WORSHIPPING FALSE GODS IN GOD'S OWN COUNTRY.

   They are still doing the maths in Kerala, and will for some time: the number of dead and displaced, houses and public property destroyed, quantum of funds/ aid needed for the restoration and rehabilitation. Once that is over the blame game will, as usual, begin in right earnest. Lost in the din of "experts", panelists and politicians will be  the admission that Nature is being blamed unfairly for the destruction and havoc. Yes, the rains in August were about 46% above the average, but Kerala's rivers could have handled most of it if the landscape had not been subjected to gang rape by politicians, administrators, mining barons and the builder mafia. There would have been some damage, certainly, but this kind of apocalypse could have been avoided.

   If only the Centre and the state govt. had paid heed to the recommendations of the Madhav Gadgil report of 2011. After a painstaking, two year ground survey of the Western Ghats (WG) Gadgil had identified the main activities which were destroying the natural balance of the Ghats: mining, quarrying, illegal construction, deforestation and encroachment of the flood plains of the rivers. He noted that 25% of the 1,64,248 sq. kms of the WG had already been lost and recommended that 64% or 120,000 sq. kms be declared an eco-sensitive zone where none of the above activities, plus hydel projects, should be permitted. All six states trashed the report and the centre appointed another committee- the Kasturirangan Committee - to give a fresh report. The gentleman was a strange choice to begin with and it gave the game away- a distinguished space scientist he probably knew even less about environmental matters than Mr. Javadekar and Harsh Vardhan, the previous and current union Ministers for Environment. It was clear that what was expected from him was a "political" report and not a scientific one, and he obliged. He reduced the ESZ to 37% or 60000 sq. kms, half of Mr. Gadgil's recommendation. This was further reduced by executive fiat to 45000 sq. kms. by Mr. Javadekar and he also allowed mining, construction and hydel projects to continue. And here's the shocking clincher- even this eviscerated decision has not yet been implemented ! Is it any wonder then that Kerala's lovely rivers (all of which originate from the WG and flow westwards to the Arabian Sea) have been choked with debris and landslides from denuded mountain slopes, its floodplains strangled with all kinds of unregulated construction development, its dams silted ? The correct nomenclature for the current floods is neither Man- made Disaster nor Natural Disaster but Politician- Made Disaster, with Virappa Moily and Javadekar being the presiding deities.

   There is a second cause for this calamity which has not yet been emphasised but will in the coming days: indiscriminate construction of dams and their incompetent operation. Kerala, I learn from reports, has 80 dams of which 39 are major ones. Of the latter, 36 opened their flood gates almost simultaneously precisely at the exact moment when the rainfall was at its most intense, releasing tens of lakhs of cusecs into rivers already drowning in their own waters. The contribution of these dams to the flooding of the state should not be underplayed or passed off as a routine operational hazard- by some estimates they may have been responsible for 40% to 60% of the floods. These dams were meant to prevent floods but have done just the opposite. The last great flood in Kerala was in 1924 when there were no dams at all, but the damage was much less than now. This one fact itself speaks for itself.

  Why does a small state, with abundant water availability, need 80 dams ? Second, why did the government or those operating these dams not heed the warning of the IMD that very heavy rains were expected in the second week of August ? The last intense spell of rains had subsided by the end of July and the dam reservoirs were already full to capacity. The New Indian Express has reported on 23.8.2018 that Tamil Nadu had warned the Kerala govt. both in May and June that the reservoirs were filling up and a phased release of water should be initiated immediately. This, along with the IMD forecast should have prompted the dams to gradually release some of the stored water during the ten day window of relatively fair weather in the beginning of August, if not earlier. Not doing so was a criminal error of judgment, and the panic driven opening of the floodgates later was an inevitability.

  Water is an inventory for dams, whether it is used for irrigation or for power generation, or both, as is usually the case. Dam authorities therefore do not want to waste this inventory, for every cusec of water has a monetary value. But water stored in dams is also a potentially massively destructive force if released in an unplanned and uncalibrated way (as it was in Kerala). Scientific management of dams therefore demands that there must be proper, real time meteorological and flood forecasting data which could help in deciding on water releases. Unfortunately, Kerala has access to neither: IMD data is patchy at best and , even worse, the Central Water Commission or National Flood Forecasting network has no stations in Kerala. I believe they have NOW decided to set them up.
   The bare fact is that there was criminal mismanagement of Kerala's dams. A CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) audit report quoted in the 20th August issue of Down to Earth magazine pointed out that none of the dams have either an Emergency Management Plan or even an O+M (Operation and Maintenance) manual. Siltation had hugely compromised the storage capacity of the dams. Kerala is naturally flood prone: the Rashtriya Barh Ayog has estimated that 8.70 lakh ha. ( or almost 25%) of its total geographical area of 38 lakh ha. is susceptible to flooding. Experts believe that the flash floods in Wayanad, Chalikudy, Palakkad and Raani are mainly attributable to the opening of the flood gates.
  Not that the mismanagement of dams is unique to Kerala alone. A 2016 CAG report reveals that of the 5254 dams in India, Emergency Management Plans exist for only 7% of them; in 8 out of 17 flood prone states there are no integrated flood management plans for river basins either. Most dams are managed by State Electricity Boards, not flood control departments, and the former are naturally reluctant to release any water at all if it is not used for generation of power. There is a clear conflict of interest here, which has played out in Kerala with devastating consequences. The 72 hour weather forecast of IMD is not used to create simulation models for water releases; instead rule of thumb and gut instincts is the normal practice, which is incomprehensible when advanced scientific tools are available.                                                              The whole country and its policy makers should learn lessons from this calamity. There is no point complaining about " unprecedented" rainfall. Every shred of evidence about climate change indicates that EWEs ( Extreme Weather Events) shall now be the norm and we can throw the old logs out of the window. We need to prepare for these paradigm climate changes and not, like our Science and Technology Minister Mr. Harsh Vardhan, trash them because they are " carried out by foreign, not Indian agencies." We need to stop this corporate and mendacious assault on nature, if for nothing then for just the bloody economics of it. How much did Kerala earn out of all those real estate developments, mining, quarrying and power generation accruing from the serial rape of nature all these years? Whatever it was it wouldn't be a fraction of what the state will now have to spend on reconstruction, rehabilitation and lost productivity for years to come. And this does not even factor in the deaths and human misery, even if our rulers treat them as collateral damage in the cause of  "development." Tampering with nature is increasingly becoming a zero sum game.
  I hope Himachal and Uttarakhand are watching.

WHAT IS THE LEGACY OF ATAL BEHARI VAJPAYEE ?

   I'm no astute politician, nor am I a political commentator, just a retired bureaucrat who had the privilege of meeting Mr. Vajpayee only once. It was sometime in 1990, in New York in the UN Plaza hotel in the suite of Mr. IK Gujral, then our External Affairs Minister. We were there to attend a session of the UN General Assembly; as is the practice Mr. Gujral had taken along with him a group of MPs. One evening he had convened an informal meeting of the MPs to discuss his statement to be made the next day at the UN; Mr. Vajpayee was one of the invited MPs. We were all sitting around, the discussions in full flow, when he arrived, about fifteen minutes late. I immediately got up and offered him my chair ( all had been taken). He patted me on my shoulder, asked me to continue sitting, and went and perched on the window sill ! On being queried by Mr. Gujral on his unusual choice of a seat he said: " I can make a quicker exit from here!" His lack of ego and sense of understated humour were his abiding hallmarks.

  Much will be said and written about him in the coming days by people far more qualified than me to do so. But as a citizen who has as equal a stake in this country as the politicians, perhaps more so because I pay my taxes honestly, I can't help but wonder: what is the legacy of this great man? Is it the Pokharan nuclear blast, or the bus ride to Lahore, or the improvement of relations with the West, or the failure to dismiss the then Gujarat Chief Minister in 2002 ? These are certainly important milestones in his career as PM, but somehow they do not describe the man, only the politician. And that is inadequate to chronicle the life of a statesman. A colossus has to be remembered for what he was, not just what he did; for abiding values, not transactional achievements.

  Therefore, for me, Mr. Vajpayee's true legacy is that of a gentleman politician in an age when they had already started transmuting to a lower species; a sensitive soul with the heart of a poet; an aesthete who loved literature, fine wine, good food; an orator par excellence who killed with kindness, not invective and abuse; a gladiator ( he was that too, make no mistake) whose weapon of choice was the rapier, not the bludgeon; a man of rock solid principles ( ask the RSS) in an era of opportunists; a man who assimilated, not fractured; joined hearts and minds, not sundered them. His was the perfect fusion of head and heart.

  He left a second legacy too, unfortunately. This was his single handed achievement of making the BJP a mainstream party, giving it a respectability and acceptability it had unsuccessfully striven for since 1947. LK Advani may have got them the votes after his Rath yatra but it was Mr. Vajpayee who gave them legitimacy and brought the BJP to power, not only during his own tenure, but even after he was rendered incapacitated. Mr. Modi and Mr. Shah owe him this debt of gratitude: I doubt if they will concede this, however.

  It is a tragic irony that Mr. Vajpayee's first and preeminent legacy- that of a noble human being- has been squandered by those who followed him and all that is now left of it is a tattered rag or two, hanging limply in a Devil's wind. The second legacy lives on, and is perhaps even prospering. I do not think that would have made him happy for it runs counter to every grain in his DNA. On the sorry ruins of his first  bequest has arisen an ugly edifice cemented together by power, money, egos, invectives, vindictiveness, intolerance and worse. It is a cold, heartless and inhospitable  fortress he would not have been comfortable in, for it is dedicated to war and strife, not peace and harmony. And this is true of not only his own party but of all political parties in the country- the BJP is the Pied Piper and the others are rodents happy to follow the music of discord.

  Two legacies, then. One already dead, the other following the unintended course of Frankenstein's horrible creation. It must pain the great man's soul to see how his legacy is playing out.
  These were Mr. Vajpayee's words as a tribute to Nehru on his death:
" Bharat Mata is grief stricken today. She has lost her favourite prince. Humanity is sad today. It has lost its devotee. Peace is restless today. Its protector is no more... The common man has lost the light in his eyes."
  One noble human being recognizing another. Deja  vu ?

   

THE NATIONAL CITIZENS REGISTER OR A SCHINDLER'S LIST ?

    The BJP. it would appear, has just hit upon the mother lode of votes for 2019. I refer, of course, to the final list of citizens ( it is not a draft, as being misreported)- the NRC, or National Register of Citizens- released last week for Assam. It proposes to declare four million people as aliens and illegal immigrants, more than 10% of the current population of Assam. Just how shoddily the enumeration has been done is self evident from the glitches that are now piling up. People whose names appeared in the first draft, or who had been declared Indian citizens by the Foreigners' Tribunals, now find their names missing. A father is included, but his children are missing. One brother is a citizen, the other is not. A retired soldier who served in the Indian army for 30 years is now deemed an alien. There are unconfirmed reports that the Chief Secretary's wife also finds her name missing. An ex- President's family members are missing too. A sitting BJP MLA is no longer an Indian citizen. The central and Assam govts. may try to hide behind the subterfuge that " everything is being monitored by the Supreme Court" but it just won't wash. It is govt. functionaries at the ground level who are doing the actual verification, not the Court, and it's quite clear that they have made a mess of it, either by the usual ineptitude or prodding by the ruling party. Little wonder then that almost all political parties other than the BJP and the serial fence sitter in Odisha are up in arms against this suspect version of the NRC. Thankfully, the community wise figures have not yet been made public, but even a cretin  (not all are in the ruling party) knows which community will form the majority of these new aliens.

    The Home Minister may talk about a fair appeals process for these victims of history and politics  (a nightmare for the poor, illiterate, confused would- be deportees), forgetting about the 30 million cases already pending in our courts. How on earth can a ram shackle, proven inefficient administration decide four million appeals in a month, which is the time given? Is the Supreme Court inadvertently playing into the BJP's Machiavellian plans by insisting on short timelines and ultra quick finalisation of the names? The BJP would like nothing better than to disenfranchise these millions before the elections in 2019, and a fair procedure be damned. But my worry is that, given the majoritarian lawlessness prevailing these days, matters may even slip out of the govt's hands. It is now the vigilantes who will call the shots, reminding us of the horrors of Nellie more than three decades ago. Names will be conveniently leaked, mobs will appear from the saffron dusk, the police will look the other way, and a non-state deportation will start to take effect. The Supreme Court, of course, has directed on the 31st of July that no coercive steps should be taken against those not included in the  NRC, but the court is only a necessary nuisance for the government of the day- the idle wind of Billy Bunter books which nobody heeds. The real directions have already started coming from the likes of Mr. Subramaniam Swamy and other BJP leaders who have already demanded immediate deportation of these unfortunates. The clarion call has been issued by Mr. Amit Shah himself who in Parliament branded these unfortunates as " ghuspaithias" or intruders; this antakshri cue has been picked up by the two English news channels whose servility is descending to new depths every day. Guess whose voice will be heard loud and clear, while the Union govt. does its Uriah Heep act, pleading that it has issued advisories and that law and order is a state subject?

    But a more frightening dimension is now emerging- the rising crescendo of demands ( by BJP leaders, naturally) that the NRC exercise should be rolled out to other states, notably West Bengal, Punjab, Rajasthan, Manipur. It will soon spread to Delhi, UP, Bihar, Maharashtra, even Kashmir, where Bangladeshis and Rohingyas are perceived to be residing. If that happens, the country will simply disintegrate and Sashi Tharoor will be proved right. The first steps have already been taken in Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh where travellers are being told to prove their identity and citizenship before being allowed in- by mobs, euphemistically called non-state actors. This will inevitably spread to other states, a sure fire recipe for anarchy, mob violence and Balkanisation of the country. 

    This is precisely why I say the BJP has struck the mother lode just before election time. Its usual Hindutva suspects had succumbed to the law of diminishing returns- Ram mandir, love jihad, ghar wapasi, triple talak, Islamic terror, forced conversions- and were either losing steam or were being knocked down by the courts. The Assam NRC exercise has suddenly provided it the oxygen its diseased body needs; the new battle cry will be that " India's resources should be the entitlement of Indian citizens only", which, it is confident, will resonate pan India and sweep it back to its blood soaked throne.

    Lost in the din and screams will be the very principles of citizenship and humanity. The issue here is not one about legality but about intent and legitimacy. Make no mistake: the BJP"s NRC jubilation has nothing to do with national security, but everything to do with votes. Mr. Arun Jaitley gave the game away in his blog the other day when he said that these non-citizens were " imported votebanks." But the party has a problem even here- about one million of this four million could be Hindus, mostly from districts in lower Assam where Muslims already have a sizeable vote share. Their exclusion now will hand four Parliamentary seats to the opposition on a platter. So expect the govt. now to neutralise this by pushing hard the Bill to amend the Citizenship Act: it provides that non- Muslim illegal migrants can be conferred Indian citizenship since they are genuine refugees! This sinister game plan will become clearer with each passing day, believe me.                With all due respects to the Supreme Court, this disenfranchisement exercise lacks a wider legitimacy. As Nicholas Chamfort had said: " It's easier to make certain things legal than to make them legitimate." The NRC exemplifies this perfectly. No one can doubt a sovereign nation's powers to define citizenship, whether it is based on the principle of " Jus Solis" ( place of birth) or " Jus sanguinis"( blood ties), or a combination of the two ( as is the case in India). The problem with the Assam case, however, is that the NRC is being updated after 67 years, to exclude people who have been living in the country for almost five decades ( i.e. after 1971, the cut off date according to the Assam Accord of 1985). Had the updating exercise happened immediately after the Accord was signed it would not have caused so much pain and distress, and the numbers involved would not have been so alarming. A country which takes 32 years to even start implementing an accord on a subject as sensitive as this is only asking for trouble on a gigantic scale. In a similar case involving the Chakmas ( who had emigrated in large numbers from the Chittagong Hill tracts and Mymensingh in Bangladesh to Arunachal Pradesh) the Supreme Court had ruled that they could not be deported or denied citizenship as they had been living here for decades. This was a recognition of the Jus Solis principle. Something similar needs to be applied here. The last thing this fractured country needs is an extension of this soulless and misbegotten policy on NRCs to other states. But the BJP has smelt blood, and will not call off the dogs of this new holy war. The cost will be paid by the nation for decades to come. That is, if we are still one nation then. 

THE HUG OF THE MATTER

   It's been a while since I did any hugging, primarily because the Leader of MY house ( she is also the Speaker, in a clear conflict of interest position) looks askance at this display of puppyism. She is of the firm view ( she comes from a matriarchal family) that hugging is just another perk that went out of the window with my retirement, like the cantilevered lady PA, the flagged car and the Diwali gifts. Outside the home my hugging instincts are similarly constrained by Sections 377 and 397 of the IPC. But I can still recognise a good hug when I see one, and the one that Rahul Gandhi gave Mr. Modi the other day took the cake and the fruit cream. There are, experts of the art tell me, nine different types of hugs not including the Huggies of Proctor and Gamble. Rahul Gandhi's hug was a blend of the Bear hug and the Standstill hug- the former doesn't allow the huggee to escape, while the latter evokes no reciprocal reaction from the object of the attention.

    Most prime time panelists familiar with the bear pit that our Parliament has become agree that both  factors- inability to escape the hug and lack of reciprocity-are matters of some concern. The SPG has to do some hard strategising instead of just walking the ramp every time our fashionista PM steps out. It's all very well to have an inner circle, a proximate security and an outer perimeter for the PM's security, but of what avail is it if someone can just walk up to him and hug him ? Definitely not something to be winked at, if you ask me. Mr. Modi is followed by 20 million people on Twitter who adore him- what if even 0.1% of them, overcome with nationalistic fervour, decided that they would  like to give him the Buddy hug or the Pampered hug ? What if Rahul Gandhi did it again in the winter session, this time coming from behind with the Back hug or, God forbid, the Ambush hug? No, sir, we need another circle around the PM;  we could call it the HUGGLE- the Hug circle, manned by no-nonsense types more comfortable with a Huh? than a hug.

  Reciprocity is a sine-qua-non for a successful hug, and we didn't see much of that from the Prime Minister- in fact, if looks could kill Mr. Gandhi would have been instantly cast in stone. But frankly, I don't think he was expecting any reciprocal cleaving to the bosom by the PM, for it is well known that Mr. Modi never, but never, hugs an Indian: his expansive embraces are reserved for foreign dignitaries, preferably on foreign soil, presumably because he has no equal in this country. There's also the Yoga factor to be kept in mind by anyone who has the urge to hug a Sangh pariwar type; they can, in an instant, turn the tables on you, just as they can turn history on its head, what with their training in lathi wielding shakhas every morning. Mr. Gandhi, who is a Shiv bhakta, would therefore be well advised to acquire some of those Shaivite powers before he next applies the Cuddle hug on the Prime Minister.

 Indian history, both ancient and recent, have recorded hugs of some note in the past. There was the to- die- for hug that Shivaji is reported to have given the Muslim warlord Afzal Khan at Pratapgarh in 1659. It ended, of course, with the latter being disembowelled, which explains perhaps the look of alarm on the face of Mr. Modi ( who is very well versed in Indian history, as we all know) when Mr. Gandhi made his approach the other day. In his defence, however, it must be said that he could have mistaken Mr. Gandhi for a Shivaji bhakta instead of a Shiv bhakta. It can happen when you have too many gods in your pantheon and mix up your history. Then there was the famous hug that Mr. I.K. Gujral bestowed on Saddam Hussein in Baghdad in 1990. It attracted a lot of mis-informed criticism at the time but it ensured that 300,000 stranded Indians were able to come back safely from that war ravaged land. For me it was a diplomatic master stroke and only a man of stature and compassion could have done it. Most recent, of course, was the alleged Tarun Tejpal hug on a lady inside a hotel lift in Goa: when the lift doors opened so did a can of worms for Mr. Tejpal. As Confucius said:  "Man who hug lady in lift reach bottom very soon." You can interpret that whichever way you would like to: my Chinese is not very good.

  Coming back to the good old huggy time in Parliament, however. Maybe, just maybe, Rahul Gandhi may have resurrected the Gandhigiri of his famous namesake, and changed the course of Indian politics forever. Perhaps we shall now have a " Hug in India" campaign to replace the "Make in India but Park in Panama" campaign which appears to have yielded dividends for only a few. Maybe now in the run up to 2019 we will not see mugging, killing and sueing but hugging, billing and cooing. Maybe our politicians can bury the hatchet somewhere else than in each others' backs. Maybe Mr. Amit Shah will take a cue from all this and lumber off to Kolkatta and hug Mamta Banerjee, or Subramaniam Swamy will embrace Sashi Tharoor, thesaurus and all, or Digvijay Singh will grasp vanprastha which has been crying out for him for some time now. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that one day soon Mr. Kejriwal could walk up to his Chief Secretary and, instead of slapping him, give him a good old anarchic hug! Everybody else, of course, would be hugging Sunny Leone. She could even be made brand Ambassador for the new campaign, scoring a win over Hard Kaur who I believe is the Akalis' choice precisely because she is more hard core. The possibilities are mind boggling. Why not try it out ? As the Beatles sang: Give love a chance.

WHATSAPP DOESN'T KILL, POLITICS OF HATE DOES.

             This piece was published on the op-ed page of the New Indian Express on 24.07.2018 under the title: "Whatsapp doesn't kill, hate does."

   It is now more or less official: 35 killings or mob lynchings have taken place in the year since May 2017. The trigger has been either alleged cattle smuggling or child lifting, the victims generally of minority communities or “outsiders”. They have been conveniently branded as “ What’s App killings” and the government has issued a stern warning to What’s App to clean up its act. The can- and the blame- has been conveniently kicked down the road to 2019. But here are some inconvenient questions: What’s App has some 1.50 billion subscribers globally, of which 200 million or 15% are in India; why is it that all the killings are happening in India only ? Second, the messaging App has been in this country since 2009: why is it that the mob murders have started only now, in the last couple of years? What has changed so drastically in this period as to justify, finally, Nirad Choudhry’s diagnosis that this is the continent of Circe, which turns men into monsters ?

  It is the changing and deteriorating nature of politics which is primarily responsible for the spurt in vigilantism, not the messaging App. The old culprits remain- shoddy policing, a defunct justice system, social fault lines, an imperfect technological platform that assures anonymity- but these are now a supplementary emboldening factor, not the primary causative impetus. The latter is provided by the newly created eco system of hate and fear whose holy grail is the vote, which has to be grabbed no matter the cost to an individual or the society. The credo of Satan prevails: it is far better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven.

  There is no shying away from it, and it must be said: politicians- overwhelmingly those from the ruling party at the centre, but also from other parties- are sowing the seeds of vigilante violence by their acts and deeds and creating the fertile soil in which they can grow their deadly crops, hoping to harvest them at election time. People will believe what they are conditioned to believe, and if it is drilled into them day in and day out that certain communities are not to be trusted, that cow killers are on the loose, that liberals and intellectuals are anti- national, that all Kashmiris are secessionists, that Universities are the breeding ground of traitors, that conversions and “ love jihad” are decimating the Hindu numbers, and worse, they will believe it all. What’s App is only the messenger, the message itself comes from elsewhere in the corridors of power, amplified by some channels which have specialised in converting news into “ fake views”. And very soon hate becomes a badge of honour, bravery and pride. The malady has gone way beyond fake news now, it has metastasised into vigilantism, a natural progression, according to Voltaire: “ Those who can make you believe absurdities can also make you commit atrocities.”

   The government will of course not accept this thesis, but consider: what other message did a Union Minister send when he honoured one of the accused killers of Akhlaq and draped the national flag over his body ( he had died in prison)? What message did the BJP MP from Jharkhand send when he announced that he would pay the legal expenses of those accused in the mob killing of four people on suspicion of cattle lifting? What was Civil Aviation Minister, Mr. Jayant Sinha- he of the superficial and deceptive veneer of Harvard and McKinsey- conveying earlier this month when he garlanded and felicitated the eight accused in another mob lynching case? Or when Mr. Giriraj Singh, unfortunately another Minister who is a serial offender in such matters, visited a bunch of riot accused in jail in Bihar to offer them his help? Such incendiary and inappropriate behaviour would have led to their sacking in any country where political decency exists, but here there has not been one word of disapproval, let alone admonition, from any party or government leader.

   This is not just about hate speech, it’s about a hate ecology that is replacing our tolerant anarchy with inspired mob violence. Many years ago Dr. Ambedkar had noted that “ democracy in India is only a top-dressing of the Indian soil which is essentially undemocratic.” Even this fragile top soil is now being blown away by a devil’s wind. When the sub conscious of the individual is seeded with caste and communal hatred Freud’s theory comes into play- in a mob this altered sub conscious gets unlocked and unfettered violence results. It helps when the powers that be approve of this vigilantism, and a rotten justice system promises that no one will actually get punished after the dust has dissipated.

   So let us not pin the entire blame on What’s App. Yes, it can do much more to remove anonymity and delete accounts. But it is not responsible for the viciousness that permeates our public and political discourse, the imploding of moral values in our society; it cannot be blamed for the messaging that comes from our political leaders and their sycophantic channels that magnify the hatred and antagonism every day on prime time. That is something our shrinking civil society will have to deal with. The problem is not technological as Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad seems to think, it’s behavioural and intellectual. After all, if you deliberately issue a license to kill, why blame the gun ?                                                                                                  

THE CRUELEST MONTH.

    I respectfully disagree with T.S.Eliot's statement that " April is the cruelest month." July is always the worst time of the year for me. It's the month when one has to reluctantly abandon the sylvan beauty and quiet of the mountains and return to the toxic soup of Delhi where the humidity is so thick that even our Parliamentarians can stand upright for a change, supported entirely by the dense air. I have a feeling that Delhi's IAS lobby may soon have to depend on the humidity too to remain erect in their face-off with Kejriwal, now that the BJP is likely to withdraw support to them in the wake of recent and expected SC judgments. It is also that dreaded month consecrated to the Income Tax goblins when one fries one's brains deciding how much of that paltry income to hide from the tax man. My CA tells me that it is cheaper to pay the tax: ever since the Sixth Pay Commission decided to hike salaries exponentially by linking wages with incompetence, the cost of that other route ( "patli galli") has also gone up and is now unaffordable. July is also the month when I annually revise my will, primarily to keep my progeny on their Myntra adorned toes, but also because I never know when I may fall into an open manhole ( why do they call them that ? Shouldn't it be " person hole" in these gender neutral days ?) or drown under Minto bridge. It is also the time when I have to submit my " Life Certificate" to the Treasury Officer Shimla to convince him that I am still alive and entitled to my pension. Every year I have to run from pillar to post to find a gazetted officer to sign on the dotted line, which is beginning to look more and more like an arrhythmic ECG line with each passing year. So far no one has pointed out the obvious fact that I may be brain dead, perhaps on the presumption that any one who has served in the govt. for more than ten years is presumed to be brain dead, and so that can't be held against a pensioner.

  There's another reason why I'm sick to my stomach every July: it's the time of year when the press informs us, with a flourish of trumpets, about how much Mr. Mukesh Ambani's net worth is in pure Mammon terms. The Hindustan Times informed us on the 18th of this month that his worth is now US$ 43.3 billion ( Rupees 2,94,000 crores), having increased by US$ 3.4 billion( Rupees 23120 crores) in just the last seven months. This tells me a number of things. One, that Make In India is working fine for some people at least. Two, that the govt. may consider modifying this slogan into  "Make hay while the Sangh shines." Three, that Mr. Jaitley ( who apparently still calls the shots, if not the odds, in the Finance Ministry), may also consider nationalising Mr. Ambani- at one shot 30% of the NPAs of the banks can be written off with his wealth. Four, that if Ambani comes can Adani be far behind?

  But why, you may well ask, does this make me sick ? Now, I'm no card carrying Communist or socialite socialist of the IIC variety, but I can't help but look at some other figures- that 200 million in India are still below the poverty line, that 80% of our population have to make do with less than US$10 per day, that almost 40% of our children are either stunted or mal-nourished, that 51 million youth in the age group 18-25 years are unemployed, that more than ten thousand farmers commit suicide every year, that India is at the 66th rank ( out of 78 countries) in the UN Inclusive Index. And I can't help but feel that one reason for this dismal state of affairs is that people like Mr. Ambani are hoovering up all the wealth- they pocketed 73% of all the wealth created in 2016. The "they" are all Ambanis in the making- according to the Global Wealth Report, 101 billionaires, 200,000 millionaires and 137,100 HNWIs ( High Net Worth Individuals).

  These numbers fade into insignificance when compared to the USA ( 540 billionaires and 15.7 million millionaires) or China ( 594 billionaires and 1.3 million millionaires) but it must be kept in mind that these are countries far richer and more inclusive than India. Our per capita income ( on PPP basis) is US$ 5350 while those of the USA and China are 58030 and 15500 respectively. They are also far more inclusive in their economic growth trajectory and the gap in the standard of living between the average and the rich is nowhere as pronounced as in India. The rich may be getting richer, but so are the poor-unlike in India.

  Its not that the uber rich in India ( maybe barring a few) are getting richer because of any exceptional talent or acumen, or sparks of brilliance of the Jeff Bezoz, Bill Gates or Elon Musk variety. They prosper because of a vicious cycle: money accesses political power which generates more money. This was very succintly expressed by Angus Deaton, the 2015 winner of the Nobel prize for Economics: " the rich capture more than their share of political power, so that the state stops serving the majority of the people." A perfect illustration of this was presented to the nation last week by the Ministry of HRD when it notified the ( proposed) Ambani Institute as one of ten educational Institutions of Eminence. This would not have raised any liberal eye brows, except that even by our accepted standards of cronyism this took the cake- the Ambani Institute does not even exist! It is at the moment just a gleam in Mr. Mukesh Ambani's eye- no land, no infrastructure, no faculty, no students, zilch. And yet it was put on the same pedestal as an IIT and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore- bodies which have existed for years and have much academic and research work to establish their credentials. This is precisely what Mr. Deaton was referring to. Just the IOE tag would have enabled the Institute to make thousands of crores in higher fees, sponsorships, donations.

  Our billionaires and millionaires have battened on political power which has given them unlimited access to the country's natural resources and public funds. Take Reliance Industries itself: according to a Bloomberg report quoted in the Hindustan Times of 19th July, RIL has total borrowings of Rs. 220,000 crore, and this is expected to increase further. Guess whose money this is ? It is the nation's common resources which they are exploiting ruthlessly to garner riches for themselves- the recent Vedanta protests ( and killing of 11 people in police firing) in Tamil Nadu is an apt example of how this wealth is generated with the complicity of the administrations everywhere, regardless of which party is in power. Money is the new Esperanto or universal language. I find these atolls of opulence amidst an ocean of want somewhat obscene, and it is perfectly symbolized by the Ambani residence in Mumbai, Antilia, a 27 storey hulk surrounded by slums, an upraised finger admonishing the lakhs residing in them for their poverty. So okay, he IS very rich but does he have to rub it in our face ? Capitalism has run amock. As the wit remarked: Communism is the exploitation of man by man; Capitalism is the exact opposite.

  Welcome to the country which prides itself on the ease of doing business, even as millions of kids go to bed hungry each night. Come to where the flavour is, said the Marlboro man, come to Marlboro county. He died last year of cancer.

I don't like July. And forgive me if I'm not turning cartwheels at Mr. Ambani becoming the 15th richest man in the world.

MISSING THE WOODS FOR THE TREES.

   I am one of those who supports the " overreach" of the higher judiciary. When the executive under performs consistently, someone has to overreach, and since the citizens have been hammered into submission and most of the media co-opted, that leaves only the courts. But I do wish they would not abrogate all wisdom to themselves and would consult some experts once in a while. My specific allusion is to the Supreme Court's order last week banning the use of ALL FRHs (forest rest houses) for eco-tourism activities. This regressive judgement betrays a complete lack of understanding of realities on the ground. The original issue before the court was the pressure of visitors in Corbett- more than 200,000 every year. There were other ways to address this problem- restriction on numbers, closing off certain areas in a rotation cycle, keeping the core zones inviolate, prohibiting the entry of vehicles. The solution required a scalpel, not a sledge hammer, which is what has been wielded here. To the best of my knowledge this order was passed on the recommendations of the Central Empowered Committee and the MOEF. The former is composed mainly of forest officers and bureaucrats who in any case are keen to hang on to their turf, even as they have little idea of what to do with it except to  mark their territory in the time honoured canine manner. The less said about the Ministry the better: it will not share the FRHs with others even while it transfers thousands of hectares of forests for industries and allows tens of thousands of trees to be felled. It would perhaps have helped if the Court had also listened to the practitioners and experts in the field of eco-tourism, such as the Eco-Tourism Society of India. Locking up forests and denying access to tourists (which is what prohibiting tourists from staying in FRHs will do) is not the way to conserve forests or wildlife habitats, as experience across the world has shown. Eco-tourism is the most sustainable model of tourism for the future as it has minimum deleterious impacts on natural resources, and to divorce it from nature or forests is the surest way to kill it.  Let's try and break  down some of its prime objectives.

  Eco-tourism is a low budget activity and its purpose is four-fold. One, spread tourism beyond overburdened urban conglomerations to relieve the unsustainable pressures on them. Two, create awareness among the public, and educate them about the value and beauty of nature. Three, support rural economies and create employment in those areas. Four, make use of the huge infrastructure of the forest departments which is otherwise crumbling, and generate funds for their maintenance. States like HP and Sikkim are pioneers in this field, have framed sound eco-tourism policies and have been successfully implementing them for many years. It is disheartening to see the Supreme Court upsetting the apple cart for no sound reason. Did it give these states an opportunity to present their side of the case?

   Himachal has more than 500 FRHs, some of them of heritage value like the ones at Khanag in Kullu or Sangla in Kinnaur. Even more picturesque ones are in areas not connected by any road. They are huge attractions for the young, aware, nature lovers, including foreign tourists. They are all totally under-utilised, under- funded and are going to seed- the department doesn't even have funds to maintain them adequately. Forest officers (for whom they were primarily meant) rarely visit the off-road or remote FRHs. Now that every second forest officer is either a PCCF (Principal Chief Conservator of Forests) or an Addl. PCCF their touring (if any) is limited to the road-head. The lower level field staff are mostly posted in their home stations and have no desire to spend nights away from their warm beds at home. So much for the concern of the forest officers for their rest houses! This was one of the main reasons why Himachal, as far back as in 2002, decided to utilise these FRHs by linking them to nature and eco-tourism. Some have been tendered out to private entities (with severe stipulations) since the govt. obviously lacks resources and manpower, while others are being run by the forest department itself. I have myself been to some of the remotest valleys and forest areas and have found that this model of tourism is working very successfully, and is drawing tourists to nature in ever increasing numbers, especially the younger generation. Local economies are benefiting hugely. Just the Sairopa complex in the Tirthan valley has a turnover of Rs. 80.00 lakhs per year and provides employment to dozens of local youth. It will now have to close down (for tourists, that is).

   The Supreme Court order will put a halt to this positive initiative. It will also create a vacuum for accommodation in these pristine areas and all manner of illegal structures will come up (as in Kasol, Manikaran and Triund, to name just a few) at exorbitant prices, polluting and disfiguring these wonderful natural environments. Everyone, except these land sharks, will be a loser. Himachal, the first state in the country perhaps to have framed an Eco- Tourism policy in 2002 will be impacted adversely by this judgement. It had on the drawing board ambitious plans to tender out 113 sites under the PPP (Public Private Partnership) mode, and the HP Forest Corporation another 47 sites. I cannot help but feel that the Court should be giving greater  priority to saving the trees in Delhi, or staying the construction of the insanely conceived Char Dham Highway in Uttarakhand which will lead to chopping down of 45000 trees . If at all it must concern itself with the question of using Forest Department assets for eco-tourism, it should limit itself to laying down guidelines rather than banning it altogether. Forget about throwing out the baby with the bathwater, in these critical, water stressed times even the bathwater has to be recycled! I do hope the Himachal, Sikkim and Uttarakhand governments will come together and challenge this order in a review petition.