How NOT to celebrate someone else's IPL win !

1. DO NOT hold the cup to your chest tightly as if you have won it yourself. Let the real winners share the limelight.

2. DO NOT call the owner of the team as a city boy from your city. He stays miles away in another city.

3. DO NOT treat the whole team as belonging to your city. You just lent it its name. There are hardly any players from the name-worthy city in that team.

4. DO NOT give away gold medals to the players when your state is under a huge pile of debt. Else, do not blackmail the centre to wave it off.

4. DO NOT become an event manager and puppeteer the crowds and the people on the dais to dance to the tune you want them to dance to.

5. DO NOT also become a policewallah and make people stand in a line. You are supposed to be leading the state not the parade.

6. DO NOT control the crowds. Let them have freedom of speech and expression.

7. DO NOT make the country feel people from this state have lot of free time. We toil day after night to keep the GDP afloat.

8. DO NOT use the occasion of someone else's IPL win to launch a PR campaign. Your image will only worsen.

9. DO NOT treat IPL as Olympics. They are but a mere private sporting event with negligible significance. Instead sponsor a few players so they can win us medals in the Olympics and make us proud.

10. And last but not the least, did you seriously fold your hands in a namaste position when the national anthem was being played? Bow down to thee O great statesman!



Disclaimer: The above is a work of pure fiction. Any resemblance to any person, dead or alive or place or whatsoever is purely coincidental. The writer of the blog does not bear any liability whatsoever.

The President is coming... but why the hullabaloo?

       India is an indirect democracy. We elect our representatives who in turn elect their leader or the Prime Minister to 'lead' the country. But as per the Constitution, the 'head' of the country is the President. The President is generally regarded as a mere titular head with the Prime Minister alongwith his cabinet colleagues wielding effective executive power. The President is aided by the Prime Minister and his council of ministers and his decisions are bound by their advice. Before the 42nd amendment, which was brought in by Smt. Indira Gandhi, it was a mere convention that the President would act in accordance with the advice of the council of ministers. Post the amendment, it was constitutionally mandated that he so act.

       So given this background and the understanding that the President is only and only a figurehead and that is how the legislative elite would want him to be, why this sudden flurry about who should be our next President? Nowadays, I have developed sort of a pessimism (which I am sure many would have developed too). I can't believe that whatever is happening is happening without any vested interests making it happen. And too much is happening for me to actually want it not to happen for the better. So this theory.

       The Congress, which is leading the ruling coalition has kept its cards close to its chest. It has been very discreet about the choice of its candidate and at the same time holding back-channel meetings with allies and like-minded parties. The BJP has been more vocal about its preferences. But, the what-could-have-been-the-coup-de-grace came from Selvi Jayalalitha. The TN Chief Minister went all guns blazing, after garnering support from a few other regional parties like the BJD and tried to portray a 'tribal' leader Mr. Sangma, as the next President. Mr. Sangma on his part too began openly canvassed for support. Never had the country seen any person so openly asking to be made the next President and that too because he was a 'tribal' leader. His party, the NCP, categorically maintained its distance from him and around 8-9 'tribal' leaders from the Congress recently denounced his nomination too. 

       But, the moot question remains. why all this drama? The President does not have much authority or real power right or does he? Article 74 would want us to believe that he does not. But there is a big weapon that the President carries. The Pocket veto! For a bill to become an Act and have the force of a law, it has to receive the assent of the President. The President can suggest changes but these need not be accepted by the Parliament. But, the President can also withhold his assent i.e. keep the bill with him for 'consideration' and let it be there for eternity or till the next President arrives. This way he can effectively checkmate the Government and stall any of its agendas. 

       Dr. Kalam became the first President to use another related power, the power of returning the bill to Parliament for reconsideration. He received the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification Amendment) Bill 2006 duly passed by both the houses of Parliament. It, inter alia exempted MPs from being disqualified for holding certain offices of profit under the government. He returned it with his suggestions under Article 111. This raised a big hue and cry and the real power of what a President is capable of was unravelled. So also President Pratibha Patil has withheld her assent to the Gujarat anti-terror bill thereby creating hurdles for it to become an Act.

       As seen above the President can wield immense power though he seldom chooses to use it. He can be a tool to keep the opposition-ruled states in check but at the same time he can keep the ruling party guessing too. It's not for nothing that the political parties are taking such efforts, staking their own reputations to get their own candidates elected. What the third-front has done by suggesting Mr. Sangma's candidature is to effectively try to have a say in the decision making at the national level which it presently does not have the legislative capacity to do. It is a very clever political ploy which if reaches fruition will usher a new era in Indian democracy where we would have a ruling majority, an opposition and a President representing the third front. What will happen to the nation is something that only time can tell. But one thing is certain. The President is coming.

       Rise all you old faithful men! The President is coming!

Why Congress should call early polls!

        The Political circus in India has taken a drastically new meaning. Scams, defections, crimes are but minor incidents now what with holding the Government to ransom and creating insurmountable obstacles for the State in the name of Federalism and protecting Minority interests being the order of the day. Actions when done in the name of a higher objective should pass all tests of probity and should embrace what can be called a deliberative approach - it cannot be my way or the highway!
        Global ratings agencies have and rightly so changed the outlook for India's sovereign rating to negative. It's the domino effect and this was just one of the last dominoes standing. Our external image has taken a massive hit due to the inability to project India as a land which welcomes investments and supports inclusive growth. India has been forced to hide its face due to the many policy rollbacks and failure to get legislation passed as originally envisaged or announced, much due to the hand-cuffing by allies and the opposition. Take opening of multi-brand retail, the rail budget, the war on tax havens, retrospective legislation, the Teesta water sharing pact with Bangladesh, etc as examples. The list is just endless. Without going into the merits of either incident what I wish to highlight is the lack of consensus and willingness to cut across party lines to act in the interest of India as a whole.
        Federalism is not bad. Nobody expects the opposition to be hand in glove with the ruling party. Safeguarding multi-party interests is not a faulty policy either. But what comes first and should always be our main focus area is India. India as a nation. India as one country. What is happening today is not only obnoxious but also tends to nauseate oneself. India is not your conventional federacy like the US or Australia. Article 1 of the Constitution defines India that is Bharat as a Union of States. We have forgotten that we are supposed to act like a Union and not like a gathering of states with vested interests.
        With due respect, if a Government cannot lead the country to greater good, cannot take policy actions, cannot but sit with hands folded and wait for its 5 years to end, then the time has come to put it in it's papers. And it would be for it's own good. 1.5 more years of self-inflicting damage will do no good. Instead it might result in lesser seats than now. Also, India cannot continue to suffer from vote-bank politics which will be the flavour of the season in these final months. From subsidies to loan write-offs to reservations to money to appeasing gullible sections of the society. No. India cannot continue to bleed. But nobody is blaming the Government here. What India needs is a single party Government and not a coalition with every constituent harbouring different agendas. Rather, it would most benefit India if Congress comes to power on its own strength rather than an UPA-type system. That would lead to faster decisions and an effective climate for growth. Sometimes I cannot but wish the Congress and the BJP should come together and lead the nation out of the rut. But then so much for wishful thinking.