Independence, Everyday

A few weeks ago I was in Delhi, trying to get on the Metro, and I couldn't.

Why? Because of NEET protests. 

A lot of activists, some students, angry, blocking gates that are usually the most reliable thing in this city. I stood outside Rajiv Chowk for nearly ninety minutes, and I had time to think - which is rare in Delhi, where I am usually too busy avoiding bumping (a real – physical bump) into strangers on public transport.

I haven't written on this blog in nine years. The last time I did, it was also August, also around Independence Day, and I was writing about what makes a civilization call itself a nation. I don't know why I stopped writing. Maybe I got busy being Indian instead of writing about it.

But standing outside that gate, watching protesters, activists, and students who were protesting for the resignation of the federal minister, and a fair exam, I kept thinking about Vikshit Bharat 2047. We have twenty-one years left to arrive somewhere. 

Arrive where, I am not entirely sure anyone has told me clearly.

My father once explained money to me using four letters: R, I, P, E. Rich is when Income is more than Expenditure. I think Vikas might work the same way, except I'm still working out what the Income and Expenditure of a nation really are. GDP, maybe, is just one column. Trust might be another. I don't think we've been keeping a full ledger.

Which brings me to what troubles me most this Independence Day - our fault lines. 

Caste, region, religion, language, class. I don't believe these cracks are proof that something is broken. Every old structure has them; age itself leaves fissures. The oldest civilisation on Earth was bound to. The question is not whether cracks exist, but what we do at the crack.

Those NEET protesters, standing at the gate I couldn't access, were one such crack. Not my enemy. Not, I suspect, of the government's either, even if it felt that way on TV screens around the world.

Democracy is a tool - like a wheel, morally neutral. It can carry a civilization forward, or it can be wedged into a crack and hammered to widen it for short-term gain. I have watched both used, by many hands, over many years. I will not name them here - that is not the point. The method is the problem, not the player. 

A democracy that keeps discovering new wedges is not competing; it is quarrying its own foundation.

What holds a crack shut is not paint, applied fresh each election cycle. It is mortar - something older than any party, older even than 1947. 

Ours is a civilization identity: karma, tolerance, the discipline of questioning our own beliefs before we question anyone else's. Paint can be reapplied by whoever holds the brush. Mortar cannot be so easily replaced.

We often speak of Gen Z inheriting Vikasit Bharat. I want to speak of Gen Y - the Yuva governing, building, and voting today. The Gen Y is not tied to a year of birth.

The test for this generation isn't ideological purity, age, a persona, or a pattern that the market wants to understand. 

It is simpler, and harder: did you leave the civilization more whole than you found it?

Because independence was never meant to be a date on the calendar. It is a daily audit - are we sovereign, today, in our data, our medicine, our thinking? 

Vikas without sovereignty is just borrowed prosperity with better packaging.

2047 should not be the year we arrive. It should be the year we finally set our own coordinates.

I stood at that Metro gate for nearly two hours, and nobody around me stopped being Indian!

15 August 1947 : When a civilisation became a nation

I am born of Sri. and Smt. Jha, both from Bihar.

Both were raised in what I call the ‘Golden India’ - my parents studied in public schools, with the quality of education and integrity of teachers that rivals that of modern Nordic nations. They were trained in handlooms, gardening, science, mysticism, and humanities with equal ease. Moreover, they had kids from all classes and creed share their classroom with a sense of oblivion.

By the time I was ready to go to school, the public schools had started rotting, and my parents got me into convent schools - so that I would learn English, get a stable job, find a wife, raise kids and live normally! If someone would have asked me when I was 10, “Who are you?” - I would have muttered, “Prashant”, “Indian”, “Son of Mr. and Mrs. Jha” or “Boy”. My identity was based on my chosen noun, country, parents or gender.

Now in my mid thirties, at footsteps of mid-age, my identity is smudged!

Am I a resident of this planet, domicile of Delhi, a descendant of Biharies or citizen of India?
Probably all! As I have lived and worked across a dozen countries across Europe, Americas, Orient, Australia and South Asia - the national identity of being Indian is what most of my colleagues identify me with.

Often, it makes me think what is India.
The morning of 71st Independence day of India is probably a great time to meditate on what is India.

To me, India is one of the boldest experiment in the human civilization. Millions of people, with mind-numbing differences, embracing the idea of equality is India. I have traveled to over 100 districts in India (yes, that is off by bucket list) and I have seen more differences than similarities.

I have been intrigued about what do people from Patan and Patna have in common to be identified as Indians. It seems I know now.

Our spirituality - our belief in Good Karma, Cosmic Justice, Tolerance and Openness to Self-doubt, Questioning our beliefs to shape a new one.

Despite different skin tones, diet, deities, we are unified by a common civilization. Not by political parties, leaders, religion, language, wars or common enemies. Yes, they all have played a role in shaping our civilization but none of them have been more profound than our way of thinking and our way of life.

As I meditate more, it appears that 15 August 1947 was a significant day in the history of Mother Earth because one of it's oldest civilisation that embodied a collective way of life of millions of people(and now over a billion) got a new identity - India.

Let us celebrate what is common and enjoy our differences.

Happy Independence Day India!
I am proud to be born in the land of hope, humanism, and spirituality.

Upgrading the Anti-Defection Law - putting a tube on the neolithic wheel !

Electoral reforms:

One of the most striking inventions that set humanity in motion was a wheel. But we would have been stuck if we chose to stay with the wobbly, donught-shaped discs of stone that jumped & bumped. 

So, how did we move on and gain speed ? By making it smoother, reducing weight by adding spokes and reducing bumpiness by putting a pneumatic tube on the circumference.

When a product was made - it was done by a creative empathiser who operated out of his box of empathy towards the world. But why is that the product did not remain useful forever. If product is an answer to a problem, the product would lose value as the problem itself will change. 

Imagine using the neolithic wheel on a freeway! 

Similarly when rules are made - they are made for a certain time with contextual empathy.

That is a fairly long explanation to come to the point of electoral reforms.

When India became a country and our forefather wrote our constitution, they did a great job with contextual empathy. They foresaw problems, but it would be unfair to expect them to foresee things as they would shape after five or six decades.

Let us look at elections: the party with simple majority gets the invite from the Governor to form the government. That is simple. But it became complicated as fractured mandates started appearing. Then came the ‘fair norm’ of ‘Single Largest Party’. This led to the concept of Common Minimum Program. This has led to another problem - blackmailing by smaller parties to keep the bigger parties in power. Common Minimum Program conveniently shapes as Common Maximum Plunder under disconnected coalitions.

What if the rules of ‘horse trading’ apply on the pre-/post- election coalitions. I know this is not very clear. Let me try to explain. 

Case example: In Goa there 40 MLA. A simple majority means that the government must have the support of 21 candidates. But the common minimum program once enacted would keep the CM on toes as he can face the black-mail by the smaller parties - who could conveniently switch to join a potential Congress government.

Is there a solution to this trouble ? What if the anti-defection law would apply to not a party but the group in power. This would mean that a smaller party can’t evade anti-defection law just because it has three members. Instead the group size must be 1/3 rd of the group of MLAs (i.e. 7). Hence to bring down a coalition government there must be exit of at least a third of MLAs from the coalition.

This would bring down instability in a multi-party system. Any takers ?

I hope we can upgrade the 52nd Amendment, 1985. Using a neolithic wheel on an Expressway ? Maybe put a pneumatic tube on it.

Open letter to Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal and other e-commerce platforms!

Dear Jeff, Binny Bansal and Kunal Bahl : Congratulations on boosting consumerism this festival season in India. Congratulations for managing logistics of galactic scales and for spreading joy, promoting happiness and creating jobs.

I must admit that you have changed our world. Over a decade ago it was almost aspirational for a resident of a tier II or III city in India to get the latest laptop/mobile/camera locally. One had to wait for availability in the local shops or worse still had to wait for someone to go to Delhi, Bombay or Bangalore.

But, this festive season, I wanted to give Chinese goods a miss!

How can I send a part of my hard earned money to a country that blatantly supports terrorists and Pakistan's attempts to wipe off the planet's oldest civilisation.

Being an online marketplace that has the ability to help buyers make choices - it would be nice if you gave us a choice to know. To know where a product listed on your platform was made.

I request all of you to implement a simple identifier on your platform that helps us (the ordinary buyers) quickly identify the country of origin for a product. I think that is anyway a right for the customer.

I hope you will implement it soon - if not for patriotism but for at least the consumer rights !