Crisis of Confidence

Borrowed clothes cannot make a man a role-model. By grafting lofty ideas and senseless welfare measures on an unstable structure of governance, our leaders are leading the nation into a dark world. They have been busy in demeaning and defaming their own ruling structure.

The current Aadhaar entanglement is suggestive of not only the deterioration within India’s governance but also its general crisis of confidence. In fact, if there is one country in which the opposition parties, groups and individuals have been trying to create the worst fears about the nation and the government, it is India. Now, people live under mistrust and fears created by the opponent of the present government.

Even if we avoid the theoretical and ethical critiques of the welfare state, made by left-wingers and other left thinkers, we will find an innate contradiction in welfarist and governance as it was practised in India. Right from the independence, policy and decision makers of sovereign India have disregarded a basic truth: that the welfare state is first and primary, a state and not a playground for the power hunting individuals.

They have used or rather misused most of their power and resources on making their vote banks and expanding welfarist measures to them to consolidate their vote banks. In this, the institutions suffered. They did not strengthen the institutions of the state, which are necessary for a welfare state. Now, for their failures, they blame the present government.

This bewilderment has eroded the credibility of almost all the institutions. Judiciary, CBI, Police, ED, Income Tax Department, Election Commission, EVM, Media, Defence, Universities etc are a victim of the crisis of confidence. People doubt their honesty and integrity.

Nation followed the British system blindly. Britishers enacted the laws and devised policies to further their own kingdom. They created institutions to perpetuate and strengthen the Empire. They propped up the extortionist land revenue structure to boost the exchequer. They made economic policy that supported the manufacturers of Manchester, London and Lancashire rather than those of Kanpur, Surat and Bombay. Even then, they developed India without any corruption.

They designed an administration to suppress and repress the Indians rather than to give them any rights with an order. They commissioned the police that had least concern for human rights of the natives. Even then, people have faith in their governance and institutions. But they also brought modernity, merit and the Enlightenment ideas and ideals to India. They have tremendous faith in ancient Hindu scriptures and Sanskrit.

That is another story; Indian rulers never follow these good ideas. They do almost everything, which is against the interest of their country. Almost nothing is done to improve that situation by way of state capability growth. On top of that, the Indian state took upon itself a variety of tasks: becoming the main doer of growth, controlling infrastructure ventures, constructing dams and setting up PSUs, regulating the economy and trade, taking care of health and education, trying to thrust a socialistic model of society.

In short, controlling everything, under the sun. But, nothing improved. The situation has worsened. Insufficiency, ineptitude, corruption, commission, transfer-position industry, reservation, casteism, minority appeasement etc in the functioning of the government, has not only ruined the system but created a crisis of confidence.

Our leaders not only love it but enjoying this mess. In their method of governance, the cure for this rot is not a good and efficient government; but the solution is added or, at best, a different kind of rot.

For example, when public distribution system (PDS) marred by corruption, a new targeted public distribution system (TDPS) was formulated only to benefit particular vote banks. It was by and large implemented by all the states in the same manner. Similarly, when the states failed to check the cheating in exams, evaluation and admissions, No Detention System was devised; which completely ruined the education and merit.

The government knew the rot but failed to correct it. In the report of its performance evaluation report, erstwhile Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia noted down in April 2005: “About 58% of the subsidised food grains supplied from the central pool for the PDS do not reach the below poverty line families because of identification inaccuracies, corrupt and wrong practices in the distribution of TPDS. Even the handling cost of food grains by public agencies is also much higher than the market rates.

Einstein has defined madness as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. This is totally applicable to our system and political masters. So, our political masters still focus on making the state bounty more targeted so that they can win elections.

Judiciary was conceptualized to give justice but now it is facing so many problems. Apart from inordinate delays in delivering judgements due to date and adjournment game, judges are fighting like cats. When some judges could not get benches according to their choices, they found democracy, judiciary and system in danger.

Some parties have been losing elections regularly. They found EVN faulty and hacked by the winning party. Election Commission was badly attacked and defamed. The approach is classic. All know the ailment, but our politicians keep trying an array of not only ineffective therapies but also infectious ones, – even when the diagnosis is palpable. Everybody knew that inadequate and corrupt approach but nothing is done to address the real issue; instead, something new with a new name is tried.

Similarly, the caste and religion based quotas and reservation system has proved to be less than satisfactory, but the government aims at an even more ambitious Economically Weaker Section (EVS) quotas. In addition, of course, we are told that reservation will redeem and empower the poor.

More than lack of courage, this is power greed: our rulers are eager to, as Ayn Rand would say, check their premises. The premise, in this case, is that all have failed in the promise of a welfare state. The national capacity has not been used to build truly a welfare state.

All the leaders and people have almost put the cart before the horse, and they fool convincingly, this will work, which connotes that the state can pull boundless load without enlightening the mind and behaviour of the people and without judicial and administrative reforms. Now it has become a fashion like secularism to abuse the builders of the nation; like teachers, doctors, bureaucrats, judges, politicians, industrialists, ancient Hindu scriptures etc but mercy and sympathy are showered on backward tag, poor, poverty, labourers, criminals, terrorists, stone pelters, squatters, etc as if they are doing great favour to the nation and society or they are the victims of the state cruelty. 

So many administrative reforms commissions have been formed but nothing positive has emerged. The last one was the Second Administrative Reforms Commission, headed by Congress leader M Veerappa Moily, it submitted fifteen reports, and the last one was in April 2009. But nothing has improved. The reforms, as initiated by the great Cambridge economist Dr.Man Mohan Singh was to sell or shut the government companies, undertakings and institutions.

It says something about the dim-wittedness of our politicians and people that neither the government nor the opposition is bothered about administrative, judicial and police reforms; they are happy with hallow secularism, largest democracy, quotas, freebies, Sharia and minority civil laws, Article-370, name changing, symbolism and other caste and communal issues.

All claim British was was unsound and insecure; instead of revamping it, politicians have loaded it with quotas, corruption, freebies, divisive laws, branded as multiculturalism and innumerable of senseless welfare measures.

The conclusion is the mess that is India, which has created a big crisis of confidence.

The Republic Day and the Constitutional spirit

The nation celebrates the Constitution as the Republic Day’s Gift. It is a different story that nobody follows the Constitutional spirit but follows the sectarian spirit. The Indian Constitution, the entity of our Republic Day adoration, has been at the centre of a number of political controversies. Due to these rows, the Constitution has become weaker and more and more voices are shriller against its fundamental spirit.

Even legal voices are not fighting honestly for the protection of the spirit of the Constitution. This is palpable, in the latest example, from the way SC and ST Act and triple talaq cases have been fought and argued within the courts. In this matter, we need to understand two things.

First, when politicians squabble over varied elucidations of the Constitution it shows that they, knowingly or unknowingly, hold vote banks only in their mind. The Constitutions has no meaning for them. In showing disrespect to our Constitution, all would have wanted to penetrate its control room, as often as they do, to justify their political positions.

One would never clash over something that is essential without profit. The Constitution also becomes a very commonly played tool; it is just like a tree that has to be shaken every time for ripe fruits. This takes us to the second concern. Always they find morality and constitutionality at their handiness and that is really bad news. As the two functions on divergent ideologies and for them both the issues are on their side and one and the same thing.

These new-generation moralists, invariably lock up people in their own boxes. This is achieved on the basis of caste, religion, language, gender, customs, quotas, Sharia etc, with tough active supporters and prescriptions, widely accepted well-knit followers.  A democratic-election constitution compulsion and greed to votes and power guide them and they justify their approach in the right direction, and for them, it upholds s inclusiveness and social justice.

SC and ST activists and cohorts of triple talaq claim themselves as moralists and claim they actively promote and strengthen unity among people for a strong secular and inclusive nation and society.  It is then the job of the Constitution to set them right these wrongdoers by our basically pre-democratic character, to take the corrective moral ground.

A liberal, democratic constitution is very difficult to made and implement. Here our Constituent Assembly failed. It failed to understand the real and hidden mind of Indian leaders and citizens. They simply borrowed or copy-paste most of the principles from foreign constitutions effortlessly as it requires narrow-mindedness, not intellect, to strengthen it.

Separating oneself from others begins and ends with adoring oneself to disruption. A democratic constitution, defiantly, emphasizes to make one with those who are diverse from us for our shared gain. Therefore, to expect a constitution to correct everything is to expect from a dying man to fight for us.

When the SC and ST Act was corrected by the Honourable Supreme Court, the leading mover was morality and human rights and not the law. When the Supreme Court changed and softens it down, it acted constitutionally and legally, because it cannot allow to trample down the human rights of a group of people. But SC and ST Act case is it known, also proved the limitations that five unarmed judges can have over a violent and armed mob.

One may differ with what the judges pronounced but this is something only other judges can change or overturn not the street rioters. If the conflict and riots raged on this issue is because SC and ST activists realized the fact that they were morally wrong and cannot get the Constitution’s endorsement.

Same, with triple talaq. Here we have an additional immoral issue because it is essentially separatists’ conspiracy as it privileged men over women among Indian Muslims. The Constitution must clearly oppose these wrongs and wrongdoers. Moreover, it is the duty of the Supreme Court to take a tough and uncompromising stand on such issues of equality and human rights. It is bizarre if a liberal democratic constitution allows for such caste, religion and gender-based discrimination.

In these circumstances, a moralist cannot stand but reach out for violence, riot and hate instruments. Yet, once the highest court has criminalised instant “triple talaq” it is now of no significance whether a Muslim man utters these cuss words, or not. He may get only sadistic “cheers” or anything else, thrice, or in multiples of three, but all will be useless and senseless and may take him to jail as a criminal.

If a Muslim man has divorce in his mind, uttering “talaq” thrice in a quick sequence is a futile exercise now, as far as the law is concerned. It is at this point that immoralists come into rioting, but the Constitution and the court will always be the policeman on the streets.

One set of moralists want the man to be punished for simply saying “talaq” thrice, even though those words are now useless and accomplish nothing. This is Islamic practice separates Hindu men from Muslim men and hides the existing constitutional law against domestic violence that applies to all the people equally.

Such laws and practices are against the very spirit of Indian constitutions. These laws are the mockery of secularism and equality. It is not the question of caste and religion. But there are people and vested interests who want to keep such laws and practices.

This is because they are they are straightening out themselves from the SC, ST and Muslim communities by not emphasising the caste-neutral and religion-neutral laws against caste violence and domestic violence. Unfortunately, both sides are forcing to our Constitution, judiciary and lawmakers to make them stronger.

Moreover, the constitution guarantees the right to equality to all the citizens under the law.  It is the responsibility of the state to enact such policy that does not distinguish between its citizens on the basis of caste, religion, and gender.  But in practice, the country's governing system is the most racist system, which has converted the nation into an ethnic-state, where caste and communal identities are the most powerful tags.  In all walks of life our system practices apartheid policy.

The Indian Constitution has faced many such caste and religious challenges and has come out the dark horse. When we look back at these failures, every Republic Day has no meaning left for it. If the Rajpath is only festive but cannot face diverse moralities, have those have lost in caste and religious egos and merged into it.

शहर में जाम क्यों है?

शहर में जाम, आँखों में डर सा क्यों है

इस शहर में पोलिस का नाका सा क्यों है।

शहर में हर शख्स आज डरा सा क्यों है

और रुके ट्रेफिक का आखिर माजारा सा क्या है।

मूर्दौ की तरह, सभी बेजान से क्यों हैं

आँखों हैं , तो डर का कारण तो पुछो।

हर शख्स को एक सवाल का हक़ है,

और हर इंसान को जीने का हक़ है।

सभी सांसे लेकर आये हैं इस जहॉ मे, 

तो सभी को गुनाह पूछ्ने का हक़ है।

कोई तो बोलने की हिम्मत ढूंढें,

पत्थर की तरह इंसान बे-जबान सा क्यों है।

जाम मे फसे फसे, मंजिल कब आयेगी रफीकों

क्यों कि दौड़्ये नजर, सारा श्हर जाम ही तो है।

आज कोई भयावय हादसे का डर सा क्यों है

और शहर को, दहलाने के मंजर का डर क्यों है।  

जिंदा देख हमे आइना हैरान सा क्यों है

दारोगा जी के चेहरे पर पसीना सा क्यों है।

जाम की इस तनहाई मे, मंजिल कब आयेगी रफीकों

जनाजॉ को तो कोई रास्ता दिखाये रफीकों।

फरेबी सेक्यूलरवादी कहते हैं

आतंक का कोइ मजहब सा नही है,

पर एक मजहब नज़र आता है इनमें
ता-नज़र-ये-हद, बताना ही पड़ेगा,  

इबादत का कौंनसा मद है अकिदॉ,

जो गैर मुसलमा के लोथड़े उड़ाता है,

कि इनका खुदा सबको दहलता क्यों है

और इस श्हर को बयाबान बनाता क्यों है।

नोट- यह गाना कवि ने आज तारीख 23 जनवरी 2019 को गाजियाबाद – वजीराबाद रोड पर भोपुरा, पसॉडा, गगन सिनेमा पर दो घंटे ट्रेफिक जाम मे फसने के बाद लिखा। इस्लामिक आतंकवादियॉ के भय के कारण आज राजधानी दिल्ली मे पुलिस की नाकाबंदी एवम चैकिंग के कारण सारे शहर को भयंकर ट्रेफिक जाम का सामना करना पड़ा ।

China is already a world power but India for quotas

India is dreaming as a budding superpower, powerful enough of combating expansionist China. Today, China is already a global power, challenging the techno-military strength of the US and Russia. India is India is miles behind in this race of development.

The main reason is India’s gloomy educational and learning system, passing and producing unemployable and worthless college graduates and schoolchildren, without any knowledge and skills. A recent report on the status of education in schools reveals that hardly 55% of students in class 5 and 75% in class 8 students cannot 2 texts.  60% of students of Class 8 cannot do simple division. How can such a nation be a superpower? Indian reformers and educationists have been finding ways to pass the students without knowledge and skills.

Around a decade ago, China used to export mostly labour-made goods made in factories employing lakhs of workers, like slaves, at very low wages. India during that period became a powerful exporter of computer software, much advanced to China in this high-tech field. It had also progressed rapidly as a world-class exporter of small cars, generic drugs, textile and refined petroleum products.

Today, China has surged ahead of India in almost all the areas. China is the world’s biggest manufacturer of solar cells, aluminium and steel. China has developed the world-class technology, such as BYD in batteries and Huawei in 5G telecom. China has the world’s biggest dams and river linking projects. So there is no water shortage. 

India so far has not created a single global champion or become a known global power in any field. Its prominence in generic drugs has been diminished by mounting dependence on Chinese active drug ingredients. In the field of the software industry, India stands nowhere.

As eminent columnist Gurcharan Das has pointed out that China’s achievement is due to its importance on merit and quality education system has motivated persistently to match the Western countries and succeeded in producing world-class scholarly output. China left behind the US in the number of published academic papers in 2016, though the quality of the published work was not so high. But Indian universities introduced the ‘Point System’ under which academicians fraudulently published papers and articles.

 China’s R&D expenditure is 2.1% of GDP, higher than Europe’s average but less than the US’s. India’s R&D budget has languished at around 0.65% of GDP for two decades. It is short of not just money but quality for research. India and Indians also pine for free and mandatory education bu zero quality.

Even in India Madarsas, Church and Gurudwaras controlled educational institutions are recognized. Madarsas’ maulvis and church’s nuns and pastors are recognized as teachers. If this is the way in which vote bank politics pushes education, India has no future. In China, authorities employ teachers on three-year contracts and dismiss them if their work is poor.

But in India, we have an army of permanent teachers who hardly teach but run NGOs and work for political parties. Even, in Indian universities caste and communal outfits have been flourishing. There are SC, ST, OBC, minorities, Ambedkar, Periyar etc groups indulging in caste and communal politics.

Millions of teaching posts lay vacant but central and state governments preferring to spend money on caste and communal vote banks, freebies and projects offering bribes. Even if some government tries to fill the posts, courts stay them, on one pretext or the other.

No Detention System, Mid-Day-Meal, Transfer-Posting corruption, reservation, liberal pass policy and reduced syllabus RTE etc have ruined the Indian education. Private schools are only money minting shops with unqualified staff.

Cheating on exams is widespread. When the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh passed a tough anti-copying law in 1993, all the opposition leaders came in favour of cheaters. Mulayam Yadav openly led a pro-cheating agitation. He won the election with a clear majority. He argued that without copying the backward castes cannot compete with Brahmins! He scrapped the anti-copying law on coming to power in 1994. Now, cheating and paper leakage are an inseparable part of Indian educational system, just like caste quotas.

Narendra Modi government promised six new Indian IITs and seven IIMs but no attention is giving for the standard. Fail students go to courts and caste commissions which always try to pass the unsuccessful students. China has well-mannered colleges and universities in almost all provinces.

China and.President Xi is strong-minded to become world No 1 in education, technology and economic clout. Raising the standard of education, teaching and research is the top priority of China for this. Late Deng Xiaoping ordered decades ago that China must motivate students to study abroad, ignoring senseless fear about a brain drain. It was an investment for him. After the return, they will develop and enrich the nation. China has a Thousand Talents scheme based solely on merit to attract back top-quality out of the country academics with world class amenities and salaries. China is not guided by the No Detention System, Mid-Day-Meal, Transfer-Posting corruption, reservation, liberal pass policy and reduced syllabus RTE etc. This has significantly advanced human capital and bolstered China’s hi-tech competence.

Compare the higher educational deliberations in India is stained by the proviso of quotas for sundry castes. All the parties and states are trying to defeat each other in this quota race. No political party gives any importance to merit or excellence. We have a powerful lobby behind SCs, STs, OBCs and minorities, but none for merit and excellence. In such an environment, excellence will shrivel while quotas and poor standard multiply.