PM Aspirants and Pappu’s dilemma

The Drama has finally begun. This Thriller has emotion, action, comedy, suspense, manipulation, murder, conspiracy and a lot of thrill. This blockbuster sequence is back with all its drills! And it is once again time for everyone to stand witness to the circus we call Parliamentary election! The Debates, the issues, the charges and counter charges, the comical speeches and political analysis – they all form a heavy mix for everyone in the country to be hooked on to.

This election is however devoid of any major issue till now. The opposition is struggling to find issues to bombard the Government of the day and the Government has nothing much to show for progress made in their last 5 years of rule. Well, the party or bunch of parties that are governing the country today did have their share of achievements (as would any government governing for more than 4 years) – but I sincerely feel most of them can only be understood by elite and knowledgeable. Frankly, common man does not understand inflation, GDP, Interest Rate Management, Foreign Policy achievements, Nuclear Deal related issues etc. These and other financial management aspects were perhaps the highlight of the incumbent government. The ones who actually go and vote do not care about these issues – since they cannot appreciate how it affects their world. At least majority of them don’t, especially the ones who come to a ground to hear their leaders in scorching sun. These are the ones who form the majority of the people who vote. The only other achievement of this Government has been to diplomatically maul Pakistan for its involvement in Mumbai Terror attacks. I am not sure if that was an achievement at all. But that is the maximum that could have been done – short of war i.e. This Government would have been voted back to power if they had gone on war then – but then who knows. Since Terrorism and its response by the Government are not seen as major winning points by the Opposition – they have not brought TADA/POTA etc in their list of issues. The opposition, hence, was left to bring out a non-issue like “Black money in Swiss banks”. They have gone on rampage to pin the Government down. Am not sure this will work. No one in the opposition seems to be talking about Government’s financial mismanagement in the last couple of years that has lead to unemployment on the streets of the country. No one is talking about how better the financial crisis could have been handled by the Government to stave off the crisis that has gripped the whole world. Perhaps it is because the opposition realizes that Government did its best and there is no point raking up the issue, or perhaps, they generally feel that public won’t understand the nitty-gritty of the issue and hence just do not want to waste time. Or may be there is also a fear of taking on the well equipped financial team of Dr Manmohan’s cabinet. After all Finance and commerce are Dr Manmohan’s strong grounds. It would be difficult to prove him lacking in that respect – even if that were the case. All in all – there is nothing new coming out of our leaders in this election. Unless of course we consider pre-poll alliance, Third-Fourth-Fifth-nth front, post poll scenarios etc as interesting set of issues.

There however is one major difference between elections this time and the other elections of past. Everyone – The Toms, Dicks and Harrys and also Meenas and Teenas aspire to become Prime Minister. This definitely is one of the new aspects of this election. The last two elections were about Atal Behari Vajpayee Vs Sonia. Prior to that, the fight was between Atal Vs all the other parties. But this time – the Advanis, The Mayawatis, the Pawars, The Jayalalithas, The Laloos’, The Modis’, The Rahuls’, the incumbent PM, The Nitish Kumars’, The Karats’ etc – everyone wants to be the PM. Problem is, majority of them (except the ones of Congress and BJP) will end up winning only 10-40 seats out of a total 540 odd Parliament seats. But you ask anyone of the above and majority of them would say “…we will see what happens in post election scenario”. Shameless people really. The fractured polity in current times is such that everyone who is anyone thinks he/she can run the country. What has this country come to? Except for Mr. Advani – a declared PM candidate of NDA, and Dr Manmohan Singh, a declared Congress Candidate, no one else seems actually in a position to be anywhere near a position to claim the PM chair. But they are not ruling themselves out. No Sir – they aren’t. Rahul Gandhi to his credit has always denied any claim to the top position. But left to congress – they would kick out Dr Manmohan in favor of Rahul. Sycophancy is trademark of Congress and we would not be surprised if they indeed do it against all better sense. BJP on its part has started the talk Mr. Narendra Modi as Prime Minister in 2014. They somehow want us to believe that if Advani does become PM this time – he will either be asked to retire in next 4-5 years or they are hoping that he would die by the time 2014 comes. I am sorry – but that is the message I get out of this hulla about Mr. Modi being 2014 PM. There is no denying the fact that Mr. Modi is a powerful Orator, a successful administrator, a hard task master, a man with high level of clarity of thought (irrespective of the fact that many like us consider that line of thought to be filled with lot of blood). All good – but he carries with him a scary, dark personality hidden for the time being. Remove that aspect and you have a perfect man to lead the country. But as I keep saying – even Hitler was perceived to be a nationalist and a strong administrator. Once voted to power – he sacrificed many a lives and had to die for Germany to be free. He too was voted to power by the people of Germany – as I have detailed in one of my previous articles. Whether Mr. Modi does become a Prime Minister and whether he is able to curb his dark side in that tenure, only time shall tell. But should we take the risk? I am not sure.

But we shall deal with the above question when the time comes. Let’s look at some of the current aspirants in the fray. Ms Mayawati “Behenji”, Mr. Sharad Pawar, Ms J Jayalalitha “Amma”, Mr. Laloo Yadav, Mr. Prakash Karat. Though Mr Karat has not thrown his hat in the middle – it is no secret that Communists are ruing the missed opportunity they had in 1996-98 when Jyoti Basu was a strong contender for the coveted post. Jyoti Basu refused the offer. And so went one of the best chances of communists to be at the head of central government. That “historic blunder”, as it is known in Communist circles, still troubles many comrades. So, though Mr. Karat has not been open about his ambitions – I am sure he (being the architect of 3^rd Front) – would be hoping that someone proposes his name.

But apart from him – look at the other aspirants. “Su-Shri” Mayawati, the “global” Behenji for her cadres, has thrown her hat openly in the ring. Mayawati is a strong lady, a strong administrator, a big time manipulator, a lady driven by one line of thought – i.e. to break all the social structures and bring in a new order of society – a society that she propagates. She sees herself as savior of the downtrodden and messiah of Dalits. She is bold and she is open about her dislike for other communities in the country. Though she has collaborated with Brahmins for the time being – she is fooling nobody as for her visible dislike of the community. Anyone who has seen and gone through her initial campaign a few years back knows that she can never be trusted as far as well being of other communities and castes (other than Dalits, I mean) is concerned. Her venomous style of working and her visible aversion to anyone who is against her makes her a dangerous proposition. She is playing to the galleries at present – but let no one be in any doubt about her evil model of seeking retribution against her opponents when she gets a chance. Such a person can lead a community or a state perhaps for sometime. But to consider her for an important post like Prime Minister would be bringing down the stature of the position itself. I have absolutely no doubt in that. And add to that – the numerous corruption charges she has against her. I mean – she would like us to believe that they are all political. But I wonder how many of us are fooled by this. I wonder why there are no cases of corruption against Dr Manmohan Singh, LK Advani etc. They have been in politics for long and have at one or the other time been at the helm of important affairs of the country. They still have no corruption cases against them. There are many other leaders who have been prominent like Narendra Modi (As far as corruption charges are concerned), P Chidambaram, Arun Shourie, Budhadeb Bhattacharjee, PA Sangma, Praful Patel, Dayanidhi Maran, Yashwant Sinha, AK Antony, Arun Jaitley etc. I am not sure why such corruption cases exist only for people like Ms Mayawati, Mr. Mulayam Singh, Mr. Kumaraswamy, Mr. Amarinder Singh and Mr. Shibu Soren etc. And it is not as if Ms Mayawati has been leading a Gandhian life anyways. She is one of the richest persons in UP and has huge property across Delhi/NCR region (at least what I know of). She is a bloody millionaire. And when she started in early 1990s she was just a newly qualified lawyer. She was picked up by Late Mr. Kanshiram and they then formed a partnership which broke new grounds in corruption. I am not sure how she amassed such huge properties and money without corrupt ways. She claims all these to be gifts from her party workers. I mean, if her community is so rich – so as to gift such huge amount of property and cash to her – they are by no means downtrodden or poor – now are they? So who is she fighting for as she claims? And to call all accusation as political vendetta is going too far and demeaning the constituents of this country like us. And leaders like Mr. Karat and some others in Third front like Deve Gawda etc want her to be the Prime Minister of the country. Well – we had the British not long back to loot us – we will now have Ms Mayawati to repeat the act again if she indeed were to become PM. Huh.

Take another curious aspirant – Ms J Jayalalitha. I mean corruption cases against her have been on for so many years now. She is very much like Ms Mayawati, though she comes out to be a bit more sophisticated. She, without doubt, is much more presentable than Ms Mayawati. She is also a strong lady, has dedicated set of followers, she is strong willed and has proven to be a strong administrator in her own right. She demands disciple like following from her party members (elected to public life or not) and she tolerates no arguments against her thought process both within and outside her party. Can she be a Prime Minister? Thank you very much – but I would rather have one Mr. Deve Gawda or Late Mr. IK Gujral back from grave, if it comes to that. Ms Jayalalitha was no poor lady when she took over the reins of ADMK. She was a known actress in Tamil Film Industry and thanks to MG Ramachandran and his love for her – she was well known in political circles before she took a plunge in active politics (post MGR’s death). She has since then broken new grounds in corruption. She is too obsessed with her own self and though she is articulate and comes out as a cultured negotiator – she is a very dangerous proposition. Nothing could be more unfortunate than to see her don the mantle of National politics. A selfish leader is the worst of the breed if I may say so.

That brings us to Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav. He has not directly thrown his hat in the ring for this term’s Prime Minister’s post, well… not yet. Going by the expected results – I am not sure if he will be averse to the idea – especially since his own political existence would be in line of danger. He is a known aspirant and has been very vocal about his ambitions to be a Prime Minister one day. He possesses deep understanding of National Politics. He is astute and has seen poverty, extreme popularity and huge amount of prosperity in his life. He has gone through the drill and even though has failed as Bihar’s Chief Minister – he has proven to be one of the best Railway Ministers of modern era. He has been instrumental in bringing back Indian Railways from red lines and the bottom line of his tenure as Railway Minister show’ lot of positives. He has a unique way of connecting with people and unlike Ms Mayawati and Ms Jayalalitha has taken “politically” correct steps most of the times in his career. He too, however, is limited to 2 states of Bihar and Jharkhand. He has huge corruption cases filed/pending against him. He has been forced to resign as CM of Bihar once due to these charges. Though he comes out to be a funny guy – he is known to have some of the biggest criminal elements in his entourage. He has relied far too many years of his public life in the philosophy of keeping most of the masses poor and uneducated. This is so that they continue to be negligent of the world around them (due to lack of knowledge) and continue to see him as their savior. He did somehow successfully manage this model for 10 years in Bihar – but thankfully – was finally thrown out (even if by a whisker). It is well known that Bihar has some of the richest people in the country along with a huge population of poor communities and tribes. Corruption and Naxalism thus has prospered in this state. Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav for all his antics cannot run away from taking majority of responsibility. He may want us to believe that he is honest and has great administrative skills – but I hope we the citizens of this country are smarter. He, unfortunately for him, cannot even term corruption charges against him as Political Vendetta as he was in power when these charges were slapped on him, and were also proven true in the lower courts. That he still continues to enjoy popular support amongst some communities in Bihar (and in major political circles) is thanks to the corrupt society that we have helped build in this country. In summary, given his utter disregard for the upliftment of the society as a whole and given his dubious background – he is ridiculously unfit to lead even a state – forget about country. He will bite the dust in this election for sure – thanks to Congress cutting his vote share (as it is fighting as a separate unit) and Nitish Kumar’s good work in the last few years. It will be interesting to see how he plans out his future along with that other corrupt person – Ram Vilas Paswan.

So then, perhaps the most qualified of all the “other” aspirants vying for the post of Prime Minister is Mr Sharad Pawar. He is a seasoned politician, has loads of experience as minister for Agriculture, Defense etc in his career, has been one of the most successful Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, has hold over many splinter groups within each party, is considered a national figure (irrespective of the fact that his party today is limited to Maharashtra and Goa), has had more or less unblemished record till date, has an acceptance quotient much higher than any of the current aspirants, has negotiating skills which are admired both within and outside his party boundaries. He has undoubtedly benefited from his long service in Congress Party and even today his party is considered (by many) as another “branch” of Congress Party w.r.t. policies and style of working. He would definitely have been a strong contender of Prime Minister’s post in 2004, had he not left the party a few years back. The drawbacks I see in this aspirant is the final number of seats he wins in the current elections – which could be anywhere in the region of 20-25 seats at the maximum. Such numbers would potentially hamper his chances – unless of course the Third Front does remarkably well and is in a position to make a government with his support. In that case he perhaps will be the most accepted figure to lead the government. That and that alone can bring him closer to his life time ambition. He is ambitious not doubt and his moves, in the last couple of months, are seen to be cleverly thought of. If things go as per plan – we may see a man who is perhaps not as presentable as some of the others – but a man with astute mind and a man with deep administrative knowledge, taking the mantle of the top post in the country. Having said that, and though his record remains visibly unblemished – “one” Mr Telgi had a few chinks to disclose. No one has forgotten the serious charges that Telgi had made against Mr Pawar and his party colleague Mr Chaggan Bhujbal. But given a choice between all the “Other” devils – I would go with him perhaps, though with my eyes closed.

Given the above choices – I am not sure I am motivated enough to vote in these elections. No one wonders and bothers when the voting percentages are abysmally low – as low as 45-50%. Given the above leaders leading important parties and given their “wonderful” history – I am not sure if I am surprised. Election Commission would have us believe that people like me who has not voted ever in life and who does not intend to vote till he dies – are all Pappus (with all due respect to everyone who have been given this name by their Parents. Come to think of it – all the people with names as “Pappu” should file a defamation case against EC for demeaning their stature and ridiculing their Parents for having given them this name. Ah… but that can be discussed in some other forum). Anyways, given the trend of the first two phases of election, I think by the time this election is over – there will be more than 50% eligible Pappus in this country. That would mean a society of Pappus in majority. So should the majority be blamed? I thought democracy was a model which propagated rule by majority? Or was that definition itself wrong? Why blame the Pappus’ of the society when political class and EC themselves cannot set their house in order. Why not ask the Parties to just kick out leaders with dubious/criminal/corrupt records and nominate good/clean candidates for various constituencies? It is easy to blame the public and call them names. I mean since they are all part of the same corrupt group – they find it convenient to blame the public. As if it is the people to blame. Oh how ashamed do I feel… Bullshit. Such utter arrogance from these elitist classes of politicians and governing bodies is what pisses me off and makes me even more determined to be in the Pappu’s group. And for Mr. Advani to state that voting should be made compulsory is too much of a moralistic view to take from someone who himself has blood on him. He, who has not had the courage to accept that he was the principal architect of the Babri Masjid demolition, should not preach us about our basic duties and fundamental rights. Just because I am at that topic – Mr. Advani should remember that there are people like us who are from UP and who know how the Masjid was felled. To take the higher ground, i.e. he not being aware or responsible for the felling of Babri Masjid and the other crap, will cut no grounds with us. We remember your beaming face, Mr. Advani, when the news had broken about fate of Babri Masjid, we remember the Rath-yatra you had so pompously taken out, we remember how you instigated the crowd at ground zero that day and what elaborate plans you, Mr Murali Manohar Joshi, Ms Uma Bharti, Mr. Kalyan Singh and the entire bandwagon of VHP etc had made to demolish the structure and build a temple. I have friends in villages through which your party people had gone through in hordes (avoiding Highways – to bypass the elaborate security arrangements), I have people in and around my village who have been party to that movement and who very proudly take your name (along with others) as the ones who motivated them to commit the dastardly act. And you keep telling everyone that you were not aware of the plan? You are a coward Mr Advani – that is what you are. Kandahar episode proved that once again. You would want us to believe that the entire cabinet of Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee took the decision to release the terrorists (and that Foreign Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, would take them to Kandahar), and you, the Home Minister and Deputy PM, was not party to the decision? C’mon – what do you take us for Sir? You have grown old and so your memory is not as sharp perhaps. But we have not forgotten. So just shut up and own up the bloody responsibility. Stop fooling the country – the country is far smarter than you give it credit for.

Ah, apologies for the above – but I cannot take such cowardice and notion of we being fools.

Anyways, irrespective of what old Mr. Advani feels (and I give two hoots to that thought) – Constitution has mandated voting as a right – not as compulsion – and people who chose not to vote should be respected as much as people who vote. People who vote are not necessarily brighter than the perceived Pappus of the electoral franchise, are they? EC may come up with many other slogans in the coming elections too – but till they enforce our will on the parties – they cannot expect their will to be enforced on us. And try as hard as we Pappus may – leaders like Mayawati, Jayalalitha, Shibu Soren, Laloo, Paswan, Mulayam, Deve Gawda, Bal Thakrey, Raj Thakrey, Modi, CS Chandrashekhar, Ramodass, Karunanidhi, Mamta Banerjee, Chautala will not go away. Public – the non-Pappus i.e. will keep voting for them and they will continue to call all wrongs against them as “political conspiracy”. And except for 2 or 3 cases – not many important political figures have had a quick death too. This means, they will remain till eternity to rule over us. In summary – they are like God. If that is not scary – I am not sure what is.

So yes, given the confused state of the polity in the country and given that there is no change expected in future – this Pappu won’t vote – neither today – nor in future.

You have to decide for yourself now.

Its Montoo..

28^th April – 1^st May 2009’

Financial Crisis: The Clueless Experts

It has been quite a while now since the world started discussing the economic and financial crisis. This crisis has dried up tons of ink and used up valuable paper (with print media going bonkers over it), used up “valuable time” of the “experts” explaining the Whys’ and  the Hows’ of the whole situation, eaten up many a number of hours of every human being’s life, gulped down billions and billions of dollars in form of “stimulating” packages, led to seemingly crooked entrepreneurs (like Raju Uncle) to finally call it a day, made many bankrupt and jobless, and more importantly continues to make everyone nervous – very nervous.

Come to think of it, what has the world achieved in all this discussion? Hmmm… Nothing… I mean, if you were to discount the heightened anxiety of any and everyone who is earning. Frankly, all those concepts of financial wisdom, economic sensitivity, sound business logic, hitherto streamlined Banking concepts etc have gone kaput. Money market, Share market, Forward trading, Forex Trading, Spot Market, Debt Funds, Mutual Funds have now become household names. Not to discount the popularity of our “beloveds” - Foreign Institutional Investors (FII), Domestic Investors, SEBI, Finance Ministry, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and hordes of their ilk. These have been the prime movers and shakers in this current situation. Not that anyone of them (RBI, SEBI etc) have any control over what is currently happening and what shape will the economies take in coming months. So RBI is bringing all the rates down (earlier they were taking it up), FIIs came in a big way, ran away even faster (and have been playing hide and seek since then), SEBI has no idea what stuck them and Finance Ministry has been trying to figure a way out of this (with stimulus packages, announcing reduction of taxes and levies). But they have also given up. Finally fed up of not being able to do much (and with no more clues on what can now be done) – Mr. P Chidambaram has left Finance Ministry and taken over Home Ministry, Commerce Minister (sitting in Davos, at the time of writing this article) is already talking about how nothing else can be done, and our Economist Prime Minister decided that he too cannot do anything on this and went ahead with his long pending Surgery. Strange isn’t it – when the entire world is gripped with this enormous life threatening economic problem – a country like ours does not feel the need to have even a permanent Finance Minister in place. So you see – we are left to fend for ourselves now. But, against what and against whom? Hmmm… now that’s a tricky question I have been asking myself for sometime now. Do you know the answers?

Alright, let’s get serious, shall we?

“Erstwhile” human “sentiments” like Panic, scare, shock, worry, skepticism, uncertainty, excitement, anticipation etc have continuously been associated to the Share Market entity. Even more so now. If you were to listen to daily broadcasts of share market – you will wonder if share market is indeed a weak emotional fool! There is panic as well as jubilation for every fall and rise of indices. Look at what’s happening these days. The Bulls and the Bears have been fighting a severely bloody battle. Some days the Bull overpowers the Bear and the market gains a few points and at others the lazy Bear gets back its strength and snatches those additional points that the Bull had won. It’s another matter that a few thousand Crores of Rupees go down the drain with every Bearish win. Not to say, a few more people going bankrupt. And thanks to the media glorifying every win of Bears – the “sentiments” of the fence-sitters, looking at the Bull Vs Bear fight, take a big hit. They start selling their stakes in “panic” – “energizing” the Bear even more. These small/medium investors don’t realize that the win for bear was brought about by those ugly FIIs – who suddenly decided that the market was at appropriate level for them to book profits and start selling in big chunk! In turn sucking out valuable funds from the Investment market’s kitty. The fence sitters, with very little investment in the market (in comparison to Institutional Investors), rightfully feel cheated and robbed. But can they do anything? Nah. Do they have any control over the strategic plans of these FIIs? Nah, again. You see FIIs are not our “Papas” to think of our well being before theirs! They have their own interests and with them being global entities – they move their money around the world market to get the maximum profits (for their own declared/undeclared clientele). So they bring in money in a market and move out when “they” feel they can take out the maximum “juice” out of the current market. Knowing all this – knowing that market movement is controlled by these few mongers, we still get scared by outward movement of funds.

And what role do experts play in defining investment patters for small/medium investors? In my view – they are largely dubious, uninformed and don’t know their business well enough. Mind you – I may jot down these financial jargons – I don’t however claim to be an expert by any stretch of imagination. No Sir. I would rather call myself “foolish” than “eat my own shoes later”, like all those financial experts around. Boy – have you heard these experts? They are like TV commentators of a game of cricket who will very intelligently inform everyone viewing the match that the batsman missed the ball and the ball went to the wicketkeeper. The whole world can see the same on Television screen. Doesn’t require an expert to tell us that – does it? We want to know an “intelligent” review of the happenings and perhaps a forecast of what could happen – IF and only if they themselves know about it. We assume that these experts have enough experience, inside knowledge and/or analytical skills to honestly inform their audiences about profitability or dangers that lie ahead. But no Sir – 99% of these experts are like those cricket commentators. So when the Bears take charge of the market – these extremely knowledgeable Experts go on and on about how the sentiments of the markets have taken a beating and how the market is in a gloomy phase, they (justifying their status as master of the trade) go on to inform everyone that the gloom is going to stay for a few days… ah weeks… or it would follow the same bearish trend for the coming two quarters. Our sentiments (that had taken a beating anyways by the falling share prices during the trading hours) skips’ another beat just by such Oh! Such informed prediction by the “great expert”.

It’s just that the next day market opens up stronger – with consistent Bull rally and closes 100 odd points over the last day. But Lo Behold – our experts have answers to that too. You see they are the experts – they know everything. So they very innocently tell us …that the markets on that day followed the “positive cues” from the overnight US market. The sentiments (that phrase again!) of the domestic investors were vastly improved by the encouraging signs of the European and US markets and the same resulted in a lot of buying in the market. The FIIs led the charge (as always) and that has also resulted in a stronger rupee… You then want to know what led to the Western Markets rising overnight – and you are told by these experts that …the markets around the world have realized that the “basic fundamentals” are sound around the world and that they can bring in their stocked money into the market for meaningful investments… Ah! Now – now it all makes sense. So finally we can see some stabilization in the market. The market (true to the Expert’s views) opens the next day with upward movement and closes again on a high. Our experts go on a rampage very soon …Oh, the market is stabilizing now – not to worry. Apart from small hiccups some days – the market will remain bullish and will hover around the “psychological mark” of 9000+ (SENSEX) and 2500+ (NSE). There are strong positive cues coming out of US market – which is primarily due to “Stimulus” package (the most used word today in the world) announced by the President. The market has taken this up very well and there is a feeling now that the businesses will reorganize themselves and investors can hence look to good days in the coming months... These experts though very conveniently forget that just a couple of days back these same “visionaries” had predicted a gloomy market for the coming quarters. And to prove them wrong all over again and true to the unpredictable nature of the market – the Sensex/NSE crashes to an all time low the very next day and remains there for days to come. But our experts don’t feel ashamed – they have many a cards up their sleeves you see. As usual, a few more tons of ink and loads of airtime are wasted by these experts to explain the new trend in print media (as well as On-Air). So much for expert value. Huh.

You see, the whole point I am trying to make is that no one – and I repeat – NO ONE knows what is happening and what is going to happen today or tomorrow in these times. Taking a parallel, it was easier to predict Roger Federer’s Grand Slam victories in the times that he was invincible. This was till someone named Rafael Nadal came along. Ask any expert today regarding who will win a particular Grand slam? You will find most of them stammer. After a year or two perhaps everyone will be confident enough to say that Nadal will win. But, they can’t afford to say that today. Why? Because there are lots of ifs and buts involved. Variables like, determination of the players, the confidence of the players, the luck of the players etc. These are the things that no expert sitting in an A/c room can judge or define and hence they falter in their analysis and predictions. Investment Markets have unparalleled number of variables which no single person (world over) has potential to understand. Thanks to coupling of the domestic economy/market with the other parts of the world and thanks to information traversing around in increasingly faster pace – the markets do not necessarily react to domestic moods and events. So irrespective of whether “Infosys” declares Quarterly results with good profit margins or whether RBI announces cuts on CRR/Repo/Reverse-Repo rates – the markets do not necessarily react favorably the next day. A typical example is of the reaction of local markets to the two “Stimulus” packages that the Government of India (GOI) announced in the last 3/4 months. The markets opened weak the very next day. Why? The thousands of crores of Rupees announced as part of relief and stimuli did not play any significant role in how the markets reacted. They anyways fell because there was some major company that went bankrupt in US or some big bank that required bailing out in Europe. Hence, all the positive steps the GOI, or any other Nation’s Government for that matter, takes, does not infuse enthusiasm in the market. As if the bundles of millions and millions of Rupees go down the deep-dark drain. (Just to give a dose of experts’ analysis on markets position after Stimulus packages were announced – they said …Market had already discounted the positive cues generated by the possible announcement of relief package by the GOI a few days back and hence there was no enthusiasm in the market when it was announced yesterday evening. It is hence that the Markets opened weak today. And so it goes… Wah re Experts.)

I can see two parts to the whole Share market story. One is the “Sentimental” part and the other is the “Real” one. It is like the eternal fight between the Heart and the Mind. And I have a feeling that the Sentimental part is being dominant in the last 2-6 Quarters and is winning over the logical arguments. And that is what prompts me to say that the world as a whole has failed itself by being sentimental about this matter. The ground realities have been neglected in their analysis of the situation and resultant corrective steps that they have taken. So (?) a few big shots had to close down their companies and a few had to be bailed out. Does it stop anyone from making a new beginning, as earlier? After all billions and trillions of dollars have been infused in the market by various countries – where are these funds going? Are those few profit-making mongers (those big investment houses/funds) gulping away the money before it reaches the logical destination? It is important that you think about it. USA alone has infused so much of liquidity in their domestic market, India has done the same, UK has taken similar steps and so have almost every other country. So where is all the fund vanishing? We continue to see companies closing down, people losing jobs, Markets lying low and demands continue to be at their lower levels. Why? There has been bumper crop this year in India alone, there is excess food lying in stores, there is no shortage of food and vegetables in the market, there is no spurt in Oil prices, the base interest rates are pretty decent, there is huge investment made by GOI in infrastructure projects and hence the construction work is still going on, Heavy industries (like steel, cement, coal etc) have no reason to reduce production by huge margins – then why the depressing feeling of slowdown? 60-70% people of our country are either farmers or connected to farming and its subsidiary businesses. None of them have any problems. In fact, in my recent visit to my village – I could see no signs of any recessionary tensions there. They in fact laughed off any talk of slowdown and recession affecting them. For them – it does not matter if the Dollar value reduces, it does not matter if Auto Industry, Airlines, IT industry, Investment Market is slowing down. For them, this year has been good with ample rains and bumper crop – enough for them to keep them happy. And that is the feeling across all the surrounding areas that I made social visits to. I am sure the same is the case with most of the other Villages – i.e. the major majority of people in India. So why is there a feeling of panic in the remaining 30% of the population? If you really see, there is no panic even in the whole of 30% of the remaining population. Majority of them are Public Servants, Central/State Government employees, Defense Personnel etc. These people do not have to fear for their jobs just yet (perhaps never). So it is only 5-10% (at the max) of the people who are worried with this downtrend in the global financial markets. Is it then fair to paste a gloomy picture of the state of entire country as a whole? Not by any means.

For me – the land/house and all fixed assets are still there. For me – the nations are still printing the same amount of currency (if not a bit more), for me the gold still glitters the same way as earlier (and has not reduced in quantity in Government coffers) and for me – I do the same amount of hard work I did earlier (if not more). On top of that there is so much infusion of liquidity in the market. But the situation still seems bleak or at least is painted in dark colors. Why? We need to think hard on these factors all over again. The problem is not with the liquidity. The supply is still there. The Demand has reduced for sure though. It is time we all prepped up the demand then. Markets I am sure will fall in place. But who will want to increase the demand and spend precious funds that we all hold for emergency. Not with all the experts predicting doom for many months to come and definitely not with our jobs at stake. But then someone has to start. Question is who will?

Also, the problem is not that the private companies have suddenly stopped being productive. The problem is with the fraudulent accounting practices that the companies have followed till late and continuing to follow even now. Problem is with asset valuation done, not on the base rates, but on the current market rates. Problem is with profit projections based on these inflated valuations of fixed/movable/immovable assets of the organization and in turn building up their credit worthiness in the eyes of the lenders. Problem is with spreading the losses incurred in a particular year over next few years – painting an entirely wrong picture of the state of a given company. Problem is also with the Financial Rating agencies not having sound methods of evaluating and rating companies/investment opportunities. These and connected issues are the basic problems for me. And the current crisis is due to this more than anything else. Suddenly due to fall in underlying assets – the account books of the organizations have gone in red. The liabilities that were built up on the inflated Asset figures were for real and as soon as the inflated assets fell in their valuation – the whole damn balance sheet went into negative. The companies hence began to default on repaying their liabilities. The lenders naturally had to close in to get their dues. This eventually resulted in many companies declaring bankruptcy. Some of these companies are now being bailed out – but for others there is no respite. Frankly, they are themselves to be blamed. The high flying financial experts and their workforce (of such companies) should be quarantined and trained all over again on honest/true accounting practices really. That is the only solution (along with some financial help from governments), before a fresh start can be made.

Anyways, getting back to the topic on hand – I would suggest that for everyone who is predicting the down trend to continue for the whole of this year – use your middle finger as they do not seem to have any idea of what is going on and it is for this that we should not give them much importance. I would want you too to use the same contempt as you would use to anyone misleading you in life. I shall take two examples to demonstrate why these are the biggest idiots (for want to better word) you will ever come across.

Take the first one: The Rise and fall of Crude Oil prices is one major example of how everyone is clueless about what happens in the market. Remember the time till the last two quarters of 2007 when Crude oil prices were in their comfortable range of 55-65$ per Barrel? Remember also how this soon started changing when the crude oil prices started rising slowly to 74.12…79.91…91.69 by December 2007. Our so-called experts were having a field day explaining the trend. Predictions were made that the oil prices will continue to rise till $125 once it rallies beyond the “psychological” barrier of 100$. This is after it had continuously breached the previous “barrier” of $60 a few times already that year. The jubilation, of such “on-the-pulse” type of experts, knew no bounds when the crude oil prices went on a rampage soon after and crossed all logical propositions to go beyond $100 in Jan 2008 itself and continued to rise. It crossed $120 in May 2008 and eventually reached $147.30 in July 2008. Every expert worth his salt was predicting the rise of oil to go far beyond $150 per barrel soon and then perhaps going on to touch $200 in the coming Quarters. In fact, I was reading an article by a South Asian expert in “The Economic Times” paper – and he with all his years of experience in the Market as an expert on Crude Oil pricing and movements – summarized that the prices of oil will indeed continue to rise and for people expecting it to fall below $100 and perhaps reaching the levels of $50-$60 was preposterous in imagination and far removed from reality. He asked such people to come out of their dreams and get real. According to him the reasonable “settling down” price of oil would hover around $110-$120 in the long run. And such explanations were repeated in all the analytical programs and articles that I read in those times. For people who listen to the News programs of any kind – will recollect that a host of reasons were also given for the continuous rise of prices. Reasons like, Decrease in Oil Reserves in US, Middle-east conflict, Geo-political events like natural disasters in that period, North Korean Missile tests, Worries over Iranian Nuclear program and supposed attack by US on Iran etc. Some analysts also claimed that there has been sudden spurt of demand from China and India (with its huge population), some blamed it on Katrina (The “Hurricane” in US) and a few of them blamed financial speculation (with host of fancy names attached to this). The fact is that when the prices were increasing, the demand in US for Oil reduced in January 2008 period. The prices did not fall thereafter. Did it? Neither is there any proof to suggest that India/China had increased demand of oil suddenly in 2007/2008. Other reasons like conflicts, worries about Nuclear Bombs etc are reasons that may affect the prices for a brief period – not over many months. That then leaves the probable reason of Financial Market speculation. It would have been interesting to see whether the reasons for increase in oil prices were due to “Oil Futures” (Note: Future contracts are purchase of contracts/commodity – by high end investors – at a set price for future delivery on a set date. This is either settled in cash on the set date or sold to genuine customers. There is no purchase of actual item/commodity – in this case Oil). We shall not get into how the Oil Futures drove this market – as is most likely the case. But the fact remains that without change in fundamental demand in the world market – the prices of oil started sprinting northwards – breaking all records. And true to form – our experts were having fun! The only problem for them was that the Crude oil prices started falling – in fact they crashed while experts were still jumping on the “northward” wagon. It fell to below $130 by Aug 2008 and further down to below $100 by Sep 2008, below $60 by Oct 2008 and hovered around $30-$40 by end of Dec 2008. Hoof! All the inflated egos should have taken a hiding – or so we hoped! But no sir – not a chance! The Experts were soon back and again explaining “why” the prices fell suddenly to such levels. Forgotten was all the prediction and explanations they had put forth for the prices to go beyond $150! And no – the demand did not reduce too much from any of the major countries in July 2008 and neither did Supply increase substantially (as was being worked out by USA with Saudi Arabia). If I were to put my neck out and point a reason for the whole “drama” that cost many headaches to oil importing nations – it would be financial speculation led by those few greedy thugs who have lot of black money with them to float around and bet on such untested instruments (as Future contracts) for bigger gains. Point here being – none of the damn experts could either analyze or predict the sudden rise of the oil prices – neither could they estimate the fall of the same. In summary – they were (and they continue to be) useless in their value.

Now look at the second example. The rise and fall of Share market – especially the BSE Sensex (Bombay Stock Exchange SENSitive IndEX). When the market started rising in late 2005 from 6000 points to crossing 10000 (another “psychological barrier”) in Jan/Feb 2006 everybody started saying well – the market is bullish and it may settle down at around 13K points in the coming years. Hmmm… Sensex crossed 13000 mark by Nov 2006 and 15K by the June 2008. That’s it – enough of “caution to the wind” attitude. The Experts went berserk and started predicting 20K+ targets in the coming years. Long forgotten were 13K figures of stabilization according to their analysis earlier. Of course! They were feeding the bull and kicking it to perform higher. The bear was badly bruised and beaten and was recuperating. True to form (in fact beyond anyone’s wildest dreams) the Sensex moved from 17559 to 19243 within a week in Oct 2007. Experts had reasons ready for such a phenomenal jump. They were all in golden haze. They went one step further and prophesized – if the Sensex crosses 20K mark – well, sky is the limit and 25K will be reached pretty quickly. After all there are FIIs waiting with a lot of money on the fence and are only waiting for some profit booking (selling of shares in the Market) to happen. Once they infuse those funds – 25K is the point to reach! The Sensex touched 20000 points (20827 to be exact) by end of Dec 2007! Wow! India – The growth story of the decade! Everyone is so very impressed with the growth opportunities existing in the country. My…My…Who wouldn’t want to invest here? We are a stable economy and with a lot of promise. Thank you very much. The oil prices had by then started playing their own games… and moving northwards. The Institutional investors found the oil market to be much more lucrative and profitable and quickly started to move money there. And for that they started selling in markets like India. Our experts did not know what hit them. The Bear was back and back with vengeance! The Sensex very promptly started losing air. By April 2008 – Sensex had been beaten to 15000 levels and fell from 14K in Sep 2008 to 8701 points by the end of Oct 2008. Month of October was never so bad in India for domestic investors. With it being the month of festivals around the country – the Share Markets (being Oh so sensitive) historically perform well in the month of October and November. Not this time though. The FIIs are not necessarily Indians and they for sure do not care about Festivals in India. Hah. The Market has been hovering in-between 7500 to 9500 in the last 4 months now, with the Bull getting up sometimes – to be beaten back again and again by the re-energized Bear. Needless to say the rising Oil and essential commodity prices led to these profit-making FIIs to move to Oil and Commodity market. Since it is the same money that has to be moved around, they have to take money away from established money markets. The high Oil prices led to recession kicking-in in US and eventually to most of the countries around the globe. This recession led to falling demand and eventually brought down the Oil prices. The FIIs for once took big beating. The funds that they had, suddenly started dwindling. The hunters as they say – became the hunted. They started selling their investments to retrieve cash. And today, I believe, they are biding their time (with most of their money still in place and in their closet). They will come out blazing again soon. But the point is, our experts in all this rise and fall of Sensex did not have the foresight to predict that the inflated “markers” were not to be treated as bench marks and that though the India-story is definitely strong and growing – there is no reason to believe that the rise of the share market is in line with the growth trajectory of the country. That is what I expect out of experts. If they are to follow the wind and float around with the wind – then they are as good/bad as us. Then they are not the experts as we wish them to be. Are they? That, the FIIs were bound to leave someday was there for everyone to see. Foreign Investment (as through FII route) is not the same as FDI (Foreign Direct Investment). FDI invests money in projects around the country. They take partial/full ownership of the companies that they invest in. They are responsible for the performance of the companies they put their money in. Such investments are generally for long term purposes and are based on the performance of the country and growth of the country. FIIs, for that matter, are not bound by any commitment. They can bring in the money and run away when and if they please. The bubble was there for everyone to see – but few had the guts to spill it out. In turn – innocent, small investors lost their life time earnings when the bubble burst, leading to a lot of hardships.

You see – the point I am trying to make here is – listen to as many experts you wish to. I would however be happy if you would use your own brains/judgment in so far as your own investments are concerned. If you do not understand the investment – kindly invest your money in Debt funds like FD, Term Deposits, PPF, etc. Where, you will at least be guaranteed a constant return (though perhaps on a lower level than the Money/Share Market). Never… Never trust the experts and their views. They (major majority of them I must say) are absolutely clueless. In fact, most of the Governments are also clueless, including (and sadly) our own. Take the example of the rise and fall of inflation. From a comfortable 5+% range – it suddenly rose to 12-13% in a matter of few weeks in early 2008. The increase was primarily due to increasing cost of Oil products (due to increase in imported Crude oil prices) and hoarding of commodity by wholesale merchants. You will recollect that even though Diesel and Petrol prices were not raised (till the very end) the prices of commodities and essentials increased. Why? You can thank those private hoarders. And as usual with GOI (I mean their habit of curing the Knee when the Toe was injured) stepped in through RBI and increased CRR/Repo/Reverse Report rates. This was to curb the Demand by sucking away liquidity from market. The problem however was definitely not in demand, if you really look deeper. And even if it were, I am not inclined to believe that the Demand-supply mismatch was due to higher demand by the millions of citizens of the country. So why squeeze liquidity out of market by increasing lending rates? Was there any improvement in the market when RBI took the above steps? Oh yes, the few wealthy ones stopped buying land/property etc. But did it bring down the commodity prices? Nah. Not for many months. Neither was there any significant improvement in the Inflation rates even months after these measures. But today the inflation is at 4-5% and predicted to slide to 3%. Now they are cutting back all the rates all over again. They may pat their backs for bringing the Inflation down. But who are they trying to fool? If not for recession the world over and if not for the prices of oil going down from $148 to $30 – we would have seen the truth. And no – recession and Southward movement of Oil did not happen because of RBI’s “bold steps” taken to curb inflation. They were supposed to be seen to be doing something, and they just did “something”. Look at today’s scenario – the RBI has cut their base rates and so have some Banks. This should ideally flood the market with liquidity and increase demand – isn’t it? That should then ideally lead to Demand Supply mismatch (i.e. Supply will not be able to match up to Demand) – increasing inflation in the coming quarter? Agreed? So why did RBI project a lower inflation of 3% in future? There are no easy answers. But again – they have to be seen to be doing something as I said. And here they are. Their end goals don’t have any synergy to their means adopted. And for me – that is a proof of people in authority being clueless. And true to their illogical “logics” they project GDP to be around 8.75, then 8.5/8.25, then 7.5/7.6 and these days they are talking about 7% GDP growth (Our Commerce Minister still talks about 7.5+% GDP even now). Sign of people who know their trade? You decide. And all these downgrading has been happening within the last 2 quarters. I am not sure – but shouldn’t these policy makers have some view of future and then come up with a firm prediction? Or is it not based on any logic at all – as I have begun to feel?

Again, today every expert is predicting a prolonged recessionary period in the entire world. I am not so sure though. As with inflated projections while the going is good – I have a feeling that the world of experts has been understating the actual situation. I strongly feel that the problem is perhaps lack of hope and faith in the existing processes/practices and systems, that perhaps is holding back a definite upsurge in the market. And given that, I have a strong hunch that Obama’s coming would do the trick really. He may not have a magic wand – but he already has brought in a lot of hope in the world. And if he were to come up with some concrete steps – it could be in form of Stimulus package of some kind or such policies that would increase demand – the market in US will start rising again and the other parts of the world would follow suit. See, the problem started with crashing of US realty market. The solution will also come from there. With information flowing fast in this era – any positive cues from USA will percolate faster to other regions and that would lead to increase in confidence of investors sitting over funds. All this can happen pretty fast. Nothing in the last 2-3 years suggest that historical trends of earlier times would be followed and hence am confident that the recession or so called recession would be busted as soon as there is a perceived positive trigger that everyone embraces. And the path to growth story would be much faster this time around, in comparison to earlier times where it took many months for a recession to move into stability and growth.

I think we are looking at the end of this quarter for the turnaround (+/- 20% timelines). The only fear is that these godforsaken experts will continue to paste a gloomy picture and unnecessarily delay the turnaround. If they were to shut up or at least talk of hope with every positive step taken by Governments around the world – the problem would be resolved in half the time. As I said, the land, the houses, the money, the people, the entrepreneurs, the major banks, the major countries, the trading route, the processes, the IT companies etc are all there and are almost stable, even now. It only needs the infusion of hope and positive sentiments for them to start picking threads. Business will start trickling in all over again – and so will revenue.

On a personal note – I “hope” I am proved right this time around. Have I put my foot in my mouth again, by putting my finger on a timeframe? Well – time shall tell! You see – I believe in what Thomas Edison said – “I will not say I failed 1000 times, I will say I discovered 1000 ways that can cause failure”

Mantosh Singh..

23^rd Jan 2009’ – 5^th Feb 2009’

Saurav Ganguly – A True Hero

Rarely do we see an Indian fall and rise time and again and then to finally fall to roar back up with vengeance. He, a man who inspires loads of self-confidence amongst others; a man who faced adversity with fiery fury and converted them into inspiration; a man to whom “impossible” was just another term in the dictionary. This man of destiny is, Saurav Chandidas Ganguly. A man who we have all loved and hated at various times, but a man who has scripted innumerable number of inspirational stories on his way to success.

Around 20,000 runs in more than a decade of non-stop international cricket, 5 years as Indian team captain, the only captain to lead Indian team to World cup Finals in the last 2+ decades, The originator of the famous “team huddle” in the middle of the cricket ground, the only player in India after Sunil Gavaskar who declared his retirement plan well in advance. It is difficult to start describing this man – the Hero of millions. Yes Sir - for all his achievements – this man is my Hero too. Forget his flaws – as all great men have their share of those. If ever this country had a hero – This gentleman sits amongst the top ones.

Saurav, which means “one in a hundred” (in his mother tongue, Bengali), has given us great joy in his long career of 113 test Matches and more than 300 One day internationals, spread over 11+ years (in international arena). I still remember the afternoon when Ganguly walked in to bat in his Debut test at Lord’s Cricket ground. With English bowlers having an early breakthrough – Ganguly was always under pressure. And with highly successful Vinod Kambli (a regular player in test matches in those times) being injured, one always thought Saurav was a stop-gap replacement and with his “attitude” problems reported way back in 1991 tour of Australia – this guy would not play another test Match after this. His failure was a long drawn conclusion. He was taken-in only to complete the playing eleven in that match. Oh - how wrong everyone was?! The world that day, dear friends, watched in awe as this new kid hammered boundary after boundary, announcing his arrival on the international scene like an Emperor. He caressed one boundary after another on the off-side, through the covers and along the ground – piercing field placements at will. Before long – he had completed a remarkable century - on Debut. Rahul Dravid, who was also making his debut in that match (and scored a well made 92 runs in the same innings) was his partner for most of that innings and as Rahul aptly put it later – there is either God or Saurav Ganguly on the off-side of the cricket ground. Ganguly, meanwhile, continued to “hammer” his critics and went on to score another century in the first innings of the next match to became only the 3^rd batsman in the world to score centuries in the first 2 innings of a career. It was a dream start for a player. And to achieve all this after he was “dropped” unceremoniously earlier (without playing in a single Test match in the 1991-92 tour, of India to Australia) on the pretext of having “attitude problems”! Beats sense. In-spite of this initial rebuke from selectors and despite his failure in his debut One-Day International against West Indies in 1992 (where he scored only 3 runs) – he fought back. And how?! Just as any great fighter would – by grabbing the next given opportunity to play. After four years of wilderness and hard work – it took guts to come back and score two consecutive centuries. What a wonderful-wonderful player!

He holds many records in the cricketing arena, like being the first Indian to have scored an ODI century in Australia against Australia, he along with Sachin Tendulkar holds the record of highest amount of runs scored as opening pair, has most number of centuries in ODI (22) after Tendulkar (amongst Indians) and 4^th highest in the world (Tendulkar is followed by Ricky Ponting and Sanath Jayasurya), he is the only Indian captain to have led the Indian team for 5+ continuous years with consistent overseas wins in England, Pakistan, West Indies, Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, he is the man who led the Indian team that broke the famous winning streak of “murderous” Australians in 2001 (helped by famous innings of VVS Laxman in Kolkata). Those are the ones I distinctly remember – there are many more records that a player becomes a part of (by playing international cricket for a decade or more), which I am sure you will find in innumerable number of websites and news dailies. I will not bother you with every single statistics here.

Look at his career though and you will see that we were blessed to have got a player like him. It goes without saying that Indian Cricket would have been poorer without a Sachin, Dravid or a Kumble. But Indian Cricket would, today, be struggling without the inspirational leadership of this one man – we all know as Maharaja, the Tiger or lovable Dada. It was when everything seemed lost after Australian series of 1999, when Australia beat us fair and square (in Australia, under the captaincy of Sachin) – that this man was chosen to lead the team (on this day, the 10^th of November, of 2000). Those were horrible times with Match-Fixing allegations flying thick and high and Indian Cricket definitely at its lowest ebb. How ironical that Saurav will say good-bye to International cricket on the same date – i.e. 10^th Nov 2008. Destiny? Perhaps. Anyways, after becoming Captain, he tasted first blood in form of Test series win over South Africa in 2000 and then against Australia (in India), in 2001. He never looked back from then on. He went on to consistently lead India to test match wins, both overseas and at home. He picked his bunch of players – all of whom were young and hungry – and built a “dream team”. Let me jot down a few incidents that I think truly define the leadership onus that he took upon himself. He was the one who convinced Virendra Sehwag to open in Test Matches – the benefits of which we are reaping till today. He was the one who sacrificed his opening combination with Sachin to give Sehwag the mantle of opening the innings in One-Day Internationals. This, even though he had a successful, world record partnership going with the “Legend”, Sachin Tendulkar. He was the one who (in 2003 Indian tour of Australia) walked in at number 4 position, in the evening of the “First day of the First test match” in Brisbane to shield Sachin Tendulkar from facing the wrath of McGrath and Gillespie. Which captain of a team would even dare to do that in the first test match of the series on the first day? He knew all too well that his “perceived” weakness against genuine fast bowling was something the opposition will exploit and if he were to get out cheaply and that too to a bouncer delivery – his critics would jump and say “we told you so”. He would end up looking foolish then to have even thought of guarding someone as great as Sachin Tendulkar. But again – in a crushing answer to his critics – he went on to score a century in that innings! That is how Ganguly was and that is what sets him apart from any of the Indian Captains till then and ever since. A Leader, who was not afraid to face challenges and who, if required, was ready to catch the bull by the horns even under fire! I can see streak of such traits in our current Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni – who by the looks of it is on the way to lead Team India in many matches to come.

Alright, remember the World cup of 2003? India had lost their group match against Australia by a whopping 9 wickets (after being dismissed cheaply for 120-130 odd runs)? The whole country was vying for the bloods of the Indian team and more so of Saurav Ganguly – the Captain. I still remember the worried faces of the Indian team shown in media after the loss to Australia in their second pool match. Saurav, as captain, could have easily avoided facing the media and let the other members of the team face the wrath and fury of the nation through the media. But that is not how Saurav lead his team. He took the responsibility of talking to the media and respond to every single punch from them with his chin held high. As a captain – he kept his wards away from those blood sucking wolves on the prowl and kept the team united and motivated. Now that, Sir, is the sign of a wonderful and a great leader. Another decision to prove his support for his chosen team came in form of persisting with Mohammad Kaif in the playing eleven. Mohammad Kaif’s house was ransacked back home in India (by agitated fans of the game) and he was being made the scapegoat for what should have been seen as a collective failure of the entire team. Ganguly as a Captain – stood by Kaif and made him play in all the matches of the World cup from then on. Kaif proved his mettle and had consistent match winning scores from then on – to lead India to historic World Cup Finals. That we lost in that World Cup Finals should not have caused too much of botheration, as Australia were far superior in those times and for us to have won the finals, we needed “The lady luck” as the 11^th player, playing that day in the Indian team. That was not to be. But the whole World Cup series brought forward another aspect of Ganguly’s leadership skills – his care and protection of his wards. A basic lesson taught to all the leaders in Management courses. To be a great leader - you have to have the courage to shield your army from any attack, both from within and outside. And Ganguly proved just that in the 2003 World cup series.

All the above are incidents that may seem insignificant and perhaps may not have been noticed by general masses – but these were for me the golden steps taken by a great leader. For me that group of players, from different regions of our vast country, became “Team India” during that series. The entire team seemed united under the able leadership of Saurav Ganguly.

Life, however, had another struggle scripted in the tale of this player though. He was “beaten”, humiliated and thrown out of the team after test series victory in Zimbabwe (against the host nation in 2005). It came as a body blow – not only to Ganguly as a player and a Captain – but also to all his admirers like us. And to know that it was a conspiracy hatched outside the playing ground – was deeply annoying and extremely frustrating. But then, not for anything is this man revered by his fans – he kept quiet and with the energy and vigor that only great men posses, he worked hard. He worked extremely hard – willing/waiting for that one chance to get back into the team where he belonged as a right. After India were beaten “with a cane” to lose 4-0 against South Africa in ODI series (in South Africa) – there was a call for bringing back Saurav Ganguly. He got the chance, in form of Test Match slot, “against” the wishes of scoundrels like Greg Chappell, Dravid, the previous Cricket Selection Committee (With that “Lilliput”, Kiran More at the helm) and ex-cricketers like Ravi Shastri etc. And did he prove to be the savior for the team? Yes Sir – he did. He was the highest scorer in the first test match against South Africa. He led India to a test match victory – the first by an Indian team in South Africa. A dream comeback was once again being written for this warrior. He scored at will in that series and was the highest Indian scorer there. He then went on to make 3 centuries in 2007 (including a double century against Pakistan). Even his farewell series (against Australia) has turned out to be a dream with one century and 2 half centuries. Is this the man we were after to quit the game? We certainly treat fighters and heroes “very well” down here in our country. Huh.

A man who scores at a rate of more than 50 Runs per innings/match in both forms of the game (Test Match and ODI, in 2007) and who has overall scored more than 12000 runs in One-Day Internationals, is dropped from ODI team under the pretext of bad fielding standards and non-performance! Well as the song goes, “It happens only in India”. Come to think of it – I can’t remember a single catch that Ganguly has dropped in the last 2 years – a memory that is still fresh. I can’t remember too many incidents of him misfielding in any match over the last 2 years. The ones that he has have been genuine mistakes that almost all the fielders make sometimes. Haven’t we seen Robin Uthappa, Sehwag, Rohit Sharma etc misfield? Look for evidence in Australian and Sri-Lankan ODI Series i.e. if you have had a temporary amnesia attack for some reason. In fact, Saurav has taken 100 catches in his ODI career. For someone who was not a regular in “slip-cordon”, he has done remarkably well, i.e. as a fielder, to hold on to those many catches. Is this the sign of a “bad” fielder? For devils’ sake – look at the other side. He is only the 3^rd ODI player in the history of the game to have scored more than 10000 runs, taken more than 100 wickets and has more than 100 catches to his name (Sahcin and Jayasurya being the other two). Not even Ricky Ponting – who is definitely a better fielder than Ganguly and who has played equal or more number of matches as Ganguly has – has managed to take more. And to top it, Ganguly has scored many half-centuries and centuries, at an excellent strike rate since his return to ODI team in 2007! What else do you want a player to do? Not everyone can be a rabbit on field. Is Sehwag a great fielder? Is Yuvraj Singh anywhere as close to a good fielder that he once was? What is the use of having 10 good fielders – but not one of them scoring runs when required? Take a look at all the ODIs played by the Indian team in the last 1 year and you will find that we have won matches because of the “Bowlers” most of the times. Our batsmen have been found wanting in almost all the matches (except for some brilliant knocks by Sachin in VB series finals against Australia). If not for Dhoni’s knocks in most of the ODI matches, in the last one year, we would have struggled to post decent scores. So why drop a decent batsman from your team? Young legs? My foot. Let those intelligent selectors take a long walk to hell – for all I care. We shall see how many of these young “greats” like Yuvraj, Raina, Dhoni decide to retire in time – i.e. before they grow “old”. To say that seniors should make way for youngsters is just a bloody “catch line” I say. Let the damn “juniors” of today first become consistent enough to become “seniors” in future, and THEN we shall see how many of them are “great” enough to decide on their retirement. It is easier to tell others. We shall see how these “Youngistan Turks” feel about retirement when they reach 33-34 years of age. Oh boy – I can’t wait for that period to come. I am sure I will live long enough to see their reactions then.

See – Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid, Kumble and Laxman are “GREAT” players – great men. They have a certain way of thinking and we mortals just cannot even “begin” to imagine how their mind works. That is why they are “great”, whereas we aren’t. We have no business to compare them to ourselves and expect them to follow all principles (flawed or otherwise) that we believe in. They have achieved greatness by applying their body and soul to the purposes of serving their nation in their own capacity. And anyone who has served the game for over a decade (as these men have) should be well respected and honored. That we, like wolves, hang our tongues out to drink their blood (in their time of despair) does not show us in good light.

Players like Sachin Tendulkar are perhaps born once in a generation. But it will not be wrong to say that players like Saurav Ganguly are born once in many-many decades and leaders like him are even rarer to find. For the joy that this shirt whirling, outspoken, left-arm batsman (and leader) has given to every citizen of this country – I say we salute him. Give him every ounce of accolade and tribute that he truly deserves.

I may not follow the game of cricket as much as I have followed in my life after he leaves. There won’t be too many great players of my time left for me to watch. There definitely won’t be Saurav Ganguly to look for, playing those exquisite cover drives on the field! For such extreme emotions for the game – I thank you Sir. I shall eventually pass on the “baton” of “cheering with maddening emotions” to the next generation. We have to be consistent with Cricket Selectors after all i.e. to keep the game “youthful” overall. This game perhaps will be well served by new set of patrons who have fresh voice (to shout), fresh legs (to jump around in joy), fresh nails (to chew upon), fresh eyes (to keep them glued to the TV screens) and fresh expletives (in times when the team does not perform well!) to take the new crop of cricketers forward! I hope the game prospers in this country and keeps our man’s legacy intact.

As my kids grow up – I definitely won’t be looking up the Indian history books for inspirational super-hero stories to tell them. I just need to close my eyes and play back the saga of Saurav’s cricketing career and I know my kids would have learnt a lot by the time I finish his epic chronicle. I could not have found a better story to tell them. And for that – I thank you again Saurav.

Thanks a lot for all the good memories you have given us and wish you all the best.

Its Montoo..

(6^th Nov 2008-10^th Nov 2008)

Tryst with Destiny – A Perspective

So we are in the 61^st year of our independence. We have grown old – haven’t we? The “tryst with destiny” has come a long way. We have had many “strokes at midnight” ever since the 15^th Aug 1947. We need to slow down a bit – isn’t it? Na… In fact, Old age comes with an advantage. It breeds the path of progress with tons of experience to breed upon. I say, we indeed have achieved a lot together and we as hell have to achieve a lot more.

As we hit another year in our glorious path – let us look back and renew the pledge that our ancestors and freedom fighters took. Let me reiterate a point here – I have always felt that it is not always prudent to “look at the past” and live in the sense of satisfaction, happiness or sorrow. We at best should look at the past – to work on the shortcomings and to fill the “gap” that was left in past actions and perhaps also to look at all the glorious things/events of the past and feel honored to have been a part of it.

However, a look back at the history of India makes me wonder – why do we always talk about 60^th or 61^st year of independence? We were always an “independent” nation to start with. That Bharat/Hindustan was independent before Mughals came along is something we conveniently forget. King Ram in “Treta Yug” and naughty Krishna in “Dwapur Yug” were all born in the land of “Bharat” which was independent in its own sense. At the least – they were not governed by any known outside forces/civilization. It was only in 1328 AD that Mughal rule finally started in India. It is part of our history – there is nothing new I am claiming here. What is perhaps not appreciated by most of us is that it took multiple attacks by Arabs/Mughals since 715 AD (starting with Mohammad bin Qasim’s attack in 715 AD to Allah-ud-din-Khilji’s attack in 1310 and which lasted till 1328AD) to capture most of India - which means it took almost 600 years for any known foreign power to take India over. 600 years!! Many of us would die 10 times over before we even claim to have lived 600 years on earth. That is a long-long time. That this Mughal rule came to an end with start of an equally embarrassing British Rule is also a part of our oppressed history. The fact is – the last 500+ years of foreign rule have perhaps made us believe that we were always ruled by someone against our wishes and hence when we got Independence from the British in 1947 – we, for the first time, became independent. We have, almost always, thought of ourselves as oppressed country since we (again) - almost always - read history of our country with a “British prism”. No Sir. We were perfectly fine country before Mughals captured our land and had a healthy (almost) democratic culture in those periods – and with much larger area/land of control (from most of Afghanistan to Rangoon and from most of Kashmir till Kanyakumari).

It is hence that I want you to read the history of our country – in a somewhat detail – to really understand the nature and history of our country. Only when you read the history will you understand that this independence from British is ONLY an event in the growth of our nation. We did not certainly realize how to be independent in 1947. We had rich history even before Mughals and British rule, with rulers of those times born and brought up in our own land and were of our own culture. Being governed by such Kings/emperors was not living in tyranny or subjugation. Every bit of history that we can lay our hands on proves that the rule in those times were fair and inclusive. That is what we call independent sense of living, isn’t it? It is like having a Prime Minister of our own land elected/selected from within the citizens of this country. As for electoral democracy, I don’t think there was any precedent of elected representative in those times anywhere in the world – but which does not does not mean that we were not Independent. A point to ponder here is whether electing our leaders in modern India makes us any more independent than being governed by a popular king in those times? I have always believed that the general masses remain subservient to the leaders – elected, selected or forced on us. That you and I are not deciding if the Nuclear deal needs to be signed or not is a proof of that. That you and I have no say in how to solve the Kashmir problem is another proof of that. Even in another democracy like USA – that Bush should attack Afghanistan/Iraq was not decided by the citizens of that country. All these decisions are taken by leader of the day and the prerogative lies with them to make such a decision. Isn’t this akin to the way a King would take decisions? That is what I mean when I say that the way leaders are made – elected or selected - does not actually make a difference. What matters is – how well the chosen one governs. And as mentioned above – the way Bharat was ruled for centuries before 700AD proves that the men who ruled were more or less good governors.

The point I am trying to make is – let us not look at our history confined to only last 60-80 years. We have had rich culture and effective governance even 1000 years back and what we now have to do is continue from the learnings’ of the past. This day should be seen as “our day” of “getting back” to “our” earlier ways of living with free spirits and sense of belonging to the nation.

Let us also spare a thought for the ones who have laid their lives for the country and also for those who lived through to “restructure” the fabric of this great nation (once the British left). Let us also spare a thought for all the people who have been working continuously for all these years (at various times) to help build this great nation all over again. Let us also bow to every single citizens of this country who have been enduring the pain of this period of churning. Let us pledge that “our generation” will help this nation that we refer by the name of Bharat/ Hindustan and India, to get the revered/rightful place on this planet. We shall not rest in peace till we do that.

I have always believed that this country is not only about a Mahatma Gandhi, Jawahar Nehru, Sardar Patel, Laxmi Bai, Mangal Pandey, Chandrashekar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Mohammad Ali Jinnah or such well known freedom fighters. This nation was not built by such people alone. This was built by many more, who we perhaps do not know of. This indeed is “being” built by you and me even today. And for that - I say Thank You. Thank You - for being such good citizens of this country. And to paraphrase Martin Luther King’s famous words – “Together we shall and together we will return to our glorious days”.

Amen.

Mantosh Singh..

14^th Aug 2008’

Ps: Next page has Jawaharlal Nehru’s full speech on 15^th Aug 1947. Just thought you would want to read it

TRYST WITH DESTINY

“Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially”

At the stroke of midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, then an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.

At the dawn of history India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her successes and her failures. Through good and ill fortune alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again.

The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?

Freedom and power bring responsibility. That responsibility rests upon this assembly, a sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India. Before the birth of freedom we have endured all the pains of labour and our hearts are heavy with the memory of this sorrow. Some of those pains continue even now.

Nevertheless, the past is over and it is the future that beckons to us now.

That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we might fulfill the pledges we have so often taken and the one we shall take today. The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us but so long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over.

And so we have to labour and to work, and work hard, to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all the nations and peoples are too closely knit together today for any one of them to imagines that it can live apart. Peace has been said to be indivisible, so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this one world that can no longer be split into isolated fragments.

To the people of India whose representatives we are, we make appeal to join us with faith and confidence in this great adventure. This is no time for petty and destructive criticism, no time for ill-will or blaming others. We have to build the noble mansion of free India where all her children may dwell."

- Jawaharlal Nehru – 15^th Aug 1947’