Medical Education in Maharashtra – 2

A path to resolution.

Now that the stewards of state (of “commanding heights” fame) have completely botched things, how do we reform? Where do we begin? What do we do?

To answer that question, it may be useful to remember the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland, “[what you need to do] depends a good deal on where you want to go.”

To understand what we need to do, we need to have a suitable vision of where we want to go. We may, for instance, want to “Establish a system to produce world-class physicians and health care leaders to meet Maharashtra’s and India’s demand for talent, while creating economic value via high-quality patient care, research and accelerated job creation.”

Translated into plain English, this means more and better hospitals -- say three times as many, with vastly improved teaching skills and capabilities that directly meet India’s healthcare needs.

It is tempting – but wrong – to conclude that all it will take is more money. If that were the case, the thousands of crores of taxpayer money the government has spent in shoring up Air India and Indian Airlines again and again would not have been as completely wasted as they have been.

No – it’s not more money that is required. What is required is an entirely new system for channelling cash, most of it from private pockets, to create an all new educational system.

There are three big changes the government must drive to make this happen:

1.Create competition in the delivery of medical education by liberalising norms governing setting up of medical institutions

The only way we can have more medical schools is, well, by allowing more people to start medical schools.

Transparent, simple yet stringent norms should be established – and anyone meeting those norms should be allowed to start a medical school. The norms could well cover requirements such as financial stability, experience in running medical schools – perhaps even globally. This is a good way of getting schools like Harvard and Hopkins interested. Incidentally, Singapore adopted a similar strategy to attract Insead Business School and Duke Medical School to Singapore.

Going beyond the school itself, medical institutions should be allowed to select the university with which they choose to be affiliated. Ergo Medicine programs should be repatriated to their parent universities, completely reversing the current trend for sameness. Creating competition – where universities strive to be affiliated to the best schools – is a far more powerful means of creating quality than by obsessing over standardising curricula across the state.

2. Create payment security in Education to attract the best medical schools

While (1) will grab the interest of leading healthcare educational institutions, it is unlikely to keep them from having bouts of attention deficit. To make sure the Harvards of the world come – and stay – the Government will need to assure them of a good return on their investment.

Discussing “returns on investment” in education is typically considered inapplicable – heretical even.

I disagree.

An education – in particular, a degree from a reputed college – is highly monetisable. When an average IIM-A student gets a starting salary worth 10 lakh, the market deems the worth of that “student+degree” combination to be worth at least as much. So, if an IIM-A student is charged Rs. 5 for a degree, s/he should not really be bothered – s/he will still be, economically speaking, better off.

So, in a nutshell, the government must give full freedom to medical schools to charge market rates for their fees.

And, instead of controlling fees, mechanisms should be established whereby the poorest of the poor have access to the capital required to fund this education. A cornucopia of solutions – from student loans to vouchers as suggested by Friedman – are possible. The government can, in fact, “fund” the education of students from whichever caste/creed/demographic/electorally useful group of people it wishes to pamper by directly paying the school the full cost of their education.

Such a move will have an altogether salubrious effect on the schools themselves. Forced with having to compete for the student’s rupee, colleges will have to offer better facilities, higher teaching standards and resources to attract students and value –added services – like career counselling and placements. The motivation for becoming distinctive will also incentivise them to establish tie-ups and alliances for research and development.

Existing shackles that prevent these relationships from emerging should also be removed.

3. Ensure public safety by establishing an independent regulatory authority.

While (1) and (2) may be adequate in other sectors, it is certainly not enough in medical education. After all, is it safe to leave the licensing of physician to a bunch of colleges that is interested in a 100% pass rate?

This is a legitimate concern, but effectively solved by establishing an independent regulator.

In the United States for instance, all physicians – even those from the best schools –must pass stringent licensing examinations administered by an independent licensing authority.

India too has successfully established ombuds and regulators such as the TRAI, indicating the viability of the concept. This regulator should be kept independent of the government (which means the Ramadoss or Grand poobah of the time should not be allowed to meddle in its operations). It should also be made financially secure by providing it with ring-fenced government funding and “licensing fees” collected from students and medicall colleges.

This independence and financial stability is crucial to staff the regulator with high quality experts – and not some spineless lackeys beholden to the present Minister.

Details about how we can make this regulator – indeed any institution – at arms length from political vicissitudes is matter enough for a separate post.

So there we have it – a framework to pull Maharashtra back from its state of self-inflicted medical decline and place it firmly onto a growth trajectory.

Of course, several operational issues remain unanswered – such as how do we ensure that these medical colleges have the right kind of teaching hospitals available? This one is easy: allow hospitals to forge alliances with existing hospitals to upgrade them into teaching institutions. Give incentives for adopting and transforming poorly run government hospitals and so on.

Some questions are harder – such as how do we get the best here? How many medical schools are enough? How expensive is too much?

They are all valid and important.

However they are also amenable for resolution under the umbrella framework of the three shifts listed above: competition, payment security and outcome regulation.

So, why have we not started as yet?

Unfortunately, like most changes – this change too has to start from the government. Babus have to go from thinking of themselves as thekedaars and maay-baaps of the sector to facilitators and nurturers.

They have to realise that this sector is too important to be held ransom to their petty egos.

Alas, the recent fracas with Ramadoss and the AIIMS demonstrated how far the sarkar is from this realisation.

Einstein had once said that a problem can only be solved at a level of consciousness higher than at which it was caused.

Our netas and babus need to raise their levels of consciousness pretty significantly to embrace such radical change.

Cold comfort, that we need to wait for our Netas and Babus to think differently.

Perhaps they should begin their journey by reading Alice in Wonderland.

Kerala Left behind: No organised retail

The Kerala Lefties are at it again: throttling enterprise.

They now plan to ban organised retail.

KOCHI, JULY 1: The Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala is all set to bring in a law to ban corporate retailers, both Indian and MNCs, in the state.

...

This would be the first attempt of its kind in the country. Divakaran said the Left in Kerala doesn’t intend to draw the line for big retailers at peddling food grains, as Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee did for Bengal a few days ago. It will be a blanket ban and, according to the minister...

“We don’t want to tell MNCs from Indian corporates, both are bad for the state. We don’t want to go for a conditional or limited ban because we really don’t want them here at all,” Divakaran said.

This reveals the commies for what they are: a bunch of power hungry, control obsessed despots (not that it was ever in doubt). With no real interest in farmers' or citizens' welfare.

And farmers like organised, vertically integrated retailers .. they give them better prices for their crop than the government.
But of course, the commies don't -- they cannot lord over the aam aadmi anymore!

PS: My essay on Medical Education 2 is still pending -- I will post it over the next week.

Medical Education in Maharashtra - 1

Creating a robust Medical Education is a strategic imperative for India – healthcare is a critical sector of the economy in any nation. In a growing nation like India – with an absolute deficit of doctors, -- establishing a robust "pipeline" of medical talent is a critical element of development. After all, you cannot create economic surplus if you're sick.

Stewards of state are therefore expected to create an environment where talent is allowed to nurture and bloom.

Sadly, stewards of state in India -- and in Maharashtra in particular -- have done exceedingly well at destroying talent by establishing a deadening centralised license raj.

This is the story of what has happened in Maharashtra -- and what to expect as a result.

To begin with, starting a medical college in India is tough. You have to jump through multiple governmental hoops to get a green signal: from the number of beds you have/need, to the sizes of lecture rooms... even the fees you can charge!

However, the government worries very little about what quality of doctors you produce (in stark contrast, virtually all nations tightly regulate the quality of doctors produced; important, since a drop in educational standards can directly cost human lives).

As a result, many freshly graduated doctors in India are, to put it midly, incompetent. I had colleagues in my class who could not read a chest X-ray. This in a country where the first, second and third diagnosis for chronic cough is tuberculosis, tuberculosis and tuberculosis.

As a result, even after nearly 6 years of schooling, employment opportunities for a Doctor are slim (in stark contrast to graduates from engineering or management colleges).

No one comes to medical schools in India to recruit the next generation of Naresh Trehans or Nitu Mandkes: the cost associated with separating the wheat from the chaff is just not worth it. The best hospitals, in fact, simply do not entertain candidates until they earn credentials overseas – a simpler way (but more effective, at least from the Hospital’s perspective) of ensuring quality of supply.

Despite these flaws, the system was getting by: many doctors were starting out on their own, others were earning overseas qualifications and either returning or emigrating.

Somewhat predictably, the Maharashtra government began facing a crippling shortage of medical officers -- particularly in her rural areas.

Instead of freeing up the supply of doctors to address this shortage, the Government actually strengthened its stranglehold over supply and brough every aspect of medical education under direct governmental control.

All students were forced into mandatory rural service (girls from my class have served their bonds in Gadchiroli – a naxal infested area). Bonds were signed to make sure no student ‘slipped the dragnet’. Since the government could not "afford" to pay her resident doctors (doctors in teaching hospitals working to earn their MD/MS degrees), salaries were reduced. In fact, several resident doctors working to earn their DNB, do so gratis! Imagine a 27 year, unpaid neurosurgery resident!

Education delivery was next. Medicine programs that had run for perhaps longer than a 100 years at Mumbai and Pune University (among others) were dismantled and centralised to a no-name university operating out of a shed in Nasik. Centralised because the state found it easier to control one puppet university, Nasik because that was the health minister’s constituency.

To complete the picture, private medical schools in Maharasthra were also told by the government whom they must admit and what fees to charge!

As respected programs were demolished and replaced with an unknown and unwanted one, examination standards dropped; the new degree was even invalid internationally for several years. Doctors’ employability levels dropped further.

The result has been predictable. Lines to join medical school have been getting thinner. Growth in seats has stalled -- not one medical seat has been added in Mumbai in the past decade. Those already stuck in the system are leaving: fully half my graduating class has either migrated overseas, moved out of the clinical sciences or both.

Over a short span of ten years, vibrancy in medical education in Maharashtra was decimated, replaced by a deadening License Raj. A Raj of unmet demand, insufficient supply and poor quality.

But the divine law of supply and demand -- hated by the dirigiste state -- has caught up with Maharashtra. Over the next 20 years, Maharashtra will face a catastrophic shortage of medical doctors. This shortage will hit where it hurts most: public healthcare.

This catastrophe will not be easy to fix: it takes years to create a medical college of any standing (infrastructure, teachers, a working hospital) and nearly a decade to make a doctor (longer, if you include complex specialities).

By acting cynically to perpetuate their personal control over the sector, Maharashtra’s political leaders have virtually wiped out an entire generation of physicians, exposing her citizens to medical risk of institutional proportions.

They must be tried for criminal malpractice.

And yet, it is possible for Maharashtra to reverse the decay; i shall cover the topic in a separate post.

First you screw them...

... then you give them sops.
Classic maay-baap sarkar behaviour: choke off all sources of income to reduce to penury.
Then save from penury -- but only just -- by starting a life-support drip.
Control the pace of the drip to ensure that income is never infused fast enough for the patient to recover and walk off.

When will the UPA idiots learn?
The solution to Agriculture, as elsewhere, is simple:

1. Establish a water and electricity policy -- including private transmission and distribution to ensure farmers have the "raw materials" to grow and transport food (a lot of food perishes because our cold chains are poor -- because we dont even have 100% electricity). Buttress with a buildout of roads (remember the NDA's golden quadrilateral?)

2. Get out of the way -- dismantle controlled price regimes and allow farmers to produce what the market needs -- and sell directly to consumers.

New addition to the Arundhati-Teesta-Shabana tribe

The Poor thing is getting anxious about "so much inequality everywhere"

"From a policy perspective, it is crucial that the attributes of disadvantaged groups are clearly and objectively determined. The interlocking of inequalities — cultural, social and economic — is evident. As such, there is a need for policies that do not put the challenges of recognition and of redistribution into separate boxes, but clearly address the areas of their overlap. A balance must be struck between the claims of sheer identity and those of palpable material deprivation."

A textbook example of how to spout utter garbage but make it sound intellectual and scary. Of course, her solution to inequality: even more inequality -- in terms of access and benefits.
These jhola-walis cannot seem to get it into their heads: the only reforms in India that have worked are those that have universally lowered access barriers.

But how can she? Blinded by Communism, she is!

Its surprising newspapers dedicate column space to this rubbish... guess anything with the name "Nehru" automatically finds its way into the news.

Older version cross-posted on www.rajeev2004.blogspot.com

Careful UPA -- your slip is showing

The UPA claimed to be interested in "development with a human face" in 2004.

Development, yes, but whos? This article points to the answer: Not the Farmer's.

With agribusiness hotting up, private players are establishing their own supply chains and offering higher prices to farmers for their produce.

Anyone with the "farmers' interest" in mind would welcome this development.

Not the Central Government.

The Central Government, clearly, is not concerned about the farmer.

Instead of allowing farmers to get higher returns, MMS and Co. will now force farmers to sell produce to the sarkar at lower prices than the market.

But then, the UPA is then doing only what its (time tested) Nehruvian Stalinist ideology says: rob the citizen and keep him poor, 'fix' him on an IV drip of doles and alms and control that drip!
Rob the farmer of a fair price, drive out competition and leave the poor farmer dependent on a drip of FCI-fixed prices.

Thank you Finance Minister for informing us of your intent to "help agriculture" in your '07 budget. Now we know who you're planning to help.

Terroristan and Cricket -- Woolmer murdered by team member?

The plot sickens.
Evidence has emerged that Woolmer did not die "of natural causes" but may in fact have been murdered.
The post mortem has revealed Woolmer's cervical vertebrae were fractured -- suggesting that he was strangulated. Given the circumstances, many are hypothesizing that this was an inside job.

My theory is this:
He was murdered by one of the rogues -- sorry, team members -- he tutored.
Which neatly explains why Pakistan lost and is now in an undue hurry to pack up and go home -- they want to be "home and dry" when the Jamaican Police come asking uncomfortable questions.

Reveals again the pathological mind of these fellows -- did I hear Peace Process?

Sharia imposed in Kashmir

Kashmir has fallen.
The state assembly has sanctioned the imposition of Sharia in the State.

See:
http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?gid=4&id=449812

With the exception of the Indian Penal Code, Kashmir is now outside Indian law, to be governed by Islamic Law. What of the Pandits, I wonder

Slippery slope? Thin edge of the wedge?

Reforms -- a means to an end

It’s been 30 months since I moved from the United States back to Mumbai to start my first real job. So it was with much excitement that I was looking forward to visiting the United States again.

The America I left in 2003 was swaggering and strutting, buoyed by the confidence of a rebounding post 9-11 economy (concerns about being "Bangalored" notwithstanding). It was also the America that had, with impressively little effort, pulverized the Taliban that had successfully kept the Soviet war machine busy for over a decade.

Against that memory, America 2007 felt palpably different to me. The swagger had given way to a shuffle –The war on terror in Afghanistan still lingered and continued to add to the body count. Worse, the invasion in Iraq had gone horribly wrong, costing billions and killing thousands of troops. Scanners, metal detectors, x-ray machines and ID checks were everywhere, constant reminders of the here-and-now nature of terrorism.

America had also suffered multiple domestic body blows. Katrina had severely shattered America’s confidence. As New Orleans plunged into sub-saharan African style anarchy, the world saw the soft underbelly of the sole superpower.

America’s vaunted healthcare system also seemed to be misfiring – with medicare bankruptcy within the next 10 years a real possibility.

Was this it, then? The beginning of end of the American century? The end of Pax Americana as we know it?

My guess is probably not – for while the damage was visible, what was also starting to show was an acceptance of the problem and a resurfacing of the “we shall overcome” spirit.

A store clerk in LA quipped to me that “The climate is changing, we’ve done something wrong and it aint what it used to be.” Another man noted how in his home town in Colorado, they had snow in February for the first time in over years.And it was not merely in words – for the first time I was seeing words like hybrids, low emissions, green housing and sustainable buildings in American newspapers. In general, the focus had shifted from an analysis of what is broken to what is needed to fix it. On healthcare too, the debate was rapidly shifting to systematically controlling costs and ensuring coverage. America seemed to be waking up and smelling the coffee.

I had noted this behaviour during my days in Boston in 2001-2003. Those were the days when Americans were afraid of being "Bangalored" -- their jobs vacuum cleaned to Indian shores. I remember Wipro’s Azim Premji having to take some tough questions at MIT in late 2003 (he dispatched them with panache).

The breast beating lasted all of a few weeks. The American people accepted it, hunkered down and began reskilling to live in an outsourceable world.

And then it struck me. America -- and Americans are a resilient lot.

They see change -- and adapting to it -- as a pre-requisite for continued prosperity and growth. For instance, America has taken to green technology not because it is "good for mother earth" but because sustainable energy usage is vital if America has to continue to enjoy economic growth and security.

It is this resilience, this willingness to change to reach a higher goal that has made America a leader among nations.

So what does all of this mean for a resurgent India?

Should a nation that is only just learning to sprint slow down to a shuffle again, as she was shuffling under the weight of the Nehruvian Penalty*?

Hardly. Like America, India too needs to realise that reforms are necessary to ensure future prosperity and security. There are plenty of "bumps" in the road India has chosen -- bumps that can prevent india from getting into her stride. It is in her best interest, therefore to remove these bumps.

One of the biggest bumps facing India are her dismal education system. If India has to leverage her much touted “demographic advantage” over China and continue growing for the next 50 years – her education system needs to be nursed to fitness pronto.

Murli Manohar Joshi may have missed the point by asking for IIM fees to be dropped, but Arjun Singh’s "Mandal 2" crusade and re-establishment of an educational license-raj, with the government as lord and master, can potentially nuke it to the dark ages.

To fix this problem, Indian education needs radical surgery. As a first step, we should shutter (ideally nuke) the Ministry of Human Resources. Second, we should liberalise education delivery and allow any player -- private, public or charitable -- to start educational institutes. Finally, to ensure standards are met and enforced, an independent regulator should be established. This regulator should be staffed by experts (not babus), and may be funded by levying nominal charges from all institutes and users to ensure impartiality. A supporting framework to finance education for the 'meritorious poor' will also be required to ensure that no one is left behind.

In addition to fixing the system, the content our system imparts needs to be reformed as well. Education needs to be freed from the clutches of the 4Ms (Marxists, Mullahs, Missionaries and Macaulay-followers). Issues like Article 30 of the Indian Constitution that exclude Hindus also need to be scrapped. All that is another story, for another entry.

Such educational reforms will not come without pain -- Indians have grown used to the concept of "nearly-free" education paid for by someone else's money. Migrating to a system where you have to pay for the education you get is not likely to be an easy transition. The biggest opposition is not likely to come from the sadharan Indian -- he already pays for sundry coaching classes and "donations". It is likely to come from the Marxists and the JNU types.

They should be ignored.

In sum, if India wants to become prosperous, she needs educated professionals. Paying for making those professionals is a key means to that end. Like the Americans say, there aint no free lunch!

With India going through ebullient times, then, reforms need to be hotfooted (not backpedalled as MMS and co. are doing) – the pain will be easier to bear.

And seriously, good times or bad, will anyone really miss Arjun Singh?

***

* Incorrectly known as the “Hindu rate of growth”. India's poor rate of growth from independence to the 80s is attributable to Nehru and his policies, neither of which were Hindu. The term is © Shadow Warrior; see rajeev2004.blogspot.com for more.

Mani Ratnam's guru -- lessons in wealth creation

After reading the rave reviews of Mani Ratnam’s latest opus, I was curious to see Guru. Like the reviewers, I came away moved by the movie on multiple levels: the acting, the refreshing and true-to-the-situation cinematography and the music.

But I was disappointed – by the reviews that is.

For all of them seem to have missed the main message of the movie: that for a nation like India, above everything else, wealth creation holds the key to poverty alleviation. A pertinent message, given that our so-called reformers are now back-pedalling quite a bit these days.

So, in my review about Guru , I will focus less on the fluff and more on the message. For starters, I will not refer to this movie as being “based upon the life of a leading Indian industrialist” -- for Mani Ratnam himself is clear that this movie is a tribute to the life of Dhirubhai Ambani.

And it is a very well made tribute -- with fantastic acting and cinematography.

Abhishek has finally come of age – from an awkward, wannabe Amitabh, who could do little more than scowl or leer at semi-naked ang-mo women (ang-mo is the Chinese equivalent of firangi and literally means person with red hair on his/her arms), he has matured and grown as an actor. He has detailed Guru richly and compellingly -- I particluarly like the peculiar style of laughing he deployed in the movie. Very impressive.

Aishwarya’s role is small, but she finally brings some intensity to her role and is extraordinarily comfortable with Abhishek; unsurprising, considering recent events. Madhavan too is good, but rather uni-dimensional. And of course, there is Mithun-da. The jholawala patrakaar, married to his ideology, unwilling to bend, no matter what the cost.

The cinematography and picturisation is also refreshing and remains true to Dhirubhai’s deeply traditional, Gujarati, Hindu roots. Where this is particularly evident is in the language – virtually all the dialogues are in Sanskritic Hindi, using rich, deeply Indic words. Guru bucks the trend in hindi movies to secularise and Arabise hindi with salaams, ishqs, mohabbats, subhanallahs, waqts, quams and what not.

What a relief.

But without doubt the most powerful message I got from the movie was this: A single Guru (or Dhirubhai) who creates wealth is a far greater nationalist than the entire army of brainwashed, self-loathing nehruvian stalinists could ever be.

By the end of the movie, I came away admiring Dhirubhai more and despising the socialist state even more.

Abhishek sums up the "Dhirubhai spirit" in the movie ... I am not interested in filling petrol cans all my life, I want to become rich. And yet, when I wanted to work hard and earn, I found all doors were closed to a poor man like me. And the doors had all been closed by people like you (pointing to the members of a government-headed commission). But I could not take no for an answer and was prepared to do whatever it took to open the door – if it needed to be kicked down, I did; if it needed a bribe I did that. Because i wanted to become rich.

And that was his crime. To the nehruvian socialist state, and its handmaiden – the socialist media – wanting to become rich was a crime.

You see, the socialist Indian state was never pro-poor, it was pro-poverty. It was never interested in alleviating poverty – it was only interested in perpetuating it. And that it did with impressive (and tragic) effectiveness.

In one scene in the movie, Madhavan (the reporter) attends the Shakti shareholders meeting to dig out news on how Guru’s company Shakti Corporation is breaking the law. The woman next to him – a middle-class gujarati housewife prods him to clap! She says with a gleam in her eyes that if India could produce 10 more gurus, poverty would be eliminated! Sheer music.

And that is why, to my mind, Guru is a nationalist, while the nehru-indira socialist state is not. Guru wants to lift himself and his community out of poverty – to grant it respect, to enable people to walk with their heads held high. The state, on the other hand is bent upon keeping people poor, reducing them to supplicants whom it condescends to save. All this while claiming to be concerned about them (Orwell would have been proud… remember war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength?).

A brief exchange in the movie drives this message home: en route to a judicial hearing, a shabby looking man confronts Guru on the court staircase. The man introduces himself as a taxi driver – who ferried passengers from Vadala to Churchgate. He informs Guru that he owns shares in Shakti – shares that allowed him to pay for his daughters' weddings.

For all its bluster and talks about social uplift from the 'commanding heights', the state’s elaborate machinery is outdone by one Guru’s wealth creation.

I could not hold back the tears.

Sale of Kashmir to continue

This is priceless -- under the able guidance of PM Dr. MMS, India's disinvestment plans are proceeding well. Kashmir is back on the sale block -- with Ghulam Nabi Azad exhorting the Pakistan Army to come and run his state for him.

The ISI and Pakistan Army must be salivating at this opportunity: despite staging war after war for over 50 years, they've been unsuccessful in wresting Kashmir from Indian hands.

Ghulam Nabi and Man-moron will now proceed to hand it over on a silver platter, surrounded with cress and seasoned with cash and God knows what else -- maybe even arms!

I suspect however, that the Pak Army will probably shoot Ghulam first for being treacherous and untrustworthy, not an altogether unwelcome event.
Bad apples can sometimes do good.


Azad for 'joint management' of J&K

Press Trust of India
Posted online: Thursday, January 04, 2007 at 1958 hours IST

From darkness lead me to light

Media led transformations -- Afzal Guru and Sanjay Dutt

As I was putting together the second short essay about our Prime Minister (Dr.) Man-Moron Singh, I noticed two interesting transformations occurring before me. And how the media and the public willingly suspended disbelief to allow that to happen.

The first was the transformation of Afzal Guru -- from a ruthless, cold-blooded, murderous Jihadi to a "family man".
It all started within minutes of the Supreme Court declaring Afzal Guru guilty and sentencing him to death. Predictably, the judgement stirred the tender sensibilities of India's conscience keepers (epitomised by folks like Prannoy Roy, pseudo-sec apologists, JNU-wallas, jhola-wallas, among others) . What we have here is a miscarriage of justice.
The Supreme Court had become Communal.

Communal.

The mention of that word was enough to send the media ballistic -- like a sniffer dog that had just found a huge cache of cocaine.

And the dog bared its fangs -- its sharpest, ugliest and most vicious fangs.

Enter Rajdeep Sardesai -- who humiliated and reduced to tears the families of the killed security folks, making it sound like it was their fault that Afzal Guru was given the death sentence.
Other enterprising TV channels had sound bytes of Afzal Guru's mother -- weeping that her son was innocent.

Barkha Dutt held the usual perfunctory debates, where the conclusion has already been drawn: India is "harsh on its minorities".

Arundhati Roy used the occasion to write another book that will earn her a handsome royalty and get her invitations to sundry "guest lectures" in Bush-whacked America where she can weep for the poor Afzal, along with other terror apologists.

After the fangs had torn into Indian minds, repeating "innocent" ad nauseam, Afzal Guru emerged... mysteriously... inevitably... inexorably... innocent.
The Government notes that it will take them 7 years to do something, as the utterly destroyed and demoralised families of the martyrs return their medals.

Truth by repeated assertion has worked its magic.

The other transformation was of Sanjay Dutt -- of a gangster into a 'man of peace'. Notice, how perfectly timed it all was... days after appealing for bail, Dutt visits a home for children with cancer.
Awww... how can this soft-hearted Gandhian be anything close to a terrorist?
A tragic study of how emotional positioning can be effectively used to gloss over real crimes.

In stark contrast stands another killer -- Manu Sharma. In reality, Manu's crime, though equally heinous, is a far smaller offense. Mr. Sharma has committed a single homicide, Afzal and Co are mass murderers. But Manu is getting skewered, and rightly so -- after all he has no communal or political card to play.

We used to learn as children the Sanskrit Sholka (from the Upanishads):

Tamaso ma jyotirgamaya (Go from darkness to light)
Asato ma sad gamaya (Go from untruth to the truth)
Mrutyormaa amrutam gamaya (Go from [this] place of death -- to immortality)
Om Shanti Shanti shanti (Let there be Peace, Peace, Peace)

I guess the time is ripe for a remix of this old meaningless couplet --
Go from light to darkness, from truth to untruth and from immortality to the mortal!

With an intelligentsia and media that has bartered its morals and its sense of right and wrong.

This truly is kaliyuga -- the end of living and the beginning of survival.

Man for all seasons -- Manmohan Singh (1)

Celebrating the achievements of PM (Dr.) Manmohan Singh

In early 2004, India heaved a collective sigh of relief. The people had spoken, and had shown the communal BJP-led NDA alliance the door.

Gone was the weak kneed Vajpayee (of the infamous Kargil debacle, and the famous Kandhar and bus trip successes), to be replaced by the strong and dynamic Manmohan Singh -- the man who unleashed liberalisation in india in 1991 (no, PV Narasimha Rao had nothing to do with it).

With India back in the hands of a man of integrity, vision and a clear roadmap for development (much like Nehru was), rapid development, elimination of all ills, culminating in superpower status are obvious outcomes. With India on her way to becoming a superpower by ... err sometime in the future (but don't worry, it will all happen very soon), many of her recent achievements have been ignored. This series of small essays is my attempt at filling that void.

Does Manmohan Singh deserve all the credit?

Success, as they say, has many fathers. Failure is an orphan.

So it is with Dr. Singh's successes.

Many have sprung from the woodwork to claim credit for our PM’s success. Some say… “aah it was the communists that forced ... err encouraged... him to do that”, or “Sonia madame must have said so” or “this is the peril of a coalition”.

This is blatantly unfair, for at least two reasons:

First: Manmohan Singh is the Prime Minster of India. This isn’t some badly run business we’re talking about: this is the Government of India, a well run ship with a clear strategy. Further, these are not petty gains but dramatic victories. In a well run organisation, none of these can happen without strong leadership.

Second: It is unfair to blame leaders for failures but look elsewhere to celebrate success. If Bush gets the blame for having trigger happy deputies (e.g. Rumsfeld?), Manmohan Singh must get credit for the achievements of his team.

This set of essays begins with foreign policy, where arguably, the successes have been most spectacular (though his achievements in the field of minority development, educational excellence may be considered equally dramatic).

First fix your neighbours: Successes in Foreign Policy

No single area captures the statesmanship of Our Prime Minister like his achievements in the field of Foreign Affairs. In particular, his handling of Pakistan, the United States of America and of China are worthy of celebration.

Highly successful sale of Indian security interests to Pakistan

Since being appointed PM (he was never elected, but what do people know about leadership?) Dr. Singh has superlatively handled our nasty neighbor, Pakistan. In his own inimitable style he has successfully cowed them into submission with the clever use of Independent India’s oldest weapons – unilateral concessions and kid gloves. The result of this has been spectacular: Pakistan’s largest domestic produce – international terrorism – is now flourishing and is being exported all over the world.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves here. So we will start from the beginning.

As a first gesture, on coming to power, Dr. Singh immediately scuttled POTA (Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act). POTA was a draconian legislation that had allegedly offended the human rights of several terrorists. Some say this was at the behest of the Leftists, Madame Sonia, others; but the rightful credit must go to the man in charge.

Dr. Singh then established a most innovative solution for reducing terror: forming a joint terrorism reduction network with Pakistan. Under this arrangement, India (the 'customer' of terrorism) will share evidence of terror activities with Pakistan (her supplier) . This knowledge sharing mechanisms will allow Pakistan to study evidence from successful and unsuccessful terrorist attacks, enabling key producers like the Pakistan army, the ISI and NGTO's (Non-Government Terrorist Organisations) to get a clear picture of why some attacks worked and others failed.

They will see for example, how foolish terrorists left behind evidence trails that allowed Indian police to trace them back to Pakistan. This information can then be used to refine the next wave of terror attacks, to wipe out innocent Indians more efficiently. This move will dramatically accelerate the development of Pakistan’s terrorism infrastructure; early results have been encouraging (vide infra).

Manmohan has ensured that these efforts for efficiency are not hampered by Indian red tape and bottlenecks that habitually obstruct economic activity. Several jobs are actively being created in India’s burgeoning activist industry to pressurise war-mongers like the Supreme Court, the President and the Police to cease and desist. The masterful clearance of Afzal Guru is iconic of this new thrust for efficiency. So, the more Afzal Gurus Pakistan can produce, the more India will allow them to prosper!

With this masterstroke, painted across a global canvas (India, Havana, elsewhere), Manmohan has bested Chamberlain in negotiating “peace in our lifetimes”, against a remarkably hostile enemy.

Given the time constraints, Dr. Singh had to move quickly, ignoring Parliament in the process. Which is fine: after all, decisive leadership never works on consensus!

See the following references for more details:

“Annual reports” on the robust growth of terrorism:

An encouraging 2004:

http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=32957

A better 2005:

http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=52485

A spectacular 2006:

http://www.expressindia.com/messages.php?newsid=75101

Pakistan can no longer conceal her glee and for the first time admits that this is a key business!

Man of action:

PM ignores prejudiced Police briefings (what do our Cops know? They’re lazy, corrupt and communal)

http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=74764&headline=7/11~Probe:~

Instead of indulging in this nonsense, the Mumbai police should think creatively and establish a joint “crime reduction commission”. Imagine how powerful that would be: the men in khaki and the sundry dons of Mumbai sitting across the table defeating crime! Alas our cops know nothing, and are lazy, corrupt and communal.

Making it happen in Havana: Manmohan’s masterstroke -- declaring Pakistan a victim of terrorism! The Poor things!

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20060925&fname=parthasarathy&sid=1

http://ia.rediff.com/news/2006/sep/18raman1.htm?q=np&file=.htm

Coming next: Towards a nuclear and bright India

If the masterly handling of Pakistan has demonstrated our Prime Minister’s intellect, the winning of the nuclear deal with America will demonstrate his thirst for success.

I will post this article over the next few days.

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