Oh Bihar! My Bihar! I am ashamed of you

July 23, 2010                                                                                                                                            

It is not easy for a blogger/journalist to eat his own words. But there are certain earth shattering moments when you are failed by your convictions; when your optimism falls flat in the wake of harsh realities; and when your role models ditch your trust. The obvious choice is then left between justifying your perception & assumptions to defend your ego and an honest acceptance about error of judgment.
Within a week of my last blog post on “Bihar elections and Barack Obama effect” where I had expressed pride and optimism about the state politics transforming into techno zone and opting for an inclusive dialogue with the common man through social media tools, ruckus in the state assembly has yet again shattered my faith. The world will notice the hooliganism in Bihar Assembly through the prism of collective consciousness about the state and its politics over the years. 
However, a common man from the state and a writer in me hangs his head with shame for being optimistic about the state after a spate of development and seemingly sophistication on various social media sites. “Oh Bihar! My Bihar! I am ashamed of you” is a result of this frustration with the collective failure of the Bihar legislature where all the political parties have been an active participant in turning the elected House into a den of street fighters and goondas.
Had it been the act of a few opposition members in the House, my reaction would not have been that strong. But on July 20, 2010 the entire bunch of elected representatives in the Bihar Assembly seemed to have vowed for callous disregard of every norm of civilized behavior in politics. I had earlier witnessed one such unruly incident in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly in the year 1998. While I still remember my story “Constitutional climax in UP with opposition’s Governor”, I personally feel there was no such compelling politics in Bihar Assembly now to bring democracy to this low.
Though the outrage on the democratic process can not be justified in any given situation, what had happened in Uttar Pradesh had a much larger stake in retrospect. It was the question of survival for Governor Romesh Bhandai himself, Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, coup Chief Minister for nine hours Jagdambika Pal and Mulayam Singh Yadav. I wonder was there any such situation in Bihar at the moment. The drama that continued in the House till next day clearly reflect that it was not even heat-of-the-moment kind of situation.
In Uttar Pradesh the BJP had then taken a moral high ground following the Allahabad High Court intervention. However, the same party in the ruling alliance in Bihar has a lot to answer now since the responsibility for the floor management in the House rests with the ruling alliance. But when your own legislators are part of the fighting hooligans where is the question of any moral high ground? Probably the BJP, being on the other side of the fence in parliament, should have by now learnt the art of floor management with their own conduct. Whenever their MP’s slogan shouting creates ruckus in the parliament the Lok Sabha speaker has time and again adjourned the House to prevent further ignominy to the House. 
The ruling party JD(U) is even bigger a guilty here and adding insult to the injury for the Bihar in general and democratic institutions in particular has been the statement of JD(U) national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP, Shivanand Tiwari. In an explicit display of no remorse for the damage done to the state and its democratic institution he defended the act by saying that this has not only happened in other states, but it happens across the world in democratic countries. It seems he is still carrying the baggage of his background with Laloo Yadav in RJD.
Nitish Kumar has over the last around four years quite successfully done the balancing act of turning his critics into admirers. However, he failed to rise on this occasion and came out of the House smiling, just dismissing the whole vandalism as the desperate act of opposition. The young lot of Bihari voters who sees in him dynamism and turnaround capabilities was expecting the Chief Minister to be the first one to condemn the legislators cutting across the party lines. He, however, was busy calculating the whole incident in terms of gains and losses in the forthcoming elections.
The Congress has to do a lot of introspection if they are looking forward to emerge as the first choice of youth in the state under the charisma of Rahul Gandhi. They seem to be making the same mistakes that created the crop of Laloos, Paswans and Nitish in the state. Of course, if a woman legislator was manhandled in the House, it needs to be condemned. But resorting to undemocratic norms and creating histrionics like the one Jyoti Devi displayed, reflects an ill designed method in her madness. There are much better democratic and civilized ways to protest, get noticed and emerge as better Brand Ambassadors of Bihar politics.
Laloo Yadav seems to be living in his own time zone that derailed Bihar from every possible Human Development Index. Crowded by fly-by-night alliances like the LJP of Ramvilas Paswan, he fails to see the larger picture emerging out of the state. It is no longer politics of poverty and deprivation with symbolic empowerment to few that he can continue with. He needs to understand that he has to replicate his performance of Union Railway Ministry and not his previous stint of Chief Ministership where lawlessness ruled the roost.
But the biggest culprit has been the Speaker of the House Uday Narayan Chowdhary for letting this bedlam happen. He failed to protect the integrity of the Chair and instead became a spokesperson of the ruling alliance. His stand that interference by any constitutional body or a statutory body in the functioning of the Assembly, its Public Accounts Committee or any other legislative committee would constitute a breach of privilege of the House, not only sets the Bihar legislature on the course of possible confrontation with the judiciary but also sets a wrong precedent in shielding the guilty and prosecuting future governments in office against scam. 
It is debatable at the moment whether or not the Patna High Court order asking for a CBI enquiry into the alleged bungling of funds to the tune of Rs 11000 crore between 2002 and 2008 amounts to scam. And if it is scam, Rabri Devi led RJD Government has to answer as much as the Nitish Kumar Government. If BJP will have to explain being a coalition partner in Nitish Government, Congress will have to as much explain for its support to RJD Government.
The question here is if the guilty of yet-to-surface scam are all or none, then who is the beneficiary of bedlam in the Bihar Assembly? Has any political party came out with the moral high ground for whatsoever reasons? If the answer is none then what was the high voltage media show all about?
Should we assume that all the political parties were hands-in-glove in diverting the attention of the voters from the real issues? May be all the parties were carrying home the point with their own set of calculations that a House ruckus at this point of time would benefit them.  It is difficult to point out which of the above two assumptions are more dangerous for the civilized Bihar, but the elected representatives have definitely put their electorates head hang in shame who are left with no choice but to so…..”Oh Bihar! My Bihar! I am ashamed of you.

Bihar elections and Barack Obama effect

July 16, 2006

Can Bihar, predominantly seen as one of the most underdeveloped states of India in collective consciousness replicate Barack Obama’s model? I understand the question itself will be seen as cynicism but wait. Give it a thought and there will appear some parallel in these two different poles on various given parameters of governance, development and overall human development index. My assessment, or rather I should say optimism is not based on the phenomenal and unbelievable growth rate of Bihar in times of global recession. Of course, the GDP projection of 11 per cent by an eminent economist and 16.5 per cent by the Central Statistics office would definitely be a cause of envy even to the world’s super power in America.
However, my above assumption is not based on the reports of Bihar revival by the now unquestionable turnaround man in the Chief Minster Nitish Kumar. What has actually surprised me is the sheer presence of the state, its governance and its politics on social networking sites like the Facebook and Twitter. When the Economist magazine analyzed how politicians around the world from Venezuela to Japan and from Greece to Chile are using social media tools to get out their messages to constituents and voters, they had actually no idea about the penetration of the medium further deep.
Considering that LinkedIn was established in 2003, Facebook in 2004 and Twitter in 2006, it no doubt seems to be a fast forward march by the politicians of the state. With some of them without any background in the formal university level education, it is all the more surprising that they are adapting and accelerating quicker and faster medium for political dialogue.
In a way it spells good for democratic institutions in Bihar where wide engagement combines with open sharing of information. It is clearly an issue, as social recommendation becomes bigger the challenge is to engage individuals deeply enough that they will escalate from passive viewer to active participant. Most of the Bihar centric discussion revolves around the performance of Nitish Kumar government and the forthcoming elections. By extension this also applies to those who aim to unseat him.
My Facebook wall is generally full of heated discussions on Bihar elections nowadays. What seems to be the result of the vocal nature of Biharis in general and educated and migrated non resident Biharis in particular is actually more than what meets the eyes. It is not that only the educated Biharis who have migrated to metropolitan cities for a decent living are the ones who are demand drivers of Bihar debate. The young lot in the state with limited access to electricity and even lesser access to internet are as much active on these sites as their non resident counterparts. 
The question as to why development in the backdrop of politics and elections are the only issues to be discussed automatically comes into the mind. Perhaps the answer lies in the restlessness of the youth in the state, which had for around a couple of decades been clueless, have suddenly found a medium to air their grievances. Many politicians from the state too have sensed this transformation and want the first-movers-advantage in the cyber space networking.
The moot point here is that whether it is a natural progression of the state into technology zone or the political parties have taken this first-movers-advantage a bit too seriously. On the basis of Facebook and Twitter discussion Prima Facie it seems a carefully crafted social media campaign has been launched by at least two parties (JD (U) and BJP) in power, with Congress social media campaign racing up along the charisma of Rahul Gandhi, while the other two players (RJD and LJP) seem to be clueless as to what is this hype all about.
My assumption, however, proved to be wrong when some more searches found the presence of even Laloo yadav and Ramvilas Paswan on the Facebook. Not only this, individual ministers and MLAs in the state with relatively less exposure to the technology and global obsession with social networking too have got their own website done, with some of them adding dynamic features. It seems everybody is omnipresent on various social networking sites; even the illiterate ones too have social media managers for shadow boxing.
Easy to dismiss, but less easy to master; the mantra of social media is perhaps yet to come of age in Bihar politics. But its growing influence and ubiquity, particularly among younger voters, cannot be ignored. The complications of this new reality are that 18- to 24-year-olds are not prepared to consume political messages passively. The catalysts to this transformation have been the mainstream media that are largely into the mode of broadcast and not conversation.
The 2010 Bihar campaign can prove to be India’s first true social media electoral cycle, if the momentum picks up and reflects some tangible vote swing. Whether the JD (U) uses these tools to their maximum advantage or whether the BJP or Congress figure out how to employ social media to explain incumbent policies and rally their base will be analyzed in-depth following the November elections. It may not prove to be India’s first true internet campaign, won and lost Obama-style, Bihar elections nonetheless have a distinct Barack Obama effect this time around. 

Fashion catastrophe & media ethics

July 6, 2010

After writing a number of articles on the TV news channels’ mindless programming right from ghost chase to heaven chase, nowadays I prefer to keep my lazy Sundays off news channels. Even though some of the programmes on news channels are more of an entertainment beating even Bollywood flicks, my personal choice is Hollywood movies for the weekend. This Sunday, however, could not help getting hooked on NDTV India in the course of the channel surfing. It was Pankaj Pachauri’s show that kept me glued for a very specific reason.
The discussion that centered on the suicide of the model Viveka Babajee was allowed to not only discuss the business of fashion in its entirety, but the panelists and audience were even allowed to be critical of the role played by the “Media”. It is not that such media bashing has not happened in the past during TV shows. It happens off and on when the anchor loses control over the show and some of the smart panelists take charge of the content.
However, on this show anchor in Pankaj Pachauri was in complete control of the programme, often himself satirically introspecting with tongue-in-cheek statements like “when a fashion icon commits suicide it is news, and four suicides a day by the farmers across the country is not newsy”. It was a rare self introspection by the TV channel when the media was allowed to be criticized and one panelist went to the extent of calling the show as a “Pink Shiphon Condolence”.  I wonder how many TV news channels will take a leaf out of such bold and candid shows. 
I have always felt that the media perception of Fashion has been very flawed and superficial. Their understanding of a business worth more than Rs. 12,000 crores is confined to the size zero models, ramp walks and designer clothes. However, facts suggest more than what meets the eyes in the business of fashion. As per a study the business of fashion, or to give it more inclusive parameter “wellness” is not all about cat walk and designer clothes. Even though we don’t take into account a number of skilled and semi-skilled workforce that make such shows a big hit, the business statistics suggest a much bigger market beyond ramp walk. Needless to say, this also suggests that media must do more research before they assume themselves as authority on the subject.
As per the sales figure, the number one driving force behind the business of fashion and wellness is the beauty products for men, yes you read it right it is for men and not women. The much-hyped designer clothes come to the bottom of the fashion pyramid in terms of business. How many times the media has given space on the serious nature of the business of fashion? I blame print media more than their TV counterparts for this flawed vision of business. Fashion industry like any other industry is a serious business and demands a whole lot of hard work.  Beyond hard work the nature of the business suggests that the aspirants need even more stroke of luck to succeed.
Unfortunately, this side of gloomy picture is rarely reported and never given a Page 1 space. The PYT pix and juicy masaala and rumours are the staple diet of Page 3 and city supplements. Added to this, a few Miss India and Miss World fuels the fire and every small town girl aspires to become the “Next Big Thing”. Since many of them are not conditioned to cope up with the failure in life after a heavy dose of glamour, the absence of emotional infrastructure leads to the incidents like the suicide of Viveka.
If the industry of fashion and MNCs making beauty products and advertising an unrealistic aspirational world are to be blamed for this, media is even more to be blamed. This is because it is the media which is not just the vehicle but the catalyst in most of the cases. However, till the time the editors will have the shameless defense of “we show it as it is” or “we sell what market asks for” things will remain the same. The irony of the business of media today is that the very same editor, who sends PYTs with size zero with high heels but no knowledge of fashion to cover Page 3 parties, is also part of the routine “Pink Shiphon Condolences”. No wonder, while a wardrobe malfunction gets Page 1 coverage, fashion catastrophe keeps crying for some media ethics.