My IAS Interview

Date: 02-05-2008

Chairman Of the Board: Sri.K.S. Chalam (+4 other members)

The following interview proceedings are as far as could be recollected. It should be having 90% accuracy with respect to the questions asked and the answers given. The interview proceeded in a very cordial and smooth manner. All the members are gentlemen belong to the age group above 50 years. The interview was the fourth in the afternoon session

(At 4 pm Exactly)

Rajkamal: May I come in Sir?

Chairman: You can… Mr. Rajkamal..

Rajkamal: (As I approach the seat that is meant for me) Good Evening Sirs..

Chairman: Good Evening, take your seat..

Rajkamal: Thank you sir

CH: Rajkamal! Youre from IIT Madras! Didn’t you get any employment?

RK: Sir, I got placed in IOCL and…

CH: Didn’t like that job? Or….

RK: Sir, I got placed in FIITJEE, Delhi also..

CH: Then why didn’t you join the job?

RK: I have made up my mind that Civil Services is the career that I should go for and that’s why I didn’t join any…

CH: OK. You come from Kavali? There is a Minister from your place. Can you name?

RK: I think its Ms. Panabaka Lakhsmi and Mr. Anam Ramanarayana Reddy…
2^nd member: I think she has lost her ministership recently…

RK: Yes Sir, I too think she has..

CH: No, No.. (Opposed both of us) She is still there.

RK: Sorry Sir, I might have mistaken.

CH: Who is the Health minister then?

RK: Ms. Panabaka Lakshmi is actually the minister of state for Health Sir..

CH: Who is the Union Health minister?

RK: Its Mr. Anbumani Ramdoss

CH: Is he Doctor by profession?

RK: Yes Sir

CH: Are you sure?

RK: Yes Sir

CH: Which place he is from?

RK: I think he is from Tamil Nadu

CH: Are you Sure?

RK: Sir, from his name, I predicted.. He was in news in Tamil Nadu also..

CH: I am giving a clue.. His father is also a Ramdoss.. Now tell me is he from Tamil Nadu or Pandicherry?

RK: Sorry Sir, I am not sure..

CH: OK fine (He looked at one of the other 4 members and gave a sign to proceed)

1^st member: I can see that you have the hobbies of writing short stories and Organizing events and Dramatics etc.. Can we listen to any one of your story?

RK: Sure Sir, but I am afraid that it may take longer time…

1^st member: Its Ok (with smile) go ahead..

RK: I generally used to write short stories in my leisure time.. Now I am going to narrate an incident in my short story named “After that I have never Lied!”

1^st member: Good, go ahead..

RK: It’s the story of a man who lies thrice in his life and decides to never lie again… the first time he lies in this incident which occurs when he was a 11 year old boy… The scene is shifted to a railway track in the night and children of railway gangmen are playing near the railway track.. All the children will put 10 paise coins on the tracks and once the trains goes over them, the one whose 10 paise coin becomes bigger will be the winner… While playing there occurs a small fight between the Protagonist (hero is a 11 year old boy now) and his friend.. He calls our protagonist a timid fellow and says he is afraid of everything and anything…Then the protagonist takes it serious and says that he is ready for any challenge to prove his bravery… His opponent challenges him to stop the train will be approaching them in few seconds…! Then the protagonist tries all whatever he can try to stop it (by waiving his red shirt etc.. etc) and finally stops it.. Once the train is stopped near to them, the driver and other strong men came out of the train shouting… These children including our protagonist are very much afraid of this.. They are about to reach them… in that fraction of second the protagonist takes JUST TWO STEPS BACKWARD… it makes his opponent to stand closer to the train… Then one of those gentlemen approaching to beat the children finds out that the track behind the children
(just a few meters from where they are standing ) is derailed! So they Praise the opponent of the protagonist and takes him into their arms and praises him for saving the lives of so many people, including the minister traveling in the same train! All this happened in a matter of seconds.. The Protagonist is shocked and remains silent… In the coming episodes of the story, the opponent of the protagonist gets President’s medal and Scholarship for bravery (which should have actually belonged to the Protagonist!) And in later parts of his life he couldn’t be able to compete with his opponent due to the financial support he got.. After this he lies twice more in different stages of his life.. other scenes are also aimed this way to project the reality that lying sometimes hurts badly… directly… very badly…

(smile from the members, I felt it as an appreciation)

1^st member: That’s very good.. Your way of narration is appreciable

RK: Thank you Sir..

CH: Is that protagonist you, Mr. Rajkamal? (with a smile)

RK: No, Sir (with a smile)

1^st member: Tell me about Telangana Issue.. Tell whether it should be carved out of AP or not?

RK: No Sir, I don’t find any strong reason to bifurcate AP..

1^st member: Which place you belong to?

RK: I am from Coastal Andhra Sir.. Not from Telangana

CH: Is Nellore not a part of Rayalaseema?!

RK: Not really Sir.. Its infact considered as a part of Coastal Andhra..

CH: OK

1^st member: So you don’t have any stake in Telengana I guess, Right?

RK: No Sir

1^st member: Explain why do you think there is no need to bifurcate?

RK: First of all, the major issue of Telangana is underdevelopment esp in the agricultural sector. Its due to the lack of irrigation facilities. It is often being mentioned by the regional leaders that these waters are getting diverted into Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra from Telangana. But in reality the surface water level of these rivers is many feet below to that of the ground level. Hence they are going into sea unutilized. But now the Govt came up with new technology of mega lift irrigation schemes like Devadula, Pranahita-Chevella etc. It is estimated that these projects alone will irrigate nearly 40 lakh acres in Telangana region.

Apart from this educational backwardness is dealt with the existing region based reservations on the basis of local, non-local grounds. And there are plans to set up at least one university in every district of Telangana.

Also if there is an incidence of bifurcation then the new govt may go for peace talks with the Maoists. As we have already seen whenever the AP government takes a soft stance on Maoists and invites for talks, there is increase in Maoist activity in the state.

Since the bifurcation indicates the irreconcilability of….

1^st member: OK Mr. Rajkamal. Your from Chemistry background can you explain about the Russian Vaccum Bomb?

RK: Sorry Sir, I am not aware of the technology involved in it

1^st member: You might be aware of the latest development that the US Federal Bank decreased the bank rate by 25 basis points.

RK: Yes Sir

1^st member: Will there be any impact of that on India? If yes how?

RK: Sir, decreasing the bank rate pumps money into the US economy..

1^st membet: How?! If the bank rate is reduced then money is going to go out of the economy.. But your telling the reverse…

RK: Sorry Sir.. I mean in the Global perspective its true that money is going to come out of US. What I mean to say is, with reduction of the bank rate the domestic market of US will have more money supply which will help its finance sector to come out of the recession and other problems like sub-prime crisis etc. So the effect on India will be indirect and marginal.

1^st member: Alright, you have the other optional as Political Science and International Relations.. Did you observe the change of Indian Govt’s stance regarding Myanmar?

RK: Yes Sir, India was always sympathetic to the cause of Democracy and pro-democracy movements in Myanmar. But in last few years our stand has softened regarding our dealings with the military backed govt in Myanmar.
Might be India is constrained to take that stance now, as we are concerned about our security and the MBI gas pipeline which has to originate from Myanmar. As our external affairs minister clearly said regarding Myanmar that, India doesn’t want to export any ideology including democracy to any other country…

2^nd member: That’s true.. India need not have to export any ideology like the US’ good-governance clause etc. But instead of interfering don’t you think India should have put diplomatic pressure on Myanmar?

RK: Yes India has been putting enough pressure and recently the Military Govt too yielded a bit and assured steps for the restoration of democracy in the near future….

2^nd member: Thats ok, the Myanmar govt said that it will conduct free and fair elections and restore democracy by 2009, but it didn’t remove the ban on Ang san suukyi..

RK: Yes Sir, it might not be a gigantic step in the direction but can be seen as first step in the direction of democracy when the situation in Myanmar is concerned.

2^nd member: You know about ASEAN?

RK: Yes Sir, Association of South East Asian Nations

2^nd member: Tell me is Myanmar a member of it?

RK: Yes Sir

2^nd member: Are the ASEAN nations putting enough diplomatic pressure on Myanmar Govt regarding this issue?

RK: Yes Sir, I can recall that ASEAN summit of 2007 has ratified a charter for ASEAN nations which made ASEAN a rule based organization like that of the EU. And according to it democracy is also a necessary condition to hold the membership of ASEAN. So there is diplomatic pressure on Myanmar that it might lose its ASEAN status.

2^nd member: Fine.. Have you heard about the word hemtochemistry? (I heard it as femto)

RK: Sorry Sir, I am not aware of it..

2^nd member: It’s the study of chemistry of reactions occurring in the order of pico seconds.. Anyway What do you know about Har Gobind Khurana? What is his exact area of research? Exact area?

RK: He is one of the greatest Scientists India has produced and he got Nobel Prize too. His worked on Genetic engineering and DNA sequencing….

2^nd member: Your on the right track… explain clearly what is gene sequencing in a simple language?

RK: Sir, Our chromosomes are made of Strands of DNA (de oxy ribo nucleic acid) and there are specific sequences for these acids.. For example a person may have a repeating sequence as ATPPPTPAPTP or something like that.. based on the physical character of a person like decease etc, the scientists are trying to formulate certain patterns to decode them..

2^nd member: Ya that’s what Mr. Khurana did..

3^rd member: I can see that you have studied International Relations in your preparation. Indian International Policy is a complicated one to understand in detail. First of all tell me who is the architect of this?

RK: I think its Jawahar Lal Nehru sir. His ideas such as NAM, socialistic ideals etc shaped Indian Foreign Policy in the earlier days.

3^rd member: Fine.. What are the major changes you see in the today’s foreign policy compared to that of the 50s and 60s?

RK: Sir, right now there is an evident change. For example India’s Look East policy and constituting a Economic group in the ministry of external affairs and our relations with Israel etc. Today more than geopolitics, we are being guided by the geo-economics in this changed world order. Even China is an indication, though the boundary dispute is not settled, we are engaged in trade relations with China which was not a trend in the 50s and 60s where the political factors used to be important determinant.

3^rd member: Do you think steps are being taken in the right direction when it comes to solving the boundary dispute?

RK: Everyone thought after the 2005- “Political Parameters and Guiding Principles” agreement will pave the way for the end of the dispute. But now its trivial that China is opted out of it. Because according to the agreement none of the countries should exchange any populated areas on either side of the border regarding the settlement of boundary dispute and should not publicly claim for any such area.. but unfortunately China very recently again reiterated its pre-1988 stance by publicly announcing that Tawang which is a part of Arunachal Pradesh is a part of China!

3^rd member: Why do you think that has happened?

RK: Sir, India is always consistent when it comes to its foreign policy, example is its strict adherence to 2005 guidelines agreement. Where are China’s foreign policy is an unpredictable one!

(Members generally surprised!)

CH: Unpredictable??!!

RK: Yes Sir, China was very opportunistic when it comes to its national interest. For eg, it was soviet ally in the 50s but in mid 50s its departed due to the boundary dispute and leadership fight in communist world etc and in 70s it again got linked to US and the West, and again at the end of the cold war it proclaimed an independent foreign policy and market socialism

3^rd member: OK.. You being a student of political science, how will be looking into today’s news article that the Hon. Speaker suggested the names of 32 MPs to the Privilege Committee? What is it? What are its Powers? Before that give your stance, will you accept this move or oppose it? Since we talk of special privileges to the MPs.. Substantiate?

RK: Sir, I strongly support this move of the Hon. Speaker Because

In 2004, 2006 the budgets were passed without any voting on the demand for grants and I read in a magazine that 1 minute of Parliament’s time costs Rs. 26000 to the public exchequer. So the speaker’s initiative is justified.

3^rd member: So you say if necessary that is beyond a limit, they can even be suspended right?

RK: Yes Sir, I also suggest for an automatic extension scheme where in case if the house is disturbed for 5 days then there should be automatic extension of the house for 5 days as the duties of the legislature infact got increased..

3^rd member: OK

4^th member: You have studied International Relations and just now said something about the China- India relations.. Tell me why it happened so? At once till 1954 we (means China and India) were very good friends with slogans Chini-China etc.. What happened to Panchsheel? First of all tell me what is panchsheel?

RK: (thought for 10 secs) Panchsheel represents “ Peaceful coexistence, mutual respect, mutual non- aggression, equality as the fundamental values between two nations”

4^th member: You think Indian foreign policy is still guided by these ideals?

RK: Yes Sir, to a large extent.. India has been very consistent when it comes to its foreign policy. Even now these ideals are respected but India diversifying its base of foreign policy by being forced to act according to the constraints.

4^th member: After the war, Indian relations are constrained with China for long.. Nearly 20 years there were no diplomatic relations. Who actually took the intiative for the dialogue?

RK: Sir, its Rajiv Gandhi’s visit of 1988 which actually brought back diplomatic ties with China. I do also recollect that Dr. K.R.Naryanan too made a visit in the level of vice president to China..

4^th member: Whats the exact agreement? Can you name it?

RK: Sir, I don’t exactly recollect it.. I read it as LUMA or MUMA declaration.. I am not sure.. (Its actually MUMA)

4^th member: Its alright, tell me is there any change in the policy of India in that agreement esp regarding the boundary dispute?

RK: Yes Sir, the boundary issue was perceived to be a sensitive issue and tried to establish other relations with China without over focusing on boundary issue alone.

4^th member: You have seen the emergence of coalition politics in India. You might have seen the 5 years rule of NDA lead by BJP and nearly another 5 years by the current UPA.. Bring out the differences between these two coalitions?

RK: Sir if you ask me to differentiate on the lines of ideology….

4^th member: Ya.. there are ideological differences between these two but apart from them did you find any other major difference in their functioning?

RK: Sir when it comes to the positives, NDA should be really appreciated for their contribution to the field of external relations. Esp many initiatives lead by Vajpayee are extraordinary, like the visit to China and new look east policy etc. Where as UPA trying its best to maintain their good work and focus on agricultural sector is an appreciable dimension of UPA, like the debt waiver of Rs. 60000 Crores to the small and marginal farmers. Apart from that the growth scenario is good with India recording an average 8%+ growth in last 3 years.

4^th member: Can you name the country that is formed in the 70s?

RK: Bangladesh

4^th member: Tell me how its formed? We know that its formed because of internal fights in Pakistan.. But what is India role there? Do you justify this interventionist role of Mrs. Indira Gandhi?

RK: Its true that India intervened but its not out of choice but because of the prevailing situations

4^th member: like?

RK: Infiltration problem, humanitarian crisis…

4^th member: We could have controlled this through our army without allowing people to come into India.. then why to intervene?

RK: No Sir, the problem went out of hand and India was constrained to take the step that is military initiative

4^th member: can you tell the name that was given to the army?

RK: Is it during the Bangladesh War Sir?

4^th member: Ya

RK: (thinking…)

CH(with a smile):OK Mr. Rajkamal, you can take leave

RK: Thank you sir, Thank you all.

(By the time I left the room, it was 4.27pm, I was concerned that the interview got over so early!)

Broken backbone... One suicide every eight hours

July 2006 --> 99

Aug 2006 --> 111

Sept 2006 --> 132

Oct 2006--> 128

Nov 2006--> 114

Dec 2006 --> 107

Jan 2007--> 82

Feb 2007--> 87

Mar 2007--> 83

Apr 2007--> 79 ( first 20 days)

(all above relates to number of farmer suicides in 6 districts of Vidarbha)

1,11,000 farmer suicides in India during 1993-2006...(admitted by Hon. Union minister of Agriculture in parliament)

Eliminate poverty not the poor...

On March 9th India celebrated the fact that, according to the latest figures released by Forbes magazine, more billionaires call it home than any other Asian nation, an honour held by Japan for the last two decades.

Being Indian that made me happy, but only so much. March also saw a spate of farmer suicides across the country, something that has been going on for a while in the nation’s rural villages, some worse affected than the others. In India, unfortunately, one becomes immune to the harsh disparities between the rich and the poor, but this contrast was a little too stark for me. The rich had just got richer and more numerous while desperate debt-ridden farmers were killing themselves by drinking the pesticides meant for their crops.

The official figure for the number of suicides in the past five years is about eleven thousand, and alarming as that is, the real figure, it seems, is much higher, closer to twenty thousand(in Vidarbha alone!). Last July the Prime Minister toured the worst hit regions and announced a relief package of 3750 crores. Out of this, about 2200 crores was to be spent on existing irrigation projects, but nine months later that has yet to happen. So the money meant for the farmers has yet to reach them and they continue to kill themselves in droves.

The two important factors that decide the fate of a farmer are

• Getting remunerative price for his/her produce
• Availability of timely and adequate credit at reasonable rates of interest

These two factors are very important and essential for his living and to invest on his crops in the right farming season. If we try to list out the problems generally faced by Indian farmers:

1. Overdependence on monsoons
2. Landlords and land tenure rules
3. Money lenders
4. Price of produce is always less than remunerative price
5. Other problems

Today we all should be proud of the fact that Indian economy grew at an average rate of 7.8 in the 10^th plan. Last three financial years it’s as high as 9%. But agriculture sector grew at a rate of 2.5% which is much less than the target of 4% [ofcourse farmer suicides increasing at a rate of 3.9% every year ! Govt'(s') achievement!]

When we think Indian agriculture is a risky area to invest (considering its climatic conditions and average rainfall) we may tend to think that Agriculture has to be ignored… Its true.. An its happening all time. For an example (not personally blaming anyone but tried to show how a responsible minister is behaving when vidarbha’s farmer farmer death toll is increasing). Mr. Sharad Pawar did not dare to go to Vidarbha and address cotton farmers ever since he took over as the agriculture minister of the country, even though he did go to Nagpur before the BCCI elections (ostensibly to draft his strategy for the elections of the richest cricket body).

If we look at the kind of comments our young friends (fellow citzens) make:

• Macha.. these give up farmers are useless... they never change.. old methods.. poor skills.. waste of time talking about them!
• Hey... nobody can save them.. corrupted politics.. corrupted bureaucracy.. we should privatise everything... allow private large farm holdings like US..
• Kill them da.. let them die.. they really suck our economy and because of them our economy couldnt beat China.. we should import all food grains from other countries at cheaper prices than spending on these sucking Indian farmers...
  
• Mama... who bothers.. lets talk of Cricket or movies...

Iam sorry to say that I have come across comments worse than these. Few people shed their useless tears and give immediate statements that they will change everything (how can they change people when they dont understand their position and the reasons for their problems?)

Suicides are just an underlining aspect of the Vidarbha's agriculture crisis, and not the only. The farm crisis is about much more than that. It's about an inequality that breeds exploitation and legitimises oppression. It's about the state slowly withdrawing itself from its bounden responsibility for the welfare of all people, lower castes, tribes, and poor. And it's about the state's withdrawal from essential sectors – water, power and a fostering a climate for sustained employment -- to name a few. It is not just the number of farm-related suicides that is mind-boggling. And the way the governments have reacted – or not reacted – to the situation is equally baffling.

But ignoring agriculture and agrarian crisis may have a very bad impact on the social system. To name a few:

• Expansion of threats to Internal security (Naxalite movement)
• Enlarging rural-urban divide
• If we over depend on import of food grains... then our enemies need not throw nuclear bombs to kill us but freezing our food imports will kill millions of us.. thats why term it as "Food security"
  
• Jobless and Joyless economic growth to 50% population
• Food scarcity a threat to Sovereignty of the nation and its Foreign policy will be directed by the countries from where we import food grains!

Coming to the issue regarding the deaths of farmers in Vidarbha region (Ref: Hindu and other national dailies) the main cause is “Inability of the farmer to bear the heavy burden of debt due to declining prices of cotton” Rs. 2500 per quintal is the cost of production but price is Rs. 1700 per quintal! And the monthly death tolls reached staggering 3 digit numbers… This made the Prime Minister visit the region on July 2007.

PM Visit July 2006: big comedy !

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced several incentives for the six worst drought-hit districts of Maharashtra including waiver of Rs 712 crore overdue interests and rescheduling of Rs 1,300 crore agricultural credit over 3-5 years with one year moratorium. The government would also set up an expert group in the next few days to look into the problem of rural indebtedness in its totality, he told reporters after visiting the drought hit areas of Vidharbha. The group is expected to submit its report with three months, he said, adding that based on the recommendations, the government will take effective measures to deal with problems of farming community. The six districts are Amaravati, Akola, Washim, Buldhana, Yavatmal and Wardha. Prime Minister also announced an additional flow of Rs 1,275 crore agriculture credit for 2006-07 for the six affected areas and special teams would be deputed from NABARD for the purpose.

"We are also allocating Rs 2,177 crore from the Centre for the completion of major, medium and minor irrigation projects in the six districts over the next three years," Singh said. He said waiver of the interest overdue till June 30 this year will provide immediate relief to the farmers who would be able to take fresh loans. Replying to questions, he said there are problems of low productivity, of unremunerative prices. "We will look at it if there is a need to change the policy...we will modify them," he said.

The Prime Minister also announced a Rs 180 crore programme for providing new cotton seeds to the farmers. He also decided to provide a package of Rs 240 crore for water harvesting and construction of check dams in these districts. The package is estimated at around Rs 3,750 crore including payment of Rs 50 lakh each of the six districts under the district collectors for providing immediate assistance for the affected families.

Prime Minister also announced a sum of Rs 240 crore for water harvesting and construction of check dams in the affected districts.

If we look at the death tolls in 2006 they are like: July- 99, August- 111, Sept- 132, Oct- 128 and after PM’s package announcement: Nov- 114, Dec- 107, Jan- 82. This made the government happy and the officials claim that the numbers are decreasing.. But in Feb- 87, Mar- 83 (Hindustan times) farmers committed suicide which clearly shows that the PM package gave a temporary relief but not the much needed permanent one. Also many journalists criticize the Government for ‘falsifying’ the definition of suicide as only the death of a male landowner is considered suicide whereas that of a female landowner and noticeably that of a land laborer is not a suicide!!

The reasons for the failure of PM package (Failure in providing permanent relief)

• Concentration on peripheral measures but not on core issues

( E.g.: 2200 Crore for irrigation projects in PM relief )

• Credit flow is very much constrained and administrative barriers

What can be done??? Is there any solution???

If you were made PM {!} WHAT WILL YOU DO?

RAJ's fire fighting measures ( my suggestions ) to address the grievances of suffering farmers:

1. Waiveoff all farm loans across the country (Burden is estimated 40000 Crores as mentioned by renowned columnists, which is far less than the burden due to 6th Pay revision commission !)
2. If waiving off all loans is not possible then at least loans below a certain amount can be waived off.
3. Adequate short and long term credit available within a week of applying for loan
4. Role of individual and institutional middlemen should be ruthlessly curbed
5. Government should not bend to the impositions of WTO and should continue giving subsidies to our farmers to protect them from falling international prices for agricultural commodities.

Measures of this kind are much needed in this situation as the unrest is turning into violent agitation which is of course threat for the integrity of our nation. Some examples for my argument are:

• Increasing death toll in Vidarbha, AP, MP and everywhere
• Jarkhand MP shot dead in March.. tomorrow it may be our CM or CoM !
  
• 54 people (including 22 policemen) shot dead by a Naxal group in Chattisgarh!
• Suicide deaths are now spreading to other crops paddy, onion etc
• Suicide mortality rate indicators are threatening the observers! Especially Maharashtra (which of course is the state that has the financial capital of India)
• May lead to political instability and people may lose their faith on democratic ideals of this great nation.
• Beware.... Maoists took (indirect) control in Nepal.. Parliamentary panel headed by Smt. Sushma swaraj said that there are 8000 well trained and armed maoists are living in our country....

Farmer is described as the backbone of our country. But today we no longer have a strong backbone but a broken one... This dying farmer needs a major surgery. Its already late...

( I thank Dr. Malathy (economics) and Dr. Subramanyam (German studies and Political philosophy) of Department of Humanities, IIT Madras for their constant encouragement and criticism on my articles, especially those on Indian agriculture. Please leave your comments and suggestions... )

Indian Rules... Do they really RULEus?

(Dear readers, this is an article I wrote for Bharati, a campus magazine of IIT Madras in 2004. You can observe the element of immaturity and the quest for immediate change of the system in my words. This is my second article in Bharati, first one was about corruption which will be posted here soon)

I still remember the days when I was asked to kneel down by my teacher for coming to the class without shoes. I was nine that time. One night I asked my mother why such a big punishment for such a small crime. She consoled me and told me that all these punishments are to shape me into a perfect individual and a good citizen. Then it was rules in school. But now, it is rules in the society and rules regarding religious practices. Ideally, these rules are trying to teach discipline and a moral code of conduct. Though the intention behind these rules is public order, today they are not serving their purpose much!

For example, take a contemporary issue like ragging.

Though many people quote, ragging is an effective means to communicate with the seniors, it was worse in many incidents and infact worst in many other incidents. We witnessed such an incident in Anna University, when a medico accidentally killed his junior student when he was ragging him. Poor senior doesn’t know what to do and he finally cut the dead body into pieces and threw it in all corners of Chennai!! Finally the Police caught the medico and the court gave a severe punishment to him and the Government passed a law and made a rule which says “ ragging is a non-bailable offence and the punishment is minimum three years of imprisonment”

Great !! The crime rate came down ! There were number of ragging and eve-teasing cases filed in the Police stations before this law was introduced. But now there is not even one ragging case in Chennai ! Does that mean the ragging stopped in Chennai colleges?! The reply is an absolute ‘NO’…. The rule is too excessive for a student. We know that every odd-semester IIT has a tradtition to open with a ragging incident. Followed by Dean(St.)'s spying in the hostels. Is IIT not in Chennai? Then why are the Chennai Rules not applicable to IIT?? Its not just in the case of IIT but all the institutions trying to save their students from such a dirty punishment. No institution is ready to spoil the career of its students. So no ragging cases in the court ! Did the legislation work?? Did the rule stop ragging? Then what is the use of such an excessive rule??

Inside the campus of any educational institution drinking(obviously alcohol) is strictly prohibited. But there is no need to tell you what happens in our hostels. The wardens are so much concerned about the alcohol flow in the hostels! In a campus where even driving a powered vehicle is considered a crime, is the alcohol flow justified?? Here I am not just complaining, but trying to expose the imperfections in the system, and the failure of our rule based mechanism to fulfill their duty.

Coming to the point that rules can shape an individual’s character, there is always a compromise in our society.

Indian Constitution gave a special status to our Fundamental Rights, at the same time it expects its citizens to fulfill some Fundamental Duties. These duties work as the moral code for a citizen. Interestingly, some Fundamental Duties are very simple, like respecting the nation, flag, constitution etc. But the true spirit of our constitution expects each one of us to love our nation. Is that so simple?!!

Today many of us are not happy with the nation!

They have many reasons to feel ashamed of being Indians!

Lets go through them,

Old — “Indian Youth is irresponsible, they don’t know anything.

Though we know, we don’t have strength”

Young— “We are unemployed and there is no hope in this

Corrupt country, and the aged will always restrict us”

A religious minority— “It’s a Hindu dominated country. We are

insecure and ignored by the governments”

A low caste community— “We are suppressed by the higher castes

and we are facing discrimination in

the country”

A high caste community— “As long as reservations are present in

the system, India cannot develop.

Reservations should be cancelled”

Great reasons!! I am not going to the aspect of criticizing their views and I am not going to judge whether they are right or wrong. But its true that at least large section of these groups have these ideas. Is this the way a true Indian’s thinking process should go??

When a child is brought up by their parents in such a disciplined environment, why are they behaving like this when they grew older? It is their parental views which are imposed on them. When education, society and parents cannot shape the character of an individual, what is the need of rules in the society?

Why the teacher should punish a student for not wearing shoes or not wearing a tie?!! Uniform?! When the society in which he lives, is not uniform, is it necessary to punish him for not wearing shoes?!. We see in many cases a drunkard punishing his son for being a drunkard.

Our parents and our educational system should teach us how to love the nation, and how to treat fellow Indian. They should not impose their feelings and views in our hearts. Last but not least rules should not be excessive. Because we have seen that excessive rules will never serve their purpose they are intended to. Still we have our reputation as Indians in changing ourselves slowly… Can we expect a change atleast now???

GLOBALIZATION and STATE

Dear readers..
recently when I came across the review of a book in The Hindu, I was very much interested in the title of the book, which reads as JIHAD Vs Mc WORLD by Benjamin Barber. Then I thought of the future of the STATE in coming days.. There were some very interesting topics which promted me to post this article which has my own views about the future of the nation-state in the globalization era..

what is globalization?
the bookish definition says it is "the intensification of economic, political and cultural relations across the borders"

It is indeed true that globalization is primarily an economic phenonmenon and expectedly, it occupies the headlines of financial and trade journals and newspapers. But the difinition presented above refer it to its political and cultural aspects. More recent literature on globalization may be considered as its second wave, and it is the critical wave.. Economists as well as political scientists, third world intellectuals as well as many American, European scholars with known leftist commitment along with those who have no distinct ideological position - all joining in the chorus of ambivalence and apprehension towards the outright rejection of, globalization and its world view...

John Rapley a famous political economist, having made a brief but incisive study of the rise and fall of various development theories in the past fifty years, finds in his highly readable book that structural adjustment has widely varied in its results. While Latin America has benefitted, Africa has not!
Besides this, Neo-classical theory has raised a moral question.... for SAPs (Structural Adjustment Policies) "worsened the plight of the poor and deepened injustices in the Third world societies"...... VALID Question I feel.. isn't it?
Undoubtably SAPs lead to the march of 'structural resubordination of the South to the North' through the dismantling of the economic role of the state.

What is a nation-state??
According to Cambridge Adv. Dictionary nation-state is "an independent country with a 'single' large group of people all sharing SAME religion, language, traditions, history etc..."
then.. is India a nation-state?!
theoretically NO.. not only India.. Nation-states never exist except in the case of few European nation-states.. but still every nation wants itself to be called a nation-state...More than the above stated uniform religion, language etc, the most important factor is to have a common culture.. of course political culture too..
The real challenge is to build such nation-states..

now our central idea is to investigate on the following question..
What does globalization mean for the nation-state?
Globalization has two principle aspects: global organization of production, global finance.. In this view, economic globalization places ' constraints upon the autonomy of states' so much so that increasingly the expression 'national economy' would become meaningless!!! So globalization implies not only a 'borderless world' but infact 'the end of the nation-state'. This threat to nation-state may reinforce the disintegrative tendencies within the existing nation-states... so we may have to see many Yugoslavias, Srilankas in future...(of course yugoslavia's crisis has very less economic reasons, I am just mentioning about its disintegration)

I can see that the dialect of "globalism and localism" has been captured by Barber in terms of "Jihad vs. McWorld."
Jihad- aim is to retribalization of mankind by war and bloodshed....
McWorld- fast music, fast computers, fast food, MTV, Mc Donald's....
I feel McWorld is the other name for globalized world.
If we analyse the ancient capitalist economy, products are manufactured and sold for profit to meet the demand of consumers. But in post-modern capitalist economy, needs are manufactured to meet the supply of producers! Hope you got my point.
"Consumer sales depend on the habits and behaviours of consumers, so these habits should be changed for better marketing!" This is the main objective of multi-billion dollar global advertizing industry... Isn't it??? See my analysis...
Tea drinkers are improbable prospects for Coke sales
Long-lunch traditions abstruct the development of fast food franchises
Highly developed public transportation system lessens the automobile sales
Agricultural life-styles wont encourage TV watching
Health campaigns hurt tobacco sales
People uninterested in sports buy fewer athletic shoes
moral logic contradicts with economic logic!
Can responsible corporate managers then afford to be anything other htan immoral advocates of sybaritism?? So the logic of globalization is homogenization of needs, attitudes and values also!!!
It will not respect nations, frontiers, national culture nor even citizenship... Individuals are only consumers in a global market. Only freedom they have is to "choose the toppings" ...!
If I summarize all my views..
First: Building of nation-sates and national morale will be affected.
second: promotes disunity, tribalism and leads to reverse process of nation-destroying.
third: general withdrawal of the state from intervention in the economy proves very costly for social justice and equality.
forth: its a process of universalizing its own values, wants, attitudes, tastes etc.. Homogenising the world... Culturally speaking globalization means Westernization or rather Americanization!
fifth: it doesnt respect civil rights,civil society nor democracy! It recognises only market.. All it wants is to create more consumers to meet the supply!

One can come up with many arguements against my ideas stated above.. Let me look at them also.. Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Saudi Arabaia, China are also modernizing.. yet these are not westernizing.... and interactions and borrowings between civilizations have always taken place..for example Chinese absorption of Buddhism from India... so globalization has a positive end....(???????????)
As I can see these are few possible questions that one can ask against my views..
Let me give the explanation for such ideas that generate in our mind..
Yes I accept that there was tradition of interaction and borrowing between civilizations.. But the "chances of survival" of the borrwer nation only when these interactions based on free choice.. States must be able to choose more than "toppings".. Chinese absorption of Buddhism from India is standard example of free and fair interaction.. Also ... remember that "Buddhism was not packaged and sent in the drest of billion dollar ad campaign from India!"

Most of the people who preach for globalization fails to understand that Third world people especially in South Asia are more interested to " satisfice" than to maximize.. Asians do either as a matter of principle or habit or situational necessity. So the kind of consumerism found in western world (esp US) is very unlikely to appear in South Aisa.

The final question is... if globalization leads to development, it is development for whom??
Who will limit the increasing inequalities?
Who will guarantee some fairness in the distribution of fruits of growth??
Who will decide what to export, what to import, which sectors to encourage native enterprise??
Who will prevent the citizens from being transformed into consumers?
Who will stop the devastation of values???

Half a century of decolonization has taught us dangers of separatist tendencies... All our great leaders of Indian freedom struggle did their best to unite the people of the country in the name of nationalism and cultural identity and many sacrificed their lives in doing so...
They dreamt of an India which is still a dream..
Still that INDIA is visible in our Constitution... (Art. 36 - 51)
The Directive Principles of State Policy(DPSP) to create a state which has social and economic democracy in addition to political democracy...
But those ideals are just on the paper today....

NOTE:
(For those who say that the poverty came down after the globalization process, my next article will address those questions with required statistics)

(Dont confuse Globalization with Liberalization)