Leadership Vacuum

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

India has no shortage of talented people; both women and men have excelled not only in India but all over the world.  They control large corporation, major political offices and intellectual leadership.  Corporation to universities continue to look for Indians to provide leadership and brilliance to the global enterprises, and we rightfully are catering to just about every aspect of the global economics.  Indians are in the forefront of meeting every global opportunity that is availed to them, and most cases successfully so.

We have more than a billon of us calling ourselves Indian; sometimes with a tag of something as American Indians, of British Indians, or whatever tag we wish to adopt to, to fit the local conditions.  Sometimes it is also exaggerated hyphen to simply describe the immigrant status of the country we have adopted.  For a fact even fourth or fifth generation Indians use the tag line just to be one of us, although for generations they are as foreign as any other foreigner is to an Indian in India.  NRI or whatever name is given to be politically correct is really not a true representation of the group of people who have gone on to find work and a new home, but in India everyone has a tag line even when they just move to the next district.

In any case for a country with such vast population and a huge diversity in thinking and education, we must have a way of finding good leaders.  In a democratically elected government; for example as the USA, it is even difficult to predict who could be the next president.  The electorate is quite smart to pick who they think is going to do the most towards the causes of common people, and elect that person and the elected president gets only two terms to be in the highest office, and cannot run for reelection after 2 terms as president.  The system does two things; allows for a fair and unbiased election to the highest office and imposes a term limit to the person who gets elected to the highest office in the nation.  As much as a president wants to do more or continue to be in the office for longer than two terms, the constitution prohibits the person from doing so.

India for sure has the ability to produce fantastic leaders who can take the country forward in economic development and regional harmony.  Nothing is stopping us from prospering in the world, both internally and internationally.  The stagnation of the same old politics and principals, and same old dialogue of being a developing nation is tiring and has become unproductive and repetitive.  From being a third world nation to a developing nation took more than 65 years of independence, but it is probably the most overused expression by idiot politicians who want to continue to justify their incompetence in managing the country.

 

As a country India continues to struggle with incompetence with its leaders and scams and stealing which is continued unabated.  Despite the horrendous mismanagement of the country and its resources we keep looking at the same people to come into or come back into power.  It is high time to look for forward thinking and serious men and women who will plan and deliver economic and political reforms and stability to a nation that has great resources but cannot meet its basic demands.

Heroism; Really?

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Every entrant into the movies is touted as a hero, and with a small entry with a large background and family background is constantly hyped as heroism albeit in the movie.  The synonyms of heroism; boldness, courage, daring, fearless, gallant, noble and many great words that are attributed to heroism are seldom found in the person being depicted as a hero.

They are typically small, timid, meek and cowardly without the hype of the family background, and would probably not qualify for even the smallest role in a movie.  Today we hear huge titles to everyone getting into the movies as some star or the other, and absolutely there is no relevance to the titles being given.  Every person entering into the movie business is given some star, irrespective of their performance or success.

Coming from the generation where ANR, NTR, Sivaji Ganesan, MGR, Raj Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajnikant, Dharmendra and many other heroes played the hero in every aspect imaginable on celluloid, it is hard to imagine the new generation of youngsters being touted as superstars.  I by no means want to exclude the greats of the yesteryears, and the senior actors that played multitude of roles in hundreds of movies over generations of movie making, but seldom hyped their performances or their success as today’s actors do.

Every movie that is being released only focuses on the first few days in the theaters and how much money they collected, rather than the movie running to happy audiences for a long time in the theaters.  I still remember the days where movies ran for 100, 150, 175, 365 days in the same theater with repeat audience seeing the movie again and again, and enjoying the movie as if they are seeing it for the first time.  The pure enjoyment of the movie and the great following that the actors and actresses enjoyed was beyond comprehension.

There was also days when these actors and actresses would reach out to the public when needed, such as raising money for the army or during floods, and would reach out to the people on truck tops or tractors and touch fans as they asked for help.  They never had the airs about who they were and were almost pleasant to the public who paid to see their movies, and supported the movie industry without reservations and pure fanfare.

People still have the same fanfare and following of the movies, but every movie that comes out has the same sinking feeling to the public who is watching the movies.  Even comedians today act as superstars and simply imitate the yesteryear’s actor’s mannerisms to the teeth, and make absolute fool of the audience.  Heroes and heroines were graceful and beautiful with the start quality that clearly enthralled the audiences, rather than pretend to act beyond their natural and physical abilities.

Granted that the audience today is much larger than just the people visiting the theaters, with added audience on television, overseas and internet, the quality of everlasting movies is no longer in the making.  The only movies that are being made are to hype the heck out of every guy that is a hero with some massive title and name, and try to promote the movie as a blockbuster before even people see it for the first time.  There are no longer functions organized for a movie running for 100 days or more and reaching out to the public for appreciating the quality of the product.

Perhaps my time in India depicted the heroes who really were fantastic performers and great human beings, who took their profession of entertaining people seriously and strived to make as many movies as possible, with each one memorable.  I no longer think we really have heroes making movies; rather we have hype of so and so making as much noise as possible to get first week’s eye balls.  We need to redefine the meaning of heroism in the dictionary or really find heroes who represent the real meaning or heroism.  The public is very smart and will catch-up with the reality quickly.

Pope Francis

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

You don’t have to belong to a religion to appreciate the individual who is chosen to lead an entire set of people who is more than a billion on earth, and represent just about every region of the world.  Prior to following the current election of the pope, and Pope Francis beginning his tenure as the leader of the Catholic Church, I was a great admirer of John Paul II and our own mother Teresa.  Both of them were great leaders by example of their doings and teachings, and you don’t have to belong to the Catholic Church to admire their life time of contributions to humanity.   It is difficult to emulate their humanity and contributions to their fellow human beings.

Perhaps their time did not have the 24/7/365 coverage on the news and internet as it is today, and they escaped the continued scrutiny of the networks and every available channel to find something or the other to point to the human frailties (if any) of a person being placed in a position of great responsibility.  By no means needs a man of god is to be scrutinized as an elected politician, but the media somehow manages to find some excuse or the other to come-up with instances of political positions that a long life would have taken as the circumstances might have demanded as such.

First and foremost the new pope is a man of the people and the first few days after his election as the pope has demonstrated his simplicity and affability to his new position as the leader of a global set of people.  I really like the two things he did immediately following his new role; him paying his bills for the hotel he stayed, and going out into the people and greeting them personally.

In a life time of serving the people and specially the poor in a country that has had its volatility politically and otherwise, Pope Francis has lived an exemplary life of human service and caring.  Every word you hear about the man is that or doing god’s work and the simplicity that he has represented all his life.  Politics and power play really doesn’t have any influence on human service, and by every measure he has practiced the philosophy of caring, and well deserves to be the leader of the major religion he practices.  By following just the last few days of his actions, one is reminded of India’s mother Teresa, and her lifelong commitment to helping the needy.

A human being only needs so much to survive and live, but how well the life is spent in responding to the needs of others around the person make a great life even greater with its simplicity and giving.  For Indians Mahatma Gandhi continues to represent a great soul who exemplified the simplicity of life and the greatness of cause, all combined into a tiny frame.  There are many examples of great men and woman representing the humanity by simply leading life by example of human service, and if so in their exemplary life they had to take specific positions to continue their service to mankind, it was done only to serve their purpose of service rather than self benefit.  Even the greatest of human beings are required to meet the demands of circumstances as it is simply human to survive the environment and do the good they can, rather than perish to the circumstances.

There are great stories that have been told again and again for humaneness and brotherhood, and how many of great souls did the service to humanity without any motives.  As great souls will continue to be in every generation and they will continue to do god’s work as if they are the messengers of god.  You don’t have to belong to any religion to appreciate the value of their contributions to promote kindness.

Fake Money

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

With so many scams in the near past and in the pipe line the money that is funneled into the bank accounts of a few is beyond a mathematicians’ comprehension.  While the Indian economy continues to grow, although at a single digit rate in past few years and projected to grow in the single digits, it is really incomprehensible to imagine if there were no scams or kickbacks and the entire money was funneled back into the Indian economy and not in someone’s hidden places around their many homes and cars or in secret numbered accounts in overseas havens.

Last week a Hindi movie “Special Chabbis” shoed how a politician’s money was stanched in his house and car, and the ease at with which the raiding police was able to find the stash.  The irony of the movie is that the movie itself was made of real life incidents, and depicted the brazen nature of how the Indians simply take and keep the money.  It probably has to be kept close to the chest as it has no accounts to show, and it cannot always be sent to an overseas bank account as simply as we say it.  It simply gets lodged into the closets and closed spaces of the opportunists that take every opportunity to take the money from every source that they can get the loot from.

The world, especially India has a lot of issues with fake currency and people are always getting sucked into to fake currency.  There is always track of who might be dumping fake currency into the market, and typically a common man may or may not encounter the fake currency in day to day living.  There are a lot of instances of groups trying to print money or circulate get caught, and perhaps they are not as well reported as the scams.  However the currency manipulation and fake currency is a fairly entrenched problem with all nations.  In the USA we see fake bills quite often and they don’t have to be large denominations of bills, they could be very small denomination bills that get into circulation and being passed on to the unsuspecting population.  With the USA or western economies adopting a greater use of credit and debit cards, we may eventually phase out the use of bills and perhaps limit the counterfeiting of currency.  But in India and other developing (loosely using the term developing as I don’t have any other way to distinguish the economies) nations the use of credit or debit cards is still not at the every person level and might be a long time before you can educate 100% of the population to use the banking systems for currency protection.

By and large the fake currency is not been identified as a major problem as the governments around the world track down the counterfeiters and dispose them off, and the banks and financial institutions regularly catch the fake bills and dispose them off from circulation.

It is however a problem as even if a small portion of the currency in circulation is fake, it represents the losses for the overall economy and someone who is carrying the fake not has lost that much f real value by simply conducting normal transactions, and believed that the money was real until someone identifies that as a bad not, and refuses to accept it as legal tender.  The losses typically are small and they can never trace the bill back to origination point immediately to catch the perpetrator and regain the value.  But, the effect of fake bills is really not depicted in the economic sense as it is an industry that gets dismantled quickly by the authorities.

The scammed money is where the real money and real assets get stored in the lockers and cars and under or over the roofs, and overseas accounts of a very few individuals.  This money really is more damaging to the global economy than any other type of cheating.  It takes real value from the economy and takes it into hiding, while the value is of no use to the economy.  It’s hidden and not in circulation, and of no use to the person who is hiding it from the very people who could benefit from the large asset base, and could be best used for economic development and employment creating.  If the trend of hoarding money illegally continues, the global economy simply will continue to lose the ability to properly fund the continued economic development, especially with reference to the developing nations where the hoarding of illegal wealth is more rampant than the developed nations.  Perhaps there should be a threshold of hoarding so that there a mechanism to funnel the money back into the economy to keep the real value of the money to be deployed for the benefit of the society, rather than make it as worthless as the counterfeit currency that gets illegally into the public domain.

Whose Country Is It?

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Every opportunity to damage property, destroy infrastructure and kill innocent people is utilized by groups claiming to be fighting for something or the other, but in reality they simply want to kill and destroy others without any direct or indirect relationship to the killers.  Each time they strike, innocent people loose lives, and many other suffer the loss of near and dear ones, their support structure and perhaps their livelihood.

There is no valid reason that one can justify to kill innocents, and the killers don’t have any valid agenda to inflict suffering on unsuspecting civilians.  There is some reason or cause raised by some obscure group to show unjustified support to create havoc with others life, but no reason to strike unsuspecting innocents who have no part in solving non-existing causes.

In reality there is no cause that demands loss of life of a community that is not even aware of the supposed cause for getting killed.  Who are these people anyway to hurt unsuspecting civilians, regardless of caste, religion or any group they might belong to?  The people who suffer are of all religions and are firstly humans.  They have no influence on the intolerance of any one community or any one country.  They are simply living their life without the burden of these so called elements.

What has become a common staple in the world is a small group of people targeting innocents who have no input into solving any issues that lead to the intolerance of a select few.  Someone at random targeting New York, Beirut or Hyderabad and or any other place in the world to destroy the human and their communities in the name of what?

The planning and execution of terrorist acts has become a common practice in today’s world.  They typically claim that they are messengers to good work, but they remain invisible and never voice their opinion in public on what they stand for.  Always all the time they try and strike a country that they don’t have anything to do with.  The support structure and funding sources come from a few countries and the reason for destruction is always filled with hatred to other communities and countries, as the countries that provide the terror funding themselves are often places of chaos.  These are no places of democracy and or of religious or cultural tolerance.  They are often places filled with hatred for their own people and full of oppression.  They find crude ways to keep the religious intolerance and communal divide alive by terror.

Isolating these nations that support terror is impossible as they will not act directly, but in discrete and under handed fashion to promote terror.  The global intelligence agencies perhaps work full time to undercut these elements and at most times successful in preventing these unwanted actions, but few of them escape the watchful eye of the intelligence and inflict massive destruction and human suffering.

Why do these people strike at my place?  What do they gain by destroying everything around people they don’t even know?  Who gains from killing in discriminately?  Can anyone in the civilized world towards the cause of killing?  Has anyone gained by killing and destroying?  Whose country is it anyway?

 

There are so many questions that people ask which have no answers except more questions and whenever an incident happens more suffering and more hatred.  Every single time terror strikes more innocence is lost and we continue to ask the same questions.

The Psychology of an Elected Politician

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

The election cycle has become enormously long for politicians these days.  From the time one is elected to the next election, the campaign is a continuous and arduous process which takes a toll on the general public.  The promises of pre-election continue to be reiterated as long one is in the office and they will be continued in the reelection cycle.  The only change that comes into place is fundraising that is continued throughout the time that one is in power, and with vigor and intensity to support reelection plus makeup for any investment made in getting elected in the first place.

Every election manifesto promises the moon, and massive reforms and restructuring of the current socio-economic systems, which are never justified with the available revenues in the country.  There is never any intelligence involved in making assumptions in forecasting the resources that will become available, but simply make every promise that can possibly be made to impress on the general electorate.  The irony of the country is that the public seem to believe in boasting that is fully incorporated in the speeches of politicians, if they don’t believe that simply are listening to the rhetoric of politicians and perhaps know that whatever they are hearing is simply made-up and never will become a reality.

Despite repeated and similar promises, the politicians continue to make same statements before and after getting elected.  Those who are not in power also make quite exorbitant statements on what they would do if they are brought into power, perhaps the claims of those not in power are more exorbitant than those who are in power.  Neither one of them make any sense and are realistic, as once again they are not practical and in the best interest of the general public, and cannot be afforded by the available resources of the country.

Whatever the conditions in the country; drought, famine, cold or hot or whatever is thrown at the public, they find a way of continue to live in conditions that are bestowed on them by nature, and added to that the politicians add the human element to it, by taking advantage of every opportunity they have by misappropriating the resources that are available and never having the interests of the people who need them.

The election promises themselves are so out of line with reality, it is hard to fathom the actuality of delivering them to the public.  The psychology of the politicians is to simply get elected and try to suck up as much resources as possible from the public coffers.  With each election cycle and every new entrant into politics the rhetoric and actions are only wilder and wilder, and the resources seem to be getting more and scarcer to meet the ever growing demands of the public.

There has been telecom revolution, industrial revolution, information technology revolution, financial revolution, and whatever other revolutions that have added tremendous value to the development in jobs and wealth globally, and creating massive opportunities for people, but for some reason the development in the nation seems to lack the global pace.  The politicians simply pocket majority of the wealth in their overseas accounts through middlemen and kickbacks, and whatever is left goes in the manipulations in the market place.

 

Nobody seems to care about the electoral audience, and the electorate might care but whatever choices they have to elect seem to have only the agenda of lining their pockets.  In a nation where the national fervor is 100%, the national leaders are simply only interested in getting elected so that they have the opportunity for fat bank accounts.

No Experience Needed

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

There is a lot of discussion and expectation prior to being elected for being a leader of nation.  Much importance is placed on time in public office and what the person has done prior to making to claim to manage the nation.  Where there is a choice with electoral process, much is made out of what was done rather than what needs to be done.  We always forget that the past is already past, and the country needs to look forward, rather than rest on the laurels of one’s past.

Past experience, education, and training and on the ground development is valuable, but no one can gain the experience of running a country until you get into the hot seat.  The only claim to experience in such a position is from a person who is already elected as the head of the state and planning for reelection.  Running for reelection has a real history of performance that allows the public to evaluate if the reelection of the person is really warranted.

 

Next year’s elections in India should be an interesting scenario as to the future of the political parties and which party will have the ability to forge a coalition to form a central government.  The current scenario of the political landscape doesn’t present a clear indication of which party will have the votes to come into power in the center.

Congress although currently in control, doesn’t clearly have the indications of having the ability to once again form a coalition government at the center.  It has already lost a lot of regional alliances and in some places it holds current seats, is vulnerable to the next contested elections.  Some of its charismatic leaders have passed away leaving leadership vacuum at the state level.  Congress has also lost several electoral alliances and currently barely hangs on to the power at the center.  As the elections are coming in 2014, it may not be worthwhile for the opposition to get into midterm elections; it would rather be better suited for the upcoming general elections.  It is likely that congress would further falter in its administration, which will obviously help the opposition parties.

The experience of being power multiple times has not done much for the current leadership in managing affairs of the nation and where it is in power in the individual states.  If all the scams and strife is to be sidelined, the management of day to day affairs is also to be desired.  There is constant procrastination of making decisions at the state level where the party is also in power, and where states which are run by opposition there is absolute differences in managing the people’s issues.  Although the opposition is expected to keep the ruling party honest, the honesty is the last thing from reality in the way things are being handled.  With 24/7/365 badgering from TV, News Papers and the internet, it is difficult to figure what is real verses made-up information.  Sometimes even the person making the statements perhaps doesn’t know what the truth is.

The country is no longer young and freshly independent.  The country is not at war and doesn’t have any external influences in governing, other than its standard across the border issues.  There are no new threats or disturbances or economic calamities that are out of the ordinary, but we still have no solutions to economic and well being of the nation and its people.

It is difficult to envision that we might have brand new direction taken by the current leadership, even if we have a change of the parties that are in power at the center.  The amount of mismanagement at every level needs to addressed and cleaned-up bottom-up to top-down and every which way we can.  Irrespective of who comes into power and anointed as the nest chief needs no experience to run the country as the experienced lot we have had really unresponsive to the needs of the people.

The new chief needs motivation to do the right thing and not be self centered or just do the things that will help hold on to the seat.  There are many competent people who are available to help plan a great course for the nation, but need a leader who will think and work for the people’s agenda.  The experience to lead is not to follow the past or current leaders, but cater to the needs of current people.

Starting Fresh?

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Every time you find someone from India to speak of politics, they immediately want that India hold new elections with all new elected officials, and if you are from Gujarat or some parts of North India or have some political affiliation with someone outside of congress party, you will immediately hear that Modi will be the best person to handle the needs of current day India.  Mr. Modi’s biggest qualifications are that he has no one to worry about so he will be immune to kickbacks or scams.  If you have none to worry about, perhaps is the biggest qualification you have for being in political office as you will be beholding to none.

However long ago you have left your motherland and been a NRI, India still is close to heart of first, second or third generation of Indians.  Irrespective of the citizenship they hold, they hold their land close to heart and although may not be in real touch with what is going on in India (except through the internet or hearsay), they all will behold to India.  It is true of most immigrants as all of them will be addressed as persons identified with their ancestral land.

Indian politics are almost 100% blaming something on the other rather than working on the people’s agenda.  All political parties simply try to blame, badger or abuse each other in the filthiest of words at every opportunity, and perhaps behave very nicely when they bump into each other.  Never once politicians are respectful of their opponents in India.  The irony of the country’s management there is absolutely no plan for people issues or economic issues that are country wide and future based; rather they seem to be totally opportunistic or stop gap measures to just handle the current situation.  Irrespective of the planning or unplanned development of the country, politicians and business leaders co-exist in the nation, and common man is not even remotely involved in the direction the country takes; short or long term.

There is almost a factional divide in following the political parties and people who follow them are involved emotionally in the parties and don’t see through the damage that the individual politicians are causing the nation.  It could very well be that they are simply oblivious to the deeds of their political affiliation.

Indian is no longer a newly independent country, and has been free of the British for more than three generations.  There is no need for feeling sorry or newness of an independent nation.  The country has internal and external problems that it keeps trying to deal with; though unsuccessfully.  There is a clear lack of vision or direction from the nation to what should be done to move the country forward; literally and figuratively.  If someone slaps you or try to slap you there is absolutely no reason for taking it lightly, but should react strongly so that the attempting party trying to intimidate will understand that aggression will be dealt with aggression.  India is a nation of more than a billion people with strong national security forces and does not need to bend over backwards in defending itself.

The country has developed so much intolerance for its own people; divisiveness with language, caste, color, religion and whatever way to become polarized and divided and it should start to be tolerant and caring for its entire people.  Often time politicians try to drive the wedge of religion or caste into the people for political gains; and people should start to look through these petty politics and embrace the country’s diversity rather than become divisive.

Once people start to look at the ideas of the politicians for what they represent for the future of the nation, not divisive and emotional politics we might start to pick leaders who not only speak for the elections but also for the deliverables of elected office.  The nation doesn’t have a history of performance form the elected officials, so the elections and the manifesto should be measured for deliverables, and if not the electorate must be replaced; and this might take time to elect leaders who deliver to the people’s agenda, but it time for India to start finding leaders that will make decisions for the good of the people.  If it means a fresh start with all the leadership and political parties, then we begin now.

I Love My India

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Although ten thousand miles away from my home, and for about one and half generations being away from my home, and having lost my grandparents and father and a brother over the years, and being entwined in the American way of life, I still love my India.  No amount of time and distance will make me change my mind on my love for my mother nation.

I believe like every other Indian, I too wanted to go back to India and do things that were helpful and good for the country, but primarily I wanted to go back to my roots and belong in the place that was my birthplace.  I really tried at least three times to do work or business and live in India for extended periods of time.  I even ventured in purchasing homes in tow different cities over the years.  I started 2 licensed businesses that were spanning over probably ten years and had employed lots of friends and family and also lots of people I did not know when I got started.

I did not succeed either with business or personal investments.  I lost on all counts except the spirit of being an Indian.  One week or so ago, I was speaking to an Indian friend and really recounted the love for the country but my inability to succeed with investments into India both personally and professionally.  I hold no ill feelings about the failures on both accounts as I did realize that the long distance management is like long distance love with India, it will certainly lead to failure on multiple accounts; management will never work if you are not in India, people really are not professionals but personal acquaintances who forget what t hey are supposed to do when you are not there, the way of life is different in context to work and life, they can only do what they know and one should not expect an American audience in India, sales and marketing is very different in India, acceptance of long distance management is difficult, and so many more management lessons I learned which really made me reflect to my friend that I will no longer invest or work in India as it was impossible personally to succeed and I was also at a stage in my life where risk taking is not advisable.  Despite all my personal failures of management in India, I still love India and everything Indian.

My family and friends love everything Indian.  We still account for Indian food as our favorite, and probably enjoy it much more so than we were in India.  Personally my day without a good dose of vegetarian Indian food is unfulfilling.  We speak in Telugu at home and with each other, and me in Hindi or anything Indian with most my friends if they don’t know Telugu.  We account for Indian holidays with great fervor and enjoy the occasions with sweets and clothes.  Everything Indian; people, products, food, clothes, mannerisms, way of life everything is our routine and we all love our India.

I read about what is happening in India everyday; be it a Times of India, Andhra Vilas, Hindu, Sakshi or any other publication that is available along with all the USA based news papers that are available.  Here is where the India I love is totally different than that of my old India.  Every day, everywhere, every piece of news is only of the scams, murder, rape, cheating, political bickering, religious strife and just bad mouthing.  Nothing you hear or read is of anything to with the development of the country, love for the people and brotherhood.

 

Despite all the bickering and bloodbaths, and rape and murder, it is still my India.  My people may not be touched by the incidents that are reported, but they are affected both in India and those who live outside.  Why so much strife and ugliness in the land of Gandhi and Ram?  Why there is no respect for each other or one another’s way of life and religion?  Who gains from the mayhem and blood baths and bickering?  The country in spite of these still is evolving and growing and developing.  Just imagine what it could do if all these negative thoughts, incidents and happenings are converted into positive energy and for the good of the nation and love and respect each other.  It will truly be my India, depicted in Vande Mataram.

Presidential Agenda

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

On January 21, 2013, president Obama got sworn-in for the second time as the president of the USA.  The pomp and ceremony associated with the swearing ceremony, and the events leading up to the swearing-in of the president is quite a well planned and well scripted event management.  The television and internet and the electronic media cover the events 24/7 by the second so nothing can be missed by the common person.

Just about every event that the president and the family and the followers participate gets well documents and publicized.  Presidential advisors, handlers and supporters go out of their way to help, contribute and participate in the pageantry of the election and the presidential aura.  In the modern times the election of the president of the United States and the swearing in the president and the annual state of the union address of the president; all have great relevance to the citizens of the United States.

Following each of the president’s agenda and actions has a lot of significance to the electorate and politicians as the state of the union, and electoral promises are reviewed and dissected, and typically followed by the public and the media to see if he delivers on the electoral promises and the state of the union.  Typically president’s push their agenda thru the congress to deliver to the promises made to the electorate.  It is impossible to deliver to every promise made on an election trial, but delivering to the electoral base is a normal and standard practice with the national agenda.

When a president has congress that is of an opposition party, presidential agenda does get challenged, not simply because the congress wants to oppose it but simply because the parties differ on public agenda.  The value of a two party system is to allow for checks and balances with the national interests rather than a single person’s interest.  The population of the country does have different needs, opinions and aspirations and the elected leaders have to try and handle the needs of the diverse requirements; while being strapped with sinking budgets and ever expanding deficits.  Not many presidents except President Clinton have enjoyed budget surpluses; even his time only experienced marginal surpluses and did not eliminate the overall deficits all together.

The current and reelected president’s agenda is more social than philosophical in my opinion.  The imbalances of the deficits and cost of the debt weighs heavily on the planning, along with social issues, unemployment and never-ending international strife.  Although the president looks smiling and composed, his head must be spinning with the issues that are on the table while he gets sworn in for the second time.  The US Presidency is no doubt the most powerful position in the world, but also comes with enormous pressure for handling the global and internal tensions.  For the current president, the pressure of past performance is no longer there as he is reelected and done running for office; he only has to perform to his future legacy.

The current president has already set several firsts in his election and reelection to the office.  He has the opportunity to make a difference in handling the economic crisis as deftly as he has handled the electorate.  The most difficult decisions of saving and managing money, while keeping peace within the congress and the monetary system will be of the greatest legacy that president Obama will leave for future generations.

 

Granted that international crisis across the world and pressures on resources verses available assets all weigh heavily on what to do next for next four years.  The president can be bold in advocating better management of resources and saving for the future, managing the budgets to tailor to what is available to spend, cut the deficit completely while sacrificing the pork barrel projects; do things that are essential to save the American dream for generations to come.  The president is still relatively young with two very young children, and he should aspire to have an American life that his children are looking forward to living.  The promise of America is what the president should have on his agenda; that he can deliver to his own children and to the rest of the nation as well.  God bless America, and all the best to the President.

Not In Control

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

The last couple of weeks of 2012 and the first couple of weeks of 2013 have been quite eventful.  I took a break to writing weekly during the holidays and the few weeks have yielded an Indian government that is incompetent both internally and also dealing with external forces.  While people in and outside of India were following the story of Nirbhaya “Jyothi Singh Pandey” for weeks, the killing of the Indian soldiers on the Pakistan border, and beheading them seem to be equally newsworthy, because of the way they were killed and the denial of the Pakistanis about it having happened.  One of the Pakistani minister’s comments that there are a billion opinions from a billion Indians was in fact fascinating, as there were a billion Indians in disbelief that people will be so inhuman.

The government in both instances has been quiet in reacting and taking steps to address the issues that have heightened the anxiety of the entire nation.

First; the act of violence against a woman in New Delhi streets conducted without any regard to the life of the person, and done with such impunity by the guys who drive a bus or whatever is very disturbing.  It is the capital city of the nation, and these youngsters were simply going home from a movie when they mistook the bus for a normal ride.  What transpired has witnesses; one of the young lady who got killed by the brutality of the attackers and her friend who somehow survived the dastardly incident to recount the actions of the fellow Indians who were really not human beings.  Such brutality was on action against the young lady and her friend, and she stayed alive to let people know of how brutally she was attached by the group of inhuman beings, and her friend survived to also recount the incidents of the night.  Now she is dead unable to sustain the brutality of these inhuman beings and before death she has fully documented who they were and what they did to her.  This is also corroborated by her friend who survived the attack.  What the nation has shown is the deep empathy for Jyothi and her brave efforts to fight the brutal attack, and even after the attack her desire to live and bring the attackers to justice.  While the entire country mourns her death, the nation was shocked and drawn to her being subjected to such brutality and her brave life after the attack.  Every man and woman and child of India was offended by the actions of the gang that attacked her and what has the government done so far?

Secondly; the killing and beheading of our soldiers on the Pakistan border is equally brutal and has drawn the nation’s attention to the brutality of the actions of the Pakistanis.  The whole nation just shocked by the brutal attack on Nirbhaya, was once again shocked at the atrocity of the actions of the Pakistanis.  The continued denial of the Pakistanis of these beheadings ever happening further runs into the wounds of the country’s population.  Whatever is happening at the line of control was supposed to be mutual and with respect to each country’s boundaries and people.  Everyone in the world knows that there is continued tension and the infiltration into India is a daily occurrence.  There is so much anguish within the people of the country to see such barbaric behavior at the LOC; it further fuels the disbelief that such cruelty can be possible by human beings.  One again every Indians sensibility was challenged by the cruel actions of the Pakistanis, and what does the Indian government do?

Both with the country and on its boarders the citizens are being subjected to is brutality, and with unimaginable savagery.  These incidents touch the hearts of all of the civilization and not just Indians.  It is time for the government of India to wake-up and at least have the courage of a woman who did not have any weapons except the courage to fight the idiots who raped and killed her.  She fought bravely as long as she could and although succumbed to the brutality at least had the courage and bravery to fight the idiots.  Perhaps the government of India should learn from her to start fighting for protection of its people.

No Safe Place

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

For societies that follow basic rules of living life, it is hard to imagine that someone would just barge into a public place and start shooting people without discrimination.  For religious or fanatical groups to highjack and crash big airplanes into great big buildings in what is the greatest city on earth was an eye opener not just for American people but the whole world.  It really showed how vulnerable life was when someone was willing to risk their own to destroy other people’s life and property.

Home grown violence of indiscriminate killing of people, all of whom are typically innocent strangers has become common in the recent years.  Shopping malls, movie theaters, parking lots, schools, and any other place we think as a place of safety and recreation and visit without worrying for one’s life, have all become places attracting violence.   Of late very public places have become places of carnage, and it is not because of some terrorist organization, but home grown individual discontent.  These individuals who are discontent with their life (for whatever reasons of their own making) go on a violent rampage on unsuspecting and innocent people in public places.  There is absolutely no way to anticipate the brutal carnage and there is never a warning to unsuspecting victims.

The latest incident in Newtown, Connecticut is by far the worst of its kind.  It targeted little children in their school.  No safe place for anyone; what has come to the society in which little children’s school is the target of killing, and that too of little ones so little, who can’t phantom why they are being shot at.  The children are not only innocent of what might be happening around them; they are the future of this society.  Killing them for whatsoever personal reason one might have is plain wrong and inhuman.

Whatever the wrongs of the society that might have been inflected on the individuals who kill strangers are self made issues and have no relevance to those who are being attacked.  Labeling these killers as mentally challenged is to hide the disgusting behavior they display and the callous attitude they have towards other people’s life.  These killers are stable enough to acquire guns and ammunition, and target specific places and mercilessly massacre unsuspecting and innocent people.  They are completely in control of their actions when they drive to public places with intent to kill.  They cannot be mentally challenged to load guns and find people to kill.  If we had someone of another faith or color target public places we call it terror, but when local guys kills we call them mentally challenged, and this is really a farce allowing the law and judicial departments from accounting these guys as anything but terrorists and treat them as terrorists.

 

As a society we show great empathy to such tragedy and I am personally 100% sure that everyone who heard of this carnage on little children had tears in their eyes as the President did.  What do we do now and what will the president do next along with the legislators of this country?  We live in a country which has more shops selling guns than McDonalds.  We must find a way to stop the attacks on general public by disgruntled individuals.  Each and every one of us has right to live; free and without fear and in freedom.  This society should not allow individuals to simply carry weapons and use them at will on unsuspecting people.  The killing of the little ones in Newton should serve as catalyst for the law makers to act to prevent the loss of innocent life.

Following the Leader

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

India has been in its inception a society which looked-up to its leaders.  All through the history of the nation can remember Indians have always followed individual leaders for their leadership, behavior, exemplary skills and governance with putting people first.  We admire every aspect of the significance of the life and times of great leaders from our mythology and history, and also the conquerors of Indian soil in some instances with great reverence to the meaning of governance.

Perhaps no place on earth has endured the attack on the country as much as Hindustan has in the history of the world, while it retains the love for its history and long lost greatness of then people.  We love our heroes and most times revere them so much their life stories and deeds are a part of the Indian day to day life.  There is never a moment that passes by without a reference to the great acts of the past heroes of the nation.

A nation with more than a billion people and vast cultural and geological variations with diverse agendas is a tough country to govern and manage.  The challenges of the elected officials (they are no longer rulers of the past, just elected into the office by the people of the nation) are enormous with resources getting to be meager and meager with each passing year, and ever increasing demands of the population.

Prior to the Independence from the British and breaking the large nation in parts, Indians still had a few examples of rulers of tracks of the land, who were beholding to the needs of the people, and although they either had to be dethroned by the occupying forces or simply gave up the fight against a large enemy.  The rulers were generally very adept to the people of their kingdoms, and governed with keeping the people’s requirements at large.

1947 and break-up of India and independence from the British has been several generations ago, and just about anyone who were a part of the Independence movement has left the people.  We as people have yet to come to grip with how to handle freedom in a democratic way, and how to make the best out the freedom of choice with every aspect of life.

Before the independence in 1947 people of Hindustan followed the leaders who fought for the single democratic way of life; freedom from occupation by a foreign force.  The one single minded ambition which claimed numerous lives, and created multiple nations, was the one and only thing people of Hindustan wanted; freedom from occupation.

Well; now we have had freedom for generation, and we still have yet to learn to be a democratic nation.  While the pre-independence movement needed leaders as a voice of the people of the nation, we don’t need to do so in a democratic India.  The country and its people have not just the right to choose a leader who represents them, but also an obligation to pick and choose whosoever does the right things for the sake of the people.

We should get over the complex of a single person or a past history of someone when we choose our next representative.  They should be chosen based on actions that are representative of a democracy and well being of the people who sent the person to the elected office.  There is no reason to follow a leader for life time and then pass on the baton to the legacy of the past rather we should elect people based on people’s well being.

 

With more than a billion people India certainly has enough will power and mind power to choose leadership that is well meaning and people serving.  Leaders should only be in place as long as they represent the issues and causes of the people, and not just because of where they came from.  We should look for leaders to follow, only when the leader is representative of the people who voted in elections and they only should be sent back.

Fostering Democracy

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Since the beginning of time, people have always preferred democratically established governments.  We have seldom seen dictatorships or single person enforced laws successfully supported by people who live in such rule.  Even if such rule was temporarily accepted by the people, they eventually result in revolt by its population, leading mostly to violent overturn of the establishments.  The world rarely has seen a peaceful dictatorship and the very fact the word dictatorship don’t foster the freedom of choice by people who live in such conditions.

 

Irrespective of where we live, we prefer to make choices of our won and when restricted to what a ruler dictates, we typically revolt against the idea of being told what to do on a daily basis by someone who is in power by force.  Time and again restricting human thinking and living, results in revolt that leads to violent overthrow of the powers in place, and people wanting to have a choice of their own in their day to day affairs.

 

Whatever the mankind has witnessed over the past century or so (while not forgetting the thousands of years of history that we know and read about), there has been very few instances of peaceful transformation of dictatorships into democracies.  Nations go through turmoil with loss of life, financial strife and eventually learning to live in a democratic environment, which often is a challenge in itself.  After years of being told what to do and how to live and restricted to think freely, freedom of thought and expression is not a simple thing to embrace immediately.  Democracies are also fostered to be successful over a period of time, wherein the people who live in it respect the process and live to be free of a single person’s rule.

 

India has been independent since 1947, which is several generations into freedom, and there are very few remnants of the pre-independence era’s policies and people.  Yet, the country has not come to grips with its freedom of choice.  Perhaps the ability to be free has not yet sunk into the thought process of the nation, which is large, diverse and mostly new in thinking.

 

Once we lost the leaders who worked hard to gain independence from the British, the new set of leaders have not been able to focus on development of the nation as a whole, rather they have become increasingly concerned about only retaining power and making money while in power.  The power to elect people’s representatives is still in the hands of the people, but who we elect seem to feed from the seat of their power rather than focus on what is needed by the people who have sent them to elected office.

 

For successive terms and governments in both the center and state level, the spirit of people’s agenda is clearly missing.  Although tall claims of each elected party are rhetorical, the actions don’t seem to match what is being promised and what is being done.  The country and states have more than enough resources to handle the needs of the population, but much of these resources are diverted to individual benefit.

 

There are nations who are as diverse and large, as India and strive in democracies.  Elected representatives minding people’s agenda and business and striving to develop their constituencies is not an abnormal thing, but how do we get this into Indian elected representatives.  Irrespective of who we send to the office, quickly forget that they are there for people’s purpose.  Regional parties, national parties or even very small parties, all of they get elected by emotional issues they bring to the people, and promise the moon, but once elected they all ignore the basics of good governance.

 

While Indians love the largest democracy title, its politicians have yet to start respecting the value of the democratic system.  The population of the country also doesn’t seem to get grips with the value of the democratic process, rather they probably don’t believe in the system, but simply send their elected representatives for the next term simply because of irrational thinking.

 

Each passing election cycle is more and more cynical than the previous one and the conditions in the country survive only gets worse.  New parties come to life whenever a senior leader of a party is dissatisfied or caught in a massive scam and wants to start fresh, but always with same old philosophy of all talk and no action, but feeding to the fear factor of the population.

 

India is a massive population with diversity of people, religion, regions, language and every imaginable people’s factor.  The very fabric of the country being democratic and under one nation is by itself a massive human endeavor.  While elected politicians are unable to appreciate the value of democracy, and how best to function under democratic rule, its people are also hapless in selecting the next set of elected representatives, who might turn out to be equally selfish.  There is no end in sight for money controlled electorate, and until the overall system rejects corruption in politics we will continue to be challenged as a nation which will always be classified as developing.