राहुल गाँधी के राजनीतिक अवसरवाद और असंगतियों पर एक नज़र:
Why Railway bureaucracy is struggling
New India wants leapfrog growth but our existing bureaucratic system wants it to be step by step in its unique frugal manner. Indian government has able to tame this big elephant through various means of ease of governance in recent past, but still a lot of to be done so far as Railways is concerned.
Status-quo inside its bureaucracy stops it to free its wing in the changing time. A mammoth bureaucracy with well defined departments and highest manpower does not seem to be an easy task. Bibek Debroy committee, 7th CPC recommendations, World Bank comments on Independent Railway Safety Investigator & various other recommendation are piled up in the almirahs of their chambers. Previous government or in the recent various ministers had struggle hard to make them work.
For understanding the basic cause of such lethargic behaviour one need a detail analysis how railway is organised and why there is so much resilience in Indian Railway in the recent past especially at implementation level.
Background
As in other ministry, this big elephant is run by four basic Group of staff/Officers Group A, B , C & D. Group A man’s are decision & policy makers posted at various places (Divisions, Zones & Railway Board level) in various capacity as per their experience & hierarchy. Group B officers are those well experienced person which got promoted from Group C and well aware of the system and mostly manned to implement the policy planned by Group A at ground level.
The same hierarchy & promotions policy are well defined by DOPT and followed in IR as well as by other services like IAS, IPS, IFS, IRS etc with basic fact of 50:50 ratio & DITES. In Railway, implementing agencies works at divisional level where mix of Group A (Direct Recruits DR) & Group B (Promotion Recruits PR) at officers level works in liaising under defined hierarchy.
REASON OF PRESENT SITUATION
The plight of Indian railway has degraded in last decade as a recent discontent which can be felt among Direct Recruits of batches starting from 2007 onwards and most of the reason lies in arbitrary, unconstitutional and unfair practices of Railway Board for not implementing Supreme Court & DOPT guidelines on promotion policy between DR & PR. Remember its a PAN-INDIA issue, Policies has been well played, modified at secretariat level which affect well laid promotional aspects of Direct Recruits and giving undue advantages to Grp B. These issues are highlighted even by 7th CPC in its recommendation.
It is all started with optimization policy of NDA-1 during 2001-2009 when 30% curtailment was done in all direct requirement across all ministries. Railway ministry has curtailed the size of DR, but rather than decreasing, increased the intake of Group B officers that too without consulting DOPT & MR under undue pressure from Promotee Officers Association and nexus at Railway Board level causing disturbance in 1:1 ratio of DR versus PR. It’s important to note that where optimization policy decreased the number of total officers strength by 18% in other ministries whereas in Railways, it has been modified in such a way that total strength of officer increase by 350% in the said period of 2002-2010 with large number of induction of Promotee Officers.
Secondly, Reserve Posts have been arbitrarily included in Junior Scale to Enhance Recruitment. Detail analysis shows that Railway Board Secretariat Service has done all this on its whims without competent authority approval. For example, adding Reserve post in normal vacancy is in the jurisdiction of Cabinet, even RTI clarify that said Proposal was approved by Railway Minister not by Cabinet.
Thirdly, the “connotation” rule, which is unique to Indian Railways, states that the seniority of a Group `B’ officer promoted to Group `A’ will be determined by giving weightage according to “the year of service connoted by the initial pay on permanent promotion to Group `A’ service.” has been decided arbitrarily at lower stage of Rs 18950 for PR in comparison to DR to give undue advantage. This decision also required approval of DOPT & Finance Ministry but it was not sought off.
7th CPC, in its report claims, it to be ambiguous and untenable. Supreme Court of India in P. Sudhakar Rao v. U. Govinda Rao, 2013, clearly ruled that Provisions of anti dating seniority is totally arbitrary and unconstitutional. But Railways still follow this rule by giving undue advantage of 5 year weightage in seniority to PR. In one of such case of anti-dating, a Group B officer was allocated Group A on the date of its induction to Group B i.e he was promoted from Group C to Group A on the next day whereas it took minimum 20 years in other ministries.
Fourthly and most importantly, fixation of inter se seniority between PR & DR is a paramount issue which has been deliberated in detail by DOPT & SC in its various judgement. As per latest judgement of the Apex Court in N.R. Parmar’s case (supra), the DOP&T issued a OM dated 04.03.2014 for fixation of seniority of direct recruits vis-a-vis promotees, in which date of sending requisition to recruiting agency is the final date to fixed the inter se seniority between these two. But, Railways has not yet implemented this order which is totally illegal, arbitrary and unconstitutional.
For going into technicality one can read the news , which elaborate the issue in more lucid manner:-
- http://railsamachar.com/news/1013/read
- http://railsamachar.com/news/1009/read
EFFECTS
The effect of such undue promotion/posting has affected the health of Railways over long run. Induction of officers more than sanction revenue cost affects the revenue of government. Keeping in mind the focus of NEW INDIA when DIRECT recruits are given new responsibility in other ministry, IR has blocks the existing Direct Recruits promotion aspects which in turn affects the decision making ability of the organisation in long turn. Rather than Contributing to the nation whole-heartily such DR When such unqualified/short sighted Group B officers are posted at policy & decision-making level in divisional level, the quality of maintenance work got affected specially posted at the same place where he has work since lifelong at subordinate level. So over one decade the situation of maintenance in IR on safety ground got hampered and now the trickle down effects started. It is quite amazing that this isn’t happening in one department, this is the story of all department across Indian Railways, 7th CPC, has just highlighted issue of IRSME in its report.
STRUGGLE
When there is a will, there is win, Junior Group A officer of various services gave representation to RB for such anomalies but RB has denied the justice. For their rights, DR knocked the door of judiciary for justice, through O.A. No. 050/00460 of 2015 in CAT/PATNA. CAT/PATNA gave the Judgement in favour of Direct Recruits on dated 03/05/2016 & directed Railway Board to recast inter-se seniority between DR & PR a fresh and directed to issue corrigendum/amendment/correction slip in Indian Railway Establishment Manual Volume, with granting all consequential benefits in favour of the applicant including promotion in JA Grade on the basis of his seniority as per the principle.
But, Railway Board set aside all these directives issued by the court, as it works under strong lobbying of Promotee Officers and the case was referred to Ministry of Law & Justice in the name of “Legal Opinion” just to delay the Implementation of Court Orders. In background, Promote Officers association challenged the CAT/PATNA Judgement in High Court, Patna. It’s correct to mention here that truth prevailed again & Railway Board faced the heat of Hon’ble High Court as Court straightly dismissed the Writ Petition stating that railway board has no authority to frame rule for Group A.
Due to lethargic attitude at secretariat level, again Special Leave Petition (SLP) was filed by Promote Officers against the Order of High Court/Patna in Supreme Court. Though, SLP was admitted by SC but Court denied to put stay on Orders of High Court. Its seems that Railway itself don’t want to do justice for their own employees. With deliberate delay for implementing High Court & CAT, Patna orders, Railway Bureaucracy has given open challenge to Judiciary & its new management team. Now it is upto Judiciary to decide, how it wants to run the show. As nobody wants to see degrading image of our Supreme Institutions, merely to satisfy the Needs of select few.
JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED
Railway is seeing tough times, and Indians in the technology driven times, only cares about result on safety, punctuality. If the decision implementer are themselves struggling hard for their rights in starting of their career, how will they will be able to execute policies & sail through the high winds? With new Chairman & New MR on the corner, Indian Railway workforce has got new energy and aspire to achieve new heights. During his various interaction with media new chairman has put emphasis on HR with keeping “Employee First” objective for ensuring fundamental of safety. In the recent innovative step, all Station Director post has to be manned by young officers. So new Minister will able to give justice to the newly entered fresh vibes with feel of pride or CRB will able to put much needed motivation so that young officers can able to contribute in the changing times. The future will surely see this time back and analyze the decision taken by ministry and judiciary.
Conviction of Nun’s rapist quashes Christian ‘persecution’ fears
The City Sessions Court in Kolkata, on November 7th, 2017 sentenced Nazrul Islam alias Naju – a Bangladeshi national – to life imprisonment till death for raping a 71-year-old Christian nun at the Convent of Jesus and Mary at Ranaghat in West Bengal’s Nadia district on March 14, 2015. While Nazrul was held guilty in the rape case and five others convicted for robbery, one accused remains on the run.
The senior nun was sexually assaulted by a group of anti-social elements, including four Bangladeshi nationals who had broken into the school compound of the Convent in an attempted case of robbery. The accused were arrested by the West Bengal CID. The nun, who moved out of the state after the assault, travelled to Ranaghat and identified the accused from a police line-up by touching his hand.
This news was published across India’s newspapers and the World’s as a crime that has finally been detected and its perpetrator ‘a Bangladeshi’ nabbed. In the swarm of articles that made headlines across the world at the time of the offence in 2015, the ‘gang-rape’ was symbolised as a failure of India’s polity in stopping crimes against women, the case drawing parallel with the Delhi gangrape and a direct threat to Christian rights and community safety at risk in ‘Modi’s India’, a phrase that is used almost religiously now to insinuate a newly-fangled ‘intolerance towards minorities’.
Why Reuter then reported reams in a story ‘Christians say under siege in Modi’s India after rape, attacks’ published after the ‘gang-rape’ of the nun wherein the writer maintains Christians in India said ‘the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi had not done enough to protect their religion, after a spate of attacks including the rape of a 71-year-old nun.
‘Christians prayed and held vigils across the country to protest against the rape during an armed assault on a convent school, the worst in a series of incidents that followers of the faith say are making them feel unwelcome in their own country.’
The article goes on to say, ‘The government banned the documentary, ‘India’s Daughter’, a decision which angered some Indians who said it should be aired to highlight the prevalence of gender inequality and sex crimes.’ The report conveniently remained silent on the fact the documentary ‘India’s Daughter’ had been banned by the government because it violated legal norms and conditions and was stopped by the Delhi High Court from being screened, even online. To squarely continue to blame the government for an act which was well within legal rights and suggests that there are attempts to muzzle ‘free press’ isn’t just excessive, it is flagrantly contemptuous and violative of the law of the land.
The article quoted Father Savari Muthu, spokesman for the Delhi Catholic Archdiocese and a national Church organiser, who said ‘the government had not taken concrete action to protect Christians…We have to raise our voice against the atrocities. Christians will not tolerate this humiliation’ adding ‘Modi has not done enough to ensure religious harmony in a country with a history of inter-faith bloodshed.’
Why even prominent retired police chief Julio Ribeiro had written in a column in the Indian Express soon after the West Bengal Nun rape, expressing worry. In the column he went on to write, ‘Today, in my 86th year, I feel threatened, not wanted, reduced to a stranger in my own country. The same category of citizens who had put their trust in me to rescue them from a force they could not comprehend has now come out of the woodwork to condemn me for practising a religion that is different from theirs. I am not an Indian anymore, at least in the eyes of the proponents of the Hindu Rashtra.’
When the esteemed former police chief, in the heat of the moment, put down his thoughts suggested that ‘Ghar Wapsi’ was responsible for the spate of attacks on Churches and its peaceful people, he probably didn’t consider the West Bengal Nun rape a stray, isolated case of crime which it did, ultimately turn out to be, underlining the ever-pressing need to exercise restraint in reportage and commentary that risk quashing the very basis of your belief. Religious and ideological differences don’t translate directly into conclusive evidence of guilt.
The RSS, on its part, had condemned the rape. ‘No attack should be tolerated on any woman in India. Be it a Hindu, a Muslim or a Christian,’ had said Suresh Joshi, RSS general secretary then. But it was lost in the sea of dissent and fear.
The Reuter’s report read: ‘The Opposition in the upper house of Parliament said the attack could damage the secular fabric of the country, where about a fifth of 1.27 billion people identify themselves as belonging to faiths other than Hinduism. The large majority of those being Muslims.
‘Since December, half a dozen churches have been vandalised, at the same time as conservative groups have campaigned to convert to Hinduism members of ‘foreign religions’ such as Islam and Christianity.’
The Guardian, on its part, in ‘Fear and anger grow in India after rape of elderly nun’ maintained that ‘Prayers are said across India after the brutal attack during convent robbery.’ It reported that ‘The assault on the 71-year-old is the latest in a high-profile string of rapes in India and follows a spate of attacks on churches that prompted the Hindu nationalist prime minister, Narendra Modi, to promise a crackdown on religious violence.’
It said, ‘The rape has added to the sense of fear and dismay among members of the country’s Christian minority, who have been deeply upset by recent attacks on churches. Modi had been heavily criticised for not speaking out earlier against religious violence and has also faced flak for remaining silent about a spate of mass ‘re-conversions’ of Christians and Muslims to Hinduism.’
‘Even if you call it an isolated incident, the background and the atmosphere for such an attack had already been there, so you cannot simply ignore it as a one-off incident, said Father Savarimuthu Sankar, a spokesman for the Delhi diocese to AFP.’
The BBC, true to its wont, went on to report on Indian Media and how it was worried about the surge in ‘intolerance against Christians’ and so on.
Now, the arrest and the concurrent conviction of the rapist ‘Bangladeshi’ Nazrul Islam is being reported ‘as is’ and without any commentary or generalisations towards his community or religious leanings in a drastic albeit selective demonstration of journalistic sensitivity. That the crime was one of attempted robbery and the rape (by Nazrul Islam) – not gang-rape as reported widely – was induced to silence the protesting nun, is being played down and conveniently so. That it was a crime in isolation and had absolutely no connections to the proponents of the ‘Hindu Rashtra’ or ‘RSS’ or the ‘Ghar Wapsi’ gang is not being written about in India, leave aside the World media which isn’t exactly interested in stray crimes unless they can be symbolic of ‘cracks’ in India’s robust democracy.
The State’s Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee, lending communal flavour and sensitising the crime, had requested the Centre to initiate a CBI probe into the issue which was immediately, and rightly so, turned down. Minister Firhad Hakim then blamed intolerance and religious fanaticism in West Bengal. ‘Religious intolerance in the name of Ghar Wapsi is at work sometimes in Odisha and sometimes in Bengal. This may be one of the reasons.’ Not surprisingly, the West Bengal Chief Minister, her protégé and ‘then-worried’ CPM leaders are now silent on the verdict.
Few politicians, religious spokespersons and self-styled proponents of peace now publicly acknowledge that the crime was misread and the fears regarding persecution unfounded. Crimes, in India, as the rest of the world does, have to be treated with a sense of objectivity. Instead of politicising them and dressing them with communal flavour only to make headlines and suit an agenda causes more harm to the nation and her interest than good. The West Bengal Nun rape issue should teach New India lessons on ethical reportage, political mileage and generalisations.
The rest of the ‘developed’ World has been there, done that!
After ‘KHAM’, Congress relies on ‘PODA’ for Gujarat
It is not merely a month left for the upcoming Gujarat elections 2017, and not just the political parties but the whole state is waiting to see if the Bhartiya Janata Party will be able to conquer Gujarat again or not even after 22 years.However, this will be the first time in history where the Gujarat elections will take place without Narendra Modi, who had been the face of the state since long years. Whereas, on the other hand, Congress who every time faced the setback, since 1995, is leaving no stone unturned to revive its fortune to get back in the league.
To get back in the league and conquer Gujarat, Congress is relying on ‘PODA’- P (Patidar), O (OBC), D (Dalit), and A (Adivasi) factor. Seeking for a new alliance, Congress is working on the strategy of caste politics to defeat BJP.
Reaching out the OBCs, the party has already inducted Alpesh Thakore, who rallied for the party and his community. on the other hand Hardik Patel, the face of Patidars, has already declared his fight against BJP, which has actually given the new hopes to the Congress. While Jignesh Mewani declared not to join any political party but to fight for the status of Dalits, in short, to fight against BJP and also seeking the support of Chottubhai Vasava, the sole Janata Dal (United) MLA in Gujarat and the vociferous advocate of tribal rights, which once again could proved to be the boon for the INC.
This clearly shows the status that the opposition has already won these leaders, which will ultimately help in garnering the votes of the PODA.
Taking lessons from the Uttar Pradesh elections, that would make an effort to ensure that the game of communal polarisation is out of the elections and the votes for the same will not affect the Gujarat assembly.
Instead, this could be the reason why RaGa is working on the lines of ‘Hindutva’ to garner more votes. Every now and then RaGa is seen visiting temples ahead the elections, which makes him more famous.But in reality the Congress is working at two levels-Firstly, leading through Hindutva, and in the bottom by using the casteism as the biggest weapon by using-Patidar, OBC, Dalit and Adivasi communities in order to draw more attention towards the vote.
But going back to the time and speaking about the caste theory, for Congress it is not new to imply the strategy in order to gain voters support. Back in 1985 during the assembly elections, Madhavsinh Solanki, had used KHAM strategy (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi, Muslims) and the Congress managed to secure 149 seats.
The current state Congress president Bharat Solanki is son of Madhavsinh Solanki and he hopes that Congress can use caste division formula again.
Well, it will be interesting to see if the PODA factor could be as successful as KHAM factor. Only time will tell about the Ball is in whose court, whether PAAS leader Hardik Patel, OBC leader Alpesh Thakor, Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani and the kingmaker of Adivasi, Chottu Vasava could be able to turn the fortunes of Congress or the coalition will prove to be the major setback for the party.
What happens when media decides to play the role of opposition?
What happens when the mainstream media outlets and some online portals start behaving as the opposition? What happens when behind the veil of being “anti-establishment” they silently march towards a behavioural pattern that makes them oppose any pro-India decision?
Some eminent Indian Journalists, editors and online news portals have taken up the role of resisting this government as the opposition space is shrinking. Now one should have no problem with that as long as they get their facts and ground reports are right. Media has every right to criticize the government in power.
Problem arises when the stories are driven by the sole motive of proving a point and are baseless. Problem arises when they pre-decide the narrative and change stories accordingly, to propagate their set narrative. Problem arises when the stories are driven by bias and the content is based on twisted liberal prejudices. A bias which overrides facts and focuses more on vilification. It can be very difficult for people to differentiate between fact and media fiction. Throw in incessant repetition, uniform agreement among the pundits, and completely deranged interpretations become historical facts.
Let us analyse some of the biased news reporting in recent times and the pattern behind it –
1. The Hindustan Times’ ‘hate tracker’–
The so-called ‘hate tracker’ was introduced by HT in July to keep a track of hate crimes occurring in India. But if you observe the very first paragraph you will see the biased motive behind it. It was not a tracker of hate crimes but more of a tracker for one particular community and caste. Who is the real bigot and casteist in this case?
Unfortunately for Hindustan Times, the readers in the modern era is not a passive consumer of news and opinions. Very soon, it was noticed that not even one hate crime was tracked and reported by the tracker if the crimes were committed by a certain section of a community:
It did not take long to figure out their malicious propaganda. HT Hate Tracker shrewdly ignored the attacks on Dalits by Muslim fundamentalists (as the above list shows). It ignored crimes like Muslim mobs attacking Hindu pilgrims (such as this, this, this, and many more) or the ruckus created during JE vaccination. It did not track the killings of BJP karyakartas in Kerala or West Bengal. It played the religion & caste card when it suited their narrative and tried to hide an incident as soon as they felt it did not satisfy their ‘secular’ hate tracker criteria. After widespread criticism, it was taken off.
2. The Hindu’s innovative & imaginative reporting :
The Hindu’s reporting in recent times have certainly made us wonder about their motives. No one knows from where do they get their ground reports or is it a figment of imagination arising from a sick biased mind. Take for example the recent Elphinstone Stampede fiasco.
The Hindu News paper online portal carried out an article written by Vedika Chaubey which said that a dying women was molested by some bystanders during Elphinstone stampede. The writer of the Hindu news portal made disgraceful comments against bystanders who were trying to help the women caught in the stampede and misinterpreted the incident as molestation. She blamed the government and police for the incident and tried to malign the Railway department.
It was an attempt to not just malign the BJP Maharastra Government, the police or Indian Railways but an attempt to defame humanity and make us feel ashamed as Indians. But if one sees the video closely it says a different story altogether.
https://youtu.be/nK1onAA4GeU
It shows a woman trapped under bodies reaches out for help before breathing her last. And it is clearly seen the man in white shirt is trying to help the woman. Even the police trashed their report and got a show cause notice from Press Council. They even withdrew their story after OpIndia exposed their nefarious story.
Another fake reporting – Dadri accused getting jobs at NTPC
They are clearly and systematically trying to malign each and every institution. The Hindu report stated that the 15 accused men in lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq have landed contractual jobs with state-run NTPC.
The Hindu story completely eliminated the fact that an NTPC worker named Neeraj had killed himself and this entire “job offer” was triggered by that tragic incident.
Seems like these so-called news agencies have developed a certain passion of spreading fake news over dead bodies. This was a complete lie which was countered by NTPC. The news agencies have developed a certain passion of spreading fake news over dead bodies.
3. The Wire, the liar :
After the Uttar Pradesh election results, the founding editor of The Wire, Siddarth Varadarajan declared that media should play the role of opposition and boy is he fulfilling his promise by publishing fake news one after the other.
First the innuendos regarding the Jay Shah story, where the author showcased her financial illiteracay and the malafide intents rather than facts. Then came another weakly researched story on Shaurya Doval, and in between it they managed to discredit Dr. Hedgewar by spreading misinformation. They also tried building up a false case that a comedian was not allowed to crack jokes on Narendra Modi & immitate him and even went on to publish dubious report on ‘Dalit atrocities‘ in Gujarat.
Such is the standard of articles that each time their lies have been nailed within hours. But that will not stop them from peddling some more fake news in future. They are shameless & are quite brazen & proud about it. It seems The Wire has taken up the challenge of publishing fake articles at highest strike rate and they are winning it hands down.
4. The Scroll’s role :
Another online portal that promotes and cherishes false news, intellectual bigotry and seems to hero-worship traitors is Scroll. The appointment of Yogi Adityanath as UP CM surely made the editor activists lose their thinking and reasoning power. Even kebabs were not spared.
Lies were spread about the decision and impact of crackdown on illegal slaughterhouses by the Uttar Pradesh government.
In one of the articles it said : “Lucknow’s legendary Tunday Kababi downs its shutters as meat crackdown intensifies” The truth was that it was closed for an hour due to shortage of meat.
From present back to the past where Scroll tried to paint Swami Vivekananda a Hindutva agent and how he laid foundation to ‘sectarianism’. They try to bring down and discredit our national heroes and make them seem as bigots. And then they have their own champion historian who believes Aurangzeb was the one who looked after the Hindus and preserved Hindu temples.
I have left out NDTV keeping in mind that their ‘rich history’ of spreading lies is too vast to be covered in this one article. The leftist news agencies and portals have started a movement. A movement of misinformation to satisfy their inner demons. Journalists, activists are creating an alternative media landscape where news is secondary.
There is zero effort to do professional, non-partisan journalism any more. It is pure propaganda. Even the comedians are now sour, hostile, hateful and partisans. They are not funny any more. It appears even they have been tasked with a role of opposition. India is ‘Lynchistan’ for them and superficial campaigns like #NotInMyName are organised to create a bleak picture of India.
Though, this movement is not new. Its origin can be traced before Delhi elections in 2015. After 2014 general elections and subsequent state elections in Maharashtra and Haryana where BJP was winning, these activists cum journalists decided to up the ante. Remember the stories created around Church attacks and how fear was instilled in ordinary Indian’s mind. How a short-circuit or group of kids playing outside, which resulted in a stone landing inside the church was given a communal color.
The Award Wapsi brigade seems to be a part of that campaign and it would be foolish to look at it in isolation and not in context.
Journalism was meant to inform the people on what the government was doing for the people, to protect the citizenry. Instead they have taken sides and have adopted a Leftist ideology. Leftists have taken media jobs in order to promote the own personal Leftist ideology and to destroy political opponents.
The media is often called the “mainstream media”. There is nothing mainstream about them. They are lying, radical Leftists spewing propaganda and hate. They lie, distort, and deceive. The media is no longer a pillar of democracy. It would seem they are the termites that are eating into the pillars of democracy to make the country weak and hollow from within.
Future of Social Media in Indian Politics
Social media is the modern tool of communication which is fast growing medium for connecting and influencing citizenry of new India. I believe that Social media is currently a second-fiddle but in near future it will play a dominant role. It has already got deep roots in political communications of developed countries like United States where it is has become a game changer for politicians, foundations, institutions, and political thinkers. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, Blogging sites, WhatsApp, community sites like Quora, are a new way to communicate and engage voters. Now it is time for India where the users on social media are increasing and internet connections are growing and social media is penetrating deeply in every class and demographics of population.
As of now there are around 240 million Facebook accounts in India where around 66% users are between 18 to 35 years age group, male users are 76% and female users 24%, if it grows with the same pace we can look forward for around 300 million Facebook accounts by 2019. Twitter is one of the most important micro-blogging platforms and is popular among educated class of India. Number of active twitter users in India are 26.7 million which looks slim in number but it is a platform which acts as connecting and communicating platform of cream layer of population which includes, Students, Journalists, teachers, scientists, businessmen, bureaucrats, politicians and similar other profiles. This is the population which falls under the category of social influences and that is the reason why twitter plays an important role in creating buzz of any brand, individual, services and political communications.
Another most important electronic tool is WhatsApp and by the end of February 2017 there were 200 million whats app users In India. Nearly every smart phone that is sold in India has whats app, but this media of communication is commonly debated and is not classified under a social Media platform. It is commonly considered as a push messaging application rather than a social media platform because of the limitation where one can communicate with people whose numbers are saved in users phone book and also that It cannot be accessed easily on PC. Social media has been broadly defined to refer to electronic tools that enable anyone to publish and access information, collaborate on a common effort, or build relationships. It’s true that there are some limitations with what’s app but group making and broadcast facilities may have many members who can read and forward messages to other groups and communicate with group members who may be unknown, this way it engages and enhances social networking of users. This debate may continue but most important is the utility of an electronic medium, more than nomenclature and classification.
As per the report of “Statista” 14.64% of Indian population has access to social media networks and by the end of 2019 around 18.86% of Indian population will have access to social media platforms, which means that out of 1316 million population of India, 193 million population are active on social media. As per “Michael Bauer Research” there are 4.9 people per household in India which means there are 268 million families in India if we consider that a considerable percentage of families in India will be having more than one member of the family having access to social media still this data suggests that nearly every second family in India has access to Social media. We should not forget that word-of-mouth communication plays a major role in India, so the communication received by social media is discussed and the same spreads out to people who have or do not have access to social media. Considering this fact we can say that nearly every individual is getting communications from social media, directly or indirectly.
When social media is such widely used medium of communication then obviously political world cannot afford to remain away from the same. Facebook is the most popular social media platform having capability of interaction with masses. The Facebook page with highest number of fan following in India is “Narendra Modi” having 43,055,603 likes and 42,571,483 followers and one out of top five fastest growing page is “Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)” “liked by 13,726,042 accounts and followed by 13,592,426 accounts. Facebook Page “Amit Sah” is on 69 th position with 10,638,592 followers and “I Support Narendra Modi” stands at 38th position with 14 647 635 followers, no other political party page is there in top 100 ,the oldest political party Indian national congress stands nowhere in this list.
Looking at the position of top twitter accounts we find that the most followed handle on twitter is no other then Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) followed by 36.3Million people, top five twitter handles include @PMOIndia followed by 22.2million accounts, Arvind kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal.) here makes position in top 20 list with 21.8K followers. Other popular political accounts on twitter include Kiran bedi Kiran Bedi (@thekiranbedi), Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley), Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj), Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh), Amit Shah (@AmitShah), BJP (@BJP4India), Smriti Z Irani (@smritiirani) in top 50 list Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) ranks 64 in the list of top 100 accounts of India. Surprisingly there is no single INC account in top 50 list.
Rahul Gandhi’s the 47 years old so called youth face of congress has started gaining followers in his account “Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG)” but still stands low in the list of most followed twitter accounts in India. This account of Rahul Gandhi is full of controversies where there are allegations that he is trying to prove his popularity by getting followed by fake twitter accounts commonly termed as “bots” from social media companies located outside India. These fake accounts not only follow but can also be programmed to re-tweet and like the tweets of specified handle, keyword or Tags. But will this artificial and purchased popularity will do any good to anyone it is a big question mark.
As statistics can only be driven out of numbers so we have taken number of followers as base of social media performance to bring out a statistical picture of political social media accounts, but followers are not everything, it is that quality, content, engagement and strategy that matters. There are many political leaders from maby political parties who are having good number of followers in their social media accounts but their engagement and content quality is not up to the mark. When we talk about strategy in involves complete strategy to circulate content so that it reaches maximum viewers and also gets optimized over certain keywords on search engine. In this aspect also I found that BJP doing much better than any other political party in India. There are three reasons behind the better performance one is our honourable Prime minister Narendra Modi who rules the hearts of common citizenry so there is a natural attraction of people of India towards BJP which is reflected on social media also. second reason is the best National IT cell headed by Amit Malviya the face behind BJP IT management. BJP IT centrally is an example of how best the social media can be managed, well planned content management system, Best Website, proper utilization of all platforms, timely placement and circulation of videos, thousands of viral graphics everything they have done is best in Indian political system. They just need to replicate the same in states and it will become one of the most powerful and prudent communication system for BJP.
Third asset of BJP is the strong and dedicated followers and volunteers who are not only viewers but they are themselves circulating content, producing innovative social media content. Congress, AAP and other regional political parties are also trying to make their place in social media but they lack in leadership and are confused as far as long term strategy is concerned. The latest example is a tweet of Rahul Gandhi about his pet dog which became viral and populated him as a stooge. This is a clear example of lack of leadership and social media strategy among political parties. If some politician is trying to say that his dog tweets for him, he is not only making a joke of himself but also insulting those people who show interest in his content specially his followers. The social media should be taken seriously, every word written is going too the public, it is like a live stage always open for contributors. One cannot afford to dabble around with social media, it is a serious business and should be taken seriously and handled with utmost care.
In India political social media management will grow innovative and wide within a short span of time, and days are not far when social media response and engagement will decide the future of any political party. Any political party or person who tries to stay away from social media or considers it dinkier will soon find it difficult to survive in changing environment of Indian politics.
Gujarat election: Caste engineering or national destruction?
‘Every act of creation is first an act of destruction’ a famous quote by a world renowned painter Pablo Picasso. Pablo may have thought of this quote in the context of his art but in today’s Indian polity if you apply these same lines, one gets a sense of negativism. And I say this today after watching the three most talked about youth in Gujarat political climate i.e. Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani sharing stage with the Gandhi scion and targeting just one man, Prime Minister Modi.
Hardik Patel rose from the Patidar agitation which erupted in mid-2015 demanding reservation for the community in education and jobs by including them in the OBC list. Patidars can be classified in the same Socio-Economic bracket as the Patils in Maharashtra or the Jats in Haryana. Basically they are not from the backward castes and lie above in the Hindu caste hierarchy. Hardik Patel was making an argument for the Patidars that they should get reservation. But if Patidars were to get reservation then the OBC’s or the SC’s reservation quota would have to be decreased and this shouldn’t go well below the throat of Alpesh Thakor, the OBC leader and Jignesh Mevani, the Dalit leader.
In fact what I noticed was that they were sharing a very good bonhomie with each other while loathing the Prime Minister and the BJP. Forget empowerment of the communities they were representing, it just looked like they have rededicated their life in showing Modi the exit door. Their voices only resonated as if they were the B team of the Congress party which by the way has not made its stand clear on the reservation issue. Congress could have easily come out in the open and said that they would be providing reservation to the Patidars but that would have angered the other vote bank i.e. OBC’s.
Alpesh Thakor, himself a Kshatriya founded the OSS Ekta Manch which according to him represents OBC’s, SC and ST under its pool. A few days back he recently joined the Congress party under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi and latter is even in talks with Hardik Patel. Hardik has not joined the Congress as yet even after meeting with Mr. Gandhi in Ahmedabad but everybody in Gujarat knows who he is batting for. Alpesh Thakor had held a rally of OBCs to counter Hardik Patel’s Patidar agitation just some months back but today they both are ready to share the bed with Congress just confirm the ouster of BJP from the state. Jignesh Mevani, a self-proclaimed Dalit Leader with Left leanings who rose to fame after the Una agitation should socially be opposed to the Kshatriyas and the Patidars as the latter two hold a high position in the Hindu Caste hierarchy but today one can very well notice the sociability between them and the Congress just to show the door to Modi.
Opposition to leaders or political dogmas is acceptable in a democracy if it is solemnly meant to empower people but here in their political provocations regarding caste, one can easily smell perilous strategies to launch their political careers. And why I use the term perilous is because these three youngsters come from the age bracket which forms the largest part of the demography of our country. Today when there is a wave in the Indian or rather Hindu society under the current ideological dispensation to amalgamate the backward castes into the larger Hindu fold by making them a very relevant part of Hindutva politics and paramount in current power structure, people like these three are again hell-bent on taking us to the dark days of a divided Hindu society for their petty politics. This may have a severe aftermath on the Hindu Society in futurity.
Presently the Jats, the Marathas, the Patidars to name a few are becoming isolationist among themselves and if such casteist young leaders start coming out of every caste or region and carries on with their trivial politics, there is a fear that instead of one religion having different castes, we might have many religions instead of castes. This would be a blessing in disguise for the missionaries of Abrahamic religions especially Christianity and Islam who just wait to smell an opportunity of caste turmoil in Hinduism. One may argue that I may be digging out too much into an insignificant issue but even if a fragment of it is true than this will cause enough damage to the further worsen the caste disparity of the large Hindu society.
Further concern is about the end of meritocracy. Today when the youth thinks of moving and should rightfully towards meritocracy these people are hell-bent on becoming the apostles of reservation which is the antonym of the former. There is a growing angst among the open categories (people outside the ambit of reservation) that the system of reservation should be done away with. Let me specify that I completely agree with the reservation to the SC’s and ST’s as they rightfully deserve it for the prejudices they have to go through even today in remote parts of India. But with every other community champion coming up and demanding reservation for scoring political brownie points, this will in turn increase the malaise in the minds of the general category. This would in future amount to tensions in the institutions and would increase more caste discrimination among the youth.
One would have totally understood or even more agreed if these so called caste champions would have demanded more educational and medical institutions, jobs, etc. but their demands of reservation are a fiendish recipe of creating feeling of loathe and distrust among communities and instilling pessimism among the youth of this country. I just hope better sense prevails from among the populace of these castes and communities and they disregard such evil designs of these so called pioneers of casteism.
Notebandi: Modi is not BJP and DeMo is not magic wand
It is amusing that BJP is being referred to in the debates around notebandi. People are also asking if BJP is free from corruption and black money. The fact is, BJP has very little to do with DeMo. It was entirely Modi and his advisors’ decision. Modi has always been on his own, and has a history of upsetting both BJP and RSS from time to time. But, the man has single-handedly delivered an unthought-of position to the party so nobody in the BJP (except disgruntled old-timers such as Arun Shourie, Yashwant Sinha, etc) questions him openly today. In fact the BJP of today is very different from its pre-2014 avatar. From the politics of principle to realpolitik, the Modi-era BJP has systematically invoked Saam Daam Dand Bhed to conquer newer political bastions (to be clear, this is not a criticism of Modi, it is a compliment. Unprincipled enemies cannot be defeated with principles).
DeMo needs to be seen in this context. The move was as political as it was economic. Years back, Indira Gandhi, fearing electoral loss, sidelined her economic advisor who recommended to her to demonetize high-value currency. Modi turned that logic on its head. The humongous victory in UP is a testimony to that. Nothing is more attractive than a bold leader who can take tough decisions and make you a part of them.
Coming to corruption, it was nobody’s case that DeMo would wipe off black money and stop corruption at once. It was part (though a huge one) of a series of reforms such as SIT on black money, GST, Benami Transactions Act, RERA, JAM Trinity, etc. to gradually formalize the economy and stop the gaps that lead to corruption and black money.
There is a common refrain that money just changed hands during DeMo. Wasn’t it expected? People who manage money as a profession found ways to manage their money post DeMo too. It was a given in a primarily informal economy where it can sometimes be impossible to tell black money from white. Also, criminals are invariably smarter than the police, you see. DeMo was not so much about removing already existing black money as it was about restricting generation of new black money by increasingly formalizing the economy. Of course, currency that was funding terror, trafficking, etc. suddenly turned into a piece of paper and we can see the immediate impact in those sectors already.
The ‘shock value’ of DeMo is significant. DeMo put fear in people that things have changed. One will think twice before hoarding notes now because he or she doesn’t know when it might stop being a legal tender. One will never take the system for granted.
Black money is not some heap of notes that you can burn. It is a parallel economy; the solutions, therefore, have to multi-modal. After DeMo, deposits of appx Rs 3.68 lakh crore in over 2 million bank accounts came under scrutiny. Appx 224,000 shell companies were removed from the registrar of companies; DeMo brought more people in the tax net, lowered lending rates, led to opening of nearly 50 lakh new bank accounts for workers; almost all the money came back into the system leaving behind a trail that can be a goldmine of information if the authorities seriously follow it. DeMo came as a major blow to trafficking, Naxalism and terrorism; stock markets are at all-time high, mutual fund AUM has seen phenomenal growth; the digital space has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the move. Take this snippet from an article on Harvard Business Review, for instance:
“Consider, for example, a government payment system created in 2016 that was processing 100,000 transactions per month in October of that year, prior to the sudden demonetization. A year later, after demonetization, the same system is processing 76 million transactions per month. Meanwhile, according to the Ministry of Finance, the Indian economy is operating with $45 billion less cash than it did prior to demonitization. India’s digital infrastructure is coming to life, with a combination of policy and technological innovation having played an important role. The country is moving rapidly toward a digital-first economy.”
DeMo, GST, Benami Transactions Act and the JAM trinity have the potential to change the face of this country; we must give them time.
Lastly, coming again to from where I started in the first paragraph. Is BJP completely free from corruption, is the party’s funding entirely transparent? Have BJP politicians never touched “black” money? Well, they are part of this same system that we are discussing. These questions don’t really hold. The real question is, is BJP also bearing the brunt of Modi’s anti-corruption moves? The answer is as much as any other party. The interesting thing to observe, however, is how one action has had different levels of impact on different parties, and therein lie clues.
Chabahar: India’s strategic gateway to Central Asia and challenges
Oct 29’ 2017 marked a major achievement for India, striving to emerge as a dominant player in the region. A consignment of 1.1 million tons of wheat was shipped to Kabul via Chabahar, a strategic port developed by India in Baluchistan province of Iran after a new trilateral agreement between India, Iran and Afghanistan in 2016.
Chabahar port was originally conceived in 2003 but could not take through after a change of guard in New Delhi. For next decade, things did not move as expected but dynamics changed quickly when new regime assumed power in 2014 in New Delhi. Shift in America’s Iran policy just proved as a catalyst and bitterness in Afghan Pak relationship worked as a catalytic promoter for this port.
New Delhi Govt took it as a strategic priority and committed millions of dollar to develop Chabahar port and subsequent infrastructure in terms of new rail and road routes in war torn Afghanistan. As part of the project, India built Delaram Zaranj Highway in 2009 which leads to Kabul in Afghanistan as part of Chabahar trade route. It is important to note that 40% of Afghan area is still under Taliban control including western area adjoining Iran border. Iran, on its part constructed road from Zahedan to Delaram at Afghan border and improved the existing Chabahar Zahedan road link.
Chabahar strategic importance will bolster India’s position in regional geopolitics and help to stay relevant in Afghanistan. Chabahar is located just 70km north of Gwadar port developed by China under CPEC program. This new trade route between India and Afghanistan via Chabahar has made Pakistan irrelevant for bilateral trade at least. India and Afghanistan have been long demanding Pakistan to facilitate trade between India and Afghanistan via Torkham in Pakistan. Pakistan reluctance prompted a new aerial trade route between them which is economically unviable for bulk trade. As a net result, security, media and administrative establishments in Pakistan are rattled and apparently upset with this new development. Earlier, Afghans were mostly dependent on Pak for their daily needs but their bilateral trade has touched its bottom recently.
India has an ambitious plan to utilize Chabahar as a gateway to central Asia and has envisioned subsequent rail and road infrastructure development to reach central Asian countries though Iran. India believes that this new route will help India to boost its export to landlocked central Asian nations and counter the influence of mighty China in this region. As of now, it appears as a game changer in the region from India’s perspective. However, it’s too early to consider this strategic move a success as a lot depends on rapidly changing dynamics in the region, possibility of a new anti US block and political future of Afghanistan.
Challenges
Here are the potential game spoilers to Chabahar:
• Security is the biggest concern and will determine the future of Chabahar trade route considering the fact that Taliban controls most part of western region in Afghanistan. Most of the 800 Km long Delaram – Zaranj – Kabul route is under Taliban control. During construction of the Delaram Zaranj project, 129 Afghanis and six Indians were killed.
• Kandala to Kabul via Chabahar, Zahedan and Zaranj is more than 3 times longer than traditional route from New Delhi to Kabul via Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Torkham. Chabahar route may become unviable if Pakistan allows India and Afghanistan to trade via Torkham which is unlikely in the near future.
• Currently, Chabahar route viability depends on diminishing Pak Afghan trade. In the past, sensing Afghanistan’s heavy dependence on Pakistan for even basic needs, Pak based traders started charging a premium. For ex. Staple food items including wheat which is known as “Gandum” in that region is sold Rs.500/MT costlier than its open price in India. In the short run, this price difference will allow to sustain the trade route.
• Another potential challenger to Chabahar is Bandar Abbas (busiest port) in Iran. Bandar Abbas connects to both central Asia and beyond till Russia and most of the Europe with North South Corridor. It poses a serious challenge to Chabahar, India’s initiative to reach central Asia.
• Political stability and overall security situation in Kabul is more complicated than it appears. Post its Debacle in Syria and Iraq, ISIS is shifting its ground and slowly moving to Afghanistan under the banner of ISIS-K. Russia is pushing hard to make in-roads again. On the other hand, Pakistan is trying to hold its position by allying with ISIS-K as its relationship with Taliban is crumbling under US pressure to do more against Taliban.
• US Iran relationship will also impact the Chabahar route. Trump administration is re-evaluating nuclear deal with Iran and may cancel it. Trump administration may also impose trade sanctions again on Iran which will be detrimental for Chabahar trade route.
• It is also believed than Tehran regime sympathizes with Afghan Taliban and provides arms and logistics support apart from financing them. Recent CIA publications of Bin Laden files prove Iran financing Taliban. This only adds uncertainty to Chabahar.
• In current political scenario, Afghanistan refused to be a part of CPEC originating at Gwadar, Pakistan in Arabian Sea. In future, if peace prevails, Afghanistan may agree to join CPEC which will open a new shorter trade route to central Asia and Afghanistan and pose challenge to Chabahar trade route.
Authors: Nishith Singh & Princy Agarwal
Sarbanand Sonowal’s surgical strike on corrupt officials on anti-black money day
In an overnight statewide operation, Assam Police arrested 15 senior government officers for fraudulently taking jobs in the Assam Public Service Commission. While some officers are on the run, those arrested are being presently kept in Guwahati for further investigation.
In what may be described as a tight slap on the face of those who had been branding him as a weak politician, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal once again proved that he is still a man of steel. The central force behind the scrapping off the controversial IMDT Act, has once again shown to the people that being modest is not being weak.
On the first anniversary of demonetization, observed across the country as Anti-Black Money Day, Assam showed the nation how to keep alive the fight against corruption, in a manner that has rocked the administrative machinery of the state and elated the public.
The Assam Police, under direction of the Chief Minister and following up on their previous investigation into the massive Cash-for-Job scandal within the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC), arrested 15 high ranking serving officials of the Assam Civil Service and Assam Police Service for obtaining jobs by fraudulent means. These officials were all given jobs during the tenure of the erstwhile Congress government in the State and belonged to the 2015 cadre of the elite State corps. The wee hours operation by the police follows arrest of APSC Chairman Rakesh Paul and three other officials during the previous few months.
Unearthed by the Dibrugarh branch of Assam Police, the Cash-for-Job scandal has been a major talking point in Assam with many more officers and even politicians expected to be named or arrested in the coming days as threads of the case gets unraveled with each passing day. The scale of the investigation and its ramifications are huge as it involved a statewide operation on some of the most powerful persons of Assam. This is evident by the immense airwaves generated by the operation and massive public scrutiny in the same.
The November 8 arrests also follows the previous day arrest of Director of the Information & Public Relations department, Ranjit Gogoi, for involvement in a multi crore advertisement scam which took place during end of the Congress tenure. Corruption, taken as a normal way of working by the Congress cannot be more easily exemplified by these incidents.
Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal is often quoted saying that the BJP led government of the State has a zero tolerance policy towards corruption. He says that even the CM will not be spared if found to indulge in corruption. Taking an approach that does not interfere in administrative matters or investigations, the CM has shown that under a determined and strong leadership, the State can come out of the morass it has been put into by many previous governments. This, also comes with huge pressure from many sources and a distinct threat of life to the Chief Minister as confirmed by security agencies.
When the nation led by the Prime Minister is on a new journey to define its political identity separate from the scam taints left by previous governments, this step by the Assam Government goes a long way in consolidating faith of the people on the deliverables of governance and a clean, transparent administrative machinery that seeks to work for the betterment of society.
