Saturday, February 28, 2009

PROPER SYSTEMS CAN REDUCE CORRUPTION

We have come to accept with equanimity — and therein lies the danger — that we are among the most corrupt countries in the world.

If you have had anything to do with any of our government institutions, whether central, state, regional or provincial, the one unremitting common denominator you find is corruption.

But have you ever wondered why and how institutions like IIMs, IITs and a few other institutions of excellence have remained 100% corruption-free, despite being government institutions? Before you contradict me saying a few years ago there was a leak in the Common Admission Test of IIMs, I may say that the leak, following a HRD ministry-IIMs stand-off, was from a government press and no IIM was involved in the unfortunate leak.

In any case, here, when I say these institutions are ‘corruption-free’ what I is mean that the probability that a student gains admission by means other than the admission criteria laid down is zero — not virtually zero, but zero. It is important to understand how these islands of integrity survive in this ocean of corruption, because that may be our only route to pulling our other institutions from the morass of corruption.

The systems and processes of admissions in these institutions are such that even a corrupt head of the institution wanting to oblige a political heavyweight, cannot influence the process of selection of the students. No one individual, or even a clique of powerful individuals can make a dent in the processes that govern the selection of students in these institutions. Not that undue pressures are not applied from the highest offices in the land to favour the son or daughter of so and so!

Fortunately, even a pliant head of institution, most keen to oblige the powers that be, cannot do so for the simple reason that he is in fact powerless. So when this head of institution tells the powers that be that, sorry, he cannot do anything to ensure the admission of the latter’s ward, he is not just taking a moral posture. He is telling the truth.

Of course, the nice thing is, when you belong to such an institution, the moral posturing comes automatically. Everybody believes in fairness. Everyone knows that his statement of inability to influence is also backed by the system. And that helps enormously.

The systems in these institutions ensure rigid compliance. What is interesting is that these systems are not rigid in the sense that they stymie individual initiatives or do not allow for situational exigencies. They do. And yet, the systems are such that the basic integrity is in no way ever compromised.


For the same reason, we must push for electoral reforms in the form of transparent and tax deductible contributions to political parties.

The ad-hoc system of underhand collections in the name of the party can help politicians line their own nests liberally before their party’s. The parties virtually set ‘targets’ of collections in return for party tickets and positions.

The politicos in turn set targets for those serving under them, they in turn set further targets down the line and the system cascades down all the way to a point where the police sub-inspector or even the constable may have ‘targets’ based on where he is posted. That is the reason politicos stoutly resist electoral reforms.

That is also the reason they resist giving the option “None of the above” to the electorate, so that if enough number of people vote for that option, all the candidates stand disqualified. And these are all the more reasons why, as a people, we must fight for such systemic improvements.

We have seen many other instances where introduction of proper and transparent systems have minimised corruption. For example, introduction of radio cabs with their electronic meters in cities like Hyderabad and Bangalore have eliminated much of the harassment of the passengers by cab drivers. Introduction of e-reservations eliminated much of the corruption on the Railway booking counters.


There is an interesting system of compliance in Israel. In some of the one-way passages, embedded on the road are these steel spikes, curved in one direction, such that a vehicle could move on it in the correct direction; but a vehicle trying to go in the opposite direction will get its tyres punctured — a system we could use in this country!

As the world’s largest democracy, we owe it to ourselves to recognise corruption for the rot that it is, eating away our innards. We need systemic solutions.

The above aricle is inspired by V Raghunathan.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

LET US GET INDIAN SWISS MONEY BACK TO INDIA

Lok Sabha elections are round the corner and can be declared any time by Election Commission. It is a golden opportunity for us to get illegal swiss money back to india.

Dishonest industrialists, scandalous politicians and corrupt bureacrats have deposited in their swiss personal accounts a huge sum of about US$ 1456 Billion which has been misappropriated by them creating scandals, scams and by corruption.

This amount is about 13 times larger than foreign debt. This amount is such a big amount that 45 crores of poor people can get Rs. 100000/- each. This huge amount has been collected from the people of India by exploiting their funds, and by betraying people of India. So in reality this entire amount belongs to the people of India. All such money kept in to Foreign Banks must be declared as National property and it should be brought back to India. And for keeping such money in foreign banks illegally, all dishonest industrialists , scandalous politicians and corrupt officers must be punished at least for 10 years of mandatory imprisonment or punishment.

The function of delcaring such money lying in foreign banks illegally as the national property can be done in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha only by making law. Government will not enact such law until there is heavy pressure on the Government from every corner of the country to make such a law because those who have collected such illegal money and kept into foreign banks are themselves sitting in the parliament and in the Government.

However, any Government has to yield to the heavy pressure of public opinion. Azadi Bachao Andolan is actively endeavouring to create such heavy pressure of public opinion to make such law. In this forthcoming election, we all have a golden opportunity to talk tough with the political parties and candidates, before elections on this issue.

People should declare not to vote for any candidate who does not promise in writing to make such law if elected in the parliament. If atmosphere is created, every political party and every candidate of every political party will have to promise to enact such law. Once all the candidates commit to enact such a law after they are elected in the parliament to get swiss money back to India, there is no one who can stop, swiss money coming back to India. All political parties should furnish an affidavit, before going to the elections, that they will enact this law within one year of being elected. If they are not able to enact such a law, people will have the right to recall such political parties and candidates. It should be binding on the political parties and no appeals to the court will be entertained by the judiciary. Reason being, we have a past experience of parties backing out from their promise, once elected.

Once this huge amount of illegal money comes back to India, entire foreign debt can be repaid immediately in 24 hours. After paying entire foreign debt, we will have surplus amount almost 12 times larger than the foreign debts. If this surplus amount is invested in earning interest, the amount of interest will be more than the annual budget of the Central Government. So even though all the taxes are totally abolished, then also Central Government will be able to maintain their extravagant expenses and huge wastages of money as being done since last 50 years.

Friday, February 20, 2009

THE INDO-PAK PEACE WINDOW, THAT NEVER OPENED

The Indo-Pak peace initiative has always generated a wide range of excitement and enthusiasm among the cross section of people. One can understand the natural response of the peace loving people, who are deeply concerned with the gradual deepening dent of fear, suspicion and hatred between the two countries since partition.

I also tried a peace initiative after the Mumbai terrorist attack. I was writing my comments on a Pakistanti blog called “ Teeth Maestro “ which is a popular blog in Pakistan. My comments related to an article called “ Is India behaving like LET ? “. I was putting my comments from the Indian point of view and was trying to remove, many misconceptions, which Pakistanis have about India. The article was a guest blog by some hardcore Pakistani writer against India. While writing my comments, I came across the owner of the blog Dr. Awab who is the webmaster also of the blog. I showed my interest to write a guest blog, to which he agreed happily. My motive of writing the guest blog was to remove the misconceptions of aam admi of Pakistan, about India. I wrote an article “ Partition of Territory, not hearts “http://teeth.com.pk/blog/2009/02/03/the-partition-of-territory-not-hearts.
You can read the article as per link also given in my email to you.

The comments I was receiving from Pakistanis was of utter hatred towards India and hindus. The comments were full of foul language, abuses and deep anger against India, specially hindus. The retaliation was natural from indians. They also blasted them like anything. I was all the time doing a role of a peace-maker between the two.I was trying to pacify both the sides, but to my utter dismay, Indians restrained themselves, but Pakistanis never stopped abusing. There were hardly any sane voices from across the border, except Farrah. K. Raja, who created a special blog of friendship, saying “ Vaneet, this is your page. “ The Webmaster played an obliging host but restrained himself from making comments, for reasons best known to him. When the abuses and foul language shifted to me personally by pakistanis, I called it a day. That was the end of peace initiative. Although Dr Awab, has sent me an email citing reasons for not participating in the discussions and apologised also for the misbehavior of Pakistanis, he also offered once again to restart the peace blog, which he has created once again. I have all the praise and regard for Dr Awab and Ms Farrah, who tried their best and sincerely tried to hold on to the peace initiative, but fanatic voices in Pakistan destroyed everything, overriding their sincere efforts. These fanatic voices called Mumbai terrorists as warriors and fighters. Their views reflected victory over India. " If 10 warriors can lay seige in Mumbai for 60 hours, just imagine few thousand would create havoc in India ".


But past experience of such exercise always proved to be a part of the military strategy of the successive rulers of Pakistan against India. No Indian leader had tried as hard as the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee to establish friendly relations with Pakistan, but in stead of responding, the Pakistani leadership has spurned every move of his.

The purpose of this discussion does not mean to oppose the peace move but only to participate in a debate on viability of peace between the two countries. Historically, Bhakti movement was the first peace initiative for union of hearts between Hindus and Muslims in medieval India by diluting their conflict since the advent of Islam in India. But the Muslim rulers and thinkers after Great Mogul Akbar thwarted it. Even in 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, when an environment was created for unity of Hindus and Muslims, Sir Sayed Ahmad Khan polluted it. He launched the Aligarh movement to achieve Muslim supremacy over the Hindus and propounded the two-nation theory as a separatist ideology, which subsequently formed the ideological base for Pakistan Movement. Islamic warriors of Pakistan had hardly made any positive contribution during freedom struggle. They were scared of the concept of democracy, which meant end of Muslim domination over Hindus. They carried the ideological banner of the Two-Nation theory while supporting Pakistan Movement without realising that Partition was an unnatural division of a natural geo-political entity. The self-seeking rulers of Pakistan merged the politics of opportunisms and deception with emotive religious passion. Pakistan is in danger became synonym to the slogan of Islam is in danger.

Islamists were happy with creation of Pakistan but it did not satisfy them fully. They therefore, accelerated their protracted movement for Islamisation of whole of South Asia to fulfil their unfinished agenda. Responding to the design of Islamic clerics, the politically ambitious top echelons in Pak army, who mostly belonged to the elite class overthrew the successive elected Governments and became rulers of Pakistan. Under the unholy alliance between Islamists and Pak army, which emerged as a commanding force in controlling the political affairs the successive military rulers, gave a free hand to the Ulema to carry forward the centuries old legacy of hatred, mistrust and deep suspicion against the Hindus of Indian sub-continent.

In stead of involving their citizens in national re-construction programmes for economic development, the Pakistani leadership believed in re-construction of the history of Pakistan for a new national identity based on the philosophy of anti-Indianism. Accordingly, with a view to inculcating the concept of patriotism among their citizens, they deeply linked the origin of the national identity of Pakistan with the centuries old hate-Hindu voices and contemptuous acts of Muslim invaders, rulers and the leaders of Pakistan movement. In the process they never allowed any democratically elected government to survive for long.

The ideology of Pakistan as defined to students at every school and college in the country is nothing except anti-Indianism. In every walk of Pakistan from academia to journalism, from sports to bureaucracy a vast majority of people have been inculcated with fantastic anti India notions. [ Phrases like the Hindu mentality and devious Indian psyche are part of the daily military talk. Anti-Indianism, in short, runs deep in Pakistani state and society. It is a state of mind that cannot be switched off.

The broad expanse of South Asian history is a tabula rasa upon which Pakistani historians and policy makers have created the story of a new nation replete with cultural roots and ancient socio-religious trajectories.The story of Pakistans past is internationally written to be distinct from and often in direct contrast with interpretations of history found in India .

Depiction of Jinnah as a man of orthodox religious views, who sought the creation of a theocratic state and a move to establish ulama as genuine heroes of Pakistan Movement became a part of hate-India campaign. In short, anti-Indianism is synonymous to Pakistani Nationalism.With new national identity, Pakistan army fought four major wars against India. Promotion of terrorism since nineteen eighties including terrorist attacks on Indian Parliament, Kashmir Assembly, Mumbai terror attack and many has been a part of their military strategy. They are still pursuing the philosophy of two-nation theory on Kashmir issue.

After humiliating defeat during 1971 war, the subsequent Military ruler Zia-ul- Haq (1977-1988) accelerated the process of hate-Hindu campaign and turned it into a movement to develop a fervent patriotism on the basis of anti-Indianism among his countrymen. The text books of history and social studies were radically distorted by glorifying the villainous role of Muslim invaders and rulers. They were projected as liberators of Hindus from the so called torturous misrule of Hindu kings. From Muhammad bin - Qasims mass killing of Hindus of Sindh in 712 AD onward, the role of all the Muslim marauders, were glorified.

Muhammad bin Qasim, who assassinated all the young males of Sindh and sent thousands of Sindhi women to the harem of Abbassid Dynesty, Muhammad Ghaznavi, the villain of multiple iconoclastic incursions and Muhammad Ghori, whose betrayal with Prithviraj Chauhan is known to every Indian overnight became the prominent heroes in the history text book of Pakistan. They are placed on pedestals used as stepping-stones towards the inevitable unfolding of the ideology of Pakistan coming to closure with the near deification of the father of the nation Mohammad Ali Jinnah .

Contrary to the personification of Great Mogul Akbar as Pan- Indian liberal ruler by secular historians of India, the Pakistani historians regarded Akbars religious theory as apostasy. On the other hand the Pakistan text books glorified Aurangzeb and overlooked the killing his own brother and keeping his father in jail.
Can anyone expect that with the political ideology of Pakistani nationalism discussed above, the present generation will be ready for a long lasting peace with India? A number of Muslim scholars of repute in India consider partition a terrible blunder.

Ironically the Indian leadership too got trapped in Musharraf strategy by introducing Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus, which will facilitate the forces operating cross-border terrorism. It is in fact a success of Musharraf, who kept India confused about his military design to score some points for his Kargil fiasco.

Even against the known designs of the military rulers discussed above, the successive leadership of India always ignored the history and kept the real issues in back burner. They never took any lesson from the past in handling the foreign affairs. They repeatedly committed mistakes like historic Prithviraj Chauhan while dealing with Mohammad Ghori. Four major invasions after partition followed by peace exercises like Tashkand Agreement, Shimla Accord, and former Prime Minister A.B.Vajpayees Lahore bus journey proved futile. Maharaj Shivaji was perhaps the only Indian hero, who was extra alert against the peace initiative of Saista Khan.

One can understand the problem of Pakistani citizens to overcome the hatred and suspicion against India from their mental frame due to chauvinistic discourse in their text books. Without unloading the hate-India mental burden, the present generation may not like to participate whole heartedly in any meaningful peace talk. Besides, it is an irony of fate that the Ulama and the elite section of Muslims, who had no positive legacy for freedom from colonial rule have still not freed the masses of Pakistan from their seize.

Indian Independence act 1947 under which both India and Pakistan was founded as Independent States also provided liberty to 562 pre-partition independent kingdoms under indirect British rule to sign instrument of accession with either of the two countries if they desired so. But there was no provision in the Act for any review or revocation of the instrument of accession once signed. The then ruler of Kashmir signed the instrument of accession in favour of India and Indian army intervened Pak army only after instrument of accession was signed by the ruler of Kashmir and his kingdom became an integral part of India but a part of it remained under the occupation of Pakistan, which is known as Pak occupied Kashmir. Even against this sound legal status of Kashmirs complete and final integration of India, Pakistani leadership is continuing Machiavellian propaganda campaign for its illegal claim.

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in response to the letter of Former Prime Minister Vajpayee assured that vital interests are fully safeguarded in peace talk with Pakistan. He was quite categorical saying, There can be no room in our discussions or in our actions for ambiguity regarding our position on Jammu and Kashmir. I have reiterated on every possible occasion that there can be no redrawing of boundaries. We have also ruled out any role for a third party either through interventions or as guarantor or as mediators in any form. Against the known stand of both India and Pakistan how people to people contact would remove the growing suspicion and mistrust between the two countries since partition until the boundary dispute and Kashmir issue are resolved remains a mystery.

Our past experience shows that Pakistan leadership always let us down after the peace initiative.

Against the historical background of Pakistan Movement, hate-India as national identity and political ideology of anti-Indianism any Indo-Pak peace initiative, which has created laudatory euphoria, excitement and enthusiasm among a cross section of people of the two countries may be meaningless. It has only provided an opportunity to the academicians, journalists and political observers to exchange their views like the aspirant orators expound in speakers corner in the world famous eighteenth century park in central London, any fruitful outcome is just like chasing a mirage.

One may wonder if there could be a solution for lasting peace in the region. Where there is a will there is a way is a popular saying. Let opinion makers in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh initiate a debate and create an environment for a movement against the separatist two-nation theory to unload this mental burden of the illiterate and uneducated Muslim masses of the three countries and reinvent their future political set up by forgetting the past. Except Israel, Pakistan is the only country in the world, which came to existence on the basis of religion. If European countries that too had fought among themselves presently have peaceful relation why not we?

It may apparently be a difficult proposition due to the bitter experience of situational ups and downs but may not be impossible. The only obstruction will be the unholy alliance of army, radical Islamists and the ruling elite of Pakistan. This ruling clique of Pakistan leadership may ridicule the idea and reincarnate Jinnahs ghost of Hindu domination over Muslims and use it as a tool to misguide their people. The opinions makers are to be watchful against such nefarious design.
Union of Hearts, which was the cherished dream of Mahatma Gandhi is the only solution for lasting peace in the region. Muslims. Alas! Jinnah had fought for Indians as a whole without separating his co-religionists from united India. Partition was an unnatural division of historically integrated and geographically compact India. Any viable solution for peace in the region needs natural union of the three unnaturally divided nations.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

AN OPEN LETTER TO THACKERYES BY RAMAKANT TIWARI

My Dear Chaachaa & Bhatijaa Thakerays,

Namaste.

I hope, my missive finds you in a sombre mood, brooding over as to why you all did not come out in the open with your ( un !! )licenced arms, storm into the Taj Gateway/Nariman House or the CST Railway Station in the historical Chhattrapati spirit to kill the Afjal/Shaista Khans who came from the ocean on the fateful night of Nov.26, 2008.

You and your teeming lakhs of Chhattrapatis turned out to be cowering rabbits, brought shame on the great soul and patriot that Chhattrapati Shivaji Maharaj was, under whose glories you all have been basking all these years...and minting crores too !!! Did your hearts cry out in anguish when a number of widows who lost their husbands and a great mother who sacrificed her young son, walked up the stairs one by one to accept the medals, scroll of honour on the Republic Day from a Congress MARATHI MAANUSH President ? Did your hearts bleed then ??

Your hearts bled when very poor, weak, mal-nourished/under-nourished boys from Bihar/UP came over to Mumbai in search of jobs, then hundreds of petty, hefty and paid Chhattrapatis swooped down and thrashed them in public, in full view of the international media. And the boys did not retaliate at all !!! What laurels did you earn for the Marathi Manush, for Maharashtra, and India for that matter, if India really matters to you ??? The boys innocently thought, Mumbai is their country...and also that UP/Bihar equally belongs to all Maharashtrians as well !! And the reasons proffered by you to justify the assault are simply too pathetic, too flimsy to merit any serious discussion. Any genuine introspection shall leave you utterly self-humiliated and acutely embarrassed.

While you were holed-up in five-star comforts of your mansions like cowering rabbits, young boys from Bihar, UP, Haryana and Keral were defending Mumbai on that fateful night, without giving even an iota of selfish considerations to their families and their own lives. Did you behold that with tears in your eyes ???

Innumerable non-Maharashtrians have been sentimentally attached to Mumbai for long and I happen to be one of them, because I was born and brought up there. This association with Mumbai started when the British-Indian Army retired my grandfather in Mumbai. Don't say, my family went to Mumbai with a begging bowl.

When the nation was constituted, it was implicit, every corner of the country is accessible to everybody. Non-Maharashtrian businessmen established their production bases there...the journey of economic development moved on...Mumbai/Maharashtra became completely cosmopolitan, rather a mini-India within India. Every Indian has the right to be proud of Mumbai/Maharashtra and every Indian has equal right to ownership of Mumbai/Maharashtra just as you have the same equal right to ownership of Mumbai/Maharashtra as well entire India ( if you are inclined so !!!). No Chhattrapati including you both individually, has any right to question this ownership right of non-Maharashtrians to Mumbai/Maharashtra under any circumstance, whatsoever. Otherwise, there are several tough-nuts all over the country today who are waiting in their wings to strike a deadly blow to your mule-headed regionalism.

Since you both never move out of Maharashtra owing to your narrowed attitude and stunted intellect, I shall limit myself to Mumbai & Maharashtra alone for this 'With Warm Regards Mail'

Let me call out a few spades, a spade.


When General Vaidya was assassinated, so many non-Maharashtrians felt so miserable that they did not eat even a morsel on that day...I am too, one of them !!! It was very agonising to see a General being derogated in this manner by the anti-national forces. It just did not matter whether he was a Maharashtrian.

You too, suffer from the 'Ghetto mentality'.

Heal yourself and inspire all Chhattrapatis to heal themselves.

Tell them to spread out of Maharashtra all over India, settle down all around and merge into the larger Indian society.

Maharashtrians are very much my own people and I do not allow anyone to derogate them or offend their culture under any circumstance.

Every nook & corner of the country is rightfully owned by every Chhattrapati Maharashtrian and every nook & corner of Maharashtra is rightfully owned by every Indian.

VANDE MAATARAM


RAMAKANT TIWARI

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

SALARY OF MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT IN INDIA- OUR JAWAIS

Monthly Salary : 12,000

Expense for Constitution per month :10,000

Office expenditure per month :14,000

Traveling concession (Rs. 8 per km) :48,000 ( eg.For a visit from kerala to Delhi & return: 6000 km)

Daily DA TA during parliament meets :500/day

Charge for 1 class (A/C) in train:Free (For any number oftimes)
(All over India )

Charge for Business Class in flights :Free for 40 trips / year (With wife or P.A.)

Rent for MP hostel at Delhi :Free

Electricity costs at home : Freeup to 50,000 units

Local phone call charge :Free up to 1 ,70,000 calls.

TOTAL expense for a MP [having no qualification] per year : 32,00,000 [i.e. 2.66 lakh/month]

TOTAL expense for 5 years :1,60,00,000

For 534 MPs, the expense for 5 years :
8,54,40,00,000 (nearly 855 crores)

This is legal money from govt. treasury. Think of the illegal money
they have. It is unimaginable....

Certainly our public servants are the real Jamais." Raja amir, Janta Fakir. "

AND THE PRIME MINISTER IS ASKING THE HIGHLY QUALIFIED, OUT PERFORMING CEOs TO CUT DOWN THEIR SALARIES.....

This is how all our tax money is been swallowed and price hike on our regular commodities.......
And this is the present condition of our country:

855 crores could make their life livable !!
Think of the great democracy we have.......

Still proud to be an Indian !!!!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

DYNASTIC RULE DAYS NUMBERED ?

The following article is inspired by an eminent historian and writer Ramchandra Guha.

In 1960, Frank Moraes wrote that " there is no question of ( Jawaharlal Nehru's attempting to create a dynasty rule of his own, it would be inconsistent with his character and career ". Two things are significant about this statement: the year, and the writer. For Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi, had just finished a term as President Of Indian National Congress. And by 1960, Moraes had become a sharp critic of Nehru's policies.

Indira Gandhi brought Sanjay Gandhi into public life. During the Emergency of 1975-77, he was the second most powerful person in India, despite not being a minister or even an MP. He was now appointed general secretary, a clear sign that his mother hoped him to succeed her as Prime Minister.

6 months later, Sanjay died in a plane crash. Now Rajiv Gandhi was drafted into politics by his mother, and made general secretary of the Congress. This latter induction showed even more clearly than the 1st that the creation of a dynasty of her own was wholly consistent with the character and career of Indira Gandhi.

In a weak moment, Jawaharlal Nehru allowed Mrs. Gandhi one term as Congress President. His fellow Congressmen, such as Mahatma Gandhi, Vallabhbhai Patel and Rajendra Prasad, steadfastly refused to bring their own progeny into politics. In passing of her mantle to Sanjay and Rajiv, Mrs Gandhi thus acted in violation of Congress tradition. To quite an extent BJP too, does not have much sons and daughters in politics.

Once the oldest and greatest of Indian parties had decided that ideology took second place to genetics, why should the lesser parties stay loyal to their own past creeds ? Consider the career of DMK. This was the 1st successful party in India, whose idelogy embraced far more than opposition to the centre. Apart of dignity of the Tamils, the DMK also promoted caste reform and gender equality. Now all that it worries about is which son of Karunanidhi will succeed him as CM of Tamil Nadu. Or Mulayam Singh Yadav is more committed to socialism than to his son Akhilesh becoming a minister at the Centre or CM of Uttar Pradesh ?

By now, perhaps a dozen parties have become family firms, their rather grandnames notwithstanding. RJD shoud really be known as Lalu, Mrs Lalu & Co, H.D. Dev Gowda And Sons, The NCP as Sharad Pawar and Daughter Inc., Badal & Family ( pvt ) Ltd in Punjab. 6 ministers in Badal's cabinet are from Badal Family out of 18 ministers. When Sukhbir Badal was recently made Deputy CM of Punjab, there was no power cut, which in winters run to approx- 6-7 hours daily. You can imagine, what will happen in summers. But there seems to be one exception to the rule. Omar Abdullah, son of Farooq Abdullah, current CM of J&K seems to be energetic and a man with a vision. But only time will answer that.

That so many parties have followed in the path of Indira Gandhi's Congress has had a negative impact on democracy in India. The Aam Admi asks, is it what democracy all about ? The old idiom " Baap Raja, Beta Vazir, Janta fakir " is proved right in this kind of democracy.

Thus, it may be that the allure and significance of dynastic politics has peaked. It may be that indian voters are disenchanted with the placement of a family's interests above those of the state or country. This might be one conclusion that one can tentatively draw from electrol successes of Mayawati in UP and of Narendra Modi in Gujarat who, despite their ideological differences are yet united in the public eye by the perception that they cant forever be thinking of the interests of their sons or daughters or husbands or wives. Modi's sister is employed in a ordinary school earning Rs.ten thousand monthly.

The hypothesis will be put to the test in the coming Lok Sabha elections and years. Will Stalin be humbled at the polls by a woman who is not a wife or mother, namely, Jayalalitha ? Will Udhav Thackery come to be CM of Maharashtra or even the remote control behind him ? Above all, will Rahul Gandhi ever lead his party to a majority in Parliament, as his father, grandmother and great-grandfather had done before him ? If the answer to these questions are Yes, No and No respectively, one might may definately conclude that the heyday of dynastic politics is behind us.