Mr. Alvares and the Art of Crookedness

Excuses galore on the Gadgil implementation.



“The Madhav Gadgil Committee report was not final. It has only suggestions, which could be implemented with the consent of the grama sabhas. In that case, it’s totally democratic. The grama sabhas have the absolute power to decide on the recommendation. While the Kasturirangan report does not give scope for suggestions. It recommends immediate notification,” Mr. Alvares, the editor of ‘Other India Press’, an alternative publication, said. "

This argument that Gram Sabhas are going to decide on the development is utterly bogus, for multiple reasons.

1) Infrastructural development projects are never under the purview of one Gramsabha. One Gramsabha cannot say that they don't want a railway line, while the other one can say that they want it. A broader policy and decision making is required for any large projects.

2) Projects that are allowed within one Gramsabha may negatively impact other Gramsabhas, so, the decision making on such projects will end up being taken by a different authority.

It is not that they do not know any of this. They just want to implement their ideological agenda without actually being prepared to take the blame. Otherwise, what excuse can they give for submitting such a report when Mr.Gadgil himself admitted recently that he hadn't visited districts like Idukki and Wayanad during the report preparation? If you can't visit Idukki or Wayanad on a report on Western Ghats, where would you visit?

Again, if Gadgil report was only SUGGESTIONS, why was everybody so eager to IMPLEMENT it? In a democracy, nobody implements suggestions. Only Decisions are implemented. The truth of the matter is that the environmentalist just want to push through their agenda, by hook or by crook, without a care in the world about the plight of other people affected by their suggestions.

The Seven & The Modern

I happened to read an article about the medieval concepts of Virtues, which led to remembering a movie "The Seven" which was crafted on the concept of Seven Sins. Also, quite accidentally, read another article around the progression of human nature as exemplified by the innovation around technology. It was an interesting to attempt to put these three pieces together.

The Modern man has indeed progressed a lot. Often, we are excited by how smart our next generation is. Even their toys are our wonders. The medieval man look more like an evolved ape in terms of technology when compared to the modern. The question was - can the Modern sustain this progress? If yes, what could drive it? The answer suggested was Technology. By continuous technological invention, we can sustain this progress. Moving from lesser efficient technology to more efficient technology, we can always meet the pressures that a progressing civilization demand, so the only thing that is absolutely required is the search for efficiency and innovation.

Woman, Mother, Wife and Sister

 A colleague of mine, Mr.U, said so in social media:

"It is women themselves who act to perpetuate the patriarchal values, by conforming to them, internalizing and passing on to the next generation. This is true at least with the women whom I saw around me (in the urban middle class professional space). I was and am deeply saddened by the apathy of the woman folk around me, who are well away from the Khap Panchayat like enironment and technically enjoy financial freedom. These women should first identify themselves as full individuals (not as some half of a male), then identify themselves as woman and place it before their identities of wife, GF, aspiring GF, sister, mother (all of which is essentially tied to that of a man's) and offer solidarity to their fellow women who fight to secure a dignified existence!!"

First things first: In spirit, Mr.U says is simple enough: the educated, financially independent urban middle class women professionals should fight to secure dignity for other ill-fortuned women. This is good statement to make. In fact, you could even extend this to apply to any socially responsible person, gender being not a consideration at all.

What raises my curiosity is, how the apparently noble idea is twisted to fit into an ideology to destroy the very foundation of civilization. Look at this: "The women should first identify themselves as full individuals, not as some half of a male and place it before their identities of Wife, GF, Sister, Mother etc, all of which is ESSENTIALLY tied to that of a man's".

Cultural Psyche

What is the cultural psyche of a society? One of my favorite definition is: the common denominator of the expression of the numerous individuals in that society when dealing with an adversity or a negative situation.

I have two use cases to compare. From my own experience.

Situation #1: Some day in year 2008. I am taking reverse in a parking compound in USA. My wife is sitting next to me. I do not notice that there is another car behind me. I stop the car, just in time before I hit the car. The guy in the other car takes his car close to me and says, "Sir, if you are in urgency to take your car, you just need to put your indicator and show me. I would have given way. Your family is with you, so, I am not saying anything more". He drives off, although he is pretty much peeved.

Situation#2: Jun 20th 2014. I take my leg off the break my car when waiting for a signal casually. My wife is sitting next to me (disturbing me, actually. Hope she doesn't read this). My car rolls backwards and is about to hit an auto-taxi behind. The auto driver gets out, comes to me and screams, "Thaanokke enthu kaanikkuvaado? Ithrem purakil nirththeettum enthu kaanikkaanaa purakilekku varunnathu??? Ororuththanokke vannolum.....". My English is not good enough to truly express the emotion he expressed through his words. He goes back.

Is a society better off because it is equanimous, or is a society equanimous because it is better off?

Scratching the Scab

Remember the last time when you tripped down and then got up with a few bruises on your knees? Remember the scabs that covered your knees after the bruises were healed? Remember what happened when you tried to scratch the scabby knees? It seems that the Modi government has been busy doing that: scratching the scabs. And they are getting to know exactly what happens if you do that. Pus. Blood. If you have any doubt, check this out.

Language is a very complicated thing in India. Not just in India, but all over the world. Wars were fought for it. Plenty of them. Unrest over language is not a very distant thing in the past in India. Anybody who has a common sense understanding of the situation of language in India would know that it is a delicate subject. It is a like a pyramid built using eggs. You have to be careful.And then, all of a sudden, barely after a month of taking power, Modi government wants to see what happens if you apply some pressure on top of this pile of eggs. Somebody wants to figure out what lies beneath the solid dry skin of the scab.

Why can't people let things be?

World cup, Vijayan and petty Politics

From the title, if you gathered that I am going to scribble something about Kerala's own "Pele" I.M.Vijayan and some politics that has denied him something in relation to any world cup,  that's not it. Or may be it is, from the perspective of Vijayan.

I am talking about O.V. Vijayan.

It is indeed strange, in a wonderful way, that the circumstances of reading a book itself can leave a lasting impression on you about the book. I wanted to catch my sleep a little early, so that I can get up very early to catch some soccer action in the FIFA world cup. Since I didn't get proper sleep, I thought I should read a book, perhaps the easiest way to catch sleep. Eventhough I had read Gurusagaram (translated to English as The Infinity of Grace) once before, I, purely by a random choice, took that book again to my bed.

It is more than 20 hours. I have already completed the book, watched the match between England and Italy, watched a movie, been to Sunday mass, played with my sons, had a stomach full of Biriyani, done some office work, done a lot of browsing and had my late evening tea. I haven't slept yet. And I feel like I need to scribble something about the thoughts that book generated in me.

A brief critique of Gadgil Report

Three Wishes

First of all, I have three things to share:

1. A request to everybody who is reading this first line - while this article may take quite a few minutes to read, the topic under discussion is a subject that  would affect you directly (whether.you wish it away or not) and hence I would encourage you to spend some time thinking about it.

2. A request for favor from those who are confident about your knowledge about the topic and has already  made up your mind based on that knowledge- please go through this and correct the flaws, if any, of my analysis of the topic. I can't guarantee any favor in return for any such shared knowledge, apart from my word that I will consider and address them with complete intellectual transparency.

3. An urge to those who find my study convincing - please do not sacrifice your intellectual honesty in the altar of political affiliations or religious views or personal ideological preferences.

I also intend to keep it rather brief. In the 140-character world, I think I have already written too much, even before getting into the topic. So, I can't afford to give too much explanation. Also, if the reader is going to use his/her brain, then most of the things are self-explanatory.

An Analysis of the Political Ideology behind Gadgil Reports

Everybody knows the purpose to which Gadgil Report is aimed at: prevent further man-made transformations to the natural landscape of Western Ghats. But, certainly, this purpose just sits within a larger context of political framework. My intention here is to try to unearth that political context and position it with respect to the key political ideologies in India and ,especially, Kerala.

Environmentalism as an ideology draws its lifeblood from the progressive ideals of the Western World. Eventhough man's affection to nature and his dependency on it has been a consistent theme all across the world in various civilizations, that disposition has not challenged his attempts to alter his landscape in any serious measure till very recently. The wide acceptance of the concept of Anthropogenic Global Climate Change can be considered as the fundamental cause of such a shift in the thought process of leadership across the globe.

But, why is it such a favorite political position of the progressives, and not the conservatives in the West? One can deduce two specific reasons. One, Conservatives generally tended to favor Industrialization, Privatization and Wealth Expansion. All of these are bound to the exploitation of available natural resources, which, in turn, will lead to various changes within the environmental landscape. Automatically, the progressive Socialists in the West who favor State control of Industry and Wealth distribution end up as the supporting pillar of environmentalism.

Of course, everybody from both camps argue for development with preservation. But, this is never an ideological position, but merely a compromising position so that they do not look extremists or fundamentalists politically. Given a single point of contention, conservatives are happy to compromise on environment, whereas progressives are happy to compromise on development.

It is, then, no wonder that similar attitudes prevail in India with respect to environmentalism. But, unlike the West where there are clear ideological camps, Indian situation is more much more cluttered with the presence of a number of other factors, like historical condition of a class of people, development needs of various sections of society and participation of people in multiple organizations with conflicting ideological positions and so on. Let me get into these various factors from the eyes of a number of actors considering the case of Gadgil report.