Game. Set. Match. Federer!

 The following article was written for MyInd Makers. Pasting it here for reference:

The Telugu headline in the image below, on the day Federer retired, traces its origin to lyrics of a composition of Shri Thyagaraja in the 18^th century.  It roughly translates to “Can we ever see such beauty/elegance...”. The rough translation does not render any justice to the elegance of how the original line is pronounced/delivered and the context with which it has been used for Federer 😊.

The closest any English headline came to describe what crores of people go through while watching Federer play came from the New York Times, way back in 2006.

That the followers of this religious experience continued to grow manifold for the next 16 years after the article was written is simply a testimony to how Roger Federer has been an integral part of the lives of countless millions of people in the world. If one were to be asked as to what specific aspect of Federer’s game and persona makes it a religious experience watching him play, I bet there will not be a singular answer for it.

Is it because he doesn’t overtly show his emotion during the course of the game? Or is it because he’s shown us that he’s afterall human, when he lost to Nadal in that dreadful 2009 Australian Open final? Is it the because only he could script one of the greatest comebacks in sport, when he won 3 slams in 2017 and 2018? Or is it something beyond just the winning and losing? Is it because of the shots that defied logic? Or is it because of THAT backhand? Is it because of the constants in his game – his stride, his serve, his innovation, his wife? Or is it just because Federer has been a constant for us at the highest level of the game for so many years?

A lot has been written about the 20 Grand Slams he won and the total 31 finals he has played. A lot has not been written about the 46 semi-finals and 58 Quarterfinals he has reached at the Grand Slams – an unparalleled record that may perhaps never be broken. From his 2004 victory at the Wimbledon till his Quarterfinal defeat at the 2013 French Open, Federer was the only constant up until the Quarterfinals (More often than not, up until the Semi-finals!).  To give you a better context, from the time he won his first Wimbledon in 2003, Federer has reached the top 8 of Grand Slam tournaments (most difficult ones in Tennis) a whopping 88% of the time; and top 4 a whopping 73% of the time; and the top 2 a whopping 50% of the time.

Have you ever wondered as to how it is even possible to maintain such remarkable consistency? His records at other tournaments and his record streak as the World number 1 are ofcourse yet another proof of his constant presence in the tennis top echelons. What kind of discipline, determination, and talent is needed to sustain so well for so long at the top of such a competitive sport? The story of Roger Federer as a religious experience lies in this remarkable consistency. And it is the story we should all perhaps imbibe – just be consistent at what you do.

The first of the big three (Federer, Nadal and Djokovic) has hung up his boots.  Nadal’s injuries don’t show us a rosy picture of how much more he will be able to compete. The retirement has left a void in how we will experience tennis from now on. Countless of us yearned to hold the racquet like him, stand in a receiving position like him, hit a forehand like him; and try THAT backhand to understand how he does it!

“Game. Set. Match. Federer” is now history. Thank you, Roger Federer!  

PS: I found this writing by SPORTSTAR to be very exquisite.

Why does KCR need Owaisi’s permission to celebrate 17th September as Telangana Liberation Day, the day the murderous Razakars were ousted

 The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:

In his avatar as an agitator and activist for a separate state of Telangana, KCR was very vocal about wanting to commemorate 17^th September as an official event of the state government. He wanted the government to call it as “Telangana Independence Day”. He thundered and (logically) questioned that if Maharashtra and Karnataka have been commemorating this event as independence days, why should the then AP government also not do it? He thundered – Afterall, the capital of the then Hyderabad state is Hyderabad city; large portion of the then Hyderabad state (that included current day Telangana, parts of Karnataka and Maharashtra) lies in the Telangana region now. He thundered - if necessary, I will bring down the (then) Congress government in the state if they don’t commemorate 17^th September. The method of delivery of this speech, the strong tone in the emotion with which KCR delivered his speeches on this topic made everyone believe that he will prioritize this event as soon as he comes to power.

Once KCR came to power in June 2014, everyone in the state waited for September 17^th of that year to remember the gory, ghastly and deadly events leading to September 1948. KCR didn’t do anything that year. When questioned about this in 2015, he went bombastic on those who asked him that question. He now thundered – “Someone wants to call this as “liberation day”. Someone wants to call this as an “integration day”. Whichever party wants to commemorate it in whichever manner, they can do so in their party offices. June 2^nd is when the state of Telangana is formed and we will celebrate that day in a grand manner.”

In September 2019, KCR stood up in the Assembly and thundered once again. “What difference does it make if we commemorate 17^th September or don’t? Will the country drown if we don’t commemorate?” He went on to repeat his 2015 statement on different people wanting to call this differently. And then he went on to explain that while he didn’t forget his original demand, it was only after he came to power in the year 2014 that he made aware of the various circumstances and incidents during that period. KCR told us that the 2–4-year period after the September 1948 was also a very dark period for Telangana, and therefore he decided that there is no point in raking up old happenings because everything in fine now. Yet again, the method of his delivery of this speech, the soothing tone with which KCR delivered this speech made everyone believe that this topic has now been laid to rest by him.

On September 3^rd, 2022 the Government of India announced that it will be officially commemorating September 17^th as Hyderabad Liberation Day. The Chief Ministers of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Telangana were also sent invites for the program. A few hours after this announcement came, the Telangana government announced that it will commemorating 17^th September as “National Integration Day” because it was the day on which the Telangana society entered into a democracy from an autocracy. From demanding a commemoration to dissing those who reminded him about to actually deciding to commemorate it – the circle was now completed by KCR!

While folks were trying to make sense of the latest U-turn by KCR, came a tweet from AIMIM President, Akbaruddin Owaisi, that cleared the confusion once and for all.  

Basically, Owaisi had to give his permission to the Telangana government to commemorate this day. And then he also boasted that it took the government only 1 hour to accept his “recommendation”. This very clearly demonstrates the hold the Owaisi family has on the government. All these years, it looks like KCR only waited for this permission from the MIM to fulfil his own demand! This was the same allegation that the BJP had been making for nearly 25 years – that the previous governments were not commemorating this day out of fear for what the MIM will think. The MIM’s nod is very necessary for even any development work to happen in the Old City of Hyderabad. The Owaisi brothers have themselves confirmed this on multiple occasions that it doesn’t matter which party the CM belongs to; they all will have to toe the line of MIM only. The Sr. Owaisi even claimed the steering of the car (referring to TRS’s symbol) is in MIM’s hand.

It will be pertinent to ask why MIM’s permission is needed to commemorate this event. Because the murderous Razakar “army” was nothing but a militant wing of the MIM party. There are 100s of untold stories of the murderous atrocities committed by the MIM-Razakar combination. After the Indian Army successfully completed Operation Polo, that liberated Hyderabad state from the tyranny of the Nizam, their leader Qasim Rizvi was arrested in 1948. He was released in 1956. Before migrating to Pakistan upon his release, he handed over the reigns of MIM to Abdul Wahed Owaisi. The current President of the AIMIM, Asaduddin Owaisi, is the grandson of Abdul Wahed Owaisi. The other grandson, Akbaruddin Owaisi has embodied well the original DNA of MIM (and is famous for his remarks that “If they are given 15 minutes, they will wipe out the 100 crore Hindus of the country”.)

It is now quite obvious that why MIM does not want us to remember the events that led to September 1948. It is also quite obvious from Owaisi’s letter to the Government of India that he wants to focus only on the Sunderlal Committee report that focussed on the situation in Hyderabad after the liberation was done. This selective reading and propagating of history are what the people have been continuously objecting to, from many years. With such a murderous history, how is it that the MIM party gets to decide what we the people should know and what we should not?

Why did KCR, who thundered when out of power, have to wait for a permission from MIM to commemorate the “journey from autocracy to democracy”? Why did it take an initiative from the Government of India for MIM to give permission to the Telangana government? These are important questions that will need to be discussed when talking about the importance of 17^th September. India’s Home Minister hoisted the flag on September 17^th, 1948. It took 74 years after that for India’s Home Minister to do the same. It is high time indeed that we know more about our history.

The legacy of CJI Ramana: Frequent preachy speeches and why it did not achieve what he wanted – bring Judiciary closer to the people

 The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:

Recently, Justice N.V.Ramana had retired as the Chief Justice of India after 16 months in tenure. The English media, that celebrated his multitude of preachy speeches during his tenure, was suddenly very unhappy with his tenure. Working in great tandem, all of them wrote articles (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)  repeating only one argument – that he resorted to “judicial evasion” by keeping 6 Constitutional cases pending during his tenure.

I was dismayed reading all these articles. Dismayed not because all of them highlighted the same point; but dismayed because they all were highlighting the least of his failures! CJI N.V. Ramana was definitely a vocal judge occupying the media space quite frequently. The reason he was in the news fairly regularly was because he gave speeches on various topics, almost every weekend. In his farewell speech, he mentions that this frequency was a conscious choice. Why? Because he wanted to bring the courts closer to the people.

Now, that’s a baffling argument to make. Why would mere speeches from the Chief Justice of India (that more often sounded like sermons to everyone in the society) bring the courts closer to the people? He is perhaps the only Judge on record to give a free sermon to almost every institution every section of the society in the country. Except, ofcourse, the Judiciary! Why would his views on how media should function bring courts closer to people? Why would his complaints on the executive and legislature bring courts closer to people? Why would his lament that people of our country cannot afford courts bring courts closer to people? Why would his opinion on investigative agencies like the CBI, bring courts closer to people?

You may now be tempted to ask – but what is it that brings Courts closer to the people? For starters, it will help if Courts start delivering judgments and documentation in regional languages. This is not my intellectual idea that I am flaunting here. According to our very own Justice N.V. Ramana – “I am receiving many representations for introducing local languages in proceedings before high courts”. The next obvious question is what has the mighty and powerful Chief Justice of India done about this? Nothing. As with almost everything, he has only offered his opinion and advice on this matter – “I think the time has come now to revisit the demand and take it to a logical conclusion.” What exactly does he mean by saying “revisit the demand”? If he received “many representations”, then why exactly couldn’t he do anything on this?  Doesn’t the CJI has enough powers to atleast make a beginning on this front? Aren’t you as baffled as I am?

In his farewell speech, he lamented that he could not solve the problem of listing of cases in the Supreme Court. Surely, another thing that can bring courts closer to people. It really begs the question – how can the mighty Chief Justice of India not solve things that he is fully empowered to do? If he is not able to solve matters right under his nose, then what right does it give him to sermonise everyone else in the society?

Do you know what else will bring courts closer to the people? “Modernisation of judicial infrastructure as a means for providing access to justice”. Again, not my intellectual idea. He said it. And do you want to know what he did to solve it? In his own words, he “pushed” for it. How did he “push” for it? By proposing a “National Judicial Infrastructure Authority”! In March 2021, the CJI has made a proposal to the GoI. In April 2022, this topic was discussed at the meeting of all the CMs and CJIs of the states and no consensus was reached.  The reference to infrastructure is very basic here – not enough complexes have separate toilets for ladies (only 74% of court complexes have them!). It really beats me – since 2014, nearly 5000 crores has been released by the GoI to the states for infrastructure related works. The state governments also release money for such infrastructure. Can we really not build separate toilets in our court complexes with this kind of money?

One of the important reasons why Courts aren’t perceived to be closer to people is the huge pendency of cases in the courts! And one of the important driving factors behind this pendency is the vacancies in Judiciary. It is here that Justice N.V. Ramana has definitely made a long-lasting impact on the Judiciary. The collegium headed by him was able to clear the appointment of 11 new SC judges and 224 new High Court Judges! These are excellent numbers and Justice N.V. Ramana must be complimented for working closely with the government to close these vacancies, atleast in the Supreme Courts and High Courts (he cannot do much about vacancies in the lower courts though, it’s a fact).

But then he also tells us – “I also tried to highlight the difference between the arrears and backlogs to put things in perspective.” Yes sir, for the lakhs of people waiting for their pending cases to close, explaining the difference between arrears and backlogs will come as a huge relief! The problem of Judicial vacancies is being monitored by the Supreme Court itself, since 2018, but we are yet to know of progress (or the lack of it) every since.

In his speeches meant to being the courts closer to the people, Justice N.V.Ramana has also focussed exclusively on defending the Judiciary and the ways it functions. He sought to lay the blame of delayed Justice itself at the doors of the executive and the legislature; he repeatedly told us how hard the life of a Judge is and how people don’t understand the sacrifices the Judges make in their family lives. Yes, the violent attacks on some Judges are a matter of concern that needs to be addressed.  But for the crores of people in our country, who make countless sacrifices in their lives, it really doesn’t prick their conscience that Judges also make certain sacrifices.

His lament on the disproportionately high costs of working with the courts is yet another thing on which nothing has been done.  The legal fees for continuous representation are so high that the undertrials languish in jails for months and years together. You find out that the Judiciary itself called this as a “crying shame on the judicial system”, way back in 1978! 

Justice N.V. Ramana hasn’t delivered all these speeches as an individual. He delivered them as the Chief Justice of India. His sermons on what needs to change in Judiciary can only become a reality when the Judiciary feels the exact pressure that our executive and legislative wings feel every 5 years. The Judiciary needs to adopt self-correcting measures on the same line that the executive and legislative wings have done over the years.

Popular uprisings, meaningful debates, social/mainstream media pressure, adaptability to change – these are some of the things that led to both the executive and legislature make far reaching changes in how they function. We don’t need verbose judgments or rhetorical speeches. We need speedier justice and if the learned Judiciary can’t do what it takes to ensure it, then it is just a matter of time before some of these things will make the Judiciary do it. Is the learned Judiciary really waiting for these to happen?

 

How ‘The Hindu’ co-opted Mikhail Gorbachev’s death to attack the Modi government and India

The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:

Mikhail Gorbachev passed away on August 30^th, 2022. Ever since, I was eagerly waiting for the Indian media to take this opportunity to criticise the Modi government. After 8 full days, The Hindu went a step further and utilised this opportunity to criticise the people of India themselves! Today (September 6^th), The Hindu published a staggering opinion article in their editorial page, titled “Gorbachev, Macro-economics, and Gandhi”.

I would like to draw your attention to the text in the sub-title below the headline. “Concepts of free trade, financial freedom, and privatisation are not the right solutions for India’s citizens”

I am sure you have re-read the line again to make sure what you are reading is actually what has been printed. For a moment, let’s put aside the acutely insulting, preachy and condescending tone of the author (and the editor who allowed this). Have you ever heard before that “financial freedom” is actually a bad thing? Why would someone not want their fellow citizens to have “financial freedom”? Why would someone object to the concept of “free trade” that will make fellow citizens prosperous and therefore financially independent?

The answers to these questions lay in the bio of the author, published at the end of the piece. The author, Arun Maria, was appointed as member of Planning Commission in the year 2009 (by Sonia Gandhi led UPA). The mind boggles at the quality of people who have been put in high positions by Sonia Gandhi’s party. Positions from which people like Arun Maria actually decide what is the “right solution for India’s citizens”.

Arun Maria also claims in this article that he was part of a group that went to Russia in 1989 to explain the “Indian model” to Gorbachev because he wanted that advise from Rajiv Gandhi. Not only does Arun Maria rue that the “Washington economics model” won over the “Indian Model” in Russia then, he is very dejected that “it also reached India’s shores in 1991.” Clearly, Arun Maria was prone to regressive thinking from a very long time.

Arun Maria jumps from topic to topic in his article and more often than not, the topics are all not even linked to the headline in the first place! We are told that there has been “shift in balance from democracy to capitalism in the last 30 years” in the world itself.  I believe we need some extra-terrestrial intelligence to decode this statement. He writes about how his definition of capitalism has wreaked havoc in the entire world today (remember the article was supposed to be about Gorbachev!); of how meaningful property rights have increased a divide in the world; and of how capitalism created, wait for it, climate change!

But what is Arun Maria’s solution for all these devastating problems that the world is currently undergoing? Apparently, it is “Gandhi’s ethical economics?

 

Intellectual fraudsters often think that using fancy terms such as these will cover up all the lofty and empty arguments that emanate from their pen. “Gandhi’s ethical economics” is one such term that no one has heard before and therefore no one will understand now. Arun Maria seeks to explain this term in the weirdest manner possible.

He tells us that “India’s policymakers seem obsessed with increasing the size of the economy.” I must say that I heaved a sigh of relief after this line, because now everything falls into place! The author had to somehow link India’s recent achievement of becoming the 5^th largest economy to a doomsday scenario. That he chose Gorbachev’s death to do this speaks volumes about the vacuousness in his cranium (I used cranium instead of brain to sound like an intellectual!).

We are told that “The shape of an economy matters more than its size for human well-being.” By now, I have given up on trying to decode what he meant to convey with phrases like “shape of an economy”. The article now predictably ends with a recommendation to follow “Mahatma Gandhi’s calculus”, whatever that means!

The author (and the editor) uses a lot of irrelevant data to make us feel that this is an intellectual piece. Once you separate the alleged intellectual chaff and realise what the undertone of this article is, you are bound to get very angry. Angry that they actually want Indians to remain poor; angry that they do not want Indians to prosper; Angry that such regressive thinkers were part of decision-making bodies in India; angry that they continue to propagate such regressive thinking, years after their leaders have been booted out of power by Indians.

Congress Party’s Attempts to Obfuscate Facts and Whitewash the Horrors of the Partition

 The following article was written for MyInd Makers. Posting it here for reference: 

On August 14th, 2022 the Communications in charge of the mighty Congress party, Jairam Ramesh went on a tweet spree. The topic he chose for that was the horrors of partition. However, as is the wont of the Congress party and its members, they chose this issue to yet again criticize the Modi government! Jairam Ramesh starts his thread by telling us that “Lakhs upon lakhs were dislocated and lost their lives. Their sacrifices must not be forgotten or disrespected.”

The first question that came to my mind when I read this tweet was what did the Congress party actually do to ensure “Their sacrifices must not be forgotten”? I know that our history textbooks don’t delve into any meaningful detail on the horrors of partition. I tried searching if the Congress party ever commemorated the event so that the sacrifices are remembered – a total of zero search results came up. I tried searching for articles, by Congress luminaries, that tells us in detail how “lakhs upon lakhs were dislocated and lost their lives”. A total of zero search results came up.

The Congress party and its whole media ecosystem are ever ready to capitalize even on the death of a single person in the country for their benefit, but they never thought it prudent to have voluminous material prepared for “the most traumatic historical events”?

Jairam Ramesh then goes on to emphatically claim that “The truth is Savarkar originated 2 nation theory and Jinnah went on to perfect it”.

You would really expect that Jairam Ramesh will come up with some solid proof of such an emphatic “truth”. He does nothing of that sort. I again searched for literature and material to see if there is any “truth” in this. Shashi Tharoor’s emphatic statement declaring so came up in the search results. A little more digging and the real truth were explained in detail in this fact-finding article here! So, it turns out that Jairam Ramesh was relying on Shashi Tharoor who was relying on a false thesis submitted somewhere in London! Does it really take a genius to understand the role of Mohammed Ali Jinnah in the murderous partition of India?

Jairam Ramesh is not happy with the damage he has done so far. He continues with his chatter.   

What exactly is Jairam Ramesh wanting to say here? That he and his party were actually contemplating that the entire Bengal is given away to Pakistan? That we wouldn’t even have had today’s West Bengal in India if it was not for Syama Prasad Mukherjee? If so, isn’t that one of the great things that Syama Prasad Mukherjee has accomplished? Is the Congress party really that sad that West Bengal stayed with India? Am even baffled as to how the media let go of this unbridled blabber by the Communications in charge of the mighty Congress party.

You would now expect that by now Jairam Ramesh found his marbles and will stop. He disappoints you here. He is not finished yet.  

He now equates the murderous partition of 1947 to the present-day situation. He emphatically claims that the INC will “uphold the legacy” of those “who were untiring in their efforts to unite the nation”. My mind immediately went back to the first tweet in this thread in which Jairam Ramesh claimed that the “sacrifices must not be forgotten or disrespected”. Just like how the Congress party did nothing to ensure the sacrifices are not forgotten, the Congress party will also make sure that they will do nothing to “uphold the legacy” of those they claim to represent!

It is really a shame that such a murderous event in the history of our country has been relegated to a mere footnote for nearly 70 years after it happened. Contrary to what it claims now, the Congress party put in every effort to make sure that the murderous event remained a footnote. And today when the Prime Minister of India wants the nation to know more about the horror that was unleashed on the country in 1947, the Congress party thinks this amounts to “disrespect”! The only thing disrespectful about this whole episode is the manner in which the Congress has sought to undermine the event and those who actually spearheaded it.