Well, there could have been many more questions which could have been asked, but remained un-asked in the press conference. Reasons for that are many. One of the most important reason is that media tends to veer towards party in power and secondly, it simply does not do enough home work for such occasions.
In a democracy it is the most lethal combination, if media wittingly or unwittingly becomes a hand-maiden of the party in power or it becomes so lazy that it does not have the stamina to ask the right questions and hold the Government accountable.
No doubt Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh is probably one of the most decent and incorruptible men we have had in our politics ever since independence. And certainly one of the very very few Prime Ministers to have such attributes. But one should not forget that he cannot escape responsibility for the ills which dog his Government. And media especially should never forget this fact.

After frenzied interest over it when the Delhi special cell cops barged into the L 18 flat in the congested locality of Jamia Nagar and claimed to have eliminated two “dreaded terrorists” and arrested one more and two supposedly escaped, the interest has waned. When the Republic day awards were about to be announced there was another brief bout of interest. Some mild questions were raised about the appropriateness of an Ashok Chakra for Mohan Chand Sharma, the Inspector who was allegedly caught in the cross fire and killed during the encounter. And it was promptly forgotten soon after the Government succumbed to populist pressure and conferred the nation’s highest honour on him posthumously.

The Jamia Teachers Solidarity Group (JTSG), a collection of teachers of the Jamia Milia University, backed strongly and bravely, one should say, by its Vice Chancellor, Prof.Mushirul Hasan have however not given up. With four of the eight arrested including, one of the killed, Atif Amin having been students or ex-students of the University, the Group has continued to fight for their rights and the truth.

So what’s the truth about the Batla House encounter? No one really knows even today. The JTSG which released a report earlier this week has raised a whole of questions which are still “unanswered”. The most scandalous of it, for any nation which prides itself on upholding the rule of law, is that even five and half months after the encounter, we still have no access to the post mortem reports of the two “dreaded terrorists” one aged 24(Atif Amin) and other aged 17(Md.Sajid). What’s more shocking and shameful is that we don’t even have access to the Post mortem report of the Ashok Chakra awardee, M.C.Sharma.

So without this crucial evidence, the speculations continue as to how all the three were killed, which weapon was used which injured and later caused the death of Inspector Sharma, apart from many other questions which the report raises. The painstaking work done by the JTSG brings out the many contradictions, for instance about how many bullet marks were found on the Inspectors body. As far as the two boys were concerned, the report carries pictures of bullet wounds on the scalp of the 17 year old Sajid. So obviously he was down on the ground or was kneeling when he was shot. What does that mean? Was it because Sajid in true Bollywood filmi-style, was lying low and shooting when the police bullets hit him, or was he forced on his knees and shot in cold blood?

There is also a picture of Atif with his back skinned. How did that happen? Surely not when he was firing and he was fired back in self defence? This and too many other inconvenient questions have been raised which beg for answers.

Assuming the various theories given by the police is true about the inmates of L 18, firing on the cops when they entered is true, why are the police and worse the Government of India, under which is the Delhi police, not willing to release the post mortem reports of the three?

There is another serious violation of the norms laid out by the National Human Right Commission, which incidentally has not covered itself with glory in this entire affair. The guidelines about encounter deaths says that “No out of turn promotion or instant gallantry rewards shall be bestowed on the concerned officers soon after the occurrence—and it must be recommended–when the gallantry of the concerned officer is established beyond doubt”.

No one who is willing to go through the JTSG report with an open mind can agree that Sharma’s “gallantry is established beyond doubt”.

But we have already put him in the martyrs’ hall of fame, and the UPA Government will have to carry this burden forever of having violated the NHRC guideline. Unfortunately even the widow and children of Mohan Chand Sharma cannot be as proud as the widows and children of co-awardees Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte, Maj. Sandeep Unnikrishnan and others. In fact it is this hasty and populist decision, which can even sabotage any efforts to bring out the truth behind the encounter, unless the new Home Minister shows the courage and conviction to find out the truth.

The NHRC has unfortunately tried to wash its hands off the affair, claiming it can’t indulge in a parallel enquiry when already investigations and prosecution is on. But as Colin Gonsalves, the gutsy human rights lawyer, pointed out at the release of the report, “dammit, the whole idea of constituting the NHRC was to ensure that they conduct a parallel enquiry, so that cops who indulge in wrong doing are not allowed to get away scot free”. In fact the other NHRC guideline says that “a magisterial inquiry must invariably be held in all cases of death which occur in the course of police action”. And in this case no such inquiry has been ordered even after five and half months. Worse the Lt.Governor of Delhi even refused to grant permission for such an inquiry. On what grounds and authority did the Lt.Governor refuse a mandated magisterial inquiry?

The 58 page report is an eye opener to many irregularities and illegalities which have been perpetrated ever since the Delhi serial blasts on Sept.13, 2008—-by the Delhi police special cell, the contradictions and confusion created by the media, the pussy footedness of the NHRC and most sadly the helplessness of the dozens and dozens of people randomly suspected and picked up for being involved in terrorism and tortured and let off for lack of any evidence.

Let us assume that all this is exaggerated or not true or just some “minor excesses committed” in combating the dreaded curse which has befallen on many parts of the world, as many including a section of the media believes it to be. The question to those who argue on these lines is if that be the case, why should the authorities than resist a probe?

Is it their argument that we should ignore the rule of law and abandon all norms of fairplay? Can political parties explain their silence in the face of basic laws and norms being abandoned?

Can we as a democracy afford to sweep under the carpet all these questions which are staring us on the face, not to mention the fear in the minds and faces of an entire community, whom every political party tries to woo in this election season?

Should this be allowed to be an issue concerning just one minority community, which no doubt is infested with a section, which in its misguided zeal is making common cause with terrorist thought and actions. Is it not an issue which people of every community, caste and religion needs to be exercised about, and not just the JTSG?

So will the coming campaign season see voters asking every political party to put on the table their agenda not just about tackling terrorism, but how they will tackle it? And will the UPA Government, before it starts going to the people seeking another term in office, undo the damage it has done to the concept of rule of law by ordering an inquiry into the Batla House encounter?

The call was from friend Nancy Gustaffson Radoff, an American lawyer, who could not even wait for Obama to settle down back in his chair, for her to share her thoughts of the moment. Within moments of the conversation began, she just broke down and wept like a baby across the trans-continental telephone line. “You just don’t know what it means to me, Girish”, she sobbed. A couple of days earlier, she had mailed a short note from Washington DC, where she had reached just to be near the place of history being made, though she had no intention to be at the inauguration itself among the teeming millions, due to her ill health. It explained what it meant to her.

She wrote, “I can hardly explain what it means to me to see this moment arrive. I grew up when the civil rights movement in America was at its peak, and remember the speeches and terrible deaths of JFK and Martin Luther King, Jr. I never met in person anyone who was not my own white color until I was 11 years old, simply because the neighborhood where I lived was segregated by chance and opportunity to succeed, not because of any intentional plan. But I was with the struggling underclass emotionally all my life from what I saw in papers and on the TV. As a child I cried when I heard and saw news of the assassinations of those hopeful leaders of a new America. Now I was looking right at the site of the swearing in of the first black president of our country, something I surely didn’t expect to see any time soon, and seated next to me, not a white man but an Indian man. What awesome changes have happened in my life, and what a moment this is to be here in Washington”.

For Nancy and her millions of white American brethren it was a moment of personal catharsis, and as she said, through the sobs, the undoing of what they had done to their country in the last eight years. “For the last eight years I wore a black band on my wrist saying, ‘I didn’t vote for George Bush’ and now to see this happening in front of my eyes—-” she trailed off unable to control herself.

After the many moments of silence over the long distance line, interspersed by her attempts to get hold of herself, Nancy trailed off, “I hope we will again be looked upto by the world” or words to that effect, as it was difficult to remember the exact words, as one tried to control one’s emotions too.

After having overcome this deeply emotional interaction, when one looked at the whole process of the extra-ordinarily historic transformation, what struck one was how much India as a secular democracy is different from America. Both democracies pride on its constitution and traditions to keep religion out of statecraft. Yet the American Presidential oath taking is a quasi- religious affair, with President-elect making a highly publicized and tradition-bound visit to Church minutes before taking oath. The swearing in ceremony itself is replete with Christian religious symbolism, with a Reverend making a speech, apparently spiritual in nature. The President-elect takes oath with his hand on a bible, held by his wife. There are soul singers who sings very religious./spiritual song at the ceremony.

But look at what happens in India. For one we don’t have priests or mullahs or pastors praying at the oath taking ceremonies of any of our elected chief executives. We don’t have a Bhagavad Geeta or a bible or a quran being employed to take the oath. In fact there are no religious symbols on display during the entire exercise, either constitutionally mandated or tradition bound. One wonders what if the President-elect of USA ever is a non-believer or does not keep faith in Christianity. Simple answer is they have no hope in hell to get elected.

In India we have the oaths administered to Prime Ministers, Ministers and Chief Ministers which give room for both believers and non-believers, and there is no big deal made out of it. We have had several people take oath as Ministers and Chief Ministers by avowing in the name of “truth” and not “god”, which is perfectly acceptable in the Constitution. Some of the names in the recent times which come to mind are that of Jyoti Basu, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and other communist leaders, which is not a surprise at all. But we have had even non-communist leaders like Sharad Pawar, Jaipal Reddy, Mani Shankar Aiyar in recent times and yes, of course, even Pramod Mahajan, preferring the oath “in the name of truth” instead of god. And it has never affected their politics or their standing.

Obama tried to make up for this heavily Christian oriented ceremony by mentioning in his speech, how America is a “nation of Christians, Muslims, Jews and Hindus and non-believers”. The enormous challenge he faces is to take all of them along not just in his own country, but also across the world. One should remember that he has taken over a country which is deeply divided not only in religious and racial terms, but also in political terms. As we have seen in India a secular constitution alone does not ensure a society bereft of communal hatred. And in America too, an African American entering the White House will not end the racial division. It is a long haul ahead. American people like Nancy, however have done well by themselves ensuring that their country embark on the road to being a better nation and hopefully also ensure a better world. There is no more time to lose in this task, for Obama now.

Whether one can term it as his genius that he managed to project his company the way he did, and hid from the world the rot within his company so successfully for so long, and that he finally had to act as his own whistleblower, speaks volumes of the state of business and corporate scrutiny in this country.

As the drama unfolded on Wednesday on the TV screens through the day, many a hearts were aflutter, not the least that of the 53,000 employees and their families and lakhs of investors who had put faith in the company, which was over the years described in glowing terms. Surely all those people who had showered encomiums for his corporate genius and what not and had even bestowed him with awards must have felt like hiding their faces from the world. Big names of the industry and corporate world like K.V.Kamath, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Kumarmangalam Birla, and S.Ramadorai had been on a jury last year which named him as the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the year award. The previous awardees included, Ratan Tata, Narayana Murthy, Sunil Mittal and Mukesh Ambani, indicating its prestige value.

For all of them more than anything it is the sense of being cheated which must have left the bitterest taste in their mouth, which was evident from the shocked remarks of people like Narayana Murthy and Anand Mahindra to name a few. All of them had to put up a brave face to convince the world that Satyam was an aberration and not the rule in Indian corporate and technology world. How far they have succeeded time will tell.

How and why do people like Ramalinga Raju flourish in this world? How do they escape the scrutiny for so long and manage to gain so much power and respectability? To understand this, even after the Maytas disaster, which originally brought out a glimpse of the rot in the Satyam world, everyone including the media was unwilling to see this billionaire in real light. Reports since Maytas fiasco, a real estate arm of the Raju family, which was sought to be merged with Satyam, also gave no indication of the extent of fraud which had been perpetrated.

Here lies the role of the media, which in the last couple of decades and more so in the last decade or so, has been completely controlled by the corporate interests. These corporate entities, some of the most powerful in the world dictate virtually what is reported or not reported when it comes to business. The most recent example of the way in which the media virtually closed its eyes to one of the biggest scandals of corporate history, which in fact is yet to unfold , was the Ambani brothers feud. That we still don’t know anything about the allegations made by the brothers against each other of the wrong doings in their respective corporate businesses, and that media only touched the periphery before it mysteriously clamped up, is an indication of the power wielded by these houses.
The media was of course used by both brothers to their respective advantage and when they decided to bury the hatchet, the media also played ball. Everyday in the newsrooms of newspapers and magazines and TV channels, hundreds of journalists face this frustration of their stories being killed.

Ever since the opening up of the economy in this country in the early nineties most of the media has been eating out of the hands of the corporate brand builders. These johny-come-latelys, who are the most sought after by the pink media and their counterparts in the increasingly pinkish general media, have made it an art to sell anyone to the world. Overnight a grape farmer or a real estate dealer can be polished and presented as the next best thing of the corporate world, and the media is too eager to lap it up. The puffed up stories on these so-called geniuses of the business and corporate world are consistently sold across the media and in no time the brand managers are laughing all their way to the bank. Not to talk of their clients who climb a few steps up towards their goal of being the richest, the most powerful etc.

The eager cooperation of the media is sufficiently compensated by the ads and paid editorial pages and programmes on TV. Any reporter or correspondent in the media is aware or if not, made aware pretty early, of the holy cows in the corporate and business world , and how they are off limits for any scrutiny. No wonder the Rajus of this world flourish.

With Mammon worshipping having become the mantra in the media, it is easy for those who are out to manipulate the media, to succeed without much resistance. The breathless worshippers of the mammon and power in the media who flourish on the lists of the richest 10 or 50 corporate honchos, the most powerful and the best dressed, cannot escape blame for creating the Rajus of the world, who desperately want to be on those lists.

Instead of mindless pursuit of those listed through such barometers, the media and the society will be well served if instead it raises its eyebrow about how they got there. It is no coincidence that the media scrutiny of the business and corporates has declined in inverse proportion to the enthusiasm displayed by the journalists and editors to be seen close to these powers that be. It is this incestuous relationship which has hindered any business journalist from scrutinizing the balance sheet of the Satyam and possibly many many more corporate and business houses, which may just be following the “Raju mantra”, but is yet to be exposed.

Hopefully this humongous fraud will wake up not just the regulators and the Government, but also the media towards its responsibility. Pin stripes and Armanis are fine, but how they came to acquire it, cannot be wished away. What is most shameful and should not be forgotten by the regulators, the independent directors, and all those whiz kids in the business media about this fraud is that the perpetrator had to blow the whistle himself. Hopefully all of them will not wait for another perpetrator to blow the whistle, next time we hear of another corporate fraud.

It is not often that one sees hard boiled journalists, for whom cynicism is a part of their tool kit, dropping their guard and shedding tears while performing their job. And when Roland Martin, the African-American contributor of CNN did just that, it did not seem unusual for once. As the channel made the phenomenally historic announcement this morning (Indian time), that Barack Hussein Obama would be the next President of America, the newsroom full of veteran journalists assumed a somber air. As Martin choked recalling how just five years back, it was impossible to think of what had happened today, when Obama had dared to contest for the Illinois Senate seat, his co-analysts, also barely managed to raise their voice, even as they choked taking in the enormity of the occasion.

It was if all these journalists, veterans of many a Presidential election were jointly purging the sins of slavery and racism committed by their forefathers.

It was an extra-ordinary moment for all those who witnessed Obama taking centre stage at Chicago after he had got the concession call from his Republican rival, John McCain. What was most impressive, after the long and unprecedented bitterness witnessed in the campaign, was the grace and dignity displayed by McCain, at Phoenix, which forced even his worst detractors accept that he was a Gentleman. His supporters were however not upto him, unfortunately, as they booed and hissed, when he congratulated Obama.

The race is over. And some feel racism too, in America. But that would be taking things too far. As a friend, a white American lady, who has been fervently wishing this change for the last eight years, warned long distance over the phone soon after the historic declaration, “Look out for that white man with a gun”. Ominous as it may sound, and maybe totally out of place on a day like this, that is still the reality. Those boos and hisses in Phoenix were a sign of that.

It was however a sight to behold as all those gathered in various cities of America, late into the night, wept openly and cheered lunatically at the historic verdict. And thousands and thousands of them were white, as much as blacks and browns and what have you. It is said that this election was not about race, but about the need for change. In fact Obama all through the campaign took a lot of trouble to underplay the issue of race. But when he said today, “It was a long time in coming—–Change has come to America”, the “long time” he meant was not about George Bush’s eight years. It was the 232 years after the declaration of independence in 1776, that he has was obviously talking about. And when he meant change has come, it was about the people of America finally accepting a coloured man in the White House.

In the recent times, probably there is no other US President-elect who has raised so many expectations all over the world. And of course no other US Presidential candidate had so much support from people all over the world.

It proves two things—- one how fed up and disgusted the world, not just America was about the retiring President Bush. And second how much this bi-racial kid of a white Kansas Mother and a black Kenyan father has managed to convince the world about his ability.

And going by the way, the man himself reacted today to his victory—- serious, somber, reflective, no elation, no hysteria, no euphoria—– he knows more than anyone else the enormous burden of expectation he carries on his lean shoulders. And it certainly is not just of all those black Americans and all the blacks around the world, who are empathasing with him like they had never before to a man, but firstly to a nation which stands badly wounded and to a world which stands badly divided.

The cyber world is already abuzz with petitions and memorandums, reminding him of his campaign promises. One of them hoping to have a million messages from all over the world is planned to be displayed on a huge wall near the White House! It reminds him of Iraq, climate change, elimination of nuclear weapons, Guantanamo Bay, energy policy, electric cars——–!

No other US President has probably arrived at the White House with such a massive baggage of problems and demands to set it right, like Obama would be doing in January. But again no other black man had shown the kind of audacity he has to make it to that residence cum office.

As far as India is concerned, it is rather strange that the reaction is mixed. Just the other day, a leading newspaper asked its readers to SMS (text message), if they thought McCain will make a last minute rush past Obama. 48 percent thought he would, 46 said he won’t. A measure of how the right wingers in this country (who dominate the cyber world) also have got carried away. The same right wingers are now saying that Obama may not be the best thing for India, and not so strangely even the leftists have their ideological reservations. The latter feels that the hegemonic ambitions of the US administration don’t change with the change of a President. There are concerns over Obama’s stand on outsourcing affecting us, his stand on CTBT affecting the nuclear deal, his proactivism on Kashmir issue is another concern being expressed.

There are also contrary views— that India is too important now for him to take it for granted. All these concerns can be tackled later. What one needs to savour at this moment, as the world celebrates the phenomenal shift in America is that the country may finally have lived upto the dream of Martin Luther King, when he had said, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”.

The outrage can be seen all around the virtual world. The news websites have hundreds of readers pouring out these kind of statements, and many more outrageous ones, which have been deleted for its vulgar, obscene and provocative contents.

As more and more stories tumble out about the nexus, the connections and the plans of the Sadhvi and her accomplices, which so far spread across three states, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat, the hindutva brigade is getting more and more restive. After having disowned her initially, the BJP whose students’ wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in which she was an active member in MP a decade ago, however, now is in a denial mode. Denial, that any nationalist organisations, obviously meaning RSS’s hydra headed affliates, can indulge in terrorism.

Meanwhile, some of the more vocal ones, have thrown all caution to the winds, like former Editor of the RSS mouthpiece, Tarun Vijay, by declaring that he would like to start a fund to defend the Sadhvi and her alleged accomplices. The same one incidentally was outraged when the Jamia Millia Vice Chancellor, announced legal assistance to the Muslim boys arrested after the Batla House encounter in Delhi, last month.

Well, what is interesting, rather amusing, is that the Sangh Parivar is suddenly on the defensive, and is adopting an age old strategy— offence is the best form of defence. So we see the cyber warriors of the Parivar spewing venom and threatening everything short of a holocaust, if “Hindus are targeted like this”.

They are as quickly jumping to the conclusion that Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and her co-accused are innocent, as they jumped to the conclusion that every Muslim boy arrested or even interrogated is guilty.

But what stands out in this whole surreal drama being enacted is the “my terrorist is better than your terrorist” situation being created. The brave and cosmetic, “law should take its own course”, comments of some BJP leaders notwithstanding, it is obvious that there are a lot of wrinkles appearing overnight on the foreheads of the top leadership. The question they should be asking themselves now is obvious. “Have we created a monster which can devour us?” One suspects it is the Bhindranwale phenomenon which is what one is now witnessing, and that should be a real cause for worry.

It is no secret that this— the so-called Hindus should retaliate—- effort has been in the making right from the time L.K.Advani set out on his Rath Yatra and ignited the baser instincts of the Hindus. This is what created many a Sadhvi Pragyas.

The blood curdling slogans, the venom spewing speeches, had to come home to roost sometime. And now to be outraged and act innocent and say that Hindus can never do it or blame everything on a pseudo-secular conspiracy is the height of denial.

In fact even as these leaders of the BJP indulge in this game of denial, those they had systematically and gleefully prepared all these last nearly two decades, are happily celebrating. “Though I do not believe that a Sadhvi is behind the blasts, I appreciate whoever did so”, a comment on one of the news websites says. Another, a lady, writes, “Hindus will retaliate in future too”. “If somebody can organise for the legal aid to Sadhvi, there are crores of people waiting to help. You can ask in this site itself. Salutations”, writes another. While one more proudly declares, “If she has really done it, I am also proud of her efforts” and adds venomously, “But she should have bombed NDTV or CNN IBN factories. They are fronts of Jihadis and missionaries”.

The poison therefore which was injected during all those early years of developing a political space by bringing religion onto their agenda, has spread far too deeply. It also stimulated many, many of them who got intoxicated with the heady mix of religion and politics, to start the many Jagran Manchs, Durga Vahinis and the myriad other outfits whose primary task was to keep spreading the poison of divisive politics, in the name of fighting for the Hindu cause.

The BJP and the Sangh Parivar can now gloat over the success of their experiment, as more and Sadhvis and their accomplices are arrested for performing the “highly nationalistic task” of protecting the majority Hindus! They can take to the streets and declare that those who are behind these arrests are anti-hindu and try to consolidate their vote bank. They can spew venom on the pseudo-secularists for appeasing the jihadis and the Christian converters.

It may just even actually consolidate their vote bank. They may just even manage to return to power in Delhi and in more States. But what they also should remember is that the hunger and thirst for blood of the minorities, which they have unleashed in the name of protecting the Hindus, is insatiable. That hunger and thirst will not be satiated with the BJP acquiring power. It will not be sated with seeing L.K.Advani realizing his long held dream. And it will not even be satisfied with sending Afzal to the gallows. Or by razing down more churches and raping many more nuns.

So it is not that anyone should be happy— be it the victimized Muslims, terrorized Christians, the secular masses and certainly not the hindutva proponents— with the exposure of “Hindu terrorism”. It is not a time to say “I told you so”. It is a time for deep collective introspection. It is a time for everyone to take a vow that we will all work unitedly to de-toxify our minds and cleanse our thoughts. Are we upto the task? If we are not, these unleashed monsters will devour us all.

Well, if that is not a good enough reason, than the way our stock markets are plunging and our FDIs and FIIs are being withdrawn is certainly another reason. Anyway, now that there is this attempt to manufacture this euphoria in this country, following the passing of the nuclear deal in the US Congress, it is also appropriate to keep track of that great country which is doing “soooo much” to deliver us from the dark ages of nuclear isolation.

Now that we are expected to come out of the dark ages and our economy is expected to be benefited by this large hearted largesse of our beloved Bush, one thought one should do some number crunching. Not being a trained economist—a degree in economics certainly does not confer that status on one— yet, there is no harm in looking at some numbers. One is not sure if all the numbers which is to follow will make a lot of sense. That would be left for the readers to decide. But these are certainly some interesting numbers.

Having followed off and on the US economic crisis, simply because it is affecting many friends there, apart from affecting our own country and most countries around the world, it was time to look at the figures.

When Bill Clinton, that most charming US President who drove the Indian Parliamentarians into a frenzy right inside the Central Hall of Parliament just by his presence, left office he had almost fixed the US economy when he retired n Jan.2001. The US economy was then a surplus economy with a $ 125 billion surplus. What is Bush, almost at the end of his term leaving? A $410 billion deficit, which according to New York Times, may just balloon further in the coming weeks.

Again on the external debt front, when Clinton left office, it was $ 862 billion, while Bush has already run up an external debt of $ 13.77 trillion—- which is a phenomenal 14 times increase. Inflation which was 2.2 percent in 2000 end, is now 5.6 percent and climbing. Unemployment which was 4.2 percent has jumped to 6.1 percent. Those below poverty line, yes there are BPLs in America too, which was 12.7 percent of the population, Bush has managed to bring it down by .2 percent to 12.5 in all of eight years.

The GDP growth rate which was 4.1 percent when Clinton left has come down to 2.1 percent in the second quarter of 2008.

Bush was no economic genius, everyone knows. But the climax of his belief in neo-liberal policies, which he tried to impose on the world, and India being one of them which has been increasingly getting lured, is the latest financial crisis in US. America with its extreme belief in capitalism does not think a moment before appointing CEOs of private corporates to head their Treasury. Imagine Mukesh Ambani or Anil Ambani becoming the Finance Minister of India! But it happens there. So the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, one of the leading investment bankers in the world, with profit being the only motive, was appointed by George Bush to be the Treasury Secretary in 2006.

Just a few months back, when many US economists were warning of the things to come, Henry Paulson said, US economy was sound, and its corporates were shining. And now we see the US doing what Indira Gandhi did in 1971, when she nationalized the private banks. Indira Gandhi was criticized, she still is in the neo liberal quarters, for it. For Americans who are brought up with huge dosage of anti-socialism—left wingers are considered criminals, rascals, if not worse by a significant section—- and free market capitalism the ultimate mantra, this $ 700 billion bail out package has come as a rude shock. They are yet to comprehend what it means and whether it is good or bad.

They are unable to decipher if bailing out incompetent, corrupt and inefficient corporates for their own fault is worth it, both in the short or long run. Their politicians—both Democrats and Republicans facing elections next month— have got together to pump such huge public funds to save the bumbling corporates. Obviously the election funding was at the corner of their minds when they did it, knowing how US elections are heavily dependant on corporate funds.

An American columnist, Ruth Conniff has pointed out how this massive $ 700 billion could have been used alternatively. Ruth incidentally points out that these were all measures the Bush Administration considered as unaffordable. They include;

* covering health care costs plus out-of-pocket medical expenses for all of America’s uninsured—– cost $100 billion
* Universal pre-school——cost $ 35 billion
* Rebuilding New Orleans—-cost $ 100 billion
* Free college education for everyone— cost $ 50 Billion
* Total energy independence for US

With a shift to renewable sources within 10 years—cost $ 500 billion

Instead of spending on these measures which could have helped all Americans, especially the poor and the middle class, Bush and the US Congress decided to rescue Bear Sterns, nationalize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, buy out AIG, and many more on the verge of collapse. All giant financial entities with footprints all over the world, who hated Government interference, speculated recklessly and lost heavily, and now are shamelessly dependant on the US Government to bail them out.

We here in India have been given regular lectures in the last few years about how we need to privatize more, how we need to follow these financial “giants”, and how we are too slow in liberalizing, and how the spoil sport leftists have been putting a spoke in the reformist wheel.

Just before ending, let’s look at a few more numbers to get a perspective. During these last eight years, of Bush administration, India’s GDP grew from $ 1.805 trillion to $5.21 trillion, growth rate from 5.5 percent to 9.8 percent(06-07), exports from $ 36.3 billion to $ 125 billion, total revenues from $ 35.8 billion to $ 109.4 billion. And we are now the fourth largest economy in the world. All this while the Governments were apparently “hamstrung” by opponents of economic reforms.

Hopefully Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh and his ilk in the Government, as well as the drum beaters of American style neo-liberalism and free market capitalism, will sit up and take note. Beloved Bush is not exactly our role model, is he?

People in authority have a tendency to undermine this freedom, whenever it comes in their way. And therefore eternal vigilance of the people and the media is an essential requirement to maintain this freedom. And protect democracy.

It is also a fact that this freedom many a times boils down to freedom of the proprietor, more than the freedom of the journalist. And this is a subject, which attracts very passionate debates within the media circles.

No wonder when distinguished media persons like N.Ram of The Hindu and H.K.Dua of The Tribune, intervened on behalf of the Eenadu newspaper group, the other day during the seminar on the relationship between the legislature and the media, in the Parliament Library complex, the issue became a hot topic of debate.

The two editors, one, Ram, a proprietor-editor and the other, H. K.Dua, Editor-in-Chief of the Tribune group run by an unique Trust, pitched for Ramoji Rao and his newspaper, and sought to make out a case against the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S.Rajashekara Reddy for trampling on the freedom of the press. The two warned the journalists that these attempts should be fought as they spell danger for the entire media.

These passionate appeals in the normal circumstances would have had the desired response as Indian media have by and large stood up against any assault on the freedom of the press.

The facts and circumstances of the present “war” between the Eenadu group and the Andhra Pradesh government however has a different dimension, which needs to be understood, before any hasty conclusions are drawn.

The tussle started when a Congress MP from Andhra Pradesh, revealed that Margadarsi Financiers (not Margadarsi Chit Funds) had started dilly-dallying about repaying its depositors, after the deposit period had expired. He also came out with its balance sheet which clearly showed that till last year, Rs.2, 200 crore deposits had been collected, and the loss incurred as on that date was Rs.1, 100 crore.

Moreover, the MP established that Margadarsi Financiers was a Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) company, of which the karta was Ramoji Rao, the owner of the Eenadu Group.

The RBI laws strictly disallow any HUF from collecting deposits from the public, and it has listed out 21 relatives from whom deposits can be collected. Margadarsi Financiers had however collected Rs.2, 200 crore from lakhs of depositors.

The performance of this company as well as how these funds are being used is entirely another matter. What is pertinent here is that the collection of deposits from the public is illegal. It is quite possible that the public deposited their funds, thinking that they were doing it in Margadarsi Chit Funds, which has a good reputation for decades. However, Financiers is a different entity and not as old as the Chit Fund.

When this issue was raised, Ramoji Rao used all the might of his TV channels and the vastly circulated newspaper, Eenadu, to refute these charges–not convincingly is another matter–and charged the Government of launching a witch-hunt.
He also made out a case of freedom of press being under attack.

It is no secret that Ramoji Rao has openly taken an anti-Congress stand in his newspapers for years and is also seen as a friend, philosopher and guide of the Telugu Desam party chief, Chandrababu Naidu, having been close to his late father-in-law and TDP founder N. T. Rama Rao.

It is also no secret that the present chief minister Y.S.Rajashekara Reddy and Ramoji Rao have no love lost for each other, considering the years of targeting both have done on each other.

It is also no secret that what began as an exposure of Ramoji Rao’s “dubious” financial company activities, has now been expanded to his “dubious” land deals of hundreds of acres of prime land in and around his dream project, Ramoji Film City.

YSR’s decision to give notice to Ramoji about his lands, led to YSR himself being exposed with his excess assigned lands. In a fit of over-smart thinking, he surrendered the lands, only to face the allegations that he had kept the holdings under wrap all this time.

Be all this as it may, Andhra Pradesh is now undergoing convulsions with every other big politician, industrialist, newspaper baron, among others getting exposed and charged with holding illegal lands.

Coming back to the issue of freedom of the press, now would we be fair in defending Ramoji Rao for all the acts of commission and omission in his other business activities, which have nothing to do with his newspaper or the news TV channels?

Should the conflicts with law and its violations by the media magnates in their other business activities be treated with kid gloves, just because they control media? Should any Government take action or dare to take action, legitimate of course, if there is a prima facie case of illegality on the part of these media barons in their other businesses?

And should such legitimate actions be dubbed as an assault on the freedom of the press?

In the Ramoji Rao vs YSR battle, which we are witnessing, does Eenadu or ETV figure in any of the Government’s actions? Has any journalist of these outfits faced any difficulty in performing his legitimate duty, and has any government machinery been used to come in his way?

While all these questions need careful scrutiny and answers before jumping to any conclusions, one also needs to look at the dangers of any blind support to cries of “assault on the freedom of the press”.

It is no secret that dozens if not hundreds of fly-by-night operators and businessmen with dubious track records start media organizations, only as a cover for their illegal activities.

Ramoji Rao does not come under this category as he has displayed stamina, strength and commitment in running his newspaper for over three decades and his TV channels for nearly a decade.

Yet, can he claim clemency for any illegal or illegitimate actions in his other businesses, on the ground that he has been a committed media man? Is this an assault on the freedom of the press? It is for each one of us to judge, before we scream, “there is an attack on the freedom of the press”.

These voices took some time to gain stridency. It was only in February this year, though the Committee was constituted in April 2005, that controversies reached a peak, forcing the Prime Minister’s office to issue a clarification that it had nothing to do with the work of the committee.

But that did not stop the BJP from dubbing the committee’s work “dangerous”, and its ideological parent, the RSS on Feb.26 this year, at its Nagpur meeting, dubbed it as “height of appeasement of Muslims”. The RSS also passed a resolution demanding the disbanding of the Committee, as it felt that it was “posing a threat to the country’s unity, integrity and true secularism”.

Meanwhile, V. K.Malhotra, the voluble spokesman of the BJP, in his typical style grandly announced that his party was asking all its five party-led State Governments not to cooperate with the Sachar Committee.

It was another matter that by the time Malhotra was making this “grand announcement” on Feb.18, the BJP governments in both Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, had already met and “cooperated” fully with the Sachar Committee. In fact in Gujarat, their “star” Chief Minister Narendra Modi himself met the Committee on Feb.8, a full ten days before Malhotra’s fulminations, and the Madhya Pradesh Government had also “cooperated” as far back as November 2005.

Apart from the Sangh Parivar and its affiliates, the opposition to the Sachar Committee had also been heard in several quarters and especially the army, which felt that its “glorious” history of being a non-religious, non-casteiest, non-sectarian force was under threat.

It is another matter that a recent magazine story exposed how it is difficult for a Muslim or a Sikh now to enter certain military and intelligence forces. And this is strictly because of the bias and stereotypical outlook towards these communities.

Now, with the Sachar Committee, having submitted its report to the Prime Minister, and the report scheduled to be tabled in the Parliament next week, the debate will hopefully be more balanced, with the benefit of the figures. Talking of figures, Indian Express has already scooped some of the committee’s findings and its series of articles on it, has sent shock waves through the country.

As Sachar himself said while presenting the report to the Prime Minister on Friday, ” the Muslim community is lagging behind other religious groups of India in most development indicators. The community is relatively poor, more illiterate, has lower access to education, lower representation in public and private sector jobs, and lower availability of bank credit for self-employment. In urban areas, the community mostly lives in slums characterized by poor municipal infrastructure. However, there is considerable variation in the condition of the Muslim community across states and regions”.

 
The Sachar Report will no doubt lead to intensifying of passions and arguments and counter-arguments about the various steps needed to lift the 150 million odd Muslim population out of the ghettos they find themselves in.

There are bound to be differences and vehement at that, about the figures itself and the reasons for the Muslims’ abysmal backwardness. However, what no one can anymore trumpet is the “Muslim appeasement” theory.

Justice Sachar and his seven-member committee have successfully blown the appeasement theory to smithereens. What is now clear from this report, is that all the political parties through all these years, have successfully managed to use the Muslims as vote banks, and done virtually nothing for them.

The Sachar figures should open the mind of the Community itself, and also lead to some deep introspection among its own leaders, as to where they have gone wrong, that on all the indicators except child mortality and sex ratio, they are lagging behind even the SC and STs. Be it education, girls’ education, representation in government services, their economic level and what you may.

So if the propaganda all these years that the Muslims are the most appeased of the lot, was true, they should not be in these appalling conditions that they find themselves in today. In a way, those who had opposed the setting up of the Sachar Committee, were obviously smart enough to understand that their decades-long propaganda will blow up on their face, and no wonder they opposed the survey itself.

Now that the findings are going to be before us, and there is no iota of doubt that a large majority of the Muslims are the worst off in this country and it is time for action now.

This is where we can get stuck in the familiar refrains and arguments, which is already being heard.

Many, and especially the BJP, have already raised hackles about granting reservation to Muslims in education and employment. Whereas others like former Prime Minister H.D.Deve Gowda, Veerappa Moily, and Sharad Yadav among others, have recommended reservation on the Karnataka model, where certain Muslim castes get four percent reservation, as part of the OBC quota.

The OBCs in the north are not too happy to share their quota, and are suggesting a different formula, where the Dalit Muslims get a quota under the SC category. The issue is complicated and is unlikely to be resolved easily.

But it is not just reservation, which will pull the Muslims out of the abyss in this country.

Primarily the large majority of people in this country should overcome the stereotype of the Muslims they have internalized in their mind. Unless that happens, creating an inclusive society, where a Muslim student will easily find a PG accommodation, without being spurned after hearing his name, will be a chimera.

The lessons of Sachar hopefully will not be lost not just on the majority Hindus, but also on the Muslims themselves.

20-11-2006

 
What has however gone in their favour while trying to muzzle future sting operators, are the way in which some of the news channels have been abusing this new form of journalism. In fact some of the operations have nothing to do with good, time-tested rules of journalism. For instance how could anyone justify stinging a few politicians, by luring them into bed with a woman, and claiming how “immoral” they are! In fact, if ever the editors and owners of these channels are ever lured the way those old fogies were lured by such young attractive women, most would have found themselves in the same situation.
 
Stinging film stars by enticing them with never-say-die young women, journalists or otherwise, and later claiming that “casting couch” exists is almost juvenile, and has no place in journalism. The recent remarks by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, cited above, has only given fillip to the political class bent upon gagging the media. Though some of the Congress leaders, including Ministers like Jaipal Reddy, Kapil Sibal to name a few, have come out in favour of sting operations, there are many who do not favour it. In the last few years, obviously the BJP has been the most vocal about bringing laws to curb sting journalism, understandably so as they have been “stung” more often than anyone.
 
No wonder, in the last session of the Parliament, L.K.Advani had sprung up with alacrity from his seat, soon after an audio “sting operation” against Union Minister of State for Home, Manik Rao Gavit was proved to be a hoax. He argued passionately for a comprehensive bill to curb sting journalism.
 
Now how have the news channels reacted to it? It has essentially hummed and hawed, with some channels like the redoubtable Prannoy Roy’s, even hosting a round table with editors and senior journalists, about the pros and cons of sting operations. There have been quite a few discussions and debates in the media circles too. The general feeling among media persons is that sting operations are now a modern and necessary tool to expose corruption, wrongdoing and misdemeanors of those in authority. No two opinion about it, as long as it is public interest.
 
The problem crops up when “public interest”, the most crucial aspect of good journalism starts being defined loosely or worse with a biased motive.

Another problem which has lead to the present situation, where the news channels are facing possible gagging, is when the cut-throat competition of TRPs leads to even mature and independent journalists falling a victim.
 
In fact nowadays most of the TV channels and even media production houses, have set up special teams for “sting operations”. For these teams consisting of enthusiastic but in-experienced youngsters, with pressure building on them to prove their worth, even a cop on the road taking a “hafta” becomes a target for such operations. While there is no doubt that a hafta-demanding cop is certainly a public nuisance, 90 percent of the road-using public, would gladly pay their way out of a petty traffic crime. So the focus on the cop and not on the corrupting public becomes flawed.
 
In fact such sting operations have become so commonplace on every other TV news channel, except for some honourable exceptions like NDTV, that the more serious ones, where real “public interest” is the issue, is being bracketed with the dubious ones. Even the Supreme Court got caught in this trap the other day, when the Chief Justice made the above remarks, while dealing with a case concerning the CNN-IBN, which had exposed the corrupt Uttar Pradesh MLAs with dubious and criminal links.
 
Though, CNN-IBN’s Chief, Rajdeep Sardesai who had gone to the Supreme Court seeking a stay on his arrest by the UP Cops to be produced before the State Assembly, had indeed blundered by ignoring the Speaker’s summons to appear before the House. Sardesai need not bother being taken into custody, as he has not done anything wrong by exposing those who deserved to be exposed. But sadly, the remarks of the Supreme Court Chief Justice has turned the entire debate into TV news channels Vs the society battle, which it should not be. The remarks about people making money out of these operations would become irrelevant as long as journalists with credibility conduct it in public interest.
 
Therefore it is imperative that these news channels perk up at least now, and come together to draw up a code of conduct on the sting operations, so that they need not later regret. Every journalist, print or broadcast, knows the impact of such curbs on the freedom, and how the ruling class can misuse it at will, once the law is in place.
 
In United States of America already a code has been drawn up, which can be the referral point to draw one up here.
 
The American code says:
 
 **Sting operations could be mounted only against persons against whom some evidence of criminality already exists and a sting operation is considered necessary for getting conclusive evidence.(This means no fishing expedition)
 
** Permission for sting operations must be obtained from appropriate courts or the Attorney General.  This safeguard has been laid down since those who mount a sting operation themselves commit the offences of impersonation, criminal trespass under false pretences and making a person commit an offence.(In India this responsibility can be placed on a group of public-spirited eminent people, instead of judiciary)
 
 **There must be a concurrent record in writing of the various stages of the sting operation.(This record could be handed over to the Group of Eminent People)
 
**While the transcript of the recordings can be edited, the films and the tapes themselves should not be edited.   Where there is evidence of editing, there is an automatic presumption that the recording is probably not authentic.
 
The sooner the Indian news channels get on with this job, better it is for them as well as the Indian society and the Indian democracy at large.

23-10-2006