The question of Democracy

Plato in the Republic says that a good constitution is only possible when the ruler does not want to rule; where men contend for power, where they have not learnt to distinguish between the art of getting hold of the helm of state and the art of steering, which alone is statesmanship, true politics is impossible.

The minute I read these lines, two images appeared in my mind – Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Notwithstanding the countless failures that people attribute to Nehru during his tenure as prime minister of India, I believe he had a vision to “steer India”. Indira Gandhi, on the other hand, apparently strove for “holding the helm of affairs” – both in the Congress party and India. Nehru then according to Plato would be a statesman – Agreed. But then what can be said of Indira Gandhi? Deductively she was not a true politician.

But was she bad because she understood concept of democracy well, but not “managed” democracy? I have always been intrigued by this word – democracy. Still haven’t found a good definition for it (Help!!!). Democracy for me (as of now) means a way of accounting for society’s idea on how it wants to govern itself. It can then take a form of being representative (parliament /presidential) or direct. The underlying assumption (at least in representative form) seems to be that political power aspirants accept the decisions of the society to choose them as their representatives or not.

Did Indira Gandhi do this? It seems so. She came to the seat of power through democratic means. Whatever she did inside the Congress party needs to be separated from this analysis. Congress party became a registered national political party after independence – why should they be still considered the torch-bearers for the high idealism of nationalist agenda (except for emotional and moral reasons)? She imposed Emergency as the Prime Minister – a power vested by the supreme law of Indian land, the constitution. The society did not like her, threw her out of office, and she accepted. She came to office again winning democratically on agendas which won the imagination of people (unless of course we assume that elections are mostly bogus voting in India). She maybe not a “true politician” in the eyes of Plato but in my eyes she was a true politician of democracy.

However, the problem seems to be that she failed as a student of “managed” democracy. I qualify democracy with “managed” because it seems like democracy as a concept (if it is defined as above) is very weak in itself. It has to be guided by other (and probably stronger) tacit as well as explicit principles or ideologies. In Indian case, the explicit (in the constitution) basic principles to guide democracy are secularism and socialism. But more importantly, politicians in democracy are expected (tacit principle) to have high moral standards – as if they are guided by some “invisible hand” of ethics. But why this expectation when they are supposedly the “servants” of the society and motivated by power?...[to be continued]

Definition of Power : A chronology

500 B.C.

Tao Te Ching (Classic text) - Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.
Confucious (philosopher) - Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. [which is power]

30 B.C.

Horace (poet) - Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant.

1830 A.D.

Honoré de Balzac (Writer) - Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true.

1850 A.D.

Benjamin Disraeli (politician) - Nothing can withstand the power of the human will if it is willing to stake its very existence to the extent of its purpose.

1900 A.D.

Andrew Carnegie (Industrialist) - Immense power is acquired by assuring yourself in your secret reveries that you were born to control affairs.

1930 A.D.

Harry Emerson Fosdick (religious teacher) - Our power is not so much in us as through us.

1970 A.D.

Sathya Sai Baba (religious teacher) - Some say knowledge is power, but that is not true. Character is power.

Young Thought

It is sometimes easy to escape the minds of young. This is manifested in people thinking of us as the Generation Q (Written for the Americans, yet I believe it is more true for Indians - just replace Facebook by Orkut!!)

Such depressing thoughts were going on in my mind (it is depressing to be labeled such), when I again wasting time on Internet stumbled on the website of Crisil and the Young Thought Leader Competition. Excited to channel my boredom into some idea generation, I greedily browsed through the topic list. It turned out to be an absolutely fascinating list of topics. But my adrenaline rush was put on hold by two observations: the last date to enter the competition had passed by and the competition recognized as post graduates only MBA and CA students !!! Maybe others are not even qualified enough to express their thoughts.

In any case (I should stop cribbing about the supremacy of the MBAs of the world), I believe it is an excellent venue provided by CRISIL to bring fresh thinking. Who knows an interesting idea may pop up for the betterment of the Indian Economy !!!

Who owns what? To what end?

Thirty years ahead of schedule, an ancient discovery resurfaces !!! As bizarre as the above sentence may sound, it is true. The ancient sea route connecting Asia and Europe directly across the Arctic could very soon be open for ship navigation. The ice has melted (predicted to happen thirty years later) which would allow the ships to transport goods faster and cheaper between the two continents. (The article).

As I read through the article, first thought in my mind was: Oh shit !! It was probably a hangover of watching "An inconvenient truth" multiple times. In my brain, the whole chunk of ice at the arctic circle was the "lifeline" of the world. And after the shocking news, I thought the article would immediately cry about the impact on the environment and some analysis over how our current thinking on the pace of global warming could change due to this.

The article subsequently mentions the above, but the first half (and interesting half) of the article tells on who is doing what to capture the route to earn revenues from it. It just doesn't make any sense. After all what we have learned, after all what we have discussed, the fight is over the rights and not over banning the damn route from further ecological disturbances. What if a ship carrying oil spills (or worse blasts), what if human activity increases in that zone, etc?

And these are all the "developed" nations of the world fighting. I constantly fail to understand the true meaning of development. Developed countries are supposed to guide the world towards a better existence. Yet, it seems development is the cause for doom anyways. The EU, (Germany for sure) trying to push solar energy in a big way for environmental reasons, is saying that the route should be international water. Probably there is no legitimate way for them to capture it. Hence it doesn't want other countries to control it either. This would eventually translate into higher profits for the EU exports. Profits seems to weigh more than existence (remember al gore's famous balance scene). Why don't they push for strict no use policy in such ecologically fragile environment?

Maybe I am just paranoid about this, based on my small knowledge about environmental issues!! But even if there is a slightest chance of accelerating the irrevocable damage, is the risk worth taking?

Know your MP

Why bother? I am really finding it hard to present a convincing case here to do so (btw, I hope you understand the acronym MP - Member of Parliament, in case you forgot that too). Bombings in Hyderabad happened. Everyone seemed to respond. Police, CM, PM blah blah.. Did you hear of the name of the MP from the constituency? No, yes, maybe, whatever !!! Probably he/she would have "responded" too, but that name is hard to register/recognize. Now, that my brain has started to work after a few sips of coke, here are a few reasons:

1. Impress your friends over coffee that you actually know the trivia about the person (It is hard to get to the topic of politics over coffee, you would have to make an effort).
   
2. Impress YOURSELF the next time you hear/read the name and recognize it (You would have to go deep into the political section of the news to achieve this).
3. Next time you are stuck in a traffic jam during a motorcade and you come to know that it is your local MP, you know exactly the name to curse (should be fun, right !!!)
   

So, know the name of the person who is the political kingpin of our district/city. Where to find it? Well, the site Our MP is a great resource. It is trying to compile information on the political stars of our country. It actually allows us to attach a news about the MP we find. But the sheer lack of reports/comments seem to say either no one knows of this site or no one is interested enough. So, it is actually trying to woo you to become one of the volunteer to write about your MP. Hard to find such folks but my personal wishes to the editor in finding them.

[To the editor - Thanks for creating the bio-page for each MP. It can be the only source about the MPs for my research]

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The Guru

"If you want to know what Indian are thinking or craving for, see the box office hits of Bollywood".
-Unknown (aka me)

I have been for sometime looking for a "Guru" for myself. A person who can direct the energy I think have to whatever best use I can put it to. I need some beads of advice for me to "succeed" in life. My search for the perfect one still continues.

For now however, Bollywood is the best substitute I have got in face of inexperience of those who I believe in and my distrust of those who think they can advise me. Rang de's belief in action, Guru's belief in thinking big and having the heart for it. They send out the message strong and clear. They have a profit motive but so do the consultants who apparently bring huge efficiency gains for businesses. They manipulate my thoughts and my feelings, but also give a hope that I might succeed despite all odds. They try to make a required rebel out of me as I have been too entrenched to follow the rules. As a middle class average person, I am convinced that I am helpless and can make a change or prove myself only if I do something drastic. "India poised" says more directly today is the time for India and Indians. Watching these flicks, my harmone levels are doubled thinking about the success that could be mine.

I may be an emotional fool thinking all the stuff above (sometimes I seriously think that I am one). But bottom line, bollywood remains the best substitute I can get as a 'Guru'. There is only one small issue.

Three punters (fools) back in the good old days of hostel used to talk of life - one 6km runner, one aspiring marathoner and me (no where related to sports). One fine day we started discussing about running and the bhaat (talk) drifted to what is better between 100m and marathon. I supported 100m arguing it gave fame and is run on will power which is the quality of winner. I was almost about to win the argument when I lost with a simple yet deep statement - you win 100m by defeating your competitors but you win marathon by winning with your efforts (think about it, it is simple to understand). Anyone with a healthy body can win 100m any day given the bad performance and state of the competitors but you cannot do the same with a marathon.

What the heck is the connection between the above two? Well, I think there is. An inspiring flick is a story of marathon winner packaged as a 100m win. What lingers behind is the 10 second winning message, what is lost are the details of minute by minute struggle.

I completely agree with the statement - do what it takes till you touch the sky ... but do remember the preparation, time, patience and struggle required!!!

(Disclaimer:- This blog is a kind of self-explanation to an emotional fool that is me)