Shashi Tharoor – boon or bane?

Shashi Tharoor will soon have to bite the dust. That’s the prediction of political pundits in the power corridors of Delhi. There is wide spread criticism against him ever since he became Minister of State for External Affairs. This is because his detractors (specially in the Congress party) retort that men who have no control over their use of words, who do not understand the repercussions their statements/actions might bring about, do not deserve to be a part of the Indian political spectrum. Parties face huge embarrassment time and again because of such players and run for cover. Be it his Cattle-class remarks or his extravagant stay in five star hotels at Govt expense or the latest IPL controversy, Tharoor has caused tremendous embarrassment to the Govt as well as the Congress party but has always managed to scrape out because of his proximity to Sonia Gandhi. It will be interesting to see whether he manages to stay on yet again or is removed from his post.

Tharoor is a new age politician who is suave, classy & slick and based on his impeccable diction & articulation, has won many hearts among urban Indians. But this media-savvy new breed does not realise that it is not a child’s play to be in Indian politics and better off still to be a part of the Central Govt. Sure, he enjoys terrific clout in the State Dept’s of various countries because of his past role as Under Secretary General of the UN, but that certainly does not qualify him as eligible to be a part of mainstream Indian politics. Being in the news for the wrong reasons, he tweets more on domestic issues than international ones and virtually has an opinion on every subject that is not his area of expertise. Rather, he should be wise enough to focus only on his domain of work and not court meaningless controversies at the pretext of being a modern politician. In contrast, he should take lessons from several other youngsters in the Govt like Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot, Jitin Prasada etc, sons of former bigwigs, who have a far better understanding of the way our politics work and are truly working to make a difference in their respective areas.

Tharoor’s election to the parliament this time too came as a surprise to many. Although, his victory is largely attributed to the weakness of the opposing candidates and the frustration of the voters of Trivandrum against the incumbent, and not because the polity thought that this man is god sent and rightly deserves the seat. Post victory, it is largely unheard of about Tharoor visiting his home constituency.

Leaving aside all gimmicks, he should genuinely focus on External Affairs and ideally, should be instrumental in pitching for India’s permanent membership of the UN Security Council. He should take the lead in mending India’s foreign relations with countries like China and others since his boss, the highly qualified and intellectual, but in my opinion, totally, totally useless, Mr. SM Krishna (the pair is two to tango) is clearly making a mockery of the Foreign Affairs Ministry. At present, it seems as though our International relations are handled only by the Prime Minister and our National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon who is undoubtedly better suited for the role.

So my advise to Mr. Tharoor is that he must make sincere efforts to stay away from all public hullabaloo and ensure his actions speak louder than words. It is high time he proves his worthiness that he was and is the right choice for the job. That will satisfy the people of India to a great deal.

The Red Corridor threat

Our Home Minister Mr. PC Chidambaram has indeed shown tremendous gut and determination in reorganising our intelligence machinery, much to the dismay of bureaucrats and the senior officers in the intelligence outfits. He has taken initiatives to strengthen the security apparatus of our country and our forces as well to counter the growing threat of external terrorism. But little would he have hoped that during the course, another form of threat would soon take centre stage – an internal threat so strong that it could take the country to the brink of a civil war and is rightly termed as our biggest internal security threat – Naxalism.

Naxalites waging a guerrilla war mostly from the forests of central and eastern India have a one point policy agenda – fight for the rural poor and landless & self reliance & development in order to capture political power & built a communist state, for which, they would throw out any and every state object functioning in their regions by all means possible. The brutal killing of 76 CRPF jawans by Maoists shows their aggression and hunger for dominance in their areas of operation. Naxalites not only target the police and paramilitary forces, but also target the administrative machinery of the government (block development officers etc) & the judiciary as well. So strong is their movement, that their sphere of influence has spread to almost half the states in our country which are categorized as the Red Corridor.

But what prompts them to take up the gun? Why this anger against the system? Social activists attribute the entire reason as exploitation & oppression of the backward classes of society. The Maoist cadres are formed largely by the poorest of poor people and only a fraction of them are tribal's, as understood otherwise. The wide ranging social disparity, caste divides, corrupt political class & no visible development on the ground in those lands in the past 60 years are common reasons for the same. Not to mention the brutality of the upper castes against these people, frequent incidents of abuse & rape of women in tandem with the police and the complete failure of the administrative and justice delivery systems within their regions (remember the Jehanabad massacre in 1997 that sent shock waves through the nation when members of the upper caste Ranbir Sena, a private militia of landlords, brutally killed 58 people, largely women & children, belonging to the lower castes). Statistically speaking too, the Tendulkar committee report presented to the Govt says that almost 38 crore people in India live below the poverty line, out of which 28 crore people live at less than 40 rupees a day and nearly 10 crore live on 10-15 rupees a day….the data clearly shows the social divide in our country validating the cliché that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Activists even hold Corporate India responsible for the abetment of Naxalism because of their continuous quest for agricultural land to set up industries to tap the mineral wealth of these regions, which is supported by the Govt.

What is the solution to the crisis? Mr. Chidambaram wants complete neutralization of the naxalites at all costs. But he conveniently forgets that our police & paramilitary forces (which incidentally are among the largest in the world), armed with their service revolvers, are ill-equipped to fight those, who carry nothing less than AK47’s. The negligence of paramilitary forces like the CRPF, BSF, ITBP etc is a big blot on the Home ministry and significant improvement is needed in their pay scales, their equipment and training. Else, killing of our soldiers would become common news in no time. The naxals should abstain from violence in all forms and should resolute to solve their differences through dialogue and talks, but for this the state first has to show its sincerity and resolve to provide intensive relief, rehabilitation & development on the ground in their territories and work to alleviate poverty. Corporate social responsibility should be pepped up in these regions, with more initiatives taken for providing education to the children, and employment to the locals in the industries. The monies made by corporate India by wiping out the mineral riches of these states should be pumped back into social initiatives for these sections of the people. Land acquisition processes should be streamlined (although I admit this is wishful thinking) and no way should land owners be forced to sell their land at throw away prices. The Madhu Koda’s of India should be brought to justice and the few thousand crores made by them should be pushed back into the economy. This would be the only way out.