The importance of Dubbaka, BJP’s win in the by-elections and how Raghunandan Rao achieved the impossible

 

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

While most people in the country were (obviously) interested in the results of the Bihar elections and probably Madhya Pradesh by-elections too, a very gripping story was building up in the bye-election results of the Dubbaka constituency in Telangana. The tension was increasing with every passing round. While BJP maintained a lead in the early rounds, the TRS picked up in the later rounds (even picking up a slender overall lead at end of round 19) but the BJP bounced back again, eventually winning the seat by – 1100 votes! 

Now, Dubbaka is an interesting Assembly constituency. Dubbaka’s neighbouring constituencies are Gajwel (represented by KCR), Siricilla (represented by KCR’s son, KTR) and Siddipet (represented by KCR’s powerful nephew, T. Harish Rao)! With such powerful neighbours, one would easily assume that the election will be a cakewalk for the TRS party! Congress is anyway a sinking boat. BJP lost deposit in Dubbaka constituency in the 2018 election. T. Harish Rao was made in charge for this election, and yet again people assumed that since Harish Rao doesn’t lose elections, this is a done deal for the party. 

Except that the BJP and people had different plans. BJP’s candidate in Dubbaka (in 2018 and now) is one of the most prominent faces of the party in the state – Raghunandan Rao. He is a spokesperson of the party; is the party’s face on most TV debates; is articulate; is aggressive enough to match the style of TRS; is a lawyer; has been in politics for a long time; is a native of Dubbaka and was with TRS since inception and joined BJP post-2014 because his growth in the party was being stunted by KCR and Harish Rao. Today, Raghunandan Rao is at the centre stage at what can very well be the most defining moment of the state BJP. 

In the 2018 Assembly elections in Telangana, the TRS party, led by KCR, won a whopping 88/119 seats. BJP had won just 1 seat and lost deposits in a whopping 106 seats! KCR was actually hoping to win 100 seats. So, within just 3 months, he had further inducted 12 Congress MLAs (out of 19 total) into the TRS bandwagon – thereby taking TRS’s number to 100! With friendly MIM having 7 seats, you can very well imagine the control KCR had on the Assembly.  

The first rude awakening came to KCR in the form of 2019 LS elections, because 1) His daughter lost her Lok Sabha seat (Nizamabad), and 2)  BJP also won the Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat – the home turf of his son KTR! A shock to the dynasty was something no pollster could remotely predict. Both the BJP and Congress won 4 seats each (out of a total of 17), but the BJP wins were also credited to the Modi wave of 2019.  

The BJP still didn’t have a strong voice in the Legislative Assembly. With the numbers you have seen above, you can now very well imagine how the Assembly sessions progress here. There is occasional friendly fire between MIM and TRS leaders; no one cares about what Congress MLAs speak; BJP’s lone MLA T. Raja Singh is no match when it comes to preparing deftly on various policy-related issues or catchy phrases to grab eyeballs/headlines; TRS and KCR get hours and hours of talking time on the basis of their strength in the house and equally large space in the media. 

In addition to continuing to focus on the delivery of many of PM Modi’s flagship schemes, the BJP needed faces and voices that were as aggressive yet articulate as KCR, KTR, Harish Rao etc. They found those faces and voices in leaders like the newly appointed BJP President, Karimnagar MP, Bandi Sanjay Kumar; another MP, D. Arvind (who beat KCR’s daughter) etc. In addition, the party at the national level gave the good position to a few OBC leaders, thereby extending their outreach. Whilst the building up of a new BJP was happening, the sitting TRS MLA of Dubbaka assembly constituency passed away, thereby necessitating a by-election. 

Raghunandan Rao hit the streets well before the party announced his name. His articulation helped him cash in on the rising resentment against KCR. Sensing the mood, TRS deployed their entire party machinery to fight Raghunandan Rao and the BJP. Some analysts even saw this as KCR’s ploy to control his nephew Harish Rao (a loss here would be Harish Rao’s responsibility. Remember – While the son and daughter lost their home turfs in 2019, TRS handsomely won the Medak LS seat for which Harish Rao was the in-charge). 

The new BJP also didn’t back off. They went equally aggressive in their campaigning. The state police raided the houses of Raghunandan Rao’s relatives (I, along with many, had wondered why KCR is resorting to such tactics. It is clear now!), lathi-charged the BJP state President, and KTR even alleged that the BJP is trying to foment communal disturbances (isn’t it cute how everyone falls back to this argument!). Nothing stopped the BJP’s aggressiveness – the cadre and leader alike took up this challenge and put in their sweat to beat the TRS. 

One cannot think of a better MLA than Raghunandan Rao to represent the BJP in the Assembly. His articulation would certainly amp up the debate quotient in the Assembly (today, it’s a one-way street in the Assembly). This is the BJP that the Modi-Shah combination wants to nurture across the country. The 2018 state unit wasn’t up to the mark for this. The new BJP has realised what many other state units are doing and has begun to put in the hard work. Dubbaka victory is undoubtedly one of the greatest first steps towards further growth. The party now has an uphill task ahead to live up to this expectation and emulate this across various areas of the state. Exciting times lie ahead for the state’s political scenarios! 

Solutions for judicial reform are in plain sight, why can’t our Judiciary see it?

 

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

My original intention of writing this article was to list down some thoughts and salient points that I think are the key for reforms in the Judiciary. As I was jotting them down, they sounded very common sense-like to me. I began to think – is it really possible that the learned judiciary is not aware of such small things? I then thought, let’s google and see what reports have to say about these. Turns out that for 40 years, there are multiple reports prepared by different committees; multiple articles in the media by many learned folks and many generic reports filed by today’s media; and speeches by the learned Judges themselves!

Recently, Shri Kanchan Gupta reminded us about the whopping number of nearly 4 crore backlog cases in our courts. Amidst such a severe backlog, I couldn’t help but wonder why the likes of Prashant Bhushan get such a free hand in ruining the court’s time over his frivolous ego?

I thought I will write a brilliant suggestion to the Judiciary advising them to increase the number of Judges in our country. Only to find out that there are nearly 400 existing positions of Judges that are lying vacant just in our High Courts. How is it possible in a country like ours that we have so many vacant posts for Judges? Is it really that difficult for our learned judiciary to find just a few people to fill up the most critical posts of the judicial systems – the Judges? Doesn’t it baffle your mind that in a country as large as ours, we have only 34 SC Judges and of that, at any given point of time ~10% of them lie vacant? Feel very free to extrapolate this number to the lowest court of the country (As of 2018, 5000 are vacant!) and then you will know that baffling is a small word to use for this situation.

You think about under-trials and their plight. The legal fees for continuous representation are so high that the undertrials languish in jails for months and years together. And then you realise that the learned Judiciary hasn’t even applied any thought to their plight. Each time, the case comes up for hearing, the default option is to give a new date. The default option is that the under-trial stays in jail till the new date. And the story repeats for every new date. How is it that the learned Judiciary can’t put additional burden on the executive, instead of the prisoner. Why can’t the default option after 2 extensions be bail for the under-trial prisoner? Especially when the Judiciary itself called this as a “crying shame on the judicial system”, way back in 1978!

You may come back with – oh, do you want murderers to roam free on the street? Of course not! Even in criminal cases, why can’t the learned Judiciary have a clear discrimination in violent and non-violent crimes? Why can’t the Judiciary enforce stricter timelines for filing of charge sheets; enforce severe penalties on the case officers; enforce severe penalties on Judges who take a lenient view of repeated delays by the executive? Doesn’t it baffle your mind how our learned Judiciary is simply oblivious to implementing these basic suggestions?

Sometimes, for better optics, courts come up with a dramatic judgment. For example - Cases against elected representatives will be heard daily. Do we have a single example of a case getting disposed of within a month because of hearings daily? First of all, you will find it extremely difficult to even get a list of cases that are being heard daily for this elite group of individuals! There is a CBI Court in Hyderabad that is hearing cases against AP CM Jagan Mohan Reddy, every Friday since the past 8-10 years. And yet the cases linger on. Imagine the plight of a lesser mortal who doesn’t have the wherewithal to fund his bail hearing once a quarter?

The problem of the 5-star lawyers eating up Supreme Court’s time to satisfy their egos is miniscule compared to the humungous delays caused at the lower rung. There are no 5-star lawyers who waste court’s time at the lower rung. There are many studies that already exist about the procedural wrangling’s that cause these delays and solutions for the same. Our citizens are woefully under-informed of their legal rights in case they fall into trouble with the system; and are woefully powerless to fight the corrupt people of this very system. We definitely deserve a better awareness of our legal rights.

What really is needed is that the Judiciary needs to feel the pressure, just like our executive and legislative wings feel at times. What really is needed is for Judiciary to adopt self-correcting measures on the same line that the executive and legislative wings have done over the years. What really is needed is for Judiciary to learn from how the executive and legislative wings have enforced change from within.

Popular uprisings, meaningful debates, social and 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’s 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?

The genius of S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and how he simplified the complexities of music and lyrics

 

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

I think it was the year 1997. S.P.Balasubramanyam was the host of the very popular Telugu music reality show on ETV – Paduta Teeyaga. The final of that year was telecast for about 3 hours. True legends of the cinema world were the judges. And in the midst of this, another legend, Saluri Rajeshwara Rao was wheeled onto the stage and we could see a lot of emotion on the stage. And then of course the entire 3 hours was a treat to ears not just because of the music but because of the dialogue around the music. And then my aunt called up my mom to discuss about how beautiful the entire program was. I never knew they had interest in music, let alone discuss about a program on music!

And that to me, is SPB’s biggest contribution to the telugu people. Because that is the story of almost every household in the Telugu states. How SPB used the medium of TV to simplify music and connect with people is simply legendary. His shows were always a treat to watch, because he made us connect to the music. Suddenly we have all of us talking about ragam, thalam etc. We have dining room discussions and jokes on voice, variations and modulations! SPB bought music close to hearts and homes like no one ever did. He anchored this program for nearly two decades and never once fell into the trap of “reality TV shows” where drama precedes everything else. No one else could have done what he did and how he did it.

And not just music, SPB's focus on language and its intricacies during his music programs is also equally legendary. His simplified explanation of complicated lyrics is an art in itself. No one else could have done what he did and how he did it. Is it even possible to put in words, the impact SPB had on crores of people?

We have to also remember that SPB was not just a singer. He was a genius. Not just because he acted in movies, composed music, produced movies and even danced with Prabhu Deva in a movie! But because he sang more than 40,000 songs in more than 15 languages of India, without once failing to understand the nuances of the language he was singing in. It’s one thing for us to understand multiple languages. It’s a whole different level to learn the language to the extent of the listener thinking that the singer is a native of that language! Imagine knowing so many languages, thinking in that language while singing the songs and then switching to do the same thing in another language, back-to-back!

You feel happy, there is an SPB song that you always preferred to listen. You feel sad, there is an SPB song that you always preferred to listen. You feel devotional, his rendition is right there. You want a lullaby, the song is right there. You want intricacy, the song is right there. You want peppy, it’s there. You name the emotion, there is his song available right there. There is a best SPB song in every emotion that we can think of!

SPB is that rare genius who has truly enriched our lives. He bought music into our homes and hearts. As someone mentioned on social media, Rest in Melody SPB garu. Rest in Melody.

A Rebuttal to Chetan Bhagat's Illogical Outburst on the Indian Economy

 

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

If you write an article criticizing the Narendra Modi government, it is natural and obvious that people like Shashi Tharoor will like the article, tweet about it and write some nice words about it. It was therefore surprising that someone like Chetan Bhagat was over the moon that “the Shashi Tharoor” liked his article!

It has been a long time since I read any article of Chetan Bhagat, so I thought maybe this is overdue and proceeded to read his article that was pompously titled “The youth need to shut their phones and ask about the economy”.

It’s actually difficult to take any article seriously that starts with saying that demonetization has “derailed India’s economic growth momentum for years.” For a man of Chetan Bhagat’s stature, one would expect that some statistics are presented to explain this (or any) case, but he doesn’t. The entire article follows this path – make lofty and hefty statements without the backing of a single statistic. It is therefore no wonder that the likes of Shashi Tharoor loved this article.

For example, by the end of 2017, One year after demonetization, India’s quarterly GDP growth rate was at 8.2%, nearly close to what it was the quarter before demonetization. How then would intellectuals like Chetan Bhagat and Rahul Gandhi continue to blame demonetization for reduction in growth in late 2018?

It’s further difficult to take any article seriously if it proudly mentions the economic stimulus package of the USA but doesn’t even squeak about the massive 21 lakh crore package announced by the Prime Minister of India. Because it is in this same article that the author derides Indians by telling us that “We, the Indians, are desperate to feel validated that we are good enough.” I don’t know about the “desperation” of fellow Indians, but it sure looks like the author is desperate enough to feel so good about what the USA did and ignore what our country has done.

Chetan Bhagat sermonizes that “The first step is to acknowledge the problem.” Oh, where would we have been without such a massive piece of advice? A package of INR 21-lakh crore to revive the economy was announced without acknowledging the problem? Nearly INR 70,000 crore was given to 42 crore citizens of our country as part of the “Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package” – this was planned and distributed without acknowledging that there was a problem? I can cite more statistics that shows the acknowledgement of the problem but there are more points from the original article that I wish to discuss further!

The latest fad on social media is to deride the lockdown. Chetan Bhagat merely follows this trend, yet again without the backing of a single statistic. While citizens have understood the need for a lockdown early, intellectuals still don’t seem to get a handle around why an early lockdown actually helped India. Citing today’s high number of cases, without a proper context, is the forte of these intellectuals. If we didn’t have a lockdown, our doubling rate would have been worse. Doomsday predictions in March indicated that we will have 3 crore cases by July. I am willing to bet that this same Chetan Bhagat and Shashi Tharoor would have been on the forefront writing articles about how Modi was not brave enough to impose a lockdown in our country to prevent the COVID impact!

I continued to read the article to see if it gets any serious. And then I read this suggestion – “Open the economy up. Like really.” What does this even mean? Why couldn’t he give one, just one concrete example of what he thinks the government should do to “open the economy up”? Who writes likes? Like really!

And then comes to killer paragraph – “At an immediate level, the government needs to give a real fiscal stimulus. As a poor nation, we can’t have a big stimulus. But whatever it is, it has to be a real one, not just numbers that grab headlines.”

“Real fiscal stimulus”, “has to be a real one” – am now trying to understand Chetan Bhagat’s obsession with the word “real”! What does he mean by all these sentences? He couldn’t find time to give a single useful concrete suggestion on what a “real one” should look like? Does he want money into the pockets of the poor? Because that is being done already. Does he want loans to be given at low or no interests for small vendors to setup/revive business? Because that is being done already. You can read the article 100 times, but you will not get a clue on what the “real one” is!

So, what exactly does he want? He wants this – “The youth needs to shut that phone and rise.” Is your head spinning? It will spin further when you read the “real one” – “They need to keep asking questions — why isn’t there more growth?”

Chetan Bhagat tells us that the youth doesn’t care and are stuck doing silly things on their phone and for our economy to rise, the youth have to focus on their dreams and make money and shut down their phone! After reading the article, I am bamboozled as to who he is criticizing – the government of India or the youth of India?

No one is saying that a -23% drastic fall is something to ignore. But one needs to be really myopic not to see the acknowledgement of the problem all around – by the youth and by the government. Follow the right people to know the real demands of the various industries that are still suffering and how the package can be enhanced. Read the right publications to understand the nature of demands being made and how they are being fulfilled. And then perhaps you will see how your article falls short of logic and reason.

Chetan Bhagat may deride the belief of Hindus in his article (yep, he managed to write about Hindus, youth, economy and phones in the same article!), but you aren’t seeing straight if you cannot see the plain simple fact that Corona virus is not the act of this government and a tough decision had to be taken to arrest the spread of a dangerous virus, at the cost of temporary hit to the economy.

I have one final observation. If the youth shut their phones down, many youths associated with the phones industry will lose their jobs. Does Chetan Bhagat want to revive economy by losing jobs? Dear Chetan Bhagat, if you find this logic laughable, then that’s exactly how I found your article to be!

It’s time to stop blaming Arnab Goswami and analyse how the pioneers of TV media have contributed to this fall

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

The current obsession of the English and Hindi TV media is the Sushant Singh Rajput case. Thousands and thousands of hours’ worth of content has been aired over the past couple of months.  Reams and reams of content has been written on how a massive waste of time these thousands and thousands of hours’ have been!

And most of this written content has one underlying theme – It is Arnab Goswami who is responsible for the fall of the English TV media! With Arnab now overtaking Aaj Tak to become the most watched Hindi news channels too, the attacks have only sharpened and increased.

My mind immediately went back to something I wrote way back in 2012. Past few years, we have seen many memes that make jokes on how there ~10 panelists on the TV screen shouting over each other. More often that not, meme makers have focused on Arnab’s shows only. Well, here is a snapshot from the year 2011.

The snapshot is from then Sagarika Ghose’s show – “Face the nation”. 8 people debating the Lokpal bill, and the debate ends in 20 minutes! The anchor isn’t in the picture so that actually makes it 9 people debating the Lokpal bill for a whopping 20 minutes. The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha discussed this bill for about 12-13 hours each! Make as many memes as you want; make as many jokes as you want – but it wasn’t Arnab who pioneered the art of filling up your TV screens with multiple people. That fault lies elsewhere!

We all have just seen how an anchor was chided for asking a panelist to focus on the topic (Sushant Singh) and not diver the topic (towards the GDP). Examples galore can be cited on non-serious issues that have been aired by the media. So, what is the answer to the question on why aren’t serious debated on prime time? For today, we go back all way to the year 2009.

In May 2009, in an online chat, I asked Dr. Prannoy Roy: “What do you think the media has learned from this election?". 

His full reply is in the snapshot below. The relevant line from his answer is this – “serious issues like hunger or unemployment do not come into focus because these are hard to sensationalise.“

Figure 2: Snapshot of an online chat with Dr. Prannoy Roy in the year 2009

Back in 2009, Dr. Prannoy Roy was one of the most powerful media owners (perhaps the most powerful too!). NDTV was at their peak and was often the go-to channel for thousands of viewers. Some surveys even indicated that they had 60% market share. NDTV’s anchors were involved in cabinet berth negotiations. And the words of the then most powerful media organization - “hunger or unemployment are hard to sensationalise”.

Also, don’t miss this in his answer - "So media needs to learn to focus on real issues during campaigning". And this was the year 2009. I don’t have to tell you, the smart viewer, how absolutely nothing changed from the year 2009. It only got worse with every passing year. So, make as many memes as you want; make as many jokes as you want – but it wasn’t Arnab who pioneered the art of filling up your TV screens with multiple people. That fault lies elsewhere!

When Obama came to India in 2010, another sermonizer Bhupendra Chaubey gave us a very critical piece of news that redefined the political paradigm of our country – “Gursharan kaur and sonia gandhi were wearing a similar colour saree, a sort of red colour”.  

In February 2012, the media conducted day long debates on a Supreme Court Judgment. The biggest sermonizer of them all, Rajdeep Sardesai was at the forefront of conducting the debates the whole day. And he tweets late into the night that “Reading SC judgement on way back from office.” And when questioned how he conducted debates the entire day without even reading the judgment, he replies “read the main points in the day. now reading the fine print. devil often in the detail!”

 

Who amongst us can forget how Sagarika Ghose faked an entire interview with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in the year 2011? Who amongst us can forget how she first tried to brazen it out and later issued a small apology on TV? What can be worse than faking an interview? What can be more damaging than cheating your viewers?

There is no dearth of many such examples (dearth of coverage of important debates in Parliament, linking the sterling and pioneering discovery of Higgs Boson to Internet Hindus, falsely accusing people of murder etc). Prannoy Roy, Rajdeep Sardesai, Sagarika Ghose, Barkha Dutt – these were popular names during the times of the rise of the reach of English TV media. These were powerful names with clout in the corridors of power. At the peak of their power, each one of them have sermonized on what ails the very same media they are pioneers of!

Journalism needs to rediscover its soul – Rajdeep Sardesai (2012). Rajdeep was disillusioned with journalism when he was owned a powerful media channel in 2012. After 2012, Rajdeep has gone on to get violent on the streets, conducted extremely ill-prepared interviews with senior politicians, announced death of a former President of India while he was alive, got called out by many interviewees for his boorish nature and yet survives in the industry!

I don’t watch English news anymore. Infact, haven’t watched any channel since many years. I am not a fan of loud debates. I am not a fan of Arnab Goswami, just like I am no more a fan of Rajdeep and Prannoy. I have written against their style of coverage extensively, even rejecting an invite for a “debate” on NDTV back in 2012!

The chicanery, lies, agenda and incompetence of some big names in the TV media have been first exposed by ordinary people. They continue to be on the forefront to do so. So, make as many memes as you want; make as many jokes as you want – but it isn’t Arnab who is responsible for the situation in the TV media. Those who pioneered this fall must stop faking their concern and also stop sermonizing us. Because facts speak otherwise!

Team Rahul, Team Sonia, Team Congress (if it exists) Need a Fresh Infusion of Common Sense

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

About a year back, we have had the bizarre spectacle of Rahul Gandhi resigning as the Congress President and his mother taking over as interim President until a permanent President is selected (meaning until Rahul Gandhi is ready to come back again). Some die-hard fans of the dynasty hoped that mother and son will soon fix this issue. More than an year since that charade we now have leaks being published on familiar channels that Team Sonia is upset with Team Rahul; Team Rahul is upset with Team Sonia; and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is also upset in general but has chosen to remain silent (as always)!

It bamboozles me as to how common sense can elude the mighty Congress party. And then I realised that it is because of faithful courtiers like The Hindu. Just 2 days back, this was their Op-Ed – “The limits of Rahul as a Gandhi”. This article is not a detailed rebuttal to the atrocious piece in The Hindu. Atrocious because it blames the voter for not recognizing the awesomeness of Rahul Gandhi. What else explains questions like “If Mr. Gandhi is unreliable because he is untested, has Mr. Modi passed the test of governance?”. It requires some special kind of talent to even remotely think that Rahul Gandhi is an untested leader. If this is the kind of feedback that Rahul Gandhi is getting and cares to read, then it is little wonder that the Congress party is where it is right now.

The false bravado that the sibling combo of Rahul-Priyanka exhibit is very amusing. More leaks to the English media have told us that Rahul has told the CWC that he is not afraid of Modi. What good does this belligerence do? Has anyone from his party approached him saying that they are afraid of Modi? If his own party members are suggesting that he recalibrate his language and approach, why does he jump into this filmy hero avatar and blurt out irrelevant dialogues like these? Why is it so difficult for the nasty dynasty to accept feedback and make changes to strategy, communication and approach?

The continued parroting of the same questions despite getting detailed answers, is simply put, very exhausting to listen to. Rahul Gandhi made personal attacks on Prime Minister Modi, all along his first term. He went vicious on topics like Doklam and Rafale. Every possible institution in the country upheld the decision taken by the Modi government on Rafale. Every single tantrum that Rahul Gandhi threw on Rafale was answered in great detail in Parliament, in Supreme Court and in the public court. Yet, when Rafale jets are delivered in 2020, Rahul Gandhi yet again repeats the same questions. He is now employing the same playbook with the China crisis. Every possible institution has confirmed that we haven’t lost any territory, yet Rahul Gandhi continues to assert that India has lost territory!

The fresh strategy of conducting juvenile interviews and releasing video “analysis” will put even non-students of political science to shame. From heavily editing his interaction with people whom crores of Indians haven’t even heard of to the zero-content in his video “analysis” of why China is behaving the way it is – it is harrowing to see and listen to the meaningless rants. And then we have India Today fudge the viewership numbers of these juvenile videos and tell us that crores and crores have watched these videos, thereby implying Rahul Gandhi is back! Every time I am bamboozled by how common sense can elude the Congress party; I have to look no further than faithful courtiers like India Today.

The party president Sonia Gandhi wrote to Prime Minister suggesting five things that have to be done to overcome the Chinese COVID crisis. Her first suggestion to combat the deadly crisis was to “stop all advertisements to media”. And none of these faithful courtiers could even murmur against a move that will herald them into a crisis. The top leadership of the Congress party woefully fell short of doing simple things like talking to the cadre of the party, in these distressing times. Leaders of almost all parties have had regular interactions with their cadre over video conferencing, but the nasty dynasty found it beneath their dignity to interact with their cadre!

It’s not as if the Congress party doesn’t have leaders who are connected to the roots. It’s not as if the party doesn’t have leaders who can win them elections. It’s not as if the party cannot groom these leaders further. The party cannot play the game of musical chairs with only three participants from the same house and expect to be revived. The earth-shattering defiance of common sense by the nasty dynasty is what is impeding the Congress party now. If such basic common sense eludes Team Congress (if it exists), why blame the voter for rejecting them time and again?

Like Sonia Gandhi, Brinda Karat Also Ends Up in Praising Prime Minister Modi

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

The Hindu remains the only publication where the voices of the leftover leaders of the Communist parties are provided space for writing something. Today, it is Brinda Karat’s turn. Today’s article is titled “Utilise MGNREGA to the fullest capacity” and the byline for this article is “The scheme should not be diluted in the name of the Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan”

This sounded eerily familiar to Sonia Gandhi’s recent outburst that the Prime Minister is “diluting” MNREGA by linking it programs that build houses and create Swachh Bharat infrastructure. Sonia Gandhi ended up praising Narendra Modi in her article. Brinda Karat dutifully follows suit!

Brinda Karat first mentions that the “number of households who got work in April 2020 was the lowest in several years at 95 lakhs”. Duh! I mean, there was complete lockdown till about the 20th of April. Relaxations were introduced only a couple of days later, which obviously means that April 2020 will have the lowest workers “in several years”! Does Brinda Karat mean that even during the complete lockdown, governments should have risked bringing out people to work under MGNREGA? So that then she can write how COVID increased because of allowing these people to work?

After presenting us with the most obvious statistic, she goes on to praise the Modi government. Don’t believe me? Read for yourself what she writes next. “ ..in May the number went up to 3.05 crore. Till the third week of June, 2.84 crore households had got work, much higher when compared to the same months last year”. 

Do you see that folks? In May and June, according to the icon of the Communist party, the Narendra Modi government provided employment to nearly 3 crore households that is “much higher than last year”! This is in fact awesome, right? Surely, am not the only one confused whether or not Brinda Karat is praising Modi, right? Now, the confusion compounds upon further reading.

She tells us that the center released INR 38,000 crores so far and 70% of this has been utilized. In the same paragraph, she also tells us that “The remaining Rs. 8,000 crore fund available to the States is clearly insufficient.” If 8000 crores are remaining, an obvious conclusion is that 30,000 crores out of the 38,000 crores have been utilized. That is a whopping 79% and not 70% as Brinda Karat happily mentions. It beats me what exactly do they want to achieve with fudging numbers that are so basic. Did they really think readers cannot make these basic calculations and arrive at more logical conclusions? Despite 8000 crores available, Brinda Karat says the amount released is insufficient and centre should immediately release more money! Available funds are not spent but there is a demand for more funds - Have you ever heard of a logic like this? Why don’t logic and communists go together?

So, what do we know by now? Crores of households provided record employment; INR30,000 crores already disbursed. With this background, what is the next section titled? Believe it or not – it is titled “Work provided to few”

The mind boggles at these interpretation skills. We are not told that in this fiscal year, 8.07 crore people demanded work and 6.25 crore workers were given work. These are numbers provided by Brinda Karat herself! 6.25 crore people provided work in just 3 months and yet, in her view “it is extremely disturbing that as many as 1.82 crore workers who demanded work were turned back.” Does the law mandate that everyone who demands work actually gets the work? There obviously would be some eligibility criteria, right? Instead of doing homework on this front, Brinda Karat makes a desperate attempt to whip up some controversy when there is none!

Brinda Karat now has a problem with the new scheme – “PM Garib Kalyan Rozgar Yojana”. Why? Because it is a new scheme that is aimed at providing employment to the migrants. How can someone have a problem with this? Because she says MGNREGA should have been modified to accommodate these migrants instead of turning them away and introducing a new scheme. I am not sure whether to laugh or cry at this abject loss of logic from the pen of the communist icon.

And then she asks why the new scheme is implemented only in 116 districts across the country. It is time to remind her that the MNREGA was first introduced in 2006-2007, it was implemented in 200 select districts. It took 2 years to implement this across the country. And Brinda Karat was very much part of the ruling coalition that implemented this. Did we see articles from anyone asking why only 200?

Brinda Karat herself answers the question – “The scheme is primarily meant for migrant workers in those districts where their numbers are 25,000 or more.” She goes on to invent more convoluted arguments on how this will exclude women also. The summary of multiple paragraphs she writes on this topic is this – this scheme should have been part of MGNREGA, because MGNREGA is being implemented by Modi in the best possible way ever!

She concludes by saying the law must be modified to now include every member of household (as opposed to one member), increase number of days from 100 to 200 and give allowance to everyone who is “turned away from work”. Sure, why not! Writing utopian ideas is the easiest thing to do. Working towards making them a reality is the hardest things to do. The communists choose the easiest path. Always.

Rajiv Gandhi Foundation: Rahul Gandhi must explain why RGF has so much money but no impact via these 8 dud projects

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

Shocking revelations over the past couple of days have shown us that over the past many years, the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) had continuously received funds the Prime Ministers National Relief Fund (PMNRF); from various governments from around the world ranging from China to Ireland to Luxemburg; from various central ministries; from industries ranging from Reliance to TVS to GVK; from banks ranging from SBI to Standard Chartered; from private individuals; from private trusts; and what not!  

With such a humungous network and funding, I was very interested to check out the work that the RGF had done over all these years. Their website has a lot of verbose and little numbers. Since I don’t want you to go through the yawning verbose, allow me to walk you through their projects, timelines and numbers. 

Program 1: INTERACT Scholarships

The aim of the program is to provide scholarships for children affected by violent conflict in various part of our country. The claim is that since the year 1993, across 11 states and 2 UTs, a total of 2,115 children were provided scholarship at their school level & 134 of these pursued higher education and vocational courses. With all the donors at their disposal, the RGF thought it fit to support 80 students a year, starting in the year 1993! 

Program 2: Rajiv Gandhi Access to Opportunities Program

The aim of the program is to “Award specially designed vehicles” for the physically challenged young people. The claim is that since the year 1992, across 25 states and 5UTs, 2900 such vehicles were awarded. That’s about 100 per year. With all the donors at their disposal, the RGF thought it fit to award ~100 vehicles a year, starting in the year 1992!

Program 3: Rajiv Gandhi Cambridge Scholarship (ha!)

Through this program, they collaborated with another trust (oh the maze!) – Cambridge Commonwealth Trust. What did they do since 1994? The sponsored tickets (fancy name – “travelling scholarships”) to 140 students of UK universities to visit India! And then they funded 60 Indian students to pursue a 2nd degree in B.A (Honors). And since 2014: they provided full scholarships for 6 PhD students who got selected from India to Cambridge. You would think that’s awesome. The catch is that this cost is shared by three different trusts! There are no details available on how the cost has been split. 

Program 4: Natural Resource Management

According to their website, this was established in 2001. And then they immediately jump to what they did in the year 2011. So that should only mean that this program did nothing till 2011 (Yes, 10 full years! I wonder how the donors feel about that). They then decide to be 1 of the 3 donors of “Gram Gaurav Sansthan” NGO working on the Rajasthan-Madhya Pradesh border. Their site claims that 1760 families have been impacted. But they give no clarity if this is the NGOs overall impact or just the families impacted by RGF’s funding alone.  

Program 5: Heritage – Archives & Gallery

The purpose is to maintain “Archives on Shri Rajiv Gandhi’s life and work.” All his photos, videos, speeches have been archived. No one has any problem if they did this on their own dime. Instead, they get government money to do what is essentially a family project!

Program 6: Schools program

Click on their link that reads “Schools program” and you get “Coming soon”!

Program 7: Wonderoom

This is a library-cum-activity centre in Jawahar Bhavan, Delhi. They claim that they have over 6000 books for children to read. Their FB page shows activities facilitated by this program and claim that over 400 children and parents attend these programs. The only meaningful statistic in this is the 6000 books in the library! 

Program 8: Relief and Rehabilitation

The confusion created in this page is mind-boggling. There is no proper timeline or details of relief efforts carried out. There are details of some disasters that have rocked India since 1991. After all this, we are told that 5000 families have received help. And that free medicines have been provided to 9000 patients. Oh, and 1200 blankets also. With all the donors at their disposal, the RGF couldn’t even give out 1 blanket a year? With all the donors and power at their disposal, RGF could not even support 200 families a year?

Who will answer for Rajiv Gandhi Foundation?

Take a look at their donor page of Rajiv Gandhi Foundation for just one year. With such a massive reach, not even 200 students per year benefited from RGF; not even 500 families per year benefited from the RGF. Many of us would have easily known smaller NGOs with lesser funding that have created a bigger impact. Their financial statements show us that crores are spent on these projects. Is this the impact one can see with crores of money at their disposal? Instead of doing juvenile videos, perhaps Rahul Gandhi must explain why RGF performs so disproportionately to the funds they receive! 

The Swinging Moods of Telangana Chief Minister, K Chandrashekhar Rao

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

Telangana Chief Minister KCR on March 7, 2020: “Why do we need a mask? Without wearing any masks, me, my ministers, my MLAs – we will all work on the field to combat Corona if at all it comes to Telangana. A scientist told me that all you have to do to chase away Corona is to “use a Paracetamol; and that Corona will die at temperatures greater than 22C.”

KCR on March 14, 2020: “We should not remain mute spectators to Corona. It is a crime if we remain mute. Masks will be needed. Full body suits will be needed. We will obviously give statements that will seek to improve confidence in people and not scare them.”

TS Government decision on March 14, 2020: All schools, colleges and malls closed till March 31st.

A mere 7 days after questioning the need for masks and telling us that he thinks Corona will die in temperatures greater than 22C, KCR takes a key decision of shutting down schools, colleges and malls till March 31st. People realized that KCR perhaps has learnt that his utterances were wrong and he is resorting to a much-needed course correction.

KCR on March 21, 2020: “I am requesting the DGP to arrest all the idiots who are criticizing the Prime Minister’s call to clap on the evening of Janata curfew.”

Did you hear a squeak at least from the masqueraders of free speech? Did you see hour-long, day-long, week-long debates in the studios of the usual suspects on this? Would they have maintained the same silence if a BJP corporator made that statement?

KCR on March 22, 2020: “I thank the people for the successful conduct of the Janata Curfew. We are now extending the lockdown till the 31st of March.”

That’s right, he has imposed a lockdown even before the national lockdown was imposed by Prime Minister Modi. His press conference made all the right points – how people have to be careful; how the government is geared up for the fight; and details on what stays open and what stays closed during the lockdown.

KCR on March 24, 2020: “Many people are not following lockdown. In other countries, there have been shoot at sight orders issued. Do we want such a situation here?”

This statement quite expectedly blew up. WhatsApp was agog with messages that KCR had issued Shoot at sight orders. It didn’t even take 20 days from telling us that paracetamol will cure Corona to hinting at a shoot at sight situation and creating a panic like situation! No other CM or central minister has indicated this type of a response, even in passing.

KCR’s subsequent press conferences on March 24th, March 27th, March 29th, and April 6th, were all broadly hailed by the people of the state for being informative, suggestive of what needs to be done, and some dose of humor. A 1500 bed new hospital was also built in record time. The period from April 6th to the next two press conferences on April 19th and May 18th is when it started going downhill for KCR.

His jibe at a reporter who asked him about Wine shops became very popular. His jibes at many reporters for asking “silly questions” slowly started to get boring. He somehow thought offense is the best defense, so much so that he wished that reporters writing negative news should be infected with Corona! You would of course not see the alleged liberals take up this crass statement by an elected CM.

What changed the story for Telangana was the continuous low testing despite an overall increase of the same across the entire country. For many days, the government just wouldn’t even release the testing data. At the beginning of this crisis, we had a “we are not testing enough” chorus being sung by the usual suspects. It is but obvious that testing will not be in the lakhs on day-1. Every single country needed some time to ramp up their testing.

However, as time progressed, while the rest of India started increasing their testing, mysteriously Telangana chose to look the other way. Take a look at the below graph for yourself (sourced from covid19india.org). Notice the flat lines for many days? That’s because the government just refused to release this data.

There has been a total of nearly 78 lakh tests done in the entire country by June 26th. Telangana contributed a mere 75,000 to this. KCR started the fight against Corona saying there is nothing to worry about. Within 20 days, a full lockdown was announced by him in the state, even suggesting a shoot at sight situation. For a very mysterious reason, he decided not to increase testing whilst the rest of the country did it. The low numbers that Telangana saw were touted as a significant achievement. No reporter was allowed to ask the critical question (even in the May 18th presser) on testing. Only after there was widespread criticism across all other platforms, did he decide to increase testing and release the data on a daily basis (as is evident from the curve above).  And with increased testing, the surge in cases has begun, thus creating more panic.

The swinging moods of KCR will remain one of the big mysteries during these COVID times!

The Curious Case of the Cabal Going Hammer and Tongs After Arvind Kejriwal

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

The co-ordination of the Left ecosystem marvels me. It’s amazing how they work together as a pack while dishing out articles on any topic or leader. It’s like they have a topic of the week to bombard readers.

This week’s target was very unusual though. And it exposed some very serious cracks in their ecosystem. They now chose to attack their demi-God – Arvind Kejriwal. The attack first begun in The Hindu. In an op-ed titled “The emergence of the real Kejriwal”, the author went hammer and tongs on Arvind Kejriwal. For those who are unaware, Arvind Kejriwal has been the poster boy of The Hindu ever since he entered into politics. The massive coverage AK got so far is perhaps next only to what China gets! So, what explained the end of the bonhomie?

In the author’s own words - “Deployment of Hindu symbolism is near universal in Indian politics these days, and Mr. Kejriwal paraded them with panache, ahead of the 2020 Delhi Assembly election.” How did Kejriwal accomplish this? Apparently by saying that the CAA favours Pakistan Hindus but is against Indian Hindus! Amusing how anything remotely related to “Hindu symbolism” gets to the goat of these alleged liberals. I believe Arvind Kejriwal’s politics are of the worst nature, but this cabal backed him entirely through his chicanery – his alliance with Congress to grab power; his ministers and MLAs indulging in brazen corruption; his anti-India utterances during certain key events in the 2014-19 period – everything was happily lapped up by this cabal. But the moment “The AAP’s 2020 manifesto promised patriotism courses in schools”, these people are up in arms! Because “sedition charges against JNU students were signed off by his government”, these people are not able to digest how their demi-God had stabbed them in the back!

We are told Kejriwal has put “people against people” because of his myopic decision of asking Delhi hospitals to attend to only residents of Delhi. But this action was taken a couple of weeks ago, so why was this cabal silent? Why didn’t these people raise their voice against Kejriwal and praise the Lt. Governor for restoring sanity? Why the sudden outrage now? We are told that Kejriwal “feigns humility and claims to listen to the people”. But he has always followed this approach only – do sham surveys on the net and claim that he is doing what people want. What explains this sudden outrage?

Because, in the authors own words, “The intelligentsia, including feminists, might find such positions detestable, but Mr. Kejriwal no longer needs them.” I don’t have to tell you how these people label themselves as intelligentsia. So, it seems that Kejriwal has now dumped them and in their opinion is listening to the people of Delhi instead of them. Ouch, that must hurt! But that also shouldn’t come as a surprise. Only those blinded by love would not have been able to see Kejriwal’s use-and-throw policy. Now that their turn has come, the “intelligentsia” is hurt beyond repair.

The Hindu’s article ends with “Meanwhile, his claims of efficiency in governance are under the first real life test in Delhi..”. Am astonished at how Arvind Kejriwal’s efficiency was touted as the best up until recently and now we are suddenly told no real-life test has happened in the past 5 years?! Delhi’s handling of the COVID situation was a mess (to put it mildly) but all that the author could think for the entire article is how Kejriwal is trying to be more Hindu!

The Print took over the mantle from The Hindu and we are treated to an article titled “Covid has exposed Kejriwal. He is not transparent, reformist or in-control chief minister”. Aren’t you amazed at the transition too? The Hindu has laid the base for the attack and recollected all his previous mistakes up until the handling of the COVID situation. The Print seamlessly takes over from there, like an accomplished relay runner, and tells us that Kejriwal’s handling of the COVID situation proves that he is “parochial, hypocritical, and a fumbling administrator who makes magnified claims.”

Boy oh boy! How come they didn’t see any of these qualities just 6 months back? No leader suddenly becomes “parochial, hypocritical” etc all of a sudden. Faced with an actual crisis, the supporters maybe have suddenly realised that Kejriwal didn’t have any actual work to do in his first 5 years of office and the first time he had to step up, he faltered so badly that the supporters now don’t know where to hide themselves!

“If anything, Kejriwal has revealed himself to be a hypocritical opportunist” for basically attempting to “fudge data to underplay the fatality figures”. Looks like all the words in a dictionary that are synonyms to a cheater have been used up in these two articles! It still beats me as how these people even remotely thought that a man who broke a promise he made on his own children, will not ditch them too? Amusing that they are taking out their frustration at being so naïve!

We are told that “The two pillars of the AAP’s governance have been education and health, with the latter now in complete shambles.” So, it took about 2-3 months to realise how one “pillar” is not even a pillar! How long before the low quality of the other “pillar” will also be exposed? Or will there be a truce between the warring parties and we will soon get to see articles on the resurgence of Arvind Kejriwal? Am betting on the latter!