How cricket helps you be a better human being

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar speaks to Mukul Pandya of India Knowledge @ Wharton on the three Ds required for success in any vocation: discipline, dedication and determination.

Question: What kind of lessons in team work did your years in cricket teach you?

Answer: Well, first and foremost, as a batsman you cannot score runs, or cannot score a century, unless you have somebody batting at the other end for you, unless you have somebody who is taking the runs for you. Unless you have the confidence of somebody staying with you at the other end, you cannot get to a century. So, that is number one.

The other thing is that there will come a time, even during that innings when you are batting well, when the bowler is bowling so well that you might actually be better off being at the non-striker’s end; and if you have a striker who is good enough to take on the load at that stage, then it helps you to tire that bowler out and maybe go on to get a 100. So, you need somebody at the other end to be able to [do that], whether it is the number two batsman, number three, number 11—you need somebody to stay with you so that you get a 100.

Also, if you are a bowler, then you need the fielders to be able to take the catches, to be able to stop the runs being taken for you to take the wickets. So, it is in a sense a lot of teamwork. It also, in a way, reflects on how [well] you can possibly do in society, in the sense that the more talented batsman always looks after the lesser talented batsman in terms of trying to take more of the strike from a dangerous bowler. He is trying to take more of the strike, and maybe he will bat five balls out of the six-ball over, and maybe just give one ball to the lesser talented batsman.

So, you are looking after somebody slightly less talented, and I think that is probably what you want to do in society — that if you are [doing] well enough, you are trying to look after the less fortunate. It is a bit of teamwork.

Read the full interview: Gavaskar @ Wharton

Also read: Star loving Sunil Gavaskar a little more. Now.

CHURUMURI POLL: Can Gavaskar lecture Ricky Ponting?

Save Indian cricket: Keep Gavaskar out

GAVASKAR: The most petulant Indian cricketer ever?

Brother, I’ll take petulance any day. Not sissies.

Not quite what the spokespersons say on TV

Either everybody is getting it wrong or everybody is getting it right. Or everybody is playing it safe.

This is the third table-top prediction by editors of The Times of India, presumably on the basis of on-the-ground reports from their bureaux.

The following is how the fortunes of the three major alliance have fluctuated in the three ToI surveys:

Congress + other UPA: 201 to 198 to 195.

BJP + other NDA: 195 to 176 to 187

Third Front: 82 to 109 to 111.

Others and independents: 65 to 60 to 50.

Graphic: courtesy The Times of India

Also read: There’s only so much Google ads can achieve

That’s why they asked you to shut up and vote

An analysis by the Association of Democratic Reforms of the affidavits filed by 258 sitting MPs seeking reelection in the 2009 general elections shows that more than half of them saw their assets grow between 100% and 9,100%.

With a 6,500%—that’s right, six-thousand five-hundred per cent—growth in his assets since 2004, the honourable BJP member of Parliament from Mysore, C.H. Vijayashankar (in picture), who counts 550 sheep valued at Rs 10,88,550 to underline his farming background, comes in a creditable second.

Presumably, that farming background also insulates Vijayashankar, BA, LLB, from possessing a PAN card.

Read the full article: Fastest way to become rich

Also read: One question I’m dying to ask Rahul Gandhi

Mayawati: For doyen of dalits, assets is all maya

Kanimozhi: How many poems can fetch a poet Rs 8.5 crore?

H.D. Deve Gowda: A snapshot of a poor, debt-ridden farming family

R.V. Deshpande: A 1,611% jump in assets in five years? Hello!

H. Anjaneya: How to grow your assets by 81,465%? Ask him.

R. Ashok: Everyone is stark naked in the public bathroom

‘The notion of secular was not known to Hindus’

Economic & Political Weekly (EPW) tears into the “preamble” of the BJP manifesto saying the party has not given up on its “feel-good” theme. In 2004, it tried to fly the kite of an “India Shining”; in 2009, it is recycling the myth of “India Glorious” from ancient times.

The BJP premable, signed by Murli Manohar Joshi, tries to sell India as “the most ancient and continuing civilisation of the world”, when it was not. It talks of Indian farmers dazzling foreign travellers with their agricultural abundance when famine was common. It talks of a superior “indigenous education system” that compared with the best in England when there were no schools or colleges as we know them today. And it talks of a health care system complete with vaccines and plastic surgery.

“Most insidious is the manner in which the preamble conflates the “Bharatiya world view”, Hindu thought and secularism “in the real sense of the term”.

“The notion of the secular was actually not known to the Hindus, as the secular requires giving priority to the human being irrespective of his or her beliefs. Hindus were concerned with establishing caste and sect.

“Only the Buddhists expounded a view that might be called secular since they emphasised social ethics irrespective of other links. And the Buddhists were ousted by the Hindus.“

Read the full editorial: India Shining to India was Shining

The fault is not in our stars, but our film stars

Why two of the southern States have had their political canvas consistently dotted by characters from cinema, while the rest of the Union have not, is one of the eternal mysteries of Indian politics. But that doesn’t stop bankrupt parties from trying to shine in the reflected glory of the stars.

On the strength of their recent legislative performance, T.J.S. George says box-office stardust as a ballot-box  commodity is quickly turning into dust.

***

By T.J.S. GEORGE

Film stars caused their two-paise worth of nuisance in this election. A couple of them may win but it is clear that their appeal as netas is declining steadily.

MGR and NTR meant something in politics.

Hema Malini and Jaya Bachchan meant nothing.

Star-MPs in the last Parliament in fact disgraced the parliamentary system itself. Govinda failure to attend even one session showed an attitude of contempt towards Parliament. Vinod Khanna, once trumpeted by the BJP, attended only 5.5 percent of the sittings. Dharmendra‘s score was 1.5 per cent.

If these guys are so high and mighty, why did they become MPs in the first place? The parties who sponsored them must be held accountable by the people who elected them.

In the South, things are somewhat better.

Actually, film stars turning to politics is a South Indian phenomenon, more specifically a Tamil phenomenon. The reasons are historical. Cinema became an integral part of the Dravida movement and therefore a serious player in politics. It was not a case of roping in pretty faces to get votes.

The anti-Brahmin movement had started earlier in Maharashtra under Jyotiba Phule. But it was Periyar Ramaswamy Naicker who gave it an ideological sweep and a cultural (Aryan-Dravidian) dimension. The revolution he wrought was turned by C.N. Annadurai into a solid political platform. Because Annadurai was the most brilliant film writer of his time, Tamil cinema became a political instrument.

Fascinating details of this union between politics and cinema are marshalled in History Through the Lens, a new book by the greatest living authority on Tamil cinema, S. Theodore Baskaran.

From the 1920s, he tells us, drama artistes were involved in the freedom struggle. In 1958 the legendary K.B. Sundrambal became India’s first film artiste to enter the legislature. After independence, film actors as a community, who had earlier been backing the cause of the Congress, moved on to support the Dravidian movement. The Congress never recovered from that.

Dravidian assertion over Brahmins did not develop in other South Indian states as intensively as it did in Tamil Nadu.

Something else happened in Andhra when that amateur Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, publicly humiliated the then chief minister of the state, T. Anjiah. It was an insult to Telugu pride, but neither Anjiah nor the Congress party was in a position to do anything about it. N.T Rama Rao rose to the occasion and rode to power on the plank of Telugu atmagauravam.

That was a spontaneous response to a moment of challenge. NTR did not have the intellectual resources to turn it into an ideological platform. Even in Tamil Nadu the inspirational pull of the Dravidian movement has lately been diluted by caste and sub-caste politics. Hence the ambivalence of wannabe netas like Rajnikanth and the uncertainties of fresh entrants like “Black MGR”, Vijaykanth.

In Andhra, Chiranjeevi has serious handicaps and dissensions in his personal circle, the absence of an ideological agenda. Whether he can do an NTR will depend on whether the people see him as a credible agent of change.

In Karnataka even a god-like figure like Raj Kumar kept out of politics. The most glamorous Kannada heroine of all time, Jayanti, was defeated by the most unglamorous opponent of all time, Ananth Kumar, in 2004.

Ambarish (in picture) is an exception that proves the rule that stars don’t shine in the politics of Karnataka. He is a strange exception the only minister in the Union Cabinet who never attended office.

That beats even Govinda.

Photograph: Karnataka Photo News

When will our kids start questioning? Don’t ask.

BHAMY V. SHENOY writes: If one looks at the newspaper headlines on SSLC pass percentage and stratospheric marks of the toppers, one may conclude that our education system is alive, well, and thriving.

But is this a true reflection of the reality?

Ask any good teacher or prospective employer on how our students are performing. The response will be uniformly negative. Why are we then exposed to this farce every year when SSLC and PUC public examination results are published?

Soon after the publication of SSLC and PUC publication examination results, both newspapers and school managements are keen to publish the list of rank-holders and highest scores though the government stopped announcing ranks few years back.

Just about every educationist knows that our testing methodology is not capable of judging students purely based on marks and that too scored in one examination. The public examination system instituted from the times of Macaulay is criticized by one and all.

Still why do we continue to give such importance to marks?

Is there any significant difference between a person scoring say 620 versus 610 in terms of academic excellence, or his ability to create and innovate, or her ability in terms of contributing to society, or their knowledge of the society’s problems and their ability to solve them?

What do marks in any examination the way they are conducted today show? At best they show that the student has taken the trouble to study the subjects and has some understanding. At worst they show that they are good at attending coaching classes and learning by heart to answer questions.

No doubt, marks an “objective” way of assessing the students though it is not clear what that assessment amounts to.

***

In recent years, even the much-admired Joint Entrance Examination system for selecting students to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) have come under fierce attack from some concerned IIT professors, IIT alumni and even from Industrialists.

S. Muthuraman, managing director of Tata Steel and an IITM alumnus, had questioned the capabilities of IIT students selected based on such a JEE system.

It is high time we stopped giving importance to the test results of one public examination and start debating the need for the replacement of such an inhuman and unproductive system of assessing our students and also the education system.

How many more students have to commit suicide, dejected by these examinations before we change the system?

***

Pratham has been assessing the educational standards of children in rural areas since four years and has brought out the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER).

The following table for Karnataka compares the recent glowing SSLC results against the dismal performance of rural students based on their ability to do subtraction by those in standards 3 to 5.

# In Mandya district where SSLC test results show that 83.78 have been able to clear the public examinations, only 41.2% of the children in standards 3 to 5 are able to perform simple subtraction problems.

# In Bidar only 28.5% of the children in standards are able to perform these simple subtraction sums.

# In Mysore, it is only 32.5%.

What do these statistics tell about the kind of education we are imparting to our future generation?

A few years back, Mysore’s indefatigable educationist Dr. H. A. B. Parpia had organized a quiz to assess the general knowledge of students in several schools of Mysore and what he found was shocking. Most students could not answer simple questions.

His conclusion was that because of the compulsion by parents and teachers to score high marks, students are forced to take recourse to learning by heart. These are the very schools now boasting of 100% results and having graduated toppers from their schools.

I tried to promote a novel experiment ofcalled True Education to ignite the critical thinking of students and motivate them to ask questions. Mysore University Syndicate member R. Guru too has been trying to promote this strategy even offering funds to those who will take this challenge.

But there has not been one school which has showed any interest to take up this offer.

It is a well recognized problem in our schools that students hardly ask any questions. Even worse teachers also do not encourage students to ask questions. One of the objectives of well-rounded education is to make students to think, and motivate them to ask questions.

Why are schools which boast of 100% examination results not interested in igniting the critical thinking capacity in their students? We need a revolution to improve our education system which for all practical purposes has collapsed. Let us not get carried away by high percentage pass in public examination like SSLC.

Also read: Yella not OK, guru. Nanna makkalu is not learning

Don’t gift them fish. Teach them how to fish

Can Azim Premji do what the government can’t/ won’t?

Yedi is fiddling when namma naadu is burning

Do our netas, parties really care about education?

Everybody loves a good “poor voter turnout”

The poor turnout in “literate” constituencies like Bangalore South and Bombay South has left everyone confused. OTOH, many point to the futility of the media-entertainment-industry campaign to get the “educated middle class” out, post “26/11″. OTOH, there are some like M.J. Akbar who believe it is not the rich who did not vote, but the poor.

P. Sainath in The Hindu is, however, very sure:

“On the whole, slumdogs vote in larger numbers than the white-ribbon, candlelight crowds do…. Generally, the poor vote in greater numbers. (The rich capture governments by other means.) The poor usually want to use the vote. It is the one instrument of democracy they get to exercise….

“[In contrast] there is, face it, the apathy of the comfortable. Those who might well explode in drawing-room or television studio outrage about high taxes and 26/11. But who see no real need to fiddle with the status quo. The comfort zone classes exist and are more urban than rural.

“There is also, for the non-comfort zone classes, the small matter of issues. When last did the problems of food price rise, BPL cards, or ration quotas, dominate campaigns in either the Lok Sabha or the State Assembly polls? Or those of, sanitation, water, housing, demolitions and jobs? For millions in India’s megapolis, as elsewhere, these are very real issues.”

Photograph: via Flickr

Read the full article: Celeb crusades and the death of politics

Also read: An epitaph to the literate, educated middle-class

61% vs 51%: so much noise for so little impact?

Why BJP will get 18 (or more) seats in Karnataka

MATHIHALLI MADAN MOHAN writes from Hubli: By all reckoning, it is now clear that the Congress and Janata Dal Secular have not been able to halt the BJP juggernaut in Karnataka in the 2009 general elections. Period.

The supremacy of the BJP, as reflected when it was voted to power in the assembly elections last year, is expected to be reflected in the Lok Sabha elections too.

In the LS elections held for the first time under the aegis of the saffron government, the BJP is expected to pick up around 18 of the 28 seats. With some pluck, it may even pick up a few more to put Karnataka in line with BJP as among the bastions of the BJP at the national level.

Considering the fact that the BJP had won 18  seats in 2004 when it was in opposition in Karnataka, it may look as if the BJP has not been able to derive any extra advantage of being in power in the State. But viewed in the context of the disadvantageous position in which the BJP had landed after the delimitation of the constituencies, this is to be considered as an achievement and as a bonus for a party in power.

In 2004, the BJP had won 18 seats as against eight of the Congress and two of the JDS. This was before delimitation of the constituencies. In the assembly election held after delimitation last year, the BJP indeed was voted to power but it found to its chagrin that there had been some change in the ground-level situation in the parliamentary segments.

Its hold in the parliamentary segments had come down from 18 to 12, and it could pick up one more namely Chikodi, thanks to the by-election in one of the assembly segments (Hukeri) to end up with lead in 13, which was still far fewer than the 18 seats it had won five years ago.

The score card which read 18-8-2 in 2004 had come down to the 13-11-4 after the by-election and in the cumulative votes tally after the string of eight by-elections to the assembly, the BJP for the first time pushed the Congress to the second position for the first time in the electoral history of the Karnataka.

It now appears that the BJP has been able to up its tally in the LS elections too, notwithstanding the five per cent drop in the poll turnout, which in actual terms would mean around sixteen lakh voters staying away.

The BJP’s fortunes in the LS elections hinges on two essential factors, the first one being the addition of around ten lakh new voters and the second on the BJP raking up substantial support from “others” category of voters, namely the non-Congress/ non-BJP/ non-JDS section of voters who participated in the assembly elections.

As far as new voters are concerned, the increase has been an average of more than 38,000 for each parliamentary constituency. The track record of elections held since 1999 has it that the Congress has not been able to secure a single extra vote and has as a matter of fact suffered erosion in its votes’ tally and the BJP has been the main beneficiary of the additional support by the new voters.

In the 2008 assembly elections, the BJP had a lead ranging from as low as 4,000 in Bangalore North to as high as over a lakh in Davanagere and Shimoga, in thirteen LS constituencies. The support by the new voters is expected to consolidate the lead further in Chikodi, Belgaum Bagalkot, Bellary, Haveri, Dharwad, Kanara, Davanagere, Shimoga, Udupi, Bangalore North, Bangalore Central and Bangalore South.

In the 11 parliamentary segments where the Congress had a lead ranging from 5,000 in Dakshina Kannada to one lakh in Chamarajanagar, the role of new voters may prove to be disadvantageous for the Congress. This is especially so in the constituencies of Bijapur, Raichur, Bidar, Koppal, Dakshin Kannada, where the lead is less than 25,000. In Gulbarga, Mysore, Chikballapur and Kolar, where the lead is more than 50,000, the Congress may become vulnerable.

As far as the JDS is concerned, it is a mixed bag. In Tumkur, where it has to battle with the BJP, the new voters may swing the pendulum away from the JDS in favour of the BJP. In Bangalore Rural, the three parties are almost on an equal footing and the support of the new voters would help the BJP close the gap with its rivals to provide a photo-finish outcome. In Hassan and the Mandya, where it is battling with Congress, the BJP has a hard grind even with the support of the new voters.

And as far as the role of other voters in the 2004 elections is concerned, of the 38 lakh in this category, twenty lakh had voted in the parliamentary election, with the BJP walking away with three-fourths of the support. In the 2008 election the number stood at 33 lakh.

It is not possible to estimate at this moment what would be the size of this category of voters and the role played by them, which can become clear only when the counting is taken up.

What is clear at the moment is that the voting turnout has been low. The low turnout in the parliamentary election whenever it is held separately has been a regular phenomenon in Karnataka. But this time, it has been lower than anticipated.

Past records have shown that a lower turnout does not necessarily mean erosion of support base for the principal contenders. They are known to get the core support that they have got in the assembly election and wait for the additional support from the “others” category of voters.

While the average drop has been around five per cent, the figure for the individual constituencies varies. Barring Bellary and Bangalore Central, it has dropped in all other 26 constituencies, the range being as low as 0.5% in Dakshina Kannada to as high as 15% in Belgaum, Chitradurga, 12% in Bijapur, and 10% each in Kanara and Tumkur.

In actual terms, 244 lakh voters out of an electorate of 410 lakhs have exercised the franchise. The turnout has been seventeen lakhs less than 2008. The BJP and the Congress, it may be noted here, had raked a support of 22.23% (90.42 lakhs) and 22.21% (89.13 lakhs) respectively from the 401 lakh electorate in 2008 elections.

Going by the same percentage of support from the electorate, the BJP and the Congress, between themselves would secure a support of 44.79% in an electorate of 410 lakhs. And this works out to 183.43 lakhs out of the polled votes of 244.43 lakhs, leaving the remaining 61 lakhs being the share of the JDS and the others category of voters.

Since the JDS has been perceived not a serious contender, having concentrated all its energies in winning only hand few of the constituencies, it is not possible to apportion the share of the JDS votes in the remaining.

Whatever may be the quantum of the others category of voters, after taking away the JDS share, a major portion again would go to the lot of the BJP, as has been noticed earlier. This would be further enrich the BJP kitty further.

Also read: In a state of four crore, 33.78 lakhs hold the key

Why didn’t ol’ William ask: ‘What’s in a number?’

Arun Nehru in Deccan Chronicle:

“The situation is very complicated for all three formations (United Progressive Alliance, National Democratic Alliance and the Third Front) and few can predict today the picture that will emerge after results are declared on May 16….

“My assessment is that both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will maintain and perhaps improve upon their 2004 Lok Sabha numbers.

“I also think that the Left will drop from 60-plus to 35-40 seats and the grand alliance of the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Lok Janashakti Party (LJP) will drop from 65 to about 30-35 seats. The trends in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh show a change in mood and whilst the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) may improve its tally, both the BJP and the Congress may gain at the expense of the SP. In Bihar, the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and the BJP seem set to demolish the RJD and the LJP.”

Read the full article: Trends show mood swing in Bihar, UP

Arun Nehru: part I, part II, part III, part IV, part V, part VI, part VII

‘It’s a dog’s life’ is the biggest cliche going round

“Man’s best friend” find the women of their lives at a puppy adoption programme organised by Let’s Live Together at Cubbon Park in Bangalore on Sunday.

Photograph: Karnataka Photo News

The gritty, determined Italian middleclass woman

The shortness of the public memory (and of the media) offers a brief explanation for the longevity of our politicians.

The Bofors scandal seems like so yesterday. The Rs 64 crore kickbacks that brought down Rajiv Gandhi‘s government looks like small change. And last week’s Indian Express expose that an “embarrassed”  government has got the Red Corner Notice revoked on Ottavio Quattrocchi, is already old news.

Editor, columnist, author and wordsmith T.J.S. George writes that we can forget at our own peril. The organised manner in which successive Indian governments have ensured that the guilty get away offers valuable lessons on crime and punishment, especially the lack of it when very, very important persons are involved.

***

By T.J.S. GEORGE

Since the dawn of Independence, no one has received from the Indian State more privileged treatment than Ottavio Quattrocchi. He is a business dalal, a middleman, a fixer of deals collecting commissions along the way. Usually when a fixer is caught in a compromising position, his patrons and beneficiaries drop him.

Not if you are Quattrocchi.

When he was caught, not only was he not dropped; the Indian State repeatedly went out of its way to protect him.

Consider just the landmarks. Following official disclosures by Swiss authorities about Bofors bribes, Quattrocchi’s escape from Delhi was facilitated by government ministers. When he was arrested by the Malaysian police in 2002, the CBI made such a hotchpotch of India’s case that the courts in Malaysia released him.

Exactly the same thing happened in Argentina five years later; the Indian authorities made such a pathetic show that the Argentine court was forced to set the man free. Quietly the Indian authorities also arranged to release the bribe money they had got frozen in Quattrocchi’s London account.

In a final act of grace, the CBI has asked for the removal of the Interpol warrant against him so that the spectre of arrest in strange lands will no longer bother this favoured apple of the Congress Party’s eye.

There is a further pattern in the way Congress leaders spring like wounded tigers to the defence of Quattrocchi and his protectors. Their main argument is that no court has found the man guilty. Of course not. No court will ever find him guilty as long as those whose duty it is to provide evidence decide not to do so.

Quattrocchi’s defenders also say that there is not a shred of evidence against him. Great quantities of evidence have in fact been made available by Swiss authorities, Bofors company officials and independent Swiss and Swedish and Indian investigators.

When Congress spokesmen ignore all this and ignore how cases are prosecuted shabbily with the intention of losing, they are assuming that Indian citizens are a stupid lot.

Alas, they are not.

Stranger still is the timing. The party is in the midst of a make-or-break election. Yet, it takes suicidal steps.

First, foolish selection of candidates in most states thereby consciously losing seats it could have won. Second, out of the blue, a clean chit to Jagdish Tytler thereby reopening the wounds of the Sikh community and losing tens of thousands of crucial votes. Then, out of the blue, a clean chit to Ottavio Quattrochi, a man either hated or suspected by most Indians.

Why?

Why the desperation? And why now when the electoral price to be paid is likely to be very heavy?

We can all guess the answers. We can also conclude that decisions of such momentous consequences cannot be taken by factotums in the CBI or this ministry or that. They can only come from a source of unchallengeable centralised authority, a wielder of absolute power whose resoluteness has the solidity of a rock and the immovability of a mountain.

Anna Magnani and Sophia Loren immortalised those qualities. They could set the screen on fire with their raw power and earthiness. Jean Renoir admiringly called Magnani the complete animal. Loren’s passionate portrayal of tragedy in war-ravaged Italy remains indelible in our minds.

Between them the two ladies made the world aware of a primeval force—the gritty, determined Italian middleclass woman. Before that primeval force the Indian State today bends and sways.

Let us hope it won’t break.

Also read: One question I’m dying to ask Sonia Gandhi—Part I

One question I’m dying to ask Sonia Gandhi-Part II

‘TA-DA Sky. Isko laga dala to wife jhinga lala.’

E.R. RAMACHANDRAN writes: Ajji had just watched election coverage on TV.  It was clear she was restless. She had just watched a no-holds-barred, gloves-off, bloody slugfest.

“Yen Ajji, yochne madtha idhiya? Aren’t you taking your afternoon nap?”

“Yenu niddeno! Tell me, why poltisons are trying to make their children MPs? What is their kwalifishun?”

“Poltisons alla Ajji! It is politicians. Qualification not kwalifishun!”

“OK, politician-o and qualification-o. But tell me why.”

“Just like doctor’s son becomes a daaktru and an engineer’s son engineeru, politicians feel their sons should also become polticiansu.”

“Is the country avarappana jaagiri to pass on to sons and daughters? Polticiangu qualification illa, his son also is not qualified in anything. In that sense both have no qualification and that makes them eligible to rule the country!”

“Ajji!”

“Adirli, tell me when do these people retire like engineers and doctors. Is it 58 or 60?”

“There is no retirement age for politicians, Ajji. They can rule till they die or reach 100 years whichever comes first!”

“Alvo Ramu! With weak knees, failing eyesight, fading hearing and nothing much in between, how do they attend office or Parliament?”

“Simple-u Ajji. Majority of them don’t attend regularly office, er, Parliament.”

“What about their TA-DA?”

“They get huge amount plus bonuses.”

“Like Tata Sky?”

“Correct-u Ajji! But, sky is not the limit for them for their TA-DA!”

“I don’t know what is happening! No qualification, no retirement, TA-DA Sky and you were saying the other day many have cases pending against them in courts?”

“You’ve summed it perfectly Ajji. Now you tell me who will win this time Ajji?”

“It doesn’t matter at all who wins. It will be the same. Devre kapaadbeku namma Deshana.”

Our schizoid, cynical, duplicitous foreign policy

Venkatesan Vembu in DNA:

“Two ongoing conflicts in India’s immediate neighbourhood—in Sri Lanka and Pakistan—are both close to a tipping point…. But curiously, there’s been a striking dissonance in the responses, which reflects either a schizoid view of our neighbourhood or, worse, cynical duplicity.

“In Pakistan, much of India’s coercive diplomacy is focused on getting Pakistani leaders to crack down harder on terrorism outfits, and there is widespread support even for US military operations against jihadis in Afghanistan and Pakistan…. But when Sri Lanka wages its own “war on terror” against a ruthless terrorist force that, at one stage, India shamefully supported and armed, our political responses get a lot more muddled….

“Chauvinistic ethno-linguistic politics in Tamil Nadu is threatening to hijack India’s foreign policy position that had, after a long time, found the right balance between defending India’s strategic interests and doing the right thing.”

Read the full article: Our schizoid view of our neighbourhood

When the chief minister prays, the public pays

Only 10 per cent of India’s 1.1 billion population is said to be aware of the Right to Information (RTI) Act which grants citizens the right to access government documents.

Nevertheless, its power and potential is unmatched. For a nominal fee, any Indian, male or female, rich or poor, can step up to “the scariest government agency” and take his or her shot.

For journalists, RTI is a “game-changer“.

Students of the 2008-09 investigative class of the Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media (IIJNM) in Bangalore—under the guidance of Prof Ralph Frammolino, a reporter at the Los Angeles Times for 24 years and a Pulitzer Prize finalist—have used the RTI to show how killer BMTC drivers are back at the wheel; how the State government never fires chronically absentee teachers; and how the chances of corrupt officers trapped by the Lok Ayukta getting punished are low.

They have also used RTI to show how chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa uses public money for his temple visits. It wasn’t easy. They had to make 12 trips to the CM’s office and file an appeal to obtain the documents.

***

PAVAN KUMAR H. and P. KRISHNAMURTHY write: During his first five months in office, Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa spent more than Rs 11 lakh in government funds to make eight trips to Hindu temples—including one to Tirupathi to take part in the Bramhotsava.

Records obtained by IIJNM Investigations under the Right To Information (RTI) Act show that Yediyurappa charged the eight trips to taxpayers as “official” business.

In five out of eight instances, he used government funds to rent a helicopter or an airplane to carry himself and several top ministers to Hindu shrines, where he offered pujas and, in one case, inaugurated a food serving hall.

Interviews and records also show that during the same period, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader made no official visits to other houses of worship even after being invited by Christian and Muslim leaders.

And in one case, Yediyurappa was visiting a Mangalore temple at government expense the day after pro-Hindutva vandals ransacked two nearby Christian sanctuaries.

Despite heavy media coverage of the church incidents, Yediyurappa didn’t show up at the churches, although he denounced the attacks on prayer halls and met Christian leaders. Still, his failure to visit the sanctuaries prompted accusations that he and his pro-Hindu BJP tacitly condoned the attacks—a charge he vigorously denies.

A BJP spokesman defended the chief minister’s temple visits, saying the reason he didn’t go to mosques and churches in the first few months of his tenure was because “he was not invited.” Yeddyurappa has since gone to at least one dargah and one church, according to press reports.

“Yediyurappa is not against any religion,” said A.L. Shivkumar, media manager of the State BJP. “He treats all religions equally.”

Kumar said Yediyurappa has gone to more temples because Hindu priests continually ask him to.

“He visits many places and people invite him to the temples nearby, so he goes there,” he said. “He is a ‘pakka‘ (devout) Hindu and he goes to a temple as every traditional Hindu does. It would be wrong if he does not go there.”

But Christian and Muslim leaders have another account.

Adolf Washington, public relations officer for the Catholic Archbishop’s office in Bangalore, said church officials had called Yediyurappa “many times but he did not come. He is a Chief Minister so we cannot force him to come.”

Salim Babu, secretary of the Karnataka Wakf Board, which manages mosques for the government, said both Yediyurappa and his Wakf Board Minister, Mumtaz Ali Khan, have spurned requests from the Muslim community to attend events and meetings.

“He is not interested in attending mosques,” Salim said about Yeddyurappa, adding that the chief minister showed favoritism to the religious majority. “He should not discriminate between a tall son and a dwarf son.”

Records show that Yediyurappa’s State-paid temple visits began shortly after he was sworn in on 30 May 2008.

His first was on June 17, a trip that cost taxpayers Rs 2,440, to the Ghati Subramanya Temple in Doddabalapur. That was followed 12 days later by a Rs 854 car ride to the Sri Keshtra Siddhara Betta temple in Tumkur. There, the chief minister participated in a Guru Vadana, or tribute ceremony, in honor of Shiva Kumar Swamiji of Siddaganga Mutt.

The most expensive trips were to Tirupathi, India’s most famous Hindu shrine. His trips on July 17 and October 1 each cost taxpayers Rs 3.6 lakh for a “special aircraft” and Rs 9,500 for the taxi.

The official purpose given for the trips was “local visit,” although the latter was during the Bramhotsava. The nine-day festival is the busiest time for the temple.

Twice he flew in state-paid helicopters to temples. A September 8 trip to the Banavasi temple in Hassan cost Rs 1.4 lakh for the helicopter ride. The other, on October 10, cost taxpayers nearly Rs 1.9 lakh for transportation to the Sri Krishna Mutt in Udupi, where he inaugurated  the food hall.

According to the CM’s office, a temple visit is “official” and paid by the government if Yediyurappa is invited by a local official, such as a district commissioner (DC), to attend a public ceremony, function or make an inspection.

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