Desicritics Author: Roshan Krishnan

NO to Prathibha Patil as President of India!

Roshan Krishnan — Sun, 1 Jul 2007 06:00:50 EDT

Today is the last day for filing nominations for the Presidential elections. It seems almost certain that the UPA-Left nominee, Prathiba Patil is going to be India's next and first woman President. I, as a citizen would rather not have her as my President. Why? Well, it's obvious I guess. But read on.

The Congress' argument that they have chosen Mrs. Patil as the candidate as a mark of respect to Indian women sounds hollow and holds no water. She was obviously their last minute compromise choice. The Left rejected all the men, so they put up a woman. They could reject her only at the cost of looking anti-women. A master stroke by the UPA, wouldn't you say?

Even then, I was glad that their last minute choice was a woman. It's time we had a woman President. The symbolism associated with the post of the President is immense, the First Person of India being a woman! The commander in chief of the armed forces, a woman. That will be a great fillip to all women here.

But would it help empower the women in our country? Well, not really, but it would definitely help a little. I would have preferred President Kalam to continue, but first woman President wouldn't have been bad either.

Yet, knowing what we do now about her now, I do not want her to be the President. Right from the time she has been nominated she has stepped from one controversy to another. The purdah controversy, the bank scam, loan defaulting and even murder! Sure, most of them do not involve her directly, but yet some pertinent questions have been raised to which there have been no answer except one. That she is a woman and anyone questioning her credentials is anti women and a male chauvinist. I'm sure we, the citizens, deserve better answers.

Man or woman, I do not want a President whose past is riddled with scams and scandals. I do not want a President whose credibility is questionable. Any decision she takes will always be questioned. Her motives always in doubt.

Can we truly trust her to be apolitical and take decisions which are in keeping with the interest of the nation and the constitution and not in the interest of the Congress party? I don't!!! But then according to some in the Congress party (Priyaranjan Dasmunshi) we the bloggers and the SMS voters really don't matter.

There are lots of blogs opposing Prathiba Patil as the President. Even Indian Express has many articles on her and why her becoming the President does not bode well for us as a Country. Arun Shourie had written a series of articles on all the scandals surrounding her. I couldn't find it online, but Pegasus has a couple of these here. Here are a few more must read articles from the Express. This one, where some pertinent questions have been raised and this one by Shekhar Gupta.

The Big Old Reservation Debate

Roshan Krishnan — Thu, 8 Mar 2007 00:37:09 EST

The reservation debate is back! The government has brought back the reservation issue, this time by insisting that the private sector share data on the number of employees hired under the reserved quota. The government had asked India Inc to share data on the number of SC/ST's recruited since Jan 1 2007. If they are unconvinced with the action taken by the companies, they are planning to bring in a legislation to mandate such reservations in the private sector.

Bringing in a legislation is going to be disastrous, specially if the bill implements reservation as has been done for almost 60 years now. The current form of reservation or affirmative action is not merit based. It does not reward hard work. Meritocracy is really not an issue here. Neither does it look at your economic condition to help you. Rather, it looks at the caste you were born into!

This is nothing new, anybody living in India will know how the reservation works here. The aim of government policies should be to erase the importance of caste in our country, make one's caste irrelevant. But on the contrary the reservation policy has made the caste you were born into very relevant. It seems like every caste wants to be part of the OBC category.

In this article, Chandrabhan Prasad has claimed that reservation is the legitimate right of Dalits even in the private sector. If we were to go by the constitution, then I do not believe that Dalits can claim a legitimate right in private sector. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the constitution will have to be amended for this, just like reservation in private educational institutions have been brought in.

If we were to go by the constitution, then reservations were to stop in 10 years after it was first implemented. Successive governments have been extending this deadline and 60 years have passed by now. The castes eligible for reservation have grown rather than reduced, as would have been expected. My biggest fear is that once legislation for private sector reservation is brought in for SC/STs, it wont remain there. It'll be extended for OBC, creamy layer OBC and for any caste as long as politicians get votes out of it. It'll ruin our private sector and make it like the government bureaucracy where efficiency or innovation isn't really valued. All that is important is the caste you were born into.

You might think I'm against reservation, but I really am not. But I'm against the current form of reservation. My problem with it is just this. Let's assume there's a 20 something guy born into a dalit family. His parents were dalits who have benefited from our reservation policy. They have a respectable job and earn a decent salary. Now why should the benefit of reservation be extended to their son? They can afford good education for their child, but still the state gives them reservation. Why should jobs be reserved for him? And now the government is also keen to remove the creamy layer distinction from OBC reservations too! This form of reservation is inherently unfair to those who do not benefit from this policy. No wonder then every other caste wants to be labelled 'Backward' now.

So what is the solution? Do we have one? First, exempt creamy layer from all forms of reservation. Do you really think they need state help to gain education or get a job? How about granting reservations based on your economic condition, irrespective of caste, creed or religion? Politicians would be averse to this. They have divided us on religion and have garnered votes. Now they need to further divide Hindus on their caste and build their vote bank. What better way to do this than by extending favors to one caste and denying that to another.

Secondly, instead of forcing private sector to accept reservation, give them incentives to set up schools, colleges and vocational institutes where majority of the seats are reserved for the SC/ST and OBC candidates. Let them be trained by the best. Let them get great education. But later, they need to get a job based on their skill, knowledge and merit. Not on the basis of their caste or religion. Instead of having quotas, use affirmative action for selecting employees. If you have 2 candidates of same skill set, prefer the SC/ST candidate over other. But please, for the sake of our country, do not extend same old reservation policy to the private sector.

The reservation policy was supposed to bring down the number of people requiring such help by the state over a period of time. But what has happened over the last 60 years is the exact opposite of this. We now have more people clamoring to benefit from reservation than ever before. Does this indicate that our reservation policy isn't working and needs a re-look? Or does it mean our politicians are playing games with us and dividing us? Or is it both?

I believe it's time we thought differently regarding this reservation policy of ours. It's time to come up with other methods to help the socially and/or economically backward of our society. But for this, our political class needs to come out of their narrow minded divisive politics and look at what will actually help those who have been left behind by our development. They need to stop thinking of their vote bank and work for the welfare of the people.

Do I see this happening? I'm an optimistic person, but I do not see any change in our reservation policy happening for a long time now. With people like Arjun Singh at the helm of affairs, it's just going to get worse and divide people more on caste lines. And this leaves people like me confused. I'm a product of an inter-caste marriage, I really don't know which caste I belong to. But I'm glad I don't know it.

Indian Culture and Valentine's Day

Roshan Krishnan — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 00:13:59 EST

It's that time of the year again! There are heart shaped red balloons in shops and restaurants, on billboards and even on television. Advice is being given away on gifting, romance, dating and on just about anything to do with love. It's the season of romance, and love is in the air.

And so is violence, threats and protests. The moral police is out in full force to maintain the purity of the Indian culture. They are even on television deriding western culture and its evil and immoral influence on ours. Some young 'unpatriotic' Indians have dared to corrupt our culture by expressing their love for someone. The lathis needed to beat them up have been readied. The saffron clad moral police is armed and ready. They are only protecting the culture they love - love is definitely in the air. Isn't Valentines Day a lot of fun?

But I, for one, don't have to worry about corrupting our great culture. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I don't have anyone to celebrate Valentine's day with. And I will not encourage commercialization of this day. I promise I won't buy cards, flowers, chocolates or anything else which could in anyway help big foreign companies who are out to ruin my culture. Maybe someone should give me an award for being such a model citizen and for doing my bit to protect Indian culture.

Jokes and sarcasm aside, the threats issued by the VHP, Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena etc., against V-day celebrations has almost become a ritual on this day. Thugs of these organizations vandalize card shops and restaurants. Couples are pulled out of restaurants and beaten up and humiliated. The day just becomes an excuse for them to violate all laws and gain their 30 seconds of fame on television.

Such intolerance speaks very poorly about our culture. We, as a nation, seem to have become incapable of accepting additions to it. We do not tolerate satirical books or movies about our country, religion or gods. We do not appreciate movies that introspect our history, books that look at our leaders critically. We just go ahead and ban them all. VHP, Shiv Sena, etc are just manifesting this intolerance through violence.

Some of the reasons given to oppose Valentine's Day are that it is not part of our culture and is an import from the west. The day is overly commercialized and has become an excuse for big corporations to mint money. Some claim that there's more indecent behavior in public on this day and some others say that women are harassed more on the fourteenth of February. Agreed, some of it might be true, it's definitely an import. But does this justify getting down to violence and vandalism?

Culture, as anything else in this world, is dynamic. It never remains the same. What was culture earlier, like sati and child marriage, is a crime today. Something that a lot of people in a society do and accept becomes culture. We should not, and cannot, prevent changes in our culture. It's inevitable.

We have a rich heritage and culture as a nation. But at the same time people need to realize that in today's age, a culture cannot be isolated from the rest of the world. The protesters aren't the only ones who have a sense of right and wrong, who have strong ethics and moral values. Most of the people whom they beat up also have it. They aren't stupid! They should be left to decide what's good or bad for them. If VHP and Shiv Sena have a problem with Valentine's Day, they need not celebrate it. Nobody is forcing them to. They can protect and maintain the "Indian Culture" amongst themselves. They have no right to dictate what I should or shouldn't do.

If we consider their other argument of commercialization, even that holds no water. What isn't commercialized today? If businesses smell money somewhere, they will commercialize it. If Valentine's Day is commercialized, so is Holi, Diwali, Christmas and almost all other big festivals. There are greeting cards for all these occasions, gifts are bought and given, shops and restaurants are decorated, advertisements on television and in the papers, discount sales - it's commercialization at it's best.

Talking about commercialization, you guys know about the festival where people go and buy gold because it's auspicious to do so? If I'm not wrong, I think it's called Akshay Tritiya. I hadn't even heard of it until a few years ago! And now there are newspaper and radio advertisements as the festival nears. I don't see any party protesting such blatant commercialization. Maybe it's because these festivals are part of our culture. The problem seems to arise only when something is commercialized and is of western origin.

The protesters claim to be protecting our culture. But there are better avenues where they can channelize their energy. We claim to respect women and treat them as goddesses. But ask any woman how respected she feels while traveling in a crowded public transport and then we'll know how we treat our women. Sometimes poverty makes people force young kids into prostitution and there are people still starving in our country. Education is still a distant dream for many. We have made accepting and giving bribes our culture. Where is the protest against all this? Why aren't corrupt bureaucrats pulled out of their offices and brought to justice? Or are we proud of all this as it's our culture? Why are political parties wasting their time on such non-issues? Is it because they make better news?

We claim to be a free democratic nation. But when such thugs are allowed to vandalize property and assault people and go scot-free, then it means that they are allowed to curb my freedom of expression and freedom to choose. And that just isn't acceptable.

My India, My Pride

Roshan Krishnan — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 01:00:21 EST

We have completed 57 years as a Republic today. So before saying anything else, let me first wish you a very Happy Republic day.

On 26th January 1950 we became a Republic. It's the day we proclaimed to the world that we are a Sovereign Democratic Republic and our constitution came into force.

Our constitution is a marvelous piece of work. I don't claim to be a constitutional expert, but whatever I have read has amazed me. There are certain provisions which are interesting and you'll be glad that it's there and has been upheld for so long. It has amazed me that our constituent assembly has thought through so much and put in a lot of work into the drafting of our constitution. And as our judiciary has time and again proved, it's the constitution that is supreme in our republic. Not the government, not the legislature and neither the judiciary.

I'm an incorrigible patriot and an eternal optimist about my country and its future. The 'My India, My Pride' button on my website just reflects this pride and optimism in India. A few people have ridiculed my sentiments for my country and made fun of it. I agree, there are lots of ills plaguing us and then there are the politicians whom we love to hate. But I believe that one day, in the near future, we will overcome many of our problems and be a truly developed and a powerful nation.

A wonderful portal for all information regarding India, www.india.gov.in., was inaugurated by our telecom minister a few months back. It has lots of details about our history, culture, government, rules and procedures and lots of interesting downloads. It's a pretty useful portal too, and more importantly, it's regularly updated. The portal also has our complete constitution along with all the amendments made till date in pdf format. The portal is definitely worth at least one visit.

I was feeling quite patriotic today, maybe because it's our Republic Day today. And hence this particular post. If you too wish to have the 'My india, My pride' badge, you can click on the link below and get it or just copy the image and put it up on your website. But please do link it back to the India portal.

Here's wishing all of you a very Happy Republic Day.

Telecast Rights: Nimbus vs Prasar Bharati

Roshan Krishnan — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 07:54:11 EST

The government is at it again! They are now considering to bring in a legislation to make it mandatory for all private broadcasters to share feed of sporting events of national importance. This is nothing but arm twisting and bullying.

Here's what happened. Nimbus, a private broadcaster, bid and won the rights to broadcast all cricket matched played in India till 2010. And for this they paid the BCCI a sum of $610 million. They obtained television, cable, broadband and DTH rights. At that time, public broadcaster Prasar Bharati had said that they wouldn't acquire rights from BCCI, rather they would enter into agreements with private broadcasters for content. This was February 2006.

Fast forward to January 2007, and we have Prasar Bharati, the public broadcaster, and the I&B ministry bullying and blackmailing Nimbus to share their feed, branding Nimbus unpatriotic for not sharing their feed. The truth is that Nimbus had offered the feed to Doordarshan (DD), a channel run by Prasar Bharati. Nimbus' condition being that DD has to encrypt the signal or introduce a delay of 15 mins. Encryption was important because DD's satellite signal can be accessed by cable operators and by neighboring countries, which eats into the legal and commercial rights of Nimbus. This does seem to be a pretty reasonable condition. But Prasar Bharti rejected this.

I was wondering if Prasar Bharati would agree to show the match on DD without any advertisements, without making any profit out of it. After all, they aren't paying a single paisa to Nimbus for the feed. According to one estimate DD is going to make 35 crores through advertisements during the telecast of the matches. Did anybody say public interest? It's more like DD's interest.

For now the courts have decided that DD will get the feed from Nimbus, but they'll have to telecast it with a delay of 7 minutes. But Prasar Bharati isn't happy about this. They claim that it is 'injustice to the poor people who cannot afford cable television' . They have petitioned the courts again regarding this. And that's where the matter rests today.

But this isn't the first time DD has been hauled into the courts for similar matter. A few years ago, another private broadcaster, Ten Sports, had taken DD to the court. At that time, too, DD demanded feed from the private broadcaster. The courts passed an interim order instructing DD to pay Ten Sports 15 crores to telecast the match. The interim orders that the courts have passed have shown that DD cannot get free feed, telecast it without introducing delay and make a profit from it.

The reason the dispute arises is that DD, rather Prasar Bharati, owns all rights for terrestrial broadcast. That is the TV we used to watch 15-17 years ago using the antenna on our terrace. It was when cable TV was not available in India. DD has a monopoly over this terrestrial right. But BCCI bids telecast rights for terrestrial broadcast too as part of a package. And when private broadcasters acquire the rights after paying millions, they obviously don't want to give it up to DD. Most broadcaster do offer feed for terrestrial broadcast to DD. But DD not only wants the feed on their own terms, but also wants to make a profit out of it, all in the name of public interest.

Now I have a few questions for Prasar Bharati and the I&B ministry. First, what exactly are sporting events of national importance? Is cricket the only sporting event of national importance? I haven't heard DD demand feed for other sporting events. And secondly, who decides which events are of national importance? The I&B ministry? Wouldn't that be unfair on private broadcasters?

Cricket is just entertainment. Nothing more and nothing less. The Premier Hockey League (PHL) is telecast on ESPN-STAR Sports. They advertise the game and the championship, create interest in hockey among people. It's our national game, why doesn't DD want to broadcast it? Does that mean hockey is not an event of national importance? I don't see national importance in every cricket game held. And there is definitely no public interest involved. Cricket has a lot of money, and that's why everybody wants to be involved with it. Public and national interest are secondary.

Till now the rule that broadcasters have to share feed was just part of the broadcaster's guidelines. Now the government is keen on passing a legislation which makes it mandatory for private broadcasters to share their feed with the public broadcaster. The private broadcasters shell out millions of dollars to obtain telecast rights.Then they are forced to share the feed with DD, which hasn't spent a single cent on acquiring the rights. In turn DD will make crores by showing the match on their channel. Does this sound right to you? Even in the name of public interest this is wrong.

If such a law is passed then what is stopping the government from bringing in a legislation tomorrow which says that anything I buy, I'll have to share it with the less privileged in the name of pubic interest? Isn't it starting to sound like communism? The last time I checked we weren't a communist state. Then why are such laws being passed?

There definitely is one advantage to a law being enacted on this matter though. Everything will be in black and white. All the rules and regulations will be written down. The legislation needs to ensure that it specifies what events are of national importance and what aren't. It needs to specify what Prasar Bharati can and cannot do as a public broadcaster. It needs to ensure that DD does not profit in the name of public interest. And also, it needs to ensure that the legal and commercial rights of the private broadcaster aren't violated and their interest are also taken into account. If a such a law can be enacted then it'll definitely be better than the prevalent situation. A comprehensive broadcast law needs to be enacted that is forward looking and devoid of archaic regulations and controls.

Where's My Freedom To Choose?

Roshan Krishnan — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 08:23:30 EST

I really don't get our politicians. Specially their 'holier than thou' attitude. What gives them the right to decide what is right for me to watch or read. Who are they to decide what can be termed as obscene and against our culture? Why do they keep banning books and movies and TV shows. Why do they start making choices for me?

The latest act of this kind of censorship was I&B minister banning telecast of AXN till March 15th. He claimed that the show outraged public morality. What exactly does the phrase 'outrage public morality' mean? What is this public morality that is being outraged?

The show which instigated this ban is ' The World's Sexiest Advertisements'. The channel claims that it's "the most provocative, outrageous and sexiest commercials from around the world, set to raise the heat and tickle your funny bone!" And trust me, more than provocative the advertisements were very funny and definitely creative.

I wonder what the minister was doing watching the show and getting his 'morality outraged'. Shouldn't the name maybe have given him a clue that watching it might lead to outraging his morality? I'm sure I'm part of the so called public. But my morality wasn't outraged nor has it been adversely affected!. My morality is intact Mr. Minister.

I'm sorry I've used morality and outraged so many times above. It's just that I find it amusing that this is the reason given to ban something. It's such a convenient phrase, that and 'against Indian culture'. Use either of these or both together and you can get anything banned in our country.

Our politicians need to get rid of their 'I know what's best for you' syndrome. Do they believe that all Indians are gullible and credulous that we'll believe anything and everything we read or hear. Do they believe that by reading some anti-India books, we'll all turn anti-India overnight? Does Mr Dasmunsi think that by watching the show on AXN all Indian men are going to lose all their morals and go around fornicating with anything in sight? Come on Mr. Dasmunshi, what do you take us to be? Have some faith in the people who voted you in.

No television show or book is going to change my morals. And whether I watch something or not should be my choice. If I'm outraged by anything, I'd make a choice not to watch or read it. The government shouldn't tell me what I should be watching or reading, I should be the one making these decisions.The government has absolutely no business interfering in these matters.

The government needs to stop moral policing and take up more pressing matters. In fact my moral is outraged when I see children still dying of hunger in our country. My moral is outraged when I see politicians accept bribes to ask questions in the parliament. It adversely affects me when infrastructure projects lie in a limbo for years. Is Mr. Dasmunsi or his government planning to do anything about all this? I don't think so. He is happy banning channels and censoring movies and sitting pretty thinking he has saved the Indian culture from being spoilt and having prevented 'innocent' Indians from being morally corrupted. It speaks volumes about our system when a few narrow minded persons can curb my freedom of choice.

This incident is not something new. We have a long, a really long, history of banning books, movies and tv shows. India almost banned the 'The Da Vinci Code'. The government banned the film Water, Canada's official nominee for the Oscars. Gujarat govt banned the movie 'Fanaa' because the lead actor supported a particular cause. The documentary Final Solution was banned while it has won awards else where. Yahoo discussion group was banned sometime in 2003 while blogger was blocked a few months ago. And then there is a long list of books banned by our government. It's quite silly considering we can buy all of it online.

It's time our government started behaving like we are a mature democracy and stopped banning things for frivolous reasons. They need to stop acting like over protective moms, and let people decide for themselves what they want to read or watch. For god's sake Mr. Minister, treat us like adults!