Media, Wars and Friends

For a little over a week, the hot news in Kerala was the allegations of domestic violence against a Minister by his wife and what unfolded involved more drama than the usual menu of soaps and reached the standards of jam-packed action in some of the male protagonists movies. Newspapers had nothing else to report, there were live panel discussions and the defence minister remarked that it shouldn't turn into a state celebration. Once the minister resigned, panel discussions were about the drop in the price of gold and its various nuances. Now that gold prices are hovering at the same level, it has turned to Chinese "infiltrations" on the border. While the first two issues were restricted to Kerala the last one was a celebration of national scale and by the time the Chinese had camped in Daulat Beg Oldi, my mother had already fallen prey to panel discussionomania so much so that she asked me whether an India-China war was possible.

Then I see a sensible view take on the issue (a) and there is also the obvious fact that it is nothing more than  a boundary issue and differences of perspective- I say the boundary is there, but he is saying it is here and there is nothing more to it than that. Television panel debates have only served to vitiate the atmosphere and it was most evident during the issue over beheading of soldiers at the India-Pakistan border. Fuelled by the fact that anyone who spits out anti-Pakistan vituperations would receive ample airtime and be able to appeal to or increase nationalistic feelings to boost their popularity and appear (merely appear) strong against old adversaries. But one forgets that it is easier to shout while in the opposition (or while supporting the government from outside) but an entirely different job to get work done while occupying power. Mamata Banerji and V.S.Achuthanandan are the ones who have found such transitions difficult in India recently.

On to the Pakistan issue, I have read that delaying visas and suspending dialogue is of absolutely no help and we must increase people to people contact to solve the animosity. These are really good theoretical points that appeal to the peace brigade and idealists, but one forgets that even if India were to make any and all concessions to Pakistan, it would not help even in the slightest because it is not the civilian government that calls the shots in Pakistan but the army and it needs the bogey of India to cement its position, irrespective of the changes in the "Green Book" (b) in Pakistan. So, the theory that once the issues are resolved, the army in Pakistan will fade into insignificance is just wishful thinking. Let us make no mistake about the fact that the existence and power the army enjoys in Pakistan and the free reign it has and its ability to use "non-state" actors in Indian Kashmir or Afghanistan owes far less to the civilian government's strategy and the official India-Pakistan stand on Kashmir, but more to the civilian leadership's helplessness.

People to people contact and border trade can promote good relations between the people, promote economic welfare and a better life for the people in the border towns and so it is an end in itself, it cannot lead to anything more, just like cricket can only bring in advertising revenue and a few days of passion and tension without really building up confidence in any measure. What this also means is that they should be isolated from the talks and relations with Pakistan since they have little positive or negative impact and must be seen as separate issues. Let the dialogue process with a civilian government continue too, except under extreme circumstances, since it is quite obvious that they have little say in what the army, intelligence agencies or its proxies do. If there is some untoward incident, do not go roll back the gains, but simply freeze them for the time being and resume from where it was left off. The decision not to send our cricket team to Pakistan is fine since the security situation is not favourable there, but preventing Pakistani players from coming to India is as silly as not permitting Srilankan players from playing in Tamilnadu.

Apart from media antics, there is little to suggest anything seriously alarming along the border with China. It has other bigger worries and battles to fight and a cost to benefit analysis says that there are only costs but no benefits at all by raising a conflict with India. China's disputes against Japan and all the South-East Asian nations is part of its race for resources with cleverly, although not too subtly and effectively, masked historical claims (c) . These are more important, worthwhile and urgent for China to win and the world to resolve and has the potential to draw in the rest of the world as America is intent on acting as the protector of Asia against a rising China. Any conflict has drastic implications for China as it is dependent on exports, and shipping lanes across the South China sea is its lifeline which cannot be kept open by waging a war, but only by a threatening posture.

The cost of conflict with India is minimal for China, but the benefits are almost nothing. Of course, China has attacked India in the past and the signs were missed by the establishment due to its soft corner for a fellow developing nation with problems similar to the one that was confronting India at the time. Our army was ill-equipped and not acclimatised for the war and this holds lessons for us. Let our army be prepared for the eventualities as it should always be, while the civilian leadership tries to settle out the issue by dialogue and removing misunderstandings. China's intention could be not so straight-forward as territorial gains, but to blow the whistle on current world alliances- bring out secret alliances into the open and reveal who stands where and with who and then comfortably go back to its side of the boundary to prevent the conflict from growing out of control. As China advances into India, it can realise who is with itself and who is on the other side- perhaps the US will help India and Russia will side with China (a slight reversal from 1962) and once this is out in the open, China will be able to dominate proceedings freely with energy and resources from Russia to satisfy its growing needs and less dependency on South China sea.

We do not need military alliances, but strong relations with the South-East Asian nations including Myanmar will mean that we have more leverage in the area than China. ASEAN, Myanmar and APEC have sought India's partnership actively and persistently not as just a market or economic partner but to counter an assertive China that is dictating terms, to whom these nations want to say that we have other partners who respect us. This in itself will be a strong deterrent against China and India does not have to grudgingly accept US foothold in the region due to the Chinese threat. Close ties with Russia is also imperative since a China-Russia alliance is a strong possibility as has been recently witnessed with Russia giving China weapons more advanced than the one it delivered to India (d).

India's strategic co-operation with the US involving economic, scientific, technological and educational issues along with its defence co-operation with Russia is actually a wise strategy since it allows India to maintain friendly relations to all without antagonising anyone. It is better to maintain strong ties and lines of communication rather then pissing them off like China is doing to everyone except Russia now. The question what use are friends who will not aid you in times of conflict is pertinent. But it might not come to war, it is true that India's trade relations with these nations are no where near the one they have with China, but it is seen as an exploitative relation- China takes over US manufacturing jobs, there are voices in Russia raising concern over whether it will just be a sparsely populated resource backyard for China which China could easily run over with its large army and population. India must publicise the model of development and co-operation it stands for and contrast it with how others provide aid and support, in return for an exploitative resource extraction hardly benefiting the host country and its people apart from money, without directly pointing fingers. Mitigating climate change is one area where India must take the leadership for its own domestic benefit as well as to built very strong ties with the third world, island states and countries with a coast, but India has only hidden behind the excuse of low per-capita emission rather than take charge and forge ahead by adopting clean technology and working with other nations that too are threatened by climate change.

There is little scope for co-operation with China since our paths conflict almost always and rather than the co-operation due to the common concerns that Jawaharlal Nehru wanted, it is a scramble for resources and development and this is a fact rarely accepted or talked about. One can talk about soft power and diplomatic skills, but without real power to back it up, soft power is useless. It will be a tough balancing act and the priority is in preventing conflict, but our army has to be ready, our diplomats and politician's have to realise these and be ready to protect India's relations with all major nations without making enemies. Our news media must realise that amateurish and jingoistic reporting and ratcheting up the tension will not take us anywhere and calls for war will cost us more than China because, let us accept it, they are militarily and economically far ahead of us and we might have to wage a two-front war.

To sum up, let the people to people contact, trade, cricket and Track 2 diplomacy go on with Pakistan regardless of the dialogue process and except under extreme circumstances since these are ends in themselves. Also allow the dialogue process to move ahead and not backward and not be held hostage to incidents beyond civilian administration's control. As for China, strengthening our border defences and army, better ties with South-East Asian nations and neighbours and maintaining good relations with the major powers will only benefit India and tilt the world to view India favourably and China as more of a reckless rich resource hunter- all of which will add to India's benefit and attempts must be to prevent conflict by building strong relationships rather than using this to raise a conflict.

Growth as a Goal

"Growth is a necessary condition and we must unhesitatingly embrace growth as the highest mantra"said Finance Minister P. Chidambaram during his budget and he also said inclusive and sustainable development as ultimate mate goal.. Although it is not the right thing to begin with a quote, I must do so here because the quote signifies and hides many things at the same. I am okay with growth as long as this is not only economic growth that signifies an increase in GDP and a bull run at the stock exchange. I am all for growth if the increase in government revenues leads to higher spending in the social sector- health, education and social safety for the poor- and better outcomes. I am all for growth if it means better public transport, law and order, electricity and safe boundaries.

India has had a decent spell of growth in the last twenty years and even the "disappointing" 5% growth in 2012-2013 is not something to be scoffed at- any of the non-German europeans would be gladly willing take that growth rate and the US too. But then why is it that India has more poverty than sub-saharan africa, more children malnourished than the poorest of the poorest and a 136th rank in th Human Development Index?

The growth that India has witnessed has been the growth of the middle class and also the growth of a few individuals with good contacts with the government. The wealth of the richest Indians have grown mostly in the real estate, energy or natural resources sector and not in creation of advanced technology products or manufacturing. This was mainly gained as a result of exploitation of natural resources that belonged to the nation given away for dirt cheap prices. There are attempts to gain more of these at the cost of displacement of millions in Central India which has given rise to the red-corridor- more than anything, the red-corridor is a result of land grabbing under state sanction under the guise of development and when this is resisted, the state uses "eminent-domain" or weapons to silence the voices who try to fight back with a rag-tag army and an ideology.

The only real growth has been restricted to IT, Banking, some Public Sector Undertakings and even retail(but this merely fed on the other growth sectors) which do create products and deliver services without the need for government sops. The growth in the stock market creates no real assets as it is just the money that money makes making more money. A hoax message on twitter about a White House attacks show how volatile and unreasonable it is (a).

It is true that the government revenue has increased as a result of the growth, but not due to high taxes paid by the rich since there are only 42,800 crorepatis in the country according to the government. The increase in corporate taxes is only matched by the revenue foregone by the government (b) and so the real increase in revenue comes in large part from income taxes and indirect taxes. This from the middle-classes benefitted by the growth in a few sectors. But does the increase in revenue translate into better outcome in the social sector? Not really since we still have more poverty than sub-saharan africa, 44% of our children are undernourished and the government is nowhere near providing any sort of adequate healthcare for its people. The much lauded Right to Education has not been implemented and in places where implemented, the learning outcomes have been poor. Merely having more revenues do not translate into better social sector outcomes because sufficient money must be allocated and it must be spend accordingly.

There was a clamour that growth is necessary for national security. Well, I guess when we forget to build submarines to launch underwater missiles (c) or face inexcusable delays in delivery of defence equipment (d) it really is growth and better defence capabilities.

I do not see a growth here. I see growth in farmer suicides and in unsustainable exploitation of our environment as projects clear forests, pollute water bodies, damage eco-systems and more of the very same are offered in the name of growth. The growth that we have is coming at the cost of our environment and is not reaching the majority of our population. When Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze spoke about growth-mediated development, they meant development for everyone and not merely insane riches for a few that can remove roadblocks to access precious national resources and developing a small middle class large enough to buffer the government against nation-wide outrage.

The government does say a lot about inclusive growth, increase in social sector spending and allocation for health, education and sanitation- it has been nothing more than words. Once these words are put into action and their outcomes show they have achieved the necessary goals, then we can say that it is inclusive growth and growth is the ultimate goal. When the green cover is maintained and environment is protected, when growth is in the wealth, health and safety of all individuals, when there is access to education and jobs for all, when no one is deprived of their traditional lands, beliefs, social ties and culture to make way for a short cut to growth- then we can say India has grown.

Misconceptions on Studying

Before I begin, I need to establish my credentials. I prepared for IIT-JEE entrance, in addition took Biology in my senior secondary school, did an MSc in Chemistry and B.E in Electronics and Instrumentation from BITS-Goa and now I am preparing for civil service exams. The sheer number of books that have passed through my hands- I cannot claim to have studied them all, especially biology and electronics, but the rest were covered to the best of my abilities- is incalculable when you add novels and other books and on top of that, thousands of wikipedia pages too have assaulted by rods and cones and grey cells.

Now then, I would like to mention some popular misconceptions about studying and the truth behind them. These are not mentioned directly, but this is the mindset when those who have crossed their academic or learning from books phase in life. It is unfortunate though, they themselves must have gone through the same experience and yet forget it. I hope, rather I am sure that I will not forget this experience and once I am through with this phase, I will view everyone still going on with sympathy and will wish them the very best. But I am still here and I wish myself and the rest the very best as I begin-

1) Studying is easy. All it involves is sitting infront of a book (nowadays, a computer screen too) and reading page after page. It takes very little effort and in fact, it could be compared to the process of diffusion where the lesser knowledge we have faster the flow of knowledge due to the concentration gradient and learning becomes really easy
How many times have you simply stared and stared at the book and still nothing has made any sense?

2) One cannot get tired by studying since it is not real work. The body does not move (those who walk and study could get a concession here) and perhaps the hand moves while writing and the eyes too. But that cannot make one tired
Shouldn't we ask those staying in hostels about this? Especially the night before exams, about hunger pangs and desperate searches for foooood! Biscuits and maggi have kept me going on quite a few occasions.

3) Learning history is easy, it is like reading a story book and it is a fun process too
This depends on the quality of the book. Frankly, except for very few quality books, I find reading history boring and full of just facts, numbers, dates and effects without causes.

4) Practical is better than theory or one ounce of practice is equal to thousand ounces of theory
 I would like to know how many were actually benefited by the outdated and irrelevant experiments and mostly damaged  equipments in laboratories. I must confess the only exception was Digital Electronics lab- Instrumentation, Chemistry and Measurement Technique labs were quite useless and did nothing to my knowledge. School lab work isn't worth mentioning

I must admit that the last two can be made true and there are places trying to implement those. If there is a good education system that focuses on learning by doing or through experimentation and there are teachers who can teach students to learn and find out on their own and appreciate their efforts, this will happen. I hope this happens too, rather than the present rot learning system with emphasis only on exam results. The process is not what matters but merely the result and I dislike that concept. One should like the process or else becomes a burden. I would like to cherish the process of learning and I hope the results will take care of themselves. But it is easier said than done and this is another popular misconception- that one can be totally detached about one's actions and do them without worrying about the result.

Delving into History

I did not start this to practice essays or answers for exams, it was merely an attempt to put out to the world some parts of the regular rants that I come up with. Less than 5 percent of what I write are posted here and the remaining 95% are in the form of deleted or lost notepad files or just random scribblings in the back of my notebooks or any blank page I can access that time and some even on my mobile phone in the form of SMS drafts and notes.

I do not dare to read what I have written before, but I am sure and I have also been told that it is of quite poor standards. I am sure they did not want to hurt my feelings, I know the standards were just pathetic. But then, there was another purpose behind my doings- that of continuous self-improvement. I have tried different genres and different styles- sports, politics, movies, my personal life and presented them through the angle of current issues, history, my experiences and observations.


It has definitely been an experiment and it has been fun to look back and watch as the topics I have mentioned have become more prominent over the years. The most recent one being the case of rural health degree about which I posted a few days before Economic and Political Weekly came up with http://www.epw.in/editorials/doctors-rural-areas.html-0 .I had also posted on FDI in retail, Nuclear Energy and many of the articles I read later have covered the same points I mentioned and in some cases, what I posted were enough to disprove or counter the published articles (http://www.epw.in/commentary/nuclear-power-what-cost.html and http://craziestme.blogspot.in/2012/04/powerful-matters.html ). But there have been quiet a few silly ones in the beginning, posts with little credibility and substance and a poor style. This was part of the process of learning by doing and I think the current standards justify the earlier mistakes since they were all part of the process of self-improvement.

I would also like to add that some of the views expressed were stupid, unreasonable and unfeasible. But I still hold many of the opinions I have expressed and my views have not changed on these issues with the passage of time or in the light of new information since they have not been disproved or rendered obsolete or irrelevant.

There were periods of long absence, periods of high activity- they reflect my life during those days. For now, it is getting back to work, reading up new books with interesting insights and I realised that it can be interesting to learn history- not the facts and dates and names but why and how. I realised why Gandhiji took up the cause of the suppressed classes, the ideas behind the origins of the Muslim League and how some of our reformers came to support the causes they are known for. For the first time in my life, I like history and frankly, it is surprising how many of the issues like caste discrimination, unequal status of women, focus on higher education to the neglect of primary education and communalism have still not been fully addressed in spite of over a century of effort.

Gandhiji wrote that "But to remove legal inequalities will be a mere palliative" on the position of women in India (Young India, 17 October 1929, as reproduced in Makers of Modern India by Ramachandra Guha) and the state still resorts to more and stricter laws to address the issue of women rather than strengthen implementation of existing laws. We, who call Gandhiji the father of our nation have also failed to take his message to heart and change our society and family by respecting women. History holds lessons for us, not just data, and those lessons are what we should be taught rather than the mundane dates and events. We should also refrain from saying that since they are part of records, why should we know them when we can just check them up (a usual refrain in the time of internet). We can check up dates, events and pure data but the lessons can be learned only if we read history carefully and analyse it.

Poking my nose into unnecessary foreign affairs

North Korea is upping the ante as it threatens USA with nuclear attacks. I do not think any sensible nation will actually want to attack the US since it is the ticket ensured annihilation and this is true in spite of the economic frailties in US right now. But there could be a smart strategy behind it- the threat to Japan and South Korea might be real, but all North Korea does is to remind of a really hungry or frustrated child seeking attention from the family elders or the class-teacher (another comparison is a drunk, heart-broken lover who is threatening suicide/murder if the girl doesn't reciprocate his love). They are in desperate need of food and medical supplies and the only way the world will take not of it is by brandishing its only weapon. By negotiating from a position of (imaginary) strength, the new military ruler and the government can save its face infront of the world and its people who have only their nuclear strength as a matter of pride when compared to an economically prosperous southern neighbour.

Consider the alternate or rather, consider what is happening with Iran- sanctions upon sanctions, denial of opportunities to trade with other nations and naval exercises in its backyard. Iran has always said it's intentions are peaceful and nuclear research is for medical and electricity needs only. Maybe Iran needs to come out and say we are pursuing nuclear weapons, we will stop if you (whoever is trying to impose sanctions) accept some of our un-reasonable demands and then enter into negotiations to get reasonable concessions.

I have read quite a few articles which said Pakistan missed an opportunity when the public sentiment against Taliban hit a peak after the Malala Yusufzai incident, that they failed to organise a military operation and try to end the threat from Taliban. It was atleast an opportunity to drop the myth or the organised misconception that there is a good Taliban and a bad Taliban. It was an incident that shocked us, the imagery too obvious and heart rending for someone even far far away from such incidents- an innocent girl, fighting for her and her country's women by going to school. A bunch of violent men shoots her at the school- a threat to every other woman trying to be independent in that nation.

I am not going to explain how quickly the incident was turned as a conspiracy by the US to push Pakistan into a military strike against the Taliban. It was dumped as a conspiracy theory and so girls will continue to live under threat from Taliban, a nation is still the hostage of a radical, sacrilegious and violent gang of thugs and these thugs are used by its neighbour as bargaining chips and for influence in the region. The same thing happened in the US too, but there, it has been happening for decades- the battle against gun control.

The US shooting incidents- It is obvious guns killed the students in the school, devotees at the gurudwara and movie-goers at Colorado. But the argument that it is not guns, but people that kill people have been widely used. They also say there are thousands of road accidents and yet we allow people to drive. Apart from the fact that we cannot outlaw people and prevent them from getting angry, the common sense logic that it would be prudent to keep them away from guns when they are angry is not accepted. And unlike cars, guns are MEANT to kill and they kill on purpose, not by accident. So, it is easier (they are cheaper than a car too btw) in the US to buy a device that kills people than to drive a car- it requires a license and a car.

Another argument is that guns are necessary to protect oneself against attacks and others holding guns. The point that is skipped here is that more and more individuals are forced to hold guns for safety since a few people hold them. So confiscate these guns too, but no, let us put more guns into the hands of people rather than removing these dangerous weapons. I also have a doubt, I think only Permanent Residents are allowed to carry guns. Perhaps expats, migrants and foreign students in the US do not need protection. But inspite of these incidents and the obviousness of the need to control gun proliferation (rather, to prevent flooding of streets with guns), I hear that a petition has been filed to the White House website to deport Piers Morgan who expressed views in contravention to the US second amendment. Perhaps they skipped the US first amendment? (For more on this, read a ) I would like to know how US citizens who believe in gun control will be treated.

On biases, prejudice and commitment

Civil Service in India looks for glorified amateurs, jack of all trades but masters of none, generalists and paper pushers and the list of the usual diatribes go on. Without any skills in a specific field, they decide on matters related to banking, defence, culture, environment and energy is the usual argument of specialists who want to make decisions in these fields but are allegedly kept away by the apples of the government's eye.

I have seen specialists (doctors, lawyers, accountants and auditors) vehemently defend their position based on narrow interpretation and interests generated by their profession. It is not a fault or deficiency, but an essential pre-requisite in their professions.

Citing anecdotes is not a scientific way, but I do give them to explain what I am talking about. A doctor friend of mine, who otherwise is quite liberal and forward-thinking, is sensible and took up the profession as a service argued that introducing a course like Bachelor of Rural Medicine would dilute quality, drive real doctors out of their jobs and lead to poor health outcomes for rural population. It is unfortunate that someone I respect a lot and hold in high regards had to fall prey to a narrow view based on her profession. She expressed her views during the strike organised by medical students across Kerala in 2010 against the idea of a BRM course.

Doctors do not want to be posted in deep, unreachable villages where pay is low and living facilities are not adequate. Distance is also a factor when it comes to doctors with families and many have a post-graduate degree. It is primary and secondary care that villagers need urgently, basic health interventions and first-aid- not super speciality care and so appointing post-graduate doctors is not the need of the population and the doctors would also find their skills unused making them look for better opportunities. The only reason many take up such posts is because it is a government job and the inherent job safety. 

 

But the majority of doctors do not turn up at their health centres and have a flourishing private practice. This is true not just of doctors in rural areas but those from medical colleges and hospitals in city too follow this method. In the interior heartlands of the red-belt or Left Wing Extremism affected districts the situation is dire. Absence rate of doctors is more than 50% (validated by several surveys), doctor-patient ratio is 1:25,870 on average in India and they are concentrated in the urban areas. To enforce attendance, a monitoring mechanism by empowering local bodies, who would also pay the salaries for doctors, is being considered. I hope this works, but I am not so sure because I do not think local bodies can pay the doctors enough to attract them to stay in a place with very little amenities and also face the threat of violence.

 

In spite of lack of doctors, high absence rate among existing doctors that amounts to dereliction of duty and low interest in a rural posting, the current medical fraternity are blocking an urgently needed reform in healthcare by providing for a course that directly addresses the healthcare needs of rural population. Their only solution is for the state to appoint more doctors- the fact that doctors are not interested in these postings and are not attending to their duties are not heeded to.

An auditor who alleged corruption and scope of environmental damage in a government scheme that replaced incandescent bulbs with CFL lamps due to their high mercury contend also argues that crores have been invested in a mega hydro-electric power project and it has been delayed due to denial of environment clearance. The concern is not about environment, but merely about audit as an end to itself.

When it comes to holistic decision making- a case where the social, environmental and economic impact is to be considered (I do not include political factors since that is the job of the political executive) someone who is not restricted by a narrow view must make that decision and that can be done by generalists who do not owe allegiance to any specific field.

PS- When I mean decision making, I mean advising the political executive on the course of action on a particular issue since the final decisions and policies are made by them.