Archive for the ‘politics’ Category
Rug pulling
Yesterday’s political drama in Karnataka again points to a new nadir in Indian politics. We all know who the culprit for the fiasco is, so let me not dwell on that. Looking at the larger picture, I can’t help but ask a few questions. For well over a decade we have lived with coalition politics – both at the center and the state. Time and again, we have seen a coalition partner pull the rug from under the feet of the sitting government; thus pushing the state into another period of abeyance and another round of expensive elections. If only this can be preempted, we could save a lot of the exchequer’s money. We would do well to spend that money on development rather than on preserving a democracy in which the elected governments are unable to complete their tenures repeatedly. I ask, “isn’t it time for us to formulate laws and mechanisms to ensure that parties that come together after an election to form a government stay together till the end of the period? If this seems rigid, isn’t it time we looked more deeply at the method of elections itself – changing it in such a way that we preserve the choices available currently to the electorate, yet at the same time ensure that there are only 2/3 large chunks of political outfits left in the legislature?” I am no student of political science, just a layman disillusioned by the depravity of the politicians.
In recent times, we have witnessed that the larger business and commerce is unaffected by these political happenings; this is a commendable departure for us. I believe this has come to stay. The sad news though is that developmental activity is still tightly linked to political actions. Hence, anything like the recent Karnataka debacle stalls most developmental work in the state. The point to note is that once the continuity is lost, it can be safely assumed that most such projects would soon be terminated.
The need for a closer look at coalition politics by the law makers is the need of the hour.
Fodder for thought??
Laloo Yadav is about to lecture at IIM-A on how he turned the mammoth Indian Railways into an organization with profit of Rs.150 billion. But today as we hail him for his victory, do we spare a thought to the fact that it is the same man who had been blamed for the backwardness of his home state Bihar and also that he was once implicated in the ‘Fodder scam’. But then who cares, he is our hero today! What puzzles me is why this efficiency didn’t reflect during his rule in Bihar? Whatever said and done, net-net he seems to have been a God send for the Railways.
Q for quota
The reservation ruckus has brought forth some interesting statistical and empirical conclusions.
Here are two of them:
1. Upper castes in the country do not have a dramatically higher chance of getting top jobs in comparison with SC/ST and OBCs, in case all of them have the same level of education, i.e. at least a high school degree.
2. The statement by our finance minister that the southern states were more prosperous because of the successful implementation of reservation policy. Clearly it’s a case of using the wrong instrument. The real solution although easier said than done, lies in ensuring school education for ALL and further creating employment opportunities.
