When Didi met Momma

My cousin Dorai was visiting India from the US. He is a retiree US citizen who makes an annual pilgrimage to his land of birth. When he is in India we manage an evening together. We discuss everything under the Sun including the Clintons. It was during one such sojourn early last year he mentioned the then relatively new US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. Monika Lewinsky was not mentioned as she was a dead horse. That was when Dorai mentioned that Hillary C was a replica of our own Amma (Jayalalithaa J) - intolerant and determined. It would have been a pleasure beyond compare to be eavesdropping on the meeting between Didi (Mamta) and Momma (Hillary).

Writers’ building that houses the PB secretariat , is a massive red building which was originally built as a residence for the British East India Company's clerical and administrative staff called as writers, hence the name Writers' building. This building summarises the political revolution of Bengal. The Chief Minister's office is also located in this building. It was in this building the two met. As at times I can become invisible i listened in to snatches of the talks. 

Didi (D): Good morning Hilly welcome to PB.

Momma (M): Good morning Didi. Thanks. Congrats; you have managed to oust the dirty commies from power…an act as great as that of Rani of Jhansi.

D: Jhansi? Is it as big as Britain? The country still has a queen like in England eh?

M: Ok. Let us get to the point direct.

D: No…No… No…I will not discuss your direct investment in retail….

M: No didi…I mean let us directly get to the topics in hand…we do not have much time you see….

D:  What do you mean? In Kolkotta time stops when I say so.

M: Now that you are the boss, sorry, Didi I think PB is ready from investments from the US (hiding the fact that the US itself is  bankrupt and will have to borrow money from China or India to invest) …

D:  Yes, Yes. We have plenty of land too in Nandigram and Singur which I denied to industries from India.

M:  But I thought you were part of India and your party is part of the Federal Government.

D:  I know. I know. But if I behave like that they will kick me out before the next elections. If you don’t invest in PB, I will go to China.

M:   No. Please No. We the US are keen to invest in PB. The areas identified for US investment are IT, software sector, manufacturing, deep sea port, tourism, health care education and retail.

D:  That is not possible.

M: Beg your pardon.

D: Retail; investment in retail is not possible. If I say yes now I will not get money from the GOI nor will they underwrite my loans. 

M:  For a minute I was scared. That is fine. We will get into it through the backdoor. Then that is agreed. We will need publicity.

D:  That is taken care of. The Bollywood superstar Sharukh Khan is the brand ambassador for PB.

M:  Oh SRK. We know him well in US as well. What a cracker of an idea! Just send him to US when the chips are down, the immigration in the US will take care of his publicity. Splendid, Didi, splendid!!!!

D:   Yes Hilly, with SRK it seems US and PB are made for each other…

M:   One last request.

D:   Yes anything for you buddy.

M:   Why don’t you change the name of this building to ‘Talkers’ Building’ in commemoration of this historic talks between us.

D:   This way, Hilly and Momma was ushered out of the building quickly.

Maoism is a myth

The census data is the pulse of a Nation. It reveals a lot about the Nation’s health. In the case of India, the recent census data shows a great proportion of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, as compared with ‘others’, do not own an asset – consumer durables like telephone, TV et al. Three states however deviate from this trend; they are Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Kerala. The percentage ownership of assets by ‘others’, in these states is far lower!!!  The worst ratios are in states like Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Tripura, Jharkhand, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh where a large majority of SCs and STs do not own any asset. An ‘uneducated’ ( remember we are not supposed to discuss these while in uniform – and some feel even after shedding the uniform) ‘retired’ soldier like me see in these bold statistics why ‘Maoism’ in its present avatar is rampant in the latter states mentioned above. Whether perceived or real the notion of criminal elements joining the ‘cause’ and hijacking it is unimportant in the circumstance. One obvious truth of the much touted positive and progressive results of the economic liberalization is its failure to usher in an inclusive growth. At best it has helped to increase the assets of haves in a distorted proportion. In the process the rich have become super rich and the have-nots are rendered poorer.

I am not attempting an essay on communism or socialism. Neither is this an attempt to condemn capitalism, for these are only terms coined by degenerate elitist societies mostly for partisan needs and creation of wealth. The recent indiction of one of the crown princes, Bo Xilai, of the Chinese Communist Party has been abruptly purged ahead of China’s once-in-a-decade leadership change this autumn. He has been involved in a maze of accusations involving deceit, money and nepotism. Pure communism too has been a failure. Over the years we have seen that monolithic Governments, democracy, communism are all equal failures when it comes to sustained inclusive growth.

The system of Governance in India has failed to regulate growth. In our exuberance to break away from the shackles of centuries of occupation, the people of India were fed with a wrong concept of freedom to the extent when you request a guy to remove his vehicle which is parked in the middle of a road he says “Does your pop own the road? If you want, get through from the side” (Literal translation from Bollywood Hindi). Exploitation continued even after Independence by denying education to the underprivileged especially those in the hinterland. When land became scarce due to unregulated growth and indiscriminate mining operations the interiors of the country was encroached upon by unscrupulous elements with the connivance of the authorities, depriving the underprivileged their means for sustenance thus giving paving the way for revolutions of the Naxalism genre. The name or the colour of the flag is immaterial here when rights of people have been trampled upon. It is in this light the difference in census data, say between Kerala and Bihar are significant. Mind you the ratio of SC, ST and backward classes to ‘others’ is almost similar in the two states mentioned. When Naxalism first raised its ugly head in Kerala in the 1960s, the notion then among a large section of the public in Malabar was that a Naxalite is one who likes his/her country more than the rest of us, and is hence more concerned than the rest when people suffer. At that time the economy of Kerala, which had not started getting remittances from the Middle East, was tottering. It was not surprising then, given our (Kerala) state of the economy at that time and remnants of a feudal system (my family has lost some leased out farmlands in central Kerala to the land reforms act of the Left Government of the state in the mid 60s) still in vogue a large section of the people probably were Naxal sympathizers. In Kerala the proximity of the common man to the Naxalites helped both sides to see reason before the situation worsened. After all the Naxalites are Indians…more Indian than maybe many of us.

I do not see any proactive action by the Governments of the central states to right the wrongs done in the hinterland. Such movements have never been squashed with guns. Use the Guns as temporary deterrent…but the solution lies elsewhere. Break the nexus of local politicians and businessmen. It is beyond the scope of this democratically elected Government which is not ready yet to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. Sadly it does not care for anything else; except a few people like the district collector of Sukma, Alex Paul Menon. 

     Maoism is a myth. Those Indian people are only asking to restore what is theirs.