Are Indians God Fearing?

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

All through this year the news from India has been scam after scam, and accusation after accusation, and negativity and negativity, and every elected and unelected person in power simply blames one or other for every reason that a human being can think of.  We are looking at most of the politicians who belong to the post-independence era, and may not share the camaraderie with each other as the India’s pre-independence folks did.

The generation of freedom fighters had a common purpose of achieving independence from the British as a common goal, while their individual aspirations were kept in check.  They focused on one and only one thing; freedom.  From the father of the nation to the foot soldiers of India, all of them wanted freedom from oppression and the only and only thing that was their lifelong goal.  When you read of the stories of the sacrifices of countless Indians to achieve freedom, they will forever be our pre-independence leaders and people who have given their all to the cycle of life and time, and those who remain now must be wondering what has come of the nation they wanted to be free.

Bapu’s “Raghupathi Raghava Rajaram” in the recent years has been delegated to just a prayer, and “Mere Bharat Mahan” has just become a slogan.  We have many places of worship, probably in every corner of India, and every once in a while we are reminded of God in one form or the other, and with one miracle or the other.  We as people in general are god fearing, when it comes time to think of the almighty, but quickly seem to forget about this power upstairs, and go on about our business every minute.

No one person in power seems to be using it for the benefit of the people.  It seems like a routine thing to get into power and abuse it as much of it as possible and people seem oblivious to the gross misuse of the power given to individuals by the population.  Everyone who acquires power is using it for self-benefit rather than to the benefit of the people.

Is this a nation of god fearing people, who think of the almighty every second?  Is this a nation of people who fought so hard for generations on against foreign invaders in obtaining the freedom of forming their own constitution?  Is this the nation of more than a billion people who are in pockets very smart and globe trotters?  Is this the nation of NRI’s who have achieved global success yet attached to their motherland?  So many questions that have answers but doesn’t seem to add-up to the reality of what is really happening in the country.

There is so much indiscipline with managing the national resources, which equates to a greater evil than any external threat to the nation.  There is so much hoarding of national wealth, so that none is being directed to the needy and the young for their future development.  So much abuse of power that anyone who is not on the side of the party in power or doesn’t want to follow the orders of the party in power gets the boot.  So much so that every politician that gets elected is preplanning to improve one’s bank account rather than developing the constituency that has sent him or her to the seat of power.

For a bunch of god fearing people we don’t really seem to worry about the consequences of hoarding national wealth.  The country has developed the attitude that each person to his/her own in grabbing whatever of available and nothing stopping from taking-in as much as possible, whenever possible.  If we fear god it doesn’t seem to show in our way of life, rather we seem so self-centered that it is a nation of individual profit and acclaim.  God is simply a way of trying to cover the massive self-centered life we live, irrespective of how rich or poor we might be.

Turkey Time

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

It is Thanksgiving time in the USA, and beginning of the holiday spirit and time in North America.  Children are making Christmas lists and staring to count down for the holidays.  Not much has changed since the last year and we continue to have same conditions as last year, along with the president reelected, and back in the office for the next four years.

Typically turkey has a different connotation in the vocabulary of the United States, and not just the bird in the thanksgiving dinner table.  All through the year and probably in the coming months we have a list of turkey’s to look forward to, and perhaps they will keep coming until something is done in the world with both peace and pockets.

The biggest turkey we had recently was the just concluded election where president Obama won handily, and the republicans accepting the defeat grudgingly and the comments after the election in justifying the loss.  This country is full of immigrants and it belongs to everyone who lives here.  The privilege is of being American is just that and it makes everyone one and the same, and just because a few folks have a bit more money than the others doesn’t give them any more rights than the others.  They are all equal under one roof of a massive country which embraces everyone.  The elections should have thought those who believe in privilege that it is not so, and to get elected people must believe what you propose as a plan for the future, and not just four more years.  Whatever actions that are taken by the president will have long term impact on all the people.

Fiscal cliff or the automatic expiration of the tax cuts and deep cuts to the budgets across the board are just around the corner and could be the biggest turkey of them all if the President and the Congress will not have the time and inclination to reach a compromise by the end of the year which is fast approaching.  This may be a good turkey for all the country’s sake as the US budget needs to be balanced for the sake of all of its people and perhaps the global economy.  Many financial gurus don’t see much harm in letting the country get to grips with deep cuts to the budget and increased taxes.

The mid east once again is simmering with new tensions in Israel and Gaza and could bring in new set of issues for the international community.  Here is an international issue that has been an issue and will probably continue to be an issue for foreseeable future.  All parties involved have been hunkering down and no one is backing off on this age old issue.  The USA as usual has made its position clear, but this was the region which started off the mid east and perhaps the beginning of many of the global issues we have had in past several decades.  Only the almighty may have a solution to this age old issue between the people.

 

So many turkeys are all simmering at the same time, within and outside of the USA, and there are a number of old ones such as Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea, and the continues tensions in Syria and other places will continue to affect the global environment and economies and certainly peace.  Its thanksgiving and we sure have to find ways to be more thankful, and not anything else.

The Blessings of Second Term

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

President Obama will not be running for public office again in his life.  The reelection of the president of the USA, allows him to build his legacy and work on delivering the election promises he made to the people of the USA.  His job is the most powerful job on earth, and term limits prohibit same person from being on the job more than two terms, and after being the president of the USA, one definitely don’t want another job.  Once again congratulations on his second term to president Obama.

The second term presents huge challenges to the president.  The second term will start with the fiscal cliff, which is just around the corner and the reality of expiration of the tax cuts to the rich, and automatic budget cuts to major programs, and across the board cuts to start bringing the deficit down are all a reality, as congress and president are still at loggerheads. 

The republican congress and the president have always been at loggerheads on the programs and policies to be adopted to meet the demands of the population.  As always there will be a lot of saber rattling between the parties, and one can expect a deal just in time to beat deadline, or the budget cuts and reductions, automatic roll back of taxes for the rich will become a reality.  The president at this time has nothing to lose as he is has been already reelected and just beginning his second term.  He has four years to worry about public opinion and fixing any issues to deal with his presidential legacy, and actually the fiscal cliff might simply help him balance the budget and fix the ills of the country by having to face through the last 3 presidential terms.

Allowing the automatic cuts will not hurt the President as it actually might help him in the long run with public opinion.  People don’t want to really pay most of the money they pay in taxes to the government going to pay interest on money borrowed by the government.  They would want to see it go to economic development and public interests.

There are a lot of other issues that are ready to be handled by the President and the leaders of the USA which require immediate attention.  Unemployment, inflation, housing, immigration, trade, international strife and political pressures; all add-up to the task of the President to be an enormous task to handle in the next four years, and he will need all the support of his staff, congress and senate, including the state and local governments, along with policies that will please the public and be adapted to better the country as a whole.

The President is still blessed with the largest economy on earth with great resources of the nation, along with intellectual capital that is the best available on the planet.  It will take some hard negotiations with the leaders in congress, along with the national acceptance of the policies that will benefit the whole country as one nation.

While the very rich or very poor have vastly different agenda, the country’s prosperity and cutting the cost of interest (for a fact entirely eliminating it) will have a huge impact on the global economy, and drive a pro-people agenda.  There is no doubt that people whosoever they are very interested in peace and prosperity not just today, but for generations to come, and the USA is still a nation of opportunity, and can continue to deliver to its people on the promise of the nation they live in; and all in all to the rest of the world while it flourishes.

The President and his team of advisors and the elected representatives can make decisions that will help prosper the nation.  If they place people first, it is absolutely possible to lead the nation towards low unemployment, budget surpluses and prosperity.  While the nation continues to the leader of the world, it can also become a model for economic leadership by making decisions that are long term and pro-growth.  The opportunity for green industry that is eco friendly and earth sustaining can not only be a great economic growth engine, but also save the earth as it is for many generations to come.

Sandy’s Aftermath

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Franken storm Sandy did tens of billions of damage, and millions of people in danger and without basic facilities even after a week of the monster storm passing through the east coast of the United States.  It has been a week since the big storm and many millions are still without power and basic amenities that are a part and parcel of daily life in the United States.  Before and after the storm the people and the services were well aware of the strength of the storm and the possible impact it might have on the areas affected by the storm.

The devastation was expected, although horrific in looking at the power of nature on all living beings their homes and businesses, and establishments.  Slowly but assuredly the people are trying to get back to their homes if they are still intact, and those destroyed trying to grapple with the reality of rebuilding.  The public services and governments, and disaster recovery and support services, and everyone involved were apt with their pre-storm warnings and after storm response to the affected.

Little more than a hundred people lost their life, and countless animals along with the loss of homes and neighborhoods.  Just looking at the devastation makes one wonder the wrath of nature and its fury against the human encroachment all over the world.  There have been enough warnings and signals of global warming and abuse of earth to no end by the habitants.  The inhuman attitude human show to the earth is difficult to describe in words, and Sandy’s fury is only a small example of what we have done to our own habitat and what we can expect in the future as the nature’s payback to our misdeeds.

While Sandy’s path certainly awakens the well developed habitat to be wary of the fury of nature and man’s insatiable appetite for destruction of resources around himself, the nature of human behavior is also on display after the massive destruction of human habitat.  With entire neighborhoods wiped out or destroyed, and people abandoning the whole towns and vehicles and boats and whatever that was in the way put out of place and no way to control the path of displacement; all done in such abrupt and destructive way, still held the people affected from not doing anything inhuman.  There was no abuse of other people’s property, no human behavior that is indecent, and no looting or fighting, nothing that should be alarming to anyone else around.

 

All the destruction and loss of property and life never brought out the savage in the human who was the root cause for the nature’s fury.  Everyone in big or small towns, all of the people affected were civil and courteous, simply looking at the destruction as god’s fury, no one was yelling or screaming, no one being blamed, no one was trying to be uncivil, no one was asking for any favors; everyone looking out for each other and some cases of extraordinary kindness even towards small animals is well documented in the days following the huge storm.

Two very important aspects of life in the United States makes me document the aftermath of the storm;

1.    The people of the United States are well observant of their human nature first and follow the law of the land and rules of engagement without anyone prompting them to do so
2.    Tragedy simply makes humans more human and brings out the best human nature out irrespective of who we are and what we are and where we live

While it is sad to see some of the most populated area of the United States in the path of destruction, the display of human side of the country makes one believe in the land of opportunity as the land of best humane behavior.  It is still the most attractive place for people to live and let others live in peace and kindness.  The respect and shared sorrow, and the path for redevelopment will also yield a better global society, and here is hoping that we now to begin to respect nature as we should and preserve the resources around us will make the world a bit safer each day.

Surviving the Entire Term

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

When elected for an office the politicians typically focus on serving for a full term of the office, and when reelections are on the radar, they start preparing for contesting the elections again.  Typically incumbents present their accomplishments and their party’s accomplishments in the term they are serving and seek reelection for the next term.  Democracies allow for candidates to present and support their political party’s agendas, and if popular and acceptable to the public they will continue to be in the office for their full term, and if the administration is successful in meeting the needs of the electorate they get reelected.

 

In running a government with a group of coalition of parties, the dynamics of the ruling party get prioritized primarily with satisfying the demands of the coalition partners, rather than having a singular agenda for the national interest.  The coalition partners typically keeps shifting the demands it has for the leader of the coalition and the differences of objectives of each of the partners clash with each other, conflicting with the agenda of the leader of the coalition.  The demands on available resources and funding programs that are of importance to the individual partners of the coalition often conflict with each other, and put pressure on the governance.  There is the pressure of keeping the coalition together first as the government needs to survive the majority rules requirement, and then the continued demands of each of the partners to meet their own constituents needs.  With many promises made to each of the constituents, and the meager resources available to meet the demands of the nation, above all the planned incoming resources verses expenditures; all place a great demand on governing the nation.

 

The current government continues to survive on a regular basis despite the appearing and disappearing of coalition partners, and massive scams that involve national integrity and resources.  Along with changes to the cabinet which continues to evolve along with the changes to the coalition partners, it has been hard for the government to keep governing with the slew of scams.  The survival of the government has taken front seat, rather than the public agenda.

 

While the term of the current government is coming to a close, it continues to be precarious and partners ever more demanding.  The pressure of keeping the power outweighs the governance issues, and has affected the national to no end.  There is no end to the issues that are internal to the political party, and there is no sure shot way of setting goals that keep the people first.  The only mantra has been to be in power irrespective of the issues that face the citizens, and continue to make relationships to keep the term going.  There is no hope that the next government will have absolute majority to be in power for a full term without the threat of coalition partners ditching the governing and deliver to an agenda that is promised prior to the elections.

Divine Intervention

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

For what it is worth, even the group that is trying to fight against corruption in India, it itself needed to have its own people be subjected to their own internal ombudsman.  It is not surprising to have one’s own introspection in an environment that has fully supported corruption everywhere and every part of the system.  There is no steadfast and quick fix to problems that have been entrenched in the political and bureaucratic system of the country prior to its independence in 1947.

Ombudsman in USA and some other democratic countries is an effective way of having governmental agencies respond to common man’s issues, and sometimes problems in having the systems perform their duties on time and correctly.  It’s a simple system that has someone who is watching the performance of government and its agencies.  Ombudsman works well in helping citizens with issues that are a bit more difficult to handle than a normal process of getting them done.  It is not a legal or bureaucratic system, rather a system that seeks resolution of issues of the people within the frame of legal and functional frame of the country’s political foundation.  It is a simple process of helping with the issues that falls into the cracks of massive bureaucracies.

India is beyond such organization that can help the common man with simple problems that have an organization that can help solve them.  Everywhere and anywhere in the country and in every organization both public and private, and any religious or educational institution we have issues of hands out for favors.

Not a single thing in life has been left for the common man to say “I can do this without problems and paying for it”, and nothing has been left unexploited.  The physical resources of the country, natural resources and even invisible resources such as airwaves have been thrown into scams and more scams.  Games to religion are fair game for the scamsters and they keep getting bigger and bigger.  All political parties and government agencies routinely have their hands out for a piece of the action, and everything needs the grease to get done.

While there is some talk of anti-corruption activism they themselves are falling into the scrutiny of their past and what they are doing now to get their agenda heard.  It costs money to do things and in such a broad spectrum of things to cover and a vast audience of people to reach, it will not be a free pass to even present ombudsman as an alternative to cut graft.  First ombudsman is not an anti graft vehicle, rather it’s a means to get things done for common man who runs into problems with the bureaucratic systems.  So, it as an alternative to managing graft is not a solution.  With the current state of affairs in India, it probably needs divine intervention.  As most Indians are (I hope) god fearing, we all probably should pray for some magical way for god to intervene and stop the graft in the country.  To leave this to mere mortals will be an impossibility that will not be handled as a true ombudsman, and will never realize the dream of helping a common man.

Is Anyone Left Without A Trace Of Misappropriation?

Vasu Reddy from Chicago

vasureddy@aol.com

Each day we hear of massive use of influence to build books and gain financial strength that is unimaginable in a business environment.  Each instance typically is backed with a government in power, and person of interest is either someone in power or related to someone in power.  You seldom hear of anyone who is not connected to a position of power.

 

Last couple of weeks have yielded great fodder with one building books from a few hundred thousand rupees to billions of rupees with in a fairly short span.  Typically when a company goes public through share markets, they can yield massive investments to great ideas, but not to real estate investments without any track record.  This really doesn’t mean that there was something wrong with the way business was built, just that the person who is building it and the support of the massive corporation that has helped build the books of a brand new company without any track record of performance.

India is place of great disparities and great differences in people and their living.  While the super rich have the resources and the ability to connect with investors and capital, it is also a market that fosters good/great ideas into opportunities for development and massive market growth.  The years of computing and customer support has seen massive growth with the Indian businesses, and many of the global information technology giants that have come out of India are new enterprises which were supported quickly by the public markets and fostered into massive billion dollar enterprises, without any hint of misappropriation or political support.  They were developed with market potential as the main backing and only controlled by performance.  Barring a big company example in computer services, all major Indian Information Technology companies have been excellent examples of global adaptation of Indian enterprises to meet the demands of the markets.

Highly competent and competitive people will find that the world embraces their work and will reward them, irrespective of the environment or country.  There is always acceptance for work and people who wants to work, and hard work has no other replacement.  It always rewards people who work hard.

While the latest incident for book building of a single individual who is well connected to perhaps the most powerful person in India could have been accomplished with market support, the conditions that surrounding the business development raise questions of quid co pro, placing the burden of proof with the accused, and although all powerful politically at the present time this is not going to go away quietly.  Even if this is pushed under the rug as long as the current leaders are in power, it is likely to continue to be a point of political discussion for years to come, and the current leaders are voted out of power, the new governments with start to which hunt the current accused.  The cycle of disruptive practices and politics will continue to haunt the country, and with each passing year the scandals and politicizing of them by opposition parties will be the norm of the system, rather than finding solutions for people’s issues.

It is a wonder that the country continues to function and actually grow with the politics and pillaging of the nations resources.  While the democratic wonder of India continues to surprise the world and itself, the continued scams that haunt every state, every department and every aspect of Indian life is a great distraction to its people, its economy and it way of life.

While no immediate solution is available for fixing the loop holes that allow people in power to loot public resources, it is appropriate that the country and its public start seriously look at putting a stop to the large scale misappropriation of national resources.  There are many democracies that for a long time continue to be democracies and foster public interest, and when there is a deviation of the public interest by the elected or appointed officials, they are quickly dealt with and sent home.  One of the greatest examples of such act of democracy without disruption of the national interest or economy was impeachment of President Nixon in the United States.  There are many such instances of change of power or change of functioning of governments without disruption of life in democracies.

India needs public response to these daily disruptions by vested interests, and only when people reject such blatant abuse of power, we will see restoration of public interest.  There is no sure cut way for restoring normal democracies that have such diverse tradition, culture, language and interests, but certainly the people of the country should come together to abolish the custom of public looting.

Oh My God!

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

The idea of finding and defining the almighty has not been possible for humans from their inception, except the notion of the power of god is felt in varying times and in times of need for every person.  The attempt to find god has been attempted as long as human beings have been in existence and there is not a definitive case made of anyone really seeing and interacting with god.

The movie Oh My God, explores the human frailty in attempting to make a simple insurance claim being denied as an act of god, and then the person suing god for damages for loss of property and business, and then the entire episode of how he tries to convince the court to claim his damages.  Although the movie was adopted from a play, the essence of the power of logic and perseverance, the role of the almighty in a common man’s battle against being denied a legitimate insurance claim, and specially one man’s determination in displaying the logic of reality and simply working with the circumstances that arise with every instance in fighting against the system of injustice and loop holes is absolute master stroke.  This is not a review of the movie, rather the belief in the man upstairs in time of need.

I am first of all a believer in the guy upstairs and him watching our every move, and only fingering with instances where we really need help.  The very fact that we have life and have a long time on earth and the magic of life and death and the cycle of life itself is a miracle, and every human is blessed for whatever time is given on earth to fully live life to the fullest and be as accommodating and contributing to the fellow humans is god’s way of making us very valuable in the cycle of life.  Nothing is more precious as the gift of life, and we are already indebted to the man upstairs for giving us life.  We continue to burden god with the enormous appetite for each of our wants and our needs as typically met with the accommodations already made available to us on earth.

While we are at some time grateful for life. We do spend enormous amount of time thinking of better and bigger things in life, and better and bigger is typically materialistic and money related, and typically when we are asking for more is when we remember the man upstairs.

For love of god, we never seldom tell him we love him and we seldom thank him for what we already have, but simply keep asking him for this and that, and never think that he has billions of others and only god knows how many more living beings also asking for betterment of conditions around them, whatever it might be.

Going back to the movie, it was really touching to see a simple man who only uses logic to try to get back what is right fully his, and how the man who controls the powers of the world, simply points him to the right path.  Also, when really needed how god does show up in a form that gives a helping hand to the needy and rightfully, so and simply disappears when there is no further need for support.

Whether or not anyone likes the movie the message is fantastic and simple.  When in need god will help you to find the right direction, and it is up to the humans to make the nest out of the opportunity.  Doing the right thing will always lead to a happy ending and there will always be satisfaction of doing right thing, its human.

All News Planted?

Vasu Reddy From Chicago

vasureddy@aol.com

If you read any of the web based news it is nothing short of unbelievable and often sensational.  Typically the level of believability is often tested, and the reader has to interpret the reality verses fabrication or imagination of the writer.  As there is little protection for the receiver, and the ability of the writer to simply name unnamed sources, there is little to lose for the writer.  Just about any speculation can be made and corrections can be posted on an ongoing basis, and by the time the story gets told, it can be exactly the opposite of what was originally reported.

From movie reviews to personal stories, news columns to financial reports; all of them come out first and then get verified.  All the time unnamed sources are quoted as the real source of information, and anyone and anything can be targeted for negative news.  All the stories typically when flashing will get corrected over the days that follow and each of them have a disclaimer that they are still evolving and unnamed sources.

From not so important story such as Rahul Gandhi’s private life to massive coal or telecom scams get sensationalized first and then as the reality or facts come out in the open the story will be retold with new information, and typically the life of a story completely gets changed over the real life of the story.  From sensational news of reporting breaking news to a final report on the facts of the matter is really very different, as different as day and night.

From real reporting of the news papers that had real reporters with sources that fed them proper information, and did real reporting on the breaking news, we have become a society that feeds on sensationalizing the issues rather than the worthiness of the report.

Just that there are too many channels and web based reporting that are all trying to wyes for the eye balls of the readers or listeners, all of them simply trying to have as many people as possible paying attention even for a short span, thereby enhancing the survivability of the channel.   I still remember reading Illustrated Weekly and waiting to read Kushwant Singh would write, or waiting for Hindu to catch-up on daily dose of the news, read Veerendranath’s Telugu weekly and sensational writings of the time or such wonderful magazines and news papers before the advent of the TV and Internet.  For a fact I have read the same stories and books many a times and I still read them regularly, and never get tired of them, and they continue to be exciting and interesting read even after a generation of time passing away.  I am in no way trying to belittle writers of today or the abilities of the writers, as I myself in my own small way write all most every week and try to take pride in original writing and unbiased views of my India.

The problem is with reading so much with almost all of them sensationalizing every aspect of the daily reporting; simply to attract more eyeballs is overbearing and often tiring.  A reader or viewer want to get real information and facts of what is transpiring in the world, and want very little sensationalizing with the reporting.  Life by itself provides daily dose of sensation so there is no need for so much biased stuff pushed at people 24/7/365, as reality often gets blurred with what we see or read.

Going back and reading the literature of yesteryear, or trying to weed through the barrage of reports that are from all kinds of unknown sources and making sense out of what you hear, and being able to keep a track of what is actually happening is an art by itself.  Much can be said about the agencies that report as they do invest heavily into the happenings around the world, and are trying to be ahead of the others who are competing for the same audience.

The audience is quite loyal to a channel, news paper or periodicals and seldom tries to waver from their regular sources for their daily dose of news or reading, and the channels can be realistic and true in reporting to keep their audience interested, and also provide factual and real reporting.  Perhaps it is asking too much from one or the other channels as they are all of the belief that creating sensation is what keeps the audience glued to them, rather than the facts and reality.  The problem lies in so much speculation on reporting which is far from facts, rather unnamed sources to make up for airtime.  Perhaps a bit of trying to get the facts right might allow people to see what is real, rather than wonder what really is happening?

Depending on the Government?

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Be it democracies or communist countries or dictatorships, the value of the government is in planning the process of education, success and enterprise which dictate the daily habits and life of the citizens.  Prosperity is not a relative term to a country or a class of people; rather it is the way of life for organized and hard working folks.

Each country has its own share of unemployment, poverty and desperation, which is not a choice of those who face it, rather circumstantial to the conditions they are forced to be in.  There is no denying that some portion of the people will always choose to not to work and hang on to the programs that are afforded to the public by the governments.

In general majority of the population of the earth would like their families to live in dignity and comfort.  People would like their children well educated, live a life of cause and goodness, and almost all the time a better life than their own.  The world has become more mobile with people moving from place to place and sometimes from country to country, and trying to look at the best possible place for them to work and also raise a family.

The western countries which for the better part of the last 100 or so years have been places where people would want to migrate to, looking for professional growth and greener pastures continue to still be attractive for countries with limited opportunity for education and professional advancement.  In fact last 20 years or so have been witnessing a portion of the migrants wanting to go back to their roots and contributing to their ancestral communities.

Migration from place to place is not a new phenomenon nor will it become passé, as people since human inception have always moved from place to place in search of opportunity and advancement, and also better weather and living conditions.  No one should claim to stop or start this process as it as a normal process as human evolution.  There are political issues and national issues that at times drive people from their natural surrounding and forced to move from where they are comfortable, but when they move they quickly adapt to the new surrounding and build a new life.  There have been extra ordinary circumstances where brutal regimes have displaced millions of people, who at first face the tyranny and brutality of an individual’s desire to enforce conditions that are inhuman on them, and move on to safe guard their families and rebuild a life anew.  These brutal circumstances have been witnessed quite often in the past century and continue to be so even in this age and time.  Most of the world when it has to receive people who are forced to evacuate their own homes, embraces the misfortunate who are forced to leave all their worldly belongings and go somewhere new.

No country, no people and no community would like to have a government dictate the life or what they should do next.  The politics of a nation or a state might influence the living standards of the people, but there is no real reason for them to depend on the government, rather they become victims of the politics.  The desire for politicians to retain their seat of power as long as they can, and remain empowered to dictate the political and policy of the state often dictates their political ethics and policy making, which in turn reflect on the community they represent.  Seldom people want hand me downs, rather they are forced to making political choices that best suit the politicians.

Communities and people in general want to be independent of any government or politicians, and also want to make independent decisions relative to their life and families.  Only the politics of a nation that are either imposed on the citizens and force them to make limited choices or have no appropriate choices.  No one on this earth wants to depend on a government, or an individual, or a society; if given a chance to make their own independent decisions.  People like to think for themselves, and live their own life on their own terms, just that the politics impose the difficulties of limited choices on them.

Insulting the Prime Minister?

Vasu Reddy from Chicago

vasureddy@aol.com

Until he was appointed as the prime minister of India, Dr. Singh was one of the most respected economists and policy makers in the world.  His leadership in leading Indian economic engine to grow and prosper is the story of legend and will forever be remembered for the decisions the finance ministry took and implemented.  There was no question of his decision making and policy implementation in leading India into the new century with astonishing results.

The past week saw him called a few choice names by a US publication, which were quickly rebuffed by the Indians, and asked for an apology of sorts for calling the Prime Minister a do nothing wimp in kind words.  We all know anyone can write anything they want in any country and just get away with it, and even heads of state are not an exception to the sharpness of the language being used by the writers.  The truth of the matter in making a story on Dr. Singh is new to the international media in a negative light, but there are no short stories on him in the Indian media.  There is a constant attention to his style of governing and his inaction on many of the issues that continue to plague India, specially referring to the ongoing and ever expanding scams of the government at the center and in most states.

While no one accuses Dr. Singh of any wrong doing of the nasty kind, he certainly is at the helm of the party that has made India popular for scams, and each passing one getting bigger.  The party identifies the scams and throws a few of the politicians involved into jail for a few months, and profess to be taking action.  In the first place why is the government allowing the elected officials to scam the country?  And only after a massive abuse of people’s resources happen is when you take action.

No money has ever been recovered from the scam leaders yet, although some of them have been sent to jail.  A few have been sent to jail because they no longer want to listen to the government’s prophecy anymore.  Those landing in jail claim total innocence and also claim that they were acting according to the law, and only implemented the policy of the government.

Everyone including babies know that people in power cheat, lie and steal, and only to the degree they do these things once they get elected is for the record.  With each passing election the cost of getting elected gets higher and higher, and once elected the recovery of the investment also is at a massive scale.  Politics has become as if people investing in education and training to get good jobs and get a life of comfort after initial sacrifices.  Politicians have become so used to cheating as much as possible to recover their investment into to getting elected.  There is only one political agenda in India that is to get elected and steal as much as possible as quickly as possible.

While Dr. Singh personally may not be interested in wealth creation, his party certainly has been quite aggressive in scamming and cheating while in power.  No matter how you define his personal qualities, he as the head of the nation has not been able to rub off any of his personal qualities on his fellow party men and women to work for the benefit of the people.  If the US papers call him names, it is difficult not to question Dr. Singh’s abilities rather than the news papers that raise the issue of inaction against corruption.  Judging his personal abilities is no longer important as he is the head of the largest democracy, and he should be responsible for the actions of his party at all levels, and should impose the same standards he has on all of his colleagues.

Scamisthan or Scamdia

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

I had to find some satire on Hindustan and India, and with all the scams (unending and continuous like a soap opera on the USA day time television) going on and on, and the most valuable resources of the country, both real and political being abused to no end, had to name this week’s column with satire.  The entire nation both at the center and at the state levels is embroiled in some irregularity or the other, and it is never ending.  Every resource of the nation be it visible, invisible on the ground or under it has been subjected to massive misappropriation.  The people of the country, who enjoyed quite a ride for sometime as a developing nation and with information services as one of the main drivers pushing along with telecommunications, suddenly seem to be embroiled in scams and scams, and there is no end to the abuse of democracy by politicians and bureaucrats.

The government at the center is oblivious to the issues that are plaguing the country and no one seem to be in charge of controlling the misuse of office and national resources.  The highest office of the country seems to simply challenge a trust motion verses owning up to the issues that are continuing to be of issue to the national interest.  By having a coalition of parties to form a government that simply survives is not a basic model for democracy.  The fundamental principles and rights of the nation and its people should be upheld in democracies while protecting the basic rights and the national interests.  India has simply forgotten these in the past few years.

The intelligent and intellectual leaders of the nation seem to be helpless in managing the resources and the cabinet colleagues.  Everyone is only interested in how much they can scam in every aspect of the resources of the nation, and nothing else, and the powers in control cannot control the abuse, nor act to stop any future misuse of power.

Democracies are meant to be placing people in power to manage the country’s resources and maintain a stable and developing economy and protect it from internal and external strife.  For India there seem to be threat to the country from anywhere but from within, and that too from the people in power.

It took probably forty years of independence and democratic rule (if we want to call that) to start seeing economic development in the country, but it took just a couple of years to scam the people of hundreds of billions which could have been best invested to educate, feed and develop the infrastructure to global standards.  The country has simply squandered the opportunity to be a global leader, rather choosing to be a loser of opportunity.

In a country god is sacred and revered, people simply will want to bribe him also to get favors, rather than display hard word for rewards.  No one can save the place until the people in power start thinking of people and stop stealing.

Intolerance

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

India as a largest democracy on earth has over a billion people, and very large population of various caste, creed, religion and color which adds to the diversity of the country.  People simply refer to each other with single word syllables such as Hyderabadi, mumbaiya, Bihari, benarasi, Punjabi, madrasi or whatever the term that defines the original place they belong to within India.  Most of these terms are endearing and quite affectionate.

There is absolutely no difference in people from various states or regions and they all live happily together in large metropolis areas or small colonies, and when displaced from their native habitat to work in other parts of the country they readily pack-up and move and quickly make a new home in the new environs and typically learn the language and ways of the natives and quickly intertwine with the locals.  Even the smallest towns have people from various parts of the country who do specific type of work and are readily accepted in the community.

Adding to the people being displaced because of work, India also has a massive population of various religions who once again intertwine into the fabric of life in big and small towns and villages.  The beauty of the variations of people and their religions and languages makes a fantastic panorama of life on a daily and regular basis.  Rarely would you see people have difficulty with each other, their way of life, religion and language.  They are all Indians and live happily together and do their work and be great neighbors and friends.

The entire country is one great mosaic of variations in living and how people are happy despite their habits and color and religion and language.  Every once in a while some incident happens and disrupts the whole life of entire communities, in some instances something as simple as the internet can cause mass exodus of people simply leaving their homes and going back to their ancestral roots.  As strange as it sounds the entire community of people simple pack-up and leave everything they have, worked for and live for.

This doesn’t have anything to do with communal violence, religious intolerance or any international incident that provokes or makes people do inhuman deeds.  Simple misinformation makes them scared and leave everything they worked for all their life, and going back to their native land, which probably is not as hospitable as they believe it is as things might not be the same now, as they might believe to be, but the fear of persecution in their adopted regions within their own country makes them flee in mass and just go back to what they believe their home is.  In reality where they live are their home and they should never feel that they are in danger from others in the community.

This happens too often in India, and somehow the fear factor is fed so quickly and dramatically for any sane action to be taken.  Neither the politicians nor the law enforcement foresee this happening and take appropriate actions to help ease the fear factor.

India with its great people’s fabric must learn to be sensitive to everyone and everything, and every way of life.  To see people get scared and simply leave everything and move back to what they feel is their ancestral land is crazy, as this is a country they all belong to and where they live is their home.   Neither politician nor fundamentalist should dictate to people on how they should live and why they should fear each other.  Stop the nonsense and let Indians be Indians, and let them live in peace and happiness.

More Than A Billion Without Gold

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

The Olympic Games in London concluded yesterday (12^th August2012) and they were a fantastic spectacle from beginning to the end. 204 nations and almost 11,000 athletes competed for sixteen days, and competed for 4,700 medals (gold, silver and bronze).  For almost all through the games the city of London, in USA NBC coverage and overall organization and competition was as expected, Olympic in nature and competitive in spirit.  Barring a very few instances the athletes were competing in good faith and did their best to win a medal.  The very fact they made it to London to compete and gave their best to the competition is itself a great reward for the individual and the country they represent.

Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps and Gabby Douglas, along with everyone competitor who won a medal in the 2012 Olympics made me very happy.  Whatever color the medal was the great thing is the spirit of competition and the work that went into the sport.  Whenever I got a chance to watch the games I did, and enjoyed them.  Once the games were over is when it sunk into me that not a single gold medal was won by an Indian. We have probably more than 1/6 of the global population but we could not get one gold. Man that has been bothering me since the games ended, and I keep thinking what in the name of god are we capable of?

We should not take away the medals won by Indian athletes no matter what color the medal is, and each one of them deserve the compliments of the competition and spirit of the games.  It is the country that really should introspect on what it does on the global stage.  We keep calling India emerging nation or developing nation, and for how long shall we be developing or emerging.  What are we developing and what are we emerging from?  Decades of using the same words must be tiring for the politicians, bureaucrats and people who think of the country in such terms.

It is not just the Olympics but in every aspect of the global stage we continue to show poor attitude and performance.  The only thing India is well known for is the scams and suitcases, and none of the politicians are willing to tackle the real issues head on.  The majority of the country’s resources and wealth goes to funding political coffers, and a few businesses.  There is no proper planning for the country’s needs except occasional flash of planning to show that we are doing something.  There are individuals who display brilliance politically, but it is limited to their state and tenure, and once they are out of power the development plans go back to normal, which is simply do the minimum to keep people happy and get elected one more time.

The Olympic results made me think about our country and its abilities.  Absolute mediocrity with everything we do, or we don’t do is displayed on the global stage every day.  The big news on India’s Olympic team was some woman gate crashing and walking with the team in casual clothes at the opening ceremony, and no one noticed her, and even after the most disrespectful behavior by an Indian, no action taken to prevent such disregard for the nation.

With the next independence day coming in a couple of days, I am sure we will hear a lot of rhetoric and language to address the nation, but we should really look for actions that make the nation proud within the country and on a global stage.  Hopefully in the next Olympics we will win a gold medal and get started with the attitude of winning globally.

Blackout

Vasu Reddy in Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

More than 600 million people were out of power for most of the days in two consecutive days, last week in India.  The government did not offer any specific solutions to avoid any future such outages, but blamed misuse of power by the states.  As incredible as it the excuse sounds, there was not much political backlash about the outages.

The most amazing aspect of the blackout was there was no reported abuse of any kind in the two days that six hundred some million people were affected by the electric outages.  I followed the news constantly to see what the cause was why it would happen in such a mass scale, and how so many people, states, businesses could and everything and everyone involved, no one so far has been able to offer solutions.  No one is even offering a plan for resolving the outages if they happen again, and if there are even corrective steps being taken.  One thing that made me happy is that there was no looting, no mass destruction, no communal incidents, no unwanted happenings, no killings, stabbings or anything that was typically front page news in the world.

Politicians have not even harping about the failure of power grid.  Even the opposition parties have not made a big deal out of this for some reason.  In a country even the smallest thing gets blown out of proportion, power failure seems to have come and gone as quickly as it happened.  I am still trying to smart it out in wondering why the guys are not yelling and screaming for the government to be replaced.  This time even the power minister has not been castigated for non-action.

The problem is that we don’t have any power plan for the needs of the country.  The majority of power is generated for the needs of the industrial houses and big cities.  The rural and agricultural needs are probably not even considered in the power planning of the country.  Even if there is a plan for power generation, the country doesn’t have the hydro electric capabilities nor the natural resources to generate the power that is required by the country, and may not have for many decades to come.

We have too many people, too many demands, too many loopholes and too many of everything that is beyond the capabilities or the resources of the country.  There are so many problems with managing the power grid that a large percentage of the power generated might be lost in transport, further adding to the stress on the power grid.  People have no sense of community, simply their own needs and businesses and agriculture also watch out for their own needs.  No one cares about the next person, just the whole country has “ME” syndrome.  There is absolutely no overall plan for energy independence, no plan for meeting the demands for foreseeable future or how we can even plan for future.  Politically it is disastrous for parties to start offering blanket solutions for power or energy management as it is impossible for meeting the demands of the country.  We shall save the energy planning or suggestions for some other time.  This time it is to reflect on the country, and its reactions to the power outages.

It made me feel proud that the country survived two days of outages, but people simply took it in stride and went about their lives.  India is incredible despite of its issues which are complex, but the country’s resilience is incredible and unbeatable.  Jai Hind.