Thursday, November 27, 2008

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Democracy - Equality and Liberty

Central to the idea of democracy are the twin concepts of equality and individual liberty. Equality is often taken to mean that all citizens of a country are equal in some basic respect. When all individuals are taken to be equal then it is obvious that one person can not decide for the other. Therefore all need to be given the same rights and meted out the same treatment. Of course, a look at history suggests that the right to equal treatment has not been
given to all. It was initially based on sex, wealth, age. Today in a democracy the right to equal treatment is shared by all citizens of a country over a certain age. Equality becomes critical during decision making. Equality aims to guarantee participation and thus avoid a situation where one party decides to disobey the decision because they were not allowed to participate in the decision making process.
Liberty has just as many connotations as equality and they again affect expectations of democracy. Experts suggest three set of ideas for liberty - republican,liberal and idealist. The republican view measures liberty in terms of a free political community. The liberal view is more concerned with individual freedom to do as he/she pleases. In between these views is the idealist view where the individual has the freedom but also the sense to make the right choices or demands.
But obviously a nation is more than an individual. Therefore it is the manner in which individual freedom interacts with the group that ties liberty to democracy. As individuals don't live in isolation, it is important that an individual's freedom of action does not infringe the freedom of others. Some experts see this as the only role for the state. Anything more and they see it as a threat to liberty.
It is this mix of individual rights and being an equal participant in decision making collectively that causes the tension between equality and liberty. A classic example is the desire to bring about economic equality. This can lead to a collective/majority decision to tax the rich more than others, thus infringing the right of the rich to spend their money as they choose. In such a situation, self rule is cited as a way out...and how self rule is to be achieved marks the major division between various forms of democracy.

At one extreme is what is known as Participatory Democracy. At the other extreme is the idea that people are willing to be ruled by a set of people chosen by them periodically [Representative/liberal] which often is the layman's definition of democracy. In between lies various shades, an example for which is people voting on an issue of national importance[Referendum]. Also, in order to restrain unchecked majority rule, an upper chamber is often recommended which will consist of meritorious experts in different areas.

So clearly it is difficult for a society to define what their expectations from this philosophy is. This fine balancing act gets more difficult when you start adding riders to the two opposing yet required forces. These riders include reservations, different laws for different sections of the society, etc.
Is it surprising then that our in-competent members of the legislature have done away with these goals of democracy and reduced it to a power game.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Violated...

So Delhi bleeds again, whats new? We have already seen the same scenes in Ahmedabad and Jaipur and B'lore and Hyderabad and Bombay before...the list is getting longer...
In fact, there are more terror strikes in India than any other nation(except Iraq and that's not much of a nation right now)...and we have ambitions of being a World Player???? How??

Will resign when Sonia ji asks to leave: Patil
Mr. Patil our home minister...the lesser said of his work the better (http://blogmia.blogspot.com/2007/06/india-burning.html)...but resigning if Sonia ji asks? Wasn't the cabinet selected by the PM, hmmm?

A quick check of course tells us that this government is headed by some one who has not won an election...now i don't want to get into whether its people's loss that he is not a member of the Lok Sabha, for he is surely one of the cleanest leaders we have...but not having obtained mandate is unacceptable all the same. Sonia ji of course is just a member of the parliament - but as the convener of UPA she enjoys cabinet status....and therefore the right to select the cabinet?

And yes, Mr. Shivraj Patil lost his Latur seat in the elections...

Friday, September 05, 2008

5 David Gilmour guitar solos

Boring bus journey home...made better with Pink Floyd :)
  • The closing solo in Comfortably Numb from the live album The Delicate Sound Of Thunder
  • Time (right after "...you missed the starting gun") from the album The Dark Side of the Moon
  • Closing solo in High Hopes from the live album P.U.L.S.E
  • Shine on you Crazy Diamond from the album Wish you were here
  • Money from the album The Dark Side of the Moon
I know a lot of people complain that David Gilmour is too mathematical with his guitar play but what do I know...I just like the bluesy feel that they have...

Saturday, August 09, 2008

10 metre air rifle

India's first event.

Anjali Bhagwat and Avneet Kaur fail to qualify. Both did ok but not enough to get through the last 10.

Anjali Bhagwat - 99, 99, 97, 98 = 393 (finished 29th)
Avneet Kaur Sidhu - 98, 100, 96, 95 = 389 (finished 39th)

396 was the minimum required to go through...

In men's competition as well it was a less than satisfactory performance...with Samaresh Jung finishing 42nd out of 48 :(

Samaresh Jung - 92, 95, 96, 98, 96, 93 = 570

581 was the minimum score to qualify...

Olympics - 2008


With a magnificent opening, the 2008 Olympics are under way. On the greatest sporting stage athletes from around the world try to earn glory for their nation, their people.


India of course have never been able to make a mark in this event. This time round there are 56 sportsmen taking part from India. Will anyone rise to the challenge? Since hockey team is watching the event from home, the other medal hopes are mainly in shooting and some experts feel boxing...Time will tell...

Friday, August 08, 2008

and it still continues to rain...

3 hours of torrential rain...
3 feet of standing water...
3 hrs to get home...

Thursday, July 24, 2008

WTF

Although I am sure plenty of ink and bytes have been wasted on the farcical trust vote that happened the other day, I couldn't stop myself from writing about it.

Our politicians sure have a habit of surpassing all expectations of the people and are the role models for today's generation. Just when we think that things can't go any worse, that surely we have hit the rock bottom of morality and ethics they snicker at us and prove us wrong.
And we all know the names that cross voted...so why isn’t there a IT raid at their homes and why arent their accounts being scrutinized for any shady transfers...wouldn't these be the best candidate to start the investigation on?

Now that the vote has been won, the government is being pressed to fulfil the promises made to get the support...so the government that talks about the nuclear deal as necessary for the advancement of technology also claims that Ram destroyed the setu on his return from Lanka...when I first read that, I was ready to puke...I mean who are they trying to kid here?....and I really want to know who has such fantastic imagination!!!

Seriously we are in desperate need of an over haul of our system...this is beyond crass;beyond repulsive.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

The power of language...

It often surprises me when I look at the strong bond that most people have with their mother tongue - especially in our southern states. I for one have hardly ever enjoyed Hindi (coz I could never quite get my vowel signs correct) nor I have ever gained any remote command over Punjabi...but maybe thats just me...

Anyways this is not the purpose of the post...right in the heart of the city is a funny sounding institution - Potti University. It happens to be among the few universities in the country that is devoted especially for the cause of languages and its training. Hmm...but why the name?

It turns out that the university is named after one Potti Sriramulu. Its a name that is probably forgotten outside AP but one that should have remain prominent. He is after all the primary reason on why states based on languages were created post independence...the government at the time was not in favour of any further regionalisation - based on any cultural grounds anyways. A large region of what today is AP was once part of the presidency of Madras a truly massive region.
Telugu is spoken by more people than any other Indian language besides Hindi and has a rich literary/cultural history. While India was still under British rule, the Andhra Mahasabha had worked hard to cultivate a sense of identity among the Telugu-speaking people of the Madras Presidency, whom, they claimed, had been discriminated against by the Tamils.
After Independence, demands for a Telugu region started gaining support. But the government was unimpressed. On October 19, 1952, Potti Sriramulu began a fast-unto-death in Madras - a strong follower of Gandhi he was determined that the fast will be carried out till the end, or until the Government of India relented.
Six weeks went by and there was scant recognition of his demand from the centre. As his ordeal went on, support for the cause grew. Strikes and processions were taken out...trains were stopped...On December 12, Jawahar lal Nehru relented - he wrote to C. Rajagopalachari (the CM of Madras), suggesting that the time had come to accept the Andhra demand. But the formal announcement was delayed, and Sriramulu continued his fast. On the 15th Potti Sriramulu passed away - his fast had lasted 58 days. There after the situation went out of hand - mobs came out on the streets and there were clashes with the police; several protesters were killed in police firings.
On the 16th, Nehru made a statement saying a state of Andhra would come into being, but its boundaries would be decided by an independent Commission. In March 1953, the Telugu districts of Madras were identified for separation; later, these were joined by Telugu-speaking areas of Hyderabad to constitute the present state of Andhra Pradesh.
Soon after the states of Gujrat, Karnataka, Maharashtra and others followed...
And no one seems to know about him...

Monday, June 16, 2008

Hiatus

As it generally happens, I keep disappearing from here only to return a few months later...And now I have returned again...
It almost seems unreal to think that almost half the year is already through...thanks to this stupid project that I have been entangled in...
With finally a net connection at home after what seems like ages, hopefully I will be able to add a few more bytes to these pages...