Why Aam Aadmi Party needs to be careful. Especially now.

So Aam Aadmi Party did something which stumped a lot of seasoned political analysts. Suddenly they were the toast of not only Delhi but the entire country. People especially youngsters saw them as a refreshing change - bold enough to dream, crazy to actually make the dream a reality. For the first time, one could be part of a political revolution. There were minimum barriers of entry - something which is a major constraint for large national parties like Congress, BJP etc. For some, AAP brought back the romanticism into politics - suddenly being in politics wasn't sneered upon. A lot of things AAP did was a change, and a welcome one at that - it had detailed manifestos for each ward - detailing the issues at the ground level. For once each rupee being managed had a source - if you wanted to donate to them you needed to furnish your personal details. It gave chance to people much like you and I to contest elections and help be a change agent. It promised to look into two long standing grievances of the people on the streets - water, and electricity. It promised clean and effective governance, it promised quick solutions. it promised people that their representatives will be available to them everyday and not just after 5 years at the time of seeking re election. It promised an end to the babu raj - no more having to give way to a cavalcade of cars because some VVIP was travelling. 

The results of the Delhi polls put AAP among the high sea and the deep canyon. If they didn't form the government, they would be hounded by other parties for not taking the lead. If they tried forming the party with the outside support of either Congress/BJP, the parties in the opposition would bay for their blood. And they did. Even the SMS and the muhallah sabah campaign that AAP took before deciding to form the government was ridiculed - questions were asked if they would solve every problem by a show of hands. But they decided to take the bold step and form the government. As a outsider, I wished that even if Congress was only going to provide support on a case to case basis, AAP and Arvind would be able to show everyone that they can also execute their plans. And hopefully should the people of Delhi have to vote again, they will do so based on that show.

But AAP and Team Arvind have to be careful. Public trust is something that is with them - but its also something that can go away as quickly as it gets built. Already they seem to be too keen to err on the side of rhetoric. AAP stood for austerity - and what does the new CM do - goes and take two 5 room bunglows. When asked about this sudden opulence, the CM replied that his is a humble abode compared to Sheila Dixit's official residence. The next day Arvind did a perfect turn around - and put it as something the govt had allocated to him. Doesn't realize that he is the government himself now.

AAP also needs to move beyond the symbolism and the rhetoric. Its time to tome down the rhetoric and get down to work. One of my personal favorite is how Arvind keeps saying - "Main kaun hoon?" Somebody remind him that he is now the CM of Delhi and has a job and a half at hand. Everyone seems to be keen to give a byte to the news person - and that is a big risk. Someone as experienced as Prashant Bhushan just created a situation that could have been avoided - I only shudder at more inexperienced people like the Rakhi Birla's of the world.  

Also AAP needs to understand that not all decisions have to be done at the rate of running a 100 mt race. Some can be a longer version as well. We have a sound legislative process and that shouldn't be overlooked. Muhalla Sabahs are great to understand the sentiments of the people but the problems need to be discussed in the assembly and the best possible solution be acted upon. 

In between all of this, AAP suddenly decided to contest on 300 seats. This to me could have been avoided. In my humble opinion, they should have shown what they are capable of in Delhi and then looked at spreading their wings. They could have taken their time to set up the ground machinery across the country. AAP also has to be careful in this national endeavor - they at this point in time don't have a leader beyond Arvind and to an extent Yogendra Yadav. 

AAP has done a lot of things right, but suddenly seems to be taking some steps which could quickly alienate them from everyone. So hope AAP is careful - hope they think over their actions and their words. Especially now more than ever. 

Why we only can help tackle this menace called rape..

I haven’t written for a long time. Part of the reason is that the political circus around us keeps recreating itself, till it reaches the point where it all merges with reality and everyday life- and then you have nothing that surprises you. Yet as I sat in front of the television, watching the scenes unfold in front of me at Rasina Hill, some very disturbing questions surfaced – questions to which a lot of people like me don’t possibly have an answer yet the seething anger looks for answer.

Why did it take the brutal rape of a lady for our collective conscience to awake? Were the same people – me included, not quietly looking the other way, every day in Delhi and other parts of the country. Why the government in Delhi never bothered to do anything to stop this menace – rape isn’t something new to the national capital – 661 odd cases have been reported till date this year alone and god knows how many would have gone unreported – was the government waiting for a lucky number to act? How could the ACP pass of this incident as a stray incident? How could the government use such brute force against people who were protesting – the common man and woman who wanted to say enough is enough – we will not allow this to go on. This has to stop. The lady who wants to be able to go out without having to think twice.  But that’s not all. What about the fact that no leader – either from the Government or the opposition had the steel to come out and tell the common people that what happened was wrong and they would do the best possible to address the shortcomings in the judicial system to fight the menace called rape/sexual assault/molestation. The prime minister comes out with an address to the nation – a well written one, am assuming someone would burnt the midnight oil to write the same . He says he feels the anger as he is a father of daughters as well – well if he did, then he wouldn’t have to read out from a script – this wasn’t a diplomatic issue- it was a straight forward issue to which I wish our prime minister or anyone from the political class would have the guts to cut across the party lines and say it was wrong- say that we have collectively failed but lets do all we can to avoid a repeat.

We expect things to change overnight but they won’t. Law can’t be enacted in a day until and unless it concerns the salary of our ministers – I will keep that topic for another day. But what can be done is to show sincere intent to set things right – people would have appreciated that. But no, we had our Home Minister who wanted to link the protestors to Maoists – whom is he kidding, or I would like to smoke what he was smoking.

The Delhi Police, under political pressure or otherwise, seems to be an expert in ensuring mass protests are always handled in the wrong way. It happened with the Ramdev Baba protest and it happened again. Why the brute force? Couldn’t you have just formed a perimeter around Rastrapati  Bhawan? Why did some section of the police show intent as if their increments depended on how many innocent people they could thrash? Why the water cannons? Why the lathi charges? Delhi Police needs leadership, which unfortunately is missing. And when the leadership is there, common sense is absent – after all common sense is not a common property. The Police force needs to be trained to handle sensitive cases like rape, molestation – in most cases they only further aggravate the mental torture. We must also remember that a vast portion of the police force at the lower rungs is just about educated to write their names – and they have a very different mindset – the mindset carried forward by the khaps of the villages. This need to be looked into far greater details- and the force has to be made more and more sensitive. Also women officers must be made mandatory for all stations.

There has been talk of some governments putting CCTV in public transport etc. Good start. But more than anything we have to be awakened. We need to protest if we see anything. We need to be extra vigilant when we are in public domain – stand up for what is not right. I know this is easier said than done, but if each one of us try, there is no reason why we can’t drive fear into the sick bastards.

That brings me to the politicians – I would have really wanted to see one mainstream leader – be it Rahul Gandhi, Shashi Tharoor, Sachin Pilot, Akhilesh Yadav or so called young turk or even not so young turks raise their hand and say we need to change this. But no one did – the standard retort was if we did, we would be seen politicizing the episode. Well better do something than do nothing at all. Couldn’t party lines be breached once and out politicians stand united? Give us hope that they could work together to legislate far stronger laws against this heinous crime. I wish media would have asked those tough questions .  But then paid media has its own politics.The question circle backs to what immediate steps can be taken? For starters more intensive patrolling can help. Help lines need to be accessible – last when I read , it was going to take a week for a helpline number to be active 24x7. Really?  How is that even acceptable? 

Last but not least, I wish Delhi wakes up – it’s been in slumber enough. More than any city, Delhi seems to tolerate such rude and crass behavior towards its womenfolk. I don’t know how to explain it – but Delhi needs to do better for itself. It has to. So has to Bangalore, Indore, Kolkata et al. So has to every Ram, Rahim, John on the streets. So that Keenan and Rueben still would look at all this and say their sacrifice was worth it. Maybe the solution to solving this isn’t so glamorous – it possibly needs a bit of  courage from each one of us. The tougher laws etc would all help, but somewhere we need to be more involved, aware.

Another challenge with protests that don’t have leaders is that they seldom reach the end they were meant to. But if we remain focused, pressurize our elected representatives, I am sure things will change – I am still hopeful.  Anger is great but it needs to be channelized into something worthwhile – this is what we need to learn.

And I hope our political class relooks at itself – atleast the young brigade – relook at the example that they are setting.  The country needs leaders – passionate people who are willing to call a spade a spade and not think of electoral votes, party lines – I wish and hope we have one atleast.

I wish and pray that she(every women who had to face harassment/molestation/rape) recovers, and gather courage and we help them by standing next to them. 

This is to stop – this has to stop.

Shoaib and our reaction to Shoaib.

Well, have you ever tried telling a Bengali that the Pani Puri shouldn't have potato fillings but instead have chickpeas - if you haven't, then I would suggest that you dont try this - cause this will ensure a reaction that is better not measured or tested! When I think of how we have reacted to Shoaib Akhtar and his recent autobiography, I keep going back to my previous example about Pani Puris and Bengalis'.



So Shoaib thinks Tendulkar and Dravid are not matchwinners - and that Tendulkar actually feared him at one point of time in his career. Well his point and he has all the right to stick to it. Its for us to believe it or not. But no - any insult on Sachin and Dravid has to be taken as a crime larger than mining scam or the 2G( but then again according to one Mr.Sibbal there was no loss for the 2G spectrum allocation)! So we have all his book launches being cancelled, motor mouth Rajeev Shukla demanding an apology, Hanna Azzare has threatened to go on a fast, Poonam Pandey has offered to offload her clothes to bring up the morale of the two individuals! Still awaiting Rahul Gandhi to pass a comment........., and the Prime Minister is to comment once he has consulted Sonia. Give the guy a break - he is just trying to add some spice and ensure that his book is bought in India- he had to cancel all book launches in Pakistan as he feared a drone attack to take out possibly take him out!! he does have a right to earn his retirement money, doesn't he?




But I think what this really shows is that we don"t take criticism well or objectively but rather take it personally. An individual is entitled to his views - regardless of whether if it is agreement with the majority. But yet again we show our underlying thread of non tolerance. A mature society should, I believe, should have reacted differently and just given it a shrug, and walked on. So we may call ourselves educated, but till we can learn to include everyone's point, however ridiculous or radical that it may be, we cant call ourselves a democratic, tolerant society.

The cup called World Cup

How does it feel when you stay back on a friday night to attend a call at 00:30 hrs on Saturday and at 00:03 hours you get a mail stating that the call got canceled. Ah well - made my Friday night!! WTF...

Anyways point is that there is a lot going on all around...a possible nuclear catastrophe, a very possible and likely vote for cash scandal, a possible suicide or murder....and amidst all this we have a World Cup going on. Oh something stay status quo - Kamran Akmal still wears a glove and doesnt know why - each time he drops a catch and the management must go - how much did he make this time?? The world cup to me has been supremely boring..few decent matches here and there but the itinerary is far too stretched. Heard that ICC is making good money on this cup...i know - where else would see people line up to see Kenya play Canada- not in Kenya or Canada I am sure. Much has been said and said again about the men in blue under MSD. Well the team is built around one of the most destructive batting line ups- 'nuff said but the bowling has always been India's Achilles heel. So what can we do..ask Zaheer to bowl 25 overs?? Damn cant do that. So then we need to figure out the best from the rest - Harbhajan, Munaf, Yuvi, Yusuf and Ashwin. I am sorry from what I have seen PC doesnt cut it, and Sree is a bigger headache..he bleeds too many runs. Yes you dont have a genuine leggie...but then live with it. On the batting front I dont think the Indian batting line up enjoys shuffling too much - havent seen them come across well - so stick to your original line up. Leave Yusuf at number seven..thats where he is most destructive in the International arena. Maybe because the ball is softer by that time and get to have an eye in against the Yardys of the game. So leave your super computers and stick to the basic adage - play to your strength. Btw did anyone notice how good is MSD now behind the stumps..he has made some serious progress on his glovework.

Amidst all this I was able to generate a big debate on Nehra when I said that it was great to see MSD stand by Nehra at the press conference. I was simply looking at it from a leader perspective - a leader should always stand by his wards. But the leader also needs to drill some sense into his wards at times. Sometimes you need to call a stick a stick. Last heard Paddy Upton was working with Nehra on his line and length..yes Paddy you are man Friday for the job.

India may go on to win the world cup from here on but I think plain logical thinking seems to get diluted at times. Hence you never follow what 'proverb a line Sidhu' is trying to say..i pity Harsha...his expression underlines his helplessness....but I will save that for another day!!!

Cars and Bikes

I have been trying to take up photography more often - a step in that regards has been a project that I have started within my team. It captures the various moods of people over time all captured in black and white. More on that later.

This Sunday I was able to visit Auto Mall next door to Palace grounds. I was there for about 1.5 hours and managed to take about 200 odd pictures. It was a fight to try and keep people out of focus as we seem to have a habit of posing next to each and every car!!!! Here are some pics from the same.

There were the obvious- the Merc and the Beamers.











And then there were the cars for which I really was there. Since returning to India I have missed quite a few opportunities to capture Vintage cars. So when I read that they had an special exhibit of Vintage cars I had to make time for this. The collection was very vast but I cant complain. Was chuffed about the afternoon's work. Below are some of the visuals.

















And then there were the big superbikes



The Invader- quite a presence it had



Hayabusa - There isnt anything like it!

The CWG mess - who can clean it up?

I tend to have an opinion about anything and everything. And just like that I decided that I must have a blog to myself where I can share my views about those everything about everyday life.

If anyone is in India right now and close to a television or a newspaper - The commonwealth may be the most common word that they may have heard or read. Oh! My bad- its ain't the most common word- that pride place is taken by "corruption". The Commonwealth games was supposed to be the opportunity for the country to showcase its development and its entrepreneurial skills. It was a chance for India to show to the world that it can hold a world class event and would have been a precursor to better things to come. But so far all this has been a distant dream.

Some argue that a country of our size where almost half or more of the country is below poverty line- we should have stayed away from the Games and invested elsewhere. Quite a valid point in hindsight. India till date isn't a athletics driven country- the various disciplines hardly have any following. Plus in addition for most disciplines to be adopted by the masses - the infrastructure is absent. Tell me how many badminton courts/tennis courts/running tracks/hockey astro turfs are available for free in the cities or towns? Most developed countries have world class infrastructure at the grass root levels. The money that the country spent on the Games could have been utilized to try and get some facilities built for the young buds. The people of Delhi were shown dreams of infrastructures mirroring cities like Singapore, Toronto etc. But couldn't the Government have built those infrastructures any ways? I must say the Sports Ministry at best is a idle ministry - which other country sends its representatives without even a proper kit for the Olympic opening? The other central party to this all - the IOC with a certain Mr. Kalmadi as its head - well the less said about it the better. The IOC has been a meeting ground of politicians and not sports administrators or ex sports person. For most IOC never is really bothered about the state of various Olympic disciplines in India. When they cant even hold National games on time, what makes us think that we should expect better on a world stage from them?

What the CWG should have got was a top crack project manager for the games. Someone from the private sector with an experience of handling mega projects. For a games of such scale and magnitude, the purchase department could have driven down the acquisition cost for all items. Instead most equipments were acquired at 600-700% markups. Somewhere it seems that there was large scale rigging of the purchase process. Contracts were given at astronomical prices - quality not checked for, time lines were missed but no penalties imposed. The PMO also should have been more active and on top of things but sadly that wasn't the case. PMO was more busy firefighting other issues.

The CWG should be made to do a few things and fast - they should publish details of all tenders and details of companies who won the tender. The PMO should constitute a crack team including some good project managers and some people with financial background and ensure that all tenders are revisited. Any tender which counts abnormal prices(like 4k for 100 rolls of toilet paper) should be canceled at once. All venues should be thoroughly checked for quality and for any deficiencies, the contractor should be hauled up and penalized. The independent financial authority(consisting of auditors, chartered accountants and forensic accountants) should then start looking into the money trail. The report should be tabled to the Prime Minister. The organizing team also needs to build support around the Games - with all the negative publicity going around, the perception of the common man on the streets has to be changed. The games will only be a success if the common person turns out in support. I still believe if left to professionals, the Games can still be salvaged. But it needs some tough decisions from the government who most often than not is found short on that respect. Lets see how the event falls out.