Saturday, May 25, 2019

Pulse of the People

Vasu Reddy From Chicago

In the last couple of weeks I did predict that Modi will come back to be the prime minister for the next 5 years.  In reality the man doesn't need any money and he doesn't have hangers on to protect, and no one from his family chasing scams.  If he does nothing else no scams would always keep him as the prime candidate for continuing as the prime minister. We don't have to rehash that he has no personal baggage to worry about, and that continues to be his political power.  I am sure the man will continue to work long hours for the agenda of  greater India.

I read a lot of columns in the American media about his choices of politics and BJP as a nationalist party, and how minorities might (MIGHT) be undermined in India, and how his rock star image as India's leader impacts the elections, and a whole lot of gibberish about the fifty shades of gray attributed to the man, all in the same space of a few words about the massive mandate for a politician with almost 700 million people exercising their right to vote with little difficulty all across India.  Just the scale of the election is daunting and complex. and the country wide mandate for one man's vision for the second time, is not really appreciated.  It is really not material as no Indian living in India really cares about what anyone else is writing about their leader.  But for Indians living outside of the nation, reading the commentary is sad.  It depicts the senseless perspective of scribes who really don't appreciate a secular nation with such vast geographical and ideological diversity, in which people easily live together and while appreciating the differences in life while bound by one massive Hindustan.

Democracies are delicate but strong, and they survive the differences of opinion, with simply following the majority. Although modern India has been independent only since 1947, its people are bold and dynamic while exercising of their right to choose a leader with every election.  There is little room for making large scale promises and participating in scams and survive the next election.  India has time and again shown its true ideology of freedom in its elections, and 2019 is no different.

It is also wonderful to see the normalcy of the nation return immediately after the election, and absolutely free and clear of partisanship that was displayed by political parties thru the electoral process. Transfer of power or a party coming back to power, happens without friction, and politicians who lost now look forward to 5 years later and the ones who won have to perform for the next five years.  That's all there is to either retaining power or getting elected.

Modi should focus on his second election manifest.  His ides for fair taxation, low inflation, more employment, better infrastructure and curbing black money all of these along with a clean and green India all have a very high value to India.  All the gentleman needs to do is reinforce with his cabinet to work on them every day.  My favorites are clean India and clean Ganga.  No better way to look at the country other than a clean and beautiful nation.  And Modi can keep working towards a clean India.  He has nothing to loose even f his pushes his popular agenda, as his party or any party's politicians wont elect him, the people of the nation will reelect him again; all he has to do is drive his policies of development and cleanliness.  And I believe he will continue to push his agenda.   

In covering my state of Andhra Pradesh, Jagan getting elected with such massive majority is not a surprise.  An infant State with a old and seasoned politician could not give his people the comfort of experience they needed for a brand new state.  Now we have a very young man with an unprecedented mandate, and legacy of his father (who accidentally passed away almost ten years ago) who is still fresh in people's hearts.  Before and after his election, he has only raised his voice in support of people and maintained independence from any national alliance, while only committing to supporting any party that aligns for a special status for his state.  Even after his election he has kept his polite mannerisms and has assured that he will deliver the best state government in the nation.  I hope he will simply try to work on his political manifesto, and keep smiling like his late father did.  Make our state shine and make our state smile.  Our people want a big brother, and not just election handouts.  I hope just as I wish Modi will stick to his agenda, Jagan too will continue to be focused on people's agenda as he did for the last 10 years, and hoping that both of them will make all of us NRI feel proud.

Jai Hind.

Sunday, May 19, 2019

What next for India?

vasureddy@aol.com
Vasu Reddy from Chicago

In about a week’s time India would have voted for the new 5 year government.  This election has been similar in tone to the last one, except this time the BJP is the incumbent, and Congress still seems to struggle with its overall identity.  A lot of regional political parties (and their leaders) making a lot more noise.  You hear of the federalist system, and more power to the states, and a leader that the opposition wants who is not from congress, all this while congress itself trying to be relevant and project Rahul Gandhi as its prime ministerial candidate.

Modi working to come back into the PM chair for the second term, and he has been the choice of BJP as its leader.  He continues to pack powerful speeches and rallies, and outwardly seem to be confident of retaining the majority for the next 5 years.

It will be foolish to predict what the outcome is.  The case and point of the US elections in 2016 is a great lesson to pollsters and predictors to keep their opinion/s to themselves.  Nevertheless the supporting media for each party will predict landslide for their candidate/s.  All politicians contesting and their supporters will obviously predict their candidate to come out victorious.

I have been partial to Modi (I don’t have a vote in India as an NRI) but the last time and for the last 5 years, I have been looking at what he said verses what he did.  Without justification to what the last 5 years of BJP government’s delivery to their poll promises, one thing that I have always believed is that the head of the government stay scam free.  I believe with what I read and watch, Modi has remained a man with little interest in stealing public money.  I truly believe he has no reason to (as he did not have any 5 years ago) loot public coffers.  I continue t believe that Modi is a career politician who doesn’t have the need for looting public coffers as he has always kept family and friends away from his politics and his life.

You get to see someone for 5 years as a nation’s leader; you will have little reason to guess.  We have 100% access to the leader’s life, and his actions.  Modi started very aggressively as a leader representing India to the world, and despite the criticism of his style, he represented India quite aggressively and positively to the world.  Modi was equally at ease with USA or China, Japan or Germany, Pakistan or Bangladesh, and any other nation he visited ofr dealt with.  Modi’s early reaching out to the global leaders continue to pay dividends for India, and have helped with the Industry and trade dealing for India, quite positively to the terms before his first term.  He is a determined politician with also a single-minded focus on the nation.  I truly believe Modi doesn’t have any personal interest in dollars and cents.  The man is a representation of his party, the BJP and as all of its leaders has no personal profit motive.

While I preach of no predictions, I think Modi will be PM for another term.  This prediction is solely based on looking at the opposition.  INS and Rahul Gandhi have no chance of winning the elections by themselves, or with the many associations they have been trying to cultivate.  The Indian political history after 1970’s and beyond is with regional and opposition parties began to challenge congress.  So their leadership still in stage I, with many old men trying to hang on to power, and desperately trying to be relevant.

The old INC is no longer able to display a national agenda, doesn't have the footprint it did after India’s independence.  It is not a competitor in politics or policy, and it might need several more 5 year terms, for it to become relevant (might never be what it was with Panditji or India Gandhi).  For a non voter looking at Rahul, he seems to only cherish with his cartoonish jibes at Modi.  The younger Gandhi has no political or philosophical experience to represent 1.3 billion people.  He might never be able to fully appreciate and represent India as his family once did.  I really don’t think INC has a chance of coming back into power in 2019.  This column or any number of columns might not be sufficient to revisit the scams in congress, and people in their memory are still fresh in their recollection of the scale of misuse of public resources.

The regional parties even if all of them plan to combine as opposition to BJP lead government (including congress) it’s an unlikely alliance that can be successful.  Simply agreeing to a PM candidate will dislodge much of the alliance.  BJP has Modi as their leader, and with coming to power there is a clear leader to represent the party.  The power of incumbency is always of high political value because of the power and infrastructure that it automatically provides.  In 2019 it’s unlikely a unified opposition with a single leader can emerge to challenge the BJP and Modi.

The public opinion on Modi and his government is difficult to read, as we did with INC.  There is no clear cut and nationwide anti-incumbency to Modi and BJP.  Personally a little bit of less showmanship and a little more of education to people would have helped.  In an opinion piece I can certainly write of the time Indian politicians spend in running each other can be spent more on people’s work to further the public’s agenda.  I really don’t hear anything about positive news, only the bitter bickering of old men about each other, in very personal terms.

In a week from now, it is highly likely we will see BJP (and allies) come back in power.  I sincerely hope Modi will work on his poll promises (this time) and also more focus on internal issues to India.
I am not going to forget the special category status to my state of Andhra Pradesh, and with a full hearted appeal for the people’s mandate.

Jai Hind.

Saturday, May 11, 2019

Continuing to long of Indian Utopia

vasureddy@aol.com
Vasu Reddy From Chicago

It has been some time from my last weekly column to this.  Simply unable to write something of interest on a weekly basis, and working odd hours to be able to sit down and convert thoughts to words.

First and foremost to celebrate the Mother’s day this Sunday.

“Happy Mother’s Day to all the folks out there”

There is no alternative to the comfort of one’s mother’s love.  Another mother’s day is on us on 5/12/2019.  For me it is not any other day of the year.  This is my first mother’s day without a mother.  She passed away fighting cancer on 3/25/2019.  While the cancer took her away from me and the rest of the folks she touched, she probably is no longer suffering, and is in a place where peace prevails.

We are in the middle of a general election in India, which has been going on for a few weeks, and should be done in the next couple.  This time around I don’t have any predictions, as the general consensuses is that 2014 will be repeated, although with a lesser of a mandate.  The NRI community is as divided as their native community.  Nothing really changes to the psychology of politics with Indians.  We love to differentiate simply based on our age old mind set.  The country seems to be chugging along; more people, more disagreements, more politics; but same issues.  As with last election cycle, my main draw will be no scams.  It is the same for this next election.  We should always elect someone who will be 100% scam free, and divert the resources 100% to the public needs.  My choice of words is very careful in writing “Public Needs” as each citizen has needs, irrespective of the wealth bracket that they belong to.  Better infrastructure, better education, better sanitation, better water, better power, better health, better everything; even incremental will make the society a better place for conditions of comfort and livelihood.

As 10,000 miles distance doesn’t foster a 20/20 vision of home on a daily basis, I still think of PM Modi as a very good manager of Indian politics and resources.  No matter what I read or watch, I think the man is scam free, and continues to keep family away from politics and national narrative.
Personally I admire his simple mother and their affection towards each other.  I know critics will argue why she is not with him, but my own mom always chose to be on her own, despite a large family.  People visiting her and calling her gave her great joy, rather than she living with anyone.  So, Modi and her mom living on their own are probably at her wish rather than Modi ignoring her.  God bless her as she seems like one tough lady and a great mom.  Once again my experience is that any amount of distance will not be a hindrance to mother/children’s affection.  My reflection of Modi the man is probably based on two specific points:

Modi seems to have very little interest in wealth accumulation.  If we look at comparable politicians. This alone in my personal opinion is a great indicator for someone who is little interested in personal gain.  He has kept his family and friends far away from his position of power.  My vote is always to find someone with no interest in money or personal relationships; both which are counter-productive to public service.

His relationship to his mother is same as most of us normal folks.  Absolutely a positive and completely normal.  Once again Modi has always kept his priority of a son intact despite his stature, and his affection for his mother similar to any normal child.  I can’t find anything that doesn’t endear a heart more than a normal mother and son relationship.

I can’t vote in India.  I have very little political knowledge except an outside observer, and a part time writer.  I don’t speak of politics as a point of discussion. I don’t donate to any political party in India. I actually don’t ask anyone for updates, or inputs on politics in India.  My only source for political information is what I read and what I watch.

But I know each 5 years, India keeps making positive global strides.  The economy grows at a better than a global average.  More Indian origin men and women are spotlight as the global achievers.  In fact the who’s who of Industry and politics has a fairly large Indian Diaspora.  My search engine, my word and my bank and whatever I use on a regular basis, has one of our own managing and influencing.  I don’t think of being an Indian American much, life has been what it is, and hyphenating the countries or cultures is not really on my mind.

I know my thoughts will not convince anyone to choose politics.  I really don’t need to influence any Indian, as I believe all Indians have politics in their psychology.   They are politically aware and opinionated.  They don’t need mine.

My desire for betterment is for my state of Andhra Pradesh.  It needs a big brother. The bifurcation of the state before the last election has not done much to help with its resources and management.  I hope the new election and possibility of a government at the center and state working together (perhaps harder) to allow my old state to have the infrastructure and resources for full fledged development.

Come May 21, 2019, we will certainly have the excitement for hope and opportunity. I sincerely wish for a stable 5 years government as we did the last one. I don’t want to keep reading about coalition and uncertainty for another 5 years in India.

My whole like I thought of Utopia as a concept, but never a dream.  With age and time, I seem to desire for an incremental Utopian society, rather than a Utopian world.  I know that India had made positive strides in the last 5 years (in fact every 5 years prior) and each of the government’s might not have made the progress at the speed the public needed.  But less scams and less corruption (100% free of corruption is probably completely Utopian) will lead to better management and allocation of public resources.

My wish for this mother’s day is for a peaceful and progressive India and also for a government that strives to allocate all available resources for the public needs. 

“Jai Hind”

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