Massive Efforts Needed to Educate People for e-Transactions : N K Goyal

N K Goyal and S D Saxena of CMAI Association of India 
interacting with media persons 
on the issue of educating masses on e-transactions 

By Vinod Varshney

With demonetization woes continuing across the country at an unprecedented level, the ICT sector eyes an opportunity in the situation after Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a dramatic fashion broadcast this decision in a message to the nation on the night of November 8 this year.

Amidst widespread criticism of the demonetization by most opposition political parties and renowned economists, any support to the move can only be a soothing balm to the government. The latest voice of support to the demonetization move comes from the CMAI Association of India, which boasts as being one of the largest ICT associations based in India with 48,500 members and 54 MoU partners worldwide, actively engaged in development and promotion for telecommunications and education sector.

N K Goyal, the president of the organisation does agree that the government move has brought enormous hardship to the people, but he believes that it would be a temporary phase and millions of people in the country who own smart phones would be transcending to making mobile payments as a natural habit. But as old habits die hard, he says that massive efforts are needed to bring about the requisite change.

He informed Thursday in a chat with media persons that the CMAI Association of India which deals with more than one lac educational institutions and academic professionals consisting of universities, technical & engineering colleges and schools, plans to initiate an online free training programmes and large scale education drive for use of e-transactions.

Goyal expressed hopes that the forthcoming budget may make big announcement to support education programmes for e-transactions to facilitate the country entering into a digital economy era.

The CMAI Association of India has suggested a number of thrust areas to make the digital economy mission of the government successful like providing volunteers to help in educating people at the grass-root levels especially in the rural areas, launching programmes involving university students and senior citizens to educate rural and low income urban population in the use of e-payments, helping small and marginal traders, especially vendors for the use of e-payment methods. Surprisingly, the Association has missed out in this list the private doctors who had been charging their fees in cash only across the country and similarly the private schools who pay their teachers in cash after getting signatures on a higher salary slip. The point was raised by a media person in the discussion with the CMAI Association president. Goyal insisted change would come in these sections of society also.

Being a player in the technology space, the CMAI Association also recommends that all available options for increasing connectivity should be explored including satellite, optical fibre and new technologies such as ‘white space’. 

Thankfully, the members of the CMAI Association do not dispute that there has been increase in frauds in e-transactions but they insist that the situation is not as alarming as has been made out in certain quarters. They ask in return whether people do never get defrauded and lose money when they make cash transactions. They insist that e-transactions despite all the risks involved offer better safety and also transparency.

SD Saxena, vice chairman of the CMAI is conscious of the importance of the safety aspect and says that at the banking level the encryption level is robust but at the end-user level, it is weak and needs to be bolstered in order to generate better confidence among people whose fear cannot be brushed aside in backdrop of the incident when the security of 40 lac debit cards got compromised a few months ago.    

   

How Modi’s demonetization move is a drama!

By Vinod Varshney

The Modi government is causing so much hardship to common people, farmers and retail businessmen across the country as prime minister Modi unwittingly demonetized the currency which is now of low denomination in value terms and is used by common people in day-to-day transactions. People go to buy even fruits and vegetable carrying a 500 rupee note and street-venders do accept them routinely.

One needs to look at the cost inflation index which is 1125 today on the basis of its value ‘100’ in 1980-81. Its value was probably 80 in 1978. Thus, the value of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 today is only Rs 36 and Rs 72 in terms of the value of Indian rupee in 1978 when Desai government had undertaken demonetization exercise so successfully. 

When prime minister Morarji Desai had demonetized 500, 1,000 and 10,000 rupee notes in 1978, he was truly eliminating high value notes and thus conducting a true surgical strike against black money hoarders. I had been a sub-editor then with Hindustan, a national Hindi newspaper published from New Delhi. I like other common people had seen the Rs 1,000 note probably only once or twice. But never got to see a 10,000 rupee note!

Because of the demonetization of the high value notes, the Desai government had hurt only the black money hoarders, not the common man. That was the reason, there were no deaths like this time of old people standing in queues for long hours to get their notes converted and no deaths of children for not being able to get treatments owing to old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes not being acceptable to private medical service providers.

Prime minister Modi has rightly been accused for his arrogance as he fails to realize that his move is hurting common people across the board, in some cases even more than the black money hoarders who are using touts to get their notes changed with the new ones for a price.

Had Modi government really been sincere to hit the black money hoarders in India, it would have demonetized the Kisan Vikas Patra which were discontinued by the Manmohan Singh government as an action against black money hoarding but were relaunched audaciously by the Modi government to facilitate black money owners.

The current demonetization exercise looks more like a sadistic drama, and to say mildly, a face saver amidst countrywide criticism of prime minister Narendra Modi who failed to bring back the black money stashed abroad that was promised to be done within 100 days of forming his government during election rallies in 2014.  

Federalism Under Threat ?

West Bengal chief minister 

Mamata Bannerjee in the chief 

ministers’ conclave

It used to be the pet theme of Narendra Modi when he was the chief minister of Gujarat. But after he assumed power in the Centre, his style of functioning appears totally in defiance of the federal structure of the national polity. Not one meeting of the NDC has taken place in his 16 months’ rule, which is a forum where states can raise their issues. The Planning Commission is already finished which used to take care of financial needs of the states. There are accusations that Centre is running parallel governments through governors and lieutenant governors in the non-NDA states. All this does not augur well for the country and democracy. The first attempt to organise a ‘Conclave of Chief Ministers on Cooperative Federalism & Centre-State Relations’ did not succeed as only two chief ministers turned up from among the five who had evinced interest, but this does not mean the issue is going to die down any time soon. It would continue to acquire fresh energy and momentum until the Centre amends its ways, AAP leaders say.

By Bodhi Shri

Non-NDA governments in states have one common complaint against the Centre since the new government under Narendra Modi has came into existence that there is unwarranted interference of the Centre in the functioning of state governments. So much so that parallel governments are being run through the governors and lieutenant governors, state chief ministers say. 

The worst victim of this attitude has been the Delhi government of Aam Aadmi Party, which badly mauled the BJP in the assembly elections early this year despite the vigorous campaigning undertaken by prime minister Narendra Modi which was also hugely energised by the RSS. The BJP could win only 3 seats out of 70 in Delhi. 

      Decency and public ethics require that BJP leaders should have become humble after the defeat, but the opposite happened and all kinds of dirty tricks are being played to harass the Delhi government of Arvind Kejriwal. Any neutral observer would say that the Centre is creating hurdles in the functioning of the Delhi government on one pretext or the other out of vindictiveness. All limits were crossed when the lieutenant governor wrote to officers of Delhi government last week of September not to follow any orders from the chief minister, which they thought were in contravention of Centre’s directive. Who can say that this is not an open encouragement to rebel against an elected government? 

      It is not just the Delhi government which is at the receiving end from such an attitude of the Centre. The experience of several state governments is similar, though the degree of the interference might be varying. The Samajwadi Party last month protested the interference of UP governor Ram Naik who has earned the reputation of making comments, observations and statements which do not match his constitutional high position. Seeing the level of undue interference (he wrote 175 letters to the chief minister in a year raising numerous issues) crossing the limits, party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav requested prime minister Modi to either restrain him or remove him. The situation is so bad that a section within the ruling party in UP demanded to launch a ‘halla-bol’ against him.  

      The behaviour of other governors is also reported to be not much different. 

This is yet another matter that these chief ministers did not turn up in the ‘Chief Ministers Conclave on Cooperative Federalism and Centre-State Relations’ organised by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. Five chief ministers had given their consent to attend the conclave—West Bengal, Bihar, Mizoram, Tripura and Puducherry. Uttarakhand chief minister had responded to the invitation, but chose to stay away, ostensibly due to strong rivalry between the Congress and AAP in Delhi. 

Delhi chief minister Arvind

Kejriwal and Tripura CM Manik 

Sarkar after the chief ministers’ 

conclave on ‘Cooperative 

Federalism and Centre-State 

Relations’ in Delhi

      The Conclave also seen as Arvind Kejriwal’s efforts to emerge as a national leader, as a matter of fact flopped since only two chief ministers turned up and others excused themselves from attending it citing one reason or the other. And out of the two chief ministers, Manik Sarkar of Tripura was counselled by the CPM’s central leadership not to share the dais with Mamata Bannerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal.  Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar did not come as he was involved in the ‘do or die’ kind of electoral battle in his state. Kumar’s letter, however, scathingly accused the Centre of crushing the federal structure by taking unilateral decisions on a number of issues like cutting Centre’s share in several important centre-sponsored schemes without consulting the chief ministers. Nitish reminded, ‘Before elections, BJP used to talk about federal structure but now the behaviour of the Centre is against cooperative federalism’. The Bihar chief minister proposed detailed deliberations among the states after the Bihar polls.

      Mizoram CM Lal Thanhawla of the Congress could not come as the assembly session was to begin, but he sent his views in a letter.  

      Mamata Banerjee stole the who roared like a lioness in the conclave making a convincing case by citing examples how the federal structure of the country was under threat. She accused that the Centre was using CBI, ED and Income Tax Department to bulldoze state governments. She proved her point by citing the case of CBI raids at Himachal Pradesh CM Virbhandra Singh’s residence in connection with a disproportionate assets case. She recounted how the Modi government was breaching the boundary of political ethics and propriety and ‘running down’ constitutional provisions. She told that she was shocked to know that the Bengal governor had written a letter asking for central forces for civic elections in the state. She accused the governor of summoning police chief and other officers to the Raj Bhavan though law and order is state’s prerogative. 

      Kejriwal spoke about how since the Delhi assembly was constituted in 1992 no LG had interfered with chief minister’s decisions. But in his case 30 decisions have been changed. By doing so Centre was not only insulting the democracy but also the judiciary. If I am wrong there are courts to take care, why this interference, he asked. He gave an example how Delhi Police under the Centre chose to remain mute spectator when ESMA was to be implemented during the DTC strike causing innense hardship to millions of commuters on a wroking day.   

      Some political observers feel the attempt to bring together chief ministers of various non-BJP parties at one platform may one day convert into a political alternative to take on the BJP. But this interpretation was vehemently denied by Arvind Kejriwal.

(Note: The article was first published in the Lokayat magazine: October, 2015) 

Sheer Barbarism

The murder of Akhlaq by a crowd of 200-odd villagers on the basis of a beef-eating rumour is a gruesome proof of how vulnerable Indian society has become. This is perhaps the most shocking murder of its kind in the recent memory and naturally got wide publicity even in foreign media in the globalised environment of information flow putting India in a poor light. Many insist to take it as a wakeup call for the countrymen. Certainly, we should not allow this great country to descend into an uncivilised and barbarous banana state where people can take an innocent life like this defying all sense of culture and the law of the land and Constitution.
      Defending the murder as an accident by union minister Mahesh Sharma is all the more shocking. BJP leaders should also think what image they are creating of our great country before the world. A few years ago, the entire world used to marvel at our secular and inclusive culture and politics where the president was a Muslim, the prime minister a Sikh and the president of the ruling party a Christian. Indeed, it was the superb example of sarv dharm sambhava! Globally, intellectuals and leaders used to wonder what is there in India that despite such a plurality of caste, religion and language, there is so much harmony. But what Dadri murder proves now?
      Most people rightly suspect that beef was not the real reason behind the murder. There is a very strong possibility that it was a political conspiracy to fan communal hysteria. In the days of irresponsible social media, it has become all the easier. It is a pity that the modern technology has become handmaiden of the dark-age mentality rather than serving for the betterment and welfare of the society.
       Politicians indeed had tasted blood in the last Lok Sabha elections. They know the instant advantage of such things in terms of political returns. So why will they not try it out again when the most crucial elections after the last Lok Sabha polls are to take place in Bihar? There is great need for certain political interests to polarise electorate and reap the electoral advantage.
      But such sinister methods in politics do not result into good outcome. People should realise that use of religion in politics creates only hatred, bad blood and misery. When politicians are allowed to use religion for their selfish ends, the inherent purpose of religion to create amity and unity among human beings gets lost.
      The redeeming development is that a lot of people have come out in the open to oppose the current attempt of justifying the unfortunate killing for political gains. So far as beef-eating is concerned, some intellectuals have cited ancient Hindu scriptures to establish beyond doubt that even upper caste Hindus and great rishis ate beef in days of yore. Swaminathan Anklesaria Aiyar for one has mentioned Bhavabhuti’s play in this context. Vice-president Hamid Ansari has reminded that article 21 of the Constitution makes it incumbent upon the state to protect the right to life of every citizen irrespective of his or her religion. It speaks poorly of us that our guest at the Republic Day parade, US President Barack Obama had to remind us of this provision of our Constitution.
      And last but not the least, paying huge compensation to the family of Akhlaq is not a solution to tackle the issue; it is like extending help to the saffron fringe elements to roam around and crying of Muslim ‘appeasement’ hoarse polarising voters in Bihar.
(Note: The article was first published in the Lokayat magazine: October, 2015) 

How Safe Our Fashionable Foods!

By Vinod Varshney

Do we remain oblivious of health hazards or we simply are helpless? Both statements are correct. In some matters despite knowing about risks, we ignore them. In some others we find we have no choice. The case of Maggi’s 2 minute noodles is a mix of the two. With growing number of women in jobs finding less time for cooking elaborate meals, such products as 2 minute noodles are a boon. But not just a compulsion always, fast foods are becoming a fad, a passion with growing number of people.

An Endearing Audacity

By Vinod Varshney
Denial is second nature to most leaders of conventional political parties, and   arrogance and condescending behavior towards people their outstanding trait. No wonder the Congress needed humiliating defeat in four states to wake it to the grim reality of its hollow narcissistic claim of mass-appeal, and to make it realise that people take corruption charges seriously.  People also cannot be fooled by circulating insinuations based on fake or doctored tapes and sting operations. Politicians would do well to note that people do not care much about doles; rather, they want good governance, jobs and control over prices.
       It was good to hear Sonia Gandhi talking about the need for deep introspection and Rahul Gandhi mentioning the need to learn from the newbie Aam Aadmi Party (Party of Common Man). This is a welcome sign in the leaders of a party which until the day of counting was smugly arrogant, not even ready to acknowledge the existence of the Aam Aadmi Party or its leader Arvind Kejriwal who was mocked at by the three-time Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit as a monsoon pest.
      Election results in Delhi indeed have shocked the two major national parties and confounded experts who are wont to look at politics in terms of caste, communities and vote banks. The way the one-year-old Aam Admi Party defeated the seemingly invincible Shiela with a margin exceeding the total votes she polled, the Congress Party should seriously think of closing down its dirty tricks department. 
     Many experts say the Aam Aadmi Party indulges in excessive populism. But not many are prepared to applaud its praiseworthy initiative in making election funding totally transparent. The fledgling political outfit put details of all donations received on its website. This is in sharp contrast to the corrupt and competitive politics practiced by others as a business run on the strength of black money.
      Another laudable APP initiative was the method of candidates’ selection in which opinions of the electorate in the constituency were sought and weighed. Preparation of manifesto separately for each constituency was an entirely new experiment. It was necessary to make governance accountable and closer to people’s needs. This method of trying to understand people’s aspirations revealed that lack of drinking water was the biggest problem of more than half of Delhiites. It showed that poor people wanted pure drinking water rather than liquor as price of their votes. By all accounts, therefore, this Delhi election will remain a textbook phenomenon to be studied by political scientists. It may also be a classic example of how power-drunk rulers could miss the mood of the people. Rahul Gandhi might want to present the image of an angry young man in a hurry with rolled-up sleeves wanting to make common cause with  people, but it was the down-to-earth Arvind Kejriwal who really struck an emotional chord with the electorate. Kejriwal’s utterances were direct, incisive and sincere enough to evoke trust and confidence. His narration of netas as chor, corrupt and criminals, half of whom would be behind bars once Jan Lokpal Bill was passed, was met with angry retorts from  leaders of established parties, but his words truly echoed the deep convictions of the voiceless common people.
      His ability to translate new ideas into votes provides the hint that his Delhi model can be replicated elsewhere in the country. Certainly he has succeeded in creating in people a desire for change. At this stage it seems his determination to change the political culture of India is simply audacious because it is in the vice grip of black money, criminals, crony capitalists, communalists and other vested interests.  But this audacity is what endears him to millions of our people.

The Article was first published in the monthly magazine of political affairs, the ' Lokayat' (December, 2013 issue)
 

Why Not Reject One Only!

By Vinod Varshney
The political class does not like to take up issues of electoral reforms seriously though it continues to debate over them at various fora. The reason is simple and straight. Why should politicians tamper with the existing system when it has offered them so much ?
      So far as the latest reform is concerned, the situation became funny when a fait accompli was converted into a deed of conviction in a dramatic manner by Rahul Gandhi for banning convicted elected representatives to retain their membership of the house. The moral of the story is–serious work would only be done by the Supreme Court and the credit must be grabbed by one or several political parties or just an individual. 
     Such dramas of stealing thunder are much needed by the media to remain interesting. They always look for spicy and sensational developments to retain some of its entertainment value amidst a lot of morose happenings. It gives good opportunity for the chattering class also to run their avocation with passion.
However, many politicians might be shuddering at the prospects of more electoral reforms that may befall in their way sooner or later by judicial intervention, hurting their interests even more. They may again have no choice but delay implementation by their peculiar tactics in the name of parliamentary democracy. Ultimately the voice of aam admi would be heard in a vibrant democracy.
     The next bolt from the blue can be the right to reject only an individual candidate during elections. The Supreme Court recently approved voters’ right to reject all the candidates contesting elections if they so wanted by clicking the button—NOTA (None of the above). This is harmless for individual contestants. It will not be able to check election of an undesired candidate as one of the rejected candidates will still be declared elected. Thus the purpose of checking an undesirable candidate cannot be achieved. For this many activists recommend that voters should be given the right to cast a negative vote against a chosen candidate. One will not be surprised if any time soon the Supreme Court gives a verdict of this kind. The hint is already there in the judgement passed on the petition related to rejecting all the candidates.
     Getting a right to reject all candidates is only a cosmetic change in the electoral process and does not fulfil the true desire of people who are frustrated with the way politics is conducted by their elected representatives. Many activists therefore demand a right to cast a negative vote against a chosen individual. Sometimes a winner gets only 15-20 percent of the total votes cast showing that majority of voters were not in favour of the winner. Negative voting against a chosen individual can qualitatively change the electoral chances of contesting candidates. The focus of elections then might be not so much on who should win, but on who should not win at all. But ultimate result would be the election of a clean candidate.


( The Article was first published in the monthly magazine of political affairs the ' Lokayat' (October, 2013 issue) 

Impressions of an Indian Diaspora

By MR Dua

These are the changing faces of India seen through the eyes of a person of Indian origin. He rushes into wrong first impressions, but soon corrects—yes, India has changed, is changing though through  messy, trial and error methods…. Who could say where it was headed…..

Impressed, perhaps deeply influenced by the post-1991 economic boom, many a highly educated and successful Indian youth in the United States of America and other western countries, have returned to their motherland after long absence.

  They thought ‘India was booming, with seductive options and possibilities’, but on closer view, they found that even though it had made fantastic  transformations in every field, its innate environment still needed to go much forward. The so-called economic revolution had effected no significant modification of the ancient Indian society.

  This is the gist of what Akash Kapur relates in this readable volume. Born to an Indian father and American mother, Kapur spent his ‘formative years and early adulthood in the US’. Consumed by a desire to understand the true India and witness its multitudinous faces, he settles down in Auroville, a small salubrious hamlet, near Pudducherry, with his American wife and two young sons.

He chose a spot not far from Chennai where he had been earlier, to be able to move around, make new friends and speak with villagers. And then he started noting the changes that had occurred while he was away. He found that India was definitely shedding the asceticism and austerity that had marked it for far too long, and becoming an acquisitive society.

  But despite the 1991 barrage of radical reforms, Kapur finds pervasive poverty side by side affluence, everywhere. To learn more about the paradox in the social milieu he travels to interior villages and digs into personal lives of some individuals. He meets his boyhood friend, R Sathyanarayanan, or Sathy, who lives in the village Molasur where he owns thousands of acres of land. Sathy’s wife Banushree Reddy, an MBA prefers city life, and stays in Bengaluru with their two children. Kapur learns that dalits are no longer a suppressed section of society.

  The author meets a young IT worker Hari, whose ‘gay’ life in the conservative Indian society flummoxes him. He then runs into a young IT-trained workaholic girl Selvi, who believes that ‘if you rest, you rust.’  Her parents are uneasy about her contacts with boys who might harm her. But she is confident of protecting herself--she will stay ‘faithful to her parents.’

  Kapur also met a highly educated divorcee, Veena, who had gone through an unhappy married life. She was co-habiting with a boyfriend, Arvind. In interaction with the author, she expressed her resolve to stay single, but he (the author) convinced her of the desirability of marrying Arvind whom she liked so much. He accepted his advice but after marriage she became a victim of cancer.    Luckily she was nursed back to health. Once she became a mother, she gave up her highly-paid job to lead a happy married life. 
After his kaleidoscopic experience around Chennai and later in Bangalore, Kapur shifted to Mumbai where he felt that development was being unkind to the city. He was dismayed by the sights of congested neighbourhoods and acute poverty all around in the metropolis.

  He also describes the woeful environment of the world famous Auroville where his own family suffered badly on account of callous dumping of waste in the neighbourhood. ‘India is burning, eroding, melting, drying, silting up and suffocating. Across the country, rivers, lakes and glaciers are disappearing, underground aquifers getting  depleted, air quality declining and beaches being swept away’, he moans.

  On the problem of garbage, Kapur says that a wholesale transformation is required. The way the government worked needs to be changed and education must instill a sense of civic consciousness in children. It was a wonder to him that ‘a population capable of maintaining ritualistic levels of hygiene at home’ dumps ‘its garbage on the streets without any compunction.’

  Finally, love of the country overwhelms him as he concludes: ‘I had returned from America full of enthusiasm. I celebrated what I saw as the rejuvenation of my home. Later, the enthusiasm started eroding; the rejuvenation appeared to be an illusion. My optimism turned to skepticism, occasionally bordering on despair’.  He acknowledged that he had perhaps rushed to judgment. India did not lend itself to easy judgments…modern India was changing…the nation was on a journey, going through the contradictions of a rapid, and inevitably messy, transformation. Who could say where the journey was headed!

( The book review was first published in the monthly magazine of political affairs the ' Lokayat' (April, 2013 issue) 

Save our girls from rapists !

By Vinod Varshney
Rape cases are mounting at an alarming rate. Everybody is rightly concerned about it. Since there is hardly any unanimity about the root causes of this distressing crime hence no consensus on solutions. When feminists protest carrying placards and scream ‘this is our body, we have full rights over it’, they just limit the notion about the magnificent womanhood to their body. This is a mistake: they see and want to be seen themselves only as a body--a sex object--not as someone with a personality, exclusive individuality, dignity, opinion and above all, intelligence. It is sad, even ironic that women activists themselves spread this totally wrong notion.

It is common knowledge that people with a criminal bent of mind, who think they can get anything done by use of force, and easily escape from the clutches of the law, are the ones who indulge in rapes. So, only all-out measures will end rapes. But will it? Odds are great indeed.

In some advanced countries rape is punishable by chemical castration, which is which is nothing but forced medication to control the excess formation of testosterone,the male sex hormone that increases the libido. But feminists in India are against the measure. Rape being a crime of pervert mind and excessive sexual desire, controlling it should start with the mindset. There is a well-known aphorism that sex does not exist between the legs, but in the mind. That means young minds should be helped to develop a balanced mind about sex. However, even a cultured mind can get corrupted by pornography and vulgar novels. These generate an irrepressible obsession about hidden female parts. But there is a strong lobby favouring them.

PIL demanding ban on viewing porn in India 

There is the instance of an advocate who filed a Public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court to ban internet pornography, especially child pornography. But lo, here appeared a spate of articles in the social media against the ban saying that porn is a good thing! A few said it helped sex education. Others thought it released pent up energy which in the case of those who masturbated was probably correct.

Over 20 crore porn videos or clippings are freely available in the net. Two alleged rapists of a 5-year-old child in Delhi admitted that they saw a porn clip before committing the crime.

Few parents are aware of the deleterious effects of porn on their wards. Even if they knew what could they do? The ubiquitous mobile has made it impossible to have any control on porn-viewing, because schoolchildren are routinely provided with mobile phones (or tablets) for the convenience of parents. They do not have time even to check how their children make use of the gadget.

One expected that at least women activists would support the demand for banning pornography, but no; many of them have campaigned against banning it because it curbs the freedom of expression enshrined in the constitution! They say porn is banned nowhere except in Saudi Arabia and China. Some European countries and Iceland have just started debating the pros and cons of banning it. It may be outrageous to make viewing porn a cognizable offence, but at least its availability, especially child porn, on the net should be banned.



 





Note: The article was first published in the monthly magazine 'Lokayat' (May, 2013 issue).

Don’t misuse gang-rape case!

By Vinod Varshney


The simple Delhi gang-rape case is being converted into a cause célèbre by different  interest groups to suit their assorted needs and purposes. Thus social groups, feminist bodies, political parties etc. are out to extract maximum mileage out of it or promote their hobby horse. Media is also using the issue to increase its TRP. In this free-for- all the fear is that the central idea of cutting rape incidents and ensuring justice to victims might get mangled.

May be, there is a spurt in rape cases in recent years, but in fact rape incidents in India are 20 times less than in developed countries. Basically, it is a patent menace in the west. Compared to India’s 1.8 rapes per lakh of population there were 27.3 in the US, 28.8 in the UK, 63 in Sweden and 79.5 in Australia in 2010, according to UN statistics. This fact, however, should not detract us from fighting this crime and shame tooth and nail. But how do we go about it?  We do not agree on many points.
 For instance, feminists demand complete autonomy of female body devoid of all moral and social control. But the next step is dreadful commoditisation of sex! Commoditisation of beauty has already become the norm in globalised society. It leads to free use of  beauty (female body) in ads and direct sales.

Let us look at another point. Deep in the shadow of the glittery world of pubs and discos, is a class of people who struggle hard to eke out a living. Hundreds of millions thus work in inhuman conditions for a pittance. In the Delhi gang-rape case the accused teenager had left his parental home at the age of eleven to earn his livelihood in dhabas and ghettoes. The brutally abusive environment prepared him (we create him) for nothing but a criminal future. No wonder he did not understand the finer divisions of morality, ethics, culture and law. To correct him and his kind, our feminists’ suggestion is to change the mindset of men! Not reforming the system, because that is not easy. We always look for the easy way out.

The focus of debate, therefore, must shift to making punishment more stringent. There also we see no consensus. The Verma panel on the basis of memos received from the public suggested certain concrete measures. But the government always knows best. So, throwing out all inconvenient suggestions of the panel the government hastily prepared an ordinance and asked the President to sign which he obligingly did.

The feminists (and many others) had to reject the ordinance because what they sought was not there. The feminists particularly wanted to outlaw rape within marriage. Many do not agree; inclusion of marital rape in the proposed Bill, they argue, is devoid of even the basic rationale.  If there is rape in marriage, where does marriage fit in? The demand is dangerous to the institution of marriage and will destroy family life as we know.  Unfortunately feminist approach is influenced by dangerous western thinking. It is bound to make more single women  crave for male company and cause more divorces!
The idea of consent for sex in the name of autonomy of female body is preposterous as it is an exercise in commoditisation of sex and an effort to get a tool for blackmailing. The feminists should rather shift their attention to positive values of social development. The attempt to use the gang-rape to distort society norms needs  to be condemned by all.

(Note: The article was first published in the February, 2013 issue of monthly magazine 'Lokayat')

Ominous Footfalls of a Horrific Crime

By Vinod Varshney

Who can oppose the harshest of punishment for a rapist? But making an inhuman law and not having safeguards against its misuse defeat its purpose. The task to eliminate the root causes of crimes against women is as difficult as they are varied. So the lawmakers chose the easy path: to enact a stringent law, more so because it was perceived as vote catching too. All parties barring a few jumped at it. BJP leaders appeared more feminist than feminists themselves in their game of one-upmanship.

Many felt the law was enacted in a hurry, without requite, wider debate. Even when it was debated in the Lok Sabha general apathy was palpably visible in the skimpy attendance and indifferent participation. Many women for whose safety the law was enacted said it was lopsided and discriminatory.

A good law ought to ensure punishment of the guilty and make safeguards against harassment of the innocent. Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan showed the sense to say in parliament that the anti-rape Bill was anti-male and its provisions made men vulnerable to its misuse. Sumitra Mahajan of the BJP also cautioned against its widespread misuse. Sharad Yadav feared that the law could be misused if a love affair ended on the rocks. Women activist Madhu Kishwar pointed out that it was gruesome to make a law according to which having sex meant either marriage or jail for the next 10 to 20 years.

Even consensual sex has been vitiated by gender-bias. After indulging in consensual sex, if a girl changes her mind and does not want to marry, she can just walk away. But the boy, he can be booked as a rapist. If a married couple breaks up, the matter ends in divorce, rather than sending the husband to jail on rape charge; but this cannot be done if a breach occurs during the live-in relationship, or courting.

In short, the law as passed can only create an environment of hostility and suspicion between man and woman. It destroys the mutual attraction between the two sexes—the universal, beautiful gift of nature-- on which the succession of all species depends.

Alas! Many NGOs who not only seek funds from abroad, but also import damaging habit, behaviour and ideas give women only broken marriages, spinsterhood and everlasting bitterness. Today in France many men and women (their number is increasing) do not want to marry: they prefer unromantic live-in relationship to wedded bliss. Even if they marry, two out of three couples end up in divorce.

The situation in the US is worse. There the institution of marriage which normally signifies the union between man and woman has been reduced to a prosaic business contract. They make and break them any number of times. People await with interest the US apex court verdict --likely to come in June-- on same sex marriage. Nine out of 50 states in the US have already recognised same sex marriage. Surprisingly 58 percent of people support it. If we continue to ape the west, the same trend may come to India as well. But where will children come from?

The brutal rape case of December 16 last is indeed pregnant with surprises. One has already come from Mysore University: it has allowed reservation in admissions to rape-victims! Such mindless indulgence can pervert society and induce a woman to declare herself a victim of abuse for the sake of claiming a university seat!! What next is the question.....



Note: The article was first published in the April, 2013 issue
of 'Lokayat' magazine.

Media should declare its business & political interests: Arvind Kejriwal

By Bodhi Shri

Anna Hazare’s historic fast accompanied with mass protest at Ramlila Maidan last year demanding Jan Lokpal as a sure recipe to stem all-pervading corruption in the country and a recent flash protest at India Gate after the Delhi gang-rape case in a moving bus, are two apt Indian examples to illustrate how social media can be used to build and sustain a five star movement. Only condition is that it should be complemented by main stream media especially the 24x7 TV making the protesting mob spectacle sensational. 

Founder of Aam Admi Party Arvind Kejriwal (4th from the left) regaled students of journalism by his side-splitters against corrupt politicians of India. He urged youth to not hate politics, but join it to change India.

The combined blistering heat of social media and TV was earlier felt by despots of the Middle East during the spring revolution it had created. The outcome was a few despots got dethroned. Arvind Kejriwal, a trusted former associate of Anna Hazare, is now experimenting with building a political outfit ‘Aam Admi Party’ to take on the corrupt Indian political system with the help of social media.  He is a craze among students these days.

It was a day of delight and positive stimulus for the students pursuing their 3-year BJMC course at the BLS Institute of Technology Management (Bahadurgarh, Haryana, when they got Kejriwal as the chief guest for their panel discussion on ‘Media as a Catalyst of Society’ on 21 February.  They found him a great regaler who kept them bursting into laughter by his side-splitters against corrupt politicians. At the outset he established his brand-equity by declaring he was an aam adami (common man) like any one of them or anyone in India.

What oppressed the countrymen most, he asked and gave the consensual answer--the corrupt politics, which is controlled by none other, but ‘your’ elected representatives.  He gave statistics of how many of them were facing heinous criminal charges in the courts of law. The highest law making body the Parliament, whose lower house Lok Sabha has 14 members facing charges of murder and 13 other charges of kidnapping. Seeing all this the youth today says—I hate politics. ‘No, this is wrong decision, you should not think like this. You need to participate in politics to change its character.’

Media should declare political and business interests

Sushil Aggarwal, chairman of BLS Education Society (Right) 

He qualified his praise for media as a roller coaster supporter of people’s cause, but most other times it remained blindfolded to the stark reality. He complimented media for taking Anna’s stir to every home, also the issue of women safety in Delhi. By doing so it proved it was with the people. It proved that it can act as catalyst. Even during the emergency in mid seventies it wasn’t neutral, and sided with people. But in general we find today a competition of sensationalism going on among media. Media covered an event only till it had some sensational value. He raised a pertinent question why certain media present certain things in a certain manner. ‘To maintain credibility, the biggest asset of any media, it should declare its business and political interests like how much share the FDI or the Big Business hold in its equity? People should know this. Why there should not be transparency in that.’   

Kejriwal limited his comments to the mainstream media and ignored fast emerging social media that poses a new challenge to the established one. Other panelists, viz. Vinod Varshney Editor of Lokayat, Dhiranjan Malvey OSD in Prasar Bharti, Vinod Arora, Chief Operational Officer of the ministry of information and broadcasting and Ratan Singh of Dainik Bhaskar, together built up a comprehensive picture of the media, including social media.

Dhiranjan explained the economic compulsions of media how without Rs 500 crore one cannot start and run a TV channel successfully with national footprints. He posed a question how anybody can expect media to act as a catalyst when the first worry of the owners remained to see their investment is not sunk. ‘This is a reality that private channels care more for their bottom-line.’ However, the internet media can afford to be free if it wants, as at least there are no such business compulsions involved in running it. Luckily, social media has also started attracting advertisements in good volumes, sometimes more than the conventional media, he informed.

FDI in media changed its character

Vinod Varshney emphasised that the character of Indian media got changed drastically since the FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) was allowed in media. He gave inkling of the times when the debate was raging whether to allow FDI or not in media. Many argued against allowing this as it would ruin the culture and value system of the country and media would become an agent to promote the western values, political and business interests. But a section, desperate as it was, not being able to compete with the monopoly national media, pressed for it. And now see the result--media is getting more and more attuned to western concerns, interests and values. 

It is promoting a consumerist culture which serves the business interests of the companies who produce related goods and services. To hook the rest of India fake sensationalism is offered. The media thus lately is becoming more and more damaging to the desirable values of liberalism, social welfare and concerns of masses.

Big corporate advertisers have over-controlled the media and as such the media does not remain a catalyst for the positive development of the society. This apart, the poor working conditions, including job security, is also taking its toll on the Indian media. The control of the editor on the editorial policy and content is now thing of the past. It is the business boss who decides what is good for the company as every quarter it looks forward to declaring growth in profits if it is a stock exchange listed company.  

Consumerist culture is being propagated to the loss of inclusive human culture which alone can cater to the general development and welfare of the society. He slammed journalist fraternity for not caring to go deeper into issues and develop sound understanding of them. Alibi that people want sensational stuff so only that should be offered, has become the rule. He urged the students to develop rational thinking and scientific outlook so that they can bust myths and not swayed by propaganda of various interest groups.

He termed social media more dynamic and more democratic, however many say that large part of it is propagandist. This media is being used mainly by various interest groups.

Vinod Arora gave a detailed history of how media developed and grew. Ratan Singh of Dainik Bhaskar told from his personal experience how difficult it was to get revealing stories published if they go against the business interests of the owners. Students of journalism may remain idealist till they are in the class room, but the missionary zeal gets evaporated soon once they join a media organisation as they have to invest all their energy to protect their jobs.

India Needs Millions Like Him

Jagdish Charan Varshney who believed in Karma

By Vinod Varshney

No need to always look for great men and women from history to seek inspiration. There are always a few living examples around us whose lives, behaviour and ideals are worth emulating. We only need to keep our eyes open and mind receptive. When I look back to the days when I was a teenager I find there were indeed a few people whose life secretly inspired me at a crucial formative age by their remarkable strength of character, tenacity of purpose, courage of conviction and scholarship.

One such mundane soul was Jagdish Charan Varshney, who used to live at a distance of some 300 meters from our home. My father had a tendency of telling about people who had some remarkable achievements in any field as an example for us to follow. His range used to be very wide---from national heroes to the people at the next door. 

He mentioned several times how Jagdish Charan Varshney belonged to a very small village Khera bereft of any educational facilities, yet by his sheer hard work and perseverance he became a lecturer in Shree Varshney College, Aligarh. It will not be out of place to tell that my father Late Jai Narain Varshney was the first member of the community in Aligarh district to earn an M Sc degree and one of the four founders of Shri Varshney College and a freedom fighter who remained behind the bars during British period for his activities in the national freedom movement. He temperamentally had great affection for young folks who were pursuing higher education. 

Jagdish Charan hailed from a family of modest means in an extremely backward rural area in district Etah. He must definitely have been inspired by some people in the society that triggered a fascination in him for education. This is evident the way he continued to improve his educational qualification even while earning by giving personal tuition to students to meet expenditure of his own education. 

To give a sense of that period I must tell when the country acquired independence, Jagdish Charan was a lad of 13 years and educational facilities even up to high school were not available in most villages of the country, including his own village Khera near Vasundhara of Etah district. Average literacy rate in the country was just 12 percent, it must have been much less in UP. Barahseni Mahasabha, like many other community organisations, began efforts to start its own educational institutes by collecting donations to meet growing educational needs of the youth in the society. 

Leaders of the Varshney community during that period had campaigned vigorously to motivate youths to acquire higher education.  If Varshney community today has a better percentage of  people with higher education than other communities of the area, the credit must  go to the foresight and efforts of social leaders  of that time.  Jagdish Charan can be seen as one of just few hundred young men in the Varshney community who during those days went out of their villages to seek education.  Even to seek High School level education he had to go to Hathras, a city known to be more prosperous than Aligarh during that time. It may be difficult for the present youths to comprehend the arduous journey the  older generations had to undertake even to see the gate of a college, much less a university. Today even remote villages sport English medium schools.  

So even as he took up a teaching job in a small school to earn some money,  he chose to do his B Com as a private student from Agra University. Realising the need to improve his employability, simultaneously he pursued LT course (Licentiate in Teaching)-- equivalent to B Ed today. Later, while he was still a teacher at the Inter College at Bakewar (Etawah), he acquired M Com degree also from Agra University (now called Bhimrao Ambedkar University).  He got first division in M Com, a laudable achievement, considering the conditions in which he slogged then. 

But he was rewarded handsomely for all his pains. At the age of 27 he landed a lectureship in Shri Varshney College to teach graduate students. During his long tenure in the department of commerce in the college he earned universal respect from students and colleagues alike for his penchant to put across difficult concepts  of commerce in easily absorbable form and to make learning of prosaic subjects like accounting a great deal interesting. 

Jagdish Charan was blessed with five daughters and two sons, and for each one of them he wanted to ensure good education. But, for an honest person like him there was no other way to generate resources than by devoting his leisure time to give tuitions to weak but aspiring students. So when he was offered a chance to become the head & professor of the commerce department of the college, he refused it on the ground that he wanted to continue with tuitions as a necessity without which he would be unable to meet his familial obligations. 

He retired from the post of Reader in 1994, but students continued to throng his residence for guidance and personal coaching.  Looking around Aligarh today, one can easily find hundreds of CAs who have benefited from his unusual gift of commitment to teaching. He wrote two books---‘Cost Accounting for B.Com’ and ‘Advanced Accounting for B.Com’.  

He was a man of firm political views and as disenchanted with the present ‘loot and grab’ political system as any sensible person of the country. Clarity of opinion and its sharp articulation was his quality. But he had no inclination or time to get involved in any political work. 

This posed a challenge before him to continue his highly work-packed life. But his disciplined life style--going for a long walk in the morning, doing exercises including Yoga and taking meals at the appointed time helped him continue his vigourous routine till the last day when he was only eight days short of 80 years.

On the extremely chilly Christmas morning of 2012 he succumbed  to hypothermia when he went out for a brisk walk as usual and  to procure milk  for the family-- an unfailing routine— from a buffalo-owner in Pala village on the outskirts of Aligarh city.  His students came as usual at 8.30 am for tuition only to be told that he was no more.

His story needs to be told as it is because of people like him that the society in spite of all around degradation still retains some strength of character. He showed by his own life that even with modest beginnings through perseverance one can do reasonably well and acquire all material comforts which a decent middle class life style may aspire. In these days of corruption seeped deep in the social fabric of the country, ideals of discipline, study, hard work and honesty needs to told repeatedly and followed by everybody. 

If each and every individual follows these norms of conduct then the society would definitely improve. If I could also do reasonably well and became national chief of news bureau of Hindustan and later editor of a monthly magazine Lokayat in spite of having a lowly beginning, much credit goes to people like Jagdish Charan Varshney whose lives were the nearest examples to follow in hard times.