Saheb, Teju and Women

The past month has gone by in a blink. Lots have been happening all around, politically, economically and socially. The Aarushi murder case judgement is out which has created a big stir but two cases are making headlines continuously- the "Saheb" case where the Gujarat Chief Minister and his close aide keeping tab of a lady for "security reasons" and second is the Tehelka-Teju case where Tarun Tejpal sexually assaulted his junior colleague- all in the name of "fun".

Both these cases reek of male chauvinism and moral corruption. In the first case, the perpetrators of this heinous act are known for their notoriety. When this entire episode was brought to light by ever vigilant media, first there was refusal, then it was pointed out that it was a malicious act of the opposition and finally very arrogantly it was announced that it was all for the betterment of the concerned lady. Two things stand out in this episode- one the concerned lady has not spoken out yet. We are all waiting with abated breath to hear her side of the story. In the 21st century, all women emancipation groups are shouting from rooftops that women are free- physically, financially, emotionally, therefore as a fellow women I think that the girl can take her own decisions and speak her mind. So far her father has stepped forward and said that the snooping was done at his behest and there is nothing wrong in it. The second point is that will this Chief Minister do the same for all the women of the state. And isn't he shying away from the main issue that is to make the society more free, secure where no woman will require snooping.

Tehelka-Tarun Tejpal case is even worse because since its inception Tehelka has always taken a moral high ground, there has been righteousness in their attitude. They have skinned alive many politicians on many occasions and rightly so but when it came on Tejpal himself, the discourse changed from bad to worse. The role played by Shoma Chaudhary is disgusting. She is one female who belongs to that voracious breed of females who are considered to be the crusaders of feminism. Her reaction in this entire episode magnifies the double standards that we so often witness in the society. Though she has resigned from her post, but it is too little, too late. As far as Tarun Tejpal is concerned, he should be banned from journalism for life and the tactics that he is adopting are deplorable & punishment meted out to him should be such that it acts as a deterrent for others. 

Women is perceived as "Shakti" & she has never been so week that she cannot resurrect here dignity. We do not want a "Saheb" to protect us, we do not want the Tejpal's of the society & we surely do not want Shoma Chaudhary's to be our crusaders.

YOUTH- the catchword

Youth is the catch word currently. Whether it is the FMCG companies, policy makers, demographers, politicians, everybody is in a hurry to capture the imagination of today's youth. Statistically currently we have the largest young population and by 2020 we will have the largest youth population. It means we will have very young labour market and compared to our neighbor China we will have more skills.

There is a downside too to this beautiful picture and that is we will have to generate employment at a much higher rate, would require more educational & training  institutions. There will be more crimes, more unrest, more pressure on the policy makers to deliver.

In such a scenario, going to the polls and promising moon to the youth reveals two things- firstly political parties think that youth is so gullible that they will not understand that most of the promises are hollow and secondly the political class think that this huge educated, skilled manpower is easy to manage and therefore the gravity in policy making is not visible.

Youth is always associated with energy, idealism, hot hotheadedness, raw emotion and all this energy needs to be channelized in the right direction. The present state of the society is such that youth believes that everything is manageble. This lack of trust in the system by the youth is ominous for any country.

The policy maker's and the people's representatives have to take up this issue in a very concrete way in near future if they want to take the country ahead. Employment and that too gainful employment has to be generated in tune with the rising young population. The entire education policy needs a revamp. Currently we have a public education system that is endowed with infrastructure, funds and teachers but lacks quality and private education which gets a raw deal.

On the economic front , 22 years of LPG has taught us that public sector needs to be revamped and re-trusted. Market mechanism cannot give us the desired results. Banking sector needs more government presence. Manufacturing sector needs to be nurtured. If we keep the service sector growing then we will create a lot of bubbles. More linkages needs to be created between agriculture and industry .

Youth is a big asset for any country and they need to be handled with kid gloves, otherwise this asset may turn up to be our biggest liability.

The Changed Narrative

2013 and 14 will see 11 state elections and one Lok Sabha elections. So it is very natural that political debate will get heated. In such a situation more and more debates are on individuals and issues which are not very important for the democracy. Which leader has got a better oratory skills is less important than the vision that the leader has. Also the political parties have to be more tolerant about the views that people have.

Currently a lot of debate is happening over whether pre poll surveys should be held or not. My personal view is that ban is never a solution. What the political parties should actually demand is that the surveys should be more authentic and reliable. Most of these surveys have very small sample size which makes the results unreliable.  They should be more scientific.

Another issue that is important is  basic services like road, electricity, water which still remain election issues even after 6 decades of independence. Today the issues should be better health services, more industries, more exports, quality education, better facilities for sportsmen, better environment for setting industries, but we are still stuck with sadak, bijli, pani. In my state of Madhya Pradesh in 2003, the BJP came to power with the promise that people will get better services on all these three counts.But sadly that is not the case as there are no roads to say in many cities, electricity transmission is poor and water availability is there but the quality is poor. If for the sake of argument we believe that the intentions of the present government was good and it wanted to work for the betterment of the people then what went wrong? Why cities like Itarsi, Vidisha, Sehore, Harda, Ujjain, Betul, Sagar (to name a few) have non existing roads, there is just gravel all around. Why are we paying more for electricity compared to other states? Why are we having so many unannounced power cuts? Why water borne diseases so common in our state?

The present government has to take responsibility and answer these questions. Though we have one of the weakest politician as our Chief Minister who is an escapist to the core but with his oratory skills he has become the face of BJP. All the political parties have to rethink their strategy. The narrative has changed. Asking people to vote for development sounds good but the delivery mechanism has to function. Sadly the states like MP, Chhatisgarh still lack far behind in the growth story in spite of all the tall claims of the incumbent government.

The common man has to rethink and go all out and show their might on 25th November in Madhya Pradesh.