Pakistan: Does it's a real restoration of democracy ?

First, let me congratulate the people of Pakistan, who have come forward against all the threats posed by Jihadist elements and have restored their faith in democracy. They know and have learnt from their elder brother that Democracy can only lead them to development and can provide stability. Though there is all together praising in world media about the transition of civilian government to another for the first time in Pakistan, but I am certainly apprehensive does it is a real restoration of democracy?

For me democracy means just not the rule of the people, but it should be a harmonious rule of the people of all communities of all faith, caste and creed. Majority dominance in the polity at the cost of minorities is not a democracy. Democracy should not only be done but it should be seen to be done. But whether this is reflecting in Pakistan? My answer is No. Let me put some pointers here.

Firstly, If you look at the Pakistan’s elections results it is not that a national party is coming into power but a regional party who is coming into central power. Nawaz Sharif’s party PML-N has performed well only in Punjab and has acquired most of the seats in western Punjab which has the highest share of 183 seats in 372 member assembly. Similarly PPP of Zardari has done well only in Sindh. In Balochistan, none of these parties have performed well. So this shows that the people are divided on the ethnic ground and there are certain chances of Punjabi Dominance in the government structure, thereby sidelining the other ethnic communities of Pakistan especially Balochs who have been demanding for the separate nation since Pakistan’s formation. Balochs have always alleged their resources’ exploitation by the politicians of Western Punjab and these results would give more impetus to such claims. So, Nawaz Sharif will have a challenge to the address the grievances of the Balochs against the wishes of his own constituency of Punjab.

Secondly, the rights of minorities not only Hindus but the Muslims like Shias and Ahmedis will be in jeopardy. Shipa-e-shabha and Lashker –e-jhangvi : these are the two notorious Jihadist elements who are working against the minorities especially Shias and Ahmedis. All recent attacks on Shias in Pakistan which has claimed around 500 lives was claimed by these group openly. Their leaders are openly giving speeches in Punjab without any fear of Law. Their main agenda is to make Pakistan – A Sunni and Salafi Pakistan. These groups have given open support to the PML-N in these elections. Similarly the notorious Tehreek-e-Taliban has given tacit support to PML-N and PTI of Imran khan by issuing advisory (fatwa) against the other parties calling them liberal and secular. Imran khan has openly claimed that their party is not seeking the votes of Ahmedis as he believes in Allah and Ahmedis are infidels. This shows that these election results will strengthen the hands of radicals in Pakistan which is not good for India too. Hafiz Saeed, the most wanted terrorist has his considerable footprint in Lahore and Punjab. So it will again be a challenge to Nawaz Sharif when he will deal with India. Though in his rallies and post election rally, he has announced that he will help India by conducting joint investigation on 26/11 but we have to wait for his tall claims to fruitify.

Thirdly, there are allegations and supportive evidences that Pakistani military has manipulated the election’s results in favor of Nawaz Sharif with the help of Jihadi elements and by rigging. Pakistan’s Military always want this government to be subservient to them in matters of defence and Foreign policy. Nawaz Sharif will not have a free hand in these matters in future. Any curtailing of power of army will lead to a coup or army sponsored fall of Government, since this government is short of majority.

I guess all these factors have made me to conclude that Pakistan’s Democracy transition will only strengthen the radicals and military rather than empowering the common people. I pray for Pakistan, the day it will emerge as a true democracy. Something what happened in Turkey in last decade, I would like to see such transition in Pakistan. Amen, it will happen as my optimism says.

UN-TOUTING THE RAILWAYS

Whenever one enters our National capital's railway station, one cannot escape the glimpses of touts selling tickets without any fear of a police standing all around the railway station. Recently, as we all know that our Indian Railways has adopted a good method to tackle this tout's menace by compulsory carrying of ID proofs. But, I was shocked how still these touts are thriving at New Delhi railway station ? This made me intrigued about how these touts manage to get tickets for you, with the same name of demanding customers. And I have got the answer.

It is very simple to understand. I hope many of you know that we have current reservation facility at most of our prominent stations where tickets are booked immediately in case of availability. These tickets are issued just an hour before the departure of the train. And this is a biggest loophole. As we all know that the charts are prepared around 3 hours before the departure of train. So once chart is prepared the position of the seats of the travelers stand by the same as it appears on the chart. In these two hours (3 - 1) between chart preparation and issuing of tickets at current reservation facility, there are many travelers who cancel their tickets in which some are those who have confirmed tickets too. These cancelled tickets along with the remaining confirm tickets yet to be booked if there, are put on sale by railways just 1 hour before the train departure. This is an opportunity for these touts to drive their business. There is unholy nexus of the ticket counter clerks and these touts which make such kind of corruption possible. The train ticket counter clerks pass information of the train tickets to these touts on demand basis and have a fixed amount of money they charge from touts and this amount is not small bucks but amount as good as around 50% of the ticket fare. Within these two hours this unholy work happens without any check. There are instances when the tickets are available for particular train on IRCTC site after chart preparation i.e. 3 hours before train departure but they are siphoned off before the 1 hour time limit of ticket issuing.

This kind of current reservation system is not only promoting corruption and making these touts to run their business but also injustice to the people travelling with RAC or waiting tickets. Railways should go away with this system of issuing just before an hour but instead just start it after chart preparation. The digital display at counters should show real time data of each train tickets which are cancelled on real time basis in those 3 hours, so that people can purchase tickets without these touts.

Other thing that railways can do is that send an SMS to the passengers travelling by RAC and waiting tickets in that 3 hours in case their ticket has been confirmed because of the cancellation of confirmed tickets by other passengers. My honest advice to Railways is to use IT effectively in the service of the nation and its citizens.

What an Ideal population policy should be ?? - 1

Disclaimer : This blog is not to offend any parent having single child but definitely want to provoke an idea logically - "Why two not one" is an ideal population policy for any country. It has two parts. your opinion is always welcome.

Recently I was reading a book “Imagining India” by Nanden Nilekani , where he talked very elaborately about china's population policy and he mentioned that currently in China, according to an estimate that most of Children in China have no cousins. Currently, in China most of the families have 4-2-1 structure  where a child(1) has parents (2) and two pairs of grandparents (4). Since child has no siblings and no uncle and Aunts, all the family members look upon that single child, care him/her, pamper him/her up to all extent, because he/she is the one on whom they are dependent in their old age.  Because of such family structure, it will become a big social and economic problem in China. If we look at country level, now China’s demographic dividend window has been closed and their population is aging at faster rate, and by 2040, they have largest no. of old age people in the world and it is very high (around 40%) percentage of their population. This will not only add burden to their economy but also will impact their military power. By 2040, India strategically will have enormous advantages in comparison to China. Economy wise, Companies will shift their base to the India because they need young labour and plus India itself is a big market for their goods. Militarily, Indian army will be the youngest and largest army in the world by 2040, which will add muscle to our strategic interests worldwide.  

Recently, China has tried to amend its population policy by allowing their citizens to have two babies in case their first child is girl. We must be aware of the fact that Chinese society is as patriarchal society as that of India. There are also equal no. of Female foeticides happen every year because of male child preference. But blame of female foeticides also goes to their one child policy, since because of government's strict policy, people prefer to keep one male child than a female one. China’s sex ratio is much worse that of India.  Though Government has changed their policy but now the young generation in china don’t want to have more than one child. Reason are many. As they haven’t seen their parents or society to have more than one child, it has been mentally stuck in the psyche of the young Chinese generation not to have more than one child and sometimes no child. Other reasons could be that with the economic boom, when both couple go out for a work, they hardly think of having child – Remember Vicky donor :) . Other reason is that the cost of living is rising in China , since the cost of energy and food is spiraling worldwide, but the labour class in china is still not adequately compensated because of government’s labour regulations which favours the factory owners who exploit these workers in order to keep their products cost competitive in the world. The China’s model of export led growth in actually now hampering their economy and has led to mass unrest at many places in china, though we don’t get to know these news because of State controlled media and highly censored media regime. So for a labour class it is hard to think of having more child. Thirdly, most of the Cities in China are located near South China sea and there is mass exodus of labour from interior of china to these SEZs and cities. The Hukou system in China discourages this labour class to keep their families along with them and the whole burden of caring their child comes on mother’s shoulder  who stay in villages. This also discourages the labour class to go for more child.

Because of all above factors, there are new kind of crimes is on rise in China, one most prominent is that of new borns' abduction. The Chinese law also has been lenient towards these abductors, if the child who has been abducted is being treated properly and if the abductors don’t create any obstacles during rescuing of the child. One child policy has led to put complete burden of family on a single child. There has been found that the child having no siblings have more likely to develop individualistic, selfish, arrogant and non-cooperative attitude. There is more probability of having mental and personality disorders in such children. And there is also more likely that these children become victim of drug abuse and other wrongful activities. All these boils down to the most important fact that in many cases, a single child won’t able to appreciate the family values, since he misses lot of companionships like his/her sibling during their childhood with whom he/she can share his/her emotions, will play together, fight together and have lot of beautiful memories of childhood. He/she misses the care of his/her Uncles and aunts and memories with their nearest cousins. The fault here lies not with the child but it lies in their parents who could not able to think of such consequences which may occur with their child. According to G. Stanley Hall, a psychologist, professor and the first president of the American Psychological Association - "Being an only child is disease in itself." One may not concur with him because his views are based on his research in Western society which is not true in current Indian context but his views will have validity in future as our society is also heading towards more and more westernization.

This part of a blog is to reflect upon the problems which are emerging or most likely to emerge in future. My comparison with China is to address those Indians who believe that one child policy is good is actually not. 

What should be an ideal population policy?? I will discuss it in next part.

MNC Syndrome

Today Development is synonymous to Urbanization  All the developed countries of the world are urbanized with very less rural sector and In India urbanization has gained the pace after 1991 reforms but still our rural dominates. Indian way of Urbanization has many problems associated with it which we call Urban Sprawl because this urbanization is going on in an unplanned manner. We find a rise in the formation of slums in our cities, a traffic mismanagement and snail speed of infrastructure development in urban areas in comparison to the increase in urban population. Malthusian thought related to population seems to be valid for Indian cities though the context here is not food but the infrastructure.  This is one side of the problem of Urbanization which is the topic of discussion for many debates. But we often forget the other one.

When I was in Bangalore, I had observed one peculiar kind of emerging feature which I would call a problem in the Indian context. I found that most of my neighbours were either bachelors or only couples. I have seen rare instances where the parents of a bachelor or couple stay with them. Whenever parents visit their homes, they are often treated as guests and even parents feel the same because for them Bangalore is totally a new experience where they know none but their children. Usually parents stay for few days and then go to their respective places because they get bored in a new city where they know none and its culture is not in sync with their culture which we call youth culture (pub culture) and since their children go for work, they keep on waiting for their child to come back from office while sitting idle. In Bangalore the holidays means “going home” for maximum number of professionals working in the big MNCs. And again when they visit their home, they are treated as guest by their family because parents think that their child has come after long time for few days, so not to engage him in any mundane family activities. So finally we have become guests in our own family. This kind of feature actually is taking a shape of big social problem. Parents are away from their children always have tension about their children and similarly the vice versa. Today parents also don’t want to interfere in their ambitious child’s life and feel that their son/ daughter is happy, so they are happy too. The rise of American kind of family structure where parents stay away from their children is rising in India and I would call it a big “MNC syndrome”.  I get to know from my friend that one of his friends, who stay in Delhi is staying away from their parents who also stay in Delhi. The reason is not that they have conflict but the working boy wants to stay independently in which their parents have no problem. Such kind of trend is going to rise, because Indians have peculiar habit of imitating others.

In Indian context, where family has been part of the societal structure is vanishing slowly. We should be aware that America is facing lot of social problems because of absence of strong family structure like we have in India. There have  been lot of divorces, which is severely impacting the psychology of the children of the divorcees, led to the rise in personality or mental disorders and rise in shootings by children who are mentally ill. Do we want to see the repeat of such happenings in India too? I would say no. But now India is also witnessing the huge rise in divorce cases, some call it a sign of women empowerment or rise of women’s voice which up to certain extent is true but not in all cases. Divorce in cases where there is use of physical or mental torture by man against woman is justified but now it seems that the American kind of trend is visible in divorce cases too which are gender neutral. This is only because of the weak family structure and this is more prominent in the places where more and more nuclear families are coming up. The severe impact of such kind of urbanization is on the next generation who don’t able to experience the love and care of their grandparents and also they don’t able to appreciate the family values because of their very less interaction with their cousins, aunts and Uncles.

Why this kind of family restructuring is happening? Who is responsible? The main reason behind such kind problem emerging is the ghettoization of MNCs at one or few places. The government always has tendency to promote investment of MNCs in the Hubs say IT hubs like Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad.  Because of formation of hubs it is leading to not only spiraling up of the real estate prices but also lead to the creation of slums and other infrastructure problems. The companies’ establishment charges are going high because of the increasing rate of rents and cost of infrastructure. Because of migrating population, the rents of houses are also high in all these places. This kind of promotion of investment is leading to increase in economic disparities among states and also led the social problem which, I have discussed. This is truly a MNC syndrome which is impacting both – economic and social problem. I don’t want to deviate too much from my discussion and coming to the point how we can stop such kind emerging social problem, which is threatening the family culture of our country, where still people value relations more than money.

The solution is simple. Take an example of IT industry. Government should promote the investment of IT industry in tier 2 and tier 3 cities in every state where still very few companies exist. With the increasing demand of higher education, there are lot of engineering and MBA colleges have opened in every state but still companies who come there for placement and recruit them for Bangalore or Hyderabad locations. I would like to give the example of Gwalior , from where every year thousands of engineering and MBA students graduate every year but still Gwalior has very few IT companies around it. Gwalior has decent medical facilities, decent schooling and also rent and cost of living are comparatively very cheaper compared to Bangalore and Hyderabad. It will be very cost effective venture for any IT company to open its branch there. Government which has recently made 2% of profit as compulsory CSR under new companies’ bill, I would suggest there should be provision that companies who set up their venture in backward in terms of number of companies, their some part of investment will be considered as their CSR. This move will definitely make companies especially IT companies to think to invest in such areas since IT industry can be run independent of location, it only needs is an internet connection. Government should also expedite the laying of optical network or Wi-fi network all over the country in order to remove hurdle for IT companies, so that their they expand their reach.

The impact of such kind of investment manoeuvring by government will help in solving the emerging MNC syndrome. The children will stay near to their home or at their home. They don’t have to move for opportunity out of their state or their city or town. This will also help in strengthening the old age policy of the government, since children will take care of their parents at old age. Finally, a person has job, parents and family all at same place.