear a snicker from the Bank's URL. The account is still not closed: I think I shall bequeath it in my Will to someone I detest, preferably a "bhakt" or some dandy from St. Stephens College (do I need to tell you that I'm from Hindu College?)

There are other missiles in the armoury of Customer Service which they unleash in the whee! hours of the night. One morning you'll be suddenly informed that your basic savings account has been upgraded to Burgundy or Platinum or Super Value, which requires you to maintain a few lakhs in your account at all times, on pain of penalty charges. In return, you will get your own Relationship Manager, free access to an Indigo airport lounge and a discount on meals at a five star restaurant. I've tried telling them that Neerja manages my  relationships, and does a pretty good job at nurturing and terminating them too, if she is so inclined; that I wouldn't fly even if God gave me wings and the rank of Air Chief Marshal; that it makes no sense to have a biryani in a hotel where Ms Sitharaman takes 28% of the food off the plate even before I've had the first bite and Service Charge takes 15% of what's left. But he algorithms are designed not to take NO for an answer and I didn't get far with this line of reasoning.

And then there is the bane of our digital lives- the KYC. Every once in a while we are asked to re-verify our mug shots, finger prints, addresses and telephone numbers. The public sector banks, those remnants of the dinosaurs, insist that you physically visit their branches to do so, even if you are on the International Space Station with Sunita Williams. (Incidentally, you now have to do this also for your FastTag, gas connection, insurance policies, mutual funds, land holdings, electricity connection, etc.) It doesn't matter a whit that you've had an account with the bank for 40 years, or that it's a pension account verified by the AG himself, or that you've never, ever, defaulted on a loan or a credit card payment, or ever had any dealings with Suresh the Con-man, or Mallya or Choksi or Nirav Modi. While people like these gentlemen are siphoning off thousands of crores from the banks, we cannot touch our own moneys. KYC it has to be, or start begging at the Khan Market red light for your daily bread.

One can't help but feel that we are rushing too fast into wholesale digitalisation without adequately preparing our personnel, processes and culture for it, just like Mr. Gadkari with his express-ways and Ms Sitharaman with her GST. Sometimes one longs for the older ways. I recollect my dad, after retirement in Kanpur, used to visit his bank branch  two or three times every week, have a gossip session with the BM, get tips on investments, cash a cheque or two over tea and aloo ki tikkis and return home a satisfied customer. He died of old age, not the effects of dealing with Customer Service and Digital India. Me, I'll probably die of an embolism caused by a Customer Service algorithm.

I'm considering closing all my bank accounts, withdrawing the funds and going into partnership with my village money lender; he's promised me an annual return of 8% (no TDS, of course), which is more than what these banks give. Problem is, he wants me to do a KYC too!

[ This blog was published by the TRIBUNE]

THE DISNEYFICATION OF RELIGION

 

THE DISNEYFICATION OF RELIGION

 

Marx missed the full picture when he described religion as an opiate of the masses. so did George Carlin when he  claimed that God was a fiction. For today Neo-Capitalism and right-wing fundamentalism have assigned God a new role and turned Him into an FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Good): far from being an opiate He is now a stimulant for consumption on a gigantic scale, the driver for GDP and GST growth. If, along the Laffer curve, a few consumers die in a stampede or fire, that is acceptable collateral damage, a tax write-off where the public picks up the bill while the high priests of Mammon go chuckling to the Bank. The on-going Maha Kumbh, which the U.P. government claims will add Rs. 2 lakh crores to the state's GDP, is the apotheosis of this new divine role.

The Hindu religion being one of the main pillars of the BJP's very existence and power-play, it has to be constantly glorified, burnished and made larger than life. As Yuval Noah Harari asserts, a religion is not just its deities but also the social functions it performs. The BJP's aim is to ensure that one of these "social functions" is the legitimising and consolidation of its power and narrow world-view. Given these high stakes, Hinduism can no longer be left to the tender mercies of the Shankaracharyas, Mahamandeleshwars, priests, purohits or the humble devotee and pilgrim in the villages. It must be ornamentalised, over hyped and aggrandised, made a television spectacle, a platform for projecting the party and the Prime Minister as its prime custodian. This is a continuation of a medieval mindset we thought the modern world had left behind: did not the emperors and kings of that time build cathedrals, pyramids, gigantic statues, temples and monuments to perpetuate their own myths, dogmas and personalities, to remain in the public eye and memory? Were kings and Pharohs not considered embodiments of the divine power? Religion may be a fiction, so it has to be dressed up, for the grander the fiction the easier it is to get the public to swallow it.

It is in this backdrop that we must understand this government's hostile takeover of the religion, and its obsession with the Disneyfication of our religious places and the conversion of all major Hindu festivals into  Cecil de Mille type of Hollywood productions. A few recent instances will help to establish this point:

* The inauguration of the new Parliament building on 28th May 2023 was done with all the splendour of a Roman coronation, complete with the sengol substituting for a scepter and procession of high priests. A secular political function was transformed into a religious one.

* The consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, built at a reported cost of Rs. 1800, crore was an even grander event, the tempo having been built up for weeks before, like some gladiatorial show at the Colosseum.

* The Kashi Vishwanath corridor, which will cost Rs. 800 crores when all its phases are complete, was hyped up as the rebirth of Varanasi, another re-affirmation of a resurgent Hinduism; the destruction of hundred of houses and private temples to make way for the corridors was, of course, acceptable collateral damage.

* The Char Dham Highway, ripping through the heart of the Himalayas and built against all environmental considerations, is again an emblem of religious revivalism, even though it is rationalised on strategic defence grounds. It will cost about Rs. 12000 crores and is already causing irreversible damage to the mountains.

* A dedicated and wholly unnecessary highway is being built for the Kanwariyas in U.P. at a cost of Rs. 650  crores and a reported 33000 trees, once again to project the religion in a larger than life format and to milk religious sentiments.

* The exaggerated claims of the Mahakumbh, its deafening publicity and non-stop 24X7 media coverage, the Guinness scale of infrastructure created at a reported cost of Rs. 7000 crore (and Rs. 5000 crore by the Railways) is again meant to amplify the same message.

It's the same with festivals. The Kumbh has been celebrated since time immemorial, every decade or so, but the frenzy created around it this year is unprecedented, with even Blinkit home- delivering sangam water, virtual dips being offered online, and someone else taking a dip on your behalf at the sangam for a nominal charge! I have lived in Delhi for fifty years but have never witnessed things like Ganesh Chaturthi, the Chhat Pooja or the Kanwariya Yatras being magnified to the kind of spectacles we witness nowadays. This resurgence of a placid faith is clearly contrived, funded and Disneyfied with a purpose.

Somewhere along the way, the spiritual and ascetic in Hinduism has been replaced with the commercial and extravagant, to serve the "function" of a political party. Which should not surprise anyone, because religion has always been a business and tool for power. As Prof. Paul Seabright says in his extraordinary book, The Divine Economy, the divine science (religion) has always had a large element of the dismal science (economics) mixed with it. It offers a product (salvation), has a network of providers (priests) and well established distribution channels. There are many "products" in the market (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism etc.) and they all compete with each other for market share.

It should not surprise anyone, therefore, that the corporatisation of Hinduism now has a righteous , if not liturgical, angle to it, to serve a political purpose. It has become a bustling share market where the common investor gets his returns in divine indulgence, and the new corporates get theirs in votes. And those who do not buy into this stock market are the new kafirs. Nietzsche had famously said that God is dead. He was wrong- God has now been repositioned as a marketable product.

[ This blog was published in the TRIBUNE on 2.3.2025 under the title REPOSITIONING GOD AS A MARKETABLE PRODUCT.]

THE NEW THREAT FOR HIMACHAL'S RIVERS

                               

                                        [ This blog was published in THE TRIBUNE ]

THE  NEW  THREAT  FOR  HIMACHAL'S  RIVERS

Himachal's beautiful and priceless rivers are facing a new threat in their ongoing battle against "development". First it was the roads hacked out in their valleys, dumping tens of millions of tonnes of earth and debris into their waters, constricting their flows and  devastating aquatic life. Then came the hydel projects, extinguishing whatever little aquatic life was left, drying up the waters, and causing floods downstream. Now there's a new threat, ironically, the very sector and activity they nurture- Tourism.

As tourism expands into the remote interiors of the state under the indulgent and sightless gaze of the state government, its tentacles are snaking their way up the river valleys, bringing with them the same mercenary ruthlessness that has destroyed the state's urban centers. Haphazard constructions- hotels, homestays, guest houses, dhabas, workshops- are coming up all along these rivers, sometimes even on the river beds and their flood plains, obscuring the lovely views of rivers, dumping muck in them, discharging their sewage directly into the flowing waters, narrowing their channels. There are very few rivers left that are relatively undisturbed by this ravaging; having travelled (on foot) to practically all of them, I can count and name them on one hand- the Tirthan, Pubber, Uhl, Baspa, Chandrabhaga, Parvati (above Pulga), Rupen. Unless the government-particularly the departments of Forest, Town and Country Planning, Fisheries, Deputy Commissioners, Tourism- wakes up urgently the days of these rivers are numbered.

The Tirthan in Kullu district is perhaps the last of the relatively untouched rivers, because most of its course lies in the Great Himalayan National Park; it is also the final bastion of the endangered free roaming rainbow trout. Sadly, however, it has been discovered by Tourism and dozens of hotels and homestays have started springing up along its length below Gushaini, most of them "benami". A picture of a typical construction that is going on there even as I write this is given below, sent to me by some friends there:

                         

                 [ Construction of a hotel on the bed of the Tirthan river in Kullu district]

This massive construction (it's a hotel) has occupied almost two thirds of the width of the river bed, leaving just a narrow channel for the river to squeeze through. The problems it presents are obvious to all, except perhaps the government agencies who are supposed to prevent this: the obstruction caused by the structure will alter the course of the river, deflecting the water to the opposite bank and eroding it and washing away the orchards clearly visible in the photo.; any flood in the river will pose  a grave danger to this building and its residents; the entire sewage and grey water from this building has no other way to go but to be discharged into the Tirthan, no matter what its owners may say: the building is fifty below the road level and the sewage can only go down, not up. It doesn't matter if the construction is on private land- it is on the river bed, interferes with the flow of the river which should have the first right of way, will cause pollution in a river the locals consider as holy as the Ganga, and poses a threat to life. The locals have been protesting against this ongoing construction, and four panchayats of Banjar have passed a resolution asking for the work to be stopped but as usual, money and influence talks louder because the work continues, with redoubled vigour!

How are these types of constructions being allowed to come up? Is it even legal under the stringent land ownership laws of the state, debarring outsiders from owning land here? Has it obtained TCP and Pollution Control Board approvals, and if so, how were these granted in the face of the obvious implications on safety and the environment? The Deputy Commissioner Kullu and concerned departments need to address these questions. (I learn that a temporary stay had been issued by the Forest department now, but that is now vacated).

Similar constructions are happening along all the rivers. After the floods of 2022-23 the government has taken some decisions about banning constructions on the flood plains of the Beas. This is not enough. Similar action should be taken for all the rivers in the state, at least the ones mentioned above, which are under grave threat. Any type of construction (regardless of land ownership) should be prohibited within at least 50 meters of the river bank, or upto its HFL (High Flood Level). It is imperative that an Eco-Zone be declared along the entire length of these rivers under the Environmental Protection Act, on the pattern of National Parks. Before granting approvals a thorough scrutiny should be made of the land title to rule out "benami" deals. It is common knowledge that this is rampant in the Tirthan valley.

Himachal's rivers are its most precious assets, especially given the prospect of the looming water shortages in the coming decades. They should not be destroyed for commercial profits and political rent seeking.

IT'S NOW OFFICIAL-- WE ARE A NATION OF PARASITES

 A long, long time ago when people still read books and were not educated exclusively by Whatsapp forwards or Tik-Tok reels, Nirad Choudhry, the last Englishman in India, claimed in his book of the same name that India was a continent of Circe, where humans were turned into beasts. Now, 70 years later, he has been vindicated by no less an authority than the Supreme Court of India itself. In a recent judgment a bench of the Court termed the under privileged and poor of the country (there are 230 million of them, and 800 million get free rations) as "parasites", thereby improving upon Nirad Babu's formulation of mere beasts. It said, in effect, that the poor, the jobless, the homeless, the landless- the most vulnerable and helpless sections of our 1400 million people- were unjustly consuming the resources of the state through subsidies, doles and "freebees" and implicitly castigated them for their sorry fate. "Are we not creating a class of parasites?" it asked, going on to lament that "they are getting free rations without doing any work!" A demonstration of empathy not seen since the times of Nero.

The Court, in its zeal to sound both learned and neo-liberal, has unwittingly provided its imprimatur and endorsement to the insensitive, cold hearted and callous attitude of the present government to the ordinary citizen of the country, whose fate it is to be counted at election time and then to be consigned to the dungeons of oblivion. Public suffering, hardship and grievances does not matter to it so long as it continues winning elections. This has been amply demonstrated in the last ten years on numerous occasions when the government has not batted an eyelid to provide relief or redress wrongs, or to even display some compassion: the interminable queues at banks and ATMs, in the rain and cold, during the disaster of demonetisation; the year long protest of farmers resulting in more than 600 deaths, the ill-conceived and sadistic Covid lockdown forcing millions of the urban poor to WALK back to their distant villages in the searing heat, being de-contaminated and beaten by police on the way; the messed up Covid policies resulting in more than 40 lakh deaths according to WHO and international observers, the hundreds of corpses floating in the Ganga, the dead in the Kumbh hyper marketing. Even as I write this the Railways are herding Mahakumbh pilgrims into trains like sardines, 5000 in a train meant for 1200, simply so that Mr. Vaishnaw, the Railway Minister can notch up a few records like his Chief Ministerial colleague in Uttar Pradesh. The fact that people are dying in this pursuit of Guinness records and brownie points from an uncaring Prime Minister is, of course, of no concern. For aren't these pesky people parasites who deserve nothing better?

 The Hon'ble court would do well to realise that mere obiter dicta of this type only dehumanises people and brutalises an already brutal government. A solution needs a deeper understanding of the origins of the problem. If people do not work it is because there are no jobs for them. If they need free rations it is because they do not have the money to buy them, if they are homeless it is because millions have to forcibly migrate to cities for employment. The Court would have done well to reflect on where these hundreds of millions of "parasites" came from. For they did not have an immaculate conception, my lords, but were birthed by consistently unwise, avaricious and exploitative policies of past and present governments. They are not poor out of choice, or dependent on governments because they are lazy, but because they have been reduced to this state by governments they have elected over the years, by policies that have consistently favoured just the top ten percent of the population. Consider some of them:

* More than 50 million people have been displaced by projects- dams, cement plants, power projects, urbanisation, highways, mines, airports.  Rarely do these projects improve their lives, for the benefits flow to cities, industrialists and politicians. They are not parasites, they are internally displaced persons, refugees in their own country.

* The destruction and denudation of the environment which accompanies these projects has immense adverse impacts on the livelihoods of the rural population, forcing more and more to migrate to urban areas. This is particularly true of the Himalayan and sub-Himalayan states. Just the havoc of reckless dam building has displaced 16 million people.

* The worst effected are the category who most need the state's help- tribals, forest dependent communities, and indigenous people. In an article by Roshan Varughese and Soumen Mukherjee in the journal Nature.com (23.5.24), 40% of the victims of development induced displacement are Adivasis, even though their share of the population is only 8%. Thousands are being evicted on an almost daily basis because of state governments' unwillingness to implement the Forest Rights Act: only 3 states have implemented its provisions, but that too only partially.

* Short-sighted, compliance based, propaganda oriented policies are being rammed through a system where its stakeholders are unprepared to navigate their rules. A prime example is the ubiquitous and pernicious tyranny of the KYC process for banks, ration cards and MNREGA. This is a nightmare for even the digitally aware, but for the uneducated poor it has become a matter of survival and a cause of destitution. According to a report by the NGO Lib-Tech, more than 80 million workers were removed from MNREGA rolls in just two years, 2022-24, because of KYC issues. A Down to Earth magazine report of 28th October 2024 quotes a study carried out in two districts of Jharkhand (Latehar and Lohardaga) which revealed that bank accounts of 60% of the families had been frozen for want of completed KYC verification, depriving them access to whatever little money they had, MNREGA wages and Direct Benefit transfers, leaving them at the point of starvation. Similarly, millions of the poor are being denied ration under the PDS because they are unable to complete their KYC. It has been reported that 7 million and 6.9 million beneficiaries in Odisha and Tamil Nadu, respectively, have had their cards frozen for want of KYC verification.

* Not only has the present government failed to create new jobs in adequate numbers, it has destroyed millions of existing jobs through demonetisation, GST and neglect of the SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) sector. Employment, under-employment and disguised unemployment are at their highest levels in 45 years, even as 12 million new job seekers enter the market every year. Who do the poor turn to if there are no jobs for them? And how do they eat if they get no wages?

* We may tom-tom that we are the fifth or fourth largest economy in the world but that offers no succor to the poor, for we rank 140 in per-capita income, below Bangladesh. In a shocking analysis of Household consumption data, T. Muralidharan in an article in Telengana Today (Nov. 13, 2024) has revealed that the bottom 30% of our population ( 420 million people) spend just Rs. 50 on food per day per capita, whereas a vegetarian thali costs more than Rs. 50 (Economic Survey 2020). Worse, the poorest 5% of the country lives on just 2/3 rds of a thali per day!

One is left wondering if the Hon'ble court had informed itself of these facts before terming these unfortunates as parasites. Quick-fixes are okay for joining shards of broken Dresden pottery, but will not repair the broken edifice of a nation's conscience or a government's splintered feeling of compassion, or faulty neo capitalist policies. Judicial quick-fixes are particularly dangerous for they impart a legal legitimacy to half baked ideas. Yes, there are plenty of undeserving people benefitting from these welfare schemes and they should be weeded out. The court would have rendered yeoman's service to the nation if it had focused on this aspect and directed the government to prepare a time bound plan to do so, instead of using a broad brush to castigate and condemn the poor. We have robbed the country's poor of their lands, jobs, food and health; let us not strip them of their right to be called human beings. It is all they have left.