New brothels, same old whores

Aditya Sinha | The writer is the Editor-in-Chief, DNA, based in Mumbai
Appeared in DNA India, of Sunday, December 18, 2011

You may have heard of a family with dynastic pretensions that ruled a nation as if it were private property; where the press was gagged to Orwellian consequences of both brain-freeze and absurdity; where ministers spy against Cabinet rivals and plot the downfall of opponents; where the mother ordered heavy-handed reprisals on citizens protesting government incompetence and corruption; and where the son, in charge of Youth Affairs, was known for whispered scandals of rape. Yes, I’m talking of Nicolae Ceausescu, his wife Elena and his son Nicu, who ran Romania as a more-Stalinist-than-Stalin totalitarian state for over two decades until the Iron Curtain fell.

They are on my mind because of Oxford don Patrick McGuinness’s semi-autobiographical novel The Last Hundred Days (long-listed for the 2011 Booker) which, set in 1989 Bucharest, tells the story of the sudden and simultaneously not-so-sudden collapse of a regime that tried to hold on despite the viral spread of Perestroika through Prague, Berlin and Warsaw; a regime so paranoid that Ambika Soni and Kapil Sibal (the self-styled arbiters of taste and decorum in traditional and new media, respectively) would have fit right in.

The novel is itself undoubtedly worth a read because though the Romanian state TV clip of Ceausescu’s last speech (viewable, O ye post-History youthlings, on YouTube) is one of the most WTF visuals of a dictator losing his grip in a Hogwarts-like puff of smoke, it does not immerse you into the anxiety, boredom and terror of everyday life in a brutally repressive state in the way a novel can. In the clip, you see Ceausescu addressing crowds of supporters trucked in from towns outside of Bucharest (reminds you of our own mass-rally addressing netas) from his monstrosity of a palace; he’s trying to demonstrate his continued popularity following a massacre of protestors in Timisoara, bordering the rapidly-disintegrating Yugoslavia, when suddenly that same imported crowd starts jeering him and chanting “Timisoara!” In the clip, Ceausescu stops mid-sentence and blinks uncomprehendingly for eons of moments, until a burly staffer whisks him off. (There’s also a video of his and Elena’s 90-minute trial and summary execution.) Yes, his stunned disbelief makes for a compelling video.

The book, on the other hand, makes this moment the cathartic climax to a surreal journey into a city where biannual purges at the University see heads of departments demoted to floor-swabbing (“The old joke, that it was in the janitorial strata of Romania’s universities that you found the real intellectuals, was, like all good communist bloc jokes, less an exaggeration of reality than a shortcut to it”); where, due to Ceausescu’s diktats, abortions and miscarriages are crimes against a State trying to increase its population; where industrial saws are hidden within the river bordering Yugoslavia so that swimmers trying to illegally emigrate meet a gruesome end; where, the morning after the fall of the Berlin Wall the Scinteia’s front page headline reads, “Romania’s new tractor successfully launched at the Albanian Agricultural Fair” (the paper’s motto is “One Nation, One Paper”, to which a vendor cynically adds “One Reader”); where, in the final days, graffiti on a museum wall reads “Death to the Vampire and his Bitch” (as events gather momentum, Ceausescu is jeered as “Dracula”, a 15th century ruler of Transylvania — now a part of Romania — and fictional vampire); and where the long queues at provision shops stocked with dubious goods from North Korea and Bulgaria contrast with the “Party’s leisure parks” where capitalism’s finest consumables are freely available, but only to Ceausescu’s cronies. Read this book, and suddenly that two-minute YouTube clip makes all the sense in the world.

Referencing Ceausescu may make sense when you consider the echo of 1989 that 2011 has been. Not just in the Arab world, but even in Vladimir Putin’s Soviet-retro Russia, where this week’s announcement of a presidential election challenger hints that the Kremlin kleptocracy may feel that Putin’s liability now outweighs his utility; and perhaps soon in parts of Europe, outraged by German bullying on fiscal discipline.

In India have we already seen the effect? In the way that Ceausescu made way for Ion Illiescu, a former member of his regime who saw his chance and with impeccable timing revolted, and to which Professor Leo O’Heix in The Last Hundred Days says “New brothels, same old whores…”, have the scandals and protests of 2011 changed anything in our country? Look at the facts: DMK recently managed to get first daughter Kanimozhi out of Tihar jail; Mamata Banerjee forced the government to suspend its order on allowing Foreign Direct Investment in multi-brand retail; and Sharad Pawar has firmly rejected the Congress President’s pet legislation on food security. Quite clearly, there has been a regime change within the UPA: the allies have taken over, and perhaps we will see the remaining term of this government as a sort of quasi-Third Front government though still headed by an avuncular if ineffectual Congress prime minister.

Or perhaps we’ll hear something similar to what Ceausescu said before he was executed: “This is nonsense: the Romanian people love us and will not stand for this coup.” Famous last words indeed.

Aditya Sinha - writer is the Editor-in-Chief, DNA, based in Mumbai
Article link :  http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column_aditya-sinha-new-brothels-same-old-whores_1627164

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SAVE us from the LERDS

Save us from the lerds - by Chetan Bhagat | Dec 18, 2011 - TOI blogs

He comes again on this blog, because he echoes my thought better than I can articulate.

There is a common, slightly pejorative term used to describe certain people with a scientific or technical background - nerd. Nerds are defined as people slavishly devoted to academic pursuits. They are supposed to be intelligent but socially awkward, lost in equations and formulae, and disconnected from the real world. Not every person with a technical background is socially inept.

However, I being from the species, humbly accept there are enough nerds in this world to create the stereotype. Many of us find it easier to solve differential calculus than say, speak to strangers at a party. I have been tagged as a nerd at various stages of my life, especially while being turned down by women (as in 'I'd prefer being a nun to being seen with a nerd like you', or 'go solve your physics problems nerd, the Stephanian already asked me out' ).

I accept it. Sometimes it is difficult for nerds to articulate or absorb what is really happening in the real world. Nerds like to solve problems, and get quite uncomfortable if they cannot answer in a certain number of steps. Hence, it is relatively easy for a nerd to figure out how a rocket is launched into space, which though complex, has a set solvable path. It is much harder for nerds to approach questions like, 'how to get this girl to like me', or more seriously, issues like, 'how to solve corruption' or 'why is the Indian economy and politics in such a mess?'

I accept it - we in our rigorous yet narrow minded scientific education, find it difficult to approach subjective issues. That is why we are called nerds.

However, after accepting the flaws of my own species, allow me to point a tiny finger at our humanities stream brethren. Allow me, ladies and gentlemen, to introduce a new, nerd-equivalent category for our 'liberal arts' background people - the lerds.

The lerds are our so-called 'liberal arts', or in India simply the 'arts' students who are supposed to be open-minded, visionary and articulate about social issues. Some of these people, with their background in wonderful liberal arts subjects, are our intellectuals. They sit on thinktank committees and participate in debates to solve issues facing our country. Lerds give 45-minute speeches in conferences held at posh Delhi venues on topics ranging from the environment, corruption to poverty eradication, FDI, girl child, healthcare and infrastructure. Lerds can be spotted in TV debates on English news channels (but never on entertainment or vernacular channels). Female lerds often prefer an ethnic yet classy look.

Unlike nerds who shiver at the thought of public speaking, lerds can speak on any issue. When they do, they sound intelligent even though their point is often not clear. Warm, fuzzy feelings run through their listeners as they see the lerds' grasp of issues like the primacy of Parliament and their use of wonderful terms like 'need of the hour' (notice the urgency. Not need of the week, month or year - need of the hour!) .

Lerds know it all. They understand nuance like a nerd never would. However, unlike nerds who love solutions, lerds have one defining, important trait. Despite all their intelligence, grasp and knowledge, lerds hate solutions. For solutions mean there is a direction set to solve the problem, and then there is not much debate left. And where is the fun in that? So if a Lokpal bill is proposed as a starting step to solve corruption, lerds will hate it.

Because according to them 'the need of the hour' is to remove corruption. However, how exactly that will be done is not the lerds' concern. So if for inflation, solutions like reduction in government subsidies and productivity improvement infrastructure projects are proposed, they will shoot it down with a 'it is not that simple' or a 'India is not that easy to figure out' . For you see, all that lerds are interested in is to figure out the problem (and show the world how smart they are in figuring it out). Proposing or backing a solution is for plebians and nerds. Lerds are above all this.

Where do lerds come from? Well, they are often a result of the flawed Indian education system, which focuses on knowledge more than application. Even in science subjects, but particularly in the arts, Indian students can score good marks by rote knowledge, rather than being forced to apply themselves. Teaching materials and methods in humanities are archaic and outdated. Many post-graduates in wonderful subjects like sociology, philosophy, psychology and economics have excellent knowledge, but find it difficult to apply their knowledge to the Indian context, and impossible to give a specific solution.

Of course, not every liberal arts student is a lerd (just as every tech student is not a nerd). However, it is time we accept that intelligent yet inept people exist on both sides - the sciences and the arts. Knowledge is only one part of education; the other, equally important aspect is application. Nerds need to integrate their problem solving abilities to the real world. Lerds need to learn how to solve problems rather than just pontificate. The arts and science streams are just man-made divisions. To make progress, we Indians need to learn and apply from both disciplines. I hereby propose a truce between the nerds and the lerds, who should come together and learn from each other. After all, isn't that the need of the hour?

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What shouldn't happen is happening.

What is happening in this country?” asked Pranab Mukherjee, and the reply is :

What shouldn't happen is happening

By TJS George - 04 Dec 2011 12:38:59 AM IST

(THE SUNDAY STANDARD of 4th Dec, 2011)

What is happening in this country?” asked Pranab Mukherjee, in the aftermath of the Sharad Pawar slapping incident. Every taxpayer and voter in this country has been asking the same question, though not in the sense in which Mukherjee meant. What indeed is happening under the auspices of the eminent leaders of the Government and the Opposition? What the citizen knows is:

That dumb things are happening in the country. Like introducing the FDI in retail decision at the most inopportune moment. What was the urgency to present it as a Cabinet decision, when Parliament was in session and a critical election in UP was round the corner? The American Ambassador’s very undiplomatic intervention? Is pleasing the Americans worth the price of alienating political allies as well as UP voters? Or was someone trying to divert attention from the 2G fire engulfing P Chidambaram? It is not easy to  imagine Pranab Mukherjee straining a nerve to save Chidambaram, with whom he has been openly clashing. The pros and cons of the FDI policy apart, the manner and timing of the government move betrayed a sad lack of political sense. Congressmen themselves came out in open criticism. Did such a mess have to happen?

That anti-democratic trantrums are happening in the country. Only Indian genius could invent the idea of attending Parliament in order to block its proceedings. The present Parliament has wasted more working hours than any Parliament in the last 25 years. Leaders like Sushma Swaraj are proud to announce that Parliament won’t be allowed to function. Any reason is good enough. In the current session, first it was boycott of Chidambaram. Then it was food inflation. Then FDI. One week of washed-out session cost the tax-payers `24 crore. Parliament is a forum for debate and decisions, not a site for street demonstrations. Common people are unanimous in their call for no work, no pay. But MPs are so shameless that they are demanding red lights atop their cars. This is democracy going bizarre.

That intrigue and machinations are happening in the country. Either Sonia Gandhi’s health condition, or her partisans’ impatience, or the former aggravating the latter, has led to what looks like preparations for a post-Manmohan Singh regime—which need not wait till the end of the Prime Minister’s term. This was clear when TKA Nair was ousted as the PM’s Principal Secretary and Pulok Chatterji put in his place in July. Nair was Manmohan Singh’s close and trusted aide even before he became PM, and Chatterji is a known extension of the Sonia Gandhi parivar. The message was that the PMO was too important to be left to the PM. So when does Rahul Gandhi step in? And people like Digvijay Singh? The economy is in trouble, but all we have is politics by contrivance.

That meaningful efforts to end corruption are not happening in the country. Shaken by the public anger that swelled the Anna Hazare tide, the Government went through some motions of working on an honourable Lok Pal Bill. Now we know it was not all that honourable. A bill with sufficient holes through which bureaucrats and politicians can collect their mamools may well be what comes out of it all. How will public outrage express itself next time?

Look at the one state, Karnataka, where an effective Lokayukta had done wonders. The post has remained vacant since Justice Santosh Hegde retired. They did appoint an exceptionally good successor, Justice Shivraj Patil, but a minor issue involving a cooperative society housing site, was raised to harass him and he resigned. Karnataka not only lost a worthy Lokayukta; it is unable to find a retired judge antisceptic enough for the post.

When Pranab Mukherjee raised his question, the answer was staring him in the face: What should be happening in the country is not happening, so what should not be happening is happening.

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