Team Anna beware of self righteousness and haste

Recent announcements and actions by Anna Hazare and some of the other leaders of the anti-corruption movement have come in for a lot of criticism for valid reasons. No doubt passing Jan Lokpal bill in the winter session of the parliament was and is the central focus of the movement. The parliamentary resolution passed during last session containng some sort of a commitment by all the political parties to craft the final bill, so as to contain the three basic demands from Anna and his team is expected to be discussed threadbare in the standing committee currently. The committee is also supposed to reconcile these elements with representations and blue prints about the same institution received from other sections of the civil society, government institutions like CVC, CBI (those that might have felt the most threatened in terms of restructuring and operational redeployment). The committee will also hear from political parties, pressure groups representing sections of populations (SC/ST, dalits, muslims) some of whom might have felt apprehensive of aspects of the proposed bill that appeared not sufficiently inclusive. Clearly, though the clarion call for the movement was given by Anna and his immediate supporting organizations, e.g., India Against Corruption, it can not surely be a case of simple rewording of the Jan Lokpal bill as visualized by the team Anna before being placed in the parliament as a fait accompli to be debated and passed like a routine bill.

When the team Anna decided to directly campaign during the Hisar election, many people including many staunch Anna supporters were genuinely dismayed. Not just because this direct involvement in the electoral politics may tend to rob the moral superiority of a movement that was essentially perceived to be apolitical. But the argument provided by some prominent team Anna members like Kejriwal, Bedi and even Anna himself was not very convincing and indicated confusion in thinking. It sounded quite disingenuous for the team Anna to claim that their anti-congress campaign was a simple fall out of the Congress party (through its president) not publicly intimating by a letter to team Anna (as BJP and some other parties involved in the electoral fray had apparently done) or publicly pledging otherwise the party’s commitment to pass the bill during the winter session. And it was rather naïve for them to believe that Congress being the major party within UPA that is in power in the Center, a simple commitment given by Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi would have been a sufficient guarantee for the successful  passage of the bill. The weakness of this position becomes exposed when, well into the Hisar campaign, Anna acknowledged the receipt of the letter from the prime minister assuring him of the passage of a strong Lokpal bill in the coming session and announced his ‘faith’ in the word of the prime minister. It is not clear what would have been their campaign objective or strategy if this letter would come a few days earlier that is before the election campaign.

Three points need be made about these recent confused peregrinations of some of those associated with this movement. First of all, the team including Anna probably has not fully grasped the momentous nature of the achievement of the movement. It was indeed rare in the history of independent India that such a spontaneous, largely non-political response of the common people was on display to a politically significant (legislative) issue. As a result a high level of awareness has been generated about the issues involved across the length and breadth of the country. But this popular support should not be construed by anybody to assume that a referendum has already been conducted (the apparent display of public support notwithstanding) and the results are already overwhelmingly in their favour. No silly pronouncement should have been made, meaningless or harmful actions taken so as to dissipate the momentum, the positive vibe the movement has generated, and open dissentions (not merely disagreements) among the members of the team Anna should not have been paraded. Secondly, Jan Lokpal bill is one among many proposals and it was in the interest of everybody to engage in debates, discussions in appropriate forum (media, parliamentary committees, etc) to find out how much of the positive aspects of their proposals could be retained while augmenting them with other good suggestions from other concerned individuals, groups, political parties (while trying to defeat, in a democratic manner, the bulwark of reactionary thinking holding the parties back). Thirdly, street level politicking (electoral campaign, dharna, hunger strike) has to be held in abeyance at least till the draft bill gets to be debated in the parliament. That stage, if required again, should await its turn. 

Thoughts on the international day for the elderly

International day for the elderly is celebrated (1st October) with familiar vivaciousness, as is the wont with the articulate segment of our elite.

Functions are organized by voluntary organizations, felicitations offered to some senior citizens who happen to be zoomed in by the organizers. Statements emanate from the pulpit dispelling the gloom supposed to have been condensing like mist during the evening of the life of elderly. Indian society at large, one is assured, has not really lost its conscience, despite the claims by those given to contrarian thinking. After all

○       children (many) are accommodating their parents in cramped small urban dwellings despite loss of privacy and adjusting to other inconveniences (it is not as if children always or as a rule have been leaving their old parents in the lurch), some showing due concern about their deteriorating health and managing many acute or chronic health problems providing financial and physical help;

○       children (quite a few settled abroad or dislocated from parental home due to job or career compulsions) are supporting their parents with generous outstation financial helps for them to live a life of dignity and conveniences or opt to live as a community in some of the better or new-age old age homes sporting facilities, gadgets, environs displaying considerable geriatric sensitivity;

○       government is seriously cogitating about bringing out a well thought out policy (National Programme for Health Care of Elderly or NPHCE) for the senior citizens, funds being sanctioned to medical institutions for starting geriatric wards, training and sensitizing of doctors and nurses and other medicare providers about the special needs of elderly patients and appropriate treatment protocols;

○       helplines, advocacy groups and blogs are mushrooming, volunteering useful information for the elderly – the dos and don’ts, financial and medical advice (practice of Yoga and alternative medicine), psychological and semi-philosophical inputs about dealing with hostile situations at home and elsewhere, helps in the pursuit of hobbies, social networking on internet (if nowhere else), etc;

○       gerontology is slowly and surely on the way to become recognized as a serious subject of study and research in the universities.

All of these sincere efforts of the concerned relatives, citizens and the government are commendable and are, hopefully, going to gather momentum in days to come. There were about 76 million 60-plus people at the time of 2001 census constituting about 7.7% of the total population and at this rate the absolute number may grow to about 133 million by 2021 and 179 million by 2031. The rate at which the numbers are growing always look like overwhelming whatever timid ameliorating steps that NGOs and the government may be taking, amid their hundreds of other pressing commitments. This is especially true about the gaps characteristic of the government policies and their implementation through various levels of government. The ever-present corruption might eventually, like in the case of many other government programmes, leave little resources at the service delivery points (think of geriatric wards in government nominated hospitals with few trained doctors or other medicare professionals, lack of supply or pilferage of specially recommended medicines for geriatric patients).

The targeting of the sections of senior citizen population deserving subsidized medical services (including medicines) is likely, sooner than later, to be mired in the usual sterile ideological debate on the entitlement of the poor and the weaker sections vis-à-vis government fiscal deficit that we are witnessing in the case of food and/or fuel. This country has developed a critical mass of reform-clad politicians, bureaucrats, corporate honchos, liberalization-fundamentalists whose animal entrepreneurial spirit (hence India’s famed growth sense), the prime minister often fears, might be dampened if offer of free lunch (of even rotting grains inside or outside of FCI warehouses) is so much as conceptualized let alone put into practice.

There is no denying that useful services are reaching at least some old and infirm people, lifting them from penury and destitution, providing them with food and shelter thanks to the initiatives taken by NGOs (many funded as a result of private effusions of kindness, tax-saving wisdom and, dare one say in today’s morally ambiguous world, laundering of some sort or other ulterior motives). Perhaps it is not always easy to strike a balance between the noble ends and dubious means.

Some issues about the anti-corruption movement

Some comments have appeared in the media to the effect that the moral underpinning of corruption is being underplayed in the zeal of fashioning a legal broom to clean the body politick of the grime of corruption. While one may not hope to cure the propensity to steal or cheat or other crimes by law, effective policing, good legal framework to deal with these crimes and dispense suitable deterrent punishment for these crimes can control them. In the same way, while the propensity to corrupt practices can not be rooted out by law, a comprehensive law and a suitable enforcement machinery should deter those who otherwise indulge in such practices with impunity and encourage a lot many more along the same path as one of least resistance.

A more relevant and deeper social issue that may have a bearing on corruption is the stake one has in active perpetuation and/or passive acceptance of inequity as a fact of life, as indeed an important basis on which all progress (most importantly economic) is constructed. The stratification in our society has invariably brought about a fast moving resourceful India of private enterprise distinguished from the large slothful sarkari India of millions whose lives have not been much illuminated by the magic wand of liberalisation. Corruption will inevitably result in such a scenario.

Middle classes and the anti-corruption movement

Corruption affects most people, from all walks of life. How is it that the middle classes responded to the movement with alacrity though poorer classes bear greater brunt of the malaise of corruption ? How is it that they come to champion the cause ? Is corruption free India more in sync with their growing self image of hard working, honest individuals not having to indulge in corrupt practices (both at the government and the private interfaces) in matters of urgency in their daily life : residential property purchase, school admissions, utility connections, hospital admissions and medical treatments and so on ? Does having middle classes leading a global ‘anti-corruption’ campaign (where no-sectional interests are highlighted, say, not specifically dealing with or highlighting specific problems faced by minorities or dalits) detract from the movement ?

Can the corruption in the Indian public life be correlated to the urge of the new ‘liberated’ entrepreneurial India, the ‘financially’ successful and impatient Indian middle classes to ‘get things done quickly’, ‘get what they want and feel they deserve’ by any means, fair or foul ? They wouldn’t mind breaking or bending a few rules, which, according to some of them, are archaic and deserve to be broken or bent. And in this endeavour, they are being ably helped and led by corrupt government officials and indeed the entire system of governance. Some people have seen in the impatience displayed by those associated with the Jan Lokpal movement about the parliamentary procedures a reflection of the same contempt shown by a lot of the youth and the upwardly mobile middle classes for the government systems and procedures they have to encounter in their daily life. Will this energetic upwardly mobile, aspiration driven middle classes forego their propensity to bypass rules, legal framework in their impatient urge to succeed against competitors ? Will they abide by rule of law even if others around them seem to be breaking the same ? It is there that their moral graduation will be put to test.

Demise of Soviet Union, sweep out of Left Front in West Bengal, India : some parallels ?

Found an interesting article in EPW trying a post-mortem analysis of the demise of Soviet Socialism in terms of a Marxian framework. The key point is that the soviet system, as it perpetuated itself over decades in a hostile international environment, gradually came to a saturation of the economic growth, stagnation, which worsened due to the arms race it was partly forced into due to the war and later soviet occupation in Afganistan. Within this worsening economic scenario, a segment of people, especially those wielding power in the government (the bureaucracy) and the communist party (central and regional leaders close to those running the government at various levels) have gradually come to acquire privileges that they found it legally and constitutionally perpetuate among their offsprings/relatives. Thus those saddled with the power and responsibility of the state – or at least a significant number of them – felt constricted in exercising their ‘liberty’, ‘freedom’ in bourgeois/capitalist individualist sense (creating and amassing wealth in their private capacity and by extension ‘legally’ controlling the means of production) by the existing legal, economic and political structure. Though whether and when these masses of privileged people formed a ‘class’ is not clear, the author argues that it is this nascent ‘class’ of people who were the real gravedigger of the soviet socialist structure with generous moral, material support from the west.

An important parallel arises in the context of the electoral whitewash (May 2011) of the long running (perhaps the longest running, democratically elected) left front (LF) government in the state of West Bengal, India. In both cases the rhetoric of the opponents of the regimes concerned are about the same : ‘communism’, ‘Marxism’, those professing these ideologies have thwarted the basic economic, political freedom of the populace. Beyond the demagoguery, one needs to identify the real issues, real actors in an evolving historical perspective. There may be a case for the thesis that the LF government, in the first decade of its rule, did devolve significant economic power to the rural poor, but the development of the agriculture, though among the better ones achieved by several Indian states, was not keeping pace with the rising aspirations among the rural masses who were, ironically, unshackled by the half-steps of land reforms initiated by the LF. Add to this the issue of failure to evolve an appropriate dynamic political structure that could feel the pulse and mobilize the dynamism of the rural masses in a direction that would have benefited the left’s cause (if there ever was any) in the long run rather than pushing them to become abject followers by threats and patronage. A rare insight was provided by one commentator in a TV discussion before the elections. He talked about the stagnation in the economic growth and opportunities, both in rural and urban areas. To partly circumvent this situation on both governmental and non-governmental initiatives there was some spread of informal economies (“informalisation of the economy”) in many part of the state. Fruits of these initiatives were distributed, controlled at the lower working levels by the party and the distribution was based on the carrot/stick principle (patronage for those who would support the party, threat for those who wouldn’t). It was argued that for years this was one of the mechanisms behind the manufacture of the consent that sustained the government this long.

Aravind Adiga's tour de force

Finished reading Last man in tower. Much impressed. Almost as much by the tour de force in plot making, precision in description, subtlety and psychological insight in  characterization as by the novel’s ability to raise some intriguing questions about the predilections of the middle class in the era of liberalisation-globalisation that has been holding sway in the present day India.

Comparison with his earlier novel ‘White Tiger’ is not at all out of place. The White tiger is not only alive and kicking and has metamorphosed into almost a mythical proponent of an early brutal version of capitalism but he is shown to revel in coaching and leading a  cross section of the dithering middle class to the ways and means of the primitive accumulation of capital and thereby creating new and promising cubs to make even bigger leaps in Sanghai, India (of the future). Many reviewers have seen Dickensian ambience, surprisingly nobody mentioned Macbeth (and the character of Mrs Puri as an incarnation of Lady Macbeth) in the final denoument. 

But on another plane, through a very clever plot and dramatic treatment the novel poses some very pertinent questions of our time : how is a critical conflict between an individual’s position, however quixotic that is, and the aspirations of a larger group of people/social segment driven (often actively instigated) by the agents of apparently inevitable progress of a capitalist economy going to be resolved. This conflict has echoes in the violent confrontation that we see today in India regarding acquisition of farm-lands for industrial exploitation, expropriation of tribal and forest lands for mining and other industrial explorations, or in the environment vs development debates.

The hallmark of a good literary work, irrespective of the personal opinion and the predilections of the author, is its ability to unflinchingly hold a mirror to society and expose the real social dynamics as they play out in all their complexity. Last man in tower, perhaps better than White tiger, does that.

Rekindling embers of fate

Read a wonderful article ‘Beyond the scars’ in The Hindu Magazine (23^rd October 2011). This is about certain impressions retained by a Tamil musician from Chennai from his recent concert visit to a few towns in northern Sri Lanka, Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya. Names that automatically evoke tragic images of a people caught in the apparently interminable crossfire between two implacably hostile political opponents fighting a brutal war in the name of the same ‘people’.

The savage scars the war left on the geography almost everywhere in these parts could not be glossed over even in an officially sponsored visit. Perhaps more important is the  psychological mauling suffered by the Sri Lankan Tamils in terms of their linguistic, cultural and even religious identity. As if being a Tamil, speaking the language, loving and yearning for the rich cultural heritage seemed almost outlawed not long ago.

It is in this backdrop that the enthusiasm, serious intent of the appreciative audience of a Carnatic music recital in Jaffna was so moving, somewhat like an awakening from a long nightmare. The accompanying picture of a large relaxed young audience at the Ramanathan Academy of Fine Arts, Jaffna (“the faces, the laughter, the curiosity, questioning, smart answers”) enhances this feeling.

One cannot agree more with the author for tasking the Indians (particularly the Tamilians) to rebuild the tattered emotional fabric using many coloured threads of culture and history in that shell-shocked island. And one hopes strident competitive politics in the mainland would not snuff out the candle the intrepid cultural ambassadors might  manage to rekindle.

The situation calls to mind the timeless visualization by Tolstoy in his masterpiece ‘War and peace’, of Natasha’s subtle awakening to life and new love from the devastation suffered by death of her betrothed Andrei in the 1812 Franco-Russian war. In a remarkably perceptive dialogue between Pierre and Natasha almost towards the end of the novel, both the characters realized through a catharsis of emotional maelstrom of grief and the new enchantment that there is more to life than death, that one can’t help feeling glad, being happy and hoping for new life while feeling sad, occasionally even somewhat guilty of leaving the past in favour of the future.

Art and the artist : profane and the profound

The provocation for this piece is two accidental inputs. On reading Orhan Pamuk’s novel My name is Red one came across the trials and tribulations, political intrigues, murder, personal ambitions, artistic aspirations involving a milieu of book illustration artists in the late 16^th century Turkey. On a casual perusal of a tourist guide/information booklet on Khajuraho, India, one found comments by some western writers on the extensive erotic sculptures found on the site, some of which did not praise the tastes of the artists, while others found the prevailing tantrik traditions behind their apparently degraded taste. 

The points that I was provoked to ponder are somewhat different :

1.      How is the specific tension of uniting the profound and the profane common enough in the Indian artistic (especially in sculptural masterpieces) traditions rationalized, if at all, by art historians, writers who wrote about Indian art ?

2.      Secondly, as was most likely, these works of art must have had long gestation periods in the making and the artists would have to spend good parts of their lives secluded mostly in same-sex artist villages/communities for long periods, probably without contact with their families. Even when they were living with their families the long preoccupation with their art must have weighed on their mind as they went about their daily normal human lives over substantially long periods of time. How did they manage to dissociate the issues relating to the technical problems of their art from their appreciation of the explicit eroticism in their artistic subject ? Given the presumed education level of average artisans, workmen, was it possible that the majority of them were led in some way by their artist leaders to conjure some sort of rationalization for the same tension of uniting the profound and the profane ?

3.      It is important to bear in mind that artists are not a monolith, also they are normal human beings. In most cultures, like most ordinary people, they are steeped in tradition and normally not in a position to question spiritual concepts, divinity, the purity and the sacrosanct nature of these concepts. Thus it is somewhat remarkable that so many of these artisans/workmen, who must have been fully aware of the erotic nature of their artististic depiction on the one hand and the divine subjects or at least proximity to these subjects (within the same temple precincts) on the other, managed to create masterpieces that held the viewers over centuries in thrall. 

Parliament and the ‘civil society’ – why they may remain at cross purposes

Much as the moral stance assumed by the middle classes spearheading the anti-corruption agitation give an impression of an universal malaise of the present Indian society and polity, there are many deep fault lines in the latter (inequity, poverty and hunger, expropriation of the majority of Indians, destruction of the habitats and environment vis-à-vis rapid economic development benefiting much fewer smarter Indians), associated with the demands of growth-obsessed country (is it 8% or 9%, the argument continues), where from the prime minister down to many in the government and major political parties take pride in the liberated ‘animal’ entrepreneurial energies of certain sections of our people. If this inequity is not bridged, the parliament elected by the majority of the dispossessed or marginalized Indians may come to perceive the ‘civil society’ spearheading such anti-corruption movements inimical to its interest in the long term. The next call from Anna regarding electoral reforms (right to reject, right to recall) could be interpreted as a potential hijacking of the political rights of the majority who might be sidelined by the liberation-globalisation agenda ?

Did the movement really project an individual, his moral superiority competing with not-so-perfect individual players in the political space ? Is disaffectation against the politicians and ways and means adopted by the political parties a danger to democracy ? (ref. the ‘grammar of anarchy’ speech by Ambedkar, democracy incompatible with the mass adulation of an individual, howsoever saintly or commanding a great moral stature he may seem to possess). By asking for a greater scrutiny of the MP’s actions and speeches inside the parliament amount to undermining the supremacy of the parliament ?

On Anna Hazare movement

Among some of the  currents of thoughts provoked by Anna Hazare movement were

·       The movement has challenged the notion of representative democracy practised in India, apprehensions expressed about undermining of democratic procedures and structures and established traditions. India unlike many other underdeveloped and developing countries, armed with a greatly admired Constitution, has been successfully conducting a democratic exercise of universal, free and fair (relatively speaking) elections and has a great many functioning democratic institutions, fairly proactive judicial checks and balances, legal framework, has a number of progressive laws (like RTI) ironed out through these democratic processes. There is this discomfort, mainly among the politicians but also many among intellectuals and others within the broad sections of civil society, that a movement that openly casts aspersion on the parliament and the parliamentarians, shows contempt for the parliamentary procedures, in reality, is trying to destroy these institutions. [As an aside, sections of the polity that has acquired prominence over the years championing the positive caste discrimination issues that had mainly benefited and enriched the top/creamy layer of many in backward/SC/ST caste people, have displayed apprehension that devaluing parliamentary procedures, holding in contempt some politicians of these groups/caste formations may eventually lead to marginalisation of their vital interests.]. The movement openly voiced a doubt whether the so-called “people’s representatives do represent the people who voted them to the law making body. Having elected them once in five years, should people remain unconcerned about how these “representative” conduct themselves in or out of the legislative bodies, what kind of laws they make, especially if the a law holds vital interests of the people at stake ?

·        Another strand of thought involved raising doubt if the corruption is not a larger social and ethical issue and is a merely legal response (in terms a law and another cumbersome institution of controversial structure) adequate to deal with it ? This strand primarily brings into focus the inequity in our society and the economic order that perpetuates and exacerbates it and the interests of the proponents of liberalization, the corporate world and their implicit and explicit supporters in government bureaucracy indulging in crafting policies for expropriating large section of people of their livelihood, destroying biodiversity and the environment (at the alter of a ‘development’ model prescription by the liberalization reformers and the globalisation fundamentalists), misuse of power and driving nepotism and crony capitalism and the conception of a permanent and built-in fountain-head of corruption associated with it. To thwart this hydra of corruption we need radical restructuring of social and economic priorities (may be even economic order) and a mere law to oversee financial corruption of government bureaucracy, legislators and ministers (and leaving out the corporates and the captains of Industries from its purview) will not serve the purpose of eradicating corruption.

·        An interesting  issue that came up for some inquisition was why media was so enamoured with this movement. There were oblique hints on the class character of this movement, their source of funding and moral support. There were questions about the real motivation of the media to single out this movement for such an exclusive and misson-mode support.