Ceasar's Wives, All!

The year 2010 is coming to its very end. It is that time of the year when one begins to wonder how this year has been with us. But how have these times been for us as a whole? How have our citizens fared - netizens, tweeple and the man on the street deprived of bandwidth - in our country and the world in which we live today? Have things changed? Or has nothing changed at all?

Amongst success stories for India, the successful hosting of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, which finally ended as a spectacular show and the winning streak of our cricket team this year; and the much talked about aspirations for a permanent seat at the UNSC. [Much talked by ourselves, we are told by a certain Wikileaked cable]. The continued run in the economic growth measured by our GDP is another reason to be pleased with ourselves as a nation on the move. At a time when much of the world has been struggling with their economy, this feat means in effect that India is the most happening place (next only to China), where the action really is!

From the highs of the moon-landing last year when India planted its flag on the moon and the high-pitched crescendo of the cheering for our athletes’ record-breaking performance at the CWG, we also landed low on the revelations of financial irregularities, besides nepotism in postings reportedly committed by all those associated with the Organizing Committee of the CWG. If that was not enough, what followed were reports of the Adarsh Society scam, Land allotment scams in Karnataka and the mother of all scams, the 2-G scam, followed by revelation of lobbying for the ministerial position by corporate lobbyist Niira Radia through the tapes leaked to the Indian Press. [Pardon me if i have missed any scam]

The inclusion of Army officials and judges in scam tainted has achieved in some sense our wish to have “inclusive growth” in our country – we don’t leave out any one out of the party! Finally the Radia tapes also pointed to the possible involvement of journalists in engineering ministerial berths and currying corporate favoritism. These findings were followed through by various retired editors posting blogs about their experiences about how industrialists wooed media even in their times and bribes offered and paid news is not, after all, a new phenomenon. It has been proved beyond doubt that the very media - that character assassinates suspects without so much as a fair sound-byte in defence - indulges in wrongful practices themselves!

So what is new is that we have begun talking about it – and acknowledging that it exists. The rot can’t be hidden anymore - the stench tells us about it’s existence. Gandhiji’s Teen Bunder [Bunder - Hindi, for monkey] could well be Chaar Bunder with another holding his nose to avoid the stench emanating from all around!

hey,we employed another bunder!)

A Raja is not yet questioned inspite of losing 20+ days of business in the Parliament! Even our own Prime Minister is facing charges of inaction in the telecom scam, although the PM, like Ceasar’s wife, wishes to be above the law.

So much like all of us, no? Everyone seems to want to be, or already think they are, above the law.

Everyone bears the “holier-than-thou” approach, while erroneously believing in it. The media wouldn’t have to explain their role, but for the tweeple who incessantly demanded an explanation. We don’t like being frisked, being asked questions, asked to show our identity cards or PAN cards or any such document. Anywhere anytime! “You suspect me?”, we ask scornfully. In that sense, we are all aspiring to be Ceasar’s wife!


The year is drawing to a close with food prices rising unabated - onions bringing tears without even peeling them. Petrol prices, which were de-regulated only this year, have also risen quickly. Traders seem to be enjoying the freedom offered by pricing decontrol to their full advantage. Leaving us ordinary folks struggling to beat the inflation (which could be another scam, I guess) all our lives, without indulging in scams or swindling others in our society - unless of course, you are tempted to beat the inflation by acquiring the necessary skills by joining this institute – A C-School here.

We can certainly hope that the New Year 2011 will clear the prevailing stench and bring new aspirations of belonging to a cleaner society in the world around us.

After all, hope is all that remains!

Bloggers’ Post-Script – What according to you is the Indian Word of the Year 2010? Do write in the comments space with your suggestions and why you chose that word!

The Info-Leak-Age

One could be on cloud nine after being served with dollops of praise from just about anyone, but when the offering comes from none other than the President of the United States of America, it is certain to stir the common man from his dreary stance to spring up in joyful celebration! He said we are not an emerging nation but an already emerged nation! We are not “developing” but “developed” – in substance we had already arrived, just in case we happened to miss noticing the decorated, flashy gates of the elite club of nations who lead the world of the 21st Century for having gate-crashed into the lavish dinner table.

Suddenly we felt as though we had not only arrived, but also taken our rightful place at the G-20 or UNSC or any such elite gathering. Our upbeat mood was only natural – when was the last time that our country was praised so much for having done so much for shaping the world, for giving the world such gems like the Mahatma and so many heroes, for being the largest democracy in the world or for that matter for our diverse cultures and yet for being one voice the world was dying to listen to? Can’t remember, can we?

Come to think of it, let us do an exercise – try remembering a time in your own personal life and career that one would have been praised so much for all that one is or has done for your organization or for being a great person to have known or been associated with. Chances are, that you’ve heard these words of high praise at a send-off party while leaving your organization after a long-stint for better pastures or even at retirement. That is when you hear all the words you always wanted to hear when you’ve been working hard all the time – just for that appreciation and recognition –(although nobody seems to know)!

The only other instance when one may have experienced unconstrained showering of mighty praise has been when one is contemplating a large value purchase, either for oneself or for the organization one represents. Suddenly, marketing professionals will wax eloquent about your attributes and praise you to the heavens for all that you are – and even for all that you’d hoped to be; all the skills that you have and several that you hope you had possessed! Although it is really an occasion to introspect and work on these missing attributes, human nature being what it is, leads us to believe that there is nothing for me to do, but to accept the praise in all its glory and celebrate the moment.

President Obama had his wares to sell to boost his countrymen’s job prospects - and India would have been working on its shopping list for its nuclear energy program, other clean energy initiatives and several such developmental budgets to keep the pace of GDP growth going for the coming decades. Get the drift?
High praise, like the good old spirits, is indeed intoxicating. It gets to one’s head faster than truth, which takes a longer time to sink in. We had been in a celebratory mood, albeit only until the same news channels suddenly started doling out scam after scam, making one wonder where are we heading and whether we are really getting there at all? Will the Wikileaks comment citing Hillary Clinton to have dubbed India as being “a self- appointed front-runner for the UN Security Council seat” bring our feet firmly back on terra firma? Or will we just brush the Wikileaks information aside as an apocryphal account and continue to celebrate?

Talking about leaks, we are living in times, which future generations may call as the “Info-Leakage”. Classified documents leaking into public domain is being witnessed in India too. The Nira Radia tapes found their way into blogs and media websites and shocked the scale and spread of the malaise in our political and social fabric. The flip side of the Radia Tapes leak is a host of websites got busy transcribing the conversations. The involvement of media bigwigs in the corridors of powers is being hotly debated. Although those involved are defending themselves of the allegations - of going beyond their call of duty and engaging in power-broking activities alongwith lobbyists - by explaining that they were only stringing a potential news source or humoring them for future utility, it is to many a sighting of a tip of the iceberg that one cannot afford to simply brush aside.

The media has of late assumed a larger role, sitting in judgment and trying citizens for their misdeeds in extra-judicial court-rooms having high national visibility unlike the real judiciary. In that sense it was a rare treat to find political news editors, being big names in the industry on the other side of the table defending their actions and inactions and discussing the ethics of journalism. Satish Acharya, the well-known cartoonist has been kind enough to work on this creation, working on the idea provided by me, indicating the dangers of the newsrooms in our TV channels. Collaborative blogging, we may say. Thanks, Satish Acharya!


We are witnessing a High Level of RADIA-ACTIVITY in Newsrooms!