Rahul Gandhi Version 2.0.0

VIEWPOINT

AMITABH SHUKLA

On Sunday, Ramlila Ground in the heart of Delhi saw the “relaunch” of Rahul Gandhi. Those who had thought that the new version of the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty would be better and faster than the previous one came out thoroughly disappointed after the rally. Sabbatical of almost two months and Buddhist style vipassana, tantra or whatever mysterious cult he practiced over the last few weeks, proved to be of no use as he used the same jaded language and took up the same issue on which the voters had rejected his party in the May 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

The anti economic reform rhetoric and leftist agenda which he spoke from the dais was exactly he had been speaking uninterruptedly for the last few years. What was new in this?  So the launch of Rahul Gandhi version 2.0.0 seemed entirely uneventful and bereft of anything new and different. We had been repeatedly told by a battery of Congress spokespersons and those who swear by the dynasty that the new version of Gandhi would be different from the earlier one as he was into some introspection about the party and its policies and come out with the proverbial magic wand for its revival.

Will they now come out and say that the sabbatical, holidays, sightseeing; pleasure trip… or whatever you call his absence has actually benefitted the party?

Why has Rahul Gandhi become the source of biggest embarrassment for the family-run-and-controlled party? The answer is not far to seek. He is simply not interested in politics, not ready for the top job forced on him, not fit to take political responsibilities which his mother and others want him to shoulder. It’s like a great cricketer forcing his son to become a cricketer even though he wants to be become a rockstar or a writer. It’s like a classical vocalist who wants his son to become like him but the son is hellbent on becoming a fashion designer. It’s like someone forcing a journalist like me in his early 40s to become a marathon runner. Sonia Gandhi may be a great political strategist as the arrangement with Manmohan Singh showed, the longest serving Congress President in its history but that does not mean that because he is her son, Rahul too would be as “successful”.

I don’t understand why the Congress, particularly Sonia Gandhi, doesn’t realise that Rahul is simply not cut out to be a politician. He could be anything — a great yoga master, a Formula One driver, a Buddhist master excelling in the finer techniques of meditation, someone who can have a great control on his breath and is excellent in pranayama, a fitness freak and instructor and may even start lessons in positive thinking or giving sermons on religion and spirituality on television. His career, priority and interests lie somewhere else. But Congress wants him to become the party president, an election winning poster boy of the party, someone who inspires youth and is voted to power. I am sorry but they are betting on the wrong person. Rahul has been and would always remain a reluctant politician.      

What we saw at Ramlila Ground was paid Congress crowd, hardly interested in what Rahul or party chief Sonia Gandhi spoke from the stage. From Haryana and Punjab, busloads of people were brought in the national Capital, paid for missing their daily job, provided food, transport and entertainment allowance. It’s anybody’s guess how many of them were farmers.

Ironically the farmers of both Haryana and Punjab are ruing the loss of their wheat crop due to vagaries of nature and trying to somehow convince the procurement agencies that the poor quality of the crop be overlooked while being procured. That is their worry, not Land Acquisition Bill. In any case, farmers in Haryana and Punjab practically get market rate for their land acquired and most of them would rather want their land to be acquired for a quick buck as it saves them the social stigma of selling their land when returns from practicing agriculture is diminishing.  

So when Rahul spoke against the Land Acquisition Bill after his nearly two-month absence from the country, it seemed like a fly by night operator who was forced by the circumstances to say something in which he was neither interested nor convinced. It was like a professional golfer giving lessons on fish farming in a village, it was like a priest in a temple who has been forced to dance in a discotheque. The assembled crowd at Ramlila Ground endured the speeches for a while, had plenty of water and then preferred to go back to the safe confines of the buses and vehicles which had brought them to the venue from different places in Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan.

It’s not surprising that Congress is vertically divided on the name of Rahul Gandhi as the new Congress President. For the first time perhaps, Congress leaders are fighting amongst themselves and issuing contradicting statements on the name of Rahul. In Punjab, state Congress President Partap Singh Bajwa and former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh are abusing each other left right and centre in public almost every day. While Bajwa wants Rahul as party President, Capt Amarinder wants Sonia to continue.

In Haryana, State party chief Ashok Tanwar and CLP leader Kiran Chaudhry want Rahul, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda swears by his mother.

This is practically the situation in almost all states where Congress has any semblance of presence. A comic situation has emerged where a faction is supporting Rahul for its survival and the other Sonia, forgetting that no one is going anywhere in the family run organisation. They are stabbing each other but raising the slogans of Rahul Zindabad or Sonia Zindabad, to camouflage their bitter factional fight. Capt Amarinder knows that Bajwa has the confidence of Rahul and would not be removed from the post which he badly wants. So, you see him saying that Rahul is not experienced enough for the top job. He knows for sure that if Rahul becomes the party chief, he would have to seek VRS and head for his summer palace in Chail, Himachal Pradesh.

Instead of looking for ways and means to rejuvenate itself and look forward for the challenges ahead, the badly battered and bruised Congress has reduced itself to a laughing stock. Of course, Rahul is one big reason for this.

He has become a butt of jokes on social media. In fact, on WhatsApp and Twitter, most of the jokes are at the cost of the Congress Vice President. How can the party not see the writing on the wall and keep forcing Rahul to accept a job in which he has little or no interest or at best only a part time interest as he has not yet found what interests him the most.  

Former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has already spoken about this and so has her son and former East Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit. For the first time, Congressmen and women are speaking out against someone from the dynasty. This has never happened in the past. No one spoke against Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi or Sonia Gandhi being still a member of the party.

This is happening for the first time in the post independence history of the Congress. Is this political churning of a new kind, only time will reveal. But what is certain is that Congress is riding on two boats at the same time and that only leads to disaster. (April 20, 2015)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/2015-04-19-90447.html

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/dehradun/rahul-gandhi-version-200.html

The peg that cheers; Raise a toast to the lovers of Bacchus

VIEWPOINT

AMITABH SHUKLA

It is that time of the year when the banners of ‘sale’ have been splashed all over Chandigarh in front of the liquor shops. The lovers of Bacchus are thronging the liquor shops in dozens and coming out with cartons on their heads and shoulders. They are stocking the supplies for the next few weeks and months.

The joint capital of Punjab and Haryana-Chandigarh must be one of the few places in the country where ‘sale’ on liquor takes place annually and this is eagerly awaited by all those who want to save the extra bucks for what they call an ‘essential commodity’.

This attracts people who love their drink from all over the States of Punjab and Haryana and violating the excise law, they carry whatever they fancy and their pockets permit. As the prices this time are 40 per cent to 50 per cent cheaper than “normal” days, the anxiety to hoard as much liquor as possible is writ large on the faces of all those who swear by their drink.

But this time, my focus is on Punjab, which is has now become the liquor capital of the country as its competitor Kerala is facing tough days due to Government policies.

Liquor is a part of life here, what some would term as elixir of life. Something without which an average Punjabi finds his evening bereft of colour and excitement. No wonder the State Government has realised this and the vends here practically supply booze round the clock.

You may not find any chemist shop or a kirana shop open at seven in the morning. You might find that the doctor in the nearby hospital is missing so early in the morning even if you go there for an emergency treatment. You may not find much activity and people on the road. But liquor shops religiously open early in the morning without a fail.

They realise the business potential of opening shops early as some hardcore veterans end their evening hangover by gulping a peg or two in the morning. Only then do they complete their morning chores. Though the official timings of the liquor shops here is 9 am to 11 pm, those who swear by their drink would vouch for the fact that they can get it round the clock without any hitch.

The liquor shops could ‘officially’ closed by 11 pm but from under the shutter of several shops you can purchase your favourite brand any time after that. The liquor vend employees work in multiple shifts and the night shift operator gets in action after the official timings are over.

Even the dry days here are observed by celebrating the occasion with a drink. On dry days, the shops open in the evening and the lovers of Bacchus converge in large numbers to raise a toast to the occasion be it Independence Day, Republic Day or the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Munnabhai in Rajkumar Hirani’s Lage Raho Munnabhai could not find liquor shops on Gandhi Jayanti in Mumbai, but perhaps the director was not aware that at sharp 5 pm, the shops opened on October 2 in Punjab and all brands were available. The friendly neighbourhood bootlegger, who does a brisk business on dry days across the length and breadth of the country, has been pushed out of business in Punjab. The poor chap in the land of five rivers has found some other business.

Prices of liquor in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh too are very competitive, aimed to attract more people, get new converts and also to retain the loyal customers. There could be great swing in the prices of vegetables and other essential commodities but price of liquor has practically remained constant for a long time. A bottle which could cost say, Rs500 in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand or Delhi, could be 30 per cent cheaper in State capital Chandigarh on normal days. Of course during “sale”, this price becomes all the more attractive.

Though there are no official figures nor has any attempt been made to do an empirical study comparing the consumption of water vis-à-vis liquor in Punjab and which of the two is consumed more, but some die-hard fans of alcohol say that the true devout, drinks water only when it is mixed in the drink and not “neat”.

Even the booze shopkeepers and their neighboring shops have become innovative, something rarely seen in other places. For the first time, I found a shop, specialising in selling “drinking accessories”. This was located next to a busy shop selling all sorts of whisky, beer, wine, vodka, rum, brandy and what not. Curiosity got better of me and I examined the shop selling “drinking accessories”. The shop had a list of all the “accessories” used for drinking — soda, ice cube, plastic glasses, peanuts, mixtures, cold drinks of all variety, bottled water, even cigarette for those who smoke while drinking.

The shop next to it was selling another drinking accessory, widely used in this part of the country — tandoori kukkad (chicken) and all its variants like Afghani chicken and the tikkas if one was careful of the bones while gulping liquor. So the list of “drinking accessories” was complete. Booze lovers, some of them fresh from their office or shop going to have their first drink of the evening and others in different levels of intoxication, were coming and purchasing the drink and the “accessories”.

There was a business for everyone associated with the drinks and selling the actual stuff and the accessories. The guy selling readymade clothes and the one selling stationary, were only watching with envy the business generated by their neighbour.

The excitement around liquor shops and the accompanying ‘taverns’ is something which cannot be found anywhere in the country, except perhaps Goa. These drinking dens have become the hotbed of political decision and Governments are made at the moment and dethroned by the intense discussions which take place.

A taxi driver who has obviously seen much more Punjab than I have, sermoned, “If you want to gauge the political temperature of the State ahead of the polls, make it a point to sit here and listen to the conversations”.

I don’t know whether political journalism here seriously means baptism at a liquor outlet. As liquor and popular culture go together in this part of the country, I was reminded of the senior Bachchan’s (Harivanshrai) immortal Madhushala.

Ek barsh me ek baar hi jagti holi ki jwala, ek baar hi lagti baaji jalti deepo ki maala, duniyawalo kintu kisi din aa madiralaya me dekho, di ko holi raat Diwali roz manati Madhushala. Roughly translated, “Holi comes only once in a year and so does Diwali; But come to the drinking den (Madhushala), which celebrates Holi during the day and Diwali during the night, everyday. I may or may not agree. It does not matter. (April 13, 2015)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/2015-04-12-89596.html

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/dehradun/the-peg-that-cheers-raise-a-toast-to-the-lovers-of-bacchus.html

Ashok Khemka should follow the bureaucratic Dharma

VIEWPOINT

AMITABH SHUKLA

The transfer of senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka by the Manohar Lal Khattar Government in Haryana has triggered a row and invited the wrath of the professional TV panelists who feign shock at the “treatment and humiliation” meted out to the officer. There are other usual suspects who have joined the cacophony without understanding the finer nuances of governance in a democratic set-up. At no point am I questioning the personal integrity of Khemka. By all accounts he has an impeccable track record on this front and even his critics concede that. But bureaucratic efficiency, getting attuned to the demands of the profession and use of common sense is one aspect and personal integrity another. An officer having impeccable personal integrity is no guarantee for bureaucratic efficiency, the way former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could not guarantee a taint-free UPA regime despite being hailed for personal integrity.

So Khemka’a personal integrity is one part and bureaucratic efficiency as perceived by the Government he serves is another. Ideally, an officer should have impeccable integrity and also a track record of delivery of services. It is the latter which is perhaps lacking in Khemka’s case over the years if you keep aside his role as a whistle blower in the infamous Robert Vadra-DLF deal. Haryana Government or for that matter any Government is well within its right to transfer any official it deems fit. Khemka is no different even if he had blown the lid off the dubious Robert Vadra-DLF land deal which made him famous and a nationally known bureaucrat in the first instance. The land deals of Vadra may have given the BJP an effective stick to beat the Congress during elections but no way does it give permanent immunity to Khemka if he does not follow the directions set by his immediate departmental boss, the Minister concerned. If the State Government perceives that its goals, targets and programmes are not being met and an officer is the obstacle, one cannot question its right to transfer the officer concerned.

Khemka was transferred numerous times in his career-on 46 occasions to be precise. He has “suffered” during all regimes—be it when Om Prakash Chautala of Indian National Lok Dal was the Chief Minister or whether Bhupinder Singh Hooda was in command for a decade. When BJP won the Assembly polls and Khattar became the Chief Minister, perhaps Khemka thought that he would be rewarded with better posts and get important postings. He was posted in the crucial Transport Department as a Commissioner, not as an award for exposing the Vadra-DLF deal, but as a routine bureaucratic exercise reshuffle when a new Government takes over.

I do not think that all these transfers in all these years by various Governments—INLD, Congress and BJP—have been done solely with the motive of punishing an honest officer. All these Governments cannot obviously enter into a conspiracy to punish an officer. They have a lot in hand than to think about an officer. Whether the sympathisers of the officer agree or not, there must also be some fault at the doors of Khemka which they refuse to look at. Sympathisers of the officer say he refused to play ball with “corrupt” political dispensation of the day over the years and was punished again and again. They blame the “corrupt” political system for the “plight” of officers like Khemka saying it was high time such a system was changed to protect honest officers.

This is too vague a statement and I do not agree with this. If someone decides to join IAS, IPS or Government service, he or she will have to follow the laid down norms for civil servants. In fact, they have to even follow those norms which are not laid down but understood by every officer in service. When you are playing cricket, you do not follow the rules of football. When in bureaucracy, you are supposed to follow the laid down conventions.  Khemka made the mistake of questioning these conventions time and again. The conventions may be good or bad but as an officer you are supposed to follow them and not flout them. When you play cricket or football you do not question the rules of the game. There is an entirely different mechanism to change the rules.

He had been the Transport Commissioner of Haryana for the last over four months and that was a sufficient time for the Government to judge his performance and whether he fits in the goals set up by the Minister concerned of the Department and the Chief Minister as the head of the State Government. Obviously he didn’t fit into the scheme of things or was in conflict with the policies and goals of the State Government and was therefore shown the exit door and placed in a department which has little or no impact on public policies. As the BJP Government had begun on a clean slate, having won the State Assembly polls for the first time, I am sure it did not have any preconceived notions or bias against Khemka.

What is surprising is the reaction of Khemka on the transfer through his Twitter account. Being in the Government for so long, the 1991 batch IAS officer must be aware that expressing sentiments the way he did is not acceptable to any Government and also does not conform to the bureaucratic dharma. Perhaps this explains why successive Governments viewed him as a “trouble-maker” and not a problem solver. To make the matters worse, he met Haryana Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki to express his disappointment after being given the marching orders. Perhaps he forgot that a Governor has little discretion in these matters and cannot issue directions the State Government.

I am not saying that Indian political system treats its bureaucrats fairly all the time. I am also not saying that the political system is very fair and transparent. There are several ills plaguing the system which needs to be addressed urgently. But playing the martyr, like Khemka is doing, is also not the solution. This will not help the cause of bureaucracy. Of course, a wider debate is needed to insulate bureaucracy and police from the whims and fancy of the political dispensation of the day. Consensus has to be reached to bring legislation for this. Fixing the term of officials, particularly those at a particular level of seniority, should be on top priority and is the need of the hour. Also, there has to be a well settled principle on how an official can be removed before his fixed term expires.

Its here where all political parties have to chip in. But then, no party, particularly in the states, wants to voluntarily give up its control on the bureaucracy and the police easily. They want them firmly under their control as they think this is the way to rule. Officers like Khemka would continue to be considered as loose cannons by all Governments and a flesh in their thorn as they do not conform to their expectations and flout the conventions, however faulty they may be. There are around 175 IAS officers in Haryana cadre and if one does not conform to the stereotype, he finds himself in an odd situation. This is perhaps what is happening to Khemka. But as another officer put it, “neither will Khemka change, nor will the State Government, whoever it is”.

Many advocate a systemic change in the relationship of bureaucrats with their political masters. But it is easier said than done. Small baby steps are needed first like fixing tenure of officers and formulating a policy for their removal before the tenure ends. This will be the way of least resistance in the ruling parties. (April 6, 2015)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/2015-04-05-88766.html

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/dehradun/ashok-khemka-should-follow-the-bureaucratic-dharma.html