Working to improve a rotten system

Rahul Gandhi: I am working to improve a rotten system

The very day Anna Hazare broke his fast, Rahul Gandhi wrote that though he was concerned about corruption “like most right thinking Indian people”, he was working quietly on that problem as he had “absolutely no interest” in becoming a hero.

The provocation was a sharply-worded letter he had received the same day, from former Supreme Court judge V R Krishna Iyer asking, “Why should the Hazare phenomenon occur at all? Only because so many evils and no action from Delhi !.”

In his response to Iyer, Rahul said: “Like most right thinking Indian people I feel exactly the way you do. I spend a lot of my waking hours thinking and working to improve what I see as a rotten system. The difference is that I cannot get away simply with writing letters and complaining as you can. I am faced with the reality of changing things which requires much more than the periodic release of emotion.”

If Rahul took such pains to convey his commitment to combating corruption, it is because Iyer had accused him of indifference as well as presumptuousness: ``If you are sensitive about the people's needs and aspirations, you must attack the big corrupt persons in power. Why are you silent? You are a young man and can rise to be a great nationalist, (but) not by ambitiously aspiring to be Prime Minister because you are of the Nehru family. That would be anti-democratic and oligarchic.''

The Gandhi scion also reacted sarcastically to the left-leaning jurist's suggestion that he could become a hero if he took up the challenge of turning India into ``an egalitarian society, a Gandhian India, a Nehruvian India, NOT nuclear India. Please be great so that the people may have a better tomorrow.''

Rahul's response: ``As far as becoming a hero is concerned, unfortunately that is of absolutely no interest to me. I work because I believe in working to improve a system that is rotten and not to be glorified.''

But he accepted the 95-year-old Iyer's counsel that he must read Jawaharlal Nehru's autobiography to understand socialism and patriotism. ``Thank you for your very impassioned and well meaning advice. I appreciate it. I have read JN's autobiography. I will do so again as you suggest.''

In this exchange on corruption and related issues, Rahul was however silent on Iyer's criticism of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Iyer had written, ``Your Prime Minister has become known for inaction. He does not touch the former CJI K G Balakrishnan or any other corrupt VIP. When public power is vested in anyone for the purpose of giving clean governance to the country, to be silent and inactive is breach of trust.''

It seems significant that while conveying his shared concerns, Rahul did not clarify whether his agreement with Iyer extended to his criticism of the Prime Minister as well.

Beyond corruption

Anna Hazare's crusade against graft is only the first of many battles India must fight.

Will there be a national life after Anna? The Gandhian's satyagraha against rampant corruption has evoked a countrywide response unmatched by anything in the history of independent India, not even perhaps by Jayaprakash Narayan's 1974 movement against the increasing authoritarianism of Indira Gandhi's government.

JP's 'swarajist' campaign - initially spearheaded by students in Bihar but later spreading to include citizens from all walks of life, across the nation - caused the biggest political earthquake the country has ever witnessed when Indira Gandhi, backed into a corner, declared her infamous Emergency and overnight turned democratic India into a totalitarian dictatorship.

But though shrouded, the torch of freedom was not extinguished. And it burned brighter and fiercer than ever when in the general elections following the lifting of the Emergency, the collective wrath of the people voted Indira Gandhi out of office and brought in the Janata government.

The new dispensation, which got into internal wrangles almost from day one, was to pose its own challenges of cohesion. But the 'spirit of '77' made one thing clear: no one would again dare to try and stifle India's irrepressible democracy. The powers-that-be today will attempt to derail Anna's runaway movement at their own peril. Some critics have tried to put a verbal spoke in the wheels of the anti-corruption juggernaut by suggesting, among other things, that such extra-parliamentary forms of legislative activity would eventually derail democracy by encouraging irresponsible copycat movements which could be wilfully subversive of the rule of law.

Such sceptics, however, have been swiftly silenced by the overwhelming support that Anna's cause has generated, targeting as it does what is universally seen to be the nation's single most baneful affliction. Public disgust with all-pervasive graft has reached a pitch where corruption is perceived to be the root cause of all our myriad social, political and economic ills. The groundswell of opinion seems to be that if we can somehow exorcise the demon of corruption we will be freed of all the other evils that daily bedevil us.
 
Such a single-point agenda would be dangerously short-sighted. Corruption, in all its many manifestations, is without any question one of the most harmful of the toxins poisoning our body politic. But it is by no means the only one. Anna himself has already identified electoral reform as the next banner around which to rally his growing legions of followers. The criminalisation of politics, and the open use of muscle-and money-power to capture votes has made such reform a vital necessity which has been far too long delayed. Some of the electoral changes debated have been the right of recall and the voter's right to cancel their ballots in case they find all the candidates unsuitable in a particular constituency.

Such much-needed political reform, however, presupposes that the voter is free to make a truly informed choice. Illiteracy and the deep-rooted patriarchal system by which women voters are no more than rubber-stamp extensions of the male head of the household are only two of the major obstacles in the path to making the electoral process more truly representative.

Indeed not a few would say that to the extent - and it is a very large extent - that gender discrimination in effect disenfranchises the female half of the population India is at best a shambolic democracy. The progressive disempowerment of women is revealed by studies of sex-selective abortions which indicate that in 20 years' time India will have 20% more men than women. A clear case not of genocide, perhaps, but certainly of gendercide. And perpetrated, largely, by the urban middle class which is the most visible in championing Anna's cause.
 
Let's get rid of corruption by all means. But let's not forget the other - and far worse - monsters which lurk within us.

The Pillitzer Prize

The Emperor of all maladies? The title clearly belongs to the cancer of politics.

Dr Siddhartha Mukherjee won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for The Emperor of All Maladies, his 'elegant inquiry' into the history and continuing mystique of cancer. Wow. But, while reading about the New Delhi-born, New York-based oncologist's impressive literary achievement, it struck me that our entire news media is about maladies. And the unquestioned emperor of all these is politics.

It wasn't just a coincidence that the biggest headline of not just that day, but the whole week, was about a doctored CD, and the cancer of corruption which has been galloping unchecked across the body politic.

Serious illness means ambulance. Some lawyers are known as ambulance chasers, and there have been whispers that the Bhushan's have been doing just this in the guise of public interest. Their targets make no bones about these two busybodies being a pain in the neck. Some people have an even lower opinion of them. But they have to swallow their bitter PIL.

Like the subject of Dr Mukherjee's book, the Bhushan CD continues to confound the fraternity. Everyone has made it his business to diagnose it, including those who are accused of doctoring it. Pathologist Amar Singh has asked Shanti Bhushan to give a voice sample to establish proof of his paternity. Many suspect that the former SP leader is the one who should be taking the test.

Like allopathic medicos who dismiss any form of alternative medicine as hocus poke-us, the ruling politicos have branded Homeopath Hazare as a dangerous quack who will cause severe, long-term damage to the system. They say we must ignore his bogus white pills, and leave the treatment of corruption to those with a proper MP degree.

However, alarmed by the multiple organ failure caused by this galloping cancer, more and more people are beginning to place their faith in Anna-ji's grassroots prescription. So what if he's not that kind of pharma?

Shanti and Prashant Bhushan are a father and son team. This is common practice in law. As it is in medicine. Politics is even more genetically engineered. Biwi, bahu, beta are all symptoms or side effects. Since even chacha-bhanja causal links are found, the practice of this cancer is sometimes known as Uncology.

The deep-rooted cancers of the body politic have compromised its immunity, and also made it more susceptible to external factors. The very day that Dr Siddhartha Mukherjee was chosen for the Pulitzer, in faraway Ratnagiri, virulent protests against the Jaitapur plant exposed the already ravaged government to the hazards of unclear radiation.

Political maladies manifest themselves differently at different times. Parts of the country are now in the grip of a poll fever. Following textbook epidemiology, it was preceded by a rash of campaigning, blistering allegations, and bouts of violent attacks. Medical opinion differs on the best way to get it to subside or prevent it from assuming a virulent, or even fatal, form. But most agree that the best bet not only for diagnosis, but even treatment is the EC-ji.

Now that it is well established that politics is the emperor of all maladies, it follows that New Delhi's biggest hospital should be headed by a Dr Singh. Several expressers of mock concern have been suggesting that the Prime Medico himself needs a good orthopaedic surgeon to tackle his apparently weak knees and spine. The more aggressive say he needs complete replacement. Hopefully it won't come to that. We might mention that here, as in all hospitals, it's the Matron who actually calls the shots.

On secular fatwas

Human rights activists are not shy about bringing their own prejudices to the table.

The disdain with which leading lights of the Anti-Corruption movement - Mallika Sarabhai, Medha Patkar, Kavita Srivastava et al - are publicly threatening to dislodge Anna Hazare from the leadership role because he praised Narendra Modi's rural development work in Gujarat indicates that the poor man was only being used as a convenient symbol that can be discarded as arbitrarily as he was chosen to lead the 'movement'.

Human rights activists can retain their credibility only as long as they remain steadfastly non-partisan. To the person killed, it matters little whether the murderous mob was shouting 'Lal Salaam', 'Har Har Mahadev' or 'National Unity' as did the mobs that massacred over 10,000 Sikhs in north India following Indira Gandhi's assassination. However, the secular brigade shows a consistent soft corner for those who kill under the Maoist or Communist banner as well as those who verbally profess secularism.

Narendra Modi's acts of commission and omission during the 2002 riots deserve the strongest of condemnations. Those crimes need to be impartially investigated and the guilty punished. Just as we are proud that our democratic system ensured a fair trial even for a publicly identified ISI-associated terrorist like Kasab, so also we should let the courts take the Gujarat trials to their logical conclusions.

Those who ask for Modi's head would do well to remember that hordes of Congressmen in Gujarat gleefully joined the BJP and RSS goons who went around massacring innocent people.

The overall track record of the Congress in this matter is no better, if not much worse, than that of the BJP. In addition to the 1984 massacre of Sikhs in north India, it masterminded numerous other riots through the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's. None of the killers of politically engineered riots in Meerut, Malliana, Bhiwandi, Bhagalpur, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat and scores of others were ever punished. The Congress also injected terrorism into Punjab by its covert support of Bhindranwale's Khalistani brigades in order to wrest control of the SGPC that presides over well-endowed gurdwaras. It did incalculable harm to the Sri Lankan Tamils by creating a Frankenstein's monster like the LTTE. The secessionist movement in Kashmir owes its origins and draws sustenance from the Congress party's penchant for rigging elections to install puppet chief ministers.

And yet, even those of us who genuinely want to see the guilty among Congress leaders pay for their crimes do recognise that there is a lot more to this premier national party than a legacy of mayhem and massacres. There are times when the Congress party has actually lived up to the highest values of Indian democracy and some of our best contemporary politicians have emerged from the Congress fold.

Due to their ideological predilections and cosy relationship with the Congress high command, most of those attacking Hazare have a history of acting as the fighting arm of the Congress against Modi and the BJP. But to declare Hazare a political untouchable because he is not as ideologically committed to their brand of secularism is to display deadly arrogance. One earns the moral right to criticise only when one has the moral courage to acknowledge the positive aspects or good deeds of those we condemn for specific evil actions. One should be able to condemn Modi for his role in the 2002 massacre and point to his many other blind spots and lapses, without feeling the need to deny his positive role in Gujarat leading the country in many vital areas such as assured power supply to all villages, measures for bringing down the maternal mortality rate by providing financial and other support for safe deliveries to poor women, and a 9.8% growth rate in agriculture while the rest of the country remains stuck at 2-3% growth. It is one of the few states where farmers at large are not at war with industry, where delivery mechanisms for government services have improved dramatically.

The manner in which Maulana Ghulam Mohammad Vastanvi, the vice-chancellor of Darul Uloom of Deoband, was humiliated and asked to resign for stating that the development agenda of Modi is benefiting Muslims in equal measure shows that the 'secular' gang has acquired a vested interest in promoting a siege mentality among Muslims. The man they condemn as the 'maut ka saudagar' seems to have recognised the folly of promoting communal polarisation. He has not let another riot take place in Gujarat, a state which witnessed numerous caste and communal riots under Congress rule. In recent years, hundreds of Muslims have won municipal elections on BJP tickets. Democracy with its one-person, one-vote principle has tamed Narendra Modi. But those who don't need to get endorsement for their political posturing from citizens on whose behalf they speak, are not amenable to such self-correcting mechanisms.

The task of cleansing our polity of crime and corruption is not a battle between demons and angels. It requires taking the entire spectrum of political opinion on board including those who support Maoists or vote for Modi. Such a task cannot be done by those who harbour blind prejudice, and partisan agendas. It is best done by people of compassion, and humility; people who remain fair and non-partisan even when dealing with those they hate.

School for scamdal

Is Pakistan smarter than India? It would appear so. Compare the export initiative shown by the two countries. Over the years, Pakistan has become extremely proficient at exporting its biggest product. Indeed, Pakistan has become the world's leading exporter of this product, having some time ago overtaken Saudi Arabia, which previously occupied the top slot in this export category that constitutes one of the fastest growing industries in the world today: TERRORISM.

Pakistan is widely acknowledged to be the world's biggest and most efficient exporter of terrorism, a fact known only too well by India which constitutes one of the largest captive markets for Islamabad's main product line. Through aggressive marketing, aimed mainly at the US, Pakistan has turned a dangerous liability into a lucrative asset which helps to keep an otherwise bankrupt economy afloat. By supposedly being America's chief frontline ally in Washington's `war on terror' and its so-called AfPak policy, Islamabad annually extracts billions of dollars from the US. This money, which is meant to be earmarked for anti-terrorist operations is in fact diverted into acquiring more arms for use against India and in setting up more terrorist training camps in Pakistan, the alumni of which will be Islamabad's pawns in its 'proxy war' against New Delhi.

Few marketing experts could have devised a better business model than Pakistan's ISI has done. True, of late there have been a few problems relating to production and distribution systems that have gone awry. Like those `export-reject' garments that turn up in cut-price domestic markets, some of Pakistan's terrorist consignments seem to be boomeranging right back where they came from. Among the notable victims of such `export-reject' terror coming home to roost have been Benazir Bhutto, Punjab governor Salman Taseer and Pakistan's minorities minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, the latter two having been targeted for their vocal opposition to the country's anti-blasphemy laws by which those who renounce Islam can be awarded the death penalty.

However, barring such incidents of collateral damage, Pakistan seems to have done well for itself through its terror industry. How does India shape up in comparison? The answer is: not well at all. Though India has enormous potential, it has failed to tap foreign markets for its own special product. Though many people, including the prime minister, have described the Maoists as the biggest single security threat to the country, and despite secessionist organisations like ULFA and the rise of the so-called `saffron terror', gun-toting terrorism is not the product India specialises in. We specialise in another kind of terrorism: financial terrorism. Except that we don't call it by that name. We call it SCAMS.

Is there any country in the world which produces scams - hawala, fodder, stamp paper, CWG, Adarsh, 2G, Isro - at the rate India seems to? As a nation, we should demand inclusion in the Guinness Book of Records as the country with the highest scam count in the world. You name it, we'll scam it, seems to be our motto. There appears to be no end to our ingenuity for scamming. Why, then, haven't we done what Pakistan has done with terror? Why haven't we exported our scams - and our scamsters - to foreign countries?

The export ministry needs to see how best to incentivise scamming. For instance, indicted scamsters might be granted amnesty if they undertake to relocate to any other country which will have them. Further, like Islamabad which extracts protection money from Washington using the threat of terror, New Delhi could extract similar hafta from the international community using the threat of exported scams. Indeed, as suggested by the case of Rajat Gupta, the Indian-American financial wizard who has been accused of insider trading by the US authorities, the Indian school of scamdal might have already scored its first success.

For the few, by the few

Corruption is much broader than what we usually imagine it to be, which focuses on bribes and similar illegal monetary transactions. A number of other practices are corrupt, even if they are legal.

The median price of corruption, at least at the highest levels, has gone up tremendously in the post-liberalisation era. When I was a college student, the biggest corruption story was the Bofors gun scam. It had all the ingredients of an international crime thriller - two prime ministers, unsavoury arms dealers, Swiss bank accounts and crusading journalists trying to uncover the truth. 

The Bofors scam and other corruption investigations were central to Rajiv Gandhi's government losing power in 1989, despite a record mandate five years earlier in 1984. The price of corruption has greatly increased since the days of Rajiv Gandhi and Olaf Palme. To put it bluntly, a government fell in 1989 because it couldn't explain Rs.64 crores while in 2010 alone we have had scams totaling more than Rs.200,000 crores. In our current dispensation Rs.64 crores will not even buy an MP, let alone a prime minister. 

How did this happen? Why has the price of corruption galloped ahead of inflation by so many orders of magnitude? 

I think the answer to these questions has to do with structural changes in the Indian political economy since liberalisation in 1991. These changes aren't unique to India; they are inevitable by products of winner-take-all nature of the current phase of globalisation. Before we move into the characteristics of this phase of the Indian economy, let us first define corruption operationally, as "any transaction in which access to resources is restricted to a smaller group of individuals or collectives than is ethically, economically or socially natural". 

This definition of corruption is clearly broader than what we usually imagine it to be, which focuses on bribes and similar illegal monetary transactions. However, I believe that the above definition correctly identifies many practices as corrupt even if they are legal. 

For example, hospitals that charge enormous amounts of money and make immense profits while turning poor people away are corrupt, even if they are within their rights to refuse treatment to anyone. Similarly, people eating dinner at a fancy restaurant that costs more than the annual income of the family living in the slum across the street are corrupt. A political party whose president is always from one family is a corrupt party, even if its prime minister and its president do not take a single rupee in bribes. 

Corruption in post-liberalisation India has four features that I want to highlight:

Its magnitude. It is clear that the scale of corruption has increased tremendously in the last two decades, partly because there is a lot more money to be made at the top. It takes a lot more to buy a spectrum license because a license that takes Rs.1650 crores to acquire can be sold for Rs.10,000 crores. Indian billionaires are as rich as their American counterparts and almost as numerous these days; it is no surprise that when the stakes are high, it takes a lot more to play the game with the big boys. 

Its mode. Corruption in India, like much of the legal world of business and politics is about access to family and caste networks that are strictly regulated. After all, Raja was a go-between for a party run by a patriarch and his children and another party run by a matriarch and her children. The major corporate players in the scandal are all family owned businesses.  

 Corruption is a global phenomenon that comes from small groups of people having the power to leverage a whole system to their individual benefit. (Above: The Commonwealth Games were among the worst examples of this leverage last year.)

Its pervasiveness. Corruption, as broadly defined earlier, pervades Indian society. It is not restricted to licenses and party donations. Every transaction has 'gatekeepers who restrict access and 'donors' who grease palms to create access. From gated colonies in Bangalore that monopolise scarce water resources to actual bribe giving, it is clear that the broad shifts in our economy is creating a winner-take-all society in which a large share of resources goes to a small segment of society. Every sector of our society, from politics to media to academia is restricting access to citizens.

Its power hierarchy. In the old license raj days, the neta and the babu were kings, and the businessman was the supplicant. Now it is the other way around. While the neta and the babu in the telecom scam might have made a few hundred or even a thousand crores, the real winners were businesses who bought a Rs.1650-crores license and sold it for six times that price. Software engineers working for Infosys or Wipro and living the good life can keep the doors open for themselves while shutting the door on anyone who they distrust. People in government - both politicians and bureaucrats - are increasingly incapable of putting curbs on these elites.

Three of these four trends are not unique to India. A widely reported statistic shows that in 1965, CEOs of major corporations in the United States earned 24 times as much as the average worker while in 2005, the same CEO earned 262 times as much as the average worker. Statistics like these are not unique to CEO compensation; the New York Times reports that "In 1982, the top 1 per cent of pop stars, in terms of pay, raked in 26 per cent of concert ticket revenue. In 2003, that top percentage of stars - names like Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera or 50 Cent - was taking 56 per cent of the concert pie." 

The same trends can be seen in media, sports etc. It is clear, especially after the current downturn in the west, that most people believe that such income disparities are unacceptable, even if they are legal. According to my definition of corruption, the prevailing CEO compensation schemes are corrupt practices. Why do CEO's get paid more and more? The answers vary, but the consensus is that companies have globalised and grown larger and wealthier, the top level talent pool is small and there is an incestuous link between those who set the compensation (the boards of companies) and those who nominate the board (often the CEO). 

Many networks spawned by globalisation are eventually controlled by a small group of people who have the density of connections, access to resources and bargaining power to reap inordinately large benefits. Corruption is a global phenomenon that comes from small groups of people having the power to leverage a whole system to their individual benefit. 

This is not a conspiracy; instead the current state of corruption is a natural outcome of the global political economy. However, the power of the small cabal at the top is not God-given or socially mandated, like the feudal societies of medieval Europe. Instead, the emergence of a small group of power centres is an impersonal process, where one set of top dogs can easily be displaced or demoted. There is always someone else to take their place, just as IBM was replaced by Microsoft that was outpaced by Google and so on. The problem is structural rather than individual. 

Corruption in India is part of this global trend; the only difference is that Indian corruption is channelled through family and caste networks that are more difficult to penetrate than the CEO circles on Wall Street. While the top layer of India is quickly achieving parity with its counterparts in the rest of the world, the bottom eighty per cent of the Indian population is perhaps irredeemably divorced from these networks of wealth and power. If the United States has inequality, we have hyper-inequality. 

I can only foresee two outcomes of hyper-inequality: either the bottom of the pyramid gives up hope altogether, creating a permanent unproductive majority, or there are increasingly violent protests. Neither of these alternatives is acceptable. It should be our goal as a nation and as a society to end corruption. However, the change has to start with recognising that corruption is a far deeper malaise than a man in a safari suit carrying a suitcase full of cash to a minister's office. 

To end corruption, we will need wide-ranging reform of the fundamental units of Indian society, starting with the family. 

The Protocol of vested interests

The hydropower industry's Protocol is an inside job - developed by the industry, to be administered by its consultants, who will work closely with project promoters.

On 16 November 2000, almost exactly ten years ago, Nelson Mandela released the report of the World Commission on Dams (WCD) in London. The WCD, it may be recollected, was a 12-member Commission representing dam builders, engineering companies, NGOs, affected peoples movements etc. set up in 1998 at the initiative of the World Bank and the International Union for Conservation of Nature to assess the development effectiveness of large dams worldwide. Even with the diversity of its members, it delivered a unanimous report, vindicated many of the serious criticisms of large dams, and come out with a set of criteria and guidelines under which large dams should be built. 

The WCD report carries with it the credibility that comes from broad participation, including those whose voices are normally not heard. Ten years later, the WCD's relevance has only grown, a testimony to its farsighted treatment of contentious issues, and to the meticulously assembled knowledge base. 

It is ironic then, that as the WCD has completed ten years, the hydropower industry, brought out its Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol in September 2010. The Protocol has been described as "a sustainability assessment framework for hydropower development and operation." Unlike the WCD report, however, this document has come out of a highly exclusive process. Predictably, therefore, it has serious problems, and it risks undermining and weakening of social and environmental standards for dams and hydropower. 

Moreover, it threatens to sideline the WCD. The International Hydropower Association (IHA) that led the process to develop this Protocol expects "over time this Protocol may inform the evolution of or be adopted as the assessment approach used by governments, banks and other institutions." In other words, replace the WCD as the main framework to assess large dams and hydropower projects. This expectation is not surprising at all. 

The WCD faced strong resistance from several Governments (including India) and the dam building establishment, primarily because its recommendations included an increased role for the marginalised people in decisions related to dams, equal weightage for social and environmental impacts, and called for a more equitable sharing of the benefits and costs. Witness India's response to the WCD report that "... emphasis on equity in a wrong manner is dangerous. Many countries including India and USSR have learnt hard way that too much emphasis on equity can only perpetuate poverty." At the same time, the WCD received wide acceptance, and many elements of the framework - if not its entirety - are becoming part and parcel of the standards to which dams are being held accountable. 

Dam standards are important to protect the environment and communities as dams are built all over the world. But with climate change being used as reason to push dams and hydropower even more, and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Carbon Trading opening up huge markets for "carbon credits" that can be obtained from hydropower - the standards to which these dams are subjected become crucial financially also. This is because carbon credits are accepted for trading only if they are from "sustainable" projects. Thus, stringent criteria like those set by the WCD could lead to fewer projects qualifying for the money-spinning CDM. 

With NHPC, India's leading state-owned hydropower company on the Board of IHA, several other Indian hydropower developers as members, and one of the test trials of the Protocol being carried out on NHPC's Teesta V project, it is likely that the Protocol will be pushed in India as an indicator of sustainability. All the more reason, then, to understand the problems and limitations of the IHA's Protocol and reiterate the importance of the WCD framework. 

The 'Protocol' of vested interests

The Protocol is essentially a score sheet - project scores ranging from 1 to 5 are given for a number of different elements of sustainability. Assessments are made for four phases of any project - Early Stage, Preparation, Implementation and Operation - and scoring is done for all but the first stage. There are a total of 62 topics for scoring in sections 2-4; these include Governance, Economic Viability, Project Affected Communities and Livelihoods, Environmental and Social Management, Cultural Heritage, Labour and Working Conditions, and so on. A score of 3 for any topic is equivalent to "basic good practice" and a score of 5 is awarded for a "proven best practice". 

The Protocol does not claim to be a standard, saying "Organisations may hold different views on what levels of performance are linked to a sustainable project, and the Protocol makes no specification on requirements for acceptable performance." In other words, projects performing differently on the same topic may have the same score. This, however, will allow projects to conform to weaker or lower standards and still present the image of being "sustainable". 

Notwithstanding this disclaimer, the Protocol does say that it is designed so that a level 3 score, of good practice, is "broadly consistent with the IHA (International Hydropower Association) Sustainability Guidelines 2004". These Guidelines were brought out by the IHA in 2004 to "to promote greater consideration of environmental, social and economic aspects in the sustainability assessment of new hydro projects and the management and operation of existing power schemes" and do constitute a benchmark of sorts even if not full-fledged standards. 

Not only are these guidelines considerably weaker than those in the WCD recommendations, this also means that the Protocol is essentially designed to assess projects against a standard developed by the Hydropower industry itself - which clearly has a vested interest in the standards being less stringent. 

For example, the WCD requires a basin-wide understanding of the ecosystems and how communities depend on and influence them, "before decisions on development options are made." In other words, a basin-wide comprehensive study is a prerequisite for assessing individual projects. The Sustainability guidelines of the IHA, on the other hand, take a policy position that "Environmental Assessments (EAs) should be applied at the project level." These EAs are only required to "take account of higher level regional or national ... assessments ... including assessments already completed for the relevant river basin(s)." Thus, a river basin level assessment is not mandatory but needs to be considered only if it is already done. 

 Not only are the Protocol's guidelines considerably weaker than those in the WCD recommendations, this also means that the Protocol is essentially designed to assess projects against a standard developed by the Hydropower industry itself - which clearly has a vested interest in the standards being less stringent. 

This Protocol has also been developing in an exclusive manner. While the Forum put together by the IHA to build this Protocol included some civil society organisations, these have been the large International NGOs like WWF and Oxfam, and there has been no involvement of dam-affected people, dam critics and other southern dams-related struggles and movements. These groups were invited much later in the process to provide some inputs, but these consultations were too little, too late and too limited. In any case, movements of dam-affected people have argued for seats at decision-making tables, not merely being "consulted" - which is more often than not a process by which people are heard and then ignored. 

The implementation of the Protocol will be controlled by the IHA. Only those who are licensed by the IHA can assess a project. Further, it is expected that the assessment will actually be carried out by the assessor working closely with a representative of the project. This representative, called the Lead Project Representative, will be the main point of coordination for the assessment and will arrange, among other things, the agenda and the interview schedules for the assessor, provision of an interpreter etc. Clearly, such an arrangement is hardly likely to result in a truly independent assessment of the project, or provide space to critical voices. 

Given all this, it is clear that the Protocol is a tool developed by the industry, by excluding the people affected by such projects, to be administered by consultants who will be licensed by the industry body and often paid for by the project, and who will conduct the assessment in close coordination with the project promoters! Further, the Protocol allows a project to get high scores and create an impression of sustainability, even if complies with standards weaker than the WCD, or those adopted by many internationally agencies. 

This document can at best be useful for some of IHA's internal workings. However, as a credible, publicly accountable means of measuring and ensuring sustainability - and that includes justice, equity and human rights - it is totally inappropriate. The WCD remains the only comprehensive framework that has emerged from a widely participatory process, with the voices of the affected people having a meaningful say. It is important that instead of such limited tools like the Protocol, the WCD framework should be adopted as the central approach to define just, sustainable, equitable planning, decision-making and implementation of dams and other water resource projects. 
 

Wake up New Delhi

In Kashmir, it seems the only person the Centre is listening to is Omar Abdullah, the man against whom the entire population, including his own party, his bureaucracy, and his police is up in arms.

What the ISI-trained terrorists and their agents in Kashmir could not achieve in 20 years, Omar Abdullah and his patrons in Delhi Durbar have managed to deliver to separatists in less than 18 months. Farooq Abdullah is well within his right as the father of the present Chief Minister of J&K to advise his son not to resign despite the worsening situation in Kashmir. But by telling Omar to keep clinging to his chair even when he has earned universal wrath in Kashmir all because he has still not yet lost favour with the Congress Party High Command is to openly declare that he owes his position to the Delhi Durbar.

This when one of the key complaints of Kashmiris is that the Central Government has a habit of planting chief ministers in Kashmir who will let the Centre rule J&K by proxy even if it means depriving Kashmiris of the democratic rights available to people in most other parts of India to elect or cast away those who fail them as their political representatives. 

Similarly, the Prime Minister's condescending offer of "dialogue" with all those who are willing to "shun violence" only adds insult to injury. Firstly, the PM is not doing anybody a favour by offering dialogue.

At the moment, those who are pelting stones defying curfews and shoot-at-sight orders are in no mood of dialogue. The moderates among Hurriyat who had earlier risked their lives by coming for dialogues to New Delhi were abandoned mid-way because of the Congress leadership's smugness on account of high turnout in the elections. The pro-Pakistan hardliners have spurned the PM's offer for talks because this regime's policies have brought them centre-stage. In fact, they have used the popular upsurge against the continuing violation of human rights to lay their own pre-conditions for dialogue - demanding the repeal of Armed Forces Special Powers Act and withdrawal of security forces from the Valley.

Had the Centre demilitarised Kashmir in good time, it would have earned universal goodwill in Kashmir. But today, the Congress High Command has caused severe erosion of its moral and political authority and the vaccum created by the marginalisation of democratic processes has been filled by the sepratists. 

Today, the situation is far worse than in the 1990's. At that time people feared death at the hands of militants. Therefore, they did not dare defy their diktats. But today, the stone pelting young kids are so enraged at the current regime, both in Srinagar and in Delhi that they have turned nihilistic and are afraid of no one - neither the guns of terrorists nor that of security forces. Many among the state policemen have procured fake identity cards and avoid wearing their uniform when commuting from their homes for duty lest they be lynched by angry mobs.  

 The only people not attacking Omar Abdullah are pro-Pakistani elements who are delighted that he has provided them such a fertile ground for their secessionist agenda at a time when even Pakistan had lost hope of making it work. (Above: A soldier stands guard outside Srinagar airport. Picture source - Wikipedia Commons). 

The curious love-hate relationship between the National Conference and the Congress Party at the Centre has resulted in consistent mishandling of the Kashmir situation from 1947 onwards, when the NC assumed power after Sheikh Abdullah made a pact with the Congress Party at the Centre. Despite being a much loved and popular leader, Sheikh Abdullah was an out and out autocrat. Even when it was 100 per cent certain that he would sweep the poles, the Abdullah patriarch organised brazen rigging of elections and hounded all opponents out of the electoral fray. 

The romance of Kashmiri Muslims with the Lion of Kashmir would have died in no time if it were not for the blunder Nehru committed by putting Abdullah in jail and later under house arrest for 11 long years. That put a veil of martyrdom over his autocratic rule. He was reinstalled as arbitrarily as he was dismissed. This earned the Congress Party and the Central government the image of a despised imperial power.

His son Farooq carried forward the family tradition of rigging elections with open connivance of the Central Government if he showed willingness to be a pliable instrument. His regime was also notorious for corruption and mismanagement. At the end of his tenure Farooq was so unpopular that people actually dug up the grave of Sheikh Abdullah to vent their anger against the dismal governance record of the National Conference. But instead of letting him face the ire of his own people in the electoral arena, Farooq too was provided the halo of martyrdom by New Delhi's repeated imposition of Governor's rule after arbitrary dismissals of the NC government, and the equally arbitrary reinstatement of Farooq as CM after he signed the Rajeev-Farooq Accord in 1986. It convinced Kashmiris that New Delhi will only allow puppet chief ministers in J&K. 

The brazen rigging of the 1987 elections by NC with the active connivance of the Congress Party at the Centre - with a view to deny the Muslim United Front the opportunity to wrest a dozen odd seats in the legislative assembly - led to a massive upsurge against Farooq's government and inevitable alienation from Indian democracy. This is what prepared a ripe ground for Pakistan to foment trouble and inject terrorist politics into the Valley. 

Initially, Omar Abdullah gave the impression that he had learned from his father's mistakes. However, he also saddled himself with many liabilities when he assumed power after the 2008 elections. Today, even senior bureaucrats, police and Army officers admit that the National Conference won the 2008 elections by selctive rigging and 'management of polling booths', especially in Srinagar city from where National Conference won 8 seats. The capital city witnessed the most blatant booth-capturing and consequently the lowest voter turnout in the Valley of about 2 to 6 per cent - this at a time when the average voter turnout in the Valley was 60 to 69 per cent. This cast a shadow on the legitimacy of the NC government as well as on the credibility of the elections. 

To top it all, Omar took over as CM after staging a brazen coup against his own father, by using Rahul Gandhi's clout to claim the throne. This, after his father had let the whole world know that he was going to be CM. Proximity to Rahul Gandhi may give Omar political clout in Delhi Durbar and a lot of favourable media coverage in the national press, but in Kashmir it stigmatised him as a puppet of the Congress High Command. It does not help matters that Omar is seen more often in Delhi than in Srinagar. 

Lacking a popular base in the Valley, the new Chief Minister handpicked a few cronies, including some of his unsavoury business partners who lord over a very corrupt and callous administration. Omar also estranged the entire old guard of the NC by his arrogant systematic sidelining of all senior leaders, especially those who had some political roots in the Valley. Not surprisingly, NC stalwarts have been completely inactive during this crisis and NC cadres are playing a leading role among stone pelters. The current joke is that when addressing the media, Omar's main audience is 10 Janpath, the Home Ministry and the South Delhi cocktail circuit - the three forces he imagines are the shakers and makers of India. 

It took 20 years for Kashmir to recover from the backlash against the Rajiv-Farooq accord. However, at that time only a handful picked up the gun. The Omar-Rahul accord has proved far more deadly. The revolt against this regime so universal that no one, not even NC stalwarts, dare stand up in public to defend it in Kashmir. As far as Kashmir is concerned, starting from Nehru, the Congress Party has perfected the art of wresting defeat from the jaws of victory. 

Public disapproval of state governments is not uncommon - we regularly witness state governments being voted out by people fed up with their rulers. However, it is only in Kashmir that we find the upsurge against the local regime turning into an anti-India upsurge because of New Delhi's penchant for propping up pliable CMs and endorsing their use of central security forces to deal even with democratic protests.

Honest is, as honest does

Integrity, in the job of the Prime Minister, demands putting national interest above partisan politics and personal loyalties. By that standard Dr.Manmohan Singh can't be called a "man of integirty".

Today, the Indian media - both print and television - is focusing on the recent corruption scandals involving the UPA Government with unusual zeal. However, I fail to understand why almost every commentator, every TV anchor, every editorial writer feels compelled to pay ritual obeisance to the "personal honesty and integrity" of Dr. Manmohan Singh while dealing with the scandals emanating from his Cabinet colleagues. They do so even when there is clear evidence that the Prime Minister was well aware of various shady deals, as in the case of telecom scam, and that he did nothing to stop the brazen economic crimes indulged in by his ministerial colleagues over the last six years. 

Corruption is not only about personally accepting monetary bribes and stacking them away in hidden bank accounts overseas, buying benami properties or accepting diamond sets for your wife. Corruption can come in insidious avatars, such as knowingly turning a blind eye to misuse the entire machinery of governance to serve private ends of a few individuals, even to the point of endangering national security. For example, not a single person has been punished thus far for supplying sub standard bullet proof jackets to the police handling the 9/11 terrorist attack in Mumbai. Not surprisingly, we are right now witnessing yet another scam involving sub standard bullet proof vests. 

In recent weeks, some of our most respected columnists have been warning us that we should look at institutional reform rather than target individuals because it can lead to loss of faith in democratic institutions. But how do you retain faith in democratic institutions if powerful individuals use their office to systematically subvert the autonomy and credibility of institutions meant as watchdogs of democracy? The best of institutions take no time in becoming slavish instruments of partisan agendas if you plant subservient and heavily compromised individuals at their helm. 

 People attribute his pliability to the fact that the prime minister was appointed and not elected.

Dr Manmohan Singh cannot escape responsibility for appointing people with dubious credentials to occupy key positions of power - starting with the appointment of Pratibha Devisingh Patil as the President of India. This despite the fact that that Congress leaders of her own district protested vehemently against her appointment because of her and her close kin's direct involvement in criminal cases. Thereafter, all key institutions, including the Election Commission, the Central Vigilance Commission have been filled with people whose credentials have been questioned not just by the opposition but also the media and respected public figures. 

He has also provided key portfolios to people with a proven track record of brazen corruption. For example, IAS officer, Mr Lalli the CEO of Prasar Bharati that manages Doordarshan has been guilty of countless corrupt deals and practices. Despite numerous agitations by the staff of Doordarshan to get him punished, he continues lording over the institution because he is supposed to have the PM's backing. 

This regime has also gone out of its way to protect those judges of the High Courts and Supreme Court who have such serious corruption charges against them as to merit impeachment and criminal trials. Justice Dinakaran of the Karnataka High Court was saved from the wrath of and boycott by the legal fraternity of Karnataka by being transferred to Sikkim High Court despite loud protests by people in Sikkim. Judges who are alleged to have shared in the loot of Provident Fund of class 1V employees in UP have not been subject to investigation, leave alone punishment. One of them retired after serving a full term in the Supreme Court. The kingpin of the scam who later provided evidence of the complicity of the judges died under mysterious circumstances in jail. 

Supreme Court Justice Sabharwal was likewise protected from prosecution even though the allegations against him during UPA's first term were no less serious than that of Kalmadi. He is alleged to have ordered demolition of numerous commercial centres and complexes in Delhi in order to benefit his son's investment in high end malls, causing havoc for lakhs of small and big commercial property owners of Delhi. 

The CWG scam is not just about misappropriation of funds through inflated bills and money being paid to bogus companies. It all started with the politician-contractor mafia being allowed to violate all environmental laws to convert the Yamuna floodplains into prime real estate by building luxury apartments in the name of Games Village. This happened despite the High Court ban on all construction activity on the floodplains. 

It needed the influence of people far more powerful than Kalmadi to persuade the Supreme Court into over ruling the considered view of the High Court and ensuring that Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh looked the other way when all environmental laws were being brazenly flouted right under his nose to build high rise apartments and other commercial structures on the floodplains. The game plan behind building luxury apartments on the forbidden land became obvious from the fact that the builders had to be whip lashed into completing at least half the apartments before the Commonwealth Games. They were obviously given to understand that the CWG was merely a fig leaf for converting floodplains into prime real estate in the heart of Delhi. 

The choice of the company that built the Games Village, the names of its real owners, its unknown and known partners, and the list of its known and unknown beneficiaries will reveal a scam more insidious than the Adarsh Housing Scam of Mumbai which involved Congress Party CM and other politicians, top ranking officials of the armed forces and bureaucrats cornering luxury apartments in a prime location in a housing society set up in the name of Kargil widows. In this case too, the only visible action taken by the Prime Minister is to replace the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. No sign of any heads rolling as yet. 

Or take the example of the most politically sensitive state of Kashmir. Dr. Manmohan Singh allowed an anti-Omar agitation to turn into an anti India agitation much against his own counsel, all because he dare not sack Omar Abdullah from the CM's post even when the entire Valley rose in revolt against his high handed, corrupt and callous regime. Senior Congress leaders admit in private that Omar cannot be touched since he is a buddy of Rahul Gandhi. Dr Singh knows well that Omar's continuation has given a new lease of life to the Pakistan-inspired separatist and terrorist movement in Kashmir. 

People attribute his pliability to the fact that the prime minister was appointed and not elected. He has never won a Lok Sabha election. But that cannot be used as an excuse to justify overlooking such gross mismanagement and loot as well as the political drift one witnesses even in areas involving national security.

In fact, his defeat in the one and only election he ever fought is related to his lack of personal integrity. He was defeated in the predominantly middle-class South Delhi constituency because people in general and Sikhs in particular were enraged when Manmohan Singh denied the role of the Congress in the 1984 Anti Sikh carnage and instead attributed the 1984 massacre to the RSS. The RSS may well be guilty of many other communal riots but the credit for the 1984 massacre goes entirely to Congress politicians, including Rajiv Gandhi who even justified the killings saying: "when a big tree falls, the earth is bound to shake." The Congress Party also ensured that those who masterminded and executed the 1984 pogram did not get punished. 

Similarly, in the case of Gujarat riots, the Prime Minister happily joined the chorus initiated by his boss pillorying Narendra Modi as "Maut ka Saudagar" even though it is well known that Congress party cadres merrily joined the riotous mobs unleashed by BJP--RSS combine in Ahmedabad and elsewhere. This failure to own responsibility for the conduct of his party men and passing the entire responsibility on to Modi is in large part responsible for the lack of credibility of Congress Party in Gujarat and the severe erosion of its political base in Gujarat. 

Likewise, getting a Rajya Sabha seat from Assam claiming he is a resident of the state when he has never had any such connection with Assam is a definite indicator of questionable political integrity. A PM who compromises national interest, as in Kashmir, just to indulge the personal fancy of the PM-in-waiting, a PM who looks the other way while his Cabinet colleagues brazenly loot public funds and get away with extorting thousands of crores by way of kickbacks, a PM who is widely perceived and lampooned as a "rubber stamp" does not merit being called "an honest man" or a "man of integrity"; in his job, integrity demands putting national interest above partisan politics and personal loyalties. Integrity also involves taking full responsibility for all his acts of commission and omission which have earned UPA II the dubious distinction of being publicly named as the most corrupt and rudderless government in post independence India. 

A very honest & unfaltering account of present day farce in governance. It's disheartening to be led by a puppet leader. Alas, where are such leaders who think about national interest over self-interest?  

Sun Tzu in his treatise "The art of War" stated that an over compassionate leader brings only destruction and Dr. Manmohan Singh is a rather shining example. Wish he would have showed this compassion to the people of India rather than the party high command. 

There is such an image built around Dr. Manmohan Singh which now seems like a mask. Integrity is of no use if it cannot command any affirmative action. Even his predecessor Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was in the same boat.

During the last three weeks, when parliament was defunct, we never heard or saw him anywhere, neither the UPA president and the aspiring PM who talks a lot about good governance. PM's placing, PM's continuation in the position raises another concern who planted him at PM office. Because in the recent past he appeared public only when any foreign delegation comes and he has to sign commercial contracts rather diplomatic negotiations. The political discourse of the country seems to be dictated by somebody outside or some powerful incorporate inside. 

Our PM, whom the corporate media wants to keep aloof from the charges of corruption. I remember how Smt. Indira Gandhi was hounded by the media then for corruption charges against her/government when the charges were nothing compared to present day charges. It is a pity to note that the so called intellectuals are comparing NDA/Yedurappa's corruption to divert the real issue. A person who secured a vote of confidence with hundreds of crores of rupees being paid as bribes to MPs, how can he be described as an honest man? Being the head of the government Dr. Manmohan Singh cannot pretend to be honest when the biggest ever scam has occurred and he is fully aware of the murky deals indulged by his ministers. 

The Emperor of Integrity has no clothes now. This required critical analysis and integrity. Integrity in any field is not only to perform according to one's conviction but also to act on the basis of one's knowledge and not to be blinded by emotion. This is what Dr. Manmohan Singh has done so far in his supplicant role to the Congress party. 

   No one in India can claim to be entirely honest. Similarly, no one can be condemned as wholly dishonest. There is indeed cent percent collective dishonesty in India. But, as far as possible one can be honest singularly. But, collectively, it is not possible in India to be fully honest despite wanting to be so.

The PM is only a victim of such a situation where some of his junior colleagues are alleged to have committed the cardinal sin without his knowledge. Now, sadly, the collective responsibility has fallen on him.
He is more sinned against than sinning himself.

I was a firm supporter of the PM and his governance in UPA I. In fact, the way he stuck to his point in the nuclear deal, whether right or wrong being a different question altogether, removed any myth in the mind of the opposition whether he was a weak PM. I have personally felt that any links with US have to be dealt with caution due to their bloody present and past. In the last few years, the PM's closeness to US almost seems to raise suspicion.

In spite of the immense poverty and the destruction of agriculture sector in this country, the PM continues in his industry-oriented economic path. His three favourite letters in the English language are surely G-D-P. The Radia tapes have only shown how our industries operate. I hope at least now he wakes up to the reality and realizes that India is a socialist republic.

The PM is now weaker than ever before, not least because of Madame Sonia Gandhi, but due to inaction against corrupt practices.

PUSHBACK TIME IN BIHAR - They hit back, "and it felt good"

A public hearing on NREGA in a remote village in Bihar created a confrontation between a leader accused of corruption and the workers who exposed him.

A hot, open field in a remote countryside in Bihar. The location: Saurgaon village in the Kursakata Block of Araria district. Hundreds of workers were lined up in front, waiting patiently for their turn. The occasion was a public hearing, organized by Jan Jagaran Shakti Sanghatan(JJSS), a new local social movement, which had recently been formed to support the workers struggle for employment. 

File picture of a JJSS-organised public hearing at Bhangahi panchayat, Narpatganj block, Bihar on July 8th, 2010. Pic: JJSS. 

A tent had been set up for the occasion. It was already full with people from the local Panchayat, but more villagers continued to trickle in. The hearing began with the organizers singing some revolutionary workers’ songs. Immediately after, 34-year-old Ashish Ranjan, one of the organisers of the event, took to the podium and demanded, "Have you ever seen a muster roll?" A resounding "NO!" shook the tent. “Have you had one hundred days of employment?” Again, “NO!” Ranjan proceeded to explain that the purpose of the meeting was to inform people about their rights and to present the results from a recent audit. 

A week prior, he was working with some volunteers, who were preparing for a village survey. They were looking at the government records of a village that they are going to audit. One volunteer noticed, "The same road is listed on two different yojanas”. Another retorted, I see a similar case in my register as well. The following day, they visited some villages to track down the road, where they heard that the work was not even completed the first time around, leave alone having multiple projects. So, it seemed to be a clear case of one work having different names to trick the people. 

To one worker, Kanchi (name changed), 35, they said, "It looks like you’ve worked 40 days this past year, received Rs. 4000 for it in your account, and then subsequently withdrew it." Kanchi gave them a blank look, which quickly turned to rage. All of the other passbooks indicated similar activity, and the villagers became increasingly agitated. Another volunteer asked, "Are you saying that you haven't received this money?” They replied, "No, not at all." 

The meeting re-started and the atmosphere remained tense, the scuffle had ironically brought the agenda to sharp focus.  This was exactly the kind of illegitimate activity that JJSS was interested in unearthing, so they asked the villagers to come to the following week’s public hearing. Most hesitated, but then agreed to come. When they asked people to sign a written testimonial, a few refused, saying, "I can’t sign this paper. I need to live here." They feared retaliation from government officials. 

Later, the fear spread to the other villagers, and some even demanded that they return the written testimonial. Later in the evening, they encountered some of the villagers. They were having a drink and discussing the day’s events. Kanchi was among them, and they all began to discuss the hearing. Kanchi voiced everyone’s worries: "These b*t*ds will kill us. I’m not scared, but some people are." They assured them that JJSS would remain in the area and that they would provide support. 

One week later at the public hearing, Ranjan laid down the protocol of the event: “Lift your hands to speak, and come to the microphone in the front to speak." He noted that the proceedings would be video recorded. 

The gathering at the public hearing at Bhangahi. Pic: JJSS. 

Manoj Singh, 50, the panchayat president, got up first to speak. He said, "Everything is going well in this village. All the work has been done and everybody was paid." Then, results from the audit were read out, making clear gross disparities in claims between the government records and from the survey.

Kanchi raised his hand to speak: “My name is Kanchi and I am from Boratola (name changed).”

Ranjan asked, "The government records say that you worked on a project to move sand from Ram's house to Krishna's. Did you do so, and how much were you paid?” “Yes, sir, I did work on that project.” 

“The government records show,” Ranjan continued, “that you worked for 40 days and were paid Rs.4000. Is that correct?” “No, sir, I have not been paid that much money. I only got Rs.1000". Someone immediately shouted, "He is lying!" 

Kanchi was livid. He pointed towards Singh, the panchayat leader and said, "He’s a crook. He and his cronies must have taken the rest of my money, whole 3000 rupees!" Mukhya rose up, rushed over to grab the microphone, and then hit Kanchi on the head with the microphone stand. The entire proceedings occurred in front of 500 people and was caught on video. 

This caused a great uproar, very soon the workers got up and started running towards the Mukhya shouting "“hit him, hit him”. Suddenly sticks appeared and they were charging up to the Mukhya, who was immediately whisked away to safety. Everybody was running and shouting and there was a minor scuffle between Mukhya’s men and some of the workers. 

The activists were running clutching the documents they had tightly so that they weren’t taken away in the commotion. Soon, the activists brought the meeting to order. Singh returned, and everybody sat down. The meeting re-started and the atmosphere remained tense, the scuffle had ironically brought the agenda to sharp focus. The testimonials continued to pile up, but the workers were careful not to name-call and stuck to facts. People were clapping and cheering and backing up every testimonial from whoever had the courage to come and speak up. The clerks contested the evidence and gave counter testimonials. Some workers also stepped up to support this view and attested that they have been paid fully for their work and there are no problems in the village. These testimonies were often booed. 

Singh finally got up and said, “I have listened to the workers complaints, and I now know that there are problems but I wish that somebody had told me earlier.” He promised with a sly smile that he would take action and ensure that wages are returned to workers and will secure employment for everyone. The meeting ended and the testimonials were submitted to the Mukhya, the media and to the district collector’s office. 

The next morning on visiting the village, where Kanchi lived and on finding him, he said, “Mukhya (panchayat leader Manoj Singh) had come by in his car that night and had threatened the people in the village for speaking out”. But Kanchi added, looking away, “he can’t do anything to me”. On asking him, “what do you think will happen”, he said we have been discussing that in the village, it is unclear what will change. 

But, he added, “in the last 10 years that this Mukhya is in power, I have never seen him s**t in his pants like this”. He gleefully added, “and it felt good”.

COMMONWEALTH GAMES - Wounded pride, or vanity?

If we lack the courage to be ashamed of the callousness with which our government treats its own people, we have no right to hope that a different India can be put on display when the world is watching.

It was hard to comprehend why our national media was displaying so much shock and outrage with banner headlines like Commonwealth Games, India's Shame as if something extraordinary had happened in India. Was it because they had earlier swallowed the pompous claims made by the Government that Delhi would host the most spectacular games ever, that the CWG preparations would transform it into a world class city and showcase India as an emerging global power, a top notch tourist destination? The media played along till such time as it became obvious that despite having spent thousands of crores, we had a disaster on our hands. 

Until a few months ago, many in the media made common cause with Sports Minister M S Gill and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, both of whom tirelessly sermonised us that all of us must put in their bit to make the Commonwealth games a success and celebrate it as a big festival, since making the event work well was a matter of "national honour and pride". The Art of Living guru was roped in to make a huge song and dance about mobilising citizens to pick up garbage in their respective neighborhoods and clean up the stinking filth choking banks of Yamuna - with the slogan Meri Dilli, Meri Shaan -(My Delhi, My Pride). 

History is replete with examples of how the most venal and corrupt among politicians tend to wrap themselves in the national flag in order to cover their misdeeds. If we were to do an honest cost-benefit analysis and audit, we would discover that for our politicians and bureaucrats every infrastructure project, every poverty alleviation program, every hydro electric project, every mining lease is mainly about loot of public resources. That is why no power project, no development or welfare program delivers more than a small fraction of what it promises. The Games were no different - their main purpose had been served. Money had reached safely in the accounts of those it was meant to. The rest was incidental. Those in charge of organising knew very well . Games ho gayein to thheek, nahin to na sahi! (If the Games take place fine, if not, so be it.). 

Ordinary citizens, however, were not surprised or shocked by collapsing bridges, roofs falling off, leaking stadia, filthy toilets, stagnant water pools for breeding mosquitoes around the Games Village because we knew that our Government would deliver its "best performance". What are the arts our politicians and bureaucrats 'best' at? Corruption, mismanagement, working at cross purposes to mess up whatever they undertake, shameless delays, callousness, and the ability to remain unruffled even when people are angry enough to want to publicly lynch them! 

 History is replete with examples of how the most venal and corrupt among politicians tend to wrap themselves in the national flag in order to cover their misdeeds. ( Workers get into a manhole to clean blocked sewage in Delhi, without even the most basic protective equipment.)









Why this phoney outrage at Lalit Bhanot brazenly admitting on TV that our sense of hygiene and sanitation is different from that of the First World or even Second World countries? It is evident anywhere you look. Even those of us who buy expensive properties in elite neighborhoods live surrounded by garbage piles, filthy and open sewage drains flowing in the middle of our colonies, broken down or non-existent footpaths and sewage water routinely getting mixed with drinking water supply because of rusty, leaky pipes. Our tolerance level for filth, squalor and disease is so magnanimous that far from matching First World standards, even in comparison to Third World countries, India qualifies as the dirtiest and filthiest in terms of its public hygiene.

Why were we ashamed at leaking roofs, shoddy construction and squalor around the Games village? All our ministerial buildings, government offices, government-built housing complexes are witness to the sarkari genius of creating slummy conditions even after spending crores. Think of the wretched flats we all queue up to buy from DDA. Why should DDA feel obliged to behave very differently for a two-week tamasha? 

National pride or bruised vanity?

The corruption and mismanagement of CWG had only recently and temporarily become a cause célèbre with the media and a section of the urban elite because they had developed delusions of grandeur and learned to mistake their own growing prosperity, wealth and clout with 'national progress.' They felt let down because their new found and fragile 'national pride' was being given a massive drubbing in front of foreigners, the only ones they wished to impress, but didn't really know how to. 

Their 'national pride' was not wounded when the jhuggis of lakhs of urban self-employed poor who provide us valuable services as masons, carpenters, rickshaw pullers, mechanics, road side barbers, cooks, maalis, cleaners, garbage pickers, tailors and a host of poorly paid craftsmen were demolished with vengeance in order to "beautify" Delhi for the Games. We dare not show the world the subhuman conditions in which the hard working poor of India are condemned to live. So better remove them from sight. This could happen only because the urban elite applaud every time slums are demolished and urban poor face clearance operations. 

Their 'national pride' was not wounded when lakhs of poor street vendors from whom we buy our vegetables, fruits and other daily necessities were hounded out of Delhi through brute police action just so that Delhi could look "world class". This despite the fact that the National Policy for Street Vendors adopted by the Central Cabinet way back in 2004 mandates that street vendors should not be evicted under the guise of beautification. Instead, hawking zones should be included in the city's rejuvenation plans. The modest gains made by Manushi in the last 15 years seeking policy reform for street vendors, including legalizing their status, went down the drain as we witnessed lakhs of vendors forced out of Delhi and their stalls razed to the ground, their goods confiscated through the most illegal means. The MCD and Delhi Police did not spare even those who had valid licenses. 

Their 'national pride' was not hurt to see the miserable conditions under which men, women and children who were brought in from impoverished villages to work for constructing the CWG infrastructure were forced to work and live. They too will be seen as unwanted nuisance and in all probability beaten out of Delhi once their purpose is served. 

Their 'national pride' was not hit when we saw the city government install view-cutter walls to hide from view large parts of Delhi, including middle and lower middle class neighborhoods, lest the delegates witness the dilapidated civic infrastructure and piles of garbage that characterize Indian cities, including the national capital. 

Their 'national pride' was not touched when large tracts of the Yamuna flood plains were illegally taken over by the powerful political mafia of Delhi to build the Games Village, in clear violation of environmental laws. The Delhi High Court had ruled that the construction of the Games Village on the flood plains of Yamuna was ecologically unsound and violated all possible environmental laws of the country. However, the kingpins behind the CWG bonanza bulldozed their way through and got a Supreme Court bench to give a go ahead.

The hoopla of 'national pride' and the jingoism surrounding the Games gave them a grand opportunity for a massive land grab operation by converting the flood plains of the Yamuna into prime real estate. They don.t care if the Games Village is ready in time for the sportspersons for whom it was ostensibly built. They are just waiting for end of October so that these flats can be sold for several crores each or gifted to their patrons. 

Nor was all this just about the CWG and Delhi. The 'national pride' of the urban elite is routinely unhurt when thousands of poor people and their children die every year from a host of easily preventable diseases like malaria, diarrhea and jaundice. All due to the appalling insanitary conditions prevailing in the country. We invoke national pride only when dengue threatens to mar the games because mosquitoes cannot tell the difference between Indians and foreigners. We squirm only when foreign governments issue advisories to their citizens warning them against health hazards in Delhi and recommend that they keep their mouths tightly sealed when taking a shower lest they swallow a couple of drops of polluted, disease ridden water supplied by our municipal agencies. 

Their 'national pride' remains intact despite our rivers, including those like the Ganga and the Yamuna believed to be sacred symbols of our ancient culture and civilization, are converted into filthy disgusting sewers with municipalities pouring all our domestic and industrial sewage into them. Our pride is hurt only when we realise belatedly that foreign participants will witness the filth-laden river, its banks overflowing with garbage providing a happy breeding ground for mosquitoes and other disease bugs. 

A few months ago, when the Sports Minister saw how much foul smell emanated from the Yamuna and how wretched it looked, he had suggested in all seriousness that the government should considering covering up the river in order to hide it from public view! 

 Glitzy signage touting the Games was actually a view cutter, shielding the eyes of tourists and athletes from the harsh reality of Delhi's jhuggis.

Safety and well-being

The Australian discus champion said it all when she said she has decided to withdraw her participation because the CWG represented a potential threat to her safety, health and well being. The bald truth is, our ruling establishment and governance machinery represent the most lethal threat to the collective well being, safety and health of all Indians. No wonder people are today seriously proposing that we outsource governance. It is time we asked ourselves:

• Can a country become tourism friendly if it is hostile to its own citizens?
• Can a country become a global power if its ruling elite and its governance machinery are at constant war with its own people?
• Can a country provide safety to foreign tourists if its own police have become the biggest threat to safety and well being of its own people?
• Can a country become world class if its government awakens to the need for basic civic amenities like usable motorable roads, footpaths and street lights only for impressing foreign visitors and that too only in those parts of the city which lead to select stadia?
• Can a country provide a safe and healthy environment for tourists if it does not do so for its own citizens?
• Can the municipal sweepers deliver world class cleanliness and hygiene at the Games Village if they have never been properly trained nor given the requisite equipment for routine cleaning of the City?
• Can a country be attractive to tourists if the Government needs to hide the living conditions of the vast majority of its people from international gaze?
• Can a country be tourism worthy, if its rivers are so foul that they deserve to be hidden from public view? 
  
  
  
   Instead of indulging in pious harangues against the publicly visible faces of this scam, the all important lesson to be learnt from the CWG disaster was that health, wellbeing and safety are indivisible. ( A child asleep at a squalid construction site, as office-goers walk by on the road.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  These Games were destined to be a disaster because its organisers invited upon themselves the curses of the lakhs of uprooted people who were hounded out of the city. The vengeance with which the rain god, Indra Dev, exposed the corruption and fraud in the CWG infrastructure indicated that the curses of the hapless victims of these Games had been heard by the powers above. 
  
  
  Instead of indulging in pious harangues against the publicly visible faces of this scam, the all important lesson to be learnt from the CWG disaster was that health, wellbeing and safety are indivisible. Those who think they can create islands of prosperity and safety for themselves or for videshi tourists better realise that mosquitoes and disease bugs cannot be kept out of our lives by building gated communities. Those who believe the 'image' of India can change without a marked improvement in the lived reality of its impoverished and brutalised citizens only end up making us a laughing stock of the world.
  
  
  Let us not confuse pride with vanity. Let us learn to be proud of the right things. That will happen only when we have the courage to be ashamed of the callousness with which our government treats its own people, and the imperial indifference of the social elites to the wretched plight of most Indians.