My Pain

There is no doubt I have been suffering excruciating pain for last one year or so. My pain has got reflected in the open letters and some of the other blogs posted earlier. It is true that it was my own choice that I allowed myself to be the guinea-pig in an attempt to save thousands of crores of public money year after year. The pain is not that my personal well being as well as well being of my family remains seriously compromised under victimization by the establishment. That would have been too small a cost if thousands of crores of public money were saved and utilized for the welfare of the poor. That is how I felt and thought in my belligerent mood. I had felt that it would impart some real worth to my existence. I had desired for myself just to be able to survive decently while working as would be professionally correct. But alas! that was not to be.

The pain is that I have failed. The loot is continuing totally unabated. The pain is that the powerful establishment down below from the UPA chairperson to the PM, from the Minister for Railways to the Railway Board have not even bothered to think of necessary policy changes, let alone initiating those. The pain is that the 'good guys' who had set out to cleanse the procurement in Indian Railways and public procurement at large in India encompassing lakhs of crores of public money every year, and affect necessary corrections, have disintegrated as usual, having gone down as half hearted warriors. The pain is that the inefficacy of our political system, the acts of omission and commission by our top level bureaucrats, and the hypocrisy of our media stand thoroughly exposed through my example but no one is bothered. The pain is that the daylight continuous loot of such large amount of public money doesn't concern any parliamentarian or any activist of the civil society who are always taking pride in talking big. The pain is that a thoroughly corrupt people (for having accepted corruption and systemic absurdities as a way of life) headed by the fountain heads of corruption themselves are happy to pat themselves for persecuting a few unfortunate ones now and then for corruption. The pain is that the officers belonging to IRSS (a family I myself belong to) continue to accept and enjoy their existence as third rate citizens devoid of professional self respect, worse than that of a prostitute, out of fear or out of lure of the lucre. My pain is that inspite of having been well educated and professionally reasonably competent, I couldn't survive honorably in the system as I was not prepared to accept absurdities and compromise professional self respect.

To counter this pain there has been some solace. There is solace that some well meaning officers of Indian Railways, specially those belonging to consuming and accounts departments, might have become more aware through the efforts of 'The Statesman' and might act better in their limited capacity to save substantial public money in times to come. There has been solace that I didn't compromise my self respect whatever the cost be, while in job. There has been solace that for a few months I experienced a level of existence (when one sets out to sacrifice self for the larger interest of the people one loves, it is a different experience altogether) God must have reserved for the blessed ones. There is solace that I at least tried like the Yossarrian of Catch 22.

Binayak Sen Gets Bail

Day before yesterday Supreme Court allowed bail to Mr Binayak Sen. Another heartening development. The political masters made the right noises that they respected the judgment as if they had any other option. The family said they were happy and they were always hopeful. The consensus was that justice had prevailed. Had it? If there was not a case of sedition as per Supreme Court, how has been the detention of Mr Sen for months justified? Who can give him back months and years of his life wasted and suffered in jail? Won't the bureaucrats and judges responsible for this grave injustice get their promotions? Was establishment or judiciary causing his unlawful confinement corrupt? I ask this last question just to emphasize that while the civil society and the media appear obsessed with corruption (themselves being corrupt to the root), there are much graver fundamental issues that need be addressed.

Mr Sen's is not an isolated case. There are lakhs of cases where either injustice is imparted or justice is not imparted for years by our legal system. Yet being the hypocrites as we are, we continue to acclaim it.

Need for Zero Based Thinking

This post follows from the last post. The disappointing developments since last post further add to the need. The egos of 'good guys' are at work and the 'bad guys' are having a silent laugh. Here follows what I wish to convey.

I am an ordinary citizen. Day after day I come across what the distinguished citizens have to say~ there is no dearth of them ~ through print and electronic media. We and they all have been educated and have grown up in a society governed by certain systems and norms for ages. So it is imperative that our thinking is also governed accordingly. Therefore every day we indulge in intellectual masturbation thinking of incremental corrections or cosmetic changes like LokPal Bill, other additional laws or institutions, more powers to this, less powers to that, hanging him or sending her to jail - in an attempt to address perceived ills of the society. We conveniently forget that our forefathers were no less intelligent or concerned and in-spite of the continuing best efforts of so many well-meaning people the things are not improving as we would have desired, rather have been only worsening for humanity as a whole - a glance at the factual data concerning haves-not is sufficient to know it. There was a ray of hope in the popular uprising led by Anna Hazare but that is fast disappearing. As expected, the evil forces are regrouping. The fissures have already started appearing among a society that had spontaneously supported the movement as one man. The politicians are feeling threatened and regrouping lest Anna Hazare capture the space they have been controlling. What amuses me no end is the fact that the people who till other day were holding the politicians responsible for all evils, are questioning their space being taken by Anna Hazare. Obviously the so called intellectuals and pillars of the society don't know what they want except for a place for themselves in the sun.

Where does all this lead us? The need is for zero based thinking - a thinking that will lead us to see what are the basic flaws that have crept in the systems , social and political norms and conventions we have been following blindly for decades and centuries. A thinking that will have well being and happiness of each and every human-being at its core, beyond all regional or national boundaries. "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" not in words but in practice. When we start doing so, we shall soon realize that very basic and totally revolutionary changes are called for in the way we think and we live. That is because the civilization, more so in recent times, has been progressing pigging-back falsehood.

The zero based thinking will have to aim at fulfillment of basic needs of and availability of basic amenities to all humans on earth. There can't be any place for a starving child, an uneducated person, a beggar, pavement or slum dwellers. It is not an impossible fantasy. What is required is only that the people who matter will so. Other things will follow. The most difficult part will be unlearning of the bureaucratic and legal systems, among other things, we have become so much habituated to. It is true that things have evolved over time for us to be as we are today. But the fact that a majority of our brethren, specially in the third world countries, have an existence we would shudder to think of does mean that things have gone wrong in the systems we have created and nurtured. If we really believe in "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam", massive basic changes will be necessary to ensure that all members of the family are well provided for and are happy.

That is if we really bother about the state of affairs in the society, in the country and the world, we must embark on Zero Based Thinking without delay. Otherwise we shouldn't lament at all about the thoroughly hopeless lives we or our brethren live and the injustice we face.

Anna Hazare- The Relevance and The Myth

For about a week now, all the electronic media and the print media have been sieged of Anna Hazare and the movement led by him. There is hardly anything which has not been spoken or written about this historic event. I shall also have my take.

It has been really refreshing to see a true Gandhian suddenly take national center stage. More reassuring has been the fact of spontaneous public support world wide in favour of his crusade, the support that kept on multiplying exponentially with each passing day. As many people put it, the dead souls had, out of nowhere, got some air to breathe. The joke of a government that we are having had no option but to bow to the pressure of the civil society. Kapil Sibal, though, did show his class once again by telling the nation that the PM and Sonia Gandhi had been magnanimous in giving in. I doubt if anything could be more ridiculous, specially in the background of the utterances made by the Congress leaders in public when the movement had just begun. The people of repute questioned the propriety of the recourse taken by Anna Hazare and many still question the legality of the demands and acceptance of same. They again tend to forget a simple thing that propriety, law or any such thing dear to these people had died a natural death in this country at least three years back, if not earlier, when 'cash for vote' scandal took place in broad daylight and the perpetrators continued to rule. Even otherwise, I for one couldn't fault even the slightest the method adopted, stand and decisions taken or the utterances by Sh. Anna Hazare. The relevance of Sh. Anna Hazare and the activists with him namely Ms Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejriwal is historic that they could galvanize a helpless people into a very potent force and make them realize the power they posessed. If they continue with the good work and don't allow themselves to be disintegrated through rift among themselves, as egos of these people and designs of political rulers are likely to cause, people continue to support the issues to be taken up by them, the corruption within society which is so deep rooted and pervasive begins to get eroded - then it will be a miracle and these people will be worth their weight not in gold but diamonds or platinum. (Unfortunately as I write these lines, the fissures have started surfacing already. I do hope that better sense will prevail and well meaning people (Baba Ramdev in this case) will not utter unnecessarily or act in a way that would weaken rather than strengthen the movement).

The issue now being addressed is enactment of a potent law to punish the corrupt in high places. Already we have umpteen laws and institutions supposedly for the purpose. Problem has not been absence of the arsenal to deal with the malice but the use of that arsenal. Have not supreme court judges or even CJI's been known to be corrupt? Have not Presidents been known to be totally ineffective? Have not Prime Ministers and Chief Ministers been known to have continued in office through dubious means? Not being able to make use of existing laws correctly and to enact and throw up more and more laws and institutions in an attempt to overcome inherent inefficiencies and weaknesses can not serve much purpose and will largely be self deceiving. The people have come together with right spirit but for a specific cause that is just a myth. I can say so with authority out of my personal experience in last one year or so as brought out in my earlier postings. The rot is so deep rooted and wide spread now that no medicine can substitute the need for a major surgery.

Let me be clearer. I brought out the annual loss of more than Rs 5000 crores of public money and daylight victimization of whistle-blowers to the personal knowledge of Mrs Sonia Gandhi, the PM, almost all members of Lok Sabha, and a few distinguished members of Rajya Sabha through a letter months back. No one has bothered and the top bureaucrats, many of them respected and considered honest, are allowing the loot to continue and the whistle-blowers to be victimised, with impunity. That too when the PM and the UPA chairperson publicly announced that whistle-blowers must be protected. In an article titled 'Pelf and Pilferage' in The Statesman about a fortnight back, Mr. Shiv Karan Singh brought out with facts and figures how leakage of lakhs of crores of rupees was taking place in public procurement in India. I doubt if anyone, including the self -patting media at large looking only for scandals, has bothered to bother. Neither will the purported Lok Pal bother as it will be dealing with cases of individual corruption and will have to do nothing in much more lethal cases of systemic corruption. And how effective can a few Lok Ayuktas be in a country of 1.2 billion where almost every0ne in position of power is corrupt and/or doesn't mind allowing corruption all around? And there are lakhs of such powerful 'corrupts' who will always be keen to bail each other out.

So what Sh. Anna Hazare and company are pursuing - tackling corruption through 'Jan Lok Pal' Bill - is a myth, but the popular uprising they have caused against corruption as such is no mean achievement.

Wikileaks and India

Wikileaks struck India a few days ago with the leak about 'cash for votes' - the indulgence of Manmohan Singh govt three years back to save itself through bribing of the MPs. The reaction to these leaks by the Indian media and the politicians and the implications thereof were quite incisively summed up by Mr. Rajinder Puri through his article in the Statesman. I doubt if many people had appreciated or even now appreciate these simple but telling implications. First the media. It was clear to any man in the street who was awake that time that the UPA govt had bribed the MPs to survive for the sake of the nuclear deal. But our media was happy to ignore this greatest crime and sing praises of the perpetrators - the PM and the UPA chairperson primarily responsible because of the positions held by them - all these years, just because they defeated the no-confidence motion that time and also won the next general elections. These wins have made the ruling party believe that there is no place left for accountability in present political set up, and rightly so. This belligerence is evident in the reactions of leaders of this party including the PM himself on public platforms to scam after scam hitting the headlines. Against this background, Indian media's renewed interest in 'cash for vote' scandal after all these years just because a leak from wikileaks surfaced not only appears laughable but also exposes their bankruptcy. More so as in no time they again realized that the issue was a non issue. Game of cricket and the Cricket World Cup was to be the all pervasive issue.

Now our politicians. The purpose of politicians is supposed to be to act for betterment of the masses. I hardly find any politician visible on national scene working for the larger or national interest. Their only purpose is to nurture their vote banks by hook or by crook and to enhance their own political careers in order to enjoy or continuing enjoying power. Such men and women of straw across parties also started making noise on revelations through wikileaks. Why had they chosen to forget this issue of utmost importance? Had not JPC formed to probe the issue failed the nation? Had not the govt failed the nation on not acting to probe further on the JPC recommendations? Why were these jokers keeping quiet all these years and started dancing when a vague leak surfaced on foreign soil? Have they been such fools as not to be aware of what was happening around them in their own country?

The further leaks exposed leaders from the opposition as well to show us what our leaders were. Blame game started among leaders as to who were greater scoundrels. The people of India, all this while, continue patting themselves for being a largest democracy and a fast growing economy. They continue throwing up rogues, rascals and men of straw as their leaders and will continue doing so.

An open letter to Ms Mamata Banerjee, the Railway Minister

I am posting below an open letter to the Railway Minister, sent to her by me. A few fundamental questions arise. Is there something fundamentally wrong in our political and democratic system through which thoroughly non-competent people come to be the chief-executives and become free to ruin and/or to loot? It remains their choice whether they feel accountable or not. There are examples galore in front of us, of A Rajas, of Sharad Pawars, of Suresh Kalmadis, of Mayawatis, of Yeduarappas and so on. Is period of five years for which such people have total power too long (if one was to misuse power which is the common tendency)? Have the checks and balances envisaged in the system failed? Have some basic radical changes rather than cosmetic corrections become necessary now? Here the open letter:

(An Open Letter to Ms Mamata Banerjee, the Hon’ble Minister for Railways)

7C, Block D, Ideal Towers

57, DH Road, Kolkata-23.

Dated: 28^th Feb, 2011

Dear Madam,

I thought you were a great leader. So you are. You fought for the helpless and the deprived. You fought successfully. You always showed great concern for the poor and the downtrodden. You seemed to have a lot of promise, at least to me.

Soon after taking over as Minister for Railways, you summarily replaced chairmen of all the 20 Railway Recruitment Boards handpicking the new incumbents. The worst ever recruitment scam in the history of Indian Railways followed. That was the first lesson for you – ‘a great political leader and a great administrator/executive are two totally different things.’ But unfortunately you chose not to learn. You stated in parliament that Railway procurement and scrap disposal were plagued with corruption. You reiterated your concern in GMs conference that followed. By these utterances you made one believe that it was your priority to cleanse these areas of Railway working. But when the departmental Head responsible for these areas of working (a man of impeccable integrity) initiated action in this regard through scathing inspection report of Belur Scrap Yard of Eastern Railway and taking a professionally correct stand in a tender case for procurement of wagons in Railway Board (against your wishes?), you overnight removed him from his post in an unprecedented action against all established norms, forcing him to take voluntary retirement. Result – rendering the department responsible for annual procurement worth about Rs. 30000 crores and scrap disposal worth above Rs. 3500 crores effectively headless and totally backbone-less, with great detriment to the organization whose charge you are holding through our votes.

You had won the elections with overwhelming votes in favour of your party. You had the power. Why to blame you if in that power-drunk state of mind, you, as other leaders of your time, also forgot that you owed your power to the poor, the downtrodden. They had reposed their faith in you to administer fairly and competently and to work for their betterment. Instead of acting as a trustee that you and your colleague ministers are, you also chose to act as an autocrat, much more whimsical than any of your colleagues. Largely dedicated workforce of Indian Railways is shattered with their morale at an all time low. Self-austerity could be virtue for an individual but doesn’t help an organization that could be benefited only through good governance and positive corrective actions to plug all-round daylight loot. ‘Railway Samachar’ has been bringing out how there is total chaos in the Railways under you. Thank God, still honest, true and bold journalism is alive in India though mostly we come across nothing but sycophancy in the name of journalism, even by the renowned journalists.

I was another fool who got misguided and misled by your public proclamations. I did some hard work to bring to your notice how avoidable leakage to the tune of Rs. 5000 crores per annum was taking place in Railway procurement and how through simple corrective steps it could be plugged effectively. You and top Railway bureaucracy under you assigned it to dustbin exactly as the report on oil mafia in Maharashtra was assigned to dustbin 15 years back and remained so assigned all these years. It required an officer to be brutally burnt and killed in broad daylight for everyone including officer preparing it and the media to wake up to it. But in this case, soon enough ‘The Statesman’ brought the issue out in four parts telling the nation about loss of Rs 50000 crores in last decade, followed by a perspective article ‘Will Didi slay the Railway demon?’ Now you had to bother, at least for public consumption. An enquiry/investigation had to be ordered. You did so. However the real message was not addressed and the messenger was shot. I was transferred to a farthest location unceremoniously. Politician in you was at its very best. Publicly you were praising the reports in ‘The Statesman’ while in private you were overseeing the victimization of the officer who knowingly/unknowingly had sowed the seed for these reports. The editor of ‘The Statesman’ urged you to act against this victimization through his editorial ‘Mamata must act’ but you didn’t. Instead of slaying the demon, didi had fallen prey to it.

You had been presented with a great historical opportunity. You had only to desire and saving of thousands of crores of rupees per year in Indian Railways was there for the taking. (If your advisors couldn’t, I was always there to tell you how. But sitting at a very high pedestal, you didn’t consider it worthwhile even to meet me). That huge saving would have been just in one area of working. Madam, goodness is more contagious than evil. Your one corrective action would have inspired and activated the other well-meaning but dormant forces in the organization as well, resulting in further saving/earning of thousands of crores of rupees through stemming of the rot in the other departments. Then you wouldn’t have had to go to the Finance Minister with a begging bowl as has been necessitated now.

And who knows if as a chain-action, this goodness in due course would have encompassed the whole government that is today reeling under anarchy to the horror of the whole nation. But alas! When it mattered most, you also chose to be a part of and party to the rot (misguided by your advisers on Railways?), having promised so much the opposite.

The nation is disappointed in you but you are not bothered, feeling well entrenched through your knowledge that the poor voters of West Bengal, your political base, will never understand these things that how you had been leading a mammoth organization, the Indian Railways, to disaster. (Apart from Railway Samachar, India Today and CNN-IBN have also very recently reported that once profitable Railways are fast approaching bankruptcy during your short tenure). These poor voters having unflinching faith in you will probably be further befooled by the foundation laying and inaugurations by you and your lieutenants almost on daily basis in the state of West Bengal, and the populist proclamations being made by you as and when the opportunity is there. Or at least you and your cronies believe so.

You must be wondering who am I to dare to write to you in this way. I am simply invoking my power as a ‘citizen of India’ and Hon’ble Minister madam, you are answerable to citizens like me, more than to anyone else. So I believe. Please do note that I am apolitical lest you should attempt to dismiss this also as a conspiracy of the Left. Whatever Nira Radias, the media moguls, the corporate big-wigs, the top bureaucrats or the powerful ministers may think, the power of truth is the ultimate power. Unfortunately, in the land of Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi, we have forgotten it.

I know that basic problem lies with me for which none other than God is responsible. He designed my birth in this country but didn’t equip me with faculties to be able to understand the ways of this great country. He equipped me with commonsense but not commonsense enough for me to understand that commonsense was an evil and not a virtue for bureaucrats and bureaucracy in this country. He didn’t make me comprehend how leaders posing to be too concerned for the poor could knowingly allow continuous leakage of thousands and thousands of crores of public money and why they won’t take action to stop the loot and recover the looted amount that they could readily take. He didn’t make me understand how just being a Prime-Minister or a Minister could be a virtue.

My problem is that I have not yet been murdered, a distinct possibility for one exposing the powerful cartels perennially looting thousands of crores of public money. Had I been murdered, probably you would have publicly expressed condolence to my bereaved family, and ordered payment of my dues and family pension to them. You might have also awarded me posthumously. Had I been murdered, our alert media also would have taken note of the issue at least once to give them a news item for a day or two before forgetting the continuing loot as much more important issues like eating and sleeping habits of celebrities would always be beckoning them. Probably you and bureaucracy under you are just awaiting that? Since in the meantime they are carrying on the would-be murderers’ job themselves by making my life as troublesome as possible. Of course, public awards in the largest democracy of the world have to be reserved for those in proximity with the powerful ones.

What else is my problem? Continuing huge leakage of public money in Railway procurement? It is true that every Railway officer who is aware of the issue, including the Board members, knows that the facts brought out by me are that- facts – and that the amount of leakage estimated by me is an understatement rather than an overstatement. It is true that still everyone is continuing with the policies and actions that support the loot. It is also true that you, the Minister, one person ultimately responsible to plug the loot of public money, have chosen to do nothing to save thousands of crores of rupees year after year that could be utilized for the uplift of the poor for whom crocodile tears are shed day in and day out and whose votes give our leaders the power for them to use or abuse. Still the leakage is not my major concern today. If the Railway administration doesn’t feel concerned, if the people of India, their elected representatives, the known public activists and crusaders, and strangely the media at large – all have deemed avoidable and ever increasing annual loss of Rs five to ten thousand crores to be a matter of no consequence and importance, why should I lose my sleep over it? Or how my loosing sleep could help in a country of one billion plus hell bent on proving Winston Churchill a prophet for the scathing comments by him about our future leaders at the time of India gaining freedom? I do, however, feel bad as my heart does bleed for the poor and the deprived.

But madam, my victimization has to be my concern only. And so it is. That’s why this letter. You who gave slogan ‘Maa, Maati, Maanus’, decided not to pay any heed to my representations against my victimization. You forgot I was also a human-being as you were and had a family to look after. Yes, I have to pay the price for having been born in this country. But as the concerned Minister it is you who are personally responsible, more than anyone else, not only for continuing mammoth leakage and plunder of public money, but also for my victimization first through transfer and now through non payment of my outstanding dues including salary for months, my retirement dues, and monthly pension, maintaining absolute silence for above three months now since I retired voluntarily after having given due notice. Let us not forget the inevitable. Death awaits us all.

It is true that I could seek judicial redress and in all probability I shall have to do that, but has the governance deficit, now being publicly worried about by the stalwarts of the society, to reach such a level that public servants acting in public interest are starved by the government and even for basic and fundamental things one has to rush to already over-burdened courts?

Being a poet myself, I fail to understand how the artist in you could allow the torture being caused to one having acted in public interest by the boneless Railway administration. While the Prime Minister is publicly proclaiming resolve of his government to root out corruption, administration under you is openly working overtime to root out those who have been sacrificing themselves in fighting the far bigger menace of ‘institutional corruption’ from within - the real thing in contrast to mouthing of idle words. What a way to root out corruption! The joke in the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s claims stands out.

Still I hope the poet in you will start breathing again and good sense will soon prevail. You will be able to free yourself from the clutches of self-serving and rudderless bureaucracy and resurrect the true leader in you. I do hope that you for one will prove Churchill wrong. Soon, to our delight, we, the citizens of India, will see Didi overpowering and slaying the demon!

Wishing you all the best for the coming assembly elections,

(Atul Kumar)

(Ex-COS/Metro Railway, Kolkata

and

a citizen of India)

Churchill- an astrologer?

Back to my blog after many days. Many a thing have been happening all-around in the meantime as always will be. First, the latest thing on mind. Recently I came across following quote by Winston Churchill while debating the bill in the British Parliament to grant freedom to India.

"Power will go to the hands of rascals, rogues, freebooters; all Indian leaders will be of low caliber & men of straw. They will have sweet tongues & silly hearts. They will fight amongst themselves for power & India will be lost in political squabbles. A day would come when even air & water would be taxed in India."

Given the present state of affairs in erstwhile India i.e. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh combined, it is no wonder that one is bound to wonder whether Sir Winston Churchill was an astrologer. It is also being said how hard we are working to prove him right. But these comments by Mr Churchill are really depressing. Because these simply show how depraved our forefathers or we as a race must have been even at that time in whom Churchill must have seen the picture of times to come in this part of the world.