A CRY FOR THEE, MY MOTHERLAND..........

I had posted earlier on how businessmen make direct connect with politicians and government by becoming Member of Parliament (MP) through the Rajya Sabha route. By doing so, they cut down the middlemen who used to operate in the scene earlier. After becoming the MP and after getting directly connected to the powers that be, how grossly they misuse their position as the Member of Parliament, to take care of their selfishness and greed. The 2G Spectrum scam is a great example, for you all to know.

A Raja, the minister of telecommunication, totally submitted himself to these men of greed and flouted all rules of the country and evaded the best advice, even coming from his Prime Minister, to blatantly accommodate these businessmen.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had now spilled the beans to show us the citizens, the extent of loss to the country’s exchequer. It could be anywhere between INR 60,000 Crores and 1,77,000 Crores, whopping figures indeed! The opposition touts this as the largest bribery scam of independent India.

The CAG cites that the biggest beneficiary of the scam is Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), headed by Anil Ambani, the second son of Dhirubhai Ambani, who himself had been a master manipulator of the government and its machinery, in his times. Like father, like son. Anil Bhai has to prove his lineage. So he found routes that are direct. He manipulated politicians to get himself nominated to the Rajyasabha so that he could be the closest to the power centres directly, so that he is preview to the country’s planning process at the drawing board level, to identify projects and schemes that are related to the industry that he is part of, well in advance. Dhirubhai must be smiling in his grave as his son outdid him. What more reason is needed for a dad to be proud of his children?

Most of the leading players in Telecom sector benefited with the help of minister Raja, the crook of a number one order. The majority of the bidders whose applications had been passed, did not have any experience or qualification to bid. Most of them were real estate companies. The story of Swan telecom using which ADAG manipulated the spectrum allocation in its favour and the way in which it got licence for combined dual technology (CDMA & GSM) operation well before government policy on it was framed, puts India to shame. Such was the blatant disregard this minister had shown to the rules and regulations of the country. Most of the bidders got the sanction at throwaway prices. Later, they all sold off this license to international companies at huge margins. There has been a flurry of collaborations, tie-ups and M&As in the Telecom Sector, post the allocation. This allowed Telenor, Etisalat, MTN etc. come to India. While the competitive scenario hotted up, the Country became pauper by lakhs of crores of Rupees!

One group that really lost out on the deal was the TATAs. Any company doing business by adhering to ethics and value system at this point in time is only expected to lose out and that is what happened to the TATAs. It is another matter that the group would make it out over a period of time. But on comparative note, it is indeed sad to see the leading business group of the country that had played immense role in the development of independent India , getting completely sidelined.

As a citizen of India, I feel distressed at the way in which things are happening in our country. Everyday we wake up to hear one scam or the other. The country is rocked by the CWG scam, the Adarsh Housing scam, The DoT scam, the Yediyurappa land gab scam and the like.

What is the point in saying that we have a clean Prime Minister? Right under his nose, look at the level of indulgences that are happening on a day to day scale! He is not able to take action on any of the perpetrators. They resign from the post for the time being only to surface again later. No one gets prosecuted for the heinous crime that they do against the nation.

All these talks of inclusivity will come into effect only when India becomes a clean nation. Looking at the way by which things are going on, I have my doubt that inclusivity is not going to be anywhere near.

However, let us keep hoping.

MUMBAI,MUMBAI.......

Nearly two years back, I posted a blog about Mumbai after having taken my family there to experience one of the largest Metropolises of the world. The action city of Mumbai has always been very fascinating, for the right and for the wrong reasons.

What comes to my mind whenever I hear of Mumbai is the title song in the old Akbar Khan movie (Hadsa), which goes something like this:

Eh Mumbai shahar, ek sundar Shahar hai
Yaham roz roz kahi mod mod par
Hota hai koi na koi
Hadsa, hadsa………

Translating the same in English, it reads:

This Mumbai city is a beautiful city
Here everyday, at some places
Something continues to occur
A new incident or a mishap…

One couldn’t agree more!

Mumbai is again in the news. President Barrack Obama had landed there yesterday. He, of course did all the right things to appease the Mumbai crowd. Visited the Taj Hotel where the 26/11 carnage took place, went to Mani Bhavan, the museum on Mahatma Gandhi, met with the industrialists to sign billion dollar deals for the business houses of his country whose chieftains had travelled with him to India, so on and so forth.

Day before yesterday, Mumbai Stock exchange celebrated the bullish high of crossing the Sensex mark of 20000 during the famed ’Diwali Trade’. Mumbai, the financial capital of India, would not have a better reason to rejoice.

A week back, the Adarsh Housing society scam exploded in the news in Mumbai shaking up the political bosses, not to mention the Military brasses. As a result, the Chief Minister is counting his days in the office and the Army Chief is sulking after returning the ownership documents of the flat to the Housing Society. Two or three former chiefs of Army and Navy have come into the news for ‘unnecessary’ reasons, as they say. The funny party is that the plundering and loot of government land and the defying of all building laws of the country, was to bring up private housing society named as ‘ADARH’ meaning IDEALS, the highest virtue that man can have!

As is said, Mumbai is a happening city. It is also a city very famous for crime. Most of the Indian mafias have its head quarters in Mumbai. Many of the Bollywood flicks had eulogised crime and made those villainish heroes the sweet darlings of the masses, worthy to be emulated. The city which is the engine of growth of the country, because of its loose social controls and due to the indifference and anonymity of its denizens, spew out many criminals. So congested is the place that lack of social and recreational support systems give births to many gangs of the underworld.

I had always seen Mumbai as a city of slums. And the shanties are only growing rapidly, to the extent, the Mumbai statistics shows that sixty percent of the population of Mumbai city live in slums and chawls! What a quality life that is……

Many historians and sociologists had termed India as a land of contrasts. Mumbai manifests this thought at the highest level. A city, where unequitable growth in wealth continues to flourish with the rich and the famous, the chasm between the rich and the poor is widening every day. Inclusivity is the last thing that can happen in Mumbai.

However, with all its contrasts and vagaries, the city continues to be a bewitching urban sprawl. To experience it, one has to be in Mumbai, to live it out. With all its ugliness, no mumbaikar would ever want to trade place with any other city of the country or the world.

And that is the charm of amchi Mumbai!