The Indian political environment has got expectedly sullied with pedestrian games , petty mud-slinging and almost downright filthy accusations flying around like nasty gad-flies. A sense of déjà vu , but, of course, it is the general elections of the world’s largest democracy, so the colourful cacophony should have been expected.

In the circumstances, it is best to summarise the pivotal issues in this summer of rising discontent:

1) Varun Gandhi has become the ultimate in the boomerang effect for the BJP. They thought they had acquired a powerful salvo against the Congress by usurping the disaffected family member from the famous clan, but the young man’s verbal shenanigans have instead put BJP in a Catch-22 dock. Notice the conspicuous silence of LKA; the frown on his forehead is a sign that the crown is getting fast elusive. With the defiant BJP stubbornly insisting on fielding the unrepentant Varun Gandhi, the message from the BJP to the people of this country is clear; hate is in, reason , tolerance, dialogue and decency can go for a long trek to the Himalayas. It’s a scary proposition, and if you hear the BJP spokespeople on the TV channels use their classic rationalization spiel, it is downright guttural. The BJP looks like whimpering to the runner-up position on an amputated leg and preparing it’s regret and conceding-defeat speech already.

2) Manmohan Singh is back and how! Clearly sufficiently recuperated after the heart surgery, the affable Sardar went on a premeditated rampage against his arch-foe Advani. It took the former central banker and Indian liberalisation -hero to speak home truths; what exactly has LKA done to even remotely believe he is PM-material, besides supervising with kinetic precision the destruction of the Babri Masjid, a moment of great national shame in India, perpetrated in broad daylight by post Independence inheritors of the British policy of ” divide and rule”— the BJP. Not to mention the fleeting amnesia that hit Advani about the Kandahar hijack. And those lachrymose tear-ducts that flowed on national television when LKA was busy doing a road-show for his book promo.

3) I wonder why no one from the esteemed media has asked Mr Prakash Karat, the milk of pure patriotism, as to how does he support Mayawati as PM when she has a BSP team of potential MPs where the confirmed criminal sort with police records outnumber the not-so-deadly charge- sheeters? Mr Karat, will you please pick up your Tata Indicom mobile phone , please???

4) My driver of 15 years who hails from UP had a simple question to ask of Mayawati- Maam; “What have you done for UP besides self-aggarandisement to even contemplate running the gaddi from Delhi? We will wait till Chanakya Mishraji drafts a politically appropriate response.

5) Will someone please tell Arun Jaitley that it does not hurt to crack a smile, even if it is as infrequent as his appearance in book-launches where he does show a partially-sunny disposition. . Jaitley looks so self-consumed with his own practiced to perfection verbosity as a veteran lawyer that even his occasional witty sarcasm looks as if it has a manufacturing date printed on it. Ease down, Jaitley, as given today’s bleak times, his grumpy-growling expression only adds to the spectre of hopelessness.

6) The political angle to the BCCI-IPL tussle against the government and Home Minister PC now stands totally exposed. The BCCI President Shashank Manohar’s father, an eminent jurist from Nagpur has been openly advocating support for the BJP cause. And by now even the sea lions in Antarctica know about the close proximity between Commissioner Lalit Modi and the former BJP government in Rajasthan. Therefore, was it any surprise that Manohar used the IPL , a corporate cricket circus, to further the cause of the saffron brigade, by twisting facts and indulging in shameless mendacity? If the BJP has to use the IPL as a platform to arouse voters by misleading them, then I think the Friends of BJP are clearly not giving them “friendly” advice. This is not just frenetic desperation , it is juvenile self-delusions.

7) Whatever Laloo Yadav may have done to the Congress, the fact is that the charming rustic with an extraordinary penchant for self-deprecation when it comes to buffoonish humour, will finally return to UPA , as he has a great rapport with Mrs Sonia Gandhi. But the Congress will have to quickly work on a long-term plan for reviving Bihar, post the national elections to recapture it’s pristine glories, now lying submerged in the rising crescendo of coalition and caste politics.

8) One particular TV channel has almost as many guest-panelists as a circle would absorb, and the poor show-anchor spends more time just muttering names of the voluble characters as he tries to restrain their hyperboles, even as they indulge in a free-for-all to justify their prime-time presence. Less is more, guys, spruce up—that is a sign of the times !

“Varun Gandhi’s seedy Pilibhit speech is not doctored stuff”, said a disgruntled Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, BJP MP, indignant that a professorial badge was being bestowed on it.

First, let’s give credit where it is deservedly due. Mr Sudheendra Kulkarni, the BJP spokesman and PM-aspirant LK Advani’s electoral strategist, usually does his homework with thorough conscientiousness. Unlike some of his famous colleagues from the saffron brigade ( who look like mouthing practiced obeisance to their great cause ) , he looks genuinely soaked in his party ideology and the big boss. Although Kulkarni possesses the same zealous over-load that frequently makes Arun Jaitley resemble a snorting bull aimlessly banging his own head against the wall , Kulkarni normally makes an effective pitch for his rather confused party. He makes for a combative contestant that you must respect even if you find him rather insufferably self-indulgent.

But yesterday, during a nationally televised election debate ( which was far more entertaining than the rain-truncated and lights-failure curtailed IPL circus in South Africa, ) Kulkarni went clearly overboard. Or made a tactical lapse. Or maybe even deliberately put on shelf for display like a Nano promotional event , the BJPs “intrinsic communalism” on a public platform. Kulkarni, while defending BJP’s controversial five year reign under the Atal Behari Vajpayee government , termed the Godhra genocide under Gujarat CM Narendra Modi as a mere “ aberration”. He sounded business-like and matter of fact, so we must believe him with a sincere nod of our heads. Which brings us to the central election point; how does Mr Advani really hope to lead a country which comprises of 145 million Muslims who chose to live in India in 1947 as our own citizens, a country which is on the fast trajectory to global growth of enviable scale , if his political outfit believes that blatantly killing over 2000 people in a ruthless massacre was just an “ incidental error”; in essence, justifying the inevitability of mass slaughter? Comeuppance, in short. It sounds extraordinarily callous, devoid of any moral compunction, and seeped in indescribable vehemence and hate. It makes no other logical sense. Advani scores zero points as a national leader for his calculated subterfuge on Guajrat. It is reflective of his cosmetic utterances on all-things secular. Can India really trust Advani becomes germane in the light of his several indiscretions, the convenient amnesia about the terrorist’s release during the Kandahar hijack reaching a ridiculous low-point, almost shockingly bizarre for a man whose political aspirations far exceed the muscles on his biceps, clearly.

I think Mr Advani has not understood the plot. As for Kulkarni and the BJP , they are making a complete mockery of themselves by this needless posturing on a televised debate with PM Manmohan Singh, a la US Presidential kind. But first, can Mr Advani and Mr Kulkarni get Mr Modi a tourist visa from the US government , please????? Surprisingly, Kulkarni kept quoting different outstation foreign sources during the program, which appeared trite, trivial and tenuous.

What really hits you hard is that despite getting a knock-out blow in 2004, the BJP has not learnt its lessons. Kulkarni expectedly followed standard operating procedure when the Godhra issue was raised; he promptly retaliated with the Delhi riots against the Sikh community following Mrs Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984 as a counter-ploy. But the truth is that the Congress has publicly apologized for those tragic events which were indeed extremely unfortunate. Mrs Sonia Gandhi has personally expressed her deep regret, and so have several party leaders. In fact, the Congress has withdrawn it’s Lok Sabha candidates Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, despite the fact they have been legally cleared, in deference to public perception of their alleged involvement. But Mr Advani, Mr Modi, Mr Rajnath Singh have never , not once, uttered a single word of repentance for what was clearly state- sponsored killings, while Mr Vajpayee’s New Delhi government snored away on some sleeping pills or chose to look at the glittering shine of India with Ralph Lauren glares on. In fact, I believe Vajpayee’s subsequent tears must have even embarrassed the thick-textured crocodiles in Australian lake-farms.

Mr Kulkarni needs to tell his 82- year old master that this country has moved on to a Nano car and a BMW SUV, where the old rath ( chariot) and the never-ending Babri Masjid temple promises make the BJP look like an outdated jalopy on three-wheels and two flat tyres, an anachronism; outdated, fuddy-duddy, morose and insipid. That it’s white haired bespectacled paragon of vitriolic venom , Mr Modi , is reduced to cracking infantile stupidities such as budhiya and gudiya, is a sad saga for a party that had once promised to be an alternative option to the Congress.

Since the sole raison d’ etre for the BJP is Hindutva, can someone tell me, where does Hinduism — the most simple, secular, all-embracing , tolerant , multicultural religion teach anything that is remotely propagated by the likes of Pramod Muthalik, Narendra Modi and Varun Gandhi ? Just how does the BJP even put on the charade of being truly representative of the larger Hindu sentiment and philosophy in India ? Elections 2009 exposes the BJP for what it truly is; an obscurantist, fanatical group of religious die-hards masquerading as a political party , without any coherent political agenda, economic program or social policy. It is a defunct unit, surviving on some strange gobbledygook speak.

I have some unsolicited advice for Mr Kulkarni. The BJP does not need “friends”; as most are wooly eyed and have blurred vision. It needs sincere enemies instead ; because at least they will tell them some home-truths. And one of them is that this election campaign of theirs was doomed to failure from the moment they chose the bicep-triceps building Advani as a PM candidate. Since then it has been an exponential ride downhill. It is time for Kulkarni to do what he should execute brilliantly ; prepare LK Advani’s first Leader of the Opposition speech. That is, if he gets there.

Poor Sanjay Dud. One always thought he was a bit over-the-top type, but Dud Saab has stretched the elastic a bit too far. Sometimes you wonder if all those hours we folks invested worrying about his mental sanity and physical state when he was in prison was just a colossal waste of our private time. Sanjay’s recent silly communal diatribe against the prison cops, whereby he has now even dragged his late graceful mother Nargis’ religion, is in trashy taste. Not surprisingly, it has invited another of those Election Commission notices which by now could become a bestseller given its copious, colorful content. Dutt comes across as an overgrown imbecile, but we should have perhaps guessed that earlier from his new illustrious company and “big brothers”. Also, from the brazen-faced way in which he publicly chastised his sisters, family, Congress party, just about anyone for not giving him adequate “love”. Sanjay Dutt has lost massive goodwill and sympathy, and his Bollywood career is headed for a serious nose-dive too, from the look of it. Truly, he is like a brainless Shrek, essentially innocuous, but primarily a dim-wit.

Poor L K Advani. The 80-plus “youth icon of Narendra Modi” would have never expected the Amazonian assault of his dubious credentials from the Congress. LKA has clearly crumpled, and this is evident in his shoddy body language and defensive speak. The otherwise highly restrained, unassuming Sardar has perceptibly endured enough vehemence of the BJPs bearded poster-”boy”, Narendra Modi, and Advani himself. You never should engage the wrath of a decent man, said some tagline of a Bollywood smash-hit of the 1970s. The Prime Minister has decided to return bricks with boulders. PM Manmohan Singh has made the campaign’s wittiest remark to date: ” I don’t want to debate him on TV and give Advani the privileged status of an alternative Prime Minister”. It was a brilliant, acidic one, and left the incendiary Advani and his Friends of BJP clueless in response. Prakash Javadekar, the BJP spokesperson, who in any case in normal days is remarkably incomprehensible, looked as nonplussed as a puppy with three tails wagging in tandem. Advani is no Atal Bihari, but with the relentless attacks on Kandahar, Babri Masjid, Jinnah etc., the Congress has successfully positioned LKA as an also-ran already. With Advani looking totally hamstrung, expectedly Modi played dirty. Taking cheap pot-shots, he used terms like “budhiya and gudiya” to sound sensational. But then Modi fills the air with speeches and vice-versa.

Poor Samajwadi Party; they forgot that their brand ambassador Shri Amitabh Bachchan writes long blogs in angrezi on a computer ji. SP’s manifesto was such a funny joke, you couldn’t but just laugh till your stomach ache was aching. One can understand what Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has to deal with in this outrageous bunch. Amar Singh, who is at war with practically anyone and everyone on both sides of his moustache, was trading punches with his brother as well. They called each other by some famous Mahabharat-type names; the royalty was still showing despite the laughing stock the emperors made of themselves.

Poor Naveen Patnaik. Since he is amongst the few politicians who speaks English with a peculiar concoction of a failed-Oxford-undergrad-meets-NRI-from-a-more-failed-US-bank-now-residing-in-Costa Rica, he gets a lot of media attention for his “ideological” conflict with the BJP, with an occasional smattering of horse-sense thrown in like salt and pepper. Where was Patnaik when he first went to bed with the saffron-seducers; had he forgotten Modi and Advani’s vitriolic outbursts then? Had he never heard of the Gujarat riots before? It was pure electoral arithmetic which awoke his cosmetic “values” from a Rip Van Winkle sleep. Now Patnaik gives those cool arrogant ones that he will not side with either the BJP or Congress post-elections as if he will sweep all the 21 LS seats, and be the ultimate kingmaker. Or who knows, the king himself? Patnaik is behaving like Nero; if he looks closely, he is likely to finish with a paltry figure, which may make him less relevant than he currently bombastically postures. Naveen is fully entitled to his delusions of grandeur.

Poor Page 3 types. They have got their momentary hours of national fame for standing as Independents, but as Milind Deora , South Mumbai Congress MP rightly pointed out, politics is tough business, and social commitment is a long-term proposition. A brief sabbatical from a million-dollar salary bank job does not manifest anything. In a sense, it reflects the same hubris that the same investment bankers displayed with swap derivatives which has resulted in our global Great Recession. Sure, you can wax eloquent on the political system blah-blah, but seriously, anyone can do that. We all know that we can do with some major amelioration of public standards. And although the Olive-Indigo crowd consisting of former banker-types and private captains with diminishing expense accounts in their shrinking wallets will go ga-ga over the ABN Amro lady CEO’s brave act , the truth is that it takes more than a few Orkut, MySpace and LinkedIn social networking sites to mobilise voters. Symbolic maybe, there is nothing wrong with that; that is a fundamental right of every citizen, but otherwise it is only an exercise in futility. As for the high-premium South Mumbai crowd, some of whom only throng TV studios after refusing to pick up their dog’s poo on Marine Drive or look perpetually distressed about everything including their attempted botox, let us at least hope that they will improve its measly voter turn-out record later this month when the constituency goes to vote.

Poor us.

10, Janpath, wore a disconsolate, deserted look in February 2004 when I drove past its long stretch of barricaded compound. Barring the Black Cat commando-led high-security and birds sitting in a disciplined pattern on its imposing walls, there was a perceptible silence around it, with none of the pre-election fervour you would expect. It housed a simple woman, a late prime minister’s widow, on whom the great Congress party founded in 1885 had now bestowed their rapidly dwindling hopes. In a few months, India’s general elections beckoned.

Just a day before, a popular TV channel and a regular national daily’s joint opinion polls had indicated that the Congress would achieve a dubious distinction; a new historic nadir comprising a paltry two-digit 99 seats in Indian Parliament. Rumours abounded in high circles that there would be serious internal party revolt if and when the Congress catapulted into oblivion. “India was shining”, was uttered in a collective resonance by pin-striped business czars and eager-beaver media anchors, smiling ear to ear. The ruling BJP (Bhartiya Janata Party) led coalition was preparing for a rampaging onslaught, to bury their “pseudo-secular” rivals into the pit of total annihilation. Their famous Doctor Spin, the late Pramod Mahajan feigned disappointment on the projection that his saffron party would return to power with friends alike with a “mere 330 seats”. India and the BJP were celebrating its glossy shine, but the Congress indeed looked down a deep dark hole.

It was in these circumstances that one witnessed the quiet arrival of a young man on the treacherous terrain of Indian politics. Rahul Gandhi was making his political debut, joining India’s undisputed first family in fulfilling its pre-destined course maybe, yet in an unknown, uncharted, and unfamiliar territory and future for the first time. Unlike his father, Rajiv Gandhi who had reluctantly transported himself from the plane’s cockpit into the party corridors, Rahul was taking a bold step of his own volition. It was a big moment. And a poignant one. He knew the past legacy; he was also aware that he was not getting a red carpet cake-walk. The Congress had been in the Opposition benches, and the prognostications about election results were bleak. But in a few weeks, India would see the most stunning reversal of fortunes ever and a dramatic upset, that had professional psephologists flushed with deep embarrassment providing flaky explanations for failed statistical models. The Congress was back. The BJP was rejected outright. Rahul’s political journey had begun.

Indian democracy, despite a bizarre flirtation in 1977 with odd assortments in the Janata experiment (the CPM and Jana Sangh were on the same side), has always been dominated by magnetic personalities from one single family: the Gandhis. A Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, Jagjivan Ram etc were national leaders but with limited pockets of influence. Even V P Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee were not pan-Indian leaders in terms of their mass appeal, they were more products of the electorate’s brief experimentation with somebody new, following disillusionment with the Congress. India has always lionized an inspirational leader they can trust.

In an election campaign recently, Rahul Gandhi said, “My father died long before 1991 for us.” Eighteen years ago, during the last days of the summer elections on the night of May 21, Rajiv Gandhi was brutally assassinated by an LTTE suicide bomber in Sriperumbudur. Rahul had just about crossed his teen years, and was studying in the USA. A disturbing shrill call at an unusual hour by his mother’s assistant Madhavan was enough to tell him that something had gone terribly wrong.

After Rajiv’s tragic, untimely demise, the clueless Congress had no Plan B. The rudderless uninspiring Congress leadership that followed was the principal reason behind the subsequent rise of coalition politics, much more than caste arithmetic and religious polarisation, as is otherwise assumed. Because no single towering national leader truly dominated the Indian political landscape thereafter, who could cut across inherent barriers, a confused electorate began to increasingly bite the comfort zone of personal parochial interests in close proximity, often misunderstood to be “local factors” by over-zealous commentators. Suddenly new political entities surfaced, with no clear social or economic agenda, and began to slice away into niche communities simply for vote bank consolidation. It altered India’s political dynamics dramatically.

Rahul is aware that his father was hugely handicapped when taking on the big job, as he had had little experience in either handling internal affairs or a cabinet function. The golden age of India politics which commenced after that incredible landslide of 1984, alas had an ephemeral stint as relative inexperience was to affect Rajiv Gandhi’s ultimate judgement in crucial moments, the Zail Singh fracas, Bofors probe, Shah Bano case, V P Singh’s elevation, the shilanayas ceremony , propping up Chandrashekhar as PM etc. It was simply Rajiv’s limited pre-exposure to the complex web of Indian politics which did him in, whereby he lost a massive public mandate in a disastrous fall in 1989, when the Congress was reduced from 400-plus seats in Parliament to a mere 197. Rahul is resolved not to repeat the same mistakes again.

When he went traversing the country over the last few years, the BJP made sarcastic digs at the man, saying Rahul was on a “discovery of India” tour, alluding that he was like a foreigner groping around to unravel his own native turf. The truth, in fact, is elsewhere. They have failed to discover the man. Society columnists whose political education begin at the Taj hotel and whose graduation ceremony conclude at The Trident , continue to be cynical about his initiatives, but then what can one expect from those who believe the cow-belt to be the latest fashion accessory?

Rahul spoke candidly. “I have an advantage of my celebrated surname. It has guaranteed me in an easy entry into the highest echelons of political power. I have greater access and an easy induction. But I know that there are many amongst you who do not have the same advantage. I want to give you that opportunity, no more political patronage and parochial favoritism. It will be fair and equal”. It was refreshingly honest; when have you heard politicians speak that language? Ever? For a man accused of being a beneficiary of dynastic politics, Gandhi is now challenging the same inequities prevalent in our political framework.

Thus, what has gone quite remarkably unnoticed is the extraordinary political reform that Rahul Gandhi has introduced , almost subtly and without the fanfare that you would normally expect; the democratisation of the Youth Congress, which is almost a precursor to the transformation of the big desi GOP itself in the future. It is certainly a landmark. Gandhi has personally ensured an open- house selection policy, rigorous interviews are held, past political and family contacts have been made irrelevant, with a transparent jury doing the final selection. The entire screening process is audited by former election commissioners. The result has been an overwhelming response from young hopefuls who are keen to join Rahul’s burgeoning band-wagon. It has been a quiet, under-stated ground revolution at the grass-root level, which when it assumes national proportions, could transform Indian politics forever.

Rahul is looking for young people with their feet on the ground and their head on their shoulders that can think. One typically finds Indians perpetually blaming the “political system”, we hear endless lamentations about how it is intrinsically corrupt, extremely closely-held, seats auctioned to the highest bidder, highly caucus-like which leaves a genuine committed public worker no scope for making a political career. Gandhi is in a great hurry to address this genuine problem, just like he aggressively championed the NREGS. And the RTI Act which is perhaps the most revolutionary breakthrough legislation in post-Independence India. Not to mention his from-the-heart talk during the nuclear deal which has given India serious international recognition.

The democratisation process of the youth wing of the party is path-defining, unprecedented and the ultimate in political detoxification. Just like his father understood fairly early the strange ways of power-brokers in the party and the powerful social apparatus of Panchayati Raj which needed a great fillip, Rahul has sensed the need to strengthen the Congress bottom-up. He is following upon that with a missionary zeal.

Rahul, who is known for replying instantly on his BlackBerry, is finally a people’s man. This grand Indian election has thrown an electrifying paradox; while the 82-year-old L K Advani is all over global websites and mobile text campaigns, Rahul is conspicuously engaged in direct people-to-people contact. And although being a financial analyst, he candidly castigated Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for providing sops to Indian industrialists while the poverty-ridden in the state were given a paltry pittance. He avoids unnecessary media interaction, though he is fully aware that it is a necessary date in his appointment schedules of the future.

In a country whose “demographic dividend” indicates youthful adrenaline, there are two key factors that could change the future of coalition politics in India. Firstly, Rahul Gandhi’s ascension to the top at the appropriate time, and second, some solid groundwork by the Congress in the cow-belt of UP and Bihar, the two states that inevitably decide the final groupings. The latter is a Herculean task, but will be considerably impacted by the first. I foresee the return of single-party dominance or a more direct two-party (Congress-BJP) confrontation ahead. Coalition politics, I predict, is on its last legs in Elections 2009, despite it appearing a virtual improbability today looking at their dominance in 2009. Actually, it is the proverbial chaos before the impending doom. I foresee people getting increasingly restless with the interminable squabbling. Also, as the electorate matures and its profile alters, fragmentation will wane at the national level as stability with growth will become a perennial mantra. In the next five years, we will witness mergers and consolidation (acquisition, anyone?) amongst various political constituents as new young talent emerges to take charge across different ideologies and formations. Leadership and governance will be the deciding factors for the next Prime Minister. For Rahul it has been baptism by fire in the cauldron of internecine coalition politics, but it will be a great asset for the future.

Rahul assiduously refrained from making political capital on his famous cousin Varun Gandhi’s shockingly acerbic outbursts on the Muslim community stating, “hate blinds us all”. And that “life is full of surprises”. It is indeed ironical that while Varun Gandhi becomes the new Hindutva poster-boy, a fully-converted RSS-type religious hardliner, Rahul religiously follows his great-grandfather Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s tolerant secular philosophy. A year ago, Priyanka Vadra, Rahul’s immensely popular sister had personally visited her father’s killers and conspirators in jail, and sought forgiveness for them. They may be first cousins, but Rahul and Priyanka are as different from Varun as chalk and chewing gum. Rahul possesses a healing touch, and his greatest asset is his listening ability. Varun can claim just to the contrary.

In Jagdishpur, which is part of Rahul’s Amethi parliamentary constituency, one has to see the Gandhi family’s emotional bond with the common man to understand and experience the gargantuan goodwill and love that the people have for them. It is got to be experienced to be believed. Rahul has painstakingly persevered over the last five years to give his people his full attention. Mayawati is understandably nervous.

Rahul’s core team consists of quiet, dedicated, focussed back-room boys, who like their boss, work hard, have a long-term vision and consciously keep a low profile.

By May 16, 2009, the Indian election results will be finally out. For some, it will be the end of their political career. For others, another opportunity to redeem themselves. And yet for the remainder, hope. For Rahul Gandhi though, it will be just the beginning of another journey to getting India on the fast-track.

We keep asking who is India’s Barack Obama? In all honesty, I believe we do not have a Barack Obama. Because we do not need one. Because India has its own Rahul Gandhi.

He is the face of the new young India we talk about with such arrogant insouciance in business forums. He is amongst the few youth candidates being fielded by the BJP, obviously buttressed by that magical brand name, Gandhi. His family lineage is enviable. But it took just one speech, perhaps some more, to make Varun Gandhi , son of Maneka and late Sanjay Gandhi , one of the controversial yet defining personalities of elections 2009, his vituperative utterances against fellow Muslims echoing the kind of hatred we read about in those partition stories of 1947. 62 years have passed since the tri-colour first flew atop the Red Fort and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru made that famous midnight speech. But Varun , his great grand-son has just made his own tryst with destiny with his Pilibhit election speeches. It looks like a long hard dusty road for the fiery lad.

Any keen political observer of India’s treacherous terrain of Delhi would tell you that the BJP welcomed Varun Gandhi with undisguised glee; it was for them sure-shot vindication of their so-called emerging “moderation” in 21st century India, even as they believed that they had found a tactical weapon to keep 10, Janpath on the defensive, taking calculated advantage of a bitter family squabble. In politics, such a pedestrian ploy is considered ” a strategic break-through , carefully orchestrated”. LK Advani and illustrious company walked with a peacock’s strut at their new acquisition, using Varun as their youth mascot.

Yet in deriding and condemning Varun Gandhi we all miss the central , germane issue; what really is the BJP’s plan for governing a billion plus , fast-track, rapidly evolving, world favorite India ? Nothing. It is a resounding vacuum, an empty shell, the saffron party has absolutely no agenda whatsoever, except one—–religious extremism, Hindutva. Riding atop a decorated chariot in 1989, LK Advani may have fooled vulnerable sections of a struggling, confused India into the Ram Mandir dream, when the temple erection at Ayodhya had become a palliative ointment for a disillusioned middle class, and the Hindu psyche. Post-Independence, it saw the re-emergence of militant Hinduism for the first time, evident in the mob fury that was to disintegrate the Babri Masjid. But this is 2009, and two decades have passed.

The BJP and LK Advani have just one raison d’etre for launching a massive campaign to re-occupy Race Course road—Ram Mandir. It is indeed a monumental shame for the BJP , and reveals its intellectual bankruptcy and electoral impotence. Which is why Varun Gandhi went into a vitriolic spin, spewing venom and vehemence unparalleled against the minority community. Because there is nothing else that Varun Gandhi knows about the BJP’s game-plan that he can talk about ; employment, nuclear deal, rural development, stimulus packages, corruption, foreign policy, HRD , IT revolution, nothing. So Varun did what came to him most logically; he launched into the single-point BJP election manifesto with the rabid passion of a fanatical zealot. He succeeded, and how! Even the Shiv Sena now wants him as their knight rider on a big-wide poster.

They say that one day the chicken comes home to roost. The Varun factor has boomeranged into an embarrassing egg-splash on the BJPs face, and no amount of media gobbledygook their spin doctors do can now save the obsolete, obscurantist -thinking party from shrugging off it’s obnoxious reputation of being nothing but a communal party , shorn of any global vision of India and bereft of any socio-economic-political ideology, which is in any case a hard reality.

Every time I log onto the world wide web these days, Mr Advani pops up in front, in a major BJP cyberspace campaign to hook the youth , the internet browsers, casual surfers and the hard addicts. Unfortunately for Mr Advani , the young Turks who apparently call themselves the Friends of BJP , have failed to comprehend that mere advertising visibility does not win at the ballot-box. India Shining, should have taught them that. The young crowd have seen with shock and awe, and horror and fear what happened in a Mangalore pub and on Valentine’s Day in India’s yuppie Silicon Valley under the BJP dispensation. But we rarely learn, I guess, from past blunders.

Friends of BJP should understand the basic management principle; the buck stops at the top. It is not Varun Gandhi of the Blackberry generation who owes the Muslims and the people of India an apology, but Mr Advani himself. But he will not. Because he will hate to admit that the BJP has been check-mated by a Gandhi.

Yesterday in Karnataka ( which saw the emergence of India’s first prime minister whom nobody had heard of before) they announced the Third Front, a bland amalgamation of a cold broth consisting of multiple ingredients. I will leave the perfunctory and predictable analysis of this complex combine to conventional journalistic processes, and instead get straight down to bare facts—-the naked truth.

1) The Third Front , remarkably enough, has found a common platform with just one month to go for the national elections. This is not just opportunistic, it is sheer desperation. These are political parties who are left-overs from failed alliances, and who are singularly drifting on their own life-boats. For instance, barring their tender gender, disproportionate assets and sheer unpredictability, what is the common thread between Madam Jaya and Madam Maya; please search me for answers.

2) The Third Front has no ideological basis whatsoever; nothing. Just what does a capitalist Chandrababu Naidu have to do with the Nano-bashers in CPM/CPI is anybody’s guess.

3) The only common angst that they all share is ; anti-BJP ( mostly), and anti-Congress ( somewhat). Now that is hardly the kind of alternative India needs at the moment; just plain opposition without any serious counter-agenda.

4) Their most significant asset is a certain Mayawati, whose only goal in life is to use the caste arithmetic in UP to muster up enough seats to proclaim herself as the consensus candidate for prime ministership. Mayawati knows as much about the nuclear deal as she knows of JP Morgan’s credit default swaps, despite the queen-maker Mishraji, the classic Brahmin Chanakya by her side. Huge risk, that no one in the Third Front should ever take, especially a certain Mr Erudite-Know-it-All Mr Karat. Moreover, outside of UP her influence is as shallow as my triceps compared to John Abraham’s. Everyone from Sharad Pawar to Mayawati is hoping for that divine dame luck that befell the sleepy giant called Deve Gowda.

5) The CPM is the prime mover of this crazy concoction, as they fear a perceptible threat of obsolescence in elections 2009. The Congress has rightly unleashed the vitriolic shrill unstoppable Mamata Bannerjee on CPM in West Bengal, where after Nandigram and Singur, the CPM faces it’s litmus test. Also, in their only other remaining turf , Kerala, the Marxists are likely to experience some serious whirlwind too blowing their house-tops.

6) The Third Front will hope to increase it’s aggregate scorecard ( reading 84 based on 2004 results) through TDP in Andhra Pradesh, AIADMK in Tamil Nadu and BSP in UP. If the Congress-SP ties fail in Uttar Pradesh, BSP might easily double it’s score to 38-40. The Tamil vote is as unpredictable as Jayalalitha’s mercurial mood swings, but she should be expected to benefit from the zero status of the last rout. Andhra assumes maximum significance as that is a head-on contest with the Congress, and will impact the Congress more than anyone else. But even assuming Naidu creates a mini-wave riding on anti-incumbency and the Satyam issue , a landslide looks unlikely. And the BJP will take a long time to create a Karnataka of AP.

7) Based on (6) above, the Third Front can at best muster 120, and maybe 130 with Naveen Patnaik’s BJD, assuming CPM holds fort ( most unlikely). Its more realistic number would be 110-115.

8) Thus, Mayawati technically has no hope of occupying Race Course Rd, as the moment the Third Front looks wobbly, its constituents will be sourced, serenaded and solicited by the Congress-UPA or the BJP-NDA . BJD , AIADMK, TRS, TDP may all choose a convenient bed-mate from amongst them.

9) Elections is a zero-sum game; someone’s gain is someone’s loss. The Third Front numerically will not be force enough to weaken BOTH the national parties and their coalition partners significantly, to be termed as an “ alternative” as they are currently hoarsely shouting about. At the most, they will increase their tally by another 35-40 seats , hurting minorly either the BJP or Congress coalitions, but not both. Thus, given the Third Front’s 2004 low base it’s role is essentially marginal despite India’s dubious chessboard of national politics, playing out post-elections, which means disaffected parties like NCP playing T20 cricket for instant slam-bang results.

10) I think the Congress , unlike the last time, should see the Third Front as a blessing in disguise. The NDA’s former partners, the TDP , BJD and AIADMK, in three crucial states have walked away from the saffron party , severely damaging it’s alliance hopes and any thoughts of striking a home run in the 100 odd seats that these states add up to, which will determine the next government.

MY VERDICT
The Third Front will end up helping Congress-UPA..
BJP stands to lose big-time. .
The Third Front will see a marginal improvement, but aggregate will not exceed 130, far away from the half-way mark. The Third Front is more like a regional party itself, and lacks a national representation.
The Congress must strike a deal with Samajwadi party in UP to take advantage of a weak BJP, and threaten Mayawati on her home pitch.

( This has already been mailed to some of the well-known chief editors of both print and electronic media )

Sub: Will the Indian Media take a call on 2009 elections ?

Dear Sir / Madam

Two events of otherwise minor significance that happened last year manifests the diminishing reputation and tactlessness of the Indian media. Raj Thackeray held a press conference banning the English media from being present in it , but the latter gave that injunction huge publicity. Aamir Khan scornfully rubbished; “ News channels nowadays have reduced themselves to covering my body-building”. And sure enough, they did. The third episode, revealed a disturbingly unknown callous or myopic side. My office is a stone’s throw away from CST at Ballard Estate, and just a day after the CST massacre on 26/11 , there was not a single journalist even sauntering around. Forget , a cameraman, and this was the spot that saw the maximum casualties! .

The Indian media has had a controversial year, and despite sporadic excellence and some objective and meaningful journalism , has essentially lost huge credibility over several events; I am sure we do not need to make a laundry –list on that one, as it should be fairly obvious. That I thought was a tragic development, as there was a time when ordinary people looked up to the media as a respected vehicle for honest assessment and factual analysis, with governments shrouded in dark secrecy. Perhaps they still do, but I personally feel that despite the occasional stumbles, the government is got a lot better and transparent , but both the private sector ( Satyam is not the only scamster, and we all know that) and the media have failed to establish impeccable work ethics and standards. Or at least, there is vast scope for improvement. Currently, on many occasions it becomes a fish-market, opinionated with some sad commentary by flaky invitees, and frequently a slap-dash cosmetic summarization by anchors.

There are also several ( like me) who believe that the electronic media ( in particular, but not the sole culprits) want to have the cake and eat it too. There is a tendency to be totally flip-flop, conveniently make adjustments, flow with the popular tide, create heroes out of pathetic caricatures, and then smugly turn the other side with a “ I told you so” attitude if proved correct. I think such a high-handed and almost arrogant attitude can seriously boomerang.

So my recommendation; instead of aping the western ( read American) disasters such as 9/11, Enron, Watergate et al and hunting fervently for an Obama in Mayawati ( I thought that was too preposterous ) —- why not introduce the one aspect of the US media that I have admired since the days I developed global political consciousness. Why don’t NDTV, CNN-IBN, Times Now, Indian Express, TOI, HT, DNA etc announce their own endorsement of their political party of choice for the 2009 Lok Sabha Elections. NYT , WSJ and Washington Post do it, so do Fox and NBC. It is the ultimate in transparency , because it is either objective or at least reveals the ideological slant of the channel. Mr Arun Shourie ( whom you all revere) was a BJP mouthpiece in disguise as Editor, IE and a whole lot of us thought that he was genuinely hunting down corruption in the Congress and in high places as a professional journalist.

I think it is time the Indian media bit the bullet; fearlessly and with great honesty. A dispassionate review of foreign policy, track record of various government programs and policies , PM options and leadership capabilities , handling of economy, manifesto declarations, secular credentials, containing terrorism and Naxalite bloodshed, coalition fragility and structure etc can be held with both in-house editorial talent and invited guests from relevant sections.

The recent shameful incidents in Mangalore and elsewhere at Karnataka needs to be dissected to its barest bones, the people of India need to know. In fact, political parties will send representatives for espousing their case , which on LIVE TV will improve the quality of discussions, and let the public segregate the wheat from the chaff. You can involve domain experts from different fields. And viewers will look forward to the day of the great announcement when the newspaper/TV channel announces its endorsement with its reasons thereof. Even the political outfits will appreciate ( on a no-choice basis, perhaps) the verdict. The positives far outweigh potential counter-arguments. I don’t think your TRPs will be hurt one bit either.

And since it will be an open discussion on full national broadcast, no government or political party can take on a vindictive stance against a particular media group, as it will stand exposed in broad sunshine. In fact, this can easily substitute for public opinion polls banned currently.

The fact that we have multiple parties which makes it difficult to do the exercise does not hold water; we do have a choice. A Congress-led UPA, a BJP-led NDA and a potential Mayawati/Left led Third Front.

I think the 2009 LS elections could be a historic milestone for Indian media if you all could rise to the occasion. Since we have also gone to town about CHANGE ( Obama, again) , why not let charity begin at home?

I guess this note has become too long, but then brevity was never my strength.

Cheers and have a good-day.

Sanjay

Wherever Amar Singh of SP goes, a family soap opera eventually follows. The classic Ambani Brothers was prime time stuff that had the nation hooked onto the Mahabharata battle. The latest to join the idiot box, pun unintended, is Sanjay Dutt.

If you hear Dutt talk, you can make out that he is not a simple guy; he is simply simpleton, which is why he gets taken for a ride by one and sundry. One feels sad for him as it is never easy when you have had a difficult childhood, accentuated by the loss of a parent. His now famous AK 47 episode and multiple arrests, broken marriages, strange buddies, are all fairly legendary. Throughout the entire rigmarole, the sight of a pregnant Priya Dutt, Congress MP and sister of Dutt , looking visibly disturbed and concerned on TV screens , was an image that one deeply empathized with. Evidently, Dutt did not think much of it.

Sanjay’s recent comments that his sister should have dropped the Dutt name reveals that poor old Munnabhai is older than he looks, and is archaic, orthodox and a country bumpkin. Today’s urban women ( at least) , in fact, are increasingly maintaining their maiden names, because it just ensures their inborn identity, and a marriage does not have to alter her whole being and personality. And any man who gets uptight about that needs to get his priorities checked.

Also, it is blatantly obvious that Sanjay is being paraded over Lucknow to milk the Munnabhai image to the ultimate denominator. That is his personal preference, but the pathetic manner in which he has begun to indulge in family and sister-bashing, makes a mockery of a man we had all sincerely sympathized with through his difficult times.

I have a suggestion for Sanjay; why doesn’t he change his own name instead, and call himself Sanjay Dud?

In early 2004 I was attending a corporate symposium where CEOs moved about with feline alacrity and everyone seemed to have an unusually sunny disposition. People joked that it was a mirror image of India Shining, that celebrated phrase of unbridled optimism and electoral doom. In several photo-ops , the high profile head honchos did a collective thumbs-up . When I almost nervously protested that this utopia looked grossly exaggerated , I was dismissed with contumacious indifference, as if a gate crashing party pooper. I beat a hasty retreat , and ever since have a guarded reverence for these five-star CII/FICCI/Assocham events which I have since believed are just platforms for the self-promotion and private business lobbying by a select group. I would like to term them as India’s “ obnoxious oligopolies”. A similar group was in full attendance a few days ago at the Gujarat Global Investors Summit. .

At the same venue Anil Ambani ( Reliance ADAG) and Sunil Mittal ( Bharti Airtel) , heads of their respective conglomerates, apparently publicly adulated the bearded, beaming Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi . Ambani and Mittal would like to see the poster-boy of the saffron party in a galloping hurry unfurl the Indian tricolors at the Red Fort. Of course, they are blissfully unawares or have conveniently forgotten that their Prime Ministerial designate ( if that were to miraculously transpire) may have the dubious ignominy of not being able to shake hands with President Barack Obama in the White House, as Obama’s state department is unlikely to grant Mr Modi a US visa. For a dastardly sequence of events that he personally supervised in Gujarat in 2002 as its elected head. We can well imagine the geopolitical ramifications of that embargo, but obviously India’s leading corporate chiefs did not. The blatant bonhomie between our big boys and Mr Modi is a manifestation of the blinkered vision of India Inc. It also reflects short-term memory loss as they forgot that a seething Modi had asked the CII to publicly apologise for Anu Agha’s “ genocide” comments in 2002. Tragically, they genuflected before him instantly.

India’ s corporate sector has essentially a very small moral fibre, which is also unusually elastic. They are creatures of extraordinary convenience. I remember when the Manmohan Singh government took over in Y 2004 there was a gargantuan collapse of the stock markets. Bust! Those black-suited merchant bankers and the twenty- something bespectacled analysts predicted serious doomsday , what with a left –of- center national party in a fragile coalition supported by withering age-old Marxists on the wrong side of India’s demographic median. Of course, their prognostications were based on facile factors; no one even briefly comprehended the huge premium the think tank of the Singh-Chidambaram combine could bring to India’s economy and its financial markets.

Corporate India , still angry that India Shining had been grievously derailed was almost dismissive about the ruling combine’s expertise, competence and longevity . Understandable perhaps, but what was indeed surprisingly palpable was the cosmetic assessment of India’s real issues of poverty, the common man’s dire straits , the onerous burden of improving education, health and removing backwardness , and the challenge of balanced growth. Our award-winning blue-chip brigade only understands corporate tax, exchange rates, prime lending rates and stock market reforms. Unfortunately, the government has a lot more to do. And one of them is to build an equal opportunities secular foundation and a civil society, something that Mr Modi has long forsaken.

The electoral reverse of the BJP was seen by many industry spokespeople as a “bad verdict”; India would pay-dear, there would be no more glittering sunshine. If India’s business lobby was once servile and subjugated to the political class up to the mid 1990s, one now saw the emergence of raw arrogance and calibrated condescension .Truly said, nation-building be damned; there was just one consistent objective —–profits. Now that too is pure capitalism at work and a rational CEO obsession, but surprisingly the nature of the governing polity seemed inconsequential to Corporate India. That is exactly what some of our industry stalwarts unwittingly ejaculated yesterday in collective unison when they endorsed Modi for Prime Minister. Unluckily for them and Modi , Satyam has become the perfect villain of the piece eroding the general credibility of our entire class of business barons.

For the Ivy League corporate India, Satyam has arrived with blaring horns as a deadly neutralizer. Suddenly that pious façade and jargonized bravado stands shattered ( pardon the oxymoron). Satyam is not just an epic corporate fraud by itself, it also has a strong principal cast which includes multinational auditors, ritzy merchant bankers, Harvard gurus on shareholder protection , and independent directors who made more money from sitting fees or should we call it “sleeping fees”. The supporting crew is endless and each had their own private agenda. As the Satyam saga unfolds, several leading CEOs will be fully aware of that “discretionary element” which is usually co-handled with remarkable dexterity by the prized auditors and the senior management in close cohorts. Insider trading allegations rage because they are true, so before we have more corporate chiefs expressing their political preferences, maybe they should get their boardroom act cleaned up.

Narendra Modi’s pogrom which consumed 2000 lives is essentially a meaningless statistic for India’s business czars as long as Modi can unlock free land, provide subsidized capital, and make big commercial announcements. From a hard core shareholder standpoint, India Inc are bang-on target. If Modi is attracting foreign capital and domestic investment, by all means, he is development-driven. However to profess his name for national leadership reveals either a shocking neglect of social sensitivities or a callous disregard for political morality. These CEOs speak in national forums, and whatever their private predilections, they need to understand the larger ramifications of their public disclosures.

Instead, I would like it if our jet-setting CEOs talked of creating an RTI Act for corporate India , wherein we can find facts ,as ordinary individuals and not just shareholders. Isn’t it the ultimate paradox that while the GOI has installed transparency , the constantly jabbering India Inc only pays it token lip-service, and worse, walks away with Golden Peacocks and other shimmering accolades , an act of sheer deliberate ruse? What are their various items under contingent liabilities, and the cross funds flow between group entities? How have they benefited by certain vested policy changes which have impacted company health? What ethical standards are followed in business lobbying? Besides published accounts, how do they indirectly fund political parties? So before telling us why Modi will make a great PM, corporate India should do some serious introspection within.

But maybe there is a huge lesson for India Inc from the widow of the slain ex ATS chief Hemant Karkare. While India’s big boys were enjoying Modi’s hospitality and some questionable industrial freebies, a lonely sad woman had the moral strength and upright spirit in her to return Mr Modi’s tainted charity donation back to him. Perhaps before getting their failed corporate governance act right , corporate India will first need to develop a social conscience.

Dear Mumbaikars

It has been just over a week since the end of that unfortunate, lamentable horror that traumatized our city. Since then, our collective outbursts have reached a deafening roar. Our local state leadership has new faces as a consequence of our public demonstrations and raging fury. Sure, we should feel proud about the power of the people as it forced changes which were long overdue perhaps. But it is so easy to say in genuine exasperated anguish or a fake bravado—-Enough! And ask of others to change or apologise. But the next time we have that dark coffee at breakfast time, how about smelling it’s aromatic flavor ourselves? Let me explain.

Please let us do our candle march, silent protests, letter writing, online petitions, form special community groups, register protests, demand political performance etc, as long as these are not just cosmetic symbolism. But even as we expect the government to get cracking, and the Prime Minister gets verbally assaulted by sophomores on prime time television who probably do not know even who is the Vice President of India, why don’t we Indians start with the basics ourselves? Let us not blare horns when the red light is still on, not break queues and bribe the traffic police for safety violations, pay our taxes honestly, not elbow our fellow passengers, wait patiently to be seated, go through the security checks without a frown, not sack the poor housemaid for spilling tea on the Shyam Ahuja accessory, give the driver with high fever a day-off, and pay our poor newspaper-hawker and the milkman in time instead of repeatedly sending him back. Tall order? Not really, if India needs to transform itself, Indian citizens will have to first do some serious self-examination.

The corporate sector In India (which always pontificates with great relish and pseudo-intellectual garbage at crisis times) must ask itself——–If the government of India can implement an RTI, what stops them for taking transparency to a new level? Can we know the truth behind several deals, fudged balance sheets, over-hyped IPOs, land acquisitions, and suspect valuations? Really, and what have the booming cash-flushed Forbes billionaires-list types really done in terms of corporate social responsibility, or has even that been a ruse to navigate the ultimate benefit back to the top-line/bottom-line?

The truth is that as a country we were all terribly unprepared for such a well executed and almost arrogant plan of deadly attack. Simple. Even as I write there has been bedlam at the Delhi airport because of a shoot-out, and this in the political capital on high alert after the Mumbai madness! We are a JLT (Just like that) country; a term I picked up in XLRI during my MBA days. The cool casual chalta hai attitude. We are just remarkably lop-sided in our priorities and have a casual propensity towards crucial issues, albeit we get worked up about Saifeena, Salman Khan’s hair transplant and Yuvraj Singh’s nocturnal trysts. We are eternal optimists without any substantive logic to back that sanguine faith. Occasionally, we are on hyper steroids, but given a choice we would love to lazily drift into nothingness. I think India is a complete paradox in every sense of the term. So while Harvard Business School invites Laloo Yadav to talk about the railways turnaround, Raj Thackeray’s goons threaten him for entering Mumbai city. That’s India for you.

Of course, there needs to be a dramatic systemic overhaul in our security apparatus (amongst other political processes), but pedestrian politician bashing is only populist pandering for cheap windfalls. The politician is thankfully under the goggle-eyed public microscope at last, but such constant slandering will end up being counter-productive. The last thing India needs now is a demoralized political leadership. PM Manmohan Singh needs the country to back-him up whatever our personal ideological or political affiliations. A perplexed, inept, belligerent neighbor like Pakistan is to be handled, and here we are belittling India’s most important decision-makers through endless daily calumny.

The nightmare of 26th November may be over. But there are miles to go before we sleep.