UK election-3

I am tempted to make a prediction; defying all polls I think conservatives will end up with a sound majority and the Labour will fare worse than any polls are able to predict. No body will be happier than me if I turn out be wrong. But my impartial guess is that there will be a Tory government in place on Friday and which will have only path to tread; down the hill all the way. The anti-incumbency sentiment has time and again proven to be a power when unleashed can sweep away the very remnants of the discredited governing parties and send them into oblivion. At the end I couldn't help adding this quote from the lead article in today's Independent "We also recognise that Labour's decision to pick up the banner of electoral reform has all the moral conviction of a sinner recanting on his deathbed." They had the mandate and majority for thirteen long years to make electoral system more representative but temptation of securing big majorities with less than a third of popular vote was too endearing to be given up.

UK election-2

The only thing clear thus far is that Labour will not be the governing party on Friday morning and most likely David Cameron will be heading either a minority government or at the most Tories might even manage to limp to the post with a thin majority. The loss of Labour being an inevitable reality that can only be stopped by something complete unforeseen, in short, nothing less than an unlikely miracle. However, should Labour win this election; that will only prolong their eventual political wilderness for a long unpredictable period. Anybody remembers James Callaghan, Michael Foot or Neil Kinnock. On the contrary a Tory victory at this juncture will be nothing short of an albatross around their neck as the issues facing new government are beyond any solution with a right scope of bringing down not only next government but many after that as well. Once imperial and largest colonial power, the country has the distinct claim to being the fountain head of democracy but not always the ideal and tolerant one. The current democratic scenario is left to the mercy of tabloids that know no limits when it comes to spreading rabid intolerance. The way all political parties bend on their knees to get nod from those very tabloids is a gauge of the depth of mediocrity into which the democracy has descended. The reactionary conservative media is master in muddling and mixing and distorting facts and issues; be it Europe or immigration. The reactionary press hailed conservatives will arrive at power with an ax to slash down public spending. George Grenville wanted colonies to pay for themselves. Hugh Brogan is wonderfully right when he said it is wrong to say people never learn from history but rather they are marvelous at learning all wrong things. How can one expect Tories to govern straight; they aligned themselves with fringe extremist parties in Europe. At the end it will serve conservatives right to run a government with deficit levels worse than that of Greece. May be Labour with Gordon Brown in the treasury caused it but it was simply pandering to the tabloid culture of the day which thrives on gossip and reckless spending and anything other would have earned them wrath of electorate much earlier. No matter how the Daily Telelgraph distorts the facts, the truth remains that Gordon Brown was the architect of the plan that saved world from last financial crisis. Nevertheless, end of capitalism wouldn't have signalled end of the world itself.  

Corruption and society

Legendary Indian corruption being what it is; it is way of life not just an aberration. Though many a times politicians are the easiest scapegoats for all the ills afflicting society including corruption but a mere scratch would very easily reveal it is not just politicians but one and all who are either directly corrupt or are corrupted due to their very condoning, conniving and ignoring corruption. There are corrupt officials and if officials are not corrupt their sub-ordinates are; if not sub-ordinates then it would be superiors and still worst are the demanding spouses whose pride level thrives proportionate to the level of forcefully induced corruption in their gullible bitter halves. Then there are tax evaders and their abettors and worst of all and who wouldn't stop at anything while filling their coffers are the corporate scoundrels for whom no profits are too high and no means are too mean; no lack of ethics is unethical; no greed is too greedy, thus, feeding and thriving on each other at the same time corroding the entire edifice. Those all forces of greed and corruption work in remarkable concert and tandem. It is hardly an exaggeration to make a statement that corruption permeates every strata of society and forebodes ominous portends.      

IPL fraud

Sometimes back I wrote that an extravagant phenomenon like IPL should have never happened. It smacked of nothing other than brazen display of wealth. It has been demeaning for the country, if that still meant anything, and more importantly it has been demeaning for the game of cricket itself. Despite changing formats cricket always retained an aura of sobriety, which has been recklessly trampled by allowing this debasing and meaningless circus to proceed and make mockery of everything fair associated with a noble game. And what is coming to light now, which anybody should with any sense of rightness have expected that the process itself has been nothing but a front for money laundering, accumulation of black money and letting underworld thugs to make hay. The brazenness with which it’s so-called chief executive went on challenging from one authority to another; be it government on election schedule or English Cricket Board on county cricket time-table; that, itself, should have caused concern and led to an appropriate and timely action. Leaving that aside the very process itself was another step down the road with bold proclamation of an era where everything can be and is being bulldozed by the affluent. If people or powers to be are still amazed at the growing Maoist movement they just need to sense the growing decadence manifested by the processes like IPL cricket and everything associated with it. The rural areas still lack drinking water; the residents of north-east are still under siege; Kashmir has still not been solved; the country lacks infra-structure for basic necessities; electric supply remains erratic and everything else is topped with ever increasing rampant corruption. Shyam Benegal didn't exaggerate when the lead character in his latest movie calls corrupt officials worse than terrorists. India doesn't need to fear secessionists demanding separation but the real fear comes from as Arundhati Roy said from the rich who have long time back seceded and insulated themselves in a stratosphere away from the concerns about the outcome of their deeds.

Perils of great power

All of a sudden there is a talk of growing threat of domestic violence in US with general hatred levels reaching unprecedented credenda. One of the biggest questions is against whom this hatred is directed or more appropriately one can ask what could be the cause of the hatred. The answer without mincing any words is Obama and reason is the frenzy created by the bigoted radio talk-show hosts like Rush Limbaugh and out of control hatred mongering Sarah Palin. And strangely none of the political leader with the exception of former President Jimmy Carter ever acknowledged the racial nature of the prevailing hatred. Democrats are sitting too complacent or too afraid to address the issue; Republicans are too gleeful to see their game being played all over again. So called tea-party activists have all overnight become Jeffersonian and started naively talking of grabbing power back from the federal government. This phenomenon has been shamelessly played by Republicans; whenever they lose power they arouse passions to frenzy and bring back the eras, which are better forgotten. In the last century, Republicans answer to Roosevelt's nation saving new deal and elevating the country to the status of super-power was paranoid McCarthyism that ended up destroying many lives. Lyndon Johnson's fair society was followed by Nixon Watergate. Republicans didn't have to do much to destroy Clinton presidency as he himself handed them a knife, which they used with a relish bordering on disgust. Fairly enough, no one sympathized with Clinton for wasting a talent that could have been used to spare the world from the hell and fraud perpetrated by his successor. Now suddenly Obama has everything that can go wrong in the eyes of conservatives and if one is to believe he is an outright socialist and plans to turn US into a communist country. One thought one would see naivety finally bottoming out but in the context of US it seems to be a bottomless creature. One can see the limits of presidential powers; with Democratic majority in the both house and senate he cannot even imagine to appoint a true liberal justice to the highest court. Jeffersonian activists cite bank bail outs and health care reform as examples of federal government going too far. Well that brings to the point where we started naivety knows no limits.

World-at large

So many things happening; Iceland volcano eruption causing air taffic chaos worse than ever seen since 9/11; Liberal-Democrats suddenly leading in the polls in UK and making Tories jittery; foot-in-mouth Shashi Tharoor finally gone; Polish president burried; Pope facing worst crisis; then there was Nazi-style legislation from Narender Modi government wisely rejected by the governor. Somehow I didn't feel like commenting on any of this.

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  Kuch to parhiye ke log kehte hain,
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  Aaj Ghalib ghazal sara na hua !!

UK election-part 1

UK will go to polls on May 6 and for the first time since 1974 outcome seems to be bordering on uncertainty. Predicted hung parliament is setting conservative media and the city into frenzy as if the end of the civilization is near. In many ways the country itself has been reduced to an anomaly. While almost all west European countries due to their rational proportional system of representation get coalition governments, the British system based on first past the post results in the disproportionate representation in the parliament and the parties tend to get inflated majorities without requirement for consensus building for government formation. And with time those brutish majorities tend to degenerate into decadence and resultant disjointed decisions. Any coalition government based on minimal consensus building would definitely have prevented Blair from plunging UK into a fraudulent war on Iraq. Coming back to the election on hand, it is likely Tories will end up in forming a new government and may even shine for an interim period before plunging into intra-party civil war on the singular issue of Europe. Barring the war on Iraq the Labour government, notwithstanding venomous reactionary conservative media, has on the record been thorough and effective in pushing an entirely new agenda in Britain and moved it away from inhumane Thatcherism. Nevertheless, the proverb 'power corrupts' has ad virtue of being true and so Labour needs to do some penance by languishing in opposition without falling into the trap of a class war.

Congress compares Narendra Modi with Dawood Ibrahim

Hell no congress has got down to the level where they are now insulting Dawood Ibrahim. Narender Modi is a criminal with a veneer of politician. Whereas Dawood Ibrahim never claimed himself anything but an underworld gangster. Debate on Modi is another indicator the overall decadence that has wrought society in totality. Industrials and film stars bend in all direction to curry favor of the person whose regime presided over worst killings and made minorities look hapless in their own homes. Some people might draw parallel with exodus of minorities from Kashmir. One wrong cannot be corrected with another wrong. Government of the day failed in Kashmir but the government in Gujrat under Modi brazenly perperated and participated in crime against humanity, for which not only he but entire the then NDA regime functionaries including Vajpayee are guilty. It doesn't take too long to remember infamous speech in Goa where Vajpayee defended Modi and thus effectively declaring himself complicit in criminality of Modi. One does not need not to even dwell on the role lesser lights of that infamous NDA regime like Advani and others, who never had any qualms about anything they did or spoke.    

Self righteousness and salvation

Self-righteous people thinking of salvation universally resolve to stay away from politics otherwise their attainment of whatever will be impeded no matter the dubious ways they might have tread in reaching that momentous point of becoming pure in life. Those cherishment and desires are extreme and utter examples of self-inflicted naivety and represent an extreme simplistic view point that do not take into account the basic fallibility and intrinsic inbuilt complexities of human character. It is hard to define and delineate a human being as pure. Though one can strive for achieving a perfect harmony but then one is again talking of self and that would be helpful if everybody would be living in a bubble but that definitely is not the case. At some level betterment of society has to come into fore for realization of a livable world. Actually now I am coming the main point. What surprises me is the equation of political leadership with criminality and opportunism. It didn't have to be like that nevertheless it did happen. The reason is not the criminals manning the politics but because the noble souls tried not to muddle themselves in a thankless profession and they rather tried to attain 'nirvana' for themselves. Imagine if Franklin Delano Roosevelt had judged against a career in politics, probably the world would be under Nazi domination. One doesn't need to imagine deep what it would been like if Churchill had thought same about politics. And what about Gandhi himself, he was not opportunist from any point of view. Unfortunately one would wish things would be simple but those are not and the reality is that there are far greater overlaps and many more colors in kaleidoscope that one could ever imagine that no political thinker or philosopher did, certainly nor did John Lennon.

US health reform and Indian emailers

It was one of the rare so called triumphs of good over bad when finally US congress voted for Obama's health reform. To say that the measure will redeem Obama presidency is an understatement. Much greater than mere redemption was at stake. The scene in the US congress or outside was anything but decent with outside protesters being instigated by soon to be losers Republican congressmen from inside. No abuse was spared to demean democrats and shamelessly racial slurs were freely used. Newt Gingrich even went to the extent of exhuming Lyndon Johnson, the last president to push through a far reaching reform. That was all in the news. I am just trying to remind the Indians who are never tired of slurring their politicians through emails, circulated from their cosy living rooms. For them enumerating criminal cases against parliamentarians seems to be a healthy sport. Did it ever occur to them that politics is a noble profession more than any other or at least it involves harder work than the corporate embezzlers can ever imagine?