Desicritics Category: Politics: Corruption

Officials Given Prison Terms for Preventing Flow of Pollutants into a river

Ashish — Fri, 5 Mar 2010 17:18:48 EST

Indian rivers are filthy, with frequent reports of how the level of contaminants in the rivers of the country (including the holy rivers) is much (many times) over the levels that are fit for humans to even bathe in, forget drinking. As an example, the Yamuna is now considered to be of the same level as a drain in Delhi; at its entry into Delhi, it is bad for human consumption, and by the time it leaves the capital, it is so saturated with filth and pollution that it is considered dangerous to humans. In the last 1-2 years, there have numerous articles about how all the major rivers are India are facing the same level of pollution. In Punjab, the Sutlej had a huge number of fish suddenly dying because of the uncontrolled release of effluents.
Is the situation treatable ? Apparently not if one goes by the efforts undertaken by the Governments (both central and state). What has happened that huge amounts have been spent in the name of of Ganga and Yamuna Pollution control, and yet the rivers have only got more polluted. Refer this article (link) and you can see how the levels of pollution in rivers has increased drastically in the last decade.

In just over a decade, India's major rivers have been desecrated. Urban filth and industrial pollution are scientific causes, but what drives them is personal greed and administrative indifference. Environmentalists believe that apart from industrial pollution and sewage, the increase in number of slaughterhouse, dhobi ghats, crematoria and slums are the major sources of pollution in these rivers. Every year, religious idols are immersed in rivers which lose a little more of their life as they are choked yet again.

There are so many reasons as to why rivers can have a high level of pollution, but as the example of many western countries have shown, pollution levels can go down drastically if effective measures are taken.
- Drains flowing into the river should not be open, but treatment should happen and then the treated water should be let into the river. Here, the sewage treatment is either not done or is only partial
- Idol immersion / dead items immersion. During festivals, idols laden with chemicals are immersed. Similarly, half burnt bodies of humans and animals are thrown
- Industrial pollutants are allowed to flow unchecked into the rivers

Why all this background? Well, in what could be a remarkable judgment (if not over-turned), a Thane court has ordered imprisonment for 4 municipal officials for preventing pollutants from flowing into the Vasai Creek. The gentlemen were prosecuted for dereliction of duty, and for the civic agency not setting up a sewage treatment plant. Of course, the poor gentlemen were not to blame, since they were only doing what so many civic officials before them have been doing. If this judgment is allowed to stand, then many other officials would be in the firing lane in every state.
Refer this article.

Jharkhand - Smaller States Will Also Fail

J Srinivasan — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 06:42:44 EST

The vote in Jharkhand has thrown up a four way split: Cong, BJP, JMM and Others - all having significant weightage (seats) in the assembly.

To think that Jharkhand is a new state carved out for a more 'homogeneous' population and therefore having a more homogeneous view of its own development has been shattered. For the second time, political instability is expected.

So does that not mean smaller states will be no less inefficient than larger states? Some would argue that in fact it is no solution to have a smaller states and cite Jharkhand as a good example. And it would seem pretty convincing too.

Except that political alignment is not the same as geographical or linguistic homogeneity and definitely not the same as efficiency in administration. I'm sure I'll find little or no opposition to the idea that every Jharkhandi wants progress, as he wants his state to go forward with a better quality of life for every Jharkhandi.

I'm equally sure every political party in Jharkhand also stands for progress of the state and its people. Just read some of those manifestos (maybe it's no longer fashionable!) and they would all say that they want only progress of their new state.

Then where is the problem? The voter wants progress; so do the parties. Then why such a MASSIVE divide in such a small state?

On the surface, this can be explained by religious, sub-castes devided and so on. But that, I think, is the red herring. Religion and Castes come into play when one very basic phenomenon is present: distrust.

Think. Don't you have friends who are from other religions and communities? Or even from other nationalities? Was your whole life spent only amongst your own creed? Did you have no pleasurable moments with "the other" people? Ofcourse you had.

Distrust is a way of being and not an acquired asset or liability. And since everyone of us is engaged in a I-Me-Mine lifestyle, how can you trust anyone else to support you-yours-yours-lone at their own cost? Would YOU?

The change has to be in I-Mine-Ours and that's all. I should take care of myself, as should you. Mine is the larger community I belong to. And I'm NOT defining it as my religious community but the community I live in. And Ours is the state & country we belong to. When its I-Me-Mine, how can you belong to anything? Then why should anyone stand for you?

If this sounds utopian, then you are just confirming its beyond the realm of your I-Me-Mine syndrome. That's why it sounds simplistic and utopian. The pity is the change has to come only at the individual level. Soon enough, it will turn a whole ship of state.

The parties have taught us that once an election is over, it is not okay for them not to form a government. Even if it means horse trading or supporting a convict to become a CHIEF MINISTER !!! And guess what, you and I say: Yeah, what's the point of voting again? What a waste of money and peoples' time!

Think again. If thousands of crores can be spent on statutes and millions of dollars can be siphoned out to Swiss banks, then does a few hundred crores for a re-vote sound so bad? Especially if it brings people to a higher level of the-common-good realisation?

The cynic will say that a re-vote will only bring the same results. Really? How come the Irish vote to accept the EU constitution changed in nine months? Or do you think that people of Jharkhand won't close ranks ever? How come the people of Kerala change parties like clockwork every election? Are they not Indians like you and me?

No, a re-vote would spoil it for the parties. They have spent their money and need to get a return on investment, fast. A re-vote will help make the people mature enough to close ranks and a repeated re-vote will accelerate this process. But that is bad news for the politician, not the common man.

The horse trading (means earnings!) of politicians will now go on for one-two-three years. Then a stint of Governor's rule (read: Central party money making) and then another early election. Suddenly, a re-vote after 12-18-24-36 months (which costs more because the election machinery has been disbanded and inflation has increased), is "justified". And the people? They're now even less interested in going out and voting. The 'masses' go out since it's a paid holiday and they get paid to stand in queue for a vote. Who cares? The politician. They have tuned the business of elections into a fine art.

So its all so huge; how can a few, let alone one person, change anything? We need everyone to change. That's where Article 311 comes in. Change the constitution. Bereft of the cover, accountability will seep in, albeit slowly. That's why I say, it may turn the rot around in 50 years. The other magic pill history tells us is absolute anarchy. You choose.

The Argumentative Indian. I didn't say it; Amartya Sen wrote a whole book on it. Did you read it? I tried and failed to get past the first 50 pagesin my first attempt! Only persistent attempts at taking it in small doses at a time helped me get through it. We can argue, or we can act. We've argued enough. What option do you choose?

If I'd titled this blog as "Be the change you want to see" I'm not sure anyone would have read it. The point is, we are very good at "taking other's inventories", never our own. Time to get real about the real dangers we face: our I-Me-Mine syndrome learnt from mindlessly aping the west.

Back to Jharkhand. Isn't it clear that as many re-votes as is necessary is a better option to horse trading and convicts becoming CMs?

You be the judge of that!

Sleaze with Ease

sufferingsocrates — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 06:40:15 EST

A multitude of issues are tumbling out of the ongoing sleaze charges against Narain Dutt Tiwari (N.D. Tiwari) and the molestation case against S.P.S Rathore. If not being responsible enough about the position they held wasn't good enough, they have been cunning enough to have hidden away their cheap escapades using political clout and misuse of office.

It is funny to note that these high flying gentlemen are well past their reproductive capabilities (Tiwari is 85 and Rathore is 67), but still manage a fling. I can be argued against by stating that S.P.S Rathore molested Ruchika almost 19 years back. Ironically, 28th December is precisely the date when the charges were levelled against the supposedly celebrated police officer.

N.D.Tiwari on the other hand, has been a step ahead, as should be the case with someone administering affairs of a state. While being chief minister of U.P. it was an open secret to many of his extra marital affairs. He did use his wife's gynaecological knowledge to manage his flaccid endowment on three women. It is as yet unknown if his performance or the lack of it with the three women was the reason for his ouster from governorship of Andhra Pradesh.

While Tiwari can be pardoned due to his inherent weaknesses and willingness of women to satisfy him, what S.P.S Rathore did to Ruchika was indeed lewd and outright perverted. Public sentiment will always remain doubtful against police officers, especially when high ranking officers blatantly misuse their power. Inspite of being chargesheeted, the ex-Haryana DGP had the guts to harass Ruchika's family for almost 5 years.

Unfortunately for the Indian public, such are the headlines topping the print and visual media towards the end of a year. The Congress with a majority at the centre can afford to ask a senior political veteran and Congress loyalist like N.D. Tiwari to quit his post after the expose by ABN channel. Similarly, it is good to note that S.P.S Rathore's cases will be revisited, his pension reduced and his president's police medal stripped off.

However, for the mental trauma he inflicted on Ruchika and her family, his sentence of 6 months and a meagre 1000 buck fine is disgusting. Sadly for Ruchika's family though, Rathore is 67 and even if he is given life imprisonment he may not live too long. Even so, is there a point in punishing someone who is utterly remorseless?

Punishment to Fit the Crime

Somik Raha — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 22:35:29 EST

In a piece titled, "Ruchika-Indian Law Allows Child Molester to be Let Off," Kishore fumes at the Indian legal system which sentenced the offender, SPS Rathore, the retired Director General of Haryana Police, only for 6 months and granted him bail within ten minutes. People are protesting and asking for stiffer sentences. CPM leader Brinda Karat has also requested the law ministry to look at this again.

In the midst of the outcry, I find myself honoring the sentiment that makes us take notice of the terrible injustice in this situation. At the same time, I find myself asking if longer jail time is both adequate punishment and easy to pull off. In India, and elsewhere, professional criminals treat crime as a business, doing their cost-benefit analysis, accounting for the chance of getting caught. By the same logic, we ought to reflect the cost of the crime much more accurately when sentencing.

Perhaps we should take a leaf out of O J Simpson's trial, where he won the criminal case but lost the civil one, and was liable for a large sum of money, which pretty much bankrupted him for the rest of his life. Criminal cases are much harder to win, and when you do win, there are lots of limitations on determining how much personal freedom of the criminal should be taken away. A lot of attention is being given in the media to the criminal case, as it should be. However, very little has been given to filing parallel civil suits, to claim damages.

I am not familiar with the legal system in India, but here is a thought experiment. What if Rathore were to face a civil suit. A big calculation exercise should be done, to count the amount of money that had to be spent by the family of the victim and her friend who fought on with the case. We should then add to it all the hospital charges faced by the those who were beaten up. Then, we get to the part which very few people think about - in that neighborhood, for some time, I will bet that women must have been scared to come out on their own. All the people who lost business because of that must be compensated for this. All the women of that area who had to give up their freedom out of fear must also be compensated for the nuisance. That amount may be given toward starting a women's rights organization in the neighborhood - perhaps it could be given to Ruchika's brave friend (see video below) who put so many years of her life to get justice, so she might invest it in helping others like Ruchika.

When we start making all these calculations, a strong case can be made for asking for damages to the tune of several crores, and not a paltry Rs. 1000 (as reported by IBN).

It would be great if the civil angle were looked into in parallel with the criminal one, because age and health cannot be argued so easily when it is a monetary fine. All the people who were shielding the criminal should also be included in the liability of this amount (perhaps the political parties/politicians that were involved as well). It will also set a precedent that if caught and convicted, such crimes carry a much bigger penalty than just the damage to the individual. If the criminal cannot pay the entire amount, then a large part of their future income could be marked down for payment by installment.

With this kind of legal reform, criminals who think of crime as a business will now have to think twice.

On another note, we might also consider whether our police system really works. Honest officers like Kiran Bedi get hounded out of the system. Others have to crush their heart and give up the fight. The problem is that the people who pay the police and control their careers and the people who receive their services are different, and the incentives are not aligned. Controversial as this may sound, maybe it is time to think of police as a service that should not be a government monopoly. How would that work?

Would love to hear people's thoughts on both these ideas.

Post-liberalization India - A Free For All?

Ruchi — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:39:08 EST

My Airtel Broadband was down (second time in a month) so I called the Bharti Airtel customer service number from my Airtel mobile. For about two hours, I couldn’t get through ‘cause the “network was busy”. Finally four hours later when I tried again, I got through. By “got through”, I mean, I got through to the irritating menu system. I punched in my account number, reason for calling, type of problem and finally over five minutes of this annoying IVR later, a real live person came online. And her first question to me is, “what is your account number?”

What the hell is wrong with this company? All this song and dance on their stupid menu is just a delaying tactic? Why should the customer provide the same information twice? That too in its entirety! And lo behold, after giving my account number, she asked me the reason for my call. After being told that my broadband was down, her immediate question was when I last paid my bill, the snide implication being that perhaps my payment delinquency was the reason for non-service.

First, that may well be the reason. However, shouldn’t a telecom company of Airtel’s size have at least sorted out these basic customer service questions? Should these questions need to be asked to the customer instead of being shown on the customer service rep’s screen as soon as I call? After I told her to look it up herself, it took her a good minute to figure out that my payment in fact was not overdue. And then about seven minutes after I was connected, did she actually get to (attempting) to solving my problem. Attempt ‘cause problem was not solved. All I got was a reference number and an unapologetic four hour wait time. So about eight hours of work day downtime, pretty much the whole day.

Where’s the mea culpa? There’s none. This is the same company that will send reminder text messages for bill payments, even before the payment is due! And a day late will attract late fee charges. However, there’s no refund for service downtime. There’s also no refund if they add some “service” to your account without your permission. Those annoying “hello tunes” is a classic example. Suddenly callers are hearing some embarrassing song instead of the classing ring tone; yet can you get a refund without a ridiculously long phone call with some untrained newbie on the other side? The thing is, each such transgression costs the customer very little and thus disincents the long annoying phonecall; however, the volumes make a large amount of money for the company.

This kind of annoying in-your-face, bordering or outright illegal “marketing” and deterrent reparation processes is not isolated to Airtel. All service companies that have grown helter-skelter in the past few years, notably telecom and financial services companies have done so on the back of predatory marketing, ill-equipped infrastructure, and of course speed-trained (hence untrained) customer service representatives who are unable to handle even the slightest deviation from whatever crap script they get to read from. Where the customer is at fault either due to neglect or due to plain ignorance (in the case of many new users of service), customer will pay. If the company is at fault, even then the user will pay.

This raises a serious question. In a country where the population is not previously exposed to organized retail and/or service, who should bear the cost of educating and organizing the customer? Post-liberalization, large multinational companies flocked to India salivating at the prospect of one of the world’s largest consumer base. However, since per-capita incomes are so low here, profits are driven by volume as opposed to high margins. This means that the marginal value of each customer is very little and hence, it makes dollar/rupee sense to reduce after sales-service to a bare minimum to the point of ignoring the customer. However, it is not acceptable for these companies to reduce their after sales service standards (to reduce costs) to such an extent that a new user would almost surely get lost in the maze. If adequate levels of customer service are not profitable, then they shouldn’t be in the business; taking advantage of an unexposed and unorganized populace is pure predatory.

Contempt of Court and the Pakistan Army

C N Anand — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:11:08 EST

While fighting a legal battle in a court, one has to tread carefully where arguments can be construed as contempt of court. In Pakistan there is an additional Damocles sword to contend with, which even the judges have to heed -- contempt of army. A hint of this was shown in the NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance) hearings by the safety-in-numbers 17 bench court in Pakistan. The Attorney General of Pakistan claimed that GHQ (General Head Quarters) and the CIA pose a threat to the Government. Obviously, this blatant threat would not have been issued without a precedence of the courts coming to heel in the past. However, this time the 17-bench court, not to be cowed down came out roaring that an amnesty that had protected politicians, including President Asif Ali Zardari, from corruption and criminal charges, was unconstitutional. The NRO benefited 8000 Pakistanis.

General's Musharraf's National Reconciliation Order, in a country where many believe that even a petty thief's hand must be cut off in accordance with Sharia law, purported to let off many who swindled millions. Many non-Pakistanis are surprised as to how this outrageous ordinance was passed in the first place with the whole country watching mutely. To understand this, one must understand that the numbing of the Pakistani psyche started in 1954 when Governor General Ghulam Mohammad dissolved the first constitutional assembly and the government of Prime Minister Khawja Nazim Uddin. The president of the assembly, Moulvi Tamiz Uddin, challenged him in the Sindh High Court and won: the dissolution was held to be illegal and unconstitutional. On appeal to the Chief Court of Pakistan, which was later renamed the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Munir decided in favour of the governor general. The basis for his decision was the "doctrine of necessity": meaning that to preserve the country the constitution had to be abandoned.

The army then strode through the wide open door. In 1958, General Ayub Khan imposed martial law, dissolved both assemblies of parliament and abrogated the 1956 Constitution. His coup was challenged in the Supreme Court but the Supreme Court ruled that "doctrine of necessity" necessitated such actions.

History repeated itself in 1977, when General Zia-ul-Haq got away with dissolving of parliament and abrogating the constitution, which had been unanimously approved by all political parties in 1973.

In Musharraf's case, the full bench judgment was less monotonous. It not only upheld the coup but went so far as to give General Musharraf unlimited power to amend the constitution as he pleased. It is a popularly held belief in Pakistan's legal circles that this decision was written outside the court and handed to the judges to pronounce.

Against this background where the Pakistani courts have proved to be poodles, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry roared like a lion and felt that Musharraf has had enough fun with the constitution. However, in a country where every one including the top brass of the army and the opposition parties are tainted, a clean sweep will produce a vacuum at the top. The only party not involved in politicking is the Taliban who have a case in insisting that it is their turn to run Pakistan. The Taliban's interpretation of "doctrine of necessity" is that they are bound to arrive.

Considering that Pakistan is bristling with nukes, the Supreme Court could have trod warily and allowed the criminals (8000 in number) to get away and enjoy their ill gotten wealth and let bygones be bygones in the larger interest of the world. How should justice be defined in Pakistan is a polemic that should seize the world.

Politics - Pigs At The Trough

Deepti Lamba — Tue, 1 Dec 2009 09:19:11 EST

If we were told that Azim Premji or Narayana Murthy spent Rs. 13 crores on themselves what would we say? We'd call them all kinds of names for this sort of monstrous expenditure but if the government spends crores over a report that has been lagging for over two decades or over a now-toothless terrorist, none of us bat an eyelid. Why is that?

Is it a reflection on our government or a reflection on us who let our government and bureaucracy get away with wasteful expenditures?

Are these expenditures transparent for us to review? More importantly, is the government audit acted on seriously? So much for the Congress's austerity drive when food prices are at an all time high and power hikes under BJP's rule in Karnataka will see a hike of 40 paise per unit.

But no, none of us bat an eyelid. We cannot hold the poor for not mobilizing protests. They are trying to survive each day as it comes but its us the smug middle class driving our Tata SUVs or American/Japanese cars who have to raise a hue and cry.

Heck, we never did it under the socialist era when they ate into the coffers and made the country bankrupt and we didn't ask why the fuck are we so poor? And now like well fed pigs we whine and let them loot us once again.

Crores spent on a pip squeak of a terrorist who should have been hung long time back and no protests? Why the fuck not?

There will be people who will protest over my cuss words but not the money wasted by the government. Yes, personal morality has nothing to do with bigger picture, nothing to do with being treated like personal piggy banks by the big saabs in their bullet proofed Ambassadors.

Stay away from pointless trips to foreign lands, Mr Prime Minister, we have a bone to pick with you. We will never forget 26/11 nor the wasteful expenditure you people have sucked from our wallets in the name of national security or 'good governance'.

That being said, its time for us to move from criticizing governance to participatory governance, and from political won't to political will.

Madhu Koda Finally Arrested

Ashish — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 09:32:45 EST

It is very rare that politicians in India are arrested for the corruption that they commit. If you have relatives or friends in Government, especially if they are in a senior position, then you can be fairly easily convinced that every politician is on the take (except for the few - for example, both Manmohan Singh and Atal Behari Vajpayee have impeccable reputations); however, it is the rare case where some politician is prosecuted for indulging in corruption.

Consider the case of the 1980's, where Rajiv Gandhi came in with a huge majority in 1984, but soon after, charges of corruption in the Bofors scandal laid him bare and unable to answer. VP Singh, the other opposition members, and the media led by The Hindu and the Indian Express put him in such a position whereby he lost his entire majority and lost the 1989 election. It is of course another matter that no one has been convicted for the Bofors scandal.

To some extent, we are no longer shocked by such corruption scandals; but even then, when you hear of the ease with which Madhu Koda allegedly made his money in the corruption scandal without any check, it seems very very strange. Here was this MLA, who became the Chief Minister as an independent and was supported by the Left, the RJD and the Congress in order to keep out the BJP; and while being an independent, he was able to sway mining contracts to this degree that he has apparently made huge sums of money (in the thousands of crores).

After this scandal was being investigated and thrown around in the media, he went ahead and fought elections in the upcoming state elections, and when summoned by the investigating agencies, refused to go there since he was busy in the election campaigning. This is the 'fear' that modern day politicians have of such investigations. There is now a wide-spread belief that every action is now linked, so when the police and investigating agencies move against some one, it could be because either there is a need to add pressure, or because that person is not in favor; and when the situation reverses, then the hounds can be called off.

How can you otherwise justify that a person accused of such large crimes can remain free without the police and investigating agencies arresting him? It is only today that he has been arrested, and one can be sure that this arrest is linked to some change in the political situation (link to article):

"We have reached at a stage when his arrest was necessary. We had taken the arrest warrant from the competent court," Inspector General of Police, Vigilance, M V Rao said.

38-year-old Koda, who is being jointly investigated by the vigilance commission, Income Tax department and Enforcement Directorate, was arrested from the Chaibasa district of the state.

Politics - Going Rogue

Arundhati Thapar — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:12:34 EST

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely - these words ring true of not only the entire socio political setup of this world that we live in but also of things on a much smaller stage - everyday living and issues surrounding who rules who?

It would be an interesting experiment to give power in the hands of the downtrodden of today - the ones who curse the system and wish politicians dead. Would they then establish a just world order or fall prey to the very temptations and machinations they abhor today?

Would this then answer the quintessential question? Chicken or egg? Which came first?

Is it the wrong kind of people who go into politics, accumulate wealth and become powerful and then perpetrate the hideous culture that has become the hallmark of politics across the globe?

Or is it normal people ...people like you and me, but maybe with a dash more of ambition thrown in, who get into politics, wake up to the immense thrill and kick that power gives and then start on the journey of corruption to maintain that power?

Two old political scandals, or shall I say mishaps, have returned to the fore in the public arena this week. They belong in two different continents but the undertones are similar....

As the Chilcot enquiry begins its work to look into the legality of the war in Iraq, the most palpable sentiment around is hatred for Blair. Yet this is a man who could do no wrong a few years ago. A darling of the masses, twice elected to power, with a huge halo round his head and the glow of his charismatic personality radiating far and wide.

Did Tony Blair start off as a well meaning Prime Minister who seriously wanted to do the right thing, defend democracy around the world and establish a just world order? Few believe this today but in the heydays of Labour supremacy in Britain, he did have people enthralled by his sharp oratory and the look of earnestness about him. Did he start off as a smarmy, sly man or was it years in politics that made him cynical to the extent that many now are ready to believe he took the country into an illegal war? How cynical do you have to be to do something you know will cause immeasurable death and destruction, reduce an entire nation to a rubble and ruin the lives of generations to come?

Opponents of the war hope the inquiry will establish that the decision to invade Iraq was illegal and based on flawed or deliberately misleading intelligence about the risks posed by Saddam Hussein. Whatever else the enquiry achieves, simply by being in the news the past few months, it has played a major role in Blair losing out in the race to be EU President.

The other case in point is our very own L K Advani. In a dramatic turn of events, -the Liberhan commission report, which was 17 years in the making, was tabled after details of its conclusions - apparently implicating top leaders of the Hindu nationalist opposition in the Babri masjid destruction - were leaked on monday, triggering uproar in the lower house. Personally, I have always found it extremely difficult to digest that Advani and co had at any point acted out of 'Ram bhakti'. It never was a campaign of moral outrage against historical acts of vandalism or a campaign to reignite religious sentiments in the hearts of the non believers. It always was a cynical political act directed towards exploiting the extreme naivety of the electorate, wasn't it? Yet at the time, even the intelligentsia was divided about whether to celebrate or lament their growing influence.

Who knows if these two men started out believing in a just cause and simply 'went rogue'. (Ha ha....could not keep our darling Ms Palin out of this) Time will tell.

India's 3G Saga - A Bad Bollywood Movie!

jay — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:58:49 EST

India's 3G story (the auction of 3G spectrum to Wireless Service Providers) is playing out like a bad Bollywood masala movie.

It has all the ingredients. There are the usual heroes and their sidekicks (TRAI and Pranab Mukherjee), an allegedly corrupt villain (A. Raja), the henchmen (the Defence ministry), lasses-in-waiting pining for the wedding day (the Mobile companies) and the usual emotions and the song and dance.

About two hours of the movie have passed and the audience is still scratching their heads to see where the plot line is heading. It is still not clear whether the henchmen will give up on the spectrum that they are occupying. The hero (Pranabda) has been quite forthright in demanding they do so and even has had clashes with the sidekicks like the Defence Minister. The corrupt villain is currently mostly out of sight as it happens in most movies. Mogambo is usually in his lair and shows up only when absolutley necessary.

Meanwhile the bride(s) are still hoping that the wedding will indeed take place on January 14th 2010 even though it has been postponed so many times in the past. As any Bollywood fan knows, there is only one person who can ultimately salvage the situation. That would be the "Ma". She needs to get into the ring, get the warring factions to see reason - prove to them that they are actually brothers - and allow the wedding to take place. Ma has not yet shown up until now, so there is still time for the climax. Until she shows up, the shenanigans will continue and the movie may even go into the 3rd hour.

Ma Sonia, please get us out of this mess!!!!

3G is so vital for the nation that it is criminal for the politicos to be messing it up like this. Every self respecting nation has moved to 3G including China. Japan and South Korea are already looking at time tables to implement 4G. 3G is not simply TV on mobile, or more opportunity for playing games on mobile. Having 3G means faster internet access leading to better productivity and efficiency in the business place which we cannot afford to ignore. It might take a while for Indians to latch on to high end smartphones in order to use 3G. But the faster it is introduced, the faster it will be accepted by the populace and sooner it will become popular.

Given the uncertainty in the spectrum allocation, most Wireless companies are now loathe to invest in the required equipment for 3G. They are rather looking at the new spectrum as a way to provide more 2G connectivity. And that is a shame!!