Times of India has just announced Arvind Kejriwal Indian of the year 2013. NDTV had done so back in 2011 along with his mentor Anna Hazare. According to Times of India, in a country of 1.2 billion people choosing person of the year can be as tough as getting Manmohan Singh to smile. With his a year old Aam Aatmi Party (Common Man's party) who would have thought that he will dethrone Delhi's longest serving Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. Well, India do not have to worry about countries like Australia making fun of her unusual surname anymore.
Kejriwal's victory is an endorsement of the people to root out corruption at all levels. True democracy is about making right choices and elect the right person to take power. The common man wants change and the wind of change will sweep into other states as well if not immediately but over a period time. The wind of change is evident from the fact that a number of ex-BJP and ex-Congress politicians joining the aam aatmi party. Truly sticking to what he preaches Kejriwal has refused red beacons and Z-Security which is considered as a status symbol by many politicians.
Kejriwal is a risk taker. Risk taking seems part of his DNA. The story goes that when his father advised him to apply to all engineering colleges, he took the gamble of applying only to the prestigious IIT and he did get in. Similarly when he contested election he decided to face off with none other than Sheila Dikshit herself in the polls and the rest is history.
Aam Aatmi party has no legacy and no baggage of caste, religion and region. Hence fresh ideas and changes can be brought in with the same spirit as their fight against anti corruption. Some critics point out that while Kejriwal is good at motivating party workers, he isn't adept at working with other social groups and being part of a larger team. That he has firm belief in his own methods and style and sticks to them. That it is either his way or highway kind of approach. Only time will tell whether these traits are blockages to his' and his parties rise.
It is a long road for AAP to spread its wings towards other states and it is unlikely that AAP will make much impact in the next parliament election due in 2014. But the political flame AAP has lit in Delhi will have far reaching consequences in Indian politics and the future of India. Kejriwal believes "change begins with small things". He has inspired many with his unrelenting approach of humbleness, firmness and his clean politics. Let us welcome the new revolution of change and hope that other political parties align their ways of working if not exactly the way AAP works, but very similar to its ways. If Kejriwal has been able to accomplish that much, then we can truly say that he has made an impact across all political parties. In the mean time for AAP, it is still a work in progress. Kejriwal and his party have a long way to go.
As we approach one year this Dec 16 into the ghastly
gangrape of a young paramedic in Delhi, the public outrage that had erupted in
its wake didn’t fade away just as quickly as it had built up. The perpetrators did
not get away, the case did not drag on for years. Exactly a year after the
barbaric rape, the discourse on women’s rights has not only persisted, it has
acquired new vigor, more nuance and a stronger, more assertive tone. Suzette
Jordan, a single mother of two who was gangraped in Calcutta, refused to be
referred to as the ‘Park Street rape victim’ and demanded she be identified by
her real name, even though the law prohibits anyone from naming a rape victim;
of the law intern who plucked up the courage to blog about retired Supreme
Court judge A.K. Ganguly as the man who harassed her in a Delhi hotel; of the
young journalist from Tehelka who spoke up against her powerful editor Tarun
Tejpal and subsequently quit; of the women who exposed godman Asaram Bapu and
his son Narayan Sai, landing both in jail on rape charges.
Statistics are shocking. Every 22 minutes a
woman is raped in India. Abuses occur both within and out of the circle of
trust. With the rates of crime against women escalating at an alarming level, a
group of activists has come to the forefront and championing the cause of
womens’ rights. Some of these groups are
very inventive in their tactics. Mind the Gap, stages anti eve-teasing flash
mobs on the Delhi Metro wearing T-shirts reading ‘Main cheez nahin hun mast mast’ or ‘I am not an Item’.
Blank Noise Project, a campaigning community
art group that put a lie to the tired argument about eve-teasing victims
‘asking for it’ by wearing western outfits when they staged an exhibition of
garments Indian women were wearing when they were sexually molested—most, of
course, turned out to be in saris and salwar kameezes.” More than ever, we are
just about coming to terms with both an increase in violent crimes and an
understanding of the inequalities women face every day but have learnt to brush
under the carpet over the decades.
While various groups are doing all sort of
campaigns, here is a very interesting video satire by Kalki Koechlin.
It is heartening to know that more are now
coming out to speak about the harrassments as did the young Tehelka journalist.
Here is what the young Tehelka journalist had
to say about the recent sexual advance by her former employer.
I am
heartened by the broad support I have received over the past fortnight.
However, I am deeply concerned and very disturbed by insinuations that my
complaint is part of a pre-election political conspiracy.
I
categorically refute such insinuations and put forward the following arguments:
The
struggle for women to assert control over their lives and their bodies is most
certainly a political one, but feminist politics and its concerns are wider
than the narrow universe of our political parties. Thus, I call upon our
political parties to resist the temptation to turn a very important discussion
about gender, power and violence into a conversation about themselves.
Suggestions
that I am acting on someone else’s behest are only the latest depressing
indications that sections of our public discourse are unwilling to acknowledge
that women are capable to making decisions about themselves for themselves.
In this
past week, television commentators who should know better, have questioned my
motivations and my actions during and after Mr. Tejpal molested me. Some have
questioned the time it took for me to file my complaint, more inquisitive
commentators have questioned the use of the word “sexual molestation” versus
words like “rape.”
Perhaps
the hardest part of this unrelentingly painful experience has been my struggle
with taxonomy. I don’t know if I am ready to see myself as a “rape victim”, or
for my colleagues, friends, supporters and critics to see me thus. It is not
the victim that categorizes crimes: it is the law. And in this case, the law is
clear: what Mr. Tejpal did to me falls within the legal definition of rape.
Now
that we have a new law that broadens the definition of rape, we should stand by
what we fought for. We have spoken, time and again, about how rape is not about
lust or sex, but about power, privilege and entitlement. Thus this new law
should be applicable to everybody – the wealthy, the powerful, and the well
connected – and not just to faceless strangers.
As seen
by some of the responses to this case, instances of familial and custodial rape
present doughty challenges to even the most adamantine feminists.
Unlike
Mr. Tejpal, I am not a person of immense means. I have been raised
singlehandedly by my mother’s single income. My father’s health has been very
fragile for many years now.
Unlike
Mr. Tejpal, who is fighting to protect his wealth, his influence and his
privilege, I am fighting to preserve nothing except for my integrity and my
right to assert that my body is my own and not the plaything of my employer. By
filing my complaint, I have lost not just a job that I loved, but much-needed financial
security and the independence of my salary. I have also opened myself to
personal and slanderous attack. This will not be an easy battle.
In my
life, and my writings, I have always urged women to speak out and break the
collusive silence that surrounds sexual crime. This crisis has only confirmed
the myriad difficulties faced by survivors. First, our utterances are
questioned, then our motivations, and finally our strength is turned against
us: a politician will issue a statement claiming that speaking out against
sexual violence will hurt our professional prospects; an application filed in
the Delhi High Court will question why the victim remained “normal”.
Had I
chosen silence in this instance, I would not have been able to face either
myself or the feminist movement that is forged and renewed afresh by
generations of strong women.
Finally,
an array of men of privilege have expressed sorrow that Tehelka, the
institution, has suffered in this crisis. I remind them that this crisis was
caused by the abusive violence of the magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, and not by an
employee who chose to speak out.
Thank you everyone for
your support.
The words of the journalist just about sums up the entire point. Let us hope
that more and more victims will come foreward and more will be done on the
prevention for crime against women.
Will you pay a luxury tax for owning more cars in Kerala? If a recent idea mooted by the state transport minister is anything to go by, this may well be a reality soon for the rich and a first in India.
Kerala's revenue model predominantly depends on taxing the poor evident from the fact that the government earned the largest revenue of Rs 5391 crores (USD 873 million) by selling liquor in the last fiscal year. Then comes the revenue from the sale of petrol and diesel which stood at Rs 4527 crores (USD 736 million) followed by real estate transactions at Rs 3621 crores (USD 589 million) generated from stamps and registration fees. The fourth largest revenue grosser was lotteries accounting for Rs 2750 crores (USD 447 million).
Consumers of alcohol, a bulk of them from the poor strata immensely contributes to the liquor sales closely followed by contribution from fish vendors and daily wage earners who are major buyers of petrol for their two-wheelers. Then comes the wannabe rich but perennially poor who keep hopefully setting aside a certain amount every other day to buy lottery tickets. As you can see the 1st, 2nd and 4th highest revenue generation for government is from the poor.
Imposing a luxury tax may be a step forward in an effort to progressively tax the rich. But will that be enough? The government needs to do much more for Kerala to move away from holding the notorious tag of being a so called money order economy. Non-resident Keralites pumped in nearly Rs 75000 crore (USD 13 billion) this year thanks to the falling rupee. The flow of NRK money is predicted to be nearly 40% of Kerala's GDP this fiscal year if the trend continues. Some cite that Kerala needs to start cracking on ways to differentiate the super-rich and the rich from the poor as far as land ownership goes. Can the revenue stream generated from land transaction be brought ahead of the other 3 (i.e liquor, oil and lottery) mentioned earlier effectively taxing the rich more than the poor? It could well be a herculean task for the government. At the end of the day we do need a socialist welfare economy. Don't we?
Almost a year
back I wrote about Nokia’s chances of a possible revival. However, the just
announced acquisition of Nokia’s mobile business by Microsoft came as a total
shocker. It was a parting shot by Microsoft
CEO Steve Ballmer to the tech world. After a somewhat turbulent 13-year run, Ballmer is to retire from Microsoft . Ballmer’s attempts in the past to get his hands on
mobile device business has been disastrous. With the acquisition of Nokia’s
mobile business, I hope Ballmer has not put the final nail in Nokia’s phone handset
coffin.
Back in 2007,
an eccentric Ballmer had pooh-poohed Apple’s entry into mobile phone business. His take was that apple phone was priced heavily
and it did not have a key board for handling emails. The success of the iPhone
had proved Ballmer wrong. Yes, Apple iPhone was priced heavily but Apple proved
that every cent spent on an iPhone was worth it and consumers did not care
about the price if the product was filled with innovative technology and ease
of use. And with a plethora of apps to download from Apple app store , the Apple
gadget demonstrated boundless capabilities. Ballmer in his 13 years tenure as
CEO failed to capitalize on several new consumer technologies and lost out to
Google and Apple.
With the
acquisition of Nokia phone business, Stephen Elop, the Nokia chief executive who
was hired from Microsoft in 2010 will transfer back to his former employer.
Elop entered Nokia like a trojan and as a first step steered Nokia’s adoption
of windows mobile software in its Lumia range. A bold step by Elop but with
just about 4% market share in phone software, windows mobile software just did
not make the cut. To Microsoft and Ballmer it was a desperate attempt to
establish a foot print in the mobile business. We all know Microsoft could not
make a mark in the gadget segment beyond its successful Xbox game consoles. However it did make sense to
Nokia especially when it was struggling under huge financial losses.
Finland’s
greatest success story is over and finns are trying to make sense of what’s
left with some even vowing to switch to a rival phone such as Samsung. You can’t
blame them. At its peak in 2000, Nokia generated 4% of Finland’s gross domestic
product and Nokia was a national pride.
Could this
deal be similar to the failed takeover of Palm by HP? Could Microsoft pull off
a surprise with new innovations on Nokia phones? Only time will tell. Let us
wait and watch.
While Kerala is still reeling under a scam termed as ‘Solar
scam’, the guts of a lad who approached me recently to consider installing
solar panels to bring down my energy bills totally took me by surprise. I asked
him why at this juncture one would market a product when hearing the very term ‘solar
energy’ raises many eyebrows? He said calmly that he is aware of the present
issues and explained the business model to me convincing me that no upfront investment is required. Payment is
only required after installation of the solar energy infrastructure and after I
am totally satisfied with the result. Sounded like a fair deal and his explanation put me at ease as my
apprehension lowered considerably.
As one politician in Kerala
puts it ‘Solar energy has become a dirty term now’. A fraudulent solar energy
company which used 2 women to create extensive political contacts and conned
many has been hogging the headlines in the media. The turn of the events had all
the ingredients of a soap opera such as women, sex and politics to keep
everyone hooked. The question now is, could the solar scam eclipse a sunshine
industry? Despite all the
hue and cry, the total sum Team Solar could raise by offering to install
power units was less than Rs 10 crore going by the complaints from cheated
customers and prospective business partners. But the damage the scam has done
to the solar energy sector, a fast growing industry in Kerala, is incalculable.
An electrical engineer who recently set up a solar energy
solutions start-up with his peers had trouble finding office space in Kochi as
building owners suspect some sex scandal.
Solar
energy had emerged a sunshine industry in the past five years because of a high
level of public awareness about green energy and thanks to government support.
Kerala’s draft solar energy policy aims to generate 500 MW by 2017. Last year’s
monsoon failure and this summer’s long power cuts gave a boost to solar energy.
I
strongly feel that one should not allow a few con (wo)men to ruin the prospects
of such a high growth industry. It will be a shame if
multinationals wanting to invest in this sector and young engineers wanting to
launch start-up shy away from this high potential business segment.
Well folks,
it has been a while since I updated my blog. A number of things have kept me
busy over the past few months and hence I have had no time to get my act together and update my blog.
What prompted
me to find sometime to write this entry is after watching recently the movie ‘Oh My God’
a bollywood comedy film. I usually have very little expectation on Akshay Kumar starrer movies but I was pleasantly surprised to find this movie
taking an unconventional route from usual hindi movies.
The plot of
the movie revolves around the character Kanji Lalji Mehta played by Paresh
Rawal a middle class Hindu-athiest who owns a shop that sells Hindu idols and antiques.
One day, a low frequency earth quake destroys his shop and the movie goes
further about how he fights against all odds to get compensated for his loss. When
his insurance company declines his claims citing reason that damages caused by
natural calamities classified under ‘act
of god’ is not claimable, Kanji files a law suit against god, implying a fight
against godmen who accumulates wealth from the common man. What a novel
concept.
At a time when a set of
fraud godmen commercialize religion reducing God into an industry, the
relevance of the subject is admirable. Questioning the dangers of blind faith,
the film unearths several
hypocrisies deeply rooted in our society and it is thought provoking. It highlights rituals like, in the name of feeding
god, how devotees pour several thousands
of litres of milk that go wasted in some temples when 100’s of less privileged
people wait outside for a single meal.
This movie showcases the various myths, outdated
traditions and customs of most of the religions, which have lost their
significance during current times. However, people in almost all religions and
faiths are still not able to get away with them and blindly follow so many
things in their life without questioning the significance of the same. Due to
such blind following, most of these are proving to be detrimental to the human
life giving a scope of proliferation to all those false prophets and priests
who are capitalizing on the lack of knowledge of truth of the devotees.
When
spirituality overtakes humanity it just serves no purpose at all. Spiritual
paths and practises that distance us from what it means to be human are not
good for humans.
The
message here is, believe in God but not blindly. while following regular faiths
of visiting temples, or other religious places come out and help those who are
in needs.
