The Fast ends. Its moral victory for the People...

The Anna Hazare fast finally ended today after 288 hours. Herculean effort and all for the country. Kudos to the man for his steadfast resolution and for galvanizing the people for this movement.

As per Pranab Mukherjee's opening speech in Parliament yesterday, there were 40 points in Anna Hazare's Jan Lok Pal bill. Out of those 40 points, there was consensus with the government on 20 of them. On 7 points there was consensus with some editing and another 7 points had agreement between the two parties in principle. There were 6 points which faced differences between the two sides. These points were:

1. Bringing the PM under the Lok-Pal.

2. Bringing the conduct of the MPs inside the house under the purview of Lok-Pal.

3. Bringing the judiciary under the purview of Lok-Pal

4. Creating of Lok-Ayuktas (in states) as part of the Lok-Pal bill.

5. Bringing the lower bureaucracy under the Lok-Pal ambit.

6. Creating a citizen's charter for addressing people'e grievances.

After several rounds of discussion between Anna's team and the Govt., and also judging the opinion of the largest opposition party, the Govt. began to concede on bringing the PM under the Lok-Pal ambit.

It was also apparent that conduct of MPs inside the house would remain outside the scrutiny of the Lok-Pal since all parties unanimously opposed it.

As enshrined in our constitution, Judiciary is independent of the Legislature and everyone was of the opinion that  however corrupt the judiciary might be, it would be wrong to bring the judiciary under the Lok-Pal for it would make the system devoid of the proper checks and balances that are required. Hence, unanimous opinion was to make the judiciary account through judicial accountability bill.

Point nos. 4,5,6 remained the sticky issues on which there was no considerable agreement and the opinion of the various political parties on this issue was also unclear. Anna wanted a resolution on the sticky points to be passed in Parliament so that the opinion of each of the political parties comes out in the open. Anna had kept the condition of breaking his fast only after the parliament passed a resolution agreeing to consider all the 3 points mentioned above.

After 8 hours of debate in Parliament on the 27th-Aug, it was clear that the Govt and the largest opposition party-BJP along with some of the other parties were in agreement to pass a resolution, agreeing on all the 3 sticky points. The final content of the resolution was presented to Anna Hazare paving the way for the fast to end after a 288 hours marathon.

The draft is now going to go through the Standing Committee before its passed by the Parliament. How long will that take, what would be final contents of the Bill and whether the Govt will rise above petty bickering to present a strong Lok-Pal bill is something that time will tell.

Let people's voices be heard and the country grow stronger into a more vibrant democracy in its true sense.

"....The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind...."

Sensex touches below 16K

On Firday, 26th Aug, the Sensex went below 16K. When will the turnaround of the indices happen? Will this be an inordinately long bout where the bears will reign? Can I start buying into some of the counters again? How much can I invest? Questions that ring in my mind but have no definitive clues.

"....The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind...."

Economic Contagion Spreading...

First was the downgrading of the American Economy  by S&P from AAA to AA+ and now Europe seems to be in the doldrums with the weaker economies of the Eurozone (read Greece, Portugal) on the brink of default and the stronger economies registering negligible growth (as seen in France, Germany). Even Italy (one of the G7 countries) has had to pass austerity measures to keep its debt in control. Spain is struggling similarly. Whether this crisis will blow over soon is a million dollar question. But its definitely taking majestic proportions and threatening to go out of control at the moment.
The domestic economy is also paralyzed by high inflation and policy deficit. The ruling government is finding things difficult to get its way and political apathy is adding fuel to fire.
Right now, we can only hope that this vicious cycle gets a quick fix solution.

"....The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind...."

On the Anna Movement...

Heard many voices ridicule that not many know about the Jan Lok Pal but still support Anna. That's because he stands more for the anti-corruption movement against the existing system rather than the Jan Lok Pal. People might have differences with his version of the Lok Pal but find the Govts' watered down version of the bill inexplicable in such tumultuous times.

After all that has happened in the 'Anna' campaign till date, I am still perplexed regding the Govt. handling of the issue!!! It has now opened the Ram Lila grounds for agitation. As far as I see it, with the wave of support for Anna, the Govt will have to enter into discussion with him. So why not now and put an end to the agitation and start talking? Are back channel discussions in progress? Or is the Govt. hoping the tide of protests will die down?

19-Aug: Anna to continue his movement from the Ram Lila ground.

27-Aug: Anna's 3 sticking points with the Govt:
   a) Introducing Lok-Ayuktas for the states as part of the Lok-Pal Bill
   b) Introducing a citizen charter to listen to citizen's complaint.
   c) Bringing the lower bureaucracy under the Lok-Pal.

As the Parliament debates these issues, a +ve resolution on all these points will result in Anna breaking his fast on the 12th day. The devil lies always in the details. Question remains if the Anna camp will now be satisfied with the new draft that is expected to be presented containing a resolution on all the 3 issues!!! Time will tell. But my personal opinion is now the fast should be broken and Parliamentary procedures allowed to take its course. I still find it difficult to believe that the Parliamentarians will deliver an honestly strong Lok-Pal bill. They will keep loop holes in between to save their skin. But, the agitation can continue once the final bill is presented and if it still compromises on corruption. Till then, let the Parliament reign supreme and allow the equilibrium of the democracy be restored. Let this end as a good precedent and not a horribly wrong dream where we get into a zero-sum game. That way, the civil society agitation will have a dignified place in history and set a good precedent of providing adequate checks-and-balances on the legislature which even the Constitution of the country would have considered as a master-stroke.

"....The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind...."

Birmingham 3rd Test Ind Vs Eng

End of 1st Day:
India 224 all-out; Eng 84/0

Another pasting on the cards?

End of 2nd Day - its Eng 456/3 Alistair Cook nearing his double century.
India slipping fast from their no.1 tag.

3rd Day of the test-match:Decimation complete: India defeated by innings and 242 runs. One of the biggest margins of defeat for the team and a tight slap on the face of the no.1 team. Couldn't have gone down in a more embarrassing way:(

"....The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind...."

Bengal govt to vest 270 acres of JSW in Salboni:(

My initial reactions was:
Don't know what the govt is upto!!! First the land acquisition problems are scaring away the investors. And when the industry is acquiring land by themselves, they are being vested by referring to archaic land acquisition laws even when there are no reprisals by the landowners. Anti-industry and politically motivated...
Source: Business-Standard


Vest & lease plan for Jindals:
Some respite for the Jindal's perhaps after their setback in Karnataka where the Lokayukta indicted them of wrong-doings. 
The Bengal government will vest the land the Jindals bought in Salboni in excess of the land ceiling and lease it back to their steel project to circumvent a procedural twilight zone.
Source: The Telegraph


"....The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind...."

Indian Test team get a pasting in England

With the Indian test team enjoying the status of the being the top-ranked test team, its on a visit to England to challenge the arguably most complete test team after the hammering the Australians received in the last Ashes series on their home-ground. The Indian team had a half-baked preparation on the placid West-Indian wickets just prior to the current series. The West-Indies series saw many of the top players missing from the ranks, cooling their heels after a hectic schedule involving the World-Cup and the IPL matches.
The team failed to give a good account of themselves in the West-Indies and have found themselves completely out-of-sorts in the current England trip - already trailing 2-0 to the Englishmen and burdened with injuries to top players like Sehwag, Zaheer, Gambhir and also plagued by fatigue or lack of battle readiness. They have been really found wanting against the rampaging Englishmen who have prevented the Indian batting line up from conjuring even a single 300+ total in 4 innings. Worse still, they have had a real bad outing against the Northants in the run-up to the 3rd Test and also go for the next rubber with the knowledge that Zaheer is out of the series permanently with injury. Also added to the list of injuries is Harbhajan and Yuvraj. Harbhajan  though must be thanking his stars for the injury after having a poor performance in the last 2 series.
Everyone is hoping for a turn-around from this Indian side but the current form of the players does not raise too much hope.

"....The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind...."

Sayantan starts going to Pre-School

Sayantan joined Euro-Kids from April, 2011 onwards. He has really taken a liking for the school and as parents, we are satisfied as well with the school's handling of the tiny-tots. Gearing up for his nursery admissions which seem to be a big milestone to achieve given the weird point system for admissions in Delhi.

"....The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind...."

Updates from National and International Arena...

A lot of water has flown under the Thames since my last post. Just thought about updating the blog after a long time. Some of the important news that has captured the headlines since then are:

- After 18 long years of wait, the Indian team finally won the World Cup under Dhoni's captaincy with some inspirational performances from Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh. Its a moment to cherish and may the victory bugles continue to play for long.

- The Lok-Pal bill seems to have united the nation against corruption of the state. While the Congress Govt. tries to skirt the issue with a so called -"Jok-Pal Bill" that does not have much teeth to take to task the corrupted politicians and Babu's, the Anna Hazare camp is really giving them some tough times with some scathing questions.

- The 2G spectrum scam has taken toll on a number of high-profile politicians such as A.Raja, Kanimozhi, Dayanidhi Maran from the DMK camp and also on the party in the latest Tamil-Nadu elections in 2011.

- Suresh Kalamadi - the CWG OC is also being pressed on charges of swindling tax-payers money in the run up to the CWG event in New-Delhi.

- Osama Bin Laden was killed from his Abottabad compound in Islamabad, Pakistan following a daring action by the US Navy seals.

- America faces a serious fiscal crisis with its credit rating being on the line for its huge debt burden, raising the possibility of a double dip recession in US. Would it impact its war-on-terror? Time will tell.

- China is emerging as the new world power, flexing its muscles in ASIA and across the continents as well by lapping up vital resources like oil-fields to building Dams for holding up the waters from the rivers without caring for any water-sharing agreements with its neighbors. Its also accused of sponsoring mass scale cyber attacks all around the world. Its high-speed rail network is the cynosure of all eyes at present. Also, the state supported mobile company 'Huawei' is making the mobile market leaders like Ericcson shake in its legs. The Chinese Dragon is living upto its reputation, gobbling up everything that comes in its way.

- Google launches Google+ to compete with Facebook as the preferred social networking site.

"....The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind...."