Chicken a la Carte: Beyond the Bright Lights

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If Tharoor Loses in Trivandrum....

The voters of Trivandrum have left everyone guessing as the curtains came down on the of state’s most high profile electoral battle. Why were they reluctant to use this as an opportunity for change? They had high profile candidates, P K Krishnadas of the BJP or Neelalohithadas of the BSP might have ended up being ministers of cabinet rank if their leaders landed the PM’s job. And in Shashi Tharoor they had an ideal candidate to usher in the much needed freshness they had been longing for in the political sphere. Now whoever wins, one thing is certain, he is going to Delhi with the approval of less than 25% of the voters in the constituency. Not even the glamour and glitter of an international celebrity which brought it to the limelight could boost the polling percentage in the capital. The prospects are supposed to be brighter for the left when the polling percentage is low with their committed cadre voters. But this time there could be strong undercurrents which may upset those calculations. Even the prospects of ‘national parties’ the BSP or the BJP opening their account in the state now look a distinct possibility. It appears that the people have grown disillusioned with the years of neglect and insult showered on them by the incompetent politicians who couldn’t circumvent the lobbyists from within and outside the state actively torpedoing the development initiatives and interests of this historic city. The people of Trivandrum were being taken for a ride, be it the Vizhinjam port, the High Court bench, or the subway rail systems. They were being denied even the basic infrastructure such as a railway station and central bus stand approachable by land during the monsoon seasons.   

Of the four major candidates in the fray this time, Tharoor held more promise because he stood out in the crowd. True, he had not arrived as a messenger of change from among the masses, a la Obama and descended from the top courtesy the high command. But the fact that he has a brilliant mind suited to politics is not to be suspected. He surely knows a thing or two about the lobbies and their operational mechanisms and might have taken them on in a game of their own. Remember he had won over the whole nation across the political divides when he sought to become the UN secretary general, pushing the national desire for a permanent seat in the Security Council quietly under the carpet.

Sashi Tharoor writes wonderfully in simple prose. I have been a regular reader of his columns, an ardent fan of sorts, of his writing. He did a couple of inspiring pieces on the importance of being Irfan Pathan  in the post Godhra India which was very much on the lines of what I had in mind. But often when we write, we reveal more about ourselves than perhaps what we actually desire. And at times we do get a little carried away and he is no exception as it happened with his piece on the Stephanians in Parliament which he had to retract. It can happen with anyone of us, factual errors originating from an erroneous source derailing our dissemination of information. But it couldn’t have been lost on him that some of the people whom he had incorrectly listed need not have to burn much midnight oil to sail into either the Indian Parliament or St. Stephan’s or wherever. And it is only a part of the story; some of those brilliant Stephanians he had mentioned correctly didn’t cover themselves with glory either in their political career.   

Left propaganda managers had been educating the public to the effect that as the UN Under Secretary General, Mr. Tharoor had been nothing but a glorified clerk. What of the left candidate then? Hadn’t he been one too, to leaders like PKV in the past? The leadership training in some left parties had assumed that style for quite some time now. If you listen silently to all that the leader preaches and obey him for a lifetime as an attendant, you might end up being an MP or MLA when he passes away, that is after the children orphaned by the leaders are accommodated. And look at his name, he hopes to usher in the communist revolution but couldn’t forego his casteist surname. In the 21^st century, a communist with a casteist tailpiece is no better than a   Gandhian riding on the Merc. I am unsure about Mr. Tharoor’s credentials on caste, but he too is not above the temptation to eulogize his ‘royal’ lineage from the times when the rich and the powerful landed gentry in every junction in Kerala used to call themselves kings. Added to that he traces his roots to a particular district in Kerala where the people of his community suffer from a certain superiority complex as reflected in the matrimonial ads they place on the news papers.

In spite of these, however, I had the inkling that he could have been the man of the moment for Trivandrum. We are well into the 21^st century; pragmatism should have been preferred to mere political ideologies in a flourishing democracy, especially when the gap between the certified retailers of those ideologies is fast diminishing. Tharoor had chosen to come to Trivandrum braving the heat and dust and plunged into the electoral rough ride to have the honour of representing the constituency which had a history of electing as well as dumping political stalwarts. That, remember is when our honorable Prime Minister is reluctant to face the electorate.  He too could have easily opted for the rear gate into the Upper House and ended up being a central minister. That he chose to seek the people's mandate reveals his good intentions and his faith in the democratic process. Tharoor did bring a certain aura to the electoral scene in Trivandrum. But by now, it’s more or less clear that he had failed to inspire the urban middle class voters, probably his best bet, to march up to the polling booths. If someone pips him to the post, he surely will be an international celebrity basking on the reflected glory, albeit briefly.

Selfless men can not survive in 21^st century politics, nor can selfless voters derive the best out of it. If they were smart enough, the voters of Trivandrum should have realized that all the other major contenders would have continued to work in their midst whether they win or lose in the current elections. Expecting that off Tharoor in the case of a humiliating defeat will be asking for too much. This was an opportunity for the voters of Trivandrum to tap the talents of a highly gifted freshman politician.  If they messed it up, who cares? After all, river Karamana won’t stop draining water to the Arabian Sea for some more years and Trivandrum will continue to limp ahead at its own convenient and leisurely pace. And as for Mr. Tharoor, well he may have gained plenty to add to his literary output.

The ad Tata does not want you to see

Dear Mr. Tata,  

I am disappointed that despite the appeals of conservationists and fishing communities, over 200 scientists (25 of them from IUCN’s Marine Turtle Specialist Group), and nearly 100,000 of your own customers, TATA has not seen it fit to suspend construction, specifically dredging, at the Dhamra port in Orissa, which might have irreversible effects on the ecology of the area and the sea turtles that nest at the nearby Gahirmatha beaches. I know that while TATA has expressed its agreement to a fresh assessment, it has refused to suspend dredging in the interim. This suspension is indispensable if any assessment is to have meaning. As we are in the middle of the turtle nesting and breeding season, it is critical that dredging be suspended immediately pending an independent and comprehensive assessment of the environmental threat that the port poses. This assessment should then determine the future of the port. As part of your own customers who oppose continued port construction, I ask you once again to heed the calls of thousands of us who believe that the TATAs must put environmental concerns on par with profitability.

Sincerely Yours,

It’s Never Ever too late to live Our Dreams!

Is there a thing called the midlife crisis?

When is the time to stop dreaming in our lives?

What it takes to live our dreams?

Can age & appearance be surmounted by the attitude?

Let’s Ask Susan J

Ask who?

Well, Ms. Susan Boyle is an unemployed 47 year old, who has "never been kissed" and lives alone with her cat and who dreams to be a professional singer!!

Can she make it big? See for yourselves and decide;

Com. E. K. Nayanar

The Smiles From My Shelf [4]

It has been ages since I had posted something on one of my favorite topics.

Was it that I didn’t want to? I’m not sure!!

But today I was reminded about it by a most unlikely source. As I was scrolling through the online news papers today, I had come across a report on the investigation to the conspiracy by certain communal elements to assassinate the former Kerala Chief Minister E K Nayanar. The politics in Kerala has been witnessing a rapid transformation in the run up to the present general elections, leaving the man on the street confused as well as saddened by the turn of events. Money, muscle power and rabid communal elements have virtually taken over the centre stage like never before. It is under such circumstances that a man of the masses like Com. Nayanar is really missed.

Com. E. K., as we used to refer to him, was no run of the mill polititian. He was a gentle and genial leader who had touched the people's hearts irrespective of their political affiliations. There were no short cuts for him in politics, he had worked 'underground' in almost all regions of the state and knew every village "like the back of my hand". Throughout his life he was on the side of the ordinary and the downtrodden people and earned their uninhibited affection and respects. I still remember the sea of humanity that had beseiged the AKG Centre, braving the incessant monsoon showers to have a last glimpse of his body and pay him their last respects.

Com. E. K. lived a modest life. He was the CM, next door who could easily connect with the man in the street. A brilliant speaker with a penchant for putting things in a hilarious way, he had often sent his audience into roars of laughter. The comrades as well as political opponents liked to listen to him. He showed an effortless irreverence to things formal and was never a strict adherent to protocols. But behind all these was the master politician with guileless persuasive skills, who was chosen to lead an experimental coalition and went on to become the state's longest serving Chief Minister. There was no disputing his ideological commitments but he had also possessed the pragmatism that was essential in running coalition governments. He could easily tranform himself from an old-fashioned organizer to an able administrator. Some of the state's best known developmental and welfare initiatives were launched under his leadership. The successful efforts to strengthen the public distribution system, to boost the agricultural production, the decentralization of power through the district council experiments and the path breaking mass campaigns that made Kerala a fully literate state were all carried out with him at the helm. The radical experiment at democratic decentralization, the People's Plan Campaign was launched during his last stint as Chief Minister. If some of those experiments might have run into rough weather let's blame it on the scourge of corruption that had crept into the very grass roots and not the men who took the noble initiative.

I have one fond recollection of a close encounter with that man of the masses. It was the early 1990's and I was in my second year in college. A student agitation was on against the policies of the then government in the education sector. The state leaders of the left leaning student organizations were on indefinite hunger strike in front of the government secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram. Engineering college students had joined them in an adjacent 'pandal' and I was put on duty there to attend to the fasting comrades. Our days used to start quietly with a reading and analysis of the morning news papers. But as the day wore on, the road in front of secretariat was filled with demonstrators expressing solidarity with the fasting students. There were frequent skirmishes too which would turn the road into a virtual battleground between the agitating students and the policemen led by a certain Rishi Raj Singh, who had always preferred to lead from the front. After sunset we had the torchlight demostrations, often daring the onlooking policemen to come and hit us. The strike was dragging on for longer than expected and one by one the striking comrades were being arrested and removed to hospitals. Prominent politicians from the opposition used to visit us. One afternoon, there was a sudden spurt of movement of people in and around our 'pandal' and some of those sitting inside quickly rushed out. Before I could sense what was going on I saw right in front of me, the familiar figure of Com. E. K, spotting the customary smile. He gestured to my fasting comrade Sunil C. P. not to get up from his bed even as he entered the 'pandal'. And as I stood motionless and confused, the legendary communist leader put his left hand on my shoulder and smiled at me. He told me in his no-nonsense way that he did not think that the government will reverse its policies. But he assured us that "we will fight this battle together". I did not know what to say and merely returned the smile.

In these days of violent and acrimonious political battles, the people of Kerala might be missing the healing presence of a charismatic personality like Com. E. K. and his sense of humour while handling the most vivacious of political debates. And I personally miss the beaming and innocent smile of that man of the masses.