Peeping into Pakistan

Pakistan, the word leaves altogether different impression in people’s mind in general and in an Indian’s mind, in particular. As famously commented by our former P.M. Shri Atal Ji “you can change your fate but not your neighbour” underlines the basic complications, we got to live with them, and there is nothing wrong with it. We have a very remote and stereotype image about our neighbour that needs to be changed.

 To my mind the biggest problem that Pakistan faces today is that of absence of defined centre of power, in other words the idea of authority and decision making is so dispersed and diluted that countries and people at large find this country very uncertain. In Pakistan, there is a paradox, the paradox of polarity, means there are multiple sub centers of power affecting their own specific constituencies and in result leaving the whole country shattered, pulled in many opposite directions and working at cross purposes.

For example, they have centers of power like the elected government, Islamic fundamentalists, jihadi groups,tribals, the ISI, army and finally the civil society. Elected government has some degree of control over the diplomats and the civic policies but failure of democracy at many occasions have led to erosion of confidence about its stability, by the global civil society in this institution. The government is often at loggerhead with the army and the ISI and its control on these two institutions are seriously doubted .on other hand, it has desperately failed to check the growth of Islamic fundamentalism.

Islamic fundamentalist get their support on the basis of religion and their strong anti India- Israel stand, they are the one who appeal mostly to the frustrated young unemployed youths, they also provide strong resource base to different kinds of terrorist organizations. Tribal groups mainly in north west and FATA regions have their own complains primarily rooted in political isolation and lack of development, these groups find themselves sandwiched and ready to connived with anyone who is against the government. They are the most dangerous one as they don’t know who their enemy is? Army has its own agenda that is mainly against India, so, no matter what happens at diplomatic level they always prepare some kind of shadow war. Kargil was immediately after the Agra summit which shows that diplomat and army man both were working at the same time, although at cross purpose. Army chief is always regarded parallel to the President and it is not mere coincidence that so many army generals have become presidents or P.M. in Pakistan, so he Army chief exercises his own power and influence ,thus army is virtually not in civilian control.

The biggest mystery is the role of ISI, it seems that they sit on the wall, keep swinging. but the permanent work is supporting jihadist in Kashmir and arranging man and material for anti india shadow operations. Who control them? Sometimes its army another times jihadist or may be government but nobody is sure of it.

There is only one fine point where these institution’s isolated axis of influence and power become congruent, and that is against India, that’s why they perform anti India task with high degree of precision.

The weakest force is the civil society, a common Pakistani is as peace loving as an Indian or an American and there is no doubt in it. But unfortunately, the voices of civil society largely go unheard. the reason is, first, huge division in the society itself and the absence of credible institutional platform where they can make themselves heard, that’s a very serious situation because this vacuum generally lead to popular revolt.

It is the civil society which is the biggest loser in current scenario when global attitude toward Pakistan is becoming hostile, they will be at the receiving end and that is why case of Pakistan need to be considered, keeping in mind the interests of the weakest of all, the people.

They packed the PAC

Public account committee is one of the most important standing committees of the parliament, standing means it has a kind of permanency and it remains in existence no matter which government come, of course the composition may change. Conventionally it is widely respected and enjoy support cutting across the party line and intelligentsia class, the reason is simple it include members from all the parties from both the houses and headed by leader of opposition. Additionally, in preparation of its report it call upon experts, executive and in some cases even CAG. The report thus prepared critically help in guiding the legislative response on otherwise tricky issues.

The high voltage drama that unfolded in the wake of 2G spectrum case did not even spare this institution from its loop. The politics begun right from the time the committee took over the case, first on whether P.M. should be called for question or not then on what should be the mandate of it. but it reached to its zenith right before the presentation of report to the speaker. The day before, there was intense political exchanges and the parties whose member were there in the PAC started lobbying to go in favor or against the committee’s report, the members of DMK,SP, CONGRESS rejected the committee’s report but any ways the report was presented to the speaker. What will be the decision of speaker is yet to be seen but it has raised many disturbing trends and the questions which answers shall, in large way decide the future of Indian institutions.

The lobbying at the final stage itself was very disturbing; it negates the spirit of this institution. the point is, if the members had any problem they should have raised their concerns at the very beginning when committee took over the case, backtracking at this stage suggests the mala fide intentions of members. probably they might have found out certain incriminating findings that might be against the interest of the parties they belong.

The committees are believed to be detached from the party’s loyalties and rightly so because if the institutions start getting infected by political interests then corruption will know no boundaries. In this particular case, honesty of an institution was put at stake for narrow political gains.

It is also possible, since the leader of opposition head the committee, there is no better way to embarrass the govt then bringing a very hard finding, if this is even remotely so then the spirit of the institution is being killed because this is the last place to set the personal or political score.

It is not the question of whether findings were right or wrong neither it is about any person in particular, it is about the trend in motion and their larger impact.

Institutionalists like Douglas North and Doni Rodrick have hailed the importance of institutions as the basic foundational pillar for development of countries; if these pillars are shaken then a larger cause of nation building would be jeopardized.

Finally J.P.C!

So finally it seems that congress will constitute the much demanded JPC, if not as an admission of guilt or put the houses in order but to save the precious time of the house and let the budget sail through easily. Now if we analyse this stand, why now and why not earlier.

Why now, because the mood of opposition was increasingly becoming uncompromising and uncooperative more destructive and the disastrous part was that the blame was being put on the congress at large, since many of its partner in the ruling coalition were in the favor of JPC, thus the congress position became paradoxical where it was defending the coalition at its own personal electoral cost.

Had the budget session been spoilt, it would have been virtual defeat for the coalition and congress would have been assumed single biggest hurdle in this, and definitely the creditworthiness of congress as a coalition magnet would have hampered, that in turn might have hurt the future probable coalition partners.

The very constitutional position of government was at stake, in democracy, no matter what the rule book say but the underlying spirit is that people wish should be honored and is bigger than established government itself, since politician are the representative of people and majority of them wishing such committee, it became increasingly difficult to ignore them.

P.M. doesn’t present himself before the PAC, but Dr. Manmohan Singh agreed to present himself before the PAC, as this became clear, it was now foolish for congress to oppose the formation of JPC as it wanted to protect PM from being present before any committee.

As the number of scam increased dramatically, and the cobweb of 2G scam was seems to be spread to so many unknown people and agencies even unknown to the ruling establishment, it became urgent for the congress to clear the air and save itself from the unknown responsibilities, thus it hurried to constitute the JPC at this stage.

Why not then, because congress miscalculated the range of scam and undermined the strength of opposition earlier, it thought that with passing time the opposition will get diluted.

Upcoming election in few states and importantly in Tamilnadu where Raja card would have been quite crucial, given the clan politics and close proximity of Raja to the Karunanidhi , has the major role in hesitant behavior of congress since it never wanted to embarrass its important ally.

Mandate of JPC is very wide compare to PAC, in which any minister or official could be called for and examined, more so it has single mandate to enquire the case in hand compare to PAC which has plethora of work to do, thus JPC can keep constant focus on the case and keep it alive until the case is solved, this distinction of JPC could have given an important weapon in the hands of opposition for over a long period of time, that congress never wanted so it was reluctant initially.

 It was all known that PM and PMO was never informed fully or being followed by the Raja’s and in this scenario making PM fully answerable before a committee was a hard task for congress more so when personally PM is very honest and modest, he could have faced some really tough questions, congress wanted to escape from all these things.

Anyways finally the truth will come out, thanks to political opportunism that finally ruling establishment ceded to a long awaited demand. This is what we call blessings in disguised devil.

saransh on headlines: Guess! Who choose your ministers?

saransh on headlines: Guess! Who choose your ministers?: "If leaked conversations between Niira Radia and others are trusted upon, then one thing is quite sure that favoritism runs much deeper than ..."

Guess! Who choose your ministers?

If leaked conversations between Niira Radia and others are trusted upon, then one thing is quite sure that favoritism runs much deeper than what we would like to accept as a normal act of crime. These conversations not only underline the ongoing in politician- media-corporate-bureaucrats nexus, but also suggest what might be going on at much larger scale. In one case, media is lobbied to throw its weight behind giving a ministerial berth to a particular minister, right from media debate to editorial stories, everything was planned that way. And even the personal repos of media persons were spin to influence the allocation of portfolio.

In another instance, who will spearhead the debate on the floor of the house, was set one night before, because it was feared that the person in question might do harm to the interest of some corporate house.

Now after all these and many more such stories, a final question comes; who really control this democracy that we so lovingly define as ‘for the people, by the people, to the people’. In a democracy, people feel empowered because of their believe that they hold the real power, that they elect the leaders and ministers; it is they who legitimize the system and its component. But what they find is just disheartening, morally discouraging and institutionally very damaging. They might vote but certainly don’t control anything else, thus they are just rubber stamp to give sanction to a bunch of people who have some other motive to follow.

Media which is supposed to be a watchdog of democracy seems to be guided from some other incentives, definitely, different from just ethics and values, whose main job is to form the questioning society is shaping the public opinion in very questionable way. And then the lobbyist who can manage anything under the sun, to protect the vested interest. They are well connected, well known and wealthy all the ingredients to get away easily from any hell of the law.

It has to be admitted that there is nothing wrong in promoting one’s interest in professional way, what is disturbing is the cartelization, the highjack of public policy and the larger rights of the people.

2G-- the two Genius

The two genius here, i m talking about are the A. Raja, soon by gone telecom minister and the then secretary of telecom Shri D.S. Mathur. Raja is badly stuck in the quagmire of 2G spectrum allotment scandal but still manage to hold the post, thanks largely to compulsive coalition politics. he is the most prominent Dalit face of DMK got represented at the center, so losing him may cast the greater lost of support, at least this is what is believed at the core of DMK stubborn stand.
media reports suggest that loss to exchequer is around Rs. 1,76,000 Cr. nothing can be said whether these estimates are under or overestimation, Raja defends himself by saying that he has followed the rule laid by department, followed the conventional practices laid down by the previous governments and ready for any probe.
In the mean time D.S Mathur blew the whistle by saying that Raja is real culprit as he not only refused the suggestion offered by the secretary but also put pressure on him to prepond the closure date of bidding, now the timing of mr. Mathur to blow it after almost 3 years (as he retired on dec 31,2007) can suggest only two things, first he was waiting for his time until now or may be he was aware that he alone can not do the whole thing or may be he was under huge pressure not to blew it off, in the past,second he may be politically motivated(which is highly improbable).
In the whole drama that is unfolding with each passing hour, few thing are unambiguous; like there has been systematic silence, in spite of the fact that most of the fundamental norms were either ignored or violated, even after exposure there is a tremendous attempt going on to cover it up, coalition politics make it difficult to punish the guilt, opportunistic coalition may not breeds corruption but definitely, more vulnerable to corruption, why open bidding based on transparency and competitiveness need to be deployed for scarce natural resources, why there should be stark separation in ministry, regulator and executive head of the departments.  

U.S. election and the future of Obama

As a matter of convention election for house of representative takes place on every two year on first Tuesday after November 1, so this year all the seats of house of representative 435 are going for poll today, as of now democrats have 255 members in house of representative that is more like our lok sabha and 59 out of 100 in senate more like rajya sabha of ours.37 seats of senate is going for poll, until now democrats had majority in both the houses leading to practical shaping of Obama's policies, in a way the best case scenario for Obama administration to pass the bill without much resistance. but alas, henceforth by all the prediction this golden period is almost over. this prediction is based on two grounds, first it has been a matter of fact barring certain exceptions that in last few year generally, incumbent government has lost mid term elections mainly because president is not contesting so incumbent party members feel less enthusiastic and two year is enough time to judge the performance of govt.

secondly, in a recent survey  by the economists it was found that more people of america disapprove the policy responses of major crisis ranging from Afghanistan, health care to financial crisis by Obama administration  than those who approve.
the high promises that were made by president Obama at the time of presidential election were less than met and if he sites the political reason behind not taking those tough decisions than political atmosphere is going to be even more tougher if he looses the majority in house of representative.
if people judge leaders on the basis of their deliverables than future of Obama in next presidential election seems to be very bleak.
I may give a fitting quote here that goes like' apart from difference in skill and everything else, the real difference between great leader and mediocre one that the follower have very high expectation from great one and very low from the mediocre one, so if both perform average than mediocre will be held high while great one will be ridiculed'. now the irony is that people think Obama is a great leader.