Thursday 28 July 2016

Rajya Sabha - The Harangue Continues

I was hearing to a small part of a debate in Rajya Sabha over special status to Andhra Pradesh. The person speaking was Venkayya Nayudu and the person on the opposite side was Jairam Ramesh. In the meanwhile, there was a scroller at the bottom over something said by Ghulam Nabi Azad pertaining to this discussion. Now, let’s look at each of the three. Naidu, though he is from Andhra Pradesh, he is a Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan. Before, he was from Karnataka. Same goes for Jairam Ramesh - from Karnataka, currently MP from Karnataka, last time from Andhra. Ghulam Nabi Azad is slightly different - he was defeated from Udhampur, but is a Rajya Sabha MP. Let’s add Arun Jaitley to the list as well - Defeated from Amritsar, made a Rajya Sabha MP and Central Cabinet Minister.
All of them may be eminent and extremely capable. The question is this - two of them lost the elections and two chickened out from contesting. What right have they got to be ministers? Are there no people in the 543 elected who can perform the role of a minister? How correct is it to rub losers on our heads? The point is simple. If you lost Lok Sabha, you are not eligible for Rajya Sabha for the complete term of Lok Sabha. If you haven’t contested, you don’t have the right to be a Minister. And there should be no hopping between states for Rajya Sabha - once you are an MP from a state, you cannot shift to a different one. Also, there should be a limit to the number of times a politician can become a Rajya Sabha MP.
Next, let’s move towards the Parliamentary debate. The bill didn’t pass. It can also mean that Jairam Ramesh, as an MP from Andhra Pradesh is not capable enough to get the  bill passed. Since he is elected by the Legislative Assembly of Andhra Pradesh, can the Assembly of Andhra Pradesh excercise it’s right to recall him from Rajya Sabha and replace him with someone else? Else, are we saying, once elected, we don’t have any option but to tolerate him till the end of his term, even if he is nominated? May be, the same thing can be extended to any nominated position - the right to recall a non-performer. It will surely open a can of worms where opposition nominateds can be forced to march back just because they are of a different party and what not, but this can be a start to make the composition more rational and responsible.

Sunday 24 July 2016

Medical Facilities - Essential Services or Business Opportunities?

दानधर्मतपस्तीर्थस्नानादिक्लेशवर्जितम् |
प्रदर्शयन्ति लोकेभ्यः स्वर्गमार्गं चिकित्सकाः ||
Yesterday, I thought to go to a hospital to get my eyes checked. Searching for the route, first, I went to Sankara Netralaya. Well, as usual, you can’t go there without an appointment. Then I checked if there are any other good ones. I found another eminent chain, with multiple branches. First I tried Kilpauk. Though the address is given on the main road, it was no where to be seen. Then, directly, I went to Vadapalani thinking it to be either the Chennai main branch or one of the primary branches of Chennai. After all, the number of search results I was getting for this branch made me think so. Now, enter the hospital. Not so big, I immediately got a doubt but took the plunge. Next doubt when told that they take only cash - not debit cards. An eminent hospital chain in India, even though, an acquired branch, you take only cash? Is there no standardisation? No one was ready to listen to my problem. They got a sight check, which I know, is slightly less than .25 - this was done three times, as if that’s the only things the doctors and the attendants know in the hospital. Then, they gave some eye drops. It took almost five hours after that for my vision to be normal. My situation was that bad that I had to ask my friend who accompanied me to dictate the menu in the hotel. Then, I go to the doctor. The problem was eye spasms - is it blepharospasm, is it due to worklife stress, is it vertigo, is it something else, he doesn’t bother. The answer, it’s a habit, you should control it. What the hell? If it is a habit, why would I go to an opthamologist? I would rather go to a neural. I came here because this is a neuro-opthalmic problem, not because I am bored or I have got money to waste. Every chain going on an acquisition spree should note this fundamental thing - it’s quality for which people come to you. Be ready to boot out the doctors who don’t confirm to your standards and maintain similar standards all across your hospitals.
Now, add two more news articles which came today - a person by name Archana Ramachandran who flunked twelfth but by impersonating someone long dead, became a doctor. She was finally caught and was debarred. Now, the question is, a person, who is not able to pass twelfth, how did she pass MBBS and may be advanced medicine? What went wrong in our checks?
Next one, over the demand that medicines should be bought only in the associated medical shops. What is the modus operandi? There is a medicine A for 10,000 rupees and a generic B for 2000 rupees. There can be another medicine C given by the same company which provided A for 3000 rupees. Because it’s on a bulk procurement, I get A for 6000 rupees - 4000 margin on a single shot of the medicine. I will not get this margin on B or C. Also, there is a possibility, if I go to open market, I can get the same medicine for 9000 - I know of cases where people go to known pharmacists to get it slightly cheaper than the hospitals. By forcing the patients to buy medicines from the associated medical shops, you are forcing the customer shell may be 8200 rupees - you haven’t told them about B or C, you haven’t given them an option of buying outside. And, generally, how does this operate? The medicine is too costly and too slow moving for a small time pharmacisit to stock ensuirng that the hospital has a monopoly. These sort of things come out when you are forced to go for B or C or some D because you are away from your hospital and had to get an alternate, which generally is city dependant. One of my friend’s brother rejected an offer in a premier hospital chain because of the condition that he should make a monthly prescription bill of 2 lakhs(this was some 10 years ago). No wonder, pharmacies are contributing to almost 15-20% of overall revenue. And this mode, does it not reek of cartelization?
All this forces us to think about the lack of an effective monitor over medical facilities in India - cost monitoring, procurement, options, facilities, centralized medical history and standardisation. These are some of the main things which are mandatory for India to be called a developed nation. It’s a different thing altogether that, medicine, education and public transport should always have government monopoly and we failed there miserably due to complacency and non-accountability. 

Thursday 14 July 2016

Arunachal Crisis - Who is Correct?

A classic example of how complicated legal position is, comes from Mahabharata. Whose right is more valid to ascend the throne? Is it that of the king or is it the son of someone who ruled sometime before if his son is elder than the ruling one’s son? While Suyodhana staked his claim because his father is the king, Yudhistira staked his claim stating the fact that his father was one of the kings of the kingdom and he is elder to Suyodhana. Else, Bhishma, Drona and the other heavyweights wouldn’t have looked at the Pandavas as rebels. Staring into past, we have got sufficient information to assess the story, but people contemporary, were they in a position to decide?
Now, take a look at the Arunachal crisis. 21 MLAs out of 47 from the ruling Congress wanted the Chief Minister Nabam Tuki to get down and gave a no confidence motion. The Speaker, Nabam Rebia, a cousin of the Chief Minister refused to convene the session and gave the date of convening as 14 Jan, exactly six months after the motion date while mandate states that a no confidence motion should be addressed in six months. And to break the opposition, the speaker dismissed 14 MLAs as against the 21 since any number less than 16 is valid for anti-defection law. May be, he planned, once the 14 are out, the balance 7 can be booted out. The MLAs went to the Governor complaining about this and the Governor preponed the Assembly to Dec 16. The ruling party led by Nabam Tuki and Nabam Rebia resisted physical access to the Assembly forcing the MLAs to convene at a different location under the aiges of the Deputy Speaker who was also in the rebel camp. As expected, the Speaker was impeached and the CM brought down in a no confidence motion. The Speaker went to the Courts and High Court rejected his case. He then went to the Supreme Court which ordered that Nabam Tuki and Nabam Rebia should be reinstated and asked the Governor not to meddle into political discussions. In the meanwhile, when the new CM, Kalko Phul was ruling, the Nabam Tuki camp created massive disturbances forcing the Governor to recommend President’s rule. Supreme Court’s judgement reinstated Nabam Rebia stating the Governor doesn’t have the right to force convene the Assembly because some MLAs are discontent. In simpler words, the Governor decided that the Speaker and CM are hand in glove running a minority government and took law into his hands. Can he or can he not??
Now, a few questions arise here -
1. If the speaker or Cabinet refuses to convene the Assembly, what is the redressal? Can a Governor intervene?
2. 21 out of 47 MLAs rejected the CM. Can the Speaker decide that only 15 defected and dismiss them(in this case it was 14) since that is the maximum number which disqualifies them under anti-defection? Once the number is down, can he disqualify the balance 6 as it is less than 26? What is the redressal the MLAs have got in this regard?
3. What is the basis for overturning of a President’s rule, especially if it is related to degradation of law and order? For that matter, what is the basis for imposing President’s Rule? Are there any clear cut guidelines?
4. What sort of action should be taken if physical access to government property is denied?
5. Now, if again, the Speaker refuses to summon the Assembly, what should the MLAs do?
6. Can the Governor decide the agenda of the Assembly in case the speaker is not interested in attending the Assembly?
May be, the Law Ministry or someone should bring out a clear cut procedural guidelines as to what should happen if there is dissent. Else, these sort of chaotic cases turn up every now and then.

Tuesday 12 July 2016

Paid Mercenaries or Cult Heroes?

A paid mercenary by name Burhan Wani is liquidated by Indian forces. It should have been something of an accolade for Indian forces. But, well, all stories don’t have a happy ending. In protest of his death, complete Kashmir Valley is boiling now. As is it’s won’t, Pakistan tried to fish in troubled waters terming him a Kashmiri Leader.
Well, this is a cycle we see after every mercenary of note is liquidated. Note that I am using the word mercenary, not terrorist. He is operating for money, money someone paid for his upkeep or in case he is liquidated, someone in his family gets the money. There is no ideology here. If the ideology is for independent Kashmir, we pity them for being that dumb enough not to understand Pakistan’s designs on Kashmir. If the ideology is for Pakistani integration, it means they are working under the influence of a foreign government which is helping them monetarily. This, again, makes them mercenaries and nothing more.
The only thing this time is, this round of protests and violence is too big. Why did we land in such a situation? What went wrong in this case?
1. This guy, whose name is not even worth remembering is a paid employee of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, a mercenary force offering services to the highest bidder(well, in this case, there is only one). He is given undue importance by the media. A person who should be treated with contempt with media was made a hero by them. Wittingly or unwittingly, does it matter? Is TRP ratings more important or India’s territorial integrity?
2. The violence which erupted in Kashmir, are we doing a disservice to the territorial integrity of India by showing the protests happening there day in and day out? Is there any problem if the news is completely suppressed thereby giving the government a free rein to control the troublemakers?
3. Knowing that this person’s dead body is going to create trouble, why was his body handed over to his family? Being a foreign funded mercenary who was liquidated in a government operation, the government have got every right to dispose his body. A level of decency means summoning his family to the burial site and nothing more.
4. When the protests are spreading, why is there still mobile and internet connectivity available?
Are we saying that none of them can be avoided?
The crux of the problem of Kashmir is India’s incompetence in handling it. There are two aspects of it - Pakistani designs and public discontent.
Pakistan coveted Kashmir and it’s attempt to annex it by force was thwarted. A winnable war, Nehru took it to United Nations only to be left as a festering wound. The UN resolution over which Pakistan daily dances over for referendum clearly states Pakistan should vacate Kashmir and hand it over to India so that India can ramp down it’s forces and conduct a referendum to join India or Pakistan at an opportune time.
Note the things. Pakistan hasn’t fulfilled it’s bargain of vacating Kashmir. What right has it got to question India over Kashmir? Why is India not demanding PoK to be reverted back to India for a referendum? And actually, statistics show that PoK is no where compared to India in development statistics. It is interesting to note that Gilgit Baltistan has got vote to right only in late 1990s. Who in a democracy, except slaves and animals, don’t have a right to vote?
The source of discontent in Kashmir is because of the Article 370 which prohibits Indian investment into Kashmir. Though the reason provided is preserving the cultural purity of Kashmir, the real impact is much different. Article 370 prohibits any non-Kashmiri to buy land in Kashmir. No land means no investment, no investment means no jobs, no jobs means discontent. Though the root cause of all evil is Article 370, it is being projected as a messiah of Kashmiri virtues. These jobless youth, angry against India are the cannon fodder for Pakistan. After all, grass is always greener on the other side. Does it matter if the unknown devil is much worser than the known one, if the torment is powerful enough?
To resolve the Kashmiri isssue once for all, India should do a few things -
1. Raise the diplomatic pitch to demand Pakistan vacating PoK
2. Scrap off Article 370. Since only the Kashmiri Government can recommend scrapping it off, it is an interesting observation that, if a government opposes scrapping it, the Governor, on imposition of President’s Rule can recommend scrapping it off as he is the State Government of the day. Once it is scrapped off, pump in investments to create jobs for the Kashmiri youth. Breaking the valley ghetto by pumping in more people is the only way to sort the Kashmiri mess.
3. Term them as mercenaries and not terrorists and force every Indian, including the press to do that. The word mercenary is sufficient enough to bring shame to the movement - they are fighting for money, not for a cause.
4. Split off Kashmir from Jammu and Ladakh and focus all attention over Kashmir.
5. The bodies of liquidated mercenaries need not be handed over to the families.
6. There will not be any negotiations over Kashmir with anyone. Dismantle/ban Hurriyat and all those which profess Kashmiri independence or merger with Pakistan. Any arrests to be made should always mean permanent exile out of Kashmir. Let Geelani be sent to Lakshadweep and let him preach sedition to the fishes, but he should never turn back to Kashmir come what may.
7. A curfew needs to be a real curfew - no internet connectivity, no mobile connectivity and preferable, no power. Use that window of opportunity to liquidate a few more trouble mongers.
8. First of all, press should be more sane in reporting. Any violence in Kashmir should be blacked out. A single shoot of a person throwing stones at police is sufficient to incite a hundred.
9. Initiate a diplomatic offensive over human right violations in PoK.
10. Initiate a counter insurgency on the lines of Salwa Judum to take on these mercenaries.

Thursday 7 July 2016

Neighbourhood Affairs Ministry?

One of the main things regarding instability indices in today’s world is that they don’t consider the instability in neighbourhood. Take for example, Lebanon. The government in Lebanon is rock solid; no problem. But, can it survive the scare if Syria collapses completely? All this points out to focussing over a safer neighbourhood first and everything else later - a country’s foreign policy should aim at it’s territorial integrity, safer borders and economic well being primarily. The role of an international policeman or an international arbitrator comes only after this. In an area where there is one behemoth and many midgets, the hard fact is that India will have to be the big brother for all these countries surrounding it - help them in their economic and military succour without looking for returns. After all, developing these countries aids India in two different ways - strategic depth in case of an invasion whose probability of occurence is zero and widened scope of investment. In this regard, does it make sense to create a new neighbourhood affairs ministry dealing with the countries India interacts as neighbours? It doesn’t mean that those countries border India. Take for example, Afghanistan. Afghanistan has a de jure border with India but no de facto borders. But, it is more culturally integrated with India than many of the countries. Or for that matter, Iran, separated by Pakistan.
1. Create a new Neighbourhood Affairs Ministry with MoS portfolios in Defence, Finance and Foreign Affairs acting as a liasion with this ministry.
2. Maintain a Belligerent Nations List. This is applicable not just for Neighbourhood Affairs, but for the whole of Foreign Affairs Ministry
3. Allocate, say, 5% of India’s annual income to Neighbourhood countries - 50% to be transferred to the exchequer directly and 50% to be allocated to development activities funded and carried out by India. Distribution of money to the countries is to be based on a formula, with no country getting more than 20% of the total allocated sum. Any venture India takes up, it should contain a minimum of 30% Indian workforce and the balance from the home country.
4. If a country, say China, treats it as alms by India, first try to convince it as a goodwill amount towards a neighbour and if they still don’t bend, hold it in ae emergency corpus.
4.  Any country in the Belligerent Countries List will not get the money. It’s share will be diverted for domestic use.
5. Exploration of an open border system with these countries in a case-by-case basis. Technically, there shouldn’t be any issue whatsoever regarding Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Mauritius today. We already have the same with Nepal and Bhutan; even, open borders with Bangladesh and Maldives can be explored.

Tuesday 5 July 2016

Fashion is a Form of Ugliness so Intolerable that One has to Change it Every Thirty Days - Reservation Policy

One of the biggest problem in India is, we still call those people under reservation as underprivileged. I am no opponent to reservations. But, this single statement forces us to introspect over an uncomfortable truth – even after seventy years of reservations, people are still deemed underprivileged. There is only one logical conclusion for this – our reservation policy is a failure. Any policy which didn’t succeed need not be upheld all eternity in the hope that it will succeed one day. A failure like that should be scrapped off completely and replaced with something else. The other may fail or succeed, but the existing one should go.
Let’s take the Patidar agitation in Gujarat. One single statement sums up the complete movement.
My son did diploma in engineering, but couldn’t get a good job. He now runs his own shop but the earning is not good enough. Had I belonged to OBC category, things would have been different.
Are we saying that because someone didn’t read properly and excel in life, he should be provided reservations? This statement, not just defines the Patidar Movement, but the complete concept of reservation. It is being treated as a privileged shortcut to get facilities which in an open competition, can never achieve. This notes another major danger – the ganging up of a caste to form a close knit group, which can be used by as a potential vote bank by any interested political party. Obverse, political opportunists or persons with agendas can any day bribe a potent caste grouping by reservations and in turn, widen the social fault lines or even, create potential law and order problems toppling governments. Mandal agitation is but an example of how worse things can turn.  
Keeping the opportunism(which is applicable not just for reservations but for any regional groupings like the Assam Student Agitation, Mulki Movement of 1969 etc) aside, below are some of the inherent fallacies of reservation model we have got –
1.     Does a poor Brahmin boy coming to his counselling in torn slippers need reservations more or a reserved quota candidate coming in a Benz or Rolls Royce?
2.     If a father avails reservation, why should his son be eligible for it? After all, reservations is an opportunity to excel, not a privilege and show off. His father has been given a chance to excel. If his father is a failure and if his son is desperately in need of reservation, why should the government be responsible for the failure of an individual? After all, there are many other people desperately waiting for reservations
3.     Should creamy layer have reservations? What is the definition of creamy layer?
Besides all this, we see a selective application of reservations – no reservations in judiciary, army, ambassadorial posts or Chief Minister posts, for example.
Looking at them, we notice one thing – reservation for caste or reservation for social position? Though this is a very big cesspool to talk about, there are a few guidelines we can have in order to have this to succeed –
1.     If either of the parent avails reservation, the child cannot.
2.     Anyone in the creamy layer in the past three generations cannot avail reservations
3.     Upper Caste Economically Backward need not be provided any reservations. That will only rankle the rest.
4.     What are the guidelines to define a caste as backward, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes? What is the mechanism to add extra castes or remove castes from a quota?
5.     Creamy Layer shouldn’t be defined as an absolute number but should be, say, 3 times India’s per capita.
6.     Reservation should only for education, not for jobs. After all, the government has provided sufficient facilities for their uplift and they should attempt to prove themselves in open competition.

7.     No reservations for electoral constituencies. After all, the MP is supposed to represent all the people, even those who didn’t vote them.

Sunday 3 July 2016

The Chaos of Traffic – A Specific Example

There is a vehicle trying to turn on the road. Instead of giving it space to do it’s work, I will zip through the smallest gap available. It may be sometimes risky, but I will do it. Well, there are cases that the window for zipping is not sufficient and we are stuck in a scenario where the main vehicle is stuck in an odd angle on the road with the errant vehicle plugging the gap. Amidst all the honkings, we notice that rest of the vehicles stand inches away, there by, not giving any opportunity to the stuck vehicles place to move. How long does this take, then, to clear the traffic? In an attempt to save a few seconds, how many minutes are lost? All this is happening because no one understands the concept that by giving someone else a preference, the traffic flow becomes smoother and hence, the time spent waiting will be converted to travelling at a better speed. Is this not the story we see everywhere in India?
Let me take the specific case of Old Mahabalipuram Road in Chennai. A stretch of some 20 km from Madhya Kailash to Siruseri, this road caters more than two lakh IT employees in one direction daily. Since all the people are packed in a two hour window, this road is a perfect recipe for a pile up. The real problem in India with regard to traffic is, not following of rules, precedence and trying to fit in wherever there is space. There are umpteen number of examples on this single road as to how mad things can be.

The junction at Sholinganallur is one of the busiest in Chennai. To tackle the rush, they created one ways and split the junction into three individual traffic signals – there is no right turn across the signal. This is a good takeaway anywhere in India.

Trying to make a list of all the things which are wrong/which can be corrected –
1.     There are too many feeders from the service lanes. Because of this, people tend to bypass the rush or even signals by entering the service roads defeating their purpose. There are cases where accidents happened when vehicles zipping on the main road crashed into those coming out of the service road without concern for anyone. Solution – Reduce the number of feeders from the main road to service roads. Openings should be provided every kilometre or so, but not less than that. Another thing which can happen is, anyone travelling on the service road across a feeder should be fined. After all, service roads are to facilitate people who are stuck on the wrong side of the road/who need to travel on the wrong side of the road and not to be used as transit roads.
2.     There are cases where service roads are discontinuous. Though illegal, this forces people to travel in the wrong direction on the main road.
3.     Implement pedestrian crossing signals to ensure that the hassle of crossing roads, especially near major offices is reduced
4.     Vehicles, especially buses and mini buses switch two lanes in fraction of seconds without giving any indication to those who are in the back. All vehicles, especially four wheelers, should be fined for doing such.
5.     No one is supposed to overtake from the wrong side. But, it always happens. How many times have we not seen people trying to getting down of a bus and a person trying to force his way through them on a bike, not giving them a chance to get down? This is because of education, safety and sense of urgency. Many people don’t know that one should not overtake from the left in India. That single act forces the driver to focus on both the directions there by increasing the chance of an accident. To avoid this, two wheelers generally try to drive near to the divider. In that case, at least, there won’t be any overtakes from the right.
6.     Regulation of private mass transit. Can seven seater autos be allowed onto these roads? Instead of paying the toll charges, we see them attempting to squeak through the two wheeler lanes. The best way to tackle them is impound and auction. Else, they will never listen.
7.     Two wheeler lanes in a toll gate should be in the end of the road, not in the centre. Because of a bus attempting to decide which lane to take, shuffling between lanes, we see that there are sufficient vehicles stuck in the back, even if their lane is vacant
8.     Dedicated bus lanes for MTC buses only. Any private bus, if they want to use that lane, should pay a monthly subscription on a per bus basis. Any other using that lane should be fined.
9.     No private mass transit vehicle is supposed to stop within a specified distance from a bus stop.
10.  More number of bridges between ECR and OMR. This will allow the a better load sharing.

The main thing here is better monitoring. There should be an increased number of CCTVs on the roads which the police can use real time to catch hold of the errants – over speeding, lane change without indications, using service roads as main roads etc. The thing needed is a road where traffic flows smoothly, not where people are forced to watch out as if they are in a war zone.