In the scandal involving a White House intern Monica Lewinsky, President Clinton finally admitted, “I did it”. Now Raj Bhavan occupant, N. D. Tiwari, resigns from his gubernatorial position of Governor of Andhra Pradesh on “health grounds”. What is not clear is how his health so suddenly deteriorated to warrant resignation! Even problems like AIDS are unlikely to cause such spontaneous decline in health.
NDTV wrote: After a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), the Andhra Pradesh High court asked the channel to stop telecast of the visuals. Raj Bhavan said the TV programme was 'fabricated, false and malicious', aimed at tarnishing the image of the Governor.
Are Raj Bhavan officials punishable for making false representations to Hon. High Court and getting court orders to stop the telecast and threaten action against the media? Is Hon. High Court accountable to public? Does the High Court have a moral and legal responsibility to ensure that the government, Raj Bhavan and police do not behave in a vindictive manner to cover up their own scandalous positions?
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Statement After Nightcap
Making a statement after nightcap should be strictly forbidden. PC, not the IBM compatible or the later advanced varieties, recently made a grave mistake of making one after his nightcap, precisely during the midnight. Before he completed his statement, one of the largest states of India went into flames, which was already having some fires in some parts of the state, and in next few hours, they set several other parts of the country ablaze.
Readers of Tarantula are already familiar with the last lesson in Politics. The first lesson, however, is whenever a statement creates a problem for you or your high command, immediately deny it and throw the blame on media. By the time PC awoke next morning, it was far too late in the day, both literally and metaphorically, to retract for several reasons. Despite overcoming the hangover and HBS education, he could not recollect the first political lesson, however hard he tried. Others who were all eminently capable of reminding him were are all too busy in doing damage control. Hence, he could not withdraw his statement so far.
Now he is doing what is best under the circumstances; let others handle the situation and after all, silence continues to be golden.
Readers of Tarantula are already familiar with the last lesson in Politics. The first lesson, however, is whenever a statement creates a problem for you or your high command, immediately deny it and throw the blame on media. By the time PC awoke next morning, it was far too late in the day, both literally and metaphorically, to retract for several reasons. Despite overcoming the hangover and HBS education, he could not recollect the first political lesson, however hard he tried. Others who were all eminently capable of reminding him were are all too busy in doing damage control. Hence, he could not withdraw his statement so far.
Now he is doing what is best under the circumstances; let others handle the situation and after all, silence continues to be golden.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Need for More States
There is an urgent need for more States in our great country. Democracy gives equal right to everyone to aspire for the coveted PM position and enter the books of history. Whether it is practical or impractical is not an issue for debate.
Since Independence, it is more or less clear that ‘democracy’ actually means that PM’s position is meant for only one family which can be rightfully obtained by dynastic succession only. It is true that there are some unpleasant gaps and situations where a proxy (or a non-politician, to be more precise) or an outsider had to be made PM. They are aberrations. They are exceptions, not a rule. At any point of time, India has heir apparent assuring us of the continuation of dynasty. Indians should be thankful to Him. On the other hand, thanks to the increasing sense of patriotism among young and old alike, more and more people are aspiring for political careers and positions to serve people to the best of their ability. Every politician harbors an ambition of becoming PM in order to serve people in a best possible manner and places his entire family also at the service of people to assure continuous service. Bereaved fills the political void immediately.
Pranab once openly expressed his desire to become PM and he was duly given the last lesson in politics: limit to loyalty is aspiring for the no. 2 position and beyond that it would be betrayal. All other politicians learnt this lesson by heart by now and started aspiring for next best only. Only other alternative is to have your own political party. Hence the demands for Central Cabinet positions, State CM positions and so. The impediment is that there were very few States in India to start with. Progressively, the numbers of States and Union Territories have nearly doubled in sixty years or so but that is hardly adequate way of keeping pace for a country having as many patriots like India.
This is essentially a demand-and-supply problem, to put it in management parlance. Besides, these demands for separate statehood are like nuclear reactions, generate more demands and faster and faster till the entire mass is annihilated. Tarantula, your blogger, makes two diametrically opposed suggestions.
The first one is an insane suggestion of abolishing the concept of statehood. Slogan should be One Country – One State – One Union Territory. India is one. Neighbors are welcome to emulate Sikkim and join One India Plan and get special privileges. This has the potential of solving inter-state disputes: a master stroke!
The other one is to declare every family an independent State with a rider that when a family splits into two or more families, for whatever reasons, they shall automatically get separate Statehood.
Since Independence, it is more or less clear that ‘democracy’ actually means that PM’s position is meant for only one family which can be rightfully obtained by dynastic succession only. It is true that there are some unpleasant gaps and situations where a proxy (or a non-politician, to be more precise) or an outsider had to be made PM. They are aberrations. They are exceptions, not a rule. At any point of time, India has heir apparent assuring us of the continuation of dynasty. Indians should be thankful to Him. On the other hand, thanks to the increasing sense of patriotism among young and old alike, more and more people are aspiring for political careers and positions to serve people to the best of their ability. Every politician harbors an ambition of becoming PM in order to serve people in a best possible manner and places his entire family also at the service of people to assure continuous service. Bereaved fills the political void immediately.
Pranab once openly expressed his desire to become PM and he was duly given the last lesson in politics: limit to loyalty is aspiring for the no. 2 position and beyond that it would be betrayal. All other politicians learnt this lesson by heart by now and started aspiring for next best only. Only other alternative is to have your own political party. Hence the demands for Central Cabinet positions, State CM positions and so. The impediment is that there were very few States in India to start with. Progressively, the numbers of States and Union Territories have nearly doubled in sixty years or so but that is hardly adequate way of keeping pace for a country having as many patriots like India.
This is essentially a demand-and-supply problem, to put it in management parlance. Besides, these demands for separate statehood are like nuclear reactions, generate more demands and faster and faster till the entire mass is annihilated. Tarantula, your blogger, makes two diametrically opposed suggestions.
The first one is an insane suggestion of abolishing the concept of statehood. Slogan should be One Country – One State – One Union Territory. India is one. Neighbors are welcome to emulate Sikkim and join One India Plan and get special privileges. This has the potential of solving inter-state disputes: a master stroke!
The other one is to declare every family an independent State with a rider that when a family splits into two or more families, for whatever reasons, they shall automatically get separate Statehood.
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