Month: September 2011

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A different kind of caste system in Indian Politics & Society!

There is the obvious kind of caste bias in Indian Politics, and perhaps in most countries in the world, where voters flock towards representatives who are form their own caste (religion).

There is an understanding that there will be tacit support for any representative from within his/her community as the common factor of religion will be glorified and abused during the polls i.e. Caste based voting

This emphasis on voting for a representative based on his/her religion is a corrosive practice which destablizes democracies and does not allow the best person to succeed.

But there is a different and perhaps equally corrosive habit in Indian Politics and it too is based in caste.

The caste system does not only specify one’s religion & social standing; for many years it also specified one’s profession. Families led the same profession for years, Printers son’s were printer’s, teacher’s sons were teacher’s, doctors children were doctor’s and so on.

In a similar vein, there is a tacit understanding and acceptance of politician’s kid’s becoming politicians.

This is a relic of the caste system which no-one wants to address least of all the those who benefit from it.

Does a politician’s son/daughter make a good politician, Does an actor’s son/daughter make a good actor.

What is it with the Indian Psyche that presupposes that the children possess the talents of their parents (were the parents even good at their jobs), and doesn’t this blind our judgement.

Maybe 10% of hollywood actors have actor parents, In India it’s closer to 90%.

Again close to 7-9% of the US congress have connections to an ex-congressmen. In india the figure is closer to 40%.

The numbers are again high in the IPS, IAS, Indian Chartered Accountants, Indian Doctors Association and many other public & private bodies and often the reason for choosing the line of work is that you are guaranteed to be selected because of your parents.

The list is long and runs across all professions and social strata,we all know father-son/daughter teams at work.

In my opinion this is not a criteria that we should be bothered about (parents profession) and least of all make our decisions based on it. The best candidate based on his/her credentials will never get the job and eventually we will be left with a weak and in-bred system.

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An Ode to Air India! or as it will known in the future: The Air India Scam.

I have a fondness for the Indian national carrier and am definitely biased towards it. My parents flew for Air India in the 70’s, they met & fell in love at their jobs and I am what is often referred to as an Air India baby. It helped introduce me to the world outside India and helped start a passion of travel that has defined my tastes and personality in profound ways.

The systematic rape of the airline and the constant barrage of accusations have forced me to speak up and inform people of what has been known for long in private but has not been made public.
Air India was nationalized by the Indian Government as it could not start an airline of it’s own but wished to have one.
Even during the closed economy days Air India bore the burden of the desires of elected officials, whether it be international travel or staying in local five stars.
The Centaur group of hotels were dismally loss making for over 20 years, to keep the hotels alive, Air India staff was forced to stay at centaur locations for inflated prices and forced to keep staff at the hotel for stand by.
Cabin Staff within Mumbai were put up in Centaur hotels for 8-12 hrs when they were on standby, whereas previously they stayed at their homes and were informed by phone and then picked up by a company transport. All of this was done to fill up rooms. This way the airlines revenues were diverted to centaur and lowered centaur’s losses while dragging Air India into the red.
Once the economy was opened up centaur was sold off in a hurry and most of the transactions had evidence of crony favoritism and outright corruption.
Now the good part: Politicians from across the spectrum have huge financial interests in private airlines.
The number of airlines allowed to fly a particular sector are limited and hence priority is given to older airlines. For newer players to get these often lucrative routes they need Air India (the older player) to give them up.
As a result Air India is being forced by it’s upper management which comprises of IAS officers chosen by the government to give up lucrative sectors such as JFK – Mumbai Non stop, Gulf Sectors, European Sectors, Asian Sectors so that private players can profit from the international game. Air India’s middle management which comprises of employees who have risen through the ranks, hence have far more to lose with Air India failing than upper management (Pensions, PF’s etc), have been unsuccessful in stopping this loss of lucrative sectors.
Air India has placed one of the largest aircraft orders in the world.
Air India will now be in the news for its losses and how it is financially unviable for the government to run. Losses will be ballooned with smoke and mirror accounting to make Air India seem like a financial time bomb.
Then when popular opinion has reached a critical mass and there is support for the sale of Air India it will be sold to private players, new aircrafts in tow, at stupidly low prices (similar to the centaur sale).
The private airlines, thanks to their political guardian angels, with get new aircrafts at bargain prices and the Indian taxpayer will be left paying the loan installments on the aircrafts for the next 60 Years.
This is how to siphon public funds 101.
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The artificial scarcity of land in Mumbai (Bombay)!

The Mumbai Port Trust owns thousands of hectares of land in East Mumbai (Harbor Line), within close proximity of Mumbai city. it takes a mere 20 minutes on the new JJ flyover from Cotton Green to Nariman Point.

The Mumbai Port is defunct and unviable in the long run, it will remain a port for Military and Naval vessels but all commercial traffic prefers to use Nava Shiva (JNPT) cause of lower turnaround time and newer facilities.

The govt has permission to sell the land but is refraining from doing so because of the builder / politician nexus.

Opening up the port trust land will drop realty prices considerably as the artificial scarcity of space is lucrative and has driven up realty prices.

This artificial scarcity allows the builders and their silent political partners to charge higher prices and to over develop the pre-existing land.

Once the land has been completely over developed and sold they will release the east mumbai land and begin developing that.

It might sound like a good plan to develop in phases but due to this scarcity model there is no talk of parks and open spaces.

Recommendations for open green spaces (which do not make any money) are said to be unviable and the need for apartments and housing is glorified.

We should learn from the mistakes of Urban planners in Shanghai (where open spaces are non existent and traffic snarls, pollution and other side effects of over development are the norm) and instead look at the urban planners of cities that understood the importance of a balance between development and open green spaces.

Letting squatters live on government land earmarked for open spaces and then stating that they have a right to accommodation and the only way to achieve that is by selling the land to developers who will give them a flat in return and turn land meant for open spaces into buildings and towers, is the essence of this scam.

What ever happened to the open spaces the land was originally ear marked for?

Short term gains are trumping long term benefits, unless this nexus is exposed and the greed rooted out, life in Mumbai will prove to be exhausting and unsustainable in the long run.

If you’ve read this far, on the note of Land abuses, I am amazed at how politicians use all public land under their constituency as their own and to be used for their profit.
Some examples are:-
1. Letting squatters live on government land and become a loyal vote bank.
2. Illegal billboards glorifying and reminding residents of the accomplishments of their elected representatives, for reasons as unworthy of praise as aging by a year.
3. Setting up dummy development companies to give them the tenders for developing the same public land which was earmarked for open spaces and then squatted on.
4. Allowing squatters to put up 1 concrete wall per election till they have a concrete house and then allowing them to build one floor up and on and on.
5. Allowing religious functions to trump resident concerns in the desire for votes.

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Are Intelligence & Education a political liability in the US?

In the most recent spat between democrats and republicans, President Barack Obama took a very different approach from previous occassions. He schooled the republicans. He acted like a professor speaking to a student who keeps interrupting with baseless mundane questions purely to disrupt the class proceedings.

This is something Barack Obama can do easily and repeatedly. Yet he refrains from being condescending and curt towards the republican disruptions and distractions.

This makes me wonder if the professorial attitude has a negative connotation in the US, and where did this belief stem from?

The position of President must be an aspirational one, and hence must be filled by an aspirational person. Someone who we look up to, not someone we want to have a beer with, someone we want to have a profound conversation with.

Phrases such as Media Elites, Professorial, are all compliments in a lot of the world.. it says that you are special, have achieved distinction, yet in the US they stand for “out of touch” and insensitive.

This debate in my mind arises from the glorification of the blue collar worker and the vilification of the white collar worker.

But this debate has now been simplified and used to political advantage.. surely there will always be more blue collar workers than white collar workers, but does that mean we start putting into offices of power those with lower credentials, less education merely on the merit of them being blue collar?

More importantly it is a farce being committed on blue collar workers and does not benefit them in any way.

Instead it supports mediocre white collar children of privilege who cannot rise to the top even with the resources available to them and hence choose to paint themselves as people who represent the blue collar worker and are fighting against an elite and cold system.

This seems like a dangerous and expensive habit .. George W Bush is a perfect example of this farce. Born to wealth with immense resources available, failed to do well at school. Could not get jobs on his scholastic merits and then rebranded himself as a working class joe who understood the common man.

He was no good at the job of president, and that should have been the end of the trial with a president just like us!

Barack Obama was elected by individuals who wanted a well educated, intelligent president. One who will quiet the trouble makers and more importantly silence them with his intelligence.
President Obama should flaunt his education and his intelligence. I want to see more statements like “it’s not class warfare, its math”. I think the core supporters of President Obama want him to act as the no-nonsense professor we are sure he can be and bring sanity and discipline back to the process of legislation.

But alas as the topic title says, maybe that won’t win him the next election until Intelligence & Education are revered in the US as much as Military duty & beer drinking capacity.