The ongoing financial crisis in US gives an oppertunity to leanback and think twice before allowing indescriminate de regulation of financial sector. The nature of banking is not as it was before globalisation. With the world interlinked through the web of financial institutions, the nature of banking organs also changed forever. There are a lot of new forms of operations came in to existence. One of such is Investment banks.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Friday, September 5, 2008
Chiranjeevi, Left, TDP in AP
Coming elections a watershed for AP
Undoubtedly the forthcoming general as well as assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh are going to be a watershed in the political history of the state. Andhra Pradesh once again witnessed political upsurge. Unlike in any other part of the country the state witnessed emergence of two new political outfits. One by TDP splinter group leader Devendar Gaud and the other one lead by famous film star Chiranjeevi. The basic difference between two from people’s perspective is only that Gaud has been seen by the people in his political career, in the party and also in the government where as Chiranjeevi’s political personification is not know so far. To be presise Chiranjeevi is untested and Gaud is tested as politician.
We need to look at in to the context of these two emergences. Gaud deserted his parental party on the issue of Telangana. Chiranjeev does not have any such ground except his zeal to represent and be represented by the people. In that sense Gaud is having limited area of operation which is geographically confined where as Chiranjeevi is having the whole state as his area of operation. Gaud has limited sphere of influence and Chiranjeevi is having larger sphere of influence. The another aspect to keep in mind is that Gaud, being a tested political persona, is having his tested base of supporters, issue, team though he is not dwelling in to a single point agenda where as Chiranjeevi’s case is otherwise. As he himself, his team, issues of priority, political skills, ideology, programme of action, mainly the perceived mass base are still to be tested.
To put in on a wider canvass we have to recognise one more fact. The state witnessed over the last two decades a serious, prolonged, militant mass movements based on issues such as world bank, caste discrimination, housing problem and off course corruption. All these movements were spearheaded by the Left in the state under the leadership of CPI(M). Though these movements are not preceded by general economic crises of late 70s, these movements also added to the political churning process that is underway. If we look at the last 3 decades of political landscape, earlier single party domination ended with the establishment of two party system as in the case of Tamilnadu. The people who tired off experiencing the single party domination for at least 30 years overwhelmed by the presence of Telugu Desam Party in early 80’s. But the last 30 years experience particularly of the current generation is not satisfied with the performance of both TDP and Cong. Though the Cong in the state has witnessed generational change of leadership, there is no change of policy direction. Telugu Desam also failed to prove itself as it comes to overseeing development of the state which was resulted in drubbing of TDP in the last elections.
Currently except the Left in the state which lead prolonged struggles, both TDP and Cong are facing credibility deficiency. Even after five years as principle opposition party, TDP could not generate the lost confidence. Instead of rethinking over the party’s priorities, TDP and Chandra Babu Naidu sat in confidence banking on the anti incumbency voting. Due to several administrative steps initiated by Congress government in the state, the level of resentment in the rural areas is not as it is in the urban areas. In urban areas also the resentment lacks its fierceness. Here lies the failure of principle opposition party in chanellising the resentment. The main reason for this failure is that the party could not gain confidence even after four and half years of its rule.
In this context we need to gauge the tactical moves of TDP. There is a turn around on the issue of forging electoral ties that too particularly with CPI(M) in this decade. If we remember while facing the assembly elections in 1997 Chandra Babu Naidu was riding on clouds. He fought on his own. By that time his new uncharted path of development has not paid dividends. So people overwhelmingly supported him by refusing congress. Since then his style of political operation had been completely changed. Those were the days either in Delhi, of in Hyderabad or in Washington, whatever TDP supreme says that used to be considered as a revelation ! With that credited charishma as an intellectual, he used to coin new slogans day by day. One such slogan is that “ herein after there are no isms except tourism” is meant to kidding the Left in India. I shall share with you one such incident where he was beaming with confidence about the re-election. While addressing a visiting journalists team from Delhi, in 2002, at his residence Babu brought an interesting comparison of Bengal, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh where in he said that in all these states there is no effective political opponent who can match with the ruling party at that time. And also he analysed that the principle opposition parties in respective states failed to put forward a viable policy alternatives ! He used to boost up his cadre by saying that he will rule like CPI(M) in Bengal uninterruptedly. This shows that he basically banked on the failure of opposition to come back to power but not on his competency as ruler. With that style of functioning, and attitude he de-linked himself and also his party from the grass roots. People won’t take too long to prove that neither his nor his compatriot Laalu’s policies are so viable. By now he should have realised what was and is the difference between Bengal and Andhra Pradesh or Jyoti Basu and him hopefully. After exactly 10 years, in an eleventh year he is crawling to join hands with CPI(M) to re-establish his links with grass roots and also to fill the credibility gap that he generated during his tenure.
The direction of YS Rajasekar Reddy lead Congress government is also more are less in the same direction. He is also now running in to clouds about the failure of TDP in acting in the interests of people as principle opposition party. Over these all four years TDP could not able to understand what exactly went wrong for it in the last elections. So he could not think over his policies except for the media consumption. Exactly in this situation Chiranjeevi came on to scene hoping to en-cash this failure of principle opposition party role. After two weeks of his launching the party, PRP representatives in Hyderabad declared that they need not to enter in to any electoral understandings to defeat Congress. In movies directors used to be behind the screen. Here also the main architect of PRP, Allu Aravind is behind the screen, true to his role as producer / director. But filming is different from politics. In film industry though the fans are not known to have aspirations beyond a point. But in politics, where each and every step relates to the daily public life, people’s aspirations, wants, beliefs are linked to their livelihood problems. Chiranjeevi could not provide any viable policy alternative to his credit. He is having fans linked mass base. The time will prove whether he will be able to impact by transforming this fans linked mass base in to a credible political base from where he has to re-launch himself as a serious contender for the power in the next elections.
As of now the situation looks like a multiparty contest in Telangana and triangular contest in other parts of the state. This is the first time the state is witnessing such a multiple contests across the state. This is the reason why I felt the next elections will be watershed in states political landscape.
Undoubtedly the forthcoming general as well as assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh are going to be a watershed in the political history of the state. Andhra Pradesh once again witnessed political upsurge. Unlike in any other part of the country the state witnessed emergence of two new political outfits. One by TDP splinter group leader Devendar Gaud and the other one lead by famous film star Chiranjeevi. The basic difference between two from people’s perspective is only that Gaud has been seen by the people in his political career, in the party and also in the government where as Chiranjeevi’s political personification is not know so far. To be presise Chiranjeevi is untested and Gaud is tested as politician.
We need to look at in to the context of these two emergences. Gaud deserted his parental party on the issue of Telangana. Chiranjeev does not have any such ground except his zeal to represent and be represented by the people. In that sense Gaud is having limited area of operation which is geographically confined where as Chiranjeevi is having the whole state as his area of operation. Gaud has limited sphere of influence and Chiranjeevi is having larger sphere of influence. The another aspect to keep in mind is that Gaud, being a tested political persona, is having his tested base of supporters, issue, team though he is not dwelling in to a single point agenda where as Chiranjeevi’s case is otherwise. As he himself, his team, issues of priority, political skills, ideology, programme of action, mainly the perceived mass base are still to be tested.
To put in on a wider canvass we have to recognise one more fact. The state witnessed over the last two decades a serious, prolonged, militant mass movements based on issues such as world bank, caste discrimination, housing problem and off course corruption. All these movements were spearheaded by the Left in the state under the leadership of CPI(M). Though these movements are not preceded by general economic crises of late 70s, these movements also added to the political churning process that is underway. If we look at the last 3 decades of political landscape, earlier single party domination ended with the establishment of two party system as in the case of Tamilnadu. The people who tired off experiencing the single party domination for at least 30 years overwhelmed by the presence of Telugu Desam Party in early 80’s. But the last 30 years experience particularly of the current generation is not satisfied with the performance of both TDP and Cong. Though the Cong in the state has witnessed generational change of leadership, there is no change of policy direction. Telugu Desam also failed to prove itself as it comes to overseeing development of the state which was resulted in drubbing of TDP in the last elections.
Currently except the Left in the state which lead prolonged struggles, both TDP and Cong are facing credibility deficiency. Even after five years as principle opposition party, TDP could not generate the lost confidence. Instead of rethinking over the party’s priorities, TDP and Chandra Babu Naidu sat in confidence banking on the anti incumbency voting. Due to several administrative steps initiated by Congress government in the state, the level of resentment in the rural areas is not as it is in the urban areas. In urban areas also the resentment lacks its fierceness. Here lies the failure of principle opposition party in chanellising the resentment. The main reason for this failure is that the party could not gain confidence even after four and half years of its rule.
In this context we need to gauge the tactical moves of TDP. There is a turn around on the issue of forging electoral ties that too particularly with CPI(M) in this decade. If we remember while facing the assembly elections in 1997 Chandra Babu Naidu was riding on clouds. He fought on his own. By that time his new uncharted path of development has not paid dividends. So people overwhelmingly supported him by refusing congress. Since then his style of political operation had been completely changed. Those were the days either in Delhi, of in Hyderabad or in Washington, whatever TDP supreme says that used to be considered as a revelation ! With that credited charishma as an intellectual, he used to coin new slogans day by day. One such slogan is that “ herein after there are no isms except tourism” is meant to kidding the Left in India. I shall share with you one such incident where he was beaming with confidence about the re-election. While addressing a visiting journalists team from Delhi, in 2002, at his residence Babu brought an interesting comparison of Bengal, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh where in he said that in all these states there is no effective political opponent who can match with the ruling party at that time. And also he analysed that the principle opposition parties in respective states failed to put forward a viable policy alternatives ! He used to boost up his cadre by saying that he will rule like CPI(M) in Bengal uninterruptedly. This shows that he basically banked on the failure of opposition to come back to power but not on his competency as ruler. With that style of functioning, and attitude he de-linked himself and also his party from the grass roots. People won’t take too long to prove that neither his nor his compatriot Laalu’s policies are so viable. By now he should have realised what was and is the difference between Bengal and Andhra Pradesh or Jyoti Basu and him hopefully. After exactly 10 years, in an eleventh year he is crawling to join hands with CPI(M) to re-establish his links with grass roots and also to fill the credibility gap that he generated during his tenure.
The direction of YS Rajasekar Reddy lead Congress government is also more are less in the same direction. He is also now running in to clouds about the failure of TDP in acting in the interests of people as principle opposition party. Over these all four years TDP could not able to understand what exactly went wrong for it in the last elections. So he could not think over his policies except for the media consumption. Exactly in this situation Chiranjeevi came on to scene hoping to en-cash this failure of principle opposition party role. After two weeks of his launching the party, PRP representatives in Hyderabad declared that they need not to enter in to any electoral understandings to defeat Congress. In movies directors used to be behind the screen. Here also the main architect of PRP, Allu Aravind is behind the screen, true to his role as producer / director. But filming is different from politics. In film industry though the fans are not known to have aspirations beyond a point. But in politics, where each and every step relates to the daily public life, people’s aspirations, wants, beliefs are linked to their livelihood problems. Chiranjeevi could not provide any viable policy alternative to his credit. He is having fans linked mass base. The time will prove whether he will be able to impact by transforming this fans linked mass base in to a credible political base from where he has to re-launch himself as a serious contender for the power in the next elections.
As of now the situation looks like a multiparty contest in Telangana and triangular contest in other parts of the state. This is the first time the state is witnessing such a multiple contests across the state. This is the reason why I felt the next elections will be watershed in states political landscape.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
From South Dakota of USA to Araku Valley of Andhra
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: The Story behind the Unification of USA
The story of “Battle of Wounded Knee Creek” is very interesting and also we can draw several lessons from that about United States of America (USA). By now, USA has established itself as the second biggest democracy in the world but the establishment of USA itself has a major historical crunch in which we need to dwell into in order to understand its historical claims in reality.
There are so many stories, histories written about how the George Washington army ruthlessly annexed tribal lands in Northern American continent in its way to the formation of USA. As social science students at our high school we were told that there are three great revolutions in the world history. They are: Bloodless revolution of England, American Revolution, and French Revolution. All of them are part of evolution of modern democratic set up, we were told. And also were taught of the greatness of George Washington who commanded over the army of US in its liberation struggle. But there are two parts of US liberation struggle.
The first part is the struggle the up coming US nobility in the 13 Colonies on the Atlantic seaboard of North America engaged with Great Britain and won independence to become United States of America. The world history threw heavy light on this development and marked it as a watershed in the evolution of modern democracy.
The second part comes from 1783 to 1890, when the newly formed USA gradually annexed the tribal states in its expansionist scheme to put place the USA what we are seeking today. The second part of the story of unification of America was not debated much in comparison to its first part.
I think, in the year 2000 when I was working as a social activist in Hyderabad I had a discussion with Com. Punyavati who happened at that time State Secretary of All India Democratic Women’s Association. Then I argued that USA does not have its own history, culture as we, and the other countries of eastern hemisphere have. Their so called culture is evolved only in about a century till now. In its emergence the behavior of USA towards its native tribal states and population gives an understanding about its nature. Since then, I kept on looking for new material, books which places my arguments in a sophisticated, structured manner. Finally I found in the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, something that I was exactly looking for. This is also a part of history of Civil War that threatened newly emerging American nation. This was is in between the already existing tribal nations and newly emerging American nation.
This not only proves my assumption that USA emerged only after brutal annexation of tribal people who are known as Red Indian tribes. For the outer world, the Western Sociology introduces Red Indians as a single tribe where as that was the nomenclature got significance after the Columbus’s discovery of American continent. Like in today’s India, in America also, there number of tribes such as Sioux, about which the present book deals.
This tribal nation enters in to an agreement called Fort Laramie Treaty 1868 there by shedding some land for the white settlements and reserving some land for the purpose of local tribal population’s utilization such as hunting, food collection as it happened to be a forest till that time. This is where for the first time I heard about the Geographical Reservation Policy, which might be a prelude to the reservation polices and affirmative actions which we have been experiencing in the 20th century.
The whole story revolves around how the US Congress and the local white senator acted in a deceitful manner while expanding the white settlements by violating the treaty they entered in to with the South Dakotan tribal nation Sioux. That means till the 19th century US is experiencing the tribal lives where hunting and other primary production modes are in operation and main forms of livelihood! By 19th century India has emerged in to a single nation physically, psychologically and also politically under the English colonialism.
This annexation of South Dakota also is about the gold rush which was found it those areas in 6th decade of 9th century. This gold rush prompted white rulers to expand the white settlements to these areas in order to justify the planned exploitation of gold mines. Now though it may be a disproportionate comparison, I will compare the Sioux annexation by US with the industrialization of Araku Valley in Andhra Pradesh. In Araku to explore the Bauxite for industrial purpose, the government recently sanctioned environmental clearance for a joint venture for exploiting the Bauxite in Eastern Ghats which are famed for their natural beauty. This approval will also as in the case of Sioux tribe destroy the natural livelihood options of local tribal people. At least the imperial USA implemented some geographical reservation, though that could not avoid the war with the local tribes, the modern democratic governments of Andhra Pradesh and India are not providing for the same. The existing environmental laws mandate the government to provide alternative land (as in the case of Dakota) for the rehabilitation of those displaced due to this project. The governments are not coming forward to implement their own laws. Even though they may provide geographical reservation, they can explicate the natural settings of Araku Valley, thus the industrialist, capitalist greed paving way for the annexation of natural settings some times for its settlements and for some times for its profit !
Finally, perhaps as of US expertise in establishing white settlements (that lead to the emergence of USA as a modern nation), it is helping, guiding and also directing all necessary means to expand the Jewish settlements in Palestine lands where by destroying the Palestine Arabs as a nation as they had done with in the case of Red Indian Tribes !!!
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