Economic crisis---Political crisis-----Humanitarian crisis

The economic crisis, we are going through is the toughest one people of my age would have seen till now. It all started with the boom in the real estate and the bank outsourced its home loan business to a set of companies which acts as middle men between the banks and the public. And during the real estate boom these people invited another set of financial institutions to the dinner namely the insurance companies. The insurance companies offered policies which will repay the loans in case the public defaulted. Since the middle men didn't check the credibility of the public before issuing the loans the public were not able to repay the loans when there was an increase in the interest rate. Hereon it cascaded one upon another exposing all the institutions coming on the way. First the mortgage lenders followed by the banks dealing with the mortgage lenders and then the insurance companies due to their high risk policies issued to the banks.

Earlier a single bank had billions of dollars but now all the dollars is in the form of land/buildings which is not worth that much. A single bank holding billions of dollars got diluted leading to the liquidity crisis and started to fail one next to another. Meanwhile there were job loss making the consumer  cautious about the future hence lowering the confidence level in spending. So there are new phones in the market but no one to buy, new furniture's but no one to buy so on and so forth. This exposed all the tech companies, infrastructure companies etc to the sub-prime crisis which was no way fault of theirs but that is nature it takes everything along with it.

But is it the time to worry? not at all as this might have a catastrophic effect. Time is still not far, it might very well lead to a humanitarian crisis since many people are out of jobs and hence adequate actions must be taken.

It is not the moment to worry rather it is the moment to take this crisis as an opportunity and show the true talent and be a leader leading the world to come out of it. I always believe there is nothing challenging to raise the profit level from 10% to 12% but it requires a courage, it needs a dedicated individual, it needs the spirit to believe that nothing is permanent: rise and fall are just nature it is just for the individual to decide when to board the bus and make sure to drive the bus to the destination. 

Economic crisis is not an end it is just a beginning which shows us the future....

Seeing sunrise or sunset is just a perception as the sun never rises nor sets.....

JJism

AIADMK joins hands with CPI(M). What to say on this event? There was an intense media speculation that ADMK might join hands with BJP. But what happened was the exact opposite, nevertheless it might so happen that ADMK might joins hands with BJP post election, if BJP comes to power at the center and if it needs ADMK to have a majority. You might never know.....

Terrorist did make a mistake...

People who are aware or who closely followed 26/11 Mumbai attacks might suddenly erupt in disagreement with the title of the blog.

No, I didn't make any mistake in choosing the title. The terrorist did make a mistake. To elaborate on the mistake it needs an understanding of the Indian political class and the media which gave a complete coverage. 

Everybody knows about the July serial train bomb blast at Mumbai in 2006, it killed around the same number and in fact the co-ordination was breathtaking. All bombs exploded within minutes fanned out in all directions. Still the response from the government is asking the people to restrain from fanning out their anger. The media lauded on the spirit of Mumbai. The PM as usual said the perpetrators will be sternly dealt with. He continued saying that the terrorist wont be able to deter the confidence building measure etc etc and all such bull shit is heard from the Media and the political class during the Mumbai train bombing.

Pressing a fast-forward button: now 26/11 attacks, though the response of the government after the terror incident is laudable nevertheless the reason for such a response from the political class and the media should be introspected. The government now taking several steps from sacking the HM to the CM of Maharastra, why it didn't do the same when July 11 bombing happened. 

It is because what happened on July 11 is killing some X and Y whereas now it is killing "the elite". Media says they have bombed the icon of Mumbai. I ask, do the buildings make Mumbai what it is or the people who live there? Media says the government didn't protect ordinary citizens. It is the same government which is ruling for the past 4 years:where did the media go? Why did the media didn't ask such questions when there were continuously several attacks in India? It is because who died now are the very person who they have dinner with, they are the persons whom the media constantly interviews. 

Let us for a moment forget the role of the media, as they might have their own "compulsions". Let us see how the political class reacted, reacts etc. The elite in the Government say in a news channel "there is a considerable anger amongst the public so the Govt should act" I ask, should this be a response from the political class? Should their action be determined by the public opinion or by national interest? Should they not feel they are not able to protect the public even when a single Indian dies? Rather see the political response: "there is a considerable anger amongst the public so the Govt should act"

I say, the action by the government shouldn't be determined by the public anger it should be determined by the national interest. If they have acted on July 11th 2006, what happened on 26th could have been prevented. If they have acted on July 11th 2006, what happened so far to India and its citizens could have been prevented. 

Even a person of the lowest IQ can say, if you are not going to remove the weed when it is a bud then it is difficult to remove when it has grown up. And that is what has happened to India. Terror not removed in the bud, has spread. During the growth killed several Indians and at last it took a strike on Taj (unfortunately not the killing of the Indian people) for the political class to understand that Terror is bigger than what they have thought. They understood that it can destroy the very restaurant they liked the most, it can destroy the happening place in the city where their children hang around...... Hence I reiterate, terrorist striking on Taj ( and not just killing people)  did make a mistake . 

Danger unprecedented....

I dont know how many Indians are aware of the present situation at J&K, most of the them feel J&K is always on turmoil and try to neglect the present situation as another turmoil. Yes, it is understandable from a common people standpoint as they have other bigger problems in life, but having similar myopic response from our political class is appaling.



It is necessary to give a short summary on what caused the present situation and why it is different from other "bandh" or other "terrorist activities" which was happenening everyday in J&K. It all started in the allocation of land to Amarnath Mandir. The amarnath shrine board decided to allot 40 hectare of land from the welfare of the pilgrims visiting to Amarnath cave. And it asked for consent to the J&K govt and the govt went ahead with the allotment. And this was seen by the terrorist as an intrusion into the J&K land and which might lead to the demographic change in the J&K. When the govt met violent protest from the Kashmir valley as usual the govt caved in and cancelled the allotment of land to Amarnath yatra.



And this whole episode led to the fuming of the pandit community who are predominantly present in Jammu region (at this point it is worth mentioning the fact the J&K is always seen as a Muslim majority area, though true in one sense but the demographic distribution of Hindu and Muslim is not uniformly distributed in the whole of J&K region, the Kashmir valley has a Muslim majority , Jammu region has a predominant Hindu majority and the Ladakh has a Buddist/Hindu region), thus the Hindu majority at Jammu region saw the cancellation as subjugation of the rights of the Hindu people (which is not only happening in J&K but in some cases throughout India) leading to a violent protest by the Hindu people in the Jammu region.



The Hindu Jammu region went out fully and they blocked the Srinagar NH. This blockade lead to the unprecedented economic repercussions in the Kashmir valley, as they are not able to sell the goods to the rest of India and likewise not able to receive any goods. I hope now one might get the feel of how grave the situation is, there were several terrorist activities in the J&K region before, but never the clashes were so communal. Hope this clash doesn't spill over the rest of India into a yet another communal division.

We learn from classes, "Experience makes a Human perfect provided he or she learns from the past". Does our political class hear this? Did they not see what happened due to the pathetic govt policies in Shah Bano case or during the Ayodhya movement? Hope the govt takes swift action before the terrorist highjack the issue...

Myth about Communism

In this post I have tried give an analogy about the thought porcess of present day "Commies".

Once there was a well dressed person going around the streets of the Moscow. He was wearing a suit, tie and as any westerner wore a hat too. When he was wandering around the street he came across workers who were repairing the roads, the well dressed person found that the working condition were pathetic, there were no proper tools nor any protection for the workers and the workers were in a very bad shape. He came near to the workers and introduced himself, " I am Karl Marx, I see that your working condition is pathetic, why not ask your head for proper tools and proper protection equipments"

For which the worker replied:" Yes we constantly make requests to our head but he hardly cares about it. By the way you said, you are Karl Marx? I cant believe you are Karl Marx and you can never be, as he will be dressed like one of us and you look healthy which means that you cant be Karl Marx"

For which Karl Marx replied:"Yes, I am Karl Marx, I am the one who propelled the cause for the proletariat. I am trying hard, to uplift all of you to my status and not the other way round".

I guess this is exactly what many "commies" should try to understand. The communist party should uplift the social status of the working class and thereby attaining equality rather bringing the upper class people to the working class level.

I would like to thank Dara bayat, my colleague during my masters who gave this interesting analogy while we were discussing Communism:Past, present and Future.

Pillars of Indian constitution

A small digression from the earlier post on the different ideologies. Lately I have being doing a lot reading on the various fundamental aspects of Indian constitution, this is mainly inspired by my quest to understand the very stratum of the Indian constitution.

As many might know I pursue a doctorate degree and one should not misunderstand that doctorate degree is a kind of advanced research on a particular topic rather it is during this time the doctorate student revisits the fundamental question which many of us take for granted. In the due course of this enlightenment it might so happen there might be a new path in solving a problem and with this people earn there degree (hopefully).

I made this anecdote to justify my quest to understand the fundamental pillars of the Indian society. It is based on this learning ; I write my below observations.

Many of us would have underwent a not so rigorous course on civics in the early part of their school days. In this many would have learnt that Indian government is based on three pillars namely the executive, legislature and the Judiciary. I learnt this in my class too but never thought about its respective functions for I wasn't aware of its importance. But once after the time I was interested in pursuing my carrier in civil services I pondered over these topics and asked the question which seemed very fundamental to me, like what are functions of a MLA, an IAS officer, a local councillor and ofcourse the MP. (Though I didn't walk in the direction of the civil service which is a totally different topic :D )

Legislature: One who enacts the law.

Executive: One who implements the law.

Judiciary: One who upholds the law.

Now, for example an IAS officer comes under the executive thus his functions are to implement the law enacted in the assembly, like say, our MLA (a legislator) says Jodha Akbar should not be screened, then the IAS with his coterie maintains it. If in case the theatre owner doesn't follow the rules one can get an order from the court (namely the Judiciary) and the law takes its due course.

The beauty of this model is no one is the boss, ideally they have their own boundaries and each is not allowed to encroach upon one another. These three equally powerful pillars is the most fundamental aspect of the Indian constitution. It is because of these three powerful structure(rather division of powers) India is still a democratic country unlike other countries in the Indian sub-continent which are either anarchic or oligarchic. So in summary, we are greatly indebted to the intellectuals who wrote the Constitution.

Political philosophies continued....

This is in continuation to my earlier post on political philosophies and my color to it.

Now let us see the other ideology namely Communism.

Communism: Nobody needs an introduction to what communism stands for as some point of time everybody in this world would have personally encountered it. Communism is supposedly a brain child of Karl Marx. The main purpose of the communism is to create a class less society where everybody is treated alike. In this ideology, the whole set of people are divided into two class namely Bourgeoisie and proletarian. This division is equivalent to the ruling and working class. A sect of people who believe in developing a classless society are called comrades and the proletarian group with the intellectual help from these comrades make a revolution against the bourgeoisie.

But there are several self-contradictions in my opinion on this theory, the foremost is, assuming that a revolution against the bourgeoisie has happened and the proletarian has won. Now to maintain law and order these comrades start to take responsibility and it leads an evolution of these comrades equivalent to an imperialistic rulers. Thus now these comrades who wanted to create a classless society have themselves created a new class namely the political class. Thus the theory itself has some self-contradicting property. This was practically seen after 1919 Russian revolution where Stalin took over the reign of Russia and many presently see the undemocratic movement in China.

And being an Indian I need to point out some examples in India, many would have read the take over of nandigram in November by the comrades where it has becomes the comrades vs non-comrades. And recently in kerala where the state CPI unit was in a killing spree in Kannur against section of another political ideology.

Now after giving the fundamental pillar on which communism was build, it is good to give an introduction to the different kinds of communism. Basically this division is based on the fact that, to achieve the universal classless society there are numerous ways and some are listed as follows:

• Leninism
• Marxism
• Maoism
• Stalinism

Out the above the Maoism is what is seen in Nepal and different parts of India in the form of Naxalism. The main belief of Maoism is the classless society can be achieved only by armed struggle. The founder of such a way is Mao Zedong from China and hence the name Maoism. The people who follow are called as Maoist.

But nevertheless personally I need to appreciate the communism ideology(though not practically viable) it takes into account the human sympathy.

People who follow communism are exotic individuals who are mostly intellectuals which in other words means they are good in writing blogs/columns/comments but never would have worked in the field. This is my opinion.

Let us see the other two ideology namely Socialism and Imperialism in forthcoming posts.

Political philosophies....

Once again, I should repent for not continuing my writings on politics, though much has happened since I wrote last August. The nuclear deal which everyone were pushing hard went to hibernation. This is not different from many other Indian policies which have a good start and soon gets pushed to the cellar either due to bureaucracy or conscious political intervention.

This political intervention is driven by some ideologies which each party is affiliated to, though strictly speaking recently the Indian parties grow like weeds without even having any ideology. But mostly parties which play in the national role have some ideology driving it (at least now). This topic is to discuss such ideologies and give a my color to each..

First, we need to understand that political ideology main purpose is to govern the people and make this world a better place to live. To reach this point there are(should be) numerous ways, it is just similar to Adi Sankaracharya teaching whose main theme is "there is no single way to salvation" (and his way is Advaitam). Thus accepting there is no single way to govern the people we will move further.

In today's world for some odd reasons making the world a better place to live is closely associated with having a decent bank account. Thus bringing the link between political ideology and economics. In the present world political ideology and economic policy for a country have intermixed, thus the division in ideologies is broadly based on economic policies.

Let us discuss four political ideologies in detail, namely capitalism, socialism, imperialism and communism.

Capitalism: As everyone knows capitalism is the main ideology of US. I recently came to know that capitalism was originally a brain child of Adam smith. In his famous book "The wealth of nations" he has described more in detail. His main punch line is "self-interest alone helps to achieve socially beneficial results". I guess this says all about capitalism. People to earn more should have some capital either in the form of knowledge or money and using this they grow. The government just stays as a silent spectator creating the environment for such people. Now the advantage is if you are talented only sky is the limit. Now the drawback, just imagine you want to leave a peaceful life just making sufficient earning to survive, but just because everyone surrounding you don't have the same mentality and start(want) to earn more they push the prices of the commodities causing inflation. Thus you will be indirectly be pushed to earn more. Therefore the conclusion is if you are not a materialistic person a capitalistic country will be difficult to adjust.

I guess this is already a long post will write later on other ideologies.