On Most Parliaments

The following was sent to me by a friend.

This is so appropriate for most Parliaments in today's world ,
both of the emerging and the developed world.  

 Full text transcript of Oliver Cromwell's speech
 dissolving the Rump Parliament,delivered at 
London, England - April 20, 1653.

It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice.

Ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government. 

Ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.

Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? 

Ye have no more religion than my horse. Gold is your God. Which of you have not bartered your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth? 

Yes or did prostitutes have you not defiled this sacred place, and turned the Lord's temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices?

Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed, are yourselves become the greatest grievance.

Your country therefore calls upon me to cleanse this Augean stable, by putting a final period to your iniquitous proceedings in this House; and which by God's help, and the strength he has given me, I am now come to do.

I command ye therefore, upon the peril of your lives, to depart immediately out of this place.

Go,get you out! Make haste! Ye venal slaves be gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors.

In the name of God, go !



Thoughts for the day : 

Who  voted them in  ? 

Are they a reflection of the society we live in ?

Are they a reflection of ourselves ? 

India Elections Notes

The Indian Parliamentary and state elections for the majority of the states are just around the corner. Santa Claus has come early  in the garb of the political parties. They are all trying to out do themselves in terms of offering freebies whether it is in the form of subsidized cooking gas or waiver of outstanding dues or free lap tops or the I Pad copy cats.

As mentioned in my last blog, the BJP fired the opening salvo in gunning for the Congress party by accusing the Chief Minister of being corrupt. Rahul Gandhi in the meantime is going around the non-Congress states accusing their administration of siphoning funds allocated by the Center for welfare programmes. The enfant terrible of Indian politics the Aam Admi Party in its desire to outdo the establishment and to prove that it is serious about rooting out corruption, filed a First Information Report ( charge ) at the local police station in Delhi accusing the Oil Minister, some of the bureaucrats from the oil ministry and to top it all against one of the most prominent business tycoon Mukesh Ambani the Chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd.


The English twenty four hour news channels in the meantime breathlessly report " breaking news" every hour and starting around 7 pm, all have panel discussions. The panels consisting of representatives from the various political parties plus others are  harangued by the moderators who act as the prosecutor, the judge and the jury in making charges and trying to get the parties on the defensive. While accusations are hurled at all the parties, most of the time it is the Congress party representative who is put on the defensive trying to defend the comments made by Rahul Gandhi or one of the party leaders or why its own party members are trying to stop the Parliament from functioning. While some of the members try to brazen out by totally side stepping the issues, the others take on a self righteousness or condescending tone or being obnoxiously rude as was the case of the one of the former Congress minister. Invariably it all ends up in a shouting match with every body trying to out shout the other and brings the discussion to an end.


The two major pan-Indian political coalition parties are the ruling United Progressive Alliance dominated by the Congress party and the Bharitiya Janata Pary led National Democratic Alliance. The Aam Admi has ambitions and is planning to be nominate candidates from most major states. This will differentiate them  from the regional or state parties such as the Akali Dal, or the Samajawadi parties. Whether they succeed in doing so will be seen in  a few months time.


Since this is being seen as a Rahul Gandhi led Congress campaign  this time, it will be interesting to see what happens within the party if it does not perform well.This is increasingly becoming a personal election between Rahul Gandhi, Narendra Modi and the new kid on the block - Arvind Kejriwal nipping at their heels lobbying grenades or perhaps more appropriately stink bombs at the others and shouting if he does not get his way . From appearances it Congress after being in the saddle is increasingly running a defensive campaign with its main target being Narendra Modi personally rather than the BJP. Aam Admi's  Kejriwal appears to be  a firm  believer in the  maxim "there is no such thing as bad publicity" is in the news daily with some outrageous charge or accusation or complaint against the Central government. Narendra Modi in the meantime appears to be running a well organized juggernaut criss-crossing the countries hurling accusation against the Gandhi family , the Congress and the regional parties. The Aam Admi Party is not worthy of his attention and is totally disregarded.

The Greatest Show on Earth as the Indian elections are often  referred to is going to be on for the next few months. The fun, action and drama has just started. Stay glued to your seats.

Is 2014 going to be a free for all or the begining of a clean India ?

In my blog of October 28 " Looking at India Through a Glass Half Full " * I had expressed optimism that unlike the past ,  positive changes would happen in my lifetime. The recent win by  the Aam Admi Party "AAP", the passing of the Lokpal bill are signs of this happening. I now feel that 2014 would be the start of the cleansing of India. Unlike the past where a incoming government would blithely carry on with the perfidious activities of the  previous government and go through the motions of uncovering the corrupt activities, it was always business as usual. Within forty eight hours of its swearing in, the  AAP initiated actions in uncovering the perceived mis-deeds resulting in over charging  in the areas of water and electricity supply for the Delhi populous.

Interestingly enough the Bharitiya  Janata Party " BJP"  has gone public with corruption charges against the ruling Congress Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh. The BJP in doing so, perhaps has forgotten the Biblical quote of "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone"  It is now  going to be a matter of time before the Congress retaliates,  and throws dirt at some of the BJP party members.It is expected that AAP once it settles in will look into the major scandals such as the Commonwealth Games which were brushed under the carpet by the previous government. This will be just the start. 

The AAP has also emboldened the cleaner members of the bureaucracy to report the activities of their corrupt colleagues. A TV channel India Today interviewed a bureaucrat from the Delhi Jal ( Water ) Board who said that on a yearly basis , the Board spent close  to thirty million rupees on lunches for its senior management. That works out an astonishing amount of Rupees of Eighty two thousand per day. An amount large even by major  corporate standards.

The AAP has now set its target on going national prior to the Parliamentary elections in the second quarter of this year, with a focus on the urban areas where it feels it has the highest level of support. On a daily basis, it has hundreds of thousands of people joining up and contributing to their campaign funds. Some prominent corporate executives have also signed up. This is clearly a sign that the country is fed up with the two major parties, Congress and BJP.

While Congress has already felt the impact of the AAP wave , the Narendera Modi juggernaut might get derailed as well. If AAP wins a respectable number of seats in both the houses of Parliament, it also will result in bringing to an end the business-political nexus and make the business environment more of a level playing field. Business houses for whom the ruling party did not matter, because they took care of both sides will find AAP a tougher nut to crack.

If  the AAP is successful in achieving its goal for the elections, combined with the Supreme Court decision on convicted criminals not being able to serve in the legislature, the Right To Information , the Lokpal ( even in its diluted form ), you will see India changing. As a citizen I am looking forward to the next few years.


* http://avib-randomthoughts.blogspot.in/2013_10_01_archive.html

Are Online Retailers Going To Change Retailing In India ?

In the nineties when Amazon was launched during the first internet , I had a bet with a friend that the online stores would never get off the ground. I felt that people like to browse, touch and feel before they bought   and that Amazon was going to be bankrupt within a few years.

Boy was I wrong ? I lost the bet. Not only has it prospered and together with others in the online genre have totally changed not just the retail industry , but also had major impact on the publishing and music industry. Over the last few years it is now doing the same in India.

A few years ago I placed a order for a new computer for my home use,  from a  hardware vendor from whom we had been buying computers /printers for my small company. The computer was never delivered and to cut a long story short I had to write off the money which I had paid in advance. This is not the only bad experience I have had. It is always a case of once I have your money, you are at my mercy. However the online retailers are about to change all that.

This reminds me of the experience I lived through in Hong Kong. I arrived in Hong Kong in 1975. There were no retail chains and there was one major  upmarket department store. The service was terrible, particularly if you happened to be non-Chinese and even more if you were non-white.

However thing started to change with the arrival of a retail chain called Giordano, started by a maverick - Jimmy Lai, He stocked clothes which were well made at a reasonable price  and better still, staffed them with young cheerful polite staff. Gradually other chains emerged such as Join in, Espirit all with a similar service model and Hong Kong retail underwent a sea change. Of course it also helped that  since then the rest of Asia , including China, India ,Thailand etc all prospered and it was not just the Europeans and Americans tourists who had  fat pocket books.

In India, of  course money is not much of an issue but with some retailers honesty is. They will  take the advance payment and promise delivery by a certain date and rarely is it met. You have to keep chasing them and many times, it is of  sub-standard quality or not quite what was expected, but you really do not have a choice.

My daughter in New York is a big believer in ordering on-line and I could not understand why she did that.  Now after about three months of using the services of the online retailers in India,I can fully understand her preference. The first serious online retailer in India was Flipkart , now followed by slew of others including Amazon.

The best example is that of  buying books. I used to go to a book store in Delhi  and while the prices were reasonable and when physically there, the owner would provide keen service and flood me with suggestions , ninety percent of which were of no interest. However in a numbers of instances  I called his number to check about the availability of certain books and there would no response, and even where I left messages there would be no call backs. There where instances where he promised to deliver some books through his brother's store nearer where I lived and in spite of numerous calls and visits, never got the books. This in spite of the fact on every visit my family and I  would buy enough for him to stop attending to other customers and come to help us instead.

Now sitting at my desk I can order even a single book at a price almost at par, if not better delivered to my door stop on the basis of cash on delivery. If I had changed my mind about the purchase, I could return it, although I have never had to do that.

Unfortunately however  my experience of ordering an electronic item from one of the retailers from Amazon fulfillment was not a happy experience. Hopefully this is an aberration, but it would make me wary of ordering electronic items in the future.

As elsewhere Amazon is trying to break new grounds. It is reportedly  exploring delivery to the rural areas through the Indian Postal System. In the sixties the Postal System was superb, but like a lot of other institutions in India being part of the government with no accountability and life time employment, the services declined leading to a eco system of local and national couriers where people use them rather the post for normal deliveries . Perhaps if they do team up they will have to meet Amazon's delivery standard and we will see  the re-vitalization of  the Indian Post.

I wish Amazon, Flipkart, and the others all the very best  and hope they will all do a Giodarno in India. 

Is Aam Admi Going To Be The Change Catalyst In Indian Politics ?

In India it is not just start ups in IT which go viral within a short time. A new start up on the political scene the " Aam Admi Party" or the Common Man's Party which came into existence less than a year ago has shaken the political scene. It knocked out the venerable Indian Congress Party and crippled the efforts of the Bharatiya Janata Party 's to obtain a majority in the most important state politically - Delhi , the country's capital, where the Congress had hoped to make a return for the third time. Their seat tally was embarrassingly reduced to a single digit number. The impact of the Aam Admi Party is such that even the heir apparent of the Congress Party Rahul Gandhi  has gone on record that he would look at following their model. 

This just confirms what I said in  my blog of October 18th*  " Looking At India Through A Glass Half Full". I mentioned that I was beginning to feel a bit more optimistic that there were changes happening and that unlike the past I felt that these changes would be within my life time.Slightly over two years ago a social activist Anna Hazare went on a fast against corruption and aroused the imagination of the nation. All the young people from across the country rallied around him. His goal was for the Government to pass an anti-corruption bill. The government asked him to break his fast with  promises that they would bring the bill to Parliament as soon as possible. However with the tacit support of the opposition parties kept watering down the initial draft and  delaying the bill  which still  has not been  passed. This affected the movement's credibility and emboldened the politicians that none of these social activists would succeed, and that they  need  not change.

The other incident which  aroused the anger of the nation against the political and enforcement agencies was the violent rape in Delhi where the concerned authorities were initially  slow to respond and highlighted the weak law and order issue. However seeing the mood of the populace , they then fast tracked the persecution of the men charged with the crime.

Sensing that the general public, particularly the urban population was fed up with the refusal of the rulers regardless of their political affiliation,  to change their way of doing business no matter what, one of Anna's key aides a former bureaucrat Arvind Kejriwal ( a Magsaysay award winner for his social work) , recognized that he would not be able to change the system from the  outside. He decided to change the system from within by joining  with other similar minded people and forming the Aam Admi Party. Their elections symbol was the broom with the obvious message that their goal was to  sweep clean Indian politics.

While starting a party is nothing unusual , as in almost every state you have strong  regional parties.As a result increasingly at the national level, political parties are becoming dependent on them to rule at the center. What was different about Kejriwal's party was the manner he went about raising the party's profile , selecting the candidates and raising funding. During the course of the last year, together with his team,  he vocally and visibly supported and drew attention to issues such as an individual's plight, or some infrastructure which was badly in need of repair or the indifference of the politicians of bureaucrats to blatant corruption.This got him the attention of the media and the populace started rallying around him.

His timing is opportune as with the gradual shifting of the population from the rural to the urban, you are seeing a rise in the numbers in not just the  metro but also the second, third and fourth tier cities. With the increasing  middle class and the lower middle class, they are also becoming more aware of their rights and become more vocal and not afraid to walk the talk.

When he announced that his party would stand for election in Delhi, people flocked to him, not just from Delhi and the surrounding areas, but from all over India and  from overseas. They volunteered their time, skills and efforts. In the selection of candidates, he chose unknown  candidates but who had clean records and who were active in their respective communities.

Unlike other political parties whose funding has traditionally been opaque , the Aam Admi Party recorded the name and details of every single donor, including those from  overseas Indians. They  also set a target of Rs.200 million. Once they reached that target, they closed their books.

For each constituency they came out with a manifesto which dealt with local issues. They campaigned hard and used the social media to the fullest extent. Their technology team of volunteers were based in Bangalore.

Arvind Kejriwal also decided to challange Mrs.Shiela Dixit in her own constituency, one of the most up market areas of Delhi. Mrs. Dixit was the the three times Chief Minister and a close confidant of the Gandhi family. Embarrassingly for her, Kejriwal won with a majority of over 20,000 votes. Overall a humiliating defeat for " Shiela Aunty" as she is popularily known and for the Congress Party.

There was jubilation across the country. The victory was significant not because that it was a new party, but the manner in which it conducted itself. The selection and the fund raising was totally transparent. There were no candidates with criminal records.Through their manifesto, they clearly defined what their goals were, if elected. What was also interesting was that because Aam Admi Party declared upfront that they would not seek the help of other parties to form a coalition, nor entice some winning candidates to switch parties, the Bharitiya Janata Party was obliged to follow suit. In the past this would not have happened.

Regretfully they did not obtain the majority , but neither did the Bharitiya Janata Party and there is a good possibility of the elections being re-held.The party has also declared their intention to establish a countrywide footprint to fight the national election  due in the first half o 2014.

The stunning success of the  Aam Admi Party has woken up all the political parties that it was not going to be business as usual this time around . The country is getting fed up with their continued inability to deliver on the promises made during election times and their unwillingness to change their habits.

Hopefully this time around the Aam Admi Party will get the majority in Delhi  to be able to prove that they know not just that they are  able to to manage a good campaign, but also how to run a clean ,competent government.Expectations are that they will go national , at least in the key states and will also  have a voice in the Parliament to speak out loud and clear against the mis-deeds of the party in power.

India will be watching  !!!!


*( http://avib-randomthoughts.blogspot.in/2013/10/looking-at-india-through-glass-half-full.html)

Nelson Mandala - R.I.P

I would like to join the thousand of others to add my few words on Nelson Mandela - in my view the greatest leader I have seen in my lifetime.

To me the greatest thing about him was his vision of the society of the Rainbow Nation which could also be the blue print of the world in general. While there have been other leaders who have suffered long , severe prison sentences and  who have fought for independence there are very few who have been able to achieve what he has .

Perhaps it is the very composition of  the South African nation where you have people of all colors, races and religions which has lead to it  becoming  the cradle for two of the greatest inspirational leaders the world has seen in the last century- Gandhi and Mandela. Both leaders showed grace in not showing enmity toward their former captors at whose hand they suffered long terms of imprisonment.  

The difference between the two was that Gandhi used the satyagraha , non violent movement to help achieve independence for India. Unfortunately some fanatics put an end to his efforts to be the moral beacon to both the newly created nations.  Mandela on the other hand was not fighting for independence but for the right for society to be treated as equal regardless of color, race or religion.

While he helped India achieve independence, Gandhi unfortunately failed  in convincing his fellow Congress party colleagues  to keep India together and lead to the creation of two nations who are now enemies. Mandela on the other hand ensured that South Africa did not go down the path of other African nations such as Zimbabwe which lead to the path of destruction. His message  to the South African population was that everyone had a right to be a South African and should live in peace and harmony.The Rainbow  was an apt metaphor for  the world's society and  his vision is something the rest of the world should aspire to.
 
The mourning or should I say  the celebration of his life  not just among the entire South African population, but around the world,  regardless of race, religion and color,  shows the  regard and affection which they had for Nelson Mandela.

Also unlike other "leaders" who assume that because of the hardships they suffered, they should be rewarded by lifetime recognition and  appointed  life time Presidents , long outliving their sell by date. Nelson Mandela served one term as President and voluntarily stepped down.This should be a role model for other politicians, leaders and dictators.

I hope the present and upcoming leaders of South Africa will adhere to the Madiba's vision , although there are already signs among the younger crop who are beginning to exercise their " right of entitlement" . It will be sad to see his  vision being lost and South Africa going the same way as other countries .

In the meantime like thousand of others I could not but help shed tears at the passing away of the world's beloved Madiba.

Looking At India Through A Glass Half Full

 "Choose to be optimistic,it feels better"- The Dalai Lama 

Over the last few years, almost every day when you pick up the newspaper, you sigh in despair. Regardless of which aspect you look at whether its  political , economic,social,  communal, or defence you wonder whether we are deluding ourselves in thinking we are on the right track. Whether we will be able to reduce poverty, whether we will achieve our widely stated aspirational goal of becoming an economic super power. Looking at the head lines and the television screen you would say " lets stopping kidding ourselves".

Mine is probably a solitary view but if you look closely and not get clouded by the big picture, you will see isolated glimmers of hope emerging which when consolidated does not appear to be as bad , particularly if you look at it from a long term perspective.

Looking at the negatives, enough is being written and spoken so there is no need to list them.Let's look at the law makers, by which I mean the political parties. The only  difference between the  two dominant parties is that the Congress, in spite of what they say, appears to take a  dynastic approach in selecting its leaders and I am not just referring to the Nehru-Gandhi family.The Bharitiya Janata Party whose leaders are not  hereditary , has had its share of problems with aspersions cast against some of their leaders as well. So regardless of who comes into power do not expect major changes in policies. It is expected that in the next elections neither party will have enough seats to form a majority, but will have  to rely on the support of the regional parties, so you will continue to have the push and pull which will affect the implementation of policies .

Why then do I look at the Indian glass as being half full ?

First look at the economy and the  dynamics of economic decisions made in the country.This is done by the nexus between the politicians, the bureaucrats, and a few  major business houses. While I would not be as bold to say that this has been swept clean, there are indications of change, which I think will make the crony capitalists and the fixers a bit more careful and hopefully lead to a gradual  decline.With the reduction of these underhand deals, it forces the government to level the playing field.

Also the recent downturn in the economy and the decline of the Rupee, the government has realized it cannot  arbitrarily change the rules, (such as changing a law with retroactive effect going back to fifty years) and expecting it  not to  have any impact. This made both  the foreign and increasingly the honest  large Indian business houses nervous and all exercised their  the option to invest elsewhere.The rules are now being changed and the economic situation is now stabilizing.

The most visible and forceful impact on unearthing the  the links between the government andthe  business groups, has been the former Controller and Auditor General of India. Under the guidance of a career bureaucrat who was probably appointed to the job because the government probably thought he would be someone who would toe the line. Yet once he stepped into the  job, he highlighted the mis-deeds of the politicians, the bureaucrats and the business.With the help of the media a a series of "favored" deals were highlighted and the government was forced to take action. Where the government hesitated  or public interest groups or individuals such as Subramanium Swamy and Prashant Bhusan or a Non Governmental Organization stepped in and went to court. They are not afraid to take on the government and the courts have taken cognizance and pressurized the government to investigate the charges and report to the courts.  This would not have happened in the past. Things would have been swept under the carpet.

 In my blog of July 16th, I had mentioned that on July 3rd the Supreme Court had ruled that convicted legislators should not be allowed to attend the state or central legislators. Recently there were two prominent politicians were expelled. This is a giant step as 1460 Members of Parliament  & Member of the State Legislative Assemblies have criminal cases against filed against them. The legal process being what it is in India, it took close to twenty years for these two politicians to be convicted and finally removed.Politicians from all parties tried hard to submit a ordinance to the President which would over ruled the judgement , but facing  a huge surge of public opinion against that, it was withdrawn. The impact of this is that convicted felons will no longer grace the halls of parliament and legislature. 

The second  significant event is the passing of the Right To Information Act. This was passed a few years ago.While not universally successful  throughout India, the common man is increasingly  using it to seek information from the the government as to why a particular service is not being delivered ( for example why is it taking six months for his passport to be issued ?). Also details about government expenditure and stories are emerging about the misuse of funds by politicians and bureaucrats and reported in the media. Using the results, in some cases public interest litigation is being filed against the culprits.

The other battle which  the government and the political parties are fighting is to keep political donations out of the ambit of the Right To Information by introducing a bill. It will be interesting to see if this eventually  gets passed or will the government be forced to withdraw it because of public opinion ?

The third significant  tool to root out corruption which is battling its way, with strong opposition is the Jan Lokpal Bill.or the Citizens Ombudsman Bill. It is effectively a  Anti-Corruption, Grievance Redressal And Whistleblower Protection Bill. Since 1963 attempts have been made to introduce this bill but is bitterly opposed or attempts are made to water it down so as to dilute its effectiveness. In my opinion it will be passed within the next political term.

The fourth item which is having an impact is the gradual  implementation of E-governance. Almost all of the states have started this initiative with Gujarat leading the way. This ranges from speedy delivery of public services to passport issuance to public sector tendering of projects to the issuance of bio-metric  Aadhaar cards which ensures that the needy have some identity  which enables them to claim the benefits and open bank accounts. While these are far from perfect and it will take some time to be truly effective, the Economic Times of 29th October reported that  over a billion  e-governance transactions have been consummated 

With the Supreme Court ruling, the Right to Information and the Jan Lokpal Bill ( once passed), the continued implementation of e-governance,  you will see the cleansing of the Indian system starting to happen.

On the political front, activist Arvind Kejriwal has launched his own party with its candidates being selected in a transparent manner and strictly adhering to the  Election Commissioners rules on expenditure. Having started less than a year ago, it has made substantial in-roads in the capital. Based on initial surveys it is expected that it might end up playing the role of a king maker. It will be an embarrassment to both the political parties.

As Gurcharan Das a management consultant and former head of Procter & Gamble India, had mentioned in one his presentation that when the middle class reaches close to fifty percent, they start playing an active role in demanding a change in the how the country is run. While we might have not reached that level yet, the middle class is becoming increasingly vocal and active in expressing their unhappiness, such as the recent rape cases in Delhi and Mumbai, 

The media is of course playing an active role in highlighting the crimes, the mis-deeds, but the bias appears to be towards the urbanized middle-class. Nevertheless even at the state level if the perpetrator is a politician, a relative of the politician or a high level bureaucrat, the media picks it up and this forces the police and the state to take action.In the past this would have not even be brought to light.

All this does not mean to say that we can expect better governance, better security, better services being provided  by the government departments  in the immediate future,  but as pressure is being put to make their operations more transparent, they will gradually have to start delivering. The change will be gradual, but the pace of change is going to start picking up.

In a recent book "The Party "  I am reading  about China the author mentions that in terms of economic development,what China has been able to achieve in thirty years,  it took the United Kingdom and the United States a century, but do we want to follow in China political model?

 Its bad enough having our own dynastic rulers, but shall we replace this with a non-transparent system which every decade or so,  foists some unknown party leader as our ruler - although even in China the dynastic approach seems to be seeping in through the appointment of sons and grandsons of Mao's closest comrades, commonly referred to as princelings, being appointed to senior positions.

While I did not anticipate some of these changes during my life time, I am a bit more optimistic now and feel that we will start  to see some of these happening  in my lifetime. After all I did see these radical changes happening over a period of two to three decades in the city of  states Hong Kong and Singapore where I lived. I recognize that India is on a different scale, but it has been more than fifty years since independence. All it takes is for good governance to start from the top and you will be amazed at how quickly it filters down I hope that I will live to see the day.