From Discomfort Zone column by Shombit Sengupta in Financial Express and Indian Express
Electronic media has made Indian politics more and more entertaining. It’s beating Bollywood’s typical clichéd storylines of love, hate, fight, prison, poor man becomes rich man. Indian politics has more or less the same storylines except the love affair bit, making it Poliwood. Wonder why our political journalists are avoiding love affair diagnostics?
Actually we’ve got enough titillating stories where politicians invoke celestial powers to get jobs done. Even animals enter the picture. De-throned Karnataka Chief Minister Yeddyurappa and current Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha had expressed gratitude by donating elephants to temples after their political wishes were fulfilled. When UPA-SP Government won a trust vote in 2008, a Madhya Pradesh MLA sacrificed 265 goats and buffaloes, equivalent to 265 winning votes, in Guwahati’s Kamakhya Temple. Even Indira Gandhi had visited Ma Anandamayi with daughter-in-law Maneka, and Rajiv Gandhi, according to IPS news agency, had called on holymen when campaigning for reelection in 1989. A sadhu who lived in a tree placed his feet on Gandhi’s head, assuring him of success, but it didn’t work. The Congress was voted out of power. A few months ago, instead of inviting investors or industrialists, a yagna (religious ceremony with the fire) was held in West Bengal for getting business into the state. Did it work? A believer pointed out, “Didn’t Hillary Clinton come to Kolkata last week to promise American economic partnership?”
Divine interpreters like swamis, bhagwans, astrologers, gurus, yogis, palmists, babas, faith healers, acharyas, numerologists dominate much beyond politics into their believers’ daily lives. Several TV channels dedicated to religious pravachans have godmen dancing and singing in uncontrollable religious fervor, their audience of thousands following suit. Reminds you of the effect rock stars in concert have on screeching fans. Some swamijis give 10 to 30 second predictions to individual disciples on live TV. Devotees kow-tow, scraping forward with folded hands, and openly discuss even intimate conjugal problems. They seem oblivious to the millions viewing them on the idiot-box, or other disciples jam-packed behind them, awaiting turns for confession or guru advice.
Politicians in different states get elected from this kind of society of diverse cultures, languages, food and religions with multiple deities. There’s no one belief system that people subscribe to, their mentality, behavior, way of acting, thinking differ radically. In contrast, cultures with one God have a principal belief system where it’s easier to get collective focus for a goal as the overwhelming majority shares the same work ethic and worships in one direction. I’d written about how difficult Indian businesses find to extract disciplined quality work from employees from multiple God cultures (http://www.indianexpress.com/news/is-quality-cultural/907947/0). As there’s no single point of adherence in a religion of multiple gods, the system can become irrational with no established point of convergence. When everyone interprets quality practices it disrupts the laid-down business process. Just as individuals can fragment quality, can the situation in politics be any different?
Members of Parliament get elected from their own states, and not all have a national political background. When an MP becomes a national minister because of his/her party’s winning power or through alliance, partiality to the state of origin is obvious and human. So is the expectations from people of that state from the Minister. There’s continuous compromise in the Minister’s mind. The dilemma increases when he’s a Minister in a Government formed by an alliance of several parties: should he serve his own party, national interests or his constituency? This makes the entire Central Government system quite vulnerable, and no national leader can emerge, as seems to be the case in current Indian politics. Like a spring that stores accumulated force at a certain gravity to throw and retract its power, perhaps the monarchical political brand of the Nehru-Gandhi family has been so stretched that it’s worn everybody thin. After all, if you stretch the spring continuously, it evens out like a string and eventually breaks into pieces. Is this the situation with our national leaders today? On all issues of governance we seem to witness Bollywood-style histrionics or banana skin slips, where the banana skin can be clandestinely put in front of a politician by any of the many vested interests.
In a one party majority Presidential system of government where the whole nation elects the leader there’s less of a chance for Poliwood drama. A strong personality with a supportive party can make the government stable. An interesting episode on Armistice Day 8th May in France perhaps illustrates the strength of the Presidential electoral system where control remains with the President. France has just voted Socialist Francois Hollande as President. Outgoing President Nicolas Sarkozy, for the first time in history, invited his successor to accompany him to Arc de Triomphe to commemorate the end of World War II. Sarkozy, who’d long lost people’s aspirational emotion as per polls especially in the last year, has suddenly warmed everyone’s hearts when in his 6 May defeat speech, he admitted that his personal defects made his party lose. He offered total co-operation to the new Government and requested everyone to support Hollande. That’s democracy and reconciliation, forgetting the past to collaborate for national interest. It’s unlikely to happen, but I won’t be surprised if Hollande, who takes over on 15th May, names Sarkozy as his prime minister!
In India, from being colonized by a gun-toting monarchical, British political system, we chose our current Parliamentary politics. This democratic Government process seems to match the diversity of our Hindu-dominated, multiple God culture where all politicians are perforce wary of banana skins, from voters and opposition alike. In trying to escape banana skins, how much attention are elected politicians paying to keeping their electoral promises? Only when the quality of politics is at a higher ground can there be better governance. Instead of giving us Poliwood stories of corruption, divisive politics, managing caste equations and allies, can we have our elected representatives resolve our many economic problems, and provide employment, education and health for the masses?
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Financial Express link:http://www.financialexpress.com/news/poliwood-like-bollywood/948615/0
From Discomfort Zone column by Shombit Sengupta in Financial Express and Indian Express
Unknown inventor running the world: Roland Moreno epitomizes my last week’s article that non-aggressive French inventors donate their inventions to charity for others to exploit. In 1974, Egypt-born Frenchman Moreno invented the computer chip that’s used in smart cards. France pioneered smart card usage, France Télécom in 1983, French banks in 1992. American Express didn’t use it until 1999, and British banks and transport systems later. Just verify in your own pocket how many chips you use, for banking, shopping, commuting, in your passport, your mobile phone SIM card, among others. Yet when Moreno died last week (29 April2012), his company Innovatron had only made €150 million from an invention that’s touching almost everyone on the planet today. Without Moreno, where would Job’s iPad, iPhone, Samsung’s Galaxy or Nokia be? Or world’s top billionaire Carlos Slim Helu make his $69 billion from Telmex or Airtel’s Sunil Mittal make his $8 billion? Moreno’s chip is converging billions of business dollars where France or Moreno has no role to play. Wasn’t this invention for charity? It shows how un-smart France has become, from being inventive through past centuries to currently losing its AAA Standard & Poor rating and recording highest unemployment at 10%. Yet French politicians are honoring workers in May Day rallies to woo votes in Presidential elections today (6 May2012).
Born in Chicago 1886, May Day reverberates worldwide: Every May Day France’s extreme right National Front holds a rally to honor Joan of Arc. This teenage warrior born 600 years ago symbolizes patriotism, she fought to oust the English from France. This year Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s resurgent, anti-mostly Muslim immigrants FN party invoked Joan of Arc’s memory by firmly opposing Anglo-Saxon domination of French politics through NATO and USA that sent French troops to Afghanistan. Actually 1st May commemorates a general strike at Chicago’s Haymarket 1886 demanding an eight-hour workday, where violence broke out killing dozens of workers and policemen. Subsequently, across the world, socialist and communist trade unions recognize May Day for working class rights. Except, ironically, in the US where to avoid any revolutionary character Labor Day is in September. French trade unions in Presidential election year highlighting their woes in May Day rallies countrywide. Buoyed up by her record high 18% score in the first Presidential election round, Marine told her FN followers that she’ll not endorse either Presidential candidate. Which has left a big question mark on who will get her party’s 6.4 million votes in today’s election.
Scandals rock French electioneering: Tom and Jerry mudslinging and insult trading are dominating France’s Presidential race. Their only TV debate on 2nd May turned into a scrap-fight. Socialist challenger Francois Hollande said President Nicolas Sarkozy was irresponsible, using the global economic crisis as an excuse for broken promises. “You lie, you little slanderer!” retorted Sarkozy, saying France is Europe’s only country with no recession since 2009. Both rivals are plagued with scandals. Investigative news website Mediapart, founded by left-leaning journalists, published an internal Libyan regime document recording an alleged 2006 illegal funding deal of 50 million Euros ($63 million) from Muammar Gaddafi to Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign. Sarkozy dismissed it as “crude forgery” and sued them. Mediapart’s counter-sued him.
Scandal erupted among Socialists lawmaker Julien Dray’s birthday bash at a bar in Paris’ Rue St Denis, historically associated with prostitution, had invitees including senior Party campaign members and Hollande’s former partner Segolene Royal. Segolene furiously walked out when she discovered the guest list had former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, accused of sexual assault in New York and currently under investigation for alleged ties to a vice ring. Hollande categorically declared that DSK, earlier slated to be the Socialist party candidate, now "no longer has a role in political life…” DSK on his part has allegedly said that for political gain, agents loyal to Sarkozy had a hand in politicizing a sex scandal in May2011 that cost him his job and political future, as per extracts from Edward Epstein’s upcoming book released to British daily The Guardian.
It seems political disgrace is not new in France. President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing in 1975 declared President Jean-Bédel Bokassa of Central African Republic is "friend and family member." France supported him with financial and military backing as he declared himself Emperor 1977. When his empire fell in 1979, Bokassa went into exile and wrote his memoirs. He claimed he’d shared women with Giscard d’Estaing, and gifted him diamonds worth a quarter million dollars in 1973 when he was finance minister. Giscard lost his 1981reelection bid when the scandal broke.
Is the Indian President PRO or priest? India’s also undergoing Presidential election in July 2012, but of a very different kind. There’s no direct people’s representation here, the process seems more a monarchical remnant from our colonial past. The difference? Whereas the British monarch comes from family tradition, here, the more puppet-like a candidate appears for the ruling party and its allies, the better his/her chances of getting selected to live in luxury’s lap in the world’s largest Presidential Palace. Indian politics veers around a few intellectuals in the metros pandering to 20% of the population, while 80% of the country’s poor struggling for a livelihood has no time, inclination or choice to protest against what’s meted out to them in the name of democracy. They come into the picture only when some political party herds them into trucks and buses to show its “numbers strength” in processions in the metros. Politicians are flying back and forth nowadays touting Presidential names, confusing people as to whether they’re selecting an actor for Bollywood films or the President. The semantic is President, but the activity is public relations as India’s brand ambassador, or as a priest who’s required only for officiating ritual maneuvers for upholding people’s mental satisfaction in a belief system.
As French and Indian Presidential symphonies pan out, let’s hope people in the two nations benefit economically and in stature, in spite of political rumblings.
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Financial Express link:http://www.financialexpress.com/news/presidential-symphonies/945827/0
From Discomfort Zone column by Shombit Sengupta in Financial Express and Indian Express
Remember those employee strikes galore when Indian banks first tried to computerize? Actually the very first time people were afraid to use a machine thinking it might replace their jobs was when Frenchman Blaise Pascal invented the mechanical calculator called Pascaline in 1642. To honour his role as a precursor in computer technology, there’s even a computer language named Pascal.
Some of the world’s most spectacular inventions that we’d be lost without in our modern, day to day life emanated from France. But are these inventions done for charity donations? France has largely not been able to fructify her inventions for financial gain, while other nations have taken those inventions forward for social and economic advancement.
Invention without execution makes you a loser. Much before World Wide Web was introduced 1994, the French enjoyed Minitel, the world’s most successful Videotex online service accessible through telephone lines since 1982. French Post launched this online service, handing out millions of terminals free to telephone subscribers. Minitel allowed users to make online purchases, train reservations, check stock prices, search the telephone directory, have a mail box, and chat in a way similar to what’s possible through the Internet. About 25 million of France’s total 60 million population had used the Minitel network. But today when you look at the top ten countries with the highest computer usage, France does not figure in the list.
Influential French inventions modernizing our life in medicine, communication, computers, transportation, clothing, arts, entertainment, food, physics, chemistry, mathematics, weapons, military, even sports, have come over a few centuries. Blind man Louis Braille invented the Braille system for the blind to read and write. To keep Napoleon’s troops well-fed in far-flung places Nicolas Francois Appert invented canning in 1809. Louis Pasteur invented pasteurization to sterilize food, kill contaminating micro-organisms. Undersea explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau invented the aqualung in 1943 for divers’ oxygen supply underwater. Today’s standardized metric measurement system was invented in Paris Academy of Sciences in 1790, oxygen by Antoine Lavoisier in 1778. Tailor Barthelemy Thimonnier perfected the sewing machine in 1830. American Isaac Merrit Singer turned it into big business. Among women’s garments, Herminie Cadolle made the bra 1889, Coco Chanel the little black dress 1920, Louis Réard the bikini 1946, and Guy Cotton the raincoat 1960. Father Marcel Audiffren invented refrigeration in 1894 to keep French monastery wines cool. American company General Electric capitalized on it in 1911, manufacturing refrigeration machines for homes.
Individual transportation was another convenience the French gave us. Nicholas Joseph Cugnot physically drove the first self-propelled car in 1769. Édouard Michelin invented inflatable tyres in 1895, Louis Renault invented the drum brake 1902, while French-born Rudolf Diesel invented the diesel engine, and Gustave Trouvé the first electric automobile 1881. So where does France stand among auto majors? In the 8th and 10th positions, overtaken by Japanese, American, German and Korean companies. In water transport the steam boat came from Denis Papin in the 19th century and the first outboard motorboat by Gustave Trouve. Pierre Michaux and Pierre Lallement developed the bicycle 1864, but France figures nowhere among the best or biggest manufacturer today, Taiwanese company Giant wins. Frenchman Rinaldo Piaggio invented the scooter 1884, but world leader Piaggio is an Italian brand today. Even in air transport, the first flying helicopters were experimented independently 1907 by Louis Breguet and Paul Cornu. Brothers Joseph and Jacques Etienne Montgolfier designed the hot air balloon and Louis Sebastien Lenormand the parachute in late 18th century.
Extreme Right rises as recession weapon. When General Charles de Gaulle became French President after World War II, he believed the French had struggled greatly during German occupation, so he nationalized most industries. Through liberal laws he provided good living comfort with free medical and education facilities for citizens. The people became totally dependent on the state, their only desire was to work less, get better leisure. The small and medium enterprises (SME) in France started vanishing. Selling sophisticated luxury goods to the world’s rich has remained a French preserve. But this cannot be a country’s backbone. When the Government molly-coddles people, the backlash can be non-productive corruption, as we’ve seen with India’s 100 days of work for poor people. In many cases people work only 2 hours not 8 hours, sharing the booty with the job-doling official. The repercussion? Rural farmers are experiencing exorbitant daily labour charges to do sincere work for 8 hours.
In Europe’s recessionary wave where Greece, Spain, Portugal even the UK is suffering, the German economy stands tall on the strength of her SME manufacturing base. German SMEs give financial and political stability, and export globally. Whenever a country’s economy deteriorates, jobs become scarce, citizens become protesters and the political fallout is rise of insular Extreme Rightism. That’s just happened in France’s first round Presidential elections on 22 April 2012 when the Extreme Right party unexpectedly got 19% votes among 10 candidates. The more recession grows, so will parochialism. Indian business houses focusing on Europe have to observe this movement. It cannot be a permanent, but will have high volcanic eruption from time to time.
Typical French inventive characteristics are worth emulating. They include embracing the new, constant effort to differentiate work, be curious, find out more. In fact modernity is characterized by the aspiration of freedom, equal rights and brotherhood that translate to the 1789 French Revolution motto of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. However, during Nicolas Sarkozy’s Presidential term 350,000 industrial jobs were lost; the unemployment rate for mainland France in the fourth quarter 2011 was 9.4 percent, close to a 12-year high. This proves that when invention is not put into the execution of industrialization, even an inventive country like France has to battle an economic crisis, having lost the inventive SME spirit and the AAA S&P rating from long years of financial indiscipline. When invention becomes charity the country suffers economically.
To download above article in PDF Inventions for charity
Financial Express link:http://www.financialexpress.com/news/inventions-for-charity/942967/0
From Discomfort Zone column by Shombit Sengupta in Financial Express and Indian Express
Wielding the photo-weapon of a handsome hunk with distended biceps, lean abdomen, sleek briefs, Extreme Right FN party Presidential candidate Marine Le Pen bemoaned French diplomacy collapse. “Was it an ad for Eminence (male underwear brand), or the real ambassador in Tunisia?” she questioned, demanding sexy-underwear wearing, 41-year-old French Ambassador Boris Boillon resigns, “for the honor and dignity of the French and Tunisians.”
Playboy girl: Daughter of Jean Marie Le Pen, who for 35 years tried becoming French President with the "French first, immigrant out" slogan, perhaps Marine is over-sensitive about body exposure. After all, her parents’ explosive divorce 1987 led her mother to take revenge by appearing nude in Playboy magazine. Madame Pierrette Le Pen wanted to ridicule her “misogynistic, despot” husband who’d humiliated her with housemaid reference. So she posed wearing an all-revealing maid’s apron, white cap, black collar, high heels, nothing more, while performing household chores in sexy submissive servitude.
Woman lover President: In contrast, France’s longest serving, 1981-95, President Francois Mitterand’s reputation was coureur de femme (running behind woman), he loved women. They say his extramarital affairs were numerous. He met Anne Pingeot in a French village 1974 while preparing for his presidential campaign; they parented a daughter, Mazarine. As President he secretly provided his mistress and Mazarine with security at the taxpayer’s expense. The French public was unaware as Mitterand prevented such information from leaking out by ordering illegal wiretapping of journalists among others as part of his campaign against terrorism.
Mitterand had incredible political shrewdness. He’d joined Marshall Philippe Petain’s pro-Hitler-Germany government at Vichy 1940-44, then about-turned in 1943 to join the French Resistance. After World War II, Mitterand became a Socialist, but such was his political acumen that Conservative Charles de Gaulle appointed him minister. At the end of Mitterand’s 2-term Presidential tenure 1981 – 1995, he revealed Mazarine’s existence. French society appreciated that he’d recognized her, not abandoned her. Even in death 1996, Mitterand made gossip headlines when his wife, Danielle Mitterand went against Catholic practice, and invited Anne and Mazarine Pingeot to his funeral, seating them with the legitimate family.
Amorous bling-bling President: Nicolas Sarkozy and his second wife Cecilia divorced soon after he became President 2007. "I don’t see myself as First Lady," Cecilia had said. "It bores me." Sarkozy didn’t waste time feeling dejected. At a party he met Carla Bruni, Italian supermodel, singer and heiress, who’d walked off a live-in relationship with philosophy professor Raphael Enthoven. Carla and Nicolas became paparazzi fodder worldwide in a whirlwind 80-day romance. Their marriage in February 2008 starized sombre Elysee Palace, setting a new benchmark. Sarkozy now welcomes celebrity and multi-billionaire visitors, wears expensive suits, stylish sunglasses, conspicuously large wristwatches, which prompted newspaper Libération to baptize him "the Bling-Bling President."
Christie’s International chose April 2008, when she accompanied Sarkozy as official First Lady to New York, to auction a black-and-white nude Carla Bruni photograph taken 1993. It fetched $91,000, almost 20 times its high estimate. Two years later into marriage, rumours started on Twitter about it being shaky, that both Sarkozy and Bruni are supposedly no strangers to infidelity. According to British tabloid Sun, she’s remarked she’s "easily bored by monogamy." Gossip romantically links Bruni with musician Benjamin Biolay, and Sarkozy with ecology minister Chantal Jouanno.
Broken love Presidential candidate: Sarkozy’s 2007 Presidential election opponent, darling of public polls Segolene Royal, lost, many say, largely because of broken love and scant support from male chauvinistic Socialist party members. The Party’s General Secretary, her domestic partner of 30 years who’d fathered her 4 children was Francois Hollande. She’d thrown Hollande out 2006 when he started an affair with Paris Match celebrity magazine journalist, Valérie Trierweiler, but hid their broken relationship until after her defeat. Officially declaring Valerie “woman of my life” in 2010, Hollande slimmed 10kgs to become the 2012 Presidential candidate. Much to her chagrin, Valerie’s own magazine splashed her on the cover page as Hollande’s “trump charm.”
Loss of Presidential candidature in seven-minute sex scandal: Actually the Socialist Party’s hot candidate to defeat Sarkozy in the 2012 presidential race was Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK), former IMF President. But 7 minutes in New York’s Sofitel Hotel irreversibly changed his stars. According to hotel electronic key records, chambermaid Nafissatou Diallo entered DSK’s suite about 12.06pm. His BlackBerry phone recorded 12.13pm when he spoke to his daughter Camille. For what happened in those seven intervening minutes he has seven criminal sexual act charges slapped against him at New York Supreme Court, although his version is “consensual sex, no rape, no constraint, no aggression, no criminal act.” Brilliant French journalist and heiress Anne Sinclair who’d experienced coup de foudre (sudden fiery love)1989 with DSK, they married 1991, rushed to New York to extricate her husband from this mess of lifelong imprisonment. Women criticize Anne for supporting her sex maniac husband, but she’s among those rare persons who prove real love is beyond social trauma.
Presidential candidate with out-of-wedlock children and new girlfriend: Catholic society would generally frown on an unmarried person with 4 children and new girlfriend stepping into Elysee Palace, but polls are indicating Francois Hollande as the next President with 57% runoff. Rising above the Socialist Party backstab she received during her 2007 election campaign, Segolene Royal surprised everyone by campaigning for Francois Hollande in Rennes on 25 March 2012. France was waiting to see them kiss on stage, if not on the lips, at least cheek-pecking French tradition style. But they merely shook hands, maintaining the high standards of Ecole National d’Administration they both studied in.
Protocol issues prevented unmarried Carla Bruni from accompanying her newest love Sarkozy to India 2008. As French First Lady in 2010, visiting Taj Mahal was for her “like a dream.” Let’s watch France’s first election round today. If Hollande wins the runoff 6 May12, will he bring his amour (love) to India’s monument of love? With Presidential elections revealing underwear and political armour, France lives up to her coinage of liberty, equality and fraternity.
To download above article in PDF Underwear & political amour
Financial Express link:http://www.financialexpress.com/news/underwear-and-political-amour/939867/0
From Discomfort Zone column by Shombit Sengupta in Financial Express and Indian Express
France, harbinger of the world’s first revolution in 1789 to overthrow monarchy for democracy, is heading for Presidential elections on 22 April2012 with 6 May 2012 as the runoff if no party gets 51% majority. In the complex social electioneering drama, two distinct, historical Frenchie factors are popping up for attention: camarade and cheese.
Camarade, translating to comrade in English, is used by all hues of Leftists worldwide, but it originated during the French Revolution. It means hearty friend as confidant. The sudden astonishing comeback of the French Left Front under Jean-Luc Melenchon is making poll statistics bob up and down. An erstwhile Socialist party member and minister 2000-2 in the Socialist Government, his proposition through fiery extempore speeches is to “Take the power,” create France’s 6th Republic and introduce 100% taxation beyond earnings of 360,000 Euros. Melenchon-mania is sweeping across the youth. In the 18 March 2012 rally he called in Bastille, 120000 people gathered. He exclaimed, “Thousands of red flags in Bastille. Yes! We’re dangerous.” His red flag has no hammer-&-sickle, just a single star “To change Europe.” He’s tearing away the protestor crowd who traditionally votes for the Extreme Right FN party of Le Pen. Whose camarade will Melenchon finally become?
And cheese? France cannot exist without cheese, the stronger and smellier the better. I went to France with the taste of Indian jalebi in my mouth. It took me a certain time to get accustomed to the ancient food cheese whose origins predate recorded history, ranging around 8000-3000 BCE when sheep were first domesticated. My work in Europe is highly associated with French culture so I’ve had to dive deep into their gastronomy. I actually learnt from my son, who’s born and brought up in France, how to appreciate cheese. Ever since my tongue has absorbed the taste and logic of French cheese, nothing can now shift that enjoyment and habit. My favourite cheese is one of Emperor Napoleon’s favourites too, Epoisses, made from raw cow’s milk. It definitely stinks. To give you an idea of its repulsive odour, Epoisses is banned from public transportation vehicles all over France. Many a foreign visitor in my home in Paris has asked to “Open the window, quick! There’s a foul smell….” when I tried inviting them to taste Epoisses cheese.
The way French people obsessively identify with different cheese varieties made Charles de Gaulle, national hero after World War II, once ask in exasperation, "How can you govern a country in which there are 246 kinds of cheese?" The political history of my cheesy-camarade adopted country is really spectacular, other societies have picked up its deeper meaning.
It’s incredible that the French demolished monarchy to form the First Republic, then in 1804, voluntarily brought back monarchy by crowning military-man Napoleon Bonaparte as Emperor. Undoubtedly Napoleon’s political and administrative prowess makes him France’s favourite emperor. Through Napoleonic Wars he secured a dominant position for France in Europe. Until the British defeated him in the Battle of Waterloo 1815, Frenchmen greatly enjoyed peace and order that helped raise comfort standards. Provisions became cheap and abundant unlike earlier frequent bouts of hunger, thirst, and lack of light; trade prospered, wages ran high. Napoleon’s war campaigns are studied at military academies throughout much of the world. The Napoleonic Code has influenced legal systems in several countries including the Indian Penal Code drafted during the British Raj. Among his legacy still practiced in France is the Baccalaureat exam and Legion of Honour awards recognizing hardwork and talent. But his unacceptable, abhorrent words were, “Women should not be regarded as equal to men. They are nothing more than machines for producing children.”
To return to the subject of Communism, France was the first to introduce working-class democracy. French workers went on strike 1934 demanding paid holidays for their 47-hour work-week in factories. This prompted France’s first Socialist Council supported by French Communist Party to introduce in 1936 two-weeks paid vacation each year for the first time in the world, and 40-hour work-week. So French Communism, unlike the Soviets, was liberal enough to practice the working-class ideology they preached. French Socialists put the system upside-down again by adopting 35-hour work-week effective 2000, although I’m not sure this is the right direction.
The French Muslim terrorist who recently killed 3 Jewish children, a Rabbi and 3 French armymen may have played a role in fluctuating polls. But Camarade Melenchon’s impact after rounding up support of protesters, has been more significant. In fact protester votes made the Extreme Right become, for the first time, the second party against Jacques Chriac in France’s 2002 election. This Extreme Right score scandalized both France and the world. But Chirac’s run-off victory by 80% confirmed that France had 20% protesters. CSA polls predicting the 6 May2012 run-off shows Socialist Party candidate Francois Hollande win 54% and reigning President Nicholas Sarkozy of Rightist UMP party lose with 46% votes. Tracking details, CSA 2012 polls of 6 February and 2 April show Marine Le Pen fall from 17.5 to 13% while Melenchon rose dramatically from 8 to 15%. This heralds the imminent return of the Communist Party that peaked 21.27% votes in 1969, dropped to 8.66% in 1995 at the end of Socialist President Francois Mitterand’s second term, and plummeted to 1.93% in 2007 election.
Hollande best personifies French liberty. He perforce reduced 10 kgs for the aesthetics appreciating French electorate. He won the Socialist party primary candidature fighting his former domestic partner, the mother of their four children, the very same Segolene Royal who lost the 2007 Presidential race to Sarkozy. Just imagine, an unmarried couple both Enarques who graduated from France’s most prestigious Ecole National d’Administration, both from the same party, but they didn’t like each other becoming Presidential candidate. But suddenly on 4 April2012, Segolene reversed this image, she appeared publicly with Hollande. Traditionally the Left eats cheese with Socialists, considering them as camarades. With Segolene and Melenchon beside him, will Hollande clinch victory at the 6 May 2012 run-off? Touche!
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Financial Express link:http://www.financialexpress.com/news/cheesy-camarade/936827/0
From Discomfort Zone column by Shombit Sengupta in Financial Express and Indian Express
Bengali intellectuals are still happy to remember Gopal Krishna Gokhale, pioneer of Indian National Movement, saying, “What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow.” Upper society Kolkatans calling themselves buddhijibi (perhaps “Intel Kolkata” is a better description) relish this, and measure people’s intellectual caliber by checking their deep admiration for the genius of Rabindranath Tagore and Satyajit Ray. Both undoubtedly had genius quality, but the problem is that in any creative and philosophical angle everyone is always compared with them. Although 70-80% Bengalis doesn’t understand Tagore and Ray, the Intel Kolkata elite that represent Bengal, irrespective of political affiliations, are driven by this school. But being a Bengali, its difficult stomach such arrogance. I feel hurt when I visit Bengal’s villages beyond Kolkata for my work and see uncertainty of life among my fellow Bengalis. I always think that I could have been in the same position today because that’s where I come from.
What was Bengal before the British took it over in 1757? The Mughals had no interest in this fertile farming land of Adivasis. If Bengal were so advanced, how were the British able to plunder Bengal (detailed in my article http://www.indianexpress.com/news/why-bengal-lags-behind/576558/0 ) to start England’s Industrial Revolution? It’s possible an affluent few collaborated with them, becoming Anglophone in education, culture and snobbery. This was the departure of Bengali intellectuals. Happy to get this small number of Bengali British, the British Raj nevertheless found Delhi more important politically so shifted their capital from Kolkata to Delhi while the Bengali British looked on.
Where were Bengali intellectuals when the British gifted India with Independence 1947? In 1905 when Bengal was divided, it sparked off such opposition that the British government was compelled to undo the decision. Yet in 1947, Bengal succumbed, and its idea of nation underwent a change from Tagore’s Swadesh to Swadhinata. Bengal got divided; my family had to flee Dhaka at midnight, leaving behind everything to become street beggars in a remote West Bengal refugee colony where I was subsequently born. A Bengali leader joined the Axis Army to save India from the British, but failed. After partition, Bengali politicians could not manage to get funds like Punjab did for refugee development. Bengal’s Anglo-influenced society later drove politics of every hue that the masses never understood, and vice versa.
“Bhumi sanskar” (land gifted to the poor) seemed a noble idea, but was it devoid of political gain? Poor farmers have no entrepreneurial capability, so with 2-acre land plots they barely manage the revenue required for farming. They spend Rs 30,000 on input purchase for average revenues of Rs 50,000 per year. It’s possible to make Rs 120,000/annum from 2 acres, but without knowhow, they remain in poverty. Just imagine if industry had been encouraged here, how Bengal’s economy would have been transformed today! The poor could have earned at least Rs 10,000 per month working in industries and not come to overcrowd city slums.
Land has become an emotional game with political parties and the masses. Property as asset rises in valuation through industrial evolution that activates the economy. If asset doesn’t translate to goodwill what use is 2-acres of stagnant, non-usable, non-goodwill creating asset to uneducated Bengali farmers? Their children are running away from villages to earn more. For Intel Kolkata politicians, the land is emotional blackmail in lieu of teaching farmers how to take care of their future. They could have used Bengal’s incredible strategic geographical position with industrial flourish to become a fantastic gateway link in the Bay of Bengal. But instead of bringing in industrial development, the Government did nothing to retain the industries that were vacating Bengal.
A recent survey shows Bangalore is losing its IT dominance to Gurgaon and Noida due to huge traffic, frequent power outages, erratic water supply and poor sanitation. In the $1000+ billion global IT market, Indian exports amount to ~$60 billion. Bengal has the educated manpower to grab at least $50 billion of this spend over the next 5 years. Since I left for Europe 37 years ago, and travelled on work across India in the last decade, I can see how I had to radically and consciously change my personal attitude. In Bengali culture, sudden bursts of emotion in the family, among friends and the workplace go beyond limits, elders have to be obeyed irrespective of their being right or wrong. Being critical for the sheer joy of it is widespread, while working hard to maximize knowledge and expertise is at a discount. If somebody in the same domain does well, spontaneous appreciation may be difficult. Lack of daringness or entrepreneurial spirit is a concern, but following best practices may not happen as "I know better” is the preferred phrase. It’s time for Bengal to change, to turn itself into an Asian business and industrial hub which the state definitely has the potential to become. Of course Bengal has to wriggle out of mass politicization and avoid being over-emotional.
If Bengali political thinking were so much in advance, how did the state historically fall into big disasters? Political parties are gambling on satisfying both farmers and industrialists, but there’s status quo. What should the tradeoff be? Will industrialists seeking God’s help with a 9-day religious mahayagya mitigate the dilemma? Have you seen, anywhere in the world, industrial development happening through God’s intervention? This way of looking at industry is again over-emotional and not allowing Bengal to go forward. In the last 100 years Americans had proved that industry brings prosperity. Also, by outsourcing manufacturing and services, increasing dependence on “virtual financing” with lack of corporate governance, among other issues in the last 20 years resulted in the real estate bubble leading to a recessionary situation where some Americans have become street-beggars too. The only route to change, as per advice of their economists, is to get manufacturing industries back. Overcoming over-emotion and complacency, will Bengal also take this cue of setting up manufacturing industries to become a major South Asian industrial hub?
To download above article in PDF Over-emotion cannot prosper a state
Financial Express link:http://www.financialexpress.com/news/over-emotion-cannot-prosper-a-state/878041/0
From Discomfort Zone column by Shombit Sengupta in Financial Express and Indian Express
“Being black is our only crime,” innocently sang South Africans struggling against humiliation, denial of liberty and physical torture under white Apartheid rule. The revolution to dismantle such racial isolation was totally driven by swaying to beats, music and impromptu songs. “Speeches or lectures in meetings are too laborious and intellectual,” said one of the black political heroes, “People connect better when you drive a simple message with the natural African rhythm of life.”
In their daily life during Apartheid days, blacks were continuously uprooted from home to segregated areas, given passes that prohibited entry to most places. Protesters were gunned down indiscriminately and en masse, their dead bodies strewn untended. That was the time when blacks would stealthily pick up murdered bodies from mass killings to bury them as per Christian rituals. It’s very painful to go through old documentation of that time. White missionaries had entered their land, converted and baptized unsuspecting natives into Christianity. Yet these religious fundamentals disappeared disrespectfully into thin air in the white man’s craving for dominance. After attaining freedom, the black community fished out the bones of known people and intellectuals who were tortured, and gave them fitting reburials. Aside from total breakdown of human dignity, abject poverty drove black people astray towards crime, yet the demoralized homeless would sing and hum together, "Ancestors, tell us why black is our mistake that white people hate us so."
Their hero of heroes is known as Madiba, his Xhosa clan name. Even from the ferocious, highest security, solitary imprisonment torture cell of Robben Island he could inspire South Africa youth to mutiny against their white oppressors. From 1976 to 1986, adolescent students and college-goers revolted braving gunfire. Poets and singers who inspired the uprising were exiled. Desmond Tutu, the first black South African Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town rose to global fame as an unequivocal opponent of Apartheid. When the world was sensitized to black persecution and inhumanity practiced by South Africa’s white government, economic sanctions were imposed on it. In 1985, the US and UK stopped investments in South Africa, the Rand currency plunged more than 35% pressurizing the government toward reforms. What finally resulted was Madiba’s freedom after 27 years in 1990 and South Africa’s liberation in 1994.
Madiba initially started opposing Apartheid with Gandhi’s theory of non violence. But after a certain time, he understood this was not going to work. He fled the country, got trained in guerilla warfare, and returned to advocate fighting with firearms. Students became violent, retaliated the governing regime’s violent attack with counter-attack. Madiba understood his enemy so strategically that when imprisoned he ignored a ‘foolproof’ escape opportunity a fellow prisoner planned. Sure enough that turned out to be a Government ploy to kill him if he’d tried to break-out and blame his death on crocodiles and sharks in the waters encircling the island. He knew his country required him, so he had to take every precaution to keep himself alive.
When their beloved Madiba was released at age 72, the black masses were ecstatic and of course pelted out victory celebrations in song, dance and rhythm under the African sky. Madiba bore a peaceful temperament, grudged no anger towards the white regime, but he too danced in his now famous typical swaying style. His powerful leadership had inspired several black African intellectuals, musicians and singers to create world propaganda against South Africa’s white dictators. From 1960 to 1990 musicians like Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masakela among others not only messaged the world of tyrannical rule through song, they also influenced world music with African beats and rhythm.
What’s most remarkable in erstwhile Soweto Apartheid colony that was forcefully created by whites to segregate blacks is that it’s produced two Nobel Laureates. And both live on the same street, the only street in the world that houses the homes of two Nobel Laureates. Madiba won the Nobel Peace prize in 1993 and Archbishop Desmond Tutu in 1984. When in Soweto, we saw white people freely cycling around, our guide Japh said this signals that this is not a trouble-prone area unlike downtown Johannesburg, an anti-Aparthied epicenter. But socially, the black-white divide continues in South Africa. Is it hypocrisy on the part of so-called sophisticated Western societies that they chose to give the most admired Nobel Peace Prize to anti-Apartheid workers just to assuage their own guilt feelings? Or to keep the blacks in check, and non-hostile in future? In India we’ve gone through colonization, but the visible experience revealed to every visitor to South Africa compares more or less to Auschwitz-Birkenau’s mass murdering museums where innocent Jews were brutally killed by Hitler.
Madiga is a superb intellectual, strategist, fighter, influencer and leader in the body and mind of every black African. He’s got about 250 awards worldwide, international rock concerts, songs and films were inspired by his struggle for social justice. His statue adorns several public places in the world. As you enter Johannesburg’s Sandton Square you suddenly get dwarfed by a 6 metre Madiba, not on a pedestal, but allowing you to reach his ankles. My curiosity was aroused in Johannesburg airport when I saw large Madiba photographs inside a garment boutique chain. Called Presidential, this store was selling colourful, African origin batik printed shirts that was trademark Madiba dressing style. I’ve seen San Francisco’s Alcatraz prison sell prisoner outfits, but what a extraordinary tribute this was to the freedom fighter imprisoned for 27 years, who emerged to liberate his country and become its first democratically elected President from 1994 to 1999. I find it outstanding that people can experience his iconic image by wearing a Presidential shirt.
In this last part of my African sojourn, I leave the identity of 93-year-old Madiba for you to discover. When you search you will find that everything can be diminished when we as human beings have tenacity and self confidence to overcome woes.
To download above article in PDF Two Nobel Laureates in an Apartheid street
Financial Express link:http://www.indianexpress.com/news/two-nobel-laureates-in-an-apartheid-street/867605/0
From Discomfort Zone column by Shombit Sengupta in Financial Express and Indian Express
Is it a Hollywood movie or a real case? Did former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) sexually assault a hotel chambermaid as alleged? DSK has denied all 7 charges against him. If proved, he’ll spend 74 years 3 months under lock-up. Let’s examine the shrieking can of worms let loose in this hot plot blending sex, money, politics, reputation, women, crime and outrage. Even the dress code of chambermaids has changed from skirts to trousers in New York’s Sofitel Hotel. Supposedly the mechanism of taking off trousers makes women less vulnerable to unwanted sexual advances.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, among the most powerful decision makers in disbursing international monetary funds, even to bail out countries in extreme recessionary crises, was arrested by New York police on 14 May 2011. How did they find him? He’d called his hotel to enquire after the mobile phone he left behind. The police heard, got into action, rushed to the aircraft about to take flight to Paris, entered the first class cabin and got kudos from a section of society for ‘retrieving a criminal from his escape bid.’ Paraded hand-cuffed before TV cameras in court, DSK was packed off to maximum security prison Rikers Island where die-hard criminals serve tough sentences. He was put on suicide watch.
Simultaneously, pandemonium broke loose internationally. The press ran amuck, detailing every move, speculating reasons, consequences, dissecting and bisecting DSK’s character, unearthing his alleged romps with different country prostitutes. Women’s groups found much to add in the cause of justice for rape victims. France was in utter shock, and severely criticized America’s judicial system. Strauss-Kahn was tipped to contest and win the next Presidential election as a Socialist party candidate. The French can’t believe that on a woman protest, and sans any proof, American police are empowered to take the ferocious action of relegating a responsible, high-profile public official to solitary confinement, destroying his reputation, snatching away his job, even destabilizing another country’s election process.
There’s also been gambling on whether DSK’s French political opponents orchestrated this. Tabloid website Le Post said the first person to tweet the arrest, even before the arrest, was Jonathan Pinet, a French right-wing UMP party activist. Pinet then said he got the news from his friend who works at the hotel. Le Post says the first person to retweet Pinet was Arnaud Dassier, who’d previously been implicated in revealing anti-DSK material. And the first website to mention the news, before New York Post broke the story, was 24heuresactu, a right-wing blog.
”I don’t believe for a single second the accusations of sexual assault by my husband,” said the ex-IMF chief’s third wife, Anne Sinclair who’s more famous than this second husband she married in 1991. I was an avid fan of her brilliant TV show called 7/7 in the 1980s. Her 500+ interviews included presidents Francois Mitterrand, Mikhail Gorbachev and Bill Clinton, and stars Yves Montand and Madonna. A multi-million heiress, her grandfather was Picasso’s art dealer, she rushed to New York bringing “brains, beauty & cash to save her man,” reported website whatonsanya. She hired the best lawyers, put up $6 million in bail, $50,000-a-month to rent a New York apartment to live in house-arrest with her husband who had to wear a non-removable electronic security tag on his ankle. She also paid $200,000-a-month for round-the-clock armed guards as per mandatory rules to prevent his escape. From the beginning DSK had stated it was consensual sex, that he’d seduced the chambermaid. Women have criticized her tolerance, but Anne Sinclair is determined to prove that her husband is not a rapist.
Then suddenly the tables turned. In a stunning court hearing on 1 July 2011 Dominique Strauss-Kahn was freed from house arrest, his security tag removed, his bail money returned but not his passport as the case is due for hearing on 18 July 2011. What happened? Prosecutors admit to ‘serious credibility issues’ with his 32-year-old Guinean immigrant accuser. UK’s Daily Mail reported, “Two official sources said the unnamed woman, within a day of her encounter with Strauss-Kahn, spoke telephonically to an imprisoned alleged drug dealer who is accused of possessing 400lb of marijuana. In the recorded conversation she reportedly discussed possible benefits of pursuing charges against Strauss-Kahn.” One paper even said she was a sex worker. It appears the maid’s bank account in two years had cash deposits of over £62,000, and her 5 phones ran up hundreds of dollars bills every month, although she revealed possessing one phone only.
Prosecutors said the alleged victim falsified her 2004 application for asylum in USA. She said she lied Guinean soldiers gang-raped her, tortured her husband who died in jail. She also admitted tax fraud, and lied about "a variety of additional topics concerning her history, background, present circumstances and personal relationships."She also changed her original police statement that “she fled to an area of the main hallway of the hotel’s 28th floor, waited until she observed the defendant leave suite 2806 and the 28th floor by entering an elevator. Now she says that after the alleged incident she proceeded to clean a nearby room, then returned to suite 2806, began to clean that suite before she reported the incident to her supervisor." She also allegedly owned up to falsely claiming a friend’s child as her own to get a higher tax refund.
Is this Hollywood film displaying American bigness becoming like a Bollywood entertainment fantasy? In the frightening movie Jaws, the shark at sea was only a robot shot in a big pond at Universal Studios, a background screen created the skyline. In this matter, who will the judge believe on 18 July? DSK’s maintaining consensual sex or the maid claiming rape? Will this judgment showcase America’s dream of becoming emperor of global politics? Never having enjoyed a real emperor’s power like Napoleon or Hitler the dictator had, perhaps in the name of freedom Americans love to impose a democratic imperial or dictatorial character while flying the American flag of liberty.
To download above article in PDF Sex barometer for a president
Financial Express link :http://www.financialexpress.com/news/sex-barometer-for-a-president/815239/0
From Discomfort Zone column by Shombit Sengupta in Financial Express and Indian Express
Choice. That’s what the free economy and competition gives the masses. What she/he likes today could be totally divergent tomorrow. Consumers declare in jest that they cannot change husbands, so they compensate that urge by changing brands. Nobody disturbs such decisions, there’s no social discrimination here. Perhaps people choose political parties the way they do brands. What’s next for rulers and opposition political parties just elected in 5 states? Let’s look at politics through the branding perspective as that’s intertwined with mass preferences. To achieve brand loyalty, brands engage with people’s psychological aspect. Do political parties understand that?
Connect to BPLs and billionaires: A consuming product brand cannot enjoy market monopoly when choice is aplenty. Sony was top-of-mind for electronic products for 25 years. Almost overnight Apple ate up its market share. Even LG and Samsung are more talked about than Sony and Philips. Should Indian political parties take a lesson from how brands conquer the masses? It’s easy to connect to the small number of millionaires/billionaires who have mutual political interest. But politicians need to pull in mass support. Brands have no caste consideration, but category differentiation can be created. Everyone consumes Britannia’s Tiger biscuits, but Mercedes is not for everybody. The masses are no longer passive spectators awaiting the 5-year voting festival, they’re participating activists. Political leaders may lead a Mercedes-driven lifestyle, but their mass representation has to be Tiger. In the free economy of this digital technology era, they need to connect on a global platform to all, BPL (below poverty line) to billionaires alike. Just as brands try understanding society’s micro nuances, political parties have to co-opt changing trends in this triangular focus by coping with: (1) three conflicting generations, (2) the micro judgment of people of 8 socio-behavioural clusters, and (3) the crunched distance from rural to metro.
(1) Three conflicting generations: Do industries, parents and political leaders pay heed to the existence of three conflicting generations, Retro (45+ years), Compromise (30 to 45 years) and Zap (below 30 years)? The Zapper mindset is attuned to globalization post India’s economic liberalization and impact of digital technology. When they reach 40/50 years of age, they’ll be mature Zappers, different from their Compromise and Retro parents. You know the landline, but have you experienced the mobile homeline? During research in Maharashtra’s deep rural, an 18-year-old took me to his congested, single-room, 13-member joint family home to show how he changed his poor family’s economic condition. From a central pole, a mobile phone was hanging. He said he had to fight family elders to buy the phone. It now helps him coordinate rates in nearby small towns and reach his family’s meager farm produce to the best offer. His family’s addicted to the hanging homeline so he doesn’t carry it himself. Zappers, irrespective of income and rural/metro residence, have this same enterprising mindset. Are political leaders engaging with their enthusiasm?
Why are SMEs (small and medium enterprises) complaining that Zap children are not interested in family business? Take a leaf from Germany’s tremendous success in outperforming other European countries. Agile German SMEs are the backbone of the country’s economy, they’ve competitively grabbed business across the globe. Indian SMEs have difficulty professionalizing their enterprises and inspiring their Zap children who think differently. In fact even in higher education Zappers are not taught the 3 pillars of entrepreneurship: (a) Focus on domain expertise from an early age to digest the domain’s nitty-gritty, (b) Develop management skills to activate teamwork, (c) Cultivate the capacity to sell. Entrepreneurship needs to be driven by daringness, passion and hard work. Can ruling and opposition political parties play a role here? They can facilitate their agenda of strengthening the economy and reducing unemployment by motivating SMEs to grow and sustain.
(2) Micro judgment from 8 socio behaviourial clusters: Irrespective of income and social class, the 21st century is witnessing 8 socio-behavioral clusters comprising individuals who are Low key, Value seeker, Sober, Flamboyant, Novelty seeker, Critical, Techy or Gizmo lovers. This is a change from 20th century’s socio economic classes and 19th century’s colonial agrarian classes. The power of micro judgment influenced by every individual’s behavior is what makes or breaks a brand today. That’s why all products are specifically positioned in the market to appeal to selected socio-behavioural clusters. Just as social inclusion is important for a brand, political parties need the passion to enter the social cauldron to understand and care for its political base. Furthermore, micro segmentation of Zappers to attune their political future may be required, the way brands are micro-segmented for penetration and consumption. Or will caste politics continue to rule the roost? Of course West Bengal is an exception as caste is irrelevant here.
(3) Crunching distance from rural to metro: Every Indian marketer’s nightmare is reaching rural areas which in his mind is equivalent to big distance, bad infrastructure, non commutable. But these physical barriers have been crunched virtually. And it’s scheduled to shrink more and more. What’s happening in metros, urban and small cities is almost transparent in the rural through mobile electronic media and cyber communication. Rural people will not remain silent for long. They’ve understood that they are the larger vote bank, yet development happens in metros and urban areas only. How soon can politicians bring prosperity to 600,000 small villages of 1200 to 6000 population each? Otherwise, for lack of livelihood opportunities, these people will be compelled to continue coming to big cities to grow 21st century slums at an alarming rate.
Voters of 5 states have exercised their democratic right, elected their governing representatives. Politicians have to broaden their shoulders now. The masses, no longer spectators, expect their leaders to facilitate them a better livelihood and lifestyle. From BPL to billionaires, everyone wants to enjoy the fruits of our free economy.
To download above article in PDF Do political parties know today’s he and she?
Financial Express link : http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Do-politicos-know-todays-he-and-she/790852/0
From Discomfort Zone column by Shombit Sengupta in Financial Express and Indian Express
CM Championship Trophy: Panchayat election was the league matches, Parliament election the quarter finals, municipal election the semi-finals, and the final assembly election for the CM Championship Trophy started 18 April to conclude on 10 May. The winner will be declared on 13 May 2011. As part of this election game we’ve witnessed serious shenanigans, political travesty, hatred and meaningless murder, unsportsmanlike rivalry and mudslinging that bordered on drollery. Let me share with you the nuances I could follow due to my Bengali origin.
TV debates from city to district bombarded us with sihrbtuvasjhbcdiugsdcu…useless! At other times it was bvecoybweoiycvasjbcfff….failure! And then again wohfmenrbyrmnbsdjgcsdyuuu….ugly! As in a kids’ school, everyone talks at the same time. You hardly understand anything. A ruling party leader quoted Central Government figures saying Bengal had superior performance over other states on public health. He said healthcare and hospitals were the State Government’s priority these 34 years. The Opposition promptly queried, “If public hospitals are so good, why were famous leaders Jyoti Basu and Anil Biswas (late party chairman) taken to sophisticated private hospitals?” The ruling party’s explanation was adequate, of disease complexity requiring specialized treatment. But in the same breath the ruling party questioned, “Why was India’s Prime Minister taken to UK for his bypass operation spending public money?”
We’re fortunate the idiot box reveals such juicy, blow-by-blow election debates among other entertainment. Exceptional in Bengal’s election matches is unexpected stories that keep emerging from the two leading parties. Other parties have added salt and pepper from time to time to increase or diffuse the taste. Every cricket match in a series is never thrilling, but in this election, each episode has been rousing, except the violence. I’m sure the public enjoyed them all. Actually the only similarity with World Cup Cricket is the suspense of who will win.
Peculiar election model: Entrusted with free polling and fair elections, the Election Commission undoubtedly made serious security arrangements to achieve voter turnout from an electorate of 5,60,91,973 in West Bengal’s 88752 sq km area for 294 seats. It’s perfectly understandable that voting was staggered into 6 phases to avoid turbulence. But aren’t rules like stoppage of election activity 48 hours prior to polling a little archaic when electronic and cyber media command the airwaves today? In compliance, on-ground electioneering stopped at voting locations. But where’s the question of not influencing voters when TV telecast of party speeches, debates and advertisements continued, even as voters were standing in queue? In fact after votes were cast in a phase, different political parties further stimulated the next phase electorate by releasing poll results of hypothetical numbers of seats they are about to win. Such influencing factors do not help standardize electioneering procedures.
If 6 phases are inevitable and the rule to be abided, shouldn’t campaigning have stopped 48 hours before the first phase until the sixth phase in all media? But election is great business, low cost drama production vis-à-vis the exorbitant cost of producing TV serials. It’s well established that the more you spend to advertise any brand, the better its penetration and product purchase, at least for a trial. A democratic practice in Western countries is equal time on TV and radio for all political parties 3 weeks prior to elections. Doordarshan does that too, but how many watch DD? There’s no balance in Indian TV channels that are unabashedly aligned to their favourite political parties. Cyber media hasn’t entered election rule books yet possibly because it’s not involuntary viewing, people choose to go there.
Death in the name of election: In ancient Rome, Caesar and his subjects would surround the Coliseum to watch how gladiators can survive the dangerous fights that killed the human being or animal. Killing and winning enthused Emperor and spectators alike. Democracy was created to exit this feudal lifestyle; the election process to choose the right leader. In West Bengal, assembly election has become that gladiator fight in full public view. Participating gladiators are using bombs and guns to kill and win, while the TV set has become the Coliseum. This gladiator power game began in 2006, violence has mounted over the years until the Election Commission clamped it down prior to election. Political parties have lost their intellectual capacity to convince people through debate, logic and persuasion; they just resort to violence. Nobody can be neutral in Bengal, the moment you open your mouth, people will automatically paint some party color on you. To grow the state’s future, there’s a need to make the masses conscious about democratic activities that are achieved without bloodshed.
Where’s the solution tomorrow? Whoever wins the CM Championship Trophy on 13 May 2011 should really work with the opposition to avoid further carnage. All West Bengal mothers should demand non-tolerance of even a single dead body from political disturbance. The state will never see the development sun rise if political parties use their strength only to claw one another and politicize everyone else. If the party that becomes the opposition will veto everything the ruling party does as being wrong, the state will go nowhere. The ruling party’s job, on the other hand, will be to find ways to conquer the opposition’s emotion. Mixing socially could be a good start, ruler and opposition leaders in social gatherings together to prove their fraternity in spite of being on opposite benches. If this compassionate political-cum-development flame starts, it will change the face of the state. The masses will win hands down, in family health, education, employment and prosperity. People will get positive inspiration when West Bengal grows with industrialization and intelligent farming solutions for poor farmers.
Can the public expect to see a cross political jazz band with different leaders in lead vocal, lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, trumpet, saxophone and keyboard harmonizing the contemporary Bengali song that encourages the young blood to move forward? Political parties! Can this not be the vision of West Bengal tomorrow?
To download above article in PDF WB blood or prosperity
Financial Express link : http://www.financialexpress.com/news/hi-west-bengal-blood-or-prosperity/787284/0
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