Seeking A Religious Identity

We just completed 63 years of Self Rule and despite the odds of managing a small conglomerate of billion odd noisy plebeians, we have survived. We have a healthy mix of people who believe India is truly on the path to achieving world leadership as well as cynics who believe ‘Shining India’ is a mere marketing gimmick popularized by the Government’s brand managers. Of course, we all know that the Truth is somewhere in between – just like everything else in life but when you are pressurized to take a stance, you are forced to take cudgels against one group or the other.

The need to identify oneself with any particular group is important to avoid being an outcaste. If I were merely Pradeep, I would not represent anything at all – it would just be a small irrelevant name lost in the thousands of Pradeeps that you get when you do a Google search. But if I were to identify myself as a forward caste, middle class Hindu Keralite Indian, I suddenly give myself rights to speak on behalf of many of “my” people. It may not matter how meaningless these identity groups may be to me but my being a part of them casts certain requirements on me.

The most prominent of these identities that I argue with myself on a regular basis is my religious faith or sometimes the lack of it. Whenever I am critical of anything that is part of Hinduism, I am accused by my family and friends of being pseudo-secular (being called secular is no longer in fashion) and not a good Hindu. When my religious identity is questioned, I asked myself- Am I a bad Hindu? What does it mean to be a good Hindu? Does being an idol worshipper or a temple goer entitle a person to a greater degree of Hinduness than someone who does not subscribe to such views?

I was born an atheist (kids have these bouts of atheism which peter out to faith for many) but have moved to a more centrist approach on religion where I have accepted that religion is a vital ingredient in our lives but its role is more of a cultural one. Cloaking spiritual practices in religion helps in their sustenance; I see many of my colleagues fasting regularly but this practice is more an identification of their culture and has very little to do with spirituality.

Studying in a college which had its foundation in Faith did not help necessarily in converting me but it did give an exposure to an alternate faith (‘alternate” from my perspective) and forced me to question my atheism. Our Director was a Swamiji (a saffron-clad IITian who we called ABC in jest) and we met many people who had given up their dreams to follow AMMA; but at the same time, there were swamis who demanded respect and seemed incapable of humility. Spiritual power is exhilarating and it can lead to a situation where men in saffron demand commitments from commoners without themselves surrendering to the requirements of leading such a life.

My attempts at understanding religion took me on many paths - Reiki during MBA days, Raja Yoga through Brahmakumaris , Transcendental Meditation taught by an enterprising firang when in ICICI and recently Vipassana but it has always been difficult to tread on one path for long. Nevertheless, these experiments have largely made me sceptical of religion - it creates a Dvaita polarised view of the world when we start associating ourselves with our religion instead of being a mere human.

It’s funny how life forces you to accept things or look at things which you want to avoid. I have always distanced myself from organized religion, especially a temple but I am now married to someone who is firmly rooted in temple worship. My wife’s family has a temple in their precincts and they are quite grounded in the idea of religious rituals; the temple is their most prized symbol of identity which they relate now in this era, when they no longer own the farmlands in the pre-EMS days.

I am now expected to be a part of important temple functions which I personally find redundant but even though my mind rebelled initially, I am learning to accept it as a compromise that I need to make after marriage.  Being a liberal would mean adjusting to situations as long as it hurts no one I guess - winning brownie points in a debate is not the only thing that matters!!! If there are people who find peace in temple rituals and idols, so be it. I have no right to impose my opinions on people who find bliss in this form of devotion. After all, if our common goal is to find happiness and even if our paths do not converge, how does it matter?

Religion has a cultural essence and one starts becoming aware of it, especially when there is a perceived threat to one's identity. With the looming threat of terrorism and minority appeasement, there is a revival in the demand to identify and unite in the name of Hinduism. How many times have we heard that we Hindus are not united and so we suffer, learn from the Muslims? We may not practice our religion the way we were taught (I don't think we are ever taught this, of course) but when it comes to debates and any form of public stances, our enlightened souls start to identify with our religion.

We are all born to a certain religion and there is no choice involved there, even though one may choose to covert later on. When we see something in our family that we believe is not right, should we not raise our voice against it? Or do we stay quiet silenced by the fact that another family has the same issue but there is no one who is complaining against them. Religion is a tool which creates some procedures and processes for us to follow so that we can go along the right path but the tool cannot replace the actual path of spirituality. The path of spirituality does not mandate religion; religion is just a beginning, after a certain growth in our spiritual levels, we can discard it. When the path becomes an obsession, the destination slowly starts moving out of the horizon.

I have been critical about Sabarimala and Guruvayoor for their policies of not allowing women and non-Hindus respectively into their shrines. People have defended it saying that these are age-old practices and should not be disturbed but thoughts change over a period of time and what was right at any time in history may not be so relevant now. There are many institutions that we accept the way they are because it has always been that way but an institution needs to change with times to continue being relevant.

At the end of the day, religion is a personal matter but the pursuit of privacy in India is a selfish one. Sometimes, you may need to exhibit a certain amount of faith to get people to believe that you believe in HIM but then even better, why bother to even show. Isn't it so much easier to leave people to exercise their own judgments without you bothering to explain?

It is not easy for Governments to disassociate themselves from religion but it is precisely their role that has complicated what is essentially a matter of faith. The Government panders to symbols of militant groups from various religions and neglects areas where reform is essential. So, the Uniform Civil Code becomes a symbol of minority persecution instead of women empowerment and banning books becomes a law and order issue instead of a question of freedom of expression. Big Brother is adept at using religion to play vote politics and many of us play along with it, ignoring the implications that this means.

While it is easy to be critical of the rest of the populace and act like the perfect liberal, it is so easy to gloss over one’s own prejudices.Nisha Susan in a nice little article in Tehelka tries to look at her and her family’s jaundiced approach towards religion – an article which has inspired me to question my own prejudices and understand whether my actions have any disconnect with the philosophy I believe in and keep harping about.

I realize that while being a liberal is fine, I have my own faith systems like everyone else sometimes making it difficult to see my own inner assumptions about life. It is a bit like Paul Haggis’ Crash where the people who believe in being fair and honest in their assessment of others suddenly make a slip and their prejudices surface leading to a problem.

Image Courtesy - http://www.last.fm/user/mitrado/journal/2008/02/23/trs_atheism_vs_religion_cartoons

Development Notes From Kerala

Mouthing platitudes like “India lives in its villages” comes easy but understanding rural development is an altogether different ball game. The Kerala Government, through its channel DD Kerala decided to market rural development stories at prime time and thus was born Green Kerala Express. GKE, in a span of 100+ episodes, took us through an expedition through several villages in Kerala to understand the work being carried out in rural/semi-urban Kerala and appreciate the work done by local bodies. Palakkad, Thrissur, Alappuzha and Trivandrum came out well on top among the various villages while Kottayam, Idukki and Kasargod were probably the least impressive.

A few thoughts that I had as a viewer of this experience:

Agriculture needs support to survive – Governmental apathy and bad governance is pushing the farming community to ruin. Corporate takeovers of prime agricultural land at subsidized rates (helped by ready-to-bend governments) is being marketed to people as life savers for people but see what Vedanta has done in Orissa and Coca-Cola in Palakkad and you understand who benefits from such tacit support. Obviously, waiting for the rains and doling out subsidies is not the solution – there has to be a larger concerted end-to-end solution to promoting agriculture. Villages like Palamel, Puthussery and Perambra have linked NREGS and Kudumbasee to reclaim land and make them fit for paddy cultivation. Aryanadu Grama Panchayat launched an innovative programme called Vitthu Mudal Vipani Vere (from seeds to sales) which ensured that the farmer receives seeds, financial aid, inputs on agriculture from experts and finally has a means to sell his produce at a fair price. Small farmlands are not sustainable because of the high cost of labour – one way as demonstrated in Trivandrum is group farming where a set of farmers come together and till all their lands together and make an earning, in proportion to their area.

Women Empowerment in development – The way a society treats its women indicates its level of progress. For all the impressive social indicators clocked by the state, the conspicuous absence of women in the public domain remains as a paradox of the Kerala model of development. Kudumbasree is a woman oriented, community based poverty eradication project launched by the Government of Kerala with the active support of the Centre and NABARD. The programme has 37 lakh members and covers more than 50% of the households in Kerala. Built around three critical components, micro credit, entrepreneurship and empowerment, the Kudumbashree initiative has today succeeded in addressing the basic needs of the less privileged women, thus providing them a more dignified life and a better future. The mission aims at the empowerment of women, through forming self help groups and encouraging their entrepreneurial or other wide range of activities. Kudumbashree, when combined with NREGS is working wonders for its women folk - for the first time equal wages are really paid and this has boosted the earnings of women and their status in the family.

Illusion of Rural development = Agriculture – While agriculture is the backbone of the rural economy, it is not the only sustainable activity. Many villages in Kerala, with the help of Kudumbashree, have created entrepreneurs who focus on dairy farms, fisheries and small scale units. Most of the activities have mostly acted as supplementary sources of income but there is recognition that such jobs generate money and people with no agricultural land can actually be helped by Kudumbashree and other Governmental agencies to run their own units. In Elappully, dairy farmers are now supplying milk to households, hotels and various other establishments in the panchayat and have branded it “Elappully Farm Fresh Milk.” Despite selling only the remaining milk to Milma, they have been able to earn a turnover of Rs.7.5 crore. They have also launched various value-added products under their own brand name. The presence of a large number of water bodies has brought marine farming (fish, shrimps) in several areas, with an active support of the panchayats.

Organic farming is Viable – Some time back, I had a talk with an uncle of mine who is a farmer; he grows the produce required for his own consumption and the rest is sold in the market. While he uses organic means to take care of the crop that he consumes, he sprays fertilizers on the rest. He says that no farms can survive only on bio-fertilizers and that the produce is affected adversely, without chemical usage. This is a rather common mindset and many farmers follow this style, however, GKE has shown that this is could be a misconception. Adat grama panchayat home to about 3,000 acres of kole paddy fields, has successfully launched itself on the organic path to farming and set a model for panchayats elsewhere in the State. The panchayat commandeered Kudumbasree units to process its organic only paddy and began marketing the rice under the brand name Adat and followed it up with Kerasree organic coconut oil. Mararikulam, Kudappanakkunu and Sreekryam have started their own selling outlets for organic vegetables.

Efficient Labour Utilization –NREGS has played a critical role in ensuring a minimum wages programme for workers who register with it. But it may not be always possible to provide employment on demand through works of productive nature at all times of the year. Also, to ensure requirement of labour for crops in agriculture season, it may be better to follow a system of running rural works only during the slack season, as demonstrated by Elappully Panchayat which has drawn its own NREGS calendar. A few villages like Kannadi and Sooranadu North have implemented the concept of labour banks to tide over the shortage of skilled labour. Kozhikode Municipal Corporation has a Swabhimaan Multi-Purpose scheme to provide service for works like plumbing, wiring, plucking coconuts, etc. for which there is a scarcity of labour now. It boasts that to call for help, one has to log on to their website and place his/her request and a person would be dispatched within an hour to resolve the problem.

Greater Decentralization – Most organizations in the country work like the Congress Party where workers have no say and everything is decided by the Central High Command. While this approach works fine for specific areas like defence and foreign affairs, day-to-day governance requires a more federal approach from Centre to State to Village to Gram Sabhas. Panchayats are better placed to understand local needs and will be more accountable than an outside person/entity. Bringing governance down to the local level would also help in better management of local resources. A few experiences in Kerala and Karnataka prove that a performing panchayat can not only improve the delivery of services to the locals, but also help in improving administration by improving revenue collections. Aryanad (in Trivandrum) now uses a concept called participatory budgeting where all the social minded individuals of the village come together in November and for a period of 4 months, they discuss, debate, budget and prioritize all projects for the forthcoming year. This has ensured a 100% completion of their projects and being in sync with the State’s budgetary plans.

Universal Education – Kerala’s biggest success story has been its success in primary education. But is 100% literacy a true figure or is it mere 100% enrolment; studies need to be carried out to estimate the student retention percentages in every school. Student attendance is a big challenge and with the RTE in place, more effort will be needed. The mid-day meal remains the main strategy of the panchayats but this has been streamlined with focus on nutrition (inclusion of vegetables and nuts, along with kanji), special classes for weaker students and starting tuition centres in SC/ST centres to encourage them to join schools. It is heartening to note that Malayalam medium schools have begun to devote attention to English, with special focus on speaking and reading skills (A government school in Elappully revealed that parents insisted that English be taught only as a language and not the medium!!!). Many panchayats have started initiating special neighbourhood classes, night classes and extra tuitions with greater focus on students from weaker sections to encourage them to integrate with the mainstream.

Environment-oriented growth –Environmental clearances are mere formalities that are provided in under- the- table meetings, rendering their certifications irrelevant. Since Kerala has limited public land, it has been decided to take up eco-restoration works in degraded forest lands. Palamel panchayat in Alappuzha, in its interactions with GKE, mentioned how the panchayat had to fight illegal occupations and mining in their village to stop the farms lands from going bare. Over a period of time, they have managed to reclaim private wastelands and converting them into fertile beds. Eloor (Ernakulam) has an energy sena of children who educate the neighborhood houses about energy planning by which they could lower the total electricity consumption by about 20% in each house. Akathethara in Palakkad launched an initiative of planting trees over roadsides by linking with NREGS to retain its sustainability. Over 1 lakh trees of different species have been planted so far and approximately 90,000 trees have been sustained in the effort. Bio-gas plants have been started in several villages to utilize the wastes generated in the villages. To make the environment movement more sustainable, people involvement is needed and they must be convinced of the utility of listening to Nature. Villages are now being encouraged growing fish in a large way because of its role in cleaning up water bodies, in addition to generating supplementary income to its people.

Infotainment is Marketable – When DD Thiruvanthapuram Kendra launched GKE, there were sceptics who dismissed it as another education programme, out of sync with audience tastes. But today when the programme has ended its successful run, it has gone into television history as a show that attempted to make a difference. The concept was innovative and so was the actual implementation – you had young, peppy anchors (who could actually speak Malayalam well), an intelligent and qualified jury, SMS campaigns to encourage viewers (SMS has a small weightage only unlike many other shows) and a prize money worth fighting for. As part of the branding, the sets were green and well-lit, the music was ethereal and the anchors travelled to villages only in cycles. The State Government spent close to 4 crore as prize money for the show and has been advertising heavily to promote sanitation as part of its Clean Kerala campaign (remember the days of family planning and immunization ads on TV, do you see any TV channels doing this now?).

FIFA World Cup 2010 - A Perspective

After 116 minutes of struggle, the underachievers, Spain, finally got the better of the other perpetual underachiever, Netherlands, to be crowned World Champions. The match was not a top draw one and until the latter part of the second half, no team seemed competent to break through the other’s defence. In a foul marred scrappy match (did the Dutch create a world record for the most carded team in a game?), Spain just managed to pip the Dutch to the post and win glory.

It was a commendable Dutch performance in terms of strategy, especially the strong defence (specifically Van Bommel and Mathijsen) but it wasn’t a pretty sight to see them ambush the Spaniards and reducing the game to a slugfest (can De Jong’s kungfu kick into Xabi qualify as anything else other than thuggish?). Their plan was to get up close and personal and they held out till the very end till the weight of the all those cards finally stopped them. The Oranjes would reckon that Arjen Robben should have put across the two simple chances and taken them to the trophy in normal time but the Spaniards too missed out on many opportunities until Iniesta finally managed to breach the Dutch goal. Spain was the better team but it was a pretty close fight (literally).

We deserved a better final after the wonderful Group Stage matches and even more entertaining 3rd place play-off but I am glad Spain won. If the Dutch had triumphed, it would have been bad for the game because there is no place for the way they approached the match.

Mahesh: I disagree this time around with the phrase that the best team won. On paper Spain (and Argentina) was one of the better teams, but per world cup showing, the best team was Germany, Nederland, and Uruguay.

A look at the top teams:

Spain

Pradeep: The La Furia Roja stepped into South Africa as the hot favourite and went all the way to the podium, in a spirited display of educated technical football. They started on a wrong footing stumbling to Switzerland and were patchy at times (as in the Paraguay match) but did well to grind most of their opponents and win through their superior ball possession skills. For all practical purposes, La Roja is the Barcelona team, sans Messi and their success in the last couple of years mirrors the success that Barcelona has been enjoying. The Spaniards, with their pressing strategy, played with immense patience ensuring that in all the games their ball possession was superior to their opponent. The semi-final with Germany was a lesson in clinical football where the Germans were outclassed by a classy team. The team is well balanced with the most creative midfield (Iniesta, Xavi and Xabi) in modern football and a strong defence (Puyol, Piquet and Sergio Ramas). They did not score too many goals but their phenomenal ball possession meant that the opposition was always defending, with very few chances to gain control of the match as Germany realised. Of course, it is unusual for a World Cup winner to score to just 7 goals (despite high levels of ball possession); for all the creativity displayed in the midfield, they just do not seem to have a great finisher (which Messi does for Barcelona). They may have been a tad lucky at times but then surely, Dame Luck needed to smile a bit to crown the best team in the World Cup.

Mahesh: They were lucky. Out of the 10 players starting the game 9 are from Real Madrid or Barcelona ( Torres plays for Liverpool and CapDe Villa plays for some Spanish team:Valencia or Sevilla. not too sure). Even better was the semi-finals and finals where Torres was benched and Pedro brought in (another Barcelona product). Swiss actually played in a very efficient and organised way, thus beating Spain. It became such an embarrassment that Spain was just playing possession game for the rest of the tournament. I would have loved to see them play some attacking football. Again just my views, but Spain did not deserve to win the cup this time ard..

Outstanding Players: Xavi, Villa and Iniesta.

Germany

Pradeep: They came, they saw, they conquered but sadly only the hearts of the people and not the Cup. The German team, under Joachim Low, played eye-catching entertaining football (in continuation with Klinsmann’s attacking style started in FIFA 2006) and taught Latin America a lesson or two in Joga Bonito. In almost all the games, they managed to score early and hold on to their lead till the mid of second half and then slaughtered the tired opposition by their relentless attacking. The young, multi-ethnic team won many fans for their open and counter attacking football (Socrates called them the true successors to the legendary 1970 Brazilian team) but were stopped by the tactical efficiency of the Spaniards. The free flow of the Germans was literally choked by the spectacular Spanish midfield and lost the battle comprehensively (even though the score line of 1-0 may suggest otherwise). Give the ball to the Germans and they are all over the place and so the Spaniards just cut off their oxygen (did the Germans actually have 51% possession of the ball!!!) and got them to play in closed tactical manoeuvres which starved them. The young brigade of Muller, Oezil, Khedira were finds while the old warhorses- Schweinsteiger (not exactly old at 26!!!), Klose and Podolski- gave excellent support. The young team has raised high hopes and FIFA 2014 could see the team at their peak.

Mahesh: German teams have always been bull ones and they just push and shove around the park and I hate them. Surprisingly this time around they played some scintillating football. May be the new generation. but it was fun to watch them play, although I still hate them as they defeated England and Argentina ( the two teams that I cheer for). More than Mueller's absence,Joachim Low let them down in the semis with poor strategy. He very well knew how the Spanish are going to play and instead of starting with Trochowski (who is more defensive), he should have started with another striker Gomez, to really supplement Klose.. Reverting back to the 4-4-2 variation rather than having a 4-3-2-1 variation. This would have strengthened their midfield and cut the Spanish passing. Else they should have done a 4-5-1 variation which Swiss did effectively to nullify Spain.. Low actually put them in a no man's land.

Argentina

Pradeep: Right from the beginning, the football was only about Maradona and Messi and remained the same way till the end. They attacked well in the league stage against smaller opponents and though Messi did not score, he was the main playmaker. Their initial games raised a few hopes of Latino magic but it was always going to be a tall order for an Argentinian team that struggled in the qualifiers and just about sneaked through in the play-offs. In the Q/F, they were however whipped by the Germans and played the price for a defence that never existed. Messi received practically no support with the exception of Tavez who was running across all over the pitch; they seemed such a rusty outfit against the well-oiled German machine and were simply dismantled by their opponents. Maradona is no great strategist and he simply relied on the players to just go out and deliver (being a genius makes it difficult to understand trivialities like team strategies) but the team were nowhere near the class of the previous WC team which had the likes of Crespo, Messi, Saviola, Veron and most importantly, Riquelme (who refused to play under Maradona and retired). There was over dependence on Messi to deliver but the Argentinan midfield was no Barcelona and simply gave way to Schwenstiger and his boys who controlled the area with absolutely no difficulty whatsoever. The defence was always the pain area and while it was ok to play that way in the league games this way, better opponents would have hit them in this area.

Mahesh: My team is Argentina.. Simple logic and everyone has been pointing this out to the Diego Maradona (greatest ever player) that he cannot play Central Defenders on the Full back positions.. One of the teams were going to rip them apart and it turned out to be Germany... Lesson learnt for Diego as he has an extended four year term now..

Brazil

The current Brazilian team may not possess the same elan of their illustrious predecessors but Jogo Bonito has been conspicuously missing since the late 80s anyway. Dunga’s boys were joint favourites with Spain; they played pragmatically and had a similar approach as the Spanish in controlling the ball (strategy not implementation, mind you) but were outwitted by the Dutch in a game that were theirs to win (atleast till the Dutch struck their first goal). The dominating game in the first half was suddenly lost and they seemed to suddenly mentally disintegrate and hand the match over to Netherlands. A slight defence lapse with some bad luck thrown in (Sneijder’s goal) and suddenly, the team looked lost for ideas. Kaka struggled throughout and Robinho seemed the only player capable of pulling off a goal; though the defence was strong, the midfield did not create much of an impression. Surprisingly, one of the most talented teams in the world did not seem to have enough bench strength in the WC to make things happen and they were waiting for the opponents to make mistakes than create chances.

Netherlands

Pradeep: Holland has always been the delicate underperformer whose style endured them to the public but victory always eluded them. Successive teams always faced comparison with the ‘Total Football’ of Cryuff and Neeskens but this Oranje team was not the most brilliant team from Holland or even in the World Cup. And yet the Dutch produced some of the positive football that has brought them this far in South Africa. They played as a team brushing aside the constant rumours of inner team conflicts relying on a hard, straight; physical game. In most games, the Dutch sparkled in the second half with the likes of Arjen Robben, Sneijder and Kuyt emerging as the key men, along with Van Bommel as a key defensive cog. Their play in the final may not have earned them too many admirers but it was effective and they managed to control the Spanish Armada and almost took the game away from them. In the semis, they stunned Brazil with a strong counter attack and forced them to lose their cool and the match, unlike the Spaniards. Robben would rue his missed chances in the final but with eight yellow cards, 14 shots to Spain's 21, 28 fouls to their 19 and 37% possession, Spain was the better team.

Mahesh: My teams of the tournament. They were brilliant in all the games and had the energy, willingness and patience to win the finals. Wonderfully, controlled Spain during the game. People would say that getting an Yellow card is bad, but depends on the foul. Except for Robben, I would say all the cards that they received were good ones. Unfortunately, they tried one too many and Heitinga got sent off... Remember Spain only scored after he was sent off.. Robben should have won the game, but somehow he missed it.. they were brave.. Lets see in Euro 2012...

England

Well it is a pity that Rooney did not play well.. I was surprised to see that Rooney was playing in a non-committed fashion. He never went for the 50-50 balls, rather than playing he was okay to make the defender clear the ball and the most surprising thing was he was not effective with one on one marking. I have literally watched all his games for United last season and this is very unlike him..Without him England was no where near to their best.

Uruguay

Cheaters, deceivers, etc.. whatever u want to call them,  they played some good team football.. Spain was the only other team who played as a team... Unlucky to progress but Nederland's were too much for them..

A few observations:

1. The Golden Boot should be given to Paul, the Octopus. By the time we had come to the semis, it looked like the punters had more faith in the German octopus than the actual performers. Rumours abound that Paul would be adopted by Spain and rechristened-Pablo.

2. The Vuvuzela was supposed to be the African equivalent of the Mexican wave but all it was to drown the voices of everything around. It was irritating that you could not get to hear the commentators on TV and everytime you increased the volume, the buzzing just increased.

3. The Jabulani (the Zulu word means ‘to celebrate’) ball manufactured by Adidas was criticized by everyone with Fabiano calling it “supernatural” but the Germans who have already adopted the ball for their domestic league had no complaints and kept slamming the ball into the nets. Incidentally, it seems the ball has an Indian connection - the bladder at the core of the Jabulani is made by Enkay Rubber in a factory in Gurgaon, using latex sourced from Kerala (this is not Manorama news!!)

4. The referees played spoil sport and allowed players to dive with impunity (Arjen Robben needs a special mention for his skills) and whipped up cards for no specific reasons other than itchy hands. FIFA’s reluctance may have costed England and Mexico dear (personally, I think England was anyway 2nd best to Germans on the day but why give the cry babies a chance to complain), especially with the whole world watching live on TV. They can learn a techno trick or two from cricket and tennis.

5. The stars were non-starters and were prominent on the papers than the field. Superstars like Ronaldo, Rooney, Kaka and Torres were sadly in another Time Zone and only served as liabilities for the team. Messi may not have scored but he played a role in almost all Argentina’s attempts.

6. The free kick was a non-starter. No one other than Forlan was able to pull off a free kick with any conviction (Jabulani????) and it made sense to indulge in passing than clearing the goal with fancy attempts but it still did not deter teams from attempting it.

7. The gap between the bigger and the smaller teams in increasingly reducing. The Asian Bloc gave a credible performance while Slovakia, Ghana, Uruguay and Chile provided unexpected excitement. France and Italy were knocked out remorselessly without even the pretense of a fight while England limped to the pre-quarters where Germany showed them their place (albeit with FIFA’s help).

My Tournament Favourites

Team: Germany
Player(s): Iniesta, Xavi (Spain) and Diego Forlan (Uruguay)
Future Prospect: Thomas Muller (Germany)
Game: Germany 4-1 England (Pre-Quarter-finals)
Goal: David Villa (Spain v Honduras), Diego Forlan (Uruguay v Netherlands/Semi final)

Raavanan

After all the hype (so typical of a Mani Ratnam flick), Mani’s ambitious re-telling of the Ramayana is finally here. Fortunately Mumbai, despite the presence of the rabid first Sena family, has a simultaneous release of Raavan in Tamil and Hindi. Mani and Priyan are rooted in their own languages and despite their attempts to be pan-India directors, cultural milieus do not translate easily. So, we decided to grab tickets to the Tamil version (additionally regional movies are cheaper in PVR!!!).

Mani’s Ramayana is set in Ambasamudram, a taluk in Tirunalveli. A ruthless Superintendent of Police Prithviraj (Dev Prakash/Rama) heads an operation to find a tribal leader and lawbreaker Vikram (Veeraiya/Ravana), a supposedly Robin Hood-like figure to the tribals, who kidnaps his wife Aishwarya Rai (Raagini/Sita). The story initially presents Veera as a brutal murderer but it is later on revealed the kidnap has been led on by the death of his sister, as a result of police custodial torture and brutal rape. Similarly, the smart and educated cop emerges slowly as a black character and Raagini slowly realizes that her husband is no saint while her demonic captor has a soft side after all.

The parallels with Ramayana are clear – the repeated references to 14 days/hours/years , Veera’s two brothers, a Hanuman-like character in Gnana Prakasam (Karthik as a talkative forest guard), a Surpanakha character in Vennila (Priya Mani) who acts as the trigger point for the conflict, the rather ridiculous idea of a polygraph test as an Agnipariksha to name a few. The analogies are forced and Mani is faithful to the epic in terms of its characters’ existence but not in terms of the story and so the characters exist since they exist in the original epic and nothing more.

The very premise of retelling Ramayana is exciting-the idea that there is a Ravan as well as a Ram in everyone and each situation brings out the Ram/Ravan in each of us is worth exploring and helps in understanding the epic in more ways than the existing tradition. But Mani has no such interest in bringing out any such moral ambiguity; he takes the easy way out in dangling such an idea initially but chickens out midway to simply do a role reversal of Ramayana, which by itself would not be a bad thing, if not for how one dimensional it becomes.

Dev has hardly any redeemable qualities- he is a hard- nosed cop who simply wants to finish Veera and he will go to any extent to do that. There are scenes written explicitly to make him a villain and you know that the director wants us to root for the anti-hero, except of course that Veera is no anti-hero. Veera has stellar qualities and there is nothing which even makes you question his actions- a trigger happy moral activist, fighting the ruthless government, incidentally using guns and bombs.

Mani has always been a supporter of the rebel though ofcourse, he never takes pains to go the full way and make the character ask whether his actions are justified in any way. We do not know what Veera represents and what is his fight against? We assume that he is probably a Robin Hood and that’s the most that Mani is willing to do to explain the political stance of his protagonist. Instead, Vikram and his men appear like grown up men who just want to enjoy life in the beautiful locations selected by Mani, rather than represent any movement. While the movie keeps harping about Ravana’s ten heads and his multi-layered character, but for God's sake, where is this enigma; he may have existed on paper but is conspicuously absent on screen. He is a rustic nobleman and belongs to a low caste which ambiguously sets up a caste conflict with his upper caste, suave and sophisticated bête noir but this thread is not explored.

The closest that a class/caste conflict arises in an interesting interaction between Veera and Raagini, in the backdrop of a splendid reclining Vishnu in the sea (reminds you of Kannathil Muthamittal) where he wants to know whether her God is flawless and handsome. This sets up the imagery of a clean and handsome upper caste God as celebrated in most visuals vis-a-vis an unkempt, pastoral low caste God who drinks and smokes; was this also an attempt to conjure the idea of a contrast between a Vishnu bhakta and a Shiva bhakta? (except of course, Mani's Raavanan is not a learned brahmin but a low caste hero)

Dev’s character begins to emerge with a sense of moral conflict but quickly descends into an amoral bloodthirsty cop, without much of an explanation- hardly a comparison with Rama. He tortures an armless man to extract information about his abducted wife’s whereabouts, shoots a messenger of peace (the Vibhishana character Sakkarai) in the back after guaranteeing non-violent negotiations and even distrusts his wife. It is almost as if the director goes an extra mile to paint Dev black and there are hints that his marital life may not necessarily be a bed of roses. The climax clearly underscores this point but it looks contrived and only succeeds in alienating his character further from the audience’s sympathies. (***Spoiler Alert--When we are told that Deva used his wife to entrap Veera, the first thing that strikes me is what kind of husband decides to trick his wife and send her into the jungle again to capture a bloody brigand-either he has so much confidence in her abilities or he just does not care- the upholder of Dharma is only interested in capturing Veera.)

Raagini has the best perspective on the two protagonists because of her proximity with them but this is not clearly spelt out. As the movie progresses, she realizes that her husband is not perfect and this view helps her in grasping the moral ambiguity of the situation better. But when the camera is so besotted with her and the equally captivating surroundings, it is difficult to understand her feelings. As she jumps across waterfalls and rocks, she suffers bruises but through Santosh Sivan’s lens, they adorn her face, making us forget her pain. She is desperate to flee herself from Veera’s clutches but slowly, she begins to see him in new light – something that can be explained more from a Stockhlom’s Syndrome perspective than anything else. A couple of scenes and a song establish her love for Dev but the climax hints that all is not well in God’s paradise but is that good enough to warrant falling for Veera?  

Raagini is shocked when she learns that Veera was shot at during his sister’s wedding; come on, was she expecting the cops to wait for the marriage to be completed before they attacked ? Of course, you’d wonder how the most wanted man in the place decides to make his presence so evident in the marriage that even the cops find him easily. When Gnana Prakasam gets Dev’s approval to approach Raagini, he immediately locates Veera’s hideout, while our poor cops have no idea where he is!!! Similarly, when Dev suspects her, she lands straight at the villains's den, without any difficulty (stop the train midway, catch a bus and lo behold, we are in Raavanan territory). The final fight happens on a Ramar Sethu bridge and as the battle finishes, it becomes increasingly clear that while Dev is fighting a battle for the establishment, Veera is simply seeking revenge. Veera strikes only when his own people are attacked but Dev, even after reclaiming his wife, wants to put to sword the legend of Veera (possibly the only moral spin).

Vikram definitely steals the show with his powerful performance (quite a contrast to Abhishek in Ravan, I guess) and though there are scenes where he goes overboard , that's more of Mani's doing. Prithviraj is subtle but has limited work to do which he does convincingly with ease. Aishwarya manages to stay afloat but the camera’s fascination with her makes it difficult for us to dwell more into the character. Prabhu as Vikram’s brother is delightful while Priya Mani and Karthik make a mark despite limited screen space.

The movie works in spurts and these are times, you’d expect the movie to take-off but the MBA takes over the auteur and we are left wondering if the story in more capable hands could have been more appealing. I have never been a fan of Mani Ratnam School of Cinema and find it extremely shallow but then, every movie of his generates enough hype to force you to watch it. Enjoy it for the visual spectacle that it is and it becomes easy to digest but a different perspective on Ramayana, it is definitely not.

Director Mani Ratnam is inherently an armchair liberal who likes to take up political issues after sugar coating the script with protagonists who are generally caught up in the midst of an upheaval or who become sympathetic negative characters. Raavanan is no different in the sense that Ramayana merely serves as a backdrop for Mani Ratnam to show his love for breathtaking camera work. Like most of his movies, these masquerade as arty cinema but are eventually technical props – Raavanan, even by his standards, serves as a great ad for the National Geographic Channel and Valmiki is merely a tool in the story telling. 

The Second Bhopal Tragedy

Karl Marx had once said - History repeats itself, occurring first as tragedy, the second time as farce. The quotation cannot have been more aptly applied than to the Bhopal Gas Disaster where the farce in question is the so-called conviction of the perpetuators of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, which makes a mockery of the Indian sense of justice. More than 25 years after a deadly gas leak from a Union Carbide plant caused the world’s worst industrial disaster, which killed more than 15,000 and affected more than 5 lakh people (and many more unreported), a local court yesterday convicted all the accused to a 2 year imprisonment!!! The accused were fined a lakh each and immediately granted bail.

The sentence is not just distressing – it is absolutely shocking to see a crime on humanity escaping such a mild rebuke, under the Indian law. After years of suffering under an arrogant MNC and being ignored by that albatross called Government of India, the people of Bhopal have been delivered the final blow. The victims of the Bhopal disaster gain practically nothing from the judgment; even a moral satisfaction of seeing the big guys behind bars is missing.

The Indian judicial system does not seem to be capable of giving justice to its own people- the main accused has not even been brought to trial and seven others have been given punishments, which equates the crime to a road negligence act, instead of the actual heinous act that it is. If justice has eluded the victims, this is because the governments of the US and India have colluded to protect the guilty. Successive governments have been eager to please US business corporations in order to attract more investment rather than pursue justice.

Even by the standards of the Indian judicial system, a 25 year wait is an incredibly long wait and imagine this is the largest industrial disaster in the world. Will it be wrong to expect a speedy, detailed investigation into an even of such enormity but then we are bound by our law. The only fatalistic expectation that we can have is of Divine justice and karmic punishment for the accused!!!

Various investigations and studies show that a series of negligent decisions taken by the management lead to the explosion of the gas tank, leading to 40,000 kg of methyl isocyanide spilling over to the city. Investigations over the years have shown that the Bhopal plant design was faulty and that there was next to no emergency preparedness — issues that the parent company in the U.S. apparently knew about, according to the groups that conducted the studies. Union Carbide not apply the same safety standards at its plant in India as it operated at a sister plant in West Virginia, US but then you can do that in India and get away with it.

Initially, Union carbide offered $ 5 million as a relief fund but the Indian government rejected the claim and demanded $3.3 billion instead. The original criminal case was settled out of court in 1989, when both Union Carbide and the Government sought to terminate all court proceedings by agreeing for a $470 million settlement. Consequently, Union Carbide paid 713 crore to the government as compensation – 113 crore was paid to those with property and cattle damage while the remaining 600 crore was to be distributed to the kin of the death and injured. But some victims are still waiting to receive even this share of the money.

No scientific survey was done and an arbitrary casualty figure was estimated. As time progressed, the numbers reported started increasing but since the amount was already agreed upon, the fixed amount had to be distributed among the people leading to on an average, each victim just receiving 12,410 Rs!!! As part of this settlement, all the criminal charges filed against Union Carbide were dropped but the uproar caused due to this led to the reopening of cases in 1991.

However, in 1996, the Supreme Court directed that charges against the accused be converted from culpable homicide (which carries a maximum of 10 years) to death due to negligence (maximum sentence of 2 years). So, the trail court cannot be accused of going soft on the accused; the real slackness was demonstrated by the SC Bench (including the then CJI A M Ahmedi) for allowing prosecution only under nominal ground. By reducing the Bhopal disaster to the equivalent of a traffic accident, the prison term for the crimes of Bhopal was brought down from 10 years to 2 years.

The main accused Warren Anderson, who was the Chairman and CEO of Union Carbide at the time of the incident was not even in the list of those convicted. He was arrested and released on bail by the police in 1984 and since then he has turned his back to India. The Indian Government made a plea for his extradition in 2004, but it was rejected by the US Government on the grounds that under US laws, only someone personally culpable for a crime can be extradited. The American and Indian Governments claimed they had no whereabouts about Warren Anderson but Greenpeace traced him to a nine hundred thousand dollar luxury home in New York, where he still lives in ‘anonymity’.

The Indian government seemed to go out of its way to cushion the experience for Union Carbide. The various Union governments in the meantime have not taken on Union Carbide, which is now owned by Dow Chemical. Meanwhile, Keshub Mahindra, Chairman of Union Carbide India Ltd at the time of the Bhopal disaster and now chairman of Mahindra & Mahindra was even nominated for a civilian honor, the Padma Bhushan, in 2002!!! He had to decline in the face of widespread protests.

In 1999, Raj Sharma, a lawyer based out of US, filed a lawsuit in the US against Union Carbide and Anderson, and has been litigating since. And this is what he has to say about the Indian Government - "The Indian government refused to put in even a single line or letter for us. They did not want to be embarrassed in front of Union Carbide, embarrassed to be supporting their own people. I had heard of the government's collusion with the company before I left for Bhopal. I said to myself, 'Don't be naive, this cannot be true,' until I saw it happening with my own eyes," says Sharma.

In a separate US litigation in 2002, Dow Chemical set aside $2.2bn to compensate American workers who were exposed to asbestos at Union Carbide operations but the cost of an Indian life is really not worth anything – for all gung-go talks about being at par with the West, an Indian life is not worth even a mini-percentage of the various bailouts that the US Government does for its greedy financial institutions.

This is in contrast to the way the U.S. government is now confronting BP — holding it squarely responsible for the oil spill and accountable for all cleanup costs. Eleven people were killed when British Petroleum's Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in Gulf of Mexico, compared to 20,000+ deaths in Bhopal. The oil spill has caused extensive damage to marine life, birds and the US coastline in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. In Bhopal, 26 years after the gas leak, the soil and the water are still contaminated,   with dangerously high levels of toxic chemicals, and thousands still suffering the aftereffects.

British Petroleum has already paid 69 million dollars, just as first installment for the damages caused. That figure could multiply several times, with the company's liability still being decided. In contrast, Union Carbide paid just $ 470 million in compensation for the deaths it caused.

There are disturbing echoes of this history in the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, which the Manmohan Singh Government introduced in Parliament and is eager to push to please the Obama administration. The Bill not merely limits the civil liability of any company running a nuclear power plant to Rs 500 crore per accident (less than a quarter of the dollar equivalent of the Bhopal settlement two decades ago), with an overall cap of roughly Rs 2,100 crore; it also exonerates international companies that supplied the equipment and technology. No equipment supplier in any other industry has such exemption from liability, and no other industry functions with such a cap on the operator's liability. Doesn’t the Bhopal Conviction clearly expose how shallow such a Bill is and the risk that we are going to take to please the Americans?

Shobhan Saxena puts it appropriately when he says in a blog in The Times of India - Today, India proved once again that it doesn't care for its poor… Today, India proved that it doesn't really care for its people, particularly if they have been slaughtered by powerful people from the most powerful nation in the world. Instead of taking on America and fighting for justice for its poor, India is more than happy to sell its dead cheap. Today – on the day of Bhopal disaster judgment -- if there is a failed state in the world, it’s India. It’s not Iraq. It’s not Somalia. It’s not Sudan. It’s India.

It's King Vishy Again

On May 11^th at about 10 pm IST, when Veselin Topalov shook hands with Viswanathan Anand at the end of Game-12 of the World Chess Championship on May 11th, the Indian Chess King successfully defended his Crown, a feat beautifully compared by Amit Verma in a nice little article to a guy taking a Maruti 800 into a Formula 1 race and winning the championship. It was tougher than his previous three wins and the effort showed as the grand finale swung through various tumultuous rounds of tension before the more patient man among the two finally won his way through.

Most of India was glued to the TV set watching Dhoni’s boys, oblivious of the match being played but then Chess has never been much of a media favourite, though the sport is much more popular now when compared to its status years back when Anand played Alexey Dreev in Madras, in his first major stab at the Championship.

Anand was the slight pre-match favourite, but there was never much to choose between the two men. At 40, he was the aging champion against the relatively younger and tough talking Topalov, who had a one point lead over Anand in Classical Chess.

The pre-game interviews had the Bulgarians ranting against Anand on many an occasion - for being too old (just 5 yrs older than Topalov, of course), too conservative and trying to trick the organisers by pretending he was in Sofia and attempting to postpone the games by his lousy travel plans. He was also riled for not doing enough to ensure that the Championship was held in India, instead of Bulgaria; Topalov has repeatedly maintained that for him "home" is a disadvantage because of the expectations. In Topalov’s words:

The prize fund in our match is 2 million Euro - about 3 million US $ - but if Anand would have made even a minor attempt, it could easily go over 5 million. India is a vast market and Anand is very popular in his homeland. But the World Champion preferred that someone else does all the work and even play the victim. 'Well, you see, I prefer not to play in Bulgaria, but there are no other options.' We were prepared to play in India half the games or even the whole match, but Anand didn't make even the slightest effort to arrange anything about this.

The significance of a venue now is debatable, unlike in the Cold War era, when the Russian-American geo-political rivalries also manifested themselves on chess boards. As mentioned in an earlier post, it was not because Anand did not lift his finger that the match did not come to India. The match was held in Bulgaria (even though the Bulgaria bid is only 13 crore) because the AICF could not get any sponsor; Vishy wanted the match to be held in India but with practically no interest shown by India, the bid was won by Bulgaria. N Srinivasan was busy taking care of Chennai Super Kings to worry about a small event like the World Chess Championship, featuring a local hero.

Bad Boy Topalov, true to form, decided to push the ante even before the play started. In 2005, a rule was framed banning conversation between players to curb the practice of competitors' offering each other draws in drawn-out games. But the rule has been rarely invoked, but Topalov insisted that he would not speak to India’s Viswanathan Anand, invoking this rule. Topalov also stuck to what is known as the Sofia rule in chess where if you need a draw you have to go to the chief arbiter and not offer it to your opponent. Anand had dismissed Topalov's rule saying, "A world championship should be played with world championship rules" but had no option and later on admitted in an interview later that it felt odd to be approached by the arbiter to accept a draw.

The starting date had been the subject of a week of argument after Anand became stranded at Frankfurt airport due to the Eyjafjallajökull volcanic ash cloud over Europe and requested a three-day delay. The volcanic eruption in Iceland disrupted Team Anand's travel schedule but somehow brought the team which was scattered all over, together at Frankfurt before they embarked on an adventurous journey from Frankfurt to Sofia in a hired bus travelling for 2000 kms, across five countries in 40 hours. In the end, the match was delayed by a single day with Topalov playing White in the first game.

But then Topalov has always found it tough to be a gentleman in a sport, which has had a fair share of odd balls. He had earlier raised a tantrum in the 2006 Fide World Chess Championship against Vladimir Kramnik, accusing his Russian opponent of visiting his personal loo too often during play (it was popularly called the Toiletgate). The Russian rejected a compromise of a shared lavatory, accused the organisers of bias, and even forfeited a game before finally winning the game in tie-break.

After all this, when the game started, it took off on a dramatic note with Anand forgetting his opening preparation and being duly demolished by an attacking Topalov. Anand bounced back immediately with a win and what followed were a set of closely fought games, which increasingly exhausted the players. With Topalov invoking the Sofia rule, draws were not easy (something that Anand was not used to since he believes in quick draws in dead positions) and seemed that Topalov had an upper hand in most of the exchanges. Anand had a few more chances but the pressure was enormous and the play suggested that Toplaov had the momentum with him as he tied down Anand with his fighting abilities.

Then came the decisive and dramatic final game against the run of play which might have been won and lost by Topalov’s aggression and maybe superstition! Topalov admitted after Tuesday's loss that he had avoided a repetition draw on move 26 because he was afraid of going to the rapid tie breaks. Partly because Anand is one of the great rapid players of all time, but also because the tiebreakers were to be played on Thursday the 13^th. And the 13^th was the same day that he had lost his rapid tiebreakers against Kramnik in 2006.

Vishy is known for his rapid chess playing abilities and so it was a bit surprising to see him lag behind Topalov in every match in terms of the time. But then chess circles also know Topalov as somebody who plays fast to trick his opponent – part of his psychological warfare. It involved a bit of bluffing and taking the fight to the enemy camp and a lot of strategizing.

In an interview with The Hindu, Anand admits being surprised by Topalov’s strategy - One of the things we assumed was, he always likes moving around in matches. This means, he'll play an opening for a couple of games and then move on to the next one. His match strategy in the past was never to stand his ground. Kind of hit-and-run strategy. So, whether consciously or sub-consciously, we had made this assumption the basis of our preparation. But he stood his ground. He did not switch his openings.

Followers of the sport may recollect the 1995 PCA World Chess Championship Final between Anand and Kasparov in New York, to understand the impact of psychological warfare in the sport. After eight successive draws, Anand had drawn first blood but Kasparov struck back with extreme ferocity. Game-10 showed Kasparov at his fiery best tactically as well as psychologically – so you saw him glaring hard at Anand, slamming doors, walking swiftly and creating an terrifying aura around him. Anand lost the match and the finals and Kasparov declared after the match that Anand had been well prepared for the chess, but not sufficiently prepared psychologically.

Much water has flown under the bridge since then and the young man is now a much mature player, who has learnt to handle the pressure of performing at the top for close to 10-15 years now. Topalov had his strategy cut out and definitely put across a brilliant effort in ensuring that the Championship was a well-fought see-saw battle and what eventually separated the King from the Vanquished was his aggressive and blustering indiscretions, as he tried to force a win. Topalov may go back ruing his move but his success has been largely brought about his ability to take risks and play aggressively and there are times when the gambit just fails and it happened finally in the most crucial match of the final.

In a sport where odd balls are the norm rather than the exception, Anand is a living proof that nice guys can finish first and he is the game’s best World Champion ambassador. Can we take a break from analyzing the antics of Dhoni's over-hyped team and celebrate the success of a true champion atleast now?

P.S. The next challenger to Anand in 2011 will be one among the following players – Veselin Topalov, Gata Kamsky, Levon Aronian, Boris Gelfand, Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, an organizer nominee and the runner-up of the Fide Grand Prix. The 19 year old World No.1, Magnus Carlsen (earlier trained by Kasparov), is already tipped to be a future World Champion and it would be interesting to see the Crown Prince battling the King in future - a position that Anand may have found himself when squaring off with Kasparov!!!

Let the Sleeping Watchdogs Lie

The One Man Army has finally been shown the door. After years of flaunting his power in the erstwhile halo corridors of the Indian cricket establishment, the Big Boys decided that it is time to stop the circus and let the Wise Old Men step in. So, outgoes showman Lalit Modi and incomes Amin, backed by a coterie of unsuspecting BCCI honchos, who slept when Indian cricket burnt. Nothing has changed; the main conman has been shown the door while the architects of the circus, watch amusedly at how they have effectively brought in IPL under their control.

Lalit Modi had made enough foes in the last few years as he strode over the map of IPL, brandishing his powers as a third world dictator, forgetting that what goes round comes around. Three years ago Jagmohan Dalmiya was hounded out from the BCCI over charges of corruption and embezzlement. Among his detractors, Modi was the shrillest, announcing on one occasion that Dalmiya would be sent to jail. Modi has now been dumped even more unceremoniously, and the charges against him are far more severe. Among other things he has been accused of fixing the auctions; of creating slush funds; manipulating broadcast deals and many more things.

The media is gleeful and there are obituaries about the man who sometime back was a knight in the shining armour – a man who changed the face of Indian cricket and hailed as a champion of the big brand called IPL. The moment Modi is axed, the Government says that there is nothing to probe against Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel and the focus would primarily be on Modi only – everyone wants a Fall Guy, and we have one, actually two – an ex-Foreign Minister, who was driven out.

BCCI honcho Shashikant Manohar says:

Now most of the contracts have been entered into without the consent of the governing council and they’ve been brought to the governing council after the contract was signed.

Ok, Picture this now - One man sits in the IPL office, conducts auctions, draws contracts, awards it to his people and makes money. After all the hard work of corruption is done, the papers are brought to the IPL Governing Council (Governing what????) and the Wise Men sign over the dotted lines of the contract, without batting an eye lid. Smart guys, they now that Collective Responsibility is not applicable in BCCI Constitution and in case anything goes wrong, all they have to do is point fingers.

You have 3 cricketers in the council, who are rubber stamps and have absolutely no idea what is happening – maybe they are simply naïve; after all you can’t call Gavaskar, Shastri and Pataudi corrupt or incompetent? The very idea of bringing them into such a Council would be to bring about a greater legitimacy to the its workings and provide a certain amount of checks and balances to such a system. But if it did not even read the contract or debate it, what the heck did this glorified council do - Make money by doling out contracts to Modi's kith and kin???

But then we must not forget that it is a nice little cosy club out there. BCCI Secretary N Srinivasan owns Chennai Super Kings, Gavaskar and Shastri have commentary contracts with BCCI and the IPL, the chairman of the national selection committee Srikanth is a brand ambassador for CSK. And this is what is publicly known. Practically, everyone has a close political association – If Congress has Rajiv Shukla, BJP has Arun Jaitley and you have the invisible hands of Sharad Pawar controlling many more stakes. Last week, Times Now has reported that in the previous season, BCCI awarded 5 million to the semi-finalists. Cool, right!!! Srinivasan transfers money from BCCI’s coffers to his and we call it ‘conflict of interest’ – whose interest??

Now, BCCI is a chameleon which keeps switching between being a public body and a private body as and when it wants. When a demand is put forth to bring in more accountability and bring BCCI under the ambit of Tight to Information, it suddenly becomes a private body, which cannot be questioned but when the same body asks for tax waiver or the right to control cricket in India, it becomes a public body working in the interests of Indian fans!!! In reality, BCCI is a registered society under an obscure law in Tamil Nadu and has de-facto control over cricket in India, without any legislation or form of accountability. It receives enormous benefits and concessions from Governments, buys land at throw away prices and gets tax exemptions for selling national interest. 

You must commend the role of media in this IPL Show. They praise Lalit Modi, go overboard in selling the IPL Brand, sitting mum over the so-called “conflicts of interest” and instances of corruption for so many years and suddenly, there is that smug WE TOLD YOU grin. There are stories of how Modi literally controlled Rajasthan, fixed deals and created a crony capitalistic regime in IPL – but why was the media silent all this while? Many of these facts exist in public domain but not a single query was raised so far on all this. The media was seduced by the big money, parties and prime time entertainment and the watchdog just slept through this spectacle till the tweet war between Tharoor and Modi shook things up.

Watch how Arnab Goswami (my pick of the worst of the English journalist showmen) grimaces and questions the legitimacy of all the deals done in IPL, casually dropping in a match fixing query and being so indignantly self-righteous. It is ridiculous that after shamelessly, blindly and unquestionably backing Modi and the IPL, media men start the demonizing act so fast without a qualm for journalistic impropriety (something only reserved for Shashi Tharoor, it would seem).

The Times of India, which is the first to cover every event on the planet, reports today that the BCCI claims that there is no conflict of interest in N Srinivasan’s ownership of CSK because he had informed the then BCCI president, Sharad Pawar about it. How convenient!!! Don’t you even to ask them how silly and ridiculous such a claim is!!! Our press friends paint the town red accusing Modi of running a parallel administration in Rajasthan, with the help of Vasundhararaje, but when the same man is at the helm of IPL, they do not see the same avarice, the same conceit and the same schmuck around him.

When franchisees were putting in an absurd amount of money without any clear indicators of great returns in the future, why was the media silent? If the IPL contract says that franchisee holdings must not be disclosed, isn’t there a reason to suspect that something is amiss here? Bangalore is suffering from massive power cuts but as the city reels under the shocking power situation, the Chinnaswamy stadium is flood-lit so that IPL matches can be held using subsidized power. The Government gets a pittance to provide security to the players and even has the gall to waive off the entertainment tax (though in the same breath, it argues that farmers cannot be waived loans entirely). So, there are two sets of rules for two different sets of people and the watchdogs do not give a damn!!!

Suddenly, no one wants to talk about Shashi Tharoor and Sunanda Pushkar – a couple of convenient news items who have been dropped now, since there are no more leaks available about them. In Shashi Tharoor’s case, there was a potential case of misappropriate behaviour and maybe even corruption, but most of it remained accusations which were never substantiated. The mere fact that there is a woman does not automatically translate into sleaze, sex and drugs – a story so fondly carried home by the media. Since his resignation, there is practically no news about the two and after Amin took over, the channels have also gone silent – they have a new story now about Madhuri Gupta spying scandal and the old story is no longer appealing.

So, Congress has the moral high ground by choosing to throw out a minister on the basis of suspicion while Raja, the charge sheeted (not tweet accused, mind you) minister, stays on because he has enough backing. BJP hollers on Tharoor but remains mum when greater evidence is brought to the fore against NCP ministers and their people. When the political establishment has its hand in practically every pie of the sports administration, is it inevitable that the sport starts stinking? Stories of match fixing may not be true but they gain credence primarily because people lose faith in the way the game is run – so every match is fixed and every cricketer is a two-timer.

Personally, I give two hoots for IPL and do not care what happens to it but the future of cricket in India is now sub-twined with it. If the administration were to cut down on the frills and the mindless vaudeville and concentrate on the game, it has a future - forget the national level cricketers, atleast the others get a chance to play and make a future for themselves. But the brand needs credibility and the need is to have a professionally managed body for cricket, which is transparent and run with a high degree of accountability. When the match fixing scandal broke out, it gave the BCCI an opportunity to clean its stables but after a few peripheral changes, nothing ever changed.

Modi has been cut to size by the Grand Old Men of the Game and how does it help the sport? All that has happened is that one layer has been peeled off and another layer has been carefully pasted across, without altering anything at all. There will be a small talk of transparency and public interests but after some time, it will disguise itself in a new avatar and be served to us again in all its nauseating glory– after all, the show must go on!!!

P.S. Incidentally, N Srinivasan also heads AICF - All India Chess Federation - and since his takeover, the federation has practically been inactive. The Anand-Topalov World Championship Match is currently being held in Bulgaria (even though the Bulgaria bid is only 13 crore) because the AICF could not get any sponsor. Vishy wanted the match to be held in India but with practically no interest shown by India, the bid was won by Bulgaria. Clearly, the Chess World Championship is not worth the money for the CSK boss. 


Image Courtesy - http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?265180