A corner for the Sun-god

 

Nothing dominates life on earth and human life as the sun. It’s the source of all energy on earth except for nuclear energy. Our entire life cycle  is conditioned by the sun, the metabolism of plants and animals, every single cell in every living body, the mental outlook, the health matters, and so on. No wonder, the sun occupies pride of place in most cultures and religions. In ancient Egypt, the Sun-god, Re was the highest of gods. Incans worshipped the sun as one of their highest gods. Japanese, Aztec and Indian civilisations followed the same pattern. 

Befitting this primacy was a grand temple, Konark (Kona: corner, Arka: Sun) in Odisha. The temple is now in ruins and only the entrance (Mukhashala) and the base (Upana) of the main temple are extant. Even this small part fills one with a sense of awe at its grandeur, architecture and craftsmanship. The temple was of epic imagination and vastness representing the brightest flicker of the formidable Odisha architectural incandescence. 

Whoever designed the temple must have been an uber genius. As per folklore, his name was Bishu Maharana. He had conceived the temple as a colossal chariot of the Sun-god being pulled by seven horses on 12 pairs of wheels in the sky towards the east. Some people claim that the seven horses represent the seven colours of the rainbow combining to create sunlight; others claim that they represent the seven days of the week. The dozen pairs of wheels represent the 12 months of the year. Each wheel has eight large spokes, each section representing the three-hour time periods of the day (praharas) prevalent in those times for time-measurement. 

The temple was designed in such a way that the first ray of the sun fell on the image of the Sun-god in the sanctum sanctorum. The temple’s façades were broken by five small projections producing the effect of light and shade creating an impression of one continuous line (thus, pancha-ratha-rekha deul). 

On the wheels, there are different personified representations of the Sun-god depending on what time of the day the sun rays fall on them. So, the image on which the morning sun rays fall depicts the God in a calm and exuberant demeanour; the one where the noon/ early afternoon rays fall depicts Him in a powerful demeanour; and so on. 

Legend has it that the temple was built into the sea at the confluence of Chandrabhaga river (a distributary of Kadua river) and the sea so that the waves would wash its feet all the time. The workers used to put the stones and the construction material in the water but the waves used to carry them off. After a lot of trial and error, Bishu Maharana was dejected and went away, not intending to return. On his journey of unpremeditated destination, he stopped at an old woman’s house for a meal – in those days, it was common to ask for food at stranger houses and be fed. The old lady served him hot rice and accompaniments (in some legends, ‘kheer’). Bishu Maharana dipped his hand into the middle of the hot rice mound and his hand got scalded. The old lady, unaware of his identity, laughed at him and exclaimed, “You’re eating your rice just like that Bishu Maharana is constructing the temple.” Hearing this, Bishu perked up his ears and asked what was wrong with the temple construction. The lady told him Bishu was starting the temple from the middle of the water just like he had dipped his hand into the middle of the rice mound. He should start eating from the edges and gradually move towards the centre and similarly Bishu should build from the shore into the sea. This was an epiphanic moment for Bishu. He returned and followed the old lady’s advice and the temple got built. [The sea has now receded and is at a distance from the temple; Chandrabhaga river is extinct.] 

As per the stories, 1,200 craftsmen worked on the temple for 12 years. They were not allowed to leave the site until the construction was completed. However, at the end, there was a glitch. Essentially, the rocks were balancing on top of each other through their sheer weight although they were connected by iron dowels and cramps. The crown which is the most important part of temples in Odisha and which balances the whole structure was not getting fixed properly after several attempts. The king was angry and gave a deadline of 24 hours failing which he would order severe punishment including and up to death. Meanwhile, Bishu Maharana’s son, Dharmapada who was born a few months after Bishu left for the temple site and was now 12 years old came searching for his father whom he had never seen. On hearing about the king’s diktat, Dharmapada climbed to the top of the temple, detected a defect, rectified it and succeeded in fixing the crown. The craftsmen were now petrified that the king would be even angrier because while they had failed, a small boy was able to succeed. In order to save them from the king’s ire, Dharmapada climbed the temple again and committed suicide by jumping into the sea from there. The next day, the king came for consecration of the completed temple. However, on hearing about the small boy and his sacrifice, he was remorseful and cancelled the consecration that day and deferred it. This legend has been immortalised in moving poetry in Odia. 

In 2017, I visited Machu Pichu in Peru. Tens of thousands throng there round the year and are wonderstruck by a city built on top of hills. I was also impressed until the guide said that it was built in the 15^th Century; in fact, I asked her whether 15^th Century AD or BC – turned out, it was 15^th Century, AD.

[Machu Pichu]

To me, it was just a bunch of rough-hewn stones making up tiny houses. There was hardly any architectural or artistic merit. Meanwhile, there was awesome grandeur, unbelievable architecture and unreplicable artistic excellence at Konark where, as Rabindranath Tagore put it, “the language of stone surpasses the language of human.” And it was built in the 13^th Century AD!

[Mukhashala and Upana of Konark main temple. Rest of the main temple no longer exists.]

[With the plasticity of their texture, the elephants look like living, breathing 

beings. There are more than 1,700 elephants carved on the Upana alone.]

[The famous Konark wheel - there're 12 pairs of them, each with a diameter of 9' 9"]

Konark also fills one with a lot of questions and conjectures, adding to its mystique. When a genius conceived such a magnificent structure of truly astounding scientific, architectural and artistic marvels, why couldn’t he fix the crown (if the legends be true)? For the temple, why did he make the mistake of choosing Khondalite rock which is highly susceptible to weathering and proved fatal for the longevity of the monument? The massive rocks used for the temple are not available in the vicinity. How were they transported and set in position in prodigious blocks atop one another up to 200 feet height? What was the significance of the temple’s location when it wasn’t the capital city? The sculpting/ carving was done on the huge stones in situ after they were placed in position to make the temple; they were not sculpted/ carved and then used in construction. One single mistake in one stone in the middle or bottom part would’ve meant constructing the whole temple afresh. How come, the craftsmen had such supreme confidence in their ability to do this? The carvings are of progressively better quality and by more accomplished craftsmen as one goes up and the best quality would’ve been at the top. The temple being so tall, who would’ve seen the upper carvings and why were the carvings continued right up to the top? What was the significance of all the eroticisms on the walls? Why was the Sun-god image removed to Jagannath temple in Puri? 

The lines from Rig Veda:

Ah, those 90 hours!

 

First came the 70-hour work-week prescription from a fossilised has-been called Narayana Murthy. Initially, I thought it was just a senile man seeking relevance and validation in his golden years but later, someone pointed out that his sound-off was actually a carefully calibrated one to cadge the post of President of India as and when it falls vacant. So I dismissed it as just a job application. 

Then came our Let’s Tango L&T chap with his higher-dosage prescription of 90 hours. Not only that; he railed against excessive staring at the wife. Faced with a barrage of memes and criticisms, he doubled down, saying this was all for nation building. 

Well, in India, there actually is one agency for most of whose members 90-hour work weeks are the norm rather than the exception. Even though it is a government agency, in its case, the Government of India violates all the norms and conventions of International Labour Organisation and other multilateral agencies it is a signatory to. That is the Police. 

The personnel at the Police Station work 24 X 7 because crime and law and order incidents do not follow the calendar or office hours. In fact, most of the work happens in the night. They do not have any government holidays; actually, on most of the government holidays like festivals, Republic Day, Independence Day, Polling Day and so on, they have extra-onerous duties. There is no concept of weekend. Reasons for this are many – very low police/population ratio, organisational ethos of the Police, high incidence of crime and disorder and so on. One DGP of a particular state introduced a one-day off per week and that became a huge talking point. In essence, the Police Station personnel in India lead a very abnormal life. This applies to senior officers too. 

Like any other IPS officer during the field posting period, I was also lurching from hectic assignment to hectic assignment for 14 long years until I completed my SPship of a district. During that tenure, one Dy SP from a different district lobbied hard and got posted in the District Intelligence Branch (DIB) of my district. I was really intrigued because the Dy SP had a tremendous reputation as an ace investigator and DIB posting is considered peripheral and very unimportant. I asked him how come, when he was such a good officer and when we used to consult him for important/ complicated cases. His reply, roughly translated into English: 

“Sir, just like you’re praising me, many senior officers have seen fit to bestow encomiums in the past. I was also puffed up and put in my level best throughout my career, not bothering about anything except my job – family, other interests, and so on. Most of the time, I’ve stayed away from my family. But, what has been the point of it all?! My only child (a son) has turned into a drug addict. I have just three years of service left. I’ve tried for a lighter posting in my home district so that I’ll try to return him to mainstream …” 

That night, I thought long and hard about what the Dy SP said. My situation was not much different, although I was younger than him. By then, I’d put in 14 years on that treadmill. My children were growing up in a practically one-parent household. My own psyche was taking a hit. Although I liked to write, I couldn’t remember when I’d last written anything other than an official letter or some personal correspondence. Getting together with people other than service colleagues was a distant memory. Pursuing any hobby had been out of the question. I decided to opt for assignments where at least I could segregate office and personal time. And went on a deputation, against the will of the highest levels in the state government. Now, even though working hours were still long, when I went home, I could at least leave the office behind. 

I need not tell you about the staring bit. However, I did manage to spend quality time with the kids in their formative years. They went on to do well in their careers and vocations. When my son, armed with a 99 percentile score in GRE, was applying for US universities and was having some problems arranging the recommendation letters from his teachers, I offered to request my PhD guide at IIT, Delhi for the same. He refused, saying that would be unethical. I was extremely proud of him.

90-hour work week? BULLSHIT! I have lived through it for 14 years. It sucks.

Why I quit my IIM WhatsApp group

 

Till long after WhatsApp became a raging phenomenon, I was living under a rock with only a feature phone. One day I landed up for my M. Phil. class at IIPA only to find that I was the lone one there. The course director apologised for not informing me but mentioned that she’d sent a WhatsApp message in the group so she thought everyone was informed about the cancellation of the classes that day. I realised that (A) There was a phenomenon called WhatsApp and (B) It was an existential crisis not to buy into it. 

When I bought a Smartphone and got on to WhatsApp, it was an exciting world revealed. So many jokes, real time tete-a-tete, continuous engagement with family and friends and so on. The group I liked most interacting with was my IIM group. 

Although IIM, Bangalore was already 10 years old then, ours was the first batch in the breathtakingly beautiful new campus. Even as it’s now almost in the middle of the city, back in 1982, it was in the middle of nowhere with miles of jungles and nothingness all around. Excursions to the city were an adventure. Perforce, the 100 or so of us were cooped up with each other under very stressful academic rigour and developed very strong bonds. 

So, out of all the groups I soon became part of, the IIMB batch group was the one I held dear. It was a nice and warm feeling to open the WhatsApp every morning and look at the quality of jokes and discussion coursing through that group. At first slowly, then rapidly, the group became toxic. 

My rude awakening came when I saw a message stating what a great man OSL (Our Supreme Leader) was, a reincarnation, in fact. I was surprised – we IIMB types were as irreverent as they came – so responded, subah subah kya bunkus maar raha hai! I thought it was all in good fun. I wasn’t prepared for the vituperative and extremely personal backlash. I was immediately branded a Rahul Gandhi acolyte. I wondered, was it not possible not to revere OSL and not to revere Rahul Baba at the same time? 

Slowly, I found a group within that IIM group intermittently posting things which were blatantly false or misleading on the face of it. I was intrigued that such intelligent people were taken in by such things. There was backlash for such posts and things started getting very ugly and uncouth. One of the posts was so filthy that I quit in disgust even though I was not involved in any of the exchanges. 

When I was out of the group, I did miss the better parts of it. Somehow, all the other groups didn’t match up to the wit and joie de vivre of the IIM group. Quite a few months later, I rejoined. Things continued well for quite a while. Again, the toxicity resurfaced. 

What usually happens is, some guy posts something in obeisance to OSL or against him. Then there is a backlash. Pretty rapidly, things degenerate into an ugly slanging match. Then all parties say sorry, sorry, won’t happen again. Peace prevails for a while. Again, after a few weeks, the cycle resumes. 

While both sides are guilty, I found that peace was usually broken by the pro-OSL group. Two reasons, probably. They’re all the time trying to find an excuse for bursting into paeans to OSL. Thus, when Neeraj Chopra won an Olympic gold, they immediately went on an overdrive to project as though OSL himself did the throwing; Neeraj just happened to be there for the photo-ops. When it was pointed out that OSL had slashed the sports budget in the Olympic year not only in real terms but also in nominal terms, the reaction was unparliamentary. Second possible reason is, these guys have bought into the extremely toxic IT cell. They are bombarded with its prodigious output, part-fact-part-fiction, day in and day out. Samples of the output: Fact would be a saying by Chanakya, fiction would be OSL’s photo at the end of the quote. Fact would be a Shivaji statue inaugurated by OSL, fiction would be magnetic and magical properties of the statue. Fact would be Sardar Patel statue, fiction would be cameras inside its eyes checking out Pakistani troop movement. Fact would be a horrible-colour 2000 rupee note, fiction would be a microchip inside it to uncover black money even if buried 10 feet underground. 

Starting with a predilection to believe, at some point all these stories do get seriously believed. The inundation by the IT cell is so much that these guys just can’t contain themselves and have to vomit it out in the WhatsApp groups for the benefit of the ignoramuses who, unlike them and OSL himself, do not believe that he is a reincarnation of the Omniscient, Omnipresent and Omnipotent. This dwindling minority is still clinging on to going by evidence rather than mere claims, at the cost of being branded “sickular,” “woke,” and so on. 

I spent 33 long years in the government. I saw hundreds of these men of straw straddling the nation’s destiny. They cut across parties, creeds, instincts but had one thing in common – up close, they were all hollow caricatures. I found the IIM batchmates, ensconced in their ivory towers surrounded by an obscene amount of money and the good life, completely out of touch with the ethical bankruptcy of the political class, pontificating at length. So I asked myself should I put up with these inane rantings of a mesmerised lot or quit. The other possibility was to either fall silent or try to reason. The first would be cowardice and, in essence, collusion with the bullies; the second, infructuous. 

Almost every morning, I used to wake up to a WhatsApp post of an IT cell production of increasingly vicious toxicity. The tipping point came when a batchmate posted a video of a female purportedly the mother of Kulwinder Kaur, CISF lady constable who was alleged to have slapped Kangana Ranaut at Chandigarh airport. What had happened was, they’d picked up a video of a woman wishing death to OSL and portrayed her as the mother of the lady constable. This had been around on the net for a while and had been thoroughly debunked as vicious blending of fact and fiction. When this was pointed out (while not absolving the serious misconduct of the lady constable), the “non-sickular” and “non-woke” brigade went on an overdrive and, in their effort to defend the indefensible, started getting increasingly personal. 

That was when I decided that being silent and being a part of this group was just not an option any more. That would be guilt by association. A statement needed to be made, and I quit. I believe, at least one other person quit the group in disgust after this incident. 

The problem is, all WhatsApp groups have been reduced to this. Quitting them all is looking like a good idea. 

Soon, I’ll no longer be a Homo WhatsAppian and return to being a Homo Sapien. I’m looking forward to it. Someone put out the statistic that there are 532 million WhatsApp users in India. I guess, it’ll now be 532 million minus one.

The Leaky Cauldron

 

In my service universe, leaks were a strategic weapon, a Brahmastra when all else failed. In one of my assignments, I organised a large-scale recruitment after a lot of perseverance. The main source of corruption in government being recruitment, I had arranged the recruitment rules and methodology in such a way that there was very little scope for discretion. My proposal was received politely and I was asked extremely politely to bring in a few “minor” changes, mainly that the marks allotted for the interview should be hiked from 10 % to 50 %. That would’ve led to complete political control over who would get recruited and killed any possibility of transparency so I refused. I was hauled up before the Minister who was ballistic. He asked me why “deserving” candidates should not be given a leg-up and so on. “Deserving,” in his universe meant party-affiliated. When I countered, he asked could I face my service chief, Could I face the One-Who-Was-Above-All-Ministers, could I face such-and-such with my outrageous ideas? To all of which I said yes and walked out. The minister then directed some compliant authorities to modify my scheme. I thought and thought. Then I found a Supreme Court order that the interview component in that category of recruitment couldn’t exceed 15 %. I put that in writing but my letter was ignored. Somehow, my letter regarding the Supreme Court directive got published in some newspapers. The Minister went ballistic again and arranged for counter-leaks. In the middle of all this, I was again hauled up for a severe dressing down over how dare I leak to the press. I denied the allegation, pointed to the leaks from the minister’s own office and said I was leaked against rather than leaking. The minister lost that battle because he hadn’t followed the Right Honourable Jim Hacker’s dictum of indiscretion – “Always have a drink before you leak.” 

Ever since the new government has come to power, India has resembled a leaky cauldron, of a different kind. 

This year, 23 lakh students sat for NEET-UG examination on May 5 for around 1 lakh medical seats. A day before the exam, the exam paper got leaked in Bihar. Candidates are supposed to have paid Rs. 30 – 50 lacs for the paper. 67 students received a perfect score which astounded people as it was much higher than the earlier years (only two students had aced it in the previous exam). Eight of the toppers came from one single exam centre in Jhajjar, Haryana. Some students scored 718 or 719. This is technically not possible because there are 180 answers evaluated. Each correct answer fetches 4 marks and each incorrect answer leads to docking of 1 mark. So, if a student answers all questions correctly, he would get 720. If he leaves out one question, he’ll get 716. If he answers one question wrong, his marks will be 715. 

National Testing Agency (NTA) conducting the examination gave explanation after explanation but tied itself in knots progressively. First it said that there was a mistake in the NCERT book regarding one Physics question so students were given full marks. This accounted for 44 of the 67 toppers. Even so, 67 ace scores vis-à-vis 2 in the previous exam? Plus, the wrong information was apparently in an NCERT book of 2018. 

Then NTA said that 1563 students were given grace marks because of loss of time in some exam centres due to delayed distribution of question papers, etc. Apparently, this followed a Supreme Court judgement of 2018. Later, it turned out that the Supreme Court judgement pertained to Law entrance exam and it had specifically prohibited applying the judgement to Medical entrance examination. The formula or methodology adopted for the grace marks was not revealed by NTA. 

A case of a teacher aiding examinees in a school in Gujarat is being investigated. However, despite requests by the Investigating officer, NTA was not providing the OMR sheets of the concerned students. 

A frenzied media and a compliant government machinery would have it that the Ram Mandir consecration in Ayodhya on January 22 was the biggest event since never. After the election results, there was not much mention about the temple until June 24 when its Chief Priest Acharya Satyendra Das alleged that the roof of the sanctum sanctorum was leaking heavily. The explanation has been that when construction of the temple is completed by December, the leaking problem will be solved. So was there basis to the Sankaracharyas’ objection to the consecration in an incompletely constructed temple as on January 22? Is it true that an earlier structure at the site had a roof without a leaky problem for 400 years? 

Explanations about the temple don’t wish away the several cave-ins in the newly-built Ram Path road leading to the temple. 

On June 28, in the heavy rains in Delhi, the roof of Terminal 1 of Delhi airport collapsed.

A 45-year old cab driver in his parked vehicle died and six others were injured.

Instead of sensitivity, what we saw was death-eater trolls quibbling about when that roof was constructed. Well, it was constructed in 2009. So, was the UPA government responsible for the above cab driver’s death? But then, the person who was civil aviation minister then, Praful Patel, is part of the current ruling dispensation. What exactly is the role of Director General of Civil Aviation, if not ensuring civil aviation safety whether an airport was constructed 15 years or 150 years back?

Jabalpur airport was inaugurated three months back. On June 27, a section of its tensile roof canopy collapsed following heavy rains. On June 29, a canopy collapsed at the passenger pick-up and drop area at Rajkot airport amid heavy rainfall. Looks like there's been a tearing hurry to inaugurate some infra projects without diligent completion and safety/security audits. Inaugurate rhymes with but doesn't equal to GREAT! 

Meanwhile, there is the very urgent matter of the 1975 Emergency.

If Wishes were Horses

 

Now that there seems a sliver of a chance to reclaim our democracy, here’s my wish list to build it back better. 

1.     The sine qua non for democracy is a free and fair election which gives a level-playing field to all contestants so it has to start with the Election Commission of India (ECI). The latest Act for the appointment of the election commissioners should be scrapped. The earlier Supreme Court (SC) mandated selection structure with Chief Justice of the Supreme Court as member should not only be brought back but should be designated as part of the “basic structure of the Constitution.” The Chief Election Commissioner should enjoy the status and privileges of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

2.     The election should be believable by the opposition. Towards that end, the EVM related issues must be sorted out. VVPATs should be machine-read for all the polling stations and tallied with the EVM results.

3.     Election expenditure limits for the candidates are ridiculous at present. They should be fixed at a more reasonable level. On the other hand, there is no limit on the expenditure of the political party on elections. These limits should also be prescribed on a per candidate basis.

4.     All fundings for parties and elections including corporate funding should be completely transparent. The donor, the receiver and the actual beneficial ownership of the donation should be published on the ECI website.

5.     Total number of votes polled should be published on the ECI website within 48 hours of the scheduled close of polling hours of each phase. ECI should aim to hold the polls for each state on one single date to begin with, and for the entire country eventually.

6.     Democracy doesn’t merely consist of polls once in five years. It needs to be nurtured and health-checked every single day. Towards this, strength of the institutions and conventions are critical. Let’s start with the Parliament. We should borrow some of the good (great!) things of the Westminster conventions – Weekly Prime Minister’s Question hour with minimum six questions granted to the leader of the opposition, Ministerial code whereby lying in the Parliament means sacking), Conscience voting, announcement of major policy first on the floor of the House when in session and, ideally, shadow ministers by the opposition party/ coalition.

7.     To avoid railroading of the minorities and the marginalised, it is necessary that these sections have an effective representation and say in the Parliament. There are many ways of ensuring it.

8.     Once a person is elected as a speaker, (s)he should cease to have any party affiliation or to cast vote in the case of a tie. There should be no party whip for election of speaker – it should be a ‘conscience vote.’ Ideally, the speaker should be a retired justice of the Supreme Court without any political affiliation and after a two-year cooling-off period after retirement. Parliament is a forum of accountability and belongs to the opposition – the opposition should get 2/3^rd of the discussion time. No bill should be passed by voice vote.

9.     The single largest opposition party, regardless of its numbers, should nominate the leader of the opposition.

10.  Every member of Parliament must attend at least 50 % of each session failing which (s)he must forfeit her/his membership.

11.  All far-reaching legislations must go through deliberations of the Parliamentary committees. The remit of the Parliamentary Committees should be specific and defined.

12.  Now, let us come to the executive. No one should be Prime Minister for more than five years, overall, whether it’s a full term or a combination of truncated terms. Only a member of Lok Sabha should be able to become a Minister or Prime Minister – that will accord legitimacy to these offices. There should be deliberative, consultative process of decision-taking. At the minimum, all major decisions should be by the cabinet. Anything with far-reaching consequences must be widely examined through parliamentary committees and inviting comments from the public. Decision making will be a little slower in the process but it will avoid disasters like demonetisation, sudden lockdown, the now-repealed farm laws and so on.

13.  In the United Kingdom, the Civil Service enjoys serious credibility. That is because they are able to function without fear or favour. For example, when the opposition was sniping away at Boris Johnson, he appointed a civil servant, Sue Gray to enquire and everybody went quiet until the Sue Gray report. The civil servants there have recourse to a grievance redressal mechanism which ensures against unlawful transfer or termination. In India, we do not have that. We should aim for a system where the civil service should act as the first bulwark against authoritarian whimsicality. The Police needs to be independent of the political executive. Already, there is a Supreme Court order to achieve this but the politicians have found creative ways to subvert it so far. This refers to my blog: 

https://b-b-dash.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-caged-parrot.html 

14.  The appointment of the higher executive makes a difference towards the independence and integrity of the civil services. The former system of Appointments Committee of the Cabinet should be restored – currently, it is just a PMO letter box. [Earlier, all appointments of Joint Secretary and above were with the approval of the Cabinet Secretary, the concerned Minister, two seniormost Ministers and the Prime Minister.]

15.  Chief of Army Staff, Judges, Police, Comptroller & Auditor General, UPSC members and so on should be completely outside political appointment/ manipulation.

16.  The offices of Governors have come under a cloud many times, under many governments. Qualification for Governors should be prescribed. Governors should be from a panel which should be arrived at through the deliberations of a broad-based Committee. Knowledge of law should be an essential pre-requisite for the post. Once a Governor is appointed, he should continue for five years and his term should not be co-terminus with that of the Central government.

17.  The final custodians of democracy are the Courts. Judicial appointments should be ring-fenced against political overreach. The deliberations of the collegium should be made open and mandatory in a time-bound manner. Delay in judicial determinations is misused to hound officials and political rivals. So much so that the process becomes the punishment. Adjournment of hearing should be the rare exception rather than the norm as of now. I also find that when the witnesses land up, sometimes travelling great distances, the hearing is adjourned just because the concerned judge happens to be on leave on that day. Hearing, recording of evidence, etc. should be carried out by whichever judge is standing in for the day. Then, there is the matter of long vacations of the Courts. Vacation benches/ judges rarely pronounce substantive orders. It has been seen that sometimes executive actions, legislative skullduggery and even ordinances are timed to coincide with these vacations. These should be judicially dealt with with a heavy hand and promptly.

18.  The media, both national and regional, are in a bad shape. That is because the media houses are critically dependent on governments for advertisements, newsprint, etc. and also there have been unsavoury prosecutions and arrests. India must develop a system of penalty for wrongful arrest, to be recovered from the person effecting the arrest. There are many advertisements and packaging which are ostensibly by the government but, in reality, for promoting particular political leaders. All these must stop. Photographs of political leaders in offices should also be banned. Media should have a possibility of crowdfunding by putting a ceiling on such donations but making the donations tax-exempt.

19.  India has enough ability and resources to thrive on its own. What is required is stability and predictability rather than the governments interfering in too many things and actually encouraging regulatory capture. So, the golden principle should be, “If it ain't broke, don't fix it.” 

Can we as ordinary citizens do anything regarding the above? Well, just one YouTuber with courage of conviction and at great risk to himself made a substantial difference in the last election ...

Build Back Better

 

During the first of my two United Nations deployments, in Mozambique, we were initially given an orientation on a few things. One of the sessions was on election management and our expected role in it. After the long session and an even longer bit of questions and answers, the speaker exclaimed, “This has been the easiest and the most enriching session for me, probably because yours is a thriving democracy!” Our elections were a key part of that democracy and it wowed western observers to exclaim, “Elections are one thing that the Indians do well.” India's democratic traditions have also been its biggest soft power.

The recently concluded Indian elections have again wowed the observers but there is a difference – it was held under conditions when the institutions safeguarding democracy, including the Election Commission of India (ECI) were flailing.

Democracy is not a very natural thing. Democracy is very fragile and needs constant nurturing through the strength of its institutions, most so by the election machinery. The elections must not only be fair and transparent, they must also be seen to be so. Only then do the government and democracy derive legitimacy and sustainability. The ECI should constantly try to reinforce this. Instead, it chose to adopt all possible means to negate many of the efforts already initiated in previous elections by taking dubious recourse to the letter (rather than the spirit) of the laws. I have elaborated on some of the shenanigans of the ECI in an earlier blog.

To add, it was completely incomprehensible as to why the ECI obstinately refused to share information on the number of votes polled after each phase of polling although that was done during the 2019 elections promptly. After revising the poll percentages in Phase I and Phase II by a whopping six percent (Phase I, after 11 days), ECI refused to share the absolute number of votes polled. It went to the extent of submitting an affidavit in the Supreme Court to the effect that sharing the same was “unfeasible” and “undesirable.” Then they suddenly released all the data for five phases in one go. In normal times, this would be an act of “contempt of court” because either they had given a false affidavit that it was “unfeasible” and “undesirable” or they were giving false numbers. However, we live in abnormal times. 

Many political parties have expressed concerns about the EVM machines. There is a weird logic going around – why blame the EVMs when you lose and not blame it when you win? EVM or no EVM, there’s serious rigging in each election in favour of whichever is the ruling party and the challenger has to not only win but actually win by a huge ‘real’ margin to overcome the effect of the rigging. When the ECI is in a “gathbandhan” with the ruling party or cowed down by it, the job becomes doubly difficult for the challenger. While EVM machines may or may not be possible to hack, rigging through false voting etc. is much easier with EVM machines. Why can’t EVM results be tallied with VVPAT? We are an IT nation; it’ll be simple to have the VVPATs machine-read. The opposition parties have done creditably not because there are no problems with EVM-based elections but in spite of them – they could well have done much better had these problems been addressed. 

In the case of advertisements against the Trinamool Congress (TMC), Calcutta High Court intervened, calling the ads “outright derogatory and definitely intended at insulting the rivals.” Further, the Court observed, “In the present case, the ECI has grossly failed to address the complaints raised by the petitioner (TMC) in due time. This court is surprised that no resolution worth the name has been arrived at regarding the complaints till date, more so because most of the phases of the election are already over.” 

There was no level playing field in terms of media coverage. All the mainstream media are so biased in their reporting even for mundane matters that I stopped watching them long back. Thankfully, some independent YouTubers stepped up to the place, at great risks to themselves. Ultimately, their news turned out to be correct. By all accounts, they are now a force to reckon with. However, one doesn’t know for how long. On March 20, 2024, the government suddenly issued a notification of a Fact Check Unit (FCU) to identify “fake or false or misleading” online content related to the business of the Central government and demand to remove it from the internet. This would have effectively killed any press freedom on the internet and these YouTubers would have either toed the government line or shut shop. Fortunately, the Supreme Court stayed the notification of the FCU the very next day, on March 21. If only they had stayed the appointment of the two Election Commissioners … 

There is a serious problem when a stay is not granted even when the government does something blatantly unconstitutional or violative of a Supreme Court judgement. The electoral bond scheme turned out to be unconstitutional. However, while the scheme was introduced in 2017 and notified in 2018, it was deemed unconstitutional in 2024. Thus, the country’s polity operated under an unconstitutional act which turned out to be nothing but a legalised extortion racket for six long years and the illegal proceeds continue to fund dubious activities even now. When it was so blatantly unconstitutional prima facie, the balance of justice favoured a stay. The same applies to National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Act, 2023 and the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023 both of which have sought to negate Supreme Court rulings. The way two election commissioners were appointed just before the Parliamentary elections 2024 without following due process was abominable and deserved to be stayed. If, down the road, the ECI appointment Act is declared unconstitutional or illegal, we would still be governed by a polity elected under its provisions for a long five years. 

Then there were the matters of many candidates reportedly being made to withdraw, nomination of candidates not being accepted, and so on. 

With all this, the numbers do not really tell the story. The 237 seats won by the INDIA bloc feel like 337, probably more. If ECI had played fair, if SC had stayed the new ECI appointments, if the EVM related issues had been addressed, if the Electoral Bond scheme had been stayed earlier, if the media was not muzzled, if ED, CBI, IT, Governors were not weaponised to this extent and if ALL the campaigners violating the Model Code of Conduct were prohibited from further campaigning, the results may have been very different … 

When I was handling disaster management, we used to have a slogan for post-devastation scenarios, “Build back better.” Now that the Indian democracy is showing signs of limping up, I have a wish list of actions for building it back better – that will be in a later blog.

Footprints

 

The only way a civil servant thinks he exists or has ever existed is to find his name on something called a Succession Board. Most government offices have this board where the serial numbers, names of the officers and the dates they occupied the hallowed chair are written and prominently displayed, usually behind the chair. Some of these boards go back to ancient times, much before India’s independence also. 

Given this, despite putting in 33 long years in the Indian Police Service, I wonder whether I have ever existed because my name doesn’t figure in (m)any board/s. 

The problem started with my probation/training days itself. Our outdoor in-charge used to be very innovative and introduced two large brass plaques on the training ground at the National Police Academy (NPA) recording the names of all the IPS officers who had passed out from the portals of NPA. After passing out, for some reason, the Academy recommended that I should be removed from service and pursued it vigorously. They succeeded in ensuring that orders terminating my services were issued. Apparently, there were jubilant celebrations in the Academy when news of this reached there and, in the middle of it, someone decided to remove my name from the brass plaque. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the honourable President of India who is never pleased was pleased to cancel the termination order so I survived. Later, when I visited the Academy, I checked to see whether my name had been put back in. It was. While returning from the parade ground to my room, I ran into the officer/ faculty who had vigorously campaigned for my removal. He enquired, “Aur, kya ho raha hai?” I replied, “Woh sab nahi ho raha hai,” and moved on. I wonder whether the brass plaque and my name are still there. 

In the cadre, my first posting was as Sub Divisional Police Officer in Alipurduar. The post was very old and the succession board in that office contained the names of many celebrated officers dating back to really ancient times. It was a matter of pride to see my name alongside theirs. Unfortunately, the sub division has now been converted into a district so there is a Superintendent of Police there and the post and the board have ceased to exist. 

On promotion, I joined as a zonal Additional SP in South 24 Parganas district. Unfortunately for me, that zone has now been subdivided into three full-fledged police districts so, again, the old board is gone. 

My next assignment was a United Nations deployment in Mozambique. In those deployments, there is no system of succession boards. In any case, once the mission winds up, hardly any trace of it survives. Sometimes, the country also doesn’t survive, let alone a succession board. 

After I came back, I was posted for a few months as Additional SP in North 24 Parganas district. That office has now got shifted and succession board, if any, of the post also must have been subsumed in an unmarked grave of the interminable march of time. 

On promotion, I was posted as SP, Calcutta airport. Those were pre-Kandahar hijacking days and airport security was manned by local Police of the state where any airport was situated. After the Kandahar hijacking, the government decided that the airport security would be handed over to a Central force and CISF was designated to take over the security at the airports in a phased manner. Accordingly, the security of Calcutta airport is now under the charge of an officer of CISF designated as CASO (Chief Airport Security officer). The earlier post and succession board are long gone. 

The next post, DC, Enforcement Branch, Calcutta Police was already in decline when I joined because the control orders were being cancelled one by one. It has now been fairly reduced to a long-deceased letter box and has been relocated. I have no idea if a succession board exists when the post itself faces extinction. 

North Dinajpur, the district where I was SP was carved out of another district called West Dinajpur which might have been carved out of an undivided Dinajpur during British times – the East Dianjpur part became part of East Bengal/ Bangladesh. When this happens, that succession board of the original district disappears, to be replaced by succession boards of the new units, starting with when the unit was formed. Unfortunately, North Dinajpur district has now been splintered into two districts. 

I went on Central deputation as a Commandant. This organisation was undergoing a transformation at that point of time, to becoming a border guarding force. The unit I was heading was in the hinterland and was now merged with other units and the combined unit was located at the border. With this went any hope of mine to have some kind of existence on a succession board. Later, on promotion in that organisation, I held a combination of assignments simultaneously and these combinations were changing frequently so the question of any succession board didn’t arise. 

My second central deputation was with Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and since the demands on the organisation were far greater than its capabilities, I devoted my entire energy into a massive reorganisation. All the designations also underwent a transformation. Thus the post of Commissioner became Director General. My name figured in the posts of Commissioner and Joint Commissioner but it’s unlikely that those boards exist any more. In that sense, I dug my own grave by organising the overhaul of BCAS.

My last assignment in the service was so insignificant that there was no succession board. I tried to find the dates my predecessors had occupied the post  so that I could create a succession board but even that record didn’t exist. Thus, I faded gently into that post-retirement good night, unseen, unheard, unrecorded for posterity. 

In my quest for some kind of footprint on the sands of time, I compiled a selection of these blogs into a book hoping that there would be at least some traces of my existence. Unfortunately, just a few days back, my publishers informed that they are winding up their Indian operations and after this month, my book will stop being listed in Amazon, etc., unless I get it reprinted by some other publishers. 

Leads me to think, do I exist? Have I ever existed? I seek solace in Einstein’s quote about Mahatma Gandhi:

But then, apparently, no one knew Gandhi until a film was made on him. I wonder whether anyone ever would make a film on me.