Pali Reen's Blog: Musings
April 3, 2018
AN OFFICER AND AN EXECUTIVE
The current exchanges between the government and the army ask more questions than answers, particularly when both the Minister of Defence and the C-in-C are persons of apparently impeccable records. The difference of opinions between the civilian government and the army assessment has always existed, but it is for the first time that it has been turned into a public debate. Was it accidental, deliberate to create a rift between the army brass and the ruling government or a calculated politically motivated leak is hard to determine, but nothing erupts suddenly into a conflict without a long history of impending warnings.
There were times in the past when an army officer was a considered to be a man of unquestionable integrity and honour. The soldier of any rank was someone who could do no wrong and held a prestige of the highest values for the civilian populations. To join any of the armed forces one had to have a calibre of the highest degree. Considering the many courses that he has to attend during his career an officer is probably as much qualified as any MBA if not more to take over any kind of management function. Why did it all change and come down to a low where the army C-in-C has gone to the SC over a trivial issue of Date of Birth at the fag end of his career and why not much earlier? This cannot be just written off as another round of army-politician standoff, but requires introspection by all of us as a nation.
To understand this better one needs to look into the civilian-army relationship from the past to the present.
Right from the Roman times, it has been a tradition all over the world that the armies always camped away from the cities. No general could enter Rome with his troops. The only one who did so was assassinated in the senate itself. The army was strictly under the Senate with a civilian mandate. This tradition has come down throughout the ages and was inherited by independent India as well. The soldiers remained strictly within their cantonments, where no civilian dared to go without a reason. It was mandatory for them to be in civilian dress when moving within the towns and cities. Except for heinous crimes, the forces had their own form of justice. The quick and fair court martial was virtually the highest judicial system of conviction and synonymous with disgrace. It was considered below the dignity of an officer to appeal against such decisions in a civilian court even when he was within his right to do so. The positive side was that within the officers’ high yardstick of fairness, these were rare and far apart. The soldier had to trust his commander in battle. In turn, the commander had to earn that confidence and only then would the soldier be motivated to die for the country. The unwritten law of all the forces was unequivocal; an army commander could never abandon his men, a pilot hit over enemy territory to go down in his craft after causing the maximum damage and a ship’s captain drown with his ship even when everybody else had abandoned it. None of these values exist in the civilian world.
When Gen. V.K. Singh did not resign after having failed to gain his full objective in the Supreme Court, he only proved to be a weak person. This simple act of his alone might have lowered the morale of those below more than fighting a war with inadequate arms. Verbal claims are not exemplary in the army tradition. Moreover, the timing of his initiation of CBI cases against certain officers, no matter howsoever correct, could not have gone well with the officers in uniform either. There have also been insinuations of his giving uncomplimentary ACR to officers not agreeing with him. An officer in his capacity should have other means of eliminating potential dissenters without making it obvious. A PIL against the appointment of the next chief only affirms one’s doubt whether the affair was not politically or even communally motivated.
Though the army was isolated from the civilians, it also kept it away from the local and national politics. One of the first acts of the civilian government of independent India to assure that the armed forces remained under its mandate was by creating a disparity of salaries between the forces and the bureaucracy, putting the latter on a higher bar than the former particularly among the higher ranks. It took over fifty years to bring them at par again. Today some might wonder whether this was a right move when one looks back at the Chinese war. On the flipside, we have only to look across our borders to realise what this could have resulted into. No country under a military dictatorship has ever been known to progress.
However, many things have changed over the years. The expansions of townships and cities have brought the civilian population to the very fringe of the cantonments and in places such as the capital, even overlapping them. It has not only eroded the awe one had of the uniform but the greedy builders have tried to encroach on their lands wherever they could. It does not require much intelligence to be suddenly faced with such scams within the forces. Minor ones have always existed, which were handled within the army itself. It is only recently that one is faced with major cases of corruption. Considering the length and breadth of the armed forces they are small in contrast with what our politicians have been accused of. Still, given the immaculate reputation that the forces carry, even the slightest blot appears huge in magnitude.
Trained to guard the borders of the nation, the soldier learnt to shoot only to kill unlike the police and other paramilitary forces. The army has been reluctant to take up any deployment to control civil unrest including action in the Maoist infected regions. Many of their soldiers came from the same region and putting them into action there would mean asking them to shoot their own. Only when civilian dispensations have completely broken down is the army called in to take action. Some civilian casualties are bound to be inevitable. The AFSPA must be looked at from a perspective of the larger picture. Operation Blue Star still haunts us almost thirty years later. The government of the day will have to take the responsibility for it not the soldier who merely carries out an order unquestioningly. The soldier who hesitates even for a moment to weigh the pros and cons will only find himself killed sooner than later. The activists may say anything but that is where the case for the army rests.
So far it has only been the Border States where the army has been deployed to fight insurgency. Its refusal to be pulled into it in the heartland only brought out its glaring qualitative difference with the BSF, CRPF and the local police. The latter could neither match them nor the insurgents in both skills and weapons. The Indian political class never upgraded the civilian wings of the law keeping forces in keeping with the requirements of the times. This has been one of the main reasons for the spread of the red zone across so many states apart from the political will. So when the army offered to train the paramilitary forces in jungle warfare, it was a step in the right direction that was long overdue. But it still did not address the fundamental question why the urgent needs of our armed forces have been downplayed? For that we have to look elsewhere.
The difference between the Roman model and ours is that the senators were mostly veteran soldiers, whereas to find one amongst our political class is an aberration. The same is true of the bureaucracy. Even if some came from families with army background, they will be far less in the times to come. As such it is not easy for them to see the general’s point of view in defence preparedness particularly of the ground army. This has always been a point of friction between the forces and their political masters. As much as the civilian governments keep the army isolated within bounds of moral values, they also fear it the most because it is the only one of all the three wings that is capable of a coup. Although this is highly improbable given the Indian federal system and the vast of diversity of the Indian subcontinent, the ruling class fears it more than the armies across our borders. Perhaps nothing gives this a greater conviction than that the Indian Military Academy does not discuss the Bangladesh war as their curriculum while for the rest of the world it is a case history. It is an open secret that no Army Chief has belonged to the truly recognised martial communities until recently; only the air force and the navy have been headed by them. A delay in modernising the army assured that it remained weak. When the Defence Minister made a statement on the floor of the house that delays in defence purchases were to assure that all such purchases were free of corruption, it only affirms this presumption. When one cannot even buy a pin without the involvement of middle men where is the prudence of avoiding one when the defence of the nation is at stake? Belated reports of fast tracking defence purchases could be just as meaningless considering the imbroglios that our bureaucrats are so adept in creating. No matter how much we may pride ourselves of our independence, defence purchases are closely linked to foreign policies. With our research and development proving to be grossly inadequate, there could be little that is secret about our defence preparedness. It is of little consequence that although we look upon ourselves as a world power our forces have lacked the courage of taking the war across to the other side.
It is time that the politician realised that if the army ever wanted it could stage a coup even with half the weapons in it armoury.
So far the Indian army has proved itself as second to none when it came to fighting unequal wars except for the Chinese debacle. Even then, the main reason was the refusal of the civilian government to discern the army concerns and disconnect between the then Defence Minister and the C-in-C. Although still inadequately prepared, the ’65 war was one of individual valour apart from the boosted morale of the civilian population of Punjab. The ’71 war is the best example of the result when Indira Gandhi put her full trust in Sam Maneckshaw. However, over the past many years the army has been faced with a dearth of quality personnel, especially officers. With the opening of the economy more and more are opting for the lucrative civilian jobs and the disciplined army has become the last choice as a career. While it labelled the forces as the only institution with honour and integrity, the civil society fought tooth and nail against any suggestion of conscription. Not only has this created a greater monetary chasm between the two irrespective of the army’s many facilities, it has also divorced the civilians from the hardships of a soldier on the border. It is little wonder that a business community of Gujarat and the intellectual West Bengal have the least representation in the armed forces. When not even NCC is mandatory in school like in the one that I went to, our youth has neither learnt the discipline of a unit nor responsibility of handling even a basic weapon. It was time that they looked upon Israel as a role model. The Jews have been the most persecuted race in the world for centuries. Never in their history have they been known to be fighters until they were forced to take up arms to fiend for their homeland. Today every able man and woman is a fighting force in that nation with a strong democratic government. Switzerland is yet another country that was neutral during the two World Wars but its people are still skilled to be soldiers if ever required.
The armed forces are the only institutions that uphold the nation before any caste, creed or religion. It cannot afford to have such differences when fighting an enemy whether on land, air or sea. Some politicians have also tried to breakdown even this fabric of unity in our country but the forces have held firm against it. We don’t have to look beyond our parliamentarians to realise how personal and parochial agendas overtake the national issues. Incredibly the only time they have faith in the armed forces is during a conflict. The army would love to have more of them to keep it battle ready and its identity as a unit intact. But this is not a lucrative proposition. Conscription of some form in any of the three wings or paramilitary forces for every able bodied person, a kind of internship that would go a long way to bridge the gap, but it is impractical in a country with over a billion. However, if the government of the day can bring forth a RTE bill, it can also look towards some kind of a training that would give us even a greater respect and confidence for our forces. There is no reason why we cannot have a retired general becoming the Prime Minister or the President in the future.
There were times in the past when an army officer was a considered to be a man of unquestionable integrity and honour. The soldier of any rank was someone who could do no wrong and held a prestige of the highest values for the civilian populations. To join any of the armed forces one had to have a calibre of the highest degree. Considering the many courses that he has to attend during his career an officer is probably as much qualified as any MBA if not more to take over any kind of management function. Why did it all change and come down to a low where the army C-in-C has gone to the SC over a trivial issue of Date of Birth at the fag end of his career and why not much earlier? This cannot be just written off as another round of army-politician standoff, but requires introspection by all of us as a nation.
To understand this better one needs to look into the civilian-army relationship from the past to the present.
Right from the Roman times, it has been a tradition all over the world that the armies always camped away from the cities. No general could enter Rome with his troops. The only one who did so was assassinated in the senate itself. The army was strictly under the Senate with a civilian mandate. This tradition has come down throughout the ages and was inherited by independent India as well. The soldiers remained strictly within their cantonments, where no civilian dared to go without a reason. It was mandatory for them to be in civilian dress when moving within the towns and cities. Except for heinous crimes, the forces had their own form of justice. The quick and fair court martial was virtually the highest judicial system of conviction and synonymous with disgrace. It was considered below the dignity of an officer to appeal against such decisions in a civilian court even when he was within his right to do so. The positive side was that within the officers’ high yardstick of fairness, these were rare and far apart. The soldier had to trust his commander in battle. In turn, the commander had to earn that confidence and only then would the soldier be motivated to die for the country. The unwritten law of all the forces was unequivocal; an army commander could never abandon his men, a pilot hit over enemy territory to go down in his craft after causing the maximum damage and a ship’s captain drown with his ship even when everybody else had abandoned it. None of these values exist in the civilian world.
When Gen. V.K. Singh did not resign after having failed to gain his full objective in the Supreme Court, he only proved to be a weak person. This simple act of his alone might have lowered the morale of those below more than fighting a war with inadequate arms. Verbal claims are not exemplary in the army tradition. Moreover, the timing of his initiation of CBI cases against certain officers, no matter howsoever correct, could not have gone well with the officers in uniform either. There have also been insinuations of his giving uncomplimentary ACR to officers not agreeing with him. An officer in his capacity should have other means of eliminating potential dissenters without making it obvious. A PIL against the appointment of the next chief only affirms one’s doubt whether the affair was not politically or even communally motivated.
Though the army was isolated from the civilians, it also kept it away from the local and national politics. One of the first acts of the civilian government of independent India to assure that the armed forces remained under its mandate was by creating a disparity of salaries between the forces and the bureaucracy, putting the latter on a higher bar than the former particularly among the higher ranks. It took over fifty years to bring them at par again. Today some might wonder whether this was a right move when one looks back at the Chinese war. On the flipside, we have only to look across our borders to realise what this could have resulted into. No country under a military dictatorship has ever been known to progress.
However, many things have changed over the years. The expansions of townships and cities have brought the civilian population to the very fringe of the cantonments and in places such as the capital, even overlapping them. It has not only eroded the awe one had of the uniform but the greedy builders have tried to encroach on their lands wherever they could. It does not require much intelligence to be suddenly faced with such scams within the forces. Minor ones have always existed, which were handled within the army itself. It is only recently that one is faced with major cases of corruption. Considering the length and breadth of the armed forces they are small in contrast with what our politicians have been accused of. Still, given the immaculate reputation that the forces carry, even the slightest blot appears huge in magnitude.
Trained to guard the borders of the nation, the soldier learnt to shoot only to kill unlike the police and other paramilitary forces. The army has been reluctant to take up any deployment to control civil unrest including action in the Maoist infected regions. Many of their soldiers came from the same region and putting them into action there would mean asking them to shoot their own. Only when civilian dispensations have completely broken down is the army called in to take action. Some civilian casualties are bound to be inevitable. The AFSPA must be looked at from a perspective of the larger picture. Operation Blue Star still haunts us almost thirty years later. The government of the day will have to take the responsibility for it not the soldier who merely carries out an order unquestioningly. The soldier who hesitates even for a moment to weigh the pros and cons will only find himself killed sooner than later. The activists may say anything but that is where the case for the army rests.
So far it has only been the Border States where the army has been deployed to fight insurgency. Its refusal to be pulled into it in the heartland only brought out its glaring qualitative difference with the BSF, CRPF and the local police. The latter could neither match them nor the insurgents in both skills and weapons. The Indian political class never upgraded the civilian wings of the law keeping forces in keeping with the requirements of the times. This has been one of the main reasons for the spread of the red zone across so many states apart from the political will. So when the army offered to train the paramilitary forces in jungle warfare, it was a step in the right direction that was long overdue. But it still did not address the fundamental question why the urgent needs of our armed forces have been downplayed? For that we have to look elsewhere.
The difference between the Roman model and ours is that the senators were mostly veteran soldiers, whereas to find one amongst our political class is an aberration. The same is true of the bureaucracy. Even if some came from families with army background, they will be far less in the times to come. As such it is not easy for them to see the general’s point of view in defence preparedness particularly of the ground army. This has always been a point of friction between the forces and their political masters. As much as the civilian governments keep the army isolated within bounds of moral values, they also fear it the most because it is the only one of all the three wings that is capable of a coup. Although this is highly improbable given the Indian federal system and the vast of diversity of the Indian subcontinent, the ruling class fears it more than the armies across our borders. Perhaps nothing gives this a greater conviction than that the Indian Military Academy does not discuss the Bangladesh war as their curriculum while for the rest of the world it is a case history. It is an open secret that no Army Chief has belonged to the truly recognised martial communities until recently; only the air force and the navy have been headed by them. A delay in modernising the army assured that it remained weak. When the Defence Minister made a statement on the floor of the house that delays in defence purchases were to assure that all such purchases were free of corruption, it only affirms this presumption. When one cannot even buy a pin without the involvement of middle men where is the prudence of avoiding one when the defence of the nation is at stake? Belated reports of fast tracking defence purchases could be just as meaningless considering the imbroglios that our bureaucrats are so adept in creating. No matter how much we may pride ourselves of our independence, defence purchases are closely linked to foreign policies. With our research and development proving to be grossly inadequate, there could be little that is secret about our defence preparedness. It is of little consequence that although we look upon ourselves as a world power our forces have lacked the courage of taking the war across to the other side.
It is time that the politician realised that if the army ever wanted it could stage a coup even with half the weapons in it armoury.
So far the Indian army has proved itself as second to none when it came to fighting unequal wars except for the Chinese debacle. Even then, the main reason was the refusal of the civilian government to discern the army concerns and disconnect between the then Defence Minister and the C-in-C. Although still inadequately prepared, the ’65 war was one of individual valour apart from the boosted morale of the civilian population of Punjab. The ’71 war is the best example of the result when Indira Gandhi put her full trust in Sam Maneckshaw. However, over the past many years the army has been faced with a dearth of quality personnel, especially officers. With the opening of the economy more and more are opting for the lucrative civilian jobs and the disciplined army has become the last choice as a career. While it labelled the forces as the only institution with honour and integrity, the civil society fought tooth and nail against any suggestion of conscription. Not only has this created a greater monetary chasm between the two irrespective of the army’s many facilities, it has also divorced the civilians from the hardships of a soldier on the border. It is little wonder that a business community of Gujarat and the intellectual West Bengal have the least representation in the armed forces. When not even NCC is mandatory in school like in the one that I went to, our youth has neither learnt the discipline of a unit nor responsibility of handling even a basic weapon. It was time that they looked upon Israel as a role model. The Jews have been the most persecuted race in the world for centuries. Never in their history have they been known to be fighters until they were forced to take up arms to fiend for their homeland. Today every able man and woman is a fighting force in that nation with a strong democratic government. Switzerland is yet another country that was neutral during the two World Wars but its people are still skilled to be soldiers if ever required.
The armed forces are the only institutions that uphold the nation before any caste, creed or religion. It cannot afford to have such differences when fighting an enemy whether on land, air or sea. Some politicians have also tried to breakdown even this fabric of unity in our country but the forces have held firm against it. We don’t have to look beyond our parliamentarians to realise how personal and parochial agendas overtake the national issues. Incredibly the only time they have faith in the armed forces is during a conflict. The army would love to have more of them to keep it battle ready and its identity as a unit intact. But this is not a lucrative proposition. Conscription of some form in any of the three wings or paramilitary forces for every able bodied person, a kind of internship that would go a long way to bridge the gap, but it is impractical in a country with over a billion. However, if the government of the day can bring forth a RTE bill, it can also look towards some kind of a training that would give us even a greater respect and confidence for our forces. There is no reason why we cannot have a retired general becoming the Prime Minister or the President in the future.
September 13, 2017
ANNA - CHECK & MATE?
When parliament passed the resolution on the Lokpal bill last August the mood of the whole nation was upbeat. The visual media shouted victory for Anna, picking every small piece of loose information, dissecting and presenting it as a grave misdeed of the ruling party. From the silence of the prime minister to every comment by his ministers was used to dampen the image of the chief party of the ruling coalition. What they failed to read was that every move on the part of the government could have been a well maneuvered move of a game of chess that shrewd rulers often played. It was akin to the games that the corporate world played quite routinely when dealing with aggressive unions.
With the government burdened with cases of corruption against its ministers, the group of civil society timed their move perfectly last April. All they needed was a face to their movement. Anna Hazare fitted the billboard perfectly. To substantiate, the uninitiated to see Kissa Kursi Ka, a movie of the Emergency era that showed how an illiterate non-entity became the prime minister of the country. Whenever frustration crossed a certain breaking point, people would accept anybody with the slightest credentials to lead them.
Since graft was something that everybody suffered from, it was not unusual for the movement to fire the peoples’ imagination particularly the idealistic youth. It did not matter what the Jan Lokpal Bill said. The elite and the intelligentsia who came out to support were not the kind that could be dealt with a little bit of police high-handedness. Realizing the awakening of the middle class, the government diffused the immediate situation as soon as it could.
My opinion of the main party was that it was a very shrewd one that kept all its cards to itself. Having been at the helm of affairs during almost every major crisis in the country over more than a hundred years, it has mastered the skills to handle virtually every situation. The government’s invitation to Anna to discuss the anti-corruption bill that gave a feeling that it had gauged the will of the people was merely a tactical withdrawal. Actually it needed time to assess the whole situation and buy some time for itself. As Anna was not the author of the bill, he was accompanied by his team, a set of disgruntled ex-government officials with an axe to grind with the party in power, and a couple of eminent lawyers.
There were nine meetings and the media reports were replete with many ambiguities. The more we read about them the more it appeared to be a charade being routinely enacted by the government representatives. I had seen similar meetings with the union before in the organization I worked, as a prelude to an impending strike by the workers; this time the players were the self-appointed civil society representatives of the middle class and the government. These meetings were held only to gauge the merits in Team Anna’s case. The public spats with the civil society members were merely diversionary methods, used to judge the mood of the people, which was far from amicable. What we were actually witnessing was the initial of pawn moves in a chess game. From the transcripts of taped recordings of the meetings it was clearly evident that the government had no intention to accept what has come to be known as Anna’s Jan Lokpal bill. Nevertheless, the political class did realize that the time for the Lokpal Bill had indeed come. Only its ultimate form remained to be decided.
Now, no one in the political dispensation wanted to lose their privileges curtailed through a Lokpal Bill. Nor did they want to be seen on the wrong side of the people they represented. No wonder that every political party, including the main opposition one, remained non-committal and waited on the sidelines like vultures. With no inputs coming even from its allies, the government chose to present the bill in its weakest form to the parliament. Even if it had intentions to ultimately present a stronger Lokpal, it made sure that it would make everybody sweat and commit to it. What was slowly emerging was the truth that we have always suspected. All the parties fought bitterly in public but they were all together behind the curtains.
Come August 16 and history began to unfold in a different way. Anna Hazare stuck to his guns to go on a fast till his demands to hold the all the three pillars of our governance, namely, the politician, judiciary and the bureaucrat responsible for their action. What followed was something that had never happened neither in this country nor anywhere else in the world ever before. Even the Jasmine Spring paled before Anna’s violence free movement. If the government erred in arresting Anna, it made up by the police refraining from being high-handed. The baton was visibly missing. Errors of judgments by managements was not unusual but good managements always had follow up plans of correction on course, a forty percent correct decisions being considered as efficient.
Nothing happened between the two sets of peoples’ elected and unelected representatives for almost a week except for some feeble attempts to make Anna break his fast. The scene was similar to the events when there was a strike for the first time in our organization and the management and the union leaders went into a deadlock. The road to reconciliation only commenced when the workers began to feel the pressure of being without work began to tell. The difference was that while there was no time frame to end a union strike, here the deadline was Anna’s health.
To add to the government’s headache, the media built up a crescendo painting it as the only villain in the whole act. In any case, media always projected an image that it aired only what it felt that people wanted to hear, so much so that it was accused of being undemocratic itself. If some government representatives were hardliners well so were at least two of the civil society members. The difference was that the former were called arrogant and the latter barely aggressive. For every to and fro movements in the back channel talks, it was the government that was projected to be taking a hard line stance. No corporate management gave in easily either. The discussions went to such an extreme that government representatives suggested even the media to be under the Lokpal bill!
Nevertheless, one must give the media its due. Wittingly or unwittingly, it became a forum educating the viewer about things that they might never have learnt in a political science class in Cambridge, Stanton, Harvard or any IIM. Out of the chaos a pattern of sense was emerging. For the first time in our history the phrase ‘We the People’ of the Indian constitution is being interpreted with the same intellectual vigor as ‘Call me Ismail,’ in Moby Dick in a literature class. The Parliament was supreme in making laws but not the parliamentarians. We were also beginning to learn how intricately our forefathers had compiled our constitution and how the role of every area of area of governance was defined. People learnt the difference between the role of a statutory body or a parliamentary committee, and why it took such a long time to make a law. Nor did one know that the government took the views of all the parties, both at the center and the states, before incorporating a law and the sense of the federal independence of the states and a lot more.
Any corporate execute would tell you that whenever you went into discussions with any ruling government, you had to be prepared to make concessions. Every intelligent union leader knows this and so does every management. Both will leave a maneuverable space for each other to save face in case of crisis. At the end of the day both needed the workers for their ends. If there was one grave error on the part of Team Anna, it was to insist that the Lokpal bill had to be what they presented in full. By doing so they left no room for the government and a negotiation turned into confrontation. The other mistake it made was that by giving it a middle class brand, a large population of the lower segment of society felt alienated.
By the second week of Anna’s fast it was realized that he was made of tougher material than the yoga gurus of the modern age. That gave more time to the government. While the media and the press were drilling it for its ineptitude, it was actually more in control than Team Anna. The fatigued crowds could become restive and easily get out of hand. By now other intellectuals had put their foot into the door with the media and were giving their opinions as well. Very soon the imperfections of Anna’s bill began to show. What made Team Anna think that only they could come up with the most perfect law? It would be years before the efficacy of the Lokpal bill could be known. A government could be held responsible for making a bad law that could be amended. Who was Team Anna responsible to if its version of the bill turned out to be a bad one?
The belated support to Anna by the political opposition did little to dent the government’s image. A new set of players were brought in by it. It was time for the middle game on the chess board. The pawn game was taken over by bishops, knights and castles. The civil society knew that they were now fighting for time. The slightest sign of serious deterioration to Anna’s health would give the government reason to remove him from the Ramlila grounds. Other backdoor channels were opened. When the Prime Minister finally broke his silence to begin the debate on the bill in the parliament, it was like a corporate CEO taking the final call to end a strike. Members of parliament gave some of the best speeches heard in the long time. Every speaker admitted the failure of political parties to the people. Meanwhile behind the scene parleys continued. The end game of chess shifted to the queens with both kings safe on their respective sides as the scene finally moving to the Prime Minister’s office. The sense of the house that was deemed to have been adopted was a carefully crafted selection of words by the leaders of the opposition of both houses and the treasury benches in a classical Orwellian style as in the book Animal Farm. Anna broke his fast bettering all his previous records!
Game drawn!
Six months later we are on the verge of the formation of the next governments in the five states and the Lokpal Bill was not even an election issue but corruption was. The attempt to pass it in the last parliament failed miserably with political parties finding more than a hundred and eighty objections! Team Anna received a luke warm reception wherever they were. What went wrong?
The movement was doomed to failure from the very beginning. Anna might have achieved a lot in his village Ralegon but lacked the education to negotiate at the high table like Gandhi could. Whereas each time Gandhi went on a fast it was for a different cause, the Gandhian went three times for the same cause. Gandhi never made anything personal; Anna’s team targeted the ruling party in a by-election and ridiculed its leaders. By taking a rigid stance they portrayed a draconian image and forgot that the masses could accepted anything but not at the cost of democracy. Instead if they had led a non-cooperation movement at the grassroots against graft, there was a possibility of forcing the entire political class to its will. Such mobilization required skills of a different kind and they just did not have them. In the present day the middle class do not have time even to watch a movie fully twice; they don’t have time for the tantrums thrown by the civil society representatives either. Like always, they gave their space away to lesser players and made Anna practically irrelevant for the future, leaving the politician to check and mate him without even playing a game.
Published in Financial World in two parts on 21st and 22nd March 2011
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main52.a...
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main52.a...
Pali Reen
With the government burdened with cases of corruption against its ministers, the group of civil society timed their move perfectly last April. All they needed was a face to their movement. Anna Hazare fitted the billboard perfectly. To substantiate, the uninitiated to see Kissa Kursi Ka, a movie of the Emergency era that showed how an illiterate non-entity became the prime minister of the country. Whenever frustration crossed a certain breaking point, people would accept anybody with the slightest credentials to lead them.
Since graft was something that everybody suffered from, it was not unusual for the movement to fire the peoples’ imagination particularly the idealistic youth. It did not matter what the Jan Lokpal Bill said. The elite and the intelligentsia who came out to support were not the kind that could be dealt with a little bit of police high-handedness. Realizing the awakening of the middle class, the government diffused the immediate situation as soon as it could.
My opinion of the main party was that it was a very shrewd one that kept all its cards to itself. Having been at the helm of affairs during almost every major crisis in the country over more than a hundred years, it has mastered the skills to handle virtually every situation. The government’s invitation to Anna to discuss the anti-corruption bill that gave a feeling that it had gauged the will of the people was merely a tactical withdrawal. Actually it needed time to assess the whole situation and buy some time for itself. As Anna was not the author of the bill, he was accompanied by his team, a set of disgruntled ex-government officials with an axe to grind with the party in power, and a couple of eminent lawyers.
There were nine meetings and the media reports were replete with many ambiguities. The more we read about them the more it appeared to be a charade being routinely enacted by the government representatives. I had seen similar meetings with the union before in the organization I worked, as a prelude to an impending strike by the workers; this time the players were the self-appointed civil society representatives of the middle class and the government. These meetings were held only to gauge the merits in Team Anna’s case. The public spats with the civil society members were merely diversionary methods, used to judge the mood of the people, which was far from amicable. What we were actually witnessing was the initial of pawn moves in a chess game. From the transcripts of taped recordings of the meetings it was clearly evident that the government had no intention to accept what has come to be known as Anna’s Jan Lokpal bill. Nevertheless, the political class did realize that the time for the Lokpal Bill had indeed come. Only its ultimate form remained to be decided.
Now, no one in the political dispensation wanted to lose their privileges curtailed through a Lokpal Bill. Nor did they want to be seen on the wrong side of the people they represented. No wonder that every political party, including the main opposition one, remained non-committal and waited on the sidelines like vultures. With no inputs coming even from its allies, the government chose to present the bill in its weakest form to the parliament. Even if it had intentions to ultimately present a stronger Lokpal, it made sure that it would make everybody sweat and commit to it. What was slowly emerging was the truth that we have always suspected. All the parties fought bitterly in public but they were all together behind the curtains.
Come August 16 and history began to unfold in a different way. Anna Hazare stuck to his guns to go on a fast till his demands to hold the all the three pillars of our governance, namely, the politician, judiciary and the bureaucrat responsible for their action. What followed was something that had never happened neither in this country nor anywhere else in the world ever before. Even the Jasmine Spring paled before Anna’s violence free movement. If the government erred in arresting Anna, it made up by the police refraining from being high-handed. The baton was visibly missing. Errors of judgments by managements was not unusual but good managements always had follow up plans of correction on course, a forty percent correct decisions being considered as efficient.
Nothing happened between the two sets of peoples’ elected and unelected representatives for almost a week except for some feeble attempts to make Anna break his fast. The scene was similar to the events when there was a strike for the first time in our organization and the management and the union leaders went into a deadlock. The road to reconciliation only commenced when the workers began to feel the pressure of being without work began to tell. The difference was that while there was no time frame to end a union strike, here the deadline was Anna’s health.
To add to the government’s headache, the media built up a crescendo painting it as the only villain in the whole act. In any case, media always projected an image that it aired only what it felt that people wanted to hear, so much so that it was accused of being undemocratic itself. If some government representatives were hardliners well so were at least two of the civil society members. The difference was that the former were called arrogant and the latter barely aggressive. For every to and fro movements in the back channel talks, it was the government that was projected to be taking a hard line stance. No corporate management gave in easily either. The discussions went to such an extreme that government representatives suggested even the media to be under the Lokpal bill!
Nevertheless, one must give the media its due. Wittingly or unwittingly, it became a forum educating the viewer about things that they might never have learnt in a political science class in Cambridge, Stanton, Harvard or any IIM. Out of the chaos a pattern of sense was emerging. For the first time in our history the phrase ‘We the People’ of the Indian constitution is being interpreted with the same intellectual vigor as ‘Call me Ismail,’ in Moby Dick in a literature class. The Parliament was supreme in making laws but not the parliamentarians. We were also beginning to learn how intricately our forefathers had compiled our constitution and how the role of every area of area of governance was defined. People learnt the difference between the role of a statutory body or a parliamentary committee, and why it took such a long time to make a law. Nor did one know that the government took the views of all the parties, both at the center and the states, before incorporating a law and the sense of the federal independence of the states and a lot more.
Any corporate execute would tell you that whenever you went into discussions with any ruling government, you had to be prepared to make concessions. Every intelligent union leader knows this and so does every management. Both will leave a maneuverable space for each other to save face in case of crisis. At the end of the day both needed the workers for their ends. If there was one grave error on the part of Team Anna, it was to insist that the Lokpal bill had to be what they presented in full. By doing so they left no room for the government and a negotiation turned into confrontation. The other mistake it made was that by giving it a middle class brand, a large population of the lower segment of society felt alienated.
By the second week of Anna’s fast it was realized that he was made of tougher material than the yoga gurus of the modern age. That gave more time to the government. While the media and the press were drilling it for its ineptitude, it was actually more in control than Team Anna. The fatigued crowds could become restive and easily get out of hand. By now other intellectuals had put their foot into the door with the media and were giving their opinions as well. Very soon the imperfections of Anna’s bill began to show. What made Team Anna think that only they could come up with the most perfect law? It would be years before the efficacy of the Lokpal bill could be known. A government could be held responsible for making a bad law that could be amended. Who was Team Anna responsible to if its version of the bill turned out to be a bad one?
The belated support to Anna by the political opposition did little to dent the government’s image. A new set of players were brought in by it. It was time for the middle game on the chess board. The pawn game was taken over by bishops, knights and castles. The civil society knew that they were now fighting for time. The slightest sign of serious deterioration to Anna’s health would give the government reason to remove him from the Ramlila grounds. Other backdoor channels were opened. When the Prime Minister finally broke his silence to begin the debate on the bill in the parliament, it was like a corporate CEO taking the final call to end a strike. Members of parliament gave some of the best speeches heard in the long time. Every speaker admitted the failure of political parties to the people. Meanwhile behind the scene parleys continued. The end game of chess shifted to the queens with both kings safe on their respective sides as the scene finally moving to the Prime Minister’s office. The sense of the house that was deemed to have been adopted was a carefully crafted selection of words by the leaders of the opposition of both houses and the treasury benches in a classical Orwellian style as in the book Animal Farm. Anna broke his fast bettering all his previous records!
Game drawn!
Six months later we are on the verge of the formation of the next governments in the five states and the Lokpal Bill was not even an election issue but corruption was. The attempt to pass it in the last parliament failed miserably with political parties finding more than a hundred and eighty objections! Team Anna received a luke warm reception wherever they were. What went wrong?
The movement was doomed to failure from the very beginning. Anna might have achieved a lot in his village Ralegon but lacked the education to negotiate at the high table like Gandhi could. Whereas each time Gandhi went on a fast it was for a different cause, the Gandhian went three times for the same cause. Gandhi never made anything personal; Anna’s team targeted the ruling party in a by-election and ridiculed its leaders. By taking a rigid stance they portrayed a draconian image and forgot that the masses could accepted anything but not at the cost of democracy. Instead if they had led a non-cooperation movement at the grassroots against graft, there was a possibility of forcing the entire political class to its will. Such mobilization required skills of a different kind and they just did not have them. In the present day the middle class do not have time even to watch a movie fully twice; they don’t have time for the tantrums thrown by the civil society representatives either. Like always, they gave their space away to lesser players and made Anna practically irrelevant for the future, leaving the politician to check and mate him without even playing a game.
Published in Financial World in two parts on 21st and 22nd March 2011
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main52.a...
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main52.a...
Pali Reen
August 10, 2017
Pali Reen
THE POWER OF THE WRITING
Suicides over failure are not uncommon among our youth and the news dies down after a few minor ripples. Yet in the death of Rohith Vemula, https://g.co/kgs/4Am3MF, the youth have come out to protest in mass across the country, the magnitude of which not seen since the Nirbhaya case. While debates about the caste and intolerance are raving across the media, it is the last words of a dying man that has stirred the human conscience of the country.
Very rarely has the silent written word found more eloquence over the cacophony of our politicians than Rohith’s suicide note. It is hard to recall when was the last time that the words of a non-entity stirred a nation out of its stupor. History records words of great men, their speeches, their last words, some to be recalled for generations and centuries after they are gone. But there is something different Rohith’s letter. It is generally believed that people commit suicide at an acute point of depression but that does not seem to be the case here. But Rohith’sletter speaks of a man who is in complete control of his faculties.
While intellectuals will talk about Rohith Vemula’s last words long after the voices have fallen silent, I am compelled to go back in time to read about the last moments of a man who laid down his life for another in Charles Dickens' classic ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ and try to find what was it that inspired one to walk into death so calmly.
Charles Dickens narrates Sydney Carton last few steps up to the guillotine:
The murmuring of many voices, the upturning of many faces, the pressing on of many footsteps in the outskirts of the crowd, so that it swells forward in a mass, like one great heave of water, all flashes away. Twenty-Three.
They said of him, about the city that night, that it was the peacefullest man’s face ever beheld there. Many added that he looked sublime and prophetic.
One of the most remarkable sufferers by the same axe—a woman-had asked at the foot of the same scaffold, not long before, to be allowed to write down the thoughts that were inspiring her. If he had given any utterance to his, and they were prophetic, they would have been these:
Rohith Vemula’s letter speaks his thoughts in solitude:
Good morning,
I would not be around when you read this letter. Don’t get angry on me. I know some of you truly cared for me, loved me and treated me very well. I have no complaints on anyone. It was always with myself I had problems. I feel a growing gap between my soul and my body. And I have become a monster. I always wanted to be a writer. A writer of science, like Carl Sagan. At last, this is the only letter I am getting to write.
I always wanted to be a writer. A writer of science, like Carl Sagan.
I loved Science, Stars, Nature, but then I loved people without knowing that people have long since divorced from nature. Our feelings are second handed. Our love is constructed. Our beliefs colored. Our originality valid through artificial art. It has become truly difficult to love without getting hurt.
The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind. As a glorious thing made up of star dust. In every field, in studies, in streets, in politics, and in dying and living.
Dickens continues:
“I see Barsad, and Cly, Defarge, The Vengeance, the Juryman, the Judge, long ranks of the new oppressors who have risen on the destruction of the old, perishing by this retributive instrument, before it shall cease out of its present use. I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out.
Rohith continues:
I am writing this kind of letter for the first time. My first time of a final letter. Forgive me if I fail to make sense.
My birth is my fatal accident. I can never recover from my childhood loneliness. The unappreciated child from my past.
May be I was wrong, all the while, in understanding world. In understanding love, pain, life, death. There was no urgency. But I always was rushing. Desperate to start a life. All the while, some people, for them, life itself is curse. My birth is my fatal accident. I can never recover from my childhood loneliness. The unappreciated child from my past.
Dickens continues:
“I see the lives for which I lay down my life, peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy, in that England which I shall see no more. I see Her with a child upon her bosom, who bears my name. I see her father, aged and bent, but otherwise restored, and faithful to all men in his healing office, and at peace. I see the good old man, so long their friend, in ten years’ time enriching them with all he has, and passing tranquilly to his reward.
Rohith continues:
I am not hurt at this moment. I am not sad. I am just empty. Unconcerned about myself. That’s pathetic. And that’s why I am doing this.
People may dub me as a coward. And selfish, or stupid once I am gone. I am not bothered about what I am called. I don’t believe in after-death stories, ghosts, or spirits. If there is anything at all I believe, I believe that I can travel to the stars. And know about the other worlds.
Dickens continues:
“I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence. I see her, an old woman, weeping for me on the anniversary of this day. I see her and her husband, their course done, lying side by side in their last earthly bed, and I know that each was not more honoured and held sacred in the other’s soul, than I was in the souls of both.
Rohith continues:
If you, who is reading this letter can do anything for me, I have to get 7 months of my fellowship, one lakh and seventy five thousand rupees. Please see to it that my family is paid that. I have to give some 40 thousand to Ramji. He never asked them back. But please pay that to him from that.
Let my funeral be silent and smooth. Behave like I just appeared and gone. Do not shed tears for me. Know that I am happy dead than being alive.
“From shadows to the stars.”
Uma anna, sorry for using your room for this thing.
To ASA family, sorry for disappointing all of you. You loved me very much. I wish all the very best for the future.
Dickens writes
“I see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my name, a man winning his way up in that path of life which once was mine. I see him winning it so well, that my name is made illustrious there by the light of his. I see the blots I threw upon it, faded away. I see him, fore-most of just judges and honoured men, bringing a boy of my name, with a forehead that I know and golden hair, to this place— then fair to look upon, with not a trace of this day’s disfigurement —and I hear him tell the child my story, with a tender and a faltering voice.
Rohith writes
For one last time,
Jai Bheem
Dickens concludes
“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”
Rohith concludes with a p.s.
I forgot to write the formalities. No one is responsible for my this act of killing myself.
No one has instigated me, whether by their acts or by their words to this act.
This is my decision and I am the only one responsible for this.
Do not trouble my friends and enemies on this after I am gone.
Both men might have had different reasons to die but both appear to express a stark similarity of the times they describe. Now he might not have been a match to Dickens in his expression but by putting his clarity of thoughts on paper Rohith transcends to the same height as Sydney Carton, peacefullest, sublime and prophetic. While those involved with the case try to find reason around his expression, in death he becomes all, narrator, the people, the jury, the judge, the condemned, executor and the executed.
Whatever one may conclude, the question that comes to thought is that here are two narratives so much alike, one fictional the other real life, written centuries apart, across continents and cultures, then why are human beings permanently in conflict with each other?
Pali Reen
Suicides over failure are not uncommon among our youth and the news dies down after a few minor ripples. Yet in the death of Rohith Vemula, https://g.co/kgs/4Am3MF, the youth have come out to protest in mass across the country, the magnitude of which not seen since the Nirbhaya case. While debates about the caste and intolerance are raving across the media, it is the last words of a dying man that has stirred the human conscience of the country.
Very rarely has the silent written word found more eloquence over the cacophony of our politicians than Rohith’s suicide note. It is hard to recall when was the last time that the words of a non-entity stirred a nation out of its stupor. History records words of great men, their speeches, their last words, some to be recalled for generations and centuries after they are gone. But there is something different Rohith’s letter. It is generally believed that people commit suicide at an acute point of depression but that does not seem to be the case here. But Rohith’sletter speaks of a man who is in complete control of his faculties.
While intellectuals will talk about Rohith Vemula’s last words long after the voices have fallen silent, I am compelled to go back in time to read about the last moments of a man who laid down his life for another in Charles Dickens' classic ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ and try to find what was it that inspired one to walk into death so calmly.
Charles Dickens narrates Sydney Carton last few steps up to the guillotine:
The murmuring of many voices, the upturning of many faces, the pressing on of many footsteps in the outskirts of the crowd, so that it swells forward in a mass, like one great heave of water, all flashes away. Twenty-Three.
They said of him, about the city that night, that it was the peacefullest man’s face ever beheld there. Many added that he looked sublime and prophetic.
One of the most remarkable sufferers by the same axe—a woman-had asked at the foot of the same scaffold, not long before, to be allowed to write down the thoughts that were inspiring her. If he had given any utterance to his, and they were prophetic, they would have been these:
Rohith Vemula’s letter speaks his thoughts in solitude:
Good morning,
I would not be around when you read this letter. Don’t get angry on me. I know some of you truly cared for me, loved me and treated me very well. I have no complaints on anyone. It was always with myself I had problems. I feel a growing gap between my soul and my body. And I have become a monster. I always wanted to be a writer. A writer of science, like Carl Sagan. At last, this is the only letter I am getting to write.
I always wanted to be a writer. A writer of science, like Carl Sagan.
I loved Science, Stars, Nature, but then I loved people without knowing that people have long since divorced from nature. Our feelings are second handed. Our love is constructed. Our beliefs colored. Our originality valid through artificial art. It has become truly difficult to love without getting hurt.
The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind. As a glorious thing made up of star dust. In every field, in studies, in streets, in politics, and in dying and living.
Dickens continues:
“I see Barsad, and Cly, Defarge, The Vengeance, the Juryman, the Judge, long ranks of the new oppressors who have risen on the destruction of the old, perishing by this retributive instrument, before it shall cease out of its present use. I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out.
Rohith continues:
I am writing this kind of letter for the first time. My first time of a final letter. Forgive me if I fail to make sense.
My birth is my fatal accident. I can never recover from my childhood loneliness. The unappreciated child from my past.
May be I was wrong, all the while, in understanding world. In understanding love, pain, life, death. There was no urgency. But I always was rushing. Desperate to start a life. All the while, some people, for them, life itself is curse. My birth is my fatal accident. I can never recover from my childhood loneliness. The unappreciated child from my past.
Dickens continues:
“I see the lives for which I lay down my life, peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy, in that England which I shall see no more. I see Her with a child upon her bosom, who bears my name. I see her father, aged and bent, but otherwise restored, and faithful to all men in his healing office, and at peace. I see the good old man, so long their friend, in ten years’ time enriching them with all he has, and passing tranquilly to his reward.
Rohith continues:
I am not hurt at this moment. I am not sad. I am just empty. Unconcerned about myself. That’s pathetic. And that’s why I am doing this.
People may dub me as a coward. And selfish, or stupid once I am gone. I am not bothered about what I am called. I don’t believe in after-death stories, ghosts, or spirits. If there is anything at all I believe, I believe that I can travel to the stars. And know about the other worlds.
Dickens continues:
“I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence. I see her, an old woman, weeping for me on the anniversary of this day. I see her and her husband, their course done, lying side by side in their last earthly bed, and I know that each was not more honoured and held sacred in the other’s soul, than I was in the souls of both.
Rohith continues:
If you, who is reading this letter can do anything for me, I have to get 7 months of my fellowship, one lakh and seventy five thousand rupees. Please see to it that my family is paid that. I have to give some 40 thousand to Ramji. He never asked them back. But please pay that to him from that.
Let my funeral be silent and smooth. Behave like I just appeared and gone. Do not shed tears for me. Know that I am happy dead than being alive.
“From shadows to the stars.”
Uma anna, sorry for using your room for this thing.
To ASA family, sorry for disappointing all of you. You loved me very much. I wish all the very best for the future.
Dickens writes
“I see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my name, a man winning his way up in that path of life which once was mine. I see him winning it so well, that my name is made illustrious there by the light of his. I see the blots I threw upon it, faded away. I see him, fore-most of just judges and honoured men, bringing a boy of my name, with a forehead that I know and golden hair, to this place— then fair to look upon, with not a trace of this day’s disfigurement —and I hear him tell the child my story, with a tender and a faltering voice.
Rohith writes
For one last time,
Jai Bheem
Dickens concludes
“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”
Rohith concludes with a p.s.
I forgot to write the formalities. No one is responsible for my this act of killing myself.
No one has instigated me, whether by their acts or by their words to this act.
This is my decision and I am the only one responsible for this.
Do not trouble my friends and enemies on this after I am gone.
Both men might have had different reasons to die but both appear to express a stark similarity of the times they describe. Now he might not have been a match to Dickens in his expression but by putting his clarity of thoughts on paper Rohith transcends to the same height as Sydney Carton, peacefullest, sublime and prophetic. While those involved with the case try to find reason around his expression, in death he becomes all, narrator, the people, the jury, the judge, the condemned, executor and the executed.
Whatever one may conclude, the question that comes to thought is that here are two narratives so much alike, one fictional the other real life, written centuries apart, across continents and cultures, then why are human beings permanently in conflict with each other?
Pali Reen
