Devil and The Deep Sea

I am the lone Orissa connection for many of my friends. I am often asked if Naveen Patnaik will win a third term as CM. In my opinion, under two months from now he will. Here is why:

- Congress, the primary opposition party pulls out a semi-retired politician bereft of regional stature from the closet and appoints him as the head of the provincial arm.

- He is assigned 3 lieutenants, all of whom belong to differing local factions to “assist” in the decision making process of ticket allotment.

- The lieutenants expectedly engage in pulling each other in opposite directions only to realize its a futile squabble anyway since the writ of the family head shall reign supreme and any self -styled satrap is at best a courier.

- Consequently, with 45 days to go for polls, each ticket aspirant camps in delhi with hangers-on, mentors, moneybags et al with scant attention for the constituency where the battle ought to have been fought.

- A list of candidates is finally published. As it turns out, this was only to facilitate more trips to the sanctum sanctorium with fresh godfathers to plead one’s case. The original list is revised.

- Now, the party has to go to the polls with 4 categories of “congressmen” in the fray- (1) official candidate (2) official candidate (former), (3) lead dissident (made it to neither list despite best attempts) and (4) fence crosser. (denied ticket by BJD and granted refuge).

With an opposition party in such shape, one does not really need a “chanakya” to strategize for the CM (Patnaik has an over-rated one). The circus around the current General Elections have reinforced my belief in the two-party system. However, Orissa desperately needs a Third Front to prevent further damage to the state. The consequences of having a non-existent opposition are as follows:

- A 11-year old alliance partner is dumped in the face of an opportunistic possibility of a solo government. A big bully arrangement is put forward with the sole objective of humiliating the alliance partner into separation.

- Any pretensions of political scruples are thrown to the winds and last-minute rebel congressmen are not just welcomed but also rewarded with prestigious constituencies.

- A third term by the same government shall ensure there is no political will (or ability) to confront the Maoist menace. Senior law-makers privately concede numerous districts are not in state control. We shall soon grapple with an insurgency situation akin to the North-East.

- The state shall continue to languish at the bottom of the per-capita income charts. I mention this AFTER Law & Order because rule of law is something we have lost only in the last decade and might do so irrecoverably but for rapid damage control. The current state government’s definition of “governance” is restricted to suspending civil servants and cops for alleged misdemeanour.

- Lastly, it pains me to see dictatorial dynasty rule in one’s home state. While it might be argued that every regional party comprises one master surrounded by mass subservience, most states run by regional parties have strong opposing forces who act as a counter weight. In the absence of such a phenomenon in Orissa, complete anarchy prevails.

In my view, the BJD shall form the next government in Orissa and shall also be part of ANY central government formation. Alas, one is not spoilt for choice. I seriously hope we soon have a young leader with mass appeal who shall take up the cudgels of building the state before it degenerates to a point of no return.

Leagues Apart

The elections have claimed an unlikely victim in the shape of IPL.

The setting had all the makings of a potboiler. A wealthy industrialist with strong links to a BJP CM stumbles upon cricket administration (there is indirect spice around the CM links too which the media chooses not to report). The CM is overthrown and her lackeys face the heat from all sides. Bureaucrats, whose fate the larger-than-life cricket administrator once presided over, humiliate him on home turf in the local cricke body elections. The ruling party turns the knife by ensuring “its” state governments throw up their hands in despair citing security concerns. The proverbial last straw comes when the BCCI President, a hitherto ally of the ruling party switches camps before the elections.

So whichever way you look at it, the IPL and the General Elections were badly entangled well before the controversy around security began.

- Could the outcome have been any different if Sharad Pawar was part of a Congress-led alliance ?

- Who is guilty of being more pig-headed? The IPL for being inflexible about dates or the Govt about security arrangements?

- Is it really so much of a shame if the Government of the world’s largest democracy wishes to deploy all available security resources for the elections?

- Before Wimbledon 2009 begins, preparations for the 2010 tourney are already underway. Do we believe the organizers would shift to Roland Garros if there were serial blasts in London a week before Wimbledon or would they scrap the year's tournament altogether? The IPL may not be a century-old tradition but shifting to South Africa has ensured nothing around it will ever be considered sacrosanct.

- If the IPL had to be played for the benefit of TV audiences, could we not have arrived at a compromise solution where all matches were played in a single (Indian) City??

- Was the threat to shift to SA a mere mind-game which flopped when Chidambaram refused to take the bait?

For once, I do not have a strong opinion but numerous unanswered questions and mild views around some of them. However, the “Indian” Premier League beamed live from South Africa certainly is one big farce. But then, if Manmohan Singh could be a Rajya Sabha MP from Assam, I guess IPL has extended the same logic albeit in a slightly warped manner. Security concerns are being positioned as a political stance because those killed in the attack on the Lankan cricketers were faceless policemen. If a single international cricketer had been killed, the fraternity would have been numbed into a far more balanced response.

The Mahatma of Good Times

There is much hullabaloo over Gandhi’s possessions being bought by a liquor baron thereby denigrating the core of Gandhian values. The chattering classes engage in yet another attempt at puritanical ideology over pragmatism. As with everything else, the blame has been squarely pointed at the doors of the government. I am not the greatest fan of Ambika Soni (or the UPA Govt) but assuming there was a (covert) Govt hand in the auction, what real choice did they have? The same folks would have been baying for its blood for letting such "valuable symbols of national prestige" stay in the hands of foreigners. There would have been various symbolic interpretations by journalists clamouring to make the maximum intellectual impact with perverse theories. Can any government afford it, least of all in an election year?

- Journalists are better off directing their energy at how items as personal as slippers found their way into the hands of materialistic collectors. In all likelihood, it is the (extended) family which brought shame to the legacy.

- If we wish to liberate the government of the day from such avoidable compulsions, maybe its time we stopped making such a big deal out of anything to do with Gandhi. If we were unaware of these suddenly valuable belongings residing overseas all these years, why raise such a storm now? I would also argue a lot of the principles Gandhi stood for is less meaningful today and often borders on being impractical. (Anyone residing in Gujarat would point to the futility of prohibition) In my own attempt at being intellectually perverse (a la numerous columnists) let me propound a theory that a liquor baron paying for Gandhi’s personal items publicly signals the end of the topical relevance of Gandhian values .

- If I were Ambika Soni though, I would have arranged for Nusli Wadia to bid for the items. What can make for better PR than Jinnah’s grandson getting the Mahatma’s spectacles back to India??? The publicists could have spun a whole new story around a new era in cross-border relations. Amar Singh too missed an opportunity for a trademark stunt. Munnabhai standing up for Gandhian pride would have set the Lucknow electorate on fire what with Gandhigiri being an official poll strategy for the convicted actor. But then again the media would have screamed itself hoarse at the grave injustice to the legacy with an Arms Act convict successfully bidding for goods that belonged to the ultimate purveyor of non violence.