Thank You Mr.Singh

Dear Sir,

I was still in my school when you had sworn in as the Prime Minister of India.  Since those days it was a matter of great pride for me to have someone of your stature as the Indian Premier. Even today as you move out of the 7 Race Course Road, I have only the utmost respect and gratitude for the service you have done to the nation. Being just 3 years old when you had first weaved your magic and saved the Indian economy in 1991, I learnt about it a little more than a decade later. It was even later in my life I had begun to realize the full impact of the decision and how it had transformed the life of large section of Indians.

For someone educated from one of the finest universities in the world you were incredibly humble. For a scholar in his own right you were so open to the views of others. You never indulged in derogatory personal politics, which is a rare thing for a politician in our country.  You shouldered the responsibility of leading the nation when called upon. You took the blame for when things went wrong and were in the background when things went right. You knew your weaknesses but faced the fears.  You stood your ground when you knew it was for the greater good of the nation, you bit the bullet when it was for the greater good of your party. To do all these one had to be courageous, selfless and with impeccable integrity – you were the embodiment of every one of these qualities.

I have learnt as much from what did not do as I have from what you did. Communication had always been you Achilles heel and in today’s media frenzy society, it’s probably the worst weakness to have.  For a good part of last 10 years India progressed in almost all the fields conceivable – be it the consistent 8.5% GDP growth, end of nuclear apartheid, reduction of poverty, growth in the stock markets or development of infrastructure.  But the people never realized the progress they had made. Coalition was another one of those pains that you had endured, with each member playing for their personal agendas. Then the scams hit, if integrity was your strongest asset, lack of it was the greatest strength for many of your colleagues. Political priorities and party compulsions probably kept you from doing what you might have wanted to do. The taint of corruption is hard to wash off and the battle of perception was lost long before the elections. In the downward spiral, you were often blamed by the opposition for being weak and made a political scapegoat by some of your own party members. Your beaureacrats published books with their version of your mistake and released it in the election times for cutting their corners in the fall. In all the while you persisted.

Today as you finally step down from the post, I know for a fact that it will be a long time before someone of your mould would become the prime minister. I am also certain that that history will judge you fairly and will hold you in high esteem. You were a gentleman among hooligans and an intellectual par excellence - no wonder Cambridge was always so proud of you. I only hope that your life post retirement would be filled with contentment and peace – you have deserved it.

Yours truly,

Robin Abraham Mammen.

Journey to the Center of the Vote

“‘Urdu school..gav ke beech mein hi he’ that’s what he said” quoted my mom. Not exactly aware of what it meant I nodded my head, after all it was only quarter to seven and even the sun had barely woken up. This morning was a little different from others, and in all possibility there would not be another one like this in next 5 years.

It was the polling day and rarely had I seen my mother so fired up to head out of the home at 7 am. She had barely stepped out of our 2 BHK apartment in the last 4 months. Today she was ready with a hand drawn map of the polling centre and the page numbers where our names would appear on the polling list. “I have taken it from the net” she said and it was clear the only thing stopping her from dashing out to cast her vote was my semi conscious state. I pulled myself together in about 10 minutes in a desperate attempt to not be the limiting factor.

Since my mom is averse to sitting on a bike and my competency with the four wheelers is such that it is converted into an obstruction magnet with my mere touch, we chose to walk. It was a good 2 kilometers away from our place and de facto topic of discussion was election. I could understand her eagerness. We had been expatriates for a good part of last two decades and this time the politicians had spent astronomical amounts to convince to people to vote (for them). There was another major factor pulling people like my mom- the marriage of social activism and politics. Never before had voting seemed so relevant and voter so empowered. The events in the Delhi and Karnataka State poll highlighted the fact what Goliaths could be bought down and accountability did matter. There was a strong social aura to the politics that had become diluted since the time of independence. All said, the party responsible for the political purge in India seemed to descend to populist rhetoric and many a times nearly indistinguishable from anarchist.

Despite all the above said reasons I was woefully unaware of what my constituency is, let alone who were the contestants. So, the dilemma of whether I should vote for the candidate or the party got snipped up from its very bud. Independents were usually reduced to an item in the shopping list for horse trading, voting for them seemed a pointless exercise and hence it was the only filter I had. When we had finally reached the booth, I still had not made up my mind but the same can’t be said of my mother. She had known whom she would vote for quite some time. There was a strange sense of satisfaction brimming while we were in the queue. The snapshot of 50 odd people who stood in the line waiting renewed my faith in the democracy. It was slow, tedious and not lacking in faults but held a promise of better days. 

It was almost our turn. Before the officer even had chance to read out the full name, my mom said with the pedantic pulse of physics teacher she once was “Page 46 aur 62 mein dekho ”. Within the next two minutes we were done. The ink on my left hand index finger had already dried by the time I cast my vote .The high pitched sound of the ballot signaled us to move along. We better do it, there was a 2 kilometer walk before sun took the earth seriously.

Love thy Neighbor ... ?

             Today I saw a friend of mine declare in Facebook that he would be joining politics. He seemed to be very troubled by the fact that we are being repeated 'screwed' by our neighboring countries. The worst part of the problem seems to be we simply allow them to. 

            If one was asked “Geographically which is country has the most troubled neighborhood?”, without doubt the answer seems to be Israel. The country is bordered along Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and of course Palestine. Each having a long history of animosity with Israel. War and violence has almost become a way of life in this part. 

          As far troubled neighborhood goes India does come a respectable second (We’ll give South Korea the bronze - thanks to Kim Jong Il ). Within half a decade of independence we lost major portions of Kashmir to our neighbors. The Aksai Chin and POK were lost to China and Pakistan ever before most of our states were formed. Even today we have disputes about Arunachal Pradesh. We seem to hide behind the fact, each of our text books have maps which show that nothing has been lost and take offense when Google Maps show the reality of today's world. Sadly, we have failed to learn from it, as proven but the recent incursion of Chinese forces 19 km beyond the LOC and the repeated terrorist infiltration into the Kashmir valley. Two of Prime Ministers have been assassinated in last 30 years. While one was a result of insurgent movement within our country the other was due to insurgency in Sri Lanka. People still link Naxalite-Maosit operations to have bases in Nepal. Assam and West Bengal have the highest concentrations of illegal immigrants, mainly from Bangladesh. For reasons not known to me their numbers and often correlate to the rather serious crimes within our land. 

         Our foreign policy often seem to be more idealist than realist and unfortunately more often than not soft. We are experts when it comes to sitting on the fence, chanting the slogans of non alignment. We are almost pathologically indecisive regarding most of the world issues. Internal compulsions keep us from being overt about our support to some of our strategically important allies. The recent dare from the Italian Govt. in the return of the marines for trials gives us a rough idea of how much the world values us. Would they have done it, if it against someone like USA or China? I really doubt that. So if things are to remain the same, being a superpower is a distant dream even our status as a regional power can become a namesake.