The Asian Age reports on Life of the Poor

In reaction to the Planning Commission’s affidavit to the Supreme Court on what they think should be the poverty line, the New Delhi edition of The Asian Age newspaper has been running a series of reports under the heading LIFE OF THE POOR.

So far three reports have been published. Here are excerpts:

LIFE OF THE POOR – I

‘Govt has no idea how much a meal costs’

By editor

Created 26 Sep 2011 – 00:00

“Come stay with us, live our lives just for one day and then decide how a person who spends more than Rs 31 is no longer poor”.

40-year-old Gajodhar, who lives in a ‘jhuggi jhompdi’ (cluster colony) near Vasant Kunj, is a daily wager.

His day’s earning, he says, is not fixed, but it, for sure, is never more than Rs 250. “What are they talking about? Do they have an idea how much a day’s meal for a family of 5 costs? I have to pay Rs 1,500 as rent for the jhuggi. Minimum Rs 20 per day for water. Rs 50 monthly for my children’s school. Why don’t they (government) live with us and see how we survive,” he says.

(Read the full report)

LIFE OF THE POOR – II

‘We can only eat dal and potatoes’

By editor

Created 27 Sep 2011 – 00:00

“Yes, I spend more than `31 on some days but there are days when I don’t even earn a penny. Doesn’t a kilo of flour cost `18, doesn’t an onion kg cost `20? Look at me. Do I look happy? All I pray to God is let me be born a stone but not poor in my next life.”

Bhumani (40), who washes clothes at a house in Vasant Kunj, is a mother of four. She, along with her family, migrated toDelhifromJhansiten years ago in search of employment. Her eldest daughter is physically challenged. She neither goes to school, nor can she work anywhere.

“We are a family of six. I and my husband earn almost `100 per day, collectively. There are days when I spend more than `31…but there are days when we do not earn anything at all. Although we just eat potatoes or dal, even this is not cheap,” she says.

(Read the full report)

LIFE OF THE POOR – III

‘We live on, but with false promises’

By editor

Created 28 Sep 2011 – 00:00

Every time her 6-year-old son asks her when she would buy him a pair of shoes instead of the borrowed ones he always gets to wear, Indu makes yet another false promise and consoles him again. For 38-year-old Indu’s son, getting his own shoes is like a dream, whose realisation doesn’t seem to be anytime soon.

Working as a cleaner at a house, Indu along with his husband earn around `100 per day. She says her son grumps about his torn shoes every day after coming back from school.

“I am tired of making false promises. You know a cup of tea without milk costs `3 less than with milk. We never have tea with milk…we can’t afford it,” she says.

Indu has three children and so the family of five makes ends meet somehow.

She says she has a list of grievances with the government and cannot forgive it for being insensitive to the plight of the poor.

“Will they question how much we spend in a day? Will that decide if we are poor or not? Do we question the government on its spending or how rich get richer,” she says.

Distraught by the news that she might not be enlisted in the BPL list because there are days when she spends more than `32, she said, “The government does not want to wipe poverty but the poor.”

(Read the full report)

So, I wasn’t quite joking in my previous post 12th Garibi Hatao Plan. This is the grim reality.

Poverty? Thank God, or where would we be?

After many crankings of this feeble and befuddled mind, I have come to the conclusion that it must all be the working of the “Hidden Hand” of the great Almighty. It’s hidden and so you can’t explain how it works.

I mean, how else does one make any sense of this absolutely confusing state of things.

Just consider: There is so much hue and cry about poverty. Apparently, 3.25 billion people, that means, every second guy on this planet, earns less than $2 a day.

Translated into Indian English, it means they don’t have enough  roti (food), kapda (clothing), and makan (housing).

Highly mysterious state of affairs! For, if you check the evidence you would find that as of today, we humans are producing enough to feed, clothe and house every one. What is this poverty non-sense all about?

For example:

Roti (Food):

You can eat up to nearly 1 kg of food grains a day. Breakfast cereals, rice, wheat-based breads of all kinds, and yes, even cakes if you wish, in case you want to honour the great Queen Antoinette’s kind advise,  since we also have enough milk, 282 cc to be exact, at least one egg a day and 66 gms of sugar, so it’s your choice really – a cake or a sunny-side-up fried egg with toast for breakfast. And, of course, enough tea or coffee.

For lunch and dinner, you can have up to 55 gms of fish – a pretty large piece for a fish curry during lunch even for a “fishophile” Bengali, 36 gms of chicken – perhaps, a nicely roasted leg piece during dinner, and 74 gms of red meat any time during the day – maybe a real Big Mac Burger cocking a snook at Big Mac Montek.

And yes, just to balance your diet and ensure that your intake of anti-oxidants, fibre, vitamins and essential minerals are nicely included, you can have at least 156 gms of fruits, enough for a day and also for fruit juice if you so desired at breakfast or at any other time of the day, and as much as 392 gms of vegetables, a bit too much but then some of it will go waste as is their wont ( I believe we in India lose 40 percent of our production or Rs 50,000 crore a year in value terms due tothe  lack of cold chain facilities. What a waste!).

In short, all of us can have 5, I repeat five,  5-star meals every day given what we produce these days.

But if you look at the facts of this mysterious case of hunger in the midst of plenty, more than half of us don’t even get two round meals a day, leave alone even one 5-star treat ever in life. Very confusing!

Even more confusing when you find that:

Nearly one out of four people are overweight while nearly one out of seven are officially undernourished, that means they more or less survive on thin air or at least don’t eat what is normally called humanly edible food.

What is even more shocking, and, of course, even more confusing, is that as many as 29,620 people have died today, even as I write, out of starvation, and if that is a daily average, it means on any given day, if you go out of your house in any metro in India, you would be staring at at least three potential starvation deaths as you would surely see more than 200 people even if you are out only for a brief sojourn.

Finally, water. Despite the Earth being two thirds water and one third land, the only known planet with water in liquid form, etc., etc., 1 out of 7 humans don’t have a safe source of drinking water. Can you live without drinking water? Maybe you can do so for sometime without food -  after all, if the Annas of the world can do it, so can we, but without drinking water? How do people live without drinking water? What do they drink then? If they are existing they must be drinking. I am confused, totally confused.

Kapda (Clothing):

The documentary evidence in this dimension of the case is again equally confusing. Apparently, you have $257 or Rs 12,778 to spend every year on apparels with the global apparel market being $1800 billion, enough to clothe you well for a year, even including winter wear. We produce enough garments, enough fabric and enough of the raw materials needed to keep all of us well-clothed throughout the year.

Makan (Housing):

The situation here is perhaps, even more baffling. Right now every fifty households in the world  can have not only one house each but one extra house for vacations, country retreat, what have you? The choice is yours really because we have enough.

But even here we find that nearly one out of 70 people you see around you are officially, by definition, homeless. That means they are truly homeless.  They sleep in the open or on the streets in case they can find a safe spot.

Add to that the fact that one out of every seven guys you meet on the street lives in a slum.

If you also consider all the other guys who live in inadequate housing to use a mild-term, then the whole thing becomes even more mind boggling – every second guy you meet does not have a proper house or even a proper rented accommodation to live in.

And then if you consider only those having a house of their own, then you are completely stumped – nearly 8 out of 10 guys are kind of permanently displaced persons having no permanent address.

Now, I am completely befuddled. We, the people, produce more than enough roti, kapada and makan by working in the fields, factories and construction sites. Yet, we don’t have enough food to eat, enough clothes to wear or a roof to sleep under. I am quite flummoxed. If not us, who consumes all that we produce?

Then I thought, maybe with my weak brain I had got all the numbers wrong. Let’s go by the copy-paste method where you can’t make a mistake, even if the other guy has made one or several. So, I went to look at the world GDP and per capita income figures.

I was in for another shock. Average global per capita income by purchasing power parity is $10,500 when, in reality, more than 50% earn less than $730 a year. Can you imagine? If, after doing all the work and producing a $75 trillion world economy, we earn a total of only about $2.5 trillion a year, so little, who earns all the rest of the roughly $72.5 trillion of total global income? This is getting crazier and crazier.

Finally, I gave up and decided okay let’s not cry over spilt milk, let’s take solace from the fact that at least half of us are living well. But again several shocks. It turns out that there are just about 1,011 billionaires out of 7 billion people. That means, one out of 7 million people – an extremely rare species. Fine, what about millionaires, there should be many more? Yes, there are, but still far too few. Only 10 million or 3 out of every 2,000 guys you meet – certainly much rarer than the three starvation deaths that you are likely to see every time you step out of your house.

If you now round up all those who are living more or less an acceptable life, although there is no such thing anymore what with climate change and all that, you will still find that only three out of every 10 people can be said to be doing that – living an acceptable life.

The rest of us are living a dog’s life.

Naturally, this situation can be dog-made but certainly not man-made. I mean, why should the vast majority of us, nearly 70%, or more than two-thirds, voluntarily want a system where you do all the hard work and somebody else takes the cake and walks away? It’s crazy, it can’t be, I concluded. I mean, I am a fool, that’s fine, little debate about that, but how can nearly 5 billion people be so foolish?

Obviously, it’s the handiwork of somebody else. I patted myself on the back. What fine detection work to come to the conclusion that this is a sure case of murder, it cannot be a suicide.

The next step obviously is to search for a murder suspect and that means looking for a motive. So, I asked myself who benefits from all this?

“Obviously, the Rich,” my smart-ass Watson piped up.

“No way boy, you got it all wrong,” I said, still full of myself after making the stunning discovery that this is a murder and not a suicide case.

Moreover, I went on importantly, “I have interrogated the Rich and they have consistently given one and only one answer – we did not create this system, God and his Hidden Hand did – and all this time Watson we have been looking for the dog who created this dog’s life. How silly of us, when it was God all the time. But anyway, Watson, I checked if the facts tallied and you know what? These Rich, who are so mean and stingy when it comes to paying wages and salaries to people who produce all their wealth, donate over-generously to God and you know why?”, I asked smart-ass Watson in my own smart-ass way.

They say “Thank God – or where would we be?” and pay huge sums of money to God, to keep the creator of the system and his “Hidden Hand” always well-oiled so that they can go on getting richer from all the wealth generated by the poor.

“Haven’t you heard of the massive amounts of wealth that are being regularly discovered in sundry temples and churches all over the world? Or that, during this Great Recession, there was no dent in temple donations, in fact, they grew, as our venerable ET has reported?,” I asked, and rested my case having provided conclusive evidence about how the Rich keeps the Almighty satisfied for the mighty system he has created in his infinite wisdom for giving free play to his golden “Hidden Hands”  for the immense benefit of the few Rich and acute distress of  the many Poor!

See Watson, no confusion now. Case solved. Everything is falling in place. With the Almighty’s Hidden Hands being the real culprit and playing all the dirty tricks, even the poor have no choice but to perennially look up to him and pray:

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors the Rich, who regularly bum our work and heads.

Defiant Tiger No More

Tiger Pataudi , one of the finest Indian cricketers I have seen on the field of play, is no more. I have to pay a tribute to him.

I must hark back to the only time I got an opportunity to watch him play for India – the Third Test of the India-West Indies 1974-75 series.

Gordon Greenidge and Andy Roberts made their respective debuts for the WI in the First Test under captain Clive Lloyd who had just started on his Alexandrian all-conquering path.

There was a captaincy crisis in the Indian team. A somewhat disgraced Ajit Wadekar had been sacked after the Indian team’s humiliating defeat in England – the Summer of 42 series.

Tiger Pataudi was called back from retirement as skipper of the Indian team. There was much speculation, but most of us had come to the conclusion that Old Man Pataudi could do little better and we have to suffer watching yet another humiliating series loss.

And so it turned out. The Windies came to Eden for the Third Test with two wins in a 5-match series. By that time everyone had begun to write off the tour as a possible 5-0 wash out.

By then, however, Tiger Pataudi had already become Banglar Jamai having tied the knot with Sharmila in 1969. That he would play at Eden sparked off a lot of excitement. And, typically of Bengalis and Eden, there was this unrealistic buzz around the ground that he would lead an Indian turnaround here, at this hallowed ground.

There was bad news for India, however. Little Master Gavaskar was not playing – some injury, or more likely a tiff with the board – I don’t remember the details – but he was not playing.

The bespectacled Angshuman Gaekwad making his debut did not inspire much confidence when you thought of the Windies pace attack led by Roberts who had already revealed himself to be the kind of tear away that he was.

And, Greenidge, Richards, Kallicharan and Lloyd had already proved that they were more than a match against the Indian spin quartet. In the Second Test, the veteran Gibbs had also shown that spinning tracks could mean more disaster for India because then they would have to contend with not only the pace but also the spin of the WI.

Against this backdrop of gloom, the Eden test started with the unrealistic Edenite hope that Tiger Pataudi would turn on the Indian spin magic in a way such that there would be victory here just as the last Test here had also seen an Indian triumph against England. There was faith in the spinners, there was faith in Engineer, in Tiger Pataudi and, of course, in Vishy.

The Test started and soon Eden fell into a hushed silence. Opener Naik went in the first over. One down Sharma was gone at 23 and in walked Vishy to thunderous cheers. But very soon, the other opener, the great Engineer himself, was gone for 32.

Hushed silence? Not anymore, because Banglar Jamai Pataudi was coming out to bat amidst even more thunderous cheers.

And then the tide turned. Pataudi led a fight back that saw India win the Eden test and the next one at Chennai only to lose the last six-day Fifth Test in Mumbai to finally concede the series 3-2.

I remember that match because of several things. As a cricketer and cricket lover, I will never forget them as I have already mentioned in an earlier Face Book post. I won’t repeat myself here except to say that on that first day, Pataudi, by leading the fight back in a way that Eden had wanted, and showing Indian batsmen how to bat against mighty pace, created an unforgettable milieu. He reminded everyone why he was called Tiger.

I salute thee and touch thy feet with great humility. Yet another teacher, who taught me the meaning of defiance, has passed away! May he rest in peace even as I cry.

12th Garibi Hatao Plan: “Budda has Rocked, Ma’am”!

For 11 grand Five Year Plans and sundry annual plans, the Planning Commission and GOI has been desperately struggling to hatao garibi. I mean, completely eradicate poverty and declare India fully free from this festering fistula.

So far, they have failed. Somehow these pathetic poor never seem to go away. Just like festering fistulas freely fostering in all those forbidden firths and friths – they are still very much there as an unbearable pain in the back, making matters massively majorly miserable.

Now, this 12th time, however, these mandarins have found an absolutely brilliant ploy: Just fix the poverty plimsoll at a level just below the average annual pay of the poorest person in the Indian population. And, whoosh, vanish – hat gaya garibi – I mean, poverty? Where, when, in India?

“Me shave?” Montek can now safely retort in case you asked by mistake like that hapless girl in that old ad.

More importantly, now that Mission “Garibi Hato” has been accomplished Cruising along as per plan, I mean 12th “Garibi Hatao” Plan, he can also call Sultana Sonia with great pride and whisper the long-pined- for dhamaka: “Budda has rocked, Ma’am” in his usual US accent, although I don’t know for how long he has now been on a permanent stint in India.

Tough job, managing Plans and this absolutely historic one at that, and also an American accent while perpetually spending time in India. Multi-tasking, Magician, Mission-mode, Big Mac Montek, one must greatly appreciate this Mahatma.

Just like true magicians who never ever do any real magic, only create illusions with the help of various scientific tools, principles and gadgets,  Mandrake Montek has used the simple tools of carefully-done surveys, census, what have you, and arrived at these exact figures: if a person’s annual income is less than Rs 9,490 in rural areas and Rs 11,680 in urban areas, then bad luck, you are not poor.

Actually, all that careful pre-mission homework surveys have told him that not a single soul in India earns less than those figures in those respective areas.

Living even in these conditions requires more than Rs 3,000 per head per month. Paying local party dadas, police and whoever else has more muscle, to retain that footpath space, costs at least Rs 1,000 a month. And as we can see they are existing, so they must be earning more than Mandrake Montek's declared poverty line. They can't call themselves poor any more. Bad luck!

Now the GOI will tell the poor, nothing doing boss, you can’t get any government doles, because we have at last successfully hatoed you. I mean, Big Mac Montek has completely eradicated the malaria-like malignancy that you guys represent because we have now completely written you off  from our books just as we do with absolutely rotten debt. All of you earn more than this poverty line that we have declared and we have washed our hands of this whole poverty business for ever. We have closed shop. Period.

For you poor, that is.

For Babus and a few others, you know them well yaar, it will now be more fun and frolic.

You see, anti-poverty programs will go on because we will again cook our books. We will show that just as the  level of bad debts in the banking system has almost come down to zero (RBI, pp.132), [what a joke?], but it is still there thoda bahut, little bit, you know, “sticky loans” and all that, these NPAs and poverty are like that only, you know.

We keep writing them off our books but they resolutely remain in a rather red roaring resiliently ropy way. And, ek dum, total sink yaar. . The more money you try to spend on recovery, the more goes down the drain – like bad debts, poverty is also like that only, I am telling you. The more you spend on the poor thinking they will recover from this poverty illness, the more seem to fall ill. Very “sticky” issue. That’s what I am try to telling you na?

So, Montek Mama has arranged this Big Mac for us. All that anti-poverty “flagship’ notes will now come entirely to our jebs, I mean, pockets, you know. You will get nothing. This time “Mission Garibi Hatao” is fully successful and you have been wiped out of the picture entirely.

But allocations will go on as we have to still bring down that pestilential penury. The more we try to push all above the poverty line , no, no, oh! sorry, why do I keep saying all the wrong things?..The more we try to pull the poverty line below all, the more all these human rights-wallahs and even the World Bank, can you imagine? .. still keep saying nearly 50% of the Indians are poor – keya musibat hay, what a bother! On top of that, we have to meet Millenium Development Goals, no?

You know, to eradicate acute destitution we have to make sure people earn at least $1 a day? And that is only to meet the the first goal. To meet the other seven goals, we have to make sure that they earn at least $2 a day?

Arre, pagal hay keya? Mad? One US a day means Rs 17,520 of the crispest at today’s rates? Mad, yaar! Humne bola, we have declared, mind you maan, Big Mac US-returned Montek, has declared, that even if you earn even one rupee more than Rs 9,490 a year, you cannot be poor. Ab mantei nehi ho, huh? You just won’t accept, eh?

And you are talking about double that value! You know what 2 US means? Four times, Rs 35,040 a year – arre, what do you want yaar?

You want Big Mac to declare the truth that actually almost every one, or a large majority of Indians earn less than that except, of course, we Babus and our political and corporate bosses chhod ke?

Marwaoge keya? Harakiri, huh, harakari? You want us to commit suicide?

See, brother, you better fall in line. Or else, we will have to go to the Supreme Court and get this damned poverty line passed finally as law.

Then, if you don’t agree that you are not poor as per this legally declared line, we will make sure that you go to The Trial as per law. You understand kanooni karbai?  Court, advocates, judge, clerks, policemen?

What do you think you will do? You can at least talk to me. I can still speak little bit little bit your language, may to thoda bahut Bharat ki bhasha bol leta hu, lekin, what will you do there? They will speak in the language of India, English, English? You understand, buddhu kahika? What will you say there?

You know what will happen then? They will never let you  know what offence you committed, but I can tell you my friend, they will execute you.

Now, abhi keya hay, what is there, huh? You don’t exist only on paper, na? Nothing more than that. But if we send you to The Trial, bas khallaas, game over, samjhe? Understood? Then you will not exist at all. Not just on paper but even on this planet. It’s your choice, think about it.

Just use your head yaar, as I say under my breath, “arre keya bakta hu, aakal rahne se to”, anyway, try to understand, you are wasting my time my friend.  All this is part of the big business of  ”The Economics and Politics of Delusion”.

Understand? What will you poor guys understand anyway? See, how much of my time you have wasted, still you haven’t understood a thing! What a waste? What a waste?

The Case of The Entrenched Honcho

I have never written here on management issues. But here is an exception.

I am talking about top executives, CEOs and HoDs in certain Indian and global companies to be very specific, who catch this, what I have called the “Entrenchment flu”, for lack of a better name. So, suggestions are welcome for a better name for this pathology.

Symptomatology:

1. Entrenched in a chief honcho position for many years, usually more than a yug (12 years for non-Indian readers) . Exceptions are, however, the rule and, therefore, you have some severe cases being reported from people who have caught the flu immediately after managing to jump the queue and reach the coveted corner office. From a pathology management point of view, these acute cases are far more difficult to manage than the normal chronic cases of this rather endemic or epidemic, I am not sure of the word anymore and need a Jeeves to resolve this linguistic issue, E-flu.

2. Empirical evidence shows that the incidence of E-flu is remarkably on the higher side in organisations and departments that don’t contribute to profits or are, anyway, not-for-profit organisations. Let’s consider corporates first before going into the subject of not-for-profit organisations. In corporates, non-profit-earning departments (NPEDs) are as a rule, never under the direct scrutiny of the promoters, shareholders  or, in general, the real owners and controllers of the company. These owners are quite happy as long as these NPEDs go on working smoothly without adding to costs. Take, for example, the editorial and reporting departments of any publication – they only fill up the unsold space and make absolutely zero contribution to profits. In fact, they represent costs  - the basic management principle these days is cut costs, so, the first guys to face it are the editorial guys and that’s because irrespective of whatever happens to them, publishing profits will remain unaffected. After all, anybody can fill up unsold space, and if, by nothing else, with their own shit. So why bother about what they are filling it up with as long as they follow basic marketing guidelines such as (a) have at least one picture of a glamorous nude woman on the page, the more global the broad, the more broad the global reader-appeal and these marketing chaps are always eager to give classes to the moronic editorial personnel on such profound issues, (b) make sure you are writing about Page 3 guys in every page and so on – rather inane rules and nothing much to write home about, but then there you are.

3. As for non-profits, the less said the better. The first mover, who somehow gets entrenched in such an organisation, catches the flu immediately after taking charge and after that his/her entire effort is at maintaining his/her entrenchment – the status quo – in every way possible. His/Her whole existence becomes directed at achieving this historic achievement – Total Entrenchment.

4. Always reporting to higher bosses as to how constrained he or she is from the resource point of view and, therefore, quality is the first victim and growth is the second. If you don’t have the right people how can you produce either quality or go for  quantity? So, the Entrenched Honcho maintains status quo and ensures stability – there is no growth in terms of business nor any improvement in the quality of products and services being produced by this honcho but enormous stability is maintained in terms of maintaining status quo. No one bothers because his/her job anyway is to maintain status quo and maintain stability and not generate either growth or profits.

5. The E-Honcho never recruits despite always complaining to his superiors about how short-staffed he is and how he has to do all the work to keep things running. That’s the key – he cannot afford to recruit who can work and thereby reduce his level of low level work. He has to always show that he is completely and irredeemably irreplaceable and indispensable. His whole existence depends on not recruiting people who can work and reduce his chances of proving to his immediate bosses how indispensable he is. No one bothers because he is anyway not contributing to profits or top line growth, so every one  just plays the game. They say Oh! Yes, we know how constrained you are and how well you are managing despite such constraints but don’t worry, you are running the most important aspect of our operations, after all you produce everything, so we will solve your problem. They know he fills up unsold space and he knows that they are least bothered. So, competent people working under the E-honcho keep producing the stuff whatever the manpower or other constraints just to prove they are good professionals and ensure their own existence albeit sans rewards and the game goes on.

6. Even when such E-Honchos recruit under pressure from their management,  they make sure that they recruit completely incompetent people who can deliver nothing on their own without the monitoring, intervention and as good as complete reworking of assignments given to these new recruits by the E-Honcho – again the key issue for the E-honcho is maintaining indispensability and so his recruitment policy reflects that.

7. This is just an indicative list of the symptomatology of this  pathology and certainly not an exhaustive list. All are welcome to add to the list but for the moment we can proceed with this partially populated list.

Etymology

1. Okay, what gives rise to this pathology and symptomatology? Research done hitherto seems to suggest that the basic pathology is sparked off by a high degree of insecurity once a person achieves his level of incompetence through office politics and office manipulations. In almost all reported cases, it has been found that all afflicted patients spend at least more than 70% of their working hours on office politics and manipulation rather than the work that they are supposed to do. This is a key finding cutting across all E-Honcho patients. That’s how they manage to spend enormous amounts of time in the office without producing any visible results beyond the status quo. To most other employees in any organisation infected by E-Honchos, it is a complete mystery as to how the E-Honchos manage to spend more time in the office than anybody else while doing less work than anybody else. Entrenched research is needed in this and almost all other areas of E-Honcho behavior and management.

Disease Management Protocol

1. There are no non-interventionist medical protocols discovered or developed so far. The only successful protocol so far has been the physical interventionist one of surgical removal. E-Honchos have to be physically eliminated from an organisation if such organisations want healthy growth and survival.

2. But most organisations do not realise the cancerous influence that E-Honchos have on their organisations. This is because more often than not they are headed by even more E-Honchos. So the immutable system just goes on self-replicating itself in a cancerous way. You can’t cure cancer, you can’t cure E-Honchos.

A Word For B-School Researchers

This is a seminal paper on a basic pathology that has been endemic or epidemic, I am not sure of the correct word or if both are applicable and I need a Jeeves to resolve this linguistic issue as I have mentioned before, but the rather torturous point is that a whole lot of deep and entrenched research work needs to be done if we have to find a proper cure. The disease is rather entrenched and I would like friends like Rashmi to take up the strands and develop more meaningful and effective disease management protocols than what I have been able to report here as available and in use at the moment.

Delhi blasts – when will the delusion stop ?

It turns out that somebody, somewhere, in the State, has been sitting on a proposal to install CCTVs at the Delhi High Court. As a result innocent people have died – who had nothing to do with anybody.

As for politicians this is just the grist that they want in their mills. Just read this.

Why should they install CCTVs and stop such deaths of innocents people? Who will run their mills? You want more State? Think of what the existing State is doing to you!

EVERY DEATH IS DISGUSTING WHEN THE POLITICS & ECONOMICS OF DELUSION REIGN.

Neo-liberalism and the question of less state

My leftist friends are probably a little upset that I am calling for less state in my anti-corruption posts  - I am asking for exactly what the neo-liberalists want – less State in every sphere of human activity.

Oh! I too support that position – less State in every sphere of human activity.

In fact, one can write a lot on this issue but I will restrict myself to a simple point – the State is no more and no less than what Engels described in his book The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.

Nothing has changed in the meantime to think otherwise about the State and therefore, people, in general, will have to ask for less state even if people who have already acquired a Leftist label are all for more state intervention.

I can go into this in more details but I think this is a crucial contradiction that has bankrupted the Left ideologically. On the one hand they know that the State is the weapon of the ruling class to continue its rule – there cannot be any debate on this issue because this is very well-known and that too  for a very long time – ever since the 1840s or even earlier – and on the other hand they call for more state intervention at every stage. Somehow, they have ideologically come to the conclusion that it is markets that are to blame and it is markets that have to be attacked and it is the State that can do it. This has resulted in a contradiction in their thinking.

But I think the State is more dangerous than markets. Markets, if they are working properly do end up giving fair results irrespective of the fact that anybody who works under a wage or salary system more often than not or almost always produces value addition that is usurped by employers as surplus value to earn their profits (this does not happen only when businesses face an output price situation that does not allow them to earn enough margins (read value addition) that leaves them a profit like it is happening now during the Great Recession). But this usurpation of surplus value happens because of the wage system and not market system as such.

If you can somehow do away with the wage or salary system and can employ people as equal shareholders (as the employers) then you can end surplus value production and usurpation by a few. So the structural question of ownership and control of resources is more important than the market system because if ownership and control of resources become common it is possible to think of having a non-exploitative market  system to continue before a better alternative is found – and the better alternative as I have mentioned in my previous posts is to have a system which actually reports full information and therefore does not have to rely on prices as a proxy for such full information.

Once there is a robust digital backbone, there would be no need for markets, prices and exchange value. We can operate on use values alone.  Of course, I have to develop and explain this idea more clearly but for the moment let’s accept that it is possible to go beyond markets as well but primarily we have to stop surplus value generation and usurpation and therefore, primary focus has to be on common ownership and control of resources and not the market system. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with the market system and Marx was very much aware of that.

But there is a very positive side to the market system. Democratic people’s movements that lead to some kind of “People Organised” can and has influenced market outcomes. This is a crucial learning that should be kept in mind. Markets can be utilised to serve people’s interests as long as we can ensure common ownership and control of means of production and ensure collective people’s action through the concept of the “People Organised”.

To keep the discussion short, I have to point out that the Leftist term Neo-liberalism is delusional – it diverts attention from the question of common ownership and control of resources to the market question – as if liberalising markets is the culprit and not the fact that resources are skewedly owned and controlled.

Leftists would do well to ponder over the fact that the real issue is skewed ownership and control of resources that belong to all and not the market system. Let’s stop falling victim to delusional issues that divert attention from main issues – skewed ownership and control of resources that actually belong to all is the key issue not markets.

This is part of my general project of writing on the Economics and Politics of Delusion which I believe is now being practiced by both Rightists and Leftists. We have to now question everything and our motto should be the one that Marx had: De Omnibus Dubitandum – You Must Doubt Everything.

Corruption is on the agenda, but back to economy for now

Yes, I will continue to write on corruption and pick on the global convention against corruption clause by clause. But right now something about the global economy needs attention.

Here is a report in one of the most influential investment advisory magazines in the US. I would request you to have a look at the comment at the bottom of the report.

I think there is growing evidence to suport the view that new thinking in economics is needed to understand the present situation.

Most reports are trying to be optimistic when there is little ground for optimism. Instead, if people really stopped being delusional and started thinking reality we can still overcome.

Anna Vs anna – I: A people’s leader should call for people’s action, not state action

India is among the leaders in the global fight against corruption.

Amazing!

Did you know that INDIA is one of the 13 signatories to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (hereinafter “the Convention” or “Convention”?

Or, that India has even completed the process of ratification of this remarkable global document according to a report in The Times of India datelined May 13, 2011, quoting a statment issued by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh?

The last Conference of the States Parties to this Convention was held in Doha, 9-13 November 2009, where India participated as one of the 13 signatory “State Parties”among more than a hundred other countries, and, nearly as many invitees, including the Bretton Woods twins, or, for that matter, the world’s leading global civil society NGO  exclusively focused on fighting corruption Transparency International (TI), the WEF etc. Check out this List of Participants.

Incidentally, the next one will be held in Marrakech, October 24-28 this year, when India will be not only a signatory but also one of the very few countries in the world that has even ratified it.

The Convention is quite remarkable in many respects.

It is comprehensive, and, if read with a poor person’s spectacles, potentially provides a truly protective umbrella under which even the poorest of the poor can effectively fight corruption provided ”State Parties” actually implement , in letter and spirit, the various Articles of this global document.

Or, if civil society activists can actually build up a true People’s Movement against corruption.

The first alternative is entirely unlikely as we have seen before (both in my earlier posts on this subject as well as in the history of anti-corruption legislation), while the second one is very much possible if people who genuinely work for the poor, instead of those deluding them, actually take up the mantle.

What is most remarkable about this Convention is that it provides for protection from corruption not only perpetrated by or in PUBLIC SECTOR entities but also covers PRIVATE entities as well. The coverage is comprehensive and leaves out nobody.

The Convention can actually be implemented in an absolutely remorseless way and, even the most insiduously corrupt system can be largely cured and made free from this social cancer. And that too through entirely democratic means and minimum intervention by the State.

Another remarkable aspect is that given India’s existing “domestic laws”, this can be done almost entirely through amendments to extant statutes.

But, there are, obviously, riders.

The first and foremost problem is that both this global Convention (Article 13) as well as TI’s Strategy 2015 document stress on PEOPLE’S ACTION and PARTICIPATION in the fight against corruption as the key medicine for curing the ill. In fact, TI’s six-point strategy call begins with the PEOPLE factor.

Of course, “How you can ensure effective PEOPLE’S ACTION and PARTICIPATION in this fight simply by changing existing laws?” and “What do we really mean by this phrase PEOPLE’S ACTION and PARTICIPATION”, are issues that I shall definitely come to in a moment.

However, for the moment, let me inform readers that later in this post, I am going to call for strengthening people’s participation and action through reforms in existing democratic mechanisms. Also, that by this phrase, I am not referring to the ’60s-style “Dum Dum Dawai” as defined by this  report nor,  for example, by this approach by the father of Indian Maoism Charu Mazumdar, where he hails the “dawai” as a “spontaneous expression of “people’s   revolutionary outburst”. But just a moment, please!

First, let us check out why Anna Hazare’s approach is fundamentally flawed.

After all, you may well ask , he is doing just that - using PEOPLE’S ACTION and PARTICIPATION through “democratic” and “peaceful” ways to force the government to enact a “Very Strong” anti-corruption law – so, what’s your problem, you moron?

Well, there are many well known reasons why the State is intrinsically anti-people, irrespective of whether it is “democratic” or not.

The chief being that it is THE INSTRUMENT by which the ruling elite in any human community, society or nation-state seeks to maintain its anti-people programme of cheating the poor of their hard earned wealth and thus continually become wealthier while the poor continually become poorer, not in absolute terms but in relative terms. and, therefore, being the chief representative and actual face of the cheats who steal the products of other people’s labour power, the State is intrinsically corrupt. It simply cannot be otherwise. And whether you agree or not, this is a hard reality of life not only in India, but now, ei muhurte, all over the world.

According to the Transparency International Perception Index 2010, not a single country in the world (178 covered here) has got a score of 10, signifying completely free from corruption. The highest is a score of 9.3.

More importantly, three fourths of these countries got a score of less than 5 where 0 signifies highly corrupt. Well ladies and gentlemen, unfortunately there seems to be not a single good-boy corruption-free State anywhere in sight anywhere in the world.

Also, if you look at the top ranking corruption-free countries, it becomes obvious that countries with less pervasive States rank higher while those with more pervasive States rank lower such as India or the last ranking Somalia, where several aspiring “States” are competing among themselves at the cost of the people. And, what ultimately matters, as the TI report points out, is transparency and accountability, even if there is already a far too pervasive State, as in India.

You cannot obviously get rid of corruption by expanding the very mechanism of corruption and moreover, by the process of adding yet another layer of corruptible officials who will create even more hurdles to increasing transparency and accountability.

The key problem with both the Government Bill and the Anna Bill is that both seek to get rid of corruption through more of the already highly corrupt State. How people cannot see this fundamental flaw in both these approaches, simply beats me.

Anna’s Bill is even more dangerous, if a report in today’s Economic Times is to be believed.  If all lower level central government officials have to be investigated, as no doubt they should be, then the government will have to provide 20,000 more bureaucrats to investigate an already fast burgeoning bureaucratic bubble.

Hence, if now, lower level bureaucrats at the state level also have to be investigated, as they should be, then Anna’s bill will require that any thing close to 2,20,000 more bureaucrats more will have to be added to this burgeonig bureaucratic bubble.

Anyway, for a poor moron like me, since the government’s bill also calls for a significant blowing up of this b-word trinity, I am totally and completely flumoxxed as to how more State is going to solve the very problem of State.

It is like having one more drink to get over the sick feeling that comes from too much drinking and alcoholic poisoning. But that’s something that morons like me do. Why should an entire nation of 1.2 billion people get addicted to this poison called State?

Well, that is not a factually correct question, not 1.2 billion but a few middle class morons are addicted to this poison because they are already under the ruling elite’s carefully crafted, like Scotch, delusional distillation prepared and stored in equally carefully chosen Oaken casks and drunk from exotic mouthpieces.

Hence, my moronic question is: Instead of further blowing up this burgeoning bureaucratic bubble, why not generate a hell of a lot of jobs, essentially in civil society, but partially paid for by the State, and at the same time get rid of corruption, comply with Article 13 inter alia of the global United Nations Convention Against Corruption which came into force in December 2005, and actually give the long-suffering people of India some real relief?

Let us take a look at the clauses in Article 13:

Article 13. Participation of society
1. Each State Party shall take appropriate measures, within its means and in accordance with fundamental principles of its domestic law, to promote the active participation of individuals and groups outside the public sector, such as civil society, non-governmental organizations and community-based organizations, in the prevention of and the fight against corruption and to raise public awareness regarding the existence, causes and gravity of and the threat posed by corruption. This participation should be strengthened by such measures as:
(a) Enhancing the transparency of and promoting the contribution of the public to decision-making processes;
(b) Ensuring that the public has effective access to information;
(c) Undertaking public information activities that contribute to nontolerance of corruption, as well as public education programmes, including school and university curricula;
(d) Respecting, promoting and protecting the freedom to seek, receive, publish and disseminate information concerning corruption. That freedom may be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided for by law and are necessary:
(i) For respect of the rights or reputations of others;(ii) For the protection of national security or ordre public or of
public health or morals.
2. Each State Party shall take appropriate measures to ensure that the relevant anti-corruption bodies referred to in this Convention are known to the public and shall provide access to such bodies, where appropriate, for the reporting, including anonymously, of any incidents that may be considered to constitute an offence established in accordance with this Convention.

In this post, I will restrict myself to the first clause only, that is 1(a) above – increasing transparency.  If a national digital data base is created where complaints can be lodged at the local level – anywhere – and civil society organisations man these local complaint centres – one for each police thana or chowki’s administrative jurisdiction - then, at least, shame lists of the corrupt will begin to get prepared that can be accessed by all freely over the Internet. Transparency up manifold. No State is required for this. Civil society activists can do this and why not Anna’s organisation India Against Corruption?

The real problem at the lowest levels is that complaints cannot be lodged because the local police thana is always in the grip of the local rich (that includes mainly the politicians and bureaucrats who also happen to own the most property in vast swathes of the country) to start with, and, often they are the main perpetrators of viscous State corruption.

So, if Anna wants to end corruption all he has to do is to make sure there is one cell of civil society activists at each police thana or chowki level whose only job is to register complaints over the Internet so that a national complaint database begin to get prepared. If Adhar is also used in this process, among many other fine tunings that can be done, transparency can be increased massively and much of the problem will get mitigated almost immediately.

This minimum activity of increasing transparency can be easily done by civil society activists, let’s say India Against Corruption. Volunteers can be paid a stipend through partial funding by government, say 25 percent and the balance should come from public donations and not from the State. Easily, checks and balances can be introduced through some simple rules.

However, the most active requirement is a vibrant people’s movement against corruption where people are asked not do silly stuff like satyagraha – a disgusting culture of inaction and of public scenes of leaders doing nothing but lying around and that too for some silly cause aimed at making the people wear the Gandhi topi  (tupi porachche re guru!) – but instead actively help fellow citizens to register complaints, participate in volunteering for complaint registration duty and so on.

Then few administrative rules are required to maintain democracy, fairness, non-discrimination, non-violation of minority rights, etc. in the formation of complaint registration cells. In a true People’s Movement, there would be volunteers from every section of the local community because of the active participation of all local communities as all are equal victims of this national scourge.

Such a movement can also bring about national integration, greater caste and communal harmony and an innumerable number of other benefits culminating in a complete transfer of all political power from the “State Parties” to the “People Organised”. A “people Organised” entirely by civil society activists through entirely democratic means. And, just to remind Trotskyites and Maoists, the People Organised is equivalent to Trotsky’s the People Armed or Mao’s “People’s Army”.

Chew over this starter. There is more to come – so many clauses in that remarkable global Convention Against Corruption – each a dynamite in favour of the People. So much anna, no thanks to Anna!

Confession of a much-married man: I love you Nandin!

I have been writing about all kinds of subjects here. But what I should have written about a bit earlier is about my love for my beloved Nandin. Last August 20, 2011, was the 30th anniversary of our marraige.  It was a registered marraige under the Special Marraige Act. She has been the solid backrest that has allowed me to fuck around in my imbecile way all these years. Among my Pilani friends, Raghu was there on that fateful day in 1981, just seven months after I had got my first job at a princely salary of Rs 800 a month.  

We got married again – socially, as parents wanted – on November 28 of the same year. And that’s what makes me a much married man – I have at least two wedding anniverseries to celebrate every year – August 20 and November 28. And I have always celebrated both these days – because both those dates have something to do with my friendship with Nandin. And there are many other dates – such as July 1, the day we cemented our relationship, or the first day we made love – I don’t remember the day but it was at least four years down the line from the day we first met despite many opportunities earlier.

I can write and write about Nandin – but the only thing I want to write today is that I love you my girl just as I have loved you always - ever since I met you. You are everything to me, you are truly my better half and I have no hesitation in admitting that publicly and shouting it out loud over the roof tops: I love you my girl, I will do so always.