India’s Functioning Anarchy

Most people I meet seem to have little expectation of any good legislation coming out this year. Frequent disruptions of Parliamentary proceedings cause concern. Sashi Tharoor’s article “India’s Functioning Anarchy”, dated Aug. 9, 2011, continues to be very relevant. Visit 

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/india-s-functioning-anarchy

We, the people of India, have given no clear authority to any party to do what needs to be done one way or another. If we continue to fragment our vote among a couple of dozen parties, we surely deserve what we get. I have no recommendation for whom you should vote. Nor do I recommend that a country of this diversity should be represented by two parties alone.

All I argue is that, in every election, we should vote to give one of the nation-wide parties a clear majority in Parliament - or at least near majority. This should enable the formation of a stable government. Only such a government can make and implement effective policy. Every thought leader should emphasize the importance of an effective mandate. Every citizen should recognize it and vote accordingly. Otherwise, India will continue to be what it is – a functioning anarchy! There would be little hope for economic and social progress. 

Srinivasan Ramani 

Indians from the North East Should be Welcomed back

Students and working people from the north eastern states have been driven away from their places of work by organized terror. What can we do about this as Indians in places like Bangalore? I have a suggestion. Do you know employers of people from the north east? Do you know educational institutions that have attracted students from the north east? Talk to the employers and to the decision makers in the educational institutions. Tell them that we cannot be blackmailed by terror. Ask them to write letters to their employees and students declaring that we want them back at their places of work. Keep their jobs and seats for them. Welcome them when they return and tell them we are with them. They have a right to live anywhere in India, and we will defend their rights.

Srinivasan Ramani

Anna's party – Can do a Lot with Half a Percent of the Vote

Let us challenge ourselves to think hard. Anna’s movement will be launching a party – but this does not make it any less of a movement. It will be a movement willing to use the danda of elections to achieve limited goals, as and when appropriate. Old political hands are smug – they believe that an anti-corruption movement cannot get enough votes to bother them. They are wrong.

Just imagine that Anna’s movement/party draws up a list of top 60 undesirable “netas”; which of them can be called criminals and/or corrupt elements will have be decided by lawyers, but there is nothing illegal in labeling them undesirable! Suppose the movement tells political parties of these undesirable netas that it will work against all those from this list who are nominated as candidates. The movement may put up candidates to oppose the “undesirable” elements, create mass awareness campaigns in the constituencies, and take all legal measures to mobilize opinion against them. It may even endorse an alternative candidate from another party, if he/she is clean

For this purpose, the movement could list 60 good leaders who it would not oppose if they are nominated. I believe that the movement can influence other parties in this manner. Work can be focused on only sixty constituencies and if half percent of the nation’s vote is garnered in these places, and is used against undesirable elements, there will be an average penalty of a few percent on each undesirable. A few percent can swing an election in a constituency. The fear of this can cleanse the other parties of some of their undesirable elements. I have quoted numbers above only to illustrate the argument. Better estimates can be made as the election draws near.

The main point made here is that you don’t need a lot of votes. Just ensure that they are garnered in selected constituencies to influence key decisions. Anna’s party may not have brawn but it can use brain power to maximize its impact. Anna’s party doesn't need to win; it only has to get undesirable elements defeated by someone or other.

The movement can also benefit from a few donors – celebrities who can gather enough votes to defeat key undesirables. But we need only those celebrities we respect and who belong to the movement.  We do have a few, already! We should starting seeking more!   We need to persuade them that they have to act effectively to achieve what they believe in.

Srinivasan Ramani

Anna’s Political Party – Trust India

I will use a question/answer format to share my thoughts on this topic.

Will not membership in a political party soil us all?
If you believe in democracy and in the Indian constitution, you cannot assume that there will be no clean party ever. We need to trust that India has a future, that there are Indians whom we can trust to lead us.

The problem with existing parties is usually an absence of ideology. The Wikipedia says that an ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things. You can also say that it involves the basic beliefs and principles that characterize the party. Many parties exist merely to give power to an individual, or to people having a narrow identity – narrower than that of Indians in general. Some of our parties have lost their ideology, and some stick to their moth-ridden, moribund ideologies. There was a time when Indian nationalism was the driving force of a party. Concern for the downtrodden was the ideology of several parties.  As long as the parties stayed true to these basic ideologies, they were clean.

What has Anna got that other political parties do not have?
He has the vision of a clean India freed from the thieves and crooks who have worked themselves into positions of authority. So, his party could focus on three things. One is that of a modern India effectively governed by the rule of law. Second a party of unselfish persons who act as trustees of the nation. Third and most importantly, that idealism is not foolish. You can live your life without making deals to get ahead, and paying the price for sticking to your principles whenever necessary.

Will such a party survive?

It may not survive as a single party. It may split and give rise to different parties, but the followers may not forget the fundamental ideology. The party may take longer than a banyan tree to grow to be its true self. A great party cannot be ordered for instant delivery, like fast food!

What should the Party do to survive?
Idealism alone does not win wars! Much strategizing is needed. We have to recognize that Members of Parliament are fundamentally representatives of their constituencies. Those who do not have a constituency do not have the primary power. But, who said that idealists cannot serve a community? Take Anna himself. Don’t the people of Ralegan Siddhi recognize him as their leader? Didn’t Baba Amte serve a constituency?

Service to a constituency does not make a person irrelevant to national leadership. We need a few hundred people who have earned the trust of their communities by their own clean life and long period of service to a constituency. They might have run hospitals, educational institutions, or have served people around them in some other way. They may be serving as doctors, teachers, lawyers or social activists.  They may be industrialists who believe that the major beneficiaries of a company’s activities should be the consumers and the employees of the company, in that order. They surely would not have sold their souls to get Govt land allotted for their own benefit, or to amass unearned wealth otherwise. Many of us know popular restaurants that were started by freedom fighters – and have continued to run serving good food at affordable prices over decades. They have avoided becoming five star, because that is not what the founders started them for.

We will need a thousand dedicated idealists to support each one of the constituency leaders. This should be no problem in a country of 120 Crore people.

Srinivasan Ramani 

Anna’s Anti-Corruption Politics, Social Networking and Secret Societies

Anna’s anti-corruption movement is facing difficult decisions. Can they form a political party and get any closer to their objective of reduced corruption in India? There have been many skeptical remarks by public commentators. I would like to remind them about parties like the Alliance '90/The Greens in Germany, which won 10.7% of the votes and 68 out of 622 seats in the Bundestag in 2009. Visit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_'90/The_Greens

A focus on the environment is one of the major characteristics of this party. If concern for the environment can get 10% of the seats in the Bundestag, I do not see why an anti-corruption movement cannot get 10% of the seats in the Indian Parliament. Clearly, however, it is not a cakewalk to create such a party.  Much strategizing would be needed. The movement should recognize its limitations and focus on specific constituencies where it can win and on specific public figures who can get votes. The movement would also need to exert its influence not by fighting on its own, but supporting clean leaders from other parties and working against corrupt leaders. They should not choose the most corrupt to fight, but the ones who are most vulnerable in the electoral field. You need to win! Choose an enemy you can defeat! Altruism needs to be supported by good strategizing.

As we all know, the hatred for corruption is widespread in India and one political party alone cannot be the solution. Is there room for secret societies in this field? I believe there is, particularly in view of the vastly lowered effort required to do social networking using the cell phone and computer based devices. Why a secret society? Most people against corruption do not do anything about it – for fear that they will lose their jobs, will be thrown out of college, will be targeted by the baddies, etc. A secret society will protect whistle blowers. It will not expose them. It will let the “deep throats” communicate with the effective actors who will do what needs to be done.

Every corrupt person has a hundred people around him knowing what he does. No RTO’s office employee can do underhand business without a hundred people knowing it. No college can run a back-money factory without hundreds of students and their parents knowing it. Fraud is best sniffed out by people who have the knowledge. Take the case of the big share market scam of the nineties. I remember the role of some employees of the State Bank of India who saw a share-broker make frequent visits to the bank’s headquarters in a flashy Toyota Lexus and sniffed something fishy. Visit

http://flame.org.in/knowledgecenter/scam.aspx and

http://www.scribd.com/doc/29354503/case-study-Harshad-Mehta

for information on the scam.

Somehow, information got to a veteran columnist, Sucheta Dalal, who wrote an article about what was going on and blew the scam sky high! Who decided to inform Sucheta Dalal, how was she chosen as the best person to act?

Put yourself in the shoes of an office employee, working in an office where everyone knows what is going on. There are at least a few people who are disgusted with it, but everyone is scared of the baddies, particularly the bosses who may be getting a good share of the loot! You don’t know someone who will strike out like Sucheta Dalal and succeed. I have a few suggestions for you:

You need a secret society so that you can belong to it and work with others who think like you without being exposed. But it need not be a single society, it needs no central HQ, it doesn’t need a central leader. All you need to do is to believe that there are few altruistic people like you who will not let this country go to the dogs. Believe that you, along with them, and their other contacts can achieve your goal. All of you don’t need to meet together. Everyone you think belongs to this group does not need know the others. If some of them interact with each other without your knowing it, so be it. Get to know a journalist, a few students who are willing to act, and a big talker who seems to know everything going on in the office. If you trust them, share some of your information with them selectively. If one of them tells you something, you do not necessarily have to let on that someone else had told you the same thing earlier. Let information go around, someone with the opportunity and the capability will act on it. There will be a hundred centres in the movement and hundreds of actors.

You need to have two important beliefs. One, we need to act collectively. Two, cursing and condemning is not action. Trust me, there are lots of Sucheta Dalals. As the movement grows, more and more of them will do what needs to be done.

The media have become powerful, and they usually ensure quick justice. A crook cannot spend his lifetime happily, filing appeals, delaying the progress of cases and getting bail every time. Media are not the only solution; there may be a few honest and competent vigilance officers; there may be a few honest and competent cops. There may even be a few honest and competent netas!

Srinivasan Ramani