After Advani...

Strategies are inherent not just to military but raw politics as well. Looking back, Advani's statement that Jinnah was secular seems to have been a well thought out move jointly crafted by he and Vajpayee. Why? Just give it back to the Hindu hardliners, who have been hounding both these senior leaders.

Noticed, how only Vajpayee was there to support him?

It was Advani's decision to be a guest in Musharraf's Pakistan that was more remarkable that anything else. He is (rather was) such a Pakistan basher. That may be one reason he never visited Pakistan when he was in power. Moreover, he had wrecked the Agra summit.

Now, out of power, he decided to visit the country of his birth. A guest lavishing praise on a host is a very normal thing. So, Advani lauding Jinnah or Musharraf or anyone in Pakistan is no big deal. That was why I thought Advani's praise of Jinnah was "just one of those" statements.

Advani is veteran politician, who has seen it all. He will never say or do anything without adequately pondering over the results. Did Advani foresee that his statement on Jinnah would provoke radicals back home? It seems he did. Now the whole thing has come to a head. I think we have seen the last of Advani (and Vajpayee too) in politics.

The parliamentary party has asked him to reconsider his decision. I don't think he will.

Now, BJP faces its toughest challenge. Survival. Not as a party. But as a party acceptable to the world. A party worthy of contesting elections. A party with credentials to rule the country.

The hardliners have now put the onus on the second-rung leaders. We don't need gangsters in the guise of political leaders. Hope BJP doesn't swing back to Hindutva and Pakistan bashing. That would do no one good.

We need statesmen. Not frogs in the well, but visionaries who can see the world in perspective and chart out the role India can play.

Attitude!

I don't know how many of us have pondered over this 8-letter A-word. It is simply the manner in which we feel, think and act. It is the Hero or the Villain determining the state of our society.

Here in Bangalore, one instance I have mostly heard this word being used is among the young crowd: "O! that guy/girl has an attitude." It means nothing but that the person is prejudiced, proud, has an air around him/her and is difficult to deal with.

But we need to understand the A-word beyond that. If you look closely or listen closely, there are countless instances that make you think of Attitude; ours as well as of others.

The most recent occasion when I thought about It was when our city, Bangalore, came to a standstill when clouds opened up just for a few minutes recently. Whereever and whenever a few people got together, the discussion was: why the city (inspite of its worldwide acclaim) is what it is.

The blame was on everyone: from the chief minister to the mayor, the commissioner, the public works depatment, right down to 'we people'. But I thought it was Attitude, which was the villain.

It doesn't matter who we are: rich, middleclass, poor; vegetarian, non-vegetarian; north Indian, south Indian; man, woman, child, one travels in car, one who travels in Municipality bus; a railway ticket booking clerk, software developer, politician, teacher, labourer, fashion model...

Each of them can be good or bad; it's the attitude. In our analysis of situations we tend to use as a denominator things like caste, religion, profession, educational qualification, material possession, spiritual inclinations etc. But, actually those things really don't matter as much as Attitude.

Last month when I was travelling from Chennai to Bangalore by train, there was a ticket examiner. Every time he checked the ticket and returned it to the customer, he said, "Thank you, sir" or "Thank you, madam". He made me feel so good. I looked at his name plate: R. Raghu.
One day I saw on MG Road a guy, walking ahead of me, opening a paper wrapper. Out came a book. But what struck me was, he looked around for a waste paper bin, and on seeing none around, he so effortlessly and naturally put the crumbled wrapper into his pocket. I felt like catching up with him, tapping him gently on his back, and telling him, "Sir, I wish there were more people like you around."

But the fact is that there are indeed many anonymous people like this guy doing quietly the right thing. They straddle all realms of social strata, like I mentioned above. They have the right Attitude.

But they are not as much talked about or written about. Not because their Attitude is not invaluable, but because it is a sine qua non for a healthy society. What is right is no big deal, because that's the way it has to be.

If things aren't going well -- in our house, in our locality, in our city, in our state, in our country, or in this world -- it's because theren't enough people with the right Attitude. Once that is done, efficiency is achieved by way of synergy. Synergy is the simultaneous joint action of different things, which together have a greater effect, than the sum of the individual parts. It's like saying three and two make seven or nine.

We need to be bothered about getting the Right Attitude to various facets of life. Everything else will follow.

Malayalees in top positions

The following clipping from the Indian Express is obviously because I am from Kerala, the southern most state of India. The article says Malayalees (people from the state of Kerala -- so called because they speak the language of Malayalam) occupy many of the top positions in Delhi.

But what I like the best was this paragraph: "Yet, with all the accompanying eminence for the Malaylee’s unwavering sincerity, efficiency, devotion and hard work, there is no visible Malayalee caucus or coterie which has come to dominate Delhi. In fact, the Malayalee mutant is still invisible, unlike the Tamil Brahmin, Bengali or Allahabad Brahmin."

Here is full article. It is quite interesting, for even non-Malayalees, I guess!

Quietly, the Malayalee takes over

From NSA M K Narayanan to RAW chief Hormis Tharakan, the roll call is virtually a who’s who in power

By Vrinda Gopinath

NEW DELHI, MAY 28: Why did the Malayalee cross the road? To join the UPA, he thought it was a trade union. As the first anniversary celebrations of the UPA government fade out, there is still quiet jubilation in a little corner—to exult in the arrival of the Malayalee in Power Delhi.

For the ‘Mundu Mafia’, as they are uncharitably called, has stealthily and silently come to win the confidence and trust of the two most important people in government—Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president and UPA chairperson, Sonia Gandhi.

The roll call is a veritable who’s who in power—in the PMO, it is the Numero Uno, National Security Advisor (NSA) M K Narayanan, a former Intelligence Bureau chief. Initially, while Narayanan looked after the commanding internal security, it was a fellow-Malayalee, the late J N (Mani) Dixit, former foreign secretary, who was the NSA, until he passed away this January. Narayanan simply moved into the job later.

Then there is T K A Nair, principal secretary to the PM, a post which had assumed intoxicating power when Brajesh Mishra occupied the post during A B Vajpayee’s time. Nair, a former Punjab cadre IAS officer, was handpicked by Dr Singh when they served together in the bureaucracy.

The present bureaucratic hierarchy is equally tantalising for the Malayalee:

• The present RAW (our CIA) chief Hormis Tharakan is a Kerala cadre IPS officer—he was pulled out from the state where he was DGP

• The Secretary to President A P J Abdul Kalam is Madhavan Nair—he was former Secretary, Defence Production

• The Commerce Ministry seems to be bristling with key Malayalee bureaucrats despite Kerala’s dismal reputation for trade: S N Menon, Commerce Secretary; K T Chacko, DG for Foreign trade; G K Pillai, Additional Secretary, who now heads the Free Trade Area Cell in the Ministry; Christy Fernandes, Additional Secretary, Anti-Dumping Cell.

• Culture is dominated by Babu Rajeev, DG, Archaeological Survey of India; Dr Sudha Gopalkrishnan, Mission Head, National Manuscripts Mission at the IGNCA.

Then there’s V George, former steno-turned-private secretary to Sonia Gandhi, who invented the phantasmal ‘‘source at 10, Janpath’’, and P P Madhavan, OSD to Gandhi and now close aide to her son, Rahul.

Yet, with all the accompanying eminence for the Malaylee’s unwavering sincerity, efficiency, devotion and hard work, there is no visible Malayalee caucus or coterie which has come to dominate Delhi. In fact, the Malayalee mutant is still invisible, unlike the Tamil Brahmin, Bengali or Allahabad Brahmin.

While the Malayalee Majesties are low-key, the Malayalee majority are quite happy being faceless clerks, forever preferring to file papers in countless rooms in endless corridors.

‘‘The Malayalee is instinctly skeptical and cynical about power and institutions of power,’’ says lauded Malayalee poet K Sachidanandan, Secretary, Sahitya Akademi. ‘‘And joining the establishment is an act of betrayal of the revolution. Because of his in-built sense of freedom and radicalism, he views power as bourgeoisie, shameful and pro-establishment,’’ he says.

However, the ‘bourgeoisie’ Malayalee is seen as unhelpful and distant, and can never be accused of packing his ministry or department with fellow-Malayalees.
‘‘The Malayalee has an intrinsic moral fear of tarnishing his reputation,’’ says Prof N N Pillai, principal, post-graduate college, Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan. ‘‘So he refuses to oblige even a small favour. He has come a long way from home, and has a lot at stake. Whether the fear of helping his community is good or not is debatable,’’ he says.

Perhaps it is celebrated Malayam author M Mukundan—now ready to launch his new book—who explains the peculiar ‘‘Malaylee anxiety syndrome’’.
Says Mukundan, ‘‘Tension and anxiety is in-built in a Malayalee. When two Malayalees meet for a drink at the India International Centre (IIC) bar, there is no joking and laughter like the Punjabis, instead they worry about a range of issues, from the effects of globalisation to global warming. This is because their education has instilled in them a strong sense of social justice and compassion. For the common Malayalee, this overriding guilt has made him impractical and unambitious.’’