My other writings
Cricket 24 x 7
Jaagruthi
Yahoo! 360
Mayajaal
My Bloglines
My 43 things
My LinkedIn
On Orkut
Badri's Tamil thoughts
Ganesh's Happily Haphazard
Nitin's Acorn
Prabhu's Pethals
Raghu the reluctant Delhiite
Samanth's blahg
Sankhya the busy idler
Srini the movie critic
Rabble Rousing Random Ramblings by S Jagadish is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
A couple of years ago, I protested against the campaign to use public funds to get back MK Gandhi's belongings that were about to be auctioned off.
I really love watching cricket, and anyone who knows me can confirm that. I was elated about the World Cup win, and especially the manner in which it was achieved. When Ravi Shastri bellowed into the microphone that the BCCI was announcing cash awards for the players, support staff and the selectors, I felt happy that those who had contributed to the win were being rewarded by their "employer", or whoever they were contracted to. If the Sahara Group had announced a huge cash prize, they would have had to explain to their shareholders anyway.
I have a real problem though when state governments (so far, the union government is silent) bend over backwards to announce cash awards, grants of housing plots, etc. That is my money.
If the government is so keen on being seen as promoter of sport, why shouldn't there be a "National Sporting Achievements Fund" like the "Prime Minister's Relief Fund"? All individuals and groups who are interested in felicitating individuals and teams who excel in various sports can send in their contributions via cheque. As and when there is an individual or team achievement that merits an award, a portion of the fund is used as a reward.
Why can't the money be pooled in and used to construct good quality playgrounds where the a 10 year old, who has just been majorly inspired by the win, can go and play?
As governments get into the realm of competitive largesse, you have to roll on the floor laughing when the Karnataka government, in a moment of extreme philanthrophy, announces residential plots for all the players. This, when not a single member of the squad is from Karnataka, and the only remote connection that the players have with Karnataka cricket is that Zaheer & Virat will be turning out for Royal Challengers, Bangalore in the 2011 edition of the IPL.
Labels: 2011 world cup, competitive, competitive largesse, cricket, largesse, not with my money, symbolism
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - |
Meira Kumar's election/nomination as speaker of the Lok Sabha has so much farce and symbolism around it.
For starters, what exactly transpired in the 9 days between the time she was included in the ministry as the Water Resources minister and her resignation being accepted by the president? Surely, it wasn't as though her latent talent for being a presiding officer of the Lok Sabha (to conduct business, moderate debates, announce voting results, pull up MPs who're misbehaving, etc.) suddenly exhibited itself in those 9 days.
Or did Manmohan Singh realize that she'd make a pathetic minister? If so, why didn't that realization dawn during the 5 years that she was a Cabinet Minister for "Social Justice & Empowerment" and insisted that it was the duty of corporates to agree to and implement the UPA's agenda for social justice?
Maybe, just maybe, Manmohan found out that he had to accomodate an ally in the ministry. So he moved Meira Kumar to the role of speaker.
So now India has a woman president, a Sikh PM (twice), a Muslim Vice President, a Dalit woman as the Lok Sabha speaker and a woman as the deputy leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha.
For starters, I guess this automatically means that there will no longer be any atrocities on Dalits, women and, in particular, Dalit women in India. Now that isn't a bad thing, is it?
Labels: lok sabha, speaker, symbolism
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - |
As a collective, we Indians (and this is most definitely a huge generalization) are overly concerned about sentiments, symbols, etc. That's why cities are renamed, Pratibha Patil becomes president because she is a woman, APJ Abdul Kalam became president primarily because of the symbolism around a BJP-led government supporting a Muslim for the presidency, 'classical language' status is demanded, etc.
There has been a huge campaign to get back MK Gandhi's belongings which would have been auctioned by Antiquorum in a few hours from now (Times Now TV says the auction is off). The campaign is largely symbolic.
MK Gandhi's policies, philosophies and ideals were cremated along with him, in 1948. I do not imply that what he said was always the absolute truth. I have immense respect and awe for him. Yet, having read a lot about (and by) him, I have never been tempted to raise him to a godly status.
Yet, because he is Bapu or Gandhiji, there must be a collective outrage whenever someone, especially a foreigner, threatens to defile him. Exactly why the government must step in to prevent the auctioning of his pocket-watch, sandals, bowl, plate and glasses is totally beyond me. By the way, I'm so aghast that the site says "Gandhi" and not "Ghandi"!
If the government wants the items on the auction to be back in India, it could easily get the richest folks in India (or NRIs) to bid for the items under a contractual obligation to transfer possession to the government or the Navajivan trust. Yet, how do those folks benefit from it? Of course, there could be legal and customs issues around transporting goods from the USA to India. But if the government is going to bid for the items or pay a ransom, I oppose it. Not with taxpayer money! Not with my money!
By the way, the Antiquorum site seems very slow - maybe a billion Indians are mounting a DoS attack on the site!
By even attempting to negotiate with James Otis, who is the one auctioning the items, the government puts itself at his mercy. He's been in the public eye over this issue for around 500 Warhols. So now he gets to demand that India devote 5% of its GDP to tackling poverty and healthcare. He also wants India to sponsor him on a tour of 70-odd countries so he can spread Gandhiji's message! The audacity of hope indeed!
Of course, if the government had even hinted at giving in to the blackmail, it would have been so un-Gandhian!
The other alternative would have been to ape what the Chinese did a couple of days ago. Bronze items which had been looted in 1860 by British and French troops from the emperor's palace were auctioned at Christies and the buyer was an anonymous Chinese bidder. As it turned out, the buyer, Cai Mingchao, then said that he wasn't going to pay for it. Now that wouldn't stop Christie's from putting up the items for auction again, but it does buy some time for the Chinese government!
Labels: india, mk gandhi, not with my money, symbolism
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - |
After "classical language status", its now time for demanding an NSG unit
Around this time last month, folks in Kerala were angry because Kannada and Telugu had been granted 'classical language' status. A month later, the outcome of the terror in Mumbai is that every single state in India would now demand an NSG unit. That's "National Security Guards", not the Nuclear Suppliers Group!
So far, I've already seen demands from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Maharashtra. I wouldn't be surprised if others also pitched in. Having an NSG unit would then become a status symbol, much like having an IIT, IIM or IISc campus; a Microsoft, Wipro, TCS, Infosys or Reliance office; a dozen flyovers that do little to solve traffic problems; a metro rail system designed for today & not for 20 years hence; a Nehru stadium or a Mahatma (or even Uttamar) Gandhi road.
Labels: india, mumbai, mumbai terrorism 200811, nsg, symbolism, terrorism
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - |
On November 4 2008, Barack Obama was declared the winner of the 2008 US presidential election. For quite a few days before that, ever since he was announced as the Democratic Party's candidate, TV channels in India kept talking about whether just like Barack Obama rose to be a contender, could an event of equivalent significance happen in India. So much so that Rajdeep Sardesai asked "Who will be India's Obama?". Once the election results came in, the same questions started pouring in.
Several opinions were provided, and there seemed to be consensus that such an event was possible in Indian politics, especially given Mayawati's stratospheric rise ever since the trust vote in July.
While I wouldn't rule out the possibility, it seems to me that such an event would end up being largely symbolic. We're a nation that prides itself on symbolism. We take great pride in listing it out. We've had a woman prime minister, a Sikh prime minister, 3 Muslim presidents, a Dalit president, a Sikh president, a woman president, Christian party leaders, etc.
Yet, a few aspects of our symbolism are bloody obvious. For one, the presidency is not the single most important political job in India. In fact, it isn't even a political job. So making someone from a minority section of the population (based on gender, religion or caste) as the president doesn't mean a thing, in my opinion.
To compare it with the USA election where an African-American was elected (by direct & indirect voting) as the president is very much an apples-oranges comparison.
The voters of the USA knew well in advance that Barack Obama was the candidate of the Democratic party. In India, the equivalent would be a party announcing before the elections that someone from a minority (gender, religious or caste) section of the population would be the Prime Ministerial candidate. For e.g., the Congress (I) announces that Manmohan would be the man or the UNPA announcing that Mayawati was the front's candidate.
How likely is that? Not too likely, I'd say.
The other thing to keep in mind is that Barack Obama isn't totally African-American. His mother, Ann Dunham, is white. I'm fairly sure that had an impact on the white voters who were ambivalent about voting for him.
In short, I don't quite subscribe to the notion that the time is ripe for an Obama-like upheaval in India's political circles for the simple reason that any such event would be the result of a movement largely symbolic in nature.
PS: I write this from Cambridge, Massachusetts where I landed on Sunday. I'm here on a business visit till December 5. The weather is not as cold as I expected, so the going is good for now. I rather like the city, and will do some roaming around in Boston & Cambridge over the weekend. It isn't often that you land up in a city that has two great educational institutions and was the venue of a momentous protest in the country's history.
Labels: obama, president, symbolism, travelogue, usa, usa 2008
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - |
Pratibha for President? Umm perhaps not!
There's a campaign currently on in the Indian blogging community to protest against Pratibha Patil, the UPA's nominee as President.
It seems to me like the protests and accusations are worth supporting. But, I'm far more uncomfortable with the fact that we will have a pliant President. The incumbent has shown some worrying tendencies a few times (talking about river linking, excusing himself from the scope of the RTI Act, signing the Union Cabinet's recommendation for President's rule in Bihar at midnight from Moscow being three notable ones), he's been ok otherwise.
Like I wrote a couple of weeks ago, if there's so much symbolism associated with the post, why can't we do away with it? I'm fairly sure it costs a few crores to the exchequer on an annual basis to maintain/upgrade the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The country maybe better off opening it up completely as a museum and charging visitors.
Labels: pratibha patil, president, symbolism
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - |
Geriatrics zindabad! Symbolism zindabad!
A 83-year-old and a 72-year-old will probably end up contesting an election for the presidency of a country where around 60% of the population is aged between 15 and 59.
Keep in mind that the current Prime Minister is 74-years-old and the incumbent Preisdent is 75-years-old.
Among the 79 ministers at the centre, 13 are less than 50 years old (4 from Tamil Nadu), only 9 were born after 1960, only one of them was born after Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency, while 18 were born before 1940!
| Decade | Count |
| 1920s | 4 |
| 1930s | 14 |
| 1940s | 31 |
| 1950s | 21 |
| 1960s | 8 |
| 1970s | 1 |
Hasn't there been an overdose of pointless symbolism? A Muslim as President, a Sikh as Prime Minister. Now, a woman as President? If the institution of the President can be diluted through symbolism, isn't it high time that institution was abolished?
PS: Shivraj Patil has got a huge laddu, but this means he continues to be the Home Minister, which is frankly more devastating news.
Labels: age, ministers, parliament, pratibha patil, president, symbolism
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - |
Inspired by the spelling correction name change of Bangalore to Bengaluru, it is reliably learnt that one of Australia's most famous symbols, the Kangaroo has applied for a name change.
Apparently the Kangaroo wants to call itself the Kangar.
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - |
Some of the links may now be broken/not take you to the expected report since the original content providers may have archived/removed the contents.
All opinions expressed are mine alone. My employers (past, present or future) are in no way connected to the opinions expressed here.
All pictures, photographs used are copyrights of the original owners. I do not intend to infringe on any copyright.
Pictures and photographs are used here to merely accentuate and enhance the content value to the readers.
